Lewis : rostratus

rostratus, rostrātus, a, um, adj. id., having a beak, hook, or crooked point; beaked, curved at the end, rostrated: falces, Col. 2, 20, 30: vectis, Plin. 18, 18, 48, § 171: navis, Cic. Inv. 2, 32, 98; Suet. Caes. 63; Auct. B. Afr. 23; cf. prora, Plin. 9, 30, 49, § 94; and: impetus liburnicarum, id. 10, 23, 32, § 63: rostrata corona = navalis corona, a crown ornamented with small figures of beaks of ships, given to him who first boarded the enemy's vessel, Plin. 16, 4, 3, § 7; 22, 3, 4, § 6.

Hence, in poet. transf.: (Agrippae) Tempora navali fulgent rostrata coronā, Verg. A. 8, 684; so, too, Columna rostrata, a column erected in the Forum, to commemorate the naval victory of Duilius in the first Punic war, which was adorned with the beaks of the conquered vessels, Liv. 42, 20, 1; Quint. 1, 7, 12 (cf. Plin. 34, 5, 11, § 20; Sil. 6, 663); also in the order rostrata columna, Suet. Galb. 23; v. the parts of the inscription on this column still extant (one of the oldest monuments of Latin literature), with modern restorations, Inscr. Orell. 549.