nd octagonal within, with four niches, one of which is partially
preserved. Remains of the others have been found outside the octagon.
There was an hexagonal font in the centre, and in the angles of the
walls are the springings of vaults; there are also six pillar-stumps of
different thicknesses. Most of the present building is modern, the
result of several restorations. On each side of the baptistery and
Chiesa dei Pagani were halls with mosaic floors of the Christian period,
of which that to the south was least damaged when discovered; it had
three patterned fields, with borders. The open hall between was
stone-paved--a bit of the paving was found a foot deeper than the
original floor of the baptistery.

[Illustration: STATUE OF VENUS, MUSEUM. AQUILEIA

_To face page_ 36]

[Illustration: ANTIQUE STATUE IN THE MUSEUM, AQUILEIA]

The museum contains a quantity of exceedingly interesting objects, the
fruit of excavations, which the director, Signor Maionica, most kindly
piloted me through, calling attention to the various objects of special
interest and giving me details about them of which otherwise I should
have been ignorant. The collection of objects in amber, many of them
stained a fine red, is the finest in existence, though the most
splendid examples have gone to the British Museum, to Udine and Goerz.
The sculptured objects include a very beautiful youthful Venus, a girl
apparently of about 17, a draped statue of the Emperor Claudius in Greek
costume, one of Tiberius as Pontifex Maximus (both found near the
theatre),one of Livia, showing the arrangement of the back hair, and
marble wigs to place upon the heads of statues to keep them in the
fashion. There is also a draped Venus with a Cupid hiding beneath her
robe, a copy of the Aura (Spring-rain) of Scopas, of which another is in
the museum at Trieste, and a most interesting sculptor's model for use
in the studio, showing how arms and legs of other pieces of marble were
affixed to statues. A pedestal shows the life of Priapus, from his birth
in the spring to his winter's inactivity; others have winged Cupids
bearing torches and bestriding dolphins, the idea being of a voyage to
the Islands of the Blest. A panel shows Bacchanalian Cupids; one desires
to drink, one is drinking from a crater, another, supported away,
inebriated; the robed master of the feast bears a sceptre and is playing
the Pan-pipes. Another relief represents a banquet in a triclinium. One
m