pinnacle Copy link Outline I. Lit., a part of a building elevated above the restII. Fig. • pinnacle: I. Lit., a part of a building elevated above the rest: fastīgium (strictly, the gable-top of a roof, where it rises to a point): cf. Liv. 40, 2, fastigia aliquot templorum culminibus abrupta tempestas dissipavit (which words show that the fastigium was more elevated than the culmen; the latter term denoting the top of any building, even flat-roofed, as houses were): I mount the topmost p. of the house, summi fastigia tecti ascensu supero, Virg. Aen. 2, 302. (Pinnaculum is very late; e. g. Vulg. Matt. iv. 5: pinna is a battlement, not a pinnacle: cf. Caes. B. G. 5, 40.) II. Fig.: fastīgium: v. eminence (II.).