TABERNA´CULUM
TABERNA´CULUM,
TENTO´RIUM
(
κλισίη,
σκηνή), a tent. The former of these words was no doubt originally
applied to a shed or hut of boards (cf. Fest. s. v.
tabernacula;
TUGURIUM); but it became the
ordinary term for a tent (
Cic. Brut. 9,
37; Caes.
B.C. 1.81;
Liv. 22.42). These were made of skins
stretched from wooden supports, like our canvas tents; hence the name
tentoria, which, as we may gather from
Festus (s. v.
contubernales), is put concisely
for
tentoriae pelles. The tent-maker was called
tabernacularius (Grut. 6428; Henzen, 6101).
Constant supplies of hides for this purpose were drawn from the provinces by
armies in the field (
Cic. Ver. 2.2, 5,
coria;
in Pis. 36, 87,
pellium nomine).
Campaigning was “sub pellibus durare” (
Liv.
5.2): during winter the soldiers were either in towns, or, if
they held a permanent camp in remote and uncivilised countries, they were
lodged in huts of wood, turf or stones [
CASTRA]: to keep them in tents during the winter was
a mark of severity (
Tac. Ann. 13.35; cf.
Caes. Gal. 3.29: Long
ad loc.). The word
papilio,
“pavilion,” may be, as Rich thinks, intended to describe the
look of a tent with its curtains looped up. [For the size of Roman tents and
their arrangements, see CONTUBERNIUM; Marquardt,
Staatsverw. 2.427.]
The
κλισίαι of Homer were not tents, but
wooden or wattled huts; that of Achilles (larger no doubt than the ordinary
κλισίη, and with separate rooms, but of
like material) was of fir-planks and thatched with reeds (
Il. 24.451), and
εὔπηκτος, which implies carpenter's work (ib. 675). [See
Buchholz,
Hom. Realien, 2.340.] In later Greek warfare (where
any shelter is required) we find generally tents of skins, like those of the
Romans, which are usually called
σκηναί
(
Xen. Anab. 1.5,
12; cf.
σκηνοοράφος, Zonar. p. 1655;
Ael. VH
2.1), but also
διφθέραι (
Xen. Anab. 1.5,
10);
διφθέραι with iron tent-pegs
(
Arr. Anab. 4.19): wooden huts were also
used and termed
σκηναί, which explains the
burning of the
σκηναί, as too troublesome
to carry, in
Xen. Anab. 3.2,
27: so Droysen takes it, but it is also
possible that wooden framework for the
διφθέραι may have been burnt. (See Droysen,
Kriegsalterth. § 11=Hermann-Blümner,
Lehrbuch, 2.13.) [For the augural
tabernaculum, see AUGURIA; TEMPLUM
ad init.]
[
G.E.M]