The amphora was pitched internally to preserve the wine[3202]; the pointed base was of course adapted for fixing it in the ground in the cellar, but when brought up it was placed in a tripod-stand of metal or wood (incitega).[3203] In Cicero’s time the regulation size was equivalent to a quadrantal or two urnae.[3204] The use of this vase was very varied and extensive among the Romans; it was employed not only in cellars and granaries, but also at the table and for many other purposes of ordinary life, even where nowadays vessels of wood or iron would be preferred.
D’Agincourt[3205] mentions the discovery at Rome, near the Porta del Popolo, of a row of amphorae in a cellar in 1789, and at Pompeii a hundred were found in the house of Arrius Diomedes, a hundred and fifty in that of the Faun; a hundred and twenty were found in a cellar near the baths of Titus, and many more at Milan in 1809, and at Turin. Numbers have been found in London, varying in capacity from four to twelve gallons, and others at Colchester and Mount Bures in Essex.[3206] But they are so universal all over the Roman Empire that to enlarge the list would be tedious. Many, however, evoke a special interest by reason of their stamps and inscriptions, and a few typical examples may profitably be given.[3207]
The inscriptions vary in form and character; some amphorae give the name of the maker in the genitive, officina being understood; others the consuls for the year in which they were filled; others, again, the name of the wine or other phrases descriptive of their contents; and others complimentary inscriptions to their owners. Among names of makers both single, double, and triple names are found, and among the former are many of a Gaulish or barbarian character, such as Bellucus, Dicetus, and Vacasatus, son of Brariatus; the last-named from Nimeguen, the first-named from London.[3208] Among the triple names, showing that the potters were Roman citizens or freedmen, are M. Aemilius Rusticus from Caerleon, and C. Antonius Quintus, also found in Britain.[3209] Sometimes the name is in the nominative with F for fecit, or with the genitive OF for officina occurs. The stamps are in the form of oblong rectangular labels on the handle or neck, the letters in relief. One of the most curious stamps was on an amphora found in the Pontine marshes near Rome, a square one with a caduceus and other symbols arranged in twelve compartments; the inscription runs M · PETRON · VETERAN · LEO · SER · FECIT, “Leo, the slave of M. Petronius Veteranus, made it.”[3210]
The names of Vespasian and Titus as consuls are found on an amphora from Pompeii: VESPASIANO III ET FILIO CS, the year being A.D. 74[3211]; that of M. Aurelius (but not necessarily as consul) occurs on an amphora found at Newington in Kent[3212]; and on one in the British Museum from Leptis in Africa is L · CASSIO · C · MARIO · COS, the date being A.D. 107.[3213] On the neck of a fourth amphora, found at Pompeii, was FVNDAN · CN · LENTVL · M · ASINIO · COSS, “wine of Fundi in the consulship of Cn. Lentulus and M. Asinius (Agrippa),” of the year A.D. 26.[3214]
The character or origin of the wine or other commodity stored in the amphorae is given by such inscriptions as BARCAE, KOR · OPT (“best Corcyrean”),[3215] RVBR · VET · [=V] · P CII (“old red wine, 102 lbs. weight”), all from Pompeii, painted in red and black.[3216] MES · AM · XVIII, also on an amphora from Pompeii, appears to mean “eighteen amphorae [not measures] of Mesogitan wine” (from Mesogis in Lydia[3217]); or, again, we find at Pompeii SVRR · XXI, “twenty-one amphorae of wine of Surrentum”[3218]; TOSCOLA(n)ON (ex) OFFICINA SCAV(ri), “Tusculan wine from the manufactory of Scaurus.”[3219] On the other hand, LIQVAMEN OPTIMVM (“best pickle”), or such expressions as SCOMBRI (“mackerel”), GARVS (“brine”), etc., imply that the vessel has been used for conveying pickled fish.[3220]
Among expressions of a complimentary nature are: FABRILES MARCELLAE N · AD FELICITATEM, “the workmen of our Marcella to wish her joy”[3221]; (pr)OMO(s) FAMELIAI DONO(m) V(otum dedit), or DONO V(rnam dat), “Promus gave (an urn) as a gift and vow to his family” (from Ardea in Latium).[3222] The list may be concluded with the inscription on an amphora found in the garden of the Villa Farnese, among the ruins of the Aurea Domus of Nero, which held eight congii; on its neck was traced in ill-formed letters: L(iquaminis) FL(os) EXCEL(lens) L · PVRELLI GEMELLI M(...), “Finest brand of liquor, belonging to L. Purellus Gemellus.”[3223] An amphora was found at Pompeii with the name of Septimius or Stertinius Menodotus in Greek letters.[3224] There are occasional references in the classics to the practice of placing such stamps on vases, as when Plautus makes the slave say, with reference to the drinking that went on in his master’s house, “There you may see epistles written with letters in clay, sealed with pitch; the names are there in letters a foot and a half long.”[3225] Or, again, another slave, fearing to be caught with a jar in his possession, reflects, “This jar is lettered; it proclaims its ownership.”[3226] Juvenal speaks of wine whose country and brand had been obliterated by old age through long hanging in the smoke.[3227]
Another vase used much in the same way as the amphora, and particularly for keeping wine, was the cadus, the shape of which is not exactly known. It held about twelve congii, or seventy-two sextarii (pints), and is frequently mentioned by Horace and Martial.[3228] The former in the Odes refers to his jar of Alban wine nine years old, and in another passage to one stored in Sulpicius’ cellars[3229]; the latter speaks of cadi Vaticani, which may mean made of clay from the Vatican hill or containing Vatican wines[3230]; elsewhere he speaks of taking yellow honey from the ruddy jar (implying an earthenware vessel), and of the red jar which pours out home-made wine.[3231] We also learn from him that the cadus was hung in the chimney to give the wine a mellow flavour.[3232] From other passages we learn that the cadus was used for oil,[3233] fruit,[3234] and money,[3235] and also as a measure equivalent to one-and-a-half amphorae or three urnae.[3236] The orca is described by Isidorus as a kind of amphora, of which the urceus (see below) was a diminutive.[3237]
The Romans were presumably, like the Greeks, in the habit of mixing their wine with water, but we only find the crater mentioned rarely, and that in a poetical manner.[3238] Moreover it was probably made in metal as a rule, and the rare instances of the crater which occur in the Arretine ware are obvious imitations of metal prototypes; there is a fine example in the British Museum from Capua (see Fig. 219). Ovid, however, speaks of the rubens crater,[3239] implying terracotta, as in the case of the rubens cadus of Martial mentioned above. The vinarium,[3240] the acratophorum (for holding unmixed wine),[3241] and the oenophorum were probably of the same character, but the latter was portable, as we know from Horace’s jeer at the man who took his cooking-stove and wine-jar (oenophorum) with him everywhere.[3242]
The urna, the equivalent of the Greek hydria, was similarly used for carrying water, and also for casting lots, or as a voting-urn[3243]; in the latter sense Cicero actually uses the word hydria.[3244] Its size was half that of the amphora. Both the urna and the hydria are found in connection with funerary usages, and appear to have held the ashes of the dead.[3245] The situla, or bucket, with its diminutive sitella, was also used for water and for lots,[3246] but was principally of metal. Isidorus says it is the Greek κάδος (Vol. I. p. 165).[3247] The cupa and the cumera seem to have been of wood rather than earthenware[3248]; the former was a kind of tub, the latter was used for keeping grain, and also by brides for conveying their effects to their new home.[3249] Another large vessel for holding liquids was the sinus, or sinum, used both for water and milk.[3250] The nasiterna, so called from its long spout or nasus, had three handles, and was used as a watering-pot.[3251] The fidelia appears to have been a kind of large pail or bucket; Cicero in one of his letters[3252] cites the proverb, de eadem fidelia duos parietes dealbare, which answers to our “killing two birds with one stone.” It implies that it would be used for holding paint or whitewash.
Of smaller vases for holding liquids, such as jugs, bottles, and flasks, the principal were the urceus (with its diminutive urceolus), the ampulla, and the lagena or lagona. The hirnea is also mentioned as a jug which was filled from the jar or cadus.[3253] The urceus seems to be a small jug, the equivalent of the Greek οἰνοχόη, having one handle; it was also used as a measure.[3254] The ampulla was used both as a wine-flask and an oil-flask, corresponding thus to the Greek λήκυθος, as is seen in its metaphorical use.[3255] It was used for bringing the wine to table, like a decanter,[3256] and is described by Apuleius[3257] as lenticular in form, being therefore like a flat round-bodied flask with two handles.
FIG. 216. AMPULLA (BRITISH MUSEUM).
An interesting example of an ampulla of this kind, of red ware with a coarse reddish-brown glaze was found some years ago near the Hôtel Dieu, Paris.[3258] It bore two inscriptions round the body, one on either side, with letters in relief; on one side was OSPITA REPLE LAGONA CERVESA, “Mine host, fill the flask with beer”; on the other, COPO CNODI TV ABES EST REPLETA, “Innkeeper, (?), be off, it is full.” Similar vases have been found in Hainault and at Trier, and are said to be still made in Spain. Another of the same kind, but with only one handle, recently acquired by the British Museum from the Morel collection, has on it the word AMPULLA painted in white (Fig. 216). The lagena (Greek, λάγυνος) was a jug or bottle with narrow neck, wide mouth, and handle, and was used as a sign by wine-sellers.[3259] It was sealed up until required for use,[3260] and being proverbially brittle, was protected, like a modern Italian wine-flask, by wicker-work.[3261] It was also used as a travelling-flask, and carried by hunters and fishermen[3262]; the younger Pliny exhorts Tacitus, when he goes hunting, to take not only a “sandwich-box and brandy-flask” (panarium ac lagunculam), but also a notebook to jot down ideas.[3263] The Roman barmaid carried a lagena at her side when serving in the tavern,[3264] and it was used as a wine-jug at the table.[3265] A jar found at Saintes in France has engraved on it MARTIALI SOL(i)DAM LAGONAM, “A whole flask to Martialis,”[3266] and gives a clue to the form associated with this word (see Fig. 217).
FIG. 217. LAGENA FROM FRANCE, INSCRIBED.
The words in use for a ladle are cyathus, corresponding to the Greek κύαθος (Vol. I. p. 179),[3267] in measure equivalent to one-twelfth of the sextarius or pint, and simpulum or simpuvium. The latter were chiefly associated with sacrifices, and will be dealt with later (p. 471); the cyathus was regularly used at the table for measuring out the wine into the drinking-cups. We learn from Martial that in drinking a toast it was customary to use the number of cyathi that corresponded to the letters in the name of the recipient, as in the epigram
Of drinking-cups the Romans had almost as large a variety as the Greeks, the majority of the ornamented vases preserved to this day being apparently for this purpose; the number of names recorded in literature is, however, much less, as many of those given in the long list on pp. 181-183 of Vol. I. are mere nick-names for ordinary forms. The generic name for a drinking-cup was poculum,[3269] the Greek ποτήριον, just as vas was the generic name for a larger vessel; it occurs constantly in the poets, who, indeed, use it somewhat loosely, and has already been met with in the series of small bowls with Latin inscriptions described in Chapter XI. (p. 490). Many forms of drinking-cups used by the Romans were only made in metal, such as the cantharus,[3270] carchesium,[3271] and scyphus[3272] (see Vol. I. pp. 184, 187). All these were forms borrowed from the Greeks, as were the calix (kylix), the cotula (chiefly used as a measure = half-a-pint), and the scaphium[3273] and cymbium,[3274] which were boat-shaped vessels. The ciborium (a rare word, but used by Horace[3275]) was supposed to be made in the form of the leaves or pods of the colocasia, or Egyptian bean.[3276] Its later ecclesiastical use is well known. Other names of which we hear are the batioca,[3277] the gaulus,[3278] the scutella (see below),[3279] and the amystis, or cup drained at one draught (see Vol. I. p. 181).[3280] Like the Greek kylix, the calix appears to have been of all these the one most commonly in use, and is constantly referred to by poets and prose writers. Those of terracotta could often be purchased at a very low price, and formed, it is evident, the ordinary drinking-cups of the Roman citizen; they were also frequently of glass. Juvenal speaks of “plebeian cups purchased for a few asses”[3281]; and Martial describes a man buying two calices for an as and taking them home with him.[3282] We have no exact information as to its form, but it must have been something like the Greek kylix, only probably without handles; it was also used for solid food such as herbs.[3283] Seneca speaks of calices Tiburtinae, which seem from the context to have been of earthenware.[3284] Varieties of the calix are probably represented by the typical Gaulish forms illustrated in Chapter XXIII., Figs. 221-223.
Of dishes and other utensils employed for food at the table, the largest were the lanx and the patina. The former is described by Horace and Juvenal as large enough to hold a whole boar,[3285] and was probably of metal; the patina is described as a dish for holding fish, crabs, or lobsters,[3286] but that it was not necessarily limited in size is shown by the stories already alluded to of Domitian and Vitellius (p. 456). The latter, when dragged to his death, was insulted by the epithet of patinarius, or dish-maker.[3287] The patina was flat, and made of clay, and is also described as a wide and shallow vessel for cooking.[3288] It is contrasted with the lagena in the well-known fable of the fox and the stork.[3289] Smaller dishes for sweetmeats and other dainties were the catinum and catillum, and the patella.[3290] The discus and paropsis[3291] appear to have been, like the lanx, principally of metal; the former was like a shield (whence scutula and scutella); the latter is mentioned by Isidorus, who describes it as quadrangular, and by Martial, together with some obscurely-named dishes[3292]:
Martial speaks of the patella as a dish for a turbot, and also as a vessel of black ware which was used to hold vegetables[3293]; the catinus (a fictile dish) was large enough to hold a good-sized fish, such as a tunny,[3294] and the catillus appears to have been a sort of porringer. Sauces were placed in small dishes or cups, known as acetabula (the Greek ὀξύβαφον), which were evidently of earthenware[3295]; the catellus held pepper,[3296] and the concha or shell was used for a salt-cellar, also for unguents.[3297] The latter was probably a real shell, not of earthenware. Another kind of dish which is only once mentioned, in Horace’s account of Nasidienus’ banquet, was the mazonomum, probably a kind of lanx, in metal, which held on that occasion a sort of ragoût of game.[3298] His own table, however, he boasts, was adorned only by a cyathus and two cups, an echinus or rinsing-bowl, a guttus, and a patera or libation bowl.[3299] The guttus seems to have corresponded to the Greek lekythos or askos, and is the general name for an oil-flask or cruet.[3300] It was either a small, long-necked bottle or a squat flask with a narrow spout, which allowed the oil to pour slowly. Roach-Smith published a relief dedicated by Egnatius, a physician, to the Deae Matres, on which small vases of the first-named form appear, indicating that he consecrated his medicine bottles to these divinities.[3301]
Of vessels for cooking, washing, and other common domestic purposes, the olla was that in most general use[3302]; the word is, in fact, a generic name for a jar or pot (Gk. χύτρα), as in the play of Plautus, the Aulularia, the name of which embodies an archaic form of the word, aula, aulula. Here it was used for hiding a hoard of gold. It was also, as has been noted, used as a funerary urn, and some inscribed examples of marble ollae have been found in tombs. The pelvis was more particularly a washing basin, but Juvenal speaks of it as scented with Falernian wine.[3303] It is usually identified with the mortarium, a large, shallow, open bowl with a spout, frequently found in Britain and Central Europe (see below, p. 550); it is of coarse light-red clay, and often has the potter’s name stamped upon it. That it was used for pounding substances is shown by the fact that it often has small pebbles embedded in the surface of the interior. The scutra is mentioned by Cato and Plautus,[3304] and appears to have been used only in Republican times; its Imperial successor was the cacabus.[3305] The trua or trulla[3306] was a saucepan with a flat handle; numerous examples in bronze, silver, and earthenware have been preserved, and some have elaborate designs in relief on the handle.[3307]
A number of obscure and archaic names of vases are recorded by the etymologists and other writers, especially in regard to those used for sacrificial purposes and libations. The capis or capedo was probably a kind of jug (from capere, to contain)[3308]; Cicero refers to the capedunculae which were a legacy from Numa.[3309] The praefericulum[3310] was not, as usually supposed in popular archaeology, a jug, but a shallow basin of bronze without handles, like a patera. The lepasta or lepesta (cf. Greek λεπάστη) is recorded as used in Sabine temples,[3311] and the futile was used in the cult of Vesta for holding water[3473]; the cuturnium[3313] is also mentioned. The simpulum[3314] and simpuvium[3315] represent similar utensils, though the words are distinct; they were small-sized ladles used almost exclusively in religious rites, and sometimes regarded as old-fashioned. With reference to the size, fluctus in simpulo excitare[3316] became a proverbial expression for “a storm in a teacup.” They seem to have been usually of metal, but Pliny speaks of fictile simpula[3317]; the simpuvium is represented on coins and sacrificial reliefs. The lanx appears to have been used for offerings to Bacchus,[3318] and the guttus, cymbium, and other forms also appear in a sacrificial connection[3319]; conversely the patera, which is for the most part exclusively a libation bowl, was sometimes used for secular purposes[3320]; there is evidence that its use as a drinking vessel is older than its use for libations. The last-named corresponds to the Greek φιάλη (Vol. I. p. 191),[3321] and is constantly referred to or represented; its essential feature was the hollow knob or omphalos in the centre, and it was either made of metal or earthenware. The patella was also used for libations or for offering first-fruits to the household gods.[3322]
Other obscure words referring to vases of secular use are the pollubrum (Greek, ποδανιπτήρ)[3323] and malluvium (Greek, χέρνιψ),[3324] meaning respectively basins for washing the feet and hands; the aquiminarium for washing vessels[3325]; the galeola, a variety of the sinus[3326]; the pultarius, a vessel used for warm drinks, for must, for preserving grapes, for coals, for fumigating, and as a cupping-glass[3327]; and the obba, which Persius describes as sessilis, i.e. squat and flat-bottomed.[3328] The culeus, congius, hemina, and sextarius appear to have been measures only, not vases in general use; the congius was one-eighth of an amphora, or six sextarii, about six English pints.[3329]
In the case of the majority of the names discussed in the foregoing pages, any attempt at identification with existing forms is hopeless; we have very few clues in the literature to the shapes of the vases described, and little evidence from themselves, as is often the case with Greek shapes; nor is any Roman writer except Isidorus, whose date is too late to be trustworthy, so explicit as Athenaeus. At present little has been done in the way of collecting the different forms of existing vases, but a valuable treatise on the subject was recently issued by the late O. Hölder, a Würtemberg professor, who collected all the forms found in Germany and Italy,[3330] and although he did not attempt to identify them by Latin names, he has done much service in grouping them together, classified as urns, jars, jugs, and so on, in a series of twenty-three plates of outline drawings.
There is, in fact, in Roman pottery no clear line of distinction to be drawn between the various forms of drinking-cups or of jugs or dishes, as is the case with Greek vases; different forms again are found in different fabrics, and those typical of ornamented wares are not found in plain pottery, and so on. Nor must it be forgotten that in Roman pottery the ornamented wares are the exception rather than the rule. Where the Greeks used painted vases, the Romans used metal; and apart from the plain pottery, the forms are almost limited to a few varieties of cups, bowls, and dishes. Comparisons with the Greek equivalents illustrated in Chapter IV. may give a probable idea of what the Roman meant when he spoke of an urceus or an olla, but for the rest the modern investigator can do little beyond attempting to point out what types of vases were peculiar to different periods or fabrics, and in most cases any attempt to give specific names can only be regarded as arbitrary.