f the 2nd century B.C. in the British Museum which is an exact
replica of a chased silver bowl with reliefs in the same collection, and
may serve as an illustration of this condition of things (Plate II. fig.
56).

These imitations of metal were largely made in southern Italy, a
district which enjoyed close artistic relations with Etruria, and we
have already seen that the same principle had long been in vogue among
the Etruscans. Hence it is not surprising that an important centre of
pottery manufacture should have sprung up in Etruria, in the and century
B.C., which for many years set the fashion to the whole Roman world. But
before discussing such products it may be as well to say something on
the technical character, shapes and uses of Roman pottery in general.

_Technical Processes_.--Roman pottery regarded in its purely technical
aspect is in some ways better known to us than the Greek, chiefly
owing to extensive discoveries of kilns and potters' apparatus in
western Europe. It may be classified under two heads, of which only
the second will concern us for the most part as yielding by far the
greater amount of material and interest: (1) the plain, dull
earthenware used for domestic purposes, and (2) the fine, red shining
wares, usually known to archaeologists as _terra sigillata_, clay
suited to receive stamps (_sigilla_) or impressions.

For both classes all kinds of clay were used, varying somewhat in
different regions, and ranging in colour when fired from black to
grey, drab, yellow, brown and red. The clays varied greatly in
quality; most of the pottery made in southern Gaul was fashioned from
the ferruginous red clay of the Allier district, but at
St-Remy-en-Rollat and in that neighbourhood a white clay was used. In
Italy we find a carefully levigated red clay in use, great care being
devoted to its preparation and admixture. But apart from decoration
and style there is a great similarity in the general appearance of the
Italian and provincial pottery made under Roman influence, and it is
often very difficult to decide whether the vases were manufactured
where they had been found or were imported from some famous centre of
manufacture. The secret of the glossy red surface seems to have been
common property and found its way from Italy to Gaul, Spain and
Germany, and perhaps even to Britain.

The manner in which this glossy red surface was produced has been