§382. The Vehicles.--The streets of Rome were so narrow (the widest not over twenty-five feet, the average about fourteen) that wagons and carriages were not allowed upon them at hours when they were likely to be thronged with people. Throughout the Republic and for at least two centuries afterwards the streets were closed to all vehicles during the first ten hours of the day, with the exception of four classes only: market wagons, which brought produce into the city by night and were allowed to leave empty the next morning, transfer wagons (_plaustra_) conveying material for public buildings, the carriages used by the Vestals, _flāminēs_, and _rēx sacrōrum_ in their priestly functions, and the chariots driven in the _pompa circēnsis_ (§343) and in the triumphal processions. Similar regulations were in force in almost all the Italian towns. This made general the use within the walls of the _lectīca_ and its bearers (§151). Besides the litter in which the passenger reclined a sedan chair was common in which he sat erect. Both were covered and curtained. The _lectīca_ was sometimes used for short journeys, and in place of the six or eight bearers, mules were sometimes put between the shafts, one before and one behind, but not until late in the Empire. Such a litter was called a _basterna_. [Illustration: FIGURE 177. CARPENTUM] §383. Carriages.--The monuments show us rude representations of several kinds of vehicles and the names of at least eight have come down to us, but we are not able positively to connect the figures and the names, and have, therefore, very general notions only of the form and construction of even the most common. Some seem to have been of ancient design and retained merely for use as state carriages in the processions that have been mentioned. Such were the _pīlentum_ and the _carpentum_, the former with four wheels, the latter with two, both covered, both drawn by two horses, both used by the Vestals and priests. The _carpentum_ is rarely spoken of as a traveling carriage, and its use for such a purpose was a mark of luxury. Livy makes the first Tarquin come from Etruria to Rome in one, and it is generally supposed that one is shown in an Etruscan painting reproduced here in Fig. 177. The _petōritum_ was also used in the triumphal processions, but only for the spoils of war. It was essentially a baggage wagon and was occupied by the servants in a traveler's train. The _carūca_ was a luxurious traveling van, of which we hear first in the late Empire. It was furnished with a bed on which the traveler reclined by day and slept by night. [Illustration: FIGURE 178. CISIUM]