THE BED OF THE TIBER.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 156, 1 March 1872, Page 3

THE BED OF THE TIBER.

Really the exploration of the bed of the Tiber is a sensation. The deposits of three thousand years have to we cannot say unearthed—unsanded. Fires, inundations, the wrecks of heavyladen galleys, the .ruins of palaces and temples, have all helped to feedthe imperial stream with magnificent waste. Moreover, we are reminded that the Tiber was the receptacle of the statues," armour, and diadem of an unpopular Emperor, and the asylum of treasures saved from the Bavarian invader. But how about the coins ? Can any archaic gem eclipse their unique eloquence ? On. the coins of stately Kome and captive Greece, the old world perpetuated the myriad- phases of its marvellous complexity. The "chained Dacian and" Roman conqueror; Judaea weeping beneath the palm,, and her Grentile senti-< nel; the dusky Ethiopian- in his elephant drawn car, holding the scorpion, personating Africa; the crocodile, sistrum, and ibis of Egypt; the barbarous weapons and the coney that creeps in the sierras of Spain; the camels and spices of Arabia; the bow and quiver of Parthia; the wheaten chaplet of Sicily; the parsley cornet of Achaia ; ; the queenly figure of Italy, with her belt of towers ; that of Britain leaning on a reck in the beating heart of Ocean—some of all these long-hidden numismetic transcripts of character, fact, and feature, Father Tiber will now I be made to disgorge. The Italiaii As-. sociation, which is headed by Signor Alesandro. Castellani, and supported by the learned of Europe and America, reckons on a practical alliance for the accomplishment of its artistic aim, for it; will be helped by the compnny formed to quell insurgent Tiber, which, instead.of being allowed its periodical mischievous inundations, will be chained to its bed. Which shall we have most to admire, ancient or modern engineerin.r? _l_