During the period A.D. 100-400, and especially in the third century, a class of red wares appears at Lezoux in the form of large bowls with spouts in the shape of lions’ heads.[[3527]] These were wrongly identified by Plicque with the acratophorus (p. [464]), but they are clearly mortars (pelves, mortaria), in which food was ground or cooked, the spout serving the purpose of straining off liquid. The lions’ heads are made from moulds and attached with barbotine. Some of these have potters’ names. As a class they must be distinguished from the plain mortaria of grey or yellow ware described below (p. [551]).
With the South of France it is necessary to connect a series of medallions with reliefs, intended for attachment to vases of terra sigillata ware.[[3528]] In one or two cases the vases themselves have been preserved, but usually the medallions alone remain; there are also examples of the moulds in which they were made.[[3529]] Nearly all of these have been found in the valley of the Rhone, at Orange or Vienne,[[3530]] the rest in other parts of France, such as Lezoux, along the Rhine, or at Rome (two examples). They were probably made at Vienne; but there was also a fabric in Germany, examples of which occur at Cologne, Trier, and Xanten. The subjects of the reliefs are very varied, ranging from figures of deities to gladiators or even animals; they frequently bear inscriptions, and their date is the third century after Christ.
FIG. 227. MEDALLION FROM VASE OF SOUTHERN GAUL: SCENE FROM THE CYCNUS (BRITISH MUSEUM).
As long ago as 1873 Froehner published a series from Orange,[[3531]] with such subjects as Apollo, Venus Victrix, Mars and Ilia, a figure of Lugdunum personified, the freeing of Prometheus and the death of Herakles, Dionysos and Ariadne, a bust of Hermes, a gladiator, a cock and hens, and a bust of the Emperor Geta, the last-named serving as an indication of date for the whole series. Several were inscribed, that with Venus Victrix having CERA FELICIS, which probably refers to the wax in which the figures were first modelled, though some have thought that it represents the Greek κερα(μέως). Another trio from Orange[[3532]] represent respectively:—(1) a chariot race in the circus, with the inscriptions FELICITER, LOGISMUS (a horse’s name), and PRASIN(a) F(actio), “the green party”; (2) Fig. [227], a scene from a play, probably the Cycnus, in which Herakles is saying to Ares, the would-be avenger of his son, “(Invicta) virtus nusquam terreri potest,” the god proclaiming “Adesse ultorem nati me credas mei”; in the background, on a raised stage or θεολογεῖον, are deities; (3) an actor in female costume. There are also three in the Hermitage Museum at Petersburg, of which two represent Poseidon, the third Hermes.[[3533]] Caylus also gives a representation of a vase with three such medallions, with busts of Pluto and Persephone, Mars and Ilia, and two gladiators.[[3534]] Where gladiators with names appear it may be assumed that they are portraits of real people, and Déchelette argues from this that the vases were made specially in connection with gladiatorial (or theatrical) performances.
From Gaz. Arch.
FIG. 228. MEDALLION FROM VASE OF SOUTHERN GAUL: ATALANTA AND
HIPPOMEDON.
An interesting group found at Vienne and Vichy[[3535]] have subjects taken from the Thirteenth Iliad, such as Deiphobos and the Locrian Ajax, or Hector fighting the Achaeans. Among the remaining examples known the most interesting are three from Orange, one of which represents a festival in honour of Isis, the other two, the victory of Hippomedon over Atalanta (Fig. [228]), with an inscription of three lines:
Respicit ad malum pernicibus ignea plantis,