o have had six
columns (fragments of three of cipollino remain) and grey stone bases.
The font is somewhat cruciform in shape, about 3 ft. deep, and with a
little step at one end. The slabs at the bottom and the conduit for the
water still remain. North of this is the house of the Director of the
Excavations, with a pergola composed of fragments from the campanile,
&c., among which is a cap the exact counterpart of one in the cathedral
at Veglia.

[Illustration: BASILICA OF THE CHRISTIAN CEMETERY, SALONA

_To face page 312_]

North-west of the house is the Christian cemetery, a bewildering mass of
sarcophagi and foundations of several epochs, from among which many
objects have been taken to the museum. All the sarcophagi had been
broken into and plundered; with a single exception, that of a little
Greek girl who still had the earrings in her ears. Apparently apses were
built round the martyrs' tombs, pointing in all directions, and many
burials took place close to them. When the Goths destroyed the city they
plundered the tombs; and when the Christians returned they levelled the
ground, and built another basilica properly orientated; and here, also,
burials took place. The Avars descended upon this and destroyed it, and
the soil washed down from the hills covered much of it to the depth of
15 ft. Fragments found of the eighth and ninth centuries, however, show
that the place was not abandoned; the theatre was only demolished at the
end of the tenth century to build S. Michele, and the amphitheatre
lasted till the close of the thirteenth. Upon the extinction of the
Croatian dynasty in 1102, Salona rapidly declined, and when the Turks
appeared in the sixteenth century it became a neglected ruin.

At Marusinac, some distance to the north of the station and the
amphitheatre, is another basilica, dedicated to S. Anastasius, and a
Christian cemetery. The children are on the look-out for chance
visitors, and ready to point out the road; and sell copper coins and
tesserae of mosaic at a price which lowers remarkably as the basilica is
approached. It is to be feared that they come from the great mosaic,
which is necessarily unguarded. The basilica consists of nave and
aisles, separated apparently by six columns on each side, with a single
apse, which seems to have had external buttresses, but there is no trace
of the usual internal bench. The total length approaches 150 ft., the
nave is 39 ft. wide, the left aisle about 14 f