Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Rostrum

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. 

ROS'TRUM (ῥύσχος). Literally, the snout of a beast, especially of swine, and the bill of birds; whence the term is transferred to various artificial objects, resembling in form, or in the uses to which they are applied, either of the natural organs above mentioned; as: —

1. (ἔμβολος). The beak, as it is called by us, of a ship of war, made of bronze, or sometimes of iron, and intended to act against the timbers of an enemy's vessel, like the battering-ram against a wall (Liv. Hor. Hirt. Plin. &c.). In early warfare it consisted of a single beam, shod at the end with a metal head, mostly representing some animals, as exhibited by the annexed example (Rostrum/1.1), from an original, perhaps unique, which was found at the bottom of the port of Genoa, and is supposed to have been sunk there in the battle fought between the Genoese and Mago the Carthaginian. It projected from the head of the vessel at a certain elevation above the keel and water's edge, in the manner shown by the woodcut at p. 442. But when the system of naval warfare was perfected, it was formed by several projecting beams, cased with sharp metal points, sometimes employed alone, and sometimes in addition to the one last described; but either situated on the same level as the keel, or depressed below it, so that every fracture not only damaged the vessel, but made a fearful leak below the water. All these properties are exhibited by the annexed illustration (Rostrum/1.2), from two Roman medals, the one on the left showing the rostrum on the same line with the keel, according to the construction adopted during the Punic war; that on the right, with the original rostrum, in the form of a bird's head, above, and the improved and more formidable one underneath it, depressed below the bottom of the vessel, according to the construction employed in the age of Augustus. Scheffer, Mil. Nav. ii. 5.

2. Rostra, plural (οἱ ἔμβολοι, Polyb. vi. 53, 1.). The rostra; a name given to the tribune in the Roman forum, from which public men addressed the people, because it was ornamented with ships' beaks taken from the people of Antium in the Latin war (Liv. viii. 14. Varro, L. L. v. 155. Cic. Caes., &c.). The illustration (Rostrum/2.1) from a coin of the Lollian gens (probably the M. Lollius Palicanus mentioned by Cicero. Verr. ii. 41.), though exceedingly deficient in respect of accurate details, will nevertheless enable us to conceive a notion of the form and character which this celebrated structure possessed. It is plainly indicated by the sweeping direction of the lines drawn across the coin that the building was a circular one, with a parapet and a platform at the top on which an elevated stand was placed, the whole being supported upon arches, the piers of which were ornamented with the beaks of the vessels above mentioned. It must have been ascended by a flight of steps, and probably there was one on each side of it, so that the whole structure would resemble very closely the ambones or pulpits, still to be seen in several of the earliest Christian churches at Rome.

3. The crooked and pointed end of a vine-dresser's bill-hook (falx vinitoria), that is, the point which is turned uppermost in the annexed example (Rostrum/3.1), from an ancient MS. of Columella, and which bears a close resemblance to the beak of certain birds of prey. Columell. iv. 25. 3.

4. The curved end of the primitive Roman plough, used for light soils, formed from the limb of a tree, either naturally or artificially bent into a crook, and when necessary, shod with iron at its extremity; as is very clearly displayed by the annexed figure (Rostrum/4.1), from a small Etruscan bronze, found at Arezzo. Plin. H. N. xviii. 48.

5. The nozzle of an oil lamp (lucerna), through which the wick projects, and which is usually made with a curved line rising from the body of the object, not unlike the beak of a bird, as exhibited by the annexed example (Rostrum/5.1) from an original Roman lamp. Plin. H. N. xxviii. 46.

6. The head of a smith's hammer or mallet (malleus); in which case the analogy is deduced from the application, not from the form, of the instrument; because it is the part with which the shock is given, in allusion to the rostrum of a ship, as exemplified by the annexed illustration (Rostrum/6.1), representing smiths at the anvil, from a bas-relief. Plin. H. N. xxxiv. 41.

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  Rostrum/1.1
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  Rostrum/1.2
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  Rostrum/2.1
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  Rostrum/3.1
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  Rostrum/4.1
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  Rostrum/5.1
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  Rostrum/6.1