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On this page: Patfbulum – Patina

872

PATERA.

British Museum, and in other collections of ancient fictile vases. The more valuable paterae were metallic, being chiefly of bronze : but every family, raised above poverty, possessed one of silver (apyvpis), together with a silver salt-cellar, [SALi-num. j (Plin. If. N. xxxiii. 12. s. 54.) In opulent houses there was a plate of gold (xpv<n's, Athen. xi. pp. 497, 502 ; Find. 01. vii. 1—3.; ^irg. Georg. ii. 192). These metallic plates were often adorned with figures, engraved or embossed upon them. (Cic. Verr. iv. 21 ; Xen. Anab. iv. 7. § 27, vii. 3. § 27.) A beautiful specimen is presented in the woodcut to the article libra ; and the accompany­ing woodcut exhibits a highly ornamented dish, also of bronze, designed to be used in the worship of Mars, and found at Pompeii. (Donaldson's Pomp. vol. ii. pi. 78.) The view of the upper sur­face is accompanied by a side-view, showing the

form and depth of the vessel. The ornamental paterae sometimes represented leaves of fern, which probably diverged from the centre (filicatae^ Cic. Parad. i. § 2). Gems were set in others. (Cic. Verr. iv. 24 ; Virg. Aen. i. 728, 739.) We read also of an amber dish (electrincmi\ having in the centre the countenance of Alexander the Great, and his history represented on the border. (Treb. 1*011. Trig. Tyr. 13.) The annexed woodcut con­tains a view and section of a plate of white marble

PATINA.

n the British Museum, which was found in the •uins of Hadrian's Villa, and purchased by Mr. Townley. It is 14 inches in diameter, and ; If high. It is cut with skill and delicacy, the marble not being much more than a quarter of an inch thick. In the centre is sculptured a female bac­chante in a long tunic and with a scarf [chlamys] floating over her head. This centre-piece is en­circled by a wreath of ivy. The decorations indi­cate the appropriation of the plate to the worship of Bacchus.

Plates were sometimes made so as to be used with either side downward, and were then distin­guished by the epithet afj-tyiOeros. (Horn. //. xxiii. 270, 616.) In these the under surface was orna­mented as well as the upper. The Massilians and other Jonic Greeks .commonly placed the under surface uppermost. Plates were further distin­guished from one another by being either with or without a base (irvO^riv^ a boss in the middle (oyU^aAwT^, ,uecro,ii<|>aAos,9 <pdois}, feet (/SaAcwcor^), and handles. (Athen. xi. pp. 501, 502.) In the preceding woodcuts the bronze patera has one handle: both the paterae are made to stand upon a low base.

Small plates were sometimes used in cooking (Plin. H. N. xxx. ,8. s. 21),,an operation more com­monly performed in ;pots [olla] and basins or bowls. [patina.] They were used at meals to eat upon as we use them (Varro, Eumen. ap. Non. Marc. xv. 6 ; Hor. Epi&L i. 5. 2), although it ap­pears ,that very religious persons abstained from this practice on account of the customary employ­ment of them in sacrificing to the gods. (Cic, de Fin. ii. 7.) A larger .plate, in fact, a round dish, was used to bring to table such an article of food as a flat fish. (Mart. xiii. 81.) Mustard (Plin. //. N. xix. 8. s. 54) and ointments (Xenophanes, p. 68, ed. Karsten) were brought in saucers. The Greeks .also drank wine out of plates or saucers (Xen. .Conv. ii. 23), as we see in the woodcut under symposium, which represents a symposium, and in. which the second and third figures from the right hand have each a saucer.

'The use of paterae at meals no doubt gave origin to the employment .of them in sacrifices. On these occasions they held either solid food (/juicplv Kpias, Yarro, Man. ap. Non. Marc. 1. c. ; cibos> Ovid, Fast. vi. 310), or any liquid intended to be poured out as a libation. (Virg. Aen. iii. 67, iv. 60, v. 98, vi. 249, vii. 133, xii. 174; Ovid. Met. ix, 160, Fast. ii. 634, iv. 934 ; Val. Flacc. v. 192 ; Juv. iii. 26 ; Heliodor. Aetliiop. ii. p. 98 ; Athen. xi. p. 482.) We find them continually represented in conjunction with the other instru­ments of sacrifice upon coins,, gems, altars, bas-reliefs, and the friezes of temples. In the ancient Doric temple at Rome, now dedicated to St. Adrian, the tasteful patera and the cranium of the bull are alternately sculptured on tlie metopes. (Labacco, Ant. di Roma^ 16, 17.)

Plates of the most precious materials and of the

finest workmanship were sometimes given as prizes

at the public games. (Horn. II. xxiii. 270 ;

Pind. Istli. \. 20 ; Schol. in Pind. Nem. ix. 121,

123.) [j. Y.J

PATFBULUM. [furca.]

PATINA (Ae/caz/Tj, dim. \gk.&vlqv al. \eicdpiov,

KsKavla-K-n, Athen. vi. p. 268, Aewayls, second dim.

teKwlBiov, Bekker, Anec. 794), a basin or bowl of

earthenware, rarely of bronze (PaJlad. de Re Rust.