Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 6.djvu/536

 366 ON THE USE OP BRONZE CELTS encampments, when he is speaking of the humble condition of Marius as a soldier in his early days : " Si leutus pigra muniret castra dolabra." — Hat. viii., 347. It has been justly remarked by Grang?eus, one of the best commentators on Juvenal, that he does not here speak of the joiner's chisel, but refers to other works. A chisel, rough, strong, and blunt, in proportion to the nature of the work, was used by the ancients where we should use a pickaxe ; and the stones, gravel, and soil, loosened b}^ the chisel, were carried, not in wheel-barrows or waggons, as in our days, but in hand-barrows (alvei), or baskets {cophini). Another very remarkable passage is the following anecdote preserved by Frontinus : " Domitius Corbulo dolabra, id est, operibus liostem vincendum esse dicebat." — Stratag. iv. 7, 2. By this maxim Domitius Corbulo, who was a most ex- perienced general, intended to express his opinion, that the means of making and destroying fortifications were more important in warfare than the use of the sword and the spear. Here I may observe, that the name Dolabella, which belonged the bronze implement to a wooden handle. this instrument terminates abruptly in a But instead of having any edge or point, plane surface of a circular or oval shape. Its use is entirely a matter of conjecture. But I have little doubt that it belonged to the equipage of the camp. It has occurred to me, as the foregoing passage of Tacitus proves most clearly, that as the Roman sol- diers usdd an iijnplenient called <?7wZfs, which was adajjted merely to jnish or thrust, it may have been shod with the very thing which is here represented. So groat was the care and nicety of the Roman soldiers in regard to their arms, that they would scarcely have used for any purpose even a wooden pole without some finish, or capping of metal. Whatever may be the value of this conjecture, anti(|uaries will be interested in the exhibition of this cm-ious relic, which was found near Abbeville in 1847, and for the opportunity of representing which, I am indebted to the kindness of M. Boucher de Perthes. I have seen an object of the same kind, but much smaller and flatter, in the fine collection of celts belonging to T. Crofton Croker, Esq. Livy (xxviii. 3), in his account of the siege of Oringis, a city of Spain, says that both hatchets and chisels (secures doluhraquc) were used to destroy the gates ; and he also mentions, that when the besiegers were scaling the walls, they were jyushed dmvn by forks, made for this express purpose (furcis ad idipsum factis detrmlebanttir).