100-300 AD. Roman. Yellowish-green glass flask with in-folded, flaring rim, cylindrical neck, mould-blown Janus-head body comprising two male human faces each with long hair looking in opposite directions; the vessel sits on a raised ring foot. In the Roman pantheon, Janus was the god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways passages, frames, and endings. His two faces symbolise his ability to look both to the future and to the past. Glass was a major manufacturing industry in the Roman Empire, especially after the invention of glassblowing in the middle of the first century BC, when glass became used for a variety of purposes including vessels, jewellery and construction materials such as glass or tiles. Roman glassmaking reached the farthest corners of the Empire and flourished until about 400 AD, when the Roman Empire started to disintegrate, finally falling in the late 5th century AD. Vessels would probably have been used for perfumes, oils (used as soap) and/or medicines in antiquity. Good condition; on a custom-made stand.Size: L:95mm / W:55mm ; 75g; Provenance: Property of a London gentleman, formerly with the Parthenon gallery, previously in an old English collection formed in the 1980s.