A dictionary of Greek and Roman . lumn of Trajan, will afford an ideaof the general method of construction and form ofthese bridges, of which there are several designsupon the same monument, all of which greatly re-semble each other. When the Comitia were held, the voters, in orderto reach the enclosure called septum and ovile,passed over a wooden platform, elevated above theground, which was called pons suffragiorum, inorder that they might be able to give their voteswithout confusion or collusion. Pons is also used to signify the platform (eVz-€ddpa, airoSddpa) used for embarki
A dictionary of Greek and Roman . lumn of Trajan, will afford an ideaof the general method of construction and form ofthese bridges, of which there are several designsupon the same monument, all of which greatly re-semble each other. When the Comitia were held, the voters, in orderto reach the enclosure called septum and ovile,passed over a wooden platform, elevated above theground, which was called pons suffragiorum, inorder that they might be able to give their voteswithout confusion or collusion. Pons is also used to signify the platform (eVz-€ddpa, airoSddpa) used for embarking in or dis-embarking from, a ship. Tnterea Aeneas socios de puppibus altisPontibus exponit. Virg. Aen. x. 288. The method of using these pontes is representedin the annexed woodcut, taken from a very curiousintaglio representing the history of the Trojan war,discovered at Bovillae towards the latter end of the17th century ; which is given by Fabretti, Syntagmade Column. Trajani, p. 315. (See further, Hirt,Lelire der Gebdude, § x.) [A. R.]. PONTIFEX (UpoBLddcrKaXos, iepovo/uios, Upo-<pv\a£, UpocpduT-ns). The origin of this word isexplained in various ways. Q. Scaevola, who washimself pontifex maximus, derived it from posseand facere, and Varro from pons, because the pon-tiffs, he says, had built the pons snblicius, andafterwards frequently restored it, that it might be 940 PONTIFEX. PONTIFEX. possible to perform sacrifices on each side of theTiber. (Varro, de Ling. Lat. v. 83, ed. Miiller ;Dionys. ii. 73.) This statement is, however, con-tradicted by the tradition which ascribes the build-ing of the pons sublicius to Ancus Martius (Liv. ), at a time when the pontiffs had long existedand borne this name. Gottling (Gesch. d. p. 173) thinks that pontifex is only anotherform for pompifex, which would characterise thepontiffs only as the managers and conductors ofpublic processions and solemnities. But it seemsfar more probable that the word is formed frompo
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