Figurative uses of animal names in Latin and their ... - mura di tutti

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Analogous to this use of equuleus are the following:
It. Cavelleto : Spezie di tormento a cui si ponevano i rei
per far loro confessare la colpa.^^*
Fr. Chevalet: Sorte de cheval de bois a dos en arete
sur lequel on mettait, avec des boulets aux pieds, les soldats
qui avaient commis certains fautes.-*®^
Ger. Esel: Der holzerne Esel, ein Strafmittel ftir
Soldaten.i»«
Eng. Steed : An English religious poet of the fourteenth
century says of Christ, "on stokky stede he rode.""''
Eng. Horse : A wooden frame, sometimes called a timber
mare, on which soldiers are sometimes compelled to
ride as a punishment.^®*
MURMILLO or MIRMILLO,!®® A Kind of Seafish;
transf., A Gallic Helmet.
The scholiast on Juvenal attributes the transfer to the
fish represented on the helmet : Mirmillo^*"* armaturae Gal-
licae nomen, ex pisce inditum, cuius imago in galea fingitur.
Too little credence^"* is given to the words of the scholiast,
since from Festus we may infer that the use of mur-
millo for the helmet was an intermediate stage between the
adoption of the device and the use of the term for a glad-
iator. Murmillones replaced the term Galli to indicate the
men who wore the murmillonic kind of armor : murmillonicum
genus armaturae Gallicum est ipsique murmillones ante
Galli appellabantur, in quorum galeis piscis effigies
inerat.2»2
In spite of the silence of the lexicographers, there seems
''* Dizionario delta Lingua Italiana, Tommaseo e Bellini.
"" Dictionnaire Geniral de la Langue Fratifaise, Hatzfeld et Darmesteter.
"" Deutsch-englisches Worterbuch, Lucas.
*" Words and their Ways in English Speech, Greenough and Kittredge,
p. 367-
"* The Century Dictionary.
'"ob zu gr. iMp/eSKos, impiiivas, 'eine Art Meerfisch.' Walde Lat. etym.
Worterbuch, s. v.
"" Schol. ad Juv. viii, 200. Forcellini s. v. questions this reading by
jn}3pTA„(r0(iX/ta." Jahn however makes no comment upon it.
'" Harper's Diet, and Walde give only one meaning.
'"" Paul. Fest. p. 284 Miill.