LI´TUUS
LI´TUUS Müller (
Die
Etrusker, 4.1, 5) supposes this to be an Etruscan word signifying
crooked, but more probably it is connected with
the verb
litare, its augural sense being the
original, and the military
lituus being so
called from a resemblance in shape. In the Latin writers it is used to
denote--
1. The crooked staff borne by the augurs, with which they divided the expanse
of heaven, when viewed with reference to divination (
templum), into regions (
regiones); the number of these according to the Etruscan
discipline being sixteen, according to the Roman practice four
(Müller, 3.6, 1;
Cic. de
Div. 2.1. 8, 42). Cicero (
de Div. 1.17,
30) describes the lituus as “incurvum et leviter a summo inflexum
bacillum;” and Livy (
1.18) as
“baculum sine nodo aduncum” (cf.
Serv. ad Aen. 7.407; Marquardt,
Staatsverwaltung, 3.402). It is very frequently exhibited
upon works of art. The figure in the middle of the following illustrations
is from a most ancient specimen of Etruscan sculpture in the possession of
Inghirami (
Monumenti Etruschi, tom. vi. tav. P. 5, 1),
representing an augur; the two others are Roman denarii. It is thought with
much probability that the pastoral staff of bishops (not the archiepiscopal
crosier) was borrowed as regards its form from the augur's lituus, which in
the earliest Christian representations it exactly resembles. (See
Dict. of Christian Antiquities, s. v.)
2. A sort of trumpet slightly curved at the extremity (Festus, s.v.
Gel. 5.8). It differed both from the
tuba and the
cornu
(Hor.
Carm. ii, 1, 17; Lucan, i, 237), the former being
straight, while the latter was bent round into a spiral shape. Lydus
(
de Mens. 4.50) calls the lituus
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Lituus, the Augural Staff.
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the sacerdotal trumpet (
ἱερατικὴν
σάλπιγγα), and says that it was employed by Romulus when he
proclaimed the title of his city. Ascon. (
ad
Hor.
Carnm. 1.1, 23) asserts that it was peculiar to cavalry,
while the tuba belonged to infantry. This is not quite correct, for in the
armies of the Sabines and Romans (Ovid,
Ov. Fast.
3.216), where the lituus is mentioned, it is clear that infantry
are to be understood. The
bucinator and the
tubicen are both attached to the cavalry as well as
the infantry (Marquardt,
Staatsverwaltung, 2.553). As regards
its shape, Seneca (
Oedip. 733) says, “Sonuit
refiexo classicum cornu Lituusque
adunco stridulos cantus elisit aere.” Its
tones are usually characterised as harsh and shrill (
“
stridor lituum,”
Lucan 1.237
;
sonitus acutos, Ennius, ap. Fest. s.v.
Stat. Theb. 6.228, &c.). The
following representation is from Fabretti. See also the representation of
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Lituus, a trumpet. (Fabretti.)
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a liticen [under
CORNU]
from the altar of Julius Victor (Vol. I. p. 544).
[
W.R] [
G.E.M]
