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CIN´GULUM (ζώνη, ζώνιον, ζωστήρ, cinctura, zona). Passing over the cestus [CESTUS] and strophium or fascia pectoralis, also called ἀναδεσμός or στηθοδεσμός [STROPHIUM], which was a band worn by women inside the tunic to support the breast, and recollecting that ταινία and μίτρα [MITRA] are generic terms for ribbons or bands worn round the body, whether over or under the tunic or round the head (in Latin, taenia is apparently used only for the latter), we find the following meanings assigned to cingulum and the Greek and Latin words given above:--
1. A girdle worn by women over the tunic, just under the breast (Verg. A. 1.492).
2. A girdle worn both by men (Petr. 21, 2) and women (Varr. L. L. 5.114) just above the hips, also called zona (Ov. Fast. 2.320; Mart. 14.151). The distinction said by Moeris (Att. p. 124) to subsist between ζώνη and ζώνιον--that the former is used only of men's girdles, the latter of women's--is disproved by Aesch. Supp. 457; Plat. Alc. 1.123 B; Hdt. 1.51; Eur. Hec. 762. The tunic was generally tucked up and made to hang in a fold (κόλπος) over the girdle (ἀναζώννυσθαι, συζώννυσθαι, succingere). This was especially done when any rapid motion was required; hence (ζώννυσθαι, “to gird up one's loins” for battle (Il. 11.15) or for labour (Hes. Op. 343), and compare εὔζωνος ἀνὴρ, used for a fairly quick walker (Thuc. 2.97), as is also alte praecinctus by Horace (Sat. 1.5, 6). Similarly succinctus (Juv. 4.24) and praecinctus (Hor. Sat. 2.8, 70) are used of “trim” attendants at table. Conversely, when one was in deshabille at home, he was discinctus (Hor. Sat. 2.1, 73), a term also applied to any “loose” character (Hor. Epod. 1, 34; cf. Suet. Jul. 45). The long tunics of the Ionian women (Müller, Arch. 339.7) hung in deep folds over the girdle; hence they and other women were called βαθύκολποι or βαθύζωνοι by Homer (Hom. Il. 18.339; 9.594). These girdles were often simple cords, and the ends had tassels affixed; but often, too, they were very splendid. An elegant golden girdle found in Ithaca has as clasp a knot of metal ornamented with garnets; from each side are suspended Silenus' heads holding each three strings, from which hang pomegranates (see fig. 1475 in Saglio's Dict. des Antiq. i. p. 1174). Often, too, these girdles had kinds of braces which crossed on the breast and stretched over the shoulders, as in the annexed woodcut representing Creon, taken by Saglio from an ancient vase.
Cingulum. (From an ancient vase.)
3. The bride's girdle (ζώνη παρθενίη, Hom. Od. 11.245). Among the Romans it was knotted in what was called the knot of Hercules (an amulet against fascinatio, Marquardt, Privatleben, 43, note 3; also against wounds, Plin. Nat. 28.63). This girdle was made of sheep's wool, and was loosed by the bridegroom on the marriage bed (Festus, s. v. Cingulo). It was also called incingulum (Non. 47, 27).
4. A soldier's belt (ζωστήρ). The term [p. 1.428]ζωστὴρ is very rarely applied to a woman's belt (Paus. 1.31.1); it is nearly always applied to a man's, and only now and then to the belt of one who was not a soldier (Hom. Od. 14.72; Theocr. 7.18). It is generally used for the military belt. In Homer it is a belt which fitted close (Il. 4.134), covering the stomach (Il. 5.539) and lapping partly over the lower part of the cuirass (ὅθι διπλόοος ἤντετο θώρηξ, (Il. 4.133). The clasps (ὀχῆες) were sometimes of gold, and appear to have fastened behind (Il. 20.413-415). It was usually made of leather, but was often highly adorned, sometimes with silver plates (Il. 11.236), sometimes with purple dye (Il. 6.219); hence the epithets δαιδάλεοςand παναίολος (Il. 4.135, 186). This is quite different from the ζῶμα or apron-like piece of armour stretching from the navel, where the θώρηξ ended, to the knees, and which was regarded as a part of the θώρηξ, so much so that in one passage the latter term is applied to it (Il. 4.135). It was very probably made of leather, and it shone brightly (φαεινός, Od. 14.482). Helbig, however (Das homerische Epos, p. 202), after Aristarchus, supposes that ζῶμα is strictly the lower projecting rim of the archaic θώρηξ, and then put sometimes for the θώρηξ itself (Il. 4.187, compared with 136). He thinks the ζῶμα of the Odyssey was a kind of light girdle, something like the μίτρη, worn on special occasions which required great rapidity of movement, instead of the θώρηξ.] The term ζῶμα is also applied to the waistcloth or drawers (subligaculum) worn by athletes (Il. 23.683), though διάζωμα is the more usual word in this sense. Again, the ζωστὴρ differed from the μίτρα [MITRA], which in the Homeric armour was a thin pliant (cf. perhaps αἰολομίτρης, Il. 5.707) band of bronze (Il. 4.187), lined probably on the inside with wool, which was immediately next the chiton under the ζῶμα (cf. Buchholz, Die homerischen Realien, 2.1, 372-3, and Helbig, l.c. p. 200).
Cingulum is the proper term in Latin for a soldier's belt, which went round the waist. Therein it differed from the balteus, which nearly always went over the left shoulder and under the right arm, and to which the sword was attached. It is highly noticeable that the sword generally hangs on the right side, though such is not the invariable rule (Joseph. B. J., 3.5, 5). It is to the balteus that we are to refer cingi in the sense of “being a soldier” (e. g. Dig. 5, 4, 3), and discingi when used as a mark of degradation (e. g. Liv. 27.13, 9 ; V. Max. 2.7, 9; Suet. Oct. 24; Herodian, 2.13, 8, ἀποζῶσαι). All military duties were performed accinctus, i.e. with the sword on (Tac. Ann. 11.18; Veget. 3.8). It is very rarely that we find the cingulum supporting the sword, and that only as a rule in the case of horsemen (see figs. 1490 and 1491 in Saglio, op. cit.). Cingulum is, however, sometimes found as a generic term, embracing both the balteus and the cingulum proper (Trebell. Salonin. Gallien. 2); and, as such, the cingulum became the insignia for all military officials: and when in the later empire the civil offices too were considered as species of military service, it was regarded as a mark of their rank also (Cod. Just. 12.8, 2, pr.; 33 (34), 5). Hence cingulum habere, “to have high official position” (Cod. Just. 12.49 (50), 3): cf. ζώνης τυχεῖν, Anth. Pal. 11.238; “cingulo exui” (Cod. Just. 7.38, 2); “in officio sacrarum privatarum cingulum militiae sibi sumere” (Cod. Theod. 6.30, 18); “cingulum deponere” (Cod. Just. 12.52 (53), 3); ζώνην ἀποθέσθαι (Lyd. de Mag. 3.4; cf. Glossarium ad Cod. Theod. s. v. Cingulum). Accordingly we are not surprised to find that all the higher officials had to wear the cingulum in appearing before the emperor (Johann. Chrys. Homilia ad 1 Cor. 26). The right of wearing the cingulum belonged only to the classes of officials which were above the honorarii; these are specified in Cod. Just. 12.8, 2, pr. The belt was generally made of leather; that of the Praefectus Praetorio described by Lydus (de Magistr. 2.13), of purple leather. The fastening of this belt is further described as consisting of a golden crescent with a golden prong (περονή), which latter fitted into the other end of the belt, which had gold plates on it, and which was fashioned into the shape of a grape (βότρυς. The method of fastening the cingulum generally was that of our ordinary strap-buckles. Representations of Roman soldiers of the republic (e. g. fig. 1488 in Saglio, op. cit.) often show the cross-straps which we have already noticed going over the shoulders, and also the apronlike piece of armour (ζῶμα). Hanging down from the centre of the belt were strips of leather, studded with fiat plates of metal or buttons (see the cut taken from I. Müller's Handb. d. klass. Alterth. Wissen. iv. Taf. ii. fig. q).
From the extremities of the thongs hung ornaments, examples of which are given by Saglio, figs. 1498-1500, and which are as various as the pendants on our watch-chains. On certain statues of Imperial times there appears a narrow girdle wound round that species of cuirass which ended in a
Roman soldier with Cingulum. (From I. Müller's
Handbuch.
ζῶμα. This girdle is always knotted in a kind of bow-knot, with the ends tucked in. Saglio (op. cit. i. p. 1181) thinks it a mark of command. The statue believed to be that of Aetius on the diptych of Monza shows us the balteus no longer strapped round the shoulder, but hanging obliquely from its fastening on the right side of the cingulum, and supporting the sword on the left side, in a manner not unlike the way in which swords are worn at present.
5. Zona is often used in the sense of “a purse” (Hor. Ep. 2.2, 40; Liv. 33.29, 4; Gracchus ap. Gel. 15.12). It was probably an inner girdle fastening the tunic, and not the regulation cingulum. The practice of carrying money in the belt is not alluded to in classical Greek; but ζώνη is used in that sense in St. Matthew 10.9. (Cf. Wilkins on Horace l.c.）
6. Cingula is used for a girth (μασχαλιστήρ) (Calp. Ecl. 6.41; Ov. Rem. Am. 236). In [p. 1.429]this sense it is always feminine (Isid. Orig. 20.16.4).
7. Cingulus is used for ζώνη in the sense of a zone of the earth (Cic. Rep. 6.20, 21). In this sense it is masculine.
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