Scutella
Scutella (Cic. Tusc. 3.19, 46) is rightly explained by Rich as a small tray or salver on which cups could be placed, and not a saucer or dish like its French derivative écuelle: for in Ulp. Dig. 34, 2, 20.10, scutellae are defined as quae aliquid sustineant,
and are specially distinguished from vessels quae aliquid in se recipiant edendi bibendive causa paratum.
(Cf. Becker-Göll, Gallus, 3.395.)
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.