No. 6. Egyptian statuette, with the cartouch of Rameses II., found on Via Nazionale. The base upon which it stands is inscribed to Fabius Cilone, prefect of Rome under Septimius Severus, who had performed the annual sacrifice to Hercules at the Ara Maxima, at the entrance to the Circus Maximus. No. 13 is a companion inscription, a circular vase offered by Catius Sabinus, prefect of Rome, who performed the annual sacrifice at the great altar of Hercules. It was found at the back of S. Maria in Cosmedin.
No. 17. Inscription to Hercules the leader of the Muses by the Consul M. F. Nobilior, 189 B.C., from the temple which stood in the Portico of Philip, now S. Ambrogio.
Nos. 2 and 3 in the courtyard are the two Egyptian lions from the Temple of Isis, which in the sixteenth century were placed at the foot of the ascent to the Capitol, and removed here in 1885.
Nos. 13 and 14. Two columns from the same temple found in 1883.
No. 32. Sphinx in red granite. 33. Vase in basalt, Villa Hadrian. Altar sacred to Isis. On the left side is Harpocrates, the god of silence; on the right, Anubis, the Egyptian Mercury. 34. Sphinx in basalt, with the cartouch of Amasi II., 550 B.C. 44 and 51. Monkey-gods of Pharaoh Nectanebus I., 370 B.C. 49. Crocodile in red granite. With the exception of the vase, all these objects came from the Temple of Isis and Serapis on the Campus Martius, founded, B.C. 100, by Apuleius II., and rebuilt by Domitian (Suetonius, "Dom." v.).
Hall of Mosaics.—On right in entering, inscription to Nerva, by Septimius Severus, A.D. 194, used in 1676 by the city Conservatori to record their privileges.
8. Mosaic Head of an Athlete. 9. The Sea with fish, and a border of foliage and birds, from the Baths of Olympia, Viminal Hill. 10. The Rape of Proserpina (the names of the horses are written in Greek), from a tomb on the Via Portuense. 12. Representation of a Bath, from the Prætorian Camp. 14. Hercules conquered by Love. 18. A veiled woman presenting a statuette to a seated nude figure, probably Mercury: a beautiful work. 24. Personification of the Month of May. 27. An Inundation of the Nile. 28. A Ship entering a Port. In the centre of the room,
ALTAR OF THE LARES.
In the month of August 1888, on the Via Arenula, the new street leading to the new Ponte Garibaldi, at the corner of the Via di S. Bartolomeo dei Vaccinari, the last street on the right which leads up to the reputed House and School of S. Paul, at the depth of twenty-seven feet (which shows how the soil has accumulated here), another of the Lares Compitales of the time of Augustus was discovered. It is a square marble altar with a beautiful cornice, which is, unfortunately, broken. On the front is a relief representing four men at a sacrifice, with bay crowns upon their veiled heads. A bull and a pig are by assistants being led up to sacrifice—the bull to the Genius Cæsarum, and the pig to the Lares. On each side of the altar is the figure of a youth, the titular deities; and at the back a crown.
Above the relief in front is the inscription,—