Macellum
(
ὀψοπωλία, ὀψοπωλεῖον, and
κρεοπωλεῖον). A market for provisions of all kinds—
meat, fish, poultry, fruit, etc. At Athens, the separate kinds of wares were sold in the
divisions of the market-place, called
κύκλοι. The opening of
a sale was announced by the ringing of a bell. See Mahaffy,
Social Life in
Greece, ch. x., and the article
Agora.
At Rome, there were originally separate markets for the sale of each kind of food, thus the
Forum Boarium for meat, Olitorium for vegetables, Piscatorium for fish, etc., but in B.C. 179
a great Macellum, or general market, was built north of the Forum Romanum ( Fest. s. v.
macellum), and afterwards, a number of other macella arose, such as the
Macellum Augusti mentioned on a coin of Nero (Eckhel, vi. 273), and the Macellum Livianum near
the Porta Esquilina. The market-men were called
macellarii
(
Iul. 26).