Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Scena (hatchet)

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. 

SCE'NA or SACE'NA. An old Latin name for the double-edged hatchet, employed in killing the victim at a sacrifice, having the broad blade of an axe (securis) on one side, and the small cutting edge of the dolabra on the other, as exhibited by the annexed specimen (Scena_2/1.1) from a bas-relief of the Villa Borghese. Festus observes (s. v.) that the scena was evidently a cutting instrument (genus cultri), but whether belonging to the class of secures or dolabrae was to him a matter of doubt. Yet the passage which he quotes from Livius Andronicus  — corruit, quasi ictus scena  — evidently expresses an instrument which dealt out a blow rather than a gash or stab, precisely such as would be conveyed by the one exhibited in the woodcut, which also accounts for the uncertainty entertained respecting the actual character of the instrument, by the fact of its possessing both the qualities mentioned, that of cutting as well as striking.

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  Scena 2/1.1