Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898)

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Pīla

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1.

（ἴγδη). A deep mortar in which substances of any kind, as drugs, were brayed and

Pila or Mortar. (Pompeii.)

pounded with a pestle (pilum). It is chiefly distinguished from a mortuarium (q. v.) in being larger.

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2.

（πεσσός). A pillar used for architectural or other purposes, as the support of a bridge (Livy , xl. 51), a monument (Nepos, Alcib. 4), or the post in front of a book-shop, on which the publisher's announcements were hung (Hor. Sat. i. 4, 71).

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3.

（ἐνδόμησις). A pier or breakwater (Verg. Aen. ix. 711).