Loculi
Loculi a small coffer or casket with compartments (cf. loculatae arculae, Varro, R. R. 3.17), whence it comes that in this signification the word is only used in the plural. It was smaller than the area (Juv. 1.89: see Mayor's note), but, like the area, was used to hold money (Hor. Sat. 1.3, 17; Ep. 11, 1, 175; Mart. 5.39, 7); for jewels (Juv. 13.139); to hold keys (Plin. Nat. 14.13.89), &c. It takes the place of the larger area as the treasure chest of the house (Hor. Sat. 2.3, 146), and then was placed in the atrium [see ARCA]: it was made of wood (Mart. 14.13) or sometimes of ivory (Ovid. Fast. 6.749; Juv. 13.139); for security it had a lock (Hor. Sat. 2.3, 149) or was sealed up (Plin. l.c.). In Hor. Sat. 1.6, 74, Ep. 1.1, 56, the word loculi is used for a small case holding a schoolboy's libri, chartae, and stilus, which would generally be called capsa (Juv. 10.117) or theca (Suet. Cl. 35). (See Orelli's Excursus on Hor. Sat. 1.6.)
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.