loculi

• locus, a receptacle with compartments, coffer, casket, satchel, pocket: nummum in loculos demittere, H.: eburni, O.: inanissimi: neque loculis comitantibus itur, with purses, Iu.: laevo suspensi loculos lacerto, H.

LO´CULIa small coffer or casket with compartments (cf. loculatae arculae, Varro, R. R. 3.17), whence it comes that in this signification the word is only used in the plural. It was smaller than the area (Juven. 1.89: see Mayor's note), but, like the area, was used to hold money (Hor. Sat. 1.3, 17; Ep. 11, 1, 175; Mart. 5.39, 7); for jewels (Juven. 13.139); to hold keys (Plin. Nat.14.13.89), &c. It takes the place of the larger area as the treasure chest of the house (Hor. Sat. 2.3, 146), and then was placed in the atrium [see ARCA]: it was made of wood (Mart. 14.13) or sometimes of ivory (Ovid. Fast. 6.749; Juven. 13.139); for security it had a lock (Hor. Sat. 2.3, 149) or was sealed up (Plin. l. c.). In Hor. Sat. 1.6, 74, Ep. 1.1, 56, the word loculi is used for a small case holding a schoolboy's libri, chartae, and stilus, which would generally be called capsa (Juven. 10.117) or theca (Suet. Cl. 35). (See Orelli's Excursus on Hor. Sat. 1.6.)

(dim. of locus). A small box, coffer, or casket with compartments, whence the word is used only in the plural. In Hor. Sat. i. 6, 74 the word is used of a schoolboy's satchel and =capsa (q. v.) or theca.