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[21]At this meal, contrary to the usual custom, women were present.
[21]At this meal, contrary to the usual custom, women were present.
[22]According to tradition, many Makedonians were killed by the Persians taking hold of their long beards, and pulling them to the ground. Alexander, in consequence, had his troops shaved during the battle.
[22]According to tradition, many Makedonians were killed by the Persians taking hold of their long beards, and pulling them to the ground. Alexander, in consequence, had his troops shaved during the battle.
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The immense number and variety of statues, lamps, urns, articles of domestic use, in metal or earthenware, etc., discovered at Herculaneum and Pompeii, have rendered the Museum at Naples an inexhaustible treasury of information relative to the private life of the ancients. To give an adequate description of the richness and variety of its contents would far exceed the whole extent of this work, much more the small space which it can have; but that space can not be better occupied than in describing some few articles which possess an interest from the ingenuity of their construction, the beauty of their workmanship, or their power to illustrate ancient usages or ancient authors.
Writing implements are among the most important of the latter class, on account of the constant mention of them, as well as of the influence which the comparative ease or difficulty of producing copies of writing is always found to exert over society. On this head there is no want of information. The implements used are frequently mentioned, especially in familiar writings, as the letters of Cicero, and their forms have been tolerably ascertained from various fragments of ancient paintings.
It is hardly necessary to state that for manuscripts of any length, and such as were meant to be preserved, parchment or vellum, and a vegetable tissue manufactured from the rushpapyrus, were in use. The stalk of this plant consists of a number of thin concentric coats, which, being carefully detached, were pasted crossways one over the other, like the warp and woof in woven manufactures, so that the fibres ran longitudinally in each direction, and opposed in each an equal resistance to violence. The surface was then polished with a shell, or some hard smooth substance. The ink used was a simple black liquid, containing no mordant to give it durability, so that the writing was easily effaced by the application of a sponge. The length of the Greek papyri is said to vary from eight to twelve inches; the Latin often reach sixteen; the writing is in columns, placed at right angles to the length of the roll.
To each of them is appended a sort of ticket, which served as a title. Hence the end of the roll, or volume, was calledfrons, a term of frequent recurrence in Ovid and Martial, and not always rightly understood. Hence, also, when we meet with the expression,gemina frons, we must understand that the volume had a ticket at each end. These books were also composed of two tables or pages, and served for memoranda, letters, and other writings, not intended to be preserved. They were composed of leaves of wood or metal coated over with wax, upon which the ancients wrote with astylus, or iron pen, or point rather, for it was a solid sharp-pointed instrument, some 6 to 8 inches in length, like a lady's stiletto upon a large scale. In the middle of each leaf there appears to have been a button, calledumbilicus, intended to prevent the pages touching when closed, and obliterating the letters traced on the yielding wax.
The tablets here represented would be called twofold, as consisting only of two leaves; in the following cut may be seen another sort, consisting of several leaves, united at the back with hinges or rings. In Latin they were calledtabulæ, ortabellæ, and the epithets, duplices, triplices, quintuplices, served to mark the number of the leaves.
TABULÆ, CALAMUS, AND PAPYRUS.TABULÆ, CALAMUS, AND PAPYRUS.ToList
TABULÆ, CALAMUS, AND PAPYRUS.ToList
Beside them stands a double inkstand, intended probably to contain both black and red ink. The former was made either of lampblack or some other sort of charcoal, or from the cuttlefish, and was called atramentum. As it contained no mordant, and was readily obliterated by moisture, it could be used for writing upon ivory tablets; and it has been conjectured that some sorts of paper were covered with a wash, or varnish, to facilitate the discharge of the old writing, and render the paper serviceable a second time. Red ink was prepared from cinnabar. The reed, cut to a point, which lies beside the inkstand, is the instrument used in writing with ink before the application of quills. It was calledcalamus. The open papyrus explains how manuscripts were read, rolled up at each end, so as to show only the column of writing upon which the student was intent. At the other side is a purse, or bag, to hold the reed, penknife, and other writing instruments.
The next cut represents, besides a set of tablets bound up, a single one hanging from a nail. Such, probably, were those suspended at Epidaurus, containing remedies by which the sick had been cured, by the perusal of which Hippocrates is said to have profited in the compilation of his medical works. It also contains, besides a papyrus similar to those described, a hexagonal inkstand, with a ring to pass the finger through, upon which there lies an instrument resembling a reed, but the absence of the knots, or joints, marks it to be a stylus. Another of these instruments leans against the open book.
TABULÆ, STYLUS, AND PAPYRUS.TABULÆ, STYLUS, AND PAPYRUS.ToList
TABULÆ, STYLUS, AND PAPYRUS.ToList
These were made of every sort of material; sometimes with the precious metals, but usually of iron, and on occasion might be turned into formidable weapons. It was with his stylus that Cæsar stabbed Casca in the arm, when attacked in the senate by his murderers; and Caligula employed some person to put to death a senator with the same instruments.
In the reign of Claudius women and boys were searched to ascertain whether there were styluses in their pen-cases. Stabbing with the pen, therefore, is not merely a metaphorical expression. Tablets such as those here represented, were the day-books, or account-books. When they were full, or when the writing on them was no longer useful, the wax was smoothed, and they were ready again for other service.
TABULÆ AND INK STAND.TABULÆ AND INK STAND.ToList
TABULÆ AND INK STAND.ToList
The cut above, besides an inkstand, represents an open book. The thinness and yellowish color of the leaves, which are tied together with ribbon, denotes that it was made of parchment or vellum.
LIBRARIES AND MONEY.LIBRARIES AND MONEY.ToList
LIBRARIES AND MONEY.ToList
Below is a cylindrical box, calledscriniumandcapsa, orcapsula, in which the manuscripts were placed vertically, the titles at the top. Catullus excuses himself to Manlius for not having sent him the required verses, because he had with him only one box of his books. It is evident that a great number of volumes might be comprised in this way within a small space; and this may tend to explain the smallness of the ancient libraries—at least of the rooms whichare considered to have been such. Beside the box are two tablets, which, from the money-bag and coins scattered about, had probably been used in reckoning accounts.
No perfect papyri, but only fragments, have been found at Pompeii. At Herculaneum, up to the year 1825, 1,756 had been obtained, besides many others destroyed by the workmen, who imagined them to be mere sticks of charcoal. Most of them were found in a suburban villa, in a room of small dimensions, ranged in presses round the sides of the room, in the centre of which stood a sort of rectangular book-case.
Sir Humphry Davy, after investigating their chemical nature, arrived at the conclusion that they had not been carbonized by heat, but changed by the long action of air and moisture; and he visited Naples in hopes of rendering the resources of chemistry available towards deciphering these long-lost literary treasures. His expectations, however, were not fully crowned with success, although the partial efficacy of his methods was established; and he relinquished the pursuit at the end of six months, partly from disappointment, partly from a belief that vexatious obstacles were thrown in his way by the jealousy of the persons to whom the task of unrolling had been intrusted. About five hundred volumes have been well and neatly unrolled. It is rather remarkable that, as far as we are acquainted, no manuscript of any known standard work has been found, nor, indeed, any production of any of the great luminaries of the ancient world.
The most celebrated person, of whom any work has been found, is Epicurus, whose treatise,De Natura, has been successfully unrolled. This and a few other treatises have been published. The library in which this was found appears to have been rich in treatises on the Epicurean philosophy. The only Latin work which it contained was a poem, attributed to Rabirius, on the war of Cæsar and Antony.
A curious literary monument has been found in the shapeof a calendar. It is cut on a square block of marble, upon each side of which three months are registered in perpendicular columns, each headed by the proper sign of the zodiac. The information given may be classed under three heads, astronomical, agricultural, and religious. The first begins with the name of the month; then follows the number of days; then the nones, which in eight months of the year fall on the fifth day, and were thence called quintanæ—in the others on the seventh, and were, therefore, called septimanæ. The ides are not mentioned, because seven days always elapsed between them and the nones. The number of hours in the day and night is also given, the integral part being given by the usual numerals, the fractional by an S for semissis, the half, and by small horizontal lines for the quarters. Lastly, the sign of the zodiac in which the sun is to be found is named, and the days of the equinoxes and of the summer solstice are determined; for the winter solstice we read,Hiemis initium, the beginning of winter. Next the calendar proceeds to the agricultural portion, in which the farmer is reminded of the principal operations which are to be done within the month. It concludes with the religious part, in which, besides indicating the god under whose guardianship the month is placed, it notes the religious festivals which fall within it, and warns the cultivator against neglecting the worship of those deities upon whose favor and protection the success of his labors is supposed mainly to depend.
GOLD LAMP.GOLD LAMP. (Found at Pompeii.)ToList
GOLD LAMP. (Found at Pompeii.)ToList
No articles of ancient manufacture are more common than lamps. They are found in every variety of form and size, in clay and in metal, from the cheapest to the most costly description. A large and handsome gold lamp found at Pompeii in 1863 may be seen in the Pompeian room at the museum in Naples. We have the testimony of the celebrated antiquary, Winkleman, to the interest of this subject. "I place among the most curious utensils found at Herculaneum, the lamps, in which the ancients sought to display elegance and even magnificence. Lamps ofevery sort will be found in the museum at Portici, both in clay and bronze, but especially the latter; and as the ornaments of the ancients have generally some reference to some particular things, we often meet with rather remarkable subjects. A considerable number of these articles will be found in the British Museum, but they are chiefly of the commoner sort. All the works, however, descriptive of Herculaneum and Pompeii, present us with specimens of the richer and more remarkable class which attract admiration both by the beauty of the workmanship and the whimsical variety of their designs. We may enumerate a few which occur in a work now before us, 'Antiquites d'Herculanum,' in which we find a Silenus, with the usual peculiarities of figure ascribed to the jolly god rather exaggerated, and an owl sitting on his head between two huge horns, which support stands for lamps. Another represents a flower-stalk growing out of a circular plinth, with snail-shells hanging from it by small chains, which held the oil and wick; the trunk of a tree, with lamps suspended from the branches; another, a naked boy, beautifully wrought, with a lamp hanging from one hand, and an instrument for trimming it from the other, the lamp itself representing a theatrical mask. Beside him is a twisted column surmounted by the head of a Faun or Bacchanal, which has a lid in its crown, and seems intended as a reservoir of oil. The boyand pillar are both placed on a square plateau raised upon lions' claws. But beautiful as these lamps are, the light which they gave must have been weak and unsteady, and little superior to that of the old-fashioned common lamps, with which they are identical in principle. The wick was merely a few twisted threads drawn through a hole in the upper surface of the oil vessel, and there was no glass to steady the light and prevent its varying with every breeze that blew.
CANDELABRUM, OR LAMP STANDS.CANDELABRUM, OR LAMP STAND.ToList
CANDELABRUM, OR LAMP STAND.ToList
"Still, though the Romans had not advanced so far in art as to apply glass chimneys and hollow circular wicks to their lamps, they had experienced the inconvenience of going home at night through a city poorly paved, watched and lighted, and accordingly soon invented lanterns to meet the want. These, we learn from Martial, who has several epigrams upon this subject, were made of horn or bladder: no mention, we believe, occurs of glass being thus employed. The rich were preceded by a slave bearing their lantern. This Cicero mentions as being the habit of Catiline upon his midnight expeditions; and when M. Antony was accused of a disgraceful intrigue, his lantern-bearer was tortured to extort a confession whither he had conducted his master. One of these machines, of considerable ingenuity and beauty of workmanship, was found in Herculaneum, and another almost exactly the same, at Pompeii a few years after. In form it is cylindrical, with a hemispherical top, and it is made of sheet-copper, except the two main pieces, which are cast. The bottom consists of a flat, circular copper plate, supported by three balls, and turned up all around the rim, from which rise the rectangular supports, which support the upper part of the frame. The top and bottom were further connected by the interior uprights, between which the laminæ of horn or glass were placed, and secured at the top and bottom by the doublings of the copper. Horn was the most common substance used to transmit the light, but bladder and other membranes were also employed. In the centreof the lantern is seen the small lamp. The cover is hemispherical, and lifts up and down: it is pierced with holes for the admission of air, and has besides the characters NBVRTI-CATIS pricked upon it. These have been interpreted, Tiburti Cati Sum, or Tiburti Cati S. (ervus), indicating, the one that it belonged to Catus, or that it was to be carried by his slave."
One of the most elegant articles of furniture in ancient use was the candelabrum, by which we mean those tall and slender stands which served to support a lamp, but were independent of, and unconnected with, it. These, in their original and simple form, were mere reeds or straight sticks, fixed upon a foot by peasants to raise their light to a convenient height; at least such a theory of their origin is agreeable to what we are told of the rustic manners of the early Romans, and it is in some degree countenanced by the fashion in which many of the ancient candelabra are made. Sometimes the stem is represented as throwing out buds; sometimes it is a stick, the side branches of which have been roughly lopped, leaving projections where they grew; sometimes it is in the likeness of a reed or cane, the stalk being divided into joints. Most of those which have been found in the buried cities are of bronze, some few of iron. In their general plan and appearance there is a great resemblance, thoughthe details of the ornaments admit of infinite variety. All stand on three feet, usually griffins' or lions' claws, which support a light shaft, plain or fluted according to the fancy of the maker. The whole supports either a plinth large enough for a lamp to stand on, or a socket to receive a wax candle, which the Romans used sometimes instead of oil in lighting their rooms. Some of them have a sliding shaft, like that of a music stand, by which the light might be raised or lowered at pleasure.
CANDELABRA, OR LAMP STANDS.CANDELABRA, OR LAMP STANDS.ToList
CANDELABRA, OR LAMP STANDS.ToList
One of those elegant table lamps, by the praise of which the present discussion was introduced, is represented in the accompanying plate. Including the stand it is three feet high. On a rectangular plinth rises a rectangular pillar, crowned by a capricious capital. On the front of the pillar is a mask of a Bacchante, with fine features and long flowing hair; and on the opposite side, the head of a bull, with the Greek word Bucranion. From the extreme points of the abacus, four ornamental branches, beautifully chased, project; the lamps which now hang from them, though ancient, also, are not those which belong to the stand, and were not found with it. They are nearly alike in figure, but differ in size. Three of them are ornamented with various animals, the fourth is plain. One of them has each of its ends wrought into the form of a shell. Above are two eagles in high relief, with the thunderbolt ofJupiter in their talons. Another has two bulls' heads, a third two elephants' heads projecting from the sides. The latter is suspended by two dolphins, instead of the chains generally in use, whose tails are united, and attached to a small ball and ring. The pillar is not placed in the center, but at one end of the plinth, which is the case in almost every lamp of this description yet found. The space thus obtained may have served as a stand for the oil vase used in trimming the lamps. The plinth is beautifully damasked, or inlaid, in imitation of a vine, the leaves of which are of silver, the stem and fruit of bright brass. On one side is an altar with wood and fire upon it; on the other a Bacchus, naked, with his thick hair plaited and bound with ivy. He rides a tiger, and has his left hand in the attitude of holding reins, which time probably has destroyed; with the right he raises a drinking-horn. The workmanship of this lamp is exquisitely delicate in all its parts.
Before we quit this subject we have still one candelabrum to notice, which for simplicity of design and delicacy of execution is hardly to be surpassed by any in the Neapolitan collection. The stem is formed of a liliaceous plant, divided into two branches, each of which supports a flat disc, which may represent the flower, upon which a lamp was placed. At the base is a mass of bronze which gives stability to the whole, upon which a Silenus is seated, earnestly engaged in trying to pour wine from a skin which he holds in his left hand into a cup in his right. In this figure all the distinctive marks of the companion and tutor of Bacchus are expressed with great skill; the pointed ears, the goat's tail, the shaggy skin, the flat nose, and the ample rotundity of body, leave no doubt on our minds as to the person intended to be represented. The head, especially, is admirable, both in respect of workmanship and expression.
Amongst Greek domestic utensils we also count articles made of basket-work, which frequently occur in antique pictures. Thekalathos, the basket for keeping wool (used for weaving and embroidering), and also flowers and fruit, is frequently met with in vase paintings illustrating the life of Greek women. As early as Homer's time baskets, probably round or oval, were used at meals, to keep bread and pastry in. They had a low rim and handles. The kaneon was also used at offerings, where it is filled with pomegranates, holly boughs and ribbons. At the Panathenaia noble Athenian maidens carried such baskets, filled with holy cakes, incense, and knives on their heads. These graceful figures were a favorite subject of antique sculpture. Both Polyklete and Skopas had done a celebrated kanephore—the former in bronze, the latter in marble. There was also a flat basket, chiefly used for carrying fish, similar to that used at the present day by fishermen in the south. Other baskets used by peasants appear frequently in antique pictures, in the original carried by a peasant on a stick over his shoulder, together with another basket of the same pear-like shape, taken from a bas-relief representing a vintage, in which the former appears filled with grapes, while the latter is being filled with must by a boy. This proves, at the same time, the knowledge amongst the Greeks of the art of making the basket-work dense enough to hold fluids. The same fact is shown by a passage in Homer, in which Polyphemos lets the milk coagulate to cheese in baskets, which cheese was afterwards placed on a hurdle through which the whey trickled slowly. Of plaited rushes, or twigs, consisted also a peculiar kind of net, a specimen of which is seen on the reverse of a medal coined under the Emperor Macrinus, as the emblem of the maritime city of Byzantium.
To light and heat the room, in Homer's time, fire-baskets, or fire-basins were used, standing on high poles, and fed with dry logs of wood or splinters. The cinders were, at intervals, removed by serving-maids, and the flames replenished. Such fire-baskets on poles are still used by night-travelers in SouthernRussia, and at nightly ceremonies in India. The use of pine-torches is of equal antiquity. They consisted of long, thin sticks of pine-wood, tied together with bark, rushes or papyrus. The bark of the vine was also used for torches, called lophis. The golden statues on pedestals, in the hall of Alkinoos, undoubtedly held such torches in their hands. In vase paintings we also see a different form of the torch, carried chiefly by Demeter and Persephone, which consists of two pieces of wood fastened crosswise to a staff. An imitation of this wooden torch was undoubtedly the torch-case made of clay or metal in the shape of a salpinx. Its surface was either smooth or formed in imitation of the bundles of sticks and the bark of the wooden torch, the inside being filled with resinous substances.
STANDING LAMP.STANDING LAMP.ToList
STANDING LAMP.ToList
The date of oil-lamps in Greece can not be stated with accuracy; they were known at the time of Aristophanes. They were made of terra-cotta or metal, and their construction resembles those used by the Romans. They are mostly closed semi-globes with two openings, one, in the centre, to pour the oil in, the other in the nose-shaped prolongation destined to receive the wick. Amongst the small numbers of Greek lamps preserved to us we have chosen a few of the most graceful specimens, one of them showing the ordinary form of the lamp. Some are madeof clay, the latter being painted in various colors. The Athenians also used lanterns made of transparent horn, and lit up with oil-lamps. They were carried at night in the streets like the torches. Sparks, carefully preserved under the ashes, served both Greeks and Romans to light the fire. The ancients had, however, a lighting apparatus consisting of two pieces of wood, of which the one was driven into the other, like a gimlet, the friction effecting a flame. According to Theophrast, the wood of nut or chestnut trees was generally used for the purpose.
The street running from the Temple of Fortune to the Forum, called the Street of the Forum, in Pompeii, and forming a continuation of that of Mercury, has furnished an unusually rich harvest of various utensils. A long list of these is given by Sir W. Gell, according to which there were found no less than two hundred and fifty small bottles of inferior glass, with numerous other articles of the same material, which it would be tedious to particularize.
ANCIENT LAMPS.ANCIENT LAMPS.ToList
ANCIENT LAMPS.ToList
A marble statue of a laughing faun, two bronze figures of Mercury, the one three inches and the other four inches high, and a statue of a female nine inches high, were also found, together with many bronze lamps and stands. We may add vases, basins with handles, pateræ, bells, elastic springs, hinges, buckles for harness, a lock, an inkstand, and a strigil; gold ear-rings and a silver spoon; an oval cauldron, a saucepan, a mould for pastry, and a weight of alabaster used in spinning, with its ivory axis remaining. The catalogue finishes with a leaden weight, forty-nine lamps of common clay ornamented with masks and animals, forty-five lamps for two wicks, three boxes with a slit to keep money in, in one of which were found thirteen coins of Titus, Vespasian, and Domitian. Among the most curious things discovered, were seven glazed plates found packed in straw. There were also seventeen unvarnished vases of terra-cotta and sevenclay dishes, and a large pestle and mortar. The scales and steelyard which we have given are said to have been found at the same time. On the beam of the steelyard are Roman numerals from X. to XXXX.; a V was placed for division between each X.; smaller divisions are also marked. The inscription is
IMP. VESP. AVG. IIX.T. IMP. AVG. F. VI. C.EXACTA. IN. CAPITO.
SCALES AND WEIGHTS.SCALES AND WEIGHTSToList
SCALES AND WEIGHTSToList
which is translated thus: "In the eighth consulate of Vespasian Emperor Augustus, and in the sixth of Titus, Emperor and son of Augustus. Proved in the Capitol." This shows the great care taken to enforce a strict uniformity in the weights and measures used throughout the empire; the date corresponds with the year 77 of our era, only two years previous to the great eruption. The steelyard found was also furnished with chains and hooks, and with numbers up to XXX. Another pair of scales had two cups, with a weight on the side opposite to the material weighed, to mark more accurately the fractional weight; this weight was called by the ancients ligula, and examen.
Gell tells us that the skeleton of a Pompeian was found here, "who apparently, for the sake of sixty coins, a small plate and a saucepan of silver, had remained in his house till the street was already half filled with volcanic matter." He was found as if in the act of escaping from his window. Two others were found in the same street.
The shops in the street on the north side of the Temple of Augustus most probably supplied those who feasted with dainties; and it has been called the Street of Dried Fruits, from the quantity of raisins, figs, plums, and chestnuts, fruit of several sorts preserved in vases of glass, hempseed, and lentils. It is now,however, more generally known as the Street of the Augustals. Scales, money, moulds for pastry and bread, were discovered in the shops; and a bronze statue of Fame, small, and delicately executed, having golden bracelets round the arms.
In the northern entrance to the building the name CELSVM was written on a pilaster; near it was found in a box a gold ring with an engraved stone set in it, forty-one silver, and a thousand and thirty-six brass coins.
The next group of vessels, though nearly destitute of ornament, and probably of a very ordinary class, will serve to give us some idea of the cooking vessels of the Romans. One of the most celebrated vases in the Neapolitan collection was found with a bronze simpulum in it; and upon the vase itself there was a sacrificial painting, representing a priest in the act of pouring out a libation from a vase with the simpulum.
Pottery in ancient times was usually much more ornamental than at present, although it was often the case that their ornaments were rather an inconvenience, and would simply encumber the vessels; in our practical age more importance is placed in the convenience and utility than in beauty. Even their common vessels are not without a certain degree of elegance, both in form and workmanship.
VESSELS.VESSELS. (From Pompeii.)ToList
VESSELS. (From Pompeii.)ToList
Great numbers of clay vases have been found, of which the following is a very beautiful specimen. The lip and base have the favorite ovolo moulding; the body has two rows of fluting separated by a transverse band, charged with leaves, and with a swan in the centre. The neck of the vase is painted, and the same subject is given on eachside. It represents a chariot, drawn by four animals at full gallop, which appear to be intermediate between tigers and panthers. A winged genius directs them with his left hand, while with his right he goads them with a javelin.
Another winged figure preceding the quadriga, with a thyrsus in his left hand, is in the act of seizing the bridle of one of the animals. The whole is painted in white on a black ground, except some few of the details, which are yellow, and the car and mantle of the genius, which are red. The handles represent knotted cords, or flexible branches interlaced, which terminate in the heads of animals. This vase is much cracked, probably in consequence of the violence of the fire.
Some drinking vessels of peculiar construction have been found, which merit a particular description. These were in the shape of a horn, the primitive drinking-vessel, and had commonly a hole at the point, to be closed with the finger, until the drinker, raising it above his mouth, suffered the liquor to flow in a stream from the orifice.
DRINKING VESSEL.DRINKING VESSEL.ToList
DRINKING VESSEL.ToList
This method of drinking, which is still practiced in some parts of the Mediterranean, must require great skill in order to hit the mark exactly. Sometimes the hole at the tip was closed, and one or two handles fitted to the side, and then the base formed the mouth; and sometimes the whimsical fancy of the potter fashioned it into the head of a pig, a stag, or any other animal. One in the Neapolitan Museum has the head of an eagle with the ears of a man.
These vases are usually of clay, but cheap as is the material, it is evident by their good workmanship that they were not made by the lowest artists.
The learned seem to have been generally mistaken on the subject of glass-making among the ancients, who appear to have been far more skillful than had been imagined. The vast collection of bottles, vases, glasses, and other utensils, discovered at Pompeii, is sufficient to show that the ancients were well acquainted with the art of glass-blowing.
There is no doubt but that the Romans possessed glass in sufficient plenty to apply it to purposes of household ornament. The raw material appears from Pliny's account to have undergone two fusions; the first converted it into a rough mass called ammonitrum, which was melted again and became pure glass. We are also told of a dark-colored glass resembling obsidian, plentiful enough to be cast into solid statues.
Pliny mentions having seen images of Augustus cast in this substance. It probably was some coarse kind of glass resembling the ammonitrum, or such as that in which the scoriæ of our iron furnaces abound. Glass was worked either by blowing it with a pipe, as is now practiced, by turning in a lathe, by engraving and carving it, or, as we have noticed, by casting it in a mould.
The ancients had certainly acquired great skill in the manufacture, as appears both from the accounts which have been preserved by ancient authors, and by the specimens which still exist—among which we may notice, as pre-eminently beautiful, that torment of antiquaries, the Portland vase, preserved in the British Museum. We have already adverted to another vase of the same kind, and of almost equal beauty, found in one of the tombs near the Gate of Herculaneum.
A remarkable story is told by Dion Cassius, of a man who, in the time of the Emperor Tiberius, brought a glass cup into the imperial presence and dashed it on the ground. To the wonder of the spectators, the vessel bent under the blow without breaking, and the ingenious artist immediately hammered out the bruise, and restored it whole and sound to its original form;in return for which display of his skill, Tiberius, it is said, ordered him to be immediately put to death.
The story is a strange one, yet it is confirmed by Pliny, who both mentions the discovery itself, and gives a clue to the motives which may have urged the emperor to a cruelty apparently so unprovoked. He speaks of an artificer who had invented a method of making flexible glass, and adds that Tiberius banished him, lest this new fashion should injure the workers in metal, of whose trade the manufacture of gold, silver, and other drinking-cups, and furniture for the table, formed an extensive and important branch.
The Romans were also well acquainted with the art of coloring glass, as appears, among other proofs, from the glass mosaics, of which mention has been made. Pliny speaks of a blood-red sort, called hæmatinum, from blood, of white glass, blue glass, etc. The most valuable sort, however, was the colorless crystal glass, for two cups of which, with handles on each side, Nero gave 6,000 sesterces, about $240.
Under this head we may speak of the vases calledmurrhina, since one theory respecting them is, that they were made of variegated glass. Their nature, however, is doubtful; not so their value. Pliny speaks of 70 talents being given for one holding three sextarii, about four and a half pints. Titus Petronius on his death-bed defrauded the avarice of Nero, who had compelled him, by a common piece of tyranny, to appoint the crown his heir by breaking a murrhine trulla, or flat bowl, worth 300 talents. Nero himself, as became a prince, outdid all by giving 100 talents for a single capis, or drinking-cup, "a memorable circumstance, that an emperor, and father of his country, should have drunk at so dear a rate." Pliny's description of this substance runs thus:
"It is to be noticed that we have these rich cassidoin vessels (called in Latin murrhina) from the East, and that from placesotherwise not greatly renowned, but most within the kingdom of Parthia; howbeit the principal come from Carmania. The stone whereof these vessels are made is thought to be a certain humor, thickened as it were in the earth by heat. In no place are these stones found larger than small tablements of pillars or the like, and seldom were they so thick as to serve for such a drinking-cup as I have spoken of already. Resplendent are they in some sort, but it may rather be termed a gloss than a radiant and transparent clearness; but that which maketh them so much esteemed is the variety of colors, for in these stones a man shall perceive certain veins or spots, which, as they be turned about, resemble divers colors, inclining partly to purple and partly to white: he shall see them also of a third color composed of them both, resembling the flame of fire. Thus they pass from one to another as a man holdeth them, insomuch as their purple seemeth near akin to white, and their milky white to bear as much on the purple. Some esteem those cassidoin or murrhine stones, the richest, which present as it were certain reverberations of certain colors meeting altogether about their edges and extremities, such as we observe in rainbows; others are delighted with certain fatty spots appearing in them; and no account is made of them which show either pale or transparent in any part of them, for these be reckoned great faults and blemishes; in like manner if there be seen in the cassidoin any spots like corns of salts or warts, for then are they considered apt to split. Finally, the cassidoin stones are commended in some sort also for the smell that they do yield."
On these words of Pliny a great dispute has arisen. Some think that onyx is the material described, a conjecture founded on the variety of colors which that stone presents. To this it is objected, that onyx and murrha, onyx vases and murrhine vases are alike mentioned by Latin writers, and never with any hint as to their identity; nay, there is a passage in which Heliogabalusis said to have onyx and murrhine vases in constant use. Others, as we have said, think that they were variegated glass; others that they were the true Chinese porcelain, a conjecture in some degree strengthened by a line of Propertius:
"Murrheaq. in Parthis pocula cocta focis."
At the same time this quotation is not so conclusive as it might have been, since Pliny speaks of murrha as "hardened in the earth by heat," and the poet may only have meant the same thing, though the expression in that case would be somewhat strained. To us, Pliny's description appears to clearly point to some opaline substance; the precious opal has never in modern times been found in masses approaching to the size necessary to make vessels such as we have spoken of. The question is not likely to be settled, and it is not improbable that the material of these murrhine vases is entirely unknown to us, as the quarries of many marbles used by the ancients have hitherto eluded our research, and the marbles themselves are only known by their recurrence among ancient buildings.
We may here notice one or two facts connected with glass, which show that the ancients were on the verge of making one or two very important discoveries in physical science. They were acquainted with the power of transparent spherical bodies to produce heat by the transmission of light, though not with the manner in which that heat was generated by the concentration of the solar rays. Pliny mentions the fact that hollow glass balls filled with water would, when held opposite to the sun, grow hot enough to burn any cloth they touched; but the turn of his expression evidently leads to the conclusion that he believed the heat to become accumulated in the glass itself, not merely to be transmitted through it. Seneca speaks of similar glass balls, which magnified minute objects to the view. Nay, he had nearly stumbled on a more remarkable discovery, the composition of light, for he mentions the possibility of producing an artificialrainbow by the use of an angular glass rod. At a far earlier period Aristophanes speaks of "a transparent substance used to light fires with," usually translated glass. The passage is curious, as it shows a perfect acquaintance with the use of the burning glass.
With the laws of reflection the ancients, as we know from the performances ascribed to Archimedes, were well acquainted. It is singular that being in possession of such remarkable facts connected with refraction, they should never have proceeded to investigate the laws by which it is governed.
GLASS VESSELS.GLASS VESSELS (of Pompeii).ToList
GLASS VESSELS (of Pompeii).ToList
The first object figuredh, in the annexed block, is a glass funnel,infundibulum;g, is described as a wine-strainer, but the method of its use is not altogether clear. The bottom is slightly concave, and pierced with holes. It is supposed to have been used as a sort of tap, the larger part being placed within the barrel, and the wine drawn off through the neck or spout, which is broken. Fig.n, is a wine-taster, something on the principle of a siphon. It is hollow, and the air being exhausted by the mouth at the small end, the liquid to be tasted was drawn up into the cavity.aandb, wine-jars;c, two small wine-jars in a glass casket;d,e,fandq, goblets or drinking-glasses of toned and beautiful colored glass;iandm, glass dishes, the first with a saucer.
Another sort of glass strainer, of which there are several in the Neapolitan Museum, is made of bronze, pierced in elegant and intricate patterns as seen on page 84. The Romans used strainers filled with snow to cool their wines, and such may have been the destination of the one here represented. These were calledcola vinaria, ornivaria. The poor used a linen cloth for the same purpose.
With respect to the details of dress, the excavations, whether at Pompeii or Herculaneum, enable us to clear up no difficulties, and to add little to that which is already known on this subject. Still a short notice of the principal articles of dress, and explanation of their Latin names, may be expedient for the full understanding of some parts of our subject. The male costume will detain us a very short time.
The proper Roman dress, for it would be tiresome and unprofitable to enter upon the variety of garments introduced in later times from foreign nations, consisted merely of the toga and tunica, the latter being itself an innovation on the simple and hardy habit of ancient times. It was a woolen vest, for it was late before the use of linen was introduced, reaching to the knees, and at first made without sleeves, which were considered effeminate; but, as luxury crept in, not only were sleeves used, but the number of tunics was increased to three or four. The toga was an ample semi-circular garment, also without sleeves. It is described as having an opening large enough to admit the head and the right arm and shoulder, which were left exposed, having a sort of lappet, or flap (lacinia), which was brought under the right arm and thrown over the left shoulder, forming thesinus, or bosom, the deep folds of which served as a sort of pocket. This is the common description, which, we confess, conveys no very clear notion of the construction or appearance of the dress. The left arm was entirely covered, or if exposed, it was by gathering up the lower edge of the ample garment.