rdingly, soon invented
lanterns to meet the want. These we learn from Martial, who has several
epigrams upon this subject, were made of horn or bladder;--no mention,
we believe, occurs, of glass being thus employed. The rich were preceded
by a slave bearing their lantern. This, Cicero mentions, as being the
habit of Catiline upon his midnight expeditions; and when M. Antony was
accused of a disgraceful intrigue, his lantern-bearer was tortured, to
extort a confession whither he had conducted his master.[4] One of these
machines, of considerable ingenuity and beauty of workmanship, was found
in Herculaneum in 1760, and another, almost exactly the same, at
Pompeii, a few years after.

One of the most elegant articles of furniture in ancient use was the
candelabrum, by which we mean those tall and slender stands which served
to support a lamp, but were independent of and unconnected with it.
These, in their original and simple form, were probably mere reeds, or
straight sticks, fixed upon a foot by peasants, to raise their light
to a convenient height; at least, such a theory of their origin is
agreeable to what we are told of the rustic manners of the early Romans,
and it is in some degree countenanced by the fashion in which many of
the ancient candelabra are made. Sometimes the stem is represented as
throwing out buds; sometimes it is a stick, the side branches of which
have been roughly lopped, leaving projections where they grew; sometimes
it is in the likeness of a reed or cane, the stalk being divided into
joints. Most of those which have been found in the buried cities are of
bronze; some few of iron. In their general plan and appearance there
is a great resemblance, though the details of the ornaments admit of
infinite variety. All stand on three feet, usually griffins', or lions'
claws, which support a light shaft, plain or fluted according to the
fancy of the maker. The whole supports either a plinth large enough for
a lamp to stand on, or a socket to receive a wax-candle, which the
Romans used sometimes instead of oil in lighting their rooms. Some of
them have a sliding shaft, like that of a music-stand, by which the
light might be raised or lowered at pleasure.

We may here say a few words on the art of inlaying one metal with
another, in which, as in all ornamental branches of the working of
metals, the ancient Italians possessed great skill. In the time of
Seneca, ornaments of silver were seldom seen, unles