DO´LIUM
DO´LIUM (
πίθος), a
large earthenware jar (
πίθος κεράμινος,
Hdt. 3.96) into which, or into the wooden
cupae, new wine was put to let it ferment.
[
CUPA] Such jars were
frequently of great size, shaped like enormous caldrons, with globular
bodies and wide gaping mouths. They were formed of the best clay, and, as
they could not be turned on the wheel, were difficult of construction
(
Geopon. 6.3), so that the making of them passed into a
proverb for a troublesome undertaking (Zenob.
Cent. 3.65,
Leutsch). They were lined with a coating of pitch, while they were hot from
the furnace, and were usually sunk (
demersa,
depressa, or
defossa) one-half or
two-thirds in the cellar. Wine which would not keep long was drunk from the
dolium or
cupa; that which improved by keeping
was transferred from them to the amphorae. [
AMPHORA] (
Geopon. l.c.;
Cat. Agr. 23; Varr.
R. R. 1, 13;
Col. 12.18; Non. s.v.
Dig.
33,
6,
3.1;
Senec.
Ep. 36, 3.) Besides holding wine, dolia were used for
keeping other things, such as oil (
Cat. Agr.
10,
4), corn (
Dig.
50,
16,
206),
&c. Many of these earthenware dolia were large enough to hold a man.
Diogenes took up his abode in such a
πίθος
or dolium (
D. L. 6.23;
Juv. 14.308 if.; Sen.
Ep. 90, 14), and in some
ancient works of art he is represented stretching his body out of a
πίθος, in his celebrated interview
|
Pithos or Dolium of Diogenes. (From fragment of lamp in British
Museum. Birch.)
|
with Alexander. In the Peloponnesian war, when the country people
took refuge in Athens, they are described, with some comic exaggeration, as
living in such earthenware vessels (
Aristoph.
Kn. 792). The dolium into which the Danaids emptied their vessels
was of a similar size (
Hor. Carm.
3.11.27; cf. Lucian,
Hermot. 61). Palladius (10.11)
speaks of dolia containing two hundred congii; and the
sesquicullaria dolia of Columella (12.18, extr.) contained 1 1/2
culleus--that is, 30 amphorae. Many of these large cullei have been found in
Italy and other countries, having stamped on them the number of amphorae
they contained; namely, 20, 30, and 36 amphorae. Some have leaden hoops
round them. They were made of white or red clay, or of the two colours
combined. On account of their great size these dolia, which were fixed in
the cellar, were not allowed to be removed, and were sold along with the
house (
Dig. 33,
6,
3.1; 33, 7, 8). The
seriae were similar vessels, and appear to
[p. 1.651]have been a smaller kind of dolia. The two are frequently
mentioned together (
Col. 12.18, and 50.14 Ter.
Heaut. 3.1, 51;
Liv. 24.18).
The makers of the dolia were called
doliarii,
but the term
opus doliare was applied to all
kinds of coarse ware, such as the tiles of houses.
Dolia curta were urinals placed in the narrow
streets between the houses for the convenience of those who passed by.
(Lucret. 4.1026 ;
dum eunt, nulla est in angiporto
amphora quam non impleant, Macrob. 3.16.15; cf.
urinae vectigal, Suet.
Vesp. 23.)
Dolia were also used for holding corpses in graves. In the Crimea, near
Sebastopol, sixteen
πίθοι were discovered,
4 feet 4 inches high, and 2 feet 2 inches in diameter.
|
Dolium, containing body. (Birch.)
|
(Hermann-Blümner,
Griech. Privatalt. pp. 162, 232;
Becker-Göll,
Galius, iii. p. 418; Marquardt,
Privatl. d. Röm., p. 626; Blümner,
Techn. u. Term., &c., ii. p. 41; Birch,
Anc. Pottery, pp. 134, 531.) [
FICTILE p. 843
b.]
[
W.S]