GLASS 



237 



Fig. 1.- Glass Vase, bearing 

 the name of Sargon, from 

 Mmrud. 



of white glass having stam|x>d or inwrilKnl on it a 

 lion ami (lie name of Sargon, who reigned 722 B.C. 

 Bat this specimen may have l>een brought from 

 Sid. .11 ; and other 

 fragments of giant* 

 Inuii^lii l.\ Layard 

 tniiii the name place 

 are Roman in form, 

 and certainly belong 

 to the period when 

 the Romans there 

 established their 

 colony of Claudiopolis. 

 In Greece the know- 

 ledge and use of glass 

 were by no means 

 ancient. In the days 

 of Homer it was un- 

 known. Herodotus, 

 indeed, mentions its 

 employment for ear- 

 rings, but these may 

 have been of Plusnician 

 fabric. It was called 

 hyalos, crystal or ice, 

 and lithos chyte, or fusible stone. Aristophanes, 

 450 B.C., mentions glass or crystal vessels, and vari- 

 ous inscriptions confirm its use ; but its value was 

 next to gold, which could hardly have been the case 

 if it haa been of native manufacture. In the 4th 

 century B.c. Fausias, a celebrated painter, had 

 depicted Methe, or ' Intoxication,' drinking from a 

 transparent glass bowl which revealed her face. 

 Glasses and plates, amphone and diotre, large two- 

 handled jars, were made of it, and also false stones 

 for finger-rings, called xn/iragides hyalinai. These 

 last, called by arch.i'ologists pastes, were imita- 

 tions of engraved stones in moored glasses, used 

 for the rings of the poorer classes, and were no 

 doubt often copies or impressions of engraved stones 

 of celebrated masters. False gems and cameos 

 having a subject in opaque white, sometimes like 

 the sardonyx, with a brown layer superposed on 

 the parts representing the hair, and the whole 

 laid on a dark-blue ground, appear before the 

 Christian era. Lenses also were made of glass, 

 and the celestial sphere of Archimedes was made 

 of the same material. 



Among the Romans the glass-making art does 

 not date earlier than the commencement of the 

 empire, importations from Sidon and Alexandria 

 having previously supplied the want of native 

 manufacture ; but there is ample evidence of its 

 extensive manufacture at that period. As early as 

 58 B.C. the theatre of Scaurus had been decorated 

 with mirrors or glass plates disposed on the walls. 

 Glass was also used for paving, and for the blue 

 and green tesser* of mosaics (see MOSAIC). 

 Window-glass does not appear to have been much 

 used till about the 3d century A.D., the houses 

 at Herculaneum and Pompeii, destroyed in the 

 reign of Titus, being glazed principally with talc ; 

 hut remains of glass-filled windows have been dis- 

 covered in both cities, showing that its employ- 

 ment was at least begun in the 1st century. 

 I .art an i ins, in the 3d century, and St Jerome, in 

 422 A. D. , mention glass windows. Older windows of 

 this material are said to have been found at Ficul- 

 nea, and even in London. Under the Romans, 

 coloured as well as white glass was extensively 

 used ; it had a greenish tint in the first davs of the 

 empire, but had sensibly improved in colour and 

 quality in the days of Constantine. The first pro- 

 duction of a white glass like crystal, probably 

 much freer from air-cavities and other imperfections 

 than had previously been accomplished, was in tin- 

 days of Nero. Its use was most extensive, and it 

 was either blown or stamped according to the 



objects required. Glass VMM, vata vitrea etearia 

 potoria, are mentioned. So are costly CUM of 

 many colour*, purple ones of Le*bos, and balHam- 

 arii, especially the kind long called lachrymatories, 

 which In-Ill perfumes, medicine, drugs, and other 

 substances like modern vials, amphora-, ampulla', 

 pillar-moulded howls, bottles for wine (lagenae), 

 urns (Hi-mi- } for holding the ashes of the dead, and 

 pillar-moulded bowls or cups (jtocula), hair-pins, 

 heads, rings, balls, draughtsmen, dice, knuckle- 

 bones (astragali), mirrors, multiplying-glasaeg, 



Fig. 2. Moulded Glass Roman Cup, with the Circus 

 and Gladiators, found in London. 



prisms, magnifying-glasses, and water-clocks were 

 made of this material. Most of the precious 

 stones were successfully imitated in glass pastes ; 

 and the Empress Salonina was egregiously cheated 

 by a fraudulent jeweller. But the most remark- 

 able works in glass are the cameo vases (toreu- 

 mata vitri) ; of which the most celebrated is 

 the Portland Vase (q.v.) in the British Museum, 

 which seems to have held the ashes of a member of 

 the imperial family of Alexander Severus, who died 

 235 A.D. A vase of smaller size, but of similar 

 fabric, with arabesques, found at Pompeii, exists 

 in the Naples Museum ; and numerous fragments 

 of even finer vases, some with five colours, exist in 

 different museums. In the reign of Til>eriu8 an 

 adventurer pretended that he had invented flexible 

 glass, and threw down a vase which only bent, and 

 which he readjusted with a hammer ; he seems to 

 have connected it in some way with the philo- 

 sopher's stone, and the emperor is said to have 

 banished him or put him to death. In the 3d cen- 

 tury A.D. appeared the diatreta or 'bored vases,' 

 consisting of cups (poc-ula ) having externally 

 letters and network almost detached from the 

 glass, but connected by supports ; all which must 

 have been hollowed out by a tool, involving great 

 labour. One vase of this class, bearing the name 

 of Maximianus, who reigned 286-310 A.D., found 

 in the vicinity of Strasburg in 1825, and pre- 

 served in that city, fixes their age. At a later 

 period bowls of engraved glass, having subjects of 

 gladiatorial fights, came into use. Still later, appar- 

 ently in the 5th century, a new style of glass orna- 

 mentation was introduced, consisting of the figures 

 of Christ and legends of saints, and the portraits 

 of private persons laid on in gold upon one layer 

 of glass, over which was placed another through 

 which they appeared. While the art of class- 

 making declined in Rome with the decay of the 

 <-mi>ire, its practice was transferred to Constant- 

 inople, and there it continued to flourish under 

 tin- Kastern Empire throughout the dark ages; the 

 artificers impressing on tiieir product* that peculi- 

 aritv of form and ornamentation which is known 



