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CYMBALUM.
atlius. (See the Lexicons of Scott and Liddell, Seller and Jacobitz, and Facciolati; Becker, Chariklcs, vol. i. p. 463.) Two of these cyathi are represented in the preceding woodcut, from the Museo Borbonico, vol. iv. pi. 12. They were usually of bronze or silver. The cyathus is referred to as a measure of the quantity of wine which a person drank. (Hor. Carm. iii. 8. 13, 19. 12.) A slave was appointed to supply the drink-ing-cups of the banqueters by means of the cy-at/ius. (Hor. Carm. i. 29. 8 ; Suet. Caes. 49 ; Juv. Sat. ix. 46.)
Another sense in which the word occurs is, in surgery, for a cup for cupping (Aristoph. Lys. 444, Pax, 542 ; Aristot. Probl. ix. 9).
The cyathus was a definite measure,- with both the Greeks and the Romans, containing one-twelfth of the sextarius. It was the uncia, considered with reference to the sextarius as the unit; hence we have sextans used for a vessel containing the sixth of the sextarius, or two cyathi, quadrans for one containing three cyathi, triens for four cyathi, quin cunx for five cyathi, &c. (Wurm. De Ponderi- lus, Mensur-is, &c. ; Hussey On Ancient Weights, &c.) / [P. S.]
CYCLAS (kvko,s a circular robe worn by women, to the bottom of which a border was affixed, inlaid with gold. (Prop. iv. 7. 40.) Alexander Severus, in his other attempts to restrain the luxury of his age, ordained that women should possess only one cyclas each, and that it should not be adorned with more than six unciae of gold. (Lamp. Alex. Sev. 41.) The cyclas appears to have been usually made of some thin material (tenui in cyclade, Juv. vi. 259). It is related, among other instances of Caligula’s effeminacy, that he sometimes went into public in a garment of this description. (Suet. Cal. 52.)
CYCLOPEIA. [architectura].
C YMA (Ku/xa), in architecture, an ogee, a wave- shaped moulding, consisting of two curves, the one concave and the other convex. There were two forms, the cyma recta, which was concave above, and convex below, thus, jf, and the cyma reversa, which was convex above and concave below, thus, ^p. The diminutive cymatium or cumatium (kv^.o.- tiqv) is also used, and is indeed the more common name. The original form of the cymatium, was, however, a simple hollow (the cavetto) thus ^J. This was called the cymatium Doricum, and the other the cymatium Lesbicum. (Aesch. Fr. 70, ed. Dindorf.; Bockh, Corp.lnscr. vol. i. p. 284 ; Vitruv. iii, 3. s. 5. § 7, Schn. iv. 6. § 2—6 ; Gruter, Inscr. p. ccvii ; Miiller, Arch’dol. d.Kunst, § 274; Mauch, Gr. mid Rom. Bauord. pp. 6, 7 : for examples, see the profiles on p. 326. [P.S.]
CYMATIUM. [cyma.]
CYMBA (/ci^u£t?) is derived from kv(j,€os, a hollow, and is employed to signify any small kind of boat used on lakes, rivers, &c. (Cic. De Off. iii. 14 ; Aen. vi. 303.) It appears to have been much the same as the aKariov and scapha.
CYMBALUM (KvpSaXov), a musical instrument, in the shape of two half globes, which were held one in each hand by the performer, and played by being struck against each other. The word is originally Greek, being derived from KUjugos, a hollow, with which the Latin cymba, cymbium, &c. seem to be connected. Several kinds of cymbals are found on ancient monuments, and on the other hand a great many names have been preserved by
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CYMBALUM.
the grammarians and lexicographers; but the descriptions of the latter are so vague, that it is impossible to identify one with the other. A large class of cymbals was termed Kpovpara, which, if they were really distinct from the KporaAa, as Spohn and Lampe suppose, cannot now be exactly-described. [crotalum.] The annexed drawing of a Kpov/j.0. is taken from an ancient marble, and inserted on the authority of Spohn (Miscett. sec. 1. art. 6. fig. 44).
The Kp€fj.€aa mentioned in the Homeric hymn to Apollo (161—164), were of this kind, played on by a chorus of Delians. The scabilla or Kpov-7re£m were also on the same principle, only played with the foot, and inserted in the shoe of the performer ; they were used by flute-players, perhaps to beat time to their music. (Pollux, x. 33.) Other kinds of cymbals were, the Trarayf]t an invention of Archytas, mentioned by Aristotle (Pol. viii. 6), and its diminutive TrXaray&viov, which, from the description of Julius Pollux and Hesychius (s. *?.), appears to have been a child’s rattle: o£v§a’f>a, the two parts of which Suidas tells us (s. v.) were made of different mate-terials for the sake of variety of sound: KoruAar, mentioned in the fragments of Aeschylus, with several others, noted by Lampe in his work De Cymbalis, but perhaps without sufficient authority. The cymbal was usually made in the form of two half globes, either running off towards a point so as to be grasped by the whole hand, or with a
handle. It was commonly of bronze, but sometimes of baser material, to which Aristophanes alludes (Ranae, 1305). The preceding woe€fout
