Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Hasta
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.
HASTA (ἔγχος). A spear; used as a pike for thrusting, and as a missile to be thrown from the hand. It consisted of three separate parts: the head (cuspis, αἰχμή and ἐπιδορατίς) of bronze or iron; the shaft (hastile, δόρυ) of ash or other wood; and a metal point at the butt end (spiculum, σαυρωτήρ or στύραξ), which served to fix it upright in the ground, or as an offensive arm if the regular head got broken off. (Polyb. vi. 25.) The top figure in the annexed illustration (Hasta/1.1) represents a Roman spearhead, from an excavation in Lincolnshire; the centre one, a point for the butt end, from a fictile vase; and the lowest, the whole spear, with the three parts put together. The manner in which it was hurled is shown by the annexed engraving (Hasta/1.2), from the Vatican Virgil, intended to represent the attack and defence of a fortified post; while at the same time it illustrates and explains the more special terms adopted for describing the action employed. It will be observed that the figure on the ground has the inside of the hand turned outwards, or from himself, so that in such a position he must have discharged his spear with a sort of twist to give it impetus, which is expressed by the phrases rotare (Stat. Theb. ix. 102.), or torquere (Virg. Aen. x. 585. xii. 536.); those above have the back of the hand turned outwards, and the little finger, instead of the thumb, towards the head of the spear, which represents the ordinary manner of throwing the missile, expressed by jacere, jactare, mittere, &c.; when held and poised at the centre of gravity, with the back of the hand turned downwards, in order to take an aim before the cast, in which case the point and butt would alternately rise and sink, like the beam of a balance (libra), the action was designated by the word librare, Virg. Aen. xix. 417. ix. 479., which passage makes a pointed distinction between jacere and librare.
2. Hasta amentata. (Cic. De Orat. i. 57.) A spear furnished with a thong to assist in hurling it. AMENTUM, and illustration.
3. Hasta ansata. (Ennius ap. Non. p. 556.) A spear with a handle fixed on the shaft, to assist in thrusting and hurling. ANSATUS, 2. and illustration.
4. Hasta velitaris (γρόσφος). The spear or dart employed by the light-armed troops of the Roman armies, the shaft of which was about three feet long, and of the thickness of a finger, whilst the head was not more than a span in length, but so thin and finely acuminated, that it bent immediately upon coming in contact with any thing which offered solid resistance; consequently, if the soldier missed his aim, it was useless to the enemy, and could not be thrown back again. (Liv. xxxviii. 20. Plin. H. N. xxviii. 6. Polyb. vi. 22.) The head of one of these weapons is shown by the illustration (Hasta/4.1), from an original found in a Roman entrenchment at Meon Hill in Gloucestershire.
5. Hasta Pura. A spear without a head (cuspis), like the old Greek sceptre (sceptrum), which the Roman general used to bestow as an honorary reward upon a soldier who had distinguished himself in battle. (Tac. Ann. iii. 21. Virg. Aen. vi. 760. Serv. ad l. Suet. Claud. 28.) The illustration (Hasta/5.1) is copied from a painting in the sepulchre of the Nasonian family near Rome.
6. Hasta praepĭlata, with the antepenult short. A spear with the point muffled, or covered with a button or ball (pila) at the end, like our foils (Plin. H. N. viii. 6.), used by soldiers at their exercises (Hist. B. Afr. 72.), and at reviews or sham fights. Liv. xxvi. 51.
7. Hasta pampinea. The thyrsus of Bacchus, so termed because it was originally a spear with its head buried in vine leaves (Virg. Aen. vii. 396. Calpurn. Ecl. x. 65.), as in the annexed example (Hasta/7.1) from a Pompeian painting.
8. Hasta graminea (κάμαξ). A spear made of the tall Indian reed, which it was usual to place in the hands of colossal statues of Minerva, on account of its imposing length and size. Cic. Verr. ii. 4. 56.
9. Hasta caelibaris. A spear, with the point of which the Roman bridegroom parted the hair of his betrothed on the marriage day. (Festus s. v. Ovid. Fast. ii. 560. hasta recurva.) The epithet "hooked" or "bent," which Ovid applies to this instrument, plainly intimates that it was not an ordinary spear that was used for the purpose, but the rustic spear, or SPARUM, which see.
10. Hasta publica. A spear set up as the sign of a public auction when goods were publicly disposed of to the highest bidder (Nep. Att. xxv. 6. Cic. Off. ii. 8.); a practice arising from the predatory habits of the old Romans, who, when they disposed of the plunder taken in war, planted a spear by the side of the booty, to indicate whence the right of ownership accrued.
11. Hasta centumviralis. A spear which it was customary to set up as an emblem of authority in the courts of the centumviri; whence the expression, centumviralem hastam erigere, means to summon the centumvirs to their judgment-seats; or, in other words, to open their court. Suet. Aug. 36. Mart. vii. 63.
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