rotae+et+axes

rŏta, ae, f. [kindred with Sanscr. ratha, chariot, and Germ. Rad (cf.rotundus), wheel], a wheel.

Lit.:

pro rotā me uti licet,

Plaut. Capt. 2, 3, 9; cf.:

vorsutior es quam rota figularis,

id. Ep. 3, 2, 35:

orbes rotarum,

Lucr. 6, 551; Plin. 8, 16, 19, § 52:

axes rotarum,

id. 16, 43, 84, § 229:

radiata,

Varr. R. R. 3, 5, 15:

aurea curvatura summae rotae, Ov M. 2, 108: aquaria,

Cato, R. R. 11, 3: ne currente rotā funis eat retro, while the wheel (in a hoisting machine) hurries forward, Hor. C. 3, 10, 10 et saep.—

In partic.

A potter ' s wheel (cf. supra, figularis):

amphora coepit Institui: currente rotā cur urceus exit?

Hor. A. P. 22; so,

Cumana,

Tib. 2, 3, 48:

Aristarchus invenit rotam figuli, cujus circuitu vasa formantur,

Sen. Ep. 90, 31.—

A wheel for torture (trochos, among the Greeks):

in rotam beatam vitam non escendere,

Cic. Tusc. 5, 9, 24:

cervicem circumactu rotae frangere,

Sen. Ep. 70, 23; App. M. 3, p. 133; 10, p. 243; Sen. Herc. Oet. 1011.— Ixion ' s wheel, Tib. 1, 3, 74; Verg. G. 4, 484; id. A. 6, 616; Sen. Herc. Fur. 750 et saep.—

A roller:

aliquid subjectis rotis traicere,

Front. 1, 5, 7:

propellere,

Tac. H. 4, 23; Vitr. 10, 13, 2.—

Poet., transf.

(Pars pro toto.) A car, chariot: si rota defuerit, tu pede carpe viam, Ov.A. A. 2,230; cf. (opp. pedibus) id. M. 1, 448; so Prop. 1, 2, 20; 2, 25 (3, 20), 26;

4 (5), 10, 42: subdiderat rotas,

Verg. A. 12, 675; Ov. M. 2, 139; 312; 3, 150. —Of the span of horses:

Cynthia fraternis afflata rotis,

Sil. 4, 483.—

Of things in the shape of a wheel or disk.

The disk of the sun:

solis rota,

Lucr. 5, 432; 564; cf.:

flammea Phoebi,

Sen. Herc. Oet. 1022; and simply rota, Enn. ap. Isid. Orig. 18, 36 fin.; Val. Fl. 3, 559.—

A kind of sea-fish, Plin. 9, 4, 3, § 8; 32, 11, 53, § 144.—

Trop., a wheel:

fortunae rotam pertimescere,

i. e. fickleness, inconstancy, Cic. Pis. 10, 22; cf.:

versatur celeri Fors levis orbe rotae,

Tib. 1, 5, 70; Prop. 2, 8, 8 (10); Tac. Or. 23; Amm. 26, 8, 13.— Poet.:

imparibus vecta Thalia rotis,

i. e. in elegiac metre, Ov. A. A. 1, 264; so,

disparibus (elegorum) rotis,

id. P. 3, 4, 86: jactor, crucior, agitor, stimulor, vorsor in amoris rotā miser, on the rack of love (cf. I. A. 2. b. supra), Plaut. Cist. 2, 1, 4.