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Show ; A the World HemarKable Status Xrearthec. Some remarkable browse statues have just been acquired by tie National Na-tional Museum of Heme. By mere chance they were unearthed some time ago in a field near Cagli, and were at once purchased pur-chased by a local society. In old days Cagii was known as Callis, and near the spot where the statues were found was fought the o'reat battle in which Totila was iefcated by Norses. Several high mounds of earth are also near the 1""t attuiumg to uiueis, Litry aie the last resting place of Carthaginians who had fallen in battle. That the statues are of great antiquity antiq-uity there are many indications, the general opinion of archaeologists being be-ing that they were fashioned during the fifth century before Christ. They are all bronze, and conspicuous among them are some which portray Mars in superb fashion. ' One of the most interesting of the statues represents a young gymnast balancing himself, and it is a striking proof of the importance which was attached at-tached to such feats in the days of old Rome. As a work of art also this statue deserves to be placed in the first rank. As soon as it became known that these bronzes had been discovered several sev-eral European and American collectors offered large sums for them, but the owners declined to dispose of them to any foreigner, and finally sold them through the Minister of Public Instruction Instruc-tion to the Museum in Rome for the nominal sum of ?3,G00. That' this was really a nominal sum may be seen from the fact tnat more than one foreign for-eign collector offered a similar sum for a single statue of Mars. |