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Another small, ingenious device:
The Roman emperor Commodus is said to have had a chariot or coach with a swivel chair which enabled him to enjoin the passing scenery. Or verbatim: "...so that one could turn one's back to the sun or take advantage of passing breezes".
Where does the reference come from? Are there other instances of such chairs recorded in antiquity?
Stefan (Literary references to the discussed topics are always appreciated.)
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That's interesting. I didn't see anything in Dio or the Historia Augusta, and they are normally good for little tidbits like this.
Where did you find this?
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"So lebten sie zur Zeit der römischen Legionäre", a fairly reliable picture-text book on the Romans for laymen, and a reference in Joseph Needham "Science and Civilization in China" from which I took the quote above.
Stefan (Literary references to the discussed topics are always appreciated.)
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No idea about the source?
Stefan (Literary references to the discussed topics are always appreciated.)
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Might be in some contemporary Christian sources, but would be unlikely to be contained in later literature (where Commodus figures very little).
Multi viri et feminae philosophiam antiquam conservant.
James S.
i may be way off and show just how ignorant i really am, but could that be where we get Commode from? as in the other word for toilet? :? which would make sense i guess since thats also a seat...
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Quote:i may be way off and show just how ignorant i really am, but could that be where we get Commode from?
Sort of. Commodus simply means "fortunate" or "lucky", from which it comes to mean "suitable" or "convenient". (Your commode is more convenient than lucky, I think.  )
The swivel chair has me foxed, though. :?
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Historia Augusta, Life of Pertinax 8.6-7, describing that emperor's sale of Commodus' belongings:
Quote:6 And furthermore, carriages, the very latest masterpieces of the art, made with entwined and carven wheels and carefully planned seats that could be turned so as to avoid the sun at one moment, at another, face the breeze. 7 There were other carriages that measured the road, and showed the time; and still others designed for the indulgence of his vices.
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/R ... inax*.html
Quote:Life of Pertinax[/i],":3ioavm0a]6 nec non vehicula arte fabricae nova perplexis divisisque rotarum orbibus et exquisitis sedilibus nunc ad solem declinandum nunc ad spiritus opportunitatem per vertiginem; 7 et alia iter metientia horasque monstrantia et cetera vitiis eius convenientia.
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Quote:Historia Augusta, Life of Pertinax 8.6-
That was great. Laudes.
Now could someone explain me why Needham tries to puts the passage in doubt? "A tradition of uncertain authority attributes to the Roman emperor Commodus (r. +180 to +192) a chariot with a swivel-chair, so that one could turn one's back to the sun or take advantage of passing breezes."
I mean, the Historia Augusta could be unreliable as can be, still logic commands that the ancient author(s) could only have interpolated some technological device, that was known by their time. When was the HA composed?
Stefan (Literary references to the discussed topics are always appreciated.)
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Quote:I mean, the Historia Augusta could be unreliable as can be, still logic commands that the ancient author(s) could only have interpolated some technological device, that was known by their time. When was the HA composed?
Birley argues that the lives up to Severus ought to be trustworthy, as they were most likely based on the work of Marius Maximus. So your Commodus story should be okay.
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Shoot.
Sorry, Stefan. I didn't think to read any of the other biographies in the Historia Augusta.
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Just for the record: Whole revolving theatres were also known by the 1st century BC: Snippet view
Stefan (Literary references to the discussed topics are always appreciated.)
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And Nero's revolving ceiling ( Suet. Nero 31.2 — Rolfe's note 93 makes it explicit but makes sense); in the same book of Suetonius, the collapsible ship. Nothing astonishing that a chair might be swiveled a few degrees; and nothing implausible about it either, since the Romans were so attuned to facing into suitable weather or sunlight (their villas and libraries, with archaeological evidence confirming it, as for example at Ostia), and the siting of whole cities if Vitruvius be believed.
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I had forgotten about the revolving ceiling. Too bad we do not know the mechanical details.
Quote: Nothing astonishing that a chair might be swiveled a few degree...
You would think so, but then again, how old is the rocking chair? Not very old, I have never come across an ancient or medieval reference.
Even more importantly, we modern people tend to forget that most ancient societies were NOT sitting socities. The Greeks and the Romans were the great exception, but in China sitting on chairs became common only in the 10th-12th century AD as a cultural import from Central Asian nomads. In the rest of the Far East, including Japan, sitting on chairs and benches remained a rare occurrence until the 20th century, and the habit was only introduced under Western influence. Four years ago, when crossing the biggest inland lake in Cambodia by boat, I never saw the people living in the stilt houses sitting on something like a chair or bench. Their huts did not feature this furniture. They either lay on the floor on bamboo matts or stood upright.
Stefan (Literary references to the discussed topics are always appreciated.)
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