CELLA
CELLA
1. In its primary sense,
cella means a
store-room ( “Ubi quid conditum esse volebant, a celando cellam
appellarunt,” Varro,
L. L. 5.162), of which the
following were the principal descriptions:--
Cella
penaria or
penuaria, where all kinds
of provisions (
penus) were stored, especially
those of which a stock was laid in for a long time (Varro,
l.c.; Cic.
de Sen. 16,
56;
Verr. 2.2, 5;
Suet. Aug. 6;
Gel. 4.1;
Dig. 32,
9,
3);
cella promptuaria, promptuarium, or
promum, the larder, where meat and other things
required for immediate consumption were kept (Plaut.
Amph.
1.1, 4;
Cat. Agr. 11,
3; Tert.
Resurr. 27,
Ux. 2.4 (
promum); Apul.
Apol. p. 309);
cella olearia, the magazine of an
olive-yard in which the oil was stored, and which, according to the
treatises on farming, ought to be lighted from the south, that the oil might
not be chilled in winter, while the
cella
vinaria should have a northern aspect, to avoid excessive heat and
great changes. of temperature (Cato,
Cat. Agr.
13, where the equipment of the
cella
olearia is described; Varro,
R. R. 1.13; Pallad.
1.20; Columella, 1.6, 12.50;
Vitr. 1.4,
2,
6.6,
3). The
cella vinaria
described in the above-cited authors is the store-room of a vineyard, in
which the new wine was kept in
dolia or
cupae, while older wine was put into
amphorae and matured in the
apotheca. The
cella
vinaria was partly under-ground (Becker-Göll,
Gallus, iii. pp. 51, 422). The
cella vinaria of a wine-merchant was discovered in 1789 under
the walls of Rome. It was raised a little above the level of the ground, and
divided into three compartments, the first ornamented with arabesques and a
mosaic pavement, the second unpaved and containing a row of very large
dolia two-thirds imbedded in sand, while
the third was a narrow gallery, 6 ft. high and 18 ft. long, with various
earthenware vessels, also partially sunk in the sand and ranged in double
rows against each wall.
The slave to whom the charge of these stores was intrusted was called
cellarius (Plaut.
Capt.
[p. 1.391]iv, 2, 115; Sen.
Ep. 122; Orelli,
Inscr. 5732, 6287),
a rationibus
cellae (Orelli, 2891), or
promus
(
Col. 12.3.9; Hor.
Sat. 2.2, 16), and sometimes
promus
condus and
procurator peni (Plaut.
Pseud. 2.2, 14), who had under him a
subpromus (Plaut.
Mil. Glor. 3, 2, 24). This
answers to our butler and housekeeper.
Under the empire all the provisions required for a Roman camp were preserved
in a
cellarium (Cod. Theod. 1, 10, 3;
Marquardt,
Röm. Alterth. v. p. 225).
2. Any number of small rooms clustered together like the cells of a honeycomb
(
Verg. G. 4.164;
Aen.
1.433), and the niches of a dovecote or poultry-house (
Col. 8.8,
3) were also termed
cellae. Hence the name was applied to the
dormitories of slaves and menials (
Cic. Phil.
2.27,
67; Hor.
Sat. 1.8, 8; Becker-Göll,
Gallus, i. p. 276), to the bedrooms of an inn (Petr.
Sat. 29; 77, 4), and to the vaults of a brothel
(Petron. 8, 4;
Juv. 6.128). The price of each
female was inscribed: hence
cella inscripta
means a brothel (
Mart. 11.45,
1).
Cella was also
used of a poor man's garret (
Mart. 7.20,
21;
8.14,
5). Hence the phrase
pauperum
cellae denotes the small apartments of affected
simplicity to which the rich Roman of the empire sometimes retired to take
refuge from the ennui of luxury (Sen.
Ep. 18, 7; 100, 6;
Cons. ad Helv. 12: cf.
Mart.
3.48; Becker-Göll,
Gallus, i.
p. 115).
Cell ostiarii (
Vitr.
6.10 ; Petron. 29), or
janitoris (Suet.
Vitell. 16), is the porter's lodge.
3. In the baths the
cella caldaria, tepidaria,
and
frigidaria, were those which contained
respectively the warm, tepid, and cold bath. [
BALNEAE]
4. The interior of a temple--that is, the part included within the outside
shell,
σηκός (see the lower woodcut in
ANTAE)--was also called
cella (
Vitr. 3.1;
Cic. Phil. 3.12,
30). [
TEMPLUM]
[
J.H.F] [
W.S]
