Chap. 40.] WORKS IN POTTERY. 28/ 



•was interred, in true Pythagorean style, in the midst of leaves 

 of myrtle, olive, and black poplar ; indeed, the greater part of 

 mankind make use of earthen vases for this purpose. For the 

 service of the table, the Samian pottery is even yet held in high 

 esteem ; that, too, of Arretium in Italy, still maintains its high 

 .character; while for their cups, and, for those only, the ma- 

 nufactories of Surrentum, Asta, Pollentia, Saguntum in Spain, 

 and Pergamus in Asia,®^ are greatly esteemed. 



The city of Tralles, too, in Asia, and that of Mutina in Italy, 

 have their respective manufactures of earthenware, and even 

 by this branch of art are localities rendered famous; their pro- 

 ductions, by the aid of the potter's wheel, becoming known to 

 all countries, and conveyed by sea and by land to every 

 quarter of the earth. At Erythrae, there are still shown, in 

 a temple there, two amphorae, that were consecrated in con- 

 sequence of the singular thinness of the material : they origin- 

 ated in a contest between a master and his pupil, whicli of the 

 two could make earthenware of the greatest thinness. The 

 vessels of Cos are the most highly celebrated for their beauty, 

 but those of Adria*^ are considered the most substantial. 



In relation to these productions of art, there are some in- 

 stances of severity mentioned : Q,. Coponius, we find, was 

 condemned for bribery, because he made present of an am- 

 phora of wine to a person who had the right of voting. To 

 make luxury, too, conduce in some degree to enhance our esti- 

 mation of earthenware, *' tripatinium,'"^^ as we learn IVom 

 Fenestella, was the name given to the most exquisite course of 

 dishes that was served up at the Eoman banquets. It con- 

 sisted of one dish of mursenae,^"-' one of lupi,'^° and a third of a 

 mixture of fish. It is clear that the public manners were 

 then already on the decline ; though we still have a right to 

 hold them preferable to those of the philosophers even of 

 Greece, seeing that the representatives of Aristotle, it is said, 

 sold, at the auction of his goods, as many as seventy dishes of 

 earthenware. It has been already'^ stated by us, Avhen on the 

 subject of birds, that a single dish cost the tragic actor ^sopus 

 one hundred thousand sesterces ; much to the reader's indigna- 

 tion, no doubt; but, by Hercules! Yitellius, when emperor, 



^^' Asia Minor. 



«^ See B. iii. c. 18. es a service -of three dishes, ^9 See B. ix. c. 39. 



'0 See B. ix. cc. 24, 28, 74, 79. '^ In K x. c. 72. 



