Ca. 1st Century AD A beautiful oil lamp with a concave discus decorated with concentric circles enclosing an erotic scene. The flat base is undecorated.During the Roman Empire, a lamp was originally called a ?lychnus? (from the Greek ????????) with the oldest Roman lamps dating back to the third century BC. It is thought that the Romans took the idea for lamps from the Greek colonies of Southern Italy. During the Roman Empire, it became commonplace to use lamps in funeral ceremonies and for public purposes. Over time, the manufacture of lamps increased, and so did the variation in decoration, which depended mainly on the shape and size of the lamp. Common decorative themes depicted on the discus were entertainment scenes (such as gladiators in combat), common myths, and animals.Lamps with rounded nozzle, volutes and without handles like this one are dated to the 1st century AD ? cf. Walters, H. B. (1914). Catalogue of the Greek and Roman Lamps in the British Museum. London, pp. 95?112. Size: L:102mm / W:68mm; 53.1g Provenance: Private New York, USA collection; ex-Dr. Arnold A. Rogow estate, New York, New York, USA, acquired in the 1970s to 1980s