Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Labrum

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. 

LA'BRUM. A general name given to any vessel which is formed with a full round brim, turning over on the outside like the human lip, from which similitude the name arose. The more special uses to which such vessels were applied are the following:

1. A large flat basin containing water, which stood upon the floor at the circular end of the thermal chamber (caldarium), in a set of baths, in an isolated position, and with sufficient room all round it to accommodate the different bathers who stood round and sprinkled themselves with the water it contained, whilst they scraped off the perspiration from their bodies, engendered by the high temperature of the room. (Vitruv. v. 10. 4. Cic. Fam. xiv. 20. Marquez. Cas. Rom. § 316. seqq.) Most of these particulars are exemplified by the illustration (Labrum/1.1) from a fictile vase, which shows a slave (aquarius) filling the labrum with water; one person scraping himself with a strigil (strigilis), and another dipping his hands into the basin for the purpose of sprinkling the water over his person. The engraving on page 363. s. v. LACONICUM, exhibits a vase of the same kind as it now stands at one end of the thermal chamber in the baths of Pompeii.

2. An ornamental basin of the same form, intended to receive the water which fell from the jet of an artificial fountain (Plin. Ep. v. 6. Ulp. Dig. 19. 1. 15.), as exhibited by the annexed example (Labrum/2.1), representing a fountain now remaining in the Fullonica of Pompeii, in which only the water has been restored to show the action.

3. A large flat vessel or pan made of stone or earthenware (Cato. R. R. xii. 15. 2.), which was employed in the cella olearia for holding the oil after it had been removed from the lacus. Cato, R. R. xii. 50. 10. Id. xiii. 2.

4. (χέρνιβον, περιῤῥαντήριον). A holy water font, of stone or marble, placed at the entrance of a heathen temple, to contain the lustral water (Herod. i. 51.) into which the hands were dipped as a purification before sacrifice. The illustration (Labrum/4.1) represents an original font of white marble which served for this purpose at Pompeii; and the manner of placing it in front of a temple is exhibited by a bas-relief of the Vatican. (Mus. Pio-Clem. v. 33.) The composition of the holy water was the same as that now adopted in Roman Catholic countries, a mixture of salt with common water. (Theocr. Id. xxiv. 95. Durant. de Rit. i. 21.) The word labrum is not met with in any Latin writer in the sense here mentioned; but the Greek names are well authenticated, as well as the object itself; and the form is precisely that of which the name in question is characteristic.

5. The ditch or trench on the outside of an agger, or of a wall of fortification. Auson. Clar. Urb. v. 9.

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  Labrum/1.1
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  Labrum/2.1
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  Labrum/4.1