ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES IN ROME

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 188, 3 November 1876, Page 8

ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES IN ROME

A correspondent of the ' Daily News ' writes — The other day, at Monte della Griustizia, near the central railway station — in the immediate neighbourhood, that is to say, of the baths of Diocietian, and not a thousand miles from those of Constantine — -the Com-* mission of the Archaeology came upon the pipes of lead through which the water was distributed to its various destinations. Each pipe had engraved on it the name of its maker, and also the name of the proprietor to whom the water conveyed by it belonged — a species of property of peculiar value in ancient Rome, if we may judge from the laws and regulations with which it was surrounded. Near these pipes was also found a limestone cippus, bearing an inscription on which the source of the three waters — the Aqua Marcia, the Aqua Tepula, and the Aqua Julia — was indicated ; an inscription of especial value as supplementing what we know of the subject from Frontinus. the elder Pliny, and Vitruvius. Oddly enough, a private Christian oratory was found close by — one of those oratories which the Roman patricians constructed in their places when Christianity had become publicly recognised, and numbered empevorers among its professors. It belonged evidently i to the fourth century — the time when the teaching of Christ was being corrupted by asceticism, and that crusade against the body, or, as it was called, "the flesh," was begun, which prescribed the neglect of ablutions as a virtue, and to which may be traced the personal uncleanliness characteristic of the Romish capital to this day. Among the treasure trove of the Commission is an exquisite human figure, unfortunately wanting the head; it was found imbedded in the wall, like a hamadryad in the oak. Similarly utilised, on the same spot, was a square pedestal surmounted by the bust of a bearded or Indian Bacchus — so called in contradistinction to the Infant Bacclras, the Victor Bacchus, or the Horned i Bacchus. Returning to the tombs, the Commission have also ! alighted on some very fine Etruscan vases — dating from as distant a time as the regal or Republican period — and showing in their exquisite design and workmanship how little even «t that early ! time the artist in pottery had to learn from his modern compeer. ' The excavations on the Via Nazionale have yielded a rich crop to I the Commission. In. unusually good preservation has been found 1 a statuette representing a traveller as footsore and weary — he has thrown himself down by the wayside. He is asleep, and his cloak is so wrapped around hi 3 person as to shelter him alike from the sun and the dusty wind. Nothing can surpass the skill with which tho folds of the garment have been rendered, or the proportions of the •• loosened limbs" or the bonds of slumber in which they are held. Near this chef d aware the Commission have also discovered a house of patrician quality, belonging (so runs the inscription) to one Avidius Quietus. "Avid the quiet" its owner must have been, to judge from the remains of the Nymphoeum, with its suggestion of the monotonous splash of fountains and their sleep-invit-ing influence. The house had been destroyed to make room for I the Raths of Constantine, one part being retained to be incorporated with the new building to which the rest formed the foundations. Such arc a. few of the more memorable discoveries made by the Archaeological CommissLon of the Roman Town Council during a single month — discoveries which bring back with astonishing vividness the life of the old Mistress of the World, and at once widen and sharpen the knowledge of the classical scholar.