It is thought to have been made for a person close to the Imperial Court of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, and may have been used to hold scent bottles or jewellery.

The ends bear scenes of Bacchus, god of wine (the Greek Dionysius), in a chariot drawn by panthers, and a nymph riding a seahorse.

[3] As the Empire had been Christianised for centuries, these pagan motifs presumably represent a revived taste for classical style and imagery.

[4] The casket from Veroli is one of some 43 caskets, in addition to dozens more separated panels, that show a fashion for "pseudo-antique motives derived from silver plate or manuscripts, put together with little understanding of the original significance," as Sir Kenneth Clark observed of the group as a whole,[5] during the medieval eclipse of the nude.

He wrote: "Between the nereids of late Roman silver and the golden doors of Ghiberti, the nudes in Mediterranean art are few and insignificant ... a few objets de luxe, like the Veroli Casket, with its strip-cartoon Olympus..."[6] It is also one of the Byzantine type known as "rosette caskets" from the use of rows of carved rosettes in the sections outside the scenes with figures; the quality of the carving makes this "the finest" of the group.