Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Lacinia

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. 

LACI'NIA (κροκύς). In its primary sense, a flock of wool, not twisted into a fringe (fimbria), but in its natural form of a knot or tuft, such as we often see left upon the surface of blankets and other woollen fabrics. Hence the term was transferred to many other objects both animate and inanimate which bore a resemblance to the pointed and globular form of that object; as, a small projecting headland (Plin. H. N. v. 43.); a leaf (Id. xv. 30.); and the two drop-like excrescences, growing like warts under the jowl of a she-goat (Id. viii. 76.), which the ancient artists likewise appended to the necks of their fauns and young satyrs, in order to indicate their libidinous propensities, when they represented them without horns, as in the annexed example (Lacinia/1.1), from a statue found at Herculaneum.

2. From the resemblance above mentioned, the name was given to a sort of drop, frequently left on to the corners of various articles of dress; the chlamys (Plaut. Merc. i. 2. 29.), pallium (Pet. Sat. xii. 2.); toga (Suet. Cal. 35.), and tunica (Pet. Sat. xii. 6.), where it served the double purpose of use and ornament, being weighted with lead inside, so that it kept the ends down in a graceful and steady position. It is seen upon each corner of the side slit in the tunic worn by the annexed figure (Lacinia/2.1), from an equestrian statue of N. Balbus discovered at Herculeaneum; upon the pallium, in the first illustration to that word; upon the chlamys, at pp. 154, 155. 178.; upon the toga of the Etruscan figure, with the right arm extended, s. TOGA, though it is lost in our engraving from the reduced size of the drawing; and on those of the figures in Mus. Borb. vi. 41. Mus. Pio-Clem. iii. 19. v. 32. and many other statues. Now as the lacinia always depended from the extreme corner of the skirt, it will be readily understood how it came to signify in general language the angular extremity of the dress itself; which sometimes hung down near the ground, and sometimes was taken up and thrown over the shoulder (ANABOLIUM), so that one person catches another by the lacinia, to stop him and arrest his attention (Suet. Claud. 15. Pet. Sat. 100. 5.), like our "button holders;" or uses it as a handkerchief to wipe his face (Plaut. Merc. i. 2. 16.); or, to hold any thing (Cic. Fam. xvi. 21.); while Apuleius frequently uses the word in a more general sense, for the entire garment to which laciniae were appended.

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  Lacinia/1.1
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  Lacinia/2.1