Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Arcus

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

ARCUS (βιός, τόξον). A bow for shooting arrows, the use of which amongst the Greeks was chiefly confined to the sports of the field and contests of skill, with some partial exceptions during the Homeric age (Il. xii. 350.), after which it never appears as a military weapon. The Romans employed it in like manner as a hunting and fowling piece; but it was never introduced into their armies, excepting by auxiliaries from countries where it was the national weapon.

The Greek bows were constructed on two different plans; the one consisting of two horns joined together by a straight stock in the centre, like the top figure in the cut (Arcus/1.1), from a fictile vase; the other, when unbent, had a circular form, like a bay (sinus), as shown by the bottom figure, also from a fictile vase; and when strung, was bent backwards against the curve, which must have given it tremendous power, and will explain the true meaning of Homer's epithet παλίντονον (Il. viii. 266.). The two forms are also distinguished by the Latin writers with the epithets patulus (Ov. Met. viii. 30.), and sinuosus or sinuatus (Id. Met. viii. 380. Am. i. 1. 23.)

2. The Roman bow, as shown in their paintings, did not differ from the Greek one.

3. Arcus Scythicus. The Scythian bow mentioned by the Greek and Latin authors, possessed a very different form from either of the two preceding examples, as will be perceived by the illustration (Arcus/3.1) copied from the base of a candelabrum in the Villa Albani, which represents Hercules carrying off the sacred tripod from the temple of Apollo (see Hygin. Fab. 32.). A bow of similar form is seen in the hands of Hercules on a gem in the Florence gallery; on one of the Stosch Cabinet; and on the base of a candelabrum at Dresden, representing the same quarrel between Hercules and Apollo.

The lunated figure in the first woodcut has often been cited by philologists as a specimen of the Scythian bow, but the following particulars will satisfactorily prove that such a supposition is not supported by authority:  — 1. Hercules made use of two bows (Herod. iv. 10.); one of which, as he received it from Apollo (Apollodor. ii. 4. 11.), was necessarily a Greek one; the other, which he had from Teutarus, a Scythian shepherd (Lycophr. 56. Tzetz. ad Lycophr. 50. Compare Theocr. Id. xiii. 55.), was necessarily one of those used by the natives of that country. 2. Lycophron (917.) assimilates the Scythian bow to a serpent; and Becker, in describing the figure on the candelabrum of Dresden (Augusteum, pl. 5.), singularly enough mistakes it for a serpent, though the quiver at his side is clearly indicative of its real character. 3. Strabo (ii. 332. Siebenk. Compare Ammian. xxii. 8. 5.) compares the outline of the Pontus Euxinus to that of a Scythian bow; one side, which is nearly straight, forming the chord; the other, which, as he says, is recessed into two bays, one larger and more circular, the other smaller, and receding less, the bow itself. 4. Euripides (ap. Athen. x. 80.) introduces a countryman who had seen the name of Theseus, which he could not read, somewhere inscribed, endeavouring to explain the characters of which it was composed by some familiar image; and he compares the fourth letter, the Greek Sigma, to a lock of hair twisted into curls like the tendrils of a vine, βόστρυχος εἱλιγμένος. 5. Whilst Agathon (ap. Athen. l. c.), in relating the same story, makes his rustic assimilate the same letter to the form of a Scythian bow. 6. Now the earliest character used to express the Greek Sigma was written thus ___ (Arcus/3.2){TR: Early Greek letter, no printable character}, or thus ___ (Arcus/3.3),{TR: Early Greek letter, no printable character} as shown by the Sigean marbles, a monument of very high antiquity (Chishul. Inscr. Sig. p. 4. and 41.), and not like the letter C, which is a more modern form. 7. Thus the bow carried by the figure in our engraving corresponds exactly with every one of the images to which the Scythian bow is compared — a serpent, the contour of the Euxine sea, the tendril of a parasitical plant, and the Greek Sigma; whereas the lunated form has no affinity with any one of them, except indeed the letter C; but if that were admitted,all the rest would be utterly inappropriate.

4. An arch, a mechanical arrangement by which tiles, bricks, or blocks of stone are disposed in the form of a curve, which enables them to support one another by their mutual pressure, and bear any superincumbent weight, such as a bridge, aqueduct, upper story of a building, &c. &c. Ovid. Met. iii. 169. Juv. Sat. iii. 11.

Though the principle upon which an arch is constructed was not entirely unknown to the Greeks, yet their universal adoption of the columnar style of architecture, and general deficiency of roads, aqueducts, and bridges, rendered its use unnecessary to them; but the Romans employed it extensively in all their great works, as will be seen by numerous examples throughout these pages, and at a very early period, as shown by the illustration annexed (Arcus/4.1), which is an elevation of the wall called the pulcrum littus on the banks of the Tiber, and the three concentric arches which formed the Cloaca Maxima, a structure belonging to the fabulous age of the elder Tarquin.

5. An archway, or triumphal arch (Suet. Claud. 1., and with the epithet triumphalis, Cenotaph. Pisan. C. Caesaris. August. F.). During the republican period these were temporary structures of wood thrown across a street through which a triumph passed, and removed after the show; for the permanent archways recorded under the republic (Liv. xxxiii. 27. Id. xxxvii. 3.) are termed fornices, and were not erected to commemorate the honours of a triumph. (See FORNIX.) But under the empire they were converted into permanent edifices, built of marble, and erected in various parts of the city, as well at Rome as in the provincial towns; small and unostentatious at first, with a single gang-way, but subsequently increased in size, and elaborately covered with sculpture and statues, as in the illustration (Arcus/5.1), which presents an elevation of the triumphal arch of Septimius Severus, now standing at Rome, to which the statues only on the top have been restored, as they originally existed, from the design on a medal of that emperor.

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  Arcus/1.1
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  Arcus/3.1
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  Arcus/3.2
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  Arcus/3.3
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  Arcus/4.1
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  Arcus/5.1