We now proceed to describe in detail the principal shapes of Roman vases, so far as they can be identified from literary or epigraphical evidence or from other sources, on the same lines as in our previous chapter on the shapes of Greek pottery. Some of these shapes, it will be seen, they had in common with the Greeks, such as the amphora, the krater, and the phiale or patera, and in several instances (such as the cyathus and the scyphus) the Greek name is preserved.
Beginning with vases used for storage, whether for liquids, as for wine and oil, or for solids, as for corn or fruit, which were chiefly kept in cellars, we take first the dolium, a gigantic cask corresponding to the Greek πίθος (Vol. I. p. [152]), which from its general usage gave rise to the generic term opus doliare, for common work in clay. It was large enough to contain a man, as we know from the story of Diogenes illustrated on the Roman lamp already given (Plate [LXIV]. fig. 6); the vessel thereon depicted may serve to give an idea of its appearance. Columella[[3185]] speaks of dolia sesquiculearia, i.e. holding one-and-a-half culei or thirty amphorae. They were buried in the earth of the cellars, and have been found thus in Italy at Anzi, in France at Apt, Vaucluse, and near Clermont, and at Tunis.[[3186]] They were used for wine, oil, corn, and salted meat, and Juvenal tells us that dolia were used for new wine, being lined with wax, pitch, or gypsum.[[3187]] In 1858 a large number were found at Sarno in Campania, some being stamped with the makers’ names, as ONESIMVS FECIT, VITALIS F, L · TITI · T · F · PAP, and M · LVCCEI · QVARTIONIS.[[3188]] On one was incised L · XXXIV, or thirty-four lagenae (see p. [446]). One of the prodigies which was supposed to predict the future fortune of the Emperor Antoninus Pius was the discovery above ground of some dolia which had been sunk in the earth in Etruria.[[3189]] An old name for the dolium was calpar,[[3190]] and another smaller variety was the seria,[[3191]] containing only seven amphorae. A diminutive form of the latter, seriola, is described as a wine-vessel invented in Syria.[[3192]]
Dolia were made in separate pieces, the base and other parts being secured by leaden cramps, and they were also hooped with lead, as we learn from Cato.[[3193]] Pliny speaks of repairing casks by fitting on handles, scraping the hoops, and stopping up cracks.[[3194]] They are made both of white and red clay, baked in a slow furnace, great care being required to moderate the heat aright. Their makers were known as doliarii. Part of a large dolium bound with leaden hoops was found near Modena, at Palzano; also at Spilamberto, one with the name of T. Gavelius and the numerals XXX, XIII, another of the capacity of 36 amphorae.[[3195]] On the mouth of one found in the Villa Peretta at Rome was the name of L. Calpurnius Eros,[[3196]] on another the name of T. Cocceius Fortunatus.[[3197]] Two good examples of dolia were at one time preserved in the gardens of the Villa Albani, about 4 feet in diameter and as many in height, and of a coarse gritty pale red clay. This kind of vase was often used for sepulchral purposes, bodies having being found actually buried in them (see above, p. [457]).
Next in size and importance to the dolium is the amphora, resembling in form the Greek wine-jar[[3198]]; it usually has a long cylindrical body with pointed base, a long narrow neck, and two straight handles. Hölder[[3199]] notes several varieties: the Canopic, the wide-bellied, the cylindrical, the globular, and the spheroidal, the former of which is a typical early form in the provinces.[[3200]] It was often without neck or handle, and was seldom ornamented, not being used for artistic purposes like its Greek prototype, but only for strictly utilitarian ends, that is, for the storage and transport of wine. It is usually of coarse red earthenware, made on the wheel, with a clay stopper to close the mouth, and the name of the maker in a rectangular label on the handle, like the diota or wine-amphora of the Greeks. It was in fact often known as a diota, as in a familiar line of Horace[[3201]]:
Deprome quadrimum Sabina,
O Thaliarche, merum diota.
The amphora was pitched internally to preserve the wine[[3202]]; the pointed base was of course adapted for fixing it in the ground in the cellar, but when brought up it was placed in a tripod-stand of metal or wood (incitega).[[3203]] In Cicero’s time the regulation size was equivalent to a quadrantal or two urnae.[[3204]] The use of this vase was very varied and extensive among the Romans; it was employed not only in cellars and granaries, but also at the table and for many other purposes of ordinary life, even where nowadays vessels of wood or iron would be preferred.
D’Agincourt[[3205]] mentions the discovery at Rome, near the Porta del Popolo, of a row of amphorae in a cellar in 1789, and at Pompeii a hundred were found in the house of Arrius Diomedes, a hundred and fifty in that of the Faun; a hundred and twenty were found in a cellar near the baths of Titus, and many more at Milan in 1809, and at Turin. Numbers have been found in London, varying in capacity from four to twelve gallons, and others at Colchester and Mount Bures in Essex.[[3206]] But they are so universal all over the Roman Empire that to enlarge the list would be tedious. Many, however, evoke a special interest by reason of their stamps and inscriptions, and a few typical examples may profitably be given.[[3207]]
The inscriptions vary in form and character; some amphorae give the name of the maker in the genitive, officina being understood; others the consuls for the year in which they were filled; others, again, the name of the wine or other phrases descriptive of their contents; and others complimentary inscriptions to their owners. Among names of makers both single, double, and triple names are found, and among the former are many of a Gaulish or barbarian character, such as Bellucus, Dicetus, and Vacasatus, son of Brariatus; the last-named from Nimeguen, the first-named from London.[[3208]] Among the triple names, showing that the potters were Roman citizens or freedmen, are M. Aemilius Rusticus from Caerleon, and C. Antonius Quintus, also found in Britain.[[3209]] Sometimes the name is in the nominative with F for fecit, or with the genitive OF for officina occurs. The stamps are in the form of oblong rectangular labels on the handle or neck, the letters in relief. One of the most curious stamps was on an amphora found in the Pontine marshes near Rome, a square one with a caduceus and other symbols arranged in twelve compartments; the inscription runs M · PETRON · VETERAN · LEO · SER · FECIT, “Leo, the slave of M. Petronius Veteranus, made it.”[[3210]]