Chapter XIV

. _ad fin._). Nearly all are of the Apulian class, with preferences for certain forms and details (such as the use of purple) not appearing at Ruvo, and a typical local product is a kind of _prochoös_ or tall jug.[275] Canosa was also a centre for the large terracotta vases which have been also found at Calvi (see p. 119).

At _Bari_ vases have been found from time to time, and there is a fair collection in the local museum[276]; they include the famous Poniatowski vase with Triptolemos’ setting-out, now in the Vatican, and the krater in the British Museum (F 269) with the burlesque combat of Ares and Hephaistos over Hera. _Ceglie_ has chiefly supplied the Berlin Museum with its Apulian specimens (from the Koller collection), others passing into a private collection at Naples. They are mostly of the later over-elaborated style.

_Altemura_ has supplied a few, but chiefly fine, vases, including the R.F. krater with the birth of Pandora (Brit. Mus. E 467) and the magnificent vase representing the Under-world found in 1847 and now in Naples. Other finds have been made at _Polignano_, _Putignano_, and _Fasano_ (Gnatia), which last site is interesting as the probable centre of a late fabric. Most of the vases found here have figures or patterns painted in opaque white and purple on the black glaze, and represent the latest stage of vase-painting in Southern Italy.[277] They are found almost exclusively on this site. It is also represented by some late R.F. vases with polychrome decoration.

In the region covered by the “heel” of Italy the most important site, as also the most important city in ancient times, is _Taranto_ or Tarentum. Chiefly on the authority of M. Lenormant,[278] this city was for a long time regarded as the centre of many South Italian fabrics, including the vases with burlesque scenes (φλύακες), those of Paestum, the Fasano ware, and, in fact, all Apulian fabrics. But the extensive excavations that have taken place at Tarentum of late years have shown that Lenormant and those who followed him were quite misled. Few Apulian vases have come to light, the Paestum fabric is unrepresented, and although the φλύακες of Tarentum were no doubt specially famous in antiquity, there is no authority for connecting this class of vases with them to the exclusion of other sites. Vases, in fact, are extremely rare at Tarentum, which made a much greater speciality of terracottas, especially of a votive kind; a few B.F. and R.F. specimens are known,[279] including the remarkable fragment of a R.F. krater in the British Museum (E 494), and a fine krater with an Amazonomachia (Bibl. Nat. 421).

Vases from _Metapontum_ also are few and far between; the British Museum possesses a specimen with figures in relief on black ground; and finds are also reported from _Lecce_, _Brindisi_, and _Oria_.[280] Many examples of local fabrics, described in