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On this page: Fun Us – Funditores – Fundus – Funes

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FUNDUS.

de Re Mil. i. 16 ; Strab. iii. p. 168.) Most slings were made of leather, but the Balearic ones were manu­factured out of a kind of rush. (Strab. I. c.} The manner in which the sling was wielded may be seen in the annexed figure (Bartoli, Col. Traj. t. 46) of a

soldier with a provision of stones in the sinns of his pallium, and with his arm extended in order to whirl the sling about his head. (Virg. Aen. ix. 587, 588, xi. 579.) Besides stones, plummets, called glandes (juoAug&i’Ses), of a form between acorns and al­ monds, were cast in moulds to be thrown with slings. (Lucret. vi. 176 ; Ovid, Met. ii. 729, vii. 778, xiv. 825, 826.) They have been found on the plain of Marathon, and in other parts of Greece, and are remarkable for the inscriptions and devices which they exhibit, such as thunderbolts, the names of persons, and the word AEHAI, meaning " Take this." (Dodwell’s Tour, vol. ii. pp. 159—161 ; Bockh, Corp. Ins. vol. i. p. 311 ; Mommsen, in Zeitsclirift fur die AltertlmmswissenscJiajt, 1846, p. 782.) ^ > [J.Y.]

While the sling was a very efficacious and im­portant instrument of ancient warfare, stones thrown with the hand alone were also much in use both among the Romans (Veget. i. 16, ii. 23) and with other nations (ot TrerpogoAof, Xen. Plellen. ii. 4. § 12). The Lrt^ans carried no other arms tbaxis three spears and a bag full of stones. (Diod. Sic. iii. 49.)

FUNDITORES. [funda.]

FUNDUS. The primary signification of this word appears to be the bottom or foundation of a thing ; and its elementary part (fud), seems to be the same as that of fivQps and irvQ^tiv, the n in fundus being used to strengthen the syllable. The conjectures of the Latin writers as to the etymo­logy of fundus may be safely neglected.

Fundus is often used as applied to land, the solid substratum of all man’s labours. According to Florentinus (Dig. 50. tit. 16. s. 211) the term fundus comprised all land and constructions on it; but usage had restricted the name of aedes to city houses, villae to rural houses, area to a plot of ground in a city not built upon, ager to a plot of ground in the country, and fundus to ager cum aediftciis. This definition of fundus may be com­pared with the uses of that word by Horace, and other writers. In one passage (Ep. i. 2. 47), Horace places domus and fundus in opposition to one another, domus being apparently there used as equivalent to aedes. .. The term fundus often occurred in Roman wills,

FTJNUS.

and the testator frequently indicated the fundus, td which his last dispositions referred, by some name, such as Sempronianus, Seianus; sometimes also, with reference to a particular tract of country, as Fundus Trebatianus qui est in regione Atel’lana. (Brissonius, de Formulis, vii. 80.) A fundus was sometimes devised cum omni instrumento, with its stock and implements of husbandry. Occasionally a question arose as to the extent of the word in-strumentum, between or among the parties who de­rived their claim from a testator. (Dig. 33. tit. 17. s. 12.)

Fundus has a derived sense which flows easily enough from its primary meaning. " Fundus," says Festus, " dicitur populus esse rei, quam alienat, hoc est auctor." [AucTOR.J Compare Plautus, Trinum. v. i. 7 (fundus potior}. In this sense " fundus esse" is to confirm or ratify a thing; and in Gellius (xix. 8) there is the expression 44 sententiae legisque fundus subscriptorque fieri."

[FOEDERATI.] [G. L.]

FUNES. [NAvis.]

FUN US. It is proposed in the following article to give a brief account of Greek and Roman funerals, and of the different rites and ceremonies connected therewith.

1. greek. The Greeks attached great import­ance to the burial of the dead. They believed that souls could not enter the Elysian fields till their bodies had been buried ; and accordingly we find the shade of Elpenor in the Odyssey (xi. 6G. &c.) earnestly imploring Ulysses to bury his body. Ulysses also, when in danger of shipwreck, deplores that he had not fallen before Troy, as he should in that case have obtained an honourable burial. (Od. v. 31 ]".) So strong was this feeling among the Greeks, that it was considered a religious duty to throw earth upon a dead body, which a person might happen to find unburied (Ael. Var. Hist. v. 14) ; and among the Athenians, those children who were released from all other obligations to unworthy parents, were nevertheless bound to bury them by one of Solon’s laws. (Aesch. c. Timarc. p. 40.) The neglect of burying one’s relatives is frequently mentioned by the orators as a grave charge against <.the moral character of a man (Dem. c. Aristog. i. p. 787. 2 ; Lys. c. Phil. p. 883, c. Alcib. p. 539), since the burial of the body by the relations of the dead was considered a religious duty by the uni­versal law of the Greeks. Sophocles represents Antigone as disregarding all consequences in order to bury the dead body of her brother Polyneices, which Creon, the king of Thebes, had commanded to be left unburied. The common expressions for the funeral rites, to. 5i/ccua, v‘(fyu/Aa or i/o/xt^fytej/a, irpo<T’f)KovTa, show that the dead had, as it were, a legal and moral claim to burial.

The common customs connected with a Greek funeral are described by Lucian in his treatise de Luctu (c. 10, &c., vol. ii. p. 926. ed. Reitz) ; and there is no reason for supposing that they differ much from those which were practised in earlier times. After a person was dead, it was the cus­tom first to place in his mouth an obolus, called Savdtcr) [danace], with which he might pay the ferryman in Hades. The body was then washed and anointed with perfumed oil, and the head was crowned with the flowers which happened to be in season. The deceased was next dressed in as handsome a robe as the family could afford, in order, according to Lucian, that he might not be