HistoryArtifacts

I think I get (and agree with) what you're saying. It's not that Romans had rich folk or fine craftsmen, though obviously they needed both - it's that Roman society produced enough of an excess, and had enough interest in complex arts, to make such things into an industry.

A society living hand-to-mouth isn't going to be able to support the education and sustained practice necessary for an artist/artisan who makes such immensely delicate trinkets. It requires a massive society-wide synergy of effort and surplus to both create and enjoy such baubles. These artifacts, though not productive themselves, are a result of massive efficiency and societal complexity, relative to the time. The glassworker needs glass, needs to be fed so he can focus on nothing but his work, requires the contacts to get his products from himself to the consumer to be able to produce such things. Not just a pet artisan with a patron (though Rome certainly had those), but the result of an entire social system.

Though less flashy and more (ha) plebeian, it's one of the reasons I really appreciate Roman cookware. A society that doesn't have enough metalworkers and metal to do anything but meet the basic needs for agricultural tools isn't going to be mass-producing metal pots and pans for the use of the peasantry. But Rome did, because it could.

It's a little comfort, relative to all the necessary things, but it feels sweet and triumphant to know that it was available. A metal pan isn't going to feed you more, nor will it keep you warmer or healthier (by any substantial degree in a near-subsistence-level society) than not having one. But it improves your quality of life. It's a comfort, and one that is only possible because all of society's gears are turning with... acceptable efficiency. Exceptional efficiency compared to what came before it. Not just a comfort, but a symbol of society's success.

They were so rich they could have people blowing hot glass into tiny birds....

Oh god, those poor birds.

Source says:

Unlike a traditional cameo which is carved in bas-relief, the figure here is carved on the back of the stone into its volume to create the life-like 3D illusion.