Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 8.djvu/236

 170 ADDITIONAL OBSERVATIONS ON more remarkable of those in the Villa Borghese has been called Britannicus. The statue in the Vatican Museum was found at Otricoli ; the annexed woodcut shows its bulla. The pictures, which exhibit the bulla, are etchings executed in a peculiar style, and with exquisite de- licacy, upon circular plates of glass, which are partially coated with gold. One of these is now in the British Museum. The glass has the usual appearance of decay and opalescence. It is double, the under fold being merely a protection to the upper. The figure is that of a boy dressed in the tunic and pallium, with the bulla suspended from his neck. Mr. Birch thinks that the attire indicates the period of the Gordians. The figure is in gold, very delicatel}" shaded with black lines, which are etched in the gold on the under surface of the upper fold of glass, so as to be seen on looking down upon the upper surface. Another very interesting circumstance is, that the name of the boy, M. cecilivs, is placed by his side in gold letters, and presents a remarkable confirmation of the con- clusion, at which I before arrived in explaining the name on Mr. Rogers's bulla. For here we have M. for Marcus, which is the prcBnomen, prefixed to CECILIVS, the nomen gentili- tium. Another specimen of the same kind was obtained by Ficoroni from the ruins of Tivoli-,and afterwards belonged to Dr. Conyers Middleton, who represents it in the same en- graving with the bulla, its companion. This portrait was likewise purchased by Horace Walpole for his collection at Strawberry Hill. In 1842 it was bought by C. Wentworth Dilke, Esq., and, by the kindness of that gentleman, I have Antique Glass, British Museum. Orig. size. See Ficoroni, U supra, 2)- 12.