In addition to the series of stucco reliefs recently acquired on loan from the Victoria and Albert Museum, to three stuccoed panels from the Hartwig collection, and to a few miscellaneous pieces, the British Museum's Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities possesses nine large and eight smaller fragments of stucco-relief work about whose acquisition almost nothing is recorded. Till recently, they were not entered in the Department's Register, and had no accession numbers: the only distinguishing marks were blue diamond-shaped tabs stuck to five of them, and the numbers 63 and 99 scratched on the backs of two. Blue diamonds occur on several ancient objects which formed part of the collection of Sir William Hamilton, so it is possible that the stuccoes once belonged to the same illustrious antiquary. Indeed, a British Museum catalogue of 1817 definitely ascribes one of them to the Hamilton collection, and also reveals, in conjunction with a manuscript of 1824, that the remaining pieces were kept in the so-called ‘Hamilton Room’, most of whose contents had formerly been owned by Sir William.

The exploration of the site of Parco S. Stefano began as a rescue operation following the extension of Signor Lorusso's quarry on the right bank of the Gravina. Tombs were known to exist in this locality and a sarcophagus and other burials were found in the first area to be stripped. Signor Losindaco and Professor Vinson, who was working in the area, recovered what sherds they could between 13 and 15 July 1970 and reported the finds to the Soprintendenza alle Antichità of Taranto.

The Soprintendente, Professor Lo Porto, requested the assistance of the British School at Rome and Jon Boutelle and his wife were sent down to supervise the rescue work from 20 July 1970, under the direction of the Soprintendenza. They continued in charge until the end of the excavation on 12 September. Dottoressa Lattanzi and Signor Campi visited the site and advised on the work.

Si presentano alcuni esemplari di ‘Spiral Ware’ medievale da Cartagine insieme ai risultati delle analisi mineralogico-petrografiche degli impasti e di un'analisi del rivestimento. Dalla prima analisi si possono distinguere due gruppi di ‘Spiral Ware’: il 1° gruppo, di origine vulcanica e quindi importato, potrebbe venire dall' Etruria o dalla Campania, e corrisponde strettamente ad esemplari trovati a Roma. Il 2° gruppo è stato riconosciuto quì per la prima volta, e potrebbe originare dall'Italia meridionale.

Si nota che un'osservazione macroscopica dei loro caratteri non distingue tra questi gruppi per quanto riguarda la forma e la decorazione. Si suppone dunque una tecnica di produzione notevolmente standard.

The history of the old Benedictine abbey of S. Bartolomeo di Carpinetoi n the Abruzzi was written at the end of the twelfth century by one of its monks, Alexander. This chronicler tells us much concerning the quarrels of the abbots during his lifetime with their unruly neighbours, chiefly the famous count palatine Roberto di Loritello and the bishop of Penne. Although he very seldom gives the year of the events he records, Alexander's narrative is firmly based for, as he tells us, he made use of the documents contained in the archives of the monastery. His statement to this effect is confirmed, in the case of the papal bulls, by several original documents which are known to have survived in the archives of the Cistercian abbey of S. Maria di Casanova, to which foundation Carpineto had been united in 1258. Of the remaining documents, royal and private charters, only a few were till recently known.

In the Via del Portico d'Ottavia at Rome, close by the Theatre of Marcellus, there still stands the propylaeum of the Porticus Octaviae, from which the street took its name. The inscription on the architrave records the restoration of the building by Septimus Severus and Caracalla in A.D. 203, but passes over in silence the previous history of the site. For that we are dependent largely on literary sources, chief among which is a passage of Velleius Paterculus, in which he records the building-activities of Q. Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus (cos. 143, censor 131 B.C.), the conqueror of Andriscus: Hic est Metellus Macedonicus, qui porticus, quae fuerunt circumdatae duabus aedibus sine inscriptione positis, quae nunc Octaviae porticibus ambiuntur, fecerat, quique hanc turmam statuarum equestrium quae frontem aedium spectant, hodieque maximum ornamentum eius loci, ex Macedonia detulit. … Hic idem primus omnium Romae aedem ex marmore in iis ipsis monumentis molitus <huius> vel magnificentiae vel luxuriae princeps fuit.

Velleius' statement, that the site of the Porticus Octaviae had formerly been occupied by a Porticus erected by Metellus, is clear, and adequately confirmed elsewhere. Less clear is what he says about the two temples, which we know from other evidence to have been dedicated to Juppiter Stator and Juno Regina.

L'articolo contiene la terza parte della relazione preliminare. In esso si tratta delle prospezioni di superficie svoltesi nel territorio della città. Le conclusioni principali sono cinque: che l'identificazione del kardo maximus della colonia di Fregellae proposta nella seconda parte puo considerarsi sostanzialmente confirmata; che gli insediamenti rurali dei cittadini di Fregellae furono in gran misura distrutti nello stesso momento che la colonia; che la distribuzione degli insediamenti posteriori a quel momento non corrisponde alle divisioni della centuriazione del 124 a.C; che durante l'lmpero le presenze umane nel territorio di Fabrateria erano piuttosto scarse; e che ci sono alcune indicazione del raggruppamento degli insediamenti finora identificati in piccoli villaggi.

Si tratta della prima parte di una relazione sul lavoro archeologico portato avanti dalla British School at Rome nell'area dell'Ambasciata Britannica a Porta Pia negli anni '60 e nel 1991/2.

Durante l'estate del 1969 una piccola trincea fu aperta immediatamente dietro le mura aureliane della città, che in quest'area erano state ricostruite nel 1564. Furono riconosciute tre principali fasi dell'occupazione romana, la prima forse consistente di un terrazzamento a giardino probabilmente dell'inizio del secondo secolo d.C. L'area fu in seguito occupata da un angolo di un edificio industriale, possibilmente una fullonica. La terza fase era rappresentata dalla costruzione delle mura della città, nel 271-5 d.C. Un livello di scarico associato con la costruzione delle mura conteneva detriti derivanti da alcune tombe contigue e materiale ceramico risalente circa al 275 d.C.

Il lavoro condotto in altre zone dell'area dell'Ambasciata ha portato allo studio di un mosaico monocromo con una scena marina, databile al periodo approssimativamente compreso fra il 140 e il 270 d.C., nonchè un dettagliato rilevamento della miniera di pozzolana del XVI e XVII secolo.

Were ludi circenses ever held in the Circus Flaminius as they were in the Circus Maximus?

The evidence is as follows.

1. Varro LL v 153–4: Locus idem circus maximus dictus, quod circum spectaculis aedificatus ubi ludi fiunt, et quod ibi circum metas fertur pompa et equi currunt…item simili de causa circus Flaminius dicitur, qui circum aedificatus est Flaminium campum, et quod ibi quoque ludis Tauriis equi circum metas currunt.

The ludi Taurii were unlike other games in being celebrated only every five years; they were in honour of the di inferi, and therefore could not be held within the walls. It is clear from Varro that they were the only games that took place in the Circus Flaminius, at least in his day: despite the deliberate parallelism of his two explanations, he cannot invoke a pompa at the Flaminius to make it like the Maximus in that respect as well. The parallelism may in fact be misleading, merely Varro's attempt to justify his etymology by finding spurious similarities between circi that were in reality not alike at all. Certainly the fact that he speaks of horses in both cases does not entitle us to infer that the ludi Taurii took the form of chariot-races, like the ludi circenses proper that were held in the Circus Maximus. It is quite possible that they were simply horse-races, and that Varro emphasises the horses rather than the chariots in section 153 in order to achieve a further similarity.

This article continues my catalogue of the objects from Lord Savile's excavations at Lanuvium, of which the first instalment appeared in these Papers (Vol. VII. pp. 63–91), and completes my task as far as concerns the contents of the Museum at Leeds. As it has been decided not to attempt to include here the numerous small objects of lesser importance from the site, which are in the British Museum, but are not yet included in any volume of the Catalogue, the contents of this, the final, instalment consist of the following:—(1) the remainder of the objects in all materials in the Museum at Leeds; (2) such objects in the British Museum as have been published already, either by the discoverer in Archaeologia, or in the various volumes of the Catalogue concerned. It will be seen that by far the most important and extensive part of the latter consists of the objects of terracotta. The republication of these, in extenso, is necessary for the proper understanding of the Leeds pieces, and enables the whole of this material to be presented simultaneously.

Dr. Bernabò-brea has kindly given me a new photograph of this monument. It shows the red paint at the outer corner of the gorgon's eye, which makes her eye look bigger and more sinister. It is not, however, a leer such as many early gorgons wear: the pupil is still in the middle of the eye. A lesion in this region of the eye may be due to strain. Our artist is depicting a gorgon under pressure. We must think away two round, dark shadows behind the top of the plaque: the real top is level with the upper end of the gorgon's ears. Dr. Bernabò-Brea was good enough to discuss the plaque with me, and he allowed me to study it outside its glass case. Here are a few observations:

1. What Should Not Be There—the bud-like mark above the nose.

The new photographs show that there is no evidence for it in the original. Payne omits it from his drawing and thereby makes the picture stronger and more archaic. No other full-length gorgon seems to have a ‘bud’. Many Corinthian gorgoneia have ‘buds’, the earliest is on the Timonidas vase in Middle Corinthian times. This difference in treatment may be due to the feeling that a gorgon was a living creature, while a gorgoneion was more like a space to be filled. The ‘bud’ has come to our gorgon from a gorgoneion found in Gela, probably of a later date and from a non-Corinthian colony. The same fate of unsponsored restoration overtook a gorgon on a gravestone in Athens, but, as far as my memory serves, the restoration has since been removed.

Alcuni murali medievali sopravvivono nell'abbazia cistercense delle Tre Fontane a Roma, o sono conosciuti da disegni, nell'edificio soprastante l'ingresso, nel nartece della chiesa di SS. Vincenzo ed Anastasio e nell'area orientale del chiostro. Studi recenti hanno discusso lo stile e l'iconografia di questi dipinti o hanno analizzato l'architettura della chiesa medievale e di parti del monastero. Questo articolo prende in considerazione i murali nel loro contesto architettonico. Le date degli affreschi nell'edificio sovrastante l'ingresso vengono chiarite dallo studio della muratura e da altre caratteristiche dell'edificio. I dipinti del nartece vanno associati alla storia e ai santi patroni dell'abbazia. I murali nella stanza al di sopra dell'attuale sacrestia riflettono la probabile funzione di quello spazio, originariamente come parte della cappella dell'abate. I murali finora creduti essere stati dipinti nella parte superiore di un muro esterno del dormitorio sembrano rientrare in due stanze del piano sottostante; di conseguenza viene suggerito che esse servissero originariamente a decorare la parte superiore delle mura interne di quelle stanze. Infine alcuni suggerimenti vengono presentati a proposito dei patrocinatori di questi lavori e dell'attività costruttiva della fine del tredicesimo secolo.

Among the earliest buildings to be excavated at Pompeii, the large property known as the Villa of Julia Felix, regio II insula 4 no. 3, suffered particularly badly from the depredations of the pioneer explorers of the site. It was subsequently abandoned and re-buried, then excavated again and restored between 1936 and 1953. A complex and interesting structure, it still awaits definitive publication, though the garden triclinium whose painted decoration forms the subject of this article has been examined in detail by Dr. Friedrich Rakob in the Römische Mitteilungen.

The house is situated on the right-hand side of the Via dell'Abbondanza leading eastwards out of the city to the Porta di Sarno, and behind it is the amphitheatre. Along the street front is a group of rooms including private living apartments and a large bath, and behind these a long and elaborately laid out garden (see plan, Pl. XVII); on the long right (western) side of this a row of rectangular pillars forms a portico shading a set of rooms backed by a corridor, which communicates with the side-street at the west, and with a further complex of small rooms at the bottom right-hand corner of the garden.