Reading.—Another terracotta group of about the third century B.C. (No. 602, fig. 236, right) shows a kindly old schoolmaster seated and teaching a boy who stands by his side to read from a roll. The ancient book differed from our own in taking the form of a roll. The reader would first unroll the beginning, and then, as he went on, roll up the part he had finished, making thus a double roll, as it were, of the part read and the part unread. See the tablet in Case 56 of the child Avita, reading her scrolls, with her dog in attendance (No. 603).

A simple Greek alphabet is inscribed on marble (No. 604)  . . . δε . . θικλμνξοπρστυφχψ. A fragment of a syllabic reading or spelling exercise is shown on a piece of pottery (No. 605; fig. 237). Each letter of the alphabet is combined with each vowel in turn, as ρα ρε ρη ρ[ι ρο ρυ ρω] σα σε ση σι σ[ο συ σω]  and so on. In the case of ρη the syllable was miswritten ρε and corrected. A school-boy's wax tablet (No. 606; fig. 238) shows on its right half how syllables constitute words as θε ων for θεῶν. A large wooden board with an iron handle (No. 607) is inscribed with lines of Homer (Iliad i., 468 ff.), no doubt for use in school. A fragment of an 'Iliac table,' (No. 608) with a scene from the Iliad (Achilles dragging the body of Hector round Troy, and Achilles conversing with Athena) was probably also intended for teaching purposes.

Arithmetic.—The left side of the tablet (No. 606; fig. 238) gives a multiplication table, from α´ α´ α´, once one is one, to γ´ ι´ λ´, thrice ten is thirty. The Greek numerals follow the alphabet to ι´ = 10, followed by κ´ = 20, λ´ = 30, and so on. Six is represented by the sign ϛ´ (Ϝ´), which occupies the place of F in the Latin alphabet, and stands for the old digamma or vau.

Writing.—The wax-coated tablet which contains the foregoing table was the usual appliance for writing. A writing lesson is shown in the terracotta group (No. 602, fig. 236, left). The instrument employed was a pointed implement, called by the Romans a stilus. An example in ivory, here figured (No. 609; fig. 239), was found in a tomb of the fifth century B.C. at Eretria in Euboea. The broad flat end was used for erasures, so that we find the Romans using the phrase vertere stilum, "to turn the pen" in the sense of "to erase." Numerous stili in bronze are shown in the Case, and some are illustrated in fig. 240. The fifth example from the top in the illustration is in silver bound with gold wire, probably from France and of late Roman date. These tablets were not as a rule used singly, but strung together, so that the waxen surface was protected when the two or more leaves were closed. The present tablet was composed of two leaves, one of which is in the Department of Manuscripts with a writing exercise upon it. The arrangement of several tablets in a fashion anticipating the form of the modern book is well shown in the relief of the pork butcher (Case 41).

For documents of a more permanent character paper was made from the papyrus plant, whence it takes its name. It was manufactured chiefly at Alexandria from the time of the foundation of that town in the fourth century B.C., and pen and ink were used to write on it. A specimen of Greek writing on papyrus is seen in the Case (No. 610). It is a letter of the first century after Christ, asking that a supply of drugs of good quality—"none of your rotten stuff that won't pass muster in Alexandria"—should be sent to the writer, Prokleios. Later on, parchment, prepared from the skins of animals, and made principally at Pergamon, in Asia Minor, began to rival papyrus as writing-material. Specimens of ancient reed and bronze pens (No. 611) are given in the illustration above (fig. 240), and a series of ancient inkpots is here figured (No. 612; fig. 241). The pens, whose split nibs have a curiously modern appearance, are all of Roman date. The reed pens come from Behnesa, in Egypt, and one of the bronze pens was found in the Tiber at Rome. The inkpots are also of Roman date. The middle one of the lower row has its hinged cover still remaining, with the inlaid vine-spray in silver round the rim. The one to the right of it is in blue faïence, and was found in Egypt.

Writing was sometimes put directly upon wood. Such is the case with the fragment of board from Egypt mentioned above. The lawyer's tablet (No. 612*), of about the fifth century A.D., which deals with loans, etc., has the surface specially whitened for the writing and a space for keeping the pen. Parts of the two outer leaves, which contained between them eight inner leaves, are shown in the Case.

(604) B.M. Inscr., 323; (605) Journ. Hell. Stud., XXVIII. (1908), p. 123; cf. Dumont, Inscriptions céramiques, p. 405 (5); (608) Cat. of Sculpt., III., 2192; (610) B.M. Papyri, ccclvi.

On Greek education generally, see Freeman, Schools of Hellas, and the select bibliography there given. For ancient books, cf. E. M. Thompson, Handbook of Greek and Latin Palaeography. For relics of Graeco-Egyptian school-life, see Journ. Hell. Stud., loc. cit.

Painting.—Adjoining the objects connected with writing, are illustrations of the art of painting in Roman times. They include a series of ancient colours, pestles and mortars, some paintings on wood, one, painted by the encaustic process, enclosed in its ancient wooden frame. The colours, as may be seen, were kept in a dry condition, and had to be pounded with pestle and mortar before they were mixed for the use of the artist. A good number of ancient colours are shown here, the blue (silicate of copper) being particularly prominent. The six saucers (No. 613), found together in a tomb of the Roman period at Hawara, Egypt, contain water-colour paints. These are dark red (oxide of iron), yellow (ochre, oxide of iron), white (sulphate of lime), pink (organic colour, probably madder, in sulphate of lime), blue (glass coloured by copper), red (oxide of lead). The saucers were found piled by the side of the owner's body. Pestles and mortars for pounding the colours are shown in the Case. A favourite form of pestle is that which resembles a bent leg or thumb, such as the one from Rhodes (No. 614), inscribed with what is probably the owner's name. Near it is the terracotta figure of a dwarf (No. 615), seated (apparently in a violent passion) before a pestle and mortar. We may imagine that he is a slave set to mix his master's colours.

The methods of painting illustrated here are two, viz., painting on a dry ground in water-colours, and what is known as "encaustic" painting. For the first, water-colours were used, and the ground material was generally a thin piece of wood, whitened to receive the colours. Egypt has furnished many examples of this kind of painting. Among them is the portrait of a woman from the Fayum, wearing a fillet (No. 616). This no doubt comes from a mummy of the Roman period, such as the one exhibited in Case 72 next the entrance to the Gold Room Corridor, which has a similar painted portrait (in encaustic, however) placed over the face. Other water-colour paintings of Roman date from Egypt are shown in Case J, such as the figures of Fortune and Venus painted in several colours on a red ground (No. 617), and the fragmentary figure (No. 618), wearing a jewel of gold and pearls, and inscribed with the name of Sarapis (ϹΑΡΑΠΙ). The encaustic process was that employed in the case of the framed portrait (No. 619), found at Hawara in Egypt. The frame is carefully made, the sides being joined by tenons and mortises. There is a groove for a glass covering, and the cord by which it was suspended still remains. The portrait was painted in wax, by a process which can hardly have been other than that called "encaustic" by Pliny.⁸⁰ The nature of this process has been much disputed, but probably the colours were ground in with the wax, which was fused by the heat of the sun or artificial means, and then laid on by the brush. A stump (cestrum) was also sometimes employed. Probably a box divided into compartments was used for holding these wax-colours in their fluid state. Such a receptacle may perhaps be recognised in the long terracotta vessel, which has a groove in the middle for a brush (No. 620).

(613) Petrie, Hawara, p. 11; (619) ibid., p. 10.

80: Plin. H.N. xxxv. 122, 149.