Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Vallum

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. 

VALLUM (χαράκωμα). A palisade, made by the stocks of young trees with their lateral branches shortened and sharpened at the point, so as to form a sort of chevaux de frize; usually planted by the Greeks and Romans on the outer edge of the mound of earth (agger) thrown up as a rampart round their camps (Liv. xxxiii. 5. Polyb. xvii. 1. 1.); whence the term is frequently used to designate collectively the mound of earth with the palisade upon it. In the illustration a p. 16., from Trajan's column, the vallum is formed by mere straight poles sharpened at the top, which must be regarded as a caprice of the artist, or else the ancient practice had been departed from at the period when those sculptures were designed.