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

358 CORBIS. CORNU.
(Caes. Bell. /all. i. 54, v. 1, viii. 46; Act. Apost. in which a farming man, in the shape of a dwarf-'
xix. 38.) At such a conventus litigant parties ish satyr, is seen with a pole (&aeIAAa) across
applied to the proconsul, who selected a number of his shoulder, to each end of which is suspended a
judges from the conventus, generally from among basket resembling in every respect the Campanian
the Romans residing in the province, to try their corbella; all which coincidences of name, form,
causes. (Cic. in Verr. ii. 13, &c.; Niebuhr, flist. and description leave no doubt as to the identity
Rom. vol. iii. p. 732.) The proconsul himself pre- of the term with the object represented. [A. R.]
sided at the trials, and pronounced the sentence
according to the views of the judges, who were his'
assessors (consiliuns or consiliarii). As the pro- Fp'
consul had to carry on all official proceedings in
the Latin language (Val. Max. ii. 2. 2), he was
always attended by an interpreter. (Cic. in Verr.
iii. 37, ad Fain. xiii. 54.) These conventus appear /.
to have been generally held after the proconsul
had settled the military affairs of the province; at
least when Caesar was proconsul of Gaul he made - -- -
it a regular practice to hold the conventus after I —. -
his armies had retired to their winter-quarters.
In the time of the emperors certain towns in
each province were appointed as the seats of
standing courts, so that the conven2ts were superseded. (Cod. Just. i. tit. 40. s. 6.) The term con- 1:?,/1/l
ventus is lastly applied to certain bodies of Roman \\
citizens living in a province, forming a sort of cor- y "W IW1lW)
poration, and representing the Roman people in \;IL//11/)' 1
their district or town; and it was from among'f'li/
these that proconsuls generally took their assistants. Such corporations are repeatedly mentioned,
as, for example, at Syracuse (Cic. in Verr. ii. 13,
29, iii. 13, iv. 25, 31, v. 36, &c.), Capua (Caes. CORBTAE, merchantmen of the larger class,
De Biel. Civ. i. 14; Civ. p. Set. 4), Salona (Caes. so called because they hung out a corbis at the
De Bell. Ci. i1ii. 9), P.teoti (Cic4., o in aCat. e mast-head for a sign. (Festus; Nonius, s. v.)
De Bell. Civ. iii. 9), Puteoli (Cic. in Vat. 5)
They were also termed oneraarie; and hence
and Corduba (Caes. De Bell. Civ. ii. 19; comp.
PRovINcIA.) [L. S.] Plautus, in order to designate the voracious apCON VI'VIUM. [SLMPosS.c].] petites of some women, says, " Corbitam cibi
COOPTAN RE. [COLLEG1UM.] comesse possunt" (Cas. iv. 1. 20). They were
CO'PHJNUS (Kdpuros, Engl. coinz), a Ularge noted for their heavy build and sluggish sailing
kind of wicker basket, made of willow branches. (Lucil. uN. Non. s. v. Corbitae; Plaut. Poen. iii. 1.4),
(Mor. Att. and Hesych. s. v. A os.) From and carried passengers as well as merchandise, an(Moer. Att. and Hesych. s. v.'A" iXos.) From
Aristophanes (Av. 1223) it would seem that it swering to the large " felucca " of the present day.
was used by the Greek6s as a basket or cage for Cicero proposed to take a passage in one of those
birds. The Romans used it for agricultural pur- e which he opposes to the smarter class of
poses, and Colimella (xi. 3. p. 460, ed. Bip.) in packets (actuaOiola, ad Att. xvi. 6). [A. R.]
describing a method of procuring early cucunmbers, CORDAX (IcpUaN). [CHORUS, 280, a.]
says, that they should be sown in well manured CORNI'CINES. [AENEATORES.]
soil, kept in a cophinus, so that in this case we CORNICULA'RII. [EXERCITUS.]
have to consider it as a kind of portable hot-bed. CORNU. [ExERCITUS.]
Jovenal (Sat. iii. 14, and vi. 542), when speaking CORNU a wind instrument, anciently made of
of the Jews, uses the expression coplinus et horn, but afterwards of brass. (Varr. L. L. v. 117,
/benumn (a truss of bay), figuratively to designate
tbossuns (a truss of hay), figuratively to designate ed. Muiller.) According to Athenaeus (iv. p. 184, a.)
their high degree of poverty. [CoRIrs.] [L. S.] it as an invention of the Etruscans. Likethe
CORBIS, dies. CO RBIJLA, CORBICULA, tuba, it differed from the tibia in being a larger
a basket of very peculiar form and common use and more powerful instrument, and from the tuba
a~moeng the Romans, both for igricultural and other itself, in being curved nearly in the shape of a C,
purposes. It was made of osiers twisted together, with a cross-piece to steady the instrument for the
and was of a conical or pyramidal shape. (Var.. L. convenience of the performer. In Greek it is
v. 1 39, ed. MUiller; Isidor. Orig. xx. 9; Cic. pro called arpoyyiyv a aArrty/. It had no stopples or
Sest. 38; Ov. Met. xiv. 643; Plaut. Azl. ii. 7. 4; plugs to adjust the scale to any particular mode
Suet. Noer. 19.) A basket answering, precisely (Burney's Hist. of Music, vol. i. p. 518); the
to this description, both in form and material, is entire series of notes was produced without keys
still to be seen in everyday use among the Cam- or holes, by the modification of the breath and
panianl peasantry, which is called in the language the lips at the mouthpiece. Probably, from the
of the country' la corbella," a representation of description given of it in the poets, it was, like
which is introduced in the lower portion of the our own horn, an octave lower than the trumpet.
annexed woodcut. The hook attached to it by The classicurn, which originally meant a signal,
a string is for the purpose of suspending it to a rather than the musical instrument which gave the
branch of the tree into which the man climbs to signal, was usually sounded with the cosnu.
pick his oranges, lemons, olives, or figs. The " Sonuit reflexo classicum cornu,
upper portion of the woodcut (A7tiehita di Er- Lituusque adunco stridulos cantus
oloano, tom. iii. tav. 29) represents a Roman farm, Elisit aere." (Sen. Oed. 734.)