litans owed much to
the patronage of Hadrian, and they repaid him after this fashion. At
the beginning of the last century Raffaello Fabretti discovered an
inscription near the Porta S. Sebastiano at Rome, which throws some
light on the matter. It records the name of a Roman knight, Sufenas,
who had held the office of Lupercus and had been a fellow of the
Neapolitan phratria of Antinous--_fretriaco Neapoli Antinoiton et
Eunostidon_. Eunostos was a hero worshipped at Tanagra in Boeotia,
where he had a sacred grove no female foot might enter; and the
wording of the inscription leaves it doubtful whether the Eunostidae
and Antinoitae of Naples were two separate colleges; or whether the
heroes were associated as the common patrons of one brotherhood.

A valuable inscription discovered in 1816 near the Baths at Lanuvium
or Lavigna shows that Antinous was here associated with Diana as the
saint of a benefit club. The rules of the confraternity prescribe
the payments and other contributions of its members, provide for
their assembling on the feast days of their patrons, fix certain
fines, and regulate the ceremonies and expenses of their funerals.
This club seems to have resembled modern burial societies, as known
to us in England; or still more closely to have been formed upon the
same model as Italian confraternite of the Middle Ages. The Lex, or
table of regulations, was drawn up in the year 133 A.D. It fixes the
birthday of Antinous as v.k. Decembr., and alludes to the temple of
Antinous--_Tetrastylo Antinoi_. Probably we cannot build much on the
birthday as a genuine date, for the same table gives the birthday of
Diana; and what was wanted was not accuracy in such matters, but a
settled anniversary for banquets and pious celebrations. When we
come to consider the divinity of Antinous, it will be of service to
remember that at Lanuvium, together with Diana of the nether world,
he was reckoned among the saints of sepulture. Could this thought
have penetrated the imagination of his worshippers: that since
Antinous had given his life for his friend, since he had faced death
and triumphed over it, winning immortality and godhood for himself
by sacrifice, the souls of his votaries might be committed to his
charge and guidance on their journey through the darkness of the
tomb? Could we venture to infer thus much from his selection by a
confraternity existing for the purpose of securing decent burial or
pious funeral rites, the