150 NATURAL HISTORY OF PRECIOUS METALS, &c.
the
attendant Fauns and a panther. It is surrounded by a frieze exhibiting
in low relief the triumph of the jolly god over his competitor ; into
which enter twenty-nine figures and five animals—elephants, panthers,
goats. The broad exterior rim is adorned with equidistant garlands, of
acanthus and laurel alternately, in which are set eighteen aurei
ranging from Hadrian down to Geta inclusive ; that is, of all the
princes of the surname Antonini. This precious relic was found at
Rennes (1777) in clearing away the foundation of an old house. It had
been deposited in a vault together with a hoard of coins dating from
Nero downwards ; and what is of special interest as marking the date
and perhaps the occasion of its concealment, a necklace made out of
aurei of the usurper Pos-tumus set in frames of pierced work.*
In
this instance, the insertion of coins as ready-made embellishments, to
supply the place of chasings from the hand of the actual modeller of
the piece, betrays the influence of the decrepitude that was fast
creeping over the arts in the age of Severus. In the works of a better
period the very accessaries boasted a fertility of invention coupled
with a minuteness of execution, rivalling the masterpieces of Cellini's
school. Trebellius Pollio has a passage well worth extracting in proof
of this :—" We saw not long since, Corn. Macrianus belonging to the
same family [as Quintus one of the Thirty Tyrants] at a feast given by
him in the Temple of Hercules, having a patera of electrum which
displayed in its centre the head of Alexander the Great, and in the
circumference his complete history; the drawing of the figures being
compressed and extremely minute. Out of this vessel he
