Velarium

{{Short description|Suspended roof or shade awning of ancient Rome}}

{{Redirect|Velaria|the genus of hydrozoans|Velella}}

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File:Pompeii_-_Battle_at_the_Amphitheatre_-_MAN.jpg. Surviving graffiti in Pompeii{{cite web |last1=Clauss |first1=Manfred |last2=Kolb |first2=Anne |last3=Slaby |first3=Wolfgang A. |last4=Woitas |first4=Barbara |title=Epigraphik Datenbank |url=http://db.edcs.eu/epigr/epi_einzel.php?s_sprache=en&p_belegstelle=CIL+04%2C+07992&r_sortierung=Belegstelle |website=db.edcs.eu |access-date=28 June 2021 |language=en |quote=CIL 04, 07992 = GladPar 00007 = AE 1991, +00433}} advertise that next games will have awnings ({{lang|la|Vela erunt}}).]]

File:Ave Caesar Morituri te Salutant (Gérôme) 01.jpg's painting {{lang|la-FR|Ave Caesar! Morituri te salutant}}]]

File:Maquette du Colisée Velarium.svg]]

A {{lang|la|velarium}} ("curtain")Cf. {{lang|la|velum}}, "veil, sail". was a type of awning used in Roman times. It stretched over the whole of the {{lang|la|cavea}}, the seating area in amphitheaters, to protect spectators from the sun.{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Awning at the Colosseum|url=http://m.tribunesandtriumphs.org/colosseum/awning-at-the-colosseum.htm|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=|website=}} Retractable awnings were relatively common throughout the Roman Empire. Though the precise details are unclear, the awning was evidently usually supported by wooden masts, the sockets and brackets for which remain on the Colosseum and Arena of Nîmes, for example.Yarwood, Doreen, The Architecture of Europe, p. 58, 1987 (first edn. 1974), Spring Books, {{ISBN|0600554309}}; [http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/juvenal/4.shtml Juvenal] iv.121Suetonius, Life of Caligula 26 ([https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Caligula*.html#26 Text]).{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=2019-03-29|title=Was the Colosseum covered? The story of the Velarium|url=https://www.througheternity.com/en/blog/history/colosseum-rome-velarium-roof.html|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2021-06-29|website=Through Eternity}}