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 p236  Candela

Unsigned article on p236 of

William Smith, D.C.L., LL.D.:
A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, John Murray, London, 1875.

CANDE′LA, a candle, made either of wax (cerea) or tallow (sebacea), was used universally by the Romans before the invention of oil lamps (lucernae) (Varr. De Ling. Lat. V.119, ed. Müller; Martial, XIV.43; Athen. XV p700). They used for a wick the pith of a kind of rush called the scirpus (Plin. H. N. XVI.70). In later times candelae were only used by the poorer classes; the houses of the more wealthy were always lighted by lucernae (Juv. Sat. III.287; Becker, Gallus, vol. II p201).


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