sphaeristerium

sphaeristerium (plural sphaeristeria)

1. (architecture) A large open space connected with the Ancient Roman thermae, for exercise with balls after the bather had been anointed.

From Ancient Greek σφαιριστήριον (sphairistḗrion, “ball”).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /spʰae̯.risˈteː.ri.um/,
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /sfe.risˈte.ri.um/,

sphaeristērium n (genitive sphaeristēriī or sphaeristērī); second declension

1. (architecture) In Classic architecture, a large open space connected with the Roman thermae, for exercise with balls after the bather had been anointed; they were also provided in the Roman villas, ballcourt, court.
   • (Can we date this quote?), Dig. XVII.I.16 Ulpianus libro trigensimo primo ad edictum

     Si quis mihi mandaverit in meo aliquid facere et fecero, quaesitum est, an sit mandati actio. Et ait Celsus libro septimo digestorum hoc respondisse se, cum Aurelius Quietus hospiti suo medico mandasse diceretur, ut in hortis eius quos Ravennae habebat, in quos omnibus annis secedere solebat, sphaeristerium et hypocausta et quaedam ipsius valetudini apta sua inpensa faceret: deducto igitur, quanto sua aedificia pretiosiora fecisset, quod amplius impendisset posse eum mandati iudicio persequi.

     If someone mandates me to do something in my own business and I have done it, it is to be asked if a mandate claim arises. And Celsus says in the seventh book of his digests that it is to answer that when Aurelius Quietus tells his guest who is a physician and has gardens in Ravenna where he withdraws all years to build a sphaeristerium and hypocausts and certain other things which further his fitness by his own outlay this claim can be pursued offsetting the sum by which it has added to the value of the buildings, that is the outlay that goes beyond this.

Second-declension noun (neuter).

¹Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

• “sphaeristerium”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• sphaeristerium in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• sphaeristerium in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “sphaeristerium”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “sphaeristerium”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin
• Sphaeristerium in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)