Vinea
Vinea According to the description of vineae given by A. Muller in Baumeister's Denkmädler, i. pp. 540-1, they differed from the testudines very slightly, viz. in not being so large and in having the sides open (Veg. 4.15). They appear to have been used behind engines of assault to protect the men working those engines. They were called στοΐδια in Greek (Athen. de Mech. p. 31, Wescher), and Müller thinks that they were small testudines with open fronts and sides covered with skins or wickerwork. Vegetius mentions (l.c.) one as 16 feet long, 7 broad, and 8 high. Owing to their smallness, many were put behind one another. They were especially liable to be set on fire by the enemy (Liv. 2.17, 2; 5.7, 3, &c.). We give a cut from Marquardt (Staatsverw. ii.2 530), also adopted by Schiller in Iwan Müller's Handbuch, iv. p. 740.
The ἄμπελοι described by Apollodorus (p. 141, Wescher) and Rüstow and Köchly (Griech. Kriejswesen, p. 313) are probably the plutei of the Romans [PLUTEUS]; though Droysen (Griech. Kspiegsalt. p. 228) says that they are the same as the vineae; and certainly the similarity of the name lends some probability to this view.
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.