æ, A citie in Brutium. Columnæ Herculis, Two mountaines, one at the vttermoste part of Spaine, the other in the vttermost west parte of Affrike, where now are % streicts of Cyuil or Marrock. Some holde opinion, that they are two yles in the said streicts, one of them in Europe, & the other in Affrike. Some (as Strabo saith) affirme them to be in deede two pillors of brasse, in the yle of Gades, belonging to Spaine, set in the temple of Hercules, in the honour of him, where they that traueyled by the middle sea, and were come to the vttermoste parte thereof, and entring into the Occean sea, came and did sacrisice to Hercules: which opinion Possidonius thought to be most true.

A. A projecting object, a column, pillar, post (very freq.), Vitr. 4, 1, 1 sq.; 3, 3; Varr. R. R. 3, 5, 11: columnae et templa et porticus sustinent, tamen habent non plus utilitatis quam dignitatis, Cic. de Or. 3, 46, 180; id. Verr. 2, 1, 51, 133 and 134; Quint. 5, 13, 40: columnae Doricae, Ionicae, Tuscanicae, Corinthiae, Atticae, Plin. 36, 22, 56, 178 sq.; Vitr. 4, 1, 1 sqq.: Rostrata, a column ornamented with beaks of ships, erected in honor of Duellius, the conqueror of the Carthaginians, Quint. 1, 7, 12 Spald.; fragments of the inscription on it are yet extant, v. in the Appendix: Maenia, also absol. Columna, a pillory in the Forum Romanum, where thieves, criminal slaves, and debtors were judged and punished, Cic. Div. in Caecil. 16, 50 Ascon.—Absol.: ad columnam pervenire. Cic. Clu. 13, 39: adhaerescere ad columnam, id. Sest. 8, 18; cf. Dict. of Antiq. s. v. columna.—Plur.: columnae, as the sign of a bookseller's shop, Hor. A. P 373 Orell. ad loc.—From the use of pillars to designate boundaries of countries: Columnae Protei = fines Aegypti, Verg. A. 11, 262; and: Columnae Herculis, i. e. Calpe et Abyla, Mel. 1, 5, 3; 2, 6, 8; Plin. 3, prooem. 4; Tac. G. 34.—Prov.: incurrere amentem in columnas, Cic. Or. 67, 224.—

2. Trop., a pillar, support; of Augustus, Hor. C. 1, 35, 14.—

3. Transf., of objects resembling a pillar; so,

a. Of the arm (comice): ecce autem aedificat: columnam mento suffigit suo, Plaut. Mil. 2, 2, 54. —

b. A water-spout, Lucr. 6, 426; 6, 433; Plin. 2, 49, 50, 134.—

c. Of fire, a meteor, Sen. Q. N. 7, 20, 2; cf. of the pillar of cloud and of fire which guided the Exodus, Vulg. Exod. 13, 21 sq.—

d. Membrum virile, Mart. 6, 49; 11, 51; Auct. Priap. 9, 8.—

e. Narium recta pars eo quod aequaliter sit in longitudine et rotunditate porrecta, columna vocatur, Isid. Orig. 11, 1, 48.—

B. The top, summit; so only once of the dome of heaven, Cic. poët. Div. 1, 12, 21; cf. columen.