Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Trivium

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. 

TRIV'IUM (τρίοδος). A spot where three streets or roads meet from opposite directions. (Cic. Div. i. 54.) When strictly applied, the term has a more especial reference to the streets of a town (Virg. Aen. iv. 609. Justin. xxi. 5.), as opposed to compitum (Cic. Agr. i. 3.), which refers to the convergence of cross-roads in the country. But this distinction is not rigorously observed; for trivium is often used in both senses, of a public and much-frequented highway, either in a town or country; whence the Latin word trivialis, and our own "trivial," acquire their secondary meanings of vulgar or common-place; that is, literally, which may be met with in any public and thronged thoroughfare. The illustration (Trivium/1.1) affords a view in the city of Pompeii, with three streets, in the second distance, converging to a point.

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  Trivium/1.1