Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Vara

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. 

VA'RA (σταλίς). A stake with a fork or crutch at the top, employed by huntsmen to set their nets upon, when they had to enclose a tract of country, in the manner represented by the annexed engraving (Vara/1.1) from a marble bas-relief. Lucan. iv. 439.

2. (κιλλίβας). A horse or trestle; formed by two or more uprights converging from below to a point at the top, so as to form a frame within which any thing might be suspended (Vitruv. x. 13. 2.); or to make a stand upon which a cross-piece (vibia) might be supported (Columell. v. 9. 2.), such as used by painters, plasterers, paper-hangers, and carpenters, for a sawing-jack, which is represented by the annexed engraving (Vara/2.1) from a painting found at Herculaneum.

3. An andiron, across which the logs of wood are laid for a wood fire, or a spit (veru) supported for roasting meat. (Riddle's English-Latin Dictionary.) There is no actual authority extant for this usage of the word, but the annexed example (Vara/3.1), from an original of iron, discovered in a tomb at Paestum, proves that the ancients made use of andirons in the same manner as the moderns, while the form and use of the article correspond minutely with the other objects comprised under the same name. Two smaller specimens, believed to have been used for supporting a spit, have been excavated at Pompeii: they are made of bronze, and more ornamental in character, having the head of an animal as a termination to the extremity. Mus. Borb. x. 64.

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  Vara/1.1
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  Vara/2.1
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  Vara/3.1