cateia
cateia, a barbed spear
Frieze-Dennison Vergil
Could not find cateiae in Logeion dictionaries.
cateiae feminine vocative plural, feminine genitive singular, feminine nominative plural, feminine dative singular of cateia
- a kind of spear, probably barbed, Verg. A. 7, 741; Sil. 3, 277; Val. Fl. 6, 83; Gell. 10, 25, 2; cf. Serv. ad Verg. l. l.; Isid. Orig. 18, 7, 7.
genus est Gallici teli ex materia quam
maxime lenta, quæ jactu quidem non longe propter gravitatem evolat, sed quo pervenit, vi
nimia perfringit. Quod si ab artifice mittatur, rursum redit ad eum qui misit.
Papias et ex eo Joan. de Janua : Theutonico ritu soliti vibrare Cateias. telum Gallicum. Certe ut Theutonibus
Cateiamtribuit Poeta, inde factum forte ut et
Theutonænuncupationem acceperit.
vocant, Cod. reg. 7644. ut ex Isidoro habet :
Barbari ingentes clavas in nostros
conjicientes ambustas, mucronesque acrius resistentium pectoribus illidentes, sinistrum
cornu perrumpunt. Inde super cernens lapides conspexit acerbos, Ac diras ut apes dense tranare Cateias . Pila dabat rupesque simul celeresque Cateias . .... Clypeum gestansque Cateiam . Cateiam, dardumvertit.
Venerunt itaque contra eum primo concursu sex viri clypeati sua quisque
gerentes missilia ; qui tela in hostem eminus jacientes, tandem ausi sunt illum
cominus gladiis attentare. Hic vero clavam rotans, quam Galli Cateyam vocant, hunc a
dextris sternit, illum rejicit a sinistris.- Celtic, a barbed spear, V.
CATEIAa missile used in war by the Germans, Gauls, and some of the Italian nations, ascribed also to Persians and other Orientals (Verg. A. 7.741; Val, Flacc. 6.83; Aul. Gell. 10.25), and supposed to resemble the aclys (Serv. l. c.; Isid. Orig. 18.7). Now the aclis or aclys is said by Servius to have been obsolete in his time, and therefore imperfectly known ; but it is described (he adds) as a club a foot and a half long, studded with points, and furnished with a thong, so that it can be recovered by the thrower (ad Aen. 7.730, where Virgil himself mentions the thong, flagellum). As far as the two can be distinguished, the aclys seems to have been more of a club, the cateia more of a spear. Papias (s. v.) makes it a Persian word: later writers consider it Celtic, which, as Conington observes (ad Aen. l. c.), would agree with Virgil's Teutonico ritu, the Celtae and Teutones being often confounded. The weapon was also called teutona from the name of the people (Isid. l. c.; Aelfric, Gloss. Saxon. ap. Lersch). francisca or francisque, the peculiar weapon of the Franks, is described as a two-edged axe used as a missile and carried in the belt: a modification perhaps of the aclys rather than the cateia. Cf. Lersch. Antiq. Verg.(Bonn, 1843), § 40, de cateia et aclyde.
[J.Y] [W.W]A missile used in war by the Germans, Gauls, and some of the Italians, and ascribed by some writers to the Persians. It was supposed to resemble the aclis, which was a sort of dart studded with points, and about a foot and a half long. (See Aul. Gell. x. 25; Orig. xviii. 7; ad Aen. vii. 730.) The cateia was also known as teutona, from the name of the people.