Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Mappa

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

MAPPA. A table-napkin (Hor. Sat. ii. 8. 63.); which the Romans used for wiping the hands and mouth at meals, and vulgar people fastened under their chins to protect their clothes from stains, as some do in our days. (Pet. Sat. 32. 2.) In ordinary cases the host did not furnish his guests with napkins; but each person brought his own mappa with him (Mart. xii. 29. 11.); and occasionally carried away in it some of the delicacies which he could not consume at table (Mart. ii. 37. vii. 20.); a practice of common occurrence also amongst the modern Italians. The example (Mappa/1.1) is copied from a painting at Pompeii, of the kind called Xenia, in which it is represented hanging upon a peg amongst a variety of eatables and table utensils.

2. A cloth or napkin which was thrown down as a signal for the races to commence at the Circensian and other games by the magistrate who furnished the show. (Suet. Nero, 22. Mart. xii. 29. 9. Juv. xi. 191.) The origin of this practice appears to have been of very great antiquity, since it is attributed to the Phoenicians (Quint. i. 5. 57.); though, in after times, a story gained currency which made Nero its author, who was reported, upon some occasion, to have taken up a napkin from the table where he was dining in the golden house which overlooked the Circus Maximus, and thrown it down as a signal, when the populace in the circus below were becoming impatient for the races to begin. (Cassiodor. Var. Ep. iii. 51.) The illustration (Mappa/2.1), which shows a magistrate in the act of raising the mappa, is taken from a representation of a chariot race, on a Roman bas-relief.

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  Mappa/1.1
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  Mappa/2.1