1. Arched roof or covering
An arched roof which might be (
a) a mere
open trellis-work with creeping plants trained over it, like the covered
walks called
berceaux in French. Of this kind
was probably the
καμάρα under which
Alexander slept during his last illness in a park (
παράδεισος) near Babylon (Arrian,
Arr. Anab. 7.25.3); though Liddell and
Scott explain it as a tester-bed. (
b) An
arched or vaulted ceiling formed by semicircular bands or beams of wood,
over the intervals of which a coating of lath and plaster was spread,
resembling in construction the hooped awnings in use among us. (
Vitr. 7.3;
Cic.
ad Q. Fr. 3.1, § 1; comp.
Plin. Nat. 16.156.) Under the emperors
camarae were gilded (id. 33. §
§ 52, 57), or filled with plates of glass (id. 36.189; cf.
Stat. Silv. 1.5,
42; Marquardt, 7.642). In one passage
camara seems to be used as equivalent
to
lacunar, the sunken panel of a roof between
the beams (Propert. 4.2, 10 [=1, 50]). (
c) More
rarely a barrel vault in solid stone-work, like that of the Tullianum at
Rome. (
Sal. Cat. 55, quoted under
CARCER）
