TUBA
TUBA (
σάλπιγξ), a bronze trumpet,
distinguished from the
cornu by being straight
while the latter was curved. Thus Ovid (
Ov. Met.
1.98):
Non tuba directi non aeris cornua flexi.
(Cf. Vegetius, 3.5.) Forcellini in his Lexicon (s. v.
Tuba) is mistaken in supposing that Aulus Gellius (
5.8) and Macrobius (
Macr.
6.8), who copies him, intend to affirm that the tuba was crooked. The
words of the former do not mean that both the lituus and the tuba were
crooked, but that both that kind of trumpet which was called a lituus and
also the staff of the augur were crooked, and that it was doubtful which of
the two had lent its name to the other. [
LITUUS]
The
σάλπιγξ or tuba was employed in war for
signals of every description (
Thuc. 5.10,
6.69;
Xen. Anab.
4.4,
22;
Tac. Hist. 2.29; Caesar,
B.C. 3.46;
Liv. 39.27). Droysen remarks that the only passage
in a Greek historian where
κέρας appears to
be used for a Greek military signal is
Xen. Anab.
2.2,
4; and that there
κέρατι is interpolated from
Cyrop. 5.3, 45. As regards Roman military signals with tubae,
cornua and bucina, see
EXERCITUS Vol. 1. p. 801.
The trumpet was used also at the games and public festivals (
Juv. 6.249,
10.214;
Verg. A. 5.113; Ovid,
Ov. Fast. 1.716), also at the last rites to
the dead (
hinc tuba, candelae, Pers. 3.103;
Verg. A. 11.191; Ovid,
Ov. Ep. 12.140), and Aulus Gellius (
20.2) tells us that those who sounded the trumpet
at funerals were termed
siticines, and used an
instrument of a peculiar form. The tones of the tuba are represented as of a
harsh and fear-inspiring character (
fractos sonitus
tubarum,
Verg. G. 4.72;
terribilem
sonitum aere canoro, Aen. 9.503), which Ennius (Serv.
ad
Verg. A. 9.503; Priscian, 8.18, 103, ed.
Krehl) endeavoured to imitate in the line
At tuba terribili sonitu taratantara
dixit.
The invention of the tuba is usually ascribed by ancient writers to the
Etruscans (Athenaeus,
4.82; Pollux, 4.85, 87;
Diod. 5.40; Serv.
ad
Verg. A. 8.516;
Clem. Al. Strom. i. p. 306), and
the epithet
ληστοσαλπιγκταὶ (i. e.
robber-trumpeters, Photius and
Hesych. sub
voce and Pollux,
l.c.) would seem to indicate
that they were equally famous for piracy and trumpeting. It is probable that
the
σάλπιγξ was of Lydian origin, and was
made known in Europe by the Tyrrhenian pirates. It has been remarked that
Homer never introduces the
σάλπιγξ in his
narrative but in comparisons only (
Il.
18.219,
21.388; Eustath. and
Schol.), which leads us to infer that although known in his time it had been
but recently introduced into Greece; and it is certain that, notwithstanding
its eminently martial character, it was not until a late period used in the
armies of the leading states. By the tragedians its Tuscan origin was fully
recognised: Athena in Aeschylus orders the deeptoned piercing Tyrrhenian
trumpet to sound (
Eumen. 567), Ulysses in Sophocles (
Soph. Aj. 17) declares that the accents of his
beloved goddess fell upon his ears like the tones of the brazenmouthed
Tyrrhenian bell (
κώδωνος, i. e. the
bellshaped aperture of the trumpet), and similar epithets are applied by
Euripides (
Phoeniss. 1376,
Heraclid. 830), and
other Greek (Auctor,
Rhes. 988; Brunck,
Anal.
tom. ii. p. 142) and Roman writers (
Tyrrhenus clangor,
Verg. A. 8.526;
Stat. Theb. 3.650;
Tyrrhenae clangore
tubae, Silius, 2.19). According to one account it was first
fabricated for the Tyrrhenians by Athena, who in consequence was worshipped
by the Argives under the title of
Σάλπιγξ
(Schol.
ad
Hom. Il. 18.219;
Paus. 2.21.3); while at Rome the
tubilustrium, or purification of sacred trumpets, was
performed on the last day of the Quinquatrus. [
QUINQUATRUS] In another legend the discovery is
attributed to a mythical king of the Tyrrhenians, Maleus,
 |
|
Soldiers blowing Tubae and Cornua. (From Trajan's Column.)
|
son of Hercules and Omphale (Lutat.
ad
Stat. Theb. 4.224,
6.404;
Hyg. Fab.
274; Schol.
ad Hom.
l.c.); in a third to Pisaeus the Tyrrhenian (
Plin. Nat. 7.57; Photius,
[p. 2.902]s. v.), and Silius has preserved a tradition (8.490), according
to which the origin of this instrument is traced to Vetulonii.
(Müller,
Die Etrusker, 4.1, 3, 4, 5.)
There appears to have been no essential difference in form between the Greek
and Roman or Tyrrhenian trumpets. Both were long, straight bronze tubes
gradually increasing in diameter, and terminating in a bell-shaped aperture
(
κώδων), and often having a horn
mouth-piece. They present precisely the same appearance on monuments of very
different dates, as may be seen from the cuts annexed, the former of which
is from Trajan's Column, and the latter from an ancient fictile
vase. (Hope,
Costumes of the Ancients, pl. 156.)
The scholiast on the Iliad (
l.c.) reckons six
varieties of trumpets; but he speaks of metal instruments generally: the
first and fifth only are true trumpets with a straight tube; the first he
calls the Grecian
σάλπιγξ which Athena
discovered for the Tyrrhenians; the fifth, a Persian trumpet, from its name
καλάμινος, seems to have been straight
like a Greek
σάλπιγξ, but perhaps
slenderer; the sixth, termed by him
κατ᾽
ἐξοχὴν the
τυρσηνικὴ σάλπιγξ,
he describes as bent at the extremity (
κώδωνα
κεκλασμένον ἔχουσα); but by this we must unquestionably
understand the sacred trumpet (
ἱερατικὴ
σάλπιγξ, Lydus,
de Mens. 4.6), the
lituus already noticed at the beginning of
this article. (Compare
Lucan 1.431.) Of the
others, the second and fourth are not Greek and are of unknown form; the
third is a
κάρνυξ, which was a smaller
Gallic trumpet, somewhat bent like the lituus, and ornamented with the head
of some animal. (See Cohen,
Méd. Cons. 19.3.)
Reference may be made for further details to Droysen,
Gr.
Kriegsalterth. 54; Marquardt,
Staatsverw. 2.552;
K. von Jan, in Baumeister,
Denkmäler, 1657-1662.
[
W.S] [
G.E.M]
