The dolabra, the bipennis and earth-working tools
Two double-edged implements and twelve lettered tools for ditching and quarrying
Two double-edged implements open the sheet: the dolabra ('two lips'), which Hannibal's 500 Africans used to tear a town's walls down to their foundations per Livy, and the bipennis or double axe, attested by Quintilian. Below, twelve lettered figures a-m present a set of earth-working tools — spades, mattocks and picks. They are named as tools for making ditches, cutting hedges, quarrying stones, lifting earth and breaking up the mass of gravel, joining the antiquarian arms glossary to the practical implements of excavation.
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Dolabra, Hannibal's wall-breaking pick
The dolabra, or 'two lips,' is a double-edged implement which, per Livy's second book of the Punic War, Hannibal's 500 Africans used to ruin a town's walls down to their foundations. It is drawn mounted on a stand at the top of the sheet.
Bipennis, the double axe after Quintilian
The bipennis is named for its sharp edge on either side, a word carefully attested by Quintilian in the first book of the Institutio. It is drawn as a two-headed axe.
Twelve lettered tools a-m for ditching and quarrying
Twelve figures labelled a b c d e f g h i K l m present spades, mattocks and picks. They are named as tools for making ditches, cutting hedges, quarrying stones, lifting earth and breaking up the mass of gravel.