Like many ancient peoples, the Romans believed in an afterlife that was an idealized form of their worldly experience. According to its means, the family of each dead Roman was obliged to provide furnishings for the grave. Modern excavations have revealed many instances where a grave contains not just one or two but a couple of dozen of these, all mass-produced, each in a matter of minutes at most. At the same time, glass captured the popular imagination by virtue of its translucency. The production of wine glasses soared in the Augustan era, actually causing the demise of some of the pottery workshops that specialized in traditional beaker types.
Apples seem more beautiful if they are floating in a glass.
Change in the Roman glassworking industry was always most dramatic whenever all three of these forces came together at one time.