The Roman Potteries at Durohrivoz. 



463 



pottery. Our cut, No. 3, taken from a sample of this pottery 

 given in one of Mr. Artists plates, no doubt represents the 

 British staghound of the Roman period. Though not dis- 

 similar in shape, it appears to be of a stronger and larger 

 make than the greyhound represented in the former cut. The 

 draughtsman here appears to have intended to distinguish two 

 varieties of the stag, in the different forms he has given to their 

 antlers. We have y 



different dog in " " ~ ~ j\ == V 



other examples, as 

 in the group given 

 in our next cut 

 (Fig. 4), where a 

 dog of apparently 



Fia. 4. — Hunting the Stag. 



Fig. 4, which 

 taken from a very 

 remarkable vessel 

 of this Durobrivian 

 ware, now known 

 as the Colchester 

 Vase), appears driv- 

 ing before him both 

 stags and hares. The hunting of the boar is also introduced 

 in some examples of this pottery. 



Gladiatorial combats are also favourite subjects on the 

 pottery made at Durobrivse, as on the Samian ware, and they 

 leave no doubt that these cruel and degrading exhibitions were 

 cherished by the Romans in Britain as well as in Italy. We 

 have singular evidence of the prevalence of the taste for such 

 shows in the figures on the Colchester vase. This very re- 

 markable monument of the ceramic art in Roman Britain, 

 which is represented, of course, on a very diminished scale in 

 the first figure of our coloured plate, was found, in 1853, in 

 the Roman cemetery which occupied the site of West Lodge, 

 near Colchester. It had been used as a sepulchral urn, and, 

 when found, contained calcined bones, and was covered with 

 an inverted shallow vessel or dish. It may be right to state 

 that this interesting vase is nine inches in height by six in 

 diameter. The ornamentations consist of three groups, one of 

 which is the flight of stags and hares pursued by a dog given 

 in our cut (Fig. 4). The second and, perhaps we may say, the 

 principal group represents the combat of gladiators, which ap- 

 pears in our engraving of the vase. It represents, in perfectly 

 correct drawings, the two classes of gladiators, a Secutor and 

 a Betiarius, the latter of whom, vanquished, has dropped his 



