Patĭna
(
λεκάνη, τρύβλιον, λοπάς), dimin.
Patella. A deep dish used both for cooking and for serving food at table; sometimes
covered. When used for cooking it was generally of earthenware, but for table-service it was
often of silver, sometimes with delicate chasing, so that the actor Aesopus had one valued at
100,000 sesterces, or $4000 (Pliny ,
Pliny H. N.
xxxv. 163). Vitellius had one of earthenware so large that the special oven built to
contain it cost 1,000,000 sesterces, or $40,000 (Pliny , l. c.;
Vitell. 13).