Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Cestrum

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

CESTRUM (κέστρον). A sort of graver or etching needle employed in the process of encaustic painting on ivory. It is supposed that the instrument was heated by fire, and that the traits to be delineated were burnt into the tablet with its point, and then filled in with liquid wax; but the whole subject of encaustic painting, and the manner in which the operation were conducted, is very obscure and uncertain. Plin. H. N. xxxxv. 41.