and the statua of Hercules, made in the reign of Tarquinius Priscus, was extant in Pliny’s days. And such as declined burning or funeral urns, affected coffins of clay, according to the mode of Pythagoras, a way preferred by Varro. But the spirit of great ones was above these circumscriptions, affecting copper, silver, gold, and porphyry urns, wherein Severus lay, after a serious view and sentence on that which should contain him.[AT] Some of these urns were thought to have been silvered over, from sparklings in several pots, with small tinsel parcels; uncertain whether from the earth, or the first mixture in them. [AQ] St Matt. xxiii. [AR] _Euripides._ [AS] Psal. lxiii. [AT] “Χωρήσεις τὸν ἄνθρωπον, ὂν ἡ οἰκουμένη οὐκ ἐχώρησεν.”--_Dion._ Among these urns we could obtain no good account of their coverings; only one seemed arched over with some kind of brickwork. Of those found at Buxton, some were covered with flints, some, in other parts, with tiles; those at Yarmouth Caster were closed with Roman bricks, and some have proper earthen covers adapted and fitted to them. But in the Homerical urn of Patroclus, whatever was the solid tegument, we find the immediate covering to be a purple piece of silk: and such as had no covers might have the earth closely pressed into them, after which disposure were probably some of these, wherein we found the bones and ashes half mortared unto the sand and sides of the urn, and some long roots of quich, or dog’s-grass, wreathed about the bones. No Lamps, included liquors, lacrymatories, or tear bottles, attended these rural urns, either as sacred unto the _manes_, or passionate expressions of their surviving friends. While with rich flames, and hired tears, they solemnized their obsequies, and in the most lamented monuments made one part of their inscriptions.[AU] Some find sepulchral vessels containing liquors, which time hath incrassated into jellies. For, besides these lacrymatories, notable lamps, with vessels of oils, and aromatical liquors, attended noble ossuaries; and some yet retaining a vinosity and spirit in them, which, if any have tasted, they have far exceeded the palates of antiquity. Liquors not to be computed by years of annual magistrates, but by great conjunctions and the fatal periods of kingdoms.[AV] The draughts of consulary date were but crude unto these, and Opimian wine but in the must unto them.[AW] [AU] “Cum lacrymis posuere.” [AV] About five hundred years. [AW] “Vinum Opiminianum annorum centum.”--_Petron._