Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Clavus

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

CLAVUS (ἦλος). A nail for fixing or fastening one thing to another. Many specimens of ancient nails, of various forms and sizes, of bronze as well as iron, are preserved in the Cabinets of Antiquities, resembling in most respects those now in use. The Latin expression for driving a nail is clavum figere or pangere (Liv. vii. 3.), and the act is shown by the figure annexed (Clavus/1.1), which represents one of Trajan's soldiers making a stockade, the strength of which may be inferred from the immense size of the nail employed.

2. Clavus trabalis, or tabularis. A nail of the largest description, such as was employed in building, for fastening the main beams (trabes). Cic. Verr. vi. 21. Hor. Od. i. 35. 18. Petr. Sat. 75.

3. Clavus annalis. The nail which was driven on the Ides of September in every year into the side wall of the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus (Liv. vii. 3.); a custom which is referred back to a very early period, and supposed to have been adopted as an expedient for reckoning the lapse of time before the use of letters was generally understood (Festus, s. v.), and subsequently retained out of religious deference to old customs. The fragment (Clavus/3.1) here introduced represents the four sides of part of a large bronze nail, now in the possession of the Italian historian Bianchini (Storia Univers. tom. i. p. 156. tav. 9. A.), which, from the letters upon it, is believed to have been actually employed for the purpose described.

4. Clavus muscarius. A nail with a large broad mushroom-shaped head (Vitruv. vii. 3. 11.), like the one represented under BULLA; but larger and of coarser workmanship.

5. Clavus caligaris. A sharp nail or spike, with which the soles of soldiers' boots (caligae) were furnished (Plin. H. N. ix. 33. Juv. iii. 247. Id. xvi. 24. Isidor. Orig. xix. 34. 13.); the sharp ends projecting from the sole, as in our cricket shoes, in order to afford the wearer a firmer footing on the ground. (Joseph. Bell. Jud. vi. 1. 7.) The example (Clavus/5.1) introduced is given by Ferrarius, as copied from the arch of Constantine at Rome. He states that the spikes were clearly distinguishable in his time, but the artist has certainly committed an error in leaving the toes exposed, for the caliga was a close boot; see that word, and CALIGARIUS.

6. Clavus gubernaculi. The helm or tiller of an ancient rudder; which was a cross-bar (fustis, Serv. ad Virg. Aen. v. 176.), fixed to the upper part of the handle (ansa) at right angles to it, so that it fell within the ship, and enabled the steersman to move his helm in the direction required. (Isidor. Orig. xix. 2. 12.) When the vessel was furnished with a rudder on each quarter, and sufficiently small to be managed by a single helmsman, he held a clavus in each hand; but in heavy weather, or in larger vessels, each rudder had its own helmsman. The steerage was effected in both cases by raising or depressing the clavus, at the same time turning it slightly in or out, in order to give the blade of the rudder a less or greater resistance against the water; an effect well known to those who are accustomed to rowing, or steering with an oar; and our own nautical phrases "helm up" and "helm down," which still remain in use, though expressive of a very different operation, undoubtedly originated in this practice of the ancients; for in the Latin and Anglo-Saxon Glossary of Aelfricus, the word clavus is translated helma, our helm. All these particulars are clearly illustrated by the engraving (Clavus/6.1), which represents the after part of an ancient ship, on a bas-relief discovered at Pozzuoli.

7. A stripe of purple colour woven into the texture of a piece of cloth, as an ornament, for wearing apparel, or for the linen employed in household purposes, such as napkins, tablecloths, coverlets for couches, &c. Mart. Ep. iv. 46. 17. Pet. Sat. 32. 2. Ammian. xvi. 8. 8.

8. Clavus Latus. The broad stripe; an ornamental band of purple colour, running down the front of a tunic, in a perpendicular direction immediately over the front of the chest, the right of wearing which formed one of the exclusive privileges of a Roman senator, though at a later period it appears to have been sometimes granted as a favour to individuals of the equestrian order. (Hor. Sat. i. 6. 28. Acro ad Hor. Sat. i. 5. 36. Quint. viii. 5. 28. Festus, s. v. Clavatus. Ovid. Trist. iv. 10. 29. Plin. Ep. ii. 9.) As the clavus was a mere shade of colour woven up with the fabric, and, consequently, possessed no substance of its own, it is not indicated upon any of the statues which represents persons of senatorial rank; for the sculptor deals only with substantial forms, and the Roman paintings which remain to us are mostly imitations of Greek works, representing mythological or heroical subjects, or otherwise scenes of common life. Consequently, we have no known example of the broad senatorial clavus upon any existing monument; but a fair notion of its real character may be obtained from the annexed wood-cut (Clavus/8.1), representing the Persian sarapis, as worn by Darius, in the Pompeian mosaic of the battle of Issus; and which was decorated with a similar ornament, with the exception, that the stripe of the Persian kings was white upon a purple ground, that of the Roman senators purple on a white one.

9. Clavus angustus. The narrow stripe; a distinctive badge of the equestrian order. (Paterc. ii. 88. 2.) It was of purple colour, like the former, and also a decoration to the tunic; but differed in character, inasmuch as it consisted of two narrow stripes running parallel to each other down the front of the tunic, one on the right, and the other on the left side of the person; whence the plural purpurae (Quint. xi. 3. 138.) is sometimes used, instead of the singular, to distinguish it. In paintings of a late period, this ornament is frequently met with, similar to that on the figure annexed (Clavus/9.1), representing a Camillus in the Vatican Virgil. But at the period when such works were executed, it had ceased to be worn as a distinctive badge of rank; for it repeatedly occurs on figures acting in a menial capacity, such as cup-bearers and attendants at the table, who were usually attired in fine clothes, in the same way as the ancient costume of this country has now descended to a "livery."

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  Clavus/1.1
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  Clavus/3.1
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  Clavus/5.1
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  Clavus/6.1
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  Clavus/8.1
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  Clavus/9.1