ACUS
ACUS,
Greek
（
βελόνη, βελονίς, ῥαφίς, ἀκέστρα),
a pin or needle, made sometimes of metal, sometimes of wood, bone, or
ivory. They varied greatly in size, according to the purposes for which
they were employed; and those used in dressing the hair or fastening the
robe were
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Acus--Greek pins.
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often of gold or silver, and ornamented with figures. The
ῥαφὶς seems to have answered to
our sewing-needle, the
ἀκέστρα (from
ἀκέομαι) to our darning-needle,
while
βελόνη was apparently
[p. 1.24]a wider term, corresponding both to our pin and
needle (cf. Pollux, 7.42; 10.136). The preceding engraving represents a
few of the more ordinary types. [
J.H.O]
2. Roman
a pin or needle (
qua sarcinatrix vel etiam ornatrix
utitur, Festus, s. v.). As a pin the
acus seems to have been specially used for women's hair
(
acus crinalis, Apul.
Met. 100.13, or
comatoria,
Petron. 21; or simply
crinale, Or.
Met. 5.53), and is accordingly figured, together with
a comb, on the funeral monument of an
ornatrix or
coiffeuse. The
acus crinalis was used to part the hair; hence
called
discriminalis (Hieron.
in Rufin. 3, 42); and other
acus served to curl, dye, or perfume it (
Ov. Amor. 1.14, 15, and 30;
Quint. Inst. 2.5.12;
Juv. 2.94,
6.498).
When the coiffure was complete, an ornamental pin, such as the one
figured in the annexed illustration, confined the plaits or ribbons. The
length of these hair-pins varies from 6 to 9 inches; the material is
generally gold or silver. Pins used for other purposes, such as
fastening parts of the dress, were of course smaller, though adorned
with equal art; the material is various, bone, ivory, and metal being
all found. As a needle, the
acus is
mentioned in embroidery (
pingere acu,
Verg. A. 9.582;
Mart. 8.28,
17,
14.150) and in surgical use for sewing
wounds (Celsus, 7.16).
The mode of plaiting the hair, and then fastening it with a pin or needle
(
figat acus tortas sustineatque comas,
Mart. 14.24), is shown in the annexed
figure of a female head, taken from a marble group which was found at
Apt, in the south of France.
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Acus. Roman gold Hair-pin from British Museum.
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(Montfaucon,
Ant. Exp. Sueppl. 3.3.) This fashion has been
continued to our own times by the females of Italy, and of some parts of
Germany, as, for instance, in the neighbourhood
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Hair fastened with Pin.
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of Coblenz. (Böttiger,
Sabina, i. p. 163; Becker-Göll,
Gallus, iii. p. 272.)
[
A.G]
