Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Camara

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

CAM'ARA or CAM'ERA (καμάρα). Strictly speaking, is a Greek word adopted into the Latin language (Cic. Q. Fr. iii. 1. 1. Pallad. i. 13. 1.), and used by the Roman architects to designate the vaulted ceiling of a chamber, when constructed in wood and plaster (Vitruv. vii. 3. cf. Propert. iii. 2. 10.), instead of a regular arch of brickwork or masonry formed of regular intrados and voussoirs. This constitutes the real distinction between the terms camara and fornix; but the former was also transferred in a more general sense to any kind of apartment or building which had a vaulted ceiling. It contains the elements of our word chamber, through the modern Italian camara, their ordinary expression for a room of any kind.

2. Camera vitrea. A vaulted ceiling, of which the surface was lined with plates of glass. Plin. H. N. xxxvi. 64. Compare Stat. Sylv. i. 3. 53. and i. 5. 42.

3. A small vessel used by the Greek pirates, capable of containing from twenty-five to thirty men. It was of a very peculiar construction, being made sharp fore and aft, but round, large, and full in the centre or midship, with the ribs rising upwards from the water, and converging together, so as to form a sort of roof over the vessel, from which peculiarity its name was derived. (Strabo, xi. 2. 12. Tac. Hist. iii. 47. Aul. Gell. x. 25. 3.) An old engraving by F. Huiis after the elder Brengel, and published by Jal (Archéologie Navale, vol. ii. p. 255.), exhibits the stern of a vessel constructed in the manner described, and probably preserves a trace of the ancient camara.