Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Culeus

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

CU'LEUS or CUL'LEUS. A very large sack made of pig's-skin or leather, and employed by the Romans for the transport of wine or oil (Nepos, Eum. 8. Plin. H. N. vii. 19. Cato, R. R. xi. 1.), as represented by the annexed illustration (Culeus/1.1), from a painting at Pompeii, which shows the manner of transporting it on a cart frame, of emptying its contents into smaller vessels (amphorae), and how it was filled; viz. by the neck at the top, which was then tied up with a cord. A contrivance of precisely the same kind is still employed in Italy for the transport and sale of oil. The size of this will likewise account for another use to which it was applied by the ancient Romans, for sewing parricides in. Cic. Q. Fr. i. 2. 2.

2. Also a liquid measure; the largest used by the Romans, containing twenty amphorae, or 118 gallons, and particularly employed in estimating the produce of a vineyard or olive ground. Rhemn. Fann. de Pond. et Mens. 86. Varro, R. R. 1. 2. 7.

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  Culeus/1.1