Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Carruca

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

CARRU'CA or CARRU'CHA. A particular kind of carriage introduced at Rome under the Empire (at least mention of it first occurs in Pliny, and it subsequently becomes common in Suetonius, Martial, and others). Its precise form and character is a matter of mere conjecture; but it is clearly distinguished from the covinus and essedum by Martial (Ep. xii. 24.), and from the rheda by Lampridius. (Alex. Sev. 43.) It was at all times a vehicle of costly description, and highly ornamented; at first, by carvings in bronze and ivory (Aurel. Vopisc. 46.), and afterwards by chasings in silver and gold. (Plin. H. N. xxxiii. 40. Mart. Ep. iii. 62.) This description agrees so far with the figure in the annexed engraving (Carruca/1.1), representing the carriage of the praefect of Rome from the Notitia Imperii, and in which the metal ornaments are very apparent. It may, therefore, by a plausible conjecture, be regarded as affording a type of these conveyances, but the Latin writers certainly make use of the term at times in a general sense, without intending thereby to designate any particular build (as in Suet. Nero, 30. and Mart. Ep. iii. 47., where the same vehicle is indiscriminately termed carruca and rheda), and the word retained this usage in after times, for it contains the elements of the Italian carrozza, and our carriage, both of which are general expressions.

2. Carruca dormitoria. A close carruca (Scaevol. Dig. 34. 2. 11.); the carruca undique contecta of Isidorus, Orig. xx. 12. 3.

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  Carruca/1.1