Candelabrum

Abstract: Commentators call attention to the vivid language (candelabrus, rostrum), and the phrase annos quattuordecim has recently come under scrutiny,' but no one has remarked what is surely the most arresting feature of the passage: the conspicuous presence in Trimalchio's dining room of a memento of the days when his youthful charms exposed him to the unwelcome sexual attentions of his owner.2 In the seventeenth century Reinesius adduced the medical writers Aetius and Alexander of Tralles as witnesses to the ancient belief that topical application of lamp oil could stimulate the growth of hair, thereby vindicating both Trimalchio's cosmetic techniques and Petronius' verisimilitude;3 but neither Reinesius nor any subsequent scholar has endeavored to explain Trimalchio's peculiar attachment to the candelabrum, an object associated with what was as his defensive justification (nec turpe est quod dominus iubet) suggests-a rather unsavory period of his life. With Trimalchio, of course, eccentric behavior needs no special justification, but here something more than a taste for the absurd prompted Petronius to associate Trimalchio's role as puer delicatus with that particular piece of household furniture. Pliny the Elder supplies the clue. In remarking the high prices paid for lampstands, Pliny recounts the story of a slave, Clesippus, who once came into the possession of a wealthy woman, Gegania, as a bonus accompanying an expensive candelabrum that she bought at auction (HN 34. 11-12):4

Abstract: A light transmitting saddle at least partially surrounds a single light source. A plurality of light pipes formed integrally with the saddle transmits the energy from the light source to flame-simulating tips.

Abstract: A new monotypic genus,Candelabrum, is described. The fungusC. spinulosum was isolated from decaying leaves in water. The conidia are produced just above the water level on little differentiated conidiophores. Each conidium consists of 4 central cells and 8 lateral cells which are covered with blunt spines. The resemblance of the conidium to a four-armed chandelier suggests the generic name.