Secūris
(
πέλεκυς). An axe or hatchet used for a variety of
purposes, as for a weapon (
Curt. iii. 4); for sacrificing victims
(
Hor. Carm. iii. 23, 12); or for felling
trees (Ovid,
Trist. iv. 2, 5). When it had a small second edge projecting at
the back of the regular blade it was called
securis dolabrata (see
Dolabra), and
securis simplex to
distinguish it from the two-edged axe (
bipennis; cf. Pallad.
R.
R. i. 43). The name is also given to the symbolical axe carried by the lictor in the
fasces (see
Fasces), and
indicating the power of death which the State possessed. A pickaxe is also sometimes called
securis (
Stat. Silv. ii. 2,
87).