Mappa
（
χειρόμακτρον).
1.
A table-napkin used by the Romans, as in modern times. It was
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Mappa. (From a Pompeian Painting.)
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considered vulgar to fasten it under the chin to protect the clothes from stains
(
Petron. 32). As a rule, the guests brought their own
mappae to an entertainment (
Mart.xii. 29, and
occasionally carried away from the table such dainties as they did not consume at the time
(id. vii. 20).
2.
A cloth which the magistrate presiding over the Circensian races threw down as a signal for
the start (
Juv.xi. 191;
Suet.
Nero, 22). The custom is said by Cassiodorus (Varro,
Ep. iii. 51) to have originated with the emperor Nero; but Quintilian
(i. 5, 57) ascribes it to the Phœnicians, and it is doubtless of great antiquity.
