Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Pileatus

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. 

PILEA'TUS (πιλοφόρος). Bonnetted; that is, wearing a felt-cap termed pileus, the ordinary headcovering of sailors, fishermen, and artisans, as well as of the twin brothers, Castor and Pollux, who are thence styled fratres pileati (Catull. 37. 2.); amongst the Greeks and Romans usually worn without strings, and put on in such a manner as to leave the ends of the hair just visible all round its edges, as exhibited by the annexed example (Pileatus/1.1), representing Ulysses on an engraved gem. Liv. xxiv. 16., and PILEUS.

2. Pileata Roma,  — pileata plebs,  — pileata turba. Expressions employed to indicate the period of the Saturnalian festival, or carnival of ancient Rome; because at that fête all the people wore caps as a token of the general liberty permitted during those days of revelry and rejoicing, and in allusion to the custom of presenting a pileus to the slave who had regained his liberty. Mart. xi. 6. Suet. Nero, 57. Sen. Ep. 19.

3. Pileati servi. (Aul. Gell. vii. 4.) Slaves whose heads were covered with a pileus, when put up for sale, as a token that their owners could not warrant them.

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  Pileatus/1.1