Fercŭlum
(from
fero). A term applied to any kind of tray or platform used for
carrying anything. Thus it is used to signify the tray or frame
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Roman soldiers carrying on a ferculum the Golden Candlestick.
(Arch of Titus.)
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on which several dishes were brought in at once at dinner (
Petron. 35); and hence
fercula came to mean the
number of courses at dinner, and even the dishes themselves (
Suet.
Aug. 74;
Serv. ad
Verg. Aen. i. 637;
Juv.i.
94, with Mayor's note, and the article
Cena, p.
313).
The ferculum was also used for carrying the images of the gods in the procession of the
circus (
Iul. 76), the ashes of the dead in a funeral (
Calig.
15), and the spoils in a triumph (
Iul. 37;
Livy, i.
10); in all which cases it appears to have been carried on the shoulders or in the
hands of men. This is shown in the illustration from the Arch of Titus, where Roman soldiers
are carrying on a ferculum the Golden Candlestick. The most illustrious captives were
sometimes placed on a ferculum in a triumph, in order that they might be better seen
(
Herc. Oet. 110).
