Smith, William: A smaller dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities (London, 1871)

FURCA.

191

FUSUS.

funeral of P. Licinius Crassus, who had been
Pontifex Maximus, raw meat was distributed
to the people, 120 gladiators fought, and
funeral games were celebrated for three
days, at the end of which a public banquet
was given in the forum. Public feasts
and funeral games were sometimes given on
the anniversary of funerals. At all banquets
in honour of the dead, the guests were
dressed in white.—The Romans, like the
Greeks, were accustomed to visit the tombs
of their relatives at certain periods, and to
offer to them sacrifices and various gifts,
which were called inferiae and parentalia.
The Romans appear to have regarded the
manes or departed souls of their ancestors as
gods ; whence arose the practice of present-
ing to them oblations, which consisted of
victims, wine, milk, garlands of flowers, and
other things. The tombs were sometimes
illuminated on these occasions with lamps.
In the latter end of the month of February
there was a festival, called feralia, in which
the Romans were accustomed to carry food
to the sepulchres for the use of the dead.
The Romans were accustomed to wear mourn-
ing for their deceased friends, which appears
to have been black under the republic for
both sexes. Under the empire the men con-
tinued to wear black in mourning, but the
women wore white. They laid aside all kinds
of ornaments, and did not cut either their
hair or beard. Men appear to have usually
worn their mourning for only a few days,
but women for a year when they lost a hus-
band or parent. In a public mourning on
account of some signal calamity, as, for in-
stance, the loss of a battle, or the death of an
emperor, there was a total cessation from
business, called justitium, which was usually
ordained by public appointment. During
this period the courts of justice did not sit,
the shops were shut, and the soldiers freed
from military duties. In a public mourning
the senators did not wear the latus clavus
and their rings, nor the magistrates their
badges of office.

FURCA, which properly means a fork,
was also the name of an instrument of pun-
ishment. It was a piece of wood in the
form of the letter A, which was placed upon
the shoulders of the offender, whose hands
were tied to it. Slaves were frequently
punished in this way, and were obliged to
carry about the furca wherever they went;
whence the appellation of furcifer was ap-
plied to a man as a term of reproach. The
furca was used in. the ancient mode of
capital punishment among the Romans ; the
criminal was tied to it, and then scourged to
I death. The patibulum was also an instru-

ment of punishment, resembling the furca ;
it appears to have been in the form of the
letter n. Both the furca and patibulum
were also employed as crosses, to which cri-
minals appear to have been nailed.

FURIOSUS. [Curator.]

FUSCINA (rpCaiva), a trident, more com-
monly called trident, meaning trident stimu-
lus, because it was originally a three-pronged
goad, used to incite horses to greater swift-
ness. Neptune was supposed to be armed
with it when he drove his chariot, and it
thus became his usual attribute, perhaps
with an allusion also to the use of the same
instrument in harpooning fish. It is repre-
sented in the cut on p. 84. In the contests of
gladiators, the retiariut was armed with u
trident. [Gladiatores.]

FUSTL'AIUUM (fuAo/coTi-ta), was a capita!
punishment inflicted upon Roman soldiers
for desertion, theft, and similar crimes. It
was administered in the following manner :
—When a soldier was condemned, the tri-
bune touched him slightly with a stick, upon
which all the soldiers of the legion fell upon
him with sticks and stones, and generally
killed him upon the spot. If, however, he
escaped, for he was allowed to fly, he could
not return to his native country, nor did any
of his relatives dare to receive him into their
houses.

FUSUS (arpaKTOs), the spindle, was always,
when in use, accompanied by the distaff
(colas, rjKaKarq'), as an indispensable part of
the same apparatus. The wool, flax, or other
material, having been prepared for spinning,
was rolled into a ball (toAOtttj, glomus),
which was, however, sufficiently loose to
allow the fibres to be easily drawn out by
the hand of the spinner. The upper part of
the distaff was then inserted into this mass
of flax or wool, and the lower part was held
under the left arm in such a position as was
most convenient for conducting the opera-
tion. The fibres were drawn out, and at the
same time spirally twisted, chiefly by the use
of the fore-finger and thumb of the right
hand; and the thread (filum, stamen, vr/p-a)
so produced was wound upon the spindle
until the quantity was as great as it would
carry. The spindle was a stick, 10 or 12
inches long, having at the top a slit or catch
(dens, aynunpov) in which the thread was
fixed, so that the weight of the spindle
might continually carry down the thread as
it was formed. Its lower extremity was
inserted into a small wheel, called the whorl
(vorticellum), made of wood, stone, or metal
(see woodcut), the use of which was to keep
the spindle more steady, and to promote its
rotation. The accompanying woodcut shows