Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

SCYTALE. SECTIO. 1013
so as in part to encircle the body. The terms left Sparta, the ephors gave to hini a staff of a deficlripeus and scitlunm are often confounded; but that nite length and thickness, and retained for themithey properly denoted different kinds of shields is selves another of precisely the same size. When
manifest from the passages of several ancient writers. they had any communicaton to irnake to him, they
(Liv. viii. 8; Plut. Rom. 21; Diod. Eclog. xxiii. 3.) cut the material upon which they intended to
In like manner Plutarch distinguishes the Roman write into the shape of a narrow riband, wound it
uvpeds from the Greek &ro7rfs in his life of T. Fla- round their staff, and then wrote upon it the message which they had to send to him. When the
strip of writing material was taken from the staff,
2-'~' A) &91 pnothing but single or broken letters appeared, and
in this state the strip was sent to the general, who
after having wound it around his staff, was able to
read the communication. This rude and imperfect
mode of sending a secret message must have come
1''I///,)//i AX \\%/1 / down from early times, although no instance of it
is recorded previous to the time of Pausanias.
4,@ X(Corn. Nep. P>aus. 3.) In later times, the Spartans
used the scytale sometimes also as a medium through.....i..' which they sent their commands to subject and allied towns. (Xenoph. I-Hell. v. 2. ~ 37.) [L. S.]
-')#' +./ // SCYTHAE (c0uat)i). [DEMOSII.]
SECE'SPITA, an instrument used by the Roman priests in killing the victims at sacrifices.
\ \ \ \(Suet. Tib. 25.) According to the definition of
Antistius Labeo, preserved by Festus (p. 348, ed.
— _ A._ MUller) and Servius (ad Virg. Alen. iv. 262), it
was a long iron knife (c~llter) with an ivory handle,
minius (p. 688, ed. Steph.) In Eph. vi. 16 St. Paul used by the Flamines, Flaminicae Virgines, and
uses the term guvpeds rather than ao7ris or oatcds, Pontifices. Paulus, however, in his epitome of
because he is. describing the equipment of a Roman Festus (p. 336) says that some think it to be an
soldier. These Roman shields are called sclta axe (seceris), others a dolabcra, and others again a
longa. (Virg. Aen. viii. 662; Ovid. Fast. vi. 393; knife (cultelr). On Roman coins representing sacriU peobs ErstijcKELs, Joseph. Ant. Jied. viii. 7. ~ 2.) ficial emblems we see an axe, which modern writers
Polybius (vi. 21) says their dimensions were 4 feet call a secespita, though we do not know on what
by 21. The shield was held on the left arm by authority, except the doubtful statement of Paulus.
means of a handle, and covered the left shoulder. See the annexed coin of the Sulpicia Gens, the
[Comp. EXERCITUS, p. 496, b.] [J. Y.] obverse of which is supposed to represent a culter,
SCY'RIA DIKE (sacvpla ficpK) is thus ex- a simpuvium, and a secespita.
plained by Pollux: SK'cvplav'IKx:,v,vozCcoovetv o
KcyuoopoaiancoKnao t TrX v T rpaXEnav' ol ytap cpvryotscovPTe; EGsirICrToVYro Eli ZKCpoiv X Els Aii y ov asoereaEt'. By rppaXEa aibc- is meant one beset with e s Ot
difficulties, in which the plaintiff had to encounter
every sort of trickery and evasion on the part of'
the defendant. On the appointed day of trial both v
parties were required to be present in court, and if
either of them did not appear, judgment was pro- SECRETA'RIUM. [AuDITORIUMr.]
nounced against him, unless he had some good SE'CTIO. "Those are called Sectores who buy
excuse to offer, such as illness or inevitable absence property publice." (Gaius, iv. 146; Festus, s. s7.
abroad. Cause was shown by some friend on his Sectores.) Property was said to be sold pzublice
behalf, supported by an affidavit called 67ricuoola, (venile publice), when a man's property was sold
in answer to which the opponent was allowed to by the state in consequence of a condemnatio and
put in a counter affidavit (a&'vrwlAooia), and the for the purpose of repayment to the State of such
court decided whether the excuse was valid. It sums of money as the condemned person had imseems to have become a practice with persons who properly appropriated; or in consequence of a pro.
wished to put off or shirk a trial, to pretend that scriptio. (Liv. xxxviii. 60; Cic. in Veer. i. 20.)
they had gone to some island in the Aegean sea, Such a sale of all a man's property was a Sectio
either on business or on the public service; and (Cic. pro Rosecio Amer. 36, 43, &c.); and somethe isles of Scyrus (one of the Cyclades), Lemnos, times the things sold were called Sectio. ~ (Tacit.
and Imbrus were particularly selected for that Hist. i. 90.) The sale was effected by the Praetor
purpose. Shammers of this kind were therefore giving to the QLaestors the Bonorumn Possessio, in
nicknamed Lemnians and Imbrians. (Pollux, viii. reference to which the phrase " bona publice pos60, 81; Kuhn, ad loc.; Suidas, s. v. Kcvpiav 3icr-vY: sideri " is used. The property was sold sub hasta
Hesych. s. v."Ipugpios; Steph. Tiesauz. 8484. c. s. v. and the sale transferred Quiritarian ownership, to'v pos: Demosth. c. Olympiod. 1174; Meier, Att. which Gaius probably alludes in a mutilated pasProc. p. 696.) [C. R. K.] sage (iii. 80; compare Varro, de Re Rtlst. ii. 10.
SCY'TALE (KUcashrnaX/) is the name applied to s. 4; Tacit. Hist. i. 20). The Sector was intitled
a secret mode of writing by which the Spartan to the Interdictum Sectoriusn for the purpose of
ephors communicated with their kings and generals obtaining possession of the property (Gaius, iv.
when abroad. (Plut. Lysand. 19; Schol. ad Tluecyd. 146); but he took the property with all its liabii. 131; Suidas, s. v.) When a king or general lities. An hereditas that had fallen to the Fiscu.'
3 T 3