Ulp. Dig. xxxiii. 9, 3], and Mart. xiv. 11, with the Lemma, Chartæ epistolares: Seu leviter noto, seu caro missa sodali, As the smooth surfaces thus covered with wax could not be allowed to rest upon one another, and by inserting a board between them, the writing would have been obliterated by the pressure, we must suppose that the tablets had a somewhat elevated border. This supposition gains probability from an antique painting in Mus. Borb. vi. t. 35, in which a girl is holding the stilus and the pugillares, the two tablets of which clearly exhibit such an elevated border. So also in Gell's Pomp. ii. 187. The letter being ended, the tabellæ were bound together by a linen thread, or more correctly, a fine pack-thread, probably crossways, and where the string was fastened, were sealed with wax, (see concerning this and the sealing-earth, cretula, Cic. Ver. iv. 9; Beckmann, Beitr. z. Gesch. d. Erfind. i. 474), and stamped with the ring. Plaut. Bacch. 4, 96: Cedo tu ceram ac linum actutum, age obliga, obsigna cito. Cic. Catil. iii. 5: Ac ne longum sit, Quirites, tabellas proferri jussimus, quæ a quoque dicebantur datœ. Primum ostendimus Cethego signum: cognovit. Nos linum incidimus: legimus: Erat scriptum ipsius manu. If the letter were written by the librarius, this seal afforded the only guarantee of its genuineness, for which reason the seal was generally examined, previous to opening the letter, and before it was injured by cutting the string asunder. We should almost suppose that the handwriting, being on wax, and in uncial character, must have been difficult to recognise, and yet the proof of the letter's authenticity is often taken from this. Plautus himself says (Bacch. v. 78): nam propterea te volo scribere, ut pater cognoscat literas quando legat. So Cicero in the passage quoted above, and frequently. Comp. Ovid, Heroid. xv. 1; Sabin. Ep. i. 3. [The address was, of course, written on the outside. In a fresco at Pompeii, there is a letter addressed M. Lucretio.] As the advantage of public posts was not known, they were obliged to dispatch special messengers, unless an opportunity by chance occurred, and frequently to very remote places: tabellarii kept for this purpose, therefore, were the regular letter-carriers of private persons, and are often mentioned. See Cic. Phil. ii. 31; Fam. xii. 12, xiv. 22; Verr. iii. 79; Auct. bell. Hisp. 12, 16, 18. [It remains to be observed that the above tabellæ were used as writingmaterials generally; and not merely for correspondence. So the school-tablets, and the tabulæ testamenti (also called cera). Heindorf and Wüstemann ad Hor. Sat. ii. 5, 54. Small tablets (pugillares, codicilli) were used as pocket-books to note down anything at will. Auson. Epigr. 146, bipatens pugillar. Sen. Ep. 108. According to the number of leaves, they were called diptychi, triptychi, or triplices. Martial xiv. 6. The outer side was often ornamented with ivory, gold, or silver. Orell. Inscr. 3838, pugillares membranaceos cum operculis eboreis. Vop. Tac. 8. A stile (stilus, graphium) was attached, (Isid. vi. 9; Martial xiv. 21), the one end of which was pointed for writing, the other blunt for erasure. Hence stilum vertere. Hor. Sat. i. 10, 72; Cic. Verr. iv. 41. In the days of the emperors, the consuls, prætors, and other magistrates, used, upon taking office, to present their friends with very costly tablets, adorned with the portrait of the donor, and all sorts of symbolical devices. Symmach. Ep. ii. 81, v. 56, vii. 76, ix. 119; Claud. in Stilich. iii. 346. Qui (sc. dentes) secti ferro in tabulas auroque micantes, Per proceres et vulgus eant. Sirmond. ad Sidon. Ap. Ep. viii. 6. Several of these ivory diptychi are preserved; only one of the commoner wax-tablets, dating from 167 A.D., which was found in 1790, in Transylvania. It is made of fir-wood, with writing on four sides.] EXCURSUS I. SCENE IV. WTM THE LECTICA AND THE CARRIAGES. ITH the great love of comfort that distinguished the upper ranks of the Roman world in later times, we may easily imagine that sufficient provision was made for the means of locomotion, unaccompanied by any exertion on their own part. We should form a very erroneous conception if we fancied that the Romans did not possess, as well as the moderns, their travelling, state, and hackney equipages: on the contrary, the means of conveyance in their times, though not so regularly organized as our stage-coaches and omnibuses, nor so generally used by all classes, were even more numerous, and, to a certain extent, better calculated for the purpose they were intended to answer, although this was intimately connected with the (to us unknown) system of slaves, and also depended on conditions of climate. These subjects have been often and circumstantially treated of, and but little of importance remains to be added, so that we shall rather seek to select and properly apply the more essential points of what has already been made known. The most important writings are: Schefferi, De re vehiculari veterum, lib. ii., in Poleni thes. t. v., to which is appended, De vehiculis antiquis diatribe; Beckmann, Beitr. z. Gesch. d. Erfind. i. 390; and Ginzrot, Die Wägen und Fahrwerke der Griechen und Römer und and. alt. Völk. 2 vols. 4; a work which has the advantage of being written by a connoisseur in these matters, though as a philologist he is by no means all we could wish. Concerning the lectica in particular, see Lipsius, Elect. i. 19; Alstorph. De lecticis veterum diatribe, with the Dissert. de lectis. The Lectica.-We have here to discuss only that description which was used for journeys, or for being carried about in, within the city concerning the lectica funebris, see the Excursus on The Burial of the Dead. This lectica was probably like the common lectus in its chief points-at all events in its earlier form—except that it had no pluteus. It was a frame made, for the sake of lightness, of wood, and with girths across it, upon which the mattress, torus, and probably at the head a cushion, pulvinar, were placed. The use of girths is very intelligible, although the passages in Martial (ii. 57) and Gellius (x. 3), which have been adduced as proving their use, may be considered to allude to something quite different. It is generally supposed that the lecticæ were, in more ancient times, uncovered (See Boettig. Sab. ii. 179, 200), although there appears not any ground for this opinion, as the copy of a lectica, which Scheffer after Pighius gives from a tomb, must rather pass for a lectus funebris, such as have been discovered on other monuments, worked in relief. See Goro, v. Agyagf. Wand. d. Pomp. tab. vi.; Ginzrot, tab. lxvii. What Boettiger after Gruter has given as a lectica, with a figure reposing on it, (ibid. Fig. 3), is as unlike as possible. When mention is sometimes made of lectica aperto, this may be understood in a different sense. If, as is most probable, such palanquins were introduced from the East, it is also to be supposed that they were adopted in Rome in the form usual there, and were therefore covered. Such lecticæ opertæ are mentioned in Cicero's time, and even earlier. Cic. Phil. ii. 45: Cum inde Romam proficiscens ad Aquinum accederet, obviam ei processit magna sane multitudo: at iste operta lectica latus est per oppidum ut mortuus. We must take care not to infer from the last words, the usage of a lectica operta at funerals. When a corpse was conveyed from one place to another, a closely covered vehicle was no doubt made use of. Of this kind was that of C. Gracchus, mentioned in Gell. x. 3, otherwise the peasant could not have asked, num mortuum ferrent. Cicero himself was in a covered lectica when he was overtaken by his murderers. Plut. Cic. 48. 'Eopáyn δὲ τὸν τράχηλον ἐκ τοῦ φορείου προτείνας; Aufd. Bass. ap. M. Sen. Suas. i. 6: Cicero paullum remoto velo postquam armatos vidit, etc. The lectica had a head and curtains, (lectica tuta pelle veloque), as Martial calls it, xi. 98; for pellis is the head of leather. An instance, from the same period, where a proscribed person was saved by his slave placing himself inside, whilst the master acted the part of lecticarius, is related by Dio Cass. xlvii. 10. popeîov KATάσTEуOV. When therefore, lecticæ apertæ are mentioned, as Cic. Phil. ii. 24, Vehebatur in essedo tribunus plebis; lictores laureati antecedebant, inter quos aperta lectica mima portabatur, we must not understand thereby a completely uncovered lectica, which was least of all suitable for a long journey, especially for a Cytheris, but that the curtains were drawn back and fastened up. These curtains, vela, were also called plage or plagulæ. Non. iv. 361; xiv. 5; Suet. Tit. 10; cum inde lectica auferretur, suspexisse dicitur dimotis plagulis cœlum. In later times they did not content themselves with curtains, but closed up the whole lectica with lapis specularis, not only for the use of the women, but also of the men. Juven. iii. 239: Si vocat officium, turba cedente vehetur Dives, et ingenti curret super ora Liburno, iv. 20: Atque obiter leget aut scribet vel dormiet intus, Namque facit somnum clausa lectica fenestra. Est ratio ulterior, magnæ si misit amicæ, So also we read of the basterna, to be mentioned presently. Anthol. Qui dedit ergo tribus patruis aconita, vehatur An instance of still more refined luxury is to be found in Cic. Verr. v. 11: we subjoin the whole of this remarkable passage: Nam, ut mos fuit Bithyniæ regibus, lectica octophoro ferebatur, in qua pulvinus erat perlucidus Melitensi rosa fartus. Ipse autem coronam habe bat unam in capite, alteram in collo, reticulumque ad nares sibi admovebat tenuissimo lino minutis maculis, plenum rosœ. Sic confecto itinere cum ad aliquod oppidum venisset, eadem lectica usque in cubiculum deferebatur. [The pulvinus is also mentioned by Senec. ad Marc. 16.] It may easily be inferred that there was no lack of ornament, costly wood, decorations of silver, gold and ivory and splendid coverlets. The poles on which the lectica was carried, asseres, do not appear (at least in all cases) to have been fastened to it. Whether it had iron rings, as Ginzrot (Th. ii. 278) has assumed, we leave undetermined. What Mart. ii. 57, says, Recens cella linteisque lorisque, appears to refer to this: also the struppi in Gell. x. 3: which assumption accords very well with the explanation of the word in Isid. Orig. xix. 4. It is at any rate clear that the asseres were moveable, from Suet. Cal. 58: Ad primum tumultum lecticarii cum asseribus in auxilium adcurrerunt; and that by this we are to understand the carrying-poles, may be gathered from the other passages where they are mentioned. Juv. vii. 132: Perque forum juvenes longo premit assere Medos; Comp. iii. 245; Mart. ix. 23, 9: Ut Canusinatus nostro Syrus assere sudet, Et mea sit culto sella cliente frequens. Different from the lectica, and belonging to a later period, was the sella gestatoria. According to Dio Cassius, Claudius was the first who made use of it (lx. 2): καὶ μέντοι καὶ δίφρῳ καταστέγῳ πρῶτος Ρωμαίων ἐχρήσατο, καὶ ἐξ ἐκείνου καὶ νῦν οὐχ ὅτι οἱ αὐτοκράτορες ἀλλὰ καὶ ἡμεῖς οἱ ὑπατευκότες διφροφορούμεθα πρότερον δὲ ἄρα ὅ, τε Αὔγουστος καὶ ὁ Τιβέριος, ἄλλοι τέ τινες ἐν σκιμποδίοις ὁποίοις αἱ γυναῖκες ἔτι |