Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Expediti

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. 

EXPEDI'TI. Literally, free and unencumbered; whence applied, in military language, as a descriptive name for the light-armed troops in general (velites, Festus, s. Advelitatio); or to the heavy-armed legionaries (Sisenn. ap. Non. s. v. p. 58. Cic. Att. viii. 9.), when equipped for rapid march; i. e. when the more cumbrous parts of their accoutrements and luggage (impedimenta) were transported in carts, and their offensive and defensive arms disposed about the person in the way most convenient for rapidity of transit. The annexed figure (Expediti/1.1), representing one of the legionary soldiers in the army of Trajan in a hurried line of march, compared with the illustration to IMPEDITUS, will afford a precise notion of the meaning conveyed by the term.

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