Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Sceptrum

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. 

SCEP'TRUM (σκῆπτρον). Strictly a Greek word, for which the Romans frequently use another form of the same Greek root, scipio; though both words bear a very similar signification. The original sceptrum was a long staff, like the shaft of a spear (Justin. xliii. 3.), formed from a sapling or young tree, cut down to the roots (Virg. Aen. xii. 206.), which in early times served for support in walking, while its imposing length gave an air of importance to the person who bore it, as is well exemplified by the illustration (Sceptrum/1.1), which represents Agamemnon with a staff of the nature described, from a bas-relief of Greek workmanship.

2. A sceptre; the emblem of royal authority (Cic. Sext. 57.); consequently ascribed to Jupiter (Suet. Aug. 94.), Juno, kings, and actors on the stage (Plin. H. N. xxxvii. 6.) who personated them; and which, in its original form, was nothing more than a long staff, like the preceding one, converted into an ornament of state by the addition of a decorative head-piece, like the example annexed (Sceptrum/2.1), representing Latinus in the Vatican Virgil.

3. Sceptrum eburneum. An ivory sceptre; especially the royal sceptre introduced at Rome by the kings of the Etruscan dynasty, and subsequently appropriated to themselves by the consuls of the republic. (Serv. ad Virg. Aen. xi. 238.) This was much shorter than the primitive Greek sceptre, as is shown by the annexed example (Sceptrum/3.1), from an engraved gem, representing Porsena sitting in judgment upon Mucius Scaevola; and is more commonly designated by the Latin word scipio, instead of the purely Greek one sceptrum. Liv. v. 41. Val. Max. iv. 4. § 5.

4. Sceptrum Augusti. (Suet. Galb. 1.) The imperial and triumphal sceptre; which was not identical with the regal and consular ones, but was decorated with the figure of an eagle on the top (Juv. x. 43.), and was carried by a victorius general at his triumph, during the republican period, as well as by the emperors generally under the empire, as shown by the annexed example (Sceptrum/4.1), representing Antoninus, from the base of the column erected in his honor.

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  Sceptrum/1.1
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  Sceptrum/2.1
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  Sceptrum/3.1
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  Sceptrum/4.1