In this work, Caroline Cheung studies one of the most economically and technologically significant yet least examined ceramic products of Roman culture: the large pottery storage containers known in Latin as dolia. These containers had a high storage capacity and were technically complex and costly to produce. They remained relatively under-studied until the past decade, when a wave of regional and typological studies began to emerge. Notable among these are Charlotte Carrato’s excellent work on Gaul (Le dolium en Gaule Narbonnaise, 2017); Carrato and Franca Cibecchini (Nouvelles recherches sur les dolia, 2020), Gloria Olcese’s research on dolia shipwrecks (Atlante dei siti di produzione ceramica, 2012) and the recent collective volume edited by Maria Rueda and Ramón Járrega on Dolia ex Hispania (2024), among others.
C.’s study is the first attempt at producing a global synthesis of research on these containers and their economic and technological significance. While maintaining academic rigour, the book is also aimed at the curious non-specialist reader, featuring a deliberately eye-catching title. It is a highly suggestive title, portraying Rome as an ‘Empire of Wine’ sustained by its dolia. However, this title overlooks an essential aspect of these ceramic containers and the broader configuration of the Roman wine industry. Dolia had a much wider range of uses beyond the fermentation and storage of wine. They were employed for storing many other agricultural products and used in various industries. Although their role in Roman winemaking is undeniably important, other containers — such as barrels, wineskins, amphorae and other pottery vessels distinct from the Italic model — also contributed to making Rome an ‘Empire of Wine’. This clarification is not a criticism of the chosen title, which is editorially well justified, but rather a way to set the reader’s expectations: this is a study of the economic and technological implications of dolia, primarily in relation to the wine industry.
The book addresses two related but distinct topics. On one hand, it examines the dolia themselves, focusing on their technological production, inscriptions, morphology, and issues of repair and reuse — linking them to the storage of a variety of agricultural goods, not just wine. On the other hand, it explores the large-scale wine production that emerged in the Roman Empire. This is an extraordinarily complex topic, in which dolia are just one component, with numerous regional variations beyond the Italic model emphasised in this work. In fact, large pottery containers were not always present in the wine industries that developed across the Empire during Rome’s long history.
The book is divided into nine chapters and includes a generous selection of black-and-white images, with 31 also presented in colour — something to be welcomed. These images effectively support the book’s narrative.
The volume also includes several tables listing dimensions, inscriptions and repairs of dolia from Cosa, Pompeii and Ostia, as well as a section with detailed descriptions of individual specimens from these sites and from Rome itself. This supplementary documentation underscores the weight of these locations in C.’s study, which may be the main limitation of the work: an overrepresentation of dolia from central Italy — many not even linked to wine production — compared to those from other regions of the Empire. Only in ch. 5 (‘Dolia in Iberia and Gaul’) is there an effort to study regions beyond Latium/Campania, addressing Hispano-Roman and Gallic contexts in just 15 pages. The diversity of pottery winemaking containers used across different regions of the Empire perhaps deserved more detailed analysis. Nonetheless, this book is essential for understanding these containers and the wine industry of the Roman world.
The bibliography is outstanding, featuring a large number of references — including many in languages other than English, something which is unfortunately still uncommon among Anglo-American scholars, who often rely primarily on English-language sources. C. demonstrates deep expertise by undertaking a thorough and multilingual review of the literature.
C.’s book is a bold endeavour, as is often the case with works of synthesis. This challenge is compounded by the author’s intent to make the book accessible to a broader, non-academic audience. In this, she succeeds. What the reader holds in their hands is a well-written, rigorous and engaging book on Roman viticulture through the lens of the dolia.
