Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Torcularium

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. 

TORCULA'RIUM (ληνεών). A press-room; which comprises the whole fabric where oil is made, and in which the mill, presses, reservoirs, and vessels used in the process, were set up or contained. (Cato, R. R. xii. xiii. xviii. Columell. xii. 18. 3.) The same name was also given to the building in which the wine-press was placed, though that is otherwise designated by a special term of its own (vinarium); but it was constructed upon the same general plan, and contained similar machinery and conveniences to those employed in the manufacture of oil, differing only in some minor details, adapted for the different nature of the article to be produced. This may be collected in part from the passages of Cato and Columella where such structures are described; but it is fully confirmed by an excavation made on the site of the ancient Stabiae, during the latter part of the last century, which exposed to view several different press-rooms, some for wine, and others for oil, all of which were arranged upon a general principle, closely corresponding one with the other. The illustration annexed (Torcularium/1.1) exhibits the ground-plan of one of these buildings, used for making oil, with a section of its underground appurtenances, the whole agreeing in most of the essential features with the particulars described by Cato; and thus, whilst it materially assists a correct understanding of that author, will convey a complete idea of the method and process adopted by the Romans in the manufacture of this important article of their agricultural produce. No. 1. represents the ground-floor of the room, which has an open gangway completely through it, and contains one mill for bruising the fruit to a pair of presses, one mill being amply sufficient for supplying two presses, as the process of bruising is effected with much greater celerity than that of squeezing. No. 2. (Torcularium/1.2) is a section of the same, on the line AB. No. 3. (Torcularium/1.3) a section of one side, on the line CD. No. 4. (Torcularium/1.4) a section of the same side, on the line EF. The same letters refer to the same objects on all the four. G is the bruising machine (trapetum), a full description and view of which is given under that word. H, H. Each a large basin (possibly termed forum, ὑπολήνιον), constructed in the fabric, and enclosed on the side where there is no wall by a raised margin (a, a). The floors of these basins incline towards the points b, b, at each of which there is a leaden conduit opening respectively into two large earthenware jars (c, c), partly sunk below the level of the floor (No. 2.), and partly raised above it (No. 3.). By the side of each jar there is a low pedestal (f, f), raised as high as the lip of the jar, but inclined towards it, and covered at the top with a tile formed with raised edges. On the opposite side of the room are a double set of three square holes (g, h, i), sunk in the fabric to a considerable depth below the level of the floor (Nos. 3. and 4.), which were intended as sockets for receiving the masts and uprights of the press (torcular); the one at i for the trunk (arbor), in which the tongue (lingula) of the press-beam (prelum) was fixed; the other two (g, h) for the posts (stipites) of the capstan (sucula), by which the beam was worked down, as explained by the text and wood-cut at p. 673. As the whole stress of the machinery fell upon these trunks and posts, which rendered them liable to be forced out of their sockets, when the beam was pressed down, they were made fast under the flooring by cross-pieces or foot-bolts (pedicini, Cato, R. R. xviii. 3.), for the reception of which a small chamber (kk, Nos. 3 and 4.) is formed under them, with a staircase (l, l, l, Nos. 1 and 4.), for the workmen to descend into it. The mode of operating, and the use of the different parts, may now be easily conceived. The wide gangway in centre was intended for the beasts and labourers to bring in the olives, which were placed in the trapetum (G), and bruised. The pulp was then put into baskets, and transferred to the presses (i, g, h), which squeezed out the juice into the basins (HH), from which it flowed along the sloping pavement, and through the leaden conduit, into the large jars (c, c), whence it was ladled out by the capulator, and finally removed into the storehouse, or cellar (cella olearia). The small pedestal, with its inclined tile at top (f, No. 3.), by the side of the large jar (c), was intended to rest another vessel upon, whilst it was being filled out of the larger one; and the raised edges, as well as the inclination given to the tile, was to prevent waste, as all the spillings or drippings would thus flow back into the large jar.

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  Torcularium/1.1
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  Torcularium/1.2
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  Torcularium/1.3
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  Torcularium/1.4