Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Canalis

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

CANA'LIS (σωλήν). An open channel, artificially made, of wood or brickwork, for the purpose of supplying cattle with water in the meadows, and thus serving as a drinking trough, as seen in the illustration (Canalis/1.1) from the Vatican Virgil. Virg. G. iii. 330. Varro, R. R. iii. 5. 2. Vitruv. viii. 5.2. and 6. 1., where it is distinguished from TUBUS{TR: No such lemma in book.} and FISTULA.

2. Canalis in Foro. Probably the gutter or kennel, as we say, near the centre of the Roman forum, from which the rain waters were immediately discharged through an opening into the Cloaca Maxima or main sewer (Plaut. Curc. iv. 1. 15.); whence the word canalicola was invented as a nick-name for a lazy idle fellow, because such people used to loiter and lounge away their time about this spot. Festus, s. v.

3. A narrow alley or passage in a town. Liv. xxiii. 31.

4. A splint, employed by surgeons in setting broken bones. Celsus, viii. 16.

5. In architecture, the channel in an Ionic capital, which is a smooth flat surface lying between the abacus and cymatium or echinus, and terminating in the eye of the volute. (Vitruv. iii. 5. 7.) It is clearly shown in the engraving (Canalis/5.1), which represents a capital from the temple of Fortuna Virilis at Rome.

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  Canalis/1.1
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  Canalis/5.1