Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Aula

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

AULA (αὐλή). Properly a Greek word, which in early times designated an open court or court-yard in front of a house, around which the stables, stalls for cattle, and farming outhouses were situated; hence the Roman poets adopted the word to express a dog-kennel (Grat. Cyneg. 167.), a sheep pen (Prop. iii. 2. 39), or a den for wild animals. Pet. Sat. 119. 17.

2. Subsequently to the age of Homer, the Greek aula was an open peristyle in the interior of a house, of which there were two in every mansion (Vitruv. vi. 7. 5.); one round which the men's apartments were disposed, and the other for the exclusive use of the females. In other respects, they corresponded in general arrangement and distribution to the atrium and peristylium of a Roman house: see the plan of the Greek house s. v. DOMUS, on which the two aulae are marked respectively C and E. In allusion to this sense of the word, Virgil uses it for the cell of the queen bee. Aen. iii. 353.

3. Aula regia. The central portion of the scene in the Greek and Roman theatres, especially for tragic performances, representing a noble mansion (Vitruv. v. 6. 8.), near or in which the action was supposed to take place. The illustration (Aula/3.1) represents a view of the great theatre at Pompeii, with the scene at the further end, from which the general character of this part of the building may be readily imagined, though the whole of its upper portion has decayed.

4. An old form of spelling (Cato, R. R. 85.) for OLLA, which see.

• 
  Aula/3.1