Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Ansatus

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

ANSA'TUS. Furnished with a handle or handles, as explained in the preceding word.

2. Ansata hasta, Ansatum telum (ἀγκυλωτός, ἀγκυλητόν, μεσάγκυλον). A spear or javelin, which was furnished with a semicircular rest for the hand, attached like a handle to the shaft. These handles were not permanent fixtures, but were put on to their weapons by the soldiers before going into battle, or upon an emergency, as occasion required (Plutarch. 2. p. 180. C. ed. Xylandr. Compare Xen. Anab. iv. 2. 28.), and they served a double purpose, to assist in hurling them, when employed as missiles — ansatas mittunt de turribus hastas (Ennius ap. Non. s. v. Ansatae, p. 556.); or as a stay for the hand which gave force to the thrust when used at close quarters, ansatis concurrunt telis (Ennius, ap. Macrob. Sat. vi. 1.). Both of these uses are indicated by the illustration (Ansatus/1.1), copied from a painting on the walls of a warrior's tomb at Paestum (Nicolai, Antichità di Pesto, tav. vi.); and which is valuable for the authority it affords respecting the true meaning of the word, hitherto only guessed at, or misunderstood. But this picture proves the characteristic difference between the ansa and amentum of a javelin; the latter, as is well known, being a mere thong; the former, as here shown, and in accordance with the primary and other notions of the word, both in Latin and Greek, a handle either of an angular or curved form attached to some other object.

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  Ansatus/1.1