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Read Feb. 1, 1798.
My Lord,
I BEG leave to request the attention of the Society whilst I hazard a conjecture upon the nature of the personage intended to be represented on the beautiful and singularly curious relic of antient art, exhibited by Mr. Townly from his rich and unparalleled collection of Greek and Roman antiquities.
It seems then to me, my lord, that these exquisite remains of antique sculpture found at Ribchester, the [1]Coccium of Antoninus's Itinerary, are of the best Roman work on the Greek model, and of the times of the Antonines; and that the head-piece, though found in the same heap of sand with the vizor, does not properly belong to the mask, which was itself antique, when the cap or petasus was fitted to it. This covering indeed is totally unworthy of its place, being evidently of another age, somewhere between Severus and Constantius Chlorus; and its position here is like that of an Austin Friar, on the Maison Carrée, or the hat of harlequin on the head of Augustus[2]. With this cap I have nothing to do at present. The piece of antiquity now before us is what I conceive
