CONVENTUS, was the name applied to the whole body of Roman citizens who were either permanently or for a time settled in a province. In order to facilitate the administration of justice, a province was divided into a number of districts or circuits, each of which was called _conventus_, _forum_, or _jurisdictio_. Roman citizens living in a province were entirely under the jurisdiction of the proconsul; and at certain times of the year, fixed by the proconsul, they assembled in the chief town of the district, and this meeting bore the name of _conventus_ (σύνοδος). Hence the expressions--_conventus agere_, _peragere_, _convocare_, _dimittere_. At this conventus litigant parties applied to the proconsul, who selected a number of judges from the conventus to try their causes. The proconsul himself presided at the trials, and pronounced the sentence according to the views of the judges, who were his assessors (_consilium_ or _consiliarii_). These conventus appear to have been generally held after the proconsul had settled the military affairs of the province; at least, when Caesar was proconsul of Gaul, he made it a regular practice to hold the conventus after his armies had retired to their winter quarters. CONVĪVĬUM. [SYMPOSIUM.] CŎPHĬNUS (κόφινος, Engl. _coffin_), a large kind of wicker basket, made of willow branches. It would seem that it was used by the Greeks as a basket or cage for birds. The Romans used it for agricultural purposes, and it sometimes formed a kind of portable hot-bed. Juvenal, when speaking of the Jews, uses the expression _cophinus et foenum_ (a truss of hay), figuratively to designate their poverty. CORBIS, _dim_. CORBŬLA, CORBĬCŬLA, a basket of very peculiar form and common use among the Romans, both for agricultural and other purposes. It was made of osiers twisted together, and was of a conical or pyramidal shape. A basket answering precisely to this description, both in form and material, is still to be seen in every-day use among the Campanian peasantry, which is called in the language of the country “la corbella.” CORBĪTAE, merchantmen of the larger class, so called because they hung out a _corbis_ at the mast-head for a sign. They were also termed _onerariae_; and hence Plautus, in order to designate the voracious appetites of some women, says, “Corbitam cibi comesse possunt.” [Illustration: Cornu. (Bartholini de Tibiis.)] [Illustration: Altar of Julius Victor. (Bartoli, Pict. Ant., p. 76.)] CORNU, a wind instrument, anciently made of horn, but afterwards of brass. Like the _tuba_, it differed from the _tibia_ in being a larger and more powerful instrument, and from the _tuba_ itself, in being curved nearly in the shape of a C, with a cross-piece to steady the instrument for the convenience of the performer. Hence Ovid says (_Met._ i. 98): “Non tuba _directi_, non aeris cornua _flexi_.”