cippus

• I A gravestone, tombstone, * Hor. S. 1, 8, 12; Pers. 1, 37; Prud. Apoth. 361; Inscr. Orell. 4524 al.—
• II In the Agrimensores, a landmark, boundary-stone or post, Simplic. ap. Goes. p. 88.—*
• III In milit. lang., cippi, ōrum, m., a bulwark formed of sharpened stakes, Caes. B. G. 7, 73.

• —Prop., a pale, stake, post, pillar. —Hence, a pillar at a grave, H.—Plur., in war, a bulwark of sharpened stakes, chevaux-de-frise, Cs.

CIPPUS

1. Originally the trunk of a tree with its branches lopped off, left standing in the ground as a stump or sunk in it: in a wooden fortification described by Caesar (B. G. 7.73) the cippi are further sharpened to a point and serve as chevaux de frise.

2. From the similarity of form, a low column of stone, sometimes round, more often rectangular. Stone cippi were set up by the Agrimensores to mark the divisions of lands, and are mentioned in the gromatic writers (Hygin. de Gener. Controv. p. 127, Lachmann; Sic. Flacc. de Condic. Agr. p. 138 ff.; Lib. Coloniar. i. pp. 211, 218, 221, 222; cf. AGRIMENSORESp. 83b). The most frequent use of the cippus, however, was as a sepulchral monument. Such cippi are among the commonest finds of the excavator, and are to be seen in the local museums of most Roman cities, as for instance at Bath. Several fine specimens are in the Townley collection at the British Museum, one of which is given in the first of the following woodcuts. The inscription is to the memory of Viria Primitiva, wife of L. Virius Helius, who died at the age of eighteen years, one month, and twenty-four days. Our second example is from a cippus preserved in the Vatican Museum. As features common to the two, and therefore probably characteristic of these monuments in general, we may notice the festoons of fruit and flowers suspended from rams' heads at the corners, and the sphinxes below; between the latter we see in the one instance the head of Pan, in the other a Nereid riding upon a sea-monster. The letters D. M. in the first cut are explained by the DIS MANIBUS which form the sole inscription on the second. On several cippi we find the letters s. T. T. L., that is, sit tibi terra levis (cf. Pers. Sat. 1.37). These two uses of the cippus, as a boundary and a tombstone, were often combined; it was usual to inscribe on it the extent of the burying ground both along the road (in fronte) and in depth (in agrum), and likewise the words hoc monumentum heredes non sequitur; in order that it might not pass over to the heredes and be sold by them at any time. (Hor. Sat. 1.8, 12, 13; Orelli, Inscr. Nos. 4379, &c.)

(1) Originally the trunk of a tree with its branches lopped off, left standing in the ground as a stump, or else stuck in the ground. The cippus was sometimes sharpened to a point, and thus used in fortification as a sort of chevaux-de-frise ( B. G. vii. 73).

(2) A low column of stone, sometimes round, but oftener rectangular, and used (a) as a mark of the division of land by the agrimensores (q. v.); and (b) as a sepulchral monument, many of these having been exhumed. The illustration here given shows a cippus contained in the Townley collection in the British Museum, and erected to the memory of one Viria Primitiva.

On several cippi are found the letters T. T. L.; that is, Sit tibi terra levis, whence Persius says, Non levior cippus nunc imprimit ossa (Sat. i. 37).

It was also usual to place at one corner of the burying-ground a cippus, on which the extent of the burying-ground was marked, along the road (in fronte), and backward to the fields (in agrum) (Hor. Sat. i. 8, 12, 13). See sepulcrum.