08-04-2008, 01:16 PM
I checked the usage of cinctura versus other words for belt and girdle. For 19th and 20th century scholarship, the girdle is a "wide belt" used to hold garments up in a certain way. Cinctura only occurs twice according to The Big Latin Dictionary, and both times it is contrasting the normal mode of wearing a toga. Caesar is odd and doesn't wear his toga, but has his funny shirt, and Quintilian describes the girdle as what you might use if you are not wearing a toga (lato clavo) properly.
It's a (wide) belt to cinch clothes, and it looks like both authors are later(circa 100 ad). Caesar probably never used the word himself.
It's a (wide) belt to cinch clothes, and it looks like both authors are later(circa 100 ad). Caesar probably never used the word himself.
Michael Griffin
High School Teacher who knows Latin & Greek
felicior quam sus in stercu
High School Teacher who knows Latin & Greek
felicior quam sus in stercu
