Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/70

 NOT&S AND QUERIES, [^s.ii. JULY 23,*

proper names preserve this, as also do the modern Romance languages, such as Spanish, where (contrary to every Spanish instinct) we find the stress remaining even on a, con- cluding vowel (Jepte, Jose, Josue, Npe, Levi, and Esau). This final accent is still to be heard in the conservative Sephardic syna- gogues, whereas the Polish and Kussian Jews read the sacred tongue with the stress upon the penultimate.

My last words will be upon the vexed question of " even stress." Personally 1 doubt whether it exists. When a grammarian states that a certain language has " even stress," my natural scepticism drives me to suspect some labour-saving device calculated to conceal ignorance or laziness. The nearest thing to " even stress " which I have come across in my own experience is in tongues of the Turanian type (Finnish or Hungarian), where to the English ear there is an accent upon the first syllable, much as in the Teutonic family, which may have borrowed this prin- ciple from them. Ellis quotes as having " even stress " Turkish and Japanese. About the latter there may well be some doubt, but he is absolutely wrong as to the former. ^ In Turkish, as in Persian, there is a clear distinc- tion drawn between nouns and adjectives on the one hand and verbs on the other : their mode of accentuation is quite different ; obviously no theory of " even stress " can fit in with a fact like this. Probably Ellis was misled by the faulty Turkish grammars published in English. In German there are several which explain in full the Turkish system of accent ; the best authority is Leopold Pekotsch. JAS. PLATT, Jun.

ANCIENT ZODIACS.

(Continued from 9 th S. i. 203.)

Roman Zodiacs.

49. Circular sardonyx intaglio gem, around a biga and Victory. Found near Lake Thrasy- menus (Perugia). Probably a prize in the Circensian games. 1 B.C. 217. Worsley coll. In 'Museum Worsleyanum,' 1824, i. fig. 21 Savage, 'The Librarian,' 1808, i. 199.

50. A broken cameo, with the zodiac, stars, and winged Victory on it, was found in the ruins of Tiberius's villa on the Castiglione hill, Capri, in 1786. It was given to the painter Tisnbein. Rezzonico, ' JDescrizione di Capri ' A. B. G., 'Notes from Isola di Capri,' No. VIL, in Buxton Advertiser, 22 March, 1879. Tiberius died in 37.

51. In 1662, "when t}^ chair of St. Peter in Rome was cleaned, <-^~ zodiac was founc on it. Bartolini wrote on"it, and explainec

^ as referring to the Pope. Clement X. approved of this (Bower, ' Lives of the Popes '). When the French (under Napoleon) occupied Rome they examined the chair and xmnd the same" (Higgins, ' Anacalypsis,' 1836, i. 691). This wooden chair is covered by a bronze one by Bernini, and is against the end wall, above the altar, in the tribune of St. Peter's. It is engraved in Primmer, ' In Rome,' 1897, p. 96, and in Archosologia. Peter died circa 67.

52. Painted on the wall of a room at Pompeii, existing A.D. 70. Archceologia.

53. On a coin of Trajan, Rome (d. 117). Stevenson, 'Dictionary of Roman Coins,' 1889.

54. In a MS. of Cicero's translation of the ' Phenomena ' of Aratus, second century. In Ottley, Archceologia, 1836, xxvi. 162, pi. xxii.

55. On a coin of Hadrianus, Rome (d. 138). Stevenson.

56. Upon a coin of Antoninus Pius (d. 161), Rome. Stevenson.

57. On a large medal of Antoninus Pius Alexandria. Around Serapis surrounded by the heads of the planetary deities. In King, i. 252. Stevenson.

58. On a coin of Antoninus Pius, with the seasons. Stevenson.

59. On a coin of Commodus, Rome (d. 192). Stevenson.

60. On a medallion of Septimus Severus, Rome (d. 211). Fosbroke, ' Encyclopaedia of Antiquities,' 1825, i. 192.

61. On a medal of Julia Moesa (d. 217), Amastris. Stevenson.

62. On a coin of Elagabalus, Ptolemais, Galilee (d. 222). Stevenson.

63. On a coin of Alexander Severus, Perinthus (d. 235). Stevenson.

64. On a medallion of Alexander Severus, surrounding Jupiter enthroned, with eagle and rod ; below two men holding corn ears, above Sol and Luna in chariots. Perinthe. In Montfaucon, Supp., i. 22, pi. ii. fig. 1.

65. On a coin of Valerian, ^Ege (d. 260). Stevenson.

66. On the white marble ceiling of the naos in the Temple of the Sun, surrounding seven busts, at Palmyra (Tadmor). Diam., 6ft. In Wood, 'Ruins of Palmyra,' 1753, pi. xix. ; in Wright, ' Palmyra and Zenobia,' 1895, p. 67. Post 275.

67. On a coin of Constantino I., Thessa- lonica (d. 337). Stevenson.

68. On a medal of Constantine. Stevenson.

69. On the tomb of Junius Bassus, Prefect of Rome (d. 359), on the floor of the basilica of St. Peter's, Rome. Within it is sculptured " Christ seated between SS. Peter and Paul standing, his feet resting upon an aged man