DRINKING A ROMAN CONSUL'S BODY.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3081, 12 May 1881, Page 4

DRINKING A ROMAN CONSUL'S BODY.

Everybody remembers tho archaeological geal of the members of the Pickwick Club, and the unexpected result of the attentions they once paid to a huge stone, which, after promising much in the way of classical inscription, yielded an absurd ' Bill Btumps, his mark.' Some French savants have recently had a somewhat similar disappointment, but in their case the results were rather more disastrous. The story is a good one, and has received the authentication of of an unusually veracious continental news paper. A few days ago some excavations were carried out in an old Eoman burying ground in the vicinity of Marseilles. The most interesting of the gi-aves was unquestionably that of Consul Caius Septimus. In addition to weapons and gold ornaments, there was found in it an amphora three parts full of a red and somewhat thickish fluid, and bearing an inscription which was almost illegible. An archaeological authority, whose word was law in the Academy of Inscriptions, took charge of the label, and after examining it long and critically, finally declared that the red fluid was nothing more nor less than Falerno wine—the Ealerno of which Horace was so fond of singing the praises. It was abundantly clear, therefore, that the Consul had been a good liver in his days, and that to console him somewhat after his departure from the good things of this life, an amphora of real Falerno had been put into his grave. A savant does not keep a discovery of this kind to himself, so Mr P. took the amphora with him to Paris, and gave a dinner to a dozen or so of the colleagues of the Academy of Inscriptions. The " real Falerno " was piously poured out, and was drunk "standing" in memory of the Consul and of the poet. The company had, however, scarcely returned their glasses to the table when a servant entered with a telegram. The host opened it, redened, turned pale, and finally darted from the room with a cry of horror. The astonished guests picked up the telegram and read : —" Marseilles, 7 p.m. — Don't drink the contents of the amphora. 801 l hitherto overlooked found in grave. It is no Falerno. The red fluid is the body of Consul Caius, liquified by a process of embalming." The unfortunate savants had drank the Consul himself.