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FUNDA.
553
FUNAMBULUS.
(Dig. 7. tit. 1. s. 13. § 8), or Fullonium (A mm. Marc. xiv. 11. p. 44, Bipont.) Of such establishments there were great numbers in Rome, for the Romans do not appear to have washed at home even their linen clothes. (Martial, xiv. 51.) .The trade of the fullers was considered so important that the censors, C. Flaminius and L. Aemilius, B. c. 220, prescribed the mode in which the dresses were to be washed. (Plin. H. N. xxxv. 57.) Like the other principal trades in Rome, the Fullones formed a collegium. (Fabretti, Inscr. p. 278.) To large farms a fullonica was sometimes attached, in which the work was performed by the slaves who belonged to the familia rustica. (Varro, R. R. i. 16.)
The fullo was answerable for the property while it was in his possession ; and if he returned by mistake a different garment from the one he had received, "he was liable to an action ex locato ; to which action he was also subject if the garment was injured. (Dig. 19. tit. 2. s. 13. § 6 ; s. 60. § 2; 12 tit. 7. s. 2.) Woollen garments, which had been once washed, were considered to be less valuable than they were previously (Petron. 30; Lamprid. Heliogab. 26) ; hence Martial (x. 11) speaks of a toga lota terque quaterque as a poor present.
The Greeks were also accustomed to send their garments to fullers to be washed and scoured, who appear to have adopted a similar method to that which has been described above. (Theophr. Char. 10; Athen.xi. p. 582, d.; Pollux, vii. 39, 40,41.) The word irXvvew denoted the washing of linen, and icva<pevew or yva<peveiv the washing of woollen, clothes. (Eustath. ad Od. xxiv. 148. p. 1956. 41.)
(Schottgen Antiquitates Triturae et Fulloniue, Traj. ad Rhen. 1727 ; Beckmann, Hist, of Inventions and Discoveries^ vol. iii. p. 266, &c., transl.: Becker, Gallus, vol. ii. p. 100, &c., Charikles, vol. ii. p. 408.)
FULLONICA. [FuLLo.]
FUNALE (<™oAa£, Isid. Orig. xx. 10), a link, used in the same manner as a torch [fax], but made of papyrus and other fibrous plants, twisted like a rope, and smeared with pitch and wax. (Virg. A en. i. 727 ; Servius, ad loc.; Hor. Carm. iii. 26. 7; Val. Max. iii. 6. § 4.) It was indeed, as Antipater describes it, " a light coated with wax " (A.a/X7ras K7]po%tT<w?/, Brunck, Anal. ii. 112 ; Jacobs, ad loc.}. For this reason it was also called cereus. Funalia are sculptured upon a monument of considerable antiquity preserved at Padua. (Pignor. De Servis, p. 259.) At the Saturnalia they were presented by clients to their superiors, and were lighted in honour of Saturn. (Antipater, /. c. ,- Macrob. Sat. i. 6.) [ J. Y.]
FQNALIS EQUUS. [CuRRus. p. 379,b.]
FUNAMBULUS (/caAogcmp a^o^ar??*), a rope-dancer. The art of dancing on the tight rope was carried to as great perfection among the Romans as it is with us. (Hor. Epist. ii. 1. 210; Terent. Hecyr. ProLk. 34 ; Juv. iii. 80; Bulenger, de Tlteat. i. 42.) If we may judge from a series of paintings discovered in the excavations ( A nt. d’Ercol. T. Hi. p. 160—165), from which the figures in the annexed woodcut are selected, the performers placed themselves in an endless variety of graceful and sportive attitudes, and represented the characters of bacchanals, satyrs, and other imaginary beings. Three of the persons here exhibited hold •the thyrsus, which may have served for a balancing pole two are performing on the double pipe, and
one on the lyre : two others are pouring wine into vessels of different forms. They all have their heads enveloped in skins or caps, probably intended as a protection in case of falling. The emperor Antoninus, in consequence of the fall of a boy, caused feather-beds (culcitras) to be laid under the rope to obviate the danger of such accidents. (Capitol. M. Anton. 12.) One of the most difficult exploits was running down the rope (Sueton. Nero, 11) at the conclusion of the performance. It was a strange attempt of Germanicus and of the em peror Galba to exhibit elephants walking on the rope. (Plin. H. N. viii. 2 ; Sueton. Galb. 6 ; Sen. Epist. 86.) [J. Y.]
FUMARIUM. [ViNUM.]
FUNDA (cr<$>evUvT] a sling. The’light troops of the Greek and Roman armies consisted in great part of slingers ( funditores, cr^ei/Sov^Tat). In the earliest times, however, the sling appears not to have been used by the Greeks. It is not mentioned in the Iliad ; for in the only passage (//. xiii. 599) in which the word (r^ei/SoVi? occurs, it is used in its original signification of a bandage. But in the times of the Persian wars slingers had come into use ; for among the other troops which Gelon offered to send to the assistance of the Greeks against Xerxes, mention is made of 2000 slingers (Herod, vii. 158) ; and that the sling was? then known among the Greeks is also evident from the allusion to it by Aeschylus {Again. 982), At the same time it must be stated that we rarely read of slingers in these wars. Among the Greeks the Acarnanians in early times attained to the greatest expertness in the use of this weapon (Thuc. ii. 81); and at a later time the Achaeans, especialty the inhabitants of Agium, Patrae, and Dymae, were celebrated as expert slingers. The slings of these Achaeans were made of three thongs of leather, and not of one only, like those of other nations. (Liv. xxxviii. 29.) The people, however, who enjoyed the greatest celebrity as slingers were the natives of the Balearic islands. Their skill in the use of this weapon is said to have arisen from the circumstance, that, when they were children, their mothers obliged them to obtain their food by striking it with a sling. (Veget*
