Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Decursio

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

DECUR'SIO and DECURSUS. A military review; at which the soldiers were put through all the manoeuvres of a sham fight, for purposes of discipline and regimental exercise (Suet. Nero, 7. Liv. xxiii. 35. Id. xxvi. 51. Id. xl. 6. Tac. Ann. ii. 55.), or as a pageant displayed at the funeral of a deceased general, when a body of troops performed their evolutions round the burning pile. (Virg. Aen. xi. 188. Tac. Ann. ii. 55.) The illustration (Decursio/1.1) is copied from the reverse of a medal of Nero, which has the inscription DECURSIO underneath. Of course it is not to be taken as a perfect representation of such scenes, but only as a conventional mode of expressing the subject in a small compass. One of the slabs which formerly covered the base of the Antonine Column affords a more complete representation of the pageant; but the numerous bodies of infantry and cavalry there introduced could not be compressed within the limits of drawing suitable to these pages.

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  Decursio/1.1