Seplasia

Latin

Proper noun

Sēplāsia f sg (genitive Sēplāsiae); first declension

1. (historical) a street in Capua where unguents were sold
   • 56 BCE, Cicero, Pro Sestio 8.19:

     vestitus aspere nostra hac purpura plebeia ac paene fusca, capillo ita horrido ut Capua, in qua ipsa tum imaginis ornandae causa duumviratum gerebat, Seplasiam sublaturus videretur.

     His garments were rough, made of this purple worn by the common people you see around us, nearly brown; his hair so rough that at Capua, in which he, for the sake of becoming entitled to have an image of himself, was exercising the authority of a decemvir, it seemed as if he would require the whole Seplasia to make it decent.

   • c. 77 CE – 79 CE, Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 16.18.40:

     haec plurimam fundit interveniente candida gemma, tam simili turis, ut mixta visu discerni non queat; unde fraus Seplasiae.

     It gives out considerable quantities of resin, which is intermingled with white granulations like pearls, and so similar in appearance to frankincense, that when mixed, it is impossible to distinguish them; hence the adulterations we find practised in the Seplasia.

Declension

First-declension noun, with locative, singular only.

Case	Singular
Nominative	Sēplāsia
Genitive	Sēplāsiae
Dative	Sēplāsiae
Accusative	Sēplāsiam
Ablative	Sēplāsiā
Vocative	Sēplāsia
Locative	Sēplāsiae

Derived terms

• Sēplasium
• sēplasiārus
• sēplasiārum

References

• “Seplasia”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• Seplasia in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.