Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Cuneus

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

CUN'EUS (σφήν). A wedge; a body of wood, iron, or other substances, with a thin edge gradually thickening upwards, employed for splitting (Virg. Georg. i. 144.), tightening, and fastening. Cic. Tusc. ii. 10.

2. When applied to ships (Ovid, Met. xi. 514.), the exact meaning of the term is doubtful. Some suppose that it is used to designate projecting pieces of timber fastened to the sides and bottom of a vessel to protect it from rocks; others, the timbers themselves put together in the form of a wedge, like what is now called "diagonal trussing;" or thin wedges of wood driven in together with the tow, by which the seams are caulked. Scheffer, Mil. Nav. i. 6.

3. (κερκίς). A compartment of seats (gradus, sedilia, subsellia) in a theatre or amphitheatre (Vitruv. v. 6. 2. Suet. Aug. 44.), comprising the several rows contained in each tier (maenianum) between a pair of staircases (scalae). The illustration (Cuneus/3.1), which represents a portion of the interior of the larger theatre at Pompeii, shows six of these cunei, or compartments of seats, three in the lower tier, and three in the one above, with two flights of stairs in each, down which the spectator walked when he entered the theatre through either of the doors (vomitoria) at the top, until he arrived at the particular row in the cuneus on which his seat was situated. These compartments of seats were termed wedges on account of their cuneiform appearance, being narrowest at the bottom, and gradually expanding upwards as the circuit of the theatre increases; see the parts marked B on the general plan s. THEATRUM, 1., where the form is more characteristically displayed.

4. A wine bin, constructed with rows of shelves rising one over the other, like the seats of a theatre, and upon which the wine was deposited to ripen, after it had been drawn off from the bulk into amphorae, or, as we should say, bottled. Cato, R. R. ii. 3. 2. Pontedera, Curae Posth. ad l.

5. A body of soldiers drawn up in the shape of a wedge. Liv. xxii. 47. Veg. Mil. iii. 19.

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  Cuneus/3.1