Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Ahenum

Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary, and Greek Lexicon (Rich, 1849)

AHE'NUM. Properly a copper or boiler for heating water, which was suspended over the fire, in contra-distinction to the saucepan (cacabus) for boiling meat or vegetables, and which was placed upon it (Paul. Dig. 33. 7. 18. Serv. ad Virg. Aen. i. 213.); the distinction however is not always observed. The example (Ahenum/1.1) is copied from an original of bronze found at Pompeii; the eye at the top of the handle is to receive the hook by which it was suspended.

2. The coppers which contained the water for supplying a bath (Vitruv. v. 10. 1.). These were always three in number, arranged with a nice regard to economy of fuel. The largest, which contained the hot water (caldarium), was placed immediately over the furnace, the mouth of which is shown by the square aperture at the bottom of the annexed woodcut (Ahenum/2.1); over that was placed a second (tepidarium), which only received a mitigated heat from the greater distance of the fire, and which, therefore, contained water of a lower temperature; the uppermost of all (frigidarium) received the cold water direct from the cistern; thus, when the hot water was drawn off from the lowest copper, the empty space was immediately filled up with fluid which had already acquired a certain degree of heat, and the second was again replenished with cold water from above. All this is made very clear by the illustration, which shows the three boilers used in the baths at Pompeii, as restored by Sir W. Gell from the impressions which their figures have left in the mortar of the wall behind them in which they were set.

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  Ahenum/1.1
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  Ahenum/2.1