AMONG the least intelligible passages in ancient authors, are those which relate to some mechanism unknown to the moderns. If express descriptions, such as those of Vitruvius and Hero, and of the hydraulic machines of Ctesibius, are difficult to be understood, we are still more at a loss to give a satisfactory explanation, when casual mention merely is made of something well known at the time, let its mechanism have been ever so simple. This is especially the case when the locks or fastenings of the door are mentioned. Boettiger (Kunstmyth. i. p. 271) says with some truth, that ‘the art of the locksmith is one which still requires much elucidation; and a perfect system of the ancient technology, chiefly after the Onomasticon of Pollux, remains to be written,’ yet the system of nomenclature in Pollux will least contribute to clear up our difficulties.

Our examination must not only begin with the most ancient Greek period, concerning which Homer gives very important hints, but must also comprehend the East, as the origin of keys is probably to be sought for in Phœnicia. This point has partly been discussed in the more important writings on this subject, especially Salmas. Exercitt. p. 649; Sagittarius, De jan. vett. 9—15; Molin, De clacibus veterum, in Sallengre, Thes. antt. Rom. iii. 795: Montfauc. Antiq. expl. iii. I. t. 54, 55. The oldest method of fastening cannot be referred to that in use at Rome; and we shall here chiefly explain such terms as obex, sera, repagula, pessuli, claustra.