12.10.26: topic: architecture [9]; The Roman House [4]; from the authors

[i] Occlude iānuam (Plautus)

• Bolt the door.

[ii] Sed quis hic est, quem astantem videō ante ōstium? (Plautus)

• But who is this I see standing in front of the door?

[iii] Pultābō forīs (Plautus); note the alternative accusative plural forīs or forēs

• I’ll knock at the door.

[iv] Exī ē culīnā sīs forās (Plautus)

• Get out of the kitchen, will you, outside.

[v] est etiam hīc ōstium aliud postīcum nostrārum hārunc* aedium (Plautus); *hārunc (early Latin) = hārum

• There is also here another back entrance of this house of ours.

[vi] Cūr nōn intrō eō in nostram domum? (Plautus)

• Or why don't I go inside our house?

[vii] Ubi tū cubuistī? / In eōdem lectō tēcum ūnā in cubiculō (Plautus)

• Where did you sleep? / In the same bed, together with you, in the bedroom.

[viii] Clōdī vestibulum vacuum sānē mihi nūntiābātur (Cicero)

• I have just had news that Clodius’ hall is utterly deserted.

[ix] Note Cicero’s use of triclinium to refer to the couch on which somebody dined rather than the location:

Exōrnat amplē magnificēque trīclīnium (Cicero)

He decorates a couch abundantly and magnificently.

[x] postquam in cūnās conditust, dēvolant anguēs iubātī deorsum impluvium duo maximī (Plautus)

•  After he was laid in the cradle, two immense crested serpents glided down in through the skylight; instantly they both reared their heads.

[xi] intrōdūcēs eōs in domum Dominī in ūnam exedram thēsaurōrum et dabis eīs bibere vīnum (Vulgate)

• Bring them into the house of Yahweh, into one side room, and give them wine to drink

[xii] aestāte apertīs cubiculī foribus ac saepe in peristȳliō … cubābat (Suetonius)

• In summer, he lay with the doors of his bedchamber open, and frequently in a piazza …

[xiii] Tablīnum locus proximus ātriō ā tabulīs appellātus (Diaconus)

• The tablinum, the place nearest to the atrium, is named from the tablets.

[xiv] Petrus autem sequēbātur eum ā longē usque in ātrium prīncipis sacerdōtum et ingressus intrō sedēbat cum ministrīs …  (Vulgate)

• But Peter followed him from a distance, to the court of the high priest, and having entered, he sat with the officers.

[xv] … duo signa pulcherrima … quae multōs annōs ante valvās Iūnōnis Samiae stetērunt (Cicero)

• … the two most beautiful statues … which stood for many years before the folding doors of the Samian Juno

[xvi] Inde ambulāvit in lītore. Post h. VIII in balneum (Cicero) 

• Then he walked on the shore. After the eighth hour he took his bath [ = (he went) into the bath house].

[xvii] Tam altī abdīcitque sēcrētī illa ratiō, quod interiacēns andrōn parietem cubiculī hortīque distinguit (Pliny)

• The reason for so deep and withdrawn a seclusion is that an intervening corridor separates the wall of the bedroom from the garden.

[xviii] "Apage tē" inquit "fētōrem extrēmae lātrīnae" (Apuleius)

• “Away with you!” he said, “you stench of the bottom of the latrine!”

[xix] coquī abstulērunt, comprehendite, vincite, verberāte, in puteum condite (Plautus)

•  "The cooks have stolen it! Collar 'em! Tie 'em up! Thrash 'em! Throw 'em in the dungeon!" 

[xx] The following quotation shows the original meaning of faucēs which, apart from referring to the narrow passageway at the entrance of a house, also means ‘throat’:

miserum est opus, igitur dēmum fodere puteum, ubi sītis faucēs tenet (Plautus)

• It is a wretched task: only then, indeed, to dig a well when thirst grips the throat.

[xxi] circāque in porticibus argentāriae tabernae maeniānaque superiōribus coaxātiōnibus conlocentur (Vitruvius)

• and the bankers' shops are to be situated in the surrounding porticos with apartments on the upper floors over them

coassātiō (coax-), -ōnis [3/f]: joining of boards together i.e. a boarded floor

porticus, -ūs [4/f]: colonnade; arcade