What may be described as a variety of this technique, but occurring in the red glazed wares, is a method of decoration in rows of linear incised patterns, usually in small rectangular panels of hatched lines. These belong to the time of the decadence of the ceramic industry, i.e. to the fourth century, and are found chiefly in North and East France and Germany, not in Central or Southern Gaul. There are examples from the Department of Marne in the British Museum (Morel Collection). The patterns are made with wooden stamps, not with the usual running wheel. Déchelette thinks the method originated in Germany with the vases of the La Tène period.^[3489]

In order to elucidate further the development and characteristics of the provincial Roman pottery, it may be found serviceable to turn our attention to the various sites which are known to have been centres of manufacture, or which have yielded pottery in large quantities, and at the same time to indicate the main points of difference between the fabrics of Gaul, Germany, and Britain.

2. The Fabrics of Gaul

The pottery of Gaul presenting the closest relationship, both artistically and chronologically, with that of Italy, it will be most convenient to accord it precedence. Hitherto a general survey of the Gaulish fabrics has hardly been possible, as the materials had not been collected and studied as a whole; and such a task was obviously beyond the capacity of any one who had not the advantage of a personal acquaintance with the mass of material now available in all parts of France. But since the indispensable and exhaustive work of M. Déchelette has appeared, it has rendered superfluous all the previous literature on this particular subject. This scholar has earned the gratitude of students by his careful study of the pottery excavated on certain sites in Southern France, by means of which much light has been thrown on the Gaulish fabrics of the first century, at the time when the sigillata industry was just taking root in Gaul, and had hardly freed itself from Italian influences. In one section of his work he deals with the finds made in 1895-1900 at Saint-Rémy on the Allier, about four miles from Vichy,^[3490] in another with those of 1901-02 at Graufesenque, near Rodez, in the Cevennes region,^[3491] and thirdly with the important fabrics of Lezoux.^[3492] With these and others of more or less importance we shall deal successively in the following pages.

At Saint-Rémy no traces of actual furnaces were found, but fragments of moulds, etc., showed clearly that it was an important centre, not only for pottery, but also for terracotta figures. As a rule little chronological evidence is to be obtained from finds in France owing to the confused and unstratified condition of the remains, or from absence of scientific records; but in the present case we are fortunate in possessing a series of homogeneous types belonging to the earliest period of sigillata ware in Gaul; an entire uniformity of clay, technique, form, and decoration shows that they must all belong to one circumscribed epoch, in spite of the absence of coins or other definite evidence. At the same time it has been possible not only to connect them with finds at Mont Beuvray (Bibracte), near Autun, which can be dated not later than 5 B.C., at Ornavasso, on Lago Maggiore (coins of Augustan epoch), and at Andernach (also Augustan, see pp. 502, 533), but also to obtain a clue to their originals and prototypes.

The forms of the vases fall under five clearly-defined heads: a poculum, or tumbler-shaped vessel, a scyphus with flat-topped handles, a straight-sided open bowl, flasks with or without handles, and of conical form or pear-shaped (see Fig. 224). All the vases are of white clay, with reliefs, but there are no potters’ stamps, and the execution is often imperfect; the secret of the red ware seems as yet unknown, but there is evidence that it was gradually substituted for the white, and the typical bowl with sloping sides and continuous scrolls of foliage (Dragendorff’s No. 29 = Fig. 221) introduced here as elsewhere. In the Saint-Rémy fabrics this bowl only has a single row of ornament, a tongue-pattern, scrolls, or arcading round the lower part. The general conclusion reached by M. Déchelette is that down to the end of the first century B.C. two kinds of pottery were introduced into Gaul: the Arretine ware, which occurs at Bibracte with the stamps of Annius, Memmius, and Tettius, and a class of small goblets and flasks of yellowish clay which in many respects resemble the Saint-Rémy type. The latter sometimes bear the name of ACO ACASTVS,^[3493] a potter who appears to have worked in the region of Savoy or Piedmont, and who was inspired by the Arretine technique and style of signature. His ware also occurs in Lombardy at Ornavasso, and at Klagenfurt in Pannonia, where a fragment was found (Fig. 225) with his name and an inscription which runs: “Life is short, hope is frail; come, (the lights) are kindled; let us drink, comrades, while it is light.”^[3494] He certainly belongs to the Augustan epoch, and may be regarded as the immediate inspirer of the Saint-Rémy fabrics. Hence about the beginning of the first century of our era it may be inferred that the potters of Saint-Rémy and district began to “exploit” the Italian technique, but following the Gallo-Italic method of Aco rather than the Arretine. The typical decorative motive by which this pottery may be recognised is a kind of arcading, which from having floriated points gradually tends to assume a purely vegetable form. Some of the vases are only ornamented with rows of raised points, and this feature occurs on others with the potters’ names L. Sarius Surus and Buccio Norbanus. Figure decoration is found only on the pear-shaped flasks, in the form of animals (Fig. 224) and bearded heads. To the same period belongs a series of vases manufactured at Vichy and Gannat in the same district.^[3495]

The results obtained from Graufesenque, in the Department of Aveyron, have been even more remarkable. This place represents the ancient Condatomagus, in the country occupied by the Ruteni, and appears to have been a great centre of the terra sigillata industry. Although it is not mentioned by Pliny, yet there must have been in his time large exports southwards from this part of Gaul, even as far as Campania. M. Déchelette has shown that it supplied not only Gaul and Italy, but even Africa, Spain, and Britain, to a greater extent than any other centre—that, in fact, from A.D. 50 to 100 it was the seat of the most important pottery in the whole empire.^[3496]

Remains of pottery were first discovered in 1882 by the Abbé Cérès, including a series of moulds, which made it certain that this was a centre of fabric. These discoveries were largely supplemented by further excavations in 1901–02. Among the moulds are those of certain potters which are only found here, and consequently afford satisfactory evidence that such potters can be localised in this region. The potters were not itinerant, nor were the moulds transferred from one pottery to another; but the important central pottery seems to have attracted a group of smaller ones to collect round it, just as we find Cincelli linked to Arezzo (p. 483), and the moulds could be exchanged from one to another within this limited area.

The local pottery of Gaul, which in the first century B.C. had reached a high level,^[3497] was interrupted about the time of Augustus by the invasion of Italian methods, by which it was very rapidly Romanised, and Gaul became a mere tributary of Roman industry. At first two kinds of technique were practised—one with a white or yellow clay, as at Saint-Rémy and Bibracte; the other in the ordinary red ware, which appears to have been employed exclusively at Condatomagus and Lezoux, at first following on the lines of the Arretine ware, but subsequently attempting new developments. Artistically it is inferior to the Arretine, but it is much more varied. Besides the terra sigillata proper, or moulded ware with reliefs, which is by far the most numerous, we find in Gaul several other varieties of technique: appliqué medallions, separately moulded and attached with barbotine, in imitation of the Greek metal ἐμβλήματα; barbotine decoration; a class of so-called “marbled” vases; and incised decoration of simple linear patterns made with a tool in the moist clay, but with bold and skilful execution. But practically the wares found at Graufesenque are limited to the moulded class, and the others, which will be described subsequently, only became general in the second century, when the Lezoux potteries came to the front and those of Graufesenque were exhausted.

In the terra sigillata wares three forms assume marked prominence, those illustrated in Figs. 221–223; they are found in fairly equal proportions, but the earliest form, which we may call for convenience No. 29, has a slight preponderance. We shall see later that similarly the latest form (No. 37) prevails at Lezoux; this form was introduced about A.D. 70. The intermediate No. 30 is found at both, but more frequently at Graufesenque. The only other found in the moulded wares is a bowl on a high stem, which closely follows the type of the Arretine krater seen in Fig. 219; it is therefore either common to Arretium and Condatomagus, or represents a transition from one fabric to the other.^[3498] Déchelette quotes an instance with the stamp VOLVS, which recalls the Arretine potter Volusenus.^[3499]

About three-fourths of the vases are ornamented, the decoration falling into two categories: (1) an earlier class with ornament only, occurring on the forms 29 and 30 (see Plate LXVII.); (2) a later with figures, such as animals or gladiators, the forms being Nos. 30 and 37. Of the ornamental motives on form 29, there are five principal types^[3500]: (a) simple winding scrolls; (b) scrolls combined with figures in medallions; (c) scrolls combined with panels of “arrow-head” pattern; (d) bands of semicircles enclosing volutes which terminate in rosettes; (e) figures in metopes. In this form the decoration is almost always in two friezes, a natural consequence of the shape of the vase; the metopes or geometrical compartments only come in with form 37. In the latter form seven successive types of decoration may be distinguished: (α) a transitional system with metopes, derived from the older form^[3501]; (β) metopes with wavy borders, a

diagonal or cruciform pattern often occupying alternate panels (cf. Plate LXVII. fig. 2)^[3502]; (γ) large medallions, often combined with inverted semicircles (chiefly found at Lezoux: cf. Plate LXVIII. fig. 3); (δ) arcading (rare at Graufesenque); (ε) arcading and semicircles combined; (ζ) large foliage-patterns or vine-leaves, often interspersed with animals; (η) friezes of “free” figures (not found at Graufesenque: cf. PlateLXVIII. fig. 1).

In regard to the figure subjects, mythological types are rare, and generally there is not so much variety as at Lezoux. Déchelette reckons 177 different types in all, of which 112 are peculiar to the fabric, whereas no less than 793 are peculiar to Lezoux.^[3503] Hence, he points out, the origin of any Gaulish vase may be determined from the nature of the types alone. In artistic execution they are unequal, some being copies of popular themes, others of a naïve and unsophisticated character. Gaulish elements are conspicuously absent. Although the difference from the Arretine style is strongly marked, there is yet the same tendency to display the influence of toreutic prototypes, and even of the “new Attic” reliefs and the genre types of the Hellenistic period.^[3504] But others are original and non-classical in style, and there is no homogeneity. Each pottery doubtless had its favourite subjects—a point which may prove of use in determining the separate fabrics. In any case, figure-subjects only prevailed for a short period at Condatomagus, whereas at Lezoux and in Germany they extend over a considerable period. For Gaul did not become Romanised before the reign of Titus; hence the previous absence of mythological themes. The potter Libertus (see below, p. 527), who worked at Lezoux about A.D. 100, stands out as the foremost potter and modeller in Gaul, who, brought up on classical traditions, influenced the whole pottery of the country.

The question of the chronology of these Rutenian fabrics depends more upon the results of comparison with other sites than on the internal evidence of the finds. None of this pottery, for instance, is found at Bibracte, which was deserted about the beginning of our era; but at Andernach vases with Rutenian potters’ stamps are found with coins ranging from Augustus to Nero. They are also abundant at Xanten, Neuss, and Vechten in Holland. Evidence may also be obtained from the German Limes, where form 29 disappears about A.D. 30. The exportation of Rutenian wares, therefore, began about the reign of Tiberius. Their wide distribution may be traced by a study of the inscriptions in the thirteenth and other volumes of the Latin Corpus.^[3505] In Britain they are found in London^[3506] and at Silchester. Out of thirty-four ornamented vases from the latter site in the Reading Museum, M. Déchelette attributes exactly half to Condatomagus, representing the first century, and the other half to Lezoux, representing the second.^[3507] In Italy this ware is found at Rome and Pompeii, and of the typical Rutenian subjects some twenty have been noted among the terra sigillata in Roman museums. The potters Bassus, Jucundus, Mommo, and others of Rutenian origin are found at Rome, whereas the only one from the Auvergne district there is Albucius^[3508]; and the same names occur at Pompeii, especially that of Mommo, whose stamps are characteristic.^[3509] The latter group of vases, moreover, supply, as in other cases, important evidence for dating the Rutenian vases; they show, not only that Mommo and the others were in full activity before A.D. 79, but that mythological subjects—not found on the Pompeian examples—were only introduced towards the end of the pottery’s activity.

Another well-known potter who appears to have worked at Condatomagus is Vitalis, whose signature in full or in the form OF · VITA is well known there. He is also found as far afield as Carthage and on the east coast of Spain.^[3510] This is additional testimony to the extent and quantity of exportations from this centre, and to its position as the most flourishing manufacture in the Roman empire at the time. This popularity it could never have acquired if the fabrics of Arretium, Mutina, and Puteoli had not now reached their decadence; nor, if those of Auvergne, such as Lezoux, or of the Rhenish provinces had been already in full activity, would the Rutenian wares have penetrated into Central Gaul and Germany. M. Déchelette notes as an interesting fact that in some collections of Roman pottery debased wares with Arretine stamps are to be seen, apparently not later than A.D. 80, and evidently imitations of Rutenian ware^[3511]; these bear the names of L. Rasinius Pisanus and Sex. M. F., of whom mention was made in the last chapter (p. 485). There is no evidence that this pottery was in existence after A.D. 100, and its rapid disappearance is certainly due to the rise of Lezoux, where, as noted below, Rutenian potters’ stamps are not uncommon in the first century.

Déchelette has collected forty-three names of Rutenian potters, which are distributed over two hundred and thirty-two vases or fragments known to him.^[3512] On form 29 the stamps are only found in the interior of the vases, and hence are not found on the moulds, but both were probably made by the same potters. Vases of the other two forms are often unsigned. Of individuals Mommo occurs sixty-three times, Germanus thirty-eight. The same writer points out that the evidence from Graufesenque would overthrow any theory of itinerant potters, if on no other grounds, from the fact that the moulds of a particular potter are only found on the one spot.

A group of vases which must be mentioned here, though a very small one and not strictly belonging to the terra sigillata, is that of the yellow ware with red marbling.^[3513] It consists of a small group of bowls and dishes with a dull yellow slip covered with veins of a red colour, producing a variegated effect. Eight of these were found at Trier, one with the stamp of Primus, and there are a few others in German museums. In Southern Gaul, as at Arles, they are more common, and others have been found at Lyons and Vichy. The British Museum possesses one from Bordighera and three from Arles, and they are also known in Sardinia and Southern Italy; there are two at Naples from Pompeii with the stamp of Primus.^[3514] The latter fact gives a terminus ante quem for their date, and it is probable that some place in Southern Gaul was the centre of the fabric. Dragendorff suggested Arles, where stamped examples have been found; but Déchelette points out that all the potters’ names are Rutenian, and this is conclusive evidence in favour of Graufesenque; in any case we have here an instance of exportation from Gaul into Italy. It is not certain in what manner the marbling has been produced; it is probably an imitation of glass.

Yet another example of a fabric which was imported from Gaul into Italy is to be seen in the pottery of Banassac, a class of vases with inscriptions of a convivial character, with letters in relief encircling the body.^[3515] The form is that of the hemispherical bowl No. 37, the appearance of which at Pompeii shows that it was developed before A.D. 79. They are found in large numbers in the south of France, especially at Nismes, Orange, Vienne, Montans (Tarn), as well as Banassac; at the latter place fragments have been found on the site of a pottery, showing that they were made there. The most notable example (Fig. 226) was found at Pompeii, and is now in the Naples Museum^[3516]; it is inscribed BIBE AMICE DE MEO, “Drink, friend, from my (cup),” the letters being separated by leaves, and is of ordinary red terra sigillata ware. Here, again, it is possible to date the fabric in the first century, not later than the reign of Vespasian. On the local specimens are found such sentiments as Gabalibus felicit(er), Remis (felici)ter, Sequanis feliciter^[3517]; veni ad me amica; bonus puer; bona puella; the two last-named recalling the seaside mugs of the nineteenth century. The convivial inscriptions we shall meet with again in a later fabric from the region of the Rhine (p. 538). Terra sigillata was also made here and at Montans in the Department of Tarn; the decoration is in the form of metopes, denoting the transitional period (about A.D. 70). No potters’ names are found on the inscribed vases.

The pottery of Lezoux, in Auvergne, was first carefully studied by the late M. Plicque,^[3518] who excavated there on a large scale in 1879 and succeeding years, and obtained as a result of his researches no less than three thousand different potters’ names, as well as the substructures of about a hundred and sixty furnaces, forty of which were in good preservation, comprising sixty-six distinct manufactories. About twenty-three more manufactories were traced along the principal roads and the banks of the Dore and Allier. He also found numerous remains of tools, potters’ wheels, and other apparatus. In addition, he excavated some two hundred tombs containing quantities of pottery, which seemed to imply a general use of it in funeral ceremonies. The potteries here seem to have been already in full working order in the time of Vespasian, and lasted down to about A.D. 260. The earliest date to be obtained from the evidence of coins is about A.D. 70, but the earliest fabrics seem to go back to the time of Claudius; the date of destruction of the site is indicated by coins of Gallienus and Saloninus found among the burnt ruins.

A large proportion of the vases have potters’ stamps, but there is no rule about the signatures.^[3519] In the vases of form 29 the names are in the interior, denoting the masters of the potteries; in the later forms they are on the exterior, having been placed on the inside of the mould before baking, usually among the ornament. The ordinary formula is OF, M, or F, with the name in the genitive. As to the distribution of Lezoux vases, there was, as noted below, little exportation before A.D. 100, but after that time they prevail over Britain and Germany. Déchelette gives ninety-two examples with potters’ stamps in Britain, including twenty-one names. A few specimens have been found in North Italy; Paternus occurs at Turin, Albucius at Rome.

Of the moulded or terra sigillata wares twelve different forms are found, of which as elsewhere three prevail to the exclusion of the others.^[3520] The krater type (Dragendorff’s No. 11) is only found in the earliest period, about A.D. 40-50, and as already noted (p. 520) forms 29 and 30 are not so common as at Graufesenque, while form 37, which practically took the place of 29, occurs in great quantities. Déchelette distinguishes three chronological epochs of development, covering respectively the periods A.D. 40-75, 75-100, and 110-260.^[3521] In the first period the decoration of form 29 develops in the same manner as at Graufesenque, but with this important variation, that the running scroll is replaced by a straight pattern of vine or oak leaves, or bands of rosettes or circles. The colour of the glaze is lighter than at Graufesenque, the reliefs more delicately modelled. The potters of this period, all of whom use form 29, are Atepomarus, Cobnertus, Danomarus, Iliomarus, and Petrecus. It will be noted that these are all Gaulish names, whereas those at Graufesenque are all Latin.

To the second period (A.D. 75-110) belong the bowls of form 37 with transitional or metope decoration, or in the “free” style, which is employed by Libertus, an important potter of Trajan’s reign. Exportations now first begin, and examples are found on the Limes, but generally speaking they are few in number, and while the Rutenian potteries existed the output must have been limited. After the reign of Trajan, however, large numbers were exported to Britain and Germany. The cruciform ornamentation (p. 521) is found on the forms 30 and 37, and a peculiar type of egg- or astragalus-pattern (borrowed from Arretium) is used by Butrio and Libertus. Figure subjects, introduced by Libertus, now become general, especially animals and hunting-scenes (see for an example Plate LXVIII. fig. 1). The typical potters of the period are Butrio, Libertus, Carantinus, Divixtus (Plate LXVIII. fig. 2), Juliccus, Laxtucissa, and Putrius.

The third period (110-260) is represented almost exclusively by the form 37 with decoration in “free” style or large medallions and wreaths; a few examples of form 30 and the olla (Déchelette’s No. 68: cf. p. 529) are found. The chief potters’ names are Advocatus, Banuus, Catussa, Cinnamus (Plate LXVIII. fig. 3), Doeccus, Lastuca, Paternus, and Servus. Of these, Paternus belongs to the period of the Antonines, and he and Cinnamus, says M. Déchelette, represent the apogee of the prosperity of Lezoux, and of its export commerce. The period of degeneration is marked by the appearance of barbotine decoration and imitations of metal (see below). It is difficult to say exactly when the potteries came to an end, but there is no evidence that terra sigillata was manufactured after the third century, and Plicque is probably right in attributing their destruction to the German invaders in the reign of Gallienus.

The wares characteristic of the earlier period include dolia of coarse clay and other plain fabrics, as well as the various types of terra sigillata. Among the latter are examples of importations from the Graufesenque and Banassac potteries and other places in the Aveyron district, but the majority are of local manufacture. These include, besides the moulded red wares with figured decoration and potters’ stamps, orange-red wares, yellow polished wares (often micaceous), and black ware with barbotine ornamentation, on which potters’ stamps are not found. Lezoux was also a centre for the enamelled glazed wares which have been described in Chapter III. In the later period the red wares are ornamented with figures from moulds, or with barbotine, or have lion’s-head spouts (see below). The marbled vases (p. 523) are also found, and in the third century the vases with appliqué reliefs, with incised or hollowed-out ornamentation, or bronzed in imitation of metal, are the prevailing types.^[3522]

The salient points of difference between the earlier and later fabrics, says Plicque, are these. The clay of the earlier is only baked to a small degree of heat and is not vitreous, but is exceedingly porous. It is also frequently full of micaceous particles. Subsequently it becomes more vitreous but less porous; it is more compact and sonorous, free from mica, and more brilliant and lustrous. In the earlier, the forms are artistic and symmetrical, the ornament sober and elegant, remarkable for its taste and simplicity. The figures are enclosed in medallions, and the ornaments consist of rays or rounded leaves, rows of beads, and guilloche-patterns. In the later, the art degenerates, the ornamentation becoming heavy and overcrowded, and the figures are broken up and badly arranged; the forms of the vases, too, become heavier. The principal decorative pattern is the egg-and-tongue round the rim. In the potters’ stamps of the two first periods the letters have frequent ligatures and abbreviations; the names are often in the nominative or with OFFICINA preceding the name. Later, the letters are coarser and ligatures are rare; the names are usually in the genitive, followed by M (manu) or OF(ficina). The characteristic 1512U for V found in the middle of the second century should be noted.

Among the subsidiary fabrics of Lezoux the most remarkable is that of the vases with appliqué reliefs.^[3523] They are formed entirely on the wheel, and the decoration is made separately from moulds (p. 440), and attached with barbotine, either in the form of a medallion or with an irregular outline, varying with the figure. Barbotine in many cases is also employed for foliage patterns filling in the background. The usual form is that of a spherical or ovoid vase (Plate LXIX. fig. 2), which may perhaps be termed an olla,^[3524] with short neck and no handles. It may be noted in passing that such shapes could not conveniently be moulded, hence the variation of form when we pass from terra sigillata to other methods of decoration. In the third century this combined process largely supplanted the moulded wares at Lezoux. The paste and glaze, however, are identical with the terra sigillata. No potters’ signatures have been found on these vases, but they occur all over Gaul, including Belgium and Switzerland, and also in Britain. In the British Museum (Romano-British Room) there are two very fine specimens found at Felixstowe in Suffolk, one of which is that given on Plate LXIX. Roach-Smith mentions others from London, York, and Richborough,^[3525] and they are also known at Évreux in France. A good but imperfect example from Gaul is in the Morel Collection, now in the British Museum, and has figures of Herakles and Maenads. The modelling in some cases is admirable, especially in the Felixstowe vases, and in the London specimens published by Roach-Smith, with masks and figures of Cupid. These vases represent the latest stage of the ceramic industry of Lezoux.

Another class of vases made at this centre which may be mentioned here includes a series of paterae, oinochoae, and trullae (p. 470) with ornamented handles, all obviously made in imitation of metal.^[3526] Of the paterae there is a good example in the British Museum from the Towneley Collection, ornamented with athletic contests and cock-fights round the edge. M. Déchelette (ii. p. 319) thinks some of the oinochoae made at Vichy may be imitations of the bronze jugs which are found at Pompeii, but many seem to be of a later date.

During the period A.D. 100-400, and especially in the third century, a class of red wares appears at Lezoux in the form of large bowls with spouts in the shape of lions’ heads.^[3527] These were wrongly identified by Plicque with the acratophorus (p. 464), but they are clearly mortars (pelves, mortaria), in which food was ground or cooked, the spout serving the purpose of straining off liquid. The lions’ heads are made from moulds and attached with barbotine. Some of these have potters’ names. As a class they must be distinguished from the plain mortaria of grey or yellow ware described below (p. 551).

With the South of France it is necessary to connect a series of medallions with reliefs, intended for attachment to vases of terra sigillata ware.^[3528] In one or two cases the vases themselves have been preserved, but usually the medallions alone remain; there are also examples of the moulds in which they were made.^[3529] Nearly all of these have been found in the valley of the Rhone, at Orange or Vienne,^[3530] the rest in other parts of France, such as Lezoux, along the Rhine, or at Rome (two examples). They were probably made at Vienne; but there was also a fabric in Germany, examples of which occur at Cologne, Trier, and Xanten. The subjects of the reliefs are very varied, ranging from figures of deities to gladiators or even animals; they frequently bear inscriptions, and their date is the third century after Christ.

As long ago as 1873 Froehner published a series from Orange,^[3531] with such subjects as Apollo, Venus Victrix, Mars and Ilia, a figure of Lugdunum personified, the freeing of Prometheus and the death of Herakles, Dionysos and Ariadne, a bust of Hermes, a gladiator, a cock and hens, and a bust of the Emperor Geta, the last-named serving as an indication of date for the whole series. Several were inscribed, that with Venus Victrix having CERA FELICIS, which probably refers to the wax in which the figures were first modelled, though some have thought that it represents the Greek κερα(μέως). Another trio from Orange^[3532] represent respectively:—(1) a chariot race in the circus, with the inscriptions FELICITER, LOGISMUS (a horse’s name), and PRASIN(a) F(actio), “the green party”; (2) Fig. 227, a scene from a play, probably the Cycnus, in which Herakles is saying to Ares, the would-be avenger of his son, “(Invicta) virtus nusquam terreri potest,” the god proclaiming “Adesse ultorem nati me credas mei”; in the background, on a raised stage or θεολογεῖον, are deities; (3) an actor in female costume. There are also three in the Hermitage Museum at Petersburg, of which two represent Poseidon, the third Hermes.^[3533] Caylus also gives a representation of a vase with three such medallions, with busts of Pluto and Persephone, Mars and Ilia, and two gladiators.^[3534] Where gladiators with names appear it may be assumed that they are portraits of real people, and Déchelette argues from this that the vases were made specially in connection with gladiatorial (or theatrical) performances.

An interesting group found at Vienne and Vichy^[3535] have subjects taken from the Thirteenth Iliad, such as Deiphobos and the Locrian Ajax, or Hector fighting the Achaeans. Among the remaining examples known the most interesting are three from Orange, one of which represents a festival in honour of Isis, the other two, the victory of Hippomedon over Atalanta (Fig. 228), with an inscription of three lines:

Reference has already been made to a paper by M. Blanchet, in which he gives a list of the sites in Gaul on which pottery appears to have been made (see p. 443). But in the majority of these cases plain wares must have been the only output. Moulded wares, as Déchelette points out, required skill and resource to produce.^[3537] In any case, very few types are found on moulded wares which cannot be also associated with Graufesenque or Lezoux, and any made on other sites must have followed the same methods of decoration.^[3538] The places given in Blanchet’s list cover practically the whole extent of France, though the principal centres of activity were always the Aveyron and Allier districts and the Rhone valley. In the neighbourhood of Lezoux, for instance, vases were made at Clermont-Ferrand, Lubié, St.-Bonnet, and Thiers. At Nouâtre, Indre-et-Loire, was an important pottery, not yet fully investigated; and others were at Rozier (Lozère), Auch (Gers), Montauban, Luxueil (Haute-Saône), St.-Nicholas near Nancy, and Aoste (Isère), where vases of characteristic originality were made.^[3539] But it is not likely that any future investigations will displace Graufesenque and Lezoux as the chief centres for Gaulish terra sigillata.

3. The Fabrics of Germany

In Germany the oldest and one of the most important sites for pottery is Andernach,^[3540] between Bonn and Coblenz, where however, it must be borne in mind, there was no local manufacture; its importance is mainly as a site yielding valuable chronological evidence. The finds extend from the beginning of the first century down to about A.D. 250, the earlier objects finding parallels in cemeteries at Trier and Regensburg which can be similarly dated. Generally speaking, it has been observed that Roman remains begin on the left bank of the Rhine a century earlier than those in the border forts on the Limes, which cover the period from A.D. 100 to 250.

Terra sigillata with reliefs is comparatively rare, though, as we have seen, it was at an early period exported from Gaul, and the pottery consists chiefly of ordinary wares, red, grey, and black, usually of good and careful execution, with thin walls. Much of this common pottery may be assumed to be of local manufacture. The characteristic types of the first century are simple jugs of plain ware without slip for funerary or domestic use; vases with white slip (also found at Regensburg); black ware bowls and dishes, sometimes with potters’ stamps; black and grey cinerary urns. These forms include small urns and the usual cups and bowls with straight or sloping sides, replaced after A.D. 100 by spherical-bodied jars with narrow necks. The decoration comprises all the varieties we have included in the foregoing survey: barbotine, incised linear patterns, impressed patterns made with the thumb, and raised ornaments such as plain knobs or leaves worked with the hand. In the third century painted decoration is introduced, as in the black ware drinking-vessels with inscriptions described below (p. 537).

At Xanten (Castra Vetera), lower down the Rhine, large quantities of terra sigillata have been found, which can be dated by means of coin-finds from the beginning of the first century down to the third. During this period a steady degeneration in the pottery may be observed, although glass fabrics correspondingly improve; in the time of the Antonines the clay is coarse and often artificially coloured with red lead or other ingredients, producing what was formerly known as “false Samian” ware.^[3541]

An exceptionally interesting centre, and in some respects the most important in Germany, is that at Westerndorf on the Inn, between Augsburg and Salzburg, where the coins range from about A.D. 160 to 330. It was first explored in 1807 and as long ago as 1862 the results were carefully investigated and summarised by Von Hefner in a still valuable treatise.^[3542] The pottery includes terra sigillata of the later types, and plain red, yellow, and grey wares, sometimes covered with a non-lustrous grey or reddish slip, or with black varnish, the latter have very thin walls and are baked very hard. The decoration of the terra sigillata comprises all the usual types,^[3543] the forms being also those prevalent elsewhere, with the addition of a covered jar or pyxis, but the figures are confined to the cylindrical or hemispherical bowls (Nos. 30 and 37).^[3544] The plain wares include cinerary urns, deep bowls or jars, with simple ornament, open bowls with impressed patterns, and mortaria.

Of some peculiarities of the potters’ stamps we have already spoken (p. 510); they are found in the form of oblongs or human feet, and more rarely in circles, half-moons, or spirals, the letters being both in relief and incised. Trade marks were sometimes used, the potter Sentis, for instance, using a thorn-twig by way of a play on his name. Names are both in the nominative and genitive, with some abbreviated form in the one case of FECIT, in the other of MANVS or OFFICINA.^[3545] Local names are clearly to be seen in those of Belatullus, Iassus, and Vologesus.

Another important centre of fabric in Germany is Rheinzabern (Tabernae Rhenanae) near Speier, which probably shared with Westerndorf a monopoly of the moulded wares.^[3546] The pottery found here is mostly in the Speier Museum; it is almost all of form 37, with its typical decoration, and the fabric does not seem to have been established before the second century. The chief potters’ names are Belsus, Cerialis, Cobnertus, Comitialis, Julius, Juvenis, Mammillianus, Primitivus, and Reginus. The British Museum possesses moulds for large bowls with free friezes of animals, one with the stamp of Cerialis^[3547]; there was little export to Gaul, but a considerable amount to Britain. M. Déchelette notes the similarity of the types to those of Lezoux, and suggests that Rheinzabern is an offshoot from the latter pottery. This site has also produced barbotine wares,^[3548] which bear a remarkable superficial resemblance to that of Castor (see below, p. 544), and have been wrongly identified therewith^[3549]; but they are not found at Castor, and in point of fact differ widely in artistic merit, being far superior to the British fabric, as has been pointed out by Mr. Haverfield.^[3550] The ornamentation is a formal and conventional imitation of classical models, whereas the Castor ware is only classical in its elements, and is otherwise barbaric yet unconventional.

It is possible that Trier, and in fact all places mentioned in a preceding chapter (p. 453) as sites of kilns may be regarded as centres of manufacture, though in only a few cases was anything made beyond the ordinary plain wares. Of the latter a useful summary has been made by Koenen,^[3551] chiefly from the technical point of view, which it may be worth while to recapitulate. He divides the pottery of the Rhine district (which may be taken as typical) into three main classes: the first transitional from the La Tène period^[3552] to Roman times; the second, native half-baked cinerary urns; the third, Roman pottery, ousting the other two. The first two classes cover the local hand-made wares of grey, brown, or black clay, which are clearly of native make, and like the similar wares of Britain and Gaul hardly come under the heading of Roman pottery, though subsequently they felt its influence. The Roman pottery proper (which can be well studied in the museums of Bonn, Trier, and elsewhere on the Rhine) is divided by Koenen into three periods: Early, Middle, and Late Empire. Roman wares first appear with coins of Augustus, and at this period exercise much influence on the La Tène types, producing a sort of mixed style, usually of greyish or black clay with impressed or incised ornament, subsequently replaced by barbotine. The terra sigillata is either of the superior deep red variety with sharp outlines and details, which we have seen to emanate from Gaul, or else plain ware of a light red hue (“false Samian”), without ornament.^[3553] But as Hölder has pointed out,^[3554] the settlement of the chronology of German pottery (apart from the sigillata) is particularly difficult, because we are dealing with a purely utilitarian fabric, which consequently preserved its forms unaltered through a considerable period; moreover, there must have been many local fabrics and little exportation, which makes comparison difficult.