particularly difficult to draw a line between statuettes bought and valued as pieces
of art and others used in the domestic rituals. One of the most famous bronzes
in Novius Vindex’s big private collection was certainly the Herakles Epitrapezios
(“Hercules at [or on] the table”) which the poet Martial admired when invited to
his patron’s house (Mart. 9.43– 4) (Bartman 1992: 147– 86). It is obvious that less
importance was attached to the subject itself than to the artist (in this case allegedly
Lysippus) and the piece’s pedigree. Still, there is a close connection between the
motif – Hercules drinking at the symposium – and the function of the statuette
as a table adornment. This same function is attested for larariumstatuettes as well
(cf. Petronius 60.8 – 9).Silverware
Petronius’ “Feast of Trimalchio” provides evidence not only of mythological wall
paintings and larariumstatuettes but also of decorated silverware used at the ban-
quet (Petronius 52.1–3). The possession of richly decorated silver vessels was com-
pulsory for well-to-do people, and it was equally important for the host and his guests
to comment upon the mythological subjects represented on the silver. The ignorant
freedman Trimalchio boasts of his enormous drinking cups (scyphi), but mistakes Medea
for Cassandra when trying to explain one particular scene, and he is just as unlucky
with other topics. The fact that in the first centuryad such decorated scyphiwere
the focal point of interest is confirmed by the two big silver hoards found in the
Vesuvian area, one discovered in the cellar of the House of the Menander (I 10, 4)
at Pompeii, the other on the premises of a villa rusticaat Boscoreale (Painter 2001;
Baratte 1986). They both consist of silverware for drinking and eating (argentum
potorium/escarium), but relief decoration is to be found almost exclusively on the
drinking cups. The topics represented on them and on other Campanian silver cover
a range comparable with the one chosen for wall paintings: the worlds of Bacchus
and Venus prevail, whereas within the realm of other religious and mythological scenes
no preference for specific subjects can be made out (Künzl 1979: 220 –1).
Under the exceptional conditions of the Vesuvian cities, silver services have been
found more or less in the places where they had been in use, that is, in amply equipped
private households. However, there are other cases where several successive phases
of use can be distinguished. In this respect the Campanian plate within the temple
hoard discovered at Berthouville (Eure, France) is of special interest. Five drinking
cups and two jugs, mostly decorated with mythological scenes, had certainly been
used in the context of private banquets somewhere in Campania before a certain
Q. Domitius Tutus decided to donate them to the sanctuary of Mercurius
Canetonnensis in northern Gaul (Babelon 1916; Baratte and Painter 1989: 79 – 97).
It is clear, therefore, that religious subjects do not in any way prove religious use;
they can just as well decorate secular silver plate, as is the case with the treasures
from Pompeii and Boscoreale.
The same phenomenon proves true with later silver of the second and third
centuriesad, in a period when the figured decoration on plate had shifted fromReligion in the House 193ACTC14 26/04/2007 09:38 AM Page 193