(for the orthography and
etymology of the word are alike doubtful: thensae
. 3.2; Henzen, 5407; tensae
, C. I.
. 10.6012; Fest. p. 364) were highly ornamented sacred vehicles,
which, in the solemn pomp of the Circensian games [CIRCUS
Vol. I. p. 437 a;
], conveyed the
statues of certain deities with all their decorations (exuviae
) to the pulvinaria, and after the sports were over
bore them back to their shrines. (Cic. in
, 59, and note of Pseudo-Ascon. 3.27, 5.72;
Verg. A. 1.21
; Festus, s.v. D. C. 47.40
; Tertull. de Spect.
7.) The thensae were kept in a special building, called aedes thensarum,
on the Capitol (see Mommsen, in Ann.
1858, p. 203). Their form seems to have been that of
(as shown in the cut
in Vol. I. p. 581), but they were elaborately ornamented. Castellani has
restored what he considers to be [p. 2.824]
a thensa from
remains of bronze reliefs (see Baumeister, Denkm.
it has however, as restored, four wheels, while the coin representations
seem to show two-wheeled chariots drawn by four horses. It is by no means
improbable that thensae varied as to shape, number of wheels and horses, the
essential point in their definition being that they were wheeled vehicles
for carrying images of certain deities in the pompa
as distinguished from the fercula
in which they were borne on men's shoulders. We know that
they were drawn by horses (Plut. Coriolan.
25, who calls them
), and escorted (deducere
) by the chief senators in robes of state,
who, along with pueri patrimi [PATRIMI
], laid hold of the bridles and traces, or perhaps
assisted to drag the carriage (for ducere
used as well as deducere,
), by means of thongs attached for the
purpose (and hence the proposed derivation from tendo
). So sacred was this duty considered, that Augustus, when
labouring under sickness, deemed it necessary to accompany the thensae in a
litter. If one of the horses knocked up or the driver took the reins in his
left hand, it was necessary to recommence the procession; and for one of the
attendant boys to let go the thong or to stumble was profanation. (Liv. 5.41
; Plut. l.c.;
Arnob. adv. Gent.
compared with the oration de Harusp. Resp.
11, 23; Tertull.
de Cor. Mil.
13, and de Spectac.
7; Suet. Aug. 43
The only gods distinctly named as carried in thensae are Jupiter and Minerva
5; D. C.
); but we can hardly doubt that Juno at any rate had the
same honour; and, indeed, all three Capitoline deities have thensae on the
coins of the Gens Rubria (Eckhel, 5.299; Marquardt,
509, note 3): to this number Mars is usually
added on the authority of Dio Cassius (78.8), but, in the passage referred
to, he merely states that, at the Circensian games celebrated A.D. 216, the
statue of Mars, which was in the procession (πομπεῖον
), fell down; and it is very remarkable that Dionysius
), in his minute description of
the Pompa Circensis, takes no notice whatever of the thensae, but represents
the statues of the twelve gods as carried on men's shoulders, i. e. on
fercula. That a considerable number of deities, however, received this
honour seems probable from the expression of Cicero, in his solemn appeal at
the close of the last Verrine oration, “omnesque dii, qui vehiculis
tensarum solemnes coetus ludorum initis;” though we cannot
determine who these gods were. Among the impious flatteries heaped on
Caesar, it was decreed that his ivory statue should accompany the images of
the gods to the circus in a complete chariot (ἅρμα
that is, a thensa,
opposition to a mere ferculm
), and that this chariot
should stand in the Capitol immediately opposite to that of Jupiter. (D. C. 43.15
; Suet. Jul. 76
: this is the “acerba
pompa” in Cic. Att. 13.4. 4
the Empire the statues of deceased emperors and members of the imperial
house were borne in the procession, but of these the statues of princes seem
to have been carried on fercula,
princesses not in thensae,
but in carpenta,
sometimes drawn by elephants (Suet. Cl. 11
2; Tac. Ann. 2.83
Similar homage was paid upon high festivals to the images of their gods by
other ancient nations. Thus, in the curious ceremonies performed at Papremis
connected with the worship of the Egyptian deity, whom Herodotus (2.63
) imagined to be identical with Ares, the
statue, enshrined in a chapel made of gilded wood, was, dragged in a
four-wheeled car by a body of priests. So also, in the account given by
Athenaeus (v. p. 199f.), after Callixenes of Rhodes, of the gorgeous pageant
at Alexandria, during the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, we read of a car of
Bacchus of prodigious size, most costly materials, and most elaborate
workmanship, which was dragged by 180 men.
(Scheffer, de Re vehiculari,
100.24; Ginzrot, Die
Wägen und Fahrwerke der Griechen und Römer,
100.55; but the latter author, both here and elsewhere, allows his
imagination to carry him farther than his authorities warrant;
Friedländer in Marquardt, Staatsverw.