“A rare, recently excavated ancient Roman dining set consisting of 20 silver objects—one of only three such sets from the region of Pompeii known to exist in the world—and an important ancient Greek kylix (or drinking cup) have been installed in The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Galleries for Greek and Roman Art as part of an ongoing exchange of antiquities between the Republic of Italy and the Museum.
“The silver objects—the Moregine Treasure—represent one of the few Roman silver dining sets to survive from the first century A.D. They include vessels for holding, serving, and receiving food as well as receptacles for mixing, pouring, and drinking liquids. Buried in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79, and excavated in 2000 at Moregine on the outskirts of Pompeii, the silver weighs nearly nine pounds. It had been carefully placed in a wicker basket and hidden in the basement of an unfinished public bath house; presumably, its owner had hoped to return for it, but died in the eruption. The two canthari (drinking cups) are of particular interest and were likely prized antiques at the time they were buried, having been made over a century earlier at the very end of the Hellenistic era, likely in Alexandria, Egypt. They seem to commemorate what is sometimes known as the Treaty of Brundisium between Mark Anthony and Octavian in 40 B.C., just four years after the assassination of Caesar. This historic treaty gave Mark Anthony command of the eastern Roman provinces, while Octavian was given control over Italy and the West.”
