Steel curule seat

INRAP states:

"The curule chair is one of the major symbols of power in Rome. Of Etruscan tradition, its use in Rome was at first reserved for the high magistrates (consuls, praetors) holding imperium, that is, the power to command and to punish. Under Augustus, it became one of the attributes of the emperor. Two types of seat are recorded. On the one hand, the sella curulis proper, recognisable by its S-shaped legs: first reserved for civil magistrates, it became a luxury domestic object reserved for an elite from the 1st century AD. On the other hand, the sella castrensis, with its X-shaped profile, which was the prerogative of military officers."

The sella castrensis remained in use long after the fall of the Empire. This model (known as type I, with rod) is the simplified version of a seat found in Poland and dated 568-630. The original was entirely damascened...

The seat is 45 cm wide and 40 cm deep.