Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Alveus

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

AL'VEUS. From alvus the belly; whence it is applied in several special senses to a variety of objects which possess a real or imaginary resemblance in form to that part of the human body.

1. A long shallow wooden vessel answering to our notion of the words trough or tray, either for holding liquids or any other articles; like the figure in the cut (Alveus/1.1), which is used by a carpenter for his tools and necessaries in a Pompeian painting. Plin. H. N. xvi. 22. Liv. i. 4.

2. A small boat or canoe used upon rivers, of very primitive construction, being hollowed out of a single tree (Vell. ii. 107). The example (Alveus/2.1) here given represents a log canoe discovered in the bog which forms the bank of the old river at the junction of the Nen, at Horsey near Peterborough (Artis. Durobriv. pl. 57.), which, if not of Roman origin, is certainly of very great antiquity; and, as it resembles in every respect the canoes represented on medals which commemorate the foundation of Rome, it may be received as a model of the alveus.

3. The hull of a ship; and thence used by poets for the ship itself. Sall. Jug. 21. Propert. iii. 7. 16.

4. A particular kind of dish or small tray, in which certain sorts of fruit, such als olives, were handed round to the guests at table. Pet. Sat. lxvi. 7.

5. A board used by the Romans for one of their games of skill. The circumstance of dice as well as counters being mentioned in connection with the game played upon the alveus (Plin. xxxvii. 6. Val. Max. viii. 8. 2.), implies that that game was the ludus duodecim scriptorum, in which, as in our back-gammon, the move was decided by a throw of the dice. The alveus, therefore, must have resembled in some respects our back-gammon board, and been divided in the same manner as the abacus (see ABACUS, No. 2.), or if any difference really existed between the meaning of these two words, it is possible that the latter term was strictly used when the board consisted of a marble slab; the former when made like a wooden tray with raised edges, as indeed the original notions of the two words of themselves indicate.

6. A hot-water bath, constructed in the floor of a bathing-room at the opposite extremity to that which contained the Labrum (Vitruv v. 10. 4. Marquez, Case degli Antichi Romani, § 317.), and furnished with a step at the bottom, which formed a seat for the bather when he descended into it. (Auctor. ad Herenn. iv. 10.) The illustration (Alveus/6.1) here given is a section of the alveus in the public baths at Pompeii. The tinted part is the flooring of the room formed of brickwork, in which the flues through which the hot air circulated are observable, one under the bath itself, and four others under the general flooring. A is the alveus; B the seat on which the bather sat (gradus, Vitr. l. c.); C a low parapet wall forming the upper part of the bath (pluteus, Vitr. l. c.), from which two steps on the outside lead down to the floor of the room. The general plan of the apartment in which it is placed, and relative situation with respect to the other members of the same, will be understood by referring to the first wood-cut under BALINEAE, letters D, h, i.

7. From this the word is sometimes transferred in a more general sense to any sort of vessel or convenience for washing in. Ovid. Met. viii. 652.

8. A bee-hive. (Plin. H. N. vii. 13.) [ALVEARE.]

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  Alveus/1.1
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  Alveus/2.1
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  Alveus/6.1