Petaurum
(
πέταυρον).
1.
A perch or roost for fowls (Pollux, x. 156).
2.
A spring-board for acrobats (
Juv.xiv. 265), who were called
petauristae. From the petaurum the acrobats sometimes leaped
through blazing hoops (
Petron. 53, with Friedländer's
note).