VIII. THE DUCAL PALACE 413

side, the one set diagonally across the angle; or the eighth in our usual mode of reading the capitals, from which I shall not depart.

§ 108. The first side, then, or that towards the Sea, has Aquarius, as the house of Saturn, represented as a seated figure beautifully draped, pouring a stream of water out of an amphora over the leaves of the capital. His inscription is:

“ET SATURNE DOMUS (ECLOCERUNT?)I^S 7BRE.”¹

§ 109. Second side. Jupiter, in his houses Sagittarius and Pisces, represented throned, with an upper dress disposed in radiating folds about his neck, and hanging down upon his breast, ornamented by small pendent trefoiled studs or bosses. He wears the drooping bonnet and long gloves; but the folds about the neck, shot forth to express the rays of the star, are the most remarkable characteristic of the figure. He raises his sceptre in his left hand over Sagittarius, represented as the centaur Chiron; and holds two thunnies in his right. Something rough, like a third fish, has been broken away below them; the more easily because this part of the group is entirely undercut, and the two fish glitter in the light, relieved on the deep gloom below the leaves. The inscription is:

“INDE JOVI’ * DONA PISES SIMUL ATQ^S CIRONA.”

Or,

“Inde Jovis dona

Pisces simul atque Chirona.”

Domus is, I suppose, to be understood before Jovis: “Then the house of Jupiter gives (or governs?) the fishes and Chiron.”

* The comma in these inscriptions stands for a small cuneiform mark, I believe of contraction, and the small ^s for a zigzag mark of the same kind. The dots or periods are similarly marked on the stone.

¹ [The 4th and later editions (but not the “Travellers’ Edition”) contain (in the appendix) the following note:-

“Another correspondent suggests ‘ÆGLOCERUNTIS & URNÆ;’ ‘of the Bright-horned (Capricorn) and of the Urn (Aquarius);’ the mark like ‘7’ here, as at p. 354, line 33, standing for ‘&’ [now § 115, line 9].

“Next page, last line [now § 113, last line], the same reads ‘Occupat Erigonem Stilbons Geminumque Laconem;’ ‘Mercury (called “Stilbõn” by Hyginus) holds the Virgin (Erigone) and Spartan Twins.”’]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]