2419. Glass Vessels
In this chapter the inscribed glass vessels are arranged in three principal categories.
- RIB 2419.1-38 Mould-blown chariot- and gladiator-cups, Negro-head beakers and one other decorated type.
- Cylindrical two-frieze chariot-cups (Nos. 1-4).
- Cylindrical one-frieze chariot-cups (Nos. 5-15).
- Ovoid gladiator- and chariot-cups (Nos. 16-20).
- Cylindrical boxer- or athlete-cup (No. 21).
- Cylindrical gladiator-cups (Nos. 22-35).
- Negro-head beakers (Nos. 36-37).
- Another type of cup (No. 38).
- RIB 2419.74-177. Vessels, mainly bottles or unguent-flasks, having moulded or stamped inscriptions on the base.
In each category the acephalous inscriptions, that is those whose initial letters are missing and cannot be certainly restored, follow the rest.
The chariot-cups are decorated with scenes from the circus showing quadrigae (four-horse chariots) with their charioteers racing round the central spina which was built on the axis of the circus track. The early date of some of these vessels implies that they were based on depictions of the Circus Maximus at Rome, for they belong to a period before the full development of provincial circuses. For a full discussion of these see J.H. Humphrey, Roman Circuses (1986). The spina or central barrier was a low podium dividing the circus-track longitudinally, with metae (pillars carrying three cones) at each end to mark the turning-points. The barrier itself carried a variety of features such as water-basins, an obelisk, small shrines and a statue of Cybele riding a lion; it also carried seven ova (eggs) and seven dolphins which were lowered or turned to indicate the number of laps still to be raced.
The Circus Maximus was used for other sports in addition to chariot-races; these included horse-racing, athletics and gladiatorial combats; this is the explanation of scenes such as 2419.18 which depict both gladiators and chariotracing together.
There is some evidence for the manufacture of glass in Roman Britain. Remains of glass-making have been found at Wroxeter (Britannia iv (1973), 287; v (1974), 429); Caistor St Edmund (P. Norfolk and Norwich AS xxiv.2 (1930), 105-12); Leicester (JRS xlix (1959), 114); Mancetter (Britannia i (1970), 286); Wilderspool (T. May, Warrington’s Roman Remains (1904), 37-44 and earlier reports best summarized by F.H. Thompson, Roman Cheshire (1965), 77-8); London (Britannia xiii (1982), 374; xviii (1987), 336; xix (1988), 463); Colchester (VCH Essex iii (1963), 113, Harden, Arch. J. 126 (1969), 51), Silchester (G.C. Boon, Silchester: The Roman town of Calleva (1974), 280), and elsewhere. This evidence has been reviewed by Price and Cool and by Shepherd and Heyworth, in Actes des IVme Rencontres de l’Association Francaise pour l’Archéologie du Verre, (1991)). Although wide-spread, the industry appears to have been small-scale, and there is no evidence that it produced inscribed pieces (see, however, 2419.96, note).
High-quality glass could be imported from as far afield as Alexandria (see 2419.40), but the bulk of supplies came from Italy, various parts of Gaul, and especially from the Rhineland with its prolific glass-works at Cologne.