diota

plural diotas · plural diotae

1. RomanhistoricalA vase or drinking cup with two handles.

   On the shore here I found three handles of Greek unpainted diotæ, on which magistrates′ names are stamped.

   1865, Charles Thomas Newton, Dominic Ellis Colnaghi, Travels & Discoveries in The Levant, volume 1, page 236

   2 more examples

   1817, Edward Daniel Clarke, Travels in Various Countries of Europe, Asia and Africa, Part 2: Greece, Egypt, and the Holy Land, 4th Edition, Volume 6, page 105, A Greek had recently discovered a vessel of terra cotta containing some small bronze coins of Naxos, of the finest die, exhibiting the head of the bearded Bacchus in front, and a diota on the reverse, with the legend ΝΑΞΙΩΝ: we bought ten of these.

   The reasons for introducing these two devices are obvious; but the case of the diota, which is commonly placed horizontally under the feet of the owl, requires a separate explanation. Corsini says, in a dissertation of his Fasti Attici, that it is supposed by dome to refer to the amphora of oil, which was presented to the conquerors at the Panathenæa; but is himself of opinion, that it intended to denotes the manufacture of vessels in terra cotta, for which the Athenians were celebrated.

   1832, G. H. Smith, Appendix I: Observations on the Coinage and Currency of the Greeks: A Manual of Grecian Antiquities, page 262