Home1823 Edition

EQUULEUS

Volume 8 · 141 words · 1823 Edition

Eccluseus, in antiquity, a kind of rack used for extorting a confession; at first chiefly practised on slaves, but afterwards made use of against the Christians.

The equuleus was made of wood, having holes at certain distances, with a screw by which the criminal was stretched to the third, sometimes to the fourth or fifth holes, his arms and legs being fastened on the equuleus with cords; and thus was hoisted aloft, and extended in such a manner, that all his bones were dislocated. In this state red-hot plates were applied to his body, and he was goaded in the sides with an instrument called an ungula.

Equuleus, Equiculus, and Equus Minor, the horse's head, in Astronomy, a constellation of the northern hemisphere, whose stars in Ptolemy's catalogue are four, in Tycho's four, in Hevelius's six, and in Mr Flamstead's ten.