Calda
or
Calĭda (sc.
aqua). A hot drink of
the Greeks and Romans, mentioned as early as Plato, who calls it
θερμόν. It was probably nothing more than hot water, flavoured with spices and
herbs; and though wine was often drunk with it, there is no good reason for considering
calda a sort of punch or negus in which wine was already
 |
|
Bronze Vessels for serving the Calda. (Pompeii.)
|
mixed. Hot water is occasionally mentioned as a drink (cf. Athenaeus, ii. 45 d;
Lucian,
Asin. p. 575;
Mart.viii. 67), and the most
that can be inferred from the passages usually cited is that wine was separately served while
the guest had the choice of hot or cold water to mix with it, according to his taste.
Shops or taverns called
thermopolia served the same drink, and we read of
decrees of the emperors closing them on the occasion of a death in the imperial family. (See
Caupona.) The water was heated for this purpose in
an
aënum or
caccabus (q. v.), and kept
hot in the
authepsa (q. v.), a vessel resembling our tea-urns.
