Corbis, Corbŭla, Corbicŭla
A basket of very peculiar form and common use among the Romans, both for agricultural and
other purposes. It was made of osiers twisted together, and was of a conical or pyramidal
shape (Varr.
L. L. v. 139). A basket answering precisely to this description,
both in form and material, is still to be seen in every-day use among the Campanian peasantry,
which is called in the language of the country
la corbella, a
representation of which is introduced in the lower portion of the annexed illustration. The
hook attached to it by a string
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Corbis. (The upper specimen from a drawing at Herculaneum; the lower a basket used by
Campanian peasantry.)
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is for the purpose of suspending it to a branch of the tree into which the man
climbs to pick his oranges, lemons, olives, or figs. The upper portion of the
illustration (
Antichità di Ercolano, tom. iii. tav. 29) represents a
Roman farm, in which a farming man, in the shape of a dwarfish satyr, is seen with a pole
(
ἄσιλλα) across his shoulder, to each end of which is
suspended a basket resembling in every respect the Campanian
corbella.
Like the
calathus, which it somewhat resembles in shape, it is sometimes
employed as a distinguishing emblem of Ceres.
