Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Phalanga

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. 

PHALAN'GA or PALAN'GA (φάλαγξ). A strong round pole employed by porters to assist them in carrying heavy weights, the ends being rested on their shoulders and the load suspended from it between them at the centre of gravity, as in the annexed example (Phalanga/1.1), which represents two of the soldiers on Trajan's column making use of the contrivance in question. Vitruv. x. 3. 7, 8, and 9.

2. A wooden cylinder or roller intended for placing under objects of great weight to assist in moving them, as, for instance, under the bottom of a vessel, whilst being hauled on shore, or launched from the beach. Non. s. v. p. 163. Varro, ap. Non. l. c. Caes. B. C. ii. 10.

3. Pieces of valuable wood, such as ebony for example, cut into truncheons or cylinders, as objects of merchandise. Plin. H. N. xii. 8.

4. A truncheon employed as a weapon in warfare, the origin of which is attributed to the Africans during their contests with the Egyptians (Plin. H. N. vii. 57.). These were probably cut out of some strong and heavy kind of wood; but an instrument of iron, corresponding with the form and name of the weapon, has been discovered, amongst many other objects of an unique character, in a tomb at Paestum, together with a painting on the walls of the sepulchre, which represents a Greek warrior on horseback, carrying the truncheon and a shield suspended from his spear, as shown by the annexed illustration (Phalanga/4.1). The implement itself, which is engraved at the bottom of the woodcut, is rather more than two feet long, not including the ring at the end; and the manner in which it and the shield are carried in the picture above, renders it probable that they were represented as a trophy, which the owner of the tomb had really taken from some enemy in battle. The object and the painting identify the instrument with its name, which hitherto had not been accomplished.

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  Phalanga/1.1
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  Phalanga/4.1