The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1879-06-12
AN OLD ROMAN HOUSE.
Interesting Excavations Oh the Banks of
the Tiber.

The ancient Roman house lately lis.
covered in making the excavations on
the banks of ihe Tiber in the gardens of
Pa!azzo Farnesina is even more interest
ing than was at first supposed. l had
arranged to visit the excavations with
the director-general of hydraulic works
at Italy, but an unexpected rise in the
Tiber having covered the mosaic pave
ments, and the rare paintings on the
walls having airead" been removed. I am
obliged to accept the description of an
other.
The frescoes on the walls have been
taken TO the magazine of the Archeolgi-
cal Commission in the convent of Saint
francesca Eomana, but they will soon be
placed in the Museo Kircherano in the
Roman college. Those persons who have
not seen them in their original position
will there be able to examine them at
their leisure.
Professor Lanciani, in bis lecture in
the University of Rome, last Wednesday
morning, discoursed on the antiquities
in the bed and on the banks of the Ii
ber, and saiu re believed this house was
formerly dedicated to the sale of wine.
All establishments of similar kind were
anciently in the same quarter Of the city,
and it may be that this was one of many
houses in that part OF the city where the
delights of Bacchus were enjoyed by the
Romans. The aTchnologists say that no
discovery Of equal Importance has been
made for centuries in Rome.
The walls, first covered with thick
coating of powdered marble, are orna-
mented with exquisite paintings in a
perfect state of preservation. They were
evidently made in that period of Rome
at the end of the republic, or the Begin
ming OF the empire, when the art of
painting. was in the greatest perfection.
One of these pictures is an exquisite rep.
resentation Of Bacchus as a child. Near
this are two limitations of the ancient
style, a. there are also two musicians
playing the cithara. This ia an instru-
ment resembling the modern guitar in
.oTni as vol. as III IaI.s. An antique
bas. relief in the hospital of San Giovan-
nj, in Laterano, also represents this an
cient instrument with cords and frets
like the guitar. The cords, however, are
longer and the space for the frets smaller,
while the player held the thick part OF
the instrument in the curve of his arm.
The Egyptians also used this instrument,
and the picture of man playing upon it
is seen in the tomb of Thebes.
But this new representation of the
| cithara has 7alue which none of those
discovered previously possess. Over each
cii0Td oT tho instrument a:o aeen certain
letters of signs, which are believed to be
notes, and if the learned men of the city
succeed in reading them we may be able
to hear a melody composed 1000 years
ago, and sung by the merry followers OF
| Bacchus on the shores of the Tiber. It is
very probable that in continuing the ex-
cavations other rooms will be discovered.
| Those already found indicate tho usual
form of an ancient Roman house, which
consisted of an interior court, called a
peristyle, which was open to the sky, sur
rounded by columns, and to which the
rooms inhabited by the family had
access. The bases Of three columns are
seen here. and beyond these is a corridor
100 feet long and 18 wide. The room
where the paintings were found is or
the right of this passage.-M Y Ere,.
ing Post.