Romano-British Period—Pottery—Samian Ware—Potters’ Stamps—Varieties of Ornamentation—Glass Vessels—Sepulchral Vases, etc.—Lachrymatories—Bowls—Beads—Coins found with Interments.
In the preceding chapters I have purposely avoided including vessels of Samian ware. As these are frequently found with sepulchral deposits, I now proceed to speak of this peculiar and beautiful ware.
Samian ware is that peculiarly fine, close-textured, and richly-coloured red-ware, which is so frequently found, and is so well known to antiquaries. The body of this ware is of a fine red colour, but its surface is of a deeper and richer tone, much like the best red sealing-wax. It is extremely hard and brittle, and is sonorous in sound when struck. The vessels of this ware consist for the most part of bowls, cups, and paterÆ or dishes, in each of which divisions are found an almost endless variety of forms, and while some are perfectly plain, others are more or less covered with ornaments—figures of men, animals, foliage, borders, etc.,—in relief. These relief ornaments were produced from moulds, and the names of the makers of the vessels were also frequently stamped upon them. Of these ornaments and potters’ marks, Mr. Wright says, “The potter’s name was placed in a small rectangular label, as in the examples given on figs. 270, 271, 272, 273, and 274. The name was most commonly put in the genitive case, combined with O or OF, abbreviations of the word officina, as in the example given in our cut, where OF MODESTI stands for officina Modesti, i.e. ‘from the workshop of Modestus;’ or with M for manu, as COBNERTI M, for Cobnerti manu, ‘by’ or ‘from the hand of Cobnertus.’ Sometimes the name is given in the nominative case, followed by F or FE, for fecit, as COCVRO F, for Cocuro fecit, ‘Cocuro made it.’ Doubled or ligulated letters are frequently introduced into these inscriptions, an example of which is given in the lower figure to the right, where the first letter is the ligulated T and E, and the name is TETTVR. Sometimes we meet with an error in the spelling of the word; and in one or two instances the person who made the stamp inscribed the name carelessly, so that it read direct on the stamp, and consequently it is reversed in the impression on the pottery. An example is given in the cut, where the inscription reversed reads PRASSO·O. The name is not always placed in a square label, though examples to the contrary are rare. In a few instances it has been found inscribed round a small circle. It is a peculiarity of the Arrentine ware, described by Fabroni, that the label not unfrequently assumes the form of the sole of a man’s foot. The stamp of this form given in our cut occurs on a piece of the red Samian ware found at Lillebonne, in Normandy. The inscription appears to be HIL·O·L·TITI, which may perhaps stand for Hilarii officina liberti Titi, ‘from the workshop of Hilarius, the freedman of Titus.’ The next cut (fig. 276) represents one of the stamps used for impressing the label with the potter’s name. It was found at Lezoux, in Auvergne and presents the name AVSTRI·OF. ‘from the workshop of Austen.’ A similar die of a potter named Cobnertus is preserved in the museum at Sevres. Both these names occur on specimens of Samian ware found in England. Other potters’ names are shown on figs. 272 to 275. The first of these bears the name CELSINVS . F .; the second, MICCIO; the third, AISTIVI.M; and the fourth is the one referring to Aretium.”
Figs. 270 and 271.
Similar dies for stamping the ornaments and figures have also been found in France. In the latter, each die contained a single figure, or, at all events, a single group, and this explains why the same figures are so frequently found on the pottery in different combinations. One of these dies contains a single festoon and tassel of the well-known festoon ornament, so common on this pottery.
The ornamental borders which are most commonly met with on Samian ware are elegant festoon-and-tassel borders, and the egg-and-tongue ornament, both of which, as well as a border consisting of a range of figures representing the Medicean Venus, are shown on the accompanying engraving (fig. 277) of a fine bowl found in London. Wavy lines and lines of circles are also common, and we frequently meet with scroll-work of very elegant design, commonly formed of leaves, flowers, and fruit. Examples, selected from a numerous variety, are given on engravings (figs. 278 to 282). These scrolls are generally used to form a border round the upper part of the bowl, as shown on figs. 280 and 281. The foliage most in favour for these scrolls was that of the vine, and the ivy (fig. 282), and also that of the strawberry; the former of which especially shows that this pottery was, as Pliny says of the Samian ware, particularly intended for the service of the table. The ivy-leaf, indeed, is almost the only ornament of the plainer description of this red ware. Sometimes the leaves of the vine are gracefully intermingled with the clusters of the fruit, and with little birds which are feeding upon the latter, as in the fragment represented in our cut (fig. 283).
Animals of all kinds are found in abundance among the ornaments of the Samian ware. Among these the boar was a great favourite. For instance, a cup will be divided into compartments, in which figure alternately two boars, and a man confronting them with a spear. In a similar compartment under arches, in another, we have two heads of lions above, and below, a rabbit and a dog. Another, again, is ornamented with fishes, separated by squares filled with a singular ornament, which is perhaps intended to represent water. Sometimes the whole outside of a bowl is covered with birds, beasts, and fishes mixed together in the utmost confusion.
The subjects in which human figures are introduced present still greater variety, and it need hardly be added that they are much more interesting. Subjects from the classical mythology are very common, and among the figures of the deities we recognize some, such as the Venus de Medici (fig. 277), which were copied from well-known models of art. Combats of pygmies and cranes appear as favourite subjects, as in the paintings, etc., in Pompeii. Sacrifices and religious ceremonies are not uncommon; and especially bacchanalian processions, and dances of bacchantes and satyrs—another proof that this ware was used for the festive board. The spirited manner in which figure subjects are often treated, will be seen by the engravings we have given, and by examples to be found in most collections. One vessel represents a bacchanalian scene, in which Silenus figures among satyrs and fauns. A faun is drinking from a horn supplied from a wine skin which he holds in his left hand, while Silenus attempts to snatch it from his hands. Genii, one of whom appears with wings on another fragment of the same vessel, appear to be directing or presiding over the scene. Among other very favourite subjects are hunting scenes, gladiatorial combats, and the sports of the amphitheatre. Others represent sacrifices and religious offerings. Musicians performing on various instruments are also common; and domestic scenes are depicted in great variety. Many of these are of a character not to be described, but sufficiently characteristic of the degraded state of morality under the Roman empire. The bowls here engraved (figs. 285 and 286) are good examples of these kinds of decoration. Another is ornamented with a series of figures, which appear to have no connection one with another. In the middle is a bacchanal with his thirsus; to the right of him a figure playing on a double pipe; on both sides a group of bears; and to the extreme right a charioteer, followed by a bear “rampant.”
The great quantity of this Samian ware which is found on Roman sites admits of easy explanation, from the circumstance that it was held in great favour, and that the manufactories on the Continent continued to work with activity in producing it during the whole Roman period. The number of names of potters, collected from fragments found in England alone, amounts to more than two thousand, and we must suppose them to have been spread over a long period.
Other examples of the common forms of Samian-ware vessels are given on figs. 288 to 291, and a clay mould for forming heads on pottery, discovered by myself at Headington, is shown on fig. 287.
Glass was very successfully and beautifully worked by the Romans, not only abroad, but in Britain, and vessels of this material are frequently found with sepulchral deposits. They are of great variety, and evidently made for many different uses. Those found in the graves are usually those made for holding the burnt bones of the dead; small vessels, commonly called lachrymatories, although their use was most probably that of holding the unguents and aromatics usually buried with the dead; small bowls, cups, or drinking vessels; and beads.
Of the sepulchral vessels of glass the one here engraved (fig. 292), from Bartlow Hills, will show the general form. They are of somewhat thick green glass, with neck and handle, and are literally bottles. The one from Bartlow Hills is of square form, and is six inches in height and four inches square on the bottom. Others are round in form. They contained the calcined bones of the dead. Of the forms of the small vessels known as lachrymatories, to which I have alluded, the examples in pottery on figs. 259 to 263 will convey a tolerably correct idea. They are usually from three to five inches in height. One found at Mount Bures, Colchester, is a remarkable example, being made of beautifully variegated glass. Cups or bowls, or, as they may not inaptly be called, basins, are of the common basin form, or jar shaped. They are usually of green glass, and of elegant workmanship. Beads are, perhaps, the most frequently found of any remains of Roman glass; this being of course owing to their more solid and, consequently, less perishable nature. They are of various kinds and sizes, and are more or less ornamented. The accompanying examples (figs. 294, 295, 296, and 297), will be sufficient to direct attention to these interesting relics. A number of beads, said to have been found with undoubted Roman remains, are shown on fig. 298.
The Coins found along with Romano-British interments are, of course, of various emperors and of various periods. They are only occasionally found, and, when discovered, cannot, it must be remembered, be taken as any criterion as to date of deposit, or, indeed, cannot be considered alone as evidence of the barrow or interment belonging to the Romano-British period. The Romans seem to have sowed their coins broadcast over the whole length and breadth of the land, to have thrown them about as they would useless chaff, to have buried them in urns in every conceivable place, and to have deposited them, either singly or otherwise, in the barrows of their predecessors. It is unnecessary to speak, then, of the varieties of coins which are from time to time turned up by the antiquary in his researches into the early grave-mounds. They form but a thousandth part of the coins which are found away from interments.
It may, however, be well, as showing the relative proportions of the coins of different emperors found in this country, to give the following analysis, by Mr. Roach Smith, of more than eleven hundred coins picked up at different times in one locality—Richborough in Kent.
| Augustus | 7 |
| Agrippa | 1 |
| Tiberius | 2 |
| Antonia, wife of Drusus, sen. | 1 |
| Caligula | 2 |
| Claudius | 15 |
| Nero | 11 |
| Vespasian | 13 |
| Titus | 1 |
| Domitian | 10 |
| Nerva | 1 |
| Trajan | 7 |
| Hadrian | 5 |
| Sabina | 5 |
| Ællius CÆsar | 1 |
| Antoninus Pius | 5 |
| Faustina | 3 |
| Marc Aurelius | 4 |
| Faustina | 5 |
| Lucius Verus | 2 |
| Lucilla | 1 |
| Commodus | 2 |
| Severus | 5 |
| Julia Domna | 3 |
| Caracalla | 3 |
| Julia Maesa | 1 |
| Severus Alexander | 7 |
| Gordianus | 6 |
| Philippus | 4 |
| Valerianus | 3 |
| Valerianus, junior | 1 |
| Galliense | 19 |
| Salonina | 4 |
| Postumus | 10 |
| Victorinus | 14 |
| Marius | 1 |
| Tetricus | 13 |
| Claudius Gothicus | 15 |
| Luntillus | 2 |
| Aurelianus | 4 |
| Tacitus | 5 |
| Florianus | 1 |
| Probus | 7 |
| Garinus | 1 |
| Numerainus | 2 |
| Diocletianus | 8 |
| Maximianus | 16 |
| CarÄusius | 94 |
| Allectus | 45 |
| Constantius | 4 |
| Helena | 8 |
| Theodora | 13 |
| Galerius Maximianus | 1 |
| Maxentius | 2 |
| Romulus | 1 |
| Licinius | 12 |
| Licinius, junior | 1 |
| Constantine the Great | 149 |
| Fausta | 2 |
| Crispus | 18 |
| Delmatius | 1 |
| Constantine II. | 98 |
| Constans | 77 |
| Constantius II. | 42 |
| Urbs Roma | 52 |
| Constantinoplis | 60 |
| Magnentius | 21 |
| Decentius | 4 |
| Julianus II. | 7 |
| Helena | 1 |
| Jovianus | 1 |
| Valentinianus | 22 |
| Valens | 39 |
| Gratianus | 49 |
| Theodosius | 14 |
| Magnus Maximus | 6 |
| Victor | 3 |
| Eugenius | 1 |
| Arcadius | 27 |
| Honorius | 8 |
| Constantine III. | 1 |
| Total | 1144 |
Of these coins, fifty-six only were of silver, six of gold, fifteen of billon, or base silver, and the remainder were of brass, the greater portion being, naturally, what are denominated “third brass.”
