MENSA
MENSA (
τράπεζα), a table. The
simplest kind of table was one with three legs, round, called
cilliba (Festus, s.v. Varro,
L. L.
5.118: cf. Hor.
Sat. 1.3, 13; Ovid.
Met. 8.662;
Xen. Anab. 7.3,
§ 10). It is shown in the drinking-scene painted on the wall of a
wine-shop
at Pompeii. (Gell's
Pompeiana, 1832,
vol. ii. p. 11.) (See woodcut.) It often had legs carved to represent the
feet of animals (see woodcut in Vol. I. p. 395). In Homeric times, beside
the seat (
θρόνος) of each guest a small
table was placed to receive his portion of food, which was cut up on the
large dresser (
ἔλεος). The table was
probably then, as in later times when the same custom of small tables
prevailed, lower than the seat, as is seen in the vase-painting below. (See
also
CENA Vol. I. p. 394.) The
term
τράπεζα, though commonly used in Greek
for a table of any kind, must, according to its etymology, have denoted
originally a four-legged table. Accordingly, in paintings on vases, the
tables are usually represented with four legs, of which an example is given
in the cut below. (Millin,
Peintures de Vases Antiques, vol.
i.
 |
|
Table beside a dining-couch. (From an ancient vase.)
|
pl. 59.) Horace used at Rome a dining-table of white marble, thus
combining neatness with economy (
Sat. 1.6, 16).
For the houses of the opulent, tables were made of the most valuable and
beautiful kinds of wood, especially of maple (
σφενδαμνίνη,
Athen. 2.47 d;
acerna, Hor.
Sat. 2.8, 10;
Mart. 14.90), or of the citrus of Africa, which
was a species of cypress, the
Thuja articulata of the Atlas
range. (
Citrea,
Cic. Ver. 4.17, 37;
Mart. 2.43,
14.89;
Plin. Nat. 13. §
§ 91-99.) For this purpose the Romans made use of the roots and
tubers of the tree, which, when cut, displayed the greatest variety of
spots, beautiful waves, and curling veins. These were called
tigrinae or
pantherinae, according to the marks on them, or are compared to a
peacock's tail (cf.
lectus pavoninus,
Mart. 14.85). The finest specimens of tables so
adorned were sold for many thousand pounds. Pliny (
l.c.) mentions such prices as a table bought by Cicero for 500,000
sesterces, by Asinius Pollio for a million (= about 8,500
l.).
One of the principal improvements was the invention of the
monopodium, a round table (
orbis) supported by a single foot; this with other kinds of
expensive and elaborate furniture was introduced into Rome from Asia Minor
by Cn. Manlius after the war with Antiochus, B.C. 187 (
Plin. Nat. 34.14; cf.
Liv. 39.6). The value of these
orbes, which were sections of the trunk of the tree, depended on
their size. Pliny (
13.93) mentions as
remarkable the table of Ptolemy, king of Mauretania, 4 1/2 feet in diameter,
but of two joined pieces; that of Nomius, a freedman of Tiberius, 3 ft. 11
1/4 in.; and that of Tiberius, 4 ft. 2 in. in diameter. These
orbes were often supported on ivory feet (
Juv. 11.122;
Mart.
2.43,
9.22). Sometimes the citrus or
maple was only a veneering (
Plin. Nat.
33.146). Tables were also made of metal, bronze, silver (Petron. 73)
or gold (
Mart. 3.31; perhaps overlaid with
plates of gold). From the fashion of round tables came that of arranging the
lecti so as to form a continuous crescent-shaped couch called
sigma, from the form
c of
that letter (
sigma was the couch,
not the table), also called
stibadium and
accubitum (
Mart. 10.48;
14.87).
(For further description of the arrangement of table and couches, see TRICLINIUM; for
mensae
Delphicae, see
ABACUS) The tables among the Greeks, and until later times among the
Romans, were not covered by cloths, which only came into use about
Domitian's time [
MANTELE]. They
were cleansed by wet sponges (Hom.
Od. i.
[p. 2.158]11, 20.151; cf.
Mart. 14.144),
for which purpose the Romans also used a thick cloth with a woolly nap
(
gausape, Hor.
Sat. 2.8, 11).
Among the Greeks the small tables described above were removed bodily with
their course of dishes on them (
Athen. 2.60 b, v.
p. 150 a), whence the phrase
πρῶται, δεν́τεραι
τράπεζαι, which answer to the Latin
cena
prima, &c. As the board of the Greek table is
sometimes called by a distinct name,
ἐπίθημα (
Athen. 2.49 a; Pollux,
10.81), it appears that it was sometimes separate from the tripod or other
stand (
κιλλίβας) on which it was set. The
Roman practice, however, was to bring in the courses (
fercula or
missus) on trays
(
repositoria), which were set down on the
mensa. Such phrases as
mensas removere, &c. (
Verg.
A. 1.216, &c.) mean the conclusion of the meal; and the
phrase
mensae secundae means not “second
course,” but dessert, which was regarded as a break in the
entertainment, and came after the offering to the Lares, which was the Roman
grace after meat. [See
CENA Vol.
I. p. 396
b;
LRARIUM.]
The name of
τράπεζα or
mensa was also given to a flat tombstone (
Cic. de Leg. 2.2. 6, 66). Of
mensae sacrae in the temples there were two
sorts: (i.) a sort of subsidiary altar set before the image in the cella, to
receive offerings of fruit, flowers, coins, &c., so that in
inscriptions we find dedication of “ara et mensa” (
C. I.
L. 10.205); and (ii.)
mensae anclabres,
tables about the temple upon which vessels, &c., required in the
sacred rites might be placed, like credence tables (Marquardt,
Staatsverw. 3.165). Like the former kind were the
mensae curiales, for the offerings (to Juno
Curitis especially) by the Flamen curialis in each curia. (For the
mercantile sense, see ARGENTARII; and, for further
description of
mensae and
τράπεζαι, Becker-Göll,
Charikles,
iii. p. 81;
Gallus, 2.350; Marquardt,
Privatleben, p. 723; Mayor's notes on
Juv. 1.137.)
[
J.Y] [
G.E.M]
