A dictionary of Greek and Roman . an asection, and that the artist may have resorted tothe expedient in order to show the apparatus be-longing to one end of the chamber, as is frequentlydone in similar plans, where any part which re-quired to be represented upon a larger scale is in-serted in full development within the general sec-tion ; for in none of the numerous baths whichhave been discovered in Italy or elsewhere, evenwhere the pavements were in a perfect state, hasany such contrivance been observed. Besides whichit is manifest that the clipeus could not be raisedor lowered
A dictionary of Greek and Roman . an asection, and that the artist may have resorted tothe expedient in order to show the apparatus be-longing to one end of the chamber, as is frequentlydone in similar plans, where any part which re-quired to be represented upon a larger scale is in-serted in full development within the general sec-tion ; for in none of the numerous baths whichhave been discovered in Italy or elsewhere, evenwhere the pavements were in a perfect state, hasany such contrivance been observed. Besides whichit is manifest that the clipeus could not be raisedor lowered in the design alluded to, seeing that thechains for that purpose could not be reached in thesituation represented, or, if attained, could not behandled, as they must be red-hot from the heat ofthe hypocaust into which they were inserted. Inaddition to which, the remains discovered tally ex-actly with the directions of Vitruvius, which thisdoes not. After having gone through the regular course ofperspiration, the Romans made use of instruments. called strigiles (or strigles, Juv. Sat. iii. 263), toscrape off the perspiration, much in the same wayas we are accustomed to scrape the sweat off ahorse with a piece of iron hoop, after he has run a heat, or comes in from violent exercise. These in-struments, some specimens of which are representedin the previous woodcut, and many of which havebeen discovered amongst the ruins of the variousbaths of antiquity, were made of bone, bronze, iron,and silver ; all corresponding in form with theepithet of Martial, curvo distringere ferro{Epig. xiv. 51). The poorer classes were obligedto scrape themselves, but the more wealthy tooktheir slaves to the baths for the purpose ; a factwhich is elucidated by a curious story related bySpartianus {Hadrian, c. 17). The strigil was by no means a blunt instrument,consequently its edge was softened by the applica-tion of oil, which was dropped upon it from a smallvessel called guttus *, which had a narrow
Size: 1706px × 1464px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookauthorsmithwilliam18131893, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1840
