THERE was once a period, when no portion of classic lore was more zealously cultivated than the study of Antiquities, by which is meant everything appertaining to the political institutions, worship, and houses, of the ancients. Though the two former of these are the most important, in an historical point of view, yet objects of domestic antiquity excited still greater attention; and as it was evident that on the understanding of them depended the correct interpretation of ancient authors, the smallest minutiæ were deemed worthy of investigation.

The greatest philologists of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, such men as Lipsius, Casaubonus, and Salmasius, took great delight in this particular branch of archæology. The last-mentioned scholar has, in his Exercitt. ad Solinum, in the notes to the Scriptt. Hist. Augustœ, and Tertullian De Pallio, as well as elsewhere, displayed his usual acumen and erudition. And although more recent discoveries have often set him right in the explanation of manners and customs, still his must always be considered as a rich compilation of most judiciously chosen materials.

It however soon became apparent that written accounts were frequently insufficient; and, as monuments were gradually brought to light from amidst the rubbish that hid them, their importance grew more and more manifest.