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XXIII.—On a Silver Disc from Tarentum, in the possession of Henry Vint, Esq., F.S.A. of Colchester. By Samuel Birch, Esq.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 June 2012

Samuel Birch Esq.
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Extract

The object I propose to describe is a Disc of silver of very thin substance, being scarcely one-sixteenth of an inch thick, and beaten up from behind in the kind of metallic work called sphurelaton by the Greeks. It has apparently formed the top of a mirror-case, or box. (See Plate XXI.) The account of its discovery, which Mr. Vint, its possessor, has placed in my hands, is as follows :—“This bas-relief I purchased in Naples upwards of twenty years ago of a travelling jeweller, who collected and dealt in relics of antiquity. The following, to the best of my recollection, is the account he gave me of the place where it was found, and the manner in which it came into his possession. On one of his customary visits to Tarentum, in Calabria, he was invited by a silversmith, with whom he transacted business, to take some refreshment, and on entering a room behind the shop he observed this bas-relief placed against the wall, and two small lamps burning before it. Being at the very first sight sensible of its antiquity, he carefully asked the silversmith's wife, who was present, where it was found. Her answer was to this effect. Some excavators brought to their shop for sale a quantity of silver which they had found in digging among the ruins of the old city. On breaking up the mass her husband discovered these figures within it, and was about to put them into the crucible to melt them, when she snatched the rare relic from her husband, exclaiming with religious horror, ‘Would you melt the Madonna?’ Her husband confirmed his wife's account, and moreover stated it was soldered within a conical-shaped silver vase that was found covered up in the tight cavity of a large stone among the ruins of Tarentum.”

Type
Research Article
Information
Archaeologia , Volume 34 , Issue 2 , 1852 , pp. 265 - 272
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1852

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References

page 266 note a Millingen, Anc. Un. Mon.

page 266 note b Arneth, Gold und Silber-Monumente, fo. Wien, 1850, sup. taf. v.

page 266 note c Gerhard, Metallspiegel, taf. xxi.

page 266 note d Mirror-case from Toscanella, in the British Museum.

page 266 note e Gerhard, 1. c. taf. xxii.

page 266 note f Anacreon a Barnes, 8vo. London, 1734, p. 146, Ode 51. It was of silver chased, ἀρία τὶς τόρɛυσɛ πύντον, 1. 1, with the figure of Venus in bas-relief, ἁπαλὴν χἄραξɛ κύπριν, 1. 789, and the Cupids, ύπὲρ ἀργύρῳ δ ὀχοὖνται. From the whole description evidently a Roman work of art.

The mirrors of the Etruscans, like those of the Egyptians, consisted of a disk with a spike, which was inserted into a handle of some other material, such as wood, ivory, and possibly even other metals; but at the time of the Roman empire square or circular mirrors were adopted, and the latter placed in circular boxes. Some of the later mirrors of the Etruscans were circular like the Romans, and provided with boxes; their covers with embossed work like the present. See Gerhard, Metallspiegel, 1. c. Some of the Roman mirrors have medallions cut into two, and inlaid into the cover and lower part, as the one found at Coddenham.

Archæologia, xxvii. p. 354, with the medallion of Otho. Several large brass coins of Nero have been found in France cut into two, and served up for boxes.

page 267 note a N. H. xxxiii. 45. Lamnas duci, specula fieri non nisi ex (argento) optumo posse credimus. Fuerat id integrum, sed id quoque jam fraude conrumpitur, etc. Atque ut omnia de speculis peragantur in hoc loco, optuma apud majores fuerant Brundusina; stanno et ære mixtis praelata sunt argentea. Primus fecit Pasitiles (or Praxiteles) Magni Pompeii ætate. See Sillig, Cat. of Artists, voce Praxiteles, etc, For these mirrors cf. Philostratus Imag. i. vi.; Dio Chrysost. xvii. p. 124.

page 267 note b Specula quoque ex eo laudatissima, ut diximus, Brundusii temperabantur, donee argenteis uti ccepere ancillaa. N. H. xxxiv. 48. Euripides, in the Troades, v. 1096, speaks of the χρύσɛα ἔνοpi;τρα, but this is a poetic phrase. See Gerhard, Metalspiegel, s. 77–8; Beckman, Gesch. der Erfindung, iii. s. 277, u. ff.

page 267 note c See the Anthologia, Lubini, 1. infra cit.

page 267 note d Festus, voce Cythereia. Clarac, Mus. de Sculpt, pl. 606 A, NO. 1379 B; pl. 606 B; pl. 607, 608; Cf. the bas-relief, Clarac, ii. pl. 224, No. 82.

page 267 note e Clarac, Mus. de Sculpt, iii. pl. 626, Nos. 1406, 1408.

page 267 note f Clarac, pl. 629, No. 1415.

page 267 note g Gerhard, Ueber die Venusidole. Abhandl. k. Akad. d. Wissensch. 4to. Berlin, 1845.

page 267 note h Clarac, pl. 613, No. 1369; pl. 614, No. 1363; pl. 615, No. 1365.

page 267 note i Clarac, pl. 627, No. 1413; pl. 630.

page 267 note k Clarac, pl. 610, No. 1316.

page 268 note a Clarac, pl. 613, Nos. 1391, 1392 A; pl. 625, No. 1403; pl. 626 A, NO. 1363; pl. 626 B, NO. 1401; pl. 627, No. 1412; pl. 628, No. 1564 A; pl. 631, No. 1422; pl. 632, No. 1398 A; and Adonis, pl. 634, No. 1429; pl. 634 B, NO. 1386 A.

page 268 note b Müller, Denkmaeler, xxii. 286.

page 268 note c Ibid. 287.

page 268 note d Achilles Tatius; Clitoplion, 8vo. Lips. 1821, a Jacobs, p. 6.

page 268 note e Pausanias, vi. 25, 2.

page 268 note f Plutarch, Præc. Conjug. xxxii. 142.

page 268 note g Panofka, Skiron und Theseus, s. 10; Gerhard, Ueber den Venusidole, s. 4.

page 268 note h Göttling, Verzeichniss d. Museums d. Universit. Jena. 8vo, Jena, 1848, s. 13. Die Schildkröte aber ist ein Symbol spartanischer Tapferkeit, denn sie lasst sich wie diese, den Schild nur mit dem eigenenen Leben zugleich rauben. This notion, that the tortoise is an emblem of Spartan valour, because it only parts with its shell or shield after its life, is very ingenious, but I do not know on what ancient authority it is founded. Gotling supposes that the Venus of Milo stands on a tortoise.

page 269 note a Morell, Thesaurus. Crepereia, 1–6. What this head means on the Crepereian denarii is quite undecided. Riccio, Monete, 4to, Napoli, 1834, pp. 75, 76; Eckhel, Doct. Num. Vet. Tom. By some it has been supposed to be a Nereid, or Venus Anadyomene. It bears a great resemblance to the head of the goddess on Mr. Vint's mirror. The adjuncts after the head are-A and a dolphin; B, a tortoise; C, a pelamys; D, a fish; E, a sepia; F, a sepia or echinus; G, a shrimp; H, an echinus; I, unknown; K, a stork.

page 269 note b See the Anthologia. Lubini, p. 744; Agathias, p. 742; Cyrus, p. 745; Marianus, ibid. 744; Democharis, p. 746, on the baths of Byzantium.

page 269 note c Clarac, Musée, pl. 606 A. NO. 1405 A.; Nap. Mus. Borb. No. 306.

page 269 note d Clarac, Musée, pl. 622 A., 622 B. NO. 1383. Cf. Horat. Od. lib. i. n. 2. According to this author, locus and Cupido.

page 269 note e Trans. Roy. Soc. of Liter., new series, vol. i. p. 62. Only one on the Naples group; Mus. Borb. 306; Clarac, iii. pl. Devi. A. NO. 1405 A. TWO, ibid. pl. Dcxxiii. A. Small group, Bu. pl. dcxxv. NO. 1406; pl. Dcxxxi. 1420–1–2.

page 269 note f Inscr. Antiq. The principal persons of whom we have toilet scenes are Venus, 1. c.; Diana, Clarac, pl. 113. No. 769; 114. 67; Müller, xviii. 183; Leda, Sarcoph. in Paris; and Helen, Mirrors; Gerhard, Metallspiegel. Jain. O. Peitho.

page 270 note a The earliest appearance of the winged Erotes is on the vases of Vulci, with red figures, as on that with Ulysses. Monumenti, i. 8.

page 270 note b M. O. Jain. Peitho, Svo.; Greifswald, 1846. For the nymphs holding a shell, cf. Clarac, pl. 750, No. 1837. Nymphe ou Appiade, pl. 754. No. 1838 A. ix. 1840.

page 270 note c Winckelman, Mon. Ined. 115; Millin, Gal. Myth. 173; Inghirami, Gal. Omer. 10; Guignard, Rel. de l'Antiq. 246 751; Mus. Borb. iii. 40.

page 271 note a Cf. Minerva animating the men made by Prometheus with a butterfly. Clarac, pl. 215, No. 29.

page 271 note b Athenæus, xiii. 588. From Timæus.

page 271 note c Clarac, Musée, torn. iii. pl. 317, No. 2314.

page 271 note d Panofka, Skiron.

page 271 note e Clarac, Mus. iii. pl. 471. No. 959; pl. 493. No. 959.

page 271 note f Panofka, Skiron, iv. 13, gem of the Berlin Museum.

page 271 note g Paste of the Berlin Museum, Tolkien Verzeichniss, s. 95; Kl. iii. Abth. ii. 1–77; Winekelman, Cat. El. iii. s. 3, 37, 38. Its connection with the Zeus Aphesios is very doubtful.

page 271 note h Homer, Hymn. It appears from the Parœmiographical writers, (8vo. Götting. 1851, pp. 59, 103,) that there was a story about Mercury and a turtle and a fisherman. This, however, may have been an extract from some fabulist. A gem published by Winekelman, Mon. Ined. 39; Müller, Archaologie der Kunst, xxx. 331, represents Mercury bearing off Pandora, and having on his shoulder a tortoise. Cf. ibid. xxix. Nos. 326, 327, for Mercury holding a tortoise. According to the Arcadian tradition this took place at Mount Chelydorea. Panofka, Skiron, tav. iv. 5; Annali, torn. ii. 183–185; Mus. Napl. i. 54.

page 272 note a Servius ad Virgil. Æneid. i. 505.

page 272 note b Pausanias, viii. c. 54, s. 5.

page 272 note c Homer, Hymn, ad Panem, 1. 30–39.

page 272 note d Pausanias, viii. 17, 5.

page 272 note e Nicander, in Anton. Liberal, c. xxxii.

page 272 note f The story of Dryope, but without the incident of the tortoise, is repeated, Ovid, Met. ix. 1. 329–393. Dryope is turned into a tree; according to Antoninus Liberalis, a pine-tree, έλάτη, as Lotis (Ovid, 1. c. 347–8) had been before her. All these stories, such as that of Daphne, Pinus, Hyacinthus, and Narcissus, are of a late period, co-ordinate with the ultimate development of Pantheism.

page 272 note g Herodotus, i. 47, 48.

page 272 note h Millingen, Vases de Coghill, pl. 44. I have passed over here the consideration of the tortoise of Skiron, and its appearance on the coins of Ægina; see Panofka, Skiron, s.