A Companion Roman Religion - Spiritual Minds

Mercury or with cult activities in general, whereas for the third dish, found at Vaise

near Lyon together with other dishes, coins and jewelry, secular use is quite likely,

too (Baratte 1999: 37– 41). Again, we are confronted with a wider range of con-

notations of religious images than we might expect.

Ceramics

Tableware

If we again take Pompeii as a model case, it is clear that, while several families

had at their disposal a certain amount of silver plate, the possession of large silver

services with decorated plate was restricted to very few persons (Painter 2001: 1–3).

The situation is slightly different with ceramics: if we leave aside the coarse ware like

cooking pots and amphorae, quite a large part of the fine ware, the so-called terra

sigillata(Samian ware), is plain or simply covered with decorative motifs such as

ornaments, scrolls, flowers, animals, etc., and a small amount only had figured relief

decoration. But the dates and places of manufacture show, of course, that there are

huge differences in quality within the relief-decorated ware.

The finest and most precious vessels, manufactured for instance at Arezzo in the

Augustan period, betray the contemporary tendency to classicize, and they are, in

terms of quality and choice of subjects, very close to contemporary silverware (for

the motifs see Porten Palange 2004). In several cases it has been possible to prove

that silversmiths and potters used the same models for illustrating mythological scenes

(Roth-Rubi 1997; Porten Palange 2004). There is no doubt that the relief-decorated

Italic drinking cups, as well as silver plate, wall paintings, and mosaics, gave ample

reason for discussing and showing off with mythological knowledge to those invited

to a symposium.

In the late Augustan period pottery production partly shifted to southern Gaul,

and the enormous output there resulted in a more standardized production without

much sophistication behind it. Nevertheless, drinking and mixing bowls decorated

with animals, scrolls, ornaments, and small divine or human figures were highly fash-

ionable in Italy, too (for the motifs see Stanfield and Simpson 1990). This interest

may account for the wooden box filled with 90 bowls and 37 lamps, all fresh from

the factory, found in the tablinumof house VIII 5.9 in Pompeii, which had most

probably been ordered by a local tradesman. It is quite obvious that on this level

the relief decoration has a purely decorative function, although some religious

motifs are inserted (e.g. on no. 50: Minerva and Cupid, each in separate fields and

surrounded by animals and scrolls: Atkinson 1914: pl. IX, 50).

Lamps

Mold-made lamps with decorated disks are closely related to relief-decorated pot-

tery, as both artifact groups were made in the same workshops. In fact, in several

cases it can clearly be demonstrated that punches from lamp disks were used for

pottery molds. Of particular interest in this respect is a mold from the early Roman

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