The most complete stamps have the date of the emperor or the consulship, the name of the estates (praedia) which supplied the clay, that of the pottery where it was baked (figlinae or officina), and that of the potter who prepared it; sometimes even of the slave who moulded the tile, and even its very dimensions. Two typical examples may be given from the British Museum collection,[[2508]] of which the first (Fig. [194]) is said to have been found in the Catacombs at Rome. It has in the centre of the stamp a figure of Victory, round which is the inscription in two lines, beginning with the outer band:
OPVS DOL(iare) DE FIGVL(inis) PVBLINIANIS
(ex) PREDIS AEMILIAES SEVERAES
“Pottery[[2509]] from the Publinian works, (the clay) from the estate
of Aemilia Severa.”
The other has no device, but the last word of the inscription is in the centre:
IMP ANTONINO II E(t) BALBINO COS
D P Q S P D O ARABI SER(vi)
“The Emperor Antoninus for the second time and Balbinus consuls; from the estates (de praediis) of Q. Servilius Pudens, pottery (doliare opus) from the hand of the slave Arabus.”
The earlier stamps exhibit more method and precision; the later betray comparative carelessness. In the latter the name of the emperor sometimes occurs alone, and unusual expressions are introduced. Contractions are invariable at all periods, and even the consuls are sometimes only mentioned by initials; but by comparison of examples it is possible to place them in the right order. Those found in Rome cover the period from the reign of Trajan to that of Theodoric (A.D. 500), but in other parts of Italy they are found dating as early as 50 B.C. We are told that Theodoric, when he repaired the walls of Rome, made a present of twenty-five thousand tiles for the purpose,[[2510]] and on the tiles bearing his name he is styled “The good and glorious king,” with the additional exclamation, “Happy is Rome!”[[2511]]