Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Saccus

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. 

SAC'CUS (σάκκος). A large bag or sack, made of coarse linen cloth; as a corn or flour sack (Cic. Verr. ii. 2. 38. Phaedr. ii. 7.), like the annexed example (Saccus/1.1) from a group of soldiers on the Trajan column, who are busied in carrying to their respective quarters a number of sacks of corn distributed for the use of the army.

2. A sack or large bag for holding money, the use of which is intended to convey a notion of enermous wealth (Hor. Sat. ii. 3. 149. Id. i. 1. 70.), whereas the diminutive sacculus conveys an impression of poverty or small means. The example (Saccus/2.1) is copied from a bas-relief discovered at Rome, which, as the inscription on it testifies, was formerly employed as a street direction, to point out the way to the public treasury.

3. Saccus vinarius. A basket, net, or strainer, made of bulrushes, osiers, or bast, and in the shape of an inverted cone (Columell. ix. 15. 12.), through which the ancients strained their wine after it was made, for the purpose of clearing it and mitigating its intoxicating qualities (Plin. H. N. xxiv. 1. Id. xiv. 28. Mart. xii. 60.). The illustration (Saccus/3.1) exhibits an article of the kind described, from a Roman bas-relief representing various processes connected with the vintage, and the making of wine; the grapes with which it is filled, indicate the object for which it was used.

4. Saccus nivarius. A piece of coarse cloth, employed in a common way, or by poor people, instead of the colum nivarium, for the purpose of cooling their wine by mixing it with snow; the cloth, with a lump of snow upon it, being placed over the wine cup, and the liquor then poured upon the snow, and made to filter through the cloth into the cup. Mart. xiv. 104.

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  Saccus/1.1
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  Saccus/2.1
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  Saccus/3.1