Suda On Line menu Search

Home
Search results for sigma,478 in Adler number:
Greek display:    

Headword: *siroma/sths
Adler number: sigma,478
Translated headword: siromast, seiromast, pit-probe
Vetting Status: high
Translation:
[Meaning] a certain implement made of iron, having a wooden handle, used by tax collectors in searches.[1]
Eunapius [writes]: "so that the pit-probe was held more in esteem than the spear-shaft."[2]
Greek Original:
*siroma/sths: skeu=o/s ti sidhrou=n, labh\n culi/nhn e)/xon para\ toi=s telw/nais ei)s e)/reunan. *eu)na/pios: w(/ste o( siroma/sths ma=llon eu)doki/mei tou= do/ratos.
Notes:
The headword derives from siro/s, a pit, vessel, or silo for storing grain (cf. LSJ s.v.), and masth/r, a searcher (cf. LSJ s.v.); (cf. Chantraine, s.v. siro/s). Tax collectors used the tool to gauge grain-fill depth in storage pits. In warfare too, this kind of rod was used to probe the ground for pit traps; see generally LSJ s.v. siroma/sths.
[1] Likewise in Photius' Lexicon (sigma237 Theodoridis), and cf. Hesychius sigma728. An alternative spelling, differing by a diphthong in the first syllable, seiroma/sths, is given with a marginal addendum to the passage in Suda ms. M (= Marcianus 448); cf. sigma 286 and Joannes Tzetzes, Chiliades 13.516-22.
[2] Eunapius fr. 49 FHG (4.36); Blockley, Eunapius fr. 46.3. This passage, together with rho 294, apparently refers to corruption during the reign of Emperor Theodosius I (The Great) (346-395; OCD(4) s.v. Theodosius(2) and theta 144) as described by Zosimus 4.28.3-4.29.2 (Blockley, p. 142).
References:
P. Chantraine, Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque, ed.2. Paris 2009
R.C. Blockley, The Fragmentary Classicising Historians of the Later Roman Empire: Eunapius, Olympiodorus, Priscus and Malchus, vol. II, Liverpool: Francis Cairns, 1983
Keywords: agriculture; daily life; definition; economics; ethics; food; historiography; history; imagery; military affairs; politics; science and technology; trade and manufacture
Translated by: Ronald Allen on 8 May 2008@02:14:55.
Vetted by:
David Whitehead (modified keywords; tweaks and cosmetics) on 8 May 2008@03:54:42.
David Whitehead (tweaking) on 24 December 2013@09:23:30.
David Whitehead on 9 August 2014@10:52:09.
Aaron Baker (Corrected translation; tweaked Blockley cite.) on 2 June 2015@22:38:13.
Aaron Baker (Replaced British "corn" with American "grain.") on 2 June 2015@22:39:41.
David Whitehead (note cosmetic) on 3 June 2015@02:34:55.
Catharine Roth (tweaked bibliography) on 22 February 2022@22:27:07.

Find      

Test Database Real Database

(Try these tips for more productive searches.)

No. of records found: 1    Page 1

End of search