As is naturally the case with copies of noble designs executed at a period of extreme decadence these paintings are very unequal in style, combining feebleness of touch and coarseness of detail with great spirit in the action of the figures and great dignity in the compositions, which have numerous figures crowded without confusion of line, thus suggesting large scale though the paintings are actually miniatures only five or six inches long. The treatment of gods and heroes, especially Zeus, Apollo, Achilles and others, has much that recalls fine Hellenic models. And some of the personifications, such as _Night_ and the river _Scamander_, possess a gracefulness of pose and beauty of form which was far beyond the conception of any fourth century artist. It should, however, be observed that a fine Hellenic origin is not suggested by all the fifty-eight pictures from this _Iliad_. Some of them are obviously of later and inferior style, with weak scattered compositions, very unlike the nobility and decorative completeness of the best among the miniatures. _Scheme of colour._ With regard to the arrangement of these pictures, each is surrounded by a simple frame formed of bands of blue and red; in most cases the miniatures reach across the whole width of the page. The colouring is heavy, painted in opaque _tempera_ pigments with an undue preponderance of _minium_ or red lead. White lead, yellow, brown and red ochres are largely used, together with a variety of vegetable colours and the purple-red of the _kermes_ beetle (_coccus_), but no gold is used, a bright yellow ochre being employed as a substitute[22]. The costumes are partly ancient Greek and partly of later Roman fashion. A nimbus encircles each deity's head, and different colours are used to distinguish them. The nimbus of Zeus is purple, that of Venus is green; those of the other gods are mostly blue. To a large extent the backgrounds of the pictures are not painted, but the creamy white of the vellum is left exposed[23]. _The Vatican Virgil._ _The Virgil of the Vatican_; next in importance to the Ambrosian _Iliad_, among the existing examples of classical illuminated manuscripts, comes the manuscript of Virgil's poems (_Vat._ No. 3225) which is supposed to have been written in the third or more probably the fourth century A.D. The text is written in large handsome capitals, well formed except that all the cross lines are too short, T, for example being written thus [Symbol: T with short curled arms]. The whole manuscript, but especially the _Aeneid_, is decorated with pictures, fifty in all, each framed by a simple border of coloured bands. The style of these miniatures is very different and artistically very inferior to that of the Ambrosian _Iliad_. _Miniatures of the 5th century._