In the year 1847 I brought from the Columbaria, near the tomb of Scipio
Africanus at Rome, a small collection of sepulchral fictile vessels,
statuettes, &c., in terra cotta. Among these was a small figure, resembling
the Athenian Hermæ, consisting of a square pillar, surmounted by the bust
of a female with a peculiar head-dress and close curled coiffure. The
pillar bears the following inscription:
"[Greek: YST]
[Greek: RAN]
[Greek: S]
[Greek: ANI]
[Greek: KÊT]
[Greek: O.]"
--a translation of which would oblige me much.
Another, in the form of a small votive altar, bears the heads of the "Dii
Majores" and their attributes, the thunderbolt, two-pronged spear, and
trident, and the inscription--
"DIIS PROPI
M HERENNII
VIVNTIS" (_i.e._ vivantis).
Of the meaning of this I am by no means certain; and I have searched
Montfaucon in vain, to discover anything similar.
A third was a figure of the Egyptian Osiris, exactly resembling in every
point (save the material) the little mummy-shaped figures in bluish-green
porcelain, which are found in such numbers in the catacombs of Ghizeh and
Abousir. As the Columbaria were probably the places of sepulture of the
freedmen, these various traces of national worship would seem to indicate
that they were still allowed to retain the deities peculiar to the
countries from which they came, through their master might be of a
different faith.