Of vessels for cooking, washing, and other common domestic purposes, the olla was that in most general use[[3302]]; the word is, in fact, a generic name for a jar or pot (Gk. χύτρα), as in the play of Plautus, the Aulularia, the name of which embodies an archaic form of the word, aula, aulula. Here it was used for hiding a hoard of gold. It was also, as has been noted, used as a funerary urn, and some inscribed examples of marble ollae have been found in tombs. The pelvis was more particularly a washing basin, but Juvenal speaks of it as scented with Falernian wine.[[3303]] It is usually identified with the mortarium, a large, shallow, open bowl with a spout, frequently found in Britain and Central Europe (see below, p. [550]); it is of coarse light-red clay, and often has the potter’s name stamped upon it. That it was used for pounding substances is shown by the fact that it often has small pebbles embedded in the surface of the interior. The scutra is mentioned by Cato and Plautus,[[3304]] and appears to have been used only in Republican times; its Imperial successor was the cacabus.[[3305]] The trua or trulla[[3306]] was a saucepan with a flat handle; numerous examples in bronze, silver, and earthenware have been preserved, and some have elaborate designs in relief on the handle.[[3307]]
A number of obscure and archaic names of vases are recorded by the etymologists and other writers, especially in regard to those used for sacrificial purposes and libations. The capis or capedo was probably a kind of jug (from capere, to contain)[[3308]]; Cicero refers to the capedunculae which were a legacy from Numa.[[3309]] The praefericulum[[3310]] was not, as usually supposed in popular archaeology, a jug, but a shallow basin of bronze without handles, like a patera. The lepasta or lepesta (cf. Greek λεπάστη) is recorded as used in Sabine temples,[[3311]] and the futile was used in the cult of Vesta for holding water[[3473]]; the cuturnium[[3313]] is also mentioned. The simpulum[[3314]] and simpuvium[[3315]] represent similar utensils, though the words are distinct; they were small-sized ladles used almost exclusively in religious rites, and sometimes regarded as old-fashioned. With reference to the size, fluctus in simpulo excitare[[3316]] became a proverbial expression for “a storm in a teacup.” They seem to have been usually of metal, but Pliny speaks of fictile simpula[[3317]]; the simpuvium is represented on coins and sacrificial reliefs. The lanx appears to have been used for offerings to Bacchus,[[3318]] and the guttus, cymbium, and other forms also appear in a sacrificial connection[[3319]]; conversely the patera, which is for the most part exclusively a libation bowl, was sometimes used for secular purposes[[3320]]; there is evidence that its use as a drinking vessel is older than its use for libations. The last-named corresponds to the Greek φιάλη (Vol. I. p. [191]),[[3321]] and is constantly referred to or represented; its essential feature was the hollow knob or omphalos in the centre, and it was either made of metal or earthenware. The patella was also used for libations or for offering first-fruits to the household gods.[[3322]]
Other obscure words referring to vases of secular use are the pollubrum (Greek, ποδανιπτήρ)[[3323]] and malluvium (Greek, χέρνιψ),[[3324]] meaning respectively basins for washing the feet and hands; the aquiminarium for washing vessels[[3325]]; the galeola, a variety of the sinus[[3326]]; the pultarius, a vessel used for warm drinks, for must, for preserving grapes, for coals, for fumigating, and as a cupping-glass[[3327]]; and the obba, which Persius describes as sessilis, i.e. squat and flat-bottomed.[[3328]] The culeus, congius, hemina, and sextarius appear to have been measures only, not vases in general use; the congius was one-eighth of an amphora, or six sextarii, about six English pints.[[3329]]
In the case of the majority of the names discussed in the foregoing pages, any attempt at identification with existing forms is hopeless; we have very few clues in the literature to the shapes of the vases described, and little evidence from themselves, as is often the case with Greek shapes; nor is any Roman writer except Isidorus, whose date is too late to be trustworthy, so explicit as Athenaeus. At present little has been done in the way of collecting the different forms of existing vases, but a valuable treatise on the subject was recently issued by the late O. Hölder, a Würtemberg professor, who collected all the forms found in Germany and Italy,[[3330]] and although he did not attempt to identify them by Latin names, he has done much service in grouping them together, classified as urns, jars, jugs, and so on, in a series of twenty-three plates of outline drawings.
There is, in fact, in Roman pottery no clear line of distinction to be drawn between the various forms of drinking-cups or of jugs or dishes, as is the case with Greek vases; different forms again are found in different fabrics, and those typical of ornamented wares are not found in plain pottery, and so on. Nor must it be forgotten that in Roman pottery the ornamented wares are the exception rather than the rule. Where the Greeks used painted vases, the Romans used metal; and apart from the plain pottery, the forms are almost limited to a few varieties of cups, bowls, and dishes. Comparisons with the Greek equivalents illustrated in Chapter [IV]. may give a probable idea of what the Roman meant when he spoke of an urceus or an olla, but for the rest the modern investigator can do little beyond attempting to point out what types of vases were peculiar to different periods or fabrics, and in most cases any attempt to give specific names can only be regarded as arbitrary.
[3080]. H.N. xxxiii. 154 ff.: see below, p. [489].
[3081]. Vases ornés de la Gaule Romaine, i. p. 190 ff.
[3082]. The term is applied to clay suited to receive stamps (sigilla) or impressions.
[3083]. Déchelette, Vases ornés de la Gaule Romaine, ii. p. 335.