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

UMBRACULUM. IJNCIA.' 1213
The sacted. vittae, as well as the infulae, were of the aliens (tc rorcoi) at Athens had to carry
made of wool, and hence the epithets Icanea (Ovid. parasols after the Athenian maidens at the PanaFast. iii. 30) and nmollis. (Virg. Eel. viii. 64.) thenaea, as is mentioned under HYDRIAPHORIA.
They were white (Oiveae, Virg. Georq. iii. 487f; The parasols of the ancients seem to have beenl
Ovid. 1/let. xiii. 643; Stat. Tlheb. iii. 466), or pur- exactly like our own parasols or umbrellas in
ple (puniceae, Prop. iv. 9. 27), or azure (caeruleae) form, and could be shut up and opened like ours.
when wreathed round an altar to the manes. (Virg. (Aristoph. Equit. 1348; Schol. ad loc.; Ovid. Ar.
Aen. iii. 64.) AAm. ii. 209.) They are often represented in paint.
Vitta is also used in the general sense of a string ings on ancient vases: the annexed woodcut is
for tying up garlands (Plin. HI. 1N xviii. 2; Isidor. taken from Millin's Peintures de Vases Antiques,
xix. 31. 6), and vittae loreae for the leathern straps vol. i. pl. 70. The female is clothed in a long
or braces by which a machine was worked. (Plin. Chiton or Diploidion [TuNIcA, p. 1172, b.], and
II. N. xviii. 31.) [VW. R.] has a small Himation, which seems to have fallen
ULNA (&cAel7'), properly the fore-arm from off her shoulders.
the shoulder to the wrist, is also used for the It was considered a mark of effeminacy for men
whole arm, and even for the whole span of both to mlake use of parasols. (Anacreon, cap. Athenz. xii.
arms; and hence, as a measure of length, it ap- p. 534, a.) The Roman ladies used them in the
pears to be used with different significations. In amphitheatre to defend themselves from the sun
the chief passages in which it occurs (Virg. Bsc. or some passing shower (Mart. xiv. 28), when the
iii. 105, Geoyg. iii. 355; Ovid, AIetaml. viii. 750; wind or other circumstances did not allow the veHor. Epod. iv. 8) there is nothing to determine its larium to be extended. To hold a parasol over a
length, except, perhaps, in the last quoted passage, lady was one of the common attentions of lovers
where, however, we may easily suppose the exag- (Mart. xi. 73; Ovid. 1. c.), and it seems to have
geration of caricature. Servius, however, in his been very common to give parasols as presents.
note on the first of these passages, says that it was (Juv. ix. 50.)
the space between the outstretched hands, that is, Instead of parasols the Greek women in later
the same as the Greek 3pyvfa of six feet; and this tinles wore a kind of straw hat or bonnet,
is evidently its meaning in Pliny (I. N. xvi. 40. called roAIa. (Pollux, vii. 174; compare x. 127;
s. 76, 32. s. 57), where it is important to observe Theocr. xv. 39.) The Romans also wore a hat with
that t&'assitudo refers to the circaunif'tence of the a broad brilm (petazsus) as a protection against the
trunk, not to its diamseter. Later writers use it sun. (Suet. Aug. 82; Dion Cass. lix. 7.) See Pacias equivalent to the cztbit or a mlodification of it, audi, de Unibellae gestatioeze, Rom. 1752; Becker,
and hence the modern ell. (Pollux, ii. 140; Solin. C/asrikles, vol. ii. p. 73.
54.) [P. S.] UNCIA (oyidca, obylcca, os'yyLa), the twelfth
ULTROTRIBU'TA. [CENsoR, p. 265, a.] part of the As or LIBRA, is derived by Varro friom
UMBELLA. [UnBRACULUvr.] 2anus, as being the unit of the divisions of the as
UMBI'LICUS. [LIBER.] (L.L. v. 171, Miiller). It was subdivided into
UMBO. [CLIPEUS; TOGA, P. 1136, b.] 2 senzunciae, 3 diuellae, 4 sicilici, 6 sextulae, 24 scruUMBRA'CULUM, IJMBELLA (erxdae86to, plda, and 144 siliquae. The values of the Unciar
OrKadiSov, otaLalo'frK7) a parasol, was used by Greek and its subdivisions, in terms of our own weights,
and Roman ladies as a protection against the sun, will be founld in the Tables.
In connecting the Roman systeill of weights and
money with the Greek, another division of the uncia
wetas used. W'henl the dracc/inca was introduced
into the Romllan system as equivalenlt to the dena|ius of 96 to the pound [DENARIUS; DRACHIMA]
7z/f-w~~ ] ~the nCia, contailed * dccccsun2ae, the drachGcca 3
scrtlpula, the scrtlpzlssnn 2 oboli (since 6 oboli made
up the draschca), and the obolos 3 siliqucae (tcepaula).
Therefore the uncia was divided into 8 drachmae,
24 scrzcpla, 48 oboli, 144 siliquuae. In this division
we have the origin of the mlodern Italian system,
~11]' - in which the pound is divided into 12 ounces, the
I/ \)( > )'-{ t'1 - g {>\;ounce into 8 drams, the draml inlto 3 scruples,'and
// /': /':? i~, the scruple into 6 carats. In each of these systems
1728 icepara, siliqaee, or carats make up the pound.
/ 9j\\;i~li iii The uncial system was adopted by the Greeks
-?:jlI: |A\\l | i ii 05of Sicily, who called their obol Aivpa (the Roman
lii'l\\| libra), and divided it into twelve parts, each of
/1l!!1'! it i f is which they called y3ida or ovyi0a (the Roman:'l' i funcia). In this system the ycia was reckoned
equal to the XaXicoks. [LITRA; NuMsaus, pp.
813, 814.]
MUiller considers that the Greeks of Sicily, and
also the Romans themselves, obtained the uncial
system from the Etruscans. (Etrlusker, i. p. 309.)
The Romans applied the uncital division to all
kinds of magnitude. [As.] Ic length the uncia
They seem not to have been carried generally by was the twelfth of a foot, whence the word inck,
the ladies themselves, but by female slaves who icl area the twelfth of a jugerum, in content the
held them over their mistressse. T'he daughters twelfth of a sextarius, in time the twelfth of an