Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Chiramaxium

Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary, and Greek Lexicon (Rich, 1849)

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CHIRAMAX'IUM (χειραμάξιον). An invalid's-chair upon wheels, which could be drawn or pushed forward by the hands of a slave, in the same manner as now practised. (Pet. Sat. 28. 4.) The illustration (Chiramaxium/1.1) represents a marble chair now in the British Museum, but which originally belonged to the baths of Antoninus at Rome, where it was doubtless employed as a sella balnearis or pertusa; but the two small wheels carved as ornaments on the sides, and in imitation of the moveable invalid's chair of wood, in which they were wheeled to and from the baths, establish at once the meaning of the word, and the harmony between ancient customs and our own in this particular.

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