School of Design since 1921 has never, to this time, been the subject of a thorough investigation.' Yet the close resemblance of its design to two other second century Roman sarcophagi, which have been published frequently, makes it of great interest to those who wish to discover how workshop patterns were used and varied at that time. The literary inspiration for the group of Niobid sarcophagi discussed in this paper is the story of Niobe in a version resembling that of Ovid.2 The story of the destruction of the children of Niobe was familiar to the ancient Greeks as well as to the Romans: in the time of Homer Niobe had al-