PLATE XXXVII.
LITUUS,
ROMAN CAVALRY.
BUCCINA,
ROMAN INFANTRY.
CORNET,
WITH TWO VALVES.
TRUMPETS.
THE Roman Lituus, the antique straight instrument with the curved end, is drawn from a reproduction in bronze of the original, found in the tomb of a warrior discovered in 1827, at Cervetri, the Etruscan Caere, and preserved in the Museum of the Vatican. The lituus took its name from the augur's staff, which it resembled in shape; it belonged to the cavalry of the Roman Empire. It produces the following proper notes or natural harmonics—
the seventh being flatter than the note which occurs in our modern musical scale. The fundamental [[audio/mpeg]] which the length of this tube—5 feet 4 inches—would give, cannot be produced. It was from a minute description of the original instrument, by Signor Alessandro Kraus junior of Florence, that Mr. Victor Mahillon was enabled to make this interesting reproduction of an instrument which appears to be the only antique trumpet known. The curved Buccina is from another reproduction by him of an instrument preserved in the Museum at Naples, and found in excavating Pompeii. It was passed under the left arm of the executant and over his right shoulder, in a manner easily adopted by a foot-soldier. This Buccina is in unison with the horn in G, and has a bugle quality of tone. Its notes are—