sedan chair

[jvrjenivs]

for a forthcoming project I'm looking for pictures and information about sedan chairs in the roman world. Could anyone provide me with pictures or references? Many thanks in advance.

[Carlton Bach]

I'm not sure that the Romans had anything like those. What I know of are litters in which you were carried in a reclining position. That kind of thing, at any rate, is what I know under the name 'lectica'.

I know of no finds or images, sadly, but thank to the immense reading of nineteenth-century scholars and the good people at UMich, you can find references to written sources here:

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/R ... ctica.html

[jvrjenivs]

Thanks for that link, Volker.

This is what I found out by now.

Juvenalis wrote at least in two occasions [1] that the rich people are carried in a giant sedan chair, so he would slide over the heads of the people and could read en write or sleep during traveling inside the chair.

Seneca [2] wrote 'The roman parasites (...) when seeing a sedan chair come pass, they walk with it and prepare to, when the moment will be there, put their shoulder under one of the supporting beams, to carry the chair, and hopefully will be granted.'

(sorry for the bad english, but I translated this from an dutch translation to english)

And yesterday, when we at the RAT conference were visiting the new exhibition about luxury at Haltern, there was a little statue of a sedan chair, carried by 2 slaves in it. I will check if I could find an image of it to show you.

[1] Satyricon II 239-256 and III passim
[2] De tranquillitate animi

[jvrjenivs]

I also have to add, that I heard, but not found any references for it, that it was not allowed to got into the city (of Rome) with a wheeled vehicule, unless you were a vestal virgin, by daylight.

Mayby this will also suggest the use of a sedan chair. But is more speculation than the 2 sources stated above.

[M. Demetrius]

Can you imagine the line of freight wagons, etc., lining up at the entry points to a large city around dusk? You know that they had to receive shipments of heavy things that weren't suitable for hand carrying from time to time.

[jvrjenivs]

Can you imagine the line of freight wagons, etc., lining up at the entry points to a large city around dusk? You know that they had to receive shipments of heavy things that weren't suitable for hand carrying from time to time.

I know that. As I stated before I heard that story from several people, but they couldn't support it with resources, yet. And I found it also very strange. But, at least, there is evidence for the use of a sedan chair.