Roman Glass
Read this article about the history and evolution of Roman glass production. The manufacture of glassware was known throughout the ancient world, but Roman artisans produced glass on an unprecedented scale. During the first century BCE, the invention of glassblowing allowed artisans to quickly create glass products in a wide range of shapes, bringing cheap glass to mass markets.
Roman Glass
Roman glass objects have been recovered across the Roman Empire in domestic, industrial and funerary contexts. Glass was used primarily for the production of vessels, although mosaic tiles and window glass were also produced. Roman glass production developed from Hellenistic technical traditions, initially concentrating on the production of intensely coloured cast glass vessels.
However, during the 1st century AD the industry underwent rapid technical growth that saw the introduction of glass blowing and the dominance of colourless or 'aqua' glasses. Production of raw glass was undertaken in geographically separate locations to the working of glass into finished vessels, and by the end of the 1st century AD large scale manufacturing resulted in the establishment of glass as a commonly available material in the Roman world, and one which also had technically very difficult specialized types of luxury glass, which must have been very expensive.
Cage cup from Cologne, dated to the mid-4th century.
This pyxis is exemplary of luxury Roman glassware, ca. late 1st century BC
Source: Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_glass
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