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]:

Sic implet gabatas paropsidesque Et leves scutulas cavasque lances.

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