Conventiculum regularly means an assembly (without any diminutive notion): conventicula _hominum_ quae postea _civitates_ nominatae sunt, Sest. 91; but it may also mean the place of assembly: _exstructa_ sunt apud nemus conventicula, Tac. A. 14, 15. Oraculum may mean a prophetic declaration by gods, or by men: cum praesertim _deorum immortalium_ iussis atque oraculis id fecisse dicantur, Sex. Rosc. 66; haec ego nunc _physicorum_ oracula fundo, vera an falsa nescio, N. 1, 66. Also the place where oracular responses were given: numquam illud oraculum _Delphis_ tam celebre fuisset nisi...., Div. I, 19, 37. Periculum, in the sense of trial, is always the object of the verb facere: _fac_ semel periculum, Cist. 504; priusquam periculum _faceret_, B. G. 4, 21. Its change to the meaning of danger must have been by some such step as is seen in the following example, although periculum facere, “make a trial,” is also practically the same as “run a risk”: nescio quanto in periculo _sumus_, Phor. 58. The common meaning of risk or danger hardly needs to be illustrated: salus sociorum summum _in_ periculum _vocatur_, Pomp. 5, 12. The context shows it to have also two other meanings; _viz._, a lawsuit: meus labor in periculis _privatorum_ caste integreque _versatus_, Pomp. 1, 2; a judicial sentence: petiit ut _in_ periculo suo _inscriberent_, Nep. Ep. 8; est honestus, quod eorum hominum fidei _tabulae publicae_ periculaque _magistratuum_ committuntur, Verr. 2, 3, 79. Piaculum is properly an offering performed as a means of appeasing a deity: porco femina piaculum _faciundum_ est, Leg. II, 57; apparet omnia nec ullis piaculis _expiari_ posse, Liv. 5, 53; and then naturally it is applied to the victim itself: duc _nigras pecudes_: ea prima piacula sunto, Aen. 6, 153; then also a sinful action, which needs expiation: nonne in mentem venit, quantum piaculi _committatur_?, Liv. 5, 52. Spectaculum is properly a “sight”, anything seen: quom hoc mihi _optulisti_ tam lepidum spectaculum, Poen. 209; then a show, on the stage or in the arena: spectacula sunt tributim _data_, Muren. 72. Once in Plautus it clearly means a part of the theater itself: exoritur ventus turbo, spectacula ibi _ruont_, Curc. 647; that it means also the theater in general is seen from a few examples: _resonant_ spectacula plausu, Ov. M. 10, 668; _ex_ omnibus spectaculis _plausus est excitatus_, Sest. 58. Umbraculum is a shady place: faciundum umbracula, _quo succedant_ homines in aestu tempore meridiano, Varro, R. R. I, 51; also anything that furnishes shade, an umbrella: aurea _pellebant_ tepidos umbracula _soles_, Ov. F. II, 311. The limiting genitive in the following example shows the noun to have lost its regular stem-meaning and to have been used for “school”: Demetrius mirabiliter doctrinam ex umbraculis _eruditorum_ otioque produxit, Leg. III, 14.