About the year 80 B.C. the method known as opus reticulatum was introduced, in which the bricks presented square faces (about 4 inches each way), and were arranged diagonally to form a network pattern (Fig. 187). At Pompeii the opus reticulatum dates from the time of Augustus; it is laid on concrete, and the bricks are small four-sided pyramids with bases 3 to 4 inches square.^[2435] This method lasted down to about A.D. 130 in Italy. It should, however, be noted that it was commoner in stone than in brick, the latter material not having come into general use for building at the time when it was employed.^[2436] But even when tufa was used for the reticulated work, bricks or tiles were used for quoins at the angles, and for bonding courses through the walls, as well as for arches and vaults (Fig. 188). This combination of opus reticulatum and brickwork is well illustrated in the palace of Caligula.^[2437] In the case of vaults, indeed, the use of brick seems to have been general, as in the baths of Caracalla, and many other buildings (cf. Fig. 189). Vitruvius^[2438] advises the use of tegulae bipedales to protect the wooden joists over the vaults from being rotted by the steam from the hot bathrooms; they were to be placed over the whole under-surface of the concrete vault, supported on iron girders, which were suspended from the concrete by iron clamps or pins. Over the whole was laid a coating of cement (opus tectorium) in which pounded pottery was the chief constituent, and this was stuccoed.^[2439]

The opus mixtum (the term is not classical) prevailed regularly under the later Empire, from the fourth to the sixth century; the earliest example which can be dated is the circus of Maxentius. It is also used in work of the time of Theodoric.^[2440] The method of construction is shown in Fig. 190.

The reason for the limited use of brick in Rome may have been the scarcity of wood for fuel for the kilns. But in any case the pointed backs of the bricks made a good bonding with concrete, and presented a large surface with a comparatively small amount of clay. The secret of the wonderful durability of Roman buildings is that each wall was one solid coherent mass, owing to the excellence of the concrete. In the Pantheon the concrete of the dome is nearly 20 feet thick, the brick facing only about 5 inches. The character of the brick facing often indicates the date of a wall, the bricks in early work being thick and the joints thin; later, the reverse is the case. But caution must be exercised in dating on this principle, owing to the great variety of methods employed during the same reign, and even in the same building.^[2441]

The word for a tile, tegula, is derived from tegere, to cover, or, as Isidorus says, they are so called quod aedes tegant^[2442]; the curved roof-tiles were known as imbrices because they received rain-showers (imbres). The maker of roof-tiles was known as tegularius^[2443] or figulus ab imbricibus.^[2444] Tegulae or flat roof-tiles were usually made with vertical flanges (2½ inches high) down the sides, and these flanges, which fitted into one another longitudinally, when placed side by side served to hold the covering-tiles placed over them. There were also roof-tiles known as tegulae deliciares^[2445] and colliciares, which formed the arrangement underneath the surface of the roof by means of which the water was collected from the tegulae and carried off in the front through spouts in the form of lions’ heads.^[2446]

Besides the various rectangular forms we find triangular tiles used, either equilateral or right-angled; semicircular or curved tiles, used for circular walls, ovens, tombs, and cornices, or other parts of buildings; cylindrical tiles (tubuli fictiles),^[2447] which were used for drains and conduits; and, finally, the rectangular hollow flue-tiles, employed for hot air in hypocausts.^[2448] Another form was the tegula mammata, a plain square tile with four knobs or breast-like projections (mammae), which was often used in party-walls with the object of keeping out damp.^[2449] The tiles were inserted by the points of the projections into the concrete, thus leaving a space between in which the warm air could circulate freely.

Existing examples of tiles are composed of a compact dense clay, less fine than that of the bricks, and of a pale salmon or light straw colour when baked. They were probably made in moulds—but these may only have been a couple of boards placed together—and after being dried in the sun were baked in kilns. The flanged tiles were, of course, produced by turning up the edges before drying. Besides the arrangement described above, it is probable that roofs were sometimes tiled in the manner prevalent in the present day, with flat or curved tiles overlapping like scales; and for this purpose the tiles seem to have been pierced with holes at one corner, and so attached to one another. The same method obtained in the Roman villas in Britain, except that Stonesfield slate was used in place of tiles. An inscription found at Niederbrunnen in Germany speaks of attegia tegulicia, or huts roofed with tiles, erected in honour of Mercury.^[2450]

Tiles with turned-up edges or flanged tiles were principally employed, as has been indicated, for roofing; but some were also placed in walls where required, especially where a space was required for the passage of air.^[2451] They were also employed for the floors of bath-rooms, in which case they were laid on the pilae of the hypocaust in an inverted position, and the cement flooring was laid upon them. The flanges are generally about 2¼ inches higher than the lower surface of the tile; they are bevelled on the inner side in order to diminish the diameter of the imbrex, but have no holes for nailing to the rafters. The ends of the sides were cut away in order that the lower edge of one tile might rest on the upper edge of the one adjoining. Those found in France are said to be distinguished by the sand and stones found in their composition.^[2452] There are flange tiles of red and yellow clay from the Roman Thermae at Saintes in the Museum of Sèvres, and others from ancient potteries at Milhac de Nontron, as well as tiles of red clay from Palmyra.^[2453] In the military castra in England flange tiles of a red or yellow colour have been found, the latter with fragments of red tiles mixed in the clay. They are also often found in the ruins of villas. A flange tile from Boxmoor, Herts, now in the British Museum, measures 15½ by 12 inches, the flange being 2¼ inches high; and it will be seen that these dimensions correspond roughly with the tegulae bipedales. Flanged tiles with holes in them appear to have been used at Pompeii for lighting passages, the flanges serving to keep out rain.^[2454]

The imbrices or covering-tiles which held the flat tiles together, thus rendering the roof compact, were quite plain, with the exception of the end ones over the gutters. These were in the form of antefixal ornaments like the Greek examples (Vol. I. p. 98), an upright semi-oval termination ornamented with a relief or painted pattern, with an arched support at the back. Many examples exist at Pompeii (see below), Ostia,^[2455] and elsewhere; but artistically they are far inferior to the Greek examples, and of simpler design. Most of them have a simple palmette or acanthus pattern in low relief, but on or below this an ideal head or the head of a deity is sometimes added, such as Zeus Ammon, Medusa, a Bacchic head, or a mask, or even a figure of Victory. Of the last-named there is a good specimen in the British Museum (D 690 = Fig. 191); she carries a trophy from the battle of Actium, and stands on a globe from which spring two Capricorns (the symbol of Augustus).^[2456]

No better example of the various uses of ornamental tiles in architecture can be selected than the remains found at Pompeii, which are exceedingly numerous. Terracotta seems to have been used here especially for such parts of the decoration as were exposed to wet, as well-mouths, gutters, and antefixal tiles.^[2457] A characteristic feature of the decoration of Pompeian houses was the trough-like gutter which surrounded and formed an ornamental cornice to the compluvium or open skylight of the atrium and peristyle, through and from which the rain-water was collected in the impluvium or tank sunk in the ground below. These were adorned with spouts in the form of animals’ heads or foreparts,^[2458] usually lions and dogs, with borders of palmettes between; the gutter behind was virtually a long tank of square section.

Antefixes and gutter-cornices, where they occur, must always be regarded as serving ornamental rather than necessary purposes. All early work in terracotta at Pompeii is of coarse clay, but good execution; later, the reverse is the case. The only public building in which many remains of terracotta tiles and cornices have been preserved is the temple of Isis; but the Basilica may also have had terracotta decoration. Many fragments also remain from private houses, some actually in situ, having been neglected by early explorers as unimportant. In the house of Sallust a kymation cornice from one of the garden courts has scenic masks forming the spouts; this is not earlier than the rebuilding of the house A.D. 63. There is also much terracotta work in the house of the Faun.^[2459] Comic masks were used both as spouts and as antefixes, the exaggerated mouth of the mask serving admirably for the former purpose.^[2460] These date from the reigns of Nero and Vespasian, and all seem to be from the same fabric, although there is considerable variety in the types; the use of masks for these purposes is not earlier than Nero’s reign (cf. the house of Sallust, above). Besides the ornaments above mentioned the patterns on the cornices include palmettes and floral scrolls, dolphins and Gryphons.

The roof-tiles were of the usual kinds, flat oblong tegulae with flanges, measuring 24 by 19 by 20 inches,^[2461] with semi-cylindrical imbrices. They were laid in lines parallel to the long ridges of the roofs, so that the water converged into the gutter-tiles at the angles, whence it fell into the impluvium. These gutters, however, were not confined to the angles of the openings, but were sometimes ranged along the whole length of the sides, as we have seen; those at the angles only seem to be earlier in date. They are not found on the exteriors of buildings. The front of the gutter was usually in the form of a vertical kymation moulding, but was sometimes simply chamfered. Antefixal ornaments terminating the covering or ridge-tiles are not invariable, but are found at different periods. The earliest examples are in the form of palmettes, but the later exhibit a great variety^[2462]: comic masks, a head in low relief on a palmette, or a head surmounted by a palmette. Of the latter class thirty-eight were found in 1861. In the Augustan period ideal heads of gods and demi-gods are sometimes found.^[2463]

Von Rohden, in summing up (p. 14), is of the opinion that terracotta roof-decoration at Pompeii was comparatively rare. In the whole record of excavations only twenty-three water-spouts are mentioned, though it is probable that many were never registered. In scarcely more than twelve private houses have as many pieces been found as would suffice for the whole of the atrium and peristyle roofs, and nearly all of these are of late date. The discovery of isolated pieces in a house seems to show that they were used up again in the restorations after the earthquake of A.D. 63.

There are also some good examples of roof-tiles among those which have been found at Ostia, both in baths and private houses; some of the latter came from a house of which the brickwork bore inscriptions with the names of consuls of Hadrian’s reign. The arrangement of the roof-tiles is that described on p. 341; the antefixal ornaments are usually in the form of palmettes or acanthus leaves, with maeander below; but heads of deities, such as Venus and Neptune,^[2464] or of Medusa, and tragic masks were also found. Two exceptional examples had groups in relief of Neptune drawn over the sea by hippocamps, and of the statue of Cybele in the ship drawn by the Vestal Virgin Claudia.^[2465]

Tiles of the size known as bipedales are also used for lining the walls of rooms. They are found in Roman villas in Britain, and are ornamented on one side with various incised patterns, made with a tool in the wet clay. On some found at Ridgewell in Essex the decoration consists of lozenges, rosettes, and other ornaments,^[2466] like those on the Pile Cinq-Mars already described; they are often found covered with the stucco with which the walls were plastered. At Pompeii, Orvieto, and elsewhere the stucco-painted walls were constructed with tegulae mammatae placed edgewise, and connected with the main walls by leaden cramps, the brick lining being thus detached from the walls by a narrow interval which served as an air-cavity.^[2467] This was a frequent proceeding, and was also contrived with flanged tiles; it corresponds with the system prescribed by Vitruvius for keeping damp from the painted walls of rooms.^[2468] It was also largely employed in baths and bathrooms, the object being both to keep the walls dry and to allow hot air to circulate from the hypocausts and warm the rooms. In the cold climate of Britain the Romans found this a universal necessity, and instances may be observed in many of their villas; but, as far as can be observed, the general method of warming was by an extensive system of pipes under the floors rather than up the walls.^[2469] These tiles are pierced with holes, by means of which they were attached to the walls by plugs or nails of lead. In the castrum at Jublains a chamber is yet partly standing with one of its sides coated with tiles of this kind.^[2470]

More commonly, however, a peculiar kind of tile was used for warming the hot rooms (sudationes) of baths, and in villas when required. They were hollow parallelopipeds, known as tubi, with a hole in the side for the escape of the air which traversed them, the usual dimensions being about 16 by 6 by 5 inches.^[2471] Seneca speaks of pipes inserted in walls, which allowed the warmth to circulate and warm both the upper and lower stories equally^[2472]; and the younger Pliny mentions the air-holes (fenestrae) in the pipes which warmed his bedroom, by means of which the temperature could be regulated at pleasure.^[2473] Sometimes, as in the baths of Caracalla and the house of the Vestals, the whole side of a wall was composed of flue-tiles covered with cement,^[2474] which was made to adhere by scoring the sides with wavy or diagonal lines, as in the flat tiles described above, and as is often done in modern building. The whole system of heating, which may be seen in the baths of Caracalla, is very instructive (Fig. 192): the walls were of concrete with brick facing, through which a system of flues of socket-jointed tiles passes upwards from the hypocaust below, effectually warming every part.^[2475]

The hollow tiles often assume a more ornamental appearance (as in Fig. 193), the patterns scratched on them taking the form of lozenges and diapers, chevrons, chequers, and rosettes, as may be seen in a Roman villa at Hartlip in Kent, where other tiles are simply scored with squares.^[2476] This villa is remarkable for the extensive use of tiles throughout; even the staircases are constructed with them. Others found in Essex and Surrey have dogs, stags, and initial letters among foliage; one found in London had among the wavy lines of pattern the letters Px Tx^[2477]; and another, from Plaxtol in Kent, the local maker’s name, CABRIABANTI.^[2478] These hollow tiles, which are generally of the same clay as the roof-tiles, were also occasionally used as pillars of hypocausts,^[2479] but for this purpose columns of tegulae bessales were more usual, as Vitruvius implies.^[2480] Many examples may be seen in the Roman villas of Britain, as at Cirencester, Chedworth, Lympne, and Wroxeter. In a villa found at Carisbrooke, Isle of Wight, the whole bath was constructed of tiles, the floor supported by pilae of the same.^[2481] At Bath the hollow tiles are actually used as voussoirs for arches and vaults.^[2482]

Through these chimneys—for this is what they practically were—the hot air circulated and gave an imperfect warmth to the rooms, the heat radiating from the walls or penetrating through the air-holes.^[2483] The pipes standing close to one another virtually made up the wall; but the exact method by which the warming was accomplished, without great inconvenience to the occupiers of the rooms, is not quite clear. It is not difficult to imagine that the tiles would have warmed rooms merely by the introduction of hot air circulating through them, even though covered with stucco. On the other hand, the apertures for admitting the air into the rooms, if of any size, must also have admitted smoke from the hypocausts, and interfered with the ventilation. It may be that they were not made for this purpose at all, but only for fastening the pipes together or to the walls. Another difficulty is the method in which the flues made their exit into the open air. It has been suggested, partly on the analogy of a mosaic found in Algeria, that they ended above in an arrangement like a chimney-stack. There is, moreover, a terracotta roof-tile in the Museo delle Terme at Rome with a circular pipe, 8 inches in diameter, projecting from its upper surface.^[2484]

Terracotta pipes, or tubuli, of cylindrical form, were sometimes employed by the Romans for conveying or distributing water, but the more usual material for this purpose, especially for drinking-water, was lead; the latter were called fistulae.^[2485] The Venafrum inscription, an edict of the Emperor relating to the water-supply of the town, mentions canales, fistulae, and tubi.^[2486] Vitruvius calls the canales structiles, implying that they were of masonry.^[2487] Pliny speaks of tubi fictiles used for conduits from fountains,^[2488] and Vitruvius recommends the use of terracotta pipes (tubuli fictiles) in aqueducts.^[2489] Examples of clay piping are preserved in the Museo delle Terme at Rome. At Marzabotto, near Bologna, terracotta pipes were used for carrying off the water from the roof of a house, by means of a straight tube through the wall fitting into another which curved upwards inside.^[2490] These date from the fifth century B.C. Other examples have been found in Rome and Italy,^[2491] and specimens found on the Rhine were 21½ inches long, of which ¾ inch was inserted into the adjoining pipe, and 3½ to 4½ inches in diameter. Terracotta was also used for cisterns, as at Taormina,^[2492] and for aqueducts; but Lanciani has pointed out that its use in these ways was confined to irrigating purposes. The Campagna of Rome was formerly extensively drained with these tiles, and owed to that circumstance much of its ancient healthfulness.

Of the use of tiles in pavements there is frequent mention in Roman writers.^[2493] For this purpose complete tiles were seldom used, at any rate in Italy; but in Britain it was not at all uncommon, as in the villa at Hartlip already mentioned. On the other hand, hypocausts were regularly paved with tiles, as in the Baths of Caracalla (Fig. 192 above),^[2494] and in an example found at Cirencester, where the tiles are flanged.^[2495] But in another form tiles played a considerable part in Roman methods of paving. Pliny and other writers^[2496] speak of pavimentum testaceum or opus signinum as the usual pavement for rooms, especially those liable to damp, such as kitchens and outbuildings, or for baths and cisterns. This was made of a layer of fragments of tiles stamped and pounded into a firm solid mass, combined with mortar. It corresponds to the nucleus ex testis tunsis of Vitruvius, which (to a depth of six inches) was laid on the rudus or coarser concrete. On this was laid the flooring, consisting either of tiles or marble slabs, or more generally of mosaic. The Baths of Caracalla again afford a good illustration of the process.^[2497] In the mosaics too fragments of clay were often used, especially for producing red or black colour.^[2498] Vitruvius and other writers allude to this practice,^[2499] and the former also speaks of testacea spicata, a kind of false mosaic made with small bricks about 4 inches by 1 inch, set on edge to form a herring-bone pattern. In the Guildhall Museum is part of a tesselated pavement of concrete, faced with small bricks about an inch square.

One of the most interesting uses of tiles by the Romans is in connection with their tombs. Not only are they used in the construction of the more magnificent edifices (cf. p. 336), but they were also often employed (as in Greece) for the humbler graves. For the latter, three, or sometimes six, tegulae bipedales were set up in the form of a prism, one forming the floor, the other two the gabled covering which protected the body from the superincumbent earth. Within this were laid the ollae or sepulchral urns which held the ashes of the dead, and other vases. A tomb found at Litlington in Cambridgeshire was covered with a large flanged tile, which protected the pottery buried underneath^[2500]; and at Eastlow Hill in Suffolk a tomb was found roofed with twelve rows of flanged tiles, each side in rows of four.^[2501] In some of the tombs of Greece belonging to the Roman period semi-cylindrical tiles were used for this purpose. In the provinces the tiles often have impressed upon them in large letters the names of the legions which garrisoned the various cities. The tiles of Roman tombs at York are inscribed with the names of the sixth and ninth legions which were quartered there: as LEG · VI · VICT · P · F, legio sexta victrix pia fidelis; LEG · IX · HISP (or VICT), legio nona Hispana (or victrix).^[2502] At Caerleon (Isca Silurum) the bricks bear the name of the second or Augustan legion: LEG · II · AVG.^[2503] The stations of the twentieth legion may also be traced at Chester in this manner; the tiles are inscribed LEG · XX · V · V.^[2504] They were placed at the foot of the tomb like tombstones, in order to indicate who was buried beneath, the inscriptions being written across the breadth of the tile. They are of very different dates, some of those in Britain being apparently as late as the introduction of Christianity.

The extent to which bricks and tiles were used in Roman buildings under the Empire may be gauged by the number of those with inscriptions which remain; a whole section of the Latin Corpus (see below) is devoted to those found in Rome alone, numbering some two thousand. Many of them have been removed to the museums from the principal edifices, such as the Pantheon, the Coliseum, the Circus Maximus, the Baths of Titus and Caracalla, the Basilica of Constantine, and the Praetorian Camp. Other inscriptions have been found on tiles removed from such buildings and used to repair the roofs of churches in Rome. Such places as Bologna, Cortona, Tibur, and Ostia have also produced numerous inscribed tiles of this class. The use of such stamps was to guarantee the quality of the clay. To the topographer, as will be seen, these stamps are often of great value; and had the custom of placing on them the names of the buildings for which they were intended been less rare, they might often have afforded valuable evidence as to doubtful sites. Besides their topographical value, the tiles also help to settle the succession of consuls, and throw great light on the economy of the Roman farms and the possessions of the great landed proprietors. The uninterrupted series, extending from the times of the Caesars to the age of Septimius Severus, of names of proprietors, potters, and estates, tells much of the internal condition of Italy, and of one of the sources of revenue to the Roman nobility.^[2505]

The stamps found on bricks and tiles are of four kinds—rectangular, semicircular, circular, and crescent-shaped. The inscriptions are in raised letters in all cases, but instances are also known of incised inscriptions, written without frames across the tile. After the time of Diocletian the only forms found are square, circular, and octagonal; the square stamps always have straight inscriptions. On the circular stamps the inscriptions are placed in a circle, in one or two lines, and the beginning is determined by a small cut-out circle at the edge of the stamp, thus 2022orbiculus known as the orbiculus; apart from this its object is uncertain. In later stamps the inscription often reads backwards, or certain letters are reversed. The letters were cut straight in a mould and lie in the plane of the surface, being of rectangular section, not wedge-shaped, as in inscriptions on marble. During the Republican period and the first century of the Empire a plain “block” type is used; then the letters become smaller and more elegant, with bars at the ends of the hastae, as 2054E, M etc. Finally they show a tendency about A.D. 200 to become broader and shorter: 2076E, M, S At and after the time of Diocletian the forms become very varied. Punctuation in the best period takes the form of a 1517triangle afterwards the mark becomes vague in form. Ligatured letters are rarely found after the time of Diocletian, but are common in the best period; sometimes more than two are combined.^[2506] The stamps with which the letters were made were usually of wood or bronze, but have not been preserved.

In the centre of the stamp it was customary to place an emblem or device of some kind, perhaps in view of a law which obliged brick and tile makers to affix distinctive marks or emblems on their bricks; but the devices are not peculiar to individual workshops, and some potteries, such as the Terentian (see below), used several. They may be compared with the countermarks or small adjuncts on the coins of the Republic, and the seals and stamps on the wine-amphorae of Thasos (Vol. I. p. 158). Figures of gods, such as Mars, Cupid, and Victory, animals, and even groups of figures, occur, and after the third century Christian emblems are often found. It is most probable that they were merely ornamental and without significance, except in certain cases of canting or punning allusions. Thus M. Rutilius Lupus has a wolf; Flavius Aper a boar; Aquilia an eagle; C. Julius Stephanus a wreath; and Aelius Asclepiades a serpent, with reference to the god Asklepios.^[2507]

The most complete stamps have the date of the emperor or the consulship, the name of the estates (praedia) which supplied the clay, that of the pottery where it was baked (figlinae or officina), and that of the potter who prepared it; sometimes even of the slave who moulded the tile, and even its very dimensions. Two typical examples may be given from the British Museum collection,^[2508] of which the first (Fig. 194) is said to have been found in the Catacombs at Rome. It has in the centre of the stamp a figure of Victory, round which is the inscription in two lines, beginning with the outer band:

The other has no device, but the last word of the inscription is in the centre:

“The Emperor Antoninus for the second time and Balbinus consuls; from the estates (de praediis) of Q. Servilius Pudens, pottery (doliare opus) from the hand of the slave Arabus.”

The earlier stamps exhibit more method and precision; the later betray comparative carelessness. In the latter the name of the emperor sometimes occurs alone, and unusual expressions are introduced. Contractions are invariable at all periods, and even the consuls are sometimes only mentioned by initials; but by comparison of examples it is possible to place them in the right order. Those found in Rome cover the period from the reign of Trajan to that of Theodoric (A.D. 500), but in other parts of Italy they are found dating as early as 50 B.C. We are told that Theodoric, when he repaired the walls of Rome, made a present of twenty-five thousand tiles for the purpose,^[2510] and on the tiles bearing his name he is styled “The good and glorious king,” with the additional exclamation, “Happy is Rome!”^[2511]

The estates on which the clay for the tiles was produced are called possessiones; privata (private property); rationes (shares); insulae (blocks); or more generally, praedia. The latter word, indeed, is almost invariably used down to the third century, the others being more characteristic of the time of Diocletian. The praedia not only provided the clay, but in some cases also contained the potteries. On some tiles fundus, which means a country farm, is found. The proprietors of these estates were imperial personages, persons of consular dignity or equestrian rank, and sometimes imperial freedmen. Many tiles give merely the name of the imperial estates, without mentioning the reigning emperor; in the later ones, as in the Basilica of Constantine, it is usual to find the expression OFF · AVGG ET CAES NN, Officina Augustorum (duorum) et Caesarum (duorum) nostrorum.^[2512] Several names of the Antonines occur; also Annius Verus and his wife Domitia Lucilla, the parents of M. Aurelius. Septimius Severus owned many praedia which supplied bricks for his palace on the Palatine.^[2513] The Empress Plotina was evidently a large landed proprietor, and we also find the names of Aelius Caesar (Hadrian’s adopted heir), M. Aurelius, Faustina II., and Julia Procula. Among the names of inferior proprietors, unknown to fame, occur Q. Servilius Pudens, T. Statilius Severus, and L. Aemilius Julianus, priest of the sun and moon.^[2514] Such names as Q. Agathyrsus, Rutilius Successus, and Sulpicius Servandus seem to denote imperial freedmen; the first-named styles himself AVG · LIB.^[2515]

A remarkable fact in connection with these inscriptions is the prevalence of feminine names, the quantity of tiles on which these are found being enormous. The causes are various,—partly the renunciation by emperors of their private fortunes in favour of their female relations; partly the proscriptions which, from the failure of male heirs, caused estates to devolve upon women; partly the gradual extinction of great families. The important position held by freedmen under the Empire is well known to the student of Roman history.

The potteries of the tile-makers were of two kinds—figlinae and officinae; but the former seems to be a wider and inclusive term—that is to say, that one figlina included several officinae or workshops. In the inscriptions, ex figlinis is usually followed by the name of the owner, ex officinis by the name of the potter (officinator). The former expression is by far the commoner, and the latter (OF or OFFIC) is more usually found on lamps and vases, although after the third century it is invariable on the tiles. The figlinae are always mentioned in a subordinate manner to the praedia, when both are mentioned, as is usually the case. The potteries were mostly outside the city, even at some distance. Localities are not often mentioned, but we have the Salarian potteries on the Via Salaria,^[2516] and also mention of the Via Nomentana,^[2517] and such expressions as Ad Aureliam, Ad Mercurium felicem, or Ad viam triumphalem. Stamps found in the walls along the Appian and Latin ways show that potteries existed in the direction of the Alban and Tusculan hills, and in other parts of Latium, as at Praeneste and Ostia. On the north side they extended as far as Narnia and Ocriculum^[2518] on the Tiber. They are also found in Etruria and Campania. Tiles from Latium were exported to Liguria, the Adriatic, Sardinia, Africa, Gaul, and Spain.

Usually a descriptive epithet is associated with the word figlinae, either of a geographical or personal character. Examples of the former are Macedonianae, Rhodianae, and Oceanae. The latter give either the name of an emperor, as Neronianae, Domitianae; or a Gentile or family name, as Favorianae,^[2519] Furianae, Publinianae, Terentianae, or Voconianae. One of the names which occurs most frequently is that of L. Brutidius Augustalis, a freedman; others are stamped EX FIGLINIS PRIMIGENI SERVI DNI NOSTRI IMP—“From the potteries of Primigenius, slave of our lord the Emperor.” Imperial slaves owned many potteries, and others were owned by the emperors or other wealthy proprietors, and administered by freedmen or slaves. The officinae served to distinguish the functions of the different figlinae. Thus the establishment of M. Publicius Januarius, a freedman, is styled doliariae officinae; or they are distinguished by separate names, as Claudianae, Domitianae, and so on. The tiles from the potteries of Asinius Pollio bear the name of C. Cosconius as maker, as do those of Julia Procula’s potteries, being further distinguished as doliares, bipedales, and sesquipedales.^[2520] It would appear that the potteries of private proprietors were under the direction of freedmen, while those of the imperial estates were chiefly managed by slaves, from whose labours large revenues were obtained.

There were many private potteries in Gaul and Germany.^[2521] In the neighbourhood of Saarbrück many tiles have been found with the maker’s name, L. Valerius Labeius. Others with private names have been found at Trier, one with the stamp of the colonia. Several potters with Gaulish names are known, and probably FIDENATIS on a tile at Zulpich, SECVNDANVS F(igulus or fecit) and PACATVS F from Seligenstadt, refer to craftsmen of that nationality.^[2522] Often the master’s name only occurs, of which possible instances are BELLICIANVS on a tile from Caerwent, and PRIMV(s) on another from Colchester.^[2523] In the British Museum are tiles with the initials T · P · F · A, T · P · F · C, T · P · F · P, from Rodmarton in Gloucestershire.^[2524] Tiles found in the provinces also have the maker’s name simply, without indications of date or the owner of the pottery, as on those from Seligenstadt already cited. The makers must in all cases have been of inferior condition, as implied in the example already quoted of the slave Arabus (p. 354); and other names—Daedalus, Peculiaris, Primigenius, Zosimus—belong to the same rank of life. Yet the occurrence of a single name for a private individual is everywhere very common. On the other hand, imperial slaves usually have two names given, and freedmen three.^[2525]

On the tiles of the freedmen of the Gens Domitia (dating about the reign of Hadrian) is frequently stamped the formula VALEAT QVI FECIT, “May he who made it prosper,” with the name of the representative of the family in the genitive.^[2526] On other tiles we find such expressions as VTAMVR FELICES, “May we use it and be happy”^[2527]; FORTVNA COLENDA, “Fortune is to be worshipped” (a second-century tile)^[2528]; and on others of post-Diocletian date, VRBIS ROMAE, “The city of Rome”^[2529]; SECVLO CONSTANTINIANO, “The age of Constantine”; FELIX ROMA (on the tiles of Theodoric), “Happy is Rome.”^[2530] Even on sepulchral tiles of late Imperial times are stamped such aspirations as, VTI FELIX VIVAS, “May you live happily.”^[2531]