Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A rocky place or pit outside the walls of ancient Athens, into which criminals were thrown.
- noun The abyss; hell.
- noun Anything that swallows up or devours; the belly; an insatiable glutton or extortioner.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
pit , especially one at Athens into whichcriminals were thrown. - noun The
abyss ,hell .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Themistocles and himself to the barathrum, there could be no safety for Athens.
The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans Plutarch 2003
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Iam verò coelestem habere materiam, nemo audebit dicere: Ne forte inde aliquis suspicetur, glaciem hanc barathrum, quod illi Historici affingunt, secum è coelo traxisse: Vel id coelo, quippe eiusdem materiæ cum glacie, commune esse, atque ita carcer damnatorum cum
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Iam ver� coelestem habere materiam, nemo audebit dicere: Ne forte inde aliquis suspicetur, glaciem hanc barathrum, quod illi Historici affingunt, secum � coelo traxisse: Vel id coelo, quippe eiusdem materi� cum glacie, commune esse, atque ita carcer damnatorum cum
The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation 2003
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Habet profectò Indiæ occidentalis mons quidam flammiuomus æquiores multò, quàm hic noster censores & historicos, minimè illic barathrum exædificantes: Cuius historiam, quia & breuis est, & non illepida, subijciam, ab Hieronimo Benzone Italo in
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Ergo ut praelocuti sumus, quomodo unumquodque dictum sit, consideremus ne forte per ignorantiam in barathrum decidamus erroris.
Pneumatologia 1616-1683 1967
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We gaze at the sky from the bottom of a savage granite _barathrum_, whence there is no escape but return through the chinks and over the crags of an Old-World convulsion.
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In fine, when he once had opposed Themistocles in some measures that were expedient, and had got the better of him, he could not refrain from saying, when he left the assembly, that unless they sent Themistocles and himself to the barathrum, 2 there could be no safety for Athens.
Aristides Plutarch 1909
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The gallows perhaps is the English term most nearly corresponding to the barathrum, as commonly spoken of in the Athenian popular language.
Aristides Plutarch 1909
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When he had once opposed Themistocles in some measures that were expedient, and had got the better of him, he could not refrain from saying, when he left the assembly, that unless they sent Themistocles and himself to the barathrum, (a pit into which the dead bodies of malefactors were thrown) there could be no safety for Athens.
The Boys' and Girls' Plutarch; being parts of the "Lives" of Plutarch, edited for boys and girls 46-120? Plutarch 1884
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It had been a saying of Aristides, "that if the Athenians desired their affairs to prosper, they ought to fling Themistocles and himself into the barathrum."
Athens: Its Rise and Fall, Complete Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 1838
sionnach commented on the word barathrum
an insatiable glutton
January 1, 2008
yarb commented on the word barathrum
Is this word of Entish origin?
January 1, 2008