DOLABRA
DOLABRA dim. DOLABELLA, a tool
consisting of a long handle and a double head, which terminated on one side
in a sharp blade, the edge of which ran parallel to the handle while the
blade of the
ascia was at right angles to the
handle), and on the other side in a pick, which was usually curved (
falx,
Prop. 4.2,
59). In
this form it was used for hewing wood (
Curt.
8.4.11), for pruning, where the pruninghook was not strong enough
(Column.
de Arb. 10, 2), for making stockades (
Juv. 8.248; Veget.
de Re Mil.
2.25), and for breaking down ramparts and walls (
Liv.
9.37,
21.11;
Tac. Hist. 3.20 and 27;
Curt. 9.5.19). It was consequently a tool
familiar to the Roman soldier, as may be seen in the accompanying
illustration (Fig.
b), from Trajan's Column.
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Dolabra. (Blümner.)
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For the purpose, however, of excavating or breaking up the earth (Pallad. 2.1
and 3, 3.21), a
dolabra with a straighter pick
appears to have been used, as is shown in Fig.
a, from a relief on a tomb. Of a similar form is Fig.
c, which represents the dolabra used by masons
(Isid.
Orig. 19.19, 11). The hatchet used at sacrifices (
“scena ab aliis, a quibusdam sacena appellatur dolabra
pontificalis,” Festus, p. 318, M.) and by butchers (
Dig. 33,
7,
18) was also called a
dolabra, and
is figured here.
The
dolabella is to
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Dolabra. (From funeral monument.)
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be used, according to Columella, 4.24, for breaking up the earth
round the vines and for pruning. (Blümner,
Tech. u.
Term., &c., vol. ii. p. 206.)
J. Y.]
[
J.H.F]
