Petorrĭtum
or
Petorĭtum. A four-wheeled carriage which, like the later
form of the
essedum (q. v.) and some other vehicles, the Romans adopted
from the Gauls. The name itself is Keltic (
petvar= quattuor, and
rit=rota). It was strongly built and better adapted for rough roads than
the
reda (q. v.). On journeys the family usually rode in a
reda and the servants in a petorritum. See the Schol. Cruq.
ad
Epist. ii. 1, 192; Ginzrot,
Die Wagen der alten Völker,
i. 224; and Marquardt,
Privatleben, 734.