Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Clipeus

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

CLIP'EUS and CLIP'EUM (ἀσπίς). The large round shield or buckler, more especially peculiar to the heavy-armed infantry of the Greeks (Liv. ix. 19.); but also borne by the first-class men at arms amongst the Romans, from the time of Servius (Liv. i. 43. Dion. Hal. iv. 16., which passages also prove the identity between the Latin clipeus and Greek ἀσπις), until the period when the citizens commenced receiving pay for their military service, when the Scutum was substituted in its stead. (Liv. viii. 8.) In form it was completely circular, but concave on the inside (cavus. Varro, L. L. v. 19. Compare Virg. Aen. iii. 637.), with a circumference large enough to reach from the neck to the calf of the leg (see the figure in CLIPEATUS, 1.). It was sometimes made entirely of bronze (Liv. xlv. 33.); but more commonly of several folds of ox-hide (Virg. Aen. xii. 925. septemplicis. Ovid. Met. xii. 97. decem), covered with plates of metal; and occasionally upon a foundation of wicker-work (whence clipei textum. Virg. Aen. viii. 625. and ἱτέα. Eurip. Suppl. 697.), over which the folds of untanned leather and metal were spread. The illustration (Clipeus/1.1) affords a front and side view of a Greek clipeus, from two fictile vases.

2. Sub clipeo latere. Clipei sub orbe tegi. (Ovid. Met. xiii. 79. Virg. Aen. ii. 227.) A position often represented in works of art, in which the soldier kneels down, and places his shield upright before him; by which his whole person is concealed, and covered from the attacks of his assailant; in the same manner as shown by the figure which illustrates VENABULUM.

3. A shield or plate of metal, or other material, upon which the bust of a deity, or portrait of distinguished persons was carved in relief, or painted in profile, as an honorary memento (Suet. Cal. 16. Tac. Ann. ii. 83.); a custom of very great antiquity, which owes its origin to the Trojans. (Plin. H. N. xxxv. 3. Compare Hor. Od. i. 28. 11.) The illustration (Clipeus/3.1) represents an original bronze clipeus of this description, with a bust of the Emperore Hadrian upon its face.

4. A shield or plate of similar character, made of marble or metal, but ornamented with other devices as well as portraits, which was used as a decoration, to be suspended in public buildings or private houses, between the pillars of a colonnade, in the manner represented in the annexed engraving (Clipeus/4.1), from a bas-relief in terra-cotta. Liv. xxxv. 10.

5. An apparatus employed to regulate the temperature of the Laconicum, or vapour bath; which consisted in a hollow circular plate of metal, suspended by chains under an opening in the dome of the ceiling at the circular end of the thermal chamber (caldarium), and immediately over the labrum, by the raising or depressing of which, the temperature of the room was increased or lowered, as more or less of the cold air was permitted to enter, or of the hot air to escape. (Vitruv. v. 10.) The wood-cut (Clipeus/5.1) represents a section of the Laconicum at Pompeii, a view of which in its present state is introduced under that word; the squares at the bottom show the flues of the hypocaustum; the basin in the centre over the largest flue is the labrum; and the clipeus, with the chain by which it was lowered or raised up, so as to close the aperture in the ceiling above it, is an imaginary restoration, in order to elucidate the manner in which the apparatus acted; but the bronze stays for fastening the chains by which the clipeus was worked, were found affixed to the sides of the wall. It must not, however, be concealed that the positive nature of the clipeus is a point involved in much uncertainty, and that many scholars, relying upon a picture in the Thermae of Titus (represented by the annexed engraving (Clipeus/5.2)) maintain that the Laconicum was the small cupola here seen rising from the floor of the chamber, which permitted a volume of flame and hot air to raise itself above the general level of the apartment; and that the clipeus, which regulated the temperature by admitting or shutting off the heat, was placed, as in the cut, under this cupola, and just over the hypocaust. But it is difficult to conceive how the apparatus could have been worked in such a situation, as both the clipeus and the chains for raising it would have become intensely hot from their proximity to the fire; besides nothing bearing even a remote resemblance to such a construction has been discovered in any of the ancient baths, and the account of Vitruvius (l. c.) describes almost minutely a similar disposition to that observable in the circular extremity of the thermal chamber in the Pompeian baths. As both the plans are introduced the reader has the means of judging for himself. A long array of names favours each side of the argument.

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  Clipeus/1.1
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  Clipeus/3.1
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  Clipeus/4.1
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  Clipeus/5.1
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  Clipeus/5.2