ant. AULA (Plaut. Aulul.,
passim), a word
used much in the same sense as our word “jar” or
“pot,” and corresponding most nearly perhaps to the Greek
: a vase which might be
of almost any shape, but which, with a view to capacity, would no doubt
usually be of a somewhat bellying form.
was made of various materials,
according to the purpose for which it was intended: thus of ollae
which were destined for cooking purposes, the
material would be either bronze (aenum,
Ov. Met. 7.318
) or different kinds of
stone which were turned upon the lathe. At Pleurs, a village near Chiavenna
to the north of the Lake of Como, the manufacture of vessels from the
potstone in a neighbouring mountain is still carried on, and has probably
existed there from the time of Pliny, who makes express mention of it
36. § § 22, 44). Some of these
vessels are nearly two feet in diameter, and, being adapted to bear the
fire, are used for cooking. ( “Oculis observare ollam pultis, ne
aduratur,” Varro, ap. Non. Marcell. p. 543, ed. Merceri; Festus,
s . v. Aulas.
The most ordinary material was earthenware (testacea
); and in this material the olla
would be adapted to various uses, principally no doubt for
holding solids or liquids and keeping them in store. Thus we read of an
filled with denarii
(Cic. Fam. 9.1. 8
resin (Martial, Mart. 12
); and with oil (Plin. Nat.
). Fruit was in this manner preserved (Plin. Nat. 15.22
); and from this
circumstance the adjective ollaris
came to mean
“preserved” (uvae ollares,
; Martial; 7.20).
The Romans as well as the Greeks used pots for holding and for growing
flowers (Cato, de Re R.
51: see VAS
): those which were intended for growing seeds
would have the bottom perforated (Plin. Nat.
, where a seed of pine is sown in such a perforated olla
In certain sacrificial rites, hand-made ollae
continued to be used down to a late period, in memory of the primitive
construction of those of the old cult. They remained in an unchanged form,
as is shown by the examples which were found in the sanctuary of the Fratres
Arvales, which, though of a quite late epoch, are still of rough workmanship
and hand-made. (See Giornale Arcadico,
lviii. (Giulio, 1868,
tav. iv. Nos. 1-18.)
Another very remarkable use of these vessels of earthenware among the Greeks
was to put infants into them to be exposed (Aristoph. Frogs 1188
, Schol. ad loc.;
Moeris, s. v. ἐγχυτρισμός
), or to be
carried anywhere (Aristoph. Thes.
; Schol. ad loc.
). Hence the exposure of children was called
(Hesych. sub voce
), and the miserable women who practised it
(Suidas, s. v.).
The term is also used to indicate both the urn (urna
) in which the ashes of the dead were put, and also the niche
in the tomb or columbarium
in which the urn was
placed. After some days, when the ashes had been dried in the sun, the
nearest relatives of the deceased gathered them in an urn of clay, glass,
marble, alabaster, other kinds of stone, bronze, silver, or these were
In the large public cemeteries in
Rome a poor slave, or a person of limited means who could not afford a
special grave, had to buy a niche called olla
for his urn: these ollae
objects. of presentation which the poorer classes made amongst one another,
as the inscriptions show. Below the single olla
was placed in this case a small inscription which contained the name of him
whose bones lay in the urn, and which would be drawn up on the occasion of
the gift and as a record of the gift (see C. I. L.
&c.). A sepulchre which held several of these niches is called a
(Reines. class. 16, n. 53).
In the year 1732 were found in a vineyard on the right of the Appian Way an
extraordinary number of ollae
of terracotta in
chamber. They were all more or less of the same size, capacity,
and form. Some good specimens of cinerary ollae
are preserved in the British Museum in a small apartment in the basement, so
constructed as to exhibit accurately the manner of arranging them.
Sometimes the ollae
were buried up to the neck
within the niches, so that the only part which showed was the tile or lid
), on which the name of the person
whose ashes were contained inside was engraved
(see Muratori, 1756, 7, ollae quae sunt operculis et
). This lid generally corresponded in the
material and the style of ornament with the olla
itself (Hdt. 1.48
; Col. de Re Rust.
12.48). Sometimes it was so arranged as
to be sliding or movable, and might be depressed or raised so as to cover
exactly the contents of the vessel it belonged to, like that now used for
snuff and tobacco jars; this form of lid was called operculum ambulatorium.
The Romans sometimes covered their
beehives with lids of this kind, in order that the size of the honeycomb and
hive might be exactly proportioned to each other (Plin. Nat. 21.47
; Rich, s. v.). From Olla
we have the word Ollaria,
another name for the
niches in the columbaritum
in which the cinerary
) were placed.