Citrea canteen
A canteen citrea (plural mensa citreae ) was an ancient Roman table made of sandarak tree (Thuja articulata) .
The table played a rather subordinate role in antique home furnishings. Round tables made of fragrant wood were an exception. The wood grew extremely slowly and the table tops, which were made from one piece, were hard and robust because of their grain. They gave off a slight citrus odor. None of these tables, which usually had ivory legs, remained. The citrus wood from the Atlas was considered to be the most expensive wood . One of Martial's epigrams is titled Mensa citrea . It is said:
Accipe felices, Atlantica munera, silvas:
Aurea qui dederit dona, minora dabit.
“Take the rich forests, gifts of the Atlas.
Whoever gives golden gifts will give less [that is, less than this wood is worth].
Marcus Tullius Cicero owned a citrea cafeteria; Seneca supposedly even 500.
literature
- Karl-Wilhelm Weeber : Luxury in ancient Rome . Primus, Darmstadt 2003, ISBN 3-89678-239-8 , p. 112.
Web links
- Tables in antiquity ; Article in William Smith: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890)
Individual evidence
- ^ Konrad Vössing : Mensa regia . Saur, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-598-77805-8 , p. 198.