[Illustration: Cultri (From Tombstone of a Cultrarius.)]
CULTER (μάχαιρα, κοπίς, or σφαγίς), a knife with only one edge, which
formed a straight line. The blade was pointed, and its back curved.
It was used for a variety of purposes, but chiefly for killing
animals either in the slaughter-house, or in hunting, or at the
altars of the gods. The priest who conducted a sacrifice never killed
the victim himself; but one of his ministri, appointed for that
purpose, who was called either by the general name _minister_, or the
more specific _popa_ or _cultrarius_.