Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Licium

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. 

LI'CIUM (μίτος). A leash employed in weaving, for the purpose of decussating the threads of the warp, so as to make an opening, technically called a "shed," for the shuttle to pass through. (Plin. H. N. viii. 74. xxviii. 12.) It consisted of a string with a loop at one end, through which a thread of the warp was passed, each thread through a separate leash; and the whole number were then fastened in alternate order upon two rods (liciatoria), as shown by the preceding woodcut; the first, third, and fifth to one, the second, fourth, and sixth to another; so that when the two rods were pulled apart, they drew every alternate thread of the warp across every other one in opposite directions, making at the same time an opening or shed between them, through which the cross-thread of the woof was conveyed. The process of putting on the leashes in the manner described is termed "entering" by our weavers, and by the Romans was described by the expressions, licia telae addere, or adnectere. Virg. Georg. i. 285. Tibull. i. 6. 79.

2. Hence any thread, string, or band: as the thread of a web; a string for tying or suspending any thing; a riband for the hair, an enchanted band, &c. Auson. Ep. 38. Ov. Fast. iii. 267. Prudent. in Sym. ii. 1104. Pet. Sat. 131. 4.