BIRRUS
BIRRUS (
βίρρος), or BURRUS, a
cloak or cape furnished with a hood; a heavy, coarse garment for use in bad
weather. (Burmann,
Anth. Lat. ii. p. 407; Cod. Theod. 14.10,
1.) Its material was stiff (
birrum rigentem--fluentem
lacernam, Sulp. Sev.
Dial. 1.14), with a long
nap--usually wool, sometimes beaver (Claud.
Epigr. 42). The
word is used as a synonym of
lacerna (Schol.
ad Pers. 1.54), of
cucullus (Schol.
ad
Juv. 8.145), of
sagum (Dioclet.
Edict. 16.11, ed. Waddington;
Vopisc.
Gallien. 6,
Carin. 20,
with note of Salmasius). Waddington (
l.c.) prefers
to regard it as a word of barbarous origin, rather than to suppose that it
is connected with
πυρρός (Festus, s.v.
Marquardt,
Privatleben, p. 550), on account of the red colour
of the wool. The spelling
byrrus is rare in MSS. In
Diocletian's Edict (
l.c.) we read of
βίρροι made not of coarse materials, but of the
more costly Laodicean and Nervian wools.
[
W.S] [
J.H.F]
