ds from the sepulchres of Etruria; arrow-heads and
bronze swords of the Roman time; standards with the famous Roman
eagles; helmets, including a famous one dedicated to Jupiter Olympius,
by Hiero I. on the occasion of gaining a victory over the Tuscans at
Cumae, upwards of four centuries before our era; and one found at
Olympia, dedicated by the Argives; bronze plates, and military belts,
from Vulci. The next six cases (46-51) are filled with various Grecian
and Roman antiquities, of which the visitor should particularly notice
amid bronze amphorae, tripods, glass beads, weights in the shape of
busts, sacrificial knives, and bronze hatchet heads, three cistae or
boxes, with classical groups in relief upon them, the subject of one
being Hercules grasping serpents. These cistae were the toilette boxes
of the ancients. Here too the visitor should remark the hearth (a
tripod) with charcoal still upon it, with fire-irons and cooking
utensils; and a variety of tripods variously ornamented with sphinxes,
Boreas carrying away Orithyia; and leaden vases from Delos, holding
the ashes of the dead. An interesting collection of candelabra, from
the Etruscan sepulchres, is arranged in the next cases (52, 53). These
candelabra were highly esteemed throughout ancient Greece. They are
decorated chiefly with mythological subjects, and have, attached to
them, vessels for dipping into larger vessels. Those in the next case
(54) are of the Roman period. Having glanced at the censers and bronze
lamps in the next cases (56-57) the visitor may pass on to the case
numbered 58-64, in which is a large collection of bronze vessels,
including unguent vases, which are the most highly decorated,
braziers, cauldrons, and jugs. The two next cases contain a great
number of bronze figures of various heathen deities, representations
of mythological events. Here are, a winged Victory holding an egg;
figures of Juno Sospita; figures for mirrors; Apollos; a giant hurling
a rock; one of the Gorgons; figures of Mars, in the old grotesque
style; a reclining Dionysus, drinking; satyrs; Aphrodite; Aurora
bearing off Tithonus or Cephalus; Hercules; Ariadne playing on the
lyre; Hercules killing the Maenalian stag; Minerva; and other figures,
all drawn from Grecian mythology. These cases present, at a glance,
more than any other in the collection, the various excellences of
ancient bronzes. The ancient mirrors are arranged in the next two
cases (68, 69)--one polished