Note 174 — FIRST SECTION.

The common derivation of fornix (brothel) is from furnus or fornax (an oven), or else makes it identical with fornix, an archway. Isidore, bk. X. 110., writes: a fornicatrix is one whose person is public and common. These women used to lie under archways, and such places are called fornices, whence also fornicariae (whores). Granted that the women used to resort in numbers to the arches in the town-walls through which sorties were made (Livy, XXXVI. 23., XLIV. 11.), yet several passages in ancient authors prove clearly that the fornices were houses (especially Petronius, Satir. 7., Martial XI. 62.). The ancient Glosses have:—“fornicaria”: πορνὴ ἀπὸ καμάρας ᾗ ἵστανται, (a harlot, from the chamber where they take their stand). But in all probability the brothels took their name from the circumstance of their being situated in the neighbourhood of the town-wall and its arches; for which reason the women were also called Summoenianae (women of the Summoenium,—district under the walls). Martial, XI. 62., III. 82., I. 35., XII. 32. Or should we say that fornix was formed from πορνικὸν?