Scalae
κλῖμαξ
Scalae (κλῖμαξ).
1. A ladder. These, whether scaling-ladders or ladders for other purposes, had nothing in their construction which calls for comment.
2 (ἀναβαθμοί). The staircase of a house [cf. DOMUS Vol. I. pp. 663 b, 665 b]. The stairs in ordinary houses were like ladders, except that they had flat steps instead of rungs: they sometimes led directly into the street (Liv. 39.14). Scalae graecae differed from these ladder staircases in having the under side of the step enclosed, so that. the feet of a person going up them would not be visible from below. The Flaminica was not allowed to ascend a high flight of stairs unless they were of this construction (Gel. 10.15; Serv. ad Aen. 4.646). Compare Becker-Göll, Gallus, 2.223; Nissen, Pompeii, 602.
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.