A dictionary of the architecture and archaeology of the middle ages: including words used by ancient and modern authors in treating of architectural and other antiquities ... also, biographical notices of ancient architects / By John Britton ... Illustrated by numerous engravings by J. Le Keux.

John Britton

Date:: 1838

Credit: A dictionary of the architecture and archaeology of the middle ages: including words used by ancient and modern authors in treating of architectural and other antiquities ... also, biographical notices of ancient architects / By John Britton ... Illustrated by numerous engravings by J. Le Keux. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$ara, a high or elevated altar.” Those terrestrially con- secrated were called and were laid on the surface of the earth; whilst others, inscribed to the infernal deities, were placed in pits and excavations, and termed Xaxxoi, scrobiculi. Before temples were generally con- structed, altars were often placed in groves, and dedicated to certain gods; also by the sides of highways; and on the tops of mountains. In the great temples of ancient Rome, there were ordinarily three altars. The first, upon which incense was burnt, and libations offered, was raised in the sanctuary, at the foot of the statue of the divinity; the second stood before the gate of the temple, and on it were sacrificed the victims; and the third, upon w'hich were placed the offerings and the sacred vessels, was port- able. In the Roman houses, small altars were dedicated to the lares, penates, and genii. In the camps they were sta- tioned before the general’s tent. Among the Greeks and Romans, altars were resorted to as asylums, or places of refuge, by slaves who fled from the cruelty of their mas- ters; also by debtors, and criminals of every description.— \_Adams^s Rom, Antiq. 6th edit. p. 327.] On many solemn occasions it was customary to swear by and upon altars. In the Celtic, or Druidical temples, there were altars; and it is generally agreed that a flat stone, near the western part of the interior area of Stonehenge, was used for that purpose. Cromlechs are considered to have been used as altars by some antiquaries. In the Christian church the principal altar is almost invariably situated at the eastern end of the choir, or pres- bytery. In the early ages altars were made of wood, and were mostly small, plain, and portable; but, on the esta- blishment of Christianity under Constantine, stone was used. Pope Sylvester, in the early part of the fourth century, decreed that stone altars should be generally adopted; but the wooden one in the Lateran church at Rome was left as a memorial of former usage. The sixth canon of the council of Hippo forbade the consecration of any altar unless made of stone; and the same prohibition was repeated by the Epauniensian council, in the beginning of the sixth century. Erasmus mentions a wooden altar as remaining in his time at Canterbury Cathedral.—{^Archce. c$