Fatifer, mortifer, and letalis in the Roman Culture

Abstract

The aim of this article is to reveal how the adjectives fatifer, mortifer, and letalis function in the ancient Roman literature. Interpretative problems as well as etymology of the title adjectives were discussed on the basis of selected fragments of texts. The significant emphasis was put on the collocations with nouns such as ensis (a sword), ferrum (a sword, an iron), iaculum (a javelin), arcus (a bow) and harundo (an arrow) in order to create a catalogue of the weapons described with epithet “lethal.”