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ON METEORITES, OR CELESTIAL STONES 75
with the form of a mouth, it was inserted in the face of an image of the goddess to figure that feature.
As
the stone was valueless, modern explorers long hoped that it might not
have been carried off from Rome by the spoilers, but the search for it
has been in vain. In a rare volume describing excavations made in the
Palatine hill in 1730, Professor Lanciani is stated to have found a
stone that had been unearthed at that time in a chapel, lacking any
inscription to indicate the divinity to whom it was dedicated. This
stone was said to be " of a deep brown color, looking very much like a
piece of lava, and ending in a sharp point." The similarity of this
description to that of Arnobius indicates that the Cybele stone may
really have been found in 1730, but it has since disappeared. It would
have been extremely interesting for mineralogists if they could have
been enabled to examine this supposed meteorite, perhaps the very
earliest regarding which we have such definite information.
To
throw it into greater relief it was surrounded by a silver rim. When
first brought to land from the ship on which it had been transported to
Rome, the sacred stone was confided to the care of a company of Roman
matrons who passed it on from one to another as it was solemnly borne
to the Temple of Victory.5
Whether this stone was really a meteorite, as tradition taught, or whether it was a fossil of the type later known as hysteriolithus, as was conjectured by M. Falconnet, in 1770,e
remains doubtful. Its light weight, upon which quality Arnobius lays
stress, and its peculiar form seem to favor somewhat the latter
supposition. A similar stone to which divine honors were paid was in a
temple on Mount Ida.
•Prudentiua " Hymnus X," 11, 156, 157. This writer was born in 348 A.D. and died about 410.
*
" Dissertation sur la pierre de la Mère des Dieux," in Mém. de l'Acad.
de» Inscrip. et Belles Lettres, vol. xxsviii, p. 370; Paris, 1770.
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