Basterna
Basterna a kind of litter (lectica) in which women were carried in the time of the Roman emperors. It appears to have resembled the lectica [LECTICA] very closely; and the only difference apparently was, that the lectica was carried by slaves and the basterna by two mules, one before and one behind (Pallad. 7.2, 3; Anth. Lat. 3.183, where we learn that it was gilded; see also Joh. Chrys. Hom. ad Ep. in Rom. xi.; Lamprid. Heliog. 21), and that the sides might be left open or closed (cf. Amm. Marc. 14.6, 16). It was driven by a basternarius
(Symm. Ep. 6.15; Ginzrot, Die Wägen. d. Alt. ii. p. 208).
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.