Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Hemicyclium
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich.
HEMICYC'LIUM (ἡμικύκλιον). A semicircular alcove, sufficiently large to admit of several persons sitting in it at the same time, for the enjoyment of mutual converse. The ancients constructed such places in their own pleasure-grounds (Cic. Am. 1. Sidon. Ep. i. 1.); and also as public seats in different parts of a town for the accommodation of the inhabitants (Suet. Gramm. 17. Plut. de Garrul. p. 99.). The annexed woodcut (Hemicyclium/1.1) affords an example of the latter sort; representing a hemicyclium at Pompeii, as it is now seen at the side of the street, just outside of the principal entrance to the city from Herculaneum. The seat runs all round the back, and the floor is at a considerable elevation above the level of the pavement, so that a small stepping stone is placed in the front of it for the convenience of access.
2. A sundial of simple construction invented by Berosus, consisting of an excavation nearly spherical on the upper surface of a square block of stone (excavatum ex quadrato) within which the hour lines were traced, and having the anterior face sloped away from above so as to give it a forward inclination (ad enclima succisum) adapted to the polar altitude of the place for which the dial was made. (Vitruv. ix. 8.) The example (Hemicyclium/2.1) is copied from an original, discovered in 1764 amongst the ruins of an ancient villa near Tusculum: the angle of the enclima is about 40° 43', which agrees with the latitude of Tusculum, and the whole instrument coincides exactly with a marble of the same description amongst the collection at Ince Blundell, in Lancashire, which has a bust of Berosus sculptured on the base, and the name hemicyclium inscribed upon it.
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Hemicyclium/1.1 -
Hemicyclium/2.1
