PEGMA
PEGMA (
πῆγμα), a structure of
planks joined together, and so in its simplest form shelves in the atrium
for
imagines (Auson.
Epigr. 26,
10) or book-shelves (
Cic. Att. 4.8); but in a
special sense the origin of our word
pageant, an
edifice of wood consisting of two or more stages (
pegsmata of four stages appeared in the triumph of Titus: Jos.
B. J. 7.5, 5), which were raised or depressed, expanded
or closed at pleasure by means of weights acting with ropes and pulleys (
“ponderibus reductis,” Claudian,
de Mall. Theod.
Cons. 323--328; Senec.
Ep. 89; Prudent.
περὶ ετεφ. 10.1016). These great machines were
used in the Roman amphitheatres, and for spectacles in general, and to some
extent resembled the contrivances for transformation scenes in a modern
pantomime (
Juv. 4.121;
Mart.
1.2;
Suet. Cl. 34). They were moved
on wheels: sometimes they were richly decorated; overlaid with silver (
Plin. Nat. 33.53). At other times they
exhibited a magnificent, though dangerous, display of fireworks (Claudian,
l.c.; Vopisc.
Carin. 15).
Gladiators or other performers were borne aloft upon them, and some editors
give
pegmares as signifying hence
gladiators; but in the passage of Suetonius
(
Calig. 26), where alone the word is supposed to occur,
the reading
paegniaris is more probable. Strabo saw
in
[p. 2.362]the forum a Sicilian brigand-chief placed on a
pegma representing Aetna. The machine was so constructed as suddenly to fall
asunder and precipitate him among the wild beasts (
Strab. vi. p.273; Mayor on Juv.
l.c.).
Phaedrus (
5.7,
7）
mentions an accident to a tibicen on a pegma.
[
J.Y] [
G.E.M]
