an sounds a double pipe, another carries food to the guests, one of
whom is singing an obscene song, which disgusts the women, who make the
sign of displeasure at him. In a relief of the time of Heliogabalus a
meteoric stone is seen carried in procession, preceded by duumvirs,
lictors, &c.--an evidence of an Oriental cult practised in Aquileia.
Five great medallions from the same building show busts in very high
relief of Jupiter, Mercury, Vulcan, Venus, and Minerva. A stone table
with a sundial and windrose engraved upon it has a low seat on three
sides, but the fourth free, so that the hour may be seen at all times of
the day without the annoyance of dodging one's shadow. The letters of
the inscription point to the second century A.D. as the date of its
production. Many sarcophagi come from the north-east of Aquileia near
Columbara, where a monument was found much resembling those of Petra and
Baalbek in its forms. Inscriptions name clothiers, fullers, joiners,
linen-weavers, builders and servants, purple-dyers, pikesmiths, a
silver-worker, an Oriental pearl merchant with a sign of the city of
Rome, &c. In the eighteenth century the Mint was discovered, with bars
of silver and baskets of coin. A fine plate of beaten silver, with the
story of Triptolemus, found here is now at Vienna.

Many pieces of ornament are preserved, often very finely modelled and
also with traces of colour. The larger pieces, many of which are coarse
in workmanship, are housed under a long shed in the open; among them are
slabs of ninth-century ornament, lead coffins, and pipes with pointed
covers to keep the sand out, urns for ashes, &c. There appears to have
been a Roman rococo at Aquileia, earlier than at Spalato or Florence.
Here, too, are some of the early Christian mosaics found during

the excavations in and around the cathedral. Especially beautiful are
the fragments with peacocks and other birds, and lambs, with freely
growing scrolls of vine. An asbestos net, found at Monastero, used to
wrap round the body during cremation and so keep the bones together, is
interesting, as are lachrymatories misshapen by the flames, small
bottles of rock-crystal beautifully cut, a few enamelled objects and
carvings in ivory, principally children's toys. Rings set with gems were
made of gold for the nobles and of iron for the citizens, who at a later
period used silver and even gold. Over 40,000 coins have been found in
the course of the excavations, an