Embossed Silver Wine-Cup from the Hildesheim hoard (first century A.D.). The finely worked Bacchic reliefs, including theatrical masks, Bacchic
wands (thyrsi) and masks of Silenus, are wholly appropriate to the function of the vessel. Roman silver plate frequently found its way, through trade or
plunder, to sites such as Hildesheim which lay beyond the imperial frontiers.
Lack of space precludes a full examination of the domestic equipment of Roman times. Fine pottery, notably the red-gloss ware from Arretium
(Arezzo) and (later) Gaul, imitated the embossed reliefs and even some of the subjects of figured metalware; but the careful moulded decoration of the
first and second centuries tended to die away in many areas, to be replaced by simpler techniques including rouletting and relief motifs in applied clay.
By the fourth century pottery was to a large extent overtaken by glass as the usual form of fine tableware. Other artistic products in domestic use
included carved bone or ivory handles for knives and the ubiquitous bronze or terracotta lamps, with their simple figure-reliefs and distinctive wick-
holding nozzles. Less artistic, but unambiguously geared to the pleasures of the table, was the extraordinary series of objects known as gliraria-large
terracotta jars used to rear dormice, a delicacy which particularly appealed to the Roman palate. Surviving examples from Pompeii are provided with
regular holes to admit air and with a spiral ramp round the interior wall to enable the animals to reach a pair of feeding trays near the rim.
Dress and Personal Effects
Dress is the aspect of the arts of living about which we are perhaps least well informed. We know from Roman writers that the ceremonial toga, a
semicircular white woollen wrap between 5 and 6 m. in diameter, had to be donned with great art and no little difficulty, a circumstance which
encouraged many men to view with relief those 'off-duty' occasions when they could wear the simple tunica. Portrait statues give us some idea of what
the toga looked like, with its distinctive curving hem; and from the same source we get representations of the long dress, or stola, of the Roman
matron. Other works of art illustrate further garments, such as the pallium, a version of the heavy Greek cloak; the lacerna, a short cape fastened at the
neck with a brooch; and the paenula, a kind of hooded poncho. To the late-imperial period belong depictions of the long-sleeved tunic or dalmatic. But
for all this comparative wealth of illustrative material there is little to convey the rich colours and embroideries, still less the fine fabrics (muslins and
silks), worn especially by society ladies. The fragments of surviving textiles from Egypt, though instructive on the range of possible weaves, patterns,
and colours, are mostly late in date (fourth or fifth centuries), while the pieces from other parts of the Roman world are rarely well preserved or of any
artistic pretensions. Nor is there much information in the Latin authors beyond vague indications of cut or colour, for example the green tunic and red
belt of Trimalchio's flunkey, the red tunic, yellow belt, and gilded slippers of his wife, and the close-fitting lacerna and well-tailored red, green, and
purple cloaks given by Statius' friend Atedius Melior to his young favourite Glaucias.