Those parts of Roman streets called _Septæ_, where antiquaries and bric-à-brac dealers had their dens, were the amateur’s fool’s paradise and trap, and very likely they were as inviting and picturesque as similar places in modern European towns to-day. These shops and shows, it is said, offered real rarities at times, such as bronzes of Ægina by Myron, Delos bronzes by Polycletus, genuine rarities in Corinthian bronze, marvels in chiselling signed by Boethus or Mys. The _septæ_ not only exhibited artistic pieces but also sham rarities that had won public appreciation in a moment of fashion. Among these was a certain kind of candelabra shaped like a tree with one or more branches. Concerning these candelabras which were almost made to supplant the more artistic ones by a fad, Pliny remarks, “_Arborum mala ferentium modo lucentes_” (like trees bearing shining apples), and states with caustic humour that although their name bore a common etymology with the word _candela_ (candle), a cheap means of lighting, they were sold at prices equivalent to the yearly appointment of a military tribune (Plin., XXXIV, 8). Speaking of candelabras, it may be stated that the finest ever seen in Rome belonged to Verres, being part of the vast plunder of Sicily he accumulated when stationed there by Rome as proconsul. This fact prompted the sarcastic remark in Cicero’s indictment of the proconsul, that Verres had in his _triclinium_ a candelabra casting light where darkness would have been more appropriate. This rich candelabra must have been of a statuesque style, the kind Lucretius describes:-- Si non aurea sunt juvenum simulacra per ædes Lampadas igniferas manibus retinentia dextris (II, 24). (Figures of youths holding lighted lamps in their right hands.) Naturally it was not only a single speciality, valued through fashion or fad, that was to be found on the market, it was a regular emporium of antiquities in art, and of all kinds of bric-à-brac. Besides murrhines, tables of citrus and other specialities there were paintings of all schools and sizes, down to miniatures, an art not unknown to the Romans. There were also sculpture, ceramics, fine pieces of Rhegium and Cumæ, Maltese tapestries, Oriental embroideries, etc. In fact, mixed with a good deal that was dubious, these places also offered fine treasures, as Martial says:-- Hic ubi Roma suas aurea vexit opes. (Here where golden Rome brought her treasure.)