Antiquity
In pharaonic Egypt and many oriental realms such as China, the ruler and divinities (in the form of an idol) were often transported thus in public, frequently in procession, as during state ceremonial or religious festivals.
In Ancient Rome, a litter called lectica or "sella" often carried members of the imperial family, but also other dignitaries and other members of the rich elite, when not mounted on horseback.
The habit must have proven quite persistent, for the Third Council of Braga in 675 AD saw the need to order that bishops, when carrying the relics of martyrs in procession, must walk to the church, and not be carried in a chair, or litter, by deacons clothed in white.
In the Catholic Church, Popes were carried the same way in Sedia gestatoria, which was replaced later by the Popemobile.
Read more about this topic: Litter (vehicle)
Famous quotes containing the word antiquity:
“The convent, which belongs to the West as it does to the East, to antiquity as it does to the present time, to Buddhism and Muhammadanism as it does to Christianity, is one of the optical devices whereby man gains a glimpse of infinity.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)
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