CLAVA
CLAVA (
ῥόπαλον,
κορύνη), a club. The shape of the club is seen in
works of art relating to Hercules, who is usually represented with a club
(
Soph. Trach. 512;
Aristoph. Frogs 47; Prop. iv. (v.) 9, 39;
Ov. Met. 15.114;
Her.
9.117;
Suet. Nero 53), and therefore called
Clavige (
Ov. Met. 15.22,
284;
Fast.
1.544). Hence the
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Hercules wrestling with Nemean lion: the club by his side. (From a
Roman lamp.)
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expression “Herculi clavam subtrahere” of an
impossible undertaking (
Macr. 5.3.16). The
club was sometimes carried, instead of the walking-stick, by certain
philosophers as a mark of affectation (Sid. Ap.
Ep. 4.11,
9.9;
Carm. 15.197). In Homeric times, the club shod with
iron, or made of bronze, was used as a mace in fighting (
σιδηρείῃ κορύνη,
Il. 9.141;
ῥόπαλον
παγχάλεον,
Od. 11.375); and in the army of Xerxes the
Assyrians carried wooden clubs knotted with iron (
ῥόπαλα ξύλων τετυλωμένα σιδήρῳ,
Hdt. 7.63). Peisistratus had a body-guard of
club-bearers (
κορυνηφόροι), as less
invidious in a free state than
δορυφόροι,
or men armed with spears (
Hdt. 1.59;
D. L. 1.66;
Plut. Sol.
30). Though the club or mace was not usual in the Greek army, it was
used occasionally; and we thus read of Arcadian hoplites carrying clubs
(
ῥόπαλα ἔχοντες,
Xen. Hell. 7.5, § 20). Both
Daremberg and Saglio and Rich give a figure of Mars, from an ancient Roman
fresco-painting of the Villa Albani, where the god carries a mace studded
with spikes. In the Column of Trajan the club appears as the weapon of some
auxiliary barbarians.
Among the Romans the recruits were taught to fight with a club instead of a
sword, against a dummy or stake (
palus) set in
the ground (Cic.
Sen. 16, 58; Veg.
Mil. 1, 11; cf.
Juv. 6.247).
[
W.S]
