curule chair

American  

noun

1. (in ancient Rome) a folding seat with curved legs and no back, often ornamented with ivory, used only by certain high officials.

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curule chair British  

noun

1. an upholstered folding seat with curved legs used by the highest civil officials of ancient Rome

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Etymology

Origin of curule chair

First recorded in 1775–85

Example Sentences

The solemn, awful, inexorable literary Rhadamanthus, the dread Quarterly Review itself, sitting imposingly on its curule chair in ambrosial bigwig and high-heeled shoes, promulgated edicts against the new-fangled invention.

From Time Magazine Archive

The characteristic Roman chairs were of marble, also adorned with sphinxes; the curule chair was originally very similar in form to the modern folding chair, but eventually received a good deal of ornament.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 5, Slice 7 "Cerargyrite" to "Charing Cross" by Various

This morning he appointed me regent head of the house, and delivered me the fasces and curule chair.

From Translations from the German (Vol 3 of 3) Tales by Musaeus, Tieck, Richter by Carlyle, Thomas

That Wen hight Nonius sits in curule chair, For Consulship Vatinius false doth swear; What is't, Catullus?

From The Carmina of Caius Valerius Catullus by Burton, Richard Francis, Sir

Etruria gave them kings, augurs, doctors, mimes, musicians, boxers, runners; the royal purple, the royal sceptre, the fasces, the curule chair, the Lydian flute, the straight trumpet, and the curved trumpet.

From Frederic Lord Leighton An Illustrated Record of His Life and Work by Rhys, Ernest