balteum

baltĕus, i, m., more rare baltĕum, i, n. (in plur. baltea was generally used in the poets metri gr.; and in ante-class. prose balteum, e. g. Varr. L. L. 5, § 116 Müll.; Non. p. 194, 21; Charis. p. 59 P.) [acc. to Varr. ap. Charis. 1. 1. a Tuscan word; but cf. O. H. Germ. balz; Engl. belt] (not in Cic.).

I.

Lit., a girdle, belt; esp. a swordbelt, or the band passing over the shoulder (cf. Quint. 11, 3, 140; Dict. of Antiq.): baltea, Att. ap. Non. p. 194, 21;

Varr. ib.: infelix umero cum apparuit alto Balteus,

Verg. A. 12, 942:

lato quam circumplectitur auro Balteus,

id. ib. 5, 313 Serv.;

12, 274: verutum in balteo defigitur,

Caes. B. G. 5, 44: aurata baltea illis erant, Liv. H. ap. Non. p. 194, 21:

gregarius miles viatica sua et balteos phalerasque loco pecuniae tradebant,

Tac. H. 1, 57 fin.; Vulg. Exod. 28, 39: regum, ib. Job, 12, 18.—

B.

Poet., like zôstêr, a woman ' s girdle; so of that of Amazonian queens at Thermodon, Ov. M. 9, 189; the girdle of the wife of Cato, Luc. 2, 362; of Venus, Mart. 14, 207.—

C.

The girdle of the Jewish high-priest, Vulg. Exod. 28, 4.—

D.

The girdle or belly-band of a horse, = cingula, Claud. Epigr. 21, 2; App. M. 10, p. 247, 37.—

II.

Transf., that which surrounds like a girdle, a border, rim, edge, circle.

A.

The belt of the heavens, the zodiac:

stellatus balteus,

Manil. 1, 677; 3, 334.—

B.

The edge, the crust of a cake, Cato, R. R. 76, 3, and 78.—

C.

The bark of the willow, Plin. 16, 37, 68, § 174.—

D.

= praecinctio, and Gr. diaxôma, the vacant space between the seats in the amphitheatre, Calp. Ecl. 4, 47; Tert. Spect. 3.—

E.

Baltei pulvinorum, in architecture, the broad bands by which the cushions upon Ionic capitals are, as it were, held together, Vitr. 3, 5, 7.—

F.

A strapping, blow with a belt:

quoties rumoribus ulciscantur Baltea,

Juv. 9, 112.