Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Acus

Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary, and Greek Lexicon (Rich, 1849)

ACUS (ἀκέστρα, βελόνη, ῥαφίς). Seems to have designated in the Latin language both a pin for fastening, and a needle for sewing; as the specific senses in which the word is applied are sometimes characteristic of the former, and sometimes the latter of these two implements, which we distinguish by separate names. (Cic. Milo, 24. Celsus, vii. 16. Ovid. Met. vi. 23.) The illustration (Acus/1.1) represents a box of pins found at Pompeii, and a sewing needle an inch and a half long, from the same city.

2. Acus comatoria, or crinalis. A large bodkin or pin several inches long, made of gold, silver, bronze, ivory, or wood, which the women used to pass through their back hair after it had been plaited or turned up, in order to keep it neatly arranged, a fashion still retained in many parts of Italy. (Pet. Sat. xxi. 1. Mart. Ep. ii. 66. Id. xiv. 24. Apul. Met. viii. p. 161. Varior.) The illustration (Acus/2.1) is taken from the fragment of a statue in the Ducal Gallery at Florence, which shows the mode of wearing these hair-pins; but a great variety of originals have been discovered at Pompeii and elsewhere, of different materials and fancy designs, which are engraved in the Museo Borbonico (ix. 15.), and in Guasco (Delle Ornatrici, p. 46.).

3. The tongue of a brooch, or of a buckle formed precisely in the same manner as our own, as seen in the illustrations (Acus/3.1), which are all copied from ancient originals. Valerian. ap. Trebell. Claud. 14.

4. A needle used for trimming oil-lamps, and usually suspended by a chain to the lamp, as is still the common practice in Italy. The illustration (Acus/4.1) is copied from an original bronze lamp, excavated in Pompeii, and a part of the chain by which it hangs is shown. The use of it was to drawp up and lengthen the wick as it burnt down in the socket; et producit acu stupas homore carentes. Virg. Moret. 11.

5. A dibble for planting vines. Pallad. i. 43. 2.

6. A surgeon's probe (Furnaletti, s. v.); but he does not quote any ancient authority, and the propter term for that instrument was SPECILLUM.