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). Technyphion
1 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).