in Antiquity, a name common to different kinds of vehicles, including coaches, waggons, and carts. The carriage generally used by the Roman matrons was called carpentum, and usually had two wheels and an arched covering. The name is said to be derived by a slight literal conversion from Carmenta, the mother of Evander. In the second Punic war, women were prohibited the use of the carpentum by the Oppian law, which, however, was soon afterwards repealed. Carpenta or covered carts were much employed by the Britons, Gauls, and other northern nations, in their military expeditions. These, together with the commoner kind of waggons, were included under the general term carr or carras, from the Celtic carr. (See Cæsar's Commentaries).