_Ring the bell on the right in the passage, if the custodian is not at
the door. The custodian will conduct you over, if desired; and he can
give a good account of the objects of interest. It is open every day
from 9 till 3, and is comprised in sixteen rooms. Fee, half a franc
each person. The principal objects are as follows_:--
FIRST ROOM.--Bas-reliefs: Procession of Lictors and Senators, with
figure of Trajan, found in his forum; Dares and Entellus, boxers, a
fragment, found near the Arch of Gallienus; part of a sarcophagus,
with the history of Mars and Rhea Sylvia, Diana and Endymion; a Circus
Race; Helen and Paris; Soldier and Wife Parting; Leucothea feeding the
Infant Bacchus. Bust of Marcus Aurelius; pavement mosaic of Boxers,
from Baths of Caracalla.
SECOND ROOM.--Portions brought from the Forum of Trajan, representing
arabesques, children, chimeras, griffins.
FOURTH ROOM.--Faun of Praxiteles, copy; bust of the Young Tiberius;
bas-reliefs, Medea and Pelias's Daughters; statue of Mars; Germanicus;
sepulchral cippi and bas-reliefs, found on the Via Appia.
FIFTH ROOM.--Stag in gray marble; a Cow; Mithraic group; mutilated
figure of a lynx; bust of Scipio; an altar with bas-reliefs, one
representing cock-fighting.
SIXTH ROOM.--Statues of members of the family of Augustus, found at
Cervetri, 1839: Drusus, Agrippina the elder, and Livia, full figures;
Tiberius and Claudius, sitting; Germanicus and Britannicus, in armour;
Head of Augustus. Inscriptions to the members of the family; a
bas-relief of an altar; recumbent statues of Silenus.
SEVENTH ROOM.--Statue of Sophocles, the best object in the museum; a
Dancing Faun; female draped figure; Apollino; sepulchral inscriptions,
from the Columbaria of the Vigna Codini (see page 283), to Musicus
Scuranus of Lyons, a tourist to Rome, who died there, with the names
of the persons of his suite, on jamb of door.
EIGHTH ROOM.--Statue of Neptune; curious bas-reliefs, a man surrounded
with masks; Cupid and Mars.
NINTH ROOM.--Fragments from the Forum.
TENTH ROOM.--Bas-reliefs from the tomb of the Aterii, representing a
temple, with a crane moved by a tread-wheel for hoisting stones.
_Opposite_, monuments in Rome, the Arch of Isis, Colosseum, Arch of
Titus, and the Temple of Jupiter Stator. (See page 95.) Cupid and
Dolphin.
ELEVENTH ROOM.--Bas-reliefs of Boxers; Diana Multimammæ.
TWELFTH ROOM.--Three large sarcophagi; Niobe and her Children; Orestes
and the Furies; festoons and masks. A very interesting well-head, not
unlike that represented on a denarius of Scribonus Lebo, and which
stood in the Forum Romanum.
THIRTEENTH ROOM.--Busts of the Furia family, found on the Via Appia;
statue by Dogmatius; alto-relief of Ulpia Epigoni; fragments of a
colossal porphyry statue; two fluted spiral columns of pavonazzetto
marble.
FOURTEENTH ROOM.--Unfinished statue of a captive barbarian, with the
measuring points still in; mosaic masks, with the name of the artist,
HERACLITUS, in Greek. On each side is a distinct mosaic representing
an unswept floor after a banquet, such as Pliny (xxxvi. 60) ascribes
to Sosus, "who laid, at Pergamus, the mosaic pavement known as the
'Asarotos Œcos,' from the fact that he there represented, in small
squares of different colours, the remnants of a banquet lying upon the
pavement, and other things which are usually swept away with the
broom, they having all the appearance of being left there by
accident." In a corner of this room is a terra-cotta siphon.
FIFTEENTH ROOM.--Objects found at Ostia, in the window-cases, between
a mosaic niche of Silvanus and his dog. _Opposite_ are, Agrippina;
Head of Atys; Woman, unknown.
SIXTEENTH ROOM.--Fragments found at Ostia, in case in window;
sepulchral urns; recumbent statue of Atys; leaden water-pipes. On the
walls are frescoes: a pagan funeral banquet, time of Hadrian; Pluto
carrying off Proserpine; Orpheus; Ops giving Saturn stones to swallow
instead of his sons; a guinea-fowl and fruit. There is also a very
beautiful bronze statuette of one of the Three Fates.