Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Punctum

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. 

PUNC'TUM. Any small hole made by piercing, or pricking; hence a vote or suffrage; because in early times, before the custom of voting by ballot had obtained, the poll clerk (rogator) held a list of the candidates inscribed upon a tablet covered with wax, and scored off each vote as it was announced, by making a puncture in the wax against the initials of the candidate whom the elector supported. Cic. Planc. 22. Id. Tusc. ii. 24.

2. One of the points or units upon a die (Mart. xiv. 17. Compare Suet. Nero, 30). The example (Punctum/2.1) is copied from an original die found at Herculaneum.

3. One of the fractional marks or points on the beam of a steel-yard (statera) by which the exact weight is indicated (Vitruv. x. 3. 4.). The example (Punctum/3.1) represents an original steel-yard found at Pompeii.

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  Punctum/2.1
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  Punctum/3.1