Editing Vomitorium (section)

{{short description|Passage in a theatre allowing crowds to exit}}
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[[File:Ancient Roman Pompeii - Pompeji - Campania - Italy - July 10th 2013 - 06.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|''Vomitorium'' at the [[Amphitheatre of Pompeii]] in [[Pompeii]]]]

A '''''vomitorium''''' is a passage situated below or behind a tier of seats in an amphitheatre or a stadium through which large crowds can exit rapidly at the end of an event. They can also be pathways for actors to enter and leave stage.<ref>{{cite web|title=Vomitorium|url=http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/vomitorium|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110224061422/http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/vomitorium|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 24, 2011|work=Oxford Dictionary|publisher=Oxford Dictionaries|access-date=2 December 2010}}</ref> The Latin word ''vomitorium'', plural ''vomitoria'', derives from the verb ''[[wiktionary:vomo|vomō, vomere]]'', "to spew forth". In [[ancient Roman architecture]], ''vomitoria'' were designed to provide rapid egress for large crowds at amphitheatres and stadia, as they do in modern sports stadia and large theatres.<ref>{{cite book |title=A cyclopaedia of works of architecture in Italy, Greece, and the Levant |editor=Longfellow |editor-first=William P.P. |url=https://archive.org/stream/cyclopaediaofwor00longuoft#page/xxxii/mode/1up/ |publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons |location=New York |year=1903 |page=xxxii}}</ref>