What is the chair depicted in Cesare Maccari's 1889 painting “Cicerone denuncia Catilina”? ...

How to identify unknown coordinate type and convert to lat/lon?

How does Belgium enforce obligatory attendance in elections?

Draw 4 of the same figure in the same tikzpicture

Antipodal Land Area Calculation

Converted a Scalar function to a TVF function for parallel execution-Still running in Serial mode

What to do with repeated rejections for phd position

In musical terms, what properties are varied by the human voice to produce different words / syllables?

Can the Flaming Sphere spell be rammed into multiple Tiny creatures that are in the same 5-foot square?

Co-worker has annoying ringtone

Dyck paths with extra diagonals from valleys (Laser construction)

Getting prompted for verification code but where do I put it in?

How many time has Arya actually used Needle?

Why do early math courses focus on the cross sections of a cone and not on other 3D objects?

How were pictures turned from film to a big picture in a picture frame before digital scanning?

Semigroups with no morphisms between them

How would a mousetrap for use in space work?

How do living politicians protect their readily obtainable signatures from misuse?

The test team as an enemy of development? And how can this be avoided?

Has negative voting ever been officially implemented in elections, or seriously proposed, or even studied?

How to report t statistic from R

An adverb for when you're not exaggerating

AppleTVs create a chatty alternate WiFi network

Random body shuffle every night—can we still function?

How can I prevent/balance waiting and turtling as a response to cooldown mechanics



What is the chair depicted in Cesare Maccari's 1889 painting “Cicerone denuncia Catilina”?



Announcing the arrival of Valued Associate #679: Cesar Manara
Planned maintenance scheduled April 23, 2019 at 23:30 UTC (7:30pm US/Eastern)Were the republican legati pro praetores appointed by the governors?What is Lorenzo de' Medici holding in this painting?Who's the artist behind this popular painting?Why didn't the Roman Princeps restructure or dismantle the Praetorian Guard?In Europe, why were there few portraits showing a real likeness of the subject before the 15th century?Is this painting by a famous artist?What are the dates of these panoramas of Paris?How was the Roman army in fact organized during Caesar's campaigns in Gaul?What is the period/term used describe Giuseppe Arcimboldo's style of painting?Why do very old arts (paintings, sculptures) look pretty inaccurate and abstract?












3















There are a number of inaccuracies in Cesare Maccari's painting. Wikipedia notes that the arrangement of the chairs was of parallel rather than radial as depicted. Did Maccari accurately depict the shape of the chairs of the senate of Republican Rome? And, regardless of their accuracy, what are the chairs called that are depicted here?










share|improve this question







New contributor




holomenicus is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

























    3















    There are a number of inaccuracies in Cesare Maccari's painting. Wikipedia notes that the arrangement of the chairs was of parallel rather than radial as depicted. Did Maccari accurately depict the shape of the chairs of the senate of Republican Rome? And, regardless of their accuracy, what are the chairs called that are depicted here?










    share|improve this question







    New contributor




    holomenicus is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
    Check out our Code of Conduct.























      3












      3








      3








      There are a number of inaccuracies in Cesare Maccari's painting. Wikipedia notes that the arrangement of the chairs was of parallel rather than radial as depicted. Did Maccari accurately depict the shape of the chairs of the senate of Republican Rome? And, regardless of their accuracy, what are the chairs called that are depicted here?










      share|improve this question







      New contributor




      holomenicus is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
      Check out our Code of Conduct.












      There are a number of inaccuracies in Cesare Maccari's painting. Wikipedia notes that the arrangement of the chairs was of parallel rather than radial as depicted. Did Maccari accurately depict the shape of the chairs of the senate of Republican Rome? And, regardless of their accuracy, what are the chairs called that are depicted here?







      art roman-republic classical-antiquity rome furniture






      share|improve this question







      New contributor




      holomenicus is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
      Check out our Code of Conduct.











      share|improve this question







      New contributor




      holomenicus is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
      Check out our Code of Conduct.









      share|improve this question




      share|improve this question






      New contributor




      holomenicus is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
      Check out our Code of Conduct.









      asked 4 hours ago









      holomenicusholomenicus

      161




      161




      New contributor




      holomenicus is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
      Check out our Code of Conduct.





      New contributor





      holomenicus is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
      Check out our Code of Conduct.






      holomenicus is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
      Check out our Code of Conduct.






















          2 Answers
          2






          active

          oldest

          votes


















          4














          The chairs are called curule chairs.



          This painting is a romantic painting. It is anything but accurate. What it shows is how Victorians thought or would like it to be. Roman senators brought their own curule chairs to the meetings of the senate. Or more accurate: their servants brought them.



          ** I'm not sure if they sat on benches or brought their own chairs. If meetings were held outside the senate house, they definitely brought their own chairs. Inside the senate house they likely sat on benches, but I did read they brought their own chairs



          Compare a curule chair with those on the painting. Vastly different. Reason for the shape of this type of chair is the toga. You can't sit properly in a normal chair wearing a toga. It would crumple and look bad. In a curule chair you have to sit upright, which shows the toga in its proper folds.



          Today on toga parties people usually wear bed sheets wrapped around them. That's not a toga. A toga is a long garment, about 6 meters long, with rounded edges on one side. You have to properly wear it, and it takes time to dress up in one. Only Roman citizens were allowed to wear them, and they only wore them on special occasions, as we would wear a smoking. (Which is far more comfortable to wear.) Roman senators would wear them very often, most other people only on formal occasions. You wouldn't wear underwear with a toga, as going to the toilet would be next to impossible. A tunica was often worn under it. (Cato the Younger was notable for wearing nothing under his toga. He did it out of nostalgia, and it was frowned upon.)




          • https://www.wikihow.com/Make-an-Authentic-Roman-Toga


          Senators sat in U shaped rows (front, left, right) to the speaker, in order of seniority. What you do not see is the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laticlave, the broad purple stripe on the toga and tunic that only senators were allowed to wear. Senators wore a broad stripe, knights (equites) would wear a narrow stripe.




          • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angusticlavia


          The Wikipedia article about Roman senators shows the picture you asked your question about, with this remark:




          It is worth noting that idealistic medieval and subsequent artistic depictions of the Senate in session are almost uniformly inaccurate.







          share|improve this answer

































            2














            According to the article Seating Space in the Roman Senate and the Senatores Pedarii by Lily Ross Taylor and Russell T. Scott in Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association
            Vol. 100 (1969)
            , Roman senators sat on benches. The authors provide this description of the interior:




            The interior is 25.63 X I7.73 meters with an entrance from the
            Comitium about 4 meters wide. The central aisle measures 5.40 meters
            in width and about 2I meters in length from the door at one end to the
            raised suggestus at the other, and is covered, except for reserved
            areas 2 meters long at either end, by a marble intaglio pavement. On
            either side of it, running back to the lateral walls of the building,
            are three stepped platforms, each approximately I9 meters long, the
            two lower each m. i.8o wide, the upper on the right of the entrance m.
            2.05 wide, that on the left m. 2.58 wide. On these platforms must have been the portable seats for the senators that Von Gerkan, Bartoc-
            cini, and Bartoli all assumed to have been chairs. But in the Republic
            and, as far as we know, in the Empire too, the senators regularly sat
            on benches, subsellia.




            Archaeologists Lesley & Roy A. Adkins, Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome also say:



            Senators sat on benches (subselli) down the long sides of the building...



            The use of curule chairs was a privilege generally reserved for consuls:




            Cicero's position as presiding consul was in a curule chair on a
            tribunal at the other end of a central aisle. Frequently the consul in
            charge was accompanied by his colleague who was also in a curule
            chair; if both consuls were absent, the urban praetor would have
            occupied the curule chair.




            Source: Taylor & Scott



            In a footnote (13) to the above, the authors add:




            Caesar, like Augustus and his successors, was permitted to have a
            curule chair between those of the two consuls (Dio 43.14.5). Claudius
            in senatorial trials sometimes left his curule chair and sat with the
            senators (Dio 60.I6.31).




            Adkins & Adkins state that, during the republic,




            Curule magistrates (praetors, consuls, censors and curule aediles) had
            the right to sit on a special chair (sella curulis) as a symbol of
            their office.




            I do not know what the seating actually depicted is called (seems to be based on a church pew) but the curule seat or chair which the consuls used is not depicted in Cesare Maccari's painting. The Wikipedia article has this depiction:



            enter image description here



            Curule chair, sella curulis, Museo Borbonico, vol. vi. tav. 28. Source



            The late republic / early empire funerary relief below shows a curule chair.



            enter image description here



            Funerary relief representing a curule chair. Marble, Roman artwork, 50 BC–50 CE. From the Torre Gaia at Via Casilina (Rome). Attrib/source: Palazzo Massimo alle Terme [Public domain]






            share|improve this answer


























              Your Answer








              StackExchange.ready(function() {
              var channelOptions = {
              tags: "".split(" "),
              id: "324"
              };
              initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

              StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
              // Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
              if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
              StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
              createEditor();
              });
              }
              else {
              createEditor();
              }
              });

              function createEditor() {
              StackExchange.prepareEditor({
              heartbeatType: 'answer',
              autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
              convertImagesToLinks: false,
              noModals: true,
              showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
              reputationToPostImages: null,
              bindNavPrevention: true,
              postfix: "",
              imageUploader: {
              brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
              contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
              allowUrls: true
              },
              noCode: true, onDemand: true,
              discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
              ,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
              });


              }
              });






              holomenicus is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.










              draft saved

              draft discarded


















              StackExchange.ready(
              function () {
              StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fhistory.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f52206%2fwhat-is-the-chair-depicted-in-cesare-maccaris-1889-painting-cicerone-denuncia%23new-answer', 'question_page');
              }
              );

              Post as a guest















              Required, but never shown

























              2 Answers
              2






              active

              oldest

              votes








              2 Answers
              2






              active

              oldest

              votes









              active

              oldest

              votes






              active

              oldest

              votes









              4














              The chairs are called curule chairs.



              This painting is a romantic painting. It is anything but accurate. What it shows is how Victorians thought or would like it to be. Roman senators brought their own curule chairs to the meetings of the senate. Or more accurate: their servants brought them.



              ** I'm not sure if they sat on benches or brought their own chairs. If meetings were held outside the senate house, they definitely brought their own chairs. Inside the senate house they likely sat on benches, but I did read they brought their own chairs



              Compare a curule chair with those on the painting. Vastly different. Reason for the shape of this type of chair is the toga. You can't sit properly in a normal chair wearing a toga. It would crumple and look bad. In a curule chair you have to sit upright, which shows the toga in its proper folds.



              Today on toga parties people usually wear bed sheets wrapped around them. That's not a toga. A toga is a long garment, about 6 meters long, with rounded edges on one side. You have to properly wear it, and it takes time to dress up in one. Only Roman citizens were allowed to wear them, and they only wore them on special occasions, as we would wear a smoking. (Which is far more comfortable to wear.) Roman senators would wear them very often, most other people only on formal occasions. You wouldn't wear underwear with a toga, as going to the toilet would be next to impossible. A tunica was often worn under it. (Cato the Younger was notable for wearing nothing under his toga. He did it out of nostalgia, and it was frowned upon.)




              • https://www.wikihow.com/Make-an-Authentic-Roman-Toga


              Senators sat in U shaped rows (front, left, right) to the speaker, in order of seniority. What you do not see is the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laticlave, the broad purple stripe on the toga and tunic that only senators were allowed to wear. Senators wore a broad stripe, knights (equites) would wear a narrow stripe.




              • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angusticlavia


              The Wikipedia article about Roman senators shows the picture you asked your question about, with this remark:




              It is worth noting that idealistic medieval and subsequent artistic depictions of the Senate in session are almost uniformly inaccurate.







              share|improve this answer






























                4














                The chairs are called curule chairs.



                This painting is a romantic painting. It is anything but accurate. What it shows is how Victorians thought or would like it to be. Roman senators brought their own curule chairs to the meetings of the senate. Or more accurate: their servants brought them.



                ** I'm not sure if they sat on benches or brought their own chairs. If meetings were held outside the senate house, they definitely brought their own chairs. Inside the senate house they likely sat on benches, but I did read they brought their own chairs



                Compare a curule chair with those on the painting. Vastly different. Reason for the shape of this type of chair is the toga. You can't sit properly in a normal chair wearing a toga. It would crumple and look bad. In a curule chair you have to sit upright, which shows the toga in its proper folds.



                Today on toga parties people usually wear bed sheets wrapped around them. That's not a toga. A toga is a long garment, about 6 meters long, with rounded edges on one side. You have to properly wear it, and it takes time to dress up in one. Only Roman citizens were allowed to wear them, and they only wore them on special occasions, as we would wear a smoking. (Which is far more comfortable to wear.) Roman senators would wear them very often, most other people only on formal occasions. You wouldn't wear underwear with a toga, as going to the toilet would be next to impossible. A tunica was often worn under it. (Cato the Younger was notable for wearing nothing under his toga. He did it out of nostalgia, and it was frowned upon.)




                • https://www.wikihow.com/Make-an-Authentic-Roman-Toga


                Senators sat in U shaped rows (front, left, right) to the speaker, in order of seniority. What you do not see is the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laticlave, the broad purple stripe on the toga and tunic that only senators were allowed to wear. Senators wore a broad stripe, knights (equites) would wear a narrow stripe.




                • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angusticlavia


                The Wikipedia article about Roman senators shows the picture you asked your question about, with this remark:




                It is worth noting that idealistic medieval and subsequent artistic depictions of the Senate in session are almost uniformly inaccurate.







                share|improve this answer




























                  4












                  4








                  4







                  The chairs are called curule chairs.



                  This painting is a romantic painting. It is anything but accurate. What it shows is how Victorians thought or would like it to be. Roman senators brought their own curule chairs to the meetings of the senate. Or more accurate: their servants brought them.



                  ** I'm not sure if they sat on benches or brought their own chairs. If meetings were held outside the senate house, they definitely brought their own chairs. Inside the senate house they likely sat on benches, but I did read they brought their own chairs



                  Compare a curule chair with those on the painting. Vastly different. Reason for the shape of this type of chair is the toga. You can't sit properly in a normal chair wearing a toga. It would crumple and look bad. In a curule chair you have to sit upright, which shows the toga in its proper folds.



                  Today on toga parties people usually wear bed sheets wrapped around them. That's not a toga. A toga is a long garment, about 6 meters long, with rounded edges on one side. You have to properly wear it, and it takes time to dress up in one. Only Roman citizens were allowed to wear them, and they only wore them on special occasions, as we would wear a smoking. (Which is far more comfortable to wear.) Roman senators would wear them very often, most other people only on formal occasions. You wouldn't wear underwear with a toga, as going to the toilet would be next to impossible. A tunica was often worn under it. (Cato the Younger was notable for wearing nothing under his toga. He did it out of nostalgia, and it was frowned upon.)




                  • https://www.wikihow.com/Make-an-Authentic-Roman-Toga


                  Senators sat in U shaped rows (front, left, right) to the speaker, in order of seniority. What you do not see is the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laticlave, the broad purple stripe on the toga and tunic that only senators were allowed to wear. Senators wore a broad stripe, knights (equites) would wear a narrow stripe.




                  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angusticlavia


                  The Wikipedia article about Roman senators shows the picture you asked your question about, with this remark:




                  It is worth noting that idealistic medieval and subsequent artistic depictions of the Senate in session are almost uniformly inaccurate.







                  share|improve this answer















                  The chairs are called curule chairs.



                  This painting is a romantic painting. It is anything but accurate. What it shows is how Victorians thought or would like it to be. Roman senators brought their own curule chairs to the meetings of the senate. Or more accurate: their servants brought them.



                  ** I'm not sure if they sat on benches or brought their own chairs. If meetings were held outside the senate house, they definitely brought their own chairs. Inside the senate house they likely sat on benches, but I did read they brought their own chairs



                  Compare a curule chair with those on the painting. Vastly different. Reason for the shape of this type of chair is the toga. You can't sit properly in a normal chair wearing a toga. It would crumple and look bad. In a curule chair you have to sit upright, which shows the toga in its proper folds.



                  Today on toga parties people usually wear bed sheets wrapped around them. That's not a toga. A toga is a long garment, about 6 meters long, with rounded edges on one side. You have to properly wear it, and it takes time to dress up in one. Only Roman citizens were allowed to wear them, and they only wore them on special occasions, as we would wear a smoking. (Which is far more comfortable to wear.) Roman senators would wear them very often, most other people only on formal occasions. You wouldn't wear underwear with a toga, as going to the toilet would be next to impossible. A tunica was often worn under it. (Cato the Younger was notable for wearing nothing under his toga. He did it out of nostalgia, and it was frowned upon.)




                  • https://www.wikihow.com/Make-an-Authentic-Roman-Toga


                  Senators sat in U shaped rows (front, left, right) to the speaker, in order of seniority. What you do not see is the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laticlave, the broad purple stripe on the toga and tunic that only senators were allowed to wear. Senators wore a broad stripe, knights (equites) would wear a narrow stripe.




                  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angusticlavia


                  The Wikipedia article about Roman senators shows the picture you asked your question about, with this remark:




                  It is worth noting that idealistic medieval and subsequent artistic depictions of the Senate in session are almost uniformly inaccurate.








                  share|improve this answer














                  share|improve this answer



                  share|improve this answer








                  edited 40 mins ago

























                  answered 2 hours ago









                  JosJos

                  9,72912248




                  9,72912248























                      2














                      According to the article Seating Space in the Roman Senate and the Senatores Pedarii by Lily Ross Taylor and Russell T. Scott in Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association
                      Vol. 100 (1969)
                      , Roman senators sat on benches. The authors provide this description of the interior:




                      The interior is 25.63 X I7.73 meters with an entrance from the
                      Comitium about 4 meters wide. The central aisle measures 5.40 meters
                      in width and about 2I meters in length from the door at one end to the
                      raised suggestus at the other, and is covered, except for reserved
                      areas 2 meters long at either end, by a marble intaglio pavement. On
                      either side of it, running back to the lateral walls of the building,
                      are three stepped platforms, each approximately I9 meters long, the
                      two lower each m. i.8o wide, the upper on the right of the entrance m.
                      2.05 wide, that on the left m. 2.58 wide. On these platforms must have been the portable seats for the senators that Von Gerkan, Bartoc-
                      cini, and Bartoli all assumed to have been chairs. But in the Republic
                      and, as far as we know, in the Empire too, the senators regularly sat
                      on benches, subsellia.




                      Archaeologists Lesley & Roy A. Adkins, Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome also say:



                      Senators sat on benches (subselli) down the long sides of the building...



                      The use of curule chairs was a privilege generally reserved for consuls:




                      Cicero's position as presiding consul was in a curule chair on a
                      tribunal at the other end of a central aisle. Frequently the consul in
                      charge was accompanied by his colleague who was also in a curule
                      chair; if both consuls were absent, the urban praetor would have
                      occupied the curule chair.




                      Source: Taylor & Scott



                      In a footnote (13) to the above, the authors add:




                      Caesar, like Augustus and his successors, was permitted to have a
                      curule chair between those of the two consuls (Dio 43.14.5). Claudius
                      in senatorial trials sometimes left his curule chair and sat with the
                      senators (Dio 60.I6.31).




                      Adkins & Adkins state that, during the republic,




                      Curule magistrates (praetors, consuls, censors and curule aediles) had
                      the right to sit on a special chair (sella curulis) as a symbol of
                      their office.




                      I do not know what the seating actually depicted is called (seems to be based on a church pew) but the curule seat or chair which the consuls used is not depicted in Cesare Maccari's painting. The Wikipedia article has this depiction:



                      enter image description here



                      Curule chair, sella curulis, Museo Borbonico, vol. vi. tav. 28. Source



                      The late republic / early empire funerary relief below shows a curule chair.



                      enter image description here



                      Funerary relief representing a curule chair. Marble, Roman artwork, 50 BC–50 CE. From the Torre Gaia at Via Casilina (Rome). Attrib/source: Palazzo Massimo alle Terme [Public domain]






                      share|improve this answer






























                        2














                        According to the article Seating Space in the Roman Senate and the Senatores Pedarii by Lily Ross Taylor and Russell T. Scott in Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association
                        Vol. 100 (1969)
                        , Roman senators sat on benches. The authors provide this description of the interior:




                        The interior is 25.63 X I7.73 meters with an entrance from the
                        Comitium about 4 meters wide. The central aisle measures 5.40 meters
                        in width and about 2I meters in length from the door at one end to the
                        raised suggestus at the other, and is covered, except for reserved
                        areas 2 meters long at either end, by a marble intaglio pavement. On
                        either side of it, running back to the lateral walls of the building,
                        are three stepped platforms, each approximately I9 meters long, the
                        two lower each m. i.8o wide, the upper on the right of the entrance m.
                        2.05 wide, that on the left m. 2.58 wide. On these platforms must have been the portable seats for the senators that Von Gerkan, Bartoc-
                        cini, and Bartoli all assumed to have been chairs. But in the Republic
                        and, as far as we know, in the Empire too, the senators regularly sat
                        on benches, subsellia.




                        Archaeologists Lesley & Roy A. Adkins, Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome also say:



                        Senators sat on benches (subselli) down the long sides of the building...



                        The use of curule chairs was a privilege generally reserved for consuls:




                        Cicero's position as presiding consul was in a curule chair on a
                        tribunal at the other end of a central aisle. Frequently the consul in
                        charge was accompanied by his colleague who was also in a curule
                        chair; if both consuls were absent, the urban praetor would have
                        occupied the curule chair.




                        Source: Taylor & Scott



                        In a footnote (13) to the above, the authors add:




                        Caesar, like Augustus and his successors, was permitted to have a
                        curule chair between those of the two consuls (Dio 43.14.5). Claudius
                        in senatorial trials sometimes left his curule chair and sat with the
                        senators (Dio 60.I6.31).




                        Adkins & Adkins state that, during the republic,




                        Curule magistrates (praetors, consuls, censors and curule aediles) had
                        the right to sit on a special chair (sella curulis) as a symbol of
                        their office.




                        I do not know what the seating actually depicted is called (seems to be based on a church pew) but the curule seat or chair which the consuls used is not depicted in Cesare Maccari's painting. The Wikipedia article has this depiction:



                        enter image description here



                        Curule chair, sella curulis, Museo Borbonico, vol. vi. tav. 28. Source



                        The late republic / early empire funerary relief below shows a curule chair.



                        enter image description here



                        Funerary relief representing a curule chair. Marble, Roman artwork, 50 BC–50 CE. From the Torre Gaia at Via Casilina (Rome). Attrib/source: Palazzo Massimo alle Terme [Public domain]






                        share|improve this answer




























                          2












                          2








                          2







                          According to the article Seating Space in the Roman Senate and the Senatores Pedarii by Lily Ross Taylor and Russell T. Scott in Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association
                          Vol. 100 (1969)
                          , Roman senators sat on benches. The authors provide this description of the interior:




                          The interior is 25.63 X I7.73 meters with an entrance from the
                          Comitium about 4 meters wide. The central aisle measures 5.40 meters
                          in width and about 2I meters in length from the door at one end to the
                          raised suggestus at the other, and is covered, except for reserved
                          areas 2 meters long at either end, by a marble intaglio pavement. On
                          either side of it, running back to the lateral walls of the building,
                          are three stepped platforms, each approximately I9 meters long, the
                          two lower each m. i.8o wide, the upper on the right of the entrance m.
                          2.05 wide, that on the left m. 2.58 wide. On these platforms must have been the portable seats for the senators that Von Gerkan, Bartoc-
                          cini, and Bartoli all assumed to have been chairs. But in the Republic
                          and, as far as we know, in the Empire too, the senators regularly sat
                          on benches, subsellia.




                          Archaeologists Lesley & Roy A. Adkins, Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome also say:



                          Senators sat on benches (subselli) down the long sides of the building...



                          The use of curule chairs was a privilege generally reserved for consuls:




                          Cicero's position as presiding consul was in a curule chair on a
                          tribunal at the other end of a central aisle. Frequently the consul in
                          charge was accompanied by his colleague who was also in a curule
                          chair; if both consuls were absent, the urban praetor would have
                          occupied the curule chair.




                          Source: Taylor & Scott



                          In a footnote (13) to the above, the authors add:




                          Caesar, like Augustus and his successors, was permitted to have a
                          curule chair between those of the two consuls (Dio 43.14.5). Claudius
                          in senatorial trials sometimes left his curule chair and sat with the
                          senators (Dio 60.I6.31).




                          Adkins & Adkins state that, during the republic,




                          Curule magistrates (praetors, consuls, censors and curule aediles) had
                          the right to sit on a special chair (sella curulis) as a symbol of
                          their office.




                          I do not know what the seating actually depicted is called (seems to be based on a church pew) but the curule seat or chair which the consuls used is not depicted in Cesare Maccari's painting. The Wikipedia article has this depiction:



                          enter image description here



                          Curule chair, sella curulis, Museo Borbonico, vol. vi. tav. 28. Source



                          The late republic / early empire funerary relief below shows a curule chair.



                          enter image description here



                          Funerary relief representing a curule chair. Marble, Roman artwork, 50 BC–50 CE. From the Torre Gaia at Via Casilina (Rome). Attrib/source: Palazzo Massimo alle Terme [Public domain]






                          share|improve this answer















                          According to the article Seating Space in the Roman Senate and the Senatores Pedarii by Lily Ross Taylor and Russell T. Scott in Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association
                          Vol. 100 (1969)
                          , Roman senators sat on benches. The authors provide this description of the interior:




                          The interior is 25.63 X I7.73 meters with an entrance from the
                          Comitium about 4 meters wide. The central aisle measures 5.40 meters
                          in width and about 2I meters in length from the door at one end to the
                          raised suggestus at the other, and is covered, except for reserved
                          areas 2 meters long at either end, by a marble intaglio pavement. On
                          either side of it, running back to the lateral walls of the building,
                          are three stepped platforms, each approximately I9 meters long, the
                          two lower each m. i.8o wide, the upper on the right of the entrance m.
                          2.05 wide, that on the left m. 2.58 wide. On these platforms must have been the portable seats for the senators that Von Gerkan, Bartoc-
                          cini, and Bartoli all assumed to have been chairs. But in the Republic
                          and, as far as we know, in the Empire too, the senators regularly sat
                          on benches, subsellia.




                          Archaeologists Lesley & Roy A. Adkins, Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome also say:



                          Senators sat on benches (subselli) down the long sides of the building...



                          The use of curule chairs was a privilege generally reserved for consuls:




                          Cicero's position as presiding consul was in a curule chair on a
                          tribunal at the other end of a central aisle. Frequently the consul in
                          charge was accompanied by his colleague who was also in a curule
                          chair; if both consuls were absent, the urban praetor would have
                          occupied the curule chair.




                          Source: Taylor & Scott



                          In a footnote (13) to the above, the authors add:




                          Caesar, like Augustus and his successors, was permitted to have a
                          curule chair between those of the two consuls (Dio 43.14.5). Claudius
                          in senatorial trials sometimes left his curule chair and sat with the
                          senators (Dio 60.I6.31).




                          Adkins & Adkins state that, during the republic,




                          Curule magistrates (praetors, consuls, censors and curule aediles) had
                          the right to sit on a special chair (sella curulis) as a symbol of
                          their office.




                          I do not know what the seating actually depicted is called (seems to be based on a church pew) but the curule seat or chair which the consuls used is not depicted in Cesare Maccari's painting. The Wikipedia article has this depiction:



                          enter image description here



                          Curule chair, sella curulis, Museo Borbonico, vol. vi. tav. 28. Source



                          The late republic / early empire funerary relief below shows a curule chair.



                          enter image description here



                          Funerary relief representing a curule chair. Marble, Roman artwork, 50 BC–50 CE. From the Torre Gaia at Via Casilina (Rome). Attrib/source: Palazzo Massimo alle Terme [Public domain]







                          share|improve this answer














                          share|improve this answer



                          share|improve this answer








                          edited 45 mins ago

























                          answered 1 hour ago









                          Lars BosteenLars Bosteen

                          44.4k9204273




                          44.4k9204273






















                              holomenicus is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.










                              draft saved

                              draft discarded


















                              holomenicus is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.













                              holomenicus is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.












                              holomenicus is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
















                              Thanks for contributing an answer to History Stack Exchange!


                              • Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!

                              But avoid



                              • Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.

                              • Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.


                              To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.




                              draft saved


                              draft discarded














                              StackExchange.ready(
                              function () {
                              StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fhistory.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f52206%2fwhat-is-the-chair-depicted-in-cesare-maccaris-1889-painting-cicerone-denuncia%23new-answer', 'question_page');
                              }
                              );

                              Post as a guest















                              Required, but never shown





















































                              Required, but never shown














                              Required, but never shown












                              Required, but never shown







                              Required, but never shown

































                              Required, but never shown














                              Required, but never shown












                              Required, but never shown







                              Required, but never shown







                              Popular posts from this blog

                              Why do type traits not work with types in namespace scope?What are POD types in C++?Why can templates only be...

                              Will tsunami waves travel forever if there was no land?Why do tsunami waves begin with the water flowing away...

                              Should I use Docker or LXD?How to cache (more) data on SSD/RAM to avoid spin up?Unable to get Windows File...