ened or liberal description; it is cheering into partnership with a few other individto meet one superior to the sectarian feel-uals. The papal government gave the neings or national prejudices of the country, cessary permission, reserving only to itself and disposed to do justice to all, even a preference of the right of purchasing any though their religion should be different article of value or of interest that might be from his own. It is not every day we meet discovered. The excavations were accorda writer who has the hardihood to assert ingly commenced; the success of their efthat the Italians are a noble people, that forts soon attracted others, and the results the canons of a provincial church are intel- have been such as no one previously could ligent and well-informed gentlemen, and have contemplated. Vases, urns, golden that the sovereign Pontiff himself deserves crowns, breastplates and ornaments, paintthe gratitude of the world for the services ings, sculptured sarcophagi, scarabei or sahe has rendered to the cause of science cred beetles, gems of curious and costly and literature. workmanship, and in every stage of art, from the most rude to the most refined, have been found in such variety and abundance, as to startle many who had been wont to view the nations of central Italy through the false medium of Roman literature. The Romans were never ready to do justice to a rival power. They wished the world to understand, that at all periods of their history no other people could equal them in the great attributes of empire. If they were magnanimous and generous, it was only to the humbled foe who lay crushed and prostrate at their feet, and from whom they no longer had any thing to fear; not to the rival, who was their own equal in all but fortune. The labors of Niebuhr have done much to restore to the early inhabitants of Italy that place, of which the jealousy of Rome would have deprived them. He has succeeded in detecting the unsoundness of much that was generally received as history, by observing its contradictions, its incompatibility with other wellestablished and admitted facts, and the impossible and improbable occurrences which it admitted into its pages. No later than half a century ago, it was with considerable hesitation and timidity that a few adventu. rous writers could hint a suspicion of the truth of many of its early stories. The majority of readers would as soon doubt the existence of Romulus or Numa as It is matter of surprise that they should they would the existence of Alfred or of have been so long concealed. For many Edward the Confessor. Niebuhr, with that years it had been suspected that the ruins unrivalled sagacity which in him amounted of Etruria contained many relics and me- to a species of divination, has done much to morials of its former inhabitants, and a few separate the mere legend from the fact, and were from time to time discovered. But to point out the statements which may be the excavations were carried on with true and those which are more than doubt. neither system nor perseverance: the dis- ful.

The attention of Mrs. Gray was first drawn to the subject of Etruscan antiquities by an exhibition of urns, vases, and sarcophagi, some years ago, in Pall Mall, by Campanari, an Italian. The beauty of these relics of an extinct and almost unknown people, excited her curiosity to such a degree, that, on a journey to Italy some time after, she resolved to explore, personally, the locality in which they were found. The collection of Campanari, which was afterwards purchased for the British Museum, was small and insignificant, compared to the magnificent collections to which she had access, in the capital of the Christian world. The Gregorian Museum, begun by the present Pontiff, was especially an object of attention. Private individuals were in possession of many beautiful and extensive collections, and valuable specimens were each day being brought to light by the zeal or the cupidity of the excavators, and to be met with in the public shops and stalls of Rome, exercising the learning and ingenuity of its antiquaries. So numerous were they, that, in the year 1815, the tombs of Tarquinii yielded no fewer than five thousand vases; and so valuable were many of them, that it was confidently stated, that, in three months, no less a sum than forty thousand scudi was realized by three speculators alone.

coveries that have been made are the re- What reliance, for instance, is to be sult of comparatively a few years. A na-placed upon records which assign a period tive of Toscanella, about forty miles from of one hundred and seven years to the Civita Vecchia, and in the heart of the country formerly occupied by the Etruscans, was the first professional explorer of whom we have any record. He entered

reigns of the last three kings, and tell us that the Tarquinius who was expelled a hale strong man at the end of that period, was the son of him who ascended the throne in

mature age, at the commencement thereof? | culum, Porsenna dictated terms to the vanServius, too, marries the daughter of Tar- quished people; and believed that he had quinius, a short time before he is made for ever made Rome powerless for evil, king; yet, immediately after that event, when he stripped it of great part of its terhe is the father of two grown-up daughters ritory, when he deprived it of the use of whom he marries to the brothers of his own iron, except as far as might be necessary wife; the sons of Ancus, who murdered for the purposes of agriculture, and when Tarquinius to get possession of their father's he made it a mere dependency on the power throne, are made to wait for eight and of Etruria. Yet does the history of Rome thirty years before they attempt their pur- make no mention of such a calamity. The pose; during which period, time and long heroism of Cocles, the devotedness of possession must have been making their Scævola, and the patriotism of Clelia and case, each day, more and more hopeless, her companions, beautiful legends though and their claims more and more impracti- they be, are but a poor and inadequate subcable. The Roman history makes mention stitute for the truth which it ought to give of no great change in the religion of the us. We of modern times are not interested people after that of Numa; and yet we in the honor or dishonor of these events; know that a complete revolution (reforma- we will not receive romance, however beaution would, perhaps, be the better word) tiful, as a substitute for truth; and therefore must have taken place in that respect; for we can have little difficulty in tearing away when, in after times, the sacred books of the veil which national pride would draw Numa were dug up by accident, near the over the humiliating chapters of this hiscapitol, they were ordered by the senate to tory. be burned. On being read, their contents Niebuhr is of opinion that the early porwere found to be completely opposed to tions of Roman history are taken from some the then prevailing doctrines, and their ten-metrical romance of the olden time, in dency and spirit subversive of the religion which, like Virgil, the writer has assumed of the people. How imperfect and inaccu- the main facts of history as the framework rate, at least, must be the history which of his poem, and filled it up with many an could be silent on a matter of such importance. Again, we find that a great change must have taken place in the extent of the Roman territory; for, by the commercial treaty made by Rome with Carthage in the first year of the Republic, and preserved by Polybius, the cities along the Latin coast as far as Terracina were then its dependencies; while twelve years later all these are independent, and we find the Romans disputing the sea-coast nearer home with the Volsci and the Latins; and the local tribes which, under Servius Tullius, were thirty in number, some time after are found to have dwindled to twenty. These are all conclusive proofs that the cities must have undergone some great religious and political changes by which the established religion was altered, and its territorial possessions diminished, at least one-third, from what they are known to have been at an quam non Porsenna, dedita urbe, neque Galli capta, earlier time. The change of government temerare potuissent."-Hist. book iii. What this de itio means, may be seen by the form which Livy is attempted to be accounted for, but not a has preserved of the surrender of Collatia, and word is said of these other important alte- which he states to have been the one usual on such rations. Even the famous contest with occasions: "Rex interrogavit, Estisne vos legati Porsenna, which their writers could not al-oratoresque missi a populo Collatino ut vos poputogether conceal, they have taken particular care to misrepresent; so far from the issue being as is stated by them, that it is now admitted that the city surrendered at discretion.* From the summit of the Jani "Sedem Jovis optimi maximi,

Tacitus says,

incident of his own creation. It certainly has more of the life and unity of a poem than of a history; and far surpasses in interest the chronicles of later times. Much of Livy's narrative has been also derived from the traditionary recollections of the families whose ancestors were concerned in the events which he describes. And it is perhaps less difficult, even now, to separate the truth from the large alloy of family laudation, than when his work was written. Each noble family was anxious to ascribe to its own members, whatever of valor, or of patriotism, was exhibited in the senate or the field. The truth was never tested by the criticism or the censure of contemporary or interested persons. Indeed an impartial historian could not have written in ancient Rome. The laws of the

lumque Collatinum dederitis? Sumus. Estne populus Collatinus in sua potestate? Est. Deditisne vos, populumque Collatinum, urbem, agros, aquain, terminos, delubra, utensilia, divina humanaque omnia in meam populique Romani ditionem? Dedimus. At Ego recipio."-Livy book i. chap. 38. From this form we may infer the result of the victory of Porsenna over the Romans.

various forms, two of them with four handles, but they were all of coarse clay, and rude drawing, and in that style of art which is considered prior to all others, viz, purely Etruscan, and without any intermixture from Greece or Egypt.”— p. 79.

twelve tables completely suppressed any | in through a hole which existed at the top of the free expression of censure or disapproba- door, owing to the want of a closing stone. In tion. The Right Hon. Francis Blackburn this lay above twenty vases, large and small, of was never more unwilling to have his conduct discussed or his administration found fault with, than were the civil and military officers of the Roman commonwealth. If a man dared to utter a word of censure or of blame against any public character, he was to be for ever incapable of giving testimony in a court of justice, and was deprived of the power of disposing of his property by will. The poet Nævius had to fly from Rome, through the influence of the Metelli, for no severer censure than is contained in this line,

"Fato Romæ fiunt Metelli consules."

This tomb had been rifled before; it contained no sarcophagus, though the place was marked where one had once stood. In virgin tombs, as they are called, the doors are made of slabs of stone, with protections to fit into the rock, above and below, like hinges, and therefore when opened are always found clean and dry. They are discovered in the following manner.

By the influence of these laws, and the "The foreman of the laborers took his pickaxe yet stronger influence of public feeling, the and struck the ground in many places, but it reliterature of early Rome received an inevit sounded to the tufo (rock of volcanic formation, able tendency to eulogy. So strong and found generally in the vicinity of Rome). He universal has this been, that no eminent went on in the same direction, however, along the person more especially any one possessed hill, and at last the axe stuck in the earth, and he ordered a man to dig. About two feet deep he of family influence, is ever spoken of in came upon the rock, and then, of course, desisted; other terms than those of eulogy and praise. at the distance of a few paces the axe stuck again, And if we cannot rely on it for the particu-and the foreman found the earth deep. He then lars of their own eventful career, how un-searched about and distinctly traced upon the likely is it to do justice to a rival power. But Etruria has found a voice wherewith to urge her claims. That voice has reached us from her tombs. In more than one sense is it true, that the dead are demanding justice to their memory.

But we have left Mrs. Gray on her way to the sepulchres; and it is fitting that we should bear her company. Her tour included the cities of Veii, Tarquinia, now Corneto, Vulci, Cære, Farnum Voltumnæ, now Castel D'Asso, and Clusium, the city of Porsenna. We shall give, in her own words, some of the principal objects that attracted her attention. Here is the opening of a tomb at Veii, and the manner in which they are generally discovered.

"Several of our party had been with the men the whole morning, and seen the operation of uncovering the face of the tomb. When we arrived we stood upon the brink of a deep pit, probably about ten feet deep, and we looked down upon a rudely arched doorway, filled up with loose stones. It was cut in the hard tufo rock that composes the hill; very different from the rich loose soil which we saw lying all around it; and on each side of this arched door was a lesser arch, leading into a small open chamber, perfectly empty. I entered the tomb; a single chamber, arched in the rock, apparently ten or twelve feet square, and somewhat low. It was so dark that I was obliged to have a torch, which a laborer held within the door, that I might see by myself what was the arrangement of the tomb, and what it contained. The bottom was a sort of loose mud, both soil and wet having fallen

grass the part where the rock and soil met upon the upper line of a door. He marked the pian, and the newly-discovered spot would be the scene of his next excavation." p. 90.

The following is the description of the "Grotte della Biga," as it is called at Tarquinii, which as it gives the reader a somewhat correct idea of all, we copy entire, though there are others of greater extent and magnificence.

account of the principal subject depicted on its "It was discovered in 1827, and is so called on walls, which is chariot races. It is a square chamber of about sixteen or seventeen feet in dimension; the roof is vaulted, with a painted beam across it, and diced in red, white, blue, and black, ornamented with wreaths of Bacchic ivy. Over the door are represented two geese and two leopards, both of which animals are sacred to Bacchus, the president of the funeral feasts. The walls are divided into two compartments, an under and upper one, on which are painted different classes of subjects. To the right of the door, on the lower part, are represented the dancers, and four dancing girls, who are animated by the sound of the double flute, which one of them plays. The dancers are clothed in a short light tunic, which leaves free play to their limbs, and the ladies' dress is at once airy and elegant, being a rich but slight robe, with a beautiful border embroidered in stars, and agitated to and fro by their rapid and fantastic movements. They have ornamented sandals on their feet, and chaplets hanging from their necks, while the men are bareheaded and barefooted. Their feet are twinkling about in rapid motion, and their extended hands beat time in the still scarcely ob

indicate the rank and wealth of the deceased. All

In

solete Italian fashion, as an accompaniment. Be- ed "Grotta delle Inscrizione," from the tween each dancer stands a tree of olive or myrtle, number of inscriptions which are engraved sacred to the dead. In the upper compartment all is bustle and preparation for a chariot race, The upon its walls. The meaning of these it is Circensian games are here in full activity. There as yet impossible to decipher. The charare five chariots, some already starting, guided by acters are of the oldest Latin form, are their charioteers, and some in the act of being read from right to left; but the language, yoked. At the end is the stand for spectators, of which they constitute the expression with the awning folded back above, to be used if and the record, has been lost, and, like the necessary, and having two stories; the one above characters of Persepolis, they are probably for the more noble and distinguished spectators; destined to remain a mystery for ever. In the ladies being dressed in tunic and cloak, and with head-dresses, the men in mantle, without the time of Augustus it was understood only tunic; and the one below for company of inferior by a few; and even then some words were note. On the side of the wall opposite the en- utterly unintelligible; and where the sçatrance, the under compartment represents the fu- vans of Rome were at a loss, it would be neral banquet, with three couches, and on each a presumption in us to expect to discover a man and woman leaning on rich cushions; the meaning. It was in one of these tombs elegant dresses and highly ornamented furniture that Signore Avolto, a professional excava are crowned with myrtle. Two are raising the tor, bad for a few moments a glimpse goblet to their lipe, while the rest are about to eat of one of the ancient Lucumones. egge, with which the Etruscans used to commence the course of his labors he was exploring their repasts. There is the usual accompaniment one of the tombs; on removing a few stones, of a flute-player, and there are two youthful at- he looked through the aperture to discover tendants, the one with a myrtle branch and the its contents, and behold! (it is a true story,) other with a goblet. Five ducks, an animal sacred extended in state before him, lay one of to Bacchus, are waiting at the foot of the table for the mighty men of old. He saw him crownthe crumbs. In the upper compartment there is a continuation of the stands, which we have de-ed with gold, clothed in his armor. scribed, on the other wall; but here, instead of chariot races, the spectators are entertained with various gymnastic exercises and games; such as wrestling, playing with the cestus, leaping, equestrian tours de force,' &c. Above these compartments there is a third subject, just beneath the vault of the roof, viz., a bracket surmounted by a large vase, on each side of which stand two women with dishevelled hair, one holding a small vase, the other a sacrificial instrument, as if about to pour out a libation. On each side of them is stretched a man, leaning on double cushious; the one bearded and crowned with myrtle, the other beardless and crowned with olive. On the wall to the left of the entrance, the under compartment represents a group of dancers, and the upper, gymnastic sports; such as boxing, throwing quoits. hurling the lance, and foot-races, all similar to those which have been already described on the other side. In this, as in the other painted tombs, besides the real door there were painted doors at the sides and at the upper end opposite the en

trance; these were of a red color, and studded with white spots, not unlike the heads of large nails." p. 165.

This is only one of many that are found thus decorated. The paintings give us representations of the manners and domestic habits of those who lived more than two thousand years ago, and present to us every variety of subject and story, from the scene of household grief at the loss of a loved parent to that of riot and sensual enjoyment, which, by a strange anomaly, are, as we have seen, found depicted on the walls of these sepulchral chambers. A very remarkable tomb is that which has been call

His

shield, and spear, and arrows were by his side, and the sleep of the warrior seemed to have been but of a day. But while the sig nore gazed in astonishment, a sudden change came over the scene; a slight tremor, like a passing breath of air, seemed to agitate the figure, it crumbled into dust, and disappeared. When an entrance was effected, the golden crown, some fragments of arms, and a few handfuls of dust were all that remained to mark the position in which it lay.

those on the site of the ancient Agylla or Many of the sepulchres, more especially Cære, were in the interiors of earthen hillocks, raised to some height above the ground. These barrows were surrounded on the outside by walls of stone, which went round each, and contained the doors leadwall the earth sloped gradually away, until ing into the different tombs. Above this it came nearly to a point on the top, which was generally surmounted by the figure of a lion.

On the summit of the wall, in like manner, just where the earth began to slope, there were ranged, at short distances, figures of this description. In the centre of the barrow, but above the level of the tombs, to which access was to be had through the doors of the surrounding wall, was the tomb of the principal person, to whose memory it was erected, the lower apartments generally containing the remains of his followers, dependents, and, it may be, the members of his family. Such was the tomb at Agylla, generally termed by the

English in Rome, General Galassi's grave, | hold carriage, in which the corpse had been -not because the general was buried there, conveyed to the grave, and the sides of but because it was first discovered and ex- which were ornamented with lions in cavated by him, in conjunction with Father bronze, in the style of early Greek workRegulini, the rector of the neighboring vil- manship. One vase of bronze, for perlage of Cervetri,-which no doubt the ge- fumes, also stood near the entrance, consistneral thought much the more agreeable ing of three globes, one above the other; reason of the two. The interest of the near to which was something like a canexcavation arises not so much from its con- delabra, and a tripod, for burning incense struction, as from the curious and valuable during the funeral ceremonies. But their remains of antiquity which have been dis- discoveries did not terminate here. From covered there. It presented, externally, this an entrance was effected into an inner, the appearance of a natural hillock, to and a more curious, sepulchre. Here were which, no doubt, it owed its preservation. vases of bronze, still hanging on the walls The experienced eye of the antiquary soon by nails; a tripod, containing a vase for detected its nature, and suspected the pur- perfumes; a large vase, ornamented with poses to which it had been once applied. massive heads; some bronze vases of difAround the base, after removing the earth, ferent forms, hanging from the roof; and, they soon came to the external wall, which, in a sort of recess at the end, were two as we have before said, always surrounds large stones, about five feet from each an Etruscan tomb in its restored condition. other, on which had been placed the head This went all around the tomb, having and feet of the body buried there. Upon doors in it at certain distances, leading to the stone next the end wall lay an extraorgraves within. The graves consisted of dinary gold ornament, consisting of two three chambers each, connected together disks, with animals carved upon them, and by short, narrow passages. These doors two gold fillets; and, sunk down below the were in the Egyptian style of architecture. stone, or half leaning upon it, was the suThere were figures of lions and griffons on perb golden breastplate already alluded to. the cornice above the doors. Had our On each side, where the wrists had once space permitted us, we should have ex- depended, lay broad golden bracelets, richtracted the entire account, as we at firstly worked in relievo, and below it lay a intended, but find that we must content clasp composed of three spheres of gold, ourselves with a brief description. Sus- and at various distances between the stones pecting that there must be another chamber, were little lumps of the same metal, which besides those already mentioned, they exca- had been probably interwoven with the vated from the top, until they came at a dress of the deceased. Attached to the slope, which by steps led them down to a wall, behind the head, were two silver vesmassive stone door, towards the centre of sels, covered with Egyptian figures, and the barrow. On breaking this they came some vases, on which was inscribed the upon the expected prize. The portico led name of Larthia. From this name Mrs. them into a chamber about ten feet square. Gray supposes-nay, takes for granted,Along the sides, and on a sort of shelf be- that the deceased was a woman. We think neath the immense stones which formed that this conclusion has been rather hastily the roof, were found ornamented shields come to. The termination of the word may of bronze. Mingled with them were ar- lead to such an inference in Rome, though rows, a bundle of which lay close to a bier. not necessarily even there; but in Etruria This bier had four short feet, and was made it is any thing but certain; nay, if she looks of cross bars of bronze. It stood close to at one of her previous descriptions of a a walled-up door, the top of which was painted tomb in Tarquinia, she will find that open; and in this were four vases, two of this very same name is written over one which were of silver. At the head and of the male figures on horseback. This foot of the bier were small altars for sacri- tomb at Agylla is supposed by competent fice, surrounded each by a number of small judges to have been constructed many images: some bones also were on the bier, years before the fall of Troy, which event and by its side lay a very curious inkstand, took place eleven hundred years before the having upon it an alphabet of thirteen con- Christian era. It was constructed before sonants and four vowels, repeated in sylla- the invention of the arch, for the architects bles, like the first lessons of a primer. This seem as if they would have made an arch latter is especially valuable, as forming the in many places if they could; and it must key to all we know of Etruscan inscriptions. have been made before the custom of burnOpposite the bier stood the small house-ing the bodies of the dead was known, or