CŬNĔUS was the name applied to a body of foot soldiers, drawn up in the form of a wedge, for the purpose of breaking through an enemy’s line. The common soldiers called it a _caput porcinum_, or pig’s head. The name _cuneus_ was also applied to the compartments of seats in circular or semi-circular theatres, which were so arranged as to converge to the centre of the theatre, and diverge towards the external walls of the building, with passages between each compartment. CŬNĪCŬLUS (ὑπόνομος), a mine or passage underground, was so called from its resemblance to the burrowing of a rabbit. Fidenae and Veii are said to have been taken by mines, which opened, one of them into the citadel, the other into the temple of Juno. CŪPA, a wine-vat, a vessel very much like the _dolium_, and used for the same purpose, namely, to receive the fresh must, and to contain it during the process of fermentation. The inferior wines were drawn for drinking from the _cupa_, without being bottled in _amphorae_, and hence the term _vinum de cupa_. The _cupa_ was either made of earthenware, like the _dolium_, or of wood, and covered with pitch. It was also used for fruits and corn, forming rafts, and containing combustibles in war, and even for a sarcophagus. CŪRĀTOR. Till a Roman youth attained the age of puberty, which was generally fixed at fourteen years of age, he was incapable of any legal act, and was under the authority of a _tutor_ or guardian; but with the attainment of the age of puberty, he became capable of performing every legal act, and was freed from the control of his _tutor_. As, however, a person of that tender age was liable to be imposed upon, the lex Plaetoria enacted that every person between the time of puberty and twenty-five years of age should be under the protection of a _curator_. The date of this lex is not known, though it is certain that the law existed when Plautus wrote (about B.C. 200), who speaks of it as the _lex quina vicemaria_. This law established a distinction of age, which was of great practical importance, by forming the citizens into two classes, those above and those below twenty-five years of age (_minores viginti quinque annis_). A person under the last-mentioned age was sometimes simply called _minor_. The object of the lex was to protect persons under twenty-five years of age against all fraud (_dolus_). A person who wasted his property (_prodigus_), and a person of unsound mind (_furiosus, demens_), were also placed under the care of a _curator_. CŪRĀTŌRES were public officers of various kinds under the Roman empire, such as the _curatores annonae_, the _curatores ludorum_, the _curatores regionum_, &c.