Cultri (From Tombstone of a Cultrarius.)
CULTER (μάχαιρα, κοπίς, or σφαγίς), a knife with only one edge, which formed a straight line. The blade was pointed, and its back curved. It was used for a variety of purposes, but chiefly for killing animals either in the slaughter-house, or in hunting, or at the altars of the gods. The priest who conducted a sacrifice never killed the victim himself; but one of his ministri, appointed for that purpose, who was called either by the general name minister, or the more specific popa or cultrarius.
CULTRĀRĬUS. [[Culter].]
CŬNĔUS was the name applied to a body of foot soldiers, drawn up in the form of a wedge, for the purpose of breaking through an enemy’s line. The common soldiers called it a caput porcinum, or pig’s head. The name cuneus was also applied to the compartments of seats in circular or semi-circular theatres, which were so arranged as to converge to the centre of the theatre, and diverge towards the external walls of the building, with passages between each compartment.
CŬNĪCŬLUS (ὑπόνομος), a mine or passage underground, was so called from its resemblance to the burrowing of a rabbit. Fidenae and Veii are said to have been taken by mines, which opened, one of them into the citadel, the other into the temple of Juno.
CŪPA, a wine-vat, a vessel very much like the dolium, and used for the same purpose, namely, to receive the fresh must, and to contain it during the process of fermentation. The inferior wines were drawn for drinking from the cupa, without being bottled in amphorae, and hence the term vinum de cupa. The cupa was either made of earthenware, like the dolium, or of wood, and covered with pitch. It was also used for fruits and corn, forming rafts, and containing combustibles in war, and even for a sarcophagus.
CŪRĀTOR. Till a Roman youth attained the age of puberty, which was generally fixed at fourteen years of age, he was incapable of any legal act, and was under the authority of a tutor or guardian; but with the attainment of the age of puberty, he became capable of performing every legal act, and was freed from the control of his tutor. As, however, a person of that tender age was liable to be imposed upon, the lex Plaetoria enacted that every person between the time of puberty and twenty-five years of age should be under the protection of a curator. The date of this lex is not known, though it is certain that the law existed when Plautus wrote (about B.C. 200), who speaks of it as the lex quina vicemaria. This law established a distinction of age, which was of great practical importance, by forming the citizens into two classes, those above and those below twenty-five years of age (minores viginti quinque annis). A person under the last-mentioned age was sometimes simply called minor. The object of the lex was to protect persons under twenty-five years of age against all fraud (dolus). A person who wasted his property (prodigus), and a person of unsound mind (furiosus, demens), were also placed under the care of a curator.
CŪRĀTŌRES were public officers of various kinds under the Roman empire, such as the curatores annonae, the curatores ludorum, the curatores regionum, &c.
CŪRĬA, signifies both a division of the Roman people and the place of assembly for such a division. Each of the three ancient Romulian tribes, the Ramnes, Tities, and Luceres, was subdivided into 10 curiae, so that the whole body of the populus or the patricians was divided into 30 curiae. The plebeians had no connection whatever with the curiae. All the members of the different gentes belonging to one curia were called, in respect of one another, curiales. The division into curiae was of great political importance in the earliest times of Rome, for the curiae alone contained the citizens, and their assembly alone was the legitimate representative of the whole people. [[Comitia curiata].] Each curia as a corporation had its peculiar sacra, and besides the gods of the state, they worshipped other divinities and with peculiar rites and ceremonies. For such religious purposes each curia had its own place of worship, called curia, in which the curiales assembled for the purpose of discussing political, financial, religious and other matters. The religious affairs of each curia were taken care of by a priest, Curio, who was assisted by another called curialis Flamen. As there were 30 curiae, there were likewise 30 curiones, who formed a college of priests, presided over by one of them, called Curio Maximus. The 30 curiae had each its distinct name, which are said to have been derived from the names of the Sabine women who had been carried off by the Romans, though it is evident that some derived their names from certain districts or from ancient eponymous heroes. Curia is also used to designate the place in which the senate held its meetings, such as curia Hostilia, curia Julia, curia Pompeii, and from this there gradually arose the custom of calling the senate itself in the Italian towns curia, but never the senate of Rome. The official residence of the Salii, which was dedicated to Mars, was likewise styled curia.
CŪRIĀTA CŎMĬTĬA. [[Comitia].]