Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Area

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

A'REA. In its orginal sense, is used to designate any vacant plot of ground in a city, affording a site for a building (Varro, L. L. v. 38. Hor. Epist. i. 10. 13.), and from that it is also transferred to the open space upon which a house that had been pulled down had formerly stood (Liv. iv. 16.); whence the following more special significations are deduced: —

1. A large open space in a town, like the French place, the Italian piazza, and the English parade, left free and unencumbered by buildings for the exercise and recreation of the townspeople. (Vitruv. i. 7. 1. Hor. Od. i. 9. 18.) These areas were often embellished by statues and works of art; sometimes surrounded by posts and rails to define their extent, and prevent private individuals from building on the public property (Inscript. ap. Bellori, Fragm. Urb. Rom. p. 70.); and still further to preclude all attempts at encroachment or appropriation, they were consecrated to some deity who had his altar erected in the centre; and hence they were distinguished from one another by the name of the deity under whose protection they were placed, as the area of Mercury, the area of Pollux, the area of Apollo, which latter is represented in the illustration (Area/1.1) from the ancient marble plan of Rome, now preserved in the Capitol, but which originally formed the pavement to the temple of Romulus and Remus. The altar, ascended on each side by a flight of steps, is seen in the centre; the open space around is sufficiently apparent, and its extent may be guessed by completing the mutilated inscription, which was AREA APOLLINIS.

2. The open space of ground in front of a Roman house, temple, or other edifice, which forms the area of the vestibule (VESTIBULUM, Plin. Paneg. 52. 3. Inscript. ap. Nardini, Rom. Ant. iii. 4.), as in the example (Area/2.1) (copied from an ancient painting, in which some of the principal edifices of Rome are depicted), where it lies between the two projecting wings in front of the building.

3. An open space in front of a cemetery, around which the sepulchres were ranged, and which served as an Ustrinum, where the funeral pyre was raised, and the body burnt. (Stat. Theb. vi. 57. Tertull. ad Scapul. 3. Marini, Inscriz. Alb. p. 118.) The illustration (Area/3.1) represents an area of this description, with the tombs built round it, which was excavated in the Villa Corsini at Rome.

4. (ἀλωή). A threshing-floor; or more accurately a flat circular area in the open fields, paved with flints, and then covered over with clay or chalk, and levelled by the roller, in which the grains of corn were trodden out of the ear by cattle driven round it (Virg. G. i. 178. Hor. Sat.. i. 1. 45. Cato, Columell. Pallad.), a mode of threshing commonly adopted in Egypt, Greece, and Italy, even at the present day, and clearly shown by the example (Area/4.1) from a painting in the Egyptian tombs.

5. The square open space between the two wings of a "clap net" when they are spread on the ground, upon which the fowler sprinkled his seed to induce the birds to alight between them. Plaut. Asin. i. 3. 64.

6. A bed or border in a flower or a kitchen garden. Columell. xi. 3. 13. Pallad. i. 34. 7.

7. In Martial (x. 24. 9.), apparently used for the race-course in a circus, round which the chariots ran, more usually called spatium; but the reading is doubtful.

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  Area/1.1
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  Area/2.1
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  Area/3.1
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  Area/4.1