CYATHUS (cyāthos, a cup), in Antiquity, a common measure among the Greeks and Romans. It was equal to one-twelfth of the sextarius, or of a pint English, and was used as a measure of things both of the liquid and dry kind. The cyathus frequently occurs as the name of a drinking-vessel used by the Romans; in which case it was made with a handle, like the modern ladle. With this vessel the drinking-cups at a banquet were supplied from the mixing-bowl by a slave. The cyathus is referred to as the measure of the quantity drunk by a person on such occasions; and it was a common practice at convivial meetings to make the number of cyathi correspond to the number of the muses, or to that of the letters in a patron's name—a kind of compliment not very dissimilar to the modern practice of drinking a person's health. The word cyathus also denoted a cupping-glass; and it was likewise used to signify the hollow of the hand.