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

5138 FALX. FALX.
and Taurus, as it stands in the text of Ulpian, we
should read Statilius Taurus, and that the consulship of T. Statilius Taurus and L. Scribonius Libo
(A. D. 16) is meant. A subsequent senatus-colsultum, in the fourteenth year of Tiberius, extendedii
the penalties of the law to those who for money
undertook the defence of a (criminal?) cause, or to
procure testimony; and by a senatus-consultum,
passed between the dates of those just mentioned,
conspiracies for the ruin of innocent persons were
comprised within the provisions of the law. Another senatus-consultum, passed A. D. 26, extended
the law to those -who received money for selling,
or giving, or not giving testimony. There were
probably other legislative provisions for the purpose of checking fraud. In the time of Nero it
was enacted against fraudulent persons (fistsarii),
that tabulae or written contracts should be pierced
with holes, and a triple thread passed through the by the pruning-hook, it was often smoothed, as
holes, in addition to the signature. (Suet. Nero, in modern gardening, by the chisel. (Colum.
c. 17; compare Paulus, Sent. Recept. v. tit. 25. De Arbor. 10.) [DoLAsBaA.] The edge of the
t3. 6.) In the time of Nero it was also provided falx was often toothed or serrated (pr?1s Icap.
that the first two parts (cesae) of a will should Xap soYTa, Hesiod, Theog. 174, 179; denticittcte,
have only the testator's signature, and the remain- Column. De Re Rust. ii. 21). The indispensable
ing one that of the witnesses: it was also provided process of sharpening these instruments (/piri7v
that no man who wrote the will should give himself xapatrcrseEivat, HIesiod, Op. 573; apsr7rv EicaLuxrl
a legacy in it. The provisions, as to adulterating VeoOiry'e, Apoll. Rhod. iii. 1388) was effected by
mnoney and refusing to take legal coin in payment, whetstones which the Romans obtained from
were also made by senatus consulta or imperial Crete and other distant places, with the addition
constitutions. Allusion is made to the latter law of oil or water which the mlower (fbenisex) carby Arrian (Epict. iii. 3). It appears from numer- ried in a horn upon his thigh. (Plin. H. N. xviii.
ous passages in the Roman writers that the crime 67.)
of falsum in all its forms was very common, and Numerous as were the uses to which the falc
especially in the case of wills, against which legis- was applied in agriculture and horticulture, its
lative enactments are a feeble security. (Heinecc. employment in battle was almost equally varied,,Ssntclnga; Rein, Das CrismiTzalrec/7t der Rmizer, though not so fiequent. The Geloni were noted
where the subject is fully discussed.) [G. L.] for its use. (Claudian, De Laud. Stil. i. 110.) It
FALX, dimn. FALCULA (aps7r, 6p47ravov, was the weapon with which Jupiter wounded.)oet. 8pe7r&dvl, dimz. 6pesrdsov), a sickle; a scythe; Typhon (Apollod. i. 6); with which Hercules
I pruning-knife, or pruning-hook; a bill; a fll- slew the Lernaean Hydra (Emrip. 10on, 191); and
chion; a halbert. with which Mercury cut off the head of Argus
As CULTER denoted a knife with one straight (fidcato e?se, Ovid, Mfet. i. 718; lzcaspen Cyllenid,
edge, "' falx " signified any similar instrument, the Lucan, ix. 662-667). Perseus, having received
silgle edge of which was curved. (ApEsravov ev- the same weapon from Mercury, or, according to
ica,ures, Hom. Od. xviii. 367; curvcaefidces, Virg. other authorities, from Vulcan, used it to decapiGeorg. i. 508; curvam2izSe filcis bellae, Ovid, Mlet. tate Medusa and to slay the sea-monster. (Apollod.
vii. 227; adunceaflce, xiv. 628.) By additional ii. 4; Eratosth, Cataster. 22; Ovid, Met. iv. 666,
epithets the various uses of the faIx were indicated, 720, 727, v. 69; Brunck, Anal. iii. 157.) From
and its corresponding varieties in form and size. the passages now referred to, we may conclude that
Thus the sickle, because it was used by reapers, the falchion was a weapon of the most remote
was called fidx msessorice; the scythe, which was antiquity; that it was girt like a dagger upon the
employed in mowing hay, was called fidfljbecas ria; waist; that it was held in the hand by a short
the pruning-knlife and the bill, on account of their hilt; and that, as it was in fact a dagger or sharpuse in dressing vines, as well as in hedging and in pointed blade, with a proper falx projecting from
cutting off the shoots and branches of trees, were one side, it was thrust into the flesh up to this
distinguished by the appellation of ficl psutatoria, lateral curvature (curvo tenous abdidit dhaemo). In
vinitoria, arboraria, or silvatica (Cato, De Re Rust. the following woodcut, four examlples are selected
10, 11; Pallad. i. 43; Colum. iv. 25), or by the from works of ancieilt art to illustrate its forml.
diminutivefalcula. (Colum. xii. 18.) One of the four cameos here copied represents
A rare coin published by Pellerin (M11ed. de Rois, Perseus with the falchion in his right hand, aind
Par. 1762. p. 208) shows the head of one of the the head of Medusa in his left. The two smaller
Lagidae, kings of Egypt, wearing the DIADERMA, figures are heads of Saturn with the falx in its
and on the reverse a man cutting down corn with original form; and the fourth cameo, representing
a sickle. (See woodcut.) the same divinity at full length, was probably enThe lower figure in the same woodcut is taken graved in Italy at a later period than the others,
from the MSS. of Columella, and illustrates his but early enough to prove that the scythe was in
description of the various parts of thefeTlx vinitoria. use among the Romans, whilst it illustrates the
(De Re Rust. iv. 25. p. 518, ed. Gesner.) [CULTER.] adaptation of the symbols of Saturn (Kp6vos:
The curvature in the fore part of the blade is ex- senex fIlcifer, Ovid, Fast. v. 627, in Ibinz, 216)
pressed by Virgil in the phrase procureva falx. for the purpose of personifying Time (Xp6vos).
(Georg. ii. 421.) After the removal of a branch If we imagine the weapon which has now been