Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Pluteus

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. 

PLUT'EUS and PLUT'EUM. In a general sense any thing made of boards, hurdles, &c., joined together in order to form a cover or give support; whence the following specific meanings are deduced: —

1. (θωράκιον). A breastwork of boarding which served to screen the assailants of fortified places from the missiles and attacks of the enemy, whilst making their approaches, preparatory to an assault. For this purpose they were advanced in front of the storming parties, placed upon the military engines and moveable towers, or planted round the spot where earthworks were being thrown up. Caes. B. G. vii. 41. Id. B. C. i. 25. ii. 15. Liv. x. 38. Ammian. xxi. 12.

2. A moveable tower with a roof overhead, made of boards or hurdles covered with raw hides, or hair cloth, and fixed upon wheels, under the shelter of which a besieging party could advance close up to the walls of a beleaguered fortress, and clear it from its defenders before commencing the escalade. Veget. Mil. iv. 15. Vitruv. x. 15.

3. The back board of a bed, opposite to the sponda, or side at which the parties got in, which is plainly exhibited in the annexed example (Pluteus/3.1) from a Roman bas-relief. Mart. iii. 91. 10.

4. The raised end of a tricliniary couch, in the form of a French sofa, which was placed towards the table, for the upper part of the occupant to rest against, whilst his legs and feet were stretched out to its opposite extremity, as plainly shown by the annexed illustration (Pluteus/4.1), from a Roman bas-relief. Suet. Cal. 26.

5. A dwarf wall closing up the lower portions of an intercolumniation (Vitruv. iv. 4. 1.), or placed as a parapet upon the upper stories of an edifice (Vitruv. v. 1. 5.), to preclude the danger of falling over, as seen in the annexed engraving (Pluteus/5.1) from the Vatican Virgil, representing Dido watching the departure of Aeneas from the upper story of her palace.

6. A shelf, affixed to the walls of a room, upon which articles of common use were deposited for convenience, or objects of luxury displayed for ornament (Juv. ii. 7. Pers. i. 106. Ulp. Dig. 29. 1. 17.). The example (Pluteus/6.1), from a painting of Herculaneum, represents a shelf fastened to the wall in a shoemaker's shop, upon which a number of lasts are deposited.

7. A board upon which a corpse is laid out. Mart. viii. 44. 13.

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  Pluteus/3.1
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  Pluteus/4.1
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  Pluteus/5.1
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  Pluteus/6.1