Note 28: — V.—RELIGION AND SUPERSTITION. (Wall-Cases 98-106.)

There are several small bronze tablets in Case 105 with dedicatory or religious inscriptions. Among them may be mentioned No. 138, offered to Juno by a freedman named Q. Valerius Minander, and No. 139, an oval bronze seal with a design representing the Emperor Philip (244-9 A.D.; mentioned above, p. 10, in connection with the bronze diploma), his wife Otacilia, and their son Philip. The inscription shows that the seal belonged to the religious society of the Breisean Mystae, who apparently sealed on behalf of the city of Smyrna, where was a synod of the Mystae of the Breisean Dionysos. No. 140 is the result of a vow made by Hedone, the maid-servant of M. Crassus, to Feronia, a goddess closely connected with freedmen and freedwomen.28 Her temple at Terracina, on the west coast of Italy, was specially associated with the manumission of slaves. It is likely, therefore, that Hedone's vow had something to do with her manumission. Dedications were made for safe journeys by land or by sea. In No. 141, dedicated by P. Blattius Creticus to Jupiter Poeninus, whose sanctuary was at the summit of the Great St. Bernard Pass, we have one of a number of offerings by travellers encountering the dangers of the Alps. In No. 142 we have a votive offering in the shape of a bronze plate, made to the Lares or gods of the house by Q. Carminius Optatus. The Lares are represented in art as youthful male figures, holding a cornucopia or horn of plenty, and a plate (patera) [see Case 52 of the Bronze Room, and No. 143]. The offering of a plate was peculiarly appropriate, for with the Penates these gods were supposed to ensure the food-supply of the family.