Aenum
Aenum or AHENUM (sc. vas), a brazen vessel, used for boiling, is defined by Paullus to be a vessel hanging over the fire, in which water was boiled for drinking, whereas food was boiled in the caccabus or saucepan [CACCABUS]. (Dig. 33, tit. 7, s. 18.3.) This distinction is not, however, always observed; for we read of food being cooked in the aënum. (Juv. 15.81; Ov. Met. 6.645) The word is also frequently used in the sense of a dyer's copper; and, as purple was the most celebrated dye of antiquity, we find the expressions Sidonium aënum, Tyrium aënum, &c. (Ov. Fast. 3.822; Mart. 14.133.) The coppers which contained the water for supplying a bath were also called aëna. (Vitruv. 5.10, 1.) [BALNEAE]
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.