Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Rota

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. 

ROT'A (τροχός). A wheel; made in the same form as now, and composed of the following members:  — modiolus, the nave; radius, the spokes; absides, the felloes; canthus or orbis, the tire; all of which are distinctly marked in the annexed figure (Rota/1.1), representing an original wheel now preserved in the cabinet of antiquities at Vienna.

2. The expression, insistere rotis (Virg. Georg. iii. 114.), literally "to stand upon, or over, the wheels," is not a merely poetical figure of speech, but a graphical description of the manner in which the ancient car (currus) was driven by its charioteer, whose posture was always a standing and not a sitting one, as shown by the annexed example (Rota/2.1) from a terra-cotta lamp. Thus Martyn's translation of the above passage — "to sit victorious over the rapid wheels" — is not only incorrect as regards Latinity, but suggests an image at direct variance with the words of the poet.

3. The wheel of torture; an instrument of punishment employed by the Greeks, by which the victim, being bound to the spokes, was then whirled round with a rapid rotation till sensation or life became extinct, as exhibited by the annexed example (Rota/3.1) from a Greek bas-relief representing Ixion, who was condemned to the wheel by Jupiter for his ingratitude and other overt acts. Cic. Tusc. v. 9. Apul. Met. iii. p. 48. Tibul. i. 3. 74.

4. Rota aquaria. A water wheel, for raising water from a flowing stream, and which works itself by the action of the current (Lucret. v. 517.). Wheels of this nature, of very simple construction, but agreeing exactly with the description of Vitruvius (x. 5.), are still employed in many countries, of which the following example (Rota/4.1), representing a water wheel commonly met with in China, will afford a very clear notion. The wheel itself is made entirely of bamboo, and consists of two concentric rims, between which are affixed small paddles or float boards (pinnae), which turn the wheel as they are urged by the current. On the outer circumference (frons) are situated a certain number of scoops (haustra), made out of single joints of the bamboo, in place of which the Romans used wooden boxes (modioli) or earthenware jars (rotarum cadi). (Non. s. Haustra, p. 13.) As the wheel revolves these are filled by immersion; and being placed with a slight inclination upon the wheels, when they rise to the summit of revolution they are forced to discharge their contents into a receiving-trough which conducts the water into a reservoir, or into canals on the level of the high land.

5. Rota figularis. A potter's wheel (Plaut. Epid. iii. 2. 35.) laid horizontally, as a table, the mass of clay, out of which the vase is to be formed, being situated upon it, and fashioned by the hands of the workman, as the rotatory motion of the wheel (currente rota. Hor. A. P. 21.) would readily assist in producing any circular form either for the inside or the outside. The process is clearly shown by the annexed example (Rota/5.1) from an Egyptian painting, which exhibits a potter sitting on the ground before his wheel, with the lump of clay, marked in a darker tint, upon it, gradually forming into shape; the hollow part of the inside being scooped by the thumb of the right hand, and the outside rounded by the palm of the left one — a process precisely similar to what may be seen every day in our own potteries.

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  Rota/1.1
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  Rota/2.1
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  Rota/3.1
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  Rota/4.1
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  Rota/5.1