Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Caupona

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

CAUPO'NA (ξενοδοκειον, πανδοκεῖον). An inn, for the accommodation of travellers, where they could be furnished with temporary board and lodging. (Hor. Ep. 1. 11. 12. Aul. Gell. vii. 11. 1.) The old-fashioned country inn, or road-side house, affords the nearest parallel in our language to the ancient caupona, which has no resemblance to the more imposing establishments or hotels, in which people of wealth amongst us take up their residence for long periods together. It was opened for the convenience of the poorer and trading classes, and those who travelled upon business, not for pleasure; for most other persons had private connections, or were furnished with introductions, which would ensure them a hospitable entertainment in some friend's house wherever they went; and such is still the custom in modern Italy, where the traveller who diverges from the beaten track, is obliged to have recourse to private hospitality, in consequence of the wretched nature of the places called inns.

2. (καπηλεῖον). In the large towns, the caupona was a place where wine and other refreshments, but wine more especially, was sold and drunk on the premises (Cic. Pis. 22. compare Mart. Ep. i. 27. ib. 57.); and thus it had a closer resemblance to our tavern, gin, or beer shop; the chief object of which is to retail spirits and liquors, though some also supply eatables. The illustration (Caupona/2.1) represents the interior of a wine shop, from a painting on the walls of one of these establishments at Pompeii; but in the original, a frame for dried and salted provisions is also suspended from the ceiling, which has been omitted, from inadvertance, in the engraving; it is, however, given under the word CARNARIUM.

3. (καπηλίς). A female who keeps one of these places of entertainment. Lucil. Sat. iii. 33. Gerlach. Apul. Met. i. p. 6. and 15.

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  Caupona/2.1