A dictionary of Greek and Roman . CETRA, or CAETRA (Wrpea, Hesych.), atarget, i. e. a small round shield, made of the hideof a quadruped. (Isid. Orig. xviii. 12 ; Q. Curt,iii. 4.) It was also worn by the people of Spain(cetratae Hispaniae cohortes, Caes. B. C. i. 39, 48)and Mauritania. By the latter people it wassometimes made from the skin of the elephant.(Strab. xvii. p. 828.) From these accounts, andfrom the distinct assertion of Tacitus (Agric. 36)that it was used by the Britons, we may with con-fidence identify the cetra with the target of theScottish Highlanders, of which m
A dictionary of Greek and Roman . CETRA, or CAETRA (Wrpea, Hesych.), atarget, i. e. a small round shield, made of the hideof a quadruped. (Isid. Orig. xviii. 12 ; Q. Curt,iii. 4.) It was also worn by the people of Spain(cetratae Hispaniae cohortes, Caes. B. C. i. 39, 48)and Mauritania. By the latter people it wassometimes made from the skin of the elephant.(Strab. xvii. p. 828.) From these accounts, andfrom the distinct assertion of Tacitus (Agric. 36)that it was used by the Britons, we may with con-fidence identify the cetra with the target of theScottish Highlanders, of which many specimens ofconsiderable antiquity are still in existence. It isseen covering the left arms (comp. Virg. A en. vii. 732) of the two accompanying figures, whichare copied from a MS. of Prudentius, probablywritten in this country, and as early as the ninthcentury. (Cod. Cotton. Cleop. c. 8.) It does not appear that the Romans ever worethe cetra. But Livy compares it to the pelta ofthe Greeks and Macedonians, which was also a 270 small light shield (cetratos, quos peltastas vacant,xxxi. 36). [Pelta.] [J. Y.] CHALCEIA (xaA/ce?a), a very ancient festivalcelebrated at Athens, which at different timesseems to have had a different character, for at firstit was solemnised in honour of Athena, surnamedErgane, and by the whole people of Athens,whence it was called Adrjj/aia or Ududr](Suidas, s. v. ; Etymol. Magn.; Eustath. ad II. 284, 36.) At a later period, however, it wascelebrated only by artisans, especially smiths, andin honour of Hephaestus, whence its name waschanged into XaXKeTa. (Pollux, vii. 105.) It waskept on the 30th day of the month of Pyanepsion.(Suidas, Harpocrat. Eustath. I. c.) Menander hadwritten a comedy called XaXicela., a fragment ofwhich is preserved in Athen. xi. p. 502. (, Die Aeschyl. Trilog. p. 290.) [L. S.] CHALCFDICUM is merely defined by Festus(s. v.) as a sort of building (genus aedificii), socalled from the city of
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