Page:Archaeologia volume 38 part 1.djvu/271

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Recent Excavations at Carthage. therefore have been at No. 11. This agrees very well with the general design of the pavement, as the masses of foliage springing from the medallions would leav. more space for a compartment than those from the vases. Having described the panels, which furnish us with representations of con- siderable rarity, the Roman months, we will proceed to notice the medallions in the corners. In one of them, PI. XI. fig 1, is a female head, of somewhat forbidding aspect, without symbols of any kind. She wears ear-rings, and has a purple stripe in her dress. The other medallion (PL XIII ) has in it a female head of great beauty, crowned with ears of corn, and wearing a torques of gold. There can be little doubt that this represents the season of Summer, and therefore that the other was intended for Spring ; although the positions of the medallions do not exactly accord with those of the months : thus March, which should belong to Spring, forms part of the quarter of the pavement which, no doubt, was a representation of "Winter. The designer of the pavement may however have divided the year into four quarters, somewhat in our own way, and then placed near each group of three months the most appropriate season. Representations of the seasons are not rare ; they are usually in the form of children carrying appropriate emblems. Such is their appearance on the Imperial coins inscribed TEMPORVM FELICITAS, where four boys are dancing. On a silver acerra belonging to Mr. John Webb they appear as boys with appropriate symbols." On the Arch of Severus they are represented as genii with baskets of flowers, fruit, b &c. They are figured on a sarcophagus in the Barberini Collection as winged genii, the occupations of each season being indicated below by small groups of figures." On a silver situla, found at Tourdan, near Vienne, and now in the British Museum, we find them represented as females seated on various animals. 4 The nearest approach however to the medallions in the mosaic from Carthage is to be found in a pavement discovered in 1849 at Cirenccster, the site of the ancient Corinium. 6 At each corner of this pavement was a medallion ; three still remain: Spring is represented by the head of a female crowned with flowers, and has a swallow perched on her shoulder ; Summer is crowned with corn, and has a sickle ; Autumn is crowned with fruit, and has an axe ; Proceedings, Vol. IV. p. 295. " Montfaucon, Ant. Expl. Sup. torn. i. c. iv. c Montfaucon, Ant. Expl. Sup. torn. i. pi. iii. d Proceedings, Vol. IV. p. 294. Illustrations of the Site of Ancient Corinium, by Prof. Buckman and C. H. Newniarch, Lond. 1850. Arch. Journ. vi. p. 328. Gentleman's Magazine, January 1850.