Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Compitum

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

COM'PITUM. A place where two or more roads meet; more especially with reference to the country (Virg. Georg. ii. 382.), in contradistinction from trivium, which applies more to the streets of a town. (Cic. Agr. i. 3.) It was customary to erect altars, shrines, and small temples on these spots, at which religious rites in honour of the Lares Compitales, the deities who presided over cross-roads, were performed by the country people (Prop. iv. 3. 54.); whence the word compitum is sometimes used for a shrine erected on such a spot. (Grat. Cyneg. 483. Pers. iv. 28.) All these particulars are elucidated by the illustration (Compitum/1.1), from a landscape painting at Pompeii.

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  Compitum/1.1