3rd-4th century AD. A bronze waisted cylindrical pyxis, with medial plain band and slightly concave body, complete with original lid and chain. See Cipriano, S., 'L’inumazione ad Altino in età alto e medio-imperiale,' in Rivista di Archeologia, XXXVI, 2012, pp.97-118.71 grams, 64mm (2 1/2"). From the property of an Essex private collector; acquired in the early 1990s. The pyxis was a cylindrical box with a lid, typically used in the Graeco-Roman world to store jewellery, perfume bottles, cosmetics, or even poison. On paintings, we sometimes observe women with a pyxis, as if those boxes were only used by ladies. Instead small pyxides were widely used in the Roman world, by both men and women. Famously, Nero used a pearl-studded golden pyxis to dedictae his shaven beard to Jupiter (Suet. Nero 12"). Similar small bronze pyxides can be found in the Museum of Setif, Algeria. In Late Antiquity and in Eastern Empire, pyxis was the name for a cylindrical box used to transport consecrated bread.