columbarium
- 1. (pre- en postklass.) duivenkooi;
- 2. nis voor asurnen.
Remiges autem fulminum juxta cadentium fœtoribus affecti, mortuis similes in transtris prosternuntur, strampisque rumpentibus, remis ferientibus undas aVide Columna.Columbariis extrahuntur.
COLUMBA´RIUM(περιστερεών, περιστεροτροφεῖον), a dove-cote, or pigeon-house. An account of pigeons with their columbaria is given under AGRICULTURApp. 79, 80.
The word is also used to denote the following objects, which derive their name from their resemblance to a dovecote :--
1. A sepulchral chamber. [FUNUS]
2. In a machine used to raise water for the purpose of irrigation, as described by Vitruvius (Vitr. 10.9), the vents through which the water was conveyed into the receiving trough were termed columbaria. This will be understood by referring to the woodcut at p. 129. [ANTLIA] The difference between that representation and the machine now under consideration consisted in the following points:--The wheel of the latter is a solid one (tympanum), instead of radiated (rota); and was worked as a treadmill, by men who stood upon platforms projecting from the flat sides, instead of being turned by a stream. Between the intervals of each platform a series of grooves or channels (columbaria) were formed in the sides of the tympanum, through which the water taken up by a number of scoops placed on the outer margin of the wheel, like the jars in the cut referred to, was conducted into a wooden trough below (labrum ligneum suppositum, Vitruv. l. c.).
3. The cavities which receive the extreme ends of the beams upon which a roof is supported (tignorum cubilia), and which are represented by triglyphs in the Doric order, were termed columbaria by the Roman architects; that is, whilst they remained empty, and until filled up by the head of the beam. The corresponding Greek term was ὀπαί (from ὀπή, a hole), and hence the space between two such cavities--that is, in the complete building, between two triglyphs--was called μετόπη, a metope. (Vitr. 4.2; Marquez, Dell' Ordine Dorico, 7.37.)
4. Columbaria (τρυπήματα), the oar-ports, apertures in the side of a vessel through which the oars were passed. (Isid. Orig. 19.2, 3; Festus, p. 169 M.) [NAVIS]
[A.R] [J.H.F](περιστερεών, περιστεροτροφεῖον). A dove-cote or pigeon-house.
The word is also used to denote the following objects, which derive their name from their resemblance to a dove-cote:
(1) A sepulchral chamber. The word was metaphorically applied to a subterranean vault provided with rows of small niches, lying one above the other, and intended for the reception of the urns containing the ashes of the dead. These large burial-places were built by rich people whose freedmen were too numerous to be interred in the family burial-place. They were also erected by the Caesars for their slaves and freedmen. Several of these still exist—for instance, that of Livia, the consort of Augustus, who built one for her freedmen on the Appian Way. Common burialplaces, in which a niche could be bespoken beforehand, were sometimes constructed by private individuals on speculation for people who were too poor to have a grave of their own. Columbaria were usually built by religious or mercantile societies, or by burial clubs for their own members. In such cases the members contributed a single capital payment and yearly subscriptions, which gave them the right to a decent burial and a niche in the vault. The names of the dead were inscribed on marble tablets over each niche. See Lanciani, Ancient Rome in the Light of Recent Discoveries, pp. 129-133 (Boston, 1888).
Each of the niches contained a pair of urns, with the names of the persons whose ashes they contained inscribed over them. The use of the word, and mode of occupation, is testified in the following inscription: L. Abucius Hermes in hoc ordine ab imo ad summum columbaria ix. ollae xviii. sibi posterisque suis.
(2) A machine used to raise water for the purpose of irrigation. As described by Vitruvius, the vents through which the water was conveyed into the receiving trough were termed columbaria. (See Antlia.) The difference between that representation and the machine now under consideration consisted in the following points: The wheel of the latter is a solid one (tympanum) instead of radiated (rota), and was worked as a treadmill by men who stood upon platforms projecting from the flat sides instead of being turned by a stream. Between the intervals of each platform a series of grooves or channels (columbaria) were formed in the sides of the tympanum, through which the water taken up by a number of scoops placed on the outer margin of the wheel, like the jars in the cut referred to, was conducted into a wooden trough below.
(3) The cavities into which the extreme ends of the beams upon which a roof is supported (tignorum cubilia), and which are represented by triglyphs in the Doric order, were termed columbaria by the Roman architects; that is, while they remained empty, and until filled up by the head of the beam.
(4) The apertures in the sides of a vessel, through which the oars passed ( Fest. p. 169, Müll.).