A dictionary of Greek and Roman . by reapers,was called falx messoria; the scythe, which wasemployed in mowing hay, was called falx foenaria;the pruning-knife and the bill, on account of theiruse in dressing vines, as well as in hedging and incutting oif the shoots and branches of trees, weredistinguished by the appellation of falx putatoria,vinitoria, arboraria, or silvatica (Cato, De Re , 11 ; Pallad. i. 43 ; Colum. iv. 25), or by thediminutive falcula. (Colum. xii. 18.) A rare coin published by Pellerin (Med. de Rois,Par. 1762. p. 208) shows the head of one of theLagida
A dictionary of Greek and Roman . by reapers,was called falx messoria; the scythe, which wasemployed in mowing hay, was called falx foenaria;the pruning-knife and the bill, on account of theiruse in dressing vines, as well as in hedging and incutting oif the shoots and branches of trees, weredistinguished by the appellation of falx putatoria,vinitoria, arboraria, or silvatica (Cato, De Re , 11 ; Pallad. i. 43 ; Colum. iv. 25), or by thediminutive falcula. (Colum. xii. 18.) A rare coin published by Pellerin (Med. de Rois,Par. 1762. p. 208) shows the head of one of theLagidae, kings of Egypt, wearing the Diadema,and on the reverse a man cutting down corn witha sickle. (See woodcut.) The lower figure in the same woodcut is takenfrom the MSS. of Columella, and illustrates hisdescription of the various parts of the falx vinitoria.(De 25. ,) [Culter.]The curvature in the fore part of the blade is ex-pressed by Virgil in the phrase procurva falx.(Georg. ii. 421.) After the removal of a branch. by the pruning-hook, it was often smoothed, asin modern gardening, by the chisel. ( Arbor. 10.) [Dolabra.] The edge of thefalx was often toothed or serrated (apirrju nap-XapoSoura, Hesiod, Theog. 174, 179 ; denticulata,Colum. De Re Rust. ii. 21). The indispensableprocess of sharpening these instruments (apTrr]i>Xapacr(T€, Hesiod, Op. 573 ; apvr\v ]yea, Apoll. Rhod. iii. 1388) was effected bywhetstones which the Romans obtained fromCrete and other distant places, with the additionof oil or water which the mower (foenisex) car-ried in a horn upon his thigh. (Plin. H. N. ) Numerous as were the uses to which the falxwas applied in agriculture and horticulture, itsemployment in battle was almost equally varied,though not so frequent. The Geloni were notedfor its use. (Claudian, De Laud. Stil. i. 110.) Itwas the weapon with which Jupiter woundedTyphon (Apollod. i. 6) ; with which Herculesslew the Lern
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Keywords: ., bookauthorsmithwilliam18131893, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1840
