Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Ferula

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. 

FERULA (νάρθηξ). The fennel; a plant much used by the ancients for the infliction of slight punishments; as a schoolmaster's ferule for chastising boys on the hand (Juv. Sat. i. 15.), or the back (Apul. Met. ix. p. 196.); a riding switch (Ov. A. Am. i. 546.); and a cane for punishing slaves guilty of minor offences. (Hor. Sat. i. 3. 119. Juv. vi. 479.) As an instrument of punishment, the ferula was thus the mildest of those employed by the ancients.