Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Vinea

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. 

VI'NEA. A shed employed by the Roman soldiers to protect themselves from the missiles of the enemy, whilst occupied in undermining or breaching the walls of a fortress. It had a sloping roof of planks and wicker-work supported upon uprights, and was closed on three of its sides by similar materials, the whole frame being covered outside with raw hides or horse-hair cloth, to insure it from being set on fire. Each vinea, by itself, was about eight feet high and sixteen in length; but a sufficient number of them were joined together in a line, and run up close to the walls, so that the ram and other engines could be securely plied against the foundations underneath them. Caes. B.C. ii. 2. Liv. xxxvii. 26. Veg. Mil. iv. 15.