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:
“When we dream about those who are long since forgotten or dead, it is a sign that we have undergone a radical transformation and that the ground on which we live has been completely dug up: then the dead rise up, and our antiquity becomes modernity.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“How do you know antiquity was foolish? How do you know the present is wise? Who made it foolish? Who made it wise?”
—François Rabelais (1494–1553)
“What is a country without rabbits and partridges? They are among the most simple and indigenous animal products; ancient and venerable families known to antiquity as to modern times; of the very hue and substance of Nature, nearest allied to leaves and to the ground,—and to one another; it is either winged or it is legged. It is hardly as if you had seen a wild creature when a rabbit or a partridge bursts away, only a natural one, as much to be expected as rustling leaves.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)