Page images
PDF
EPUB

and surmounted by a broad shallow basin. Some had diverging branches, from which the lamps were hung; and in some, the stalk, which was sometimes a plain cylin

der, sometimes a fluted column, and sometimes in the form of a knotted stick, was constructed of several pieces, so that its length could be varied. Some very elegant specimens of Etruscan and Roman candelabra are among those in the museumscarcely so elegant, however, as that for which an old Roman matron of extravagant tastes is said to have given a sum of 50,000 sesterces, or about £450.

But the most interesting portion of the contents of the Bronze Room are the small statues and busts, chiefly figures of the various deities of the Greek and Roman pantheon. The finest collection of ancient bronzes is said to be at Naples; but even in this single room in the British Museum specimens are to be seen testifying the ability of the ancients in this branch of the fine arts. The larger statues that once adorned the cities of the Greek and Roman world have, with few exceptions, been destroyedmelted down by barbarian avarice during

the middle ages; but among such smaller figures as these under notice, spared by various chances, and now collected together (some from Pompeii and Herculaneum), there are pieces of most exquisite workmanship. Passing along the various ranges of miniature deities here assembled (the height varies from an inch to a foot or more), beginning with the Jupiters of Case LXV, and ending with the frolicsome little Cupids of Case LXXXV, the eye selects many individual figures for special admiration. Chief among these are a statue of Mars in Etruscan style (Case LXXI), found in draining the lake of Monte Falterona; three Jupiters found at Paramythia (Case LXXVII); an Apollo, found at the same place (Case LXXVIII), the model

Tripod.

Candelabra.

of manly grace and beauty; some fine Venuses (Case LXXXIV); and lastly, in the same case, among a number of figures of

Mercury, one with a small gold collar or torque round the neck, reputed to be the most exquisite bronze in Europe.

Cupid.

After looking over the cases, the visitor's thought, as he recollects that the little figures he has been admiring were once the Penates or household gods of Greeks and Romans, is-in what sense can intelligent men have worshipped those things? All the figures, however, are not deities; one or two seem to be portraits. Some of these statuettes are of silver, and not of bronze; but these are easily distinguished by their colour.

Among the articles in the Bronze Room that do not come under the designation of bronzes, are spoons, hair pins of ivory, &c. dice, some of which are loaded, crystals, jewels, and specimens of ancient styli, or instruments for writing on wax tablets-the sharp end for engraving the characters on the wax, the broad end for making erasures. Various specimens of ancient glass-manufacture are also to be seen in Case C. Until lately, the assertion used to be common that the ancients were not acquainted with glass; and even after the discovery of panes of glass, and glass bottles, in Pompeii, it was maintained that the manufacture was of late origin. There is evidence, however, that glass-blowing was known in Egypt as early as B. C. 1800, and that the use of the article was universal in that country, and afterwards among the Greeks and Romans, if not for window-panes, at least for ornaments, bottles, beads, &c. It is even asserted by Winckelmann that the ancients possessed secrets in glass-manufacture which we have lost-particularly that of making opaque glass with coloured devices penetrating the substance of the glass through and through.

Mercury.

We now proceed to a department as attractive to the mere sight-seer as it is interesting to the archæologist and historian— namely, the 'Etruscan, or Vase Room :'

IV. ETRUSCAN, OR VASE ROOM.

There are few parts of the world the history of which we can trace through so long a space of time as Italy. Of Egypt and Palestine we have accounts that extend farther back; and Greece is also, in the eye of the historian, a more ancient theatre of activity; but in none of these countries does the chain of authentic narrative stretch unbroken through so many centuries. From about B. C. 500 to the present time, the historian can follow, almost without interruption, the fortunes of the Italian peninsula. At the former date he sees it as the cradle of the infant power of Rome; a century or two later (B. C. 264), he sees it wholly subdued by that power, and existing as one integral Roman state; still later (A. D. 31—476), he can view it as the seat of an empire that included all the Mediterranean nations; and from this proud epoch he may trace its course downward through the revolutions of the middle age, until it assumes beneath his gaze its present aspect as an aggregate of six or seven insignificant states, overruled by the rest of Europe.

But such a review, extensive as it is, does not include the whole past of Italy. Long anterior to the foundation of Rome, or at least to its existence as a powerful state, Italy was the scene of active and stirring events; and it is towards this period-the preRoman period, as it is sometimes called-of Italian history that the industry of ethnographers has of late been particularly directed. According to the most accurate investigations, Italy, between the year B. C. 1000, which is about the remotest point that even conjecture can reach, and the year B. C. 500, when Rome, emerging into notice, draws attention to the whole peninsula, presented pretty much the same aspect as now; that is to say, was subdivided into a variety of states and kingdoms. In the north, inhabiting a great part of what is now called Lombardy, together with the western coast of the peninsula proper as far south as the Tiber, were the Tuscans, Etruscans or Etrurians—a people of uncertain origin, but probably invaders who had come into Central Europe from the East, and thence poured across the Alps in search of a settlement. On the extreme south where the peninsula adjoins Sicily were a number of Grecian colonies, whose hold on the soil they had occupied was so firm, that this district became, as it were, a second Greece, and was called Magna Græcia (Great Greece). Between the Etruscans and Greeks, and occupying Central Italy, were a number of aboriginal nations under such names as Umbrians, Latins (of whom the Romans were a branch), Sabines, Samnites, Ausonians, &c. The effect of the gradual growth of Rome

was to deprive all these states of their individual independence, and to fuse their separate nationalities into one great commonwealth, extending from the Alps to the Straits of Sicily. But even after the whole peninsula had thus been formed into one united republic, traces of its former condition remained in the differences of dialect, customs, &c. observable in different parts of it. A Roman of the days of Julius Cæsar could enumerate nineteen or twenty distinct portions of the peninsula, and could at once recognise a native of any one of them by certain peculiarities of speech or physiognomy, just as at the present day a sharp Londoner can recognise a native of Yorkshire, Somersetshire, or any other part of England. The differences were especially marked between the natives of the three great ancient divisions of the peninsula-Northern Italy, where the Etruscan habits and features still predominated; Central Italy, where the Latins, Sabines, and other aboriginal nations of Italy lay clustered together; and Magna Græcia, or Southern Italy (part of the present kingdom of Naples), where the Greek race had been so largely infused.

The colonisation of Southern Italy by Greek adventurers from Sicily and Greece Proper being but a portion of the general history of the Greek race, and the condition of the numerous aboriginal nations of Central Italy not being of much consequence, except in connection with the growth of the Latin power, ethnographers and historians, when seeking to ascend through Italian history into the remote ages of the primeval world, have usually directed their attention to Northern Italy, or Etruria. What is known of the ancient Etruscans may be thus summed up: -Settling down (B. C. 1200–1000) as a race of conquerors among the aboriginal populations of that part of Italy, they formed two states on one model-the one called Northern Etruria, north of the Apennines; the other called Southern Etruria, or Etruria Proper, between the Apennines and the Tiber. A third Etruria, formed by the gradual extension of the Etruscan conquests southward, seems to have existed at one time on the southern side of the Tiber and the regions called Campania. In each of these Etruscan settlements the government was administered by twelve capital or sovereign cities, each of which was the centre of government to a definite extent of territory, including the minor towns and villages situated within it. Among the capital cities of Northern Etruria were Verona and Mantua. The twelve sovereign cities of Etruria Proper were Care (now Cervetii), Tarquinia (the ruins of which, called Turchina, are about a mile from the town of Corneto), Vetulonium (site not exactly known), Arretium (now Arezzo), Perusia (now Perugia), Clusium (now Chiusi), Rusella (the site of which is now occupied by Moscona), Vei (site recently discovered about twelve

miles from Rome), Vulsinii (now Bolsena), Volaterra (now Volterra), Cortona (site doubtful), and Fesula (now Fiesole). Each of the cities was independent of the others in the government of the territory attached to it; and in each the ruling power was in the hands of a limited number of houses or families, the heads of which officiated both as priests and nobles in the community, and annually elected one of their own number to be chief magistrate, with the name of Lucumo. For the conduct of affairs of common interest, however, the twelve cities of Etruria Proper were associated in a league or confederacy; they held certain great religious festivals in common; and in cases of emergency, one of the twelve Lucumos was raised to the dignity of commander-in-chief of all the Etruscan forces. The Etruscans were also bound together by their common interests as a great commercial people. They maintained a trade with all the countries of the Mediterranean; their armed fleets were the terror of the early Greek navigators; and they concluded treaties with the Carthaginians.

In person, the Etruscans were corpulent, of short stature, and with large heads: they are described also as having been gluttonous, sensual, and sumptuous in their tastes. At their banquets the women reclined at table along with the men, a custom which was unusual among the ancient nations, and which marks an advanced condition of society. They were fond of shows, processions, and boisterous games; and the Romans borrowed from them their costumes, badges, religious ceremonies, and official forms. The mythology also of the Etruscans had a powerful effect on the development of the Roman character: a more gloomy and meditative people than the Greeks, their religion was sombre and severe, resembling that of the Oriental nations. They had, indeed, a Pantheon with gods, greater or lesser, corresponding to the deities of the Greeks, but their chief religious notion was an overpowering belief in the subjection of all nature, and even the gods themselves, to certain pre-appointed changes determined by cycles. The duration of the present universe, they believed, was to consist of thirty-eight secular weeks of 8800 years each; one of which weeks was to be the measure of the duration of the earth. This week again consisted of various portions, at the expiry of each of which certain revolutions were to occur. It was the business of men to observe the signs of the times—that is, the storms, comets, earthquakes, &c.—so as to note the exact moment at which these predetermined events were to occur. Hence the art of divination practised by the priest-nobles of Etruria, and according to which all affairs, whether public or private, were regulated. It consisted of three branches-the interpretation of the stars, that of the

« PreviousContinue »