During the long period of peace that followed the rise to power of Octavian Augustus (27 B.C. - 14 A.D.), Rome and all the cities of the empire witnessed the opening of glassworks. The production of glass became an veritable industry, the effects of which appeared in various areas of daily life.

Six habitations of the Regio I of Pompeii that differ in terms of elegance and social importance of their inhabitants, constitute the example through which we seek to evidence the different impacts of glass on small domestic articles. In Vesuvian centres and in the densely-populated cities of the empire, domestic ware made of terracotta or metal was progressively first used with and then replaced by glassware, for the latter's acclaimed features in preserving fruit, foods, drink, cosmetics and, in the medical field, pharmaceutical substances. It hence ensues that the cities buried by the 79 A.D. eruption of Vesuvius, also offered the opportunity to observe how glass was a chemically neutral substance and, no less important, how its transparency made it possible to evaluate the state of the substances contained in it.