CATEIA
CATEIA a missile used in war by the Germans, Gauls, and some
of the Italian nations, ascribed also to Persians and other Orientals (
Verg. A. 7.741; Val, Flacc. 6.83; Aul.
Gel. 10.25), and supposed to resemble the
aclys (Serv.
l.c.; Isid.
Orig. 18.7). Now the
aclis or
aclys is said by Servius to have been
obsolete in his time, and therefore imperfectly known ; but it is described
(he adds) as a club a foot and a half long, studded with points, and
furnished with a thong, so that it can be recovered by the thrower (ad
Aen. 7.730, where Virgil himself mentions the thong,
flagellum). As far as the two can be
distinguished, the
aclys seems to have been
more of a club, the
cateia more of a spear.
Papias (s. v.) makes it a Persian word: later writers consider it Celtic,
which, as Conington observes (ad
Aen. l.c.), would agree with
Virgil's
Teutonico ritu, the Celtae and
Teutones being often confounded. The weapon was also called
teutona from the name of the people (Isid.
l.c.; Aelfric,
Gloss. Saxon. ap.
Lersch).
francisca or
francisque, the peculiar weapon of the Franks, is described as a
two-edged axe used as a missile and carried in the belt: a modification
perhaps of the
aclys rather than the
cateia. Cf. Lersch.
Antiq. Verg.
(Bonn, 1843), § 40,
de cateia et
aclyde.
[J.Y] [W.W]
