Fidicula
Fidicula or plural--AE, an instrument of torture, consisting of a number of strings (Suet. Tib. 62, Calig. 33; Mart. 5.51; Cod. Theod. 9, tit. 35, s. 1). The reticence of the ancients on these subjects has been noticed under ECULEUS; there is, however, a passage which throws some light on the mode of its operation (Quintil. Decl. 19.12, p. 373, Burmann: tendebam fidiculas,.. .ut leviter sedibus suis emota compago per singulos artus membra laxaret:
cf. ib. 8, pp. 126, 127). We see that, like the eculeus and the modern rack, it stretched the limbs until the joints were dislocated (Marquardt, Privatl. 180).
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.