ATHENAEUM, in Antiquity, a public Place wherein the Professors of the liberal Arts held their Assemblies, the Rhetoricians declaimed, and the Poets rehearsed their Verses.
The Athenea were built in form of Amphitheatres; and were also incompassed with Seats, which Sidonius calls Cunei. See AMPHITHEATRE.
The two most celebrated Athenea were that of Rome, and that at Lyons; the former of which, according to Aurelius Victor, was built by the Emperor Adrian.
The Word is Greek, and is derived from Athens, a learned City, where many of these Assemblies were held; or from the Greek Name of Pallas, Ἀθήνη, Goddess of Science; intimating that Atheneum was a Place consecrated to Pallas, or set apart for the Exercises over which she presides.
ATHEROMA, in Medicine a Kind of a Tumour or Swelling, of a pappy Consistence, without pain, or discolouring the Skin. See TUMOR.
The Atheroma is contained in a Cystis or membranous Bag; and does not give way when touched with the Finger, nor retains any dent after pressure.
The Atheroma is thus called from the Greek ἀθήρα, a Kind of Pap or Pulp which the Matter of this Tumour resembles.—It is near akin to the Meliceris and Steatoma; and cured like them.
See MELICERIS and STEATOMA.
