ARDA´NION
ARDA´NION (
ἀρδάνιον or
ἀρδάλιον), a vessel full of water, which
was placed at the door of a house in which a dead body was lying, in order
that persons on leaving the house might purify themselves by sprinkling
themselves
[p. 1.175]with the water. Since the house in
which the body lay was considered to be polluted, the water was fetched from
some other house (Poll. 8.66;
Eur. Alc. 100;
Aristoph. Eccl. 1033; Hesych.,
Suid., s. v.). [
J.H.O]
A´REA, any open space (
loca
pura, Varr.
L. L. 5.38;
locus
vacuus, Paul. Diac. p. 11, Müll.;
locus sine aedificio in urbe area, rure autem ager appellatur,
Dig. 50,
16,
211). Many special usages of the word belong
properly to the Latin dictionary. The following may here be noted :--(1) A
site for building (
Hor. Ep. 1.10,
13). (2) The site of a house pulled down in
consequence of the owner's treason, and devoted to religious uses (
consecrata): such were the houses of Sp. Cassius
(
Ea est area ante Telluris aedem,
Liv. 2.41) and Sp. Maelius, called afterwards
Aequimaelium (id. 4.16). Cicero's house, when pulled down by Clodius, became
an area in both these senses (
Cic. Att. 4.1,
2;
ad Fam. 14.2). (3) An
open space in front of a temple, house, or public building, always clear of
the edifice itself and abutting upon the street or upon other buildings, and
thus to be distinguished from the
vestibulum,
which was between the projecting wings of the building itself [
DOMUS]. The
areae before cemeteries often contained the
ustrinum or place where bodies were burnt (
area ante sepulcrum est maceria cineta, Orelli-Henzen,
Inscr. 4400); and Tertullian applies the word to the
graveyards of the Christians, who did not burn their dead (
ad
Scap. 3; cf.
Dict. of Chr. Ant. 1.252 a). Those in
front of temples were often named after the god, and consecrated to prevent
appropriation or encroachment: thus we have
area Pollucis, Saturni,
Apollinis, Concordiae, and
Vulcani,
called also
Vulcanal or
-ale.
The
area Apollinis adjoined the temple of the Palatine Apollo
and the celebrated library; it may be traced on the marble plan of Rome, of
the age of Severus, now known as the “Pianta Capitolina,” where
the letters
REA APO may be read on one of the fragments, and an
altar is seen, approached by a double flight of steps. The
Vulcanal was originally a considerable space on the
clivus or slope of the Capitol, but was gradually
encroached upon by other structures, notably the Temple of Concord (
Liv. 9.46); so that we even find the phrase
area Vulcani et Concordiae (id. 40.16), as if the two
areae had become indistinguishable. (Compare Burn,
Rome, pp. 85, 175; Pauly, s. v.
Volcanale;
Marquardt,
Privatleben, p. 220.) (4)
Areae
were sometimes used as market-places; there was an
area
pannaria and a
radicaria. (5) A
threshing-floor (
ἅλως), described under
AGRICULTURA
[
W.W]
