Chapter XX

. is supported by Festus.[3342]

Pliny, as we have seen, mentions Arretium, Hasta and Pollentia, Mutina and Surrentum with commendation; he also couples the pottery of Hadria with that of Kos for _firmitas_.[3343] He further implies that Arretium kept up the old pre-eminence of the Samian ware, and this is borne out, not only by what we gather from Martial and other writers, but still more by modern discoveries, of which we shall shortly speak in detail. Of the other potteries less is known, but remains have been found at Hasta and Pollentia (Asti and Pollenza in Piedmont)[3344] and the _figlinae_ of Velleia in the same region were also well known in antiquity.[3345] At Mutina (Modena) remains of a pottery were found (see Vol. I. p. 71), together with vases of Arretine type, and the potter Fortis, whose name so often occurs on lamps (p. 426), appears to have had his workshop here.[3346] His stamps are also found on tiles and on pottery of all kinds, even Arretine. Here, too, were found vases of black ware, of “Graeco-Campanian” style, sometimes with stamps impressed from gems, and unglazed red plates stamped with small palmettes like the Greek black-glazed wares (Vol. I. p. 212). Livy mentions that in 176 B.C. a great destruction took place here of “all kinds of vases, made more for use than for ornament.”[3347] In their general results the pottery-finds are instructive as showing the transition from black to red wares, which may also be observed in the vases of Popilius and the early Arretine fabrics (see below).[3348]

Campania in general seems to have maintained the traditions of the Calene and Etrusco-Campanian fabrics of the third century (