Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Castellum

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

CASTEL'LUM. Diminutive of CASTRUM. A small fortified place or fortress in which a body of soldiers was stationed, either in the open country to protect the agricultural population from the incursions of hostile tribes, or on the frontiers, to guard the boundaries of the state, or in any other position which commanded the main road and lines of intercommunication. (Sisenn. ap. Non. s. Festinatim. p. 514. Cic. Fam. xi. 4. Id. Phil. v. 4.) The illustration (Castellum/1.1) represents one of these fortified posts with its garrison, from the Vatican Virgil.

2. A small fortified town; so called because many of the forts, originally intended as mere military posts, grew into towns and villages from the neighbouring population flocking to them, and building their cottages about the fort, for the sake of protection; just as the baronial castles of the feudal ages formed a nucleus for many of the town in modern Europe. Curt. v. 3.

3. The reservoir of an aqueduct; formed at its city termination, or at any part of the line, were a head of water was required for the supply of the locality; and into which the main pipes were inserted for the purpose of distributing the water through the various districts of a city. (Vitruv. viii. 6. 1. Plin. H. N. xxxvi. 24. n. 9. Frontin. Aq. 35.) In ordinary situations, these were plain brick or stone towers containing a deep cistern or reservoir within them, but at the termination of the duct when it reached the city walls, the castellum was designed with a regard to ornament as well as use, having a grand architectural façade of one or more stories, decorated with columns and statues, and forming with its waste water a noble fountain which poured its jets through many openings into an ample basin below (Vitruv. l. c.); as seen in the illustration (Castellum/3.1) here inserted, which is a restoration of the castellum belonging to the Julian aqueduct, still remaining, though in a dilapidated state at Rome, near the church of S. Eusebio; but the details here introduced are authorized by an old drawing of the structure executed in the 16th century, when the principal ornaments were still in their original situations, and the whole in a much more perfect condition than at present.

4. Castellum privatum. A reservoir built at the expense of a certain number of private individuals living in the same district, and who had obtained a grant of water from the public duct, which was thus collected into one head from the main reservoir, and thence distributed amongst themselves by private pipes. Frontin. 106. compare 27.

5. Castellum domesticum. A cistern which each person constructed on his own property to receive the water allotted to him from the public reservoir. Frontin.

6. A cistern or receptacle, into which the water raised by a water-wheel was discharged from the scoops, buckets, or troughs (modioli) which collected it. (Vitruv. x. 4. 3.) See ROTA AQUARIA

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  Castellum/1.1
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  Castellum/3.1