A morter wherein things are beaten with a pestill. Pila. Plin. A piller. Pilæ lapideæ. Bud Pillers of stone in bullding. Pilæ. Vitruuius. A pile, an heape, or damme made in the water to breake or stay the course. Pila, priore correpta. Plaut. A ball, or any thing round like a ball. Leuis pila. Ouid. Terra pilæ similis. Ouid. Pila lusoria. Plin. A playing ball. Iactus pilarum. Ouid. Velox. Hor. Volubilis. Apul. Pilam scitè ac diligenter excipere, & Aptè & expeditè remittere. Seneca. To receiue or take the ball handsomly and diligently, and to caste or strike it againe featly, and tunningly. Pila se exercere. Cels. To play at the tenise, or like game: to play at the ball. Nec tibi nobilitas minor est, si forte volantem, Aut geminare pilam iuuat, aut reuocare cadentem. Ouid. Pila ludere. Cic. To play at tenise or at ball. Pila lanuginis. Plin. A little rounde ball of mosinesse, as is in gourdes when they be ripe.

To beginne to bee hairie, or bring forth haire. Pilare. Mart. To pull, or to pull off ones haire.

A dart or ianelin of fiue foote long and an halfe, which footemen did vse, hauing an head of steele nine in ches long. Primum pilum vocabatur prima cÊturia in exercitu Romano, quod circa signa grauis armatura cstituta esset. & inter cætera hastile quod pilum vocat Aduigilantia pila regum somnis. Stat. Catapularium pilum. Pla. A quarrel to be cast in an engin. Curuata pila cuspide. Lucan. Exesa pila rubigine. Virg. Agmina horrentia pilis. Hor. Infixa tergis hostium pila. Liu. Pila minantia pilis. Lucan. Muralia pila, Vide MVRVS. Sæua. Stat. Torquere pila. Lucan. To cast such darts. Pilum. Plin. A pestil to bray any thing in a morter.

I. Lit.: pilum fabarium, Cato, R. R. 10; 18: quasi tollenonem aut pilum Graecum reciproces planā viā, a pounder, in using which, one side was raised while the other was depressed, Plaut. Fragm. ap. Fest. s v. reciprocare, p. 274 Müll.: pinsente pilo praeferrato, Plin. 18, 10, 23, 97: pilo contusum, Vulg. Exod. 27, 20.—

II. Transf., the heavy javelin of the Roman infantry, which they hurled at the enemy at the commencement of the action, and then took to their swords: (caput) adfixum gestari jussit in pilo, Cic. Phil. 11, 2, 5: pilum, haud paulo quam hasta, vehementius ictu missuque telum, Liv. 9, 19; cf. Veg. Mil. 2, 15: milites e loco superiore pilis missis facile hostium phalangem perfregerunt, Caes. B. G. 1, 25: pilorum hastarumque honore circumdatus, Plin. Pan. 56, 5: in imperatorem suum legiones pila torserunt, Sen. Ira, 3, 2, 4; cf. Tac. A. 15, 7: pilum praepilatum, having a blunt or rounded end, Auct. B. Afr. 72. They were also used in sieges, being hurled at the enemy from the walls; these were called pila muralia, Caes. B. G. 5, 40; Tac. A. 4, 51.—Prov.: pilum inicere alicui, to make an attack on one, Plaut. Most. 3, 1, 43.—

B. Vis certe pila, i. e. to be primipilus of the triarii or veterans who carried two javelins each, Juv. 10, 94; v. Dict. of Antiq. p. 104.