Note 37 — CHAP. II.
Reading edition
Footnote 37:
(return)
The kings and chief magistrates of ancient Rome were entitled to a sella curulis, or chair of state, which used to be placed in their chariots. Gell. III; 18. They were seated on it also at their tribunal on solemn occasions. Virgil makes old king Latinus say:
Et sellam regni trabeamque insignia nostri. Æn. XI. 334. The Romans had borrowed it from the Etruscans according to Dionysius of Halicarnassus. (Clement of Alexandria observes, That many of the rites of Etruria were imported from Asia; and Diodorus (lib. 5.) represents these insignia as derived from Lydia. See Phoebens. De Identitate Cathedræ S. Petri p. XX. seq.) It was richly adorned, conspicuum signis, according to Ovid, Pont. IV. 5, 18. In the Pope's carriage even now there is a chair of state, and to Him alone is reserved the honour of a sedia gestatoria. Pope Stephen II in 751 was carried to the basilica of Constantine on the shoulders of the Romans exulting at his election: and from this fact some derive the custom of carrying the Pope in His chair on solemn occasions.