Wiktionary

cavea

See also: cávea

English

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The different levels of the cavea in the Roman Theatre at Bosra. Ima cavea in blue, media cavea in red and summa cavea in yellow.

Etymology

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Learned borrowing from Latin cavea. Doublet of cage.

Noun

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cavea (plural caveae or caveas)

  1. The seating section of a Greek or Roman theatre or amphitheatre.
    • 1895, The Annual of the British School at Athens, number 45, page 42:
      Vitruvius, in writing that colonnades are desirable above theatres, is thinking of late Asiatic and Roman caveas; […]
    • 1986, Albert Schachter, Cults of Boiotia: Herakles to Poseidon, London: Institute of Classical Studies, →ISBN, page 82:
      Between (1) and the foot of the Cavea (7), there was built a rectangular Podium (5), situated right in the middle of the orchestra, which effectively rules out any possibility that the Hellenistic and Roman caveas could have been used for theatrical performances.
    • 1987, Sarah Macready, Frederick Hugh Thompson, editors, Roman Architecture in the Greek World, London: Society of Antiquaries of London, →ISBN, page 85:
      I have for a long time thought that a symbolic approach, tackling the issue of the correlation between the spatial composition of Greek caveae and the social structure of their communities would yield interesting and, it is hoped, fruitful results.
    • 1989, Hesperia, volume 58, page 35:
      No rib foundation appears ever to have been designed for subterranean vaulting like that commonly found elsewhere in Roman caveas to support seating.
    • 1995, Arthur Segal, Theatres in Roman Palestine and Provincia Arabia, Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 88:
      The theatre, which is located parallel to the short, northern wall of the hippodrome, faces south. This at first seems surprising since in our area virtually all caveae face either north or northwest, but as the excavator of the site has pointed out, Jericho served as a winter resort—with its cavea facing southward, the theatre could offer spectators a welcome exposure to the rays of the winter sun.
    • 2005, Orhan Bingöl, translated by Ayşe Çalık Ross, Theatron: Magnesia on the Meander, Homer Kitabevi, →ISBN, page 64:
      As the entrances near the caveas provide access to the theatres, such an additional arrangement seems to have been superfluous.
    • 2006, Frederick E. Winter, Studies in Hellenistic Architecture, Toronto, Ont.: University of Toronto Press, →ISBN, page 98, column 1:
      From the later fourth century onward the construction of large koila, or caveae, required much more time and money than did that of the skene, which in Greek theatres always remained relatively modest in scale. Thus the term ‘theatre’ (theatron), which had originally denoted only the spectator area, came to be used of the whole complex of koilon (or cavea), orchestra, and skene.
    • 2013, Michael C. Hoff, “Bath Architecture of Western Rough Cilicia”, in Michael C. Hoff, Rhys F. Townsend, editors, Rough Cilicia: New Historical and Archaeological Approaches, Oxford, Oxon: Oxbow Books, →ISBN:
      In some cases, it should be noted, that structures with definite caveae described by excavators and visitors as odeia, for example, at Selinus and Nephelis, could have functioned in the dual capacity as theatres, and equally possible that they served as bouleuteria.
    • 2013, Andreas J. M. Kropp, Images and Monuments of Near Eastern Dynasts, 100 bc–ad 100, Oxford, Oxon: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 160:
      Such a drastic measure as the desecration of a functioning temple and conversion to profane use are almost unimaginable. It does not help to point out parallels with the well-known terrace sanctuaries of Latium in the Late Republic (Praeneste, Gabii, Tivoli, Terracina). There the caveas are employed in a different manner. They represent subordinate elements of the complexes and are positioned in front of the cella, on the axis of the entrance. A cavea on the inside would have been a sacrilegious infringement on the space of the divinity, besides lacking an obvious function, since, as is well known, congregations of ancient cults met and celebrated in the open around the altar in the courtyard.
    • 2017, Antonis K. Petrides, “Dialogising Aeschylus in the Poetry of Kyriakos Charalambides”, in Vayos Liapis, Maria Pavlou, Antonis K. Petrides, editors, Debating with the Eumenides: Aspects of the Reception of Greek Tragedy in Modern Greece (Pierides: Studies in Greek and Latin Literature; VII), Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, →ISBN, page 112:
      And they claimed in the caveas of their theatres that we (the Greeks, I mean) are supposedly no one’s subjugated slaves.
    • 2020, Eric Csapo, Peter Wilson, A Social and Economic History of the Theatre to 300 BC, volumes II (Theatre beyond Athens: Documents with Translation and Commentary), Cambridge, Cambs.: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 523:
      The cavea of the extant theatre is dated to the fourth century by Isler (TGR II, 268) and, with some hesitation, by Moretti (2014a, 109); but to the third century by Arias (1934, 83) and others.

Further reading

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Italian

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Latin cavea. Doublet of gaggia and gabbia.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈka.ve.a/
  • Rhymes: -avea
  • Hyphenation: cà‧ve‧a

Noun

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cavea f (plural cavee)

  1. the seats in ancient theatres and amphitheatres
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Further reading

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  • cavea in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Latin

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Etymology

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From cavus (similar to alveus from alvus).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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cavea f (genitive caveae); first declension

  1. hollow, cavity
  2. cage, den, enclosure, stall, coop, beehive, birdcage
  3. the seats in a theatre
  4. the sockets of the eyes
  5. the roof of the mouth

Declension

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First-declension noun.

Case Singular Plural
Nominative cavea caveae
Genitive caveae caveārum
Dative caveae caveīs
Accusative caveam caveās
Ablative caveā caveīs
Vocative cavea caveae

Synonyms

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Derived terms

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Descendants

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Borrowings

References

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  • “cavea”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • “cavea”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • cavea in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
  • cavea in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
  • “cavea”, in The Perseus Project (1999) Perseus Encyclopedia‎[1]
  • “cavea”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • “cavea”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin
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