SI´TULA
SI´TULA
dim. SITELLA (
ὑδρία), a bucket for drawing water from a draw-well (
Dig. 18,
1,
 |
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Situla of bronze. (Dennis.)
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40.6) or for carrying it (Plaut.
Amph. 2.2, 30; Isid.
Orig. 20.15). Those for carrying water were either of
earthenware (as in Egypt) and carried two together by a yoke, or of bronze
(see Marquardt,
Privatleben, p. 656). In Plaut.
Cas. 2.4, 17, it was a voting-urn; but in this sense we
usually find the diminutive form
sitella
(Plaut.
Cas. 2.6, 11;
Liv. 25.3,
41.18), as also
urna and
orca (
Verg. A. 6.431;
V. Max.
6.3,
4;
Lucan
5.394; Vopisc.
Prob. 8). It seems that, as among
the Greeks, the urn in which the lots were placed was filled with water; and
when this was poured out, the lot which appeared first floating on it was
decisive: hence in Plaut.
l.c.,
“Situlam huc tecum afferto
cum aqua et
sortes:” and the expressions in Vopiscus, “qui
primum
emergeret” and “Probi
nomen
effusum est” (cf.
Cic. in Verr. 2.51, 127;
in Vatin. 14, 34; Marquardt,
Privatl. p.
548). For the difference between
sitella, the
urn from which the names of the tribes or centuries were drawn to determine
the order of voting, and
cista the voting-box,
see
CISTA
[
W.S] [
G.E.M]
