Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Signum

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. 

SIG'NUM (σημεῖον). In a general sense, any mark, sign, or signal by which something is known; whence the following more special applications have obtained.

1. An image or figure, whether of metal, marble, wrought, cast, sculptured, or embroidered (Cic. Verr. ii. 4. 1. Virg. Aen. ix. 263. Ib. i. 648. Plin. Ep. i. 20. 5.); but strictly used to designate the image of a deity (Plin. Ep. ix. 39.), as contradistinguished from statua, an image of men. Inscrip. ap. Grut. 174. 8. SIGNUM MARTIS ET STATUAM SIBI POSUIT.

2. The image or device engraved upon a seal, and the signet or impression made by it. (Cic. Cat. iii. 5. Id. Quint. 6. id. Att. ix. 10.) The example (Signum/2.1) is from an original.

3. The sign of a shop (Quint. vi. 3. 38.); indicating, by some emblematical representation, the nature of the business carried on inside, like the annexed example (Signum/3.1) of two men carrying an amphora, which is executed in terra-cotta, and forms the sign of a wine-shop at Pompeii. A milkman's in the same town is distinguished by the sign of a boy milking a goat.

4. A constellation or sign in the heavens, formed by a group of stars apparently representing the form of certain animals; as in the annexed illustration (Signum/4.1), from a statue of Atlas with the heavens on his shoulders. Ov. Fast. v. 113. Id. Met. xiii. 619.

5. Signa militaria. Military standards or ensigns, including in reality, the eagle (aquila), which was the general ensign of the entire legion, but more commonly used with reference to the different standards belonging to each separate maniple and cohort, as distinct from the eagle. (Cic. Cat. ii. 6. Tac. Hist. 11. 29. Id. Ann. i. 18.) The illustration (Signum/5.1), from a medal, shows the eagle between two standards of cohorts; the name of each ensign is enumerated in the Classed Index, and an example given under its own denomination.

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  Signum/2.1
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  Signum/3.1
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  Signum/4.1
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  Signum/5.1