Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Cuspis

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

CUSPIS (αἰχμή). A point; of anything generally which is pointed; but more especially used to designate the pointed head of a lance, spear, or javelin, when made without barbs, as contradistinguished from spiculum, which expresses a barbed point. (Virg. Aen. xii. 510. Sil. Ital. xiii. 167.) The illustration (Cuspis/1.1) represents two Roman spear-heads of the most usual forms, from originals.

2. A sharp point, or spear-head, affixed to the top of the Roman ensigns (Suet. Jul. 62.), which the standard-bearers converted into a weapon of offence, when hard pressed at close quarters. It is clearly seen in the annexed engraving (Cuspis/2.1), from Trajan's Column, above the eagle.

3. A sharp point or spear-head, projecting from the top of the thyrsus (Catull. 64. 257.), which is prominently visible in the next engraving (Cuspis/3.1), from a painting at Pompeii; where it is represented above the leaves, which usually terminate the shaft, in order to show that the painting was intended to bear an allusion to the fable which relates that Bacchus and his followers, upon certain occasions, converted their thyrsi into offensive weapons, by concealing a lance-head in the leaves. Macrob. Sat. i. 19.

4. The point of a spit for roasting meat; and thence the spit itself (veru). Mart. Ep. xiv. 221.

5. The pointed end of Neptune's trident; and thence the weapon itself (fuscina, tridens). Ovid. Met. xii. 580.

6. An earthenware tube employed in the cultivation of vineyards, so called because it was made sharp and pointed at one extremity, for the purpose of being fixed in the ground. Varro, R. R. 1. 8. 4.

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  Cuspis/1.1
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  Cuspis/2.1
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  Cuspis/3.1