Page:Archaeologia volume 38 part 1.djvu/266

230 Eecent Excavation* at Carthage. The next panel is wanting, but that which followed it remains. The number of outer panels being eight, No. 7, which corresponds in relative position to No. t, which we have shown to be April, should be July. On looking to the MS., we find this month represented by a naked male figure, holding in his right hand a purse, in his left a shallow basket with fruit ; at his feet is a broken object from which coins are falling, and two covered cups. The tetrastich by Ausonius is this : Ecce coloratos ostentat Julius anus, Grilles cui rutilos spicea serta ligant. Morus sauguineos prsebet gravidata raceruos, Quec inedio Cancri sidcre larta viret. The mosaic has only a portion of these emblems, the shallow vessel with mul- Ix'rries and the tree from which they have been picked ; but in its simplicity it agrees with the other panels. These three panels, 3, 4, and 7, being identified with the months March, April, and July, we are enabled to determine that the remaining five of the outer band of panels represented January, June, September, October, and December, leaving four months, February, May, August, and November for the inner panels. On looking over the representations of the months in the illuminations, we find only one of them in which a sistrum occurs, and that is November, which is thus represented : A draped figure, with a shaven head, rests against a cippus, on which is placed the head of an animal ; he holds a platter with a snake in one hand and a sistrum in the other ; at his feet is a goose, and above a pomegranate. The verses are Carbaseo surgens post hunc indutus amictu, Mensis ab antiquis sacra deumque colit, A quo vix avidus sist.ro corapescitur anger, Devotusque satis ubera fert humeris. This evidently represents a priest of Isis, whose feast took place on the Kalends of November. There can be little doubt, therefore, that the mosaic fragment is a portion of a panel representing the month of November ; its preservation is a matter of some interest, as it not only shews that there was an internal band of panels, but serves to fix their positions. A panel representing November, to be in its proper place, must have been either over the vase between 9 and 10, or at the spot marked 11 ; but Mr. Davis informs us that the fragment was discovered beyond the broad wall which passed over the former space, and it must