Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Cippus

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

CIPPUS (στήλη). A short round post or pillar of stone set up to mark the boundaries between adjacent lands or neighbouring states. (Simplic. ap. Goes. p. 88.) The illustration (Cippus/1.1) represents one of these stones, now preserved in the Museum of Verona. From the inscription (one of the oldest authentic Roman inscriptions extant) we learn that it was set up by Atilius Saranus, who was dispatched by the senate, as proconsul, to reconcile a dispute between the people of Ateste (Este) and Vincentia (Vicenza) respecting their boundaries.

2. A low pillar, sometimes round, but more frequently rectangular, erected as a tomb-stone over the spot where a person was buried, or employed as a tomb for containing the ashes after they had been collected from the funeral pyre, by persons who could not afford the expense of a more imposing fabric. (Pers. i. 37.) The illustration (Cippus/2.1) represents an elevation and section of a cippus, which formerly stood on the Via Appia; the section, on the left hand, shows the movable lid, and the cavity for receiving the ashes.

3. A strong post, formed out of the trunk of a tree, with the weaker branches cut off, sharpened to a point, and driven into the ground to serve as a palisade in military fortifications. Caes. B. G. vii. 73.

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  Cippus/1.1
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  Cippus/2.1