The ancient lituus was an Etruscan high-pitched brass instrument, which was straight but bent at the end, in the shape of a letter J, similar to the Gallic carnyx. It was later used by the Romans, especially for processional music and as a signalling horn in the army.

The military music of the Romans was provided by tubicines (see TUBA.), cornicines (See CORNICEN), bucinatores (see BUCINA), and liticines (see LITUUS, 2). On standards or ensigns, see SIGNUM and VEXILLUM.

First of all, it can be proved that no official testimony affirms the presence of the lituus in Roman military bands.14 Although curiously ignored by modern criticism, our knowledge of such instruments comes almost exclusively from poetic sources,'5 while the presence of the term in some minor historiographic works (whose language is not exempt.

Lydus (de Mens. 4.50) calls the lituus Lituus, the Augural Staff. the sacerdotal trumpet ( ἱερατικὴν σάλπιγγα ), and says that it was employed by Romulus when he proclaimed the title of his city.

Another Roman trumpet was the lituus, a J-shaped instrument whose immediate origin was also Etruscan. Its inspiration, visible in its earliest examples, was a simple hollow cane with a cow horn for a bell. Similar instruments are also found in China, where the zhajiao adds a …

study of Roman aerophones - the tuba, the cornu, the lituus, and the bucina - in order to identify their spe- cific shapes corresponding to their names known from written sources, the role of various types of musicians

2024年9月27日 · lituus (plural litui) A military trumpet. 1786: Fig. 3. A Roman Lituus, or military trumpet, such as is mentioned by Horace in his first ode. — Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page vi. An augur's staff with a recurved top. A curve with polar equation =, where a is a constant.

LITUUS, the cavalry trumpet of the Romans, said by Macrobius (Saturn. lib. vi.) to have resembled the crooked staff borne by the Augurs. The lituus consisted of a cylindrical tube 4 or 5 ft. long, having a narrow bore, and terminating in a conical bell joint turned up in such a manner as to give the instrument the outline of the letter "J."

The lituus was a crooked wand (similar in shape to the top part of some Western European crosiers) used as a cult instrument in ancient Roman religion by augurs to mark out a ritual space in the sky (a templum). The passage of birds through this templum indicated divine favor or disfavor for a given undertaking.

The Lituus was thought to be y see details by Roman Cavalry, very much the same way the Modern Bugle is. It was used for signalling Commands and orders to Troops in the Field. Although many reproductions have been constructed since the 15th Century, many Scholars still debate on the "true sound" of The Lituus.