Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Celes

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

CEL'ES (κέλης). A horse for riding, in contradistinction to a carriage or draught horse; but more particularly a race-horse, ridden in the Greek Hippodrome, or the Roman Circus (Plin. H. N. xxxiv. 10.), one of which is shown in the illustration (Celes/1.1), from a stucco frieze, representing Cupids racing, in the baths of Pompeii.

2. A boat or vessel of a particular class, in which each rower handled a single oar on his own side, in contradistinction to those in which each man worked a pair, and those in which more than one man laboured at the same oar. The larger descriptions had many oarsmen, and were sometimes fitted with a mast and sail, but had no deck, and in consequence of their fleetness were much used by pirates. (Plin. H. N. vi. 57. Aul. Gell. x. 25. Herod. vii. 94. Thucyd. iv. 9. Scheffer, Mil. Nav. p. 68.) The illustration (Celes/2.1) here given is from the Column of Trajan, and clearly represents a vessel rowed in the manner described, and therefore belonging to this class.

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  Celes/1.1
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  Celes/2.1