LACI´NIA
LACI´NIA the angular extremity of the toga, one end
of which was brought round over the left shoulder. It was generally tucked
into the girdle, but sometimes was allowed to hang down loose. Plautus
(
Merc. 1.2, 16) indicates that it oocasionally served as
a pocket-handker-chief: “At tu edepol sume laciniam atque absterge
sudorem.” Velleius Paterculus (2.3) represents Scipio Nasica as
wrapping the lacinia of his toga round his left arm for a shield (compare
[p. 2.3]V. Max. 3.2,
17) before he rushed upon Tib. Gracchus; while,
according to Servius (
ad
Verg. A. 7.612), the Cinctus Gabinus was
formed by girding the toga tightly round the body by one of the laciniae or
loose ends. These expressions are quite irreconcilable with the opinion that
the lacinia was the lower border or skirt of the toga, while all the
passages adduced by them admit of easy explanation, according to the above
view. The lacinia was undoubtedly permitted by some to sweep the ground,
especially by such as wore their garments loosely. Thus Macrobius (
Macr. 2.3) remarks upon one of Cicero's witticisms,
“Jocatus in Caesarem quia ita praecingebatur, ut trahendo laciniam
velut mollis incederet,” which corresponds with the well-known
caution of Sulla addressed to Pompey, “Cave tibi illum puerum male
praecinctum;” and Suetonius tells how the Emperor Caligula, being
filled with jealousy on account of the plaudits lavished on a gladiator,
hurried out of the theatre with such haste, “ut calcata lacinia togae
praeceps per gradus iret.” The etymology of the word (
λακ, λάκος,
lacero, and perhaps, as Curtius inclines to
think, also
ῥάκος) points to the same
sense, and it is probable that its primary meaning was a jagged edge or
pendent corner, and so, as given above, a piece or corner of a dress, not,
as Rich thinks, “a weighted drop.” If any such drop can be
traced in the tunica, which is doubtful, it cannot in the toga, to which the
lacinia generally belongs; and all the uses for wiping, wrapping,
&c. imply that it is a piece of cloth. Thus in
Cic. Fam. 16.2. 1 we find it used to wrap up
pips of fruit taken from the dinner-table: it is the corner of dress seized
to stop anyone (
Suet. Cl. 15; Vulg. Gen.
39.12), whence came the proverbial expression
obtinere
lacinia of a precarious hold (
Cic. de Orat. 3.28.110; Plaut.
Asin. 3.2, 41). The other meanings agree with the above
explanation: (1) two jagged excrescences, hanging from the neck of a
she-goat; (2) a corner or promontory of land (
Plin. Nat. 5.148), “promontorium in quo Megaria oppidum
fuit: unde Craspedites sinus vocabatur, quoniam id oppidum velut in
lacinia erat;” (3) a point or
tongue of a leaf (
Plin. Nat. 15.130). The
corresponding Greek term, as seen from the passage quoted from Pliny, is
κράσπεδον, and accordingly Plutarch
(
Tib. Gr. 19) and Appian (
App.
BC 1.16) use that word in narrating the story of Scipio given
above.
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W.R] [
G.E.M]
