Virga
(
ῥάβδος). A twig, bough, or switch cut from a tree. Hence
1.
a ridingwhip (
Mart.ix. 23);
2.
a switch for punishing schoolboys (
Juv.vii. 210) (see
Ludus Litterarius);
3.
a walking-stick (see
Baculum);
4.
a wand of office carried by the Roman lictors (see
Fasces;
Lictor);
5.
a magic wand (
Verg. Aen. iv. 242); and
6.
, in the plural, the ribs of an umbrella (Ovid,
A.
A. ii. 209).