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

TONSOR.

381

TRAGOEDIA.

public solemnities, such as opening the tem-
ple of Janus. The equites wore it at the
transvectio, and in other public solemnities.
Hence the trabea is mentioned as the badge
of the equestrian order. Lastly, the toga
worn by the lloman emperors was wholly of
purple. It appears to have been first as-
sumed by Julius Caesar.—The material of
which the toga was commonly made was
wool. It was sometimes thick and sometimes
thin. The former was the toga densa, pin-
gttis, or hirta. A new toga, with the nap
neither worn off nor cut close, was called
per.a, to which is opposed the trita or rasa,
which was used as a summer dress. The
toga was originally worn by both sexes ; but
when the stola came to be worn by matrons,
the toga was only worn by the meretrices, and
by women who had been divorced on account
of adultery. [Stola.] In war the toga was
laid aside, and replaced by the Paludamentum
and Sagl'm. Hence togatus is opposed to miles.

TOXSOR. [Barba.]

TORCULAR, TORCULUM. [Vinum.]

TORMEXTUM (a^enjpia opyapa), a mili-
tary engine, so called from the twisting
(torquendo) of hairs, thongs, and vegetable
fibres. The principal military engines were
the balista and catapulta. The balista
(7reTpo/3oA.os) was used to shoot stones ; the
catapulta (KaTa7reA.i-r)s, Ka.Ta7reA-n.ioj) to project
darts, especially the falarica [Hasta], and a
kind of missile, 4j feet long, called trifax.
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 bat-
tlements (j>ropitgnacula, eTraAfeis), and the ca-
tapult to shoot any of the besieged who appeared
between them : the forms of these machines
being adapted to the objects which they were
intended to throw; the catapult was long, the
balista nearly square. Instances are recorded
in which the balista threw stones to the dis-
tance of a quarter of a mile. Some balistae
threw stones weighing three hundredweight.
Of the scorpio or onager, which was also a spe-
cies of tormentum, we know next to nothing.

TORMENTUM (0aaavos), torture. (1)
Greek.—By a decree of Scamandrius it was
ordained that no free Athenian could be put
to the torture, and this appears to have been
the general practice. The evidence of slaves
was, however, always taken with torture, and
their testimony was not otherwise received.
From this circumstance their testimony ap-
pears to have been considered of more value
than that of freemen. Any person might
offer his own slave to be examined by tor-
ture, or demand that of his adversary, and
the offer or demand was equally called
rrpo/cArjo-t; eis fiao-avov. The parties interested

either superintended the torture themselves,
or chose certain persons for this purpose,
hence called fiao-avitnal, who took the evidence
of the slaves. (2) Roman.—During the
time of the republic freemen were never put
to the torture, and slaves only were exposed
to this punishment. Slaves, moreover, could
not be tortured to prove the guilt of their
own master, except in the case of incestus,
which was a crime against the gods, or un-
less the senate made an exception in some
special instance. At a later time slaves
might be tortured to bear witness against
their masters in cases of majestas and adul-
tery. Under the emperors even free persons
were put to the torture to extract evidence
from them in cases of majestas ; and although
this indignity was confined for the most part
to persons in humble circumstances, we read
of cases in which even Roman senators and
equites were exposed to it.

TORQUES or TORQUIS (otpcttto;), an
ornament of gold, twisted spirally and bent
into a circular form, which was worn round
the neck by men of distinction among the
Persians, the Gauls, and other Asiatic and
northern nations. It was by taking a collar
from a Gallic warrior that T. Manlius ob-
tained the cognomen of Torquatus. Such
collars were among the rewards of valour
bestowed after an engagement upon those
who had most distinguished themselves.

TORUS, a bed covered with sheets or
blankets, called Toralia.

TRABEA. [Toga.]

TRAGOEDIA (rpayUia), tragedy. (1)
Greek. The tragedy of the ancient Greeks
as well as their comedy confessedly origi-
nated in the worship of the god Dionysus.
The peculiarity which most strikingly dis-
tinguishes the Greek tragedy from that of
modern times, is the lyrical or choral part.
This was the offspring of the dithyrambic
and choral odes from which, as applied to
the worship of Dionysus, Greek tragedy took
its rise. The name of Tragedy (TpaywSia)
is probably derived from the goatlike appear-
ance of the Satyrs who sang or acted with
mimetic gesticulations (opxijc'-s) the old Bac-
chic songs, with Silenus, the constant com-
panion of Dionysus, for their leader. The
Dionysian dithyrambs were sometimes of a
gay and at other times of a mournful charac-
ter : it was from the latter that the stateU
and solemn tragedy of the Greeks arose.
Great improvements were introduced in the
dithyramb by Arion, a contemporary of Pe-
riander. Before his time the dithyramb was
sung in a wild and irregular manner; but he
is said to have invented the Cyclic chorus,
by which we are to understand that the