Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Linea

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. 

LI'NEA. In general a thread, line, or string; whence the following more special senses: —

1. (ὁρμιά). A fishing-line (Mart. iii. 58. 28.) made of strong hair (seta, Avian. Fab. xx. 1.) or flax twisted into thread (linum, Ov. Met. xiii. 923). The example (Linea/1.1) represents an angler in a Pompeian painting.

2. A line which sportsmen extended along a given tract of country, with a number of different coloured feathers tied on it, for the purpose of frightening the game, and to deter them from breaking out in the direction where it was placed. Grat. Cyneg. 27. and 83. Nemes. 303. Same as FORMIDO.

3. (στάθμη). A carpenter's or stone mason's line, which is a string covered with chalk, and used for striking a straight mark upon a board or slab by which to direct the course of the saw; or for measuring generally Pallad. iii. 9. 10. Vitruv. vii. 3. 5. Cic. Q. Fr. iii. 1. 1.

4. Alba linea (γραμμή). A rope whitened with chalk, and drawn across the opening of a race-course (circus) for the purpose of making the start fair. (Cassiodor. Var. Ep. iii. 51.) Its situation is shown by the dotted line, marked E on the annexed engraving (Linea/4.1), which represents the ground-plan of a small circus, still remaining in considerable preservation, at a short distance from Rome, on the Appian way; and is inserted on the authority of a mosaic picture representing a circus discovered at Lyons, in the commencement of the present century, where it is coloured white, and occupies the same position as here assigned for it. It was kept taut until all the cars, having left their stalls (carceres, AA. on plan), had arrived fairly abreast of one another at the line indicated, and until the signal for a start was given, when it was slacked away from one side, and the race commenced. Had it not been for a contrivance of this kind, the eagerness of the horses would have led to a constant succession of false starts, as may be seen in the horse races during the Carnival at Rome, where a similar expedient is resorted to; and an overeager horse, who breaks away from his trainers, rushes against the rope, which either brings him up or throws him down; an accident which is actually represented as occurring to a pair of horses in the Lyons mosaic above referred to. Moreover, as this rope was whitened with chalk, it is often referred to under the term Calx or Creta; and as the chariots ran round the course, returning at its conclusion to the end from which they started, all three words are figuratively applied to designate the end of any thing; particularly of life, the chances and accidents of which both poets and artists were fond of assimilating to the casualties of a race. Hor. Ep. i. 16. 79. Cic. Sen. 23. Tusc. i. 8.

5. A string of pearls, which, under the extravagant habits of the empire, were sometimes cast among the people for a scramble, at the public games of the circus, &c. Mart. viii. 78. Compare Suet. Nero, 11. Tertull. Hab. Mil. 9. Ulp. Dig. 9. 2. 27. Compare MISSILIA.

6. A line described upon the face of a sun-dial (solarium), and marked with the various hours, so as to indicate the time of day by the shadow which the index (gnomon) cast upon it. The illustration (Linea/6.1) represents an ancient sun-dial engraved upon a silver cup found at Porto d'Anzio.

7. A line or incision cut across the seats (gradus, sedilia) in a theatre, amphitheatre, or circus, for the purpose of defining the exact space which each person was entitled to occupy, and prevent inconvenient crowding or selfish engrossment. (Ov. Amor. iii. 2. 19. Id. A. Am. i. 141. Quint. xi. 3. 133.) These lines are still discernible in the amphitheatres at Pompeii and Pola, from which last the annexed illustration (Linea/7.1) is taken; it represents one of the large blocks of marble which formed the cavea divided by lines into stalls for six occupants, some of whose initials are carved upon the seat.

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  Linea/1.1
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  Linea/4.1
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  Linea/6.1
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  Linea/7.1