Lycurgus Cup
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The Lycurgus Cup is a 4th-century Roman glass cage cup made of a dichroic glass, which shows a different colour depending on whether or not light is passing through it: red when lit from behind and green when lit from in front. It is the only complete Roman glass object made from this type of glass, and the one exhibiting the most impressive change in colour; it has been described as "the most spectacular glass of the period, fittingly decorated, which we know to have existed".
Appearance when back-lit
When viewed in reflected light, as in this flash photograph, the cup's dichroic glass is green in colour, whereas when viewed in transmitted light, the glass appears red.
The Rubens Vase, an agate hardstone carving of c. A.D. 400
The satyr with the rock, in the new 2014 display
Roman glass
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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.
Cage cup from Cologne, dated to the mid-4th century. Collection Staatliche Antikensammlung, Munich
This pyxis is exemplary of luxury Roman glassware, c. late 1st century BC. Walters Art Museum, Baltimore
Roman glass from the 2nd century
Enamelled glass depicting a gladiator, found at Begram, Afghanistan, which was once part of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, but was ruled by the Kushan Empire during the contemporaneous Roman Principate period, to which the glass belongs, 52–125 AD (although there is some scholarly debate about the precise dating).