TEGULA
TEGULA (
κέραμος,
κεραμίς), a tile, made of baked clay, yellow or
red. Under the name of
tegulae are included (1)
wall-tiles =
testae or
lateres cocti, so called to distinguish them from the
lateres or sun-dried bricks [
LATER]; for the manner in which
these were used in building, see
MURUS pp. 189, 190, and
DOMUS Vol. l. p. 684: (2) having tiles either laid simply as. large
flat tiles 1 1/2 feet or 2 feet square (
tegulae
sesquipedales, bipedales,
Vitr. 5.10,
2;
Pallad. 1.19, 1), or in small pieces (
tesserae）
to form patterns (see Birch,
Ancient Pottery, p. 478;
BALNEAE, Vol. I. p. 278;
PICTURA p. 397): (3) flue tiles, either
tubi or
tegulae mammatae [see
BALNEAE Vol. I. p. 277]: (4)
roofing tiles, which have more particularly to be described in this article.
At Rome the houses were (after the period of the ruder thatch) roofed with
shingles (
scandulae), down to the time of
Pyrrhus, when tiles began to supersede the old roofing material (
Plin. Nat. 16.36; Niebuhr,
Hist. of
Rome, vol. iii. p. 559). [For Greek roofs, see
DOMUS Vol. I. p. 663.]
Tiles were originally made perfectly flat, or with nothing more than the hook
or nozzle underneath the upper border, which fulfilled the purpose of fixing
them upon the rafters. They were afterwards formed with a raised flange on
each side, as is shown in the annexed woodcut representing the section of
four of the tiles remaining at Pompeii.
 |
|
Section of tiles at Pompeii.
|
 |
|
Ornamented fronts of tiles.
|
 |
|
Frontons of tiled roof.
|
In order that the lower edge of any tile might overlap the upper edge of that
which came next below it, its two sides were made to converge downwards.
This is illustrated in Birch by the annexed flange-tile. See also the next
woodcut representing a tiled roof, from a part of which the joint-tiles are
removed in order to show the overlapping and the convergence of the sides.
It was evidently necessary to cover the lines of junction between the rows
of flat tiles, and this
[p. 2.764]was done by the use of
semicylindrical tiles called
imbrices (
καλυπτῆρες,
Dionys. A. R. 6.92; Poll. x.
 |
|
Flange tile found in London. (Birch.)
|
157). The first woodcut on preceding page shows the section of three imbrices
found at Pompeii, and indicates their position relatively to the flat tiles.
This is also shown in the cut below. The roof, by the exact adaptation of
the broad
tcgulae and
 |
|
Tegulae.
|
the narrow
imbrices throughout its
whole extent, became like one solid and compact framework (Ken.
Mem. 3.1.7;
confringit tegulas
imbricesque, Plaut.
Most. 1.2,
28;
Plin. Nat. 35.159). The rows of
joint-tiles divided the roof into an equal number of channels, down which
the water descended into the gutter (
canalis）
to be discharged through openings made in the lions' heads, the position and
appearance of which are shown in the woodcuts. An ornamental arrangement of
tiles called
pavonaceum is mentioned by Pliny (
36.159): probably the tiles were then
semicircular and overlapped like the feathers in the tail of a peacock. The
rows of flat tiles terminated in a variously ornamented front, which rose
immediately above the cornice, and of which four specimens are shown in the
first woodcut. The first and fourth patterns are drawn from tiles found at
Pompeii, and the two intermediate from tiles preserved in the British Museum
and brought thither from Athens. The lions' heads upon the third and fourth
are perforated. [
ANTEFIXA] The
frontons, which were ranged along the cornice at the termination of the rows
of joint-tiles, were either painted or moulded in various forms. The first
woodcut shows three example of such frontons, which belong to the Elgin
Collection in the British Museum. They are drawn on a much larger scale than
the other objects in the same woodcut. The invention of these ornaments is
ascribed to Butades of Corinth (
Plin. Nat.
35.153).
For greater splendour, especially where tiles were to be used in temple-roofs
[
TEMPLUM], marble slabs cut
like tiles were used (
marmoreae tegulae,
Liv. 42.3;
V. Max.
1.2,
20): the invention was ascribed to
Byzes of Naxos in the 7th cent. B.C. (
Paus.
5.10,
2). We hear also of bronze and
bronze-gilt tiles (
Plin. Nat. 33.57). For
the construction of roofs, see
DOMUS Vol. I. pp. 668, 685. (Birch,
Ancient Pottery,
pp. 469-481; Blümner,
Technologie, 2.29 ff.;
Marquardt,
Privatleben, pp. 636 ff.)
[
J.Y] [
G.E.M]
