Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Sella
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.
SELLA (δίφρος). A low seat of the characteristic kind which we understand by our terms stool or settle, in opposition to chair (cathedra); that is, without back or arms, such as was commonly used by females (Cic. Div. 1. 46.) and artizans (Id. Cat. iv. 8.) engaged in sedentary occupations. The illustration (Sella/1.1) represents Penelope in a Pompeian painting; and compare the wood-cuts s. CALCEOLARIUS, CALCULATOR.
2. Sella curulis (δίφρος ἀγκυλόπους). A curule seat; that is, a stool with bent legs, made to open and shut like our camp-stools, for the convenience of being transported with its owner wherever he went. The example (Sella/2.1) exhibits an original of bronze, discovered at Pompeii. The left-hand figure shows one side of the frame, as it would stand when opened out to receive the seat, which fitted into the incavations observable at the top; the right-hand one shows it when it is shut up and the four legs brought close together. Seats of this kind were introduced from Etruria, and were originally used exclusively by the kings at Rome, but were subsequently granted as a privilege to the consuls, praetors, and curule aediles of the republic. In early times they were inlaid or embossed with ivory carving, but subsequently enriched with ornaments in gold. Liv. i. 8. ix. 46. Suet. Aug. Ov. Pont. iv. 9. 27.
3. Sella castrensis. A camp-stool (Suet. Galb. 18.); made to open and shut upon the same principle as the preceding example, but probably formed in a much simpler manner, without any adventitious ornaments, and with straight legs instead of the bent ones, which consituted the essential and distinguishing features of the sella curulis. The illustration (Sella/3.1) is from a bas-relief, which originally decorated the triumphal arch of Trajan, and represents the emperor in the act of addressing his troops from a camp-stool of the precise character described.
4. Sella balnearis. A bath-seat; in which a bather sat to have warm water poured over him, and to be steamed by vapour whilst he remained in it, closely enveloped in wrappers. Every bathing establishment was furnished with a sufficient number of these conveniences; the Thermae of Antoninus alone contained as many as 1600, all made of marble, one of which, from the original, is exhibited in the illustration (Sella/4.1). It has a very low circular margin round the back, a flat seat, hollow underneath, but perforated by a horse-shoe aperture in front (whence it is also termed sella pertusa. Cato, R. R. 157. 11.), which served to carry off the water thrown over the person occupying it, or to transmit the steam if it was used for a vapour bath. Sidon. Ep. ii. 2. Cassiodor. Var. Ep. 39. Paul. Dig. iii. 7.
5. Sella pertusa. Same as the preceding.
6. Sella familiarica. A night-stool. Varro, R. R. i. 13. 4. Scrib. Comp. 193.
7. Sella tonsoria. A barber's chair; which was low, and had a narrow rest for the back, like the example inserted, and supports for the arms, not lying in a horizontal position, but sloping downwards from the front. A seat of this construction was recommended to paralytic patients by the Roman physicians, in consequence of the assistance it afforded in raising the body from a sitting posture. Coel. Aurel. Tard. ii. 1.
8. Sella gestatoria, fertoria, and portoria (δίφρος κατάστεγος, φορεῖον κατάστεγον). A sedan chair; in which the inmate was transported in a sitting, instead of recumbent position, as was the case in a lectica. (Suet. Claud. 25. Nero, 26. Vit. 16.) It was generally covered with a roof (Tac. Ann. xv. 57.), and closed at the sides (Juv. i. 124.), though not always (Suet. Aug. 53.); and was more especially used for females, whence it is also designated sella muliebris (Suet. Otho. 6.). No representation of this conveyance has been discovered, but its character may be readily imagined from the above details.
9. Sella bajulatoria. A saddle for beasts of burden, made upon a wooden frame covered with leather, and of a considerable size, adapted for receiving the packages to be loaded upon it. (Coel. Aurel. Acut. i. 11. Veg. Vet. iii. 59. 2.) The example (Sella/9.1) is from a painting of Herculaneum, representing a scene in the market-place of that city.
10. Sella equestris. A riding-saddle (Veg. Vet. vi. 6. 4. Cod. Theodos. 8. 5. 47.), made upon a tree, with a high pommel (fulcrum, Sidon. Ep. iii. 30.) in front, and a cantle behind, covered with leather, and stuffed inside. The genuine Greeks and Romans either rode upon the bare back or upon a pad (ephippium); but the regular saddle is supposed to have been invented about the middle of the 4th century, as an order of the Emperor Theodosius, in the year 385, forbids persons who rode post-horses from using saddles of more than sixty pounds weight; and the example (Sella/10.1) introduced is designed by Ginzrot (Wagen und Fahrwerke, pl. 80.), from one of the troopers' saddles on the Theodosian column. Consequently, this sense of the word is to be regarded as of late Latinity.
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