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

328 COLUMNARIUM. COMA.
posed by the lex sulltuaria of Julius Caesar, and
was intended to check the passion for the building
of palaces, which then prevailed at Rome. The
Ostiuariusn was a similar tax. [OSTIARIUM.]
The columznariumn levied by Metellus Scipio in
- Syria in B. C. 49-48, was a tax of a similar kind,
W' ~C) ~ 1-3f b but had nothing to do with the tax to which
IJ 1:,W Cicero alludes in the passage quoted above. This
colurnnarium was simply an illegal means of extortino money from the provincials. (Cacs. B. C.
iii. 32.)
COLIUS, a distaff. [Fusus.]
COMA (KtcI77, KOupd.), the hair. 1. GREEK.
rip.~,q In the earliest times the Greeks wore their hair
0 long, and thus they are constantly called in Homer'_ s etapnlKcoea,UdoYTES'AXaeLO. This ancient practice was
preserved by the Spartans for many centuries.
The Spartan boys always had their hair cut quite
short (Ei XpW, KetpOsTES, Plut. Lye. 16); but as
soon as they reached the age of puberty (p7r~,~e]~ 6r- $ t got), they let it grow long. They prided themselves upon their hair, calling it the cheapest of
I~(i)W,-~ I _.[ eXornaments (cwV K4co0Utc aaea7raWrTaTos), and before going to battle they combed and dressed it
with especial care, in which act Leonidas and his
followers were discovered by the Persian spy becapitol. The inscription upon it, in great part fore the battle of Thermopylae (Herod. vii. 208,
effaced, is written in obsolete Latin, similar to 209). It seems that both Spartan men and
that of the Twelve Tables. (Quinctil. i. 7.) women tied their hair in a knot over the crown of
WVhen statues were raised to ennoble victors at the head (comp. Aristoph. Lys. 1316, to/av arapthe Olympic and other games, or to commemorate ajur7rmlm8e, with Hor. Carse. ii. 11, in coimpltsn
persons who had obtained any high distinction, the Lacenae iore comeas reliyatc nodusn: MUller, Doe.
tribute of public homage was rendered still more iv. 3. ~ 1). At a later time the Spartans abannotorious and decisive by fixing their statues upon doned this ancient custom, and wore their hair
pillars. They thus appeared, as Pliny observes short, and hence some writers erroneously attribute
(H. NM xxxiv. 12), to be raised above other *this practice to an earlier period. (Paus. vii. 14.
mortals. ~ 2; Philostr. Vit. Apoll. iii. 15. p. 106, ed. Olear.;
But columns were much more commonly used Plnt. Alc. 23.)
to commemorate the dead. For this purpose they The custom of the Athenians was different.
varied in size, from the plain marble pillar bearing They wore their hair long in childhood, and cut it
a simple Greek inscription (Leon. Tarent. in Br. off when they reached the age of puberty. The
AAnal. i. 239) to those lofty and elaborate columns cutting off of the hair, which was always done
which are now among the most wonderful and in-'when a boy became an M42,1~os, was a solemn act,
structive monuments of ancient Rome. The attended with religious ceremonies. A libation
column on the right hand in the last woodcut was first offered to Hercules, which was called
exhibits that which the senate erected to the ohvrrL'ploT or oivlaorTpla (Hesych. and Phot.
honour of the Emperor Trajan, and crowned with s. v.); and the hair after being cut off was dedihis colossal statue in bronze. In the pedestal is a cated to some deity, usually a river-god. (Aeschyl.
door which leads to a spiral staircase for ascending CAboiIh. 6; Paus. i. 37. ~ 2.) It was a very
to the summit. Light is admitted to this staircase ancient practice to repair to Delphi to perform this
through numerous apertures. A spiral bas-relief ceremony, and Theseus is said to have done so.
is folded round the pillar, which represents the (Plut. Thes. 5; Theophr. CAr/a. 21.) The ephebi
emperor's victories over the Dacians, and is one are always represented on works of art with their
of the most valuable authorities for archaeological hair quite short, in which manner it was also
inquiries. Including the statue, the height of this worn by the Athletae (Lucian, Dicl. lIver. 5).
monument, in which the ashes of the emperor were But when the Athenians passed into the age of
deposited, was not less than 130 feet. A similar manhood, they again let their hair grow. In
column, erected to the memory of the Emperor ancient times at Athens the hair was rolled up
Marcus Aurelius, remains at Rome, and is com- into a kind of knot on the crown of the head; and
monly known by the appellation of the Antonine fastened with golden clasps in the shape of grasscolumn. This sort of column was called cochlis or hoppers. This fashion of wearing the hair, which
cohlznena cocllis. [COCHLIS.] After the death of was called KpeosiXos, had gone out just before the
Julius Caesar, the people erected to his memory a time of Thucydides (i. 6); and what succeeded it
column of solid marble, 20 feet high, in the forum, in the male sex we do not know for certain. The
with the inscription PARENTI PATRIAE. (Suet. Athenian females also wore their hair in the same
Jul. 85.) Columns still exist at Rome, at Con- fashion, which was in their case called tcdpvtcos,
stantinople, and in Egypt, which were erected to and an example of which is given in the followother emperors. [P. S.] ing figure of a female taken from Milllngen
COLUMNA'RIUM, a tax imposed inthe time (iPeiZnt'res Antiques, plate 40). The word Costoynof Julius Caesar upon the pillars that supported a bium is used in a similar sense by Petronius
house. (Cic. ad Att. xiii. 6.) It was probably iun- (c. 110).