acervus

1. Acervus and congeries mean ‘heaps’ of homogeneous things collected and piled up in layers; acervus [from ἀγείρω], like σωρός, with arrangement, and mostly in a conical shape, but congeries, negligently, and altogether without regard to shape; strues denotes that something new is produced, and a determinate form given, serving a particular purpose; like θημών. Curt. viii. 7. 11. Passim acervos struesque accendebant; meaning by acervos ‘heaps’ or ‘piles,’ by strues ‘stacks’ of wood. 2. Cumulus (from ἀκμή) means strictly, not the heap itself, but the top, by which the heap is completed as a whole, like the key-stone, by which any thing first reaches its proper and complete height, almost like κορυφή; and it has this meaning particularly in cumulare, which is like κορυφοῦν. Compare Liv. xxii. 59. Superstantes cumulis cæsorum corporum, with Cannenses campos acervi Romanorum corporum tegunt: and xxiii. 5. Molibus ex humanorum corporum strue faciendis. (ii. 118.)