Sigillaria (ancient Rome)

For the extinct plant genus, see Sigillaria.

In ancient Roman culture, sigillaria were pottery or wax figurines given as traditional gifts during the Saturnalia. Sigillaria as a proper noun was also the name for the last day of the Saturnalia, December 23,[1] and for a place where sigillaria were sold.[2] A sigillarius was a person who made and sold sigillaria, perhaps as an offshoot of pottery manufacture.[3]

The Via Sigillaria in Rome was a street dedicated to manufacturing and selling these gifts.[4]

  1. ^ Robert A. Kaster, Macrobius: Saturnalia Books 1–2 (Loeb Classical Library, 2011), pp. 81 (note 110) and 110 (note 178).
  2. ^ Caroline Vout, Power and Eroticism in Imperial Rome (Cambridge University Press, 2007), p. 152.
  3. ^ Claire Holleran, Shopping in Ancient Rome: The Retail Trade in the Late Republic and the Principate (Oxford University Press, 2012), p. 192.
  4. ^ Thomas, Emile (1899). Roman Life Under the Caesars. G. P. Putnam's sons. pp. 132–136. Retrieved June 15, 2020.