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SYRACUSAE ET TECHNYPHION

a chamber in a tower in the house of Augustus on the Palatine, to which that emperor sometimes resorted (Suet. Aug. 72: si quando quid secreto aut sine interpellatione agere proposuisset, erat illi locus in edito singularis quem Syracusas et technyphion vocabat). Technyphion1 means 'little workshop,' and with Syracuse may be compared another chamber called SICILIA (q.v.). It may, as Hulsen suggests, have derived its name from its sunny situation (Cic. Verr. v. 26: Syracusis nulla unquam dies tam magna et turbulenta tempestate (fuit) quin aliquo tempore eius diei solem homines viderint).

1 This is a conjecture: Hulsen prefers ' technophyon,' which would have the same meaning, but without the diminutive sense.

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