SELLA
SELLA The customs and associations which the Greeks and Romans
connected with the attitude of sitting were so different from ours that any
account of the seats they used must involve some mention of the ceremonial
meaning and etiquette which had grown up round it. Most strange to a modern
is the religious and ceremonial use of the posture. To sit at or on a sacred
spot or object was in itself an act of supplication (cf.
Aesch. Supp. 224,
265;
Soph. O. T. 2),
not merely in the heroic age, but, as we see from the story of Themistocles
seating himself on the household hearth of Admetus (
Thuc. 1.135), in classical times. In art it is very often shown:
for instance, Priam seated on the altar of Zeus at the taking of Troy,
Telephos on the hearth of Agamemnon, and Orestes at the omphalos at Delphi
(cf. Baumeister,
Denkmäler, arts.
Iliupersis,
Telephos, and
Oresteia). So too, when being
purified from the stain of blood, the sinner sat on the altar, possibly on
the skins of the victims, as the novice did when being initiated, and the
sorcerer when summoning the spirits of the dead (cf. Vase-painting of
Odysseus and the Ghost of Teiresias,
Mon. d. Inst. 4.19). In
taking omens from birds, the seer, both among Greeks and Romans, was seated
(cf.
Soph. Antig. 999;
Serv. ad Aen. 9.4). Chairs also formed an
important part of the sacred furniture in many ceremonial processions (cf.
Aristoph. Eccl. 734;
Av. 1552), as in the well-known instance of the central group
of the East Parthenon frieze,
[p. 2.618]where the priestess
is attended by maidens carrying chairs on their heads.
Of the place seats took in the civil life of antiquity it is needless to
speak, for the customs by which difference of rank, dignity, or authority
was typified by the prominence and magnificence or the reverse of seats, are
easily comprehended and too numerous to mention [cf.
THRONUS]. It is enough to point
to such words as
συνεδρία, προεδρία,
consessus praesidium, or
sessio, to show how deeply such ideas had sunk into the
national life and language. Nor again does the contempt which in social life
the leisured classes felt for the artisans and others who pursued a
sedentary occupation (cf.
Xen. Rep.
Lac. 1.3,
οἱ πολλοὶ τῶν τὰς
τέχνας ἐχόντων ἑδραῖοί εἰσιν) call for explanation. The
etiquette, too, which regulated such matters, was not unlike our own, for
even in the Homeric age it was part of the welcome of a guest to bid him be
seated (e.g.
Od. 1.130). It was also
considered an act of necessary politeness to rise in the presence of an
older or more honoured man (cf. Cic.
de Sen.
18, 63, “
assurgi:
” cf.
Juv. 13.55; Mayor
ad loc.); and Caesar was accused of aiming at royal
power, when he refused to rise in presence of the senate (Liv.
Ep. cxvi.;
Suet. Jul. 78; Dio
Cassius, 44.8), and the emperors showed their authority by sitting between
the consuls.
At banquets when men reclined it was considered becoming for boys to sit
(
Xen. Symp. 1.8;
Suet. Cl. 32), and the rule for women was
originally the same (
V. Max. 2.1,
2), though disregarded in later times. In art
even the goddesses are represented as seated, while the gods recline (cf.
Baumeister,
Denkmäler, art.
Zwolfgötter,
fig. 2401); and while the latter were honoured by
lectisternia, the former were only given
sellisternia. Many grave reliefs
representing a banquet of the deified dead show the same custom, which was
by no means confined to the Greeks, for it may be seen on the Assyrian
bas-relief of Sardanapalus feasting, now in the British Museum.
On the monuments, especially the vase-paintings, the personages in a
mythological scene who are merely spectators are often depicted as seated,
especially when they are deities. The most familiar instance is the assembly
of gods beholding the Panathenaic procession, on the east frieze of the
Parthenon. In
genre scenes, the use of chairs
often shows that the scene takes place indoors, and in many cases helps us
to distinguish the mistress from her maids, or the master from his
followers.
Seats in antiquity were of almost as many forms as nowadays, but for
practical purposes it is sufficient to divide them into three classes: (1)
those which have a straight back and arms; (2) those with a back, but no
arms; and (3) those which have neither a back nor arms. The first class is
described under
THRONUS the
second under
CATHEDRA while
the present article gives an account of seats in general and the third class
in particular.
In Greece, before Homer, seats both with and without backs were used, as is
shown by carvings on ivory which have been found at Mycenae (cf.
Ἐφημερίς, 1888,
Πίναξ B. 3, 2, and 4, 29). These were no doubt not unlike the
Assyrian and Egyptian thrones and chairs, which are plainly the ancestors of
those used in Greece in historical times. In Homer the general term for
seats of all kinds is
ἕδρη: but, with the
exception of the
θρόνος [
THRONUS], which is of the first
class mentioned above, and may be assumed to be identical with the thrones
on which the gods of later times were seated, there is no information given
about the distinctive shapes of the different varieties.
The
κλισμός, which came next in honour to
the
θρόνος, was apparently used for ease
and comfort, since Penelope sat in it spinning (
Od.
17.97), and Telemachus rested in it after a bath (
Od. 17.90). This seems to imply that it had a
back, but no arms. It must have been of some height, for a footstool
(
θρῆνυς = later
ὑποπόδιον) was sometimes used with it (
Od. 4.136). The
κλισμὸς was decorated with metal plates and inlaying, as is
shown by the epithets
χρύσειος (
Il. 8.436) and
ποικίλος (
Od. 1.132), and was
only used by people of rank.
There is a good deal of difficulty in deciding whether the word is always
used in a specific sense, and Helbig on account of
Il. 24.515 and 597 (cf.
Il.
11.623,
645), where
κλισμὸς and
θρόνος are synonymous, maintains that the usage of the word is
not consistent throughout. This would account for the fact that Helen works
seated on a
κλισίη (
Il. 4.123). The
κλισίη is exclusively a woman's chair, and is possibly identical
with the
κλιντήρ,--an easy chair in which
one could, like Penelope (
Od. 18.189), take
a nap.
The commonest kind of seat was the
δίφρος:
it was for instance given to Odysseus, when he appeared in beggar's rags
(
Od. 19.97), and it formed part of the
furniture of the Thalamos (
Il. 6.354), being
meant for use, not ornament. It was doubtless, like the
δίφρος of classical times, merely a stool,
without back or arms. Owing to the indefiniteness of the mentions in Homer,
it is impossible to identify these various forms with those shown on
Assyrian, Egyptian, Phoenician, or early Greek monuments.
In the classical period the generic name for chairs and stools was
καθέδρα (to be distinguished from the Latin
CATHEDRA which was only used
for one kind, the
κλισμός). For the
different varieties, the Homeric names remained in use, the difference in
meaning being expressed as follows by Athenaeus (
5.192 e):
ὁ γὰρ θρόνος αὐτὸ μόνον
ἐλευθέριός ἐστι καθέδρα οὺν ὑποποδίῳ . . . ὁ δὲ κλισμὸς
περιττοτέρως κεκόσμηται ἀνακλίσει, τούτων δὲ εὐτελέστερος ἧν
ὁ δίφρος. Our information, however, on the subject is given
by the monuments rather than by literature, and on them we have the great
variety of forms shown. The simplest is that of the
δίφρος, which is of the third class, being without arms or
back. It was besides called
σκίμπους,
though this name is also given to benches (
βάθρα or
χαμαίζηλοι i.e.
δίφροι χαμαίζηλοι), which were
sometimes long enough to serve as a bed (cf. Plato,
Prot. p.
310 C). These chairs are seen on the earliest monuments, and are of every
variety of make, from simple four-legged stools to chairs with richly-turned
legs, ornamented with inlaying and chased or embossed metal work. They were
a most important part of household furniture, especially in the women's
rooms (cf. Pollux, 10.47), where they were used not only for sitting at work
or the toilet, but as a substitute for tables and shelves on which to lay
clothes, vessels, or instruments.
[p. 2.619]
This was also one of the uses to which the chairs, which were carried in
sacred processions with the holy vessels, were put (cf. the
|
Δίφρος, from a vase-painting.
(Baumeister.)
|
διφροφόροι on the east side of the Parthenon
frieze, and Aristophanes,
Aristoph. Eccl.
734). The
δίφρος was also used much
in workshops by shoemakers, carpenters, smiths, painters, potters, and
others of a sedentary employment. [See cut under
FICTILE Vol. I. p. 844
a.] It was also part of the furniture of a school, where the
master sat on a higher and more dignified seat and the pupils on chairs or
benches (
βάθρα cf. Plato,
Prot. p. 315 C, and see cut from vase of Duris in Berlin
Museum on page 96). The
δίφρος was also
used out of doors, and it was the custom for well-to-do gentlemen of the old
school to have a boy carrying one in attendance as he walked about (Arist.
Eq. 1384-6: cf.
Ath. 12.512
c). For this purpose a camp-stool (
δίφρος
ὀκλαδίας) was used. The shape, however, was a favourite one, and
chairs were often made in it which could not possibly fold up and were meant
for ordinary use. The legs were either straight or curved (Inscr.,
Hermes, 5.346).
Chairs of all kinds were covered with skins and fleeces in the Homeric age,
and at all periods with shawls and coverlets. Cushions (
κνέφαλλα, τύλαι) were also used, but upholstery
was unknown.
The manufacture of chairs flourished, especially in Thessaly, Miletus, and
Chios (cf. Critias quoted by
Athen.
1.28 b). Maple and beech were the woods chiefly used, but harder and
more expensive sorts were necessary for those which were inlaid with ivory.
Wickerwork chairs are also mentioned (Theophr. 5.3, 4;
Plin. Nat. 16.174; Cato,
Cat. Agr. 33,
5),
and are shown on some monuments (as on the sarcophagus in British Museum;
see Baumeister, 1610). The fixed chairs which were set up in theatres or
other public places, for certain officials or as a special honour, are
described in the article
THRONUS
The Romans made use of all the forms of chair known to the Greeks, and do not
seem to have had any peculiar shapes of their own. The general term in Latin
is
sedile (=
καθέδρα for all kinds of seats, while the varieties are the
scamnum or
subsellium (=
βάθρον), the
sella ( =
δίφρος), the
cathedra, and the
solium. [
THRONUS]
The
sella was the commonest form, and was used
by all classes, both men and women; whereas the
cathedra was specially an easy chair for ladies, children, and
sickly folk. It was used no less in private houses than in workshops (
Cic. Cat. 4.8, 17;
Verr. 4.25, 56), and in schools, though whether the
pupils were allowed to use it, or were confined to the
subsellia, has been disputed: Göll, in Becker's
Gallus, ii. p. 347, maintains, with good
reason, against Marquardt, that the pupils had only
subsellia. [
LUDUS LITTERARIUS p. 97.] Like the
δίφρος, it might be plain or very highly ornamented, and was
covered when in use by a cushion (
pulvinus),
but never upholstered. It was made not only with four upright legs, but in
the form of a campstool; and this shape, though in common use for every-day
purposes, is best known as peculiar to the
sellae
curules of the higher Roman magistrates, the office they held
being on this account called a
magistratus
curulis. The derivation of
curulis is
uncertain, but that from
currus, which was
given by the ancients (cf. Gavius Bassus, quoted by Gellius,
3.18, and Festus,
Ep. p. 49), seems
best to accord with the customs connected with the magistrate's chair, which
was originally, it would seem, placed in the magistrate's chariot. The
actual carrying of the chair is not mentioned in historical times; but the
underlying idea, that the right of moving the
sella
curulis betokened a jurisdiction that was not confined to any
one place, like a
tribunal, but extended
wherever the magistrate had a right to drive, is clear enough (cf.
Liv. 3.11, “consules in conspectu eorum
positis sellis delectum habebant” ). Even out of Rome, the
magistrate brought with him, as symbol of his rule, a
sella castrensis (Suet.
Galba,
18). The importance of being seated when acting officially runs through the
whole of Roman ceremonial etiquette, subordination being expressed when the
people stood before the seated magistrate, equality when the senate sat in
his presence. The same was the rule in social life; for the
paterfamilias received visitors sitting, and younger
people or those of lower rank rose in the presence of an older or more
honourable man. So, too, the public rose when the magistrate entered the
amphitheatre during the games (
Suet. Cl. 12).
The difference in the position of magistrates was also shown by the fact
that the
sella curulis was confined to the,
consuls and praetors, all magistrates with the consular or praetorian
imperium (e. g. decemviri and tribuni
militares: cf.
Liv. 3.44,
9,
4.7), the Dictator, the Magister
Equitum, the Censor, and the Flamen Dialis.
|
Sellae Curules, from Pompeii. ( Mus. Borbon. vi.
tav. 28.)
|
The
sella curulis was a campstool, which, when
open, had a square seat and was without a back or arms. Its legs were
curved, whence it is
[p. 2.620]called
δίφρος ἀγαυλόπους by Greek writers (
Plut. Mar. 5), a form which is shown on numerous monuments,
especially coins: cf. a gravestone in the Museum at Avignon (Cahier
|
Sella Castrensis.
|
and Martin,
Mélanges d. Arch. i. p.
166), where it is shown having a seat of straps, covered with cushions. The
sella castrensis is shown on the coins of
the praetors and quaestors of the Cyrenaica (cf. Longperier,
Rev.
Arch. 1868, p. 106), and is of simpler shape with straight legs.
The
sella curulis was also used by magistrates
in the municipia (cf. Mommsen,
Staatsrecht, 1.384). Other
magistrates had chairs of office,
|
Sella Quaestoris.
|
that of the quaestor having four straight legs, but not arranged
for shutting together (cf. Longperier,
Rev. Arch. 1868, p.
58; called by him
subsellium), while the
tribunes and other colleges had a bench (
subsellium).
|
Sella Quaestoris.
|
The
bisellium is not a magistrate's seat, and
its use was confined to the municipia, where it was given as an honour to
the Augustales. It was in this case a double seat, set apart in the
amphitheatre and theatre (Orelli, 4044, 4046). The decuriones seem to have
had it by right of their office, as the
biselliatus
honor is not
|
Subsellium.
|
given among their titles on inscriptions. Some of the inscriptions
are accompanied by a representation of a seat, but it is not at all certain
that this is intended to be a
bisellium, and in
one case it is more like a
sella curulis (cf.
Jordan,
Annali: d. Inst. 1862, p. 293; and Castellani,
Bullettino delìa Commissione Arch. Municip.
1874, p. 22). In any case there does not seem to be the slightest reason
(Varro,
L. L. 5.128, is not definite) for giving the name
bisellium to a class of
sellae found at Pompeii, and represented in the accompanying
cut, taken from the specimen in the Hamilton Collection at the British
Museum, in which it is to be noted that the supports on which the cushions
rested have been wrongly restored as supports below instead of above the
seat. [
PULVINUS]
Sedan chairs were known as
sellae gestatoriae,
portatoriae, or
fertoriae, and are
contrasted with the litter (
lectica: cf.
Mart. 10.10, it;11.98, 10), though occasionally
the distinction is not observed (cf.
Mart. 4.51,
where the
ingens hexaphoron can only be a
lectica, and yet is called
sella). These were known in Greece as an Oriental innovation, and
were at Rome used by ladies, senators' wives having, it would seem, a
special sort (
D. C. 57.15), but under the
Empire their use became common with men. Thus they were used by Augustus
(Suet.
Aug.
|
Sella. (British Museum.)
|
53) and Claudius (
D. C. 60.2,
δίφρῳ καταστέγῳ πρῶτος Ῥωμαίων
ἐχρήσατο), and in later times almost universally. They were
often large enough to hold two persons (
Plin. Ep.
3.5,
15), and were either open
(
apertae) or covered over (
opertae), and could be shut close (cf.
Juv. 1.124), sometimes with windows of
“bull's-eye” glass (
Juv. 4.21).
Another variety of sedan chair is the
cathedra,
which is probably the same as the
sella
muliebris in Suetonius,
Oth. 6, and in any case was
covered, for Seneca regards it as one of the scandals of his time that women
went about in open chairs (
de Benef. 1.9, 3). The roof of the
sella was called
arcus (cf.
Tac. Ann. 15.57,
where a woman hangs herself from the
arcus).
(Buchholz,
Die hom. Realien, 2.138; Helbig,
Das hom.
Epos, 1887, p. 118; Hermann-Blümner,
Lehrbuch, p. 158;--Becker--G$20oll,
Charikles,
iii. p. 82;
Gallus, ii. p. 347, iii. p.
7;--Mommsen,
Staatsrecht, i. pp. 370 ff., 380 ff.; Marquardt,
Privatleben, 1886, p. 725; Blümner,
Techn. v. Index, s. v.
Sessel;
Kunstgewerbe, ii. p. 29; Iwan Müller,
Handbuch, iv. pp. 379, 381, 386, 509, 519; Daremberg and
Saglio,
Dict. Antiq., art.
Bisellium,
Cathedra; Baumeister,
Denkmäler, art.
Sessel; Mayor,
Juvenal, notes on 1.124,
4.21.)
[
W.C.F.A]