. The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary and Greek lexicon; forming a glossary of all the words representing visible objects connected with the arts, manufactures, and every-day life of the Greeks and Romans, with representations of nearly two thousand objects from the antique. tshield called pelta; but the namewas also specially given to a particu-lar class of the Greek soldiery whowere equipped with this defence(Liv. xxviii. 5. xxxi. 36.), composedoriginally of Thracian mercenaries,but subsequently adopted into theregular army by Iphicrates the Athe-nian. (Xen. Hell. iv. 4. 16. v.
. The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary and Greek lexicon; forming a glossary of all the words representing visible objects connected with the arts, manufactures, and every-day life of the Greeks and Romans, with representations of nearly two thousand objects from the antique. tshield called pelta; but the namewas also specially given to a particu-lar class of the Greek soldiery whowere equipped with this defence(Liv. xxviii. 5. xxxi. 36.), composedoriginally of Thracian mercenaries,but subsequently adopted into theregular army by Iphicrates the Athe-nian. (Xen. Hell. iv. 4. 16. v. ) In addition to the pelta, theycarried a knife or dirk, but had nobody armour (Herod, vii. 75.), andthus occupied an intermediate gradebetween the heavy-armed troops(67rAn-ai) and those who were alto-gether unprovided with protectivearms (^iXol). (Polyb. v. 22. Ib. 25.) The left-hand figure ofPriam in the annexed illustration,from a marble bas-relief, exhibits anAsiatic peltasta, whose costume cor-responds very closely with the de-scription of Herodotus (I. c.) ; andthe right-hand one, from a terra*cotta lamp, represents a gladiator ofthe class called Thracians (Thraces), 486 PELTATA. PENATES. who were equipped in the same styleas the soldiers of that country; and,. consequently, may be received alsoas an exemplification of the accoutre-ments and general appearance pre-sented by the military belonging tothe corps in question. PELTATA. In a general sense,any female who bears the small lightshield called pelta; but more espe-cially used to designate a femalewarrior of Amazonian race, to whomit is universally attributed by poetsand artists as the national arm of de-fence. Ov. Her. xxi. 117. Am. 2. Mart. ix. 102. Compare xii. 761., where peltifera isused in the same sense. The illus-tration represents two Amazons,
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1840, booksubjectclassicaldictionarie
