Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Ericius

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

ERIC'IUS. Literally, a hedgehog; a name also given to a contrivance for defending the gates of a camp or any fortified place, consisting of a long beam, studded with iron spikes, and planted across the opening that required defence. (Caes. B. C. iii. 67. Sallust, Hist. ap. Non. p. 555.) The beam across the gateway represented in the engraving s. CATARACTA, 3., if furnished with spikes., would afford an example of the ericius.