"Still, though the Romans had not advanced so far in art as to apply glass chimneys and hollow circular wicks to their lamps, they had experienced the inconvenience of going home at night through a city poorly paved, watched and lighted, and accordingly soon invented lanterns to meet the want. These, we learn from Martial, who has several epigrams upon this subject, were made of horn or bladder: no mention, we believe, occurs of glass being thus employed. The rich were preceded by a slave bearing their lantern. This Cicero mentions as being the habit of Catiline upon his midnight expeditions; and when M. Antony was accused of a disgraceful intrigue, his lantern-bearer was tortured to extort a confession whither he had conducted his master. One of these machines, of considerable ingenuity and beauty of workmanship, was found in Herculaneum, and another almost exactly the same, at Pompeii a few years after. In form it is cylindrical, with a hemispherical top, and it is made of sheet-copper, except the two main pieces, which are cast. The bottom consists of a flat, circular copper plate, supported by three balls, and turned up all around the rim, from which rise the rectangular supports, which support the upper part of the frame. The top and bottom were further connected by the interior uprights, between which the laminæ of horn or glass were placed, and secured at the top and bottom by the doublings of the copper. Horn was the most common substance used to transmit the light, but bladder and other membranes were also employed. In the centre of the lantern is seen the small lamp. The cover is hemispherical, and lifts up and down: it is pierced with holes for the admission of air, and has besides the characters NBVRTI-CATIS pricked upon it. These have been interpreted, Tiburti Cati Sum, or Tiburti Cati S. (ervus), indicating, the one that it belonged to Catus, or that it was to be carried by his slave."
[Illustration: CANDELABRUM, OR LAMP STAND.]
One of the most elegant articles of furniture in ancient use was the candelabrum, by which we mean those tall and slender stands which served to support a lamp, but were independent of, and unconnected with, it. These, in their original and simple form, were mere reeds or straight sticks, fixed upon a foot by peasants to raise their light to a convenient height; at least such a theory of their origin is agreeable to what we are told of the rustic manners of the early Romans, and it is in some degree countenanced by the fashion in which many of the ancient candelabra are made. Sometimes the stem is represented as throwing out buds; sometimes it is a stick, the side branches of which have been roughly lopped, leaving projections where they grew; sometimes it is in the likeness of a reed or cane, the stalk being divided into joints. Most of those which have been found in the buried cities are of bronze, some few of iron. In their general plan and appearance there is a great resemblance, though the details of the ornaments admit of infinite variety. All stand on three feet, usually griffins' or lions' claws, which support a light shaft, plain or fluted according to the fancy of the maker. The whole supports either a plinth large enough for a lamp to stand on, or a socket to receive a wax candle, which the Romans used sometimes instead of oil in lighting their rooms. Some of them have a sliding shaft, like that of a music stand, by which the light might be raised or lowered at pleasure.