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On this page: Toreutice – Tormentum

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TORCULUM.

dry or rotten were carefully removed (Geopon. vi. 11) [FoRFEx],and the rest carried from the vine­yard in deep baskets (quali, Virg. Georg. ii. 241 ; TaAapoi, Hes. Scut. 296 ; appt’xot, Longus. ii. 1 ; K0(f>ivoi, Geopon. I.e.} to be poured into a shallow vat. In this they were immediately trodden by men, who had the lower part of their bodies naked (Virg. Georg. ii. 7), except that they wore drawers [SuBLiGACULUMJ. . At least two persons usually trod the grapes together. To " tread the wine­press alone" indicated desolation and distress. (Is. Ixiii. 3.) The Egyptian paintings (Wilkinson, Man.and Oust, vol.ii. pp. 152—1.57) exhibitasmany as seven treading in the same vat, and supporting themselves by taking hold of ropes or poles placed above their heads. From the size of the Greek and Roman vats there can be no doubt that the company of treaders was often still more numerous. To prevent eonfusion and to animate them in their labour they moved in time or danced, as is seen in the ancient mosaics of the church of St. Constantia at Rome, sometimes also leaning upon one another. The preceding circumstances are illustrated in the following woodcut, taken from a bas-relkf. (Mow. Matth. iii. tab. 45.) An antefixa in the British Museum (Combe, Anc. Terra-cottas, No. 59) shows a person by the side of the vat performing during this act on the scahellum and tibiae pares, for the purpose of aiding and regulating the movements of

those in it. Besides this instrumental music they were cheered with a song, called /xeAos e-mXyviov (Athen. v. p. 199, a.) or vpvos €irt^vtos9 specimens of which may be seen in Anacreon (Od. xvii. 1 and Iii.; and Brimck, Anal ii, 239. See Jacobs, ad loo.; compare Theocrit. vii. 25). After the grapes had been trodden sufficiently, they were subjected to the. more powerful pressure of a thick and heavy beam [prelum] for the purpose of obtaining all the juice yet remaining in them. (Vitruv. x. 1 ; Virg. Georg. ii. 242 ; Servius in Joe.; Hor. Carm. i. 20. 9.) Instead of a beam acted on by wedges, a press with a screw [cochlea] was sometimes used for the same purpose. (Vitruv. vi. 6; Plin. H. N. xviii. 31. s. 74.) A strainer or colander [colum] was employed to clear the must from solid particles, as,it flowed from the vat.

The preceding woodcut shows the apertures at the bottom of the vat,:by which the must (mustum^ y€VKos) was discharged, and the method of re-peiving it, when the vat was small, in wide-mouthed jars, which when full were carried away to .be emp­tied into casks (dolia, -irtOol, Longus^ ii.’•!,-.2). When the vineyard . was extensive

TORMENTUM.

and the vat large in proportion, the must flowed into another vat of corresponding size, which was sunk below the level of the ground, and therefore called viroi]viov (Marls, xii. 1; Geopon. vi.l. 11), in Latin lacus. (Ovid. fast. v. 888; Plin. JSpist, ix. 20; Colum. de Re Rust. xii. 18.)

From rvos Bacchus was called Lenaeus (Ar^ vcuos}. The festival of the Lenaea was celebrated on the spot where the first Attic wine-press was said to have been constructed. [DiONYSiA.J

Olives as well as grapes were subjected to the prelum for the sake of their oil. [0-LEA, p. 826.]

The building erected to contain all the vessels and other implements (iorculn vasa, Varro, de Re Rust. iii. 2) for obtaining both wine and oil was called torcularium (Cato, de Re Rust. 12, 13, 18; Col. de Re Rtist. xii. 18) and Xyvt&v (Geopon. vi0 1). It was situated near the kitchen and the wine-cellar. (Vitruv. vi. 6.) [J. Y.j

TOREUTICE. [caelatura.]

TORMENTUM (a^evtipiov Zpyavov), a mili­tary engine. All the missiles used in war, except those thrown from the sling [funda], are pro­jected either by the hand alone or with the aid of elastic substances. Of elastic instruments the bow [ARCus] is still used by many nations. But the tormentum, so called from the twisting (torquendo) of hairs., thongs and vegetable fibres (Polyb. iv. 56), has fallen into disuse through the discovery of gun­powder. The word tormentum is often used by itself to denote engines of various kinds. (Cic. ad Fain. xv. 4 ; Caes. B. C. iii. 44, 45, B. Aleoc. 10; Liv. xx. 11 ; Veil. Pat. ii. 82 ; Curt. iv. 9. 16.) Often also these engines are specified separately under the names of Balistae and Catapultae, which names however most commonly occur together in the accounts of sieges and other military operations, because the two kinds of engines denoted by them were almost always used in conjunction. [hele-polis.] The balista (irerpoGoXos} was used to shoot stones (Ovid. Trist. i. 2. 48 ; Lucan, vi. 198; Non. Marc. p. 555, ed. Merceri), the catapulta (KaraTre^T-rjs, Karaire^riKT]} to project darts, espe­cially the Falarica [!!asta], and a kind of mis­sile, 4-|- feet long, called trifasc. (Festus, s. v.) Whilst in besieging a city the ram [aries] was employed in destroying the lower part of the wall, the balista was used to overthrow the battlements (propugnacula, Plant. Bacch. iv. 4. 58—61; eVaA-£e*s), and the catapult to shoot any of the besieged who appeared between them. (Diod. xvii. 42, 45, xx. 48, 88.) The forms of these machines being adapted to the objects which they were intended to throw, the catapult was long, the balista nearly square, which explains the following humourous enumeration by Plautus (Capt. iv. 2. 16) of the three /x^xa^ai, the application of which has just been explained.

" Meus est balista pugnus, cubitus catapulta est

mihi, Humerus aries."

In the same armament the number of catapults was commonly much greater than the number ofbalistae. (Non. Marc. p. 552, ed. Merceri ; Liv. xxvi. 47.) Also these two classes of machines were both of them distinguished into the grater and the less, the number of " the less" being much more con­siderable than the number of " the greater.’"1 When Carthago Nova, which had served the Carthaginians for an arsenal, was taken by the Romans, the fol-