ld cemetery at the foot of the hill of
Cyriaca. The tombs were mostly sarcophagi, with reliefs, the subjects
of which are taken from the Bible. One of them, carved in the rude but
pathetic style of the fifth century, represents the crossing of the
Red Sea, and the Egyptian hosts, led by Pharaoh, following closely on
the Jews. The waves are closing over the persecutors, just as the last
of the fugitives emerges safely on the land. The "column of fire" is
represented, according to the Vitruvian rules, with base and capital;
and the costumes of the warriors of the Nile are those of Roman
_gregarii_, or privates, under Constantine. Another sarcophagus shows
the Virgin Mary, with the infant Saviour in her arms, receiving the
offering of the Eastern kings. A third represents a sort of pageant of
court dignitaries of one of the Valentinians. Besides these and many
other pieces of sculpture seventy-two inscriptions or fragments of
inscriptions were dug up, mostly from the pavement of a ruined chapel,
one of the seven by which the basilica of S. Lorenzo was surrounded in
ancient times.

[Illustration: Inscription from the tombstone of a dentist.]

[Illustration: Inscription from the grave of Alexander, a dentist.]

[Illustration: Surgeon's instruments; relief on a tombstone.]

Another inscription, discovered in 1864, deserves attention on account
of the instruments which are engraved upon it. It is a fragment from
the tomb of a dentist named Victorinus, or Celerinus, with the
representation of the instruments he used in extracting teeth. Such
representations are by no means rare on gravestones. The other two
specimens reproduced here are also from the catacombs. Alexander was a
dentist; the unknown owner of the other slab was a general surgeon,
yet the symbol of dentistry occupies the prominent place in his
display of tools. In my experience of Roman or Latin excavations, in
which thousands of tombs have been brought to light, I have hardly
ever met with a skull the teeth of which showed symptoms of decay, or
evidence of having been operated upon by a professional hand.
Specimens of filling are even more rare than those of gold plating. Of
this latter process we have now a beautiful sample in a skull
discovered in the excavations of Faleria, and exhibited in the
Faliscan Museum at the Villa Giulia, outside the Porta del Popolo. The
gold socket or plating of three molar teeth is still in excellent
condition. And here I may re