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A Guide To The Exhibition Illustrating Greek And Roman Life

British Museum. Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities

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A GUIDE TO THE EXHIBITION ILLUSTRATING GREEK AND ROMAN LIFE. SECOND EDITION.

A GUIDE TO THE EXHIBITION ILLUSTRATING GREEK AND ROMAN LIFE. SECOND EDITION.

Frontispiece. ] Terracotta Boats from Amathus (p. 34 )....

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BRITISH MUSEUM. DEPARTMENT OF GREEK AND ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. A GUIDE TO THE EXHIBITION ILLUSTRATING GREEK AND ROMAN LIFE. SECOND EDITION.

BRITISH MUSEUM. DEPARTMENT OF GREEK AND ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. A GUIDE TO THE EXHIBITION ILLUSTRATING GREEK AND ROMAN LIFE. SECOND EDITION.

WITH A FRONTISPIECE AND TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTY-FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS. LONDON: PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE TRUSTEES. 1920. LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, DUKE STREET, STAMFORD STREET, S.E. 1, AND GREAT WINDMILL STREET, W. 1. P. 121, l.17. For 339 read 339* Pp. 143, 144, 145. For 421-426 read 421*-426* P. 216 near foot. For 655 read 655*...

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PREFACE.

PREFACE.

In this Exhibition an attempt has been made to bring together a number of miscellaneous antiquities which formed a part of the collections of the Department, in such a method as illustrates the purpose for which they were intended, rather than their artistic quality, their material, or their place in the evolution of craft or design. Such a series falls naturally into groups, and it has been found convenient to treat these groups in accordance with a general scheme, the illustration of the publi

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GREEK AND ROMAN LIFE

GREEK AND ROMAN LIFE

The exhibition is arranged in the central rectangle of what was formerly the Etruscan Saloon; it includes Wall-Cases 25-64 , 94-119 , and Table-Cases E-K . The subject naturally divides itself into the two chief headings of public and domestic institutions, and each of these occupies one half of the room. On the West side are grouped the sections relating mainly to Public Life, on the East those of Private Life: of the former, the section illustrating the monetary system of the ancients and its

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I.—POLITICAL INSCRIPTIONS AND SLAVERY. (Table-Case K.)

I.—POLITICAL INSCRIPTIONS AND SLAVERY. (Table-Case K.)

A section of Table-Case K contains a series of inscriptions which illustrate various sides of Greek and Roman political life. It must be borne in mind that the Greek state was generally of very small dimensions. As a rule all life was centred within a city, which had but a moderate extent of outlying country. Aristotle describes the perfect city or state (the words are interchangeable) as the union of several villages, supplying all that is necessary for independent life. 1 Greece, though small

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II.—COINS. (Table-Case K.)

II.—COINS. (Table-Case K.)

The coins which are selected to represent the Greek and Roman currencies extend over a period of just one thousand years, in the course of which the coinage went through all the developments and anticipated all the varieties of type and fabric which it has since experienced, while in artistic merit it reached an excellence which will probably never be surpassed. The Greek coinage, moreover, has the great interest of being that upon which all later coinages have been modelled—for the Chinese mone

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III.—DRAMA. (Table-Case K and Glass Shade above.)

III.—DRAMA. (Table-Case K and Glass Shade above.)

The antiquities illustrating the ancient drama are placed in one half of Table-Case K, and under the glass shade standing above it. Greek Drama. —This was in its origin essentially religious, and retained up to the decline of tragedy at the end of the fifth century B.C. the character of a religious ceremony. Thus tragedy gradually developed out of the rude dances in honour of the wine-god Dionysos, which were performed at country vintage festivals. The name tragedy means "goat-song," and is prob

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IV.—SHIPPING. (Wall-Cases 94-97.)

IV.—SHIPPING. (Wall-Cases 94-97.)

As early as the eighth century before Christ the Greeks possessed powerful war-vessels propelled by numerous oarsmen. These appear on vases of that date, as for example on a large bowl of Boeotian fabric (described below in connection with chariots, p. 169), which shows such a ship with its double line of rowers and a man at the stern managing the big steering-oars. The crew of this vessel seems to have numbered some forty men. 15 A more finished representation of early Greek ships is seen on a

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Implements and methods of worship.

Implements and methods of worship.

Fig. 29.—Altar Dedicated for the Safe Return of Septimius Severus and his Family (No. 84 ). Ht. 2 ft. 7 in. Altars, etc. —The larger altars (and sepulchral chests of altar form) will be found in the sculpture galleries. Here we have (No. 83 ) a small altar, from Dodona, inscribed as belonging to all the gods, 17 and various model altars, probably used in some cases for the burning of incense. An interesting example (No. 84 ) of the practice of dedicating altars to members of Roman Imperial house

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Votive Offerings.

Votive Offerings.

A votive offering is a present made to a deity, in order to secure some favour for the future, to avert anger for a past offence, or to express gratitude for a favour received. This last purpose includes offerings made in fulfilment of a vow, the vow being a kind of contract between the individual and the god. This comes out most clearly in the Roman expression voti reus —"condemned to pay a vow"—applied to those whose prayer had been granted, and who now had to fulfil their promise made in time

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VI.—ATHLETICS. (Wall-Cases 107-108.)

VI.—ATHLETICS. (Wall-Cases 107-108.)

Fig. 47.—Boxers of the late Mycenaean Period (No. 151). Athletic and pugilistic contests were already developed on Greek soil before the Homeric Age. Thus we have a steatite vase from Crete ( see Cast in First Vase Room) with boxers in all positions. A pair of boxers (of about 1100 B.C. ) from a vase found at Enkomi in Cyprus is shown in fig. 47 (No. 151 ). In the Homeric poems athletic contests frequently occur, but only as isolated and unorganized events, without rules or system. It was only a

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VII.—GLADIATORS AND THE ARENA. (Wall-Case 109.)

VII.—GLADIATORS AND THE ARENA. (Wall-Case 109.)

Gladiatorial combats were not native to Rome, but had long been known in Etruria as an adjunct to funeral ceremonies, and were probably introduced thence into Rome by way of Campania, where the amphitheatre of Pompeii is the oldest in existence. The first show of gladiators at Rome took place in 264 B.C. , but only three pairs of combatants were engaged in it. In course of time the number of gladiators increased, and such contests were given with greater frequency, although they remained a mere

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VIII.—CHARIOT-RACING AND THE CIRCUS. (Wall-Case 110.)

VIII.—CHARIOT-RACING AND THE CIRCUS. (Wall-Case 110.)

Chariot-racing was one of the oldest of Greek sports, and is described in the Iliad as one of the contests held at the funeral of Patroklos. At that time the two-horse war-chariot was used in the race, and a special type of racing-car does not seem to have existed. Fig. 62.—Roman Racing-Chariot Turning the Post (No. 179). L. 16 in. The introduction of chariot-races in the great athletic contests was a concession to the wealthy inhabitants of prosperous cities. To enter a chariot with a team of f

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IX.—ARMS AND ARMOUR. (Wall-Cases 111-119, and Table-Case E.)

IX.—ARMS AND ARMOUR. (Wall-Cases 111-119, and Table-Case E.)

The arms and armour of the ancients are contained in Wall-Cases 111-119, and in Table-Case E. The weapons of attack date from the beginning of the use of metal, in the prehistoric period, but all the defensive armour belongs to the historical age. Armour. —There is not much literary evidence for the armour of antiquity, but military subjects are very commonly represented in works of art, and these, with the actual remains of armour, give a good idea of the ancient panoply. The armour of the preh

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X.—HOUSE AND FURNITURE. (Wall-Cases 25-40.)

X.—HOUSE AND FURNITURE. (Wall-Cases 25-40.)

Cases 25-40 contain furniture, lamps and lamp-stands, cooking utensils, objects used in connection with the bath, and objects illustrating the methods of heating buildings and supplying them with water. With the house itself, its plan and its appearance we are not concerned in this work. It is enough to say that the fundamental distinction between the ancient and modern house is that the one looked inwards, the other looks outwards. The ancient house received its light and air either from the op

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XI.—DRESS AND TOILET. (Table-Case F.)

XI.—DRESS AND TOILET. (Table-Case F.)

Fig. 129.—Diagram illustrating the Arrangement of the Dorian Chiton . The objects connected with the toilet in Case F are those accessories in metal and other materials that have been preserved. The actual fashion of the dress of the Greeks and Romans can be best studied elsewhere—in the Vase Rooms, the Room of Terracottas, and the Sculpture Galleries. A few words only need be said here as to the principal varieties of costume. Greek Female Dress. —The very singular and modern-looking dress of t

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XII.—DOMESTIC ARTS. (Table-Case G.)

XII.—DOMESTIC ARTS. (Table-Case G.)

In this Table Case, under the general heading of "The Domestic Arts," objects are exhibited connected with the house industries of spinning, weaving, and sewing, together with various groups of objects connected with home life, such as locks and keys, seals, knives, etc. Fig. 171.—Woman Spinning (No. 421). Ht. of Vase 8 ¾ in. Spinning and Weaving. —( a ) Preparation of yarn. —The process of spinning is clearly seen in the accompanying drawings from Greek vases of the fourth and fifth centuries e

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XIII.—TRADE.

XIII.—TRADE.

The part of the collection now to be described deals generally with commerce and the industrial arts. We have already seen the bird-catcher (p. 115 ), the baker (p. 117 ), and the shoemaker at work (p. 130 ). In the corners of Cases 41 and 48 are casts of reliefs from the gravestone of L. Cornelius Atimetus, a Roman cutler of the first century A.D. One relief (No. 457 ; fig. 192) shows the cutler's workshop, with two men working at some object placed on an anvil in front of a furnace. One man ho

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XIV.—WEIGHTS AND SCALES. (Wall-Cases 41-44.)

XIV.—WEIGHTS AND SCALES. (Wall-Cases 41-44.)

Greek Weights. —In Case B of the First Vase Room will be seen the plaster model of a large stone object of triangular form, pierced towards the apex with a hole. 52 It has the design of an octopus on either side, and may with some probability be regarded as a standard hanging weight (64 pounds). This object was found by Sir A. Evans at Knossos in Crete, in the "Palace of Minos," and may be dated roughly at 2000 B.C. A set of very early weights of the Mycenaean period from Cyprus is in Case 41, c

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XV.—TOOLS, BUILDING, AND SCULPTURE. (Wall-Cases 45-48.)

XV.—TOOLS, BUILDING, AND SCULPTURE. (Wall-Cases 45-48.)

Tools. —These are exhibited in Cases 45-46. The objects for the most part speak for themselves, but attention may be called to one or two of the most interesting. Such is the Roman bronze set-square (No. 482 ; fig. 201), furnished with a base to enable it to stand. Its outer edges would be used by masons or carpenters to determine angles of 90° and 45° respectively. The inner angle of 90° would be useful for testing the true position of objects set at right angles to one another, such as the sid

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XVI.—HORSES AND CHARIOTS. (Wall-Cases 49-51.)

XVI.—HORSES AND CHARIOTS. (Wall-Cases 49-51.)

Chariots and Carts. —The war-chariot plays a conspicuous part in the Homeric poems, and the horse and chariot are there so closely identified that we find the phrase "he leapt from his horses" used as equivalent to "he leapt from his chariot." After the Homeric age, however, the use of the chariot in war died out in Greece and it thenceforward appears most conspicuously in the great Greek games, where it was used for racing purposes. A very early example of this racing chariot may be seen on a B

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XVII.—AGRICULTURE. (Wall-Case 52.)

XVII.—AGRICULTURE. (Wall-Case 52.)

Farming, the rearing of live stock, the cultivation of corn, vines and olives were practised by the earliest civilisations of the Aegean, and of Greece. The use of the plough was also known at that distant period. In this Case are shown three bronze ploughshares (No. 512 ), which belong to the Mycenaean Age, and were found in Cyprus. A plough in its most primitive form was merely the trunk of a tree which served as the pole, with two branches on opposite sides, one forming the share, the other t

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XVIII.—INDUSTRIAL ARTS. (Table-Case H.)

XVIII.—INDUSTRIAL ARTS. (Table-Case H.)

In Table Case H we have objects illustrating the craft of the metal worker, the potter, the turner, and the woodworker. Fig. 214.—Limestone Half-Mould, with Cast from Same (No. 531). Ht. 4 ½ in. Towards one end of the case are objects illustrating the processes of metal work. A Greek vase of the sixth century B.C. depicts a man in the act of thrusting a mass of metal into a blazing furnace. Anvil, tongs, and hammers are visible (No. 526 ). Beside it is a reproduction of a Vase in the Ashmolean M

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XIX.—MEDICINE AND SURGERY. (Table-Case H.)

XIX.—MEDICINE AND SURGERY. (Table-Case H.)

Greek Medicine. —From the earliest times, as indicated by passages in the Homeric poems, the Greeks practised simple forms of surgery in such matters as the treatment of the wounded. 65 In the historic age of Greece we find temple or wonder-working medicine, practised in temples of Asklepios, especially at Epidaurus; and at the same time a school of medicine, of the Asklepiadae, seated in the island of Kos. A lively account of temple-healing is given in the Plutus of Aristophanes, where the slav

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XX.—MEASURES AND INSTRUMENTS.

XX.—MEASURES AND INSTRUMENTS.

Fig. 227.—Roman Bronze Foot-Rule (No. 578). L. 292 mm. Fig. 228.—Bronze Proportional Compasses (No. 579). L. 7 ½ in. Measures. —In Case H are a few examples of ancient measures and geometrical instruments. A Greek clay cup (No. 575 ), inscribed ἡμικοτύλιον , contains exactly half a pint. The Greek kotyle, therefore, according to this standard, measured exactly a pint. A copy of a well-known Roman standard gallon, the so-called Farnese Congius, is in Case 44 (No. 576 ). Nos. 577 and 578 are two R

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XXI.—INFANCY. TOYS.

XXI.—INFANCY. TOYS.

At the end of Case J are four terracotta models of cradles (No. 585 ) with young children in them. One is a winged Eros, and one is swaddled. Beside the cradles are three cups (No. 586 ), with spouts shaped as mouth-pieces, which may be supposed to be for milk or pap. Here also are two clay rattles (No. 587 ), and a child's wooden clapper (No. 588 ). Fig. 230.—Child in High Chair (No. 590). A set of small trefoil-lipped jugs (No. 589 ) is painted with designs closely connected with child life. C

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XXII.—EDUCATION, WITH WRITING AND PAINTING. (Table-Case J.)

XXII.—EDUCATION, WITH WRITING AND PAINTING. (Table-Case J.)

Education. —Case J contains several objects illustrating that part of the Greek child's education which was connected with the arts of reading, arithmetic and writing. A Greek terracotta of the fourth century B.C. with Silenus holding the child Dionysos by the hand (No. 601 ), may be supposed to represent the old pedagogue, the slave whose duty it was to take the child to school. (Scenes in a music school are shown on the vases E 171, E 172, in cases 55-56.) Fig. 236.—Terracotta Groups. Reading

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XXIII.—GAMES. (Table-Case J.)

XXIII.—GAMES. (Table-Case J.)

Fig. 242.—Two Women Playing at Knucklebones. Herodotus has a curious story to the effect that the Lydians invented dice, knucklebones, balls, and other playthings to help them to pass a time of famine, by playing and eating on alternate days. 81 Draughts ( πεσσοί ) are expressly excepted from his list, and were ascribed to the fertile invention of Palamedes at the time of the Trojan war. Games played with knucklebones (small bones forming part of the ankle-joint in cloven-footed animals) may be

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XXIV.—MARRIAGE. (Wall-Case 53.)

XXIV.—MARRIAGE. (Wall-Case 53.)

Greek Marriage. —Though neither Greek nor Roman marriage was definitely associated with the religion of the state, it was, however, among both peoples closely associated with religious rites of a domestic character. Plato in his Laws makes it the distinguishing mark of the legally wedded wife that "she had come into the house with gods and sacred marriage rites." These rites are sometimes represented upon Greek vases, as may be seen from the objects and illustrations placed in this Case. The cer

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XXV.—MUSIC AND DANCING. (Wall-Cases 54-56.)

XXV.—MUSIC AND DANCING. (Wall-Cases 54-56.)

Music. —The Greek term μουσική (music) included much more than we mean by music. It was applied to the education of the mind as opposed to γυμναστική (gymnastics), the education of the body. In the narrower sense, however, it corresponded to the modern term, and to this the Greeks from early times attached a high importance. It was the effect of music upon the character which appealed to them above all things, and it was this which caused Plato to banish from his ideal state certain modes of mus

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XXVI.—DOMESTIC AND PET ANIMALS; FLOWERS. (Wall-Cases 57-58.)

XXVI.—DOMESTIC AND PET ANIMALS; FLOWERS. (Wall-Cases 57-58.)

The upper part of Wall-Cases 57, 58 contains a number of representations of domesticated and pet animals. The series includes cattle, goats, pigs, dogs, cats, pigeons and poultry. Often, but not always, the animal is associated with some human actor, as when the child rides on a dog, pig, or goat, or when the large cock tries to peck at the bunch of grapes in a child's hand (No. 659 ). More than one of the pigeons wears a bulla round its neck (No. 660 ) to avert the evil eye (see p. 136 ), and a

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XXVII.—METHODS OF BURIAL. (Wall-Cases 58-64.)

XXVII.—METHODS OF BURIAL. (Wall-Cases 58-64.)

Greece. —In the prehistoric period known as Mycenaean, the inhabitants of Greek lands probably buried their dead and did not cremate them. It is possible, however, that a partial burning was in vogue in this and the succeeding periods in Greece. In the case of the more wealthy Mycenaean dead, the bodies were elaborately decked with gold ornaments. Oval plates of gold were tied over the forehead and mouth of the corpse, in the latter case (where the impression of the lips can be seen) perhaps wit

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