Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Cingillum

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

CINGIL'LUM. A diminutive of CINGULUM; but in a passage of Petronius (Sat. 67. 4.), the only one in which the word occurs, it is clearly used to designate an article of female attire worn on the upper part of the person, and reaching from the shoulders to a little below the waist; for, when Fortunata appears at the banquet of Trimalchio, she wears a yellow cingillum over a cherry-coloured tunic, which is seen below it; the tunic also being sufficiently short to leave the bangles round her ankles, and her Greek shoes exposed to view  — galbino succincta cingillo ita, ut infra cerasina appareret tunica, et periscelides tortae, phaecasiaeque inauratae. It must, therefore, have resembled what we now term a jacket or spenser, such as is frequently represented in the Pompeian paintings, from one of which the illustration (Cingillum/1.1) is copied; and if the tunic were only drawn up a little higher through its girdle, so as to leave the feet and ankles exposed, it would strictly accord with the entire costume described.

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  Cingillum/1.1