CAELATURA. 149
19-1/2 χ 15 inches, and weighing in its present state 159 ounces.* The subject is the Pythia Herophile, enthroned upon the omphalos, receiving
the dictates of the Delphic god, and attended by Themis, Pallas, and
Diana, the last goddess standing under the sacred chesnut-tree (fagus).
The exergue is occupied by their respective attributes,—the hound,
stag, blazing altar, and gryphon; and the whole composition is inclosed
within an elegant floriated border. The spiral columns introduced into
the architectural part, prove the age of its workmanship not prior to
the times of Severus.
Pliny
remarks it as a strange anomaly that although so large a number of
artists had gained celebrity by their chasings in silver, there was not
one on record famed for similar work in gold. The reason may be the
very simple one that at the time when these great artists flourished
gold was as yet too scarce to be thus employed. But of gold-plate
chased in that later style noticed above as coming into vogue in
Pliny's own days, a vast, to us incredible profusion, as will be
described hereafter, graced the sideboards of the Romans under the
Empire. A feint idea may be formed of its costliness from the sole
remnant left, the " Patere de Rennes " now enriching the Bibliothèque
Impériale. In form it is a shallow bowl, ten inches in diameter, and
weighing about 40 ounces Troy. In the centre is an emblema, a spirited
composition, the renowned Drinking-match between Hercules and Bacchus
; containing eight figures—the two gods,
