[174] 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?
[175] _Adler_, “Beschreibung der Stadt Rom,” (Description of the City of Rome), pp. 144 sqq.
[176] _Martial_, bk. VII. Epigr. 30., bk. X. Epigr. 94.
[178] Hence Martial’s expression (XII. 18.), clamosa Subura (the clamorous Subura).
[179] Horace, Satir. I. 2. 30., Contra alius nullam nisi olenti in fornice stantem. (On the other hand another man cares for no woman but such as stand in the foul-smelling brothel).—_Priapeia_,
Quilibet huc, licebit, intret Nigra fornicis oblitus favilla.
(All that please, none will say nay, may enter here, smeared with the black spot of the brothel).—_Prudentius_, Contra Symmachum, bk. II., spurcam redolente fornice cellam, (a filthy chamber in the stinking brothel).—_Seneca_, Controv., I. 2., Redoles adhuc fuliginem fornicis. (You reek still of the soot of the brothel).—_Juvenal_, Sat VI. 130., says of the Empress Messalina:
Obscurisque genis turpis, fumoque lucernae Foeda lupanaris tulit ad pulvinar odorem.
(And disfigured and dim-eyed, fouled with the smoke of the lamp, she bore back the stink of the brothel to the imperial couch).