Page:On Inscribed Sling-bullets.pdf/10

6 we may derive confirmation of the statement of Cicero, Verr, iv. 44, that there was a temple of the Magna Mater amongst the Enguini.

The inscriptions, classed under (6), are generally addresses to the missile or to the enemy. FERI, “strike,” is as a direction to the glans not to miss. Mommsen aptly cites, in illustration, a passage from the Marcellus of Plutarch, c. 8,—ἐν ταῖς μάχαις, ὅταν διώκωσι τοὺς πολεμίους, πυκνὸν τὸ φέῖε, παρεγγυῶσιν ἀλλήλοις. Orelli, n. 4932, on the authority of Cardinali, gives another form in which feri is used:—ROMA FERI, which he explains—“O dea Roma, feri hostem!” The reading of this inscription is doubtful: the first-letter seems to be P not R, and the final A resembles an imperfect P. As the two words are on different sides of the glans, it might appear uncertain with which we should begin. There can be little doubt, however, that feri is the commencement, as in another similar inscription, FERI PIC, i. e. feri Picentes. This consideration should lead us to prefer, with Mommsen, either Pomp[eium], scil. the general in command of the Romans in Picenum, or Roma[nos]. ΔΕΞΑΙ, “take this,” was imitated by the Latin accipe. This latter word appears on a bullet, exhibited by the Count d’Albanie, at a meeting of the Archæological Institute, in 1863. It is in reversed letters, and has but one C. The cause of the inversion in this and in other similar examples, is that the letters as cut in the mould were not inverted, as they should have been, in order that the impression might be read in the usual direction.

It is worthy of remark, that the bullet, exhibited by the Count, was “stated to have been found amongst the scoria of an extensive ancient lead-working in the kingdom of Granada. It is believed that the mine was worked by the Romans and also by the Celtiberians, and the scoria are still smelted in order to extract portions of silver.”

The letters ΦΑΙΝΕ appear on the bullet presented by Mr. Hawkins to the Society of Antiquaries of London, and described by him in the article in the Archæologia, that I have mentioned in p. 1. In that paper he gives the following account of the inscription: