Wanderings in the Roman campagna . to a fresh restoration, it is now very decentlyexhil)ited in the hall of the baronial residence, to whichthe exquisite remains of the upper temple (.Edes For-tunaj) serve as foundations. There is scarcely any relicof ancient art which has been made the subject of somuch learned controversy. Athanasius Kircher consid-ered it to represent the vicissitudes of fortune; CardinalPolignac, the journey of Alexander to the oracle ofJupiter Ammon; Cecconi and Volpi, events in the lifeof Sulla; Montfaucon, a panoramic sketch of the course THE LAND OF GREGORY THE GREAT 2
Wanderings in the Roman campagna . to a fresh restoration, it is now very decentlyexhil)ited in the hall of the baronial residence, to whichthe exquisite remains of the upper temple (.Edes For-tunaj) serve as foundations. There is scarcely any relicof ancient art which has been made the subject of somuch learned controversy. Athanasius Kircher consid-ered it to represent the vicissitudes of fortune; CardinalPolignac, the journey of Alexander to the oracle ofJupiter Ammon; Cecconi and Volpi, events in the lifeof Sulla; Montfaucon, a panoramic sketch of the course THE LAND OF GREGORY THE GREAT 241 of the Nile; Winckelmann, the meeting of Helen andMenelaus in Egypt; Chaupy, the shipping of wheat forthe supply of Rome; Barthelemy, the journey of Hadrianto Elephantina; and Fea, the conquest of Egypt byAugustus. The mosaic undoubtedly represents, in a sketchy way,scenes of the lower middle and upper valley of the Nile,enlivened with scenes of divination by means of theflight of birds, of the buzzing of bees, of the crawling. General outline of the mosaic floor in the apse of the Temple of snakes, and of the pecking of fowls. But its moststriking feature is the reproduction of twenty wildAfrican beasts, with their names appended in Greekletters. Comparing the aspect and the names of these 242 WANDERINGS IN THE ROMAN CAMPAGNA animals with the account ^iven of them by JllHanus in hiszoological treatise, Ilepi Zwwi/ iSiottjto? (De AnimaliumNatura), and considering, furthermore, that the natu-ralist was a Pra?nestinian by birth, probably a priest ofthe goddess, and that he lived and wrote at the time ofHadrian, which is the date of the mosaic, we are inclinedto call it an illustration-plate of the naturalists text, orat least a composition insjjired either by him directlyor by the perusal of his Hepl Zwcdv. There is another mosaic of tlie same exquisite textureand coloring to be seen in the cave of the Fates (Antrodelle Sorti), which tradition considers to have been exca-vated
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublisherbos, booksubjectart
