Note 918 — Chapter XII · THE SWORD IN ANCIENT ROME; THE LEGION AND THE GLADIATOR.

Smith (loc. cit. p. 195) renders capulus by ‘hilt.’ Pommel, however, best explains Ovid’s legend of Theseus (Met. vii. 423), who, appearing for the first time before his father Ægeus, was known by the carving on his ivory capulus, and thus escaped Medea’s aconite. Moreover, a ‘golden hilt set with beryls’ would have been very awkward to handle.