Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Torus

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. 

TOR'US. Any full and swelling protuberance, like the convexity of a muscle (Cic. Tusc. ii. 9.), of an overcharged vein (Cels. vii. 18.); or the strand of a rope (Cato, R. R. 135. 4. Columell. xi. 3. 6.); whence the following more special applications acquire their meaning.

2. A mattress or stuffed bed for lying and sleeping upon (Plin. H. N. viii. 73. Ov. Fast. ii. 795.); so termed from the swelling undulations produced in it by the stitches of the quilting, as represented by the example (Torus/2.1), which is copied from a marble bas-relief.

3. In architecture, a swelling moulding, similar in form to the astragal, but of larger dimensions, which was employed in the bases of columns, where it presents the appearance of a swollen vein, or of a round cushion swelling out from the superincumbent weight. When more than one torus was applied, as in the annexed example (Torus/3.1) of an Attic base, a hollow moulding or scotia was placed between them, and the upper one was distinguished from the lower by the respective names of torus superior and inferior. Vitruv. iv. 7. 3. iii. 5. 2.

4. A swelling protuberance in the circle of a festoon (sertum) or of a chaplet (corona), produced by ribands tied round it at intervals, which break up the even outline into a number of separate and undulating parts, as shown by the annexed example (Torus/4.1) from a marble bas-relief. Hence Cicero applies the term figuratively to certain oratorical ornaments in speaking, which interrupt and diversify the even tenor of a discourse. Cic. Or. 6.

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  Torus/2.1
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  Torus/3.1
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  Torus/4.1