Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Amento

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

AMEN'TO. To hurl a spear or javelin by the assistance of a thong (amentum) attached to it, which from the passages cited below appears to have been executed by inserting the fingers between the ends of the thong, and thus giving the missile a rapid rotatory motion before it was discharged; but there is no known work of antiquity in which this action is represented. Lucan. vi. 221. Compare Ovid. Met. xii. 321. Cic. de Orat. i. 57.