Ancient garden from Babylon to Rome
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Small pillar with relief slab
© Institute and Museum of the History of Science

Small pillar with relief slab

White marble, early 1st cent. A.D.
Pompeii, House of the Gilded Cupids
Soprintendenza Archeologica di Pompei, inv. 20458

The high relief carving is richly decorated with fruit and foliage; the bas-relief on the opposite side portrays a flowering branch. Scenes with theatrical masks are represented on both sides of the carved stone, which rests on a stylized Corinthian capital.