Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Virga

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. 

VIRGA (ῥάβδος). Literally, a green bough (Varro, R. R. i. 594.); whence applied to various objects, which are made from a long straight branch cut off from the tree, corresponding with our terms a wand, rod, switch, amongst which the most characteristic are as follows: —

1. A switch for riding (Mart. ix. 23.) or driving (Juv. iii. 317.), thin and tapering, without any thong, as in the annexed example (Virga/1.1), from a fictile vase.

2. A switch or cane for punishing boys at school (Juv. vii. 210.), or for carrying in the hand as a walking-cane (Ov. Fast. ii. 706.); but smaller, lighter, and shorter than the regular walking-stick or staff (baculum), as exemplified by the annexed example (Virga/2.1), from a Pompeian painting representing Ulysses.

3. A stick, which the lictor carried in his right hand for the purpose of clearing the way before the magistrate on whom he attended, and of knocking at the doors of the houses where the magistrate visited. (Liv. vi. 34. Compare Mart. viii. 66.) The example (Virga/3.1) is from a sepulchral bas-relief.

4. A wand, carried as a mark of distinction by persons of consequence, such as poets or the principal actors in a play; or by those in authority, such as the master or overseer of a band of workmen, who in works of art is always distinguished from his men by this badge; or the trainer of a band of gladiators, always distinguished by the same emblem, and one of whom is represented by the annexed figure (Virga/4.1), from a Roman mosaic. Serv. ad Virg. Aen. iv. 242.

5. A magic wand, such as was attributed to Mercury (Hor. Od. i. 10. 18.) and to Circe (Virg. Aen. iv. 242., with which she transformed the companions of Ulysses into swine, as represented by the illustration (Virga/5.1), from a marble bas-relief.

6. Virgae (αἱ ῥάβδοι), in the plural; the rods of birch or elm which formed a lictor's fasces, and with which a criminal was beaten. Plin. H. N. xvi. 30. Cic. Verr. ii. 5. 62. FASCIS, 2.

7. Plural. The ribs upon which an umbrella or parasol is extended. Ov. A. Am. ii. 209. UMBELLA.

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  Virga/1.1
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  Virga/2.1
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  Virga/3.1
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  Virga/4.1
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  Virga/5.1