SUDARIUM
SUDARIUM a linen handkerchief, carried in the hand or in the
sinus, answering to our
pocket-handkerchief, but primarily intended, as the word implies, to wipe
the sweat from the brow or face (
Quint. Inst.
6.3,
60;
11.3,
148). It was a comparatively modern introduction, when fine linen
came into use at Rome, which may be placed in the time of Cicero (
Cic. Ver. 5.56, 146; Hehn,
Kulturpflanzen, 146): with this agree the
mention of the sudarium being used by Vatinius (Quintil.
l.c.) and the
sudaria Saetaba (of
Spanish linen) spoken of by Catullus (
12,
14;
25,
7). The word is borrowed by Hellenistic writers as
σουδάριον (Luke 19.20), for which
Pollux (7.71) says that the older names were
ἡμιτύβιον (
Aristoph. Pl.
729) and
καψιδρώτιον. The later name
at Rome was
orarium (Vopisc.
Aurel. 48), and other less common names are found, such as
facitergium, manupiarium.
Besides its use for wiping the face, it was worn round the neck (Petron. 67;
Suet. Nero 51), and was in the later
period (as
orarium) waved in the circus to
signify applause (Vopisc.
l.c., cf.
κατασείειν ταὶς ὀθόναις ἐν θεάτροις:
Euseb. Hist. Eccl. 7.30), for which
the lappet of the toga had formerly served (
Ov. Am.
3.2,
74). Göll
(Becker-Göll,
Gallus, 3.268) denies
that it was used to wipe the nose, which operation, he says, was performed
in “the most primitive fashion.” It is difficult to prove or
disprove this as a universal rule; and the passage which he cites from
Mart. 7.37 is capable of either interpretation.
The word
emungo may imply the use of a
handkerchief or the hand alone, the latter probably in Plautus, and
certainly in
Anth. Pal. 7.134,
D. L.
4.46: but it may be questioned whether the use of the
pocket-handkerchief was not coming in under the Empire, and the passage in
Auct.
ad Herenn. 4.54, 67, seems to imply this even for the
late Republic: that it was so in the time of Arnobius is clear from the
etymology of the word
mucinium, which (2.23) he
uses as=
orarium.
[
G.E.M]
