Fascia, R. Any strip of cloth used for a bandage; such as (1) the swathes (Gr. σπάργανον) in which newly-born children were wrapped; (2) a white band, or for women, a purple, worn as a diadem (DIADEMA); (3) (f. pectoralis) a bandage worn by young Roman girls to prevent excessive development of the breast; (4) (f. cruralis) a bandage wound closely round the leg from the ankle to the knee, &c.; these were adopted in Europe in the Middle Ages; (5) (f. pedulis, Gr. ποδεῖον) a sock; (6) see Zona. (7) In architecture the term fascia or facia is applied to three flat parallel bands of stone, introduced to break the monotony of architraves, more especially of the Ionic, Corinthian, and Composite Orders.
Fasciculus, R. (dimin. of fascis). A small bundle, or number of objects tied up into small bundles.
Fascina (fascinum = fascination). Amulets worn to avert the “evil eye.” “Nescio quis teneros oculus mihi fascinat agnos.” (Virgil.)
Fasciola (dimin. of fascia). A small bandage. (See Fascia.)
Fascis, R. A bundle; a small packet; a small faggot of wood, or fascine. In the plural fasces denoted the bundle of rods, with an axe in the middle, carried by the lictors before certain of the Roman magistrates. (See Fig. [305].) Fasces laureati were the fasces crowned with laurel leaves, which were carried before a victorious general; fasces versi, the reversed fasces, which were carried axe downwards, in token of mourning, at funerals. The fasces were carried by the lictors on their shoulders, as shown in Fig. [305]; and when an inferior magistrate met a superior one, the lictors of the former lowered their fasces to him; hence the expression submittere fasces, to yield or confess inferiority.
Faselus. (See Phaselus.)
Fasti, R. (fas, divine law). Archives or calendars engraved on stone or marble; they were of two kinds. (1) The fasti sacri or kalendares, a kind of almanack or calendar, setting out the dies fasti, or lawful days on which certain kinds of business might be transacted without impiety; also the religious festivals, &c. The calendars were entirely in the keeping of the priests. (2) The fasti annales or historici, which contained the names of the consuls and magistrates, and a short account of the most remarkable events. Some important lists of this kind of the time of Tiberius are preserved in the capitol at Rome, and called the Fasti Capitolini.
Fastigium, R. (fastigo, to raise to a point). The top of a pediment, and thence the entire pediment itself. In a building this term also signifies the ridge, or top of a roof whose two sides rise up to a point.
Faun (Lat. Faunus). A woodland god, frequently represented with sharp ears and with the feet of a goat.
Fauteau, Fr. A military engine used in the Middle Ages; it was a kind of battering-ram suspended in a tower. (See Aries.)