<P> Luxury arts included fancy Roman glass in a great range of techniques, many smaller types of which were probably affordable to a good proportion of the Roman public . This was certainly not the case for the most extravagant types of glass, such as the cage cups or diatreta, of which the Lycurgus Cup in the British Museum is a near - unique figurative example in glass that changes colour when seen with light passing through it . The Augustan Portland Vase is the masterpiece of Roman cameo glass, and imitated the style of the large engraved gems (Blacas Cameo, Gemma Augustea, Great Cameo of France) and other hardstone carvings that were also most popular around this time . </P> <P> Mosaic was a minor art, though often on a very large scale, until the very end of the period, when late - 4th - century Christians began to use it for large religious images on walls in their new large churches; in earlier Roman art mosaic was mainly used for floors, curved ceilings, and inside and outside walls that were going to get wet . The famous copy of a Hellenistic painting in the Alexander Mosaic in Naples was originally placed in a floor in Pompeii; this is much higher quality work than most Roman mosaic, though very fine panels, often of still life subjects in small or micromosaic tesserae have also survived . The Romans distinguished between normal opus tessellatum with tesserae mostly over 4 mm across, which was laid down on site, and finer opus vermiculatum for small panels, which is thought to have been produced offsite in a workshop, and brought to the site as a finished panel . The latter was a Hellenistic genre which is found in Italy between about 100 BC and 100 AD . Most signed mosaics have Greek names, suggesting the artists remained mostly Greek, though probably often slaves trained up in workshops . The late 2nd century BC Nile mosaic of Palestrina is a very large example of the popular genre of Nilotic landscape, while the 4th century Gladiator Mosaic in Rome shows several large figures in combat . </P> <P> Metalwork was highly developed, and clearly an essential part of the homes of the rich, who dined off silver, while often drinking from glass, and had elaborate cast fittings on their furniture, jewellery, and small figurines . A number of important hoards found in the last 200 years, mostly from the more violent edges of the late empire, have given us a much clearer idea of Roman silver plate . The Mildenhall Treasure and Hoxne Hoard are both from East Anglia in England . There are few survivals of upmarket ancient Roman furniture, but these show refined and elegant design and execution . </P> <P> Few Roman coins reach the artistic peaks of the best Greek coins, but they survive in vast numbers and their iconography and inscriptions form a crucial source for the study of Roman history, and the development of imperial iconography, as well as containing many fine examples of portraiture . They penetrated to the rural population of the whole Empire and beyond, with barbarians on the fringes of the Empire making their own copies . In the Empire medallions in precious metals began to be produced in small editions as imperial gifts, which are similar to coins, though larger and usually finer in execution . Images in coins initially followed Greek styles, with gods and symbols, but in the death throes of the Republic first Pompey and then Julius Caesar appeared on coins, and portraits of the emperor or members of his family became standard on imperial coinage . The inscriptions were used for propaganda, and in the later Empire the army joined the emperor as the beneficiary . </P>

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