Buccina

A buccina or bucina, anglicized buccin or bucine, is a brass instrument that was used in the ancient Roman army, similar to the Cornu. An aeneator who blew a buccina was called a "buccinator" or "bucinator". It was originally designed as a tube measuring some 3.4 to 3.7 meters in length, of narrow cylindrical bore, and played by means of a cup-shaped mouthpiece. The tube is bent round upon itself from the mouthpiece to the bell in the shape of a broad C and is strengthened by means of a bar across the curve, which the performer grasps while playing to steady the instrument; the bell curves over his head or shoulder. The buccina was used for the announcement of night watches, to summon soldiers by means of the special signal known as classicum, and to give orders. Frontinus relates that a Roman general, who had been surrounded by the enemy, escaped during the night by means of the stratagem of leaving behind him a buccinator, who sounded the watches throughout the night. The instrument is the ancestor of both the trumpet and the trombone; the German word for "trombone", Posaune, is linguistically derived from Buccina.