Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Fidicula

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. 

FIDIC'ULA. Diminutive of FIDIS. A small or thin musical string. Cic. N. D. ii. 8.

2. Mostly in the plural, FIDICULAE; a contrivance for torturing slaves, consisting of a number of thin cords; but the exact nature of the apparatus, as well as the manner in which it was applied, is involed in uncertainty. Suet. Cal. 33. Seneca, Ira, iii. 3. and 19.