340 NOTICES OF NEW FUBLICATIONS. the Roman empire. And to the possessors of the first edition it may be amusing to learn in addition to their previous knowledge that up to the time of Alexander Severus, those emperors who had adopted trowsers, wore them crimson, (like the French soldiers of the present day.) a fashion which he exchanged for white ^. We do not see however why in return for the in- sertion of this curious fact in the second edition, the numerous references for the practice in different nations, and the description of the trowsers on the banks of the Euxine, from Ovid and Euripides, should have been struck out of the place which they occupied in the first edition. If such articles are admissible at all, it would surely be desirable that they should be as complete as possible, and for this reason we rather regret that some other v/ords of the same kind, " Mitra," and perhaps " Sagum," should not have been more fully followed out into their use in the Christian and barbarian world. In the former case, it would not have been an undue digression to have traced the steps by which the variegated ribbon of the female head-dress grew into the chosen symbol of ejiiscopacy ; as in the analogous case of " Diadema" the transition is well pointed out between the white band of the male head-dress, and the crown of modern sovereigns. In the latter, it would have been both convenient and interesting to have had brought together the various passages which exhibit the Scotch plaid, as the mark of the Celtic race, in its earliest appearance. Next perhaps to the article on " Braccse" those on " Armillse" and " Torques"' are the most complete of their kind, of which the first is illus- trated by the woodcut of a golden bracelet found in Cheshii'e, and the second by one of a torquis found in Brecknockshire. Under the head of " Hastse," a clear account may be found of the Gaulish " Gsesum" or " Sparus," (evi- dently our word " spear,) and of the German " Framea." Under the head of " Pallium," the analogy of the Greek lixdnov with the oriental "Hyke" is well given ; and the article " Tiaras" is entirely devoted to the subject of the oriental head-dress. The Celtic word " Caracalla," familiar to us as the surname of the Emperor Antoninus Bassianus, who compelled the use of it at court, and afterwards employed to designate the hood of the clergy, is a curious instance of the mode in which foreign dresses were introduced in the later times of the empire, much as "paletots" and the like creep gradually into universal use amongst ourselves. These are the principal allusions in the volume to the costume of the unclassical world. In other departments of life, they are necessarily much more scanty. The article " Basilica" contains a short account of the trans- formation of the Roman hall of justice into a Christian church. In humbler life it is interesting to find under the heads of " Bascauda" and " Carrugo" the Celtic originals of our " Basket" and " Carriage." Probably there are many other illustrations of modern archaeology which have escaped us : but these will suffice to shew that they are not wholly ex- cluded. It is hardly necessary to observe in conclusion that the above in- stances give a very inadequate notion of the value of the whole work — ■ "* Lainprid. Alex. Sever., 4G.
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