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 p372  Cudo

Article by Anthony Rich, Jun. B.A. of Caius College, Cambridge
on pp372‑373 of

William Smith, D.C.L., LL.D.:
A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, John Murray, London, 1875.

CUDO or CUDON, a skull-cap, made of leather or of the rough, shaggy fur of any wild animal (Sil. Ital. VIII.493,º XVI.59), such as were worn by the velites of the Roman armies (Polyb. VI.22),º and apparently synonymous with galerus (Virg. Aen. VII.688) or galericulus (Frontin. Strategem. IV.7 § 29). In the sculptures on the Column of Trajan, some of the Roman soldiers are represented with the skin of a wild beast drawn over the head, in such a manner that the face appears between the upper and lower jaws of the animal, while the rest of the skin falls down behind over the back and shoulders, as described by Virgil (Aen. VII.666). This, however, was an extra defence (Polyb. l.c.), and must not be taken for the cudo, which was the cap itself; that is, a particular  p373 kind of galea. [Galea]. The following representation of a cudo is taken from Choul's Castramen. des Anciens Romains, 1581.

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