Mensa
（
τράπεζα).
1.
Originally a board or plank, and then a table, which the ancients had in all varieties and
shapes. The simplest table
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Three-legged Table. (Pompeii.)
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was one with three legs and a round top (
cilliba), used in
wineshops. The Greek table was originally four-legged, as the name
τράπεζα implies. Tables were made of white marble (
Hor.
Sat. i. 6, 16) and of wood, and in the houses of the rich at Rome
were very costly, being regarded as heirlooms. The most valued woods were the maple (
acerna) and the
citrus, whose roots and tubers
were used, displaying when cut a great variety of markings and curling veins. These were
called
tigrinae or
pantherinae from their spots,
and also
pavoninae (
Mart.xiv. 85) as
suggesting the “eyes” in a peacock's tail. Enormous sums were paid for
fine tables. Pliny (
Pliny H. N. xiii. 91-99)
speaks of Cicero as paying 500,000 sesterces ($20,000) for one, and Pollio as giving
1,000,000 sesterces ($40,000). A table with a single leg was called
monopodium; orbis denotes any round table. The feet were often of ivory, beautifully
carved; and the tables themselves were often overlaid with plates of gold, silver, or bronze
(
Petron. 73;
Mart.iii. 31), and were
inlaid with jewels.
The table was a little lower than the couches surrounding it. Among the Greeks and later
Romans it was covered by a cloth (
mantele), and was cleaned by sponges
or woollen cloths.
2.
Mensa prima (
πρῶτη τράπεζα),
the first course at dinner. In early times, the whole table was
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Marble Table. (Overbeck.)
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carried away at the end of each course, whence the expressions
mensam ponere, auferre, tollere, removere.
3.
Mensa secunda (
δεύτερα
τράπεζα), the last course of a meal, i. e. the dessert. See
Cena.
4.
Mensa Delphĭca, an ornamental table as a part of the
furniture of a house. See
Abacus.
5.
Mensa sacra, a table used as an altar (
Verg. Aen. ii. 764).
6.
Mensa argentaria, a broker's counter.
7.
Mensa Publĭca, a bank (
In Pison. 36).
8.
See
Catasta.
9.
A square flat gravestone laid over a grave and with a hole in the centre for sacrificial
oils, etc. (
De Leg. ii. 26).
