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

urceus.

40G

VALLUM.

URCEUS, a pitcher or water-pot, generally
made of earthenware, was used by the priests
at Rome in the sacrifices, and thus appears
with other sacrificial emblems on Roman
coins.

Trcpus and LitUUI on obverse of Coin of Pompey.

URN A, an urn, a Roman measure of ca-
pacity for fluids, equal to half an Amphora.
This use of the term was probably founded
upon its more general application to denote
a vessel for holding water, or any other sub-
stance, either fluid or solid. An urn was
used to receive the names of the judges
(judiccs) in order that the praetor might
draw out of it a sufficient number to de-
termine causes : also to receive the ashes of
the dead.

USTRINA, USTRINTJM. [Bustum.]

USUCAPIO, the possession of property for
a certain time without interruption. The
Twelve Tables declared that the ownership
of land, a house, or other immoveable pro-
perty, could be acquired by usucapio in two
years ; and of moveable property by usucapio
in one year.

USURAE. [FKJTOB.]

USUS. [Matrimonium.]

USUSFRUCTUS was the right to the en-
joyment of a thing by one person, while the
ownership belonged to another. He who
had the ususfructus was Ususfructuarius or
Fructuarius, and the object of the ususfructus
was Tics Fntctuaria.

UTRICULARIUS. [Tibia.]

UXOR. [Matrimonium.]

UXORIUM. [Aes Uxorium.]

T7'ACATIO. [Exercitvs, Emeriti.]
\ vIDIMONIUM, VAS. [Actio ; Praes.]
VAGINA. [Gladius.]
VALLUM, a term applied either to the
whole or a portion of the fortifications of a
Roman camp. It is derived from vallus (a
stake), and properly means the palisade which
ran along the outer edge of the agger, but it
very frequently includes the agger also. The
rallum, in the latter sense, together with the
fossa or ditch which surrounded the camp
outside of the rallum, formed a complete for-

tification. The valli (x«p«"e!), of which the
vallum, in the former and more limited sense,
was composed, are described by Polybius and
Livy, who make a comparison between the
vallum of the Greeks and that of the Romans,
very much to the advantage of the latter.
Both used for valli young trees or arms of
larger trees, with the side branches on them ;
but the valli of the Greeks were much larger
and had more branches than tnose of the
Romans, which had either two or three, or at
the most four branches, and these generally
on the same side. The Greeks placed their
valli in the agger at considerable intervals,
the spaces between them being filled up by
the branches ; the Romans fixed theirs close
together, and made the branches interlace,
and sharpened their points carefully. Hence
the Greek vallus could easily be taken hold of
by its large branches and pulled from its
place, and when it was removed a large open-
ing was left in the vallum. The Roman
vallus, on the contrary, presented no con-
venient handle, required very great force to
pull it down, and even if removed left a very
small opening. The Greek valli were cut on
the spot; the Romans prepared theirs before-
hand, and each soldier carried three or four
of them when on a march. They were made
of any strong wood, but oak was preferred.
The word vallus is sometimes used as equiva-
lent to vallum. In the operations of a siege,
when the place could not be taken by storm,
and it became necessary to establish a block-
ade, this was done by drawing defences simi-
lar to those of a camp round the town, which
was then said to be circumvallatum. Such
a circumvallation, besides cutting off all com-
munication between the town and the sur-
rounding country, formed a defence against
the sallies of the besieged. There was often
a double line of fortifications, the inner
against the town, and the outer against a
force that might attempt to raise the siege.
In this case the army was encamped between
the two lines of works. This kind of cir-
cumvallation, which the Greeks called a7roTei-
Xio-jao; and -eptreix'^o?, was employed by the
Peloponnesians in the siege of Plataeae.
Their lines consisted of two walls (appa-
rently of turf) at the distance of 16 feet,
which surrounded the city in the form of a
circle. Between the walls were the huts of
the besiegers. The wall had battlements
(en-aAfeis), and at every tenth battlement was
a tower, filling up by its depth the whole
space between the walls. There was a pas-
sage for the besiegers through the middle of
each tower. On the outside of each wall was
a ditch (Ta</>pos). This description would
almost exactly answer to the Roman mode of