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The Silver Lanx as means of propaganda of a Roman Family
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 September 2012
Extract
Out of a grave containing a skeleton that was accidentally discovered in 1939 near the village of Stráže, in the vicinity of the world-famous spa of Pieštany in south-western Slovakia, archaeologists succeeded in recovering a large circular plate (33 cm. in diameter)—a lanx (Pl. III). It is decorated on its upper surface with a very interesting engraved design in the centre and a series of scenes in graded relief on its flat flange, along the outer edge of which is a row of minute half globules. No niello is employed, but the ornament is richly gilded with gold foil, which today shows cracks in many places and has in some places even fallen off.
In the central roundel (119 mm. in diameter; Pl. IV) there is a picture of an oath-taking over a sacrificial victim, similar to that on gold coins of the Roman Republic ascribed to the family of the Veturii. This scene is drawn by a skilled hand, in fine lines and with great feeling for its decorative potentialities. The interpretation of the coin-type (Pl. VI, 2) has already given rise to a number of different opinions which, however, agree on one point, namely that it was struck to commemorate some significant event in which a member of the house of Veturii had played the decisive role.
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- Copyright © Bedřich Svoboda 1968. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies
References
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9 In Tomb no. 2 from Stráže (near Pieštany). An account of the finds from this grave (up to 1957) was published by Vojtěch Ondrouch in Bohaté hroby z doby rímskej na Slovensku. Novšie nálezy = Reiche römerzeitliche Gräber in der Slowakei. Neue Funde, 115 n., 244 ff. Some other decorated silver vessels were also recovered from this grave, the publication of which (in German) is already prepared for press.