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A Smaller Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities cover

A Smaller Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities

Chapter 27: Z
By William Smith
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Encyclopedias/Dictionaries/ReferenceHistory - Ancient

About This Book

An abridged alphabetical reference of Greek and Roman antiquities provides concise entries on the material culture, public institutions, religious rites, law, and everyday life of the classical world. Entries define terms, describe objects and practices, and outline social, political, and military structures, often noting linguistic forms and pronunciation. Illustrations and tables supplement the text, while cross-references and footnotes point to fuller discussions and sources for further study.

ZĂCŎRI. [Aeditui.]

ZĒTĒTAE (ζητηταί), Inquisitors, were extraordinary officers, appointed by the Athenians to discover the authors of some crime against the state, and bring them to justice. They were more frequently appointed to search for confiscated property, the goods of condemned criminals and state debtors; to receive and give information against any persons who concealed, or assisted in concealing them, and to deliver an inventory of all such goods (ἀπογράφειν) to the proper authorities.

ZŌNA, also called CINGŬLUM (ζώνη, ζῶμα, ζωστῆρ, μίτρα), a girdle or zone, worn about the loins by both sexes. The chief use of this article of dress was to hold up the tunic (ζώννυσθαι), which was more especially requisite to be done when persons were at work, on a journey, or engaged in hunting. The zona is also represented in many statues and pictures of men in armour as worn round the cuirass. The girdle, mentioned by Homer, seems to have been a constituent part of the cuirass, serving to fasten it by means of a buckle, and also affording an additional protection to the body, and having a short kind of petticoat attached to it, as is shown in the figure of the Greek warrior in p. 240. The cut at p. 4 shows that the ancient cuirass did not descend low enough to secure that part of the body which was covered by the ornamental kilt or petticoat. To supply this defect was the design of the mitra (μίτρα), a brazen belt lined probably on the inside with leather and stuffed with wool, which was worn next to the body. Men used their girdles to hold money instead of a purse. As the girdle was worn to hold up the garments for the sake of business or of work requiring despatch, so it was loosened and the tunic was allowed to fall down to the feet to indicate the opposite condition, and more especially in preparing to perform a sacrifice (veste recincta), or funeral rites (discincti, incinctae). A girdle was worn by young women, even when their tunic was not girt up, and removed on the day of marriage, and therefore called ζώνη παρθενική.

ZŌPHŎRUS (ζωφόρος or διάζωμα), the frieze of an entablature.