A Smaller Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities

by William Smith

A

SMALLER DICTIONARY

OF

GREEK AND ROMAN ANTIQUITIES.

A

ĂBĂCUS (ἄβαξ), denoted primarily a square tablet of any description, and was hence employed in the following significations:—(1) A table, or side-board, chiefly used for the display of gold and silver cups, and other kinds of valuable and ornamental utensils. The use of abaci was first introduced at Rome from Asia Minor after the victories of Cn. Manlius Vulso, B.C. 187, and their introduction was regarded as one of the marks of the growing luxury of the age.—(2) A draught-board or chess-board.—(3) A board used by mathematicians for drawing diagrams, and by arithmeticians for the purposes of calculation.—(4) A painted panel, coffer, or square compartment in the wall or ceiling of a chamber.—(5) In architecture, the flat square stone which constituted the highest member of a column, being placed immediately under the architrave.

Abacus.

ABOLLA, a cloak chiefly worn by soldiers, and thus opposed to the toga, the garb of peace. [[Toga].] The abolla was used by the lower classes at Rome, and consequently by the philosophers who affected severity of manners and life. Hence the expression of Juvenal, facinus majoris abollae,—“a crime committed by a very deep philosopher.”