File:The life of the Greeks and Romans (1875) (14582228089).jpg

Identifier: lifeofgreeksroma00guhl (find matches)
Title: The life of the Greeks and Romans
Year: 1875 (1870s)
Authors: Guhl, E. (Ernst), 1819-1862 Koner, W. (Wilhelm), 1817-1887, joint author Hueffer, Francis, 1843-1889, tr
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Publisher: London, Chapman and Hall
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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ole put on a cart. Fig. 459 shows a wine-cart from a wall-painting, with which the interior of a tavernat Pompeii is appropriately decorated. The picture, whichrequires no further explanation, gives a vivid idea of a Romanmarket-scene. 92. Amongst all domestic utensils dug up, the lamps, par- LAMPS. ticularly those made of bronze, claim our foremost attention,both by their number and by the variety of their forms. Lamps,like other earthenware utensils, were made in the most outlyingsettlements, or were (in case their designs were of a more elaboratekind) imported there from larger towns. The older Greek customof burning wax and tallow candles (candelce cerece, sebacece), orpine-torches (see § 40) was soon superseded by the invention ofthe oil-lamp (lucerna) ; these candles, moreover, were always ofa primitive kind, consisting of a wick of oakum (stuppa) or thepith of a bulrush (scirpus) dipped into the liquid wax or tallow,and dried afterwards. Even the lighting of the rooms by lamps
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Fig. 460. (notwithstanding the elegant forms of the latter) was not on apar with other comforts and luxuries of Roman life. Glasschimneys were unknown, and the soot of the oil-lamps settling onfurniture and wall-paintings had to be carefully sponged off bythe slaves every morning. The lamp consisted of the oil-reservoir (discus, infundibulum),either circular or elliptic in form, the nose (nasus), through whichthe wick was pulled, and the handle (ansa). The materialcommonly used was terra-cotta, yellow, brownish red, or scarletin colour, frequently glazed over with silicate. The simplest 462 LAMPS. forms of the lamp are specified in Fig. 460, d, e, I, m. All theselamps have only owe opening for the wick (monomyxos, monolychnis),others (b, c, k) have two such openings (dimyxi, trimyxi, poly myxi).Birch ( History of Ancient Pottery/ vol. ii., pp. 274 and 275)gives earthenware lamps with seven, and even twelve, nasi fromoriginals in the British Museum. The Royal Antiquarium inBerlin also

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