Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Plumbum

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. 

PLUMBUM (μόλυβδος). Lead; whence used as a special name for various articles made of that metal: — as

1. A leaden water-pipe. Hor. Ep. i. 10. 20. Stat. Silv. i. 3. 67. See FISTULA, 1.

2. A leaden plummet, employed as a bullet to be cast from a sling. Ov. Met. ii. 727. See GLANS.

3. A whip with lumps of metal knotted into the thongs, employed for punishing slaves. Prudent. περὶ στεφ. x. 116. Compare Cod. Theodos. 9. 35. 2.; and see the illustration s. FLAGRUM, 1.

4. A leaden plummet for drawing lines (Catull. 22. 8.); corresponding in use with our own, but differing in form and character: for amongst the ancients these articles were made out of a small round plate, instead of a long pipe; a much more convenient form, requiring no cutting, less apt to get bent, or to scratch the parchment. Salmas. ad Solin. p. 644. Beckman. History of Inventions, vol. ii. p. 389. Lond. 1846.