Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Conditorium

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

CONDITO'RIUM. An underground vault or burying-place (descendit in conditorium. Pet. Sat. 111. 7.), in which a corpse was deposited in a coffin, without being reduced to ashes (Plin. H. N. vii. 16.); a practice prevalent amongst the Romans at the two extreme periods of their history, before the custom of burning had obtained, and after it had been relinquished. This is the strict meaning of the word, though it also occurs in a more general sense for a monument erected above ground (Plin. Ep. vi. 10. 5.); and in which cinerary urns were also placed. The illustration (Conditorium/1.1) represents the section and plan of a sepulchral chamber, excavated in the rock which forms the base of the Aventine hill, at a depth of forty feet below the surface; the centre shaft formed a staircase for descending into the sepulchre, which is a circular chamber, having an external corridor all round it, as shown by the groundplan in miniature at the left hand of the upper part of the engraving. It also contains niches for cinerary urns, which may have been made at a subsequent period.

2. (λάρναξ). The chest or coffin in which the dead body was encased, when placed in the vault. (Suet. Aug. 18. Plin. H. N. xxxvii. 7.) The illustration (Conditorium/2.1) represents the coffin of L. Cornelius Scipio Barbatus, which was discovered in an underground sepulchre of the Cornelian family on the Appian way. The whole is carved in a grey-coloured stone of volcanic formation (peperino) with dentils, triglyphs, and rosettes in the metopes; the top slab takes off as a lid; and on the side is engraved the following epitaph (Conditorium/2.2), not only courious as identifying for whom the coffin was made, but as an authentic specimen of early Latinity. —

3. A magazine in which military engines were kept. Ammian. xviii. 9. 1.

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  Conditorium/1.1
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  Conditorium/2.1
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  Conditorium/2.2