Acerra

Latin: incense box.

Dictionary| of Roman| Coins|

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ACERRA.- The small box for holding perfumes held in the hand of the female figure represented on Roman coins, bearing on the reverse the legend PIETAS AVG. This box is of a cylindrical form on the coins of the earlier Emperors, but, at a lower period of the empire, the Acerra appears to have been of a different shape, as seen on coins of Faustina the Elder, of which an example, in the cabinet of Dr. John Lee, is here given:-

On the gold coins of this Empress the same object is represented of similar form. The celebrated vase discovered in one of the Bartlow tumuli is of copper, exquisitely enamelled, of precisely the same form, and was doubtless used to hold perfumes at the interment, when it was deposited with the remains. Festus (s.v. Acerra) gives us a passage having a two-fold illustration, showing that it was the common practice to burn perfumes at the Roman burials, and that the term Acerra was also applied to the altar as well as to the vessel- "Acerra ara quae ante mortuum poni solebant, in qua odores incendebantur;" and Pollux informs us, that the altar also was called Acerra. This arose doubtless from the circumstance of a light or portable altar being used in such ceremonies exclusively for the burning of perfumes.- The above explanatory notice of the Acerra, its form and sacrificial use, is derived from the information contained in a letter, illustrative of an ancient enamelled vase, and addressed by John Yonge Akerman, Esq., Resident Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries, to Capt. Smyth, Director, through whose joint kindness the compiler of this dictionary has been allowed to use the wood-cut, employed in Archaeologia, vol. xxxiii.

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