Dennis, George: The cities and cemeteries of Etruria: in two volumes (Band 1) (London, 1848)

CHAP. II.]

ANCIENT POTTERY OP VEIL

57

candelabrum of very simple form, stand on the bench, by
the warrior's helmet. Several bronze specchi, or mirrors,
and small figures of men or gods in terra-cotta, and of
animals in amber, were also found, but have been removed.
All bore out the archaic character of the tomb.

Of similar description is the furniture of the inner and
smaller chamber. The ceding has two beams carved in
relief; showing that even at an early period Etruscan
tombs were imitations of the abodes of the living. A low
ledge of rock runs round three sides of the chamber, and
on it stand as many square cinerary urns or chests of
earthernware, about eighteen inches long and a foot high,
each with an overhanging lid, and a man's head projecting
from it, as if for a handle ; probably intended for a por-
trait of him whose ashes are stored in the urn.9 On the

ment of the Empire, we have the surest
grounds for ascribing all the Etruscan
pottery found in its tombs to a period
prior to the middle of the fourth cen-
tury of Rome.

For a description of the vases of
Veii, see " Descrizione de' Vasi dell' Isola
Farnese, &c, di Secondiario Campanari,
Roma 1839," or a review of the same
in Bull. Inst. 1840, pp. 12—16. Also
Micali, Mon. Ined., p. 156, etseq. tav.
XXVII.; and p. 242, tav. XLI.

9 Such urns as this are almost the
only specimens yet found of the fictile
statuary for which Veii was of old re-
nowned, though a few antejkcm and deco-
rated tiles have been brought to light,
of which some good specimens may be
seen in the Campana collection at Rome.
The fictile quadriga made at Veii by
order of Tarquinius Superbus was, like
the Palladium, one of the seven sacred
things, on the preservation of which the
power and safety of Rome were believed
to depend—the others being, Cybele's
needle, the ashes of Orestes, Priam's

sceptre, Uione's veil, and the Salian
bucklers. Serv. Ma. VII. 188. The
legend of the quadriga is worth record-
ing. Tarquin had bespoken one or more
such cars of earthenware to adorn the
pediment of his new temple on the Ca-
pitoline, according to the Etruscan
fashion in architecture; but the clay,
instead of shrinking as usual, swelled so
as to burst the mould, and not to be
extracted from the furnace ; and the
Etruscan soothsayers interpreting this
as betokening increase of dominion to
the possessor, the chariot was retained
at Veii. Shortly after, however, a chariot-
race was held at this city, and the victor
having received his crown was leaving
the arena, when his horses suddenly
took fright, and dashed oif at full speed
towards Rome; nor did they stop till they
arrived at the foot of the Capitol, where
they threw out and killed their driver
at the gate, afterwards called from his
name,Ratumena. Whereon the Veientes,
terrified at this second portent, gave up
the earthen quadriga to the Romans.