The two painted vases reproduced on Pl. LXII. are part of a collection of antiquities found in some twenty tombs, which were excavated in 1879 in the island of Lipara, not far from the present town of that name. The precise locality is known as the Contrada Diana and is the property of Signor Scolarici. A road leading to it is called the Via Diana, and this name seems to have originated in the ruins of three small shrines which popular opinion has attributed to that goddess. The presence of these shrines in close proximity to the tombs has led to the conviction that this particular spot was the ancient cemetery of Lipara.

The history of Lipara is briefly this. Known originally as the island Meligounis, but having no population, probably owing to its volcanic nature, it was first taken possession of by settlers from the adjoining coast of Italy, then under the legendary rule of Auson, and named after him Ausonia. The descendants of Auson continued to govern the newly-acquired island until about 580 B.C., when a colony of Rhodians and Knidians made its appearance. These colonists had started from their homes for Sicily, and had there with much disaster to themselves taken part in the war raging between the towns of Selinus and Egesta.