Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Agger

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

AGGER (χῶμα). Generally any thing which is thrown together — quod adgeritur — to fill up a void, or raise a mound, whether of earth, wood, or rubbish, whence the following more special senses are derived.

1. An artificial mound or rampart with which the Romans surrounded their camps, or any position intended to be occupied for a certain period during the campaign. It was most commonly a large embankment of earth, surmounted on the top by palisades (vallum), and protected on the outside by a trench (fossa), formed by the excavation of the earth dug out of it to form the agger. But in situations where the nature of the soil would not admit of an embankment of earth, other materials of ready and easy access were had recourse to, and it was then frequently constructed out of the trunks of trees filled in with brushwood, &c., as in the illustration (Agger/1.1) from the Column of Trajan. The top of it is covered by a vallum or palisade, and a boarded gallery over head for the protection of the soldiery. The example will at once explain the meaning of those passages in which it is mentioned that the agger was set on fire. Caes. Bell. Civ. ii. 14.

2. Agger murorum. (Virg. Aen. x. 24.) An embankment upon which the walls and towers of a fortified city were built, and which served as a rampart upon which the garrison were stationed to defend the place. It was constructed of earth thrown up in the manner last described, but was moreover cased with masonry, and ascended from the inside by a flight of steps, as seen in the cut (Agger/2.1), which is a section of the agger and walls still remaining at Pompeii, with an elevation of one of its towers partially restored.

3. A temporary mound of earth, wood, or any other materials ready at hand, thrown up against the walls of a besieged city, on which the battering train (tormenta bellica) was placed, and for the purpose of raising the assaulting parties to a level with the ramparts. Like the parallels in modern warfare, it was commenced at some distance from the city walls, and then gradually widened on the inside until it met them, which is implied by such expressions as agger promotus ad urbem, Liv. v. 7.

4. Agger viae, properly the road, that is, the central part of a street or highway intended for the traffic of carriages and cattle. Virg. Aen. v. 273.) which was paved with stones imbedded in cement laid upon several strata of broken rubbish (compare VIA), and slightly raised in the centre, so that the section formed an elliptical outline, as seen in the annexed plan (Agger/4.1), which is a section between the curb stones of the Via Sacra, leading up to the temple of Jupiter Latialis. The plan upon which it was constructed explains why this part of a road was called the agger (Serv. ad Virg. l. c. Isidor. Orig. xv. 16. 7.), though the name is sometimes used in a more general sense, as synonymous with VIA, as Aurelius agger instead of Via Aurelia. Rutil. Itiner. 39.

5. An artificial embankment or dyke upon the sides of a river to protect the country from inundations (Virg. Aen. ii. 496.), and also a margin of masonry, forming the quay of a port, to which the vessels werer made fast. (Ovid. Met. xv. 690. Id. Trist. iii. 9. 13.) The illustration (Agger/5.1) represents a dyke of rough stones formed at the confluence of two rivers from the Column of Trajan.

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  Agger/1.1
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  Agger/2.1
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  Agger/4.1
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  Agger/5.1