Pyramis

Latin-English

pȳrăm|is, -ĭdis. (ˈpi.ra.mis) fem.

1. A pyramid; a solid body standing on a triangular, square, or polygonal base, and terminating in a point at the top.
2. A pyramid; a monument of pyramidal shape.

[Greek πυραμίς.]

Cic.	100%	Class.	100%	Rom.	62%	Med.	0%	Neo.	0%

Constructions

Adjective constructions

• pyramides quinque — Plin. [ι⁷], [ι⁸]

Noun constructions

• pyramidum miracula — Mart. [ηʹ], [θʹ]; Plin. [ι⁵]

Verb constructions

• pyramides stant — Plin. [ι⁷], [ι⁸]

Loci

Cicero

• αʹ Cicero, De Natura Deorum 1.10:

At mihi vel cylindri vel quadrati vel coni vel pyramidis videtur esse formosior.

But to me, [the form of] a cylinder or a square or a cone or a pyramid seems to be more shapely.

• βʹ Cicero, De Natura Deorum 2.18:

Conum tibi ais et cylindrum et pyramidem pulchriorem quam sphaeram videri.

You say the cone, the cylinder, and the pyramid appear more beautiful to you than the sphere.

Classical

• γʹ Horace, Carmina 3.30:

• δʹ Propertius, Elegiae 3.2:

• ιαʹ Vitruvius, De Architectura 4.8:

quanta diametros totius operis erit futura, dimidia altitudo fiat tholi praeter florem; flos autem tantam habet magnitudinem, quantam habuerit columnae capitulum, praeter pyramidem.

However much the planned diameter of the whole piece will be, it should be made half the height of the rotunda, excluding its finial; the finial itself has the same size as the capital of a column, excluding its pyramid.

Roman

• εʹ Lucan, Pharsalia 8.696:

• στʹ Lucan, Pharsalia 9.155:

• ζʹ Martial, Epigrammata 10.63:

• ηʹ n. Martial, Epigrammata 8.36:

• θʹ n. Martial, Liber Spectaculorum 1:

• ιʹ Pliny, Naturalis Historia 36.4:

supra pteron pyramis altitudinem inferiorem aequat, viginti quattuor gradibus in metae cacumen se contrahens

above the pteron is a pyramid which equals the lower height, tapering up over twenty-four steps to a peak like a cone

• ι² Pliny, Naturalis Historia 36.16:

Dicantur obiter et pyramides in eadem Aegypto, regum pecuniae otiosa ac stulta ostentatio.

And the pyramids, also in Egypt, should be mentioned in passing, a useless and foolish exhibition of the wealth of their kings.

• ι³ Pliny, Naturalis Historia 36.17:

Pyramis amplissima ex Arabicis lapicidinis constat.

The largest pyramid is made from the Arabian quarries.

• ι⁴ Pliny, Naturalis Historia 36.17:

In pyramide maxima est intus puteus LXXXVI cubitorum; flumen illo admissum arbitrantur.

In the largest pyramid, there is an eighty-six cubit well inside; it is thought the river is let in by it.

• ι⁵ n. Pliny, Naturalis Historia 36.17:

haec sunt pyramidum miracula, supremumque illud, ne quis regum opes miretur, minimam ex iis, sed laudatissimam, a Rhodopide meretricula factam.

These are the marvels of the pyramids, and the greatest of all—lest anyone marvel at the riches of kings—is that the smallest but most admired of them was built by Rhodopis, a courtesan.

• ι⁶ Pliny, Naturalis Historia 36.19:

praeterea templa omnium Aegypti deorum contineat superque Nemesis xl aediculis incluserit pyramides complures quadragenarum ulnarum senas radice ἀρούρας optinentes.

Additionally, it would contain temples of all the gods of Egypt, and of Nemesis as well; in its forty shrines it would have included many pyramids, each forty ells tall and covering six aruras at the base.

• ι⁷ adj. v. Varro, ap. Pliny, Naturalis Historia 36.19:

supra id quadratum pyramides stant quinque, quattuor in angulis et in medio una, imae latae pedum quinum septuagenum, altae centenum quinquagenum ita fastigatae, ut in summo orbis aeneus et petasus unus omnibus sit inpositus

Above the square stand five pyramids, four at the corners and one in the center,each seventy-five feet across at the base and a hundred and fifty feet tall, and tapered in such a way that at their peak a bronze circle and a hat-shaped cupola were placed over the whole set.

• ι⁸⁻⁹ adj. v. Varro, ap. Pliny, Naturalis Historia 36.19:

supra quem orbem quattuor pyramides insuper singulae stant altae pedum centenum, supra quas uno solo quinque pyramides.

Over and above this circle four individual pyramids stand, each a hundred feet tall, above which are five pyramids on one floor.

• ι¹⁰ Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 36.24:

Pyramidas regum miramur, cum solum tantum foro exstruendo IIS |M| Caesar dictator emerit.

We marvel at the pyramids of the kings, when the land alone for building the Forum was bought by the dictator Caesar for IIS100,000,000 (~$1,700,000,000).

• ιαʹ Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 5.11:

Deinde Arsinoës ac iam dicta Memphis, inter quam et Arsinoiten nomon in Libyco turres quae pyramides vocantur, et labyrinthus, in Moeridis lacu nullo addito ligno exaedificatus, et oppidum Crialon.

Next, [the town of] Arsinoë, and Memphis, already mentioned; between it and the Arsenoite nome, towards the Libyan, the towers called the Pyramids, and the Labyrinth on Lake Moeris, which was constructed without any wood; and the town of Crialon.

• ιβʹ Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 8.64:

Agrigenti conplurium equorum tumuli pyramidas habent.

At Agrigento, the burial mounds of a great many horses have pyramidal monuments.