Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Mortarium

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. 

MORTA'RIUM (ὅλμος). A mortar, in which ingredients are kneaded up and mixed together with a small pestle (pistillum), worked by one hand (Virg. Moret. 100.) in a roundabout direction (Ib. 102. it manus in gyrum), and formed, as it still is, of a stone or other solid material, hollowed into the shape of a shallow basin (Ib. 96., lapidis cavum orbem. Plin. H. N. xxxiv. 50. Id. xxxiii. 41. Scrib. Comp. 111. Columell. xii. 57. 1. Cato, R. R. 74.) The illustration (Mortarium/1.1) represents an original found amongst the ruins of Roman buildings in London. Compare PILA.

2. The hollow basin in which the olives were placed in the bruising-machine, called a trapetum, to be crushed by the wheels, which worked round it. (Cato, R. R. xxii. 1.) It will be observed from the figure on the right hand of the annexed wood-cut (Mortarium/2.1), representing an original trapetum found at Stabia in elevation and section, that the mortarium (marked 1. 1. on each plan) is a sort of basin with sides and bottom of the same hollow curvilinear form as the common mortar, though the centre of it is occupied by a short thick column (miliarium, 2. 2.), which supports the bruising-stones (orbes, 3. 3.).

3. A large basin, or receiver of similar form, in which fine cement or stucco was kneaded and mixed. Plin. H. N. xxxvi. 55. Vitruv. vii. 3. 10.

4. A hollow trench dug round the roots of a tree to collect moisture (Pallad. iv. 8. 1.); a meaning which clearly arises from the resemblance which the trench and trunk of the tree bears to the miliarium and mortarium of a trapetum, as shown by the section under No. 2.

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  Mortarium/1.1
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  Mortarium/2.1