More frequently the figures had reference to the trade or occupation of the deceased, as in the following epitaph, probably of a wool-comber, found by Dr. Maitland built into the wall of the Piazzo di Spagna, in Rome. Many important funeral tablets, both Christian and pagan, have been thus employed for the commonest purposes. The objects 231 in the engraving are probably the shears, comb, ladle, and an unknown instrument used for cleansing wool. [Illustration: “To Veneria, in peace.” Fig. 36.--Wool-Comber’s Implements.] The following, from the Lapidarian Gallery, indicates the trade of a carpenter. The saw and adz are very like those now employed: BAVTO ET MAXIMA SE VIVI FECERVNT. [Illustration: [Transcriber’s Note: carpenter’s tools] “To Bautus and Maxima. They made this during their lifetime.” Fig. 37.--Carpenter’s Tools.] On another slab is a figure, probably of a vine-dresser, in a short 232 Roman tunic, standing near a wine cask, the symbol of his occupation. He appears to be starting to the field with his mattock on his shoulder, and in his hand is a wallet containing, perhaps, the provision for the day. GAVDENTIO FECERVM FRATRI QVI VICSIC ANNIS XXVIII · M · VIII · D · XVII [Illustration: “To Gaudentius. His brothers made this. He lived twenty-eight years, eight months, seventeen days.” Fig. 38.--A Vine-Dresser’s Tomb.] In the Catacomb of St. Agnes is a fresco of husbandmen carrying a wine butt on their shoulders, the meaning of which is probably the same. Mr. Hemans rather fantastically interprets this symbol as implying concord, or the union of the faithful bound together by sacred ties, as the staves of the cask are by its hoops.[362] Maitland translates it as standing for a proper name. We have seen examples representing fossors at work,[363] and Fabretti figures the slab of a sculptor, exhibiting the manufacture of sarcophagi. Other examples occur, in which the fuller’s tomb is indicated by mallets, the shoemaker’s by 233 shoes or lasts, the baker’s by loaves, the wood-feller’s by an axe, the grocer’s by scales, and the like, although the meaning of some of these figures is questioned. Didron, however, presses this interpretation of these symbols much too far, making the dove, fish, anchor, and sheep, only the emblems of the occupation of the fowler, fisherman, sailor, and shepherd, respectively, thus doing violence to the acknowledged canons of epigraphic criticism to be presently indicated.[364]