AULAEUM
AULAEUM usually in the plural AULAEA
(
ἡ αὐλαία), a curtain, carpet, or
hanging, mostly of the heavier and richer sort (
τὸ
μέγα καὶ ποικίλον παραπέτασμα, Cosmas Indicopl.
Topog. Chr.
[p. 1.260]p. 197). The name was especially applied to the
tapestry worked with human and animal figures, which was early introduced
from the East (Theophr.
Char. 21,
αὐλαίαν ἔχουσαν Πέρσας ἐνυφασμένους:
Verg. G. 3.25; Ovid.
Met. 3.111
ff.). The word
αὐλαία is good Greek, as is
shown by Theophr.
l.c.; Hyperid.
fr. 165 ed. Turic. = 142 Blass,
οἱ ἐννέα
ἄρχοντες εἱστιῶντο ἐν τῇ στοᾷ, περιφραχάμενοι τι μέρος
αὐτῆς αὐλαίᾳ: Menand.
fr. 720
Meineke,
στυππεῖον, ἐλέφαντ̓, οἶνον, αὐλαίαν,
μύρον: and the notion of Servius, that
aulaeum was
ab aula Attali
regis, betrays the ignorance of a late grammarian (
ad
Georg. l.c.). He was perhaps misled by the line of Propertius,
Porticus aulaeis nobilis Attalicis (2.32,
12 = 3.24, 12); where, of course, the meaning is simply “rich enough
for Attalus” (cf. Hor.
Od. 1.1,
12).
Such hangings were extensively used (
a) in
temples, to veil the statue of the divinity (
Paus.
5.12.4); (
b) in houses, either as
coverings over doors, or as substitutes for doors, as window curtains, or
again to decorate the walls of rooms, especially the
triclinium or dining-room (Hor.
Sat. 2.8, 54); (
c) on the outside of
houses, to close in the verandahs, balconies, or open galleries [
DOMUS]; (
d) to stretch over colonnades, and thus form a tent (Hyperid.
l.c.; Propert.
l.c.). See
further references under VELUM; and for the use of
the curtain in theatres,
SIPARIUM and
THEATRUM
One or two disputed points may here he noticed.
As is well known, the curtain in the Roman theatre was not drawn up as in our
own, but disappeared underneath the stage: the slit which contained the
roller for this purpose, between the stage (
proscenium) and the
scena, is
plainly seen in the smaller of the two theatres at Pompeii. Hence
aulaea premuntur,
“the curtain is let down,” when the acting begins (
Hor. Ep. 2.1,
189);
aulaeum tollitur,
“the play is ended” (
Cic. pro
Cael. 27, § 65, and Ov.
Met.
l.c.). It has commonly been assumed, as by Donaldson (
Theatre
of the Greeks, ed. 7, p. 240), that the Greek custom was the
same; but, according to Godfrey Hermann (
Leipz. Lit. Zeit.
1818, p. 1906) and Böttiger (
Kl. Schr. 1.402), it is
doubtful whether the curtain was used in Greek theatres at all. The
classical passages, cited in full above, in no way connect
αὐλαία with the theatre; the grammarians who do
so (Pollux, 4.122; Bekk.
Anecd. 83, 7; 463, 14;
αὐλαία τὸ τῆς σκηνῆς παραπέτασμα: Hesych.,
Suid.) of course prove nothing as to the earlier period. The remains of
genuine Greek theatres are in general too scanty to throw any light on this
question; the best preserved, that of Aspendus, has certainly been odernised
in the time of the Roman Caesars. Becker, who shares these doubts, observes
further that the Roman usage may perhaps not be as old as the time of
Plautus, judging from the concluding lines of his
Casina and
Cistellaria, spoken by
the entire company (
grex, caterva). (W. A.
Becker, ap. Pauly, i.2 s. v.
Aulaeum; cf. Wieseler,
Theater-gebäude u.
s. w., Göttingen, 1851.)
Another common but probably erroneous opinion is that the word
aulaea is applied in Latin poetry to the coverlets
and draperies of couches in the
triclinium or
elsewhere (
περιστρώματα,
stragulum, stragula vestis, toralia). Of the
passages relied on to prove this point,
cenae sine
aulaeis et ostro (Hor.
Od.
3.29,
15) is explained by Orellius
with reference to
Sat. 2.8, 54, where there is
no question as to the meaning of
aulaea (for
the distinction between
aulaea and
ostrum, cf. Böttiger,
Kl.
Schrift. 1.424, ap. Orell.); and in
Verg.
A. 1.697 Conington has rightly reverted to the explanation of
Servius and the older commentators, rejecting that of Heyne and most moderns
as “without authority.” (See two illustrations of wall-hangings
under
CENA）
[
W.W]
