Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Maenianum

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. 

MAENIA'NUM. A balcony; projecting over the street from the upper floor of a house or other building; and supported upon brackets affixed to the external wall, or upon columns planted on the ground. (Festus, s. v. Val. Max. ix. 12. 17. Cic. Acad. ii. 22.) These balconies were frequently constructed over the colonnades of a forum (Vitruv. v. 1. 2.); or thrown out over the entrance porch of a house (Isidor. Orig. xv. 13. 11.), as exhibited by the annexed example (Maenianum/1.1), from a house discovered at Herculaneum, with the ground-plan of the street and adjacent part of the house on the right hand. A. The balcony, springing from the upper story (C); constructed over the entrance (E on the ground-plan), and supported upon three square pilasters in file (B B elevation and ground-plan), placed upon the margin of the foot pavement (G), so that it projects to a considerable extent over the roadway (F). At one period, such accessories were prohibited by law in ancient Rome (Ammian. xxvii. 9, 10.), on account of the narrowness of the streets; but by a subsequent building act they were allowed, provided they had an open space, in some cases of ten, in others of fifteen, feet clear from any adjacent building. Impp. Honor. et Theodos. Cod. 8. 10, 11.

2. In a theatre, amphitheatre, or circus, a maenianum means one entire range of seats, rising in concentric circles between one landing place (praecinctio) and another, but divided perpendicularly into a number of compartments (cunei) by the flights of steps (scalae) which the spectators descended or ascended to and from their places. (Inscript. ap. Marin. Fr. Arv. p. 224. seqq.) The number of these varied according to the size of the building: the Flavian amphitheatre contained three, with a covered portico for women above; the theatre at Pompeii, from which the annexed illustration (Maenianum/2.1) is taken, had only two, of each of which a portion, containing three cunei, is shown by the engraving; sufficient, however, to elucidate the object, for it will be readily understood that each maenianum comprised an entire circuit.

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  Maenianum/1.1
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  Maenianum/2.1