A considerable number of the Roman tiles are inscribed with the names

of the consuls of the current year in which they were made, presenting

a long and interesting series, from the consulship of L. Licinius Sura

and C. Sosius Senecio (A.D. 107) to that of Severus Alexander (A.D.

222). Many of these consulships do not, however, appear to have been

recorded in the regular _fasti consulares_ or official lists, and they

were probably _suffecti_, whose names were not recorded after their

temporary elevation. It seems likely that the occurrence of consuls’

names implies that such tiles were destined for public buildings, and

were so marked to prevent their being stolen with impunity. They are

fewer in number than those which have merely the names of _praedia_ or

potteries, but are yet sufficiently numerous to be an invaluable aid in

tracing the succession for upwards of sixty years. Inscriptions of this

class are only found on _opus doliare_, and chiefly in Italy. Their

appearance is probably due to some law passed by the Senate about the

reign of Trajan to regulate the potteries. As an example may be given a

tile from Hooldorn in the Netherlands, inscribed SVB · DIDIO · IVLIANO

· COSS[2543]; the date is A.D. 179, the name being that of the future

emperor (COSS is a mistake for COS).

The following examples are taken from Dr. Dressel’s scheme of the

chronological order of the stamps,[2544] and show the style of

inscription characteristic of the different periods:

I. First century after Christ.

1. (_a_) With name of master only (either of _praedia_ or

_figlinae_):

_Asini Pollionis._

(_b_) With name of _officinator_ or potter:

_C. Cosconi._

2. (_a_) Master and potter (often a slave):

_Felicis Domiti Afri._

(_b_) Master and _conductor_ (lessee of the pottery), or potter:

_Tegula C. Cosconi, figuli Asini Pollionis._

3. (_a_) Master, potter, and name of pottery:

_Amoeni duorum Domitiorum Lucani et Tulli, ex figlinis

Caninianis._

(_b_) Master, lessee or potter, name of pottery:

_T. Grei Ianuari ex figlinis Caninianis duorum Domitiorum._

II. Second century to third century.

1. (_a_) _Ex praedis L. Memmi Rufi._

(_b_) _Opus doliare L. Bruttidi Augustalis._

_L. Lurius Martialis fecit._

2. (_a_) _Ex figlinis_ (vel _praedis_) _Domitiae Lucillae, opus

doliare Terti Domitiae Lucillae_ (vel _ab Tertio servo_).

(_b_) _C. Comini Proculi ex praedis Domitiae Lucillae._

_Ex figlinis Q. Asini Marcelli doliare opus fecit C. Nunnidius

Fortunatus._

_Opus doliare ex praedis domini n(ostri) ex conductione

Publiciaes Quintinae._

3. (_a_) _Ex figlinis_ (vel _praedis_) _Caepionianis Plotiae

Isauricae, fornace Peculiaris servi._

(_b_) _Opus doliare ex praedis duorum Augustorum nostrorum,

figlinis Domitianis minoribus, Fulvi Primitivi._

During the greater part of the third century chronological indications

are absent, but about the time of Diocletian the practice of signatures

is revived. The inscriptions, however, differ now from the earlier

ones, not only in the forms of the letters and of the stamp, but also

in style; they are less regular in form, and present several

peculiarities. The expressions _opus doliare_ and _ex figlinis_ are now

no longer found, and in place of the latter _officina_ is invariable.

Many of the _officinae_ are the same as in the former period, but new

ones, such as the Britannica, Claudia, Gemella, and Jobia, occur, the

latter with the _cognomen_ Diocletiana. _Officina_ is sometimes used

twice over, for the pottery and for the workshop. In place of _praedia_

we have such expressions as _statio_, _rationes_, or _possessiones_.

Formulae are introduced in an abbreviated form which give the method of

administration or character of the estates: as R · S · P, _ratio summae

patrimonii or privatae_; S · P · C, _stationis patrimonii Caesaris_; S

· R for _summae rei or stationis Romanae_; S · P for _summae privatae_

or _stationis patrimonii_; S · R · F for _sacrae rationis fisci_; or

simply S for _stationis_ or _summarum_.[2545] Apparently several

_stationes_ might be united in one _officina_, or several _officinae_

in one _administratio_; the number of the _statio_ is given in some

instances. The name of the _statio_ may be replaced by that of the

potter; or merely the _administratio_ is given, as OFF · PRIVATA.

Besides the names of master, lessee, and potter, that of the

_negotiator_ is sometimes mentioned. We also find the _portus_ or depôt

in which the _tegulae_ were stored for distribution, as PORTU

LICINI,[2546] or the name of the building for which they were destined,

as PORTVS AVGVSTI,[2547] CASTRIS PRAETORI(_s_) AVG(_usti_) N(_ostri_),

HORREIS POSTVMIANIS.[2548] Some tiles dug up in Lambeth Hill, London,

on the site of the Post Office, now in the British and Guildhall

Museums,[2549] were impressed with the letters P · P · BR · LON or PR ·

BR · LON (Fig. 196), which have been interpreted as _publicani

provinciae Britanniae Londinienses_.[2550]

[Illustration: FIG. 196. INSCRIBED TILE FROM LONDON.]

Tiles made for military purposes are exceedingly common in the later

period, and the stamps probably had a double use. In the first place,

they show that they were made by the soldiers, from which we learn that

in the legions, as in a modern army, there were many men acquainted

with handicrafts. Secondly, they prevented theft or removal of the

tiles, and served as a “broad arrow” to denote public property. They

are not, of course, found in Rome, where there was no necessity for the

legions to make bricks or tiles; here the camp seems to have been

supplied by private individuals.

Of special interest are the inscriptions stamped on tiles which relate

to the military divisions stationed throughout the provinces of the

vast empire. These are found in soldiers’ graves (see above, p. 351),

as well as in their camps and quarters; they contain the names and

titles of the legions, and mark the extent of Roman conquest. Thus the

route of the thirty legions through Germany has been traced; and in

Britain an examination and comparison of such tiles shows the

distribution of military force and the migrations of different legions

from one quarter to another. The stamps are in the form of long labels

(_tesserae_), circles, or crescents, occasionally surrounded by a

wreath, or else in the shape of a foot, an ivy-leaf, or a vase; the

letters are in relief, sharply impressed, as if from a metal die. The

names and titles of the legions are given either in initials or in

contractions, as LEG · II · P(_arthicae_), and so on (see above, p.

351); sometimes the potter’s name is added, with FIGVLVS or FECIT.[2551]

The tiles of the first legion have been found at Mainz and Nimeguen;

those of the second, or Parthian, at Darmstadt, Ems, Hooldorn,

Caerleon, and the Lake of Nemi[2552]; of the third, in Scotland; of the

fourth, at Mainz; of the fifth, in Scotland, and at Baden, Cleves,

Xanten, and Nimeguen; of the sixth, at Nimeguen, Neuss,

Aix-la-Chapelle, Darmstadt, and Windisch; the seventh, at

Aix-la-Chapelle and Xanten; the eighth, at Mainz, Baden, and elsewhere;

the ninth, at Baden and York; the tenth, at Nimeguen, Hooldorn, Vienna,

and Jerusalem; the twentieth, at Chester[2553]; and so on down to the

thirtieth.[2554] At Bonn tiles have been found of the _Legio

Cisrhenana_ on the left bank of the Rhine, and of the _Legio

Transrhenana_ on the right bank. Cohorts have also left their names on

tiles: the second Asturian at Acsica on the Roman Wall[2555]; the

fourth (_Breucorum_), at Huddersfield[2556]; the fourth Vindelician, at

Frankfurt, Mainz, and Wiesbaden[2557]; the Ulpian Pannonian at

Buda-Pesth.[2558] The _vexillationes_, whose main body was at Nimeguen,

are similarly recorded; a British _vexillatio_ was attached to the army

at Hooldorn[2559] and Nismes, and another to that of Lower Germany, as

instanced by tiles inscribed VEX · EX · G · INF (_vexillatio exercitus

Germaniae inferioris_), found at Utrecht and Nimeguen in the

Netherlands, and at Xanten in Germany.[2560] Tiles of the British

fleet, CL(_assis_) BR(_itannica_), have been found at Boulogne, Lympne,

and Dover.[2561]

2. TERRACOTTA MURAL RELIEFS

Terracotta =mural decoration= was largely employed by the Romans for

the interior and exterior of their buildings, in the form of slabs,

ornamented with reliefs, which were placed round the impluvium or on

the walls. Sometimes they seem to have formed a sort of hanging

“curtain” round the lower edge of the cornice, as the open-work

patterns along the edges seem to imply, a method of decoration which we

have already met with at Civita Lavinia (Vol. I. p. 101), where also

the hanging slabs are bordered with patterns in outline or open-work.

But, as also at Civita Lavinia, these slabs seem to have been

frequently used as _antepagmenta_,[2562] being pierced with holes,

which imply that they were nailed against the walls. In the Casa dei

Cecilii at Tusculum there is evidence that they were used as

wall-friezes,[2563] and those found at Pompeii (where they are very

rare) also have holes for fastening to walls. It may be to the

first-named variety that Festus refers when he speaks of _antefixa_ of

fictile work which are affixed to the walls underneath the

gutters.[2564] There is also a reference to them in Cicero, who, in

writing to Atticus, says, “I entrust to you the bas-reliefs (_typos_)

which I shall insert in the cornice of my little atrium.”[2565]

The slabs are usually about 18 inches long by 9 or more high, and 1 to

2 inches thick; they have nearly all been found at Rome, but specimens

are also known from Civita Lavinia, Cervetri, Nemi, Pompeii, and Atri

in Picenum.[2566] The British Museum possesses a very fine series,

numbering, with fragments, one hundred and sixty, nearly all of which

were collected by Mr. Charles Towneley at Rome[2567]; and there is an

equally fine collection in the Louvre, which came from Signor Campana,

who devoted a large work to the illustration of them.[2568] Other good

examples, some of which were found in the Baths of Caracalla, are in

the various collections at Rome.[2569]

The reliefs were evidently cast in moulds, as many subjects are

repeated over and over again, or at least with only slight differences;

moreover, the relief is low, with sharp and definite outlines, such as

a mould would produce. Among the British Museum examples a group of

Eros, a Satyr, and a Maenad is repeated in three cases (D 520-522),

with no variations except in the colouring; another of Dionysos and

Satyr three times (D 528-530), with only one small variation. It is

evident that in the latter, as in some other cases, the relief had been

retouched before baking. Reliefs entirely modelled are of much rarer

occurrence, but exhibit considerable artistic feeling and freedom, as

in an instance in the British Museum (D 651), which represents the

sleeping Endymion; the hair is so fine and deeply cut that it could not

possibly have been produced from a mould. The moulds may have been made

of various materials—wood, stone, metal, or gypsum, as well as

terracotta. Circular holes are left in the slabs for the plugs—usually

of lead—by which they were attached to the woodwork or masonry. The

clay varies in quality and appearance, being often coarser than that of

Greek reliefs, and mixed with coarse sand in order to make it stronger

and more durable; in tone it varies from a pale buff to dark

reddish-brown. Traces of colouring are often found on the slabs,[2570]

and the background in some cases (as B.M. D 577, 623) was coloured a

bright blue; the figures, or more often details such as hair, etc.,

were usually painted red, yellow, purple, or white. These colours are

not fired, as in the earlier terracotta reliefs, but painted in

_tempera_, and their use is entirely conventional. The slabs are

ornamented above and below with bands or cornices in the form of

egg-and-tongue mouldings, or a system of palmettes and intersecting

arches; these are sometimes in low relief on a band, sometimes partly

in outline or open-work.

------------------------------------------------------

PLATE LXI

[Illustration:

ROMAN MURAL RELIEFS.

1. ZEUS AND THE CURETES; 2. DIONYSOS IN THE LIKNON-CRADLE (BRITISH

MUSEUM).

]

------------------------------------------------------

The figures are mostly in low relief, being usually grouped with large

flat surfaces between, in the manner of Hellenistic art; in some cases

the design is composed in such a way that the whole surface (except the

principal figures) is occupied by patterns of scroll-work or foliage,

more or less conventional. The compositions are either in the form of

narrow friezes, usually with rows of busts or figures of Cupids, or

square metope-like groups with two or three figures on a large scale.

For the narrower slabs the busts were preferred, owing to the scope

they gave for high relief, which better suited the distance from the

eye; but this rule is not invariable. The style is, in general, bold

and vigorous, and, though essentially architectural, not devoid of

dignity and beauty; but it is somewhat conventional, and at times even

archaistic.[2571] Those found at Pompeii are usually of remarkably good

style, especially the Nereid frieze,[2572] with its rich colouring.

These are earlier than the earthquake of A.D. 63, and probably belong

to the Augustan period, to which also the majority may be assigned. On

one or two names of potters are found, such as Annia Arescusa(na) and

M. Antonius Epaphras in the British Museum.[2573]

The subjects on these reliefs cover a very wide field, almost as wide

as those on the painted vases, and quite as wide as those on the Roman

lamps. In many cases they are doubtless copies of well-known works of

art, and may even go back to prototypes of the fifth century, as in the

case of a figure of a girl in the British Museum (D 648), or one of

Eros, conceived as a full-grown youth, in the Campana collection.[2574]

Others, again, present points of comparison with the Hellenistic

reliefs, as is the case with that representing the visit of Dionysos to

a mortal (B.M. D 531). Lastly, we find in the reliefs, as also on the

Arretine vases (below, p. 492), a series of types closely related to

the New Attic reliefs, in which it was sought to revive an older

style[2575]; among the types borrowed from these originals are Maenads

in frenzy or dancing in various attitudes,[2576] and the figures of the

four Seasons.[2577] Among those which reflect the character of their

time rather than the spirit of Greek art, we have representations of

Egyptian landscapes, or Egyptian deities and emblems; scenes from the

circus or gladiatorial arena; and quasi-historical subjects, such as

triumphs over barbarian enemies. Of mythological subjects, the most

popular are Dionysiac scenes or groups; next to these, Apollo,

Aphrodite, Eros, and Victory. Heroic legend is represented by the

labours of Theseus, Herakles, Perseus, and Jason, and occasional scenes

from the _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_. Lastly, there are a certain number

which are purely decorative, with a single figure of Eros or Victory

(treated in archaistic fashion), or an ideal head surrounded by

elaborate and graceful scrolls or acanthus foliage; others, again, have

conventional groups of two priestesses or canephori, with a candelabrum

or a foliated pattern between (Plate LXII.), a mask between two Cupids,

and so on. Even the figures in some cases tail off into conventional

patterns.[2578]

To mention a few of the more interesting subjects in detail, it may

suffice to quote examples from the two best-known collections—those of

the British Museum and Louvre. Beginning with the Olympian deities, we

have the infant Zeus in the cave on Mount Ida, protected by the

Curetes, who dance above him, wielding swords and shields (Plate LXI.);

in one instance he is in his nurse’s arms.[2579] On a narrow frieze the

busts of Zeus, Ares, Hera, and Athena are represented[2580]; Apollo

receives a libation from Victory,[2581] or a warrior consults his

oracle, indicated by a bird in a cage[2582]; Aphrodite is seen riding

on a sea-horse or on a goose.[2583] Eros or Cupid appears in various

attitudes and combinations of figures: flying, embracing Psyche, or

being embraced by a Satyr; accompanying Aphrodite, Triton, and the

Nereids; a pair on either side of a mask of Triton or Medusa; or a

group of three struggling under the weight of a heavy garland of fruit

and flowers.[2584] Busts or masks of Demeter,[2585] Zeus Ammon, and

Triton are also found; a group of Aphrodite and Peitho; and the three

Eleusinian deities, Demeter, Persephone, and Iacchos.[2586]

The Dionysiac scenes are very frequent, though often of little

interest, and mere groups without definite action. The best known is

the reception of Dionysos in the house of a mortal,[2587] a subject

formerly interpreted as his reception by Ikarios at Athens (cf. p.

139); this type is remarkable for its rich and elaborate composition,

probably derived from a Hellenistic original. A very effective

composition is that of a dancing Satyr and Maenad swinging the infant

Dionysos in a λίκνον (_vannus_) or winnowing-van, which serves as his

cradle (Plate LXII.).[2588] Among other scenes may be mentioned

Dionysos giving drink to a panther; two Satyrs standing on tiptoe to

peep into a laver; Satyrs gathering or pressing grapes (of which many

replicas exist), or working an oil-press; Ampelos (the personified

vine) between two Satyrs[2589]; Bacchic processions, sacrifices, or

ceremonies[2590]; and friezes of Bacchic masks and masks of Pan.[2591]

Among other deities Victory is by far the most common. She is usually

represented slaying a bull for sacrifice, a subject of which there are

two principal varieties, according as she turns to right or left. The

motive is a well-known one, and found in fifth- and fourth-century art,

from the balustrade of the Nike temple at Athens onwards.[2592] She is

also depicted flying with a wreath, or as a conventional archaistic

figure between tendrils and scrolls.[2593] Of the figures of the

Seasons we have already spoken; they are characterised by the

attributes they carry, as a kid for Spring, corn for Summer, fruit for

Autumn, and a hare and boar for Winter. Masks of Medusa, Sirens, and

Sphinxes (both male and female) are found in compositions of a

decorative character.

Of heroic legends, the rape of the Leukippidae by Castor and Pollux is

repeated more than once[2594]; Herakles is seen contending with the

Nemean lion, the hydra, and the Cretan bull, and with Apollo for the

Delphic tripod[2595]; Theseus raises the rock which discloses his

father’s weapons (Plate LXI.), contends with the Marathonian bull, or

overcomes a Centaur; Jason builds the Argo, superintended by Athena,

and, assisted by Medeia, obtains the golden fleece; Perseus rescues

Andromeda, and brings the Medusa’s head to Athena; Aktaeon is slain by

his hounds.[2596] The Homeric scenes include Paris carrying off Helen

from Sparta (or, as some interpret it, Pelops with Hippodameia); Nestor

healing the wounded Machaon with a potion[2597]; Priam bringing

offerings to Achilles; Penelope mourning for the absent Odysseus;

Odysseus recognised by Eurykleia; and Orestes on the Delphic

omphalos.[2598] There are also numerous semi-mythical scenes, such as

combats between Amazons and Gryphons, between Amazons and Greeks, or

between Arimaspi and Gryphons.[2599]

------------------------------------------------------

PLATE LXII

[Illustration: ROMAN MURAL RELIEFS.]

------------------------------------------------------

With the exception of the Roman subjects from the circus and arena, the

remaining subjects are purely decorative, and of little interest; the

former, some of which have reference to the conquest of Dacia, admit of

the dating of the reliefs in the reign of Trajan. Others depict

gladiators contending with lions; chariots racing in the circus, which

is indicated by the obelisks and other adornments of the _spina_; or

colonnades adorned with statues of boxers and victorious

athletes.[2600] Some of the Egyptian subjects are interesting for their

local colouring, with their representations of the Nile, on which

pygmies ply a boat, among hippopotami, crocodiles, and lotos-flowers,

and ibises[2601]; but these compositions are more curious than

artistically effective.

II. SCULPTURE

1. ROMAN STATUES AND STATUETTES

In the earlier ages of Rome the laws and institutions, based without

doubt on the sentiments of the people, were unfavourable to art. Numa

was said to have prohibited the representation of the deity in human

form,[2602] and the statues of great men were not allowed to exceed

three Roman feet. To women the privilege of having statues was not

conceded until much later. Pliny constantly compares the luxury of his

own day with the simplicity of early times, to the disadvantage of the

former, dwelling fondly on the times when men could be content with

plain terracotta images, and it was not necessary or possible to make a

display of silver and gold.

Most of the ancient statues of the Romans were of terracotta, a fact to

which constant allusion is made by their writers. Juvenal speaks of “a

fictile Jove, not spoiled by gold”[2603] and Propertius speaks of the

early days of the golden temples, when their gods were only of

clay.[2604] Similarly Pliny expresses his surprise that, since statuary

in Italy goes back to such a remote period, statues of clay should even

in his day still be preferred in the temples.[2605] Vitruvius alludes

to the favourite Tuscan fashion of ornamenting pediments with _signa

fictilia_,[2606] examples of which, he says, may be seen in the temple

of Ceres in the Circus Maximus (see below), and the temple of Hercules

at Pompeii. Cicero speaks of a statue of Summanus on the pediment of

the Capitoline temple “which at that time was of terracotta,”[2607] and

Livy[2608] tells how in 211 B.C. a figure of Victory on the apex of the

pediment of the temple of Concord was struck by lightning and fell, but

was caught on the antefixal ornaments, also figures of Victory, and

there stuck fast. Though not stated to be of terracotta, these figures

would hardly be of any other material at that period. Other allusions

may be found in Ovid and Seneca.[2609]

In the early days of the Republic art was clearly at a very low ebb—in

fact, Roman art can hardly be said to have existed—and everything was

either borrowed from the Etruscans or imported from Greece. Hence the

statues of terracotta which adorned their temples are spoken of as

_signa Tuscanica_. The most celebrated works in ancient Rome were made

by artists of Veii or the Volscian Fregellae, such as the famous

quadriga on the pediment of the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, and the

statue of the god himself, described elsewhere (p. 314), which were

made by Veientine artists in the time of Tarquinius Priscus. Numa, ever

attentive to Roman arts and institutions, is said to have founded a

corporation or guild of potters.[2610] In 493 B.C. Gorgasos and

Damophilos, natives of Himera in Sicily, ornamented with terracotta

reliefs and figures the temple of Ceres at Rome (now Santa Maria in

Cosmedin).[2611] Their work, which is alluded to by Vitruvius in the

passage referred to above, was probably Greek rather than Etruscan in

style, as we have seen to be the case generally with the archaic

terracotta relief-work of Italy (p. 317). In the reign of Augustus the

temple was restored, and so great was the esteem in which the works of

these old masters were held that they were taken out of the walls and

framed in wood.

Coming down to later times, Possis, “who made fruit and bunches of

grapes,” and Arkesilaos are cited by Pliny,[2612] on the authority of

Varro, as modellers in clay. The latter made for Julius Caesar a statue

of Venus, which, although unfinished, was highly prized. Pliny also

mentions a terracotta figure of _Felicitas_ made by order of

Lucullus.[2613] It seems probable that the extensive use of terracotta

was mainly due to the absence of white marble in Italy, none being

discovered till imperial times. The siege of Corinth, which unfolded to

the eyes of the Romans an entirely new school of art in the quantities

of Greek masterpieces carried by Mummius to Rome, as also the conquest

of Magna Graecia and other parts of Greece, caused the old fashion of

sculpture in terracotta to fall into contempt and neglect. Henceforth

the temples of the gods and houses of the nobility became enriched and

beautified with the spoils of Greek art in all materials. Even at an

earlier period (195 B.C.) Cato in vain protested against the invading

flood of luxury, and especially against the new taste in sculpture.

“Hateful, believe me,” says he, “are the statues brought from Syracuse

into this city. Already do I hear too many who praise and admire the

ornaments of Corinth and Athens, and deride the terracotta antefixes of

the Roman gods. For my part I prefer these propitious gods, and hope

they will continue to be so, if we allow them to remain in their

places.”[2614] Yet up to the close of the Republic, and even later,

great works continued to be executed in terracotta, and were much

esteemed.[2615] The statue made for Lucullus is an instance, and

existing statues in this material, which we shall shortly discuss, are

probably of early Imperial date.

Few statues of any size in this material have escaped the ravages of

time, but there are some specimens to be seen in our museums. In the

Vatican is a figure of Mercury about life-size,[2616] and in the

British Museum a colossal torso,[2617] to which the head and limbs had

been mortised separately. A head of a youth from a large statue, found

on the Esquiline, was exhibited in 1888 at the Burlington Fine Arts

Club.[2618] A series of female figures, including a seated Athena,

ranging from two to four feet in height, was found in a well near the

Porta Latina at Rome in 1767.[2619] They were purchased by the sculptor

Nollekens, who restored them and sold them to Mr. Towneley, from whom

they were acquired for the British Museum. They are made of the same

clay as the mural reliefs already described, and are supposed to have

decorated a garden. Some of them have been identified, on somewhat

slight authority, as the Muses Ourania, Calliope, and Thaleia; there

are also two terminal busts of the bearded Indian Bacchus, which show

some traces of conventional archaism in their style. Other large

figures have been found at Nemi and Ardea in Latium, the latter being

now in the Louvre.[2620]

At Pompeii in 1766 three pieces of colossal sculpture in terracotta

were found in the temple of Aesculapius, representing a male and female

deity and a bust of Minerva with her shield. The two former used to be

identified as Aesculapius and Hygieia, but it is more probable that

they are Jupiter and Juno, making, with the bust, the triad of

Capitoline deities,[2621] a subject found on lamps at Pompeii. The

execution is careful, and they seem to date from the latter half of the

first century B.C. They formed the cult-statues of the temple. Other

statues appear to have been employed for adorning gardens, or for

niches in private houses, among which are a portrait of a seated

physician of great originality,[2622] a nude boy, and two actors.[2623]

A figure of Eros appears to have been attached to a wall as an

ornament[2624]; a fragment of a colossal Minerva found in a niche near

the Porta Marina is an excellent example of sculpture of the first

century B.C. Figures were also employed as architectural members, such

as the Atlantes supporting the entablature in the _tepidarium_ of the

Thermae in the Forum,[2625] dating from the Augustan period; the former

seem to be copied from originals in tufa. Of later date is a Caryatid

figure, probably of the Neronian epoch.[2626] These sculptures are all

of great importance for the history of art at the end of the first

century B.C., and as showing the continued popularity of terracotta;

the fashion, however, did not outlive the reign of Nero, and all those

in Pompeii must be anterior to the earthquake of A.D. 63.

Sculptors sometimes made preliminary models in clay of the statues

which they intended to execute in bronze and marble. This was not a

common practice with the Greeks, and the first sculptor who made use of

it, according to Pliny,[2627] was Lysistratos, the brother of Lysippos.

But at Rome in the time of Augustus it became much more frequent;

Pasiteles is said by Pliny[2628] never to have made a statue except in

this manner. These models, known as _proplasmata_, were much sought

after, as exhibiting the artist’s style and powers of conception in the

most free and unfettered manner, and those of Arkesilaos, another

artist of the period, fetched a high price.[2629]

* * * * *

=Terracotta statuettes=, similar in proportions and subjects to those

of Greece, are found in houses and tombs of the Roman period, and also

as votive objects on sacred sites. They were known to the Romans as

_sigilla_, and were employed as toys and presents, or placed in the

_lararia_ or domestic shrines; the same subjects are found applied to

all these uses. Thus in the _lararia_ were placed not only figures of

deities, such as Venus, Mercury, or Bacchus, but masks, busts of

children, and so on.[2630] Sometimes they served to decorate the walls,

as in the house of Julia Felix at Pompeii, where in the wall

surrounding the garden were eighteen niches, containing alternately

marble terms and terracotta figures, one of the latter representing a

woman feeding a prisoner with her own milk.[2631] In the Via Holconia

forty-three terracotta figures from a workshop were found, showing that

there was a local manufacture at Pompeii; the types were the same as in

the houses.[2632] It is noteworthy that the terracottas, of which some

two hundred have been found, were nearly all from the lower parts of

the city and the inferior houses, or in the domestic quarters of the

large houses. This implies that the richer Romans preferred bronze

statuettes for their shrines and household decoration. Comparatively

few were found in tombs.

A few notices relating to terracotta figures are found in Roman

authors. Martial speaks of a statuette of Hercules, which he calls

_sigillum_[2633]; he also alludes to a caricature of a man which was so

repulsive that Prometheus could only have made it when intoxicated at

the Saturnalia, and to a grotesque mask of a Batavian.[2634] In another

epigram he refers to the imitation of a well-known statue of a boy in

terracotta.[2635] Persius speaks of clay dolls (_pupae_) dedicated by a

maiden to Venus,[2636] and Achilles Tatius of clay figures of Marsyas

made by _coroplathi_.[2637] Elagabalus, by way of a jest, used to place

viands made of earthenware before his parasitical guests, and force

them to enjoy a Barmecide feast.[2638]

There is also an interesting passage in the _Satires_ of Macrobius

relating to the festival of the Sigillaria,[2639] at which large

numbers of terracotta masks and figures were in demand. This festival

took place on the twelfth to the tenth days before the Kalends of

January, forming the fifth to seventh days of the Saturnalia, and

corresponding to the 21st to 23rd of December. Ausonius says that the

festival was so named from the _sigilla_ or figurines,[2640] and

Macrobius more explicitly states that it was added to the Saturnalia to

extend the religious festival and time of public relaxation.[2641]

Subsequently he diverges into an excursus on the origin of the feast,

more curious than convincing. Epicadus is quoted by him as referring it

to the story of Hercules on his return from slaying Geryon, when he

threw into the river from the Pons Sublicius images of men which

represented his lost travelling-companions, in order that they might be

carried by the sea to their native shores.[2642] His own view is that

they represent expiatory offerings (_piacula_) to Saturn, each man

offering an _oscillum_ or mask on his own behalf in the chapel of that

god. Hence, he says, _sigilla_ were made by the potter and put on sale

at the Saturnalia.[2643] Elsewhere he states that clay _oscilla_ were

given to children as playthings at this season even before they had

learned to walk.[2644] The festival was indulged in by all classes of

society, who vied in making presents of statuettes and figures to one

another[2645]; and we are told that Hadrian exchanged gifts with

others, and even sent them to those who did not expect to receive

them.[2646] Similarly, Caracalla, when a child, gave to his tutors and

clients, as a mark of condescension, those which he had received from

his parents.[2647]

[Illustration:

FIG. 197. MASK OF SATYR, WITH NAME OF Q. VELIUS PRIMUS

(BRIT. MUS.).

]

From the use of this word _sigilla_ (a diminutive of _signum_), for

terracotta figures, the makers came to be known as _sigillarii_, or

_figuli sigillatores_,[2648] and a street in which they lived was known

as the _Via Sigillaria_.[2649] There was also a market for the sale of

_sigilla_ for the feast near the Pantheon.[2650] Although the names of

makers are constantly found on Roman lamps and pottery, as well as the

tiles, they are very seldom found on statuettes, with the exception

mentioned below of those found in Gaul. But the name of Q. Velius

Primus, in a sort of mixture of Greek and Latin, is found in raised

letters on a mask of a Satyr in the British Museum (D 177 = Fig. 197),

and other names are occasionally found on the moulds. The social

condition of the Roman potter seems to have been much lower than that

of the Greek, who was often a person of respectable position; but this

may be partly due to the fact that his _clientèle_ was drawn mainly

from the poorer classes. He was generally a slave, sometimes a

barbarian, and even the masters of the potteries were only freedmen. As

we saw in the case of the tile-makers, the potters often worked on the

estates of wealthy or influential people, from which their clay was

obtained. More details of Roman potters will be found in the sections

dealing with tiles and lamps.

On the technical aspect of Roman terracotta figures little need be

said. The processes were practically the same as those described in

Chapter III. when dealing with the Greek terracottas. Large figures

were made from models (_proplasmata_) and built up in several pieces on

a wooden framework, known as _crux_ or _stipes_.[2651] A reference to

this method may be traced in a fable of Phaedrus,[2652] which describes

Prometheus as having made human figures in clay in separate pieces,

and, on returning from a supper with Bacchus, joined them together

wrongly, so that the sexes became confused. The smaller figures were

all made from moulds, by means of which they could be repeated with but

slight alterations. Few statuettes seem to have been made after the

second century of the Empire.

* * * * *

The range of subjects in Roman terracottas is much the same as in the

Greek figures of the Hellenistic period. At Pompeii _genre_ figures

predominate, including such types as gladiators, athletes in the

circus, slaves carrying bundles, and personages in Roman costume.[2653]

A favourite type at Pompeii is a mask of a youth in a Phrygian

cap.[2654] There is a decided preference shown for portraits and

grotesques. Von Rohden,[2655] in dealing with the question of the

extent to which these figures represent Greek or purely Roman types,

considers that although the influence of the former is still strong,

yet they are marked by such wide differences that they must be ranked

in the latter category. He dates them in the time of Vespasian, in

which the decadence which had begun with the later Hellenistic age is

in the Roman fabrics still more strongly accentuated. The style is

negligent, the proportions faulty, and the art of colouring practically

lost. They are only redeemed from insignificance by the taste for

portraiture and the interest which attaches to the reproduction of

motives borrowed from contemporary life.

The Pompeii figures may serve as typical Roman terracottas, but they

are also found elsewhere in Italy, as well as in other parts of the

Roman Empire; nearly all, however, are of inferior merit and execution.

At Praeneste in 1878, on the site of the temple of Fortuna Primigenia,

were found _genre_ figures and votive objects,[2656] and similar _ex

votos_ have come to light at Gabii.[2657] At Nemi figures have been

found which are obviously of Roman date, some of considerable

size.[2658] From time to time finds have been made in Rome, and there

is a pretty little head in the British Museum found in the Tiber (D

383), which, however, may be of Greek workmanship. The industry also

extended from Rome to the provinces, and even in Britain terracotta

figures are sometimes found, as at Richborough[2659]; at Caistor, by

Norwich, a terracotta head of Diana, of fairly good style, is

recorded.[2660] There are also in the Guildhall Museum some terracottas

in the coarse red clay which characterises most of the British

examples: a Venus on a swan; a female head with turreted crown, of

archaistic style, from Finsbury; and a large figure of Proserpina

holding a fruit, of very fair style, from Liverpool Street.[2661] A

figure of a boy on horseback is or was in the Museum of Practical

Geology.[2662]

2. GAULISH TERRACOTTAS

In Gaul there appear to have been very extensive manufactures of

terracottas, but not anterior to the conquest by Julius Caesar in 58

B.C. These statuettes were made for the Roman colonists, who introduced

the types of their own religious conceptions, but the makers were local

craftsmen. Potteries have been unearthed at Moulins on the banks of the

Allier, and in Auvergne and other parts of France, and even in Germany,

where one was discovered at Heiligenberg in Alsace, and others on the

Rhine (see below, p. 384). The finds on the Allier, made in 1857, give

a practically complete survey of the subjects; they are all now

collected in the museums of Moulins and St. Germain, and were fully

published at the time in a work by M. Tudot.[2663] The figures found

here are not from tombs, but were unearthed from the sites of the

potteries and from ruins of buildings; they are all made in a peculiar

white clay, whereas the figures of the Gironde district are grey or

black, and those of the Rhine Valley reddish, like those of Britain.

The technique resembles that of the Roman figures; there is no

vent-hole, and they usually stand on a conical base; the modelling is

very heavy, and the latest specimens are absolutely barbaric.

Until recently the subject of Gaulish terracottas had been greatly

neglected; Tudot’s plates were useful, but his text unsatisfactory and

devoid of method, there being no proper description of the plates. M.

Pottier has given a good summary of his work, and M. Héron de

Villefosse has also dealt with some aspects of the subject.[2664] But

they had not been treated as a whole and in relation to the subject of

ancient terracottas in general until 1891, when an important memoir by

M. Blanchet appeared, in which a complete survey of the Gaulish

terracottas was given.[2665] This must of necessity form the basis of

the present account.

In dealing with the technical character of the terracottas found in

Gaul, M. Blanchet points out that the white clay of which many are made

(_e.g._ those from the Allier valley) is not universal; some are made

of red or grey clay, which has turned white in the baking, apparently

by a process analogous to that used by the Chinese for porcelain,

others are actually covered with a white _engobe_ like the Greek

terracottas. This appears to have been done with a view to subsequent

colouring, which in nearly all cases has quite disappeared; but

statuettes with remains of colouring, made of purely red clay, have

recently been found in the neighbourhood of the Moselle and in

Germany.[2666] M. Blanchet quotes an example in the Museum at Angers,

with the name of the maker, P · FABI · NICIAE, which is coated with a

lead glaze like the enamelled wares described in Chapter III. He

considers that the moulds from which they were made were often of

bronze, and that bronze models were used as copies; but that they were

also of terracotta is clear from the numerous examples given by Tudot.

A terracotta mould for a figure of Venus Anadyomene, found at

Clermont-Ferrand, is in the British Museum, and another from Moulins is

for the back of the head of a similar figure, with hair elaborately

coiled.[2667] From the numerous moulds which have been found it may be

seen that the figures were cast in two pieces, longitudinally, the arms

being added afterwards, together with the circular plinth. The mould in

the British Museum may be cited as an example of one for the back part

of a figure; probably only the upper part was modelled.

Potters’ names are exceedingly common, not only on the figures, but

also on the moulds,[2668] and form two distinct classes, those on the

_exterior_ of the moulds, and those on the figures or _interior_ of the

moulds (which are obviously the same thing). The distinction is that

the former were merely for the identification of the moulds, while the

latter indicated the creator of the type and made him known to the

world, a feature which, as will be noted in Chapter XXIII. (p. 511),

reappears in the pottery of Westerndorff in Germany. Tudot gives an

example of a mould with the name ATILANO on the exterior and IOPPILLO

on the inside.[2669] Many of the names are identical with those of the

makers of vases,[2670] but the types and subjects are quite distinct

from those on the Gaulish _terra sigillata_. Those on the exterior of

the moulds are usually in a scrawling cursive type, whereas the other

class are in capital letters[2671]; the cursive characters resemble

those in use at Pompeii, but are not necessarily contemporary; they

are, however, not later than the second century. The influence of this

cursive character seems to have extended to the other class; for

instance, in the inscription given in Fig. 198 below, not only are the

G and S of cursive form, but E appears in the form II. Otherwise the

letters are in the ordinary Roman alphabet (with the exception of A,

which is sometimes 15[14]Attic alpha the forms E and II seem to have

been used indifferently in Gaul at all periods. The “signature”

sometimes combines the two names, as in the form

AVOT FORM

SACRILLOS CARATRI

which has been taken to mean _Sacrillos fecit forma Caratri_, “made by

Sacrillos from Caratrius’ mould.”[2672] Among the Roman names which

occur are Attilianus, Lucanus, Pistillus, Priscus, Taurus, and

Tiberius; among the Gaulish, Abudinus, Belinus, Camulenus, and

Tritoguno.

[Illustration:

From _Blanchet_.

FIG. 198. GAULISH FIGURE OF APHRODITE FROM NORMANDY.

]

A large majority of the existing statuettes were, as we have seen, made

in the valley of the Allier; these show more conspicuously than any

others, the influence of transplanted Graeco-Roman art. Curiously

enough none have been found at Lezoux, one of the chief pottery-centres

of Gaul, although there is abundant evidence that the vases and

statuettes were made in the same workshops (see above).[2673] M.

Blanchet considers that there was a large and important manufacture in

Western France, which may have been inspired by the Allier workshops,

but mainly exhibits native characteristics; he also notes the scarcity

of these figures in Southern Gaul (Narbonensis), which may perhaps be

explained by the preference there shown for bronze statuettes and vases

with medallions (p. 530).[2674] Other centres were Cesson, Meaux (where

Atilanus and Sacrillos can be located), Bourbon-Lancy in

Saône-et-Loire, and St. Rémy-en-Rollat (see p. 516), where vases also

were made of the local white clay. M. Déchelette has been able to

assign to the last-named pottery a date between A.D. 15 and 50. Another

fabric was in the neighbourhood of Liège, and in Germany there were

centres at Salzburg, and at Cologne, where the maker Vindex can be

dated in the reign of Postumus (A.D. 260-270).[2675] An important

maker, Pistillus, had a pottery at Autun; his statuettes are found all

over Gaul,[2676] and the name appears on vases and coins, and also in

an inscription.[2677] Julius Allusa had a workshop at Bordeaux. In West

and North-West France statuettes are found with the name of Rextugenos;

they are all of peculiar and original character, with highly-ornamented

backgrounds to the figures, and easily distinguished. The specimen

given in Fig. 198, representing Venus Genetrix, was found at

Caudebec-les-Elbeuf in Normandy (Seine-Inférieure); it bears the

inscription RIIXTVGIINOSSVLLIASAVVOT, _Rextugenos Sullias auvot_ (sc.

_fecit_).[2678]

An interesting find of terracotta figures was made at Colchester in

1866,[2679] consisting of thirteen figures presenting exact analogies

to the Gallo-Roman terracottas of the second period both in type and

style. One very poor specimen represents Hercules with club and

lion-skin; another a bull, and a third a bust of a boy (perhaps a

portrait of Nero or Britannicus); four are recumbent figures. The rest

are more or less grotesque, including caricatured seated figures

holding books or rolls, and a buffoon. With them were found vases in

the form of animals of yellow-glazed ware. Figures of suckling

goddesses (see below) have been found in Britain, and similar finds of

Gallo-Roman types in white clay in London, among them a Venus holding a

tress of her hair.[2680] Votive offerings of parts of the body and

figures of the goddess Fecunditas were found near the source of the

Seine, in a temple of Dea Sequana, the local river-deity.[2681] Other

finds have been made in Touraine, Anjou, La Vendée, Brittany, and

Normandy, brought by commerce from the Allier potteries; and in Germany

at Heddernheim and on the Rhine. Part of a group of some size in purely

Graeco-Roman style from the Department of Marne is now in the British

Museum (Morel Collection).

Tudot originally classified the Gaulish terracottas chronologically in

three periods according to style, and in this he has been followed by

M. Pottier. But M. Blanchet[2682] has pointed out that the former’s

method was altogether unscientific, that he trusted too much to the

evidence of coin-finds, and that he was altogether wrong in conceiving

the possibility of any being anterior to the Roman conquest. On the

whole the chronological data are exceedingly vague, and can only be

accepted in isolated instances, as in the case of the finds at St.

Rémy-en-Rollat (A.D. 15-50) or Cologne (A.D. 260-270), or where a

resemblance in the coiffure of the feminine figures to those of Roman

ladies can be traced. Some figures may probably be dated about A.D. 100

on the latter ground, the head-dress recalling those of Domitia and

Julia the daughter of Titus. But it can only be laid down with

certainty that the manufacture of statuettes was introduced into Gaul

with the _terra sigillata_ or ornamented red pottery at the beginning

of the Imperial period. Where there is a question of decadent or

barbaric style, as is undoubtedly often the case, it does not

necessarily imply a late date, but only that the inferior work is due

to the incapacity of some local artist, and figures of varying style

must frequently be contemporaneous.[2683]

In dealing with the types of Gaulish terracottas, their origin and

signification, M. Blanchet divides the subjects into three classes, of

which the first is not only the largest but the most interesting:

divinities, subjects from daily life, and animals. The deities are not

those we should expect from Caesar’s statement[2684] that Mercury,

Apollo, Mars, Jupiter, and Minerva represent the scale of popularity in

Gaul, for they are mainly variants of one type, that of Venus. Many of

these Venus figures reproduce types familiar in Greek and Graeco-Roman

art, such as the Anadyomene, and the Cnidian or Pudica type; but in the

majority she is frankly recognised as a Nature-goddess (Aphrodite

Pandemos or Venus Genetrix), and hence we find numerous examples in

which the old Oriental conception of the nude Aphrodite-Astarte with

pronounced sexual characteristics, so common in the primitive

terracottas of Chaldaea, Phoenicia, and Cyprus,[2685] once more

reappears, as in Fig. 198. Of almost equal frequency is the seated type

of the Mother-Goddess or Κουροτρόφος, suckling a child[2686]; this is

not peculiar to Gaul, but is found in the terracottas of Southern

Italy.[2687] We may compare also the Fecunditas types on Roman

coins.[2688] Blanchet thinks that the goddess Rumina may be here

intended, but prefers to adopt the general term of Mother-Goddess.

[Illustration:

From _Blanchet_.

FIG. 199. GAULISH TERRACOTTA:

THE GODDESS EPONA.

]

Among other mythological types the Ephesian Artemis, Pallas, Mercury,

Epona (Fig. 199), and Abundantia occur; and among _genre_ subjects the

most interesting type is that of the Spinario, or boy extracting a

thorn from his foot, familiar in Greek sculpture. Slaves, caricatures,

and busts of ladies (see above) or children wearing the _bulla_, vases

in the form of heads, and busts affixed to plates, also come under the

latter category. Many of these are exceedingly rude and barbaric;

children are transformed into coarse grotesques, and animals look (says

M. Pottier) as if they had come out of a Noah’s ark.

The artistic origin of the Gaulish types has been discussed by M.

Blanchet,[2689] who points out that although the modern tendency is to

restrict the rôle played by Alexandrine art of the Hellenistic period

in influencing that of Rome,[2690] yet its effect on Gaul cannot be

altogether ignored. That Egyptian cults found their way into Gaul is

well known,[2691] and in the terracottas such types as Isis and Horus

appear, while comparisons may frequently be made with the late

terracottas found in the Fayûm and at Naukratis. But there was also a

stream of influence from Southern Italy, especially Campania, whence,

as we have seen, the Mother-Goddess types were largely derived.

As regards the uses for which these terracottas were made, much that

has been said on that head in Chapter III. will apply equally to Gaul.

They have been found not only in tombs, but in wells and rivers, and on

the sites of sanctuaries[2692]; but they do not seem to have had any

special funerary significance. The majority were probably used for

various domestic purposes in the houses, the figures of animals, for

instance, as toys, and were then buried with their owners. Those found

in wells or rivers may be regarded as votive offerings, as it is well

known that the Gauls were fond of throwing votive figures into rivers

or springs.

3. MISCELLANEOUS USES OF TERRACOTTA

It is impossible to enumerate all the purposes to which the Romans

applied terracotta, but a few peculiar uses deserve special notice. The

excavations at Pompeii have yielded several examples of its application

to the decoration of a _puteal_, the circular structure which protected

the mouth of a well; the core is of tufa or other hard material, and

round this are laid curved slabs of terracotta decorated with

reliefs.[2693] They are all of comparatively early date; one has

triglyphs and bulls’ heads in relief, and is stuccoed over. Instances

are also found at Pompeii of its use for table-legs, in the form of

figures of kneeling Atlantes,[2694] like those supporting the

entablature in the Thermae (p. 374), but sculptured in the round. Small

altars, or stands for holding lamps or for burning incense, supposed to

have formed part of the furniture of the domestic shrines, have also

been found in this material.[2695] Varro tells us that the _dolia_ or

large jars made by potters were used as cages for dormice which were

being fattened for the palates of Roman epicures[2696]; and Columella

gives instructions for the use of clay tiles in making beehives.[2697]

Porphyry implies that it was customary to hive bees in kraters or

amphorae of clay.[2698] Tickets (_tesserae_) for admission to the

circus or amphitheatre were also occasionally made of clay, and on them

were stamped letters or numbers referring to the position of the seat,

or representations of the animals exhibited. Two from Catania in the

British Museum[2699] have an elephant on the obverse and the letter A

on the reverse, showing that they were for admission to a spectacle in

which those beasts were shown. There are also possible instances of

_tesserae frumentariae_, or tickets for the supply of cheap corn in

time of necessity.[2700] Moulds of terracotta for making counters, with

masks or figures of Fortune and Isis, have also been found; there is an

example in the British Museum from Arezzo (E 46).[2701]

Herr Graeven, in a very interesting article,[2702] has recently

collected all the known examples (numbering some fifty) of money-boxes

in terracotta used by the Romans. There is no mention of such objects

in Latin literature, but it is probable that they were known as

_loculi_, and were made in imitation of the metal Θησαυροί used for

keeping money in temples. Of this there is a clear instance in a

specimen recently found at Priene in Asia Minor,[2703] in the form of a

small shrine with a slit in the top. Graeven states that there is

evidence of their having been placed on a cornice which ran round the

walls of the rooms in the houses. This box has an additional hole at

the back for extracting the money, but the Roman specimens have only

one opening. An example of a clay treasure-box from Western Europe is

one in the form of a chest, 12½ inches high, with a bust of Apollo on

the top, found at Vichy, and now in the Museum at Moulins.[2704] It may

have been placed in a _sacellum_ or chapel for the offerings of those

who visited the medicinal springs.

Of the Roman money-boxes proper four main types may be distinguished.

The first, of which examples have been found at Pompeii,[2705] is in

the form of a small chest or coffer (_arca_), and may have been known

by the name _arcula_. The second type is that of a money-box in the

form of a vase.[2706] The custom of hoarding money in jars (_ollae_, p.

470) was universal in Roman times, as we know from the _Aulularia_ of

Plautus, the plot of which turns on this practice,[2707] and from the

numerous finds of coins in jars in our own day. None of these have any

ornamentation; they have been found in Germany, and there is a small

specimen in the British Museum from Lincoln,[2708] of spherical form

with a knob at the top. Aubrey records the finding of a similar one in

North Wiltshire.[2709] These appear to be of very late date.

The next two types are of much greater interest, not only from their

ornamentation, but from their form and the inscriptions which they

bear. In the one the box takes a flat circular form, closely resembling

the body of a lamp (the shape is that of Fig. 207), with a design

similarly placed in a medallion. One actually has a figure of Victory

with a shield, which reproduces the type of the New Year lamps

described on page 413 (B.M. No. 309), and has a similar

inscription.[2710] It may be supposed that these boxes were carried

round on New Year’s Day to solicit contributions, just as is done (says

Herr Graeven) by boys in Rome at the present time. Others have figures

of Fortune and Hermes in a shrine,[2711] the latter deity being of

course specially associated with money-making. These two examples have

their respective makers’ names on the back, C IVN BIT and PALLADI,

names which are also found on Roman lamps,[2712] another detail which

shows the close connection between these two classes of objects.

[Illustration:

From _Jahrbuch_.

FIG. 200. TERRACOTTA MONEY-BOX.

]

The last type to be described is shaped like a bee-hive, or, as in Fig.

200, like a circular temple, forms which were found convenient for the

then favourite design of a deity in a shrine. Among the examples quoted

by Graeven[2713] is one of the latter shape with Fortune (Fig. 200),

now in the Bibliothèque Nationale. Of the bee-hive form three may be

mentioned as presenting interesting features. One with Hermes in a

shrine has the maker’s name, PAS AVGV, which also occurs on

lamps[2714]; another, found on the Aventine, and now at Gotha,[2715]

has on the front the figure of a victorious charioteer, on the reverse

a slit for the coins, and the maker’s name, AEL MAX. D’Agincourt

suggested that this type of box was carried about by victors in the

games to receive donations. Lastly, there is one recorded to have been

found in the Baths of Titus in 1812, but now lost, which contained

coins of Trajan, and was inscribed FISCI IVDAICI CALUMNIA SVBLATA. The

evidence points to the dating of these two classes in the first century

of the Empire, or slightly later.

Terracotta moulds for false or debased coins of the Imperial period

have frequently been discovered in different parts of the Empire.[2716]

None, indeed, have come to light in Italy, but they occur in Egypt,

Tunis, France, on the Rhine, in Switzerland, Lower Austria, and

Britain. They were first noted by A. le Pois in 1579 at Fourvières,

where moulds were found of coins of Septimius Severus and his

successors. In 1697 and 1706 more of the same period, of local clay,

were found at Lingwell Gate, near Wakefield,[2717] in 1704 at Lyons,

and in 1764 at Augst, near Basle. In 1829 and 1830 further finds were

made at Wakefield, and again in 1869 at Duston, Northants.[2718]

Numbers have been noted from time to time in the museums of France and

the Rhenish provinces, the most interesting find being that made in

1829-30 at Damery, near Épernay, in the Department of Marne. In 1859 a

find of 130 moulds contained in a jug was made at Bernard; they appear

to have been hastily placed there and left by forgers. At Bordeaux in

1884 finds were made in the ruins of a pottery, and others more

recently at Autun and La Coulouche. In 1899 thirty-four moulds were

found at Susa in Tunis. The British Museum has a collection of moulds

of denarii from Egypt, mostly found at Crocodilopolis (Arsinoe) in the

Fayûm; they are of a deep brick-red local clay, but a great number are

burnt black.

Nearly all these moulds fall between the reigns of Septimius Severus

and Diocletian, but some of those at Bernard go back as far as Trajan,

and there are isolated instances of coins of Domitian at one end, of

Constantius II. and Julia Mamaea at the other. Caracalla and Elagabalus

are frequently represented, and those in the British Museum include

Albinus, Crispus, Constantine, Galerius, Licinius, and Macrinus. The

Damery find included thirty-nine moulds, comprising types of the coins

of Caracalla, the elder Philip, and Postumus; 2,000 pieces of base

silver coin, chiefly of Postumus; 3,900 bronzes of Constans I. and

Constantius, all evidently made together; chisels and remains of other

tools, and groups of moulds still containing the metal, and also lumps

of metal which had overflowed from the moulds.

The way in which these moulds were used is as follows. The complete

mould was composed of two shallow round boxes with hollow impressions

respectively of the obverse and reverse, obtained by impressing the

designs from genuine coins into the soft clay. The depth of the hollow

was so calculated that when the two were placed together the space

represented the required thickness. To cast the coins, a number of

these moulds were placed one on the other, and luted with clay to

prevent the liquid metal from escaping between the two pieces of each

mould; down the side of the column formed by the pile of moulds a

hollow cutting was made, at the base of which holes were pierced

corresponding to the cavities where the metal was to enter. The metal

was then poured into the hollow, and ran in through the holes as

required.[2719] Sometimes the columns were joined in groups of three

25[29]image for which a single column served; of this there is an

example at Damery, where each _rouleau_ contained a dozen moulds

(thirteen discs). In the Cabinet des Médailles at Paris there is an

example of one of these _rouleaux_ of moulds, found at Lyons in 1704

(Fig. 201),[2720] with the basin in which they were placed for the

casting. At Susa the moulds were fitted slantwise into a bronze tube.

[Illustration: FIG. 201. TERRACOTTA COIN-MOULD.]

It is not absolutely certain whether these moulds were all used for

fraudulent purposes by forgers; the find at Damery, for instance, was

made on the site of Bibe, an important station on the road from Rheims

to Beauvais, which would be too prominent a place for forgers to have

selected. It is much more likely that in such a case they were used to

make coins of inferior alloy, perhaps in some instances for the issues

of usurpers who, being at a considerable distance from the capital,

were unable to fill their military chests except with hastily cast

coins. The distant parts of the Empire in which these moulds are found

lend some colour to this theory. It will also be remembered that they

mostly date from the time when a debased coinage was current throughout

the Empire, beginning with the reign of Septimius Severus; this was put

an end to by Diocletian in 297. We may therefore suppose that they

represent, so to speak, officially recognised forgeries, emanating from

a kind of local mint for producing coins hastily for provincial use.

Hence the rapid spread of base money in the third century, which was

not only forced upon the State, but was also readily taken advantage of

by forgers.

-----

Footnote 2395:

Pliny, _H.N._ xxxi. 47; Columella, _Re Rust._ iii. 11, 9.

Footnote 2396:

_Etym._ xv. 8, 16: cf. xix. 10, 16.

Footnote 2397:

Pliny, _H.N._ xxxv. 170; Nonius, p. 445, 22.

Footnote 2398:

Columella, _Re Rust._ ix. 1, 2; Vitr. i. 5, 8; Varro, _Re Rust._ i.

14, 4.

Footnote 2399:

Vitr. ii. 8, 4; Varro, _Re Rust._ ii. 3, 6.

Footnote 2400:

Columella, _loc. cit._: _paries crudo latere ac luto constructus_.

Cf. Caesar, _Bell. Civ._ ii. 9, of a floor, and ii. 15; also Vitr.

ii. 1, 7; Pliny, _H.N._ xviii. 301.

Footnote 2401:

Vitr. ii. 3, 3.

Footnote 2402:

_H.N._ xxxv. 170 ff.

Footnote 2403:

Vitr. vii. 1, 7 and 4, 2; Pallad. _Agric._ i. 19, 1 and 40, 2;

Wilmanns, _Exempla_, 2793-94; Marini, _Iscriz. ant. doliari_, 942-944.

Footnote 2404:

Cf. Wright, _Celt, Roman, and Saxon_^4, p. 188.

Footnote 2405:

Cf. Middleton, _Remains of Ancient Rome_, i. p. 59 (cut) =

_Archaeologia_, li. pl. 1, fig. 5.

Footnote 2406:

Marquardt, _Privatalterthümer_, p. 618.

Footnote 2407:

Buckman and Newmarch, _Roman Art in Cirencester_, p. 64 ff.

Footnote 2408:

Marquardt, _Privatalterthümer_, p. 618; Roach-Smith, _Collect.

Antiq._ ii. p. 91.

Footnote 2409:

_Remains of Ancient Rome_, i. p. 12: see also _Archaeologia_, xlix.

p. 427, where it is pointed out that measurements of bricks form no

guide to their date.

Footnote 2410:

_Loc. cit._

Footnote 2411:

_Jahreshefte_ (Beiblatt), i. p. 123.

Footnote 2412:

ii. 3, 1.

Footnote 2413:

This may be the origin of the foot-shaped stamp so common in Roman

lamps and vases (see Blümner, _Technologie_, ii. p. 18).

Footnote 2414:

Cf. also Wright, _Celt, Roman, and Saxon_^4, p. 186.

Footnote 2415:

Vitr. ii. 3. This passage with Pallad. _Agric._ vi. 12 and Isid.

_Etym._ xix. 10, 16 are the _loci classici_ on the subject.

Footnote 2416:

Blümner, ii. p. 20, points out that there are very few instances of

this, and perhaps Vitruvius’ idea was not practical.

Footnote 2417:

Middleton, _Remains of Ancient Rome_, i. pp. 12, 62.

Footnote 2418:

See Roach-Smith, _Illustr. Rom. London_, p. 112.

Footnote 2419:

xxxix. 61 (ἐκ πλίνθων).

Footnote 2420:

_Apud_ Non., p. 48 (s.v. suffundatum).

Footnote 2421:

_De Div._ ii. 47, 99.

Footnote 2422:

Vitr. ii. 8, 18.

Footnote 2423:

_H.N._ xxxv. 173.

Footnote 2424:

Vitr. ii. 8, 17.

Footnote 2425:

_Ibid._

Footnote 2426:

See Daremberg and Saglio, s.v. Aquaeductus; Middleton, _Remains of

Ancient Rome_, ii. p. 323.

Footnote 2427:

Suet. _Aug._ 28.

Footnote 2428:

Borrmann, _Die Keramik in der Baukunst_ (Durm’s _Handbuch d.

Architektur_), p. 51.

Footnote 2429:

Roach-Smith, _Collect. Antiq._ iv. p. 11, pls. 5-6.

Footnote 2430:

Nissen, _Pompeian. Studien_, p. 26; Mau-Kelsey, _Pompeii_, p. 36.

Footnote 2431:

See Mau-Kelsey, _Pompeii_, p. 38.

Footnote 2432:

_Archaeologia_, lii. p. 664.

Footnote 2433:

Middleton, _Remains of Ancient Rome_, i. pp. 254, 301; _id._ in

_Archaeologia_, xlix. p. 426.

Footnote 2434:

See Dressel in _C.I.L._ xv. p. 9.

Footnote 2435:

Mau-Kelsey, p. 38: but see Nissen, _Pompeian. Studien_, p. 59.

Footnote 2436:

See Blümner, _Technologie_, iii. p. 146, where a good illustration is

given.

Footnote 2437:

_Archaeologia_, li. pl. 2, fig. 4; Middleton, _op. cit._ i. p. 55,

fig. 6.

Footnote 2438:

v. 10, 2.

Footnote 2439:

See also on this subject Anderson and Spiers, _Architecture of Greece

and Rome_, p. 137 ff.; Middleton, _op. cit._ i. p. 66, ii. p. 120,

fig. 64.

Footnote 2440:

See Middleton, _op. cit._ i. p. 62; _Archaeologia_, li. pl. 2, fig. 5.

Footnote 2441:

Middleton, _op. cit._ i. pp. 12, 62.

Footnote 2442:

_Etym._ xv. 8, 15; xix. 10, 15.

Footnote 2443:

Henzen, _Inscr._ 6445, 7279-80.

Footnote 2444:

Orelli, _Inscr._ 4190.

Footnote 2445:

There are tiles in existence marked DOL · DELIC, _i.e._ (_opus_)

_doliare deliciare_ (Marquardt, _Privatalterthümer_, p. 619).

Footnote 2446:

The arrangement is well illustrated on pl. 6 of Campana’s _Ant. opere

in plastica_ (from Ostia).

Footnote 2447:

Vitr. v. 9, 7; viii. 7, 1.

Footnote 2448:

Brongniart, _Traité_, i. p. 374; Marquardt, _Privatalterthümer_, p.

620.

Footnote 2449:

See Vitr. vii. 4, 2; Nissen, _Pompeian. Studien_, p. 65 ff.

Footnote 2450:

Orelli, 1396: see _Sitzungsber. d. Wiener Akad. Gesellsch._ 1901, pt.

2, p. 13.

Footnote 2451:

Caumont, _Cours_, ii. p. 182.

Footnote 2452:

_Ibid._ p. 184.

Footnote 2453:

Brongniart and Riocreux, _Mus. de Sèvres_, i. p. 18.

Footnote 2454:

_Bull. Arch. Nap._ 1853, pl. 14, p. 185.

Footnote 2455:

Campana, _Ant. opere in plastica_, pl. 6.

Footnote 2456:

For references to ornamental terracotta antefixes in Latin literature

see below, p. 371; and cf. Livy, xxvi. 23, xxxiv. 4.

Footnote 2457:

See for an account of these Von Rohden, _Terracotten von Pompeii_, p.

5; also Mau-Kelsey, _Pompeii_, p. 251.

Footnote 2458:

Von Rohden, pl. 7, fig. 1, from the Casa dei Niobidi.

Footnote 2459:

_Ibid._, pls. 5, 2, and 6, 1.

Footnote 2460:

For examples of this type see _B.M. Terracottas_, D 66 (from

Corneto), D 700 (from Cumae), and D 706 (from Capua).

Footnote 2461:

Mau-Kelsey, _Pompeii_, p. 36.

Footnote 2462:

Von Rohden, pls. 14-16; 18, fig. 1: cf. _B.M. Cat. of Terracottas_, D

699, from Pompeii.

Footnote 2463:

_Ibid._ pls. 11-13.

Footnote 2464:

Campana, _Ant. opere in plastica_, pl. 6.

Footnote 2465:

Campana, pl. 6: cf. for the story Livy, xxix. 14, and Preller-Jordan,

_Röm. Mythol._ ii. p. 55.

Footnote 2466:

_Archaeologia_, xiv. pl. 13, p. 64: cf. Brongniart, _Traité_, i. p.

367.

Footnote 2467:

Middleton, _Remains of Ancient Rome_, i. p. 181, ii. p. 121 ff.

Footnote 2468:

vii. 4, 2.

Footnote 2469:

See Middleton in _Archaeologia_, lii. p. 663, for a general

discussion of the subject; also Roach-Smith, _Collect. Antiq._ vi. p.

122.

Footnote 2470:

Roach-Smith, _Collect. Antiq._ iii. pl. 26, p. 114; _Illustr. Rom.

London_, p. 115.

Footnote 2471:

Marquardt, _Privatalterthümer_, vii. p. 620.

Footnote 2472:

_Ep._ 90, 25 (xiv. 2).

Footnote 2473:

_Ep._ ii. 17, 23.

Footnote 2474:

So also in the Roman villa at Woodchester (Wright, _Celt, Roman, and

Saxon_^4, p. 198).

Footnote 2475:

Middleton, _op. cit._ ii. p. 113 ff.; _id._ in _Archaeologia_, li.

pl. 3.

Footnote 2476:

Roach-Smith, _Collect. Antiq._ ii. p. 21, pl. 8, figs. 1-2.

Footnote 2477:

_C.I.L._ vii. 1250; Roach-Smith, _Ill. Rom. Lond._ p. 114, fig. 3.

Footnote 2478:

_C.I.L._ vii. 1238.

Footnote 2479:

_Archaeologia_, lii. pl. 20.

Footnote 2480:

vii. 4, 2.

Footnote 2481:

Roach-Smith, _Collect. Antiq._ vi. p. 125. Cf. _Arch. Journ._ viii.

p. 30 ff. for another example from Hadstock, Essex.

Footnote 2482:

_Archaeologia_, lii. p. 666.

Footnote 2483:

Cf. Vitr. _loc. cit._

Footnote 2484:

Middleton, _Remains of Ancient Rome_, ii. p. 123.

Footnote 2485:

See Daremberg and Saglio, _s.v._, and cf. Vitr. viii. 7, 1; Isid.

_Etym._ xv. 8, 17; xix. 10, 29.

Footnote 2486:

_C.I.L._ x. 4842.

Footnote 2487:

viii. 7, 1.

Footnote 2488:

_H.N._ xxxi. 57.

Footnote 2489:

viii. 7, 10.

Footnote 2490:

_Mon. Antichi_, i. pl. 6, p. 326.

Footnote 2491:

See Lanciani in _Atti dell’ Accad. dei Lincei_, Ser. 3, iv.

(1879-80), p. 399 ff.

Footnote 2492:

Avolio, _Fatture di argille in Sicilia_, p. 8.

Footnote 2493:

See generally Blümner, _Technologie_, iii. p. 161 ff.; Middleton,

_Remains of Ancient Rome_, i. p. 80.

Footnote 2494:

_Archaeologia_, li. pl. 3.

Footnote 2495:

Buckman and Newmarch, _Roman Art in Cirencester_, p. 64.

Footnote 2496:

_H.N._ xxxv. 165; xxxvi. 188: cf. _Geoponica_, ii. 27, 5; Pallad. i.

9, 4; Cato, _Agric._ xviii. 7; Vitr. vii. 1, 4; Columella, i. 6, 13;

viii. 15, 3, 17, 1; ix. 1, 2.

Footnote 2497:

Middleton, _op. cit_. ii. p. 121, fig. 65.

Footnote 2498:

Cf. Buckman and Newmarch, _Roman Art in Cirencester_, p. 49 ff.

Footnote 2499:

Vitr. vii. 1, 4; Pliny, _H.N._ xxxvi. 184; Stat. _Silv._ i. 3, 54.

Footnote 2500:

_Archaeologia_, xxvi. pl. 44, p. 370.

Footnote 2501:

Roach-Smith, _Ill. Rom. Lond._ p. 113.

Footnote 2502:

_C.I.L._ vii. 1223-24.

Footnote 2503:

_Ibid._ 1222 (in B.M.); others from Brecon and Abergavenny.

Footnote 2504:

_C.I.L._ vii. 1225.

Footnote 2505:

The inscribed tiles found in Rome have been collected and published

by Dressel in vol. xv. (part 1, Nos. 1-2155) of the _Corpus Inscr.

Lat._ Others are published in the other volumes under the heading

“Instrumentum Domesticum.” In the succeeding pages Dressel’s account

has been mainly followed.

Footnote 2506:

See Hübner, _Exempla Script. Epigr. Lat._ p. lxviii.

Footnote 2507:

_C.I.L._ xv. 19-29; 209, 1145; 709; 1212; 398.

Footnote 2508:

_Cat. of Terracottas_, E 148-49.

Footnote 2509:

_Opus doliare_ is the invariable word for bricks or tiles in Roman

inscriptions, _figlinum_ being confined to pottery of the finer kind

(cf. p. 330).

Footnote 2510:

Cassiodorus, _Variar._ i. 25: cf. ii. 23.

Footnote 2511:

_C.I.L._ xv. 1668-70.

Footnote 2512:

Cf. _C.I.L._ xv. p. 204, Nos. 1616, 1627, etc.

Footnote 2513:

Middleton, _Remains of Ancient Rome_, i. p. 13.

Footnote 2514:

_C.I.L._ xiv. 4089, 7, from Ostia.

Footnote 2515:

_Ibid._ 4090, No. 14.

Footnote 2516:

_C.I.L._ xv. 478 ff.: cf. 683, and _Ann. dell’ Inst._ 1840, p. 240.

Footnote 2517:

_Ibid._ 677-82.

Footnote 2518:

_Ibid._ 389.

Footnote 2519:

B.M. _Cat. of Terracottas_, E 150.

Footnote 2520:

_E.g._ Wilmanns, _Exempla Inscr. Lat._ 2793_a_.

Footnote 2521:

See Blanchet, _Mélanges Gallo-romaines_, ii. (1902), p. 110.

Footnote 2522:

See Steiner, _Cod. Inscr. Rom. Danubii et Rheni_, i. p. 85, No. 190,

ii. p. 187, No. 1231.

Footnote 2523:

_C.I.L._ vii. 1255, 1257.

Footnote 2524:

_Ibid._ 1242.

Footnote 2525:

Cf. _C.I.L._ xv. p. 274.

Footnote 2526:

_C.I.L._ xv. 1097-1101, and see p. 275.

Footnote 2527:

Marini, _Iscriz. ant. doliari_, 1418.

Footnote 2528:

_C.I.L._ xv. 1539.

Footnote 2529:

_Ibid._ 1540, 1542.

Footnote 2530:

_Ibid._ 1668-70.

Footnote 2531:

Steiner, _op. cit._ i. p. 252, No. 541 (from Mainz); also _Bonner

Jahrbücher_, ii. p. 92.

Footnote 2532:

Steiner, i. p. 75, No. 171; ii. p. 248, No. 1373.

Footnote 2533:

_C.I.L._ iii. p. 962; _Wiener Sitzungsberichte_, xiv. (1855), p. 133.

Footnote 2534:

_C.I.L._ _ibid._

Footnote 2535:

Steiner, ii. p. 254, No. 1391.

Footnote 2536:

Now in Pesth Museum (_C.I.L._ _ibid._).

Footnote 2537:

_C.I.L._ vii. 1260.

Footnote 2538:

_Ibid._ 1259; _Victoria County Hist. of Hants_, i. p. 282 (_q.v._ for

other examples).

Footnote 2539:

_Cat._ p. 73, No. 56; _Ephem. Epigr._ vii. (1892), p. 344.

Footnote 2540:

_C.I.L._ ii. 4967, 31: cf. _Victoria County Hist. of Hants_, i. p.

275.

Footnote 2541:

_E.g._ B.M. E 149: see p. 354.

Footnote 2542:

See Dressel in _C.I.L._ xv. p. 10.

Footnote 2543:

Steiner, _Cod. Inscr. Rom. Danub. et Rheni_, ii. p. 253, No. 1389.

Footnote 2544:

_C.I.L._ xv. p. 5 ff. For epigraphical and grammatical peculiarities

see _ibid._ p. 7. On p. 204 is given a list of emperors whose names

are found on the tiles, from Trajan to Septimius Severus.

Footnote 2545:

See for these abbreviations and expressions _C.I.L._ xv. p. 387.

Footnote 2546:

B.M. E 152.

Footnote 2547:

_C.I.L._ xiv. 4089, 1.

Footnote 2548:

_C.I.L._ xv. 3, 4, xiv. 4089, 4.

Footnote 2549:

_Cat._ p. 73, Nos. 60-3.

Footnote 2550:

_C.I.L._ vii. 1235; Roach-Smith, _Collect. Antiq._ i. p. 143: see

also _Journ. Brit. Arch. Assoc._ xxxix. p. 389.

Footnote 2551:

Numerous examples of these legionary stamps will be found in

Steiner’s _Codex Inscr. Rom. Danubii et Rheni_ (1851); they will

presumably be republished in the forthcoming part of vol. xiii. of

the Latin _Corpus_.

Footnote 2552:

_C.I.L._ xiv. 4090, 2.

Footnote 2553:

_C.I.L._ vii. 1225.

Footnote 2554:

See generally _C.I.L._ iii. Suppl. 1, for Dacia, Pannonia, and the

East; for Germany, Steiner, _op. cit. passim_, and _Bonner

Jahrbücher_, index to vols. 1-60.

Footnote 2555:

_C.I.L._ vii. 1228.

Footnote 2556:

_Ibid._ 1231: see Roach-Smith, _Ill. Rom. London_, p. 116.

Footnote 2557:

Wilmanns, _Exempla_, 2804.

Footnote 2558:

_C.I.L._ iii. 3756.

Footnote 2559:

Steiner, ii. p. 250, No. 1379.

Footnote 2560:

Marini, _Iscriz. ant. doliari_, No. 1382; Wilmanns, _Exempla_, 2805

_b_.

Footnote 2561:

_C.I.L._ vii. 1226; Roach-Smith, _Ill. Rom. London_, p. 112;

Blanchet, _Mélanges Gallo-romaines_, ii. p. 110.

Footnote 2562:

Vitr. iv. 6.

Footnote 2563:

Campana, _Ant. opere in plastica_, p. 31.

Footnote 2564:

_S.v._ Antefixa or Impluvium.

Footnote 2565:

_Ep. ad Att._ i. 10.

Footnote 2566:

B.M. D 543, 576, 594; _Röm. Mitth._ 1886, p. 173; _Notizie degli

Scavi_, 1901, p. 188.

Footnote 2567:

_Cat._ 501-660. It has been stated, but on what authority is unknown,

that they were found in a well near the Porta Latina, together with a

series of statues discussed below (p. 373).

Footnote 2568:

A collective publication of these reliefs is being prepared by the

German Archaeological Institute.

Footnote 2569:

See Helbig’s _Führer_^2, ii. pp. 272, 408 ff.

Footnote 2570:

Cf. Pliny, _H.N._ xxxvi. 189: Agrippa in thermis figulinum opus

encausto pinxit: see also Vol. I. p. 119.

Footnote 2571:

See _B.M. Cat. of Terracottas_, p. xvii.

Footnote 2572:

Von Rohden, _Terracotten von Pompeii_, pl. 20: see also pls. 21, 23.

Footnote 2573:

D 626-27: cf. _Jahreshefte_, 1903, p. 25.

Footnote 2574:

_Ant. opere in plastica_, pl. 14.

Footnote 2575:

Hauser, _Neuattische Reliefs_, pp. 111, 128.

Footnote 2576:

B.M. D 520, 527; Campana, pls. 47-8.

Footnote 2577:

B.M. D 583-85; Campana, pls. 61, 62: cf. the Arretine krater, Fig.

219, p. 488.

Footnote 2578:

B.M. D 561; Campana, pls. 27, 41.

Footnote 2579:

B.M. D 501; Campana, pls. 1-2.

Footnote 2580:

Campana, pl. 3.

Footnote 2581:

B.M. D 505; Campana, pl. 18.

Footnote 2582:

B.M. D 507; Campana, pl. 19.

Footnote 2583:

B.M. D 508-9; Campana, pl. 10.

Footnote 2584:

B.M. D 510-24; Campana, pls. 9-10, 15, 53, 88, 102-3.

Footnote 2585:

Helbig 1459 = Overbeck, _Kunstmythol. Atlas_, pl. 16, 8.

Footnote 2586:

Campana, pls. 7-8, 13, 16-7.

Footnote 2587:

B.M. D 531: cf. Campana, pls. 29-30.

Footnote 2588:

B.M. D 525; Campana, pl. 50: see _J.H.S._ xxiii. p. 295.

Footnote 2589:

See for these B.M. D 526, 534-52.

Footnote 2590:

Campana, pls. 26, 31, 35-7, 43-6.

Footnote 2591:

B.M. D 553-60.

Footnote 2592:

B.M. D 569-79: cf. _J.H.S._ vii. p. 284.

Footnote 2593:

B.M. D 566-68; Campana, pls. 86 ff.

Footnote 2594:

Campana, pl. 55; Helbig, 1179.

Footnote 2595:

Campana, pls. 20-4; Helbig, 1180.

Footnote 2596:

B.M. D 592-605; Campana, pls. 56-58, 63-65, 68; Helbig, 1188.

Footnote 2597:

Otherwise interpreted, Helbig, _Führer_^2, ii. p. 418.

Footnote 2598:

B.M. D 606-609; Campana, pls. 66-67, 71-73; Helbig, 1190, 1456.

Footnote 2599:

B.M. D 611-617; Campana, pls. 74-81.

Footnote 2600:

B.M. D 624-632; Campana, pls. 89-96; Helbig, 1466; and see

_Jahreshefte_, 1903, p. 16 ff.

Footnote 2601:

B.M. D 633-638; Campana, pls. 114, 115.

Footnote 2602:

Plutarch, _Vit. Num._ viii. 8.

Footnote 2603:

_Sat._ xi. 116.

Footnote 2604:

iv. (v.), 1, 5.

Footnote 2605:

_H.N._ xxxiv. 34; and see xxxv. 158.

Footnote 2606:

iii. 2 (3), 5.

Footnote 2607:

_De Div._ i. 10, 16.

Footnote 2608:

xxvi. 23.

Footnote 2609:

Ovid, _Fast._ i. 202; Seneca, _Cons. ad Helv._ 10, 7: cf. _Ep._ 31

(iv. 2, 11).

Footnote 2610:

Pliny, _H.N._ xxxv. 159; Plut. _Vit. Num._ 17.

Footnote 2611:

Pliny, _H.N._ xxxv. 154.

Footnote 2612:

_Ibid._ 155.

Footnote 2613:

_Ibid._ 156.

Footnote 2614:

Livy, xxxi. 4.

Footnote 2615:

Cf. Pliny, _H.N._ xxxv. 155.

Footnote 2616:

Helbig, _Führer_, ii. p. 272, No. 1177.

Footnote 2617:

_Cat._ D 439.

Footnote 2618:

Froehner’s _Cat._ No. 249.

Footnote 2619:

B.M. _Cat. of Terracottas_, D 431-437, and see _ibid._ p. xiii; also

Smith, _Nollekens and his Times_, i. p. 10.

Footnote 2620:

Pottier, _Statuettes de Terre Cuit_, p. 233.

Footnote 2621:

Von Rohden, _Terracotten von Pompeii_, pl. 29, p. 18, 21; Pottier,

_op. cit._ p. 230.

Footnote 2622:

Von Rohden, pl. 32.

Footnote 2623:

_Ibid._ pls. 34-35.

Footnote 2624:

_Ibid._ pl. 19, fig. 2.

Footnote 2625:

_Ibid._ pl. 25: cf. pl. 26.

Footnote 2626:

_Ibid._ pl. 24, 2.

Footnote 2627:

_H.N._ xxxv. 153.

Footnote 2628:

_Ibid._ 156.

Footnote 2629:

_Ibid._ 155: see also on this subject Wickhoff, _Roman Art_, English

edn., p. 42; Blümner, _Technologie_, iii. p. 190; Gardner, _Handbook

of Gk. Sculpture_, p. 33.

Footnote 2630:

Cf. Von Rohden, _op. cit._ p. 24.

Footnote 2631:

_Ibid._: cf. also pls. 35-36, 41, 47. For the subject of the feeding

of the prisoner cf. _Classical Review_, 1901, p. 93.

Footnote 2632:

_Ibid._ pl. 42, pp. 25, 53.

Footnote 2633:

xiv. 178.

Footnote 2634:

_Ibid._ 176, 182.

Footnote 2635:

_Ibid._ 171.

Footnote 2636:

ii. 70: cf. Lactant, _Div. Inst._ ii. 4.

Footnote 2637:

iii. 15.

Footnote 2638:

Lampridius, _Vit._ 25.

Footnote 2639:

i. 10, 23 and 11, 46: cf. Warde Fowler, _Roman Festivals_, p. 272.

Footnote 2640:

_De fer. rom._ 31 (Teubner edn. p. 105); but see Marquardt,

_Staatsverwaltung_, iii. p. 563.

Footnote 2641:

_Sat._ i. 10, 23.

Footnote 2642:

Cf. the ceremony of the Argei on the Ides of May (Preller-Jordan,

_Röm. Mythol._ ii. p. 135).

Footnote 2643:

_Sat._ i. 11, 46-49: cf. Preller-Jordan, _loc. cit._

Footnote 2644:

_Sat._ i. 11, 1.

Footnote 2645:

Cf. Seneca, _Ep._ 12 (i. 12, 3), and other references given by

Blümner, _Technol._ ii. p. 125.

Footnote 2646:

Spartianus, _Vit. Hadriani_, 17.

Footnote 2647:

_Id. Vit. Carac._ 1.

Footnote 2648:

Orelli, _Inscr. Lat._ 4279, 4191.

Footnote 2649:

Suet. _Claud._ 16, _Nero_ 28; Gellius, ii. 3, 5, v. 4, 1.

Footnote 2650:

Dio Cass. lix. 6; Gell. ii. 3, 5.

Footnote 2651:

Tert. _Apol._ 12 and _ad Nat._ i. 12; the Greek word is κάναβος: see

Vol. I. p. 111.

Footnote 2652:

iv. 15.

Footnote 2653:

Von Rohden, pls. 36-45.

Footnote 2654:

_Ibid._ p. 21, fig. 14.

Footnote 2655:

_Op. cit._ p. 22: see also Pottier, _Statuettes de Terre Cuite_, p.

235.

Footnote 2656:

Fernique, _Praeneste_, pp. 166, 211 ff.

Footnote 2657:

Paris, _Élatée_, p. 156.

Footnote 2658:

_Röm. Mitth._ 1886, p. 176: cf. _Archaeologia_, 1. pls. 8, 9.

Footnote 2659:

Wright, _Celt, Roman, and Saxon_^4, p. 281.

Footnote 2660:

_Victoria County Hist. of Norfolk_, p. 291.

Footnote 2661:

_Cat._ p. 71, Nos. 39, 46; p. 70, No. 30.

Footnote 2662:

_Handbook of British Pottery_, 1893, p. 77.

Footnote 2663:

_Figurines en Argile_ (1859): see for abstracts Roach-Smith in

_Collect. Antiq._ vi. p. 48 ff., and Pottier, _Statuettes de Terre

Cuite_, p. 236.

Footnote 2664:

_Rev. Arch._ xi. (1888), p. 145 ff.

Footnote 2665:

_Mémoires de la Soc. Nat. des Antiquaires de France_, li. (1891), p.

65 ff., with a supplement in vol. lx. (1901), p. 189 ff.

Footnote 2666:

_Op. cit._ lx. p. 197.

Footnote 2667:

_Cat. of Terracottas_, E 48-49: cf. Tudot, pl. 9, and Roach-Smith,

_Ill. Rom. Lond._ p. 109.

Footnote 2668:

See the lists given by Tudot (p. 64) and Blanchet (p. 83).

Footnote 2669:

Pl. 3: other examples in pls. 4-14.

Footnote 2670:

See Chapter XXIII. and Pottier, _Statuettes de Terre Cuite_, p. 241.

Footnote 2671:

See the tables given by Blanchet, p. 115.

Footnote 2672:

Blanchet, p. 89. For AVOT see also p. 384.

Footnote 2673:

For a complete list of Gaulish sites on which statuettes were made,

see Blanchet, _Mélanges Gallo-romaines_, ii. (1902), p. 90 ff.

Footnote 2674:

_Op. cit._ lx. p. 204.

Footnote 2675:

_Op. cit._ lx. pp. 206, 234.

Footnote 2676:

_Rev. Arch._ xv. (1890), p. 423 (from Dijon); for a list, see

Blanchet, _op. cit._ li. p. 96.

Footnote 2677:

Orelli, _Inscr. Lat._ 2776.

Footnote 2678:

Blanchet, _op. cit._ plate, fig. 1; _Rev. Arch._ xi. (1888), p. 155,

pl. 6.

Footnote 2679:

Roach-Smith, _Collect. Antiq._ vi. p. 228 ff., pls. 46-47.

Footnote 2680:

_Guildhall Mus. Cat._ p. 71, No. 32. See also for Britain generally,

_Cumbd. and Westmd. Ant. Soc. Trans._ xv. p. 505.

Footnote 2681:

Roach-Smith, _Collect. Antiq._ vii. p. 63; _Ill. Rom. Lond._ p 109.

Footnote 2682:

_Op. cit._ p. 106 ff.

Footnote 2683:

See Blanchet, p. 120 ff.

Footnote 2684:

_Bell. Gall._ vi. 17.

Footnote 2685:

Cf. Heuzey, _Figurines ant. du Louvre_, pls. 2-4.

Footnote 2686:

For a good example at Rouen see Blanchet, p. 167.

Footnote 2687:

Cf. _B.M. Cat. of Terracottas_, D 229 ff.

Footnote 2688:

See Roscher, _s.v._ Fecunditas.

Footnote 2689:

_Op. cit._ lx. p. 198.

Footnote 2690:

See p. 489.

Footnote 2691:

Cf. Lafaye, _Culte des divinités d’Alexandrie_, p. 162 ff.

Footnote 2692:

See Blanchet, _op. cit._ p. 143 ff.

Footnote 2693:

See Von Rohden, _Terracotten von Pompeii_, pl. 27, p. 5.

Footnote 2694:

_Ibid._ pl. 26.

Footnote 2695:

Daremberg and Saglio, _s.v._ Lucerna, fig. 4607: see below, p. 396.

Footnote 2696:

_Re Rust._ iii. 15.

Footnote 2697:

ix. 6.

Footnote 2698:

_Antr. Nymph._ 3, 14 ff. (Teubner).

Footnote 2699:

_Cat. of Terracottas_, E 123-124.

Footnote 2700:

See _Journ. Brit. Arch. Assoc._ xxxii. p. 65.

Footnote 2701:

See also Daremberg and Saglio, _s.v._ Forma, fig. 3186.

Footnote 2702:

_Jahrbuch_, 1901, p. 161 ff.: see also Daremberg and Saglio, _s.v._

Loculus.

Footnote 2703:

_Op. cit._ p. 167. Cf. also for the form the Θησαυροί at Olympia.

Footnote 2704:

_Op. cit._ p. 166; Tudot, _Figurines_, pl. 48; Daremberg and Saglio,

_s.v._ Loculus, fig. 4512.

Footnote 2705:

_Jahrbuch_, 1901, p. 168.

Footnote 2706:

_Ibid._ p. 170.

Footnote 2707:

Cf. also Hor. _Sat._ ii. 6, 10.

Footnote 2708:

Jahrbuch, _loc. cit._

Footnote 2709:

_Miscellanies_, p. 26.

Footnote 2710:

_Jahrbuch_, 1901, p. 178 = _C.I.L._ xv. 6068.

Footnote 2711:

_Jahrbuch_, 1901, p. 179; fig. 200.

Footnote 2712:

See below, p. 428, and _C.I.L._, xv. 6502, 6608; also B.M. Nos. 329,

554.

Footnote 2713:

_Op. cit._ p. 183 ff.

Footnote 2714:

B.M. 488, 490; _C.I.L._ xv. 6610.

Footnote 2715:

_Jahrbuch_, 1901, p. 185; _C.I.L._ xv. 6073: cf. for the signature on

lamps, _ibid._ 6274, and B.M. 477.

Footnote 2716:

See on this subject throughout Babelon, _Traité des monnaies grecques

et romaines_, i. p. 955 (with full bibliography).

Footnote 2717:

_Numism. Journal_, ii. pp. 58, 195.

Footnote 2718:

Hill, _Greek and Roman Coins_, p. 157; _Victoria County History,

Northants_, i. p. 198.

Footnote 2719:

See Daremberg and Saglio, ii. _s.v._ Forma, for an account of the

process.

Footnote 2720:

Daremberg and Saglio, _loc. cit._, fig. 3187.

CHAPTER XX

_ROMAN LAMPS_

Introduction of lamps at Rome—Sites where found—Principal

parts of lamps—Purposes for which used—Superstitious and

other uses—Chronological account of forms—Technical

processes—Subjects—Deities—Mythological and literary

subjects—_Genre_ subjects and animals—Inscriptions on

lamps—Names of potters and their distribution—Centres of

manufacture.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bartoli, _Le antichi lucerne sepolcrali_; _Antichità di Ercolano_,

vol. viii.; Kenner, _Die antiken Thonlampen des k.-k. Münz- und

Antiken-Cabinetes zu Wien_, 1858; Wieseler in _Göttinger

Nachrichten_, 1870 (Kestnersche Sammlung); La Blanchère and

Gauckler, _Cat. du Musée Alaoui_, 1897; Daremberg and Saglio,

_Dict. des Antiqs_, iii. art. LUCERNA (an admirable résumé by

Toutain); Fink in _Sitzungsber. d. Münchener Akad. d. Wissensch._

1900, p. 685 ff.; _C.I.L._, _passim_, _s.v._ Instrumentum

Domesticum, but above all vol. xv. pt. 2, p. 782 ff. (Dressel).

Lamps (_lucernae_) were often made of terracotta, and these are in many

ways of special interest. Originally they appear to have been called

_lychnus_, from the Greek λύχνος, and this word is used by Ennius,

Lucilius, Lucretius, and Virgil.[2721] Varro[2722] says that the word

_lucerna_, from _lux_, was invented when the want of a Latin word was

felt, and that previously _candelae_ or torches had been alone in use,

there being no oil known in Italy suitable for this purpose. Even in

Greece lamps were comparatively rare all through the best period (cf.

Vol. I. p. 106). The oldest lamps found in Rome date from the third

century B.C., and are thought to be of Campanian fabric; they were

found on the Esquiline, and are of quite different character from the

ordinary Roman types.[2723] It would appear, therefore, that originally

the Romans borrowed lamps from Southern Italy. By the time of the

Empire their use had become general, and they are found everywhere. The

increase in their manufacture was mainly due to growing taste in house

decoration, and also to use in funeral ceremonies and for public

purposes, such as illumination. Of the latter use in imperial times

there is plenty of evidence (see below, p. 396).

The sites on which Roman lamps have been found are far too numerous to

discuss in detail, as they embrace every part of the Roman Empire. In

Rome and the neighbourhood they are especially plentiful, as is implied

by the fact that a large portion of the fifteenth volume of the Latin

_Corpus Inscriptionum_ is devoted to those with potters’ stamps alone.

They are found in all parts of Italy, in Gaul, Germany, Britain, Spain,

North Africa, Sicily, Greece, Egypt, Cyprus, and Asia Minor. The

question of centres of manufacture is discussed elsewhere (p. 427) in

connection with the potters’ stamps; but it may be noted that those

found on Greek soil are often of a distinct character from those of

Western Europe, and the stamps on them form a distinct group, being

usually in Greek letters (cf. Vol. I. p. 108). Of provincial sites,

Knidos, Ephesos, Carthage, and some of the German towns have proved

particularly rich in this respect. Large numbers have been found in

London, mostly of the later types, some perhaps of local fabric, and

those in the Romano-British collection of the British Museum are nearly

all from that city or from Colchester. Not the least remarkable fact of

their wide distribution is the occurrence in the most widely separated

regions of the same potter’s stamps and the same subjects, implying in

the former case extensive export from one centre, in the latter

systematic commercial intercourse between the potters of different

districts.

* * * * *

The principal parts of a Roman lamp[2724] are: (1) the reservoir or

body, which contained the oil (_infundibulum_); (2) the flat circular

top, known as the _discus_, sometimes with an ornamented rim (_margo_);

(3) the nozzle, with a hole for the insertion of the wick

(_rostrum_,[2725] _nasus_, myxus[2726]; the wick was called

_ellychnium_); (4) the handle (_ansa_, _manubrium_), which was not

indispensable. In the _discus_ was a filling-hole for pouring in the

oil, sometimes protected by a cover or stopper, and sometimes a second

smaller hole, the purpose of which has been disputed (see p. 406). The

number of nozzles was not limited, though there is usually only one; a

lamp with two is known as _bilychnis_[2727]; one with several, as

_polymyxus_. Martial in one of his epigrams says: “Though I illuminate

whole banquets with my flame, and have so many nozzles (_myxos_), I am

known as a single lamp.”[2728] The wicks were made of a plant known as

_verbascum_ φλόμος or _thryallis_,[2729] but tow, papyrus, and sulphur

were also employed[2730]; the oil was a vegetable oil of some kind.

Sometimes the lamps were provided with a sort of snuffers or tweezers

for extracting and trimming the wick,[2731] as described in a passage

in the _Moretum_ (10 ff.), which speaks of drawing out the wick of a

dying lamp with a needle:

Admovet his pronam submissa fronte lucernam,

Et producit acu stuppas humore carentes

Excitat et crebris languentem flatibus ignem.

The purposes for which lamps were used by the Romans were various, but

fall under three main heads: (1) for purposes of illumination in

private houses, in public buildings, or on occasions of rejoicing; (2)

as offerings in temples; (3) as funerary furniture.

In small houses they were placed either in niches in the walls or on

brackets, or were suspended by chains, or even in some cases hung by

the handle from a nail. An Etruscan terracotta lamp bears evidence of

having been suspended in the last-named manner,[2732] but there is no

doubt that this was more usual with lamps of bronze, there being few in

terracotta which would have admitted of such a use. Sometimes the lamps

were made resting on a kind of support, as is the case with two in the

British Museum, and others found in Africa.[2733] On the support a

figure of a deity was usually modelled in relief.[2734] Combinations of

a lamp and altar are not uncommon, especially at Rome and Naples.[2735]

There are numerous examples from Pompeii and Herculaneum illustrating

their use in private life, although lamps of clay are confined to the

poorer houses or to domestic service. For their use in the bedchamber

at night evidence is afforded by Martial and other writers.[2736] A

rough classification of the existing terracotta lamps might be made by

dividing them into—(1) those with knobs for hanging, (2) those with

handles for carrying, (3) those without handles for placing on tables

or brackets.

Many passages in Latin writers afford evidence for the use of lamps in

processions or for illuminations at times of public rejoicings, such as

triumphs. They were thus used by Cleopatra, at the triumph of Julius

Caesar, at the return of Nero, and so on.[2737] Caligula had theatrical

representations performed by lamp-light at night, and Domitian arranged

hunts and gladiatoral combats _ad lychnuchos_.[2738] Severus Alexander

lighted up the baths with oil-lamps,[2739] and Tertullian speaks of

assisting in political triumphs by defrauding the day with the light of

lamps.[2740] Juvenal also speaks of their use in illuminations.[2741]

Many lamps, especially those with subjects relating to the circus or

games, are inscribed with the word SAECVL(_ares_), and it is possible

that they were used in connection with the Ludi Saeculares, at which

illuminations took place. But lamps with this inscription are not

exclusively ornamented with such subjects.[2742]

Lamps were used for burning in temples, and were also the subject of

votive offerings to the gods, in Greece as well as in Italy. One found

at Oenoanda in Lycia was offered “to the most high God”[2743]; and

those which Sir Charles Newton found in such large numbers at Knidos

(Vol. I. p. 108) were also votive offerings in the temenos of Demeter.

Votive lamps are recorded from Selinus,[2744] and at Carthage numbers

were found round the altar of Saturnus Balcaranensis.[2745] To their

use in the worship of Isis, as referred to by Apuleius, we allude below.

Nearly all lamps have been found in tombs, the custom of placing them

there being one of Asiatic, not of Greek, origin; it became quite

general under the Roman dominion. Christian lamps are found in the

catacombs, but not in cemeteries, showing that the practice came to be

regarded as pagan. At Avisford in Sussex they were found placed in open

bowls with handles, on brackets along the side of a tomb.[2746] The

Roman lamps found in tombs were placed there, like the Greek vases and

the later glass, for the use of the dead, sometimes, though not

necessarily, with the idea of their burning perpetually.[2747] An

inscription on a sepulchral _cippus_ in the British Museum[2748]

directs the heirs of the deceased to place a lighted lamp in his tomb

on the Kalends, Nones, and Ides of each month, and similarly L. Granius

Pudens of the seventh cohort requests that his family should place oil

in a lamp on his birthday.[2749] Another inscription in an elegiac

couplet says: “Whosoever places a lighted lamp in this tomb, may golden

earth cover his ashes.”[2750] A fourth inscription directs the daily

offering of a lamp at the public expense to the _manes_ of a deceased

person.[2751] In the story of the matron of Ephesus, told by Petronius,

a servant-maid is described as replenishing the lamp in a tomb as often

as was required.[2752] Two lamps in the Athens Museum have the subject

of a bear, and over it the inscription ΦΟΒΟC, “Fear”; being found in

tombs, they must have been placed there with some significance, and as,

on the evidence of a Cilician inscription, Phobos was regarded as a

guardian of tombs who frightened off robbers and other evilly-disposed

persons, it may be that the terrible bear was placed on the lamp as a

symbol of this protector of the dead.[2753]

Other superstitious uses of lamps, not connected with the tomb, were

not uncommon. Omens were drawn from the way in which the flame

burned,[2754] and Chrysostom describes a method of naming children by

giving names to lamps, which were then lighted, and the name of the

child was taken from that last extinguished.[2755]

There are also a few other exceptional uses of lamps, as for instance

when they were given as _strenae_, or New Year’s presents. Such lamps

usually have a figure of Victory holding a shield, on which are the

words ANNVM NOVVM FAVSTVM FELICEM, “A happy and prosperous New

Year!”[2756] In the field are heads of Janus, or cakes, wreaths, and

other objects also probably intended for presents. These all appear to

date from the beginning of the first century after Christ.[2757] A lamp

of the same class in the Guildhall Museum has on the shield FIILICTII,

_Felic(i)t(as)_.[2758] It is interesting to note that the New Year

lamps are found in tombs[2759]; they may, of course, have been

preserved and buried as mementoes; but at the same time, it is not

essential that the subject on a lamp should have any relation to its

purpose, as we have seen in the case of those inscribed

_Saeculares_.[2760] The Helioserapis lamp (see p. 403) and those with

Phobos as a bear may, indeed, be instances to the contrary, but on the

whole it would seem that the same rule would apply as in the case of

the terracottas (see Vol. I. p. 122).

[Illustration: FIG. 202. LAMP FROM THE ESQUILINE.]

The earliest Roman lamps are of rude shape, undecorated, with a long

projecting nozzle and circular reservoir; they are not always provided

with handles, but are often covered with black glaze, like the Greek

examples. Lamps of this type are found on the Esquiline, in North

Africa, as at Carthage, and in Sicily.[2761] One of the Esquiline

examples, dating from the second century, has the engraved inscription

VEVCADIA (Fig. 202).[2762] Like the Greek lamps, these are made on the

wheel (τροχήλατοι), not, as later ones, in a mould. Names in _graffito_

seem to imply a reference to the person in whose tomb the lamp was

found, and such formulae as AVE, NOLI ME TANGERE, NII ATTIGAS NON SVM

TVA M · SVM, PONE FVR (“Drop it, thief!”), which occur on the Esquiline

lamps, also clearly refer to funeral usage.[2763]

[Illustration:

FIG. 203.

“DELPHINI-

FORM” LAMP.

]

In the first century B.C. the lamps, still mostly of black ware, and

devoid of subjects, are distinguished by the straight-ended,

concave-sided nozzle 20[26]nozzle with a shallow groove leading to the

centre, small grooved ring-handle, and sometimes a lateral projection

like a fin, from which some varieties are known as “delphiniform” (Fig.

203).[2764] These are often found in North Africa, but are also

imported into Italy, and some have Greek stamps. The top is sometimes

covered with globules, or with patterns of vine and ivy, and in the

later examples figure-subjects are introduced.[2765] The earlier ones

have large single letters or monograms underneath for potters’ marks;

the later, the name of the potter or superintendent of the pottery.

[Illustration: FIG. 204. LAMP WITH VOLUTE-NOZZLE; FIRST CENTURY B.C.]

We now come to the Roman lamps of the Imperial period, of which such

large numbers exist in museums all over Europe and the basin of the

Mediterranean. They have not as yet been very systematically studied

and classified; but so far as the subject has been treated at all,

those who have investigated the development of the forms are fairly

unanimous in their general conclusions.[2766] The last writer on the

subject, Herr Fink, of Munich, has advanced a step further, and by

comparison of forms with potters’ signatures has arrived at some

interesting results, which we need not hesitate to accept in the

main.[2767] He adopted as the basis of his classification the form of

the nozzle in each case, for the obvious reason that it is more

essential to the character of a lamp than the handle; if the latter is

removed, the form is in no way affected, as it would be by the absence

of the nozzle.

[Illustration: FIG. 205. LAMP WITH POINTED VOLUTE-NOZZLE; FIRST CENTURY

B.C.]

Following, then, on the lines of Fink and the other writers, we may

establish—apart from abnormal forms and lamps modelled in the shape of

figures—four main classes, which are sufficient to include practically

all the lamps with which we have to deal. They may be summarised as

follows:

(1) Lamps with rounded nozzle or nozzles, flanked on each side by a

kind of double volute, as in Fig. 204 and B.M. 167-352. The usual

number of nozzles is one, but two are not infrequently found. These

belong to the first century B.C., and, being convenient forms for a

decorated top, are ornamented with all kinds of subjects[2768]; the

handle when present is often ornamented as in the cut.

(2) Lamps of the same type as the last, except that the nozzle ends in

an obtuse-angled termination, as Fig. 205 and B.M. 94-166. It is a form

not adapted for more than one nozzle, and usually has no handle.[2769]

[Illustration: FIG. 206. LAMP WITH GROOVED NOZZLE (NORTH ITALY TYPE);

FIRST CENTURY AFTER CHRIST.]

(3) A small but distinct class, almost devoid of figured decoration

(Fig. 206 and B.M. 379-392), but usually with a potter’s name

underneath; the form is elegant, and probably copied from bronze.[2770]

The chief feature is the sunk centre, in which is usually placed a

Bacchic or comic mask; round it runs a raised rim, through which a

shallow groove passes to the somewhat elongated nozzle. This dates from

the first century of the Empire or earlier, some being found with coins

of Augustus, others at Pompeii; these lamps are of red clay, unglazed,

and have no handle. On the sides are projecting knobs, either

concealing the joins of the moulds (see p. 405), or for the attachment

of chains. The names of the makers, Strobilus, Communis, Fortis, etc.,

are in good raised letters, impressed in the mould (see Fig. 210). They

are found in all parts, but rarely south of Rome; most of them are from

Gallia Cispadana,[2771] and they may have been made at Mutina.

[Illustration: FIG. 207. LAMP WITH SMALL PLAIN NOZZLE; SECOND CENTURY

AFTER CHRIST.]

(4) In this class (Fig. 207 and B.M. 393-567) the nozzle is small, and

hardly projects beyond the rim of the lamp; it is semicircular or

heart-shaped in form, and sometimes has an incised line or circles at

the base. Fig. 208 represents a late development with the heart-shaped

nozzle, in which the design is always surrounded by a wreath or

ornamental pattern. Many of these lamps, especially those found in

Greece (see Vol. I. p. 108), have no handle; there is also a somewhat

late variety, described on the same page, which is confined to Greece

and marked by potters’ signatures in Greek letters (B.M. 604-629).

These lamps date from the time of Trajan onwards; the signatures are

usually abbreviated, and are stamped hollow, or sometimes scratched in

the wet clay; raised letters are rare. The subjects are very varied.

[Illustration: FIG. 208. THIRD-CENTURY TYPE OF LAMP.]

Some of the larger lamps in the first class, especially those with more

than one nozzle, have a flat vertical projection attached to the top of

the handle, triangular in form or crescent-shaped (as in Fig. 204), and

this is often ornamented with figures in relief, either whole subjects

or busts of deities, or such simple motives as a pair of dolphins, a

leaf, or a palmette. The figure-subjects are often quasi-Egyptian, such

as Harpocrates and Safekh on a British Museum example (No. 337 = Plate

LXIII. fig. 3), or a _lectisternium_ of Sarapis, Isis, Helios, and

Selene.[2772] In a few cases this projection is replaced by a bust or

even a seated figure of Sarapis enthroned in a niche. But in most cases

the handle, when present, is of a simple form, either a ring with

shallow parallel grooves or a solid projecting piece through which a

hole is pierced.

------------------------------------------------------

PLATE LXIII

[Illustration:

ROMAN LAMPS OF VARIOUS FORMS (FIRST CENT. B.C.)

(BRITISH MUSEUM).

]

------------------------------------------------------

Lamps of terracotta often assume, like those in bronze,[2773] a more

ornamental form, being modelled partly or wholly in the form of

figures, heads, animals, and so on. In some cases the upper part or

_discus_ only is modelled, assuming the form of a mask—Satyric,

theatrical, or grotesque.[2774] Among the entire-figures which form

lamps occur Artemis,[2775] Eros,[2776] Victory slaying a bull,[2777]

and various animals; more common are heads of Zeus Ammon,[2778] Pan,

Seilenos,[2779] negroes,[2780] and animals such as oxen, birds, snails,

frogs, or tortoises.[2781] A favourite shape is a lamp in the form of a

foot or a pair of feet, shod in sandals or boots,[2782] and there are

two lamps in the British Museum, one of enamelled ware, in the form of

a gladiator’s helmet[2783]; others form fruit, pine-cones or

crescents.[2784] In the lamps which are modelled in the form of a head,

the chin usually forms the nozzle, and the orifice for filling is on

the forehead; in those in the shape of a foot the nozzle is formed by

the great toe. Occasionally lamps are found in the form of a ship,

recalling that which, according to Apuleius, was used in the worship of

Isis: a golden boat or cup (_cymbium_, see Vol. I. p. 186), which shone

with a clear light and sent forth a long flame.[2785] An interesting

commentary on this use of lamps is formed by a remarkable example in

the British Museum (Plate LXIII. fig. 1),[2786] which is not only in

the shape of a boat, but is decorated with subjects referring to the

pseudo-Egyptian cults characteristic of Rome in the late republican and

early imperial period. This lamp, which is no less than twenty inches

long and has numerous holes for wicks along the sides, was dredged up

from the sea at Pozzuoli, where it may originally have been in the

temple of Isis and Sarapis. On it is the inscription [ΕΥΠΛΟΙΑ],

signifying “a prosperous voyage,” perhaps as a prayer on behalf of the

donor, and underneath are the words [ΛΑΒΕ ΜΕ ΤΟΝ] [ΗΛΙΟΣΕΡΑΠΙΝ],

“Receive me, Helioserapis,” by which the name of the vessel may be

intended.

Most lamps had only one wick, but the light which they afforded must

have been feeble, and consequently the number was often increased. When

the number is not large, or when the body is circular (as in Plate

LXIII. fig. 4), they project beyond the rim of the lamp, as in Class I.

already described, but the lamps which have a large number are usually

boat-shaped or rectangular in form (see Plate LXIII.), and the nozzles

do not then project, but are ranged along the sides, merely indicated

by separate moulding underneath.[2787] Occasionally a conglomeration of

small lamps was made in a row or group, but even in these cases the

illumination given must still have been feeble. The average size of a

lamp is from three to four inches in diameter across the body, the

length depending on the form of the handle and nozzle, but averaging

about an inch over the diameter, and they are mostly about an inch in

height. The top of the lamp is almost always circular in form,

occasionally oval, and rarely rectangular,[2788] and is usually

slightly depressed, being thus shaped to enable any overflow of oil to

run down through the filling-hole. Many Greek lamps, and Roman lamps

from Greek sites, such as Cyprus, are convex above, with a small

moulded disc on the raised centre, in which is the hole. These are

either devoid of decoration, or only have an ornamental pattern or a

frieze of figures on a small scale. Usually the subject is enclosed

within a plain moulded rim, but in the later examples (Class IV.)

especially it is more contracted in extent, and surrounded with a

border of ornament, such as the egg-pattern or a wreath of some kind

(see Fig. 208).

Christian lamps, which hardly come within the scope of this work, vary

very little in form; they have ovoid instead of circular bodies, a

plain rounded nozzle, and a small solid handle, and the design is

always encircled by a band of ornamental pattern or symbolical

devices.[2789]

* * * * *

The clay of which the lamps are made is usually of a red colour, due to

the presence of red ochre (_rubrica_), but it varies both in quality

and tone according to localities; those from Greek sites, such as

Athens and Corfu, are often of a pale buff colour, those from Cyprus a

light reddish brown, and so on. Martial refers to the red clay of

Cumae,[2790] a place where lamps are sometimes found, and those from

Naples are usually of a dull brown or yellow colour. Lamps found in

France and England are often imported from Italy, and therefore of the

ordinary red clay, but those of local manufacture are of a white or

yellowish tone.

[Illustration: FIG. 209. MOULD FOR LAMP FROM CATANIA (BRITISH MUSEUM).]

The earliest undecorated examples are made on the wheel, as are those

from the Esquiline and from Carthage, in which the decoration is only

incised; but subjects in relief required a different technique.

Occasionally they are modelled by hand, but we find that from the first

century B.C. onwards they are almost invariably made in moulds,

modelled from a pattern lamp, in a harder and finer clay than the

pattern.[2791] The mould was divided into two parts, adjusted by

mortices and tenons, which, in the opinion of some writers, explains

the lateral projections visible on certain varieties; the lower part

formed the body of the lamp, the upper the decorated _discus_. The two

parts seem to have been marked by corresponding letters to avoid

errors, and there are two or three lower lamp-moulds in the British

Museum from Ephesos and elsewhere, marked with an A on the under side

for this purpose.[2792] Other examples of moulds have been found in

Greece, Italy, and Africa,[2793] and there are also specimens both for

the upper and lower half in the Guildhall Museum.[2794] They were

either of terracotta or plaster.

The clay was impressed into the mould with the fingers, the figured

decoration being applied by means of models or stamps, as with the

Arretine ware (see below, p. 439), and the ornamental patterns probably

produced with a kind of wheel or running instrument, as in Roman

pottery (p. 441). Signatures in relief were taken from the mould, those

in hollow letters were impressed in the lamp itself from a stamp before

baking. Important potteries must have possessed a large number of

moulds; for instance, at Rome alone ninety-one different subjects are

found on the lamps of one potter (L. Caecilius Saevus), eighty-four on

those of C. Oppius Restitutus, fifty-one on those of Florentius, and

there must of course have been many more now lost. It is clear that the

same types were used by different potters; the models must, therefore,

have been handed about from one to another, each potter merely adding

his own name.

The two portions of the mould were joined while the clay was moist, and

pared with a tool, and the orifice for filling was then pierced. Glaze,

when used, was applied before the baking, for which only a moderate

temperature seems to have been required; this process followed as soon

as the clay was dry. In some lamps a small hole or slit may be

observed, which some have thought to be for the pin with which the wick

was extracted,[2795] but it is more probable that it was for a piece of

wood which held the top and bottom of the mould together until the clay

was united; it was usually covered over before the baking, and may have

taken the place of the knobs already spoken of which occur in other

forms. The lamps were baked in batches, placed closely together or

superimposed,[2796] and it sometimes happens that a number are found

united together which had coalesced firmly in the furnace, as in Sir

Charles Newton’s excavations at Knidos.

=Subjects= are first found on lamps in the second century B.C., though

these are quite of a simple character. Lamps of this date from North

Africa[2797] have such designs as an altar and fruit, a vase, or a

caduceus, a head of an ibis, or a nude incised figure of Tanit; others

have merely a wreath round the centre, and these apparently belong to

the first century B.C.[2798] The number of figures is generally small,

it being contrary to the principles of ancient art to crowd a work with

minute figures and details. The majority of lamps have only one figure,

and few beyond those of exceptional size have more than three. As a

rule the treatment is careless and the figures very indistinct, but the

lamps with Greek signatures (see Vol. 1. p. 108) form a notable

exception.

It may be imagined that the lamp-maker sought to gratify the taste of

his customers by ornamenting his ware with familiar subjects.

Purchasers of terracotta lamps were, as has been noted, generally

persons of inferior condition, and the subjects on the lamps are in

many cases a popularising of well-known myths or even of works of art,

such as the Venus types (p. 410) or the Maenads of the “new-Attic”

reliefs (p. 411). The types of Victory and Fortune are reflections of

statues of the period, and are repeated in many bronze statuettes.

There are also, as we shall see, occasional references to literature.

In Rome the stage exerted little influence, and subjects are rarely

taken from the drama (masks are an exception); but the games of the

circus and gladiatorial contests found a ready market, and form a large

proportion of the designs. The subjects on the lamps, in fact,

represent not so much the great masterpieces of art, as do coins or

gems, but, like the Greek vases, the popular art of the day, and may be

compared with the illustrations of the popular journals and magazines

of our own time. On the whole, they are of great value to us as

illustrating Roman life and religion, just as subsequently those on the

Christian lamps are of inestimable importance for the light they throw

on the early ages of our own religion.

As the number of published lamps and catalogues of collections is so

very small, the subjects included in the following list are mostly

confined to the collections in the British Museum, which are quite

sufficiently comprehensive for the purpose.[2799] A few additional

examples are given from the Guildhall, Vienna, and other collections,

from the _Antichità di Ercolano_, Bartoli’s _Lucernae veterum

sepulcrales_, the _Musée Alaoui_, and other isolated sources.[2800]

References to Passeri’s work, _Lucernae fictiles Musei Passerii_, have

been avoided, as it has been shown by Dr. Dressel[2801] that nearly all

those published by him are false.

We proceed to note the principal subjects in detail, observing

practically the same order that was adopted in describing the subjects

on Greek vases. They may be roughly divided into eight classes:—

(1) Olympian deities.

(2) Miscellaneous deities.

(3) Heroic legends, etc.

(4) Historical and literary subjects.

(5) _Genre_ subjects.

(6) Animals.

(7) Inanimate objects.

(8) Floral and decorative devices.

The Olympian deities are not often represented, some not at all, except

on a lamp in the Kestner collection at Göttingen, which has busts of

all the twelve[2802]; they are not, however, clearly distinguished by

attributes. Zeus is represented with Hera and Athena, the three

Capitoline deities of Rome, whom the Etruscans knew as Tinia, Thalna,

and Menerfa, the Romans as Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva.[2803] He also

appears alone, seated on his throne,[2804] but more commonly his bust

only is represented (Plate LXIV. fig. 4), accompanied by his eagle,

which perches on a thunderbolt, sometimes conventionally

rendered.[2805] The eagle and the thunderbolt also appear alone,[2806]

or the former with Ganymede.[2807] A bearded horned mask may be

intended for Dionysos, but is more probably Zeus Ammon.[2808] Sarapis

is sometimes enthroned, with Cerberus at his side[2809]; sometimes only

his bust occurs, surmounted by the usual _kalathos_[2810]; Cerberus is

also found alone.[2811] Hera, except in the instance mentioned, does

not occur. A very interesting lamp from Salamis, Cyprus, now in the

British Museum, represents the contest of Athena and Poseidon for the

possession of Attica[2812]; it is doubtless a reminiscence of the

Parthenon west pediment, though rough and indistinct in execution.

Athena is also seen as a single figure,[2813] seated, or standing in

the usual Promachos attitude, or before an altar, or pursuing a

panther[2814]; her head or bust are not uncommon.[2815] Apollo is

usually represented seated, playing on his lyre, or with the Gryphon at

his side[2816]; Artemis appears as a huntress, accompanied by her

hound, or drawing an arrow from her quiver.[2817] A lyre or a crescent

appearing alone may be the symbols of these two deities.[2818] There

are one or two possible instances of Hephaistos and Poseidon,[2819] and

Demeter may be indicated by a pair of torches[2820]; the latter also

appears in her chariot, seeking for Persephone.[2821] Ares or Mars is

found either as a single figure,[2822] in a chariot,[2823] or playing

with Eros, who steals his armour.[2824] Hermes appears as a single

figure, or accompanied by a sheep, goat, or cock[2825]; in one instance

he presents a purse to Fortune, who is accompanied by Herakles.[2826] A

common subject is his bust, along with his attributes of the purse and

caduceus[2827]; the latter attribute, accompanied by two hands joined,

may also have reference to this deity.[2828] Aphrodite occurs but

rarely; she is either represented accompanied by lions,[2829] or riding

on a goat,[2830] or at the bath or toilet,[2831] or in the Cnidian

type,[2832] all these types being probably reproductions of known works

of art. She is also accompanied by Eros, who assists in arming her;

this type is known as Venus Victrix, and is seen in a group of

Aphrodite and Eros in the Louvre.[2833]

More common than all the Olympian deities put together is Eros or

Cupid, who appears in all sorts of attitudes and actions, besides those

already mentioned.[2834] He sits on a chair or reclines on a

couch,[2835] or is represented in motion, carrying a hare[2836] or a

bird, a dish of fruit or a branch of vine or palm, a cup, situla, or

torch[2837]; or plays on the lyre, flutes, or Pan-pipes[2838]; or

sacrifices a pig, or pours wine into a krater.[2839] He rides on a

donkey,[2840] a dolphin, or a crocodile,[2841] or sails in a

boat[2842]; plays with a chained lion,[2843] or is himself tied to a

tree.[2844] He is represented in the character of Ares, armed with

spear and shield; or in that of Dionysos, with cup and thyrsos; or of

Herakles, whose club he carries; also, probably in the character of

Herakles, he shoots at a serpent.[2845] He is also associated with

Psyche,[2846] and two Erotes sometimes appear together, in one instance

in the character of gladiators fighting, in another of boxers.[2847]

One of the most remarkable lamps in the Museum collection (No. 168)

represents a number of diminutive Erotes playing with the club and cup

of Herakles; it is unfortunately fragmentary, but another example in

Dresden gives the complete design.[2848] One plunges head-foremost into

the cup; three others raise the club with difficulty from the ground,

one supporting it with his back, and a fifth, hovering in the air,

pulls at it with his hands. In front of the last-named are the words

ADIVATE SODALES, “Help, comrades!”

Dionysos is another surprisingly rare figure on the lamps, though his

followers, the Satyrs and Maenads, have their full share of

representation. He occurs as a single figure of youthful

appearance,[2849] and also with his panther, to which he offers his

kantharos to drink from[2850]; his mask or head may also be

recognised.[2851] Pan is occasionally found,[2852] in one case in the

form known as Aegipan (see p. 60) in company with Echo,[2853] in

another as a grotesque bust.[2854] There is also an instance of Marsyas

hung up for his punishment to the branch of a tree.[2855] A pastoral

deity playing flutes on the handle of a lamp in the B.M. (No. 366) may

be either Pan or Marsyas. Satyrs are represented seizing Maenads,[2856]

dancing, drinking, and playing on the Pan-pipes,[2857] or carrying cups

and wine-skins,[2858] or with a goat[2859]; both the bearded and

beardless types are found, and their masks or busts are also

common.[2860] The shaggy-haired Papposeilenos is occasionally

represented.[2861] Maenads are depicted dancing, in frenzied attitudes,

or sacrificing kids; the type is often that of the “new-Attic” reliefs,

derived originally from Scopas, of the Maenad Χιμαιροφόνος.[2862] Their

heads and masks also occur.[2863]

------------------------------------------------------

PLATE LXIV.

[Illustration:

ROMAN LAMPS WITH MYTHOLOGICAL AND LITERARY SUBJECTS

(BRITISH MUSEUM).

]

------------------------------------------------------

Among the minor deities we find that Helios and Selene (Sol and Luna)

are often depicted together,[2864] or Selene alone,[2865] or else their

busts together,[2866] or separately[2867]; in one case there is a

simple representation of the solar disc for Helios.[2868] A curious

subject in the British Museum collection is apparently a combination of

the Christian “Good Shepherd” with Helios and the crescent for

Selene.[2869] Asklepios and Hygieia occur in rare instances,[2870] and

there is an example of Charon in his boat.[2871] Of marine deities and

monsters, Triton or Proteus, wearing the _pileus_ or mariner’s

cap,[2872] Scylla,[2873] and a Nereid riding on a sea-monster (Plate

LXIV. fig. 1)[2874] are found. The popularity of exotic religions at

Rome is testified to by the occurrence, on the one hand, of Kybele with

her lions,[2875] and Atys[2876]; on the other, of Egyptian deities such

as Sarapis, already mentioned, and Harpocrates, who is found either

alone, or with Isis, or with Isis and Anubis,[2877] or with Safekh

(Plate LXIII. fig. 3)[2878]; Isis and Horus, and busts of Hermanubis

and Isis are also found.[2879] On the handle of a lamp is a

_lectisternium_ with busts of Sarapis and Isis, and of Helios and

Selene.[2880] The busts of the two Kabeiri also occasionally

appear.[2881] Among personifications or quasi-personifications we find

the three Charites or Graces[2882] and a Muse with lyre[2883]; others

are all typically Roman, such as a bust of Africa on a lamp from

Carthage,[2884] and such types as Abundantia[2885] (or two cornucopiae

as her symbol[2886]), Vertumnus,[2887] Fortune with her steering-oar

and cornucopia,[2888] and Victory.[2889] Many of these seem to be

reflections of bronze statuettes of the Roman period.[2890] The latter

goddess is frequently found, bearing a wreath, a trophy, or a

shield,[2891] sometimes reclining or in a chariot[2892]; or again

between two Lares[2893]; or two Victories are grouped together.[2894]

Of special interest are what are known as the New Year lamps, given as

_strenae_ on January 1st (see p. 398),[2895] on which Victory is

represented holding a shield, on which is inscribed an aspiration (see

p. 420) for a happy New Year, the head of Janus, cakes, coins

(_stipes_), and other emblems filling in the rest of the design (Plate

LXIV. fig. 5).[2896]

Occasionally the inscription is varied, and appears as “For the safety

of the state”[2897] or “Happiness” simply.[2898] Two Lares confronted,

holding cornucopia, etc., are also found without Victory.[2899] Of

representations of Phobos (Fear) we have spoken already (see p. 398).

There are also representations of terminal deities,[2900] as well as

unidentified goddesses.[2901]

Coming now to the heroes and heroic legends, we find that they play on

the whole an inconsiderable part in the list of subjects on lamps. Leda

is represented with the swan,[2902] and the Dioskuri sometimes appear

as busts[2903]; also Kastor as a full figure, accompanied by his

horse.[2904] Of the labours of Herakles we have the Nemean lion,[2905]

the Erymanthian boar,[2906] the hydra,[2907] and the slaying of the

serpent in the Garden of the Hesperides,[2908] as well as the combat

with a Centaur[2909] and the freeing of Prometheus.[2910] He is also

represented as a single figure, holding the apples of the

Hesperides,[2911] leading kids,[2912] or with a jug or

drinking-cup,[2913] or his head alone (both bearded and beardless

types).[2914] Theseus slays the Amazon Andromache[2915]; Perseus is

represented carrying the Gorgon’s head[2916]; Bellerophon is seen

fallen from his horse Pegasos, or leading him to drink at

Peirene[2917]; there are also possible representations of Kadmos and

Meleager.[2918] Europa is depicted on the bull[2919]; Endymion

asleep[2920]; Aktaeon devoured by his hounds[2921]; Telephos suckled by

the hind[2922]; and Eos pursuing Kephalos.[2923] Icaros in his

attempted flight is watched by Minos from the walls of Knossos (Plate

LXIV. fig. 2).[2924] From the Theban legend we have only Oedipus before

the Sphinx,[2925] a scene from the _Phoenissae_ of Euripides (see p.

415), and Amphion and Zethos seizing the bull for the punishment of

Dirke.[2926] Nor are scenes from the Trojan cycle much more common; but

Achilles and Thetis are represented,[2927] and also Achilles dragging

the body of Hector round the walls of Troy[2928]; there is a curious

scene, somewhat grotesquely treated, of Odysseus and Neoptolemos

stealing the bow of Philoktetes, who fans his wounded foot[2929]; Ajax

is seen grieving after his madness[2930]; and Aeneas carries off his

aged father and his son from Troy.[2931] Odysseus appears before

Kirke,[2932] passing the Sirens,[2933] and offering a cup to

Polyphemos,[2934] but sometimes also without the Cyclops. Orestes

appears at his trial before Athena in the presence of a Fury.[2935] A

Centaur is seen carrying off a woman, and in combat with a

Lapith[2936]; also with a lion,[2937] carrying an amphora,[2938] or

playing flutes.[2939] An Amazon wounded, standing at an altar, and

accompanied by a crane, are also among the list of subjects.[2940] A

single figure of Pegasos,[2941] and the Gorgoneion or

Medusa-head,[2942] are not infrequently found. Combats of Pygmies and

cranes,[2943] and a Pygmy on a crocodile,[2944] may also perhaps be

included under this heading.

The next group of subjects includes those of a historical or literary

character. In the British Museum there are two very interesting

representations of Diogenes in his tub or _pithos_ (see Vol. I. p.

152), presumably addressing Alexander, as in the well-known

story,[2945] but the latter is not represented (Plate LXIV. fig. 6).

Among portraits are busts of Aesop,[2946] and various Roman personages,

such as Hadrian, Antonia, Trajan, Marcus Aurelius, Septimius Severus,

Commodus, Julia Domna,[2947] Lucius Verus,[2948] and others who cannot

be identified.[2949] A scene from the _Phoenissae_ of Euripides occurs

on one lamp, with the combat of the two brothers and the death of

Jocasta; the name of the play is actually inscribed on the lamp.[2950]

With reference to Virgil’s first Eclogue we find a representation of

the shepherd Tityrus on a lamp found at Pozzuoli[2951]; the shepherd,

whose name is given, is seated among his flocks. Several lamps

illustrate the well-known fable of Aesop, of the Fox and Crow.[2952]

The fox, wearing a chlamys, stands on his hind-legs holding up a pair

of flutes to the crow, which is perched on the top of a tree. Another

subject, which doubtless has reference to some fable, is that of a

stork holding in its beak a balance, in which a mouse is weighed

against an elephant.[2953] The humour of the subject lies in the fact

that the mouse is seen to weigh the elephant down. These two are

illustrated on Plate LXV. figs. 3, 6. There is also a lamp in the

British Museum (Plate LXIII. fig. 2) with a curious subject which may

either be a scene from a comedy like those on the South Italian vases,

or else a parody of “a visit to Asklepios.”[2954]

The subjects taken from ordinary life are eminently characteristic of

the social life of Rome under the Empire. An almost inordinate

proportion relate to the now popular gladiatorial shows, and many

others deal with the events of the circus and arena. Of gladiatorial

subjects there are three principal varieties, which occur again and

again on lamps of all shapes and periods with little alteration.[2955]

One class represents a single gladiator in the characteristic armour,

with visored helmet, greaves, and arm-guards, sword and shield[2956];

the next represents a combat of two (Plate LXV. fig. 5), in which the

one is usually worsted and falls at the other’s feet, his shield on the

ground beside him.[2957] An interesting example in the British Museum

(No. 526) shows a _mirmillo_ or _secutor_ in combat with a _retiarius_,

who fought with net and trident. The third series has representations

of gladiatorial armour ranged in a circle: swords, shields, arm-guards,

greaves, and helmets.[2958]

------------------------------------------------------

PLATE LXV.

[Illustration:

ROMAN LAMPS WITH MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS

(BRITISH MUSEUM).

]

------------------------------------------------------

From the circus and games we have such subjects as a naval contest in

the amphitheatre[2959]; a bull-fight[2960]; a _bestiarius_ contending

with boars[2961]; a man leaping over a bull[2962]; and boxers.[2963] A

remarkable lamp in the British Museum (No. 164 = Plate LXV. fig. 4)

gives a representation of a chariot-race in the circus; we have the

colonnade of latticed barriers (_carceres_) from which the chariots

started, the _spina_ down the middle of the course, adorned with

shrines and obelisks, and rows of seats full of spectators; four

chariots take part in the race. Next there are scenes such as an

athlete crowning himself, a victorious charioteer in his quadriga, or a

victory in the horse-race.[2964] Of more miscellaneous character are

such subjects as a chariot drawn by four men, a two-horse or four-horse

chariot by itself, or a man or boy on horseback.[2965]

Military subjects are at all times rare, but a not infrequent subject

is a mounted warrior charging with a spear[2966]; a soldier is also

depicted with a bird,[2967] at an altar, taking an oath, and saluting

an officer who rides past.[2968] There are also representations of an

_imperator_ on his triumphal car,[2969] of an eagle and standard,[2970]

and of a trophy perhaps commemorating a victory over barbarians.[2971]

A representation of a ship or galley is not uncommon, but sometimes it

is not easy to distinguish these from the type of Odysseus and the

Sirens.[2972] Some lamps have landscapes in the style of Alexandrine

reliefs and chased metalwork, as for instance a harbour surrounded by

buildings, in which two fishermen pursue their vocation (Plate LXV.

fig. 1),[2973] or a hunter accompanied by a porter, with a town in the

background.[2974] Among pastoral scenes we have also, besides the

Tityrus already mentioned, shepherds and goatherds with their dogs,

tending sheep and goats which nibble the foliage of trees[2975];

fishermen,[2976] and hunters, as already noted. Another interesting

type is that of a juggler or mountebank accompanied by a dog and a cat,

which climb ladders, jump through rings, and perform other tricks

(Plate LXV. fig. 2).[2977] Of a more miscellaneous character are such

subjects as a butcher slaughtering animals hung from a tree[2978]; a

fuller at work[2979]; a slave washing a dog, and another washing a

statue[2980]; slaves carrying casks or _fasces_[2981]; a mule turning a

mill.[2982] Others, again, do not admit of any exact classification;

such are a man and woman embracing; a woman scraping herself after the

bath; a youth with a mortar; the sacrifice of a pig[2983]; a man riding

on a camel or elephant,[2984] or driving a camel[2985]; a dwarf in a

boat or playing on a flute[2986]; comic actors,[2987] and comic and

tragic masks[2988] innumerable; and two skeletons dancing.[2989]

Animals form a large proportion of the representations on lamps,[2990]

especially on the late class without handle from Knidos (Vol. I. p.

108), and include Gryphons, elephants, lions, panthers, boars, bears,

wolves, deer, horses, oxen, sheep, goats, dogs, rabbits, eagles,

storks, ostriches,[2991] peacocks,[2992] parrots,[2993] cocks and hens,

and other birds; dolphins, sea-horses, cuttle-fish and other kinds of

fish, scorpions,[2994] frogs, shell-fish, and so on. Those mentioned so

far are single figures, merely decorative; in others there is more

definite action. Such are a lion attacking a bull or crocodile, or

seizing a hind or a donkey[2995]; two bears dancing[2996]; a monkey and

vine[2997]; a dog on a couch,[2998] fighting with a goose, or attacking

a stag,[2999] hind, or boar[3000]; two monkeys in a boat[3001]; a hare

or rabbit nibbling at a plant[3002]; a bird on a twig, sometimes eating

fruit[3003]; an eagle seizing a hare[3004]; an ibis and a

serpent[3005]; a hen with chickens, cocks fighting, or a cock pursuing

a hen[3006]; dolphins twisted round a trident or anchor; a crocodile

and serpent; a lizard or sea-monster and eel; two serpents, sea-horses,

or dolphins with an altar between[3007]; and a grasshopper eating

grapes.[3008]

There are also a large number of lamps, the centre of which is only

ornamented with some decorative motive, such as a _carchesium_ (Vol. I.

p. 188), situla, or krater, from which spring vine-branches, ivy, or

other plants; an oinochoë, flask, or drinking-cup; palm-branches,

wreaths of ivy, vine, oak, and myrtle, sprays of flowers; a cornucopia

and caduceus,[3009] or other emblems of deities, such as two hands

joined with a caduceus behind them (see p. 410); scallop-shells; or

purely conventional patterns, such as large four-leaved flowers, stars,

and rosettes. The latter are mostly found on lamps from Greek sites,

especially in Cyprus, and at Tarsus and Knidos. Many lamps have no

decoration on the _discus_, but only comic masks round the edge, or a

border of foliage.

The Christian lamps are as a rule easily to be distinguished from the

pagan by their form, as well as by their subjects. These subjects are

mainly taken from the Old Testament, from the life of our Lord, and

from the sphere of symbolism; the Good Shepherd, the seven-branched

candlestick, the cross or _labarum_, and the sacred monogram, are all

favourites.[3010]

* * * * *

A considerable number of Roman lamps have inscriptions, either

impressed in relief or hollow letters from a stamp, or engraved with a

pointed instrument; the stamps were probably of bronze. Potters’

signatures and trade-marks are always underneath the lamp, and those

found on the top usually relate in some way to the subject. Sometimes,

as in lamps from Pozzuoli and Naples,[3011] the inscriptions are in

relief on the surface, in small tablets. They may, however, be

classified under four headings:—

(1) Inscriptions referring to the circumstances under which or for

which the lamp was made, as, for instance, with reference to

national events or public games, or for religious dedications.

(2) Inscriptions descriptive of the subjects.

(3) Acclamations or formulae addressed by the potter to the public.

(4) Signatures of potters or trade-marks; this class is by far the

most numerous.