Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Fascia

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. 

FAS'CIA. In a general sense, any long narrow strip of cloth employed as a bandage; such, for instance, as the swaddling-band (σπάργανον) in which the ancients were accustomed to envelope the bodies of newly-born children. (Plaut. Truc. v. 13. Compare Amphitr. v. 1. 52.) It consisted of a long and narrow cloth-band twined, like a mummy, completely round the body from head to foot, so as to leave nothing but the face uncovered, as is plainly shown by the annexed engraving (Fascia/1.1), representing an infant which is held in the arms of a tragic actress, in a Pompeian painting, and resembling in every respect the manner in which an Italian peasant woman swaddles her offspring at the present day.

2. A band worn round the head as an emblem of royalty (Seneca, Ep. 80.); more specially termed DIADEMA.

3. (ἀποδέσμος). A bandage fastened round the chests of young girls, in order to restrain the growth of the bosom by its pressure (Mart. Ep. xiv. 134. Ov. A. Am. iii. 247. Prop. iv. 9. 49.); a subdued breast being considered essential to grace and beauty in the young female figure. It was worn next to the skin, as shown by the two examples (Fascia/3.1) here annexed. The front view is copied from a bronze statuette (Caylus, vi. 71.), and the back one from a Pompeian painting, in which it is coloured red. But it is not to be considered as a part of the ordinary dress, nor of universal use, either in Greece or Italy; being only applied where the person inclined to excessive developement, or by mothers over anxious to promote the personal attractions of their daughters. Ter. Eun. ii. 3. 21.

4. A bandage fastened round the leg from the knee to the ankle (crus, Quint. xi. 3. 144. Val. Max. vi. 2. 7. whence termed cruralis, Ulp. Dig. 34. 2. 25.), like the annexed example (Fascia/4.1), from a consular diptych. It was not worn as an ordinary part of the national costume; but only upon certain occasions, or by particular individuals; as a legging for persons in delicate health (Quint. l. c.), or whose occupations made it necessary that the skin and leg should be well protected by some defence which would not impede agility of movement, like the drivers in the Circus, of which an example is afforded by the engraving; or those who followed the active and perilous sports of the field (Grat. Cyneg. 338. Pet. Sat. 405.), of which an instance occurs in the Vatican Virgil, where Aeneas, when equipped for a hunting excursion with the queen of Carthage, has his legs protected by bandages exactly like those of the charioteer here introduced.

5. (ποδεῖον, or πόδειον). A sock or stocking (Cic. Fragm. ap. Non. s. Calantica. Lamprid. Alex. Sev. 40.), which entirely enveloped the foot, and was worn with shoes (Cic. Att. ii. 3. Varro. ap. Non. s. Ephippium, p. 108.), and more particularly by women. (Cic. Fragm. l. c.) It appears on the legs of several female figures amongst the Pompeian paintings, one of which is represented by the annexed engraving (Fascia/5.1); where, it will not fail to be observed, the material is evidently elastic, since it fits tight to the leg, but does not lace in front; that it has no sole, and is fastened by a sort of band or garter at the top, thus intimately resembling the hose of a Scotch highlander, whose costume, in more respects than one, betokens a very early original; and if the sock of the ancients, as is not improbable, was ornamented by a checked pattern, like the Scotch one, which imitates the interlacing of a bandage, it would explain why it was called fascia pedulis (Ulp. Dig. 34. 2. 25.), which assuredly means "a sock," for the same term "la pedule" is retained in the modern Italian language to designate the foot part of a stocking.

6. A band of coarse and strong cloth forming what is now called the sacking, or ticking, which supports the mattress of a couch or bed. (Cic. Div. ii. 65.) Several of these bands were stretched across the framework, and interlaced with cords (restes) to strain them tight, in the same manner as still practised. This is clearly to be inferred from Mart. Ep. v. 62.

7. An imaginary circle in the heavens; also called CIRCULUS and ZONA; which see. Mart. Capell. vi. 196.

8. A dark belt of clouds forming round the horizon, indicative of bad weather. Juv. Sat. xiv. 294.

9. In architecture; the fascia, or facia, as it is now called, is a member produced by dividing an even surface into separate parts, which thus possess an appearance of long flat bands lying parallel to each other. They are frequently introduced in architraves, more especially of the Ionic, Corinthian, and Composite orders, which are divided into two or three of these bands, as in the annexed example (Fascia/9.1), from the temple of Bacchus at Teos, thence termed respectively the first, second, and third fascia, beginning from the lowest. Vitruv. iii. 5. 10.

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  Fascia/1.1
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  Fascia/3.1
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  Fascia/4.1
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  Fascia/5.1
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  Fascia/9.1