culmen

Culmen means the top, the uppermost line of the roof; fastigium, the summit, the highest point of this top, where the spars of the roof by sloping and meeting form an angle; therefore fastigium is a part of culmen. Virg. Æn. ii. 458. Evado ad summi fastigia culminis. Liv. xl. 2. Vitruv. iv. 2. Arnob. ii. 12. And figuratively culmen denotes the top only, with a local reference, as the uppermost and highest point, something like κολοφών; but fastigium with reference to rank, as the principal and most imposing point of position, something like κορυφή; therefore culmen tecti is only that which closes the building, but fastigium that which crowns it; and fastigium also denotes a throne, whence culmina montium is a much more usual term than fastigia. (ii. 111.)