Hi logosfabula,
Thank you for a most interesting question.
As requested:
Glossary
http://www.geocities.com/delerius2001/Glossary.htm
This list of Greek and Latin terms used in connection with the Roman
army is fairly comprehensive, but not complete. The use of the
extensive glossaries found in the handbooks listed in the Roman army
bibliography is recommended.
(LA)= Latin expression.
Dolabra (LA): axe.
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DOLABRA - An entrenching tool or pickaxe.
http://www.legionxxiv.org/glossaryD/
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DOLABRA
http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/english/Do/Dolabra.html
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http://www.art-with-attitude.com/village/weapons.html
Dolabra - an axe like Roman tool/weapon used by legionaires. It had a
socketed head attached to a wooden handle.
LENGTH - .6m
WEIGHT - 1.3kg
ATTACK - chop
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Ancient Rome - The Men and Their Equipment
http://home.comcast.net/~rthamper/html/body_men___equipment.htm
The Legionary
During Caesar?s time, each legionary?s enlistment was for a minimum
term of six years and a maximum of 16. Romans as young as 17 years of
age could enlist. The ideal Roman Legionary stood about 5? 10" tall,
had good eyesight; a strong physique, and good military bearing. The
pay was approximately 225 denarii a year, excluding deductions made
for food, clothing, arms and other equipment.
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Other Items Carried
A Roman legionary typically carried around 27.2 to 36.3 kilograms
(60-80 lbs.) of equipment on the march. A t-shaped frame was used to
carry the soldier's sarcinae (load, bundle, pack). Bundles of rations,
clothing, tools, etc., were tied to or hung from this frame.
When his gear couldn?t be carried on mules or in wagons, the Roman
legionary packed in addition to his weapons:
Shield and helmet covers
Kit bag, a leather bag for carrying various items
Cooking pots;
Two pilupe murale (stakes) for use in constructing palisades;
A patera (mess tin);
A dolabra (mattock or pick-axe);
A turf-cutter;
A sickle;
A basket;
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A dolabra (mattock or pick-axe);
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Dolabra - Article by James Yates, M.A., F.R.S.,
on p420 of
William Smith, D.C.L., LL.D.:
A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, John Murray, London, 1875.
http://www.ukans.edu/history/index/europe/ancient_rome/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Dolabra.html
DOLABRA, dim. DOLABELLA, (smi/lh, dim. smili/on), a chisel, a celt,
was used for a variety of purposes in ancient as in modern times. They
were frequently employed in making entrenchments and in destroying
fortifications (Liv. ix.37, xxi.11; Curt. ix.5; Tac. Hist. iii.20);
and hence they are often found in ancient earth-works and encampments.
They abound in our public museums, being known under the equivalent
name of "celts" to antiquaries, who, however, generally use the word
without understanding its true sense (see Jameson's Etym. Dict. s.v.
Celt). Celtes is an old Latin word for a chisel, probably derived from
coelo, to engrave. Thus the phrase celte sculpantur in silice occurs
in the vulgate version of Job (xix.24), and malleolo et celte
literatus silex in an inscription found at Pola (Gruter, p329). These
articles are for the most part of bronze, more rarely of hard stone.
The sizes and forms which they present, are as various as the uses to
which they are applied. The annexed woodcut is designed to show a few
of the most remarkable varieties.
(See diagrams)
Fig. 1 is from a celt found, with several others, at Karnbrę in
Cornwall (Borlase, Ant. of Cornwall, iii.13). this length was six
inches without the haft, which was no doubt of wood, and fixed
directly into the socket at the top. It must have been a very
effective implement for removing the stones in the wall of a city or
fortification, after they had been first shattered and loosened in
some degree by the battering-ram. The ear, or loop, which is seen in
this and many other celts, would be useful to suspend them from the
soldier's girdle, and may also have had a cord or chain attached to it
to assit in drawing back the celt whenever it became too firmly wedged
between the stones of the wall which it was intended to destroy. Figs.
2 and 3 are from Sir W. Hamilton's collection in the British Museum.
These chisels seem best adapted for the use of the carpenter. The celt
(fig. 4) which was found in Furness, co. Lancaster (Archaeologia, v.
p106), instead of being shaped to receive, or to be inserted into a
handle, like the three preceding, is made thick, smooth, and round in
the middle, so as to be conveniently manipulated without a handle. It
is 9 inches long, and weighs 2 lb. 5 oz.. Its sharp edge is like that
of a common hatchet, and may have been used for polishing timber. On
the other hand, figs. 5, 6, 7, exactly resemble the knife now used by
leather-cutters, and therefore illustrate the account given by Julius
Pollux, who reckons this same tool, the smi/lh, among the e)rgalei=a
tou= skutoto/mou. This instrument was also used for cutting paper, and
probably in the same manner (smi/la xartoto/moj, sicila, Philox.
Gloss.).
The following woodcut shows a small bronze celt, fixed into the handle
of stag's horn, and therefore exemplifies one of the modes of
attaching the metal to its haft. It was evidently adapted for very
fine work, and is strongly contrasted with the above-figured celt from
Cornwall. It was found in an ancient tomb in Wiltshire (Sir R. C.
Hoare's Anc. Wilts. South, pp182, 203). The two other figures in this
woodcut represent the knife used in sacrifices, as it is often
exhibited on cameos and bas-reliefs, being the scena, sacena, or
dolabra pontificalis, mentioned by Festus (s.v. Scena); and the
securis dolabrata, or hatchet furnished with a chisel (Pallad. De Re
Rust. i.43) as sculptured on a funereal monument.
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http://216.239.57.104/search?q=cache:oJpNq0-fs0oJ:www.bootlegbooks.com/Reference/PhraseAndFable/data/369.html+dolabra+ancient+axe&hl=en
Dolabra A Roman axe.
Dolabra fossoria. The pickaxe used by miners and excavators.
Dolabra pontificalis. The priest's hatchet for slaughtering animals.
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ADLOCVTIO - NEWSLETTER OF THE TWENTIETH LEGION
http://www.larp.com/legioxx/adlo100.htm
On to tools and there are some quite good axes and picks but the surprise
is the dolabra. This was very small, more reminiscent of an entrenching
tool than the axe which could be used to hang equipment from. There were
also some good spades made in one piece from ash with very corroded metal
edges.
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LEGIO XXII
Requirements for Legionary's Kit
http://www.reenactor.net/units/legioxxii/kit.html
"Turf cutter," "shovel head" and dolabra (tools)--Every legionary
carried a pick-axe (dolabra), a basket, a saw, a sickle, a leather
strap, and possibly a chain (the translation is questionable). Other
tools included the entrenching tool (ligo) and several types of
shovel. The popular "turf cutter" may also have served as a bark
stripper. Most likely each man had a digging tool plus one or two of
the other items. The leather strap would be useful for carrying turf
blocks, as seen on Trajan's column. Baskets may be willow, reed, or
split oak, and often looked much like modern wicker wastepaper baskets
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http://lonestar.texas.net/~robison/horreum.html
This building serves as a granary and as a storehouse for machinery
and tools that are used on the farm. A carpentum, a vallus, a Greek
invention called a tribulum, and an improved version, a Punic cart,
are used in harvesting and threshing the grain. Among the many hand
tools are the scythe (falx), hoe (marra/ sarculum), hatchet (securis/
ascia), pick-axe (dolabra), and spade (pala). We also store those
open-ended winnowing baskets (ventilabra) here, but the plow (ard) and
the yoke (iugum) for the oxen are in the byre.
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Best regards,
tlspiegel |
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