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Title: A classical dictionary: containing a copious account of all the proper names mentioned in ancient authors with tables of coins, weights, and measures used among the Greeks and Romans and a chronological table
Author: Lempriere, John
Language: English
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*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "A classical dictionary: containing a copious account of all the proper names mentioned in ancient authors with tables of coins, weights, and measures used among the Greeks and Romans and a chronological table" ***
A CLASSICAL DICTIONARY
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LEMPRIERE’S CLASSICAL DICTIONARY.
A
CLASSICAL DICTIONARY
CONTAINING A COPIOUS ACCOUNT
OF ALL THE PROPER NAMES
MENTIONED IN ANCIENT AUTHORS
WITH
THE VALUE OF COINS, WEIGHTS, AND MEASURES
USED AMONG THE GREEKS AND ROMANS
AND
A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE
BY
J. LEMPRIERE, D.D.
Illustration: (‡ Colophon)
LONDON
GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS, LIMITED
NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON AND CO.
1904
Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO.
At the Ballantyne Press
PREFACE
TO THE ORIGINAL EDITION.
IN the following pages it has been the wish of the author to give
the most accurate and satisfactory account of all the proper names
which occur in reading the Classics, and by a judicious collection of
anecdotes and historical facts to draw a picture of ancient times, not
less instructive than entertaining. Such a work, it is hoped, will not
be deemed a useless acquisition in the hands of the public; and while
the student is initiated in the knowledge of history and mythology,
and familiarized with the ancient situation and extent of kingdoms and
cities that no longer exist, the man of letters may, perhaps, find it
not a contemptible companion, from which he may receive information,
and be made, a second time, acquainted with many important particulars
which time, or more laborious occupations, may have erased from his
memory. In the prosecution of his plan, the author has been obliged
to tread in the steps of many learned men, whose studies have been
directed, and not without success, to facilitate the attainment of
classical knowledge, and of the ancient languages. Their compositions
have been to him a source of information, and he trusts that their
labours have now found new elucidation in his own, and that, by a
due consideration of every subject, he has been enabled to imitate
their excellences, without copying their faults. Many compositions of
the same nature have issued from the press, but they are partial and
unsatisfactory. The attempts to be concise, have rendered the labours
of one barren and uninstructive, while long and unconnected quotations
of passages from Greek and Latin writers, disfigure the page of
the other, and render the whole insipid and disgusting. It cannot,
therefore, be a discouraging employment now, to endeavour to finish
what others have left imperfect, and with the conciseness of Stephens,
to add the diffuse researches of Lloyd, Hoffman, Collier, &c. After
paying due attention to the ancient poets and historians, from whom the
most authentic information can be received, the labours of more modern
authors have been consulted, and every composition distinguished for
the clearness and perspicuity of historical narration, or geographical
descriptions, has been carefully examined. Truly sensible of what he
owes to modern Latin and English writers and commentators, the author
must not forget to make a public acknowledgment of the assistance he
has likewise received from the labours of the French. In the Siècles
Payens of l’Abbé Sabatier de Castres he has found all the information
which judicious criticism, and a perfect knowledge of heathen mythology,
could procure. The compositions of l’Abbé Banier have also been useful;
and in the Dictionnaire Historique, of a literary society, printed at
Caen, a treasure of original anecdotes, and a candid selection and
arrangement of historical facts, have been discovered.
It was the original design of the author of this Dictionary to give a
minute explanation of all the names of which Pliny and other ancient
geographers make mention; but, upon a second consideration of the
subject, he was convinced that it would have increased his volume in
bulk, and not in value. The learned reader will be sensible of the
propriety of this remark, when he recollects that the names of many
places mentioned by Pliny and Pausanias occur nowhere else in ancient
authors; and that to find the true situation of an insignificant
village mentioned by Strabo, no other writer but Strabo is to be
consulted.
This Dictionary being undertaken more particularly for the use of
schools, it has been thought proper to mark the quantity of the
penultimate of every word, and to assist the student who can receive
no fixed and positive rules for pronunciation. In this the authority
of Smethius has been followed, as also Leede’s edition of Labbe’s
Catholici Indices.
As every publication should be calculated to facilitate literature,
and to be serviceable to the advancement of the sciences, the author
of this Dictionary did not presume to intrude himself upon the public,
before he was sensible that his humble labours would be of some service
to the lovers of the ancient languages. The undertaking was for the
use of schools, therefore he thought none so capable of judging of
its merit, and of ascertaining its utility, as those who preside
over the education of youth. With this view, he took the liberty to
communicate his intentions to several gentlemen in that line, not
less distinguished for purity of criticism, than for their classical
abilities, and from them he received all the encouragement which the
desire of contributing to the advancement of learning can expect. To
them, therefore, for their approbation and friendly communications,
he publicly returns his thanks, and hopes that, now his labours are
completed, his Dictionary may claim from them that patronage and that
support to which, in their opinion, the specimen of the work seemed
to be entitled. He has paid due attention to their remarks, he has
received with gratitude their judicious observations, and cannot pass
over in silence their obliging recommendations, and particularly the
friendly advice he has received from the Rev. R. Valpy, master of
Reading School.
For the account of the Roman laws, and for the festivals celebrated
by the ancient inhabitants of Greece and Italy, he is particularly
indebted to the useful collections of Archbishop Potter, of Godwyn,
and Kennet. In the tables of ancient coins, weights and measures,
which he has annexed to the body of the Dictionary, he has followed
the learned calculations of Dr. Arbuthnot. The quoted authorities have
been carefully examined, and frequently revised: and, it is hoped, the
opinions of mythologists will appear without confusion, and be found
divested of all obscurity.
Therefore, with all the confidence which an earnest desire of being
useful can command, the author offers the following pages to the
public, conscious that they may contain inaccuracies and imperfections.
A Dictionary, the candid reader is well aware, cannot be made perfect
all at once; it must still have its faults and omissions, however
cautious and vigilant the author may have been; and in every page there
may be found, in the opinion of some, room for improvement and for
addition. Before the candid, therefore, and the impartial, he lays his
publication, and for whatever observations the friendly critic may make,
he will show himself grateful, and take advantage of the remarks of
every judicious reader, should the favours and the indulgence of the
public demand a second edition.
A
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE,
FROM
THE CREATION OF THE WORLD
TO
THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE
IN THE WEST, AND IN THE EAST
¹In the following table, I have confined myself to the more
easy and convenient eras of before (B.C.) and after (A.D.)
Christ. For the sake of those, however, that do not wish the
exclusion of the Julian period, it is necessary to observe
that, as the first year of the christian era always falls on
the 4714th of the Julian years, the number required either
before or after Christ will easily be discovered by the
application of the rules of subtraction or addition. The
era from the foundation of Rome (A.U.C.) will be found with
the same facility, by recollecting that the city was built
753 years before Christ; and the Olympiads can likewise be
recurred to by the consideration that the conquest of Corœbus
(B.C. 776) forms the first Olympiad, and that the Olympic
games were celebrated after the revolution of four years.
Before
Christ.¹
The world created in the 710th year of the Julian period 4004
The deluge 2348
The tower of Babel built, and the confusion of languages 2247
Celestial observations are first made at Babylon 2234
The kingdom of Egypt is supposed to have begun under
Misraim the son of Ham, and to have continued 1663
years, to the conquest of Cambyses 2188
The kingdom of Sicyon established 2089
The kingdom of Assyria begins 2059
The birth of Abraham 1996
The kingdom of Argos established under Inachus 1856
Memnon the Egyptian said to invent letters, 15 years
before the reign of Phoroneus 1822
The deluge of Ogyges, by which Attica remained waste above
200 years, till the coming of Cecrops 1764
Joseph sold into Egypt by his brethren 1728
The chronology of the Arundelian marbles begins about this
time, fixing here the arrival of Cecrops in Attica, an
epoch which other writers have placed later by 26 years 1582
Moses born 1571
The kingdom of Athens begun under Cecrops, who came from
Egypt with a colony of Saites. This happened about 780
years before the first Olympiad 1556
Scamander migrates from Crete, and begins the kingdom of
Troy 1546
The deluge of Deucalion in Thessaly 1503
The Panathenæa first celebrated at Athens 1495
Cadmus comes into Greece, and builds the citadel of Thebes 1493
The first Olympic games celebrated in Elis by the Idæi
Dactyli 1453
The five books of Moses written in the land of Moab, where
he dies the following year, aged 110 1452
Minos flourishes in Crete, and iron is found by the Dactyli
by the accidental burning of the woods of Ida, in Crete 1406
The Eleusinian mysteries introduced at Athens by Eumolpus 1356
The Isthmian games first instituted by Sisyphus king of
Corinth 1326
The Argonautic expedition. The first Pythian games
celebrated by Adrastus king of Argos 1263
Gideon flourishes in Israel 1245
The Theban war of the seven heroes against Eteocles 1225
Olympic games celebrated by Hercules 1222
The rape of Helen by Theseus, and, 15 years after, by Paris 1213
Troy taken, after a siege of 10 years. Æneas sails to Italy 1184
Alba Longa built by Ascanius 1152
Migration of the Æolian colonies 1124
The return of the Heraclidæ into Peloponnesus, 80 years
after the taking of Troy. Two years after, they divide
the Peloponnesus among themselves; and here, therefore,
begins the kingdom of Lacedæmon under Eurysthenes and
Procles 1104
Saul made king over Israel 1095
The kingdom of Sicyon ended 1088
The kingdom of Athens ended in the death of Codrus 1070
The migration of the Ionian colonies from Greece, and their
settlement in Asia Minor 1044
Dedication of Solomon’s temple 1004
Samos built 986
Division of the kingdom of Judah and Israel 975
Homer and Hesiod flourished about this time, according to
the marbles 907
Elias the prophet taken up into heaven 896
Lycurgus, 42 years old, establishes his laws at Lacedæmon,
and, together with Iphitus and Cleosthenes, restores the
Olympic games at Elis, about 108 years before the era
which is commonly called the first Olympiad 884
Phidon king of Argos is supposed to have invented scales
and measures, and coined silver at Ægina. Carthage built
by Dido 869
Fall of the Assyrian empire by the death of Sardanapalus, an
era placed 80 years earlier by Justin 820
The kingdom of Macedonia begins, and continues 646 years,
till the battle of Pydna 814
The kingdom of Lydia begins, and continues 249 years 797
The triremes first invented by the Corinthians 786
The monarchical government abolished at Corinth, and the
Prytanes elected 779
Corœbus conquers at Olympia, in the 28th Olympiad from the
institution of Iphitus. This is vulgarly called the first
Olympiad, about 23 years before the foundation of Rome 776
The Ephori introduced into the government of Lacedæmon by
Theopompus 760
Isaiah begins to prophesy 757
The decennial archons begin at Athens, of which Charops is
the first 754
Rome built on the 20th of April, according to Varro, in the
year 3961 of the Julian period 753
The rape of the Sabines 750
The era of Nabonassar king of Babylon begins 747
The first Messenian war begins, and continues 19 years, to
the taking of Ithome 743
Syracuse built by a Corinthian colony 732
The kingdom of Israel finished by the taking of Samaria by
Salmanasar king of Assyria. The first eclipse of the moon
on record March 19th, according to Ptolemy 721
Candaules murdered by Gyges, who succeeds to the Lydian
throne 718
Tarentum built by the Parthenians 707
Corcyra built by the Corinthians 703
The second Messenian war begins, and continues 14 years, to
the taking of Ira, after a siege of 11 years. About this
time flourished the poets Tyrtæus and Archilochus 685
The government of Athens intrusted to annual archons 684
Alba destroyed 665
Cypselus usurps the government of Corinth, and keeps it for
30 years 659
Byzantium built by a colony of Argives or Athenians 658
Cyrene built by Battus 630
The Scythians invade Asia Minor, of which they keep
possession for 28 years 624
Draco established his laws at Athens 623
The canal between the Nile and the Red sea begun by king
Necho 610
Nineveh taken and destroyed by Cyaxares and his allies 606
The Phœnicians sail round Africa, by order of Necho. About
this time flourished Arion, Pittacus, Alcæus, Sappho, &c. 604
The Scythians are expelled from Asia Minor by Cyaxares 596
The Pythian games first established at Delphi. About this
time flourished Chilo, Anacharsis, Thales, Epimenides,
Solon, the prophet Ezekiel, Æsop, Stersichorus 591
Jerusalem taken by Nebuchadnezzar, 9th of June, after a
siege of 18 months 587
The Isthmian games restored and celebrated every first and
third year of the Olympiads 582
Death of Jeremiah the prophet 577
The Nemæan games restored 568
The first comedy acted at Athens by Susarion and Dolon 562
Pisistratus first usurped the sovereignty at Athens 560
Cyrus begins to reign. About this time flourished Anaximenes,
Bias, Anaximander, Phalaris, and Cleobulus 559
Crœsus conquered by Cyrus. About this time flourished
Theognis and Pherecydes 548
Marseilles built by the Phocæans. The age of Pythagoras,
Simonides, Thespis, Xenophanes, and Anacreon 539
Babylon taken by Cyrus 538
The return of the Jews by the edict of Cyrus, and the
rebuilding of the temple 536
The first tragedy acted at Athens on the waggon of Thespis 535
Learning encouraged at Athens, and a public library built 526
Egypt conquered by Cambyses 525
Polycrates of Samos put to death 522
Darius Hystaspes chosen king of Persia. About this time
flourished Confucius the celebrated Chinese philosopher 521
The tyranny of the Pisistratidæ abolished at Athens 510
The consular government begins at Rome after the expulsion
of the Tarquins, and continues independent 461 years, till
the battle of Pharsalia 509
Sardis taken by the Athenians and burnt, which became
afterwards the cause of the invasion of Greece by
the Persians. About this time flourished Heraclitus,
Parmenides, Milo the wrestler, Aristagoras, &c. 504
The first dictator, Lartius, created at Rome 498
The Roman populace retire to mount Sacer 493
The battle of Marathon 490
The battles of Thermopylæ, August 7th, and Salamis, October
20th. About this time flourished Æschylus, Pindar, Charon,
Anaxagoras, Zeuxis, Aristides, &c. 480
The Persians defeated at Platæa and Mycale on the same day,
22nd September 479
The 300 Fabii killed at Cremera, July 17th 477
Themistocles, accused of conspiracy, flies to Xerxes 471
The Persians defeated at Cyprus, and near the Eurymedon 470
The third Messenian war begins, and continues 10 years 465
Egypt revolts from the Persians under Inarus, assisted by
the Athenians 463
The Romans send to Athens for Solon’s laws. About this
time flourished Sophocles, Nehemiah the prophet, Plato
the comic poet, Aristarchus the tragic, Leocrates,
Thrasybulus, Pericles, Zaleucus, &c. 454
The first Sacred war concerning the temple of Delphi 448
The Athenians defeated at Chæronea by the Bœotians 447
Herodotus reads his history to the council of Athens, and
receives public honours in the 39th year of his age.
About this time flourished Empedocles, Hellanicus,
Euripides, Herodicus, Phidias Artemones, Charondas, &c. 445
A colony sent to Thurium by the Athenians 444
Comedies prohibited at Athens, a restraint which remained
in force for three years 440
A war between Corinth and Corcyra 439
Meton begins here his 19 years’ cycle of the moon 432
The Peloponnesian war begins, May the 7th, and continues
about 27 years. About this time flourished Cratinus,
Eupolis, Aristophanes, Meton, Euctemon, Malachi the
last of the prophets, Democritus, Gorgias, Thucydides,
Hippocrates, &c. 431
The history of the Old Testament finishes about this time.
A plague at Athens for five years 430
A peace of 50 years made between the Athenians and
Lacedæmonians, which is kept only during six years and
ten months, though each continued at war with the other’s
allies 421
The scene of the Peloponnesian war changed to Sicily. The
Agrarian law first moved at Rome 416
Egypt revolts from the Persians, and Amyrtæus is appointed
king 414
The Carthaginians enter Sicily, where they destroy Selinus
and Himera, but they are repulsed by Hermocrates 409
The battle of Ægospotamos. The usurpation of Dionysius 405
Athens taken by Lysander, 24th of April. The end of the
Peloponnesian war, and the appointment of 30 tyrants over
the conquered city. About this time flourished Parrhasius,
Protagoras, Lysias, Agathon, Euclid, Cebes, Telestes, &c. 404
Cyrus the younger killed at Cunaxa. The glorious retreat
of the 10,000 Greeks, and the expulsion of the 30 tyrants
from Athens by Thrasybulus 401
Socrates put to death 400
Agesilaus of Lacedæmon’s expedition into Asia against
the Persians. The age of Xenophon, Ctesias, Zeuxis,
Antisthenes, Evagoras, Aristippus of Cyrene, and Archytas 396
The Corinthian war begun by the alliance of the Athenians,
Thebans, Corinthians, and Argives, against Lacedæmon 395
The Lacedæmonians, under Pisander, defeated by Conon at
Cnidus; and, a few days after, the allies are defeated
at Coronæa, by Agesilaus 394
The battle of Allia, July 17th, and the taking of Rome by
the Gauls 390
Dionysius besieges Rhegium, and takes it after 11 months.
About this time flourished Plato, Philoxenus, Damon,
Pythias, Iphicrates, &c. 388
The Greek cities of Asia tributary to Persia, by the peace
of Antalcidas, between the Lacedæmonians and Persians 387
The war of Cyprus finished by a treaty, after it had
continued two years 385
The Lacedæmonians defeated in a sea-fight at Naxos,
September 20th, by Chabrias. About this time flourished
Philistus, Isæus, Isocrates, Arete, Philolaus, Diogenes
the cynic, &c. 377
Artaxerxes sends an army under Pharnabazus, with 20,000
Greeks, commanded by Iphicrates 374
The battle of Leuctra, July 8th, where the Lacedæmonians
are defeated by Epaminondas the general of the Thebans 371
The Messenians, after a banishment of 300 years, return to
Peloponnesus 370
One of the consuls at Rome elected from the plebeians 367
The battle of Mantinea gained by Epaminondas, a year after
the death of Pelopidas 363
Agesilaus assists Tachos king of Egypt. Some of the
governors of Lesser Asia revolt from Persia 362
The Athenians are defeated at Methone, the first battle
that Philip of Macedon ever won in Greece 360
Dionysius the younger is expelled from Syracuse by Dion. The
second Sacred war begins, on the temple of Delphi being
attacked by the Phocians 357
Dion put to death, and Syracuse governed seven years by
tyrants. About this time flourished Eudoxus, Lycurgus,
Ibis, Theopompus, Ephorus, Datames, Philomelus, &c. 354
The Phocians, under Onomarchus, are defeated in Thessaly by
Philip 353
Egypt is conquered by Ochus 350
The Sacred war is finished by Philip taking all the cities
of the Phocians 348
Dionysius recovers the tyranny of Syracuse, after 10 years’
banishment 347
Timoleon recovers Syracuse and banishes the tyrant 343
The Carthaginians defeated by Timoleon near Agrigentum.
About this time flourished Speusippus, Protogenes,
Aristotle, Æschines, Zenocrates, Demosthenes, Phocion,
Mamercus, Icetas, Stilpo, Demades 340
The battle of Cheronæa, August 2nd, where Philip defeats
the Athenians and Thebans 338
Philip of Macedon killed by Pausanius. His son Alexander,
on the following year, enters Greece, destroys Thebes, &c. 336
The battle of the Granicus, 22nd of May 334
The battle of Issus in October 333
Tyre and Egypt conquered by the Macedonian prince, and
Alexandria built 332
The battle of Arbela, October 2nd 331
Alexander’s expedition against Porus. About this time
flourished Apelles, Callisthenes, Bagoas, Parmenio,
Philotas, Memnon, Dinocrates, Calippus, Hyperides,
Philetus, Lysippus, Menedemus, &c. 327
Alexander dies on the 21st of April. His empire is divided
into four kingdoms. The Samian war, and the reign of the
Ptolemies in Egypt 323
Polyperchon publishes a general liberty to all the Greek
cities. The age of Praxiteles, Crates, Theophrastus,
Menander, Demetrius, Dinarchus, Polemon, Neoptolemus,
Perdiccas, Leosthenes 320
Syracuse and Sicily usurped by Agathocles. Demetrius
Phalereus governs Athens for 10 years 317
Eumenes delivered to Antigonus by his army 315
Seleucus takes Babylon, and here the beginning of the era
of the Seleucidæ 312
The conquests of Agathocles in Africa 309
Democracy established at Athens by Demetrius Poliorcetes 307
The title of kings first assumed by the successors of
Alexander 306
The battle of Ipsus, where Antigonus is defeated and killed
by Ptolemy, Seleucus, Lysimachus, and Cassander. About
this time flourished Zeno, Pyrrho, Philemon, Megasthenes,
Crantor, &c. 301
Athens taken by Demetrius Poliorcetes, after a year’s siege 296
The first sun-dial erected at Rome by Papirius Cursor, and
the time first divided into hours 293
Seleucus, about this time, built about 40 cities in Asia,
which he peopled with different nations. The age of
Euclid the mathematician, Arcesilaus, Epicurus, Bion,
Timocharis, Erasistratus, Aristyllus, Strato, Zenodotus,
Arsinoe, Lachares, &c. 291
The Athenians revolt from Demetrius 287
Pyrrhus expelled from Macedon by Lysimachus 286
The Pharos of Alexandria built. The Septuagint supposed to
be translated about this time 284
Lysimachus defeated and killed by Seleucus. The Tarentine
war begins, and continues 10 years. The Achæan league
begins 281
Pyrrhus of Epirus goes to Italy to assist the Tarentines 280
The Gauls, under Brennus, are cut to pieces near the temple
of Delphi. About this time flourished Dionysius the
astronomer, Sostratus, Theocritus, Dionysius Heracleotes,
Philo, Aratus, Lycophron, Persæus, &c. 278
Pyrrhus, defeated by Curius, retires to Epirus 274
The first coining of silver at Rome 269
Athens taken by Antigonus Gonatas, who keeps it 12 years 268
The first Punic war begins, and continues for 23 years. The
chronology of the Arundelian marbles composed. About this
time flourished Lycon, Crates, Berosus, Hermachus, Helenus,
Clinias, Aristotimus, &c. 264
Antiochus Soter defeated at Sardis by Eumenes of Pergamus 262
The Carthaginian fleet defeated by Duilius 260
Regulus defeated by Xanthippus. Athens is restored to
liberty by Antigonus 256
Aratus persuades the people of Sicyon to join the Achæan
league. About this time flourished Cleanthes, Homer
junior, Manetho, Timæus, Callimachus, Zoilus, Duris,
Neanthes, Ctesibius, Sosibius, Hieronymus, Hanno, Laodice,
Lysias, Ariobarzanes 251
The Parthians under Arsaces, and the Bactrians under
Theodotus, revolt from the Macedonians 250
The sea-fight of Drepanum 249
The citadel of Corinth taken by Aratus, 12th of August 243
Agis king of Sparta put to death for attempting to settle
an Agrarian law. About this period flourished Antigonus
Carystius, Conon of Samos, Eratosthenes, Apollonius of
Perga, Lacydes, Amilcar, Agesilaus the ephor, &c. 241
Plays first acted at Rome, being those of Livius Andronicus 240
Amilcar passes with an army to Spain, with Annibal his son 237
The temple of Janus shut at Rome, the first time since Numa 235
The Sardinian war begins, and continues three years 234
Original manuscripts of Æschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles,
lent by the Athenians to Ptolemy for a pledge of
15 talents 233
The first divorce known at Rome, by Spurius Carvilius.
Sardinia and Corsica conquered 231
The Roman ambassadors first appeared at Athens and Corinth 228
The war between Cleomenes and Aratus begins, and continues
for five years 227
The colossus of Rhodes thrown down by an earthquake. The
Romans first cross the Po, pursuing the Gauls, who had
entered Italy. About this time flourished Chrysippus,
Polystratus, Euphorion, Archimedes, Valerius Messala,
C. Nævius, Aristarchus, Apollonius, Philocorus, Aristo
Ceus, Fabius Pictor the first Roman historian, Philarchus,
Lysiades, Agro, &c. 224
The battle of Sellasia 222
The Social war between the Ætolians and Achæans, assisted
by Philip 220
Saguntum taken by Annibal 219
The second Punic war begins, and continues 17 years 218
The battle of the lake Thrasymenus, and next year that of
Cannæ, May 21st 217
The Romans begin the auxiliary war against Philip in Epirus,
which is continued by intervals for 14 years 214
Syracuse taken by Marcellus, after a siege of three years 212
Philopœmen defeats Machanidas at Mantinea 208
Asdrubal is defeated. About this time flourished Plautus,
Archagathus, Evander, Teleclus, Hermippus, Zeno, Sotion,
Ennius, Hieronymus of Syracuse, Tlepolemus, Epicydes 207
The battle of Zama 202
The first Macedonian war begins and continues near four
years 200
The battle of Panius, where Antiochus defeats Scopas 198
The battle of Cynoscephale, where Philip is defeated 197
The war of Antiochus the Great begins, and continues three
years 192
Lacedæmon joined to the Achæan league by Philopœmen 191
The luxuries of Asia brought to Rome in the spoils of
Antiochus 189
The laws of Lycurgus abrogated for a while at Sparta by
Philopœmen 188
Antiochus the Great defeated and killed in Media. About this
time flourished Aristophanes of Byzantium, Asclepiades,
Tegula, C. Lælius, Aristonymus, Hegesinus, Diogenes
the stoic, Critolaus, Massinissa, the Scipios, the Gracchi,
Thoas, &c. 187
A war, which continues for one year, between Eumenes and
Prusias, till the death of Annibal 184
Philopœmen defeated and killed by Dinocrates 183
Numa’s books found in a stone coffin at Rome 179
Perseus sends his ambassadors to Carthage 175
Ptolemy’s generals defeated by Antiochus, in a battle
between Pelusium and mount Cassius. The second Macedonian
war 171
The battle of Pydna, and the fall of the Macedonian empire.
About this period flourished Attalus the astronomer,
Metrodorus, Terence, Crates, Polybius, Pacuvius,
Hipparchus, Heraclides, Carneades, Aristarchus, &c. 168
The first library erected at Rome, with books obtained from
the plunder of Macedonia 167
Terence’s Andria first acted at Rome 166
Time measured out at Rome by a water-machine, invented
by Scipio Nasica, 134 years after the introduction of
sun-dials 159
Andriscus the Pseudophilip assumes the royalty of Macedonia 152
Demetrius king of Syria defeated and killed by Alexander
Balas 150
The third Punic war begins. Prusias king of Bithynia put to
death by his son Nicomedes 149
The Romans make war against the Achæans, which is finished
the next year by Mummius 148
Carthage is destroyed by Scipio, and Corinth by ♦Mummius 147
♦ ‘Mummus’ replaced with ‘Mummius’
Viriathus is defeated by Lælius, in Spain 146
The war of Numantia begins, and continues for eight years 141
The Roman army of 30,000, under Mancinus, is defeated by
4000 Numantines 138
Restoration of learning at Alexandria, and universal
patronage offered to all learned men by Ptolemy Physcon.
The age of Satyrus, Aristobulus, Lucius Accius, Mnaseas,
Antipater, Diodorus the peripatetic, Nicander, Ctesibius,
Sarpedon, Micipsa, &c. 137
The famous embassy of Scipio, Metellus, Mummius, and
Panætius, into Egypt, Syria, and Greece 136
The history of the Apocrypha ends. The Servile war in
Sicily begins, and continues for three years 135
Numantia taken. Pergamus annexed to the Roman empire 133
Antiochus Sidetes killed by Phraates. Aristonicus defeated
by Perpenna 130
Demetrius Nicator defeated at Damascus by Alexander Zebina 127
The Romans make war against the pirates of the Beleares.
Carthage is rebuilt by order of the Roman senate 123
Caius Gracchus killed 121
Dalmatia conquered by Metellus 118
Cleopatra assumes the government of Egypt. The age of
Erymnæus, Athenion, Artemidorus, Clitomachus, Apollonius,
Herodicus, Lucius Cælius, Castor, Menecrates, Lucilius, &c. 116
The Jugurthine war begins, and continues for five years 111
The famous sumptuary law at Rome, which limited the expenses
of eating every day 110
The Teutones and Cimbri begin their war against Rome, and
continue it for eight years 109
The Teutones defeat 80,000 Romans on the banks of the Rhone 105
The Teutones defeated by Caius Marius at Aquæ Sextiæ 102
The Cimbri defeated by Marius and Catulus 101
Dolabella conquers Lusitania 99
Cyrene left by Ptolemy Apion to the Romans 97
The Social war begins, and continues three years, till
finished by Sylla 91
The Mithridatic war begins, and continues 26 years 89
The civil wars of Marius and Sylla begin, and continue six
years 88
Sylla conquers Athens, and sends its valuable libraries to
Rome 86
Young Marius is defeated by Sylla, who is made dictator 82
The death of Sylla. About this time flourished Philo,
Charmidas, Asclepiades, Apellicon, Lucius Sisenna,
Alexander Polyhistor, Plotius Gallus, Diotimus, Zeno,
Hortensius, Archias, Posidonius, Geminus, &c. 78
Bithynia left by Nicomedes to the Romans 75
The Servile war, under Spartacus, begins, and, two years
after, the rebel general is defeated and killed by Pompey
and Crassus 73
Mithridates and Tigranes defeated by Lucullus 69
Mithridates conquered by Pompey in a night battle. Crete is
subdued by Metellus, after a war of two years 66
The reign of the Seleucidæ ends in Syria, on the conquest of
the country by Pompey 65
Catiline’s conspiracy detected by Cicero. Mithridates kills
himself 63
The first triumvirate in the person of Julius Cæsar, Pompey,
and Crassus. About this time flourished Apollonius of
Rhodes, Terentius Varro, Tyrannion, Aristodemus of Nysa,
Lucretius, Dionysius the grammarian, Cicero, Antiochus,
Spurinus, Andronicus, Catullus, Sallust, Timagenes,
Cratippus, &c. 60
Cicero banished from Rome, and recalled the next year 58
Cæsar passes the Rhine, defeats the Germans, and invades
Britain 55
Crassus is killed by Surena, in June 53
Civil war between Cæsar and Pompey 50
The battle of Pharsalia about May 12th 48
Alexander taken by Cæsar 47
The war of Africa. Cato kills himself. This year is called
the year of confusion, because the calendar was corrected
by Sosigenes, and the year made to consist of 15 months,
or 445 days 46
The battle of Munda 45
Cæsar murdered 44
The battle of Mutina. The second triumvirate in Octavius,
Antony, and Lepidus. Cicero put to death. The age of
Sosigenes, Cornelius Nepos, Diodorus Siculus, Trogus
Pompey, Didymus the scholiast, Varro the poet, &c. 43
The battle of Philippi 42
Pacorus general of Parthia defeated by Ventidius, 14 years
after the disgrace of Crassus, and on the same day 39
Pompey the younger defeated in Sicily by Octavius 36
Octavius and Antony prepare for war 32
The battle of Actium, 2nd September. The era of the Roman
emperors properly begins here 31
Alexander taken, and Egypt reduced into a Roman province 30
The title of Augustus given to Octavius 27
The Egyptians adopt the Julian year. About this time
flourished Virgil, Manilius, Dioscorides, Asinius Pollio,
Mæcenas, Agrippa, Strabo, Horace, Macer, Propertius, Livy,
Musa, Tibullus, Ovid, Pylades, Bathyllus, Varius, Tucca,
Vitruvius, &c. 25
The conspiracy of Muræna against Augustus 22
Augustus visits Greece and Asia 21
The Roman ensigns recovered from the Parthians by Tiberius 20
The secular games celebrated at Rome 17
Lollius defeated by the Germans 16
The Rhæti and Vindelici defeated by Drusus 15
The Pannonians conquered by Tiberius 12
Some of the German nations conquered by Drusus 11
Augustus corrects the calendar, by ordering the 12 ensuing
years to be without intercalation. About this time
flourished Damascenus, Hyginus, Flaccus the grammarian,
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and Dionysius the geographer 8
Tiberius retires to Rhodes for seven years 6
Our Saviour is born, four years before the vulgar era, in the
year 4709 of the Julian period, A.U.C. 749, and the fourth
of the 193rd Olympiad 4
A.D.
Tiberius returns to Rome 2
The leap year corrected, having formerly been every third
year 4
Ovid banished to Tomos 9
Varus defeated and killed in Germany by Arminius 10
Augustus dies at Nola, August 19th, and is succeeded by
Tiberius. The age of Phædrus, Asinius Gallus, Velleius
Paterculus, Germanicus, Cornel. Celsus, &c. 14
Twelve cities in Asia destroyed by an earthquake 17
Germanicus, poisoned by Piso, dies at Antioch 19
Tiberius goes to Capreæ 26
Sejanus disgraced 31
Our Saviour crucified, Friday, April 3rd. _This is put four
years earlier by some chronologists_ 33
St. Paul converted to Christianity 35
Tiberius dies at Misenum, near Baiæ, March 16th, and is
succeeded by Caligula. About this time flourished Valerius
Maximus, Columella, Pomponius Mela, Appion, Philo Judæus,
Artabanus, and Agrippina 37
St. Matthew writes his Gospel 39
The name of christians first given, at Antioch, to the
followers of our Saviour 40
Caligula murdered by Chæreas, and succeeded by Claudius 41
The expedition of Claudius into Britain 43
St. Mark writes his Gospel 44
Secular games celebrated at Rome 47
Caractacus carried in chains to Rome 51
Claudius succeeded by Nero 54
Agrippina put to death by her son Nero 59
First persecution against the christians 64
Seneca, Lucan, and others put to death 65
Nero visits Greece. The Jewish war begins. The age of
Persius, Quintus Curtius, Pliny the elder, Josephus,
Frontinus, Burrhus, Corbulo, Thrasea, Boadicea, &c. 66
St. Peter and St. Paul put to death 67
Nero dies, and is succeeded by Galba 68
Galba put to death. Otho, defeated by Vitellius, kills
himself. Vitellius is defeated by Vespasian’s army 69
Jerusalem taken and destroyed by Titus 70
The Parthians revolt 77
Death of Vespasian, and succession of Titus. Herculaneum
and Pompeii destroyed by an eruption of mount Vesuvius,
November 1st 79
Death of Titus, and succession of Domitian. The age of
Silius Italicus, Martial, Apollon. Tyanæus, Valerius
Flaccus, Solinus, Epictetus, Quintilian, Lupus, Agricola,
&c. 81
Capitoline games instituted by Domitian, and celebrated
every fourth year 86
Secular games celebrated. The war with Dacia begins, and
continues 15 years 88
Second persecution of the christians 95
Domitian put to death by Stephanus, &c., and succeeded by
Nerva. The age of Juvenal, Tacitus, Statius, &c. 96
Nerva dies, and is succeeded by Trajan 98
Pliny proconsul of Bithynia sends Trajan an account of the
christians 102
Dacia reduced to a Roman province 103
Trajan’s expedition against Parthia. About this time
flourished Florus, Suetonius, Pliny junior, Philo Biblius,
Dion, Prusæus, Plutarch, &c. 106
Third persecution of the christians 107
Trajan’s column erected at Rome 114
Trajan dies, and is succeeded by Adrian 117
Fourth persecution of the christians 118
Adrian builds a wall in Britain 121
Adrian visits Asia and Egypt for seven years 126
He rebuilds Jerusalem, and raises there a temple to Jupiter 130
The Jews rebel, and are defeated after a war of five years,
and all banished 131
Adrian dies, and is succeeded by Antoninus Pius. In the
reign of Adrian flourished Teon, Phavorinus, Phlegon,
Trallian, Aristides, Aquila, Salvius Julian, Polycarp,
Arian, Ptolemy, &c. 138
Antoninus defeats the Moors, Germans, and Dacians 145
The worship of Serapis brought to Rome 146
Antoninus dies, and is succeeded by Marcus Aurelius and
Lucius Verus, the last of whom reigned nine years.
In the reign of Antoninus flourished Maximus Tyrius,
Pausanias, Diophantus, Lucian, Hermogenes, Polyænus,
Appian, Artemidorus, Justin the martyr, Apuleius, &c. 161
A war with Parthia, which continues three years 162
A war against the Marcomanni, which continues five years 169
Another, which continues three years 177
Marcus Aurelius dies, and Commodus succeeds. In the last
reign flourished Galen, Athenagoras, Tatian, Athenæus,
Montanus, Diogenes, Laërtius 180
Commodus makes peace with the Germans 181
Commodus put to death by Martia and Lætus. He is succeeded
for a few months by Pertinax, who is murdered 193; and
four rivals arise, Didius Julianus, Pescennius Niger,
Severus, and Albinus. Under Commodus flourished Julius
Pollux, Theodotion, St. Irenæus, &c. 192
Niger is defeated by Severus at Issus 194
Albinus defeated in Gaul, and killed at Lyons, February 19th 198
Severus conquers the Parthians 200
Fifth persecution against the christians 202
Severus visits Britain, and two years after builds a wall
there across from the Frith of Forth 207
Severus dies at York, and is succeeded by Caracalla and
Geta. In his reign flourished Tertullian, Minutius
Felix, Papinianus, Clemens of Alexandria, Philostratus,
Plotianus, and Bulas 211
Geta killed by his brother Caracalla 212
The Septuagint discovered. Caracalla murdered by Macrinus.
Flourished Oppian 217
Opilius ♦Macrinus killed by the soldiers, and succeeded by
Heliogabalus 218
♦ ‘Macrinius’ replaced with ‘Macrinus’
Alexander Severus succeeds Heliogabalus. The Goths then
exacted an annual payment not to invade or molest the
Roman empire. The age of Julius Africanus 222
The Arsacidæ of Parthia are conquered by Artaxerxes king
of Media, and their empire destroyed 229
Alexander defeats the Persians 234
The sixth persecution against the christians 235
Alexander killed and succeeded by Maximinus. At that time
flourished Dion Cassius, Origen, and Ammonius 235
The two Gordians succeeded Maximinus, and are put to death
by Pupienus, who soon after is destroyed, with Balbinus,
by the soldiers of the younger Gordian 236
Sarbinianus defeated in Africa 240
Gordian marches against the Persians 242
He is put to death by Philip, who succeeds, and makes peace
with Sapor the next year. About this time flourished
Censorius, and Gregory Thaumaturgus 244
Philip killed, and succeeded by Decius. Herodian flourished 249
The seventh persecution against the christians 250
Decius succeeded by Gallus 251
A great pestilence over the empire 252
Gallus dies, and is succeeded by Æmilianus, Valerianus, and
Gallienus. In the reign of Gallus flourished St. Cyprian
and Plotinus 254
The eighth persecution against the christians 257
The empire is harassed by 30 tyrants successively 258
Valerian is taken by Sapor and flayed alive 260
Odenatus governs the east for Gallienus 264
The Scythians and Goths defeated by Cleodamus and Athenæus 267
Gallienus killed, and succeeded by Claudius. In this reign
flourished Longinus, Paulus Samosatenus, &c. 268
Claudius conquers the Goths, and kills 300,000 of them.
Zenobia takes possession of Egypt 269
Aurelian succeeds 270
The ninth persecution against the christians 272
Zenobia defeated by Aurelian at Edessa 273
Dacia ceded to the Barbarians by the emperor 274
Aurelian killed, and succeeded by Tacitus, who died after a
reign of six months, and was succeeded by Florianus, and,
two months after, by Probus 275
Probus makes an expedition into Gaul 277
He defeats the Persians in the east 280
Probus is put to death, and succeeded by Carus, and his
sons Carinus and Numerianus 282
Diocletian succeeds 284
The empire attacked by the Barbarians of the north.
Diocletian takes Maximianus as his imperial colleague 286
Britain recovered, after a tyrant’s usurpation of 10 years.
Alexandria taken by Diocletian 296
The tenth persecution against the christians, which
continues 10 years 303
Diocletian and Maximianus abdicate the empire, and live in
retirement, succeeded by Constantius Chlorus and Galerius
Maximianus the two Cæsars. About this period flourished
Julius Capitolinus, Arnobius, Gregory and Hermogenes the
lawyers, Ælius Spartianus, Hierocles, Flavius Vopiscus,
Trebellius Pollio, &c. 304
Constantius dies, and is succeeded by his son 306
At this time there were four emperors, Constantine,
Licinius, Maximianus, and Maxentius 308
Maxentius defeated and killed by Constantine 312
The emperor Constantine begins to favour the christian
religion 319
Licinius defeated and banished by Constantine 324
The first general Council of Nice, composed of 318 bishops,
who sit from June 19th to August 25th 325
The seat of the empire removed from Rome to Constantinople 328
Constantinople solemnly dedicated by the emperor on the
11th of May 330
Constantine orders all the heathen temples to be destroyed 331
The death of Constantine, and succession of his three sons,
Constantinus, Constans, and Constantius. In the reign of
Constantine flourished Lactantius, Athanasius, Arius, and
Eusebius 337
Constantine the younger defeated and killed by Constans at
Aquilea 340
Constans killed in Spain by Magnentius 350
Gallus put to death by Constantius 354
One hundred and fifty cities of Greece and Asia ruined by
an earthquake 358
Constantius and Julian quarrel, and prepare for war; but
the former dies the next year, and leaves the latter
sole emperor. About this period flourished Ælius Donatus,
Eutropius, Libanius, Ammian. Marcellinus, Jamblicus,
St. Hilary, &c. 360
Julian dies, and is succeeded by Jovian. In Julian’s reign
flourished Gregory Nazienzen, Themistius, Aurelius Victor,
&c. 363
Upon the death of Jovian, and the succession of Valens
and Valentinian, the empire is divided, the former being
emperor of the east, and the other of the west 364
Gratian taken as partner in the western empire by
Valentinian 367
Firmus tyrant of Africa defeated 373
Valentinian II. succeeds Valentinian I. 375
The Goths permitted to settle in Thrace, on being expelled
by the Huns 376
Theodosius the Great succeeds Valens in the eastern empire.
The Lombards first leave Scandinavia and defeat the
Vandals 379
Gratian defeated and killed by Andragathius 383
The tyrant Maximus defeated and put to death by Theodosius 388
Eugenius usurps the western empire, and is two years after
defeated by Theodosius 392
Theodosius dies, and is succeeded by his sons, Arcadius
in the east and Honorius in the west. In the reign of
Theodosius flourished Ausonius, Eunapius, Pappus, Theon,
Prudentius, St. Austin, St. Jerome, St. Ambrose, &c. 395
Gildo, defeated by his own brother, kills himself 398
Stilicho defeats 200,000 of the Goths at Fesulæ 405
The Vandals, Alani, and Suevi permitted to settle in Spain
and France by Honorius 406
Theodosius the younger succeeds Arcadius in the east,
having Isdegerdes king of Persia as his guardian,
appointed by his father 408
Rome plundered by Alaric king of the Visigoths, August 24th 410
The Vandals begin their kingdom in Spain 412
The kingdoms of the Burgundians is begun in Alsace 413
The Visigoths found a kingdom at Toulouse 415
The Alani defeated and extirpated by the Goths 417
The kingdom of the French begins on the Lower Rhine 420
The death of Honorius, and succession of Valentinian III.
Under Honorius flourished Sulpicius Severus, Macrobius,
Anianus, Panodorus, Stobæus, Servius the commentator,
Hypatia, Pelagius, Synesius, Cyrill, Orosius, Socrates,
&c. 423
Theodosius establishes public schools at Constantinople,
and attempts the restoration of learning 425
The Romans take leave of Britain and never return 426
Pannonia recovered from the Huns by the Romans. The Vandals
pass into Africa 427
The French defeated by Ætius 428
The Theodosian code published 435
Genseric the Vandal takes Carthage, and begins the kingdom
of the Vandals in Africa 439
The Britons, abandoned by the Romans, make their celebrated
complaint to Ætius against the Picts and Scots, and
three years after the Saxons settle in Britain, upon the
invitation of Vortigern 446
Attila king of the Huns ravages Europe 447
Theodosius II. dies, and is succeeded by Marcianus. About
this time flourished Zozimus, Nestorius, Theodoret,
Sozomen, Olympiodorus, &c. 450
The city of Venice first began to be known 452
Death of Valentinian III., who is succeeded by Maximus for
two months, by Avitus for 10, and, after an interregnum
of 10 months, by Majorianus 454
Rome taken by Genseric in July. The kingdom of Kent first
established 455
The Suevi defeated by Theodoric on the Ebro 456
Marcianus dies, and is succeeded by Leo, surnamed the
Thracian. Vortimer defeated by Hengist at Crayford, in
Kent 457
Severus succeeds in the western empire 461
The paschal cycle of 532 years invented by Victorius of
Aquitain 463
♦Anthemius succeeds in the western empire, after an
interregnum of two years 467
♦ ‘Athemius’ replaced with ‘Anthemius’
Olybrius succeeds Anthemius, and is succeeded, the next
year, by Glycerius, and Glycerius by Nepos 472
Nepos is succeeded by Augustulus. Leo junior, son of
Ariadne, though an infant, succeeds his grandfather
Leo in the eastern empire, and, some months after, is
succeeded by his father Zeno 474
The western empire is destroyed by Odoacer king of the
Heruli, who assumes the title of king of Italy. About
this time flourished Eutyches, Prosper, Victorius,
Sidonius Apollinaris 476
Constantinople partly destroyed by an earthquake, which
lasted 40 days at intervals 480
The battle of Soissons and victory of Clovis over Siagrius
the Roman general 485
After the death of Zeno in the east, Ariadne married
Anastasius, surnamed the Silentiary, who ascends the
vacant throne 491
Theodoric king of the Ostrogoths revolts about this time,
and conquers Italy from the Heruli. About this time
flourished Boethius and Symmachus 493
Christianity embraced in France by the baptism of Clovis 496
The Burgundian laws published by king Gondebaud 501
Alaric defeated by Clovis at the battle of Vorcillè near
Poitiers 507
Paris made the capital of the French dominions 510
Constantinople besieged by Vitalianus, whose fleet is
burned with a brazen speculum by Proclus 514
The computing of time by the christian era, introduced
first by Dionysius 516
Justin I., a peasant of Dalmatia, makes himself emperor 518
Justinian I. nephew of Justin succeeds. Under his glorious
reign flourished Belisarius, Jornandes, Paul the
Silentiary, Simplicius, Dionysius, Procopius, Proclus,
Narses, &c. 527
Justinian publishes his celebrated code of laws, and four
years after his digest 529
Conquest of Africa by Belisarius, and that of Rome, two
years after 534
Italy is invaded by the Franks 538
The Roman consulship suppressed by Justinian 542
A great plague, which arose in Africa, and desolated Asia
and Europe 543
The beginning of the Turkish empire in Asia 545
Rome taken and pillaged by Totila 547
The manufacture of silk introduced from India into Europe
by monks 551
Defeat and death of Totila the Gothic king of Italy 553
A dreadful plague over Africa, Asia, and Europe, which
continues for 50 years 558
Justin II., son of Vigilantia the sister of Justinian,
succeeds 565
Part of Italy conquered by the Lombards from Pannonia, who
form a kingdom there 568
Tiberius II., an officer of the imperial guards, is adopted,
and soon after succeeds 578
Latin ceases to be the language of Italy about this time 581
Maurice the Cappadocian, son-in-law of Tiberius, succeeds 582
Gregory I., surnamed the Great, fills St. Peter’s chair at
Rome. The few men of learning who flourished the latter
end of this century were Gildas, Agathias, Gregory of
Tours the father of French history, Evagrius, and St.
Augustin the monk 590
Augustin the monk, with 40 others, comes to preach
christianity in England 597
About this time the Saxon heptarchy began in England 600
Phocas, a simple centurion, is elected emperor after the
revolt of the soldiers, and the murder of Maurice and of
his children 602
The power of the popes begins to be established by the
concessions of Phocas 606
Heraclius, an officer in Africa, succeeds, after the murder
of the usurper Phocas 610
The conquests of Chosroes king of Persia, in Syria, Egypt,
Asia Minor, and afterwards his siege of Rome 611
The Persians take Jerusalem with the slaughter of 90,000
men, and the next year they overrun Africa 614
Mahomet, in his 53rd year, flies from Mecca to Medina,
on Friday, July 16th, which forms the first year of the
Hegira, the era of the Mahometans 622
Constantinople is besieged by the Persians and Arabs 626
Death of Mahomet 632
Jerusalem taken by the Saracens, and three years after
Alexandria and its famous library destroyed 637
Constantine III. son of Heraclius, in partnership with
Heracleonas, his brother by the same father, assumes
the imperial purple. Constantine reigns 103 days, and
after his death, his son. Constantine’s son Constans is
declared emperor, though Heracleonas, with his mother
Martina, wished to continue in possession of the supreme
power 641
Cyprus taken by the Saracens 648
The Saracens take Rhodes, and destroy the Colossus 653
Constantine IV., surnamed Pogonatus, succeeds, on the
murder of his father in Sicily 668
The Saracens ravage Sicily 669
Constantinople besieged by the Saracens, whose fleet is
destroyed by the Greek fire 673
Justinian II. succeeds his father Constantine. In his
exile of 10 years the purple was usurped by Leontius
and Absimerus Tiberius. His restoration happened 704.
The only men of learning in this century were Secundus,
Isidorus, Theophylactus, Georgius Pisides, Callinicus,
and the venerable Bede 685
Pepin engrosses the power of the whole French monarchy 690
Africa finally conquered by the Saracens 709
Bardanes, surnamed Philippicus, succeeds at Constantinople,
on the murder of Justinian 711
Spain is conquered by the Saracens. Accession of Artemius,
or Anastasius II., to the throne 713
Anastasius abdicates, and is succeeded by Theodosius III.,
who, two years after, yields to the superior influence of
Leo III., the first of the Isaurian dynasty 715
Second, but unsuccessful, siege of Constantinople by the
Saracens 717
Tax called Peter-pence begun by Ina king of Wessex, to
support a college at Rome 727
Saracens defeated by Charles Martel between Tours and
Poitiers in October 732
Constantine V., surnamed Copronymus, succeeds his father
Leo 741
Dreadful pestilence for three years over Europe and Asia 746
The computation of years from the birth of Christ first
used in historical writings 748
Learning encouraged by the race of Abbas caliph of the
Saracens 749
The Merovingian race of kings ends in France 750
Bagdad built, and made the capital of the caliphs of the
house of Abbas 762
A violent frost for 150 days from October to February 763
Monasteries dissolved in the east by Constantine 770
Pavia taken by Charlemagne, which ends the kingdom of the
Lombards, after a duration of 206 years 774
Leo IV. son of Constantine succeeds, and, five years after,
is succeeded by his wife Irene and his son Constantine VI. 775
Irene murders her son and reigns alone. The only men
of learning in this century were Johannes Damascenus,
Fredegaire, Alcuinus, Paulus Diaconus, and George the
monk 797
Charlemagne is crowned emperor of Rome and of the western
empire. About this time the popes separate themselves
from the princes of Constantinople 800
Egbert ascends the throne of England, but the total
reduction of the Saxon heptarchy is not effected till
26 years after 801
Nicephorus I., great treasurer of the empire, succeeds 802
Stauracius son of Nicephorus, and Michael I., surnamed
Rhangabe, the husband of Procopia sister of Stauracius,
assume the purple 811
Leo V. the Armenian, though but an officer of the palace,
ascends the throne of Constantinople 813
Learning encouraged among the Saracens by Almanon, who
made observations on the sun, &c. 816
Michael II. the Thracian, surnamed the Stammerer, succeeds,
after the murder of Leo 821
The Saracens of Spain take Crete, which they call Candia 823
The Almagest of Ptolemy translated into Arabic by order of
Almanon 827
Theophilus succeeds his father Michael 829
Origin of the Russian monarchy 839
Michael III. succeeds his father Theophilus with his mother
Theodora 842
The Normans get possession of some cities in France 853
Michael is murdered, and succeeded by Basil I. the
Macedonian 867
Clocks first brought to Constantinople from Venice 872
Basil is succeeded by his son Leo VI. the philosopher.
In this century flourished Mesué, the Arabian physician
Eginhard, Rabanus, Albumasar, Godescalchus, Hincmarus,
Odo, Photius, John Scotus, Anastasius the librarian,
Alfraganus, Albategni, Reginon, John Asser 886
Paris besieged by the Normans, and bravely defended by
bishop Goslin 887
Death of Alfred king of England, after a reign of 30 years 900
Alexander brother of Leo succeeds, with his nephew
Constantine VII., surnamed Porphyrogenitus 911
The Normans establish themselves in France under Rollo 912
Romanus I., surnamed Lecapenus, general of the fleet,
usurps the throne, with his three sons, Christopher,
Stephen, and Constantine VIII. 919
Fiefs established in France 923
Saracen empire divided by usurpation into seven kingdoms 936
Naples seized by the eastern emperors 942
The sons of Romanus conspire against their father, and
the tumults this occasioned produced the restoration of
Porphyrogenitus 945
Romanus II. son of Constantine VII., by Helena the daughter
of Lecapenus, succeeds 959
Romanus, poisoned by his wife Theophana, is succeeded
by Nicephorus Phocas II., whom the empress, unable to
reign alone under the title of protectress of her young
children, had married 963
Italy conquered by Otho, and united to the German empire 964
Nicephorus, at the instigation of Theophana, is murdered by
John Zimisces, who assumes the purple 969
Basil II., and Constantine IX., the two sons of Romanus by
♦Theophana, succeed on the death of Zimisces 975
♦ ‘Theopana’ replaced with ‘Theophana’
The third or Capetian race of kings in France begins July
3rd 987
Arithmetical figures brought into Europe from Arabia by the
Saracens 991
The empire of Germany first made elective by Otho III. The
learned men of this century were Eudes de Cluni, Azophi,
Luitprand, Alfarabius, Rhazes, Geber, Abbo, Aimoin,
Gerbert 996
A general massacre of the Danes in England, Nov. 13th 1002
All old churches about this time rebuilt in a new manner
of architecture 1005
Flanders inundated in consequence of a violent storm 1014
Constantine becomes sole emperor on the death of his
brother 1025
Romanus III., surnamed Argyrus, a patrician, succeeds by
marrying Zoe the daughter of the late monarch 1028
Zoe, after prostituting herself to a Paphlagonian
money-lender, causes her husband Romanus to be poisoned,
and afterwards marries her favourite, who ascends the
throne under the name of Michael IV. 1034
The kingdoms of Castile and Arragon begin 1035
Zoe adopts for her son Michael V., the trade of whose
father (careening vessels) had procured him the surname
of Calaphates 1041
Zoe and her sister Theodora are made sole empresses by the
populace, but after two months Zoe, though 60 years old,
takes for her third husband Constantine X., who succeeds 1042
The Turks invade the Roman empire 1050
After the death of Constantine, Theodora recovers the
sovereignty, and, 19 months after, adopts, as her
successor, Michael VI., surnamed Stratioticus 1054
Isaac Commenus I. chosen emperor by the soldiers 1057
Isaac abdicates, and when his brother refuses to succeed
him, he appoints his friend Constantine XI., surnamed
Ducas 1059
Jerusalem conquered by the Turks from the Saracens 1065
The crown of England is transferred from the head of Harold
by the battle of Hastings, October the 14th, to William
the Conqueror, duke of Normandy 1066
On the death of Ducas, his wife Eudocia, instead of
protecting his three sons, Michael, Andronicus, and
Constantine, usurps the sovereignty, and marries
Romanus III., surnamed Diogenes 1067
Romanus being taken prisoner by the Turks, the three young
princes ascend the throne, under the name of Michael
Parapinaces VII., Andronicus I., and Constantine XII. 1071
The general Nicephorus Botaniates III. assumes the purple 1078
Doomsday-book begun to be compiled from a general survey
of the estates of England, and finished in six years 1080
Alexius Commenus I. nephew of Isaac I. ascends the throne.
His reign is rendered illustrious by the pen of his
daughter, the princess Anna Commena. The Normans, under
Robert of Apulia, invade the eastern empire 1081
Asia Minor finally conquered by the Turks 1084
Accession of William II. to the English throne 1087
The first crusade 1096
Jerusalem taken by the crusaders 15th July. The only
learned men of this century were Avicenna, Guy d’Arezzo,
Glaber, Hermannus, Franco, Peter Damiani, Michael
Celularius, George Cedrenus, Berenger, Psellus, Marianus
Scotus, Arzachel, William of Spires, Suidas, Peter the
Hermit, Sigebert 1099
Henry I. succeeds to the throne of England 1100
Learning revived at Cambridge 1110
John, or Calojohannes, son of Alexius, succeeds at
Constantinople 1118
Order of Knights Templars instituted 1118
Accession of Stephen to the English crown 1135
Manuel son of John succeeds at Constantinople 1143
The second crusade 1147
The canon law composed by Gratian, after 24 years’ labour 1151
The party names of Guelfs and Gibbelines begin in Italy 1154
Henry II. succeeds in England 1154
The Teutonic order begins 1164
The conquest of Egypt by the Turks 1169
The famous council of Clarendon in England, January 25th.
Conquest of Ireland by Henry II. 1172
Dispensing of justice by circuits first established in
England 1176
Alexius II. succeeds his father Manuel 1180
English laws digested by Glanville 1181
From the disorders of the government, on account of the
minority of Alexius, Andronicus the grandson of the great
Alexius is named Guardian, but he murders Alexius, and
ascends the throne 1183
Andronicus is cruelly put to death, and Isaac Angelus,
a descendant of the great Alexius by the female line,
succeeds 1185
The third crusade, and siege of Acre 1188
Richard I. succeeds his father Henry in England 1189
Saladin defeated by Richard of England in the battle of
Ascalon 1192
Alexius Angelus brother of Isaac revolts, and usurps the
sovereignty by putting out the eyes of the emperor 1195
John succeeds to the English throne. The learned men
of this century were Peter Abelard, Anna Commena,
St. Bernard, Averroes, William of Malmesbury, Peter
Lombard, Otho ♦Frisingensis, Maimonides, Humenus,
Wernerus, Gratian, Jeoffry of Monmouth, Tzetzes,
Eustathius, John of Salisbury, Simeon of Durham, Henry
of Huntingdon, Peter Comestor, Peter of Blois, Ranulph
Glanville, Roger Hoveden, Campanus, William of Newburgh 1199
♦ ‘Trisingensis’ replaced with ‘Frisingensis’
Constantinople is besieged and taken by the Latins, and
Isaac is taken from his dungeon and replaced on the
throne with his son Alexius. This year is remarkable
for the fourth crusade 1203
The father and son are murdered by Alexius Mourzoufle,
and Constantinople is again besieged and taken by
the French and Venetians, who elect Baldwin count of
Flanders emperor of the east. In the mean time, Theodore
Lascaris makes himself emperor of Nice; Alexius grandson
of the tyrant Andronicus becomes emperor of Trebizond;
and Michael, an illegitimate child of the Angeli, founds
an empire in Epirus 1204
The emperor Baldwin is defeated by the Bulgarians, and
next year is succeeded by his brother Henry 1205
Reign and conquests of the great Zingis Khan first emperor
of the Moguls and Tartars, till the time of his death,
1227 1206
Aristotle’s works imported from Constantinople are
condemned by the council of Paris 1209
Magna Charta granted to the English barons by king John 1215
Henry III. succeeds his father John on the English throne 1216
Peter of Courtenay, the husband of Yolanda sister of the
two last emperors, Baldwin and Henry, is made emperor by
the Latins 1217
Robert son of Peter Courtenay succeeds 1221
Theodore Lascaris is succeeded on the throne of Nice by
his son-in-law John Ducas Vataces 1222
John of Brienne, and Baldwin II. son of Peter, succeeded
on the throne of Constantinople 1228
The inquisition which had been begun 1204 is now trusted
to the Dominicans 1233
Baldwin alone 1237
Origin of the Ottomans 1240
The fifth crusade 1248
Astronomical tables composed by Alphonso XI. of Castile 1253
Ducas Vataces is succeeded on the throne of Nice by his
son Theodore Lascaris II. 1255
Lascaris succeeded by his son John Lascaris, a minor 1259
Michael Palæologus son of the sister of the queen of
Theodore Lascaris ascends the throne, after the murder
of the young prince’s guardian 1260
Constantinople is recovered from the Latins by the Greek
emperors of Nice 1261
Edward I. succeeds on the English throne 1272
The famous Mortmain act passes in England 1279
Eight thousand French murdered during the Sicilian vespers,
30th of March 1282
Wales conquered by Edward and annexed to England 1283
Michael Palæologus dies, and his son Andronicus, who had
already reigned nine years conjointly with his father,
ascends the throne. The learned men of this century are
Gervase, Diceto, Saxo, Walter of Coventry, Accursius,
Anthony of Padua, Alexander Halensis, William of Paris,
Peter de Vignes, Matthew Paris, Grosseteste, Albertus,
Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventura, John Joinville, Roger Bacon,
Cimabue, Durandus, Henry of Ghent, Raymond Lulli, Jacob
Voragine, Albertet, Duns Scotus, Thebit 1293
A regular succession of English parliaments from this time 1293
The Turkish empire begins in Bithynia 1298
The mariner’s compass invented or improved by Flavio 1302
The Swiss cantons begin 1307
Edward II. succeeds to the English crown 1307
Translation of the holy see to Avignon, which alienation
continues 68 years, till the return of Gregory XI. 1308
Andronicus adopts, as his colleagues, Manuel, and his
grandson the younger Andronicus. Manuel dying, Andronicus
revolts against his grandfather, who abdicates 1320
Edward III. succeeds in England ♦1327
♦ ‘1337’ replaced with ‘1327’
First comet observed, whose course is described with
exactness, in June 1337
About this time flourished Leo Pilatus, a Greek professor
at Florence, Barlaam, Petrarch, Boccace, and Manuel
Chrysoloras, where may be fixed the era of the revival
of Greek literature in Italy 1339
Andronicus is succeeded by his son John Palæologus in the
ninth year of his age. John Cantacuzene, who had been
left guardian of the young prince, assumes the purple.
First passage of the Turks into Europe 1341
The knights and burgesses of parliament first sit in the
same house 1342
The battle of Crecy, August 26th 1346
Seditions of Rienzi at Rome, and his elevation to the
tribuneship 1347
Order of the Garter in England established April 23rd 1349
The Turks first enter Europe 1352
Cantacuzene abdicates the purple 1355
The battle of Poictiers, September 19th 1356
Law pleadings altered from French into English as a favour
from Edward III. to his people, in his 50th year 1362
Rise of Timour, or Tamerlane, to the throne of Samarcand,
and his extensive conquests till his death, after a reign
of 35 years 1370
Accession of Richard II. to the English throne 1377
Manuel succeeds his father John Palæologus 1391
Accession of Henry IV. in England. The learned men of
this century were Peter Apono, Flavio, Dante, Arnoldus
Villa, Nicholas Lyra, William Occam, Nicephoras Gregoras,
Leontius Pilatus, Matthew of Westminster, Wickliff,
Froissart, Nicholas Flamel, &c. 1399
Henry IV. is succeeded by his son Henry V. 1413
Battle of Agincourt, October 25th 1415
The island of Madeira discovered by the Portuguese 1420
Henry VI. succeeds to the throne of England. Constantinople
is besieged by Amurath II. the Turkish emperor 1422
John Palæologus II. succeeds his father Manuel 1424
Cosmo de Medici recalled from banishment, and rise of that
family at Florence 1434
The famous pragmatic sanction settled in France 1439
Printing discovered at Mentz, and improved gradually in
22 years 1440
Constantine, one of the sons of Manuel, ascends the throne
after his brother John 1448
Mahomet II. emperor of the Turks besieges and takes
Constantinople on the 29th of May. Fall of the eastern
empire. The captivity of the Greeks, and the extinction
of the imperial families of the Commeni and Palæologi.
About this time the House of York in England began to
aspire to the crown, and, by their ambitious views, to
deluge the whole kingdom in blood. The learned men of
the 15th century were Chaucer, Leonard Aretin, John Huss,
Jerome of Prague, Poggio, Flavius Blondus, Theodore Gaza,
Frank Philelphus, Georgius Trapezuntius, Gemistus Pletho,
Laurentius Valla, Ulugh Beigh, John Guttemberg, John
Faustus, Peter Schoeffer, Wesselus, Peurbachius, Æneas
Sylvius, Bessarion, Thomas à Kempis, Argyropulus,
Regiomontanus, Platina, Agricola, Pontanus, Ficinus,
Lascaris, Tiphernas, Annius of Viterbo, Merula, Savonarola,
Picus, Politian, Hermolaus, Grocyn, Mantuanus, John Colet,
Reuchlin, Lynacre, Alexander ab Alexandro, Demetrius
Chalcondyles, &c. 1453
A CLASSICAL DICTIONARY,
ETC., ETC.
A
=ABA= and =Abæ=, a town of Phocis, famous for an oracle of Apollo,
surnamed Abæus. The inhabitants, called Abantes, were of Thracian
origin. After the ruin of their country by Xerxes, they migrated
to Eubœa, which from them was called Abantis. Some of them passed
afterwards from Eubœa into Ionia. _Herodotus_, bk. 8, ch. 33.――
_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 55.――――A city of Caria.――――Another of
Arabia Felix.――――A mountain near Smyrna. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 24.――
_Strabo_, bk. 10.
=Abacēne=, a country of Sicily near Messana. _Diodorus_, bk. 14.
=Abălus=, an island in the German ocean, where, as the ancients
supposed, the amber dropped from the trees. If a man was drowned
there, and his body never appeared above the water, propitiatory
sacrifices were offered to his manes during a hundred years. _Pliny_,
bk. 37, ch. 2.
=Abāna=, a place of Capua. _Cicero_, _De Lege Agraria contra Rullum_.
=Abantes=, a warlike people of Peloponnesus, who built a town in
Phocis called Aba, after their leader Abas, whence also their
name originated. They afterwards went to Eubœa. _See:_ Abantis.
_Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 146.
=Abantias= and =Abantiădes=, a patronymic given to the descendants
of Abas king of Argos, such as Acrisius, Danae, Perseus, Atalanta,
&c. _Ovid._
=Abantĭdas=, made himself master of Sicyon, after he had murdered
Clinias the father of Aratus. He was himself soon after assassinated,
B.C. 251. _Plutarch_, _Aratus_.
=Abantis=, or =Abantias=, an ancient name of the island of Eubœa,
received from the Abantes, who settled in it from Phocis. _Pliny_,
bk. 4, ch. 12.――――Also a country of Epirus. _Pausanias_, bk. 5,
ch. 22.
=Abarbarea=, one of the Naiades, mother of Æsepus and Pedasus by
Bucolion, Laomedon’s eldest son. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 6, li. 23.
=Abarīmon=, a country of Scythia, near mount Imaus. The inhabitants
were said to have their toes behind their heels, and to breathe no
air but that of their native country. _Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 2.
=Abăris=, a man killed by Perseus. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5,
li. 86.――――A Rutulian killed by Euryalus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9,
li. 344.――――A Scythian, son of Seuthes, in the age of Crœsus, or
the Trojan war, who received a flying arrow from Apollo, with which
he gave oracles, and transported himself wherever he pleased. He
is said to have returned to the Hyperborean countries from Athens
without eating, and to have made the Trojan Palladium with the bones
of Pelops. Some suppose that he wrote treatises in Greek; and it
is reported, that there is a Greek manuscript of his epistles to
Phalaris, in the library of Augsburg. But there were probably two
persons of that name. _Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 36.――_Strabo_, bk. 7.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 33.
=Abārus=, an Arabian prince, who perfidiously deserted Crassus in his
expedition against Parthia. _Appian_, _Parthia_.――――He is called
Mezeres by _Florus_, bk. 3, ch. 11, and Ariamnes by _Plutarch_,
_Crassus_.
=Abas=, a mountain in Syria, where the Euphrates rises.――――A river
of Armenia Major, where Pompey routed the Albani. _Plutarch_,
_Pompey_.――――A son of Metanira, or Melaninia, changed into a lizard
for laughing at Ceres. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, fable 7.
――――The 11th king of Argos, son of Belus, some say of Lynceus and
Hypermnestra, was famous for his genius and valour. He was father to
Prœtus and Acrisius, by Ocalea, and built Abæ. He reigned 23 years,
B.C. 1384. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 16; bk. 10, ch. 35.――_Hyginus_,
fable 170, &c.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 2.――――One of Æneas’s
companions, killed in Italy. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 170.――――
Another lost in the storm which drove Æneas to Carthage. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 125.――――A Latian chief, who assisted Æneas
against Turnus, and was killed by Lausus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10,
li. 170, &c.――――A Greek, son of Eurydamus, killed by Æneas during
the Trojan war. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 286.――_Homer_, _Iliad_,
bk. 5, li. 150.――――A centaur, famous for his skill in hunting.
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12, li. 306.――――A soothsayer, to
whom the Spartans erected a statue in the temple of Apollo, for
his services to Lysander. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 9.――――A son of
Neptune. _Hyginus_, fable 157.――――A sophist who wrote two treatises,
one on history, the other on rhetoric. The time in which he lived
is unknown.――――A man who wrote an account of Troy. He is quoted by
Servius in _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9.
=Abāsa=, an island in the Red sea, near Æthiopia. _Pausanias_, bk. 6,
ch. 26.
=Abasītis=, a part of Mysia in Asia. _Strabo._
=Abassēna=, or =Abassinia=. _See:_ Abyssinia.
=Abassus=, a town of Phrygia. _Livy_, bk. 38, ch. 15.
=Abastor=, one of Pluto’s horses.
=Abătos=, an island in the lake near Memphis in Egypt, abounding with
flax and papyrus. Osiris was buried there. _Lucan_, bk. 10, li. 323.
=Abdalonīmus=, one of the descendants of the kings of Sidon, so poor,
that to maintain himself, he worked in a garden. When Alexander
took Sidon, he made him king, in the room of Strato the deposed
monarch, and enlarged his possessions on account of the great
disinterestedness of his conduct. _Justin_, bk. 11, ch. 10.――
_Curtius_, bk. 4, ch. 1.――_Diodorus_, bk. 17.
=Abdēra=, a town of Hispania Bætica, built by the Carthaginians.
_Strabo_, bk. 3.――――A maritime city of Thrace, built by Hercules,
in memory of Abderus, one of his favourites. The Clazomenians
and Teians beautified it. Some suppose that Abdera the sister of
Diomedes built it. The air was so unwholesome, and the inhabitants
of such a sluggish disposition, that stupidity was commonly called
_Abderitica mens_. It gave birth, however, to Democritus, Protagoras,
Anaxarchus, and Hecatæus. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 2.――_Cicero_, _Letters
to Atticus_, bk. 4, ltr. 16.――_Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 186.――_Martial_,
bk. 10, ltr. 25.
=Abdēria=, a town of Spain. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 5.
=Abderītes=, a people of Pæonia, obliged to leave their country on
account of the great number of rats and frogs which infested it.
_Justin_, bk. 15, ch. 2.
=Abdērus=, a man of Opus in Locris, arm-bearer to Hercules, torn to
pieces by the mares of Diomedes, which the hero had entrusted to his
care when going to war against the Bistones. Hercules built a city,
which, in honour of his friend, he called Abdera. _Apollodorus_,
bk. 2, ch. 5.――_Philostratus_, bk. 2, ch. 25.
=Abeătæ=, a people of Achaia, probably the inhabitants of Abia.
_Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 30.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 6.
=Abella=, a town of Campania, whose inhabitants were called Abellani.
Its nuts, called _avellanæ_, and also its apples, were famous.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 740.――_Justin_, bk. 20, ch. 5.――_Silius
Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 544.
=Abelux=, a noble of Saguntum, who favoured the party of the Romans
against Carthage. _Livy_, bk. 22, ch. 22.
=Abenda=, a town of Caria, whose inhabitants were the first who raised
temples to the city of Rome. _Livy_, bk. 45, ch. 6.
=Abia=, formerly _Ire_, a maritime town of Messenia, one of the seven
cities promised to Achilles by Agamemnon. It is called after Abia,
daughter of Hercules and nurse of Hyllus. _Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 30.
――_Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 9, li. 292.
=Abii=, a nation between Scythia and Thrace. They lived upon milk,
were fond of celibacy, and enemies to war. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 13,
li. 6.――According to _Curtius_, bk. 7, ch. 6, they surrendered to
Alexander, after they had been independent since the reign of Cyrus.
=Abĭla=, or =Abyla=, a mountain of Africa, in that part which is
nearest to the opposite mountain called Calpe, on the coast of Spain,
only eighteen miles distant. These two mountains are called the
columns of Hercules, and were said formerly to be united, till
the hero separated them, and made a communication between the
Mediterranean and Atlantic seas. _Strabo_, bk. 3.――_Mela_, bk. 1,
ch. 5; bk. 2, ch. 6.――_Pliny_, bk. 3.
=Abisăres=, an Indian prince, who offered to surrender to Alexander.
_Curtius_, bk. 8, ch. 12.
=Abisăris=, a country beyond the Hydaspes in India. _Arrian._
=Abisontes=, some inhabitants of the Alps. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 20.
=Ablētes=, a people near Troy. _Strabo._
=Abnoba=, a mountain of Germany. _Tacitus_, _Germania_, ch. 1.
=Abobrĭca=, a town of Lusitania. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 20.――――Another in
Spain.
=Abœcrĭtus=, a Bœotian general, killed with a thousand men, in a
battle at Chæronea, against the Ætolians. _Plutarch_, _Aratus_.
=Abolāni=, a people of Latium, near Alba. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 5.
=Abōlus=, a river of Sicily. _Plutarch_, _Timoleon_.
=Aboniteichos=, a town of Galatia. _Arrian_, _Periplus of the Euxine
Sea_.
=Aborāca=, a town of Sarmatia.
=Aborigĭnes=, the original inhabitants of Italy; or, according
to others, a nation conducted by Saturn into Latium, where they
taught the use of letters to Evander the king of the country. Their
posterity was called Latini, from Latinus, one of their kings. They
assisted Æneas against Turnus. Rome was built in their country.――The
word signifies _without origin_, or whose _origin is not known_,
and is generally applied to the original inhabitants of any country.
_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 1, &c.――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 1,
ch. 10.――_Justin_, bk. 43, ch. 1.――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 5.――_Strabo_,
bk. 5.
=Aborras=, a river of Mesopotamia. _Strabo_, bk. 16.
=Abradātes=, a king of Susa, who, when his wife Panthea had been taken
prisoner by Cyrus, and humanely treated, surrendered himself and
his troops to the conqueror. He was killed in the first battle he
undertook in the cause of Cyrus, and his wife stabbed herself on
his corpse. Cyrus raised a monument on their tomb. _Xenophon_,
_Cyropædia_, bks. 5, 6, &c.
=Abrentius=, was made governor of Tarentum by Annibal. He betrayed his
trust to the enemy to gain the favours of a beautiful woman, whose
brother was in the Roman army. _Polyænus_, bk. 8.
=Abrocŏmas=, son of Darius, was in the army of Xerxes, when he
invaded Greece. He was killed at Thermopylæ. _Herodotus_, bk. 7,
ch. 224.――_Plutarch_, _Cleomenes_.
=Abrodiætus=, a name given to Parrhasius the painter, on account of
the sumptuous manner of his living. _See:_ Parrhasius.
=Abron=, an Athenian, who wrote some treatises on the religious
festivals and sacrifices of the Greeks. Only the titles of his
works are preserved. _Suidas._――――A grammarian of Rhodes, who taught
rhetoric at Rome.――――Another who wrote a treatise on Theocritus.――――A
Spartan, son of Lycurgus the orator. _Plutarch_, _Decem Oratorum_.
――――A native of Argos, famous for his debauchery.
=Abronius Silo=, a Latin poet in the Augustan age. He wrote some
fables. _Seneca._
=Abronycus=, an Athenian, very serviceable to Themistocles in his
embassy to Sparta. _Thucydides_, bk. 1, ch. 91.――_Herodotus_, bk. 8,
ch. 21.
=Abrŏta=, the wife of Nisus, the youngest of the sons of Ægeus. As
a monument to her chastity, Nisus, after her death, ordered the
garments which she wore to become the models of fashion in Megara.
_Plutarch_, _Quæstiones Græcæ_.
=Abrotŏnum=, the mother of Themistocles. _Plutarch_, _Themistocles_.
――――A town of Africa, near the Syrtes. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 4.――――A
harlot of Thrace. _Plutarch_, _Aratus_.
=Abrus=, a city of the Sapæi. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 10.
=Abrypŏlis=, an ally of Rome, driven from his possessions by Perseus,
the last king of Macedonia. _Livy_, bk. 42, chs. 13 & 41.
=Abseus=, a giant, son of Tartarus and Terra. _Hyginus_, preface to
fables.
=Absinthii=, a people on the coasts of Pontus, where there is also a
mountain of the same name. _Herodotus_, bk. 6, ch. 34.
=Absŏrus=, =Absyrtis=, =Absyrtides=, islands in the Adriatic, or near
Istria, where Absyrtus was killed, whence their name. _Strabo_,
bk. 7.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9.――_Lucan_, bk. 3, li. 190.
=Absyrtos=, a river falling into the Adriatic sea, near which Absyrtus
was murdered. _Lucan_, bk. 3, li. 190.
=Absyrtus=, a son of Æetes king of Colchis, and Hypsea. His sister
Medea, as she fled away with Jason, tore his body to pieces, and
strewed his limbs in her father’s way, to stop his pursuit. Some
say that she murdered him in Colchis, others, near Istria. It is
said by others, that he was not murdered, but that he arrived safe
in Illyricum. The place where he was killed has been called Tomos,
and the river adjoining to it Absyrtos. _Lucan_, bk. 3, li. 190.――
_Strabo_, bk. 7.――_Hyginus_, fable 23.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1,
ch. 9.――_Flaccus_, bk. 8, li. 261.――_Ovid_, _Tristia_, bk. 3,
poem 9.――_Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 3, ch. 19.――_Pliny_,
bk. 3, chs. 21 & 26.
=Abulītes=, governor of Susa, betrayed his trust to Alexander, and
was rewarded with a province. _Curtius_, bk. 5, ch. 2.――_Diodorus_,
bk. 17.
=Abydēnus=, a disciple of Aristotle, too much indulged by his master.
He wrote some historical treatises on Cyprus, Delos, Arabia, and
Assyria. _Philo Judæus._――_Josephus_, _Against Apion_.
=Abȳdos=, a town of Egypt, where was the famous temple of Osiris.
_Plutarch_, on _De Iside et Osiride_.――――A city of Asia, opposite
Sestos in Europe, with which, from the narrowness of the Hellespont,
it seemed, to those who approach it by sea, to form only one town.
It was built by the Milesians, by permission of king Gyges. It
is famous for the amours of Hero and Leander, and for the bridge
of boats which Xerxes built there across the Hellespont. The
inhabitants, being besieged by Philip the father of Perseus, devoted
themselves to death with their families, rather than fall into the
hands of the enemy. _Livy_, bk. 31, ch. 18.――_Lucan_, bk. 2, li. 674.
――_Justin_, bk. 2, ch. 13.――_Musæus_, _Hero & Leander_.――_Flaccus_,
bk. 1, li. 285.
=Abȳla.= _See:_ Abila.
=Abȳlon=, a city of Egypt.
=Abyssinia=, a large kingdom of Africa, in Upper Æthiopia, where
the Nile takes its rise. The inhabitants are said to be of Arabian
origin, and were little known to the ancients.
=Acacallis=, a nymph, mother of Philander and Phylacis by Apollo.
These children were exposed to the wild beasts in Crete; but a goat
gave them her milk, and preserved their life. _Pausanias_, bk. 10,
ch. 16.――――A daughter of Minos, mother of Cydon by Mercury, and of
Amphithemis by Apollo. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 53.――_Apollonius_,
bk. 4, li. 1493.
=Acacēsium=, a town of Arcadia, built by Acacus son of Lycaon.
Mercury, surnamed Acacesius, because brought up by Acacus as his
foster-father, was worshipped there. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, chs. 3,
36, &c.
=Acacius=, a rhetorician in the age of the emperor Julian.
=Acadēmia=, a place near Athens surrounded with high trees, and
adorned with spacious covered walks, belonging to Academus,
from whom the name is derived. Some derive the word from ἑκας
δημος, _removed from the people_. Here Plato opened his school of
philosophy, and from this, every place sacred to learning has ever
since been called _Academia_. To exclude from it profaneness and
dissipation, it was even forbidden to laugh there. It was called
_Academia vetus_, to distinguish it from the _second Academy_,
founded by Arcesilaus, who made some few alterations in the Platonic
philosophy, and from the _third_ which was established by Carneades.
_Cicero_, _de Divinatione_, bk. 1, ch. 3.――_Diogenes Laërtius_,
bk. 3.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 3, ch. 35.
=Acadēmus=, an Athenian, who discovered to Castor and Pollux where
Theseus had concealed their sister Helen, for which they amply
rewarded him. _Plutarch_, _Theseus_.
=Acalandrus=, or =Acalyndrus=, a river falling into the bay of
Tarentum. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 11.
=Acalle=, a daughter of Minos and Pasiphae. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3,
ch. 1.
=Acamarchis=, one of the Oceanides.
=Acămas=, son of Theseus and Phædra, went with Diomedes to demand Helen
from the Trojans after her elopement from Menelaus. In his embassy
he had a son called Munitus, by Laodice the daughter of Priam. He
was concerned in the Trojan war, and afterwards built the town of
Acamantium in Phrygia, and on his return to Greece called a tribe
after his own name at Athens. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 26.――_Quintus
Smyrnæus_, bk. 12.――_Hyginus_, fable 108.――――A son of Antenor in
the Trojan war. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 11, li. 60, &c.――――A Thracian
auxiliary of Priam in the Trojan war. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 11.
=Acampsis=, a river of Colchis. _Arrian._
=Acantha=, a nymph loved by Apollo, and changed into the flower
Acanthus.
=Acanthus=, a town near mount Athos, belonging to Macedonia, or,
according to others, to Thrace. It was founded by a colony from
Andros. _Thucydides_, bk. 4, ch. 84.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 2.――――
Another in Egypt near the Nile, called also Dulopolis. _Pliny_,
bk. 5, ch. 28.――――An island mentioned by _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 32.
=Acăra=, a town of Pannonia.――――Another in Italy.
=Acaria=, a fountain of Corinth, where Iolas cut off the head of
Eurystheus. _Strabo_, bk. 8.
=Acarnania=, anciently Curetis, a country of Epirus, at the north of
the Ionian sea, divided from Ætolia by the Achelous. The inhabitants
reckoned only six months in the year; they were luxurious, and
addicted to pleasure, so that _porcus Acarnas_ became proverbial.
Their horses were famous. It received its name from Acarnas.
_Pliny_, bk. 2, ch. 90.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.――_Strabo_, bks. 7
& 9.――_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 24.――_Lucian_, _Dialogi Meretricii_.
=Acarnas= and =Amphoterus=, sons of Alcmæon and Callirhöe. Alcmæon
being murdered by the brothers of Alphesibœa his former wife,
Callirhöe obtained from Jupiter, that her children, who were still
in the cradle, might, by a supernatural power, suddenly grow up to
punish their father’s murderers. This was granted. _See:_ Alcmæon.
_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 24.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 9,
fable 10.
=Acarnas= and =Acarnan=, a stony mountain of Attica. _Seneca_,
_Hippolytus_, li. 20.
=Acasta=, one of the Oceanides. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 356.
=Acastus=, son of Pelias king of Thessaly by Anaxibia, married
Astydamia or Hippolyte, who fell in love with Peleus son of Æacus,
when in banishment at her husband’s court. Peleus, rejecting the
addresses of Hippolyte, was accused before Acastus of attempts upon
her virtue, and soon after, at a chase, exposed to wild beasts.
Vulcan, by order of Jupiter, delivered Peleus, who returned to
Thessaly, and put to death Acastus and his wife. _See:_ Peleus and
Astydamia. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 8, li. 306; _Heroides_,
poem 13, li. 25.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9, &c.――――The second
archon at Athens.
=Acathantus=, a bay in the Red sea.――_Strabo_, bk. 16.
=Acca Laurentia=, the wife of Faustulus shepherd of king Numitor’s
flocks, who brought up Romulus and Remus, who had been exposed on
the banks of the Tiber. From her wantonness, she was called _Lupa_,
prostitute, whence the fable that Romulus was suckled by a she-wolf.
_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 1, ch. 18.――_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 4.
――_Aulus Gellius_, bk. 6, ch. 7.――――The Romans yearly celebrated
certain festivals [_See:_ Laurentalia] in honour of another
prostitute of the same name, which arose from this circumstance:
the keeper of the temple of Hercules, one day playing at dice,
made the god one of the number, on condition that if Hercules was
defeated, he should make him a present, but if he conquered he
should be entertained with an elegant feast, and share his bed with
a beautiful female. Hercules was victorious, and accordingly Acca
was conducted to the bed of Hercules, who in reality came to see her,
and told her in the morning to go into the streets, and salute with
a kiss the first man she met. This was Tarrutius, an old unmarried
man, who, not displeased with Acca’s liberty, loved her, and made
her the heiress of all his possessions. These, at her death, she
gave to the Roman people, whence the honours paid to her memory.
_Plutarch_, _Quæstiones Romanæ_, _Romulus_.――――A companion of
Camilla. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 11, li. 820.
=Accia=, or =Atia=, daughter of Julia and Marcus Atius Balbus, was the
mother of Augustus, and died about 40 years B.C. _Dio Cassius._――
_Suetonius_, _Augustus_, ch. 4.――――Variola, an illustrious female,
whose cause was eloquently pleaded by Pliny. _Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 33.
=Accĭla=, a town of Sicily. _Livy_, bk. 24, ch. 35.
=Lucius Accius=, a Roman tragic poet, whose roughness of style
Quintilian has imputed to the unpolished age in which he lived. He
translated some of the tragedies of Sophocles, but of his numerous
pieces only some of the names are known; and among these his Nuptiæ,
Mercator, Neoptolemus, Phœnice, Medea, Atreus, &c. The great marks
of honour which he received at Rome may be collected from this
circumstance: that a man was severely reprimanded by a magistrate
for mentioning his name without reverence. Some few of his verses
are preserved in Cicero and in other writers. He died about 180
years B.C. _Horace_, bk. 2, ltr. 1, li. 56.――_Ovid_, _Amores_, bk. 1,
poem 15, li. 19.――_Quintilian_, bk. 10, ch. 1.――_Cicero_, _Letters
to Atticus_ & _Brutus or de Claris Oratoribus_, bk. 3, ch. 16.――――A
famous orator of Pisaurum in Cicero’s age.――――Labeo, a foolish poet
mentioned _Persius_, bk. 1, li. 50.――――Tullius, a prince of the
Volsci, very inimical to the Romans. Coriolanus, when banished by
his countrymen, fled to him, and led his armies against Rome. _Livy_,
bk. 2, ch. 37.――_Plutarch_, _Coriolanus_.
=Acco=, a general of the Senones in Gaul. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 6,
chs. 4 & 44.――――An old woman who fell mad on seeing her deformity in
a looking-glass. _Hesychius._
=Accua=, a town in Italy. _Livy_, bk. 24, ch. 20.
=Ace=, a town in Phœnicia, called also Ptolemais, now Acre. _Cornelius
Nepos_, _Datames_, ch. 5.――――A place of Arcadia near Megalopolis,
where Orestes was cured from the persecution of the furies, who had
a temple there. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 34.
=Acerātus=, a soothsayer, who remained alone at Delphi when the
approach of Xerxes frightened away the inhabitants. _Herodotus_,
bk. 8, ch. 37.
=Acerbas=, a priest of Hercules at Tyre, who married Dido. _See:_
Sichæus. _Justin_, bk. 18, ch. 4.
=Acerīna=, a colony of the Brutii in Magna Græcia, taken by Alexander
of Epirus. _Livy_, bk. 8, ch. 24.
=Acerræ=, an ancient town of Campania, near the river Clanius. It
still subsists; and the frequent inundations from the river which
terrified its ancient inhabitants, are now prevented by the large
drains dug there. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 2, li. 225.――_Livy_,
bk. 8, ch. 17.
=Acersecŏmes=, a surname of Apollo, which signifies _unshorn_.
_Juvenal_, satire 8, li. 128.
=Aces=, a river of Asia. _Herodotus_, bk. 3, ch. 117.
=Acesia=, part of the island of Lemnos, which received this name from
Philoctetes, whose wound was cured there. _Philostratus._
=Acesīnes=, a river of Sicily. _Thucydides_, bk. 4, ch. 25.
=Acesīnus=, or =Acesīnes=, a river of Persia falling into the Indus.
Its banks produce reeds of such an uncommon size, that a piece of
them, particularly between two knots, can serve as a boat to cross
the water. _Justin_, bk. 12, ch. 9.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.
=Acesius=, a surname of Apollo, in Elis and Attica, as god of medicine.
_Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 24.
=Acesta=, a town of Sicily, called after king Acestes, and known also
by the name of Segesta. It was built by Æneas, who left there part
of his crew, as he was going to Italy. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 5,
li. 746, &c.
=Acestes=, son of Crinisus and Egesta, was king of the country near
Drepanum in Sicily. He assisted Priam in the Trojan war, and kindly
entertained Æneas during his voyage, and helped him to bury his
father on mount Eryx. In commemoration of this, Æneas built a city
there called Acesta, from Acestes. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 5, li. 746.
=Acestium=, a woman who saw all her relations invested with the sacred
office of torch-bearer in the festivals of Ceres. _Pausanias_, bk. 1,
ch. 37.
=Acestodōrus=, a Greek historian, who mentions the review which
Xerxes made of his forces before the battle of Salamis. _Plutarch_,
_Themistocles_.
=Acestorĭdes=, an Athenian archon.――――A Corinthian, governor of
Syracuse. _Diodorus_, bk. 19.
=Acetes=, one of Evander’s attendants. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 11,
li. 30.
=Achabȳtos=, a lofty mountain in Rhodes, where Jupiter had a temple.
=Achæa=, a surname of Pallas, whose temple in Daunia was defended by
dogs which fawned upon the Greeks, but fiercely attacked all other
persons. _Aristotle_, _de Mirabilibus_.――――Ceres was called Achæa,
from her _lamentations_ (ἀχεα) at the loss of Proserpine. _Plutarch_,
_De Iside et Osiride_.
=Achæi=, the descendants of Achæus, at first inhabited the country near
Argos, but being driven by the Heraclidæ, 80 years after the Trojan
war, they retired among the Ionians, whose 12 cities they seized
and kept. The names of these cities are Pellene, Ægira, Æges, Bura,
Tritæa, Ægion, Rhypæ, Olenos, Helice, Patræ, Dyme, and Pharæ. The
inhabitants of these three last began a famous confederacy, 284
years B.C., which continued formidable upwards of 130 years, under
the name of the _Achæan league_, and was most illustrious whilst
supported by the splendid virtues and abilities of Aratus and
Philopœmen. Their arms were directed against the Ætolians for three
years, with the assistance of Philip of Macedon, and they grew
powerful by the accession of neighbouring states, and freed their
country from foreign slavery, till at last they were attacked by
the Romans, and, after one year’s hostilities, the Achæan league
was totally destroyed, B.C. 147. The Achæans extended the borders
of their country by conquest and even planted colonies in Magna
Græcia.――――The name of _Achæi_ is generally applied to all the
Greeks, indiscriminately, by the poets. _See:_ Achaia. _Herodotus_,
bk. 1, ch. 145; bk. 8, ch. 36.――_Statius_, _Thebaid_, bk. 2, li. 164.
――_Polybius._――_Livy_, bks. 27, 32, &c.――_Plutarch_, _Philopœmen_.
――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 5.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 4, li. 605.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 1, &c.――――Also a people of Asia on the
borders of the Euxine. _Ovid_, _Ex Ponto_, bk. 4, poem 10, li. 27.
=Achæium=, a place of Troas, opposite Tenedos. _Strabo_, bk. 8.
=Achæmĕnes=, a king of Persia, among the progenitors of Cyrus the
Great; whose descendants were called Achæmenides, and formed a
separate tribe in Persia, of which the kings were members. Cambyses,
son of Cyrus, on his death-bed, charged his nobles, and particularly
the Achæmenides, not to suffer the Medes to recover their former
power, and abolish the empire of Persia. _Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 125;
bk. 3, ch. 65; bk. 7, ch. 1.――_Horace_, bk. 2, ode 12, li. 21.――――A
Persian, made governor of Egypt by Xerxes, B.C. 484.
=Achæmenia=, part of Persia, called after Achæmenes. Hence Achæmenius.
_Horace_, _Epodes_, poem 13, li. 12.
=Achæmenĭdes=, a native of Ithaca, son of Adramastus, and one of
the companions of Ulysses, abandoned on the coast of Sicily, where
Æneas, on his voyage to Italy, found him. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3,
li. 624.――_Ovid_, _Ibis_, li. 417.
=Achæorum littus=, a harbour in Cyprus. _Strabo._――――In Troas,――――in
Æolia,――――in Peloponnesus,――――on the Euxine. _Pausanias_, bk. 4,
ch. 34.
=Achæorum statio=, a place on the coast of the Thracian Chersonesus,
where Polyxena was sacrificed to the shades of Achilles, and where
Hecuba killed Polymnestor, who had murdered her son Polydorus.
=Achæus=, a king of Lydia, hung by his subjects for his extortion.
_Ovid_, _Ibis_.――――A son of Xuthus of Thessaly. He fled, after the
accidental murder of a man, to Peloponnesus; where the inhabitants
were called from him, Achæi. He afterwards returned to Thessaly.
_Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 1.――――A tragic poet of
Eretria, who wrote 43 tragedies, of which some of the titles are
preserved, such as Adrastus, Linus, Cycnus, Eumenides, Philoctetes,
Pirithous, Theseus, Œdipus, &c.; of these only one obtained the
prize. He lived some time after Sophocles.――――Another of Syracuse,
author of 10 tragedies.――――A river which falls into the Euxine.
_Arrian_, _Periplus of the Euxine Sea_.――――A relation of Antiochus
the Great, appointed governor of all the king’s provinces beyond
Taurus. He aspired to sovereign power, which he disputed for eight
years with Antiochus, and was at last betrayed by a Cretan. His
limbs were cut off, and his body, sewed in the skin of an ass, was
exposed on a gibbet. _Polybius_, bk. 8.
=Achaia=, called also _Hellas_, a country of Peloponnesus at the north
of Elis on the bay of Corinth, which is now part of Livadia. It was
originally called Ægialus (_shore_) from its situation. The Ionians
called it Ionia, when they settled there; and it received the name
of Achaia, from the Achæi, who dispossessed the Ionians. _See:_
Achæi.――――A small part of Phthiotis was also called Achaia, of which
Alos was the capital.
=Achaicum bellum.= _See:_ Achæi.
=Achăra=, a town near Sardis. _Strabo_, bk. 14.
=Acharenses=, a people of Sicily near Syracuse. _Cicero_, _Against
Verres_, bk. 3.
=Acharnæ=, a village of Attica. _Thucydides_, bk. 2, ch. 19.
=Achātes=, a friend of Æneas, whose fidelity was so exemplary that
_Fidus Achates_ became a proverb. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, li.
316.――――A river of Sicily.
=Achĕlōĭdes=, a patronymic given to the Sirens as daughters of
Achelous. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, fable 15.
=Achelorium=, a river of Thessaly. _Polyænus_, bk. 8.
=Achelōus=, the son of Oceanus or Sol by Terra or Tethys, god of the
river of the same name in Epirus. As one of the numerous suitors
of Dejanira daughter of Œneus he entered the lists against Hercules
and being inferior, changed himself into a serpent, and afterwards
into an ox. Hercules broke off one of his horns, and Achelous being
defeated, retired in disgrace into his bed of waters. The broken
horn was taken up by the nymphs, and filled with fruits and flowers,
and after it had for some time adorned the hand of the conqueror, it
was presented to the goddess of plenty. Some say that he was changed
into a river after the victory of Hercules. This river is in Epirus,
and rises in mount Pindus, and after dividing Acarnania from Ætolia,
falls into the Ionian sea. The sand and mud which it carries down,
have formed some islands at its mouth. This river is said by some
to have sprung from the earth after the deluge. _Herodotus_, bk. 2,
ch. 10.――_Strabo_, bk. 10.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 8, fable 5;
bk. 9, fable 1; _Amores_, bk. 3, poem 6, li. 35.――_Apollodorus_,
bk. 1, chs. 3 & 7; bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Hyginus_, preface to fables.――――A
river of Arcadia falling into the Alpheus.――――Another flowing from
mount Sipylus. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 38.
=Acherdus=, a tribe of Attica; hence _Acherdusius_, _Demosthenes_.
=Acherĭmi=, a people of Sicily. _Cicero_, bk. 3, _Against Verres_.
=Achĕron=, a river of Thesprotia, in Epirus, falling into the bay of
Ambracia. Homer called it, from the dead appearance of its waters,
one of the rivers of hell, and the fable has been adopted by all
succeeding poets, who make the god of the stream to be the son of
Ceres without a father, and say that he concealed himself in hell
for fear of the Titans, and was changed into a bitter stream, over
which the souls of the dead are at first conveyed. It receives,
say they, the souls of the dead, because a deadly languor seizes
them at the hour of dissolution. Some make him son of Titan, and
suppose that he was plunged into hell by Jupiter, for supplying the
Titans with water. The word Acheron is often taken for hell itself.
_Horace_, bk. 1, ode 3, li. 36.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 2, li.
292; _Æneid_, bk. 2, li. 295, &c.――_Strabo_, bk. 7.――_Lucan_, bk. 3,
li. 16.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 2.――_Sylvæ_, poem 6, li. 80.――_Livy_,
bk. 8, ch. 24.――――A river of Elis in Peloponnesus.――――Another on the
Riphæan mountains. _Orpheus._――――Also a river in the country of the
Brutii in Italy. _Justin_, bk. 12, ch. 2.
=Acherontia=, a town of Apulia on a mountain, thence called _Nidus_ by
_Horace_, bk. 3, ode 4, li. 14.
=Acherūsia=, a lake of Egypt near Memphis, over which, as Diodorus,
bk. 1, mentions, the bodies of the dead were conveyed, and received
sentence according to the actions of their life. The boat was called
Baris, and the ferryman Charon. Hence arose the fable of Charon
and the Styx, &c., afterwards imported into Greece by Orpheus, and
adopted in the religion of the country.――――There was a river of the
same name in Epirus, and another in Italy in Calabria.
=Acherūsias=, a place or cave in Chersonesus Taurica, where Hercules,
as is reported, dragged Cerberus out of hell. _Xenophon_, _Anabasis_,
bk. 6.
=Achetus=, a river of Sicily. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 14.
=Achillas=, a general of Ptolemy, who murdered Pompey the Great.
_Plutarch_, _Pompey_.――_Lucan_, bk. 8, li. 538.
=Achillēa=, a peninsula near the mouth of the Borysthenes. _Mela_,
bk. 2, ch. 1.――_Herodotus_, bk. 4, chs. 55 & 76.――――An island at the
mouth of the Ister, where was the tomb of Achilles, over which it is
said that birds never flew. _Pliny_, bk. 10, ch. 29.――――A fountain
of Miletus, whose waters rise salted from the earth, and afterwards
sweeten in their course. _Athenaeus_, bk. 2, ch. 2.
=Achilleienses=, a people near Macedonia. _Xenophon_, _Hellenica_,
bk. 3.
=Achillēis=, a poem of Statius, in which he describes the education
and memorable actions of Achilles. This composition is imperfect.
The poet’s premature death deprived the world of a valuable history
of the life and exploits of this famous hero. _See:_ Statius.
=Achilles=, the son of Peleus and Thetis, was the bravest of all the
♦Greeks in the Trojan war. During his infancy, Thetis plunged him
in the Styx, and made every part of his body invulnerable, except
the heel, by which she held him. His education was entrusted to the
centaur Chiron, who taught him the art of war and made him master of
music, and by feeding him with the marrow of wild beasts, rendered
him vigorous and active. He was taught eloquence by Phœnix, whom he
ever after loved and respected. Thetis, to prevent him from going to
the Trojan war, where she knew he was to perish, privately sent him
to the court of Lycomedes, where he was disguised in a female dress,
and, by his familiarity with the king’s daughters, made Deidamia
mother of Neoptolemus. As Troy could not be taken without the aid
of Achilles, Ulysses went to the court of Lycomedes, in the habit of
a merchant, and exposed jewels and arms to sale. Achilles, choosing
the arms, discovered his sex, and went to the war. Vulcan, at the
entreaties of Thetis, made him a strong suit of armour, which was
proof against all weapons. He was deprived by Agamemnon of his
favourite mistress, Briseis, who had fallen to his lot at the
division of the booty of Lyrnessus, and for this affront, he refused
to appear in the field till the death of his friend Patroclus
recalled him to action, and to revenge. _See:_ Patroclus. He slew
Hector the bulwark of Troy, tied the corpse by the heels to his
chariot, and dragged it three times round the walls of Troy. After
thus appeasing the shades of his friend, he yielded to the tears and
entreaties of Priam, and permitted the aged father to ransom and to
carry away Hector’s body. In the 10th year of the war, Achilles was
charmed with Polyxena; and as he solicited her hand in the temple of
Minerva, it is said that Paris aimed an arrow at his vulnerable heel,
of which wound he died. His body was buried at Sigæum, and divine
honours were paid to him, and temples raised to his memory. It is
said, that after the taking of Troy, the ghost of Achilles appeared
to the Greeks, and demanded of them Polyxena, who accordingly was
sacrificed on his tomb by his son Neoptolemus. Some say that this
sacrifice was voluntary, and that Polyxena was so grieved at his
death that she killed herself on his tomb. The Thessalians yearly
sacrificed a black and a white bull on his tomb. It is reported
that he married Helen after the siege of Troy; but others maintain,
that this marriage happened after his death, in the island of Leuce,
where many of the ancient heroes lived, as in a separate elysium.
_See:_ Leuce. When Achilles was young, his mother asked him, whether
he preferred a long life, spent in obscurity and retirement, or a
few years of military fame and glory? and that, to his honour, he
made choice of the latter. Some ages after the Trojan war, Alexander
going to the conquest of Persia, offered sacrifices on the tomb
of Achilles, and admired the hero who had found a Homer to publish
his fame to posterity. _Xenophon_, _On Hunting_.――_Plutarch_,
_Alexander_; _De facie in orbe Lunæ_; _De Musica_; _De amicorum
multitudine_; _Quæstiones Græcæ_.――_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 18,
&c.――_Diodorus_, bk. 17.――_Statius_, _Achilleid_.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 12, fable 3, &c.; _Tristia_, bk. 3, poem 5,
li. 37, &c.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, lis. 472, 488; bk. 2, li. 275;
bk. 6, li. 58, &c.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 13.――_Hyginus_, fables
96 & 110.――_Strabo_, bk. 14.――_Pliny_, bk. 35, ch. 15.――_Maximus of
Tyre_, Oration 27.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ode 8; bk. 2, odes 4 & 16; bk.
4, ode 6; bk. 2, ltr. 2, li. 42.――_Homer_, _Iliad_ & _Odyssey_.――
_Dictys Cretensis_, bks. 1, 2, 3, &c.――_Dares Phrygius._――_Juvenal_,
satire 7, li. 210.―― _Apollonius_, bk. 4, _Argonautica_, li. 869.――――
There were other persons of the same name. The most known were――a
man who received Juno when she fled from Jupiter’s courtship――――the
preceptor of Chiron the centaur――――a son of Jupiter and Lamia,
declared by Pan to be fairer than Venus――――a man who instituted
ostracism at Athens――――Tatius, a native of Alexandria, in the
age of the emperor Claudius, but originally a pagan, converted
to Christianity, and made a bishop. He wrote a mixed history of
great men, a treatise on the sphere, tactics, a romance on the loves
of Clitophon and Leucippe, &c. Some manuscripts of his works are
preserved in the Vatican and Palatinate libraries. The best edition
of his works is that in 12mo, Leiden, 1640.
♦ ‘Geeeks’ replaced with ‘Greeks’
=Achillēum=, a town of Troas near the tomb of Achilles, built by the
Mityleneans. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 30.
♦=Achilleus=, or =Aquileus=, a Roman general in Egypt, in the reign of
Diocletian, who rebelled, and for five years maintained the imperial
dignity at Alexandria. Diocletian at last marched against him; and
because he had supported a long siege, the emperor ordered him to be
devoured by lions.
♦ Placed in alphabetical order
=Achīvi=, the name of the inhabitants of Argos and Lacedæmon before
the return of the Heraclidæ, by whom they were expelled from
their possessions 80 years after the Trojan war. Being without a
home, they drove the Ionians from Ægialus, seized their 12 cities,
and called the country Achaia. The Ionians were received by the
Athenians. The appellation of _Achivi_ is indiscriminately applied
by the ancient poets to all the Greeks. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 1,
&c. _See:_ Achaia.
=Achladæus=, a Corinthian general, killed by Aristomenes. _Pausanias_,
bk. 4, ch. 19.
=Acholōe=, one of the Harpies. _Hyginus_, fable 14.
=Acichōrius=, a general with Brennus in the expedition which the Gauls
undertook against Pæonia. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 10.
=Acidālia=, a surname of Venus, from a fountain of the same name in
Bœotia, sacred to her. The Graces bathed in the fountain. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 720.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 4, li. 468.
=Acidāsa=, a river of Peloponnesus, formerly called Jardanus.
_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 5.
=Acilia=, a plebeian family at Rome, which traced its pedigree up to
the Trojans.――――The mother of Lucan.
=Acilia lex=, was enacted, A.U.C. 556, by Acilius the tribune, for the
plantation of five colonies in Italy. _Livy_, bk. 32, ch. 29.――――
Another called also Calpurnia, A.U.C. 684, which enacted, that no
person convicted of _ambitus_, or using bribes at elections, should
be admitted in the senate, or hold an office.――――Another concerning
such as were guilty of extortion in the provinces.
=Marcus Acilius Balbus=, was consul with Portius Cato, A.U.C. 640. It
is said that during his consulship, milk and blood fell from heaven.
_Pliny_, bk. 2, ch. 56.――――Glabrio, a tribune of the people, who
with a legion quelled the insurgent slaves in Etruria. Being consul
with Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica, A.U.C. 563, he conquered
Antiochus at Thermopylæ, for which he obtained a triumph, and
three days were appointed for public thanksgiving. He stood for
the censorship against Cato, but desisted on account of the false
measures used by his competitor. _Justin_, bk. 31, ch. 6.――_Livy_,
bk. 30, ch. 40; bk. 31, ch. 50; bk. 33, ch. 10, &c.――――The son of
the preceding, erected a temple to Piety, which his father had vowed
to this goddess when fighting against Antiochus. He raised a golden
statue to his father, the first that appeared in Italy. The temple
of piety was built on the spot where once a woman had fed with her
milk her aged father, whom the senate had imprisoned, and excluded
from all aliments. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 2, ch. 5.――――The enactor
of a law against bribery.――――A prætor in the time that Verres was
accused by Cicero.――――A man accused of extortion, and twice defended
by Cicero. He was proconsul of Sicily, and lieutenant to Cæsar in
the civil wars. _Cæsar_, _Civil War_, bk. 3, ch. 15.――――A consul,
whose son was killed by Domitian, because he fought with wild beasts.
The true cause of this murder was, that young Glabrio was stronger
than the emperor, and therefore envied. _Juvenal_, satire 4, li. 94.
=Acilla=, a town of Africa, near Adrumetum. Some read Acolla. _Cæsar_,
_African War_, ch. 33.
=Acis=, a shepherd of Sicily, son of Faunus and the nymph Simæthis.
Galatæa passionately loved him; upon which his rival Polyphemus,
through jealousy, crushed him to death with a piece of a broken rock.
The gods changed Acis into a stream, which rises from mount Ætna.
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 13, fable 8.
=Acmon=, a native of Lyrnessus, who accompanied Æneas into Italy. His
father’s name was Clytus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 128.
=Acmonĭdes=, one of the Cyclops. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 4, li. 288.
=Acœtes=, the pilot of the ship whose crew found Bacchus asleep, and
carried him away. As they ridiculed the god, they were changed into
sea monsters, but Acœtes was preserved. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 3, fable 8, &c. _See:_ Acetes.
=Acontes=, one of Lycaon’s 50 sons. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 8.
=Aconteus=, a famous hunter changed into a stone by the head of Medusa,
at the nuptials of Perseus and Andromeda. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 5, li. 201.――――A person killed in the wars of Æneas and Turnus,
in Italy. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 11, li. 615.
=Acontius=, a youth of Cea, who, when he went to Delos to see the
sacrifice of Diana, fell in love with Cydippe, a beautiful virgin,
and being unable to obtain her, on account of the obscurity of his
origin, wrote these verses on an apple, which he threw into her
bosom:
_Juro tibi sanctæ per mystica sacra Dianæ,
Me tibi venturam comitem, sponsamque futuram._
Cydippe read the verses, and being compelled by the oath she had
inadvertently made, married Acontius. _Ovid_, _Heroides_, poem 20.
――――A mountain of Bœotia. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 7.
=Acontobūlus=, a place of Cappadocia, under Hyppolyte queen of the
Amazons. _Apollonius_, _Argonautica_, bk. 2.
=Acōris=, a king of Egypt, who assisted Evagoras king of Cyprus
against Persia. _Diodorus_, bk. 15.
=Acra=, a town in Italy,――――Eubœa,――――Cyprus,――――Acarnania,――――
Sicily, ――――Africa,――――Sarmatia, &c.――――A promontory of Calabria,
now Capo di Leuca.
=Acradīna=, the citadel of Syracuse, taken by Marcellus the Roman
consul. _Plutarch_, _Marcellus_.――_Cicero_, _Against Verres_, bk. 4.
=Acræ=, a mountain in Peloponnesus. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 34.
=Acræa=, a daughter of the river Asterion.――――A surname of Diana, from
a temple built to her by Melampus, on a mountain near Argos.――――A
surname of Juno. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 17.
=Acræphnia=, a town in Bœotia; whence Apollo is called Acraæphnius.
_Herodotus_, bk. 8, ch. 135.
=Acragallĭdæ=, a dishonest nation living anciently near Athens.
_Æschines_, _Against Ctesiphon_.
=Acrăgas.= _See:_ Agragas.
=Acrātus=, a freedman of Nero, sent into Asia to plunder the temples
of the gods. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 15, ch. 45; bk. 16, ch. 23.
=Acrias=, one of Hippodamia’s suitors. _Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 21.――――
He built Acriæ, a town of Laconia. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 21.
=Acridophăgi=, an Æthiopian nation, who fed upon locusts, and lived
not beyond their 40th year. At the approach of old age swarms of
winged lice attacked them, and gnawed their belly and breast, till
the patient, by rubbing himself, drew blood, which increased their
number, and ended in his death. _Diodorus_, bk. 3.――_Pliny_, bk. 11,
ch. 29.――_Strabo_, bk. 16.
=Acrīon=, a Pythagorean philosopher of Locris. _Cicero_, _De Finibus_,
bk. 5, ch. 29.
=Acrisioneus=, a patronymic applied to the Argives, from Acrisius, one
of their ancient kings, or from Acrisione, a town of Argolis, called
after a daughter of Acrisius of the same name. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 7, li. 410.
=Acrisioniădes=, a patronymic of Perseus, from his grandfather Acrisius.
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, li. 70.
=Acrisius=, son of Abas king of Argos, by Ocalea daughter of Mantineus.
He was born at the same birth as Prœtus, with whom it is said that
he quarrelled even in his mother’s womb. After many dissensions,
Prœtus was driven from Argos. Acrisius had Danae by Eurydice
daughter of Lacedæmon; and being told by an oracle, that his
daughter’s son would put him to death, he confined Danae in a
brazen tower, to prevent her becoming a mother. She, however,
became pregnant, by Jupiter changed into a golden shower; and though
Acrisius ordered her, and her infant called Perseus, to be exposed
on the sea, yet they were saved; and Perseus soon after became so
famous for his actions, that Acrisius, anxious to see so renowned
a grandson, went to Larissa. Here Perseus, wishing to show his
skill in throwing a quoit, killed an old man who proved to be his
grandfather, whom he knew not, and thus the oracle was unhappily
fulfilled. Acrisius reigned about 31 years. _Hyginus_, fable
63.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 4, fable 16.――_Horace_, bk. 3,
ode 16.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 2, &c.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2,
ch. 16, &c.――_See:_ Danae, Perseus, Polydectes.
=Acrītas=, a promontory of Messenia, in Peloponnesus. _Pliny_, bk. 4,
ch. 5.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.
=Acroāthon=, or =Acrothoos=, a town on the top of mount Athos,
whose inhabitants lived to an uncommon old age. _Mela_, bk. 2,
ch. 2.――_Pliny_, bk. 8, ch. 10.
=Acroceraunium=, a promontory of Epirus, with mountains called
Acroceraunia, which project between the Ionian and Adriatic seas.
The word comes from ἀκρος, _high_, and κεραυνος, _thunder_; because,
on account of their great height, they were often struck with thunder.
_Lucretius_, bk. 6, li. 420.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 1. ――_Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 506.――_Strabo_, bk. 6.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ode 3,
li. 20.
=Acrocorinthus=, a lofty mountain on the isthmus of Corinth, taken
by Aratus, B.C. 243. There is a temple of Venus on the top, and
Corinth is built at the bottom. _Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2,
ch. 4.――_Plutarch_, _Aratus_.――_Statius_, _Thebiad_, bk. 7, li. 106.
=Acron=, a king of Cenina, killed by Romulus in single combat, after
the rape of the Sabines. His spoils were dedicated to Jupiter
Feretrius. _Plutarch_, _Romulus_.――――A physician of Agrigentum,
B.C. 430, educated at Athens with Empedocles. He wrote physical
treatises in the Doric dialect, and cured the Athenians of a plague
by lighting a fire near the houses of the infected. _Pliny_, bk. 29,
ch. 1.――_Plutarch_, _De Iside et Osiride_.――――One of the friends of
Æneas, killed by Mezentius. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 719.
=Acropātos=, one of Alexander’s officers, who obtained part of Media
after the king’s death. _Justin_, bk. 13, ch. 4.
=Acropŏlis=, the citadel of Athens, built on a rock, and accessible
only on one side. Minerva had a temple at the bottom. _Pausanias_,
_Atticus_.
=Acrotătus=, son of Cleomenes king of Sparta, died before his father,
leaving a son called Areus. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 13; bk. 3,
ch. 6.――――A son of Areus, who was greatly loved by Chelidonis wife
of Cleonymus. This amour displeased her husband, who called Pyrrhus
the Epirot to avenge his wrongs. When Sparta was besieged by Pyrrhus,
Acrotatus was seen bravely fighting in the middle of the enemy, and
commended by the multitude, who congratulated Chelidonis on being
mistress to such a warlike lover. _Plutarch_, _Pyrrhus_.
=Acrothoos.= _See:_ Acroathon.
=Acta=, or =Acte=, a country of Attica. This word signifies _shore_,
and is applied to Attica, as being near the sea. It is derived by
some writers from Actæus, a king, from whom the Athenians have been
called Actæi. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, li. 312.――_Virgil_,
_Eclogues_, poem 2, li. 23.
=Acta=, a place near mount Athos, on the Ægean sea. _Thucydides_,
bk. 4, ch. 109.
=Actæa=, one of the Nereides. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 250.――_Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 18, li. 41.――――A surname of Ceres.――――A daughter of
Danaus. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 1.
=Actæon=, a famous huntsman, son of Aristæus and Autonoe daughter of
Cadmus, whence he is called _Autonoeius heros_. He saw Diana and
her attendant, bathing near Gargaphia, for which he was changed into
a stag, and devoured by his own dogs. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 2.
――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 3, fable 3.――――A beautiful youth,
son of Melissus of Corinth, whom Archias, one of the Heraclidæ,
endeavoured to debauch and carry away. He was killed in the struggle
which in consequence of this happened between his father and
ravisher. Melissus complained of the insult, and drowned himself;
and soon after, the country being visited by a pestilence, Archias
was expelled. _Plutarch_, _Amatoriæ narrationes_.
=Actæus=, a powerful person who made himself master of a part of
Greece, which he called Attica. His daughter Agraulos married
Cecrops, whom the Athenians called their first king, though Actæus
reigned before him. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, chs. 2 & 14.――――The word is
of the same signification as _Atticus_, an inhabitant of Attica.
=Acte=, a mistress of Nero, descended from Attalus. _Suetonius_,
_Nero_, ch. 28.――――One of the Horæ. _Hyginus_, fable 183.
=Actia=, the mother of Augustus. As she slept in the temple of
Apollo, she dreamt that a dragon had lain with her. Nine months
after she brought forth, having previously dreamt that her bowels
were scattered all over the world. _Suetonius_, _Augustus_, ch. 94.
――――Games sacred to Apollo, in commemoration of the victory of
Augustus over Marcus Antony at Actium. They were celebrated every
third, sometimes fifth, year, with great pomp, and the Lacedæmonians
had the care of them. _Plutarch_, _Antonius_.――_Strabo_, bk. 7.――
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 280; bk. 8, li. 675.――――A sister of
Julius Cæsar. _Plutarch_, _Cicero_.
=Actis=, son of Sol, went from Greece into Egypt, where he taught
astrology, and founded Heliopolis. _Diodorus_, bk. 5.
=Actisănes=, a king of Æthiopia who conquered Egypt, and expelled king
Amasis. He was famous for his equity, and his severe punishment of
robbers, whose noses he cut off, and whom he banished to a desert
place, where they were in want of all aliment, and lived only upon
crows. _Diodorus_, bk. 1.
=Actium=, now _Azio_, a town and promontory of Epirus, famous for the
naval victory which Augustus obtained over Antony and Cleopatra, the
2nd of September, B.C. 31, in honour of which the conqueror built
there the town of Nicopolis, and instituted games. _See:_ Actia.
_Plutarch_, _Antonius_.――_Suetonius_, _Augustus_.――――A promontory of
Corcyra. _Cicero_, _Letters to Atticus_, bk. 7, ltr. 2.
=Actius=, a surname of Apollo, from Actium, where he had a temple.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8, li. 704.――――A poet. _See:_ Accius.――――A
prince of the Volsci. _See:_ Accius.
=Actius Navius=, an augur, who cut a loadstone in two with a razor,
before Tarquin and the Roman people, to convince them of his skill
as an augur. _Florus_, bk. 1, ch. 5.――_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 36.――――
Labeo. _See:_ Labeo.
=Actor=, a companion of Hercules in his expedition against the Amazons.
――――The father of Menœtius by Ægina, whence Patroclus is called
_Actorides_. _Ovid_, _Tristia_, bk. 1, poem 8.――――A man called also
Aruncus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 12, li. 93.――――One of the friends
of Æneas. _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 500.――――A son of Neptune by Agameda.
_Hyginus_, fable 14.――――A son of Deion and Diomede. _Apollodorus_,
bk. 1, ch. 9.――――The father of Eurytus, and brother of Augeas.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――――A son of Acastus, one of the
Argonauts. _Hyginus_, fable 14.――――The father of Astyoche. _Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 2.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 37.――――A king of Lemnos.
_Hyginus_, fable 102.
=Actorĭdes=, a patronymic given to Patroclus grandson of Actor. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 13, fable 1.――――Also to Erithus son of Actor.
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, fable 3.――――Two brothers so fond of
each other, that in driving a chariot, one generally held the reins,
and the other the whip; whence they are represented with two heads,
four feet, and one body. Hercules conquered them. _Pindar._
=Actŏris=, a maid of Ulysses. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 23.
=Marcus Actorius Naso=, a Roman historian. _Suetonius_, _Julius_,
ch. 9.
=Caius Aculeo=, a Roman lawyer celebrated as much for the extent of his
understanding, as for his knowledge of law. He was uncle to Cicero.
_Cicero_, _On Oratory_, bk. 1, ch. 43.
=Acūphis=, an ambassador from India to Alexander. _Plutarch_,
_Alexander_.
=Acusilāus= and =Damagētus=, two brothers of Rhodes, conquerors at the
Olympic games. The Greeks strewed flowers upon Diagoras their father,
and called him happy in having such worthy sons. _Pausanias_, bk. 6,
ch. 7.
=Acusilāus=, an historian of Argos, often quoted by Josephus. He wrote
on genealogies, in a style simple and destitute of all ornament.
_Cicero_, _On Oratory_, bk. 2, ch. 29.――_Suidas._――――An Athenian who
taught rhetoric at Rome under Galba.
=M. Acutĭcus=, an ancient comic writer whose plays were known under
the names of Leones, Gemini, Anus, Bœotia, &c.
=Ada=, a sister of queen Artemisia, who married Hidricus. After her
husband’s death, she succeeded to the throne of Caria; but being
expelled by her younger brother, she retired to Alindæ, which she
delivered to Alexander after adopting him as her son. _Curtius_,
bk. 2, ch. 8.――_Strabo_, bk. 14.
=Adad=, a deity among the Assyrians, supposed to be the sun.
=Adæus=, a native of Mitylene, who wrote a Greek treatise on
statuaries. _Athenæus_, bk. 13.
=Adamantæa=, Jupiter’s nurse in Crete, who suspended him in his cradle
to a tree, that he might be found neither in the earth, the sea,
nor in heaven. To drown the infant’s cries, she had drums beat and
cymbals sounded around the tree. _Hyginus_, fable 139.
=Adămas=, a Trojan prince, killed by Merion. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 13,
li. 560.――――A youth who raised a rebellion on being emasculated by
Cotys king of Thrace. _Aristotle_, _Politics_, bk. 5, ch. 10.
=Adamastus=, a native of Ithaca, father of Achæmenides. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 614.
=Adaspii=, a people at the foot of mount Caucasus. _Justin_, bk. 12,
ch. 5.
=Addephagia=, a goddess of the Sicilians. _Ælian_, bk. 1, _Varia
Historia_, ch. 27.
=Addua=, now _Adda_, a river of Cisalpine Gaul, falling into the Po
near Cremona. _Pliny_, bk. 2, ch. 103.
=Adelphius=, a friend of Marcus Antoninus, whom he accompanied in
his expedition into Parthia, of which he wrote the history. _Strabo_,
bk. 11.
=Adēmon=, raised a sedition in Mauritania to avenge his master Ptolemy,
whom Caligula had put to death. _Suetonius_, _Caligula_, ch. 35.
=Ades=, or =Hades=, the god of hell among the Greeks, the same as the
Pluto of the Latins. The word is derived from _α_ and ειδειν [_non
videre_], because hell is deprived of light. It is often used for
hell itself by the ancient poets.
=Adgandestrius=, a prince of Gaul who sent to Rome for poison to
destroy Arminius, and was answered by the senate, that the Romans
fought their enemies openly, and never used perfidious measures.
_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 2, ch. 88.
=Adherbal=, son of Micipsa, and grandson of Masinissa, was besieged at
Cirta, and put to death by Jugurtha, after vainly imploring the aid
of Rome, B.C. 112. _Sallust_, _Jugurthine War_.
=Adherbas=, the husband of Dido. _See:_ Sichæus.
=Adiante=, a daughter of Danaus. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 11.
=Adiatōrix=, a governor of Galatia, who, to gain Antony’s favour,
slaughtered, in one night, all the inhabitants of the Roman colony
of Heraclea, in Pontus. He was taken at Actium, led in triumph by
Augustus, and strangled in prison. _Strabo_, bk. 12.
=Adimantus=, a commander of the Athenian fleet, taken by the Spartans.
All the men of the fleet were put to death, except Adimantus,
because he had opposed the designs of his countrymen, who intended
to mutilate all the Spartans. _Xenophon_, _Hellenica_. Pausanias
says, bk. 4, ch. 17; bk. 10, ch. 9, that the Spartans had bribed
him.――――A brother of Plato. _Laërtius_, bk. 3.――――A Corinthian
general who reproached Themistocles with his exile.――――A king struck
with thunder for saying that Jupiter deserved no sacrifices. _Ovid_,
_Ibis_, li. 337.
=Admēta=, a daughter of Eurystheus, was priestess of Juno’s temple at
Argos. She expressed a wish to possess the girdle of the queen of
the Amazons, and Hercules obtained it for her. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2,
ch. 23.――――One of the Oceanides. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 349.
=Admētus=, son of Pheres and Clymene, king of Pheræ in Thessaly,
married Theone daughter of Thestor, and, after her death, Alceste
daughter of Pelias. Apollo when banished from heaven, is said to
have tended his flocks for nine years, and to have obtained from the
Parcæ, that Admetus should never die, if another person laid down
his life for him; a proof of unbounded affection, which his wife
Alceste cheerfully exhibited by devoting herself voluntarily to
death. Admetus was one of the Argonauts, and was at the hunt of
the Calydonian boar. Pelias promised his daughter in marriage only
to him who could bring him a chariot drawn by a lion and a wild
boar; and Admetus effected this by the aid of Apollo, and obtained
Alceste’s hand. Some say that Hercules brought him back Alceste from
hell. _Seneca_, _Medeâ_.――_Hyginus_, fables 50, 51, & 243.――_Ovid_,
_Amores_, bk. 3.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, chs. 8 & 9, &c.――_Tibullus_,
bk. 2, poem 3.――_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 17.――――A king of the
Molossi, to whom Themistocles fled for protection. _Cornelius Nepos_,
_Themistocles_, ch. 8.――――An officer of Alexander, killed at the
siege of Tyre. _Diodorus_, bk. 17.
=Adōnia=, festivals in honour of Adonis, first celebrated at Byblos
in Phœnicia. They lasted two days, the first of which was spent
in howlings and lamentations, the second in joyful clamours, as if
Adonis was returned to life. In some towns of Greece and Egypt they
lasted eight days; the one half of which was spent in lamentations,
and the other in rejoicings. Only women were admitted, and such as
did not appear were compelled to prostitute themselves for one day;
and the money obtained by this shameful custom was devoted to the
service of Adonis. The time of the celebration was supposed to be
very unlucky. The fleet of Nicias sailed from Athens to Sicily on
that day, whence many unfortunate omens were drawn. _Plutarch_,
_Nicias_.――_Ammianus_, bk. 22, ch. 9.
=Adōnis=, son of Cinyras by his daughter Myrrha [_See:_ Myrrha],
was the favourite of Venus. He was fond of hunting, and was often
cautioned by his mistress not to hunt wild beasts, for fear of being
killed in the attempt. This advice he slighted, and at last received
a mortal bite from a wild boar which he had wounded, and Venus,
after shedding many tears at his death, changed him into a flower
called anemone. Proserpine is said to have restored him to life, on
condition that he should spend six months with her, and the rest of
the year with Venus. This implies the alternate return of summer and
winter. Adonis is often taken for Osiris, because the festivals of
both were generally begun with mournful lamentations, and finished
with a revival of joy as if they were returning to life again.
Adonis had temples raised to his memory, and is said by some to
have been beloved by Apollo and Bacchus. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3,
ch. 14.――_Propertius_, bk. 2, poem 13, li. 53.――_Virgil_, _Eclogues_,
poem 10, li. 18.――_Bion_, _Adonis_.――_Hyginus_, fables 58, 164, 248,
&c.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 10, fable 10.――_Musæus_, _Hero &
Leander_.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 20; bk. 9, ch. 41.――――A river of
Phœnicia, which falls into the Mediterranean, below Byblus.
=Adramyttium=, an Athenian colony on the sea coast of Mysia, near the
Caycus. _Strabo_, bk. 13.――_Thucydides_, bk. 5, ch. 1.
=Adrāna=, a river in Germany. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 1, ch. 56.
=Adrānum=, a town of Sicily, near Ætna, with a river of the same name.
The chief deity of the place was called Adranus, and his temple was
guarded by 1000 dogs. _Plutarch_, _Timoleon_.
=Adrasta=, one of the Oceanides who nursed Jupiter. _Hyginus_,
fable 182.
=Adrastia=, a fountain of Sicyon. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 15.――――A
mountain. _Plutarch_, _Lucullus_.――――A country near Troy called
after Adrastus, who built there a temple to Nemesis. Here Apollo had
an oracle. _Strabo_, bk. 13.――――A daughter of Jupiter and Necessity.
She is called by some Nemesis, and is the punisher of injustice.
The Egyptians placed her above the moon, whence she looked down upon
the actions of men. _Strabo_, bk. 13.――――A daughter of Melisseus,
to whom some attribute the nursing of Jupiter. She is the same as
Adrasta. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 1.
=Adrastii Campi=, a plain near the Granicus, where Alexander first
defeated Darius. _Justin_, bk. 11, ch. 6.
=Adrastus=, son of Talaus and Lysimache, was king of Argos. Polynices,
being banished from Thebes by his brother Eteocles, fled to Argos,
where he married Argia daughter of Adrastus. The king assisted
his son-in-law, and marched against Thebes with an army headed by
seven of his most famous generals. All perished in the war except
Adrastus, who, with a few men saved from slaughter, fled to Athens,
and implored the aid of Theseus against the Thebans, who opposed
the burying of the Argives slain in battle. Theseus went to his
assistance, and was victorious. Adrastus, after a long reign, died
through grief, occasioned by the death of his son Ægialeus. A temple
was raised to his memory at Sicyon, where a solemn festival was
annually celebrated. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 5.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 6, li. 480.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9; bk. 3, ch. 7.――
_Statius_, _Thebiad_, bks. 4 & 5.――_Hyginus_, fables 68, 69, & 70.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 39; bk. 8, ch. 25; bk. 10; ch. 90.――
_Herodotus_, bk. 5, ch. 67, &c.――――A peripatetic philosopher,
disciple to Aristotle. It is supposed that a copy of his treatise
on harmonics is preserved in the Vatican.――――A Phrygian prince, who
having inadvertently killed his brother, fled to Crœsus, where he
was humanely received, and entrusted with the care of his son Atys.
In hunting a wild boar, Adrastus slew the young prince, and in his
despair, killed himself on his grave. _Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 35,
&c.――――A Lydian, who assisted the Greeks against the Persians.
_Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 5.――――A soothsayer in the Trojan war, son
of Merops. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bks. 2 & 6.――The father of Eurydice,
who married Ilus the Trojan. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 12.――――A king
of Sicyon, who reigned four years, B.C. 1215.――――A son of Hercules.
_Hyginus_, fable 242.
=Adria=, =Adriānum=, or =Adriatĭcum mare=, a sea lying between
Illyricum and Italy, now called the gulf of Venice, first made
known to the Greeks by the discoveries of the Phocæans. _Herodotus_,
bk. 1.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ode 33; bk. 3, odes 3 & 9.――_Catullus_,
poems 4, 6.
=Adrianopŏlis=, a town of Thrace on the Hebrus.――――Another in Ætolia,
――――in Pisidia,――――and Bithynia.
=Adriānus=, or =Hadrianus=, the 15th emperor of Rome. He is represented
as an active, learned, warlike, and austere general. He came to
Britain, where he built a wall between the modern towns of Carlisle
and Newcastle, 80 miles long, to protect the Britons from the
incursions of the Caledonians. He killed in battle 500,000 Jews who
had rebelled, and built a city on the ruins of Jerusalem, which he
called Ælia. His memory was so retentive, that he remembered every
incident of his life, and knew all the soldiers of his army by name.
He was the first emperor who wore a long beard, and this he did to
hide the warts on his face. His successors followed his example, not
through necessity but for ornament. Adrian went always bare-headed,
and in long marches generally travelled on foot. In the beginning
of his reign, he followed the virtues of his adopted father and
predecessor Trajan; he remitted all arrears due to his treasury for
16 years, and publicly burnt the account-books, that his word might
not be suspected. His peace with the Parthians proceeded from a wish
of punishing the other enemies of Rome, more than from the effects
of fear. The travels of Adrian were not for the display of imperial
pride, but to see whether justice was distributed impartially:
and public favour was courted by a condescending behaviour, and
the meaner familiarity of bathing with the common people. It is
said that he wished to enrol Christ among the gods of Rome; but
his apparent lenity towards the Christians was disproved, by the
erection of a statue to Jupiter on the spot where Jesus rose from
the dead, and one to Venus on mount Calvary. The weight of diseases
became intolerable. Adrian attempted to destroy himself; and when
prevented, he exclaimed, that the lives of others were in his hands,
but not his own. He wrote an account of his life, and published it
under the name of one of his domestics. He died of a dysentery at
Baiæ, July 10, A.D. 138, in the 72nd year of his age, after a reign
of 21 years. _Dio Cassius._――――An officer of Lucullus. _Plutarch_,
_Lucullus_.――――A rhetorician of Tyre in the age of Marcus Antoninus,
who wrote seven books of metamorphoses, besides other treatises now
lost.
=Adrimētum=, a town of Africa, on the Mediterranean, built by the
Phœnicians. _Sallust_, _Jugurthine War_.
=Aduataca=, a town of Belgic Gaul, now Tongres, on the Maese.
=Adŭla=, a mountain among the Rhætian Alps, near which the Rhine takes
its rise, now St. Gothard.
=Adulis=, a town of Upper Egypt.
=Adyrmachīdæ=, a maritime people of Africa, near Egypt. _Herodotus_,
bk. 4, ch. 168.
=Æa=, a huntress changed into an island of the same name by the gods,
to rescue her from the pursuit of her lover, the river Phasis. It
had a town called Æa, which was the capital of Colchis. _Flaccus_,
bk. 5, li. 420.――――A town of Thessaly,――――of Africa.――――A fountain
of Macedonia near Amydon.
=Æacēa=, games at Ægina, in honour of Æacus.
=Æacĭdas=, a king of Epirus, son of Neoptolemus and brother to
Olympias. He was expelled by his subjects for his continual wars
with Macedonia. He left a son, Pyrrhus, only two years old, whom
Chaucus king of Illyricum educated. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 11.
=Æacĭdes=, a patronymic of the descendants of Æacus, such as Achilles,
Peleus, Telamon, Pyrrhus, &c. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 103, &c.
=Æăcus=, son of Jupiter by Ægina daughter of Asopus, was king of the
island of Œnopia, which he called by his mother’s name. A pestilence
having destroyed all his subjects, he entreated Jupiter to repeople
his kingdom; and according to his desire, all the ants which were in
an old oak were changed into men, and called by Æacus _myrmidons_,
from μυρμηξ, _an ant_. Æăcus married Endeis, by whom he had Telamon
and Peleus. He afterwards had Phocus by Psamathe, one of the Nereids.
He was a man of such integrity that the ancients have made him
one of the judges of hell, with Minos and Rhadamanthus. _Horace_,
bk. 2, ode 13; bk. 4, ode 8.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 44; bk. 2,
ch. 29.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, fable 25; bk. 13, li. 25.
――_Propertius_, bk. 4, poem 12.――_Plutarch_, _de Consolatio ad
Apollonium_.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 12.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.
=Ææ=, =Æa=, or =Ææa=, an island of Colchis, in the Phasis. _See:_ Æa.
_Apollonius_, bk. 3.
=Ææa=, a name given to Circe, because born at Ææ. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 3, li. 386.
=Æantēum=, a city of Troas, where Ajax was buried. _Pliny_, bk. 5,
ch. 30.――――An island near the Thracian Chersonesus. _Pliny_, bk. 4,
ch. 12.
=Æantĭdes=, a tyrant of Lampsacus, intimate with Darius. He married
a daughter of Hippias tyrant of Athens. _Thucydides_, bk. 6, ch. 59.
――――One of the seven poets called Pleiades.
=Æantis=, an Athenian tribe. _Plutarch_, _Convivium Septem Sapientium_,
ch. 2.
=Æas=, a river of Epirus falling into the Ionian sea. In the
fable of Io, Ovid describes it as falling into the Peneus, and
meeting other rivers at Tempe. This some have supposed to be a
geographical mistake of the poet. _Lucan_, bk. 6, li. 361.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, li. 580.
=Æātus=, son of Philip, and brother of Polyclea, was descended from
Hercules. An oracle having said that whoever of the two touched
the land after crossing the Achelous, should obtain the kingdom,
Polyclea pretended to be lame, and prevailed upon her brother to
carry her across on his shoulders. When they came near the opposite
side, Polyclea leaped ashore from her brother’s back, exclaiming
that the kingdom was her own. Æatus joined her in her exclamation,
and afterwards married her, and reigned conjointly with her. Their
son Thessalus gave his name to Thessaly. _Polyænus_, bk. 8.
=Æchmacŏras=, a son of Hercules by Phyllone daughter of Alcimedon.
When the father heard that his daughter had had a child, he exposed
her and the infant in the woods to wild beasts, where Hercules,
conducted by the noise of a magpie which imitated the cries of a
child, found and delivered them. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 12.
=Æchmis=, succeeded his father Polymnestor on the throne of Arcadia,
in the reign of Theopompus of Sparta. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 5.
=Ædepsum=, a town of Eubœa. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.――_Strabo_, bk. 10.
=Ædessa=, or =Edessa=, a town near Pella. Caranus king of Macedonia
took it by following goats that sought shelter from the rain, and
called it from that circumstance (αἰγας, _capras_) Ægeas. It was the
burying place of the Macedonian kings; and an oracle had said, that
as long as the kings were buried there, so long would their kingdom
subsist. Alexander was buried in a different place; and on that
account some authors have said that the kingdom became extinct.
_Justin_, bk. 7, ch. 1.
=Ædicŭla Ridiculi=, a temple raised to the god of mirth, from the
following circumstance: after the battle of Cannæ, Hannibal marched
to Rome, whence he was driven back by the inclemency of the weather;
which caused so much joy in Rome, that the Romans raised a temple to
the god of mirth. This deity was worshipped at Sparta. _Plutarch_,
_Lycurgus_, _Agis_, & _Cleomenes_. Pausanias also mentions a θεος
γελωτος.
=Ædīles=, Roman magistrates, that had the care of all buildings, baths,
and aqueducts, and examined the weights and measures, that nothing
might be sold without its due value. There were three different
sorts: the Ædiles _Plebeii_, or _Minores_; the _Majores_ Ædiles, and
the Ædiles _Cereales_. The plebeian ediles were two, first created
with the tribunes; they presided over the more minute affairs of the
state, good order, and the reparation of the streets. They procured
all the provisions of the city, and executed the decrees of the
people. The Majores and Cereales had greater privileges, though they
at first shared in the labour of the plebeian ediles; they appeared
with more pomp, and were allowed to sit publicly in ivory chairs.
The office of an edile was honourable, and was always the primary
step to greater dignities in the republic. The ediles were chosen
from the plebeians for 127 years, till A.U.C. 338. _Varro_, _De
Lingua Latina_, bk. 4, ch. 14.――_Cicero_, _De Legibus_, bk. 3.
=Ædipsus=, a town in Eubœa, now Dipso, abounding in hot baths.
=Valerius Ædituus=, a Roman poet before the age of Cicero, successful
in amorous poetry and epigrams.
=Ædon=, daughter of Pandarus, married Zethus brother to Amphion,
by whom she had a son called Itylus. She was so jealous of her
sister Niobe, because she had more children than herself, that she
resolved to murder the elder, who was educated with Itylus. She by
mistake killed her own son, and was changed into a goldfinch as she
attempted to kill herself. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 19, li. 518.
=Ædui=, or =Hedui=, a powerful nation of Celtic Gaul, known for their
valour in the wars of Cæsar. When their country was invaded by this
celebrated general, they were at the head of a faction in opposition
to the Sequani and their partisans, and they had established their
superiority in frequent battles. To support their cause, however,
the Sequani obtained the assistance of Ariovistus king of Germany,
and soon defeated their opponents. The arrival of Cæsar changed the
face of affairs; the Ædui were restored to the sovereignty of the
country, and the artful Roman, by employing one faction against the
other, was enabled to conquer them all, though the insurrection of
Ambiorix, and that more powerfully supported by Vercingetorix, shook
for a while the dominion of Rome in Gaul, and checked the career of
the conqueror. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_.
=Æēta=, or =Æētes=, king of Colchis, son of Sol and Perseis daughter
of Oceanus, was father of Medea, Absyrtus, and Chalciope, by Idya,
one of the Oceanides. He killed Phryxus son of Athamas, who had fled
to his court on a golden ram. This murder he committed to obtain
the fleece of the golden ram. The Argonauts came against Colchis,
and recovered the golden fleece by means of Medea, though it was
guarded by bulls that breathed fire, and by a venomous dragon. Their
expedition has been celebrated by all the ancient poets. _See:_
Jason, Medea, and Phryxus. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, fable 1, &c.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 3.
――_Justin_, bk. 42, ch. 2.――_Flaccus_ & _Orpheus_, _Argonautica_.
=Æetias=, a patronymic given to Medea, as daughter of Æetes. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, li. 9.
=Æga=, an island of the Ægean sea, between Tenedos and Chios.
=Ægēas=, a town whose inhabitants are called Ægeates. _See:_ Ædessa.
=Ægæ=, a city of Macedonia, the same as Ædessa. Some writers make
them different, but Justin proves this to be erroneous, bk. 7,
ch. 1.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 10.――――A town of Eubœa, whence Neptune
is called Ægæus. _Strabo_, bk. 9.
=Ægææ=, a town and seaport of Cilicia. _Lucan_, bk. 3, li. 227.
=Ægæon=, one of Lycaon’s 50 sons. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 8.――――The
son of Cœlus, or of Pontus and Terra, the same as Briareus. _See:_
Briareus. It is supposed that he was a notorious pirate, chiefly
residing at Æga, whence his name; and that the fable about his
100 hands arises from his having 100 men to manage his oars in his
piratical excursions. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 565.――_Hesiod_,
_Theogony_, li. 149.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 10, li. 404.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 2, li. 10.
=Ægæum mare=, now Archipelago, part of the Mediterranean, dividing
Greece from Asia Minor. It is full of islands, some of which are
called Cyclades, others Sporades, &c. The word Ægæum is derived by
some from Ægæ, a town of Eubœa; or from the number of islands which
it contains, that appear above the sea, as αἰγες, goats; or from the
promontory Æga, or from Ægea, a queen of the Amazons; or from Ægeus,
who is supposed to have drowned himself there. _Pliny_, bk. 4,
ch. 11.――_Strabo_, bk. 7.
=Ægæus=, a surname of Neptune, from Ægæ in Eubœa. _Strabo_, bk. 9.
――――A river of Corcyra.――――A plain in Phocis.
=Ægaleos=, or =Ægaleum=, a mountain of Attica opposite Salamis, on
which Xerxes sat during the engagement of his fleet with the Grecian
ships in the adjacent sea. _Herodotus_, bk. 8, ch. 90.――_Thucydides_,
bk. 2, ch. 19.
=Ægan= [_Greek_ αἰγαν or αἰγαων], the Ægean sea. _Statius_, _Thebiad_,
bk. 5, li. 56.
=Ægas=, a place of Eubœa.――――Another near Daunia in Italy. _Polybius_,
bk. 3.
=Ægātes=, a promontory of Æolia.――――Three islands opposite Carthage,
called Aræ by _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, near which the Romans
under Catulus, in the first Punic war, defeated the Carthaginian
fleet under Hanno, 242 B.C. _Livy_, bk. 21, chs. 10 & 41; bk. 22,
ch. 54.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 1, li. 61.
=Ægēleon=, a town of Macedonia taken by king Attalus. _Livy_, bk. 31,
ch. 46.
=Ægēria.= _See:_ Egeria.
=Ægesta=, the daughter of Hippotes, and mother of Ægestus, called
Acestes. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 554.――――An ancient town of
Sicily near mount Eryx, destroyed by Agathocles. It was sometimes
called Segesta and Acesta. _Diodorus_, bk. 10.
=Ægeus=, king of Athens, son of Pandion, being desirous of having
children, went to consult the oracle, and in his return, stopped
at the court of Pittheus king of Trœzene, who gave him his daughter
Æthra in marriage. He left her pregnant, and told her, that if she
had a son, to send him to Athens as soon as he could lift a stone
under which he had concealed his sword. By this sword he was to be
known to Ægeus, who did not wish to make any public discovery of
a son, for fear of his nephews, the Pallantides, who expected his
crown. Æthra became mother of Theseus, whom she accordingly sent to
Athens with his father’s sword. At the time, Ægeus lived with Medea
the divorced wife of Jason. When Theseus came to Athens, Medea
attempted to poison him; but he escaped, and upon showing Ægeus
the sword he wore, discovered himself to be his son. When Theseus
returned from Crete after the death of the Minotaur, he forgot,
agreeably to the engagement made with his father, to hoist up
white sails as a signal of his success: and Ægeus, at the sight of
black sails, concluding that his son was dead, threw himself from a
high rock into the sea; which, from him, as some suppose, has been
called the Ægean. Ægeus reigned 48 years, and died B.C. 1235. He is
supposed to have first introduced into Greece the worship of Venus
Urania, to render the goddess propitious to his wishes in having a
son. _See:_ Theseus, Minotaurus, and Medea. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1,
chs. 8, 9; bk. 3, ch. 15.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, chs. 5, 22, 38; bk. 4,
ch. 2.――_Plutarch_, _Theseus_.――_Hyginus_, fables 37, 43, 79, & 173.
=Ægiăle=, one of Phaeton’s sisters changed into poplars, and their
tears into amber. They are called Heliades.――――A daughter of
Adrastus, by Amphitea daughter of Pronax. She married Diomedes, in
whose absence, during the Trojan war, she prostituted herself to
her servants, and chiefly to Cometes, whom the king had left master
of his house. At his return, Diomedes, being told of his wife’s
wantonness, went to settle in Daunia. Some say that Venus implanted
those vicious and lustful propensities in Ægiale, to revenge herself
on Diomedes, who had wounded her in the Trojan war. _Ovid_, _Ibis_,
li. 350.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 5, li. 412.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1,
ch. 9.――_Statius_, bk. 3, _Sylvæ_, poem 5, li. 48.
=Ægiălea=, an island near Peloponnesus, in the Cretan sea.――――Another
in the Ionian sea, near the Echinades. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.――
_Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 107.――――The ancient name of Peloponnesus.
_Strabo_, bk. 12.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.
=Ægialeus=, son of Adrastus by Amphitea or Demoanassa, was one of the
Epigoni, _i.e._ one of the sons of those generals who were killed in
the first Theban war. They went against the Thebans, who had refused
to give burial to their fathers, and were victorious. They all
returned home safe, except Ægialeus, who was killed. That expedition
is called the war of the Epigoni. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, chs. 43, 44;
bk. 2, ch. 20; bk. 9, ch. 5.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9; bk. 3,
ch. 7.――――The same as Absyrtus brother to Medea. _Justin_, bk. 42,
ch. 3.――_Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 3.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.
=Ægiălus=, son of Phoroneus, was entrusted with the kingdom of Achaia
by king Apis going to Egypt. Peloponnesus was called Ægialea from
him.――――A man who founded the kingdom of Sicyon, 2091 before the
christian era, and reigned 52 years.
=Ægialus=, a name given to part of Peloponnesus. _See:_ Achaia.
_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 1; bk. 7, ch. 1.――――An inconsiderable town
of Pontus.――――A city of Asia Minor.――――A city of Thrace near the
river Strymon.――――A mountain of Galatia.――――Another in Æthiopia.
=Ægīdes=, a patronymic of Theseus. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 1, li. 265.
=Ægĭla=, a place in Laconia, where Aristomenes was taken prisoner by
a crowd of religious women whom he had attacked. _Pausanias_, bk. 4,
ch. 17.
=Ægilia=, an island between Crete and Peloponnesus.――――A place in
Eubœa. _Herodotus_, bk. 6, ch. 101.
=Ægimius=, an old man who lived, according to Anacreon, 200 years.
_Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 48.――――A king of Doris, whom Hercules assisted
to conquer the Lapithæ. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 7.
=Ægimōrus=, or =Ægimūrus=, an island near Libya, supposed by some to
be the same which Virgil mentions under the name of Aræ. _Pliny_,
bk. 5, ch. 7.
=Ægīna=, daughter of Asopus, had Æacus by Jupiter changed into a flame
of fire. She afterwards married Actor son of Myrmidon, by whom she
had some children, who conspired against their father. Some say that
she was changed by Jupiter into the island which bears her name.
_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.――_Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――
_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9; bk. 3, ch. 12.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2,
chs. 5 & 29.――――An island formerly called Œnopia, and now Engia, in
a part of the Ægean sea, called Saronicus Sinus, about 22 miles in
circumference. The inhabitants were once destroyed by a pestilence,
and the country was repeopled by ants changed into men by Jupiter,
at the prayer of king Æacus. They were once a very powerful nation
by sea, but they cowardly gave themselves up to Darius when he
demanded submission from all the Greeks. The Athenians under
Pericles made war against them; and after taking 70 of their ships
in a naval battle, they expelled them from Ægina. The fugitives
settled in Peloponnesus, and after the ruin of Athens by Lysander,
they returned to their country, but never after rose to their former
power or consequence. _Herodotus_, bks. 5, 6, & 7.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 2, ch. 29; bk. 8, ch. 44.――_Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Ælian_, _Varia
Historia_, bk. 12, ch. 10.
=Æginēta Paulus=, a physician born in Ægina. He flourished in the 3rd,
or, according to others, the 7th century, and first deserved to be
called man-midwife. He wrote _De Re Medicâ_, in seven books.
=Ægīnētes=, a king of Arcadia, in whose age Lycurgus instituted his
famous laws. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 5.
=Ægiŏchus=, a surname of Jupiter, from his being brought up by the
goat Amalthæa, and using her skin instead of a shield, in the war of
the Titans. _Diodorus_, bk. 5.
=Ægĭpan=, a name of Pan, because he had goat’s feet.
=Ægīra=, a town between Ætolia and Peloponnesus.――――A town of Achaia.
_Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 26.――_Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 145.
=Ægiroessa=, a town of Ætolia. _Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 149.
=Ægis=, the shield of Jupiter, ἀπο της αἰγος, _a goat’s skin_. This
was the goat Amalthæa, with whose skin he covered his shield. The
goat was placed among the constellations. Jupiter gave this shield
to Pallas, who placed upon it Medusa’s head, which turned into
stones all those who fixed their eyes upon it. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 8, lis. 352 & 435.
=Ægisthus=, king of Argos, was son of Thyestes by his daughter Pelopea.
Thyestes being at variance with his brother Atreus, was told by
the oracle that his wrongs could be revenged only by a son born of
himself and his daughter. To avoid such an incest, Pelopea had been
consecrated to the service of Minerva by her father, who some time
after met her in a wood, and ravished her, without knowing who she
was. Pelopea kept the sword of her ravisher, and finding it to be
her father’s, exposed the child she had brought forth. The child
was preserved, and when grown up presented with the sword of his
mother’s ravisher. Pelopea soon after this melancholy adventure had
married her uncle Atreus, who received into his house her natural
son. As Thyestes had debauched the first wife of Atreus, Atreus sent
Ægisthus to put him to death; but Thyestes, knowing the assassin’s
sword, discovered that he was his own son, and fully to revenge his
wrongs, sent him back to murder Atreus. After this murder Thyestes
ascended the throne, and banished Agamemnon and Menelaus, the
sons, or as others say, the grandsons of Atreus. These children
fled to Polyphidus of Sicyon; but as he dreaded the power of
their persecutors, he permitted the protection of them to Œneus
king of Ætolia. By their marriage with the daughters of Tyndarus
king of Sparta, they were empowered to recover the kingdom of
Argos, to which Agamemnon succeeded, while Menelaus reigned in his
father-in-law’s place. Ægisthus had been reconciled to the sons of
Atreus; and when they went to the Trojan war, he was left guardian
of Agamemnon’s kingdom, and of his wife Clytemnestra. Ægisthus
fell in love with Clytemnestra, and lived with her. On Agamemnon’s
return, these two adulterers murdered him, and, by a public marriage,
strengthened themselves on the throne of Argos. Orestes, Agamemnon’s
son, would have shared his father’s fate, had not his sister Electra
privately sent him to his uncle Strophius king of Phocis, where he
contracted the most intimate friendship with his cousin Pylades.
Some time after, Orestes came to Mycenæ the residence of Ægisthus,
and resolved to punish the murderers of his father, in conjunction
with Electra, who lived in disguise in the tyrant’s family. To
effect this more effectually, Electra publicly declared that her
brother Orestes was dead; upon which Ægisthus and Clytemnestra went
to the temple of Apollo to return thanks to the god for his death.
Orestes, who had secretly concealed himself in the temple, attacked
them, and put them both to death, after a reign of seven years.
They were buried without the city walls. _See:_ Agamemnon, Thyestes,
Orestes, Clytemnestra, Pylades, and Electra. _Ovid_, _de Remedia
Amoris_, li. 161; _Tristia_, bk. 2, li. 396.――_Hyginus_, fables 87
& 88.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 12, ch. 42.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 2, ch. 16, &c.――_Sophocles_, _Electra_.――_Aeschylus_ & _Seneca_,
_Agamemnon_.――_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bks. 3 & 11.――_Lactantius
[Placidus]_ on [Statius’] _Thebaid_, bk. 1, li. 684.――――Pompey used
to call Julius Cæsar, Ægisthus, on account of his adultery with
his wife Mutia, whom he repudiated after she had borne him three
children. _Suetonius_, _Julius Cæsar_, ch. 50.
=Ægĭtum=, a town of Æolia, on a mountain eight miles from the sea.
_Thucydides_. Bk. 3, ch. 97.
=Ægium=, a town on the Corinthian isthmus, where Jupiter was said to
have been fed by a goat, whence the name. _Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Livy_,
bk. 28, ch. 7.
=Ægle=, the youngest daughter of Æsculapius and Lampetie.――――A
nymph, daughter of Sol and Neæra. _Virgil_, _Eclogues_, poem 6, li.
20.――――A nymph, daughter of Panopeus, beloved by Theseus after he
had left Ariadne. _Plutarch_, _Theseus_.――――One of the Hesperides.
――――One of the Graces.――――A prostitute. _Martial_, bk. 1, ltr. 95.
=Ægles=, a Samian wrestler, born dumb. Seeing some unlawful measures
pursued in a contest, he broke the string which held his tongue,
through the desire of speaking, and ever after spoke with ease.
_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 1, ch. 8.
=Æglētes=, a surname of Apollo.
=Æglŏge=, a nurse of Nero. _Suetonius_, _Nero_, ch. 50.
=Ægobolus=, a surname of Bacchus at Potnia, in Bœotia.
=Ægocĕros=, or =Capricornus=, an animal into which Pan transformed
himself when flying before Typhon in the war with the giants.
Jupiter made him a constellation. _Lucretius_, bk. 1, li. 613.
=Ægon=, a shepherd. _Virgil_, _Eclogues_.――_Theocritus_, _Idylls_.
――――A promontory of Lemnos.――――A name of the Ægean sea. _Flaccus_,
bk. 1, li. 628.――――A boxer of Zacynthus, who dragged a large bull
by the heel from a mountain into the city. _Theocritus_, _Idylls_,
poem 4.
=Ægospotămos=, i.e. _the goat’s river_, a town in the Thracian
Chersonesus, with a river of the same name, where the Athenian fleet,
consisting of 180 ships, was defeated by Lysander, on the 13th Dec.,
B.C. 405, in the last year of the Peloponnesian war. _Mela_, bk. 2,
ch. 2.――_Pliny_, bk. 2, ch. 58.――_Pausanias_, bk. 3, chs. 8 & 11.
=Ægosāgæ=, an Asiatic nation under Attalus, with whom he conquered
Asia, and to whom he gave a settlement near the Hellespont.
_Polybius_, bk. 5.
=Ægus= and =Roscillus=, two brothers amongst the Allobroges, who
deserted from Cæsar to Pompey. _Cæsar_, _Civil War_, bk. 3, ch. 59.
=Ægūsa=, the middle island of the Ægates, near Sicily.
=Ægy=, a town near Sparta, destroyed because its inhabitants were
suspected by the Spartans of favouring the Arcadians. _Pausanias_,
bk. 3, ch. 2.
=Ægypānes=, a nation in the middle of Africa, whose body is human
above the waist, and that of a goat below. _Mela_, bk. 1, chs. 4 & 8.
=Ægypsus=, a town of the Getæ, near the Danube. _Ovid_, _ex Ponto_,
bk. 1, ltr. 8; bk. 4, ltr. 7.
=Ægypta=, a freedman of Cicero. _Letters to Atticus_, bk. 8.
=Ægyptii=, the inhabitants of Egypt. _See:_ Ægyptus.
=Ægyptium mare=, that part of the Mediterranean sea which is on the
coast of Egypt.
=Ægyptus=, son of Belus, and brother to Danaus, gave his 50 sons
in marriage to the 50 daughters of his brother. Danaus, who had
established himself at Argos, and was jealous of his brother, who,
by following him from Egypt into Greece, seemed envious of his
prosperity, obliged all his daughters to murder their husbands the
first night of their nuptials. This was executed; but Hypermnestra
alone spared her husband Lynceus. Even Ægyptus was killed by his
niece Polyxena. _See:_ Danaus, Danaides, Lynceus. Ægyptus was
king, after his father, of a part of Africa, which from him has
been called Ægyptus. _Hyginus_, fables 168, 170.――_Apollodorus_,
bk. 2, ch. 1.――_Ovid_, _Heroides_, poem 14.――_Pausanias_, bk. 7,
ch. 21.――――An extensive country of Africa, watered by the Nile,
bounded on the east by Arabia, and on the west by Libya. Its name
is derived from Ægyptus brother to Danaus. Its extent, according
to modern calculation, is 180 leagues from north to south, and
it measures 120 leagues on the shore of the Mediterranean; but
at the distance of 50 leagues from the sea, it diminishes so much
as scarce to measure seven or eight leagues between the mountains
on the east and west. It is divided into lower, which lies near
the Mediterranean, and upper, which is towards the south. Upper
Egypt was famous for the town of Thebes, but Lower Egypt was the
most peopled, and contained the Delta, a number of large islands,
which, from their form, have been called after the fourth letter
of the Greek alphabet. This country has been the mother of arts
and sciences. The greatest part of Lower Egypt has been formed by
the mud and sand carried down by the Nile. The Egyptians reckoned
themselves the most ancient nation in the universe [_See:_
Psammetichus], but some authors make them of Æthiopian origin. They
were remarkable for their superstition; they paid as much honour to
the cat, the crocodile, the bull, and even to onions, as to Isis.
Rain never or seldom falls in this country; the fertility of the
soil originates in the yearly inundations of the Nile, which rises
about 25 feet above the surface of the earth, and exhibits a large
plain of waters, in which are scattered here and there the towns and
villages, as the Cyclades in the Ægean sea. The air is not wholesome,
but the population is great, and the cattle very prolific. It is
said that Egypt once contained 20,000 cities, the most remarkable of
which were Thebes, Memphis, Alexandria, Pelusium, Coptos, Arsinoe,
&c. It was governed by kings who have immortalized themselves by
the pyramids they have raised and the canals they have opened. The
priests traced the existence of the country for many thousand years,
and fondly imagined that the gods were their first sovereigns, and
that their monarchy had lasted 11,340 years according to Herodotus.
According to the calculation of Constantine Manasses, the kingdom of
Egypt lasted 1663 years from its beginning under Misraim the son of
Ham, 2188 B.C., to the conquest of Cambyses, 525 B.C. Egypt revolted
afterwards from the Persian power, B.C. 414, and Amyrtæus then
became king. After him succeeded Psammetichus, whose reign began
408 B.C.: Nephereus, 396: Acoris, 389: Psammuthis, 376: Nepherites,
4 months, and Nectanebis, 375: Tachos, or Teos, 363: Nectanebus,
361. It was conquered by Ochus, 350 B. C.; and after the conquest
of Persia by Alexander, Ptolemy refounded the kingdom, and began to
reign 323 B.C.: Philadelphus, 284: Evergetes, 246: Philopater, 221:
Epiphanes, 204: Philomater, 180 and 169, conjointly with Evergetes
II. or Physcon, for six years: Evergetes II. 145: Lathurus Soter,
and his mother Cleopatra, 116: Alexander of Cyprus, and Cleopatra,
106: Lathurus Soter restored, 88: Cleopatra II. six months, with
Alexander II. 19 days, 81: Ptolemy, surnamed Alexander III. 80:
Dionysius, surnamed Auletes, 65: Dionysius II. with Cleopatra III.
51: Cleopatra III. with young Ptolemy, 46, and in 30 B.C. it was
reduced by Augustus into a Roman province. The history of Egypt,
therefore, can be divided into three epochas: the first beginning
with the foundation of the empire, to the conquest of Cambyses; the
second ends at the death of Alexander; and the third comprehends
the reign of the Ptolemies, and ends at the death of Cleopatra,
in the age of Augustus.――_Justin_, bk. 1.――_Hirtius_, _Alexandrine
War_, ch. 24.――_Macrobius_, _Somnium Scipionis_, bk. 1, chs. 19 &
21.――_Herodian_, bk. 4, ch. 9.――_Strabo_, bk. 17.――_Herodotus_, bks.
2, 3, & 7.――_Theocritus_, _Idylls_, poem 17, li. 79.――_Polybius_,
bk. 15.――_Diodorus_, bk. 1.――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 1; bk. 14, ch. 7.――
_Marcellinus_, bk. 22, ch. 40.――_Justin_, bk. 1.――_Cornelius Nepos_,
_Pausanias_, bk. 3; _Iphicrates_; _Datames_, ch. 3.――_Curtius_,
bk. 4, ch. 1.――_Juvenal_, satire 15, li. 175.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1,
ch. 14.――_Plutarch_, _de Facie in Orbe Lunæ_; _de Iside et Osiride_;
_Ptolemy_, _Alexander_.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 9.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2,
chs. 1 & 5.――――A minister of Mausolus king of Caria. _Polyænus_,
bk. 6.――――The ancient name of the Nile. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, ♦bk. 14,
li. 258.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 40.
♦ ‘ξ’ replaced with ‘bk. 14’
=Ægys.= _See:_ Ægy.
=Ægysthus.= _See:_ Ægisthus.
=Ælia=, the wife of Sylla. _Plutarch_, _Sulla_.――――The name of some
towns built or repaired by the emperor Adrian.
=Ælia lex=, enacted by Ælius Tubero the tribune, A.U.C. 559, to
send two colonies into the country of the Brutii. _Livy_, bk. 34,
ch. 53.――――Another A.U.C. 568, ordaining that, in public affairs,
the augurs should observe the appearance of the sky, and the
magistrates be empowered to postpone the business.――――Another called
Ælia Sexta, by _Ælius Sextus_, A.U.C. 756, which enacted, that all
slaves who bore any marks of punishment received from their masters,
or who had been imprisoned, should be set at liberty, but not rank
as Roman citizens.
=Ælia Petina=, of the family of Tubero, married Claudius Cæsar, by
whom she had a son. The emperor divorced her to marry Messalina.
_Suetonius_, _Claudius_, ch. 26.
=Æliānus Claudus=, a Roman sophist of Præneste, in the reign of Adrian.
He first taught rhetoric at Rome; but being disgusted with his
profession, he became author, and published treatises on animals in
17 books, on various history in 14 books, &c., in Greek, a language
which he preferred to Latin. In his writings he shows himself very
fond of the marvellous, and relates many stories which are often
devoid of elegance and purity of style; though Philostratus has
commended his language as superior to what could be expected from
a person who was neither born nor educated in Greece. Ælian died in
the 60th year of his age, A.D. 140. The best editions of his works
collected together are that of Conrad Gesner, folio, printed Tigurii,
1556, though now seldom to be met with, and that of Kuenius, 2 vols.,
8vo, Lipscomb, 1780. Some attribute the treatise on the tactics of
the Greeks to another Ælian.
=Ælius= and =Ælia=, a family in Rome, so poor that 16 lived in a small
house, and were maintained by the produce of a little field. Their
poverty continued till Paulus conquered Perseus king of Macedonia,
and gave his son-in-law Æl. Tubero five pounds of gold from the
booty. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 4, ch. 4.
=Ælius Adriānus=, an African, grandfather to the emperor
Adrian.――――Gallus, a Roman knight, the first who invaded Arabia
Felix. He was very intimate with Strabo the geographer, and sailed
on the Nile with him to take a view of the country. _Pliny_, bk. 6,
ch. 28.――――Publius, one of the first questors chosen from the
plebeians at Rome. _Livy_, bk. 4, ch. 54.――――Quintus Ælius Pætus,
son of Sextus or Publius. As he sat in the senate house, a
woodpecker perched on his head; upon which a soothsayer exclaimed,
that if he preserved the bird, his house would flourish, and Rome
decay; and if he killed it, the contrary must happen. Hearing this,
Ælius, in the presence of the senate, bit off the head of the bird.
All the youths of his family were killed at Cannæ, and the Roman
arms were soon attended with success. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 5,
ch. 6.――――Saturninus, a satirist, thrown down from the Tarpeian rock
for writing verses against Tiberius.――――Sejānus. _See:_ Sejanus.
――――Sextus Catus, censor with Marcus Cethegus. He separated the
senators from the people in the public spectacles. During his
consulship, the ambassadors of the Ætolians found him feasting in
earthen dishes, and offered him silver vessels, which he refused,
satisfied with the earthen cups, &c., which, for his virtues, he had
received from his father-in-law, Lucius Paulus, after the conquest
of Macedonia. _Pliny_, bk. 33, ch. 11.――_Cicero_, _On Oratory_,
bk. 1.――――Spartiānus, wrote the lives of the emperors Adrian,
Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius. He flourished A.D. 240.
――――Tubero, grandson of Lucius Paulus, was austere in his morals,
and a formidable enemy to the Gracchi. His grandson was accused
before Cæsar, and ably defended by Cicero. _Cicero_, _Letters to
Brutus_.――――Verus Cæsar, the name of Lucius Ceionius Commodus Verus,
after Adrian had adopted him. He was made pretor and consul by the
emperor, who was soon convinced of his incapacity in the discharge
of public duty. He killed himself by drinking an antidote; and
Antoninus, surnamed Pius, was adopted in his place. Ælius was father
to Antoninus Verus, whom Pius adopted.――――A physician mentioned by
Galen.――――Lucius Gallus, a lawyer, who wrote 12 books concerning the
signification of all law words.――――Sextus Pætus, a lawyer, consul at
Rome, A.U.C. 566. He is greatly commended by Cicero for his learning,
and called _cordatus homo_ by Ennius for his knowledge of law.
_Cicero_, _On Oratory_, bk. 1, ch. 48; _Brutus_, ch. 20.――――Stilo,
a native of Lanuvium, master to Marcus Terentius Varro, and author
of some treatises.――――Lamia. Lamia.
=Aello=, one of the Harpies (from ἑλουσα ἀλλο, _alienum tollens_,
or ἀελλα, _tempestas_). _Flaccus_, bk. 4, li. 450.――_Hesiod_,
_Theogony_, li. 267.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 13, li. 710.
――――_See:_ One of Actæon’s dogs. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 3,
li. 220.
=Ælurus= (_a cat_), a deity worshipped by the Egyptians; and after
death embalmed and buried in the city of Bubastis. _Herodotus_,
bk. 2, ch. 66, &c.――_Diodorus_, bk. 1.――_Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_,
bk. 1.――_Aulus Gellius_, bk. 20, ch. 7.――_Plutarch_, _Pyrrhus_.
=Æmathion= and =Æmathia=. _See:_ Emathion.
=Æmilia lex=, was enacted by the dictator Æmilius, A.U.C. 309. It
ordained that the censorship, which was before quinquennial, should
be limited to one year and a half. _Livy_, bk. 9, ch. 33.――――Another
in the second consulship of Æmilius Mamercus, A.U.C. 391. It gave
power to the eldest pretor to drive a nail in the capitol on the
ides of September. _Livy_, bk. 7, ch. 3.――The driving of a nail
was a superstitious ceremony, by which the Romans supposed that a
pestilence could be stopped, or an impending calamity averted.
=Æmiliānus C. Julius=, a native of Mauritania, proclaimed emperor
after the death of Decius. He marched against Gallus and Valerian,
but was informed that they had been murdered by their own troops.
He soon after shared their fate.――――One of the thirty tyrants who
rebelled in the reign of Gallienus.
=Æmilius.= _See:_ Æmylius.
=Æmnestus=, tyrant of Enna, was deposed by Dionysius the elder.
_Diodorus_, bk. 14.
=Æmon.= _See:_ Hæmon.
=Æmŏna=, a large city of Asia. _Cicero_, _for Flaccus_.
=Æmŏnia=, a country of Greece which received its name from Æmon,
or Æmus, and was afterwards called Thessaly. Achilles is called
_Æmonius_, as being born there. _Ovid_, _Tristia_, bk. 3, poem 11;
bk. 4, poem 1.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ode 37. It was also called Pyrrha,
from Pyrrha, Deucalion’s wife, who reigned there.――――The word has
been indiscriminately applied to all Greece by some writers. _Pliny_,
bk. 4, ch. 7.
=Æmŏnĭdes=, a priest of Apollo in Italy, killed by Æneas. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 537.
=Æmus=, an actor in Domitian’s reign. _Juvenal_, satire 6, li. 197.
=Æmylia=, a noble family in Rome, descended from Mamercus son of
Pythagoras, who, for his humanity, was called Αἱμυλος, _blandus_.
――――A vestal who rekindled the fire of Vesta, which was extinguished,
by putting her veil over it. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 1, ch. 1.
――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 2.――――The wife of Africanus the
elder, famous for her behaviour to her husband, when suspected of
infidelity. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 6, ch. 7.――――Lepĭda, daughter
of Lepidus, married Drusus the younger, whom she disgraced by her
wantonness. She killed herself when accused of adultery with a slave.
_Tacitus_, bk. 6, ch. 40.――――A part of Italy, called also Flaminia.
_Martial_, bk. 6, ltr. 85.――――A public road leading from Placentia
to Ariminum; called after the consul Æmylius, who is supposed to
have made it. _Martial_, bk. 3, ltr. 4.
=Æmyliānus=, a name of Africanus the younger, son of Publius Æmylius.
In him the families of the Scipios and Æmylii were united. Many of
that family bore the same name. _Juvenal_, satire 8, li. 2.
=Æmylii=, a noble family in Rome, descended from Æmylius the son of
Ascanius. _Plutarch_ says, that they are descended from Mamercus the
son of Pythagoras, surnamed Æmylius from the sweetness of his voice,
in _Numa_ & _Aemilius Paulus_.――The family was distinguished in the
various branches of the Lepidi, Mamerci, Mamercini, Barbulæ, Pauli,
and Scauri.
=Æmylius=, a beautiful youth of Sybaris, whose wife met with the
same fate as Procris. _See:_ Procris.――――Censorinus, a cruel tyrant
of Sicily, who liberally rewarded those who invented new ways of
torturing. Paterculus gave him a brazen horse for this purpose, and
the tyrant made the first experiment upon the donor. _Plutarch_,
_de Fortuna Romanorum_.――――Lepidus, a youth who had a statue in the
capitol, for saving the life of a citizen in a battle. _Valerius
Maximus_, bk. 4, ch. 1.――――A triumvir with Octavius. _See:_ Lepidus.
――――Macer, a poet of Verona in the Augustan age. He wrote some poems
upon serpents, birds, and, as some suppose, on bees. _See:_ Macer.
――――Marcus Scaurus, a Roman who flourished about 100 B.C., and
wrote three books concerning his own life. _Cicero_, _Brutus_.――――A
poet in the age of Tiberius, who wrote a tragedy called Atheus, and
destroyed himself.――――Sura, another writer on the Roman year.――――
Mamercus, three times dictator, conquered the Fidenates, and took
their city. He limited to one year and a half the censorship which
before his time was exercised during five years. _Livy_, bk. 4,
chs. 17, 19, &c.――――Papiniānus, son of Hostilius Papiniānus, was in
favour with the emperor Severus, and was made governor to his sons
Geta and Caracalla. Geta was killed by his brother, and Papiniānus,
for upbraiding him, was murdered by his soldiers. From his school
the Romans have had many able lawyers, who were called Papiniānists.
――――Pappus, a censor, who banished from the senate Publius Cornelius
Ruffinus, who had been twice consul, because he had at his table 10
pounds of silver plate, A.U.C. 478. _Livy_, bk. 14.――――Porcina, an
elegant orator. _Cicero_, _Brutus_.――――Rectus, a severe governor
of Egypt under Tiberius. _Dio Cassius._――――Regillus, conquered the
general of Antiochus at sea, and obtained a naval triumph. _Livy_,
bk. 37, ch. 31.――――Scaurus, a noble but poor citizen of Rome. His
father, to maintain himself, was a coal-merchant. He was edile,
and afterwards pretor, and fought against Jugurtha. His son Marcus
was son-in-law to Sylla, and in his edileship he built a very
magnificent theatre. _Pliny_, bk. 36, ch. 15.――――A bridge at Rome,
called also Sublicius. _Juvenal_, satire 6, li. 22.
=Ænăria=, an island in the bay of Puteoli, abounding with cypress
trees. It received its name from Æneas, who is supposed to have
landed there on his way to Latium. It is called Pithecusa by the
Greeks, and now Ischia, and was famous once for its mineral waters.
_Livy_, bk. 8, ch. 22.――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 6; bk. 31, ch. 2.――
_Statius_, bk. 3, _Sylvæ_, poem 5, li. 104.
=Ænarium=, a forest near Olenos in Achaia, sacred to Jupiter.
=Ænasius=, one of the Ephori at Sparta. _Thucydides_, bk. 9, ch. 2.
=Ænēa=, or =Æneia=, a town of Macedonia, 15 miles from Thessalonica,
founded by Æneas. _Livy_, bk. 40, ch. 4; bk. 44, ch. 10.
=Æneădes=, a town of Chersonesus, built by Æneas. Cassander destroyed
it, and carried the inhabitants to Thessalonica, lately built.
_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 1.
=Ænĕădæ=, a name given to the friends and companions of Æneas by
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 161.
=Ænēas=, a Trojan prince, son of Anchises and the goddess Venus. The
opinions of authors concerning his character are different. His
infancy was intrusted to the care of a nymph, and at the age of five
he was recalled to Troy. He afterwards improved himself in Thessaly
under Chiron, a venerable sage whose house was frequented by the
young princes and heroes of the age. Soon after his return home
he married Creusa, Priam’s daughter by whom he had a son called
Ascanius. During the Trojan war he behaved with great valour, in
defence of his country, and came to an engagement with Diomedes and
Achilles. Yet Strabo, Dictys of Crete, Dionysius of Halicarnassus,
and Dares of Phrygia accuse him of betraying his country to the
Greeks, with Antenor, and of preserving his life and fortune by this
treacherous measure. He lived at variance with Priam, because he
received not sufficient marks of distinction from the king and his
family, as _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 13, says. This might have provoked
him to seek revenge by perfidy. Authors of credit report, that when
Troy was in flames, he carried away upon his shoulders his father
Anchises, and the statues of his household gods, leading in his hand
his son Ascanius, and leaving his wife to follow behind. Some say
that he retired to mount Ida, where he built a fleet of 20 ships,
and set sail in quest of a settlement. Strabo and others maintain
that Æneas never left his country, but rebuilt Troy, where he
reigned, and his posterity after him. Even Homer, who lived 400
years after the Trojan war, says, _Iliad_, bk. 20, li. 30, &c., that
the gods destined Æneas and his posterity to reign over the Trojans.
This passage Dionysius of Halicarnassus explained, by saying that
Homer meant the Trojans who had gone over to Italy with Æneas, and
not the actual inhabitants of Troy. According to Virgil and other
Latin authors, who, to make their court to the Roman emperors,
traced their origin up to Æneas, and described his arrival into
Italy as indubitable, he with his fleet first came to the Thracian
Chersonesus, where Polymnestor, one of his allies, reigned. After
visiting Delos, the Strophades, and Crete, where he expected to find
the empire promised him by the oracle, as in the place where his
progenitors were born, he landed in Epirus, and Drepanum, the court
of king Acestes, in Sicily, where he buried his father. From Sicily
he sailed for Italy, but was driven on the coasts of Africa and
kindly received by Dido queen of Carthage, to whom, on his first
interview he gave one of the garments of the beautiful Helen. Dido,
being enamoured of him, wished to marry him; but he left Carthage by
order of the gods. In his voyage he was driven to Sicily, and from
thence he passed to Cumæ, where the Sibyl conducted him to hell,
that he might hear from his father the fates which attended him and
all his posterity. After a voyage of seven years, and the loss of
13 ships, he came to the Tyber. Latinus, the king of the country,
received him with hospitality, and promised him his daughter Lavinia,
who had been before betrothed to king Turnus by her mother Amata. To
prevent this marriage, Turnus made war against Æneas: and after many
battles, the war was decided by a combat between the two rivals, in
which Turnus was killed. Æneas married Lavinia, in whose honour he
built the town of Lavinium, and succeeded his father-in-law. After a
short reign Æneas was killed in a battle against the Etrurians. Some
say that he was drowned in the Numicus, and his body weighed down by
his armour; upon which the Latins, not finding their king, supposed
that he had been taken up to heaven, and therefore offered him
sacrifices as to a god. Dionysius of Halicarnassus fixes the arrival
of Æneas in Italy in the 54th olympiad. Some authors suppose that
Æneas after the siege of Troy, fell to the share of Neoptolemus,
together with Andromache, and that he was carried to Thessaly,
whence he escaped to Italy. Others say that, after he had come
to Italy, he returned to Troy, leaving Ascanius king in Latium.
Æneas has been praised for his piety, and submission to the will
of the gods. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bks. 13 & 20; _Hymn to Aphrodite_.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 12.――_Diodorus_, bk. 3.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 2, ch. 33; bk. 3, ch. 22; bk. 10, ch. 25.――_Plutarch_, _Romulus_
& _Coriolanus_; _Quæstiones Romanæ_.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 1,
ch. 8.――_Florus_, bk. 1, ch. 1.――_Justin_, bk. 20, ch. 1; bk. 31,
ch. 8; bk. 43, ch. 1.――_Dictys Cretensis_, bk. 5.――_Dares Phrygius_,
ch. 6.――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 1, ch. 11.――_Strabo_,
bk. 13.――_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 1.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_.――_Aurelius
Victor._――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 8, ch. 22.――_Propertius_,
bk. 4, poem 1, li. 42.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 14, fable 3,
&c.; _Tristia_, bk. 4, li. 798.――――A son of Æneas and Lavinia,
called Sylvius, because his mother retired with him into the woods
after his father’s death. He succeeded Ascanius in Latium, though
opposed by Julius the son of his predecessor. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 6, li. 770.――_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 3.――――An ambassador sent by
the Lacedæmonians to Athens, to treat of peace, in the 8th year of
the Peloponnesian war.――――An ancient author who wrote on tactics,
besides other treatises, which, according to Ælian, were epitomized
by Cineas the friend of Pyrrhus.――――A native of Gaza, who, from a
Platonic philosopher, became a Christian, A.D. 485, and wrote a
dialogue called _Theophrastus_, on the immortality of the soul and
the resurrection.
=Ænēia=, or =Ænia=, a place near Rome, afterwards called Janiculum.
――――A city of Troas. _Strabo_, bk. 17.――――A city of Macedonia.
_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 1.
=Æneides=, a patronymic given to Ascanius, as son of Æneas. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 653.
=Ænēis=, a poem of Virgil, which has for its subject the settlement
of Æneas in Italy. The great merit of this poem is well known. The
author has imitated Homer, and, as some say, Homer is superior to
him only because he is more ancient, and is an original. Virgil
died before he had corrected it, and at his death desired it might
be burnt. This was happily disobeyed, and Augustus saved from the
flames a poem which proved his family to be descended from the kings
of Troy. The Æneid had engaged the attention of the poet for 11
years, and in the first six books it seems that it was Virgil’s
design to imitate Homer’s Odyssey, and in the last the Iliad. The
action of the poem comprehends eight years, one of which only, the
last, is really taken up by action, as the seven first are merely
episodes, such as Juno’s attempts to destroy the Trojans, the loves
of Æneas and Dido, the relation of the fall of Troy, &c. In the
first book of the Æneid, the hero is introduced, in the seventh year
of his expedition, sailing in the Mediterranean, and shipwrecked
on the African coast, where he is received by Dido. In the second,
Æneas, at the desire of the Phœnician queen, relates the fall of
Troy, and his flight through the general conflagration to mount Ida.
In the third, the hero continues his narration, by a minute account
of the voyage through the Cyclades, the places where he landed, and
the dreadful storm with the description of which the poem opened.
Dido, in the fourth book, makes public her partiality to Æneas,
which is slighted by the sailing of the Trojans from Carthage,
and the book closes with the suicide of the disappointed queen.
In the fifth book, Æneas sails to Sicily, where he celebrates the
anniversary of his father’s death, and thence pursues his voyage to
Italy. In the sixth, he visits the Elysian fields, and learns from
his father the fate which attends him and his descendants, the
Romans. In the seventh book, the hero reaches the destined land of
Latium, and concludes a treaty with the king of the country, which
is soon broken by the interference of Juno, who stimulates Turnus to
war. The auxiliaries of the enemy are enumerated; and in the eighth
book, Æneas is assisted by Evander, and receives from Venus a shield
wrought by Vulcan, on which are represented the future glory and
triumphs of the Roman nation. The reader is pleased, in the ninth
book, with the account of battles between the rival armies, and the
immortal friendship of Nisus and Euryalus. Jupiter, in the tenth,
attempts a reconciliation between Venus and Juno, who patronized the
opposite parties; the fight is renewed, Pallas killed, and Turnus
saved from the avenging hand of Æneas, by the interposition of Juno.
The eleventh book gives an account of the funeral of Pallas, and of
the meditated reconciliation between Æneas and Latinus, which the
sudden appearance of the enemy defeats. Camilla is slain, and the
combatants separated by the night. In the last book, Juno prevents
the single combat agreed upon by Turnus and Æneas. The Trojans are
defeated in the absence of their king; but on the return of Æneas,
the battle assumes a different turn, a single combat is fought by
the rival leaders, and the poem is concluded by the death of king
Turnus. _Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 30, &c.
=Ænesidēmus=, a brave general of Argos. _Livy_, bk. 32, ch. 25.――――A
Cretan philosopher, who wrote eight books on the doctrine of his
master Pyrrho. _Diogenes Laërtius_, _Pyrrhonists_.
=Ænēsius=, a surname of Jupiter from mount Ænum.
=Ænētus=, a victor at Olympia, who, in the moment of victory, died
through excess of joy. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 18.
=Ænia.= _See:_ Æneia.
=Ænicus=, a comic writer at Athens.
=Æniŏchi=, a people of Asiatic Sarmatia. _Lucan_, bk. 2, li. 591.
=Ænobarbus=, or =Ahenobarbus=, the surname of Domitius. When Castor
and Pollux acquainted him with a victory, he discredited them;
upon which they touched his chin and beard, which instantly became
of a brazen colour, whence the surname given to himself and his
descendants.
=Ænŏcles=, a writer of Rhodes. _Athenæus._
=Ænos=, now _Eno_, an independent city of Thrace, at the eastern mouth
of the Hebrus, confounded with Æneia, of which Æneas was the founder.
_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 2.
=Ænum=, a town of Thrace――――of Thessaly.――――A mountain in Cephallenia.
_Strabo_, bk. 7.――――A river and village near Ossa.――――A city of
Crete, built by Æneas.
=Ænȳra=, a town of Thasos. _Herodotus_, bk. 6, ch. 47.
=Æŏlia=, a name given to Arne. Sappho is called _Æolia puella_, and
lyric poetry _Æolium carmen_, because of Alcæus and Sappho, natives
of Lesbos in Æolia. _Horace_, bk. 4, ode 3, li. 12, and ode 9,
li. 12.
=Æŏlia=, or =Æolis=, a country of Asia Minor, near the Ægean sea.
It has Troas at the north, and Ionia at the south. The inhabitants
were of Grecian origin, and were masters of many of the neighbouring
islands. They had 12, others say 30, considerable cities, of which
Cumæ and Lesbos were the most famous. They received their name from
Æolus son of Hellenus. They migrated from Greece about 1124 B.C.,
80 years before the migration of the Ionian tribes. _Herodotus_,
bk. 1, ch. 26, &c.――_Strabo_, bks. 1, 2, & 6.――_Pliny_, bk. 5,
ch. 30.――_Mela_, bk. 1, chs. 2 & 18.――――Thessaly has been anciently
called Æolia. Bœotus son of Neptune, having settled there, called
his followers Bœotians, and their country Bœotia.
=Æoliæ= and =Æolĭdes=, seven islands between Sicily and Italy, called
Lipara, Hiera, Strongyle, Didyme, Ericusa, Phœnicusa, and Euonymos.
They were the retreat of the winds; and _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1,
li. 56, calls them Æolia, and the kingdom of Æolus the god of
storms and winds. They sometimes bear the name of _Vulcaniæ_ and
_Hephæstides_, and are known now among the moderns under the general
appellation of Lipari islands. _Lucan_, bk. 5, li. 609.――_Justin_,
bk. 4, ch. 1.
=Æolĭda=, a city of Tenedos.――――Another near Thermopylæ. _Herodotus_,
bk. 8, ch. 35.
=Æolĭdes=, a patronymic of Ulysses, from Æolus; because Anticlea, his
mother, was pregnant by Sisyphus the son of Æolus, when she married
Laertes. It is also given to Athamas and Misenus, as sons of Æolus.
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 4, li. 511; bk. 13, li. 31.――_Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 6, lis. 164 & 529.
=Æŏlus=, the king of storms and winds, was the son of Hippotas. He
reigned over Æolia; and because he was the inventor of sails, and a
great astronomer, the poets have called him the god of the wind. It
is said that he confined in a bag, and gave Ulysses all the winds
that could blow against his vessel, when he returned to Ithaca.
The companions of Ulysses untied the bag, and gave the winds their
liberty. Æolus was indebted to Juno for his royal dignity, according
to Virgil. The name seems to be derived from αἰολος, _varius_,
because the winds, over which he presided, are ever varying.――――
There were two others, a king of Etruria, father to Macareus and
Canace, and a son of Hellenus, often confounded with the god of the
winds. This last married Enaretta, by whom he had seven sons and
five daughters. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 7.――_Homer_, _Odyssey_,
bk. 10, li. 1.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 11, li. 478; bk. 14,
li. 224.――_Apollonius_, bk. 4, _Argonautica_.――_Flaccus_, bk. 1,
li. 556.――_Diodorus_, bks. 4 & 5.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 56,
&c.
=Æōra=, a festival at Athens, in honour of Erigone.
=Æpālius=, a king of Greece, restored to his kingdom by Hercules,
whose son Hyllus he adopted. _Strabo_, bk. 9.
=Æpēa=, a town of Crete, called Solis, in honour of Solon. _Plutarch_,
_Solon_.
=Æpŭlo=, a general of the Istrians, who drank to excess, after he
had stormed the camp of Acidinus Manlius the Roman general. Being
attacked by a soldier, he fled to a neighbouring town, which the
Romans took, and killed himself for fear of being taken. _Florus_,
bk. 2, ch. 10.
=Æpy=, a town of Elis, under the dominion of Nestor. _Statius_, bk. 4,
_Thebiad_, li. 180.
=Æpy̆tus=, king of Mycenæ, son of Chresphontes and Merope, was educated
in Arcadia with Cypselus his mother’s father. To recover his kingdom,
he killed Polyphontes, who had married his mother against her will,
and usurped the crown. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 6.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 4, ch. 8.――――A king of Arcadia, son of Elatus.――――A son of
Hippothous, who forcibly entered the temple of Neptune, near
Mantinea, and was struck blind by the sudden eruption of salt water
from the altar. He was killed by a serpent in hunting. _Pausanias_,
bk. 8, chs. 4 & 5.
=Æqui=, or =Æquicŏli=, a people of Latium, near Tibur. They were great
enemies to Rome in its infant state, and were conquered with much
difficulty. _Florus_, bk. 1, ch. 11.――_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 32; bk. 2,
ch. 30; bk. 3, ch. 2, &c.――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 4.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 7, li. 747; bk. 9, li. 684.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 3, li. 93.――
_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 2, ch. 19.
=Æquimelium=, a place in Rome where the house of Melius stood, who
aspired to sovereign power, for which crime his habitation was
levelled to the ground. _Livy_, bk. 4, ch. 16.
=Ærias=, an ancient king of Cyprus, who built the temple of Paphos.
_Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 2, ch. 3.
=Ærŏpe=, wife of Atreus, committed adultery with Thyestes her
brother-in-law, and had by him twins, who were placed as food before
Atreus. _Ovid_, _Tristia_, bk. 2, li. 391.――――A daughter of Cepheus,
ravished by Mars. She died in child-bed: her child was preserved,
and called Æropus. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 44.
=Ærŏpus=, a general of Epirus in the reign of Pyrrhus.――――A person
appointed regent to Orestes the infant son of Archelaus king of
Macedonia.――――An officer of king Philip, banished for bringing a
singer into his camp. _Polyænus_, bk. 4, ch. 2.――――A mountain of
Chaonia. _Livy_, bk. 31, ch. 5.
=Æsăcus=, a river of Troy, near Ida.――――A son of Priam by Alexirhoo:
or according to others by Arisba. He became enamoured of Hesperia,
whom he pursued into the woods. The nymph threw herself into the sea,
and was changed into a bird. Æsacus followed her example, and was
changed into a cormorant by Tethys. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 11,
fable 11.
=Æsāpus=, a river of Mysia in Asia, falling into the Hellespont.
_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 32.
=Æsar=, or =Æsāras=, a river of Magna Græcia, falling into the sea
near Crotona. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 15, li. 28.
=Æschĭnes=, an Athenian orator, who flourished about 342 B.C., and
distinguished himself by his rivalship with Demosthenes. His
father’s name was Atrometus, and he boasted of his descent from a
noble family, though Demosthenes reproached him as being the son
of a courtesan. The first open signs of enmity between the rival
orators appeared at the court of Philip, where they were sent as
ambassadors; but the character of Æschines was tarnished by the
acceptance of a bribe from the Macedonian prince, whose tyranny
had hitherto been the general subject of his declamation. When the
Athenians wished to reward the patriotic labours of Demosthenes with
a golden crown, Æschines impeached Ctesiphon, who proposed it; and
to their subsequent dispute we are indebted for the two celebrated
orations _de coronâ_. Æschines was defeated by his rival’s superior
eloquence, and banished to Rhodes; but as he retired from Athens,
Demosthenes ran after him, and nobly forced him to accept a present
of silver. In his banishment, the orator repeated to the Rhodians
what he had delivered against Demosthenes; and after receiving
much applause, he was desired to read the answer of his antagonist.
It was received with greater marks of approbation; but, exclaimed
Æschines, how much more would your admiration have been raised,
had you heard Demosthenes himself speak it! Æschines died in the
75th year of his age, at Rhodes, or, as some suppose, at Samos. He
wrote three orations, and nine epistles, which, from their number,
received the name, the first of the graces, and the last of the
muses. The orations alone are extant, generally found collected with
those of Lysias. An oration which bears the name of _Deliaca lex_,
is said not to be his production, but that of Æschines, another
orator of that age. _Cicero_, _On Oratory_, bk. 1, ch. 24; bk. 2,
ch. 53; _Brutus_, ch. 17.――_Plutarch_, _Demosthenes_.――_Diogenes
Laërtius_, bks. 2 & 3.――_Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 30. Diogenes Laërtius
mentions seven more of the same name.――――A philosopher, disciple
of Socrates, who wrote several dialogues, some of which bore the
following titles: Aspasia, Phædon, Alcibiades, Draco, Erycia,
Polyænus, Telauges, &c. The dialogue entitled Axiochus, and ascribed
to Plato, is supposed to be his composition. The best editions are
that of Leovard, 1718, with the notes of Horræus, in 8vo, and that
of Fischer, 8vo, Lipscomb, 1766.――――A man who wrote on oratory.
――――An Arcadian.――――A Mitylenean.――――A disciple of Melanthius.――――A
Milesian writer.――――A statuary.
=Æschrion=, a Mitylenean poet, intimate with Aristotle. He accompanied
Alexander in his Asiatic expedition.――――An Iambic poet of Samos.
_Athenæus._――――A physician commended by Galen. A treatise of his own
husbandry has been quoted by _Pliny_.――――A lieutenant of Archagathus,
killed by Hanno. _Diodorus_, bk. 20.
=Æschylīdes=, a man who wrote a book on agriculture. _Ælian_, _Nature
of Animals_, bk. 15.
=Æschy̆lus=, an excellent soldier and poet of Athens, son of Euphorion,
and brother to Cynægirus. He was in the Athenian army at the battles
of Marathon, Salamis, and Platæa. But the most solid fame he has
obtained, is the offspring less of his valour in the field of battle
than of his writings. Of 90 tragedies, however, the fruit of his
ingenious labours, 40 of which were rewarded with the public prize,
only seven have come safe to us: _Prometheus vinctus_, _Septem
duces apud Thebas_, _Persæ_, _Agamemnon_, _Chœphori_, _Eumenides_,
_Supplices_. Æschylus is the first who introduced two actors on the
stage, and clothed them with dresses suitable to their character.
He likewise removed murder from the stage. It is said that, when
he composed, his countenance betrayed the greatest ferocity;
and according to one of his scholiasts, when his Eumenides were
represented, many children died through fear, and several pregnant
women actually miscarried in the house, at the sight of the horrible
masks that were introduced. The imagination of the poet was strong
and comprehensive, but disorderly and wild: fruitful in prodigies,
but disdaining probabilities. His style is obscure, and the labours
of an excellent modern critic have pronounced him the most difficult
of all the Greek classics. A few expressions of impious tendency in
one of his plays, nearly proved fatal to Æschylus; he was condemned
to death, but his brother Amynias, it is reported, reversed his
sentence, by uncovering an arm, of which the hand had been cut off
at the battle of Salamis in the service of his country, and the poet
was pardoned. Æschylus has been accused of drinking to excess, and
of never composing except when in a state of intoxication. In his
old age he retired to the court of Hiero in Sicily. Being informed
that he was to die by the fall of a house, he became dissatisfied
with the fickleness of his countrymen, and withdrew from the city
into the fields, where he sat down. An eagle, with a tortoise in
her bill, flew over his bald head, and supposing it to be a stone,
dropped her prey upon it to break the shell, and Æschylus instantly
died of the blow, in the 69th year of his age, 456 B. C. It is
said that he wrote an account of the battle of Marathon, in elegiac
verses. The best editions of his works are that of Stanley, folio,
London, 1663, that of Glasgow, 2 vols. in 12mo, 1746, and that
of Schutz, 2 vols., 8vo, Halæ, 1782.――_Horace_, _Art of Poetry_,
li. 278.――_Quintilian_, bk. 10, ch. 1.――_Pliny_, bk. 10, ch. 3.――
_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 9, ch. 12.――――The 12th perpetual archon
of Athens.――――A Corinthian, brother-in-law to Timophanes, intimate
with Timoleon. _Plutarch_, _Timoleon_.――――A Rhodian set over Egypt
with Peucestes of Macedonia. _Curtius_, bk. 4, ch. 8.――――A native of
Cnidus, teacher of rhetoric to Cicero. _Cicero_, _Brutus_.
=Æsculāpius=, son of Apollo by Coronis, or as some say, by Larissa
daughter of Phlegias, was god of medicine. After his union with
Coronis, Apollo set a crow to watch her, and was soon informed that
she admitted the caresses of Ischys of Æmonia. The god, in a fit of
anger, destroyed Coronis with lightning, but saved the infant from
her womb, and gave him to be educated to Chiron, who taught him the
art of medicine. Some authors say, that Coronis left her father to
avoid the discovery of her pregnancy, and that she exposed her child
near Epidaurus. A goat of the flocks of Aresthanas gave him her milk,
and the dog which kept the flock stood by him to shelter him from
injury. He was found by the master of the flock, who went in search
of his stray goat, and saw his head surrounded with resplendent rays
of light. Æsculapius was physician to the Argonauts, and considered
so skilled in the medicinal power of plants, that he was called the
inventor as well as the god of medicine. He restored many to life,
of which Pluto complained to Jupiter, who struck Æsculapius with
thunder, but Apollo, angry at the death of his son, killed the
Cyclops who made the thunderbolts. Æsculapius received divine
honours after death, chiefly at Epidaurus, Pergamus, Athens, Smyrna,
&c. Goats, bulls, lambs, and pigs were sacrificed on his altars, and
the cock and the serpent were sacred to him. Rome, A.U.C. 462, was
delivered of a plague, and built a temple to the god of medicine,
who, as was supposed, had come there in the form of a serpent, and
hid himself among the reeds in an island of the Tyber. Æsculapius
was represented with a large beard, holding in his hand a staff,
round which was wreathed a serpent: his other hand was supported on
the head of a serpent. Serpents are more particularly sacred to him,
not only as the ancient physicians used them in their prescriptions;
but because they were the symbols of prudence and foresight, so
necessary in the medical profession. He married Epione, by whom
he had two sons, famous for their skill in medicine, Machaon and
Podalirus; and four daughters, of whom Hygiea, goddess of health,
is the most celebrated. Some have supposed that he lived a short
time after the Trojan war. Hesiod makes no mention of him. _Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 4, li. 193; _Hymn to Æsculapius_.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3,
ch. 10.――_Apollonius_, bk. 4, _Argonautica_.――_Hyginus_, fable 49.
――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 2, fable 8.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, chs.
11 & 27; bk. 7, ch. 23, &c.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Pindar_, _Pythian_,
poem 3.――_Lucian_, _Dialogi de Saltatione_.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk.
1, ch. 8.――_Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 3, ch. 22, says there
were three of this name; the first, a son of Apollo, worshipped in
Arcadia; second, a brother of Mercury; third, a man who first taught
medicine.
=Æsēpus=, a son of Bucolion. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 6, li. 21.――――A
river. _See:_ Æsapus.
=Æsernia=, a city of the Samnites, in Italy. _Livy_, bk. 27,
ch. 12.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 567.
=Æsīon=, an Athenian, known for his respect for the talents of
Demosthenes. _Plutarch_, _Demosthenes_.
=Æsis=, a river of Italy, which separates Umbria from Picenum.
=Æson=, son of Cretheus, was born at the same birth as Pelias. He
succeeded his father in the kingdom of Iolchos, but was soon exiled
by his brother. He married Alcimeda, by whom he had Jason, whose
education he entrusted to Chiron, being afraid of Pelias. When
Jason was grown up, he demanded his father’s kingdom from his uncle,
who gave him evasive answers, and persuaded him to go in quest of
the golden fleece. _See:_ Jason. At his return, Jason found his
father very infirm; and Medea [_See:_ Medea], at his request, drew
the blood from Æson’s veins, and refilled them with the juice of
certain herbs which she had gathered, and immediately the old man
recovered the vigour and bloom of youth. Some say that Æson killed
himself by drinking bull’s blood, to avoid the persecution of
Pelias. _Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, li. 285.――_Hyginus_, fable 12.――――A river of
Thessaly, with a town of the same name.
=Æsŏnĭdes=, a patronymic of Jason, as being descended from Æson.
=Æsōpus=, a Phrygian philosopher, who, though originally a slave,
procured his liberty by the sallies of his genius. He travelled
over the greatest part of Greece and Egypt, but chiefly resided at
the court of Crœsus king of Lydia, by whom he was sent to consult
the oracle of Delphi. In this commission Æsop behaved with great
severity, and satirically compared the Delphians to floating sticks,
which appear large at a distance, but are nothing when brought near.
The Delphians, offended with his sarcastic remarks, accused him of
having secreted one of the sacred vessels of Apollo’s temple, and
threw him down from a rock, 561 B.C. Maximus Planudes has written
his life in Greek; but no credit is to be given to the biographer,
who falsely asserts that the mythologist was short and deformed.
Æsop dedicated his fables to his patron Crœsus; but what appears
now under his name, is no doubt a compilation of all the fables and
apologues of wits before and after the age of Æsop, conjointly with
his own. _Plutarch_, _Solon_.――_Phædras_, bk. 1, fable 2; bk. 2,
fable 9.――――Claudus, an actor on the Roman stage, very intimate with
Cicero. He amassed an immense fortune. His son, to be more expensive,
melted precious stones to drink at his entertainments. _Horace_,
bk. 2, satire 3, li. 239.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 8, ch. 10;
bk. 9, ch. 1.――_Pliny_, bk. 9, ch. 35; bk. 10, ch. 51.――――An orator.
_Diogenes Laërtius._――――An historian in the time of Anaximenes.
_Plutarch_, _Solon_.――――A river of Pontus. _Strabo_, bk. 12.――――An
attendant of Mithridates, who wrote a treatise on Helen, and a
panegyric on his royal master.
=Æstria=, an island in the Adriatic. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.
=Æsŭla=, a town on a mountain between Tibur and Præneste. _Horace_,
bk. 3, ode 29.
=Æsyetes=, a man from whose tomb Polites spied what the Greeks did in
their ships during the Trojan war. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2, li. 793.
=Æsymnētes=, a surname of Bacchus. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 21.
=Æsymnus=, a person of Megara, who consulted Apollo to know the best
method of governing his country. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 43.
=Æthalia=, or =Ætheria=, now _Elba_, an island between Etruria and
Corsica. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 6; bk. 6, ch. 30.
=Æthalĭdes=, a herald, son of Mercury, to whom it was granted to
be amongst the dead and the living at stated times. _Apollonius_,
_Argonautica_, bk. 1, li. 641.
=Æthion=, a man slain at the nuptials of Andromeda. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, li. 146.
=Æthiŏpia=, an extensive country of Africa, at the south of Egypt,
divided into east and west by the ancients, the former division
lying near Meroe, and the latter near the Mauri. The country,
properly now called Abyssinia, as well as the inhabitants, were
little known to the ancients, though Homer has styled them the
justest of men and the favourites of the gods. _Diodorus_, bk. 4,
says, that the Æthiopians were the first inhabitants of the earth.
They were the first who worshipped the gods, for which, as some
suppose, their country has never been invaded by a foreign enemy.
The inhabitants are of a dark complexion. The country is inundated
for five months every year, and their days and nights are almost
of an equal length. The ancients have given the name of Æthiopia
to every country whose inhabitants are of a black colour. _Lucan_,
bk. 3, li. 253; bk. 9, li. 651.――_Juvenal_, satire 2, li. 23.
――_Virgil_, [_Eclogues_], poem 6, li. 68.――_Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 29.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 33.――_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 1, li. 22;
_Iliad_, bk. 1, li. 423.
=Æthlius=, son of Jupiter by Protogenia, was father of Endymion.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 7.
=Æthon=, a horse of the sun. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 2, fable 1.
――――A horse of Pallas, represented as shedding tears at the death
of his master, by _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 11, li. 89.――――A horse of
Hector. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 8, li. 185.
=Æthra=, daughter of Pittheus king of Trœzene, had Theseus by Ægeus.
_See:_ Ægeus. She was carried away by Castor and Pollux, when they
recovered their sister Helen, whom Theseus had stolen, and intrusted
to her care. _See:_ Helena. She went to Troy with Helen. _Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 3, li. 144.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 31; bk. 5, ch.
19.――_Hyginus_, fables 37 & 79.――_Plutarch_, _Theseus_.――_Ovid_,
_Heroides_, poem 10, li. 131.――――One of the Oceanides, wife to Atlas.
She is more generally called Pleione.
=Æthūsa=, a daughter of Neptune by Amphitrite, or Alcyone, mother by
Apollo of Eleuthere and two sons. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 20.――――An
island near Lilybæum. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 8.
=Ætia=, a poem of Callimachus, in which he speaks of sacrifices, and
of the manner in which they were offered. _Martial_, bk. 10, ltr. 4.
=Ætion=, or =Eetion=, the father of Andromache, Hector’s wife. He was
killed at Thebes, with his seven sons, by the Greeks.――――A famous
painter. He drew a painting of Alexander going to celebrate his
nuptials with Roxane. This piece was much valued, and was exposed to
public view at the Olympic games, where it gained so much applause
that the president of the games gave the painter his daughter in
marriage. _Cicero_, _Brutus_, ch. 18.
=Ætna=, a mountain of Sicily, now called Gibello, famous for its
volcano, which, for about 3000 years, has thrown out fire at
intervals. It is two miles in perpendicular height, and measures
180 miles round at the base, with an ascent of 30 miles. Its crater
forms a circle about 3½ miles in circumference, and its top is
covered with snow and smoke at the same time, whilst the sides of
the mountain, from the great fertility of the soil, exhibit a rich
scenery of cultivated fields and blooming vineyards. Pindar is the
first who mentions an eruption of Ætna; and the silence of Homer on
the subject is considered as a proof that the fires of the mountain
were unknown in his age. From the time of Pythagoras, the supposed
date of the first volcanic appearance, to the battle of Pharsalia,
it is computed that Ætna had 100 eruptions. The poets supposed that
Jupiter had confined the giants under this mountain, and it was
represented as the forge of Vulcan, where his servants the Cyclops
fabricated thunderbolts, &c. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 860.――_Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 570.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, fable 6;
bk. 15, li. 340.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 14, li. 59.
=Ætōlia=, a country bounded by Epirus, Acarnania, and Locris, supposed
to be about the middle of Greece. It received its name from Ætolus.
The inhabitants were covetous and illiberal, and were little
known in Greece, till after the ruin of Athens and Sparta they
assumed consequence in the country, and afterwards made themselves
formidable as the allies of Rome, and as its enemies, till they were
conquered by Fulvius. _Livy_, bk. 26, ch. 24, &c.――_Florus_, bk. 2,
ch. 9.――_Strabo_, bks. 8 & 10.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.――_Pliny_,
bk. 4, ch. 2.――_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 18.――_Plutarch_, _Titus
Flamininus_.
=Ætōlus=, son of Endymion of Elis and Iphianassa, married Pronoe, by
whom he had Pleuron and Calydon. Having accidentally killed Apis
son of Phoroneus, he left his country, and came to settle in that
part of Greece which has been called from him Ætolia. _Apollodorus_,
bk. 1, chs. 7 & 9.――_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 1.
=Æx=, a rocky island between Tenedos and Chios. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch.
11.――――A city in the country of the Marsi.――――The nurse of Jupiter
changed into a constellation.
=Afer=, an inhabitant of Africa.――――An informer under Tiberius and his
successors. He became also known as an orator, and as the preceptor
of Quintilian, and was made consul by Domitian. He died A. D. 59.
=Afrānia=, a Roman matron, who frequented the forum, forgetful of
female decency. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 8, ch. 3.
=Lucius Afrānius=, a Latin comic poet in the age of Terence, often
compared to Menander, whose style he imitated. He is blamed for
the unnatural gratifications which he mentions in his writings,
some fragments of which are to be found in the _Corpus Poetarum_.
_Quintilian_, bk. 10, ch. 1.――_Suetonius_, _Nero_, ch. 11.――_Horace_,
bk. 2, ltr. 1, li. 57.――_Cicero_, _de Finibus_, bk. 1, ch. 3.――
_Aulus Gellius_, bk. 13, ch. 8.――――A general of Pompey, conquered
by Cæsar in Spain. _Suetonius_, _Julius Cæsar_, ch. 34.――_Plutarch_,
_Pompey_.――――Quintianus, a man who wrote a severe satire against
Nero, for which he was put to death in the Pisonian conspiracy.
_Tacitus._――――Potitus, a plebeian, who said before Caligula, that he
would willingly die if the emperor could recover from the distemper
he laboured under. Caligula recovered, and Afranius was put to death
that he might not forfeit his word. _Dio Cassius._
=Afrĭca=, called _Libya_ by the Greeks, one of the three parts of
the ancient world, and the greatest peninsula of the universe, is
bounded on the east by Arabia and the Red sea, on the north by the
Mediterranean, south and west by the ocean. In its greatest length
it extends 4300 miles, and in its greatest breadth it is 3500 miles.
It is joined on the east to Asia, by an isthmus 60 miles long, which
some of the Ptolemies endeavoured to cut, in vain, to join the Red
and Mediterranean seas. It is so immediately situate under the sun,
that only the maritime parts are inhabited, and the inland country
is mostly barren and sandy, and infested with wild beasts. The
ancients, through ignorance, peopled the southern parts of Africa
with monsters, enchanters, and chimeras; errors which begin to be
corrected by modern travellers. _See:_ Libya. _Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 4,
&c.――_Diodorus_, bks. 3, 4, & 20.――_Herodotus_, bk. 2, chs. 17, 26,
& 32; bk. 4, ch. 41, &c.――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 1, &c.――――There is a
part of Africa called _Propria_, which lies about the middle, on the
Mediterranean, and has Carthage for its capital.
=Africānus=, a blind poet, commended by Ennius.――――A christian writer,
who flourished A.D. 222. In his chronicle, which was universally
esteemed, he reckoned 5500 years from the creation of the world
to the age of Julius Cæsar. Nothing remains of this work but what
Eusebius has preserved. In a letter to Origen, Africanus proved
that the history of Susanna is supposititious; and in another to
Aristides, still extant, he endeavours to reconcile the seeming
contradictions that appear in the genealogies of Christ in St.
Matthew and Luke. He is supposed to be the same who wrote nine books,
in which he treats of physic, agriculture, &c.――――A lawyer, disciple
to Papinian, and intimate with the emperor Alexander.――――An orator
mentioned by Quintilian.――――The surname of the Scipios, from the
conquest of Africa. _See:_ Scipio.
=Afrĭcum mare=, is that part of the Mediterranean which is on the
coast of Africa.
=Agăgriāne portæ=, gates at Syracuse, near which the dead were buried.
_Cicero_, _Tusculanæ Disputationes_.
=Agalasses=, a nation of India, conquered by Alexander. _Diodorus_,
bk. 17.
=Agalla=, a woman of Corcyra, who wrote a treatise upon grammar.
_Athenæus_, bk. 1.
=Agamēdes= and =Trophonius=, two architects who made the entrance of
the temple of Delphi, for which they demanded of the god whatever
gift was most advantageous for a man to receive. Eight days after
they were found dead in their bed. _Plutarch_, _Consolatio ad
Apollonium_.――_Cicero_, _Tusculanæ Disputationes_, bk. 1, ch. 47.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, chs. 11 & 37, gives a different account.
=Agamemnon=, king of Mycenæ and Argos, was brother to Menelaus, and
son of Plisthenes the son of Atreus. Homer calls them sons of Atreus,
which is false, upon the authority of Hesiod, Apollodorus, &c. _See:_
Plisthenes. When Atreus was dead, his brother Thyestes seized the
kingdom of Argos, and removed Agamemnon and Menelaus, who fled to
Polyphidus king of Sicyon, and hence to Œneus king of Ætolia, where
they were educated. Agamemnon married Clytemnestra, and Menelaus
Helen, both daughters of Tyndarus king of Sparta, who assisted
them to recover their father’s kingdom. After the banishment of
the usurper to Cythera, Agamemnon established himself at Mycenæ,
whilst Menelaus succeeded his father-in-law at Sparta. When Helen
was stolen by Paris, Agamemnon was elected commander-in-chief of
the Grecian forces going against Troy; and he showed his zeal in the
cause by furnishing 100 ships, and lending 60 more to the people of
Arcadia. The fleet was detained at Aulis, where Agamemnon sacrificed
his daughter to appease Diana. _See:_ Iphigenia. During the Trojan
war, Agamemnon behaved with much valour; but his quarrel with
Achilles, whose mistress he took by force, was fatal to the Greeks.
_See:_ Briseis. After the ruin of Troy, Cassandra fell to his share,
and foretold him that his wife would put him to death. He gave no
credit to this, and returned to Argos with Cassandra. Clytemnestra,
with her adulterer Ægisthus [_See:_ Ægisthus], prepared to murder
him; and as he came from the bath, to embarrass him, she gave him
a tunic, whose sleeves were sewed together, and while he attempted
to put it on, she brought him to the ground with a stroke of a
hatchet, and Ægisthus seconded her blows. His death was revenged by
his son Orestes. _See:_ Clytemnestra, Menelaus, and Orestes. _Homer_,
_Iliad_, bks. 1, 2, &c.; _Odyssey_, bk. 4, &c.――_Ovid_, _Remedia
Amoris_, li. 777; _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12, li. 30.――_Hyginus_,
fables 88 & 97.――_Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Thucydides_, bk. 1, ch. 9.――
_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 4, ch. 26.――_Dictys Cretensis_, bks.
1, 2, &c.――_Dares Phrygius._――_Sophocles_, _Electra_.――_Euripides_,
_Orestes_.――_Seneca_, _Agamemnon_.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 6; bk. 9,
ch. 40, &c.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 838.――_Mela_, bk. 2,
ch. 3.
=Agamemnonius=, an epithet applied to Orestes, as son of Agamemnon.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 4, li. 471.
=Agamētor=, an athlete of Mantinea. _Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 10.
=Agamnestor=, a king of Athens.
=Aganippe=, a celebrated fountain of Bœotia, at the foot of mount
Helicon. It flows into the Permessus, and is sacred to the muses,
who, from it, were called Aganippedes. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 29.
――_Propertius_, bk. 2, poem 3.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5,
li. 312.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 7.
=Agapēnor=, the commander of Agamemnon’s fleet. _Homer_, _Iliad_,
bk. 2.――――The son of Ancæus, and grandson of Lycurgus, who, after
the ruin of Troy, was carried by a storm into Cyprus, where he built
Paphos. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 5.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2.
=Agar=, a town of Africa. _Hirtius_, _African War_, ch. 76.
=Agarēni=, a people of Arabia. Trajan destroyed their city, called
Agarum. _Strabo_, bk. 16.
=Agarista=, daughter of Clisthenes, was courted by all the princes
of Greece. She married Megacles. _Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk.
12, ch. 24.――_Herodotus_, bk. 6, ch. 126, &c.――――A daughter of
Hippocrates, who married Xantippus. She dreamed that she had
brought forth a lion, and some time after became mother of Pericles.
_Plutarch_, _Pericles_.――_Herodotus_, bk. 6, ch. 131.
=Agasĭcles=, king of Sparta, was son of Archidamus, and one of the
Proclidæ. He used to say that a king ought to govern his subjects as
a father governs his children. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 7.――_Plutarch_,
_Apophthegmata Laconica_.
=Agassæ=, a city of Thessaly. _Livy_, bk. 45, ch. 27.
=Agasthĕnes=, father to Polyxenus, was, as one of Helen’s suitors,
concerned in the Trojan war. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2.――_Apollodorus_,
bk. 3, ch. 11.――――A son of Augeas, who succeeded as king of Elis.
_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 3.
=Agrastrŏphus=, a Trojan, wounded by Diomedes. _Homer_, _Iliad_,
bk. 11, li. 338.
=Agasthus=, an archon of Athens.
=Agăsus=, a harbour on the coast of Apulia. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 11.
=Agătha=, a town of France near _Agde_, in Languedoc. _Mela_, bk. 2,
ch. 5.
=Agatharchĭdas=, a general of Corinth in the Peloponnesian war.
_Thucydides_, bk. 2, ch. 83.――――A Samian philosopher and historian,
who wrote a treatise on stones, and a history of Persia and Phœnice,
besides an account of the Red sea, of Europe and Asia. Some make
him a native of Cnidus, and add that he flourished about 177 B.C.
_Josephus_, _Against Apion_.
=Agatharchus=, an officer in the Syracusan fleet. _Thucydides_, bk. 7,
ch. 27.――――A painter in the age of Zeuxis. _Plutarch_, _Pericles_.
=Agathias=, a Greek historian of Æolia.――――A poet and historian in the
age of Justinian, of whose reign he published the history in five
books. Several of his epigrams are found in the _Anthologia_. His
history is a sequel of that of Procopius. The best edition is that
of Paris, folio, 1660.
=Agătho=, a Samian historian, who wrote an account of Scythia.――――A
tragic poet, who flourished 406 B.C. The name of some of his
tragedies are preserved, such as Telephus, Thyestes, &c.――――A comic
poet who lived in the same age. _Plutarch_, _Parallela minora_.――――A
son of Priam. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 24.――――A governor of Babylon.
_Curtius_, bk. 5, ch. 1.――――A Pythagorean philosopher. _Ælian_,
_Varia Historia_, bk. 13, ch. 4.――――A learned and melodious musician,
who first introduced songs in tragedy. _Aristotle_, _Poetics_.――――A
youth of Athens, loved by Plato. _Diogenes Laërtius_, bk. 3, ch. 32.
=Agathŏclēa=, a beautiful courtesan of Egypt. One of the Ptolemies
destroyed his wife Eurydice to marry her. She, with her brother,
long governed the kingdom, and attempted to murder the king’s son.
_Plutarch_, _Cleomenes_.――_Justin_, bk. 30, ch. 1.
=Agathŏcles=, a lascivious and ignoble youth, son of a potter, who,
by entering in the Sicilian army, arrived to the greatest honours,
and made himself master of Syracuse. He reduced all Sicily under
his power, but being defeated at Himera by the Carthaginians, he
carried the war into Africa, where, for four years, he extended his
conquests over his enemies. He afterwards passed into Italy, and
made himself master of Crotona. He died in his 72nd year, B.C. 289,
after a reign of 28 years of mingled prosperity and adversity.
_Plutarch_, _Apophthegmata Laconica_.――_Justin_, bks. 22 & 23.――
_Polybius_, bk. 15.――_Diodorus_, bk. 18, &c.――――A son of Lysimachus,
taken prisoner by the Getæ. He was ransomed, and married Lysandra
daughter of Ptolemy Lagus. His father, in his old age, married
Arsinoe the sister of Lysandra. After her husband’s death, Arsinoe,
fearful for her children, attempted to murder Agathocles. Some say
that she fell in love with him, and killed him because he slighted
her. When Agathocles was dead, 283 B.C., Lysandra fled to Seleucus.
_Strabo_, bk. 13.――_Plutarch_, _Pyrrhus_ & _Demetrius_.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 1, chs. 9 & 10.――――A Grecian historian of Babylon, who wrote an
account of Cyzicus. _Cicero_, _de Divinatione_, bk. 1, ch. 24.――――A
Chian who wrote on husbandry. _Varro._――――A Samian writer.――――A
physician.――――An Athenian archon.
=Agăthon.= _See:_ Agatho.
=Agathonȳmus=, wrote a history of Persia. _Plutarch_, _de Fluviis_.
=Agathosthĕnes=, a poet, &c.
=Agathyllus=, an elegiac poet of Arcadia. _Dionysius of Halicarnassus_,
bk. 1.
=Agathynum=, a town of Sicily.
=Agathyrsi=, an effeminate nation of Scythia, who had their wives in
common. They received their name from Agathyrsus son of Hercules.
_Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 10.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 4, li. 146.
=Agāve=, daughter of Cadmus and Hermione, married Echion, by whom
she had Pentheus, who was torn to pieces by the Bacchanals. _See:_
Pentheus. She is said to have killed her husband in celebrating the
orgies of Bacchus. She received divine honours after death, because
she had contributed to the education of Bacchus. _Theocritus_,
poem 26.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 3, li. 725.――_Lucan_, bk. 1,
li. 574.――_Statius_, _Thebiad_, bk. 11, li. 318.――_Apollodorus_,
bk. 3, ch. 4.――――One of the Nereides. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1.――――A
tragedy of Statius. _Juvenal_, satire 7, li. 87, &c.
=Agaui=, a northern nation who lived upon milk. _Homer_, _Iliad_,
bk. 13.
=Agāvus=, a son of Priam. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 24.
=Agdestis=, a mountain of Phrygia, where Atys was buried. _Pausanias_,
bk. 1, ch. 4.――――A surname of Cybele.
=Agelades=, a statuary of Argos. _Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 8; bk. 7,
ch. 23.
=Agelastus=, a surname of Crassus, the grandfather of the rich Crassus.
He only laughed once in his life, and this, it is said, was upon
seeing an ass eat thistles. _Cicero_, _de Finibus_, bk. 5.――_Pliny_,
bk. 7, ch. 19.――――The word is also applied to Pluto, from the sullen
and melancholy appearance of his countenance.
=Agelāus=, a king of Corinth, son of Ixion.――――One of Penelope’s
suitors. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 20.――――A son of Hercules and
Omphale, from whom Crœsus was descended. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2,
ch. 7.――――A servant of Priam, who preserved Paris when exposed on
mount Ida. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 12.
=Agendīcum=, now _Sens_, a town of Gaul, the capital of the Senones.
_Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 6, ch. 44.
=Agēnor=, king of Phœnicia, was son of Neptune and Libya, and brother
to Belus. He married Telephassa, by whom he had Cadmus, Phœnix,
Cilix, and Europa. _Hyginus_, fable 6.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 1,
li. 15; bk. 17, li. 58.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 1; bk. 3, ch. 1.
――――A son of Jasus and father of Argus. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch.
10.――――A son of Ægyptus. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 1.――――A son of
Phlegeus. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 7.――――A son of Pleuron, father
to Phineus. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 7.――――A son of Amphion and
Niobe. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 4.――――A king of Argos, father to
Crotopus.――――A son of Antenor. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 21, li. 579.
――――A Mitylenean, who wrote a treatise on music.
=Agenŏrĭdes=, a patronymic applied to Cadmus, and the other
descendants of Agenor. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 3, li. 8.
=Agerīnus=, a freedman of Agrippina, accused of attempting Nero’s
life. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 14, ch. 16.
=Agesander=, a sculptor of Rhodes under Vespasian, who made a
representation of Laocoon’s history, which now passes for the best
relict of all ancient sculpture.
=Agesias=, a Platonic philosopher who taught the immortality of the
soul. One of the Ptolemies forbade him to continue his lectures,
because his doctrine was so prevalent that many of his auditors
committed suicide.
=Agesilāus=, king of Sparta, of the family of the Agidæ, was son
of Doryssus and father of Archelaus. During his reign Lycurgus
instituted his famous laws. _Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 204.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 3, ch. 2.――――A son of Archidamus, of the family of the Proclidæ,
made king in preference to his nephew Leotychides. He made war
against Artaxerxes king of Persia with success; but in the midst of
his conquests in Asia, he was recalled home to oppose the Athenians
and Bœotians, who desolated his country; and his return was so
expeditious that he passed, in 30 days, over that tract of country
which had taken up a whole year of Xerxes’ expedition. He defeated
his enemies at Coronea; but sickness prevented the progress of
his conquests, and the Spartans were beat in every engagement,
especially at Leuctra, till he appeared at their head. Though
deformed, small of stature, and lame, he was brave, and a greatness
of soul compensated all the imperfections of nature. He was as fond
of sobriety as of military discipline; and when he went, in his 80th
year, to assist Tachus king of Egypt, the servants of the monarch
could hardly be persuaded that the Lacedæmonian general was eating
with his soldiers on the ground, bare-headed, and without any
covering to repose upon. Agesilaus died on his return from Egypt,
after a reign of 36 years, 362 B.C., and his remains were embalmed
and brought to Lacedæmon. _Justin_, bk. 6, ch. 1.――_Plutarch_ &
_Cornelius Nepos_, _Lives of Distinguished Romans_.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 3, ch. 9.――_Xenophon_, _Oratation for Agesilaus_.――――A brother
of Themistocles, who was sent as a spy into the Persian camp, where
he stabbed Mardonius instead of Xerxes. _Plutarch_, _Parallela
minora_.――――A surname of Pluto.――――A Greek who wrote a history of
Italy.
=Agesipŏlis I.=, king of Lacedæmon, son of Pausanias, obtained a great
victory over the Mantineans. He reigned 14 years, and was succeeded
by his brother Cleombrotus, B.C. 380. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 5;
bk. 8, ch. 8.――_Xenophon_, bk. 3, _Hellenica_.
=Agesipŏlis II.=, son of Cleombrotus king of Sparta, was succeeded by
Cleomenes II., B.C. 370. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 13; bk. 3, ch. 5.
=Agesistrăta=, the mother of king Agis. _Plutarch_, _Agis_.
=Agesistrătus=, a man who wrote a treatise entitled, _De arte
machinali_.
=Aggrammes=, a cruel king of the Gangarides. His father was a
hair-dresser, of whom the queen became enamoured, and whom she made
governor of the king’s children, to gratify her passion. He killed
them to raise Aggrammes, his son by the queen, to the throne.
_Curtius_, bk. 9, ch. 2.
=Aggrīnæ=, a people near mount Rhodope. _Cicero_, _Against Piso_,
ch. 37.
=Agĭdæ=, the descendants of Eurysthenes, who shared the throne of
Sparta with the Proclidæ. The name is derived from Agis son of
Eurysthenes. The family became extinct in the person of Cleomenes
son of Leonidas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8, li. 682.
=Agilāus=, king of Corinth, reigned 36 years.――――One of the Ephori,
almost murdered by the partisans of Cleomenes. _Plutarch_, _Cleomenes_.
=Agis=, king of Sparta, succeeded his father Eurysthenes, and, after a
reign of one year, was succeeded by his son Echestratus, B.C. 1058.
_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 2.――――Another king of Sparta, who waged
bloody wars against Athens, and restored liberty to many Greek
cities. He attempted to restore the laws of Lycurgus at Sparta,
but in vain; the perfidy of friends, who pretended to second his
views, brought him to difficulties, and he was at last dragged
from a temple, where he had taken refuge, to a prison, where he was
strangled by order of the Ephori. _Plutarch_, _Agis_.――――Another,
son of Archidamus, who signalized himself in the war which the
Spartans waged against Epidaurus. He obtained a victory at Mantinea,
and was successful in the Peloponnesian war. He reigned 27 years.
_Thucydides_, bks. 3 & 4.――_Pausanias_, bk. 3, chs. 8 & 10.――――
Another, son of Archidamus king of Sparta, who endeavoured to
deliver Greece from the empire of Macedonia, with the assistance
of the Persians. He was conquered in the attempt, and slain by
Antipater, Alexander’s general, and 5300 Lacedæmonians perished with
him. _Curtius_, bk. 6, ch. 1.――_Diodorus_, bk. 17.――_Justin_, bk. 12,
ch. 1, &c.――――Another, son of Eudamidas, killed in a battle against
the Mantineans. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 10.――――An Arcadian in the
expedition of Cyrus against his father Artaxerxes. _Polyænus_, bk. 7,
ch. 18.――――A poet of Argos, who accompanied Alexander into Asia, and
said that Bacchus and the sons of Leda would give way to his hero,
when a god. _Curtius_, bk. 8, ch. 5.――――A Lycian, who followed Æneas
into Italy, where he was killed. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 751.
=Aglāia=, one of the Graces, called sometimes Pasiphae. Her sisters
were Euphrosyne and Thalia, and they were all daughters of Jupiter
and Eurynome. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 35.
=Aglaonīce=, daughter of Hegemon, was acquainted with astronomy and
eclipses, whence she boasted of her power to draw down the moon from
heaven. _Plutarch_, _de Defectu Oraculorum_.
=Aglaŏpe=, one of the Sirens.
=Aglaŏphon=, an excellent Greek painter. _Pliny_, bk. 35, ch. 8.
=Aglaosthĕnes=, wrote a history of Naxos. _Strabo_, bk. 6.
=Aglauros=, or =Agraulos=, daughter of Erechtheus the oldest king of
Athens, was changed into a stone by Mercury. Some make her daughter
of Cecrops. _See:_ Herse. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 2, fable 12.
=Aglaus=, the poorest man of Arcadia, pronounced by the oracle more
happy than Gyges king of Lydia. _Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 46.――_Valerius
Maximus_, bk. 7, ch. 1.
=Agna=, a woman in the age of Horace, who, though deformed, had many
admirers. _Horace_, bk. 1, satire 3, li. 40.
=Agno=, one of the nymphs who nursed Jupiter. She gave her name to a
fountain on mount Lycæus. When the priest of Jupiter, after a prayer,
stirred the waters of this fountain with a bough, a thick vapour
arose, which was soon dissolved into a plentiful shower. _Pausanias_,
bk. 8, ch. 31, &c.
=Agnodĭce=, an Athenian virgin, who disguised her sex to learn
medicine. She was taught by Hierophilus the art of midwifery,
and when employed always discovered her sex to her patients. This
brought her into so much practice, that the males of her profession,
who were now out of employment, accused her, before the Areopagus,
of corruption. She confessed her sex to the judges, and a law was
immediately made to empower all free-born women to learn midwifery.
_Hyginus_, fable 274.
=Agnon=, son of Nicias, was present at the taking of Samos by Pericles.
In the Peloponnesian war he went against Potidæa, but abandoned his
expedition through disease. He built Amphipolis, whose inhabitants
rebelled to Brasidas, whom they regarded as their founder, forgetful
of Agnon. _Thucydides_, bks. 2, 3, &c.――――A writer. _Quintilian_,
bk. 2, ch. 17.――――One of Alexander’s officers. _Pliny_, bk. 33,
ch. 3.
=Agnonĭdes=, a rhetorician of Athens, who accused Phocion of betraying
the Piræus to Nicanor. When the people recollected what services
Phocion had rendered them, they raised him statues, and put to death
his accuser. _Plutarch_ & _Cornelius Nepos_, _Phocion_.
=Agōnālia= and =Agonia=, festivals in Rome, celebrated three times a
year in honour of Janus, or Agonius. They were instituted by Numa,
and on the festive days the chief priest used to offer a ram. _Ovid_,
_Fasti_, bk. 1, li. 317.――_Varro_, _de Lingua Latina_, bk. 5.
=Agōnes Capitolīni=, games celebrated every fifth year upon the
Capitoline hill. Prizes were proposed for agility and strength, as
well as for poetical and literary compositions. The poet Statius
publicly recited there his Thebaid, which was not received with much
applause.
=Agonis=, a woman in the temple of Venus, on mount Eryx. _Cicero_,
_Against Verres_, bk. 1.
=Agonius=, a Roman deity, who presided over the actions of men. _See:_
Agonalia.
=Agoracrĭtus=, a sculptor of Pharos, who made a statue of Venus for
the people of Athens, B.C. 150.
=Agoranŏmi=, ten magistrates at Athens, who watched over the city and
port, and inspected whatever was exposed to sale.
=Agorānis=, a river falling into the Ganges. _Arrian_, _de Indica_.
=Agoræa=, a name of Minerva at Sparta. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 11.
=Agoreus=, a surname of Mercury among the Athenians, from his
presiding over the markets. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 15.
=Agra=, a place of Bœotia where the Ilissus rises. Diana was called
Agræa, because she hunted there.――――A city of Susa――――of Arcadia
――――and of Arabia.
=Agræi= and =Agrenses=, a people of Arabia. _Pliny_, bk. 6,
ch. 28.――――Of Ætolia. _Livy_, bk. 42, ch. 34.
=Agrāgas=, or =Acragras=, a river, town, and mountain of Sicily;
called also Agrigentum. The town was built by the people of Gela,
who were a Rhodian colony. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 703.――
_Diodorus_, bk. 11.
=Agraria lex=, was enacted to distribute among the Roman people all
the lands which they had gained by conquest. It was first proposed
A.U.C. 268, by the consul Spurius Cassius Vicellinus, and rejected
by the senate. This produced dissensions between the senate and
the people, and Cassius, upon seeing the ill success of the new
regulations he proposed, offered to distribute among the people the
money which was produced from the corn of Sicily, after it had been
brought and sold in Rome. This act of liberality the people refused,
and tranquillity was soon after re-established in the state. It was
proposed a second time A.U.C. 269, by the tribune Licinius Stolo,
but with no better success; and so great were the tumults which
followed, that one of the tribunes of the people was killed, and
many of the senators fined for their opposition. Mutius Scævola,
A.U.C. 620, persuaded the tribune Tiberius Gracchus to propose it a
third time; and though Octavius, his colleague in the tribuneship,
opposed it, yet Tiberius made it pass into a law, after much
altercation, and commissioners were authorized to make a division
of the lands. This law at last proved fatal to the freedom of Rome
under Julius Cæsar. _Florus_, bk. 3, chs. 3 & 13.――_Cicero_, _on the
Agrarian Law_.――_Livy_, bk. 2, ch. 41.
=Agraule=, a tribe of Athens. _Plutarch_, _Themistocles_.
=Agraulia=, a festival at Athens in honour of Agraulos. The Cyprians
also observed these festivals, by offering human victims.
=Agraulos=, a daughter of Cecrops. _See:_ Aglauros.――――A surname of
Minerva.
=Agrauonītæ=, a people of Illyria. _Livy_, bk. 45, ch. 26.
=Agre=, one of Actæon’s dogs. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 3, li. 213.
=Agriānes=, a river of Thrace. _Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 9.――――A people
that dwelt in the neighbourhood of that river. _Herodotus_, bk. 5,
ch. 16.
=Agricŏla=, the father-in-law of the historian Tacitus, who wrote
his life. He was eminent for his public and private virtues. He
was governor of Britain, and first discovered it to be an island.
Domitian envied his virtues; he recalled him from the province he
had governed with equity and moderation, and ordered him to enter
Rome in the night, that no triumph might be granted him. Agricola
obeyed, and without betraying any resentment, he retired to peaceful
solitude, and to the enjoyment of the society of a few friends. He
died in his 56th year, A. D. 93. _Tacitus_, _Agricola_.
=Agrigentum=, now _Girgenti_, a town of Sicily, 18 stadia from the
sea, on mount Agragas. It was founded by a Rhodian, or, according
to some, by an Ionian colony. The inhabitants were famous for
their hospitality, and for their luxurious manner of living. In
its flourishing situation Agrigentum contained 200,000 inhabitants,
who submitted with reluctance to the superior power of Syracuse.
The government was monarchical, but afterwards a democracy was
established. The famous Phalaris usurped the sovereignty, which was
also for some time in the hands of the Carthaginians. Agrigentum
can now boast of more venerable remains of antiquity than any other
town in Sicily. _Polybius_, bk. 9.――_Strabo_, bk. 6.――_Diodorus_,
bk. 13.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 707.――_Silius Italicus_,
bk. 14, li. 211.
=Agrinium=, a city of Acarnania. _Polybius_, bk. 6.
=Agriōnia=, annual festivals in honour of Bacchus, celebrated
generally in the night. They were instituted, as some suppose,
because the god was attended with wild beasts.
=Agriopas=, a man who wrote the history of all those who had obtained
the public prize at Olympia. _Pliny_, bk. 8, ch. 22.
=Agriōpe=, the wife of Agenor king of Phœnicia.
=Marcus Agrippa Vipsanius=, a celebrated Roman, who obtained a victory
over Sextus Pompey, and favoured the cause of Augustus at the
battles of Actium and Philippi, where he behaved with great valour.
He advised his imperial friend to re-establish the republican
government at Rome, but he was overruled by Mecænas. In his
expeditions in Gaul and Germany, he obtained several victories, but
refused the honours of a triumph, and turned his liberality towards
the embellishing of Rome and the raising of magnificent buildings,
one of which, the Pantheon, still exists. After he had retired for
two years to Mitylene, in consequence of a quarrel with Marcellus,
Augustus recalled him, and, as a proof of his regard, gave him his
daughter Julia in marriage, and left him the care of the empire
during an absence of two years employed in visiting the Roman
provinces of Greece and Asia. He died, universally lamented,
at Rome in the 51st year of his age, 12 B.C., and his body was
placed in the tomb which Augustus had prepared for himself. He
had been married three times: to Pomponia daughter of Atticus, to
Marcella daughter of Octavia, and to Julia, by whom he had five
children――Caius, and Lucius Cæsares, Posthumus Agrippa, Agrippina,
and Julia. His son, Caius Cæsar Agrippa, was adopted by Augustus,
and made consul, by the flattery of the Roman people at the age
of 14 or 15. This promising youth went to Armenia on an expedition
against the Persians, where he received a fatal blow from the
treacherous hand of Lollius, the governor of one of the neighbouring
cities. He languished for a little time and died in Lycia. His
younger brother, Lucius Cæsar Agrippa, was likewise adopted by his
grandfather Augustus; but he was soon after banished to Campania,
for using seditious language against his benefactor. In the seventh
year of his exile he would have been recalled had not Livia and
Tiberius, jealous of the partiality of Augustus for him, ordered him
to be assassinated in his 26th year. He has been called ferocious
and savage; and he gave himself the name of Neptune, because he
was fond of fishing. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8, li. 682.――_Horace_,
bk. 1, ode 6.――――One of the servants of the murdered prince assumed
his name and raised commotions. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 2, ch. 39.
――――Sylvius, a son of Tiberius Sylvius king of Latium. He reigned
33 years, and was succeeded by his son Romulus Sylvius. _Dionysius
of Halicarnassus_, bk. 1, ch. 8.――――A consul who conquered the
Æqui.――――A philosopher. _Diogenes Laërtius._――――Herodes, a son
of Aristobulus, grandson of the Great Herod, who became tutor to
the grandchild of Tiberius, and was soon after imprisoned by the
suspicious tyrant. When Caligula ascended the throne his favourite
was released, presented with a chain of gold as heavy as that which
had lately confined him, and made king of Judæa. He was a popular
character with the Jews: and it is said, that while they were
flattering him with the appellation of God, an angel of God struck
him with the lousy disease, of which he died, A.D. 43. His son,
of the same name, was the last king of the Jews, deprived of his
kingdom by Claudius, in exchange for other provinces. He was with
Titus at the celebrated siege of Jerusalem, and died A.D. 94. It was
before him that St. Paul pleaded, and made mention of his incestuous
commerce with his sister Berenice. _Juvenal_, satire 6, li. 156.
――_Tacitus_, bk. 2, _Histories_, ch. 81.――――Menenius, a Roman
general, who obtained a triumph over the Sabines, appeased the
populace of Rome by the well-known fable of the belly and the limbs,
and erected the new office of tribunes of the people, A.U.C. 261. He
died poor, but universally regretted: his funeral was at the expense
of the public from which also his daughters received dowries. _Livy_,
bk. 2, ch. 32.――_Florus_, bk. 1, ch. 23.――――A mathematician in the
reign of Domitian; he was a native of Bithynia.
=Agrippīna=, a wife of Tiberius. The emperor repudiated her to marry
Julia. _Suetonius_, _Tiberias_, ch. 7.――――A daughter of Marcus
Agrippa, and granddaughter to Augustus. She married Germanicus, whom
she accompanied in Syria; and when Piso poisoned him, she carried
his ashes to Italy, and accused his murderer, who stabbed himself.
She fell under the displeasure of Tiberius, who exiled her in
an island, where she died A.D. 26, for want of bread. She left
nine children, and was universally distinguished for intrepidity
and conjugal affection. _Tacitus_, bk. 1, _Annals_, ch. 2, &c.――
_Suetonius_, _Tiberias_, ch. 52.――――Julia, daughter of Germanicus
and Agrippina, married Domitius Ænobarbus, by whom she had Nero.
After her husband’s death she married her uncle the emperor Claudius,
whom she destroyed to make Nero succeed to the throne. After many
cruelties and much licentiousness she was assassinated by order of
her son, and as she expired she exclaimed, “Strike the belly which
could give birth to such a monster.” She died A.D. 59, after a life
of prostitution and incestuous gratifications. It is said that her
son viewed her dead body with all the raptures of admiration, saying,
he never could have believed his mother was so beautiful a woman.
She left memoirs which assisted Tacitus in the composition of his
annals. The town which she built, where she was born, on the borders
of the Rhine, and called _Agrippina Colonia_, is the modern Cologne.
_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 4, ch. 75; bk. 12, chs. 7, 22, &c.
=Agrisius.= _See:_ Acrisius.
=Agrisope=, or =Agriope=, the mother of Cadmus. _Hyginus_, fable 6.
=Agrius=, son of Parthaon drove his brother Œneus from the throne.
He was afterwards expelled by Diomedes the grandson of Œneus, upon
which he killed himself. _Hyginus_, fables 175 & 242.――_Apollodorus_,
bk. 1, ch. 7.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 14, li. 117.――――A giant.――――A
centaur killed by Hercules. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 5.――――A son of
Ulysses by Circe. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 1013.――――The father of
Thersites. _Ovid_, _ex Ponto_, bk. 3, poem 9, li. 9.
=Agrŏlas=, surrounded the citadel of Athens with walls, except that
part which afterwards was repaired by Cimon. _Pausanias_, bk. 1,
ch. 28.
=Agron=, king of Illyria, who, after conquering the Ætolians, drank
to such excess that he died instantly, B.C. 231. _Polybius_, bk. 2,
ch. 4.
=Agrotas=, a Greek orator of Marseilles.
=Agrotĕra=, an anniversary sacrifice of goats offered to Diana at
Athens. It was instituted by Callimachus the Polemarch, who vowed
to sacrifice to the goddess so many goats as there might be enemies
killed in a battle which he was going to fight against the troops
of Darius, who had invaded Attica. The quantity of the slain was
so great, that a sufficient number of goats could not be procured;
therefore they were limited to 500 every year, till they equalled
the number of Persians slain in battle.――――A temple of Ægira in
Peloponnesus, erected to the goddess under this name. _Pausanias_,
bk. 7, ch. 26.
=Agyleus= and =Agyieus= from ἀγυια, _a street_, a surname of Apollo,
because sacrifices were offered to him in the public streets of
Athens. _Horace_, bk. 4, ode 6.
=Agylla=, a town of Etruria, founded by a colony of Pelasgians, and
governed by Mezentius when Æneas came to Italy. It was afterwards
called Cære, by the Lydians, who took possession of it. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 652; bk. 8, li. 479.
=Agyllæus=, a gigantic wrestler of Cleonæ, scarce inferior to Hercules
in strength. _Statius_, _Thebiad_, bk. 6, li. 837.
=Agyrium=, a town of Sicily, where Diodorus the historian was born.
The inhabitants were called _Agyrinenses_. _Diodorus_, bk. 14.――
_Cicero_, _Against Verres_, bk. 2, ch. 65.
=Agyrius=, an Athenian general who succeeded Thrasybulus. _Diodorus_,
bk. 14.
=Agyrtes=, a man who killed his father. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5,
li. 148.――――A piper. _♦Statius_, bk. 2, _Achilleis_, li. 50.
♦ ‘Sil.’ replaced with ‘Statius’
=Agȳrus=, a tyrant of Sicily, assisted by Dionysius against the
Carthaginians. _Diodorus_, bk. 14.
=Ahāla=, the surname of the Servilii at Rome.
=Ahenobarbus.= _See:_ Ænobarbus.
=Ajax=, the son of Telamon by Peribœa or Eribœa daughter of Alcathous,
was, next to Achilles, the bravest of all the Greeks in the Trojan
war. He engaged Hector, with whom at parting he exchanged arms.
After the death of Achilles, Ajax and Ulysses disputed their
claim to the arms of the dead hero. When they were given to the
latter, Ajax was so enraged that he slaughtered a whole flock of
sheep, supposing them to be the sons of Atreus, who had given the
preference to Ulysses, and stabbed himself with his sword. The blood
which ran to the ground from the wound, was changed into the flower
hyacinth. Some say that he was killed by Paris in battle, others
that he was murdered by Ulysses. His body was buried at Sigæum,
some say on mount Rhœtus, and his tomb was visited and honoured
by Alexander. Hercules, according to some authors, prayed to the
gods that his friend Telamon, who was childless, might have a son,
with a skin as impenetrable as the skin of the Nemæan lion which
he then wore. His prayers were heard. Jupiter, under the form of
an eagle, promised to grant the petition; and when Ajax was born,
Hercules wrapped him up in the lion’s skin, which rendered his body
invulnerable, except that part which was left uncovered by a hole
in the skin, through which Hercules hung his quiver. This vulnerable
part was in his breast, or as some say behind the neck. _Quintus
Calaber [Smyrnæus]_, bks. 1 & 4.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, chs. 10
& 13.――_Philostratus_, _Heroicus_, ch. 12.――_Pindar_, _Isthmean_,
ode 6.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 1, &c.; _Odyssey_, bk. 11.――_Dictys
Cretensis_, bk. 5.――_Dares Phrygius_, ch. 9.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 13.――_Horace_, bk. 2, satire 3, li. 197. ――_Hyginus_, fables
107 & 242.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 35; bk. 5, ch. 19.――――The son of
Oileus king of Locris, was surnamed _Locrian_, in contradistinction
to the son of Telamon. He went with 40 ships to the Trojan war,
as being one of Helen’s suitors. The night that Troy was taken, he
offered violence to Cassandra, who fled into Minerva’s temple; and
for this offence, as he returned home, the goddess, who had obtained
the thunders of Jupiter, and the power of tempests from Neptune,
destroyed his ship in a storm. Ajax swam to a rock, and said that
he was safe in spite of all the gods. Such impiety offended Neptune,
who struck the rock with his trident, and Ajax tumbled into the sea
with part of the rock and was drowned. His body was afterwards found
by the Greeks, and black sheep offered on his tomb. According to
Virgil’s account, Minerva seized him in a whirlwind, and dashed him
against a rock, where he expired, consumed by thunder. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 43, &c.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bks. 2, 13, &c.;
_Odyssey_, bk. 4.――_Hyginus_, fables 116 & 273.――_Philostratus_,
_Imagines_, bk. 2, ch. 13.――_Seneca_, _Agamemnon_.――_Horace_,
_Epodes_, poem 10, li. 13.――_Pausanias_, bk. 10, chs. 26 & 31.――――The
two Ajaces were, as some suppose, placed after death in the island
of Leuce, a separate place reserved only for the bravest heroes of
antiquity.
=Aidōneus=, a surname of Pluto.――――A king of the Molossi, who
imprisoned Theseus, because he and Pirithous attempted to ravish his
daughter Proserpine, near the Acheron; whence arose the well-known
fable of the descent of Theseus and Pirithous into hell. _Plutarch_,
_Theseus_.――――A river near Troy. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 12.
=Aimy̆lus=, son of Ascanius, was, according to some, the progenitor of
the noble family of the Æmylii in Rome.
=Aius Locutius=, a deity to whom the Romans erected an altar, from the
following circumstance: one of the common people, called Ceditius,
informed the tribunes, that as he passed one night through one of
the streets of the city, a voice more than human, issuing from above
Vesta’s temple, told him that Rome would soon be attacked by the
Gauls. His information was neglected; but his veracity was proved
by the event; and Camillus, after the conquest of the Gauls, built
a temple to that supernatural voice which had given Rome warning of
the approaching calamity, under the name of Aius Locutius.
=Alabanda=, æ, or orum, an inland town of Caria, abounding with
scorpions. The name is derived from Alabandus, a deity worshipped
there. _Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 3, ch. 16.――_Herodotus_,
bk. 7, ch. 195.――_Strabo_, bk. 14.
=Alabastrum=, a town of Egypt. _Pliny_, bk. 36, ch. 7.
=Alăbus=, a river in Sicily.
=Alæa=, a surname of Minerva in Peloponnesus. Her festivals are also
called Alæa. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, chs. 4 & 7.
=Alæi=, a number of islands in the Persian gulf, abounding in
tortoises. _Arrian_, _Periplus of the Euxine Sea_.
=Alæsa=, a city on a mountain in Sicily.
=Alæus=, the father of Auge, who married Hercules.
=Alagōnia=, a city of Laconia. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, chs. 21 & 26.
=Alāla=, the goddess of war, sister to Mars. _Plutarch_, _de gloria
Atheniensium_.
=Alalcomĕnæ=, a city of Bœotia, where some suppose that Minerva was
born. _Plutarch_, _Quæstiones Græcæ_.――_Statius_, _Thebiad_, bk. 7,
li. 330.
=Alalia=, a town of Corsica, built by a colony of Phocæans, destroyed
by Scipio, 262 B.C., and afterwards rebuilt by Sylla. _Herodotus_,
bk. 1, ch. 165.――_Florus_, bk. 2, ch. 2.
=Alamānes=, a statuary at Athens, disciple of Phidias.
=Alamanni=, or =Alemanni=, a people of Germany, near the Hercynian
forest. They were very powerful and inimical to Rome.
=Alāni=, a people of Sarmatia, near the Palus Mœotis, who were said to
have 26 different languages. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.――_Strabo._
=Alăres=, a people of Pannonia. _Tacitus_, bk. 15, _Annals_, ch. 10.
=Alarīcus=, a famous king of the Goths, who plundered Rome in the
reign of Honorius. He was greatly respected for his military valour,
and during his reign he kept the Roman empire in continual alarms.
He died after a reign of 13 years, A.D. 410.
=Alarōdii=, a nation near Pontus. _Herodotus_, bk. 3, ch. 94.
=Alastor=, a son of Neleus and Chloris. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9.
――――An arm-bearer to Sarpedon king of Lycia, killed by Ulysses.
_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 5, li. 677.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 13,
li. 257.――――One of Pluto’s horses when he carried away Proserpine.
_Claudian_, _de Raptu Proserpinæ_, bk. 1, li. 286.
=Alaudæ=, soldiers of one of Cæsar’s legions in Gaul. _Suetonius_,
_Julius Cæsar_, ch. 24.
=Alazon=, a river flowing from mount Caucasus into the Cyrus, and
separating Albania from Iberia. _Flaccus_, bk. 6, li. 101.
=Alba Sylvius=, son of Latinus Sylvius, succeeded his father in the
kingdom of Latium, and reigned 36 years. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 14, li. 612.――――Longa, a city of Latium, built by Ascanius, B.C.
1152, on the spot where Æneas found, according to the prophecy of
Helenus (_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 390, &c.), and of the god
of the river (_Æneid_, bk. 8, li. 43), a _white_ sow with 30 young
ones. It was called _longa_ because it extended along the hill
Albinus. The descendants of Æneas reigned there in the following
order: 1. Ascanius, son of Æneas, with little intermission, eight
years. 2. Sylvius Posthumus, 29 years. 3. Æneas Sylvius, 31 years.
4. Latinus, five years. 5. Alba, 36 years. 6. Atys, or Capetus,
26 years. 7. Capys, 28 years. 8. Calpetus, 13 years. 9. Tiberinus,
eight years. 10. Agrippa, 33 years. 11. Remulus, 19 years. 12.
Aventinus, 37 years. 13. Procas, 13 years. 14. Numitor and Amulius.
Alba, which had long been the powerful rival of Rome, was destroyed
by the Romans, 665 B.C., and the inhabitants were carried to Rome.
_Livy._――_Florus._――_Justin_, &c.――――A city of the Marsi in Italy.
――――Pompeia, a city of Liguria. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 5.
=Albāni= and =Albenses=, names applied to the inhabitants of the two
cities of Alba. _Cicero_, _Rhetorica ad Herennium_, bk. 2, ch. 28.
=Albānia=, a country of Asia, between the Caspian sea and Iberia.
The inhabitants are said to have their eyes all blue. Some maintain
that they followed Hercules from mount Albanus in Italy, when he
returned from the conquest of Geryon. _Dionysius of Halicarnassus_,
bk. 1, ch. 15.――_Justin_, bk. 42, ch. 3.――_Strabo_, bk. 11.――_Pliny_,
bk. 8, ch. 40.――_Mela_, bk. 3, ch. 5.――――The Caspian sea is called
_Albanum_, as being near Albania. _Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 13.
=Albānus=, a mountain with a lake in Italy, 16 miles from Rome,
near Alba. It was on this mountain that the _Latinæ feriæ_ were
celebrated with great solemnity. _Horace_, bk. 2, ltr. 1, li. 27.
The word, taken adjectively, is applied to such as are natives of,
or belong to, the town of Alba.
=Albia Terennia=, the mother of Otho. _Suetonius._
=Albīci=, a people of Gallia Aquitania. _Cæsar_, _Civil War_, bk. 1,
ch. 34.
=Albiētæ=, a people of Latium. _Dionysius of Halicarnassus._
=Albigaunum=, a town of Liguria. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 4.
=Albīni=, two Roman orators of great merit, mentioned by Cicero in
_Brutus_. This name is common to many tribunes of the people. _Livy_,
bk. 2, ch. 33; bk. 6, ch. 30. _Sallust_, _Jugurthine War_.
=Albinovānus Celsus.= _See:_ Celsus.――――Pedo, a poet contemporary with
Ovid. He wrote elegies, epigrams, and heroic poetry in a style so
elegant that he merited the epithet of divine. _Ovid_, _ex Ponto_,
bk. 4, poem 10.――_Quintilian_, bk. 10, ch. 5.
=Albintemēlium=, a town of Liguria. _Tacitus_, bk. 2, _Histories_,
ch. 13.
=Albīnus=, was born at Adrumetum in Africa, and made governor of
Britain by Commodus. After the murder of Pertinax, he was elected
emperor by the soldiers in Britain. Severus had also been invested
with the imperial dignity by his own army; and these two rivals,
with about 50,000 men each, came into Gaul to decide the fate of the
empire. Severus was conqueror, and he ordered the head of Albinus
to be cut off, and his body to be thrown into the Rhone, A.D. 198.
Albinus, according to the exaggerated account of a certain writer
called Codrus, was famous for his voracious appetite, and sometimes
ate for breakfast no less than 500 figs, 100 peaches, 20 pounds
of dry raisins, 10 melons, and 400 oysters.――――A pretorian sent to
Sylla, as ambassador from the senate during the civil wars. He was
put to death by Sylla’s soldiers. _Plutarch_, _Sulla_.――――An usurer.
_Horace._――――A Roman plebeian who received the vestals into his
chariot in preference to his family, when they fled from Rome, which
the Gauls had sacked. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 1, ch. 1.――_Livy_,
bk. 5, ch. 40.――_Florus_, bk. 1, ch. 13.――――Aulus Posthumus, consul
with Lucullus, A.U.C. 603, wrote a history of Rome in Greek.
=Albion=, son of Neptune by Amphitrite, came into Britain, where he
established a kingdom, and first introduced astrology and the art
of building ships. He was killed at the mouth of the Rhone, with
stones thrown by Jupiter, because he opposed the passage of Hercules.
_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 5.――――The greatest island of Europe, now called
Great Britain. It is called after Albion, who is said to have
reigned there; or from its chalky white (_albus_) rocks, which
appear at a great distance. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 16.――_Tacitus_,
_Agricola_. The ancients compared its figure to a long buckler, or
to the iron of a hatchet.
=Albis=, a river of Germany falling into the German ocean, and now
called the Elbe. _Lucan_, bk. 2, li. 52.
=Albius=, a man, father to a famous spendthrift. _Horace_, bk. 1,
satire 4.――――A name of the poet Tibullus. _Horace_, bk. 1, ode 33,
li. 1.
=Albucilla=, an immodest woman. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 6, ch. 47.
=Albŭla=, the ancient name of the river Tiber. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 8, li. 332.――_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 3.
=Albŭnea=, a wood near Tibur, and the river Anio, sacred to the muses.
It received its name from a Sibyl, called also Albunea, worshipped
as a goddess at Tibur, whose temple still remains. Near Albunea
there was a small lake of the same name, whose waters were of a
sulphureous smell, and possessed some medicinal properties. This
lake fell, by a small stream called Albula, into the river Anio,
with which it soon lost itself in the Tiber. _Horace_, bk. 1, ode 7,
li. 12.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 83.
=Alburnus=, a lofty mountain of Lucania, where the Tanager takes its
rise. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 3, li. 147.
=Albus Pagus=, a place near Sidon, where Antony waited for the arrival
of Cleopatra.
=Albūtius=, a prince of Celtiberia, to whom Scipio restored his wife.
_Arrian._――――A sordid man, father to Canidia. He beat his servants
before they were guilty of any offence, “lest,” said he, “I should
have no time to punish them when they offend.” _Horace_, bk. 2,
satire 2.――――A rhetorician in the age of Seneca.――――An ancient
satirist. _Cicero_, _Brutus_.――――Titus, an epicurean philosopher,
born at Rome; so fond of Greece and Grecian manners, that he wished
not to pass for a Roman. He was made governor of Sardinia; but he
grew offensive to the senate and was banished. It is supposed that
he died at Athens.
=Alcæus=, a celebrated lyric poet of Mitylene in Lesbos, about 600
years before the christian era. He fled from a battle, and his
enemies hung up, in the temple of Minerva, the armour which he left
in the field, as a monument of his disgrace. He is the inventor of
alcaic verses. He was contemporary to the famous Sappho, to whom he
paid his addresses. Of all his works, nothing but a few fragments
remain, found in Athenæus. _Quintilian_, bk. 10, ch. 1.――_Herodotus_,
bk. 5, ch. 95.――_Horace_, bk. 4, ode 9.――_Cicero_, bk. 4, _Tusculanæ
Disputationes_, ch. 33.――――A poet of Athens, said by Suidas to
be the inventor of tragedy.――――A writer of epigrams.――――A comic
poet.――――A son of Androgeus, who went with Hercules into Thrace,
and was made king of part of the country. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch.
5.――――A son of Hercules by a maid of Omphale.――――A son of Perseus,
father of Amphitryon and Anaxo. From him Hercules has been called
Alcides. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 4.――_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 14.
=Alcamĕnes=, one of the Agidæ, king of Sparta, known by his apophthegms.
He succeeded his father Teleclus, and reigned 37 years. The Helots
rebelled in his reign. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 2; bk. 4, chs. 4
& 5.――――A general of the Achæans. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 15.――――A
statuary, who lived 448 B.C., and was distinguished for his statues
of Venus and Vulcan. _Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 10.――――The commander of
a Spartan fleet, put to death by the Athenians. _Thucydides_, bk. 4,
ch. 5, &c.
=Alcander=, an attendant of Sarpedon, killed by Ulysses. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 13, li. 257.――――A Lacedæmonian youth, who
accidentally put out one of the eyes of Lycurgus, and was generously
forgiven by the sage. _Plutarch_, _Lycurgus_.――_Pausanias_, bk. 3,
ch. 18.――――A Trojan killed by Turnus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9,
li. 767.
=Alcandre=, the wife of Polybius, a rich Theban. _Homer_, _Odyssey_,
bk. 4, li. 672.
=Alcānor=, a Trojan of mount Ida, whose sons Pandarus and Bitias
followed Æneas into Italy. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 672.――――A
son of Phorus, killed by Æneas. _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 338.
=Alcăthoe=, a name of Megara, in Attica, because rebuilt by Alcathous
son of Pelops. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 8, li. 8.
=Alcăthous=, a son of Pelops, who, being suspected of murdering his
brother Chrysippus, came to Megara, where he killed a lion which had
destroyed the king’s son. He succeeded to the kingdom of Megara, and
in commemoration of his services, festivals, called Alcathoia, were
instituted at Megara. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 41, &c.――――A Trojan,
who married Hippodamia daughter of Anchises. He was killed in the
Trojan war by Idomeneus. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 12, li. 93.――――A son
of Parthaon, killed by Tydeus. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 7, &c.――――A
friend of Æneas, killed in the Rutulian war. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk.
10, li. 747.
=Alce=, one of Actæon’s dogs. _Ovid._――――A town of Spain which
surrendered to Gracchus, now _Alcazar_, a little above Toledo.
_Livy_, bk. 40, ch. 47.
=Alcēnor=, an Argive, who, along with Chromius, survived the battle
between 300 of his countrymen and 300 Lacedæmonians. _Herodotus_,
bk. 1, ch. 82.
=Alceste=, or =Alcestis=, daughter of Pelias and Anaxibia, married
Admetus. She, with her sisters, put to death her father, that
he might be restored to youth and vigour by Medea, who, however,
refused to perform her promise. Upon this the sisters fled to
Admetus, who married Alceste. They were soon pursued by an army
headed by their brother Acastus; and Admetus, being taken prisoner,
was redeemed from death by the generous offer of his wife, who was
sacrificed in his stead to appease the shades of her father. Some
say that Alceste, with an unusual display of conjugal affection,
laid down her life for her husband, when she had been told by an
oracle that he could never recover from a disease, except some
one of his friends died in his stead. According to some authors,
Hercules brought her back from hell. She had many suitors while
she lived with her father. _See:_ Admetus. _Juvenal_, satire 6,
li. 651.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9.――_Pausanias_, bk. 5,
ch. 17.――_Hyginus_, fable 251.――_Euripides_, _Alcestis_.
=Alcĕtas=, a king of the Molossi, descended from Pyrrhus the son of
Achilles. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 11.――――A general of Alexander’s
army, brother to Perdiccas.――――The eighth king of Macedonia,
who reigned 29 years.――――An historian, who wrote an account
of everything that had been dedicated in the temple of Delphi.
_Athenæus._――――A son of Arybas king of Epirus. _Pausanias_, bk. 1,
ch. 11.
=Alchĭdas=, a Rhodian, who became enamoured of a naked Cupid of
Praxiteles. _Pliny_, bk. 36, ch. 5.
=Alchimăchus=, a celebrated painter. _Pliny_, bk. 35, ch. 11.
=Alcibiădes=, an Athenian general famous for his enterprising
spirit, versatile genius, and natural foibles. He was disciple to
Socrates, whose lessons and example checked for a while his vicious
propensities. In the Peloponnesian war he encouraged the Athenians
to make an expedition against Syracuse. He was chosen general in
that war, and in his absence his enemies accused him of impiety,
and confiscated his goods. Upon this he fled, and stirred up the
Spartans to make war against Athens, and when this did not succeed
he retired to Tissaphernes, the Persian general. Being recalled by
the Athenians, he obliged the Lacedæmonians to sue for peace; made
several conquests in Asia, and was received in triumph at Athens.
His popularity was of short duration; the failure of an expedition
against Cyme exposed him again to the resentment of the people,
and he fled to Pharnabazus, whom he almost induced to make war
upon Lacedæmon. This was told to Lysander the Spartan general,
who prevailed upon Pharnabazus to murder Alcibiades. Two servants
were sent for that purpose, and they set on fire the cottage where
he was, and killed him with darts as he attempted to make his
escape. He died in the 46th year of his age, 404 B.C., after a
life of perpetual difficulties. If the fickleness of his countrymen
had known how to retain among them the talents of a man who
distinguished himself, and was admired wherever he went, they might
have risen to greater splendour, and to the sovereignty of Greece.
His character has been cleared from the aspersions of malevolence,
by the writings of Thucydides, Timæus, and Theopompus; and he is
known to us as a hero, who, to the principles of the debauchee,
added the intelligence and sagacity of the statesman, the cool
intrepidity of the general, and the humanity of the philosopher.
_Plutarch_ & _Cornelius Nepos_, _Alcibiades_.――_Thucydides_, bks. 5,
6, & 7.――_Xenophon_, _Hellenica_, bk. 1, &c.――_Diodorus_, bk. 12.
=Alcidămas=, of Cos, was father to Ctesilla, who was changed into
a dove. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, fable 12.――――A celebrated
wrestler. _Statius_, _Thebiad_, bk. 10, li. 500.――――A philosopher
and orator, who wrote a treatise on death. He was pupil to Gorgias,
and flourished B.C. 424. _Quintilian_, bk. 3, ch. 1.
=Alcidamēa=, was mother of Bunus by Mercury.
=Alcidamĭdas=, a general of the Messenians, who retired to Rhegium,
after the taking of Ithome by the Spartans, B.C. 723. _Strabo_,
bk. 6.
=Alcidămus=, an Athenian rhetorician, who wrote an eulogy on death,
&c. _Cicero_, bk. 1, _Tusculanæ Disputationes_, ch. 48.――_Plutarch_,
_Lives of the Ten Orators_.
=Alcīdas=, a Lacedæmonian, sent with 23 galleys against Corcyra, in
the Peloponnesian war. _Thucydides_, bk. 3, ch. 16, &c.
=Alcīdes=, a name of Hercules, from his _strength_, ἀλκος, or from his
grandfather Alcæus.――――A surname of Minerva in Macedonia. _Livy_,
bk. 42, ch. 51.
=Alcidĭce=, the mother of Tyro, by Salmoneus. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1,
ch. 9.
=Alcimăchus=, an eminent painter. _Pliny_, bk. 35, ch. 11.
=Alcimĕde=, the mother of Jason by Æson. _Flaccus_, bk. 1, li. 296.
=Alcimĕdon=, a plain of Arcadia, with a cave the residence of
Alcimedon, whose daughter Phillo was ravished by Hercules.
_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 12.――――An excellent carver. _Virgil_,
_Eclogues_, poem 3.――――A sailor, &c. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 4,
fable 10.
=Alcimĕnes=, a tragic poet of Megara.――――A comic writer of Athens.
――――An attendant of Demetrius. _Plutarch_, _Demetrius_.――――A man
killed by his brother Bellerophon. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 3.
=Alcĭmus=, an historian of Sicily, who wrote an account of Italy.――――
An orator. _Diogenes Laërtius._
=Alcinoe=, a daughter of Sthenelus son of Perseus. _Apollodorus_,
bk. 2, ch. 4.
=Alcĭnor.= _See:_ Alcenor.
=Alcinous=, son of Nausithous and Peribœa, was king of Phæacia, and
is praised for his love of agriculture. He married his niece Arete,
by whom he had several sons and a daughter, Nausicaa. He kindly
entertained Ulysses, who had been shipwrecked on his coast, and
heard the recital of his adventures; whence arose the proverb of
the stories of Alcinous to denote improbability. _Homer_, _Odyssey_,
bk. 7.――_Orpheus_, _Argonautica_.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 2,
li. 87.――_Statius_, bk. 1, _Sylvæ_, poem 3, li. 81.――_Juvenal_,
satire 5, li. 151.――_Ovid_, _Amores_, bk. 1, poem 10, li. 56.――
_Plato_, _Republic_, bk. 10.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9.――――A
son of Hippocoon. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 10.――――A man of Elis.
_Pausanias._――――A philosopher in the second century, who wrote a
book _de Doctriná Platonis_, the best edition of which is the 12mo,
printed Oxford, 1667.
=Alcioneus=, a man killed by Perseus. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5,
fable 4.
=Alciphron=, a philosopher of Magnesia, in the age of Alexander. There
are some epistles in Greek that bear his name, and contain a very
perfect picture of the customs and manners of the Greeks. They are
by some supposed to be the production of a writer of the fourth
century. The only edition is that of Leipzig, 12mo, 1715, cum notis
Bergleri.
=Alcippe=, a daughter of the god Mars, by Agraulos. She was ravished
by Halirrhotius. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 14.――――The wife of
Metion and mother to Eupalamus. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 16.――――The
daughter of Œnomaus, and wife of Evenus, by whom she had Marpessa.
――――A woman who brought forth an elephant. _Pliny_, bk. 7.――――A
country-woman. _Virgil_, _Eclogues_, poem 7.
=Alcippus=, a reputed citizen of Sparta, banished by his enemies. He
married Democrite, of whom _Plutarch_, _Amatoriæ narrationes_.
=Alcis=, a daughter of Ægyptus. _Apollodorus._
=Alcithoe=, a Theban woman, who ridiculed the orgies of Bacchus. She
was changed into a bat, and the spindle and yarn with which she
worked, into a vine and ivy. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 4, fable 1.
=Alcmæon=, was son of the prophet Amphiaraus and Eriphyle. His father
going to the Theban war, where, according to an oracle, he was to
perish, charged him to revenge his death upon Eriphyle, who had
betrayed him. _See:_ Eriphyle. As soon as he heard of his father’s
death, he murdered his mother, for which crime the Furies persecuted
him till Phlegeus purified him and gave him his daughter Alphesibœa
in marriage. Alcmæon gave her the fatal collar which his mother
had received to betray his father, and afterwards divorced her,
and married Callirhoe the daughter of Achelous, to whom he promised
the necklace which he had given to Alphesibœa. When he attempted
to recover it, Alphesibœa’s brothers murdered him on account of the
treatment which he had shown their sister, and left his body a prey
to dogs and wild beasts. Alcmæon’s children by Callirhoe revenged
their father’s death by killing his murderers. _See:_ Alphesibœa,
Amphiaraus. _Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 17; bk. 6, ch. 18; bk. 8, ch. 24.
――_Plutarch_, _de Exilio_.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 7.――_Hyginus_,
fables 73 & 245.――_Statius_, _Thebiad_, bks. 2 & 4.――_Ovid_,
_Fasti_, bk. 2, li. 44; _Metamorphoses_, bk. 9, fable 10.――――A
son of Ægyptus, the husband of Hippomedusa. _Apollodorus._――――A
philosopher, disciple to Pythagoras, born in Crotona. He wrote on
physic, and he was the first who dissected animals to examine into
the structure of the human frame. _Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_,
bk. 6, ch. 27.――――A son of the poet Æschylus, the 13th archon of
Athens.――――A son of Syllus, driven from Messenia with the rest of
Nestor’s family, by the Heraclidæ. He came to Athens, and from him
the Alcmæonidæ were descended. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 18.
=Alcmæŏnĭdæ=, a noble family of Athens, descended from Alcmæon. They
undertook for 300 talents to rebuild the temple of Delphi, which
had been burnt, and they finished the work in a more splendid manner
than was required, in consequence of which they gained popularity,
and by their influence the Pythia prevailed upon the Lacedæmonians
to deliver their country from the tyranny of the Pisistratidæ.
_Herodotus_, bks. 5 & 6.――_Thucydides_, bk. 6, ch. 59.――_Plutarch_,
_Solon_.
=Alcman=, a very ancient lyric poet, born in Sardinia, and not at
Lacedæmon, as some suppose. He wrote in the Doric dialect six books
of verses, besides a play called Colymbosas. He flourished B.C. 670,
and died of the lousy disease. Some of his verses are preserved by
Athenæus and others. _Pliny_, bk. 11, ch. 33.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1,
ch. 41; bk. 3, ch. 15.――_Aristotle_, _History of Animals_, bk. 5,
ch. 31.
=Alcmēna=, was daughter of Electryon king of Argos, by Anaxo, whom
_Plutarch_, ♦_Theseus_ calls Lysidice, and _Diodorus_, bk. 2,
Eurymede. Her father promised his crown and his daughter to
Amphitryon, if he would revenge the death of his sons, who had been
all killed, except Licymnius, by the Teleboans, a people of Ætolia.
While Amphitryon was gone against the Ætolians, Jupiter, who was
enamoured of Alcmena, resolved to introduce himself into her bed.
The more effectually to insure success in his amour, he assumed the
form of Amphitryon, declared that he had obtained a victory over
Alcmena’s enemies, and even presented her with a cup, which he said
he had preserved from the spoils for her sake. Alcmena yielded to
her lover what she had promised to her future husband; and Jupiter,
to delay the return of Amphitryon, ordered his messenger, Mercury,
to stop the rising of Phœbus, or the sun, so that the night he
passed with Alcmena was prolonged to three long nights. Amphitryon
returned the next day; and after complaining of the coldness with
which he was received, Alcmena acquainted him with the reception
of a false lover the preceding night, and even showed him the cup
which she had received. Amphitryon was perplexed at the relation,
and more so upon missing the cup from among his spoils. He went to
the prophet Tiresias, who told him of Jupiter’s intrigue; and he
returned to his wife proud of the dignity of his rival. Alcmena
became pregnant by Jupiter, and afterwards by her husband; and when
she was going to bring forth, Jupiter boasted in heaven that a child
was to be born that day to whom he would give absolute power over
his neighbours, and even over all the children of his own blood.
Juno, who was jealous of Jupiter’s amours with Alcmena, made him
swear by the Styx, and immediately prolonged the travails of Alcmena,
and hastened the bringing forth of the wife of Sthenelus king of
Argos, who, after a pregnancy of seven months, had a son called
Eurystheus. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 8, fable 5, &c., says that
Juno was assisted by Lucina to put off the bringing forth of Alcmena,
and that Lucina, in the form of an old woman, sat before the door
of Amphitryon with her legs and arms crossed. This posture was the
cause of infinite torment to Alcmena, till her servant, Galanthis,
supposing the old woman to be a witch, and to be the cause of the
pains of her mistress, told her that she had brought forth. Lucina
retired from her posture, and immediately Alcmena brought forth
twins, Hercules conceived by Jupiter, and Iphiclus by Amphitryon.
Eurystheus was already born, and therefore Hercules was subjected to
his power. After Amphitryon’s death, Alcmena married Rhadamanthus,
and retired to Ocalea, in Bœotia. This marriage, according to some
authors, was celebrated in the island of Leuce. The people of Megara
said that she died ♠on her way from Argos to Thebes, and that she
was buried in the temple of Jupiter Olympius. _Pausanias_, bk. 1,
ch. 41; bk. 5, ch. 18; bk. 9, ch. 16.――_Plutarch_, ♦_Theseus_ &
_Romulus_.――_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 11; _Iliad_, bk. 19.――_Pindar_,
_Pythian_, ♣poem 4.――_Lucian_, _Dialogi Deorum_.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.
――_Hyginus_, fable 29.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, chs. 4, 7; bk. 3,
ch. 1.――_Plautus_, _Amphitruo_.――_Herodotus_, bk. 2, chs. 43 & 45.
――――_See:_ Amphitryon, Hercules, Eurystheus.
♦ ‘de Reb. Græc.’ replaced with ‘Theseus’
♠ ‘in’ replaced with ‘on’
♣ ‘9’ replaced with ‘4’
=Alcon=, a famous archer, who one day saw his son attacked by a
serpent, and aimed at him so dexterously that he killed the beast
without hurting his son.――――A silversmith. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 13, fable 5.――――A son of Hippocoon. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch.
14.――――A surgeon under Claudius, who gained much money by his
profession, in curing hernias and fractures.――――A son of Mars.――――A
son of Amycus. These two last were at the chase of the Calydonian
boar. _Hyginus_, fable 173.
♦=Alcyŏna=, a pool of Greece, whose depth the emperor Nero attempted
in vain to find. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 37.
♦ Resorted into proper alphabetical order
=Alcyŏne=, or =Halcyŏne=, daughter of Æolus, married Ceyx, who was
drowned as he was going to Claros to consult the oracle. The gods
apprised Alcyone in a dream of her husband’s fate; and when she
found, on the morrow, his body washed on the sea-shore, she threw
herself into the sea, and was with her husband changed into birds of
the same name, who keep the waters calm and serene, while they build
and sit on their nests on the surface of the sea, for the space of 7,
11, or 14 days. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 1, li. 399.――_Apollodorus_,
bk. 1, ch. 7.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 11, fable 10.――_Hyginus_,
fable 65.――――One of the Pleiades, daughter of Atlas. She had
Arethusa by Neptune, and Eleuthera by Apollo. She, with her sisters,
was changed into a constellation. _See:_ Pleiades. _Pausanias_, bk.
2, ch. 30; bk. 3, ch. 18.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 10.――_Hyginus_,
fable 157.――――The daughter of Evenus, carried away by Apollo after
her marriage. Her husband pursued the ravisher with his bow and
arrows, but was not able to recover her. Upon this, her parents
called her Alcyone, and compared her fate to that of the wife of
Ceyx. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 9, li. 558.――――The wife of Meleager.
_Hyginus_, fable 174.――――A town of Thessaly, where Philip,
Alexander’s father, lost one of his eyes.
=Alcyŏneus=, a youth of exemplary virtue, son to Antigonus. _Plutarch_,
_Pyrrhus_.――_Diogenes Laërtius_, bk. 4.――――A giant, brother to
Porphyrion. He was killed by Hercules. His daughters, mourning his
death, threw themselves into the sea, and were changed into Alcyons
by Amphitrite. _Claudian_, _De Raptu Proserpinæ_.――_Apollodorus_,
bk. 1, ch. 6.
=Aldescus=, a river of European Sarmatia, rising from the Riphæan
mountains, and falling into the northern sea. _Dionysius Periegetes._
=Alduăbis.= _See:_ Dubis.
=Alea=, a surname of Minerva, from her temple built by Aleus son of
Aphidas, at Tegæa in Arcadia. The statue of the goddess made of
ivory was carried by Augustus to Rome. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, chs. 4
& 46.――――A town of Arcadia, built by Aleus. It had three famous
temples, those of Minerva, Bacchus, and Diana the Ephesian. When the
festivals of Bacchus were celebrated, the women were whipped in the
temple. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 23.
=Alēbas=, a tyrant of Larissa, killed by his own guards for his
cruelties. _Ovid_, _Ibis_, li. 323.
=Alēbion= and =Dercynus=, sons of Neptune, were killed by Hercules for
stealing his oxen in Africa. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 5.
=Alecto=, one of the Furies (_a_, ληγω, _non desino_), is represented
with flaming torches, her head covered with serpents, and breathing
vengeance, war, and pestilence. _See:_ Eumenides. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 7, li. 324, &c.; bk. 10, li. 41.
=Alector=, succeeded his father Anaxagoras in the kingdom of Argos,
and was father to Iphis and Capaneus. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 18.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 6.
=Alectryon=, a youth whom Mars, during his amours with Venus, stationed
at the door to watch against the approach of the sun. He fell asleep,
and Apollo came and discovered the lovers, who were exposed by
Vulcan, in each other’s arms, before all the gods. Mars was so
incensed that he changed Alectryon into a cock, which, still mindful
of his neglect, early announces the approach of the sun. _Lucian_,
_Alectryon_ [_Gallus_].
=Alectus=, a tyrant of Britain, in Diocletian’s reign, &c. He died
296 A.D.
=Alēius Campus=, a place in Lycia, where Bellerophon fell from the
horse Pegasus, and wandered over the country till the time of his
death. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 6, li. 201.――_Dionysius Periegetes_,
li. 872.――_Ovid_, _Ibis_, li. 257.
=Alemanni=, or =Alamanni=, a people of Germany. They are first
mentioned in the reign of Caracalla, who was honoured with the
surname of _Alemannicus_ for a victory over them.
=Alēmon=, the father of Myscellus. He built Crotona in Magna Græcia.
Myscellus is often called Alemonides. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 15, lis. 19 & 26.
=Alemusii=, inhabitants of Attica, in whose country there was a temple
of Ceres and of Proserpine. _Pausanias_, _Attica_.
=Alens=, a place in the island of Cos.
=Aleon=, or =Ales=, a river of Ionia, near Colophon. _Pausanias_,
bk. 7, ch. 5; bk. 8, ch. 28.
=Alēse=, a town of Sicily, called afterwards Achronidion, after the
founder. The Romans made it an independent city.
=Alēsia=, or =Alexia=, now _Alise_, a famous city of the Mandubii in
Gaul, founded by Hercules, as he returned from Iberia, on a high
hill. Julius Cæsar conquered it. _Florus_, bk. 3, ch. 10.――_Cæsar_,
_Gallic War_, bk. 7, ch. 68.
=Alēsium=, a town and mountain of Peloponnesus. _Pausanias_, bk. 8,
ch. 10.
=Aletes=, a son of Ægisthus, murdered by Orestes. _Hyginus_, fable 122.
=Alēthes=, the first of the Heraclidæ, who was king of Corinth. He was
son of Hippotas. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 4.――――A companion of Æneas,
described as a prudent and venerable old man. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 1, li. 125; bk. 9, li. 246.
=Alethia=, one of Apollo’s nurses.
=Aletĭdas= (from ἀλαομαι, _to wander_), certain sacrifices at Athens,
in remembrance of Erigone, who wandered with a dog after her father
Icarius.
=Aletrium=, a town of Latium, whose inhabitants are called Aletrinates.
_Livy_, bk. 9, ch. 42.
=Alētum=, a tomb near the harbour of Carthage in Spain. _Polybius_,
bk. 10.
=Aleuādæ=, a royal family of Larissa in Thessaly, descended from
Aleuas king of that country. They betrayed their country to Xerxes.
The name is often applied to the Thessalians without distinction.
_Diodorus_, bk. 16.――_Herodotus_, bk. 7, chs. 6, 172.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 3, ch. 8; bk. 7, ch. 10.――_Ælian_, _De Natura Animalium_, bk. 8,
ch. 11.
=Alēus=, a son of Aphidas king of Arcadia, famous for his skill in
building temples. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, chs. 4 & 53.
=Alex=, a river in the country of the Brutii. _Dionysius Periegetes._
=Alexamēnus=, an Ætolian, who killed Nabis tyrant of Lacedæmon, and
was soon after murdered by the people. _Livy_, bk. 35, ch. 34.
=Alexander I.=, son of Amyntas, was the tenth king of Macedonia.
He killed the Persian ambassadors for their immodest behaviour to
the women of his father’s court, and was the first who raised the
reputation of the Macedonians. He reigned 43 years, and died 451 B.C.
_Justin_, bk. 7, ch. 3.――_Herodotus_, bks. 5, 7, 8, & 9.
=Alexander II.=, son of Amyntas II., king of Macedonia, was
treacherously murdered, B.C. 370, by his younger brother Ptolemy,
who held the kingdom for four years, and made way for Perdiccas and
Philip. _Justin_, bk. 7, ch. 5, says Eurydice, the wife of Amyntas,
was the cause of his murder.
=Alexander III.=, surnamed the Great, was son of Philip and Olympias.
He was born B.C. 355, that night on which the famous temple of
Diana at Ephesus was burnt by Erostratus. This event, according to
the magicians, was an early prognostic of his future greatness, as
well as the taming of Bucephalus, a horse which none of the king’s
courtiers could manage; upon which Philip said, with tears in his
eyes, that his son must seek another kingdom, as that of Macedonia
would not be sufficiently large for the display of his greatness.
Olympias, during her pregnancy, declared that she was with child by
a dragon; and the day that Alexander was born, two eagles perched
for some time on the house of Philip, as if foretelling that
his son would become master of Europe and Asia. He was pupil to
Aristotle during five years, and he received his learned preceptor’s
instructions with becoming deference and pleasure, and ever respected
his abilities. When Philip went to war, Alexander, in his 15th
year, was left governor of Macedonia, where he quelled a dangerous
sedition, and soon after followed his father to the field, and saved
his life in a battle. He was highly offended when Philip divorced
Olympias to marry Cleopatra, and he even caused the death of Attalus,
the new queen’s brother. After this he retired from court to his
mother Olympias, but was recalled; and when Philip was assassinated,
he punished his murderers; and, by his prudence and moderation,
gained the affections of his subjects. He conquered Thrace and
Illyricum, and destroyed Thebes; and after he had been chosen chief
commander of all the forces of Greece, he declared war against the
Persians, who under Darius and Xerxes had laid waste and plundered
the noblest of the Grecian cities. With 32,000 foot and 5000 horse,
he invaded Asia, and after the defeat of Darius at the Granicus,
he conquered all the provinces of Asia Minor. He obtained two other
celebrated victories over Darius at Issus and Arbela, took Tyre
after an obstinate siege of seven months, and the slaughter of
2000 of the inhabitants in cold blood, and made himself master of
Egypt, Media, Syria, and Persia. From Egypt he visited the temple of
Jupiter Ammon, and bribed the priests, who saluted him as the son of
their god, and enjoined his army to pay him divine honours. He built
a town which he called Alexandria, on the western side of the Nile,
near the coast of the Mediterranean, an eligible situation which his
penetrating eye marked as best entitled to become the future capital
of his immense dominions, and to extend the commerce of his subjects
from the Mediterranean to the Ganges. His conquests were spread over
India, where he fought with Porus, a powerful king of the country;
and after he had invaded Scythia, and visited the Indian ocean,
he retired to Babylon loaded with the spoils of the east. His
entering the city was foretold by the magicians as fatal, and their
prediction was fulfilled. He died at Babylon the 21st of April, in
the 32nd year of his age, after a reign of 12 years and 8 months of
brilliant and continued success, 323 B.C. His death was so premature
that some have attributed it to the effects of poison, and excess
of drinking. Antipater has been accused of causing the fatal poison
to be given him at a feast; and perhaps the resentment of the
Macedonians, whose services he seemed to forget, by entrusting the
guard of his body to the Persians, was the cause of his death. He
was so universally regretted, that Babylon was filled with tears and
lamentations; and the Medes and Macedonians declared that no one was
able or worthy to succeed him. Many conspiracies were formed against
him by the officers of his army, but they were all seasonably
suppressed. His tender treatment of the wife and mother of king
Darius, who were taken prisoners, has been greatly praised; and the
latter, who had survived the death of her son, killed herself when
she heard that Alexander was dead. His great intrepidity more than
once endangered his life; he always fought as if sure of victory,
and the terror of his name was often more powerfully effectual than
his arms. He was always forward in every engagement, and bore the
labours of the field as well as the meanest of his soldiers. During
his conquests in Asia, he founded many cities, which he called
Alexandria, after his own name. When he had conquered Darius, he
ordered himself to be worshipped as a god; and Callisthenes, who
refused to do it, was shamefully put to death. He also murdered
at a banquet, his friend Clitus, who had once saved his life in a
battle, because he enlarged upon the virtues and exploits of Philip,
and preferred them to those of his son. His victories and success
increased his pride; he dressed himself in the Persian manner, and,
giving himself up to pleasure and dissipation, he set on fire the
town of Persepolis in a fit of madness and intoxication, encouraged
by the courtesan Thais. Yet, among all his extravagances, he was
fond of candour and of truth; and when one of his officers read
to him, as he sailed on the Hydaspes, a history which he had
composed of his wars with Porus, and in which he had too liberally
panegyrized him, Alexander snatched the book from his hand, and
threw it into the river, saying, “What need is there of such
flattery? Are not the exploits of Alexander sufficiently meritorious
in themselves, without the colourings of falsehood?” He in like
manner rejected a statuary, who offered to cut mount Athos like him,
and represent him as holding a town in one hand, and pouring a river
from the other. He forbade any statuary to make his statue except
Lysippus, and any painter to draw his picture except Apelles. On his
death-bed he gave his ring to Perdiccas, and it was supposed that
by this singular present he wished to make him his successor. Some
time before his death, his officers asked him whom he appointed to
succeed him on the throne; and he answered, “The worthiest among you;
but I am afraid,” added he, “my best friends will perform my funeral
obsequies with bloody hands.” Alexander, with all his pride, was
humane and liberal, easy and familiar with his friends, a great
patron of learning, as may be collected from his assisting Aristotle
with a purse of money to effect the completion of his natural
history. He was brave often to rashness; he frequently lamented
that his father conquered everything, and left him nothing to do;
and exclaimed, in all the pride of regal dignity, “Give me kings
for competitors, and I will enter the lists at Olympia.” All his
family and infant children were put to death by Cassander. The first
deliberation that was made after his decease, among his generals,
was to appoint his brother Philip Aridæus successor, until Roxane,
who was then pregnant by him, brought into the world a legitimate
heir. Perdiccas wished to be supreme regent as Aridæus wanted
capacity; and, more strongly to establish himself, he married
Cleopatra, Alexander’s sister, and made alliance with Eumenes. As
he endeavoured to deprive Ptolemy of Egypt, he was defeated in a
battle by Seleucus and Antigonus, on the banks of the river Nile,
and assassinated by his own cavalry. Perdiccas was the first of
Alexander’s generals who took up arms against his fellow-soldiers,
and he was the first who fell a sacrifice to his rashness and
cruelty. To defend himself against him, Ptolemy made a treaty of
alliance with some generals, among whom was Antipater, who had
strengthened himself by giving his daughter Phila, an ambitious and
aspiring woman, in marriage to Craterus, another of the generals of
Alexander. After many dissensions and bloody wars among themselves,
the generals of Alexander laid the foundation of several great
empires in the three quarters of the globe. Ptolemy seized Egypt,
where he firmly established himself, and where his successors were
called Ptolemies, in honour of the founder of their empire, which
subsisted till the time of Augustus. Seleucus and his posterity
reigned in Babylon and Syria. Antigonus at first established himself
in Asia Minor, and Antipater in Macedonia. The descendants of
Antipater were conquered by the successors of Antigonus, who reigned
in Macedonia till it was reduced by the Romans in the time of king
Perseus. Lysimachus made himself master of Thrace; and Leonatus,
who had taken possession of Phrygia, meditated for a while to drive
Antipater from Macedonia. Eumenes established himself in Cappadocia,
but was soon overpowered by the combinations of his rival Antigonus,
and starved to death. During his lifetime, Eumenes appeared so
formidable to the successors of Alexander, that none of them dared
to assume the title of king. _Curtius_, _Arrian_, & _Plutarch_
have written an account of Alexander’s life. _Diodorus_, bks. 17
& 18.――_Pausanias_, bks. 1, 7, 8, & 9.――_Justin_, bks. 11 & 12.――
_Valerius Maximus._――_Strabo_, bk. 1, &c.――――A son of Alexander
the Great, by Roxane, put to death, with his mother, by Cassander.
_Justin_, bk. 15, ch. 2.――――A man who, after the expulsion of
Telestes, reigned in Corinth. Twenty-five years after, Telestes
dispossessed him, and put him to death.――――A son of Cassander king
of Macedonia, who reigned two years conjointly with his brother
Antipater, and was prevented by Lysimachus from revenging his mother
Thessalonica, whom his brother had murdered. Demetrius, the son of
Antigonus, put him to death. _Justin_, bk. 16, ch. 1.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 9, ch. 7.――――A king of Epirus, brother to Olympias, and
successor to Arybas. He banished Timolaus to Peloponnesus, and made
war in Italy against the Romans, and observed that he fought with
men, while his nephew, Alexander the Great, was fighting with an
army of women (meaning the Persians). He was surnamed Molossus.
_Justin_, bk. 17, ch. 3.――_Diodorus_, bk. 16.――_Livy_, bk. 8, chs.
17 & 27.――_Strabo_, bk. 16.――――A son of Pyrrhus, was king of Epirus.
He conquered Macedonia, from which he was expelled by Demetrius. He
recovered it by the assistance of the Acarnanians. _Justin_, bk. 26,
ch. 3.――_Plutarch_, _Pyrrhus_.――――A king of Syria, driven from his
kingdom by Nicanor son of Demetrius Soter, and his father-in-law
Ptolemy Philometer. _Justin_, bk. 35, chs. 1 & 2.――_Josephus_,
bk. 13, _Antiquities of the Jews_.――_Strabo_, bk. 17.――――A king of
Syria, first called Bala, was a merchant, and succeeded Demetrius.
He conquered Nicanor by means of Ptolemy Physcon, and was afterwards
killed by Antiochus Gryphus son of Nicanor. _Josephus_, _Antiquities
of the Jews_, bk. 13, ch. 18.――――Ptolemy was one of the Ptolemean
kings in Egypt. His mother Cleopatra raised him to the throne, in
preference to his brother Ptolemy Lathurus, and reigned conjointly
with him. Cleopatra, however, expelled him, and soon after recalled
him; and Alexander, to prevent being expelled a second time, put her
to death, and for this unnatural action was himself murdered by one
of his subjects. _Josephus_, bk. 13, _Antiquities of the Jews_, ch.
20, &c.――_Justin_, bk. 39, chs. 3 & 4.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 9.
――――Ptolemy II., king of Egypt, was son of the preceding. He was
educated in the island of Cos, and, falling into the hands of
Mithridates, escaped to Sylla, who restored him to his kingdom.
He was murdered by his subjects a few days after his restoration.
_Appian_, bk. 1, _Civil Wars_.――――Ptolemy III., was king of Egypt
after his brother Alexander the last mentioned. After a peaceful
reign, he was banished by his subjects, and died at Tyre, B.C. 65,
leaving his kingdom to the Roman people. _See:_ Ægyptus and Ptolemæus.
_Cicero_, _De Lege Agraria contra Rullum_.――――A youth, ordered by
Alexander the Great to climb the rock Aornus, with 30 other youths.
He was killed in the attempt. _Curtius_, bk. 8, ch. 11.――――An
historian mentioned by _Plutarch_, _Marius_.――――An Epicurean
philosopher. _Plutarch._――――A governor of Æolia, who assembled a
multitude on pretence of showing them an uncommon spectacle, and
confined them till they had each bought their liberty with a sum of
money. _Polyænus_, bk. 6, ch. 10.――――A name given to Paris son of
Priam. _See:_ Paris.――――Jannæus, a king of Judea, son of Hyrcanus
and brother of Aristobulus, who reigned as a tyrant, and died
through excess of drinking, B.C. 79, after massacring 800 of his
subjects for the entertainment of his concubines.――――A Paphlagonian,
who gained divine honours by his magical tricks and impositions,
and likewise procured the friendship of Marcus Aurelius. He died
70 years old.――――A native of Caria, in the third century, who wrote
a commentary on the writings of Aristotle, part of which is still
extant.――――Trallianus, a physician and philosopher of the fourth
century, some of whose works in Greek are still extant.――――A poet
of Ætolia, in the age of Ptolemy Philadelphus.――――A peripatetic
philosopher, said to have been preceptor to Nero.――――An historian,
called also Polyhistor, who wrote five books on the Roman republic,
in which he said that the Jews had received their laws, not from
God, but from a woman whom he called Moso. He also wrote treatises
on the Pythagorean philosophy, B.C. 88.――――A poet of Ephesus, who
wrote a poem on astronomy and geography.――――A writer of Myndus,
quoted by _Athenæus_ and _Ælian_.――――A sophist of Seleucia, in
the age of Antoninus.――――A physician in the age of Justinian.――――A
Thessalian, who, as he was going to engage in a naval battle, gave
to his soldiers a great number of missile weapons, and ordered
them to dart them continually upon the enemy to render their
numbers useless. _Polyænus_, bk. 6, ch. 27.――――A son of Lysimachus.
_Polyænus_, bk. 6, ch. 12.――――A governor of Lycia, who brought a
reinforcement of troops to Alexander the Great. _Curtius_, bk. 7,
ch. 10.――――A son of Polyperchon, killed in Asia by the Dymæans.
_Diodorus_, bks. 18 & 19.――――A poet of Pleuron son of Satyrus and
Stratoclea, who said that Theseus had a daughter called Iphigenia
by Helen. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 22.――――A Spartan, killed with 200
of his soldiers by the Argives, when he endeavoured to prevent their
passing through the country of Tegea. _Diodorus_, bk. 15.――――A cruel
tyrant of Pheræ, in Thessaly, who made war against the Macedonians,
and took Pelopidas prisoner. He was murdered, B.C. 357, by his
wife called Thebe, whose room he carefully guarded by a Thracian
sentinel, and searched every night, fearful of some dagger that
might be concealed to take away his life. _Cicero_, _de Inventione_,
bk. 2, ch. 49; _de Officiis_, bk. 2, ch. 9.――_Valerius Maximus_,
bk. 9, ch. 13.――_Plutarch_ & _Cornelius Nepos_, _Pelopidas_.――
_Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 5.――_Diodorus_, bks. 15 & 16.――_Ovid_,
_Ibis_, li. 321.――――Severus, a Roman emperor. _See:_ Severus.
=Alexandra=, the name of some queens of Judæa mentioned by _Josephus_.
――――A nurse of Nero. _Suetonius_, _Nero_, ch. 50.――――A name
of Cassandra, because she assisted mankind by her prophecies.
_Lycophron._
=Alexandri Aræ=, the boundaries, according to some, of Alexander’s
victories, near the Tanais. _Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 16.
=Alexandrīa=, the name of several cities which were founded by
Alexander, during his conquests in Asia; the most famous are:――A
grand and extensive city, built B.C. 332, by Alexander, on the
western side of the Delta. The illustrious founder intended it not
only for the capital of Egypt, but of his immense conquests, and
the commercial advantages which its situation commanded continued to
improve from the time of Alexander till the invasion of the Saracens
in the seventh century. The commodities of India were brought
there, and thence dispersed to the different countries around the
Mediterranean. Alexandria is famous, among other curiosities, for
the large library which the pride or learning of the Ptolemies had
collected there, at a vast expense, from all parts of the earth.
This valuable repository was burnt by the orders of the caliph
Omar, A.D. 642; and it is said that, during six months, the
numerous volumes supplied fuel for the 4000 baths, which contributed
to the health and convenience of the populous capital of Egypt.
Alexandria has likewise been distinguished for its schools, not
only of theology and philosophy, but of physic, where once to
have studied was a sufficient recommendation to distant countries.
The astronomical school, founded by Philadelphus, maintained its
superior reputation for 10 centuries, till the time of the Saracens.
The modern town of Scanderoon has been erected upon the ruins of
Alexandria, and, as if it were an insult to its former greatness, it
scarce contains 6000 inhabitants. _Curtius_, bk. 4, ch. 8.――_Strabo_,
bk. 17.――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 10.――――Another in Albania, at the foot
of mount Caucasus.――――Another in Arachosia, in India.――――The capital
of Aria, between Hecatompylon and Bactra.――――Another of Carmania.
――――Another in Cilicia, on the confines of Syria.――――Another the
capital of Margiana.――――Another of Troas, &c. _Curtius_, bk. 7.――
_Pliny_, bk. 6, chs. 16, 23, & 25.
=Alexandrĭdes=, a Lacedæmonian, who married his sister’s daughter,
by whom he had Dorycus, Leonidas, and Cleombrotus.――――A native of
Delphi, of which he wrote a history.
=Alexandrīna aqua=, baths in Rome, built by the emperor Alexander
Severus.
=Alexandropŏlis=, a city of Parthia, built by Alexander the Great.
_Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 25.
=Alexānor=, a son of Machaon, who built in Sicyon a temple to his
grandfather Æsculapius, and received divine honours after death.
_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 11.
=Alexarchus=, a Greek historian.
=Alexas=, of Laodicea, was recommended to Marcus Antony by Timagenes.
He was the cause that Antony repudiated Octavia to marry Cleopatra.
Augustus punished him severely after the defeat of Antony.
_Plutarch_, _Antonius_.
=Alexia=, or =Alesia=. _See:_ Alesia.
=Alexicăcus=, a surname given to Apollo by the Athenians, because he
delivered them from the plague during the Peloponnesian war.
=Alexīnus=, a disciple of Eubulides the Milesian, famous for the
acuteness of his genius and judgment, and for his fondness for
contention and argumentation. He died of a wound which he had
received from a sharp-pointed reed, as he swam across the river
Alpheus. _Diogenes Laërtius_, _Euclides_.
=Alexion=, a physician intimate with Cicero. _Cicero_, _Letters to
Atticus_, bk. 13, ltr. 25.
=Alexippus=, a physician of Alexander. _Plutarch_, _Alexander_.
=Alexiraes=, son of Hercules by Hebe. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 7.
――――A place of Bœotia, where Alexiraes was born, bears also this
name. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 25.
=Alexirhoe=, a daughter of the river Granicus. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 11, li. 763.
=Alexis=, a man of Samos, who endeavoured to ascertain, by his
writings, the borders of his country.――――A comic poet, 336 B.C., of
Thurium, who wrote 245 comedies, of which some few fragments remain.
――――A servant of Asinius Pollio.――――An ungrateful youth of whom a
shepherd is deeply enamoured, in Virgil’s _Eclogues_, poem 2.――――A
statuary, disciple to Polycletes, 87th Olympiad _Pliny_, bk. 34,
ch. 8.――――A schoolfellow of Atticus. _Cicero_, _Letters to Atticus_,
bk. 7, ltr. 2.
=Alexon=, a native of Myndos, who wrote fables. _Diogenes Laërtius._
=Alfaterna=, a town of Campania, beyond mount Vesuvius.
=Publius Alfēnus Varus=, a native of Cremona, who, by the force of
his genius and his application, raised himself from his original
profession of a cobbler to offices of trust at Rome, and at last
became consul. _Horace_, bk. 1, satire 3, li. 130.
=Algĭdum=, a town of Latium near Tusculum, about 12 miles from Rome.
There is a mountain of the same name in the neighbourhood. _Horace_,
bk. 1, ode 21.
=Aliacmon= and =Haliacmon=, a river of Macedonia, separating it from
Thessaly. It flows into the Ægean sea. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 10.
=Aliartus= (or um) and =Haliartus=, a town of Bœotia, near the river
Permessus, taken by Marcus Lucretius. _Livy_, bk. 42, ch. 63.
――――Another in Peloponnesus, on the coast of Messenia. _Statius_,
_Thebiad_, bk. 7, li. 274.
=Alĭcis=, a town of Laconia.――――A tribe of Athens.
=Aliēnus Cæcīna=, a questor in Bœotia, appointed, for his services,
commander of a legion in Germany, by Galba. The emperor disgraced
him for his bad conduct, for which he raised commotions in the
empire. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 1, ch. 52.
=Alīfæ=, =Alifa=, or =Alipha=, a town of Italy, near the Vulturnus,
famous for the making of cups. _Horace_, bk. 2, satire 8, li. 39.
――_Livy_, bk. 8, ch. 25.
=Alilæi=, a people of Arabia Felix.
=Alimentus Cincius=, an historian in the second Punic war, who wrote
in Greek an account of Annibal, besides a treatise on military
affairs. _Livy_, bks. 21 & 30.
=Alindæ=, a town of Caria. _Arrian._
=Aliphēria=, a town of Arcadia, situate on a hill. _Polybius_, bk. 4,
ch. 77.
=Alirrothius=, a son of Neptune. Hearing that his father had been
defeated by Minerva, in his dispute about giving a name to Athens,
he went to the citadel, and endeavoured to cut down the olive, which
had sprung from the ground and given the victory to Minerva; but in
the attempt he missed his aim, and cut his own legs so severely that
he instantly expired.
=Tiberius Alledius Severus=, a Roman knight, who married his brother’s
daughter to please Agrippina.――――A noted glutton in Domitian’s reign.
_Juvenal_, satire 5, li. 118.
=Allia=, a river of Italy, falling into the Tiber. The Romans were
defeated on its banks by Brennus and the Gauls, who were going to
plunder Rome, 17th July, B.C. 390. _Plutarch_, _Camillus_.――_Livy_,
bk. 5, ch. 37.――_Florus_, bk. 1, ch. 13.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7,
li. 717.――_Ovid_, _Ars Amatoria_, bk. 1, li. 413.
=Alliēnos=, a pretor of Sicily, under Cæsar. _Hirtius_, _African War_,
ch. 2.
=Allŏbrŏges=, a warlike nation of Gaul near the Rhone, in that part
of the country now called Savoy, Dauphiné, and Vivarais. The Romans
destroyed their city because they had assisted Annibal. Their
ambassadors were allured by great promises to join in Catiline’s
conspiracy against his country; but they scorned the offers, and
discovered the plot. _Dio Cassius._――_Strabo_, bk. 4.――_Tacitus_,
_Histories_, bk. 1, ch. 66.――_Sallust_, _Jugurthine War_.
=Allobry̆ges=, a people of Gaul, supposed to be the same as the
Allobroges. _Polybius_, bk. 30, ch. 56.
=Allotrĭges=, a nation on the southern parts of Spain. _Strabo_, bk. 2.
=Allutius=, or =Albutius=, a prince of the Celtiberi, to whom Scipio
restored the beautiful princess whom he had taken in battle.
=Almo=, a small river near Rome falling into the Tiber. _Ovid_,
_Fasti_, bk. 4, li. 387.――_Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 600.
=Almon=, the eldest of the sons of Tyrrhus. He was the first Rutulian
killed by the Trojans; and from the skirmish which happened before
and after his death, arose the enmities which ended in the fall of
Turnus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 532.
=Alŏa=, festivals at Athens in honour of Bacchus and Ceres, by whose
beneficence the husbandmen received the recompense of their labours.
The oblations were the fruits of the earth. Ceres has been called
from this, Aloas and Alois.
=Aloēus=, a giant, son of Titan and Terra. He married Iphimedia, by
whom Neptune had the twins Othus and Ephialtus. Aloeus educated
them as his own, and from that circumstance they have been called
_Aloides_. They made war against the gods, and were killed by Apollo
and Diana. They grew up nine inches every month, and were only nine
years old when they undertook their war. They built the town of
Ascra, at the foot of mount Helicon. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 29.
――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 582.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 5;
_Odyssey_, bk. 11.
=Aloīdes= and =Aloidæ=, the sons of Aloeus. _See:_ Aloeus.
=Alŏpe=, daughter of Cercyon king of Eleusis, had a child by Neptune,
whom she exposed in the woods, covered with a piece of her gown.
The child was preserved, and carried to Alope’s father, who, upon
knowing the gown, ordered his daughter to be put to death. Neptune,
who could not save his mistress, changed her into a fountain. The
child, called Hippothoon, was preserved by some shepherds and placed
by Theseus upon his grandfather’s throne. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, chs. 5
& 39.――_Hyginus_, fable 187.――――One of the Harpies. _Hyginus_,
fable 14.――――A town of Thessaly. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 7.――_Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 2, li. 682.
=Alopĕce=, an island in the Palus Mæotis. _Strabo._――――Another in the
Cimmerian Bosphorus. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.――――Another in the Ægean
sea opposite Smyrna. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 31.――――A small village
of Attica, where was the tomb of Anchimolius, whom the Spartans
had sent to deliver Athens from the tyranny of the Pisistratidæ.
Socrates and Aristides were born there. _Aeschines_, _Against
Timarchus_.――_Herodotus_, bk. 5, ch. 64.
=Alopius=, a son of Hercules and Antiope. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 35.
=Alos=, a town of Achaia. _Strabo_, bk. 9.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 7.
=Alotia=, festivals in Arcadia, in commemoration of a victory gained
over Lacedæmon by the Arcadians.
=Alpēnus=, the capital of Locris, at the north of Thermopylæ.
_Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 176, &c.
=Alpes=, mountains that separate Italy from Spain, Gaul, Rhætia, and
Germany; considered as the highest ground in Europe. From them arise
several rivers, which, after watering the neighbouring countries,
discharge themselves into the German, Mediterranean, and Euxine
seas. The Alps are covered with perpetual snows, and distinguished,
according to their situation, by the different names of _Cottiæ_,
_Carnicæ_, _Graiæ_, _Noricæ_, _Juliæ_, _Maritimæ_, _Pannoniæ_,
_Penninæ_, _Pœnæ_, _Rhætiæ_, _Tridentinæ_, _Venetæ_. A traveller
is generally five days in reaching the top in some parts. They were
supposed for a long time to be impassable. Hannibal marched his army
over them, and made his way through rocks, by softening and breaking
them with vinegar. They were inhabited by fierce uncivilized nations,
who were unsubdued till the age of Augustus, who, to eternize the
victory which he had obtained over them, erected a pillar in their
territory. _Strabo_, bks. 4 & 5.――_Livy_, bk. 21, ch. 35.――_Juvenal_,
satire 10, li. 151.――_Horace_, bk. 2, satire 5, li. 41.――_Lucan_,
bk. 1, li. 183.――_Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 3, ch. 53.
=Alpheia=, a surname of Diana in Elis. It was given her when the river
Alpheus endeavoured to ravish her without success.――――A surname
of the nymph Arethusa, because loved by the Alpheus. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, li. 487.
=Alphēnor=, one of Niobe’s sons. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 6,
fable 6.
=Alphēnus.= _See:_ Alfenus.
=Alphesibœa=, daughter of the river Phlegeus, married Alcmæon son of
Amphiaraus, who had fled to her father’s court after the murder of
his mother. _See:_ Alcmæon. She received, as a bridal present, the
famous necklace which Polynices had given to Eriphyle, to induce
her to betray her husband Amphiaraus. Alcmæon being persecuted by
the means of his mother, left his wife by order of the oracle, and
retired near the Achelous, whose daughter Callirrhoe had two sons by
him, and begged of him, as a present, the necklace which was then in
the hands of Alphesibœa. He endeavoured to obtain it, and was killed
by Temenus and Axion, Alphesibœa’s brothers, who thus revenged
their sister who had been so innocently abandoned. _Hyginus_,
fable 244.――_Propertius_, bk. 8, poem 15, li. 15.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 8, ch. 24.
=Alphesibœus=, a shepherd, often mentioned in Virgil’s eclogues.
=Alphēus=, now _Alpheo_, a famous river of Peloponnesus, which rises
in Arcadia, and after passing through Elis falls into the sea. The
god of this river fell in love with the nymph Arethusa, and pursued
her till she was changed into a fountain by Diana. The fountain
Arethusa is in Ortygia, a small island near Syracuse; and the
ancients affirm that the river Alpheus passes under the sea from
Peloponnesus, and without mingling itself with the salt waters,
rises again in Ortygia, and joins the stream of Arethusa. If
anything is thrown into the Alpheus in Elis, according to their
traditions, it will reappear, after some time, swimming on the
waters of Arethusa, near Sicily. Hercules made use of the Alpheus
to clean the stables of Augeas. _Strabo_, bk. 6.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 3, li. 694.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, fable 10.――_Lucan_,
bk. 3, li. 176. ――_Statius_, _Thebiad_, bks. 1 & 4.――_Mela_, bk. 2,
ch. 7.――_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 7; bk. 6, ch. 21.――_Marcellinus_,
bk. 25.――_Pliny_, bk. 2, ch. 103.
=Alphius=, or =Alfeus=, a celebrated usurer ridiculed in _Horace_,
_Epodes_, poem 2.
=Alphius Avitus=, a writer in the age of Severus, who gave an account
of illustrious men, and a history of the Carthaginian war.
=Alpīnus=, belonging to the Alps. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 4, li. 442.
=Alpīnus (Cornelius)=, a contemptible poet, whom Horace ridicules for
the awkward manner in which he introduces the death of Memnon in
a tragedy, and the pitiful style with which he describes the Rhine,
in an epic poem which he attempted on the wars in Germany. _Horace_,
bk. 1, satire 10, li. 36.――――Julius, one of the chiefs of the
Helvetii. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 1, ch. 68.
=Alpis=, a small river falling into the Danube.
=Alsium=, a maritime town at the west of the Tiber, now _Statua_.
_Silius Italicus_, bk. 8.
=Alsus=, a river of Achaia in Peloponnesus, flowing from mount Sipylus.
_Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 27.――――A shepherd during the Rutulian wars.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 12, li. 304.
=Althæa=, daughter of Thestius and Eurythemis, married Œneus king of
Calydon, by whom she had many children, among whom was Meleager.
When Althæa brought forth Meleager, the Parcæ placed a log of wood
in the fire, and said, that as long as it was preserved, so long
would the life of the child just born be prolonged. The mother
saved the wood from the flames, and kept it very carefully; but
when Meleager killed his two uncles, Althæa’s brothers, Althæa,
to revenge their death, threw the log into the fire, and as soon
as it was burnt, Meleager expired. She was afterwards so sorry
for the death she had caused, that she killed herself, unable to
survive her son. _See:_ Meleager. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 8,
fable 4.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 9.――_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 45;
bk. 10, ch. 31.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 8.
=Althæmĕnes=, a son of Creteus king of Crete. Hearing that either
he or his brothers were to be their father’s murderers, he fled to
Rhodes, where he made a settlement, to avoid becoming a parricide.
After the death of all his other sons, Creteus went after his son
Althæmenes; when he landed in Rhodes, the inhabitants attacked him,
supposing him to be an enemy, and he was killed by the hand of his
own son. When Althæmenes knew that he had killed his father, he
entreated the gods to remove him, and the earth immediately opened,
and swallowed him up. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 2.
=Altīnum=, a flourishing city of Italy, near Aquileia, famous for its
wool. _Martial_, bk. 14, ltr. 25.――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 18.
=Altis=, a sacred grove round Jupiter’s temple at Olympia, where the
statues of the Olympic conquerors were placed. _Pausanias_, bk. 5,
ch. 20, &c.
=Altus=, a city of Peloponnesus. _Xenophon_, _Hellenica_.
=Aluntium=, a town of Sicily. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 8.――_Cicero_,
_Against Verres_, bk. 4.
=Alus=, =Aluus=, and =Halus=, a village of Arcadia, called also the
temple of Æsculapius. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 25.
=Alyattes I.=, a king of Lydia, descended from the Heraclidæ. He
reigned 57 years.
=Alyattes II.=, king of Lydia, of the family of the Mermnadæ, was
father to Crœsus. He drove the Cimmerians from Asia, and made war
against the Medes. He died when engaged in a war against Miletus,
after a reign of 35 years. A monument was raised on his grave with
the money which the women of Lydia had obtained by prostitution.
An eclipse of the sun terminated a battle between him and Cyaxares.
_Herodotus_, bk. 1, chs. 16, 17, &c.――_Strabo_, bk. 13.
=Aly̆ba=, a country near Mysia. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2.
=Alycæa=, a town of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 27.
=Alycæus=, son of Sciron, was killed by Theseus. A place in Megara
received its name from him. _Plutarch_, _Theseus_.
=Aly̆mon=, the husband of Circe.
=Alyssus=, a fountain of Arcadia, whose waters could cure the bite of
a mad dog. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 19.
=Alyxothoe=, or =Alexirhoe=, daughter of Dymus, was mother of Æsacus
by Priam. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 11, li. 763.
=Alyzia=, a town of Acarnania on the western mouth of the Achelous,
opposite to the Echinades. _Cicero_, _Letters to his Friends_,
bk. 16, ltr. 2.
=Amadŏcus=, a king of Thrace, defeated by his antagonist Seuthes.
_Aristotle_, bk. 5, _Politics_, ch. 10.
=Amage=, a queen of Sarmatia, remarkable for her justice and fortitude.
_Polyænus_, bk. 8, ch. 56.
=Amalthæa=, daughter of Melissus king of Crete, fed Jupiter with goat’s
milk. Hence some authors have called her a goat, and have maintained
that Jupiter, to reward her kindnesses, placed her in heaven as
a constellation, and gave one of her horns to the nymphs who had
taken care of his infant years. This horn was called the horn of
plenty, and had the power to give the nymphs whatever they desired.
_Diodorus_, bks. 3, 4, 5.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 5, li. 113.――_Strabo_,
bk. 10.――_Hyginus_, fable 139.――_Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 26.――――A
Sibyl of Cumæ, called also Hierophile and Demophile. She is supposed
to be the same who brought nine books of prophecies to Tarquin king
of Rome, &c. _Varro._――_Tibullus_, bk. 2, poem 5, li. 67. _See:_
Sibyllæ.
=Amalthēum=, a public place which Atticus had opened in his country
house, called Amalthea, in Epirus, and provided with everything
which could furnish entertainment and convey instruction. _Cicero_,
_Letters to Atticus_, bk. 1, ltr. 13.
=Amăna=, or =Amanus=, part of mount Taurus in Cilicia. _Lucan_, bk. 3,
li. 244.
=Cn. Salvius Amandus=, a rebel general under Diocletian, who assumed
imperial honours, and was at last conquered by Diocletian’s
colleague.
=Amantes=, or =Amantīni=, a people of Illyricum descended from the
Abantes of Phocis. _Callimachus._
=Amānus=, one of the deities worshipped in Armenia and Cappadocia.
_Strabo_, bk. 11.――――A mountain in Cilicia.
=Amārăcus=, an officer of Cinyras, changed into marjoram.
=Amardi=, a nation near the Caspian sea. _Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 3.
=Amartus=, a city of Greece. _Homer_, _Hymn to Apollo_.
=Amaryllis=, the name of a countrywoman in Virgil’s eclogues. Some
commentators have supposed that the poet spoke of Rome under this
fictitious appellation.
=Amarynceus=, a king of the Epeans, buried at Buprasium. _Strabo_,
bk. 8.――_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 1.
=Amarynthus=, a village in Eubœa, whence Diana is called Amarysia, and
her festivals in that town Amarynthia.――――Eubœa is sometimes called
Amarynthus. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 31.
=Amas=, a mountain of Laconia. _Pausanias_, bk. 3.
=Amăsēnus=, a small river of Latium falling into the Tyrrhene sea.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 685.
=Amasia=, a city of Pontus, where Mithridates the Great and Strabo the
geographer were born. _Strabo_, bk. 12.――_Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 3.
=Amāsis=, a man who, from a common soldier, became king of Egypt. He
made war against Arabia, and died before the invasion of his country
by Cambyses king of Persia. He made a law that every one of his
subjects should yearly give an account to the public magistrates
of the manner in which he supported himself. He refused to continue
in alliance with Polycrates the tyrant of Samos, on account of his
uncommon prosperity. When Cambyses came into Egypt, he ordered the
body of Amasis to be dug up, and to be insulted and burnt; an action
which was very offensive to the religious notions of the Egyptians.
_Herodotus_, bks. 1, 2, 3.――――A man who led the Persians against the
inhabitants of Barce. _Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 201, &c.
=Amastris=, the wife of Dionysius the tyrant of Sicily, was sister
to Darius, whom Alexander conquered. _Strabo_.――――Also, the wife of
Xerxes king of Persia. _See:_ Amestris.――――A city of Paphlagonia, on
the Euxine sea. _Catullus._
=Amastrus=, one of the auxiliaries of Perses, against Ætes king of
Colchis, killed by Argus son of Phryxus. _Flaccus_, bk. 6, li. 544.
――――A friend of Æneas, killed by Camilla in the Rutulian war.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 11, li. 673.
=Amāta=, the wife of king Latinus. She had betrothed her daughter
Lavinia to Turnus, before the arrival of Æneas in Italy. She
zealously favoured the interest of Turnus, and when her daughter was
given in marriage to Æneas, she hung herself to avoid the sight of
her son-in-law. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, &c.
=Amăthus= (genitive: untis), now _Limisso_, a city on the southern
side of the island of Cyprus, particularly dedicated to Venus.
The island is sometimes called Amathusia, a name not unfrequently
applied to the goddess of the place. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10,
li. 51.――_Claudius Ptolemy_, bk. 5, ch. 14.
=Amaxampēus=, a fountain of Scythia, whose waters imbitter the stream
of the river Hypanis. _Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 52.
=Amaxia=, or =Amaxīta=, an ancient town of Troas.――――A place of
Cilicia abounding with wood fit for building ships. _Pliny_, bk. 5,
ch. 9.――_Strabo_, bk. 14.
=Amazēnes=, or =Mazēnes=, a prince of the island Oaractus, who sailed
for some time with the Macedonians and Nearchus in Alexander’s
expedition to the east. _Arrian_, _Indica_.
=Amazŏnes=, or =Amazŏnĭdes=, a nation of famous women who lived near
the river Thermodon in Cappadocia. All their life was employed
in wars and manly exercises. They never had any commerce with the
other sex, but, only for the sake of propagation, they visited the
inhabitants of the neighbouring country for a few days, and the
male children which they brought forth were given to the fathers.
According to Justin, they were strangled as soon as born, and
Diodorus says that they maimed them and distorted their limbs. The
females were carefully educated with their mothers, in the labours
of the field; their right breast was burnt off that they might hurl
a javelin with more force, and make a better use of the bow; from
that circumstance, therefore, their name is derived (_a non_, μαζα
_mamma_). They founded an extensive empire in Asia Minor, along the
shores of the Euxine, and near the Thermodon. They were defeated in
a battle near the Thermodon by the Greeks; and some of them migrated
beyond the Tanais, and extended their territories as far as the
Caspian sea. Themyscyra was the most capital of their towns; and
Smyrna, Magnesia, Thyatira, and Ephesus, according to some authors,
were built by them. Diodorus, bk. 3, mentions a nation of Amazons
in Africa more ancient than those of Asia. Some authors, among whom
is Strabo, deny the existence of the Amazons, and of a republic
supported and governed by women, who banished or extirpated all
their males; but Justin and Diodorus particularly support it; and
the latter says that Penthesilea, one of their queens, came to the
Trojan war on the side of Priam, and that she was killed by Achilles,
and from that time the glory and character of the Amazons gradually
decayed, and was totally forgotten. The Amazons of Africa flourished
long before the Trojan war, and many of their actions have been
attributed to those of Asia. It is said, that after they had subdued
almost all Asia, they invaded Attica, and were conquered by Theseus.
Their most famous actions were their expeditions against Priam,
and afterwards the assistance they gave him during the Trojan war;
and their invasion of Attica, to punish Theseus, who had carried
away Antiope, one of their queens. They were also conquered by
Bellerophon and Hercules. Among their queens, Hippolyte, Antiope,
Lampeto, Marpesia, &c., are famous. Curtius says that Thalestris,
one of their queens, came to Alexander, whilst he was pursuing
his conquests in Asia, for the sake of raising children from a man
of such military reputation; and that, after she had remained 13
days with him, she retired into her country. The Amazons were such
expert archers, that, to denote the goodness of a bow or quiver, it
was usual to call it Amazonian. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 5, li. 311.
――_Jornandes_, _Getica_, ch. 7.――_Philostratus Major_, _Imagines_,
bk. 2, ch. 5.――_Justin_, bk. 2, ch. 4.――_Curtius_, bk. 6, ch. 5.
――_Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 7; bk. 14, ch. 8; bk. 36, ch. 5.――_Herodotus_,
bk. 4, ch. 110.――_Strabo_, bk. 11.――_Diodorus_, bk. 2.――_Dionysius
of Halicarnassus_, bk. 4.――_Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 2.――_Plutarch_,
_Theseus_.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, chs. 3 & 5.――_Hyginus_, fables 14
& 163.
=Amazŏnia=, a celebrated mistress of the emperor Commodus.――――The
country of the Amazons, near the Caspian sea.
=Amazŏnium=, a place in Attica, where Theseus obtained a victory over
the Amazons.
=Amazŏnius=, a surname of Apollo at Lacedæmon.
=Ambarri=, a people of Gallia Celtica, on the Arar, related to the
Ædui. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 1, ch. 11.
=Ambarvālia=, a joyful procession round the ploughed fields, in honour
of Ceres the goddess of corn. There were two festivals of that name
celebrated by the Romans, one about the month of April, the other
in July. They went three times round their fields crowned with oak
leaves singing hymns to Ceres, and entreating her to preserve their
corn. The word is derived _ab ambiendis arvis_, going round the
fields. A sow, a sheep, and a bull, called _ambarvaliæ hostiæ_, were
afterwards immolated, and the sacrifice has sometimes been called
_suovetaurilia_, from _sus_, _ovis_, and _taurus_. _Virgil_,
_Georgics_, bk. 1, lis. 339 & 345.――_Tibullus_, bk. 2, poem 1,
li. 19.――_Cato_, _de Re Rustica_, ch. 141.
=Ambĕnus=, a mountain of European Sarmatia. _Flaccus_, bk. 6, ch. 85.
=Ambialītes=, a people of Gallia Celtica. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_,
bk. 3, ch. 9.
=Ambiānum=, a town of Belgium, now _Amiens_. Its inhabitants conspired
against Julius Cæsar. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 2, ch. 4.
=Ambiatīnum=, a village of Germany, where the emperor Caligula was
born. _Suetonius_, _Caligula_, ch. 8.
=Ambigātus=, a king of the Celtæ, in the time of Tarquinius Priscus.
Seeing the great population of his country, he sent his two nephews,
Sigovesus and Bellovesus, with two colonies, in quest of new
settlements; the former towards the Hercynian woods, and the other
towards Italy. _Livy_, bk. 5, ch. 34, &c.
=Ambiōrix=, a king of the Eburones in Gaul. He was a great enemy to
Rome, and was killed in a battle with Julius Cæsar, in which 60,000
of his countrymen were slain. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 5, chs.
11, 26; bk. 6, ch. 30.
=Ambivius=, a man mentioned by _Cicero_, _de Senectute_.
=Amblada=, a town of Pisidia. _Strabo._
=Ambracia=, a city of Epirus near the Acheron, the residence of king
Pyrrhus. Augustus, after the battle of Actium, called it Nicopolis.
_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 1.――_Polybius_, bk. 4,
ch. 63.――_Strabo_, bk. 10.
=Ambracius Sinus=, a bay of the Ionian sea, near Ambracia, about 300
stadia deep, narrow at the entrance, but within near 100 stadia
in breadth, and now called the gulf of Larta. _Polybius_, bk. 4,
ch. 63.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.――_Florus_, bk. 4, ch. 11.――_Strabo_,
bk. 10.
=Ambri=, an Indian nation. _Justin_, bk. 12, ch. 9.
=Ambrōnes=, certain nations of Gaul, who lost their possessions by the
inundation of the sea, and lived upon rapine and plunder, whence the
word _Ambrones_ implied a dishonourable meaning. They were conquered
by Marius. _Plutarch_, _Marius_.
=Ambrōsia=, festivals observed in honour of Bacchus in some cities
in Greece. They were the same as the Brumalia of the Romans.――――One
of the daughters of Atlas, changed into a constellation after death.
――――The food of the gods was called _ambrosia_, and their drink
_nectar_. The word signifies immortal. It had the power of giving
immortality to all those who eat it. It was sweeter than honey, and
of a most odoriferous smell; and it is said that Berenice, the wife
of Ptolemy Soter, was saved from death by eating ambrosia given her
by Venus. Titonus was made immortal by Aurora, by eating ambrosia;
and in like manner Tantalus and Pelops, who, on account of their
impiety, had been driven from heaven, and compelled to die upon
earth. It had the power of healing wounds, and therefore Apollo, in
Homer’s Iliad, saves Sarpedon’s body from putrefaction, by rubbing
it with ambrosia; and Venus also heals the wounds of her son, in
Virgil’s Æneid, with it. The gods used generally to perfume the hair
with ambrosia; as Juno when she adorned herself to captivate Jupiter,
and Venus when she appeared to Æneas. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bks. 1,
14, 16, & 24.――_Lucian_, _de Dea Syria_.――_Catullus_, poem 100.――
_Theocritus_, _Idylls_, poem 15.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 407;
bk. 12, li. 419.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 2.――_Pindar_, bk. 1,
_Olympian_.
=Ambrosius=, bishop of Milan, obliged the emperor Theodosius to
make penance for the murder of the people of Thessalonica, and
distinguished himself by his writings, especially against the Arians.
His three books, _de Officiis_, are still extant, besides eight
hymns on the creation. His style is not inelegant, but his diction
is sententious, his opinions eccentric, though his subject is
diversified by copiousness of thought. He died A.D. 397. The best
edition of his works is that of the Benedictines, 2 vols., folio,
Paris, 1686.
=Ambrȳon=, a man who wrote the life of Theocritus of Chios. _Diogenes
Laërtius._
=Ambryssus=, a city of Phocis, which receives its name from a hero of
the same name. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 35.
=Ambūbājæ=, Syrian women of immoral lives, who, in the dissolute
period of Rome, attended festivals and assemblies as minstrels. The
name is derived by some from Syrian words, which signify a flute.
_Horace_, bk. 1, satire 2.――_Suetonius_, _Nero_, ch. 27.
=Ambulli=, a surname of Castor and Pollux, in Sparta.
=Ameles=, a river of hell, whose waters no vessel could contain.
♦_Plato_, bk. 10, _Republic_.
♦ ‘Plutarch’ replaced with ‘Plato’
=Amenanus=, a river of Sicily, near mount Ætna, now _Guidicello_.
_Strabo_, bk. 5.
=Amenīdes=, a secretary of Darius the last king of Persia. Alexander
set him over the Arimaspi. _Curtius_, bk. 7, ch. 3.
=Amenŏcles=, a Corinthian, said to be the first Grecian who built a
three-oared galley at Samos and Corinth. _Thucydides_, bk. 1, ch. 13.
=Ameria=, a city of Umbria, whose osiers (_Amerinæ salices_) were
famous for the binding of vines to the elm trees. _Pliny_, bk. 3,
ch. 14.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 1, li. 265.
=Amestrătus=, a town of Sicily, near the Halesus. The Romans besieged
it for seven months, and it yielded at last after a third siege, and
the inhabitants were sold as slaves. _Polybius_, bk. 1, ch. 24.
=Amestris=, queen of Persia, was wife to Xerxes. She cruelly treated
the mother of Artiante, her husband’s mistress, and cut off her
nose, ears, lips, breast, tongue, and eyebrows. She also buried
alive 14 noble Persian youths, to appease the deities under the
earth. _Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 61; bk. 9, ch. 111.――――A daughter
of Oxyartes, wife to Lysimachus. _Diodorus_, bk. 20.
=Amīda=, a city of Mesopotamia, besieged and taken by Sapor king of
Persia. _Ammianus_, bk. 19.
=Amilcar=, a Carthaginian general of great eloquence and cunning,
surnamed Rhodanus. When the Athenians were afraid of Alexander,
Amilcar went to his camp, gained his confidence, and secretly
transmitted an account of all his schemes to Athens. _Trogus_,
bk. 21, ch. 6.――――A Carthaginian, whom the Syracusans called to
their assistance against the tyrant Agathocles, who besieged their
city. Amilcar soon after favoured the interest of Agathocles, for
which he was accused at Carthage. He died in Syracuse, B.C. 309.
_Diodorus_, bk. 20.――_Justin_, bk. 22, chs. 2 & 3.――――A Carthaginian,
surnamed Barcas, father to the celebrated Annibal. He was general in
Sicily during the first Punic war; and after a peace had been made
with the Romans, he quelled a rebellion of slaves, who had besieged
Carthage, and taken many towns of Africa, and rendered themselves
so formidable to the Carthaginians that they begged and obtained
assistance from Rome. After this, he passed into Spain with his
son Annibal, who was but nine years of age, and laid the foundation
of the town of Barcelona. He was killed in a battle against the
Vettones, B.C. 237. He had formed the plan of an invasion of
Italy, by crossing the Alps, which his son afterwards carried into
execution. His great enmity to the Romans was the cause of the
second Punic war. He used to say of his three sons, that he kept
three lions to devour the Roman power. _Cornelius Nepos_, _Lives
of Distinguished Romans_.――_Livy_, bk. 21, ch. 1.――_Polybius_,
bk. 2.――_Plutarch_, _Life of Hannibal_.――――A Carthaginian general,
who assisted the Insubres against Rome, and was taken by Cnaeus
Cornelius. _Livy_, bk. 32, ch. 30; bk. 33, ch. 8.――――A son of Hanno,
defeated in Sicily by Gelon, the same day that Xerxes was defeated
at Salamis by Themistocles. He burnt himself, that his body might
not be found among the slain. Sacrifices were offered to him.
_Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 165, &c.
=Amĭlos=, or =Amĭlus=, a river of Mauritania, where the elephants go
to wash themselves by moonshine. _Pliny_, bk. 8, ch. 1.――――A town of
Arcadia. _Pausanias_, _Arcadia_.
=Amimŏne=, or =Amymŏne=, a daughter of Danaus, changed into a
fountain which is near Argos, and flows into the lake Lerna. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 2, li. 240.
=Amĭnea=, or =Amminea=, a part of Campania, where the inhabitants are
great husbandmen. Its wine was highly esteemed. _Virgil_, _Georgics_,
bk. 2, li. 97.――――A place of Thessaly.
=Aminias=, a famous pirate, whom Antigonus employed against
Apollodorus tyrant of Cassandrea. _Polyænus_, bk. 4, ch. 18.
=Aminius=, a river of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 30.
=Aminŏcles=, a native of Corinth, who flourished 705 B.C., &c.
=Amisēna=, a country of Cappadocia. _Strabo_, bk. 12.
=Amisias=, a comic poet, whom Aristophanes ridiculed for his insipid
verses.
=Amissas=, an officer of Megalopolis in Alexander’s army. _Curtius_,
bk. 10, ch. 8.
=Amiternum=, a town of Italy, where Sallust was born. The
inhabitants assisted Turnus against Æneas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 7, li. 710.――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 5.――_Livy_, bk. 28, ch. 45.
=Amithāon=, or =Amythāon=, was father to Melampus the famous prophet.
_Statius_, _Thebiad_, bk. 3, li. 451.
=Ammālo=, a festival in honour of Jupiter in Greece.
=Ammiānus.= _See:_ Marcellinus.
=Ammon= and =Hammon=, a name of Jupiter, worshipped in Libya. He
appeared under the form of a ram to Hercules, or, according to
others, to Bacchus, who, with his army, suffered the greatest
extremities for want of water, in the deserts of Africa, and showed
him a fountain. Upon this Bacchus erected a temple to his father,
under the name of Jupiter Ammon, _i.e._ _sandy_, with the horns of
a ram. The ram, according to some, was made a constellation. The
temple of Jupiter Ammon was in the deserts of Libya, nine days’
journey from Alexandria. It had a famous oracle, which, according
to ancient tradition, was established about 18 centuries before the
time of Augustus, by two doves which flew away from Thebais in Egypt,
and came, one to Dodona, and the other to Libya, where the people
were soon informed of their divine mission. The oracle of Hammon was
consulted by Hercules, Perseus, and others; but when it pronounced
Alexander to be the son of Jupiter, such flattery destroyed its
long-established reputation, and in the age of Plutarch it was
scarce known. The situation of the temple was pleasant; and
according to _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 15, li. 310,――_Lucretius_,
bk. 6, li. 147,――_Herodotus_, _Melpomene_.――_Curtius_, bk. 4, ch. 7,
there was near it a fountain whose waters were cold at noon and
midnight, and warm in the morning and evening. There were above
100 priests in the temple, but only the elders delivered oracles.
There was also an oracle of Jupiter Ammon in Æthiopia. _Pliny_,
bk. 6, ch. 29.――_Strabo_, bks. 1, 11, & 17.――_Plutarch_, _de Defectu
Oraculorum_, & _Iside et Osiride_.――_Curtius_, bk. 6, ch. 10; bk. 10,
ch. 5.――_Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 6; bk. 2, chs. 32 & 55; bk. 4,
ch. 44.――_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 18; bk. 4, ch. 23.――_Hyginus_,
fable 133; _Poeticon Astronomicon_, bk. 2, ch. 20.――_Justin_, bk. 1,
ch. 9; bk. 11, ch. 11.――――A king of Libya, father to Bacchus. He
gave his name to the temple of Hammon, according to _Diodorus_,
bk. 8.
=Ammon= and =Brothas=, two brothers famous for their skill in boxing.
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, li. 107.
=Ammōnia=, a name of Juno in Elis, as being the wife of Jupiter Ammon.
_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 15.
=Ammōnii=, a nation of Africa, who derived their origin from the
Egyptians and Æthiopians. Their language was a mixture of that of
the two people from whom they were descended. _Herodotus_, bks. 2,
3, & 4.
=Ammōnius=, a christian philosopher, who opened a school of Platonic
philosophy at Alexandria, 232 A.D., and had amongst his pupils
Origen and Plotinus. His treatise, Περι Ὁμοιων, was published in
4to by Valckenaer, Leiden, 1739.――――A writer who gave an account of
sacrifices, as also a treatise on the harlots of Athens. _Athenæus_,
bk. 13.――――An Athenian general surnamed Barcas. _Polybius_, bk. 3.
=Ammothea=, one of the Nereides. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_.
=Amnias=, a river of Bithynia. _Appian_, _Mithridatic Wars_.
=Amnīsus=, a port of Gnossus, at the north of Crete, with a small
river of the same name, near which Lucina had a temple. The nymphs
of the place were called Amnisiades. _Callimachus._
=Amœbæus=, an Athenian player of great reputation, who sung at the
nuptials of Demetrius and Nicæa. _Polyænus_, bk. 4, ch. 6.
=Amomētus=, a Greek historian. _Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 17.
=Amor=, the son of Venus, was the god of love. _See:_ Cupido.
=Amorges=, a Persian general, killed in Caria, in the reign of Xerxes.
_Herodotus_, bk. 5, ch. 121.
=Amorgos=, an island among the Cyclades, where Simonides was born.
_Strabo_, bk. 10.
=Ampĕlus=, a promontory of Samos.――――A town of Crete,――――of
Macedonia,――――of Liguria,――――and Cyrene.――――A favourite of Bacchus,
son of a satyr and a nymph, made a constellation after death. _Ovid_,
_Fasti_, bk. 3, li. 407.
=Ampelūsia=, a promontory of Africa, in Mauritania. _Mela_, bk. 1,
chs. 5 & 6.
=Amphēa=, a city of Messenia, taken by the Lacedæmonians. _Pausanias_,
bk. 4, ch. 5.
=Amphialāus=, a famous dancer in the island of the Phæacians. _Homer_,
_Odyssey_, bk. 8.
=Amphiănax=, a king of Lycia in the time of Acrisius and Prœtus.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 2.
=Amphiarāus=, son of Oicleus, or, according to others, of Apollo
by Hypermnestra, was at the chase of the Calydonian boar, and
accompanied the Argonauts in their expedition. He was famous for
his knowledge of futurity and thence he is called by some son of
Apollo. He married Eriphyle, the sister of Adrastus king of Argos,
by whom he had two sons, Alcmæon and Amphilochus. When Adrastus, at
the request of Polynices, declared war against Thebes, Amphiaraus
secreted himself, not to accompany his brother-in-law in an
expedition in which he knew he was to perish. But Eriphyle, who
knew where he had concealed himself, was prevailed upon to betray
him by Polynices, who gave her as a reward for her perfidy a famous
golden necklace set with diamonds. Amphiaraus being thus discovered,
went to the war, but previously charged his son Alcmæon to put to
death his mother Eriphyle, as soon as he was informed that he was
killed. The Theban war was fatal to the Argives, and Amphiaraus was
swallowed up in his chariot by the earth, as he attempted to retire
from the battle. The news of his death was brought to Alcmæon, who
immediately executed his father’s command, and murdered Eriphyle.
Amphiaraus received divine honours after death, and had a celebrated
temple and oracle at Oropos in Attica. His statue was made of white
marble, and near his temple was a fountain, whose waters were ever
held sacred. They only who had consulted his oracle, or had been
delivered from a disease, were permitted to bathe in it, after which
they threw pieces of gold and silver into the stream. Those who
consulted the oracle of Amphiaraus first purified themselves, and
abstained from food for 24 hours, and three days from wine, after
which they sacrificed a ram to the prophet, and spread the skin upon
the ground, upon which they slept in expectation of receiving in a
dream the answer of the oracle. Plutarch, _De Defectu Oraculorum_,
mentions that the oracle of Amphiaraus was once consulted in the
time of Xerxes, by one of the servants of Mardonius, for his master,
who was then with an army in Greece; and that the servant, when
asleep, saw in a dream the priest of the temple, who upbraided
him and drove him away, and even threw stones at his head when
he refused to comply. This oracle was verified in the death of
Mardonius, who was actually killed by the blow of a stone which
he received on the head. _Cicero_, _de Divinatione_, bk. 1, ch. 40.
――_Philostratus_, _Lives_.――_Apollonius_, bk. 2, ch. 11.――_Homer_,
_Odyssey_, bk. 15, li. 243, &c.――_Hyginus_, fables 70, 73, 128,
& 150.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Ovid_, bk. 9, fable 10.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 1, ch. 34; bk. 2, ch. 37; bk. 9, chs. 8 & 19.――_Aeschylus_,
_Seven Against Thebes_.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, chs. 8 & 9; bk. 3,
ch. 6, &c.――_Strabo_, bk. 8.
=Amphiarāĭdes=, a patronymic of Alcmæon as being son of Amphiaraus.
_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 2, li. 43.
=Amphicrătes=, an historian who wrote the lives of illustrious men.
_Diogenes Laërtius._
=Amphictyon=, son of Deucalion and Pyrrha, reigned at Athens after
Cranaus, and first attempted to give the interpretation of dreams,
and to draw omens. Some say that the deluge happened in his age.
_Justin_, bk. 2, ch. 6.――――The son of Helenus, who first established
the celebrated council of the _Amphictyons_, composed of the wisest
and most virtuous men of some cities of Greece. This august assembly
consisted of 12 persons, originally sent by the following states:
the Ionians, Dorians, Perhæbians, Bœotians, Magnesians, Phthians,
Locrians, Malians, Phocians, Thessalians, Dolopes, and the people
of Œta. Other cities in process of time sent also some of their
citizens to the council of the Amphictyons, and in the age of
Antoninus Pius, they were increased to the number of 30. They
generally met twice every year at Delphi, and sometimes sat at
Thermopylæ. They took into consideration all matters of difference
which might exist between the different states of Greece. When the
Phocians plundered the temple of Delphi the Amphictyons declared
war against them, and this war was supported by all the states of
Greece, and lasted 10 years. The Phocians, with their allies the
Lacedæmonians, were deprived of the privilege of sitting in the
council of the Amphictyons, and the Macedonians were admitted in
their place, for their services in support of the war. About 60
years after, when Brennus, with the Gauls, invaded Greece, the
Phocians behaved with such courage, that they were reinstated in
all their former privileges. Before they proceeded to business, the
Amphictyons sacrificed an ox to the god of Delphi, and cut his flesh
into small pieces, intimating that union and unanimity prevailed
in the several cities which they represented. Their decisions were
held sacred and inviolable, and even arms were taken up to enforce
them. _Pausanias_, _Phocis_ & _Achaia_.――_Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Suidas._
――_Hesychius._――_Aeschines._
=Amphiclea=, a town of Phocis, where Bacchus had a temple.
=Amphidāmus=, a son of Aleus, brother to Lycurgus. He was of the
family of the Inachidæ. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 4.――――One of the
Argonauts. _Flaccus_, bk. 1, li. 376.――――A son of Busiris, killed
by Hercules. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 5.
=Amphidrŏmia=, a festival observed by private families at Athens, the
fifth day after the birth of every child. It was customary to _run
round_ the fire with a child in their arms; whence the name of the
festivals.
=Amphigenīa=, a town of Messenia in Peloponnesus. _Statius_, _Thebiad_,
bk. 4, li. 178.
=Amphilŏchus=, a son of Amphiaraus and Eriphyle. After the Trojan war,
he left Argos, his native country, and built Amphilochus, a town of
Epirus. _Strabo_, bk. 7.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 18.――――An Athenian
philosopher who wrote upon agriculture. _Varro_, _de Re Rustica_,
bk. 1.
=Amphily̆tus=, a soothsayer of Acarnania, who encouraged Pisistratus to
seize the sovereign power of Athens. _Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 62.
=Amphimăche=, a daughter of Amphidamus, wife of Eurystheus.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 2.
=Amphimăchus=, one of Helen’s suitors, son of Cteatus. He went to the
Trojan war. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 10.――_Hyginus_, fable 97.――――A
son of Actor and Theronice. _Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 3.
=Amphimĕdon=, a Libyan killed by Perseus, in the court of Cepheus.
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, li. 75.――――One of Penelope’s suitors,
killed by Telemachus. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 22, li. 283.
=Amphinŏme=, the name of one of the attendants of Thetis. _Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 18, li. 44.
=Amphinŏmus=, one of Penelope’s suitors, killed by Telemachus. _Homer_,
_Odyssey_, bks. 16 & 22.
=Amphinŏmus= and =Anapius=, two brothers, who, when Catana and the
neighbouring cities were in flames, by an eruption from mount Ætna,
saved their parents upon their shoulders. The fire, as it is said,
spared them while it consumed others by their side; and Pluto, to
reward their uncommon piety, placed them after death in the island
of Leuce, and they received divine honours in Sicily. _Valerius
Maximus_, bk. 5, ch. 4.――_Strabo_, bk. 6.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 14,
li. 197.――_Seneca_, _de Beneficiis_.
=Amphīon=, was son of Jupiter, by Antiope daughter of Nycteus, who had
married Lycus, and had been repudiated by him when he married Dirce.
Amphion was born at the same birth as Zethus, on mount Citheron,
where Antiope had fled to avoid the resentment of Dirce; and the
two children were exposed in the woods, but preserved by a shepherd.
_See:_ Antiope. When Amphion grew up, he cultivated poetry and made
such an uncommon progress in music, that he is said to have been the
inventor of it, and to have built the walls of Thebes at the sound
of his lyre. Mercury taught him music, and gave him the lyre. He
was the first who raised an altar to this god. Zethus and Amphion
united to avenge the wrongs which their mother had suffered from
the cruelties of Dirce. They besieged and took Thebes, put Lycus to
death, and tied his wife to the tail of a wild bull, which dragged
her through precipices till she expired. The fable of Amphion’s
moving stones and raising the walls of Thebes at the sound of his
lyre, has been explained by supposing that he persuaded, by his
eloquence, a wild and uncivilized people to unite together and
build a town to protect themselves against the attacks of their
enemies. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 11.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, chs.
5 & 10.――_Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 6; bk. 6, ch. 20; bk. 9, chs. 5
& 17.――_Propertius_, bk. 3, poem 15.――_Ovid_, _de Ars Amatoria_,
bk. 3, li. 323.――_Horace_, bk. 3, ode 11; _Art of Poetry_, li.
394.――_Statius_, _Thebiad_, bk. 1, li. 10.――――A son of Jasus king
of Orchomenos, by Persephone daughter of Mius. He married Niobe
daughter of Tantalus, by whom he had many children, among whom was
Chloris the wife of Neleus. He has been confounded by mythologists
with the son of Antiope, though Homer in his Odyssey speaks of them
both, and distinguishes them beyond contradiction. The number of
Amphion’s children, according to Homer, was 12, six of each sex;
according to Ælian, 20; and according to Ovid, 14, seven males
and seven females. When Niobe boasted herself greater, and more
deserving of immortality than Latona, all her children, except
Chloris, were destroyed by the arrows of Apollo and Diana; Niobe
herself was changed into a stone, and Amphion killed himself in a
fit of despair. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 11, lis. 261 & 282.――_Ælian_,
_Varia Historia_, bk. 12, li. 36.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 6,
fable 5.――――One of the Argonauts. _Hyginus_, fable 14.――――A famous
painter and statuary, son of Acestor of Gnossus. _Pliny_, bk. 36,
ch. 10.――――One of the Greek generals in the Trojan war. _Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 13, li. 692.
=Amphipŏles=, magistrates appointed at Syracuse by Timoleon, after the
expulsion of Dionysius the younger. The office existed for above 300
years. _Diodorus_, bk. 16.
=Amphipŏlis=, a town on the Strymon, between Macedonia and Thrace.
An Athenian colony, under Agnon son of Nicias, drove the ancient
inhabitants, called Edonians, from the country, and built a city,
which they called Amphipolis, _i.e._ a town surrounded on all sides,
because the Strymon flowed all around it. It has been also called
Acra, Strymon, Myrica, Eion, and the town of Mars. It was the cause
of many wars between the Athenians and Spartans. _Thucydides_,
bk. 4, ch. 102, &c.――_Herodotus_, bk. 5, ch. 126; bk. 7, ch. 114.――
_Diodorus_, bks. 11, 12, &c.――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Cimon_.
=Amphipy̆ros=, a surname of Diana, because she carries a _torch_ in
_both_ her hands. _Sophocles_, _Trachiniæ_.
=Amphirētus=, a man of Acanthus, who artfully escaped from pirates who
had made him prisoner. _Polyænus_, bk. 6.
=Amphiroe=, one of the Oceanides. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 361.
=Amphis=, a Greek comic poet of Athens, son of Amphicrates,
contemporary with Plato. Besides his comedies he wrote other pieces,
which are now lost. _Suidas._――_Diogenes Laërtius._
=Amphisbæna=, a two-headed serpent in the deserts of Libya, whose bite
was venomous and deadly. _Lucan_, bk. 9, li. 719.
=Amphissa=, or =Issa=, a daughter of Macareus, beloved by Apollo. She
gave her name to a city of Locris near Phocis, in which was a temple
of Minerva. _Livy_, bk. 37, ch. 5.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 15,
li. 703.――_Lucan_, bk. 3, li. 172.――――A town of the Brutii on the
east coast.
=Amphissēne=, a country of Armenia.
=Amphissus=, a son of Dryope. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 9, fable 10.
=Amphisthĕnes=, a Lacedæmonian, who fell delirious in sacrificing to
Diana. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 16.
=Amphistīdes=, a man so naturally destitute of intellect, that he
seldom remembered that he ever had a father. He wished to learn
arithmetic, but never could comprehend beyond the figure 4.
_Aristotle_, _Problemata_, bk. 4.
=Amphistrătus= and =Rhecas=, two men of Laconia, charioteers to Castor
and Pollux. _Strabo_, bk. 11.――_Justin_, bk. 42, ch. 3.
=Amphitea=, the mother of Ægialeus by Cyanippus, and of three
daughters, Argia, Deipyle, and Ægialea, by Adrastus king of Argos.
She was daughter to Pronax. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1.――――The wife of
Autolycus, by whom she had Anticlea the wife of Laertes. _Homer_,
_Odyssey_, bk. 19, li. 416.
=Amphitheātrum=, a large round or oval building at Rome, where the
people assembled to see the combats of gladiators, of wild beasts,
and other exhibitions. The amphitheatres of Rome were generally
built with wood. Statilius Taurus was the first who made one with
stones, under Augustus.
=Amphithĕmis=, a Theban general, who involved the Lacedæmonians into
a war with his country. _Plutarch_, _Lysander_.――_Pausanias_, bk. 3,
ch. 9.
=Amphithoe=, one of the Nereides.
=Amphītrīte=, daughter of Oceanus and Tethys, married Neptune, though
she had made a vow of perpetual celibacy. She had by him Triton,
one of the sea deities. She had a statue at Corinth in the temple
of Neptune. She is sometimes called Salatia, and is often taken
for the sea itself. _Varro_, _de Lingua Latina_, bk. 4.――_Hesiod_,
_Theogony_, li. 930.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3.――_Claudian_, _de Raptu
Proserpinæ_, bk. 1, li. 104.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1,
li. 14.――――One of the Nereides.
=Amphĭtryon=, a Theban prince, son of Alcæus and Hipponome. His sister
Anaxo had married Electryon king of Mycenæ, whose sons were killed
in a battle by the Teleboans. Electryon promised his crown and
daughter Alcmena to him who could revenge the death of his sons upon
the Teleboans; and Amphitryon offered himself and was received, on
condition that he should not approach Alcmena before he had obtained
a victory. Jupiter, who was captivated with the charms of Alcmena,
borrowed the features of Amphitryon when he was gone to the war, and
introduced himself to Electryon’s daughter as her husband returned
victorious. Alcmena became pregnant of Hercules by Jupiter, and
of Iphiclus by Amphitryon, after his return. _See:_ Alcmena. When
Amphitryon returned from the war, he brought back to Electryon
the herds which the Teleboans had taken from him. One of the cows
having strayed from the rest, Amphitryon, to bring them together,
threw a stick, which struck the horns of the cow, and rebounded
with such violence upon Electryon, that he died on the spot. After
this accidental murder, Sthenelus, Electryon’s brother, seized the
kingdom of Mycenæ, and obliged Amphitryon to leave Argolis, and
retire to Thebes with Alcmena. Creon king of Thebes purified him of
the murder. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 4.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8,
li. 213.――_Propertius_, bk. 4, poem 10, li. 1.――_Hesiod_, _Shield of
Heracles_.――_Hyginus_, fable 29.――_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 14.
=Amphitryōniădes=, a surname of Hercules, as the supposed son of
Amphitryon. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8, li. 103.
=Amphitus=, a priest of Ceres, at the court of Cepheus. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, fable 5.
=Amphotĕrus=, was appointed commander of a fleet in the Hellespont by
Alexander. _Curtius_, bk. 3, ch. 1.――――A son of Alcmæon.
=Amphrȳsus=, a river of Thessaly, near which Apollo, when banished
from heaven, fed the flocks of king Admetus. From this circumstance
the god has been called _Amphryssius_, and his priestess
_Amphryssia_. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, li. 580.――_Lucan_,
bk. 6, li. 367.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 3, li. 2; _Æneid_, bk. 6,
li. 398.――――A river of Phrygia, whose waters rendered women liable
to barrenness. _Pliny_, bk. 32, ch. 2.
=Ampia Labiena lex=, was enacted by Titus Ampius and ♦Titus Labienus,
tribunes of the people, A.U.C. 693. It gave Pompey the Great the
privilege of appearing in triumphal robes and with a golden crown
at the Circensian games, and with a prætexta and golden crown at
theatrical plays.
♦ ‘A.’ replaced with ‘Titus’
=Ampracia=. _See:_ Ambracia.
=Ampysĭdes=, a patronymic of Mopsus son of Ampyx. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 8, li. 316.
=Ampyx=, a son of Pelias. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 18.――――A man
mentioned by _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, li. 184.――――The father
of Mopsus. _Orpheus_, _Argonauts_.――_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 17.
=Amsactus=, a lake in the country of the Hirpini, at the east of
Capua, whose waters are so sulphureous that they infect and destroy
whatever animals come near the place. It was through this place that
Virgil made the fury Alecto descend into hell, after her visit to
the upper regions. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 565.――_Cicero_,
_de Divinatione_, bk. 1, ch. 36.
=Amūlius=, king of Alba, was son of Procas and youngest brother
to Numitor. The crown belonged to Numitor by right of birth; but
Amulius dispossessed him of it, and even put to death his son Lausus,
and consecrated his daughter Rhea Sylvia to the service of Vesta,
to prevent her ever becoming a mother. Yet, in spite of all these
precautions, Rhea became pregnant by the god Mars, and brought forth
twins, Romulus and Remus. Amulius, who was informed of this, ordered
the mother to be buried alive for violating the laws of Vesta, which
enjoined perpetual chastity, and the two children to be thrown into
the river. They were providentially saved by some shepherds, or,
as others say, by a she-wolf; and when they had attained the years
of manhood, they put to death the usurper, Amulius, and restored
the crown to their grandfather. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 3, li. 67.――
_Livy_, bk. 1, chs. 3 & 4.――_Plutarch_, _Romulus_.――_Florus_, bk. 1,
ch. 1.――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus._――――A celebrated painter.
_Pliny_, bk. 35, ch. 10.
=Amy̆ci Portus=, a place in Pontus, famous for the death of Amycus king
of the Bebryces. His tomb was covered with laurels, whose boughs,
as is reported, when carried on board a ship, caused uncommon
dissensions among the sailors. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 32.――_Arrian._
=Amy̆cla=, a daughter of Niobe, who, with her sister Melibœa, was
spared by Diana, when her mother boasted herself greater than Diana.
_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 22.――――Homer says that all the daughters
perished. _Iliad_, bk. 24. _See:_ Niobe.――――The nurse of Alcibiades.
=Amy̆clæ=, a town of Italy between Caieta and Tarracina, built by
the companions of Castor and Pollux. The inhabitants were strict
followers of the precepts of Pythagoras, and therefore abstained
from flesh. They were killed by serpents, which they thought impious
to destroy, though in their own defence. _Pliny_, bk. 8, ch. 29.
Once a report prevailed in Amyclæ that the enemies were coming to
storm it; upon which the inhabitants made a law that forbade such
a report to be credited, and when the enemy really arrived, no one
mentioned it, or took up arms in his own defence, and the town was
easily taken. From this circumstance the epithet of _tacitæ_ has
been given to Amyclæ. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 564.――_Silius
Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 529.――――A city of Peloponnesus, built by
Amyclas. Castor and Pollux were born there. The country was famous
for dogs. Apollo, called Amyclæus, had a rich and magnificent temple
there, surrounded with delightful groves. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 18.
――_Statius_, _Thebiad_, bk. 4, li. 223.――_Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Virgil_,
_Georgics_, bk. 3, li. 345.――_Ovid_, _de Ars Amatoria_, bk. 2, li. 5.
=Amyclæus=, a statuary. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 13.――――A surname of
Apollo.
=Amyclas=, son of Lacedæmon and Sparta, built the city of Amyclæ.
His sister Eurydice married Acrisius king of Argos, by whom she had
Danae. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 1; bk. 7, ch. 18.――――The master of a
ship in which Cæsar embarked in disguise. When Amyclas wished to put
back to avoid a violent storm, Cæsar, unveiling his head, discovered
himself, and bidding the pilot pursue his voyage, exclaimed, _Cæsarem
vehis, Cæsarisque fortunam_. _Lucan_, bk. 5, li. 520.
=Amy̆cus=, son of Neptune by Melia, or Bithynis, according to others,
was king of the Bebryces. He was famous for his skill in the
management of the cestus, and he challenged all strangers to a trial
of strength. When the Argonauts, in their expedition, stopped on
his coasts, he treated them with great kindness, and Pollux accepted
his challenge, and killed him when he attempted to overcome him by
fraud. _Apollonius_, bk. 2, _Argonautica_.――_Theocritus_, _Idylls_,
poem 22.――_Apollonius_, bk. 1, ch. 9.――――One of the companions of
Æneas, who almost perished in a storm on the coast of Africa. He
was killed by Turnus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 225; bk. 9,
li. 772.――――Another, likewise killed by Turnus. _Ibis_, bk. 12,
li. 509.――――A son of Ixion and the cloud.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 12, li. 245.
=Amy̆don=, a city of Pæonia in Macedonia, which sent auxiliaries to
Priam during the Trojan war. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2.
=Amȳmōne=, daughter of Danaus and Europa, married Enceladus son
of Ægyptus, whom she murdered the first night of her nuptials.
She wounded a satyr with an arrow which she had aimed at a stag.
The satyr pursued her, and even offered her violence, but Neptune
delivered her. It was said that she was the only one of the 50
sisters who was not condemned to fill a leaky tub with water in
hell, because she had been continually employed, by order of her
father, in supplying the city of Argos with water in a great drought.
Neptune saw her in this employment, and was enamoured of her. He
carried her away, and in the place where she stood, he raised a
fountain by striking a rock. The fountain has been called Amymone.
She had Nauplius by Neptune. _Propertius_, bk. 2, poem 26, li. 46.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2.――_Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch.
37.――_Ovid_, _Amores_, bk. 1, li. 515.――_Hyginus_, fable 169.――――A
fountain and rivulet of Peloponnesus, flowing through Argolis into
the lake of Lerna. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 2, li. 240.
=Amyntas I.=, was king of Macedonia after his father Alcetas. His son
Alexander murdered the ambassadors of Megabyzus, for their wanton
and insolent behaviour to the ladies of his father’s court. Bubares,
a Persian general, was sent with an army to revenge the death of
the ambassadors; but instead of making war, he married the king’s
daughter, and defended his possessions. _Justin_, bk. 7, ch. 3.
――_Herodotus_, bks. 5, 7, & 8.――――The second of that name was son
of Menelaus, and king of Macedonia after his murder of Pausanias.
He was expelled by the Illyrians, and restored by the Thessalians
and Spartans. He made war against the Illyrians and Olynthians, and
lived to a great age. His wife Eurydice conspired against his life;
but her snares were seasonably discovered by one of his daughters
by a former wife. He had Alexander, Perdiccas, and Philip, Alexander
the Great’s father, by his first wife; and by the other he had
Archelaus, Aridæus, and Menelaus. He reigned 24 years; and soon
after his death his son Philip murdered all his brothers, and
ascended the throne.――_Justin_, bk. 7, chs. 4 & 9.――_Diodorus_,
bk. 14, &c.――_Cornelius Nepos_ & _Plutarch_, _Pelopidas_.――――There
is another king of Macedonia of the same name, but of his life
few particulars are recorded in history.――――A man who succeeded
Dejotarus, in the kingdom of Gallogræcia. After his death it
became a Roman province under Augustus. _Strabo_, bk. 12.――――One
of Alexander’s officers.――――Another officer who deserted to Darius,
and was killed as he attempted to seize Egypt. _Curtius_, bk. 3,
ch. 9.――――A son of Antiochus, who withdrew himself from Macedonia,
because he hated Alexander.――――An officer in Alexander’s cavalry.
He had two brothers, called Simias and Polemon. He was accused of a
conspiracy against the king, on account of his great intimacy with
Philotas, and acquitted. _Curtius_, bk. 4, ch. 15; bk. 6, ch. 9;
bk. 8, ch. 12.――――A shepherd’s name in Virgil’s _Eclogues_.――――A
Greek writer who composed several works quoted by Athenæus, 10 & 12.
=Amyntiānus=, an historian in the age of Antoninus, who wrote a
treatise in commendation of Philip, Olympias, and Alexander.
=Amyntor=, a king of Argos, son of Phrastor. He deprived his son
Phœnix of his eyes, to punish him for the violence which he had
offered to Clytia his concubine. _Hyginus_, fable 173.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 8, li. 307.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3.――_Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 9.――――A general of the Dolopes. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 12, li. 364.――――A son of Ægyptus, killed by Damone the first
night of his marriage. _Hyginus_, fable 170.
=Amyris=, a man of Sybaris, who consulted the oracle of Delphi
concerning the probable duration of his country’s prosperity, &c.
=Amyrīcus Campus=, a plain of Thessaly. _Polybius_, bk. 3.
=Amyrius=, a king by whom Cyrus was killed in a battle. _Ctesias._
=Amy̆rus=, a town of Thessaly.――――A river mentioned by _Valerius
Flaccus_, bk. 2, li. 11.
=Amystis=, a river of India falling into the Ganges. _Arrian_, _Indica_.
=Amythāon=, a son of Cretheus king of Iolchos, by Tyro. He married
Idomene, by whom he had Bias and Melampus. After his father’s death,
he established himself in Messenia with his brother Neleus, and
re-established or regulated the Olympic games. Melampus is called
_Amythaonius_, from his father Amythaon. _Virgil_, _Georgics_,
bk. 3, li. 550.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1.――_Homer_,
_Odyssey_, bk. 11.――――A son of Hippasus, who assisted Priam in the
Trojan war, and was killed by Lycomedes. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 17.
=Amytis=, a daughter of Astyages, whom Cyrus married. _Ctesias._――――A
daughter of Xerxes, who married Megabyzus, and disgraced herself by
her debaucheries.
=Anăces=, or =Anactes=, a name given to Castor and Pollux among
the Athenians. Their festivals were called Anaceia. _Plutarch_,
_Theseus_.――_Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 3, ch. 21.
=Anacharsis=, a Scythian philosopher, 592 B.C., who, on account of
his wisdom, temperance, and extensive knowledge, has been called one
of the seven wise men. Like his countrymen, he made use of a cart
instead of a house. He was wont to compare laws to cobwebs, which
can stop only small flies, and are unable to resist the superior
force of large insects. When he returned to Scythia from Athens,
where he had spent some time in study, and in the friendship of
Solon, he attempted to introduce there the laws of the Athenians,
which so irritated his brother, who was then on the throne, that
he killed him with an arrow. Anacharsis has rendered himself famous
among the ancients by his writings, and his poems on war, the
laws of Scythia, &c. Two of his letters to Crœsus and Hanno are
still extant. Later authors have attributed to him the invention
of tinder, of anchors, and of the potter’s wheel. The name of
Anacharsis is become very familiar to modern ears, by that elegant,
valuable, and truly classical work of Barthelemi, called the travels
of Anacharsis. _Herodotus_, bk. 4, chs. 56, 47, & 48.――_Plutarch_,
_Quæstiones Convivales_.――_Cicero_, _Tusculanæ Disputationes_, bk. 5,
ch. 32.――_Strabo_, bk. 7.
=Anacium=, a mountain with a temple sacred to the Anaces in
Peloponnesus. _Polyænus_, bk. 1, ch. 21.
=Anacreon=, a famous lyric poet of Teos in Ionia, highly favoured by
Polycrates and Hipparchus son of Pisistratus. He was of a lascivious
and intemperate disposition, much given to drinking, and deeply
enamoured of a youth called Bathyllus. His odes are still extant,
and the uncommon sweetness and elegance of his poetry have been the
admiration of every age and country. He lived to his 85th year, and,
after every excess of pleasure and debauchery, choked himself with
a grape stone and expired. Plato says that he was descended from
an illustrious family, and that Codrus, the last king of Athens,
was one of his progenitors. His statue was placed in the citadel of
Athens, representing him as an old drunken man, singing, with every
mark of dissipation and intemperance. Anacreon flourished 532 B.C.
All that he wrote is not extant; his odes were first published
by H. Stephens, with an elegant translation. The best editions
of Anacreon are that of Maittaire, 4to, London, 1725, of which
only 100 copies were printed, and the very correct one of Barnes,
12mo, Cambridge, 1721, to which may be added that of Brunck,
12mo, Strasbourg, 1778. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, chs. 2, 25.――_Strabo_,
bk. 14.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 9, ch. 4.――_Cicero_,
_Tusculanæ Disputationes_, bk. 4, ch. 33.――_Horace_, epode 14,
li. 20.――_Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 7.――_Herodotus_, bk. 3, ch. 121.
=Anactoria= and =Anactorium=, a town of Epirus, in a peninsula towards
the gulf of Ambracia. It was founded by a Corinthian colony, and was
the cause of many quarrels between the Corcyreans and Corinthians.
Augustus carried the inhabitants to the city of Nicopolis, after
the battle of Actium. _Strabo_, bk. 10.――_Thucydides_, bk. 1,
ch. 55.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 1; bk. 5, ch. 29.――――An ancient name
of Miletus.
=Anactŏrie=, a woman of Lesbos, wantonly loved by Sappho. _Ovid_,
_Heroides_, poem 15, li. 17.
=Anadyomĕne=, a valuable painting of Venus, represented as rising from
the sea, by Apelles. Augustus bought it and placed it in the temple
of Julius Cæsar. The lower part of it was a little defaced, and
there were found no painters in Rome able to repair it. _Pliny_,
bk. 35, ch. 10.
=Anagnia=, now _Anagni_, a city of the Hernici in Latium, where
Antony struck a medal when he divorced Octavia and married Cleopatra.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 684.――_Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Silius
Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 392.
=Anagogia=, a festival, celebrated by the people of Eryx in Sicily, in
honour of Venus. _Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 1, ch. 15; _Natura
Animalium_, bk. 4, ch. 2.
=Anagyrontum=, a small village of Attica. _Herodotus._
=Anaītis=, a goddess of Armenia. The virgins who were consecrated
to her service, esteemed themselves more dignified by public
prostitution. The festivals of the deity were called Sacarum Festa;
and when they were celebrated both sexes assisted at the ceremony,
and inebriated themselves to such a degree, that the whole was
concluded by a scene of the greatest lasciviousness and intemperance.
They were first instituted by Cyrus, when he marched against the
Sacæ, and covered tables with the most exquisite dainties, that
he might detain the enemy by the novelty and sweetness of food
to which they were unaccustomed, and thus easily destroy them.
_Strabo._――――Diana is also worshipped under this name by the Lydians.
_Pliny_, bk. 33, ch. 4.
=Ananias=, an Iambic poet. _Athenæus._
=Anăphe=, an island that rose out of the Cretan sea, and received this
name from the Argonauts, who, in the middle of a storm, suddenly
saw the new moon. Apollo was worshipped there, and called Anaphæus.
_Apollonius._
=Anaphlystus=, a small village of Attica near the sea, called after
an ancient hero of the same name, who was son of Trœzen.――――A small
village near Athens.
=Anāpus=, a river of Epirus. _Thucydides_, bk. 2, ch. 82.――――Of Sicily,
near Syracuse. _Thucydides_, bk. 6, ch. 96.
=Anartes=, a people of Lower Pannonia. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 6,
ch. 25.
=Anas=, a river of Spain, now called Guadiana. _Strabo_, bk. 3.
=Anatŏle=, one of the Horæ. _Hyginus_, fable 183.――――A mountain near
the Ganges, where Apollo ravished a nymph called Anaxibia.
=Anauchĭdas=, a Samian wrestler. _Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 27.
=Anaurus=, a river of Thessaly, near the foot of mount Pelion, where
Jason lost one of his sandals. _Callimachus_, _Diana [Artemis]_.――――A
river of Troas near Ida. _Colluthus._
=Anausis=, one of Medea’s suitors, killed by Styrus. _Valerius
Flaccus_, bk. 6, li. 43.
=Anax=, a son of Cœlus and Terra, father to Asterius, from whom Miletus
has been called Anactoria. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 36; bk. 7, ch. 2.
=Anaxagŏras=, succeeded his father Megapenthes on the throne of Argos.
He shared the sovereign power with Bias and Melampus, who had cured
the women of Argos of madness. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 18.――――A
Clazomenian philosopher, son of Hegesibulus, disciple to Anaximes
and preceptor to Socrates and Euripides. He disregarded wealth and
honours, to indulge his fondness for meditation and philosophy.
He applied himself to astronomy, was acquainted with eclipses, and
predicted that one day a stone would fall from the sun, which it
is said really fell into the river Ægos. Anaxagoras travelled into
Egypt for improvement, and used to say that he preferred a grain of
wisdom to heaps of gold. Pericles was in the number of his pupils,
and often consulted him in matters of state; and once dissuaded him
from starving himself to death. The ideas of Anaxagoras concerning
the heavens were wild and extravagant. He supposed that the sun was
inflammable matter, about the bigness of Peloponnesus; and that the
moon was inhabited. The heavens he believed to be of stone, and the
earth of similar materials. He was accused of impiety and condemned
to die; but he ridiculed the sentence, and said it had long been
pronounced upon him by nature. Being asked whether his body should
be carried into his own country, he answered, no, as the road that
led to the other side of the grave was as long from one place as
the other. His scholar Pericles pleaded eloquently and successfully
for him, and the sentence of death was exchanged for banishment.
In prison, the philosopher is said to have attempted to square the
circle, or determine exactly the proportion of its diameter to the
circumference. When the people of Lampsacus asked him before his
death whether he wished anything to be done in commemoration of him,
“Yes,” said he, “let the boys be allowed to play on the anniversary
of my death.” This was carefully observed, and that time, dedicated
to relaxation, was called _Anaxagoreia_. He died at Lampsacus in
his 72nd year, 428 B.C. His writings were not much esteemed by his
pupil Socrates. _Diogenes Laërtius_, _Lives of Eminent Philosophers_.
――_Plutarch_, _Nicias_ & _Pericles_.――_Cicero_, _Academicæ
quaestiones_, bk. 4, ch. 23; _Tusculanæ Disputationes_, bk. 1,
ch. 43.――――A statuary of Ægina. _Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 23.――――A
grammarian, disciple to Zenodotus. _Diogenes Laërtius._――――An orator,
disciple to Socrates. _Diogenes Laërtius._――――A son of Echeanox, who,
with his brothers Codrus and Diodorus, destroyed Hegesias tyrant of
Ephesus.
=Anaxander=, of the family of the Heraclidæ, was son of Eurycrates
and king of Sparta. The second Messenian war began in his reign,
in which Aristomenes so egregiously signalized himself. His son
was called Eurycrates. _Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 204.――_Plutarch_,
_Apophthegmata Laconica_.――_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 3; bk. 4, chs.
15 & 16.――――A general of Megalopolis, taken by the Thebans.
=Anaxandrĭdes=, son of Leon and father to Cleomenes I. and Leonidas,
was king of Sparta. By the order of the Ephori, he divorced his wife,
of whom he was extremely fond, on account of her barrenness; and he
was the first Lacedæmonian who had two wives. _Herodotus_, bks. 1,
5, & 7.――_Plutarch_, _Apophthegmata Laconica_, bk. 1.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 3, ch. 3, &c.――――A son of Theopompus. _Herodotus_, bk. 8, ch.
131.――――A comic poet of Rhodes in the age of Philip and Alexander.
He was the first poet who introduced intrigues and rapes upon the
stage. He was of such a passionate disposition, that he tore to
pieces all his compositions which met with no success. He composed
about 100 plays, of which 10 obtained the prize. Some fragments of
his poetry remain in Athenæus. He was starved to death by order of
the Athenians, for satirizing their government. _Aristotle_, bk. 3,
_Rhetoric_.
=Anaxarchus=, a philosopher of Abdera, one of the followers of
Democritus, and the friend of Alexander. When the monarch had been
wounded in a battle, the philosopher pointed to the place, adding,
“That is human blood, and not the blood of a god.” The freedom of
Anaxarchus offended Nicocreon, and after Alexander’s death, the
tyrant, in revenge, seized the philosopher, and pounded him in a
stone mortar with iron hammers. He bore this with much resignation,
and exclaimed, “Pound the body of Anaxarchus, for thou dost not
pound his soul.” Upon this Nicocreon threatened to cut his tongue,
and Anaxarchus bit it off with his teeth, and spit it out into the
tyrant’s face. _Ovid_, _Ibis_, li. 571.――_Plutarch_, _Convivium
Septem Sapientium_, ch. 7.――_Diogenes Laërtius_, _Lives of Eminent
Philosophers_.――_Cicero_, _Tusculanæ Disputationes_, bk. 2, ch. 22.
――――A Theban general. _Thucydides_, bk. 8, ch. 100.
=Anaxarĕte=, a girl of Salamis, who so arrogantly despised the
addresses of Iphis, a youth of ignoble birth, that the lover hung
himself at her door. She saw this sad spectacle without emotion or
pity, and was changed into a stone. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 14,
li. 748.
=Anaxēnor=, a musician, whom Marcus Antony greatly honoured, and
presented with the tribute of four cities. _Strabo_, bk. 14.
=Anaxias=, a Theban general. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 22.
=Anaxibia=, a sister of Agamemnon, mother of seven sons and two
daughters by Nestor. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 29.――――A daughter of
Bias, brother to the physician Melampus. She married Pelias king
of Iolchos, by whom she had Acastus and four daughters――Pisidice,
Pelopea, Hippothoe, and Alceste. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9.――――She
is called daughter of Dymas by _Hyginus_, fable 14.
=Anaxicrătes=, an Athenian archon. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 23.
=Anaxidămus=, succeeded his father Zeuxidamus on the throne of Sparta.
_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 7; bk. 4, ch. 15.
=Anaxĭlas= and =Anaxĭlaus=, a Messenian, tyrant of Rhegium. He took
Zancle, and was so mild and popular during his reign, that when he
died, 476 B.C., he left his infant sons to the care of one of his
servants, and the citizens chose rather to obey a slave than revolt
from their benevolent sovereign’s children. _Justin_, bk. 3, ch. 2.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 23; bk. 5, ch. 27.――_Thucydides_, bk. 6,
ch. 5.――_Herodotus_, bk. 6, ch. 23; bk. 7, ch. 167.――――A magician
of Larissa, banished from Italy by Augustus.――――A Pythagorean
philosopher.――――A physician. _Pliny_, bk. 19, ch. 1.――――An historian,
who began his history with bitter invectives against former writers.
_Dionysius of Halicarnassus._――――A Lacedæmonian. _Plutarch_,
_Alcibiades_.――――A comic writer, about the 100th Olympiad.
=Anaxilĭdes=, wrote some treatises concerning philosophers, and
mentioned that Plato’s mother became pregnant by a phantom of the
god Apollo, from which circumstance her son was called the prince of
wisdom. _Diogenes Laërtius_, _Plutarch_.
=Anaximander=, a Milesian philosopher, the companion and disciple of
Thales. He was the first who constructed spheres, asserted that the
earth was of a cylindrical form, and taught that men were born of
earth and water mixed together, and heated by the beams of the sun;
that the earth moved, and that the moon received light from the
sun, which he considered as a circle of fire like a wheel, about 28
times bigger than the earth. He made the first geographical maps and
sun-dials. He died in the 64th year of his age, B.C. 547. _Cicero_,
_Academicæ Quæstiones_, bk. 4, ch. 37.――_Diogenes Laërtius_, _Lives
of Eminent Philosophers_.――_Pliny_, bk. 2, ch. 70.――_Plutarch_,
_Quæstiones Convivales_. He had a son who bore his name. _Strabo_,
bk. 1.
=Anaximĕnes=, a philosopher, son of Erasistratus and disciple of
Anaximander, whom he succeeded in his school. He said that the air
was the cause of every created being, and a self-existent divinity,
and that the sun, the moon, and the stars, had been made from the
earth. He considered the earth as a plain, and the heavens as a
solid concave figure, on which the stars were fixed like nails,
an opinion prevalent at that time, and from which originated the
proverb, τι εἰ οὐρανος ἐμπεσοι, _if the heavens should fall?_ to
which Horace has alluded, bk. 3, _Odes_, poem 3, li. 7. He died
504 years B.C. _Cicero_, _Academicæ Quæstiones_, bk. 4, ch. 37; _de
Natura Deorum_, bk. 1, ch. 10.――_Plutarch_, _Quæstiones Convivales_.
――_Pliny_, bk. 2, ch. 76.――――A native of Lampsacus, son of Aristocles.
He was pupil to Diogenes the cynic, and preceptor to Alexander the
Great, of whose life, and that of Philip, he wrote the history.
When Alexander, in a fit of anger, threatened to put to death all
the inhabitants of Lampsacus, because they had maintained a long
siege against him, Anaximenes was sent by his countrymen to appease
the king, who, as soon as he saw him, swore he would not grant the
favour he was going to ask. Upon this, Anaximenes begged the king
to destroy the city and enslave the inhabitants, and by this artful
request the city of Lampsacus was saved from destruction. Besides
the life of Philip and his son, he wrote a history of Greece, in
12 books, all now lost. His nephew bore the same name, and wrote an
account of ancient paintings. _Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 18.――_Valerius
Maximus_, bk. 7, ch. 3.――_Diogenes Laërtius_, _Lives of Eminent
Philosophers_.
=Anaxipŏlis=, a comic poet of Thasos. _Pliny_, bk. 14, ch. 14.――――A
writer on agriculture, likewise of Thasos.
=Anaxippus=, a comic writer in the age of Demetrius. He used to say,
that philosophers were wise only in their speeches, but fools in
their actions. _Athenæus._
=Anaxirrhoe=, a daughter of Coronus, who married Epeus. _Pausanias_,
bk. 5, ch. 1.
=Anaxis=, a Bœotian historian, who wrote a history down to the age of
Philip son of Amyntas. _Diodorus_, bk. 25.――――A son of Castor and
Hilaira.
=Anaxo=, a virgin of Trœzene carried away by Theseus. _Plutarch_,
_Theseus_.――――A daughter of Alceus, mother of Alcmene by Electryon.
=Ancæus=, the son of Lycurgus and Antinoe, was in the expedition of
the Argonauts. He was at the chase of the Calydonian boar, in which
he perished. _Hyginus_, fables 173 & 248.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 8.――――The son of Neptune and Astypalæa. He went with the
Argonauts, and succeeded Tiphis as pilot of the ship Argo. He
reigned in Ionia, where he married Samia daughter of the Mæander,
by whom he had four sons, Perilas, Enudus, Samus, Alithersus, and
one daughter called Parthenope. _Orpheus_, _Argonauts_. He was once
told by one of his servants, whom he pressed with hard labour in his
vineyard, that he never would taste of the produce of his vines. He
had already the cup in his hand, and called the prophet to convince
him of his falsehood; when the servant, yet firm in his prediction,
uttered this well-known proverb:
Πολλα μεταξυ πελει κυλικος και χειλεος ακρου.
_Multa cadunt inter calicem supremaque labra._
At that very moment Ancæus was told that a wild boar had entered his
vineyard; upon which he threw down the cup, and ran to drive away
the wild beast. He was killed in the attempt.
=Ancalītes=, a people of Britain near the Trinobantes. _Cæsar_,
_Gallic War_, bk. 5, ch. 21.
=Ancarius=, a god of the Jews. _See:_ Anchialus.
=Ancharia=, a family of Rome.――――The name of Octavia’s mother.
_Plutarch_, _Antonius_.
=Ancharius=, a noble Roman killed by the partisans of Marius during
the civil wars with Sylla. _Plutarch_, _Marius_.
=Anchemŏlus=, son of Rhœtus king of the Marrubii in Italy, ravished
his mother-in-law Casperia, for which he was expelled by his father.
He fled to Turnus, and was killed by Pallas son of Evander, in the
wars of Æneas against the Latins. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 389.
=Anchesītes=, a wind which blows from Achisa, a harbour of Epirus.
_Cicero_, _Letters to Atticus_, bk. 7, ltr. 1.――_Dionysius of
Halicarnassus._
=Anchesmus=, a mountain of Attica, where Jupiter _Anchesmius_ had a
statue.
=Anchiăle= and =Anchiala=, a city on the sea coast of Cilicia.
Sardanapalus, the last king of Assyria, built it, with Tarsus in
its neighbourhood, in one day. _Strabo_, bk. 14.――_Pliny_, bk. 5,
ch. 27. The founder was buried there, and had a statue, under which
was a famous inscription in the Syrian language, denoting the great
intemperance and dissipation which distinguished all his life. There
was a city of the same name in Thrace, called by Ovid the city of
Apollo. There was another in Epirus. _Ovid_, _Tristia_, bk. 1, poem
10, li. 36.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 11.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 2.
=Anchiălus=, a famous astrologer.――――A great warrior, father of Mentes.
――――One of the Phæacians. _Homer_, _Odyssey_.――――A god of the Jews,
as some suppose, in _Martial’s_ epigrams, bk. 11, ltr. 95.
=Anchimolius=, a Spartan general sent against the Pisistratidæ, and
killed in the expedition. _Herodotus_, bk. 5, ch. 63.――――A son of
Rhœtus. _See:_ Anchemolus.
=Anchinoe=, a daughter of Nilus and wife of Belus. _Apollodorus_,
bk. 2, ch. 1.
=Anchion=. _See:_ Chion.
=Anchīse=, a city of Italy. _Dionysius of Halicarnassus._
=Anchīses=, a son of Capys by Themis daughter of Ilus. He was of
such a beautiful complexion, that Venus came down from heaven on
mount Ida, in the form of a nymph, to enjoy his company. The goddess
became pregnant, and forbade Anchises ever to mention the favours he
had received, on pain of being struck with thunder. The child which
Venus brought forth was called Æneas; he was educated as soon as
born by the nymphs of Ida, and, when of a proper age, was entrusted
to the care of Chiron the centaur. When Troy was taken, Anchises was
become so infirm that Æneas, to whom the Greeks permitted to take
away whatever he esteemed most, carried him through the flames
upon his shoulders, and thus saved his life. He accompanied his son
in his voyage towards Italy, and died in Sicily, in the 80th year
of his age. He was buried on mount Eryx by Æneas and Acestes king
of the country, and the anniversary of his death was afterwards
celebrated by his son and the Trojans on his tomb. Some authors
have maintained that Anchises had forgot the injunctions of Venus,
and boasted at a feast that he enjoyed her favours on mount Ida,
upon which he was killed with thunder. Others say that the wounds
he received from the thunder were not mortal, and that they only
weakened and disfigured his body. Virgil, in the sixth book of the
Æneid, introduces him in the Elysian fields, relating to his son the
fates that were to attend him, and the fortune of his descendants
the Romans. _See:_ Æneas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bks. 1, 2, &c.――
_Hyginus_, fables 94, 254, 260, 270.――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 1010.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 4, li. 34.――_Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 20, & _Hymn to Aphrodite_.――_Xenophon_, _On Hunting_,
ch. 1.――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 1, _Roman Antiquities_.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 12, says that Anchises was buried on a
mountain in Arcadia, which, from him, has been called Anchisia.
――――An Athenian archon. _Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 8.
=Anchīsia=, a mountain of Arcadia, at the bottom of which was a
monument of Anchises. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, chs. 12 & 13.
=Anchīsiădes=, a patronymic of Æneas, as being the son of Anchises.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 348, &c.
=Anchoe=, a place near the mouth of the Cephisus, where there is a
lake of the same name. _Strabo._
=Anchŏra=, a fortified place in Galatia.
=Anchūrus=, a son of Midas king of Phrygia, who sacrificed himself for
the good of his country when the earth had opened and swallowed up
many buildings. The oracle had been consulted, and gave for answer,
that the gulf would never close, if Midas did not throw into it
whatever he had most precious. Though the king had parted with many
things of immense value, yet the gulf continued open, till Anchurus,
thinking himself the most precious of his father’s possessions, took
a tender leave of his wife and family, and leaped into the earth,
which closed immediately over his head. Midas erected there an altar
of stones to Jupiter, and that altar was the first object which he
turned to gold, when he had received his fatal gift from the gods.
This unpolished lump of gold existed still in the age of Plutarch.
_Plutarch_, _Parallela minora_.
=Ancīle= and =Ancy̆le=, a sacred shield, which, according to the Roman
authors, fell from heaven in the reign of Numa, when the Roman
people laboured under a pestilence. Upon the preservation of this
shield depended the fate of the Roman empire, and therefore Numa
ordered 11 of the same size and form to be made, that if ever any
attempt was made to carry them away, the plunderer might find it
difficult to distinguish the true one. They were made with such
exactness, that the king promised Veterius Mamurius, the artist,
whatever reward he desired. _See:_ Mamurius. They were kept in
the temple of Vesta, and an order of priests was chosen to watch
over their safety. These priests were called Salii, and were 12 in
number; they carried, every year on the 1st of March, the shields
in a solemn procession round the walls of Rome, dancing and singing
praises to the god Mars. This sacred festival continued three days,
during which every important business was stopped. It was deemed
unfortunate to be married on those days, or to undertake any
expedition; and _Tacitus_, bk. 1, _Histories_, has attributed the
unsuccessful campaign of the emperor Otho against Vitellius to his
leaving Rome during the celebration of the Ancyliorum festum. These
two verses of Ovid explain the origin of the word Ancyle, which is
applied to these shields:
_Idque ancyle vocat, quod ab omni parte recisum est,
Quemque notes oculis, angulus omnis abest._
_Fasti_, bk. 3, li. 377, &c.
_Varro_, _de Lingua Latina_, bk. 5, ch. 6.――_Valerius Maximus_,
bk. 1, ch. 1.――_Juvenal_, satire 2, li. 124.――_Plutarch_, _Numa_.
――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8, li. 664.――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_,
bk. 2.――_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 20.
=Ancon= and =Ancōna=, a town of Picenum, built by the Sicilians, with
a harbour in the form of a crescent or elbow (ἀγχων), on the shores
of the Adriatic. Near this place is the famous chapel of Loretto,
supposed by monkish historians to have been brought through the air
by angels, August 10, A. D. 1291, from Judæa, where it was a cottage,
inhabited by the virgin Mary. The reputed sanctity of the place has
often brought 100,000 pilgrims in one day to Loretto. _Pliny_, bk. 3,
ch. 13.――_Lucan_, bk. 2, li. 402.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 437.
=Ancus Martius=, the fourth king of Rome, was grandson to Numa by his
daughter. He waged a successful war against the Latins, Veientes,
Fidenates, Volsci, and Sabines, and joined mount Janiculum to
the city by a bridge, and inclosed mount Martius and the Aventine
within the walls of the city. He extended the confines of the Roman
territories to the sea, where he built the town of Ostia, at the
mouth of the Tiber. He inherited the valour of Romulus with the
moderation of Numa. He died B.C. 616, after a reign of 24 years, and
was succeeded by Tarquin the elder. _Dionysius of Halicarnassus_,
bk. 3, ch. 9.――_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 32, &c.――_Florus_, bk. 1, ch. 4.
――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 815.
=Ancȳræ=, a town of Sicily.――――A town of Phrygia. _Pausanias_, bk. 1.
=Anda=, a city of Africa. _Polybius._
=Andabătæ=, certain gladiators who fought blindfolded, whence the
proverb, _Andabatarum more_, to denote rash and inconsiderate
measures. _Cicero_, bk. 6, _Letters to his Friends_, ltr. 10.
=Andania=, a city of Arcadia, where Aristomenes was educated.
_Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 1, &c. It received its name from a gulf of
the same name. _Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 33.
=Andegavia=, a country of Gaul, near the Turones and the ocean.
_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 3, ch. 41.
=Andēra=, a town of Phrygia.
=Andes=, a nation among the Celtæ, whose chief town is now _Anjou_.
_Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 2, ch. 35.――――A village of Italy, near
Mantua, where Virgil was born, hence _Andinus_. _Silius Italicus_,
bk. 8, li. 595.
=Andocĭdes=, an Athenian orator, son of Leogoras. He lived in the
age of Socrates the philosopher, and was intimate with the most
illustrious men of his age. He was often banished, but his dexterity
always restored him to favour. _Plutarch_ has written his life in
_Lives of the Ten Orators_. Four of his orations are extant.
=Andomătis=, a river in India, falling into the Ganges. _Arrian._
=Andræmon=, the father of Thoas. _Hyginus_, fable 97.――――The son-in-law
and successor of Œneus. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1.
=Andragrathius=, a tyrant defeated by Gratian, A.D. 383, &c.
=Andragrăthus=, a man bribed by Lysimachus to betray his country, &c.
_Polyænus_, bk. 4, ch. 12.
=Andragŏras=, a man who died a sudden death. _Martial_, bk. 6, ltr. 53.
=Andramy̆les=, a king of Lydia, who castrated women, and made use of
them as eunuchs. _Athenæus._
=Andrēas=, a statuary of Argos. _Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 16.――――A man
of Panormum, who wrote an account of all the remarkable events that
had happened in Sicily. _Athenæus._――――A son of the Peneus. Part of
Bœotia, especially where Orchomenos was built, was called _Andreis_
after him. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 34, &c.
=Andriclus=, a mountain of Cilicia. _Strabo_, bk. 14.――――A river of
Troas, falling into the Scamander. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 27.
=Andriscus=, a man who wrote a history of Naxos. _Athenæus_, bk. 1.
――――A worthless person called _Pseudophilippus_, on account of the
likeness of his features to king Philip. He incited the Macedonians
to revolt against Rome, and was conquered and led in triumph by
Metellus, 152 B.C. _Florus_, bk. 2, ch. 14.
=Androbius=, a famous painter. _Pliny_, bk. 35, ch. 11.
=Androclēa=, a daughter of Antipœnus of Thebes. She, with her sister
Alcida, sacrificed herself in the service of her country, when the
oracle had promised the victory to her countrymen, who were engaged
in a war against Orchomenos, if any one of noble birth devoted
himself for the glory of his nation. Antipœnus refused to do it,
and his daughters cheerfully accepted it, and received great honours
after death. Hercules, who fought on the side of Thebes, dedicated
to them the image of a lion in the temple of Diana. _Pausanias_,
bk. 9, ch. 17.
=Andrōcles=, a son of Phintas, who reigned in Messenia. _Pausanias_,
bk. 4, ch. 5, &c.――――A man who wrote a history of Cyprus.
=Androclīdes=, a noble Theban, who defended the democratical, against
the encroachments of the oligarchical, power. He was killed by one
of his enemies.――――A sophist in the age of Aurelian, who gave an
account of philosophers.
=Androclus=, a son of Codrus, who reigned in Ionia, and took Ephesus
and Samos. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 2.
=Androcy̆des=, a physician, who wrote the following letter to Alexander:
――_Vinum potaturus, Rex, memento te bibere sanguinem terræ, sicuti
venenum est homini cicuta, sic et vinum._ _Pliny_, bk. 14, ch. 5.
=Androdămus.= _See:_ Andromadas.
=Andrōdus=, a slave known and protected in the Roman circus by a lion
whose foot he had cured. _Aulus Gellius_, bk. 5, ch. 15.
=Andrŏgeos=, a Greek, killed by Æneas and his friends, whom he took to
be his countrymen. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 2, li. 371.
=Andrŏgeus=, son of Minos and Pasiphae, was famous for his skill in
wrestling. He overcame every antagonist at Athens, and became such a
favourite of the people, that Ægeus king of the country grew jealous
of his popularity, and caused him to be assassinated as he was going
to Thebes. Some say that he was killed by the wild bull of Marathon.
Minos declared war against Athens to revenge the death of his
son, and peace was at last re-established on condition that Ægeus
sent yearly seven boys and seven girls from Athens to Crete to
be devoured by the Minotaur. _See:_ Minotaurus. The Athenians
established festivals by order of Minos, in honour of his son, and
called them Androgeia. _Hyginus_, fable 41.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.
――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 20.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, chs. 1
& 27.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 5; bk. 3, chs. 1 & 15.――_Plutarch_,
_Theseus_.
=Androgy̆næ=, a fabulous nation of Africa, beyond the Nasamones. Every
one of them bore the characteristics of the male and female sex;
and one of their breasts was that of a man, and the other that of
a woman. _Lucretius_, bk. 5, li. 837.――_Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 2.
=Andrŏmăche=, a daughter of Eetion king of Thebes in Cilicia, married
Hector son of Priam king of Troy, by whom she had Astyanax. She
was so fond of her husband, that she even fed his horses with her
own hand. During the Trojan war she remained at home employed in
her domestic concerns. Her parting with Hector, who was going to
a battle, in which he perished, has always been deemed the best,
most tender and pathetic of all the passages in Homer’s Iliad. She
received the news of her husband’s death with extreme sorrow; and
after the taking of Troy, she had the misfortune to see her only son
Astyanax, after she had saved him from the flames, thrown headlong
from the walls of the city, by the hands of the man whose father had
killed her husband. _Seneca_, _Troades_. Andromache, in the division
of the prisoners by the Greeks, fell to the share of Neoptolemus,
who treated her as his wife, and carried her to Epirus. He had
by her three sons, Molossus, Piclus, and Pergamus, and afterwards
repudiated her. After this divorce she married Helenus son of Priam,
who, as herself, was a captive of Pyrrhus. She reigned with him over
part of the country, and became mother by him of Cestrinus. Some say
that Astyanax was killed by Ulysses, and Euripides says that Menelaus
put him to death. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bks. 6, 22, & 24.――_Quintus
Calaber [Smyrnæus]_, bk. 1.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 486.
――_Hyginus_, fable 123.――_Dares Phrygius._――_Ovid_, _Amores_, bk. 1,
poem 9, li. 35; _Tristia_, bk. 5, poem 6, li. 43.――_Apollodorus_,
bk. 3, ch. 12.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 11.
=Andromachidæ=, a nation who presented to their king all the virgins
who were of nubile years, and permitted him to use them as he
pleased.
=Andromăchus=, an opulent person of Sicily, father to the historian
Timæus. _Diodorus_, bk. 16. He assisted Timoleon in recovering
the liberty of the Syracusans.――――A general of Alexander, to whom
Parmenio gave the government of Syria. He was burnt alive by the
Samaritans. _Curtius_, bk. 4, chs. 5 & 8.――――An officer of Seleucus
the younger. _Polyænus_, bk. 4.――――A poet of Byzantium.――――A
physician of Crete, in the age of Nero.――――A sophist of Naples, in
the age of Diocletian.
=Andromădus=, or =Androdamus=, a native of Rhegium, who made laws for
the Thracians concerning the punishment of homicide, &c. _Aristotle._
=Andrŏmĕda=, a daughter of Cepheus king of Æthiopia by Cassiope. She
was promised in marriage to Phineus her uncle, when Neptune drowned
the kingdom, and sent a sea monster to ravage the country, because
Cassiope had boasted herself fairer than Juno and the Nereides.
The oracle of Jupiter Ammon was consulted, and nothing could stop
the resentment of Neptune, if Andromeda was not exposed to the sea
monster. She was accordingly tied naked on a rock, and at the moment
that the monster was going to devour her, Perseus, who returned
through the air from the conquest of the Gorgons, saw her, and was
captivated with her beauty. He promised to deliver her and destroy
the monster, if he received her in marriage as a reward for his
trouble. Cepheus consented, and Perseus changed the sea monster
into a rock, by showing him Medusa’s head, and untied Andromeda and
married her. He had by her many children, among whom were Sthenelus,
Ancæus, and Electryon. The marriage of Andromeda with Perseus
was opposed by Phineus, who, after a bloody battle, was changed
into a stone by Perseus. Some say that Minerva made Andromeda a
constellation in heaven after her death. _See:_ Medusa, Perseus.
_Hyginus_, fable 64.――_Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 2, ch. 43.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 4.――_Marcus Manilius_, bk. 5, li. 533.
――_Propertius_, bk. 3, poem 21.――――According to _Pliny_, bk. 5,
ch. 31, it was at Joppa in Judæa that Andromeda was tied on a rock.
He mentions that the skeleton of the huge sea monster, to which
she had been exposed, was brought to Rome by Scaurus, and carefully
preserved. The fable of Andromeda and the sea monster has been
explained, by supposing that she was courted by the captain of a
ship, who attempted to carry her away, but was prevented by the
interposition of another more faithful lover.
=Andron=, an Argive, who travelled all over the deserts of Libya
without drink. ♦_Aristotle’s book on Drunkenness_ [quoted in
Apollonius] “Historiæ Mirabiles”.――――A man set over the citadel
of Syracuse by Dionysius. Hermocrates advised him to seize it and
revolt from the tyrant, which he refused to do. The tyrant put him
to death for not discovering that Hermocrates had incited him to
rebellion. _Polyænus_, bk. 5, ch. 2.――――A man of Halicarnassus, who
composed some historical works. _Plutarch_, _Theseus_.――――A native
of Ephesus, who wrote an account of the seven wise men of Greece.
_Diogenes Laërtius._――――A man of Argos.――――Another of Alexandria,
&c. _Apollonius [Paradoxographus]_, _Historiæ Mirabiles_, ch. 25.
――_Athenæus._
♦ reference edited for clarity
=Andronīcus Livius.= _See:_ Livius.
=Andronīcus=, a peripatetic philosopher of Rhodes, who flourished
59 years B.C. He was the first who published and revised the works
of Aristotle and Theophrastus. His periphrasis is extant, the best
edition of which is that of Heinsius, 8vo, Leiden, 1617. _Plutarch_,
_Sulla_.――――A Latin poet in the age of Cæsar.――――A Latin grammarian,
whose life Suetonius has written.――――A king of Lydia, surnamed
Alpyus.――――One of Alexander’s officers.――――One of the officers of
Antiochus Epiphanes.――――An astronomer of Athens, who built a marble
octagonal tower in honour of the eight principal winds, on the top
of which was placed a Triton with a stick in his hand, pointing
always to the side whence the wind blew.
=Androphăgi=, a savage nation of European Scythia. _Herodotus_, bk. 4,
chs. 18, 102.
=Andropompus=, a Theban who killed Xanthus in a single combat by fraud.
_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 18.
=Andros=, an island in the Ægean sea, known by the different names
of Epagrys, Antandros, Lasia, Cauros, Hydrussa, Nonagria. Its chief
town was called Andros. It had a harbour, near which Bacchus had a
temple, with a fountain, whose waters, during the ides of January,
tasted like wine. It received the name of Andros from Andros son of
Anius, one of its kings, who lived in the time of the Trojan war.
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 13, li. 648.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3,
li. 80.――_Juvenal_, satire 3, li. 70.――_Pliny_, bk. 2, ch. 103.
――_Mela_, bks. 1 & 2.
=Androsthĕnes=, one of Alexander’s generals, sent with a ship on the
coast of Arabia. _Arrian_, bk. 7, ch. 10.――_Strabo_, bk. 16.――――A
governor of Thessaly, who favoured the interest of Pompey. He was
conquered by Julius Cæsar. _Cæsar_, _Civil War_, bk. 3, ch. 80.――――A
statuary of Thebes. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 19.――――A geographer in
the age of Alexander.
=Androtrion=, a Greek, who wrote a history of Attica, and a treatise
on agriculture. _Pliny._――_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 8.
=Anelontis=, a river near Colophon. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 28.
=Anerastus=, a king of Gaul.
=Anemolia=, a city of Phocis, afterwards called Hyampolis. _Strabo._
=Anemōsa=, a village of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 35.
=Anfinomus= and =Anapius=. Rather _Amphinomus_, which _see_.
=Angelia=, a daughter of Mercury.
=Angelion=, a statuary who made Apollo’s statue at Delphi. _Pausanias_,
bk. 2, ch. 32.
=Angĕlus=, a son of Neptune, born in Chios, of a nymph whose name is
unknown. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 4.
=Angītes=, a river of Thrace falling into the Strymon. _Herodotus_,
bk. 7, ch. 113.
=Angli=, a people of Germany at the north of the Elbe, from whom, as
being a branch of the Saxons, the English have derived their name.
_Tacitus_, _Germania_, ch. 40.
=Angrus=, a river of Illyricum, flowing in a northern direction.
_Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 49.
=Anguitia=, a wood in the country of the Marsi, between the lake
Fucinus and Alba. Serpents, it is said, could not injure the
inhabitants, because they were descended from Circe, whose power
over those venomous creatures has been much celebrated. _Silius
Italicus_, bk. 8.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 759.
=Ania=, a Roman widow, celebrated for her beauty. One of her friends
advised her to marry again. “No,” said she, “if I marry a man
as affectionate as my first husband, I shall be apprehensive for
his death; and if he is bad, why have him, after such a kind and
indulgent one?”
=Anicētus=, a son of Hercules by Hebe the goddess of youth.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 2.――――A freedman who directed the education of
Nero, and became the instrument of his crimes. _Suetonius_, _Nero_.
=Anicia=, a family at Rome, which, in the flourishing times of
the republic, produced many brave and illustrious citizens.――――A
relation of Atticus. _Cornelius Nepos._
=Anicium=, a town of Gaul. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 7.
=Anicius Gallus=, triumphed over the Illyrians and their king Gentius,
and was propretor of Rome, A.U.C. 585.――――A consul with Cornelius
Cethegus, A.U.C. 594.――――Probus, a Roman consul in the fourth
century, famous for his humanity.
=Anigrus=, a river of Thessaly, where the centaurs washed the
wounds which they had received from Hercules, and made the waters
unwholesome. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 15, li. 281. The nymphs
of this river are called Anigriades. _Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 6.
=Anio= and =Anien=, now _Taverone_, a river of Italy, flowing through
the country of Tibur, and falling into the river Tiber, about five
miles at the north of Rome. It receives its name, as some suppose,
from Anius, a king of Etruria, who drowned himself there when he
could not recover his daughter, who had been carried away. _Statius_,
bk. 1, _Sylvæ_, poem 3, li. 20.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 683.
――_Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ode 7, li. 13.――_Plutarch_, _de
Fortuna Romanorum_.
=Anitorgis=, a city of Spain, near which a battle was fought between
Asdrubal and the Scipios. _Livy_, bk. 25, ch. 33.
=Anius=, the son of Apollo and Rhea, was king of Delos and father
of Andrus. He had by Dorippe three daughters, Oeno, Spermo, and
Elais, to whom Bacchus had given the power of changing whatever
they pleased into wine, corn, and oil. When Agamemnon went to the
Trojan war, he wished to carry them with him to supply his army with
provisions; but they complained to Bacchus, who changed them into
doves. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 13, li. 642.――_Dionysius of
Halicarnassus_, bk. 1.――_Diodorus_, bk. 5.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3,
li. 80.
=Anna=, a goddess, in whose honour the Romans instituted festivals.
She was, according to some, Anna the daughter of Belus and sister of
Dido, who after her sister’s death fled from Carthage, which Jarbas
had besieged, and came to Italy, where Æneas met her, as he walked
on the banks of the Tiber, and gave her an honourable reception, for
the kindnesses she had shown him when he was at Carthage. Lavinia
the wife of Æneas was jealous of the tender treatment which was
shown to Anna, and meditated her ruin. Anna was apprised of this by
her sister in a dream, and she fled to the river Numicus, of which
she became a deity, and ordered the inhabitants of the country to
call her _Anna Perenna_, because she would remain for ever under
the water. Her festivals were performed with many rejoicings, and
the females often, in the midst of their cheerfulness, forgot their
natural decency. They were introduced into Rome, and celebrated the
15th of March. The Romans generally sacrificed to her, to obtain
a long and happy life: and thence the words _Annare et Perennare_.
Some have supposed Anna to be the moon, _quia mensibus impleat
annum_; others call her Themis, or Io, the daughter of Inachus,
and sometimes Maia. Another more received opinion maintains that
Anna was an old industrious woman of Bovillæ, who, when the Roman
populace had fled from the city to mount Sacer, brought them cakes
every day; for which kind treatment the Romans, when peace was
re-established, decreed immortal honours to her whom they called
Perenna, _ab perennitate cultûs_, and who, as they supposed, was
become one of their deities. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 3, li. 653, &c.
――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 79.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 4,
lis. 9, 20, 421, & 500.
=Anna Commena=, a princess of Constantinople, known to the world for
the Greek history which she wrote of her father Alexius, emperor
of the east. The character of this history is not very high for
authenticity or beauty of composition: the historian is lost in
the daughter; and instead of simplicity of style and narrative,
as Gibbon says, an elaborate affectation of rhetoric and science
betrays in every page the vanity of a female author. The best
edition of Anna Commena is that of Paris, folio, 1651.
=Annæus=, a Roman family, which was subdivided into the Lucani, Senecæ,
Flori, &c.
=Annāles=, a chronological history which gives an account of all the
important events of every year in a state, without entering into the
causes which produced them. The annals of Tacitus may be considered
in this light. In the first ages of Rome, the writing of the annals
was one of the duties and privileges of the high priest; whence they
have been called Annales Maximi, from the priest _Pontifex Maximus_,
who consecrated them, and gave them as truly genuine and authentic.
=Annālis lex=, settled the age at which, among the Romans, a citizen
could be admitted to exercise the offices of the state. This law
originated in Athens, and was introduced in Rome. No man could be
a knight before 18 years of age, nor be invested with the consular
power before he had arrived to his 25th year.
=Anniānus=, a poet in the age of Trajan.
=Annĭbal=, a celebrated Carthaginian general, son of Amilcar. He was
educated in his father’s camp, and inured from his early years to
the labours of the field. He passed into Spain when nine years old,
and, at the request of his father, took a solemn oath that he never
would be at peace with the Romans. After his father’s death, he
was appointed over the cavalry in Spain; and some time after, upon
the death of Asdrubal, he was invested with the command of all the
armies of Carthage, though not yet in the 25th year of his age.
In three years of continual success, he subdued all the nations of
Spain which opposed the Carthaginian power, and took Saguntum after
a siege of eight months. This city was in alliance with the Romans,
and its fall was the cause of the second Punic war, which Annibal
prepared to support with all the courage and prudence of a
consummate general. He levied three large armies, one of which he
sent to Africa; he left another in Spain, and marched at the head
of the third towards Italy. This army some have calculated at 20,000
foot and 6000 horse; others say that it consisted of 100,000 foot
and 20,000 horse. _Livy_, bk. 21, ch. 38. He came to the Alps, which
were deemed almost inaccessible, and had never been passed over
before him but by Hercules, and after much trouble he gained the top
in nine days. He conquered the uncivilized inhabitants that opposed
his passage, and, after the amazing loss of 30,000 men, made his way
so easy, by softening the rocks with fire and vinegar, that even his
armed elephants descended the mountains without danger or difficulty,
where a man, disencumbered of his arms, could not walk before in
safety. He was opposed by the Romans as soon as he entered Italy;
and after he had defeated Publius Cornelius Scipio and Sempronius,
near the Rhone, the Po, and the Trebia, he crossed the Apennines and
invaded Etruria. He defeated the army of the consul Flaminius near
the lake Thrasymenus, and soon after met the two consuls Culleo
Terentius and Lucius Æmilius at Cannæ. His army consisted of 40,000
foot and 10,000 horse, when he engaged the Romans at the celebrated
battle of Cannæ. The slaughter was so great, that no less than 40,
000 Romans were killed, and the conqueror made a bridge with the
dead carcases; and as a sign of his victory, he sent to Carthage
three bushels of gold rings which had been taken from 5630 Roman
knights slain in the battle. Had Annibal, immediately after the
battle, marched his army to the gates of Rome, it must have yielded
amidst the general consternation, if we believe the opinions of some
writers; but his delay gave the enemy spirit and boldness, and when
at last he approached the walls, he was informed that the piece of
ground on which his army then stood was selling at a high price in
the Roman forum. After hovering for some time round the city, he
retired to Capua, where the Carthaginian soldiers soon forgot to
conquer in the pleasures and riot of this luxurious city. From that
circumstance it has been said, and with propriety, that Capua was
a Cannæ to Annibal. After the battle of Cannæ the Romans became
more cautious, and when the dictator Fabius Maximus had defied
the artifice as well as the valour of Annibal, they began to look
for better times. Marcellus, who succeeded Fabius in the field,
first taught the Romans that Annibal was not invincible. After many
important debates in the senate, it was decreed that war should be
carried into Africa, to remove Annibal from the gates of Rome; and
Scipio, who was the first proposer of the plan, was empowered to put
it into execution. When Carthage saw the enemy on her coasts, she
recalled Annibal from Italy; and that great general is said to have
left, with tears in his eyes, a country which during 16 years he
had kept under continual alarms, and which he could almost call his
own. He and Scipio met near Carthage, and after a parley, in which
neither would give the preference to his enemy, they determined
to come to a general engagement. The battle was fought near Zama:
Scipio made a great slaughter of the enemy, 20,000 were killed,
and the same number made prisoners. Annibal, after he had lost the
day, fled to Adrumetum. Soon after this decisive battle, the Romans
granted peace to Carthage, on hard conditions; and afterwards
Annibal, who was jealous and apprehensive of the Roman power, fled
to Syria, to king Antiochus, whom he advised to make war against
Rome, and lead an army into the heart of Italy. Antiochus distrusted
the fidelity of Annibal, and was conquered by the Romans, who
granted him peace on the condition of his delivering their mortal
enemy into their hands. Annibal, who was apprised of this, left
the court of Antiochus, and fled to Prusias king of Bithynia. He
encouraged him to declare war against Rome, and even assisted him in
weakening the power of Eumenes king of Pergamus, who was in alliance
with the Romans. The senate received intelligence that Annibal was
in Bithynia, and immediately sent ambassadors, amongst whom was
Lucius Quintus Flaminius, to demand him of Prusias. The king was
unwilling to betray Annibal and violate the laws of hospitality, but
at the same time he dreaded the power of Rome. Annibal extricated
him from his embarrassment, and when he heard that his house was
besieged on every side, and all means of escape fruitless, he took
a dose of poison, which he always carried with him in a ring on
his finger; and as he breathed his last, he exclaimed, _Solvamus
diuturnâ curâ populum Romanum, quando mortem senis expectare longum
censet_. He died in his 70th year, according to some, about 182
years B.C. That year was famous for the death of the three greatest
generals of the age, Annibal, Scipio, and Philopœmen. The death
of so formidable a rival was the cause of great rejoicing in Rome;
he had always been a professed enemy to the Roman name, and ever
endeavoured to destroy its power. If he shone in the field, he also
distinguished himself by his studies. He was taught Greek by Sosilus,
a Lacedæmonian, and he even wrote some books in that language on
different subjects. It is remarkable that the life of Annibal, whom
the Romans wished so many times to destroy by perfidy, was never
attempted by any of his soldiers or countrymen. He made himself as
conspicuous in the government of the state as at the head of armies,
and though his enemies reproached him with the rudeness of laughing
in the Carthaginian senate, while every senator was bathed in tears
for the misfortunes of the country, Annibal defended himself by
saying that he, who had been bred all his life in a camp, ought to
be dispensed with all the more polished feelings of a capital. He
was so apprehensive for his safety, that when he was in Bithynia
his house was fortified like a castle, and on every side there were
secret doors which could give immediate escape if his life was ever
attempted. When he quitted Italy, and embarked on board a vessel
for Africa, he so strongly suspected the fidelity of his pilot, who
told him that the lofty mountains which appeared at a distance was
a promontory of Sicily, that he killed him on the spot; and when he
was convinced of his fatal error, he gave a magnificent burial to
the man whom he had so falsely murdered, and called the promontory
by his name. The labours which he sustained, and the inclemency of
the weather to which he exposed himself in crossing the Alps, so
weakened one of his eyes, that he ever after lost the use of it.
The Romans have celebrated the humanity of Annibal, who, after the
battle of Cannæ, sought the body of the fallen consul amidst the
heaps of slain, and honoured it with a funeral becoming the dignity
of Rome. He performed the same friendly offices to the remains of
Marcellus and Tiberius Gracchus, who had fallen in battle. He often
blamed the unsettled measures of his country; and when the enemy had
thrown into his camp the head of his brother Asdrubal, who had been
conquered as he came from Spain with a reinforcement into Italy,
Annibal said that the Carthaginian arms would no longer meet with
their usual success. Juvenal, in speaking of Annibal, observes that
the ring which caused his death made a due atonement to the Romans
for the many thousand rings which had been sent to Carthage from the
battle of Cannæ. Annibal, when in Spain, married a woman of Castulo.
The Romans entertained such a high opinion of him as a commander,
that Scipio, who conquered him, calls him the greatest general that
ever lived, and gives the second rank to Pyrrhus the Epirot, and
places himself the next to these in merit and abilities. It is plain
that the failure of Annibal’s expedition in Italy did not arise
from his neglect, but from that of his countrymen, who gave him
no assistance; far from imitating their enemies of Rome, who even
raised in one year 18 legions to oppose the formidable Carthaginian.
Livy has painted the character of Annibal like an enemy, and it is
much to be lamented that this celebrated historian has withheld the
tribute due to the merits and virtues of the greatest of generals.
_Cornelius Nepos_, _Lives of Distinguished Romans_.――_Livy_, bks.
21, 22, &c.――_Plutarch_, _Flamininus_, &c.――_Justin_, bk. 32, ch. 4.
――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 1, &c.――_Appian._――_Florus_, bks. 2 & 3.
――_Polybius._――_Diodorus._――_Juvenal_, satire 10, li. 159, &c.
――_Valerius Maximus._――_Horace_, bk. 4, ode 4, stanza 16.――――The
son of the great Annibal, was sent by Himilco to Lilybæeum,
which was besieged by the Romans, to keep the Sicilians in
their duty. _Polybius_, bk. 1.――――A Carthaginian general, son of
Asdrubal, commonly called of Rhodes, above 160 years before the
birth of the great Annibal. _Justin_, bk. 19, ch. 2.――_Xenophon_,
_Hellenica_.――――A son of Giscon and grandson of Amilcar, sent by the
Carthaginians to the assistance of Ægista, a town of Sicily. He was
overpowered by Hermocrates, an exiled Syracusan. _Justin_, bks. 22
& 23.――――A Carthaginian, surnamed Senior. He was conquered by the
consul Gaius Sulpicius Paterculus in Sardinia, and hung on a cross
by his countrymen for his ill success.
=Annicĕris=, an excellent charioteer of Cyrene, who exhibited his
skill in driving a chariot before Plato and the academy. When the
philosopher was wantonly sold by Dionysius, Anniceris ransomed
his friend, and he showed further his respect for learning by
establishing a sect at Cyrene, called after his name, which supported
that all good consisted in pleasure. _Cicero_, _de Officiis_, bk. 3.
――_Diogenes Laërtius_, _Plato_ & _Aristotle_.――_Ælian_, _Varia
Historia_, bk. 2, ch. 27.
=Annius Scapŭla=, a Roman of great dignity, put to death for conspiring
against Cassius. _Hirtius_, _Alexandrine War_, ch. 55.
=Annon=, or =Hanno=, a Carthaginian general conquered in Spain by
Scipio, and sent to Rome. He was son of Bomilcar whom Annibal sent
privately over the Rhone to conquer the Gauls. _Livy_, bk. 21, ch.
27.――――A Carthaginian who taught birds to sing “Annon is a god,”
after which he restored them to their native liberty; but the birds
lost with their slavery what they had been taught. _Ælian_, _Varia
Historia_, bk. 14, ch. 30.――――A Carthaginian who wrote, in the Punic
language, the account of a voyage which he had made round Africa.
This book was translated into Greek, and is still extant. _Vossius_,
_Greek Historians_, bk. 4.――――Another, banished from Carthage for
taming a lion for his own amusement, which was interpreted as if he
wished to aspire to sovereign power. _Pliny_, bk. 8, ch. 16.――――This
name has been common to many Carthaginians who have signalized
themselves among their countrymen during the Punic wars against Rome,
and in their wars against the Sicilians. _Livy_, bks. 26, 27, &c.
=Anopæa=, a mountain and road near the river Asopus. _Herodotus_,
bk. 7, ch. 216.
=Anser=, a Roman poet, whom Ovid, _Tristia_, bk. 3, poem 1, li. 425,
calls bold and impertinent. Virgil and Propertius are said to have
played upon his name with some degree of severity.
=Ansibarii=, a people of Germany. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 13, ch. 55.
=Antæa=, the wife of Proteus, called also Stenobæa. _Homer_, _Iliad_.
――――A goddess worshipped by the inhabitants of Antium.
=Antæas=, a king of Scythia, who said that the neighing of a horse was
far preferable to the music of Ismenias, a famous musician who had
been taken captive. _Plutarch._
=Antæus=, a giant of Libya, son of Terra and Neptune. He was so
strong in wrestling, that he boasted that he would erect a temple
to his father with the skulls of his conquered antagonists. Hercules
attacked him, and as he received new strength from his mother as
often as he touched the ground, the hero lifted him up in the air,
and squeezed him to death in his arms. _Lucan_, bk. 4, li. 598.――
_Statius_, bk. 6, _Thebiad_, li. 893.――_Juvenal_, satire 3, li. 88.
――――A servant of Atticus. _Cicero_, _Letters to Atticus_, bk. 13,
ltr. 44.――――A friend of Turnus, killed by Æneas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 10, li. 561.
=Antagŏras=, a man of Cos. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 5.――――A Rhodian
poet, much admired by Antigonus. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 2.
One day as he was cooking some fish, the king asked him whether
Homer ever dressed any meals when he was recording the actions of
Agamemnon. “And do you think,” replied the poet, “that he ὡ λαοι τ’
ἐπιτετραφαται και τοσσα μεμηλε (ever inquired whether any individual
dressed fish in his army)?” _Plutarch_, _Convivium Septem Sapientium_
& _Apophthegmata Laconica_.
=Antalcĭdas=, of Sparta, son of Leon, was sent into Persia, where he
made a peace with Artaxerxes very disadvantageous to his country,
by which, B.C. 387, the Greek cities of Asia became tributary to the
Persian monarch. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 1, &c.――_Diodorus_, bk. 14.
――_Plutarch_, _Artaxerxes_.
=Antander=, a general of Messenia, against the Spartans. _Pausanias_,
bk. 4, ch. 7.――――A brother of Agathocles tyrant of Sicily. _Justin_,
bk. 22, ch. 7.
=Antandros=, now _St. Dimitri_, a city of Troas, inhabited by the
Leleges, near which Æneas built his fleet after the destruction
of Troy. It has been called Edonis, Cimmeris, Assos, and Apollonia.
There is a hill in its neighbourhood called Alexandria, where Paris
sat, as some suppose, when the three rival goddesses appeared before
him when contending for the prize of beauty. _Strabo_, bk. 13.――
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 6.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 18.
=Anterbrogius=, an ambassador to Cæsar from the Rhemi a nation of Gaul.
_Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 2, ch. 3.
=Anteins Publius=, was appointed over Syria by Nero. He was accused of
sedition and conspiracy, and drank poison, which, operating slowly,
obliged him to open his veins. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 13, &c.
=Antemnæ=, a city of the Sabines between Rome and the Anio, whence the
name (_ante amnem_). _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 631.――_Dionysius
of Halicarnassus._
=Antēnor=, a Trojan prince related to Priam. It is said that, during
the Trojan war, he always kept a secret correspondence with the
Greeks, and chiefly with Menelaus and Ulysses. In the council of
Priam, Homer introduces him as advising the Trojans to restore Helen
and conclude the war. He advised Ulysses to carry away the Trojan
palladium, and encouraged the Greeks to make the wooden horse which,
at his persuasion, was brought into the city of Troy by a breach
made in the walls. Æneas has been accused of being a partner of
his guilt, and the night that Troy was taken, they had a number
of Greeks stationed at the doors of their houses to protect them
from harm. After the destruction of his country, Antenor migrated
into Italy near the Adriatic, where he built the town of Padua.
His children were also concerned in the Trojan war, and displayed
much valour against the Greeks. Their names were Polybius, Acamas,
Agenor, and, according to others, Polydamas and Helicaon. _Livy_,
bk. 1, ch. 1.――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 13.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1,
li. 242.――_Tacitus_, bk. 16, ch. 21.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bks. 3, 7,
8, 11.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 13.――_Dictys Cretensis_, bk.
5.――_Dares Phrygius_, ch. 6.――_Strabo_, bk. 13.――_Dionysius of
Halicarnassus_, bk. 1.――_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 27.――――A statuary.
_Pausanias._――――A Cretan, who wrote a history of his country.
_Ælian._
=Antenorĭdes=, a patronymic given to the three sons of Antenor, all
killed during the Trojan war. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 484.
=Antĕros= (ἀντι ἐρως, _against love_), a son of Mars and Venus. He was
not, as the derivation of his name implies, a deity that presided
over an opposition to love, but he was the god of mutual love and
of mutual tenderness. Venus had complained to Themis that her son
Cupid always continued a child, and was told that, if he had another
brother, he would grow up in a short space of time. As soon as
Anteros was born, Cupid felt his strength increase and his wings
enlarge; but if ever his brother was at a distance from him, he
found himself reduced to his ancient shape. From this circumstance
it is seen, that return of passion gives vigour to love. Anteros had
a temple at Athens raised to his honour, when Meles had experienced
the coldness and disdain of Timagoras, whom he passionately esteemed,
and for whom he had killed himself. _See:_ Meles. Cupid and Anteros
are often represented striving to seize a palm tree from one another,
to teach us that true love always endeavours to overcome by kindness
and gratitude. They were always painted in the Greek academies, to
inform the scholars that it is their immediate duty to be grateful
to their teachers, and to reward their trouble with love and
reverence. _Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 3, ch. 23.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 1, ch. 30; bk. 6, ch. 23.――――A grammarian of Alexandria, in the
age of the emperor Claudius.――――A freedman of Atticus. _Cicero_,
_Letters to Atticus_, bk. 9, ltr. 14.
=Anthēa=, a town of Achaia. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 18.――――Of Messenia.
_Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 31.――――Of Trœzene. _Pausanias_, bk. 2,
ch. 30.
=Antheas=, a son of Eumelus, killed in attempting to sow corn from the
chariot of Triptolemus drawn by dragons. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 18.
=Anthēdon=, a city of Bœotia, which received its name from the flowery
plains that surround it, or from Anthedon, a certain nymph. Bacchus
and Ceres had there temples. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 10; bk. 9, ch.
22. It was formerly inhabited by Thracians. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2.
――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 13, li. 905.――――A port of Peloponnesus.
_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 5.――_Statius_, bk. 9, li. 291.
=Anthēla=, a town near the Asopus, near which Ceres and Amphictyon had
a temple. _Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 176.
=Anthĕmis=, an island in the Mediterranean, the same as the Ionian
Samos. _Strabo_, bk. 10.
=Anthemon=, a Trojan. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 4.
=Anthĕmus=, a city of Macedonia at Thermæ.――――A city of Syria.
_Strabo._
=Anthemusia=, the same as Samos.――――A city of Mesopotamia. _Strabo._
=Anthēne=, a town of Peloponnesus. _Thucydides_, bk. 5, ch. 41.
=Anthermus=, a Chian sculptor, son of Micciades and grandson to Malas.
He and his brother Bupalus made a statue of the poet Hipponax,
which caused universal laughter on account of the deformity of its
countenance. The poet was so incensed upon this, and inveighed with
so much bitterness against the statuaries, that they hung themselves,
according to the opinion of some authors. _Pliny_, bk. 36, ch. 5.
=Anthes=, a native of Anthedon, who first invented hymns. _Plutarch_,
_de Musica_.――――A son of Neptune.
=Anthesphoria=, festivals celebrated in Sicily in honour of Proserpine,
who was carried away by Pluto as she was gathering flowers.
_Claudian_, _de Raptu Proserpinæ_.――――Festivals of the same name
were also observed at Argos in honour of Juno, who was called
Antheia. _Pausanias_, _Corinth_.――_Pollux_, _Onomasticon_, bk. 1,
ch. 1.
=Anthesteria=, festivals in honour of Bacchus among the Greeks. They
were celebrated in the month of February, called Anthesterion,
whence the name is derived, and continued three days. The first
was called Πιθοιγια, ἀπο του πιθους οἰγειν, because they _tapped_
their _barrels_ of liquor. The second day was called Χοες, from the
measure χοα, because every individual drank of his own vessel, in
commemoration of the arrival of Orestes, who, after the murder of
his mother, came, without being purified, to Demophoon or Pandion
king of Athens, and was obliged, with all the Athenians, to drink
by himself for fear of polluting the people by drinking with them
before he was purified of the parricide. It was usual on that day
to ride out in chariots, and ridicule those that passed by. The best
drinker was rewarded with a crown of leaves, or rather of gold, and
with a cask of wine. The third day was called χυτροι from χυτρα,
a vessel brought out full of all sorts of seeds and herbs, deemed
sacred to Mercury, and therefore not touched. The slaves had the
permission of being merry and free during these festivals; and at
the end of the solemnity a herald proclaimed, Θυραζε, Καρες, ουκ ετ’
Ἀνθεστηρια, _i.e._ Depart, ye Carian slaves, the festivals are at an
end. _Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 2, ch. 41.
=Anthēus=, a son of Antenor, much esteemed by Paris.――――One of the
companions of Æneas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 514.
=Anthīa=, a sister of Priam, seized by the Greeks. She compelled the
people of Pallene to burn their ships, and build Scione. _Polyænus_,
bk. 7, ch. 47.――――A town. _See:_ Anthea.――――A daughter of Thespius,
mistress to Hercules. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 7.
=Anthias.= _See:_ Antheas.
=Anthippe=, a daughter of Thestius.
=Anthium=, a town of Thrace, afterwards called Apollonia. _Pliny_,
bk. 4, ch. 11.――――A city of Italy.
=Anthius= (_flowery_), a name of Bacchus worshipped at Athens. He had
also a statue at Patræ.
=Antho=, a daughter of Amulius king of Alba.
=Anthōres=, a companion of Hercules, who followed Evander, and settled
in Italy. He was killed in the war of Turnus against Æneas. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 778.
=Anthracia=, a nymph. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 31.
=Anthropinus=, =Tisarchus=, and =Diocles=, three persons who laid
snares for Agathocles tyrant of Sicily. _Polyænus_, bk. 5, ch. 3.
=Anthropophăgi=, a people of Scythia that fed on human flesh. They
lived near the country of the Massagetæ. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12;
bk. 6, ch. 30.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 1.
=Anthylla=, a city of Egypt on the Canopic mouth of the Nile. It
maintained the queens of the country in shoes, or, according
to _Athenæus_, bk. 1, in girdles. _Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 98.
=Antia lex=, was made for the suppression of luxury at Rome. Its
particulars are not known. The enactor was Antius Restio, who
afterwards never supped abroad for fear of being himself a witness
of the profusion and extravagance which his law meant to destroy,
but without effect. _Macrobius_, bk. 3, ch. 17.
=Antianīra=, the mother of Echion.
=Antias=, the goddess of fortune, chiefly worshipped at Antium.――――A
poet. _See:_ Furius.
=Anticlēa=, a daughter of Autolycus and Amphithea. Her father, who
was a famous robber, permitted Sisyphus son of Æolus to enjoy the
favours of his daughter, and Anticlea was really pregnant of Ulysses
when she married Laertes king of Ithaca. Laertes was nevertheless
the reputed father of Ulysses. Ulysses is reproached by Ajax in
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, as being the son of Sisyphus. It is said
that Anticlea killed herself when she heard a false report of her
son’s death. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bks. 11, 19.――_Hyginus_, fables 201,
243.――_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 29.――――A woman who had Periphetes by
Vulcan. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3.――――A daughter of Diocles, who married
Machaon the son of Æsculapius, by whom she had Nicomachus and
Gorgasus. _Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 30.
=Antĭcles=, an Athenian archon.――――A man who conspired against
Alexander with Hermolaus. _Curtius_, bk. 8, ch. 6.――――An Athenian
victor at Olympia.
=Anticlīdes=, a Greek historian, whose works are now lost. They are
often quoted by _Athenæus_ & _Plutarch_, _Alexander_.
=Anticrăgus=, a mountain of Lycia, opposite mount Cragus. _Strabo_,
bk. 4.
=Anticrătes=, a Spartan who stabbed Epaminondas, the Theban general,
at the battle of Mantinea. _Plutarch_, _Agesilaus_.
=Anticy̆ra=, two towns of Greece, the one in Phocis and the other near
mount Oeta, both famous for the hellebore which they produced. This
plant was of infinite service to cure diseases, and particularly
insanity; hence the proverb _Naviget Anticyram_. The Anticyra of
Phocis was anciently called Cyparissa. It had a temple of Neptune,
who was represented holding a trident in one hand and resting the
other on his side, with one of his feet on a dolphin. Some writers,
especially Horace (_Art of Poetry_, li. 300), speak of three islands
of this name, but this seems to be a mistake. _Pausanias_, bk. 10,
ch. 36.――_Horace_, bk. 2, satire 3, li. 166; _Art of Poetry_, li.
300.――_Persius_, bk. 4, li. 16.――_Strabo_, bk. 9.――_Mela_, bk. 2,
ch. 3.――_Ovid_, _ex Ponto_, bk. 4, poem 3, li. 53.――――A mistress of
Demetrius. _Plutarch_, _Demetrius_.
=Antidŏmus=, a warlike soldier of king Philip at the siege of
Perinthus.
=Antidŏtus=, an excellent painter, pupil of Euphranor. _Pliny_, bk. 35,
ch. 11.
=Antigĕnes=, one of Alexander’s generals, publicly rewarded for his
valour. _Curtius_, bk. 5, ch. 14.
=Antigenĭdas=, a famous musician of Thebes, disciple to Philoxenus.
He taught his pupil Ismenias to despise the judgment of the populace.
_Cicero_, _Brutus_, ch. 97.
=Antigŏna=, daughter of Berenice, was wife to king Pyrrhus. _Plutarch_,
_Pyrrhus_.
=Antigŏne=, a daughter of Œdipus king of Thebes by his mother Jocasta.
She buried by night her brother Polynices, against the positive
orders of Creon, who, when he heard of it, ordered her to be buried
alive. She, however, killed herself before the sentence was executed;
and Hæmon the king’s son, who was passionately fond of her, and had
not been able to obtain her pardon, killed himself on her grave.
The death of Antigone is the subject of one of the tragedies of
Sophocles. The Athenians were so pleased with it at the first
representation, that they presented the author with the government
of Samos. This tragedy was represented 32 times at Athens without
interruption. _Sophocles_, _Antigone_.――_Hyginus_, fables 67, 72,
243, 254.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 5.――_Ovid_, _Tristia_, bk. 3,
poem 3.――_Philostratus_, bk. 2, ch. 29.――_Statius_, _Thebiad_, bk.
12, li. 350.――――A daughter of Eurytion king of Phthia in Thessaly.
_Apollodorus._――――A daughter of Laomedon. She was the sister of
Priam, and was changed into a stork for comparing herself to Juno.
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 6, li. 93.
=Antigŏnia=, an inland town of Epirus. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 1.――――One
of Macedonia, founded by Antigonus son of Gonatas. _Pliny_, bk. 4,
ch. 10.――――One in Syria, on the borders of the Orontes. _Strabo_,
bk. 16.――――Another in Bithynia, called also Nicæa. _Strabo_, bk. 12.
――――Another in Arcadia, anciently called Mantinea. _Pausanias_,
bk. 8, ch. 8.――――One of Troas in Asia Minor. _Strabo_, bk. 13.
=Antigŏnus=, one of Alexander’s generals, universally supposed to be
the illegitimate son of Philip, Alexander’s father. In the division
of the provinces after the king’s death, he received Pamphylia,
Lycia, and Phrygia. He united with Antipater and Ptolemy, to destroy
Perdiccas and Eumenes; and after the death of Perdiccas he made
continual war against Eumenes, whom, after three years of various
fortune, he took prisoner, and ordered to be starved. He afterwards
declared war against Cassander, whom he conquered, and had several
engagements by his generals with Lysimachus. He obliged Seleucus
to retire from Syria, and fly for refuge and safety to Egypt.
Ptolemy, who had established himself in Egypt, promised to defend
Seleucus, and from that time all friendship ceased between Ptolemy
and Antigonus, and a new war was begun, in which Demetrius the son
of Antigonus conquered the fleet of Ptolemy, near the island of
Cyprus, and took 16,000 men prisoners, and sunk 200 ships. After
this famous naval battle, which happened 26 years after Alexander’s
death, Antigonus and his son assumed the title of kings, and their
example was followed by all the rest of Alexander’s generals. The
power of Antigonus was now become so formidable, that Ptolemy,
Seleucus, Cassander, and Lysimachus combined together to destroy him;
yet Antigonus despised them, saying that he would disperse them as
birds. He attempted to enter Egypt in vain, though he gained several
victories over his opponents, and he at last received so many wounds
in a battle that he could not survive them, and died in the 80th
year of his age, 301 B.C. During his life, he was master of all
Asia Minor, as far as Syria; but after his death, his son Demetrius
lost Asia, and established himself in Macedonia after the death
of Cassander, and some time after attempted to recover his former
possessions, but died in captivity in the court of his son-in-law
Seleucus. Antigonus was concerned in the different intrigues of
the Greeks. He made a treaty of alliance with the Ætolians, and
was highly respected by the Athenians, to whom he showed himself
very liberal and indulgent. Antigonus discharged some of his
officers because they spent their time in taverns, and he gave
their commissions to common soldiers who performed their duty with
punctuality. A certain poet called him divine; but the king despised
his flattery, and bade him go and inquire of his servants whether
he was really what he supposed him. _Strabo_, bk. 13.――_Diodorus_,
bk. 17, &c.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 6, &c.――_Justin_, bks. 13,
14, & 15.――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Eumenes_.――_Plutarch_, _Demetrius_,
_Eumenes_, & _Aratus_.――――Gonatas, son of Demetrius and grandson
to Antigonus, was king of Macedonia. He restored the Armenians to
liberty, conquered the Gauls, and at last was expelled by Pyrrhus,
who seized his kingdom. After the death of Pyrrhus, he recovered
Macedonia, and died after a reign of 34 years, leaving his son
Demetrius to succeed, B. C. 243. _Justin_, bks. 21 & 25.――_Polybius._
――_Plutarch_, _Demetrius_.――――The guardian of his nephew Philip,
the son of Demetrius, who married the widow of Demetrius and usurped
the kingdom. He was called _Doson_, from his promising much and
giving nothing. He conquered Cleomenes king of Sparta, and obliged
him to retire into Egypt, because he favoured the Ætolians against
the Greeks. He died, B.C. 221, after a reign of 11 years, leaving
his crown to the lawful possessor, Philip, who distinguished himself
by his cruelties, and the war which he made against the Romans.
_Justin_, bks. 28 & 29.――_Polybius_, bk. 2.――_Plutarch_, _Cleomenes_.
――――A son of Aristobulus king of Judæa, who obtained an army from
the king of Parthia, by promising him 1000 talents and 500 women.
With these foreign troops he attacked his country, and cut the
ears of Hyrcanus to make him unfit for the priesthood. Herod, with
the aid of the Romans, took him prisoner, and he was put to death
by Antony. _Josephus_, bk. 14.――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_ &
_Plutarch_, _Antonius_.――――Carystius, an historian in the age of
Philadelphus, who wrote the lives of some of the ancient philosophers.
_Diogenes Laërtius._――_Athenæus._――――A writer on agriculture.――――A
statuary, who wrote on his profession.
=Antilco=, a tyrant of Chalcis. After his death, oligarchy prevailed
in that city. _Aristotle_, bk. 5, _Politics_.
=Antilibănus=, a mountain of Syria opposite mount Libanus; near which
the Orontes flows. _Strabo._――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 20.
=Antilŏchus=, a king of Messenia.――――The eldest son of Nestor by
Eurydice. He went to the Trojan war with his father, and was killed
by Memnon the son of Aurora. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 4.――_Ovid_,
_Heroides_, says he was killed by Hector.――――A poet who wrote a
panegyric upon Lysander, and received a hat filled with silver.
_Plutarch_, _Lysander_.――――An historian commended by _Dionysius of
Halicarnassus_.
=Antimăchus=, a lascivious person.――――An historian.――――A Greek poet
and musician of Ionia in the age of Socrates. He wrote a treatise
on the age and genealogy of Homer, and proved him to be a native
of Colophon. He repeated one of his compositions before a large
audience, but his diction was so obscure and unintelligible that all
retired except Plato; on which he said, _Legam nihilominus, Plato
enim mihi est unus instar omnium_. He was reckoned the next to Homer
in excellence, and the emperor Adrian was so fond of his poetry
that he preferred him to Homer. He wrote a poem upon the Theban war;
and before he had brought his heroes to the city of Thebes, he had
filled 24 volumes. He was surnamed _Clarius_ from Claros, a mountain
near Colophon, where he was born. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 35.――
_Plutarch_, _Lysander_ & _Timoleon_.――_Propertius_, bk. 2, poem 34,
li. 45.――_Quintilian_, bk. 10, ch. 1.――――Another poet of the same
name, surnamed _Psecas_, because he praised himself. _Suidas._――――A
Trojan whom Paris bribed to oppose the restoring of Helen to Menelaus
and Ulysses, who had come as ambassadors to recover her. His sons,
Hippolochus and Pisander, were killed by Agamemnon. _Homer_, _Iliad_,
bk. 11, li. 123; bk. 23, li. 188.――――A son of Hercules by a daughter
of Thestius. _Apollodorus_, bks. 2 & 3.――――A native of Heliopolis,
who wrote a poem on the creation of the world, in 3780 verses.
=Antimĕnes=, a son of Deiphon. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 28.
=Antinoe=, one of the daughters of Pelias, whose wishes to restore her
father to youthful vigour proved so fatal. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1.――
_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 11.
=Antinoeia=, annual sacrifices and quinquennial games in honour
of Antinous, instituted by the emperor Adrian at Mantinea, where
Antinous was worshipped as a divinity.
=Antinopŏlis=, a town of Egypt, built in honour of Antinous.
=Antinous=, a youth of Bithynia, of whom the emperor Adrian was
so extremely fond, that at his death he erected a temple to him,
and wished it to be believed that he had been changed into a
constellation. Some writers suppose that Antinous was drowned in the
Nile, while others maintain that he offered himself at a sacrifice
as a victim, in honour of the emperor.――――A native of Ithaca, son of
Eupeithes, and one of Penelope’s suitors. He was brutal and cruel in
his manners; and excited his companions to destroy Telemachus, whose
advice comforted his mother Penelope. When Ulysses returned home he
came to the palace in a beggar’s dress, and begged for bread, which
Antinous refused, and even struck him. After Ulysses had discovered
himself to Telemachus and Eumæus, he attacked the suitors, who were
ignorant who he was, and killed Antinous among the first. _Homer_,
_Odyssey_, bks. 1, 16, 17, & 22.――_Propertius_, bk. 2, poem 5, li. 7.
=Antiŏchia=, the name of a Syrian province. _Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 14.
――――A city of Syria, once the third city of the world for beauty,
greatness, and population. It was built by Antiochus and Seleucus
Nicanor, partly on a hill and partly in a plain. It has the river
Orontes in its neighbourhood, with a celebrated grove called Daphne;
whence, for the sake of distinction, it has been called Antiochia
near Daphne. _Dionysius Periegeta._――――A city called also Nisibis,
in Mesopotamia, built by Seleucus son of Antiochus.――――The capital
of Pisidia, 92 miles at the east of Ephesus.――――A city on mount
Cragus.――――Another near the river Tigris, 25 leagues from Seleucia
on the west.――――Another in Margiana, called Alexandria and Seleucia.
――――Another near mount Taurus, on the confines of Syria.――――Another
of Caria, on the river Meander.
=Antiŏchis=, the name of the mother of Antiochus the son of Seleucus.
――――A tribe of Athens.
=Antiŏchus=, surnamed _Soter_, was son of Seleucus, and king of Syria
in Asia. He made a treaty of alliance with Ptolemy Philadelphus
king of Egypt. He fell into a lingering disease, which none of his
father’s physicians could cure for some time, till it was discovered
that his pulse was more irregular than usual when Stratonice his
stepmother entered his room, and that love for her was the cause
of his illness. This was told to the father, who willingly gave
Stratonice to his son, that his immoderate love might not cause
his death. He died 291 B.C., after a reign of 19 years. _Justin_,
bk. 17, ch. 2, &c.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 5.――_Polybius_, bk. 4.
――_Appian._――――The second of that name, surnamed _Theos_ (_God_)
by the Milesians, because he put to death their tyrant Timarchus,
was son and successor to Antiochus Soter. He put an end to the war
which had been begun with Ptolemy; and, to strengthen the peace,
he married Berenice, the daughter of the Ægyptian king. This so
offended his former wife Laodice, by whom he had two sons, that she
poisoned him, and suborned Artemon, whose features were similar to
his, to represent him as king. Artemon, subservient to her will,
pretended to be indisposed, and as king, called all the ministers,
and recommended to them Seleucus, surnamed Callinicus, son of
Laodice, as his successor. After this ridiculous imposture, it was
made public that the king had died a natural death, and Laodice
placed her son on the throne, and despatched Berenice and her son,
246 years before the christian era. _Appian._――――The third of that
name, surnamed the _Great_, brother to Seleucus Ceraunus, was king
of Syria and Asia, and reigned 36 years. He was defeated by Ptolemy
Philopater at Rapeia, after which he made war against Persia, and
took Sardes. After the death of Philopater, he endeavoured to crush
his infant son Epiphanes: but his guardians solicited the aid of
the Romans, and Antiochus was compelled to resign his pretensions.
He conquered the greatest part of Greece, of which some cities
implored the aid of Rome; and Annibal, who had taken refuge at his
court, encouraged him to make war against Italy. He was glad to
find himself supported by the abilities of such a general; but his
measures were dilatory, and not agreeable to the advice of Annibal,
and he was conquered and obliged to retire beyond mount Taurus, and
pay a yearly fine of 2000 talents to the Romans. His revenues being
unable to pay the fine, he attempted to plunder the temple of Belus
in Susiana, which so incensed the inhabitants, that they killed
him with his followers, 187 years before the christian era. In his
character of king, Antiochus was humane and liberal, the patron
of learning, and the friend of merit; and he published an edict,
ordering his subjects never to obey except his commands were
consistent with the laws of the country. He had three sons, Seleucus
Philopater, Antiochus Epiphanes, and Demetrius. The first succeeded
him, and the two others were kept as hostages by the Romans.
_Justin_, bks. 31 & 32.――_Strabo_, bk. 16.――_Livy_, bk. 34, ch. 59.
――_Florus_, bk. 2, ch. 1.――_Appian_, _Syrian Wars_.――――The fourth
Antiochus, surnamed _Epiphanes_ or _Illustrious_, was king of Syria,
after the death of his brother Seleucus, and reigned 11 years. He
destroyed Jerusalem, and was so cruel to the Jews, that they called
him _Epimanes_, or _Furious_, and not _Epiphanes_. He attempted to
plunder Persepolis without effect. He was of a voracious appetite,
and fond of childish diversions; he used for his pleasure to empty
bags of money into the streets, to see the people’s eagerness to
gather it; he bathed in the public baths with the populace, and was
fond of perfuming himself to excess. He invited all the Greeks he
could at Antioch, and waited upon them as a servant, and danced with
such indecency among the stage players, that even the most dissipate
and shameless blushed at the sight. _Polybius._――_Justin_, bk. 34,
ch. 3.――――The fifth, surnamed _Eupator_, succeeded his father
Epiphanes on the throne of Syria, 164 B.C. He made a peace with
the Jews, and in the second year of his reign was assassinated
by his uncle Demetrius, who said that the crown was lawfully his
own, and that it had been seized from his father. _Justin_, bk. 34.
――_Josephus_, bk. 12.――――The sixth king of Syria was surnamed
_Entheus_ or _Noble_. His father, Alexander Bala, entrusted him
to the care of Malcus, an Arabian; and he received the crown from
Tryphon, in opposition to his brother Demetrius, whom the people
hated. Before he had been a year on the throne, Tryphon murdered
him, 143 B.C., and reigned in his place for three years. _Josephus_,
bk. 13.――――The seventh, called _Sidetes_, reigned nine years. In
the beginning of his reign he was afraid of Tryphon, and concealed
himself, but he soon obtained the means of destroying his enemy. He
made war against Phraates king of Parthia, and he fell in the battle
which was soon after fought, about 130 years before the christian
era. _Justin_, bk. 36, ch. 1.――_Appian_, _Syrian Wars_.――――The
eighth, surnamed _Grypus_, from his _aquiline_ nose, was son of
Demetrius Nicanor by Cleopatra. His brother Seleucus was destroyed
by Cleopatra, and he himself would have shared the same fate, had he
not discovered his mother’s artifice, and compelled her to drink the
poison which was prepared for himself. He killed Alexander Zebina,
whom Ptolemy had set to oppose him on the throne of Syria, and
was at last assassinated, B.C. 112, after a reign of 11 years.
_Justin_, bk. 39, &c.――_Josephus._――_Appian._――――The ninth, surnamed
_Cyzenicus_, from the city of Cyzicus, where he received his
education, was son of Antiochus Sidetes by Cleopatra. He disputed
the kingdom with his brother Grypus, who ceded to him Cœlosyria,
part of his patrimony, He was at last conquered by his nephew
Seleucus near Antioch, and rather than to continue longer in his
hands, he killed himself, B.C. 93. While a private man, he seemed
worthy to reign; but when on the throne, he was dissolute and
tyrannical. He was fond of mechanics, and invented some useful
military engines. _Appian._――_Josephus._――――The tenth was ironically
surnamed _Pius_, because he married Selena, the wife of his father
and of his uncle. He was the son of Antiochus IX., and he expelled
Seleucus the son of Grypus from Syria, and was killed in a battle
which he fought against the Parthians, in the cause of the Galatians.
_Josephus._――_Appian._ After his death the kingdom of Syria was
torn to pieces by the faction of the royal family, or usurpers,
who, under a good or false title, under the name of Antiochus or his
relations, established themselves for a little time as sovereigns
either of Syria, or Damascus, or other dependent provinces. At
last Antiochus, surnamed _Asiaticus_, the son of Antiochus IX.,
was restored to his paternal throne by the influence of Lucullus
the Roman general, on the expulsion of Tigranes king of Armenia
from the Syrian dominions; but four years after, Pompey deposed him,
and observed, that he who had hid himself while a usurper sat upon
his throne, ought not to be a king. From that time, B.C. 65, Syria
became a Roman province, and the race of Antiochus was extinguished.
_Justin_, bk. 40.――――A philosopher of Ascalon, famous for his
writings, and the respect with which he was treated by his pupils,
Lucullus, Cicero, and Brutus.――_Plutarch_, _Lucullus_.――――An
historian of Syracuse, son of Xenophanes, who wrote, besides other
works, a history of Sicily, in nine books, in which he began at
the age of king Cocalus. _Strabo._――_Diodorus_, bk. 12.――――A rich
king, tributary to the Romans in the age of Vespasian. _Tacitus_,
_Histories_, bk. 2, ch. 81.――――A sophist who refused to take upon
himself the government of a state, on account of the vehemence of
his passions.――――A king conquered by Antony, &c. _Cæsar_, bk. 3,
_Civil War_, bk. 4.――――A king of Messenia. _Pausanias_, bk. 4.――――A
commander of the Athenian fleet, under Alcibiades, conquered by
Lysander. _Xenophon_, _Hellenica_.――――A writer of Alexandria, who
published a treatise on comic poets. _Athenæus._――――A sceptic of
Laodicea. _Diogenes Laërtius_, _Pyrrhus_.――――A learned sophist.
_Philostratus._――――A servant of Atticus. _Cicero_, _Letters to
Atticus_, bk. 3, ltr. 33.――――A hair-dresser mentioned by _Martial_,
bk. 11, ltr. 85.――――A son of Hercules by Medea. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2,
ch. 7.――――A stage player. _Juvenal_, satire 3, li. 98.――――A sculptor,
said to have made the famous statue of Pallas, preserved in the
Ludovisi gardens at Rome.
=Antiŏpe=, a daughter of Nycteus king of Thebes by Polyxo, was beloved
by Jupiter, who, to deceive her, changed himself into a satyr.
She became pregnant, and, to avoid the resentment of her father,
she fled to mount Cithæron, where she brought forth twins, Amphion
and Zethus. She exposed them, to prevent discovery, but they were
preserved. After this she fled to Epopeus king of Sicyon, who
married her. Some say that Epopeus carried her away, for which
action Nycteus made war against him, and at his death left his crown
to his brother Lycus, entreating him to continue the war, and punish
the ravisher of his daughter. Lycus obeyed his injunctions, killed
Epopeus, and recovered Antiope, whom he loved and married, though
his niece. His first wife, Dirce, was jealous of his new connection;
she prevailed upon her husband, and Antiope was delivered into her
hands, and confined in a prison, where she was daily tormented.
Antiope, after many years’ imprisonment, obtained means to escape,
and went after her sons, who undertook to avenge her wrongs upon
Lycus and his wife Dirce. They took Thebes, put the king to death,
and tied Dirce to the tail of a wild bull, which dragged her till
she died. Bacchus changed her into a fountain, and deprived Antiope
of the use of her senses. In this forlorn situation she wandered all
over Greece, and at last found relief from Phocus son of Ornytion,
who cured her of her disorder, and married her. Hyginus, fable 7,
says that Antiope was divorced by Lycus, because she had been
ravished by Epopeus, whom he calls Epaphus, and that after her
repudiation she became pregnant by Jupiter. Meanwhile Lycus married
Dirce, who suspected that her husband still kept the company of
Antiope, upon which she imprisoned her. Antiope, however, escaped
from her confinement, and brought forth on mount Cithæron. Some
authors have called her daughter of Asopus, because she was born on
the banks of that river. The _Scholiast_ on _Apollonius_, bk. 1,
li. 735, maintains that there were two persons of the name, one the
daughter of Nycteus, and the other of Asopus and mother of Amphion
and Zethus. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 6; bk. 9, ch. 17.――_Ovid_, bk. 6,
_Metamorphoses_, li. 110.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 5.――_Propertius_,
bk. 3, poem 15.――_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 11, li. 259.――_Hyginus_,
fables 7, 8, & 155.――――A daughter of Thespius or Thestius, mother of
Alopius by Hercules. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――――A daughter of
Mars, queen of the Amazons, taken prisoner by Hercules, and given in
marriage to Theseus. She is also called Hippolyte. _See:_ Hippolyte.
――――A daughter of Æolus, mother of Bœotus and Hellen by Neptune.
_Hyginus_, fable 157.――――A daughter of Pilon, who married Eurytus.
_Hippolyte_, fable 14.
=Antiōrus=, a son of Lycurgus. _Plutarch_, _Lycurgus_.
=Antipăros=, a small island in the Ægean sea, opposite Paros, from
which it is about six miles distant.
=Antipăter=, son of Iolaus, was soldier under king Philip, and raised
to the rank of a general under Alexander the Great. When Alexander
went to invade Asia, he left Antipater supreme governor of Macedonia,
and of all Greece. Antipater exerted himself in the cause of his
king; he made war against Sparta, and was soon after called into
Persia with a reinforcement by Alexander. He has been suspected
of giving poison to Alexander, to raise himself to power. After
Alexander’s death his generals divided the empire among themselves,
and Macedonia was allotted to Antipater. The wars which Greece, and
chiefly Athens, meditated under Alexander’s life, now burst forth
with uncommon fury as soon as the news of his death was received.
The Athenians levied an army of 30,000 men, and equipped 200 ships
against Antipater, who was master of Macedonia. Their expedition was
attended with much success; Antipater was routed in Thessaly, and
even besieged in the town of Lamia. But when Leosthenes the Athenian
general was mortally wounded under the walls of Lamia, the fortune
of the war was changed. Antipater obliged the enemy to raise the
siege, and soon after received a reinforcement from Craterus, from
Asia, with which he conquered the Athenians at Cranon in Thessaly.
After this defeat Antipater and Craterus marched into Bœotia, and
conquered the Ætolians, and granted peace to the Athenians, on the
conditions which Leosthenes had proposed to Antipater when besieged
in Lamia, _i.e._ that he should be absolute master over them.
Besides this, he demanded from their ambassadors, Demades, Phocion,
and Xenocrates, that they should deliver into his hands the orators
Demosthenes and Hyperides, whose eloquence had inflamed the minds
of their countrymen, and had been the primary causes of the war.
The conditions were accepted, a Macedonian garrison was stationed
in Athens, but the inhabitants still were permitted the free use
of their laws and privileges. Antipater and Craterus were the first
who made hostile preparations against Perdiccas; and during that
time Polyperchon was appointed over Macedonia. Polyperchon defeated
the Ætolians, who made an invasion upon Macedonia. Antipater gave
assistance to Eumenes in Asia against Antigonus, according to
_Justin_, bk. 14, ch. 2. At his death, B.C. 319, Antipater appointed
Polyperchon master of all his possessions; and as he was the oldest
of all the generals and successors of Alexander, he recommended that
he might be the supreme ruler in their councils, that everything
might be done according to his judgment. As for his son Cassander,
he left him in a subordinate station under Polyperchon. But
Cassander was of too aspiring a disposition tamely to obey his
father’s injunctions. He recovered Macedonia, and made himself
absolute. _Curtius_, bks. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, & 10.――_Justin_, bks. 11,
12, 13, &c.――_Diodorus_, bks. 17, 18, &c.――_Cornelius Nepos_,
_Phocion_ & _Eumenes_.――_Plutarch_, _Eumenes_, _Alexander_, &c.――――A
son of Cassander king of Macedonia, and son-in-law of Lysimachus.
He killed his mother, because she wished his brother Alexander to
succeed to the throne. Alexander, to revenge the death of his mother,
solicited the assistance of Demetrius; but peace was re-established
between the two brothers by the advice of Lysimachus, and soon after
Demetrius killed Antipater, and made himself king of Macedonia, 294
B.C. _Justin_, bk. 26, ch. 1.――――A king of Macedonia, who reigned
only 45 days, 277 B.C.――――A king of Cilicia.――――A powerful prince,
father to Herod. He was appointed governor of Judæa by Cæsar, whom
he had assisted in the Alexandrine war. _Josephus._――――An Athenian
archon.――――One of Alexander’s soldiers, who conspired against
his life with Hermolaus. _Curtius_, bk. 8, ch. 6.――――A celebrated
sophist of Hieropolis, preceptor to the children of the emperor
Severus.――――A Stoic philosopher of Tarsus, 144 years B.C.――――A poet
of Sidon, who could compose a number of verses extempore, upon any
subject. He ranked Sappho among the Muses, in one of his epigrams.
He had a fever every year on the day of his birth, of which at last
he died. He flourished about 80 years B.C. Some of his epigrams
are preserved in the Anthologia. _Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 51.――_Valerius
Maximus_, bk. 1, ch. 10.――_Cicero_, _On Oratory_, bk. 3; _de
Officiis_, bk. 3; _De Quæstiones Academicæ_, bk. 4.――――A philosopher
of Phœnicia, preceptor to Cato of Utica. _Plutarch_, _Cato_.――――A
Stoic philosopher, disciple of Diogenes of Babylon. He wrote two
books on divination, and died at Athens. _Cicero_, _de Divinatione_,
bk. 1, ch. 3; _Quæstiones Academicæ_, bk. 4, ch. 6; _de Officiis_,
bk. 3, ch. 12.――――A disciple of Aristotle, who wrote two books of
letters.――――A poet of Thessalonica, in the age of Augustus.
=Antipatria=, a city of Macedonia. _Livy_, bk. 31, ch. 27.
=Antipatrĭdas=, a governor of Telmessus. _Polyænus_, bk. 5.
=Antipătris=, a city of Palestine.
=Antiphănes=, an ingenious statuary of Argos. _Pausanias_, bk. 5,
ch. 17.――――A comic poet of Rhodes, or rather of Smyrna, who wrote
above 90 comedies, and died in the 74th year of his age, by the fall
of an apple upon his head.――――A physician of Delos, who used to say
that diseases originated from the variety of food that was eaten.
_Clement of Alexandria._――_Athenæus._
=Antiphătes=, a king of the Læstrygones, descended from Lamus, who
founded Formiæ. Ulysses returning from Troy, came upon his coasts,
and sent three men to examine the country. Antiphates devoured one
of them, and pursued the others, and sunk the fleet of Ulysses with
stones, except the ship in which Ulysses was. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 14, li. 232.――――A son of Sarpedon. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9,
li. 696.――――The grandfather of Amphiaraus. _Homer_, _Odyssey_.――――A
man killed in the Trojan war by Leonteus. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 12,
li. 191.
=Antiphĭli Portus=, a harbour on the African side of the Red sea.
_Strabo_, bk. 16.
=Antiphĭlus=, an Athenian who succeeded Leosthenes at the siege of
Lamia against Antipater. _Diodorus_, bk. 18.――――A noble painter who
represented a youth leaning over a fire and blowing it, from which
the whole house seemed to be illuminated. He was an Egyptian by
birth; he imitated Apelles, and was disciple to Ctesidemus. _Pliny_,
bk. 35, ch. 10.
=Antĭphon=, a poet.――――A native of Rhamnusia, called Nestor, from his
eloquence and prudence. The 16 orations that are extant under his
name, are supposititious.――――An orator who promised Philip king of
Macedonia that he would set on fire the citadel of Athens, for which
he was put to death, at the instigation of Demosthenes. _Cicero_,
_de Divinatione_, bk. 2.――_Plutarch_, _Alcibiades_ & _Demosthenes_.
――――A poet who wrote on agriculture. _Athenæus._――――An author who
wrote a treatise on peacocks.――――A rich man introduced by Xenophon
as disputing with Socrates.――――An Athenian who interpreted dreams,
and wrote a history of his art. _Cicero_, _de Divinatione_, bks.
1 & 2.――――A foolish rhetorician.――――A poet of Attica, who wrote
tragedies, epic poems, and orations. Dionysius put him to death
because he refused to praise his compositions. Being once asked by
the tyrant what brass was the best, he answered, “That with which
the statues of Harmodius and Aristogiton are made.” _Plutarch._
――_Aristotle._
=Antiphŏnus=, a son of Priam, who went with his father to the tent of
Achilles to redeem Hector. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 24.
=Antĭphus=, a son of Priam, killed by Agamemnon during the Trojan war.
――――A son of Thessalus, grandson to Hercules. He went to the Trojan
war in 30 ships. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2, li. 185.――――An intimate
friend of Ulysses. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 17.――――A brother of
Ctimenus, was son of Ganyctor the Naupactian. These two brothers
murdered the poet Hesiod, on the false suspicion that he had offered
violence to their sister, and threw his body into the sea. The
poet’s dog discovered them, and they were seized and convicted of
the murder. _Plutarch_, _de Sollertia Animalium_.
=Antipœnus=, a noble Theban, whose daughters sacrificed themselves for
the public safety. _See:_ Androclea.
=Antipŏlis=, a city of Gaul, built by the people of Marseilles.
_Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 2, ch. 15.
=Antirrhium=, a promontory of Ætolia, opposite Rhium in Peloponnesus,
whence the name.
=Antissa=, a city at the north of Lesbos.――――An island near it. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 15, li. 287.――_Pliny_, bk. 2, ch. 89.
=Antisthĕnes=, a philosopher, born of an Athenian father and of a
Phrygian mother. He taught rhetoric, and had among his pupils the
famous Diogenes; but when he had heard Socrates, he shut up his
school, and told his pupils, “Go seek for yourselves a master; I
have now found one.” He was at the head of the sect of the Cynic
philosophers. One of his pupils asked him what philosophy had taught
him. “To live with myself,” said he. He sold his all, and preserved
only a very ragged coat, which drew the attention of Socrates, and
tempted him to say to the Cynic, who carried his contempt of dress
too far, “Antisthenes, I see thy vanity through the holes of thy
coat.” Antisthenes taught the unity of God, but he recommended
suicide. Some of his letters are extant. His doctrines of austerity
were followed as long as he was himself an example of the cynical
character, but after his death they were all forgotten. Antisthenes
flourished 396 years B.C. _Cicero_, _On Oratory_, bk. 3, ch. 35.
――_Diogenes Laërtius_, bk. 6.――_Plutarch_, _Lycurgus_.――――A disciple
of Heraclitus.――――An historian of Rhodes. _Diogenes Laërtius._
=Antistius Labeo=, an excellent lawyer at Rome, who defended the
liberties of his country against Augustus, for which he is taxed
with madness by _Horace_, bk. 1, satire 3, li. 82.――_Suetonius_,
_Augustus_, ch. 54.――――Petro of Gabii, was the author of a
celebrated treaty between Rome and his country, in the age of
Tarquin the Proud. _Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 4.――――Caius
Reginus, a lieutenant of Cæsar in Gaul. _Cæsar_, _Gaul War_, bks.
6 & 7.――――A soldier of Pompey’s army, so confident of his valour,
that he challenged all the adherents of Cæsar. _Hirtius_, ch. 25,
_Spanish War_.
=Antitaurus=, one of the branches of mount Taurus, which runs in a
north-east direction through Cappadocia towards Armenia and the
Euphrates.
=Antitheus=, an Athenian archon. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 17.
=Antium=, a maritime town of Italy, built by Ascanius, or, according
to others, by a son of Ulysses and Circe, upon a promontory 32
miles east from Ostium. It was the capital of the Volsci, who made
war against the Romans for above 200 years. Camillus took it, and
carried all the beaks of their ships to Rome, and placed them in the
Forum on a tribunal, which from thence was called _Rostrum_. This
town was dedicated to the goddess of Fortune, whose statues, when
consulted, gave oracles by a nodding of the head, or other different
signs. Nero was born there. _Cicero_, _de Divinatione_, bk. 1.
――_Horace_, bk. 1, ode 35.――_Livy_, bk. 8, ch. 14.
=Antomĕnes=, the last king of _Corinth_. After his death, magistrates
with regal authority were chosen annually.
=Antōnia lex=, was enacted by Marcus Antony the consul, A.U.C. 710.
It abrogated the _lex Atia_, and renewed the _lex Cornelia_, by
taking away from the people the privilege of choosing priests,
and restoring it to the college of priests, to which it originally
belonged. _Dio Cassius_, bk. 44.――――Another by the same, A.U.C. 703.
It ordained that a new decury of judges should be added to the two
former, and that they should be chosen from the centurions. _Cicero_,
_Philippics_, speeches 1 & 5.――――Another by the same. It allowed an
appeal to the people, to those who were condemned _de majestate_,
or of perfidious measures against the state.――――Another by the same,
during his triumvirate. It made it a capital offence to propose ever
after the election of a dictator, and for any person to accept of
the office. _Appian_, _Civil Wars_, bk. 3.
=Antōnia=, a daughter of Marcus Antony by Octavia. She married
Domitius Ænobarbus, and was mother of Nero and of two daughters.
――――A sister of Germanicus.――――A daughter of Claudius and Ælia
Petina. She was of the family of the Tuberos, and was repudiated for
her levity. _Suetonius_, _Claudius_, ch. 1.――_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk.
11.――――The wife of Drusus, the son of Livia and brother to Tiberius.
She became mother of three children, Germanicus, Caligula’s father,
Claudius the emperor, and the debauched Livia. Her husband died very
early, and she never would marry again, but spent her time in the
education of her children. Some people suppose that her grandson
Caligula ordered her to be poisoned, A.D. 38. _Valerius Maximus_,
bk. 4, ch. 3.――――A castle of Jerusalem, which received this name in
honour of Marcus Antony.
=Antōnii=, a patrician and plebeian family, which were said to
derive their origin from Antones, a son of Hercules, as _Plutarch_,
_Antonius_ informs us.
=Antonīna=, the wife of Belisarius, &c.
=Antonīnus Titus=, surnamed _Pius_, was adopted by the emperor Adrian,
to whom he succeeded. This prince is remarkable for all the virtues
that can form a perfect statesman, philosopher, and king. He rebuilt
whatever cities had been destroyed by wars in former reigns. In
cases of famines or inundation, he relieved the distressed, and
supplied their wants with his own money. He suffered the governors
of the provinces to remain long in the administration, that no
opportunity of extortion might be given to new comers. In his
conduct towards his subjects, he behaved with affability and humanity,
and listened with patience to every complaint brought before him.
When told of conquering heroes, he said with Scipio, “I prefer the
life and preservation of a citizen to the death of 100 enemies.”
He did not persecute the christians like his predecessors, but his
life was a scene of universal benevolence. His last moments were
easy, though preceded by a lingering illness. When consul of Asia,
he lodged at Smyrna in the house of a sophist, who in civility
obliged the governor to change his house at night. The sophist, when
Antoninus became emperor, visited Rome, and was jocosely desired
to use the palace as his own house, without any apprehension of
being turned out at night. He extended the boundaries of the Roman
province in Britain, by raising a rampart between the friths of
Clyde and Forth; but he waged no war during his reign, and only
repulsed the enemies of the empire who appeared in the field. He
died in the 75th year of his age, after a reign of 23 years, A.D.
161. He was succeeded by his adopted son Marcus Aurelius Antoninus,
surnamed the philosopher, a prince as virtuous as his father. He
raised to the imperial dignity his brother Lucius Verus, whose
voluptuousness and dissipation were as conspicuous as the moderation
of the philosopher. During their reign, the Quadi, Parthians, and
Marcomanni were defeated. Antoninus wrote a book in Greek, entitled
τα καθ’ ἑαυτον, _concerning himself_, the best editions of which
are the 4to, Oxford, 1704. After the war with the Quadi had been
finished, Verus died of an apoplexy, and Antoninus survived him
eight years, and died in his 61st year, after a reign of 29 years
and 10 days. _Dio Cassius._――――Bassianus Caracalla, son of the
emperor Septimus Severus, was celebrated for his cruelties. He
killed his brother Geta in his mother’s arms, and attempted to
destroy the writings of Aristotle, observing that Aristotle was
one of those who sent poison to Alexander. He married his mother,
and publicly lived with her, which gave occasion to the people of
Alexandria to say, that he was an Œdipus, and his wife a Jocasta.
This joke was fatal to them; and the emperor, to punish their ill
language, slaughtered many thousands in Alexandria. After assuming
the name and dress of Achilles, and styling himself the conqueror
of provinces which he had never seen, he was assassinated at Edessa
by Macrinus, April 8, in the 43rd year of his age, A.D. 217. His
body was sent to his wife Julia, who stabbed herself at the sight.
――――There is extant a Greek itinerary, and another book called _Iter
Britannicum_, which some have attributed to the emperor Antoninus,
though it was more probably written by a person of that name whose
age is unknown.
=Antoniopŏlis=, a city of Mesopotamia. _Marcellinus_, bk. 8.
=Marcus Antōnius Gnipho=, a poet of Gaul, who taught rhetoric at Rome.
Cicero and other illustrious men frequented his school. He never
asked anything for his lectures, whence he received more from the
liberality of his pupils. _Suetonius_, _Lives of the Grammarians_,
ch. 7.――――An orator, grandfather to the triumvir of the same name.
He was killed in the civil wars of Marius, and his head was hung in
the Forum. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 9, ch. 2.――_Lucan_, bk. 2, li.
121.――――Marcus, the eldest son of the orator of the same name, by
means of Cotta and Cethegus, obtained from the senate the office
of managing the corn on the maritime coasts of the Mediterranean,
with unlimited power. This gave him many opportunities of plundering
the provinces and enriching himself. He died of a broken heart.
_Sallust_. _Fragments of the Histories_.――――Caius, a son of the
orator of that name, who obtained a troop of horse from Sylla, and
plundered Achaia. He was carried before the pretor Marcus Lucullus,
and banished from the senate by the censors for pillaging the allies,
and refusing to appear when summoned before justice.――――Caius,
son of Antonius Caius, was consul with Cicero, and assisted him to
destroy the conspiracy of Catiline in Gaul. He went to Macedonia as
his province, and fought with ill success against the Dardani. He
was accused at his return, and banished.――――Marcus, the triumvir,
was grandson to the orator Marcus Antonius, and son of Antonius,
surnamed _Cretensis_ from his wars in Crete. He was augur and
tribune of the people, in which he distinguished himself by his
ambitious views. He always entertained a secret resentment against
Cicero, which arose from Cicero’s having put to death Cornelius
Lentulus, who was concerned in Catiline’s conspiracy. This Lentulus
had married Antonius’s mother after his father’s death. When the
senate was torn by the factions of Pompey’s and Cæsar’s adherents,
Antony proposed that both should lay aside the command of their
armies in the provinces; but as this proposition met not with
success, he privately retired from Rome to the camp of Cæsar, and
advised him to march his army to Rome. In support of his attachment,
he commanded the left wing of his army at Pharsalia, and, according
to a premeditated scheme, offered him a diadem in the presence of
the Roman people. When Cæsar was assassinated in the senate house,
his friend Antony spoke an oration over his body; and to ingratiate
himself and his party with the populace, he reminded them of the
liberal treatment they had received from Cæsar. He besieged Mutina,
which had been allotted to Decimus Brutus, for which the senate
judged him an enemy to the republic at the remonstration of Cicero.
He was conquered by the consuls Hirtius and Pansa, and by young
Cæsar, who soon after joined his interest with that of Antony,
and formed the celebrated triumvirate, which was established with
such cruel proscriptions, that Antony did not even spare his own
uncle, that he might strike off the head of his enemy Cicero. The
triumvirate divided the Roman empire among themselves; Lepidus was
set over all Italy, Augustus had the west, and Antony returned into
the east, where he enlarged his dominions by different conquests.
Antony had married Fulvia, whom he repudiated to marry Octavia
the sister of Augustus, and by this connection to strengthen
the triumvirate. He assisted Augustus at the battle of Philippi
against the murderers of Julius Cæsar, and he buried the body of
Marcus Brutus, his enemy, in a most magnificent manner. During his
residence in the east, he became enamoured of the fair Cleopatra
queen of Egypt, and repudiated Octavia to marry her. This divorce
incensed Augustus, who now prepared to deprive Antony of all his
power. Antony, in the mean time, assembled all the forces of the
east, and with Cleopatra marched against Octavius Cæsar. These two
enemies met at Actium, where a naval engagement soon began, but
Cleopatra, by flying with 60 sail, drew Antony from the battle,
and ruined his cause. After the battle of Actium, Antony followed
Cleopatra into Egypt, where he was soon informed of the defection of
all his allies and adherents, and saw the conqueror on his shores.
He stabbed himself, and Cleopatra likewise killed herself by the
bite of an asp. Antony died in the 56th year of his age, B.C. 30,
and the conqueror shed tears when he was informed that his enemy was
no more. Antony left seven children by his three wives. He has been
blamed for his great effeminacy, for his uncommon love of pleasures,
and his fondness of drinking. It is said that he wrote a book in
praise of drunkenness. He was fond of imitating Hercules, from
whom, according to some accounts, he was descended; and he is often
represented as Hercules, with Cleopatra in the form of Omphale,
dressed in the arms of her submissive lover, and beating him with
her sandals. In his public character, Antony was brave and courageous,
but, with the intrepidity of Cæsar, he possessed all his voluptuous
inclinations. He was prodigal to a degree, and did not scruple
to call, from vanity, his sons by Cleopatra, kings of kings. His
fondness for low company, and his debauchery, form the best parts of
Cicero’s Philippics. It is said, that the night of Cæsar’s murder,
Cassius supped with Antony; and, being asked whether he had a dagger
with him, answered, “Yes, if you, Antony, aspire to sovereign power.”
_Plutarch_ has written an account of his life. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 8, li. 685.――_Horace_, ltr. 9.――_Juvenal_, satire 10, li. 122.
――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Atticus_.――_Cicero_, _Philippics_.――_Justin_,
bks. 41 & 42.――――Julius, son of Antony the triumvir by Fulvia, was
consul with Paulus Fabius Maximus. He was surnamed Africanus, and
put to death by order of Augustus. Some say that he killed himself.
It is supposed that he wrote an heroic poem on Diomede, in 12 books.
_Horace_ dedicated his _Ode_ 4 to him. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 4,
ch. 44.――――Lucius, the triumvir’s brother, was besieged in Pelusium
by Augustus, and obliged to surrender himself, with 300 men, by
famine. The conqueror spared his life. Some say that he was killed
at the shrine of Cæsar.――――A noble but unfortunate youth. His father
Julius was put to death by Augustus for his criminal conversation
with Julia, and he himself was removed by the emperor to Marseilles,
on pretence of finishing his education. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 4,
ch. 44.――――Felix, a freedman of Claudius, appointed governor of
Judæa. He married Drusilla the daughter of Antony and Cleopatra.
_Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 4, ch. 9.――――Flamma, a Roman condemned
for extortion under Vespasian. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 4,
ch. 45.――――Musa, a physician of Augustus. _Pliny_, bk. 29, ch. 1.
――――Merenda, a decemvir at Rome, A.U.C. 304. _Livy_, bk. 3, ch. 35.
――――Quintus Merenda, a military tribune, A.U.C. 332. _Livy_, bk. 4,
ch. 42.
=Antorĭdes=, a painter, disciple to Aristippus. _Pliny._
=Antro Coracius.= _See:_ ♦Coracius.
♦ Reference not found.
=Antylla.= _See:_ Anthylla.
=Anūbis=, an Egyptian deity, represented under the form of a man
with the head of a dog, because when Osiris went on his expedition
against India, Anubis accompanied him, and clothed himself in a
sheep’s skin. His worship was introduced from Egypt into Greece and
Italy. He is supposed by some to be Mercury, because he is sometimes
represented with a _caduceus_. Some make him brother of Osiris, some
his son by Nepthys the wife of Typhon. _Diodorus_, bk. 1.――_Lucan_,
bk. 8, li. 331.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 9, li. 686.――_Plutarch_,
_de Iside et Osiride_.――_Herodotus_, bk. 4.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 8, li. 698.
=Anxius=, a river of Armenia, falling into the Euphrates.
=Anxur=, called also Tarracina, a city of the Volsci, taken by the
Romans, A.U.C. 348. It was sacred to Jupiter, who is called Jupiter
Anxur, and represented in the form of a beardless boy. _Livy_, bk. 4,
ch. 59.――_Horace_, bk. 1, satire 5, li. 26.――_Lucan_, bk. 3, li. 84.
――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 799.
=Anyta=, a Greek woman, some of whose elegant verses are still extant.
=Any̆tus=, an Athenian rhetorician, who, with Melitus and Lycon,
accused Socrates of impiety, and was the cause of his condemnation.
These false accusers were afterwards put to death by the Athenians.
_Diogenes Laërtius._――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 2, ch. 13.
――_Horace_, bk. 2, satire 4, li. 3.――_Plutarch_, _Alcibiades_.
――――One of the Titans.
=Anzābe=, a river near the Tigris. _Marcellinus_, bk. 18.
=Aollius=, a son of Romulus by Hersilia, afterwards called Abillius.
=Aon=, a son of Neptune, who came to Eubœa and Bœotia from Apulia,
where he collected the inhabitants into cities, and reigned over
them. They were called _Aones_, and the country _Aonia_, from him.
=Aŏnes=, the inhabitants of _Aonia_, called afterwards Bœotia. They
came there in the age of Cadmus, and obtained his leave to settle
with the Phœnicians. The muses have been called _Aonides_, because
Aonia was more particularly frequented by them. _Pausanias_, bk. 9,
ch. 3.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bks. 3, 7, 10, 13; _Tristia_,
poem 5, li. 10; _Fasti_, bk. 3, li. 456; bk. 4, li. 245.――_Virgil_,
_Georgics_, bk. 3, li. 11.
=Aonia=, one of the ancient names of Bœotia.
=Aōris=, a famous hunter, son of Aras king of Corinth. He was so fond
of his sister Arathyræa, that he called part of the country by her
name. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 12.――――The wife of Neleus, called more
commonly Chloris. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 36.
=Aornos=, =Aornus=, =Aornis=, a lofty rock, supposed to be near the
Ganges in India, taken by Alexander. Hercules had besieged it, but
was never able to conquer it. _Curtius_, bk. 8, ch. 11.――_Arrian_,
bk. 4.――_Strabo_, bk. 15.――_Plutarch_, _Alexander_.――――A place in
Epirus, with an oracle. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 80.――――A certain
lake near Tartessus.――――Another near Baiæ and Puteoli. It was also
called Avernus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 242.
=Aōti=, a people of Thrace, near the Getæ, on the Ister. _Pliny_,
bk. 4.
=Apaĭtæ=, a people of Asia Minor. _Strabo._
=Apāma=, a daughter of Artaxerxes, who married Pharnabazus satrap of
Ionia.――――A daughter of Antiochus. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 8.
=Apāme=, the mother of Nicomedes by Prusias king of Bithynia.――――The
mother of Antiochus Soter by Seleucus Nicanor. Soter founded a city
which he called by his mother’s name.
=Apamia=, or =Apamēa=, a city of Phrygia, on the Marsyas.――――A city of
Bithynia,――――of Media,――――of Mesopotamia.――――Another near the Tigris.
=Aparni=, a nation of shepherds near the Caspian sea. _Strabo._
=Apatūria=, a festival of Athens, which received its name from ἀπατη,
_deceit_, because it was instituted in memory of a stratagem by
which Xanthus king of Bœotia was killed by Melanthus king of Athens,
upon the following occasion. When a war arose between the Bœotians
and Athenians about a piece of ground which divided their territories,
Xanthus made a proposal to the Athenian king to decide the battle
by single combat. Thymœtes, who was then on the throne of Athens,
refused, and his successor Melanthus accepted the challenge. When
they began the engagement, Melanthus exclaimed that his antagonist
had some person behind him to support him; upon which Xanthus looked
behind, and was killed by Melanthus. From this success Jupiter was
called ἀπατηνωρ, _deceiver_, and Bacchus, who was supposed to be
behind Xanthus, was called Μελαναιγις, clothed in the skin of a
_black goat_. Some derive the word from ἀπατορια, _i.e._ ὁμοτορια,
because, on the day of the festival, the children accompanied their
fathers to be registered among the citizens. The festival lasted
three days. The first day was called δορπια, because suppers, δορποι,
were prepared for each separate tribe. The second day was called
ἀναρρυσις ἀπο του ἀνω ἐρυειν, because sacrifices were offered to
Jupiter and Minerva, and the head of the victim was generally turned
up towards the heavens. The third was called Κουρεωτις, from Κουρος,
a _youth_, or Κουρα, _shaving_, because the young men had their hair
cut off before they were registered, when their parents swore that
they were freeborn Athenians. They generally sacrificed two ewes
and a she-goat to Diana. This festival was adopted by the Ionians,
except the inhabitants of Ephesus and Colophon.――――A surname of
Minerva,――――of Venus.
=Apeauros=, a mountain of Peloponnesus. _Polybius_, bk. 4.
=Apella=, a word, _Horace_, bk. 1, satire 5, li. 10, which has given
much trouble to critics and commentators. Some suppose it to mean
circumcised (_sine pelle_), an epithet highly applicable to a Jew.
Others maintain that it is a proper name, upon the authority of
Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, bk. 12, ltr. 19, who mentions a person
of the same name.
=Apelles=, a celebrated painter of Cos, or, as others say, of Ephesus
or Colophon, son of Pithius. He lived in the age of Alexander the
Great, who honoured him so much that he forbade any man but Apelles
to draw his picture. He was so attentive to his profession that he
never spent a day without employing his pencil, whence the proverb
of _Nulla dies sine lineâ_. His most perfect picture was Venus
Anadyomene, which was not totally finished when the painter died.
He made a painting of Alexander holding thunder in his hand, so much
like life that Pliny, who saw it, says that the hand of the king
with the thunder seemed to come out of the picture. This picture was
placed in Diana’s temple at Ephesus. He made another of Alexander,
but the king expressed not much satisfaction at the sight of it: and
at that moment a horse, passing by, neighed at the horse which was
represented in the piece, supposing it to be alive; upon which the
painter said, “One would imagine that the horse is a better judge of
painting than your Majesty.” When Alexander ordered him to draw the
picture of Campaspe, one of his mistresses, Apelles became enamoured
of her, and the king permitted him to marry her. He wrote three
volumes upon painting, which were still extant in the age of Pliny.
It is said that he was accused in Egypt of conspiring against the
life of Ptolemy, and that he would have been put to death had not
the real conspirator discovered himself, and saved the painter.
Apelles never put his name to any pictures but three; a sleeping
Venus, Venus Anadyomene, and an Alexander. The proverb of _Ne sutor
ultra crepidam_ is applied to him by some. _Pliny_, bk. 35, ch. 10.
――_Horace_, bk. 2, ltr. 1, li. 238.――_Cicero_, _Letters to his
Friends_, bk. 1, ltr. 9.――_Ovid_, _Ars Amatoria_, bk. 3, li. 401.
――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 8, ch. 11.――――A tragic writer. _Suetonius_,
_Caligula_, ch. 33.――――A Macedonian general, &c.
=Apellĭcon=, a Teian peripatetic philosopher, whose fondness for
books was so great that he is accused of stealing them, when he
could not obtain them with money. He bought the works of Aristotle
and Theophrastus, but greatly disfigured them by his frequent
interpolations. The extensive library, which he had collected at
Athens, was carried to Rome when Sylla had conquered the capital
of Attica, and among the valuable books was found an original
manuscript of Aristotle. He died about 86 B.C. _Strabo_, bk. 13.
=Apennīnus=, a ridge of high mountains which run through the middle
of Italy, from Liguria to Ariminum and Ancona. They are joined to
the Alps. Some have supposed that they ran across Sicily by Rhegium
before Italy was separated from Sicily. _Lucan_, bk. 2, li. 306.
――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 2, li. 226.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 4,
li. 743.――_Strabo_, bk. 2.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 4.
=Aper Marcus=, a Latin orator of Gaul, who distinguished himself as
a politician, as well as by his genius. The dialogue of the orators,
inserted with the works of Tacitus and Quintilian, is attributed to
him. He died A.D. 85.――――Another. _See:_ Numerianus.
=Aperopia=, a small island on the coast of Argolis. _Pausanias_,
bk. 2, ch. 34.
=Apĕsus=, =Apesas=, or =Apesantus=, a mountain of Peloponnesus near
Lerna. _Statius_, _Thebiad_, bk. 3, li. 461.
=Aphaca=, a town of Palestine, where Venus was worshipped, and where
she had a temple and an oracle.
=Aphæa=, a name of Diana, who had a temple in Ægina. _Pausanias_,
bk. 2, ch. 30.
=Aphar=, the capital city of Arabia, near the Red sea. _Arrian_,
_Periplus of the Euxine Sea_.
=Apharētus=, fell in love with Marpessa daughter of Œnomaus, and
carried her away.
=Aphareus=, a king of Messenia, son of Perieres and Gorgophone,
who married Arene daughter of Œbalus, by whom he had three sons.
_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 1.――――A relation of Isocrates, who wrote
37 tragedies.
=Aphas=, a river of Greece, which falls into the bay of Ambracia.
_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 1.
=Aphellas=, a king of Cyrene, who, with the aid of Agathocles,
endeavoured to reduce all Africa under his power. _Justin_, bk. 22,
ch. 7.
=Aphĕsas=, a mountain in Peloponnesus, whence, as the poets have
imagined, Perseus attempted to fly to heaven. _Statius_, _Thebiad_,
bk. 3, li. 461.
=Aphētæ=, a city of Magnesia, where the ship Argo was launched.
_Apollodorus._
=Aphīdas=, a son of Arcas king of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8.
=Aphidna=, a part of Attica, which received its name from Aphidnus,
one of the companions of Theseus. _Herodotus._
=Aphidnus=, a friend of Æneas, killed by Turnus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 9, li. 702.
=Aphœbētus=, one of the conspirators against Alexander. _Curtius_,
bk. 6, ch. 7.
=Aphrīces=, an Indian prince, who defended the rock Aornus, with
20,000 foot and 15 elephants. He was killed by his troops, and his
head sent to Alexander.
=Aphrodisia=, an island in the Persian gulf, where Venus is worshipped.
――――Festivals in honour of Venus, celebrated in different parts of
Greece, but chiefly in Cyprus. They were first instituted by Cinyras,
from whose family the priests of the goddess were always chosen.
All those that were initiated offered a piece of money to Venus as
a harlot, and received as a mark of the favours of the goddess, a
measure of salt and a θαλλος; the salt, because Venus arose from the
sea; the θαλλος, because she is the goddess of wantonness. They were
celebrated at Corinth by harlots, and in every part of Greece they
were very much frequented. _Strabo_, bk. 14.――_Athenæus._
=Aphrodisias=, a town of Caria, sacred to Venus. _Tacitus_, _Annals_,
bk. 3, ch. 62.
=Aphrodisium= (or a), a town of Apulia, built by Diomede in honour of
Venus.
=Aphrodīsum=, a city on the eastern parts of Cyprus, nine miles from
Salamis.――――A promontory with an island of the same name on the
coast of Spain. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 3.
=Aphrodīte=, the Grecian name of Venus, from ἀφρος, froth, because
Venus is said to have been born from the froth of the ocean.
_Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 195.――_Pliny_, bk. 36, ch. 5.
=Aphȳtæ=, or =Aphytis=, a city of Thrace, near Pallena, where Jupiter
Ammon was worshipped. Lysander besieged the town; but the god of the
place appeared to him in a dream, and advised him to raise the siege,
which he immediately did. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 18.
=Apia=, an ancient name of Peloponnesus, which it received from king
Apis. It was afterwards called Ægialea, Pelasgia, Argia, and at last
Peloponnesus, or the island of Pelops. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 1, li.
270. Also the name of the earth, worshipped among the Lydians as a
powerful deity. _Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 59.
=Apiānus=, or =Apion=, was born at Oasis in Egypt, whence he went to
Alexandria, of which he was deemed a citizen. He succeeded Theus
in the profession of rhetoric in the reign of Tiberius, and wrote
a book against the Jews, which Josephus refuted. He was at the head
of an embassy which the people of Alexandria sent to Caligula, to
complain of the Jews. _Seneca_, ltr. 88.――_Pliny_, preface, _Natural
History_.
=Apicāta=, married Sejanus, by whom she had three children. She was
repudiated. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 4, ch. 3.
=Apicius=, a famous glutton in Rome. There were three of the same name,
all famous for their voracious appetite. The first lived in the time
of the republic, the second in the reign of Augustus and Tiberius,
and the third under Trajan. The second was the most famous, as he
wrote a book on the pleasures and incitements of eating. He hanged
himself after he had consumed the greatest part of his estate. The
best edition of Apicius Cælius _de Arte Coquinariâ_, is that of
Amsterdam, 12mo, 1709. _Juvenal_, satire 11, li. 3.――_Martial_,
bk. 2, ltr. 69.
=Apidănus=, one of the chief rivers of Thessaly, at the south of the
Peneus, into which it falls a little above Larissa. _Lucan_, bk. 6,
li. 372.
=Apĭna= and =Apinæ=, a city of Apulia, destroyed with Trica, in its
neighbourhood, by Diomedes; whence came the proverb of _Apina et
Trica_, to express trifling things. _Martial_, bk. 14, ltr. 1.
――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 11.
=Apiŏla= and =Apiolæ=, a town of Italy, taken by Tarquin the Proud.
The Roman Capitol was begun with the spoils taken from that city.
_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 5.
=Apion=, a surname of Ptolemy, one of the descendants of Ptolemy Lagus.
――――A grammarian. _See:_ Apianus.
=Apis=, one of the ancient kings of Peloponnesus, son of Phoroneus and
Laodice. Some say that Apollo was his father, and that he was king
of Argos, while others call him king of Sicyon, and fix the time
of his reign above 200 years earlier, which is enough to show he is
but obscurely known, if known at all. He was a native of Naupactum,
and descended from Inachus. He received divine honours after death,
as he had been munificent and humane to his subjects. The country
where he reigned was called Apia; and afterwards it received the
name of Pelasgia, Argia, or Argolis, and at last that of Peloponnesus,
from Pelops. Some, amongst whom is Varro and St. Augustine, have
imagined that Apis went to Egypt with a colony of Greeks, and that
he civilized the inhabitants, and polished their manners, for which
they made him a god after death, and paid divine honours to him
under the name of Serapis. This tradition, according to some of the
moderns, is without foundation. _Æschylus_, _Suppliant Maidens_.
――_Augustine_, _City of God_, bk. 18, ch. 5.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch.
5.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 1.――――A son of Jason, born in Arcadia;
he was killed by the horses of Ætolus. _Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 1.
――――A town of Egypt on the lake Mareotis.――――A god of the Egyptians,
worshipped under the form of an ox. Some say that Isis and Osiris
are the deities worshipped under this name, because during their
reign they taught the Egyptians agriculture. The Egyptians believed
that the soul of Osiris was really departed into the ox, where it
wished to dwell, because that animal had been of the most essential
service in the cultivation of the ground, which Osiris had introduced
into Egypt. The ox that was chosen was always distinguished by
particular marks: his body was black; he had a square white spot
upon the forehead, the figure of an eagle upon the back, a knot
under the tongue like a beetle; the hairs of his tail were double,
and his right side was marked with a whitish spot, resembling the
crescent of the moon. Without these, an ox could not be taken as
the god Apis; and it is to be imagined that the priests gave these
distinguishing characteristics to the animal on which their credit
and even prosperity depended. The festival of Apis lasted seven days;
the ox was led in a solemn procession by the priests, and every one
was anxious to receive him into his house, and it was believed that
the children who smelt his breath received the knowledge of futurity.
The ox was conducted to the banks of the Nile with much ceremony,
and if he had lived to the time which their sacred books allowed,
they drowned him in the river, and embalmed his body, and buried
it in solemn state in the city of Memphis. After his death, which
sometimes was natural, the greatest cries and lamentations were
heard in Egypt, as if Osiris was just dead; the priests shaved their
heads, which was a sign of the deepest mourning. This continued till
another ox appeared, with the proper characteristics to succeed as
the deity, which was followed with the greatest acclamations, as if
Osiris was returned to life. This ox, which was found to represent
Apis, was left 40 days in the city of the Nile before he was carried
to Memphis, during which time none but women were permitted to
appear before him, and this they performed, according to their
superstitious notions, in a wanton and indecent manner. There was
also an ox worshipped at Heliopolis, under the name of Mnevis; some
suppose that he was Osiris, but others maintain that the Apis of
Memphis was sacred to Osiris, and Mnevis to Isis. When Cambyses came
into Egypt, the people were celebrating the festivals of Apis with
every mark of joy and triumph, which the conqueror interpreted as
an insult upon himself. He called the priests of Apis, and ordered
the deity itself to come before him. When he saw that an ox was the
object of their veneration, and the cause of such rejoicings, he
wounded it on the thigh, ordered the priests to be chastised, and
commanded his soldiers to slaughter such as were found celebrating
such riotous festivals. The god Apis had generally two stables, or
rather temples. If he ate from the hand, it was a favourable omen;
but if he refused the food that was offered him, it was interpreted
as unlucky. From this Germanicus, when he visited Egypt, drew the
omens of his approaching death. When his oracle was consulted,
incense was burnt on an altar, and a piece of money placed upon it,
after which the people that wished to know futurity applied their
ear to the mouth of the god, and immediately retired, stopping
their ears till they had departed from the temple. The first sounds
that were heard, were taken as the answer of the oracle to their
questions. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 22.――_Herodotus_, bks. 2 & 3.
――_Pliny_, bk. 8, ch. 38, &c.――_Strabo_, bk. 7.――_Plutarch_, _Iside
et Osiride_.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 7; bk. 2, ch. 1.――_Mela_, bk.
1, ch. 9.――_Pliny_, bk. 8, ch. 39, &c.――_Strabo_, bk. 7.――_Ælian_,
_Varia Historia_, bks. 4 & 6.――_Diodorus_, bk. 1.
=Apisāon=, son of Hippasus, assisted Priam against the Greeks, at the
head of a Pæonian army. He was killed by Lycomedes. _Homer_, _Iliad_,
bk. 17, li. 348.――――Another on the same side.
=Apitius Galba=, a celebrated buffoon in the time of Tiberius.
_Juvenal_, satire 5, li. 4.
=Apollināres ludi=, games celebrated at Rome in honour of Apollo. They
originated from the following circumstance. An old prophetic poem
informed the Romans, that if they instituted yearly games to Apollo,
and made a collection of money for his service, they would be
able to repel the enemy whose approach already threatened their
destruction. The first time they were celebrated, Rome was alarmed
by the approach of the enemy, and instantly the people rushed out
of the city, and saw a cloud of arrows discharged from the sky on
the troops of the enemy. With this heavenly assistance they easily
obtained the victory. The people generally sat crowned with laurel
at the representation of these games, which were usually celebrated
at the option of the pretor, till the year A.U.C. 545, when a law
was passed to settle the celebration yearly on the same day about
the nones of July. When this alteration happened, Rome was infested
with a dreadful pestilence, which, however, seemed to be appeased by
this act of religion. _Livy_, bk. 25, ch. 12.
=Apollināris, Caius Sulpitius=, a grammarian of Carthage, in the second
century, who is supposed to be the author of the verses prefixed to
Terence’s plays as arguments.――――A writer better known by the name
of Sidonius. _See:_ Sidonius.
=Apollinīdes=, a Greek in the wars of Darius and Alexander, &c.
_Curtius_, bk. 4, ch. 5.
=Apollĭnis arx=, a place at the entrance of the Sibyl’s cave. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 6.――――Promontorium, a promontory of Africa. _Livy_,
bk. 30, ch. 24.――――Templum, a place in Thrace,――――in Lycia. _Ælian_,
_Varia Historia_, bk. 6, ch. 9.
=Apollo=, son of Jupiter and Latona, called also Phœbus, is often
confounded with the sun. According to Cicero, bk. 3, _de Natura
Deorum_, there were four persons of this name. The first was son
of Vulcan, and the tutelary god of the Athenians. The second was
son of Corybas, and was born in Crete, for the dominion of which he
disputed even with Jupiter himself. The third was son of Jupiter and
Latona, and came from the nations of the Hyperboreans to Delphi. The
fourth was born in Arcadia, and called Nomion, because he gave laws
to the inhabitants. To the son of Jupiter and Latona all the actions
of the others seem to have been attributed. The Apollo, son of
Vulcan, was the same as the Orus of the Egyptians, and was the most
ancient, from whom the actions of the others have been copied. The
three others seem to be of Grecian origin. The tradition that the
son of Latona was born in the floating island of Delos, is taken
from the Egyptian mythology, which asserts that the son of Vulcan,
which is supposed to be Orus, was saved by his mother Isis from
the persecution of Typhon, and entrusted to the care of Latona, who
concealed him in the island of Chemmis. When Latona was pregnant by
Jupiter, Juno, who was ever jealous of her husband’s amours, raised
the serpent Python to torment Latona, who was refused a place to
give birth to her children, till Neptune, moved at the severity of
her fate, raised the island of Delos from the bottom of the sea,
where Latona brought forth Apollo and Diana. Apollo was the god of
all the fine arts, of medicine, music, poetry, and eloquence, of
all which he was deemed the inventor. He had received from Jupiter
the power of knowing futurity, and he was the only one of the gods
whose oracles were in general repute over the world. His amours with
Leucothoe, Daphne, Issa, Bolina, Coronis, Clymene, Cyrene, Chione,
Acacallis, Calliope, &c., are well known, and the various shapes he
assumed to gratify his passion. He was very fond of young Hyacinthus,
whom he accidentally killed with a quoit; as also of Cyparissus, who
was changed into a cypress tree. When his son Æsculapius had been
killed with the thunders of Jupiter for raising the dead to life,
Apollo, in his resentment, killed the Cyclops who had fabricated
the thunderbolts. Jupiter was incensed at this act of violence, and
he banished Apollo from heaven, and deprived him of his dignity.
The exiled deity came to Admetus king of Thessaly, and hired
himself to be one of his shepherds, in which ignoble employment he
remained nine years; from which circumstance he was called the god
of shepherds, and at his sacrifices a wolf was generally offered,
as that animal is the declared enemy of the sheepfold. During his
residence in Thessaly, he rewarded the tender treatment of Admetus.
He gave him a chariot drawn by a lion and a bull, with which he was
able to obtain in marriage Alceste the daughter of Pelias; and soon
after, the Parcæ granted, at Apollo’s request, that Admetus might be
redeemed from death, if another person laid down his life for him.
He assisted Neptune in building the walls of Troy; and when he was
refused the promised reward from Laomedon the king of the country,
he destroyed the inhabitants by a pestilence. As soon as he was born,
Apollo destroyed with arrows the serpent Python, whom Juno had sent
to persecute Latona; hence he was called Pythius; and he afterwards
vindicated the honour of his mother, by putting to death the
children of the proud Niobe. _See:_ Niobe. He was not the inventor
of the lyre, as some have imagined, but Mercury gave it him, and
received as a reward the famous caduceus with which Apollo was wont
to drive the flocks of Admetus. His contest with Pan and Marsyas,
and the punishment inflicted upon Midas, are well known. He
received the surnames of Phœbus, Delius, Cynthius, Pœan, Delphicus,
Nomius, Lycius, Clarius, Ismenius, Vulturius, Smintheus, &c., for
reasons which are explained under those words. Apollo is generally
represented with long hair, and the Romans were fond of imitating
his figure, and therefore in their youth they were remarkable for
their fine heads of hair, which they cut short at the age of 17 or
18. He is always represented as a tall, beardless young man, with a
handsome shape, holding in his hand a bow, and sometimes a lyre; his
head is generally surrounded with beams of light. He was the deity
who, according to the notions of the ancients, inflicted plagues,
and in that moment he appeared surrounded with clouds. His worship
and power were universally acknowledged: he had temples and statues
in every country, particularly in Egypt, Greece, and Italy. His
statue, which stood upon mount Actium, as a mark to mariners to
avoid the dangerous coasts, was particularly famous, and it appeared
to a great distance at sea. Augustus, before the battle of Actium,
addressed himself to it for victory. The griffin, the cock, the
grasshopper, the wolf, the crow, the swan, the hawk, the olive, the
laurel, the palm tree, &c., were sacred to him; and in his
sacrifices, wolves and hawks were offered, as they were the natural
enemies of the flocks, over which he presided. Bullocks and lambs
were also immolated to him. As he presided over poetry, he was often
seen on mount Parnassus with the nine muses. His most famous oracles
were at Delphi, Delos, Claros, Tenedos, Cyrrha, and Patara. His most
splendid temple was at Delphi, where every nation and individual
made considerable presents when they consulted the oracle. Augustus,
after the battle of Actium, built him a temple on mount Palatine,
which he enriched with a valuable library. He had a famous colossus
in Rhodes, which was one of the seven wonders of the world. Apollo
has been taken for the sun; but it may be proved by different
passages in the ancient writers, that Apollo, the Sun, Phœbus,
and Hyperion, were all different characters and deities, though
confounded together. When once Apollo was addressed as the Sun,
and represented with a crown of rays on his head, the idea was
adopted by every writer, and from thence arose the mistake.
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, fables 9 & 10; bk. 4, fable 3, &c.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 7; bk. 5, ch. 7; bk. 7, ch. 20; bk. 9, ch.
30, &c.――_Hyginus_, fables 9, 14, 50, 93, 140, 161, 202, 203, &c.
――_Statius_, bk. 1, _Thebiad_, li. 560.――_Tibullus_, bk. 2, poem 3.
――_Plutarch_, _de Amore Prolis_.――_Homer_, _Iliad_ & _Hymn to
Apollo_.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bks. 2, 3, &c.; _Georgics_, bk. 4,
li. 323.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ode 10.――_Lucian_, ♦_Dialogi Deorum_.
――_Propertius_, bk. 1, poem 28.――_Callimachus_, _Hymn to Apollo_.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, chs. 3, 4, & 9; bk. 2, ch. 5; bk. 3, chs.
5, 10, & 12.――――One of the ships in the fleet of Æneas. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 171.――――Also a temple of Apollo upon mount
Leucas, which appeared at a great distance at sea; and served as a
guide to mariners, and reminded them to avoid the dangerous rocks
that were along the coast. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 275.
♦ ‘Dial. Mer. & Vulc.’ replaced with ‘Dialogi Deorum’
=Apollocrătes=, a friend of Dion, supposed by some to be the son of
Dionysius.
=Apollodōrus=, a famous grammarian and mythologist of Athens, son
of Asclepias and disciple to Panætius the Rhodian philosopher. He
flourished about 115 years before the christian era, and wrote a
history of Athens, besides other works. But of all his compositions,
nothing is extant but his _Bibliotheca_, a valuable work, divided
into three books. It is an abridged history of the gods, and of the
ancient heroes, of whose actions and genealogy it gives a true and
faithful account. The best edition is that of Heyne, Göttingen, in
8vo, 4 vols., 1782. _Athenæus._――_Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 37.――_Diodorus_,
bks. 4 & 13.――――A tragic poet of Cilicia, who wrote tragedies
entitled Ulysses, Thyestes, &c.――――A comic poet of Gela in Sicily,
in the age of Menander, who wrote 47 plays.――――An architect of
Damascus, who directed the building of Trajan’s bridge across the
Danube. He was put to death by Adrian, to whom, when in a private
station, he had spoken in too bold a manner.――――A writer who
composed a history of Parthia.――――A disciple of Epicurus, the most
learned of his school, and deservedly surnamed the illustrious. He
wrote about 40 volumes on different subjects. _Diogenes Laërtius._
――――A painter of Athens, to whom Zeuxis was a pupil. Two of his
paintings were admired at Pergamus, in the age of Pliny; a priest
in a suppliant posture, and Ajax struck with Minerva’s thunders.
_Pliny_, bk. 35, ch. 9.――――A statuary in the age of Alexander. He
was of such an irascible disposition, that he destroyed his own
pieces upon the least provocation. _Pliny_, bk. 34, ch. 8.――――A
rhetorician of Pergamus, preceptor and friend to Augustus, who wrote
a book on rhetoric. _Strabo_, bk. 13.――――A tragic poet of Tarsus.
――――A Lemnian who wrote on husbandry.――――A physician of Tarentum.
――――Another of Cytium.
=Apollonia=, a festival at Ægialea in honour of Apollo and Diana. It
arose from this circumstance: these two deities came to Ægialea,
after the conquest of the serpent Python; but they were frightened
away, and fled to Crete. Ægialea was soon visited with an epidemical
distemper, and the inhabitants, by the advice of their prophets,
sent seven chosen boys, with the same number of girls, to entreat
them to return to Ægialea. Apollo and Diana granted their petition,
in honour of which a temple was raised to πειθω, the goddess of
_persuasion_; and ever after a number of youths, of both sexes,
were chosen to march in solemn procession, as if anxious to bring
back Apollo and Diana. _Pausanias_, _Corinth_.――――A town of Mygdonia,
――――of Crete,――――of Sicily,――――on the coast of Asia Minor.――――Another
on the coast of Thrace, part of which was built on a small island of
Pontus, where Apollo had a temple.――――A town of Macedonia, on the
coasts of the Adriatic.――――A city of Thrace.――――Another on mount
Parnassus.
=Apolloniădes=, a tyrant of Sicily, compelled to lay down his power by
Timoleon.
=Apollonias=, the wife of Attalus king of Phrygia, to whom she bore
four children.
=Apollonĭdes=, a writer of Nicæa.――――A physician of Cos at the court
of Artaxerxes, who became enamoured of Amytis, the monarch’s sister,
and was some time after put to death for slighting her after the
reception of her favours.
=Apollonius=, a Stoic philosopher of Chalcis, sent for by Antoninus
Pius, to instruct his adopted son Marcus Antoninus. When he came
to Rome, he refused to go to the palace, observing that the master
ought not to wait upon his pupil, but the pupil upon him. The
emperor hearing this, said, laughing, “It was then easier for
Apollonius to come from Chalcis to Rome, than from Rome to the
palace.”――――A geometrician of Perge in Pamphylia, whose works
are now lost. He lived about 240 years before the christian era,
and composed a commentary on Euclid, whose pupils he attended at
Alexandria. He wrote treatises on conic sections, eight of which
are now extant; and he first endeavoured to explain the causes
of the apparent stopping and retrograde motion of the planets, by
cycles and epicycles, or circles within circles. The best edition
of Apollonius is Dr. Halley’s, Oxford, folio, 1710.――――A poet
of Naucratis in Egypt, generally called Apollonius of _Rhodes_,
because he lived for some time there. He was pupil, when young,
to Callimachus and Panætius, and succeeded to Eratosthenes as
third librarian of the famous library of Alexandria, under Ptolemy
Evergetes. He was ungrateful to his master Callimachus, who wrote
a poem against him, in which he denominated him _Ibis_. Of all
his works, nothing remains but his poem on the expedition of the
Argonauts, in four books. The best editions of Apollonius are those
printed at Oxford, in 4to, by Shaw, 1777, 2 vols.; and in 1 vol.,
8vo, 1779; and that of Brunck, Strasbourg, 12mo, 1780. _Quintilian_,
bk. 10, ch. 1.――――A Greek orator, surnamed Molo, was a native of
Alabanda in Caria. He opened a school of rhetoric at Rhodes and Rome,
and had Julius Cæsar and Cicero among his pupils. He discouraged
the attendance of those whom he supposed incapable of distinguishing
themselves as orators, and he recommended to them pursuits more
congenial to their abilities. He wrote a history, in which he did
not candidly treat the people of Judæa, according to the complaint
of Josephus, _against Apion_.――_Cicero_, _On Oratory_, bk. 1, chs.
28, 75, 126, & 130; _Letters to his Friends_, bk. 3, ltr. 16; _De
Inventione_, bk. 1, ch. 81.――_Quintilian_, bk. 3, ch. 1; bk. 12,
ch. 6.――_Suetonius_, _Cæsar_, ch. 4.――_Plutarch_, _Cæsar_.――――A
Greek historian about the age of Augustus, who wrote upon the
philosophy of Zeno and of his followers. _Strabo_, bk. 14.――――A
Stoic philosopher, who attended Cato of Utica in his last moments.
_Plutarch_, _Cato_.――――An officer set over Egypt by Alexander.
_Curtius_, bk. 4, ch. 8.――――A wrestler. _Pausanias_, bk. 5.――――A
physician of Pergamus, who wrote on agriculture. _Varro._――――A
grammarian of Alexandria.――――A writer in the age of Antoninus Pius.
――――Thyaneus, a Pythagorean philosopher, well skilled in the secret
arts of magic. Being one day haranguing the populace at Ephesus,
he suddenly exclaimed, “Strike the tyrant, strike him; the blow is
given, he is wounded, and fallen!” At that very moment the emperor
Domitian had been stabbed at Rome. The magician acquired much
reputation when this circumstance was known. He was courted by
kings and princes, and commanded unusual attention by his numberless
artifices. His friend and companion, called Damis, wrote his life,
which 200 years after engaged the attention of Philostratus. In his
history the biographer relates so many curious and extraordinary
anecdotes of the hero, that many have justly deemed it a romance;
yet for all this, Hierocles had the presumption to compare the
impostures of Apollonius with the miracles of Jesus Christ.――――A
sophist of Alexandria, distinguished for his _Lexicon Græcum Iliadis
et Odysseæ_, a book that was beautifully edited by Villoison, in 4to,
2 vols., Paris, 1773. Apollonius was one of the pupils of Didymus,
and flourished in the beginning of the first century.――――A physician.
――――A son of Sotades at the court of Ptolemy Philadelphus.――――Syrus,
a Platonic philosopher.――――Herophilus, wrote concerning ointments.
――――A sculptor of Rhodes.
=Apollŏphănes=, a Stoic, who greatly flattered king Antigonus, and
maintained that there existed but one virtue, prudence. _Diogenes
Laërtius._――――A physician in the court of Antiochus. _Polybius_,
bk. 5.――――A comic poet. _Ælian_, _De Natura Animalium_, bk. 6.
=Apomyīos=, a surname of Jupiter.
=Aponiana=, an island near Lilybæum. _Hirtius_, _African War_, ch. 2.
=Marcus Aponius=, a governor of Mœsia, rewarded with a triumphal statue
by Otho, for defeating 9000 barbarians. _Tacitus_, _Histories_,
bk. 1, ch. 79.
=Apŏnus=, now _Abano_, a fountain, with a village of the same name,
near Patavium in Italy. The waters of the fountain, which were hot,
were wholesome, and were supposed to have an oracular power. _Lucan_,
bk. 7, li. 194.――_Suetonius_, _Tiberius_, ch. 14.
=Apostrophia=, a surname of Venus in Bœotia, who was distinguished
under these names, Venus Urania, Vulgaria, and Apostrophia. The
former was the patroness of a pure and chaste love; the second of
carnal and sensual desires; and the last incited men to illicit and
unnatural gratifications, to incests, and rapes. Venus Apostrophia
was invoked by the Thebans, that they might be saved from such
unlawful desires. She is the same as the Verticordia of the Romans.
_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 16.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 8, ch. 15.
=Apotheōsis=, a ceremony observed by the ancient nations of the world,
by which they raised their kings, heroes, and great men to the rank
of deities. The nations of the east were the first who paid divine
honours to their great men, and the Romans followed their example,
and not only deified the most prudent and humane of their emperors,
but also the most cruel and profligate. _Herodian_, bk. 4, ch. 2,
has left us an account of the apotheosis of a Roman emperor. After
the body of the deceased was burnt, an ivory image was laid on a
couch for seven days, representing the emperor under the agonies of
disease. The city was in sorrow, the senate visited it in mourning,
and the physicians pronounced it every day in a more decaying state.
When the death was announced, a band of young senators carried the
couch and image to the Campus Martius, where it was deposited on
an edifice in the form of a pyramid, where spices and combustible
materials were thrown. After this the knights walked round the pile
in solemn procession, and the images of the most illustrious Romans
were drawn in state, and immediately the new emperor, with a torch,
set fire to the pile, and was assisted by the surrounding multitude.
Meanwhile an eagle was let fly from the middle of the pile, which
was supposed to carry the soul of the deceased to heaven, where he
was ranked among the gods. If the deified was a female, a peacock,
and not an eagle, was sent from the flames. The Greeks observed
ceremonies much of the same nature.
=Appia via=, a celebrated road leading from the porta Capena at
Rome to Brundusium, through Capua. Appius Claudius made it as
far as Capua, and it received its name from him. It was continued
and finished by Gracchus, Julius Cæsar, and Augustus. _See:_ Via.
_Lucan_, bk. 3, li. 285.――_Statius_, bk. 2, _Sylvæ_, poem 2, li.
12.――_Martial_, bk. 9, ltr. 104.――_Suetonius_, _Tiberias_, ch. 14.
=Appiădes=, a name given to these five deities, Venus, Pallas, Vesta,
Concord, and Peace, because a temple was erected to them near the
Appian road. The name was also applied to those courtesans at Rome
who lived near the temple of Venus by Appiæ Aquæ, and the forum of
Julius Cæsar. _Ovid_, _de Ars Amatoria_, bk. 3, li. 452.
=Appiānus=, a Greek historian of Alexandria, who flourished A.D. 123.
His universal history, which consisted of 24 books, was a series of
history of all the nations that had been conquered by the Romans,
in the order of time; and in the composition, the writer displayed,
with a style simple and unadorned, a great knowledge of military
affairs, and described his battles in a masterly manner. This
excellent work is greatly mutilated, and there is extant now only
the account of the Punic, Syrian, Parthian, Mithridatic, and Spanish
wars, with those of Illyricum and the civil dissensions, with a
fragment of the Celtic wars. In his preface, Appian has enlarged on
the boundaries of that mighty empire, of which he was the historian.
The best editions are those of Tollius and Variorum, 2 vols., 8vo,
Amsterdam, 1670, and that of Schweigheuserus, 3 vols., 8vo, Lipscomb,
1785. He was so eloquent that the emperor highly promoted him in the
state.
=Appii Forum=, now _Borgo Longo_, a little village not far from Rome,
built by the consul Appius. _Horace_, bk. 1, satire 5.
=Appius=, the prænomen of an illustrious family at Rome.――――A censor
of that name, A.U.C. 442. _Horace_, bk. 1, satire 6.
=Appius Claudius=, a decemvir who obtained his power by force and
oppression. He attempted the virtue of Virginia, whom her father
killed to preserve her chastity. This act of violence was the cause
of a revolution in the state, and the ravisher destroyed himself
when cited to appear before the tribunal of his country. _Livy_, bk.
3, ch. 33.――――Claudius Cæcus, a Roman orator, who built the Appian
way and many aqueducts in Rome. When Pyrrhus, who was come to
assist the Tarentines against Rome, demanded peace of the senators,
Appius, grown old in the service of the republic, caused himself
to be carried to the senate house, and by his authority dissuaded
them from granting a peace which would prove dishonourable to the
Roman name. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 6, li. 203.――_Cicero_, _Brutus_
& _Tusculanæ Disputationes_, bk. 4.――――A Roman who, when he heard
that he had been proscribed by the triumvirs, divided his riches
among his servants, and embarked with them for Sicily. In their
passage the vessel was shipwrecked, and Appius alone saved his life.
_Appian_, bk. 4.――――Claudius Crassus, a consul, who, with Spurius
Naut. Rutilius, conquered the Celtiberians, and was defeated by
Perseus king of Macedonia. _Livy._――――Claudius Pulcher, a grandson
of Appius Claudius Cæcus, consul in the age of Sylla, retired from
grandeur to enjoy the pleasures of a private life.――――Clausus,
a general of the Sabines, who, upon being ill treated by his
countrymen, retired to Rome with 5000 of his friends, and was
admitted into the senate in the early ages of the republic.
_Plutarch_, _Poplicola [Publicola]_.――――Herdonius, seized the
capitol with 4000 exiles, A.U.C. 292, and was soon after overthrown.
_Livy_, bk. 3, ch. 15.――_Florus_, bk. 3, ch. 19.――――Claudius
Lentulus, a consul with Marcus Perpenna.――――A dictator who conquered
the Hernici.――――The name of Appius was common in Rome, and
particularly to many consuls, whose history is not marked by any
uncommon event.
=Appŭla=, an immodest woman, &c. _Juvenal_, satire 6, li. 64.
=Apries= and =Aprius=, one of the kings of Egypt in the age of Cyrus,
supposed to be the Pharaoh Hophra of Scripture. He took Sidon, and
lived in great prosperity till his subjects revolted to Amasis, by
whom he was conquered and strangled. _Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 159,
&c.――_Diodorus_, bk. 1.
=Apsinthii=, a people of Thrace. They received their name from a river
called Apsinthus, which flowed through their territory. _Dionysius
Periegetes._
=Apsinus=, an Athenian sophist in the third century, author of a work
called _Præceptor de Arte Rhetoricâ_.
=Apsus=, a river of Macedonia falling into the Ionian sea between
Dyrrhachium and Apollonia. _Lucan_, bk. 5, li. 46.
=Aptĕra=, an inland town of Crete. _Ptolemy._――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.
=Apuleia lex=, was enacted by Lucius Apuleius the tribune, A.U.C.
652, for inflicting a punishment upon such as were guilty of
raising seditions, or showing violence in the city.――――Varilia,
a granddaughter of Augustus, convicted of adultery with a certain
Manlius, in the reign of Tiberius. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, ch. 50.
=Apuleius=, a learned man, born at Madaura in Africa. He studied at
Carthage, Athens, and Rome, where he married a rich widow called
Pudentilla, for which he was accused by some of her relations of
using magical arts to win her heart. His apology was a masterly
composition. In his youth, Apuleius had been very expensive; but
he was, in a maturer age, more devoted to study, and learnt Latin
without a master. The most famous of his works extant is the _Golden
Ass_, in 11 books, an allegorical piece, replete with morality. The
best editions of Apuleius are the Delphin, 2 vols., 4to, Paris, 1688,
and Pricæi, 8vo, Goudæ, 1650.
=Apūlia=, now _Puglia_, a country of Italy between Daunia and Calabria.
It was part of the ancient Magna Græcia, and generally divided
into Apulia Daunia and Apulia Peucetia. It was famous for its wool,
superior to all the produce of Italy. Some suppose that it is called
after Apulus, an ancient king of the country before the Trojan war.
_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 11.――_Cicero_, _de Divinatione_, bk. 1, ch. 43.
――_Strabo_, bk. 6.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 4.――_Martial_, _Apophoreta_,
ltr. 155.
=Apuscidāmus=, a lake of Africa. All bodies, however heavy, were said
to swim on the surface of its waters. _Pliny_, bk. 32, ch. 2.
=Aquarius=, one of the signs of the zodiac, rising in January and
setting in February. Some suppose that Ganymede was changed into
this sign. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 3, li. 304.
=Aquilaria=, a place of Africa. _Cæsar_, bk. 2, _Civil War_, ch. 23.
=Aquileia=, or =Aquilegia=, a town founded by a Roman colony, called
from its grandeur, _Roma secunda_, and situate at the north of
the Adriatic sea, on the confines of Italy. The Romans built it
chiefly to oppose the frequent incursions of the barbarians. The
Roman emperors enlarged and beautified it, and often made it their
residence. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 605.――_Martial_, bk. 4,
ltr. 25.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 4.
=Aquilius Niger=, an historian mentioned by _Suetonius_, _Augustus_,
ch. 11.――――Marcus, a Roman consul who had the government of Asia
Minor. _Justin_, bk. 36, ch. 4.――――Sabinus, a lawyer of Rome,
surnamed the Cato of his age. He was father to Aquilia Severus, whom
Heliogabalus married.――――Severus, a poet and historian in the age of
Valentinian.
=Aquillia= and =Aquilia=, a patrician family at Rome, from which few
illustrious men rose.
=Aquĭlo=, a wind blowing from the north. Its name is derived, according
to some, from _Aquila_, on account of its keenness and velocity.
=Aquilonia=, a city of the Hirpini in Italy. _Livy_, bk. 10, ch. 38.
=Aquinius=, a poet of moderate capacity. _Cicero_, bk. 5, _Tusculanæ
Disputationes_.
=Aquīnum=, a town of Latium, on the borders of the Samnites, where
Juvenal was born. A dye was invented there, which greatly resembled
the real purple. _Horace_, bk. 1, ltr. 10, li. 27.――_Strabo._――
_Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 404.――_Juvenal_, satire 3, li. 319.
=Aquitania=, a country of Gaul, bounded on the west by Spain, north
by the province of Lugdunum, south by the province called Gallia
Narbonensis. Its inhabitants are called Aquitani. _Pliny_, bk. 4,
ch. 17.――_Strabo_, bk. 4.
=Ara=, a constellation, consisting of seven stars, near the tail of
the Scorpion. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 2, li. 138.
=Ara lugdunensis=, a place at the confluence of the Arar and Rhone.
_Juvenal_, satire 1, li. 44.
=Arabarches=, a vulgar person among the Egyptians, or perhaps an
unusual expression for the leaders of the Arabians, who resided in
Rome. _Juvenal_, satire 1, li. 130. Some believe that Cicero, bk. 2,
ltr. 17, _Letters to Atticus_, alluded to Pompey under the name of
Arabarches.
=Arăbia=, a large country of Asia, forming a peninsula between the
Arabian and Persian gulfs. It is generally divided into three
different parts, Petræa, Deserta, and Felix. It is famous for its
frankincense and aromatic plants. The inhabitants were formerly
under their own chiefs, an uncivilized people, who paid adoration to
the sun, moon, and even serpents, and who had their wives in common,
and circumcised their children. The country has often been invaded,
but never totally subdued. Alexander the Great expressed his wish to
place the seat of his empire in their territories. The soil is rocky
and sandy, the inhabitants are scarce, the mountains rugged, and
the country without water. In Arabia, whatever woman was convicted
of adultery was capitally punished. The Arabians for some time
supported the splendour of literature which was extinguished by
the tyranny and superstition which prevailed in Egypt, and to them
we are indebted for the invention of algebra, or the application
of signs and letters to represent lines, numbers, and quantities,
and also for the numerical characters of 1, 2, 3, &c., first used
in Europe, A.D. 1253.――_Herodotus_, bks. 1, 2, 3.――_Diodorus_,
bks. 1 & 2.――_Pliny_, bks. 12 & 14.――_Strabo_, bk. 16.――_Xenophon._
――_Tibullus_, bk. 2, poem 2.――_Curtius_, bk. 5, ch. 1.――_Virgil_,
_Georgics_, bk. 1, li. 57.――――Also the name of the wife of Ægyptus.
_Apollodorus._
=Arabĭcus sinus=, a sea between Egypt and Arabia, different, according
to some authors, from the Red sea, which they supposed to be between
Æthiopia and India, and the Arabian gulf further above, between Egypt
and Arabia. It is about 40 days’ sail in length, and not half a day’s
in its most extensive breadth. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 11.――_Strabo._
=Arăbis=, =Arabius=, =Arbis=, an Indian river. _Curtius_, bk. 9,
ch. 10.
=Arabs= and =Arăbus=, a son of Apollo and Babylone, who first invented
medicine, and taught it in Arabia, which is called after his name.
_Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 56.
=Aracca= and =Arecca=, a city of Susiana. _Tibullus_, bk. 4, poem 1.
=Arachne=, a woman of Colophon, daughter to Idmon a dyer. She was so
skilful in working with the needle, that she challenged Minerva, the
goddess of the art, to a trial of skill. She represented on her work
the amours of Jupiter with Europa, Antiope, Leda, Asteria, Danae,
Alcmene, &c.; but though her piece was perfect and masterly, she was
defeated by Minerva, and hanged herself in despair, and was changed
into a spider by the goddess. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 6, fable
1, &c.――――A city of Thessaly.
=Arachosia=, a city of Asia, near the Massagetæ. It was built by
Semiramis.――――One of the Persian provinces beyond the Indus. _Pliny_,
bk. 6, ch. 23.――_Strabo_, bk. 11.
=Arachōtæ= and =Arachōti=, a people of India, who received their
name from the river Arachotus which flows down from mount Caucasus.
_Dionysius Periegetes._――_Curtius_, bk. 9, ch. 7.
=Arachthias=, one of the four capital rivers of Epirus near Nicopolis,
falling into the bay of Ambracia. _Strabo_, bk. 7.
=Aracillum=, a town of Hispania Tarraconensis. _Florus_, bk. 4, ch. 12.
=Aracosii=, an Indian nation. _Justin_, bk. 13, ch. 4.
=Aracynthus=, a mountain of Acarnania, between the Achelous and Evenus,
not far from the shore, and thence called Actæus. _Pliny_, bk. 4,
ch. 2.――_Virgil_, _Eclogues_, poem 2, li. 24.
=Arădus=, an island near Phœnicia, joined to the continent by a bridge.
_Dionysius Periegetes._
=Aræ=, rocks in the middle of the Mediterranean, between Africa and
Sardinia, where the Romans and Africans ratified a treaty. It was
upon them that Æneas lost the greatest part of his fleet. They are
supposed to be those islands which are commonly called Ægates.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 113.
=Aræ Philænorum=, a maritime city of Africa, on the borders of Cyrene.
_Sallust_, _Jugurthine War_, chs. 19 & 79.
=Arar=, now the _Saone_, a river of Gaul, flowing into the Rhone, over
which Cæsar’s soldiers made a bridge in one day. _Cæsar_, _Gallic
War_, bk. 1, ch. 12.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 3, li. 452.
=Arărus=, a Scythian river flowing through Armenia. _Herodotus_, bk. 4,
ch. 48.
=Arathyrea=, a small province of Achaia, afterwards called Asophis,
with a city of the same name. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2.――_Strabo_,
bk. 8.
=Arātus=, a Greek poet of Cilicia, about 277 B.C. He was greatly
esteemed by Antigonus Gonatas king of Macedonia, at whose court he
passed much of his time, and by whose desire he wrote a poem on
astronomy, in which he gives an account of the situations, rising
and setting, number and motion of the stars. Cicero represented him
as unacquainted with astrology, yet capable of writing upon it in
elegant and highly finished verses, which, however, from the subject,
admit of little variety. Aratus wrote, besides, hymns and epigrams,
&c., and had among his interpreters and commentators many of the
learned men of Greece whose works are lost, besides Cicero, Claudius,
and Germanicus Cæsar, who in their youth, or moments of relaxation,
translated the _Phænomena_ into Latin verse. The best editions of
Aratus are, Grotius, 4to, apud Raphalengius, 1600; and Oxford, 8vo,
1672. _Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 2, ch. 41.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 1, ch. 2.――_Ovid_, _Amores_, bk. 1, poem 15, li. 26.――――The son
of Clinias and Aristodama, was born at Sicyon in Achaia, near the
river Asopus. When he was but seven years of age, his father, who
held the government of Sicyon, was assassinated by Abantidas, who
made himself absolute. After some revolutions, the sovereignty came
into the hands of Nicocles, whom Aratus murdered to restore his
country to liberty. He was so jealous of tyrannical power, that he
even destroyed a picture which was the representation of a tyrant.
He joined the republic of Sicyon to the Achæan league, which he
strengthened, by making a treaty of alliance with the Corinthians,
and with Ptolemy king of Egypt. He was chosen chief commander of the
forces of the Achæans, and drove away the Macedonians from Athens
and Corinth. He made war against the Spartans, but was conquered
in a battle by their king Cleomenes. To repair the losses he had
sustained, he solicited the assistance of king Antigonus, and drove
away Cleomenes from Sparta, who fled to Egypt, where he killed
himself. The Ætolians soon after attacked the Achæans; and Aratus,
to support his character, was obliged to call to his aid Philip
king of Macedonia. His friendship with this new ally did not long
continue. Philip showed himself cruel and oppressive; and put to
death some of the noblest of the Achæans, and even seduced the
wife of the son of Aratus. Aratus, who was now advanced in years,
showed his displeasure by withdrawing himself from the society and
friendship of Philip. But this rupture was fatal. Philip dreaded the
power and influence of Aratus, and therefore he caused him and his
son to be poisoned. Some days before his death, Aratus was observed
to spit blood; when apprised of it by his friends, he replied, “Such
are the rewards which a connection with kings will produce.” He was
buried with great pomp by his countrymen; and two solemn sacrifices
were annually made to him, the first on the day that he delivered
Sicyon from tyranny, and the second on the day of his birth. During
those sacrifices, which were called _Arateia_, the priests wore
a ribbon bespangled with white and purple spots, and the public
schoolmaster walked in procession at the head of his scholars, and
was always accompanied by the richest and most eminent senators,
adorned with garlands. Aratus died in the 62nd year of his age, B.C.
213. He wrote a history of the Achæan league, much commended by
Polybius. _Plutarch_, _Lives of the Roman Emperors_.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 2, ch. 8.――_Cicero_, _de Officiis_, bk. 2, ch. 23.――_Strabo_,
bk. 14.――_Livy_, bk. 27, ch. 31.――_Polybius_, bk. 2.
=Araxes=, now _Arras_, a celebrated river which separates Armenia
from Media, and falls into the Caspian sea. _Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 19;
bk. 7, li. 188.――_Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8, li. 728.
――_Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 202, &c.――――Another in Europe, now called
Wolga.
=Arbāces=, a Mede who revolted with Belesis against Sardanapalus, and
founded the empire of Media upon the ruins of the Assyrian power,
820 years before the christian era. He reigned above 50 years, and
was famous for the greatness of his undertakings, as well as for his
valour. _Justin_, bk. 1, ch. 3.――_Paterculus_, bk. 1, ch. 6.
=Arbēla= (orum), now _Irbil_, a town of Persia, on the river Lycus,
famous for a battle fought there between Alexander and Darius, the
2nd of October, B.C. 331. _Curtius_, bk. 5, ch. 1.――_Plutarch_,
_Alexander_.
=Arbĕla=, a town of Sicily, whose inhabitants were very credulous.
=Arbis=, a river on the western boundaries of India. _Strabo._
=Arbocāla=, a city taken by Annibal as he marched against Rome.
=Arbuscŭla=, an actress on the Roman stage, who laughed at the hisses
of the populace while she received the applauses of the knights.
_Horace_, bk. 1, satire 10, li. 77.
=Arcădia=, a country in the middle of Peloponnesus, surrounded on
every side by land, situate between Achaia, Messenia, Elis, and
Argolis. It received its name from Arcas son of Jupiter, and was
anciently called Drymodes, on account of the great number of _oaks_
(δρυς) which it produced, and afterwards Lycaonia and Pelasgia. The
country has been much celebrated by the poets, and was famous for
its mountains. The inhabitants were for the most part all shepherds,
who lived upon acorns, were skilful warriors, and able musicians.
They thought themselves more ancient than the moon. Pan, the god of
shepherds, chiefly lived among them.――Aristotle, bk. 4, _Metaphysics_,
says that the wine of Arcadia, when placed in a goat’s skin near a
fire, will become chalky, and at last be turned into salt. _Strabo_,
bk. 1.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 5.――_Pausanias_, bk. 8, chs. 1, 2, &c.
――_Athenæus_, bk. 14.――――A fortified village of Zacynthus.
=Arcadius=, eldest son of Theodosius the Great, succeeded his father
A.D. 395. Under him the Roman power was divided into the eastern
and western empire. He made the eastern empire his choice, and fixed
his residence at Constantinople; while his brother Honorius was
made emperor of the west, and lived in Rome. After this separation
of the Roman empire, the two powers looked upon one another with
indifference; and, soon after, their indifference was changed into
jealousy, and contributed to hasten their mutual ruin. In the reign
of Arcadius, Alaricus attacked the western empire, and plundered
Rome. Arcadius married Eudoxia, a bold and ambitious woman, and died
in the 31st year of his age, after a reign of 13 years, in which
he bore the character of an effeminate prince, who suffered himself
to be governed by favourites, and who abandoned his subjects to the
tyranny of ministers, while he lost himself in the pleasures of a
voluptuous court.
=Arcānum=, a villa of Cicero’s near the Minturni. _Cicero_, bk. 7,
_Letters to Atticus_, ltr. 10.
=Arcas=, a son of Jupiter and Calisto. He nearly killed his mother,
whom Juno had changed into a bear. He reigned in Pelasgia, which
from him was called Arcadia, and taught his subjects agriculture
and the art of spinning wool. After his death, Jupiter made him a
constellation with his mother. As he was one day hunting, he met
a wood nymph, who begged his assistance, because the tree over
which she presided, and on whose preservation her life depended,
was going to be carried away by the impetuous torrent of a river.
Arcas changed the course of the waters, and preserved the tree, and
married the nymph, by whom he had three sons, Azan, Aphidas, and
Elatus, among whom he divided his kingdom. The descendants of Azan
planted colonies in Phrygia. Aphidas received for his share Tegea,
which on that account has been called the inheritance of Aphidas;
and Elatus became master of mount Cyllene, and some time after
passed into Phocis. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 4.――_Hyginus_, fables
155 & 176.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 8.――_Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Ovid_,
_Fasti_, bk. 1, li. 470.――――One of Actæon’s dogs.
=Arce=, a daughter of Thaumas, son of Pontus and Terra. _Ptolemy
Hephæstion_.
=Arcēna=, a town of Phœnicia, where Alexander Severus was born.
=Arcens=, a Sicilian who permitted his son to accompany Æneas into
Italy, where he was killed by Mezentius. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9,
li. 581, &c.
=Arcesilāus=, son of Battus king of Cyrene, was driven from his kingdom
in a sedition, and died B.C. 575. The second of that name died B.C.
550. _Polyænus_, bk. 8, ch. 41.――_Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 159.――――One
of Alexander’s generals, who obtained Mesopotamia at the general
division of the provinces after the king’s death.――――A chief of
Catana, which he betrayed to Dionysius the elder. _Diodorus_, bk.
14.――――A philosopher of Pitane in Æolia, disciple of Polemon. He
visited Sardis and Athens, and was the founder of the middle academy,
as Socrates founded the ancient, and Carneades the new one. He
pretended to know nothing, and accused others of the same ignorance.
He acquired many pupils in the character of teacher; but some of
them left him for Epicurus, though no Epicurean came to him; which
gave him occasion to say that it is easy to make a eunuch of a man,
but impossible to make a man of a eunuch. He was very fond of Homer,
and generally divided his time among the pleasures of philosophy,
love, reading, and the table. He died in his 75th year, B.C. 241,
or 300 according to some. _Diogenes Laërtius_, _Lives and Opinions
of Eminent Philosophers_.――_Persius_, bk. 3, li. 78.――_Cicero_, _de
Finibus_.――――The name of two painters,――――a statuary,――――a leader of
the Bœotians during the Trojan war.――――A comic and elegiac poet.
=Arcēsius=, son of Jupiter, was grandfather to Ulysses. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 13, li. 144.
=Archæa=, a city of Æolia.
=Archæănax= of Mitylene, was intimate with Pisistratus tyrant of
Athens. He fortified Sigæum with a wall from the ruins of ancient
Troy. _Strabo_, bk. 13.
=Archæatĭdas=, a country of Peloponnesus. _Polybius._
=Archăgăthus=, son of Archagathus, was slain in Africa by his soldiers,
B.C. 285. He killed his grandfather, Agathocles tyrant of Syracuse.
_Diodorus_, bk. 20.――_Justin_, bk. 22, ch. 5, &c., says that he was
put to death by Archesilaus.――――A physician at Rome, B.C. 219.
=Archander=, father-in-law to Danaus. _Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 98.
=Archandros=, a town of Egypt.
=Arche=, one of the Muses, according to Cicero.
=Archegētes=, a surname of Hercules.
=Archelāus=, a name common to some kings of Cappadocia. One of them
was conquered by Sylla, for assisting Mithridates.――――A person
of that name married Berenice, and made himself king of Egypt; a
dignity he enjoyed only six months, as he was killed by the soldiers
of Gabinius, B.C. 56. He had been made priest of Comana by Pompey.
His grandson was made king of Cappadocia by Antony, whom he assisted
at Actium, and he maintained his independence under Augustus, till
Tiberius perfidiously destroyed him.――――A king of Macedonia, who
succeeded his father Perdiccas II. As he was but a natural child, he
killed the legitimate heirs to gain the kingdom. He proved himself
to be a great monarch; but he was at last killed by one of his
favourites, because he had promised him his daughter in marriage,
and given her to another, after a reign of 23 years. He patronized
the poet Euripides. _Diodorus_, bk. 14.――_Justin_, bk. 7, ch. 4.
――_Ælian_. _Varia Historia_, bks. 2, 8, 12, 14.――――A king of the
Jews, surnamed Herod. He married Glaphyre, daughter of Archelaus
king of Macedonia, and widow of his brother Alexander. Cæsar
banished him, for his cruelties, to Vienna, where he died. _Dio
Cassius._――――A king of Lacedæmon, son of Agesilaus. He reigned 42
years with Charilaus, of the other branch of the family. _Herodotus_,
bk. 7, ch. 204.――_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 2.――――A general of
Antigonus the younger appointed governor of the Acrocorinth, with
the philosopher Persæus. _Polyænus_, bk. 6, ch. 5.――――A celebrated
general of Mithridates against Sylla. _Polyænus_, bk. 8, ch. 8.――――A
philosopher of Athens or Messenia, son of Apollodorus and successor
to Anaxagoras. He was preceptor to Socrates, and was called
_Physicus_. He supposed that heat and cold were the principles of
all things. He first discovered the voice to be propagated by the
vibration of the air. _Cicero_, _Tusculanæ Disputationes_, bk. 5.
――_Diogenes Laërtius_, _Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers_.
――_Augustine_, _City of God_, bk. 8.――――A man set over Susa by
Alexander, with a garrison of 3000 men. _Curtius_, bk. 5, ch. 2.
――――A Greek philosopher, who wrote a history of animals, and
maintained that goats breathed not through the nostrils, but through
the ears. _Pliny_, bk. 8, ch. 50.――――A son of Electryon and Anaxo.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 2.――――A Greek poet who wrote epigrams. _Varro_,
_de Re Rustica_, bk. 3, ch. 16.――――A sculptor of Priene, in the age
of Claudius. He made an apotheosis of Homer, a piece of sculpture
highly admired, and said to have been discovered under ground, A.D.
1658.――――A writer of Thrace.
=Archemăchus=, a Greek writer, who published a history of Eubœa.
_Athenæus_, bk. 6.――――A son of Hercules,――――of Priam. _Apollodorus_,
bks. 2 & 3.
=Archemŏrus=, or =Opheltes=, son of Lycurgus king of Nemæa, in Thrace,
by Eurydice, was brought up by Hypsipyle queen of Lemnos, who had
fled to Thrace, and was employed as a nurse in the king’s family.
Hypsipyle was met by the army of Adrastus, who was going against
Thebes: and she was forced to show them a fountain where they might
quench their thirst. To do this more expeditiously, she put down
the child on the grass, and at her return found him killed by a
serpent. The Greeks were so afflicted at this misfortune, that they
instituted games in honour of Archemorus, which were called Nemæan,
and king Adrastus enlisted among the combatants, and was victorious.
_Apollodorus_, bks. 2 & 3.――_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 48.――_Statius_,
_Thebiad_, bk. 6.
=Archepŏlis=, a man in Alexander’s army, who conspired against the
king with Dymnus. _Curtius_, bk. 6, ch. 7.
=Archeptolĕmus=, son of Iphitus king of Elis, went to the Trojan war,
and fought against the Greeks. As he was fighting near Hector, he
was killed by Ajax son of Telamon. It is said that he re-established
the Olympic games. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 8, li. 128.
=Archestrătus=, a tragic poet, whose pieces were acted during the
Peloponnesian war. _Plutarch_, _Aristotle_.――――A man so small and
lean, that he could be placed in a dish without filling it, though
it contained no more than an obolus.――――A follower of Epicurus, who
wrote a poem in commendation of gluttony.
=Archetīmus=, the first philosophical writer in the age of the seven
wise men of Greece. _Diogenes Laërtius._
=Archetius=, a Rutulian, killed by the Trojans. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 12, li. 459.
=Archia=, one of the Oceanides, wife to Inachus. _Hyginus_, fable 143.
=Archias=, a Corinthian descended from Hercules. He founded Syracuse,
B.C. 732. Being told by an oracle to make choice of health or riches,
he chose the latter. _Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 2.――――A poet
of Antioch, intimate with the Luculli. He obtained the rank and
name of a Roman citizen by the means of Cicero, who defended him
in an elegant oration, when his enemies had disputed his privileges
of citizen of Rome. He wrote a poem on the Cimbrian war and began
another concerning Cicero’s consulship, which are now lost. Some
of his epigrams are preserved in the Anthologia. _Cicero_, _For
Archias_.――――A polemarch of Thebes, assassinated in the conspiracy
of Pelopidas, which he could have prevented, if he had not deferred
to the morrow the reading of a letter which he had received from
Archias the Athenian high priest, and which gave him information
of his danger. _Plutarch_, _Pelopidas_.――――A high priest of Athens,
contemporary and intimate with the polemarch of the same name.
_Plutarch_, _Pelopidas_.――――A Theban taken in the act of adultery,
and punished according to the law, and tied to a post in the public
place, for which punishment he abolished the oligarchy. _Aristotle._
=Archibiădes=, a philosopher of Athens, who affected the manners of
the Spartans, and was very inimical to the views and measures of
Phocion. _Plutarch_, _Phocion_.――――An ambassador of Byzantium, &c.
_Polyænus_, bk. 4, ch. 44.
=Archibius=, the son of the geographer Ptolemy.
=Archidamia=, a priestess of Ceres, who, on account of her affection
for Aristomenes, restored him to liberty when he had been taken
prisoner by her female attendants at the celebration of their
festivals. _Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 17.――――A daughter of Cleadas, who
upon hearing that her countrymen the Spartans were debating whether
they should send away their women to Crete against the hostile
approach of Pyrrhus, seized a sword, and ran to the senate house,
exclaiming that the women were as able to fight as the men. Upon
this the decree was repealed. _Plutarch_, _Pyrrhus_.――_Polyænus_,
bk. 8, ch. 8.
=Archidāmus=, son of Theopompus king of Sparta, died before his
father. _Pausanias._――――Another, king of Sparta, son of Anaxidamus,
succeeded by Agasicles.――――Another, son of Agesilaus of the family
of the Proclidæ.――――Another, grandson of Leotychidas by his son
Zeuxidamus. He succeeded his grandfather, and reigned in conjunction
with Plistoanax. He conquered the Argives and Arcadians, and
privately assisted the Phocians in plundering the temple of Delphi.
He was called to the aid of Tarentum against the Romans, and killed
there in a battle, after a reign of 33 years. _Diodorus_, bk. 16.
――_Xenophon._――――Another, son of Eudamidas.――――Another, who conquered
the Helots, after a violent earthquake. _Diodorus_, bk. 11.――――A son
of Agesilaus, who led the Spartan auxiliaries to Cleombrotus at the
battle of Leuctra, and was killed in a battle against the Lucanians.
B.C. 338.――――A son of Xenius Theopompus. _Pausanias._
=Archidas=, a tyrant of Athens, killed by his troops.
=Archidēmus=, a Stoic philosopher, who willingly exiled himself among
the Parthians. _Plutarch_, _de Exilio_.
=Archidēus=, a son of Amyntas king of Macedonia. _Justin_, bk. 7,
ch. 4.
=Archidium=, a city of Crete, named after Archidius son of Tegeates.
_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 53.
=Archigallus=, the high priest of Cybele’s temple. _See:_ Galli.
=Archigĕnes=, a physician, born at Apamea in Syria. He lived in the
reign of Domitian, Nerva, and Trajan, and died in the 73rd year of
his age. He wrote a treatise on adorning the hair, as also 10 books
on fevers. _Juvenal_, satire 6, li. 235.
=Archilŏchus=, a poet of Paros; who wrote elegies, satires, odes, and
epigrams, and was the first who introduced iambics in his verses.
He had courted Neobule the daughter of Lycambes, and had received
promises of marriage; but the father gave her to another superior
to the poet in rank and fortune; upon which Archilochus wrote such a
bitter satire, that Lycambes hanged himself in a fit of despair. The
Spartans condemned his verses on account of their indelicacy, and
banished him from their city as a petulant and dangerous citizen.
He flourished 685 B.C., and it is said that he was assassinated.
Some fragments of his poetry remain, which display vigour and
animation, boldness and vehemence, in the highest degree; from which
reason, perhaps, Cicero calls virulent edicts, _Archilochia edicta_.
_Cicero_, _Tusculanæ Disputationes_, bk. 1.――_Quintilian_, bk. 10,
ch. 1.――_Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 12.――_Horace_, _Art of Poetry_, li.
79.――_Athenæus_, bks. 1, 2, &c.――――A son of Nestor, killed by Memnon
in the Trojan war. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2.――――A Greek historian who
wrote a chronological table, and other works, about the 20th or 30th
olympiad.
=Archimēdes=, a famous geometrician of Syracuse, who invented a machine
of glass that faithfully represented the motion of all the heavenly
bodies. When Marcellus the Roman consul besieged Syracuse Archimedes
constructed machines which suddenly raised up in the air the ships
of the enemy from the bay before the city, and let them fall with
such violence into the water that they sunk. He set them also on
fire with his burning glasses. When the town was taken, the Roman
general gave strict orders to his soldiers not to hurt Archimedes,
and he even offered a reward to him who should bring him alive and
safe into his presence. All these precautions were useless; the
philosopher was so deeply engaged in solving a problem, that he was
even ignorant that the enemy were in possession of the town; and a
soldier, without knowing who he was, killed him, because he refused
to follow him, B.C. 212. Marcellus raised a monument over him,
and placed upon it a cylinder and a sphere; but the place remained
long unknown, till Cicero, during his questorship in Sicily, found
it near one of the gates of Syracuse, surrounded with thorns and
brambles. Some suppose that Archimedes raised the site of the towns
and villages of Egypt, and began those mounds of earth by means of
which communication is kept from town to town during the inundations
of the Nile. The story of his burning glasses had always appeared
fabulous to some of the moderns, till the experiments of Buffon
demonstrated it beyond contradiction. These celebrated glasses were
supposed to be reflectors made of metal, and capable of producing
their effect at the distance of a bowshot. The manner in which
he discovered how much brass a goldsmith had mixed with gold in
making a golden crown for the king is well known to every modern
hydrostatic, as well as the pumping screw which still bears his
name. Among the wild schemes of Archimedes, is his saying that, by
means of his machines, he could move the earth with ease, if placed
on a fixed spot near it. Many of his works are extant, especially
treatises _de sphærâ et cylindro, circuli dimensio_, _de lineis
spiralibus_, _de quadraturâ paraboles_, _de numero arenæ_, &c.;
the best edition of which is that of David Rivaltius, folio, Paris,
1615. _Cicero_, _Tusculanæ Disputationes_, bk. 1, ch. 25; _De Natura
Deorum_, bk. 2, ch. 34.――_Livy_, bk. 24, ch. 34.――_Quintilian_,
bk. 1, ch. 10.――_Vitruvius_, bk. 9, ch. 3.――_Polybius_, bk. 7.
――_Plutarch_, _Marcellus_.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 8, ch. 7.
=Archīnus=, a man who, when he was appointed to distribute new arms
among the populace of Argos, raised a mercenary band, and made
himself absolute. _Polyænus_, bk. 3, ch. 8.――――A rhetorician of
Athens.
=Archipĕlăgus=, a part of the sea where islands in great number are
interspersed such as that part of the Mediterranean which lies
between Greece and Asia Minor, and is generally called Mare Ægeum.
=Archipŏlis=, or =Archepolis=, a soldier who conspired against
Alexander with Dymnus. _Curtius_, bk. 6, ch. 7.
=Archippe=, a city of the Marsi, destroyed by an earthquake, and lost
in the lake of Fucinus. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 19.
=Archippus=, a king of Italy, from whom, perhaps, the town of
Archippe received its name. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 752.――――A
philosopher of Thebes, pupil to Pythagoras.――――An archon at Athens.
――――A comic poet of Athens, of whose eight comedies only one obtained
the prize.――――A philosopher in the age of Trajan.
=Archītis=, a name of Venus, worshipped on mount Libanus.
=Archon=, one of Alexander’s generals, who received the provinces of
Babylon, at the general division after the king’s death. _Diodorus_,
bk. 18.
=Archontes=, the name of the chief magistrates of Athens. They were
nine in number, and none were chosen but such as were descended
from ancestors who had been free citizens of the republic for three
generations. They were also to be without deformity in all the parts
and members of their body, and were obliged to produce testimonies
of their dutiful behaviour to their parents, of the services they
had rendered their country, and the competency of their fortune
to support their dignity. They took a solemn oath that they would
observe the laws, administer justice with impartiality, and never
suffer themselves to be corrupted. If they ever received bribes,
they were compelled by the laws to dedicate to the god of Delphi
a statue of gold of equal weight with their body. They all had the
power of punishing malefactors with death. The chief among them
was called _Archon_. The year took its denomination from him; he
determined all causes between man and wife, and took care of legacies
and wills; he provided for orphans, protected the injured, and
punished drunkenness with uncommon severity. If he suffered himself
to be intoxicated during the time of his office, the misdemeanour
was punished with death. The second of the archons was called
_Basileus_. It was his office to keep good order, and to remove all
causes of quarrel in the families of those who were dedicated to the
service of the gods. The profane and the impious were brought before
his tribunal; and he offered public sacrifices for the good of the
state. He assisted at the celebration of the Eleusinian festivals,
and other religious ceremonies. His wife was to be related to
the whole people of Athens, and of a pure and unsullied life. He
had a vote among the Areopagites, but was obliged to sit among
them without his crown. The _Polemarch_ was another archon of
inferior dignity. He had the care of all foreigners, and provided a
sufficient maintenance from the public treasury for the families of
those who had lost their lives in defence of their country. These
three chief archons generally chose each of them two persons of
respectable character, and of an advanced age, whose counsels and
advice might assist and support them in their public capacity.
The six other archons were indistinctly called _Thesmothetæ_, and
received complaints against persons accused of impiety, bribery,
and ill behaviour. They settled all disputes between the citizens,
redressed the wrongs of strangers and forbade any laws to be
enforced but such as were conducive to the safety of the state.
These officers of state were chosen after the death of king
Codrus; their power was originally for life, but afterwards it was
limited to 10 years, and at last to one year. After some time, the
qualifications which were required to be an archon were not strictly
observed. Adrian, before he was elected emperor of Rome, was made
archon at Athens, though a foreigner; and the same honours were
conferred upon Plutarch. The perpetual archons, after the death of
Codrus, were Medon, whose office began B.C. 1070; Acastus, 1050;
Archippus, 1014; Thersippus, 995; Phorbas, 954; Megacles, 923;
Diognetus, 893; Pherecles, 865; Ariphron, 846; Thespius, 826;
Agamestor, 799; Æschylus, 778; Alcmæon, 756; after whose death the
archons were decennial, the first of whom was Charops, who began
753; Æsimedes, 744; Clidicus, 734; Hippomenes, 724; Leocrates, 714;
Apsander, 704; Eryxias, 694; after whom the office became annual,
and of these annual archons Creon was the first. _Aristophanes_, _The
Clouds_ & _The Birds_.――_Plutarch_, _Convivium Septem Sapientium_,
ch. 1.――_Demosthenes._――_Pollux._――_Lysias._
=Archy̆lus Thurius=, a general of Dionysius the elder. _Diodorus_,
bk. 14.
=Archytas=, a musician of Mitylene, who wrote a treatise on
agriculture. _Diogenes Laërtius._――――The son of Hestiæus of Tarentum,
was a follower of the Pythagorean philosophy, and an able astronomer
and geometrician. He redeemed his master, Plato, from the hands of
the tyrant Dionysius, and for his virtues he was seven times chosen,
by his fellow-citizens, governor of Tarentum. He invented some
mathematical instruments, and made a wooden pigeon which could fly.
He perished in a shipwreck about 394 years before the christian
era. He is also the reputed inventor of the screw and the pulley.
A fragment of his writings has been preserved by Porphyry. _Horace_,
bk. 1, ode 28.――_Cicero_, bk. 3, _On Oratory_.――_Diogenes Laërtius_,
_Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers_.
=Arcĭtĕnens=, an epithet applied to Apollo, from his bearing a _bow_,
with which, as soon as born, he destroyed the serpent Python.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 75.
=Arctīnus=, a Milesian poet, said to be pupil to Homer. _Dionysius of
Halicarnassus_, bk. 1.
=Arctophy̆lax=, a star near the great bear, called also Bootes.
_Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 2, ch. 42.
=Arctos=, a mountain near Propontis, inhabited by giants and monsters.
――――Two celestial constellations near the north pole, commonly
called Ursa Major and Minor; supposed to be Arcas and his mother,
who were made constellations. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 1.――_Aratus._
――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 3, li. 107.
=Arctūrus=, a star near the tail of the great bear, whose rising and
setting were generally supposed to portend great tempests. _Horace_,
bk. 3, ode 1. The name is derived from its situation, ἀρκτος _ursus_,
οὐρα _cauda_. It rises now about the beginning of October, and Pliny
tells us it rose in his age on the 12th, or, according to Columella,
on the 5th of September.
=Ardălus=, a son of Vulcan, said to have been the first who invented
the pipe. He gave it to the Muses, who on that account have been
called _Ardalides_ and _Ardalīotides_. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 31.
=Ardalia=, a country of Egypt. _Strabo._
=Ardaxānus=, a small river of Illyricum. _Polybius._
=Ardea=, formerly Ardua, a town of Latium, built by Danae, or,
according to some, by a son of Ulysses and Circe. It was the capital
of the Rutuli. Some soldiers set it on fire, and the inhabitants
publicly reported that their city had been changed into a bird,
called by the Latins _Ardea_. It was rebuilt, and it became a rich
and magnificent city, whose enmity to Rome rendered it famous.
Tarquin the Proud was pressing it with a siege, when his son
ravished Lucretia. A road called _Ardeatina_ branched from the
Appian road to Ardea. _Cornelius Nepos_, _Atticus_, ch. 14.――_Livy_,
bk. 1, ch. 57; bk. 3, ch. 71; bk. 4, ch. 9, &c.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 7, li. 412.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 14, li. 573.――_Strabo_,
bk. 5.
=Ardericca=, a small town on the Euphrates, north of Babylon.
=Ardiæi=, a people of Illyricum, whose capital was called Ardia.
_Strabo_, bk. 7.
=Ardonea=, a town of Apulia. _Livy_, bk. 24, ch. 20.
=Ardua=, an ancient name of Ardea. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 411.
=Arduenna=, now _Ardenne_, a large forest of Gaul, in the time of
Julius Cæsar, which extended 50 miles from the Rhine to the borders
of the Nervii. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 8, ch. 42.――_Cæsar_, _Gallic
War_, bk. 6, ch. 29.
=Arduine=, the goddess of hunting among the Gauls; represented with
the same attributes as the Diana of the Romans.
=Ardyenses=, a nation near the Rhone. _Polybius_, bk. 3.
=Ardys=, a son of Gyges king of Lydia, who reigned 49 years, took
Priene, and made war against Miletus. _Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 15.
=Area=, a surname of Minerva, from her temple on Mars’ hill (ἀρης)
erected by Orestes. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 28.
=Areacidæ=, a nation of Numidia. _Polybius._
=Areas=, a general chosen by the Greeks against Ætolia. _Justin_,
bk. 24, ch. 1.
=Aregŏnis=, the mother of Mopsus by Ampyx. _Orpheus_, _Argonautica_.
=Arelātum=, a town of Gallia Narbonensis. _Strabo_, bk. 4.――_Mela_,
bk. 2, ch. 5.
=Arellius=, a celebrated painter of Rome in the age of Augustus. He
painted the goddesses in the form of his mistresses. _Pliny_, bk. 35,
ch. 10.――――A miser in _Horace_.
=Aremorĭca=, a part of Gaul, at the north of the Loire, now called
Britany. _Pliny_, bk. 4.
=Arēna= and =Arene=, a city of Messenia in Peloponnesus. _Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 2.
=Arenăcum=, a town of Germany. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 5, ch. 20.
=Areopagītæ=, the judges of the Areopagus, a seat of justice on a small
eminence near Athens, whose name is derived from Αρεος παγος, _the
hill of Mars_, because Mars was the first who was tried there, for
the murder of Hallirhotius, who had offered violence to his daughter
Alcippe. Some say that the place received the name of Areopagus
because the Amazons pitched their camp there, and offered sacrifices
to their progenitor Mars, when they besieged Athens; and others
maintain that the name was given to the place because Mars is the
god of bloodshed, war, and murder, which were generally punished by
that court. The time in which this celebrated seat of justice was
instituted is unknown. Some suppose that Cecrops, the founder of
Athens, first established it, while others give the credit of it
to Cranaus, and others to Solon. The number of judges that composed
this august assembly is not known. They have been limited by some to
9, to 31, to 51, and sometimes to a greater number. The most worthy
and religious of the Athenians were admitted as members, and such
archons as had discharged their duty with care and faithfulness. In
the latter ages of the republic, this observance was often violated,
and we find some of their members of loose and debauched morals. If
any of them were convicted of immorality, if they were seen sitting
at a tavern, or had used any indecent language, they were immediately
expelled from the assembly, and held in the greatest disgrace,
though the dignity of a judge of the Areopagus always was for life.
The Areopagites took cognizance of murders, impiety, and immoral
behaviour, and particularly of idleness, which they deemed the cause
of all vice. They watched over the laws, and they had the management
of the public treasury; they had the liberty of rewarding the
virtuous, and of inflicting severe punishment upon such as blasphemed
against the gods, or slighted the celebration of the holy mysteries.
They always sat in the open air, because they took cognizance of
murder; and by their laws it was not permitted for the murderer and
his accuser to be both under the same roof. This custom also might
originate because the persons of the judges were sacred, and they
were afraid of contracting pollution by conversing in the same house
with men who had been guilty of shedding innocent blood. They always
heard causes and passed sentence in the night, that they might not
be prepossessed in favour of the plaintiff or of the defendant by
seeing them. Whatever causes were pleaded before them, were to be
divested of all oratory and fine speaking, lest eloquence should
charm their ears and corrupt their judgment. Hence arose the most
just and most impartial decisions, and their sentence was deemed
sacred and inviolable, and the plaintiff and defendant were equally
convinced of its justice. The Areopagites generally sat on the 27th,
28th, and 29th days of every month. Their authority continued in
its original state till Pericles, who was refused admittance among
them, resolved to lessen their consequence and destroy their power.
From that time the morals of the Athenians were corrupted, and the
Areopagites were no longer conspicuous for their virtue and justice;
and when they censured the debaucheries of Demetrius, one of the
family of Phalereus, he plainly told them, that if they wished to
make a reform in Athens, they must begin at home.
=Areopăgus=, a hill in the neighbourhood of Athens. _See:_ Areopagitæ.
=Arestæ=, a people of India, conquered by Alexander. _Justin_, bk. 12,
ch. 8.
=Aresthanas=, a countryman, whose goat suckled Æsculapius, when exposed
by his mother. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 26.
=Arestorĭdes=, a patronymic given to the hundred-eyed Argus, as son of
Arestor. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, li. 584.
=Arĕta=, the mother of Aristippus the philosopher. _Diogenes Laërtius_,
bk. 2.――――A daughter of Dionysius, who married Dion. She was thrown
into the sea. _Plutarch_, _Dion_.――――A female philosopher of Cyrene,
B.C. 377.
=Arēta=, a daughter of Rhexenor, descended from Neptune, who married
her uncle Alcinous, by whom she had Nausicaa. _Homer_, _Odyssey_,
bks. 7 & 8.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1.
=Aretæus=, a physician of Cappadocia, very inquisitive after the
operations of nature. His treatise on agues has been much admired.
The best edition of his works which are extant, is that of Boerhaave,
Leiden, folio, 1735.
=Aretaphĭla=, the wife of Melanippus, a priest of Cyrene. Nicocrates
murdered her husband to marry her. She, however, was so attached
to Melanippus, that she endeavoured to poison Nicocrates, and at
last caused him to be assassinated by his brother Lysander, whom
she married. Lysander proved as cruel as his brother, upon which
Aretaphila ordered him to be thrown into the sea. After this she
retired to a private station. _Plutarch_, _de Mulierum Virtutes_.
――_Polyænus_, bk. 8, ch. 38.
=Aretāles=, a Cnidian, who wrote a history of Macedonia, besides a
treatise on islands. _Plutarch._
=Arēte.= _See:_ Areta.
=Arētes=, one of Alexander’s officers. _Curtius_, bk. 4, ch. 15.
=Arethūsa=, a nymph of Elis, daughter of Oceanus, and one of Diana’s
attendants. As she returned one day from hunting, she sat near
the Alpheus, and bathed in the stream. The god of the river was
enamoured of her, and he pursued her over the mountains and all the
country, when Arethusa, ready to sink under fatigue, implored Diana,
who changed her into a fountain. The Alpheus immediately mingled his
streams with hers, and Diana opened a secret passage under the earth
and under the sea, where the waters of Arethusa disappeared, and
rose in the island of Ortygia, near Syracuse in Sicily. The river
Alpheus followed her also under the sea, and rose also in Ortygia;
so that, as mythologists relate, whatever is thrown into the Alpheus
in Elis, rises again, after some time, in the fountain Arethusa
near Syracuse. _See:_ Alpheus. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, fable
10.――_Athenæus_, bk. 7.――_Pausanias._――――One of the Hesperides.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 5.――――A daughter of Herileus, mother of
Abas by Neptune. _Hyginus_, fable 157.――――One of Actæon’s dogs.
_Hyginus_, fable 181.――――A lake of Upper Armenia, near the fountains
of the Tigris. Nothing can sink under its waters. _Pliny_, bk. 2,
ch. 103.――――A town of Thrace.――――Another in Syria.
=Aretīnum=, a Roman colony in Etruria. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 5,
li. 123.
=Arētus=, a son of Nestor and Anaxibia. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 3,
li. 413.――――A Trojan against the Greeks. He was killed by Automedon.
_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 17, li. 494.――――A famous warrior, whose only
weapon was an iron club. He was treacherously killed by Lycurgus
king of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 11.
=Areus=, a king of Sparta, preferred in the succession to Cleonymus,
brother of Acrotatus, who had made an alliance with Pyrrhus. He
assisted Athens when Antigonus besieged it, and died at Corinth.
_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 6.――_Plutarch._――――A king of Sparta, who
succeeded his father Acrotatus II., and was succeeded by his son
Leonidas, son of Cleonymus.――――A philosopher of Alexandria, intimate
with Augustus. _Suetonius._――――A poet of Laconia.――――An orator
mentioned by _Quintilian_.
=Argæus= and =Argēus=, a son of Apollo and Cyrene. _Justin_, bk. 13,
ch. 7.――――A son of Perdiccas, who succeeded his father in the
kingdom of Macedonia. _Justin_, bk. 7, ch. 1.――――A mountain of
Cappadocia, covered with perpetual snows, at the bottom of which
is the capital of the country called Maxara. _Claudian._――――A son
of Ptolemy, killed by his brother. _Pausanias_, bk. 1.――――A son of
Licymnius. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2.
=Argălus=, a king of Sparta, son of Amyclas. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 1.
=Argathŏna=, a huntress of Cios in Bithynia, whom Rhesus married before
he went to the Trojan war. When she heard of his death, she died in
despair. _Parthenius_, _Narrationum Amatoriarum Libellus_, ch. 36.
=Argathōnius=, a king of Tartessus, who, according to _Pliny_, bk. 7,
ch. 48, lived 120 years, and 300 according to _Silius Italicus_,
bk. 3, li. 396.
=Arge=, a beautiful huntress changed into a stag by Apollo. _Hyginus_,
fable 205.――――One of the Cyclops. _Hesiod._――――A daughter of
Thespius, by whom Hercules had two sons. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2.――――A
nymph, daughter of Jupiter and Juno. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1.
=Argea=, a place at Rome where certain Argives were buried.
=Argæāthæ=, a village of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 23.
=Argennum=, a promontory of Ionia.
=Arges=, a son of Cœlus and Terra, who had only one eye in his
forehead. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 1.
=Argestrătus=, a king of Lacedæmon, who reigned 35 years.
=Argēus=, a son of Perdiccas king of Macedonia, who obtained the
kingdom when Amyntas was deposed by the Illyrians. _Justin_, bk. 7,
ch. 2.
=Argi= (plural, masculine). _See:_ Argos.
=Argīa=, daughter of Adrastus, married Polynices, whom she loved with
uncommon tenderness. When he was killed in the war, she buried his
body in the night, against the positive orders of Creon, for which
pious action she was punished with death. Theseus revenged her death
by killing Creon. _Hyginus_, fables 69 & 72.――_Statius_, _Thebiad_,
bk. 12. _See:_ Antigone and Creon.――――A country of Peloponnesus,
called also Argolis, of which Argos was the capital.――――One of the
Oceanides. _Hyginus_, _preface_.――――The wife of Inachus, and mother
of Io. _Hyginus_, fable 145.――――The mother of Argos by Polybus.
_Hyginus_, fable 145.――――A daughter of Autesion, who married
Aristodemus, by whom she had two sons, Eurysthenes and Procles.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 2.――_Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 3.
=Argias=, a man who founded Chalcedon, A.U.C. 148.
=Argilētum=, a place at Rome near the Palatium, where the tradesmen
generally kept their shops. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8, li. 355.
――_Martial_, bk. 1, ltr. 4.
=Argilius=, a favourite youth of Pausanias, who revealed his master’s
correspondence with the Persian king to the Ephori. _Cornelius
Nepos_, _Pausanias_.
=Argillus=, a mountain of Egypt near the Nile.
=Argĭlus=, a town of Thrace near the Strymon, built by a colony of
Andrians. _Thucydides_, bk. 4, ch. 103.――_Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 115.
=Arginūsæ=, three small islands near the continent, between Mitylene
and Methymna, where the Lacedæmonian fleet was conquered by Conon
the Athenian. _Strabo_, bk. 13.
=Argiŏpe=, a nymph of mount Parnassus, mother of Thamyris by Philammon
the son of Apollo. _Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 33.
=Argiphontes=, a surname given to Mercury, because he _killed_ the
hundred-eyed _Argus_, by order of Jupiter.
=Argippēi=, a nation among the Sauromatians, born bald, and with flat
noses. They lived upon trees. _Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 23.
=Argīva=, a surname of Juno, worshipped at Argos. She had also a temple
at Sparta, consecrated to her by Eurydice the daughter of Lacedæmon.
_Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 13.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 547.
=Argīvi=, the inhabitants of the city of Argos and the neighbouring
country. The word is indiscriminately applied by the poets to all
the inhabitants of Greece.
=Argius=, a steward of Galba, who privately interred the body of his
master in his gardens. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 1, ch. 49.
=Argo=, the name of the famous ship which carried Jason and his 54
companions to Colchis, when they resolved to recover the golden
fleece. The derivation of the word Argo has often been disputed.
Some derive it from Argos, the person who first proposed the
expedition, and who built the ship. Others maintain that it was
built at Argos, whence its name. Cicero, _Tusculanæ Disputationes_,
bk. 1, ch. 20, calls it Argo, because it carried Grecians, commonly
called Argives. Diodorus, bk. 4, derives the word from ἀργος, which
signifies _swift_. Ptolemy says, but falsely, that Hercules built
the ship, and called it Argo after a son of Jason, who bore the same
name. The ship Argo had 50 oars. According to many authors, she had
a beam on her prow, cut in the forest of Dodona by Minerva, which
had the power of giving oracles to the Argonauts. This ship was
the first that ever sailed on the sea, as some report. After the
expedition was finished, Jason ordered her to be drawn aground at
the isthmus of Corinth, and consecrated to the god of the sea. The
poets have made her a constellation in heaven. Jason was killed
by a beam which fell from the top, as he slept on the ground near
it. _Hyginus_, fable 14; _Poetica astronomica_, bk. 2, ch. 37.
――_Catullus_, _Marriage of Peleus and Thetis_.――_Valerius Flaccus_,
bk. 1, li. 93, &c.――_Phædras_, bk. 4, fable 6.――_Seneca_, _Medea_.
――_Apollonius_, _Argonautica_.――_Apollodorus._――_Cicero_, _de Natura
Deorum_.――_Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 56.――_Marcus Manilius_, bk. 1.
=Argolĭcus sinus=, a bay on the coast of Argolis.
=Argŏlis= and =Argia=, a country of Peloponnesus between Arcadia and
the Ægean sea. Its chief city was called Argos.
=Argon=, one of the descendants of Hercules, who reigned in Lydia 505
years before Gyges. _Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 7.
=Argonautæ=, a name given to those ancient heroes who went with Jason
on board the ship Argo to Colchis, about 79 years before the taking
of Troy, or 1263 B.C. The causes of this expedition arose from the
following circumstance:――Athamas king of Thebes had married Ino
the daughter of Cadmus, whom he divorced to marry Nephele, by whom
he had two children, Phryxus and Helle. As Nephele was subject to
certain fits of madness, Athamas repudiated her, and took a second
time Ino, by whom he had soon after two sons, Learchus and Melicerta.
As the children of Nephele were to succeed to their father by
right of birth, Ino conceived an immortal hatred against them, and
she caused the city of Thebes to be visited by a pestilence, by
poisoning all the grain which had been sown in the earth. Upon this
the oracle was consulted; and as it had been corrupted by means of
Ino, the answer was, that Nephele’s children should be immolated to
the gods. Phryxus was apprised of this, and he immediately embarked
with his sister Helle, and fled to the court of Æetes king of
Colchis, one of his near relations. In the voyage Helle died, and
Phryxus arrived safe at Colchis, and was received with kindness
by the king. The poets have embellished the flight of Phryxus, by
supposing that he and Helle fled through the air on a ram which had
a golden fleece and wings, and was endowed with the faculties of
speech. This ram, as they say, was the offspring of Neptune’s amours,
under the form of a ram, with the nymph Theopane. As they were
going to be sacrificed, the ram took them on his back, and instantly
disappeared in the air. On their way Helle was giddy, and fell
into that part of the sea which from her was called the Hellespont.
When Phryxus came to Colchis, he sacrificed the ram to Jupiter, or,
according to others, to Mars, to whom he also dedicated the golden
fleece. He soon after married Chalciope the daughter of Æetes; but
his father-in-law envied him the possession of the golden fleece,
and therefore to obtain it he murdered him. Some time after this
event, when Jason the son of Æson demanded of his uncle Pelias the
crown which he usurped [_See:_ Pelias, Jason, Æson], Pelias said
that he would restore it to him, provided he avenged the death of
their common relation Phryxus, whom Æetes had basely murdered in
Colchis. Jason, who was in the vigour of youth, and of an ambitious
soul, cheerfully undertook the expedition, and embarked with all the
young princes of Greece in the ship Argo. They stopped at the island
of Lemnos, where they remained two years, and raised a new race of
men from the Lemnian women who had murdered their husbands. _See:_
Hypsipyle. After they had left Lemnos, they visited Samothrace,
where they offered sacrifices to the gods, and thence passed to
Troas and Cyzicum. Here they met with a favourable reception from
Cyzicus the king of the country. The night after their departure,
they were driven back by a storm again on the coast of Cyzicum, and
the inhabitants, supposing them to be their enemies, the Pelasgi,
furiously attacked them. In this nocturnal engagement the slaughter
was great, and Cyzicus was killed by the hand of Jason, who, to
expiate the murder he had ignorantly committed, buried him in a
magnificent manner, and offered a sacrifice to the mother of the
gods, to whom he built a temple on mount Dindymus. From Cyzicum they
visited Bebrycia, otherwise called Bithynia, where Pollux accepted
the challenge of Amycus king of the country in the combat of the
cestus, and slew him. They were driven from Bebrycia by a storm to
Salmydessa, on the coast of Thrace, where they delivered Phineus
king of the place from the persecution of the harpies. Phineus
directed their course through the Cyanean rock or the Symplegades
[_See:_ Cyaneæ], and they safely entered the Euxine sea. They
visited the country of the Mariandynians, where Lycus reigned,
and lost two of their companions, Idmon, and Tiphys their pilot.
After they had left this coast, they were driven upon the island of
Arecia, where they found the children of Phryxus, whom Æetes their
grandfather had sent to Greece to take possession of their father’s
kingdom. From this island they at last arrived safe in Æa, the
capital of Colchis. Jason explained the causes of his voyage to
Æetes; but the conditions on which he was to recover the golden
fleece were so hard, that the Argonauts must have perished in the
attempt, had not Medea the king’s daughter fallen in love with their
leader. She had a conference with Jason, and after mutual oaths of
fidelity in the temple of Hecate, Medea pledged herself to deliver
the Argonauts from her father’s hard conditions, if Jason married
her, and carried her with him to Greece. He was to tame two bulls,
which had brazen feet and horns, and which vomited clouds of fire
and smoke, and to tie them to a plough made of adamant stone, and to
plough a field of two acres of ground never before cultivated. After
this he was to sow in the plain the teeth of a dragon, from which
an armed multitude were to rise up, and to be all destroyed by his
hands. This done, he was to kill an ever-watchful dragon, which was
at the bottom of the tree, on which the golden fleece was suspended.
All these labours were to be performed in one day; and Medea’s
assistance, whose knowledge of herbs, magic, and potions was
unparalleled, easily extricated Jason from all danger to the
astonishment and terror of his companions, and of Æetes, and the
people of Colchis, who had assembled to be spectators of this
wonderful action. He tamed the bulls with ease, ploughed the field,
sowed the dragon’s teeth, and when the armed men sprang from the
earth, he threw a stone in the midst of them, and they immediately
turned their weapons one against the other, till they all perished.
After this he went to the dragon and by means of enchanted herbs,
and a draught which Medea had given him he lulled the monster to
sleep, and obtained the golden fleece, and immediately set sail with
Medea. He was soon pursued by Absyrtus the king’s son, who came up
to them, and was seized and murdered by Jason and Medea. The mangled
limbs of Absyrtus were strewed in the way through which Æetes was
to pass, that his further pursuit might be stopped. After the murder
of Absyrtus, they entered the Palus Mæotis, and by pursuing their
course towards the left, according to the foolish account of poets
who were ignorant of geography, they came to the island Peucestes,
and to that of Circe. Here Circe informed Jason that the cause of
all his calamities arose from the murder of Absyrtus, of which she
refused to expiate him. Soon after, they entered the Mediterranean
by the columns of Hercules, and passed the straits of Charybdis and
Scylla, where they must have perished, had not Tethys the mistress
of Peleus, one of the Argonauts, delivered them. They were preserved
from the Sirens by the eloquence of Orpheus, and arrived in the
island of the Phæacians, where they met the enemy’s fleet, which
had continued their pursuit by a different course. It was therefore
resolved that Medea should be restored, if she had not been actually
married to Jason; but the wife of Alcinous the king of the country,
being appointed umpire between the Colchians and Argonauts, had
the marriage privately consummated by night, and declared that the
claims of Æetes to Medea were now void. From Phæacia the Argonauts
came to the bay of Ambracia, whence they were driven by a storm
upon the coast of Africa, and, after many disasters, at last came
in sight of the promontory of Melea in the Peloponnesus, where Jason
was purified of the murder of Absyrtus, and soon after arrived safe
in Thessaly. The impracticability of such a voyage is well known.
Apollonius Rhodius gives another account, equally improbable. He
says that they sailed from the Euxine up one of the mouths of the
Danube, and that Absyrtus pursued them by entering another mouth of
the river. After they had continued their voyage for some leagues,
the waters decreased, and they were obliged to carry the ship Argo
across the country to the Adriatic, upwards of 150 miles. Here they
met with Absyrtus, who had pursued the same measures, and conveyed
his ships in like manner over the land. Absyrtus was immediately put
to death; and soon after the beam of Dodona [_See:_ Argo] gave an
oracle, that Jason should never return home if he was not previously
purified of the murder. Upon this they sailed to the island of
Æa, where Circe, who was the sister of Æetes, expiated him without
knowing who he was. There is a third tradition, which maintains that
they returned to Colchis a second time, and visited many places of
Asia. This famous expedition has been celebrated in the ancient ages
of the world; it has employed the pen of many writers, and among
the historians, Diodorus, Siculus, Strabo, Apollodorus, and Justin;
and among the poets, Onomacritus, more generally called Orpheus,
Apollonius Rhodius, Pindar, and Valerius Flaccus, have extensively
given an account of its most remarkable particulars. The number of
the Argonauts is not exactly known. Apollodorus and Diodorus say
that they were 54. Tzetzes admits the number of 50, but Apollodorus
mentions only 45. The following list is drawn from the various
authors who have made mention of the Argonautic expedition. Jason
son of Æson, as is well known, was the chief of the rest. His
companions were Acastus son of Pelias, Actor son of Hippasus,
Admetus son of Pheres, Æsculapius son of Apollo, Ætalides son of
Mercury and Eupoleme, Almenus son of Mars, Amphiaraus son of Œcleus,
Amphidamus son of Aleus, Amphion son of Hyperasius, Anceus a son of
Lycurgus, and another of the same name, Areus, Argus the builder of
the ship Argo, Argus son of Phryxus, Armenus, Ascalaphus son of Mars,
Asterion son of Cometes, Asterius son of Neleus, Augeas son of Sol,
Atalanta daughter of Schœneus, disguised in a man’s dress, Autolycus
son of Mercury, Azorus, Buphagus, Butes son of Teleon, Calais son
of Boreas, Canthus son of Abas, Castor son of Jupiter, Ceneus son
of Elatus, Cepheus son of Aleus, Cius, Clytius and Iphitus sons of
Eurythus, Coronus, Deucalion son of Minos, Echion son of Mercury
and Antianira, Ergynus son of Neptune, Euphemus son of Neptune
and Macionassa, Eribotes, Euryalus son of Cisteus, Eurydamus and
Eurythion sons of Iras, Eurytus son of Mercury, Glaucus, Hercules
son of Jupiter, Idas son of Aphareus, Ialmenus son of Mars, Idmon
son of Abas, Iolaus son of Iphiclus, Iphiclus son of Thestius,
Iphiclus son of Philacus, Iphis son of Alector, Lynceus son of
Aphareus, Iritus son of Naubolus, Laertes son of Arcesius, Laocoon,
Leodatus son of Bias, Leitus son of Alector, Meleager son of Œneus,
Menœtius son of Actor, Mopsus son of Amphycus, Nauplius son of
Neptune, Neleus the brother of Peleus, Nestor son of Neleus, Oileus
the father of Ajax, Orpheus son of Œager, Palemon son of Ætolus,
Peleus and Telamon sons of Æacus, Periclymenes son of Neleus,
Peneleus son of Hipalmus, Philoctetes son of Pœan, Phlias, Pollux
son of Jupiter, Polyphemus son of Elates, Pœas son of Thaumacus,
Phanus son of Bacchus, Phalerus son of Alcon, Phocas and Priasus
sons of Ceneus one of the Lapithæ, Talaus, Tiphys son of Aginus,
Staphilus son of Bacchus, two of the name of Iphitus, Theseus son
of Ægeus, with his friend Pirithous. Among these Æsculapius was
physician, and Tiphys was pilot.
=Argos= (singular neuter, and Argi, masculine plural), an ancient city,
capital of Argolis in Peloponnesus, about two miles from the sea,
on the bay called _Argolicus sinus_. Juno was the chief deity of the
place. The kingdom of Argos was founded by Inachus 1856 years before
the christian era, and after it had flourished for about 550 years,
it was united to the crown of Mycenæ. Argos was built according to
Euripides, _Iphigeneia in Aulis_, lis. 152, 534, by seven Cyclops
who came from Syria. These Cyclops were not Vulcan’s workmen. The
nine first kings of Argos were called _Inachides_, in honour of
the founder. Their names were Inachus, Phoroneus, Apis, Argus,
Chryasus, Phorbas, Triopas, Stelenus, and Gelanor. Gelanor gave
a kind reception to Danaus, who drove him from his kingdom in
return for his hospitality. The descendants of Danaus were called
_Belides_. Agamemnon was king of Argos during the Trojan war; and,
80 years after, the Heraclidæ seized the Peloponnesus and deposed
the monarchs. The inhabitants of Argos were called _Argivi_ and
_Argolici_; and this name has been often applied to all the Greeks
without distinction. _Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 56.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch.
15, &c.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ode 7.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 9,
ch. 15.――_Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 13, &c.; bk. 2, ch. 3.
――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, 4to, &c.――――A town of Thessaly, called
Pelasgicon by the Pelasgians. _Lucan_, bk. 6, li. 355.――――Another in
Epirus, called Amphilochium.
=Argus=, a king of Argos, who reigned 70 years.――――A son of Arestor,
whence he is often called _Arestorides_. He married Ismene the
daughter of the Asopus. As he had 100 eyes, of which only two were
asleep at one time, Juno set him to watch Io, whom Jupiter had
changed into a heifer: but Mercury, by order of Jupiter, slew him,
by lulling all his eyes asleep with the sound of his lyre. Juno put
the eyes of Argus on the tail of the peacock, a bird sacred to her
divinity. _Moschus_, _Idyl_.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, fables
12 & 13.――_Propertius_, bk. 1, li. 585, &c.; poem 3.――_Apollodorus_,
bk. 1, ch. 9; bk. 2, ch. 1.――――A son of Agenor. _Hyginus_, fable 145.
――――A son of Danaus, who built the ship Argo. _Hyginus_, fable 14.
――――A Son of Jupiter and Niobe, the first child which the father
of the gods had by a mortal. He built Argos, and married Evadne the
daughter of Strymon. _Hyginus_, fable 145.――――A son of Pyras and
Callirhoe. _Hyginus_, fable 145.――――A son of Phryxus. _Hyginus_,
fable 3.――――A son of Polybus. _Hyginus_, fable 14.――――One of
Actæon’s dogs. _Apollodorus._――――A dog of Ulysses, which knew his
master after an absence of 20 years. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 17,
li. 300.
=Argyllæ=, an ancient name of Cære in Etruria. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 7, li. 652; bk. 8, li. 478.
=Argynnis=, a name of Venus, which she received from _Argynnus_,
a favourite youth of Agamemnon, who was drowned in the Cephisus.
_Propertius_, bk. 3, poem 5, li. 52.
=Argy̆ra=, a nymph greatly beloved by a shepherd called Selimnus. She
was changed into a fountain, and the shepherd into a river of the
same name, whose waters made lovers forget the object of their
affections. _See:_ Selimnus. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 23.――――A city
of Troas.――――Also the native place of Diodorus Siculus in Sicily.
=Argy̆raspĭdes=, a Macedonian legion which received this name from
their silver helmets. _Curtius_, bk. 4, ch. 13.
=Argy̆re=, an island beyond the mouth of the river Indus, abounding in
metal. _Mela_, bk. 3, ch. 7.
=Argyrĭpa=, a town of Apulia built by Diomedes after the Trojan war,
and called by Polybius _Argipana_. Only ruins remain to show where
it once stood, though the place still preserves the name of Arpi.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 11, li. 246.
=Aria=, a country of Asia, situate at the east of Parthia. _Mela_,
bk. 1, ch. 2; bk. 2, ch. 7.――――The wife of Pætus Cecinna of Padua,
a Roman senator who was accused of conspiracy against Claudius,
and carried to Rome by sea. She accompanied him, and in the boat
she stabbed herself, and presented the sword to her husband, who
followed her example. _Pliny_, bk. 7.
=Ariadne=, daughter of Minos II. king of Crete by Pasiphae, fell in
love with Theseus, who was shut up in the labyrinth to be devoured
by the Minotaur, and gave him a clue of thread, by which he
extricated himself from the difficult windings of his confinement.
After he had conquered the Minotaur, he carried her away according
to the promise he had made, and married her; but when he arrived at
the island of Naxos he forsook her, though she was already pregnant,
and repaid his love with the most endearing tenderness. Ariadne
was so disconsolate upon being abandoned by Theseus, that she hung
herself, according to some; but Plutarch says that she lived many
years after, and had some children by Onarus the priest of Bacchus.
According to some writers, Bacchus loved her after Theseus had
forsaken her, and he gave her a crown of seven stars, which, after
her death, was made a constellation. The Argives showed Ariadne’s
tomb, and when one of their temples was repaired, her ashes were
found in an earthen urn. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 11, li. 320, says
that Diana detained Ariadne at Naxos. _Plutarch_, _Theseus_.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 8, fable 2; _Heroides_, poem 10; _De Ars
Amatoria_, bk. 2; _Fasti_, bk. 3, li. 462.――_Catullus_, _Marriage
of Peleus and Thetis_; poem 61.――_Hyginus_, fables 14, 43, 270.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 1.
=Ariæus=, an officer who succeeded to the command of the surviving
army after the death of Cyrus the younger, after the battle of
Cunaxa. He made peace with Artaxerxes. _Xenophon._
=Ariāni= and =Ariēni=, a people of Asia. _Dionysius Periegetes_,
li. 714.
=Ariantas=, a king of Scythia, who yearly ordered every one of his
subjects to present him with an arrow. _Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 81.
=Ariamnes=, a king of Cappadocia, son of Ariarathes III.
=Ariarāthes=, a king of Cappadocia, who joined Darius Ochus in his
expedition against Egypt, where he acquired much glory.――――His
nephew, the second of that name, defended his kingdom against
Perdiccas the general of Alexander, but he was defeated and hung
on a cross in the 81st year of his age, 321 B.C.――――His son
Ariarathes III. escaped the massacre which attended his father
and his followers; and after the death of Perdiccas, he recovered
Cappadocia, by conquering Amyntas the Macedonian general. He was
succeeded by his son Ariamnes.――――Ariarathes IV. succeeded his
father Ariamnes, and married Stratonice daughter of Antiochus Theos.
He died after a reign of 28 years, B.C. 220, and was succeeded by
his son Ariarathes V., a prince who married Antiochia the daughter
of king Antiochus, whom he assisted against the Romans. Antiochus
being defeated, Ariarathes saved his kingdom from invasion by paying
the Romans a large sum of money remitted at the instance of the king
of Pergamus.――――His son, the sixth of that name, called _Philopater_,
from his piety, succeeded him 166 B.C. An alliance with the Romans
shielded him against the false claims that were laid to his crown by
one of the favourites of Demetrius king of Syria. He was maintained
on his throne by Attalus, and assisted his friends of Rome against
Aristonicus the usurper of Pergamus; but he was killed in the war,
B.C. 130, leaving six children, five of whom were murdered by his
surviving wife Laodice.――――The only one who escaped, Ariarathes VII.,
was proclaimed king, and soon after married Laodice the sister of
Mithridates Eupator, by whom he had two sons. He was murdered by an
illegitimate brother, upon which his widow Laodice gave herself and
kingdom to Nicomedes king of Bithynia. Mithridates made war against
the new king, and raised his nephew to the throne. The young king,
who was the eighth of the name of Ariarathes, made war against the
tyrannical Mithridates, by whom he was assassinated in the presence
of both armies, and the murderer’s son, a child eight years old,
was placed on the vacant throne. The Cappadocians revolted, and made
the late monarch’s brother, Ariarathes IX., king; but Mithridates
expelled him, and restored his own son. The exiled prince died of
a broken heart, and Nicomedes of Bithynia, dreading the power of
the tyrant, interested the Romans in the affairs of Cappadocia.
The arbiters wished to make the country free; but the Cappadocians
demanded a king, and received Ariobarzanes, B.C. 91. On the death
of Ariobarzanes, his brother ascended the throne, under the name of
Ariarathes X.; but his title was disputed by Sisenna, the eldest son
of Glaphyra by Arthelaus priest of Comana. Marcus Antony, who was
umpire between the contending parties, decided in favour of Sisenna;
but Ariarathes recovered it for a while, though he was soon after
obliged to yield in favour of Archelaus, the second son of Glaphyra,
B.C. 36. _Diodorus_, bk. 18.――_Justin_, bks. 13 & 29.――_Strabo_,
bk. 12.
=Aribbæus=, a general mentioned by _Polyænus_, bk. 7, ch. 29.
=Arīcia=, an Athenian princess, niece to Ægeus, whom Hippolytus married
after he had been raised from the dead by Æsculapius. He built a
city in Italy, which he called by her name. He had a son by her
called Virbius. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 15, li. 544.――_Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 762, &c.――――A very ancient town of Italy, now
_Riccia_, built by Hippolytus son of Theseus, after he had been
raised from the dead by Æsculapius, and transported into Italy by
Diana. In a grove in the neighbourhood of Aricia, Theseus built a
temple to Diana, where he established the same rites as were in the
temple of that goddess in Tauris. The priest of this temple, called
_Rex_, was always a fugitive, and the murderer of his predecessor,
and went always armed with a dagger, to prevent whatever attempts
might be made upon his life by one who wished to be his successor.
The Arician forest, frequently called _nemorensis_ or _nemoralis
sylva_, was very celebrated, and no horses would ever enter it,
because Hippolytus had been killed by them. Egeria, the favourite
nymph, and invisible protectress of Numa, generally resided in this
famous grove, which was situated on the Appian way, beyond mount
Albanus. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 15; _Fasti_, bk. 3, li. 263.
――_Lucan_, bk. 6, li. 74.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 761, &c.
=Aricīna=, a surname of Diana, from her temple near Aricia. _See:_
Aricia.――――The mother of Octavius. _Cicero_, bk. 3, _Philippics_,
ch. 6.
=Aridæus=, a companion of Cyrus the younger. After the death of his
friend he reconciled himself to Artaxerxes, by betraying to him the
surviving Greeks in their return. _Diodorus._――――An illegitimate
son of Philip, who, after the death of Alexander, was made king of
Macedonia till Roxane, who was pregnant by Alexander brought into
the world a legitimate male successor. Aridæus had not the free
enjoyment of his senses; and therefore Perdiccas, one of Alexander’s
generals, declared himself his protector, and even married his
sister to strengthen their connection. He was seven years in
possession of the sovereign power, and was put to death, with his
wife Eurydice, by Olympias. _Justin_, bk. 9, ch. 8.――_Diodorus._
=Ariēnis=, daughter of Alyattes, married Astyages king of Media.
_Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 74.
=Arigæum=, a town of India, which Alexander found burnt, and without
inhabitants. _Arrian_, bk. 4.
=Arīi=, a savage people of India,――――of Arabia. _Pliny_, bk. 6.――――Of
Scythia. _Herodotus._――――Of Germany. _Tacitus._
=Arĭma=, a place of Cilicia or Syria, where Typhœus was overwhelmed
under the ground. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2.
=Arimarius=, a god of Persia and Media.
=Arimaspi=, a people conquered by Alexander the Great. _Curtius_,
bk. 7, ch. 3.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 1.
=Arimaspias=, a river of Scythia with golden sands. The neighbouring
inhabitants had but one eye, in the middle of their forehead, and
waged continual wars against the griffins, monstrous animals that
collected the gold of the river. _Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 3.――_Herodotus_,
bks. 3 & 4.――_Strabo_, bks. 1 & 13.
=Arimasthæ=, a people near the Euxine sea. _Orpheus_, _Argonautica_.
=Arimazes=, a powerful prince of Sogdiana, who treated Alexander with
much insolence, and even asked whether he could fly to aspire to so
extensive a dominion. He surrendered and was exposed on a cross with
his friends and relations. _Curtius_, bk. 7, ch. 11.
=Arĭmi=, a nation of Syria. _Strabo._
=Arīmĭnum= (now _Rimini_), an ancient city of Italy, near the Rubicon,
on the borders of Gaul, on the Adriatic founded by a colony of
Umbrians. It was the cause of Cæsar’s civil wars. _Lucan_, bk. 1,
li. 231.――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 15.
=Ariminus=, a river of Italy rising in the Apennine mountains. _Pliny_,
bk. 3, ch. 15.
=Arimphœi=, a people of Scythia near the Riphæan mountains, who lived
chiefly upon berries in the woods, and were remarkable for their
innocence and mildness. _Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 7.
=Arĭmus=, a king of Mysia. _Varro._
=Ariobarzānes=, a man made king of Cappadocia by the Romans, after
the troubles which the false Ariarathes had raised had subsided.
Mithridates drove him from his kingdom, but the Romans restored him.
He followed the interest of Pompey, and fought at Pharsalia against
Julius Cæsar. He and his kingdom were preserved by means of Cicero.
_Cicero_, bk. 5, _Letters to Atticus_, ltr. 29.――_Horace_, ltr. 6,
li. 38.――_Florus_, bk. 3, ch. 5.――――A satrap of Phrygia, who, after
the death of Mithridates, invaded the kingdom of Pontus, and kept it
for 26 years. He was succeeded by the son of Mithridates. _Diodorus_,
bk. 17.――――A general of Darius, who defended the passes of Susa
with 15,000 foot against Alexander. After a bloody encounter with
the Macedonians, he was killed as he attempted to seize the city of
Persepolis. _Diodorus_, bk. 17.――_Curtius_, bks. 4 & 5.――――A Mede
of elegant stature and great prudence, whom Tiberius appointed to
settle the troubles of Armenia. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 2, ch. 4.
――――A mountain between Parthia and the country of the Massagetæ.
――――A satrap, who revolted from the Persian king.
=Ariomandes=, son of Gobryas, was general of Athens against the
Persians. _Plutarch_, _Cimon_.
=Ariomardus=, a son of Darius, in the army of Xerxes when he went
against Greece. _Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 78.
=Ariomēdes=, a pilot of Xerxes.
=Arīon=, a famous lyric poet and musician, son of Cyclos of Methymna,
in the island of Lesbos. He went into Italy with Periander tyrant
of Corinth, where he obtained immense riches by his profession.
Some time after, he wished to revisit his country; and the sailors
of the ship in which he embarked resolved to murder him, to obtain
the riches which he was carrying to Lesbos. Arion, seeing them
inflexible in their resolution, begged that he might be permitted
to play some melodious tune; and as soon as he had finished it, he
threw himself into the sea. A number of dolphins had been attracted
round the ship by the sweetness of his music; and it is said that
one of them carried him safe on his back to Tænarus, whence he
hastened to the court of Periander, who ordered all the sailors to
be crucified at their return. _Hyginus_, fable 194.――_Herodotus_,
bk. 1, chs. 23 & 24.――_Ælian_, _de Natura Animalium_, bk. 13, ch. 45.
――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 11.――_Propertius_, bk. 2, poem 26, li. 17.
――_Plutarch_, _Convivium Septem Sapientium_.――――A horse, sprung from
Ceres and Neptune. Ceres, when she travelled over the world in quest
of her daughter Proserpine, had taken the figure of a mare, to avoid
the importuning addresses of Neptune. The god changed himself also
into a horse, and from their union arose a daughter called Hera,
and the horse Arion, which had the power of speech, the feet on
the right side like those of a man, and the rest of the body like a
horse. Arion was brought up by the Nereides, who often harnessed him
to his father’s chariot, which he drew over the sea with uncommon
swiftness. Neptune gave him to Copreus, who presented him to
Hercules. Adrastus king of Argos received him as a present from
Hercules and with this wonderful animal he won the prize at the
Nemæan games. Arion, therefore, is often called the horse of
Adrastus. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 25.――_Propertius_, bk. 2, poem 34,
li. 37.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 6.
=Ariovistus=, a king of Germany, who professed himself a friend of
Rome. When Cæsar was in Gaul, Ariovistus marched against him, and
was conquered with the loss of 80,000 men. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_,
bk. 1.――_Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 4.
=Aris=, a river of Messenia. _Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 31.
=Arisba=, a town of Lesbos, destroyed by an earthquake. _Pliny_, bk. 5,
ch. 31.――――A colony of the Mityleneans in Troas, destroyed by the
Trojans before the coming of the Greeks. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9,
li. 264.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 7.――――The name of Priam’s first wife,
divorced that the monarch might marry Hecuba.
=Aristænĕtus=, a writer whose epistles have been beautifully edited by
Abresch. Zwollæ, 1749.
=Aristæum=, a city of Thrace at the foot of mount Hæmus. _Pliny_,
bk. 4, ch. 11.
=Aristæus=, son of Apollo and the nymph Cyrene, was born in the deserts
of Libya, and brought up by the Seasons, and fed upon nectar and
ambrosia. His fondness for hunting procured him the surname of Nomus
and Agreus. After he had travelled over the greatest part of the
world, Aristæus came to settle in Greece, where he married Autonoe
the daughter of Cadmus, by whom he had a son called Actæon. He fell
in love with Eurydice the wife of Orpheus, and pursued her in the
fields. She was stung by a serpent that lay in the grass, and died,
for which the gods destroyed all the bees of Aristæus. In this
calamity he applied to his mother, who directed him to seize the
sea-god Proteus, and consult him how he might repair the losses he
had sustained. Proteus advised him to appease the manes of Eurydice
by the sacrifice of four bulls and four heifers; and as soon as he
had done it and left them in the air, swarms of bees immediately
sprang from the rotten carcases, and restored Aristæus to his former
prosperity. Some authors say that Aristæus had the care of Bacchus
when young, and that he was initiated in the mysteries of this god.
Aristæus went to live on mount Hæmus, where he died. He was, after
death, worshipped as a demi-god. Aristæus is said to have learned
from the nymphs the cultivation of olives, and the management of
bees, &c., which he afterwards communicated to the rest of mankind.
_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 4, li. 317.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Justin_,
bk. 13, ch. 7.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 1, li. 363.――_Cicero_, _de
Natura Deorum_, bk. 3, ch. 18.――_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 17.
――_Hyginus_, fables 161, 180, 247.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 4.
――_Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 4, &c.――_Polyænus_, bk. 1, ch. 24.――――A
general who commanded the Corinthian forces at the siege of Potidæa.
He was taken by the Athenians and put to death.
=Aristagŏras=, a writer who composed a history of Egypt. _Pliny_,
bk. 36, ch. 12.――――A son-in-law of Histiæus tyrant of Miletus, who
revolted from Darius, and incited the Athenians against Persia,
and burnt Sardis. This so exasperated the king, that every evening
before supper he ordered his servants to remind him of punishing
Aristagoras. He was killed in a battle against the Persians, B.C.
499. _Herodotus_, bk. 5, ch. 30, &c.; bk. 7, ch. 8.――_Polyænus_,
bk. 1, ch. 14.――――A man of Cyzicus.――――Another of Cumæ. _Herodotus_,
bk. 4.
=Aristander=, a celebrated soothsayer, greatly esteemed by Alexander.
_Plutarch_, _Alexander_.――_Pliny_, bk. 17, ch. 25.――――An Athenian,
who wrote on agriculture.
=Aristandros=, a statuary of Sparta. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 18.
=Aristarche=, a matron of Ephesus, who by order of Diana sailed to the
coasts of Gaul with the Phocæans, and was made priestess. _Strabo_,
bk. 4.
=Aristarchus=, a celebrated grammarian of Samos, disciple of
Aristophanes. He lived the greatest part of his life at Alexandria,
and Ptolemy Philometer entrusted him with the education of his sons.
He was famous for his critical powers, and he revised the poems of
Homer with such severity that ever after all severe critics were
called _Aristarchi_. He wrote above 800 commentaries on different
authors, much esteemed in his age. In his old age he became
dropsical, upon which he starved himself, and died in his 72nd year,
B.C. 157. He left two sons called Aristarchus and Aristagoras, both
famous for their stupidity. _Horace_, _Art of Poetry_, li. 499.
――_Ovid_, bk. 3, _ex Ponto_, ltr. 9, li. 24.――_Cicero_, _Letters to
his Friends_, bk. 3, ltr. 11; _Letters to Atticus_, bk. 1, ltr. 14.
――_Quintilian_, bk. 10, ch. 1.――――A tragic poet of Tegea in Arcadia,
about 454 years B.C. He composed 70 tragedies, of which two only
were rewarded with the prize. One of them, called Achilles, was
translated into Latin verse by Ennius. _Suidas._――――A physician
to queen Berenice the widow of Antiochus. _Polyænus_, bk. 8.――――An
orator of Ambracia.――――An astronomer of Samos, who first supposed
that the earth turned round its axis, and revolved round the sun.
This doctrine nearly proved fatal to him, as he was accused of
disturbing the peace of the gods Lares. He maintained that the sun
was 19 times further distant from the earth than the moon, and that
the moon was 56 semi-diameters of our globe, and little more than
one-third, and the diameter of the sun six or seven times more than
that of the earth. The age in which he flourished is not precisely
known. His treatise on the largeness and the distance of the sun and
moon is extant, of which the best edition is that of Oxford, 8vo,
1688.
=Aristazānes=, a noble Persian in favour with Artaxerxes Ochus.
_Diodorus_, bk. 16.
=Aristeas=, a poet of Proconnesus, who, as fables report, appeared
seven years after his death to his countrymen, and 540 years after
to the people of Metapontum in Italy, and commanded them to raise
him a statue near the temple of Apollo. He wrote an epic poem on
the Arimaspi in three books, and some of his verses are quoted by
Longinus. _Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 13.――_Strabo_, bk. 14.――_Maximus
Tyrius_, bk. 22.――――A ♦physician of Rhodes.――――A geometrician,
intimate with Euclid.――――A poet, son of Demochares, in the age of
Crœsus.
♦ ‘physican’ replaced with ‘physician’
=Aristĕræ=, an island on the coast of Peloponnesus. _Pausanias_, bk. 2,
ch. 34.
=Aristeus=, a man of Argos, who excited king Pyrrhus to take up arms
against his countrymen the Argives. _Polyænus_, bk. 8, ch. 68.
=Aristhĕnes=, a shepherd who found Æsculapius, when he had been
exposed in the woods by his mother Coronis.
=Aristhus=, an historian of Arcadia. _Dionysius of Halicarnassus_,
bk. 1.
=Aristībus=, a river of Pæonia. _Polyænus_, bk. 4, ch. 12.
=Aristīdes=, a celebrated Athenian, son of Lysimachus, whose great
temperance and virtue procured him the surname of _Just_. He was
rival to Themistocles, by whose influence he was banished for 10
years, B.C. 484; but before six years of his exile had elapsed, he
was recalled by the Athenians. He was at the battle of Salamis, and
was appointed chief commander with Pausanias against Mardonius, who
was defeated at Platæa. He died so poor, that the expenses of his
funeral were defrayed at the public charge, and his two daughters,
on account of their father’s virtues, received a dowry from the
public treasury when they were come to marriageable years. Poverty,
however, seemed hereditary in the family of Aristides, for the
grandson was seen in the public streets, getting his livelihood by
explaining dreams. The Athenians became more virtuous in imitating
their great leader: and from the sense of his good qualities, at the
representation of one of the tragedies of Æschylus, on the mentioning
of a sentence concerning moral goodness, the eyes of the audience
were all at once turned from the actor to Aristides. When he sat as
judge, it is said that the plaintiff, in his accusation, mentioned
the injuries his opponent had done to Aristides. “Mention the wrongs
you have received,” replied the equitable Athenian; “I sit here as
judge, and the lawsuit is yours, and not mine.” _Cornelius Nepos_
& _Plutarch_, _Parallel Lives_.――――An historian of Miletus, fonder
of stories, and of anecdotes, than of truth. He wrote a history
of Italy, of which the 40th volume has been quoted by _Plutarch_,
_Parallela minora_.――――An athlete, who obtained a prize at the
Olympian, Nemæan, and Pythian games. _Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 16.
――――A painter of Thebes in Bœotia, in the age of Alexander the Great,
for one of whose pieces Attalus offered 6000 sesterces. _Pliny_,
bks. 7 & 35.――――A Greek orator who wrote 50 orations, besides other
tracts. When Smyrna was destroyed by an earthquake, he wrote so
pathetic a letter to Marcus Aurelius, that the emperor ordered the
city immediately to be rebuilt, and a statue was in consequence
raised to the orator. His works consist of hymns in prose in honour
of the gods, funeral orations, apologies, panegyrics, and harangues,
the best edition of which is that of Jebb, 2 vols., 4to, Oxoford,
1722, and that in a smaller size in 12mo, 3 vols., of Canterus
apud P. Steph. 1604.――――A man of Locris, who died by the bite of a
weasel. _Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 14.――――A philosopher of Mysia,
intimate with Marcus Antoninus.――――An Athenian, who wrote treatises
on animals, trees, and agriculture.
=Aristillus=, a philosopher of the Alexandrian school, who about 300
years B.C. attempted, with Timocharis, to determine the place of
the different stars in the heavens, and to trace the course of the
planets.
=Aristio=, a sophist of Athens, who by the support of Archelaus, the
general of Mithridates, seized the government of his country, and
made himself absolute. He poisoned himself when defeated by Sylla.
_Livy_, bks. 81, 82.
=Aristippus=, _the elder_, a philosopher of Cyrene, disciple to
Socrates, and founder of the Cyrenaic sect. He was one of the
flatterers of Dionysius of Sicily, and distinguished himself for
his epicurean voluptuousness, in support of which he wrote a book,
as likewise a history of Libya. When travelling in the deserts of
Africa, he ordered his servants to throw away the money they carried,
as too burdensome. On another occasion, discovering that the ship
in which he sailed belonged to pirates, he designedly threw his
property into the sea, adding, that he chose rather to lose it than
his life. Many of his sayings and maxims are recorded by _Diogenes
Laërtius_, in his life. _Horace_, bk. 2, satire 3, li. 100.――――His
grandson of the same name, called _the younger_, was a warm defender
of his opinions, and supported that the principles of all things
were pain and pleasure. He flourished about 363 years B.C.――――A
tyrant of Argos, whose life was one continued series of apprehension.
He was killed by a Cretan in a battle against Aratus, B.C. 242.
_Diogenes Laërtius._――――A man who wrote a history of Arcadia.
_Diogenes Laërtius_, bk. 2.
=Marcus Aristius=, a tribune of the soldiers in Cæsar’s army. _Cæsar_,
_Gallic War_, bk. 7, ch. 42.――――Another. _See:_ Fuscus.――――A
satirist, who wrote a poem called Cyclops.
=Aristo.= _See:_ Ariston.
=Aristobūla=, a name given to Diana by Themistocles.
=Aristobūlus=, a name common to some of the high priests and kings
of Judæa, &c. _Josephus._――――A brother of Epicurus.――――One of
Alexander’s attendants, who wrote the king’s life, replete with
adulation and untruth.――――A philosopher of Judæa, B.C. 150.
=Aristoclēa=, a beautiful woman, seen naked by Strato as she was
offering a sacrifice. She was passionately loved by Callisthenes,
and was equally admired by Strato. The two rivals so furiously
contended for her hand, that she died during their quarrel, upon
which Strato killed himself, and Callisthenes was never seen after.
_Plutarch_, _Amatoriæ Narrationes_.
=Aristŏcles=, a peripatetic philosopher of Messenia, who reviewed,
in a treatise on philosophy, the opinions of his predecessors. The
14th book of this treatise is quoted, &c. He also wrote on rhetoric,
and likewise nine books on morals.――――A grammarian of Rhodes.――――A
stoic of Lampsacus.――――An historian. _Strabo_, bk. 4.――――A musician.
_Athenæus_, &c.――――A prince of Tegæa, &c. _Polyænus._――――This name
is common to many Greeks, of whom few or no particulars are recorded.
=Aristoclīdes=, a tyrant of Orchomenes, who, because he could not win
the affection of Stymphalis, killed her and her father, upon which
all Arcadia took up arms and destroyed the murderer.
=Aristocrătes=, a king of Arcadia, put to death by his subjects for
offering violence to the priestess of Diana. _Pausanias_, bk. 8,
ch. 5.――――His grandson, of the same name, was stoned to death
for taking bribes, during the second Messenian war, and being the
cause of the defeat of his Messenian allies, B.C. 682. _Pausanias_,
_ibid._――――A Rhodian.――――A man who endeavoured to destroy the
democratical power at Athens.――――An Athenian general sent to the
assistance of Corcyra with 25 galleys. _Diodorus_, bk. 15.――――An
Athenian who was punished with death for flying from the field
of battle.――――A Greek historian, son of Hipparchus. _Plutarch_,
_Lycurgus_.
=Aristocreon=, the writer of a book on geography.
=Aristocrĭtus=, wrote a treatise concerning Miletus.
=Aristodēme=, a daughter of Priam.
=Aristodēmus=, son of Aristomachus, was one of the Heraclidæ. He,
with his brothers Temenus and Cresphontes, invaded Peloponnesus,
conquered it, and divided the country among themselves, 1104 years
before the christian era. He married Argia, by whom he had the twins
Procles and Eurysthenes. He was killed by a thunderbolt at Naupactum,
though some say that he died at Delphi in Phocis. _Pausanias_,
bk. 2, ch. 18; bk. 3, chs. 1 & 16.――_Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 204;
bk. 8, ch. 131.――――A king of Messenia, who maintained a famous war
against Sparta. After some losses, he recovered his strength, and
so effectually defeated the enemy’s forces, that they were obliged
to prostitute their women to repeople their country. The offspring
of this prostitution were called Partheniæ, and 30 years after
their birth they left Sparta, and seized upon Tarentum. Aristodemus
put his daughter to death for the good of his country; but being
afterwards persecuted in a dream by her manes, he killed himself,
after a reign of six years and some months, in which he had obtained
much military glory, B.C. 724. His death was lamented by his
countrymen, who did not appoint him a successor, but only invested
Damis, one of his friends, with absolute power to continue the war,
which was at last terminated after much bloodshed and many losses
on both sides. _Pausanias_, _Messenia_.――――A tyrant of Cumæ.――――A
philosopher of Ægina.――――An Alexandrian who wrote some treatises, &c.
――――A Spartan who taught the children of Pausanias.――――A man who was
preceptor to the children of Pompey.――――A tyrant of Arcadia.――――A
Carian who wrote a history of painting.――――A philosopher of Nysa,
B.C. 68.
=Aristogĕnes=, a physician of Cnidos, who obtained great reputation
by the cure of Demetrius Gonatus king of Macedonia.――――A Thasian who
wrote 24 books on medicine.
=Aristogīton= and =Harmodius=, two celebrated friends of Athens, who
by their joint efforts delivered their country from the tyranny of
the Pisistratidæ, B.C. 510. They received immortal honours from the
Athenians, and had statues raised to their memory. These statues
were carried away by Xerxes when he took Athens. The conspiracy
of Aristogiton was so secretly planned, and so wisely carried into
execution, that it is said a courtesan bit her tongue off, not
to betray the trust reposed in her. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 29.
――_Herodotus_, bk. 5, ch. 55.――_Plutarch_, _Lives of the Ten
Orators_.――――An Athenian orator, surnamed _Canis_, from his
impudence. He wrote orations against Timarchus, Timotheus, Hyperides,
and Thrasyllus.――――A statuary. _Pausanias._
=Aristolāus=, a painter. _Pliny_, bk. 31, ch. 11.
=Aristomăche=, the wife of Dionysius of Syracuse. _Cicero_, _Tusculanæ
Disputationes_, bk. 5, ch. 20.――――The wife of Dion.――――A poetess.
_Plutarch_, _Convivium Septem Sapientium_.――――A daughter of Priam,
who married Critolaus. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 26.
=Aristomăchus=, an Athenian, who wrote concerning the preparation
of wine. _Pliny_, bk. 14, ch. 9.――――A man so excessively fond of
bees, that he devoted 58 years of his life in raising swarms of
them. _Pliny_, bk. 11, ch. 9.――――The son of Cleodæus and grandson
of Hyllus, whose three sons, Cresphontes, Temenus, and Aristodemus,
called Heraclidæ, conquered Peloponnesus. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 7;
bk. 3, ch. 15.――_Herodotus_, bks. 6, 7, & 8.――――A man who laid aside
his sovereign power at Argos, at the persuasion of Aratus.
_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 8.
=Aristomēdes=, a Thessalian general in the interest of Darius III.
_Curtius_, bk. 3, ch. 9.
=Aristomĕnes=, a commander of the fleet of Darius on the Hellespont,
conquered by the Macedonians. _Curtius_, bk. 4, ch. 1.――――A famous
general of Messenia, who encouraged his countrymen to shake off the
Lacedæmonian yoke under which they had laboured for above 30 years.
He once defended the virtue of some Spartan women, whom his soldiers
had attempted; and when he was taken prisoner and carried to Sparta,
the women whom he had protected interested themselves so warmly in
his cause that they procured his liberty. He refused to assume the
title of king, but was satisfied with that of commander. He acquired
the surname of _Just_, from his equity, to which he joined the true
valour, sagacity, and perseverance of a general. He often entered
Sparta without being known and was so dexterous in eluding the
vigilance of the Lacedæmonians, who had taken him captive, that
he twice escaped from them. As he attempted to do it a third time,
he was unfortunately killed, and his body being opened, his heart
was found all covered with hair. He died 671 years B. C., and it is
said that he left dramatical pieces behind him. _Diodorus_, bk. 15.
――_Pausanias_, _Messenia_.――――A Spartan sent to the assistance of
Dionysius. _Polyænus_, bk. 2.
=Ariston=, the son of Agasicles king of Sparta. Being unable to raise
children by two wives, he married another famous for her beauty, by
whom he had, after seven months, a son Demaratus, whom he had the
impudence to call not his own. _Herodotus_, bk. 6, ch. 61, &c.――――A
general of Ætolia.――――A sculptor.――――A Corinthian who assisted
the Syracusans against the Athenians.――――An officer in Alexander’s
army.――――A tyrant of Methymna, who, being ignorant that Chios had
surrendered to the Macedonians, entered into the harbour, and was
taken and put to death. _Curtius_, bk. 4, ch. 9.――――A philosopher
of Chios, pupil to Zeno the stoic, and founder of a sect which
continued but a little while. He supported that the nature of the
divinity is unintelligible. It is said that he died by the heat of
the sun, which fell too powerfully upon his bald head. In his old
age he was much given to sensuality. _Diogenes Laërtius._――――A
lawyer in Trajan’s reign, whose eulogium has been written by Pliny,
ltr. 22, bk. 1.――――A peripatetic philosopher of Alexandria, who
wrote concerning the course of the Nile. _Strabo._――――A wrestler of
Argos, under whom Plato performed some exercises.――――A musician of
Athens.――――A tragic poet.――――A peripatetic of Cos.――――A native of
Pella, in the age of Adrian, who wrote on the rebellion of the Jews.
=Aristonautæ=, the naval dock of Pellene. _Pausanias_, bk. 2.
=Aristonīcus=, son of Eumenes by a concubine of Ephesus, 126 B.C.,
invaded Asia and the kingdom of Pergamus, which Attalus had left by
his will to the Roman people. He was conquered by the consul Perpenna,
and strangled in prison. _Justin_, bk. 36, ch. 4.――_Florus_, bk. 2,
ch. 20.――――A musician of Olynthus.――――A grammarian of Alexandria,
who wrote a commentary on Hesiod and Homer, besides a treatise on
the museum established in Alexandria by the Ptolemies.
=Aristonĭdes=, a noble statuary. _Pliny_, bk. 34, ch. 14.
=Aristŏnus=, a captain of Alexander’s cavalry. _Curtius_, bk. 9, ch. 5.
=Aristony̆mus=, a comic poet under Philadelphus, keeper of the library
at Alexandria. He died of a retention of urine, in his 77th year.
_Athenæus._――――One of Alexander’s musicians. _Plutarch_, _Alexander_.
=Aristophănes=, a celebrated comic poet of Athens, son of Philip of
Rhodes. He wrote 54 comedies, of which only 11 are come down to us.
He lived in the age of Socrates, Demosthenes, and Euripides, B.C.
434, and lashed the vices of his age with a masterly hand. The wit
and excellence of his comedies are well known; but they abound
sometimes too much with obscenity; and his attack upon the venerable
character of Socrates has been always censured, and with justice.
As a reward for his mental greatness, the poet received a crown of
olive, in a public assembly; but if he deserved praise, he merited
blame for his licentiousness, which spared not even the gods, and was
so offensive to his countrymen, that Alcibiades made a law at Athens,
which forbade the comic writers from mimicking or representing on
the stage any living character by name. Aristophanes has been called
the prince of ancient comedy, as Menander of the new. The play
called _Nubes_ is pointedly against Socrates, and the philosopher
is exposed to ridicule, and his precepts placed in a most ludicrous
point of view by the introduction of one of his pupils in the
characters of the piece. It is said that St. Chrysostom used to
keep the comedies of Aristophanes under his pillow, on account of
the brilliancy of the composition. Plutarch has made a comparison
between the princes of the new and old comedy, which abounds
with many anecdotes concerning these original characters. The
best editions of the works of Aristophanes are, Kuster’s, folio,
Amsterdam, 1710, and the 12mo, Leiden, 1670, and that of Brunck,
4 vols., 8vo, Strasbourg, 1783, which would still be more perfect
did it contain the valuable scholia. _Quintilian_, bk. 10, ch. 1.
――_Paterculus_, bk. 1, ch. 16.――_Horace_, bk. 1, satire 4, li. 1.
――――A grammarian of Byzantium, keeper of the library of Alexandria
under Ptolemy Evergetes. He wrote a treatise on the harlots of
Attica. _Diogenes Laërtius_, _Plutarch_ & _Epicurus_.――_Athenæus_,
bk. 9.――――A Greek historian of Bœotia, quoted by _Plutarch_, _de
Herodoti Malignitate_.――――A writer on agriculture.
=Aristophilīdes=, a king of Tarentum in the reign of Darius son of
Hystaspes. _Herodotus_, bk. 3.
=Aristŏphon=, a painter in the age of Socrates. He drew the picture
of Alcibiades softly reclining on the bosom of the courtesan Nemea,
and all the people of Athens ran in crowds to be spectators of the
masterly piece. He also made a painting of Mars leaning on the arm
of Venus. _Plutarch_, _Alcibiades_.――_Athenæus_, bk. 13.――_Pliny_,
bk. 35, ch. 11.――――A comic poet in the age of Alexander, many of
whose fragments are collected in Athenæus.
=Aristor=, the father of Argus the hundred-eyed keeper of Io.
=Aristorĭdes=, the patronymic of Argus. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 1, li. 624.
=Aristoteleia=, festivals in honour of Aristotle, because he obtained
the restitution of his country from Alexander.
=Aristotĕles=, a famous philosopher, son of the physician Nicomachus
by Festiada, born at Stagira. After his father’s death he went to
Athens to hear Plato’s lectures, where he soon signalized himself
by the brightness of his genius. He had been of an inactive and
dissolute disposition in his youth, but now he applied himself with
uncommon diligence; and after he had spent 20 years in hearing the
instructions of Plato, he opened a school for himself, for which he
was accused of ingratitude and illiberality by his ancient master.
He was moderate in his meals; he slept little, and always had one
arm out of his couch with a bullet in it, which by falling into a
brazen basin underneath, early awakened him. He was, according to
some, 10 years preceptor to Alexander, who received his instructions
with much pleasure and deference, and always respected him. According
to Plutarch, the improvement that Alexander made under Aristotle
was of more service to him than all the splendour and power which he
received from Philip. Almost all his writings, which are composed on
a variety of subjects, are extant: he gave them to Theophrastus at
his death, and they were bought by one of the Ptolemies, and placed
in the famous library of Alexandria. Diogenes Laertes has given
us a very extensive catalogue of them. Aristotle had a deformed
countenance, but his genius was a sufficient compensation for all
his personal defects. He has been called by Plato the philosopher
of truth; and Cicero compliments him with the title of a man of
eloquence, universal knowledge, readiness and acuteness of invention,
and fecundity of thought. The writings of Aristotle have been
compared with those of Plato; but the one are the effusions of a
lively and fruitful imagination, whilst the philosopher of Stagira
studied nature more than art, and had recourse to simplicity of
expression more than ornament. He neither worshipped nor cared for
the divinity, concerning which his opinions were ever various and
dissonant; and the more he disregarded the mythology of the ancients,
the greater was the credit he acquired over his less philosophical
predecessors. He was so authoritative in his opinions, that, as
Bacon observes, he wished to establish the same dominion over men’s
minds, as his pupil over nations. Alexander, it is said, wished
and encouraged his learned tutor to write the history of animals;
and the more effectually to assist him, he supplied him with 800
talents, and in his Asiatic expedition employed above 1000 men to
collect animals, either in fishing, hunting, or hawking, which were
carefully transmitted to the philosopher. Aristotle’s logic has
long reigned in the schools, and been regarded as the perfect model
of all imitation. As he expired, the philosopher is said to have
uttered the following sentiment: _Fœde hunc mundum intravi, anxius
vixi, perturbatus egredior, causa causarum miserere mei_. The letter
which Philip wrote to Aristotle has been preserved, and is in these
words: “I inform you I have a son; I thank the gods, not so much
for making me a father, as for giving me a son in an age when he
can have Aristotle for his instructor. I hope you will make him a
successor worthy of me, and a king worthy of Macedonia.” Aristotle
wished to make his wife Pythias a deity, and to pay her the same
worship as was paid to Ceres. He died in the 63rd year of his age,
B.C. 322. His treatises have been published separately; but the best
edition of the works collectively, is that of Duval, 2 vols., folio,
Paris, 1629. Tyrwhitt’s edition of the Poetica, Oxford, 4to, 1794,
is a valuable acquisition to literature. He had a son whom he called
Nicomachus, by the courtesan Herpyllis. Some have accused him of
being accessary to the death of Alexander, and said that he drowned
himself in the Euripus, because he could not find out the cause of
its flux and reflux. There are, however, different reports about
the manner of his death, and some believe that he died at Athens of
a cholic, two years after Alexander’s death. The people of Stagira
instituted festivals in his honour, because he had rendered
important services to their city. _Diogenes Laërtius_, _Lives of
Eminent Philosophers_.――_Plutarch_, _Alexander_ & _de Alexandri
Magni Fortuna Aut Virtute_, &c.――_Cicero_, _Academica Quæstiones_,
bk. 4; _On Oratory_, bk. 3; _de Finibus_, bk. 5.――_Quintilian_, bks.
1, 2, 5, 10.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 4.――_Justin_, bk. 12.
――_Justin Martyr._――_Augustine_, _City of God_, bk. 8.――_Pliny_,
bks. 2, 4, 5, &c.――_Athenæus._――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 5, ch. 6, &c.
There were besides seven of the same name. A magistrate of Athens.
――――A commentator on Homer’s Iliad.――――An orator of Sicily, who
answered the panegyric of Isocrates.――――A friend of Æschines.――――A
man of Cyrene who wrote on poetry.――――A schoolmaster mentioned in
Plato’s life, written by Aristoxenus.――――An obscure grammarian.
_Diogenes Laërtius_, _Aristotle_.
=Aristotīmus=, a tyrant of Elis, 271 years B.C. _Pausanias_, bk. 5,
ch. 5.
=Aristoxĕnus=, a celebrated musician, disciple of Aristotle, and born
at Tarentum. He wrote 453 different treatises on philosophy, history,
&c., and was disappointed in his expectations of succeeding in the
school of Aristotle, for which he always spoke with ingratitude
of his learned master. Of all his works nothing remains but three
books upon music, the most ancient on that subject extant.――――A
philosopher of Cyrene. _Athenæus._――――A physician whose writings are
quoted by Galen.――――A poet of Selinus.――――A Pythagorean philosopher.
=Aristus=, a Greek historian of Salamas, who wrote an account of
Alexander’s expedition. _Strabo_, bk. 14.――_Arrian_, bk. 7.
=Aristyllus=, an obscure poet. _Aristophanes._――――An astronomer of
Alexandria, 292 B.C.
=Arius=, a river of Gaul, and――――of Asia. The inhabitants in the
neighbourhood are called Arii.――――A celebrated writer, the origin
of the Arian controversy, that denied the eternal divinity and
consubstantiality of the Word. Though he was greatly persecuted for
his opinions, he gained the favour of the emperor Constantine, and
triumphed over his powerful antagonist Athanasius. He died the very
night he was going to enter the church of Constantinople in triumph.
Pressed by nature, he went aside to ease himself; but his bowels
gushed out, and he expired on the spot, A.D. 336. _Athanasius._
=Armĕnes=, a son of Nabis, led in triumph at Rome. _Livy_, bk. 34,
ch. 1.
=Armenia=, a large country of Asia, divided into Upper and Lower
Armenia. Upper Armenia, called also Major, has Media on the east,
Iberia on the north, and Mesopotamia on the south. Lower Armenia,
or Minor, is bounded by Cappadocia, Armenia Major, Syria, Cilicia,
and the Euphrates. The Armenians were a long time under the dominion
of the Medes and Persians, till they were conquered with the rest
of Asia, by Alexander and his successors. The Romans made it one of
their provinces, and under some of the emperors the Armenians had
the privilege of choosing their own kings, but they were afterwards
reduced. The country received its name from Armenus, who was one
of the Argonauts, and of Thessalian origin. They borrowed the names
and attributes of their deities from the Persians. They paid great
adoration to Venus Anaitis, and the chiefest of the people always
prostituted their daughters in honour of this goddess. Armenia Major
is now called Turcomania, and Minor, Aladulia. _Herodotus_, bk. 1,
ch. 194; bk. 5, ch. 49.――_Curtius_, bk. 4, ch. 12; bk. 5, ch. 1.
――_Strabo_, bks. 1 & 11.――_Mela_, bk. 3, chs. 5 & 8.――_Pliny_, bk. 6,
ch. 4, &c.――_Lucan_, bk. 2.
=Armentarius=, a Cæsar in Diocletian’s reign.
=Armillatus=, one of Domitian’s favourites. _Juvenal_, satire 4, li. 53.
=Armilustrium=, a festival at Rome on the 19th of October. When the
sacrifices were offered, all the people appeared under arms. The
festival has often been confounded with that of the Salii, though
easily distinguished; because the latter was observed the 2nd of
March, and on the celebration of the Armilustrium they always played
on a flute, and the Salii played upon the trumpet. It was instituted
A.U.C. 543. _Varro_, _de Lingua Latina_, bk. 5, ch. 3.――_Livy_,
bk. 27, ch. 37.
=Arminius=, a warlike general of the Germans, who supported a
bloody war against Rome for some time, and was at last conquered
by Germanicus in two great battles. He was poisoned by one of his
friends, A.D. 19, in the 37th year of his age. _Dio Cassius_, bk.
56.――_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 1, &c.
=Armorĭcæ=, cities of Celtic Gaul, famous for the warlike, rebellious,
and inconstant disposition of the inhabitants called Armorici.
Armorica extended between the rivers Liger and Sequana, and
comprehended those rich and populous provinces now called Britany
and Normandy. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_.
=Arne=, a city of Lycia, called afterwards Xanthus.――――A town of
Umbria in Italy.――――A daughter of Æolus, who gave her name to two
towns, one in Thessaly, the other in Bœotia. Neptune changed himself
into a bull to enjoy her company. _Strabo_, bks. 1 & 2.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 9, ch. 40.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 6, fable 4.
=Arni=, a people of Italy, destroyed by Hercules.
=Arniensis=, a tribe in Rome. _Livy_, bk. 6.
=Arnobius=, a philosopher in Diocletian’s reign, who became a convert
to christianity. He applied for ordination, but was refused by the
bishops till he gave them a proof of his sincerity. Upon this he
wrote his celebrated treatise, in which he exposed the absurdity
of irreligion, and ridiculed the heathen gods. Opinions are various
concerning the purity of his style, though all agree in praise
of his extensive erudition. The book that he wrote, _De Rhetoricâ
Institutione_, is not extant. The best edition of his treatise
_Adversus Gentes_ is the 4to, printed Leiden, 1651.
=Arnus=, a river of Etruria, rising in the Apennine mountains, and
falling into the Mediterranean. _Livy_, bk. 22, ch. 2.
=Aroa=, a town of Achaia. _Pausanias_, bk. 7.
=Aroma=, a town of Caria,――――of Cappadocia.
=Arpāni=, a people of Italy.
=Arpi=, a city of Apulia, built by Diomedes after the Trojan war.
_Justin_, bk. 20, ch. 1.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 28.
=Arpīnum=, a town of the Volsci, famous for giving birth to Cicero and
Marius. The words _Arpinæ chartæ_ are sometimes applied to Cicero’s
works. _Martial_, bk. 10, ltr. 19.――_Juvenal_, satire 8, li. 237.
――_Cicero_, _De Lege Agraria contra Rullum_, speech 3.――――A town of
Magna Græcia.
=Arræi=, a people of Thrace. _Pliny._
=Arrharæus=, the king of a nation in the neighbourhood of Macedonia,
who greatly distressed Archelaus. _Aristotle_, bk. 5, _Politics_,
ch. 10.
=Arria=. _See:_ Aria.
=Arria Galla=, a beautiful but immodest woman in the reign of the
emperors. _Tacitus_, bk. 15, ch. 19.
=Arriānus=, a philosopher of Nicomedia, priest of Ceres and Proserpine,
and disciple of Epictetus, called a second Xenophon, from the
elegance and sweetness of his diction, and distinguished for his
acquaintance with military and political life. He wrote seven books
on Alexander’s expedition, the periplus of the Euxine and Red seas,
four books on the dissertations of Epictetus, besides an account of
the Alani, Bithynians, and Parthians. He flourished about the 140th
year of Christ, and was rewarded with the consulship and government
of Cappadocia, by Marcus Antoninus. The best edition of Arrian’s
_Expeditio Alexandri_, is the folio Gronovii, Leiden, 1704, and the
8vo, à Raphelio, 2 vols., 1757, and the Tactica, 8vo, Amsterdam,
1683.――――A Greek historian.――――An Athenian who wrote a treatise on
hunting, and the manner of keeping dogs.――――A poet who wrote an epic
poem in 24 books on Alexander; also another poem on Attalus king of
Pergamus. He likewise translated Virgil’s Georgics into Greek verse.
=Arrius=, a friend of Cicero, whose sumptuous feast _Horace_ describes,
bk. 2, satire 3, li. 86.――――Aper, a Roman general who murdered the
emperor, &c.
=Arrius= and =Arius=, a philosopher of Alexandria, who so ingratiated
himself with Augustus, after the battle of Actium, that the conqueror
declared the people of Alexandria owed the preservation of their
city to three causes; because Alexander was their founder, because
of the beauty of the situation, and because Arrius was a native of
the place. _Plutarch_, _Antonius_.
=Arruntius=, a Roman consul.――――A famous geographer who, upon being
accused of adultery and treason, under Tiberius, opened his veins.
_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 6.
=Arsabes=, a satrap of Armenia.――――Of Persia. _Polyænus._
=Arsăces=, a man of obscure origin, who, upon seeing Seleucus defeated
by the Gauls, invaded Parthia, and conquered the governor of
the province called Andragoras, and laid the foundations of an
empire, 250 B.C. He added the kingdom of the Hyrcani to his newly
acquired possessions, and spent his time in establishing his
power, and regulating the laws. After death he was made a god of
his nation, and all his successors were called, in honour of his
name, _Arsacidæ_. _Justin_, bk. 41, chs. 5 & 6.――_Strabo_, bks.
11 & 12.――――His son and successor bore the same name. He carried
war against Antiochus the son of Seleucus, who entered the field
with 100,000 foot and 20,000 horse. He afterwards made peace with
Antiochus, and died B.C. 217. _Justin_, bk. 41, ch. 5.――――The third
king of Parthia, of the family of the Arsacidæ, bore the same name,
and was also called Priapatius. He reigned 12 years, and left two
sons, Mithridates and Phraates. Phraates succeeded as being the
elder, and at his death he left his kingdom to his brother, though
he had many children; observing that a monarch ought to have in
view, not the dignity of his family, but the prosperity of his
subjects. _Justin_, bk. 31, ch. 5.――――A king of Pontus and Armenia,
in alliance with the Romans. He fought long with success against
the Persians, till he was deceived by the snares of king Sapor,
his enemy, who put out his eyes, and soon after deprived him of
life. _Marcellinus._――――The eldest son of Artabanus, appointed over
Armenia by his father, after the death of king Artaxias. _Tacitus_,
_Histories_, bk. 6.――――A servant of Themistocles.
=Arsacĭdæ=, a name given to some of the monarchs of Parthia, in honour
of Arsaces, the founder of the empire. Their power subsisted till
the 229th year of the christian era, when they were conquered by
Artaxerxes king of Persia. _Justin_, bk. 41.
=Arsamĕnes=, a satrap of Persia, at the battle of the Granicus.
=Arsametes=, a river of Asia, near Parthia. _Tacitus_, _Annals_,
bk. 15.
=Arsamosāta=, a town of Armenia Major, 70 miles from the Euphrates.
_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 15.
=Arsānes=, the son of Ochus and father of Codomanus.
=Arsanias=, a river of Armenia, which, according to some, flows into
the Tigris, and afterwards into the Euphrates. _Pliny_, bk. 5,
ch. 24.
=Arsēna=, a marsh of Armenia Major whose fishes are all of the same
sort. _Strabo._
=Arses=, the youngest son of Ochus, whom the eunuch Bagoas raised to
the throne of Persia, and destroyed with his children, after a reign
of three years. _Diodorus_, bk. 17.
=Arsia=, a wood of Etruria, famous for a battle between the Romans
and the Veientes. _Plutarch_, _Poplicola_.――――A small river between
Illyricum and Istria, falling into the Adriatic.――――A river of Italy,
flowing through Campania.
=Arsidæus=, a son of Datames, &c.
=Arsinoe=, daughter of Leucippus and Philodice, was mother of
Æsculapius by Apollo, according to some authors. She received divine
honours after death at Sparta. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 2, ch. 26; bk. 3, ch. 12.――――A daughter of Phlegeus, promised
in marriage to Alcmæon. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 7.――――A fountain
of Peloponnesus. _Pausanias_, _Messenia_.――――The sister and wife of
Ptolemy Philadelphus, worshipped after death under the name of Venus
Zephyritis. Dinochares began to build her a temple with loadstones,
in which there stood a statue of Arsinoe suspended in the air by the
power of the magnet; but the death of the architect prevented its
being perfected. _Pliny_, bk. 34, ch. 14.――――A daughter of Ptolemy
Lagus, who married Lysimachus king of Macedonia. After her husband’s
death, Ceraunus, her own brother, married her, and ascended the
throne of Macedonia. He previously murdered Lysimachus and Philip,
the sons of Arsinoe by Lysimachus, in their mother’s arms. Arsinoe
was some time after banished to Samothrace. _Justin_, bk. 17, ch. 1,
&c.――――A younger daughter of Ptolemy Auletes, sister to Cleopatra.
Antony despatched her to gain the good graces of her sister.
_Hirtius_, _Alexandrine War_, ch. 4.――_Appian._――――The wife of Magas
king of Cyrene, who committed adultery with her son-in-law. _Justin_,
bk. 26, ch. 3.――――A daughter of Lysimachus. _Pausanias._――――A town
of Egypt, situated near the lake of Mœris, on the western shore of
the Nile, where the inhabitants paid the highest veneration to the
crocodiles. They nourished them in a splendid manner, and embalmed
them after death, and buried them in the subterraneous cells of the
labyrinth. _Strabo._――――A town of Cilicia,――――of Æolia,――――of Syria,
――――of Cyprus,――――of Lycia, &c.
=Arsites=, a satrap of Paphlagonia.
=Artabānus=, son of Hystaspes, was brother to Darius I. He dissuaded
his nephew Xerxes from making war against the Greeks, and at his
return, he assassinated him with the hopes of ascending the throne.
Darius the son of Xerxes was murdered in a similar manner; and
Artaxerxes his brother would have shared the same fate, had not he
discovered the snares of the assassin, and punished him with death.
_Diodorus_, bk. 11.――_Justin_, bk. 3, ch. 1, &c.――_Herodotus_, bk. 4,
ch. 38; bk. 7, ch. 10, &c.――――A king of Parthia, after the death
of his nephew Phraates II. He undertook a war against a nation of
Scythia, in which he perished. His son Mithridates succeeded him,
and merited the appellation of Great. _Justin_, bk. 42, ch. 2.――――A
king of Media, and afterwards of Parthia, after the expulsion of
Vonones, whom Tiberius had made king there. He invaded Armenia, from
whence he was driven away by one of the generals of Tiberius. He
was expelled from his throne, which Tiridates usurped; and some time
after he was restored again to his ancient power, and died A.D. 48.
_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 5, &c.――――A king of Parthia, very inimical
to the interest of Vespasian.――――Another king of Parthia, who made
war against the emperor Caracalla, who had attempted his life on
pretence of courting his daughter. He was murdered, and the power of
Parthia abolished, and the crown transferred to the Persian monarchs.
_Dio Cassius._――_Herodian._
=Artabazānes=, or =Artamĕnes=, the eldest son of Darius, when a private
person. He attempted to succeed to the Persian throne, in preference
to Xerxes. _Justin._
=Artabāzus=, a son of Pharnaces, general in the army of Xerxes. He
fled from Greece upon the ill success of Mardonius. _Herodotus_,
bks. 7, 8, & 9.――――A general who made war against Artaxerxes, and
was defeated. He was afterwards reconciled to his prince, and became
the familiar friend of Darius III. After the murder of this prince,
he surrendered himself up with his sons to Alexander, who treated
him with much humanity and confidence. _Curtius_, bk. 5, chs. 9 & 12;
bk. 6, ch. 5; bk. 7, chs. 3 & 5; bk. 8, ch. 1.――――An officer of
Artaxerxes against Datames. _Diodorus_, bk. 15.
=Artabri= and =Artabrĭtæ=, a people of Lusitania, who received their
name from Artabrum, a promontory on the coast of Spain, now called
_Finisterre_. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 3, li. 362.
=Artacæas=, an officer in the army of Xerxes, the tallest of all the
troops, the king excepted.
=Artacæna=, a city of Asia, near Aria.
=Artăce=, a town and seaport near Cyzicus. It did not exist in the age
of Pliny. There was in its neighbourhood a fountain called Artacia.
_Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 14.――_Procopius_, _The Persian War_, bk. 1,
ch. 25.――_Strabo_, bk. 13.――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 32.――――A city of
Phrygia.――――A fortified place of Bithynia.
=Artacēne=, a country of Assyria near Arbela, where Alexander conquered
Darius. _Strabo_, bk. 16.
=Artăcia=, a fountain in the country of the Læstrygones. _Tibullus_,
bk. 4, poem 1, li. 60.
=Artæi=, a name by which the Persians were called among their
neighbours. _Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 61.
=Artagreras=, a town of Upper Armenia. _Strabo._
=Artagerses=, a general in the army of Artaxerxes, killed by Cyrus the
younger.――_Plutarch_, _Artaxerxes_.
=Artanes=, a king of the southern parts of Armenia. _Strabo_, bk. 11.
――――A river of Thrace flowing into the Ister. _Herodotus_, bk. 4,
ch. 49.――――A river of Colchis.
=Artaphernes=, a general whom Darius sent into Greece with Datis. He
was conquered at the battle of Marathon, by Miltiades. _See:_ Datis.
_Cornelius Nepos_, _Miltiades_.――_Herodotus._
=Artatus=, a river of Illyria. _Livy_, bk. 43, ch. 19.
=Artavasdes=, a son of Tigranes king of Upper Armenia, who wrote
tragedies, and shone as an elegant orator and faithful historian. He
lived in alliance with the Romans, but Crassus was defeated, partly
on account of his delay. He betrayed Marcus Antony in his expedition
against Parthia, for which Antony reduced his kingdom, and carried
him to Egypt, where he adorned the triumph of the conqueror led in
golden chains. He was some time after murdered. _Strabo_, bk. 11.
――――The crown of Armenia was given by Tiberius to a person of the
same name, who was expelled.――――Augustus had also raised to the
throne of Armenia a person of the same name. _Tacitus_, _Annals_,
bk. 2.
=Artaxa= and =Artaxias=, a general of Antiochus the Great, who erected
the province of Armenia into a kingdom, by his reliance on the
friendship of the Romans. King Tigranes was one of his successors.
_Strabo_, bk. 11.
=Artaxăta= (orum), now _Ardesh_, a strongly fortified town of Upper
Armenia, the capital of the empire, where the kings generally
resided. It is said that Annibal built it for Artaxias the king of
the country. It was burnt by Corbulo, and rebuilt by Tiridates, who
called it _Neronea_, in honour of Nero. _Strabo_, bk. 11.
=Artaxerxes I.=, succeeded to the kingdom of Persia, after his
father Xerxes. He destroyed Artabanus, who had murdered Xerxes, and
attempted to cut off the whole royal family to raise himself to the
throne. He made war against the Bactrians, and reconquered Egypt
that had revolted, with the assistance of the Athenians, and was
remarkable for his equity and moderation. One of his hands was
longer than the other, whence he has been called _Macrochir_ or
_Longimanus_. He reigned 39 years, and died B.C. 425. _Cornelius
Nepos_, _Kings_.――_Plutarch_, _Artaxerxes_.――――The second of
that name, king of Persia, was surnamed Mnemon, on account of his
extensive memory. He was son of Darius II. by Parysatis the daughter
of Artaxerxes Longimanus, and had three brothers, Cyrus, Ostanes,
and Oxathres. His name was Arsaces, which he changed into Artaxerxes
when he ascended the throne. His brother Cyrus was of such an
ambitious disposition, that he resolved to make himself king, in
opposition to Artaxerxes. Parysatis always favoured Cyrus; and when
he had attempted the life of Artaxerxes, she obtained his pardon
by her entreaties and influence. Cyrus, who had been appointed
over Lydia and the sea coasts, assembled a large army under various
pretences, and at last marched against his brother at the head of
100,000 barbarians and 13,000 Greeks. He was opposed by Artaxerxes
with 900,000 men, and a bloody battle was fought at Cunaxa, in which
Cyrus was killed, and his forces routed. It has been reported that
Cyrus was killed by Artaxerxes, who was so desirous of the honour,
that he put to death two men for saying that they had killed him.
The Greeks, who had assisted Cyrus against his brother, though at
the distance of above 600 leagues from their country, made their way
through the territories of the enemy; and nothing is more famous in
the Grecian history, than the retreat of the 10,000. After he was
delivered from the attacks of his brother, Artaxerxes stirred up
a war among the Grecian states against Sparta, and exerted all his
influence to weaken the power of the Greeks. He married two of his
own daughters, called Atossa and Amestria, and named his eldest son
Darius to be his successor. Darius, however, conspired against his
father, and was put to death; and Ochus, one of the younger sons,
called also Artaxerxes, made his way to the throne, by causing his
elder brothers Ariaspes and Arsames to be assassinated. It is said
that Artaxerxes died of a broken heart, in consequence of his son’s
unnatural behaviour, in the 94th year of his age, after a reign
of 46 years, B.C. 358. Artaxerxes had 150 children by his 350
concubines, and only four legitimate sons. _Plutarch_, _Parallel
Lives_.――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Kings_.――_Justin_, bk. 10, ch. 1, &c.
――_Diodorus_, bk. 13, &c.――――The third, surnamed Ochus, succeeded
his father Artaxerxes II., and established himself on his throne by
murdering above 80 of his nearest relations. He punished with death
one of his officers who conspired against him, and recovered Egypt,
which had revolted, destroyed Sidon, and ravaged all Syria. He made
war against the Cadusii, and greatly rewarded a private man called
Codomanus for his uncommon valour. But his behaviour in Egypt, and
his cruelty towards the inhabitants, offended his subjects, and
Bagoas at last obliged his physician to poison him, B.C. 337, and
afterwards gave his flesh to be devoured by cats, and made handles
for swords with his bones. Codomanus, on account of his virtues,
was soon after made king by the people; and that he might seem to
possess as much dignity as the house of Artaxerxes, he reigned under
the name of Darius III. _Justin_, bk. 10, ch. 3.――_Diodorus_, bk. 17.
――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 6, ch. 8.
=Artaxerxes=, or =Artaxares I.=, a common soldier of Persia, who
killed Artabanus, A.D. 228, and erected Persia again into a kingdom,
which had been extinct since the death of Darius. Severus the Roman
emperor conquered him, and obliged him to remain within his kingdom.
_Herodian_, bk. 5.――――One of his successors, son of Sapor, bore his
name, and reigned 11 years, during which he distinguished himself by
his cruelties.
=Artaxias=, son of Artavasdes king of Armenia, was proclaimed king by
his father’s troops. He opposed Antony, by whom he was defeated, and
became so odious that the Romans, at the request of the Armenians,
raised Tigranes to the throne.――――Another, son of Polemon, whose
original name was Zeno. After the expulsion of Vonones from Armenia,
he was made king by Germanicus. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 6, ch. 31.
――――A general of Antiochus. _See:_ Artaxa.
=Artayctes=, a Persian appointed governor of Sestos by Xerxes. He was
hung on a cross by the Athenians for his cruelties. _Herodotus_, bks.
7 & 9.
=Artaynta=, a Persian lady whom Xerxes gave in marriage to his
son Darius. She was one of the mistresses of her father-in-law.
_Herodotus_, bk. 9, ch. 103, &c.
=Artayntes=, a Persian appointed over a fleet in Greece by Xerxes.
_Herodotus_, bk. 8, ch. 13; bk. 9, ch. 107.
=Artembares=, a celebrated Mede in the reign of Cyrus the Great.
_Herodotus_, bks. 1 & 9.
=Artemidōrus=, a native of Ephesus, who wrote a history and description
of the earth, in 11 books. He flourished about 104 years B.C.――――A
physician in the age of Adrian.――――A man in the reign of Antoninus,
who wrote a learned work on the interpretation of dreams, still
extant; the best edition of which is that of Rigaltius, Paris, 4to,
1604, to which is annexed _Achmetis oneirocritica_.――――A man of
Cnidus, son to the historian Theopompus. He had a school at Rome,
and he wrote a book on illustrious men, not extant. As he was the
friend of Julius Cæsar, he wrote down an account of the conspiracy
which was formed against him. He gave it to the dictator from among
the crowd as he was going to the senate, but Julius Cæsar put it
with other papers which he held in his hand, thinking it to be of no
material consequence. _Plutarch_, _Cæsar_.
=Artĕmis=, the Greek name of Diana. Her festivals, called Artemisia,
were celebrated in several parts of Greece, particularly at Delphi,
where they offered to the goddess a mullet, which, as was supposed,
bore some affinity to the goddess of hunting, because it is said to
hunt and kill the sea-hare. There was a solemnity of the same name
at Syracuse; it lasted three days, which were spent in banqueting
and diversions. _Athenæus_, bk. 7.
=Artemisia=, daughter of Lygdamis of Halicarnassus, reigned over
Halicarnassus and the neighbouring country. She assisted Xerxes
in his expedition against Greece with a fleet, and her valour was
so great that the monarch observed that all his men fought like
women, and all his women like men. The Athenians were so ashamed
of fighting against a woman, that they offered a reward of 10,000
drachms for her head. It is said that she was fond of a youth of
Abydos, called Dardanus, and that, to punish his disdain, she put
out his eyes while he was asleep, and afterwards leaped down the
promontory of Leucas. _Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 99; bk. 8, ch. 68, &c.
――_Justin_, bk. 2, ch. 12.――――There was also another queen of Caria
of that name, often confounded with the daughter of Lygdamis. She
was daughter of Hecatomnus king of Caria or Halicarnassus, and was
married to her own brother Mausolus famous for his personal beauty.
She was so fond of her husband, that at his death she drank in her
liquor his ashes after his body had been burned, and erected to his
memory a monument, which, for its grandeur and magnificence, was
called one of the seven wonders of the world. This monument she
called _Mausoleum_, a name which has been given from that time to
all monuments of unusual splendour. She invited all the literary
men of her age, and proposed rewards to him who composed the best
elegiac panegyric upon her husband. The prize was adjudged to
Theopompus. She was so inconsolable for the death of her husband
that she died through grief two years after. _Vitruvius._――_Strabo_,
bk. 14.――_Pliny_, bk. 25, ch. 7; bk. 36, ch. 5.
=Artemisia.= _See:_ Artemis.
=Artemisium=, a promontory of Eubœa, where Diana had a temple. The
neighbouring part of the sea bore the same name. The fleet of Xerxes
had a skirmish there with the Grecian ships. _Herodotus_, bk. 7,
ch. 175, &c.――――A lake near the grove Aricia, with a temple sacred
to Artemis, whence the name.
=Artemīta=, a city at the east of Seleucia.――――An island opposite the
mouth of the Achelous. _Strabo._
=Artĕmon=, an historian of Pergamus.――――A native of Clazomenæ, who was
with Pericles at the siege of Samos, where it is said he invented
the battering ram, the _testudo_, and other equally valuable military
engines.――――A man who wrote a treatise on collecting books.――――A
native of Magnesia, who wrote the history of illustrious women.――――A
physician of Clazomenæ.――――A painter.――――A Syrian, whose features
resembled, in the strongest manner, those of Antiochus. The queen,
after the king’s murder, made use of Artemon to represent her husband
in a lingering state, that, by his seeming to die a natural death,
she might conceal her guilt, and effect her wicked purpose. _See:_
Antiochus.
=Artimpasa=, a name of Venus among the Scythians. _Herodotus_, bk. 4,
ch. 59.
=Artobarzănes=, a son of Darius, who endeavoured to ascend the throne
in preference to his brother Xerxes, but to no purpose. _Herodotus_,
bk. 7, chs. 2 & 3.
=Artochmes=, a general of Xerxes, who married one of the daughters of
Darius. _Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 73.
=Artōna=, a town of the Latins, taken by the Æqui. _Livy_, bk. 2,
ch. 43.
=Artontes=, a son of Mardonius. _Pausanias_, _Bœotia_.
=Artonius=, a physician of Augustus, who, on the night previous to the
battle of Philippi, saw Minerva in a dream, who told him to assure
Augustus of victory. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 1, ch. 7.
=Artoxares=, a eunuch of Paphlagonia, in the reign of Artaxerxes I.,
cruelly put to death by Parysatis.
=Arturius=, an obscure fellow, raised to honours and wealth by his
flatteries, &c. _Juvenal_, satire 3, li. 29.
=Artynes=, a king of Media.
=Artynia=, a lake of Asia Minor.
=Artystŏna=, a daughter of Darius. _Herodotus_, bk. 3, ch. 88.
=Aruæ=, a people of Hyrcania, where Alexander kindly received the chief
officers of Darius. _Curtius_, bk. 6, ch. 4.
=Arvāles=, a name given to 12 priests who celebrated the festivals
called Ambarvalia. According to some, they were descended from the
12 sons of Acca Laurentia, who suckled Romulus. They wore a crown of
ears of corn, and a white fillet. _Varro_, _de Lingua Latina_, bk. 4.
_See:_ Ambarvalia.
=Arueris=, a god of the Egyptians, son of Isis and Osiris. According
to some accounts, Osiris and Isis were married together in their
mother’s womb, and Isis was pregnant of Arueris before she was born.
=Arverni=, a powerful people of Gaul, now _Auvergne_, near the Ligeris,
who took up arms against Julius Cæsar. They were conquered with
great slaughter. They pretended to be descended from the Trojans as
well as the Romans. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 7.――_Strabo_, bk. 14.
=Arvĭrăgus=, a king of Britain. _Juvenal_, satire 4, li. 127.
=Arvīsium= and =Arvīsus=, a promontory of Chios, famous for its wine.
_Virgil_, _Eclogues_, poem 5.
=Lucius Arunculeius Costa [Cotta]=, an officer sent by Julius Cæsar
against the Gauls, by whom he was killed. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_.
=Aruns=, an Etrurian soothsayer in the age of Marius. _Lucan_, bk. 1,
li. 586.――――A soldier who slew Camilla, and was killed by a dart of
Diana. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 11, li. 759.――――A brother of Tarquin
the Proud. He married Tullia, who murdered him to espouse Tarquin,
who had assassinated his wife.――――A son of Tarquin the Proud, who,
in the battle that was fought between the partisans of his father
and the Romans, attacked Brutus the Roman consul, who wounded him
and threw him down from his horse. _Livy_, bk. 2, ch. 6.――――A son of
Porsenna king of Etruria, sent by his father to take Aricia. _Livy_,
bk. 2, ch. 14.
=Aruntius=, a Roman who ridiculed the rites of Bacchus, for which the
god inebriated him to such a degree that he offered violence to his
daughter Medullina, who murdered him when she found that he acted
so dishonourably to her virtue. _Plutarch_, _Parallela minora_.――――A
man who wrote an account of the Punic wars in the style of Sallust,
in the reign of Augustus. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 1.――_Seneca_,
ltr. 14.――――Another Latin writer. _Seneca_, _de Beneficiis_, bk. 6.
――――Paterculus, a man who gave Æmylius Censorinus tyrant of Ægesta
a brazen horse to torment criminals. The tyrant made the first
experiment upon the body of the donor. _Plutarch_, _Parallela
minora_.――――Stella, a poet descended of a consular family in the age
of Domitian.
=Arupīnus=, a maritime town of Istria. _Tibullus_, bk. 4, poem 1,
li. 110.
=Aruspex.= _See:_ Haruspex.
=Aryxăta=, a town of Armenia, near the Araxes. _Strabo_, bk. 11.
=Aryandes=, a Persian appointed governor of Egypt by Cambyses. He
was put to death because he imitated Darius in whatever he did, and
wished to make himself immortal. _Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 166.
=Arybas=, a native of Sidon, whose daughter was carried away by
pirates. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 15, li. 425.――――A king of the
Molossi, who reigned 10 years.
=Aryptæus=, a prince of the Molossi, who privately encouraged the
Greeks against Macedonia, and afterwards embraced the party of the
Macedonians.
=Asander=, a man who separated, by a wall, Chersonesus Taurica from
the continent. _Strabo_, bk. 7.
=Asbestæ= and =Asbystæ=, a people of Libya above Cyrene, where the
temple of Ammon is built. Jupiter is sometimes called, on that
account, _Asbystius_. _Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 170.――_Ptolemy_, bk. 4,
ch. 3.
=Asbŏlus= (_black hair_), one of Actæon’s dogs. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 3.
=Ascalăphus=, a son of Mars and Astyoche, who was among the Argonauts,
and went to the Trojan war at the head of the Ochomenians, with
his brother Ialmenus. He was killed by Deiphobus. _Homer_, _Iliad_,
bk. 2, li. 13; bk. 9, li. 82; bk. 13, li. 518.――――A son of Acheron
by Gorgyra or Orphne, stationed by Pluto to watch over Proserpine
in the Elysian fields. When Ceres had obtained from Jupiter her
daughter’s freedom and return upon earth, provided she had eaten
nothing in the kingdom of Pluto, Ascalaphus discovered that she
had eaten some pomegranates from a tree; upon which Proserpine was
ordered by Jupiter to remain six months with Pluto, and the rest
of the year with her mother. Proserpine was so displeased with
Ascalaphus, that she sprinkled water on his head, and immediately
turned him into an owl. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 5; bk. 2, ch. 5.
――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, fable 8.
=Ascălon=, a town of Syria, near the Mediterranean, about 520 stadia
from Jerusalem, still in being. It was anciently famous for its
onions. _Josephus_, _The Jewish War_, bk. 3, ch. 2.――_Theophrastus_,
_Enquiry into Plants_, bk. 7, ch. 4.
=Ascania=, an island of the Ægean sea.――――A city of Troas, built by
Ascanius.
=Ascănius=, son of Æneas by Creusa, was saved from the flames of Troy
by his father, whom he accompanied in his voyage to Italy. He was
afterwards called Iulus. He behaved with great valour in the war
which his father carried on against the Latins, and succeeded Æneas
in the kingdom of Latinus, and built Alba, to which he transferred
the seat of his empire from Lavinium. The descendants of Ascanius
reigned in Alba for above 420 years, under 14 kings, till the age
of Numitor. Ascanius reigned 38 years; 30 at Lavinium, and eight at
Alba; and was succeeded by Sylvius Posthumus son of Æneas by Lavinia.
Iulus the son of Ascanius disputed the crown with him; but the
Latins gave it in favour of Sylvius, as he was descended from the
family of Latinus, and Iulus was invested with the office of high
priest, which remained a long while in his family. _Livy_, bk. 1,
ch. 3.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, &c.――――According to _Dionysius of
Halicarnassus_, bk. 1, ch. 15, &c., the son of Æneas by Lavinia was
also called Ascanius.――――A river of Bithynia. _Virgil_, _Georgics_,
bk. 3, li. 270.
=Ascii=, a nation of India, in whose country objects at noon have no
shadow. _Pliny_, bk. 2.
=Asclēpia=, festivals in honour of Asclepius, or Æsculapius, celebrated
all over Greece, when prizes for poetical and musical compositions
were honourably distributed. At Epidaurus they were called by a
different name.
=Asclēpiădes=, a rhetorician in the age of Eumenes, who wrote an
historical account of Alexander. _Arrian_.――――A disciple of Plato.
――――A philosopher, disciple to Stilpo, and very intimate with
Menedemus. The two friends lived together, and that they might not
be separated when they married, Asclepiades married the daughter,
and Menedemus, though much the younger, the mother. When the wife
of Asclepiades was dead, Menedemus gave his wife to his friend, and
married another. He was blind in his old age, and died in Eretria.
_Plutarch_.――――A physician of Bithynia, B.C. 90, who acquired great
reputation at Rome, and was the founder of a sect in physic. He
relied so much on his skill that he laid a wager he should never
be sick; and won it, as he died of a fall, in a very advanced age.
Nothing of his medical treatises is now extant.――――An Egyptian,
who wrote hymns on the gods of his country, and also a treatise on
the coincidence of all religions.――――A native of Alexandria, who
gave a history of the Athenian archons.――――The writer of a treatise
on Demetrius Phalereus.――――A disciple of Isocrates, who wrote six
books on those events which had been the subject of tragedies.――――A
physician in the age of Pompey.――――A tragic poet.――――Another
physician of Bithynia, under Trajan. He lived 70 years, and was a
great favourite of the emperor’s court.
=Asclepiodōrus=, a painter in the age of Apelles, 12 of whose pictures
of the gods were sold, for 300 minæ each, to an African prince.
_Pliny_, bk. 35.――――A soldier who conspired against Alexander with
Hermolaus. _Curtius_, bk. 8, ch. 6.
=Asclepiodotus=, a general of Mithridates.
=Asclepius.= _See:_ Æsculapius.
=Ascletarion=, a mathematician in the age of Domitian, who said that
he should be torn by dogs. The emperor ordered him to be put to
death, and his body carefully secured; but as soon as he was set
on the burning pile, a sudden storm arose which put out the flames,
and the dogs came and tore to pieces the mathematician’s body.
_Suetonius_, _Domitian_, ch. 15.
=Asclus=, a town of Italy. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 8.
=Ascolia=, a festival in honour of Bacchus, celebrated about December
by the Athenian husbandmen, who generally sacrificed a goat to the
god, because that animal is a great enemy to the vine. They made
a bottle with the skin of the victim, which they filled with oil
and wine, and afterwards leaped upon it. He who could stand upon
it first was victorious, and received the bottle as a reward. This
was called ἀσκωλιαζειν παρα το ἐπι ἀσκον ἀλλεσθαι, _leaping upon
the bottle_, whence the name of the festival is derived. It was also
introduced in Italy, where the people besmeared their faces with the
dregs of wine, and sang hymns to the god. They always hanged some
small images of the god on the tallest trees in their vineyards,
and these images they called Oscilla. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 2,
li. 384.――_Pollux_, bk. 9, ch. 7.
=Asconius Labeo=, a preceptor of Nero.――――Pedia, a man intimate
with Virgil and Livy.――――Another of the same family in the age of
Vespasian, who became blind in his old age, and lived 12 years after.
He wrote, besides some historical treatises, annotations on Cicero’s
orations.
=Ascra=, a town of Bœotia, built, according to some, by the giants Otus
and Ephialtes, at the foot of Mount Helicon. Hesiod was born there,
whence he is often called the _Ascrean_ poet, and whatever poem
treats on agricultural subjects _Ascræum carmen_. The town received
its name from Ascra, a nymph, mother of Œoclus by Neptune. _Strabo_,
bk. 9.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 29.――_Paterculus_, bk. 1.
=Ascŭlum=, now _Ascoli_, a town of Picenum, famous for the defeat of
Pyrrhus by Curius and Fabricius. _Florus_, bk. 3, ch. 18.――――Another
in Apulia, near the Aufidus.
=Asdrŭbal=, a Carthaginian, son-in-law of Hamilcar. He distinguished
himself in the Numidian war, and was appointed chief general on the
death of his father-in-law, and for eight years presided with much
prudence and valour over Spain, which submitted to his arms with
cheerfulness. Here he laid the foundation of new Carthage, and saw
it complete. To stop his progress towards the east, the Romans, in
a treaty with Carthage, forbade him to pass the Iberus, which was
faithfully observed by the general. He was killed in the midst of
his soldiers, B.C. 220, by a slave whose master he had murdered. The
slave was caught and put to death in the greatest torments, which he
bore with patience, and even ridiculed. Some say that he was killed
in hunting. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 1, li. 165.――_Appian_, _Wars in
Spain_.――_Polybius_, bk. 2.――_Livy_, bk. 21, ch. 2, &c.――――A son
of Hamilcar, who came from Spain with a large reinforcement for his
brother Annibal. He crossed the Alps and entered Italy; but some of
his letters to Annibal having fallen into the hands of the Romans,
the consuls Marcus Livius Salinator and Claudius Nero attacked
him suddenly near the Metaurus, and defeated him, B.C. 207. He was
killed in the battle, and 56,000 of his men shared his fate, and
5400 were taken prisoners; about 8000 Romans were killed. The head
of Asdrubal was cut off, and some days after thrown into the camp of
Annibal, who, in the moment that he was in the greatest expectations
for a promised supply, exclaimed at the sight, “In losing Asdrubal,
I lose all my happiness, and Carthage all her hopes.” Asdrubal had
before made an attempt to penetrate into Italy by sea, but had been
defeated by the governor of Sardinia. _Livy_, bks. 21, 23, 27, &c.
――_Polybius._――_Horace_, bk. 4, ode 4.――――A Carthaginian general,
surnamed _Calvus_, appointed governor of Sardinia, and taken
prisoner by the Romans. _Livy._――――Another, son of Gisgon, appointed
general of the Carthaginian forces in Spain, in the time of the
great Annibal. He made head against the Romans in Africa, with the
assistance of Scyphax, but he was soon after defeated by Scipio.
He died B.C. 206. _Livy._――――Another, who advised his countrymen
to make peace with Rome, and upbraided Annibal for laughing in the
Carthaginian senate. _Livy._――――A grandson of Masinissa, murdered
in the senate house by the Carthaginians.――――Another, whose camp
was destroyed in Africa by Scipio, though at the head of 20,000 men,
in the last Punic war. When all was lost, he fled to the enemy, and
begged his life. Scipio showed him to the Carthaginians, upon which
his wife, with a thousand imprecations, threw herself and her two
children into the flames of the temple of Æsculapius, which she and
others had set on fire. He was not of the same family as Annibal.
_Livy_, bk. 51.――――A Carthaginian general, conquered by Lucius
Cæcilius Metellus in Sicily, in a battle in which he lost 130
elephants. These animals were led in triumph all over Italy by the
conquerors.
=Asellio Sempronius=, an historian and military tribune, who wrote
an account of the actions in which he was present. _Dionysius of
Halicarnassus._
=Asia=, one of the three parts of the ancient world, separated from
Europe by the Tanais, the Euxine, Ægean, and Mediterranean seas.
The Nile and Egypt divide it from Africa. It received its name
from Asia the daughter of Oceanus. This part of the globe has given
birth to many of the greatest monarchies of the universe, and to the
ancient inhabitants of Asia we are indebted for most of the arts and
sciences. The soil is fruitful, and abounds with all the necessaries
as well as luxuries of life. Asia was divided into many different
empires, provinces, and states, of which the most conspicuous
were the Assyrian and Persian monarchies. The Assyrian monarchy,
according to Eusebius, lasted 1240 years, and according to Justin
1300 years, down to the year of the world 4380. The empire of Persia
existed 228 years, till the death of Darius III., whom Alexander
the Great conquered. The empire of the Medes lasted 259 years,
according to Eusebius, or less, according to others, till the reign
of Astyages, who was conquered by Cyrus the Great, who transferred
the power from the Medes, and founded the Persian monarchy. It was
in Asia that the military valour of the Macedonians, and the bold
retreat of the 10,000 Greeks, were so conspicuously displayed. It is
in that part of the world that we are to look for the more visible
progress of luxury, despotism, sedition, effeminacy, and dissipation.
Asia was generally divided into Major and Minor. Asia Major was
the most extensive, and comprehended all the eastern parts; and
Asia Minor was a large country in the form of a peninsula, whose
boundaries may be known by drawing a line from the bay of Issus, in
a northern direction, to the eastern part of the Euxine sea. Asia
Minor has been subject to many revolutions. It was tributary to
the Scythians for upwards of 1500 years, and was a long time in the
power of the Lydians, Medes, &c. The western parts of Asia Minor
were the receptacle of all the ancient emigrations from Greece, and
it was totally peopled by Grecian colonies. The Romans generally and
indiscriminately called Asia Minor by the name of Asia. _Strabo._
――_Mela._――_Justin._――_Pliny._――_Tacitus_, &c.――――One of the
Oceanides, who married Japetus, and gave her name to one of the
three divisions of the ancient globe. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 2.
――――One of the Nereides. _Hyginus._――――A mountain of Laconia.
_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 24.
=Asia Palus=, a lake in Mysia. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 701.
=Asiātĭcus=, a Gaul in the age of Vitellius. _Tacitus_, _Histories_,
bk. 2.――――The surname of one of the Scipios, and others, from their
conquests or campaigns in Asia.
=Asĭlas=, an augur, who assisted Æneas against Turnus.――――A Trojan
officer. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bks. 9, 10, &c.
=Asināria=, a festival in Sicily, in commemoration of a victory
obtained over Demosthenes and Nicias at the river Asinarius.
=Asinārius=, a river of Sicily, where the Athenian generals,
Demosthenes and Nicias, were taken prisoners.
=Asĭne=, one of the Sporades.――――An island of the Adriatic.――――Three
towns of Peloponnesus bore that name, viz. in Laconia, Argolis, and
Messenia.
=Asĭnes=, a river of Sicily.
=Asinius Gallus=, son of Asinius Pollio the orator, married Vipsania,
after she had been divorced by Tiberius. This marriage gave rise to
a secret enmity between the emperor and Asinius, who starved himself
to death, either voluntarily, or by order of his imperial enemy. He
had six sons by his wife. He wrote a comparison between his father
and Cicero, in which he gave a decided superiority to the former.
_Tacitus_ bks. 1 & 5, _Annals_.――_Dio Cassius_, bk. 58.――_Pliny_, bk.
7, ltr. 4.――――Marcellus, grandson of Asinius Pollio, was accused of
some misdemeanours, but acquitted, &c. _Tacitus_, bk. 14, _Annals_.
――――Pollio, an excellent orator, poet, and historian, intimate with
Augustus. He triumphed over the Dalmatians, and wrote an account
of the wars of Cæsar and Pompey, in 17 books, besides poems. He
refused to answer some verses against him by Augustus, “because,”
said he, “you have the power to proscribe me, should my answer
prove offensive.” He died in the 80th year of his age, A.D. 4. He
was consul with Cnaeus Domitius Calvinus, A.U.C. 714. It is to him
that the fourth of Virgil’s Bucolics is inscribed. _Quintilian._
――_Suetonius_, _Cæsar_, chs. 30 & 55.――_Dio Cassius_, bks. 37,
49, 55.――_Seneca_, _de Tranquilitate Animi_ & ltr. 100.――_Pliny_,
bk. 7, ch. 30.――_Tacitus_, bk. 6.――_Paterculus_, bk. 2.――_Plutarch_,
_Cæsar_.――――A commander of Mauritania, under the first emperors, &c.
_Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 2.――――An historian in the age of Pompey.
――――Another in the third century.――――Quadratus, a man who published
the history of Parthia, Greece, and Rome.
=Asius=, a son of Dymas, brother of Hecuba. He assisted Priam in the
Trojan war, and was killed by Idomeneus. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2, li.
342; bk. 12, li. 95; bk. 13, li. 384.――――A poet of Samos, who wrote
about the genealogy of ancient heroes and heroines. _Pausanias_, bk.
7, ch. 4.――――A son of Imbracus, who accompanied Æneas into Italy.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 123.
=Asius Campus=, a place near the Cayster.
=Asnāus=, a mountain of Macedonia, near which the river Aous flows.
_Livy_, bk. 32, ch. 5.
=Asōphis=, a small country of Peloponnesus, near the Asopus.
=Asōpia=, the ancient name of Sicyon. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 1.
=Asōpiădes=, a patronymic of Æacus, son of Ægina, the daughter of
Asopus. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, li. 484.
=Asōpis=, the daughter of the Asopus.――――A daughter of Thespius mother
of Mentor. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 7.
=Asōpus=, a river of Thessaly, falling into the bay of Malta at the
north of Thermopylæ. _Strabo_, bk. 8.――――A river of Bœotia, rising
near Platæa, and flowing into the Euripus, after it has separated
the country of the Thebans and Platæans. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 4.
――――A river of Asia, flowing into the Lycus, near Laodicea.――――A
river of Peloponnesus, passing by Sicyon.――――Another of Macedonia,
flowing near Heraclea. _Strabo_, &c.――――A river of Phœnicia.――――A
son of Neptune, who gave his name to a river of Peloponnesus. Three
of his daughters are particularly celebrated, Ægina, Salamis, and
Ismene. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9; bk. 3, ch. 12.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 2, ch. 12.
=Aspa=, a town of Parthia, now _Ispahan_, the capital of the Persian
empire.
=Aspamithres=, a favourite eunuch of Xerxes, who conspired with
Artabanus to destroy the king and the royal family, &c. _Ctesias._
=Asparagium=, a town near Dyrrhachium. _Cæsar_, _Civil War_, bk. 3,
ch. 30.
=Aspăsia=, a daughter of Hermotimus of Phocæa, famous for her personal
charms and elegance. She was priestess of the sun, mistress to
Cyrus, and afterwards to his brother Artaxerxes, from whom she
passed to Darius. She was called _Milto_, _vermilion_, on account of
the beauty of her complexion. _Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 12, ch.
1.――_Plutarch_, _Artaxerxes_.――――Another woman, daughter of Axiochus,
born at Miletus. She came to Athens, where she taught eloquence,
and Socrates was proud to be among her scholars. She so captivated
Pericles, by her mental and personal accomplishments, that he became
her pupil, and at last took her for his mistress and wife. He was so
fond of her, that he made war against Samos at her instigation. The
behaviour of Pericles towards Aspasia greatly corrupted the morals
of the Athenians, and introduced dissipation and lasciviousness
into the state. She, however, possessed the merit of a superior
excellence in mind as well as person, and her instructions helped
to form the greatest and most eloquent orators of Greece. Some have
confounded the mistress of Pericles with Aspasia the daughter of
Hermotimus. _Plutarch_, _Pericles_.――_Quintilian_, bk. 11.――――The
wife of Xenophon was also called Aspasia, if we follow the improper
interpretation given by some to _Cicero_, _de Inventione_, bk. 1,
ch. 31.
=Aspasius=, a peripatetic philosopher in the second century, whose
commentaries on different subjects were highly valued.――――A sophist,
who wrote a panegyric on Adrian.
=Aspastes=, a satrap of Carmania, suspected of infidelity to his trust
while Alexander was in the east. _Curtius_, bk. 9, ch. 20.
=Aspathīnes=, one of the seven noblemen of Persia who conspired
against the usurper Smerdis. _Herodotus_, bk. 5, ch. 70, &c.――――A
son of Prexaspes. _Herodotus_, bk. 7.
=Aspendus=, a town of Pamphylia, at the mouth of the river Eurymedon.
_Cicero_, _Against Verres_, bk. 1, ch. 20. The inhabitants
sacrificed swine to Venus.
=Asphaltītes=, a lake. _See:_ Mare Mortuum.
=Aspis=, a satrap of Chaonia, who revolted from Artaxerxes. He was
reduced by Datames. _Cornelius Nepos_, _Datames_.――――A city and
mountain of Africa.――――One of the Cyclades.――――A city of Macedonia.
=Asplēdon=, a son of Neptune by the nymph Midea. He gave his name to
a city of Bœotia, whose inhabitants went to the Trojan war. _Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 2, li. 18.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 38.
=Asporēnus=, a mountain of Asia Minor near Pergamus, where the mother
of the gods was worshipped, and called _Asporena_. _Strabo_, bk. 13.
=Assa=, a town near mount Athos.
=Assabīnus=, the Jupiter of the Arabians.
=Assărăcus=, a Trojan prince, son of Tros by Callirhoe. He was father
to Capys, the father of Anchises. The Trojans were frequently called
the descendants of Assaracus, _Gens Assaraci_. _Homer_, _Iliad_,
bk. 20.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1.――――Two friends of Æneas in the
Rutulian war. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 124.
=Asserīni=, a people of Sicily.
=Assōrus=, a town of Sicily, between Enna and Argyrium.
=Assos=, a town of Lycia on the sea coast.
=Assy̆ria=, a large country of Asia, whose boundaries have been
different in its flourishing times. At first it was bounded by
the Lycus and Caprus; but the name of Assyria, more generally
speaking, is applied to all that territory which lies between Media,
Mesopotamia, Armenia, and Babylon. The Assyrian empire is the most
ancient in the world. It was founded by Ninus or Belus, B.C. 2059,
according to some authors, and lasted till the reign of Sardanapalus,
the 31st sovereign since Ninus, B.C. 820. According to Eusebius,
it flourished for 1240 years; according to Justin, 1300 years; but
Herodotus says that its duration was not above 500 or 600 years.
Among the different monarchs of the Assyrian empire Semiramis
greatly distinguished herself, and extended the boundaries of her
dominions as far as Æthiopia and Libya. In ancient authors the
Assyrians are often called Syrians, and the Syrians Assyrians. The
Assyrians assisted Priam in the Trojan war, and sent him Memnon with
an army. The king of Assyria generally styled himself king of kings,
as a demonstration of his power and greatness. The country is now
called Curdistan. _See:_ Syria. _Strabo_, bk. 16.――_Herodotus_, bks.
1 & 2.――_Justin_, bk. 1.――_Pliny_, bk. 6, chs. 13 & 26.――_Ptolemy_,
bk. 1, ch. 2.――_Diodorus_, bk. 2.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 2.
=Asta=, a city in Spain.
=Astacœni=, a people of India near the Indus. _Strabo_, bk. 15.
=Astăcus=, a town of Bithynia, built by Acastus son of Neptune and
Olbia, or rather by a colony from Megara and Athens. Lysimachus
destroyed it, and carried the inhabitants to the town of Nicomedia,
which was then lately built. _Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 12.――_Arrian._
――_Strabo_, bk. 17.――――A city of Acarnania. _Pliny_, bk. 5.
=Astăpa=, a town of Hispania Bætica. _Livy_, bk. 38, ch. 20.
=Astăpus=, a river of Æthiopia, falling into the Nile.
=Astarte=, a powerful divinity of Syria, the same as the Venus of
the Greeks. She had a famous temple at Hierapolis in Syria, which
was served by 300 priests, who were always employed in offering
sacrifices. She was represented in medals with a long habit, and
a mantle over it, tucked up on the left arm. She had one hand
stretched forward, and held in the other a crooked staff in the form
of a cross. _Lucian_, _de Deâ Syriâ_.――_Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_,
bk. 3, ch. 23.
=Aster=, a dexterous archer of Amphipolis, who offered his service to
Philip king of Macedonia. Upon being slighted, he retired into the
city, and aimed an arrow at Philip, who pressed it with a siege. The
arrow, on which was written “Aimed at Philip’s right eye,” struck
the king’s eye, and put it out; and Philip, to return the pleasantry,
threw back the same arrow, with these words, “If Philip takes the
town, Aster shall be hanged.” The conqueror kept his word. _Lucian_,
_Quomodo historia conscribenda sit_.
=Astĕria=, a daughter of Ceus, one of the Titans, by Phœbe daughter
of Cœlus and Terra. She married Perses son of Crius, by whom she
had the celebrated Hecate. She enjoyed for a long time the favours
of Jupiter, under the form of an eagle; but falling under his
displeasure, she was changed into a quail, called _Ortyx_ by the
Greeks; whence the name of _Ortygia_, given to that island in the
Archipelago, where she retired. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 6,
fable 4.――_Hyginus_, fable 58.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 2, &c.
――――A town of Greece, whose inhabitants went to the Trojan war.
_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2, li. 782.――――One of the daughters of Danaus,
who married Chætus son of Ægyptus. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2.――――One of
the daughters of Atlas, mother of Œnomaus king of Pisa. _Hyginus_,
fable 250.――――A mistress of Gyges, to whom Horace wrote three odes
to comfort her during her lover’s absence.
=Astĕrion= and =Astĕrius=, a river of Peloponnesus, which flowed
through the country of Argolis. This river had three daughters,
Eubœa, Prosymna, and Acræa, who nursed the goddess Juno. _Pausanias_,
bk. 2, ch. 17.――――A son of Cometes, who was one of the Argonauts.
_Apollonius_, bk. 1.――――A statuary, son of Æschylus. _Pausanias._
――――A son of Minos II., king of Crete, by Pasiphæ. He was killed by
Theseus, though he was thought the strongest of his age. Apollodorus
supposes him to be the same as the famous Minotaur. According
to some, Asterion was son of Teutamus, one of the descendants of
Æolus, and they say that he was surnamed Jupiter, because he had
carried away Europa, by whom he had Minus I. _Diodorus_, bk. 4.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 31.――――A son of
Neleus and Chloris. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 12.
=Asterodia=, the wife of Endymion. _Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 1.
=Asterŏpe= and =Asteropēa=, one of the Pleiades, who were beloved by
the gods and most illustrious heroes, and made constellations after
death.――――A daughter of Pelias king of Iolchos, who assisted her
sisters to kill her father, whom Medea promised to restore to life.
Her grave was seen in Arcadia, in the time of _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch.
11.――――A daughter of Deion by Diomede. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1.――――The
wife of Æsacus. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3.
=Asteropæus=, a king of Pæonia, son of Pelegon. He assisted Priam
in the Trojan war, and was killed, after a brave resistance, by
Achilles. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 17, &c.
=Asterūsius=, a mountain at the south of Crete.――――A town of Arabia
Felix.
=Astinŏme=, the wife of Hipponous.
=Astiŏchus=, a general of Lacedæmon, who conquered the Athenians near
Cnidus, and took Phocæa and Cumæ, B.C. 411.
=Astræa=, a daughter of Astræus king of Arcadia, or, according
to others, of Titan, Saturn’s brother, by Aurora. Some make her
daughter of Jupiter and Themis, and others consider her to be the
same as Rhea wife of Saturn. She was called _Justice_, of which
virtue she was the goddess. She lived upon the earth, as the poets
mention, during the golden age, which is often called the age of
Astræa; but the wickedness and impiety of mankind drove her to
heaven in the brazen and iron ages, and she was placed among the
constellations of the zodiac, under the name of Virgo. She is
represented as a virgin, with a stern but majestic countenance,
holding a pair of scales in one hand and a sword in the other.
_Seneca_, _Octavia_.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, li. 149.
――_Aratus_, bk. 1, _Phænomena_, li. 98.――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_.
=Astræus=, one of the Titans who made war against Jupiter.――――A river
of Macedonia, near Thermæ. _Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 15, ch. 1.
=Astu=, a Greek word which signifies _city_, generally applied, by way
of distinction, to Athens, which was the most capital city of Greece.
The word _urbs_ is applied with the same meaning of superiority to
Rome, and πολις to Alexandria the capital of Ægypt, as also to Troy.
=Astur=, an Etrurian who assisted Æneas against Turnus. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 180.
=Astŭra=, a small river and village of Latium, where Antony’s soldiers
cut off Cicero’s head.
=Astŭres=, a people of Hispania Tarraconensis, who spent all their
lives in digging for mines of ore. _Lucan_, bk. 4, li. 298.――_Silius
Italicus_, bk. 1, li. 231.
=Astyăge=, a daughter of Hypseus, who married Periphas, by whom she
had some children, among whom was Antion the father of Ixion.
=Astyăges=, a son of Cyaxares, was the last king of Media. He was
father to Mandane, whom he gave in marriage to Cambyses, an ignoble
person of Persia, because he was told by a dream that his daughter’s
son would dispossess him of his crown. From such a marriage he hoped
that none but mean and ignorant children could be raised; but he
was disappointed, and though he had exposed his daughter’s son by
the effects of a second dream, he was deprived of his crown by his
grandson, after a reign of 35 years. Astyages was very cruel and
oppressive; and Harpagus, one of his officers, whose son he had
wantonly murdered, encouraged Mandane’s son, who was called Cyrus,
to take up arms against his grandfather, and he conquered him and
took him prisoner, 559 B.C. Xenophon, in his Cyropædia, relates a
different story, and asserts that Cyrus and Astyages lived in the
most undisturbed friendship together. _Justin_, bk. 1, ch. 4, &c.
――_Herodotus_, bk. 1, chs. 74, 75, &c.――――A grammarian who wrote a
commentary on Callimachus.――――A man changed into a stone by Medusa’s
head. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, fable 6.
=Astyălus=, a Trojan killed by Neoptolemus. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 6.
=Astyănax=, a son of Hector and Andromache. He was very young when
the Greeks besieged Troy; and when the city was taken, his mother
saved him in her arms from the flames. Ulysses, who was afraid lest
the young prince should inherit the virtues of his father, and one
day avenge the ruin of his country upon the Greeks, seized him,
and threw him down from the walls of Troy. According to Euripides,
he was killed by Menelaus; and Seneca says that Pyrrhus the son
of Achilles put him to death. Hector had given him the name of
Scamandrius; but the Trojans, who hoped he might prove as great as
his father, called him Astyanax, or the bulwark of the city. _Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 6, li. 400; bk. 22, li. 500.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 2,
li. 457; bk. 3, li. 489.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 13, li. 415.
――――An Arcadian, who had a statue in the temple of Jupiter, on
mount Lyceus. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 38.――――A son of Hercules.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――――A writer in the age of Gallienus.
=Astycratia=, a daughter of Æolus. _Homer_, _Iliad_.――――A daughter of
Amphion and Niobe.
=Astydămas=, an Athenian, pupil to Isocrates. He wrote 240 tragedies,
of which only 15 obtained the poetical prize.――――A Milesian, three
times victorious at Olympia. He was famous for his strength, as
well as for his voracious appetite. He was once invited to a feast
by king Ariobarzanes, and he ate what had been prepared for nine
persons. _Athenæus_, bk. 10.――――Two tragic writers bore the same
name, one of whom was disciple to Socrates.――――A comic poet of
Athens.
=Astydămīa=, or =Astyadamia=, daughter of Amyntor king of Orchomenos
in Bœotia, married Acastus son of Pelias, who was king of Iolchos.
She became enamoured of Peleus son of Æacus, who had visited her
husband’s court, and because he refused to gratify her passion,
she accused him of attempting her virtue. Acastus readily believed
his wife’s accusation; but as he would not violate the laws of
hospitality by punishing his guest with instant death, he waited
for a favourable opportunity, and dissembled his resentment. At
last they went in a hunting party to mount Pelion, where Peleus was
tied to a tree by order of Acastus, that he might be devoured by
wild beasts. Jupiter was moved at the innocence of Peleus, and sent
Vulcan to deliver him. When Peleus was set at liberty, he marched
with an army against Acastus, whom he dethroned, and punished with
death the cruel and false Astydamia. She is called by some Hippolyte,
and by others Cretheis. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 13.――_Pindar_,
_Nemean_, bk. 4.――――A daughter of Ormenus, carried away by Hercules,
by whom she had Tlepolemus. _Ovid_, _Heroides_, poem 9, li. 50.
=Asty̆lus=, one of the centaurs who had the knowledge of futurity. He
advised his brothers not to make war against the Lapithæ. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 12, li. 338.――――A man of Crotona, who was
victorious three successive times at the Olympic games. _Pausanias._
=Astymedūsa=, a woman whom Œdipus married after he had divorced Jocasta.
=Astynŏme=, the daughter of Chryses the priest of Apollo, sometimes
called _Chryseis_. She fell to the share of Achilles, at the
division of the spoils of Lyrnessus.――――A daughter of Amphion,――――of
Talaus. _Hyginus._
=Astynous=, a Trojan prince. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 5, li. 144.
=Astyŏche= and =Astyochīa=, a daughter of Actor, who had by Mars,
Ascalaphus and Ialmenus, who were at the Trojan war. _Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 2, li. 20.――――A daughter of Phylas king of Ephyre, who
had a son called Tlepolemus by Hercules. _Hyginus_, fables 97, 162.
――――A daughter of Laomedon by Strymo. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3.――――A
daughter of Amphion and Niobe. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 4.――――A
daughter of the Simois, who married Erichthonius. _Apollodorus_,
bk. 3, ch. 12.――――The wife of Strophius, sister to Agamemnon.
=Astypalæa=, one of the Cyclades, between Cos and Carpathos, called
after Astypalæa the daughter of Phœnix, and mother of Ancæus by
Neptune. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 4.――_Strabo_, bk. 14.
=Astyphĭlus=, a soothsayer, well skilled in the knowledge of futurity.
_Plutarch_, _Cimon_.
=Astȳron=, a town built by the Argonauts on the coast of Illyricum.
_Strabo._
=Asychis=, a king of Egypt, who succeeded Mycerinus, and made a law,
that whoever borrowed money, must deposit his father’s body in the
hand of his creditors, as a pledge of his promise of payment. He
built a magnificent pyramid. _Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 136.
=Asȳlas=, a friend of Æneas, skilled in auguries. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 9, li. 571; bk. 10, li. 175.
=Asyllus=, a gladiator. _Juvenal_, satire 6, li. 266.
=Atābŭlus=, a wind which was frequent in Apulia. _Horace_, bk. 1,
satire 5, li. 78.
=Atabȳris=, a mountain in Rhodes, where Jupiter had a temple, whence
he was surnamed _Atabyris_. _Strabo_, bk. 14.
=Atăce=, a town of Gaul, whence the adjective _Atacinus_.
=Atalanta=, a daughter of Schœneus king of Scyros. According to some
she was the daughter of Jasus or Jasius by Clymene; but others
say that Menalion was her father. This uncertainty of not rightly
knowing the name of her father has led the mythologists into error,
and some have maintained that there were two persons of that name,
though their supposition is groundless. Atalanta was born in Arcadia,
and according to Ovid she determined to live in perpetual celibacy;
but her beauty gained her many admirers, and to free herself from
their importunities, she proposed to run a race with them. They were
to run without arms, and she was to carry a dart in her hand. Her
lovers were to start first, and whoever arrived at the goal before
her would be made her husband; but all those whom she overtook were
to be killed by the dart with which she had armed herself. As she
was almost invincible in running, many of her suitors perished in
the attempt, till Hippomenes the son of Macareus proposed himself
as her admirer. Venus had presented him with three golden apples
from the garden of the Hesperides, or, according to others, from an
orchard in Cyprus; and as soon as he had started in the course, he
artfully threw down the apples at some distance one from the other.
While Atalanta, charmed at the sight, stopped to gather the apples,
Hippomenes hastened on his course, arrived first at the goal,
and obtained Atalanta in marriage. These two fond lovers, in the
impatience of consummating their nuptials, entered the temple of
Cybele; and the goddess was so offended at their impiety, and at
the profanation of her house, that she changed them into two lions.
Apollodorus says that Atalanta’s father was desirous of raising male
issue, and that therefore she was exposed to wild beasts as soon
as born. She was, however, suckled by a she-bear, and preserved
by shepherds. She dedicated her time to hunting, and resolved
to live in celibacy. She killed two centaurs, Hyleus and Rhecus,
who attempted her virtue. She was present at the hunting of the
Calydonian boar, which she first wounded, and she received the head
as a present from Meleager, who was enamoured of her. She was also
at the games instituted in honour of Pelias, where she conquered
Peleus; and when her father, to whom she had been restored, wished
her to marry, she consented to give herself to him who could
overcome her in running, as has been said above. She had a son
called Parthenopæus by Hippomenes. Hyginus says that that son was
the fruit of her love with Meleager; and Apollodorus says she had
him by Milanion, or, according to others, by the god Mars. _See:_
Meleager. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 8; bk. 3, ch. 9, &c.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 1, chs. 36, 45, &c.――_Hyginus_, fables 99, 174, 185, 270.
――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 13.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 8, fable 4; bk. 10, fable 11.――_Euripides_,
_Phœnician Women_.――――An island near Eubœa and Locris. _Pausanias._
=Atarantes=, a people of Africa, ten days’ journey from the Garamantes.
There was in their country a hill of salt with a fountain of sweet
water upon it. _Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 184.
=Atarbĕchis=, a town in one of the islands of the Delta, where Venus
had a temple.
=Atargătis=, a divinity among the Syrians represented as a Syren. She
is considered by some to be the same as Venus, and honoured by the
Assyrians under the name of Astarte. _Strabo_, bk. 16.
=Atarnea=, a part of Mysia opposite Lesbos, with a small town in the
neighbourhood of the same name. _Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 35.
=Atas= and =Athas=, a youth of wonderful velocity, who is said to have
run 75 miles between noon and the evening. _Martial_, bk. 4, ltr. 19.
――_Pliny_, bk. 7.
=Atax=, now _Aude_, a river of Gaul Narbonensis, rising in the Pyrenean
mountains, and falling into the Mediterranean sea. _Mela_, bk. 2.
=Ate=, the goddess of all evil, and daughter of Jupiter. She raised
such jealousy and sedition in heaven among the gods, that Jupiter
dragged her away by the hair, and banished her for ever from
heaven, and sent her to dwell on earth, where she incited mankind
to wickedness, and sowed commotions among them. _Homer_, _Iliad_,
bk. 19. She is the same as the Discord of the Latins.
=Atella=, a town of Campania, famous for a splendid amphitheatre, where
interludes were first exhibited, and thence called Atellanæ fabulæ.
_Juvenal_, satire 6.
=Atenomārus=, a chieftain of Gaul, who made war against the Romans.
_Plutarch_, _Parallela minora_.
=Athamānes=, an ancient people of Epirus, who existed long before the
Trojan war, and still preserved their name and customs in the age of
Alexander. There was a fountain in their territories, whose waters,
about the last quarter of the moon, were so sulphureous that they
would set wood on fire. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 15, li. 311.
――_Strabo_, bk. 7.――_Pliny_, bk. 2, ch. 103.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.
=Athămas=, king of Thebes in Bœotia, was son of Æolus. He married
Themisto, whom some call Nephele, and Pindar, Demotice, and by her
he had Phryxus and Helle. Some time after, on pretence that Nephele
was subject to fits of madness, he married Ino the daughter of
Cadmus, by whom he had two sons, Learchus and Melicerta. Ino became
jealous of the children of Nephele. Because they were to ascend
their father’s throne in preference to her own, therefore she
resolved to destroy them; but they escaped from her fury to Colchis,
on a golden ram. _See:_ Phryxus and Argonautæ. According to the
Greek scholiast of Lycophron, li. 22, Ino attempted to destroy the
corn of the country; and as if it were the consequence of divine
vengeance, the soothsayers, at her instigation, told Athamas, that
before the earth would yield her usual increase, he must sacrifice
one of the children of Nephele to the gods. The credulous father led
Phryxus to the altar, where he was saved by Nephele. The prosperity
of Ino was displeasing to Juno, and more particularly because she
was descended from Venus. The goddess therefore sent Tisiphone, one
of the furies, to the house of Athamas, who became inflamed with
such sudden fury that he took Ino to be a lioness, and her two sons
to be whelps. In this fit of madness he snatched Learchus from her,
and killed him against a wall; upon which Ino fled with Melicerta,
and, with him in her arms, she threw herself into the sea from a
high rock, and was changed into a sea deity. After this, Athamas
recovered the use of his senses; and as he was without children,
he adopted Coronus and Aliartus, the sons of Thersander his nephew.
_Hyginus_, fables 1, 2, 5, 239.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, chs. 7 & 9.
――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 4, li. 467, &c.; _Fasti_, bk. 6, li.
419.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 34.――――A servant of Atticus. _Cicero_,
_Letters to Atticus_, bk. 12, ltr. 10.――――A stage dancer. _Cicero_,
_Piso_, ch. 36.――――A tragic poet. _Cicero_, _Piso_, ch. 20.――――One
of the Greeks, concealed in the wooden horse at the siege of Troy.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 2, li. 263.
=Athamantiădes=, a patronymic of Melicerta, Phryxus, or Helle, children
of Athamas. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 13, li. 319; _Fasti_, bk. 4,
li. 903.
=Athanasius=, a bishop of Alexandria, celebrated for his sufferings,
and the determined opposition he maintained against Arius and his
doctrines. His writings, which were numerous, and some of which
have perished, contain a defence of the mystery of the Trinity,
the divinity of the Word and of the Holy Ghost, and an apology to
Constantine. The creed which bears his name, is supposed by some
not to be his composition. Athanasius died 2nd May, 373 A.D., after
filling the archiepiscopal chair 47 years, and leading alternately
a life of exile and of triumph. The latest edition of his works is
that of the Benedictines, 3 vols., folio, Paris, 1698.
=Athanis=, a man who wrote an account of Sicily. _Athenæus_, bk. 3.
=Atheas=, a king of Scythia, who implored the assistance of Philip
of Macedonia against the Istrians, and laughed at him when he had
furnished him with an army. _Justin_, bk. 9, ch. 2.
=Athēna=, the name of Minerva among the Greeks; and also among the
Egyptians, before Cecrops had introduced the worship of the goddess
into Greece. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 2.
=Athēnæ=, a celebrated city of Attica, founded about 1556 years before
the christian era, by Cecrops and an Egyptian colony. It was called
_Cecropia_ from its founder, and afterwards _Athenæ_ in honour
of Minerva, who had obtained the right of giving it a name in
preference to Neptune. _See:_ Minerva. It was governed by 17 kings
in the following order:――After a reign of 50 years, Cecrops was
succeeded by Cranaus, who began to reign 1506 B.C.; Amphictyon, 1497;
Erichthonius, 1487; Pandion, 1437; Erichtheus, 1397; Cecrops II.,
1347; Pandion II., 1307; Ægeus, 1283; Theseus, 1235; Menestheus,
1205; Demophoon, 1182; Oxyntes, 1149; Aphidas, 1137; Thymœtes, 1136;
Melanthus, 1128; and Codrus, 1091, who was killed after a reign of
21 years. The history of the 12 first of these monarchs is mostly
fabulous. After the death of Codrus the monarchical power was
abolished, and the state was governed by 13 perpetual, and 317 years
after, by seven decennial, and lastly, B.C. 684, after an anarchy of
three years, by annual magistrates, called Archons. _See:_ Archontes.
Under this democracy, the Athenians signalized themselves by their
valour in the field, their munificence, and the cultivation of
the fine arts. They were deemed so powerful by the Persians, that
Xerxes, when he invaded Greece, chiefly directed his arms against
Athens, which he took and burnt. Their military character was chiefly
displayed in the battles of Marathon, of Salamis, of Platæa, and of
Mycale. After these immortal victories, they rose in consequence and
dignity, and they demanded the superiority in the affairs of Greece.
The town was rebuilt and embellished by Themistocles, and a new
and magnificent harbour erected. Their success made them arrogant,
and they raised contentions among the neighbouring states, that
they might aggrandize themselves by their fall. The luxury and
intemperance, which had been long excluded from the city by the
salutary laws of their countrymen, Draco and Solon, crept by degrees
among all ranks of people, and soon after all Greece united to
destroy that city, which claimed a sovereign power over all the rest.
The Peloponnesian war, though at first a private quarrel, was soon
fomented into a universal war; and the arms of all the states of
Peloponnesus [_See:_ Peloponnesiacum bellum] were directed against
Athens, which, after 28 years of misfortunes and bloodshed, was
totally ruined, the 24th April, 404 years before the christian era,
by Lysander. After this, the Athenians were oppressed by 30 tyrants,
and for a while laboured under the weight of their own calamities.
They recovered something of their usual spirit in the age of Philip,
and boldly opposed his ambitious views; but their short-lived
efforts were not of great service to the interest of Greece, and
they fell into the hands of the Romans, B.C. 86. The Athenians have
been admired in all ages for their love of liberty, and for the
great men that were born among them; but favour there was attended
with danger; and there are very few instances in the history of
Athens that can prove that the jealousy and frenzy of the people did
not persecute and disturb the peace of the man who had fought their
battles and exposed his life in the defence of his country. Perhaps,
not one single city in the world can boast, in such a short space
of time, of such a number of truly illustrious citizens, equally
celebrated for their humanity, their learning, and their military
abilities. The Romans, in the more polished ages of their republic,
sent their youths to finish their education at Athens, and respected
the learning, while they despised the military character of the
inhabitants. The reputation which the Athenian schools had acquired
under Socrates and Plato was maintained by their degenerate and less
learned successors; and they flourished with diminished lustre, till
an edict of emperor Justinian suppressed, with the Roman consulship,
the philosophical meetings of the academy. It has been said by
Plutarch that the good men whom Athens produced were the most just
and equitable in the world; but that its bad citizens could not be
surpassed in any age or country, for their impiety, perfidiousness,
or cruelties. Their criminals were always put to death by drinking
the juice of hemlock. The ancients, to distinguish Athens in a
more particular manner, called it Astu, one of the eyes of Greece,
the learned city, the school of the world, the common patroness of
Greece. The Athenians thought themselves the most ancient nation of
Greece, and supposed themselves the original inhabitants of Attica,
for which reason they were called ἀυτοχθονες, produced from the
_same earth_ which they inhabited, γηγενες _sons of the earth_, and
τεττιγες _grasshoppers_. They sometimes wore golden grasshoppers
in their hair as badges of honour, to distinguish them from other
people of later origin and less noble extraction, because those
insects are supposed to be sprung from the ground. The number of men
able to bear arms at Athens in the reign of Cecrops was computed at
20,000, and there appeared no considerable augmentation in the more
civilized age of Pericles; but in the time of Demetrius Phalereus
there were found 21,000 citizens, 10,000 foreigners, and 40,000
slaves. Among the numerous temples and public edifices none was more
celebrated than that of Minerva, which, after being burnt by the
Persians, was rebuilt by Pericles, with the finest marble, and
still exists a venerable monument of the hero’s patriotism, and
of the abilities of the architect. _Cicero_, _Letters to Atticus_,
Against Verres, &c.――_Thucydides_, bk. 1, &c.――_Justin_, bk. 2,
&c.――_Diodorus_, bk. 13, &c.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_.――_Pliny_,
bk. 7, ch. 56.――_Xenophon_, _Memorabilia_.――_Plutarch_, _in vitis_,
&c.――_Strabo_, bk. 9, &c.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, &c.――_Valerius
Maximus._――_Livy_, bk. 31, &c.――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Miltiades_,
&c.――_Polybius._――_Paterculus._
=Athenæa=, festivals celebrated at Athens in honour of Minerva. One
of them was called ♦_Panathenæa_, and the other _ Chalcea_; for an
account of which see those words.
♦ ‘Bana, thenæe’ replaced with ‘Panathenæa’
=Athenæum=, a place at Athens sacred to Minerva, where the poets,
philosophers, and rhetoricians generally declaimed and repeated
their compositions. It was public to all the professors of the
liberal arts. The same thing was adopted at Rome by Adrian, who made
a public building for the same laudable purposes.――――A promontory
of Italy.――――A fortified place between Ætolia and Macedonia. _Livy_,
bk. 38, ch. 1; bk. 39, ch. 25.
=Athenæus=, a Greek cosmographer.――――A peripatetic philosopher of
Cilicia in the time of Augustus. _Strabo._――――A Spartan sent by his
countrymen to Athens, to settle the peace during the Peloponnesian
war.――――A grammarian of Naucratis, who composed an elegant and
miscellaneous work, called ♦_Deipnosophistæ_, replete with very
curious and interesting remarks and anecdotes of the manners of the
ancients, and likewise valuable for the scattered pieces of ancient
poetry which it preserves. The work consists of 15 books, of which
the two first, part of the third, and almost the whole of the last,
are lost. Athenæus wrote, besides this, a history of Syria, and
other works now lost. He died A.D. 194. The best edition of his
works is that of Casaubon, folio, 2 vols., Lugdunum, 1612, by far
superior to the editions of 1595 and 1657.――――An historian, who
wrote an account of Semiramis. _Diodorus._――――A brother of king
Eumenes II., famous for his paternal affection.――――A Roman historian,
in the age of Gallienus, who is supposed to have written a book on
military engines.――――A physician of Cilicia in the age of Pliny, who
made heat, cold, wet, dry, and air the elements, instead of the four
commonly received.
♦ ‘Deipnosphistæ’ replaced with ‘Deipnosophistæ’
=Athenagŏras=, a Greek in the time of Darius, to whom Pharnabazus gave
the government of Chios, &c. _Curtius_, bk. 8, ch. 5.――――A writer
on agriculture. _Varro._――――A christian philosopher, in the age of
Aurelius, who wrote a treatise on the resurrection, and an apology
for the christians, still extant. He died A.D. 177. The best edition
of his works is that of Dechair, 8vo, Oxford, 1706. The romance of
Theagenes and Charis is falsely ascribed to him.
=Athenāis=, a Sibyl of Erythræa, in the age of Alexander. _Strabo._
――――A daughter of the philosopher Leontius.
=Athenion=, a peripatetic philosopher, 108 B.C.――――A general of the
Sicilian slaves.――――A tyrant of Athens, surnamed Ariston.
=Athenŏcles=, a general, &c. _Polyænus_, bk. 6.――――A turner of
Mitylene. _Pliny_, bk. 34.
=Athenodōrus=, a philosopher of Tarsus, intimate with Augustus. The
emperor often profited by his lessons, and was advised by him always
to repeat the 24 letters of the Greek alphabet before he gave way
to the impulse of anger. Athenodorus died in his 82nd year, much
lamented by his countrymen. _Suetonius._――――A poet who wrote comedy,
tragedy, and elegy, in the age of Alexander. _Plutarch_, _Alexander_.
――――A stoic philosopher of Cana, near Tarsus, in the age of Augustus.
He was intimate with Strabo. _Strabo_, bk. 14.――――A philosopher,
disciple to Zeno, and keeper of the royal library at Pergamus.――――A
marble sculptor.――――A man assassinated at Bactra for making himself
absolute.
=Atheos=, a surname of Diagoras and Theodorus, because they denied the
existence of a deity. _Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 1, ch. 1.
=Athĕsis=, now _Adige_, a river of Cisalpine Gaul, near the Po, falling
into the Adriatic sea. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 680.
=Athos=, a mountain of Macedonia, 150 miles in circumference,
projecting into the Ægean sea like a promontory. It is so high that
it overshadows the island of Lemnos, though at the distance of 87
miles; or, according to modern calculation, only 8 leagues. When
Xerxes invaded Greece, he made a trench of a mile and a half in
length at the foot of the mountain, into which he brought the sea
water, and conveyed his fleet over it, so that two ships could pass
one another, thus desirous either to avoid the danger of sailing
round the promontory, or to show his vanity and the extent of his
power. A sculptor, called Dinocrates, offered Alexander to cut mount
Athos, and to make with it a statue of the king holding a town in
his left hand, and in the right a spacious basin to receive all the
waters which flowed from it. Alexander greatly admired the plan,
but objected to the place; and he observed, that the neighbouring
country was not sufficiently fruitful to produce corn and provisions
for the inhabitants which were to dwell in the city, in the hand of
the statue. Athos is now called Monte Santo, famous for monasteries,
said to contain some ancient and valuable manuscripts. _Herodotus_,
bk. 6, ch. 44; bk. 7, ch. 21, &c.――_Lucan_, bk. 2, li. 672.――_Ælian_,
_de Natura Animalium_, bk. 13, ch. 20, &c.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 10.
――_Aeschines_, _Against Ctesiphon_.
=Athrulla=, a town of Arabia. _Strabo._
=Athymbra=, a city of Caria, afterwards called Nyssa. _Strabo_, bk. 14.
=Atia=, a city of Campania.――――A law enacted A.U.C. 690 by Titus Atius
Labienus, the tribune of the people. It abolished the Cornelian law,
and put in full force the Lex Domitia, by transferring the right of
electing priests from the college of priests to the people.――――The
mother of Augustus. _See:_ Accia.
=Atilia lex=, gave the pretor and a majority of the tribunes power
of appointing guardians to those minors who were not previously
provided for by their parents. It was enacted about A.U.C. 560.
――――Another, A.U.C. 443, which gave the people power of electing
20 tribunes of the soldiers in four legions. _Livy_, bk. 9, ch. 30.
=Atilius=, a freedman, who exhibited combats of gladiators at Fidenæ.
The amphitheatre, which contained the spectators, fell during
the exhibition, and about 50,000 persons were killed or mutilated.
_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 4, ch. 62.
=Atilla=, the mother of the poet Lucan. She was accused of conspiracy
by her son, who expected to clear himself of the charge. _Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 15, ch. 56.
=Atīna=, an ancient town of the Volsci, one of the first which began
hostilities against Æneas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 630.
=Atinas=, a friend of Turnus, &c. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 11, li. 869.
=Atinia lex=, was enacted by the tribune Atinius. It gave a tribune of
the people the privileges of a senator, and the right of sitting in
the senate.
=Atlantes=, a people of Africa, in the neighbourhood of mount Atlas,
who lived chiefly on the fruits of the earth, and were said not to
have their sleep at all disturbed by dreams. They daily cursed the
sun at his rising and at his setting, because his excessive heat
scorched and tormented them. _Herodotus._
=Atlantiades=, a patronymic of Mercury as grandson of Atlas. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, li. 639.
=Atlantĭdes=, a people of Africa near mount Atlas. They boasted
of being in possession of the country in which all the gods of
antiquity received their birth. Uranus was their first king, whom,
on account of his knowledge in astronomy, they enrolled in the
number of their gods. _Diodorus_, bk. 3.――――The daughters of Atlas,
were seven in number, Maia, Electra, Taygeta, Asterope, Merope,
Alcyone, and Celæno. They married some of the gods, and most
illustrious heroes, and their children were founders of many nations
and cities. The Atlantides were called nymphs, and even goddesses,
on account of their great intelligence and knowledge. The name of
Hesperides was also given them, on account of their mother Hesperis.
They were made constellations after death. _See:_ Pleiades.
=Atlantis=, a celebrated island mentioned by the ancients. Its
situation is unknown, and even its existence is doubted by some
writers.
=Atlas=, one of the Titans, son of Japetus and Clymene, one of the
Oceanides. He was brother to Epimetheus, Prometheus, and Menœtius.
His mother’s name, according to Apollodorus, was Asia. He married
Pleione daughter of Oceanus, or Hesperis, according to others, by
whom he had seven daughters, called Atlantides. _See:_ Atlantides.
He was king of Mauritania, and master of 1000 flocks of every kind,
as also of beautiful gardens, abounding in every species of fruit,
which he had entrusted to the care of a dragon. Perseus, after the
conquest of the Gorgons, passed by the palace of Atlas, and demanded
hospitality. The king, who was informed by an oracle of Themis
that he should be dethroned by one of the descendants of Jupiter,
refused to receive him, and even offered him violence. Perseus, who
was unequal in strength, showed him Medusa’s head, and Atlas was
instantly changed into a large mountain. This mountain, which runs
across the deserts of Africa east and west, is so high that the
ancients have imagined that the heavens rested on its top, and
that Atlas supported the world on his shoulders. Hyginus says that
Atlas assisted the giants in their wars against the gods, for which
Jupiter compelled him to bear the heavens on his shoulders. The
fable that Atlas supported the heavens on his back, arises from his
fondness for astronomy, and his often frequenting elevated places
and mountains, whence he might observe the heavenly bodies. The
daughters of Atlas were carried away by Busiris king of Egypt, but
redeemed by Hercules, who received, as a reward from the father,
the knowledge of astronomy, and a celestial globe. This knowledge
Hercules communicated to the Greeks; whence the fable has further
said, that he eased for some time the labours of Atlas by taking
upon his shoulders the weight of the heavens. According to some
authors there were two other persons of that name, a king of Italy,
father of Electra, and a king of Arcadia, father of Maia the mother
of Mercury. _Virgil_,, _Æneid_, bk. 4, li. 481; bk. 8, li. 186.
――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 4, fable 17.――_Diodorus_, bk. 3.
――_Lucan_, bk. 9, li. 667, &c.――_Valerius Flaccus_, bk. 5.
――_Hyginus_, fables 83, 125, 155, 157, 192.――_Aratus_, _Astronomia_.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1.――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 508, &c.――――A
river flowing from mount Hæmus into the Ister. _Herodotus_, bk. 4,
ch. 49.
=Atossa=, a daughter of Cyrus, who was one of the wives of Cambyses,
of Smerdis, and afterwards of Darius, by whom she had Xerxes. She
was cured of a dangerous cancer by Democedes. She is supposed by
some to be the Vashti of scripture. _Herodotus_, bk. 3, ch. 68, &c.
=Atrăces=, a people of Ætolia, who received their name from Atrax son
of Ætolus. Their country was called Atracia.
=Atramyttium=, a town of Mysia.
=Atrăpes=, an officer of Alexander, who, at the general division of
the provinces, received Media. _Diodorus_, bk. 18.
=Atrax=, son of Ætolus, or, according to others, of the river Peneus.
He was king of Thessaly, and built a town which he called Atrax
or Atracia. This town became so famous that the word _Atracias_
has been applied to any inhabitant of Thessaly. He was father of
Hippodamia, who married Pirithous, and whom we must not confound
with the wife of Pelops, who bore the same name. _Propertius_, bk. 1,
poem 8, li. 25.――_Statius_, bk. 1, _Thebiad_, li. 106.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 12, li. 209.――――A city of Thessaly, whence the
epithet of Atracius.――――A river of Ætolia, which falls into the
Ionian sea.
=Atrebātæ=, a people of Britain, who were in possession of the modern
counties of Berks, Oxford, &c.
=Atrĕbātes=, now _Artois_, a people of Gaul, who, together with the
Nervii, opposed Julius Cæsar with 15,000 men. They were conquered,
and Comius, a friend of the general, was set over them as king. They
were reinstated in their former liberty and independence, on account
of the services of Comius. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 2, &c.
=Atrēni=, a people of Armenia.
=Atreus=, a son of Pelops by Hippodamia, daughter of Œnomaus king of
Pisa, was king of Mycenæ, and brother to Pittheus, Trœzon, Thyestes,
and Chrysippus. As Chrysippus was an illegitimate son, and at the
same time a favourite of his father, Hippodamia resolved to remove
him. She persuaded her sons Thyestes and Atreus to murder him; but
their refusal exasperated her more, and she executed it herself.
This murder was grievous to Pelops: he suspected his two sons,
who fled away from his presence. Atreus retired to the court
of Eurystheus king of Argos, his nephew, and upon his death he
succeeded him on the throne. He married, as some report, Ærope, his
predecessor’s daughter, by whom he had Plisthenes, Menelaus, and
Agamemnon. Others affirm that Ærope was the wife of Plisthenes,
by whom he had Agamemnon and Menelaus, who are the reputed sons
of Atreus, because that prince took care of their education, and
brought them up as his own. _See:_ Plisthenes. Thyestes had followed
his brother to Argos, where he lived with him, and debauched his
wife, by whom he had two, or, according to some, three children.
This incestuous commerce offended Atreus, and Thyestes was banished
from his court. He was, however, soon after recalled by his brother,
who determined cruelly to revenge the violence offered to his bed.
To effect this purpose, he invited his brother to a sumptuous feast,
where Thyestes was served up with the flesh of the children he had
had by his sister-in-law the queen. After the repast was finished,
the arms and the heads of the murdered children were produced, to
convince Thyestes of what he had feasted upon. This action appeared
so cruel and impious, that the sun is said to have shrunk back in
his course at the bloody sight. Thyestes immediately fled to the
court of Thesprotus, and thence to Sicyon, where he ravished his
own daughter Pelopea, in a grove sacred to Minerva, without knowing
who she was. This incest he committed intentionally, as some report,
to revenge himself on his brother Atreus, according to the words of
the oracle, which promised him satisfaction for the cruelties he had
suffered only from the hand of a son who should be born of himself
and his own daughter. Pelopea brought forth a son whom she called
Ægisthus, and soon after she married Atreus, who had lost his
wife. Atreus adopted Ægisthus, and sent him to murder Thyestes,
who had been seized at Delphi and imprisoned. Thyestes knew his
son, and made himself known to him; he made him espouse his cause,
and instead of becoming his father’s murderer, he rather avenged
his wrongs, and returned to Atreus, whom he assassinated. _See:_
Thyestes, Ægisthus, Pelopea, Agamemnon, and Menelaus. _Hyginus_,
fables 83, 86, 87, 88, & 258.――_Euripides_, _Orestes_; _Iphigeneia
in Taurus_.――_Plutarch_, _Parallela minora_.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9,
ch. 40.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 10.――_Seneca_ on _Atreus_.
=Atrīdæ=, a patronymic given by Homer to Agamemnon and Menelaus,
as being the sons of Atreus. This is false, upon the authority of
Hesiod, Lactantius [Placidus], Dictys of Crete, &c., who maintain
that these princes were not the sons of Atreus, but of Plisthenes,
and that they were brought up in the house and under the eye of
their grandfather. _See:_ Plisthenes.
=Atronius=, a friend of Turnus, killed by the Trojans. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 10.
=Atropatia=, a part of Media. _Strabo._
=Atrŏpos=, one of the Parcæ, daughters of Nox and Erebus. According
to the derivation of her name (_a non_, τρεπω _muto_), she is
inexorable and inflexible, and her duty among the three sisters
is to cut the thread of life, without any regard to sex, age, or
quality. She was represented by the ancients in a black veil, with
a pair of scissors in her hand. _See:_ Parcæ.
=T. Q. Atta=, a writer of merit in the Augustan age, who seems to
have received this name from some deformity in his legs or feet.
His compositions, dramatical as well as satirical, were held in
universal admiration, though Horace thinks of them with indifference.
_Horace_, bk. 2, ltr. 1, li. 79.
=Attălia=, a city of Pamphylia, built by king Attalus. _Strabo._
=Attalĭcus.= _See:_ Attalus III.
=Attălus I.=, king of Pergamus, succeeded Eumenes I. He defeated the
Gauls who had invaded his dominions, extended his conquests to mount
Taurus, and obtained the assistance of the Romans against Antiochus.
The Athenians rewarded his merit with great honours. He died at
Pergamus after a reign of 44 years, B.C. 197. _Livy_, bks. 26, 27,
28, &c.――_Polybius_, bk. 5.――_Strabo_, bk. 13.――――The second of that
name was sent on an embassy to Rome by his brother Eumenes II., and
at his return was appointed guardian to his nephew Attalus III.,
who was then an infant. Prusias made successful war against him, and
seized his capital; but the conquest was stopped by the interference
of the Romans, who restored Attalus to his throne. Attalus, who has
received the name of _Philadelphus_, from his fraternal love, was
a munificent patron of learning, and the founder of several cities.
He was poisoned by his nephew in the 82nd year of his age, B.C. 138.
He had governed the nation with great prudence and moderation
for 20 years. _Strabo_, bk. 13.――_Polybius_, bk. 5.――――The third
succeeded to the kingdom of Pergamus, by the murder of Attalus II.,
and made himself odious by his cruelty to his relations and his
wanton exercise of power. He was son to Eumenes II., and surnamed
_Philopater_. He left the cares of government to cultivate his
garden, and to make experiments on the melting of metals. He lived
in great amity with the Romans; and as he died without issue by
his wife Berenice, he left in his will the words _Populus Romanus
meorum hæres esto_, which the Romans interpreted as themselves,
and therefore took possession of his kingdom, B.C. 133, and made
of it a Roman province, which they governed by a proconsul. From
this circumstance, whatever was a valuable acquisition, or an ample
fortune, was always called by the epithet _Attalicus_. Attalus,
as well as his predecessors, made themselves celebrated for the
valuable libraries which they collected at Pergamus, and for the
patronage which merit and virtue always found at their court.
_Livy_, bk. 24, &c.――_Pliny_, bks. 7, 8, 33, &c.――_Justin_, bk.
39.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ode 1.――――An officer in Alexander’s army.
_Curtius_, bk. 4, ch. 13.――――Another very inimical to Alexander.
He was put to death by Parmenio, and Alexander was accused of the
murder. _Curtius_, bk. 6, ch. 9; bk. 8, ch. 1.――――A philosopher,
preceptor to Seneca. _Seneca_ ltr. 108.――――An astronomer of Rhodes.
=Attarras=, an officer who seized those that had conspired with Dymnus
against Alexander. _Curtius_, bk. 6.
=Atteius Capĭto=, a consul in the age of Augustus, who wrote treatises
on sacerdotal laws, public courts of justice, and the duty of a
senator. _See:_ ♦Ateius.
♦ No reference to ‘Ateius’ found.
=Attes=, a son of Calaus of Phrygia, who was born impotent. He
introduced the worship of Cybele among the Lydians, and became a
great favourite of the goddess. Jupiter was jealous of his success,
and sent a wild boar to lay waste the country and destroy Attes.
_Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 17. =Atthis=, a daughter of Cranaus II. king
of Athens, who gave her name to Attica, according to _Apollodorus_,
bk. 3, ch. 14. =Attĭca=, a country of Achaia or Hellas, at the south
of Bœotia, west of the Ægean sea, north of the Saronicus Sinus,
and east of Megara. It received its name from Atthis, the daughter
of Cranaus. It was originally called Ionia, from the Ionians, who
settled there; and also Acte, which signifies _shore_, and Cecropia,
from Cecrops the first of its kings. The most famous of its cities
is called Athens, whose inhabitants sometimes bear the name of
_Attici_. Attica was famous for its gold and silver mines, which
constituted the best part of the public revenues. The face of the
country was partly level and partly mountainous, divided into the 13
tribes of Acamantis, Æantis, Antiochis, Attalis, Ægeis, Erechtheis,
Adrianis, Hippothoontis, Cecropis, Leontis, Æneis, Ptolemais, and
Pandionis; whose inhabitants were numbered in the 116th olympiad,
at 31,000 citizens, and 400,000 slaves, within 174 villages, some
of which were considerable towns. _See:_ Athenæ.
=Attĭcus=, one of Galba’s servants, who entered his palace with
a bloody sword, and declared he had killed Otho. _Tacitus_,
_Histories_, bk. 1.――――Titus Pomponius, a celebrated Roman knight,
to whom Cicero wrote a great number of letters, which contained
the general history of the age. They are now extant, and divided
into 17 books. In the time of Marius and Sylla, Atticus retired to
Athens, where he so endeared himself to the citizens, that after
his departure they erected statues to him in commemoration of his
munificence and liberality. He was such a perfect master of the
Greek writers, and spoke their language so fluently, that he was
surnamed _Atticus_; and, as a proof of his learning, he favoured
the world with some of his compositions. He behaved in such a
disinterested manner, that he offended neither of the inimical
parties at Rome, and both were equally anxious of courting his
approbation. He lived in the greatest intimacy with the illustrious
men of his age, and he was such a lover of truth, that he not
only abstained from falsehood even in a joke, but treated with
the greatest contempt and indignation a lying tongue. It is said
that he refused to take aliments when unable to get the better of a
fever; and died in the 77th year, B.C. 32, after bearing the amiable
character of peacemaker among his friends. _Cornelius Nepos_, one
of his intimate friends, has written a minute account of his life.
_Cicero_, _Letters to Atticus_, &c.――――Herodes, an Athenian in the
age of the Antonines, descended from Miltiades, and celebrated for
his munificence. His son of the same name was honoured with the
consulship, and he generously erected an aqueduct at Troas, of which
he had been made governor by the emperor Adrian, and raised, in
other parts of the empire, several public buildings as useful as
they were magnificent. _Philostratus_, _Lives of the Sophists_,
bk. 2, p. 548.――_Aulus Gellius_, _Noctes Atticæ_.――――A consul in the
age of Nero, &c. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 15.
=Attĭla=, a celebrated king of the Huns, a nation in the southern parts
of Scythia, who invaded the Roman empire in the reign of Valentinian,
with an army of 500,000 men, and laid waste the provinces. He took
the town of Aquileia, and marched against Rome; but his retreat and
peace were purchased with a large sum of money by the feeble emperor.
Attila, who boasted in the appellation of _the scourge of God_, died
A.D. 453, of an uncommon effusion of blood, the first night of his
nuptials. He had expressed his wish to extend his conquests over the
whole world; and he often feasted his barbarity by dragging captive
kings in his train. _Jornandes_, _Getica_.
=Attilius=, a Roman consul in the first Punic war. _See:_ Regulus.
――――Calatinus, a Roman consul who fought the Carthaginian fleet.
――――Marcus, a poet who translated the Electra of Sophocles into
Latin verse, and wrote comedies whose unintelligible language
procured him the appellation of _Ferreus_.――――Regulus, a Roman
censor who built a temple to the goddess of concord. _Livy_, bk. 23,
ch. 23, &c.――――The name of Attilius was common among the Romans,
and many of the public magistrates are called Attilii; their life,
however, is not famous for any illustrious event.
=Attinas=, an officer set over Bactriana by Alexander. _Curtius_,
bk. 8.
=Attius Pelignus=, an officer of Cæsar. _Cæsar_, _Civil War_, bk. 1.
――――Tullius, the general of the Volsci, to whom Coriolanus fled when
banished from Rome. _Livy._――――Varius seized Auxinum in Pompey’s
name, whence he was expelled. After this he fled to Africa, which
he alienated from Julius Cæsar. _Cæsar_, bk. 1, _Civil War_.――――A
poet. _See:_ Accius.――――The family of the Attii was descended from
Atys, one of the companions of Æneas, according to the opinion which
Virgil has adopted, _Æneid_, bk. 5, li. 568.
=Atūrus=, a river of Gaul, now the _Adour_, which runs at the foot
of the Pyrenean mountains into the bay of Biscay. _Lucan_, bk. 1,
li. 420.
=Atyădæ=, the descendants of Atys the Lydian.
=Atys=, an ancient king of Lydia, who sent away his son Tyrrhenus
with a colony of Lydians, who settled in Italy. _Herodotus_, bk. 1,
ch. 7.――――A son of Crœsus king of Lydia. He was forbidden the use of
all weapons by his father, who had dreamt that he had been killed.
Some time after this, Atys prevailed on his father to permit him to
go to hunt a wild boar which laid waste the country of Mysia, and
he was killed in the attempt by Adrastus, whom Crœsus had appointed
guardian over his son, and thus the apprehensions of the monarch
were realized. _Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 34, &c. _See:_ Adrastus.――――A
Trojan who came to Italy with Æneas, and is supposed to be the
progenitor of the family of the Atti at Rome. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 5, li. 568.――――A youth to whom Ismene the daughter of Œdipus was
promised in marriage. He was killed by Tydeus before his nuptials.
_Statius_, _Thebiad_, bk. 8, li. 598.――――A son of Limniace the
daughter of the river Ganges, who assisted Cepheus in preventing
the marriage of Andromeda, and was killed by Perseus with a burning
log of wood. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, li. 47.――――A celebrated
shepherd of Phrygia, of whom the mother of the gods, generally
called Cybele, became enamoured. She entrusted him with the care
of her temple, and made him promise that he always would live in
celibacy. He violated his vow by an amour with the nymph Sangaris,
for which the goddess made him so insane and delirious, that
he castrated himself with a sharp stone. This was afterwards
intentionally done by his sacerdotal successors in the service of
Cybele, to prevent their breaking their vows of perpetual chastity.
This account is the most general and most approved. Others say
that the goddess became fond of Atys, because he had introduced her
festivals in the greatest part of Asia Minor, and that she herself
mutilated him. _Pausanias_ relates, in _Achaia_, ch. 17, that Atys
was the son of the daughter of the Sangar, who became pregnant
by putting the bough of an almond tree in her bosom. Jupiter, as
the passage mentions, once had an amorous dream, and some of the
impurity of the god fell upon the earth, which soon after produced a
monster of a human form, with the characteristics of the two sexes.
This monster was called Agdistis, and was deprived by the gods of
those parts which distinguished the male sex. From the mutilated
parts which were thrown upon the ground, rose an almond tree, one
of whose branches a nymph of the Sangar gathered, and placed in her
bosom as mentioned above. Atys, as soon as born, was exposed in a
wood, but preserved by a she-goat. The genius Agdistis saw him in
the wood, and was captivated with his beauty. As Atys was going to
celebrate his nuptials with the daughter of the king of Pessinus,
Agdistis, who was jealous of his rival, inspired by his enchantments
the king and his future son-in-law with such an uncommon fury,
that they both attacked and ♦mutilated one another in the struggle.
_Ovid_ says, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 10, fable 2, &c., that Cybele
changed Atys into a pine tree as he was going to lay violent hands
upon himself, and ever after that tree was sacred to the mother
of the gods. After his death, Atys received divine honours, and
temples were raised to his memory, particularly at Dymæ. _Catullus_,
_the Adventures of Atys [Attis] and Berecynthia [Cybele]_.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 10, fable 3; _Fasti_, bk. 4, li. 223, &c.
――_Lucian_, _Deâ Syriâ_.――――Sylvius, son of Albius Sylvius, was king
of Alba. _Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 3.
♦ ‘multilated’ replaced with ‘mutilated’
=Avarīcum=, a strong and fortified town of Gaul, now called Bourges,
the capital of Berry. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 7.
=Avella=, a town of Campania, abounding in nuts, whence nuts have been
called _avellinæ_. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 45, &c.――_Virgil_,
_Æneid_, ♦bk. 7, li. 740.
♦ ‘Book 7’ omitted from reference
=Aventīnus=, a son of Hercules by Rhea, who assisted Turnus against
Æneas, and distinguished himself by his valour. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 7, li. 657.――――A king of Alba, buried upon mount Aventine.
_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 4, li. 51.――――One of the seven hills on
which part of the city of Rome was built, it was 13,300 feet in
circumference, and was given to the people to build houses upon, by
king Ancus Martius. It was not reckoned within the precincts of the
city till the reign of the emperor Claudius, because the soothsayers
looked upon it as a place of ill omen, as Remus had been buried
there, whose blood had been criminally shed. The word is derived,
according to some, _ab avibus_, because birds were fond of the place.
Others suppose that it receives its name because Aventinus, one of
the Alban kings, was buried upon it. Juno, the Moon, Diana, Bona Dea,
Hercules, and the goddess of Victory and Liberty, had magnificent
temples built upon it. _Varro_, _de Lingua Latina_, bk. 4.――_Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 8, li. 235.――_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 33.
=Avernus=, or =Averna=, a lake of Campania near Baiæ, whose waters
were so unwholesome and putrid, that no birds were seen on its
banks; hence its original name was ἀορνος, _avibus carens_. The
ancients made it the entrance of hell, as also one of its rivers.
Its circumference was five stadia, and its depth could not be
ascertained. The waters of the Avernus were indispensably necessary
in all enchantments and magical processes. It may be observed, that
all lakes whose stagnated waters were putrid and offensive to the
smell, were indiscriminately called Averna. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 4,
lis. 5, 12, &c.; bk. 6, li. 201, &c.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 4.――_Strabo_,
bk. 5.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Aristotle_, _on Admethics [Ethics]_.
=Avesta=, a book composed by Zoroaster.
=Aufeia aqua=, called afterwards Marcia, was the sweetest and most
wholesome water in Rome, and it was first conveyed into the city by
Ancus Martius.
=Aufidēna=, now _Alfidena_, a city of the Peligni in Italy, whose
inhabitants, called _Aufidenates_, were among the Sabines. _Livy_,
bk. 10, ch. 12.
=Aufĭdia lex=, was enacted by the tribune Aufidius Lurco, A.U.C. 692.
It ordained, that if any candidate, in canvassing for an office,
promised money to the tribunes, and failed in the performance,
he should be excused; but if he actually paid it, he should be
compelled to pay every tribune 6000 sesterces.
=Aufidius=, an effeminate person of Chios. _Juvenal_, satire 9, li. 25.
――――Bassus, a famous historian in the age of Quintilian, who wrote
an account of Germany, and of the civil wars.――――A Roman senator,
famous for his blindness and abilities. _Cicero_, _Tusculanæ
Disputations_, bk. 5.――――Lurco, a man who enriched himself by
fattening peacocks, and selling them for meat. _Pliny_, bk. 10.
――――Luscus, a man obscurely born, and made pretor of Fundi, in the
age of Horace. _Horace_, bk. 1, satire 5, li. 34.
=Aufĭdus=, a river of Apulia falling into the Adriatic sea, and now
called Ofanto. It was on its banks that the Romans were defeated by
Hannibal at Cannæ. The spot is still shown by the inhabitants, and
bears the name of the field of blood. _Horace_, bk. 3, ode 30; bk. 4,
ode 9.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 11, li. 405.
=Auga=, =Auge=, and =Augea=, daughter of Aleus king of Tegea by Neæra,
was ravished by Hercules, and brought forth a son, whom she exposed
in the woods to conceal her amours from her father. The child was
preserved, and called Telephus. Aleus was informed of his daughter’s
shame, and gave her to Nauplius to be put to death. Nauplius refused
to perform the cruel office, and gave Auge to Teuthras king of Mysia,
who, being without issue, adopted her as his daughter. Some time
after the dominions of Teuthras were invaded by an enemy, and the
king promised his crown and daughter to him who could deliver him
from the impending calamity. Telephus, who had been directed by the
oracle to go to the court of Teuthras, if he wished to find his
parents, offered his services to the king, and they were accepted.
As he was going to unite himself to Auge, in consequence of the
victory he had obtained, Auge rushed from him with secret horror,
and the gods sent a serpent to separate them. Auge implored the aid
of Hercules, who made her son known to her, and she returned with
him to Tegea. _Pausanias_ says, that Auge was confined in a coffer
with her infant son, and thrown into the sea, where, after being
preserved and protected by Minerva, she was found by king Teuthras.
_Apollodorus_, bks. 2 & 3.――_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 4.――_Hyginus_,
fables 99 & 100.
=Augarus=, an Arabian who, for his good offices obtained the favours of
Pompey, whom he vilely deceived. _Dio Cassius._――――A king of Osroene,
whom Caracalla imprisoned, after he had given him solemn promises of
friendship and support. _Dio Cassius_, bk. 78.
=Augeæ=, a town of Laconia. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 21.――――Another of
Locris.
=Augias= and =Augeas=, son of Eleus, or Elius, was one of the
Argonauts, and afterwards ascended the throne of Elis. He had an
immense number of oxen and goats, and the stables in which they were
kept had never been cleaned, so that the task seemed an impossibility
to any man. Hercules undertook it, on promise of receiving as a
reward the tenth part of the herds of Augias, or something equivalent.
The hero changed the course of the river Alpheus, or, according
to others, of the Peneus, which immediately carried away the dung
and filth from the stables. Augias refused the promised recompense
on pretence that Hercules had made use of artifice, and had not
experienced any labour or trouble, and he further drove his own son
Phyleus from his kingdom, because he supported the claims of the
hero. The refusal was a declaration of war. Hercules conquered Elis,
put to death Augias, and gave the crown to Phyleus. _Pausanias_ says,
bk. 5, chs. 2 & 3, that Hercules spared the life of Augias for the
sake of his son, and that Phyleus went to settle in Dulichium; and
that at the death of Augias his other son, Agasthenes succeeded
to the throne. Augias received, after his death, the honours which
were generally paid to a hero. Augias has been called the son of
Sol, because Elius signifies the sun. The proverb of _Augean stable_
is now applied to an impossibility. _Hyginus_, fables 14, 30, 157.
――_Pliny_, bk. 17, ch. 9.――_Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2.
=Augĭlæ=, a people of Africa, who supposed that there were no gods
except the manes of the dead, of whom they sought oracles. _Mela_,
bk. 1.
=Augīnus=, a mountain of Liguria. _Livy_, bk. 39, ch. 2.
=Augŭres=, certain officers at Rome who foretold future events,
whence their name, _ab avium garritu_. They were first created by
Romulus, to the number of three. Servius Tullius added a fourth,
and the tribunes of the people, A.U.C. 454, increased the number to
nine; and Sylla added six more during his dictatorship. They had a
particular college, and the chief amongst them was called _Magister
collegii_. Their office was honourable; and if any one of them was
convicted of any crime, he could not be deprived of his privileges;
an indulgence granted to no other sacerdotal body at Rome. The augur
generally sat on a high tower to make his observations. His face was
turned towards the east, and he had the north to his left, and the
south at his right. With a crooked staff he divided the face of
the heavens into four different parts, and afterwards sacrificed to
the gods, covering his head with his vestment. There were generally
five things from which the augurs drew omens. The first consisted in
observing the phænomena of the heavens, such as thunder, lightning,
comets, &c. The second kind of omen was drawn from the chirping
or flying of birds. The third was from the sacred chickens, whose
eagerness or indifference in eating the bread which was thrown
to them, was looked upon as lucky or unlucky. The fourth was from
quadrupeds, from their crossing or appearing in some unaccustomed
place. The fifth was from different casualties, which were called
_Dira_, such as spilling salt upon a table, or wine upon one’s
clothes, hearing strange noises, stumbling or sneezing, meeting a
wolf, hare, fox, or pregnant bitch. From such superstitious notions
did the Romans draw their prophecies. The sight of birds on the left
hand was always deemed a lucky object, and the words _sinister_ and
_lævus_, though generally supposed to be terms of ill luck, were
always used by the augurs in an auspicious sense. _Cicero_, _de
Divinatione_.――_Livy_, bk. 1, &c.――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus._
――_Ovid_, _Fasti_.
♦=Augurīnus Julius=, a Roman knight who conspired against Nero, &c.
_Tacitus_, ♠_Annals_, bk. 15, ch. 70.
♦ ‘Tugurīnus Julius’ replaced with ‘Augurīnus Julius’
Placed in correct alphebetical order.
♠ ‘H. 15, c. 70’ replaced with ‘Annals, bk. 15, ch. 50’
=Augusta=, a name given to 70 cities in the Roman provinces in honour
of Augustus Cæsar.――――London, as capital of the country of the
Trinobantes, was called Augusta Trinobantia.――――Messalina, famous
for her debaucheries, was called Augusta, as wife of the emperor
Claudius. _Juvenal_, satire 6, li. 118.
=Augustālia=, a festival at Rome, in commemoration of the day on which
Augustus returned to Rome, after he had established peace over the
different parts of the empire.
=Augustīnus=, a bishop of Hippo in Africa, distinguished himself by
his writings, as well as by the austerity of his life. In his works,
which are numerous, he displayed the powers of a great genius, and
an extensive acquaintance with the philosophy of Plato. He died in
the 76th year of his age, A.D. 430. The best edition of his works is
that of the Benedict, folio, Antwerp, 1700 to 1703, 12 vols.
=Augustodūnum=, now _Autun_, a town of Gaul, the capital of the
ancient Ædui.
=Augustŭlus=, the last Roman emperor of the west, A.D. 475, conquered
by Odoacer king of the Heruli.
=Augustus Octaviānus Cæsar=, second emperor of Rome, was son of
Octavius a senator, and Accia daughter of Julius, and sister to
Julius Cæsar. He was adopted by his uncle Cæsar, and inherited
the greatest part of his fortune. He lost his father at the age of
four; and though only 18 when his uncle was murdered, he hastened
to Rome, where he ingratiated himself with the senate and people,
and received the honours of the consulship two years after, as the
reward of his hypocrisy. Though his youth and his inexperience were
ridiculed by his enemies, who branded him with the appellation of
_boy_, yet he rose in consequence by his prudence and valour, and
made war against his opponents, on pretence of avenging the death of
his murdered uncle. But when he perceived that by making him fight
against Antony, the senate wished to debilitate both antagonists, he
changed his views, and uniting himself with his enemy, soon formed
the second triumvirate, in which his cruel proscriptions shed the
innocent blood of 300 senators and 200 knights, and did not even
spare the life of his friend Cicero. By the divisions which were
made among the triumvirs, Augustus retained for himself the more
important provinces of the west, and banished, as it were, his
colleagues, Lepidus and Antony, to more distant territories. But as
long as the murderers of Cæsar were alive, the reigning tyrants had
reason for apprehension, and therefore the forces of the triumvirate
were directed against the partisans of Brutus and the senate. The
battle was decided at Philippi, where it is said that the valour and
conduct of Antony alone preserved the combined armies, and effected
the defeat of the republican forces. The head of the unfortunate
Brutus was carried to Rome, and in insolent revenge thrown at the
feet of Cæsar’s statue. On his return to Italy, Augustus rewarded
his soldiers with the lands of those that had been proscribed; but
among the sufferers were many who had never injured the conqueror of
Philippi, especially Virgil, whose modest application procured the
restitution of his property. The friendship which subsisted between
Augustus and Antony was broken as soon as the fears of a third rival
vanished away, and the aspiring heir of Cæsar was easily induced to
take up arms by the little jealousies and resentment of Fulvia. Her
death, however, retarded hostilities; the two rivals were reconciled;
their united forces were successfully directed against the younger
Pompey; and, to strengthen their friendship, Antony agreed to marry
Octavia the sister of Augustus. But as this step was political, and
not dictated by affection, Octavia was slighted, and Antony resigned
himself to the pleasures and company of the beautiful Cleopatra.
Augustus was incensed, and immediately took up arms to avenge the
wrongs of his sister, and perhaps more eagerly to remove a man
whose power and existence kept him in continual alarms, and made
him dependent. Both parties met at Actium, B.C. 31, to decide the
fate of Rome. Antony was supported by all the power of the east,
and Augustus by Italy. Cleopatra fled from the battle with 60
ships, and her flight ruined the interest of Antony, who followed
her into Egypt. The conqueror soon after passed into Egypt,
besieged Alexandria, and honoured, with a magnificent funeral, the
unfortunate Roman and the celebrated queen, whom the fear of being
led in the victor’s triumph at Rome had driven to commit suicide.
After he had established peace all over the world, Augustus shut up
the gates of the temple of Janus, the year our Saviour was born. It
is said he twice resolved to lay down the supreme power, immediately
after the victory obtained over Antony, and afterwards on account of
his ill-health; but his friend Mecænas dissuaded him, and observed
that he would leave it to be the prey of the most powerful, and
expose himself to ingratitude and to danger. He died at Nola, in the
76th year of his age, A.D. 14, after he had held the sovereign power
during 44 years. Augustus was an active emperor, and consulted the
good of the Romans with the most anxious care. He visited all the
provinces except Africa and Sardinia, and his consummate prudence
and experience gave rise to many salutary laws, but it may be said,
that be finished with a good grace what he began with cruelty.
While making himself absolute, he took care to leave his countrymen
the shadow of liberty; and if, under the character and office ♦of
perpetual tribune, of priest and imperator, he was invested with all
the power of sovereignty, he guarded against offending the jealous
Romans, by not assuming the regal title. His refusal to read the
letters he found after Pompey’s defeat arose more from fear than
honour, and he dreaded the discovery of names which would have
perhaps united to sacrifice his ambition. His good qualities, and
many virtues he perhaps never possessed, have been transmitted to
posterity by the pen of adulation or gratitude, in the poems of
Virgil, Horace, and Ovid. To distinguish himself from the obscurity
of the Octavii, and, if possible, to suppress the remembrance
of his uncle’s violent fate, he aspired after a new title; and
the submissive senate yielded to his ambition, by giving him
the honourable appellation of _Augustus_. He has been accused of
licentiousness and adultery by his biographer; but the goodness
of his heart, and the fidelity of his friendship, which in some
instances he possessed, made some amends for his natural foibles.
He was ambitious of being thought handsome; and as he was publicly
reported to be the son of Apollo, according to his mother’s
declaration, he wished his flatterers to represent him with the
figure and attributes of that god. Like Apollo, his eyes were clear,
and he affected to have it thought that they possessed some divine
irradiation; and was well pleased if, when he fixed his looks upon
anybody, they held down their eyes as if overcome by the glaring
brightness of the sun. He distinguished himself by his learning; he
was a perfect master of the Greek language, and wrote some tragedies,
besides memoirs of his life, and other works, all now lost. He was
married three times; to Claudia, to Scribonia, and to Livia; but he
was unhappy in his matrimonial connections, and his only daughter
Julia by Scribonia disgraced herself and her father by the debauchery
and licentiousness of her manners. He recommended, at his death, his
adopted son Tiberius as his successor. He left his fortune, partly
to Tiberius and to Drusus, and made donations to the army and to
the Roman people. Virgil wrote his heroic poem at the desire of
Augustus, whom he represented under the amiable and perfect character
of Æneas. _Suetonius_, _The Twelve Caesars_.――_Horace._――_Virgil._
――_Pausanias._――_Tacitus._――_Paterculus._――_Dio Cassius._――_Ovid._
――――The name of _Augustus_ was afterwards given to the successors
of Octavianus in the Roman empire as a personal, and the name of
_Cæsar_ as a family, distinction. In a more distant period of the
empire, the title of Augustus was given only to the emperor, while
that of Cæsar was bestowed on the second person in the state, who
was considered as presumptive heir.
♦ ‘or’ replaced with ‘of’
=Avĭdiēnus=, a rich and sordid man, whom _Horace_ styles happy, bk. 2,
satire 2, li. 55.
=Avidius Cassius=, a man saluted emperor, A.D. 175. He reigned only
three months, and was assassinated by a centurion. He was called a
second Catiline, from his excessive love of bloodshed. _Diodorus._
=Rufus Festus Aviēnus=, a poet in the age of Theodosius, who translated
the phænomena of Aratus, as also all Livy, into iambic verses. The
best edition of what remains of him is that of Cannegetier, 8vo,
1731.
=Avitus=, a governor of Britain under Nero. _Tacitus_, _Annals_,
bk. 14.――――Alcinus, a christian poet, who wrote a poem in six books
on original sin, &c.
=Avium=, a city between Tyre and Sidon. _Strabo_, bk. 16.
=Aulerci=, a people of Gaul, between the Seine and the Loire.
=Aulestes=, a king of the Etrurians when Æneas came into Italy.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 12, li. 290.
=Aulētes=, a general who assisted Æneas in Italy, with 100 ships.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 207.――――The surname of one of the
Ptolemean kings, father to Cleopatra.
=Aulis=, a daughter of Ogyges. _Pausanias_, _Bœotia_.――――A town of
Bœotia near Chalcis on the sea coast, where all the Greeks conspired
against Troy. They were detained there by contrary winds, by the
anger of Diana, whose favourite stag had been killed by Agamemnon.
To appease the resentment of the goddess, Agamemnon was obliged to
sacrifice his own daughter Iphigenia, whom, however, Diana spared
by substituting a ram. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 4, li. 426.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 12, li. 9, &c.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2, li. 303.
=Aulon=, a mountain of Calabria, opposite Tarentum, famous for its
wine, which, according to _Horace_ bk. 2, ode 6, li. 18, is superior
to that of Falernum. _Martial_, bk. 13, ltr. 125.――_Strabo_, bk. 6.
――――A place of Messenia. _Pausanias._
=Aulonius=, a surname of Æsculapius.
=Aulus=, a prænomen common among the Romans.――――Gellius. _See:_ Gellius.
=Auras=, a European river, flowing into the Ister from mount Hæmus.
_Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 49.
=Aurelia lex=, was enacted A.U.C. 653, by the pretor Lucius Aurelius
Cotta, to invest the Senatorian and Equestrian orders, and the
Tribuni Ærarii, with judicial power.――――Another, A.U.C. 678. It
abrogated a clause of the Lex Cornelia and permitted the tribunes
to hold other offices after the expiration of the tribuneship.
=Aurelia=, a town of Hispania Bætica.――――The mother of Julius Cæsar.
_Suetonius_, _Cæsar_, ch. 74.――――A fishwoman. _Juvenal_, satire 4,
li. 98.
=Aureliānus=, emperor of Rome after Flavius Claudius, was austere, and
even cruel in the execution of the laws, and punished his soldiers
with unusual severity. He rendered himself famous for his military
character; and his expedition against Zenobia, the celebrated
queen of Palmyra, gained him great honours. He beautified Rome, was
charitable to the poor, and the author of many salutary laws. He was
naturally brave, and in all the battles he fought, it is said, he
killed no less than 800 men with his own hand. In his triumph, he
exhibited to the Romans people of 15 different nations, all of which
he had conquered. He was the first emperor who wore a diadem. After
a glorious reign of six years, as he marched against the northern
barbarians, he was assassinated near Byzantium, A.D. 275, January
29th, by his soldiers, whom Mnestheus had incited to rebellion
against their emperor. This Mnestheus had been threatened with death,
for some ill behaviour to the emperor, and therefore he meditated
his death. The soldiers, however, soon repented of their ingratitude
and cruelty to Aurelian, and threw Mnestheus to be devoured by wild
beasts.――――A physician of the fourth century.
=Aurelius=, emperor of Rome. _See:_ Antoninus Bassianus.――――A painter
in the age of Augustus. _Pliny_, bk. 35.――――Victor, an historian in
the age of Julian, two of whose compositions are extant――an account
of illustrious men, and a biography of all the Cæsars to Julian. The
best edition of Aurelius are the 4to of Artuzenius, Amsterdam, 1733,
and the 8vo of Pitiscus, Utrecht, 1696.――――Antoninus, an emperor.
_See:_ Antoninus.
=Aureolus=, a general who assumed the purple in the age of Gallienus.
=Aurinia=, a prophetess held in great veneration by the Germans.
_Tacitus_, _Germania_, ch. 8.
=Aurōra=, a goddess, daughter of Hyperion and Thia or Thea, or,
according to others, of Titan and Terra. Some say that Pallas, son
of Crius and brother to Perseus, was her father; hence her surname
of _Pallantias_. She married Astræus, by whom she had the winds, the
stars, &c. Her amours with Tithonus and Cephalus are also famous; by
the former she had Memnon and Æmathion, and Phaeton by the latter.
_See:_ Cephalus and Tithonus. She had also an intrigue with Orion,
whom she carried to the island of Delos, where he was killed by
Diana’s arrows. Aurora is generally represented by the poets drawn
in a rose-coloured chariot, and opening with her rosy fingers the
gates of the east, pouring the dew upon the earth, and making the
flowers grow. Her chariot is generally drawn by white horses, and
she is covered with a veil. Nox and Somnus fly before her, and the
constellations of heaven disappear at her approach. She always sets
out before the sun, and is the forerunner of his rising. The Greeks
call her Eos. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 8; _Odyssey_, bk. 10; _Hymn to
Aphrodite_.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bks. 3, 9, 15.――_Apollodorus_,
bks. 1, 3.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 535.――_Varro_, _de Lingua
Latina_, bk. 5, &c.――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_.――_Hyginus_, preface to
fables.
=Aurunce=, an ancient town of Latium, built by Auson the son of
Ulysses by Calypso. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 727, &c.
=Auschīsæ=, a people of Libya. _Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 171.
=Ausci=, a people of Gaul.
=Auser=, =Auseris=, and =Anser=, a river of Etruria, which joins the
Arnus before it falls into the Tyrrhene sea.
=Auses=, a people of Africa, whose virgins yearly fight with sticks in
honour of Minerva. She who behaves with the greatest valour receives
unusual honour, &c. _Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 180.
=Auson=, a son of Ulysses and Calypso, from whom the Ausones, a people
of Italy, are descended.
=Ausonia=, one of the ancient names of Italy, which it received from
Auson the son of Ulysses. If Virgil makes Æneas speak of Ausonia, it
is by anticipation. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 171.
=Decimius Magnus Ausōnius=, a poet, born at Bordeaux in Gaul, in the
fourth century, preceptor to Gratian son of the emperor Valentinian,
and made consul by the means of his pupil. His compositions have
been long admired. The thanks he returned the emperor Gratian is
one of the best of his poems, which were too often hurried for
publication, and consequently not perfect. He wrote the _consular
fasti_ of Rome, a useful performance, now lost. His style is
occasionally obscene, and he has attempted upon the words of Virgil,
what revolts everything against his indelicacy. The best edition
is that of Tollius, 8vo, Leiden, 1671; or that of Jaubert, with a
French translation, 4 vols., 12mo, Paris, 1769.
=Auspĭces=, a sacerdotal order at Rome, nearly the same as the Augurs.
_See:_ Augures.
=Auster=, one of the winds blowing from the south, whose breath was
pernicious to flowers as well as to health. He was parent of rain.
_Virgil_, _Eclogues_, poem 2, li. 58. _See:_ Venti.
=Austesion=, a Theban, son of Tisamenus. His son Theras led a colony
into an island which, from him, was called Thera. _Herodotus_, bk. 4.
――_Pausanias._
=Autobūlus=, a painter. _Pliny_, bk. 35.
=Autochthŏnes=, the original inhabitants of a country who are the first
possessors of it, and who never have mingled with other nations. The
Athenians called themselves Autochthones, and boasted that they were
as old as the country which they inhabited. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch.
14.――_Tacitus_, _Germania_.――_Cicero_, _On Oratory_, bk. 3, ch. 83.
=Autŏcles=, an Athenian, sent by his countrymen with a fleet to the
assistance of Alexander of Pheræ.
=Autocrătes=, an historian mentioned by _Athenæus_, bks. 9 & 11.
=Autolŏlæ=, a people of Mauritania descended from the Gætuli. They
excelled all their neighbours in running. _Lucan_, bk. 4, li. 677.
=Autŏly̆cus=, a son of Mercury by Chione a daughter of Dædalion. He
was one of the Argonauts. His craft as a thief has been greatly
celebrated. He stole the flocks of his neighbours, and mingled them
with his own, after he had changed their marks. He did the same
to Sisyphus son of Æolus; but Sisyphus was as crafty as Autolycus,
and he knew his own oxen by a mark which he had made under their
feet. Autolycus was so pleased with the artifice of Sisyphus, that
he immediately formed an intimacy with him, and even permitted
him freely to enjoy the company of his daughter Anticlea, who
became pregnant of Ulysses, and was soon after married to Laertes.
_See:_ Sisyphus, Laertes. _Hyginus_, fable 200, &c.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, fable 8.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1.――_Homer_,
_Odyssey_, bk. 14.――――A son of Phryxus and Chalciope. _Hyginus_,
fable 14.
=Automăte=, one of the Cyclades, called also Hera. _Pliny_,
bks. 2, 6, 37.――――A daughter of Danaus.
=Automĕdon=, a son of Dioreus, who went to the Trojan war with 10
ships. He was the charioteer of Achilles, after whose death he
served Pyrrhus in the same capacity. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bks. 9, 16,
&c.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 2, li. 477.
=Automedūsa=, a daughter of Alcathous, killed by Tydeus. _Apollodorus_,
bk. 2.
=Automĕnes=, one of the Heraclidæ, king of Corinth. At his death, B.C.
779, annual magistrates, called Prytanes, were chosen at Corinth,
and their power continued 90 years, till Cypselus and his son
Periander made themselves absolute.
=Automŏli=, a nation of Æthiopia. _Herodotus_, bk. 2.
=Autonoe=, a daughter of Cadmus, who married Aristæus, by whom she
had Actæon, often called _Autoneius heros_. The death of her son
[_See:_ Actæon] was so painful to her, that she retired from Bœotia
to Megara, where she soon after died. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 44.
――_Hyginus_, fable 179.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 3, li. 720.
――――One of the Danaides. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2.――――One of the
Nereides. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_.――――A female servant of Penelope.
_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 18.
=Autophradātes=, a satrap of Lydia, who revolted from Artaxerxes.
_Diodorus._
=Autūra=, the _Eure_, a river of Gaul which falls into the Seine.
=Auxesia= and =Damia=, two virgins who came from Crete to Trœzene,
where the inhabitants stoned them to death in a sedition. The
Epidaurians raised them statues by order of the oracle, when their
country was become barren. They were held in great veneration at
Trœzene. _Herodotus_, bk. 5, ch. 82.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 30.
=Axĕnus=, the ancient name of the Euxine sea. The word signifies
_inhospitable_, which was highly applicable to the manners of the
ancient inhabitants of the coast. _Ovid_, bk. 4; _Tristia_, poem 4,
li. 56.
=Axiŏchus=, a philosopher, to whom Plato dedicated a treatise
concerning death.
=Axīon=, brother of Alphesibœa, murdered Alcmæon his sister’s husband,
because he wished to recover from her a golden necklace. _See:_
Alcmæon and Alphesibœa.
=Axiotea=, a woman who regularly went in a man’s dress to hear the
lectures of Plato.
=Axiothea=, the wife of Nicocles king of Cyprus. _Polyænus_, bk. 8.
=Axis=, a town of Umbria. _Propertius_, poem 4.
=Axius=, a river of Macedonia. _Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 123.
=Axona=, a river of Belgic Gaul, which falls into the Seine below
Paris. The inhabitants of the neighbourhood were called Axones.
=Axur= and =Anxur=, a surname of Jupiter, who had a temple at Trachis
in Thessaly. He was represented as a beardless youth.
=Axus=, a town about the middle of Crete. _Apollodus._
=Azan=, a mountain of Arcadia, sacred to Cybele.――――A son of Arcas
king of Arcadia by Erato, one of the Dryades. He divided his father’s
kingdom with his brothers Aphidas and Elatus, and called his share
Azania. There was in Azania a fountain called _Clitorius_, whose
waters gave a dislike for wine to those who drank them. _Vitruvius_,
bk. 8, ch. 3.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 15, li. 322.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 8, ch. 4.
=Azīris=, a place of Libya, surrounded on both sides by delightful
hills covered with trees, and watered by a river where Battus built
a town. _Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 157.
=Azonax=, a man who taught Zoroaster the art of magic. _Pliny_, bk. 30.
=Azorus=, one of the Argonauts.
=Azōtus=, now _Asdod_, a large town of Syria on the borders of the
Mediterranean. _Josephus_, _Antiquities of the Jews_, bk. 15.
B
=Babilius=, a Roman, who, by the help of a certain herb, is said to
have passed in six days from the Sicilian sea to Alexandria. _Pliny_,
preface to ch. 19.
=Babilus=, an astrologer in Nero’s age, who told the emperor to avert
the danger which seemed to hang upon his head, from the appearance
of a hairy comet, by putting all the leading men of Rome to death.
His advice was faithfully followed. _Suetonius_, _Nero_, ch. 36.
=Baby̆lon=, a son of Belus, who, as some suppose, founded a city which
bears his name.――――A celebrated city, the capital of the Assyrian
empire, on the banks of the Euphrates. It had 100 brazen gates; and
its walls, which were cemented with bitumen, and greatly enlarged
and embellished by the activity of Semiramis; measured 480 stadia
in circumference, 50 cubits in thickness, and 200 in height. It was
taken by Cyrus, B.C. 538, after he had drained the waters of the
Euphrates into a new channel, and marched his troops by night into
the town, through the dried bed; and it is said that the fate of
the extensive capital was unknown to the inhabitants of the distant
suburbs till late in the evening. Babylon became famous for the
death of Alexander, and for the new empire which was afterwards
established there under the Seleucidæ. _See:_ Syria. Its greatness
was so reduced in succeeding ages, according to Pliny’s observations,
that in his time it was but a desolate wilderness, and at present
the place where it stood is unknown to travellers. The inhabitants
were early acquainted with astrology. _Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 26.
――_Herodotus_, bks. 1, 2, 3.――_Justin_, bk. 1, &c.――_Diodorus_, bk.
2.――_Xenophon_, _Cyropædia_, bk. 7, &c.――_Propertius_, bk. 3, poem
11, li. 21.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 4, fable 2.――_Martial_,
bk. 9, ltr. 77.――――There is also a town of the same name near the
Bubastic branch of the Nile, in Egypt.
=Babylōnia=, a large province of Assyria, of which Babylon was the
capital. The inhabitants shook off the Assyrian yoke, and afterwards
became very powerful.――――The surname of Seleucia, which arose from
the ruins of Babylon, under the successors of Alexander. _Pliny_,
bk. 6, ch. 26.
=Babylōnii=, the inhabitants of Babylon, famous for their knowledge
of astrology, first divided the year into 12 months, and the zodiac
into 12 signs.
=Babyrsa=, a fortified castle near Artaxata. _Strabo_, bk. 11.
=Babytăce=, a city of Armenia, whose inhabitants despise gold. _Pliny_,
bk. 6, ch. 27.
=Bacabasus=, betrayed the snares of Artabanus, brother of Darius,
against Artaxerxes. _Justin_, bk. 3, ch. 1.
=Bacchæ=, the priestesses of Bacchus. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 7.
=Bacchanālia=, festivals in honour of Bacchus at Rome, the same as the
Dionysia of the Greeks. _See:_ Dionysia.
=Bacchantes=, ♦priestesses of Bacchus, who are represented at the
celebration of the orgies almost naked, with garlands of ivy, with a
thyrsus, and dishevelled hair. Their looks are wild, and they utter
dreadful sounds, and clash different musical instruments together.
They were also called Thyades and Menades. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 6, li. 592.――_Horace_, bk. 3, ode 25.――_Propertius_, bk. 3, poem
21.――_Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 674.
♦ ‘priestessess’ replaced with ‘priestesses’
=Bacchi=, a mountain of Thrace, near Philippi. _Appian._
=Bacchiădæ=, a Corinthian family descended from Bacchia daughter of
Dionysius. In their nocturnal orgies they, as some report, tore to
pieces Actæon son of Mellissus, which so enraged the father, that
before the altar he entreated the Corinthians to revenge the death
of his son, and immediately threw himself into the sea. Upon this
the Bacchiadæ were banished, and went to settle in Sicily, between
Pachynum and Pelorus. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, li. 407.
――_Strabo_, bk. 8.
=Bacchĭdes=, a general who betrayed the town of Sinope to Lucullus.
_Strabo_, bk. 12.
=Bacchis=, or =Balus=, king of Corinth, succeeded his father Prumnides.
His successors were always called _Bacchidæ_, in remembrance of the
equity and moderation of his reign. The Bacchidæ increased so much,
that they chose one of their number to preside among them with regal
authority, and it is said that the sovereign power continued in
their hands near 200 years. Cypselus overturned this institution
by making himself absolute. _Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2,
ch. 4.――_Herodotus_, bk. 5, ch. 92.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5,
li. 407.
=Bacchium=, a small island in the Ægean sea, opposite Smyrna. _Pliny_,
bk. 5, ch. 3.
=Bacchius= and =Bithus=, two celebrated gladiators of equal age and
strength; whence the proverb to express equality: _Bithus contra
Bacchium_. _Suetonius_, _Augustus_.――_Horace_, bk. 1, satire 7,
li. 20.
=Bacchus=, was son of Jupiter and Semele the daughter of Cadmus. After
she had enjoyed the company of Jupiter, Semele was deceived, and
perished by the artifice of Juno. This goddess, always jealous of
her husband’s amours, assumed the shape of Beroe, Semele’s nurse,
and persuaded Semele that the lover whom she entertained was not
Jupiter, but a false lover, and that to prove his divinity she
ought to beg of him, if he really were Jupiter, to come to her bed
with the same majesty as when he courted the embraces of Juno. The
artifice succeeded, and when Jupiter promised his mistress whatever
she asked, Semele required him to visit her with all the divinity of
a god. Jupiter was unable to violate his oath, and Semele unwilling
to retract it; therefore, as she was a mortal, and unable to bear
the majesty of Jupiter, she was consumed and reduced to ashes. The
child, of which she had been pregnant for seven months, was with
difficulty saved from the flames, and put in his father’s thigh,
where he remained the full time which he naturally was to have been
in his mother’s womb. From this circumstance Bacchus has been called
_Bimater_. According to some, Dirce, a nymph of the Achelous, saved
him from the flames. There are different traditions concerning the
manner of his education. Ovid says that, after his birth, he was
brought up by his aunt Ino, and afterwards entrusted to the care
of the nymphs of Nysa. Lucian supposes that Mercury carried him, as
soon as born, to the nymphs of Nysa; and Apollonius says that he was
carried by Mercury to a nymph in the island of Eubœa, whence he was
driven by the power of Juno, who was the chief deity of the place.
Some support that Naxus can boast of the place of his education,
under the nymphs Philia, Coronis, and Clyda. Pausanias relates a
tradition which prevailed in the town of Brasiæ in Peloponnesus;
and accordingly mentions that Cadmus, as soon as he heard of his
daughter’s amours, shut her up, with her child lately born, in a
coffer, and exposed them on the sea. The coffer was carried safe
by the waves to the coast of Brasiæ; but Semele was found dead, and
the child alive. Semele was honoured with a magnificent funeral,
and Bacchus properly educated. This diversity of opinion shows that
there were many of the same name. Diodorus speaks of three, and
Cicero of a greater number; but among them all, the son of Jupiter
and Semele seems to have obtained the merit of the rest. Bacchus
is the Osiris of the Egyptians, and his history is drawn from the
Egyptian traditions concerning that ancient king. Bacchus assisted
the gods in their wars against the giants, and was cut to pieces;
but the son of Semele was not then born. This tradition, therefore,
is taken from the history of Osiris, who was killed by his brother
Typhon, and the worship of Osiris has been introduced by Orpheus
into Greece, under the name of Bacchus. In his youth he was taken
asleep in the island of Naxos, and carried away by some mariners
whom he changed into dolphins, except the pilot, who had expressed
some concern at his misfortune. His expedition into the east is
most celebrated. He marched, at the head of an army composed of men,
as well as of women, all inspired with divine fury, and armed with
thyrsi, cymbals, and other musical instruments. The leader was drawn
in a chariot by a lion and a tiger, and was accompanied by Pan and
Silenus, and all the Satyrs. His conquests were easy, and without
bloodshed: the people easily submitted, and gratefully elevated to
the rank of a god the hero who taught them the use of the vine, the
cultivation of the earth, and the manner of making honey. Amidst his
benevolence to mankind, he was relentless in punishing all want of
respect to his divinity; and the punishment he inflicted on Pentheus,
Agave, Lycurgus, &c., is well known. He has received the name of
Liber, Bromius, Lyæus, Evan, Thyonæus, Psilas, &c., which are mostly
derived from the places where he received adoration, or from the
ceremonies observed in his festivals. As he was the god of vintage,
of wine, and of drinkers, he is generally represented crowned with
vine and ivy leaves, with a thyrsus in his hand. His figure is
that of an effeminate young man, to denote the joys which commonly
prevail at feasts; and sometimes that of an old man, to teach us
that wine taken immoderately will enervate us, consume our health,
render us loquacious and childish like old men, and unable to
keep secrets. The panther is sacred to him, because he went in his
expedition covered with the skin of that beast. The magpie is also
his favourite bird, because in triumphs people were permitted to
speak with boldness and liberty. Bacchus is sometimes represented
like an infant, holding a thyrsus and clusters of grapes with a horn.
He often appears naked, and riding upon the shoulders of Pan, or in
the arms of Silenus, who was his foster-father. He also sits upon a
celestial globe, bespangled with stars, and is then the same as the
Sun or Osiris of Egypt. The festivals of Bacchus, generally called
Orgies, Bacchanalia, or Dionysia, were introduced into Greece from
Egypt by Danaus and his daughters. The infamous debaucheries which
arose from the celebration of these festivals are well known. _See:_
Dionysia. The amours of Bacchus are not numerous. He married Ariadne,
after she had been forsaken by Theseus in the island of Naxos;
and by her he had many children, among whom were Ceranus, Thoas,
Œnopion, Tauropolis, &c. According to some, he was the father of
Hymenæus, whom the Athenians made the god of marriage. The Egyptians
sacrificed pigs to him, before the doors of their houses. The fir
tree, the yew tree, the fig tree, the ivy, and the vine, were sacred
to him; and the goat was generally sacrificed to him, on account of
the great propensity of that animal to destroy the vine. According
to Pliny, he was the first who ever wore a crown. His beauty is
compared to that of Apollo, and, like him, he is represented with
fine hair loosely flowing down his shoulders, and he is said to
possess eternal youth. Sometimes he has horns, either because he
taught the cultivation of the earth with oxen, or because Jupiter
his father appeared to him in the deserts of Libya under the shape
of a ram, and supplied his thirsty army with water. Bacchus went
down to hell to recover his mother, whom Jupiter willingly made a
goddess, under the name of Thyone. The three persons of the name
of Bacchus, whom Diodorus mentions, are, the one who conquered the
Indies, and is surnamed the bearded Bacchus; a son of Jupiter and
Proserpine, who was represented with horns; and the son of Jupiter
and Semele, called the Bacchus of Thebes. Those mentioned by Cicero
are, a son of Proserpine; a son of Nisus, who built Nysa; a son of
Caprius, who reigned in the Indies; a son of Jupiter and the moon;
and a son of Thyone and Nisus. _Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bks.
2 & 3.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, chs. 22, 37; bk. 3, ch. 24; bk. 5,
ch. 19, &c.――_Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 150; bk. 2, chs. 42, 48, 49.
――_Plutarch_, _De Iside et Osiride_.――_Diodorus_, bks. 1, 3, &c.
――_Orpheus_, _Dionysius_.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9; bk. 3, ch. 4,
&c.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 3, fable 3, &c.――_Amores_, bk. 3,
poem 3.――_Fasti_, bk. 3, li. 715.――_Hyginus_, fables 155, 167, &c.
――_Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 56; bk. 8, ch. 2; bk. 36, ch. 5.――_Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 6.――_Lactantius_, _de falsa religione_, bk. 1, ch. 22.
――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 2, &c.――_Euripides_, _Bacchæ_.――_Lucian_,
_de Sacrificiis_; _Bacchus_; _Dialogi Deorum_.――_Oppian_,
_Cynegetica_.――_Philostratus_, bk. 1, _Imagines_, ch. 50.――_Seneca_,
_Chorus of Œdipus_.――_Martial_, bk. 8, ltr. 26; bk. 14, ltr. 107.
=Bacchylides=, a lyric poet of Cos, nephew to Simonides, who, like
Pindar, wrote the praises of Hiero. Some of his verses have been
preserved. _Marcellinus._
=Bacenis=, a wood of Germany. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 6, ch. 10.
=Bacis=, a famous soothsayer of Bœotia. _Cicero_, bk. 1, _de
Divinatione_, ch. 34.――――A king of Corinth, called also Bacchis.
_See:_ Bacchis.――――An athlete of Trœzene. _Pausanias_, bk. 6.
=Bactra= (orum), now _Balk_, the capital of Bactriana, on the river
Bactros in Asia. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 2, li. 138.――_Strabo_,
bk. 2.
=Bactri= and =Bactriāni=, the inhabitants of Bactriana, who lived
upon plunder, and were always under arms. They gave to their dogs
those that died through old age or disease, and suffered slaves and
strangers to take whatever liberties they pleased with their wives.
They were conquered by Alexander the Great. _Curtius_, bk. 4, ch. 6,
&c.――_Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 23.――_Plutarch_, _An vitiositas ad
infelicitatem sufficia_.――_Herodotus_, bks. 1 & 3.
=Bactriāna=, a country of Asia, fruitful as well as extensive. It
formed once part of the Persian empire, on the eastern parts of
which it is situated. Zoroaster was the most ancient king of this
country, who taught his subjects the art of magic and astrology.
_Diodorus_, bk. 2.――_Justin_, bk. 1, ch. 1.
=Bactros=, now _Dahesh_, a river on the borders of Asiatic Scythia,
from which Bactriana receives its name. _Lucan_, bk. 3, li. 267.
=Bacuntius=, a river of Pannonia, which falls into the Save above
Sirmium.
=Badaca=, a town of Media. _Diodorus_, bk. 19.
=Badia=, a town of Spain. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 3, ch. 7.
=Badius=, a Campanian, who challenged Titus Quinctius Crispinus, one
of his friends, by whom he was killed. _Livy_, bk. 35, ch. 18.
=Baduhennæ=, a place in the country of the Frisii, where 900 Romans
were killed. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 4, ch. 73.
=Bæbia lex=, was enacted for the election of four pretors every other
year. _Livy_, bk. 40.――――Another law by Massa Bæbius a tribune
of the people, which forbade the division of the lands, whilst it
substituted a yearly tax to be paid by the possessors, and to be
divided among the people. _Appian_, bk. 1.
=Massa Bæbius=, a Roman, in whose consulship the tomb of Numa was
discovered. _Plutarch_, _Numa_.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 1, ch. 1.
――――Lucius, a Roman pretor, who, being surprised by the Ligurians,
fled to Marseilles, where he died three days after. _Livy_, bk. 37,
ch. 57.
=Bætis=, a river of Spain, from which a part of the country has
received the name of _Bætica_. It was formerly called Tartessus,
and now bears the name of Guadalquiver. The wool produced there was
so good that _Bætica_ was an epithet of merit, applied to garments.
_Martial_, bk. 12, ltr. 100.
=Bæton=, a Greek historian in the age of Alexander.
=Bagistame=, a delightful country of Media. _Diodorus_, bk. 17.
=Bagistanes=, a friend of Bessus, whom he abandoned when he murdered
Darius. _Curtius_, bk. 5, ch. 13.
=Bagōas= and =Bagōsas=, an Egyptian eunuch in the court of Artaxerxes
Ochus, so powerful that nothing could be done without his consent.
He led some troops against the Jews, and profaned their temple. He
poisoned Ochus, gave his flesh to cats, and made knife handles with
his bones, because he had killed the god Apis. He placed on the
throne Arses, the youngest of the slaughtered Prince’s children,
and afterwards put him to death. He was at last killed, B.C. 335, by
Darius, whom, after raising to the crown, he had attempted to poison.
_Diodorus_, bks. 16 & 17.――――Another, greatly esteemed by Alexander.
He was the cause that one of the satraps was put to death by the
most excruciating torments. _Curtius_, bk. 10, ch. 1.――_Plutarch_
in _Alexander_.――――The name of Bagoas occurs very frequently in
the Persian history; and it seems that most of the eunuchs of the
monarchs of Persia were generally known by that appellation.
=Bagodares=, a friend of Bessus, whom he abandoned when he attempted
the life of Darius. _Diodorus_, bk. 17.
=Bagophănes=, a governor of Babylon, who, when Alexander approached
the city, strewed all the streets and burned incense on the altars,
&c. _Curtius_, bk. 5, ch. 1.
=Bagrăda=, now _Megerda_, a river of Africa near Utica, where Regulus
killed a serpent 120 feet long. _Pliny_, bk. 8, ch. 14.
♦=Baiæ=, a city of Campania near the sea, founded by Baius, one of the
companions of Ulysses. It was famous for its delightful situation
and baths, where many of the Roman senators had country houses.
Its ancient grandeur, however, has now disappeared, and Baiæ, with
its magnificent villas, has yielded to the tremendous earthquakes
which afflict and convulse Italy, and it is no longer to be found.
_Martial_, bk. 14, ltr. 81.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ltr. 1.――_Strabo_,
bk. 5.
♦ ‘Balæ’ replaced with ‘Baiæ’
=Bala=, a surname of Alexander king of Syria. _Justin_, bk. 35, ch. 1.
=Balacrus=, an officer in Alexander’s army, who took Miletus.
_Curtius_, bk. 4, ch. 13.――――Another officer, who commanded some
auxiliaries. _Curtius_, bk. 4, ch. 5.
=Balanagræ=, a town of Cyrene. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 26.
=Balanea=, a town between Syria and Phœnicia. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 20.
=Balanus=, a prince of Gaul, who assisted the Romans in their
Macedonian war, A.U.C. 581.――_Livy_, bk. 44, ch. 14.
=Balari=, a people of Sardinia. _Livy_, bk. 41, ch. 6.
=Claudius Balbillus=, a learned and benevolent man, governor of Egypt,
of which he wrote the history, under Nero. _Tacitus_, _Annals_,
bk. 13, ch. 22.
=Balbīnus=, an admirer of Agna, mentioned _Horace_, bk. 1, satire 3,
li. 40.――――A Roman who, after governing provinces with credit and
honour, assassinated the Gordians, and seized the purple. He was
some time after murdered by his ♦soldiers. A.D. 238.
♦ ‘soldier’ replaced with ‘soldiers’
=Balbus=, a mountain of Africa, famous for the retreat of Masinissa,
after he had fought a battle against Syphax.
=Lucius Balbus=, a lawyer, &c., one among the pupils of Scævola.――――A
man killed by the assassins of the triumvirs.
=Baleares=, three islands in the Mediterranean, modernly called
_Majorca_, _Minorca_, and _Yvica_, on the coast of Spain. The word
is derived from βαλλειν, _to throw_, because the inhabitants were
expert archers and slingers, besides great pirates. We are told by
Florus, that the mothers never gave their children breakfast before
they had struck with an arrow a certain mark in a tree. When a woman
was married, she was not admitted to her husband’s bed before she
had received the embraces of all her relations. The inhabitants
were naturally of a lascivious propensity, and in their wars they
required nothing but females and wine, and often exchanged four men
for one woman. _Strabo_, bk. 14.――_Florus_, bk. 3, ch. 8.――_Diodorus_,
bk. 5.
=Balētus=, a son of Hippo, who first founded Corinth. _Paterculus_
bk. 1, ch. 3.
=Balius=, a horse of Achilles. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 16, li. 146.
=Balista=, a mountain of Liguria. _Livy_, bk. 40, ch. 41.
=Ballonŏti=, a people of European Sarmatia. _Flaccus_, bk. 6, li. 160.
=Balneæ= (_baths_), were very numerous at Rome, private as well as
public. In the ancient times simplicity was observed; but in the age
of the emperors they became expensive; they were used after walking,
exercise, or labour, and were deemed more necessary than luxurious.
Under the emperors it became so fashionable to bathe, that without
this the meanest of the people seemed to be deprived of one of the
necessaries of life. There were certain hours of the day appointed
for bathing, and a small piece of money admitted the poorest,
as well as the most opulent. In the baths there were separate
apartments for the people to dress and to undress; and after they
had bathed, they commonly covered themselves, the hair was plucked
out of the skin, and the body rubbed over with a pumice stone, and
perfumed to render it smooth and fair. The Roman emperors generally
built baths, and all endeavoured to eclipse each other in the
magnificence of the building. It is said that ♦Diocletian employed
40,000 of his soldiers in building his baths; and when they were
finished, he destroyed all the workmen. Alexander Severus first
permitted the people to use them in the night, and he himself often
bathed with the common people. For some time both sexes bathed
promiscuously and without shame, and the edicts of the emperors
proved abortive for a while in abolishing that indecent custom,
which gradually destroyed the morals of the people. They generally
read in bathing, and we find many compositions written in the midst
of this luxurious enjoyment.
♦ ‘Dioclesian’ replaced with ‘Diocletian’ for consistency
=Balventius=, a centurion of great valour in Cæsar’s army, killed by
Ambiorix. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 5, ch. 35.
=Balyras=, a river of Peloponnesus. _Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 33.
=Bamurūæ=, a people of Libya. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 3, li. 303.
=Bantia=, now _St. Maria de Vanse_, a town of Apulia, whence
_Bantinus_. _Horace_, bk. 3, ode 4, li. 15.
=Lucius Bantius=, a gallant youth of Nola, whom Annibal found after
the battle of Cannæ, almost dead among the heaps of slain. He was
sent home with great humanity, upon which he resolved to betray his
country to so generous an enemy. Marcellus the Roman general heard
of it, and rebuked Bantius, who continued firm and faithful to the
interest of Rome. _Livy_, bk. 35, ch. 15.
=Baphy̆rus=, a river of Macedonia. _Livy_, bk. 44, ch. 6.
=Baptæ=, the priests of Cotytto, the goddess of lasciviousness and
debauchery at Athens. Her festivals were celebrated in the night;
and so infamous and obscene was the behaviour of the priests, that
they disgusted even Cotytto herself, though the goddess of obscenity.
The name is derived from βαπτειν, _to wash_, because the priests
bathed themselves in the most effeminate manner. _Juvenal_, satire 2,
li. 91.――――A comedy of Eupolis, on which men are introduced dancing
on the stage, with all the indecent gestures of common prostitutes.
=Baræi=, a people of Cholcis and Iberia, who burnt the bodies of their
friends who died by disease, but gave to the fowls of the air such
as fell in war. _Ælian_, _de Natura Animalium_, bk. 10, ch. 22.
=Barăthrum=, a deep and obscure gulf at Athens, where criminals were
thrown.――――The word is applied to the infernal regions by _Valerius
Flaccus_, bk. 2, lis. 86 & 192.
=Barbări=, a name originally applied to those who spoke inelegantly,
or with harshness and difficulty. The Greeks and Romans generally
called all nations, except their own, by the despicable name of
Barbarians.
=Barbăria=, a river of Macedonia. _Livy_, bk. 44, ch. 31.――――A name
given to Phrygia and Troy. _Horace_, bk. 1, ltr. 2, li. 7.
=Barbătus=, the surname of a Roman family. _Suetonius_, _Claudius_,
ch. 21.
=Barbosthĕnes=, a mountain of Peloponnesus, 10 miles from Sparta.
_Livy_, bk. 35, ch. 27.
=Barbythăce=, a city of Persia. _Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 27.
=Barca=, a friend of Cato the elder. _Plutarch_, _Cato the Younger_.
=Barcæi=, or =Barcitæ=, a warlike nation of Africa, near the city of
Carthage. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 4, li. 43.
=Barce=, the nurse of Sichæus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 4, li. 632.――――A
large country of Africa.――――Also a city about nine miles from the
sea, founded by the brothers of Arcesilaus king of Cyrene, 515 years
before the christian era. Strabo says, that in his age it was called
Ptolemais; but this arises because most of the inhabitants retired
to Ptolemais, which was on the sea coast, to enrich themselves by
commerce. _Strabo_, bk. 17.――_Ptolemy_, bk. 4, ch. 4.――――A small
village of Bactriana, where the people who had been taken prisoners
by Darius in Africa, were confined. _Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 204.
――――A city of Media. _Justin_, bk. 1, ch. 7.
=Barcha=, the surname of a noble family at Carthage, from which Annibal
and Hamilcar were descended. By means of their bribes and influence,
they excited a great faction, which is celebrated in the annals of
Carthage by the name of the _Barchinian faction_, and at last raised
themselves to power, and to the independent disposal of all the
offices of trust or emolument in the state. _Livy_, bk. 21, chs. 2
& 9.
=Bardæi=, a people of Illyricum concerned in the factions of Marius.
_Plutarch_, _Marius_.
=Bardi=, a celebrated sacerdotal order among the ancient Gauls, who
praised their heroes, and published their fame in their verses, or
on musical instruments. They were so esteemed and respected by the
people, that, at their sight, two armies which were engaged in
battle laid down their arms, and submitted to their orders. They
censured, as well as commended, the behaviour of the people. _Lucan_,
bk. 1, li. 447.――_Strabo_, bk. 4.――_Marcellinus_, bk. 15, ch. 24.
=Bardyllis=, an Illyrian prince, whose daughter Bircenna married king
Pyrrhus. _Plutarch_, _Pyrrhus_.
=Bareas Soranus=, a youth killed by his tutor Egnatius, a Stoic
philosopher. _Juvenal_, satire 3, li. 116.
=Bares=, a naval officer of Persia, who wished to destroy Cyrene, but
was opposed by Amasis. _Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 203.
=Bargusii=, a people of Spain, at the east of the Iberus. _Livy_,
bk. 21, ch. 19.
=Bargyliæ=, a town of Caria.
=Barīne=, a prostitute whom _Horace_ accuses of perjury. Bk. 2, ode 8.
=Barisses=, one of the seven conspirators against the usurper Smerdis.
_Ctesias._
=Barium=, a town of Apulia, on the Adriatic, now called Bari, and
remarkable for its fine fish. _Horace_, bk. 1, satire 5, li. 97.
=Barnuus=, a town of Macedonia near Heraclea. _Strabo_, bk. 7.
=Barrus=, a man ridiculed by Horace as proud of his beauty. _Horace_,
bk. 1, satire 6, li. 30.
=Barsīne= and =Barsēne=, a daughter of Darius, who married Alexander,
by whom she had a son called Hercules. Cassander ordered her and her
child to be put to death. _Justin_, bk. 13, ch. 2; bk. 15, ch. 2.
――_Arrian._
=Barzaentes=, a satrap who revolted from Alexander, &c. _Curtius_,
bk. 8, ch. 13.
=Barzanes=, a king of Armenia, tributary to Ninus. _Diodorus_, bk. 2.
=Basilēa=, a daughter of Cœlus and Terra, who was mother of all the
gods. _Diodorus_, bk. 3.――――An island at the north of Gaul, famous
for its amber. _Diodorus_, bk. 5.――――An island in the Euxine sea.
_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 13.
=Basilīdæ=, European Sarmatians, descended from Hercules and Echidna.
_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 1.
=Basilīdes=, the father of Herodotus, who, with others, attempted to
destroy Strattes tyrant of Chios. _Herodotus_, bk. 8, ch. 132.――――A
family who held an oligarchical power at Erythræ. _Strabo_, bk. 14.
――――A priest of mount Carmel, who foretold many momentous events to
Vespasian, when he offered sacrifices. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 2,
ch. 87.――_Suetonius_, _Vespasian_, ch. 7.
=Basilĭpŏtămos=, the ancient name of the Eurotas. _Strabo_, bk. 6.
=Basĭlis=, an historian who wrote concerning India. _Athenæus._――――A
city of Arcadia, built by Cypselus, near the river Alpheus.
_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 29.
=Basilius=, a river of Mesopotamia falling into the Euphrates.
_Strabo._――――A celebrated bishop of Africa, very animated against
the Arians, whose tenets and doctrines he refuted with warmth, but
great ability. He was eloquent as well as ingenious, and possessed
of all those abilities which constitute the persuasive orator and
the elegant writer. Erasmus has placed him in the number of the
greatest orators of antiquity. He died in his 51st year, A.D. 379.
The latest edition of his works is that of the Benedictines, folio,
Paris, 1721.
=Basĭlus=, a general who assisted Antony. _Lucan_, bk. 4, li. 416.
――――An insignificant lawyer. _Juvenal_, satire 7, li. 146.――――A
pretor who plundered the provinces. _Juvenal_, satire 10, li. 222.
=Bassæ=, a place of Arcadia, where Apollo had a temple. _Pausanias_,
bk. 8, chs. 30 & 41.
=Bassania=, a town of Macedonia near Illyricum. _Livy_, bk. 44, ch. 30.
=Bassăreus=, a surname of Bacchus, from the dress or long robe, called
_Bassaris_, which his priests wore. _Horace_, bk. 1, ode 18.
=Bassărĭdes=, a name given to the votaries of Bacchus, and to Agave by
Persius, which seems derived from _Bassara_, a town of Libya sacred
to the god, or from a particular dress worn by his priestesses, and
so called by the Thracians. _Persius_, bk. 1, li. 101.
=Bassus Aufidius=, an historian in the age of Augustus, who wrote on
the Germanic war. _Quintilian_, bk. 10, ch. 1.――――Cæsius, a lyric
poet in Nero’s age, to whom Persius addressed his sixth satire.
Some of his verses are extant.――――Julius, an orator in the reign of
Augustus, some of whose orations have been preserved by Seneca.――――A
man spoken of by _Horace_, bk. 1, ode 36, li. 14, and described as
fond of wine and women.
=Bastarnæ= and =Basternæ=, a people of European Sarmatia, destroyed
by a sudden storm as they pursued the Thracians. _Livy_, bk. 40,
ch. 58.――_Ovid_, _Tristia_, bk. 2, li. 198.――_Strabo_, bk. 7.
=Bastia=, the wife of Metellus. _Livy_, fragment, bk. 89.
=Bata=, a seaport of Asia, on the Euxine, opposite Sinope. _Strabo_,
bk. 6.
=Batāvi=, a people of Germany who inhabited that part of the continent
known under the modern name of Holland, and called by the ancients,
_Batavorum insula_. _Livy_, bk. 4, ch. 15.――_Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 431.
=Bathos=, a river near the Alpheus. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 29.
=Bathycles=, a celebrated artist of Magnesia. _Pausanias_, bk. 3,
ch. 19.
=Bathyllus=, a beautiful youth of Samos, greatly beloved by Polycrates
the tyrant, and by Anacreon. _Horace_, epode 14, li. 9.――――Mecænas
was also fond of a youth of Alexandria, of the same name. _Juvenal_,
satire 6, li. 63.――――The poet who claimed as his own Virgil’s
distich, _Nocte pluit totâ_, &c., bore also the same name.――――A
fountain of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 31.
=Lentulus Batiātus=, a man of Campania, who kept a house full of
gladiators who rebelled against him. _Plutarch_, _Crassus_.
=Batīa=, a naiad who married Œbalus. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 10.
――――A daughter of Teucer, who married Dardanus. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3,
ch. 10.
=Batīna= and =Bantīna=. _See:_ Bantia.
=Bātis=, a eunuch, governor of Gaza, who, upon being unwilling to
yield, was dragged round the city tied by the heels to Alexander’s
chariot. _Curtius_, bk. 4, ch. 6.
=Bato=, a Dardanian, who revolted to Rome from king Philip. _Livy_,
bk. 31, ch. 28.
=Baton= of Sinope, wrote commentaries on the Persian affairs. _Strabo_,
bk. 12.――――A charioteer of Amphiaraus. _Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 17.
=Batrachomyomachia=, a poem, describing the _fight_ between _frogs_
and _mice_, written by Homer, which has been printed sometimes
separately from the Iliad or Odyssey. The best edition of it is
Maittaire’s, 8vo, London, 1721.
=Battiădes=, a patronymic of Callimachus, from his father Battus.
_Ovid_, _Ibis_, li. 53.――――A name given to the people of Cyrene from
king Battus. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 3, li. 253.
=Battis=, a girl, celebrated by Philetus the elegiac poet. _Ovid_,
_Tristia_, bk. 1, poem 5.
=Battus I.=, a Lacedæmonian who built the town of Cyrene, B.C. 630,
with a colony from the island of Thera. He was son of Polymnestus
and Phronime, and reigned in the town he had founded, and after
death received divine honours. The difficulty with which he spoke
first procured him the name of Battus. _Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch.
155, &c.――_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 15.――――The second of that name
was grandson to Battus I. by Arcesilaus. He succeeded his father
on the throne of Cyrene, and was surnamed _Felix_, and died 554
B.C. _Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 159, &c.――――A shepherd of Pylos, who
promised Mercury that he would not discover his having stolen the
flocks of Admetus, which Apollo tended. He violated his promise,
and was turned into a pumice stone. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 2,
li. 702.――――A general of Corinth against Athens. _Thucydides_, bk. 4,
ch. 43.――――A buffoon of Caesar’s. _Plutarch_, _Convivium Septem
Sapientium_, ch. 6.
=Batŭlum=, a town of Campania, whose inhabitants assisted Turnus
against Æneas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 739.
=Batŭlus=, a surname of Demosthenes, from his effeminacy when young.
_Plutarch_, _Demosthenes_.
=Batyllus=, a celebrated dancer in Domitian’s reign. _Juvenal_,
satire 6, li. 63.
=Baubo=, a woman who received Ceres when she sought her daughter all
over the world, and gave her some water to quench her thirst. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, fable 7.
=Baucis=, an old woman of Phrygia, who, with her husband Philemon,
lived in a small cottage, in a penurious manner, when Jupiter
and Mercury travelled in disguise over Asia. The gods came to
the cottage, where they received the best things it afforded; and
Jupiter was so pleased with their hospitality, that he metamorphosed
their dwelling into a magnificent temple, of which Baucis and her
husband were made priests. After they had lived happy to an extreme
old age, they died both at the same hour, according to their request
to Jupiter, that one might not have the sorrow of following the
other to the grave. Their bodies were changed into trees before the
doors of the temple. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 8, li. 631, &c.
=Bavius= and =Mævius=, two stupid and malevolent poets in the age
of Augustus, who attacked the superior talents of the contemporary
writers. _Virgil_, _Eclogues_, poem 3.
=Bauli=, a small town of Latium near Baiæ. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 12,
li. 155.
=Bazaentes=, a friend of Bessus, &c.
=Bazaria=, a country of Asia. _Curtius_, bk. 8, ch. 1.
=Bebius=, a famous informer in Vespasian’s reign. _Juvenal_, satire 1,
li. 35. _See:_ Bæbius.
=Bebriăcum=, now _Caneto_, a village between Cremona and Verona, where
Vitellius overcame Otho. _Juvenal_, satire 2, li. 106.――_Tacitus_,
_Histories_, bk. 3, ch. 15.
=Bebry̆ce=, a daughter of Danaus, who is said to have spared her
husband. Most authors, however, attribute that character of humanity
to Hypermnestra. _See:_ Danaides.
=Bebry̆ces= and =Bebry̆cii=, a nation of Asia near Pontus, of Thracian
origin, and, according to Arrian, descended from Bebryce. They
were expert in the battle of the cestus. The Argonauts touched on
their coasts in their expedition to Colchis. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1.
――_Strabo_, bks. 7 & 12.
=Bebry̆cia=, an ancient name of Bithynia, from Bebryce the daughter of
Danaus. _Strabo_, bk. 13.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 5, li. 373.
=Belemīna=, a town of Laconia. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 21.
=Belēnus=, a divinity of the Gauls, the same as the Apollo of the
Greeks, and the Orus of the Ægyptians.
=Belephantes=, a Chaldean, who, from his knowledge of astronomy, told
Alexander that his entering Babylon would be attended with fatal
consequences to him. _Diodorus_, bk. 17.
=Belĕsis=, priest of Babylon, who told Arbaces governor of Media
that he should reign one day in the place of Sardanapalus. His
prophecy was verified, and he was rewarded by the new king with the
government of Babylon, B.C. 826. _Diodorus_, bk. 2.
=Belgæ=, a warlike people of ancient Gaul, separated from the Celtæ by
the rivers Matrona and Sequana. Their country, according to Strabo,
extended from the Rhine to the river modernly called the Loire.
_Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bks. 1 & 2.
=Belgĭca=, one of the four provinces of Gaul near the Rhine.
=Belgium=, the capital of Gallia Belgica. The word is often used to
express the whole country. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 5, ch. 24.
=Belgius=, a general of Gaul, who destroyed an army of Macedonians.
_Justin_, bk. 23, ch. 2.――_Polybius_, bk. 2.
=Belĭdes=, a surname given to the daughters of Belus. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 4, li. 463.
=Belīdes=, a name applied to Palamedes, as descended from Belus.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_ bk. 2, li. 82.
=Belisama=, the name of Minerva among the Gauls, signifying _queen of
heaven_. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 6.
=Belisarius=, a celebrated general, who, in a degenerate and an
effeminate age, in the reign of Justinian emperor of Constantinople,
renewed all the glorious victories, battles, and triumphs which
had rendered the first Romans so distinguished in the time of their
republic. He died after a life of military glory, and the trial of
royal ingratitude, in the 565th year of the christian era. The story
of his begging charity, with _date obolum Belisario_, is said to be
a fabrication of modern times.
=Belistīda=, a woman who obtained a prize at Olympia. _Pausanias_,
bk. 5, ch. 8.
=Belitæ=, a nation of Asia. _Curtius_, bk. 4, ch. 12.
=Bellerŏphon=, a son of Glaucus king of Ephyre by Eurymede, was at
first called Hipponous. The murder of his brother, whom some call
Alcimenus or Beller, procured him the name of Bellerophon, or
_murderer of Beller_. After this murder, Bellerophon fled to the
court of Prœtus king of Argos. As he was of a handsome appearance,
the king’s wife, called Antæa or Stenobœa, fell in love with him;
and as he slighted her passion, she accused him before her husband
of attempts upon her virtue. Prœtus, unwilling to violate the
laws of hospitality by punishing Bellerophon, sent him away to
his father-in-law Jobates king of Lycia, and gave him a letter,
in which he begged the king to punish with death a man who had so
dishonourably treated his daughter. From that circumstance, all
letters which are of an unfavourable tendency to the bearer have
been called _letters of Bellerophon_. Jobates, to satisfy his
son-in-law, sent Bellerophon to conquer a horrible monster called
Chimæra, in which dangerous expedition he hoped, and was even
assured, he must perish. _See:_ Chimæra. But the providence of
Minerva supported him, and, with the aid of the winged horse
Pegasus, he conquered the monster, and returned victorious. After
this Jobates sent him against the Solymi, in hopes of seeing him
destroyed; but he obtained another victory, and conquered afterwards
the Amazons, by the king’s order. At his return from this third
expedition, he was attacked by a party sent against him by Jobates;
but he destroyed all his assassins, and convinced the king that
innocence is always protected by the gods. Upon this, Jobates no
longer sought to destroy his life; but he gave him his daughter
in marriage, and made him his successor on the throne of Lycia,
as he was without male issue. Some authors have supported that he
attempted to fly to heaven upon the horse Pegasus, but that Jupiter
sent an insect which stung the horse, and threw down the rider who
wandered upon the earth in the greatest melancholy and dejection
till the day of his death, one generation before the Trojan war.
Bellerophon had two sons, Isander, who was killed in his war against
the Solymi, and Hippolochus, who succeeded to the throne after his
death, besides one daughter called Hippodamia, who had Sarpedon by
Jupiter. The wife of Bellerophon is called Philonoe by Apollodorus,
and Achemone by Homer. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 6, li. 156, &c.
――_Juvenal_, satire 10.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 3; bk. 3, ch. 1.
――_Hyginus_, fables 157 & 243; _Poeticon Astronomicon_, bk. 2,
ch. 18.――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 325.――_Horace_, bk. 4, ode 11,
li. 26.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 31.
=Bellĕrus= and =Beller=, a brother of Hipponous. _See:_ Bellerophon.
=Belliēnus=, a Roman whose house was set on flames at Cæsar’s funeral.
_Cicero_, _Philippics_, bk. 2, ch. 36.
=Bellōna=, the goddess of war, daughter to Phorcys and Ceto, was
called by the Greeks _Enyo_, and often confounded with Minerva.
She was anciently called _Duelliona_, and was the sister of Mars,
or, according to others, his daughter or his wife. She prepared
the chariot of Mars when he was going to war; and she appeared
in battles armed with a whip to animate the combatants, with
dishevelled hair, and a torch in her hand. The Romans paid great
adoration to her; but she was held in the greatest veneration by
the Cappadocians, and chiefly at Comana, where she had about 3000
priests. Her temple at Rome was near the Porta Carmentalis. In it
the senators gave audience to foreign ambassadors, and to generals
returned from war. At the gate was a small column called the _column
of war_, against which they threw a spear whenever war was declared
against an enemy. The priests of this goddess consecrated themselves
by great incisions in their body, and particularly in the thigh, of
which they received the blood in their hands to offer as a sacrifice
to the goddess. In their wild enthusiasm they often predicted
bloodshed and wars, the defeat of enemies, or the besieging of
towns. _Juvenal_, satire 4, li. 124.――_Varro_, _de Lingua Latina_,
bk. 5.――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 270.――_Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 30.
――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8, li. 703.――_Statius_, _Thebiad_, bk. 2,
li. 718; bk. 7, li. 73.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 5, li. 221.
=Bellōnarii=, the priests of Bellona.
=Bellovăci=, a people of Gaul conquered by Julius Cæsar. They inhabited
the modern Beauvais in the isle of France. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_,
bk. 2, ch. 4.
=Bellovēsus=, a king of the Celtæ, who, in the reign of Tarquin
Priscus, was sent at the head of a colony to Italy by his uncle
Ambigatus. _Livy_, bk. 5, ch. 34.
=Belon=, a general of Alexander’s. _Curtius_, bk. 6, ch. 11.――――A city
and river of Hispania Bætica. _Strabo_, bk. 3.
=Belus=, one of the most ancient kings of Babylon, about 1800 years
before the age of Semiramis, was made a god after death, and
worshipped with much ceremony by the Assyrians and Babylonians.
He was supposed to be the son of the Osiris of the Egyptians. The
temple of Belus was the most ancient and most magnificent in the
world. It was originally the tower of Babel, which was converted
into a temple. It had lofty towers, and it was enriched by all
the succeeding monarchs till the age of Xerxes, who, after his
unfortunate expedition against Greece, plundered and demolished it.
Among the riches it contained, were many statues of massive gold,
one of which was 40 feet high. In the highest of the towers was a
magnificent bed, where the priests daily conducted a woman, who,
as they said, was honoured with the company of the god. _Josephus_,
_Antiquities of the Jews_, bk. 10.――_Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 181,
&c.――_Strabo_, bk. 16.――_Arrian_, bk. 7.――_Diodorus_, bk. 1, &c.
――――A king of Egypt, son of Epaphus and Libya, and father of Agenor.
――――Another, son of Phœnix the son of Agenor, who reigned in
Phœnicia.――――A river of Syria, where the making of glass was first
invented. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 19.
=Benācus=, a lake of Italy, now _Lago di Garda_, from which the
Mincius flows into the Po. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 2, li. 160;
_Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 205.
=Bendidium=, a temple of Diana Bendis. _Livy_, bk. 38, ch. 41.
=Bendis=, a name of Diana among the Thracians and their northern
neighbours. _Strabo_, bk. 9. Her festivals, called _Bendidia_, were
introduced from Thrace into Athens.
=Beneventum=, a town of the Hirpini, built by Diomedes, 28 miles from
Capua. Its original name was _Maleventum_, changed into the more
auspicious word of _Beneventum_, when the Romans had a colony there.
It abounds in remains of ancient sculpture above any other town in
Italy. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 11.
=Benthesicyme=, a daughter of Neptune the nurse of Eumolpus.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 15.
=Bepolitānus=, a youth whose life was saved by the delay of the
executioner, who wished not to stain the youth’s fine clothes with
blood. _Plutarch_, _Mulierum virtutes_.
=Berbicæ=, a nation who destroyed their relations when arrived at a
certain age. _Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 4, ch. 1.
=Beræa=, a town of Syria, 90 miles from the sea, and 100 from the
Euphrates, now called Aleppo.
=Berecynthia=, a surname of Cybele, from mount Berecynthus in Phrygia,
where she was particularly worshipped. She has been celebrated in a
poem by Catullus. _Diodorus_, bk. 5.――_Statius_, _Thebiad_, bk. 4,
li. 782.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 82.
=Berenīce= and =Beronice=, a woman famous for her beauty, mother of
Ptolemy Philadelphus by Lagus. _Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 14,
ch. 43.――_Theocritus._――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 7.――――A daughter
of Philadelphus, who married Antiochus king of Syria, after he had
divorced Laodice his former wife. After the death of Philadelphus,
Laodice was recalled, and mindful of the treatment which she had
received, she poisoned her husband, placed her son on the vacant
throne, and murdered Berenice and her child at Antioch, where she
had fled, B.C. 248.――――A daughter of Ptolemy Auletes, who usurped
her father’s throne for some time, strangled her husband Seleucus,
and married Archelaus, a priest of Bellona. Her father regained his
power, and put her to death B.C. 55.――――The wife of Mithridates,
who, when conquered by Lucullus, ordered all his wives to destroy
themselves, for fear the conqueror should offer violence to them.
She accordingly drank poison, but this not operating soon enough,
she was strangled by a eunuch.――――The mother of Agrippa, who
shines in the history of the Jews as daughter-in-law of Herod the
Great.――――A daughter of Agrippa, who married her uncle Herod, and
afterwards Polemon king of Cilicia. She was accused by Juvenal of
committing incest with her brother Agrippa. It is said that she was
passionately loved by Titus, who would have made her empress but for
fear of the people.――――A wife of king Attalus.――――Another, daughter
of Philadelphus and Arsinoe, who married her own brother Evergetes,
whom she loved with much tenderness. When he went on a dangerous
expedition, she vowed all the hair of her head to the goddess
Venus, if he returned. Some time after his victorious return, the
locks which were in the temple of Venus disappeared; and Conon, an
astronomer, to make his court to the queen, publicly reported that
Jupiter had carried them away, and had made them a constellation.
She was put to death by her son, B.C. 221. _Catullus_, poem 67.
――_Hyginus_, _Poeticon Astronomicon_, bk. 2, ch. 24.――_Justin_,
bk. 26, ch. 3.――――This name is common to many of the queens and
princesses in the Ptolemean family in Egypt.――――A city of Libya.
_Strabo._――_Mela_, bk. 3, ch. 8.――――Two towns of Arabia. _Strabo_,
bk. 16.――――One in Egypt on the Red sea, where the ships from India
generally landed their cargoes. _Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 23.――――Another
near the Syrtes, &c. _Pliny_, bk. 17.
=Berenīcis=, a part of Africa near the town of Berenice. _Lucan_,
bk. 9, li. 523.
=Bergion= and =Albion=, two giants, sons of Neptune, who opposed
Hercules as he attempted to cross the Rhone, and were killed with
stones from heaven. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 5.
=Bergistăni=, a people of Spain, at the east of the Iberus. _Livy_,
bk. 34, ch. 16.
=Beris= and =Baris=, a river of Cappadocia.――――A mountain of Armenia.
=Bermius=, a mountain of Macedonia. _Herodotus_, bk. 8, ch. 138.
=Beroe=, an old woman of Epidaurus, nurse to Semele. Juno assumed
her shape when she persuaded Semele not to grant her favours to
Jupiter, if he did not appear in the majesty of a god. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 3, li. 278.――――The wife of Doryclus, whose form
was assumed by Iris at the instigation of Juno, when she advised the
Trojan women to burn the fleet of Æneas in Sicily. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 5, li. 620.――――One of the Oceanides, attendant upon Cyrene.
_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 4, li. 341.
=Berœa=, a town of Thessaly. _Cicero_, _Piso_, ch. 36.
=Beronīce.= _See:_ Berenice.
=Berōsus=, a native of Babylon, priest to Belus. He passed into Greece,
and remained a long time at Athens. He composed a history of Chaldæa,
and signalized himself by his astronomical predictions, and was
rewarded for his learning with a statue in the gymnasium at Athens.
The age in which he lived is not precisely known, though some fix
it in the reign of Alexander, or 268 years B.C. Some fragments of
his Chaldæan history are preserved by Josephus, _Against Appion_ &
_Antiquities of the Jews_, bk. 105. The book that is now extant
under his name, and speaks of kings that never existed, is a
supposititious fabrication.
=Berrhœa=, a town of Macedonia. _Thucydides_, bk. 1, ch. 61.
=Bery̆tus=, now _Berut_, an ancient town of Phœnicia, on the coast of
the Mediterranean, famous in the age of Justinian for the study of
law. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 20.
=Besa=, a fountain in Thessaly. _Strabo_, bk. 8.
=Besidlæ=, a town of the Brutii. _Livy_, bk. 30, ch. 19.
=Besippo=, a town of Hispania Bætica, where Mela was born. _Mela_,
bk. 2, ch. 6.
=Bessi=, a people of Thrace, on the left side of the Strymon, who
lived upon rapine. _Ovid_, _Tristia_, bk. 4, poem 1, li. 67.
――_Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 111.
=Bessus=, a governor of Bactriana, who, after the battle of Arbela,
seized Darius his sovereign and put him to death. After this murder,
he assumed the title of king, and was some time after brought before
Alexander, who gave him to Oxatres the brother of Darius. The prince
ordered his hands and ears to be cut off, and his body to be exposed
on a cross, and shot at by the soldiers. _Justin_, bk. 12, ch. 5.
――_Curtius_, bks. 6 & 7.――――A parricide who discovered the murder
he had committed, upon observing a nest of swallows, which, as he
observed, reproached him with his crime. _Plutarch._
=Lucius Bestia=, a seditious Roman, who conspired with Catiline against
his country. _Cicero_, bk. 2, _Philippics_.
=Betis=, a river in Spain, _See:_ Bætis.――――A governor of Gaza, who
bravely defended himself against Alexander, for which he was treated
with cruelty by the conqueror.
=Beturia=, a country in Spain.
=Bia=, a daughter of Pallas by Styx. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 2.
=Biānor=, a son of Tiberius and Manto the daughter of Tiresias, who
received the surname of Ocnus, and reigned over Etruria. He built
a town which he called Mantua, after his mother’s name. His tomb
was seen in the age of Virgil on the road between Mantua and Andes.
_Virgil_, _Eclogues_, poem 9, li. 60.――――A Trojan chief killed by
Agamemnon. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 11, li. 92.――――A centaur killed by
Theseus. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12, li. 342.
=Bias=, son of Amythaon and Idomene, was king of Argos, and brother
to the famous soothsayer Melampus. He fell in love with Perone,
daughter of Neleus king of Pylos; but the father refused to give
his daughter in marriage before he received the oxen of Iphiclus.
Melampus, at his brother’s request, went to seize the oxen, and
was caught in the act. He, however, in one year after received his
liberty from Iphiclus who presented him with his oxen as a reward
for his great services. Bias received the oxen from his brother,
and obliged Neleus to give him his daughter in marriage. _Homer_,
_Odyssey_, bk. 11.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, chs. 6 & 18; bk. 4, ch. 34.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9.――――A Grecian prince, who went to
the Trojan war. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 4, lis. 13 & 20.――――A river
of Peloponnesus. _Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 34.――――One of the seven
wise men of Greece, son of Teutamidas, born at Priene, which he
long saved from ruin. He flourished B.C. 566, and died in the
arms of his grandson, who begged a favour of him for one of his
friends. _Diogenes Laërtius_, bk. 1.――_Plutarch_, _Convivium Septem
Sapientium_.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 7, ch. 2.――_Pausanias_, bk. 10,
ch. 24.
=Bibācŭlus Marcus Furius=, a Latin poet in the age of Cicero. He
composed annals in iambic verses, and wrote epigrams full of wit
and humour, and other poems now lost. _Horace_, bk. 2, satire 5,
li. 41.――_Quintilian_, bk. 10.――――A pretor, &c. _Valerius Maximus_,
bk. 1, ch. 1.
=Biblia= and =Billia=, a Roman lady famous for her chastity. She
married Duillius.
=Biblis=, a woman who became enamoured of her brother Caunus, and was
changed into a fountain near Miletus. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 9,
li. 662.
=Biblina=, a country of Thrace.
=Biblus=, a city of Phœnicia. _Curtius_, bk. 4.
=Bibracte=, a large town of the Ædui in Gaul, where Cæsar often
wintered. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 7, ch. 55, &c.
=Bibŭlus=, a son of Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus by Portia, Cato’s
daughter. He was Cæsar’s colleague in the consulship, but of no
consequence in the state, according to this distich mentioned by
_Suetonius_, _Julius Cæsar_, ch. 20:
_Non Bibulo quicquam nuper, sed Cæsare factum est;
Nam Bibulo fieri consule nil memini._
――――One of the friends of Horace bore that name. Bk. 1, satire 10,
li. 86.
=Bices=, a marsh near the Palus Mœotis. _Flaccus_, bk. 6, li. 68.
=Bicon=, a Greek who assassinated Athenodorus, because he made himself
master of a colony which Alexander had left at Bactra. _Curtius_,
bk. 9, ch. 7.
=Bicornĭger=, a surname of Bacchus.
=Bicornis=, the name of Alexander among the Arabians.
=Biformīs= (_two forms_), a surname of Bacchus and of Janus. Bacchus
received it because he changed himself into an old woman to fly
from the persecution of Juno; or perhaps because he was represented
sometimes as a young, and sometimes as an old, man.
=Bifrons=, a surname of Janus, because he was represented with _two
faces_ among the Romans, as acquainted with the past and future.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 180.
=Bilbĭlis=, a town of Celtiberia, where Martial was born. _Martial_,
bk. 1, ltr. 50.――――A river of Spain. _Justin_, bk. 44, ch. 3.
=Bimāter=, a surname of Bacchus, which signifies that he had _two
mothers_, because, when he was taken from his mother’s womb, he was
placed in the thigh of his father Jupiter. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 4, li. 12.
=Bingium=, a town of Germany. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 4, ch. 70.
=Bion=, a philosopher and sophist of Borysthenes in Scythia, who
rendered himself famous for his knowledge of poetry, music, and
philosophy. He made everybody the object of his satire, and rendered
his compositions distinguished for clearness of expression, for
facetiousness, wit, and pleasantry. He died 241 B.C. _Diogenes
Laërtius_, _Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers_.――――A Greek
poet of Smyrna, who wrote pastorals in an elegant style. Moschus,
his friend and disciple, mentions in an elegiac poem that he died by
poison, about 300 years B.C. His Idyllia are written with elegance
and simplicity, purity and ease, and they abound with correct images,
such as the view of the country may inspire. There are many good
editions of this poet’s works, generally printed with those of
Moschus, the best of which is that of Heskin, 8vo, Oxford, 1748.
――――A soldier in Alexander’s army, &c. _Curtius_, bk. 4, ch. 13.
――――A native of Propontis, in the age of Pherecydes.――――A native of
Abdera, disciple to Democritus. He first found out that there were
certain parts of the earth where there were six months of perpetual
light and darkness alternately.――――A man of Soli, who composed a
history of Æthiopia.――――Another of Syracuse, who wrote nine books
on rhetoric, which he called by the names of the muses, and hence
_Bionei sermones_ mentioned by _Horace_, bk. 2, ltr. 2, li. 60.
――_Diogenes Laërtius_, bk. 4.
=Birrhus.= _See:_ Cœlius.
=Bisaltæ=, a people of Scythia, or, according to some, of Thrace or
Macedonia. Their country is called Bisaltia. _Livy_, bk. 45, ch. 29.
――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 10.
=Bisaltes=, a man of Abydos, &c. _Herodotus_, bk. 6, ch. 26.
♦=Bisaltis=, a patronymic of Theophane, by whom Neptune, under the
form of a ram, had the golden ram. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 6,
li.117.――_Hyginus_, fable 18.
♦ ‘Bisaltes’ replaced with ‘Bisaltis’
=Bisanthe=, a town on the Hellespont. _Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 137.
=Biston=, son of Mars and Callirhoe, built _Bistonia_ in Thrace,
whence the Thracians are often called _Bistones_. _Herodotus_, bk. 7,
ch. 110.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 14.――_Lucan_, bk. 7, li. 569.
=Bistŏnis=, a lake of Thrace near Abdera. _Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 109.
=Bithus.= _See:_ Bacchius.
=Bithyæ=, a certain race of women of Scythia, whose eyes, as _Pliny_
reports, bk. 7, ch. 2, killed those who gazed upon them for some
time.
=Bithȳnia=, a country of Asia Minor, formerly called Bebrycia. It
was bounded by the Euxine on the north, on the south by Phrygia and
Mysia, on the west by the Propontis, and the east by Paphlagonia.
The country was first invaded by the Thracians, under Bithynus the
son of Jupiter, who gave it the name of Bithynia. It was once a
powerful kingdom. _Strabo_, bk. 12.――_Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 75.
――_Mela_, bks. 1 & 2. According to _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 9, the
inhabitants were descended from Mantinea in Peloponnesus.
=Bitias=, a Trojan, son of Alcanor and Hiera, brought up in a wood
sacred to Jupiter. He followed the fortune of Æneas, and, with
his brother, was killed by the Rutuli in Italy. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 9, li. 672, &c.――――One of Dido’s lovers, present when Æneas and
the Trojans were introduced to the queen. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1,
li. 742.
=Biton.= _See:_ Cleobis.
=Bituītus=, a king of the Allobroges, conquered by a small number of
Romans, &c.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 9, ch. 6.――_Florus_, bk. 3,
ch. 2.
=Bituntum=, a town of Spain. _Martial_, bk. 4, ltr. 55.
=Bitŭrĭges=, a people of Gaul, divided from the Ædui by the Ligeris.
_Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 7, ch. 21.
=Biturĭcum=, a town of Gaul, formerly the capital of the Belgæ.
_Strabo_, bk. 4.
=Bizia=, a citadel near Rhodope belonging to the kings of Thrace.
Tereus was born there.
=Blæna=, a fruitful country of Pontus, where the general of Mithridates
Eupator destroyed the forces of Nicomedes the Bithynian. _Strabo_,
bk. 12.
=Blæsii=, two Romans who killed themselves because Tiberius deprived
them of the priesthood. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 6, ch. 40.
=Junius Blæsus=, a governor of Gaul. _Tacitus._
=Blandenona=, a place near Placentia. _Cicero_, bk. 2, ltr. 15,
_Letters to his brother Quintus_.
=Blandŭsia=, a fountain on the borders of the country of the Sabines
near Mandela, Horace’s country seat. _Horace_, bk. 3, ode 13.
=Blastophœnīces=, a people of Lusitania. _Appian._
=Blemmyes=, a people of Africa, who, as is fabulously reported, had
no heads, but had the eyes and mouth placed in the breast. _Mela_,
bk. 1, ch. 4.
=Blenīna=, a town of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 27.
=Blitius Catulinus=, was banished into the Ægean sea, after Piso’s
conspiracy, &c. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 15, ch. 71.
=Blucium=, a castle where king Dejotarus kept his treasures in
Bithynia. _Strabo_, bk. 12.
=Boadicea.= _See:_ Boudicea.
=Boæ= and =Boea=, a town of Laconia. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 21.
=Boagrius=, a river of Locris. _Strabo_, bk. 9.
=Bocalias=, a river in the island of Salamis.
=Boccar=, a king of Mauritania. _Juvenal_, satire 4, li. 90, applies
the word in a general sense to any native of Africa.
=Bocchŏris=, a wise king and legislator of Egypt. _Diodorus_, bk. 1.
=Bocchus=, a king of Gætulia, in alliance with Rome, who perfidiously
delivered Jugurtha to Sylla the lieutenant of Marius. _Sallust_,
_Jugurthine War_.――_Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 12.
=Boduagnātus=, a leader of the Nervii, when Cæsar made war against
them. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 2, ch. 23.
=Bodūni=, a people of Britain who surrendered to Claudius. _Dio
Cassius_, bk. 60.
=Boea.= _See:_ Boæ.
=Bœbe=, a town of Thessaly. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, fable 5.
――――A lake of Crete. _Strabo_, bk. 9.
=Bœbēis=, a lake of Thessaly, near mount Ossa. _Lucan_, bk. 7, li. 176.
=Bœbia lex=, was enacted to elect four pretors every year.――――Another
to insure proprietors in the possession of their lands.――――Another,
A.U.C. 571, against using bribes at elections.
=Boedromia=, an Athenian festival instituted in commemoration of
the assistance which the people of Athens received in the reign
of Erechtheus, from Ion son of Xuthus, when their country was
invaded by Eumolpus son of Neptune. The word is derived ἁπο του
βοηδρομειν, _coming to help_. Plutarch in _Theseus_ mentions it
as in commemoration of the victory which Theseus obtained over the
Amazons, in a month called at Athens Boedromion.
=Bœotarchæ=, the chief magistrates in Bœotia. _Livy_, bk. 42, ch. 43.
=Bœotia=, a country of Greece, bounded on the north by Phocis, south
by Attica, east by Eubœa, and west by the bay of Corinth. It has
been successively called Aonia, Mesapia, Hyantis, Ogygia, and
Cadmeis, and now forms a part of Livadia. It was called Bœotia,
from Bœotus son of Itonus; or, according to others, _a bove_, from a
cow, by which Cadmus was led into the country where he built Thebes.
The inhabitants were reckoned rude and illiterate, fonder of bodily
strength than of mental excellence; yet their country produced many
illustrious men, such as Pindar, Hesiod, Plutarch, &c. The mountains
of Bœotia, particularly Helicon, were frequented by the Muses,
to whom also many of their fountains and rivers were consecrated.
_Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 49; bk. 5, ch. 57.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 3, li. 10.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 1, &c.――_Cornelius Nepos_,
bk. 7, ch. 11.――_Strabo_, bk. 9.――_Justin_, bk. 3, ch. 6; bk. 8, ch.
4.――_Horace_, bk. 2, ltr. 1, li. 244.――_Diodorus_, bk. 19.――_Livy_,
bk. 27, ch. 30, &c.
=Bœotus=, a son of Itonus by Menalippa. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 1.
=Bœorobistas=, a man who made himself absolute among the Getæ, by the
strictness of his discipline. _Strabo_, bk. 7.
=Boethius=, a celebrated Roman, banished and afterwards punished with
death, on a suspicion of a conspiracy, by Theodoric king of the
Ostrogoths, A.D. 525. It was during his imprisonment that he wrote
his celebrated poetical treatise _De consolatione philosophiæ_, in
five books. The best edition of his works is that of Hagenau, 4to,
1491, or that of Leiden, 1671, with the _notis variorum_.
=Boetus=, a foolish poet of Tarsus, who wrote a poem on the battle
of Philippi. _Strabo_, bk. 14.――――A river of Spain, more properly
called Bætis. _See:_ Bætis.
=Boeus=, one of the Heraclidæ.
=Boges= and =Boes=, a Persian who destroyed himself and family when
besieged by the Athenians. _Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 107.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 8, ch. 8.
=Bogud=, a king of Mauritania in the interest of Cæsar. _Cæsar_,
_Alexandrine War_, ch. 59.
=Bogus=, a king of the Maurusii, present at the battle of Actium.
_Strabo_, bk. 8.
=Boii=, a people of Celtic Gaul, who migrated into Cisalpine Gaul, and
the north of Italy on the banks of the Po. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_,
bk. 1, ch. 28; bk. 7, ch. 17.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 4, li. 158.
=Bojocalus=, a general of the Germans in the age of Tiberius, &c.
_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 13, ch. 55.
=Bola=, a town of the Æqui in Italy. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 775.
=Bolānus.= _See:_ Bollanus.
=Bolbe=, a marsh near Mygdonia. _Thucydides_, bk. 1, ch. 58.
=Bolbitīnum=, one of the mouths of the Nile, with a town of the same
name. Naucrautis was built near it. _Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 17.
=Bolgius=, a general of Gaul, in an expedition against Ptolemy king of
Macedonia. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 19.
=Bolīna=, a virgin of Achaia, who rejected the addresses of Apollo,
and threw herself into the sea to avoid his importunities. The god
made her immortal. There is a city which bears her name in Achaia.
_Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 23.
=Bolinæus=, a river near Bolina. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 23.
=Bolissus=, a town and island near Chios. _Thucydides_, bk. 8, ch. 24.
=Bollānus=, a man whom Horace represents, bk. 1, satire 9, li. 11, as
of the most irascible temper and the most inimical to loquacity.
=Bolus=, a king of the Cimbri, who killed a Roman ambassador. _Livy_,
bk. 67.
=Bomienses=, a people near Ætolia. _Thucydides_, bk. 3, ch. 96.
=Bomilcar=, a Carthaginian general, son of Amilcar. He was suspected
of a conspiracy with Agathocles, and hung in the forum, where he
had received all his dignity. _Diodorus_, bk. 26.――_Justin_, bk. 22,
ch. 7.――――An African, for some time the instrument of all Jugurtha’s
cruelties. He conspired against Jugurtha, who put him to death.
_Sallust_, _Jugurthine War_.
=Bomonīcæ=, youths that were whipped at the altar of Diana Orthia
during the festivals of the goddess. He who bore the lash of the
whip with the greatest patience, and without uttering a groan, was
declared victorious, and received an honourable prize. _Pausanias_,
bk. 3, ch. 16.――_Plutarch_, _Lycurgus_.
=Bona Dea=, a name given to Ops, Vesta, Cybele, and Rhea, by the
Greeks; and by the Latins, to Fauna, or Fatua. This goddess was
so chaste that no man but her husband saw her after her marriage;
from which reason, her festivals were celebrated only in the night
by the Roman matrons in the houses of the highest officers of the
state, and all the statues of the men were carefully covered with a
veil where the ceremonies were observed. In the latter ages of the
republic, however, the sanctity of these mysteries was profaned
by the introduction of lasciviousness and debauchery. _Juvenal_,
satire 6, li. 313.――_Propertius_, bk. 4, poem 10, li. 25.――_Ovid_,
_de Ars Amatoria_, bk. 3, li. 637.
=Bonōnia=, called also Felsina, a town on the borders of the Rhine,
or Rheno, which falls into the Po. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 8, ch. 1.
――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 599.
=Bonosius=, an officer of Probus, who assumed the imperial purple in
Gaul.
=Bonus Eventus=, a Roman deity, whose worship was first introduced by
the peasants. He was represented holding a cup in his right hand,
and in his left, ears of corn. _Varro_, _de Re Rustica_, bk. 1.
――_Pliny_, bk. 34, ch. 8.
=Boosūra= (_bovis cauda_), a town of Cyprus, where Venus had an
ancient temple. _Strabo._
=Boōtes=, a northern constellation near the Ursa Major, also called
Bubulcus and Arctophylax. Some suppose it to be Icarus the father
of Erigone, who was killed by shepherds for inebriating them. Others
maintain that it is Arcas, whom Jupiter placed in heaven. _Ovid_,
_Fasti_, bk. 3, li. 405.――_Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 2,
ch. 42.
=Bootus= and =Bœotus=, a son of Neptune and Menalippe, exposed by his
mother, but preserved by shepherds. _Hyginus_, fable 186.
=Borea=, a town taken by Sextus Pompey. _Cicero_, bk. 16, _Letters to
Atticus_, ltr. 4.
=Boreădes=, the descendants of Boreas, who long possessed the
supreme power and the priesthood in the island of the Hyperboreans.
_Diodorus_, bks. 1 & 2.
=Boreas=, the name of the north wind blowing from the Hyperborean
mountains. According to the poets, he was son of Astræus and Aurora,
but others make him son of the Strymon. He was passionately fond
of Hyacinthus [_See:_ Hyacinthus], and carried away Orithyia, who
refused to receive his addresses, and by her he had Zetes and Calais,
Cleopatra and Chione. He was worshipped as a deity, and represented
with wings and white hair. The Athenians dedicated altars to him,
and to the winds, when Xerxes invaded Europe. Boreas changed himself
into a horse, to unite himself with the mares of Dardanus, by which
he had 12 mares so swift, that they ran or rather flew over the sea,
without scarce wetting their feet. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 20, li. 222.
――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 379.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 15.
――_Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 189.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 6,
li. 700.
=Boreasmi=, A festival at Athens in honour of Boreas, who, as the
Athenians supposed, was related to them on account of his marriage
with Orithyia the daughter of one of their kings. They attributed
the overthrow of the enemy’s fleet to the respect which he paid to
his wife’s native country. There were also sacrifices at Megalopolis
in Arcadia, in honour of Boreas. _Pausanias_, _Attica_ & _Arcadia_.
=Boreus=, a Persian, &c. _Polyænus_, bk. 7, ch. 40.
=Borges=, a Persian who burnt himself rather than submit to the enemy,
&c. _Polyænus_, bk. 7, ch. 24.
=Bornos=, a place of Thrace. _Cornelius Nepos_, _Alcibiades_, ch. 7.
=Borsippa=, a town of Babylonia, sacred to Apollo and Diana. The
inhabitants ate bats. _Strabo_, bk. 16.
=Borus=, a son of Perieres, who married Polydora the daughter of
Peleus. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 13.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 16,
li. 177.
=Borysthĕnes=, a large river of Scythia, falling into the Euxine sea,
now called the _Dnieper_, and inferior to no other European river
but the Danube, according to _Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 45, &c.――――There
was a city of the same name on the borders of the river, built by a
colony of Milesians, 655 years before the christian era. It was also
called _Olba Salvia_. _Mela_, bk. 2, chs. 1 & 7.――――A horse with
which the emperor Adrian used to hunt. At his death he was honoured
with a monument. _Diodorus._
=Bosphŏrus= and =Bospŏrus=, two narrow straits, situate at the confines
of Europe and Asia. One was called Cimmerian, and joined the Palus
Mœotis to the Euxine, now known by the name of the straits of Caffa;
and the other, which was called the Thracian Bosphorus, and by the
moderns the straits of Constantinople, made a communication between
the Euxine sea and the Propontis. It is 16 miles long, and one and a
half broad, and where narrowest 500 paces or four stadia, according
to Herodotus. The word is derived from Βοος πορος, _bovis meatus_,
because, on account of its narrowness, an ox could easily cross it.
Cocks were heard to crow, and dogs to bark, from the opposite banks,
and in a calm day persons could talk one to the other. _Pliny_, bk.
4, ch. 12; bk. 6, ch. 1.――_Ovid_, _Tristia_, bk. 3, poem 4, li. 49.
――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 1.――_Strabo_, bk. 12.――_Herodotus_, bk. 4,
ch. 85.
=Boter=, a freedman of Claudius. _Suetonius_, _Claudius_.
=Bottia=, a colony of Macedonians in Thrace. The people were called
_Bottiæi_. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 1.――_Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 185, &c.
――_Thucydides_, bk. 2, ch. 99.
=Bottiæis=, a country at the north of Macedonia, on the bay of Therma.
_Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 123, &c.
=Boudicea=, a queen in Britain, who rebelled upon being insulted by
the Romans. She poisoned herself when conquered, A.D. 61. _Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 14, ch. 31.
=Bouiānum=, an ancient colony of the Samnites, at the foot of the
Apennines not far from Beneventum. _Livy_, bk. 9, ch. 28.
=Bovillæ=, a town of Latium near Rome. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 3,
li. 607.――――Another in Campania.
=Brachmanes=, Indian philosophers, who derive their name from Brahma,
one of the three beings whom God, according to their theology,
created, and with whose assistance he formed the world. They devoted
themselves totally to the worship of the gods, and were accustomed
from their youth to endure labours, and to live with frugality and
abstinence. They never ate flesh, and abstained from the use of
wine, and all carnal enjoyments. After they had spent 37 years
in the greatest trials, they were permitted to marry and indulge
themselves in a more free and unbounded manner. According to modern
authors, Brahma is the parent of all mankind, and he produced as
many worlds as there are parts in the body, which they reckoned 14.
They believed that there were seven seas, of water, milk, curds,
butter, salt, sugar, and wine, each blessed with its particular
paradise. _Strabo_, bk. 15.――_Diodorus_, bk. 17.
=Bræsia=, a daughter of Cinyras and Metharme. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3,
ch. 14.
=Branciădes=, a surname of Apollo.
=Branchĭdæ=, a people of Asia, near the river Oxus, put to the sword
by Alexander. They were originally of Miletus, near the temple of
Branchus, but had been removed from thence by Xerxes. _Strabo_, bk.
11.――_Curtius_, bk. 7, ch. 5.――――The priests of Apollo Didymæus, who
gave oracles in Caria. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 29.
=Branchyllĭdes=, a chief of the Bœotians. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 13.
=Branchus=, a youth of Miletus, son of Smicrus, beloved by Apollo,
who gave him the power of prophecy. He gave oracles at Didyme,
which became inferior to none of the Grecian oracles except Delphi,
and which exchanged the name of Didymean for that of Branchidæ.
The temple, according to Strabo, was set on fire by Xerxes, who
took possession of the riches it contained, and transported the
people into Sogdiana, where they built a city, which was afterwards
destroyed by Alexander. _Strabo_, bk. 15.――_Statius_, _Thebiad_,
bk. 3, li. 479.――_Lucian_, _de Domo_.
=Braslæ=, a town of Laconia. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 24.
=Brasĭdas=, a famous general of Lacedæmon, son of Tellus, who, after
many great victories over Athens and other Grecian states, died of
a wound at Amphipolis, which Cleon the Athenian had besieged, B.C.
422. A superb monument was raised to his memory. _Pausanias_, bk. 3,
ch. 24.――_Thucydides_, bks. 4 & 5.――_Diodorus_, bk. 3.――――A man of
Cos. _Theocritus_, _Idylls_, poem 7.
=Brasidēia=, festivals at Lacedæmon, in honour of Brasidas. None but
freemen born Spartans were permitted to enter the lists, and such as
were absent were fined.
=Brasĭlas=, a man of Cos. _Theocritus_, poem 7.
=Braure=, a woman who assisted in the murder of Pittacus king of the
Edoni. _Thucydides_, bk. 4, ch. 107.
=Brauron=, a town of Attica, where Diana had a temple. The goddess had
three festivals called _Brauronia_, celebrated once every fifth year
by 10 men, who were called ἱεροποιοι. They sacrificed a goat to the
goddess, and it was usual to sing one of the books of Homer’s Iliad.
The most remarkable that attended were young virgins in yellow gowns,
consecrated to Diana. They were about 10 years of age, and not under
five, and therefore their consecration was called δεκατευειν, from
δεκα, _decem_; and sometimes ἀρκτευειν, as the virgins themselves
bore the name of ἀρκτοι, _bears_, from this circumstance. There was
a bear in one of the villages of Attica so tame, that he ate with
the inhabitants, and played harmlessly with them. This familiarity
lasted long, till a young virgin treated the animal too roughly,
and was killed by it. The virgin’s brother killed the bear, and
the country was soon after visited by a pestilence. The oracle was
consulted, and the plague removed by consecrating virgins to the
service of Diana. This was so faithfully observed, that no woman
in Athens was ever married before a previous consecration to the
goddess. The statue of Diana of Tauris, which had been brought into
Greece by Iphigenia, was preserved in the town of Brauron. Xerxes
carried it away when he invaded Greece. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 46.
――_Strabo_, bk. 9.
=Brenni= and =Breuni=, a people of Noricum. _Horace_, bk. 4, ode 14.
=Brennus=, a general of the Galli Senones, who invaded Italy, defeated
the Romans at the river Allia, and entered their city without
opposition. The Romans fled into the capitol, and left the whole
city in the possession of the enemies. The Gauls climbed the
Tarpeian rock in the night, and the capitol would have been taken
had not the Romans been awakened by the noise of geese which were
before the doors, and immediately repelled the enemy. Camillus, who
was in banishment, marched to the relief of his country, and so
totally defeated the Gauls, that not one remained to carry the news
of their destruction. _Livy_, bk. 5, ch. 36, &c.――_Plutarch_,
_Camillus_.――――Another Gaul, who made an irruption into Greece with
150,000 men and 15,000 horse, and endeavoured to plunder the temple
of Apollo at Delphi. He was destroyed, with all his troops, by the
god, or more properly, he killed himself in a fit of intoxication,
B.C. 278, after being defeated by the Delphians. _Pausanias_, bk. 10,
chs. 22 & 23.――_Justin_, bk. 24, ch. 6, &c.
=Brenthe=, a ruined city of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 28.
=Brescia=, a city of Italy, which had gods peculiar to itself.
=Brettii=, a people of Italy. _Strabo_, bk. 6.
=Briăreus=, a famous giant, son of Cœlus and Terra, who had 100 hands
and 50 heads, and was called by men Ægeon, and only by the gods
Briareus. When Juno, Neptune, and Minerva conspired to dethrone
Jupiter, Briareus ascended the heavens, and seated himself next to
him, and so terrified the conspirators by his fierce and threatening
looks that they desisted. He assisted the giants in their war
against the gods, and was thrown under mount Ætna, according to
some accounts. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 148.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1,
ch. 1.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 1, li. 403.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6,
li. 287; bk. 10, li. 565.――――A Cyclops, made judge between Apollo
and Neptune, in their dispute about the isthmus and promontory of
Corinth. He gave the former to Neptune, and the latter to Apollo.
_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 1.
=Brias=, a town of Pisidia.
=Brigrantes=, a people in the northern parts of Britain. _Juvenal_,
satire 14, li. 196.――_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 43.
=Brigrantīnus=, a lake of Rhœtia between the Alps, now the lake of
Constance. The town on its eastern banks is now Bregentz in the
Tyrol, anciently called Brigantium. _Pliny_, bk. 9, ch. 17.
=Brilessus=, a mountain of Attica. _Thucydides_, bk. 2, ch. 23.
=Brīmo= (_terror_), a name given to Proserpine and Hecate. _Propertius_,
bk. 2, poem 2, li. 11.
=Brisēis=, a woman of Lyrnessus, called also Hippodamia. When her
country was taken by the Greeks, and her husband Mines and brother
killed in the fight, she fell to the share of Achilles in the
division of the spoils. Agamemnon took her away some time after
from Achilles, who made a vow to absent himself from the field of
battle. Briseis was very faithful to Achilles; and when Agamemnon
restored her to him, he swore he had never offended her chastity.
_Homer_, _Iliad_, bks. 1, 2, &c.――_Ovid_, _Heroides_, poem 3; _De
Ars Amatoria_, bks. 2 & 3.――_Propertius_, bk. 2, poems 8, 20, & 22.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 24.――_Horace_, bk. 2, ode 4.
=Brises=, a man of Lyrnessus, brother to the priest Chryses. His
daughter Hippodamia was called _Briseis_, from him.
=Briseus=, a surname of Bacchus, from his nurse Briso, or his temple
at Brisa, a promontory at Lesbos. _Persius_, bk. 1, li. 76.
=Britanni=, the inhabitants of Britain. _See:_ Britannia.――――A man in
Gallia Belgica. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 17.
=Britannia=, an island in the northern ocean, the greatest in Europe,
conquered by Julius Cæsar during his Gallic wars, B.C. 55, and first
known to be an island by Agricola, who sailed round it. It was a
Roman province from the time of its conquest till the 448th year
of the christian era. The inhabitants, in the age of Cæsar, used
to paint their bodies, to render themselves more terrible in the
eyes of their enemies. The name of Britain was unknown to the Romans
before Cæsar conquered it. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 4.――_Diodorus_,
bk. 5.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 33.――_Tacitus_, _Agricola_, ch. 10.
――_Pliny_, bk. 34, ch. 17.
=Britannĭcus=, a son of Claudius Cæsar by Messalina. Nero was raised
to the throne in preference to him, by means of Agrippina, and
caused him to be poisoned. His corpse was buried in the night;
but it is said that a shower of rain washed away the white paint
which the murderer had put over his face, so that it appeared quite
black, and discovered the effects of poison. _Tacitus_, _Annals_.
――_Suetonius_, _Nero_, ch. 33.
=Britomartis=, a beautiful nymph of Crete, daughter of Jupiter and
Charme, who devoted herself to hunting, and became a great favourite
of Diana. She was loved by Minos, who pursued her so closely,
that, to avoid his importunities, she threw herself into the sea.
_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 30; bk. 3, ch. 14.――――A surname of Diana.
=Britomarus=, a chief of the Galli Insubres conquered by Æmilius.
_Florus_, bk. 2, ch. 4.
=Britŏnes=, the inhabitants of Britain. _Juvenal_, satire 15, li. 124.
=Brixellum=, a town in Italy near Mantua, where Otho slew himself when
defeated. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 2, ch. 32.
=Brixia=, a town of Italy beyond the Po, at the north of Cremona, now
Brescia. _Justin_, bk. 20, ch. 5.
=Brizo=, the goddess of dreams worshipped in Delos.
=Brocubēlus=, a governor of Syria, who fled to Alexander, when Darius
was murdered by Bessus. _Curtius_, bk. 5, ch. 13.
=Bromius=, a surname of Bacchus, from βρεμειν, _frendere_, alluding
to the groans which Semele uttered when consumed by Jupiter’s
fire. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 4, li. 11.――――A son of Ægyptus.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 1.
=Bromus=, one of the Centaurs. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12,
li. 459.
=Brongus=, a river falling into the Ister. _Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 49.
=Brontēs= (_thunder_), one of the Cyclops. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8,
li. 425.
=Brontīnus=, a Pythagorean philosopher.――――The father of Theano the
wife of Pythagoras. _Diogenes Laërtius._
=Broteas= and =Ammon=, two men famous for their skill in the cestus.
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, li. 107.――――One of the Lapithæ.
=Brotheus=, a son of Vulcan and Minerva, who burned himself to avoid
the ridicule to which his deformity subjected him. _Ovid_, _Ibis_,
li. 517.
=Bructēri=, a people of Germany, inhabiting the country at the east of
Holland. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 1, ch. 51.
=Brumālia=, festivals celebrated at Rome in honour of Bacchus, about
the month of December. They were first instituted by Romulus.
=Brundusium=, now _Brundisi_, a city of Calabria, on the Adriatic sea
where the Appian road was terminated. It was founded by Diomedes
after the Trojan war, or, according to Strabo, by Theseus, with
a Cretan colony. The Romans generally embarked at Brundusium for
Greece. It is famous for the birth of the poet Pacuvius and the
death of Virgil, and likewise for its harbour, which is capacious
and sheltered by the land, and by a small island at the entrance,
against the fury of the winds and waves. Little remains of the
ancient city, and even its harbour has now been choked up by the
negligence of the inhabitants. _Justin_, bk. 3, ch. 4; bk. 12, ch. 2.
――_Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Cæsar_, _Civil War_, bk. 1, ch. 24.――_Cicero_,
_Letters to Atticus_, bk. 4, ltr. 1.
=Brutidius=, a man dragged to prison in Juvenal’s age, on suspicion of
his favouring Sejanus. _Juvenal_, satire 10, li. 82.
=Brutii=, a people in the furthest parts of Italy, who were originally
shepherds of the Lucanians, but revolted, and went in quest of a
settlement. They received the name of _Brutii_, from their stupidity
and cowardice in submitting, without opposition, to Annibal in
the second Punic war. They were ever after held in the greatest
disgrace, and employed in every servile work. _Justin_, bk. 23,
ch. 9.――_Strabo_, bk. 6.――_Diodorus_, bk. 16.
=Brutŭlus=, a Samnite, who killed himself, upon being delivered to the
Romans for violating a treaty. _Livy_, bk. 8, ch. 39.
=Brutus Lucius Junius=, a son of Marcus Junius and Tarquinia, second
daughter of Tarquin Priscus. The father, with his eldest son, were
murdered by Tarquin the Proud, and Lucius, unable to revenge their
death, pretended to be insane. The artifice saved his life; he was
called _Brutus_ for his stupidity, which he, however, soon after
showed to be feigned. When Lucretia killed herself, B.C. 509, in
consequence of the brutality of Tarquin, Brutus snatched the dagger
from the wound, and swore, upon the reeking blade, immortal hatred
to the royal family. His example animated the Romans. The Tarquins
were proscribed by a decree of the senate, and the royal authority
vested in the hands of consuls chosen from patrician families.
Brutus, in his consular office, made the people swear they never
would again submit to kingly authority; but the first who violated
their oath were in his own family. His sons conspired with the
Tuscan ambassador to restore the Tarquins; and when discovered, they
were tried and condemned before their father, who himself attended
at their execution. Some time after, in a combat that was fought
between the Romans and Tarquins, Brutus engaged with Aruns, and
so fierce was the attack that they pierced one another at the same
time. The dead body was brought to Rome, and received as in triumph;
a funeral oration was spoken over it, and the Roman matrons showed
their grief by mourning a year for the father of the republic.
_Florus_, bk. 1, ch. 2.――_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 56; bk. 2, ch. 1, &c.
――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bks. 4 & 5.――_Cornelius Nepos_,
_Atticus_, ch. 8.――_Eutropius_ on _Tarquin_.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 6, li. 818.――_Plutarch_, _Brutus_ & _Cæsar_.――――Marcus Junius,
father of Cæsar’s murderer, wrote three books on civil law. He
followed the party of Marius, and was conquered by Pompey. After
the death of Sylla, he was besieged in Mutina by Pompey, to whom he
surrendered, and by whose orders he was put to death. He had married
Servilia, Cato’s sister, by whom he had a son and two daughters.
_Cicero_, _On Oratory_, ch. 55.――_Plutarch_, _Brutus_.――――His son
of the same name by Servilia, was lineally descended from Junius
Brutus, who expelled the Tarquins from Rome. He seemed to inherit
the republican principles of his great progenitor, and in the
civil wars joined himself to the side of Pompey, though he was his
father’s murderer, only because he looked upon him as more just and
patriotic in his claims. At the battle of Pharsalia, Cæsar not only
spared the life of Brutus, but he made him one of his most faithful
friends. He, however, forgot the favour because Cæsar aspired to
tyranny. He conspired with many of the most illustrious citizens
of Rome against the tyrant, and stabbed him in Pompey’s Basilica.
The tumult which this murder occasioned was great; the conspirators
fled to the capitol, and by proclaiming freedom and liberty to the
populace, they re-established tranquillity in the city. Antony, whom
Brutus, contrary to the opinion of his associates, refused to seize,
gained ground in behalf of his friend Cæsar, and the murderers were
soon obliged to leave Rome. Brutus retired into Greece, where he
gained himself many friends by his arms, as well as by persuasion,
and he was soon after pursued thither by Antony, whom young Octavius
accompanied. A battle was fought at Philippi. Brutus, who commanded
the right wing of the republican army, defeated the enemy; but
Cassius, who had the care of the left, was overpowered, and as he
knew not the situation of his friend, and grew desperate, he ordered
one of his freedmen to run him through. Brutus deeply deplored
his fall, and in the fulness of his grief called him the last of
the Romans. In another battle, the wing which Brutus commanded
obtained a victory; but the other was defeated, and he found himself
surrounded by the soldiers of Antony. He, however, made his escape,
and soon after fell upon his sword, B.C. 42. Antony honoured him
with a magnificent funeral. Brutus is not less celebrated for his
literary talents, than his valour in the field. When he was in the
camp, the greatest part of his time was employed in reading and
writing; and the day which preceded one of his most bloody battles,
while the rest of his army was under continual apprehensions, Brutus
calmly spent his hours till the evening, in writing an epitome of
Polybius. He was fond of imitating the austere virtues of Cato, and
in reading the histories of nations he imbibed those principles of
freedom which were so eminently displayed in his political career.
He was intimate with Cicero, to whom he would have communicated
his conspiracy, had he not been apprehensive of his great timidity.
He severely reprimanded him in his letters for joining the side of
Octavius, who meditated the ruin of the republic. Plutarch mentions
that Cæsar’s ghost made its appearance to Brutus in his tent, and
told him that he would meet him at Philippi. Brutus married Portia
the daughter of Cato, who killed herself by swallowing burning coals
when she heard the fate of her husband. _Cornelius Nepos_, _Atticus_.
――_Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 48.――_Plutarch_, _Brutus_, &c.; _Cæsar_,
ch. 1.――_Florus_, bk. 4.――――Decimus Junius Albinus, one of Cæsar’s
murderers, who, after the battle of Mutina, was deserted by the
legions, with which he wished to march against Antony. He was put to
death by Antony’s orders, though consul elect.――――Junius, one of the
first tribunes of the people. _Plutarch._――――One of Carbo’s generals.
=Bryas=, a general of the Argives against Sparta, put to death by a
woman, to whom he had offered violence. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 20.
――――A general in the army of Xerxes. _Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 72.
=Bryaxis=, a marble sculptor, who assisted in making the Mausoleum.
_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 40.
=Bryce=, a daughter of Danaus by Polyxo. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 1.
=Brygres=, a people of Thrace, afterwards called Phryges. _Strabo_,
bk. 7.
=Brygri=, a people of Macedonia, conquered by Mardonius. _Herodotus_,
bk. 6, ch. 45.
=Brysea=, a town of Laconia. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 20.
=Bubacēne=, a town of Asia. _Curtius_, bk. 5.
=Bubāces=, a eunuch of Darius, &c. _Curtius_, bk. 5, ch. 11.
=Bubăris=, a Persian who married the daughter of Amyntas, against whom
he had been sent with an army. _Justin_, bk. 7, ch. 13.
=Bubastiăcus=, one of the mouths of the Nile.
=Bubastis=, a city of Egypt, in the eastern parts of the Delta, where
cats were held in great veneration, because Diana Bubastis, who is
the chief deity of the place, is said to have transformed herself
into a cat when the gods fled into Egypt. _Herodotus_, bk. 2, chs.
59, 137, & 154.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 9, li. 690.
=Bubăsus=, a country of Caria, whence _Bubasides_ applied to the
natives. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 9, li. 643.
=Bubon=, an inland city of Lycia. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 27.
=Bucephăla=, a city of India near the Hydaspes, built by Alexander in
honour of his favourite horse Bucephalus. _Curtius_, bk. 9, ch. 3.
――_Justin_, bk. 12, ch. 8.――_Diodorus_, bk. 17.
=Bucephălus=, a horse of Alexander’s, whose head resembled that of
a bull, whence his name (βους κεφαλος, _bovis caput_). Alexander
was the only one who could mount on his back, and he always knelt
down to take up his master. He was present in an engagement in Asia,
where he received a heavy wound, and hastened immediately out of the
battle, and dropped down dead as soon as he had set down the king in
a safe place. He was 30 years old when he died, and Alexander built
a city which he called after his name. _Plutarch_, _Alexander_.
――_Curtius._――_Arrian_, bk. 5, ch. 3.――_Pliny_, bk. 8, ch. 42.
=Buciliānus=, one of Cæsar’s murderers. _Cicero_, _Letters to Atticus_,
ch. 14.
=Bucolĭca=, a sort of poem which treats of the care of the flocks, and
of the pleasures and occupations of the rural life, with simplicity
and elegance. The most famous pastoral writers of antiquity are
Moschus, Bion, Theocritus, and Virgil. The invention of Bucolics, or
pastoral poetry, is attributed to a shepherd of Sicily.
=Bucolĭcum=, one of the mouths of the Nile, situate between the
Sebennytican and Mendesian mouths, and called by Strabo, Phatniticum.
_Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 17.
=Bucolion=, a king of Arcadia, after Lais. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 5.
――――A son of Laomedon and the nymph Calybe.――――A son of Hercules and
Praxithea. He was also called Bucolus.――――A son of Lycaon king of
Arcadia. _Apollodorus_, bks. 2 & 3.
=Bucŏlus=, a son of Hercules and Marse.――――A son of Hippocoon.
_Apollodorus_, bks. 2 & 3.
=Budii=, a nation of Media. _Herodotus._
=Budīni=, a people of Scythia. _Herodotus._
=Budōrum=, a promontory of Salamis. _Thucydides_, bk. 2, ch. 94.
=Bulbus=, a Roman senator, remarkable for his meanness. _Cicero_,
_Against Verres_.
=Bulis=, a town of Phocis, built by a colony from Doris, near the sea,
above the bay of Corinth. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 37.――――A Spartan
given up to Xerxes, to atone for the offence which his countrymen
had done in putting the king’s messengers to death. _Herodotus_,
bk. 7, ch. 134, &c.
=Bullatius=, a friend of Horace to whom the poet addressed, bk. 1,
ltr. 11, in consequence of his having travelled over part of Asia.
=Bullis=, a town of Illyricum, near the sea, south of Apollonia.
_Livy_, bk. 36, ch. 7; bk. 44, ch. 30.
=Bumellus=, a river of Assyria. _Curtius_, bk. 4, ch. 9.
=Bunea=, a surname of Juno.
=Bunus=, a son of Mercury and Alcidamea, who obtained the government
of Corinth when Ætes went to Colchis. He built a temple to Juno.
_Pausanias_, bk. 2, chs. 3 & 4.
=Bupălus=, a statuary of Clazomenæ. _See:_ Anthermus.
=Buphăgus=, a son of Japetus and Thornax killed by Diana, whose virtue
he had attempted. A river of Arcadia bears his name. _Pausanias_,
bk. 8, ch. 24.――――A surname of Hercules, given him on account of his
gluttony.
=Buphŏnia=, a festival in honour of Jupiter at Athens, where an ox was
immolated. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 24.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_,
bk. 8, ch. 3.
=Buprāsium=, a city, country, and river of Elis. _Homer._
=Bura=, a daughter of Jupiter, or, according to others, of Ion and
Helice, from whom _Bura_ or _Buris_, once a flourishing city in the
bay of Corinth, received its name. This city was destroyed by the
sea. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 15, li. 293.――_Pausanias_, bk. 7,
ch. 25.――_Strabo_, bks. 1 & 8.――_Diodorus_, bk. 15.
=Buraicus=, an epithet applied to Hercules, from his temple near Bura.
――――A river of Achaia. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 25.
=Burrhus Afranius=, a chief of the pretorian guards, put to death by
Nero.――――A brother-in-law of the emperor Commodus.
=Bursa=, a capital city of Bithynia, supposed to have been called
Prusa, from its founder Prusias. _Strabo_, bk. 12.
=Bursia=, a town of Babylonia. _Justin_, bk. 12, ch. 13.
=Busa=, a woman of Apulia who entertained 1000 Romans after the battle
of Cannæ. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 4, ch. 8.
=Busæ=, a nation of Media. _Herodotus_, bk. 1.
=Busīris=, a king of Egypt, son of Neptune and Libya, or Lysianassa,
who sacrificed all foreigners to Jupiter with the greatest cruelty.
When Hercules visited Egypt, Busiris carried him to the altar bound
hand and foot. The hero soon disentangled himself, and offered the
tyrant, his son Amphidamas, and the ministers of his cruelty, on
the altar. Many Egyptian princes have borne the same name. One of
them built a town called _Busiris_, ♦in the middle of the Delta,
where Isis had a famous temple. _Herodotus_, bk. 2, chs. 59 & 61.
――_Strabo_, bk. 17.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 9, li. 132;
_Heroides_, poem 9, li. 69.――_Plutarch_, _Theseus_.――_Virgil_,
_Georgics_, bk. 3, li. 5.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 5.
♦ extraneous ‘and’ removed
=Buta=, a town of Achaia. _Diodorus_, bk. 20.
=Buteo=, a surname of Marcus Fabius. _Livy_, bk. 30, ch. 26.――――A
Roman orator. _Seneca._
=Butes=, one of the descendants of Amycus king of the Bebryces, very
expert in the combat of the cestus. He came to Sicily, where he was
received by Lycaste, a beautiful harlot, by whom he had a son called
Eryx. Lycaste, on account of her beauty, was called Venus; hence
Eryx is often called the son of Venus.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 5,
li. 372.――――One of the Argonauts. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9.――――A
Trojan slain by Camilla. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 11, li. 690.――――A
son of Boreas who built Naxos. _Diodorus_, bk. 5.――――A son of Pandion
and Zeuxippe, priest of Minerva and Neptune. He married Chthonia
daughter of Erechtheus. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 14, &c.――――An
armbearer to Anchises, and afterwards to Ascanius. Apollo assumed
his shape when he descended from heaven to encourage Ascanius to
fight. Butes was killed by Turnus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 647;
bk. 12, li. 632.――――A governor of Darius, besieged by Conon the
Athenian.
=Buthrōtum=, now _Butrinto_, a seaport town of Epirus, opposite
Corcyra, visited by Æneas, in his way from Troy to Italy. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 293.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 1.
=Buthrōtus=, a river in Italy, near Locri.
=Buthyreus=, a noble statuary, disciple to Myron. _Pliny_, bk. 34,
ch. 8.
=Butoa=, an island in the Mediterranean, near Crete. _Pliny_, bk. 4,
ch. 12.
=Butorĭdes=, an historian who wrote concerning the pyramids. _Pliny_,
bk. 36, ch. 12.
=Butos=, a town of Egypt, where there was a temple of Apollo and Diana,
and an oracle of Latona. _Herodotus_, bk. 2, chs. 59 & 63.
=Butuntum=, an inland town of Apulia. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 11.
=Butus=, a son of Pandion.
=Buzȳges=, an Athenian who first ploughed with harnessed oxen.
Demophoon gave him the Palladium, with which Diomedes had entrusted
him to be carried to Athens. _Polyænus_, bk. 1, ch. 5.
=Byblesia= and =Bybassia=, a country of Caria. _Herodotus_, bk. 1,
ch. 174.
=Byblia=, a name of Venus.
=Byblii=, a people of Syria. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 1.
=Byblis=, a daughter of Miletus and Cyanea. She fell in love with
her brother Caunus, and when he refused to gratify her passion, she
destroyed herself. Some say that Caunus became enamoured of her,
and fled from his country to avoid incest; and others report that he
fled from his sister’s importunities, who sought him all over Lycia
and Caria, and at last sat down all bathed in tears, and was changed
into a fountain of the same name. _Ovid_, _de Ars Amatoria_, bk. 1,
li. 284; _Metamorphoses_, bk. 9, li. 451.――_Hyginus_, fable 243.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 5.――――A small island in the Mediterranean.
=Byblus=, a town of Syria, not far from the sea, where Adonis had a
temple. _Strabo_, bk. 16.
=Bylliones=, a people of Illyricum.
=Byrrhus=, a robber, famous for his dissipation. _Horace_, bk. 1,
satire 4, li. 69.
=Byrsa=, a citadel in the middle of Carthage, on which was the temple
of Æsculapius. Asdrubal’s wife burnt it when the city was taken.
When Dido came to Africa, she bought of the inhabitants as much
land as could be encompassed by a bull’s hide. After the agreement,
she cut the hide in small thongs, and inclosed a large piece of
territory, on which she built a citadel which she called Byrsa
(Βυρσα, _a hide_). _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 371.――_Strabo_,
bk. 17.――_Justin_, bk. 18, ch. 5.――_Florus_, bk. 2, ch. 15.――_Livy_,
bk. 34, ch. 62.
=Byzacium=, a country of Africa.
=Byzantium=, a town situate on the Thracian Bosphorus, founded by a
colony of Megara, under the conduct of Byzas, 658 years before the
christian era. Paterculus says it was founded by the Milesians, and
by the Lacedæmonians according to Justin, and according to Ammianus
by the Athenians. The pleasantness and convenience of its situation
were observed by Constantine the Great, who made it the capital of
the eastern Roman empire, A.D. 328, and called it Constantinopolis.
A number of Greek writers, who have deserved or usurped the name of
_Byzantine historians_, flourished at Byzantium, after the seat of
the empire had been translated thither from Rome. Their works, which
more particularly relate to the time in which they flourished, and
are seldom read but by those who wish to form an acquaintance with
the revolutions of the lower empire, were published in one large
collection, in 36 vols., folio, 1648, &c., at Paris, and recommended
themselves by the notes and supplements of du Fresne and du Cange.
They were likewise printed at Venice, 1729, in 28 vols., though
perhaps this edition is not so valuable as that of the French.
_Strabo_, bk. 1.――_Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 15.――_Cornelius Nepos_,
_Pausanias_, _Alcibiades_, & _Timotheus_.――_Justin_, bk. 9, ch. 1.
――_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 12, chs. 62 & 63.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 2.
――_Marcellinus_, bk. 22, ch. 8.
=Byzas=, a son of Neptune king of Thrace, from whom it is said
Byzantium receives its name. _Diodorus_, bk. 4.
=Byzeres=, a people of Pontus, between Cappadocia and Colchis.
_Dionysius Periegetes._――_Flaccus_, bk. 5, li. 153.
=Byzes=, a celebrated artist in the age of Astyages. _Pausanias_,
bk. 5, ch. 10.
=Byzia=, a town in the possession of the kings of Thrace, hated by
swallows, on account of the horrible crimes of Tereus. _Pliny_,
bk. 4, ch. 11.
C
=Caanthus=, a son of Oceanus and Tethys. He was ordered by his father
to seek his sister Malia, whom Apollo had carried away, and he burnt
in revenge the ravisher’s temple near the ♦Isthmus. He was killed
for this impiety by the god, and a monument was raised to his memory.
_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 10.
♦ ‘Ithmus’ replaced with ‘Isthmus’
=Cabades=, a king of Persia, &c.
=Cabăla=, a place of Sicily where the Carthaginians were conquered by
Dionysius. _Diodorus_, bk. 15.
=Cabāles=, a people of Africa. _Herodotus._
=Cabalii=, a people of Asia Minor. _Herodotus._
=Caballīnus=, a clear fountain on mount Helicon, sacred to the muses,
and called also _Hippocrene_, as raised from the ground by the foot
of Pegasus. _Persius._
=Caballīnum=, a town of the Ædui, now _Chalons_, on the Saone. _Cæsar_,
_Gallic War_, ch. 42.
=Caballio=, a town of Gaul.
=Cabarnos=, a deity worshipped at Paros. His priests were called
Cabarni.
=Cabassus=, a town of Cappadocia.――――A village near Tarsus.
=Cabīra=, a wife of Vulcan, by whom she had three sons.――――A town of
Paphlagonia.
=Cabīri=, certain deities held in the greatest veneration at Thebes,
Lemnos, Macedonia, and Phrygia, but more particularly in the islands
of Samothrace and Imbros. The number of these deities is uncertain.
Some say there were only two, Jupiter and Bacchus; others mention
three, and some four, Aschieros, Achiochersa, Achiochersus, and
Camillus. It is unknown where their worship was first established;
yet Phœnicia seems to be the place according to the authority of
Sanchoniathon, and from thence it was introduced into Greece by the
Pelasgi. The festivals or mysteries of the Cabiri were celebrated
with the greatest solemnity at Samothrace, where all the ancient
heroes and princes were generally initiated, as their power seemed
to be great in protecting persons from shipwreck and storms. The
obscenities which prevailed in the celebration have obliged the
authors of every country to pass over them in silence, and say that
it was unlawful to reveal them. These deities are often confounded
with the Corybantes, Anaces, Dioscuri, &c., and, according to
Herodotus, Vulcan was their father. This author mentions the
sacrilege which Cambyses committed in entering their temple, and
turning to ridicule their sacred mysteries. They were supposed to
preside over metals. _Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 51.――_Strabo_, bk. 10,
&c.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 22, &c.――_Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_,
bk. 1.
=Cabiria=, a surname of Ceres.――――The festivals of the Cabiri. _See:_
Cabiri.
=Cabūra=, a fountain of Mesopotamia, where Juno bathed. _Pliny_,
bk. 31, ch. 3.
=Cabūrus=, a chief of the Helvii. _Cæsar._
=Caca=, a goddess among the Romans, sister to Cacus, who is said to
have discovered to Hercules where her brother had concealed his oxen.
She presided over the excrements of the body. The vestals offered
sacrifices in her temple. _Lactantius [Placidus]_, bk. 1, ch. 20.
=Cachăles=, a river of Phocis. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 32.
=Cacus=, a famous robber, son of Vulcan and Medusa, represented as a
three-headed monster, and as vomiting flames. He resided in Italy,
and the avenues of his cave were covered with human bones. He
plundered the neighbouring country; and when Hercules returned
from the conquest of Geryon, Cacus stole some of his cows, and
dragged them backwards into his cave to prevent discovery. Hercules
departed without perceiving the theft; but his oxen having lowed,
were answered by the cows in the cave of Cacus, and the hero became
acquainted with the loss he had sustained. He ran to the place,
attacked Cacus, squeezed and strangled him in his arms, though
vomiting fire and smoke. Hercules erected an altar to Jupiter
Servator, in commemoration of his victory; and an annual festival
was instituted by the inhabitants in honour of the hero, who had
delivered them from such a public calamity. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 1,
li. 551.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8, li. 194.――_Propertius_, bk. 4,
poem 10.――_Juvenal_, satire 5, li. 125.――_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 7.
――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 1, ch. 9.
=Cacūthis=, a river of India, flowing into the Ganges. _Arrian_,
_Indica_.
=Cacyparis=, a river of Sicily.
=Cadi=, a town of Phrygia. _Strabo_, bk. 12.――――Of Lydia. _Propertius_,
bk. 4, poem 6, li. 7.
=Cadmēa=, a citadel of Thebes, built by Cadmus. It is generally
taken for Thebes itself, and the Thebans are often called Cadmeans.
_Statius_, _Thebiad_, bk. 8, li. 601.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 5.
=Cadmēis=, an ancient name of Bœotia.
=Cadmus=, son of Agenor king of Phœnicia by Telephassa or Agriope,
was ordered by his father to go in quest of his sister Europa, whom
Jupiter had carried away, and he was never to return to Phœnicia
if he did not bring her back. As his search proved fruitless, he
consulted the oracle of Apollo, and was ordered to build a city
where he should see a young heifer stop in the grass, and to call
the country Bœotia. He found the heifer according to the directions
of the oracle; and as he wished to thank the god by a sacrifice, he
sent his companions to fetch water from a neighbouring grove. The
waters were sacred to Mars, and guarded by a dragon, which devoured
all the Phœnician’s attendants. Cadmus, tired of their seeming delay,
went to the place, and saw the monster still feeding on their flesh.
He attacked the dragon, and overcame it by the assistance of Minerva,
and sowed the teeth in a plain, upon which armed men suddenly rose
up from the ground. He threw a stone in the midst of them, and they
instantly turned their arms one against another, till all perished
except five, who assisted him in building his city. Soon after he
married Hermione the daughter of Venus, with whom he lived in the
greatest cordiality, and by whom he had a son Polydorus, and four
daughters, Ino, Agave, Autonoe, and Semele. Juno persecuted these
children; and their well-known misfortunes so distracted Cadmus
and Hermione, that they retired to Illyricum, loaded with grief and
infirm with age. They intreated the gods to remove them from the
misfortunes of life, and they were immediately changed into serpents.
Some explain the dragon’s fable, by supposing that it was a king of
the country whom Cadmus conquered by war; and the armed men rising
from the field, is no more than men armed with brass, according
to the ambiguous signification of a Phœnician word. Cadmus was
the first who introduced the use of letters into Greece; but some
maintain, that the alphabet which he brought from Phœnicia, was
only different from that which was used by the ancient inhabitants
of Greece. This alphabet consisted only of 16 letters, to which
Palamedes afterwards added four, and Simonides of Melos the same
number. The worship of many of the Egyptian and Phœnician deities
was also introduced by Cadmus, who is supposed to have come into
Greece 1493 years before the christian era, and to have died 61
years after. According to those who believe that Thebes was built
at the sound of Amphion’s lyre, Cadmus built only a small citadel
which he called Cadmea, and laid the foundations of a city which
was finished by one of his successors. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 3, fables 1, 2, &c.――_Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 49; bk. 4, ch.
147.――_Hyginus_, fables 6, 76, 155, &c.――_Diodorus_, bk. 1, &c.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 5, &c.――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 937,
&c.――――A son of Pandion of Miletus, celebrated as an historian
in the age of Crœsus, and as the writer of an account of some
cities of Ionia, in four books. He is called the _ancient_, in
contradistinction from another of the same name and place, son of
Archelaus, who wrote a history of Attica in 16 books, and a treatise
on love in 14 books. _Diodorus_, bk. 1.――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_,
bk. 2.――_Clement of Alexandria_, bk. 3.――_Strabo_, bk. 1.――_Pliny_,
bk. 5, ch. 29.――――A Roman executioner, mentioned _Horace_, bk. 1,
satire 5, li. 39.
=Cadra=, a hill of Asia Minor. _Tacitus._
=Cadūceus=, a rod entwined at one end by two serpents, in the form
of two equal semi-circles. It was the attribute of Mercury and
the emblem of power, and it had been given him by Apollo in return
for the lyre. Various interpretations have been put upon the two
serpents round it. Some suppose them to be a symbol of Jupiter’s
amours with Rhea, when these two deities transformed themselves into
snakes. Others say that it originates from Mercury’s having appeased
the fury of two serpents that were fighting, by touching them
with his rod. Prudence is generally supposed to be represented by
these two serpents, and the wings are the symbol of diligence; both
necessary in the pursuit of business and commerce, which Mercury
patronized. With it Mercury conducted to the infernal regions the
souls of the dead, and could lull to sleep, and even raise to life
a dead person. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 4, li. 242.――_Horace_, bk. 1,
ode 10.
=Cadurci=, a people of Gaul, at the east of the Garonne. _Cæsar._
=Cadusci=, a people near the Caspian sea. _Plutarch._
=Cadytis=, a town of Syria. _Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 159.
=Cæa=, an island of the Ægean sea among the Cyclades, called also
_Ceos_ and _Cea_, from Ceus the son of Titan. _Ovid_, poem 20.
_Heroides_.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 1, li. 14.
=Cæcias=, a wind blowing from the north.
=Cæcĭlia=, the wife of Sylla. _Plutarch_, _Sulla_.――――The mother of
Lucullus. _Plutarch_, _Lucullus_.――――A daughter of Atticus.
=Cæcilia Caia=, or =Tanaquil=. _See:_ Tanaquil.
=Cæcilia lex=, was proposed A.U.C. 693, by Cæcilius Metellus Nepos,
to remove taxes from all the Italian states, and to give them free
exportation.――――Another, called also Didia, A.U.C. 656, by the
consul Quintus Cæcilius Metellus and Titus Didius. It required that
no more than one single matter should be proposed to the people in
one question, lest by one word they should give their assent to a
whole bill, which might contain clauses worthy to be approved, and
others unworthy. It required that every law, before it was preferred,
should be exposed to public view on three market-days.――――Another,
enacted by Cæcilius Metellus the censor, concerning fullers. _Pliny_,
bk. 35, ch. 17.――――Another, A.U.C. 701, to restore to the censors
their original rights and privileges, which had been lessened by
Publius Clodius the tribune.――――Another, called also Gabinia, A.U.C.
685, against usury.
=Cæciliānus=, a Latin writer before the age of Cicero.
=Cæcĭlii=, a plebeian family at Rome, descended from Cæcas, one of the
companions of Æneas, or from Cæculus the son of Vulcan, who built
Præneste. This family gave birth to many illustrious generals and
patriots.
=Cæcĭlius Claudius Isidorus=, a man who left in his will to his heirs,
4116 slaves, 3600 yokes of oxen, 257,000 small cattle, 600,000
pounds of silver. _Pliny_, bk. 33, ch. 10.――――Epirus, a freedman
of Atticus, who opened a school at Rome, and is said to have first
taught reading to Virgil and some other growing poets.――――A Sicilian
orator in the age of Augustus, who wrote on the Servile wars, a
comparison between Demosthenes and Cicero, and an account of the
orations of Demosthenes.――――Metellus. _See:_ Metellus.――――Statius,
a comic poet, deservedly commended by Cicero and Quintilian, though
the orator, _Letters to Atticus_, calls him _Malum Latinitatis
auctorem_. Above 30 of his comedies are mentioned by ancient
historians, among which are his Nauclerus, Phocius, Epiclerus,
Syracusæ, Fœnerator, Fallacia, Pausimachus, &c. He was a native of
Gaul, and died at Rome 168 B.C., and was buried on the Janiculum.
_Horace_, bk. 2, ltr. 1.
=Cæcīna Tuscus=, a son of Nero’s nurse, made governor of Egypt.
_Suetonius_, _Nero_.――――A Roman who wrote some physical treatises.
――――A citizen of Volaterræ defended by Cicero.
=Cæcŭbum=, a town of Campania in Italy, near the bay of Caieta,
famous for the excellence and plenty of its wines. _Strabo_, bk. 5.
――_Horace_, bk. 1, ode 20; bk. 2, ode 14, &c.
=Cæcŭlus=, a son of Vulcan, conceived, as some say, by his mother,
when a spark of fire fell into her bosom. He was called Cæculus
because his eyes were small. After a life spent in plundering and
rapine, he built Præneste; but being unable to find inhabitants, he
implored Vulcan to show whether he really was his father. Upon this
a flame suddenly shone among a multitude who were assembled to see
some spectacle, and they were immediately persuaded to become the
subjects of Cæculus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 680, says that
he was found in fire by shepherds, and on that account called son
of Vulcan, who is the god of fire.
=Quintus Cædicius=, a consul, A.U.C. 498.――――Another, A.U.C. 465.――――A
military tribune in Sicily, who bravely devoted himself to rescue
the Roman army from the Carthaginians, B.C. 254. He escaped with his
life.――――A rich person, &c. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 362.――――A
friend of Turnus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, lis. 7, 47.
=Cælia lex=, was enacted, A.U.C. 635, by Cælius, a tribune. It ordained,
that in judicial proceedings before the people, in cases of treason,
the votes should be given upon tablets contrary to the exception of
the Cassian law.
=Cælius=, an orator, disciple to Cicero. He died very young. Cicero
defended him when he was accused by Clodius of being accessary to
Catiline’s conspiracy, and of having murdered some ambassadors from
Alexandria, and carried on an illicit amour with Clodia the wife
of Metellus. _Pro Cælio_.――_Quintilian_, bk. 10, ch. 1.――――A man
of Tarracina, found murdered in his bed. His sons were suspected
of the murder, but acquitted. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 8, ch. 1.
――――Aurelianus, a writer about 300 years after Christ, the best
edition of whose works is that of Almeloveen, Amsterdam, 1722 and
1755.――――Lucius Antipater, wrote a history of Rome, which Marcus
Brutus epitomized, and which Adrian preferred to the histories of
Sallust. Cælius flourished 120 years B.C. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 1,
ch. 7.――_Cicero_, bk. 13, _Letters to Atticus_, ltr. 8.――――Tubero, a
man who came to life after he had been carried to the burning pile.
_Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 52.――――Vibienus, a king of Etruria, who assisted
Romulus against the Cæninenses, &c.――――Sabinus, a writer in the age
of Vespasian, who composed a treatise on the edicts of the curule
ediles.――――One of the seven hills on which Rome was built. Romulus
surrounded it with a ditch and rampart, and it was enclosed by
walls by the succeeding kings. It received its name from Cælius,
who assisted Romulus against the Sabines.
=Cæmaro=, a Greek, who wrote an account of India.
=Cæne=, a small island in the Sicilian sea.――――A town on the coast
of Laconia, whence Jupiter is called Cænius. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 5.
――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 9, li. 136.
=Cæneus=, one of the Argonauts. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9.――――A
Trojan killed by Turnus. _Virgil._
=Cænides=, a patronymic of Eetion, as descended from Cæneus.
_Herodotus_, bk. 5, ch. 92.
=Cænīna=, a town of Latium near Rome. The inhabitants, called
_Cæninenses_, made war against the Romans when their virgins had
been stolen away. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 2, li. 135.――_Propertius_,
bk. 4, poem 11, li. 9.――_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 9.
=Cænis=, a promontory of Italy, opposite to Pelorus in Sicily, a
distance of about one mile and a half.
=Cænis=, a Thessalian woman, daughter of Elatus, who, being forcibly
ravished by Neptune, obtained from the god the power to change her
sex, and to become invulnerable. She also changed her name, and was
called _Cæneus_. In the wars of the Lapithæ against the Centaurs,
she offended Jupiter, and was overwhelmed with a huge pile of wood,
and changed into a bird. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12, lis. 172
& 479.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 448, says that she returned
again to her pristine form.
=Quintus Servilius Cæpio=, a Roman consul, A.U.C. 648, in the Cimbrian
war. He plundered a temple at Tolossa, for which he was punished by
divine vengeance, &c. _Justin_, bk. 32, ch. 3.――_Paterculus_, bk. 2,
ch. 12.――――A questor who opposed Saturninus. _Cicero_, _Rhetorica ad
Herennium_.
=Cæratus=, a town of Crete. _Strabo._――――A river.
=Cære=, =Cæres=, anciently _Agylla_, now _Cerveteri_, a city of
Etruria, once the capital of the whole country. It was in being in
the age of Strabo. When Æneas came to Italy, Mezentius was king over
the inhabitants, called _Cæretes_ or _Cærites_; but they banished
their prince, and assisted the Trojans. The people of Cære received
with all possible hospitality the Romans who fled with the fire
of Vesta, when the city was besieged by the Gauls, and for this
humanity they were made citizens of Rome, but without the privilege
of voting; whence _Cærites tabulæ_ was applied to those who had no
suffrage, and _Cærites cera_ appropriated as a mark of contempt.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bks. 8 & 10.――_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 2.――_Strabo_,
bk. 5.
=Cæresi=, a people of Germany. _Cæsar._
=Cæsar=, a surname given to the Julian family at Rome, either because
one of them kept an _elephant_, which bears the same name in the
Punic tongue, or because one was born with a thick _head of hair_.
This name, after it had been dignified in the person of Julius
Cæsar and of his successors, was given to the apparent heir of
the empire, in the age of the Roman emperors. The 12 first Roman
emperors were distinguished by the surname of _Cæsar_. They reigned
in the following order: Julius Cæsar, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula,
Claudius, Nero, Galba, Otho, Vitellius, Vespasian, Titus, and
Domitian. In Domitian, or rather in Nero, the family of Julius Cæsar
was extinguished. But after such a lapse of time, the appellation
of Cæsar seemed inseparable from the imperial dignity, and therefore
it was assumed by the successors of the Julian family. Suetonious
has written an account of these 12 characters, in an extensive and
impartial manner.――――Caius Julius Cæsar, the first emperor of Rome,
was son of ♦Caius Cæsar and Aurelia the daughter of Cotta. He was
descended, according to some accounts, from Julus the son of Æneas.
When he reached his 15th year he lost his father, and the year after
he was made priest of Jupiter. Sylla was aware of his ambition, and
endeavoured to remove him; but Cæsar understood his intentions, and
to avoid discovery changed every day his lodgings. He was received
into Sylla’s friendship some time after; and the dictator told those
who solicited the advancement of young Cæsar, that they were warm
in the interest of a man who would prove some day or other the ruin
of their country and of their liberty. When Cæsar went to finish his
studies at Rhodes, under Apollonius Molo, he was seized by pirates,
who offered him his liberty for 30 talents. He gave them 40, and
threatened to revenge their insults; and he no sooner was out of
their power, than he armed a ship, pursued them, and crucified them
all. His eloquence procured him friends at Rome; and the generous
manner in which he lived equally served to promote his interest.
He obtained the office of high priest at the death of Metellus; and
after he had passed through the inferior employments of the state,
he was appointed over Spain, where he signalized himself by his
valour and intrigues. At his return to Rome, he was made consul, and
soon after he effected a reconciliation between Crassus and Pompey.
He was appointed for the space of five years over the Gauls, by
the interest of Pompey, to whom he had given his daughter Julia in
marriage. Here he enlarged the boundaries of the Roman empire by
conquest, and invaded Britain, which was then unknown to the Roman
people. He checked the Germans, and soon after had his government
over Gaul prolonged to five other years, by means of his friends
at Rome. The death of Julia and of Crassus, the corrupted state of
the Roman senate, and the ambition of Cæsar and Pompey, soon became
the causes of a civil war. Neither of these celebrated Romans would
suffer a superior, and the smallest matters were sufficient ground
for unsheathing the sword. Cæsar’s petitions were received with
coldness or indifference by the Roman senate; and, by the influence
of Pompey, a decree was passed to strip him of his power. Antony,
who opposed it as tribune, fled to Cæsar’s camp with the news; and
the ambitious general no sooner heard this, than he made it a plea
of resistance. On pretence of avenging the violence which had been
offered to the sacred office of tribune in the person of Antony,
he crossed the Rubicon, which was the boundary of his province. The
passage of the Rubicon was a declaration of war, and Cæsar entered
Italy sword in hand. Upon this, Pompey, with all the friends of
liberty, left Rome, and retired to Dyrrachium; and Cæsar, after
he had subdued all Italy, in 60 days, entered Rome, and provided
himself with money from the public treasury. He went to Spain, where
he conquered the partisans of Pompey, under Petreius, Afranius,
and Varro; and, at his return to Rome, was declared dictator, and
soon after consul. When he left Rome he went in quest of Pompey,
observing that he was marching against a general without troops,
after having defeated troops without a general in Spain. In the
plains of Pharsalia, B.C. 48, the two hostile generals engaged.
Pompey was conquered, and fled into Egypt, where he was murdered.
Cæsar, after he had made a noble use of victory, pursued his
adversary into Egypt, where he for some time forgot his fame and
character in the arms of Cleopatra, by whom he had a son. His
danger was great while at Alexandria; but he extricated himself
with wonderful success, and made Egypt tributary to his power. After
several conquests in Africa, the defeat of Cato, Scipio, and Juba,
and that of Pompey’s sons in Spain, he entered Rome, and triumphed
over five different nations, Gaul, Alexandria, Pontus, Africa, and
Spain, and was created perpetual dictator. But now his glory was at
an end, his uncommon success created him enemies, and the chiefest
of the senators, among whom was Brutus his most intimate friend,
conspired against him, and stabbed him in the senate house on the
ides of March. He died, pierced with 23 wounds, the 15th of March,
B.C. 44, in the 56th year of his age. Casca gave him the first blow,
and immediately he attempted to make some resistance; but when he
saw Brutus among the conspirators, he submitted to his fate, and
fell down at their feet, muffling up his mantle, and exclaiming, _Tu
quoque Brute_! Cæsar might have escaped the sword of the conspirators
if he had listened to the advice of his wife, whose dreams on the
night previous to the day of his murder were alarming. He also
received, as he went to the senate house, a paper from Artemidorus,
which discovered the whole conspiracy to him; but he neglected the
reading of what might have saved his life. When he was in his first
campaign in Spain, he was observed to gaze at a statue of Alexander,
and even shed tears at the recollection that that hero had conquered
the world at an age in which he himself had done nothing. The
learning of Cæsar deserves commendation, as well as his military
character. He reformed the calendar. He wrote his commentaries
on the Gallic wars, on the spot where he fought his battles; and
the composition has been admired for the elegance as well as the
correctness of its style. This valuable book was nearly lost; and
when Cæsar saved his life in the bay of Alexandria, he was obliged
to swim from his ship, with his arms in one hand and his commentaries
in the other. Besides the Gallic and civil wars, he wrote other
pieces, which are now lost. The history of the war in Alexandria and
Spain is attributed to him by some, and by others to Hirtius. Cæsar
has been blamed for his debaucheries and expenses; and the first
year he had a public office, his debts were rated at 830 talents,
which his friends discharged: yet, in his public character, he must
be reckoned one of the few heroes that rarely make their appearance
among mankind. His qualities were such that in every battle he could
not but be conqueror, and in every republic, master; and to his
sense of his superiority over the rest of the world, or to his
ambition, we are to attribute his saying, that he wished rather
to be first in a little village, than second at Rome. It was after
his conquest over Pharnaces in one day, that he made use of these
remarkable words, to express the celerity of his operations: _Veni,
vidi, vici_. Conscious of the services of a man who in the intervals
of peace, beautified and enriched the capital of his country with
public buildings, libraries, and porticoes, the senate permitted
the dictator to wear a laurel crown on his bald head; and it is said
that, to reward his benevolence, they were going to give him the
title of authority of king all over the Roman empire, except Italy,
when he was murdered. In his private character, Cæsar has been
accused of seducing one of the vestal virgins, and suspected of
being privy to Catiline’s conspiracy; and it was his fondness for
dissipated pleasures which made his countrymen say, that he was the
husband of all the women at Rome, and the woman of all men. It is
said that he conquered 300 nations, took 800 cities, and defeated
three millions of men, one of which fell in the field of battle.
_Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 25, says that he could employ at the same time,
his ears to listen, his eyes to read, his hand to write, and his
mind to dictate. His death was preceded, as many authors mention, by
uncommon prodigies; and immediately after his death, a large comet
made its appearance. The best editions of Cæsar’s commentaries,
are the magnificent one by Dr. Clarke, folio, London, 1712; that of
Cambridge, with a Greek translation, 4to, 1727; that of Oudendorp,
2 vols., 4to, Leiden, 1737; and that of Elzevir, 8vo, Leiden, 1635.
_Suetonius_ & _Plutarch_, _Lives_.――_Dio Cassius._――_Appian._
――_Orosius._――_Diodorus_, bk. 16 & fragments of bks. 31 & 37.
――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 1, li. 466.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 15, li. 782.――_Marcellinus._――_Florus_, bks. 3 & 4.――――Lucius
was father to the dictator. He died suddenly, when putting on his
shoes.――――Octavianus. _See:_ Augustus.――――Caius, a tragic poet
and orator, commended by _Cicero_, _Brutus_. His brother C. Lucius
was consul, and followed, as well as himself, the party of Sylla.
They were both put to death by order of Marius.――――Lucius, an uncle
of Marcus Antony, who followed the interest of Pompey, and was
proscribed by Augustus, for which Antony proscribed Cicero the
friend of Augustus. His son Lucius was put to death by Julius Cæsar
in his youth.――――Two sons of Agrippa bore also the name of Cæsar,
Caius and Lucius. _See:_ Agrippa.――――Augusta, a town of Spain, built
by Augustus, on the Iberus, and now called _Saragossa_.
♦ ‘L.’ replaced with ‘Caius’
=Cæsarēa=, a city of Cappadocia,――――of Bithynia,――――of Mauritania,
――――of Palestine. There are many small insignificant towns of that
name, either built by the emperors, or called by their name, in
compliment to them.
=Cæsarion=, the son of Julius Cæsar by queen Cleopatra, was, at the
age of 13, proclaimed by Antony and his mother, king of Cyprus,
Egypt, and Cœlosyria. He was put to death five years after by
Augustus. _Suetonius_, _Augustus_, ch. 17, & _Cæsar_, ch. 52.
=Cæsennius Pætus=, a general sent by Nero to Armenia, &c. _Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 15, chs. 6 & 25.
=Cæsetius=, a Roman who protected his children against Cæsar.
_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 5, ch. 7.
=Cæsia=, a surname of Minerva.――――A wood in Germany. _Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 1, ch. 50.
=Cæsius=, a Latin poet, whose talents were not of uncommon brilliancy.
_Catullus_, poem 14.――――A lyric and heroic poet in the reign of Nero.
_Persius._
=Cæso=, a son of Quinctius Cincinnatus, who revolted to the Volsci.
=Cæsonia=, a lascivious woman who married Caligula, and was murdered
at the same time with her daughter Julia. _Suetonius_, _Caligula_,
ch. 59.
=Cæsonius Maximus=, was banished from Italy by Nero, on account of his
friendship with Seneca, &c. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 15, ch. 71.
=Cætŭlum=, a town of Spain. _Strabo_, bk. 2.
=Cagāco=, a fountain of Laconia. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 24.
=Caicīnus=, a river of Locris. _Thucydides_, bk. 3, ch. 103.
=Caīcus=, a companion of Æneas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 187;
bk. 9, li. 35.――――A river of Mysia, falling into the Ægean sea,
opposite Lesbos. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 4, li. 370.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 2, li. 243.
=Caiēta=, a town, promontory, and harbour of Campania, which received
its name from Caieta the nurse of Æneas, who was buried there.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 1.
=Caius= and =Caia=, a prænomen very common at Rome to both sexes. C,
in its natural position, denoted the man’s name, and when reversed Ↄ
it implied Cais. _Quintilian_, bk. 1, ch. 7.
=Caius=, a son of Agrippa by Julia. _See:_ Agrippa.
=Quintus Calăber=, called also Smyrnæus, wrote a Greek poem in 14
books, as a continuation of Homer’s Iliad, about the beginning of
the third century. The best editions of this elegant and well-written
book are that of Rhodoman, 12mo, Hanover, 1604, with the notes of
Dausqueius; and that of Pauw, 8vo, Leiden, 1734.
=Calābria=, a country of Italy in Magna Græcia. It has been called
Messapia, Japygia, Salentinia, and Peucetia. The poet Ennius was
born there. The country was fertile, and produced a variety of
fruits, much cattle, and excellent honey. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk.
3, li. 425.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ode 31; _Epodes_, poem 1, li. 27; bk.
1, ltr. 7, li. 14.――_Strabo_, bk. 6.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 4.――_Pliny_,
bk. 8, ch. 48.
=Calăbrus=, a river of Calabria. _Pausanias_, bk. 6.
=Calagurritāni=, a people of Spain, who ate their wives and children
rather than yield to Pompey. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 7, ch. 6.
=Calais= and =Zethes=. _See:_ Zethes.
=Calagutis=, a river of Spain. _Florus_, bk. 3, ch. 22.
=Calămis=, an excellent carver. _Propertius_, bk. 3, poem 9, li. 10.
=Calămīsa=, a place of Samos. _Herodotus_, bk. 9.
=Calămos=, a town of Asia, near mount Libanus. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 20.
――――A town of Phœnicia.――――Another of Babylonia.
=Calămus=, a son of the river Mæander, who was tenderly attached to
Carpo, &c. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 35.
=Calānus=, a celebrated Indian philosopher, one of the gymnosophists.
He followed Alexander in his Indian expedition, and being sick,
in his 83rd year, he ordered a pile to be raised, upon which he
mounted, decked with flowers and garlands, to the astonishment of
the king and of the army. When the pile was fired, Alexander asked
him whether he had anything to say. “No,” said he, “I shall meet you
again in a very short time.” Alexander died three months after in
Babylon. _Strabo_, bk. 15.――_Cicero_, _de Divinatione_, bk. 1, ch.
23.――_Arrian_ & _Plutarch_, _Alexander_.――_Ælian_, bk. 2, ch. 41;
bk. 5, ch. 6.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 1, ch. 8.
=Calaon=, a river of Asia, near Colophon. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 3.
=Calăris=, a city of Sardinia. _Florus_, bk. 2, ch. 6.
=Calathāna=, a town of Macedonia. _Livy_, bk. 32, ch. 13.
=Calathes=, a town of Thrace near Tomus, on the Euxine sea. _Strabo_,
bk. 7.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 2.
=Calathion=, a mountain of Laconia. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 26.
=Calathus=, a son of Jupiter and Antiope.
=Calātia=, a town of Campania, on the Appian way. It was made a Roman
colony in the age of Julius Cæsar. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 543.
=Calatiæ=, a people of India, who ate the flesh of their parents.
_Herodotus_, bk. 3, ch. 38.
=Calavii=, a people of Campania. _Livy_, bk. 26, ch. 27.
=Calavius=, a magistrate of Capua, who rescued some Roman senators
from death, &c. _Livy_, bk. 23, chs. 2 & 3.
=Calaurēa= and =Calaurīa=, an island near Trœzene in the bay of Argos.
Apollo, and afterwards Neptune, was the chief deity of the place.
The tomb of Demosthenes was seen there, who poisoned himself to fly
from the persecutions of Antipater. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 7,
li. 384.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 8, &c.――_Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Mela_,
bk. 2, ch. 7.
=Calbis=, a river of Caria. _Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 16.
=Calce=, a city of Campania. _Strabo_, bk. 5.
=Calchas=, a celebrated soothsayer, son of Thestor. He accompanied
the Greeks to Troy, in the office of high priest; and he informed
them that the city could not be taken without the aid of Achilles,
that their fleet could not sail from Aulis before Iphigenia was
sacrificed to Diana, and that the plague could not be stopped in the
Grecian army before the restoration of Chryseis to her father. He
told them also that Troy could not be taken before 10 years’ siege.
He had received the power of divination from Apollo. Calchas was
informed that as soon as he found a man more skilled than himself in
divination, he must perish; and this happened near Colophon, after
the Trojan war. He was unable to tell how many figs were in the
branches of a certain fig tree; and when Mopsus mentioned the exact
number, Calchas died through grief. _See:_ Mopsus. _Homer_, _Iliad_,
bk. 1, li. 69.――_Aeschylus_, _Agamemnon_.――_Euripides_, _Iphigeneia_.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 43.
=Calchedonia.= _See:_ Chalcedon.
=Calchinia=, a daughter of Leucippus. She had a son by Neptune, who
inherited his grandfather’s kingdom of Sicyon. _Pausanias_, bk. 2,
ch. 5.
=Caldus Cælius=, a Roman who killed himself when detained by the
Germans. _Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 120.
=Cale= (es), =Cales= (ium), and =Calēnum=, now _Calvi_, a town of
Campania. _Horace_, bk. 4, ode 12.――_Juvenal_, satire 1, li. 69.
――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 413.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7,
li. 728.
=Calēdonia=, a country at the north of Britain, now called Scotland.
The reddish hair and lofty stature of its inhabitants seemed
to denote a German extraction, according to _Tacitus_, _Life of
Agricola_. It was so little known to the Romans, and its inhabitants
so little civilized, that they called it _Britannia Barbara_, and
they never penetrated into the country either for curiosity or
conquest. _Martial_, bk. 10, ltr. 44.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 3,
li. 598.
=Calēntum=, a place of Spain, where it is said they made bricks so
light that they swam on the surface of the water. _Pliny_, bk. 35,
ch. 14.
=Calēnus=, a famous soothsayer of Etruria in the age of Tarquin.
_Pliny_, bk. 28, ch. 2.――――A lieutenant of Cæsar’s army. After
Cæsar’s murder, he concealed some that had been proscribed by
the triumvirs, and behaved with great honour to them. _Plutarch_,
_Cæsar_.
=Cales.= _See:_ Cale.――――A city of Bithynia on the Euxine. _Arrian._
=Calesius=, a charioteer of Axylus, killed by Diomedes in the Trojan
war. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 16, li. 16.
=Calētæ=, a people of Belgic Gaul, now _Pays de Caux_, in Normandy.
_Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 2, ch. 4. Their town was called Caletum.
=Caletor=, a Trojan prince, slain by Ajax as he was going to set fire
to the ship of Protesilaus. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 15, li. 419.
=Calex=, a river of Asia Minor, falling into the Euxine sea.
_Thucydides_, bk. 4, ch. 75.
=Caliadne=, the wife of Ægyptus. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 1.
=Calicēni=, a people of Macedonia.
=Marcus Calidius=, an orator and pretorian who died in the civil wars,
&c. _Cæsar_, _Civil War_, bk. 1, ch. 2.――――Lucius Julius, a man
remarkable for his riches, the excellency of his character, his
learning and poetical abilities. He was proscribed by Volumnius,
but delivered by Atticus. _Cornelius Nepos_, _Atticus_, ch. 12.
=Caius Calĭgŭla=, the emperor, received this surname from his wearing
in the camp the _Caliga_, a military covering for the leg. He was
son of Germanicus by Agrippina, and grandson to Tiberius. During
the first eight months of his reign, Rome experienced universal
prosperity, the exiles were recalled, taxes were remitted, and
profligates dismissed; but Caligula soon became proud, wanton,
and cruel. He built a temple to himself, and ordered his head to
be placed on the images of the gods, while he wished to imitate
the thunders and powers of Jupiter. The statues of all great men
were removed, as if Rome would sooner forget their virtues in their
absence; and the emperor appeared in public places in the most
indecent manner, encouraged roguery, committed incest with his three
sisters, and established public places of prostitution. He often
amused himself with putting innocent people to death; he attempted
to famish Rome by a monopoly of corn; and as he was pleased with
the greatest disasters which befel his subjects, he often wished
the Romans had but one head, that he might have the gratification
to strike it off. Wild beasts were constantly fed in his palace with
human victims, and a favourite horse was made high priest and consul,
and kept in marble apartments, and adorned with the most valuable
trappings and pearls which the Roman empire could furnish. Caligula
built a bridge upwards of three miles in the sea; and would perhaps
have shown himself more tyrannical had not Chæreas, one of his
servants, formed a conspiracy against his life, with others equally
tired with the cruelties and the insults that were offered with
impunity to the persons and feelings of the Romans. In consequence
of this, the tyrant was murdered January 24th, in his 29th year,
after a reign of three years and ten months, A.D. 41. It has been
said that Caligula wrote a treatise on rhetoric; but his love of
learning is better understood from his attempts to destroy the
writings of Homer and of Virgil. _Dio Cassius._――_Suetonius_, _Lives
of the Twelve Caesars_.――_Tacitus_, _Annals_.
=Calĭpus=, a mathematician of Cyzicus, B.C. 330.
=Calis=, a man in Alexander’s army, tortured for conspiring against
the king. _Curtius_, bk. 6, ch. 11.
=Callæscherus=, the father of Critias. _Plutarch_, _Alcibiades_.
=Callaĭci=, a people of Lusitania, now _Gallicia_, at the north of
Spain. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 6, li. 461.
=Callas=, a general of Alexander. _Diodorus_, bk. 17.――――Of Cassander
against Polyperchon. _Diodorus_, bk. 19.――――A river of Eubœa.
=Callatēbus=, a town of Caria. _Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 32.
=Calle=, a town of ancient Spain, now _Oporto_, at the mouth of the
Douro in Portugal.
=Calleteria=, a town of Campania.
=Callēni=, a people of Campania.
=Callia=, a town of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 27.
=Calliădes=, a magistrate of Athens when Xerxes invaded Greece.
_Herodotus_, bk. 8, ch. 51.
=Callias=, an Athenian appointed to make peace between Artaxerxes and
his country. _Diodorus_, bk. 12.――――A son of Temenus, who murdered
his father with the assistance of his brothers. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2,
ch. 6.――――A Greek poet, son of Lysimachus. His compositions are lost.
He was surnamed Schœnion, from his twisting ropes (σχοινος), through
poverty. _Athenæus_, bk. 10.――――A partial historian of Syracuse.
He wrote an account of the Sicilian wars, and was well rewarded
by Agathocles, because he had shown him in a favourable view.
_Athenæus_, bk. 12.――_Dionysius._――――An Athenian greatly revered
for his patriotism. _Herodotus_, bk. 6, ch. 121.――――A soothsayer.
――――An Athenian commander of a fleet against Philip, whose ships
he took, &c.――――A rich Athenian, who liberated Cimon from prison,
on condition of marrying his sister and wife Elpinice. _Cornelius
Nepos_ & _Plutarch_, _Cimon_.――――An historian, who wrote an
explanation of the poems of Alcæus and Sappho.
=Callibius=, a general in the war between Mantinea and Sparta.
_Xenophon_, _Hellenica_.
=Callicērus=, a Greek poet, some of whose epigrams are preserved in
the Anthologia.
=Callichŏrus=, a place of Phocis, where the orgies of Bacchus were
yearly celebrated.
=Callĭcles=, an Athenian, whose house was not searched on account of
his recent marriage, when an inquiry was made after the money given
by Harpalus, &c. _Plutarch_, _Demosthenes_.――――A statuary of Megara.
=Callicolōna=, a place of Troy, near the Simois.
=Callicrătes=, an Athenian, who seized upon the sovereignty of
Syracuse, by imposing upon Dion when he had lost his popularity.
He was expelled by the sons of Dionysius, after reigning 13 months.
He is called _Calippus_ by some authors. _Cornelius Nepos_, _Dion_.
――――An officer entrusted with the care of the treasures of Susa by
Alexander. _Curtius_, bk. 5, ch. 2.――――An artist, who made, with
ivory, ants and other insects, so small that they could scarcely
be seen. It is said that he engraved some of Homer’s verses upon a
grain of millet. _Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 21.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_,
bk. 1, ch. 17.――――An Athenian, who, by his perfidy, constrained the
Athenians to submit to Rome. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 10.――――A Syrian,
who wrote an account of Aurelian’s life.――――A brave Athenian, killed
at the battle of Platæa. _Herodotus_, bk. 9, ch. 72.
=Callicratĭdas=, a Spartan, who succeeded Lysander in the command of
the fleet. He took Methymna, and routed the Athenian fleet under
Conon. He was defeated and killed near the Arginusæ, in a naval
battle, B.C. 406. _Diodorus_, bk. 13.――_Xenophon_, _Hellenica_.
――――One of the four ambassadors sent by the Lacedæmonians to Darius,
upon the rupture of their alliance with Alexander. _Curtius_, bk. 3,
ch. 13.――――A Pythagorean writer.
=Callidius=, a celebrated Roman orator, contemporary with Cicero,
who speaks of his abilities with commendation. _Cicero_, _Brutus_,
ch. 274.――_Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 36.
=Callidrŏmus=, a place near Thermopylæ. _Thucydides_, bk. 8, ch. 6.
=Calligētus=, a man of Megara, received in his banishment by
Pharnabazus. _Thucydides_, bk. 8, ch. 6.
=Callĭmăchus=, an historian and poet of Cyrene, son of Battus and
Mesatma, and pupil to Hermocrates the grammarian. He had, in the
age of Ptolemy Philadelphus, kept a school at Alexandria, and had
Apollonius of Rhodes among his pupils, whose ingratitude obliged
Callimachus to lash him severely in a satirical poem, under the name
of _Ibis_. _See:_ Apollonius. The Ibis of Ovid is in imitation of
this piece. He wrote a work, in 120 books, on famous men, besides
treatises on birds; but of all his numerous compositions, only 31
epigrams, an elegy, and some hymns on the gods, are extant; the
best editions of which are that of Ernestus, 2 vols., 8vo, Leiden,
1761, and that of Vulcanius, 12mo, Antwerp, 1584. Propertius styled
himself the _Roman Callimachus_. The precise time of his death, as
well as of his birth, is unknown. _Propertius_, bk. 4, poem 1, li.
65.――_Cicero_, _Tusculanæ Disputations_, bk. 1, ch. 84.――_Horace_,
bk. 2, ltr. 2, li. 109.――_Quintilian_, bk. 10, ch. 1.――――An Athenian
general killed in the battle of Marathon. His body was found in an
erect posture, all covered with wounds. _Plutarch._――――A Colophonian,
who wrote the life of Homer. _Plutarch._
=Callimĕdon=, a partisan of Phocion, at Athens, condemned by the
populace.
=Callimĕles=, a youth ordered to be killed and served up as meat by
Apollodorus of Cassandrea. _Polyænus_, bk. 6, ch. 7.
=Callinus=, an orator, who is said to have first invented elegiac
poetry, B.C. 776. Some of his verses are to be found in Stobæus.
_Athenæus._――_Strabo_, bk. 13.
=Calliŏpe=, one of the Muses, daughter of Jupiter and Mnemosyne, who
presided over eloquence and heroic poetry. She is said to be the
mother of Orpheus by Apollo, and Horace supposes her able to play
on any musical instrument. She was represented with a trumpet in her
right hand, and with books in the other, which signified that her
office was to take notice of the famous actions of heroes, as Clio
was employed in celebrating them; and she held the three most famous
epic poems of antiquity, and appeared generally crowned with laurels.
She settled the dispute between Venus and Proserpine, concerning
Adonis, whose company these two goddesses wished both perpetually to
enjoy. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 3.――_Horace_,
_Odes_.
=Callipatīra=, daughter of Diagoras and wife of Callianax the athlete,
went disguised in man’s clothes with her son Pisidorus to the
Olympic games. When Pisidorus was declared victor, she discovered
her sex through excess of joy, and was arrested, as women were not
permitted to appear there on pain of death. The victory of her son
obtained her release; and a law was instantly made, which forbade
any wrestlers to appear but naked. _Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 6; bk. 6,
ch. 7.
=Callĭphon=, a painter of Samos, famous for his historical pieces.
_Pliny_, bk. 10, ch. 26.――――A philosopher who made the _summum
bonum_ consist in pleasure joined to the love of honesty. This
system was opposed by _Cicero_. _Academic Questions_, bk. 4, chs.
131 & 139; _De Officiis_, bk. 3, ch. 119.
=Callĭphron=, a celebrated dancing master, who had Epaminondas among
his pupils. _Cornelius Nepos_, _Epaminondas_.
=Callipĭdæ=, a people of Scythia. _Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 17.
=Callipŏlis=, a city of Thrace on the Hellespont. _Silius Italicus_,
bk. 14, li. 250.――――A town of Sicily near Ætna.――――A city of
Calabria on the coast of Tarentum, on a rocky island, joined by a
bridge to the continent. It is now called _Gallipoli_, and contains
6000 inhabitants, who trade in oil and cotton.
=Callĭpus=, or =Calippus=, an Athenian, disciple to Plato. He
destroyed Dion, &c. _See:_ Callicrates. _Cornelius Nepos_, _Dion_.
――――A Corinthian, who wrote a history of Orchomenos. _Pausanias_,
bk. 6, ch. 20.――――A philosopher. _Diogenes Laërtius_, _Zeno_.
――――A general of the Athenians, when the Gauls invaded Greece by
Thermopylæ. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 3.
=Callipyges=, a surname of Venus.
=Callirhoe=, a daughter of the Scamander, who married Tros, by whom
she had Ilus, Ganymede, and Assaracus.――――A fountain of Attica
where Callirhoe killed herself. _See:_ Coresus. _Pausanias_, bk. 7,
ch. 21.――_Statius_, bk. 12, _Thebiad_, li. 629.――――A daughter of
Oceanus and Tethys, mother of Echidna, Orthus, and Cerberus by
Chrysaor. _Hesiod._――――A daughter of Lycus tyrant of Libya, who
kindly received Diomedes at his return from Troy. He abandoned her,
upon which she killed herself.――――A daughter of the Achelous, who
married Alcmæon. _See:_ Alcmæon. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 24.――――A
daughter of Phocus the Bœotian, whose beauty procured her many
admirers. Her father behaved with such coldness to her lovers that
they murdered him. Callirhoe avenged his death with the assistance
of the Bœotians. _Plutarch_, _Amatoriæ narrationes_.――――A daughter
of Piras and Niobe. _Hyginus_, fable 145.
=Calliste=, an island of the Ægean sea, called afterwards _Thera_.
_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.――_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 1.――Its chief town
was founded 1150 years before the christian era, by Theras.
=Callisteia=, a festival at Lesbos, during which all the women
presented themselves in the temple of Juno, and the fairest was
rewarded in a public manner. There was also an institution of the
same kind among the Parrhasians, first made by Cypselus, whose wife
was honoured with the first prize. The Eleans had one also, in which
the fairest man received as a prize a complete suit of armour, which
he dedicated to Minerva.
=Callisthĕnes=, a Greek who wrote a history of his own country in 10
books, beginning from the peace between Artaxerxes and Greece, down
to the plundering of the temple of Delphi by Philomelus. _Diodorus_,
bk. 14.――――A man who with others attempted to expel the garrison of
Demetrius from Athens. _Polyænus_, bk. 5, ch. 17.――――A philosopher
of Olynthus, intimate with Alexander, whom he accompanied in his
oriental expedition in the capacity of a preceptor, and to whom he
had been recommended by his friend and master Aristotle. He refused
to pay divine honours to the king, for which he was accused of
conspiracy, mutilated and exposed to wild beasts, dragged about
in chains, till Lysimachus gave him poison, which ended together
his tortures and his life, B.C. 328. None of his compositions are
extant. _Curtius_, bk. 8, ch. 6.――_Plutarch_, _Alexander_.――_Arrian_,
bk. 4.――_Justin_, bk. 12, chs. 6 & 7.――――A writer of Sybaris.――――A
freedman of Lucullus. It is said that he gave poison to his master.
_Plutarch_, _Lucullus_.
=Callisto= and =Calisto=, called also Helice, was daughter of Lycaon
king of Arcadia, and one of Diana’s attendants. Jupiter saw her, and
seduced her after he had assumed the shape of Diana. Her pregnancy
was discovered as she bathed with Diana; and the fruit of her amour
with Jupiter called Arcas, was hid in the woods and preserved. Juno,
who was jealous of Jupiter, changed Calisto into a bear; but the
god, apprehensive of her being hurt by the huntsmen, made her a
constellation of heaven, with her son Arcas, under the name of the
bear. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 2, fable 4, &c.――_Apollodorus_,
bk. 3, ch. 8.――_Hyginus_, fable 176 & 177.――_Pausanias_, bk. 8,
ch. 3.
=Callistonicus=, a celebrated statuary at Thebes. _Pausanias_, bk. 9,
ch. 16.
=Callistrătus=, an Athenian, appointed general with Timotheus and
Chabrias against Lacedæmon. _Diodorus_, bk. 15.――――An orator of
Aphidna, in the time of Epaminondas, the most eloquent of his
age.――――An Athenian orator with whom Demosthenes made an intimate
acquaintance after he had heard him plead. _Xenophon._――――A Greek
historian praised by _Dionysius of Halicarnassus_.――――A comic poet,
rival of Aristophanes.――――A statuary. _Pliny_, bk. 34, ch. 8.――――A
secretary of Mithridates. _Plutarch_, _Lucullus_.――――A grammarian,
who made the alphabet of the Samians consist of 24 letters. Some
suppose that he wrote a treatise on courtesans.
=Callixĕna=, a courtesan of Thessaly, whose company Alexander refused,
though requested by his mother Olympias. This was attributed by the
Athenians to other causes than chastity, and therefore the prince’s
ambition was ridiculed.
=Callixĕnus=, a general who perished by famine.――――An Athenian
imprisoned for passing sentence of death upon some prisoners.
_Diodorus_, bk. 13.
=Calon=, a statuary. _Quintilian_, bk. 12, ch. 10.――_Pliny_, bk. 34,
ch. 8.
=Calor=, now _Calore_, a river in Italy near Beneventum. _Livy_,
bk. 24, ch. 14.
=Calpe=, a lofty mountain in the most southern parts of Spain, opposite
to mount Abyla on the African coast. These two mountains were called
the pillars of Hercules. Calpe is now called Gibraltar.
=Calphurnia=, a daughter of Lucius Piso, who was Julius Cæsar’s fourth
wife. The night previous to her husband’s murder, she dreamed that
the roof of her house had fallen, and that he had been stabbed in
her arms; and on that account she attempted, but in vain, to detain
him at home. After Cæsar’s murder she placed herself under the
patronage of Marcus Antony. _Suetonius_, _Julius_.
=Calphurnius Bestia=, a noble Roman bribed by Jugurtha. It is said
that he murdered his wives when asleep. _Pliny_, bk. 27, ch. 2.
――――Crassus, a patrician who went with Regulus against the Massyli.
He was seized by the enemy as he attempted to plunder one of their
towns, and he was ordered to be sacrificed to Neptune. Bisaltia the
king’s daughter fell in love with him, and gave him an opportunity
of escaping and conquering her father. Calphurnius returned
victorious, and Bisaltia destroyed herself.――――A man who conspired
against the emperor Nerva.――――Galerianus, son of Piso, put to death,
&c. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 4, ch. 11.――――Piso, condemned for
using seditious words against Tiberius. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk.
4, ch. 21.――――Another, famous for his abstinence. _Valerius Maximus_,
bk. 4, ch. 3.――――Titus, a Latin poet, born in Sicily in the age
of Diocletian, seven of whose eclogues are extant, and generally
found with the works of the poets who have written on hunting.
Though abounding in many beautiful lines, they are, however, greatly
inferior to the elegance and simplicity of Virgil. The best edition
is that of Kempher, 4to, Leiden, 1728.――――A man surnamed Frugi, who
composed annals, B.C. 130.
=Calpurnia=, or =Calphurnia=, a noble family in Rome, derived from
Calpus son of Numa. It branched into the families of the Pisones,
Bibuli, Flammæ, Cæsennini, Asprenates, &c. ♦_Plutarch_, _Numa_.
♦ ‘Pliny’ replaced with ‘Plutarch’
=Calpurnia= and =Calphurnia lex=, was enacted A.U.C. 604, severely
to punish such as were guilty of using bribes, &c. _Cicero_, _De
Officiis_, bk. 2.――――A daughter of Marius, sacrificed to the gods
by her father, who was advised to do it, in a dream, if he wished
to conquer the Cimbri. _Plutarch_, _Parallela minora_.――――A woman
who killed herself when she heard that her husband was murdered in
the civil wars of Marius. _Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 26.――――The wife
of Julius Cæsar. _See:_ Calphurnia.――――A favourite of the emperor
Claudius, &c. _Tacitus_, _Annals_.――――A woman ruined by Agrippina
on account of her beauty, &c. _Tacitus._
=Calvia=, a female minister of Nero’s lusts. _Tacitus_, _Histories_,
bk. 1, ch. 3.
=Calvīna=, a prostitute in Juvenal’s age. Bk. 3, li. 133.
=Calvisius=, a friend of Augustus. _Plutarch_, _Antonius_.――――An
officer whose wife prostituted herself in his camp by night, &c.
_Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 1, ch. 48.
=Calumnia= and =Impudentia=, two deities worshipped at Athens. Calumnia
was ingeniously represented in a painting by Apelles.
=Calusidius=, a soldier in the army of Germanicus. When this general
wished to stab ♦himself with his own sword, Calusidius offered him
his own, observing that it was sharper. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 1,
ch. 35.
♦ ‘himslf’ replaced with ‘himself’
=Calusium=, a town of Etruria.
=Calvus Cornelius Licinius=, a famous orator, equally known for
writing iambics. As he was both factious and satirical, he did not
fail to excite attention by his animadversions upon Cæsar and Pompey,
and, from his eloquence, to dispute the palm of eloquence with
Cicero. _Cicero_, _Letters_.――_Horace_, bk. 1, satire 10, li. 19.
=Caly̆be=, a town of Thrace. _Strabo_, bk. 17.――――The mother of
Bucolion by Laomedon. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 12.――――An old woman,
priestess in the temple which Juno had at Ardea. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 7, li. 419.
=Calycadnus=, a river of Cilicia.
=Caly̆ce=, a daughter of Æolus son of Helenus and Enaretta, daughter
of Deimachus. She had Endymion king of Elis, by Æthlius the son of
Jupiter. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 7.――_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 1.
――――A Grecian girl, who fell in love with a youth called Evathlus.
As she was unable to gain the object of her love, she threw herself
from a precipice. This tragical story was made into a song by
Stesichorus, and was still extant in the age of _Athenæus_, bk. 14.
――――A daughter of Hecaton mother of Cycnus. _Hyginus_, fable 157.
=Calydium=, a town on the Appian way.
=Calydna=, an island in the Myrtoan sea. Some suppose it to be near
Rhodes, others near Tenedos. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 8, li. 205.
=Calydon=, a city of Ætolia, where Œneus the father of Meleager
reigned. The Evenus flows through it, and it receives its name from
Calydon the son of Ætolus. During the reign of Œneus, Diana sent
a wild boar to ravage the country, on account of the neglect which
had been shown to her divinity by the king. All the princes of the
age assembled to hunt this boar, which is greatly celebrated by the
poets, under the name of the chase of Calydon, or the Calydonian
boar. Meleager killed the animal with his own hand, and gave the
head to Atalanta, of whom he was enamoured. The skin of the boar was
preserved, and was still seen in the age of Pausanias, in the temple
of Minerva Alea. The tusks were also preserved by the Arcadians in
Tegea, and Augustus carried them away to Rome, because the people
of Tegea had followed the party of Antony. These tusks were shown
for a long time at Rome. One of them was about half an ell long, and
the other was broken. _See:_ Meleager and Atalanta. _Apollodorus_,
bk. 1, ch. 8.――_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 45.――_Strabo_, bk. 8.
――_Homer_, ♦_Iliad_, bk. 9, li. 577.――_Hyginus_, fable 174.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 8, fable 4, &c.――――A son of Ætolus and Pronoe
daughter of Phorbas. He gave his name to a town of Ætolia.
♦ Book reference omitted in text.
=Caly̆dōnis=, a name of Deianira, as living in Calydon. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 9, fable 4.
=Caly̆dōnius=, a surname of Bacchus.
=Calymne=, an island near Lebynthos. _Ovid_, _Ars Amatoria_, bk. 2,
li. 81.
=Calynda=, a town of Caria. _Ptolemy_, bk. 5, ch. 3.
=Calȳpso=, one of the Oceanides, or one of the daughters of Atlas,
according to some, was goddess of silence, and reigned in the island
of Ogygia, whose situation and even existence is doubted. When
Ulysses was shipwrecked on her coasts, she received him with great
hospitality, and offered him immortality if he would remain with
her as a husband. The hero refused, and after seven years’ delay,
he was permitted to depart from the island by order of Mercury
the messenger of Jupiter. During his stay, Ulysses had two sons by
Calypso, Nausithous, and Nausinous. Calypso was inconsolable at the
departure of Ulysses. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bks. 7 & 5.――_Hesiod_,
_Theogony_, li. 360.――_Ovid_, _ex Ponto_, bk. 4, ltr. 18; _Amores_,
bk. 2, poem 17.――_Propertius_, bk. 1, poem 15.
=Camalodūnum=, a Roman colony in Britain, supposed Malden, or
Colchester.
=Camantium=, a town of Asia Minor.
=Camarīna=, a town of Italy.――――A lake of Sicily, with a town of the
same name, built B.C. 552. It was destroyed by the Syracusans, and
rebuilt by a certain Hipponous. The lake was drained, contrary to
the advice of Apollo, as the ancients supposed, and a pestilence
was the consequence; but the lowness of the lake below the level of
the sea prevents it being drained. The words _Camarinam movere_ are
become proverbial to express an unsuccessful and dangerous attempt.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 701.――_Strabo_, bk. 6.――_Herodotus_,
bk. 7, ch. 134.
=Cambaules=, a general of some Gauls who invaded Greece. _Pausanias_,
bk. 10, ch. 19.
=Cambes=, a prince of Lydia, of such voracious appetite that he ate
his own wife, &c. _Ælian_, bk. 1, _Varia Historia_, ch. 27.
=Cambre=, a place near Puteoli. _Juvenal_, satire 7, li. 154.
=Cambunii=, mountains of Macedonia. _Livy_, bk. 4, ch. 53.
=Camby̆ses=, a king of Persia, was son of Cyrus the Great. He conquered
Egypt, and was so offended at the superstition of the Egyptians,
that he killed their god Apis, and plundered their temples. When
he wished to take Pelusium, he placed at the head of his army a
number of cats and dogs; and the Egyptians refusing, in the attempt
to defend themselves, to kill animals which they reverenced as
divinities, became an easy prey to the enemy. Cambyses afterwards
sent an army of 50,000 men to destroy Jupiter Ammon’s temple, and
resolved to attack the Carthaginians and Æthiopians. He killed his
brother Smerdis from mere suspicion, and flayed alive a partial
judge, whose skin he nailed on the judgment seat, and appointed his
son to succeed him, telling him to remember where he sat. He died
of a small wound he had given himself with his sword as he mounted
on horseback; and the Egyptians observed that it was the same
place on which he had wounded their god Apis, and that therefore he
was visited by the hand of the gods. His death happened 521 years
before the birth of Christ. He left no issue to succeed him, and his
throne was usurped by the magi, and ascended by Darius soon after.
_Herodotus_, bks. 2, 3, &c.――_Justin_, bk. 1, ch. 9.――_Valerius
Maximus_, bk. 6, ch. 3.――――A person of obscure origin, to whom king
Astyages gave his daughter Mandane in marriage. The king, who had
been terrified by dreams which threatened the loss of his crown by
the hand of his daughter’s son, had taken this step in hopes that
the children of so ignoble a bed would ever remain in obscurity.
He was disappointed. Cyrus, Mandane’s son, dethroned him when grown
to manhood. _Herodotus_, bk. 1, chs. 46, 107, &c.――_Justin_, bk. 1,
ch. 4.――――A river of Asia, which flows from mount Caucasus into the
Cyrus. _Mela_, bk. 3, ch. 5.
=Camelāni=, a people of Italy.
=Camelītæ=, a people of Mesopotamia.
=Camera=, a field of Calabria. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 3, li. 582.
♦=Camerīnum= and =Camertium=, a town of Umbria, very faithful to Rome.
The inhabitants were called Camertes. _Livy_, bk. 9, ch. 36.
♦ ‘Camernīum’ replaced with ‘Camerīnum’
=Camerīnus=, a Latin poet who wrote a poem on the taking of Troy by
Hercules. _Ovid_, bk. 4, _ex Ponto_, poem 16, li. 19.――――Some of the
family of the Camerini were distinguished for their zeal as citizens,
as well as for their abilities as scholars, among whom was Sulpicius,
commissioned by the Roman senate to go to Athens, to collect the
best of Solon’s laws. _Juvenal_, satire 7, li. 90.
=Camerium=, an ancient town of Italy near Rome, taken by Romulus.
_Plutarch_, _Romulus_.
=Camertes=, a friend of Turnus killed by Æneas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 10, li. 562. _See:_ Camerinum.
=Camilia=, queen of the Volsci, was daughter of Metabus and Casmilla.
She was educated in the woods, inured to the labours of hunting, and
fed upon the milk of mares. Her father devoted her, when young, to
the service of Diana. When she was declared queen, she marched at
the head of an army, and accompanied by three youthful females of
equal courage as herself, to assist Turnus against Æneas, where she
signalized herself by the numbers that perished by her hand. She
was so swift that she could run, or rather fly, over a field of corn
without bending the blades, and make her way over the sea without
wetting her feet. She died by a wound which she had received from
Aruns. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 803; bk. 11, li. 435.
=Camilli= and =Camillæ=, the priests instituted by Romulus for the
service of the gods.
=Camillus Lucius Furius=, a celebrated Roman, called a second Romulus,
from his services to his country. He was banished by the people,
for distributing, contrary to his vow, the spoils he had obtained at
Veii. During his exile, Rome was besieged by the Gauls under Brennus.
In the midst of their misfortunes, the besieged Romans elected him
dictator, and he forgot their ingratitude, and marched to the relief
of his country, which he delivered, after it had been for some time
in the possession of the enemy. He died in the 80th year of his
age, B.C. 365, after he had been five times dictator, once censor,
three times interrex, twice a military tribune, and obtained four
triumphs. He conquered the Hernici, Volsci, Latini, and Etrurians,
and dissuaded his countrymen from their intentions of leaving Rome
to reside at Veii. When he besieged Falisci, he rejected, with
proper indignation, the offers of a schoolmaster, who had betrayed
into his hands the sons of the most worthy citizens. _Plutarch_,
_Lives of the Roman Emperors_.――_Livy_, bk. 5.――_Florus_, bk. 1, ch.
13.――_Diodorus_, bk. 14.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 825.――――A
name of Mercury.――――An intimate friend of Cicero.
=Camīro= and =Clytia=, two daughters of Pandarus of Crete. When their
parents were dead, they were left to the care of Venus; who, with
the other goddesses, brought them up with tenderness, and asked
Jupiter to grant them kind husbands. Jupiter, to punish upon them
the crime of their father, who was accessary to the impiety of
Tantalus, ordered the harpies to carry them away and deliver them to
the furies. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 30.――_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 20,
li. 66.
=Camīrus= and =Camīra=, a town of Rhodes, which received its name
from Camirus, a son of Hercules and Iole. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2,
li. 163.
=Camissares=, a governor of part of Cilicia, father to Datames.
_Cornelius Nepos_, _Datames_.
=Camma=, a woman of Calatia, who avenged the death of her husband
Sinetus upon his murderer Sinorix, by making him drink in a cup, of
which the liquor was poisoned, on pretence of marrying him, according
to the custom of their country, which required that the bridegroom
and his bride should drink out of the same vessel. She escaped by
refusing to drink on pretence of illness. _Polyænus_, bk. 8.
=Camœnæ=, a name given to the muses from the sweetness and melody of
their songs, _à cantu amæno_, or, according to Varro, from _carmen_.
_Varro_, _de Lingua Latina_, bk. 5, ch. 7.
=Campāna lex=, or Julian agrarian law, was enacted by Julius Cæsar,
A.U.C. 691, to divide some lands among the people.
=Campānia=, a country of Italy, of which Capua was the capital, bounded
by Latium, Samnium, Picenum, and part of the Mediterranean sea. It
is celebrated for its delightful views, and for its fertility. Capua
is often called _Campana urbs_. _Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Cicero_, _On
the Agrarian Law_, ch. 35.――_Justin_, bk. 20, ch. 1; bk. 22, ch. 1.
――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 5.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 4.――_Florus_, bk. 1,
ch. 16.
=Campe=, kept the 100 handed monsters confined in Tartarus. Jupiter
killed her, because she refused to give them their liberty to come
to his assistance against the Titans. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 500.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 2.
=Campaspe=, or =Pancaste=, a beautiful concubine of Alexander, whom
the king gave to Apelles, who had fallen in love with her, as
he drew her picture in her naked charms. It is said that from
this beauty the painter copied the thousand charms of his Venus
Anadyomene. _Pliny_, bk. 35, ch. 10.
=Campi Diomēdis=, a plain situate in Apulia. _Martial_, bk. 13, ltr. 93.
=Campsa=, a town near Pallene. _Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 123.
=Campus Martius=, a large plain at Rome, without the walls of the
city, where the Roman youths performed their exercises, and learnt to
wrestle and box, to throw the discus, hurl the javelin, ride a horse,
drive a chariot, &c. The public assemblies were held there, and the
officers of state chosen, and audience given to foreign ambassadors.
It was adorned with statues, columns, arches, and porticoes, and its
pleasant situation made it very frequented. It was called Martius
because dedicated to Mars. It was sometimes called Tiberinus, from
its closeness to the Tiber. It was given to the Roman people by a
vestal virgin; but they were deprived of it by Tarquin the Proud,
who made it a private field, and sowed corn in it. When Tarquin
was driven from Rome the people recovered it, and threw away into
the Tiber the corn which had grown there, deeming it unlawful
for any man to eat of the produce of that land. The sheaves which
were thrown into the river stopped in a shallow ford, and by the
accumulated collection of mud became firm ground, and formed an
island, which was called the Holy Island, or the island of Æsculapius.
Dead carcases were generally burnt in the Campus Martius. _Strabo_,
bk. 5.――_Livy_, bk. 2, ch. 5; bk. 6, ch. 20.
=Camulogīnus=, a Gaul raised to great honours by Cæsar, for his
military abilities. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 7, ch. 57.
=Camŭlus=, a surname of Mars among the Sabines and Etrurians.
=Cana=, a city and promontory of Æolia. _Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 18.
=Canăce=, a daughter of Æolus and Enaretta, who became enamoured of
her brother Macareus, by whom she had a child, whom she exposed. The
cries of the child discovered the mother’s incest; and Æolus sent
his daughter a sword, and obliged her to kill herself. Macareus fled,
and became a priest of Apollo at Delphi. Some say that Canace was
ravished by Neptune, by whom she had many children, among whom were
Epopeus, Triops, and Alous. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1.――_Hyginus_, fables
238 & 242.――_Ovid_, _Heroides_, poem 11; _Tristia_, bk. 2, li. 384.
=Canăche=, one of Actæon’s dogs.
=Canăchus=, a statuary of Sicyon. _Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 9.
=Canæ=, a city of Locris,――――of Æolia.
=Canārii=, a people near mount Atlas in Africa, who received this name
because they fed in common with their dogs. The islands which they
inhabited were called _Fortunate_ by the ancients, and are now known
by the name of the _Canaries_. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 1.
=Canăthus=, a fountain of Nauplia, where Juno yearly washed herself to
recover her infant purity. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 38.
=Candăce=, a queen of Æthiopia, in the age of Augustus, so prudent and
meritorious that her successors always bore her name. She was blind
of one eye. _Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 22.――_Dio Cassius_, bk. 54.――_Strabo_,
bk. 17.
=Candāvia=, a mountain of Epirus, which separates Illyria from
Macedonia. _Lucan_, bk. 6, li. 331.
=Candaules=, or =Myrsilus=, son of Myrsus, was the last of the
Heraclidæ who sat on the throne of Lydia. He showed his wife naked
to Gyges, one of his ministers; and the queen was so incensed,
that she ordered Gyges to murder her husband, 718 years before
the christian era. After this murder, Gyges married the queen and
ascended the throne. _Justin_, bk. 1, ch. 7.――_Herodotus_, bk. 1,
ch. 7, &c.――_Plutarch_, _Convivium Septem Sapientium_.
=Candēi=, a people of Arabia who fed on serpents.
=Candiŏpe=, a daughter of Œnopion, ravished by her brother.
=Candy̆ba=, a town of Lycia.
=Canens=, a nymph called also Venilia, daughter of Janus and wife
to Picus king of the Laurentes. When Circe had changed her husband
into a bird, she lamented him so much, that she pined away, and was
changed into a voice. She was reckoned as a deity by the inhabitants.
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 14, fable 9.
=Canephŏria=, festivals at Athens in honour of Bacchus, or, according
to others, of Diana, in which all marriageable women offered small
baskets to the deity, and received the name of _Canephoræ_, whence
statues representing women in that attitude were called by the same
appellation. _Cicero_, _Against Verres_, bk. 4.
=Canethum=, a place of Eubœa.――――A mountain in Bœotia.
=Căniculāres dies=, certain days in the summer, in which the star
Canis is said to influence the season, and to make the days more
warm during its appearance. _Marcus Manilius._
=Cānĭdia=, a certain woman of Neapolis, against whom Horace inveighed
as a sorceress. _Horace_, _Epodes_.
=Canĭdius=, a tribune, who proposed a law to empower Pompey to go
only with two lictors, to reconcile Ptolemy and the Alexandrians.
_Plutarch_, _Pompey_.
=Caninefātes=, a people near Batavia, where modern Holland now is
situate. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 4, ch. 15.
=Caius Caninius Rebilus=, a consul with Julius Cæsar, after the
death of Trebonius. He was consul only for seven hours, because his
predecessor died the last day of the year, and he was chosen only
for the remaining part of the day; whence Cicero observed, that
Rome was greatly indebted to him for his vigilance, as he had not
slept during the whole time of his consulship. _Cicero_, bk. 7,
_Letters to his Friends_, ltr. 33.――_Plutarch_, _Cæsar_.――――Lucius,
a lieutenant of Cæsar’s army in Gaul. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 7,
ch. 83.――――Rufus, a friend of Pliny the younger. _Pliny_, bk. 1,
ltr. 3.――――Gallus, an intimate friend of Cicero.
=Canistius=, a Lacedæmonian courier, who ran 1200 stadia in one day.
_Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 20.
=Canius=, a poet of Gades, contemporary with Martial. He was so
naturally merry that he always laughed. _Martial_, bk. 1, ltr. 62.
――――A Roman knight who went to Sicily for his amusement, where he
bought gardens well stocked with fish, which disappeared on the
morrow. _Cicero_, bk. 3, _de Officiis_, ch. 14.
=Cannæ=, a small village of Apulia near the Aufidus, where Hannibal
conquered the Roman consuls, Probus Æmylius and Terentius Varro, and
slaughtered 40,000 Romans, on the 21st of May, B.C. 216. The spot
where this famous battle was fought is now shown by the natives, and
denominated the field of blood. _Livy_, bk. 22, ch. 44.――_Florus_,
bk. 2, ch. 6.――_Plutarch_, _Life of Hannibal_.
=Canōpicum ostium=, one of the mouths of the Nile, 12 miles from
Alexandria. _Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 21.
=Cănōpus=, a city of Egypt, 12 miles from Alexandria, celebrated for
the temple of Serapis. It was founded by the Spartans, and therefore
called Amyclæa, and it received its name from Canopus the pilot of
the vessel of Menelaus, who was buried in this place. The inhabitants
were dissolute in their manners. Virgil bestows upon it the epithet
of _Pellæus_, because Alexander, who was born at Pella, built
Alexandria in the neighbourhood. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 11, li. 433.
――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 9.――_Strabo_, bk. 17.――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 31.
――_Virgil_, _Georgics_ bk. 4, li. 287.――――The pilot of the ship of
Menelaus, who died in his youth on the coast of Egypt, by the bite
of a serpent. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.
=Cantăbra=, a river falling into the Indus. _Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 20.
=Cantăbri=, a ferocious and warlike people of Spain, who rebelled
against Augustus, by whom they were conquered. Their country is now
called Biscay. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 3, li. 326.――_Horace_, bk. 2,
odes 6 & 11.
=Cantăbriæ lacus=, a lake in Spain, where a thunderbolt fell, and in
which 12 axes were found. _Suetonius_, _Galba_, ch. 8.
=Canthărus=, a famous sculptor of Sicyon. _Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 17.
――――A comic poet of Athens.
=Canthus=, a son of Abas, one of the Argonauts.
=Cantium=, a country in the eastern parts of Britain, now called Kent.
_Cæsar_, _Gallic War_ bk. 5.
=Canuleia=, one of the first vestals chosen by Numa. _Plutarch._――――A
law. _See:_ Canuleius.
=Caius Canuleius=, a tribune of the people of Rome, A.U.C. 310,
who made a law to render it constitutional for the patricians and
plebeians to intermarry. It ordained also, that one of the consuls
should be yearly chosen from the plebeians. _Livy_, bk. 4, ch. 3,
&c.――_Florus_, bk. 1, ch. 17.
=Canulia=, a Roman virgin, who became pregnant by her brother, and
killed herself by order of her father. _Plutarch_, _Parallela
minora_.
=Canŭsium=, now _Canosa_, a town of Apulia, whither the Romans
fled after the battle of Cannæ. It was built by Diomedes, and its
inhabitants have been called _bilingues_, because they retained
the language of their founder and likewise adopted that of their
neighbours. Horace complained of the grittiness of their bread. The
wools and the cloths of the place were in high estimation. _Horace_,
bk. 1, satire 10, li. 30.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 4.――_Pliny_, bk. 8,
ch. 11.
=Canŭsius=, a Greek historian under Ptolemy Auletes. _Plutarch._
=Canutius Tiberinus=, a tribune of the people, who, like Cicero,
furiously attacked Antony, when declared an enemy to the state. His
satire cost him his life. _Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 64.――――A Roman
actor. _Plutarch_, _Brutus_.
=Căpăneus=, a noble Argive, son of Hipponous and Astinome, and husband
to Evadne. He was so impious, that when he went to the Theban war,
he declared that he would take Thebes even in spite of Jupiter. Such
contempt provoked the god, who struck him dead with a thunderbolt.
His body was burnt separately from the others, and his wife threw
herself on the burning pile to mingle her ashes with his. It is said
that Æsculapius restored him to life. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 9,
li. 404.――_Statius_, _Thebiad_, bk. 3, &c.――_Hyginus_, fables 68 &
70.――_Euripides_, _Phœnician Women_ & _Suppliants_.――_Aeschylus_,
_Seven Against Thebes_.
=Capella=, an elegiac poet in the age of Julius Cæsar. _Ovid_,
_ex Ponto_, bk. 4, poem 16, li. 36.――――Martianus, a Carthaginian,
A.D. 490, who wrote a poem on the marriage of Mercury and philology,
and in praise of the liberal arts. The best edition is that of
Walthardus, 8vo, Bernæ, 1763.――――A gladiator. _Juvenal_, satire 4,
li. 155.
=Capēna=, a gate of Rome. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 5, li. 192.
=Capēnas=, a small river of Italy. _Statius_, _Thebiad_, bk. 13,
li. 85.
=Capēni=, a people of Etruria, in whose territory Feronia had a grove
and a temple. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 697.――_Livy_, bks. 5, 22,
&c.
=Caper=, a river of Asia Minor.
=Capētus=, a king of Alba, who reigned 26 years. _Dionysius of
Halicarnassus._――――A suitor of Hippodamia. _Pausanias_, bk. 6,
ch. 21.
=Caphāreus=, a lofty mountain and promontory of Eubœa, where Nauplius
king of the country, to revenge the death of his son Palamedes,
slain by Ulysses, set a burning torch in the darkness of night,
which caused the Greeks to be shipwrecked on the coast. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 11, li. 260.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 14, li. 481.
――_Propertius_, bk. 4, poem 1, li. 115.
=Caphyæ=, a town of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 23.
=Capio=, a Roman, famous for his friendship with Cato. _Plutarch_,
♦_de Pat. Am_.
♦ reference unknown
=Capĭto=, the uncle of Paterculus, who joined Agrippa against Crassus.
_Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 69.――――Fonteius, a man sent by Antony
to settle his disputes with Augustus. _Horace_, bk. 1, satire 5,
li. 32.――――A man accused of extortion in Cilicia, and severely
punished by the senate. _Juvenal_, satire 8, li. 93.――――An epic
poet of Alexandria, who wrote on love.――――An historian of Lycia,
who wrote an account of Isauria in eight books.――――A poet who wrote
on illustrious men.
=Capĭtolīni ludi=, games yearly celebrated at Rome in honour of
Jupiter, who preserved the capitol from the Gauls.
=Capĭtolīnus=, a surname of Jupiter, from his temple on mount
Capitolinus.――――A surname of Marcus Manlius, who, for his ambition,
was thrown down from the Tarpeian rock which he had so nobly
defended.――――A mountain at Rome, called also Mons Tarpeius, and
Mons Saturni. The Capitol was built upon it.――――A man of lascivious
morals, consul with Marcellus. _Plutarch_, _Marcellus_.――――Julius,
an author in Diocletian’s reign, who wrote an account of the life of
Verus, Antoninus Pius, the Gordians, &c., most of which are now lost.
=Capĭtōlium=, a celebrated temple and citadel at Rome on the Tarpeian
rock, the plan of which was made by Tarquin Priscus. It was begun
by Servius Tullius, finished by Tarquin Superbus, and consecrated by
the consul Horatius after the expulsion of the Tarquins from Rome.
It was built upon four acres of ground, the front was adorned with
three rows of pillars, and the other sides with two. The ascent to
it from the ground was by 100 steps. The magnificence and richness
of this temple are almost incredible. All the consuls successively
made donations to the capitol, and Augustus bestowed upon it at one
time 2000 pounds weight of gold. Its thresholds were made of brass,
and its roof was gold. It was adorned with vessels and shields
of solid silver, with golden chariots, &c. It was burnt during
the civil war of Marius, and Sylla rebuilt it, but died before
the dedication, which was performed by Quintus Catulus. It was
again destroyed in the troubles under Vitellius; and Vespasian,
who endeavoured to repair it, saw it again in ruins at his death.
Domitian raised it again, for the last time, and made it more grand
and magnificent than any of his predecessors, and spent 12,000
talents in gilding it. When they first dug for the foundations, they
found a man’s head called Tolius, sound and entire in the ground,
and from thence drew an omen of the future greatness of the Roman
empire. The hill was from that circumstance called Capitolium, _a
capite Toli_. The consuls and magistrates offered sacrifices there,
when they first entered upon their offices, and the procession in
triumphs was always conducted to the capitol. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 6, li. 136; bk. 8, li. 347.――_Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 3,
ch. 72.――_Plutarch_, _Publicola_.――_Livy_, bks. 1, 10, &c.――_Pliny_,
bk. 33, &c.――_Suetonius_, _Augustus_, ch. 40.
=Cappădŏcia=, a country of Asia Minor, between the Halys, the
Euphrates, and the Euxine. It receives its name from the river
Cappadox, which separates it from Galatia. The inhabitants were
called Syrians and Leuco-Syrians by the Greeks. They were of a dull
and submissive disposition, and addicted to every vice, according to
the ancients, who wrote this virulent epigram against them:
Vipera Cappadocem nocitura momordit; at illa
Gustato periit sanguine Cappadocis.
When they were offered their freedom and independence by the
Romans, they refused it, and begged of them a king, and they
received Ariobarzanes. It was some time after governed by a Roman
proconsul. Though the ancients have ridiculed this country for the
unfruitfulness of its soil, and the manners of its inhabitants, yet
it can boast of the birth of the geographer Strabo, St. Basil, and
Gregory Nazianzen, among other illustrious characters. The horses of
this country were in general esteem, and with these they paid their
tributes to the king of Persia, while under his power, for want of
money. The kings of Cappadocia mostly bore the name of Ariarathes.
_Horace_, bk. 1, ltr. 6, li. 39.――_Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 3.――_Curtius_,
bks. 3 & 4.――_Strabo_, bks. 11 & 16.――_Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 73;
bk. 5, ch. 49.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 2; bk. 3, ch. 8.
=Cappădox=, a river of Cappadocia. _Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 3.
=Caprăria=, now _Cabrera_, a mountainous island on the coast of Spain,
famous for its goats. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 6.
=Căpreæ=, now _Capri_, an island on the coast of Campania, abounding
in quails, and famous for the residence and debaucheries of the
emperor Tiberius, during the seven last years of his life. The
island, in which now several medals are dug up expressive of the
licentious morals of the emperor, is about 40 miles in circumference,
and surrounded by steep rocks. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 15,
li. 709.――_Suetonius_, _Tiberius_.――_Statius_, _Sylvæ_, bk. 3, li. 5.
=Capræa Palus=, a place near Rome where Romulus disappeared.
_Plutarch_, _Romulus_.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 2, li. 491.
=Capricornus=, a sign of the zodiac, in which appear 28 stars in the
form of a goat, supposed by the ancients to be the goat Amalthæa,
which fed Jupiter with her milk. Some maintain that it is Pan,
who changed himself into a goat when frightened at the approach of
Typhon. When the sun enters this sign it is the winter solstice,
or the longest night in the year. _Marcus Manilius_, bks. 2 & 4.
――_Horace_, bk. 2, ode 17, li. 19.――_Hyginus_, fable 196; _Poetica
Astronomica_, bk. 2, ch. 28.
=Caprificiālis=, a day sacred to Vulcan, on which the Athenians offered
him money. _Pliny_, bk. 11, ch. 15.
=Caprīma=, a town of Caria.
=Caprĭpĕdes=, a surname of Pan, the Fauni and the Satyrs, from their
having goats’ feet.
=Caprias=, a great informer in Horace’s age. _Horace_, bk. 1, satire 4,
li. 66.
=Caprotīna=, a festival celebrated at Rome in July in honour of Juno,
at which women only officiated. _See:_ Philotis. _Varro_, _de Lingua
Latina_, bk. 5.
=Caprus=, a harbour near mount Athos.
=Capsa=, a town of Libya, surrounded by vast deserts full of snakes.
_Florus_, bk. 3, ch. 1.――_Sallust_, _Jugurthine War_.
=Capsăge=, a town of Syria. _Curtius_, bk. 10.
=Căpua=, the chief city of Campania in Italy, supposed to have been
founded by Capys, the father, or rather the companion, of Anchises.
This city was very ancient, and so opulent that it even rivalled
Rome, and was called _altera Roma_. The soldiers of Annibal, after
the battle of Cannæ, were enervated by the pleasures and luxuries
which powerfully prevailed in this voluptuous city and under a soft
climate. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 145.――_Livy_, bks. 4, 7, 8,
&c.――_Paterculus_, bk. 1, ch. 7; bk. 2, ch. 44.――_Florus_, bk. 1,
ch. 16.――_Cicero_, _Philippics_, bk. 12, ch. 3.――_Plutarch_, _Life
of Hannibal_.
=Capys=, a Trojan, who came with Æneas into Italy, and founded Capua.
He was one of those who, against the advice of Thymœtes, wished
to destroy the wooden horse, which proved the destruction of Troy.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 145.――――A son of Assaracus by a
daughter of the Simois. He was father of Anchises by Themis. _Ovid_,
_Fasti_, bk. 4, li. 33.
=Capys Sylvius=, a king of Alba, who reigned 28 years. _Dionysius of
Halicarnassus._――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 768.
=Car=, a son of Phoroneus king of Megara. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, chs. 39
& 40.――――A son of Manes, who married Callirhoe daughter of the
Mæander. Caria received its name from him. _Herodotus_, bk. 1,
ch. 171.
=Carabactra=, a place in India.
=Carabis=, a town of Spain.
=Carăcalla.= _See:_ Antonius.
=Caracates=, a people of Germany.
=Caractăcus=, a king of the Britons, conquered by an officer of
Claudius Cæsar, A.D. 47. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, ♦bk. 12, chs. 33 & 37.
♦ ‘c. 12, 33,’ replaced with ‘12, chs. 33,’
=Caræ=, certain places between Susa and the Tigris, where Alexander
pitched his camp.
=Caræus=, a surname of Jupiter in Bœotia,――――in Caria.
=Carălis= (or es, ium), the chief city of Sardinia, _Pausanias_,
bk. 10, ch. 17.
=Carambis=, now _Kerempi_, a promontory of Paphlagonia. _Mela_, bk. 1,
ch. 19.
=Carānus=, one of the Heraclidæ, the first who laid the foundation
of the Macedonian empire, B.C. 814. He took Edessa, and reigned
28 years, which he spent in establishing and strengthening the
government of his newly founded kingdom. He was succeeded by
Perdiccas. _Justin_, bk. 7, ch. 1.――_Paterculus_, bk. 1, ch. 6.――――A
general of Alexander. _Curtius_, bk. 7.――――A harbour of Phœnicia.
=Carausius=, a tyrant of Britain for seven years, A.D. 293.
=Carro=, a Roman orator, who killed himself because he could not
curb the licentious manners of his countrymen. _Cicero_, _Brutus_.
――――Cneus, a son of the orator Carbo, who embraced the party of
Marius, and after the death of Cinna succeeded to the government.
He was killed in Spain in his third consulship, by order of Pompey.
_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 9, ch. 13.――――An orator, son of Carbo the
orator, killed by the army when desirous of re-establishing the
ancient military discipline. _Cicero_, _Brutus_.
=Carchēdon=, the Greek name of Carthage.
=Carcīnus=, a tragic poet of Agrigentum, in the age of Philip of
Macedon. He wrote on the rape of Proserpine. _Diodorus_, bk. 5.
――――Another of Athens.――――Another of Naupactum.――――A man of Rhegium,
who exposed his son Agathocles on account of some uncommon dreams
during his wife’s pregnancy. Agathocles was preserved. _Diodorus_,
bk. 19.――――An Athenian general, who laid waste Peloponnesus in the
time of Pericles. _Diodorus_, bk. 12.
=Carcĭnus=, a constellation, the same as the Cancer. _Lucan_, bk. 9,
li. 536.
=Cardaces=, a people of Asia Minor. _Strabo_, bk. 15.
=Cardămy̆le=, a town of Argos.
=Cardia=, a town in the Thracian Chersonesus. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 11.
=Cardŭchi=, a warlike nation of Media, along the borders of the Tigris.
_Diodorus_, bk. 14.
=Cāres=, a nation which inhabited Caria, and thought themselves
the original possessors of that country. They became so powerful
that their country was not sufficiently extensive to contain them
all, upon which they seized the neighbouring islands of the Ægean
sea. These islands were conquered by Minos king of Crete. Nileus
son of Codrus invaded their country, and slaughtered many of the
inhabitants. In this calamity, the Carians, surrounded on every side
by enemies, fortified themselves in the mountainous parts of the
country, and, soon after, made themselves terrible by sea. They
were anciently called Leleges. _Herodotus_, bk. 1, chs. 146 & 171.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 40.――_Strabo_, bk. 13.――_Curtius_, bk. 6,
ch. 3.――_Justin_, bk. 13, ch. 4.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8, li. 725.
=Caresa=, an island of the Ægean sea, opposite Attica.
=Caressus=, a river of Troas.
=Carfinia=, an immodest woman, mentioned _Juvenal_, satire 2, li. 69.
=Cāria=, now _Aidinelli_, a country of Asia Minor, whose boundaries
have been different in different ages. Generally speaking, it was
at the south of Iona, at the east and north of the Icarian sea, and
at the west of Phrygia Major, and Lycia. It has been called Phœnicia,
because a Phœnician colony first settled there; and afterwards it
received the name of Caria, from Car, a king who first invented the
auguries of birds. The chief town was called Halicarnassus, where
Jupiter was the chief deity. _See:_ Cares.――――A poet of Thrace.
_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 2.
=Carias=, a town of Peloponnesus.――――A general. _See:_ Laches.
=Cariate=, a town of Bactriana, where Alexander imprisoned Callisthenes.
=Carilla=, a town of the Piceni, destroyed by Annibal for its great
attachment to Rome. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 8.
=Carīna=, a virgin of Caria, &c. _Polyænus_, bk. 8.
=Carinæ=, certain edifices at Rome, built in the manner of ships,
which were in the temple of Tellus. Some suppose that it was a
street in which Pompey’s house was built. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8,
li. 361.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ltr. 7.
=Carīne=, a town near the Caicus in Asia Minor. _Herodotus_, bk. 7,
ch. 42.
=Carīnus Marcus Aurelius=, a Roman who attempted to succeed his father
Carus as emperor. He was famous for his debaucheries and cruelties.
Diocletian defeated him in Dalmatia, and he was killed by a soldier
whose wife he had debauched, A.D. 268.
=Carisiăcum=, a town of ancient Gaul, now Cressy in Picardy.
=Carissanum=, a place of Italy near which Milo was killed. _Pliny_,
bk. 2, ch. 56.
=Caristum=, a town of Liguria.
=Carmānia=, a country of Asia, between Persia and India. _Arrian._
――_Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 23.
=Carmānor=, a Cretan, who purified Apollo of slaughter. _Pausanias_,
bk. 2, ch. 30.
=Carme=, a nymph, daughter of Eubulus and mother of Britomartis by
Jupiter. She was one of Diana’s attendants. _Pausanias_, bk. 2,
ch. 30.
=Carmēlus=, a god among the inhabitants of ♦mount Carmel, situate
between Syria and Judæa. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 2, ch. 78.
――_Suetonius_, _Vespasian_, ch. 5.
♦ ‘muont’ replaced with ‘mount’
=Carmenta= and =Carmentīs=, a prophetess of Arcadia, mother of Evander,
with whom she came to Italy, and was received by king Faunus, about
60 years before the Trojan war. Her name was _Nicostrata_, and
she received that of _Carmentis_ from the wildness of her looks
when giving oracles, as if _carens mentis_. She was the oracle of
the people of Italy during her life, and after death she received
divine honours. She had a temple at Rome, and the Greeks offered
her sacrifices under the name of _Themis_. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 1,
li. 467; bk. 6, li. 530.――_Plutarch_, _Romulus_.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 8, li. 339.――_Livy_, bk. 5, ch. 47.
=Carmentāles=, festivals at Rome in honour of Carmenta, celebrated
the 11th of January, near the Porta Carmentalis, below the Capitol.
This goddess was entreated to render the Roman matrons prolific, and
their labours easy. _Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 7.
=Carmentālis porta=, one of the gates of Rome in the neighbourhood of
the Capitol. It was afterwards called _Scelerata_, because the Fabii
passed through it on going to that famous expedition where they
perished. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8, li. 338.
=Carmides=, a Greek of an uncommon memory. _Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 24.
=Carna= and =Cardinea=, a goddess at Rome who presided over hinges,
as also over the entrails and secret parts of the human body. She
was originally a nymph called _Grane_, whom Janus ravished, and, for
the injury, he gave her the power of presiding over the exterior of
houses, and of removing all noxious birds from the doors. The Romans
offered her beans, bacon, and vegetables, to represent the simplicity
of their ancestors. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 6, li. 101, &c.
=Carnasius=, a village of Messenia in Peloponnesus. _Pausanias_, bk. 4,
ch. 33.
=Carneădes=, a philosopher of Cyrene in Africa, founder of a sect
called the third or new academy. The Athenians sent him with
Diogenes the Stoic, and Critolaus the Peripatetic, as ambassadors to
Rome, B.C. 155. The Roman youth were extremely fond of the company
of these learned philosophers; and when Carneades, in a speech,
had given an accurate and judicious dissertation upon justice, and
in another speech confuted all the arguments he had advanced, and
apparently given no existence to the virtue he had so much commended,
a report prevailed all over Rome, that a Grecian was come who had
so captivated by his words the rising generation, that they forgot
their usual amusements, and ran mad after philosophy. When this
reached the ears of Cato the censor, he gave immediate audience to
the Athenian ambassadors in the senate, and dismissed them in haste,
expressing his apprehensions of their corrupting the opinions of
the Roman people, whose only profession, he sternly observed, was
arms and war. Carneades denied that anything could be perceived
or understood in the world, and he was the first who introduced
a universal suspension of assent. He died in the 90th year of his
age, B.C. 128. _Cicero_, _Letters to Atticus_, bk. 12, ltr. 23; _On
Oratory_, bks. 1 & 2.――_Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 30.――_Lactantius_, bk. 5,
ch. 14.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 8, ch. 8.
=Carneia=, a festival observed in most of the Grecian cities, but more
particularly at Sparta, where it was first instituted, about 675
B.C., in honour of Apollo, surnamed _Carneus_. It lasted nine days,
and was an imitation of the manner of living in camps among the
ancients.
=Carnion=, a town of Laconia.――――A river of Arcadia. _Pausanias_,
bk. 8, ch. 34.
=Carnus=, a prophet of Acarnania, from whom Apollo was called
_Carneus_. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 13.
=Carnūtes=, a people of Celtic Gaul. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 6,
ch. 4.
=Carpasia= and =Carpasium=, a town of Cyprus.
=Carpăthus=, an island in the Mediterranean between Rhodes and Crete,
now called _Scapanto_. It has given its name to a part of the
neighbouring sea, thence called the _Carpathian sea_, between Rhodes
and Crete. Carpathus was at first inhabited by some Cretan soldiers
of Minos. It was 20 miles in circumference, and was sometimes called
Tetrapolis, from its four capital cities. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.
――_Herodotus_, bk. 3, ch. 45.――_Diodorus_, bk. 5.――_Strabo_, bk. 10.
=Carpia=, an ancient name of Tartessus. _Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 19.
=Carpis=, a river of Mysia. _Herodotus._
=Carpo=, a daughter of Zephyrus, and one of the Seasons. She was loved
by Calamus the son of Mæander, whom she equally admired. She was
drowned in the Mæander, and was changed by Jupiter into all sorts of
fruit. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 35.
=Carpophŏra=, a name of Ceres and Proserpine in Tegea. _Pausanias_,
bk. 8, ch. 53.
=Carpophŏrus=, an actor greatly esteemed by Domitian. _Martial._
――_Juvenal_, satire 6, li. 198.
=Carræ= and =Carrhæ=, a town of Mesopotamia, near which Crassus was
killed. _Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 105.――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 14.
=Carrīnātes Secundus=, a poor but ingenious rhetorician, who came from
Athens to Rome, where the boldness of his expressions, especially
against tyrannical power, exposed him to Caligula’s resentment, who
banished him. _Juvenal_, satire 7, li. 205.
=Carrūca=, a town of Spain. _Hirtius_, _Hispanic War_, ch. 27.
=Carseŏli=, a town of the Æqui, at the west of the lake Fucinus.
_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 4, li. 683.
=Cartalias=, a town of Spain.
=Carteia=, a town at the extremity of Spain, near the sea of Gades,
supposed to be the same as Calpe.
=Cartēna=, a town of Mauritania, now _Tenez_, on the shores of the
Mediterranean.
=Carthæa=, a town in the island of Cea, whence the epithet of
Cartheius. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, li. 368.
=Carthāgĭnienses=, the inhabitants of Carthage, a rich and commercial
nation. _See:_ Carthago.
=Carthāgo=, a celebrated city of Africa, the rival of Rome, and
long the capital of the country, and mistress of Spain, Sicily, and
Sardinia. The precise time of its foundation is unknown, yet most
writers seem to agree that it was first built by Dido, about 869
years before the christian era, or, according to others, 72 or
93 years before the foundation of Rome. This city and republic
flourished for 737 years, and the time of its greatest glory was
under Annibal and Amilcar. During the first Punic war, it contained
no less than 700,000 inhabitants. It maintained three famous wars
against Rome, called the Punic wars [_See:_ Punicum bellum], in the
third of which Carthage was totally destroyed by Scipio the second
Africanus, B.C. 147, and only 5000 persons were found within the
walls. It was 23 miles in circumference, and when it was set on
fire by the Romans, it burned incessantly during 17 days. After
the destruction of Carthage, Utica became powerful, and the Romans
thought themselves secure; and as they had no rival to dispute with
them in the field, they fell into indolence and inactivity. Cæsar
planted a small colony on the ruins of Carthage. Augustus sent there
3000 men; and Adrian, after the example of his imperial predecessors,
rebuilt part of it, which he called Adrianopolis. Carthage was
conquered from the Romans by the arms of Genseric, A.D. 439; and it
was for more than a century the seat of the Vandal empire in Africa,
and fell into the hands of the Saracens in the seventh century.
The Carthaginians were governed as a republic, and had two persons
yearly chosen among them with regal authority. They were very
superstitious, and generally offered human victims to their gods; an
unnatural custom, which their allies wished them to abolish, but in
vain. They bore the character of a faithless and treacherous people,
and the proverb _Punica fides_ is well known. _Strabo_, bk. 17.
――_Virgil_, _Æneid_ bk. 1, &c.――_Mela_, bk. 1, &c.――_Ptolemy_
bk. 4.――_Justin._――_Livy_, bk. 4, &c.――_Paterculus_, bks. 1 & 2.
――_Plutarch_, _Life of Hannibal_, &c.――_Cicero._――――Nŏva, a town
built in Spain, on the coasts of the Mediterranean, by Asdrubal the
Carthaginian general. It was taken by Scipio when Hanno surrendered
himself after a heavy loss. It now bears the name of _Carthagena_.
_Polybius_, bk. 10.――_Livy_, bk. 26, ch. 43, &c.――_Silius Italicus_,
bk. 15, li. 220, &c.――――A daughter of Hercules.
=Carthasis=, a Scythian, &c. _Curtius_, bk. 7, ch. 7.
=Carthea=, a town of Cos. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, fable 9.
=Carvilius=, a king of Britain, who attacked Cæsar’s naval station by
order of Cassivelaunus, &c. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 5, ch. 22.
――――Spurius, a Roman, who made a large image of the breastplates
taken from the Samnites, and placed it in the capitol. _Pliny_, bk.
34, ch. 7.――――The first Roman who divorced his wife during the space
of about 600 years. This was for barrenness, B.C. 231. _Dionysius of
Halicarnassus_, bk. 2.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 2, ch. 1.
=Carus=, a Roman emperor who succeeded Probus. He was a prudent and
active general; he conquered the Sarmatians, and continued the
Persian war which his predecessor had commenced. He reigned two
years, and died on the banks of the Tigris as he was going in an
expedition against Persia, A.D. 283. He made his two sons, Carinus
and Numerianus, Cæsars; and as his many virtues had promised the
Romans happiness, he was made a god after death. _Eutropius._――――One
of those who attempted to scale the rock Aornus, by order of
Alexander. _Curtius_, bk. 8, ch. 11.
=Carya=, a town of Arcadia.――――A city of Laconia. _Pausanias_, bk. 3,
ch. 10. Here a festival was observed in honour of Diana _Caryatis_.
It was then usual for virgins to meet at the celebration and join
in a certain dance, said to have been first instituted by Castor
and Pollux. When Greece was invaded by Xerxes, the Laconians did not
appear before the enemy, for fear of displeasing the goddess by not
celebrating her festival. At that time the peasants assembled at the
usual place, and sang pastorals called Βουκολισμοι, from Βουκολος,
a _neatherd_. From this circumstance some suppose that Bucolics
originated. _Statius_, bk. 4, _Thebiad_, li. 225.
=Caryanda=, a town and island on the coast of Caria, now Karacoion.
=Caryātæ=, a people of Arcadia.
=Carystius Antigonus=, an historian, &c. B.C. 248.
=Carystus=, a maritime town on the south of Eubœa, still in existence,
famous for its marble. _Statius_, bk. 2, _Sylvæ_, poem 2, li. 93.
――_Martial_, bk. 9, ltr. 76.
=Caryum=, a place of Laconia, where Aristomenes preserved some virgins,
&c. _Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 16.
=Casca=, one of Cæsar’s assassins, who gave him the first blow.
_Plutarch_, _Cæsar_.
=Cascellius Aulus=, a lawyer of great merit in the Augustan age.
_Horace_, _Art of Poetry_, li. 371.
=Casilīnum=, a town of Campania. When it was besieged by Hannibal,
a mouse sold for 200 denarii. The place was defended by 540 or 570
natives of Præneste, who, when half their number had perished either
by war or famine, surrendered to the conqueror. _Livy_, bk. 23,
ch. 19.――_Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Cicero_, _De Inventione_, bk. 2, ch. 5.
――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 5.
=Casīna= and =Casīnum=, a town of Campania. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 4,
li. 227.
=Casius=, a mountain near the Euphrates.――――Another at the east
of Pelusium, where Pompey’s tomb was raised by Adrian. Jupiter,
surnamed _Casius_, had a temple there. _Lucan_, bk. 8, li. 858.
――――Another in Syria, from whose top the sun can be seen rising,
though it be still the darkness of night at the bottom of the
mountain. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 22.――_Mela_, bks. 1 & 3.
=Casmenæ=, a town built by the Syracusans in Sicily. _Thucydides_,
bk. 6, ch. 5.
=Casmilla=, the mother of Camilla. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 11, li. 543.
=Caspĕria=, wife of Rhœtus king of the Marrubii, committed adultery
with her son-in-law. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 388.――――A town
of the Sabines. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 714.
=Caspĕrŭla=, a town of the Sabines. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 416.
=Caspiæ portæ=, certain passes of Asia, which some place about Caucasus
and the Caspian sea, and others between Persia and the Caspian sea,
or near mount Taurus, or Armenia, or Cilicia. _Diodorus_, bk. 1.
――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 27; bk. 6, ch. 13.
=Caspiana=, a country of Armenia.
=Caspii=, a Scythian nation near the Caspian sea. Such as had lived
beyond their 70th year were starved to death. Their dogs were
remarkable for their fierceness. _Herodotus_, bk. 3, ch. 92, &c.;
bk. 7, ch. 67, &c.――_Cornelius Nepos_, bk. 14, ch. 8.――_Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 798.
=Caspium mare=, or =Hyrcānum=, a large sea in the form of a lake,
which has no communication with other seas, and lies between the
Caspian and Hyrcanian mountains, at the north of Parthia, receiving
in its capacious bed the tribute of several large rivers. Ancient
authors assure us that it produced enormous serpents and fishes,
different in colour and kind from those of all other waters. The
eastern parts are more particularly called the _Hyrcanian sea_, and
the western the _Caspian_. It is now called the sea of _Sala_ or
_Baku_. The Caspian is about 680 miles long, and in no part more
than 260 in breadth. There are no tides in it, and on account of
its numerous shoals, it is navigable to vessels drawing only nine
or ten feet of water. It has strong currents, and, like inland seas,
is liable to violent storms. Some navigators examined it in 1708, by
order of the Czar Peter, and after the labour of three years, a map
of its extent was published. Its waters are described as brackish,
and not impregnated with salt so much as the wide ocean. _Herodotus_,
bk. 1, ch. 202, &c.――_Curtius_, bk. 3, ch. 2; bk. 6, ch. 4; bk. 7,
ch. 3.――_Strabo_, bk. 11.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 2; bk. 3, chs. 5 & 6.
――_Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 13.――_Dionysius Periegetes_, li. 50.
=Caspius mons=, a branch of mount Taurus, between Media and Armenia,
at the east of the Euphrates. The Caspiæ portæ are placed in the
defiles of the mountain by some geographers.
=Cassandāne=, the mother of Cambyses by Cyrus. _Herodotus_, bk. 2,
ch. 1; bk. 3, ch. 2.
=Cassander=, son of Antipater, made himself master of Macedonia
after his father’s death, where he reigned for 18 years. He married
Thessalonica the sister of Alexander, to strengthen himself on his
throne. Olympias the mother of Alexander wished to keep the kingdom
of Macedonia for Alexander’s young children; and therefore she
destroyed the relations of Cassander, who besieged her in the town
of Pydna, and put her to death. Roxane, with her son Alexander, and
Barsane the mother of Hercules, both wives of Alexander, shared the
fate of Olympias with their children. Antigonus, who had been for
some time upon friendly terms with Cassander, declared war against
him; and Cassander, to make himself equal with his adversary, made
a league with Lysimachus and Seleucus, and obtained a memorable
victory at Ipsus, B.C. 301. He died three years after this victory,
of a dropsy. His son Antipater killed his mother; and for his
unnatural murder he was put to death by his brother Alexander, who,
to strengthen himself, invited Demetrius the son of Antigonus from
Asia. Demetrius took advantage of the invitation, and put to death
Alexander, and ascended the throne of Macedonia. _Pausanias_, bk. 1,
ch. 15.――_Diodorus_, bk. 19.――_Justin_, bks. 12, 13, &c.
=Cassandra=, daughter of Priam and Hecuba, was passionately loved by
Apollo, who promised to grant her whatever she might require, if she
would gratify his passion. She asked the power of knowing futurity;
and as soon as she had received it, she refused to perform her
promise, and slighted Apollo. The god, in his disappointment, wetted
her lips with his tongue, and by this action effected that no credit
or reliance should ever be put upon her predictions, however true or
faithful they might be. Some maintain that she received the gift of
prophecy with her brother Helenus, by being placed when young one
night in the temple of Apollo, where serpents were found wreathed
round their bodies and licking their ears, which circumstance gave
them the knowledge of futurity. She was looked upon by the Trojans
as insane, and she was even confined, and her predictions were
disregarded. She was courted by many princes during the Trojan war.
When Troy was taken, she fled for shelter to the temple of Minerva,
where Ajax found her, and offered her violence, with the greatest
cruelty, at the foot of Minerva’s statue. In the division of the
spoils of Troy, Agamemnon, who was enamoured of her, took her as
his wife, and returned with her to Greece. She repeatedly foretold
to him the sudden calamities that awaited his return; but he gave
no credit to her, and was assassinated by his wife Clytemnestra.
Cassandra shared his fate, and saw all her prophecies but too truly
fulfilled. _See:_ Agamemnon. _Aeschylus_, _Agamemnon_.――_Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 13, li. 363; _Odyssey_, bk. 4.――_Hyginus_, fable 117.
――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 2, li. 246, &c.――_Quintus Calaber
[Smyrnæus]_, bk. 13, li. 421.――_Euripides_, _Trojan Women_.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 16; bk. 3, ch. 19.
=Cassandria=, a town of the peninsula of Pallene in Macedonia, called
also _Potidæa_. _Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 23.
=Cassia lex=, was enacted by Cassius Longinus, A.U.C. 649. By it no
man condemned or deprived of military power was permitted to enter
the senate house.――――Another, enacted by Caius Cassius the pretor,
to choose some of the plebeians to be admitted among the patricians.
――――Another. A.U.C. 616, to make the suffrages of the Roman people
free and independent. It ordained that they should be received upon
tablets. _Cicero_, _de Amicitia_.――――Another, A.U.C. 267, to make
a division of the territories taken from the Hernici, half to the
Roman people and half to the Latins.――――Another, enacted A.U.C. 596,
to grant a consular power to Publius Anicius and Octavius on the day
they triumphed over Macedonia. _Livy._
=Cassiodōrus=, a great statesman and writer in the sixth century. He
died A.D. 562, at the age of 100.――His works were edited by Chandler,
8vo, London, 1722.
=Cassiŏpe= and =Cassiŏpea=, married Cepheus king of Æthiopia, by
whom she had Andromeda. She boasted herself to be fairer than the
Nereides; upon which Neptune, at the request of these despised
nymphs, punished the insolence of Cassiope, and sent a huge sea
monster to ravage Æthiopia. The wrath of Neptune could be appeased
only by exposing Andromeda, whom Cassiope tenderly loved, to the
fury of this sea monster; and just as she was going to be devoured,
Perseus delivered her. _See:_ Andromeda. Cassiope was made a
southern constellation, consisting of 13 stars called Cassiope.
_Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 2, ch. 43.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2,
ch. 4.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 4, li. 738.――_Hyginus_, fable
64.――_Propertius_, bk. 1, poem 17, li. 3.――_Marcus Manilius_, bk. 1.
――――A city of Epirus near Thesprotia. Another in the island of
Corcyra. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.――――The wife of Epaphus. _Statius_,
_Sylvæ_.
=Cassitĕrĭdes=, islands in the western ocean, where tin was found,
supposed to be the _Scilly_ islands, the _Land’s End_, and _Lizard
Point_, of the moderns. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 22.
=Cassivelaunus=, a Briton invested with sovereign authority when
Julius Cæsar made a descent upon Britain. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_,
bk. 5, ch. 19, &c.
=Caius Cassius=, a celebrated Roman, who made himself known by being
first questor to Crassus in his expedition against Parthia, from
which he extricated himself with uncommon address. He followed the
interest of Pompey; and when Cæsar had obtained the victory in the
plains of Pharsalia, Cassius was one of those who owed their life
to the mercy of the conqueror. He married Junia the sister of Brutus,
and with him he resolved to murder the man to whom he was indebted
for his life, on account of his oppressive ambition; and before he
stabbed Cæsar, he addressed himself to the statue of Pompey, who had
fallen by the avarice of him whom he was going to assassinate. When
the provinces were divided among Cæsar’s murderers, Cassius received
Africa; and when his party had lost ground at Rome, by the superior
influence of Augustus and Marcus Antony, he retired to Philippi,
with his friend Brutus and their adherents. In the battle that was
fought there, the wing which Cassius commanded was defeated, and his
camp was plundered. In this unsuccessful moment he suddenly gave up
all hopes of recovering his losses, and concluded that Brutus was
conquered and ruined as well as himself. Fearful to fall into the
enemy’s hands, he ordered one of his freedmen to run him through,
and he perished by that very sword which had given wounds to Cæsar.
His body was honoured with a magnificent funeral by his friend
Brutus, who declared over him that he deserved to be called the last
of the Romans. If he were brave, he was equally learned. Some of his
letters are still extant among Cicero’s epistles. He was a strict
follower of the doctrines of Epicurus. He was often too rash and
too violent, and many of the wrong steps which Brutus took are
to be ascribed to the prevailing advice of Cassius. He is allowed
by Paterculus to have been a better commander than Brutus, though
a less sincere friend. The day after Cæsar’s murder he dined at
the house of Antony, who asked him whether he had then a dagger
concealed in his bosom. “Yes,” replied he, “if you aspire to
tyranny.” _Seutonius_, _Cæsar_ & _Augustus_.――_Plutarch_, _Brutus_
& _Cæsar_.――_Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 46.――_Dio Cassius_, bk. 40.
――――A Roman citizen who condemned his son to death, on pretence
of his raising commotions in the state. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 5,
ch. 8.――――A tribune of the people, who made many laws tending to
diminish the influence of the Roman nobility. He was competitor with
Cicero for the consulship.――――One of Pompey’s officers, who, during
the civil wars, revolted to Cæsar with 10 ships.――――A poet of Parma,
of great genius. He was killed by Varus, by order of Augustus, whom
he had offended by his satirical writings. His fragments of Orpheus
were found and edited some time after by the poet Statius. _Horace_,
bk. 1, satire 10, li. 62.――――Spurius, a Roman, put to death on
suspicion of his aspiring to tyranny, after he had been three times
consul, B.C. 485. _Diodorus_, bk. 11.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 6,
ch. 3.――――Brutus, a Roman who betrayed his country to the Latins,
and fled to the temple of Pallas, where his father confined him, and
he was starved to death.――――Longinus, an officer of Cæsar in Spain,
much disliked. _Cæsar_, _Alexandrine War_, ch. 48.――――A consul, to
whom Tiberius married Drusilla daughter of Germanicus. _Seutonius_,
_Galba_, ch. 57.――――A lawyer whom Nero put to death, because he
bore the name of Julius Cæsar’s murderer. _Suetonius_, _Nero_, ch.
37.――――Lucius Hemina, the most ancient writer of annals at Rome.
He lived A.U.C. 608.――――Lucius, a Roman lawyer, whose severity in
the execution of the law has rendered the words _Cassiani judices_
applicable to rigid judges. _Cicero_, _For Sextus Roscius of
Ameria_, ch. 30.――――Longinus, a critic. _See:_ Longinus.――――Lucius,
a consul with Caius Marius, slain with his army by the Gauls Senones.
_Appian_, _Gallic History_.――――Marcus Scæva, a soldier of uncommon
valour in Cæsar’s army. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 3, ch. 2.――――An
officer under Aurelius, made emperor by his soldiers, and murdered
three months after.――――Felix, a physician in the age of Tiberius,
who wrote on animals.――――Severus, an orator who wrote a severe
treatise on illustrious men and women. He died in exile, in his 25th
year. _See:_ Severus. The family of Cassii branched into the surname
of Longinus, Viscellinus, Brutus, &c.
=Cassōtis=, a nymph and fountain of Phocis. _Pausanias_, bk. 10,
ch. 24.
=Castabala=, a city of Cilicia, whose inhabitants made war with their
dogs. _Pliny_, bk. 8, ch. 40.
=Castabus=, a town of Chersonesus.
=Castălia=, a town near Phocis.――――A daughter of the Achelous.
=Castălius fons=, or =Castalia=, a fountain of Parnassus, sacred to
the Muses. The waters of this fountain were cool and excellent,
and they had the power of inspiring those who drank of them with
the true fire of poetry. The Muses have received the surname of
_Castalides_ from this fountain. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 3,
li. 293.――_Martial_, bk. 7, ltr. 11; bk. 12, ltr. 3.
=Castanea=, a town near the Peneus, whence the _nuces Castaneæ_
received their name. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 9.
=Castellum menapiōrum=, a town of Belgium on the Maese, now _Kessel_.
――――Morinorum, now _mount Cassel_, in Flanders.――――Cattorum, now
_Hesse Cassel_.
=Casthĕnes=, a bay of Thrace, near Byzantium.
=Castianira=, a Thracian, mistress of Priam and mother of Gorgythion.
_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 8.
=Castor= and =Pollux=, were twin brothers, sons of Jupiter by Leda,
the wife of Tyndarus king of Sparta. The manner of their birth is
uncommon. Jupiter, who was enamoured of Leda, changed himself into
a beautiful swan, and desired Venus to metamorphose herself into an
eagle. After this transformation the goddess pursued the god with
apparent ferocity, and Jupiter fled for refuge into the arms of
Leda, who was bathing in the Eurotas. Jupiter took advantage of his
situation, and nine months after Leda, who was already pregnant,
brought forth two eggs, from one of which came Pollux and Helena;
and from the other, Castor and Clytemnestra. The two former were
the offspring of Jupiter, and the latter were believed to be the
children of Tyndarus. Some suppose that Leda brought forth only one
egg, from which Castor and Pollux sprung. Mercury, immediately after
their birth, carried the two brothers to Pallena, where they were
educated; and as soon as they had arrived at years of maturity, they
embarked with Jason to go in quest of the golden fleece. In this
expedition both behaved with superior courage: Pollux conquered and
slew Amycus in the combat of the cestus, and was ever after reckoned
the god and patron of boxing and wrestling. Castor distinguished
himself in the management of horses. The brothers cleared the
Hellespont and the neighbouring seas from pirates, after their
return from Colchis, from which circumstance they have been always
deemed the friends of navigation. During the Argonautic expedition,
in a violent storm, two flames of fire were seen to play around the
heads of the sons of Leda, and immediately the tempest ceased and
the sea was calmed. From this occurrence their power to protect
sailors has been more firmly credited, and the two before-mentioned
fires, which are very common in storms, have since been known by
the name of Castor and Pollux; and when they both appeared, it was
a sign of fair weather; but if only one was seen it prognosticated
storms, and the aid of Castor and Pollux was consequently solicited.
Castor and Pollux made war against the Athenians to recover
their sister Helen, whom Theseus had carried away; and from their
clemency to the conquered, they acquired the surname of _Anaces_
or benefactors. They were initiated in the sacred mysteries of the
Cabiri, and in those of Ceres of Eleusis. They were invited to a
feast when Lynceus and Idas were going to celebrate their marriage
with Phœbe and Talaira the daughters of Leucippus, who was brother
to Tyndarus. Their behaviour after this invitation was cruel.
They became enamoured of the two women whose nuptials they were
to celebrate, and resolved to carry them away and marry them. This
violent step provoked Lynceus and Idas: a battle ensued, and Castor
killed Lynceus, and was killed by Idas. Pollux revenged the death of
his brother by killing Idas; and, as he was immortal, and tenderly
attached to his brother, he entreated Jupiter to restore him to life,
or to be deprived himself of immortality. Jupiter permitted Castor
to share the immortality of his brother; and consequently, as long
as the one was upon earth, so long was the other detained in the
infernal regions, and they alternately lived and died every day; or,
according to others, every six months. This act of fraternal love
Jupiter rewarded by making the two brothers constellations in heaven,
under the name of _Gemini_, which never appear together, but when
one rises the other sets, and so on alternately. Castor made Talaira
mother of Anogon, and Phœbe had Mnesileus by Pollux. They received
divine honours after death, and were generally called _Dioscuri_,
sons of Jupiter. White lambs were more particularly offered on their
altars, and the ancients were fond of swearing by the divinity of
the _Dioscuri_, by the expressions of _Ædepol_ and _Æcastor_. Among
the ancients, and especially among the Romans, there prevailed many
public reports, at different times, that Castor and Pollux had made
their appearance to their armies; and mounted on white steeds, had
marched at the head of their troops, and furiously attacked the
enemy. Their surnames were many, and they were generally represented
mounted on two white horses, armed with spears, and riding side
by side, with their head covered with a bonnet, on whose top
glittered a star. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 6, li. 109; _Fasti_,
bk. 5, li. 701; _Amores_, bk. 3, poem 2, li. 54.――_Hyginus_,
fables 77 & 78.――_Homer_, _Hymn 33 to the Dioscuri_.――_Euripides_,
_Helen_.――_Plutarch_, _Theseus_.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6,
li. 121.――_Marcus Manilius_, _Astronomica_, bk. 2.――_Livy_, bk. 2.
――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 6.――_Justin_, bk. 20, ch. 3.
――_Horace_, bk. 2, satire 1, li. 27.――_Florus_, bk. 2, ch. 12.
――_Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 2, ch. 2.――_Apollonius_, bk. 1.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, chs. 8, 9; bk. 2, ch. 4; bk. 3, ch. 11.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 24; bk. 4, chs. 3 & 27.――――An ancient
physician.――――A swift runner.――――A friend of Æneas, who accompanied
him into Italy. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 124.――――An orator of
Rhodes, related to king Dejotarus. He wrote two books on Babylon,
and one on the Nile.――――A gladiator. _Horace_, bk. 1, ltr. 18,
li. 19.
=Castra Alexandri=, a place of Egypt about Pelusium. _Curtius_, bk. 4,
ch. 7.――――Cornelia, a maritime town of Africa, between Carthage and
Utica. _Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 7.――――Annibalis, a town of the Brutii, now
_Rocella_.――――Cyri, a country of Cilicia, where Cyrus encamped when
he marched against Crœsus. _Curtius_, bk. 3, ch. 4.――――Julia, a town
of Spain.――――Posthumania, a place of Spain. _Hirtius_, _Hispanic
War_, ch. 8.
=Castratius=, a governor of Placentia during the civil wars of Marius.
_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 6, ch. 2.
=Castrum Novum=, a place on the coast of Etruria. _Livy_, bk. 36,
ch. 3.――――Truentinum, a town of Picenum. _Cicero_, _Letters to
Atticus_, bk. 8, ltr. 12.――――Inui, a town on the shores of the
Tyrrhene sea. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 775.
=Castŭlo=, a town of Spain, where Annibal married one of the natives.
_Plutarch_, _Sertorius_.――_Livy_, bk. 24, ch. 41.――_Silius Italicus_,
bk. 3, lis. 99 & 391.
=Catabathmos=, a great declivity near Cyrene fixed by Sallust as
the boundary of Africa. _Sallust_, _Jugurthine War_, chs. 17 & 19.
――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 5.
=Catadūpa=, the name of the large cataracts of the Nile, whose immense
noise stuns the ears of travellers for a short space of time, and
totally deprives the neighbouring inhabitants of the power of hearing.
_Cicero_, _Somnium Scipionis_, ch. 5.
=Catagogia=, festivals in honour of Venus, celebrated by the people of
Eryx. _See:_ Anagogia.
=Catamenteles=, a king of the Sequani, in alliance with Rome, &c.
_Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 1, ch. 3.
=Catăna=, a town of Sicily at the foot of mount Ætna, founded by a
colony from Chalcis, 753 years before the christian era. Ceres had
there a temple, in which none but women were permitted to appear.
It was large and opulent, and it is rendered remarkable for the
dreadful overthrows to which it has been subjected from its vicinity
to Ætna, which has discharged, in some of its eruptions, a stream
of lava four miles broad and 50 feet deep, advancing at the rate of
seven miles in a day. Catana contains now about 30,000 inhabitants.
_Cicero_, _Against Verres_, bk. 4, ch. 53; bk. 5, ch. 84.――_Diodorus_,
bks. 11 & 14.――_Strabo_, bk. 6.――_Thucydides_, bk. 6, ch. 3.
=Cataonia=, a country above Cilicia, near Cappadocia. _Cornelius
Nepos_, _Datames_, ch. 4.
=Cataracta=, a city of the Samnites.
=Cataractes=, a river of Pamphylia, now _Dodensoui_.
=Catĕnes=, a Persian by whose means Bessus was seized. _Curtius_,
bk. 7, ch. 43.
=Cathæa=, a country of India.
=Cathări=, certain gods of the Arcadians.――――An Indian nation, where
the wives accompany their husbands to the burning pile, and are
burnt with them. _Diodorus_, bk. 17.
=Catia=, an immodest woman, mentioned _Horace_, bk. 1, satire 2,
li. 95.
=Catiēna=, a courtesan in Juvenal’s age. _Juvenal_, satire 3, li. 133.
=Catiēnus=, an actor at Rome in Horace’s age, bk. 2, satire 3, li. 61.
=Lucius Sergius Cătĭlīna=, a celebrated Roman, descended of a noble
family. When he had squandered away his fortune by his debaucheries
and extravagance, and been refused the consulship, he secretly
meditated the ruin of his country, and conspired with many of
the most illustrious of the Romans, as dissolute as himself, to
extirpate the senate, plunder the treasury, and set Rome on fire.
This conspiracy was timely discovered by the consul Cicero, whom
he had resolved to murder; and Catiline, after he had declared his
intentions in the full senate, and attempted to vindicate himself,
on seeing five of his accomplices arrested, retired to Gaul,
where his partisans were assembling an army; while Cicero at Rome
punished the condemned conspirators. Petreius, the other consul’s
lieutenant, attacked Catiline’s ill-disciplined troops, and routed
them. Catiline was killed in the engagement, bravely fighting, about
the middle of December, B.C. 63. His character has been deservedly
branded with the foulest infamy; and to the violence he offered to
a vestal, he added the more atrocious murder of his own brother,
for which he would have suffered death, had not friends and bribes
prevailed over justice. It has been reported that Catiline and the
other conspirators drank human blood, to make their oaths more firm
and inviolable. _Sallust_ has written an account of the conspiracy.
_Cicero_, _Against Catiline_.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8, li. 668.
=Catilli=, a people near the river Anio. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 4,
li. 225.
=Catilius=, a pirate of Dalmatia. _Cicero_, _Letters to his Friends_,
bk. 5, ch. 10.
=Catillus=, or =Catilus=, a son of Amphiaraus, who came to Italy with
his brothers Coras and Tiburtus, where he built Tibur, and assisted
Turnus against Æneas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 672.――_Horace_,
bk. 1, ode 18, li. 2.
=Catīna=, a town of Sicily, called also Catana. _See:_ Catana.
――――Another of Arcadia.
=M. Catius=, an epicurean philosopher of Insubria, who wrote a
treatise in four books, on the nature of things, and the _summum
bonum_, and an account of the doctrine and tenets of Epicurus.
But as he was not a sound or faithful follower of the epicurean
philosophy, he has been ridiculed by _Horace_, bk. 2, satire 4.
――_Quintilian_, bk. 10, ch. 1.――――Vestinus, a military tribune in
Marcus Antony’s army. _Cicero_, _Letters to his Friends_, bk. 10,
ch. 23.
=Catizi=, a people of the Pygmæans, supposed to have been driven from
their country by cranes. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 11.
=Cato=, a surname of the Porcian family, rendered illustrious by Marcus
Porcius Cato, a celebrated Roman, afterwards called _Censorius_,
from his having exercised the office of censor. He rose to all
the honours of the state, and the first battle he ever saw was
against Annibal, at the age of 17, where he behaved with uncommon
valour. In his questorship, under Africanus against Carthage, and
in his expedition in Spain against the Celtiberians, and in Greece,
he displayed equal proofs of his courage and prudence. He was
remarkable for his love of temperance; he never drank but water, and
was always satisfied with whatever meats were laid upon his table by
his servants, whom he never reproved with an angry word. During his
censorship, which he obtained, though he had made many declarations
of his future severity if ever in office, he behaved with the
greatest rigour and impartiality, showed himself an enemy to all
luxury and dissipation, and even accused his colleague of embezzling
the public money. He is famous for the great opposition which he
made against the introduction of the finer arts of Greece into Italy,
and his treatment of Carneades is well known. This prejudice arose
from an apprehension that the learning and luxury of Athens would
destroy the valour and simplicity of the Roman people; and he often
observed to his son, that the Romans would be certainly ruined
whenever they began to be infected with Greek. It appears, however,
that he changed his opinion, for he made himself remarkable for the
knowledge of Greek, which he acquired in his old age. He himself
educated his son, and instructed him in writing and grammar. He
taught him dexterously to throw the javelin, and inured him to
the labours of the field, and to bear cold and heat with the same
indifference, and to swim across the most rapid rivers with ease and
boldness. He was universally deemed so strict in his morals, that
Virgil makes him one of the judges of hell. He repented only of
three things during his life; to have gone by sea when he could go
by land, to have passed a day inactive, and to have told a secret
to his wife. A statue was raised to his memory, and he distinguished
himself as much for his knowledge of agriculture as for his
political life. In Cicero’s age there were 50 orations of his,
besides letters, and a celebrated work called _Origines_, of which
the first book gave a history of the Roman monarchy; the second and
third an account of the neighbouring cities of Italy; the fourth
a detail of the first, and the fifth of the second Punic war; and
in the others the Roman history was brought down to the war of the
Lusitanians, carried on by Servius Galba. Some fragments of the
_Origines_ remain, supposed by some to be supposititious. Cato’s
treatise, _De Re Rusticâ_, was edited by Auson. Pompna, 8vo, Antwerp,
Plantin, 1590; but the best edition of Cato, &c., seems to be
Gesner’s, 2 vols., 4to, Lipscomb, 1735. Cato died in extreme old
age, about 150 B.C.; and Cicero, to show his respect for him,
has introduced him in his treatise on old age, as the principal
character. _Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 14. _Plutarch_ & _Cornelius Nepos_
have written an account of his life. _Cicero_, _Academica_ & _De
Senectute_, &c.――――Marcus, the son of the Censor, married the
daughter of Paullus Æmylius. He lost his sword in a battle, and
though wounded and tired, he went to his friends, and, with their
assistance, renewed the battle, and recovered his sword. _Plutarch_,
_Cato_.――――A courageous Roman, grandfather to Cato the censor. He
had five horses killed under him in battles. _Plutarch_, _Cato_.
――――Valerius, a grammarian of Gallia Narbonensis, in the time
of Sylla, who instructed at Rome many noble pupils, and wrote
some poems. _Ovid_, bk. 2, _Tristia_, poem 1, li. 436.――――Marcus,
surnamed _Uticensis_, from his death at Utica, was great grandson to
the censor of the same name. The early virtues that appeared in his
childhood seemed to promise a great man; and, at the age of 14, he
earnestly asked his preceptor for a sword, to stab the tyrant Sylla.
He was austere in his morals, and a strict follower of the tenets of
the Stoics; he was careless of his dress, often appeared barefooted
in public, and never travelled but on foot. He was such a lover
of discipline, that in whatever office he was employed, he always
reformed its abuses, and restored the ancient regulations. When
he was set over the troops in the capacity of a commander, his
removal was universally lamented, and deemed almost a public loss
by his affectionate soldiers. His fondness for candour was so great,
that the veracity of Cato became proverbial. In his visits to his
friends, he wished to give as little molestation as possible; and
the importuning civilities of king Dejotarus so displeased him when
he was at his court, that he hastened away from his presence. He was
very jealous of the safety and liberty of the republic, and watched
carefully over the conduct of Pompey, whose power and influence
were great. He often expressed his dislike to serve the office of
tribune; but when he saw a man of corrupted principles apply for
it, he offered himself a candidate to oppose him, and obtained the
tribuneship. In the conspiracy of Catiline, he supported Cicero, and
was the chief cause that the conspirators were capitally punished.
When the provinces of Gaul were decreed for five years to Cæsar,
Cato observed to the senators that they had introduced a tyrant into
the Capitol. He was sent to Cyprus against Ptolemy, who had rebelled,
by his enemies, who hoped that the difficulty of the expedition
would injure his reputation. But his prudence extricated him from
every danger. Ptolemy submitted, and after a successful campaign,
Cato was received at Rome with the most distinguishing honours,
which he, however, modestly declined. When the first triumvirate was
formed between Cæsar, Pompey, and Crassus, Cato opposed them with
all his might, and with an independent spirit foretold to the Roman
people all the misfortunes which soon after followed. After repeated
applications he was made pretor, but he seemed rather to disgrace
than support the dignity of that office, by the meanness of his
dress. He applied for the consulship, but could never obtain it.
When Cæsar had passed the Rubicon, Cato advised the Roman senate to
deliver the care of the republic into the hands of Pompey; and when
his advice had been complied with, he followed him with his son to
Dyrrachium, where, after a small victory there, he was entrusted
with the care of the ammunition, and of 15 cohorts. After the battle
of Pharsalia, Cato took the command of the Corcyrean fleet; and when
he heard of Pompey’s death on the coast of Africa, he traversed the
deserts of Libya, to join himself to Scipio. He refused to take the
command of the army in Africa, a circumstance of which he afterwards
repented. When Scipio had been defeated, partly for not paying
regard to Cato’s advice, Cato fortified himself in Utica, but,
however, not with the intentions of supporting a siege. When Cæsar
approached near the city, Cato disdained to fly, and rather than
fall alive into the conqueror’s hands, he stabbed himself after he
had read Plato’s treatise on the immortality of the soul, B.C. 46,
in the 59th year of his age. He had first married Attilia, a woman
whose licentious conduct obliged him to divorce her. Afterwards he
united himself to Martia daughter of Philip. Hortensius, his friend,
wished to raise children by Martia, and therefore obtained her
from Cato. After the death of Hortensius, Cato took her again. This
conduct was ridiculed by the Romans, who observed that Martia had
entered the house of Hortensius very poor, but returned to the bed
of Cato loaded with treasures. It was observed that Cato always
appeared in mourning, and never laid himself down at his meals
since the defeat of Pompey, but always sat down, contrary to the
custom of the Romans, as if depressed with the recollection that
the supporters of republican liberty were decaying. _Plutarch_
has written an account of his life. _Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 128, &c.
――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 2, ch. 10.――_Horace_, bk. 3, ode 21.
――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 841; bk. 8, li. 670.――――A son of
Cato of Utica, who was killed in a battle after he had acquired much
honour. _Plutarch_, _Cato Minor_.
=Catrea=, a town of Crete. _Pausanias._
=Catreus=, a king of Crete, killed by his son at Rhodes, unknowingly.
_Diodorus_, bk. 5.
=Catta=, a woman who had the gift of prophecy. _Suetonius_, _Vitellius_,
ch. 14.
=Catti=, a people of Gaul and Germany. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 13,
li. 57.
=Catuliāna=, a surname of Minerva, from Lutatius Catulus, who dedicated
a standard to her. _Pliny_, bk. 34, ch. 8.
=Catullus Caius=, or =Quintus Valerius=, a poet of Verona, whose
compositions, elegant and simple, are the offspring of a luxuriant
imagination. He was acquainted with the most distinguished people of
his age, and directed his satire against Cæsar, whose only revenge
was to invite the poet, and hospitably entertain him at his table.
Catullus was the first Roman who imitated with success the Greek
writers, and introduced their numbers among the Latins. Though
the pages of the poet are occasionally disfigured with licentious
expressions, the whole is written with great purity of style.
Catullus died in the 46th year of his age, B.C. 40. The best
editions of his works, which consist only of epigrams, are that of
Vulpius, 4to, Patavii, 1737, and that of Barbou, 12mo, Paris, 1754.
_Martial_, bk. 1, ltr. 62.――_Ovid_, _Tristia_, bk. 2, li. 427.――――A
man surnamed _Urbicarius_, was a mimographer. _Juvenal_, satire 13,
li. 111.
=Quintus Luctatius Catŭlus=, went with 300 ships during the first
Punic war against the Carthaginians, and destroyed 600 of their
ships under Hamilcar, near the Ægates. This celebrated victory put
an end to the war.――――An orator, distinguished also as a writer of
epigrams, and admired for the neatness, elegance, and polished style
of his compositions. He is supposed to be the same as the colleague
of Marius, when a consul the fourth time; and he shared with him the
triumph over the Cimbri. He was, by his colleague’s order, suffocated
in a room filled with the smoke of burning coals. _Lucan_, bk. 2, li.
174.――_Plutarch_, _Caius Marius_.――――A Roman sent by his countrymen
to carry a present to the god of Delphi, from the spoils taken from
Asdrubal. _Livy_, bk. 27.
=Caturĭges=, a people of Gaul, now _Chorges_, near the source of the
Durance. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 1, ch. 10.――_Pliny_, bk. 3,
ch. 20.
=Cavares=, a people of Gaul, who inhabited the present province of
_Comtat_ in Provence.
=Cavarillus=, a commander of some troops of the Ædui in Cæsar’s army.
_Cæsar_. _Gallic War_, bk. 7, ch. 67.
=Cavarinus=, a Gaul, made king of the Senones by Cæsar, and banished
by his subjects. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 5, ch. 54.
=Caucăsus=, a celebrated mountain between the Euxine and Caspian seas,
which may be considered as the continuation of the ridge of mount
Taurus. Its height is immense. It was inhabited anciently by various
savage nations who lived upon the wild fruits of the earth. It was
covered with snow in some parts, and in others it was variegated
with fruitful orchards and plantations. The inhabitants formerly
were supposed to gather gold on the shores of their rivulets
in sheepskins, but they now live without making use of money.
Prometheus was tied on the top of Caucasus by Jupiter, and
continually devoured by vultures, according to ancient authors.
The passes near this mountain, called _Caucasiæ portæ_, bear now
the name of _Derbent_, and it is supposed that through them the
Sarmatians, called Huns, made their way, when they invaded the
provinces of Rome. _Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 11.――_Strabo_, bk. 11.
――_Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 203, &c.――_Virgil_, _Eclogues_, poem 6;
_Georgics_, ch. 2, li. 440; _Æneid_, bk. 4, li. 366.――_Flaccus_,
bk. 5, li. 155.
=Caucon=, a son of Clinus, who first introduced the Orgies into
Messenia from Eleusis. _Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 1.
=Caucones=, a people of Paphlagonia, originally inhabitants of Arcadia,
or of Scythia, according to some accounts. Some of them made a
settlement near Dymæ in Elis. _Herodotus_, bk. 1, &c.――_Strabo_,
bk. 8, &c.
=Caudi= and =Caudium=, a town of the Samnites, near which, in a
place called _Caudinæ Furculæ_, the Roman army under Titus Veturius
Calvinus and Spurius Posthumius was obliged to surrender to the
Samnites, and pass under the yoke with the greatest disgrace. _Livy_,
bk. 2, ch. 1, &c.――_Lucan_, bk. 2, li. 138.
=Cavii=, a people of Illyricum. _Livy_, bk. 44, ch. 30.
=Caulonia=, or =Caulon=, a town of Italy near the country of the
Brutii, founded by a colony of Achæans, and destroyed in the wars
between Pyrrhus and the Romans. _Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 3.――_Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 553.
=Caunius=, a man raised to affluence from poverty by Artaxerxes.
_Plutarch_, _Artaxerxes_.
=Caunus=, a son of Miletus and Cyane. He was passionately fond of, or,
according to others, he was tenderly beloved by, his sister Byblis,
and to avoid an incestuous commerce, he retired to Caria, where
he built a city called by his own name. _See:_ Byblis. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 9, fable 11.――――A city of Caria, opposite
Rhodes, where Protogenes was born. The climate was considered as
unwholesome, especially in summer, so that Cicero mentions the cry
of a person who sold Caunian figs, which were very famous (_qui
Cauneas clamitabat_), at Brundusium, as a bad omen (_cave ne eas_)
against Crassus going to attack the Parthians. _Cicero_, _de
Divinatione_, bk. 2, ch. 4.――_Strabo_, bk. 14.――_Herodotus_, bk. 1,
ch. 176.
=Cauros=, an island with a small town formerly called Andros, in the
Ægean sea. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.
=Caurus=, a wind blowing from the west. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 3,
li. 356.
=Caus=, a village of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 25.
=Caȳci=, or =Chauci=, a nation of Germany, now the people of Friesland
and Groningen. _Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 463.
=Caȳcus=, a river of Mysia. _See:_ Caicus.
=Cayster=, or =Caystrus=, now _Kitcheck-Meinder_, a rapid river of
Asia, rising in Lydia, and, after a meandering course, falling into
the Ægean sea near Ephesus. According to the poets, the banks and
neighbourhood of this river were generally frequented by swans.
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 2, li. 253; bk. 5, li. 386.――_Martial_,
bk. 1, ltr. 54.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2, li. 461.――_Virgil_,
_Georgics_, bk. 1, li. 384.
=Cea=, or =Ceos=, an island near Eubœa, called also Co. _See:_ Co.
=Ceădes=, a Thracian, whose son Euphemus was concerned in the Trojan
war. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2.
=Ceba=, now _Ceva_, a town of modern Piedmont, famous for cheese.
_Pliny_, bk. 11, ch. 42.
=Ceballīnus=, a man who gave information of the snares laid against
Alexander. _Diodorus_, bk. 17.――_Curtius_, bk. 6, ch. 7.
=Cebarenses=, a people of Gaul. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 36.
=Cebenna=, mountains of Gaul, now the Cevennes, separating the Arverni
from the Helvii, extending from the Garonne to the Rhone. _Cæsar_,
_Gallic War_, bk. 7, ch. 8.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 5.
=Cebes=, a Theban philosopher, one of the disciples of Socrates,
B.C. 405. He attended his learned preceptor in his last moments,
and distinguished himself by three dialogues that he wrote; but more
particularly by his tables, which contain a beautiful and affecting
picture of human life, delineated with accuracy of judgment and
great splendour of sentiment. Little is known of the character of
Cebes from history. Plato mentions him once, and Xenophon the same,
but both in a manner which conveys most fully the goodness of his
heart and the purity of his morals. The best editions of Cebes are
those of Gronovius, 8vo, 1689; and Glasgow, 12mo, 1747.
=Cebren=, the father of Asterope. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 21.
=Cebrēnia=, a country of Troas with a town of the same name, called
after the river _Cebrenus_, which is in the neighbourhood. Œnone
the daughter of the Cebrenus receives the patronymic of _Cebrenis_.
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 11, li. 769.――_Statius_, bk. 1, _Sylvæ_,
bk. 5, li. 21.
=Cebriŏnes=, one of the giants conquered by Venus.――――An illegitimate
son of Priam, killed with a stone by Patroclus. _Homer_, _Iliad_.
=Cebrus=, now _Zebris_, a river falling in a southern direction into
the Danube, and dividing Lower from Upper Mœsia.
=Cecidas=, an ancient dithyrambic poet.
=Cecilius.= _See:_ Cæcilius.
=Cecīna=, a river near Volaterra in Etruria. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 4.
=A. Cecinna=, a Roman knight in the interest of Pompey, who used to
breed up young swallows, and send them to carry news to his friends
as messengers. He was a particular friend of Cicero, with whom
he corresponded. Some of his letters are still extant in Cicero.
_Pliny_, bk. 10, ch. 24.――_Cicero_, bk. 15, ltr. 66; _Orator_,
ch. 29.――――A scribe of Octavius Cæsar. _Cicero_, bk. 16, _Letters
to Atticus_, ltr. 8.――――A consular man suspected of conspiracy
and murdered by Titus, after an invitation to supper. _Suetonius_,
_Titus_, ch. 6.
=Cecrŏpia=, the original name of Athens, in honour of Cecrops, its
first founder. The ancients often use this word for Attica, and the
Athenians are often called _Cecropidæ_. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6,
li. 21.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, li. 671; _Fasti_, bk. 2, li.
81.――_Lucan_, bk. 3, li. 306.――_Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 56.――_Catullus_,
poems 62, 79.――_Juvenal_, satire 6, li. 186.
=Cecrŏpĭdæ=, an ancient name of the Athenians, more particularly
applied to those who were descended from Cecrops the founder of
Athens. The honourable name of Cecropidæ was often conferred as a
reward for some virtuous action in the field of battle. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 21.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, li. 671.
=Cecrops=, a native of Sais in Egypt, who led a colony to Attica about
1556 years before the christian era, and reigned over part of the
country which was called from him Cecropia. He softened and polished
the rude and uncultivated manners of the inhabitants, and drew them
from the country to inhabit 12 small villages which he had founded.
He gave them laws and regulations, and introduced among them the
worship of those deities which were held in adoration in Egypt. He
married the daughter of Actæus, a Grecian prince, and was deemed
the first founder of Athens. He taught his subjects to cultivate
the olive, and instructed them to look upon Minerva as the watchful
patroness of their city. It is said that he was the first who raised
an altar to Jupiter in Greece, and offered him sacrifices. After
a reign of 50 years, spent in regulating his newly formed kingdom,
and in polishing the minds of his subjects, Cecrops died, leaving
three daughters, Aglauros, Herse, and Pandrosos. He was succeeded
by Cranaus, a native of the country. Some time after, Theseus, one
of his successors on the throne, formed the 12 villages which he had
established into one city, to which the name of Athens was given.
_See:_ Athenæ. Some authors have described Cecrops as a monster,
half a man and half a serpent; and this fable is explained by the
recollection that he was master of two languages, the Greek and the
Egyptian; or that he had the command over two countries, Egypt and
Greece. Others explain it by an allusion to the regulations which
Cecrops made amongst the inhabitants concerning marriage and the
union of the two sexes. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 5.――_Strabo_, bk. 9.
――_Justin_, bk. 2, ch. 6.――_Herodotus_, bk. 8, ch. 44.――_Apollodorus_,
bk. 3, ch. 14.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 11, li. 561.――_Hyginus_,
fable 166.――――The second of that name was the seventh king of Athens,
and the son and successor of Erechtheus. He married Metiadusa the
sister of Dædalus, by whom he had Pandion. He reigned 40 years, and
died 1307 B.C. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 15.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1,
ch. 5.
=Cecyphalæ=, a place of Greece, where the Athenians defeated the fleet
of the Peloponnesians. _Thucydides_, bk. 1, ch. 105.
=Cedreātis=, the name of Diana among the Orchomenians, because her
images were hung on lofty cedars.
=Cedon=, an Athenian general, killed in an engagement against the
Spartans. _Diodorus_, bk. 15.
=Cedrusii=, an Indian nation. _Curtius_, bk. 9, ch. 11.
=Ceglŭsa=, the mother of Asopus by Neptune. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 12.
=Cei=, the inhabitants of the island Cea.
=Celădon=, a man killed by Perseus, at the marriage of Andromeda.
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, li. 144.――――A river of Greece,
flowing into the Alpheus. _Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 7,
li. 133.
=Celădus=, a river of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 38.――――An
island of the Adriatic sea. _Mela_, bk. 3, ch. 1.
=Celænæ=, or =Celēne=, a city of Phrygia, of which it was once the
capital. Cyrus the younger had a palace there, with a park filled
with wild beasts, where he exercised himself in hunting. The Mæander
arose in this park. Xerxes built a famous citadel there after
his defeat in Greece. The inhabitants of Celænæ were carried by
Antiochus Soter to people Apamea when newly founded. _Strabo_,
bk. 12.――_Livy_, bk. 38, ch. 13.――_Xenophon_, _Anabasis_, bk. 1.
Marsyas is said to have contended in its neighbourhood against
Apollo. _Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 26.――_Lucan_, bk. 3, li. 206.
=Celæno=, one of the daughters of Atlas, ravished by Neptune. _Ovid_,
_Fasti_, bk. 4, li. 173.――――One of the Harpies, daughter of Neptune
and Terra. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 245.――――One of the Danaides.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 1.――――A daughter of Neptune and Ergea.
_Hyginus._――――A daughter of Hyamus, mother of Delphus by Apollo.
_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 6.
=Celeæ=, a town of Peloponnesus. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 14.
=Celeia= and =Cela=, a town of Noricum. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 24.
=Celelates=, a people of Liguria. _Livy_, bk. 32, ch. 29.
=Celendræ=, =Celendris=, and =Celenderis=, a colony of the Samians in
Cilicia, with a harbour of the same name at the mouth of the Selinus.
_Lucan_, bk. 8, li. 259.
=Celeneus=, a Cimmerian, who first taught how persons guilty of murder
might be expiated. _Flaccus_, bk. 3, li. 406.
=Celenna=, or =Celæna=, a town of Campania, where Juno was worshipped.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 739.
=Celer=, a man who, with Severus, ♦undertook to rebuild Nero’s palace
after the burning of Rome. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 15, ch. 42.――――A
man called Fabius, who killed Remus when he leaped over the walls
of Rome, by order of Romulus. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 4, li. 837.
――_Plutarch_, _Romulus_.――――Metius, a noble youth to whom Statius
dedicated a poem.
♦ ‘untook’ replaced with ‘undertook’
=Celĕres=, 300 of the noblest and strongest youths at Rome, chosen by
Romulus to be his body-guards, to attend him wherever he went, and
to protect his person. The chief or captain was called _Tribunus
Celerum_. _Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 15.
=Celetrum=, a town of Macedonia. _Livy_, bk. 31, ch. 40.
=Celeus=, a king of Eleusis, father to Triptolemus by Metanira. He
gave a kind reception to Ceres, who taught his son the cultivation
of the earth. _See:_ Triptolemus. His rustic dress became a proverb.
The invention of several agricultural instruments made of osiers is
attributed to him. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 4, li. 508; bk. 5, li. 269.
――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 1, li. 165.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 5.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 14.――――A king of Cephallenia.
=Celmus=, a man who nursed Jupiter, by whom he was greatly esteemed.
He was changed into a magnet stone for saying that Jupiter was
mortal. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 4, li. 281.
=Celonæ=, a place of Mesopotamia. _Diodorus_, bk. 17.
=Celsus=, an epicurean philosopher in the second century, to whom
Lucian dedicated one of his compositions. He wrote a treatise
against the christians, to which an answer was returned by Origen.
――――Cornelius, a physician in the age of Tiberius, who wrote eight
books on medicine, besides treatises on agriculture, rhetoric, and
military affairs. The best editions of Celsus _de medicinâ_ are the
8vo, Leiden, 1746, and that of Vallart, 12mo, Paris, apud Didot,
1772.――――Albinoyanus, a friend of Horace, warned against plagiarism,
bk. 1, ltr. 3, li. 15, and pleasantly ridiculed, in the eighth
epistle, for his foibles. Some of his elegies have been preserved.
――――Juventius, a lawyer who conspired against Domitian.――――Titus,
a man proclaimed emperor, A.D. 265, against his will, and murdered
seven days after.
=Celtæ=, a name given to the nation that inhabited the country between
the Ocean and the Palus Mæotis, according to some authors mentioned
by _Plutarch_, _Caius Marius_. This name, though anciently applied
to the inhabitants of Gaul, as well as of Germany and Spain, was
more particularly given to a part of the Gauls, whose country,
called Gallia Celtica, was situate between the rivers Sequana and
Garumna, modernly called _la Seine_ and _la Garonne_. The Celtæ
seemed to receive their name from Celtus, a son of Hercules or of
Polyphemus. The promontory which bore the name of _Celticum_ is now
called Cape Finisterre. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 1, ch. 1, &c.
――_Mela_, bk. 3, ch. 2.――_Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 49.
=Celtĭbēri=, a people of Spain, descended from the Celtæ. They settled
near the Iberus, and added the name of the river to that of their
nation, and were afterwards called Celtiberi. They made strong head
against the Romans and Carthaginians when they invaded their country.
Their country, called _Celtiberia_, is now known by the name of
Arragon. _Diodorus_, bk. 6.――_Florus_, bk. 2, ch. 17.――_Strabo_,
bk. 4.――_Lucan_, bk. 4, li. 10.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 3, li. 339.
=Celtĭca=, a well-populated part of Gaul, inhabited by the Celtæ.
=Celtĭci=, a people of Spain. The promontory which bore their name is
now _Cape Finisterre_.
=Celtillus=, the father of Vercingetorix among the Arverni. _Cæsar_,
_Gallic War_, bk. 7, ch. 4.
=Celtorii=, a people of Gaul, near the Senones. _Plutarch._
=Celtoscy̆thæ=, a northern nation of Scythians. _Strabo_, bk. 10.
=Cemmĕnus=, a lofty mountain of Gaul. _Strabo._
=Cempsi=, a people of Spain at the bottom of the Pyrenean mountains.
_Dionysius Periegetes_, li. 358.
=Cenăbum=, or =Genăbum=. _See:_ Genabum.
=Cenæum=, a promontory of Eubœa, where Jupiter _Cæneus_ had an
altar raised by Hercules. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 9, li. 136.
――_Thucydides_, bk. 3, ch. 93.
=Cenchreæ=, now _Kenkri_, a town of Peloponnesus on the isthmus of
Corinth.――――A harbour of Corinth. _Ovid_, _Tristia_, bk. 1, poem 9,
li. 9.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 4.
=Cenchreis=, the wife of Cinyras king of Cyprus, or, as others say, of
Assyria. _Hyginus_, fable 58.
=Cenchreus=, a son of Neptune and Salamis, or, as some say, of Pyrene.
He killed a large serpent at Salamas. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 2.
――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.
=Cenchrius=, a river of Ionia near Ephesus, where some suppose that
Latona was washed after she had brought forth. _Tacitus_, _Annals_,
bk. 3, ch. 61.
=Cenepŏlis=, a town of Spain, the same as Carthago Nova. _Polybius._
=Cenetium=, a town of Peloponnesus. _Strabo._
=Cenneus.= _See:_ Cænis.
=Cenimāgni=, a people on the western parts of Britain.
=Cenīna.= _See:_ Cænina.
=Cenon=, a town of Italy. _Livy_, bk. 2, ch. 63.
=Censōres=, two magistrates of great authority at Rome, first created
B.C. 443. Their office was to number the people, estimate the
possessions of every citizen, reform and watch over the manners of
the people, and regulate the taxes. Their power was also extended
over private families; they punished irregularity, and inspected
the management and education of the Roman youth. They could inquire
into the expenses of every citizen, and even degrade a senator from
all his privileges and honours, if guilty of any extravagance. This
punishment was generally executed in passing over the offender’s
name in calling the list of the senators. The office of public
censor was originally exercised by the kings. Servius Tullius, the
sixth king of Rome, first established a _census_, by which every
man was obliged to come to be registered, and give in writing the
place of his residence, his name, his quality, the number of his
children, of his tenants, estates, and domestics, &c. The ends of
the census were very salutary to the Roman republic. They knew their
own strength, their ability to support a war, or to make a levy of
troops, or raise a tribute. It was required that every knight should
be possessed of 400,000 sesterces to enjoy the rights and privileges
of his order; and a senator was entitled to sit in the senate,
if he was really worth 800,000 sesterces. This laborious task of
numbering and reviewing the people was, after the expulsion of the
Tarquins, one of the duties and privileges of the consuls. But when
the republic was become more powerful, and when the number of its
citizens was increased, the consuls were found unable to make the
census, on account of the multiplicity of business. After it had
been neglected for 16 years, two new magistrates called censors were
elected. They remained in office for five years, and every fifth
year they made a census of all the citizens in the Campus Martius,
and offered a solemn sacrifice, and made a lustration in the name
of all the Roman people. This space of time was called a _lustrum_,
and 10 or 20 years were commonly expressed by two or four lustra.
After the office of the censors had remained for some time unaltered,
the Romans, jealous of their power, abridged the duration of their
office, and a law was made, A.U.C. 420, by Mamercus Æmilius, to
limit the time of the censorship to 18 months. After the second
Punic war, they were always chosen from such persons as had been
consuls; their office was more honourable, though less powerful,
than that of the consuls; the badges of their office were the same,
but the censors were not allowed to have lictors to walk before them
as the consuls. When one of the censors died, no one was elected
in his room till the five years were expired, and his colleague
immediately resigned. This circumstance originated from the death of
a censor before the sacking of Rome by Brennus, and was ever deemed
an unfortunate event to the republic. The emperors abolished the
censors, and took upon themselves to execute their office.
=Censorīnus, Appius Claudius=, was compelled, after many services to
the state, to assume the imperial purple by the soldiers, by whom
he was murdered some days after, A.D. 270.――――Martius, a consul, to
whom, as a particular friend, _Horace_ addressed his bk. 4, ode 8.
――――A grammarian of the third century, whose book, _De Die Natali_,
is extant, best edited in 8vo, by Havercamp, Leiden, 1767. It treats
of the birth of man, of years, months, and days.
=Census=, the numbering of the people at Rome, performed by the censors;
_à censeo_, to value. _See:_ Censores.――――A god worshipped at Rome,
the same as Consus.
=Centaretus=, a Galatian, who, when Antiochus was killed, mounted
his horse in the greatest exultation. The horse, as if conscious of
disgrace, immediately leaped down a precipice, and killed himself
and his rider. _Pliny_, bk. 8, ch. 42.
=Centaurī=, a people of Thessaly, half men and half horses. They were
the offspring of Centaurus son of Apollo, by Stilbia daughter of the
Peneus. According to some, the Centaurs were the fruit of Ixion’s
adventure with the cloud in the shape of Juno, or, as others assert,
of the union of Centaurus with the mares of Magnesia. This fable of
the existence of the Centaurs, monsters supported upon the four legs
of a horse, arises from the ancient people of Thessaly having tamed
horses, and having appeared to their neighbours mounted on horseback,
a sight very uncommon at that time, and which, when at a distance,
seems only one body, and consequently one creature. Some derive the
name ἀπο του κεντειν ταυρους, _goading bulls_, because they went
on horseback after their bulls which had strayed, or because they
hunted wild bulls with horses. Some of the ancients have maintained
that monsters like the Centaurs can have existed in the natural
course of things. Plutarch, _Convivium Septem Sapientium_ mentions
one seen by Periander tyrant of Corinth; and Pliny, bk. 7, ch. 3,
says that he saw one embalmed in honey, which had been brought to
Rome from Egypt in the reign of Claudius. The battle of the Centaurs
with the Lapithæ is famous in history. Ovid has elegantly described
it, and it has also employed the pen of ♦Hesiod, Valerius Flaccus,
&c.; and Pausanias in _Elis_ says it was represented in the temple
of Jupiter at Olympia, and also at Athens by Phidias and Parrhasius,
according to Pliny, bk. 36, ch. 5. The origin of the battle was
a quarrel at the marriage of Hippodamia with Pirithous, where the
Centaurs, intoxicated with wine, behaved with rudeness, and even
offered violence to the women that were present. Such an insult
irritated Hercules, Theseus, and the rest of the Lapithæ, who
defended the women, wounded and defeated the Centaurs, and obliged
them to leave their country, and retire to Arcadia. Here their
insolence was a second time punished by Hercules, who, when he was
going to hunt the boar of Erymanthus, was kindly entertained by the
Centaur Pholus, who gave him wine which belonged to the rest of the
Centaurs, but had been given them on condition of their treating
Hercules with it whenever he passed through their territory. They
resented the liberty which Hercules took with their wine, and
attacked him with uncommon fury. The hero defended himself with
his arrows, and defeated his adversaries, who fled for safety to
the Centaur Chiron. Chiron had been the preceptor of Hercules, and
therefore they hoped that he would desist in his presence. Hercules,
though awed at the sight of Chiron, did not desist, but in the midst
of the engagement, he wounded his preceptor in the knee, who, in
the excessive pain he suffered, exchanged immortality for death. The
death of Chiron irritated Hercules the more, and the Centaurs that
were present were all extirpated by his hand, and indeed few escaped
the common destruction. The most celebrated of the Centaurs were
Chiron, Eurytus, Amycus, Gryneus, Caumas, Lycidas, Arneus, Medon,
Rhœtus, Pisenor, Mermeros, Pholus, &c. _Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Tzetzes_,
_Historiarum variarum Chiliades_, bk. 9, ch. 237.――_Hesiod_, _Shield
of Heracles_.――_Homer_, _Iliad_ & _Odyssey_.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 12.――_Strabo_, bk. 9.――_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 10, &c.――_Ælian_,
_Varia Historia_, bk. 11, ch. 2.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 3;
bk. 5.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 286.――_Hyginus_, fables 33
& 62.――_Pindar_, _Pythian_, li. 2.
♦ ‘Hesoid’ replaced with ‘Hesiod’
=Centaurus=, a ship in the fleet of Æneas, which had the figure of a
Centaur. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 5, li. 122.
=Centobrica=, a town of Celtiberia. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 5, ch. 1.
=Centŏres=, a people of Scythia. _Flaccus._
=Centoripa=, or =Centuripa=. _See:_ Centuripa.
=Centrites=, a river between Armenia and Media.
=Centrones=, a people of Gaul, severely beaten by Julius Cæsar when
they attempted to obstruct his passage. They inhabited the modern
country of _Tarantaise_ in Savoy. There was a horde of Gauls of the
same name subject to the Nervii, now supposed to be near _Courtray_
in Flanders. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 1, ch. 10; bk. 5, ch. 38.
――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 20.
=Centronius=, a man who squandered his immense riches on useless and
whimsical buildings. _Juvenal_, satire 14, li. 86.
♦=Centum cellum=, a seaport town of Etruria built by Trajan, who had
there a villa. It is now _Civita Vecchia_, and belongs to the pope.
_Pliny the Younger_, bk. 6, ltr. 51.
♦ Placed in correct alphabetical order.
=Centumvĭri=, the members of a court of justice at Rome. They were
originally chosen, three from the 35 tribes of the people, and
though 105, they were always called Centumvirs. They were afterwards
increased to the number of 180, and still kept their original name.
The pretor sent to their tribunal causes of the greatest importance,
as their knowledge of the law was extensive. They were generally
summoned by the Decemviri, who seemed to be the chiefest among them;
and they assembled in the Basilica, or public court, and had their
tribunal distinguished by a spear with an iron head, whence a decree
of their court was called _Hastæ judicium_: their sentences were
very impartial, and without appeal. _Cicero_, _On Oratory_, bk. 1,
ch. 38.――_Quintilian_, bks. 4, 5, & 11.――_Pliny the Younger_, bk. 6,
ltr. 33.
=Centŭria=, a division of the people among the Romans, consisting of
100. The Roman people were originally divided into three tribes, and
each tribe into 10 curiæ. Servius Tullius made a census; and when he
had enrolled the place of habitation, name, and profession of every
citizen, which amounted to 80,000 men, all able to bear arms, he
divided them into six classes, and each class into several centuries,
or companies of 100 men. The first class consisted of 80 centuries,
40 of which were composed of men from the age of 45 and upwards,
appointed to guard the city. The 40 others were young men, from 17
to 45 years of age, appointed to go to war, and fight the enemies of
Rome. Their arms were all the same; that is, a buckler, a cuirass, a
helmet, cuishes of brass, with a sword, a lance, and a javelin; and
as they were of the most illustrious citizens, they were called, by
way of eminence, _Classici_, and their inferiors _infra classem_.
They were to be worth 1,100,000 _asses_, a sum equivalent to 1800_l._
English money. The second, third, and fourth classes, consisted each
of 20 centuries, 10 of which were composed of the more aged, and the
others of the younger sort of people. Their arms were a large shield,
a spear, and a javelin; they were to be worth in the second class,
75,000 _asses_, or about 121_l._ In the third, 50,000, or about
80_l._; and in the fourth, 25,000, or about 40_l._ The fifth class
consisted of 30 centuries, three of which were carpenters by trade,
and the others of different professions, such as were necessary in
the camp. They were all armed with slings and stones. They were to
be worth 11,000 _asses_, or about 18_l._ The sixth class contained
only one centuria, comprising the whole body of the poorest
citizens, who were called _Proletarii_, as their only service to
the state was procreating children. They were also called _capite
censi_, as the censor took notice of their person, not of their
estate. In the public assemblies in the Campus Martius, at the
election of public magistrates, or at the trial of capital crimes,
the people gave their vote by centuries, whence the assembly was
called _comitia centuriata_. In these public assemblies, which were
never convened but only by the consuls at the permission of the
senate, or by the dictator in the absence of the consuls, some of
the people appeared under arms, for fear of an attack from some
foreign enemy. When a law was proposed in the public assemblies,
its necessity was explained, and the advantages it would produce
to the state were enlarged upon in a harangue; after which it was
exposed in the most conspicuous parts of the city three market-days,
that the people might see and consider. Exposing it to public view,
was called _proponere legem_, and explaining it, _promulgare legem_.
He who merely proposed it, was called _lator legis_; and he who
dwelt upon its importance and utility, and wished it to be enforced,
was called _auctor legis_. When the assembly was to be held, the
auguries were consulted by the consul, who, after haranguing the
people, and reminding them to have in view the good of the republic,
dismissed them to their respective centuries, that their votes
might be gathered. They gave their votes _vivâ voce_, till the year
of Rome A.U.C. 615, when they changed the custom, and gave their
approbation or disapprobation by ballots thrown into an urn. If the
first class was unanimous, the others were not consulted, as the
first was superior to all the others in number; but if they were
not unanimous, they proceeded to consult the rest, and the majority
decided the question. This advantage of the first class gave
offence to the rest; and it was afterwards settled, that one class
of the six should be drawn by lot, to give its votes first, without
regard to rank or priority. After all the votes had been gathered,
the consul declared aloud, that the law which had been proposed
was duly and constitutionally approved. The same ceremonies
were observed in the election of consuls, pretors, &c. The word
_Centuria_ is also applied to a subdivision of one of the Roman
legions which consisted of 100 men, and was the half of a manipulus,
the sixth part of a cohort, and the sixtieth part of a legion.
The commander of a centuria was called _centurion_, and he was
distinguished from the rest by a branch of a vine which he carried
in his hand.
=Centŭrĭpa= (es, or æ, arum), now _Centorlu_, a town of Sicily at
the foot of mount Ætna. _Cicero_, _Against Verres_, bk. 4, ch. 23.
――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 14, li. 205.――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 8.
=Ceos= and =Cea=, an island. _See:_ Co.
=Cephălas=, a lofty promontory of Africa near the Syrtis Major.
_Strabo._
=Cephaledion=, a town of Sicily near the river Himera. _Pliny_, bk. 3,
ch. 8.――_Cicero_, _Against Verres_, bk. 2, ch. 52.
=Cephallen=, a noble musician, son of Lampus. _Pausanias_, bk. 10,
ch. 7.
=Cephalēna= and =Cephallenia=, an island in the Ionian sea, below
Corcyra, whose inhabitants went with Ulysses to the Trojan war. It
abounds in oil and excellent wines. It was anciently divided into
four different districts, from which circumstance it received the
name of Tetrapolis. It is about 90 miles in circumference, and from
its capital Samo, or Samos, it has frequently been called Same.
――_Strabo_, bk. 10.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.
――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2.――_Thucydides_, bk. 2, ch. 30.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 6, ch. 15.
=Cephălo=, an officer of Eumenes. _Diogenes Laërtius_, bk. 19.
=Cephaloedis= and =Cephaludium=, now _Cephalu_, a town at the north
of Sicily. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 14, li. 253.――_Cicero_, bk. 2,
_Against Verres_, ch. 51.
=Cephălon=, a Greek of Ionia, who wrote a history of Troy, besides
an epitome of universal history from the age of Ninus to Alexander,
which he divided into nine books, inscribed with the name of the
nine muses. He affected not to know the place of his birth, expecting
it would be disputed like Homer’s. He lived in the reign of Adrian.
=Cĕphălus=, son of Deioneus king of Thessaly, by Diomede daughter
of Xuthus, married Procris, daughter of Erechtheus king of Athens.
Aurora fell in love with him, and carried him away; but he refused
to listen to her addresses, and was impatient to return to Procris.
The goddess sent him back; and to try the fidelity of his wife, she
made him put on a different form, and he arrived at the house of
Procris in the habit of a merchant. Procris was deaf to every offer;
but she suffered herself to be seduced by the gold of this stranger,
who discovered himself the very moment that Procris had yielded up
her virtue. This circumstance so ashamed Procris, that she fled from
her husband, and devoted herself to hunting in the island of Eubœa,
where she was admitted among the attendants of Diana, who presented
her with a dog always sure of his prey, and a dart which never
missed its aim, and always returned to the hands of its mistress
of its own accord. Some say that the dog was a present from Minos,
because Procris had cured his wounds. After this Procris returned
in disguise to Cephalus, who was willing to disgrace himself by
some unnatural concessions to obtain the dog and the dart of Procris.
Procris discovered herself at the moment that Cephalus showed
himself faithless, and a reconciliation was easily made between
them. They loved one another with more tenderness than before, and
Cephalus received from his wife the presents of Diana. As he was
particularly fond of hunting, he every morning early repaired to
the woods, and after much toil and fatigue, laid himself down in
the cool shade, and earnestly called for _Aura_, or the refreshing
breeze. This ambiguous word was mistaken for the name of a mistress;
and some informer reported to the jealous Procris that Cephalus
daily paid a visit to a mistress, whose name was Aura. Procris too
readily believed the information, and secretly followed her husband
into the woods. According to his daily custom, Cephalus retired
to the cool, and called after Aura. At the name of Aura, Procris
eagerly lifted up her head to see her expected rival. Her motion
occasioned rustling among the leaves of a bush that concealed her;
and as Cephalus listened, he thought it to be a wild beast, and
he let fly his unerring dart. ♦Procris was struck to the heart,
and instantly expired in the arms of her husband, confessing that
ill-grounded jealousy was the cause of her death. According to
Apollodorus, there were two persons of the name of Cephalus; one,
son of Mercury and Herse, carried away by Aurora, with whom he
dwelt in Syria, and by whom he had a son called Tithonus. The other
married Procris, and was the cause of the tragical event mentioned
above. Cephalus was father of Arcefius by Procris, and of Phaeton,
according to Hesiod, by Aurora. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 7,
fable 26.――_Hyginus_, fable 189.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 15.――――A
Corinthian lawyer, who assisted Timoleon in regulating the republic
of Syracuse. _Diodorus_, bk. 16.――_Plutarch_, _Timoleon_.――――A king
of Epirus. _Livy_, bk. 43, ch. 18.――――An orator frequently mentioned
by Demosthenes.
♦ ‘Procus’ replaced with ‘Procris’
=Cephēis=, a name given to Andromeda as daughter of Cepheus. _Ovid_,
_Ars Amatoria_, bk. 1, li. 193.
=Cephēnes=, an ancient name of the Persians. _Herodotus_, bk. 7,
ch. 61.――――A name of the Æthiopians, from Cepheus, one of their
kings. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, li. 1.
=Cēpheus=, a king of Æthiopia, father of Andromeda by Cassiope. He
was one of the Argonauts, and was changed into a constellation after
his death. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 4, li. 669; bk. 5, li. 12.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 35; bk. 8, ch. 4.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1,
ch. 9; bk. 2, chs. 1, 4, & 7; bk. 3, ch. 9, mentions one, son of
Aleus, and another, son of Belus. The former he makes king of Tegea
and father of Sterope; and says that he, with his 12 sons, assisted
Hercules in a war against Hippocoon, where they were killed. The
latter he calls king of Æthiopia and father of Andromeda.――――A
son of Lycurgus, present at the chase of the Calydonian boar.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 8.
=Cephīsia=, a part of Attica, through which the Cephisus flows.
_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 7.
=Cephīsiădes=, a patronymic of Eteocles son of Andreus and Evippe, from
the supposition of his being the son of the Cephisus. _Pausanias_,
bk. 9, ch. 34.
=Cephisidōrus=, a tragic poet of Athens in the age of Æschylus.――――An
historian who wrote an account of the Phocian war.
=Cephīsion=, the commander of some troops sent by the Thebans to assist
Megalopolis, &c. _Diodorus_, bk. 16.
=Cephisodŏtus=, a disciple of Isocrates, a great reviler of Aristotle,
who wrote a book of proverbs. _Athenæus_, bk. 2.
=Cephīsus= and =Cephissus=, a celebrated river of Greece, that rises
at Lilæa in Phocis, and after passing at the north of Delphi and
mount Parnassus, enters Bœotia, where it flows into the lake Copais.
The Graces were particularly fond of this river, whence they are
called the goddesses of the Cephisus. There was a river of the same
name in Attica, and another in Argolis. _Strabo_, bk. 9.――_Pliny_,
bk. 4, ch. 7.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 24.――_Homer_, _Iliad_,
bk. 2, li. 29.――_Lucan_, bk. 3, li. 175.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 1, li. 369; bk. 3, li. 19.――――A man changed into a sea monster
by Apollo, when lamenting the death of his grandson. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, li. 388.
=Cephren=, a king of Egypt, who built one of the pyramids. _Diodorus_,
bk. 1.
=Cepio=, or =Cæpio=, a man who, by a quarrel with Drusus, caused
a civil war at Rome, &c.――――Servilius, a Roman consul, who put
an end to the war in Spain. He took gold from a temple, and for
that sacrilege the rest of his life was always unfortunate. He was
conquered by the Cimbrians, his goods were publicly confiscated, and
he died at last in prison.
=Cepion=, a musician. _Plutarch_, _de Musica_.
=Ceraca=, a town of Macedonia. _Polybius_, bk. 5.
=Ceracates=, a people of Germany. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 4, ch. 70.
=Cerambus=, a man changed into a beetle, or, according to others, into
a bird, on mount Parnassus, by the nymphs, before the deluge. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, fable 9.
=Ceramīcus=, now _Keramo_, a bay of Caria, near Halicarnassus,
opposite Cos, receiving its name from Ceramus. _Pliny_, bk. 5,
ch. 29.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 16.――――A public walk, and a place to
bury those that were killed in defence of their country, at Athens.
_Cicero_, _Letters to Atticus_, bk. 1, ltr. 10.
=Cerămium=, a place of Rome, where Cicero’s house was built. _Cicero_,
_Letters to Atticus_.
=Cerămus=, a town at the west of Asia Minor.
=Ceras=, a people of Cyprus metamorphosed into bulls.
=Cerăsus= (untis), now _Keresoun_, a maritime city of Cappadocia, from
which cherries were first brought to Rome by Lucullus. _Marcellinus_,
bk. 22, ch. 13.――_Pliny_, bk. 15, ch. 25; bk. 16, ch. 18; bk. 17,
ch. 14.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 19.――――Another, built by a Greek colony
from Sinope. _Diodorus_, bk. 14.
=Cerata=, a place near Megara.
=Cerātus=, a river of Crete.
=Ceraunia=, a town of Achaia.
=Ceraunia= and =Ceraunii=, large mountains of Epirus, extending far
into the sea, and forming a promontory which divides the Ionian
and Adriatic seas. They are the same as the Acroceraunia. _See:_
Acroceraunium.――――Mount Taurus is also called Ceraunius. _Pliny_,
bk. 5, ch. 27.
=Ceraunii=, mountains of Asia, opposite the Caspian sea. _Mela_, bk. 1,
ch. 19.
=Ceraunus=, a river of Cappadocia.――――A surname of Ptolemy II., from
his boldness. _Cornelius Nepos_, _Kings_, ch. 3.
=Cerausius=, a mountain of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 41.
=Cerbalus=, a river of Apulia. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 11.
=Cerberion=, a town of the Cimmerian Bosphorus. _Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 6.
=Cerbĕrus=, a dog of Pluto, the fruit of Echidna’s union with Typhon.
He had 50 heads according to Hesiod, and three according to other
mythologists. He was stationed at the entrance into hell, as a
watchful keeper, to prevent the living from entering the infernal
regions, and the dead from escaping from their confinement. It
was usual for those heroes, who in their lifetime visited Pluto’s
kingdom, to appease the barking mouths of Cerberus with a cake.
Orpheus lulled him to sleep with his lyre; and Hercules dragged
him from hell when he went to redeem Alceste. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 5, li. 134; bk. 6, li. 417.――_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 11,
li. 622.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 31; bk. 3, ch. 25.――_Hesiod_,
_Theogony_, li. 312.――_Tibullus_, bk. 1, poem 10, li. 35.
=Cercăphus=, a son of Æolus.――――A son of Sol, of great power at Rhodes.
_Diodorus_, bk. 5.
=Cercasōrum=, a town of Egypt, where the Nile divides itself into the
Pelusian and Canopic mouths. _Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 15.
=Cercēis=, one of the Oceanides. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 355.
=Cercēne=, a country of Africa. _Diodorus_, bk. 2.
=Cercestes=, a son of Ægyptus and Phœnissa. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2,
ch. 1.
=Cercides=, a native of Megalopolis, who wrote iambics. _Athenæus_,
bk. 10.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 13.
=Cercii=, a people of Italy.
=Cercina= and =Cercinna=, a small island of the Mediterranean, near
the smaller Syrtis, on the coast of Africa. _Tacitus_, bk. 1,
_Annals_, ch. 53.――_Strabo_, bk. 17.――_Livy_, bk. 33, ch. 48.
――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 7.――――A mountain of Thrace, towards Macedonia.
_Thucydides_, bk. 2, ch. 98.
=Cercinium=, a town of Macedonia. _Livy_, bk. 31, ch. 41.
=Cercius= and =Rhetius=, charioteers of Castor and Pollux.
=Cercōpes=, a people of Ephesus, made prisoners by Hercules.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 6.――――The inhabitants of the island
Pithecusa, changed into monkeys on account of their dishonesty.
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 14, li. 91.
=Cercops=, a Milesian, author of a fabulous history mentioned by
Athenæus.――――A Pythagorean philosopher.
=Cercyon= and =Cercyŏnes=, a king of Eleusis, son of Neptune, or,
according to others, of Vulcan. He obliged all strangers to wrestle
with him; and as he was a dexterous wrestler, they were easily
conquered and put to death. After many cruelties, he challenged
Theseus in wrestling, and he was conquered and put to death by his
antagonist. His daughter Alope was loved by Neptune, by whom she had
a child. Cercyon exposed the child, called Hippothoon; but he was
preserved by a mare, and afterwards placed upon his grandfather’s
throne by Theseus. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, li. 439.
――_Hyginus_, fable 187.――_Plutarch_, _Theseus_.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1,
chs. 5 & 39.
=Cercȳra= and =Corcȳra=, an island in the Ionian sea, which receives
its name from Cercyra daughter of Asopus. _Diodorus_, bk. 4.
=Cerdylium=, a place near Amphipolis. _Thucydides_, bk. 5, ch. 6.
=Cereālia=, festivals in honour of Ceres; first instituted at Rome by
Memmius the edile, and celebrated on the 19th of April. Persons in
mourning were not permitted to appear at the celebration; therefore
they were not observed after the battle of Cannæ. They are the same
as the Thesmophoria of the Greeks. _See:_ Thesmophoria.
=Ceres=, the goddess of corn and of harvests, was daughter of Saturn
and Vesta. She had a daughter by Jupiter, whom she called Pherephata,
_fruit-bearing_, and afterwards Proserpine. This daughter was
carried away by Pluto, as she was gathering flowers in the plains
near Enna. The rape of Proserpine was grievous to Ceres, who sought
her all over Sicily; and when night came, she lighted two torches in
the flames of mount Ætna, to continue her search by night all over
the world. She at last found her veil near the fountain Cyane; but
no intelligence could be received of the place of her concealment,
till at last the nymph Arethusa informed her that her daughter
had been carried away by Pluto. No sooner had Ceres heard this,
than she flew to heaven with her chariot drawn by two dragons, and
demanded of Jupiter the restoration of her daughter. The endeavours
of Jupiter to soften her by representing Pluto as a powerful god,
to become her son-in-law, proved fruitless, and the restoration was
granted, provided Proserpine had not eaten anything in the kingdom
of Pluto. Ceres upon this repaired to Pluto, but Proserpine had
eaten the grains of a pomegranate which she had gathered as she
walked over the Elysian fields, and Ascalaphus, the only one who had
seen her, discovered it to make his court to Pluto. The return of
Proserpine upon earth was therefore impracticable; but Ascalaphus,
for his unsolicited information, was changed into an owl. _See:_
Ascalaphus. The grief of Ceres for the loss of her daughter was so
great, that Jupiter granted Proserpine to pass six months with her
mother, and the rest of the year with Pluto. During the inquiries of
Ceres for her daughter, the cultivation of the earth was neglected,
and the ground became barren; therefore, to repair the loss which
mankind had suffered by her absence, the goddess went to Attica,
which was become the most desolate country in the world, and
instructed Triptolemus of Eleusis in everything which concerned
agriculture. She taught him how to plough the ground, to sow and
reap the corn, to make bread, and to take particular care of the
fruit trees. After these instructions, she gave him her chariot
and commanded him to travel all over the world, and communicate his
knowledge of agriculture to the rude inhabitants, who hitherto lived
upon acorns and the roots of the earth. _See:_ Triptolemus. Her
beneficence to mankind made Ceres respected. Sicily was supposed to
be the favourite retreat of the goddess, and Diodorus says that
she and her daughter made their first appearance to mankind in
Sicily, which Pluto received as a nuptial dowry from Jupiter when he
married Proserpine. The Sicilians made a yearly sacrifice to Ceres,
every man according to his abilities; and the fountain of Cyane,
through which Pluto opened himself a passage with his trident when
carrying away Proserpine, was publicly honoured with an offering of
bulls, and the blood of the victims was shed in the waters of the
fountain. Besides these, other ceremonies were observed in honour
of the goddesses who had so peculiarly favoured the island. The
commemoration of the rape was celebrated about the beginning of
the harvest, and the search of Ceres at the time that corn is sown
in the earth. The latter festival continued six successive days;
and during the celebration, the votaries of Ceres made use of some
free and wanton expressions, as that language had made the goddess
smile while melancholy for the loss of her daughter. Attica, which
had been so eminently distinguished by the goddess, gratefully
remembered her favours in the celebration of the Eleusinian
mysteries. _See:_ Eleusinia. Ceres also performed the duties of a
legislator, and the Sicilians found the advantages of her salutary
laws; hence her surname of Thesmophora. She is the same as the Isis
of the Egyptians, and her worship, it is said, was first brought
into Greece by Erechtheus. She met with different adventures when
she travelled over the earth, and the impudence of Stellio was
severely punished. To avoid the importunities of Neptune, she changed
herself into a mare; but the god took advantage of the metamorphosis,
and from their union arose the horse Arion. _See:_ Arion. The birth
of this monster so offended Ceres, that she withdrew herself from
the sight of mankind; and the earth would have perished for want
of her assistance, had not Pan discovered her in Arcadia, and given
information of it to Jupiter. The Parcæ were sent by the god to
comfort her, and at their persuasion she returned to Sicily, where
her statues represented her veiled in black, with the head of a
horse, and holding a dove in one hand, and in the other a dolphin.
In their sacrifices the ancients offered Ceres a pregnant sow, as
that animal often injures and destroys the productions of the earth.
While the corn was yet in the grass, they offered her a ram, after
the victim had been led three times round the field. Ceres was
represented with a garland of ears of corn on her head, holding
in one hand a lighted torch, and in the other a poppy, which was
sacred to her. She appears as a countrywoman mounted on the back
of an ox, and carrying a basket on her left arm, and holding a
hoe; and sometimes she rides in a chariot drawn by winged dragons.
She was supposed to be the same as Rhea, Tellus. Cybele, Bona
Dea, Berecynthia, &c. The Romans paid her great adoration, and her
festivals were yearly celebrated by the Roman matrons in the month
of April, during eight days. These matrons abstained during several
days from the use of wine and every carnal enjoyment. They always
bore lighted torches in commemoration of the goddess; and whoever
came to these festivals without a previous initiation, was punished
with death. _Ceres_ is metaphorically called _bread_ and _corn_,
as the word _Bacchus_ is frequently used to signify _wine_.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 5; bk. 2, ch. 1; bk. 3, chs. 12 & 14.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 31; bk. 2, ch. 34; bk. 3, ch. 23;
bk. 8, ch. 25, &c.――_Diodorus_, bk. 1, &c.――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_.
――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 4, li. 417; _Metamorphoses_, fables 7,
8, &c.――_Claudian_, _de Raptu Proserpinæ_.――_Cicero_, _Against
Verres_.――_Callimachus_, _Hymn to Demeter_.――_Livy_, bks. 29
& 31.――_Statius_, _Thebiad_, bk. 12.――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_,
bk. 1, ch. 33.――_Hyginus_, _Poeticon Astronomicon_, bk. 2.
=Ceressus=, a place of Bœotia. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 14.
=Cerĕtæ=, a people of Crete.
=Ceriālis Anicius=, a consul elect, who wished a temple to be raised
to Nero, as to a god, after the discovery of the Pisonian conspiracy,
&c. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 15, ch. 74.
=Cerii=, a people of Etruria.
=Cerilli=, or =Carillæ=, now _Cirella_, a town of the Brutii near the
Laus. _Strabo_, bk. 6.
=Cerillum=, a place of Lucania. _Strabo_, bk. 6.――_Silius Italicus_,
bk. 8, li. 580.
=Cerinthus=, now _Zero_, a town of Eubœa, whose inhabitants went
to the Trojan war, headed by Elphenor son of Chalcedon. _Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 2, li. 45.――_Strabo_, bk. 10.――――A beautiful youth,
long the favourite of the Roman ladies, and especially of Sulpitia,
&c. _Horace_, bk. 1, _Statius_, bk. 2, li. 81.――――One of the early
heretics from christianity.
=Cermanus=, a place where Romulus was exposed by one of the servants
of Amulius. _Plutarch_, _Romulus_.
=Cerne=, an island without the pillars of Hercules, on the African
coast. _Strabo_, bk. 1.――_Pliny_, bks. 5 & 6.
=Cernes=, a priest of Cybele.
=Ceron=, a fountain of Histiæotis, whose waters rendered black all the
sheep that drank of them. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 2.
=Ceropasades=, a son of Phraates king of Persia, given as a hostage to
Augustus.
=Cerossus=, a place of the Ionian sea.
=Cerpheres=, a king of Egypt, who is supposed to have built the
smallest pyramid.
=Cerrhæi=, a people of Greece, who profaned the temple of Delphi.
_Plutarch_, _Solon_.
=Cerretāni=, a people of Spain that inhabited the modern district of
Cerdana in Catalonia. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 3.
=Cersobleptes=, a king of Thrace, conquered by Philip king of
Macedonia. _Polyænus_, bk. 7, ch. 31.
=Certima=, a town of Celtiberia. _Livy_, bk. 40, ch. 47.
=Certonium=, a town of Asia Minor.
=Cervarius=, a Roman knight who conspired with Piso against Nero.
_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 15, ch. 50.
=Publius Cervius=, an officer under Verres. _Cicero_, _Against Verres_,
speech 5, ch. 44.
=Ceryces=, a sacerdotal family at Athens. _Thucydides_, bk. 8, ch. 53.
=Cerycius=, a mountain of Bœotia. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 20.
=Cerymīca=, a town of Cyprus. _Diodorus._
=Cerynēa=, a town of Achaia.――――A mountain of Arcadia. _Pausanias_,
bk. 7, ch. 25.
=Cerynītes=, a river of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 25.
=Cesellius Balsus=, a turbulent Carthaginian, who dreamt of money, and
persuaded Nero that immense treasures had been deposited by Dido in
a certain place, which he described. Inquiry was made, and when no
money was found, Cesellius destroyed himself. _Tacitus_, _Annals_,
bk. 16, ch. 1, &c.
=Cesennia=, an infamous prostitute, born of an illustrious family at
Rome. _Juvenal_, satire 6, li. 135.
=Cestius=, an epicurean of Smyrna, who taught rhetoric at Rhodes, in
the age of Cicero.――――A governor of Syria. _Tacitus_, _Histories_,
bk. 5.――――Severus, an informer under Nero. _Tacitus_, _Histories_,
bk. 4.――――Proculus, a man acquitted of an accusation of embezzling
the public money. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 30.――――A bridge at Rome.
=Cestrīna=, a part of Epirus. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 23.
=Cestrīnus=, a son of Helenus and Andromache. After his father’s
death he settled in Epirus, above the river Thyamis, and called the
country Cestrina. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 11.
=Cetes=, king of Egypt, the same as Proteus. _Diodorus_, bk. 1.
=Cethēgus=, the surname of one of the branches of the Cornelii.
――――Marcus, a consul in the second Punic war. _Cicero_, _Brutus_.
――――A tribune at Rome, of the most corrupted morals, who joined
Catiline in his conspiracy against the state, and was commissioned
to murder Cicero. He was apprehended, and, with Lentulus, put to
death by the Roman senate. _Plutarch_, _Cicero_, &c.――――A Trojan,
killed by Turnus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 12, li. 513.――――Publius
Cornelius, a powerful Roman, who embraced the party of Marius
against Sylla. His mistress had obtained such an ascendancy over
him, that she distributed his favours, and Lucullus was not ashamed
to court her smiles, when he wished to be appointed general against
Mithridates.――――A senator put to death for adultery under Valentinian.
=Cetii=, a people of Cilicia.
=Cetius=, a river of Mysia.――――A mountain which separates Noricum from
Pannonia.
=Ceto=, a daughter of Pontus and Terra, who married Phorcys, by
whom she had the three Gorgons, &c. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 237.
――_Lucian_, bk. 9, li. 646.
=Ceus= and =Cæus=, a son of Cœlus and Terra, who married Phœbe, by
whom he had Latona and Asteria. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 135.
――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 4, li. 179.――――The father of Trœzen.
_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2, li. 354.
=Cēyx=, a king of Trachinia, son of Lucifer and husband of Alcyone.
He was drowned as he went to consult the oracle of Claros. His wife
was apprised of his misfortune in a dream, and found his dead body
washed on the sea-shore. They were both changed into birds, called
Alcyons. _See:_ Alcyone. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 11, li. 587.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 32. According to _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch.
7; bk. 2, ch. 7, the husband of Alcyone and the king of Trachinia
were two different persons.
=Chea=, a town of Peloponnesus.
=Chabinus=, a mountain of Arabia Felix. _Diodorus_, bk. 3.
=Chabria=, a village of Egypt.
=Chabrias=, an Athenian general and philosopher, who chiefly signalized
himself when he assisted the Bœotians against Agesilaus. In this
celebrated campaign, he ordered his soldiers to put one knee upon
the ground, and firmly to rest their spear upon the other, and cover
themselves with their shields, by which means he daunted the enemy,
and had a statue raised to his honour in that same posture. He
assisted also Nectanebus king of Egypt, and conquered the whole
island of Cyprus; but he at last fell a sacrifice to his excessive
courage, and despised to fly from his ship, when he had it in his
power to save his life like his companions, B.C. 376. _Cornelius
Nepos_, _De Viris Illustribus_.――_Diodorus_, bk. 16.――_Plutarch_,
_Phocion_.
=Chabryis=, a king of Egypt. _Diodorus_, bk. 1.
=Chæanitæ=, a people at the foot of ♦Caucasus.
♦ ‘Causacus’ replaced with ‘Caucasus’
=Chæreas=, an Athenian who wrote on agriculture.――――An officer who
murdered Caligula, A.D. 41, to prevent the infamous death which was
prepared against himself.――――An Athenian, &c. _Thucydides_, bk. 8,
ch. 74, &c.
=Chæredemus=, a brother of Epicurus, &c. _Diogenes Laërtius._
=Chærēmon=, a comic poet, and disciple of Socrates.――――A stoic, who
wrote on the Egyptian priests.
=Chærĕphon=, a tragic poet of Athens, in the age of Philip of Macedonia.
=Chærestrăta=, the mother of Epicurus, descended of a noble family.
=Chærinthus=, a beautiful youth, &c. _Horace_, bk. 1, satire 2, li. 81.
=Chærippus=, an extortioner, &c. _Juvenal_, satire 8, li. 96.
=Chæro=, the founder of Chæronea. _Plutarch_, _Sulla_.
=Chæronia=, =Chæronea=, and =Cherronea=, a city of Bœotia, on the
Cephisus, celebrated for a defeat of the Athenians by the Bœotians,
B.C. 447, and for the victory which Philip of Macedonia obtained
there with 32,000 men over the confederate army of the Thebans and
the Athenians, consisting of 30,000 men, the 2nd of August, B.C.
338. Plutarch was born there. The town was anciently called Arne.
_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 40.――_Plutarch_, _Pelopidas_, &c.――_Strabo_,
bk. 9.
=Chalæon=, a city of Locris.――――A port of Bœotia.
=Chales=, a herald of Busiris, put to death by Hercules. _Apollodorus_,
bk. 2, ch. 5.
=Chalcæa=, a town of Caria,――――of Phœnicia.
=Chalcea=, an island with a town near Rhodes. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 3.
――――A festival at Athens. _See:_ Panathenæa.
=Chalcēdon= and =Chalcēdŏnia=, now _Kadi-Keni_, an ancient city of
Bithynia, opposite Byzantium, built by a colony from Megara, headed
by Argias, B.C. 685. It was first called Procerastis, and afterwards
Colpusa. Its situation, however, was so improperly chosen that it
was called the city of blind men, intimating the inconsiderate plan
of the founders. _Strabo_, bk. 7.――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 32.――_Mela_,
bk. 1, ch. 19.
=Chalcidēne=, a part of Syria, very fruitful. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 23.
=Chalcidenses=, the inhabitants of the isthmus between Teos and
Erythræ.――――A people near the Phasis.
=Chalcideus=, a commander of the Lacedæmonian fleet killed by the
Athenians, &c. _Thucydides_, bk. 8, ch. 8.
=Chalcidĭca=, a country of Thrace,――――of Syria.
=Chalcidĭcus= (of _Chalcis_), an epithet applied to Cumæ in Italy, as
built by a colony from Chalcis. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 17.
=Chalciœus=, a surname of Minerva, because she had a temple at Chalcis
in Eubœa. She was also called Chalciotis and Chalcidica.
=Chalciŏpe=, a daughter of Æetes king of Colchis, who married Phryxus
son of Athamas, who had fled to her father’s court for protection.
She had some children by Phryxus, and she preserved her life from
the avarice and cruelty of her father, who had murdered her husband
to obtain the golden fleece. _See:_ Phryxus. _Ovid_, _Heroides_,
poem 17, li. 232.――_Hyginus_, fable 14, &c.――――The mother of
Thessalus by Hercules. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――――The daughter
of Rhexenor, who married Ægeus. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 1.
=Chalcis=, now _Egripo_, the chief city of Eubœa, in that part which
is nearest to Bœotia. It was founded by an Athenian colony. The
island is said to have been anciently joined to the continent in
the neighbourhood of Chalcis. There were three other towns of the
same name, in Thrace, Acarnania, and Sicily, all belonging to the
Corinthians. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.――_Strabo_, bk. 10.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 5, ch. 23.――_Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 3, ch. 10.
=Chalcītis=, a country of Ionia. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 5.
=Chalcŏdon=, a son of Ægyptus by Arabia. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 1.
――――A man of Cos, who wounded Hercules. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 7.
――――The father of Elephenor, one of the Grecian chiefs in the Trojan
war. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 15.――――A man who assisted Hercules in
his war against Augias. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 15.
=Chalcon=, a Messenian, who reminded Antilochus son of Nestor to be
aware of the Æthiopians, by whom he was to perish.
=Chalcus=, a man made governor of Cyzicus by Alexander. _Polyænus._
=Chaldæa=, a country of Asia between the Euphrates and Tigris.
Its capital is Babylon, whose inhabitants were famous for their
knowledge of astrology, _Cicero_, _de Divinatione_, bk. 1, ch. 1.
――_Diodorus_, bk. 2.――_Strabo_, bk. 2.――_Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 28.
=Chaldæi=, the inhabitants of Chaldæa.
=Chalestra=, a town of Macedonia. _Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 123.
=Chalonītis=, a country of Media.
=Chaly̆bes= and =Caly̆bes=, a people of Asia Minor, near Pontus,
once very powerful, and possessed of a great extent of country,
abounding in iron mines, where the inhabitants worked naked. The
Calybes attacked the 10,000 in their retreat, and behaved with
much spirit and courage. They were partly conquered by Crœsus
king of Lydia. Some authors imagine that the Calybes are a nation
of Spain. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8, li. 421.――_Strabo_, bk. 12,
&c.――_Apollonius_, bk. 2, li. 375.――_Xenophon_, _Anabasis_, bk. 4,
&c.――_Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 28.――_Justin_, bk. 44, ch. 3.
=Chalybon=, now supposed to be _Aleppo_, a town of Syria, which gave
the name of _Chalybonitis_ to the neighbouring country.
=Chalybonītis=, a country of Syria, so famous for its wines that the
king of Persia drank no other.
=Chalybs=, a river of Spain, where _Justin_, bk. 44, ch. 3, places the
people called Calybes.
=Chamani= and =Chamaviri=, a people of Germany. _Tacitus_, _Germania_.
=Chane=, a river between Armenia and Albania, falling into the Caspian
sea.
=Chaon=, a mountain of Peloponnesus.――――A son of Priam. _See:_ Chaonia.
=Chaŏnes=, a people of Epirus.
=Chaŏnia=, a mountainous part of Epirus, which receives its name from
Chaon, a son of Priam, inadvertently killed by his brother Helenus.
There was a wood near, where doves (_Chaoniæ aves_) were said to
deliver oracles. The words _Chaonius victus_ are by ancient authors
applied to acorns, the food of the first inhabitants. _Lucan_,
bk. 6, li. 426.――_Claudian_, _de Raptu Proserpinæ_, bk. 3, li. 47.
――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 335.――_Propertius_, bk. 1, poem 9.
――_Ovid_, _Ars Amatoria_, bk. 1.
=Chaonitis=, a country of Assyria.
=Chaos=, a rude and shapeless mass of matter, and confused assemblage
of inactive elements, which, as the poets suppose, pre-existed the
formation of the world, and from which the universe was formed by
the hand and power of a superior being. This doctrine was first
established by Hesiod, from whom the succeeding poets have copied it;
and it is probable that it was obscurely drawn from the account of
Moses, by being copied from the annals of Sanchoniathon, whose age
is fixed antecedent to the siege of Troy. Chaos was deemed by some
as one of the oldest of the gods, and invoked as one of the infernal
deities. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 4, li. 510.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 1, fable 1.
=Charădra=, a town of Phocis. _Herodotus_, bk. 8, ch. 33.
=Charadros=, a river of Phocis, falling into the Cephisus. _Statius_,
_Thebiad_, bk. 4, li. 46.
=Charădrus=, a place of Argos where military causes were tried.
_Thucydides_, bk. 5, ch. 60.
=Choræadas=, an Athenian general, sent with 20 ships to Sicily during
the Peloponnesian war. He died 426 B.C., &c. _Thucydides_, bk. 3,
ch. 86.
=Charandæi=, a people near Pontus.
=Charax=, a town of Armenia.――――A philosopher of Pergamus, who wrote a
history of Greece in 40 books.
=Charaxes= and =Charaxus=, a Mitylenean, brother to Sappho, who became
passionately fond of the courtesan Rhodope, upon whom he squandered
all his possessions, and reduced himself to poverty, and the
necessity of piratical excursions. _Ovid_, _Heroides_, poem 17,
li. 117.――_Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 135, &c.
=Charuxus=, one of the centaurs. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12,
li. 272.
=Chares=, an Athenian general.――――A statuary of Lindus, who was 12
years employed in making the famous Colossus of Rhodes. _Pliny_,
bk. 34, ch. 7.――――A man who wounded Cyrus when fighting against his
brother Artaxerxes.――――An historian of Mitylene, who wrote a life of
Alexander.――――An Athenian who fought with Darius against Alexander.
_Curtius_, bk. 4, ch. 5.――――A river of Peloponnesus. _Plutarch_,
_Aratus_.
=Charĭcles=, one of the 30 tyrants set over Athens by the Lacedæmonians.
_Xenophon_, _Memorabilia_, bk. 1.――_Aristotle_, _Politics_, bk. 5,
ch. 6.――――A famous physician under Tiberius. _Tacitus_, _Annals_,
bk. 6, ch. 50.
=Chariclīdes=, an officer of Dionysius the younger, whom Dion gained
to dethrone the tyrant. _Diodorus_, bk. 16.
=Charĭclo=, the mother of Tiresias, greatly favoured by Minerva.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 6.――――A daughter of Apollo, who married
the centaur Chiron. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 2, li. 635.
=Charidēmus=, a Roman exposed to wild beasts. _Martial_, bk. 1, ltr.
44.――――An Athenian banished by Alexander, and killed by Darius, &c.
=Charĭla=, a festival observed once in nine years by the Delphians. It
owes its origin to this circumstance: In a great famine the people
of Delphi assembled and applied to their king to relieve their wants.
He accordingly distributed the little corn which he had among the
noblest; but as a poor little girl, called Charila, begged the king
with more than common earnestness, he beat her with his shoe, and
the girl, unable to bear his treatment, hanged herself in her girdle.
The famine increased; and the oracle told the king that, to relieve
his people, he must atone for the murder of Charila. Upon this a
festival was instituted, with expiatory rites. The king presided
over this institution, and distributed pulse and corn to such as
attended. Charila’s image was brought before the king, who struck it
with his shoe; after which it was carried to a desolate place, where
they put a halter round its neck, and buried it where Charila was
buried. _Plutarch_, _Quæstiones Græcæ_.
=Charilāus= and =Charillus=, a son of Polydectes king of Sparta,
educated and protected by his uncle Lycurgus. He made war against
Argos, and attacked Tegea. He was taken prisoner, and released on
promising that he would cease from war, an engagement which he soon
broke. He died in the 64th year of his age. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch.
36; bk. 6, ch. 48.――――A Spartan who changed the monarchical power
into an aristocracy. _Aristotle_, _Politics_, bk. 5, ch. 12.
=Charillus=, one of the ancestors of Leutychides. _Herodotus_, bk. 8,
ch. 131.
=Charīni= and =Carīni=, a people of Germany. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 14.
=Charis=, a goddess among the Greeks, surrounded with pleasures,
graces, and delight. She was the wife of Vulcan. _Homer_, _Iliad_,
bk. 18, li. 382.
=Charisia=, a town of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 3.――――A festival
in honour of the Graces, with dances which continued all night. He
who continued awake the longest was rewarded with a cake.
=Charisius=, an orator at Athens. _Cicero_, _Brutus_, ch. 83.
=Charistia=, festivals at Rome celebrated on the 20th of February,
by the distribution of mutual presents, with the intention of
reconciling friends and relations. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 2, ch. 1.
――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 2.
=Charĭtes= and =Gratiæ=, the Graces, daughters of Venus by Jupiter or
Bacchus, are three in number――Aglaia, Thalia, and Euphrosyne. They
were the constant attendants of Venus, and they were represented as
three young, beautiful, and modest virgins, all holding one another
by the hand. They presided over kindness, and all good offices,
and their worship was the same as that of the nine muses, with whom
they had a temple in common. They were generally represented naked,
because kindness ought to be done with sincerity and candour. The
moderns explain the allegory of their holding their hands joined,
by observing that there ought to be a perpetual and never-ceasing
intercourse of kindness and benevolence among friends. Their youth
denotes the constant remembrance that we ought ever to have of
kindnesses received; and their virgin purity and innocence teach us
that acts of benevolence ought to be done without any expectation of
restoration, and that we ought never to suffer others or ourselves
to be guilty of base or impure favours. Homer speaks only of two
Graces.
=Charĭton=, a writer of Aphrodisium, at the latter end of the fourth
century. He composed a Greek romance called _The Loves of Chæreas
and Callirhoe_, which has been much admired for its elegance, and
the originality of the characters it describes. There is a very
learned edition of Chariton, by Reiske, with D’Orville’s notes,
2 vols., 4to, Amsterdam, 1750.
=Charmădas=, a philosopher of uncommon memory. _Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 24.
=Charme= and =Carme=, the mother of Britomartis by Jupiter.
=Charmides=, a Lacedæmonian, sent by the king to quell a sedition in
Crete. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 2.――――A boxer. _Pausanias_, bk. 6,
ch. 7.――――A philosopher of the third academy, B.C. 95.
=Charmīnus=, an Athenian general, who defeated the Peloponnesians.
_Thucydides_, bk. 8, ch. 42.
=Charmione=, a servant-maid of Cleopatra, who stabbed herself after
the example of her mistress. _Plutarch_, _Antonius_.
=Charmis=, a physician of Marseilles, in Nero’s age, who used cold
baths for his patients, and prescribed medicines contrary to those
of his cotemporaries. _Pliny_, bk. 21, ch. 1.
=Charmosy̆na=, a festival in Egypt. _Plutarch_, _de Iside et Osiride_.
=Charmotas=, a part of Arabia.
=Charmus=, a poet of Syracuse, some of whose fragments are found
scattered in Athenæus.
=Charon=, a Theban, who received into his house Pelopidas and his
friends, when they delivered Thebes from tyranny, &c. _Plutarch_,
_Pelopidas_.――――An historian of Lampsacus, son of Pytheus, who
wrote two books on Persia, besides other treatises, B.C. 479.――――An
historian of Naucratis, who wrote a history of his country and of
Egypt.――――A Carthaginian writer, &c.――――A god of hell, son of Erebus
and Nox, who conducted the souls of the dead in a boat over the
rivers Styx and Acheron to the infernal regions, for an obolus. Such
as had not been honoured with a funeral were not permitted to enter
his boat, without previously wandering on the shore for 100 years.
If any living person presented himself to cross the Stygian lake, he
could not be admitted before he showed Charon a golden bough, which
he had received from the Sibyl, and Charon was imprisoned for one
year, because he had ferried over, against his own will, Hercules,
without this passport. Charon is represented as an old robust man,
with a hideous countenance, long white beard, and piercing eyes.
His garment is ragged and filthy, and his forehead is covered with
wrinkles. As all the dead were obliged to pay a small piece of money
for their admission, it was always usual, among the ancients, to
place under the tongue of the deceased a piece of money for Charon.
This fable of Charon and his boat is borrowed from the Egyptians,
whose dead were carried across a lake, where sentence was passed on
them, and according to their good or bad actions, they were honoured
with a splendid burial, or left unnoticed in the open air. _See:_
Acherusia. _Diodorus_, bk. 1.――_Seneca_, _Hercules Furens_, li. 765.
――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 298, &c.
=Charondas=, a man of Catana, who gave laws to the people of Thurium,
and made a law that no man should be permitted to come armed into
the assembly. He inadvertently broke this law, and when told of it
he fell upon his sword, B.C. 446. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 6, li. 5.
=Charonea=, a place of Asia, &c.
=Charonia scrobs=, a place of Italy emitting deadly vapours. _Pliny_,
bk. 2, ch. 23.
=Charonium=, a cave near Nysa, where the sick were supposed to be
delivered from their disorders by certain superstitious solemnities.
=Charops= and =Charŏpes=, a Trojan killed by Ulysses. _Homer_, _Iliad_.
――――A powerful Epirot who assisted Flaminius when making war against
Philip the king of Macedonia. _Plutarch_, _Titus Flamininus_.――――The
first decennial archon at Athens. _Paterculus_, bk. 1, ch. 8.
=Charybdis=, a dangerous whirlpool on the coast of Sicily, opposite
another whirlpool called Scylla, on the coast of Italy. It was very
dangerous to sailors, and it proved fatal to part of the fleet of
Ulysses. The exact situation of the Charybdis is not discovered by
the moderns, as no whirlpool sufficiently tremendous is now found to
correspond with the descriptions of the ancients. The words,
_Incidit in Scyllam qui vult vitare Charybdim_,
became a proverb, to show that in our eagerness to avoid one evil,
we often fall into a greater. The name of _Charybdis_ was properly
bestowed on mistresses who repay affection and tenderness with
ingratitude. It is supposed that Charybdis was an avaricious woman,
who stole the oxen of Hercules, for which theft she was struck
with thunder by Jupiter, and changed into a whirlpool. _Lycophron_,
_Cassandra_.――_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 12.――_Propertius_, bk. 3, poem
11.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 14.――_Ovid_, _Ex Ponto_, bk. 4, ltr. 10;
_Amores_, bk. 2, poem 16.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 420.
=Chaubi= and =Chauci=, people of Germany, supposed to inhabit the
country now called Friesland and Bremen.
=Chaula=, a village of Egypt.
=Chauros.= _See:_ Caurus.
=Chelæ=, a Greek word (χηλη), signifying _claws_, which is applied to
the Scorpion, one of the signs of the zodiac, and lies, according
to the ancients, contiguous to Virgo. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 1,
li. 33.
=Cheles=, a satrap of Seleucus, &c.
=Chelĭdon=, a mistress of Verres. _Cicero_, _Against Verres_, bk. 1,
ch. 40.
=Chelīdŏnia=, a festival at Rhodes, in which it was customary for
boys to go begging from door to door and singing certain songs, &c.
_Athenæus._――――The wind Favonius was called also _Chelidonia_, from
the 6th of the ides of February to the 7th of the calends of March,
the time when swallows first made their appearance. _Pliny_, bk. 2,
ch. 47.
=Chelīdoniæ=, now _Kelidoni_, small islands opposite the promontory
of Taurus of the same name, very dangerous to sailors. _Dionysius
Periegetes_, li. 506.――_Pliny_, bk. 5, chs. 27 & 31.――_Livy_, bk. 33,
ch. 41.
=Chelĭdŏnis=, a daughter of king Leotychides, who married Cleonymus,
and committed adultery with Acrotatus. _Plutarch_, _Pyrrhus_.
=Chelidŏnium=, a promontory of mount Taurus, projecting into the
Pamphylian sea.
=Chelŏne=, a nymph changed into a tortoise by Mercury, for not being
present at the nuptials of Jupiter and Juno, and condemned to
perpetual silence for having ridiculed these deities.
=Chelōnis=, a daughter of Leonidas king of Sparta, who married
Cleombrotus. She accompanied her father, whom her husband had
expelled, and soon after went into banishment with her husband,
who had in his turn been expelled by Leonidas. _Plutarch_, _Agis_
& _Cleomenes_.
=Chelonophăgi=, a people of Carmania, who fed upon turtle, and covered
their habitations with the shells. _Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 24.
=Chelydoria=, a mountain of Arcadia.
=Chemmis=, an island in a deep lake of Egypt. _Herodotus_, bk. 2,
ch. 156.
=Chena=, a town of Laconia.
=Chenæ=, a village on mount Œta. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 24.
=Chenion=, a mountain in Asia Minor, from which the 10,000 Greeks
first saw the sea. _Diodorus_, bk. 14.
=Chenius=, a mountain near Colchis.
=Cheops= and =Cheospes=, a king of Egypt, after Rhampsinitus, who
built famous pyramids, upon which 1060 talents were expended only
in supplying the workmen with leeks, parsley, garlic, and other
vegetables. _Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 124.
=Chephren=, a brother of Cheops, who also built a pyramid. The
Egyptians so inveterately hated these two royal brothers, that they
publicly reported, that the pyramids which they had built had been
erected by a shepherd. _Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 127.
=Cheremocrătes=, an artist who built Diana’s temple at Ephesus, &c.
_Strabo_, bk. 14.
=Cherisŏphus=, a commander of 800 Spartans, in the expedition which
Cyrus undertook against his brother Artaxerxes. _Diodorus_, bk. 14.
=Cheronæa.= _See:_Chæronea.
=Cherŏphon=, a tragic writer of Athens, in the age of Philip.
_Philostratus_, _Lives_.
=Cherronēsus.= _See:_ Chersonesus.
=Chersias=, an Orchomenian, reconciled to Periander by Chilo.
_Pausanias_ praises some of his poetry, bk. 9, ch. 38.
=Chersidămas=, a Trojan killed by Ulysses in the Trojan war. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 13, li. 259.
=Chersiphro=, an architect, &c. _Pliny_, bk. 36, ch. 14.
=Chersonēsus=, a Greek word, rendered by the Latins _Peninsula_. There
were many of these among the ancients, of which these five were the
most celebrated: one called _Peloponnesus_; one called _Thracian_,
in the south of Thrace and west of the Hellespont, where Miltiades
led a colony of Athenians, and built a wall across the isthmus. From
its isthmus to its further shores, it measured 420 stadia, extending
between the bay of Melas and the Hellespont. The third, called
_Taurica_, now _Crim Tartary_, was situate near the Palus Mæotis.
The fourth, called _Cimbrica_, now _Jutland_, is in the northern
parts of Germany; and the fifth, surnamed _Aurea_, lies in India,
beyond the Ganges. _Herodotus_, bk. 6, ch. 33; bk. 7, ch. 58.――_Livy_,
bk. 31, ch. 16.――_Cicero_, _Brutus_, ch. 2.――――Also a peninsula near
Alexandria in Egypt. _Hirtius_, _Alexandrine War_, ch. 10.
=Cherusci=, a people of Germany, who long maintained a war against
Rome. They inhabited the country between the Weser and the Elbe.
_Tacitus_.――_Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 6, ch. 9.
=Chidnæi=, a people near Pontus.
=Chidōrus=, a river of Macedonia near Thessalonica, not sufficiently
large to supply the army of Xerxes with water. _Herodotus_, bk. 7,
ch. 127.
=Chiliarchus=, a great officer of state at the court of Persia.
_Cornelius Nepos_, _Conon_.
=Chilius= and =Chileus=, an Arcadian, who advised the Lacedæmonians,
when Xerxes was in Greece, not to desert the common cause of their
country. _Herodotus_, bk. 9, ch. 9.
=Chilo=, a Spartan philosopher who has been called one of the seven
wise men of Greece. One of his maxims was “Know thyself.” He died
through excess of joy, in the arms of his son, who had obtained a
victory at Olympia, B.C. 597. _Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 33.――_Diogenes
Laërtius._――――One of the Ephori at Sparta, B.C. 556.
=Chilonis=, the wife of Theopompus king of Sparta. _Polyænus_, bk. 8.
=Chimæra=, a celebrated monster, sprung from Echidna and Typhon,
which had three heads, that of a lion, of a goat, and a dragon,
and continually vomited flames. The fore parts of its body were
those of a lion, the middle was that of a goat, and the hinder
parts were those of a dragon. It generally lived in Lycia, about
the reign of Jobates, by whose orders Bellerophon, mounted on the
horse Pegasus, overcame it. This fabulous tradition is explained
by the recollection that there was a burning mountain in Lycia,
called Chimæra, whose top was the resort of lions, on account
of its desolate wilderness; the middle, which was fruitful, was
covered with goats; and at the bottom the marshy ground abounded
with serpents. Bellerophon is said to have conquered the Chimæra,
because he first made his habitation on that mountain. Plutarch
says that it was the captain of some pirates, who adorned their ship
with the images of a lion, a goat, and a dragon. From the union of
the Chimæra with Orthos sprung the Sphinx and the lion of Nemæa.
_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 6, li. 181.――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 322.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9; bk. 2, ch. 3.――_Lucretius_, bk. 5, li.
903.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 9, li. 646.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 6, li. 288.――――One of the ships in the fleet of Æneas. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 5, li. 118.
=Chimarus=, a river of Argolis. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 36.
=Chimerium=, a mountain of Phthiotis, in Thessaly. _Pliny_, bk. 4,
ch. 8.
=Chiomara=, a woman who cut off the head of a Roman tribune when she
had been taken prisoner, &c. _Plutarch_, _de Mulierum Virtutes_.
=Chion=, a Greek writer, whose epistles were edited cum notis Cobergi,
8vo, Lipscomb, 1765.
=Chiŏne=, a daughter of Dædalion, of whom Apollo and Mercury became
enamoured. To enjoy her company, Mercury lulled her to sleep with
his Caduceus, and Apollo, in the night, under the form of an old
woman, obtained the same favours as Mercury. From this embrace
Chione became mother of Philammon and Autolycus, the former of whom,
as being son of Apollo, became an excellent musician; and the latter
was equally notorious for his robberies, of which his father Mercury
was the patron. Chione grew so proud of her commerce with the gods,
that she even preferred her beauty to that of Diana, for which
impiety she was killed by the goddess, and changed into a hawk.
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 11, fable 8.――――A daughter of Boreas
and Orithyia, who had Eumolpus by Neptune. She threw her son into
the sea, but he was preserved by his father. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3,
ch. 15.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 38.――――A famous prostitute.
_Martial_, bk. 3, ltr. 34.
=Chionides=, an Athenian poet, supposed by some to be the inventor of
comedy.
=Chionis=, a victor at Olympia. _Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 13.
=Chios=, now _Scio_, an island in the Ægean sea, between Lesbos and
Samos, on the coast of Asia Minor, which receives its name, as some
suppose, from Chione, or from χιων, _snow_, which was very frequent
there. It was well inhabited, and could once equip 100 ships; and
its chief town, called Chios, had a beautiful harbour, which could
contain 80 ships. The wine of this island, so much celebrated by
the ancients, is still in general esteem. Chios was anciently called
Æthalia, Macris, and Pityasa. There was no adultery committed there
for the space of 700 years. _Plutarch_, _de Mulierum Virtutes_.
――_Horace_, bk. 3, ode 19, li. 5; bk. 1, satire 10, li. 24.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 4.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 2.――_Strabo_, bk. 2.
=Chiron=, a centaur, half a man and half a horse, son of Philyra
and Saturn, who had changed himself into a horse, to escape the
inquiries of his wife Rhea. Chiron was famous for his knowledge of
music, medicine, and shooting. He taught mankind the use of plants
and medicinal herbs: and he instructed in all the polite arts the
greatest heroes of his age; such as Achilles, Æsculapius, Hercules,
Jason, Peleus, Æneas, &c. He was wounded on the knee by a poisoned
arrow, by Hercules, in his pursuit of the centaurs. Hercules flew
to his assistance; but as the wound was incurable, and the cause of
the most excruciating pains, Chiron begged Jupiter to deprive him
of immortality. His prayers were heard, and he was placed by the god
among the constellations, under the name of Sagittarius. _Hesiod_,
_Shield of Heracles_.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 11.――_Pausanias_, bk. 3,
ch. 18; bk. 5, ch. 19; bk. 9, ch. 31.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk.
2, li. 676.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 5; bk. 3, ch. 13.――_Horace_,
epode 13.
=Chloe=, a surname of Ceres at Athens. Her yearly festivals, called
Chloeia, were celebrated with much mirth and rejoicing, and a ram
was always sacrificed to her. The name of Chloe is supposed to bear
the same signification as _Flava_, so often applied to the goddess
of corn. The name, from its signification (χλοη, _herba virens_),
has generally been applied to women possessed of beauty and of
simplicity.
=Chloreus=, a priest of Cybele, who came with Æneas into Italy, and was
killed by Turnus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 11, li. 768.――――Another, &c.
=Chloris=, the goddess of flowers, who married Zephyrus. She is the
same as Flora. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 5.――――A daughter of Amphion,
son of Jasus and Persephone, who married Neleus king of Pylos, by
whom she had one daughter and 12 sons, who all, except Nestor, were
killed by Hercules. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 11, li. 280.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 2, ch. 21; bk. 9, ch. 36.――――A prostitute, &c. _Horace_, bk. 3,
ode 15.
=Chlorus=, a river of Cilicia. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 27.――――Constantine,
one of the Cæsars, in Diocletian’s age, who reigned two years after
the emperor’s abdication, and died July 25, A.D. 306.
=Choarīna=, a country near India, reduced by Craterus, &c.
=Choaspes=, a son of Phasis, &c. _Flaccus_, bk. 5, li. 585.――――An
Indian river. _Curtius_, bk. 5, ch. 2.――――A river of Media, flowing
into the Tigris, and now called _Karun_. Its waters are so sweet,
that the kings of Persia drank no other, and in their expeditions
they always had some with them which had been previously boiled.
_Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 188.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 12, ch.
40.――_Tibullus_, bk. 4, poem 1, li. 141.――_Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 27.
=Chobus=, a river of Colchis. _Arrian._
=Chœrades= and =Pharos=, two islands opposite Alexandria in Egypt.
_Thucydides_, bk. 7, ch. 33.―――― Others in the Euxine sea.――――An
island in the Ionian sea, or near the Hellespont. _Theocritus_,
_Idylls_, poem 13.
=Chœrĭlus=, a tragic poet of Athens, who wrote 150 tragedies, of which
13 obtained the prize.――――An historian of Samos.――――Two other poets,
one of whom was very intimate with Herodotus. He wrote a poem on the
victory which the Athenians had obtained over Xerxes, and on account
of the excellence of the composition, he received a piece of gold
for each verse from the Athenians, and was publicly ranked with
Homer as a poet. The other was one of Alexander’s flatterers and
friends. It is said the prince promised him as many pieces of gold
as there should be good verses in his poetry, and as many slaps on
his forehead as there were bad; and in consequence of this, scarce
six of his verses in each poem were entitled to gold, while the rest
were rewarded with castigation. _Plutarch_, _Alexander_.――_Horace_,
bk. 2, ltr. 1, li. 232.
=Chœreæ=, a place of Bœotia.
=Chonnidas=, a man made preceptor to Theseus, by his grandfather
Pittheus king of Trœzene. The Athenians instituted sacrifices to
him for the good precepts which he had inculcated into his pupil.
_Plutarch_, _Theseus_.
=Chonūphis=, an Egyptian prophet. _Plutarch_, _de Genio Socratis_.
=Chorasmi=, a people of Asia near the Oxus. _Herodotus_, bk. 3, ch. 93.
=Chorineus=, a man killed in the Rutulian war. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 9, li. 571.――――Another. _Æneid_, bk. 12, li. 298.――――A priest
with Æneas. _Æneid._
=Chorœbus=, a man of Elis, who obtained a prize the first olympiad.
_See:_ Corœbus.――――A youth of Mygdonia, who was enamoured of
Cassandra. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 2, li. 341.
=Choromnæi=, a people subdued by Ninus. _Diodorus_, bk. 1.
=Chosroes=, a king of Persia, in Justinian’s reign.
=Chremes=, a sordid old man, mentioned in Terence’s Andria. _Horace_,
_Art of Poetry_, li. 94.
=Chremĕtes=, a river of Libya.
=Chresiphon=, an architect of Diana’s temple in Ephesus. _Pliny_,
bk. 36, ch. 14.
=Chresphontes=, a son of Aristomachus. _See:_ Aristodemus.
=Chrestus=, an approved writer of Athens, &c. _Columella_, bk. 1, _de
Res Rustica_, ch. 1.
=Chromia=, a daughter of Itonus. _Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 1.
=Chromios=, a son of Neleus and Chloris, who, with 10 brothers,
was killed in a battle by Hercules.――――A son of Priam, killed by
Diomedes. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 12.
=Chromis=, a captain in the Trojan war. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2.――――A
young shepherd. _Virgil_, _Eclogues_, poem 6.――――A Phrygian killed
by Camilla. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 11, li. 675.――――A son of Hercules.
_Statius_, bk. 6, li. 346.
=Chromius=, a son of Pterilaus. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 4.――――An
Argive, who, alone with Alcenor, survived a battle between 300 of
his countrymen and 300 Spartans. _Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 82.
=Chronius=, a man who built a temple of Diana at Orchomenos.
_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 48.
=Chronos=, the Greek name of Saturn, or time, in whose honour festivals
called _Chronia_ were yearly celebrated by the Rhodians, and some of
the Greeks.
=Chryasus=, a king of Argos, descended from Inachus.
=Chrysa= and =Chryse=, a town of Cilicia, famous for a temple of
Apollo Smintheus. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 1, li. 37.――_Strabo_, bk. 13.
――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 13, li. 174.――――A daughter of Halmus,
mother of Phlegias by Mars. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 36.
=Chrysăme=, a Thessalian, priestess of Diana Trivia. She fed a bull
with poison, which she sent to the enemies of her country, who ate the
flesh, and became delirious, and were an easy conquest. _Polyænus._
=Chrysantas=, a man who refrained from killing another, by hearing a
dog bark. _Plutarch_, _Quæstiones Romanæ_.
=Chrysanthius=, a philosopher in the age of Julian, known for the
great number of volumes which he wrote.
=Chrysantis=, a nymph who told Ceres, when she was at Argos with
Pelagus, that her daughter had been carried away. _Pausanias_, bk. 1.
=Chrysaor=, a son of Medusa by Neptune. Some report that he sprung from
the blood of Medusa, armed with a _golden sword_, whence his name,
χρυσος ἀορ. He married Callirhoe, one of the Oceanides, by whom he
had Geryon, Echidna, and the Chimæra. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 295.
――――A rich king of Iberia. _Diodorus_, bk. 4.――――A son of Glaucus.
_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 21.
=Chrysaoreus=, a surname of Jupiter, from his temple at Stratonice,
where all the Carians assembled upon any public emergency. _Strabo_,
bk. 4.
=Chrysaŏris=, a town of Cilicia. _Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 2.
=Crysas=, a river of Sicily, falling into the Simæthus, and worshipped
as a deity. _Cicero_, _Against Verres_, Speech 4, ch. 44.
=Chryseis=, the daughter of Chryses. _See:_ Chryses.
=Chrysermus=, a Corinthian, who wrote a history of Peloponnesus and of
India, besides a treatise on rivers. _Plutarch_, _Parallela minora_.
=Chryses=, the priest of Apollo, father of Astynome, called from him
_Chryseis_. When Lyrnessus was taken, and the spoils divided among
the conquerors, Chryseis, who was the wife of Eetion the sovereign
of the place, fell to the share of Agamemnon. Chryses, upon this,
went to the Grecian camp to solicit his daughter’s restoration;
and when his prayers were fruitless, he implored the aid of Apollo,
who visited the Greeks with a plague, and obliged them to restore
Chryseis. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 1, li. 11, &c.――――A daughter of
Minos. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 1.
=Chrysippe=, a daughter of Danaus. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 1.
=Chrysippus=, a natural son of Pelops, highly favoured by his father,
for which Hippodamia, his stepmother, ordered her own sons, Atreus
and Thyestes, to kill him, and to throw his body into a well, on
account of which they were banished. Some say that Hippodamia’s
sons refused to murder Chrysippus, and that she did it herself. They
further say, that Chrysippus had been carried away by Laius king
of Thebes, to gratify his unnatural lusts, and that he was in his
arms when Hippodamia killed him. _Hyginus_, fable 85.――_Plato_, _de
Leges_, bk. 6.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 5.――_Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch.
20.――――A stoic philosopher of Tarsus, who wrote about 311 treatises.
Among his curious opinions was his approbation of a parent’s
marriage with his child, and his wish that dead bodies should be
eaten rather than buried. He died through excess of wine, or, as
others say, from laughing too much on seeing an ass eating figs on
a silver plate, 207 B.C., in the 80th year of his age. _Valerius
Maximus_, bk. 8, ch. 7.――_Diodorus._――_Horace_, bk. 2, satire 3,
li. 40. There were also others of the same name. _Diogenes Laërtius._
――――A freedman of Cicero.
=Chrysis=, a mistress of Demetrius. _Plutarch_, _Demetrius_.――――A
priestess of Juno at Mycenæ. The temple of the goddess was burnt
by the negligence of Chrysis, who fled to Tegea, to the altar of
Minerva. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 17.
=Chrysoaspĭdes=, soldiers in the armies of Persia, whose arms were all
covered with silver, to display the opulence of the prince whom they
served. _Justin_, bk. 12, ch. 7.
=Chrysogŏnus=, a freedman of Sylla. _Cicero_, _pro Sexto Roscio
Amerino_.――――A celebrated singer in Domitian’s reign. _Juvenal_,
satire 6, li. 74.
=Chrysolāus=, a tyrant of Methymna, &c. _Curtius_, bk. 4, ch. 8.
=Chrysondium=, a town of Macedonia. _Polybius_, bk. 5.
=Chrysopŏlis=, a promontory and port of Asia, opposite Byzantium, now
_Scutari_.
=Chrysorhoas=, a river of Peloponnesus. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 31.
=Chrysorrhōæ=, a people in whose country are golden streams.
=Chrysostom=, a bishop of Constantinople, who died A.D. 407, in his
53rd year. He was a great disciplinarian, and by severely lashing
the vices of his age, he procured himself many enemies. He was
banished for opposing the raising of a statue to the empress, after
having displayed his abilities as an elegant preacher, a sound
theologian, and a faithful interpreter of Scripture. Chrysostom’s
works were nobly and correctly edited, without a Latin version,
by Saville, 8 vols., folio, Etonæ, 1613. They have appeared with
a translation, at Paris, editor, Benedictine Montfaucon, 13 vols.,
folio, 1718
=Chrysothĕmis=, a name given by Homer to Iphigenia daughter of
Agamemnon and Clytemnestra.――――A Cretan, who first obtained the
poetical prize at the Pythian games. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 7.
=Chryxus=, a leader of the Boii, grandson to Brennus, who took Rome.
_Silius Italicus_, bk. 4, li. 148.
=Chthonia=, a daughter of Erechtheus, who married Butes. _Apollodorus_,
bk. 3, ch. 15.――――A surname of Ceres, from a temple built to her
by Chthonia, at Hermione. She had a festival there called by the
same name, and celebrated every summer. During the celebration,
the priests of the goddess marched in procession, accompanied by
the magistrates, and a crowd of women and boys in white apparel,
with garlands of flowers on their heads. Behind was dragged an
untamed heifer, just taken from the herd. When they came to the
temple, the victim was let loose, and four old women armed with
scythes sacrificed the heifer, and killed her by cutting her
throat. A second, a third, and a fourth victim were in a like manner
despatched by the old women; and it was observable that they all
fell on the same side. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 35.
=Chthonius=, a centaur, killed by Nestor in a battle at the nuptials
of Pirithous. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12, li. 441.――――One of
the soldiers who sprang from the dragon’s teeth sown by Cadmus.
_Hyginus_, fable 178.――――A son of Ægyptus and Calliadne.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 1.
=Chitrium=, a name given to part of the town of Clazomenæ.
=Cibalæ=, now _Swilei_, a town of Pannonia, where Licinius was defeated
by Constantine. It was the birthplace of Gratian. _Eutropius_, bk.
10, ch. 4.――_Marcellinus_, bk. 30, ch. 24.
=Cibarītis=, a country of Asia, near the Mæander.
=Cibyra=, now _Burun_, a town of Phrygia, of which the inhabitants
were dexterous hunters. _Horace_, bk. 1, ltr. 6, li. 33.――_Cicero_,
_Against Verres_, bk. 4, ch. 13.――_Letters to Atticus_, bk. 5,
ltr. 2.――――Of Caria.
=Caius Cicereius=, a secretary of Scipio Africanus, who obtained a
triumph over the Corsicans. _Livy_, bks. 41 & 42.
=Marcus Tullius Cicero=, born at Arpinum, was son of a Roman knight,
and lineally descended from the ancient kings of the Sabines. His
mother’s name was Helvia. After displaying many promising abilities
at school, he was taught philosophy by Philo, and law by Mutius
Scævola. He acquired and perfected a taste for military knowledge
under Sylla, in the Marsian war, and retired from Rome, which was
divided into factions, to indulge his philosophic propensities. He
was naturally of a weak and delicate constitution, and he visited
Greece on account of his health; though, perhaps, the true cause
of his absence from Rome might be attributed to his fear of Sylla.
His friends, who were well acquainted with his superior abilities,
were anxious for his return; and when at last he obeyed their
solicitations, he applied himself with uncommon diligence to oratory,
and was soon distinguished above all the speakers of his age in
the Roman forum. When he went to Sicily as questor, he behaved with
great justice and moderation; and the Sicilians remembered with
gratitude the eloquence of Cicero, their common patron, who had
delivered them from the tyranny and avarice of Verres. After he had
passed through the offices of edile and pretor, he stood a candidate
for the consulship, A.U.C. 691; and the patricians and plebeians
were equally anxious to raise him to that dignity, against the
efforts and bribery of Catiline. His new situation was critical, and
required circumspection. Catiline, with many dissolute and desperate
Romans, had conspired against their country, and combined to murder
Cicero himself. In this dilemma, Cicero, in full senate, accused
Catiline of treason against the state; but as his evidence was not
clear, his efforts were unavailing. He, however, stood upon his
guard, and by the information of his friends and the discovery of
Fulvia, his life was saved from the dagger of Marcius and Cethegus,
whom Catiline had sent to assassinate him. After this, Cicero
commanded Catiline, in the senate, to leave the city; and this
desperate conspirator marched out in triumph to meet the 20,000 men
who were assembled to support his cause. The lieutenant of Caius
Antony, the other consul, defeated them in Gaul; and Cicero, at
Rome, punished the rest of the conspirators with death. This capital
punishment, though inveighed against by Julius Cæsar as too severe,
was supported by the opinion of Lutatius Catulus and Cato, and
confirmed by the whole senate. After this memorable deliverance,
Cicero received the thanks of all the people, and was styled _The
father of his country, and a second founder of Rome_. The vehemence
with which he had attacked Clodius proved injurious to him; and
when his enemy was made tribune, Cicero was banished from Rome,
though 20,000 young men were supporters of his innocence. He was
not, however, deserted in his banishment. Wherever he went, he
was received with the highest marks of approbation and reverence;
and when the faction had subsided at Rome, the whole senate and
people were unanimous for his return. After 16 months’ absence, he
entered Rome with universal satisfaction; and when he was sent, with
the power of proconsul, to Cilicia, his integrity and prudence made
him successful against the enemy, and at his return he was honoured
with a triumph which the factious prevented him to enjoy. After much
hesitation during the civil commotions between Cæsar and Pompey,
he joined himself to the latter, and followed him to Greece. When
victory had declared in favour of Cæsar, at the battle of Pharsalia,
Cicero went to Brundusium, and was reconciled to the conqueror, who
treated him with great humanity. From this time Cicero retired into
the country, and seldom visited Rome. When Cæsar had been stabbed in
the senate, Cicero recommended a general amnesty, and was the most
earnest to decree the provinces to Brutus and Cassius. But when he
saw the interest of Cæsar’s murderers decrease, and Antony come into
power, he retired to Athens. He soon after returned, but lived in
perpetual fear of assassination. Augustus courted the approbation of
Cicero, and expressed his wish to be his colleague in the consulship.
But his wish was not sincere; he soon forgot his former professions
of friendship; and when the two consuls had been killed at Mutina,
Augustus joined his interest to that of Antony, and the triumvirate
was soon after formed. The great enmity which Cicero bore to Antony
was fatal to him; and Augustus, Antony, and Lepidus, the triumvirs,
to destroy all cause of quarrel and each to despatch his enemies,
produced their lists of proscription. About 200 were doomed to death,
and Cicero was among the number upon the list of Antony. Augustus
yielded a man to whom he partly owed his greatness, and Cicero was
pursued by the emissaries of Antony, among whom was Popilius, whom
he had defended upon an accusation of parricide. He had fled in a
litter towards the sea of Caieta; and when the assassins came up
to him, he put his head out of the litter, and it was severed from
the body by Herennius. This memorable event happened in December,
43 B.C., after the enjoyment of life for 63 years, 11 months, and
five days. The head and right hand of the orator were carried to
Rome, and hung up in the Roman forum; and so inveterate was Antony’s
hatred against the unfortunate man, that even Fulvia, the triumvir’s
wife, wreaked her vengeance upon his head, and drew the tongue
out of the mouth, and bored it through repeatedly with a gold
bodkin, verifying in this act of inhumanity what Cicero had once
observed, that _no animal is more revengeful than a woman_. Cicero
has acquired more real fame by his literary compositions than by
his spirited exertions as a Roman senator. The learning and the
abilities which he possessed have been the admiration of every age
and country, and his style has always been accounted as the true
standard of pure latinity. The words _nascitur poeta_ have been
verified in his attempts to write poetry; and the satire of Martial,
_Carmina quod scribit musis et Apolline nullo_, though severe, is
true. He once formed a design to write the history of his country,
but he was disappointed. He translated many of the Greek writers,
poets as well as historians, for his own improvement. When he
travelled into Asia, he was attended by most of the learned men of
his age; and his stay at Rhodes, in the school of the famous Molo,
conduced not a little to perfect his judgment. Like his countrymen
he was not destitute of ambition, and the arrogant expectations with
which he returned from his questorship in Sicily are well known. He
was of a timid disposition; and he who shone as the father of Roman
eloquence, never ascended the pulpit to harangue without feeling a
secret emotion of dread. His conduct during the civil wars is far
from that of a patriot; and when we view him, dubious and irresolute,
sorry not to follow Pompey and yet afraid to oppose Cæsar, the
judgment would almost brand him with the name of coward. In his
private character, however, Cicero was of an amiable disposition;
and though he was too elated with prosperity, and debased by
adversity, the affability of the friend conciliated the good graces
of all. He married Terentia, whom he afterwards divorced, and by
whom he had a son and a daughter. He afterwards married a young
woman to whom he was guardian; and because she seemed elated at
the death of his daughter Tullia, he repudiated her. The works of
this celebrated man, of which, according to some, the tenth part
is scarce extant, have been edited by the best scholars in every
country. The most valuable editions of the works complete, are that
of Verburgius, 2 vols., folio, Amsterdam, 1724; that of Olivet,
9 vols., 4to, Geneva, 1758; the Oxford edition, in 10 vols., 4to,
1782; and that of Lallemand, 12mo, 14 vols., Paris apud Barbou,
1768. _Plutarch_, _Parallel Lives_.――_Quintilian._――_Dio Cassius._
――_Appian._――_Florus._――_Cornelius Nepo_, _Atticus_.――_Eutropius._
――_Cicero_, &c.――――Marcus, the son of Cicero, was taken by Augustus
as his colleague in the consulship. He revenged his father’s death,
by throwing public dishonour upon the memory of Antony. He disgraced
his father’s virtues, and was so fond of drinking, that Pliny
observes, he wished to deprive Antony of the honour of being
the greatest drunkard in the Roman empire. _Plutarch_, _Cicero_.
――――Quintus, the brother of the orator, was Cæsar’s lieutenant in
Gaul, and proconsul of Asia for three years. He was proscribed with
his son at the same time as his brother Tully.――_Plutarch_, _Cicero_.
――_Appian._
=Cicerōnis villa=, a place near Puteoli in Campania. _Pliny_, bk. 31,
ch. 2.
=Cichyris=, a town of Epirus.
=Cicŏnes=, a people of Thrace near the Hebrus. Ulysses, at his return
from Troy, conquered them, and plundered their chief city Ismarus
because they had assisted Priam against the Greeks. They tore to
pieces Orpheus for his obscene indulgencies. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 10, li. 83; bk. 15, li. 313.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 4, li.
520, &c.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 2.
=Cilūta=, an old avaricious usurer. _Horace_, bk. 2, satire 3, li. 69.
=Cĭlĭcia=, a country of Asia Minor, on the sea coast, at the north of
Cyprus, the south of mount Taurus, and the west of the Euphrates.
The inhabitants enriched themselves by piratical excursions, till
they were conquered by Pompey. The country was opulent, and was
governed by kings, under some of the Roman emperors; but reduced
into a province by Vespasian. Cicero presided over it as proconsul.
It receives its name from Cilix the son of Agenor. _Apollodorus_,
bk. 3, ch. 1.――_Varro_, _Re Rustica_, bk. 2, ch. 11.――_Suetonius_,
_Vespasian_, ch. 8.――_Herodotus_, bk. 2, chs. 17, 34.――_Justin_,
bk. 11, ch. 11.――_Curtius_, bk. 3, ch. 4.――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 27.
――――Part of the country between Æolia and Troas is also called
Cilicia. _Strabo_, bk. 13, calls it Trojan, to distinguish it from
the other Cilicia. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 27.
=Cilissa=, a town of Phrygia.
=Cilix=, a son of Phœnix, or, according to Herodotus, of Agenor, who,
after seeking in vain his sister Europa, settled in a country to
which he gave the name of Cilicia. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 1.
――_Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 91.
=Cilla=, a town of Africa Propria. _Diodorus_, bk. 20.――――A town of
Æolia. _Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 149.――――Of Troas, which received its
name, according to Theopompus, from a certain Cillus, who was one of
Hippodamia’s suitors, and was killed by Œnomaus. _Homer_, _Iliad_,
bk. 1, li. 38.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 13, li. 174.
=Cilles=, a general of Ptolemy, conquered by Demetrius. _Diodorus_,
bk. 19.
=Cillus=, a charioteer of Pelops, in whose honour a city was built.
_Strabo_, bk. 13.
=Cilnius=, the surname of Mæcenas.
=Cilo, Junius=, an oppressive governor of Bithynia and Pontus. The
provinces carried their complaints against him to Rome; but such was
the noise of the flatterers that attended the emperor Claudius, that
he was unable to hear them; and when he asked what they had said,
he was told by one of Cilo’s friends that they returned thanks for
his good administration; upon which the emperor said, “Let Cilo be
continued two years longer in his province.” _Dio Cassius_, bk. 60.
――_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 12, ch. 21.
=Cimber, Tillius=, one of Cæsar’s murderers. He laid hold of the
dictator’s robe, which was a signal for the rest to strike.
_Plutarch_, _Cæsar_.
=Cimberius=, a chief of the Suevi.
=Cimbri=, a people of Germany, who invaded the Roman empire with a
large army, and were conquered by Marius. _Florus_, bk. 3, ch. 3.
=Cimbrīcum bellum=, was begun by the Cimbri and Teutones, by an
invasion of the Roman territories, B.C. 109. These barbarians
were so courageous, and even desperate, that they fastened their
first ranks each to the other with cords. In the first battle they
destroyed 80,000 Romans, under the consuls Manlius and Servilius
Cæpo. But when Marius, in his second consulship, was chosen to
carry on the war, he met the Teutones at Aquæ Sextiæ, where, after
a bloody engagement, he left dead on the field of battle 20,000, and
took 90,000 prisoners, B.C. 102. The Cimbri, who had formed another
army, had already penetrated into Italy, where they were met, at the
river Athesis, by Marius and his colleague Catulus a year after. An
engagement ensued, and 140,000 of them were slain. This last battle
put an end to this dreadful war, and the two consuls entered Rome in
triumph. _Florus_, bk. 3, ch. 3.――_Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 22; bk. 17, ch.
1.――_Mela_, bk. 3, ch. 3.――_Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 12.――_Plutarch_,
_Caius Marius_.
=Cimĭnus=, now _Viterbe_, a lake and mountain of Etruria. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 697.――_Livy_, bk. 9, ch. 36.
=Cimmĕrii=, a people near the Palus Mœotis, who invaded Asia Minor,
and seized upon the kingdom of Cyaxeres. After they had been masters
of the country for 28 years, they were driven back by Alyattes
king of Lydia. _Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 6, &c.; bk. 4, ch. 1, &c.
――――Another nation on the western coast of Italy, generally imagined
to have lived in caves near the sea-shore of Campania, and there, in
concealing themselves from the light of the sun, to have made their
retreat the receptacle of their plunder. In consequence of this
manner of living, the country which they inhabited was supposed to
be so gloomy, that, to mention a great obscurity, the expression of
_Cimmerian darkness_ has proverbially been used. Homer, according
to Plutarch, drew his images of hell and Pluto from this gloomy and
dismal country, where also Virgil and Ovid have placed the Styx,
the Phlegethon, and all the dreadful abodes of the infernal regions.
_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 13.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_ bk. 6.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 11, li. 592, &c.――_Strabo_, bk. 5.
=Cimmĕris=, a town of Troas, formerly called Edonis. _Pliny_, bk. 5,
ch. 30.
=Cimmĕrium=, now _Crim_, a town of Taurica Chersonesus, whose
inhabitants are called Cimmerii. _Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 19.
=Cimōlis= and =Cinolis=, a town of Paphlagonia.
=Cimōlus=, now _Argentiera_, an island in the Cretan sea, producing
chalk and fuller’s earth. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, li. 463.
――_Pliny_, bk. 35, ch. 16.
=Cimon=, an Athenian, son of Miltiades and Hegisipyle, famous for
his debaucheries in his youth, and his reformation of his morals
when arrived to years of discretion. When his father died, he was
imprisoned, because unable to pay the fine levied upon him by the
Athenians; but he was released from confinement by his sister and
wife Elpinice. _See:_ Elpinice. He behaved with great courage at the
battle of Salamis, and rendered himself popular by his munificence
and valour. He defeated the Persian fleet, and took 200 ships, and
totally routed their land army, the very same day. The money that
he obtained by his victories was not applied to his own private
use; but with it he fortified and embellished the city. He some time
after lost all his popularity, and was banished by the Athenians,
who declared war against the Lacedæmonians. He was recalled from his
exile, and at his return he made a reconciliation between Lacedæmon
and his countrymen. He was afterwards appointed to carry on the war
against Persia in Egypt, and Cyprus, with a fleet of 200 ships; and
on the coast of Asia he gave battle to the enemy, and totally ruined
their fleet. He died as he was besieging the town of Citium in
Cyprus, B.C. 449, in the 51st year of his age. He may be called the
last of the Greeks, whose spirit and boldness defeated the armies of
the barbarians. He was such an inveterate enemy to the Persian power,
that he formed a plan of totally destroying it; and in his wars he
had so reduced the Persians, that they promised, in a treaty, not to
pass the Chelidonian islands with their fleet, or to approach within
a day’s journey of the Grecian seas. The munificence of Cimon has
been highly extolled by his biographers, and he has been deservedly
praised for leaving his gardens open to the public. _Thucydides_,
bk. 1, chs. 100 & 112.――_Justin_, bk. 2, ch. 13.――_Diodorus_, bk. 11.
――_Plutarch_ & _Cornelius Nepos_, _Lives_.――――An Athenian, father
of Miltiades. _Herodotus_, bk. 6, ch. 34.――――A Roman, supported in
prison by the milk of his daughter.――――An Athenian, who wrote an
account of the war of the Amazons against his country.
=Cinæthon=, an ancient poet of Lacedæmon, &c. _See:_ Cinethon.
=Cinaradas=, one of the descendants of Cinyras, who presided over the
ceremonies of Venus at Paphos. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 2, ch. 3.
=Cincia lex=, was enacted by Marcus Cincius tribune of the people,
A.U.C. 549. By it no man was permitted to take any money as a gift
or a fee in judging a cause. _Livy_, bk. 34, ch. 4.
=Lucius Quinctius Cincinnātus=, a celebrated Roman, who was informed,
as he ploughed his field, that the senate had chosen him dictator.
Upon this he left his ploughed land with regret, and repaired to
the field of battle, where his countrymen were closely besieged by
the Volsci and Æqui. He conquered the enemy and returned to Rome in
triumph; and 16 days after his appointment he laid down his office,
and retired back to plough his fields. In his 80th year he was
again summoned against Præneste as dictator, and after a successful
campaign, he resigned the absolute power he had enjoyed only 21 days,
nobly disregarding the rewards that were offered him by the senate.
He flourished about 460 years before Christ. _Livy_, bk. 3, ch. 26.
――_Florus_, bk. 1, ch. 11.――_Cicero_, _de Finibus Bonorum et
Malorum_, bk. 4.――_Pliny_, bk. 18, ch. 3.
=Lucius Cincius Alimentus=, a pretor of Sicily in the second Punic
war, who wrote annals in Greek. _Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 1.
――――Marcus a tribune of the people, A.U.C. 549, author of the Cincia
lex.
=Cineas=, a Thessalian, minister and friend to Pyrrhus king of Epirus.
He was sent to Rome by his master to sue for a peace, which he,
however, could not obtain. He told Pyrrhus that the Roman senate
were a venerable assembly of kings; and observed, that to fight with
them was to fight against another Hydra. He was of such a retentive
memory, that the day after his arrival at Rome he could salute every
senator and knight by his name. _Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 24.――_Cicero_,
_Letters to his Friends_, bk. 9, ltr. 25.――――A king of Thessaly.
_Herodotus_, bk. 5, ch. 63.――――An Athenian, &c. _Polyænus_, bk. 2,
ch. 32.
=Cinesias=, a Greek poet of Thebes in Bœotia, who composed some
dithyrambic verses. _Athenæus._
=Cinethon=, a Spartan, who wrote genealogical poems, in one of which he
asserted that Medea had a son by Jason, called Medus, and a daughter
called Eriopis. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 18.
=Cinga=, now _Cinea_, a river of Spain, flowing from the Pyrenean
mountains into the Iberus. _Lucan_, bk. 4, li. 21.――_Cæsar_, _Gallic
War_, bk. 1, ch. 48.
=Cingetŏrix=, a prince of Gaul, in alliance with Rome. _Cæsar_,
_Gallic War_, bk. 5, ch. 3.――――A prince of Britain, who attacked
Cæsar’s camp, by order of Cassivelaunus. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_,
bk. 5, ch. 22.
=Cingŭlum=, now _Cingoli_, a town of Picenum, whose inhabitants
are called _Cingulani_. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 13.――_Cæsar_, _Civil
War_, bk. 1, ch. 15.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 10, li. 34.――_Cicero_,
_Letters to Atticus_, bk. 7, ltr. 11.
=Ciniātā=, a place of Galatia.
=Cinithii=, a people of Africa.
=Lucius Cornelius Cinna=, a Roman who oppressed the republic with his
cruelties, and was banished by Octavius, for attempting to make the
fugitive slaves free. He joined himself to Marius; and with him,
at the head of 30 legions, he filled Rome with blood, defeated his
enemies, and made himself consul even to a fourth time. He massacred
so many citizens at Rome, that his name became odious; and one of
his officers assassinated him at Ancona, as he was preparing war
against Sylla. His daughter Cornelia married Julius Cæsar, and
became mother of Julia. _Plutarch_, _Caius Marius_, _Pompey_, &
_Sulla_.――_Lucan_, bk. 4, li. 822.――_Appian_, _Civil Wars_, bk.
1.――_Florus_, bk. 3, ch. 21.――_Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 20, &c.
――_Plutarch_, _Cæsar_.――――One of Cæsar’s murderers.――――Caius Helvius
Cinna, a poet intimate with Cæsar. He went to attend the obsequies
of Cæsar, and being mistaken by the populace for the other Cinna, he
was torn to pieces. He had been eight years in composing an obscure
poem called Smyrna, in which he made mention of the incest of
Cinyras. _Plutarch_, _Cæsar_.――――A grandson of Pompey. He conspired
against Augustus, who pardoned him, and made him one of his most
intimate friends. He was consul, and made Augustus his heir. _Dio
Cassius._――_Seneca_, _de Clementia_, ch. 9.――――A town of Italy,
taken by the Romans from the Samnites.
=Cinnadon=, a Lacedæmonian youth, who resolved to put to death the
Ephori, and seize upon the sovereign power. His conspiracy was
discovered, and he was put to death. _Aristotle._
=Cinnămus=, a hair-dresser at Rome, ridiculed by _Martial_, bk. 7,
ltr. 63.
=Cinniana=, a town of Lusitania, famous for the valour of its citizens.
_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 6, ch. 4.
=Cinxia=, a surname of Juno, who presided over marriages, and was
supposed to untie the girdles of new brides.
=Cinyps= and =Cinyphus=, a river and country of Africa near the
Garamantes, whence Cinyphius. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 3, li. 312.
――_Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 198.――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 4.――_Martial_,
bk. 7, ltr. 94.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, li. 272; bk. 15,
li. 755.――_Lucan_, bk. 9, li. 787.
=Ciny̆ras=, a king of Cyprus, son of Paphus, who married Cenchreis, by
whom he had a daughter called Myrrha. Myrrha fell in love with her
father; and, in the absence of her mother at the celebration of the
festivals of Ceres, she introduced herself into his bed by means
of her nurse. Cinyras had by her a son called Adonis; and when he
knew the incest which he had committed, he attempted to stab his
daughter, who escaped his pursuit and fled to Arabia, where, after
she had brought forth, she was changed into a tree, which still
bears her name. Cinyras, according to some, stabbed himself. He was
so rich, that his opulence, like that of Crœsus, became proverbial.
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 10, fable 9.――_Plutarch_, _Parallela
minora_――_Hyginus_, fables 242, 248, &c.――――A son of Laodice.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 9.――――A man who brought a colony from
Syria to Cyprus. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 14.――――A Ligurian, who
assisted Æneas against Turnus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 186.
=Cios=, a river of Thrace. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 32.――――A commercial
place of Phrygia.――――The name of three cities in Bithynia.
=Cippus=, a noble Roman, who, as he returned home victorious, was
told that if he entered the city he must reign there. Unwilling to
enslave his country, he assembled the senate without the walls, and
banished himself for ever from the city, and retired to live upon a
single acre of ground. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 15, li. 565.
=Circæum=, now _Circello_, a promontory of Latium, near a small town
called _Circeii_, at the south of the Pontine marshes. The people
were called _Circeienses_. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 14, li.
248.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 799.――_Livy_, bk. 6, ch. 17.
――_Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 3, ch. 19.
=Circe=, a daughter of Sol and Perseis, celebrated for her knowledge
of magic and venomous herbs. She was sister to Æetes king of Colchis,
and Pasiphae the wife of Minos. She married a Sarmatian prince of
Colchis, whom she murdered to obtain his kingdom. She was expelled
by her subjects, and carried by her father upon the coasts of Italy,
in an island called Ææa. Ulysses, at his return from the Trojan war,
visited the place of her residence; and all his companions, who ran
headlong into pleasure and voluptuousness, were changed by Circe’s
potions into filthy swine. Ulysses, who was fortified against all
enchantments by a herb called _moly_, which he had received from
Mercury, went to Circe, and demanded, sword in hand, the restoration
of his companions to their former state. She complied, and loaded
the hero with pleasures and honours. In this voluptuous retreat,
Ulysses had by Circe one son called Telegonus, or two according
to Hesiod, called Agrius and Latinus. For one whole year Ulysses
forgot his glory in Circe’s arms, and at his departure the nymph
advised him to descend into hell, and consult the manes of Tiresias,
concerning the fates that attended him. Circe showed herself cruel
to Scylla her rival, and to Picus. _See:_ Scylla and Picus. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 14, fables 1 & 5.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ltr. 2;
bk. 1, ode 17.――_Virgil_, _Eclogues_, poem 8, li. 70; _Æneid_, bk. 3,
li. 386; bk. 7, li. 10, &c.――_Hyginus_, fable 125.――_Apollonius_,
bk. 4, _Argonautica_.――_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 10, li. 136, &c.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9.――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 956.
――_Strabo_, bk. 5.
=Circenses ludi=, games performed in the circus at Rome. They were
dedicated to the god Consus, and were first established by Romulus
at the rape of the Sabines. They were in imitation of the Olympian
games among the Greeks, and, by way of eminence, were often called
the great games. Their original name was Consualia, and they were
first called Circensians by Tarquin the elder after he had built the
Circus. They were not appropriated to one particular exhibition; but
were equally celebrated for leaping, wrestling, throwing the quoit
and javelin, races on foot as well as in chariots, and boxing. Like
the Greeks, the Romans gave the name of Pentathlum or Quinquertium
to these five exercises. The celebration continued five days,
beginning on the 15th of September. All games in general that were
exhibited in the Circus, were soon after called Circensian games.
Some sea-fights and skirmishes, called by the Romans Naumachiæ,
were afterwards exhibited in the Circus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8,
li. 636.
=Circius=, a part of mount Taurus. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 27.――――A rapid
and tempestuous wind frequent in Gallia Narbonensis, and unknown in
any other country. _Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 408.
=Circum padani agri=, the country around the river Po. _Livy_, bk. 21,
ch. 35.
=Circus=, a large and elegant building at Rome, where plays and shows
were exhibited. There were about eight at Rome; the first, called
Maximus Circus, was the grandest, raised and embellished by Tarquin
Priscus. Its figure was oblong, and it was filled all round with
benches, and could contain, as some report, about 300,000 spectators.
It was about 2187 feet long and 960 broad. All the emperors vied in
beautifying it, and Julius Cæsar introduced in it large canals of
water, which, on a sudden, could be covered with an infinite number
of vessels, and represent a sea-fight.
=Ciris=, the name of Scylla daughter of Nisus, who was changed into a
bird of the same name. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 8, li. 151.
=Cirræatum=, a place near Arpinum, where Caius Marius lived when young.
_Plutarch_, _Caius Marius_.
=Cirrha= and =Cyrrha=, a town of Phocis, at the foot of Parnassus,
where Apollo was worshipped. _Lucan_, bk. 3, li. 172.
=Cirtha= and =Cirta=, a town of Numidia. _Strabo_, bk. 7.
=Cisalpīna Gallia=, a part of Gaul, called also Citerior and Togata.
Its furthest boundary was near the Rubicon, and it touched the Alps
on the Italian side.
=Cispadāna Gallia=, part of ancient Gaul, south of the Po.
=Cisrhenāni=, part of the Germans who lived nearest Rome, on the west
of the Rhine. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 6, ch. 2.
=Cissa=, a river of Pontus.――――An island near Istria.
=Cissēis=, a patronymic given to Hecuba as daughter of Cisseus.
=Cissēus=, a king of Thrace, father to Hecuba, according to some
authors. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 320.――――A son of Melampus,
killed by Æneas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 317.――――A son of
Ægyptus. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 1.
=Cissia=, a country of Susiana, of which Susa was the capital.
_Herodotus_, bk. 5, ch. 49.
=Cissiæ=, some gates in Babylon. _Herodotus_, bk. 3, ch. 155.
=Cissides=, a general of Dionysius, sent with nine galleys to assist
the Spartans, &c. _Diodorus_, bk. 15.
=Cissoessa=, a fountain of Bœotia. _Plutarch._
=Cissus=, a mountain of Macedonia.――――A city of Thrace.――――A man
who acquainted Alexander with the flight of Harpalus. _Plutarch_,
_Alexander_.
=Cissusa=, a fountain where Bacchus was washed when young. _Plutarch_,
_Lysander_.
=Cistenæ=, a town of Æolia.――――A town of Lycia. _Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 18.
=Cithæron=, a king who gave his name to a mountain of Bœotia, situate
at the south of the river Asopus, and sacred to Jupiter and the
Muses. Actæon was torn to pieces by his own dogs on this mountain,
and Hercules killed there an immense lion. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk.
4, li. 303.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 4.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.
――_Strabo_, bk. 9.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 1, &c.――_Pliny_, bk. 4,
ch. 7.――_Ptolemy_, bk. 3, ch. 15.
=Citharista=, a promontory of Gaul.
=Citium=, now _Chitti_, a town of Cyprus, where Cimon died in his
expedition against Egypt _Plutarch_, _Cimon_.――_Thucydides_, bk. 1,
ch. 112.
=Cius=, a town of Mysia. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9.
=Julius Civīlis=, a powerful Batavian, who raised a sedition against
Galba, &c. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 1, ch. 59.
=Cizycum=, a city of Asia in the Propontis, the same as Cyzicus.
_See:_ ♦Cyzicus.
♦ ‘Cizycus’ replaced with ‘Cyzicus’.
=Cladeus=, a river of Elis, passing near Olympia, and honoured next to
the Alpheus. _Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 7.
=Clanes=, a river falling into the Ister.
=Clanis=, a centaur killed by Theseus. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 12, li. 379.
=Clanius=, or =Clanis=, a river of Campania. _Virgil_, _Georgics_,
bk. 2, li. 225.――――Of Etruria, now _Chiana_. _Silius Italicus_,
bk. 8, li. 454.――_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 1, ch. 79.
=Clarus=, or =Claros=, a town of Iona, famous for an oracle of Apollo.
It was built by Manto daughter of Tiresias, who fled from Thebes,
after it had been destroyed by the Epigoni. She was so afflicted
with her misfortunes, that a lake was formed with her tears, where
she first founded the oracle. Apollo was from thence surnamed
_Clarius_. _Strabo_, bk. 14.――_Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 3.――_Mela_,
bk. 1, ch. 7.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, li. 516.――――An island
of the Ægean, between Tenedos and Scios. _Thucydides_, bk. 3, ch.
33.――――One of the companions of Æneas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10,
li. 126.
=Clastidium=, now _Schiatezzo_, a town of Liguria. _Strabo_, bk. 5.
――_Livy_, bk. 32, ch. 29.――――A village of Gaul. _Plutarch_,
_Marcellus_.
=Claudia=, a patrician family at Rome, descended from Clausus, a king
of the Sabines. It gave birth to many illustrious patriots in the
republic; and it was particularly recorded that there were not less
than 28 of that family who were invested with the consulship, five
with the office of dictator, and seven with that of censor, besides
the honour of six triumphs. _Suetonius_, _Tiberius_, ch. 1.
=Claudia=, a vestal virgin accused of incontinence. To show her
innocence, she offered to remove a ship which had brought the image
of Vesta to Rome, and had stuck in one of the shallow places of the
river. This had already baffled the efforts of a number of men; and
Claudia, after addressing her prayers to the goddess, untied her
girdle, and with it easily dragged after her the ship to shore, and
by this action was honourably acquitted. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 5,
ch. 4.――_Propertius_, bk. 4, poem 12, li. 52.――_Silius Italicus_,
bk. 17, li. 34.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 4, li. 315; _ex Ponto_,
bk. 1, ltr. 2, li. 144.――――A step-daughter of Marcus Antony, whom
Augustus married. He dismissed her undefiled, immediately after the
contract of marriage, on account of a sudden quarrel with her mother
Fulvia. _Suetonius_, _Augustus_, ch. 62.――――The wife of the poet
Statius. _Statius_, bk. 3, _Sylvæ_, poem 5.――――A daughter of Appius
Claudius, betrothed to Tiberias Gracchus.――――The wife of Metellus
Celer, sister to Publius Clodius and to Appius Claudius.――――An
inconsiderable town of Noricum. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 14.――――A Roman
road, which led from the Milvian bridge to the Flaminian way.
_Ovid_, bk. 1, _ex Ponto_, poem 8, li. 44.――――A tribe which received
its name from Appius Claudius, who came to settle at Rome with a
large body of attendants. _Livy_, bk. 2, ch. 16.――_Dionysius of
Halicarnassus_, bk. 5.――――Quinta, a daughter of Appius Cæcus, whose
statue in the vestibulum of Cybele’s temple was unhurt when that
edifice was reduced to ashes. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 1, ch. 8.
――_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 4, ch. 64.――――Pulchra, a cousin of
Agrippina, accused of adultery and criminal designs against Tiberius.
She was condemned. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 4, ch. 52.――――Antonia,
a daughter of the emperor Claudius, married Cnaeus Pompey, whom
Messalina caused to be put to death. Her second husband, Sylla
Faustus, by whom she had a son, was called Nero, and she shared his
fate, when she refused to marry his murderer.
=Claudia lex=, _de comitiis_, was enacted by Marcus Claudius Marcellus,
A.U.C. 702. It ordained, that at public elections of magistrates,
no notice should be taken of the votes of such as were absent.
――――Another, _de usurâ_, which forbade people to lend money to
minors on condition of payment after the decease of their parents.
――――Another, _de negotiatione_, by Quintus Claudius the tribune,
A.U.C. 535. It forbade any senator, or father of a senator, to have
any vessel containing above 300 amphoræ, for fear of their engaging
themselves in commercial schemes. The same law also forbade the same
thing to the scribes and the attendants of the questors, as it was
naturally supposed that people who had any commercial connections
could not be faithful to their trust, nor promote the interest of
the state.――――Another, A.U.C. 576, to permit the allies to return
to their respective cities, after their names were enrolled. _Livy_,
bk. 41, ch. 9.――――Another, to take away the freedom of the city of
Rome from the colonists, which Cæsar had carried to Novicomum.
_Suetonius_, _Julius_, ch. 28.
=Claudiæ aquæ=, the first water brought to Rome by means of an aqueduct
of 11 miles, erected by the censor Appius Claudius, A.U.C. 441.
_Eutropius_, bk. 2, ch. 4.――_Livy_, bk. 9, ch. 29.
=Claudiānus=, a celebrated poet, born at Alexandria in Egypt, in
the age of Honorius and Arcadius, who seems to possess all the
majesty of Virgil, without being a slave to the corrupt style which
prevailed in his age. Scaliger observes that he has supplied the
poverty of his matter by the purity of his language, the happiness
of his expressions, and the melody of his numbers. As he was the
favourite of Stilicho, he removed from the court when his patron was
disgraced, and passed the rest of his life in retirement and learned
ease. His poems of Rufinus and Eutropius seem to be the best of his
compositions. The best editions of his works are those of Burman,
4to, 2 vols., Amsterdam, 1760, and that of Gesner, 2 vols., 8vo,
Lipscomb, 1758.
=Claudiopŏlis=, a town of Cappadocia. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 24.
=Claudius I.= (Tiberius Drusus Nero), son of Drusus, Livia’s second
son, succeeded as emperor of Rome, after the murder of Caligula,
whose memory he endeavoured to annihilate. He made himself popular
for a while, by taking particular care of the city, and by adorning
and beautifying it with buildings. He passed over into Britain, and
obtained a triumph for victories which his generals had won, and
suffered himself to be governed by favourites, whose licentiousness
and avarice plundered the state and distracted the provinces. He
married four wives, one of whom, called Messalina, he put to death
on account of her lust and debauchery. He was at last poisoned by
another called Agrippina, who wished to raise her son Nero to the
throne. The poison was conveyed in mushrooms; but as it did not
operate fast enough, his physician, by order of the empress, made
him swallow a poisoned feather. He died in the 63rd year of his
age, 13 October, A.D. 54, after a reign of 13 years; distinguished
neither by humanity nor courage, but debased by weakness and
irresolution. He was succeeded by Nero. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk.
11, &c.――_Dio Cassius_, bk. 60.――_Juvenal_, satire 6, li. 619.
――_Suetonius_, _The Twelve Caesars_.――――The second emperor of that
name was a Dalmatian, who succeeded Gallienus. He conquered the
Goths, Scythians, and Heruli, and killed no less than 300,000 in
a battle; and after a reign of about two years, died of the plague
in Pannonia. The excellence of his character, marked with bravery,
and tempered with justice and benevolence, is well known by these
words of the senate, addressed to him: _Claudi Auguste, tu frater,
tu pater, tu amicus, tu bonus senator, tu vere princeps_.――――Nero,
a consul, with Livius Salinator, who defeated and killed Asdrubal,
near the river Metaurum, as he was passing from Spain into Italy,
to go to the assistance of his brother Annibal. _Livy_, bk. 27, &c.
――_Horace_, bk. 4, ode 4, li. 37.――_Suetonius_, _Tiberias_.――――The
father of the emperor Tiberius, questor to Cæsar in the wars of
Alexandria.――――Pollos, an historian. _Pliny the Younger_, bk. 7, ltr.
51.――――Pontius, a general of the Samnites, who conquered the Roman
at Furcæ Caudinæ, and made them pass under the yoke. _Livy_, bk. 9,
ch. 1, &c.――――Petilius, a dictator, A.U.C. 442.――――Appius, an orator.
_Cicero_, _Brutus_. _See:_ Appius.――――Appius Cæcus, a Roman censor,
who built an aqueduct, A.U.C. 441, which brought water to Rome from
Tusculum, at the distance of seven or eight miles. The water was
called _Appia_, and it was the first that was brought to the city
from the country. Before his age the Romans were satisfied with the
waters of the Tiber, or of the fountains and wells in the city. _See:
_ Appius. _Livy_, bk. 9, ch. 29.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 6, li. 203.
――_Cicero_, _de Senectute_, ch. 6.――――A pretor of Sicily.――――Publius,
a great enemy to Cicero. _See:_ Clodius.――――Marcellus. _See:_
Marcellus.――――Pulcher, a consul, who, when consulting the sacred
chickens, ordered them to be dipped in water because they would not
eat. _Livy_, bk. 19. He was unsuccessful in his expedition against
the Carthaginians in Sicily, and disgraced on his return to Rome.
――――Tiberius Nero, was elder brother of Drusus and son of Livia
Drusilla, who married Augustus, after his divorce of Scribonia. He
married Livia, the emperor’s daughter by Scribonia and succeeded
in the empire by the name of Tiberius. _See:_ Tiberius. _Horace_,
bk. 1, ltr. 3, li. 2.――――The name of Claudius is common to many
Roman consuls, and other officers of state; but nothing is recorded
of them, and their name is but barely mentioned. _Livy._
=Claviēnus=, an obscure poet in Juvenal’s age. Bk. 1, li. 8.
=Clavĭger=, a surname of Janus, from his being represented with a
_key_. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 1, li. 228.――――Hercules received also
that surname, as he was armed with a _club_. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 15, li. 284.
=Clausius=, or =Clusius=, a surname of Janus.
=Clausus=, or =Claudius=, a king of the Sabines, who assisted Turnus
against Æneas. He was the progenitor of that Appius Claudius, who
migrated to Rome, and became the founder of the Claudian family.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 707; bk. 10, li. 345.
=Clazŏmĕnæ= and =Clazŏmĕna=, now _Vourla_, a city of Ionia, on the
coasts of the Ægean sea, between Smyrna and Chios. It was founded
A.U.C. 98, by the Ionians, and gave birth to Anaxagoras and other
illustrious men. _Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 17.――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 29.
――_Strabo_, bk. 14.――_Livy_, bk. 38, ch. 39.
=Cleadas=, a man of Platæa, who raised tombs over those who had been
killed in the battle against Mardonius. _Herodotus_, bk. 9, ch. 85.
=Cleander=, one of Alexander’s officers, who killed Parmenio by the
king’s command. He was punished with death, for offering violence
to a noble virgin, and giving her as a prostitute to his servants.
_Curtius_, bk. 7, ch. 2; bk. 10, ch. 1.――――The first tyrant of Gela.
_Aristotle_, _Politics_, bk. 5, ch. 12.――――A soothsayer of Arcadia.
_Herodotus_, bk. 6, ch. 83.――――A favourite of the emperor Commodus,
who was put to death, A.D. 190, after abusing public justice, and
his master’s confidence.
=Cleandridas=, a Spartan general, &c.――――A man punished with death for
bribing two of the Ephori.
=Cleanthes=, a stoic philosopher of Assos in Troas, successor of Zeno.
He was so poor, that to maintain himself he used to draw out water
for a gardener in the night, and study in the daytime. Cicero calls
him the father of the stoics; and, out of respect for his virtues,
the Roman senate raised a statue to him in Assos. It is said that
he starved himself in his 90th year, B.C. 240. _Strabo_, bk. 13.
――_Cicero_, _de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum_, bk. 2, ch. 69; bk. 4,
ch. 7.
=Clearchus=, a tyrant of Heraclea in Pontus, who was killed by
Chion and Leonidas, Plato’s pupils, during the celebration of the
festivals of Bacchus, after the enjoyment of the sovereign power
during 12 years, 353 B.C. _Justin_, bk. 16, ch. 4.――_Diodorus_, bk.
15.――――The second tyrant of Heraclea of that name, died B.C. 288.
――――A Lacedæmonian sent to quiet the Byzantines. He was recalled but
refused to obey, and fled to Cyrus the younger, who made him captain
of 13,000 Greek soldiers. He obtained a victory over Artaxerxes,
who was so enraged at the defeat, that when Clearchus fell into
his hands by the treachery of Tissaphernes, he put him to immediate
death. _Diodorus_, bk. 14.――――A disciple of Aristotle, who wrote a
treatise on tactics, &c. _Xenophon._
=Clearides=, a son of Cleonymus governor of Amphipolis. _Thucydides_,
bk. 4, ch. 132; bk. 5, ch. 10.
=Clemens Romanus=, one of the fathers of the church, said to be
contemporary with St. Paul. Several spurious compositions are
ascribed to him, but the only thing extant is his epistle to the
Corinthians, written to quiet the disturbances that had arisen
there. It has been much admired. The best edition is that of Wotton,
8vo, Cambridge, 1718.――――Another of Alexandria, called from thence
_Alexandrinus_, who flourished 206 A.D. His works are various,
elegant, and full of erudition; the best edition of which is
Potter’s, 2 vols., folio, Oxford, 1715.――――A senator who favoured
the party of Niger against Severus.
=Clementia=, one of the virtues to whom the Romans paid adoration.
=Cleo=, a Sicilian among Alexander’s flatterers. _Curtius_, bk. 8,
ch. 5.
=Cleŏbis= and =Biton=, two youths, sons of Cydippe, the priestess
of Juno at Argos. When oxen could not be procured to draw their
mother’s chariot to the temple of Juno, they put themselves
under the yoke, and drew it 45 stadia to the temple, amidst the
acclamations of the multitude, who congratulated the mother on
account of the filial affection of her sons. Cydippe entreated the
goddess to reward the piety of her sons with the best gift that
could be granted to a mortal. They went to rest, and awoke no more;
and by this the goddess showed, that death is the only true happy
event that can happen to man. The Argives raised statues at Delphi.
_Cicero_, _Tusculanæ Disputations_, bk. 1, ch. 47.――_Valerius
Maximus_, bk. 5, ch. 4.――_Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 31.――_Plutarch_,
_de Consolatio ad Apollonium_.
=Cleobūla=, the wife of Amyntor, by whom she had Phœnix.――――A daughter
of Boreas and Orithyia, called also Cleopatra. She married Phineus
son of Agenor, by whom she had Plexippus and Pandion. Phineus
repudiated her to marry a daughter of Dardanus. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3,
ch. 15.――――A woman, mother of a son called Euripides by Apollo.
――――Another, who bore Cepheus and Amphidamus to Ægeus.――――The mother
of Pithus. _Hyginus_, fables 14, 97, &c.
=Cleobūlīna=, a daughter of Cleobulus, remarkable for her genius,
learning, judgment, and courage. She composed enigmas, some of
which have been preserved. One of them runs thus: “A father had 12
children, and these 12 children had each 30 white sons and 30 black
daughters, who are immortal, though they died every day.” In this
there is no need of an Œdipus to discover that there are 12 months
in the year, and that every month consists of 30 days, and of the
same number of nights. _Diogenes Laërtius._
=Cleobūlus=, one of the seven wise men of Greece, son of Evagoras
of Lindos, famous for the beautiful shape of his body. He wrote
some few verses, and died in the 70th year of his age, B.C. 564.
_Diogenes Laërtius_, _Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers_.
――_Plutarch_, _Convivium Septem Sapientium_.――――An historian.
_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 31.――――One of the Ephori. _Thucydides._
=Cleochares=, a man sent by Alexander to demand Porus to surrender.
_Curtius_, bk. 8, ch. 13.
=Cleocharia=, the mother of Eurotas by Lelax. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3,
ch. 10.
=Cleodæus=, a son of Hyllus. _Herodotus_, bk. 6, ch. 52; bk. 7,
ch. 204; bk. 8, ch. 131. He endeavoured to recover Peloponnesus
after his father’s death, but to no purpose.
=Cleodamus=, a Roman general under Gallienus.
=Cleodēmus=, a physician. _Plutarch_, _de Convivium Septem Sapientium_.
=Cleodōra=, a nymph, mother of Parnassus. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 6.
――――One of the Danaides, who married Lyxus. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2,
ch. 1.
=Cleodoxa=, a daughter of Niobe and Amphion, changed into a stone as
a punishment for her mother’s pride. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 5.
=Cleogĕnes=, a son of Silenus, &c. _Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 1.
=Cleolāus=, a son of Hercules, by Argele daughter of Thestius, who,
upon the ill success of the Heraclidæ in Peloponnesus, retired to
Rhodes with his wife and children. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2.
=Cleomăchus=, a boxer of Magnesia.
=Cleomantes=, a Lacedæmonian soothsayer. _Plutarch_, _Alexander_.
=Cleombrŏtus=, son of Pausanias, a king of Sparta after his brother
Agesipolis I. He made war against the Bœotians, and lest he should
be suspected of treacherous communication with Epaminondas, he gave
that general battle at Leuctra, in a very disadvantageous place.
He was killed in the engagement, and his army destroyed, B.C. 371.
_Diodorus_, bk. 15.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 13.――_Xenophon._――――A
son-in-law of Leonidas king of Sparta, who for a while usurped the
kingdom, after the expulsion of his father-in-law. When Leonidas was
recalled, Cleombrotus was banished; and his wife Chelonis, who had
accompanied her father, now accompanied her husband in his exile.
_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 6.――_Plutarch_, _Agis_ & _Cleomenes_.――――A
youth of Ambracia, who threw himself into the sea, after reading
Plato’s treatise on the immortality of the soul. _Cicero_, _Tusculanæ
Disputations_, bk. 1, ch. 34.――_Ovid_, _Ibis_, li. 493.
=Cleomēdes=, a famous athlete of Astypalæa, above Crete. In a combat
at Olympia, he killed one of his antagonists by a blow with his
fist. On account of this accidental murder, he was deprived of the
victory, and he became delirious. In his return to Astypalæa, he
entered a school and pulled down the pillars which supported the
roof, and crushed to death 60 boys. He was pursued with stones, and
he fled for shelter into a tomb, whose doors he so strongly secured,
that his pursuers were obliged to break them for access. When the
tomb was opened, Cleomedes could not be found either dead or alive.
The oracle of Delphi was consulted, and gave this answer, _Ultimus
heroum Cleomedes Astypalæus_. Upon this they offered sacrifices to
him as a god. _Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 9.――_Plutarch_, _Romulus_.
=Cleomĕnes I.=, king of Sparta, conquered the Argives, and burnt 5000
of them by setting fire to a grove where they had fled, and freed
Athens from the tyranny of the Pisistratidæ. By bribing the oracle,
he pronounced Demaratus, his colleague on the throne, illegitimate,
because he had refused to punish the people of Ægina, who had
deserted the Greeks. He killed himself in a fit of madness, 491 B.C.
_Herodotus_, bks. 5, 6, & 7.――_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 3, &c.
=Cleomĕnes II.=, succeeded his brother Agesipolis II. He reigned 61
years in the greatest tranquillity, and was father to Acrotatus
and Cleonymus, and was succeeded by Areus I. son of Acrotatus.
_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 6.
=Cleomĕnes III.=, succeeded his father Leonidas. He was of an
enterprising spirit, and resolved to restore the ancient discipline
of Lycurgus in its full force, by banishing luxury and intemperance.
He killed the Ephori, and removed by poison his royal colleague
Eurydamidas, and made his own brother Euclidas king, against the
laws of the state, which forbade more than one of the same family
to sit on the throne. He made war against the Achæans, and attempted
to destroy their league. Aratus the general of the Achæans, who
supposed himself inferior to his enemy, called Antigonus to his
assistance; and Cleomenes, when he had fought the unfortunate battle
of Sellasia, B.C. 222, retired into Egypt, to the court of Ptolemy
Evergetes, where his wife and children had fled before him. Ptolemy
received him with great cordiality; but his successor, weak and
suspicious, soon expressed his jealousy of this noble stranger, and
imprisoned him. Cleomenes killed himself, and his body was flayed
and exposed on a cross, B.C. 219. _Polybius_, bk. 6.――_Plutarch_,
_Parallel Lives_.――_Justin_, bk. 28, ch. 4.
=Cleomĕnes=, a man appointed by Alexander to receive the tributes
of Egypt and Africa. _Curtius_, bk. 4, ch. 8.――――A man placed as
arbitrator between the Athenians and the people of Megara.――――An
historian.――――A dithyrambic poet of Rhegium.――――A Sicilian
contemporary with Verres, whose licentiousness and avarice he was
fond of gratifying. _Cicero_, _Against Verres_, bk. 4, ch. 12.――――A
Lacedæmonian general.
=Cleon=, an Athenian, who, though originally a tanner, became
general of the armies of the state, by his intrigues and eloquence.
He took Thoron in Thrace, and after distinguishing himself in
several engagements, he was killed at Amphipolis, in a battle with
Brasidas the Spartan general, 422 B.C. _Thucydides_, bks. 3, 4, &c.
――_Diodorus_, bk. 12.――――A general of Messenia, who disputed with
Aristodemus for the sovereignty.――――A statuary. _Pausanias_, bk. 1,
ch. 8.――――A poet who wrote a poem on the Argonauts.――――An orator
of Halicarnassus, who composed an oration for Lysander, in which he
intimated the propriety of making the kingdom of Sparta elective.
_Cornelius Nepos_ & _Plutarch_, _Lysander_.――――A Magnesian, who
wrote some commentaries, in which he speaks of portentous events,
&c. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 4.――――A Sicilian, one of Alexander’s
flatterers. _Curtius_, bk. 8, ch. 5.――――A tyrant of Sicyon.――――A
friend of Phocion.
=Cleōnæ= and =Cleona=, a village of Peloponnesus, between Corinth and
Argos. Hercules killed the lion of Nemæa in its neighbourhood, and
thence it is called Cleonæus. It was made a constellation. _Statius_,
bk. 4, _Sylvæ_, poem 4, li. 28.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 6, li.
417.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 3, li. 32.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 15.
――_Pliny_, bk. 36, ch. 5.――――A town of Phocis.
=Cleōne=, a daughter of Asopus. _Diodorus_, bk. 4.
=Cleonīca=, a young virgin of Byzantium, whom Pausanias king of Sparta
invited to his bed. She was introduced into his room when he was
asleep, and unluckily overturned a burning lamp which was by the
side of the bed. Pausanias was awakened at the sudden noise, and
thinking it to be some assassin, he seized his sword, and killed
Cleonica before he knew who it was. Cleonica often appeared to
him, and he was anxious to make a proper expiation to her manes.
_Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 17.――_Plutarch_, _Cimon_, &c.
=Cleonīcus=, a freedman of Seneca, &c. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 15,
ch. 45.
=Cleonnis=, a Messenian who disputed with Aristodemus for the sovereign
power of his country. _Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 10.
=Cleony̆mus=, a son of Cleomenes II., who called Pyrrhus to his
assistance, because Areus his brother’s son had been preferred to
him in the succession; but the measure was unpopular, and even the
women united to repel the foreign prince. His wife was unfaithful
to his bed, and committed adultery with Acrotatus. _Plutarch_,
_Pyrrhus_.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 3.――――A general who assisted the
Tarentines, and was conquered by Æmilius the Roman consul. _Strabo_,
bk. 6.――――A person so cowardly that _Cleonymo timidior_ became
proverbial.
=Cleŏpăter=, an officer of Aratus.
=Cleŏpātra=, the granddaughter of Attalus, betrothed to Philip of
Macedonia, after he had divorced Olympias. When Philip was murdered
by Pausanias, Cleopatra was seized by order of Olympias, and put
to death. _Diodorus_, bk. 16.――_Justin_, bk. 9, ch. 7.――_Plutarch_,
_Pyrrhus_.――――A sister of Alexander the Great, who married Perdiccas,
and was killed by Antigonus as she attempted to fly to Ptolemy in
Egypt. _Diodorus_, bks. 16 & 20.――_Justin_, bk. 9, ch. 6; bk. 13,
ch. 6.――――A harlot of Claudius Cæsar.――――A daughter of Boreas. _See:_
Cleobula.――――A daughter of Idas and Marpessa, daughter of Evenus
king of Ætolia. She married Meleager son of king Œneus. _Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 9, li. 552.――_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 2.――――One of the
Danaides. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 1.――――A daughter of Amyntas
of Ephesus. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 44.――――A wife of Tigranes king
of Armenia, sister of Mithridates. _Justin_, bk. 38, ch. 3.――――A
daughter of Tros and Callirhoe. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 12.――――A
daughter of Ptolemy Philometor, who married Alexander Bala, and
afterwards Nicanor. She killed Seleucus, Nicanor’s son, because
he ascended the throne without her consent. She was suspected of
preparing poison for Antiochus her son, and compelled to drink
it herself, B.C. 120.――――A wife and sister of Ptolemy Evergetes,
who raised her son Alexander a minor, to the throne of Egypt, in
preference to his elder brother Ptolemy Lathurus, whose interest
the people favoured. As Alexander was odious, Cleopatra suffered
Lathurus to ascend the throne, on condition, however, that he should
repudiate his sister and wife, called Cleopatra, and marry Seleuca
his younger sister. She afterwards raised her favourite Alexander to
the throne; but her cruelties were so odious, that he fled to avoid
her tyranny. Cleopatra laid snares for him; and when Alexander heard
it, he put her to death. _Justin_, bk. 39, chs. 3 & 4.――――A queen of
Egypt, daughter of Ptolemy Auletes, and sister and wife to Ptolemy
Dionysius, celebrated for her beauty and her cunning. She admitted
Cæsar to her arms, to influence him to give her the kingdom, in
preference to her brother who had expelled her, and had a son by
him called Cæsarion. As she had supported Brutus, Antony, in his
expedition to Parthia, summoned her to appear before him. She
arrayed herself in the most magnificent apparel, and appeared before
her judge in the most captivating attire. Her artifice succeeded;
Antony became enamoured of her, and publicly married her, forgetful
of his connections with Octavia the sister of Augustus. He gave her
the greatest part of the eastern provinces of the Roman empire. This
behaviour was the cause of a rupture between Augustus and Antony;
and these two celebrated Romans met at Actium, where Cleopatra,
by flying with 60 sail, ruined the interest of Antony, and he was
defeated. Cleopatra had retired to Egypt, where soon after Antony
followed. Antony killed himself upon the false information that
Cleopatra was dead; and as his wound was not mortal, he was carried
to the queen, who drew him up by a cord from one of the windows of
the monument, where she had retired and concealed herself. Antony
soon after died of his wounds; and Cleopatra, after she had received
pressing invitations from Augustus, and even pretended declarations
of love, destroyed herself by the bite of an asp not to fall into
the conqueror’s hands. She had previously attempted to stab herself,
and had once made a resolution to starve herself. Cleopatra was a
voluptuous and extravagant woman, and in one of the feasts she gave
to Antony at Alexandria, she melted pearls in her drink to render
her entertainment more sumptuous and expensive. She was fond of
appearing dressed as the goddess Isis; and she advised Antony to
make war against the richest nations, to support her debaucheries.
Her beauty has been greatly commended, and her mental perfections so
highly celebrated, that she has been described as capable of giving
audience to the ambassadors of seven different nations, and of
speaking their various languages as fluently as her own. In Antony’s
absence, she improved the public library of Alexandria, with the
addition of that of Pergamus. Two treatises, _De medicamene faciei
epistolæ eroticæ_, and _De morbis mulierum_, have been falsely
attributed to her. She died B.C. 30 years, after a reign of 24 years,
aged 39. Egypt became a Roman province at her death. _Florus_, bk. 4,
ch. 11.――_Appian_, bk. 5, _Civil Wars_.――_Plutarch_, _Pompey_ &
_Antonius_.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ode 37, li. 21, &c.――_Strabo_, bk. 17.
――――A daughter of Ptolemy Epiphanes, who married Philometor, and
afterwards Physcon of Cyrene.
=Cleopatris=, or =Arsinoe=, a fortified town of Egypt on the Arabian
gulf.
=Cleophănes=, an orator.
=Cleophanthus=, a son of Themistocles, famous for his skill in riding.
=Cleŏphes=, a queen of India, who submitted to Alexander, by whom, as
some suppose, she had a son. _Curtius_, bk. 8, ch. 10.
=Cleophŏlus=, a Samian, who wrote an account of Hercules.
=Cleŏphon=, a tragic poet of Athens.
=Cleophȳlus=, a man whose posterity saved the poems of Homer.
_Plutarch._
=Cleopompus=, an Athenian, who took Thronium, and conquered the
Locrians, &c. _Thucydides_, bk. 2, chs. 26 & 58.――――A man who
married the nymph Cleodora, by whom he had Parnassus. As Cleodora
was beloved by Neptune, some have supposed that she had two husbands.
_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 6.
=Cleoptolĕmus=, a man of Chalcis, whose daughter was given in marriage
to Antiochus. _Livy_, bk. 36, ch. 11.
=Cleŏpus=, a son of Codrus. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 3.
=Cleora=, the wife of Agesilaus. _Plutarch_, _Agesilaus_.
=Cleostrătus=, a youth devoted to be sacrificed to a serpent among the
Thespians, &c. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 26.――――An ancient philosopher
and astronomer of Tenedos, about 536 years before Christ. He first
found the constellations of the zodiac, and reformed the Greek
calendar.
=Cleoxĕnus=, wrote a history of Persia.
=Clepsy̆dra=, a fountain of Messenia. _Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 31.
=Cleri=, a people of Attica.
=Clesides=, a Greek painter, about 276 years before Christ, who
revenged the injuries he had received from queen Stratonice, by
representing her in the arms of a fisherman. However indecent the
painter might represent the queen, she was drawn with such personal
beauty, that she preserved the piece, and liberally rewarded the
artist.
=Cleta= and =Phaenna=, two of the Graces, according to some.
_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 18.
=Clidēmus=, a Greek who wrote the history of Attica. _Vossius_,
_historicis græcis_, bk. 3.
=Climax=, a pass of mount Taurus, formed by the projection of a brow
into the Mediterranean sea. _Strabo_, bk. 14.
=Climĕnus=, a son of Arcas descended from Hercules.
=Clinias=, a Pythagorean philosopher and musician, 520 years before
the christian era. _Plutarch_, _Convivium Septem Sapientium_――_Ælian_,
_Varia Historia_, bk. 14, ch. 23.――――A son of Alcibiades, the bravest
man in the Grecian fleet that fought against Xerxes. _Herodotus_,
bk. 8, ch. 17.――――The father of Alcibiades, killed at the battle of
Coronea. _Plutarch_, _Alcibiades_.――――The father of Aratus, killed
by Abantidas, B.C. 263. _Plutarch_, _Aratus_.――――A friend of Solon.
_Plutarch_, _Solon_.
=Clinippĭdes=, an Athenian general in Lesbos. _Diodorus_, bk. 12.
=Clinus= of Cos, was general of 7000 Greeks in the pay of king
Nectanebus. He was killed, with some of his troops, by Nicostratus
and the Argives, as he passed the Nile. _Diodorus_, bk. 16.
=Clio=, the first of the muses, daughter of Jupiter and Mnemosyne.
She presided over history. She is represented crowned with laurels,
holding in one hand a trumpet, and a book in the other. Sometimes
she holds a _plectrum_ or quill with a lute. Her name signifies
honour and reputation (κλεος, _gloria_); and it was her office
faithfully to record the actions of brave and illustrious heroes.
She had Hyacintha by Pierus son of Magnus. She was also mother of
Hymenæus and Ialemus, according to others. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_,
li. 75.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 3.――_Strabo_, bk. 14.――――One of
Cyrene’s nymphs. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 4, li. 341.
=Clisithera=, a daughter of Idomeneus, promised in marriage to Leucus,
by whom she was murdered.
=Clisthĕnes=, the last tyrant of Sicyon. _Aristotle._――――An Athenian
of the family of Alcmæon. It is said that he first established
ostracism, and that he was the first who was banished by that
institution. He banished Isagoras, and was himself soon after
restored. _Plutarch_, _Aristotle_.――_Herodotus_, bk. 5, ch. 66, &c.
――――A person censured as effeminate and incontinent. _Aristotle_.
――――An orator. _Cicero_, _Brutus_, ch. 7.
=Clitæ=, a people of Cilicia. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 12, ch. 55.――――A
place near mount Athos. _Livy_, bk. 44, ch. 11.
=Clitarchus=, a man who made himself absolute at Eretria, by means of
Philip of Macedonia. He was ejected by Phocion.――――An historian, who
accompanied Alexander the Great, of whose life he wrote the history.
_Curtius_, bk. 9, ch. 5.
=Clite=, the wife of Cyzicus, who hung herself when she saw her husband
dead. _Apollonius_, bk. 1.――_Orpheus._
=Cliternia=, a town of Italy. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 4.
=Clitodēmus=, an ancient writer. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 15.
=Clitomăchus=, a Carthaginian philosopher of the third academy, who
was pupil and successor to Carneades at Athens, B.C. 128. _Diogenes
Laërtius_, _Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers_.――――An
athlete of a modest countenance and behaviour. _Ælian_, _Varia
Historia_, bk. 3, ch. 30.
=Clitonymus=, wrote a treatise on Sybaris and Italy.
=Clitophon=, a man of Rhodes, who wrote a history of India, &c.
=Clitor=, a son of Lycaon.――――A son of Azan, who founded a city
in Arcadia, called after his name. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 4.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 8. Ceres, Æsculapius, Ilythia, the
Dioscuri, and other deities, had temples in that city. There is
also in this town a fountain called _Clitorium_, whose waters gave a
dislike for wine. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 15, li. 322.――_Pliny_,
bk. 32, ch. 2.――――A river of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 12.
=Clitoria=, the wife of Cimon the Athenian.
=Clitumnus=, a river of Campania, whose waters, when drunk, made oxen
white. _Propertius_, bk. 2, poem 10, li. 25.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_,
bk. 2, li. 146.――_Pliny_, bk. 2, ch. 103.
=Clitus=, a familiar friend and foster-brother of Alexander. Though he
had saved the king’s life in a bloody battle, yet Alexander killed
him with a javelin, in a fit of anger, because, at a feast, he
preferred the actions of Philip to those of his son. Alexander was
inconsolable for the loss of his friend, whom he had sacrificed in
the hour of his drunkenness and dissipation. _Justin_, bk. 12, ch. 6.
――_Plutarch_, _Alexander_.――_Curtius_, bk. 4, &c.――――A commander
of Polyperchon’s ships, defeated by Antigonus. _Diodorus_, bk. 18.
――――An officer sent by Antipater, with 240 ships, against the
Athenians, whom he conquered near the Echinades. _Diodorus_, bk. 18.
――――A Trojan prince killed by Teucer.――――A disciple of Aristotle,
who wrote a book on Miletus.
=Cloacīna=, a goddess at Rome, who presided over the Cloacæ. Some
suppose her to be Venus, whose statue was found in the _Cloacæ_,
whence the name. The Cloacæ were large receptacles for the filth
and dung of the whole city, begun by Tarquin the elder, and finished
by Tarquin the Proud. They were built all under the city; so that,
according to an expression of Pliny, Rome seemed to be suspended
between heaven and earth. The building was so strong, and the stones
so large, that though they were continually washed by impetuous
torrents, they remained unhurt during above 700 years. There were
public officers chosen to take care of the Cloacæ, called _Curatores
Cloacarum urbis_. _Livy_, bk. 3, ch. 48.――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 29.
=Cloanthus=, one of the companions of Æneas, from whom the family
of the Cluentii at Rome were descended. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 5,
li. 122.
=Clodia=, the wife of Lucullus, repudiated for her lasciviousness.
_Plutarch_, _Lucullus_.――――An opulent matron at Rome, mother of
Decimus Brutus. _Cicero_, _Letters to Atticus_.――――A vestal virgin.
_See:_ Claudia.――――Another of the same family who successfully
repressed the rudeness of a tribune that attempted to stop the
procession of her father in his triumph through the streets of
Rome. _Cicero_, _For Marcus Cælius_.――――A woman who married Quintus
Metellus, and afterwards disgraced herself by her amours with Cœlius,
and her incest with her brother Publius, for which he is severely
and eloquently arraigned by Cicero. _For Marcus Cælius._
=Clodia lex=, _de Cypro_, was enacted by the tribune Clodius, A.U.C.
695, to reduce Cyprus into a Roman province, and expose Ptolemy
king of Egypt to sale in his regal ornaments. It empowered Cato
to go with the pretorian power and see the auction of the king’s
goods, and commissioned him to return the money to Rome.――――Another,
_de Magistratibus_, A.U.C. 695, by Clodius the tribune. It forbade
the censors to put a stigma or mark of infamy upon any person who
had not been actually accused and condemned by both the censors.
――――Another, _de Religione_, by the same, A.U.C. 696, to deprive the
priest of Cybele, a native of Pessinus, of his office, and confer
the priesthood upon Brotigonus, a Gallogrecian.――――Another, _de
Provinciis_, A.U.C. 696, which nominated the provinces of Syria,
Babylon, and Persia, to the consul Gabinius; and Achaia, Thessaly,
Macedon, and Greece, to his colleague Piso, with proconsular power.
It empowered them to defray the expenses of their march from the
public treasury.――――Another, A.U.C. 695, which required the same
distribution of corn among the people _gratis_, as had been given
them before at six _asses_ and a _triens_ the bushel.――――Another,
A.U.C. 695 by the same, _de Judiciis_. It called to an account such
as had executed a Roman citizen without a judgment of the people,
and all the formalities of a trial.――――Another, by the same, to pay
no attention to the appearances of the heavens, while any affair
was before the people.――――Another, to make the power of the tribunes
free, in making and proposing laws.――――Another, to re-establish the
companies of artists, which had been instituted by Numa, but since
his time abolished.
=Clodii forum=, a town of Italy. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 15.
=Publius Clōdius=, a Roman descended from an illustrious family,
and remarkable for his licentiousness, avarice, and ambition. He
committed incest with his three sisters, and introduced himself
in women’s clothes into the house of Julius Cæsar, whilst Pompeia,
Cæsar’s wife, of whom he was enamoured, was celebrating the mysteries
of Ceres, where no man was permitted to appear. He was accused for
this violation of human and divine laws; but he corrupted his judges,
and by that means screened himself from justice. He descended from
a patrician into a plebeian family to become a tribune. He was such
an enemy to Cato, that he made him go with pretorian power in an
expedition against Ptolemy king of Cyprus, that, by the difficulty
of the campaign, he might ruin his reputation, and destroy his
interest at Rome during his absence. Cato, however, by his uncommon
success, frustrated the views of Clodius. He was also an inveterate
enemy to Cicero; and by his influence he banished him from Rome,
partly on pretence that he had punished with death, and without
trial, the adherents of Catiline. He wreaked his vengeance upon
Cicero’s house, which he burnt, and set all his goods to sale; which,
however, to his great mortification, no one offered to buy. In spite
of Clodius, Cicero was recalled, and all his goods restored to him.
Clodius was some time after murdered by Milo, whose defence Cicero
took upon himself. _Plutarch_, _Cicero_.――_Appian_ _on Cicero_,
bk. 2.――_Cicero_, _for Milo_ & _On his House_.――_Dio Cassius._――――A
certain author, quoted by _Plutarch_.――――Licinius, wrote a history
of Rome. _Livy_, bk. 29, ch. 22.――――Quirinalis, a rhetorician in
Nero’s age. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 1, ch. 7.――――Sextus, a
rhetorician of Sicily, intimate with Marcus Antony, whose preceptor
he was. _Suetonius_, _Lives of the Rhetoricians_.――_Cicero_,
_Philippics_.
=Clœlia=, a Roman virgin, given, with other maidens, as hostages to
Porsonna king of Etruria. She escaped from her confinement, and swam
across the Tiber to Rome. Her unprecedented virtue was rewarded by
her countrymen with an equestrian statue in the Via Sacra. _Livy_,
bk. 2, ch. 13.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8, li. 651.――_Dionysius of
Halicarnassus_, bk. 5.――_Juvenal_, satire 8, li. 265.――――A patrician
family descended from Clœlius, one of the companions of Æneas.
_Dionysius of Halicarnassus._
=Clœliæ fossæ=, a place near Rome. _Plutarch_, _Coriolanus_.
=Clœlius Gracchus=, a general of the Volsci and Sabines against Rome,
conquered by Quinctius Cincinnatus the dictator.――――Tullus, a Roman
ambassador, put to death by Tolumnius king of the Veientes.
=Clonas=, a musician. _Plutarch_, _de Musica_.
=Clonia=, the mother of Nycteus. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 10.
=Clonius=, a Bœotian, who went with 50 ships to the Trojan war.
_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2.――――A Trojan killed by Messapus in Italy.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 749.――――Another, killed by Turnus.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 574.
=Clotho=, the youngest of the three Parcæ, daughter of Jupiter and
Themis, or, according to Hesiod, of Night, was supposed to preside
over the moment that we are born. She held the distaff in her hand,
and spun the thread of life, whence her name (κλωθειν, _to spin_).
She was represented wearing a crown with seven stars, and covered
with a variegated robe. _See:_ Parcæ. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 218.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 3.
=Cluacīna=, a name of Venus, whose statue was erected in that place
where peace was made between the Romans and Sabines, after the rape
of the virgins. _See:_ Cloacina.
=Cluentius=, a Roman citizen, accused by his mother of having murdered
his father, 54 years B.C. He was ably defended by Cicero, in an
oration still extant. The family of the Cluentii was descended from
Cloanthus, one of the companions of Æneas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 5,
li. 122.――_Cicero_, _For Aulus Cluentius_.
=Cluilia fossa=, a place five miles distant from Rome. _Livy_, bk. 1,
ch. 23; bk. 2, ch. 39.
=Clŭpea= and =Cly̆pea=, now _Aklibia_, a town of Africa Propria,
22 miles east of Carthage, which receives its name from its exact
resemblance to a shield, _clypeus_. _Lucan_, bk. 4, li. 586.
――_Strabo_, bk. 17.――_Livy_, bk. 27, ch. 29.――_Cæsar_, _Civil War_,
bk. 2, ch. 23.
=Clusia=, a daughter of an Etrurian king, of whom Valerius Torquatus
the Roman general became enamoured. He asked her of her father, who
slighted his addresses; upon which he besieged and destroyed his
town. Clusia threw herself down from a high tower, and came to the
ground unhurt. _Plutarch_, _Parallela minora_.
=Clusīni fontes=, baths in Etruria. _Horace_, bk. 1, ltr. 15, li. 9.
=Clusium=, now _Chiusi_, a town of Etruria, taken by the Gauls under
Brennus. Porsena was buried there. At the north of Clusium there was
a lake called _Clusina lacus_, which extended northward as far as
Arretium, and had a communication with the Arnus, which falls into
the sea at Pisa. _Diodorus_, bk. 14.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10,
lis. 167 & 655.
=Clusius=, a river of Cisalpine Gaul. _Polybius_, bk. 2.――――The surname
of Janus, when his temple was shut. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 1, li. 130.
=Cluvia=, a noted debauchee, &c. _Juvenal_, satire 2, li. 49.
=Cluvius Rufus=, a questor, A.U.C. 693. _Cicero_, _Letters to his
Friends_, bk. 13, ltr. 56.――――A man of Puteoli appointed by Cæsar
to divide the lands of Gaul, &c. _Cicero_, _Letters to his Friends_,
bk. 13, ch. 7.
=Clymĕne=, a daughter of Oceanus and ♦Tethys, who married Japetus, by
whom she had Atlas, Prometheus, Menœtius, and Epimetheus. _Hesiod_,
_Theogony_.――――One of the Nereides, mother of Mnemosyne by Jupiter.
_Hyginus_.――――The mother of Thesimenus by Parthenopæus. _Hyginus_,
fable 71.――――A daughter of Mymas, mother of Atalanta by Jasus.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 3.――――A daughter of Crateus, who married Nauplius.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 2.――――The mother of Phaeton by Apollo. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, li. 756.――――A Trojan woman. _Pausanias_,
bk. 10, ch. 26.――――The mother of Homer. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 24.
――――A female servant of Helen, who accompanied her mistress to Troy,
when she eloped with Paris. _Ovid_, _Heroides_, poem 17, li. 267.
――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 3, li. 144.
♦ ‘Thetys’ replaced with ‘Tethys’
=Clymeneĭdes=, a patronymic given to Phaeton’s sisters, who were
daughters of Clymene.
=Clymĕnus=, a king of Orchomenos, son of Presbon and father of Erginus,
Stratius, Arrhon, and Axius. He received a wound from a stone thrown
by a Theban, of which he died. His son Erginus, who succeeded him,
made war against the Thebans, to revenge his death. _Pausanias_,
bk. 9, ch. 37.――――One of the descendants of Hercules, who built
a temple to Minerva of Cydonia. _Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 21.――――A
son of Phoroneus. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 35.――――A king of Elis.
_Pausanias._――――A son of Œneus king of Calydon.
=Clysony̆mus=, a son of Amphidamas, killed by Patroclus. _Apollodorus_,
bk. 3, ch. 13.
=Clytemnestra=, a daughter of Tyndarus king of Sparta by Leda. She
was born, together with her brother Castor, from one of the eggs
which her mother brought forth after her amour with Jupiter, under
the form of a swan. Clytemnestra married Agamemnon king of Argos.
She had before married Tantalus son of Thyestes, according to some
authors. When Agamemnon went to the Trojan war, he left his cousin
Ægysthus to take care of his wife, of his family, and all his
domestic affairs. Besides this, a certain favourite musician was
appointed by Agamemnon to watch over the conduct of the guardian as
well as that of Clytemnestra. In the absence of Agamemnon, Ægysthus
made his court to Clytemnestra, and publicly lived with her. Her
infidelity reached the ears of Agamemnon before the walls of Troy,
and he resolved to take full revenge upon the adulterers at his
return. He was prevented from putting his scheme into execution;
Clytemnestra, with her adulterer, murdered him at his arrival, as
he came out of the bath, or, according to other accounts, as he sat
down at a feast prepared to celebrate his happy return. Cassandra,
whom Agamemnon had brought from Troy, shared his fate; and Orestes
would also have been deprived of his life, like his father, had
not his sister Electra removed him from the reach of Clytemnestra.
After this murder, Clytemnestra publicly married Ægysthus, and he
ascended the throne of Argos. Orestes, after an absence of seven
years, returned to Mycenæ, resolved to avenge his father’s murder.
He concealed himself in the house of his sister Electra, who had been
married by the adulterers to a person of mean extraction and indigent
circumstances. His death was publicly announced; and when Ægysthus
and Clytemnestra repaired to the temple of Apollo, to return thanks
to the god for the death of the surviving son of Agamemnon, Orestes,
who with his faithful friend Pylades had concealed himself in the
temple, rushed upon the adulterers and killed them with his own hand.
They were buried without the walls of the city, as their remains
were deemed unworthy to be laid in the sepulchre of Agamemnon. _See:
_ Ægysthus, Agamemnon, Orestes, Electra. _Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Homer_,
_Odyssey_, bk. 11.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 10.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 2, chs. 18 & 22.――_Euripides_, _Iphigeneia in Aulis_.――_Hyginus_,
fables 117 & 140.――_Propertius_, bk. 3, poem 19.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 4, li. 471.――_Philostratus_, _Imagines_, bk. 2, ch. 9.
=Clytia=, or =Clytie=, a daughter of Oceanus and Tethys, beloved by
Apollo. She was deserted by her lover, who paid his addresses to
Leucothoe; and this so irritated her, that she discovered the whole
intrigue to her rival’s father. Apollo despised her the more for
this, and she pined away, and was changed into a flower, commonly
called a sunflower, which still turns its head towards the sun
in his course, as in pledge of her love. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 4, fable 3, &c.――――A daughter of Amphidamus, mother of Pelops by
Tantalus.――――A concubine of Amyntor son of Phrastor, whose calumny
caused Amyntor to put out the eyes of his falsely accused son Phœnix.
――――A daughter of Pandarus.
=Clytius=, a son of Laomedon by Strymo. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 10.――――A
youth in the army of Turnus, beloved by Cydon. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk.
10, li. 325.――――A giant, killed by Vulcan, in the war waged against
the gods. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 6.――――The father of Pireus, who
faithfully attended Telemachus. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 15, li. 251.
――――A son of Æolus, who followed Æneas in Italy, where he was killed
by Turnus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 744.――――A son of Alcmæon
the son of Amphiaraus. _Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 17.
=Clytus=, a Greek in the Trojan war, killed by Hector. _Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 11, li. 302.
=Cnacadium=, a mountain of Laconia. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 24.
=Cnacălis=, a mountain of Arcadia, where festivals were celebrated in
honour of Diana. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 23.
=Cnagia=, a surname of Diana.
=Cnemus=, a Macedonian general, unsuccessful in an expedition against
the Acarnanians. _Diodorus_, bk. 12.――_Thucydides_, bk. 2, ch. 66, &c.
=Cneus=, or =Cnæus=, a prænomen common to many Romans.
=Cnidinium=, a name given to a monument near Ephesus.
=Cnidus= and =Gnidus=, a town and promontory of Doris in Caria. Venus
was the chief deity of the place, and had there a famous statue made
by Praxiteles. _Horace_, bk. 1, ode 30.――_Pliny_, bk. 36, ch. 15.
=Cnopus=, one of the descendants of Codrus, who went to settle a
colony, &c. _Polyænus_, bk. 8.
=Cnossia=, a mistress of Menelaus. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 11.
=Cnossus=, or =Gnossus=, a town of Crete, about 25 stadia from the
sea. It was built by Minos, and had a famous labyrinth. _Pausanias_,
bk. 1, ch. 27.
=Co=, =Coos=, and =Cos=, now _Zia_, one of the Cyclades, situate near
the coasts of Asia, about 15 miles from the town of Halicarnassus.
Its town is called Cos, and anciently bore the name of Astypalæa.
It gave birth to Hippocrates, Apelles, and Simonides, and was famous
for its fertility, for the wine and silkworms which it produced, and
for the manufacture of silk and cotton of a beautiful and delicate
texture. The women of the island always dressed in white; and their
garments were so clear and thin, that their bodies could be seen
through, according to _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, fable 9. The
women of Cos were changed into cows by Venus or Juno; whom they
reproached for suffering Hercules to lead Geryon’s flocks through
their territories. _Tibullus_, bk. 2, poem 4, li. 29.――_Horace_, bk.
1, satire 2, li. 101.――_Strabo_, bk. 14.――_Pliny_, bk. 11, ch. 23.
――_Propertius_, bk. 1, poem 2, li. 2; bk. 2, poem 1, li. 5; bk. 4,
poem 2, li. 23.――_Ovid_, _Ars Amatoria_, bk. 2, li. 298.
=Coamani=, a people of Asia. _Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 2.
=Coastræ=, and =Coactræ=, a people of Asia near the Palus Mæotis.
_Lucan_, bk. 3, li. 246.
=Cobares=, a celebrated magician of Media, in the age of Alexander.
_Curtius_, bk. 7, ch. 4.
=Cōcălus=, a king of Sicily, who hospitably received Dædalus, when he
fled before Minos. When Minos arrived in Sicily, the daughters of
Cocalus destroyed him. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 8, li. 261.
――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.
=Cocceius Nerva=, a friend of Horace and Mecænas, and grandfather
to the emperor Nerva. He was one of those who settled the disputes
between Augustus and Antony. He afterwards accompanied Tiberius in
his retreat in Campania, and starved himself to death. _Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 4, ch. 58; bk. 6, ch. 26.――_Horace_, bk. 1, satire 5,
li. 27.――――An architect of Rome, one of whose buildings is still
in being, the present cathedral of Naples.――――A nephew of Otho.
_Plutarch._――――A man to whom Nero granted a triumph, after the
discovery of the Pisonian conspiracy. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 15,
ch. 72.
=Coccygius=, a mountain of Peloponnesus. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 36.
=Cocintum=, a promontory of the Brutii, now Cape _Stilo_.
=Cocles Publius Horatius=, a celebrated Roman, who, alone, opposed the
whole army of Porsenna at the head of a bridge, while his companions
behind him were cutting off the communication with the other shore.
When the bridge was destroyed, Cocles, though severely wounded in
the leg by the darts of the enemy, leaped into the Tiber, and swam
across with his arms. A brazen statue was raised to him in the
temple of Vulcan, by the consul Publicola, for his eminent services.
He had the use only of _one eye_, as _Cocles_ signifies. _Livy_,
bk. 2, ch. 10.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 3, ch. 2.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 8, li. 650.
=Coctiæ= and =Cottiæ=, certain parts of the Alps, called after Coctius,
the conqueror of the Gauls, who was in alliance with Augustus.
_Tacitus_, _Histories_.
=Cocȳtus=, a river of Epirus. The word is derived from κωκυειν, _to
weep and to lament_. Its etymology, the unwholesomeness of its water,
and above all, its vicinity to the Acheron, have made the poets
call it one of the rivers of hell, hence _Cocytia virgo_, applied
to Alecto, one of the furies. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 3, li. 38;
bk. 4, li. 479; _Æneid_, bk. 6, lis. 297, 323; bk. 7, li. 479.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 17.――――A river of Campania, flowing into
the Lucrine lake.
=Codanus sinus=, one of the ancient names of the Baltic. _Pliny_,
bk. 4, ch. 13.
=Codomănus=, a surname of Darius III. king of Persia.
=Codrĭdæ=, the descendants of Codrus, who went from Athens at the head
of several colonies. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 2.
=Codropŏlis=, a town of Illyricum.
=Codrus=, the seventeenth and last king of Athens, son of Melanthus.
When the Heraclidæ made war against Athens, the oracle declared that
the victory would be granted to that nation whose king was killed in
battle. The Heraclidæ upon this gave strict orders to spare the life
of Codrus; but the patriotic king disguised himself, and attacked
one of the enemy, by whom he was killed. The Athenians obtained the
victory, and Codrus was deservedly called the father of his country.
He reigned 21 years, and was killed 1070 years before the christian
era. To pay greater honour to his memory, the Athenians made a
resolution that no man after Codrus should reign in Athens under the
name of king, and therefore the government was put into the hands
of perpetual archons. _Paterculus_, bk. 1, ch. 2.――_Justin_, bk. 2,
chs. 6 & 7.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 19; bk. 7, ch. 25.――_Valerius
Maximus_, bk. 5, ch. 6.――――A man who, with his brothers, killed
Hegesias tyrant of Ephesus, &c. _Polyænus_, bk. 6, ch. 49.――――A
Latin poet contemporary with Virgil. _Virgil_, _Eclogues_, poem 7.
――――Another in the reign of Domitian, whose poverty became a proverb.
_Juvenal_, satire 3, li. 203.
=Cœcilus=, a centurion. _Cæsar_, _Civil War_.
=Cœla=, a place in the bay of Eubœa. _Livy_, bk. 31, ch. 47.――――A part
of Attica. _Strabo_, bk. 10.
=Cœlaletæ=, a people of Thrace.
=Cœlesyria= and =Cœlosyria=, a country of Syria, between mount Libanus
and Antilibanus, where the Orontes takes its rise. Its capital was
Damascus.――――Antiochus Cyzicenus gave his name to that part of Syria
which he obtained as his share when he divided his father’s dominions
with Grypus, B.C. 112. _Dionysius Periegetes._
=Cœlia=, the wife of Sylla. _Plutarch_, _Sulla_. The Cœlian family,
which was plebeian, but honoured with the consulship, was descended
from Vibenna Cœles, an Etrurian, who came to settle at Rome in the
age of Romulus.
=Cœlius=, a Roman, defended by Cicero.――――Two brothers of Tarracina
accused of having murdered their father in his bed. They were
acquitted when it was proved that they were both asleep at the
time of the murder. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 8, ch. 1.――_Plutarch_,
_Cicero_.――――A general of Carbo.――――An orator. _Plutarch_, _Pompey_.
――――A lieutenant of Antony’s.――――Cursor, a Roman knight, in the age
of Ticerius.――――A man who, after spending his all in dissipation and
luxury, became a public robber with his friend Birrhus. _Horace_, bk.
1, satire 4, li. 69.――――A Roman historian, who flourished B.C. 121.
――――A hill of Rome. _See:_ Cælius.
=Cœlus=, or =Urānus=, an ancient deity, supposed to be the father
of Saturn, Oceanus, Hyperion, &c. He was son of Terra, whom he
afterwards married. The number of his children, according to some,
amounted to 45. They were called Titans, and were so closely confined
by their father, that they conspired against him, and were supported
by their mother, who provided them with a scythe. Saturn armed
himself with this scythe, and deprived his father of the organs
of generation, as he was going to unite himself to Terra. From
the blood which issued from the wound, sprang the giants, furies,
and nymphs. The mutilated parts were thrown into the sea, and from
them, and the foam which they occasioned, arose Venus the goddess of
beauty. _Hesiod_, &c.
=Cœnus=, an officer of Alexander, son-in-law to Parmenio. He died
of a distemper, in his return from India. _Curtius_, bk. 9, ch. 3.
――_Diodorus_, bk. 17.
=Cœrănus=, a stoic philosopher. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 14, ch. 52.
――――A person slain by Ulysses. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 13,
li. 157.――――A Greek, charioteer to Merion. He was killed by Hector.
_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 17, li. 610.
=Coes=, a man of Mitylene, made sovereign master of his country by
Darius. His countrymen stoned him to death. _Herodotus_, bk. 5,
chs. 11 & 38.
=Coeus=, a son of Cœlus and Terra. He was father of Latona, Asteria,
&c., by Phœbe. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_, lis. 135 & 405.――_Virgil_,
_Georgics_, bk. 1, li. 279.――――A river of Messenia, flowing by
Electra. _Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 33.
=Cogamus=, a river of Lydia. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 29.
=Cogidūnus=, a king of Britain, faithful to Rome. _Tacitus_,
_Agricola_, ch. 14.
=Cohibus=, a river of Asia, near Pontus.
=Cohors=, a division in the Roman armies, consisting of about 600 men.
It was the tenth part of a legion, and consequently its number was
under the same fluctuation as that of the legions, being sometimes
more and sometimes less.
=Colænus=, a king of Attica, before the age of Cecrops, according to
some accounts. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 31.
=Colaxias=, one of the remote ancestors of the Scythians. _Herodotus_,
bk. 4, ch. 5, &c.
=Colaxes=, a son of Jupiter and Ora. _Flaccus_, bk. 6, li. 48.
=Colchi=, the inhabitants of Colchis.
=Colchis= and =Colchos=, a country of Asia, at the south of Asiatic
Sarmatia, east of the Euxine sea, north of Armenia, and west of
Iberia, now called _Mingrelia_. It is famous for the expedition
of the Argonauts, and as the birthplace of Medea. It was fruitful
in poisonous herbs, and produced excellent flax. The inhabitants
were originally Egyptians, who settled there when Sesostris king
of Egypt extended his conquests in the north. From the country
arises the epithets of _Colchus_, _Colchicus_, _Colchiachus_,
and Medea receives the name of _Colchis_. _Juvenal_, satire 6,
li. 640.――_Flaccus_, bk. 5, li. 418.――_Horace_, bk. 2, ode 13,
li. 8.――_Strabo_, bk. 11.――_Ptolemy_, bk. 5, ch. 10.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 13, li. 24; _Amores_, bk. 2, poem 14, li. 28.
――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 19; bk. 2, ch. 3.
=Colenda=, a town of Spain.
=Colias=, now _Agio Nicolo_, a promontory of Attica, in the form of a
man’s foot, where Venus had a temple. _Herodotus_, bk. 8, ch. 96.
=Collatia=, a town on the Anio, built by the people of Alba. It was
there that Sextus Tarquin offered violence to Lucretia. _Livy_,
bk. 1, ch. 37, &c.――_Strabo_, bk. 3.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6,
li. 774.
=Lucius Tarquinius Collatīnus=, a nephew of Tarquin the Proud, who
married Lucretia, to whom Sextus Tarquin offered violence. He, with
Brutus, drove the Tarquins from Rome, and were made first consuls.
As he was one of the Tarquins, so much abominated by all the Roman
people, he laid down his office of consul, and retired to Alba in
voluntary banishment. _Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 57; bk. 2, ch. 2.――_Florus_,
bk. 1, ch. 9.――――One of the seven hills of Rome.
=Collīna=, one of the gates of Rome, on mount Quirinalis. _Ovid_,
_Fasti_, bk. 4, li. 871.――――A goddess at Rome, who presided over
hills. One of the original tribes established by Romulus.
=Collucia=, a lascivious woman, &c. _Juvenal_, satire 6, li. 306.
=Junius Colo=, a governor of Pontus, who brought Mithridates to the
emperor Claudius. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 12, ch. 21.
=Colōnæ=, a place of Troas. _Cornelius Nepos_, bk. 4, ch. 3.
=Colōne=, a city of Phocis,――――of Erythræa,――――of Thessaly,――――of
Messenia.――――A rock of Asia, on the Thracian Bosphorus.
=Colōnia Agrippina=, a city of Germany on the Rhine, now _Cologne_.
――――Equestris, a town on the lake of Geneva, now _Noyon_.
――――Morinorum, a town of Gaul, now _Terrouen_, in Artois.
――――Norbensis, a town of Spain, now _Alcantara_.――――Trajana, or
Ulpia, a town of Germany, now _Kellen_, near Cleves.――――Valentia,
a town of Spain, which now bears the same name.
=Colōnos=, an eminence near Athens, where Œdipus retired during his
banishment, from which circumstance Sophocles has given the title
of Œdipus _Coloneus_ to one of his tragedies.
=Colŏphon=, a town of Ionia, at a small distance from the sea, first
built by Mopsus the son of Manto, and colonized by the sons of
Codrus. It was the native country of Mimnermus, Nicander, and
Xenophanes, and one of the cities which disputed for the honour of
having given birth to Homer. Apollo had a temple there. _Strabo_, bk.
14.――_Pliny_, bk. 14, ch. 20.――_Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 3.――_Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 2, ch. 54.――_Cicero_, _For Archias_, ch. 8.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 6, li. 8.
=Colosse= and =Colossis=, a large town of Phrygia, near Laodicea, of
which the government was democratical, and the first ruler called
archon. One of the first christian churches was established there,
and one of St. Paul’s epistles was addressed to it. _Pliny_, bk. 21,
ch. 9.
=Colossus=, a celebrated brazen image at Rhodes, which passed for one
of the seven wonders of the world. Its feet were upon the two moles
which formed the entrance of the harbour, and ships passed full sail
between its legs. It was 70 cubits, or 105 feet high, and everything
in equal proportion, and few could clasp round its thumb. It was the
work of Chares the disciple of Lysippus, and the artist was 12 years
in making it. It was begun 300 years before Christ; and after it had
remained unhurt during 56 or 88 years, it was partially demolished
by an earthquake, 224 B.C. A winding staircase ran to the top, from
which could easily be discerned the shores of Syria, and the ships
that sailed on the coast of Egypt, by the help of glasses, which
were hung on the neck of the statue. It remained in ruins for the
space of 894 years; and the Rhodians, who had received several large
contributions to repair it, divided the money amongst themselves,
and frustrated the expectations of the donors, by saying that the
oracle of Delphi forbade them to raise it up again from its ruins.
In the year 672 of the christian era, it was sold by the Saracens,
who were masters of the island, to a Jewish merchant of Edessa, who
loaded 900 camels with the brass, whose value has been estimated at
36,000_l._ English money.
=Colotes=, a Teian painter, disciple of Phidias. _Pliny_, bk. 35,
ch. 8.――――A disciple of Epictetus.――――A follower of Epicurus,
accused of ignorance by _Plutarch_.――――A sculptor who made a statue
of Æsculapius. _Strabo_, bk. 8.
=Colpe=, a city of Ionia. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 29.
=Colubraria=, now _Monte Colubre_, a small island at the east of Spain,
supposed to be the same as Ophiusa. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 5.
=Columbra=, a dove, the symbol of Venus among the poets. This bird
was sacred to Venus, and received divine honours in Syria. Doves
disappeared once every year at Eryx, where Venus had a temple, and
they were said to accompany the goddess to Libya, whither she went
to pass nine days, after which they returned. Doves were supposed to
give oracles in the oaks of the forest of Dodona. _Tibullus_, bk. 1,
poem 7, li. 17.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 1, ch. 15.
=Columella Lucius Junius Moderatus=, a native of Gades, who wrote,
among other works, 12 books on agriculture, of which the tenth, on
gardening, is in verse. The style is elegant, and the work displays
the genius of a naturalist, and the labours of an accurate observer.
The best edition of Columella is that of Gesner, 2 vols., 4to,
Lipscomb, 1735, and reprinted there 1772.
=Columnæ Hercŭlis=, a name given to two mountains on the extremest
parts of Spain and Africa, at the entrance into the Mediterranean.
They were called _Calpe_ and _Abyla_, the former on the coast of
Spain, and the latter on the side of Africa, at the distance of
only 18 miles. They are reckoned the boundaries of the labours of
Hercules, and they were supposed to have been joined, till the hero
separated them, and opened a communication between the Mediterranean
and Atlantic seas.――――Protei, the boundaries of Egypt, or the extent
of the kingdom of Proteus. Alexandria was supposed to be built near
them, though Homer places them in the island Pharos. _Odyssey_,
bk. 4, li. 351.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 11, li. 262.
=Colūthus=, a native of Lycopolis in Egypt, who wrote a short poem on
the rape of Helen, an imitation of Homer. The composition remained
long unknown, till it was discovered at Lycopolis in the 15th
century, by the learned cardinal Bessarion. Coluthus was, as some
suppose, a contemporary of Tryphiodorus.
=Colyttus=, a tribe of Athens.
=Comagēna=, a part of Syria, above Cilicia, extending on the east
as far as the Euphrates. Its chief town was called Samosata, the
birthplace of Lucian. _Strabo_, bks. 11 & 17.
=Comāna= (a and orum), a town of Pontus. _Hirtius_, _Alexandrine War_,
ch. 34.――――Another in Cappadocia, famous for a temple of Bellona,
where there were above 6000 ministers of both sexes. The chief
priest among them was very powerful, and knew no superior but
the king of the country. This high office was generally conferred
upon one of the royal family. _Hirtius_, _Alexandrine War_, ch. 66.
――_Flaccus_, bk. 7, li. 636.――_Strabo_, bk. 12.
=Comania=, a country of Asia.
=Comarea=, the ancient name of Cape _Comorin_ in India.
=Comări=, a people of Asia. _Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 2.
=Comărus=, a port in the bay of Ambracia, near Nicopolis.
=Comastus=, a place of Persia.
=Combabus=, a favourite of Stratonice wife of Antiochus.
=Combe=, a daughter of Ophius, who first invented a brazen suit of
armour. She was changed into a bird, and escaped from her children,
who had conspired to murder her. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 7,
li. 382.
=Combi=, or =Ombi=, a city of Egypt on the Nile. _Juvenal_, satire 15,
li. 35.
=Combrēa=, a town near Pallene. _Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 123.
=Combutis=, a general under Brennus. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 22.
=Comētes=, the father of Asterion, and one of the Argonauts. _Flaccus_,
bk. 1, li. 356.――――One of the Centaurs, killed at the nuptials of
Pirithous. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12, li. 284.――――A son of
Thestius, killed at the chase of the Calydonian boar. _Pausanias_,
bk. 8, ch. 45.――――One of the Magi, intimate with Cambyses king of
Persia. _Justin_, bk. 1, ch. 9.――――An adulterer of Ægiale.――――A son
of Orestes.
=Cometho=, a daughter of Pterilaus, who deprived her father of a golden
hair in his head, upon which depended his fate. She was put to death
by Amphitryon for her perfidy. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 4.
=Quintus Cominius=, a Roman knight, who wrote some illiberal verses
against Tiberius. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 4, ch. 31.
=Comitia= (orum), an assembly of the Roman people. The word is derived
from _Comitium_, the place where they were convened, _quasi a cum
eundo_. The Comitium was a large hall, which was left uncovered at
the top, in the first ages of the republic; so that the assembly
was often dissolved in rainy weather. The Comitia were called, some
_consularia_, for the election of the consuls; others _prætoria_,
for the election of pretors, &c. These assemblies were more generally
known by the name of _Comitia_, _Curiata_, _Centuriata_, and
_Tributa_. The _Curiata_ was when the people gave their votes
by curiæ. _Centuriata_ were not convened in later times. _See:_
Centuria. Another assembly was called _Comitia Tributa_, where
the votes were received from the whole tribes together. At first
the Roman people were divided only into three tribes; but as their
numbers increased, the tribes were at last swelled to 35. The object
of these assemblies was the electing of magistrates, and all the
public officers of state. They could be dissolved by one of the
tribunes, if he differed in opinion from the rest of his colleagues.
If one among the people was taken with the falling sickness, the
whole assembly was immediately dissolved, whence that disease is
called _morbus comitialis_. After the custom of giving their votes
_vivâ voce_ had been abolished, every one of the assembly, in the
enacting of a law, was presented with two ballots, on one of which
were the letters U. R., that is, _uti rogas_, be it as is required;
on the other was an A., that is, _antiquo_, which bears the same
meaning as _antiquam volo_, I forbid it; the old law is preferable.
If the number of ballots with U. R. was superior to the A.’s,
the law was approved constitutionally; if not, it was rejected.
Only the chief magistrates, and sometimes the pontifices, had the
privilege of convening these assemblies. There were only these
eight of the magistrates who had the power of proposing a law, the
consuls, the dictator, the pretor, the interrex, the decemvirs, the
military tribunes, the kings, and the triumvirs. These were called
_majores magistratus_; to whom one of the _minores magistratus_ was
added, the tribune of the people.
=Comius=, a man appointed king over the Attrebates, by Julius Cæsar,
for his services. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 4, ch. 21.
=Commagēne.= _See:_ Comagena.
=Commodus Lucius Aurelius Antoninus=, son of Marcus Antoninus,
succeeded his father in the Roman empire. He was naturally cruel,
and fond of indulging his licentious propensities; and regardless
of the instructions of philosophers, and of the decencies of nature,
he corrupted his own sisters, and kept 300 women, and as many boys,
for his illicit pleasures. Desirous to be called Hercules, like
that hero he adorned his shoulders with a lion’s skin, and armed his
hands with a knotted club. He showed himself naked in public, and
fought with the gladiators, and boasted of his dexterity in killing
the wild beasts in the amphitheatre. He required divine honours
from the senate, and they were granted. He was wont to put such an
immense quantity of gold dust in his hair, that when he appeared
bare-headed in the sunshine, his head glittered as if surrounded
with sunbeams. Martia, one of his concubines, whose death he had
prepared, poisoned him; but as the poison did not quickly operate,
he was strangled by a wrestler. He died in the 31st year of his age,
and the 13th of his reign, A.D. 192. It has been observed, that he
never trusted himself to a barber, but always burnt his beard, in
imitation of the tyrant Dionysius. _Herodian._
=Commoris=, a village of Cilicia. _Cicero_, _Letters to his Friends_,
bk. 15, ltr. 4.
=Comon=, a general of Messenia. _Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 26.
=Compĭtālia=, festivals celebrated by the Romans the 12th of January
and the 6th of March, in the cross ways, in honour of the household
gods called Lares. Tarquin the Proud, or, according to some, Servius
Tullius, instituted them on account of an oracle which ordered him
to offer heads to the Lares. He sacrificed to them human victims;
but Junius Brutus, after the expulsion of the Tarquins, thought it
sufficient to offer them only poppy heads, and men of straw. The
slaves were generally the ministers, and during the celebration they
enjoyed their freedom. _Varro_, _de Lingua Latina_, bk. 5, ch. 3.
――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 5, li. 140.――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_,
bk. 4.
=Compsa=, now _Consa_, a town of the Hirpini in Italy, at the east of
Vesuvius.
=Compustus=, a river of Thrace, falling into the lake Bistonis.
_Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 109.
=Compusa=, a town of Bithynia.
=Comum=, now _Como_, a town at the north of Insubria, at the bottom
of the lake Como, in the modern duchy of Milan. It was afterwards
called _Novo Comum_ by Julius Cæsar, who transplanted a colony there,
though it resumed its ancient name. It was the birthplace of the
younger Pliny. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 18.――_Livy_, bk. 34, chs. 36
& 37.――_Suetonius_, _Julius_, ch. 28.――_Pliny the Younger_, bk. 1,
ltr. 3.――_Cicero_, _Letters to his Friends_, bk. 13, ltr. 35.
=Comus=, the god of revelry, feasting, and nocturnal entertainments.
During his festivals, men and women exchanged each other’s dress.
He was represented as a young and drunken man, with a garland of
flowers on his head, and a torch in his hand, which seemed falling.
He is more generally seen sleeping upon his legs, and turning
himself when the heat of the falling torch scorched his side.
_Philostratus_, bk. 2, _Imagines_.――_Plutarch_, _Quæstiones romanæ_.
=Concăni=, a people of Spain, who lived chiefly on milk mixed
with horses’ blood. Their chief town, _Concana_, is now called
_Sanlinala_, or _Cangas de Onis_. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 3, li.
463.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 3, li. 361.――_Horace_, bk. 3, ode 4,
li. 34.
=Concerda=, a town belonging to Venice in Italy.
=Concordia=, the goddess of peace and concord at Rome, to whom Camillus
first raised a temple in the Capitol, where the magistrates often
assembled for the transaction of public business. She had, besides
this, other temples and statues, and was addressed to promote the
peace and union of families and citizens. _Plutarch_, _Camillus_.
――_Pliny_, bk. 33, ch. 1.――_Cicero_, _On his House_.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_,
bk. 1, li. 639; bk. 6, li. 637.
=Condate=, a town of Gaul, now _Rennes_ (_Rhedonum urbs_), in Britany.
=Condlaus=, an avaricious officer, &c. _Aristotle_, _Politics_.
=Condivicnum=, a town of Gaul, now _Nantes_, in Britany.
=Condochātes=, a river of India, flowing into the Ganges.
=Condrūsi=, a people of Belgium, now _Condrotz_, in Liege. _Cæsar_,
_Gallic War_, bk. 4, ch. 6.
=Condy̆lia=, a town of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 23.
=Cone=, a small island at the mouth of the Ister, supposed to be the
same as the _insula Conopôn_ of _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.――_Lucan_,
bk. 3, li. 200.
=Conetōdūnus= and =Cotuatus=, two desperate Gauls, who raised their
countrymen against Rome, &c.――_Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 7, ch. 3.
=Confluentes=, a town at the confluence of the Moselle and Rhine, now
_Coblentz_.
=Confucius=, a Chinese philosopher, as much honoured among his
countrymen as a monarch. He died about 479 years B.C.
=Congēdus=, a river of Spain. _Martial_, bk. 1, ltr. 50, li. 9.
=Coniăci=, a people of Spain, at the head of the Iberus. _Strabo_,
bk. 3.
=Conimbrĭca=, a town of Spain, now _Coimbra_ of Portugal.
=Conisaltus=, a god worshipped at Athens, with the same ceremonies as
Priapus at Lampsacus. _Strabo_, bk. 3.
=Coniscī=, a people of Spain.
=Connīdas=, the preceptor of Theseus, in whose honour the Athenians
instituted a festival called _Connideia_. It was then usual to
sacrifice to him a ram. _Plutarch_, _Theseus_.
=Conon=, a famous general of Athens, son of Timotheus. He was made
governor of all the islands of the Athenians, and was defeated in
a naval battle by Lysander, near the Ægospotamos. He retired in
voluntary banishment to Evagoras king of Cyprus, and afterwards to
Artaxerxes king of Persia, by whose assistance he freed his country
from slavery. He defeated the Spartans near Cnidos, in an engagement,
where Pisander, the enemy’s admiral, was killed. By his means the
Athenians fortified their city with a strong wall, and attempted
to recover Ionia and Æolia. He was perfidiously betrayed by a
Persian, and died in prison, B.C. 393. _Cornelius Nepos_, _De Viris
Illustribus_.――_Plutarch_, _Lysander_ & _Artaxerxes_.――_Isocrates.
_――――A Greek astronomer of Samos, who, to gain the favour of Ptolemy
Evergetes, publicly declared that the queen’s locks, which had
been dedicated in the temple of Venus, and had since disappeared,
were become a constellation. He was intimate with Archimedes, and
flourished 247 B.C. _Catullus_, poem 67.――_Virgil_, _Eclogues_,
poem 3, li. 40.――――A Grecian mythologist in the age of Julius Cæsar,
who wrote a book which contained 40 fables, still extant, preserved
by Photius.――――There was a treatise written on Italy by a man of the
same name.
=Consentes=, the name which the Romans gave to the 12 superior
gods, the _Dii majorum gentium_. The word signifies as much as
_consentientes_, that is, who consented to the deliberations of
Jupiter’s council. They were 12 in number, whose names Ennius has
briefly expressed in these lines:
_Juno, Vesta, Minerva, Ceres, Diana, Venus, Mars,
Mercurius, Jovi, Neptunus, Vulcanus, Apollo._
_Varro_, _de Re Rustica_
=Consentia=, now _Cosenza_, a town in the country of the Brutii.
_Livy_, bk. 3, ch. 24; bk. 28, ch. 11.――_Cicero_, _de Finibus
Bonorum et Malorum_, bk. 1, ch. 3.
=Considius Æquus=, a Roman knight, &c. _Tacitus._――――Caius, one of
Pompey’s adherents, &c. _Cæsar_, _Civil War_, bk. 2, ch. 23.
=Consilinum=, a town of Italy. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 4.
=Constans=, a son of Constantine. _See:_ Constantius.
=Constantia=, a granddaughter of the great Constantine, who married
the emperor Gratian.
=Constantīna=, a princess, wife of the emperor Gallus.――――Another of
the imperial family.
=Constantinopŏlis=, now _Stamboul_, formerly Byzantium, the capital of
Thrace, a noble and magnificent city, built by Constantine the Great,
and solemnly dedicated A.D. 330. It was the capital of the eastern
Roman empire, and was called after its foundation, _Roma nova_, on
account of its greatness, which seemed to rival Rome. The beauty of
its situation, with all its conveniences, have been the admiration
of every age. Constantinople became long the asylum of science and
of learned men, but upon its conquest by Mahomet II., 28th May,
1453, the professors retired from the barbarity of their victors,
and found in Italy the protection which their learning deserved.
This migration was highly favourable to the cause of science, and
whilst the Pope, the head of the house of Medicis, and the emperor,
munificently supported the fugitives, other princes imitated their
example, and equally contributed to the revival of literature in
Europe.
=Constantīnus=, surnamed _the Great_, from the greatness of his
exploits, was son of Constantius. As soon as he became independent
he assumed the title of Augustus, and made war against Licinius,
his brother-in-law and colleague on the throne, because he was cruel
and ambitious. He conquered him, and obliged him to lay aside the
imperial power. It is said that as he was going to fight against
Maxentius, one of his rivals, he saw a cross in the sky, with this
inscription, ἐν τουτῳ νικα, _in hoc vince_. From this circumstance
he became a convert to christianity and obtained an easy victory,
ever after adopting a cross or _abarum_ as his standard. After the
death of Diocletian, Maximian, Maxentius, Maximinus, and Licinius,
who had reigned together, though in a subordinate manner, Constantine
became sole emperor, and began to reform the state. He founded a
city in the most eligible situation, where old Byzantium formerly
stood, and called it by his own name, _Constantinopolis_. Thither
he transported part of the Roman senate; and by keeping his court
there, he made it the rival of Rome, in population and magnificence,
and from that time the two imperial cities began to look upon each
other with an eye of envy; and soon after the age of Constantine,
a separation was made of the two empires, and Rome was called the
capital of the western, and Constantinopolis was called the capital
of the eastern, dominions of Rome. The emperor has been distinguished
for personal courage, and praised for the protection which he
extended to the christians. He at first persecuted the Arians, but
afterwards inclined to their opinions. His murder of his son Crispus
has been deservedly censured. By removing the Roman legions from the
garrisons on the rivers, he opened an easy passage to the barbarians,
and rendered his soldiers unwarlike. He defeated 100,000 Goths,
and received into his territories 300,000 Samartians, who had
been banished by their slaves, and allowed them land to cultivate.
Constantine was learned, and preached as well as composed many
sermons, one of which remains. He died A.D. 337, after a reign of
31 years of the greatest glory and success. He left three sons,
Constantinus, Constans, and Constantius, among whom he divided his
empire. The first, who had Gaul, Spain, and Britain for his portion,
was conquered by the armies of his brother Constans, and killed in
the 25th year of his age, A.D. 340. Magnentius, the governor of the
provinces of Rhætia, murdered Constans in his bed, after a reign
of 13 years over Italy, Africa, and Illyricum; and Constantius,
the only surviving brother, now become the sole emperor, A.D.
353, punished his brother’s murderer, and gave way to cruelty and
oppression. He visited Rome, where he displayed a triumph, and died
in his march against Julian, who had been proclaimed independent
emperor by his soldiers.――――The name of Constantine was very common
to the emperors of the east, in a later period.――――A private soldier
in Britain, raised on account of his name to the imperial dignity.
――――A general of Belisarius.
=Constantius Chlorus=, son of Eutropius and father of the great
Constantine, merited the title of Cæsar, which he obtained by
his victories in Britain and Germany. He became the colleague
of Galerius, on the abdication of Docletian; and after bearing
the character of a humane and benevolent prince, he died at York,
and made his son his successor, A.D. 306.――――The second son of
Constantine the Great. _See:_ Constantinus.――――The father of Julian
and Gallus, was son of Constantius by Theodora, and died A.D. 337.
――――A Roman general of Nyssa, who married Placidia the sister of
Honorius, and was proclaimed emperor, an honour he enjoyed only seven
months. He died universally regretted, 421 A.D., and was succeeded
by his son Valentinian in the west.――――One of the servants of Attila.
=Consuāles Ludi=, or =Consuālia=, festivals at Rome in honour of
Consus, the god of counsel, whose altar Romulus discovered under
the ground. This altar was always covered, except at the festival,
when a mule was sacrificed, and games and horse-races exhibited
in honour of Neptune. It was during these festivals that Romulus
carried away the Sabine women who had assembled to be spectators of
the games. They were first instituted by Romulus. Some say, however,
that Romulus only regulated and reinstituted them after they had
been before established by Evander. During the celebration, which
happened about the middle of August, horses, mules, and asses were
exempted from all labour, and were led through the streets adorned
with garlands and flowers. _Ausonius_, bk. 69, li. 9.――_Ovid_,
_Fasti_, bk. 3, li. 199.――_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 9.――_Dionysius of
Halicarnassus._
=Consul=, a magistrate at Rome, with regal authority for the space of
one year. There were two consuls, a _consulendo_, annually chosen in
the Campus Martius. The two first consuls were Lucius Junius Brutus
and Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus, chosen A.U.C. 244, after the
expulsion of the Tarquins. In the first ages of the republic, the
two consuls were always chosen from patrician families, or noblemen;
but the people obtained the privilege, A.U.C. 388, of electing one
of their consuls from their own body; and sometimes both were
plebeians. The first consul among the plebeians was Lucius Sextius.
It was required that every candidate for the consulship should be
43 years of age, called _legitimum tempus_. He was always to appear
at the election as a private man, without a retinue; and it was
requisite, before he canvassed for the office, to have discharged
the inferior functions of questor, edile, and pretor. Sometimes
these qualifications were disregarded. Valerius Corvinus was made
a consul in his 23rd year, and Scipio in his 24th. Young Marius,
Pompey, and Augustus, were also under the proper age when they
were invested with the office, and Pompey had never been questor
or pretor. The power of the consuls was unbounded, and they knew
no superior but the gods and the laws; but after the expiration of
their office, their conduct was minutely scrutinized by the people,
and ♦misbehaviour was often punished by the laws. The badge of their
office was the _prætexta_, a robe fringed with purple, afterwards
exchanged for the _toga picta_ or _palmata_. They were preceded
by 12 lictors, carrying the _fasces_, or bundle of sticks, in the
middle of which appeared an axe. The axe, as being the characteristic
rather of tyranny than of freedom, was taken away from the _fasces_
by Valerius Poplicola, but it was restored by his successor. The
consuls took it by turns, monthly to be preceded by the lictors
while at Rome, lest the appearance of two persons with their badges
of royal authority should raise apprehensions in the multitude.
While one appeared publicly in state, only a crier walked before
the other, and the lictors followed behind without the fasces. Their
authority was equal; yet the Valerian law gave the right of priority
to the older, and the Julian law to him who had the most children,
and he was generally called _consul major_ or _prior_. As their
power was absolute, they presided over the senate, and could convene
and dismiss it at pleasure. The senators were their counsellors;
and among the Romans, the manner of reckoning their years was by the
name of the consuls, and by _Marcus Tullius Cicerone_ & _L. Antonio
Consulibus_, for instance, the year of Rome 691 was always understood.
This custom lasted from the year of Rome 244 till the year 1294,
or 541st year of the christian era, when the consular office was
totally suppressed by Justinian. In public assemblies the consuls
sat in ivory chairs and held in their hands an ivory wand, called
_scipio eburneus_, which had an eagle on its top, as a sign of
dignity and power. When they had drawn by lot the provinces over
which they were to preside during their consulship, they went to
the Capitol to offer their prayers to the gods, and entreat them
to protect the republic; after this they departed from the city,
arrayed in their military dress, and preceded by the lictors.
Sometimes the provinces were assigned them, without drawing by lot,
by the will and appointment of the senators. At their departure they
were provided by the state with whatever was requisite during their
expedition. In their provinces they were both attended by the 12
lictors, and equally invested with regal authority. They were not
permitted to return to Rome without the special command of the
senate, and they always remained in their province till the arrival
of their successor. At their return they harangued the people,
and solemnly protested that they had done nothing against the laws
or interest of their country, but had faithfully and diligently
endeavoured to promote the greatness and welfare of the state. No
man could be consul two following years; yet this institution was
sometimes broken, and we find Marius re-elected consul, after the
expiration of his office, during the Cimprian war. The office of
consul, so dignified during the times of the commonwealth, became a
mere title under the emperors, and retained nothing of its authority
but the useless ensigns of original dignity. Even the office of
consul, which was originally annual, was reduced to two or three
months by Julius Cæsar; but they who were admitted on the 1st of
January denominated the year, and were called _ordinarii_. Their
successors, during the year, were distinguished by the name of
_suffecti_. Tiberius and Claudius abridged the time of the consulship,
and the emperor Commodus made no less than 25 consuls in one year.
Constantine the Great renewed the original institution, and permitted
them to be a whole year in office.――――Here is annexed a list of the
consuls from the establishment of the consular power to the battle
of Actium, in which it may be said that the authority of the consuls
was totally extinguished.
♦ ‘misbehavour’ replaced with ‘misbehaviour’
The first two consuls, chosen about the middle of June, A.U.C.
244, were Lucius Junius Brutus and Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus.
Collatinus retired from Rome as being of the family of the Tarquins,
and Publius Valerius was chosen in his room. When Brutus was killed
in battle, Spurius Lucretius was elected to succeed him; and after
the death of Lucretius, Marcus Horatius was chosen for the rest of
the year with Valerius Publicola. The first consulship lasted about
16 months, during which the Romans fought against the Tarquins, and
the Capitol was dedicated.
A.U.C. 246. Publius Valerius Publicola 2; Titus Lucretius. Porsenna
supported the claims of Tarquin. The noble actions of Cocles,
Scævola, and Clœlia.
A.U.C. 247. Publius Lucretius, or Marcus Horatius; Publius Valerius
Publicola 3. The vain efforts of Porsenna continued.
A.U.C. 248. Spurius Lartius; Titus Herminus. Victories obtained over
the Sabines.
A.U.C. 249. Marcus Valerius; Publius Postumius. Wars with the
Sabines continued.
A.U.C. 250. Publius Valerius 4; Titus Lucretius 2.
A.U.C. 251. Agrippa Menenius; Publius Postumius 2. The death of
Publicola.
A.U.C. 252. Opiter Virginius; Spurius Cassius. Sabine war.
A.U.C. 253. Postumius Cominius; Titus Lartius. A conspiracy of
slaves at Rome.
A.U.C. 254. Servvius Sulpicius; Marcus Tullus.
A.U.C. 255. Publius Veturius Geminus; Titus Æbutius Elva.
A.U.C. 256. Titus Lartius 2; Quintus Clœlius. War with the Latins.
A.U.C. 257. Aulus Sempronius Atratinus; Marcus Minucius.
A.U.C. 258. Aulus Postumius; Titus Virginius. The battle of Regillæ.
A.U.C. 259. Appius Claudius; Publius Servilius. War with the Volsci.
A.U.C. 260. Aulus Virginius; Titus Veturius. The dissatisfied people
retired to Mons Sacer.
A.U.C. 261. Postumius Cominius 2; Spurius Cassius 2. A reconciliation
between the senate and people, and the election of the tribunes.
A.U.C. 262. Titus Geganius; Publius Minucius. A famine at Rome.
A.U.C. 263. Marcus Minucius 2; Aulus Sempronius 2. The haughty
behaviour of Coriolanus to the populace.
A.U.C. 264. Quintus Sulpicius Camerinus; Spurius Lartius Flavus 2.
Coriolanus retires to the Volsci.
A.U.C. 265. Caius Julius; Paius Pinarius. The Volsci make
declarations of war.
A.U.C. 266. Spurius Nautius; Sextus Furius. Coriolanus forms the
siege of Rome. He retires at the entreaties of his mother and wife,
and dies.
A.U.C. 267. Titus Sicinius; Caius Aquilius. The Volsci defeated.
A.U.C. 268. Spurius Cassius 3; Proculus Virginius. Cassius aspires
to tyranny.
A.U.C. 269. Servius Cornelius; Quintus Fabius. Cassius is condemned,
and thrown down the Tarpeian rock.
A.U.C. 270. Lucius Æmilius; Cæsio Fabius. The Æqui and Volsci
defeated.
A.U.C. 271. Marcus Fabius; Lucius Valerius.
A.U.C. 272. Qucius Fabius 2; Caius Julius. War with the Æqui.
A.U.C. 273. Cæsio Fabius 2; Spurius Furius. War continued with the
Æqui and Veientes.
A.U.C. 274. Marcus Fabius 2; Cnæus Manlius. Victory over the Hernici.
A.U.C. 275. Cæsio Fabius 3; Titus Virginius. The march of the Fabii
to the river Cremera.
A.U.C. 276. Lucius Æmilius 2; C. Servilius. The wars continued
against the neighbouring states.
A.U.C. 277. Caius Horatius; Titus Menenius. The defeat and death of
the 300 Fabii.
A.U.C. 278. Spurius Servilius; Aulus Virginius. Menenius brought to
his trial for the defeat of the armies under him.
A.U.C. 279. Caius Nautius; Publius Valerius.
A.U.C. 280. Lucius Furius; Cublius Manlius. A truce of 40 years
granted to the Veientes.
A.U.C. 281. Lucius Æmilius 3; Virginius or Vopiscus Julius. The
tribune Genutius murdered in his bed for his seditions.
A.U.C. 282. Lucius Pinarius; Publius Furius.
A.U.C. 283. Appius Claudius; Titus Quintius. The Roman army suffer
themselves to be defeated by the Volsci on account of their hatred
to Appius, while his colleague is boldly and cheerfully obeyed
against the Æqui.
A.U.C. 284. Lucius Valerius 2; Tiberius Æmilius. Appius is cited to
take his trial before the people, and dies before the day of trial.
A.U.C. 285. Titus Numicius Priscus; Aulus Virginius.
A.U.C. 286. Tulus Quintius 2; Quintus Servilius.
A.U.C. 287. Tiberius Æmilius 2; Quintus Fabius.
A.U.C. 288. Quintus Servilius 2; Spurius Postumius.
A.U.C. 289. Quintus Fabius 2; Titus Quintius 3. In the census made
this year, which was the ninth, there were found 124,214 citizens
in Rome.
A.U.C. 290. Aulus Postumius; Spurius Furius.
A.U.C. 291. Lucius Æbutius; Publius Servilius. A plague at Rome.
A.U.C. 292. Lucius Lucretius Tricipitinus; Titus Veturius Geminus.
A.U.C. 293. Publius Volumnius; Servius Sulpicius. Dreadful prodigies
at Rome, and seditions.
A.U.C. 294. Caius Claudius; Publius Valerius 2. A Sabine seizes
the Capitol, and is defeated and killed. Valerius is killed in
an engagement, and Cincinnatus is taken from the plough, and made
dictator; he quelled the dissensions at Rome, and returned to his
farm.
A.U.C. 295. Quintus Fabius 3; Lucius Cornelius. The census made the
Romans amount to 132,049.
A.U.C. 296. Lucius Minucius; Caius Nautius 2. Minucius is besieged
in his camp by the Æqui; and Cincinnatus, being elected dictator,
delivers him, obtains a victory, and lays down his power 16 days
after his election.
A.U.C. 297. Quintus Minucius; Caius Horatius. War with the Æqui and
Sabines. Ten tribunes elected instead of five.
A.U.C. 298. Marcus Valerius; Spurius Virginius.
A.U.C. 299. Titus Romilius; Caius Veturius.
A.U.C. 300. Spurius Tarpeius; Aulus Aterius.
A.U.C. 301. Publius Curiatius; Sextus Quintilius.
A.U.C. 302. Titus Menenius; Publius Cestius Capitolinus. The
Decemvirs reduce the laws into 12 tables.
A.U.C. 303. Appius Claudius; Titus Genutius; Publius Cestius, &c.
The Decemvirs assume the reins of government, and preside with
consular power.
A.U.C. 304 & 305. Appius Claudius; Quintus Fabius Vibulanus; Marcus
Cornelius, &c. The Decemvirs continued. They act with violence.
Appius endeavours to take possession of Virginia, who is killed by
her father. The Decemvirs abolished, and Valerius Potitus, Marcus
Horatius Barbatus, are created consuls for the rest of the year.
Appius is summoned to take his trial. He dies in prison, and the
rest of the Decemvirs are banished.
A.U.C. 306. Lars Herminius; Titus Virginius.
A.U.C. 307. Marcus Geganius Macerinus; Caius Julius. Domestic troubles.
A.U.C. 308. Titus Quintius Capitolinus 4; Agrippa Furius. The Æqui
and Volsci come near the gates of Rome, and are defeated.
A.U.C. 309. Marcus Genucius; Caius Curtius. A law passed to permit
the patrician and plebeian families to intermarry.
A.U.C. 310. Military tribunes are chosen instead of consuls. The
plebeians admitted among them. The first were Aulus Sempronius;
Lucius Atilius; Titus Clœlius. They abdicated three months after
their election, and consuls were again chosen. Lucius Papirius
Mugillanus; Lucius Sempronius Atratinus.
A.U.C. 311. Marcus Geganius Macerinus 2; Titus Quintius Capitolinus
5. The censorship instituted.
A.U.C. 312. Marcus Fabius Vibulanus; Postumius Æbutius Cornicen.
A.U.C. 313. Caius Furius Pacilus; Maius Papirius Crassus.
A.U.C. 314. Proculus Geganius Macerinus; Lucius Menenius Lanatus. A
famine at Rome. Mælius attempts to make himself king.
A.U.C. 315. Titus Quintius Capitolinus 6; Agrippa Menenius Lanatus.
A.U.C. 316. Mamercus Æmilius; Lucius Quintius; Lucius Julius.
Military tribunes.
A.U.C. 317. Marcus Geganius Macerinus; Sergius Fidenas. Tolumnius
king of the Veientes killed by Cossus, who takes the second royal
spoils called _Opima_.
A.U.C. 318. Marcus Cornelius Maluginensis; Lucius Papirius Crassus.
A.U.C. 319. Caius Julius; Lucius Virginius.
A.U.C. 320. Caius Julius 2; Lucius Virginius 2. The duration of the
censorship limited to 18 months.
A.U.C. 321. Marcus Fabius Vibulanus; Marcus Fossius; Lucius Sergius
Fidenas. Military tribunes.
A.U.C. 322. Lucius Pinarius Mamercus; Lucius Furius Medullinus;
Spurius Postumius Albus. Military tribunes.
A.U.C. 323. Titus Quintius Cincinnatus; Caius Julius Manto; consuls.
A victory over the Veientes and Fidenates by the dictator
Posthumius.
A.U.C. 324. Caius Papirius Crassus; Lucius Julius.
A.U.C. 325. Lucius Sergius Fidenas 2; Hostus Lucretius Tricipitinus.
A.U.C. 326. Aulus Cornelius Cossus; Titus Quintus Pennus 2.
A.U.C. 327. Servilius Ahala; Lucius Papirius Mugillanus 2.
A.U.C. 328. Titus Quintius Pennus; Caius Furius; Marcus Posthumius;
Aulus Cornelius Cossus. Military tribunes, all of patrician
families. Victory over the Veientes.
A.U.C. 329. Aarcus Sempronius Atratinus; Lucius Quintius Cincinnatus;
Lucius Furius Medullinus; Lucius Horatius Barbatus.
A.U.C. 330. Appius Claudius Crassus, &c. Military tribunes.
A.U.C. 331. Caius Sempronius Atratinus; Quintus Fabius Vibulanus.
Consuls who gave much dissatisfaction to the people.
A.U.C. 332. Lucius Manlius Capitolinus, &c. Military tribunes.
A.U.C. 333. Numerius Fabius Vibulanus; Titus Quinctius Capitolinus.
A.U.C. 334. Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus 3; Lucius Furius Medullinus
2; Mucius Manlius; Aulus Sempronius Atratinus. Military tribunes.
A.U.C. 335. Agrippa Menenius Lanatus, &c. Military tribunes.
A.U.C. 336. Lucius Sergius Fidenas; Marcus Papirius Mugillanus;
Caius Servilius.
A.U.C. 337. Agrippa Menenius Lanatus 2, &c.
A.U.C. 338. Agrippa Sempronius Atratinus 3, &c.
A.U.C. 339. Publius Cornelius Cossus, &c.
A.U.C. 340. Cnæus Cornelius Cossus, &c. One of the military tribunes
stoned to death by the army.
A.U.C. 341. Aulus Cornelius Cossus; Lucius Furius Medullinus,
consuls. Domestic seditions.
A.U.C. 342. Quintus Fabius Ambustus; Caius Furius Pacilus.
A.U.C. 343. Marcus Papirius Atratinus. Spurius Nautius Rutilus.
A.U.C. 344. Mamercus Æmilius; Caius Valerius Potitus.
A.U.C. 345. Cnaeus Cornelius Cossus; Lucius Furius Medullinus 2.
Plebeians for the first time questors.
A.U.C. 346. Caius Julius, &c. Military tribunes.
A.U.C. 347. Lucius Furius Medullinus, &c. Military tribunes.
A.U.C. 348. Publius & Cnæus Cornelii Cossi, &c. Military tribunes.
This year the Roman soldiers first received pay.
A.U.C. 349. Titus Quintius Capitolinus, &c. Military tribunes. The
siege of Veii begun.
A.U.C. 350. Caius Valerius Potitus &c. Military tribunes.
A.U.C. 351. Manlius Æmilius Mamercinus, &c. The Roman cavalry begin
to receive pay.
A.U.C. 352. Caius Servilius Ahala, &c. A defeat at Veii, occasioned
by a quarrel between two of the military tribunes.
A.U.C. 353. Lucius Valerius Potitus 4; Marcus Furius Camillus 2, &c.
A military tribune chosen from among the plebeians.
A.U.C. 354. Publius Licinius Calvus, &c.
A.U.C. 355. Marcus Veturius, &c.
A.U.C. 356. Lucius Valerius Potitus 5; Marcus Furius Camillus 3, &c.
A.U.C. 357. Lucius Julius Iulus, &c.
A.U.C. 358. Publius Licinius, &c. Camillus declared dictator. The
city of Veii taken by means of a mine. Camillus obtains a triumph.
A.U.C. 359. Publius Cornelius Cossus, &c. The people wished to
remove to Veii.
A.U.C. 360. Marcus Furius Camillus, &c.; Falisci surrendered to the
Romans.
A.U.C. 361. Lucius Lucretius Flaccus; Servius Sulpicius Camerinus,
Consuls, after Rome had been governed by military tribunes for 15
successive years. Camillus strongly opposes the removing to Veii,
and it is rejected.
A.U.C. 362. Lucius Valerius Potitus; Mucius Manlius. One of the
censors dies.
A.U.C. 363. Lucius Lucretius, &c. Military tribunes. A strange voice
heard, which foretold the approach of the Gauls. Camillus goes
to banishment to Ardea. The Gauls besiege Clusium, and soon after
march towards Rome.
A.U.C. 364. Three Fabii military tribunes. The Romans defeated at
Allia, by the Gauls. The Gauls enter Rome, and set it on fire.
Camillus declared dictator by the senate, who had retired into the
Capitol. The geese save the Capitol, and Camillus suddenly comes
and defeats the Gauls.
A.U.C. 365. Lucius Valerius Poplicola 3; Lucius Virginius, &c.
Camillus declared dictator, defeats the Volsci, Æqui, and Tuscans.
A.U.C. 366. Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus; Quintus Servilius Fidenas;
Lucius Julius Iulus.
A.U.C. 367. Lucius Papirius; Cnæus Sergius; Lucius Æmilius, &c.
A.U.C. 368. Marcus Furius Camillus, &c.
A.U.C. 369. Aulus Manlius; Publius Cornelius, &c. The Volsci
defeated. Manlius aims at royalty.
A.U.C. 370. Servius Cornelius Maluginensis; Publius Valerius Potitus;
Marcus Furius ♦Camillus. Manlius is condemned and thrown down the
Tarpeian rock.
♦ ‘Carnillus’ replaced with ‘Camillus’
A.U.C. 371. Lucius Valerius; Aulus Manlius; Servius Sulpicius, &c.
A.U.C. 372. Spurius & Lucius Papirii, &c.
A.U.C. 373. Marcus Furius Camillus; Lucius Furius, &c.
A.U.C. 374. Lucius & Publius Valerii.
A.U.C. 375. Cnæus Manlius, &c.
A.U.C. 376. Spurius Furius, &c.
A.U.C. 377. Lucius Æmilius, &c.
A.U.C. 378. } For five years anarchy at Rome. No consuls or
A.U.C. 379. } military tribunes elected, but only for that
A.U.C. 380. } time, Lucius Sextinus; Caius Licinius Calvus
A.U.C. 381. } Stolo, tribunes of the people.
A.U.C. 382. }
A.U.C. 383. Lucius Furius, &c.
A.U.C. 384. Quintus Servilius; Caius Veturius, &c. Ten magistrates
are chosen to take care of the Sibylline books.
A.U.C. 385. Lucius Qunitus Capitolinus; Spurius Servilius, &c.
A.U.C. 386. According to some writers, Camillus this year was sole
dictator, without consuls or tribunes.
A.U.C. 387. Aulus Cornelius Cossus; Lucius Veturius Crassus, &c.
The Gauls defeated by Camillus. One of the consuls for the future
to be elected from among the plebeians.
A.U.C. 388. Lucius Æmilius, patrician; Lucius Sextius, plebeian;
consuls. The offices of pretor and curule ædile granted to the
senate by the people.
A.U.C. 389. Lucius Genucius; Quintus Servilius. Camillus died.
A.U.C. 390. Caius Sulpicius Peticus; Caius Licinius Stolo.
A.U.C. 391. Cnæus Genucius; Lucius Æmilius.
A.U.C. 392. Quintus Servilius Ahala 2; Lucius Genucius 2. Curtius
devotes himself to the _Dii manes_.
A.U.C. 393. Caius Sulpicius 2; Caius Licinius 2. Manlius conquers a
Gaul in single battle.
A.U.C. 394. Caius Petilius Balbus; Marcus Fabius Ambustus.
A.U.C. 395. Marcus Popilius Lænas; Cnæus Manlius.
A.U.C. 396. Caius Fabius; Caius Plautius. Gauls defeated.
A.U.C. 397. Caius Marcinus; Cnæus Manlius 2.
A.U.C. 398. Marcus Fabius Ambustus 2; Marcus Popilius Lænas 2. A
dictator elected from the plebeians for the first time.
A.U.C. 399. Caius Sulpicius Peticus 3; Marcus Valerius Poplicola 2;
both of patrician families.
A.U.C. 400. Marcus Fabius Ambustus 3; Titus Quintius.
A.U.C. 401. Caius Sulpicius Peticus 4; Marcus Valerius Poplicola 3.
A.U.C. 402. Publius Valerius Poplicola 4; Caius Marcius Rutilus.
A.U.C. 403. Gaius Sulpicius Peticus 5; Titus Quinctius Pennus. A
censor elected for the first time from the plebeians.
A.U.C. 404. Marcus Popilius Lænas 3; Lucius Cornelius Scipio.
A.U.C. 405. Lucius Furius Camillus; Appius Claudius Crassus.
Valerius surnamed Corvinus, after conquering a Gaul.
A.U.C. 406. Marcus Valerius Corvus; Marcus Popilius Lænas 4. Corvus
was elected at 23 years of age, against the standing law. A treaty
of amity concluded with Carthage.
A.U.C. 407. Titus Manlius Torquatus; Caius Plautius.
A.U.C. 408. Marcus Valerius Corvus 2; Caius Pætilius.
A.U.C. 409. Marcus Fabius Dorso; Servius Sulpicius Camerinus.
A.U.C. 410. Caius Marcius Rutilus; Titus Manlius Torquatus.
A.U.C. 411. Marcus Valerius Corvus 3; Aulus Cornelius Cossus. The
Romans begin to make war against the Samnites, at the request of
the Campanians. They obtained a victory.
A.U.C. 412. Caius Marcius Rutilus 4; Quintus Servilius.
A.U.C. 413. Caius Plautinus; Lucius Æmilius Mamercinus.
A.U.C. 414. Titus Manlius Torquatus 3; Publius Decius Mus. The
victories of Alexander the Great in Asia. Manlius puts his son to
death for fighting against his order. Decius devotes himself for
the army, which obtains a great victory over the Latins.
A.U.C. 415. Tiberius Æmilius Mamercinus; Quintus Publilius Philo.
A.U.C. 416. Lucius Furius Camillus; Caius Mænius. The Latins
conquered.
A.U.C. 417. Caius Sulpicius Longus; Publius Ælius Pætus. The
pretorship granted to a plebeian.
A.U.C. 418. Lucius Papirius Crassus; Cæso Duillius.
A.U.C. 419. Marcus Valerius Corvus; Marcus Atilius Regulus.
A.U.C. 420. Titus Veturius; Spurius Posthumius.
A.U.C. 421. Lucius Papirius Cursor; Caius Pætilius Libo.
A.U.C. 422. Aulus Cornelius 2; Cnæus Domitius.
A.U.C. 423. Marcus Claudius Marcellus; Caius Valerius Potitus.
A.U.C. 424. Lucius Papirius Crassus; Caius Plautius Venno.
A.U.C. 425. Lucius Æmilius Mamercinus 2; Caius Plautius.
A.U.C. 426. Publius Plautius Proculus; Publius Cornelius Scapula.
A.U.C. 427. Lucius Cornelius Lentulus; Quintus Publilius Philo 2.
A.U.C. 428. Caius Pætilius; Lucius Papirius Mugillanus.
A.U.C. 429. Lucius Furius Camillus 2; Ducius Junius Brutus Scæva.
The dictator Papirius ♦Cursor is for putting to death Fabius his
master of horse, because he fought in his absence, and obtained a
famous victory. He pardons him.
♦ ‘Curso’ replaced with ‘Cursor’
A.U.C. 430. According to some authors, there were no consuls elected
this year, but only a dictator, Lucius Papirius Cursor.
A.U.C. 431. Gaius Sulpicius Longus; Quintus Aulius Cerretanus.
A.U.C. 432. Quintus Fabius; Lucius Fulvius.
A.U.C. 433. Titus Veturius Calvinus 2; Spurius Posthumius Albinus 2.
Caius Pontius the Samnite takes the Roman consuls in an ambuscade
at Caudium.
A.U.C. 434. Lucius Papirius Cursor 2; Quintus Publilius Philo 3.
A.U.C. 435. Lucius Papirius Cursor 3; Quintus Aulius Cerretanus 2.
A.U.C. 436. Marcus Fossius Flaccinator; Lucius Plautius Venno.
A.U.C. 437. Caius Junius Bubulcus; Lucius Æmilius Barbula.
A.U.C. 438. Spurius Nautius; Marcus Popilius.
A.U.C. 439. Lucius Papirius 4; Quintus Publilius 4.
A.U.C. 440. Marcus Pætilius; Caius Sulpicius.
A.U.C. 441. Lucius Papirius Cursor 5; Caius Junius Bubulcus 2.
A.U.C. 442. Marcus Valerius; Publius Decius. The censor Appius makes
the Appian way and aqueducts. The family of the Potitii extinct.
A.U.C. 443. Caius Junius Bubulcus 3; Quintus Æmilius Barbula 2.
A.U.C. 444. Quintus Fabius 2; Caius Martius Rutilius.
A.U.C. 445. According to some authors, there were no consuls elected
this year, but only a dictator. Lucius Papirius Cursor.
A.U.C. 446. Quintus Fabius 3; Pucius Decius 2.
A.U.C. 447. Appius Claudius; Lucius Volumnius.
A.U.C. 448. Publius Cornelius Arvina; Quintus Marcius Tremulus.
A.U.C. 449. Lucius Posthumius; Tiberias Minucius.
A.U.C. 450. Publius Sulpicius Saverrio; Sempronius Sophus. The Æqui
conquered.
A.U.C. 451. Lucius Genucius; Servius Cornelius.
A.U.C. 452. Marcus Livius; Marcus Æmilius.
A.U.C. 453. Quintus Fabius Maximus Rullianus; Marcus Valerius Corvus;
not consuls, but dictators, according to some authors.
A.U.C. 454. Marcus Valerius Corvus; Quintus Apuleius. The priesthood
made common to the plebeians.
A.U.C. 455. Marcus Fulvius Pætinus; Titus Manlius Torquatus.
A.U.C. 456. Lucius Cornelius Scipio; Cnæus Fulvius.
A.U.C. 457. Quintus Fabius Maximus 4; Publius Decius Mus 3. Wars
against the Samnites.
A.U.C. 458. Lucius Volumnius 2; Appius Claudius 2. Conquest over the
Etrurians and Samnites.
A.U.C. 459. Quintus Fabius 5; Publius Decius 4. Decius devotes
himself in a battle against the Samnites and the Gauls, and the
Romans obtain a victory.
A.U.C. 460. Lucius Posthumius Megellus; Marcus Atilius Regulus.
A.U.C. 461. Lucius Papirius Cursor; Spurius Carvilius. Victories
over the Samnites.
A.U.C. 462. Quintus Fabius Gurges; Decimus Junius Brutus Scæva.
Victory over the Samnites.
A.U.C. 463. Lucius Posthumius 3; Caius Junius Brutus. Æsculapius
brought to Rome in the form of a serpent from Epidaurus.
A.U.C. 464. Publius Cornelius Rufinus; Marcus Curius Dentatus.
A.U.C. 465. Marcus Valerius Corvinus; Quintus Cædicius Noctua.
A.U.C. 466. Quintus Marcius Tremulus; Publius Cornelius Arvina.
A.U.C. 467. Marcus Claudius Marcellus; Caius Nautius.
A.U.C. 468. Marcus Valerius Potitus; Caius Ælius Pætus.
A.U.C. 469. Caius Claudius Cænina; Marcus Æmilius Lepidus.
A.U.C. 470. Caius Servilius Tucca; Cæcilius Metellus. War with the
Senones.
A.U.C. 471. Parcus Cornelius Dolabella; Cnæus Domitius Calvinus. The
Senones defeated.
A.U.C. 472. Qelius Æmilius; Caius Fabricius. War with Tarentum.
A.U.C. 473. Lucius Æmilius Barbula; Qelius Murcius. Pyrrhus comes to
assist Tarentum.
A.U.C. 474. Publius Valerius Lævinus: Tiberius Coruncanius. Pyrrhus
conquers the consul Lævinus, and though victorious sues for peace,
which is refused by the Roman senate. The census was made, and
272,222 citizens were found.
A.U.C. 475. Publius Sulpicius Saverrio; Publius Decius Mus. A battle
with Pyrrhus.
A.U.C. 476. Caius Fabricius Luscinus 2; Quintus Æmilius Papus 2.
Pyrrhus goes to Sicily. The treaty between Rome and Carthage
renewed.
A.U.C. 477. Publius Cornelius Rufinus; Caius Junius Brutus. Crotona
and Locri taken.
A.U.C. 478. Quintus Fabius Maximus Gurges 2; Caius Genucius Clepsina.
Pyrrhus returns from Sicily to Italy.
A.U.C. 479. Manius Curius Dentatus 2; Lucius Cornelius Lentulus.
Pyrrhus finally defeated by Curius.
A.U.C. 480. Manius Curius Dentatus 3; Servius Cornelius Merenda.
A.U.C. 481. Caius Fabius Dorso; Caius Claudius Cænina 2. An embassy
from Philadelphus to conclude an alliance with the Romans.
A.U.C. 482. Lucius Papirius Cursor 2; Spurius Carvilius 2. Tarentum
surrenders.
A.U.C. 483. Lucius Genucius; Caius Quintilius.
A.U.C. 484. Caius Genucius; Cnæus Cornelius.
A.U.C. 485. Quintus Ogulinus Gallus; Caius Fabius Pictor. Silver
money coined at Rome for the first time.
A.U.C. 486. Publius Sempronius Sophus; Appius Claudius Crassus.
A.U.C. 487. Marcus Attilius Regulus; Lucius Julius Libo. Italy
enjoys peace universally.
A.U.C. 488. Numerius Fabius; Decimus Junius.
A.U.C. 489. Quintus Fabius Gurges 3; Lucius Mamilius Vitulus. The
number of the questors doubled to eight.
A.U.C. 490. Appius Claudius Caudex; Marcus Fulvius Flaccus. The
Romans aid the Mamertines, which occasions the first Punic war.
Appius defeats the Carthaginians in Sicily. The combats of
gladiators first instituted.
A.U.C. 491. Manius Valerius Maximus; Manius Otacilius Crassus.
Alliance between Rome and Hiero king of Syracuse. A sun-dial first
put up at Rome, brought from Catana.
A.U.C. 492. Lucius Posthumius Gemellus; Quintus Mamilius Vitulus.
The siege and taking of Agrigentum. The total defeat of the
Carthaginians.
A.U.C. 493. Lucius Valerius Flaccus; Titus Otacilius Crassus.
A.U.C. 494. Cnæus Cornelius Scipio Asina; Caius Duillius. In two
months the Romans build and equip a fleet of 120 galleys. The
naval victory and triumph of Duillius.
A.U.C. 495. Lucius Cornelius Scipio; Caius Aquilius Florus.
Expedition against Sardinia and Corsica.
A.U.C. 496. Aulus Attilius Calatinus; Caius Sulpicius Paterculus.
The Carthaginians defeated in a naval battle.
A.U.C. 497. Caius Attilius Regulus; Cnæus Cornelius Blasio.
A.U.C. 498. Lucius Manlius Vulso; Quintus Cædicius. At the death of
Cædicius, Marcus Attilius Regulus 2 was elected for the rest of
the year. The famous battle of Ecnoma. The victorious consuls land
in Africa.
A.U.C. 499. Servius Fulvius Pætinus Nobilior; Marcus Æmilius Paulus.
Regulus, after many victories in Africa, is defeated and taken
prisoner by Xanthippus. Agrigentum retaken by the Carthaginians.
A.U.C. 500. Cnæus Cornelius Scipio Asina 2; Aulus Attilius Calatinus
2. Panormus taken by the Romans.
A.U.C. 501. Cnæus Servilius Cæpio; Caius Sempronius Blæsus. The
Romans, discouraged by shipwrecks, renounce the sovereignty of the
seas.
A.U.C. 502. Caius Aurelius Cotta; Publius Servilius Geminus.
Citizens capable to bear arms amounted to 297,797.
A.U.C. 503. Lucius Cæcilius Metellus 2; Caius Furius Pacilus. The
Romans begin to recover their power by sea.
A.U.C. 504. Caius Attilius Regulus 2; Lucius Manlius Volso 2. The
Carthaginians defeated near Panormus in Sicily. One hundred and
forty-two elephants taken and sent to Rome. Regulus advises the
Romans not to exchange prisoners. He is put to death in the most
excruciating torments.
A.U.C. 505. Publius Clodius Pulcher; Lucius Junius Pullus. The
Romans defeated in a naval battle. The Roman fleet lost in a storm.
A.U.C. 506. Caius Aurelius Cotta 2; Publius Servilius Geminus 2.
A.U.C. 507. Lucius Cæcilius Metellus 3; Numerius Fabius Buteo. The
number of the citizens 252,222.
A.U.C. 508. Manius Otacilius Crassus; Marcus Fabius Licinius.
A.U.C. 509. Marcus Fabius Buteo; Caius Attilius Balbus.
A.U.C. 510. Aulus Manlius Torquatus 2; Caius Sempronius Blæsus.
A.U.C. 511. Caius Fundanius Fundulus; Caius Sulpicius Gallus. A
fleet built by individuals at Rome.
A.U.C. 512. Caius Lutatius Catulus; Aulus Posthumius Albinus. The
Carthaginian fleet defeated near the islands Ægates. Peace made
between Rome and Carthage. The Carthaginians evacuate Sicily.
A.U.C. 513. Quintus Lutatius Cerco; Aulus Manlius Atticus. Sicily is
made a Roman province. The 39th census taken. The citizens amount
to 260,000.
A.U.C. 514. Caius Claudius Centho; Marcus Sempronius Tuditanus.
A.U.C. 515. Caius Mamilius Turinus; Quintus Valerius Falto.
A.U.C. 516. Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus; Publius Valerius Falto.
The Carthaginians give up Sardinia to Rome.
A.U.C. 517. Lucius Cornelius Lentulus Caudinus; Quintus Fulvius
Flaccus. The Romans offer Ptolemy Evergetes assistance against
Antiochus Theos.
A.U.C. 518. Publius Cornelius Lentulus Caudinus; Licinius Varus.
Revolt of Corsica and Sardinia.
A.U.C. 519. Caius Attilius Balbus 2; Titus Manlius Torquatus. The
temple of Janus shut for the first time since the reign of Numa,
about 440 years. A universal peace at Rome.
A.U.C. 520. Lucius Postumius Albinus; Spurius Carvilius Maximus.
A.U.C. 521. Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus; Manius Pomponius
Matho. Differences and jealousy between Rome and Carthage.
A.U.C. 522. Marcus Æmilius Lepidus; Marcus Publicius Malleolus.
A.U.C. 523. Marcus Pomponius Matho 2; Carcus Papirius Maso. The
first divorce known at Rome.
A.U.C. 524. Marcus Æmilius Barbula; Marcus Junius Pera. War with the
Illyrians.
A.U.C. 525. Lucius Postumius Albinus 2; Cnæus Fulvius Centumalus.
The building of new Carthage.
A.U.C. 526. Spurius Carvilius Maximus 2; Quintus Fabius Maximus.
A.U.C. 527. Publius Valerius Flaccus; Marcus Attilius Regulus. Two
new pretors added to the other pretors.
A.U.C. 528. Marcus Valerius Messala; Lucius Apulius Fullo. Italy
invaded by the Gauls. The Romans could now lead into the field of
battle 770,000 men.
A.U.C. 529. Lucius Æmilius Papus; Caius Attilius Regulus. The Gauls
defeat the Romans near Clusium. The Romans obtain a victory near
Telamon.
A.U.C. 530. Titus Manlius Torquatus 2; Quintus Fulvius Flaccus 2.
The Boii, part of the Gauls, surrender.
A.U.C. 531. Caius Flaminius; Publius Furius Philus.
A.U.C. 532. Marcus Claudius Marcellus; Cnæus Cornelius Scipio Calvus.
A new war with the Gauls. Marcellus gains the spoils called _opima_.
A.U.C. 533. Publius Cornelius; Marcus Minucius Rufus. Annibal takes
the command of the Carthaginian armies in Spain.
A.U.C. 534. Lucius Veturius; Caius Lutatius. The Via Flaminia built.
A.U.C. 535. Marcus Livius Salinator; Lucius Æmilius Paulus. War with
Illyricum.
A.U.C. 536. Publius Cornelius Scipio; Tiberius Sempronius Longus.
Siege of Saguntum, by Annibal, the cause of the second Punic
war. Annibal marches towards Italy, and crosses the Alps. The
Carthaginian fleet defeated near Sicily. Sempronius defeated near
Trebia, by Annibal.
A.U.C. 537. Cnæus Servilius; Caius Flaminius 2. A famous battle near
the lake Thrasymenus. Fabius is appointed dictator. Success of
Cnæus Scipio in Spain.
A.U.C. 538. Caius Terentius Varro; Lucius Æmilius Paulus 2. The
famous battle of Cannæ. Annibal marches to Capua. Marcellus beats
Annibal near Nola. Asdrubal begins his march towards Italy, and
his army is totally defeated by the Scipios.
A.U.C. 539. Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus; Quintus Fabius Maximus 2.
Philip of Macedonia enters into alliance with Annibal. Sardinia
revolts, and is reconquered by Manlius. The Carthaginians twice
beaten in Spain by Scipio.
A.U.C. 540. Quintus Fabius Maximus 3; Marcus Claudius Marcellus 2.
Marcellus besieges Syracuse by sea and land.
A.U.C. 541. Quintus Fabius Maximus 4; Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus 3.
The siege of Syracuse continued.
A.U.C. 542. Quintus Fulvius Flaccus; Appius Claudius Pulcher.
Syracuse taken and plundered. Sicily made a Roman province.
Tarentum treacherously delivered to Annibal. The two Scipios
conquered in Spain.
A.U.C. 543. Cnæus Fulvius Centumalus. Publius Sulpicius Galba. Capua
besieged and taken by the Romans. Publius Scipio sent to Spain
with proconsular power.
A.U.C. 544. Marcus Claudius Marcellus 4; Marcus Valerius Lævinus 2.
The Carthaginians driven from Sicily. Carthagena taken by young
Scipio.
A.U.C. 545. Quintus Fabius Maximus 5; Quintus Fulvius Flaccus 4.
Annibal defeated by Marcellus. Fabius takes Tarentum. Asdrubal
defeated by Scipio.
A.U.C. 546. Marcus Claudius Marcellus 5; Titus Quintius Crispinus.
Marcellus killed in an ambuscade by Annibal. The Carthaginian
fleet defeated.
A.U.C. 547. Caius Claudius Nero; Marcus Livius 2. Asdrubal passes
the Alps. Nero obtains some advantage over Annibal. The two
consuls defeat Asdrubal, who is killed, and his head thrown into
Annibal’s camp. The Romans make war against Philip.
A.U.C. 548. Lucius Veturius; Quintus Cæcilius. Scipio obtains a
victory over Asdrubal the son of Gisgo in Spain. Masinissa sides
with the Romans.
A.U.C. 549. Publius Cornelius Scipio; Publius Licinius Crassus.
Scipio is empowered to invade Africa.
A.U.C. 550. Marcus Cornelius Cethegus; Publius Sempronius Tuditanus.
Scipio lands in Africa. The census taken, and 215,000 heads of
families found in Rome.
A.U.C. 551. Cnæus Servilius Cæpio; Caius Servilius Geminus. Scipio
spreads general consternation in Africa. Annibal is recalled from
Italy by the Carthaginian senate.
A.U.C. 552. Marcus Servilius; Tiberius Claudius. Annibal and Scipio
come to a parley; they prepare for battle. Annibal is defeated at
Zama. Scipio prepares to besiege Carthage.
A.U.C. 553. Cnæus Cornelius Lentulus; Publius Ælius Pætus. Peace
granted to the Carthaginians. Scipio triumphs.
A.U.C. 554. Publius Sulpicius Galba 2; Caius Aurelius Cotta. War
with the Macedonians.
A.U.C. 555. Lucius Cornelius Lentulus; Publius Villius Tapulus. The
Macedonian war continued.
A.U.C. 556. Sextus Ælius Pætus; Titus Quintius Flaminius. Philip
defeated by Quintius.
A.U.C. 557. Caius Cornelius Cethegus; Qitus Minucius Rufus. Philip
is defeated. Quintius grants him peace.
A.U.C. 558. Lucius Furius Purpureo; Marcus Claudius Marcellus. The
independence of Greece proclaimed by Flaminius at the Isthmian
games.
A.U.C. 559. Lucius Valerius Flaccus; Marcus Porcius Cato. Quintius
regulates the affairs of Greece. Cato’s victories in Spain, and
triumph. The Romans demand Annibal from the Carthaginians.
A.U.C. 560. Publius Corn. Scipio Africanus 2; T. Sempronius Longus.
Annibal flies to Antiochus.
A.U.C. 561. Lucius Cornelius Merula; Quintus Minucius Thermus.
Antiochus prepares to make war against Rome, and Annibal
endeavours in vain to stir up the Carthaginians to take up arms.
A.U.C. 562. Lucius Quintus Flamininus; Cnæus Domitius. The Greeks
call Antiochus to deliver them.
A.U.C. 563. Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica; Manlius Acilius Glabrio.
The success of Acilius in Greece against Antiochus.
A.U.C. 564. Lucius Cornelius Scipio; Caius Lælius. The fleet of
Antiochus under Annibal defeated by the Romans. Antiochus defeated
by Scipio.
A.U.C. 565. Marcus Fulvius Nobilior; Cnæus Manlius Vulso. War with
the Gallogrecians.
A.U.C. 566. Marcus Valerius Messala; Caius Livius Salinator.
Antiochus dies.
A.U.C. 567. Marcus Æmilius Lepidus; Caius Flaminius. The Ligurians
reduced.
A.U.C. 568. Spurius Postumius Albinus; Quintus Marcius Philippus.
The Bacchanalia abolished at Rome.
A.U.C. 569. Appius Claudius Pulcher; L. Marcus Sempronius
Tuditanus. Victories in Spain and Liguria.
A.U.C. 570. Publius Claudius Pulcher; Lucius Porcius Licinius.
Philip of Macedon sends his son Demetrius to Rome.
A.U.C. 571. Marcus Claudius Marcellus; Quintus Fabius Labeo. Death
of Annibal, Scipio, and Philopœmen. Gauls invade Italy.
A.U.C. 572. ♦Cnæus Bæbius Tamphilus; Lucius Æmilius Paulus. Death of
Philip.
♦ ‘M.’ replaced with ‘Cnæus’
A.U.C. 573. Publius Cornelius Cethegus; Marcus Bæbius Tamphilus 2.
Expeditions against Liguria. The first gilt statue raised at Rome.
A.U.C. 574. Aulus Postumius Albinus Luscus; Caius Calpurnius Piso.
Celtiberians defeated.
A.U.C. 575. Quintus Fulvius Flaccus; Lucius Manlius Acidinus.
Alliance renewed with Perseus the son of Philip.
A.U.C. 576. Marcus Junius Brutus; Aulus Manlius Vulso.
A.U.C. 577. Caius Claudius Pulcher; Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus.
The Istrians defeated.
A.U.C. 578. Cnæus Cornelius Scipio Hispalus; Quintus Petillius
Spurinus.
A.U.C. 579. Publius Mucius; Marcus Æmilius Lepidus 2.
A.U.C. 580. Spurius Postumius Albinus; Quintus Mucius Scævola.
A.U.C. 581. Lucius Postumius Albinus; Marcus Popilius Lænas.
A.U.C. 582. Caius Popilius Lænas; Publius Ælius Ligur. War declared
against Perseus.
A.U.C. 583. Publius Licinius Crassus; Caius Cassius Longinus.
Perseus gains some advantages over the Romans.
A.U.C. 584. Aulus Hostilius Mancinus; Aulus Atilius Serranus.
A.U.C. 585. Quintus Marcius Philippus 2; Cnæus Servilius Cæpio. The
campaign in Macedonia.
A.U.C. 586. Lucius Æmilius Paulus 2; Caius Licinius Crassus. Perseus
is defeated and taken prisoner by Paulus.
A.U.C. 587. Quintus Ælius Pætus; Marcus Junius Pennus.
A.U.C. 588. Marcus Claudius Marcellus; Caius Sulpicius Galba.
A.U.C. 589. Cnæus Octavius Nepos; Titus Manlius Torquatus.
A.U.C. 590. Aulus Manlius Torquatus; Quintus Cassius Longus.
A.U.C. 591. Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus; Manlius Juvencius Phalna.
A.U.C. 592. Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica; Caius Marcius Figulus.
Demetrius flies from Rome, and is made king of Syria.
A.U.C. 593. Marcus Valerius Messala; Caius Fannius Strabo.
A.U.C. 594. Lucius Anicius Gallus; Marcus Cornelius Cethegus.
A.U.C. 595. Cnæus Cornelius Dolabella; Marcus Fulvius Nobilior.
A.U.C. 596. Marcus Æmilius Lepidus; Caius Popilius Lænas.
A.U.C. 597. Sextus Julius Cæsar; Lucius Aurelius Orestes. War
against the Dalmatians.
A.U.C. 598. Lucius Cornelius Lentulus Lupus; Caius Marcius Figulus 2.
A.U.C. 599. Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica 2; Marcus Claudius
Marcellus 2.
A.U.C. 600. Quintus Opimius Nepos; Lucius Postumius Albinus.
A.U.C. 601. Quintus Fulvius Nobilior; Titus Annius Luscus. The false
Philip. Wars in Spain.
A.U.C. 602. Marcus Claudius Marcellus 3; Lucius Valerius Flaccus.
A.U.C. 603. Lucius Licinius Lucullus; Aulus Posthumius Albinus.
A.U.C. 604. Titus Quintius Flamininus; Manius Acilius Balbus. War
between the Carthaginians and Masinissa.
A.U.C. 605. Lucius Marcius Censorinus; Manius Manlius Nepos. The
Romans declare war against Carthage. The Carthaginians wish to
accept the hard conditions which are imposed upon them; but the
Romans say that Carthage must be destroyed.
A.U.C. 606. Spurius Postumius Albinus; Lucius Calpurnius Piso.
Carthage besieged.
A.U.C. 607. Publius Cornelius Scipio; Caius Livius Drusus. The siege
of Carthage continued with vigour by Scipio.
A.U.C. 608. Cnæus Cornelius Lentulus; Lucius Mummius. Carthage
surrenders, and is destroyed. Mummius takes and burns Corinth.
A.U.C. 609. Quintus Fabius Æmilianus; Lucius Hostilius Mancinius.
A.U.C. 610. Servius Sulpicius Galba; Lucius Aurelius Cotta.
A.U.C. 611. Appius Claudius Pulcher; Quintus Cæcilius Metellus
Macedonicus. War against the Celtiberians.
A.U.C. 612. Lucius Metellus Calvus; Quintus Fabius Maximus
Servilianus.
A.U.C. 613. Quintus Pompeius; Cnæus Servilius Cæpio.
A.U.C. 614. Caius Lælius Sapiens; Quintus Servilius Cæpio. The wars
with Viriatus.
A.U.C. 615. Marcus Popilius Lænas; Cnæus Calpurnius Piso.
A.U.C. 616. Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica; Decimus Junius Brutus.
The two consuls imprisoned by the tribunes.
A.U.C. 617. Marcus Æmilius Lepidus; Caius Hostilius Mancinus. Wars
against Numantia.
A.U.C. 618. ♦Lucius Furius Philus; Sextus Atilius Serranus.
♦ ‘P.’ replaced with ‘Lucius’
A.U.C. 619. Servius Fulvius Flaccus; Quintus Calpurnius Piso.
A.U.C. 620. Publius Cornelius Scipio 2; Caius Fulvius Flaccus.
A.U.C. 621. Publius Mucius Scævola; Lucius Calpurnius Piso Frugi.
Numantia surrenders to Scipio, and is entirely demolished. The
seditions of Tiberias Gracchus at Rome.
A.U.C. 622. Publius Popilius Lænas; Publius Rupillus.
A.U.C. 623. Publius Licinius Crassus; Lucius Valerius Flaccus.
A.U.C. 624. Caius Claudius Pulcher; Marcus Perpenna. In the census
are found 313,823 citizens.
A.U.C. 625. Caius Sempronius Tuditanus; Manius Aquilius Nepos.
A.U.C. 626. Cnæus Octavius Nepos; Titus Annius Luscus.
A.U.C. 627. Lucius Cassius Longus; Lucius Cornelius Cinna. A revolt
of slaves in Sicily.
A.U.C. 628. ♦Marcus Æmilius Lepidus; Lucius Aurelius Orestes.
♦ ‘L.’ replaced with ‘Marcus’
A.U.C. 629. Marcus Plautius Hypsæus; Marcus Fulvius Flaccus.
A.U.C. 630. Caius Cassius Longinus; ♦Caius Sextius Calvinus.
♦ ‘L.’ replaced with ‘Caius’
A.U.C. 631. Quintus Cæcilius Metellus; Titus Quintius Flamininus.
A.U.C. 632. Caius Fannius Strabo; Cnæus Domitius Ahenobarbus. The
seditions of Caius Gracchus.
A.U.C. 633. Lucius Opimius; Quintus Fabius Maximus. The unfortunate
end of Caius Gracchus. The Allobroges defeated.
A.U.C. 634. Publius Manlius Nepos; Caius Papirius Carbo.
A.U.C. 635. Lucius Cæcilius Metellus Calvus; Lucius Aurelius Cotta.
A.U.C. 636. Marcus Portius Cato; Quintus Marcius Rex.
A.U.C. 637. Lucius Cæcilius Metellus; Quintus Mutius Scævola.
A.U.C. 638. Caius Licinius Geta; Quintus Fabius Maximus Eburnus.
A.U.C. 639. Marcus Cæcilius Metellus; Marcus Æmilius Scaurus.
A.U.C. 640. Manius Acilius Balbus; Caius Portius Cato.
A.U.C. 641. Caius Cæcilius Metellus; Cnæus Papirius Carbo.
A.U.C. 642. Marcus Livius Drusis; Lucius Calpurnius Piso. The Romans
declare war against Jugurtha.
A.U.C. 643. Publius Scipio Nasica; Lucius Calpurnius Bestia.
Calpurnius bribed and defeated by ♦Jugurtha.
♦ ‘Jugartha’ replaced with ‘Jugurtha’
A.U.C. 644. Marcus Minucius Rufus; Spurius Postumius Albinus.
A.U.C. 645. Quintus Cæcilius Metellus; Marcus Junius Silanus.
Success of Metellus against Jugurtha.
A.U.C. 646. Servius Sulpicius Galba; Marcus Aurelius Scaurus.
Metellus continues the war.
A.U.C. 647. Caius Marius; Lucius Cassius. The war against Jugurtha
continued with vigour by Marius.
A.U.C. 648. Caius Atilius Serranus; Quintus Servilius Cæpio.
Jugurtha betrayed by Bocchus into the hands of Sylla the
lieutenant of Marius.
A.U.C. 649. Publius Rutilius Rufus; ♦Cnæus Mallius Maximus. Marius
triumphs over Jugurtha. Two Roman armies defeated by the Cimbri
and Teutones.
♦ ‘Corn. Maniius’ replaced with ‘Cnæus Mallius’
A.U.C. 650. Caius Marius 2; Caius Flavius Fimbria. The Cimbri march
towards Spain.
A.U.C. 651. Caius Marius 3; Lucius Aurelius Orestes. The Cimbri
defeated in Spain.
A.U.C. 652. Caius Marius 4; Quintus Lutatius Catulus. The Teutones
totally defeated by Marius.
A.U.C. 653. Caius Marius 5; Manius Aquilius. The Cimbri enter Italy,
and are defeated by Marius and Catulus.
A.U.C. 654. Caius Marius 6; Lucius Valerius Flaccus. Factions
against Metellus.
A.U.C. 655. Marcus Antonius; Aulus Postumius Albinus. Metellus is
gloriously recalled.
A.U.C. 656. ♦Quintus Cæcilius Metellus Nepos; Titus Didius.
♦ ‘L.’ replaced with ‘Quintus’
A.U.C. 657. Cnæus Cornelius Lentulus; Publius Licinius Crassus.
A.U.C. 658. Cnæus Domitius Ahenobarbus; Caius Cassius Longinus. The
kingdom of Cyrene left by will to the Roman people.
A.U.C. 659. Lucius Licinius Crassus; Quintus Mucius Scævola.
Seditions of Norbanus.
A.U.C. 660. Caius Cœlius Caldus; Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus.
A.U.C. 661. Caius Valerius Flaccus; Marcus Herennius. Sylla
exhibited a combat of 100 lions with men in the Circus.
A.U.C. 662. Caius Claudius Pulcher; Marcus Perpenna. The allies wish
to be admitted citizens of Rome.
A.U.C. 663. Lucius Marcius Philippus; Sextus Julius Cæsar. The
allies prepare to revolt.
A.U.C. 664. ♦Lucius Julius Cæsar; Publius Rutulius Rufus. Wars with
the Marsi.
♦ ‘M.’ replaced with ‘Lucius’
A.U.C. 665. Cnæus Pompeius Strabo; Lucius Portius Cato. The great
valour of Sylla surnamed the Fortunate.
A.U.C. 666. Lucius Cornelius Sylla; Quintus Pompeius Rufus. Sylla
appointed to conduct the Mithridatic war. Marius is empowered to
supersede him; upon which Sylla returns to Rome with his army, and
takes it, and has Marius and his adherents judged as enemies.
A.U.C. 667. Cnæus Octavius; Lucius Cornelius Cinna. Cinna endeavours
to recall Marius, and is expelled. Marius returns, and with Cinna
marches against Rome. Civil wars and slaughter.
A.U.C. 668. Caius Marius 7; Lucius Cornelius Cinna 2. Marius died,
and Lucius Valerius Flaccus was chosen in his room. The Mithridatic
war.
A.U.C. 669. Lucius Cornelius Cinna 3; Cnæus Papirius Carbo. The
Mithridatic war continued by Sylla.
A.U.C. 670. Lucius Cornelius Cinna 4; Cnæus Papirius Carbo 2. Peace
with Mithridates.
A.U.C. 671. Lucius Cornelius Scipio Asiaticus; Caius Norbanus. The
capitol burnt. Pompey joins Sylla.
A.U.C. 672. Caius Marius; Cnæus Papirius Carbo 3. Civil wars at Rome
between Marius and Sylla. Murder of the citizens by order of Sylla,
who makes himself dictator.
A.U.C. 673. Marcus Tullius Decula; Cnæus Cornelius Dolabella. Sylla
weakens and circumscribes the power of the tribunes. Pompey
triumphs over Africa.
A.U.C. 674. Lucius Cornelius Sylla Felix 2; Quintus Cæcilius Metellus
Pius. War against Mithridates.
A.U.C. 675. Publius Servilius Vatia; Appius Claudius Pulcher. Sylla
abdicates the dictatorship.
A.U.C. 676. Marcus Æmilius Lepidus; Quintus Lutatius Catulus. Sylla
dies.
A.U.C. 677. Decimus Junius Brutus; Mamercus Æmilius Lepidus Livianus.
A civil war between Lepidus and Catulus. Pompey goes against
Sertorius in Spain.
A.U.C. 678. Cnæus Octavius; ♦Gaius Scribonius Curio. Sertorius
defeated.
♦ ‘M.’ replaced with ‘Gaius’
A.U.C. 679. ♦Lucius Octavius; Caius Aurelius Cotta. Mithridates and
Sertorius make a treaty of alliance together. Sertorius murdered
by Perpenna.
♦ ‘Cn.’ replaced with ‘Lucius’
A.U.C. 680. Lucius Licinius Lucullus; Marcus Aurelius Cotta.
Lucullus conducts the Mithridatic war.
A.U.C. 681. Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus; Caius Cassius ♦Longinus.
The gladiators make head against the Romans with much success.
♦ ‘Varus Spartacus’ replaced with ‘Longinus’
A.U.C. 682. Lucius Gellius Poplicola; Cnæus Cornelius Lentulus
Clodianus. Victories of Spartacus over three Roman generals.
A.U.C. 683. Cnæus Aufidius Orestes; Publius Cornelius Lentulus Sura.
Crassus defeats and kills Spartacus near Apulia.
A.U.C. 684. Marcus Licinius Crassus; Cnæus Pompeius Magnus.
Successes of Lucullus against Mithridates. The census amounts to
above 900,000.
A.U.C. 685. Quintus Hortensius 2; Quintus Cæcilius Metellus.
Lucullus defeats Tigranes king of Armenia, and meditates the
invasion of Parthia.
A.U.C. 686. Quintus Marcius Rex; Lucius Cæcilius Metellus. Lucullus
defeats the united forces of Mithridates and Tigranes.
A.U.C. 687. Manius Acilius Glabrio; Caius Calpurnius Piso. Lucullus
falls under the displeasure of his troops, who partly desert him.
Pompey goes against the pirates.
A.U.C. 688. Manius Æmilius Lepidus; Lucius Volcatus Tullus. Pompey
succeeds Lucullus to finish the Mithridatic war, and defeats the
enemy.
A.U.C. 689. Lucius Aurelius Cotta; Lucius Manlius Torquatus. Success
of Pompey in Asia.
A.U.C. 690. Lucius Julius Cæsar; Caius Martius Figulus. Pompey goes
to Syria. His conquests there.
A.U.C. 691. Marcus Tullius Cicero; Caius Antonius. Mithridates
poisons himself. Catiline conspires against the state. Cicero
discovers the conspiracy, and punishes the adherents.
A.U.C. 692. Decimus Junius Silanus; Lucius Licinius Muræna. Pompey
triumphs over the Pirates, and over Mithridates, Tigranes, and
Aristobulus.
A.U.C. 693. Marcus Puppius Piso; Marcus Valerius Messala Niger.
A.U.C. 694. Lucius Afranius; Quintus Metellus Celer. A reconciliation
between Crassus, Pompey, and Cæsar.
A.U.C. 695. Caius Julius Cæsar; Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus. Cæsar
breaks the fasces of his colleague, and is sole consul. He obtains
the government of Gaul for five years.
A.U.C. 696. ♦Lucius Calpurnius Piso; Aulus Gabinius Paulus. Cicero
banished by means of Clodius. Cato goes against Ptolemy king of
Cyprus. Successes of Cæsar in Gaul.
♦ ‘C.’ replaced with ‘Lucius’
A.U.C. 697. Publius Cornelius Lentulus Spinther; Quintus Cæcilius
Metellus Nepos. Cicero recalled. Cæsar’s success and victories.
A.U.C. 698. Cnæus Cornelius Lentulus Marcellinus; Lucius Marcius
Philippus. The triumvirate of Cæsar, Pompey, and Crassus.
A.U.C. 699. Cnæus Pompeius Magnus 2; Marcus Licinius Crassus 2.
Crassus goes against Parthia. Cæsar continued for five years more
in the administration of Gaul. His conquest of Britain.
A.U.C. 700. Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus; Appius Claudius Pulcher.
Great victories of Cæsar.
A.U.C. 701. Cnæus Domitius Calvinus; Marcus Valerius Messala.
Crassus defeated and slain in Parthia. Milo kills Clodius.
A.U.C. 702. Cnæus Pompeius Magnus 3; the only consul. He afterwards
took for colleague, Quintus Cæcilius Metullus Pius Scipio. Revolts
of the Gauls crushed by Cæsar.
A.U.C. 703. Servius Sulpicius Rufus; Marcus Claudius Marcellus. Rise
of the jealousy between Cæsar and Pompey.
A.U.C. 704. Lucius Æmilius Paulus; ♦Gaius Claudius Marcellus. Cicero
proconsul of Cilicia. Increase of the differences between Cæsar
and Pompey.
♦ ‘P.’ replaced with ‘Gaius’
A.U.C. 705. Caius Claudius Marcellus; Lucius Cornelius Lentulus.
Cæsar begins the civil war. Pompey flies from Rome. Cæsar made
dictator.
A.U.C. 706. Caius Julius Cæsar 2; Publius Servilius Isauricus. Cæsar
defeats Pompey at Pharsalia Pompey murdered in Egypt. The wars of
Cæsar in Egypt.
A.U.C. 707. Quintus Fusius Calenus; Publius Vatinius. Power and
influence of Cæsar at Rome. He reduces Pontus.
A.U.C. 708. Caius Julius Cæsar 3; Marcus Æmilius Lepidus. Cæsar
defeats Pompey’s partisans in Africa, and takes Utica.
A.U.C. 709. Caius Julius Cæsar 4; Consul alone. He conquered the
partisans of Pompey in Spain, and was declared perpetual Dictator
and Imperator, &c.
A.U.C. 710. Caius Julius Cæsar 5; Marcus Antonius. Cæsar meditates a
war against Parthia. Above 600 Romans conspire against Cæsar, and
murder him in the senate-house. Antony raises himself to power.
The rise of Octavius.
A.U.C. 711. Caius Vibius Pansa; Aulus Hirtius. Antony judged a
public enemy. He joins Augustus. Triumvirate of Antony, Augustus,
and Lepidus.
A.U.C. 712. Lucius Minucius Plancus; Marcus Æmilius Lepidus 2. Great
honours paid to the memory of Julius Cæsar. Brutus and Cassius
join their forces against Augustus and Antony.
A.U.C. 713. Lucius Antonius; Publius Servilius Isauricus 2. Battle
of Philippi, and the defeat of Brutus and Cassius.
A.U.C. 714. Cnæus Domitius Calvinus; Caius Asinius Pollio. Antony
joins the son of Pompey against Augustus. The alliance of short
duration.
A.U.C. 715. Lucius Marcius Censorinus; Caius Calvisius Sabinus.
Antony marries Octavia the sister of Augustus, to strengthen their
mutual alliance.
A.U.C. 716. Appius Claudius Pulcher; Caius Norbanus Flaccus; to
whom were substituted Caius Octavianus and Quintus Pedius. Sext.
Pompey the son of Pompey the Great makes himself powerful by sea
to oppose Augustus.
A.U.C. 717. Marcus Agrippa; Lucius Caninius Gallus. Agrippa is
appointed by Augustus to oppose Sextus Pompey with a fleet. He
builds the famous harbour of Misenum.
A.U.C. 718. Lucius Gellius Poplicola; Marcus Cocceius Nerva. Agrippa
obtains a naval victory over Pompey, who delivers himself to
Antony, by whom he is put to death.
A.U.C. 719. Lucius Cornificus Nepos; Sextus Pompeius Nepos. Lentulus
removed from power by Augustus.
A.U.C. 720. Lucius Scribonius Libo; Marcus Antonius 2. Augustus
and Antony, being sole masters of the Roman empire, make another
division of the provinces. Cæsar obtains the west, and Antony the
east.
A.U.C. 721. Caius Cæsar Octavianus 2; Lucius Volcatius Tullus.
Octavia divorced by Antony, who marries Cleopatra.
A.U.C. 722. Cnæus Domitius Ahenobarbus; Caius Sosius. Dissensions
between Augustus and Antony.
A.U.C. 723. Caius Cæsar Octavianus 3; Marcus Valerius Messala
Corvinus. The battle of Actium, which, according to some authors,
happened the year of Rome 721. The end of the commonwealth.
=Consus=, a deity at Rome, who presided over councils. His temple was
covered in the Maximus Circus, to show that councils ought to be
secret and inviolable. Some suppose that it is the same as Neptunus
Equestris. Romulus instituted festivals to his honour, called
_Consualia_, during the celebration of which the Romans carried
away the Sabine women. _See:_ Consuales ludi. _Plutarch_, _Romulus_.
――_Ausonius_, ltr. 69, & Ecolgue 13, poem 23, _on Roman festivals_,
li. 19.――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 1.――_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 9.
=Consygna=, the wife of Nicomedes king of Bithynia, torn in pieces by
dogs for her lascivious deportment. _Pliny_, bk. 8, ch. 40.
=Contadesdus=, a river of Thrace. _Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 90.
=Contubia=, a town in Spain. _Florus_, bk. 2, ch. 17.
=Coon=, the eldest son of Antenor, killed by Agamemnon. _Homer_,
_Iliad_.
=Coos=, =Cos=, =Cea=, and =Co=, an island of the Ægean sea. _See:_ Co.
=Copæ=, a place of Greece, near the Cephisus. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 7.
=Copais lacus=, now _Limne_, a lake of Bœotia, into which the Cephisus
and other rivers empty themselves. It is famous for its excellent
eels. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 24.
=Cophas=, a son of Artabazus. _Curtius_, bk. 7, ch. 11.――――A river of
India. _Dionysius Periegetes._
=Cophontis=, a burning mountain of Bactriana. _Pliny_, bk. 2, ch. 106.
=Copia=, the goddess of plenty among the Romans, represented as bearing
a horn filled with grapes, fruits, &c.
=Copillus=, a general of the Tectosagæ, taken by the Romans.
_Plutarch_, _Sulla_.
=C. Coponius=, a commander of the fleet of Rhodes, at Dyrracchium, in
the interest of Pompey. _Cicero_, bk. 1, _de Divinatione_, ch. 8.
――_Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 83.
=Coprates=, a river of Asia, falling into the Tigris. _Diodorus_,
bk. 19.
=Copreus=, a son of Pelops, who fled to Mycenæ at the death of Iphitus.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 5.
=Coptus= and =Coptos=, now _Kypt_, a town of Egypt, about 100 leagues
from Alexandria, on a canal which communicates with the Nile.
_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 9; bk. 6, ch. 23.――_Strabo_, bk. 16.――_Juvenal_,
satire 15, li. 28.
=Cora=, a town of Latium, on the confines of the Volsci, built by a
colony of Dardanians before the foundation of Rome. _Lucan_, bk. 7,
li. 392.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 775.
=Coracēsium= and =Coracensium=, a maritime town of Pamphylia. _Livy_,
bk. 33, ch. 20.
=Coraconāsus=, a town of Arcadia, where the Ladon falls into the
Alpheus. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 25.
=Coraletæ=, a people of Scythia. _Flaccus_, bk. 6, li. 81.
=Coralli=, a savage people of Pontus. _Ovid_, _ex Ponto_, bk. 4,
poem 2, li. 37.
=Coranus=, a miser. _See:_ ♦Nascia.
♦ ‘Nascia’ not referenced
=Coras=, a brother of Catillus and Tyburtus, who fought against Æneas.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 672.
=Corax=, an ancient rhetorician of Sicily, who first demanded a salary
of his pupils. _Cicero_, _Brutus_, ch. 12; _On Oratory_, bk. 1, ch.
20.――_Aulus Gellius_, bk. 5, ch. 10.――_Quintilian_, bk. 3, ch. 1.
――――A king of Sicyon.――――A mountain of Ætolia. _Livy_, bk. 36, ch. 30.
=Coraxi=, a people of Colchis. _Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 5.
=Corbeus=, a Gaul, &c. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 8, ch. 6.
=Corbis= and =Orsua=, two brothers, who fought for the dominion of a
city, in the presence of Scipio, in Spain. _Livy_, bk. 28, ch. 21.
――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 9, ch. 11.
=Corbŭlo Domitius=, a prefect of Belgium, who, when governor of
Syria, routed the Parthians, destroyed Artaxata, and made Tigranes
king of Armenia. Nero, jealous of his virtues, ordered him to be
murdered; and Corbulo hearing this, fell upon his sword, exclaiming,
“I have well deserved this!” A.D. 66. His name was given to a
place (_Monumentum_) in Germany, which some suppose to be modern
_Groningen_. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 11, ch. 18.
=Corcȳra=, an island in the Ionian sea, about 12 miles from Buthrotum,
on the coast of Epirus; famous for the shipwreck of Ulysses, and the
gardens of Alcinous. It has been successively _Drepane_, _Scheria_,
and _Phæacia_, and now bears the name of _Corfu_. Some Corinthians,
with Chersicrates at their head, came to settle there, when banished
from their country, 703 years before the christian era. A colony of
Colchis had settled there 1349 years before Christ. The war which
was carried on by the Athenians against the Corcyreans, and was
called _Corcyrean_, became but a preparation for the Peloponnesian
war. The people of Corcyra were once so hated by the Cretans, that
such as were found on the island of Crete were always put to death.
_Ovid_, _Ibis_, li. 512.――_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 5, &c.――_Lucan_,
bk. 9, li. 32.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.
――_Strabo_, bk. 6.
=Cordŭba=, now _Cordova_, a famous city of Hispania Bætica, the native
place of both the Senecas and of Lucan. _Martial_, bk. 1, ltr. 62.
――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 6.――_Cæsar_, _Alexandrine War_, ch. 57.――_Pliny_,
bk. 3, ch. 1.
=Cordyla=, a port of Pontus, supposed to give its name to a peculiar
sort of fishes caught there (_Cordylæ_). _Pliny_, bk. 9, ch. 15.
――_Martial_, bk. 13, ltr. 1.
=Core=, a daughter of Ceres, the same as Proserpine. Festivals called
_Coreia_ were instituted to her honour in Greece.
=Coressus=, a hill near Ephesus. _Herodotus_, bk. 5, ch. 100.
=Corĕsus=, a priest of Bacchus at Calydon in Bœotia, who was deeply
enamoured of the nymph Callirhoe, who treated him with disdain. He
complained to Bacchus, who visited the country with a pestilence.
The Calydonians were directed by the oracle to appease the god by
sacrificing Callirhoe on his altar. The nymph was led to the altar,
and Coresus, who was to sacrifice her, forgot his resentment, and
stabbed himself. Callirhoe, conscious of her ingratitude to the
love of Coresus, killed herself on the brink of a fountain, which
afterwards bore her name. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 21.
=Corētas=, a man who first gave oracles at Delphi. _Plutarch_, _de
Defectu Oraculorum_.
=Corfinium=, now _San Ferino_, the capital of the Peligni, three miles
from the Aternus, which falls into the Adriatic. _Cæsar_, _Civil
War_, bk. 1, ch. 16.――_Lucan_, bk. 2, li. 478.――_Silius Italicus_,
bk. 5, li. 522.
=Coria=, a surname of Minerva among the Arcadians. _Cicero_, _de
Natura Deorum_, bk. 3, ch. 23.
=Corinna=, a celebrated woman of Tanagra, near Thebes, disciple to
Myrtis. Her father’s name was Archelodorus. It is said that she
obtained five times a poetical prize, in which Pindar was her
competitor; but it must be acknowledged that her beauty greatly
contributed to defeat her rivals. She had composed 50 books of
epigrams and odes, of which only some few verses remain. _Propertius_,
bk. 2, poem 3.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 22.――――A woman of Thespis,
celebrated for her beauty.――――Ovid’s mistress was also called
Corinna. _Amores_, bk. 2, poem 6.
=Corinnus=, an ancient poet in the time of the Trojan war, on which he
wrote a poem. Homer, as some suppose, took his subject from the poem
of Corinnus.
=Corinthiăcus sinus=, is now called the gulf of Lepanto.
=Corinthus=, an ancient city of Greece, now called _Corito_, situated
on the middle of the isthmus of Corinth, at the distance of about 60
stadia on either side from the sea. It was first founded by Sisyphus
son of Æolus, A.M. 2616, and received its name from Corinthus the
son of Pelops. Its original name was _Ephyre_; and it is called
_Bimaris_, because situated between the Saronicus Sinus and the
Crisseus Sinus. The inhabitants were once very powerful, and had
great influence among the Grecian states. They colonized Syracuse in
Sicily, and delivered it from the tyranny of its oppressors, by the
means of Timoleon. Corinth was totally destroyed by Lucius Mummius
the Roman consul, and burnt to the ground, 146 B.C. The riches
which the Romans found there were immense. During the conflagration,
all the metals which were in the city melted and mixed together,
and formed that valuable composition of metals which has since
been known by the name of _Corinthium Æs_. This, however, appears
improbable, especially when it is remembered that the artists of
Corinth made a mixture of copper with small quantities of gold and
silver, and so brilliant was the composition, that the appellation
of _Corinthian brass_ afterwards stamped an extraordinary value
on pieces of inferior worth. There was there a famous temple of
Venus, where lascivious women resorted, and sold their pleasures so
dear, that many of their lovers were reduced to poverty; whence the
proverb of
_Non cuivis homini contingit adire Corinthian_,
to show that all voluptuous indulgences are attended with much
expense. Julius Cæsar planted a colony at Corinth, and endeavoured
to raise it from its ruins, and restore it to its former grandeur.
The government of Corinth was monarchical till 779 years B.C., when
officers called Pyrtanes were instituted. The war which has received
the name of _Corinthian war_, because the battles were fought in the
neighbourhood of Corinth, was begun B.C. 395, by the combination of
the Athenians, Thebans, Corinthians, and Argives, against Lacedæmon.
Pisander and Agesilaus distinguished themselves in that war; the
former, in the first year of hostilities, was defeated with the
Lacedæmonian fleet, by Conon, near Cnidus; while a few days after
Agesilaus slaughtered 10,000 of the enemy. The most famous battles
were fought at Coronea and Leuctra; but Agesilaus refused to
besiege Corinth, lamenting that the Greeks, instead of destroying
one another, did not turn their arms against the Persian power.
_Martial_, bk. 9, ltr. 58.――_Suetonius_, _Augustus_, ch. 70.――_Livy_,
bk. 45, ch. 28.――_Florus_, bk. 2, ch. 16.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 2, li. 240.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ltr. 17, li. 36.――_Pliny_, bk. 34,
ch. 2.――_Statius_, _Thebiad_, bk. 7, li. 106.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2,
ch. 1, &c.――_Strabo_, bk. 8, &c.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 15.――_Cicero_,
_Tusculanæ Disputationes_, bk. 4, ch. 14; _Against Verres_, bk. 4,
ch. 44; _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 3.――――An actor at Rome. _Juvenal_,
satire 8, li. 197.
=Coriŏlānus=, the surname of Caius Martius from his victory over
Corioli, where, from a private soldier, he gained the amplest
honours. When master of the place, he accepted, as the only reward,
the surname of Coriolanus, a horse and prisoners, and his ancient
host, to whom he immediately gave his liberty. After a number
of military exploits, and many services to his country, he was
refused the consulship by the people, when his scars had for a while
influenced them in his favour. This raised his resentment; and when
the Romans had received a present of corn from Gelo king of Sicily,
Coriolanus insisted that it should be sold for money, and not be
given gratis. Upon this the tribunes raised the people against him
for his imprudent advice, and even wished him to be put to death.
This rigorous sentence was stopped by the influence of the senators,
and Coriolanus submitted to a trial. He was banished by a majority
of three tribes, and he immediately retired among the Volsci, to
Attius Tullus, his greatest enemy, from whom he met a most friendly
reception. He advised him to make war against Rome, and he marched
at the head of the Volsci as general. The approach of Coriolanus
greatly alarmed the Romans, who sent him several embassies to
reconcile him to his country, and to solicit his return. He was deaf
to all proposals, and bade them prepare for war. He pitched his camp
only at the distance of five miles from the city; and his enmity
against his country would have been fatal, had not his wife Volumnia,
and his mother Veturia, been prevailed upon by the Roman matrons to
go and appease his resentment. The meeting of Coriolanus with his
family was tender and affecting. He remained long inexorable; but
at last the tears and entreaties of a mother and a wife prevailed
over the stern and obstinate resolutions of an enemy, and Coriolanus
marched the Volsci from the neighbourhood of Rome. To show their
sense of Volumnia’s merit and patriotism, the Romans dedicated a
temple to _Female Fortune_. The behaviour of Coriolanus, however,
displeased the Volsci. He was summoned to appear before the people
of Antium; but the clamours which his enemies raised were so
prevalent, that he was murdered at the place appointed for his
trial, B.C. 488. His body was honoured with a magnificent funeral
by the Volsci, and the Roman matrons put on mourning for his loss.
Some historians say that he died in exile, in an advanced old age.
_Plutarch_, _Parallel Lives_.――_Florus_, bk. 2, ch. 22.
=Coriŏli= and =Coriolla=, a town of Latium on the borders of the
Volsci, taken by the Romans under Caius Martius, called from thence
Coriolanus. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 5.――_Plutarch._――_Livy_, bk. 2,
ch. 33.
=Corissus=, a town of Ionia.
=Coritus.= _See:_ Corytus.
=Cormasa=, a town of Pamphylia. _Livy_, bk. 38, ch. 15.
=Cormus=, a river near Assyria. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 12, ch. 14.
=Cornēlia lex=, _de Civitate_, was enacted A.U.C. 670, by Lucius
Cornelius Sylla. It confirmed the Sulpician law, and required that
the citizens of the eight newly elected tribes should be divided
among the 35 ancient tribes.――――Another, _de Judiciis_, A.U.C. 673,
by the same. It ordained that the pretor should always observe the
same invariable method in judicial proceedings, and that the process
should not depend upon his will.――――Another, _de Sumptibus_, by the
same. It limited the expenses which generally attended funerals.
――――Another, _de Religione_, by the same, A.U.C. 677. It restored
to the college of priests the privilege of choosing the priests,
which, by the Domitian law, had been lodged in the hands of the
people.――――Another, _de Municipiis_, by the same, which revoked
all the privileges which had been some time before granted to
the several towns that had assisted Marius and Cinna in the civil
wars.――――Another, _de Magistratibus_, by the same, which gave the
power of bearing honours and being promoted before the legal age,
to those who had followed the interest of Sylla, while the sons and
partisans of his enemies, who had been proscribed, were deprived of
the privilege of standing for any office of the state.――――Another,
_de Magistratibus_, by the same, A.U.C. 673. It ordained that no
person should exercise the same office within 10 years’ distance, or
be invested with two different magistracies in one year.――――Another,
_de Magistratibus_, by the same, A.U.C. 673. It divested the tribunes
of the privilege of making laws interfering, holding assemblies,
and receiving appeals. All such as had been tribunes were incapable
of holding any other office in the state by that law.――――Another,
_de Majestate_, by the same, A.U.C. 670. It made it treason to
send an army out of a province, or engage in a war without orders,
to influence the soldiers to spare or ransom a captive general of
the enemy, to pardon the leaders of robbers or pirates, or for the
absence of a Roman citizen to a foreign court without previous leave.
The punishment was, _aquæ et ignis interdictio_.――――Another, by
the same, which gave the power to a man accused of murder, either
by poison, weapons, or false accusations, and the setting fire
to buildings, to choose whether the jury that tried him should
give their verdict _clam_ or _palam_, _vivâ voce_ or by _ballot_.
――――Another, by the same, which made it _aquæ et ignis interdictio_
to such as were guilty of forgery, concealing and altering of wills,
corruption, false accusations, and the debasing or counterfeiting
of the public coin; all such as were accessary to this offence
were deemed as guilty as the offender.――――Another, _de pecuniis
repetundis_, by which a man convicted of peculation or extortion
in the provinces was condemned to suffer the _aquæ et ignis
interdictio_.――――Another, by the same, which gave the power to such
as were sent into the provinces with any government, of retaining
their command and appointment, without a renewal of it by the senate,
as was before observed.――――Another, by the same, which ordained that
the lands of proscribed persons should be common, especially those
about Volaterræ and Fesulæ in Etruria, which Sylla divided among
his soldiers.――――Another, by Caius Cornelius, tribune of the people,
A.U.C. 686, which ordained that no person should be exempted from
any law, according to the general custom, unless 200 senators were
present in the senate; and no person thus exempted could hinder the
bill of his exemption from being carried to the people for their
concurrence.――――Another, by Nasica, A.U.C. 582, to make war against
Perseus, son of Philip king of Macedonia, if he did not give proper
satisfaction to the Roman people.
=Cornēlia=, a daughter of Cinna, who was the first wife of Julius
Cæsar. She became mother of Julia, Pompey’s wife, and was so
affectionately loved by her husband, that at her death he pronounced
a funeral oration over her body. _Plutarch_, _Cæsar_.――――A daughter
of Metellus Scipio, who married Pompey, after the death of her
husband Publius Crassus. She has been praised for her great virtues.
When her husband left her in the bay of Alexandria, to go on shore
in a small boat, she saw him stabbed by Achillas, and heard his
dying groans without the possibility of aiding him. She attributed
all his misfortunes to his connection with her. _Plutarch_, _Pompey_.
――――A daughter of Scipio Africanus, who married Sempronius Gracchus,
and was the mother of Tiberius and Caius Gracchus. She was courted
by a king; but she preferred being the wife of a Roman citizen
to that of a monarch. Her virtues have been deservedly commended,
as well as the wholesome principles which she inculcated in her
two sons. When a Campanian lady made once a show of her jewels at
Cornelia’s house, and entreated her to favour her with a sight of
her own, Cornelia produced her two sons, saying, “These are the only
jewels of which I can boast.” In her lifetime, a statue was raised
to her, with this inscription, _Cornelia mater Gracchorum_. Some
of her epistles are preserved. _Plutarch_, _Gracchus_.――_Juvenal_,
satire 6, li. 167.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 4, ch. 4.――_Cicero_,
_Brutus_, ch. 58; _de Claris Oratoribus_, ch. 58.――――A vestal
virgin, buried alive in Domitian’s age, as guilty of incontinence.
_Suetonius_, _Domitian_.
=Cornēlii=, an illustrious family at Rome, of whom the most
distinguished were, Caius Cornelius, a soothsayer of Padua, who
foretold the beginning and issue of the battle of Pharsalia.
――――Dolabella, a friend and admirer of Cleopatra. He told her that
Augustus intended to remove her from the monument, where she had
retired.――――An officer of Sylla, whom Julius Cæsar bribed to escape
the proscription which threatened his life.――――Cethegus, a priest,
degraded from his office for want of attention.――――Cnæus, a man
chosen by Marcellus to be his colleague in the consulship.――――Balbus,
a man who hindered Julius Cæsar from rising up at the arrival of
the senators.――――Cossus, a military tribune during the time that
there were no consuls in the republic. He offered to Jupiter the
spoils called _opima_. _Livy_, bk. 4, ch. 19.――――Balbus, a man
of Gades, intimate with Cicero, by whom he was ably defended when
accused.――――A freedman of Sylla the dictator.――――Scipio, a man
appointed master of the horse by Camillus, when dictator.――――Gallus,
an elegiac poet. _See:_ Gallus.――――Merula, was made consul by
Augustus, in the room of Cinna.――――Marcellus, a man killed in Spain
by Galba.――――Cornelius Nepos, an historian. _See:_ Nepos.――――Merula,
a consul sent against the Boii in Gaul. He killed 1400 of them. His
grandson followed the interest of Sylla; and when Marius entered
the city he killed himself, by opening his veins.――――Gallus, a
man who died in the act of copulation. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 9,
ch. 12.――――Severus, an epic poet in the age of Augustus, of great
genius. He wrote a poem on mount Ætna, and on the death of Cicero.
_Quintilian_, bk. 10, li. 1.――――Thuscus, a mischievous person.
――――Lentulus Cethegus, a consul.――――Aulus Celsus, wrote eight books
on medicine, still extant, and highly valued.――――Cnæus and Publius
Scipio. _See:_ Scipio.――――Lentulus, a high priest, &c. _Livy._
――_Plutarch._――_Valerius Maximus._――_Tacitus._――_Suetonius._
――_Polybius._――_Cornelius Nepos_, &c.
=Cornicŭlum=, a town of Latium. _Dionysius of Halicarnassus._
=Cornificius=, a poet and general in the age of Augustus, employed
to accuse Brutus, &c. His sister Cornificia was also blessed with
a poetical genius. _Plutarch_, _Brutus_.――――A lieutenant of Julius
Cæsar. _Plutarch_, _Cæsar_.――――A friend of Cicero, and his colleague
in the office of augur.
=Cornĭger=, a surname of Bacchus.
=Cornūtus=, a stoic philosopher of Africa, preceptor to Persius
the satirist. He wrote some treatises on philosophy and rhetoric.
_Persius_, bk. 5, li. 36.――――A pretor of Rome, in the age of Cicero.
_Cicero_, bk. 10, ltr. 12.――――A Roman, saved from the proscription
of Marius by his servants, who hung up a dead man in his room, and
said it was their master. _Plutarch_, _Marius_.
=Corœbus=, a Phrygian, son of Mygdon and Anaximena. He assisted Priam
in the Trojan war, with the hopes of being rewarded with the hand of
Cassandra for his services. Cassandra advised him in vain to retire
from the war. He was killed by Peneleus. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch.
37.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 2, li. 341, &c.――――A courier of Elis,
killed by Neoptolemus. He obtained a prize at Olympia, B.C. 776, in
the 28th olympiad, from the institution of Iphitus; but this year
has generally been called the first olympiad. _Pausanias_, bk. 5,
ch. 8.――――A hero of Argolis, who killed a serpent called Pœne,
sent by Apollo to avenge Argos, and placed by some authors in the
number of the furies. His country was afflicted with the plague, and
he consulted the oracle of Delphi, which commanded him to build a
temple where a tripod which was given him should fall from his hand.
_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 43.
=Corōna=, a town of Messenia. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 5.
=Coronēa=, a town of Bœotia, where, in the first year of the Corinthian
war, Agesilaus defeated the allied forces of Athens, Thebes, Corinth,
and Argos, B.C. 394. _Cornelius Nepos_, _Agesilaus_.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 9, ch. 34.――_Diodorus_, bk. 12.――――A town of Peloponnesus,――――of
Corinth,――――of Cyprus,――――of Ambracia,――――of Phthiotis.
=Corōnis=, a daughter of Phlegias, loved by Apollo. She became pregnant
by her lover, who killed her on account of her criminal partiality
to Ischys the Thessalian. According to some, Diana killed her for
her infidelity to her brother, and Mercury saved the child from her
womb, as she was on the burning pile. Others say that she brought
forth her son and exposed him, near Epidaurus, to avoid her father’s
resentment; and they further mention that Apollo had set a crow to
watch her behaviour. The child was preserved, and called Æsculapius;
and the mother, after death, received divine honours, and had a
statue at Sicyon, in her son’s temple, which was never exposed to
public view. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 26.――――The daughter of Coronæus
king of Phocis, changed into a crow by Minerva, when flying before
Neptune. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 2, li. 543.――――One of the
daughters of Atlas and Pleione.
=Coronia=, a town of Acarnania. _Thucydides_, bk. 2, ch. 102.
=Corōnus=, a son of Apollo. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 5.――――A son of
Phoroneus king of the Lapithæ. _Diodorus_, bk. 4.
=Corrhāgium=, a town of Macedonia. _Livy_, bk. 31, ch. 27.
=Corsi=, a people of Sardinia, descended from the Corsicans.
=Corsia=, a town of Bœotia. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 24.
=Corsīca=, a mountainous island in the Mediterranean, on the coast
of Italy. Its inhabitants were savage, and bore the character of
robbers, liars, and atheists, according to Seneca, who was exiled
among them. They lived to a great age, and fed on honey, which
was produced in great abundance, though bitter in taste, from the
number of yew trees and hemlock which grew there. Corsica was in the
possession of the Carthaginians, and was conquered by the Romans,
B.C. 231. The Greeks called it Cyrnos. In the age of Pliny it was
considered as in a flourishing state, as it contained no less than
33 towns, a number far exceeding its present population.――_Strabo._
――_Martial_, bk. 9, ltr. 27.――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 6; bk. 7, ch. 2.
――_Ovid_, _Amores_, bk. 1, poem 12, li. 10.――_Virgil_, _Eclogues_,
poem 9, li. 30.
=Corsote=, a town of Armenia.
=Corsūra=, an island in the bay of Carthage.
=Cortōna=, an ancient town of Etruria, called _Corytum_ by Virgil. It
was at the north of the Thrasymene lake. _Dionysius of Halicarnassus_,
bk. 1, chs. 20 & 26.――_Livy_, bk. 9, ch. 37; bk. 22, ch. 4.
=Corvīnus=, a name given to Marcus Valerius from a _crow_, which
assisted him when he was fighting against a Gaul.――――An orator.
_Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 36.――――Messala, an eloquent orator, in
the Augustan age, distinguished for integrity and patriotism, yet
ridiculed for his frequent quotations of Greek in his orations. In
his old age he became so forgetful as not even to remember his own
name.――――One of this family became so poor, that he was obliged, to
maintain himself, to be a mercenary shepherd. _Juvenal_, satire 1,
li. 108.
=Tiberius Coruncānius=, the first plebeian who was made high priest at
Rome.――――The family of the _Coruncanii_ was famous for the number of
great men which it supplied for the service and honour of the Roman
republic. _Cicero_, _On his House_.
=Corus=, a river of Arabia, falling into the Red sea. _Herodotus_,
bk. 3, ch. 9.
=Corybantes=, the priests of Cybele, called also Galli. In the
celebration of their festivals, they beat their cymbals, and behaved
as if delirious. They first inhabited on mount Ida, and from thence
passed into Crete, and ♦secretly brought up Jupiter. Some suppose
that they received their name from Corybas son of Jasus and Cybele,
who first introduced the rites of his mother into Phrygia. There was
a festival at Cnossus in Crete called _Corybantica_, in commemoration
of the Corybantes, who there educated Jupiter. _Pausanias_, bk. 8,
ch. 37.――_Diodorus_, bk. 5.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ode 16.――_Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 617; bk. 10, li. 250.
♦ ‘secretely’ replaced with ‘secretly’
=Cory̆bas=, a son of Jasus and Cybele. _Diodorus_, bk. 5.――――A painter,
disciple to Nicomachus. _Pliny_, bk. 35, ch. 11.
=Corybassa=, a city of Mysia.
=Cory̆bus=, a promontory of Crete.
=Corycia=, a nymph, mother of Lycorus by Apollo. _Pausanias_, bk. 10,
ch. 6.
=Cōry̆cĭdes=, the nymphs who inhabited the foot of Parnassus. This
name is often applied to the Muses. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1,
li. 320.
=Corycius=, an old man of Tarentum, whose time was happily employed in
taking care of his bees. He is represented by _Virgil_, _Georgics_,
bk. 4, li. 12, &c., as a contented old man, whose assiduity and
diligence are exemplary. Some suppose that the word _Corycius_
implies not a person of that name, but a native of Corycus, who had
settled in Italy.
=Cory̆cus=, now _Curco_, a lofty mountain of Cilicia, with a town
of the same name, and also a cave, with a grove which produced
excellent saffron. _Horace_, bk. 2, satire 4, li. 68.――_Lucan_,
bk. 9, li. 809.――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 27.――_Cicero_, _Letters to
his Friends_, bk. 12, ltr. 13.――_Strabo_, bk. 14.――――Another of
Ionia, long the famous retreat of robbers.――――Another at the foot
of Parnassus, sacred to the Muses. _Statius_, _Thebiad_, bk. 7.
――_Strabo_, bk. 9.
=Cory̆don=, a fictitious name of a shepherd, often occuring in the
pastorals of Theocritus and Virgil.
=Coryla= and =Coryleum=, a village of Paphlagonia.
=Cory̆na=, a town of Ionia. _Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 17.
=Corymbĭfer=, a surname of Bacchus, from his wearing a crown of
_corymbi_, certain berries that grow on the ivy. _Ovid_, _Fasti_,
bk. 1, li. 393.
=Coryneta= and =Corynetes=, a famous robber, son of Vulcan, killed by
Theseus. _Plutarch_, _Theseus_.
=Coryphasium=, a promontory of Peloponnesus. _Pausanias_, bk. 4,
ch. 36.
=Coryphe=, a daughter of Oceanus. _Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 2,
ch. 23.
=Corythenes=, a place of Tegea. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 45.
=Corythus=, a king of Corinth. _Diodorus_, bk. 4.
=Corytus=, a king of Etruria, father to Jasius, whom Dardanus is
said to have put to death to obtain the kingdom. It is also a town
and mountain of Etruria, now _Cortona_, near which Dardanus was
born. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 170; bk. 7, li. 209.――_Silius
Italicus_, bk. 5, li. 123; bk. 4, li. 721.
=Cos=, an island. _See:_ Co.
=Cosa= and =Cossa=, or =Cŏsæ=, a town of Etruria. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 10, li. 168.――_Livy_, bk. 22, ch. 11.――_Cicero_, bk. 9, _Letters
to Atticus_, ltr. 6.――_Cæsar_, _Civil War_, bk. 1, ch. 34.
=Cosconius=, a Latin writer. _Varro_, _de Lingua Latina_, bk. 5.――――A
wretched epigram writer. _Martial_, bk. 2, ltr. 77.
=Cosingas=, a Thracian priest of Juno, &c. _Polyænus_, bk. 7, ch. 22.
=Cosis=, a brother to the king of Albania, killed by Pompey. _Plutarch_,
_Pompey_.
=Cosmus=, an effeminate Roman. _Juvenal_, satire 8.
=Cossea=, a part of Persia. _Diodorus_, bk. 17.
=Cossus=, a surname given to the family of the Cornelii.――――A Roman
who killed Volumnius king of Veii, and obtained the _Spolia Opima_,
A.U.C. 317. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 841.
=Cossutii=, a family of Rome, of which Cossutia, Cæsar’s wife, was
descended. _Suetonius_, _Cæsar_, ch. 1. One of the family was
distinguished as an architect about 200 B.C. He first introduced
into Italy the more perfect models of Greece.
=Costobœi=, robbers in Galatia. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 34.
=Cosȳra=, a barren island in the African sea near Melita. _Ovid_,
_Fasti_, bk. 3, li. 567.
=Cotes= and =Cottes=, a promontory of Mauritania.
=Cothon=, a small island near the citadel of Carthage, with a
convenient bay which served for a dock-yard. _Servius_ on _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 431.――_Diodorus_, bk. 3.
=Cothonea=, the mother of Triptolemus. _Hyginus_, fable 147.
=Cŏtĭso=, a king of the Daci, whose army invaded Pannonia, and was
defeated by Cornelius Lentulus the lieutenant of Augustus. It is
said that Augustus solicited his daughter in marriage. _Suetonius_,
_Augustus_, ch. 63.――_Horace_, bk. 3, ode 8, li. 18.
=Cotōnis=, an island near the Echinades. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.
=Cotta Marcus Aurelius=, a Roman who opposed Marius. He was consul
with Lucullus; and when in Asia, he was defeated by sea and land by
Mithridates. He was surnamed _Ponticus_, because he took Heraclea of
Pontus by treachery. _Plutarch_, _Lucullus_.――――An orator, greatly
commended by _Cicero_, _On Oratory_.――――A governor of Paphlagonia,
very faithful to Sardanapalus. _Diodorus_, bk. 2.――――A spendthrift
in the age of Nero, &c. _Tacitus._――――An officer of Cæsar in Gaul.
――――A poet mentioned by ♦_Ovid_, _Epistulæ ex Ponto_.
♦ added author’s name ‘Ovid’
=Cottiæ Alpes=, a certain part of the Alps, by which Italy is separated
from Gaul. _Suetonius_, _Tiberius_, ch. 37; _Nero_, ch. 18.
=Cottus=, a giant, son of Cœlus and Terra, who had 100 hands and
50 heads. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 147.――――A man among the Ædui.
_Cæsar_, _Gallic War_.
=Cotyæum=, a town of Galatia. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 32.――――Of Phrygia.
=Cotyæus=, a surname of Æsculapius, worshipped on the borders of
the Eurotas. His temple was raised by Hercules. _Pausanias_, bk. 3,
ch. 19.
=Cotylius=, a mountain of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 41.
=Cotyora=, a city of Asia Minor, founded by a colony from Sinope.
_Diodorus_, bk. 14.
=Cotys=, the father of Asia. _Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 45.――――A son of
Manes by Callirhoe, who succeeded his father on the throne of Mæonia.
――――A king of Thrace. _Cornelius Nepos_, _Iphicrates_.――――Another,
who favoured the interest of Pompey. He was of an irascible temper.
_Lucan_, bk. 5, li. 54.――――Another, king of Thrace, who divided the
kingdom with his uncle, by whom he was killed. It is the same to
whom Ovid writes from his banishment. _Tacitus_, bk. 2, _Annals_,
ch. 64.――_Ovid_, bk. 2, _Epistulæ ex Ponto_, ltr. 9.――――A king of
the Odrysæ. _Livy_, bk. 42, ch. 29.――――A king of Armenia Minor,
who fought against Mithridates, in the age of Claudius. _Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bks. 11 & 13.――――Another, who imagined he should marry
Minerva, and who murdered some of his servants who wished to
dissuade him from expectations so frivolous and inconsistent.
_Athenæus_, bk. 12.
=Cotytto=, the goddess of all debauchery, whose festivals, called
_Cotyttia_, were celebrated by the Athenians, Corinthians,
Thracians, &c., during the night. Her priests were called Baptæ, and
nothing but debauchery and wantonness prevailed at the celebration.
A festival of the same name was observed in Sicily, where the
votaries of the goddess carried about boughs hung with cakes and
fruit, which it was lawful for any person to pluck off. It was a
capital punishment to reveal whatever was seen or done at these
sacred festivals; and it cost Eupolis his life for an unseasonable
reflection upon them. The goddess ♦Cotytto is supposed to be the
same as Proserpine or Ceres. _Horace_, epode 17, li. 58.――_Juvenal_,
satire 2, li. 91.
♦ ‘Corytto’ replaced with ‘Cotytto’
=Cragus=, a woody mountain of Cilicia, part of mount Taurus, sacred to
Apollo. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 9, li. 645.――_Horace_, bk. 1,
ode 21.
=Crambūsa=, a town of Lycia.
=Cranai=, a surname of the Athenians, from their king Cranaus.
_Herodotus_, bk. 8, ch. 44.
=Cranapes=, a Persian, &c. _Herodotus._
=Cranaus=, the second king of Athens, who succeeded Cecrops, and
reigned nine years, B.C. 1497. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 2.――――A city
of Caria. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 29.
=Crane=, a nymph. _See:_ ♦Cara.――――A town of Arcadia.
♦ no reference found for ‘Cara’
=Craneum=, a gymnastic school at Corinth. _Diogenes Laërtius._
=Cranii=, a town of Cephallenia. _Thucydides_, bk. 2, ch. 30.
=Cranon= and =Crannon=, a town of Thessaly on the borders of Macedonia,
where Antipater and Craterus defeated the Athenians after Alexander’s
death. _Livy_, bk. 26, ch. 10; bk. 42, ch. 64.
=Crantor=, a philosopher of Soli, among the pupils of Plato, B.C. 310.
_Diogenes Laërtius._――――An armour-bearer of Peleus, killed by
Demoleon. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12, li. 361.
=Crassĭpes=, a surname of the family of the Furii, one of whom married
Tullia, Cicero’s daughter, whom he soon after divorced. _Cicero_,
_Letters to Atticus_, bk. 4, ltr. 5.――_Livy_, bk. 38, ch. 42.
=Lucius Crassitius=, a man who opened a school at Rome. _Suetonius_,
_Lives of the Grammarians_, ch. 18.
=Crassus=, the grandfather of Crassus the Rich, who never laughed.
_Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 19.――――Publius Licinius, a Roman high priest
about 131 years B.C., who went into Asia with an army against
Aristonicus, where he was killed and buried at Smyrna.――――Marcus
Licinius, a celebrated Roman, surnamed _Rich_, on account of his
opulence. At first he was very circumscribed in his circumstances;
but, by educating slaves, and selling them at a high price, he soon
enriched himself. The cruelties of Cinna obliged him to leave Rome;
and he retired to Spain, where he remained concealed for eight
months. After Cinna’s death he passed into Africa, and thence to
Italy, where he served Sylla, and ingratiated himself in his favour.
When the gladiators, with Spartacus at their head, had spread a
universal alarm in Italy, and defeated some of the Roman generals,
Crassus was sent against them. A battle was fought, in which Crassus
slaughtered 12,000 of the slaves, and by this decisive blow he soon
put an end to the war, and was honoured with an _ovatio_ at his
return. He was soon after made consul with Pompey; and in this
high office he displayed his opulence, by entertaining the populace
at 10,000 tables. He was afterwards censor, and formed the first
triumvirate with Pompey and Cæsar. As his love of riches was more
predominant than that of glory, Crassus never imitated the ambitious
conduct of his colleagues, but was satisfied with the province of
Syria, which seemed to promise an inexhaustible source of wealth.
With hopes of enlarging his possessions, he set off from Rome,
though the omens proved unfavourable, and everything seemed to
threaten his ruin. He crossed the Euphrates, and, forgetful of the
rich cities of Babylon and Seleucia, he hastened to make himself
master of Parthia. He was betrayed in his march by the delay of
Artavasdes king of Armenia, and the perfidy of Ariamnes. He was
met in a large plain by Surena, the general of the forces of Orodes
the king of Parthia; and a battle was fought in which 20,000 Romans
were killed, and 10,000 taken prisoners. The darkness of the night
favoured the escape of the rest, and Crassus, forced by the mutiny
and turbulence of his soldiers, and the treachery of his guides,
trusted himself to the general of the enemy, on pretence of
proposing terms of accommodation, and he was put to death, B.C. 53.
His head was cut off and sent to Orodes, who poured melted lead
down his throat, and insulted his misfortunes. The firmness with
which Crassus received the news of his son’s death, who perished in
that expedition, has been deservedly commended; and the words that
he uttered when he surrendered himself into the hands of Surena,
equally claim our admiration. He was wont often to say, that no
man ought to be accounted rich if he could not maintain an army.
Though he has been called avaricious, yet he showed himself always
ready to lend money to his friends without interest. He was fond of
philosophy, and his knowledge of history was great and extensive.
_Plutarch_ has written his life. _Florus_, bk. 3, ch. 11.――――Publius,
the son of the rich Crassus, went into Parthia with his father.
When he saw himself surrounded by the enemy, and without any hope of
escape, he ordered one of his men to run him through. His head was
cut off, and shown with insolence to his father by the Parthians.
_Plutarch_, _Crassus_.――――Lucius Licinius, a celebrated Roman orator,
commended by Cicero, and introduced in his book _On Oratory_ as the
principal speaker.――――A son of Crassus the Rich, killed in the civil
wars, after Cæsar’s death.
=Crastīnus=, a man in Cæsar’s army, killed at the battle of Pharsalia.
_Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 3, ch. 29.
=Cratais=, the mother of Scylla, supposed to be the same as Hecate.
_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 12, li. 124.
=Cratæus=, conspired against Archelaus, &c. _Aristotle._
=Crater=, a bay of Campania near Misenus.
=Cratĕrus=, one of Alexander’s generals. He rendered himself
conspicuous by his literary fame, as well as by his valour in the
field, and wrote the history of Alexander’s life. He was greatly
respected and loved by the Macedonian soldiers, and Alexander always
trusted him with unusual confidence. After Alexander’s death he
subdued Greece with Antipater, and passed with his colleague into
Asia, where he was killed in a battle against Eumenes, B.C. 321.
He had received for his share of Alexander’s kingdoms, Greece and
Epirus. _Cornelius Nepos_, _Eumenes_, ch. 2.――_Justin_, bks. 12
& 13.――_Curtius_, bk. 3.――_Arrian._――_Plutarch_, _Alexander_.――――A
physician of Atticus, mentioned by _Cicero_, bk. 12, _Letters to
Atticus_, ltr. 13.――_Horace_, bk. 2, satire 3, li. 161.――――A painter
whose pieces adorned the public buildings of Athens. _Pliny_, bk. 35,
ch. 11.――――An Athenian, who collected into one body all the decrees
which had passed in the public assemblies at Athens.――――A famous
sculptor.
=Crates=, a philosopher of Bœotia, son of Ascondus, and disciple of
Diogenes the Cynic, B.C. 324. He sold his estates, and gave the
money to his fellow-citizens. He was naturally deformed, and he
rendered himself more hideous by sewing sheepskins to his mantle,
and by the singularity of his manners. He clothed himself as warm
as possible in the summer; but in the winter, his garments were
uncommonly thin, and incapable to resist the inclemency of the
season. Hipparchia, the sister of a philosopher, became enamoured of
him; and as he could not check her passion by representing himself
as poor and deformed, he married her. He had by her two daughters,
whom he gave in marriage to his disciples, after he had permitted
them their company for 30 days, by way of trial. Some of his letters
are extant. _Diogenes Laërtius_, _Lives and Opinions of Eminent
Philosophers_.――――A stoic, son of Timocrates, who opened a school at
Rome, where he taught grammar. _Suetonius._――――A native of Pergamus,
who wrote an account of the most striking events of every age, B.C.
165. _Ælian_, _de Natura Animalium_, bk. 17, ch. 9.――――A philosopher
of Athens, who succeeded in the school of his master Polemon.――――An
Athenian comic poet.
=Cratesiclēa=, the mother of Cleomenes, who went to Egypt in hopes of
serving her country, &c. _Plutarch_, _Cleomenes_.
=Cratesipŏlis=, a queen of Sicyon, who severely punished some of her
subjects, who had revolted at the death of Alexander her husband, &c.
_Polyænus_, bk. 8, ch. 58.
=Cratesippĭdas=, a commander of the Lacedæmonian fleet against the
Athenians, &c. _Diodorus_, bk. 13.
=Cratēvas=, a general of Cassander. _Diodorus_, bk. 19.
=Crateus=, a son of Minos.
=Crathis=, a river of Achaia, falling into the bay of Corinth.
_Strabo_, bk. 8.――――Another in Magna Græcia, whose waters were
supposed to give a yellow colour to the hair and beard of those that
drank them. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 14, li. 315.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 7, ch. 25.――_Pliny_, bk. 31, ch. 2.
=Cratīnus=, a native of Athens, celebrated for his comic writings,
and his fondness for drinking. He died at the age of ♦97 years,
B.C. 431. Quintilian greatly commends his comedies, which the
little remains of his poetry do not seem fully to justify. _Horace_,
bk. 1, satire 4.――_Quintilian._――――A wrestler of an uncommon beauty.
_Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 25.――――A river of Asia. _Pliny_, bk. 37,
ch. 2.
♦ ‘97, B.C. 431 years.’ replaced with ‘97 years, B.C. 431.’
=Cratippus=, a philosopher of Mitylene, who, among others, taught
Cicero’s son at Athens. After the battle of Pharsalia, Pompey
visited the house of Cratippus, where their discourse was chiefly
turned upon Providence, which the warrior blamed, and the philosopher
defended. _Plutarch_, _Pompey_.――_Cicero_, _De Officiis_, bk. 1.
――――An historian contemporary with Thucydides. _Dionysius of
Halicarnassus._
=Craty̆les=, a philosopher, preceptor to Plato after Socrates.
=Crausiæ=, two islands on the coast of Peloponnesus.
=Crausis=, the father of Philopœmen.
=Crauxĭdas=, a man who obtained an Olympic crown at a horse-race.
_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 8.
=Crĕmĕra=, a small river of Tuscany, falling into the Tiber, famous
for the death of the 300 Fabii, who were killed there in a battle
against the Veientes, A.U.C. 277. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 2, li. 205.
――_Juvenal_, satire 2, li. 155.
=Cremides=, a place of Bithynia. _Diodorus_, bk. 14.
=Cremma=, a town of Lycia.
=Cremmyon= and =Crommyon=, a town near Corinth, where Theseus killed a
sow of uncommon bigness. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, li. 435.
=Cremni= and =Cremnos=, a commercial place on the Palus Mæotis.
_Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 2.
=Cremōna=, a town of Cisalpine Gaul, on the Po, near Mantua. It was a
Roman colony, and suffered much when Annibal first passed into Italy.
_Livy_, bk. 21, ch. 56.――_Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 3, chs. 4 & 19.
=Cremōnis Jugum=, a part of the Alps, over which, as some suppose,
Annibal passed to enter Italy. _Livy_, bk. 21, ch. 38.
=Cremutius Cordus=, an historian who wrote an account of Augustus, and
of the civil wars, and starved himself for fear of the resentment
of Tiberius, whom he had offended by calling Cassius the last of
the Romans. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 55, chs. 34, 35.――_Suetonius_,
_Augustus_, ch. 35; _Tiberius_, ch. 60, _Caligula_, ch. 16.
=Crenis=, a nymph mentioned by _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12, li. 313.
=Creon=, king of Corinth, was son of Sisyphus. He promised his daughter
Glauce to Jason, who repudiated Medea. To revenge the success of
her rival, Medea sent her for a present a gown covered with poison.
Glauce put it on and was seized with sudden pains. Her body took
fire, and she expired in the greatest torments. The house was also
consumed by the fire, and Creon and his family shared Glauce’s fate.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9; bk. 3, ch. 7.――_Euripides_, _Medea_.
――_Hyginus_, fable 25.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.――――A son of Menœtius
father of Jocasta, the wife and mother of Œdipus. At the death of
Laius, who married Jocasta, Creon ascended the vacant throne of
Thebes. As the ravages of the Sphinx [_See:_ Sphinx] were intolerable,
Creon offered his crown and daughter in marriage to him who could
explain the enigmas which the monster proposed. Œdipus was happy in
his explanations, and he ascended the throne of Thebes, and married
Jocasta without knowing that she was his mother, and by her he had
two sons, Polynices and Eteocles. These two sons mutually agreed,
after their father’s death, to reign in the kingdom each alternately.
Eteocles first ascended the throne by right of seniority; but when
he was once in power, he refused to resign at the appointed time,
and his brother led against him an army of Argives to support his
right. The war was decided by single combat between the two brothers.
They both killed one another and Creon ascended the throne, till
Leodamas the son of Eteocles should be of sufficient age to assume
the reins of government. In his regal capacity, Creon commanded
that the Argives, and more particularly Polynices, who was the cause
of all the bloodshed, should remain unburied. If this was in any
manner disobeyed, the offenders were to be buried alive. Antigone
the sister of Polynices transgressed, and was accordingly punished.
Hæmon the son of Creon, who was passionately fond of Antigone, killed
himself on her grave, when his father refused to grant her pardon.
Creon was afterwards killed by Theseus, who had made war against him
at the request of Adrastus, because he refused burial to the Argives.
_See:_ Eteocles, Polynices, Adrastus, Œdipus. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3,
ch. 56, &c.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 39; bk. 9, ch. 5, &c.――_Statius_,
_Thebiad_.――_Sophocles_, _Antigone_.――_Aeschylus_, _Seven Against
Thebes_.――_Hyginus_, fables 67 & 76.――_Diodorus_, bks. 1 & 4.――――The
first annual archon at Athens. 684 B.C. _Paterculus_, bk. 1, ch. 8.
=Creontiădes=, a son of Hercules by Megara daughter of Creon, killed
by his father because he had slain Lycus.
=Creŏphĭlus=, a Samian who hospitably entertained Homer, from whom he
received a poem in return. Some say that he was that poet’s master,
&c. _Strabo_, bk. 14.――――An historian. _Athenæus_, bk. 8.
=Creperius Pollio=, a Roman, who spent his all in the most extravagant
debauchery. _Juvenal_, satire 9, li. 6.
=Cres=, an inhabitant of Crete.――――The first king of Crete. _Pausanias_,
bk. 8, ch. 53.
=Cresa= and =Cressa=, a town of Caria.
=Cresius=, a hill of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 44.
=Cresphontes=, a son of Aristomachus, who, with his brothers Temenus
and Aristodemus, attempted to recover the Peloponnesus. _Pausanias_,
bk. 4, ch. 3, &c.
=Cressius=, belonging to Crete. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 4, li. 70;
bk. 8, li. 294.
=Creston=, a town of Thrace, capital of a part of the country called
_Crestonia_. The inhabitants had each many wives; and when the
husband died, she who had received the greatest share of his
affection was cheerfully slain on his grave. _Herodotus_, bk. 5,
ch. 5.
=Cresus= and =Ephesus=, two men who built the temple of Diana at
Ephesus. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 2.
=Crēta=, now _Candia_, one of the largest islands of the Mediterranean
sea, at the south of all the Cyclades. It was once famous for its
100 cities, and for the laws which the wisdom of Minos established
there. The inhabitants have been detested for their unnatural loves,
their falsehood, their piracies, and robberies. Jupiter, as some
authors report, was educated in that island by the Corybantes,
and the Cretans boasted that they could show his tomb. There
were different colonies from Phrygia, Doris, Achaia, &c., that
established themselves there. The island, after groaning under
the tyranny of democratical usurpation, and feeling the scourge of
frequent sedition, was made a Roman province, B.C. 66, after a war
of three years, in which the inhabitants were so distressed that
they were even compelled to drink the water of their cattle. Chalk
was produced there and thence called _Creta_, and with it the Romans
marked their lucky days in their calendar. _Horace_, bk. 1, ode 36,
li. 10; epode 9.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 3, li. 444; _Epistles_,
bk. 10, li. 106.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 7, ch. 6.――_Strabo_,
bk. 10.――_Lucan_, bk. 3, li. 184.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li.
104.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.
=Cretæus=, a poet mentioned by _Propertius_, bk. 2, poem 34, li. 29.
=Crete=, the wife of Minos. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 1.――――A daughter
of Deucalion. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 3.
=Cretea=, a country of Arcadia, where Jupiter was educated, according
to some traditions. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 38.
=Cretes=, inhabitants of Crete. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 4, li. 146.
=Creteus=, a Trojan, distinguished as a poet and musician. He followed
Æneas, and was killed by Turnus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 774.
――――Another, killed by Turnus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 12, li. 538.
=Cretheis=, the wife of Acastus king of Iolchos, who fell in love with
Peleus son of Æacus, and accused him of attempts upon her virtue,
because he refused to comply with her wishes, &c. She is called by
some Hippolyte or Astyadamia. _Pindar_, _Nemean_, ch. 4.
=Cretheus=, a son of ♦Æolus father of ♥Æson, by Tyro his brother’s
daughter. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 7, &c.
♦ ‘Œolus’ replaced with ‘Æolus’
♥ ‘Œson’ replaced with ‘Æson’
=Crethon=, a son of Diocles, engaged in the Trojan war on the side
of Greece. He was slain, with his brother Orsilochus, by ♦Æneas.
_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 5, li. 540.
♦ ‘Œneas’ replaced with ‘Æneas’
=Cretĭcus=, a certain orator. _Juvenal_, satire 2, li. 67.――――A
surname of Marcus Antony’s father.
=Cressas=, a famous boxer. _Pausanias_, bk. 2.
=Creūsa=, a daughter of Creon king of Corinth. As she was going to
marry Jason, who had divorced Medea, she put on a poisoned garment,
which immediately set her body on fire, and she expired in the most
excruciating torments. She had received this gown as a gift from
Medea, who wished to take that revenge upon the infidelity of Jason.
Some call her Glauce. _Ovid_, _de Ars Amatoria_, bk. 1, li. 335.
――――A daughter of Priam king of Troy by Hecuba. She married Æneas,
by whom she had some children, among which was Ascanius. When Troy
was taken, she fled in the night, with her husband; but they were
separated in the midst of the confusion, and Æneas could not recover
her, nor hear where she was. Cybele saved her, and carried her to
her temple, of which she became priestess; according to the relation
of Vigil, who makes Creusa appear to her husband in a vision, while
he was seeking her in the tumult of war. She predicted to Æneas the
calamities that attended him, the fame he should acquire when he
came to Italy, and his consequent marriage with a princess of the
country. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 16.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 2,
li. 562, &c.――――A daughter of Erechtheus king of Athens. She was
mother of Janus by Apollo.――――A town of Bœotia. _Strabo_, bk. 9.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 32.
=Creusis=, a naval station of the Thespians. _Pausanias_, bk. 9,
ch. 32.
=Criăsus=, a son of Argos king of Peloponnesus. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2,
ch. 1.
=Crinippus=, a general of Dionysius the elder.
=Crinis=, a stoic philosopher. _Diogenes Laërtius._――――A priest of
Apollo.
=Crinīsus= and =Crimīsus=, now _Caltabellota_, a river on the
western parts of ♦Sicily near Segesta, where Timoleon defeated
the Carthaginian forces. _Cornelius Nepos_, _Timoleon_.――_Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 5, li. 38. The word in the various editions of Virgil,
is spelt Cremissus, Crimissus, Crimisus, Crimesus, Crinisus,
Crimnisus. The Crinisus was a Trojan prince, who exposed his
daughter on the sea, rather than suffer her to be devoured by the
sea monster which Neptune sent to punish the infidelity of Laomedon.
_See:_ Laomedon. The daughter came safe to the shores of Sicily.
Crinisus some time after went in quest of his daughter, and was so
disconsolate for her loss, that the gods changed him into a river
in Sicily, and granted him the power of metamorphosing himself into
whatever shape he pleased. He made use of this privilege to seduce
the neighbouring nymphs.
♦ ‘Cicily’ replaced with ‘Sicily’
=Crino=, a daughter of Antenor. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 27.――――One
of the Danaides. _Apollodorus._
=Crison=, a man of Himera, who obtained a prize at Olympia, &c.
_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 23.
=Crispīna=, a Roman matron, &c. _Tacitus_, bk. 1, _Histories_, ch. 47.
=Crispīnus=, a pretorian, who, though originally a slave in Egypt,
was, after the acquisition of riches, raised to the honours of Roman
knighthood by Domitian. _Juvenal_, satire 1, li. 26.――――A stoic
philosopher, as remarkable for his loquacity as for the foolish and
tedious poem which he wrote, to explain the tenets of his own sect,
to which _Horace_ alludes in the last verses of bk. 1, satire 1.
=Crispus Sallustius.= _See:_ Sallustius.――――Virio, a famous orator.
_Quintilian_, bk. 10, ch. 1.――――The second husband of Agrippina.
――――Flavius Julius, a son of the Great Constantine, made Cæsar by
his father, and distinguished for valour and extensive knowledge.
Fausta, his stepmother, wished to seduce him; and when he refused,
she accused him before Constantine, who believed the crime, and
caused his son to be poisoned, A.D. 326.
=Crissæus sinus=, a bay on the coast of Peloponnesus, near Corinth,
now the bay of _Salona_. It received its name from _Crissa_, a town
of Phocis, situate on the bay and near Delphi.
=Critāla=, a town of Cappadocia. _Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 26.
=Crithēis=, a daughter of Melanippus, who became pregnant by an unknown
person, and afterwards married Phemicis of Smyrna, and brought forth
the poet Homer, according to _Herodotus_, _Life of Homer_.
=Crithōte=, a town of the Thracian Chersonesus. _Cornelius Nepos._
=Critias=, one of the 30 tyrants set over Athens by the Spartans.
He was eloquent and well-bred, but of dangerous principles, and he
cruelly persecuted his enemies, and put them to death. He was killed
in a battle against those citizens whom his oppression had banished.
He had been among the disciples of Socrates, and had written elegies
and other compositions, of which some fragments remain. _Cicero_, bk.
2, _On Oratory_.――――A philosopher.――――A man who wrote on republics.
――――Another who addressed an elegy to Alcibiades.
=Crito=, one of the disciples of Socrates, who attended his learned
preceptor in his last moments, and composed some dialogues, now
lost. _Diogenes Laërtius._――――A physician in the age of Artaxerxes
Longimanus.――――An historian of Naxus, who wrote an account of all
that had happened during eight particular years of his life.――――A
Macedonian historian, who wrote an account of Pallene, of Persia,
of the foundation of Syracuse, of the Getæ, &c.
=Critobūlus=, a general of Phocis, at the battle of Thermopylæ, between
Antiochus and the Romans. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 20.――――A physician
in the age of Philip king of Macedonia. _Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 37.――――A
son of Crito, disciple to Socrates. _Diogenes Laërtius_, _Crito_.
=Critodēmus=, an ancient historian. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 76.
=Critognātus=, a celebrated warrior of Alesia, when Cæsar was in Gaul.
_Cæsar_, _Gallic War_.
=Critolāus=, a citizen of Tegea in Arcadia, who, with two brothers,
fought against the three sons of Demostratus of Pheneus, to put an
end to the long war between their respective nations. The brothers
of Critolaus were both killed, and he alone remained to withstand
his three bold antagonists. He conquered them; and when, at his
return, his sister deplored the death of one of his antagonists to
whom she was betrothed, he killed her in a fit of resentment. The
offence deserved capital punishment; but he was pardoned, on account
of the services he had rendered his country. He was afterwards
general of the Achæans, and it is said that he poisoned himself,
because he had been conquered at Thermopylæ by the Romans. _Cicero_,
_de Natura Deorum_.――――A peripatetic philosopher of Athens, sent
ambassador to Rome, &c., 140 B.C. _Cicero_, bk. 2, _On Oratory_.
――――An historian who wrote about Epirus.
=Crius=, a soothsayer, son of Theocles. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 13.
――――A man of Ægina, &c. _Herodotus_, bk. 6, ch. 50.――――A river of
Achaia, called after a giant of the same name. _Pausanias_, bk. 7,
ch. 27.
=Crobialus=, a town of Paphlagonia.
=Crobyzi=, a people of Thrace.
=Crŏcăle=, one of Diana’s attendants. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 3.
=Croceæ=, a town of Laconia. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 21.
=Crocodilopŏ1is=, a town of Egypt, near the Nile, above Memphis. The
crocodiles were held there in the greatest veneration; and they were
so tame, that they came to feed from the hand of their feeders. It
was afterwards called Arsinoe. _Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 69.――_Strabo_,
bk. 17.
=Crocus=, a beautiful youth enamoured of the nymph Smilax. He was
changed into a flower of the same name, on account of the impatience
of his love, and Smilax was metamorphosed into a yew tree. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 4, li. 283.
=Crœsus=, the fifth and last of the Mermnadæ, who reigned in Lydia,
was son of Alyattes, and passed for the richest of mankind. He was
the first who made the Greeks of Asia tributary to the Lydians. His
court was the asylum of learning; and Æsop the famous fable-writer,
among others, lived under his patronage. In a conversation with
Solon, Crœsus wished to be thought the happiest of mankind; but the
philosopher apprised him of his mistake, and gave the preference to
poverty and domestic virtue. Crœsus undertook a war against Cyrus
the king of Persia, and marched to meet him with an army of 420,000
men and 60,000 horse. After a reign of 14 years, he was defeated,
B.C. 548; his capital was besieged, and he fell into the conqueror’s
hands, who ordered him to be burnt alive. The pile was already on
fire, when Cyrus heard the conquered monarch three times exclaim,
“Solon!” with lamentable energy. He asked him the reason of his
exclamation, and Crœsus repeated the conversation which he had
once with Solon on human happiness. Cyrus was moved at the recital,
and at the recollection of the inconstancy of human affairs, he
ordered Crœsus to be taken from the burning pile, and he became one
of his most intimate friends. The kingdom of Lydia became extinct
in his person, and the power was transferred to Persia. Crœsus
survived Cyrus. The manner of his death is unknown. He is celebrated
for the immensely rich presents which he made to the temple of
Delphi, from which he received an obscure and ambiguous oracle,
which he interpreted in his favour, and which was fulfilled in
the destruction of his empire. _Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 26, &c.
――_Plutarch_, _Solon_, bk. 8, ch. 24.――_Justin_, bk. 1, ch. 7.
=Cromi=, a people of Arcadia.
=Cromītis=, a country of Arcadia.
=Crommyon= and =Cromyon=, a place of Attica, where Perseus killed
a large sow that laid waste the neighbouring country. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 7.――_Xenophon._――――A town near Corinth.
_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 1.
=Cromna=, a town of Bithyna.
=Cromus=, a son of Neptune. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 1.――――A son of
Lycaon. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 3.
=Cronia=, a festival at Athens in honour of Saturn. The Rhodians
observed the same festival, and generally sacrificed to the god a
condemned malefactor.
=Cronium=, a town of Elis,――――of Sicily.
=Crophi=, a mountain of Egypt, near which were the sources of the Nile,
according to some traditions, in the city of _Sais_. _Herodotus_,
bk. 2, ch. 28.
=Crossæa=, a country situate partly in Thrace, and partly in Macedonia.
_Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 123.
=Crotălus=, a navigable river of Italy. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 10.
=Croton=, a man killed by Hercules, by whom he was afterwards greatly
honoured. _Diodorus_, bk. 4.
=Crŏtōna=, a town of Italy, still known by the same name, in the bay
of Tarentum, founded 759 years before the Augustan age, by a colony
from Achaia. The inhabitants were excellent warriors, and great
wrestlers. Democedes, Alcmæon, Milo, &c., were natives of this place.
It was surrounded with a wall 12 miles in circumference, before the
arrival of Pyrrhus in Italy. Crotona struggled in vain against the
attacks of Dionysius of Sicily, who took it. It suffered likewise
in the wars of Pyrrhus and Annibal, but it received ample glory, in
being the place where Pythagoras established his school. _Herodotus_,
bk. 8, ch. 47.――_Strabo_, bk. 6.――_Pliny_, bk. 2, ch. 96.――_Livy_,
bk. 1, ch. 18; bk. 24, ch. 3.――_Justin_, bk. 20, ch. 2.
=Crotoniatæ=, the inhabitants of Crotona. _Cicero_, _de Inventione_,
bk. 2, ch. 1.
=Crotoniatis=, a part of Italy, of which Crotona is the capital.
_Thucydides_, bk. 7, ch. 35.
=Crotopiădes=, a patronymic of Linus, as grandson of Crotopus.
=Crotōpias=, the patronymic of Linus grandson of Crotopus. _Ovid_,
_Ibis_, li. 480.
=Crotōpus=, a king of Argos, son of Agenor, and father to Psamathe the
mother of Linus by Apollo. _Ovid_, _Ibis_, li. 480.
=Crotus=, a son of Eumene the nurse of the Muses. He devoted his life
to the labours of the chase, and after death Jupiter placed him
among the constellations, under the name of Sagittarius. _Pausanias_,
bk. 9, ch. 29.
=Crunos=, a town of Peloponnesus. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 2.
=Crusis=, a place near Olynthos.
=Crustŭmĕrium= and =Crustumeria=, a town of the Sabines. _Livy_, bk. 4,
ch. 9; bk. 42, ch. 34.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 631.
=Crustūmīnum=, a town of Etruria, near Veii, famous for pears; whence
the adjective _Crustumia_. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 2, li. 88.
=Crustŭmium=, =Crustunus=, and =Crusturnenius=, now _Conca_, a river
flowing from the Apennines by Ariminum. _Lucan_, bk. 2, li. 406.
=Crynis=, a river of Bithynia.
=Crypta=, a passage through mount Pausilypus. _See:_ Pausilypus.
=Cteătus=, one of the Grecian chiefs before Troy. _Pausanias_, bk. 5,
ch. 4.
=Ctemene=, a town of Thessaly.
=Ctenos=, a harbour of Chersonesus Taurica.
=Ctesias=, a Greek historian and physician of Cnidos, taken prisoner
by Artaxerxes Mnemon at the battle of Cunaxa. He cured the king’s
wounds, and was his physician for 17 years. He wrote a history of
the Assyrians and Persians, which Justin and Diodorus have partially
preferred to that of Herodotus. Some fragments of his compositions
have been preserved by Photius, and are to be found in Wesseling’s
edition of Herodotus. _Strabo_, bk. 1.――_Athenæus_, bk. 12.
――_Plutarch_, _Artaxerxes_.――――A sycophant of Athens.――――An
historian of Ephesus.
=Ctesibius=, a mathematician of Alexandria, who flourished 135
years B. C. He was the inventor of the pump and other hydraulic
instruments. He also invented a _clepsydra_, or water clock. This
invention of measuring time by water was wonderful and ingenious.
Water was made to drop upon wheels, which it turned. The wheels
communicated their regular motion to a small wooden image, which,
by a gradual rise, pointed with a stick to the proper hours and
months, which were engraved on a column near the machine. This artful
invention gave rise to many improvements; and the modern manner of
measuring time with an hour-glass is an imitation of the clepsydra
of Ctesibius. _Vitruvius_, _On Architecture_, bk. 9, ch. 9.――――A
cynic philosopher.――――An historian, who flourished 254 years B.C.,
and died in his 104th year. _Plutarch_, _Demosthenes_.
=Ctesĭcle=, a general of Zacynthos.
=Ctesidēmus=, a painter who had Antiphilus for pupil. _Pliny_, bk. 35,
ch. 10.
=Ctesilŏchus=, a noble painter, who represented Jupiter as bringing
forth Bacchus. _Pliny_, bk. 35, ch. 11.
=Ctesĭphon=, an Athenian, son of Leosthenes, who advised his
fellow-citizens publicly to present Demosthenes with a golden crown
for his probity and virtue. This was opposed by the orator Æschines,
the rival of Demosthenes, who accused Ctesiphon of seditious views.
Demosthenes undertook the defence of his friend, in a celebrated
oration still extant, and Æschines was banished. _Demosthenes_
& _Æschines_, _On the Crown_.――――A Greek architect, who made the
plan of Diana’s temple at Ephesus.――――An elegiac poet, whom king
Attalus sat over his possessions in Æolia. _Athenæus_, bk. 13.――――A
Greek historian, who wrote a history of Bœotia, besides a treatise
on trees and plants. ♦_Plutarch_, _Theseus_.――――A large village
of Assyria, now _Elmodain_, on the banks of the Tigris, where the
kings of Parthia generally resided on account of the mildness of the
climate. _Strabo_, bk. 15.――_Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 26.
♦ ‘Put.’ replaced with ‘Plutarch’
=Ctesippus=, a son of Chabrias. After his father’s death he was
received into the house of Phocion, the friend of Chabrias. Phocion
attempted in vain to correct his natural foibles and extravagancies.
_Plutarch_, _Phocion_.――――A man who wrote a history of Scythia.
――――One of the descendants of Hercules.
=Ctimĕne=, the youngest daughter of Laertes by Anticlea. _Homer_,
_Odyssey_, bk. 15, li. 334.
=Cularo=, a town of the Allobroges in Gaul, called afterwards
_Gratianopolis_, and now _Grenoble_. _Cicero_, _Letters to his
Friends_.
=Cuma= and =Cumæ=, a town of Æolia, in Asia Minor. The inhabitants
have been accused of stupidity for not laying a tax upon all the
goods which entered their harbour during 300 years. They were called
_Cumani_. _Strabo_, bk. 13.――_Paterculus_, bk. 1, ch. 4.――――A city
of Campania, near Puteoli, founded by a colony from Chalcis and Cumæ,
of Æolia, before the Trojan war. The inhabitants were called _Cumæi_
and _Cumani_. There was one of the Sibyls that fixed her residence
in a cave in the neighbourhood, and was called the _Cumæan_ Sibyl.
_See:_ Sibyllæ.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 15, li. 712; _Fasti_,
bk. 4, li. 158; _Ex Ponto_, bk. 2, poem 8, li. 41.――_Cicero_, _De
Lege Agraria contra Rullum_, bk. 2, ch. 26.――_Paterculus_, bk. 1, ch.
4.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 441.――_Livy_, bk. 4.――_Ptolemy_,
bk. 3.――_Strabo_, bk. 5.
=Cumānum=, a country house of Pompey, near Cumæ. _Cicero_, _Letters to
Atticus_, bk. 4, ltr. 10.――――Another of Varro. _Cicero_, _Academica_,
bk. 1, ch. 1.
=Cunaxa=, a place of Assyria, 500 stadia from Babylon, famous for a
battle fought there between Artaxerxes and his brother Cyrus the
younger, B.C. 401. The latter entered the field of battle with 113,
000 men, and the former’s forces amounted to 900,000 men. The valour
and the retreat of the 10,000 Greeks, who were among the troops
of Cyrus, are well known, and have been celebrated by the pen of
Xenophon, who was present at the battle, and who had the principal
care of the retreat. _Plutarch_, _Artaxerxes_.――_Ctesias._
=Cuneus=, a cape of Spain, now _Algarve_, extending into the sea in
the form of a wedge. _Mela_, bk. 3, ch. 1.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 22.
=Capāvo=, a son of Cycnus, who assisted Æneas against Turnus. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 186.
=Cupentus=, a friend of Turnus, killed by Æneas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 12, li. 539.
=Cupīdo=, a celebrated deity among the ancients, god of love, and
love itself. There are different traditions concerning his parents.
Cicero mentions three Cupids: one, son of Mercury and Diana; another,
son of Mercury and Venus; and the third, of Mars and Venus. Plato
mentions two; Hesiod, the most ancient theogonist, speaks only of
one, who as he says, was produced at the same time as Chaos and
the earth. There are, according to the more received opinions, two
Cupids, one of whom is a lively, ingenious youth, son of Jupiter and
Venus; whilst the other, son of Nox and Erebus, is distinguished by
his debauchery and riotous disposition. Cupid is represented as a
winged infant, naked, armed with a bow and a quiver full of arrows.
On gems, and all other pieces of antiquity, he is represented as
amusing himself with some childish diversion. Sometimes he appears
driving a hoop, throwing a quoit, playing with a nymph, catching
a butterfly, or trying to burn with a torch; at other times he
plays upon a horn before his mother, or closely embraces a swan,
or with one foot raised in the air, he, in a musing posture, seems
to meditate some trick. Sometimes, like a conqueror, he marches
triumphantly, with a helmet on his head, a spear on his shoulder,
and a buckler on his arm, intimating that even Mars himself owns
the superiority of love. His power was generally known by his riding
on the back of a lion, or on a dolphin, or breaking to pieces the
thunderbolts of Jupiter. Among the ancients he was worshipped with
the same solemnity as his mother Venus, and as his influence was
extended over the heavens, the sea, and the earth, and even the
empire of the dead, his divinity was universally acknowledged, and
vows, prayers, and sacrifices were daily offered to him. According
to some accounts, the union of Cupid with Chaos gave birth to men,
and all the animals which inhabit the earth, and even the gods
themselves, were the offspring of love, before the foundation of the
world. Cupid, like the rest of the gods, assumed different shapes;
and we find him in the Æneid putting on, at the request of his
mother, the form of Ascanius, and going to Dido’s court, where he
inspired the queen with love. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 693, &c.
――_Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 3.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 1, fable 10.――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 121, &c.――_Oppian_,
_Halieutica_, bk. 4.――_Cynegetica_, bk. 2.――_Bion_, _Idylls_, bk. 3.
――_Moschus._――_Euripides_, _Hippolytus_.――_Theocritus_, _Idylls_,
poems 3, 11, &c.
=Cupiennius=, a friend of Augustus, who made himself ridiculous for
the nicety and effeminacy of his dress. _Horace_, bk. 1, satire 2,
li. 36.
=Cures=, a town of the Sabines, of which Tatius was king. The
inhabitants, called _Quirites_, were carried to Rome, of which
they became citizens. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 292; bk. 8,
li. 638.――_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 13.――_Macrobius_, bk. 1, ch. 9.――_Ovid_,
_Fasti_, bk. 2, lis. 477 & 480; bk. 3, li. 94.
=Curētes=, a people of Crete, called also _Corybantes_, who, according
to Ovid, were produced from rain. Their knowledge of all the arts
was extensive, and they communicated it to many parts of ancient
Greece. They were entrusted with the education of Jupiter, and
to prevent his being discovered by his father, they invented a
kind of dance, and drowned his cries in the harsh sounds of their
shields and cymbals. As a reward for their attention, they were made
priests and favourite ministers of Rhea, called also Cybele, who had
entrusted them with the care of Jupiter. _Dionysius of Halicarnassus_,
bk. 2.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 4, li. 151.――_Strabo_, bk. 10.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 33.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 4,
li. 282; _Fasti_, bk. 4, li. 210.
=Curētis=, a name given to Crete, as being the residence of the
Curetes. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 8, li. 136.
=Curia=, a division of the Roman tribes. Romulus originally divided
the people into three tribes, and each tribe into 10 Curiæ. Over
each Curia was appointed a priest, who officiated at the sacrifices
of his respective assembly. The sacrifices were called _Curionia_
and the priest _Curio_. He was to be above the age of 50. His morals
were to be pure and unexceptionable, and his body free from all
defects. The _Curiones_ were elected by their respective Curiæ, and
above them was a superior priest called _Curio maximus_, chosen by
all the Curiæ in a public assembly.――――The word _Curia_ was also
applied to public edifices among the Romans. These were generally of
two sorts, divine and civil. In the former were held the assemblies
of the priests, and of every religious order, for the regulation
of religious sacrifices and ceremonies. The other was appointed
for the senate, where they assembled for the despatch of public
business. The Curia was solemnly consecrated by the Augurs, before
a lawful assembly could be convened there. There were three at Rome,
which more particularly claim our attention: _Curia Hostilia_, built
by king Tullus Hostilius: _Curia Pompeii_, where Julius Cæsar was
murdered; and _Curia Augusti_, the palace and court of the emperor
Augustus.――――A town of the Rhœti, now _Coire_, the capital of the
Grisons.
=Curia lex=, _de Comitiis_, was enacted by Marcus Curius Dentatus the
tribune. It forbade the convening of the _Comitia_, for the election
of magistrates, without a previous permission from the senate.
=Curias.= _See:_ Curium.
=Curiatii=, a family of Alba, which was carried to Rome by Tullus
Hostilius, and entered among the patricians. The three Curiatii,
who engaged the Horatii, and lost the victory, were of this family.
_Florus_, bk. 1, ch. 3.――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 5.
――_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 24.
♦=Caius Curio=, an excellent orator, who called Cæsar in full senate,
_Omnium mulierum virum et omnium virorum mulierem_. _Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 21, ch. 7.――_Suetonius_, _Cæsar_, ch. 49.――_Cicero_,
_Brutus_.――――His son Caius Scribonius, was tribune of the people,
and an intimate friend of Cæsar. He saved Cæsar’s life as he returned
from the senate house, after the debates concerning the punishments
which ought to be inflicted on the adherents of Catiline. He killed
himself in Africa. _Florus_, bk. 4, ch. 2.――_Plutarch_, _Pompey_ &
_Cæsar_, ch. 49.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 9, ch. 1.――_Lucan_, bk. 4,
li. 268.
♦ ‘Q.’ replaced with ‘Caius’
=Curiosolitæ=, a people among the Celtæ, who inhabited the country
which now forms Lower Brittany. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 2, ch. 34;
bk. 3, ch. 11.
=Curium=, a town of Cyprus, at a small distance from which, in the
south of the island, there is a Cape, which bears the name of
_Curias_. _Herodotus_, bk. 5, ch. 113.
=Curius Dentātus Marcus Annius=, a Roman celebrated for his fortitude
and frugality. He was three times consul, and was twice honoured
with a triumph. He obtained decisive victories over the Samnites,
the Sabines, and the Lucanians, and defeated Pyrrhus near Tarentum.
The ambassadors of the Samnites visited his cottage, while he was
boiling some vegetables in an earthen pot, and they attempted to
bribe him by the offer of large presents. He refused their offers
with contempt, and said. “I prefer my earthen pots to all your
vessels of gold and silver, and it is my wish to command those who
are in possession of money, while I am deprived of it, and live in
poverty.” _Plutarch_, _Marcus Cato_.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ode 12, li.
41.――_Florus_, bk. 1, ch. 15.――――A lieutenant of Cæsar’s cavalry,
to whom six cohorts of Pompey revolted, &c. _Cæsar_, _Civil War_,
♦bk. 1, ch. 24.
♦ Book number omitted in text.
=Curtia=, a patrician family, which migrated with Tatius to Rome.
=Curtīllus=, a celebrated epicure, &c. _Horace_, bk. 2, satire 8,
li. 52.
=Marcus Curtius=, a Roman youth who devoted himself to the gods’
manes for the safety of his country about 360 years B.C. A wide gap,
called afterwards _Curtius lacus_, had suddenly opened in the forum,
and the oracle had said that it never would close before Rome threw
into it whatever it had most precious. Curtius immediately perceived
that no less than a human sacrifice was required. He armed himself,
mounted his horse, and solemnly threw himself into the gulf, which
immediately closed over his head. _Livy_, bk. 7, ch. 6.――_Valerius
Maximus_, bk. 5, ch. 6.――――Quintus Rufus. _See:_ Quintus.――――Nicias,
a grammarian, intimate with Pompey, &c. _Suetonius_, _Lives of
the Grammarians_.――――Montanus, an orator and poet under Vespasian.
_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 4.――――Atticus, a Roman knight, who
accompanied Tiberius in his retreat into Campania. _Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 4.――――Lacus, the gulf into which Curtius leaped.
_See:_ Marcus Curtius.――――Fons, a stream which conveyed water to
Rome from the distance of 40 miles, by an aqueduct so elevated as
to be distributed through all the hills of the city. _Pliny_, bk. 36,
ch. 15.
=Curūlis magistratus=, a state officer at Rome, who had the privilege
of sitting in an ivory chair in public assemblies. The dictator,
the consuls, the censors, the pretors, and ediles, claimed that
privilege, and therefore were called _curules magistratus_. The
senators who had passed through the above-mentioned offices, were
generally carried to the senate-house in ivory chairs, as also all
generals in their triumphant procession to the Capitol. When names
of distinction began to be known among the Romans, the descendants
of curule magistrates were called _nobiles_, the first of a family
who discharged that office were known by the name of _notii_, and
those that had never been in office were called _ignobiles_.
=Cussæi=, a nation of Asia, destroyed by Alexander to appease the
manes of Hephæstion. _Plutarch_, _Alexander_.
=Cusus=, a river of Hungary falling into the Danube, now the _Vag_.
=Cutilium=, a town of the Sabines, near a lake which contained a
floating island, and of which the water was of an unusually cold
quality. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 12; bk. 31, ch. 2.――_Seneca_, _Naturales
quaestiones_, bk. 3, ch. 25.――_Livy_, bk. 26, ch. 11.
=Cyamosōrus=, a river of Sicily.
=Cyăne=, a nymph of Syracuse, to whom her father offered violence in
a fit of drunkenness. She dragged her ravisher to the altar, where
she sacrificed him, and killed herself to stop a pestilence, which,
from that circumstance, had already begun to afflict the country.
_Plutarch_, _Parallela minora_――――A nymph of Sicily, who endeavoured
to assist Proserpine when she was carried away by Pluto. The god
changed her into a fountain now called _Pisme_, a few miles from
Syracuse. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, li. 112.――――A town of
Lycia. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 27.――――An inn-keeper, &c. _Juvenal_,
satire 8, li. 162.
=Cyăneæ=, now _the Pavorane_, two rugged islands at the entrance
of the Euxine sea, about 20 stadia from the mouth of the Thracian
Bosphorus. One of them is on the side of Asia, and the other on the
European coast, and, according to Strabo, there is only a space of
20 furlongs between them. The waves of the sea, which continually
break against them with a violent noise, fill the air with a
darkening foam, and render the passage extremely dangerous. The
ancients supposed that these islands floated, and even sometimes
united to crush vessels into pieces when they passed through the
straits. This tradition arose from their appearing, like all other
objects, to draw nearer when navigators approached them. They were
sometimes called _Symplegades_ and _Planetæ_. Their true situation
and form was first explored and ascertained by the Argonauts.
_Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 12.――_Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 85.――_Apollonius_,
bk. 2, lis. 317 & 600.――_Lycophron_, li. 1285.――_Strabo_, bks. 1 &
3.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Ovid_, _Tristia_, bk. 1, poem 9, li. 34.
=Cyanee= and =Cyanea=, a daughter of the Mæander, mother of Byblis
and Caunus by Miletus, Apollo’s son. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 9,
li. 451.
=Cyaneus=, a large river of Colchis.
=Cyanippe=, a daughter of Adrastus.
=Cyanippus=, a Syracusan, who derided the orgies of Bacchus, for
which impiety the god so inebriated him, that he offered violence
to his daughter Cyane, who sacrificed him on the altar. _Plutarch_,
_Parallela minora_.――――A Thessalian, whose wife met with the same
fate as Procris. _Plutarch_, _Parallela minora_.
=Cyaraxes=, or =Cyaxares=, son of Phraortes, was king of Media and
Persia. He bravely defended his kingdom, which the Scythians had
invaded. He made war against Alyattes king of Lydia, and subjected
to his power all Asia beyond the river Halys. He died after a reign
of 40 years, B.C. 585. _Diodorus_, bk. 2.――_Herodotus_, bk. 1, chs.
73 & 103.――――Another prince, supposed by some to be the same as
Darius the Mede. He was the son of Astyages king of Media. He added
seven provinces to his father’s dominions, and made war against the
Assyrians, whom Cyrus favoured. _Xenophon_, _Cyropædia_, bk. 1.
=Cybēbe=, a name of Cybele, from ♦κυβηβειν, because in the celebration
of her festivals men were driven to madness.
♦ ‘κυβμβειν’ replaced with ‘κυβηβειν’
=Cybĕle=, a goddess, daughter of Cœlus and Terra, and wife of Saturn.
She is supposed to be the same as Ceres, Rhea, Ops, Vesta, Bona
Mater, Magna Mater, Berecynthia, Dindymene, &c. According to Diodorus,
she was the daughter of a Lydian prince called Menos, by his wife
Dindymene, and he adds, that as soon as she was born she was exposed
on a mountain. She was preserved and suckled by some of the wild
beasts of the forest, and received the name of Cybele from the
mountain where her life had been preserved. When she returned to her
father’s court, she had an intrigue with Atys, a beautiful youth,
whom her father mutilated, &c. All the mythologists are unanimous
in mentioning the amours of Atys and Cybele. The partiality of the
goddess for Atys seems to arise from his having first introduced
her worship in Phrygia. She enjoined him perpetual celibacy, and
the violation of his promise was expiated by voluntary mutilation.
In Phrygia the festivals of Cybele were observed with the greatest
solemnity. Her priests, called Corybantes, Galli, &c., were not
admitted in the service of the goddess without a previous mutilation.
In the celebration of the festivals, they imitated the manners of
madmen, and filled the air with dreadful shrieks and howlings, mixed
with the confused noise of drums, tabrets, bucklers, and spears.
This was in commemoration of the sorrow of Cybele for the loss of
her favourite Atys. Cybele was generally represented as a robust
woman, far advanced in her pregnancy, to intimate the fecundity
of the earth. She held keys in her hand, and her head was crowned
with rising turrets, and sometimes with the leaves of an oak. She
sometimes appears riding in a chariot drawn by two tame lions; Atys
follows by her side, carrying a ball in his hand, and supporting
himself upon a fir tree, which is sacred to the goddess. Sometimes
Cybele is represented with a sceptre in her hand, with her head
covered with a tower. She is also seen with many breasts, to show
that the earth gives aliments to all living creatures; and she
generally carries two lions under her arms. From Phrygia the worship
of Cybele passed into Greece, and was solemnly established at
Eleusis, under the name of the Eleusinian mysteries of Ceres. The
Romans, by order of the Sibylline books, brought the statue of the
goddess from Pessinus into Italy; and when the ship which carried
it had run on a shallow bank of the Tiber, the virtue and innocence
of Claudia were vindicated in removing it with her girdle. It is
supposed that the mysteries of Cybele were first known about 1580
years B.C. The Romans were particularly superstitious in washing
every year, on the 6th of the calends of April, the shrine of this
goddess in the waters of the river Almon. There prevailed many
obscenities in the observation of the festivals, and the priests
themselves were the most eager to use indecent expressions, and to
show their unbounded licentiousness by the impurity of their actions.
_See:_ Atys, Eleusis, Rhea, Corybantes, Galli, &c. _Augustine_,
_City of God_, &c.――_Lactantius._――_Lucian_, _De Syria Dea_.
――_Diodorus_, bk. 3.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 617; bk. 10,
li. 252.――_Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 566.――_Ovid_, _Tristia_, bk. 4, lis.
210 & 361.――_Plutarch_, _de Garrulitate_.――_Cicero_, _Letters to
Atticus_.――_Cælius_, _Rhodiginus_, ♦bk. 18, ch. 17, &c.
♦ ‘8’ replaced with ‘18’
=Cybĕle= and =Cybela=, a town of Phrygia. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 5.
=Cybĕlus=, a mountain of Phrygia, where Cybele was worshipped.
=Cy̆bĭra=, a town of Phrygia, whence Cybiraticus. _Horace_, bk. 1,
ltr. 6, li. 33.
=Cybistria=, a town of Cappadocia. _Cicero_, _Letters to his Friends_,
bk. 15.
=Cycesium=, a town of Peloponnesus, near Pisa.
=Cychreus=, a son of Neptune and Salamis. After death he was honoured
as a god in Salamis and Attica. As he left no children, he made
Telamon his successor, because he had freed the country from
a monstrous serpent. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 35.――_Plutarch_,
_Theseus_.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 12.
=Cyclădes=, a name given to certain islands of the Ægean sea, those
particularly that surround Delos as with a circle; whence the name
(κυκλος, _circulus_). They were about 53 in number, the principal
of which were Ceos, Naxos, Andros, Paros, Melos, Seriphos, Gyarus,
Tenedos, &c. The Cyclades were reduced under the power of Athens by
Miltiades; but during the invasion of Greece by the Persians, they
revolted from their ancient and natural allies. _Cornelius Nepos_,
_Miltiades_, ch. 2.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.
――_Ptolemy_, bk. 3, ch. 15.――_Strabo_, bk. 10.――_Dionysius Periegeta._
――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 2, li. 64.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3,
li. 127; bk. 8, li. 692.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 4, li. 247.
=Cyclōpes=, a certain race of men of gigantic stature, supposed to be
the sons of Cœlus and Terra. They had but one eye, in the middle of
the forehead; whence their name (κυκλος, _circulus_, ὠψ, _oculus_).
They were three in number, according to Hesiod, called Arges,
Brontes, and Steropes. Their number was greater according to other
mythologists, and in the age of Ulysses, Polyphemus was their king.
_See:_ Polyphemus. They inhabited the western parts of the island
of Sicily; and because they were uncivilized in their manners, the
poets speak of them as men-eaters. The tradition of their having
only one eye originates from their custom of wearing small bucklers
of steel which covered their faces, and had a small aperture in the
middle, which corresponded exactly to the eye. From their vicinity
to mount Ætna, they have been supposed to be the workmen of Vulcan,
and to have fabricated the thunderbolts of Jupiter. The most solid
walls and impregnable fortresses were said, among the ancients, to
be the work of the Cyclops, to render them more respectable; and we
find that Jupiter was armed with what they had fabricated, and that
the shield of Pluto, and the trident of Neptune, were the produce of
their labour. The Cyclops were reckoned among the gods, and we find
a temple dedicated to their service at Corinth, where sacrifices
were solemnly offered. Apollo destroyed them all, because they had
made the thunderbolts of Jupiter, with which his son Æsculapius had
been killed. From the different accounts given of the Cyclops by the
ancients, it may be concluded that they were all the same people,
to whom various functions have been attributed, which cannot be
reconciled one to the other, without drawing the pencil of fiction
or mythology. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, chs. 1 & 2.――_Homer_, _Odyssey_,
bks. 1 & 9.――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 140.――_Theocritus_, _Idylls_,
poem 1, &c.――_Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 4, li. 170;
_Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 630; bk. 8, li. 418, &c.; bk. 11, li. 263.
――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 13, li. 780; bk. 14, li. 249.――――A
people of Asia.
=Cycnus=, a son of Mars by Pelopea, killed by Hercules. The manner of
his death provoked Mars to such a degree that he resolved severely
to punish his murderer, but he was prevented by the thunderbolts of
Jupiter. _Hyginus_, fables 31 & 261.――_Hesiod_, _Shield of Heracles_.
――――A son of Neptune, invulnerable in every part of his body.
Achilles fought against him; but when he saw that his darts were of
no effect, he threw him on the ground and smothered him. He stripped
him of his armour, and saw him suddenly changed into a bird of the
same name. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12, fable 3.――――A son of
Hyrie, changed into a swan.――――A son of Sthenelus king of Liguria.
He was deeply afflicted at the death of his friend and relation
Phaeton, and in the midst of his lamentations he was metamorphosed
into a swan. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 2, li. 367.――_Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 189.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 30.――――A horse’s
name. _Statius_, bk. 6, _Thebiad_ li. 524.
=Cydas=, a profligate Cretan, made judge at Rome by Antony. _Cicero_,
_Philippics_, speeches 5 & 8.
=Cydias=, an Athenian of great valour, &c. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 21.
――――A painter who made a painting of the Argonauts. This celebrated
piece was bought by the orator Hortensius, for 164 talents. _Pliny_,
bk. 34.
=Cydippe=, the wife of Anaxilaus, &c. _Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 165.
――――The mother of Cleobis and Biton. _See:_ Cleobis.――――A girl
beloved by Acontius. _See:_ Acontius.――――One of Cyrene’s attendants.
_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 4, li. 329.
=Cydnus=, a river of Cilicia, near Tarsus, where Alexander bathed
when covered with sweat. The consequences proved almost fatal to
the monarch. _Curtius_, bk. 3, ch. 4.――_Justin_, bk. 11, ch. 8.
=Cydon=, a friend of Turnus against Æneas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10,
li. 335.
=Cydon= and =Cydonia=, now _Canea_, a town of Crete, built by a colony
from Samos. It was supposed that Minos generally resided there.
Hence _Cydoneus_. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 8, li. 22.――_Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 12, li. 858.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 2, li. 109.――_Livy_,
bk. 37, ch. 60.――_Lucan_, bk. 7, li. 229.
=Cydonia=, an island opposite Lesbos. _Pliny_, bks. 2 & 4.
=Cydrara=, a city of Phrygia. _Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 30.
=Cydrolāus=, a man who led a colony to Samos. _Diodorus_, bk. 5.
=Cygnus.= _See:_ Cycnus.
=Cylabus=, a place near Argos in Peloponnesus. ♦_Plutarch_, _Pyrrhus_.
♦ ‘Piut.’ replaced with ‘Plutarch’
=Cylbiani=, mountains of Phrygia where the Gayster takes its rise.
_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 29.
=Cylices=, a people among the Illyrians. There was in their country a
monument in honour of Cadmus. _Athenæus._
=Cylindus=, a son of Phryxus and Calliope.
=Cyllabaris=, a public place for exercises at Argos, where was a
statue of Minerva. _Pausanias_, _Corinthia_.
=Cyllabărus=, a gallant of the wife of Diomedes, &c.
=Cyllărus=, the most beautiful of all the Centaurs, passionately
fond of Hylonome. They perished both at the same time. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 12, li. 408.――――A celebrated horse of Pollux or
of Castor, according to Seneca. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 3, li. 90.
=Cyllen=, a son of Elatus. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 4.
=Cyllēne=, the mother of Lycaon by Pelasgus. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3,
ch. 8.――――A naval station of Elis in Peloponnesus. _Pausanias_,
bk. 4, ch. 23.――――A mountain of Arcadia, with a small town on its
declivity, which received its name from Cyllen. Mercury was born
there; hence his surname of _Cylleneius_, which is indiscriminately
applied to anything he invented, or over which he presided. _Lucan_,
bk. 1, li. 663.――_Horace_, epode 13, li. 13.――_Pausanias_, bk. 8,
ch. 17.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8, li. 139.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 13, li. 146; _Ars Amatoria_, bk. 3, li. 147.
=Cyllēnēius=, a surname of Mercury, from his being born on the mountain
of Cyllene.
=Cyllyrii=, certain slaves at Syracuse. _Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 155.
=Cylon=, an Athenian who aspired to tyranny. _Herodotus_, bk. 5, ch. 71.
=Cyma=, or =Cymæ=, the largest and most beautiful town of Æolia,
called also _Phriconis_, and _Phricontis_, and _Cumæ_. _See:_ Cumæ.
_Livy_, bk. 37, ch. 11.――_Cicero_, _Flaccus_, ch. 20.――_Herodotus_,
bk. 1, ch. 149.
=Cymodŏce=, =Cyme=, and =Cymo=, one of the Nereides. _Hesiod_,
_Theogony_, li. 255.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 4, li. 388.
=Cymōlus= and =Cimōlus=, an island of the Cretan sea. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, li. 463.
=Cymŏthoe=, one of the Nereides, represented by _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 1, li. 148, as assisting the Trojans with Triton after the storm
with which Æolus, at the request of Juno, had afflicted the fleet.
=Cynara=, one of Horace’s favourites. Bk. 4, ode 1, li. 4.
=Cynægīrus=, an Athenian, celebrated for his extraordinary courage.
He was brother to the poet Æschylus. After the battle of Marathon,
he pursued the flying Persians to their ships, and seized one of
their vessels with his right hand, which was immediately severed by
the enemy. Upon this he seized the vessel with his left hand, and
when he had lost that also, he still kept his hold with his teeth.
_Herodotus_, bk. 6, ch. 114.――_Justin_, bk. 2, ch. 9.
=Cynæthium=, a town of Arcadia, founded by one of the companions of
Æneas. _Dionysius of Halicarnassus._
=Cynāne=, a daughter of Philip king of Macedonia, who married Amyntas
son of Perdiccas, by whom she had Eurydice. _Polyænus_, bk. 8.
=Cynāpes=, a river falling into the Euxine. _Ovid_, bk. 4, _ex Ponto_,
ltr. 10, li. 49.
=Cynaxa.= _See:_ Cunaxa.
=Cyneas.= _See:_ Cineas.
=Cynesii= and =Cynetæ=, a nation on the remotest shores of Europe,
towards the ocean. _Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 33.
=Cynethussa=, an island in the Ægean sea. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.
=Cynia=, a lake of Acarcania. _Strabo_, bk. 16.
=Cynĭci=, a sect of philosophers founded by Antisthenes the Athenian.
They received this name _à caninâ mordacitate_, from their canine
propensity to criticize the lives and actions of men, or because,
like dogs, they were not ashamed to gratify their criminal desires
publicly. They were famous for their contempt of riches, for their
negligence of their dress, and the length of their beards. Diogenes
was one of their sect. They generally slept on the ground. _Cicero_,
bk. 1, _De Officiis_, chs. 35 & 41.
=Cynisca=, a daughter of Archidamus king of Sparta, who obtained the
first prize in the chariot-races at the Olympic games. _Pausanias_,
bk. 3, ch. 8.
=Cyno=, a woman who preserved the life of Cyrus. _Herodotus_, bk. 1,
ch. 110.
=Cynocephăle=, a town of Thessaly, where the proconsul Quintius
conquered Philip of Macedon, and put an end to the first Macedonian
war, B.C. 197. _Livy_, bk. 33, ch. 7.
=Cynocephăli=, a nation of India, who have the head of a dog, according
to some traditions. _Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 2.
=Cynophontis=, a festival of Argos, observed during the dog days. It
received its name ἀπο του κυνας φονειν, _killing dogs_, because they
used to kill all the dogs they met.
=Cynortas=, one of the ancient kings of Sparta, son of Amyclas and
Diomede. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 1.
=Cynortion=, a mountain of Peloponnesus. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 27.
=Cynos=, a town of Locris.――――Another in Thessaly, where Pyrrha,
Deucalion’s wife, was buried.
=Cynosargres=, a surname of Hercules.――――A small village of Attica of
the same name, where the Cynic philosophers had established their
school. _Herodotus_, bks. 5 & 6.
=Cynossēma= (_a dog’s tomb_), a promontory of the Thracian Chersonesus,
where Hecuba was changed into a dog, and buried. _Ovid_, bk. 13,
_Metamorphoses_, li. 569.
=Cynosūra=, a nymph of Ida in Crete. She nursed Jupiter, who changed
her into a star which bears the same name. It is the same as the
Ursa Minor. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 3, li. 107.
=Cynthia=, a beautiful woman who was mistress to _Propertius_.――――A
surname of Diana, from mount Cynthus, where she was born.
=Cynthius=, a surname of Apollo, from mount Cynthus.
=Cynthus=, a mountain of Delos, so high that it is said to overshadow
the whole island. Apollo was surnamed _Cynthius_, and Diana
_Cynthia_, as they were born on the mountain, which was sacred to
them. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 3, li. 36.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 6, li. 304; _Fasti_, bk. 3, li. 346.
=Cynūrenses=, a people of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 27.
=Cynus=, a naval station of Opus. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 1.
=Cypărissi= and =Cyparissia=, a town of Peloponnesus, near Massenia.
_Livy_, bk. 32, ch. 31.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 5.
=Cypărissus=, a youth, son of Telephus of Cea, beloved by Apollo.
He killed a favourite stag of Apollo’s, for which he was so sorry
that he pined away, and was changed by the god into a cypress tree.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 680.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 10,
li. 121.――――A town near Delphi. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.
=Cyphăra=, a fortified place of Thessaly. _Livy_, bk. 32, ch. 13.
=Cypriānus=, a native of Carthage, who, though born of heathen parents,
became a convert to christianity, and the bishop of his countrymen.
To be more devoted to purity and study, he abandoned his wife; and
as a proof of his charity, he distributed his goods to the poor. He
wrote 81 letters, besides several treatises, _De Dei gratiâ_, _De
virginum habitu_, &c., and rendered his compositions valuable by
the information which he conveys of the discipline of the ancient
church, and by the soundness and purity of his theology. He died
a martyr, A.D. 258. The best editions of Cyprian are that of Fell,
folio, Oxford, 1682, and that reprinted Amsterdam, 1700.
=Cyprus=, a daughter of Antony and Cleopatra, who married Agrippa.
――――A large island in the Mediterranean sea, at the south of Cilicia,
and at the west of Syria, formerly joined to the continent near
Syria, according to Pliny. It has been anciently called _Acamantis_,
_Amathusia_, _Aspelia_, _Cerastis_, _Colonia_ or _Colinia_, _Macaria_,
and _Spechia_. It has been celebrated for giving birth to Venus
surnamed _Cypris_, who was the chief deity of the place, and to
whose service many places and temples were consecrated. It was
anciently divided into nine kingdoms, and was for some time under
the power of Egypt, and afterwards of the Persians. The Greeks made
themselves masters of it, and it was taken from them by the Romans.
Its length, according to Strabo, is 1400 stadia. There were three
celebrated temples there, two sacred to Venus, and the other to
Jupiter. The inhabitants were given much to pleasure and dissipation.
_Strabo_, bk. 16.――_Ptolemy_, bk. 5, ch. 14.――_Florus_, bk. 3, ch. 9.
――_Justin_, bk. 18, ch. 5.――_Pliny_, bk. 12, ch. 24; bk. 33, ch. 3;
bk. 36, ch. 26.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.
=Cypsĕlĭdes=, the name of three princes as descendants of Cypselus,
who reigned at Corinth during 73 years. Cypselus was succeeded by
his son Periander, who left his kingdom, after a reign of 40 years,
to Cypselus II.
♦=Cypsĕsus=, a king of Arcadia, who married the daughter of Ctesiphon,
to strengthen himself against the Heraclidæ. _Pausanias_, bk. 4,
ch. 3.――――A man of Corinth, son of Eetion and father of Periander.
He destroyed the Bacchiadæ, and seized upon the sovereign power,
about 659 years before Christ. He reigned 30 years, and was succeeded
by his son. Periander had two sons, Lycophron and Cypselus, who
was insane. Cypselus received his name from the Greek word κυψελος,
_a coffer_, because when the Bacchiadæ attempted to kill him, his
mother saved his life by concealing him in a coffer. _Pausanias_,
bk. 5, ch. 17.――_Cicero_, _Tusculanæ Disputationes_, bk. 5, ch. 37.
――_Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 114; bk. 5, ch. 92, &c.――_Aristotle_,
_Politics_.――――The father of Miltiades. _Herodotus_, bk. 6, ch. 35.
♦ ‘Cysĕsus’ replaced with ‘Cypsĕsus’
=Cyraunis=, an island of Libya. _Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 195.
=Cyrbiāna=, a province of the Elymæans.
=Cyre=, a fountain near Cyrene.
=Cyrēnaĭca=, a country of Africa, of which Cyrene is the capital.
_See:_ Cyrene.
=Cyrēnaĭci=, a sect of philosophers who followed the doctrine of
Aristippus. They placed their _summum bonum_ in pleasure, and
said that virtue ought to be commended because it gave pleasure.
_Diogenes Laërtius_, _Aristotle_.――_Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_,
bk. 3.
=Cyrēne=, the daughter of the river Peneus, of whom Apollo became
enamoured. He carried her to that part of Africa which is called
_Cyrenaica_, where she brought forth Aristæus. She is called by
some daughter of Hypseus, king of the Lapithæ and son of the Peneus.
_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 4, li. 321.――_Justin_, bk. 13, ch. 7.
――_Pindar_, _Pythian_, li. 9.――――A celebrated city of Libya, to
which Aristæus, who was the chief of the colonists settled there,
gave his mother’s name. Cyrene was situate in a beautiful and
fertile plain, about 11 miles from the Mediterranean sea, and it
became the capital of the country, which was called _Pentapolis_, on
account of the five cities which it contained. It gave birth to many
great men, among whom were Callimachus, Eratosthenes, Carneades,
Aristippus, &c. The town of Cyrene was built by Battus, B.C. 630,
and the kingdom was bequeathed to the Romans, B.C. 97, by king
Ptolemy Appion. _Herodotus_, bks. 3 & 4.――_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch.
13.――_Strabo_, bk. 17.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 8.――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 5.
――_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 3, ch. 70.
=Cyriades=, one of the 30 tyrants who harassed the Roman empire in the
reign of Gallienus. He died A.D. 259.
=Cyrillus=, a bishop of Jerusalem, who died A.D. 386. Of his writings,
composed in Greek, there remain 23 _catecheses_, and a letter to the
emperor Constantine, the best edition of which is by Milles, folio,
Oxford, 1703.――――A bishop of Alexandria, who died A.D. 444. The best
edition of his writings, which are mostly controversial, in Greek,
is that of Paris, folio, 7 vols., 1638.
=Cyrne=, a place of Eubœa.
=Cyrnus=, a driver in the games which Scipio exhibited in Africa, &c.
_Silius Italicus_, bk. 16, li. 342.――――A man of Argos, who founded
a city of Chersonesus. _Diodorus_, bk. 5.――――A river that falls into
the Caspian sea. _Plutarch_, _Pompey_.――――An island on the coast
of Liguria, the same as Corsica; and called after Cyrnus the son of
Hercules. _Virgil_, _Eclogues_, poem 9, li. 30.――_Pausanias_, bk. 10,
ch. 17.
=Cyrræi=, a people of Æthiopia.
=Cyrrhadæ=, an Indian nation.
=Cyrrhes=, a people of Macedonia, near Pella.
=Cyrrhestĭca=, a country of Syria near Cilicia, of which the capital
was called _Cyrrhum_. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 23.――_Cicero_, _Letters to
Atticus_, bk. 5, ltr. 18.
=Cyrrhus= and =Cyrus=, a river of Iberia in Asia.
=Cyrsīlus=, an Athenian, stoned to death by his countrymen, because
he advised them to receive the army of Xerxes, and to submit to the
power of Persia. _Demosthenes_, _de Coronâ_.――_Cicero_, bk. 3, _de
Officiis_, ch. 11.
=Cyrus=, a king of Persia, son of Cambyses and Mandane, daughter
of Astyages king of Media. His father was of an ignoble family,
whose marriage with Mandane had been consummated on account of the
apprehensions of Astyages. _See:_ Astyages. Cyrus was exposed as
soon as born; but he was preserved by a shepherdess, who educated
him as her own son. As he was playing with his equals in years, he
was elected king in a certain diversion, and he exercised his power
with such an independent spirit, that he ordered one of his play
companions to be severely whipped for disobedience. The father of
the youth, who was a nobleman, complained to the king of the ill
treatment which his son had received from a shepherd’s son. Astyages
ordered Cyrus before him, and discovered that he was Mandane’s son,
from whom he had so much to apprehend. He treated him with great
coldness; and Cyrus, unable to bear his tyranny, escaped from his
confinement, and began to levy troops to dethrone his grandfather.
He was assisted and encouraged by the ministers of Astyages, who
were displeased with the king’s oppression. He marched against
him, and Astyages was defeated in a battle, and taken prisoner,
B.C. 559. From this victory the empire of Media became tributary
to the Persians. Cyrus subdued the eastern parts of Asia, and made
war against Crœsus king of Lydia, whom he conquered, B.C. 548.
He invaded the kingdom of Assyria, and took the city of Babylon
by drying the channels of the Euphrates, and marching his troops
through the bed of the river, while the people were celebrating
a grand festival. He afterwards marched against Tomyris the queen
of the Massagetæ, a Scythian nation, and was defeated in a bloody
battle, B.C. 530. The victorious queen, who had lost her son in
a previous encounter, was so incensed against Cyrus, that she cut
off his head, and threw it into a vessel filled with human blood,
exclaiming, _Satia te sanguine quem sitisti_. Xenophon has written
the life of Cyrus; but his history is not perfectly authentic. In
the character of Cyrus he delineates a brave and virtuous prince,
and often puts in his mouth many of the sayings of Socrates. The
chronology is false; and Xenophon, in his narration, has given
existence to persons whom no other historian ever mentioned. The
_Cyropædia_, therefore, is not to be looked upon as an authentic
history of Cyrus the Great, but we must consider it as showing
what every good and virtuous prince ought to be. _Diodorus_, bk. 1.
――_Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 75, &c.――_Justin_, bk. 1, chs. 5 & 7.
――――The younger Cyrus was the younger son of Darius Nothus, and the
brother of Artaxerxes. He was sent by his father, at the age of 16,
to assist the Lacedæmonians against Athens. Artaxerxes succeeded to
the throne at the death of Nothus; and Cyrus, who was of an aspiring
soul, attempted to assassinate him. He was discovered, and would
have been punished with death, had not his mother Parysatis saved
him from the hands of the executioner by her tears and entreaties.
This circumstance did not in the least check the ambition of Cyrus;
he was appointed over Lydia and the sea coasts, where he secretly
fomented rebellion, and levied troops under various pretences.
At last he took the field with an army of 100,000 barbarians, and
13,000 Greeks under the command of Clearchus. Artaxerxes met him
with 900,000 men near Cunaxa. The battle was long and bloody, and
Cyrus might have perhaps obtained the victory, had not his uncommon
rashness proved his ruin. It is said that the two royal brothers
met in person, and engaged with the most inveterate fury, and their
engagement ended in the death of Cyrus, 401 years B.C. Artaxerxes
was so anxious of its being universally reported that his brother
had fallen by his hand, that he put to death two of his subjects for
boasting that they had killed Cyrus. The Greeks, who were engaged
in the expedition, obtained much glory in the battle; and after
the death of Cyrus, they remained victorious in the field without
a commander. They were not, however, discouraged, though at a
great distance from their country, and surrounded on every side
by a powerful enemy. They unanimously united in the election of
commanders, and traversed all Asia, in spite of the continual
attacks of the Persians; and nothing is more truly celebrated in
ancient history than the bold retreat of the 10,000. The journey
that they made from the place of their first embarkation till their
return, has been calculated at 1155 leagues, performed in the space
of 15 months, including all the time which was devoted to take
rest and refreshment. This retreat has been celebrated by Xenophon,
who was one of their leaders, and among the friends and supporters
of Cyrus. It is said, that in the letter he wrote to Lacedæmon to
solicit auxiliaries, Cyrus boasted his philosophy, his royal blood,
and his ability to drink more wine than his brother without being
intoxicated. _Plutarch_, _Artaxerxes_.――_Diodorus_, bk. 14.――_Justin_,
bk. 5, ch. 11.――――A rival of Horace, in the affections of one of his
mistresses, bk. 1, ode 17, li. 24.――――A poet of Panopolis, in the
age of Theodosius.
=Cyrus= and =Cyropŏlis=, a city of Syria, built by the Jews in honour
of Cyrus, whose humanity in relieving them from their captivity they
wished thus to commemorate.
=Cyrus=, a river of Persia, now _Kur_.
=Cyta=, a town of Colchis, famous for the poisonous herbs which it
produced, and for the birth of Medea. _Flaccus_, bk. 6, li. 693.
――_Propertius_, bk. 2, poem 1, li. 73.
=Cytæis=, a surname of Medea, from her being an inhabitant of Cyta.
_Propertius_, bk. 2, poem 4, li. 7.
=Cythēra=, now _Cesigo_, an island on the coast of Laconia in
Peloponnesus. It was particularly sacred to the goddess Venus,
who was from thence surnamed _Cytheræa_, and who rose, as some
suppose, from the sea, near its coasts. It was for some time under
the power of the Argives, and always considered as of the highest
importance to maritime powers. The Phœnicians had built there a
famous temple to Venus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 262; bk. 10,
li. 5.――_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 33.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 4,
li. 288; bk. 15, li. 386; _Fasti_, bk. 4, li. 15.――_Herodotus_,
bk. 1, ch. 29.
=Cythĕræa=, a surname of Venus.
=Cythēris=, a certain courtesan, much respected by the poet Gallus, as
well as by Antony.
=Cythēron.= _See:_ Cithæron.
=Cythērun=, a place of Attica.
=Cytherus=, a river of Elis. _Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 22.
=Cythnos=, now _Thermia_, an island near Attica, famous for its cheese.
It has been called _Ophiousa_ and _Dryopis_. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 5, li. 252.
=Cytineum=, one of the four cities called Tetrapolis in Doris.
_Strabo_, bk. 9.――_Thucydides_, bk. 1, ch. 107.
=Cytissorus=, a son of Phryxus, &c. _Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 197.
=Cytōrus=, now _Kudros_, a mountain and town of Galatia, built by
Cytorus son of Phryxus, and abounding in box-wood. _Catullus_,
poem 4, li. 13.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 4, li. 311.――_Strabo_,
bk. 11.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 2, li. 437.
=Cyzĭcum=, or =Cyzicus=, an island of the Propontis, about 530 stadia
in circumference, with a town called Cyzicus. Alexander joined it
to the continent by two bridges, and from that time it was called
a peninsula. It had two harbours called Panormus and Chytus, the
first natural, and the other artificial. It became one of the most
considerable cities of Asia. It was besieged by Mithridates, and
relieved by Lucullus. _Florus_, bk. 3, ch. 5.――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch.
32.――_Diodorus_, bk. 18.
=Cyzĭcus=, a son of Œneus and Stilba, who reigned in Cyzicus. He
hospitably received the Argonauts, in their expedition against
Colchis. After their departure from the coast of Cyzicus, they
were driven back in the night, by a storm, upon the coast; and
the inhabitants seeing such an unexpected number of men, furiously
attacked them, supposing them to be the Pelasgi, their ancient
enemies. In this nocturnal engagement, many were killed on
both sides, and Cyzicus perished by the hands of Jason himself,
who honoured him with a splendid funeral, and raised a stately
monument over his grave. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9.――_Flaccus._
――_Apollonius._――_Orpheus._――――The chief town of the island of
Cyzicum, built where the island is joined by the bridges to the
continent. It has two excellent harbours, called Panormus and Chytus.
The former is naturally large and beautiful, and the other owes
all its conveniences to the hand of art. The town is situate partly
on a mountain, and partly in a plain. The Argonauts built a temple
to Cybele in the neighbourhood. It derives its name from Cyzicus,
who was killed there by Jason. The Athenians defeated near this
place their enemies of Lacedæmon, assisted by Pharnabazus, B.C.
410. _Florus_, bk. 3, ch. 5, &c.――_Strabo._――_Apollonius_, bk. 1.
――_Propertius_, bk. 3, poem 22.――_Flaccus_, bk. 2, li. 636.
D
=Daæ=, =Dahæ=, or =Dai=, now the _Dahistan_, a people of Scythia, who
dwelt on the borders of the Caspian sea. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 13,
li. 764.――_Lucan_, bk. 7, li. 420.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 728.
=Daci= and =Dacæ=, a warlike nation of Germany, beyond the Danube,
whose country, called _Dacia_, was conquered by the Romans under
Trajan, after a war of 15 years, A.D. 103. The emperor joined the
country to Mœsia, by erecting a magnificent bridge across the Danube,
considered as the best of his works, which, however, the envy of his
successor Adrian demolished. Dacia now forms the modern countries of
_Walachia_, _Transylvania_, and _Moldavia_. _Lucan_, bk. 2, li. 53.
=Dacĭcus=, a surname assumed by Domitian on his pretended victory over
the Dacians. _Juvenal_, satire 6, li. 204.
=Dacty̆li=, a name given to the priests of Cybele, which some derive
from δακτυλος, _finger_, because they were 10, the same number as
the fingers of the hands. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 8.
=Dadicæ=, a people of Asiatic Scythia. _Herodotus_, bk. 3, ch. 91.
=Dædăla=, a mountain and city of Lycia, where Dædalus was buried
according to _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 27.――――A name given to Circe, from
her being _cunning_ (δαιδαλος), and like Dædalus, addicted to deceit
and artifice. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 282.――――Two festivals
in Bœotia. One of these was observed at Alalcomenos by the Platæans,
in a large grove, where they exposed in the open air pieces of
boiled flesh, and carefully observed whither the crows that came
to prey upon them directed their flight. All the trees upon which
any of these birds alighted were immediately cut down, and with
them statues were made called _Dædala_, in honour of Dædalus.――――The
other festival was of a more solemn kind. It was celebrated every
60 years by all the cities of Bœotia, as a compensation for the
intermission of the smaller festivals, for that number of years,
during the exile of the Platæans. Fourteen of the statues, called
Dædala, were distributed by lot among the Platæans, Lebadæans,
Coroneans, Orchomenians, Thespians, Thebans, Tanagræans, and
Chæroneans, because they had effected a reconciliation among the
Platæans and had caused them to be recalled from exile, about the
time that Thebes was restored by Cassander the son of Antipater.
During this festival, a woman in the habit of a bride-maid
accompanied a statue, which was dressed in female garments, on
the banks of the Eurotas. This procession was attended to the
top of mount Cithæron, by many of the Bœotians, who had places
assigned them by lot. Here an altar of square pieces of wood
cemented together like stones, was erected, and upon it were thrown
large quantities of combustible materials. Afterwards a bull was
sacrificed to Jupiter, and an ox or heifer to Juno, by every one
of the cities of Bœotia, and by the most opulent that attended.
The poorest citizens offered small cattle; and all these oblations,
together with the Dædala, were thrown in the common heap and set
on fire, and totally reduced to ashes. They originated in this:
When Juno, after a quarrel with Jupiter, had retired to Eubœa, and
refused to return to his bed, the god, anxious for her return, went
to consult Cithæron king of Platæa, to find some effectual measure
to break her obstinacy. Cithæron advised him to dress a statue in
woman’s apparel, and carry it in a chariot, and publicly to report
that it was Platæa the daughter of Asopus, whom he was going to
marry. The advice was followed, and Juno, informed of her husband’s
future marriage, repaired in haste to meet the chariot, and was
easily united to him, when she discovered the artful measures he
made use of to effect a reconciliation. _Pausanias_ & _Plutarch_.
=Dædălion=, a son of Lucifer, brother to Ceyx and father of Philonis.
He was so afflicted at the death of Philonis, whom Diana had put to
death, that he threw himself down from the top of mount Parnassus,
and was changed into a falcon by Apollo. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 11, li. 295.
=Dædălus=, an Athenian, son of Eupalamus, descended from Erechtheus
king of Athens. He was the most ingenious artist of his age, and
to him we are indebted for the invention of the wedge, the axe,
the wimble, the level, and many other mechanical instruments, and
the sails of ships. He made statues, which moved of themselves, and
seemed to be endowed with life. Talus, his sister’s son, promised
to be as great as himself, by the ingenuity of his inventions; and
therefore, from envy, he threw him down from a window and killed
him. After the murder of this youth, Dædalus, with his son Icarus,
fled from Athens to Crete, where Minos king of the country gave him
a cordial reception. Dædalus made a famous labyrinth for Minos, and
assisted Pasiphae the queen to gratify her unnatural passion for a
bull. For this action, Dædalus incurred the displeasure of Minos,
who ordered him to be confined in the labyrinth which he had
constructed. Here he made himself wings with feathers and wax, and
carefully fitted them to his body, and to that of his son, who was
the companion of his confinement. They took their flight in the air
from Crete; but the heat of the sun melted the wax on the wings of
Icarus, whose flight was too high, and he fell into that part of the
ocean, which from him has been called the Icarian sea. The father,
by a proper management of his wings, alighted at Cumæ, where he
built a temple to Apollo, and thence directed his course to Sicily,
where he was kindly received by Cocalus, who reigned over part of
the country. He left many monuments of his ingenuity in Sicily,
which still existed in the age of Diodorus Siculus. He was despatched
by Cocalus, who was afraid of the power of Minos, who had declared
war against him, because he had given an asylum to Dædalus. The
flight of Dædalus from Crete, with wings, is explained, by observing
that he was the inventor of sails, which in his age might pass
at a distance for wings. _Pausanias_, bks. 1, 7 & 9.――_Diodorus_,
bk. 4.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 8, fable 3; _Heroides_, poem 4;
_De Ars Amatoria_, bk. 2; _Tristia_, bk. 3, poem 4.――_Hyginus_,
fable 40.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 14.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3,
ch. 1, &c.――_Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 170.――――There were two statuaries
of the same name, one of Sicyon son of Patroclus, the other a native
of Bithynia. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 14.――_Arrian._
=Dæmon=, a kind of spirit which, as the ancients supposed, presided
over the actions of mankind, gave them their private counsels, and
carefully watched over their most secret intentions. Some of the
ancient philosophers maintained that every man had two of these
Dæmons; the one bad and the other good. These Dæmons had the power
of changing themselves into whatever they pleased, and of assuming
whatever shapes were most subservient to their intentions. At the
moment of death, the Dæmon delivered up to judgment the person with
whose care he had been entrusted; and according to the evidence he
delivered, sentence was passed over the body. The Dæmon of Socrates
is famous in history. That great philosopher asserted that the
genius informed him when any of his friends was going to engage in
some unfortunate enterprise, and stopped him from the commission
of all crimes and impiety. These Genii or Dæmons, though at first
reckoned only as the subordinate ministers of the superior deities,
received divine honour in length of time, and we find altars and
statues erected to a _Genio loci_, _Genio Augusti_, _Junonibus_, &c.
_Cicero_, _Tusculanæ Disputationes_, bk. 1.――_Plutarch_, _de Genio
Socratis_.
=Dahæ.= _See:_ Daæ.
=Dai=, a nation of Persia, all shepherds. _Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 125.
=Daicles=, a victor at Olympia, B.C. 753.
=Daĭdis=, a solemnity observed by the Greeks. It lasted three days.
The first was in commemoration of Latona’s labour; the second in
memory of Apollo’s birth; and the third in honour of the marriage of
Podalirius, and the mother of Alexander. Torches were always carried
at the celebration; whence the name.
=Daimăchus=, a master of horse at Syracuse, &c. _Polyænus_, bk. 1.
=Daimĕnes=, a general of the Achæans. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 6.――――An
officer exposed on a cross, by Dionysius of Syracuse. _Diodorus_,
bk. 14.
=Daĭphron=, a son of Ægyptus, killed by his wife, &c. _Apollodorus_,
bk. 2, ch. 1.
=Daīra=, one of the Oceanides, mother of Eleusis by Mercury.
_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 38.
=Daldia=, a town of Lydia.
=Dalmatius=, one of the Cæsars in the age of Constantine, who died
A.D. 337.
=Dalmătia=, a part of Illyricum, at the east of the Adriatic, near
Liburnia on the west, whose inhabitants, called _Dalmatæ_, were
conquered by Metellus, B.C. 118. They chiefly lived upon plunder,
and from their rebellious spirit were troublesome to the Roman
empire. They wore a peculiar garment called _Dalmatica_, afterwards
introduced at Rome. _Horace_, bk. 2, ode 1, li. 16.――_Lampridus_,
_Commodus_, ch. 8.――_Strabo_, bk. 7.――_Ptolemy_, bk. 2.
=Dalmium=, the chief town of Dalmatia. _Strabo_, bk. 7.
=Damagetus=, a man of Rhodes, who inquired of the oracle what wife he
ought to marry? and received for answer the daughter of the bravest
of the Greeks. He applied to Aristomenes, and obtained his daughter
in marriage, B.C. 670. _Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 24.
=Damălis=, a courtesan at Rome in the age of Horace, bk. 1, ode 36,
li. 13.
=Damas=, a Syracusan in the interest of Agathocles. _Diodorus_, bk. 19.
=Damascēna=, a part of Syria near mount Libanus.
=Damascius=, a stoic of Damascus, who wrote a philosophical history,
the life of Isidorus, and four books on extraordinary events, in
the age of Justinian. His works, which are now lost, were greatly
esteemed according to Photius.
=Damascus=, a rich and ancient city of _Damascene_ in Syria, where
Demetrius Nicanor was defeated by Alexander Zebina. It is the modern
_Damas_, or _Sham_, inhabited by about 80,000 souls. _Lucan_, bk. 3,
li. 215.――_Justin_, bk. 36, ch. 2.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 11.
=Damasia=, a town called also _Augusta_, now ♦_Augsburg_, in Swabia,
on the Leck.
♦ ‘Ausburg’ replaced with ‘Augsburg’
=Damasichthon=, a king of Thebes. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 5.
=Damasippus=, a captain in Philip’s army.――――A senator who accompanied
Juba when he entered Utica in triumph. _Cæsar_, _Civil War_, bk. 2.
――――A great enemy of Sylla. _Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 22.――――An
orator. _Juvenal_, satire 3, li. 185.――――A merchant of old seals and
vessels, who, after losing his all in unfortunate schemes in commerce,
assumed the name and habit of a stoic philosopher. _Horace_, bk. 2,
satire 3.――――One of Niobe’s sons.
=Damasistrătus=, a king of Platæa, who buried Laius. _Apollodorus_,
bk. 3, ch. 5.
=Damasithynus=, a son of Candaules general in the army of Xerxes.
_Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 98.――――A king of Calyndæ, sunk in his ship
by Artemisia. _Herodotus_, bk. 8, ch. 87.
=Damastes=, a man of Sigæum, disciple of Hellanicus about the age of
Herodotus, &c. _Dionysius of Halicarnassus._――――A famous robber.
_See:_ Procrustes.
=Damastor=, a Trojan chief, killed by Patroclus at the siege of Troy.
_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 16, li. 416.
=Damia=, a surname of Cybele.――――A woman to whom the Epidaurians raised
a statue. _Herodotus_, bk. 5, ch. 82.
=Damias=, a statuary of Clitor, in Arcadia, in the age of Lysander.
_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 9.
=Damippus=, a Spartan taken by Marcellus as he sailed out of the port
of Syracuse. He discovered to the enemy that a certain part of the
city was negligently guarded, and in consequence of this discovery
Syracuse was taken. _Polyænus._
=Damis=, a man who disputed with Aristodemus the right of reigning
over the Messenians. _Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 10.
=Damnii=, a people at the north of Britain.
=Damnonii=, a people of Britain, now supposed Devonshire.
=Damnōrix=, a celebrated Gaul in the interest of Julius Cæsar, &c.
=Damo=, a daughter of Pythagoras, who, by order of her father,
devoted her life to perpetual celibacy, and induced others to follow
her example. Pythagoras at his death entrusted her with all the
secrets of his philosophy, and gave her the unlimited care of his
compositions, under the promise that she never would part with them.
She faithfully obeyed his injunctions; and though in the extremest
poverty, she refused to obtain money by the violation of her father’s
commands. _Diogenes Laërtius_, _Pythagoras_.
=Damŏcles=, one of the flatterers of Dionysius the elder, of Sicily.
He admired the tyrant’s wealth, and pronounced him the happiest
man on earth. Dionysius prevailed upon him to undertake for a while
the charge of royalty, and be convinced of the happiness which a
sovereign enjoyed. Damocles ascended the throne, and while he gazed
upon the wealth and splendour that surrounded him, he perceived a
sword hanging over his head by a horse hair. This so terrified him
that all his imaginary felicity vanished at once, and he begged
Dionysius to remove him from a situation which exposed his life to
such fears and dangers. _Cicero_, _Tusculanæ Disputationes_, bk. 5,
ch. 21.
=Damocrătes=, a hero, &c. _Plutarch_, _Aristotle_.
=Damocrĭta=, a Spartan matron, wife of Alcippus, who severely punished
her enemies who had banished her husband, &c. _Plutarch_, _Parallela
minora_.
=Damocrĭtus=, a timid general of the Achæans, &c. _Pausanias_, bk. 7,
ch. 13.――――A Greek writer, who composed two treatises, one upon the
art of drawing an army in battle array, and the other concerning the
Jews.――――A man who wrote a poetical treatise upon medicine.
=Damon=, a victor at Olympia, Olympiad 102. _Pausanias_, bk. 4,
ch. 27.――――A poet and musician of Athens, intimate with Pericles,
and distinguished for his knowledge of government and fondness of
discipline. He was banished for his intrigues about 430 years before
Christ. _Cornelius Nepos_, bk. 15, ch. 2.――_Plutarch_, _Pericles_.
――――A Pythagorean philosopher, very intimate with Pythias. When
he had been condemned to death by Dionysius, he obtained from the
tyrant leave to go and settle his domestic affairs, on promise
of returning at a stated hour to the place of execution. Pythias
pledged himself to undergo the punishment which was to be inflicted
on Damon, should he not return in time, and he consequently
delivered himself into the hands of the tyrant. Damon returned at
the appointed moment, and Dionysius was so struck with the fidelity
of those two friends, that he remitted the punishment, and entreated
them to permit him to share their friendship, and enjoy their
confidence. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 4, ch. 7.――――A man of Cheronæa,
who killed a Roman officer, and was murdered by his fellow-citizens.
_Plutarch_, _Cimon_.――――A Cyrenean, who wrote a history of philosophy.
_Diogenes Laërtius._
=Damophantus=, a general of Elis in the age of Philopœmen. _Plutarch_,
_Philopœmen_.
=Damophĭla=, a poetess of Lesbos, wife of Pamphilus. She was intimate
with Sappho, and not only wrote hymns in honour of Diana and of the
gods, but opened a school where the younger persons of her sex were
taught the various powers of music and poetry. _Philostratus._
=Damophĭlus=, an historian. _Diodorus._――――A Rhodian general against
the fleet of Demetrius. _Diodorus_, bk. 20.
=Damŏphon=, a sculptor of Messenia. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 23.
=Damostrătus=, a philosopher who wrote a treatise concerning fishes.
_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 13, ch. 21.
=Damoxĕnus=, a comic writer of Athens. _Athenæus_, bk. 3.――――A boxer
of Syracuse, banished for killing his adversary. _Pausanias_, bk. 8,
ch. 40.
=Damyrias=, a river of Sicily. _Plutarch_, _Timoleon_.
=Dana=, a large town of Cappadocia.
=Danăce=, the name of the piece of money which Charon required to
convey the dead over the Styx. _Suidas._
=Dănae=, the daughter of Acrisius king of Argos by Eurydice. She was
confined in a brazen tower by her father, who had been told by an
oracle that his daughter’s son would put him to death. His endeavours
to prevent Danae from becoming a mother proved fruitless; and Jupiter,
who was enamoured of her, introduced himself to her bed, by changing
himself into a golden shower. From his embraces Danae had a son,
with whom she was exposed on the sea by her father. The wind drove
the bark which carried her to the coasts of the island of Seriphus,
where she was saved by some fishermen, and carried to Polydectes
king of the place, whose brother called Dictys educated the child
called Perseus, and tenderly treated the mother. Polydectes fell
in love with her; but as he was afraid of her son, he sent him to
conquer the Gorgons, pretending that he wished Medusa’s head to
adorn the nuptials which he was going to celebrate with Hippodamia
the daughter of Œnomaus. When Perseus had victoriously finished his
expedition, he retired to Argos with Danae, to the house of Acrisius,
whom he inadvertently killed. Some suppose that it was Prœtus the
brother of Acrisius who introduced himself to Danae in the brazen
tower; and instead of a golden shower, it was maintained that the
keepers of Danae were bribed by the gold of her seducer. Virgil
mentions that Danae came to Italy with some fugitives of Argos, and
that she founded a city called Ardea. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 4,
li. 611; _Ars Amatoria_, bk. 3, li. 415; _Amores_, bk. 2, poem 19,
li. 27.――_Horace_, bk. 3, ode 16.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 14, li. 319.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, chs. 2 & 4.――_Statius_, _Thebiad_, bk. 1, li.
255.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 410.――――A daughter of Leontium,
mistress to Sophron governor of Ephesus.――――A daughter of Danaus, to
whom Neptune offered violence.
=Dănai=, a name given to the people of Argos, and promiscuously to all
the Greeks, from Danaus their king. _Virgil_, & _Ovid_, _passim_.
=Dănaĭdes=, the 50 daughters of Danaus king of Argos. When their
uncle Ægyptus came from Egypt with his 50 sons, they were promised
in marriage to their cousins; but before the celebration of their
nuptials, Danaus, who had been informed by an oracle that he was to
be killed by the hands of one of his sons-in-law, made his daughters
solemnly promise that they would destroy their husbands. They were
provided with daggers by their father, and all, except Hypermnestra,
stained their hands with the blood of their cousins, the first
night of their nuptials; and as a pledge of their obedience to their
father’s injunctions, they presented him each with the head of the
murdered sons of Ægyptus. Hypermnestra was summoned to appear before
her father, and answer for her disobedience in suffering her husband
Lynceus to escape, but the unanimous voice of the people declared
her innocent, and in consequence of her honourable acquittal, she
dedicated a temple to the goddess of Persuasion. The sisters were
purified of this murder by Mercury and Minerva, by order of Jupiter;
but according to the more received opinion, they were condemned
to severe punishment in hell, and were compelled to fill with
water a vessel full of holes, so that the water ran out as soon as
poured into it, and therefore their labour was infinite, and their
punishment eternal. The names of the Danaides and their husbands
were as follows, according to Apollodorus: Amymone married Enceladus;
Automate, Busiris; Agave, Lycus; Scea, Dayphron; Hippodamia, Ister;
Rhodia, Chalcedon; Calyce, another Lynceus; Gorgophone, Proteus;
Cleopatra, Agenor; Asteria, Chætus; Glauce, Aleis; Hippodamia,
Diacorytes; Hippomedusa, Alcmenon; Gorge, Hippothous; Iphimedusa,
Euchenor; Rhode, Hippolytus; Pirene, Agaptolemus; Cercestis, Dorion;
Pharte, Eurydamas; Mnestra, Ægius; Evippe, Arigius; Anaxibia,
Archelaus; Nelo, Melachus; Clite, Clitus; Stenele, Stenelus;
Chrysippe, Chrysippus; Autonoe, Eurylochus; Theano, Phantes; Electra,
Peristhenes; Eurydice, Dryas; Glaucippe, Potamon; Autholea, Cisseus;
Cleodora, Lixus; Evippe, Imbrus; Erata, Bromius; Stygne, Polyctor;
Bryce, Chthonius; Actea, Periphas; Podarce, Œneus; Dioxippe, Ægyptus;
Adyte, Menalces; Ocypete, Lampus; Pilarge, Idmon; Hippodice, Idas;
Adiante, Diaphron; Callidia, Pandion; Œme, Arbelus; Celena, Hixbius;
Hyperia, Hippocoristes. The heads of the sons of Ægyptus were buried
at Argos; but their bodies were left at Lerna, where the murder
had been committed. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 1.――_Horace_, bk. 3,
ode 11.――_Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 16.――_Hyginus_,
fable 168, &c.
=Danăla=, a castle of Galatia.
=Danapris=, now the _Nieper_, a name given in the middle ages to the
Borysthenes, as _Danaster_ the _Neister_, was applied to the Tyras.
=Dănaus=, a son of Belus and Anchinoe, who, after his father’s death,
reigned conjointly with his brother Ægyptus on the throne of Egypt.
Some time after, a difference arose between the brothers, and Danaus
set sail with his 50 daughters in quest of a settlement. He visited
Rhodes, where he consecrated a statue to Minerva, and arrived safe
on the coast of Peloponnesus, where he was hospitably received
by Gelanor king of Argos. Gelanor had lately ascended the throne,
and the first years of his reign were marked with dissensions with
his subjects. Danaus took advantage of Gelanor’s unpopularity,
and obliged him to abdicate the crown. In Gelanor, the race of the
_Inaehidæ_ was extinguished, and the _Belides_ began to reign at
Argos in Danaus. Some authors say that Gelanor voluntarily resigned
the crown to Danaus, on account of the wrath of Neptune, who had
dried up all the waters of Argolis, to punish the impiety of Inachus.
The success of Danaus invited the 50 sons of Ægyptus to embark
for Greece. They were kindly received by their uncle, who, either
apprehensive of their number, or terrified by an oracle which
threatened his ruin by one of his sons-in-law, caused his daughters,
to whom they were promised in marriage, to murder them the first
night of their nuptials. His fatal orders were executed, but
Hypermnestra alone spared the life of Lynceus. _See:_ Danaides.
Danaus at first persecuted Lynceus with unremitted fury, but he
was afterwards reconciled to him, and he acknowledged him for his
son-in-law and successor, after a reign of 50 years. He died about
1425 years before the christian era, and after death he was honoured
with a splendid monument in the town of Argos, which still existed
in the age of Pausanias. According to Æschylus, Danaus left Egypt,
not to be present at the marriage of his daughters with the sons of
his brother, a connection which he deemed unlawful and impious. The
ship in which Danaus came to Greece was called _Armais_, and was
the first that had ever appeared there. It is said that the use of
pumps was first introduced into Greece by Danaus. _Apollodorus_,
bk. 2, ch. 1.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 19.――_Hyginus_, fable 168,
&c.――_Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 91, &c.; bk. 7, ch. 94.
=Dandări= and =Dandarĭdæ=, certain inhabitants near mount Caucasus.
_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 12, ch. 18.
=Dandon=, a man of Illyricum, who, as _Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 48, reports,
lived 500 years.
=Dānŭbius=, a celebrated river, the greatest in Europe, which rises,
according to Herodotus, near the town of Pyrene, in the country of
the Celtæ, and after flowing through the greatest part of Europe,
falls into the Euxine sea. The Greeks called it _Ister_; but the
Romans distinguished it by the appellation of the _Danube_, from its
source till the middle of its course; and from thence to its mouths
they called it _Ister_, like the Greeks. It falls into the Euxine
through seven mouths, or six according to others. Herodotus mentions
five, and modern travellers discover only two. The Danube was
generally supposed to be the northern boundary of the Roman empire
in Europe; and therefore, several castles were erected on its banks,
to check the incursions of the barbarians. It was worshipped as a
deity by the Scythians. According to modern geography, the Danube
rises in Suabia, and after receiving about 40 navigable rivers,
finishes a course of 1600 miles, by emptying itself into the Black
sea. _Dionysius Periegetes._――_Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 33; bk. 4,
ch. 48, &c.――_Strabo_, bk. 4.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.――_Ammianus_,
bk. 23.
=Daŏchus=, an officer of Philip, &c. _Plutarch_, _Demosthenes_.
=Daphnæ=, a town in Egypt on one of the mouths of the Nile, 16 miles
from Pelusium. _Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 30.
=Daphnæus=, a general of Syracuse, against Carthage. _Polyænus_, bk. 5.
=Daphne=, a daughter of the river Peneus or of the Ladon by the goddess
Terra, of whom Apollo became enamoured. This passion had been raised
by Cupid, with whom Apollo, proud of his late conquest over the
serpent Python, had disputed the power of his darts. Daphne heard
with horror the addresses of the god, and endeavoured to remove
herself from his importunities by flight. Apollo pursued her; and
Daphne, fearful of being caught, intreated the assistance of the
gods, who changed her into a laurel. Apollo crowned his head with
the leaves of the laurel, and for ever ordered that that tree should
be sacred to his divinity. Some say that Daphne was admired by
Leucippus, son of Œnomaus king of Pisa, who, to be in her company,
disguised his sex, and attended her in the woods, in the habit of a
huntress. Leucippus gained Daphne’s esteem and love; but Apollo, who
was his powerful rival, discovered his sex, and Leucippus was killed
by the companions of Diana. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, li. 452,
&c.――_Parthenius_, _Narrationes Amatoriæ_, ch. 15.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 8, ch. 20.――――A daughter of Tiresias priestess in the temple of
Delphi, supposed by some to be the same as Manto. She was consecrated
to the service of Apollo by the Epigoni, or, according to others, by
the goddess Tellus. She was called Sibyl, on account of the wildness
of her looks and expressions when she delivered oracles. Her oracles
were generally in verse, and Homer, according to some accounts,
has introduced much of her poetry in his compositions. _Diodorus_,
bk. 4.――_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 5.――――A famous grove near Antioch,
consecrated to voluptuousness and luxury.
=Daphnēphŏria=, a festival in honour of Apollo, celebrated every ninth
year by the Bœotians. It was then usual to adorn an olive bough with
garlands of laurel and other flowers, and place on the top a brazen
globe, on which were suspended smaller ones. In the middle were
placed a number of crowns, and a globe of inferior size, and the
bottom was adorned with a saffron-coloured garment. The globe on the
top represented the sun, or Apollo; that in the middle was an emblem
of the moon, and the others of the stars. The crowns, which were 65
in number, represented the sun’s annual revolutions. This bough was
carried in solemn procession by a beautiful youth of an illustrious
family, and whose parents were both living. The youth was dressed in
rich garments which reached to the ground, his hair hung loose and
dishevelled, his head was covered with a golden crown, and he wore
on his feet shoes called _Iphicratidæ_, from Iphicrates, an Athenian
who first invented them. He was called δαφνηφορος, _laurel-bearer_,
and at that time he executed the office of priest of Apollo. He was
preceded by one of his nearest relations, bearing a rod adorned with
garlands, and behind him followed a train of virgins, with branches
in their hands. In this order the procession advanced as far as
the temple of Apollo, surnamed Ismenius, where supplicatory hymns
were sung to the god. This festival owed its origin to the following
circumstance: When an oracle advised the Ætolians, who inhabited
Arne and the adjacent country, to abandon their ancient possessions,
and go in quest of a settlement, they invaded the Theban territories,
which at that time were pillaged by an army of Pelasgians. As
the celebration of Apollo’s festivals was near, both nations, who
religiously observed it, laid aside all hostilities, and according
to custom, cut down laurel boughs from mount Helicon and in the
neighbourhood of the river Melas, and walked in procession in honour
of the divinity. The day that this solemnity was observed, Polemates
the general of the ♦Bœotian army saw a youth in a dream that
presented him with a complete suit of armour, and commanded the
Bœotians to offer solemn prayers to Apollo, and walk in procession
with laurel boughs in their hands every ninth year. Three days
after this dream, the Bœotian general made a sally, and cut off
the greatest part of the besiegers, who were compelled by this blow
to relinquish their enterprise. Polemates immediately instituted
a novennial festival to the god who seemed to be the patron of the
Bœotians. _Pausanias_, _Bœotia_, &c.
♦ ‘Bœtian’ replaced with ‘Bœotian’
=Daphnis=, a shepherd of Sicily, son of Mercury by a Sicilian nymph.
He was educated by the nymphs, Pan taught him to sing and play upon
the pipe, and the muses inspired him with the love of poetry. It was
supposed that he was the first who wrote pastoral poetry, in which
his successor Theocritus so happily excelled. He was extremely fond
of hunting; and at his death five of his dogs, from their attachment
to him, refused all aliments, and pined away. From the celebrity
of this shepherd, the name of _Daphnis_ has been appropriated by
the poets, ancient and modern, to express a person fond of rural
employments, and the peaceful innocence which accompanies the tending
of flocks. _Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 10, ch. 18.――_Diodorus_,
bk. 4.――――There was another shepherd on mount Ida of the same name
changed into a rock, according to _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 4,
li. 275.――――A servant of Nicocrates tyrant of Cyrene, &c. _Polyænus_,
bk. 8.――――A grammarian. _Suetonius_, _Lives of the Grammarians_.
――――A son of Paris and Œnone.
=Daphnus=, a river of Locris, into which the body of Hesiod was thrown
after his murder. _Plutarch_, _de Convivium Septem Sapientium_.――――A
physician who preferred a supper to a dinner, because he supposed
that the moon assisted digestion. _Athenæus_, bk. 7.
=Darăba=, a town of Arabia.
=Darantasia=, a town of Belgic Gaul, called also _Forum Claudii_, and
now _Motier_.
=Daraps=, a king of the Gangaridæ, &c. _Flaccus_, bk. 6, li. 67.
=Dardăni=, the inhabitants of Dardania.――――Also a people of Mœsia,
very inimical to the neighbouring power of Macedonia. _Livy_, bk. 26,
ch. 25; bk. 27, ch. 33; bk. 31, ch. 28; bk. 40, ch. 57.――_Pliny_,
bk. 4, ch. 1.
=Dardănia=, a town or country of Troas, from which the Trojans were
called _Dardani_ and _Dardanidæ_. There is also a country of the
same name near Illyricum. This appellation is also applied to
Samothrace. _Virgil_ & _Ovid_, _passim_.――_Strabo_, bk. 7.
=Dardănĭdes=, a name given to Æneas, as descended from Dardanus. The
word, in the plural number, is applied to the Trojan women. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_.
=Dardanium=, a promontory of Troas, called from the small town of
_Dardanus_, about seven miles from Abydos. The two castles built on
each side of the strait by the emperor Mahomet IV., A.D. 1659, gave
the name of _Dardanelles_ to the place. _Strabo_, bk. 13.
=Dardănus=, a son of Jupiter and Electra, who killed his brother
Jasius to obtain the kingdom of Etruria after the death of his
reputed father Corytus, and fled to Samothrace, and thence to
Asia Minor, where he married Batia the daughter of Teucer, king
of Teucria. After the death of his father-in-law he ascended the
throne, and reigned 62 years. He built the city of Dardania, and
was reckoned the founder of the kingdom of Troy. He was succeeded
by Erichthonius. According to some, Corybas his nephew accompanied
him to Teucria, where he introduced the worship of Cybele. Dardanus
taught his subjects to worship Minerva; and he gave them two statues
of the goddess, one of which is well known by the name of Palladium.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 5, li. 167.――_Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 4.
――_Hyginus_, fables 155 & 275.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3.――_Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 20.――――A Trojan killed by Achilles. _Homer_, _Iliad_,
bk. 20, li. 460.
=Dardării=, a nation near the Palus Mæotis. _Plutarch_, _Lucullus_.
=Dares=, a Phrygian who lived during the Trojan war, in which he was
engaged, and of which he wrote the history in Greek. This history
was extant in the age of Ælian; the Latin translation, now extant,
is universally believed to be spurious, though it is attributed by
some to Cornelius Nepos. The best edition is that of Smids cum not.
var. 4to & 8vo, Amsterdam, 1702.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 5, lis. 10
& 27.――――One of the companions of Æneas, descended from Amycus, and
celebrated as a pugilist at the funeral games in honour of Hector,
where he killed Butes. He was killed by Turnus in Italy. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 5, li. 369; bk. 12, li. 363.
=Darētis=, a country of Macedonia.
=Darīa=, a town of Mesopotamia.
=Dariaves=, the name of Darius in Persian. _Strabo_, bk. 16.
=Dariobrigum=, a town of Gaul, now _Vennes_ in Britany.
=Darītæ=, a people of Persia. _Herodotus_, bk. 3, ch. 92.
=Darīus=, a noble satrap of Persia, son of Hystaspes, who conspired
with six other noblemen to destroy Smerdis, who usurped the crown
of Persia after the death of Cambyses. On the murder of the usurper,
the seven conspirators universally agreed, that he whose horse
neighed first should be appointed king. In consequence of this
resolution the groom of Darius previously led his master’s horse
to a mare at a place near which the seven noblemen were to pass.
On the morrow before sunrise, when they proceeded all together,
the horse, recollecting the mare, suddenly neighed; and at the same
time a clap of thunder was heard, as if in approbation of the choice.
The noblemen dismounted from their horses, and saluted Darius king;
and a resolution was made among them, that the king’s wives and
concubines should be taken from no other family but that of the
conspirators, and that they should for ever enjoy the unlimited
privilege of being admitted into the king’s presence without
previous introduction. Darius was 29 years old when he ascended
the throne, and he soon distinguished himself by his activity and
military accomplishments. He besieged Babylon, which he took after
a siege of 20 months, by the artifices of Zopyrus. From thence he
marched against the Scythians, and in his way conquered Thrace. This
expedition was unsuccessful; and, after several losses and disasters
in the wilds of Scythia, the king retired with shame, and soon after
turned his arms against the Indians, whom he subdued. The burning
of Sardis, which was a Grecian colony, incensed the Athenians, and a
war was kindled between Greece and Persia. Darius was so exasperated
against the Greeks, that a servant every evening, by his order,
repeated these words: “Remember, O king, to punish the Athenians.”
Mardonius, the king’s son-in-law, was entrusted with the care of
the war, but his army was destroyed by the Thracians; and Darius,
more animated by his loss, sent a more considerable force, under
the command of Datis and Artaphernes. They were conquered at the
celebrated battle of Marathon, by 10,000 Athenians; and the Persians
lost in that expedition no less than 206,000 men. Darius was not
disheartened by this severe blow, but he resolved to carry on the
war in person, and immediately ordered a still larger army to be
levied. He died in the midst of his preparations, B.C. 485, after
a reign of 36 years, in the 65th year of his age. _Herodotus_, bks.
1, 2, &c.――_Diodorus_, bk. 1.――_Justin_, bk. 1, ch. 9.――_Plutarch_,
_Aristotle_.――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Miltiades_.――――The second king of
Persia, of that name, was also called _Ochus_ or _Nothus_, because
he was the illegitimate son of Artaxerxes by a concubine. Soon after
the murder of Xerxes he ascended the throne of Persia, and married
Parysatis his sister, a cruel and ambitious woman, by whom he had
Artaxerxes Memnon, Amestris, and Cyrus the younger. He carried on
many wars with success, under the conduct of his generals and of
his son Cyrus. He died B.C. 404, after a reign of 19 years, and was
succeeded by his son Artaxerxes, who asked him on his death-bed, what
had been the guide of his conduct in the management of the empire,
that he might imitate him? “The dictates of justice and of religion,”
replied the expiring monarch. _Justin_, bk. 5, ch. 11.――_Diodorus_,
bk. 12.――――The third of that name was the last king of Persia,
surnamed _Codomanus_. He was son of Arsanes and Sysigambis, and
descended from Darius Nothus. The eunuch Bagoas raised him to the
throne, though not nearly allied to the royal family, in hopes that
he would be subservient to his will; but he prepared to poison him,
when he saw him despise his advice, and aim at independence. Darius
discovered his perfidy, and made him drink the poison which he had
prepared against his life. The peace of Darius was early disturbed,
and Alexander invaded Persia to avenge the injuries which the Greeks
had suffered from the predecessors of Darius. The king of Persia met
his adversary in person, at the head of 600,000 men. This army was
remarkable more for its opulence and luxury than for the military
courage of its soldiers; and Athenæus mentions that the camp of
Darius was crowded with 277 cooks, 29 waiters, 87 cup-bearers, 40
servants to perfume the king, and 66 to prepare garlands and flowers
to deck the dishes and meat which appeared on the royal table. With
these forces Darius met Alexander. A battle was fought near the
Granicus, in which the Persians were easily defeated. Another was
soon after fought near Issus; and Alexander left 110,000 of the
enemy dead on the field of battle, and took among the prisoners of
war, the mother, wife, and children of Darius. The darkness of the
night favoured the retreat of Darius, and he saved himself by flying
in disguise, on the horse of his armour-bearer. These losses weakened,
but discouraged not Darius. He assembled another more powerful army,
and the last decisive battle was fought at Arbela. The victory was
long doubtful; but the intrepidity of Alexander, and the superior
valour of the Macedonians, prevailed over the effeminate Persians;
and Darius, sensible of his disgrace and ruin, fled towards Media.
His misfortunes were now completed. Bessus the governor of Bactriana
took away his life, in hopes of succeeding him on the throne; and
Darius was found by the Macedonians in his chariot, covered with
wounds, and almost expiring, B.C. 331. He asked for water, and
exclaimed, when he received it from the hand of a Macedonian, “It
is the greatest of my misfortunes that I cannot reward thy humanity.
Beg Alexander to accept my warmest thanks for the tenderness with
which he has treated my wretched family, whilst I am doomed to
perish by the hand of a man whom I have loaded with kindness.” These
words of the dying monarch were reported to Alexander, who covered
the dead body with his own mantle, and honoured it with a most
magnificent funeral. The traitor Bessus met with a due punishment
from the conquerer, who continued his kindness to the unfortunate
family of Darius. Darius has been accused of imprudence, for the
imperious and arrogant manner in which he wrote his letters to
Alexander, in the midst of his misfortunes. In him the empire of
Persia was extinguished 228 years after it had been first founded
by Cyrus the Great. _Diodorus_, bk. 17.――_Plutarch_, _Alexander_.
――_Justin_, bks. 10, 11, &c.――_Curtius._――――A son of Xerxes, who
married Artaynta, and was killed by Artabanus. _Herodotus_, bk. 9,
ch. 108.――_Diodorus_, bk. 11.――――A son of Artaxerxes, declared
successor to the throne, as being the eldest prince. He conspired
against his father’s life, and was capitally punished. _Plutarch_,
_Artaxerxes_.
=Dascon=, a man who founded Camarina. _Thucydides_, bk. 6, ch. 5.
=Dascylitis=, a province of Persia. _Thucydides_, bk. 1, ch. 129.
=Dascy̆lus=, the father of Gyges. _Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 8.
=Dasea=, a town of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 27.
=Dasius=, a chief of Salapia, who favoured Annibal. _Livy_, bk. 26,
ch. 38.
=Dassarĕtæ=, =Dassarītæ=, =Dassarēni=, or =Dassariti=, a people of
Illyricum, or Macedonia. _Plutarch_, _Titus Flamininus_.
=Datămes=, son of Camissares, governor of Caria and general of the
armies of Artaxerxes. The influence of his enemies at court obliged
him to fly for safety, after he had greatly signalized himself by
his military exploits. He took up arms in his own defence, and
the king made war against him. He was treacherously killed by
Mithridates, who had invited him under pretence of entering into the
most inviolable connection and friendship, 362 B.C. _Cornelius Nepos_,
_Datames_.
=Dataphernes=, one of the friends of Bessus. After the murder of Darius,
he betrayed Bessus into Alexander’s hands. He also revolted from the
conqueror, and was delivered up by the Dahæ. _Curtius_, bk. 7, chs.
5 & 8.
=Datis=, a general of Darius I., sent with an army of 200,000 foot and
10,000 horse, against the Greeks, in conjunction with Artaphernes.
He was defeated at the celebrated battle of Marathon by Miltiades,
and some time after put to death by the Spartans. _Cornelius Nepos_,
_Miltiades_.
=Datos=, or =Daton=, a town of Thrace, on a small eminence, near the
Strymon. There is in the neighbourhood a fruitful plain, from which
Proserpine, according to some, was carried away by Pluto. That city
was so rich, that the ancients generally made use of the word _Datos_
to express abundance. When the king of Macedonia conquered it he
called it _Philippi_, after his own name. _Appian_, _Civil Wars_.
=Davara=, a hill near mount Taurus, in Asia Minor.
=Daulis=, a nymph, from whom the city of Daulis in Phocis, anciently
called _Anacris_, received its name. It was there that Philomela
and Procne made Tereus eat the flesh of his son, and hence the
nightingale, into which Philomela was changed, is often called
_Daulias avis_. _Ovid_, ltr. 15, li. 154.――_Strabo_, bk. 9.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 4.――_Ptolemy_, bk. 3, ch. 15.――_Livy_,
bk. 32, ch. 18.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 3.
=Dauni=, a people on the eastern part of Italy, conquered by Daunus,
from whom they received their name.
=Daunia=, a name given to the northern parts of Apulia, on the coast
of the Adriatic. It receives its name from Daunus, who settled there,
and is now called _Capitanata_. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8, li. 146.
――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 9, li. 500; bk. 12, li. 429.――_Horace_,
bk. 4, ode 6, li. 27.――――Juturna, the sister of Turnus, was called
_Daunia_, after she had been made a goddess by Jupiter. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 12, lis. 139 & 785.
=Daunus=, a son of Pilumnus and Danae. He came from Illyricum into
Apulia, where he reigned over part of the country, which from him
was called Daunia, and he was still on the throne when Diomedes came
to Italy. _Ptolemy_, bk. 3, ch. 1.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 4.――_Strabo_,
bk. 5.――――A river of Apulia, now _Carapelle_. _Horace_, bk. 3, ode 30.
=Daurĭfer= and =Daurises=, a brave general of Darius, treacherously
killed by the Carians. _Herodotus_, bk. 5, ch. 116, &c.
=Davus=, a comic character in the Andria of Terence. _Horace_, bk. 1,
satire 10, li. 40.
=Debæ=, a nation of Arabia. _Diodorus_, bk. 3.
=Decapŏlis=, a district of Judæa, from its 10 cities. _Pliny_, bk. 5,
ch. 18.
=Decebălus=, a warlike king of the Daci, who made a successful war
against Domitian. He was conquered by Trajan, Domitian’s successor,
and he obtained peace. His active spirit again kindled rebellion,
and the Roman emperor marched against him, and defeated him. He
destroyed himself, and his head was brought to Rome, and Dacia became
a Roman province, A.D. 103. _Dio Cassius_, bk. 68.
=Deceleum= (or ea), now _Biala Castro_, a small village of Attica,
north of Athens; which, when in the hands of the Spartans, proved
a very galling garrison to the Athenians. The Peloponnesian war
has occasionally been called _Decelean_, because for some time
hostilities were carried on in its neighbourhood. _Cornelius Nepos_,
bk. 7, ch. 4.
=Decĕlus=, a man who informed Castor and Pollux that their sister,
whom Theseus had carried away, was concealed at Aphidnæ. _Herodotus_,
bk. 9, ch. 73.
=Decemvĭri=, 10 magistrates of absolute authority among the Romans.
The privileges of the patricians raised dissatisfaction among the
plebeians; who, though freed from the power of the Tarquins, still
saw that the administration of justice depended upon the will and
caprice of their superiors, without any written statute to direct
them, and convince them that they were governed with equity and
impartiality. The tribunes complained to the senate, and demanded
that a code of laws might be framed for the use and benefit of the
Roman people. This petition was complied with, and three ambassadors
were sent to Athens, and to all the other Grecian states, to collect
the laws of Solon, and of the other celebrated legislators of Greece.
Upon the return of the commissioners, it was universally agreed that
10 new magistrates, called _decemviri_, should be elected from the
senate, to put the project into execution. Their power was absolute;
all other offices ceased after their election, and they presided
over the city with regal authority. They were invested with the
badges of the consul, in the enjoyment of which they succeeded by
turns, and only one was preceded by the fasces, and had the power
of assembling the senate and confirming decrees. The first decemvirs
were Appius Claudius, Titus Genutius, Publius Sextus, Spurius
Veturius, Caius Julius, Aulus Manlius, Servius Sulpitius Pluriatius,
Titus Romulus, Spurius Posthumius, A.U.C. 303. Under them, the laws
which had been exposed to public view, that every citizen might speak
his sentiments, were publicly approved of as constitutional, and
ratified by the priests and augurs in the most solemn and religious
manner. These laws were 10 in number, and were engraved on tables of
brass; two were afterwards added, and they were called the laws of
the 12 tables, _leges duodecim tabularum_, and _leges decemvirales_.
The decemviral power, which was beheld by all ranks of people with
the greatest satisfaction, was continued; but in the third year
after their creation, the decemvirs became odious, on account of
their tyranny; and the attempt of Appius Claudius to ravish Virginia,
was followed by the total abolition of the office. The people were
so exasperated against them, that they demanded them from the senate,
to burn them alive. Consuls were again appointed, and tranquillity
re-established in the state.――――There were other officers in Rome,
called _decemvirs_, who were originally appointed, in the absence
of the pretor, to administer justice. Their appointment became
afterwards necessary, and they generally assisted at sales called
_subhastationes_, because a spear, _hasta_, was fixed at the door
of the place where the goods were exposed to sale. They were called
_decemviri litibus judicandis_. The officers whom Tarquin appointed
to guard the Sibylline books, were also called decemviri. They were
originally two in number, called _duumviri_, till the year of Rome
388, when their number was increased to 10, five of which were chosen
from the plebeians, and five from the patricians. Sylla increased
their number to 15, called _quindecemvirs_.
=Decetia=, a town of Gaul. _Cæsar._
=Decia lex=, was enacted by Marcus Decius the tribune, A.U.C. 442, to
empower the people to appoint two proper persons to fit and repair
the fleets.
=Lucius Decidius Saxa=, a Celtiberian in Cæsar’s camp. _Cæsar_, _Civil
War_, bk. 1.
=Decineus=, a celebrated soothsayer. _Strabo_, bk. 16.
=Decius Mus=, a celebrated Roman consul, who, after many glorious
exploits, devoted himself to the gods’ manes for the safety of his
country, in a battle against the Latins, 338 years B.C. His son
Decius imitated his example, and devoted himself in like manner in
his fourth consulship, when fighting against the Gauls and Samnites,
B.C. 296. His grandson also did the same in the wars against Pyrrhus
and the Tarentines, B.C. 280. This action of devoting oneself was
of infinite service to the state. The soldiers were animated by the
example, and induced to follow with intrepidity a commander who,
arrayed in an unusual dress, and addressing himself to the gods with
solemn invocation, rushed into the thickest part of the enemy to
meet his fate. _Livy_, bks. 8, 9, &c.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 5, ch.
6.――_Polybius_, bk. 2.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 824.――――Brutus,
conducted Cæsar to the senate-house the day that he was murdered.
――Cnæus Metius Q. Trajanus, a native of Pannonia, sent by the
emperor Philip to appease a sedition in Mœsia. Instead of obeying
his master’s command, he assumed the imperial purple, and soon after
marched against him, and at his death became the only emperor. He
signalized himself against the Persians; and when he marched against
the Goths, he pushed his horse in a deep marsh, from which he could
not extricate himself, and he perished with all his army by the
darts of the barbarians, A.D. 251, after a reign of two years.
This monarch enjoyed the character of a brave man and of a great
disciplinarian; and by his justice and exemplary life merited the
title of _Optimus_, which a servile senate had lavished upon him.
=Decurio=, a subaltern officer in the Roman armies. He commanded a
_decuria_, which consisted of 10 men, and was the third part of
a _turma_, or the thirtieth part of a _legio_ of horse, which was
composed of 300 men. The badge of the centurions was a vine rod or
sapling, and each had a deputy called _optio_. There were certain
magistrates in the provinces called _decuriones municipales_, who
formed a body to represent the Roman senate in free and corporate
towns. They consisted of 10, whence the name; and their duty
extended to watch over the interest of their fellow-citizens,
and to increase the revenues of the commonwealth. Their court was
called _curia decurionum_, and _minor senatus_; and their decrees,
called _decreta decurionum_, were marked with two D. D. at the top.
They generally styled themselves _civitatum patres curiales_, and
_honorati municipiorum senatores_. They were elected with the same
ceremonies as the Roman senators; they were to be at least 25 years
of age, and to be possessed of a certain sum of money. The election
happened on the calends of March.
=Decumates agri=, lands in Germany which paid the tenth part of their
value to the Romans. _Tacitus_, _Germania_, ch. 29.
=Deditamĕnes=, a friend of Alexander, made governor of Babylonia.
_Curtius_, bk. 8, ch. 3.
=Degis=, a brother of Decebalus king of the Daci. He came as ambassador
to the court of Domitian. _Martial_, bk. 5, ltr. 3.
=Dējănīra=, a daughter of Œneus king of Ætolia. Her beauty procured
her many admirers, and her father promised to give her in marriage
to him only who proved to be the strongest of all his competitors.
Hercules obtained the prize, and married Dejanira, by whom he had
three children, the most known of whom is Hyllus. As Dejanira was
once travelling with her husband, they were stopped by the swollen
streams of the Evenus, and the centaur Nessus offered Hercules
to convey her safe to the opposite shore. The hero consented; but
no sooner had Nessus gained the bank, than he attempted to offer
violence to Dejanira, and to carry her away in the sight of her
husband. Hercules, upon this, aimed from the other shore a poisoned
arrow at the seducer, and mortally wounded him. Nessus, as he
expired, wished to avenge his death upon his murderer; and he gave
Dejanira his tunic, which was covered with blood, poisoned and
infected by the arrow, observing that it had the power of reclaiming
a husband from unlawful loves. Dejanira accepted the present;
and when Hercules proved faithless to her bed, she sent him the
centaur’s tunic, which instantly caused his death. _See:_ Hercules.
Dejanira was so disconsolate at the death of her husband, which
she had ignorantly occasioned, that she destroyed herself. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bks. 8 & 9.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Seneca_,
_Hercules_.――_Hyginus_, fable 34.
=Deicoon=, a Trojan prince, son of Pergasus, intimate with Æneas. He
was killed by Agamemnon. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 4, li. 534.――――A son
of Hercules and Megara. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 7.
=Dēĭdămīa=, a daughter of Lycomedes king of Scyros. She bore a son
called Pyrrhus, or Neoptolemus, to Achilles, who was disguised at
her father’s court in woman’s clothes, under the name of Pyrrha.
_Propertius_, bk. 2, poem 9.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 13.――――A
daughter of Pyrrhus, killed by the Epirots. _Polyænus._――――A
daughter of Adrastus king of Argos, called also Hippodamia.
=Deilēon=, a companion of Hercules in his expedition against the
Amazons. _Flaccus_, bk. 5, li. 115.
=Deilŏchus=, a son of Hercules.
=Deimăchus=, a son of Neleus and Chloris, was killed, with all his
brothers, except Nestor, by Hercules. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9.
――――The father of Enarette. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 7.
=Deiŏces=, a son of Phraortes, by whose means the Medes delivered
themselves from the yoke of the Assyrians. He presided as judge
among his countrymen, and his great popularity and love of equity
raised him to the throne, and he made himself absolute, B.C. 700.
He was succeeded by his son Phraortes, after a reign of 53 years.
He built Ecbatana according to Herodotus, and surrounded it with
seven different walls, in the middle of which was the royal palace.
_Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 96, &c.――_Polyænus._
=Deiŏchus=, a Greek captain killed by Paris in the Trojan war. _Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 15, li. 341.
=Dēīŏne=, the mother of Miletus by Apollo. Miletus is often called
_Deionides_, on account of his mother. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 9, li. 442.
=Dēīŏneus=, a king of Phocis, who married Diomede daughter of Xuthus,
by whom he had Dia. He gave his daughter Dia in marriage to Ixion,
who promised to make a present to his father-in-law. Deioneus
accordingly visited the house of Ixion, and was thrown into a large
hole filled with burning coal, by his son-in-law. _Hyginus_, fables
48 & 241.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, chs. 7 & 9; bk. 2, ch. 4.
=Dēĭŏpēia=, a nymph, the fairest of all the 14 nymphs that attended
upon Juno. The goddess promised her in marriage to Æolus the god of
the winds, if he would destroy the fleet of Æneas, which was sailing
for Italy. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 76.――――One of the attendant
nymphs of Cyrene. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 4, li. 343.
=Deiotărus=, a governor of Galatia, made king of that province by
the Roman people. In the civil wars of Pompey and Cæsar, Deiotarus
followed the interest of the former. After the battle of Pharsalia,
Cæsar severely reprimanded Deiotarus for his attachment to Pompey,
deprived him of part of his kingdom, and left him only the bare
title of royalty. When he was accused by his grandson of attempts
upon Cæsar’s life, Cicero ably defended him in the Roman senate.
He joined Brutus with a large army, and faithfully supported the
republican cause. His wife was barren; but fearing that her husband
might die without issue, she presented him with a beautiful slave,
and tenderly educated, as her own, the children of this union.
Deiotarus died in an advanced old age. _Strabo_, bk. 12.――_Lucan_,
bk. 5, li. 55.
=Deĭphĭla.= _See:_ Deipyle.
=Dēĭphŏbe=, a sibyl of Cumæ, daughter of Glaucus. It is supposed that
she led Æneas to the infernal regions. _See:_ Sibyllæ. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 36.
=Dēĭphŏbus=, a son of Priam and Hecuba, who, after the death of his
brother Paris, married Helen. His wife unworthily betrayed him, and
introduced into his chamber her old husband Menelaus, to whom she
wished to reconcile herself. He was shamefully mutilated and killed
by Menelaus. He had highly distinguished himself during the war,
especially in his two combats with Merion, and in that in which
he slew Ascalaphus son of Mars. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 495.
――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 13.――――A son of Hippolytus, who purified
Hercules after the murder of Iphitus. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 6.
=Deĭphon=, a brother of Triptolemus, son of Celeus and Metanira.
When Ceres travelled over the world, she stopped at his father’s
court, and undertook to nurse him and bring him up. To reward the
hospitality of Celeus, the goddess began to make his son immortal;
and every evening she placed him on burning coals to purify him from
whatever mortal particles he still possessed. The uncommon growth
of Deiphon astonished Metanira, who wished to see what Ceres did to
make him so vigorous. She was frightened to see her son on burning
coals, and the shrieks that she uttered disturbed the mysterious
operations of the goddess, and Deiphon perished in the flames.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 5.――――The husband of Hyrnetho, daughter of
Temenus king of Argos. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 7.
=Dēiphontes=, a general of Temenus, who took Epidauria, &c. _Pausanias_,
bk. 2, ch. 12.――――A general of the Dorians, &c. _Polyænus._
=Dēipy̆le=, a daughter of Adrastus, who married Tydeus, by whom she had
Diomedes. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 8.
=Dēipy̆lus=, a son of Sthenelus, in the Trojan war. _Homer_, _Iliad_,
bk. 5.
=Dēipy̆rus=, a Grecian chief during the Trojan war. _Homer_, _Iliad_,
bk. 8.
=Deldon=, a king of Mysia, defeated by Crassus.
=Dēlia=, a festival celebrated every fifth year in the island of Delos,
in honour of Apollo. It was first instituted by Theseus, who, at his
return from Crete, placed a statue there, which he had received from
Ariadne. At the celebration, they crowned the statue of the goddess
with garlands, appointed a choir of music, and exhibited horse-races.
They afterwards led a dance, in which they imitated, by their motions,
the various windings of the Cretan labyrinth, from which Theseus had
extricated himself by Ariadne’s assistance.――――There was also another
festival of the same name, yearly celebrated by the Athenians in
Delos. It was also instituted by Theseus, who, when he was going to
Crete, made a vow, that if he returned victorious, he would yearly
visit in a solemn manner the temple of Delos. The persons employed
in this annual procession were called _Deliastæ_ and _Theori_.
The ship, the same which carried Theseus, and had been carefully
preserved by the Athenians, was called _Theoria_ and _Delias_. When
the ship was ready for the voyage, the priest of Apollo solemnly
adorned the stern with garlands, and a universal lustration was made
all over the city. The _Theori_ were crowned with laurel, and before
them proceeded men armed with axes, in commemoration of Theseus, who
had cleared the way from Trœzene to Athens, and delivered the country
from robbers. When the ship arrived at Delos, they offered solemn
sacrifices to the god of the island, and celebrated a festival in
his honour. After this they retired to their ship, and sailed back
to Athens, where all the people of the city ran in crowds to meet
them. Every appearance of festivity prevailed at their approach, and
the citizens opened their doors, and prostrated themselves before
the Deliastæ, as they walked in procession. During this festival,
it was not lawful to put to death any malefactor, and on that
account the life of Socrates was prolonged for 30 days. _Xenophon_,
_Memorabilia_ & _Symposium_.――♦_Plato_, _Phædo_.――_Seneca_, ltr. 70.
♦ ‘Plutarch’ replaced with ‘Plato’
=Dēlia=, a surname of Diana, because she was born in Delos. _Virgil_,
_Eclogues_, poem 3, li. 67.
=Dēliădes=, a son of Glaucus, killed by his brother Bellerophon.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 3.――――The priestesses in Apollo’s temple.
_Homer_, _Hymn to Apollo_.
=Dēlium=, a temple of Apollo.――――A town of Bœotia opposite Calchis,
famous for a battle fought there, B.C. 424, &c. _Livy_, bk. 31,
ch. 45; bk. 35, ch. 51.
=Dēlius=, a surname of Apollo, because he was born in Delos.――――Quintus,
an officer of Antony, who, when he was sent to cite Cleopatra
before his master, advised her to make her appearance in the most
captivating attire. The plan succeeded. He afterwards abandoned his
friend, and fled to Augustus, who received him with great kindness.
Horace has addressed bk. 2, ode 3 to him. _Plutarch_, _Antonius_.
=Delmatius Flavius Julius=, a nephew of Constantine the Great, honoured
with the title of Cæsar, and put in possession of Thrace, Macedonia,
and Achaia. His great virtues were unable to save him from a violent
death, and he was assassinated by his own soldiers, &c.
=Delmĭnium=, a town of Dalmatia. _Florus_, bk. 4, ch. 12.
=Dēlos=, one of the Cyclades at the north of Naxos, was severally
called Lagia, Ortygia, Asteria, Chlamidia, Pelasgia, Pyrpyle,
Cynthus, and Cynæthus, and now bears the name of Sailles. It was
called Delos from δηλος, because it suddenly made its _appearance_
on the surface of the sea, by the power of Neptune, who, according
to the mythologists, permitted Latona to bring forth there, when she
was persecuted all over the earth, and could find no safe asylum.
_See:_ Apollo. The island is celebrated for the nativity of Apollo
and Diana; and the solemnity with which the festivals of these
deities were celebrated there, by the inhabitants of the neighbouring
islands and of the continent, is well known. One of the altars of
Apollo, in the island, was reckoned among the seven wonders of the
world. It had been erected by Apollo when only four years old, and
made with the horns of goats, killed by Diana on mount Cynthus. It
was unlawful to sacrifice any living creature upon that altar, which
was religiously kept pure from blood and every pollution. The whole
island of Delos was held in such veneration, that the Persians, who
had pillaged and profaned all the temples of Greece, never offered
violence to the temple of Apollo, but respected it with the most
awful reverence. Apollo, whose image was in the shape of a dragon,
delivered there oracles during the summer, in a plain manner, without
any ambiguity or obscure meaning. No dogs, as Thucydides mentions,
were permitted to enter the island. It was unlawful for a man to die,
or for a child to be born there; and when the Athenians were ordered
to purify the place, they dug up all the dead bodies that had been
interred there, and transported them to the neighbouring islands.
An edict was also issued, which commanded all persons labouring
under any mortal or dangerous disease to be instantly removed to the
adjacent island called Rhane. Some mythologists suppose that Asteria,
who changed herself into a quail, to avoid the importuning addresses
of Jupiter, was metamorphosed into this island, originally called
Ortygia _ab_ ὀρτυξ, _a quail_. The people of Delos are described by
_Cicero_, _Academica_, bk. 2, chs. 16 & 18; bk. 4, ch. 18, as famous
for rearing hens. _Strabo_, bks. 8 & 10.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 5, li. 329; bk. 6, li. 333.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Pliny_, bk.
4, ch. 12.――_Plutarch_, _de Sollertia Animalium_, &c.――_Thucydides_,
bks. 3, 4, &c.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 73.――_Ptolemy_, bk. 3,
ch. 15.――_Callimachus_, _Hymn to Delos_.――_Claudian_, _Panegyricus
de Consulatu Honorii Augusti_, bk. 4.
=Delphi=, now _Castri_, a town of Phocis, situate in a valley at
the south-west side of mount Parnassus. It was also called _Pytho_,
because the serpent Python was killed there; and it received the
name of _Delphi_, from Delphus the son of Apollo. Some have also
called it _Parnassia Nape_, the _valley_ of Parnassus. It was famous
for a temple of Apollo, and for an oracle celebrated in every age
and country. The origin of the oracle, though fabulous, is described
as something wonderful. A number of goats that were feeding on mount
Parnassus came near a place which had a deep and long perforation.
The steam which issued from the hole seemed to inspire the goats,
and they played and frisked about in such an uncommon manner,
that the goat-herd was tempted to lean on the hole, and see what
mysteries the place contained. He was immediately seized with a fit
of enthusiasm, and his expressions were wild and extravagant, and
passed for prophecies. This circumstance was soon known about the
country, and many experienced the same enthusiastic inspiration.
The place was revered, and a temple was soon after erected in honour
of Apollo, and a city built. According to some accounts, Apollo was
not the first who gave oracles there; but Terra, Neptune, Themis,
and Phœbe were in possession of the place before the son of Latona.
The oracles were generally given in verse; but when it had been
sarcastically observed that the god and patron of poetry was the
most imperfect poet in the world, the priestess delivered her answers
in prose. The oracles were always delivered by a priestess called
_Pythia_. _See:_ Pythia. The temple was built and destroyed several
times. It was customary for those who consulted the oracle to make
rich presents to the god of Delphi; and no monarch distinguished
himself more by his donations than Crœsus. This sacred repository of
opulence was often the object of plunder, and the people of Phocis
seized 10,000 talents from it, and Nero carried away no less than
500 statues of brass, partly of the gods, and partly of the most
♦illustrious heroes. In another age, Constantine the Great removed
its most splendid ornaments to his new capital. It was universally
believed, and supported, by the ancients, that Delphi was in the
middle of the earth; and on that account it was called _terræ
umbilicus_. This, according to mythology, was first found out by
two doves, which Jupiter had let loose from the two extremities of
the earth, and which met at the place where the temple of Delphi
was built. _Apollonius_, bk. 2, li. 706.――_Diodorus_, bk. 16.
――_Plutarch_, _de Defectu Oraculorum_, &c.――_Pausanias_, bk. 10,
ch. 6, &c.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 10, li. 168.――_Strabo_,
bk. 9.
♦ ‘illustrous’ replaced with ‘illustrious’
=Delphĭcus=, a surname of Apollo, from the worship paid to his
divinity at Delphi.
=Delphīnia=, festivals at Ægina, in honour of Apollo of Delphi.
=Delphīnium=, a place in Bœotia, opposite Eubœa.
=Delphis=, the priestess of Delphi. _Martial_, bk. 9, ltr. 43.
=Delphus=, a son of Apollo, who built Delphi, and consecrated it to
his father. The name of his mother is differently mentioned. She is
called by some Celæno, by others Melæne daughter of Cephis, and by
others Thyas daughter of Castalius, the first who was priestess of
Bacchus. _Hyginus_, fable 161.――_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 6.
=Delphȳne=, a serpent which watched over Jupiter. _Apollodorus_,
bk. 1, ch. 6.
=Delta=, a part of Egypt, which received that name from its resemblance
to the form of the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet. It lies
between the Canopian and Pelusian mouths of the Nile, and begins
to be formed where the river divides itself into several streams.
It has been formed totally by the mud and sand, which are washed
down from the upper parts of Egypt by the Nile, according to ancient
tradition. _Cæsar_, _Alexandrine War_, ch. 27.――_Strabo_, bks. 15
& 17.――_Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 13, &c.――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 16.
=Demădes=, an Athenian, who, from a sailor, became an eloquent orator,
and obtained much influence in the state. He was taken prisoner
at the battle of Cheronæa by Philip, and ingratiated himself into
the favour of that prince, by whom he was greatly esteemed. He was
put to death, with his son, on suspicion of treason, B.C. 322. One
of his orations is extant. _Diodorus_, bks. 16 & 17.――_Plutarch_,
_Demosthenes_.
=Demænetus=, a rhetorician of Syracuse, enemy to Timoleon. _Cornelius
Nepos_, _Timoleon_, ch. 5.
=Demagŏras=, one of Alexander’s flatterers.――――An historian, who wrote
concerning the foundation of Rome. _Dionysius of Halicarnassus_,
bk. 1.
=Demarāta=, a daughter of Hiero, &c. _Livy_, bk. 24, ch. 22.
=Demarātus=, the son and successor of Ariston on the throne of Sparta,
B.C. 526. He was banished by the intrigues of Cleomenes his royal
colleague, as being illegitimate. He retired into Asia, and was
kindly received by Darius son of Hystaspes king of Persia. When
the Persian monarch made preparations to invade Greece, Demaratus,
though persecuted by the Lacedæmonians, informed them of the
hostilities which hung over their head. _Herodotus_, bk. 5, ch. 75,
&c.; bk. 6, ch. 50, &c.――――A rich citizen of Corinth, of the family
of the Bacchiadæ. When Cypselus had usurped the sovereign power
of Corinth, Demaratus, with all his family, migrated to Italy, and
settled at Tarquinii, 658 years before Christ. His son Lucumon was
king of Rome, under the name of Tarquinius Priscus. _Dionysius of
Halicarnassus._――――A Corinthian exile at the court of Philip king of
Macedonia. _Plutarch_, _Alexander_.
=Demarchus=, a Syracusan put to death by Dionysius.
=Demarēta=, the wife of Gelon. _Diodorus_, bk. 15.
=Demariste=, the mother of Timoleon.
=Dēmātria=, a Spartan mother, who killed her son because he returned
from a battle without glory. _Plutarch_, _Instituta Laconica_.
=Demetria=, a festival in honour of Ceres, called by the Greeks
_Demeter_. It was then customary for the votaries of the goddess
to lash themselves with whips made with the bark of trees. The
Athenians had a solemnity of the same name, in honour of Demetrius
Poliorcetes.
=Dēmētrias=, a town of Thessaly. The name was common to other places.
=Dēmētrius=, a son of Antigonus and Stratonice, surnamed Poliorcetes,
_destroyer of towns_. At the age of 22, he was sent by his father
against Ptolemy, who had invaded Syria. He was defeated near Gaza,
but he soon repaired his loss by a victory over one of the generals
of the enemy. He afterwards sailed with a fleet of 250 ships to
Athens, and restored the Athenians to liberty, by freeing them from
the power of Cassander and Ptolemy, and expelling the garrison,
which was stationed there under Demetrius Phalereus. After this
successful expedition, he besieged and took Munychia, and defeated
Cassander at Thermopylæ. His reception at Athens, after these
victories, was attended with the greatest servility; and the
Athenians were not ashamed to raise altars to him as to a god, and
to consult his oracles. This uncommon success raised the jealousy of
the successors of Alexander; and Seleucus, Cassander, and Lysimachus
united to destroy Antigonus and his son. Their hostile armies met at
Ipsus, B.C. 301. Antigonus was killed in the battle; and Demetrius,
after a severe loss, retired to Ephesus. His ill success raised
him many enemies; and the Athenians, who lately adored him as a
god, refused to admit him into their city. He soon after ravaged
the territories of Lysimachus, and reconciled himself to Seleucus,
to whom he gave his daughter Stratonice in marriage. Athens now
laboured under tyranny; and Demetrius relieved it, and pardoned the
inhabitants. The loss of his possessions in Asia recalled him from
Greece, and he established himself on the throne of Macedonia, by
the murder of Alexander the son of Cassander. Here he was continually
at war with the neighbouring states; and the superior power of his
adversaries obliged him to leave Macedonia, after he had sat on the
throne for seven years. He passed into Asia, and attacked some of
the provinces of Lysimachus with various success; but famine and
pestilence destroyed the greatest part of his army, and he retired
to the court of Seleucus for support and assistance. He met with
a kind reception, but hostilities were soon begun; and after he
had gained some advantages over his son-in-law, Demetrius was
totally forsaken by his troops in the field of battle, and became
an easy prey to the enemy. Though he was kept in confinement by his
son-in-law, yet he maintained himself like a prince, and passed his
time in hunting and in every laborious exercise. His son Antigonus
offered Seleucus all his possessions and even his person, to procure
his father’s liberty; but all proved unavailing, and Demetrius died
in the 54th year of his age, after a confinement of three years,
286 B. C. His remains were given to Antigonus, and honoured with a
♦splendid funeral pomp at Corinth, and thence conveyed to Demetrias.
His posterity remained in possession of the Macedonian throne till
the age of Perseus, who was conquered by the Romans. Demetrius has
rendered himself famous for his fondness of dissipation when among
the dissolute, and his love of virtue and military glory in the
field of battle. He has been commended as a great warrior, and his
ingenious inventions, his warlike engines, and stupendous machines
in his war with the Rhodians, justify his claims to that perfect
character. He has been blamed for his voluptuous indulgencies; and
his biographer observes, that no Grecian prince had more wives and
concubines than Poliorcetes. His obedience and reverence to his
father have been justly admired; and it has been observed, that
Antigonus ordered the ambassadors of a foreign prince particularly
to remark the cordiality and friendship which subsisted between
him and his son. _Plutarch_, _Parallel Lives_.――_Diodorus_, bk. 17.
――_Justin_, bk. 1, ch. 17, &c.――――A prince who succeeded his father
Antigonus on the throne of Macedonia. He reigned 11 years, and was
succeeded by Antigonus Doson. _Justin_, bk. 26, ch. 2.――_Polybius_,
bk. 2.――――A son of Philip king of Macedonia, given up as a hostage
to the Romans. His modesty delivered his father from a heavy
accusation laid before the Roman senate. When he returned to
Macedonia, he was falsely accused by his brother Perseus, who was
jealous of his popularity, and his father too credulously consented
to his death, B.C. 180. _Livy_, bk. 40, ch. 20.――_Justin_, bk. 32,
ch. 2.――――A Magnesian.――――A servant of Cassius.――――A son of Demetrius
of Cyrene.――――A freedman of Pompey.――――A son of Demetrius, surnamed
Slender.――――A prince surnamed _Soter_, was son of Seleucus Philopater,
the son of Antiochus the Great king of Syria. His father gave him
as a hostage to the Romans. After the death of Seleucus, Antiochus
Epiphanes, the deceased monarch’s brother, usurped the kingdom
of Syria, and was succeeded by his son Antiochus Eupator. This
usurpation displeased Demetrius, who was detained at Rome; he
procured his liberty on pretence of going to hunt, and fled to Syria,
where the troops received him as their lawful sovereign, B.C. 162.
He put to death Eupator and Lysias, and established himself on his
throne by cruelty and oppression. Alexander Bala the son of Antiochus
Epiphanes laid claim to the crown of Syria, and defeated Demetrius
in a battle, in the 12th year of his reign. _Strabo_, bk. 16.
――_Appian._――_Justin_, bk. 34, ch. 3.――――The Second, surnamed
_Nicanor_, or _Conqueror_, was son of Soter, to whom he succeeded by
the assistance of Ptolemy Philometer, after he had driven out the
usurper Alexander Bala, B.C. 146. He married Cleopatra daughter of
Ptolemy; who was, before, the wife of the expelled monarch. Demetrius
gave himself up to luxury and voluptuousness, and suffered his
kingdom to be governed by his favourites. At that time a pretended
son of Bala, called Diodorus Tryphon, seized a part of Syria; and
Demetrius, to oppose his antagonist, made an alliance with the Jews,
and marched into the east, where he was taken by the Parthians.
Phraates king of Parthia gave him his daughter Rhodogyne in marriage;
and Cleopatra was so incensed at this new connection, that she gave
herself up to Antiochus Sidetes her brother-in-law, and married him.
Sidetes was killed in a battle against the Parthians, and Demetrius
regained the possession of his kingdom. His pride and oppression
rendered him odious, and his subjects asked a king of the house of
Seleucus, from Ptolemy Physcon king of Egypt; and Demetrius, unable
to resist the power of his enemies, fled to Ptolemais, which was
then in the hands of his wife Cleopatra. The gates were shut up
against his approach by Cleopatra; and he was killed by order of
the governor of Tyre, whither he had fled for protection. He was
succeeded by Alexander Zebina, whom Ptolemy had raised to the throne,
B.C. 127. _Justin_, bk. 36, &c.――_Appian_, _Syrian Wars_.――_Josephus._
――――The Third, surnamed _Eucerus_, was son of Antiochus Gryphus.
After the example of his brother Philip, who had seized Syria, he
made himself master of Damascus, B.C. 93, and soon after obtained
a victory over his brother. He was taken in a battle against the
Parthians, and died in captivity. _Josephus_, bk. 1.――――Phalereus,
a disciple of Theophrastus, who gained such an influence over the
Athenians, by his eloquence, and the purity of his manners, that
he was elected decennial archon, B.C. 317. He so embellished the
city, and rendered himself so popular by his munificence, that the
Athenians raised 360 brazen statues to his honour. Yet in the midst
of all this popularity, his enemies raised a sedition against him,
and he was condemned to death, and all his statues thrown down,
after obtaining the sovereign power for 10 years. He fled without
concern or mortification to the court of Ptolemy Lagus, where he
met with kindness and cordiality. The Egyptian monarch consulted
him concerning the succession of his children; and Demetrius advised
him to raise to the throne the children of Eurydice, in preference
to the offspring of Berenice. This counsel so irritated Philadelphus
the son of Berenice, that after his father’s death he sent the
philosopher into Upper Egypt, and there detained him in strict
confinement. Demetrius, tired with his situation, put an end to his
life by the bite of an asp, 284 B.C. According to some, Demetrius
enjoyed the confidence of Philadelphus, and enriched his library
at Alexandria with 200,000 volumes. All the works of Demetrius,
on rhetoric, history, and eloquence are lost; and the treatise on
rhetoric, falsely attributed to him, is by some supposed to be the
composition of Halicarnassus. The last edition of this treatise is
that of Glasgow, 8vo, 1743. _Diogenes Laërtius_, _Lives and Opinions
of Eminent Philosophers_.――_Cicero_, _Brutus_ & _de Officiis_,
bk. 1.――_Plutarch_, _De Exilio_.――――A Cynic philosopher, disciple
of Apollonius Thyaneus, in the age of Caligula. The emperor wished
to gain the philosopher to his interest by a large present; but
Demetrius refused it with indignation, and said, “If Caligula wishes
to bribe me, let him send me his crown.” Vespasian was displeased
with his insolence, and banished him to an island. The Cynic derided
the punishment, and bitterly inveighed against the emperor. He died
in a great old age; and Seneca observes, that _nature had brought
him forth, to show mankind that an exalted genius can live securely
without being corrupted by the vices of the surrounding world_.
_Seneca._――_Philostratus_, _Apollonius_.――――One of Alexander’s
flatterers.――――A native of Byzantium, who wrote on the Greek poets.
――――An Athenian killed at Mantinea, when fighting against the
Thebans. _Polyænus._――――A writer who published a history of the
irruptions of the Gauls into Asia.――――A philological writer in the
age of Cicero. _Cicero_, _Letters to Atticus_, bk. 8, ltr. 11.――――A
stage player. _Juvenal_, satire 3, li. 99.――――Syrus, a rhetorician
at Athens. _Cicero_, _Brutus_, ch. 174.――――A geographer surnamed the
Calatian. _Strabo_, bk. 1.
♦ ‘splended’ replaced with ‘splendid’
=Demo=, a sibyl of Cumæ.
=Demoanassa=, the mother of Ægialeus.
=Democēdes=, a celebrated physician of Crotona, son of Calliphon, and
intimate with Polycrates. He was carried as a prisoner from Samos
to Darius king of Persia, where he acquired great riches and much
reputation by curing the king’s foot, and the breast of Atossa. He
was sent to Greece as a spy by the king, and fled away to Crotona,
where he married the daughter of the wrestler Milo. _Ælian_, _Varia
Historia_, bk. 8, ch. 18.――_Herodotus_, bk. 3, ch. 124, &c.
=Dēmŏchăres=, an Athenian sent with some of his countrymen with an
embassy to Philip king of Macedonia. The monarch gave them audience,
and when he asked them what he could do to please the people of
Athens, Demochares replied, “Hang yourself.” This imprudence raised
the indignation of all the hearers; but Philip mildly dismissed
them, and bade them ask their countrymen, which deserved most the
appellation of wise and moderate, either they who gave such ill
language, or he who received it without any signs of resentment?
_Seneca_, _de Irâ_, bk. 3.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bks. 3, 7, 8,
12.――_Cicero_, _Brutus_, ch. 3; _On Oratory_, bk. 2.――――A poet of
Soli, who composed a comedy on Demetrius Poliorcetes. _Plutarch_,
_Demetrius_.――――A statuary, who wished to make a statue to mount
Athos. _Vitruvius._――――A general of Pompey the younger, who died
B.C. 36.
=Dēmŏcles=, a man accused of disaffection towards Dionysius, &c.
_Polyænus_, bk. 5.――――A beautiful youth, passionately loved by
Demetrius Poliorcetes. He threw himself into a cauldron of boiling
water, rather than submit to the unnatural lusts of the tyrant.
_Plutarch_, _Demetrius_.
=Demŏcoon=, a natural son of Priam, who came from his residence at
Abydos to protect his country against the Greeks. He was, after a
glorious defence, killed by Ulysses. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 4.
=Dēmŏcrătes=, an architect of Alexandria.――――A wrestler. _Ælian_,
_Varia Historia_, bk. 4, ch. 15.――――An Athenian, who fought on the
side of Darius against the Macedonians. _Curtius_, bk. 6, ch. 5.
=Dēmŏcrĭtus=, a celebrated philosopher of Abdera, disciple to
Leucippus. He travelled over the greatest part of Europe, Asia, and
Africa, in quest of knowledge, and returned home in the greatest
poverty. There was a law at Abdera, which deprived of the honour
of a funeral the man who had reduced himself to indigence; and
Democritus, to avoid ignominy, repeated before his countrymen one
of his compositions called _Diacosmus_. It was received with such
uncommon applause that he was presented with 500 talents; statues
were erected in his honour; and a decree passed that the expenses
of his funeral should be paid from the public treasury. He retired
to a garden near the city, where he dedicated his time to study
and solitude; and according to some authors he put out his eyes,
to apply himself more closely to philosophical inquiries. He was
accused of insanity, and Hippocrates was ordered to inquire into
the nature of his disorder. The physician had a conference with the
philosopher, and declared that not Democritus, but his enemies, were
insane. He continually laughed at the follies and vanity of mankind,
who distract themselves with care, and are at once a prey to hope
and anxiety. He told Darius, who was inconsolable for the loss of
his wife, that he would raise her from the dead, if he could find
three persons who had gone through life without adversity, whose
names he might engrave on the queen’s monument. The king’s inquiries
to find such persons proved unavailing, and the philosopher in some
manner soothed the sorrow of his sovereign. He taught his disciples
that the soul died with the body; and therefore, as he gave no
credit to the existence of ghosts, some youths, to try his fortitude,
dressed themselves in a hideous and deformed habit, and approached
his cave in the dead of night, with whatever could create terror
and astonishment. The philosopher received them unmoved; and without
even looking at them, he desired them to cease making themselves
such objects of ridicule and folly. He died in the 109th year of his
age, B.C. 361. His father was so rich, that he entertained Xerxes,
with all his army, as he was marching against Greece. All the works
of Democritus are lost. He was the author of the doctrine of atoms,
and first taught that the milky way was occasioned by a confused
light from a multitude of stars. He may be considered as the parent
of experimental philosophy, in the prosecution of which he showed
himself so ardent, that he declared he would prefer the discovery
of one of the causes of the works of nature to the diadem of Persia.
He made artificial emeralds, and tinged them with various colours;
he likewise dissolved stones, and softened ivory. _Eusebius_,
bk. 14, ch. 27.――_Diogenes Laërtius_, _Lives and Opinions of Eminent
Philosophers_.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 4, ch. 20.――_Cicero_,
_de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum_.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 8,
ch. 7.――_Strabo_, bks. 1 & 15.――――An Ephesian, who wrote a book on
Diana’s temple, &c. _Diogenes Laërtius._――――A powerful man of Naxos.
_Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 46.
=Dēmŏdĭce=, the wife of Cretheus king of Iolchos. Some call her
Biadice, or Tyro. _Hyginus_, _Poeticon Astronomicon_, bk. 2, ch. 20.
=Dēmŏdŏchus=, a musician at the court of Alcinous, who sang, in
the presence of Ulysses, the secret amours of Mars and Venus, &c.
_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 8, li. 44.――_Plutarch_, _de Musica_.――――A
Trojan chief, who came with Æneas into Italy, where he was killed.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 413.――――An historian. _Plutarch_,
_de Fluviis_.
_Dēmŏleon_, a centaur, killed by Theseus at the ♦nuptials of
Pirithous. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12, li. 356.――――A son of
Antenor, killed by Achilles. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 20, li. 395.
♦ ‘nupitals’ replaced with ‘nuptials’
=Dēmŏleus=, a Greek, killed by Æneas in the Trojan war. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 5, li. 260.
=Dēmon=, an Athenian, nephew to Demosthenes. He was at the head of the
government during the absence of his uncle, and obtained a decree
that Demosthenes should be recalled, and that a ship should be sent
to bring him back.
=Dēmonassa=, a daughter of Amphiaraus, who married Thersander.
_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 5.
=Dēmōnax=, a celebrated philosopher of Crete, in the reign of Adrian.
He showed no concern about the necessaries of life; but when hungry,
he entered the first house he met, and there satisfied his appetite.
He died in his 100th year.――――A man of Mantinea, sent to settle the
government of Cyrene. _Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 161.
=Dēmŏnīca=, a woman who betrayed Ephesus to Brennus. _Plutarch_,
_Parallela minora_.
=Dēmŏphantus=, a general killed by Antigonus, &c. _Pausanias_, bk. 8,
ch. 49.
=Demophĭle=, a name given to the sibyl of Cumæ, who, as it is supposed
by some, sold the sibylline books to Tarquin. _Varro_, cited by
_Lactantius_, _[Divine Institutes]_, bk. 1, ch. 6.
=Dēmŏphĭlus=, an Athenian archon.――――An officer of Agathocles.
_Diodorus_, bk. 19.
=Dēmŏphon=, an Athenian, who assisted the Thebans in recovering Cadmea,
&c. _Diodorus_, bk. 15.
=Dēmŏphoon=, son of Theseus and Phædra, was king of Athens, B.C. 1182
and reigned 33 years. At his return from the Trojan war, he visited
Thrace, where he was tenderly received and treated by Phyllis. He
retired to Athens, and forgot the kindness and love of Phyllis, who
hanged herself in despair. _Ovid_, _Heroides_, poem 2.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 10, ch. 55.――――A friend of Æneas, killed by Camilla. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 11, li. 675.
=Dēmŏpŏlis=, a son of Themistocles. _Plutarch_, _Themistocles_.
=Dēmos=, a place of Ithaca.
=Dēmosthĕnes=, a celebrated Athenian, son of a rich blacksmith, called
Demosthenes, and of Cleobule. He was but seven years of age when
his father died. His guardians negligently managed his affairs, and
embezzled the greatest part of his possessions. His education was
totally neglected; and for whatever advances he made in learning,
he was indebted to his own industry and application. He became the
pupil of Isæus and Plato, and applied himself to study the orations
of Isocrates. At the age of 17 he gave an early proof of his
eloquence and abilities against his guardians, from whom he obtained
the retribution of the greatest part of his estate. His rising
talents were, however, impeded by weak lungs, and a difficulty of
pronunciation, especially of the letter ρ, but these obstacles were
soon conquered by unwearied application. To correct the stammering
of his voice, he spoke with pebbles in his mouth; and removed the
distortion of his features, which accompanied his utterance, by
watching the motions of his countenance in a looking-glass. That
his pronunciation might be loud and full of emphasis, he frequently
ran up the steepest and most uneven walks, where his voice acquired
force and energy; and on the sea-shore, when the waves were violently
agitated, he declaimed aloud, to accustom himself to the noise
and tumults of a public assembly. He also confined himself in a
subterraneous cave, to devote himself more closely to studious
pursuits; and to eradicate all curiosity of appearance in public,
he shaved one half of his head. In this solitary retirement, by
the help of a glimmering lamp, he composed the greatest part of his
orations, which have ever been the admiration of every age, though
his contemporaries and rivals severely inveighed against them, and
observed that they smelt of oil. His abilities as an orator raised
him to consequence at Athens, and he was soon placed at the head
of the government. In this public capacity he roused his countrymen
from their indolence, and animated them against the encroachments of
Philip of Macedonia. In the battle of Cheronæa, however, Demosthenes
betrayed his pusillanimity, and saved his life by flight. After
the death of Philip, he declared himself warmly against his son and
successor Alexander, whom he branded with the appellation of boy;
and when the Macedonians demanded of the Athenians their orators,
Demosthenes reminded his countrymen of the fable of the sheep which
delivered their dogs to the wolves. Though he had boasted that all
the gold of Macedonia could not tempt him, yet he suffered himself
to be bribed by a small golden cup from Harpalus. The tumults
which this occasioned forced him to retire from Athens; and in his
banishment, which he passed at Trœzene and Ægina, he lived with more
effeminacy than true heroism. When Antipater made war against Greece,
after the death of Alexander, Demosthenes was publicly recalled from
his exile, and a galley was sent to fetch him from Ægina. His return
was attended with much splendour, and all the citizens crowded at
the Piræus to see him land. His triumph and popularity, however,
were short. Antipater and Craterus were near Athens, and demanded
all the orators to be delivered up into their hands. Demosthenes,
with all his adherents, fled to the temple of Neptune in Calauria,
and when he saw that all hopes of safety were banished, he took
a dose of poison, which he always carried in a quill, and expired
on the day that the Thesmophoria were celebrated, in the 60th year
of his age, B.C. 322. The Athenians raised a brazen statue to his
honour, with an inscription translated into this distich:
_Si tibi par menti robur, Vir magne, fuisset,
Græcia non Macedæ succubuisset hero._
Demosthenes has been deservedly called the prince of orators; and
Cicero, his successful rival among the Romans, calls him a perfect
model, and such as he wished to be. These two great princes of
eloquence have often been compared together; but the judgment
hesitates to which to give the preference. They both arrived
at perfection, but the measures by which they obtained it were
diametrically opposite. Demosthenes has been compared, and with
propriety, by his rival Æschines, to a Siren, from the melody of
his expressions. No orator can be said to have expressed the various
passions of hatred, resentment, or indignation, with more energy
than he; and as a proof of his uncommon application, it need only be
mentioned, that he transcribed eight or even ten times the history
of Thucydides, that he might not only imitate, but possess the force
and energy of the great historian. The best editions of his works
are that of Wolfius, folio, Frankof. 1604; that left unfinished by
Taylor, Cambridge, 4to, and that published in 12 vols., 8vo, 1720,
&c., Lipscomb, by Reiske and his widow. Many of the orations of
Demosthenes have been published separately. _Plutarch_, _Parallel
Lives_.――_Diodorus_, bk. 16.――_Cicero_, _Orator_, &c.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 1, ch. 8; bk. 2, ch. 33.――――An Athenian general, sent to succeed
Alcibiades in Sicily. He attacked Syracuse with Nicias, but his
efforts were ineffectual. After many calamities he fell into the
enemy’s hands, and his army was confined to hard labour. The accounts
about the death of Demosthenes are various; some believe that he
stabbed himself, while others suppose that he was put to death by
the Syracusans, B.C. 413. _Plutarch_, _Nicias_.――_Thucydides_, bk. 4,
&c.――_Diodorus_, bk. 12.――――The father of the orator Demosthenes.
He was very rich, and employed an immense number of slaves in the
business of a sword-cutler. _Plutarch_, _Demosthenes_.――――A governor
of Cæsarea, under the Roman emperors.
=Dēmostrătus=, an Athenian orator.
=Demūchus=, a Trojan, son of Philetor, killed by Achilles. _Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 20, li. 457.
=Dēmy̆lus=, a tyrant who tortured the philosopher Zeno. _Plutarch_,
_de Stoicorum Repugnantiis_.
=Denseletæ=, a people of Thrace. _Cicero_, _Against Piso_, ch. 34.
=Deobriga=, a town on the Iberus in Spain, now _Miranda de Ebro_.
=Deodătus=, an Athenian who opposed the cruel resolutions of Cleon
against the captive prisoners of Mitylene.
=Dēōis=, a name given to Proserpine from her mother Ceres, who was
called _Deo_. This name Ceres received, because when she sought her
daughter all over the world, all wished her success in her pursuits,
with the word δηεις, _invenies_; a δηω, _invenio_. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 6, li. 114.
=Deræ=, a place of Messenia.
=Derbe=, a town of Lycaonia, at the north of mount Taurus in Asia
Minor, now _Alah-Dag_.――_Cicero_, _Letters to his Friends_, bk. 13,
ltr. 73.
=Derbĭces=, a people near Caucasus, who killed all those that had
reached their 70th year. They buried such as died a natural death.
_Strabo._
=Derce=, a fountain in Spain, whose waters were said to be uncommonly
cold.
=Dercennus=, an ancient king in Latium. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 11,
li. 850.
=Dercĕto= and =Dercĕtis=, a goddess of Syria, called also _Atergatis_,
whom some supposed to be the same as Astarte. She was represented as
a beautiful woman above the waist, and the lower part terminated in
a fish’s tail. According to Diodorus, Venus, whom she had offended,
made her passionately fond of a young priest, remarkable for the
beauty of his features. She had a daughter by him, and became so
ashamed of her incontinence, that she removed her lover, exposed
the fruit of her amour, and threw herself into a lake. Her body was
transformed into a fish, and her child was preserved, and called
Semiramis. As she was chiefly worshipped in Syria, and represented
like a fish, the Syrians anciently abstained from fishes. _Lucian_,
_de Deâ Syria_.――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 13.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 4, li. 44.――_Diodorus_, bk. 2.
=Dercyllĭdas=, a general of Sparta, celebrated for his military
exploits. He took nine different cities in eight days, and freed
Chersonesus from the inroads of the Thracians by building a
wall across the country. He lived B.C. 399. _Diodorus_, bk. 14.
――_Xenophon_, _Hellenica_, bk. 1, &c.
=Dercyllus=, a man appointed over Attica by Antipater. _Cornelius
Nepos_, _Phocion_, ch. 2.
=Dercy̆nus=, a son of Neptune, killed by Hercules. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2,
ch. 5.
=Dersæi=, a people of Thrace.
=Derthona=, now _Tortona_, a town of Liguria, between Genoa and
Placentia, where a Roman colony was settled. _Cicero_, _De
Divinatione_, bk. 2.
=Dertose=, now _Tortosa_, a town of Spain near the Iberus.
=Derusiæi=, a people of Persia.
=Dēsudăba=, a town of Media. _Livy_, bk. 44, ch. 26.
=Deva=, a town of Britain, now _Chester_ on the Dee.
=Deucălion=, a son of Prometheus, who married Pyrrha the daughter of
Epimetheus. He reigned over part of Thessaly, and in his age the
whole earth was overwhelmed with a deluge. The impiety of mankind
had irritated Jupiter, who resolved to destroy the world, and
immediately the earth exhibited a boundless scene of waters. The
highest mountains were climbed up by the frightened inhabitants of
the country; but this seeming place of security was soon overtopped
by the rising waters, and no hope was left of escaping the universal
calamity. Prometheus advised his son to make himself a ship, and
by this means he saved himself and his wife Pyrrha. The vessel was
tossed about during nine successive days, and at last stopped on
the top of mount Parnassus, where Deucalion remained till the waters
had subsided. Pindar and Ovid make no mention of a vessel built
by the advice of Prometheus; but, according to their relation,
Deucalion saved his life by taking refuge on the top of Parnassus,
or, according to Hyginus, of Ætna in Sicily. As soon as the waters
had retired from the surface of the earth, Deucalion and his wife
went to consult the oracle of Themis, and were directed to repair
the loss of mankind, by throwing behind them the bones of their
grandmother. This was nothing but the stones of the earth; and after
some hesitation about the meaning of the oracle, they obeyed. The
stones thrown by Deucalion became men, and those of Pyrrha women.
According to Justin, Deucalion was not the only one who escaped
from the universal calamity. Many saved their lives by ascending the
highest mountains, or trusting themselves in small vessels to the
mercy of the waters. This deluge, which chiefly happened in Thessaly,
according to the relation of some writers, was produced by the
inundation of the waters of the river Peneus, whose regular course
was stopped by an earthquake near mount Ossa and Olympus. According
to Xenophon, there were no less than five deluges. The first
happened under Ogyges, and lasted three months. The second, which
was in the age of Hercules and Prometheus, continued but one month.
During the third, which happened in the reign of another Ogyges, all
Attica was laid waste by the waters. Thessaly was totally covered by
the waters during the fourth, which happened in the age of Deucalion.
The last was before the Trojan war, and its effects were severely
felt by the inhabitants of Egypt. There prevailed a report in Attica,
that the waters of Deucalion’s deluge had disappeared through a
small aperture about a cubit wide, near Jupiter Olympius’s temple;
and Pausanias, who saw it, further adds, that a yearly offering
of flour and honey was thrown into it with religious ceremony.
The deluge of Deucalion, so much celebrated in ancient history, is
supposed to have happened 1503 years B.C. Deucalion had two sons
by Pyrrha, Hellen, called by some son of Jupiter, and Amphictyon
king of Attica, and also a daughter, Protogenia, who became mother
of Æthlius by Jupiter. _Pindar_, poem 9, _Olympian_.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, fable 8; _Heroides_, ♦poem 15, li. 167.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 7.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 10;
bk. 5, ch. 8.――_Juvenal_, satire 1, li. 81.――_Hyginus_, fable 153.
――_Justin_, bk. 2, ch. 6.――_Diodorus_, bk. 5.――_Lucian_, _de
Deâ Syriâ_.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 1, li. 62.――――One of the
Argonauts.――――A son of Minos. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 1.――――A son
of Abas.
♦ ‘45’ replaced with ‘15’
=Deucetius=, a Sicilian general. _Diodorus_, bk. 11.
=Deudorix=, one of the Cherusci, led in triumph by Germanicus.
=Dexamĕne=, one of the Nereides. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 18.
=Dexamĕnus=, a man delivered by Hercules from the hands of his
daughter’s suitors. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 5.――――A king of Olenus
in Achaia, whose two daughters married the sons of Actor. _Pausanias_,
bk. 5, ch. 3.
=Dexippus=, a Spartan who assisted the people of Agrigentum, &c.
_Diodorus_, bk. 13.
=Dexithea=, the wife of Minos. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 1.
=Dexius=, a Greek, father of Iphinous, killed by Glaucus in the Trojan
war, &c. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 7.
=Dīa=, a daughter of Deion, mother of Pirithous by Ixion.――――An island
in the Ægean sea, 17 miles from Delos. It is the same as Naxos.
_See:_ Naxos. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 8, li. 157.――――Another on
the coast of Crete, now _Standia_.――――A city of Thrace,――――of Eubœa,
――――Peloponnesus,――――Lusitania,――――Italy, near the Alps,――――Scythia,
near the Phasis,――――Caria,――――Bithynia,――――and Thessaly.
=Diactorĭdes=, one of Agarista’s suitors. _Herodotus_, bk. 6, ch. 127.
――――The father of Eurydame the wife of Leutychides. _Herodotus_,
bk. 6, ch. 71.
=Diæus=, of Megalopolis, a general of the Achæans, who killed himself
when his affairs became desperate. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 16.
=Diadumeniānus=, a son of Macrinus, who enjoyed the title of Cæsar
during his father’s lifetime, &c.
=Diăgon= and =Diăgum=, a river of Peloponnesus, flowing into the
Alpheus, and separating Pisa from Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 6,
ch. 21.
=Diagondas=, a Theban who abolished all nocturnal sacrifices. _Cicero_,
_de Legibus_, bk. 2, ch. 15.
=Diăgŏras=, an Athenian philosopher. His father’s name was Teleclytus.
From the greatest superstition, he became a most unconquerable
atheist, because he saw a man who laid a false claim to one of
his poems, and who perjured himself, go unpunished. His great
impiety and blasphemies provoked his countrymen, and the Areopagites
promised one talent to him who brought his head before their
tribunal, and two if he were produced alive. He lived about 416
years before Christ. _Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 1, ch. 23;
bk. 3, ch. 37, &c.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 1, ch. 1.――――An athlete
of Rhodes, 460 years before the christian era. Pindar celebrated
his merit in a beautiful ode still extant, which was written in
golden letters in a temple of Minerva. He saw his three sons crowned
the same day at Olympia, and died through excess of joy. _Cicero_,
_Tusculanæ Disputationes_, bk. 5.――_Plutarch_, _Pelopidas_.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 7.
=Diālis=, a priest of Jupiter at Rome, first instituted by Numa. He
was never permitted to swear, even upon public trials. _Varro_, _de
Lingua Latina_, bk. 4, ch. 15.――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 2.
――_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 20.
=Diallus=, an Athenian who wrote a history of all the memorable
occurrences of his age.
=Diamastigōsis=, a festival of Sparta in honour of Diana Orthia, which
received that name, ἀπο του μαστιγουν, _from whipping_, because boys
were whipped before the altar of the goddess. These boys, called
Bomonicæ, were originally free-born Spartans; but, in the more
delicate ages, they were of mean birth, and generally of a slavish
origin. This operation was performed by an officer in a severe and
unfeeling manner; and that no compassion should be raised, the priest
stood near the altar with a small light statue of the goddess, which
suddenly became heavy and insupportable if the lash of the whip was
more lenient or less rigorous. The parents of the children attended
the solemnity, and exhorted them not to commit anything, either by
fear or groans, that might be unworthy of Laconian education. These
flagellations were so severe, that the blood gushed in profuse
torrents, and many expired under the lash of the whip without
uttering a groan, or betraying any marks of fear. Such a death
was reckoned very honourable, and the corpse was buried with much
solemnity, with a garland of flowers on its head. The origin of this
festival is unknown. Some suppose that Lycurgus first instituted
it to inure the youths of Lacedæmon to bear labour and fatigue, and
render them insensible to pain and wounds. Others maintain that it
was a mitigation of an oracle, which ordered that human blood should
be shed on Diana’s altar; and according to their opinion, Orestes
first introduced that barbarous custom, after he had brought the
statue of Diana Taurica into Greece. There is another tradition,
which mentions that Pausanias, as he was offering prayers and
sacrifices to the gods, before he engaged with Mardonius, was
suddenly attacked by a number of Lydians who disturbed the sacrifice,
and were at last repelled with staves and stones, the only weapons
with which the Lacedæmonians were provided at that moment. In
commemoration of this, therefore, the whipping of boys was instituted
at Sparta, and after that the Lydian procession.
=Diāna=, was the goddess of hunting. According to Cicero, there were
three of this name; a daughter of Jupiter and Proserpine, who became
mother of Cupid; a daughter of Jupiter and Latona; and a daughter
of Upis and Glauce. The second is the most celebrated, and to her
all the ancients allude. She was born at the same birth as Apollo;
and the pains which she saw her mother suffer during her labour,
gave her such an aversion to marriage, that she obtained from her
father the permission to live in perpetual celibacy, and to preside
over the travails of women. To shun the society of men, she devoted
herself to hunting, and obtained the permission of Jupiter to have
for her attendants 60 of the Oceanides, and 20 other nymphs, all of
whom, like herself, abjured the use of marriage. She is represented
with a bent bow and quiver, and attended with dogs, and sometimes
drawn in a chariot by two white stags. Sometimes she appears with
wings, holding a lion in one hand and a panther in the other, with
a chariot drawn by two heifers, or two horses of different colours.
She is represented taller by the head than her attendant nymphs, her
face has something manly, her legs are bare, well-shaped, and strong,
and her feet are covered with a buskin, worn by huntresses among the
ancients. Diana received many surnames, particularly from the places
where her worship was established, and from the functions over
which she presided. She was called Lucina, Ilythia, or Juno Pronuba,
when invoked by women in child-bed, and Trivia when worshipped in
the cross-ways, where her statues were generally erected. She was
supposed to be the same as the moon, and Proserpine or Hecate, and
from that circumstance she was called Triformis; and some of her
statues represented her with three heads, that of a horse, a dog,
and a boar. Her power and functions under these three characters
have been beautifully expressed in these two verses:
Terret, lustrat, agit, Proserpina, Luna, Diana,
Ima, suprema, feras, sceptro, fulgore, sagittâ.
She was also called Agrotera, Orthia, Taurica, Delia, Cynthia,
Aricia, &c. She was supposed to be the same as the Isis of the
Egyptians, whose worship was introduced into Greece with that of
Osiris under the name of Apollo. When Typhon waged war against the
gods, Diana is said to have metamorphosed herself into a cat, to
avoid his fury. The goddess is generally known in the figures that
represent her, by the crescent on her head, by the dogs which attend
her, and by her hunting habit. The most famous of her temples was
that of Ephesus, which was one of the seven wonders of the world.
_See:_ Ephesus. She was there represented with a great number of
breasts, and other symbols which signified the earth, or Cybele.
Though she was the patroness of chastity, yet she forgot her dignity
to enjoy the company of Endymion, and the very familiar favours
which, according to mythology, she granted to Pan and Orion are
well known. _See:_ Endymion, Pan, Orion. The inhabitants of Taurica
were particularly attached to the worship of this goddess, and they
cruelly offered on her altar all the strangers that were shipwrecked
on their coasts. Her temple in Aricia was served by a priest who
had always murdered his predecessor, and the Lacedæmonians yearly
offered her human victims till the age of Lycurgus, who changed this
barbarous custom for the sacrifice of flagellation. The Athenians
generally offered her goats, and others a white kid, and sometimes
a boar pig, or an ox. Among plants the poppy and the ditamy were
sacred to her. She, as well as her brother Apollo, had some oracles,
among which those of Egypt, Cilicia, and Ephesus are the most known.
_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 2, li. 155; _Metamorphoses_, bk. 3, li. 156;
bk. 7, lis. 94 & 194, &c.――_Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 3.
――_Horace_, bk. 3, ode 22.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 3, li. 302;
_Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 505.――_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 5.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 8, chs. 31 & 37.――_Catullus._――_Statius_, bk. 3, _Sylvæ_, poem 1,
li. 57.――_Apollodorus_ bk. 1, ch. 4, &c.; bk. 3, ch. 5, &c.
=Dianasa=, the mother of Lycurgus. _Plutarch_, _Lycurgus_.
=Dianium=, a town and promontory of Spain, now cape _Martin_, where
Diana was worshipped.
=Diasia=, festivals in honour of Jupiter at Athens. They received
their name ἀπο του διος και της ἁτης, _from Jupiter and misfortune_,
because, by making application to Jupiter, men obtained relief from
their misfortunes, and were delivered from dangers. During this
festival things of all kinds were exposed for sale.
=Dibio=, a town of France, now _Dijon_ in Burgundy.
=Dicæa= and =Dicæarchea=, a town of Italy. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 13,
li. 385.
=Dicæus=, an Athenian who was supernaturally apprised of the defeat of
the Persians in Greece. _Herodotus_, bk. 8, ch. 65.
=Dice=, one of the Horæ, daughters of Jupiter. _Apollonius_, bk. 1,
ch. 3.
=Dicearchus=, a Messenian famous for his knowledge of philosophy,
history, and mathematics. He was one of Aristotle’s disciples.
Nothing remains of his numerous compositions. He had composed
a history of the Spartan republic, which was publicly read over
every year by order of the magistrates, for the improvement and
instruction of youth.
=Diceneus=, an Egyptian philosopher in the age of Augustus, who
travelled into Scythia, where he ingratiated himself with the king
of the country, and by his instruction softened the wildness and
rusticity of his manners. He also gained such an influence over
the multitude, that they destroyed all the vines which grew in
their country, to prevent the riot and dissipation which the wine
occasioned among them. He wrote all his maxims and his laws in a
book, that they might not lose the benefit of them after his death.
=Dicomas=, a king of the Getæ. _Plutarch_, _Antonius_.
=Dictæ= and =Dictæus mons=, a mountain of Crete. The island is often
known by the name of _Dictæa arva_. _Virgil_, _Eclogues_, poem 6;
_Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 171.――――Jupiter was called _Dictæus_, because
worshipped there, and the same epithet was applied to Minos.
_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 2, li. 536.――_Ovid_. _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 8, li. 43.――_Ptolemy_, bk. 3, ch. 17.――_Strabo_, bk. 10.
=Dictamnum= and =Dictynna=, a town of Crete, where the herb called
_dictamnus_ chiefly grows. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 12, li. 412.
――_Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 2, ch. 50.
=Dictātor=, a magistrate at Rome, invested with regal authority.
This officer, whose magistracy seems to have been borrowed from
the customs of the Albans or Latins, was first chosen during the
Roman wars against the Latins. The consuls being unable to raise
forces for the defence of the state, because the plebeians refused
to enlist, if they were not discharged from all the debts they had
contracted with the patricians, the senate found it necessary to
elect a new magistrate, with absolute and incontrollable power to
take care of the state. The dictator remained in office for six
months, after which he was again elected, if the affairs of the
state seemed to be desperate; but if tranquillity was re-established,
he generally laid down his power before the time was expired. He
knew no superior in the republic, and even the laws were subjected
to him. He was called dictator, because _dictus_, named by the
consul, or _quoniam dictis ejus parebat populus_, because the people
implicitly obeyed his command. He was named by the consul in the
night, _vivâ voce_, and his election was confirmed by the auguries,
though sometimes he was nominated or recommended by the people. As
his power was absolute, he could proclaim war, levy forces, conduct
them against an enemy, and disband them at pleasure. He punished
as he pleased; and from his decision there was no appeal, at least
till later times. He was preceded by 24 lictors, with the _fasces_:
during his administration, all other offices, except the tribunes of
the people, were suspended, and he was the master of the republic.
But amidst all his independence he was not permitted to go beyond
the borders of Italy, and he was always obliged to march on foot in
his expeditions; and he never could ride in difficult and laborious
marches, without previously obtaining a formal leave from the people.
He was chosen only when the state was in imminent dangers from
foreign enemies or inward seditions. In the time of a pestilence, a
dictator was sometimes elected, as also to hold the _comitia_, or to
celebrate the public festivals, to hold trials, to choose senators,
or drive a nail in the Capitol, by which superstitious ceremonies
the Romans believed that a plague could be averted, or the progress
of an enemy stopped. This office, so respectable and illustrious
in the first ages of the republic, became odious by the perpetual
usurpations of Sylla and Julius Cæsar; and after the death of the
latter the Roman senate, on the motion of the consul Antony, passed
a decree, which for ever after forbade a dictator to exist in Rome.
The dictator, as soon as elected, chose a subordinate officer,
called his master of horse, _magister equitum_. This officer was
respectable, but he was totally subservient to the will of the
dictator, and could do nothing without his express order, though he
enjoyed the privilege of using a horse, and had the same insignia
as the pretors. This subordination, however, was some time after
removed; and during the second Punic war the master of the horse
was invested with a power equal to that of the dictator. A second
dictator was also chosen for the election of magistrates at Rome,
after the battle of Cannæ. The dictatorship was originally confined
to the patricians, but the plebeians were afterwards admitted to
share it. Titus Lartius Flavus was the first dictator, A.U.C. 253.
_Dionysius of Halicarnassus._――_Cicero_, _de Legibus_, bk. 3.
――_Dio Cassius._――_Plutarch_, _Fabius Maximus_.――_Appian_, bk. 3.
――_Polybius_, bk. 3.――_Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 28.――_Livy_, bk. 1,
ch. 23; bk. 2, ch. 18; bk. 4, ch. 57; bk. 9, ch. 38.
=Dictidienses=, certain inhabitants of mount Athos. _Thucydides_,
bk. 5, ch. 82.
=Dictynna=, a nymph of Crete, who first invented hunting nets. She
was one of Diana’s attendants, and for that reason the goddess is
often called _Dictynnia_. Some have supposed that Minos pursued her,
and that, to avoid his importunities, she threw herself into the
sea, and was caught in fishermen’s nets, δικτυα, whence her name.
There was a festival at Sparta in honour of Diana, called Dictynnia.
_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 30; bk. 3, ch. 12.――――A city of Crete.
=Dictys=, a Cretan, who went with Idomeneus to the Trojan war. It is
supposed that he wrote a history of this celebrated war, and that
at his death he ordered it to be laid in his tomb, where it remained
till a violent earthquake, in the reign of Nero, opened the monument
where he had been buried. This convulsion of the earth threw out his
history of the ♦Trojan war, which was found by some shepherds, and
afterwards carried to Rome. This mysterious tradition is deservedly
deemed fabulous; and the history of the Trojan war, which is now
extant as the composition of Dictys of Crete, was composed in the
15th century, or, according to others, in the age of Constantine,
and falsely attributed to one of the followers of Idomeneus. The
edition of Dictys is by Mascellus Venia, 4to, Milan, 1477.――――A king
of the island of Seriphus, son of Magnes and Nais. He married the
nymph Clymene, and was made king of Seriphus by Perseus, who deposed
Polydectes, because he behaved with wantonness to Danae. _See:_
Polydectes. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9; bk. 2, ch. 4.――――A centaur,
killed at the nuptials of Pirithous. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12,
li. 334.
♦ ‘Trojon’ replaced with ‘Trojan’
=Didas=, a Macedonian who was employed by Perseus to render Demetrius
suspected to his father Philip. _Livy_, bk. 40.
=Didia lex=, _de Sumptibus_, by Didius, A.U.C. 606, to restrain the
expenses that attended public festivals and entertainments, and
limit the number of guests which generally attended them, not only
at Rome, but in all the provinces of Italy. By it, not only those
who received guests in these festive meetings, but the guests
themselves, were liable to be fined. It was an extension of the
Oppian and Fannian laws.
=Didius=, a governor of Spain, conquered by Sertorius. _Plutarch_,
_Sertorius_.――――A man who brought Cæsar the head of Pompey’s
eldest son. _Plutarch._――――A governor of Britain under Claudius.
――――Julianus, a rich Roman, who, after the murder of Pertinax,
bought the empire which the pretorians had exposed to sale, A.D.
192. His great luxury and extravagance rendered him odious; and when
he refused to pay the money which he had promised for the imperial
purple, the soldiers revolted against him, and put him to death,
after a short reign. Severus was made emperor after him.
=Dīdo=, called also _Elissa_, a daughter of Belus king of Tyre, who
married Sichæus, or Sicharbas, her uncle, who was priest of Hercules.
Pygmalion, who succeeded to the throne of Tyre after Belus, murdered
Sichæus, to get possession of the immense riches which he possessed;
and Dido, disconsolate for the loss of a husband whom she tenderly
loved, and by whom she was equally esteemed, set sail in quest of
a settlement, with a number of Tyrians, to whom the cruelty of the
tyrant became odious. According to some accounts, she threw into the
sea the riches of her husband, which Pygmalion so greatly desired;
and by that artifice compelled the ships to fly with her, that had
come by order of the tyrant to obtain the riches of Sichæus. During
her voyage, Dido visited the coast of Cyprus, where she carried away
50 women, who prostituted themselves on the sea-shore, and gave them
as wives to her Tyrian followers. A storm drove her fleet on the
African coast, and she bought of the inhabitants as much land as
could be covered by a bull’s hide, cut into thongs. Upon this piece
of land she built a citadel, called Byrsa [_See:_ Byrsa], and in the
increase of population, and the rising commerce among her subjects,
soon obliged her to enlarge her city and the boundaries of her
dominions. Her beauty, as well as the fame of her enterprise, gained
her many admirers; and her subjects wished to compel her to marry
Iarbas king of Mauritania, who threatened them with a dreadful war.
Dido begged three months to give her decisive answer; and during
that time, she erected a funeral pile, as if wishing, by a solemn
sacrifice, to appease the manes of Sichæus, to whom she had promised
eternal fidelity. When all was prepared, she stabbed herself on the
pile in presence of her people, and by this uncommon action obtained
the name of Dido, _valiant woman_, instead of Elissa. According
to Virgil and Ovid, the death of Dido was caused by the sudden
departure of Æneas, of whom she was deeply enamoured, and whom she
could not obtain as a husband. This poetical fiction represents
Æneas as living in the age of Dido, and introduces an anachronism
of near 300 years. Dido left Phœnicia, 247 years after the Trojan
war, or the age of Æneas; that is, about 953 years B.C. This
chronological error proceeds not from the ignorance of the poets,
but it is supported by the authority of Horace,
_Aut famam sequere, aut sibi convenientia finge._
While Virgil describes, in a beautiful episode, the desperate love
of Dido, and the submission of Æneas to the will of the gods, he
at the same time gives an explanation of the hatred which existed
between the republics of Rome and Carthage, and informs his readers
that their mutual enmity originated in their very first foundation,
and was apparently kindled by a more remote cause than the jealousy
and rivalship of two flourishing empires. Dido, after her death,
was honoured as a deity by her subjects. _Justin_, bk. 18, ch. 4,
&c.――_Paterculus_, bk. 1, ch. 6.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 14, fable 2; _Heroides_, poem 6.――_Appian_,
_Punic Wars_.――_Orosius_, bk. 4.――_Herodian._――_Dionysius of
Halicarnassus._
=Dĭdy̆ma=, a place of Miletus. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 9.――――An island
in the Sicilian sea. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 11.
=Dĭdy̆mæus=, a surname of Apollo.
=Dĭdy̆māon=, an excellent artist, famous for making suits of armour.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 5, li. 359.
=Dĭdy̆me=, one of the Cyclades. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, li. 469.
――――A city of Sicily. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 4, li. 476.――――One of
the Lipari isles, now _Saline_.――――A place near Miletus, where the
Branchidæ had their famous oracle.
=Dĭdy̆mum=, a mountain of Asia Minor.
=Dĭdy̆mus=, a freedman of Tiberius, &c. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 6,
ch. 24.――――A scholiast on Homer, surnamed Χαλκεντερος, flourished
B.C. 40. He wrote a number of books, which are now lost. The editions
of his commentaries are, that in 2 vols., Venice, by Aldus Manutius,
1528, and that of Paris, 8vo, 1530.
=Diēnĕces=, a Spartan, who, upon hearing, before the battle of
Thermopylæ, that the Persians were so numerous that their arrows
would darken the light of the sun, observed that it would be a great
convenience, for they then should fight in the shade. _Herodotus_,
bk. 7, ch. 226.
=Diespĭter=, a surname of Jupiter, as being the father of light.
=Digentia=, a small river which watered Horace’s farm, in the country
of the Sabines. _Horace_, bk. 1, ltr. 18, li. 104.
=Digma=, a part of the Piræus at Athens.
=Dii=, the divinities of the ancient inhabitants of the earth, were
very numerous. Every object which causes terror, inspires gratitude,
or bestows affluence, received the tribute of veneration. Man
saw a superior agent in the stars, the elements, or the trees,
and supposed that the waters which communicated fertility to his
fields and possessions, were under the influence and direction of
some invisible power, inclined to favour and to benefit mankind.
Thus arose a train of divinities, which imagination arrayed in
different forms, and armed with different powers. They were endowed
with understanding, and were actuated by the same passions which
daily afflict the human race; and those children of superstition
were appeased or provoked as the imperfect being which gave them
birth. Their wrath was mitigated by sacrifice and incense, and
sometimes human victims bled to expiate a crime which superstition
alone supposed to exist. The sun, from its powerful influence
and animating nature, first attracted the notice, and claimed the
adoration, of the uncivilized inhabitants of the earth. The moon
also was honoured with sacrifices, and addressed in prayers; and
after immortality had been liberally bestowed on all the heavenly
bodies, mankind classed among their deities the brute creation,
and the cat and the sow shared equally with Jupiter himself, the
father of gods and men, the devout veneration of their votaries.
This immense number of deities have been divided into classes,
according to the will and pleasure of the mythologists. The Romans,
generally speaking, reckoned two classes of the gods, the _dii
majorum gentium_, or _dii consulentes_, and the _dii minorum
gentium_. The former were 12 in number, six males and six females.
_See:_ Consentes. In the class of the latter, were ranked all the
gods who were worshipped in different parts of the earth. Besides
these, there were some called _dii selecti_, sometimes classed with
the 12 greater gods; these were Janus, Saturn, the Genius, the Moon,
Pluto, and Bacchus. There were also some called demi-gods, that is,
who deserved immortality by the greatness of their exploits, and
for their uncommon services to mankind. Among these were Priapus,
Vertumnus, Hercules, and those whose parents were some of the
immortal gods. Besides these, there were some called _topici_, whose
worship was established at particular places, such as Isis in Egypt,
Astarte in Syria, Uranus at Carthage, &c. In process of time also,
all the passions and the moral virtues were reckoned as powerful
deities, and temples were raised to a goddess of concord, peace,
&c. According to the authority of Hesiod, there were no less than
30,000 gods that inhabited the earth, and were guardians of men,
all subservient to the power of Jupiter. To these succeeding ages
have added an almost equal number; and indeed they were so numerous,
and their functions so various, that we find temples erected, and
sacrifices offered, to unknown gods. It is observable, that all
the gods of the ancients have lived upon earth as mere mortals; and
even Jupiter, who was the ruler of heaven, is represented by the
mythologists as a helpless child; and we are acquainted with all
the particulars that attended the birth and education of Juno. In
process of time, not only good and virtuous men who had been the
patrons of learning and the supporters of liberty, but also thieves
and pirates, were admitted among the gods; and the Roman senate
courteously granted immortality to the most cruel and abandoned of
their emperors.
=Dii=, a people of Thrace, on mount Rhodope.
=Dimassus=, an island near Rhodes. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 31.
=Dinarchus=, a Greek orator, son of Sostratus, and disciple to
Theophrastus at Athens. He acquired much money by his compositions,
and suffered himself to be bribed by the enemies of the Athenians,
307 B.C. Of 64 of his orations, only three remain. _Cicero_, _On
Oratory_, bk. 2, ch. 53.――――A Corinthian ambassador, put to death
by Polyperchon. _Plutarch_, _Phocion_.――――A native of Delos, who
collected some fables in Crete, &c. _Dionysius of Halicarnassus_.
=Dindy̆mus= (or a, orum), a mountain of Phrygia, near a town of the
same name in the neighbourhood of Cyzicus. It was from this place
that Cybele was called _Dindymene_, as her worship was established
there by Jason. _Strabo_, bk. 12.――_Statius_, bk. 1, _Sylvæ_, poem 1,
li. 9.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ode 16, li. 5.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9,
li. 617.
=Dinia=, a town of Phrygia. _Livy_, bk. 38, ch. 5.――――A town of Gaul,
now _Digne_ in Provence.
=Dinias=, a general of Cassander. _Diodorus_, bk. 19.――――A man of
Pheræ, who seized the supreme power at Cranon. _Polyænus_, bk. 2.
――――A man who wrote a history of Argos. _Plutarch_, _Aratus_.
=Dinĭche=, the wife of Archidamus. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 10.
=Dinŏchăres=, an architect who finished the temple of Diana at Ephesus,
after it had been burnt by Erostratus.
=Dinŏcrătes=, an architect of Macedonia, who proposed to Alexander to
cut mount Athos in the form of a statue, holding a city in one hand,
and in the other a basin, into which all the waters of the mountain
should empty themselves. This project Alexander rejected as too
chimerical, but he employed the talents of the artist in building
and beautifying Alexandria. He began to build a temple in honour of
Arsinoe, by order of Ptolemy Philadelphus, in which he intended to
suspend a statue of the queen, by means of loadstones. His death,
and that of his royal patron, prevented the execution of a work
which would have been the admiration of future ages. _Pliny_, bk. 7,
ch. 37.――_Marcellinus_, bk. 22, ch. 40.――_Plutarch_, _Alexander_.
――――A general of Agathocles.――――A Messenian, who behaved with great
effeminacy and wantonness. He defeated Philopœmen, and put him to
death, B.C. 183. _Plutarch_, _Titus Flamininus_.
=Dinŏdŏchus=, a swift runner. _Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 1.
=Dinolŏchus=, a Syracusan, who composed 14 comedies. _Ælian_, _de
Natura Animalium_, bk. 6, ch. 52.
=Dinŏmĕnes=, a tyrant of Syracuse. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 42.
=Dinon=, a governor of Damascus, under Ptolemy, &c. _Polyænus_, bk. 4.
――――The father of Clitarchus, who wrote a history of Persia in
Alexander’s age. He is esteemed a very ♦authentic historian by
_Cornelius Nepos_, _Conon_.――_Plutarch_, _Alexander_.――_Diogenes
Laërtius._
♦ ‘anthentic’ replaced with ‘authentic’
=Dinosthĕnes=, a man who made himself a statue of an Olympian victor.
_Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 16.
=Dinostrătus=, a celebrated geometrician in the age of Plato.
=Diŏclea=, festivals in the spring at Megara, in honour of Diocles,
who died in the defence of a certain youth to whom he was tenderly
attached. There was a contention on his tomb, and the youth who gave
the sweetest kiss was publicly rewarded with a garland. Theocritus
has described them in his _Idylls_, bk. 12, li. 27.――――A town on the
coast of Dalmatia. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 23.
=Diocles=, a general of Athens, &c. _Polyænus_, bk. 5.――――A comic
poet of Athens.――――An historian, the first Grecian who ever wrote
concerning the origin of the Romans, and the fabulous history of
Romulus. _Plutarch_, _Romulus_.――――One of the four brothers placed
over the citadel of Corinth by Archelaus, &c. _Polyænus_, bk. 6.
――――A rich man of Messenia. _Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 2.――――A general
of Syracuse. _Diodorus_, bk. 13.
=Diocletianopŏlis=, a town of Thessaly, called so in honour of
Diocletian.
=Diocletiānus Caius Valerius Jovius=, a celebrated Roman emperor, born
of an obscure family in Dalmatia. He was first a common soldier, and
by merit and success he gradually rose to the office of a general,
and at the death of Numerian he was invested with the imperial
purple. In this high station, he rewarded the virtue and fidelity
of Maximian, who had shared with him all the subordinate offices
in the army, by making him his colleague on the throne. He created
two subordinate emperors, Constantius and Galerius, whom he called
_Cæsars_, whilst he claimed for himself and his colleague the
superior title of _Augustus_. Diocletian has been celebrated for
his military virtues; and though he was naturally unpolished by
education and study, yet he was the friend and patron of learning
and true genius. He was bold and resolute, active and diligent,
and well acquainted with the arts which endear a sovereign to his
people, and make him respectable even in the eyes of his enemies.
His cruelty, however, against the followers of christianity has
been deservedly branded with the appellation of unbounded tyranny,
and insolent wantonness. After he had reigned 21 years in the
greatest prosperity, he publicly abdicated the crown at Nicomedia,
on the 1st of May, A.D. 304, and retired to a private station at
Salona. Maximian, his colleague, followed his example, but not
from voluntary choice; and when he some time after endeavoured to
rouse the ambition of Diocletian, and persuade him to reassume the
imperial purple, he received for answer, that Diocletian took now
more delight in cultivating his little garden, than he formerly
enjoyed in a palace, when his power was extended over all the earth.
He lived nine years after his abdication in the greatest security
and enjoyment at Salona, and died in the 68th year of his age.
Diocletian is the first sovereign who voluntarily resigned his power;
a philosophical resolution, which, in a later age, was imitated by
the emperor Charles V. of Germany.
=Diŏdōrus=, an historian, surnamed _Siculus_, because he was born at
Argyra in Sicily. He wrote a history of Egypt, Persia, Syria, Media,
Greece, Rome, and Carthage, which was divided into 40 books, of
which only 15 are extant, with some few fragments. This valuable
composition was the work of an accurate inquirer, and it is said
that he visited all the places of which he has made mention in his
history. It was the labour of 30 years, though the greater part
may be considered as nothing more than a judicious compilation
from Berosus, Timæus, Theopompus, Callisthenes, and others. The
author, however, is too credulous in some of his narrations, and
often wanders far from the truth. His style is neither elegant
nor too laboured, but it contains great simplicity and unaffected
correctness. He often dwells too long upon fabulous reports and
trifling incidents, while events of the greatest importance to
history are treated with brevity, and sometimes passed over in
silence. His manner of reckoning, by the Olympiads and the Roman
consuls, will be found very erroneous. The historian flourished
about 44 years B.C. He spent much time at Rome to procure
information, and authenticate his historical narrations. The best
edition of his works is that of Wesseling, 2 vols., folio, Amsterdam,
1746.――――A disciple of Euclid, in the age of Plato. _Diogenes
Laërtius_, _Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers_.――――A
comic poet.――――A son of Echeanax, who, with his brothers Codrus
and Anaxagoras, murdered Hegesias the tyrant of Ephesus, &c.
_Polyænus_, bk. 6.――――An Ephesian, who wrote an account of the life
of Anaximander. _Diogenes Laërtius._――――An orator of Sardis, in
the time of the Mithridatic war.――――A stoic philosopher, preceptor
to Cicero. He lived and died in the house of his pupil, whom he
instructed in the various branches of Greek literature. _Cicero_,
_Brutus_.――――A general of Demetrius.――――A writer, surnamed
_Periegetes_, who wrote a description of the earth. _Plutarch_,
_Themistocles_.――――An African, &c. _Plutarch._
=Dioetas=, a general of Achaia, &c. _Polyænus_, bk. 2.
=Dīŏgēnes=, a celebrated Cynic philosopher of Sinope, banished from
his country for coining false money. From Sinope, he retired to
Athens, where he became the disciple of Antisthenes, who was at
the head of the Cynics. Antisthenes, at first, refused to admit him
into his house, and even struck him with a stick. Diogenes calmly
bore the rebuke, and said, “Strike me, Antisthenes, but never shall
you find a stick sufficiently hard to remove me from your presence,
whilst there is anything to be learnt, any information to be gained,
from your conversation and acquaintance.” Such firmness recommended
him to Antisthenes, and he became his most devoted pupil. He dressed
himself in the garment which distinguished the Cynics, and walked
about the streets with a tub on his head, which served him as
a house and a place of repose. Such singularity, joined to the
greatest contempt for riches, soon gained him reputation, and
Alexander the Great condescended to visit the philosopher in his tub.
He asked Diogenes if there was anything in which he could gratify
or oblige him. “Get out of my sunshine,” was the only answer which
the philosopher gave. Such an independence of mind so pleased the
monarch, that he turned to his courtiers, and said, “Were I not
Alexander, I would wish to be Diogenes.” He was once sold as a slave,
but his magnanimity so pleased his master, that he made him the
preceptor of his children, and the guardian of his estates. After a
life spent in the greatest misery and indigence, he died B.C. 324,
in the 96th year of his age. He ordered his body to be carelessly
thrown into a ditch, and some dust to be sprinkled over it. His
orders were, however, disobeyed in this particular, and his friends
honoured his remains with a magnificent funeral at Corinth. The
inhabitants of Sinope raised statues to his memory; and the marble
figure of a dog was placed on a high column erected on his tomb.
His biographer has transmitted to posterity a number of his sayings,
remarkable for their simplicity and moral tendency. The life of
Diogenes, however, shrinks from the eye of a strict examination; he
boasted of his poverty, and was so arrogant, that many have observed
that the virtues of Diogenes arose from pride and vanity, not from
wisdom and sound philosophy. His morals were corrupted, and he gave
way to his most vicious indulgencies, and his unbounded wantonness
has given occasion to some to observe, that the bottom of his tub
would not bear too close an examination. _Diogenes Laërtius_, _Lives
and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers_.――_Plutarch_, _Apophthegmata
Laconica_.――_Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 3, ch. 36, &c.――――A
stoic of Babylon, disciple of Chrysippus. He went to Athens, and was
sent as ambassador to Rome, with Carneades and Critolaus, 155 years
before Christ. He died in the 88th year of his age, after a life of
the most exemplary virtue. Some suppose that he was strangled by
order of Antiochus king of Syria, for speaking disrespectfully of
his family in one of his treatises. _Quintilian_, bk. 1, ch. 1.
――_Athenæus_, bk. 5, ch. 11.――_Cicero_, _de Officiis_, bk. 3, ch. 51.
――――A native of Apollonia, celebrated for his knowledge of philosophy
and physic. He was pupil to Anaxagoras. _Diogenes Laërtius_, _Lives
and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers_.――――Laërtius, an epicurean
philosopher, born in Cilicia. He wrote the lives of the philosophers
in 10 books, still extant. This work contains an accurate account
of the ancient philosophers, and is replete with all their anecdotes
and particular opinions. It is compiled, however, without any
plan, method, or precision, though much neatness and conciseness
are observable through the whole. In this multifarious biography
the author does not seem particularly partial to any sect, except
perhaps it be that of Potamon of Alexandria. Diogenes died A.D. 222.
The best editions of his works are that of Meibomius, 2 vols., 4to,
Amsterdam, 1692, and that of Lipscomb, 8vo, 1759.――――A Macedonian,
who betrayed Salamis to Aratus. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 8.――――There
was a philosopher of that name who attended Alexander in his Asiatic
expedition, for the purpose of marking out and delineating his march,
&c.
=Diogĕnia=, a daughter of Celeus. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 38.――――A
daughter of the Cephisus, who married Erechtheus. _Apollodorus._
=Diogĕnus=, a man who conspired with Dymnus against Alexander.
_Curtius_, bk. 6, ch. 7.
=Diognetus=, a philosopher who instructed Marcus Aurelius in
philosophy, and in writing dialogues.
=Diŏmēda=, a daughter of Phorbas, whom Achilles brought from Lemnos,
to be his mistress after the loss of Briseis. _Homer_, _Iliad_,
bk. 9, li. 661.――――The wife of Deion of Amyclæ.
=Diŏmēdes=, son of Tydeus and Deiphyle, was king of Ætolia, and one
of the bravest of the Grecian chiefs in the Trojan war. He engaged
Hector and Æneas, and by repeated acts of valour obtained much
military glory. He went with Ulysses to steal the Palladium from the
temple of Minerva at Troy; and assisted in murdering Rhesus king of
Thrace, and carrying away his horses. At his return from the siege
of Troy, he lost his way in the darkness of the night, and landed
in Attica, where his companions plundered the country, and lost the
Trojan Palladium. During his long absence, his wife Ægiale forgot
her marriage vows, and prostituted herself to Cometes, one of her
servants. This lasciviousness of the queen was attributed by some
to the resentment of Venus, whom Diomedes had severely wounded
in the arm in a battle before Troy. The infidelity of Ægiale was
highly displeasing to Diomedes. He resolved to abandon his native
country, which was the seat of his disgrace, and the attempts of
his wife to take away his life, according to some accounts, did not
a little contribute to hasten his departure. He came to that part
of Italy which has been called Magna Græcia, where he built a city
called Argyripa, and married the daughter of Daunus the king of
the country. He died there in extreme old age, or, according to a
certain tradition, he perished by the hand of his father-in-law. His
death was greatly lamented by his companions, who in the excess of
their grief were changed into birds resembling swans. These birds
took flight into a neighbouring island in the Adriatic, and became
remarkable for the tameness with which they approached the Greeks,
and for the horror with which they shunned all other nations. They
are called the birds of Diomedes. Altars were raised to Diomedes, as
to a god, one of which Strabo mentions at Timavus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 1, li. 756; bk. 11, li. 243, &c.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk.
14, fable 10.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 8; bk. 3, ch. 7.――_Hyginus_,
fables 97, 112, & 113.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 30.――――A king of
Thrace, son of Mars and Cyrene, who fed his horses with human flesh.
It was one of the labours of Hercules to destroy him; and accordingly
the hero, attended with some of his friends, attacked the inhuman
tyrant, and gave him to be devoured by his own horses, which he had
fed so barbarously. _Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 18.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 5.――――A friend of Alcibiades. _Plutarch_,
_Alcibiades_.――――A grammarian.
=Diŏmēdon=, an Athenian general, put to death for his negligence at
Arginusæ. _Thucydides_, bk. 8, ch. 19.――――A man of Cyzicus, in the
interest of Artaxerxes. _Cornelius Nepos_, _Epaminondas_.
=Dion=, a Syracusan, son of Hipparinus, famous for his power and
abilities. He was related to Dionysius, and often advised him,
together with the philosopher Plato, who at his request had come to
reside at the tyrant’s court, to lay aside the supreme power. His
great popularity rendered him odious in the eyes of the tyrant, who
banished him to Greece. There he collected a numerous force, and
encouraged by the influence of his name, and the hatred of his enemy,
he resolved to free his country from tyranny. He entered the port
of Syracuse only with two ships, and in three days reduced under his
power an empire which had already subsisted for 50 years, and which
was guarded by 500 ships of war, and 100,000 foot and 10,000 horse.
The tyrant fled to Corinth, and Dion kept the power in his own hands,
fearful of the aspiring ambition of some of the friends of Dionysius.
He was, however, shamefully betrayed and murdered by one of his
familiar friends, called Callicrates, or Callipus, 354 years before
the christian era, in the 55th year of his age, and four years after
his return from Peloponnesus. His death was universally lamented by
the Syracusans, and a monument was raised to his memory. _Diodorus_,
bk. 16.――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Life of Dion_.――――A town of Macedonia.
_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 36.――――Cassius, a native of Nicæa in
Bithynia. His father’s name was Apronianus. He was raised to the
greatest offices of state in the Roman empire by Pertinax and his
three successors. Naturally fond of study, he improved himself by
unwearied application, and was 10 years collecting materials for a
history of Rome, which he made public in 80 books, after a laborious
employment of 12 years in composing it. This valuable history began
with the arrival of Æneas in Italy, and was continued down to the
reign of the emperor Alexander Severus. The 34 first books are
totally lost, the 20 following are mutilated, and fragments are all
that we possess of the last 20. In the compilation of his extensive
history, Dion proposed to himself Thucydides for a model; but he is
not perfectly happy in his imitation. His style is pure and elegant,
and his narrations are judiciously managed, and his reflections
learned; but upon the whole he is credulous, and the bigoted
slave of partiality, satire, and flattery. He inveighs against the
republican principles of Brutus and Cicero, and extols the cause of
Cæsar. Seneca also is the object of his satire, and he represents
him as debauched and licentious in his morals. Dion flourished about
the 230th year of the christian era. The best edition of his works
is that of Reimarus, 2 vols., folio, Hamburg, 1750.――――A famous
christian writer, surnamed _Chrysostom_, &c.
=Diōnæa=, a surname of Venus, supposed to be the daughter of Jupiter
and Done.
=Diōne=, a nymph, daughter of Nereus and Doris. She was mother of
Venus by Jupiter, according to Homer and others. Hesiod, however,
gives Venus a different origin. _See:_ Venus. Venus is herself
sometimes called Dione. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 19.――_Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 5, li. 381.――_Statius_, bk. 1, _Sylvæ_, poem 1, li. 86.
=Dionȳsia=, festivals in honour of Bacchus among the Greeks. Their
form and solemnity were first introduced into Greece from Egypt by a
certain Melampus, and if we admit that Bacchus is the same as Isis,
the Dionysia of the Greeks are the same as the festivals celebrated
by the Egyptians in honour of Isis. They were observed at Athens
with more splendour and ceremonious superstition than in any other
part of Greece. The years were numbered by their celebration, the
Archon assisted at the solemnity, and the priests that officiated
were honoured with the most dignified seats at the public games.
At first they were celebrated with great simplicity, and the time
was consecrated to mirth. It was then usual to bring a vessel of
wine adorned with a vine branch, after which followed a goat, a
basket of figs, and the φαλλοι. The worshippers imitated in their
dress and actions the poetical fictions concerning Bacchus. They
clothed themselves in fawns’ skins, fine linen, and mitres; they
carried thyrsi, drums, pipes, and flutes, and crowned themselves
with garlands of ivy, vine, fir, &c. Some imitated Silenus, Pan,
and the Satyrs by the uncouth manner of their dress, and their
fantastical motions. Some rode upon asses, and others drove the
goats to slaughter for the sacrifice. In this manner both sexes
joined in the solemnity, and ran about the hills and country,
nodding their heads, dancing in ridiculous postures, and filling the
air with hideous shrieks and shouts, and crying aloud, “Evoe Bacche!
Io! Io! Evoe! Iacche! Io Bacche! Evohe!” With such solemnities were
the festivals of Bacchus celebrated by the Greeks, particularly
the Athenians. In one of these there followed a number of persons
carrying sacred vessels, one of which contained water. After these
came a select number of noble virgins, carrying little baskets of
gold filled with all sorts of fruits. This was the most mysterious
part of the solemnity. Serpents were sometimes put in the baskets,
and by their wreathing and crawling out they amused and astonished
the beholders. After the virgins followed a company of men carrying
poles, at the end of which were fastened φαλλοι. The heads of these
men, who were called φαλλοφοροι, were crowned with ivy and violets,
and their faces covered with other herbs. They marched singing songs
upon the occasion of the festivals, called φαλλικα ᾁσματα. Next to
the φαλλοφοροι followed the ἰθυφαλλοι in women’s apparel, with white
striped garments reaching to the ground; their heads were decked
with garlands, and on their hands they wore gloves composed of
flowers. Their gestures and actions were like those of a drunken
man. Besides these, there were a number of persons called λικνοφοροι,
who carried the λικνον or _musical van_ of Bacchus; without their
attendance none of the festivals of Bacchus were celebrated with
due solemnity, and on that account the god is often called λικνιτης.
The festivals of Bacchus were almost innumerable. The name of the
most celebrated were the Dionysia ♦ἀρχαιότερα, at Limnæ in Attica.
The chief persons that officiated were 14 women called γεραιραι,
_venerable_. They were appointed by one of the archons, and before
their appointment they solemnly took an oath before the archon
or his wife, that their body was free from all pollution.――――The
greater Dionysia, sometimes called ἀστικα or τα κατ’ ἀστυ, as
being celebrated _within the city_, were the most famous. They
were supposed to be the same as the preceding.――――The less Dionysia,
sometimes called τα κατ’ ἀργους, because celebrated _in the country_,
or ληναια, from ληνος, _a wine-press_, were, to all appearance,
a preparation for the greater festivals. They were celebrated in
autumn.――――The Dionysia βραυρωνια, observed at _Brauron_ in Attica,
were a scene of lewdness, extravagance, and debauchery.――――The
Dionysia νυκτηλια were observed by the Athenians in honour of
Bacchus Nyctelius. It was unlawful to reveal whatever was seen
or done during the celebration.――――The Dionysia called ὠμοφαγια,
because human victims were offered to the god, or because the
priests imitated the _eating of raw flesh_, were celebrated with
much solemnity. The priests put serpents in their hair, and by
the wildness of their looks, and the oddity of their actions, they
feigned insanity.――――The Dionysia ἀρκαδικα were yearly observed in
Arcadia, and the children who had been instructed in the music of
Philoxenus and Timotheus, were introduced in a theatre, where they
celebrated the festivals of Bacchus by entertaining the spectators
with songs, dances, and different exhibitions. There were, besides
these, others of inferior note. There was also one observed every
three years called Dionysia τριετηρικα, and it is said that Bacchus
instituted it himself in commemoration of his Indian expedition, in
which he spent three years. There is also another, celebrated every
fifth year, as mentioned by the scholiast of Aristophanes.――――All
these festivals, in honour of the god of wine, were celebrated by
the Greeks with great licentiousness, and they contributed much
to the corruption of morals among all ranks of people. They were
also introduced into Tuscany, and from thence to Rome. Among the
Romans, both sexes promiscuously joined in the celebration during
the darkness of night. The drunkenness, the debauchery, and impure
actions and indulgencies which soon prevailed at the solemnity,
called aloud for the interference of the senate, and the consuls
Spurius Posthumius Albinus and Quintus Martius Philippus made
a strict examination concerning the propriety and superstitious
forms of the Bacchanalia. The disorder and pollution which was
practised with impunity by no less than 7000 votaries of either
sex, were beheld with horror and astonishment by the consuls, and
the Bacchanalia were for ever banished from Rome by a decree of
the senate. They were again reinstituted there in length of time,
but not with such licentiousness as before. _Euripides_, _Bacchæ_.
――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 11, li. 737.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 3, li. 533; bk. 4, li. 391; bk. 6, li. 587.
♦ ‘ἀλχαιωτερα’ replaced with ‘ἀρχαιότερα’
=Diŏnȳsiădes=, two small islands near Crete.――――Festivals in honour of
Bacchus. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 13.
=Diŏnȳsias=, a fountain. _Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 36.
=Diŏnysides=, a tragic poet of Tarsus.
=Diŏnȳsiodōrus=, a famous geometer. _Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 109.――――A
Bœotian historian. _Diodorus_, bk. 15.――――A Tarentine, who obtained
a prize at Olympia in the 100th Olympiad.
=Dionȳsion=, a temple of Bacchus in Attica. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 43.
=Dionȳsipŏlis=, a town of Thrace. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 2.
=Dionȳsius I.=, or the elder, was son of Hermocrates. He signalized
himself in the wars which the Syracusans carried on against the
Carthaginians, and, taking advantage of the power lodged in his
hands, he made himself absolute at Syracuse. To strengthen himself
in his usurpation, and acquire popularity, he increased the pay of
the soldiers, and recalled those that had been banished. He vowed
eternal enmity against Carthage, and experienced various success in
his wars against that republic. He was ambitious of being thought a
poet, and his brother Theodorus was commissioned to go to Olympia,
and repeat there some verses in his name, with other competitors,
for the poetical prizes. His expectations were frustrated, and his
poetry was received with groans and hisses. He was not, however, so
unsuccessful at Athens, where a poetical prize was publicly adjudged
to one of his compositions. This victory gave him more pleasure
than all the victories he had ever obtained in the field of battle.
His tyranny and cruelty at home rendered him odious in the eyes of
his subjects, and he became so suspicious that he never admitted
his wife or children to his private apartment without a previous
examination of their garments. He never trusted his head to a barber,
but always burnt his beard. He made a subterraneous cave in a rock,
said to be still extant, in the form of a human ear, which measured
80 feet in height and 250 in length. It was called the ear of
Dionysius. The sounds of this subterraneous cave were all necessarily
directed to one common tympanum, which had a communication with an
adjoining room, where Dionysius spent the greatest part of his time
to hear whatever was said by those whom his suspicion and cruelty
had confined in the apartments above. The artists that had been
employed in making this cave were all put to death by order of
the tyrant, for fear of their revealing to what purposes a work of
such uncommon construction was to be appropriated. His impiety and
sacrilege were as conspicuous as his suspicious credulity. He took a
golden mantle from the statue of Jupiter, observing that the son of
Saturn had a covering too warm for the summer, and too cold for the
winter, and he placed one of wool instead. He also robbed Æsculapius
of his golden beard, and plundered the temple of Proserpine. He died
of an indigestion in the 63rd year of his age, B.C. 368, after a
reign of 38 years. Authors, however, are divided about the manner
of his death, and some are of opinion that he died a violent death.
Some suppose that the tyrant invented the _catapulta_, an engine
which proved of infinite service for the discharging of showers of
darts and stones in the time of a siege. _Diodorus_, bks. 13, 15, &c.
――_Justin_, bk. 20, ch. 1, &c.――_Xenophon_, _Hellenica_.――_Cornelius
Nepos_, _Timoleon_.――_Plutarch_, _Diodorus_.――――The second of that
name, surnamed the younger, was son of Dionysius I. by Doris. He
succeeded his father as tyrant of Sicily, and by the advice of Dion
his brother-in-law, he invited the philosopher Plato to his court,
under whom he studied for a while. The philosopher advised him to
lay aside the supreme power, and in his admonitions he was warmly
seconded by Dion. Dionysius refused to consent, and soon after Plato
was seized and publicly sold as a slave. Dion likewise, on account
of his great popularity, was severely abused and insulted in his
family, and his wife given in marriage to another. Such a violent
behaviour was highly resented; Dion, who was banished, collected
some forces in Greece, and in three days rendered himself master of
Syracuse, and expelled the tyrant B.C. 357. _See:_ Dion. Dionysius
retired to Locri, where he behaved with the greatest oppression,
and was ejected by the citizens. He recovered Syracuse 10 years
after his expulsion, but his triumph was short, and the Corinthians,
under conduct of Timoleon, obliged him to abandon the city. He fled
to Corinth, where to support himself he kept a school, as Cicero
observes, that he might still continue to be tyrant; and as he could
not command over men, that he might still exercise his power over
boys. It is said that he died from excess of joy, when he heard that
a tragedy of his own composition had been rewarded with a poetical
prize. Dionysius was as cruel as his father, but he did not, like
him, possess the art of restraining his power. This was seen and
remarked by the old man, who, when he saw his son attempting to
debauch the wives of some of his old subjects, asked him, with
the greatest indignation, whether he had ever heard of his having
acted so brutal a part in his younger days? “No,” answered the son,
“because you were not the son of a king.” “Well, my son,” replied
the old man, “never shalt thou be the father of a king.” _Justin_,
bk. 21, chs. 1, 2, &c.――_Diodorus_, bk. 15, &c.――_Ælian_, _Varia
Historia_, bk. 9, ch. 8.――_Quintilian_, bk. 8, ch. 6.――_Cornelius
Nepos_, _Dion_.――_Cicero_, _Tusculanæ Disputationes_, bk. 5, ch. 2.
――――An historian of _Halicarnassus_, who left his country and came
to reside at Rome, that he might carefully study all the Greek and
Latin writers, whose compositions treated of the Roman history. He
formed an acquaintance with all the learned of the age, and derived
much information from their company and conversation. After an
unremitted application, during 24 years, he gave to the world his
Roman antiquities in 20 books, of which only the 11 first are now
extant, nearly containing the account of 312 years. His composition
has been greatly valued by the ancients as well as the moderns for
the easiness of his style, the fidelity of his chronology, and the
judiciousness of his remarks and criticism. Like a faithful historian,
he never mentioned anything but what was authenticated, and he
totally disregarded the fabulous traditions which fill and disgrace
the pages of both his predecessors and followers. To the merits of
the elegant historian, Dionysius, as may be seen in his treatises,
has also added the equally respectable character of the eloquent
orator, the critic, and the politician. He lived during the Augustan
age, and came to Rome about 80 years before the christian era. The
best editions of his works are that of Oxford, 2 vols., folio, 1704,
and that of Reiske, 6 vols., 8vo, Lipscomb, 1774.――――A tyrant of
Heraclea in Pontus, in the age of Alexander the Great. After the
death of the conqueror and of Perdiccas, he married Amestris the
niece of king Darius, and assumed the title of king. He was of such
an uncommon corpulence that he never exposed his person in public,
and when he gave audience to foreign ambassadors, he always placed
himself in a chair which was conveniently made to hide his face
and person from the eyes of the spectators. When he was asleep,
it was impossible to awake him without boring his flesh with pins.
He died in the 55th year of his age. As his reign was remarkable
for mildness and popularity, his death was severely lamented by his
subjects. He left two sons and a daughter, and appointed his widow
queen-regent.――――A surname of Bacchus.――――A disciple of Chæremon.
――――A native of Chalcis, who wrote a book entitled κτισεις, or _the
origin of cities_.――――A commander of the Ionian fleet against the
Persians, who went to plunder Phœnicia. _Herodotus_, bk. 6, ch. 17.
――――A general of Antiochus Hierax.――――A philosopher of Heraclea,
disciple to Zeno. He starved himself to death, B.C. 279, in the
81st year of his age. _Diogenes Laërtius._――――An epic poet of
Mitylene.――――A sophist of Pergamus. _Strabo_, bk. 13.――――A writer
in the Augustan age, called _Periegetes_. He wrote a very valuable
geographical treatise in Greek hexameters, still extant. The best
edition of his treatise is that of Henry Stephens, 4to, 1577, with
the scholia, and that of Hill, 8vo, London, 1688.――――A christian
writer, A.D. 492, called _Areopagita_. The best edition of his works
is that of Antwerp, 2 vols., folio, 1634.――――The music master of
Epaminondas. _Cornelius Nepos._――――A celebrated critic. _See:_
Longinus.――――A rhetorician of Magnesia.――――A Messenian madman, &c.
_Plutarch_, _Alexander_.――――A native of Thrace, generally called the
Rhodian, because he lived there. He wrote some grammatical treatises
and commentaries, B.C. 64. _Strabo_, bk. 14.――――A painter of
Colophon.
=Diŏphănes=, a man who joined Peloponnesus to the Achæan league.
_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 30.――――A rhetorician intimate with Tiberias
Gracchus. _Plutarch_, _Tiberius Gracchus_.
=Diŏphantus=, an Athenian general of the Greek mercenary troops in
the service of Nectanebus king of Egypt. _Diodorus_, bk. 16.――――A
Greek orator of Mitylene, preceptor to Tiberius Gracchus. _Cicero_,
_Brutus_.――――A native of Alexandria in the fourth century. He wrote
13 books of arithmetical questions, of which six are still extant,
the best edition of which is that in folio, Tolosæ, 1670. He died
in his 84th year, but the age in which he lived is uncertain. Some
place him in the reign of Augustus, others under Nero and Antonines.
=Diopœnus=, a noble sculptor of Crete. _Pliny_, bk. 36, ch. 4.
=Diopŏlis=, a name given to Cabira, a town of Paphlagonia, by Pompey.
_Strabo_, bk. 12.
=Diōres=, a friend of Æneas, killed by Turnus. He had engaged in the
games exhibited by Æneas on his father’s tomb in Sicily. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 5, li. 297; bk. 12, li. 509.
=Dioryctus=, a place of Acarnania, where a canal was cut (δια ὀρυσσω),
to make Leucadia an island. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 1.
=Dioscorĭdes=, a native of Cilicia, who was physician to Antony and
Cleopatra, or lived, as some suppose, in the age of Nero. He was
originally a soldier, but afterwards he applied himself to study,
and wrote a book upon medicinal herbs, of which the best edition
is that of Saracenus, folio, Frankfurt. 1598.――――A man who wrote
an account of the republic of Lacedæmon.――――A nephew of Antigonus.
_Diodorus_, bk. 19.――――A Cyprian, blind of one eye, in the age of
Ptolemy Philadelphus.――――A disciple of Isocrates.――――An astrologer
sent ambassador by Julius Cæsar to Achillas, &c. _Cæsar_, _Civil
War_, bk. 3, ch. 109.
=Dioscorĭdis insula=, an island situate at the south of the entrance
of the Arabic gulf, and now called _Socotra_.
=Dioscūri=, or _sons of Jupiter_, a name given to Castor and Pollux.
There were festivals in their honour, called _Dioscuria_, celebrated
by the people of Corcyra, and chiefly by the Lacedæmonians. They
were observed with much jovial festivity. The people made a free
use of the gifts of Bacchus, and diverted themselves with sports,
of which wrestling matches always made a part.
=Dioscurias=, a town of Colchis. _Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 28.
=Diospăge=, a town of Mesopotamia. _Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 26.
=Diospŏlis=, or =Thebæ=, a famous city of Egypt, formerly called
Hecatompylos. _See:_ Thebæ.
=Diotīme=, a woman who gave lectures upon philosophy, which Socrates
attended. _Plutarch_, _Convivium Septem Sapientium_.
=Diotīmus=, an Athenian skilled in maritime affairs, &c. _Polyænus_,
bk. 5.――――A stoic, who flourished 85 B.C.
=Diotrephes=, an Athenian officer, &c. _Thucydides_, bk. 3, ch. 75.
=Dioxippe=, one of the Danaides. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 1.
=Dioxippus=, a soldier of Alexander, who killed one of his
fellow-soldiers in a fury, &c. _Ælian._――――An Athenian boxer, &c.
_Diodorus_, bk. 17.――――A Trojan killed by Turnus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 9, li. 574.
=Dipæa=, a place of Peloponnesus, where a battle was fought between
the Arcadians and Spartans. _Herodotus_, bk. 9, ch. 35.
=Diphĭlas=, a man sent to Rhodes by the Spartans, to destroy the
Athenian faction there. _Diodorus_, bk. 14.――――A governor of Babylon
in the interest of Antigonus. _Diodorus_, bk. 19.――――An historian.
=Dīphĭlus=, an Athenian general, A.U.C. 311.――――An architect so slow
in finishing his works, that _Diphilo tardior_ became a proverb.
_Cicero_, _Letters to his brother Quintus_, bk. 3.――――A tragic
writer.
=Diphorĭdas=, one of the Ephori at Sparta. _Plutarch_, _Agesilaus_.
=Dipœnæ=, a town of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 31.
=Dipŏlis=, a name given to Lemnos, as having two cities, Hephæstia and
Myrina.
=Dipsas= (antis), a river of Cilicia, flowing from mount Taurus.
_Lucan_, bk. 8, li. 255.――――(adis), a profligate and incontinent
woman mentioned by _Ovid_, _Amores_, bk. 1, poem 8.――――A kind of
serpent. _Lucan_, bk. 9.
=Dipylon=, one of the gates of Athens.
=Diræ=, the daughters of Acheron and Nox, who persecuted the souls of
the guilty. They are the same as the furies, and some suppose they
are called Furies in hell, Harpies on earth, and Diræ in heaven.
They were represented as standing near the throne of Jupiter, in
an attitude which expressed their eagerness to receive his orders,
and the power of tormenting the guilty on earth with the most
excruciating punishments. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 4, li. 473; bk. 8,
li. 701.
=Dirce=, a woman whom Lycus king of Thebes married after he had
divorced Antiope. When Antiope became pregnant by Jupiter, Dirce
suspected her husband of infidelity to her bed, and imprisoned
Antiope, whom she tormented with the greatest cruelty. Antiope
escaped from her confinement, and brought forth Amphion and
Zethus on mount Cithæron. When these children were informed of the
cruelties to which their mother had been exposed, they besieged
Thebes, put Lycus to death, and tied the cruel Dirce to the tail
of a wild bull, which dragged her over rocks and precipices, and
exposed her to the most poignant pains, till the gods, pitying her
fate, changed her into a fountain, in the neighbourhood of Thebes.
According to some accounts, Antiope was mother of Amphion and Zethus
before she was confined and exposed to the tyranny of Dirce. _See:_
Amphion, Antiope. _Propertius_, bk. 3, poem 15, li. 37.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 9, ch. 26.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 12, ch. 57.――_Lucan_,
bk. 3, li. 175; bk. 4, li. 550.
=Dircenna=, a cold fountain of Spain, near Bilbilis. _Martial_, bk. 1,
ltr. 50, li. 17.
=Dirphyia=, a surname of Juno, from _Dirphya_, a mountain of Bœotia,
where the goddess had a temple.
=Dis=, a god of the Gauls, the same as Pluto the god of hell. The
inhabitants of Gaul supposed themselves descended from that deity.
_Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 6.――_Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 4, ch. 84.
=Discordia=, a malevolent deity, daughter of Nox, and sister to
Nemesis, the Parcæ, and death. She was driven from heaven by Jupiter,
because she sowed dissensions among the gods, and was the cause
of continual quarrels. When the nuptials of Peleus and Thetis were
celebrated, the goddess of discord was not invited, and this seeming
neglect so irritated her, that she threw an apple into the midst of
the assembly of the gods, with the inscription of _detur pulchriori_.
This apple was the cause of the ruin of Troy, and of infinite
misfortunes to the Greeks. _See:_ Paris. She is represented with
a pale, ghastly look, her garment is torn, her eyes sparkle with
fire, and she holds a dagger concealed in her bosom. Her head is
generally entwined with serpents, and she is attended by Bellona.
She is supposed to be the cause of all dissensions, murders, wars,
and quarrels which arise upon earth, public as well as private.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8, li. 702.――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 225.
――_Petronius._
=Dithyrambus=, a surname of Bacchus, whence the hymns sung in his
honour were called Dithyrambics. _Horace_, bk. 4, ode 2.
=Dittani=, a people of Spain.
=Divi=, a name chiefly appropriated to those who were made gods after
death, such as heroes and warriors, or the Lares and Penates, and
other domestic gods.
=Divitiăcus=, one of the Ædui, intimate with Cæsar. _Cicero_ bk. 1,
_de Divinatione_.
=Dium=, a town of Eubœa, where there were hot baths. _Pliny_, bk. 31,
ch. 2.――――A promontory of Crete.――――A town of Macedonia. _Livy_,
bk. 44, ch. 7.
=Divodurum=, a town of Gaul, now _Metz_ in Lorrain.
=Divus Fidius=, a god of the Sabines, worshipped also at Rome.
_Dionysius of Halicarnassus._
=Diyllus=, an Athenian historian. _Diodorus_, bk. 16.――――A statuary.
_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 13.
=Doberes=, a people of Pæonia. _Herodotus_, bk. 5, ch. 16.
=Docĭlis=, a gladiator at Rome, mentioned by _Horace_, bk. 1, ltr. 18,
li. 19.
=Docĭmus=, a man of Tarentum, deprived of his military dignity
by Philip son of Amyntas, for indulging himself with hot baths.
_Polyænus_, bk. 4.――――An officer of Antigonus. _Diodorus_, bk. 19.
――――An officer of Perdiccas, taken by Antigonus. _Diodorus_, bk. 18.
=Dōdōna=, a town of Thesprotia in Epirus, or, according to others,
in Thessaly. There was in its neighbourhood, upon a small hill
called Tmarus, a celebrated oracle of Jupiter. The town and temple
of the god were first built by Deucalion, after the universal deluge.
It was supposed to be the most ancient oracle of all Greece, and
according to the traditions of the Egyptians mentioned by Herodotus,
it was founded by a dove. Two black doves, as he relates, took
their flight from the city of Thebes in Egypt, one of which flew
to the temple of Jupiter Ammon, and the other to Dodona, where,
with a human voice, they acquainted the inhabitants of the country
that Jupiter had consecrated the ground, which in future would
give oracles. The extensive grove which surrounded Jupiter’s temple
was endowed with the gift of prophecy, and oracles were frequently
delivered by the sacred oaks, and the doves which inhabited the
place. This fabulous tradition of the oracular power of the doves
is explained by Herodotus, who observes that some Phœnicians carried
away two priestesses from Egypt, one of which went to fix her
residence at Dodona, where the oracle was established. It may
further be observed, that the fable might have been founded upon the
double meaning of the word πελειαι, which signifies _doves_ in most
parts of Greece, while in the dialect of the Epirots, it implies
_old women_. In ancient times the oracles were delivered by the
murmuring of a neighbouring fountain, but the custom was afterwards
changed. Large kettles were suspended in the air near a brazen
statue, which held a lash in its hand. When the wind blew strong,
the statue was agitated and struck against one of the kettles, which
communicated the motion to all the rest, and raised that clattering
and discordant din which continued for a while, and from which the
artifice of the priests drew their predictions. Some suppose that
the noise was occasioned by the shaking of the leaves and boughs
of an old oak, which the superstition of the people frequently
consulted, and from which they pretended to receive oracles. It may
be observed with more probability that the oracles were delivered by
the priests, who, by artfully concealing themselves behind the oaks,
gave occasion to the superstitious multitude to believe that the
trees were endowed with the power of prophecy. As the ship Argo was
built with some of the oaks of the forest of Dodona, there were some
beams in the vessel which gave oracles to the Argonauts, and warned
them against the approach of calamity. Within the forest of Dodona
there was a stream with a fountain of cool water, which had the
power of lighting a torch as soon as it touched it. This fountain
was totally dry at noonday, and was restored to its full course
at midnight, from which time till the following noon it began to
decrease, and at the usual hour was again deprived of its waters.
The oracles of Dodona were originally delivered by men, but
afterwards by women. _See:_ Dodonides. _Pliny_, bk. 2, ch. 103.
――_Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 57.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.――_Homer_,
_Odyssey_, bk. 14; _Iliad_.――_Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 21.――_Strabo_,
bk. 17.――_Plutarch_, _Pyrrhus_.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9.
――_Lucan_, bk. 6, li. 427.――_Ovid_, _Tristia_, bk. 4, poem 8, li. 23.
=Dōdōnæus=, a surname of Jupiter from Dodona.
=Dōdōne=, a daughter of Jupiter and Europa.――――A fountain in the forest
of Dodona. _See:_ Dodona.
=Dōdōnĭdes=, the priestesses who gave oracles in the temple of Jupiter
in Dodona. According to some traditions the temple was originally
inhabited by seven daughters of Atlas, who nursed Bacchus. Their
names were Ambrosia, Eudora, Pasithoe, Pytho, Plexaure, Coronis,
Tythe or Tyche. In the latter ages the oracles were always delivered
by three old women, which custom was first established when Jupiter
enjoyed the company of Dione, whom he permitted to receive divine
honour in his temple at Dodona. The Bœotians were the only people
of Greece who received their oracles at Dodona from men, for reasons
which _Strabo_, bk. 9, fully explains.
=Doii=, a people of Arabia Felix.
=Dolabella Publius Cornelius=, a Roman who married the daughter of
Cicero. During the civil wars he warmly espoused the interest of
Julius Cæsar, whom he accompanied at the famous battles at Pharsalia,
Africa, and Munda. He was made consul by his patron, though Marcus
Antony his colleague opposed it. After the death of Julius Cæsar,
he received the government of Syria as his province. Cassius opposed
his views, and Dolabella, for violence, and for the assassination
of Trebonius, one of Cæsar’s murderers, was declared an enemy
to the republic of Rome. He was besieged by Cassius in Laodicea,
and when he saw that all was lost, he killed himself, in the 27th
year of his age. He was of small stature, which gave occasion to
his father-in-law to ask him once when he entered his house, who
had tied him so cleverly to his sword.――――A proconsul of Africa.
――――Another, who conquered the Gauls, Etrurians, and Boii at the
lake of Vadimonis, B. C. 283.――――The family of the Dolabellæ
distinguished themselves at Rome, and one of them, Lucius Cornelius,
conquered Lusitania, B.C. 99.
=Dolichaon=, the father of the Hebrus, &c. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10,
li. 696.
=Dolīche=, an island in the Ægean sea. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 6.
――――A town of Syria,――――of Macedonia. _Livy_, bk. 42, ch. 53.
=Dolius=, a faithful servant of Ulysses. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 4,
li. 675.
=Dolomēna=, a country of Assyria. _Strabo_, bk. 16.
=Dŏlon=, a Trojan, son of Eumedes, famous for his swiftness. Being
sent by Hector to spy the Grecian camp by night, he was seized by
Diomedes and Ulysses, to whom he revealed the situation, schemes,
and resolutions of his countrymen, with the hopes of escaping with
his life. He was put to death by Diomedes, as a traitor. _Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 10, li. 314.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 12, li. 349, &c.
――――A poet. _See:_ Susarion.
=Dōlonci=, a people of Thrace. _Herodotus_, bk. 6, ch. 34.
=Dŏlŏpes=, a people of Thessaly, near mount Pindus. Peleus reigned
there, and sent them to the Trojan war under Phœnix. They became
also masters of Scyros, and like the rest of the ancient Greeks,
were fond of migration. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 2, li. 7.――_Flaccus_,
bk. 2, li. 10.――_Livy_, bk. 36, ch. 33.――_Strabo_, bk. 9.――_Plutarch_,
_Cimon_.
=Dŏlŏpia=, the country of the Dolopes, near Pindus, through which the
Achelous flowed.
=Dŏlops=, a Trojan, son of Lampus, killed by Menelaus. _Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 15, li. 525.
=Domidūcus=, a god who presided over marriage. Juno also was called
_Domiduca_, from the power she was supposed to have in marriages.
=Domīnĭca=, a daughter of Petronius, who married the ♦emperor Valens.
♦ ‘emperior’ replaced with ‘emperor’
=Domitĭa lex=, _de Religione_, was enacted by Domitius Ahenobarbus the
tribune, A.U.C. 650. It transferred the right of electing priests
from the college to the people.
=Domĭtia Longīna=, a Roman lady who boasted in her debaucheries. She
was the wife of the emperor Domitian.
=Domĭtiānus Titus Flavius=, son of Vespasian and Flavia Domatilla,
made himself emperor of Rome at the death of his brother Titus,
whom, according to some accounts, he destroyed by poison. The
beginning of his reign promised tranquillity to the people, but
their expectations were soon frustrated. Domitian became cruel,
and gave way to incestuous and unnatural indulgencies. He commanded
himself to be called God and Lord in all the papers which were
presented to him. He passed the greatest part of the day in catching
flies and killing them with a bodkin, so that it was wittily
answered by Vibius to a person who asked him who was with the
emperor, “Nobody, not even a fly.” In the latter part of his reign
Domitian became suspicious, and his anxieties were increased by
the predictions of astrologers, but still more poignantly by the
stings of remorse. He was so distrustful even when alone, that round
the terrace, where he usually walked, he built a wall with shining
stones, that from them he might perceive as in a looking-glass
whether anybody followed him. All these precautions were unavailing;
he perished by the hand of an assassin the 18th of September, A.D.
96, in the 45th year of his age and the 15th of his reign. He was
the last of the 12 Cæsars. He distinguished himself for his love
of learning, and in a little treatise which he wrote upon the great
care which ought to be taken of the hair to prevent baldness, he
displayed much taste and elegance, according to the observations
of his biographers. After his death he was publicly deprived by the
senate of all the honours which had been profusely heaped upon him,
and even his body was left in the open air without the honours of
a funeral. This disgrace might proceed from the resentment of the
senators, whom he had exposed to terror as well as to ridicule. He
once assembled that august body, to know in what vessel a turbot
might be most conveniently dressed. At another time they received
a formal invitation to a feast, and when they arrived at the palace,
they were introduced into a large gloomy hall hung with black, and
lighted with a few glimmering tapers. In the middle were placed a
number of coffins, on each of which was inscribed the name of some
one of the invited senators. On a sudden a number of men burst into
the room, clothed in black, with drawn swords and flaming torches,
and after they had for some time terrified the guests, they permitted
them to retire. Such were the amusements and cruelties of a man who,
in the first part of his reign, was looked upon as the father of his
people, and the restorer of learning and liberty. _Suetonius_, _The
Twelve Caesars_.――_Eutropius_, bk. 7.
=Domĭtilla Flavia=, a woman who married Vespasian, by whom she had
Titus a year after her marriage, and, 11 years after, Domitian.――――A
niece of the emperor Domitian, by whom she was banished.
=Domĭtius Domitiănus=, a general of Diocletian in Egypt. He assumed
the imperial purple at Alexandria, A.D. 288, and supported the
dignity of emperor for about two years. He died a violent death.
――――Lucius. _See:_ Ænobarbus.――――Cnæus Ænobarbus, a Roman consul,
who conquered Bituitus the Gaul, and left 20,000 of the enemy on
the field of battle, and took 3000 prisoners.――――A grammarian in
the reign of Adrian. He was remarkable for his virtues, and his
melancholy disposition.――――A Roman who revolted from Antony to
Augustus. He was at the battle of Pharsalia, and forced Pompey to
fight by the mere force of his ridicule.――――The father of Nero,
famous for his cruelties and debaucheries. _Suetonius_, _Nero_.――――A
tribune of the people, who conquered the Allobroges. _Plutarch._
――――A consul during whose consulate peace was concluded with
Alexander king of Epirus. _Livy_, bk. 8, ch. 17.――――A consul under
Caligula. He wrote some few things now lost.――――A Latin poet, called
also Marsus, in the age of Horace. He wrote epigrams, remarkable for
little besides their indelicacy. _Ovid_, _ex Ponto_, bk. 4, poem 16,
li. 5.――――Afer, an orator, who was preceptor to Quintilian. He
disgraced his talents by his adulation, and by practising the arts
of an informer under Tiberius and his successors. He was made a
consul by Nero, and died A.D. 59.
=Ælius Donātus=, a grammarian, who flourished A.D. 353.――――A bishop
of Numidia, a promoter of the Donatists, A.D. 311.――――A bishop of
Africa, banished from Carthage, A.D. 356.
=Donilāus=, a prince of Gallogræcia, who assisted Pompey with 300
horsemen against Julius Cæsar.
=Donūca=, a mountain of Thrace. _Livy_, bk. 40, ch. 57.
=Dŏnȳsa=, one of the Cyclades in the Ægean, where green marble is
found. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 125.
=Doracte=, an island in the Persian gulf.
=Dōres=, the inhabitants of Doris. _See:_ Doris.
=Dori= and =Dorica=, a part of Achaia near Athens.
=Dorĭcus=, an epithet applied not only to Doris, but to all the Greeks
in general. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 2, li. 27.
=Dorienses=, a people of Crete,――――of Cyrene.
=Dorieus=, a son of Anaxandridas, who went with a colony into
Sicily, because he could not bear to be under his brother at home.
_Herodotus_, bk. 5, ch. 42, &c.――_Pausanias_, bk. 3, chs. 3 & 16,
&c.――――A son of Diagoras of Rhodes. _Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 7.
=Dorilas=, a rich Libyan prince, killed in the court of Cepheus.
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, fable 4.
=Dorilaus=, a general of the great Mithridates.
=Dorion=, a town of Thessaly, where Thamyras the musician challenged
the muses to a trial of skill. _Statius_, _Thebiad_, bk. 4, li. 182.
――_Propertius_, bk. 2, poem 22, li. 19.――_Lucan_, bk. 6, li. 352.
=Dōris=, a country of Greece between Phocis, Thessaly, and Acarnania.
It received its name from Dorus the son of Deucalion, who made a
settlement there. It was called _Tetrapolis_, from the four cities
of Pindus or Dryopis, Erineum, Cytinium, Borium, which it contained.
To these four some add Lilæum and Carphia, and therefore call it
Hexapolis. The name of Doris has been common to many parts of Greece.
The Dorians, in the age of Deucalion, inhabited Phthiotis, which
they exchanged for Histiæotis, in the age of Dorus. From thence
they were driven by the Cadmæans, and came to settle near the town
of Pindus. From thence they passed into Dryopis, and afterwards
into Peloponnesus. Hercules having re-established Ægimius king of
Phthiotis or Doris, who had been driven from his country by the
Lapithæ, the grateful king appointed Hyllus the son of his patron
to be his successor, and the Heraclidæ marched from that part of
the country to go to recover Peloponnesus. The Dorians sent many
colonies into different places, which bore the same name as their
native country. The most famous of these is _Doris in Asia Minor_,
of which Halicarnassus was once the capital. This part of Asia Minor
was called Hexapolis, and afterwards Pentapolis, after the exclusion
of Halicarnassus. _Strabo_, bk. 9, &c.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 2,
li. 27.――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 29.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2.――_Herodotus_,
bk. 1, ch. 144; bk. 8, ch. 31.――――A goddess of the sea, daughter
of Oceanus and Tethys. She married her brother Nereus, by whom she
had 50 daughters called Nereides. Her name is often used to express
the sea itself. _Propertius_, bk. 1, poem 17, li. 25.――_Virgil_,
_Eclogues_, poem 10.――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 240.――――A woman of
Locri, daughter of Xenetus, whom Dionysius the elder, of Sicily,
married the same day with Aristomache. _Cicero_, _Tusculanæ
Disputationes_, bk. 5.――――One of the 50 Nereides. _Hesiod_,
_Theogony_, li. 250.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 18, li. 45.
=Doriscus=, a place of Thrace near the sea, where Xerxes numbered his
forces. _Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 59.
=Dorium=, a town of Peloponnesus. _Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 33.――――One
of the Danaides. _Apollodorus._
=Dorius=, a mountain of Asia Minor. _Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 3.
=Dorsennus=, a comic poet of great merit in the Augustan age. _Pliny_,
bk. 14, ch. 13.――_Horace_, bk. 2, ltr. 10, li. 173.
=Dorso Caius Fabius=, a Roman who, when Rome was in the possession of
the Gauls, issued from the Capitol, which was then besieged, to go
and offer a sacrifice, which was to be offered on mount Quirinalis.
He dressed himself in sacerdotal robes, and carrying on his
shoulders the statues of his country gods, passed through the guards
of the enemy, without betraying the least signs of fear. When he had
finished his sacrifice, he returned to the Capitol unmolested by the
enemy, who were astonished at his boldness, and did not obstruct his
passage or molest his sacrifice. _Livy_, bk. 5, ch. 46.
=Dōrus=, a son of Hellen and Orseis, or, according to others, of
Deucalion, who left Phthiotis, where his father reigned, and went to
make a settlement with some of his companions near mount Ossa. The
country was called Doris, and the inhabitants Dorians. _Herodotus_,
bk. 1, ch. 56, &c.――――A city of Phœnicia, whose inhabitants are
called Dorienses. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 24.
=Doryasus=, a Spartan, father to Agesilaus.
=Dŏrȳclus=, an illegitimate son of Priam, killed by Ajax in the Trojan
war. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 11.――――A brother of Phineus king of
Thrace, who married Beroe. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 5, li. 620.
=Dŏrȳlæum= and =Dorylæus=, a city of Phrygia, now _Eski Shehr_.
_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 29.――_Cicero_, _Flaccus_, ch. 17.
=Dory̆las=, one of the centaurs killed by Theseus. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 12, li. 180.
=Dory̆lāus=, a warlike person intimate with Mithridates Evergetes, and
general of the Gnossians, B.C. 125. _Strabo_, bk. 10.
=Doryssus=, a king of Lacedæmon, killed in a tumult. _Pausanias_,
bk. 3, ch. 2.
=Dosci=, a people near the Euxine.
=Dosiadas=, a poet who wrote a piece of poetry in the form of an altar
(βωμος), which Theocritus has imitated.
=Dosiades=, a Greek, who wrote a history of Crete. _Diodorus_, bk. 5.
=Doson=, a surname of Antigonus, because he promised and never
performed.
=Dossēnus=, or =Dorsennus=. _See:_ Dorsennus.
=Dotădas=, a king of Messenia, &c. _Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 3.
=Doto=, one of the Nereides. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 102.
=Dotus=, a general of the Paphlagonians, in the army of Xerxes.
_Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 72.
=Doxander=, a man mentioned by _Aristotle_, _Politics_, bk. 5.
=Dracānus=, a mountain where Jupiter took Bacchus from his thigh.
_Theocritus._
=Draco=, a celebrated lawgiver of Athens. When he exercised the office
of archon, he made a code of laws, B.C. 623, for the use of the
citizens, which, on account of their severity, were said to be
written in letters of blood. By them, idleness was punished with
as much severity as murder, and death was denounced against the one
as well as the other. Such a code of rigorous laws gave occasion
to a certain Athenian to ask of the legislator why he was so severe
in his punishments, and Draco gave for answer, that as the smallest
transgression had appeared to him deserving death, he could not find
any punishment more rigorous for more atrocious crimes. These laws
were at first enforced, but they were often neglected on account
of their extreme severity, and Solon totally abolished them, except
that one which punished a murderer with death. The popularity of
Draco was uncommon, but the gratitude of his admirers proved fatal
to him. When once he appeared on the theatre, he was received with
repeated applauses, and the people, according to the custom of
the Athenians, showed their respect to their lawgiver, by throwing
garments upon him. This was done in such profusion, that Draco was
soon hid under them, and smothered by the too great veneration of
his citizens. _Plutarch_, _Solon_.――――A man who instructed Plato in
music. _Plutarch_, _de Musica_.
=Dracontides=, a wicked citizen of Athens. ♦_Plato [Comicus]_,
_The Sophists_.
♦ ‘Plut.’ replaced with ‘Plato’
=Dracus=, a general of the Achæans, conquered by Mummius.
=Drances=, a friend of Latinus, remarkable for his weakness and
eloquence. He showed himself an obstinate opponent to the violent
measures which Turnus pursued against the Trojans. Some have
imagined that the poet wished to delineate the character and the
eloquence of Cicero under this name. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 11,
li. 122.
=Drangina=, a province of Persia. _Diodorus_, bk. 17.
=Drapes=, a seditious Gaul, &c. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 8, ch. 30.
=Drapus=, a river of Noricum, which falls into the Danube near Mursa.
=Drĕpăna= and =Drĕpănum=, now _Trapani_, a town of ♦Sicily near mount
Eryx, in the form of a scythe, whence its name (δρεπανον, _falx_).
Anchises died there, in his voyage to Italy with his son Æneas. The
Romans under Claudius Pulcher were defeated near the coast, B.C. 249,
by the Carthaginian general Adherbal. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li.
707.――_Cicero_, _Against Verres_, bk. 2, ch. 57.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_,
bk. 4, li. 474.――――A promontory of Peloponnesus.
♦ ‘Scily’ replaced with ‘Sicily’
=Drilo=, a river of Macedonia, which falls into the Adriatic at Lissus.
=Drimăchus=, a famous robber of Chios. When a price was set upon his
head, he ordered a young man to cut it off and go and receive the
money. Such an uncommon instance of generosity so pleased the Chians,
that they raised a temple to his memory, and honoured him as a god.
_Athenæus_, bk. 13.
=Drinus=, a small river falling into the Save and Danube.
=Driŏpĭdes=, an Athenian ambassador sent to Darius when the peace with
Alexander had been violated. _Curtius_, bk. 3, ch. 13.
=Drios=, a mountain of Arcadia.
=Droi=, a people of Thrace. _Thucydides_, bk. 2, ch. 101.
=Dromæus=, a surname of Apollo in Crete.
=Dropĭci=, a people of Persia. _Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 125.
=Dropion=, a king of Pæonia. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 13.
=Druentius= and =Druentia=, now _Durance_, a rapid river of Gaul,
which falls into the Rhone between Arles and Avignon. _Silius
Italicus_, bk. 3, li. 468.――_Strabo_, bk. 4.
=Drugĕri=, a people of Thrace. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 11.
=Druĭdæ=, the ministers of religion among the ancient Gauls and
Britons. They were divided into different classes, called the Bardi,
Eubages, the Vates, the Semnothei, the Sarronides, and the Samothei.
They were held in the greatest veneration by the people. Their life
was austere and recluse from the world, their dress was peculiar to
themselves, and they generally appeared with a tunic which reached a
little below the knee. As the chief power was lodged in their hands,
they punished as they pleased, and could declare war and make peace
at their option. Their power was extended not only over private
families, but they could depose magistrates and even kings, if their
actions in any manner deviated from the laws of the state. They had
the privilege of naming the magistrates which annually presided over
their cities, and the kings were created only with their approbation.
They were entrusted with the education of youth, and all religious
ceremonies, festivals, and sacrifices were under their peculiar
care. They taught the doctrine of the metempsychosis, and believed
the immortality of the soul. They were professionally acquainted
with the art of magic, and from their knowledge of astrology they
drew omens and saw futurity revealed before their eyes. In their
sacrifices they often immolated human victims to their gods, a
barbarous custom which continued long among them, and which the
Roman emperors attempted to abolish, to little purpose. The power
and privileges which they enjoyed were beheld with admiration by
their countrymen, and as their office was open to every rank and
every station, there were many who daily proposed themselves as
candidates to enter upon this important function. The rigour,
however, and severity of a long noviciate deterred many, and few
were willing to attempt a labour, which enjoined them during 15 or
20 years to load their memory with the long and tedious maxims of
druidical religion. Their name is derived from the Greek word δρυς,
_an oak_, because the woods and solitary retreats were the places
of their residence. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 6, ch. 13.――_Pliny_,
bk. 16, ch. 44.――_Diodorus_, bk. 5.
=Druna=, the _Drome_, a river of Gaul, falling into the Rhone.
=Drusilla Livia=, a daughter of Germanicus and Agrippina, famous for
her debaucheries and licentiousness. She committed incest with her
brother Caligula, who was so tenderly attached to her, that, in a
dangerous illness, he made her heiress of all his possessions, and
commanded that she should succeed him in the Roman empire. She died
A.D. 38, in the 23rd year of her age, and was deified by her brother
Caligula, who survived her for some time.――――A daughter of Agrippa
king of Judæa, &c.
=Drūso=, an unskilful historian and mean usurer, who obliged
his debtors, when they could not pay him, to hear him read his
compositions, to draw from them praises and flattery. _Horace_,
bk. 1, satire 3, li. 86.
=Drūsus=, a son of Tiberius and Vipsania, who made himself famous
by his intrepidity and courage in the provinces of Illyricum and
Pannonia. He was raised to the greatest honours of the state by his
father, but a blow which he gave to Sejanus, an audacious libertine,
proved his ruin. Sejanus corrupted Livia the wife of Drusus, and in
conjunction with her, he caused him to be poisoned by a eunuch, A.D.
23.――――A son of Germanicus and Agrippina, who enjoyed offices of the
greatest trust under Tiberius. His enemy Sejanus, however, effected
his ruin by his insinuations; Drusus was confined by Tiberius,
and deprived of all aliment. He was found dead nine days after
his confinement, A.D. 33.――――A son of the emperor Claudius, who
died by swallowing a pear thrown in the air.――――An ambitious Roman,
grandfather to Cato. He was killed for his seditious conduct.
_Paterculus_, bk. 1, ch. 13.――――Livius, father of Julia Augusta,
was intimate with Brutus, and killed himself with him after the
battle of Philippi. _Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 71.――――Marcus Livius,
a celebrated Roman, who renewed the proposals of the Agrarian laws,
which had proved fatal to the Gracchi. He was murdered as he entered
his house, though he was attended with a number of clients and
Latins, to whom he had proposed the privilege of Roman citizens, B.C.
190. _Cicero_, _Rhetorica ad Herennium_, bk. 4, ♦ch. 22.――――Nero
Claudius, a son of Tiberius Nero and Livia, adopted by Augustus. He
was brother to Tiberius, who was afterwards made emperor. He greatly
signalized himself in his wars in Germany and Gaul against the Rhœti
and Vindelici, and was honoured with a triumph. He died of a fall
from his horse in the 30th year of his age, B.C. 9. He left three
children, Germanicus, Livia, and Claudius, by his wife Antonia.
_Dionysius of Halicarnassus._――――Marcus Livius Salinator, a consul
who conquered Asdrubal with his colleague Claudius Nero. _Horace_,
bk. 4, ode 4.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 824.――――Caius, an
historian, who being one day missed from his cradle, was found the
next on the highest part of the house, with his face turned towards
the sun.――――Marcus, a pretor, &c. _Cicero_, _Rhetorica ad Herennium_,
bk. 2, ch. 13.――――The plebeian family of the Drusi produced eight
consuls, two censors, and one dictator. The surname of Drusus was
given to the family of the Livii, as some suppose, because one of
them killed a Gaulish leader of that name. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6,
li. 824, mentions the Drusi among the illustrious Romans, and that
perhaps more particularly because the wife of Augustus was of that
family.
♦ ‘12’ replaced with ‘22’
=Dryădes=, nymphs that presided over the woods. Oblations of milk,
oil, and honey were offered to them, and sometimes the votaries
sacrificed a goat. They were not generally considered immortal, but
as genii, whose lives were terminated with the tree over which they
were supposed to preside. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 1, li. 11.
=Dryantiădes=, a patronymic of Lycurgus king of Thrace, son of Dryas.
He cut his legs as he attempted to destroy the vines that no
libations might be made to Bacchus. _Ovid_, _Ibis_, li. 345.
=Dryas=, a son of Hippolochus, who was father to Lycurgus. He went
with Eteocles to the Theban war, where he perished. _Statius_,
_Thebiad_, bk. 8, li. 355.――――A son of Mars, who went to the chase
of the Calydonian boar. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 8.――――A centaur at
the nuptials of Pirithous, who killed Rhœtus. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 12, li. 296.――――A daughter of Faunus, who so hated the sight of
men, that she never appeared in public.――――A son of Lycurgus, killed
by his own father in a fury. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 5.――――A son
of Ægyptus, murdered by his wife Eurydice. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2,
ch. 1.
=Drymæa=, a town of Phocis. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 33.
=Drymo=, a sea-nymph, one of the attendants of Cyrene. _Virgil_,
_Georgics_, bk. 4, li. 536.
=Drymus=, a town between Attica and Bœotia.
=Dryŏpe=, a woman of Lemnos, whose shape Venus assumed, to persuade
all the females of the island to murder the men. _Flaccus_, bk. 2,
li. 174.――――A virgin of Œchalia, whom Andræmon married after she had
been ravished by Apollo. She became mother of Amphisus, who, when
scarce a year old, was with his mother changed into a lotus. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 10, li. 331.――――A nymph, mother of Tarquitus by
Faunus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 551.――――A nymph of Arcadia,
mother of Pan by Mercury, according to _Homer_, _Hymn 19 to Pan_.
=Dryŏpeia=, an anniversary day observed at Asine in Argolis, in honour
of Dryops the son of Apollo.
♦=Dryŏpes=, a people of Greece, near mount Œta. They afterwards passed
into the Peloponnesus, where they inhabited the towns of Asine and
Hermione, in Argolis. When they were driven from Asine by the people
of Argos, they settled among the Messenians, and called a town
by the name of their ancient habitation _Asine_. Some of their
descendants went to make a settlement in Asia Minor, together with
the Ionians. _Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 146; bk. 8, ch. 32.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 4, ch. 34.――_Strabo_, bks. 7, 8, 13.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 1.
――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 4, li. 146.――_Lucan_, bk. 3, li. 179.
♦ ‘Drpŏpes’ replaced with ‘Dryŏpes’
=Dryŏpis= and =Dryŏpĭda=, a small country at the foot of mount Œta in
Thessaly. Its true situation is not well ascertained. According to
Pliny, it bordered on Epirus. It was for some time in the possession
of the Hellenes, after they were driven from Histiæotis by the
Cadmeans. _Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 56.
=Dryops=, a son of Priam.――――A son of Apollo. _Pausanias_, bk. 4,
ch. 34.――――A friend of Æneas, killed by Clausus in Italy. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 346.
=Drypĕtis=, the younger daughter of Darius, given in marriage to
Hephæstion by Alexander. _Diodorus_, bk. 18.
=Dubis=, or =Alduadubis=, the _Daux_, a river of Gaul, falling into
the Saone.
=Dubris=, a town of Britain, supposed to be _Dover_.
=Ducetius=, a Sicilian general, who died B.C. 440.
=Duillia lex=, was enacted by Marcus Duillius, a tribune, A.U.C. 304.
It made it a capital crime to leave the Roman people without its
tribunes, or to create any new magistrate without a sufficient cause.
_Livy_, bk. 3, ch. 55.――――Another, A.U.C. 392, to regulate what
interest ought to be paid for money lent.
=C. Duillius Nepos=, a Roman consul, the first who obtained a victory
over the naval power of Carthage, B.C. 260. He took 50 of the
enemy’s ships, and was honoured with a naval triumph, the first that
ever appeared at Rome. The senate rewarded his valour by permitting
him to have music playing and torches lighted, at the public expense,
every day while he was at supper. There were some medals struck in
commemoration of this victory, and there still exists a column at
Rome which was erected on the occasion. _Cicero_, _de Senectute_.
――_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 1, ch. 12.
=Dulĭchium=, an island of the Ionian sea, opposite the Achelous. It
was part of the kingdom of Ulysses. _Ovid_, _Tristia_, bk. 1, poem 4,
li. 67; _Metamorphoses_, bk. 14, li. 226; _Remedia Amoris_, li. 272.
――_Martial_, bk. 11, ltr. 70, li. 8.――_Virgil_, _Eclogues_, poem 6,
li. 76.
=Dumnōrix=, a powerful chief among the Ædui. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_,
bk. 1, ch. 9.
=Dunax=, a mountain of Thrace.
=Duratius Picto=, a Gaul, who remained in perpetual friendship with
the Roman people. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 8, ch. 26.
=Duris=, an historian of Samos, who flourished B.C. 257. He wrote the
life of Agathocles of Syracuse, a treatise on tragedy, a history of
Macedonia, &c. _Strabo_, bk. 1.
=Durius=, a large river of ancient Spain, now called the _Douro_,
which falls into the ocean, near modern Oporto in Portugal, after a
course of nearly 300 miles. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 1, li. 234.
=Durocasses=, the chief residence of the Druids in Gaul, now _Dreux_.
_Cæsar_. _Gallic War_, bk. 6, ch. 13.
=Duronia=, a town of the Samnites.
=Dusii=, some deities among the Gauls. _Augustine_, _The City of God_,
bk. 15, ch. 23.
=Duumvĭri=, two noble patricians at Rome, first appointed by Tarquin
to keep the Sibylline books, which were supposed to contain the fate
of the Roman empire. These sacred books were placed in the Capitol,
and secured in a chest under the ground. They were consulted but
seldom, and only by an order of the senate, when the armies had been
defeated in war, or when Rome seemed to be threatened by an invasion,
or by secret seditions. These priests continued in their original
institution, till the year A.U.C. 388, when a law was proposed by
the tribunes to increase the number to 10, to be chosen promiscuously
from patrician and plebeian families. They were from their number
called Decemviri, and some time after Sylla increased them to 15,
known by the name of Quindecemviri.――――There were also certain
magistrates at Rome, called _Duumviri perduelliones sive capitales_.
They were first created by Tullus Hostilius, for trying such as were
accused of treason. This office was abolished as unnecessary, but
Cicero complains of their revival by Labienus the tribune. _For
Rabirius on a Charge of Treason_.――――Some of the commanders of the
Roman vessels were also called Duumviri, especially when there were
two together. They were first created A.U.C. 542.――――There were
also in the municipal towns in the provinces two magistrates called
_Duumviri municipales_. They were chosen from the centurions, and
their office was much the same as that of the two consuls at Rome.
They were sometimes preceded by two lictors with the fasces. Their
magistracy continued for five years, on which account they have been
called _Quinquennales magistratus_.
=Dyagondas=, a Theban legislator, who abolished all nocturnal
sacrifices. _Cicero_, _de Legibus_, bk. 2, ch. 15.
=Dyardenses=, a river in the extremities of India. _Curtius_, bk. 8,
ch. 9.
=Dy̆mæ=, a town of Achaia. _Livy_, bk. 27, ch. 31; bk. 32, ch. 22.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 17.
=Dy̆mæi=, a people of Ætolia. _Diodorus_, bk. 19.
=Dy̆mas=, a Trojan, who joined himself to Æneas when Troy was taken,
and was at last killed by his countrymen, who took him to be an
enemy because he had dressed himself in the armour of one of the
Greeks whom he had slain. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 2, lis. 340 & 428.
――――The father of Hecuba. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 11, li. 761.
=Dymnus=, one of Alexander’s officers. He conspired with many of
his fellow-soldiers against his master’s life. The conspiracy was
discovered, and Dymnus stabbed himself before he was brought before
the king. _Curtius_, bk. 6, ch. 7.
=Dȳnămĕne=, one of the Nereides. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 18, li. 43.
=Dynaste=, a daughter of Thespius. _Apollodorus._
=Dyras=, a river of Trachinia. It rises at the foot of mount Œta, and
falls into the bay of Malia. _Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 198.
=Dyraspes=, a river of Scythia. _Ovid_, _ex Ponto_, bk. 4, poem 10,
li. 54.
=Dyris=, the name of mount Atlas among the inhabitants of that
neighbourhood.
=Dyrrhăchium=, now _Durazzo_, a large city of Macedonia, bordering
on the Adriatic sea, founded by a colony from Corcyra, B.C. 623.
It was anciently called _Epidammus_, which the Romans, considering
it of ominous meaning, changed ♦into _Dyrrhachium_. Cicero met
with a ♥favourable reception there during his exile. _Mela_, bk. 2,
ch. 3.――_Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 10.――_Plutarch._――_Cicero_, bk. 3,
_Letters to Atticus_, ltr. 22.
♦ ‘intlo’ replaced with ‘into’
♥ ‘favourabe’ replaced with ‘favourable’
=Dysaules=, a brother of Celeus, who instituted the mysteries of Ceres
at Celeæ. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 14.
=Dyscinētus=, an Athenian archon. _Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 27.
=Dysōrum=, a mountain of Thrace. _Herodotus_, bk. 5, ch. 22.
=Dyspontii=, a people of Elis. _Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 22.
E
=Eanes=, a man supposed to have killed Patroclus, and to have fled to
Peleus in Thessaly. _Strabo_, bk. 9.
=Eānus=, the name of Janus among the ancient Latins.
=Eărĭnus=, a beautiful boy, eunuch to Domitian. _Statius_, bk. 3,
_Sylvæ_, poem 4.
=Easium=, a town of Achaia in Peloponnesus. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 6.
=Ebdŏme=, a festival in honour of Apollo at Athens on the seventh day
of every lunar month. It was usual to sing hymns in honour of the
god, and to carry about boughs of laurel.――――There was also another
of the same name celebrated by private families the seventh day
after the birth of every child.
=Ebon=, a name given to Bacchus by the people of Neapolis. _Macrobius_,
bk. 1, ch. 18.
=Ebora=, a town of Portugal, now _Evora_.
=Eborăcum=, York in England.
=Ebūdæ=, the western isles of Britain, now _Hebrides_.
=Eburōnes=, a people of Belgium, now the country of _Liege_. _Cæsar_,
_Gallic War_, bk. 2, ch. 4; bk. 6, ch. 5.――――The Eburovices Aulerci
were the people of Evreux in Normandy. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 3,
ch. 17.
=Ebŭsus=, one of the Baleares, 100 miles in circumference, which
produces no hurtful animals. It is near the coast of Spain in the
Mediterranean, and now bears the name of _Yvica_, and is famous for
pasturage and figs. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 5.――――A man engaged in the
Rutulian war. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 12, li. 299.
=Ecbatăna= (ōrum), now _Hamedan_, the capital of Media, and the palace
of Deioces king of Media. It was surrounded with seven walls, which
rose in gradual ascent, and were painted in seven different colours.
The most distant was the lowest, and the innermost, which was the
most celebrated, contained the royal palace. Parmenio was put to
death there by Alexander’s orders; and Hephæstion died there also,
and received a most magnificent burial.――_Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 98.
――_Strabo_, bk. 21.――_Curtius_, bk. 3, ch. 5; bk. 5, ch. 8; bk. 7,
ch. 10.――_Diodorus_, bk. 17.――――A town of Syria, where Cambyses
gave himself a mortal wound when mounting on horseback. _Herodotus_,
bk. 3.――_Ptolemy_, bk. 6, ch. 2.――_Curtius_, bk. 5, ch. 8.
=Ecechiria=, the wife of Iphitus. _Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 10.
=Ecetra=, a town of the Volsci. _Livy_, bk. 2, ch. 25; bk. 3, ch. 4.
=Echecrătes=, a Thessalian who offered violence to Phœbas the
priestess of Apollo’s temple at Delphi. From this circumstance a
decree was made by which no woman was admitted to the office of
priestess before the age of 50. _Diodorus_, bk. 4.
=Echedamia=, a town of Phocis. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 3.
=Echelătus=, a man who led a colony to Africa. _Strabo_, bk. 8.
=Echelta=, a fortified town in Sicily.
=Echĕlus=, a Trojan chief killed by Patroclus.――――Another, son of
Agenor, killed by Achilles. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bks. 16 & 20.
=Echembrŏtus=, an Arcadian, who obtained the prize at the Pythian
games. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 7.
=Echĕmon=, a son of Priam, killed by Diomedes. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 5,
li. 160.
=Echĕmus=, an Arcadian, who conquered the Dorians when they endeavoured
to recover Peloponnesus under Hyllus. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 5.
――――A king of Arcadia, who joined Aristomenes against the Spartans.
=Echenēus=, a Phæacian. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 7.
=Echĕphron=, one of Nestor’s sons. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9.――――A
son of Priam. _Apollodorus_.――――A son of Hercules. _Pausanias_,
bk. 8, ch. 24.
=Echepŏlis=, a Trojan, son of Thasius, killed by Antilochus. _Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 4, li. 458.
=Echestrătus=, a son of Agis I. king of Sparta, who succeeded his
father, B.C. 1058. _Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 204.
=Echevethenses=, a people of Tegea in Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8,
ch. 45.
=Echidna=, a celebrated monster sprung from the union of Chrysaor with
Callirhoe the daughter of Oceanus. She is represented as a beautiful
woman in the upper part of the body, but as a serpent below the
waist. She was mother, by Typhon, of Orthos, Geryon, Cerberus, the
Hydra, &c. According to Herodotus, Hercules had three children by
her, Agathyrsus, Gelonus, and Scytha. _Herodotus_, bk. 3, ch. 108.
――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2.――_Pausanias_, bk. 8,
ch. 18.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 9, li. 158.
=Echidorus=, a river of Thrace. _Ptolemy_, bk. 3.
=Echīnădes=, or =Echinæ=, five small islands near Acarnania, at
the mouth of the river Achelous. They have been formed by the
inundations of that river, and by the sand and mud which its waters
carry down, and now bear the name of _Curzolari_. _Pliny_, bk. 2,
ch. 85.――_Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 10.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 8,
li. 588.――_Strabo_, bk. 2.
=Echīnon=, a city of Thrace. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.
=Echīnus=, an island in the Ægean.――――A town of Acarnania,――――of
Phthiotis. _Livy_, bk. 32, ch. 33.
=Echinussa=, an island near Eubœa, called afterwards _Cimolus_.
_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.
=Echīon=, one of those men who sprung from the dragon’s teeth sown by
Cadmus. He was one of the five who survived the fate of his brothers,
and assisted Cadmus in building the city of Thebes. Cadmus rewarded
his services by giving him his daughter Agave in marriage. He was
father of Pentheus by Agave. He succeeded his father-in-law on the
throne of Thebes, as some have imagined, and from that circumstance
Thebes has been called Echioniæ, and the inhabitants _Echionidæ_.
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 3, li. 311; _Tristia_, bk. 5, poem 5,
li. 53.――――A son of Mercury and Antianira, who was the herald of the
Argonauts. _Flaccus_, bk. 1, li. 400.――――A man who often obtained
a prize in running. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 8, li. 292.――――A
musician at Rome, in Domitian’s age. _Juvenal_, satire 6, li. 76.
――――A statuary.――――A painter.
=Echionides=, a patronymic given to Pentheus, as ♦descended from
Echion. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 3.
♦‘deseended’ replaced with ‘descended’
=Echionius=, an epithet applied to a person born in Thebes, founded
with the assistance of Echion. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 12, li. 515.
=Echo=, a daughter of the Air and Tellus, who chiefly resided in the
vicinity of the Cephisus. She was once one of Juno’s attendants, and
became the confidant of Jupiter’s amours. Her loquacity, however,
displeased Jupiter; and she was deprived of the power of speech
by Juno, and only permitted to answer to the questions which were
put to her. Pan had formerly been one of her admirers, but he never
enjoyed her favours. Echo, after she had been punished by Juno,
fell in love with Narcissus, and on being despised by him, she pined
away, and was changed into a stone, which still retained the power
of voice. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 3, li. 358.
=Ecnŏmos=, a mountain of Sicily, now _Licata_.
=Edessa= and =Edesa=, a town of Syria.
=Edessæ portus=, a harbour of Sicily near Pachynus. _Cicero_, _Against
Verres_, bk. 5, ch. 34.
=Edeta=, or =Leria=, a town of Spain along the river Sucro. _Pliny_,
bk. 3, ch. 3.――_Livy_, bk. 28, ch. 24.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 3,
li. 371.
=Edissa= and =Ædessa=, a town of Macedonia taken by Caranus, and
called Ægæ, or Ægeas. _See:_ Ædessa.
=Edon=, a mountain of Thrace, called also Edonus. From this mountain
that part of Thrace is often called _Edonia_ which lies between the
Strymon and the Nessus, and the epithet is generally applied not
only to Thrace but to a cold northern climate. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 12, li. 325.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 18.――_Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 674.
=Edoni=, or =Edones=, a people of Thrace, near the Strymon.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 5.
=Edonĭdes=, a name given to the priestesses of Bacchus, because
they celebrated the festivals of the god on mount Edon. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 11, li. 69.
=Edylius=, a mountain which Sylla seized to attack the people of
Cheronæa. _Plutarch_, _Sulla_.
=Eetion=, the father of Andromache, and of seven sons, was king of
Thebes in Cilicia. He was killed by Achilles. From him the word
_Eetioneus_ is applied to his relations or descendants. _Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 12.――――The commander of the Athenian fleet conquered by
the Macedonians under Clytus, near the Echinades. _Diodorus_, bk. 18.
=Egĕlĭdus=, a river of Etruria. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8, li. 610.
=Egĕria=, a nymph of Aricra in Italy, where Diana was particularly
worshipped. Egeria was courted by Numa, and according to Ovid she
became his wife. This prince frequently visited her, and that he
might more successfully introduce his laws and new regulations into
the state, he solemnly declared before the Roman people that they
were previously sanctified and approved by the nymph Egeria. Ovid
says that Egeria was so disconsolate at the death of Numa, that she
melted into tears, and was changed into a fountain by Diana. She is
reckoned by many as a goddess who presided over the pregnancy of
women, and some maintain that she is the same as Lucina, or Diana.
_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 19.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 15, li. 547.
――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 775.――_Martial_, bk. 2, ltr. 6,
li. 16.
=Egesarētus=, a Thessalian of Larissa, who favoured the interest of
Pompey during the civil wars. _Cæsar_, bk. 3, _Civil War_, ch. 35.
=Egesīnus=, a philosopher, pupil to Evander. _Cicero_, _Academica_,
bk. 4, ch. 6.
=Egesta=, a daughter of Hippotes the Trojan. Her father exposed her on
the sea, for fear of being devoured by a marine monster which laid
waste the country. She was carried safe to Sicily, where she was
ravished by the river Crinisus.――――A town of Sicily. _See:_ Ægesta.
=Egnātia Maximilla=, a woman who accompanied her husband into
banishment under Nero, &c. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 15, ch. 71.――――A
town. _See:_ Gnatia.
=Proculus Egnātius=, a crafty and perfidious Roman in the reign of
Nero, who committed the greatest crimes for the sake of money.
_Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 4, ch. 10.
=Eion=, a commercial place at the mouth of the Strymon. _Pausanias_,
bk. 8, ch. 8.
=Eiones=, a village of Peloponnesus on the sea coast.
=Eioneus=, a Greek killed by Hector in the Trojan war. _Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 8.――――A Thracian, father to Rhesus. _Iliad_, bk. 10.
=Elabontas=, a river near Antioch. _Strabo._
=Elæa=, a town of Æolia. _Livy_, bk. 36, ch. 43. _Pausanias_, bk. 9,
ch. 5.――――An island in the Propontis.
=Elæus=, a part of Epirus.――――A surname of Jupiter.――――A town of the
Thracian Chersonesus. _Livy_, bk. 31, ch. 16; bk. 37, ch. 9.
=Elagabālus=, the surname of the sun at Emessa.
=Elāites=, a grove near Canopus in Egypt.
=Elaius=, a mountain of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 41.
=Elaphiæa=, a surname of Diana in Elis. _Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 22.
=Elăphus=, a river of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 36.
=Elaphebŏlia=, a festival in honour of Diana the huntress. In the
celebration a cake was made in the form of a deer, ἐλαφος, and
offered to the goddess. It owed its institution to the following
circumstance. When the Phocians had been severely beaten by
the Thessalians, they resolved, by the persuasion of a certain
Deiphantus, to raise a pile of combustible materials, and burn
their wives, children, and effects, rather than submit to the enemy.
This resolution was unanimously approved by the women, who decreed
Deiphantus a crown for his magnanimity. When everything was prepared,
before they fired the pile, they engaged their enemies, and fought
with such desperate fury, that they totally routed them, and
obtained a complete victory. In commemoration of this unexpected
success, this festival was instituted to Diana, and observed with
the greatest solemnity, so that even one of the months of the year,
March, was called Elaphebolion from this circumstance.
=Elaptonius=, a youth who conspired against Alexander. _Curtius_,
bk. 8, ch. 6.
=Elāra=, the mother of Tiphyus by Jupiter. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1,
ch. 4.――――A daughter of Orchomenus king of Arcadia. _Strabo_, bk. 9.
=Elatēa=, the largest town of Phocis, near the Cephisus. _Pausanias_,
bk. 10, ch. 34.
=Elatia=, a town of Phocis. _Livy_, bk. 28, ch. 7.――――Of Thessaly.
_Livy_, bk. 42, ch. 54.
=Elātus=, one of the first Ephori of Sparta, B.C. 760. _Plutarch_,
_Lycurgus_.――――The father of Ceneus. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12,
li. 497.――――A mountain of Asia,――――of Zacynthus.――――The father of
Polyphemus the Argonaut by Hipseia. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 9.
――――The son of Arcas king of Arcadia by Erato, who retired to Phocis.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 9.――_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 4.――――A king
in the army of Priam, killed by Agamemnon. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 6.
――――One of Penelope’s suitors, killed by Eumeus. _Homer_, _Odyssey_,
bk. 22, li. 267.
=Elaver=, a river in Gaul falling into the Loire, now the _Allier_.
=Elea=, a town of Campania, whence the followers of Zeno were called
the _Eleatic_ sect. _Cicero_, _Academica_, bk. 4, ch. 42; _Tusculanæ
Disputationes_, bk. 2, chs. 21 & 22; _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 3,
ch. 33.――――Of Æolia.
=Electra=, one of the Oceanides, wife of Atlas, and mother of Dardanus
by Jupiter. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 4, li. 31.――――A daughter of Atlas
and Pleione. She was changed into a constellation, _Apollodorus_,
bk. 3, chs. 10 & 12.――――One of the Danaides. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2,
ch. 1.――――A daughter of Agamemnon king of Argos. She first incited
her brother Orestes to revenge his father’s death by assassinating
his mother Clytemnestra. Orestes gave her in marriage to his friend
Pylades, and she became mother of two sons, Strophius and Merdon.
Her adventures and misfortunes form one of the interesting tragedies
of the poet Sophocles. _Hyginus_, fable 122.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2,
ch. 16.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 4, ch. 26, &c.――――A sister
of Cadmus. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 8.――――A city and river of Messenia
in Peloponnesus. _Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 33.――――One of Helen’s female
attendants. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 25.
=Electræ=, a gate of Thebes. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 8.
=Electrĭdes=, islands in the Adriatic sea, which received their name
from the quantity of amber (_electrum_) which they produced. They
were at the mouth of the Po, according to Apollonius of Rhodes,
but some historians doubt their existence. _Pliny_, bk. 2, ch. 26;
bk. 37, ch. 2.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.
=Electryon=, a king of Argos, son of Perseus and Andromeda. He was
brother to Alcæus, whose daughter Anaxo he married, and by her
he had several sons, and one daughter, Alcmene. He sent his sons
against the Teleboans, who had ravaged his country, and they were
all killed except Licymnius. Upon this Electryon promised his crown
and daughter in marriage to him who could undertake to punish the
Teleboans for the death of his sons. Amphitryon offered himself
and succeeded. Electryon inadvertently perished by the hand of his
son-in-law. _See:_ Amphitryon, Alcmena. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 4.
――_Pausanias._
=Elēi=, a people of Elis in Peloponnesus. They were formerly called
_Epei_. In their country was the temple of Jupiter, where also were
celebrated the Olympic games, of which they had the superintendence.
Their horses were in great repute, hence _Elei equi_ and _Elea
palma_. _Propertius_, bk. 3, poem 9, li. 18.――_Pausanias_, bk. 5.
――_Lucan_, bk. 4, li. 293.
=Elēlēus=, a surname of Bacchus, from the word ἐλελευ, which the
Bacchanals loudly repeated during his festivals. His priestesses
were in consequence called _Eleleis_, _ides_. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 4, li. 15.
=Eleon=, a village of Bœotia.――――Another in Phocis.
=Eleontum=, a town of the Thracian Chersonesus.
=Elephantis=, a poetess who wrote lascivious verses. _Martial_,
bk. 12, ltr. 43.――――A princess by whom Danaus had two daughters.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 2.――――An island in the river Nile, in Upper Egypt,
with a town of the same name, which is often called _Elephantina_ by
some authors. _Strabo_, bk. 17.――_Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 9, &c.
=Elephantophăgi=, a people of Æthiopia.
=Elphēnor=, son of Chalcedon, was one of Helen’s suitors. _Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 2, li. 47.
=Elepōrus=, a river of Magna Græcia.
=Eleuchia=, a daughter of Thespius. _Apollodorus._
=Eleus=, a city of Thrace.――――A river of Media.――――A king of Elis.
_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 3.
=Eleusīnia=, a great festival observed every fourth year by the
Celeans, Phliasians, as also by the Pheneatæ, Lacedæmonians,
Parrhasians, and Cretans; but more particularly by the people
of Athens, every fifth year at Eleusis in Attica, where it was
introduced by Eumolpus, B.C. 1356. It was the most celebrated of all
the religious ceremonies of Greece, whence it is often called, by
way of eminence, μυστηρια, _the mysteries_. It was so superstitiously
observed, that if any one ever revealed it, it was supposed that he
had called divine vengeance upon his head, and it was unsafe to live
in the same house with him. Such a wretch was publicly put to an
ignominious death. This festival was sacred to Ceres and Proserpine;
everything contained a mystery, and Ceres herself was known only
by the name of ἀχθεια, from the _sorrow_ and _grief_ (ἀχθος) which
she suffered for the loss of her daughter. This mysterious secrecy
was solemnly observed, and enjoined to all the votaries of the
goddess; and if any one ever appeared at the celebration, either
intentionally, or through ignorance, without proper introduction,
he was immediately punished with death. Persons of both sexes and
all ages were initiated at this solemnity, and it was looked upon
as so heinous a crime to neglect this sacred part of religion,
that it was one of the heaviest accusations, which contributed
to the condemnation of Socrates. The initiated were under the
more particular care of the deities, and therefore their life was
supposed to be attended with more happiness and real security than
that of other men. This benefit was not only granted during life,
but it was extended beyond the grave, and they were honoured with
the first places in the Elysian fields, while others were left to
wallow in perpetual filth and ignominy. As the benefits of expiation
were so extensive, particular care was taken in examining the
character of such as were presented for initiation. Such as were
guilty of murder, though against their will, and such as were
convicted of witchcraft, or any heinous crime, were not admitted,
and the Athenians suffered none to be initiated but such as were
members of their city. This regulation, which compelled Hercules,
Castor, and Pollux to become citizens of Athens, was strictly
observed in the first ages of the institution, but afterwards all
persons, barbarians excepted, were freely initiated. The festivals
were divided into greater and less mysteries. The less were
instituted from the following circumstance. Hercules passed near
Eleusis while the Athenians were celebrating the mysteries, and
desired to be initiated. As this could not be done because he
was a stranger, and as Eumolpus was unwilling to displease him on
account of his great power and the services which he had done to
the Athenians, another festival was instituted without violating
the laws. It was called μικρα, and Hercules was solemnly admitted
to the celebration and initiated. These less mysteries were observed
at Agræ, near the Ilissus. The greater were celebrated at Eleusis,
from which place Ceres has been called Eleusinia. In latter times
the smaller festivals were preparatory to the greater, and no person
could be initiated at Eleusis without a previous purification at
Agræ. This purification they performed by keeping themselves pure,
chaste, and unpolluted during nine days, after which they came and
offered sacrifices and prayers, wearing garlands of flowers, called
ἱσμερα, or ἱμερα, and having under their feet Διος κωδιον, _Jupiter’s
skin_, which was the skin of a victim offered to that god. The
person who assisted was called ὑδρανος, from ὑδωρ, _water_, which
was used at the purification, and they themselves were called μυϛαι,
_the initiated_. A year after the initiation at the less mysteries
they sacrificed a sow to Ceres, and were admitted in the greater,
and the secrets of the festivals were solemnly revealed to them,
from which they were called ἐφοροι and ἐποπται, _inspectors_. The
institution was performed in the following manner. The candidates,
crowned with myrtle, were admitted by night into a place called
μυϛικος σηκος, _the mystical temple_, a vast and stupendous building.
As they entered the temple they purified themselves by washing their
hands in holy water, and received for admonition that they were to
come with a mind pure and undefiled, without which the cleanness of
the body would be unacceptable. After this the holy mysteries were
read to them from a large book called πετρωμα, because made of _two
stones_, πετραι, fitly cemented together. After this the priest,
called Ἱεροφαντης, proposed to them certain questions to which they
readily answered. After this, strange and amazing objects presented
themselves to their sight; the place often seemed to quake, and
to appear suddenly resplendent with fire, and immediately covered
with gloomy darkness and ♦horror. Sometimes thunders were heard, or
flashes of lightning appeared on every side. At other times hideous
noises and howlings were heard, and the trembling spectators were
alarmed by sudden and dreadful apparitions. This was called αὐτοψια,
_intuition_. After this the initiated were dismissed with the
barbarous words of κογξ, ομπαξ. The garments in which they were
initiated were held sacred, and of no less efficacy to avert evils
than charms and incantations. From this circumstance, therefore,
they were never left off before they were totally unfit for wear,
after which they were appropriated for children, or dedicated to the
goddess. The chief person that attended at the initiation was called
Ἱεροφαντης, _the revealer of sacred things_. He was a citizen of
Athens, and held his office during life, though among the Celeans
and Phliasians it was limited to the period of four years. He was
obliged to devote himself totally to the service of the deities; his
life was chaste and single, and he usually anointed his body with
the juice of hemlock, which is said, by its extreme coldness, to
extinguish in a great degree the natural heat. The Hierophantes had
three attendants; the first was called δαδουχος, _torch-bearer_,
and was permitted to marry; the second was called κηρυξ, _a cryer_;
the third administered at the altar, and was called ὁ ἐπι βωμῳ. The
Hierophantes is said to have been a type of the powerful creator of
all things, Δαδουχος of the sun, Κηρυξ of Mercury, and ὁ ἐπι βωμῳ of
the moon. There were besides these other inferior officers, who took
particular care that everything was performed according to custom.
The first of these, called βασιλευς, was one of the Archons; he
offered prayers and sacrifices, and took care that there was no
indecency or irregularity during the celebration. Besides him
there were four others, called ἐπιμεληται, _curators_, elected by
the people. One of them was chosen from the sacred family of the
Eumolpidæ, the other was one of the Ceryces, and the rest were from
among the citizens. There were also 10 persons who assisted at this
and every other festival, called Ἱεροποιοι, because they _offered
sacrifices_. This festival was observed in the month Boedromion or
September, and continued nine days, from the 15th till the 23rd.
During that time it was unlawful to arrest any man or present any
petition, on pain of forfeiting 1000 drachmas, or, according to
others, on pain of death. It was also unlawful for those who were
initiated to sit upon the cover of a well, to eat beans, mullets, or
weasels. If any woman rode to Eleusis in a chariot, she was obliged
by an edict of Lycurgus to pay 6000 drachmas. The design of this law
was to destroy all distinction between the richer and poorer sort
of citizens. The first day of the celebration was called ἀγορμος,
_assembly_, as it might be said that the worshippers first met
together. The second day was called ἀλαδε μυσται, _to the sea, you
that are initiated_, because they were commanded to purify themselves
by bathing in the sea. On the third day sacrifices, and chiefly
a mullet, were offered; as also barley from a field of Eleusis.
These oblations were called Θυα, and held so sacred that the priests
themselves were not, as in other sacrifices, permitted to partake of
them. On the fourth day they made a solemn procession, in which the
καλαθιον, _holy basket of Ceres_, was carried about in a consecrated
cart, while on every side the people shouted χαιρε Δημητερ, _Hail,
Ceres!_ After these followed women, called κιστοφοροι, who _carried
baskets_, in which were sesamum, carded wool, grains of salt, a
serpent, pomegranates, reeds, ivy boughs, certain cakes, &c. The
fifth was called ἡ των λαμπαδων ἡμερα, _the torch day_, because on
the following night the people ran about with torches in their hands.
It was usual to dedicate torches to Ceres, and contend which should
offer the biggest in commemoration of the travels of the goddess,
and of her lighting a torch in the flames of mount Ætna. The sixth
day was called Ἰακχος, from Iacchus the son of Jupiter and Ceres,
who accompanied his mother in her search of Proserpine, with a
torch in his hand. From that circumstance his statue had a torch in
its hand, and was carried in solemn procession from the Ceramicus
to Eleusis. The statue with those that accompanied it, called
Ἰακχαγωγοι, were crowned with myrtle. In the way nothing was heard
but singing and the noise of brazen kettles, as the votaries danced
along. The way through which they issued from the city was called
Ἱερα ὁδος, _the sacred way_; the resting place Ἱερα συκη, from a
_fig tree_ which grew in the neighbourhood. They also stopped on a
bridge over the Cephisus, where they derided those that passed by.
After they had passed this bridge, they entered Eleusis by a place
called μυστικη εἰσοδος, _the mystical entrance_. On the seventh day
were sports, in which the victors were rewarded with a measure of
barley, as that grain had been first sown in Eleusis. The eighth day
was called Ἐπιδαυριων ἡμερα, because once Æsculapius, at his return
from Epidaurus to Athens, was initiated by the repetition of the
less mysteries. It became customary, therefore, to celebrate them a
second time upon this, that such as had not hitherto been initiated
might be lawfully admitted. The ninth and last day of the festival
was called Πλημοχοαι, _earthen vessels_, because it was usual to
fill two such vessels with wine, one of which being placed towards
the east, and the other towards the west, which after the repetition
of some mystical words, were both thrown down, and the wine being
spilt on the ground, was offered as a libation. Such was the manner
of celebrating the Eleusinian mysteries, which have been deemed the
most sacred and solemn of all the festivals observed by the Greeks.
Some have supposed them to be obscene and abominable, and that from
thence proceeded all the mysterious secrecy. They were carried from
Eleusis to Rome in the age of Adrian, where they were observed with
the same ceremonies as before, though perhaps with more freedom
and licentiousness. They lasted about 1800 years, and were at last
abolished by Theodosius the Great. _Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 12,
ch. 24.――_Cicero_, _de Legibus_, bk. 2, ch. 14.――_Pausanias_, bk. 10,
ch. 31, &c.――_Plutarch._
♦ ‘horrror’ replaced with ‘horror’
=Eleusis=, or =Eleusin=, a town of Attica, equally distant from
Megara and the Piræus, celebrated for the festivals of Ceres. _See:_
Eleusinia. It was founded by Triptolemus. _Ovid_, bk. 4, _Fasti_,
♦li. 507.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 24.
♦ extraneous reference ‘5,’ removed
=Eleuther=, a son of Apollo.――――One of the Curetes, from whom a town
of Bœotia, and another in Crete, received their name. _Pausanias_,
bk. 9, chs. 2 & 9.
=Eleuthĕræ=, a village of Bœotia, between Megara and Thebes, where
Mardonius was defeated with 300,000 men. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 7;
bk. 34, ch. 8.
=Eleuthĕria=, a festival celebrated at Platæa in honour of Jupiter
Eleutherius, or the asserter of liberty, by delegates from almost
all the cities of Greece. Its institution originated in this: After
the victory obtained by the Grecians under Pausanias over Mardonius
the Persian general, in the country of Platæa, an altar and statue
were erected to Jupiter Eleutherius, who had freed the Greeks from
the tyranny of the barbarians. It was further agreed upon in a
general assembly, by the advice of Aristides the Athenian, that
deputies should be sent every fifth year from the different cities
of Greece to celebrate Eleutheria, _festivals of liberty_. The
Platæans celebrated also an anniversary festival in memory of those
who had lost their lives in that famous battle. The celebration
was thus: At break of day a procession was made with a trumpeter at
the head, sounding a signal for battle. After him followed chariots
loaded with myrrh, garlands, and a black bull, and certain free
young men, as no signs of servility were to appear during the
solemnity, because they in whose honour the festival was instituted
had died in the defence of their country. They carried libations of
wine and milk in large-eared vessels, with jars of oil and precious
ointments. Last of all appeared the chief magistrate, who, though
not permitted at other times to touch iron, or wear garments of
any colour but white, yet appeared clad in purple; and taking a
water-pot out of the city chamber, proceeded through the middle of
the town with a sword in his hand, towards the sepulchres. There
he drew water from the neighbouring spring, and washed and anointed
the monuments; after which he sacrificed a bull upon a pile of
wood, invoking Jupiter and infernal Mercury, and inviting to the
entertainment the souls of those happy heroes who had perished in
the defence of their country. After this he filled a bowl with wine,
saying, “I drink to those who lost their lives in the defence of
the liberties of Greece.” There was also a festival of the same name
observed by the Samians in honour of the god of love. Slaves also,
when they obtained their liberty, kept a holiday, which they called
Eleutheria.
=Eleutho=, a surname of Juno Lucina, from her presiding over the
delivery of pregnant women. _Pindar_, _Olympian_, bk. 6.
=Eleutherocilĭces=, a people of Cilicia, never subject to kings.
_Cicero_, bk. 15, _Letters to his Friends_, ltr. 4; bk. 5, _Letters
to Atticus_, ltr. 20.
=Eleuthĕros=, a river of Syria, falling into the Mediterranean.
_Pliny_, bk. 9, ch. 10.
=Elĭcius=, a surname of Jupiter, worshipped on mount Aventine. _Ovid_,
_Fasti_, bk. 3, li. 328.
=Eliensis= and =Eliăca=, a sect of philosophers founded by Phædon
of Elis, who was originally a slave, but restored to liberty by
Alcibiades. _Diogenes Laërtius._――_Strabo._
=Elimēa=, or =Elimiotis=, a district of Macedonia, or of Illyricum
according to others. _Livy_, bk. 42, ch. 53; bk. 45, ch. 30.
=Elis=, a country of Peloponnesus at the west of Arcadia, and north
of Messenia, extending along the coast, and watered by the river
Alpheus. The capital of the country called _Elis_, now _Belvidere_,
became large and populous in the age of Demosthenes, though in the
age of Homer it did not exist. It was originally governed by kings,
and received its name from Eleus, one of its monarchs. Elis was
famous for the horses it produced, whose celerity was so often
known and tried at the Olympic games. _Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Pliny_,
bk. 4, ch. 5.――_Pausanias_, bk. 5.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5,
li. 494.――_Cicero_, _Letters to his Friends_, bk. 13, ltr. 26; _de
Divinatione_, bk. 2, ch. 12.――_Livy_, bk. 27, ch. 32.――_Virgil_,
_Georgics_, bk. 1, li. 59; bk. 3, li. 202.
=Eliphasii=, a people of Peloponnesus. _Polybius_, bk. 11.
=Elissa=, a queen of Tyre, more commonly known by the name of Dido.
_See:_ Dido.
=Elissus=, a river of Elis.
=Ellopia=, a town of Eubœa.――――An ancient name of that island.
=Elōrus=, a river of Sicily on the eastern coast, called after a king
of the same name. _Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 145.
=Elos=, a city of Achaia, called after a servant-maid of Athamas of
the same name.
=Elotæ.= _See:_ Helotæ.
=Elpēnor=, one of the companions of Ulysses, changed into a hog by
Circe’s potions, and afterwards restored to his former shape. He
fell from the top of a house where he was sleeping, and was killed.
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 14, li. 252.――_Homer_, _Odyssey_,
bk. 10, li. 552; bk. 11, li. 51.
=Elpinīce=, a daughter of Miltiades, who married a man that promised
to release from confinement her brother and husband, whom the laws
of Athens had made responsible for the fine imposed on his father.
_Cornelius Nepos_, _Cimon_.
=Eluīna=, a surname of Ceres.
=Elyces=, a man killed by Perseus. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5,
fable 3.
=Elymāis=, a country of Persia, between the Persian gulf and Media.
The capital of the country was called Elymais, and was famous for a
rich temple of Diana, which Antiochus Epiphanes attempted to plunder.
The Elymeans assisted Antiochus the Great in his wars against the
Romans. None of their kings are named in history. _Strabo._
=Ely̆mi=, a nation descended from the Trojans, in alliance with the
people of Carthage. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 8.
=Elymus=, a man at the court of Acestes in Sicily. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 5, li. 73.
=Elyrus=, a town of Crete. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 16.
=Ely̆sium= and =Elysii Campi=, a place or island in the infernal
regions, where, according to the mythology of the ancients, the
souls of the virtuous were placed after death. There happiness
was complete, the pleasures were innocent and refined. Bowers for
ever green, delightful meadows with pleasant streams, were the most
striking objects. The air was wholesome, serene, and temperate; the
birds continually warbled in the groves, and the inhabitants were
blessed with another sun and other stars. The employments of the
heroes who dwelt in these regions of bliss were various; the manes
of Achilles are represented as waging war with the wild beasts,
while the Trojan chiefs are innocently exercising themselves in
managing horses, or in handling arms. To these innocent amusements
some poets have added continual feasting and revelry, and they
suppose that the Elysian fields were filled with all the incontinence
and voluptuousness which could gratify the low desires of the
debauchee. The Elysian fields were, according to some, in the
Fortunate Islands on the coast of Africa, in the Atlantic. Others
place them in the island of Leuce; and, according to the authority
of Virgil, they were situate in Italy. According to Lucian, they
were near the moon; or in the centre of the earth, if we believe
Plutarch. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 638.――_Homer_, _Odyssey_,
bk. 4.――_Pindar._――_Tibullus_, bk. 1, poem 3, li. 57.――_Lucian._
――_Plutarch_, ♦_de Consul._
♦ Unidentified, possible typo for ‘Consolatio ad Apollonium’
=Emăthia=, a name given anciently, and particularly by the poets, to
the countries which formed the empires of Macedonia and Thessaly.
_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 1, li. 492; bk. 4, li. 390.――_Lucan_, bk.
1, li. 1; bk. 10, li. 50; bk. 6, li. 620; bk. 7, li. 427.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, li. 314.
=Emăthion=, a son of Titan and Aurora, who reigned in Macedonia. The
country was called _Emathia_, from his name. Some suppose that he
was a famous robber destroyed by Hercules. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 5, li. 313.――_Justin_, bk. 7, ch. 1.――――A man killed at the
nuptials of Perseus and Andromeda. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5,
li. 100.
=Emăthion=, a man killed in the wars of Turnus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 9, li. 571.
=Embătum=, a place of Asia, opposite Chios.
=Embolīma=, a town of India. _Curtius_, bk. 8, ch. 12.
=Emerĭta=, a town of Spain, famous for dyeing wool. _Pliny_, bk. 9,
ch. 41.
=Emessa= and =Emissa=, a town of Phœnicia.
=Emoda=, a mountain of India.
=Empĕdŏcles=, a philosopher, poet, and historian of Agrigentum in
Sicily, who flourished 444 B.C. He was the disciple of Telauges the
Pythagorean, and warmly adopted the doctrine of transmigration. He
wrote a poem upon the opinions of Pythagoras, very much commended,
in which he spoke of the various bodies which nature had given him.
He was first a girl, afterwards a boy, a shrub, a bird, a fish, and
lastly Empedocles. His poetry was bold and animated, and his verses
were so universally esteemed, that they were publicly recited at the
Olympic games with those of Homer and Hesiod. Empedocles was no less
remarkable for his humanity and social virtues than for his learning.
He showed himself an inveterate enemy to tyranny, and refused to
become the sovereign of his country. He taught rhetoric in Sicily,
and often alleviated the anxieties of his mind as well as the pains
of his body with music. It is reported that his curiosity to visit
the flames of the crater of Ætna proved fatal to him. Some maintain
that he wished it to be believed that he was a god, and, that his
death might be unknown, he threw himself into the crater and
perished in the flames. His expectations, however, were frustrated,
and the volcano, by throwing up one of his sandals, discovered to
the world that Empedocles had perished by fire. Others report that
he lived to an extreme old age, and that he was drowned in the sea.
_Horace_, bk. 1, ltr. 12, li. 20.――_Cicero_, _On Oratory_, bk. 1,
ch. 50, &c.――_Diogenes Laërtius_, _Lives and Opinions of Eminent
Philosophers_.
=Emperāmus=, a Lacedæmonian general in the second Messenian war.
=Empōclus=, an historian.
=Empŏria Punĭca=, certain places near the Syrtes.
=Emporiæ=, a town of Spain in Catalonia, now _Ampurias_. _Livy_,
bk. 34, chs. 9 & 16; bk. 26, ch. 19.
=Encĕlădus=, a son of Titan and Terra, the most powerful of all the
giants who conspired against Jupiter. He was struck with Jupiter’s
thunders, and overwhelmed under mount Ætna. Some supposed that he
is the same as Typhon. According to the poets, the flames of Ætna
proceeded from the breath of Enceladus; and as often as he turned
his weary side, the whole island of Sicily felt the motion, and
shook from its very foundations. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 578,
&c.――――A son of Ægyptus.
=Enchĕleæ=, a town of Illyricum, where Cadmus was changed into a
serpent. _Lucan_, bk. 3, li. 189.――_Strabo_, bk. 7.
=Endeis=, a nymph, daughter of Chiron. She married Æacus king of
Agina, by whom she had Peleus and Telamon. _Pausanias_, bk. 2,
ch. 29.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 12.
=Endēra=, a place of Æthiopia.
=Endy̆mion=, a shepherd, son of Æthlius and Calyce. It is said that
he required of Jupiter to grant to him to be always young, and to
sleep as much as he would; whence came the proverb of _Endymionis
somnum dormire_, to express a long sleep. Diana saw him naked as he
slept on mount Latmos, and was so struck with his beauty that she
came down from heaven every night to enjoy his company. Endymion
married Chromia daughter of Itonus, or, according to some, Hyperipne
daughter of Arcas, by whom he had three sons, Pæon, Epeus, and Æolus,
and a daughter called Eurydice; and so little ambitious did he show
himself of sovereignty, that he made his crown the prize of the best
racer among his sons, an honourable distinction which was gained
by Epeus. The fable of Endymion’s amours with Diana, or the moon,
arises from his knowledge of astronomy, and as he passed the night
on some high mountain, to observe the heavenly bodies, it has been
reported that he was courted by the moon. Some suppose that there
were two of that name, the son of a king of Elis, and the shepherd
or astronomer of Caria. The people of Heraclea maintained that
Endymion died on mount Latmos, and the Eleans pretended to show
his tomb at Olympia in Peloponnesus. _Propertius_, bk. 2, poem 25.
――_Cicero_, _Tusculanæ Disputationes_, bk. 1.――_Juvenal_, satire 10.
――_Theocritus_, poem 3.――_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 1; bk. 6, ch. 20.
=Enĕti=, or =Henĕti=, a people near Paphlagonia.
=Engȳum=, now _Gangi_, a town of Sicily freed from tyranny by Timoleon.
_Cicero_, _Against Verres_, bk. 3, ch. 43; bk. 4, ch. 44.――_Silius
Italicus_, bk. 14, li. 250.
=Enienses=, a people of Greece.
=Eniopeus=, a charioteer of Hector, killed by Diomedes. _Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 8, li. 120.
=Enīpeus=, a river of Thessaly, flowing near Pharsalia. _Lucan_,
bk. 6, li. 373.――――A river of Elis in Peloponnesus, of which Tyro
the daughter of Salmoneus became enamoured. Neptune assumed the
shape of the river god to enjoy the company of Tyro. _Ovid_,
_Amores_, bk. 3, poem 5.――_Strabo._
=Enispe=, a town of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 25.
=Enna=, now _Castro Janni_, a town in the middle of Sicily, with a
beautiful plain, whence Proserpine was carried away by Pluto. _Mela_,
bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Cicero_, _Against Verres_, bk. 3, ch. 49; bk. 4,
ch. 104.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 4, li. 522.――_Livy_, bk. 24, ch. 37.
=Ennia=, was the wife of Macro, and afterwards of the emperor Caligula.
_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 6, ch. 45.
=Quintus Ennius=, an ancient poet born at Rudii in Calabria.
He obtained the name and privileges of a Roman citizen by his
genius and the brilliancy of his learning. His style is rough and
unpolished, but his defects, which are more particularly attributed
to the age in which he lived, have been fully compensated by the
energy of his expressions and the fire of his poetry. Quintilian
warmly commends him, and Virgil has shown his merits by introducing
many whole lines from his poetry into his own compositions, which
he calls pearls gathered from the dunghill. Ennius wrote in heroic
verse 18 books of the annals of the Roman republic, and displayed
much knowledge of the world in some dramatical and satirical
compositions. He died of the gout, contracted by frequent
intoxication, about 169 years before the christian era, in the
70th year of his age. Ennius was intimate with the great men of his
age; he accompanied Cato in his questorship in Sardinia, and was
esteemed by him of greater value than the honours of a triumph; and
Scipio, on his death-bed, ordered his body to be buried by the side
of his poetical friend. This epitaph was said to be written upon him:
_Aspicite, o cives, senis Ennii imaginis formam!
Hic vestrum pinxit maxima facta patrum.
Nemo me lacrymis decoret, neque funera fletu
Faxit: cur? volito vivus per ora virûm._
Conscious of his merit as the first epic poet of Rome, Ennius
bestowed on himself the appellation of the Homer of Latium. Of the
tragedies, comedies, annals, and satires which he wrote, nothing
remains but fragments happily collected from the quotations of
ancient authors. The best edition of these is by Hesselius, 4to,
Amsterdam, 1707. _Ovid_, _Tristia_, bk. 2, li. 424.――_Cicero_, _de
Finibus Bonorum et Malorum_, bk. 1, ch. 4; _De Officiis_, bk. 2,
ch. 18.――_Quintilian_, bk. 10, ch. 1.――_Lucretius_, bk. 1, li. 117,
&c.――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Cato_.
=Ennŏmus=, a Trojan prince killed by Achilles. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2,
li. 365; bk. 11, li. 422.
=Ennosigæus=, _terræ concussor_, a surname of Neptune. _Juvenal_,
satire 10, li. 182.
=Enŏpe=, a town of Peloponnesus near Pylos. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 26.
=Enops=, a shepherd loved by the nymph Nesis, by whom he had Satnius.
_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 14.――――The father of Thestos.――――A Trojan
killed by Patroclus. _Iliad_, bk. 16.
=Enos=, a maritime town of Thrace.
=Enosichthon=, a surname of Neptune.
=Enotocœtæ=, a nation whose ears are described as hanging down to
their heels. _Strabo._
=Entella=, a town of Sicily inhabited by Campanians. _Silius Italicus_,
bk. 14, li. 205.――_Cicero_, _Against Verres_, bk. 3, ch. 43.
=Entellus=, a famous athlete among the friends of Æneas. He was
intimate with Eryx, and entered the lists against Dares, whom he
conquered in the funeral games of Anchises in Sicily. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 5, li. 387, &c.
=Enyalius=, a surname of Mars.
=Enȳo=, a sister of Mars, called by the Latins Bellona, supposed by
some to be daughter of Phorcys and Ceto. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 10,
li. 203.
=Eone=, a daughter of Thespius. _Apollodorus._
=Eordæa=, a district at the west of Macedonia. _Livy_, bk. 31, ch. 39;
bk. 33, ch. 8; bk. 42, ch. 53.
=Eos=, the name of Aurora among the Greeks, whence the epithet Eous
is applied to all the eastern parts of the world. _Ovid_, _Fasti_,
bk. 3, li. 406; _Ars Amatoria_, bk. 3, li. 537; bk. 6, li. 478.
――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 1, li. 288; bk. 2, li. 115.
=Eōus=, one of the horses of the sun. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 2,
li. 153, &c.
=Epāgris=, one of the Cyclades, called by Aristotle _Hydrussa_.
_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.
=Epaminondas=, a famous Theban descended from the ancient kings of
Bœotia. His father’s name was Polymnus. He has been celebrated for
his private virtues and military accomplishments. His love of truth
was so great that he never disgraced himself by falsehood. He formed
a most sacred and inviolable friendship with Pelopidas, whose life
he saved in battle. By his advice Pelopidas delivered Thebes from
the power of Lacedæmon. This was the signal of war. Epaminondas was
set at the head of the Theban armies, and defeated the Spartans at
the celebrated battle of Leuctra, about 371 years B.C. Epaminondas
made a proper use of this victorious campaign, and entered the
territories of Lacedæmon with 50,000 men. Here he gained many
friends and partisans; but at his return to Thebes he was seized as
a traitor for violating the laws of his country. While he was making
the Theban arms victorious on every side, he neglected the law
which forbade any citizen to retain in his hands the supreme power
more than one month, and all his eminent services seemed unable to
redeem him from death. He paid implicit obedience to the laws of his
country, and only begged of his judges that it might be inscribed on
his tomb that he had suffered death for saving his country from ruin.
This animated reproach was felt; he was pardoned and invested again
with the sovereign power. He was successful in a war in Thessaly,
and assisted the Eleans against the Lacedæmonians. The hostile
armies met near Mantinea, and while Epaminondas was bravely fighting
in the thickest of the enemy, he received a fatal wound in the
breast and expired, exclaiming that he died unconquered, when he
heard that the Bœotians obtained the victory, in the 48th year of
his age, 363 years before Christ. The Thebans severely lamented
his death; in him their power was extinguished, for only during his
life they had enjoyed freedom and independence among the Grecian
states. Epaminondas was frugal as well as virtuous, and he refused
with indignation the rich presents which were offered to him by
Artaxerxes the king of Persia. He is represented by his biographer
as an elegant dancer and a skilful musician, accomplishments highly
esteemed among his countrymen. _Plutarch_, _Parallela minora_.
――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Epaminondas_.――_Xenophon_, _Hellenica_.
――_Diodorus_, bk. 15.――_Polybius_, bk. 1.
=Epantelii=, a people of Italy.
=Epaphrodītus=, a freedman punished with death for assisting Nero to
destroy himself. _Suetonius_, _Nero_.――――A freedman of Augustus,
sent as a spy to Cleopatra. _Plutarch._――――A name assumed by Sylla.
=Epăphus=, a son of Jupiter and Io, who founded a city in Egypt,
which he called Memphis, in honour of his wife, who was the daughter
of the Nile. He had a daughter called Libya, who became mother of
Ægyptus and Danaus by Neptune. He was worshipped as a god at Memphis.
_Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 153.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1,
li. 699, &c.
=Epasnactus=, a Gaul in alliance with Rome, &c. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_,
bk. 8, ch. 44.
=Epebŏlus=, a soothsayer of Messenia, who prevented Aristodemus from
obtaining the sovereignty. _Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 9, &c.
=Epēi= and =Elēi=, a people of Peloponnesus. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 5.
=Epetium=, now _Viscio_, a town of Illyricum.
=Epēus=, a son of Endymion, brother to Pæon, who reigned in a part of
Peloponnesus. His subjects were called from him Epei. _Pausanias_,
bk. 5, ch. 1.――――A son of Panopeus, who was the fabricator of the
famous wooden horse, which proved the ruin of Troy. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 2, li. 264.――_Justin_, bk. 20, ch. 2.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 10, ch. 26.
=Ephĕsus=, a city of Ionia, built, as Justin mentions, by the Amazons;
or by Androchus son of Codrus, according to Strabo; or by Ephesus, a
son of the river Cayster. It is famous for a temple of Diana, which
was reckoned one of the seven wonders of the world. This temple was
425 feet long and 200 feet broad. The roof was supported by 127
columns, 60 feet high, which had been placed there by so many kings.
Of these columns, 36 were carved in the most beautiful manner, one
of which was the work of the famous Scopas. This celebrated building
was not totally completed till 220 years after its foundation.
Ctesiphon was the chief architect. There was above the entrance
a huge stone, which, according to Pliny, had been placed there by
Diana herself. The riches which were in the temple were immense,
and the goddess who presided over it was worshipped with the most
awful solemnity. This celebrated temple was burnt on the night that
Alexander was born [_See:_ Erostratus], and soon after it rose from
its ruins with more splendour and magnificence. Alexander offered
to rebuild it at his own expense, if the Ephesians would place upon
it an inscription which denoted the name of the benefactor. This
generous offer was refused by the Ephesians, who observed, in the
language of adulation, that it was improper that one deity should
raise temples to the other. Lysimachus ordered the town of Ephesus
to be called Arsinoe, in honour of his wife; but after his death
the new appellation was lost, and the town was again known by its
ancient name. Though modern authors are not agreed about the ancient
ruins of this once famed city, some have given the barbarous name
of _Ajasalouc_ to what they conjecture to be the remains of Ephesus.
The words _literæ Ephesiæ_ are applied to letters containing magical
powers. _Pliny_, bk. 36, ch. 14.――_Strabo_, bks. 12 & 14.――_Mela_,
bk. 1, ch. 17.――_Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 2.――_Plutarch_, _Alexander_.
――_Justin_, bk. 2, ch. 4.――_Callimachus_, _Hymn to Artemis_.
――_Ptolemy_, bk. 5.――_Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 2.
=Ephĕtæ=, a number of magistrates at Athens, first instituted by
Demophoon the son of Theseus. They were reduced to the number of
51 by Draco, who, according to some, first established them. They
were superior to the Areopagites, and their privileges were great
and numerous. Solon, however, lessened their power, and entrusted
them only with the trial of manslaughter and conspiracy against the
life of a citizen. They were all more than 50 years old, and it was
required that their manners should be pure and innocent, and their
behaviour austere and full of gravity.
=Ephialtes=, or =Ephialtus=, a giant, son of Neptune, who grew nine
inches every month. _See:_ Aloeus.――――An Athenian, famous for his
courage and strength. He fought with the Persians against Alexander,
and was killed at Halicarnassus. _Diodorus_, bk. 17.――――A Trachinian
who led a detachment of the army of Xerxes by a secret path to
attack the Spartans at Thermopylæ. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 4.
――_Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 213.
=Ephŏri=, powerful magistrates at Sparta, who were first created by
Lycurgus; or, according to some, by Theopompus, B.C. 760. They were
five in number. Like censors in the state, they could check and
restrain the authority of the kings, and even imprison them, if
guilty of irregularities. They fined Archidamus for marrying a
wife of small stature, and imprisoned Agis for his unconstitutional
behaviour. They were much the same as the tribunes of the people
at Rome, created to watch with a jealous eye over the liberties and
rights of the populace. They had the management of the public money,
and were the arbiters of peace and war. Their office was annual, and
they had the privilege of convening, proroguing, and dissolving the
greater and less assemblies of the people. The former was composed
of 9000 Spartans, all inhabitants of the city; the latter of 33,000
Lacedæmonians, inhabitants of the inferior towns and villages.
_Cornelius Nepos_, _Pausanias_, ch. 3.――_Aristotle_, _Politics_,
bk. 2, ch. 7.
=Ephŏrus=, an orator and historian of Cumæ in Æolia, about 352 years
before Christ. He was disciple to Isocrates, by whose advice he
wrote a history which gave an account of all the actions and battles
that had happened between the Greeks and barbarians for 750 years.
It was greatly esteemed by the ancients. It is now lost. _Quintilian_,
bk. 10, ch. 1.
=Ephy̆ra=, the ancient name of Corinth, which it received from a nymph
of the same name, and thence _Ephyreus_ is applied to Dyrrhachium,
founded by a Grecian colony. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 2, li. 264.
――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 2, li. 239.――_Lucan_, bk. 6, li. 17.
――_Statius_, _Thebiad_, bk. 4, li. 59.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 14,
li. 181.――――A city of Threspotia in Epirus.――――Another in Elis.
――――Ætolia.――――One of Cyrene’s attendants. _Virgil_, _Georgics_,
bk. 4, li. 343.
=Epicaste=, a name of Jocasta the mother and wife of Œdipus.
_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 5.――――A daughter of Ægeus, mother of
Thestalus by Hercules.
=Epicerides=, a man of Cyrene, greatly esteemed by the Athenians for
his beneficence. _Demosthenes._
=Epichăris=, a woman accused of conspiracy against Nero. She refused
to confess the associates of her guilt, though exposed to the
greatest torments, &c. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 15, ch. 51.
=Epicharmus=, a poet and Pythagorean philosopher of Sicily,
who introduced comedy at Syracuse, in the reign of Hiero. His
compositions were imitated by Plautus. He wrote some treatises upon
philosophy and medicine, and observed that the gods sold all their
kindnesses for toil and labour. According to Aristotle and Pliny, he
added the two letters χ and θ to the Greek alphabet. He flourished
about 440 years before Christ, and died in the 90th year of his age.
_Horace_, bk. 2, ltr. 1, li. 58.――_Diogenes Laërtius_, bks. 3 & 8.
――_Cicero_, _Letters to Atticus_, bk. 1, ltr. 19.
=Epicles=, a Trojan prince killed by Ajax. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 12,
li. 378.
=Epiclīdes=, a Lacedæmonian of the family of the Eurysthenidæ. He
was raised to the throne by his brother Cleomenes III. in the place
of Agis, against the laws and constitution of Sparta. _Pausanias_,
bk. 2, ch. 9.
=Epicrătes=, a Milesian, servant to Julius Cæsar.――――A poet of
Ambracia. _Ælian._――――The name is applied to Pompey, as expressive
of supreme authority. _Cicero_, _Letters to Atticus_, bk. 3, ltr. 3.
=Epictētus=, a stoic philosopher of Hieropolis in Phrygia, originally
the slave of Epaphroditus, the freedman of Nero. Though driven
from Rome by Domitian, he returned after the emperor’s death, and
gained the esteem of Adrian and Marcus Aurelius. Like the Stoics
he supported the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, but he
declared himself strongly against suicide, which was so warmly
adopted by his sect. He died in a very advanced age. The earthen
lamp of which he made use was sold some time after his death for
3000 drachmas. His _Enchiridion_ is a faithful picture of the
stoic philosophy, and his dissertations which were delivered to his
pupils, were collected by Arrian. His style is concise and devoid
of all ornament, full of energy and useful maxims. The value of his
compositions is well known from the saying of the emperor Antoninus,
who thanked the gods he could collect from the writings of Epictetus
wherewith to conduct life with honour to himself and advantage
to his country. There are several good editions of the works of
Epictetus, with those of Cebes and others; the most valuable of
which, perhaps, will be found to be that of Reland, Utrecht, 4to,
1711; and Arrian’s by Upton, 2 vols. 4to, London, 1739.
=Epĭcūrus=, a celebrated philosopher, son of Neocles and Cherestrata,
born at Gargettus in Attica. Though his parents were poor and
of an obscure origin, yet he was early sent to school, where he
distinguished himself by the brilliancy of his genius, and at the
age of 12, when his preceptor repeated to him this verse from Hesiod,
Ἠτοι μεν πρωτιστα χαος γενετ’, &c.,
_In the beginning of things the Chaos was created_,
Epicurus earnestly asked him who created it? To this the teacher
answered that he knew not, but only philosophers. “Then,” says the
youth, “philosophers henceforth shall instruct me.” After having
improved himself, and enriched his mind by travelling, he visited
Athens, which was then crowded by the followers of Plato, the Cynics,
the Peripatetics, and the Stoics. Here he established himself, and
soon attracted a number of followers by the sweetness and gravity
of his manners, and by his social virtues. He taught them that the
happiness of mankind consisted in pleasure, not such as arises from
sensual gratification, or from vice, but from the enjoyments of the
mind, and the sweets of virtue. This doctrine was warmly attacked
by the philosophers of the different sects, and particularly by the
Stoics. They observed that he disgraced the gods by representing
them as inactive, given up to pleasure, and unconcerned with the
affairs of mankind. He refuted all the accusations of his adversaries
by the purity of his morals, and by his frequent attendance on
places of public worship. When Leontium, one of his female pupils,
was accused of prostituting herself to her master and to all his
disciples, the philosopher proved the falsity of the accusation by
silence and an exemplary life. His health was at last impaired by
continual labour, and he died of a retention of urine, which long
subjected him to the most excruciating torments, and which he bore
with unparalleled fortitude. His death happened 270 years before
Christ, in the 72nd year of his age. His disciples showed their
respect for the memory of their learned preceptor, by the unanimity
which prevailed among them. While philosophers in every sect were
at war with mankind and among themselves, the followers of Epicurus
enjoyed perfect peace, and lived in the most solid friendship. The
day of his birth was observed with universal festivity, and during
a month all his admirers gave themselves up to mirth and innocent
amusement. Of all the philosophers of antiquity, Epicurus is the
only one whose writings deserve attention for their number. He
wrote no less than 300 volumes, according to Diogenes Laërtius;
and Chrysippus was so jealous of the fecundity of his genius,
that no sooner had Epicurus published one of his volumes, than
he immediately composed one, that he might not be overcome in the
number of his productions. Epicurus, however, advanced truth and
arguments unknown before; but Chrysippus said what others long ago
had said, without showing anything which might be called originality.
The followers of Epicurus were numerous in every age and country;
his doctrines were rapidly disseminated over the world, and when
the gratification of the sense was substituted to the practice of
virtue, the morals of mankind were undermined and destroyed. Even
Rome, whose austere simplicity had happily nurtured virtue, felt the
attack, and was corrupted. When Cineas spoke of the tenets of the
Epicureans in the Roman senate, Fabricius indeed entreated the gods
that all the enemies of the republic might become his followers.
But those were the feeble efforts of expiring virtue; and when
Lucretius introduced the popular doctrine in poetical composition,
the smoothness and beauty of the numbers contributed, with the
effeminacy of the Epicureans, to enervate the conquerors of
the world. _Diogenes Laërtius_, _Lives and Opinions of Eminent
Philosophers_.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 4, ch. 13.――_Cicero_,
_de Natura Deorum_, bk. 1, chs. 24 & 25; _Tusculanæ Disputationes_,
bk. 3, ch. 49; _De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum_, bk. 2, ch. 22.
=Epicydes=, a tyrant of Syracuse, B.C. 213.
=Epidamnus=, a town of Macedonia on the Adriatic, nearly opposite
Brundusium. The Romans planted there a colony, which they called
_Dyrrachium_, considering the ancient name (_ad damnum_) ominous.
_Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 10.――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 23.――_Plautus_,
_Menæchmi_, scene 2, act 1, li. 42.
=Epidaphne=, a town of Syria, called also Antioch. Germanicus son of
Drusus died there. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 2, ch. 83.
=Epidauria=, a festival at Athens in honour of Æsculapius.――――A country
of Peloponnesus.
=Epidaurus=, a town at the north of Argolis in Peloponnesus, chiefly
dedicated to the worship of Æsculapius, who had there a famous
temple. It received its name from Epidaurus son of Argus and Evadne.
It is now called _Pidaura_. _Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_,
bk. 3, li. 44.――_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 21.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.
――――A town of Dalmatia, now _Ragusi Vecchio_,――――of Laconia.
=Epidium=, one of the western isles of Scotland, or the Mull of
Cantyre, according to some. _Ptolemy._
=Epidius=, a man who wrote concerning unusual prodigies. _Pliny_,
bk. 16, ch. 25.
=Epidotæ=, certain deities who presided over the birth and growth
of children, and were known among the Romans by the name of _Dii
Averrunci_. They were worshipped by the Lacedæmonians, and chiefly
invoked by those who were persecuted by the ghosts of the dead, &c.
_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 17, &c.
=Epigĕnes=, a Babylonian astrologer and historian. _Pliny_, bk. 7,
ch. 56.
=Epigeus=, a Greek killed by Hector.
=Epigŏni=, the sons and descendants of the Grecian heroes who were
killed in the first Theban war. The war of the Epigoni is famous
in ancient history. It was undertaken 10 years after the first. The
sons of those who had perished in the first war resolved to avenge
the death of their fathers, and marched against Thebes, under the
command of Thersander; or, according to others, of Alcmæon the son
of Amphiaraus. The Argives were assisted by the Corinthians, the
people of Messina, Arcadia, and Megara. The Thebans had engaged
all their neighbours in their quarrel, as in one common cause, and
the two hostile armies met and engaged on the banks of the Glissas.
The fight was obstinate and bloody, but victory declared for the
Epigoni, and some of the Thebans fled to Illyricum with Leodamas
their general, while others retired into Thebes, where they were
soon besieged and forced to surrender. In this war Ægialeus alone
was killed, and his father Adrastus was the only person who escaped
alive in the first war. This whole war, as Pausanias observes,
was written in verse; and Callinus, who quotes some of the verses,
ascribes them to Homer, which opinion has been adopted by many
writers. “For my part,” continues the geographer, “I own that,
next to the Iliad and Odyssey of Homer, I have never seen a finer
poem.” _Pausanias_, bk. 6, chs. 9 & 25.――_Apollodorus_, bks. 1 & 3.
――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.――――This name has been applied to the sons
of those Macedonian veterans, who in the age of Alexander formed
connections with the women of Asia.
=Epĭgŏnus=, a mathematician of Ambracia.
=Epigranea=, a fountain in Bœotia. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 7.
=Epīi= and =Epēi=, a people of Elis.
=Epilarus=, a daughter of Thespius. _Apollodorus._
=Epimĕlĭdes=, the founder of Corone. _Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 34.
=Epimĕnes=, a man who conspired against Alexander’s life. _Curtius_,
bk. 8, ch. 6.
=Epimenĭdes=, an epic poet of Crete, contemporary with Solon. His
father’s name was Agiasarchus and his mother’s Blasta. He is
reckoned one of the seven wise men by those who exclude Periander
from the number. While he was tending his flocks one day, he entered
into a cave, where he fell asleep. His sleep continued for 40 or 47,
or according to Pliny, 57 years, and when he awoke, he found every
object so considerably altered, that he scarce knew where he was.
His brother apprised him of the length of his sleep, to his great
astonishment. It is supposed that he lived 289 years. After death he
was revered as a god, and greatly honoured by the Athenians, whom he
had delivered from a plague, and to whom he had given many good and
useful counsels. He is said to be the first who built temples in
the Grecian communities. _Cicero_, _de Divinatione_, bk. 1, ch. 34.
――_Diogenes Laërtius_, _Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers_.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 14.――_Plutarch_, _Solon_.――_Valerius
Maximus_, bk. 8, ch. 13.――_Strabo_, bk. 10.――_Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 12.
=Epĭmētheus=, a son of Japetus and Clymene, one of the Oceanides, who
inconsiderately married Pandora, by whom he had Pyrrha the wife of
Deucalian. He had the curiosity to open the box which Pandora had
brought with her [_See:_ Pandora], and from thence issued a train of
evils, which from that moment have never ceased to afflict the human
race. Hope was the only one which remained at the bottom of the
box, not having sufficient time to escape, and it is she alone which
comforts men under misfortunes. Epimetheus was changed into a monkey
by the gods, and sent into the island of Pithecusa. _Apollodorus_,
bk. 1, chs. 2 & 7.――_Hyginus_, fable.――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_. _See:_
Prometheus.
=Epĭmēthis=, a patronymic of Pyrrha the daughter of Epimetheus. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, li. 390.
=Epĭochus=, a son of Lycurgus, who received divine honours in Arcadia.
=Epiŏne=, the wife of Æsculapius. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 29.
=Epiphanea=, a town of Cilicia, near Issus, now _Surpendkar_. _Pliny_,
bk. 5, ch. 27.――_Cicero_, _Letters to his Friends_, bk. 15, ltr. 4.
――――Another of Syria on the Euphrates. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 24.
=Epiphănes= (_illustrious_), a surname given to the Antiochi, kings of
Syria.――――A surname of one of the Ptolemies, the fifth of the house
of the Lagidæ. _Strabo_, bk. 17.
=Epipanius=, a bishop of Salamis, who was active in refuting the
writings of Origen; but his compositions are more valuable for the
fragments which they preserve than for their own intrinsic merit.
The only edition is by _Dionysius Petavius_, 2 vols., Paris, 1622.
The bishop died A.D. 403.
=Epipŏlæ=, a district of Syracuse, on the north side, surrounded by a
wall by Dionysius, who, to complete the work expeditiously, employed
60,000 men upon it, so that in 30 days he finished a wall 4¾ miles
long, and of great height and thickness.
=Epīrus=, a country situate between Macedonia, Achaia, and the Ionian
sea. It was formerly governed by kings, of whom Neoptolemus son
of Achilles was one of the first. It was afterwards joined to
the empire of Macedonia, and at last became a part of the Roman
dominions. It is now called _Larta_. _Strabo_, bk. 7.――_Mela_, bk. 2,
ch. 3.――_Ptolemy_, bk. 3, ch. 14.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 1.――_Virgil_,
_Georgics_, bk. 3, li. 121.
=Epistrŏphus=, a son of Iphitus king of Phocis, who went to the Trojan
war. _Homer_, _Iliad_.
=Epitades=, a man who first violated a law of Lycurgus, which forbade
laws to be made. _Plutarch_, _Agis_.
=Epitus.= _See:_ Epytus.
=Epium=, a town of Peloponnesus on the borders of Arcadia.
=Epŏna=, a beautiful girl, the fruit, it is said, of a man’s union
with a mare.
=Epŏpeus=, a son of Neptune and Canace, who came from Thessaly to
Sicyon, and carried away Antiope, daughter of Nicteus king of Thebes.
This rape was followed by a war, in which Nycteus and Epopeus were
both killed. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 6.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 7,
&c.――――A son of Aloeus, grandson to Phœbus. He reigned at Corinth.
_Pausanias_, bk. 2, chs. 1 & 3.――――One of the Tyrrhene sailors, who
attempted to abuse Bacchus. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 3, li. 619.
=Eporedōrix=, a powerful person among the Ædui, who commanded his
countrymen in their war against the Sequani. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_,
bk. 7, ch. 67.
=Epŭlo=, a Rutulian killed by Achates. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 12,
li. 459.
=Epytides=, a patronymic given to Periphas the son of Epytus, and the
companion of Ascanius. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 5, li. 547.
=Epy̆tus=, a king of Alba. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 4, li. 44.――――A king
of Arcadia.――――A king of Messenia, of the family of the Heraclidæ.
――――The father of Periphus, a herald in the Trojan war. _Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 17.
=Equajusta=, a town of Thessaly.
=Equĭcŏlus=, a Rutulian engaged in the wars of Æneas. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 684.
=Equīria=, festivals established at Rome by Romulus, in honour of Mars,
when horse-races and games were exhibited in the Campus Martius.
_Varro_, _de Lingua Latina_, bk. 5, ch. 3.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 2,
li. 859.
=Equotutĭcum=, now _Castel Franco_, a little town of Apulia, to which,
as some suppose, Horace alludes in this verse, bk. 1, satire 5,
li. 87,
_Mansuri oppidulo, versu quod dicere non est._
=Eracon=, an officer of Alexander, imprisoned for his cruelty.
_Curtius_, bk. 10.
=Eræa=, a city of Greece, destroyed in the age of Strabo, bk. 3.
=Erana=, a small village of Cilicia on mount Amanus. _Cicero_,
_Letters to his Friends_, bk. 15, ltr. 4.
=Erăsēnus=, a river of Peloponnesus, flowing for a little space under
the ground, in Argolis. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 15, li. 275.
――_Pliny_, bk. 2, ch. 13.
=Erasippus=, a son of Hercules and Lysippe.
=Erasistrătus=, a celebrated physician, grandson to the philosopher
Aristotle. He discovered by the motion of the pulse the love which
Antiochus had conceived for his mother-in-law Stratonice, and was
rewarded with 100 talents for the cure by the father of Antiochus.
He was a great enemy to bleeding and violent physic. He died B.C.
257. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 5, ch. 7.――_Plutarch_, _Demetrius_.
=Erăto=, one of the muses who presided over lyric, tender, and
amorous poetry. She is represented as crowned with roses and myrtle,
holding in her right hand a lyre, and a lute in her left, musical
instruments of which she is considered by some as the inventress.
Love is sometimes placed by her side holding a lighted flambeau,
while she herself appears with a thoughtful, but oftener with a
gay and animated look. She was invoked by lovers, especially in
the month of April, which, among the Romans, was more particularly
devoted to love. _Apollodorus_, bk. 10.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7,
li. 37.――_Ovid_, _de Ars Amatoria_, bk. 2, li. 425.――――One of the
Nereides. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 2.――――One of the Dryades, wife
of Arcas king of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 4.――――One of the
Danaides, who married Bromius.――――A queen of the Armenians, after
the death of Ariobarzanes, &c. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 2, ch. 4.
=Eratosthĕnes=, son of Aglaus, was a native of Cyrene, and the second
entrusted with the care of the Alexandrian library. He dedicated his
time to grammatical criticism and philosophy, but more particularly
to poetry and mathematics. He has been called a second Plato, the
cosmographer and the geometer of the world. He is supposed to be the
inventor of the armillary sphere. With the instruments with which
the munificence of the Ptolemies supplied the library of Alexandria,
he was enabled to measure the obliquity of the ecliptic, which he
called 20½ degrees. He also measured a degree of the meridian, and
determined the extent and circumference of the earth with great
exactness, by means adopted by the moderns. He starved himself after
he had lived to his 82nd year, B.C. 194. Some few fragments remain
of his compositions. He collected the annals of the Egyptian kings
by order of one of the Ptolemies. _Cicero_, _Letters to Atticus_,
bk. 2, ltr. 6.――_Varro_, _de Re Rustica_, bk. 1, ch. 2.
=Eratostrătus=, an Ephesian who burnt the famous temple of Diana, the
same night that Alexander the Great was born. This burning, as some
writers have observed, was not prevented or seen by the goddess of
the place, who was then present at the labours of Olympias, and the
birth of the conqueror of Persia. Eratostratus did this villainy
merely to eternize his name by so uncommon an action. _Plutarch_,
_Alexander_.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 8, ch. 14.
=Erātus=, a son of Hercules and Dynaste. _Apollodorus._――――A king of
Sicyon, who died B.C. 1671.
=Erbessus=, a town of Sicily north of Agrigentum, now _Monte Bibino_.
_Livy_, bk. 24, ch. 30.
=Erchia=, a small village of Attica, the birthplace of Xenophon.
_Diogenes Laërtius_, bk. 2, ch. 48.
=Erĕbus=, a deity of hell, son of Chaos and Darkness. He married Night,
by whom he had the light and the day. The poets often used the word
Erebus to signify hell itself, and particularly that part where
dwelt the souls of those who had lived a virtuous life, from whence
they passed into the Elysian fields. _Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_,
bk. 3, ch. 17.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 4, li. 26.
=Erechtheus=, son of Pandion I., was the sixth king of Athens. He
was father of Cecrops II., Merion, Pandorus, and of four daughters,
Creusa, Orithya, Procris, and Othonia, by Praxithea. In a war
against Eleusis he sacrificed Othonia, called also Chthonia, to
obtain a victory which the oracle promised for such a sacrifice.
In that war he killed Eumolpus, Neptune’s son, who was the general
of the enemy, for which he was struck with thunder by Jupiter at
Neptune’s request. Some say that he was drowned in the sea. After
death he received divine honours at Athens. He reigned 50 years,
and died B.C. 1347. According to some accounts, he first introduced
the mysteries of Ceres at Eleusis. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 6,
li. 877.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 25.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 15.
――_Cicero_, _For Sestius_, ch. 21; _Tusculanæ Disputationes_, bk. 1,
ch. 48; _Natura Deorum_, bk. 3, ch. 15.
=Erechthĭdes=, a name given to the Athenians, from their king
Erechtheus. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, li. 430.
=Erembi=, a people of Arabia.
=Erēmus=, a country of Ethiopia.
=Erenēa=, a village of Megara. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 44.
=Eressa=, a town of Æolia.
=Erēsus=, a town of Lesbos, where Theophrastus was born.
=Erĕtria=, a city of Eubœa on the Euripus, anciently called _Melaneis_
and _Arotria_. It was destroyed by the Persians, and the ruins
were hardly visible in the age of Strabo. It received its name
from Eretrius, a son of Phaeton. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 8, &c.
――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.――_Cornelius Nepos_,
_Miltiades_, ch. 4.
=Erētum=, a town of the Sabines near the Tiber, whence came the
adjective _Eretinus_. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 711.――_Tibullus_,
bk. 4, poem 8, li. 4.
=Eruthalion=, a man killed by Nestor in a war between the Pylians and
Arcadians. _Homer_, _Iliad_.
=Ergăne=, a river whose waters intoxicated as wine.――――A surname of
Minerva. _Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 14.
=Ergenna=, a celebrated soothsayer of Etruria. _Persius_, satire 2,
li. 26.
=Ergias=, a Rhodian who wrote a history of his country.
=Ergīnus=, a king of Orchomenos, son of Clymenus. He obliged the
Thebans to pay him a yearly tribute of 100 oxen, because his father
had been killed by a Theban. Hercules attacked his servants, who
came to raise the tribute, and mutilated them, and he afterwards
killed Erginus, who attempted to avenge their death by invading
Bœotia with an army. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 17.――――A river of
Thrace. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 2.――――A son of Neptune.――――One of the
four brothers who kept the Acrocorinth, by order of Antigonus.
_Polyænus_, bk. 6.
=Erginnus=, a man made master of the ship Argo by the Argonauts, after
the death of Typhis.
=Eribœa=, a surname of Juno. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 5.――――The mother of
Ajax Telamon. _Sophocles._
=Eribotes=, a man skilled in medicine, &c. _Orpheus._
=Erĭcētes=, a man of Lycaonia, killed by Messapus in Italy. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 749.
=Erichtho=, a Thessalian woman famous for her knowledge of poisonous
herbs and medicine. _Lucan_, bk. 6, li. 507.――――One of the Furies.
_Ovid._――_Hesiod_, bk. 2, li. 151.
=Erichthŏnius=, the fourth king of Athens, sprung from the seed of
Vulcan, which fell upon the ground when that god attempted to offer
violence to Minerva. He was very deformed, and had the tails of
serpents instead of legs. Minerva placed him in a basket, which
she gave to the daughters of Cecrops, with strict injunctions not
to examine its contents. Aglauros, one of the sisters, had the
curiosity to open the basket, for which the goddess punished her
indiscretion by making her jealous of her sister Herse. _See:_
Herse. Erichthon was young when he ascended the throne of Athens.
He reigned 50 years, and died B.C. 1437. The invention of chariots
is attributed to him, and the manner of harnessing horses to
draw them. He was made a constellation after death under the name
of Bootes. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 2, li. 553.――_Hyginus_,
fable 166.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 14.――_Pausanias_, bk. 4,
ch. 2.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 3, li. 113.――――A son of Dardanus,
who reigned in Troy, and died 1374 B.C., after a long reign of about
75 years. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 10.
=Ericinium=, a town of Macedonia.
=Ericūsa=, one of the Lipari isles, now _Alicudi_.
=Erĭdănus=, one of the largest rivers of Italy, rising in the Alps,
and falling into the Adriatic by several mouths; now called the
_Po_. It was in its neighbourhood that the Heliades, the sisters of
Phaeton, were changed into poplars, according to Ovid. Virgil calls
it the king of all rivers, and Lucan compares it to the Rhine and
Danube. An Eridanus is mentioned in heaven. _Cicero_, _Aratus_, li.
145.――_Claudian_, _Panegyricus de Consulatu Honorii Augusti_, bk. 6,
li. 175.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 2, fable 3.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 1, ch. 3.――_Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Lucan_, bk. 2, li. 409.――_Virgil_,
_Georgics_, bk. 1, li. 482; _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 659.
=Erĭgŏne=, a daughter of Icarius, who hung herself when she heard
that her father had been killed by some shepherds whom he had
intoxicated. She was made a constellation, now known under the
name of _Virgo_. Bacchus deceived her by changing himself into a
beautiful grape. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 6, fable 4.――_Statius_,
bk. 11, _Thebiad_, li. 644.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 1, li. 33.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 14.――_Hyginus_, fables 1 & 24.――――A
daughter of Ægisthus and Clytemnestra, who had by her brother
Orestes, Penthilus, who shared the regal power with Timasenus, the
legitimate son of Orestes and Hermione. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 18.
――_Paterculus_, bk. 1, ch. 1.
=Erigoneius=, a name applied to the Dog-star, because looking towards
Erigone, &c. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 5, li. 723.
=Erĭgŏnus=, a river of Thrace.――――A painter. _Pliny_, bk. 35, ch. 11.
=Erigȳus=, a Mitylenean, one of Alexander’s officers. _Curtius_,
bk. 6, ch. 4.
=Erillus=, a philosopher of Carthage, contemporary with Zeno.
_Diogenes Laërtius._
=Erindes=, a river of Asia, near Parthia. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 11,
ch. 16.
=Erinna=, a poetess of Lesbos, intimate with Sappho. _Pliny_, bk. 34,
ch. 8.
=Erinnys=, the Greek name of the Eumenides. The word signifies the
_fury of the mind_, ἐρις νους. _See:_ Eumenides. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 2, li. 337.――――A surname of Ceres, on account of her amour with
Neptune under the form of a horse. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, chs. 25 & 42.
=Eriopis=, a daughter of Medea. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 3.
=Eriphănis=, a Greek woman famous for her poetical compositions. She
was extremely fond of the hunter Melampus, and to enjoy his company
she accustomed herself to live in the woods. _Athenæus_, bk. 14.
=Eriphidas=, a Lacedæmonian, who being sent to suppress a sedition at
Heraclea, assembled the people and beheaded 500 of the ringleaders.
_Diodorus_, bk. 14.
=Erĭphȳle=, a sister of Adrastus king of Argos, who married Amphiaraus.
She was daughter of Talaus and Lysimache. When her husband concealed
himself that he might not accompany the Argives in their expedition
against Thebes, where he knew he was to perish, Eriphyle suffered
herself to be bribed by Polynices with a golden necklace, which
had been formerly given to Hermione by the goddess Venus, and
she discovered where Amphiaraus was. This treachery of Eriphyle
compelled him to go to the war; but before he departed, he charged
his son Alcmæon to murder his mother as soon as he was informed of
his death. Amphiaraus perished in the expedition, and his death was
no sooner known than his last injunctions were obeyed, and Eriphyle
was murdered by the hands of her son. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li.
445.――_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 11.――_Cicero_, _Against Verres_, bk. 4,
ch. 18.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9; bk. 3, chs. 6 & 7.――_Hyginus_,
fable 73.――_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 17.
=Eris=, the goddess of discord among the Greeks. She is the same as
the Discordia of the Latins. _See:_ Discordia.
=Erisichthon=, a Thessalian, son of Triops, who derided Ceres and cut
down her groves. This impiety irritated the goddess, who afflicted
him with continual hunger. He squandered all his possessions to
gratify the cravings of his appetite, and at last he devoured his
own limbs for want of food. His daughter Metra had the power of
transforming herself into whatever animal she pleased, and she made
use of that artifice to maintain her father, who sold her, after
which she assumed another shape, and became again his property.
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, fable 18.
=Erithus=, a son of Actor, killed by Perseus. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 5.
=Erixo=, a Roman knight condemned by the people for having whipped his
son to death. _Seneca_, bk. 1, _de Clementia_, ch. 14.
=Erōchus=, a town of Phocis. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 3.
=Erōpus= or =Æropes=, a king of Macedonia, who when in the cradle
succeeded his father Philip I., B.C. 602. He made war against the
Illyrians, whom he conquered. _Justin_, bk. 7, ch. 2.
=Eros=, a servant of whom Antony demanded a sword to kill himself.
Eros produced the instrument, but instead of giving it to his master,
he killed himself in his presence. _Plutarch_, _Antonius_.――――A
comedian. _Cicero_, _For Quintus Roscius the Actor_, ch. 2.――――A son
of Chronos or Saturn, god of love. _See:_ Cupido.
=Erostrătus.= _See:_ Eratostratus.
=Erōtia=, a festival in honour of Eros the god of love. It was
celebrated by the Thespians every fifth year with sports and
games, when musicians and all others contended. If any quarrels or
seditions had arisen among the people, it was then usual to offer
sacrifices and prayers to the god, that he would totally remove them.
=Errūca=, a town of the Volsci of Italy.
=Erse=, a daughter of Cecrops. _See:_ Herse.
=Erxias=, a man who wrote a history of Colophon. He is perhaps the
same as the person who wrote a history of Rhodes.
=Eryălus=, a Trojan chief killed by Patroclus. _Homer_, _Iliad_,
bk. 16, li. 411.
=Erybium=, a town at the foot of mount Parnassus.
=Erycīna=, a surname of Venus from mount Eryx, where she had a temple.
She was also worshipped at Rome under this appellation. _Ovid_,
_Fasti_, bk. 4, li. 874.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ode 2, li. 33.
=Ery̆manthis=, a surname of Callisto, as an inhabitant of Erymanthus.
――――Arcadia is also known by that name.
=Erymanthus=, a mountain, river, and town of Arcadia, where Hercules
killed a prodigious boar, which he carried on his shoulders
to Eurystheus, who was so terrified at the sight that he hid
himself in a brazen vessel. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 24.――_Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 802.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 6.――_Cicero_,
_Tusculanæ Disputationes_, bk. 2, ch. 8; bk. 4, ch. 22.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 2, li. 499.
=Ery̆mas=, a Trojan killed by Turnus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 702.
=Erymnæ=, a town of Thessaly. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 24.――――Of
Magnesia.
=Erymneus=, a peripatetic philosopher, who flourished B.C. 126.
=Ery̆mus=, a huntsman of Cyzicus.
=Erythea=, an island between Gades and Spain, where Geryon reigned.
_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 22.――_Mela_, bk. 3, ch. 6.――_Propertius_,
bk. 4, poem 10, li. 1.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 16, li. 195.――_Ovid_,
_Fasti_, bk. 5, li. 649.――――A daughter of Geryon. _Pausanias_,
bk. 10, ch. 37.
=Erythīni=, a town of Paphlagonia.
=Erȳthræ=, a town of Ionia opposite Chios, once the residence of a
Sybil. It was built by Neleus the son of Codrus. _Pausanias_, bk. 10,
ch. 12.――_Livy_, bk. 44, ch. 28; bk. 38, ch. 39.――――A town of Bœotia.
_Livy_, bk. 6, ch. 21.――――One in Libya,――――another in Locris.
=Ery̆thræum mare=, a part of the ocean on the coast of Arabia. As it
has a communication with the Persian gulf, and that of Arabia or
the Red sea, it has often been mistaken by the ancient writers, who
by the word _Erythran_, understood indiscriminately either the Red
sea or the Persian gulf. It received this name either from Erythras,
or from the _redness_ (ἐρυθρος, _ruber_) of its sand or waters.
_Curtius_, bk. 8, ch. 9.――_Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 23.――_Herodotus_,
bk. 1, chs. 180 & 189; bk. 3, ch. 93; bk. 4, ch. 37.――_Mela_, bk. 3,
ch. 8.
=Ery̆thras=, a son of Hercules. _Apollodorus._――――A son of Perseus
and Andromeda, drowned in the Red sea, which from him was called
_Erythræum_. _Arrian_, _Indica_, bk. 6, ch. 10.――_Mela_, bk. 3,
ch. 7.
=Erythrion=, a son of Athamas and Themistone. _Apollodorus._
=Ery̆thros=, a place of Latium.
=Eryx=, a son of Butes and Venus, who, relying upon his strength,
challenged all strangers to fight with him in the combat of the
cestus. Hercules accepted his challenge after many had yielded
to his superior dexterity, and Eryx was killed in the combat,
and buried on the mountain, where he had built a temple to Venus.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 5, li. 402.――――An Indian killed by his
subjects for opposing Alexander, &c. _Curtius_, bk. 8, ch. 11.――――A
mountain of Sicily, now _Giuliano_, near Drepanum, which received
its name from Eryx, who was buried there. This mountain was so steep
that the houses which were built upon it seemed every moment ready
to fall. Dædalus had enlarged the top, and enclosed it with a strong
wall. He also consecrated there to Venus Erycina a golden heifer,
which so much resembled life, that it seemed to exceed the power of
art. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 4, li. 478.――_Hyginus_, fables 16 & 260.
――_Livy_, bk. 22, ch. 9.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Pausanias_, bk. 3,
ch. 16.
=Eryxo=, the mother of Battus, who artfully killed the tyrant Learchus
who courted her. _Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 160.
=Esernus=, a famous gladiator. _Cicero._
=Esquĭliæ= and =Esquilīnus mons=, one of the seven hills of Rome,
which was joined to the city by king Tullus. Birds of prey generally
came to devour the dead bodies of criminals who had been executed
there, and thence they were called _Esquilinæ alites_. _Livy_, bk. 2,
ch. 11.――_Horace_, epode 5, li. 100.――_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 2,
ch. 32.
=Essedŏnes=, a people of Asia, above the Palus Mæotis, who ate the
flesh of their parents mixed with that of cattle. They gilded the
head and kept it as sacred. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 1.――_Pliny_, bk. 4,
ch. 12.
=Essui=, a people of Gaul.
=Estiæotis=, a district of Thessaly on the river Peneus.
=Esŭla=, a town of Italy near Tibur. _Horace_, bk. 3, ode 29, li. 6.
=Estiaia=, solemn sacrifices to Vesta, of which it was unlawful to
carry away anything or communicate it to anybody.
=Etearchus=, a king of Oaxus in Crete. After the death of his wife,
he married a woman who made herself odious for her tyranny over her
stepdaughter Phronima. Etearchus gave ear to all the accusations
which were brought against his daughter, and ordered her to be
thrown into the sea. She had a son called Battus, who led a colony
to Cyrene. _Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 154.
=Eteŏcles=, a son of Œdipus and Jocasta. After his father’s death, it
was agreed between him and his brother Polynices, that they should
both share the royalty, and reign alternately each a year. Eteocles
by right of seniority first ascended the throne, but after the
first year of his reign was expired, he refused to give up the
crown to his brother according to their mutual agreement. Polynices,
resolving to punish such an open violation of a solemn engagement,
went to implore the assistance of Adrastus king of Argos. He
received that king’s daughter in marriage, and was soon after
assisted with a strong army, headed by seven famous generals. These
hostile preparations were watched by Eteocles, who on his part did
not remain inactive. He chose seven brave chiefs to oppose the seven
leaders of the Argives, and stationed them at the seven gates of
the city. He placed himself against his brother Polynices, and he
opposed Menalippus to Tydeus, Polyphontes to Capaneus, Megareus to
Eteoclus, Hyperbius to Parthenopæus, and Lasthenes to Amphiaraus.
Much blood was shed in light and unavailing skirmishes, and it was
at last agreed between the two brothers that the war should be
decided by single combat. They both fell in an engagement conducted
with the most inveterate fury on either side, and it is even said
that the ashes of these two brothers, who had been so inimical one
to the other, separated themselves on the burning pile, as if, even
after death, sensible of resentment and hostile to reconciliation.
_Statius_, _Thebiad_.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 5, &c.――_Aeschylus_,
_Seven Against Thebes_.――_Euripides_, _Phœnician Women_.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 5, ch. 9; bk. 9, ch. 6.――――A Greek, the first who raised altars
to the Graces. _Pausanias._
=Eteŏclus=, one of the seven chiefs of the army of Adrastus, in
his expedition against Thebes, celebrated for his valour, for his
disinterestedness, and magnanimity. He was killed by Megareus the
son of Creon under the walls of Thebes. _Euripides._――_Apollodorus_,
bk. 3, ch. 6.――――A son of Iphis.
=Eteocrētæ=, an ancient people of Crete.
=Eteones=, a town of Bœotia on the Asopus. _Statius_, _Thebiad_, bk. 7,
li. 266.
=Eteoneus=, an officer at the court of Menelaus, when Telemachus
visited Sparta. He was son of Bœthus. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 4,
li. 22.
=Eteonīcus=, a Lacedæmonian general, who upon hearing that
Callicratidas was conquered at Arginusæ, ordered the messengers of
this news to be crowned, and to enter Mitylene in triumph. This so
terrified Conon, who besieged the town, that he concluded that the
enemy had obtained some advantageous victory, and he raised the
siege. _Diodorus_, bk. 13.――_Polyænus_, bk. 1.
=Etēsiæ=, periodical northern winds of a gentle and mild nature, very
common for five or six weeks in the months of spring and autumn.
_Lucretius_, bk. 5, li. 741.
=Ethalion=, one of the Tyrrhene sailors changed into dolphins for
carrying away Bacchus. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 3, li. 647.
=Etheleum=, a river of Asia, the boundary of Troas and Mysia. _Strabo._
=Ethŏda=, a daughter of Amphion and Niobe.
=Ethēmon=, a person killed at the marriage of Andromeda. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, li. 163.
=Etias=, a daughter of Æneas. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 22.
=Etis=, a town of Peloponnesus. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 22.
=Etrūria.= _See:_ Hetruria.
=Etrusci=, the inhabitants of Etruria, famous for their superstitions
and enchantments. _See:_ Hetruria. _Cicero_, _Letters to his
Friends_, bk. 6, ltr. 6.――_Livy_, bk. 2, ch. 34.
=Etylus=, the father of Theocles. _Livy_, bk. 6, ch. 19.
=Evadne=, a daughter of Iphis or Iphicles of Argos, who slighted the
addresses of Apollo, and married Capancus, one of the seven chiefs
who went against Thebes. When her husband had been struck with
thunder by Jupiter for his blasphemies and impiety, and his ashes
had been separated from those of the rest of the Argives, she threw
herself on his burning pile, and perished in the flames. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 447.――_Propertius_, bk. 1, poem 15, li. 21.
――_Statius_, _Thebiad_, bk. 12, li. 800.――――A daughter of the
Strymon and Neæra. She married Argus, by whom she had four children.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 2.
=Evages=, a poet, famous for his genius but not for his learning.
=Evăgŏras=, a king of Cyprus who retook Salamis, which had been taken
from his father by the Persians. He made war against Artaxerxes the
king of Persia, with the assistance of the Egyptians, Arabians, and
Tyrians, and obtained some advantage over the fleet of his enemy.
The Persians, however, soon repaired their losses, and Evagoras saw
himself defeated by sea and land, and obliged to be tributary to
the power of Artaxerxes, and to be stripped of all his dominions,
except the town of Salamis. He was assassinated soon after this
fatal change of fortune by a eunuch, 374 B.C. He left two sons,
Nicocles, who succeeded him, and Protagoras, who deprived his nephew
Evagoras of his possessions. Evagoras deserves to be commended for
his sobriety, moderation, and magnanimity, and if he was guilty
of any political error in the management of his kingdom, it may be
said that his love of equity was a full compensation. His grandson
bore the same name, and succeeded his father Nicocles. He showed
himself oppressive, and his uncle Protagoras took advantage of
his unpopularity to deprive him of his power. Evagoras fled to
Artaxerxes Ochus, who gave him a government more extensive than
that of Cyprus, but his oppression rendered him odious, and he
was accused before his benefactor, and by his orders put to death.
_Cornelius Nepos_, bk. 12, ch. 2.――_Diodorus_, bk. 14.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 1, ch. 3.――_Justin_, bk. 5, ch. 6.――――A man of Elis, who obtained
a prize at the Olympian games. _Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 8.――――A
Spartan, famous for his services to the people of Elis. _Pausanias_,
bk. 6, ch. 10.――――A son of Neleus and Chloris. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1,
ch. 9.――――A son of Priam. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 12.――――A king
of Rhodes.――――An historian of Lindos.――――Another of Thasos, whose
works proved serviceable to Pliny in the compilation of his natural
history. _Pliny_, bk. 10.
=Evăgŏre=, one of the Nereides. _Apollodorus._
=Evan=, a surname of Bacchus, which he received from the wild
ejaculation of _Evan! Evan!_ by his priestesses. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 4, li. 15.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 517.
=Evander=, a son of the prophetess Carmente, king of Arcadia. An
accidental murder obliged him to leave his country, and he came to
Italy, where he drove the aborigines from their ancient possessions,
and reigned in that part of the country where Rome was afterwards
founded. He kindly received Hercules when he returned from the
conquest of Geryon; and he was the first who raised him altars. He
gave Æneas assistance against the Rutuli, and distinguished himself
by his hospitality. It is said that he first brought the Greek
alphabet into Italy, and introduced there the worship of the Greek
deities. He was honoured as a god after death by his subjects,
who raised him an altar on mount Aventine. _Pausanias_, bk. 8,
ch. 43.――_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 7.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 7, li. 18.
――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 1, ch. 7.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_,
bk. 1, li. 500; bk. 5, li. 91.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8, li. 100,
&c.――――A philosopher of the second academy, who flourished B.C. 215.
=Evangĕlus=, a Greek historian.――――A comic poet.
=Evangorĭdes=, a man of Elis, who wrote an account of all those
who had obtained a prize at Olympia, where he himself had been
victorious. _Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 8.
=Evanthes=, a man who planted a colony in Lucania at the head of some
Locrians.――――A celebrated Greek poet.――――An historian of Miletus.
――――A philosopher of Samos.――――A writer of Cyzicus.――――A son of
Œnopion of Crete, who migrated to live at Chios. _Pausanias_, bk. 7,
ch. 4.
=Evarchus=, a river of Asia Minor flowing into the Euxine, on the
confines of Cappadocia. _Flaccus_, bk. 6, li. 102.
=Evas=, a native of Phrygia who accompanied Æneas into Italy, where he
was killed by Mezentius. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 702.
=Evax=, an Arabian prince who wrote to Nero concerning jewels. _Pliny_,
bk. 25, ch. 2.
=Eubages=, certain priests held in great veneration among the Gauls
and Britons. _See:_ Druidæ.
=Eubātas=, an athlete of Cyrene, whom the courtesan Lais in vain
endeavoured to seduce. _Pausanias_, _Elis_, bk. 1.
=Eubius=, an obscene writer, &c. _Ovid_, _Tristia_, bk. 2, li. 415.
=Eubœa=, the largest island in the Ægean sea after Crete, now called
_Negropont_. It is separated from the continent of Bœotia by the
narrow straits of the Euripus, and was anciently known by the
different names of _Macris_, _Oche_, _Ellopia_, _Chalcis_, _Abantis_,
_Asopis_. It is 150 miles long, and 37 broad in its most extensive
parts, and 365 in circumference. The principal town was Chalcis; and
it was reported that in the neighbourhood of Chalcis the island had
been formerly joined to the continent. Eubœa was subjected to the
power of the Greeks; some of its cities, however, remained for some
time independent. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.――_Strabo_, bk. 10.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 14, li. 155.――――One of the three daughters of
the river Asterion, who was one of the nurses of Juno. _Pausanias_,
bk. 2, ch. 17.――――One of Mercury’s mistresses.――――A daughter of
Thespius. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2.――――A town of Sicily near Hybla.
=Euboĭcus=, belonging to Eubœa. The epithet is also applied to the
country of Cumæ, because that city was built by a colony from
Chalcis, a town of Eubœa. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 4, li. 257.――_Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 2; bk. 9, li. 710.
=Eubote=, a daughter of Thespius. _Apollodorus._
=Eubotes=, a son of Hercules. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2.
=Eubūle=, an Athenian virgin, daughter of Leon, sacrificed with her
sisters, by order of the oracle of Delphi, for the safety of her
country, which laboured under a famine. _Ælian_, _Varia Historia_,
bk. 12, ch. 18.
=Eubūlĭdes=, a philosopher of Miletus, pupil and successor to
Euclid. Demosthenes was one of his pupils, and by his advice
and encouragement to perseverance he was enabled to conquer the
difficulty he felt in pronouncing the letter R. He severely attacked
the doctrines of Aristotle. _Diogenes Laërtius._――――An historian,
who wrote an account of Socrates and of Diogenes. _Diogenes
Laërtius._――――A famous statuary of Athens. _Pausanias_, bk. 8,
ch. 14.
=Eubūlus=, an Athenian orator, rival to Demosthenes.――――A comic poet.
――――An historian, who wrote a voluminous account of Mithras.――――A
philosopher of Alexandria.
=Eucērus=, a man of Alexandria, accused of adultery with Octavia, that
Nero might have occasion to divorce her. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 14,
ch. 60.
=Euchēnor=, a son of Ægyptus and Arabia. _Apollodorus._
=Euchides=, an Athenian who went to Delphi and returned the same
day, a journey of about 107 miles. The object of his journey was to
obtain sacred fire.
=Euclīdes=, a native of Megara, disciple of Socrates, B.C. 404.
When the Athenians had forbidden all the people of Megara on
pain of death to enter their city, Euclides disguised himself in
women’s clothes to introduce himself into the presence of Socrates.
_Diogenes Laërtius_, _Socrates_.――――A mathematician of Alexandria,
who flourished 300 B.C. He distinguished himself by his writings
on music and geometry, but particularly by 15 books on the elements
of mathematics, which consist of problems and theorems with
demonstrations. This work has been greatly mutilated by commentators.
Euclid was so respected in his lifetime, that king Ptolemy became
one of his pupils. Euclid established a school at Alexandria,
which became so famous, that from his age to the time of the
Saracen conquest, no mathematician was found but what had studied at
Alexandria. He was so respected that Plato, himself a mathematician,
being asked concerning the building of an altar at Athens, referred
his inquiries to the mathematician of Alexandria. The latest edition
of Euclid’s writings is that of Gregory, folio, Oxford, 1703.
_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 8, ch. 12.――_Cicero_, _On Oratory_, bk. 3,
ch. 72.
=Euclus=, a prophet of Cyprus, who foretold the birth and greatness of
the poet Homer, according to some traditions. _Pausanias_, bk. 10,
ch. 12.
=Eucrăte=, one of the Nereides. _Apollodorus._
=Eucrătes=, the father of Procles the historian. _Pausanias_, bk. 2,
ch. 21.
=Eucritus.= _See:_ Evephenus.
=Euctēmon=, a Greek of Cumæ, exposed to great barbarities. _Curtius_,
bk. 5, ch. 5.――――An astronomer who flourished B.C. 431.
=Euctresii=, a people of Peloponnesus.
=Eudæmon=, a general of Alexander.
=Eudamĭdas=, a son of Archidamus IV., brother to Agis IV. He succeeded
on the Spartan throne, after his brother’s death, B.C. 330.
_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 10.――――A son of Archidamus king of Sparta,
who succeeded B.C. 268.――――The commander of a garrison stationed at
Trœzene by Craterus.
=Eudamus=, a son of Agesilaus of the Heraclidæ. He succeeded his
father.――――A learned naturalist and philosopher.
=Eudēmus=, the physician of Livia the wife of Drusus, &c. _Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 4, ch. 3.――――An orator of Megalopolis, preceptor to
Philopœmen.――――An historian of Naxos.
=Eudocia=, the wife of the emperor Theodosius the younger, who gave
the public some compositions. She died A.D. 460.
=Eudocĭmus=, a man who appeased a mutiny among some soldiers by
telling them that a hostile army was in sight. _Polyænus._
=Eudōra=, one of the Nereides.――――One of the Atlantides.
=Eudōrus=, a son of Mercury and Polimela, who went to the Trojan war
with Achilles. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 16.
=Eudoxi Specŭla=, a place in Egypt.
=Eudoxia=, the wife of Arcadius, &c.――――A daughter of Theodosius the
younger, who married the emperor Maximus, and invited Genseric the
Vandal over into Italy.
=Eudoxus=, a son of Æschines of Cnidus, who distinguished himself by
his knowledge of astrology, medicine, and geometry. He was the first
who regulated the year among the Greeks, among whom he first brought
from Egypt the celestial sphere and regular astronomy. He spent
a great part of his life on the top of a mountain, to study the
motions of the stars, by whose appearance he pretended to foretell
the events of futurity. He died in his 53rd year, B.C. 352. _Lucan_,
bk. 10, li. 187.――_Diogenes Laërtius._――_Petronius_, ch. 88.――――A
native of Cyzicus, who sailed all around the coast of Africa
from the Red sea, and entered the Mediterranean by the columns
of Hercules.――――A Sicilian, son of Agathocles.――――A physician.
_Diogenes Laërtius._
=Evelthon=, a king of Salamis in Cyprus.
=Euemĕrĭdas=, an historian of Cnidus.
=Evemĕrus=, an ancient historian of Messenia, intimate with Cassander.
He travelled over Greece and Arabia, and wrote a history of the gods,
in which he proved that they all had been upon earth, as mere mortal
men. Ennius translated it into Latin. It is now lost.
=Evēnor=, a painter, father to Parrhasius. _Pliny_, bk. 35, ch. 9.
=Evēnus=, an elegiac poet of Paros.――――A river running through Ætolia,
and falling into the Ionian sea. It receives its name from Evenus
son of Mars and Sterope, who being unable to overcome Idas, who had
promised him his daughter Marpessa in marriage, if he surpassed him
in running, grew so desperate, that he threw himself into the river,
which afterwards bore his name. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 9,
li. 104.――_Strabo_, bk. 7.――――A son of Jason and Hypsipyle queen of
Lemnos. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 7, li. 467.
=Evephēnus=, a Pythagorean philosopher, whom Dionysius condemned
to death because he had alienated the people of Metapontum from
his power. The philosopher begged leave of the tyrant to go and
marry his sister, and promised to return in six months. Dionysius
consented by receiving Eucritus, who pledged himself to die
if Evephenus did not return in time. Evephenus returned at the
appointed moment, to the astonishment of Dionysius, and delivered
his friend Eucritus from the death which threatened him. The tyrant
was so pleased with these two friends, that he pardoned Evephenus,
and begged to share their friendship and confidence. _Polyænus_,
bk. 5.
=Everes=, a son of Pteralaus, the only one of his family who did not
perish in a battle against Electryon. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2.――――A son
of Hercules and Parthenope.――――The father of Tiresias. _Apollodorus._
=Evergĕtæ=, a people of Scythia, called also Arimaspi. _Curtius_,
bk. 7, ch. 3.
=Evergĕtes=, a surname signifying _benefactor_, given to Philip of
Macedonia, and to Antigonus Doson, and Ptolemy of Egypt. It was also
commonly given to the kings of Syria and Pontus, and we often see
among the former an Alexander Evergetes, and among the latter a
Mithridates Evergetes. Some of the Roman emperors also claimed that
epithet, so expressive of benevolence and humanity.
=Evesperĭdes=, a people of Africa. _Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 171.
=Eugănei=, a people of Italy on the borders of the Adriatic, who,
upon being expelled by the Trojans, seized upon a part of the Alps.
_Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 604.――_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 1.
=Eugeon=, an ancient historian before the Peloponnesian war.
=Eugenius=, a usurper of the imperial title after the death of
Valentinian II., A.D. 392.
=Euhemerus.= _See:_ Evemerus.
=Euhydrum=, a town of Thessaly. _Livy_, bk. 32, ch. 13.
=Euhyus= and =Evius=, a surname of Bacchus, given him in the war of
the giants against Jupiter. _Horace_, bk. 2, Ode 11, li. 17.
=Evippe=, one of the Danaides who married and murdered Imbras.
――――Another. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 1.――――The mother of the
Pierides, who were changed into magpies. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 5, li. 303.
=Evippus=, a son of Thestius king of Pleuron, killed by his brother
Iphiclus in the chase of the Calydonian boar. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1,
ch. 7.――――A Trojan killed by Patroclus. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 16,
li. 417.
=Eulimĕne=, one of the Nereides.
=Eumăchius=, a Campanian who wrote a history of Annibal.
=Eumæus=, a herdsman and steward of Ulysses, who knew his master at
his return home from the Trojan war, after 20 years’ absence, and
assisted him in removing Penelope’s suitors. He was originally the
son of the king of Scyros, and upon being carried away by pirates,
he was sold as a slave to Laertes, who rewarded his fidelity and
services. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 13, li. 403; bk. 14, li. 3; bk. 15,
li. 288; bks. 16 & 17.
=Eumēdes=, a Trojan, son of Dolon, who came to Italy with Æneas, where
he was killed by Turnus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 12, li. 346.――_Ovid_,
_Tristia_, bk. 3, poem 4, li. 27.
=Eumēlis=, a famous augur. _Statius_, bk. 4, _Sylvæ_, poem 8, li. 49.
=Eumēlus=, a son of Admetus king of Pheræ in Thessaly. He went to
the Trojan war, and had the fleetest horses in the Grecian army.
He distinguished himself in the games made in honour of Patroclus.
_Homer_. _Iliad_, bks. 2 & 23.――――A man whose daughter was changed
into a bird. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, li. 390.――――A man
contemporary with Triptolemus, of whom he learned the art of
agriculture. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 18.――――One of the followers of
Æneas, who first informed his friend that his fleet had been set on
fire by the Trojan women. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 5, li. 665.――――One
of the Bacchiadæ, who wrote, among other things, a poetical history
of Corinth, B.C. 750, of which a small fragment is still extant.
_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 1.――――A king of the Cimmerian Bosphorus,
who died B.C. 304.
=Eumĕnes=, a Greek officer in the army of Alexander, son of a
charioteer. He was the most worthy of all the officers of Alexander
to succeed after the death of his master. He conquered Paphlagonia
and Cappadocia, of which he obtained the government, till the power
and jealousy of Antigonus obliged him to retire. He joined his
forces to those of Perdiccas, and defeated Craterus and Neoptolemus.
Neoptolemus perished by the hands of Eumenes. When Craterus had been
killed during the war, his remains received an honourable funeral
from the hand of the conqueror; and Eumenes, after weeping over the
ashes of a man who once was his dearest friend, sent his remains
to his relations in Macedonia. Eumenes fought against Antipater and
conquered him, and after the death of Perdiccas his ally, his arms
were directed against Antigonus, by whom he was conquered, chiefly
by the treacherous conduct of his officers. This fatal battle
obliged him to disband the greatest part of his army to secure
himself a retreat, and he fled, with only 700 faithful attendants,
to Nora, a fortified place on the confines of Cappadocia, where he
was soon besieged by the conqueror. He supported the siege for a
year with courage and resolution, but some disadvantageous skirmishes
so reduced him, that his soldiers, grown desperate, and bribed by
the offers of the enemy, had the infidelity to betray him into the
hands of Antigonus. The conqueror, from shame or remorse, had not
the courage to visit Eumenes; but when he was asked by his officers
in what manner he wished him to be kept, he answered, “Keep him as
carefully as you would keep a lion.” This severe command was obeyed;
but the asperity of Antigonus vanished in a few days, and Eumenes,
delivered from the weight of chains, was permitted to enjoy the
company of his friends. Even Antigonus hesitated whether he should
not restore to his liberty a man with whom he had lived in the
greatest intimacy while both were subservient to the command of
Alexander, and these secret emotions of pity and humanity were not
a little increased by the petitions of his son Demetrius for the
release of Eumenes. But the calls of ambition prevailed; and when
Antigonus recollected what an active enemy he had in his power,
he ordered Eumenes to be put to death in the prison; though some
imagine he was murdered without the knowledge of his conqueror.
His bloody commands were executed B.C. 315. Such was the end of
a man who raised himself to power by merit alone. His skill in
public exercises first recommended him to the notice of Philip, and
under Alexander his attachment and fidelity to the royal person, and
particularly his military accomplishments, promoted him to the rank
of a general. Even his enemies revered him; and Antigonus, by whose
orders he perished, honoured his remains with a splendid funeral,
and conveyed his ashes to his wife and family in Cappadocia. It
has been observed that Eumenes had such a universal influence over
the successors of Alexander, that none during his lifetime dared
to assume the title of king; and it does not a little reflect to
his honour to consider that the wars he carried on were not from
private or interested motives, but for the good and welfare of his
deceased benefactor’s children. _Plutarch_ & _Cornelius Nepos_,
_Lives_.――_Diodorus_, bk. 19.――_Justin_, bk. 13.――_Curtius_,
bk. 10.――_Arrian._――――A king of Pergamus, who succeeded his uncle
Philetærus on the throne, B.C. 263. He made war against Antiochus
the son of Seleucus, and enlarged his possessions by seizing upon
many of the cities of the kings of Syria. He lived in alliance with
the Romans, and made war against Prusias king of Bithynia. He was
a great patron of learning, and given much to wine. He died of an
excess in drinking, after a reign of 22 years. He was succeeded by
Attalus. _Strabo_, bk. 15.――――The second of that name succeeded his
father Attalus on the throne of Asia and Pergamus. His kingdom was
small and poor, but he rendered it powerful and opulent, and his
alliance with the Romans did not a little contribute to the increase
of his dominions after the victories obtained over Antiochus the
Great. He carried his arms against Prusias and Antigonus, and died
B.C. 159, after a reign of 38 years, leaving the kingdom to his son
Attalus II. He has been admired for his benevolence and magnanimity,
and his love of learning greatly enriched the famous library of
Pergamus, which had been founded by his predecessors in imitation
of the Alexandrian collection of the Ptolemies. His brothers were
so attached to him and devoted to his interest, that they enlisted
among his bodyguards to show their fraternal fidelity. _Strabo_,
bk. 13.――_Justin_, bks. 31 & 34.――_Polybius._――――A celebrated
orator of Athens about the beginning of the fourth century. Some of
his harangues and orations are extant.――――An historical writer in
Alexander’s army.
=Eumenia=, a city of Phrygia, built by Attalus in honour of his
brother Eumenes.――――A city of Thrace,――――of Caria. _Pliny_, bk. 5,
ch. 29.――――Of Hyrcania.
=Eumĕnĭdes= and =Eumenes=, a man mentioned, _Ovid_, bk. 3, _Tristia_,
poem 4, li. 27.
=Eumēnĭdes=, a name given to the Furies by the ancients. They sprang
from the drops of blood which flowed from the wound which Cœlus
received from his son Saturn. According to others they were daughters
of the earth, and conceived from the blood of Saturn. Some make them
daughters of Acheron and Night, or Pluto and Proserpine, or Chaos
and Terra, according to Sophocles, or, as Epimenides reports, of
Saturn and Evonyme. According to the most received opinions, they
were three in number, Tisiphone, Megara, and Alecto, to which some
add Nemesis. Plutarch mentions only one, called Adrasta, daughter of
Jupiter and Necessity. They were supposed to be the ministers of the
vengeance of the gods, and therefore appeared stern and inexorable;
always employed in punishing the guilty upon earth, as well as in
the infernal regions. They inflicted their vengeance upon earth
by wars, pestilence, and dissensions, and by the secret stings
of conscience; and in hell they punished the guilty by continual
flagellation and torments. They were also called _Furiæ_, _Erinnyes_,
and _Diræ_, and the appellation of Eumenides, which signifies
benevolence and compassion, they received after they had ceased
to persecute Orestes, who in gratitude offered them sacrifices,
and erected a temple in honour of their divinity. Their worship
was almost universal, and people presumed not to mention their
names or fix their eyes upon their temples. They were honoured
with sacrifices and libations, and in Achaia they had a temple,
which, when entered by any one guilty of crimes, suddenly rendered
him furious, and deprived him of the use of his reason. In their
sacrifices, the votaries used branches of cedar and of alder,
hawthorn, saffron, and juniper, and the victims were generally
turtledoves and sheep, with libations of wine and honey. They were
generally represented with a grim and frightful aspect, with a
black and bloody garment, and serpents wreathing round their head
instead of hair. They held a burning torch in one hand, and a whip
of scorpions in the other, and were always attended by terror,
rage, paleness, and death. In hell they were seated around Pluto’s
throne, as the ministers of his vengeance. _Aeschylus_, _Eumenides_.
――_Sophocles_, _Œdipus at Colonus_.
=Eumĕnĭdia=, festivals in honour of the Eumenides, called by the
Athenians σεμναι θεαι, _venerable goddesses_. They were celebrated
once every year with sacrifices of pregnant ewes, with offerings
of cakes made by the most eminent youths, and libations of honey
and wine. At Athens none but free-born citizens were admitted, such
as had led a life the most virtuous and unsullied. Such only were
accepted by the goddesses, who punished all sorts of wickedness in
a severe manner.
=Eumēnius=, a Trojan killed by Camilla in Italy. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 11, li. 666.
=Eumolpe=, one of the Nereides. _Apollodorus._
=Eumolpĭdæ=, the priests of Ceres at the celebration of her festivals
of Eleusis. All causes relating to impiety or profanation were
referred to their judgment, and their decisions, though occasionally
severe, were considered as generally impartial. The Eumolpidæ were
descended from Eumolpus, a king of Thrace, who was made priest
of Ceres by Erechtheus king of Athens. He became so powerful
after his appointment to the priesthood, that he maintained a war
against Erechtheus. This war proved fatal to both; Erechtheus and
Eumolpus were both killed, and peace was re-established among their
descendants, on condition that the priesthood should ever remain
in the family of Eumolpus, and the regal power in the house of
Erechtheus. The priesthood continued in the family of Eumolpus
for 1200 years; and this is still more remarkable, because he who
was once appointed to the holy office, was obliged to remain in
perpetual celibacy. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 14.
=Eumolpus=, a king of Thrace, son of Neptune and Chione. He was
thrown into the sea by his mother, who wished to conceal her shame
from her father. Neptune saved his life, and carried him into
Æthiopia, where he was brought up by Amphitrite, and afterwards
by a woman of the country, one of whose daughters he married. An
act of violence to his sister-in-law obliged him to leave Æthiopia,
and he fled to Thrace with his son Ismarus, where he married the
daughter of Tegyrius the king of the country. This connection with
the royal family rendered him ambitious; he conspired against his
father-in-law, and fled, when the conspiracy was discovered, to
Attica, where he was initiated in the mysteries of Ceres of Eleusis,
and made Hierophantes or high priest. He was afterwards reconciled
to Tegyrius, and inherited his kingdom. He made war against
Erechtheus the king of Athens, who had appointed him to the office
of high priest, and perished in battle. His descendants were also
invested with the priesthood, which remained for about 1200 years
in that family. _See:_ Eumolpidæ. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 5, &c.
――_Hyginus_, fable 73.――_Diodorus_, bk. 5.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2,
ch. 14.
=Eumonides=, a Theban, &c. _Plutarch._
=Eunæus=, a son of Jason, by Hypsipyle daughter of Thoas. _Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 7.
=Eunapius=, a physician, sophist, and historian, born at Sardis. He
flourished in the reign of Valentinian and his successors, and wrote
a history of the Cæsars, of which few fragments remain. His life
of the philosophers of his age is still extant. It is composed with
fidelity and elegance, precision and correctness.
=Eunŏmia=, a daughter of Juno, one of the Horæ. _Apollodorus._
=Eunŏmus=, a son of Prytanes, who succeeded his father on the throne
of Sparta. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 36.――――A famous musician of
Locris, rival to Ariston, over whom he obtained a musical prize at
Delphi. _Strabo_, bk. 6.――――A man killed by Hercules. _Apollodorus._
――――A Thracian, who advised Demosthenes not to be discouraged by
his ill success in his first attempts to speak in public. _Plutarch_,
_Demosthenes_.――――The father of Lycurgus, killed by a kitchen knife.
_Plutarch_, _Lycurgus_.
=Eunus=, a Syrian slave, who inflamed the minds of the servile
multitude by pretended inspiration and enthusiasm. He filled a nut
with sulphur in his mouth, and by artfully conveying fire to it, he
breathed out flames to the astonishment of the people, who believed
him to be a god, or something more than human. Oppression and misery
compelled 2000 slaves to join his cause, and he soon saw himself
at the head of 50,000 men. With such a force he defeated the Roman
armies, till Perpenna obliged him to surrender by famine, and exposed
on a cross the greatest part of his followers, B.C. 132. _Plutarch_,
_Sertorius_.
=Euonymos=, one of the Lipari isles.
=Euoras=, a grove of Laconia. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 10.
=Eupagium=, a town of Peloponnesus.
=Eupalămon=, one of the hunters of the Calydonian boar. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 8, li. 360.
=Eupalămus=, the father of Dædalus and of Metiadusa. _Apollodorus_,
bk. 3, ch. 15.
=Eupător=, a son of Antiochus. The surname of _Eupator_ was given
to many of the Asiatic princes, such as Mithridates, &c. _Strabo_,
bk. 12.
=Eupătoria=, a town of Paphlagonia, built by Mithridates, and
called afterwards _Pompeiopolis_ by Pompey. _Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 2.
――――Another called _Magnopolis_ in Pontus, now _Tehenikeh_. _Strabo_,
bk. 12.
=Eupeithes=, a prince of Ithaca, father to Antinous. In the
former part of his life he had fled before the vengeance of the
Thesprotians, whose territories he had laid waste in the pursuit of
some pirates. During the absence of Ulysses he was one of the most
importuning lovers of Penelope. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 16.
=Euphaes=, succeeded Androcles on the throne of Messenia, and in his
reign the first Messenian war began. He died B.C. 730. _Pausanias_,
bk. 4, chs. 5 & 6.
=Euphantus=, a poet and historian of Olynthus, son of Eubulides, and
preceptor to Antigonus king of Macedonia. ♦_Diogenes Laërtius_,
_Euclides_.
♦ ‘Diod.’ replaced with ‘Diogenes’
=Euphēme=, a woman who was nurse to the Muses, and mother of Crocus by
Pan. _Pausanias._
=Euphēmus=, a son of Neptune and Europa, who was among the Argonauts,
and the hunters of the Calydonian boar. He was so swift and
light that he could run over the sea without scarce wetting his
feet. _Pindar_, _Pythian_, poem 4.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 17.――――One of the Greek captains before
Troy. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2, li. 353.
=Euphorbus=, a famous Trojan, son of Panthous, the first who wounded
Patroclus, whom Hector killed. He perished by the hand of Menelaus,
who hung his shield in the temple of Juno at Argos. Pythagoras, the
founder of the doctrine of the metempsychosis, or transmigration of
souls, affirmed that he had been once Euphorbus, and that his soul
recollected many exploits which had been done while it animated that
Trojan’s body. As a further proof of his assertion, he showed at
first sight the shield of Euphorbus in the temple of Juno. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 15, li. 160.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 17.
――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bks. 16 & 17.――――A physician of Juba king of
Mauritania.
=Euphorion=, a Greek poet of Chalcis in Eubœa, in the age of Antiochus
the Great. Tiberius took him for his model for correct writing,
and was so fond of him that he hung his pictures in all the public
libraries. His father’s name was Polymnetus. He died in his 56th
year, B.C. 220. _Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 2, ch. 64, calls
him _Obscurum_.――――The father of Æschylus bore the same name.
=Euphrānor=, a famous painter and sculptor of Corinth. _Pliny_, bk. 34,
ch. 8.――――This name was common to many Greeks.
=Euphrātes=, a disciple of Plato, who governed Macedonia with absolute
authority in the reign of Perdiccas, and rendered himself odious
by his cruelty and pedantry. After the death of Perdiccas, he was
murdered by Parmenio.――――A stoic philosopher in the age of Adrian,
who destroyed himself with the emperor’s leave, to escape the
miseries of old age, A. D. 118. _Dio Cassius._――――A large and
celebrated river of Mesopotamia, rising from mount Taurus in Armenia,
and discharging itself with the Tigris into the Persian gulf. It is
very rapid in its course, and passes through the middle of the city
of Babylon. It inundates the country of Mesopotamia at a certain
season of the year, and, like the Nile in Egypt, happily fertilizes
the adjacent fields. Cyrus dried up its ancient channel, and changed
the course of the waters when he besieged Babylon. _Strabo_, bk. 11.
――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 2; bk. 3, ch. 8.――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 24.
――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 1, li. 509; bk. 4, li. 560.
=Euphron=, an aspiring man of Sicyon, who enslaved his country by
bribery. _Diodorus_, bk. 15.
=Euphrŏsy̆na=, one of the Graces, sister to Aglaia and Thalia.
_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 35.
=Euplæa=, an island of the Tyrrhene sea, near Neapolis. _Statius_,
bk. 3, _Sylvæ_, poem 1, li. 149.
=Eupŏlis=, a comic poet of Athens, who flourished 435 years before
the christian era, and severely lashed the vices and immoralities
of his age. It is said that he had composed 17 dramatical pieces at
the age of 17. He had a dog so attached to him, that at his death he
refused all aliments, and starved himself on his tomb. Some suppose
that Alcibiades put Eupolis to death, because he had ridiculed him
in a comedy which he had written against the Baptæ, the priests of
the goddess Cotytto, and the impure ceremonies of their worship;
but Suidas maintains that he perished in a sea-fight between the
Athenians and the Lacedæmonians in the Hellespont, and that on
that account his countrymen, pitying his fate, decreed that no
poet should ever after go to war. _Horace_, bk. 1, satire 4; bk. 2,
satire 10.――_Cicero_, _Letters to Atticus_, bk. 6, ltr. 1.――_Ælian._
=Eupompus=, a geometrician of Macedonia.――――A painter. _Pliny_, bk. 34,
ch. 8.
=Eurianassa=, a town near Chios. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 31.
=Eurĭpĭdes=, a celebrated tragic poet born at Salamis the day on which
the army of Xerxes was defeated by the Greeks. He studied eloquence
under Prodicus, ethics under Socrates, and philosophy under
Anaxagoras. He applied himself to dramatical composition, and his
writings became so much the admiration of his countrymen, that the
unfortunate Greeks, who had accompanied Nicias in his expedition
against Syracuse, were freed from slavery, only by repeating some
verses from the pieces of Euripides. The poet often retired from
the society of mankind, and confined himself in a solitary cave near
Salamis, where he wrote and finished his most excellent tragedies.
The talents of Sophocles were looked upon by Euripides with jealousy,
and the great enmity which always reigned between the two poets gave
an opportunity to the comic muse of Aristophanes to ridicule them
both on the stage with success and humour. During the representation
of one of the tragedies of Euripides, the audience, displeased with
some lines in the composition, desired the writer to strike them off.
Euripides heard the reproof with indignation; he advanced forward
on the stage, and told the spectators that he came there to instruct
them, and not to receive instruction. Another piece, in which he
called riches the _summum bonum_ and the admiration of gods and men,
gave equal dissatisfaction, but the poet desired the audience to
listen with silent attention, for the conclusion of the whole would
show them the punishment which attended the lovers of opulence. The
ridicule and envy to which he was continually exposed, obliged him
at last to remove from Athens. He retired to the court of Archelaus
king of Macedonia, where he received the most conspicuous marks
of royal munificence and friendship. His end was as deplorable as
it was uncommon. It is said that the dogs of Archelaus met him in
his solitary walks, and tore his body to pieces 407 years before
the christian era, in the 78th year of his age. Euripides wrote 75
tragedies, of which only 19 are extant; the most approved of which
are his Phœnissæ, Orestes, Medea, Andromache, Electra, Hippolytus,
Iphigenia in Aulis, Iphigenia in Tauris, Hercules, and the Troades.
He is peculiarly happy in expressing the passions of love, especially
the more tender and animated. To the pathos he has added sublimity,
and the most common expressions have received a perfect polish from
his pen. In his person, as it is reported, he was noble and majestic,
and his deportment was always grave and serious. He was slow in
composing, and laboured with difficulty, from which circumstance a
foolish and malevolent poet once observed that he had written 100
verses in three days, while Euripides had written only three. “True,”
says Euripides, “but there is this difference between your poetry
and mine; yours will expire in three days, but mine shall live for
ages to come.” Euripides was such an enemy to the fair sex that
some have called him μισογυνης, _woman-hater_, and perhaps from
this aversion arise the impure and diabolical machinations which
appear in his female characters; an observation, however, which he
refuted, by saying he had faithfully copied nature. In spite of all
this antipathy he was married twice, but his connections were so
injudicious, that he was compelled to divorce both his wives. The
best editions of this great poet are that of Musgrave, 4 vols., 4to,
Oxford, 1778; that of Canter apud Commelin, 12mo, 2 vols., 1597; and
of Barnes, folio, Cambridge. 1694. There are also several valuable
editions of detached plays. _Diodorus_, bk. 13.――_Valerius Maximus_,
bk. 3, ch. 7.――_Cicero_, _De Inventione_, bk. 1, ch. 50; _Orator_,
bk. 3, ch. 7; _Academica_ bk. 1, ch. 4; _De Officiis_, bk. 3;
_Finibus Bonorum et Malorum_, bk. 2; _Tusculanæ Disputationes_,
bks. 1 & 4, &c.
=Eurīpus=, a narrow strait which separates the island of Eubœa from
the coast of Bœotia. Its flux and reflux, which continued regular
during 18 or 19 days, and were commonly unsettled the rest of the
month, was a matter of deep inquiry among the ancients; and it is
said that Aristotle threw himself into it because he was unable
to find out the causes of that phenomenon. _Livy_, bk. 28, ch. 6.
――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Pliny_, bk. 2, ch. 95.――_Strabo_, bk. 9.
=Euristhenes.= _See:_ Eurysthenes.
=Eurōmus=, a city of Caria. _Livy_, bk. 32, ch. 33; bk. 33, ch. 30.
=Eurōpa=, one of the three grand divisions of the earth known among
the ancients, extending, according to modern surveys, about 3000
miles from north to south, and 2500 from east to west. Though
inferior in extent, yet it is superior to the others in the learning,
power, and abilities of its inhabitants. It is bounded on the east
by the Ægean sea, Hellespont, Euxine, Palus Mæotis, and the Tanais
in a northern direction. The Mediterranean divides it from Africa
on the south, and on the west and north it is washed by the Atlantic
and northern oceans. It is supposed to receive its name from Europa,
who was carried there by Jupiter. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 1.――_Pliny_, bk.
3, ch. 1, &c.――_Lucan_, bk. 3, li. 275.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7,
li. 222.――――A daughter of Agenor king of Phœnicia and Telephassa.
She was so beautiful that Jupiter became enamoured of her, and the
better to seduce her he assumed the shape of a bull and mingled
with the herds of Agenor, while Europa, with her female attendants,
were gathering flowers in the meadows. Europa caressed the beautiful
animal, and at last had the courage to sit upon his back. The god
took advantage of her situation, and with precipitate steps retired
towards the shore, and crossed the sea with Europa on his back,
and arrived safe in Crete. Here he assumed his original shape, and
declared his love. The nymph consented, though she had once made
vows of perpetual celibacy, and she became mother of Minos, Sarpedon,
and Rhadamanthus. After this distinguished amour with Jupiter, she
married Asterius king of Crete. This monarch, seeing himself without
children by Europa, adopted the fruit of her amours with Jupiter,
and always esteemed Minos, Sarpedon, and Rhadamanthus as his own
children. Some suppose that Europa lived about 1552 years before the
christian era. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 2, fable 13.――_Moschus_,
_Idylls_.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 5; bk. 3, ch. 1.――――One of the
Oceanides. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 356.――――A part of Thrace near
mount Hæmus. _Justin_, bk. 7, ch. 1.
=Eurŏpæus=, a patronymic of Minos the son of Europa. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 8, li. 23.
=Europs=, a king of Sicyon, son of Ægialeus, who died B.C. 1993.
_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 5.
=Eurōpus=, a king of Macedonia, &c. _Justin_, bk. 7, ch. 1.――――A town
of Macedonia on the Axius. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 10.
=Eurōtas=, a son of Lelex, father to Sparta, who married Lacedæmon.
He was one of the first kings of Laconia, and gave his name to
the river which flows near Sparta. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 16.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 1.――――A river of Laconia flowing by Sparta.
It was called, by way of eminence, Basilipotamos, _the king of
rivers_, and worshipped by the Spartans as a powerful god. Laurels,
reeds, myrtles, and olives grew on its banks in great abundance.
_Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 1.――_Livy_, bk. 35, ch. 29.
――_Virgil_, _Eclogues_, poem 6, li. 82.――_Ptolemy_, bk. 4.――――A
river in Thessaly near mount Olympus, called also _Titaresus_. It
joined the Peneus, but was not supposed to incorporate with it.
_Strabo_, bk. 6.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 8.
=Etrōto=, a daughter of Danaus by Polyxo. _Apollodorus._
=Eurus=, a wind blowing from the eastern parts of the world. The
Latins sometimes called it Vulturnus. _Ovid_, _Tristia_, bk. 1,
poem 2; _Metamorphoses_, bk. 11, &c.
=Euryăle=, a queen of the Amazons, who assisted Æetes, &c. _Flaccus_,
bk. 4.――――A daughter of Minos, mother of Orion by Neptune.――――A
daughter of Prœtus king of Argos.――――One of the Gorgons who was
immortal. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 207.
=Euryălus=, one of the Peloponnesian chiefs who went to the Trojan war
with 80 ships. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2.――――An illegitimate son of
Ulysses and Evippe. _Sophocles._――――A son of Melas, taken prisoner
by Hercules, &c. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 8.――――A Trojan who came
with Æneas into Italy, and rendered himself famous for his immortal
friendship with Nisus. _See:_ Nisus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9,
li. 179.――――A pleasant place of Sicily near Syracuse. _Livy_, bk. 25,
ch. 25.――――A Lacedæmonian general in the second Messenian war.
=Erybătes=, a herald in the Trojan war, who took Briseis from Achilles
by order of Agamemnon. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 1, li. 32.――_Ovid_,
_Heroides_, poem 3.――――A warrior of Argos, often victorious at the
Nemean games, &c. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 29.――――One of the Argonauts.
=Eurybia=, the mother of Lucifer and all the stars. _Hesiod._――――A
daughter of Pontus and Terra, mother of Astræus, Pallas, and Perses
by Crius.――――A daughter of Thespius. _Apollodorus._
=Eurybiădes=, a Spartan general of the Grecian fleet, at the battles
of Artemisium and Salamis against Xerxes. He has been charged with
want of courage, and with ambition. He offered to strike Themistocles
when he wished to speak about the manner of attacking the Persians,
upon which the Athenian said, “Strike me, but hear me.” _Herodotus_,
bk. 8, chs. 2, 74, &c.――_Plutarch_, _Themistocles_.――_Cornelius
Nepos_, _Themistocles_.
=Eurybius=, a son of Eurytus king of Argos, killed in a war between
his countrymen and the Athenians. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 8.――――A
son of Nereus and Chloris. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9.
=Euryclēa=, a beautiful daughter of Ops of Ithaca. Laertes bought her
for 20 oxen, and gave her his son Ulysses to nurse, and treated her
with much tenderness and attention. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 19.
=Eurycles=, an orator of Syracuse, who proposed to put Nicias and
Demosthenes to death, and to confine to hard labour all the Athenian
soldiers in the quarries. _Plutarch._――――A Lacedæmonian at the
battle of Actium on the side of Augustus. _Plutarch_, _Antonius_.
――――A soothsayer of Athens.
=Eurycrătes=, a king of Sparta, descended from Hercules. _Herodotus_,
bk. 7, ch. 204.
=Eurycrătĭdas=, a son of Anaxander, &c. _Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 204.
=Eurydămas=, a Trojan skilled in the interpretation of dreams. His two
sons were killed by Diomedes during the Trojan war. _Homer_, _Iliad_,
bk. 5, li. 148.――――One of Penelope’s suitors. _Odyssey_, bk. 22, li.
283.――――A wrestler of Cyrene, who, in a combat, had his teeth dashed
to pieces by his antagonist, which he swallowed without showing any
signs of pain, or discontinuing the fight. _Ælian_, _Varia Historia_,
bk. 10, ch. 19.――――A son of Ægyptus. _Apollodorus._
=Eurydăme=, the wife of Leotychides king of Sparta. _Herodotus._
=Eurydămĭdas=, a king of Lacedæmon, of the family of the Proclidæ.
_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 10.
=Eury̆dĭce=, the wife of Amyntas king of Macedonia. She had by her
husband, Alexander, Perdiccas, and Philip, and one daughter called
Euryone. A criminal partiality for her daughter’s husband, to whom
she offered her hand and the kingdom, made her conspire against
Amyntas, who must have fallen a victim to her infidelity had not
Euryone discovered it. Amyntas forgave her, Alexander ascended the
throne after his father’s death, and perished by the ambition of his
mother; Perdiccas, who succeeded him, shared his fate; but Philip,
who was the next in succession, secured himself against all attempts
from his mother, and ascended the throne with peace and universal
satisfaction. Eurydice fled to Iphicrates the Athenian general for
protection. The manner of her death is unknown. _Cornelius Nepos_,
_Iphicrates_, ch. 3.――――A daughter of Amyntas, who married her
uncle Aridæus, the illegitimate son of Philip. After the death of
Alexander the Great, Aridæus ascended the throne of Macedonia, but
he was totally governed by the intrigues of his wife, who called
back Cassander, and joined her forces with his to march against
Polyperchon and Olympias. Eurydice was forsaken by her troops.
Aridæus was pierced through with arrows by order of Olympias, who
commanded Eurydice to destroy herself either by poison, the sword,
or the halter. She chose the latter.――――The wife of the poet Orpheus.
As she fled before Aristæus, who wished to offer her violence, she
was bit by a serpent in the grass, and died of the wound. Orpheus
was so disconsolate that he ventured to go to hell, where, by the
melody of his lyre, he obtained from Pluto the restoration of his
wife to life, provided he did not look behind before he came upon
earth. He violated the conditions, as his eagerness to see his wife
rendered him forgetful. He looked behind, and Eurydice was for ever
taken from him. _See:_ Orpheus. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 4, li. 457,
&c.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 30.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 10,
li. 30, &c.――――A daughter of Adrastus. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 12.
――――One of the Danaides, who married Dyas. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2,
ch. 1.――――The wife of Lycurgus king of Nemæa in Peloponnesus.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9.――――A daughter of Actor. _Apollodorus._
――――A wife of Æneas. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 26.――――A daughter of
Amphiaraus. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 17.――――A daughter of Antipater,
who married one of the Ptolemies. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 7.――――A
daughter of king Philip. _Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 17.――――A daughter
of Lacedæmon. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 13.――――A daughter of Clymenus,
who married Nestor. _Homer_, _Odyssey_.――――A wife of Demetrius,
descended from Miltiades. _Plutarch_, _Demetrius_.
=Eurygania=, a wife of Œdipus. _Apollodorus._
=Euryleon=, a king of the Latins, called also Ascanius.
=Eury̆lŏchus=, one of the companions of Ulysses, the only one who did
not taste the potions of Circe. His prudence, however, forsook him
in Sicily, where he carried away the flocks sacred to Apollo, for
which sacrilegious crime he was shipwrecked. _Homer_, _Odyssey_,
bk. 10, li. 205; bk. 12, li. 195.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 14,
li. 287.――――A man who broke a conduit which conveyed water into
Cyrrhæ, &c. _Polyænus_, bk. 5.――――A man who discovered the conspiracy
which was made against Alexander by Hermolaus and others. _Curtius_,
bk. 8, ch. 6.
=Eury̆măchus=, a powerful Theban, who seized Platæa by treachery, &c.
――――One of Penelope’s suitors.――――A son of Antenor.――――A lover of
Hippodamia. _Pausanias._
=Eury̆mĕde=, the wife of Glaucus king of Ephyra. _Apollodorus._
=Eurymĕdon=, the father of Peribœa, by whom Neptune had Nausithous.
_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 7.――――A river of Pamphylia, near which
the Persians were defeated by the Athenians under Cimon, B.C. 470.
_Livy_, bk. 33, ch. 41; bk. 37, ch. 23.――――A man who accused
Aristotle of propagating profane doctrines in the Lyceum.
=Eurymĕnes=, a son of Neleus and Chloris. _Apollodorus._
=Eurynŏme=, one of the Oceanides, mother of the Graces. _Hesiod._――――A
daughter of Apollo, mother of Adrastus and Eriphyle.――――A woman of
Lemnos, &c. _Flaccus_, bk. 2, li. 136.――――The wife of Lycurgus son
of Aleus. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 9.――――The mother of Asopus by
Jupiter. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 12.――――One of Penelope’s female
attendants. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 17, li. 515.――――An Athenian sent
with a reinforcement to Nicias in Sicily. _Plutarch_, _Nicias_.
=Eurynŏmus=, one of the deities of hell. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 28.
=Euryŏne=, a daughter of Amyntas king of Macedonia by Eurydice.
=Eurypon=, a king of Sparta, son of Sous. His reign was so glorious
that his descendants were called _Eurypontidæ_. _Pausanias_, bk. 3,
ch. 7.
=Eurypy̆le=, a daughter of Thespius.
=Eury̆py̆lus=, a son of Telephus and Astyoche, was killed in the Trojan
war by Pyrrhus. He made his court to Cassandra. _Homer_, _Iliad_,
bk. 11.――――A Grecian at the Trojan war. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2.
――――A prince of Olenus, who went with Hercules against Laomedon.
_Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 19.――――A son of Mecisteus, who signalized
himself in the war of the Epigoni against Thebes. _Apollodorus_,
bk. 3.――――A son of Temenus king of Messenia, who conspired against
his father’s life. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 6.――――A son of Neptune,
killed by Hercules. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――――One of Penelope’s
suitors. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 10.――――A Thessalian who became
delirious for looking into a box, which fell to his share after the
plunder of Troy. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 19.――――A soothsayer in the
Grecian camp before Troy, sent to consult the oracle of Apollo, how
his countrymen could return safe home. The result of his inquiries
was the injunction to offer a human sacrifice. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 2, li. 114.――_Ovid._
=Eurysthĕnes=, a son of Aristodemus, who lived in perpetual dissension
with his twin brother Procles, while they both sat on the Spartan
throne. It was unknown which of the two was born first; the mother,
who wished to see both her sons raised on the throne, refused to
declare it, and they were both appointed kings of Sparta, by order
of the oracle of Delphi, B.C. 1102. After the death of the two
brothers, the Lacedæmonians, who knew not to what family the right
of seniority and succession belonged, permitted two kings to sit
on the throne, one of each family. The descendants of Eurysthenes
were called _Eurysthenidæ_; and those of Procles, _Proclidæ_. It
was inconsistent with the laws of Sparta for two kings of the same
family to ascend the throne together, yet that law was sometimes
violated by oppression and tyranny. Eurysthenes had a son called
Agis, who succeeded him. His descendants were called _Agidæ_. There
sat on the throne of Sparta 31 kings of the family of Eurysthenes,
and only 24 of the Proclidæ. The former were the more illustrious.
_Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 147; bk. 6, ch. 52.――_Pausanias_, bk. 3,
ch. 1.――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Agesilaus_.
=Eurysthenĭdæ.= _See:_ Eurysthenes.
=Eurystheus=, a king of Argos and Mycenæ, son of Sthenelus and Nicippe
the daughter of Pelops. Juno hastened his birth by two months, that
he might come into the world before Hercules the son of Alcmena,
as the younger of the two was doomed by order of Jupiter to be
subservient to the will of the other. _See:_ Alcmena. This natural
right was cruelly exercised by Eurystheus, who was jealous of
the fame of Hercules, and who, to destroy so powerful a relation,
imposed upon him the most dangerous and uncommon enterprises, well
known by the name of the 12 labours of Hercules. The success of
Hercules in achieving those perilous labours alarmed Eurystheus in a
greater degree, and he furnished himself with a brazen vessel, where
he might secure himself a safe retreat in case of danger. After
the death of Hercules, Eurystheus renewed his cruelties against his
children, and made war against Ceyx king of Trachinia, because he
had given them support, and treated them with hospitality. He was
killed in the prosecution of this war by Hyllus the son of Hercules.
His head was sent to Alcmena the mother of Hercules, who, mindful of
the cruelties which her son had suffered, insulted it and tore out
the eyes with the most inveterate fury. Eurystheus was succeeded on
the throne of Argos by Atreus his nephew. _Hyginus_, fables 30 & 32.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 4, &c.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 33;
bk. 3, ch. 6.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 9, fable 6.――_Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 8, li. 292.
=Eury̆te=, a daughter of Hippodamus, who married Parthaon. _Apollodorus._
――――The mother of Hallirhotius by Neptune. _Apollodorus._
=Euryteæ=, a town of Achaia. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 18.
=Eury̆tĕle=, a daughter of Thespius.――――A daughter of Leucippus.
_Apollodorus._
=Eurythĕmis=, the wife of Thestius. _Apollodorus._
=Eury̆thion= and =Eurytion=, a centaur whose insolence to Hippodamia
was the cause of the quarrel between the Lapithæ and Centaurs,
at the nuptials of Pirithous. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 10.――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_.――――A herdsman
of Geryon, killed by Hercules. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2.――――A king of
Sparta, who seized upon Mantinea by stratagem. _Polyænus_, bk. 2.
――――One of the Argonauts. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 8, li. 311.
――――A son of Lycaon, who signalized himself during the funeral games
exhibited in Sicily by Æneas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 5, li. 495.
――――A silversmith. _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 499.――――A man of Heraclea
convicted of adultery. His punishment was the cause of the abolition
of the oligarchical power there. _Aristotle_, bk. 5, _Politics._
=Eury̆tis= (idos), a patronymic of Iole daughter of Eurytus. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 9, fable 11.
=Eury̆tus=, a son of Mercury, among the Argonauts. _Flaccus_, bk. 1,
li. 439.――――A king of Œchalia, father to Iole. He offered his
daughter to him who shot a bow better than himself. Hercules
conquered him, and put him to death because he refused him his
daughter as the prize of his victory. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, chs. 4
& 7.――――A son of Actor, concerned in the wars between Augias and
Hercules, and killed by the hero.――――A son of Augias, killed by
Hercules as he was going to Corinth to celebrate the Isthmian games.
_Apollodorus._――――A person killed in hunting the Calydonian boar.
――――A son of Hippocoon. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 10.――――A giant
killed by Hercules or Bacchus for making war against the gods.
=Eusebia=, an empress, wife to Constantius, &c. She died A.D. 360,
highly and deservedly lamented.
=Eusebius=, a bishop of Cæsarea, in great favour with the emperor
Constantine. He was concerned in the theological disputes of Arius
and Athanasius, and distinguished himself by his writings, which
consisted of an ecclesiastical history, the life of Constantine,
Chronicon, Evangelical Preparations, and other numerous treatises,
most of which are now lost. The best edition of his Præparatio and
Demonstratio Evangelica, is by Vigerus, 2 vols., folio, Rothomagi,
1628; and of his ecclesiastical history by Reading, folio, Cambridge.
1720.
=Eusebius=, a surname of Bacchus.
=Eusepus= and =Pedasus=, the twin sons of Bucolion, killed in the
Trojan war. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 6.
=Eustathius=, a Greek commentator on the works of Homer. The best
edition of this very valuable author is that published at Basil,
3 vols., folio, 1560. It is to be lamented that the design of
Alexander Politus, begun at Florence in 1735, and published in
the first five books of the Iliad, is not executed, as a Latin
translation of these excellent commentaries is among the desiderata
of the present day.――――A man who wrote a very foolish romance
in Greek, entitled _De Ismeniæ et Ismenes amoribus_, edited by
Gaulminus, 8vo, Paris, 1617.
=Eutæa=, a town of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 27.
=Eutelidas=, a famous statuary of Argos. _Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 10.
=Euterpe=, one of the Muses, daughter to Jupiter and Mnemosyne. She
presided over music, and was looked upon as the inventress of the
flute and of all wind instruments. She is represented as crowned
with flowers, and holding a flute in her hands. Some mythologists
attributed to her the invention of tragedy, more commonly supposed
to be the production of Melpomene. _See:_ Musæ.――――The name of the
mother of Themistocles according to some.
=Euthycrătes=, a sculptor of Sicyon, son of Lysippus. He was
particularly happy in the proportions of his statues. Those of
Hercules and Alexander were in general esteem, and particularly that
of Medea, which was carried on a chariot by four horses. _Pliny_,
bk. 34, ch. 8.――――A man who betrayed Olynthus to Philip.
=Euthydēmus=, an orator and rhetorician, who greatly distinguished
himself by his eloquence, &c. _Strabo_, bk. 14.
=Euthȳmus=, a celebrated boxer of Locri in Italy, &c. _Pausanias_,
bk. 6, ch. 6.
=Eutrapĕlus=, a man described as artful and fallacious by _Horace_,
bk. 1, ltr. 18, li. 31.――――A hair-dresser. _Martial_, bk. 7, ltr. 82.
=Eutrăpĕlus Volumnius=, a friend of Marcus Antony, &c. _Cicero_,
_Letters to his Friends_, ltr. 32.
=Eutropius=, a Latin historian in the age of Julian, under whom he
carried arms in the fatal expedition against the Persians. His
origin as well as his dignity are unknown; yet some suppose, from
the epithet of _Clarissimus_ prefixed to his history, that he was
a Roman senator. He wrote an epitome of the history of Rome, from
the age of Romulus to the reign of the emperor Valens, to whom the
work was dedicated. He wrote a treatise on medicine without being
acquainted with the art. Of all his works the Roman history alone is
extant. It is composed with conciseness and precision, but without
elegance. The best edition of Eutropius is that of Haverkamp, _Cum
notis variorum_, 8vo, _Leiden_, 1729 & 1762.――――A famous eunuch at
the court of Arcadius, the son of Theodosius the Great, &c.
=Eutychĭde=, a woman who was 30 times brought to bed, and carried to
the grave by 20 of her children. _Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 3.
=Eutychĭdes=, a learned servant of Atticus, &c. _Cicero_, bk. 15,
_Letters to Atticus_.――――A sculptor.
=Euxanthius=, a daughter of Minos and Dexithea. _Apollodorus._
=Euxenĭdas=, a painter, &c. _Pliny_, bk. 35.
=Euxĕnus=, a man who wrote a poetical history of the fabulous ages of
Italy. _Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 1.
=Euxīnus Pontus=, a sea between Asia and Europe, partly at the north
of Asia Minor, and at the west of Colchis. It was anciently called
ἀξεινος, _inhospitable_, on account of the savage manners of the
inhabitants on its coast. Commerce with foreign nations, and the
plantation of colonies in their neighbourhood, gradually softened
their roughness, and the sea was no longer called Axenus, but
Euxenus, _hospitable_. The Euxine is supposed by Herodotus to be
1387 miles long and 420 broad. Strabo calls it 1100 miles long and
in circumference 3125. It abounds in all varieties of fish, and
receives the tribute of above 40 rivers. It is not of great depth,
except in the eastern parts, where some have imagined that it has
a subterraneous communication with the Caspian. It is now called
the _Black_ sea, from the thick dark fogs which cover it. _Ovid_,
_Tristia_, bk. 3, poem 13; bk. 4, poem 4, li. 54.――_Strabo_, bk. 1,
&c.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 1.――_Pliny_, bk. 3.――_Herodotus_, bk. 4,
ch. 85.
=Euxippe=, a woman who killed herself because the ambassadors of
Sparta had offered violence to her virtue, &c.
=Exadius=, one of the Lapithæ at the nuptials of Pirithous. _Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 1, li. 264.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12, li. 266.
=Exæthes=, a Parthian who cut off the head of Crassus, &c. _Polyænus_,
bk. 7.
=Exagŏnus=, the ambassador of a nation in Cyprus, who came to Rome
and talked so much of the power of herbs, serpents, &c., that the
consuls ordered him to be thrown into a vessel full of serpents.
These venomous creatures, far from hurting him, caressed him and
harmlessly licked him with their tongues. _Pliny_, bk. 28, ch. 3.
=Exomătræ=, a people of Asiatic Sarmatia. _Flaccus_, bk. 6, li. 144.
F
=Fabaria=, festivals at Rome in honour of Carna wife of Janus, when
beans (_fabæ_) were presented as an oblation.
=Fabăris=, now _Farfa_, a river of Italy in the territories of the
Sabines, called also _Farfarus_, _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 14,
li. 330.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 715.
=Fabia.= _See:_ Fabius Fabricianus.
=Făbia lex=, _de ambitu_, was to circumscribe the number of
_Sectatores_ or attendants which were allowed to candidates in
canvassing for some high office. It was proposed, but did not pass.
=Făbia=, a tribe at Rome. _Horace_, bk. 1, ltr. 7, li. 52.――――A vestal
virgin, sister to Terentia, Cicero’s wife.
=Făbiāni=, some of the Luperci at Rome, instituted in honour of the
Fabian family.
=Făbii=, a noble and powerful family at Rome, who derived their name
from _faba_, a bean, because some of their ancestors cultivated this
pulse. They were said to be descended from Fabius, a supposed son
of Hercules by an Italian nymph; and they were once so numerous that
they took upon themselves to wage war against the Veientes. They
came to a general engagement near the Cremera, in which all the
family, consisting of 306 men, were totally slain, B.C. 477. There
only remained one, whose tender age had detained him at Rome, and
from him arose the noble Fabii in the following ages. The family was
divided into six different branches, the _Ambusti_, the _Maximi_,
the _Vibulani_, the _Buteones_, the _Dorsones_, and the _Pictores_,
the three first of which are frequently mentioned in the Roman
history, but the others seldom. _Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 9,
ch. 5.――_Livy_, bk. 2, ch. 46, &c.――_Florus_, bk. 1, ch. 2.――_Ovid_,
_Tristia_, bk. 2, li. 235.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 845.
=Făbius Maximus Rullianus=, was the first of the Fabii who obtained
the surname of _Maximus_, for lessening the power of the populace
at elections. He was master of horse, and his victories over the
Samnites in that capacity nearly cost him his life, because he
engaged the enemy without the command of the dictator. He was five
times consul, twice dictator, and once censor. He triumphed over
seven different nations in the neighbourhood of Rome, and rendered
himself illustrious by his patriotism.――――Rusticus, an historian in
the age of Claudius and Nero. He was intimate with Seneca, and the
encomiums which Tacitus passes upon his style make us regret the
loss of his compositions.――――Marcellinus, an historian in the second
century.――――A Roman lawyer whom _Horace_, bk. 1, satire 2, li. 134,
ridicules as having been caught in adultery.――――Quintus Maximus,
a celebrated Roman, first surnamed _Verrucosus_ from a wart on his
lip, and _Agnicula_ from his inoffensive manners. From a dull and
unpromising childhood he burst into deeds of valour and heroism, and
was gradually raised by merit to the highest offices of the state.
In his first consulship, he obtained a victory over Liguria, and
the fatal battle of Thrasymenus occasioned his election to the
dictatorship. In this important office he began to oppose Annibal,
not by fighting him in the open field, like his predecessors, but
he continually harrassed his army by countermarches and ambuscades,
for which he received the surname of Cunctator, or _delayer_. Such
operations for the commander of the Roman armies gave offence to
some, and Fabius was even accused of cowardice. He, however, still
pursued the measures which prudence and reflection seemed to dictate
as most salutary to Rome, and he patiently bore to see his master of
horse raised to share the dictatorial dignity with himself, by means
of his enemies at home. When he had laid down his office of dictator,
his successors for a while followed his plan; but the rashness of
Varro, and his contempt for the operations of Fabius, occasioned the
fatal battle of Cannæ. Tarentum was obliged to surrender to his arms
after the battle of Cannæ, and on that occasion the Carthaginian
enemy observed that Fabius was the Annibal of Rome. When he had made
an agreement with Annibal for the ransom of the captives, which was
totally disapproved by the Roman senate, he sold all his estates
to pay the money, rather than forfeit his word to the enemy. The
bold proposal of young Scipio to go and carry the war from Italy to
Africa, was rejected by Fabius as chimerical and dangerous. He did
not, however, live to see the success of the Roman arms under Scipio,
and the conquest of Carthage, by measures which he treated with
contempt and heard with indignation. He died in the 100th year of
his age, after he had been five times consul, and twice honoured
with a triumph. The Romans were so sensible of his great merit and
services, that the expenses of his funeral were defrayed from the
public treasury. _Plutarch_, _Parallel Lives_.――_Florus_, bk. 2, ch.
6.――_Livy._――_Polybius._――――His son bore the same name, and showed
himself worthy of his noble father’s virtues. During his consulship,
he received a visit from his father on horseback in the camp; the
son ordered the father to dismount, and the old man cheerfully
obeyed, embracing his son, and saying, “I wished to know whether you
knew what it is to be consul.” He died before his father, and the
Cunctator, with the moderation of a philosopher, delivered a funeral
oration over the dead body of his son. _Plutarch_, _Fabius Maximus_.
――――Pictor, the first Roman who wrote an historical account of
his country, from the age of Romulus to the year of Rome, 536. He
flourished B.C. 225. The work which is now extant, and which is
attributed to him, is a spurious composition.――――A loquacious person
mentioned by _Horace_, bk. 1, satire 1, li. 14.――――A Roman consul,
surnamed Ambustus, because he was struck with lightning.――――A
lieutenant of Cæsar in Gaul.――――Fabricianus, a Roman assassinated
by his wife Fabia, that she might more freely enjoy the company of a
favourite youth. His son was saved from his mother’s cruelties, and
when he came of age he avenged his father’s death by murdering his
mother and her adulterer. The senate took cognizance of the action,
and patronized the parricide. _Plutarch_, _Parallela minora_.――――A
chief priest at Rome when Brennus took the city. _Plutarch._――――A
Roman sent to consult the oracle of Delphi while Annibal was in
Italy.――――Another chosen dictator, merely to create new senators.
――――A lieutenant of Lucullus defeated by Mithridates.――――A son of
Paulus Æmilius, adopted into the family of the Fabii.――――A Roman
surnamed Allobrogicus from his victory over the Allobroges, &c.
_Florus_, bk. 2, ch. 17.――――Another chosen general against the
Carthaginians in Italy. He lost all his forces in a battle, and
fell wounded by the side of Annibal. _Plutarch_, _Parallela minora_.
――――A consul with Julius Cæsar, who conquered Pompey’s adherents in
Spain.――――A high priest who wrote some annals, and made war against
Viriathus in Spain. _Livy_, bk. 30, ch. 26.――_Florus_, bk. 3, ch. 2.
――――Dorso. _See:_ Dorso.
=Fābrātĕria=, a colony and town of the Volsci in Latium. _Silius
Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 398.――_Cicero_, _Letters to his Friends_,
bk. 9, ltr. 24.
=Fabrĭcius=, a Latin writer in the reign of Nero, who employed his
pen in satirizing and defaming the senators. His works were burnt
by order of Nero.――――Caius Luscinus, a celebrated Roman who, in his
first consulship, obtained several victories over the Samnites and
Lucanians, and was honoured with a triumph. The riches which were
acquired in those battles were immense, the soldiers were liberally
rewarded by the consul, and the treasury was enriched with 400
talents. Two years after, Fabricus went as ambassador to Pyrrhus,
and refused with contempt the presents, and heard with indignation
the offers, which might have corrupted the ♦fidelity of a less
virtuous citizen. Pyrrhus had occasion to admire the magnanimity of
Fabricius; but his astonishment was more powerfully awakened when
he opposed him in the field of battle, and when he saw him make a
discovery of the perfidious offer of his physician, who pledged
himself to the Roman general for a sum of money to poison his royal
master. To this greatness of soul were added the most consummate
knowledge of military affairs, and the greatest simplicity of
manners. Fabricius never used rich plate at his table. A small
salt-cellar, whose feet were of horn, was the only silver vessel
which appeared in his house. This contempt of luxury and useless
ornaments Fabricius wished to inspire among the people; and during
his censorship he banished from the senate Cornelius Rufinus, who
had been twice consul and dictator, because he kept in his house
more than 10 pounds weight of silver plate. Such were the manners
of the conqueror of Pyrrhus, who observed that he wished rather to
command those that had money than possess it himself. He lived and
died in the greatest poverty. His body was buried at the public
charge, and the Roman people were obliged to give a dowry to his two
daughters, when they had arrived to marriageable years. _Valerius
Maximus_, bk. 2, ch. 9; bk. 4, ch. 4.――_Florus_, bk. 1, ch. 18.
――_Cicero_, bk. 3, _de Officiis_.――_Plutarch_, _Pyrrhus_.――_Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 844.――――A bridge at Rome, built by the consul
Fabricius, over the Tiber. _Horace_, bk. 2, satire 3, li. 36.
♦ ‘fidelty’ replaced with ‘fidelity’
=Fabulla=, a prostitute, &c. _Juvenal_, satire 2, li. 68.
=Facelina=, a small place on the north of Sicily, where Diana had
a temple. _Servius_, _Commentary on the Æneid of Vergil_, bk. 9,
li. 117.――_Hyginus_, fable 261.
=Fadus=, a Rutulian killed in the night by Euryalus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 9, li. 344.
=Fæsŭlæ=, now _Fiesole_, a town of Etruria, famous for its augurs.
_Cicero_, _For Lucius Murena_, ch. 24.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 8,
li. 478.――_Sallust_, _Catilinae Coniuratio_, ch. 27.
=Falcīdia lex=, was enacted by the tribune Falcidius, A.U.C. 713,
concerning wills and the right of heirs.
=Faleria=, a town of Picenum, now _Fallerona_, of which the inhabitants
were called Falerienses. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 13.
=Falerii= (or ium), now _Palari_, a town of Etruria, of which the
inhabitants are called Falisci. The Romans borrowed some of their
laws from Falerii. The place was famous for its pastures, and for a
peculiar sort of sausage. _See:_ Falisci. _Martial_, bk. 4, ltr. 46.
――_Livy_, bk. 10, chs. 12 & 16.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 1, li. 84; _ex
Ponto_, bk. 4, poem 8, li. 41.――_Cato_, _De Re Rustica_, bks. 4 & 14.
――_Servius_, _Commentary on the Æneid of Vergil_, bk. 7, li. 695.
――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 5.
=Falerina=, a tribe at Rome. _Livy_, bk. 9, ch. 23.
=Falernus=, a fertile mountain and plain of Campania, famous for its
wine, which the Roman poets have greatly celebrated. _Livy_, bk. 22,
ch. 14.――_Martial_, bk. 12, ltr. 57.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 2,
li. 96.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ode 20, li. 10; bk. 2, satire 4, li. 15.
――_Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Florus_, bk. 1, ch. 15.
=Fălisci=, a people of Etruria, originally a Macedonian colony. When
they were besieged by Camillus, a schoolmaster went out of the gates
of the city with his pupils, and betrayed them into the hands of the
Roman enemy, that by such a possession he might easily oblige the
place to surrender. Camillus heard the proposal with indignation,
and ordered the man to be stripped naked and whipped back to the
town by those whom his perfidy wished to betray. This instance
of generosity operated upon the people so powerfully that they
surrendered to the Romans. _Plutarch_, _Camillus_.
=Faliscus Gratius.= _See:_ Gratius.
=Fama= (_fame_), was worshipped by the ancients as a powerful goddess,
and generally represented blowing a trumpet, &c. _Statius_, bk. 3,
_Thebiad_, li. 427.
=Fannia=, a woman of Minturnæ, who hospitably entertained Marius in
his flight, though he had formerly sat in judgment upon her, and
divorced her from her husband.
=Fannia lex=, _de sumptibus_, by Fannius the consul, A.U.C. 593. It
enacted that no person should spend more than 100 _asses_ a day at
the great festivals, and 30 _asses_ on other days, and 10 at all
other times.
=Fannii=, two orators of whom Cicero speaks in _Brutus_.
=Fannius=, an inferior poet ridiculed by Horace, because his poems
and picture were consecrated in the library of Apollo, on mount
Palatine at Rome, as it was then usual for such as possessed merit.
_Horace_, bk. 1, satire 4, li. 21.――――A person who killed himself
when apprehended in a conspiracy against Augustus. _Martial_, bk. 12,
ltr. 80.――――Caius, an author in Trajan’s reign, whose history of the
cruelties of Nero is greatly regretted.
=Fanum Vacūnæ=, a village in the country of the Sabines. _Horace_,
bk. 1, ltr. 10, li. 49.
=Farfărus=, a river of the Sabines, falling into the Tiber above
Capena. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 14, li. 330.
=Fascelis=, a surname of Diana, because her statue was brought from
Taurica by Iphigenia in a bundle of sticks (_fascis_), and placed at
Aricia.
=Fascellina=, a town of Sicily near Panormus. _Silius Italicus_,
bk. 14, li. 261.
=Faucŭla=, a prostitute who privately conveyed food to the Roman
prisoners at Capua. _Livy_, bk. 26, ch. 33.
=Faventia=, a town of Spain. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 1.――――Of Italy.
_Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 597.――_Pliny_, bk. 14, ch. 15.
――_Martial_, bk. 2, ltr. 74.
=Faveria=, a town of Istria. _Livy_, bk. 41, ch. 11.
=Faula=, a mistress of Hercules.
=Fauna=, a deity among the Romans, daughter of Picus, and originally
called _Marica_. Her marriage with Faunus procured her the name of
Fauna, and her knowledge of futurity that of _Fatua_ and _Fatidica_.
It is said that she never saw a man after her marriage with Faunus,
and that her uncommon chastity occasioned her being ranked among
the gods after death. She is the same, according to some, as _Bona
Mater_. Some mythologists accuse her of drunkenness, and say that
she expired under the blows of her husband, for an immoderate use
of wine. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 47, &c.――_Varro._――_Justin_,
bk. 43, ch. 1.
=Faunalia=, festivals at Rome in honour of Faunus.
=Fauni=, certain deities of the country, represented as having the
legs, feet, and ears of goats, and the rest of the body human. They
were called satyrs by the Greeks. The peasants offered them a lamb
or a kid with great solemnity. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 1, li. 10.
――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 6, li. 392.
=Faunus=, a son of Picus, who is said to have reigned in Italy about
1300 years B.C. His bravery as well as wisdom have given rise to
the tradition that he was son of Mars. He raised a temple in honour
of the god Pan, called by the Latins Lupercus, at the foot of the
Palatine hill, and he exercised hospitality towards strangers with a
liberal hand. His great popularity and his fondness for agriculture
made his subjects revere him as one of their country deities after
death. He was represented with all the equipage of the satyrs, and
was consulted to give oracles. _Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 1,
ch. 7.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 47; bk. 8, li. 314; bk. 10,
li. 55.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ode 17.
=Favo=, a Roman mimic, who at the funeral of Vespasian imitated
the manners and gestures of the deceased emperor. _Suetonius_,
_Vespasian_, ch. 19.
=Favorinus=, a philosopher and eunuch under Adrian, &c.
=Fausta=, a daughter of Sylla, &c. _Horace_, bk. 1, satire 2, li. 64.
――――The wife of the emperor Constantine, disgraced for her cruelties
and vices.
=Faustīna=, the wife of the emperor Antoninus, famous for her
debaucheries. Her daughter of the same name, blessed with beauty,
loveliness, and wit, became the most abandoned of her sex.
She married Marcus Aurelius.――――The third wife of the emperor
Heliogabalus bore that name.
=Faustĭtas=, a goddess among the Romans supposed to preside over
cattle. _Horace_, bk. 4, ode 5, li. 17.
=Faustŭlus=, a shepherd ordered to expose Romulus and Remus. He
privately brought them up at home. _Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 4.――_Justin_,
bk. 43, ch. 2.――_Plutarch_, _Romulus_.
=Faustus=, an obscure poet under the first Roman emperors, two
of whose dramatic pieces, Thebæ and Tereus, _Juvenal_ mentions,
satire 7, li. 12.
=Februus=, a god at Rome, who presided over purifications.――――The
Feralia sacrifices which the Romans offered to the gods manes, were
also called _Februa_, whence the name of the month of February,
during which the oblations were made.
=Feciāles=, a number of priests at Rome, employed in declaring war
and making peace. When the Romans thought themselves injured, one
of this sacerdotal body was empowered to demand redress, and after
the allowance of 33 days to consider the matter, war was declared
if submissions were not made, and the Fecialis hurled a bloody spear
into the territories of the enemy in proof of intended hostilities.
_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 3; bk. 4, ch. 30.
=Felginas=, a Roman knight killed by Pompey at Dyrracchium. _Cæsar_,
bk. 3, _Civil War_.
=Felix Marcus Antonius=, a freedman of Claudius Cæsar, made governor
of Judæa, Samaria, and Palestine. He is called by Suetonius the
husband of three queens, as he married the two Drusillæ, one
granddaughter of Antony and Cleopatra, and the other a Jewish
princess, sister of Agrippa. The name of his third wife is unknown.
_Suetonius_, _Divus Claudius_, ch. 18.――_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 12,
ch. 14.
=Feltria=, a town of Italy at the north of Venice.
=Fenestella=, a Roman historian in the age of Augustus. He died at
Cumæ.――――One of the gates at Rome. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 6, li. 578.
=Fenni=, or =Finni=, the inhabitants of Finningia, or Eningia, now
considered as Finland. _Tacitus_, _Germania_, ch. 46.――_Pliny_,
bk. 4, ch. 13.
=Ferālia=, a festival in honour of the dead, observed at Rome the 17th
or 21st of February. It continued for 11 days, during which time
presents were carried to the graves of the deceased, marriages were
forbidden, and the temples of the gods were shut. It was universally
believed that the manes of their departed friends came and hovered
over their graves, and feasted upon the provisions that the hand
of piety and affection had procured for them. Their punishments in
the infernal regions were also suspended, and during that time they
enjoyed rest and liberty.
=Ferentīnum=, a town of the Hernici at the east of Rome. The
inhabitants were called _Ferentinates_, or _Ferentini_. _Silius
Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 394.――_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 50; bk. 9, chs. 43
& 44.
=Ferentum=, or =Forentum=, a town of Apulia, now _Forenza_. _Horace_,
bk. 3, ode 4, li. 15.――_Livy_, bk. 9, chs. 16 & 20.
=Fĕrētrius=, a surname of _Jupiter_, _a ferendo_, because he had
assisted the Romans, or _a feriendo_, because he had conquered their
enemies under Romulus. He had a temple at Rome built by Romulus,
where the spoils called _opima_ were always carried. Only two
generals obtained these celebrated spoils after the age of Romulus.
_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 10.――_Plutarch_, _Romulus_.――_Cornelius Nepos_,
_Atticus_, ch. 20.
=Feriæ Latīnæ=, festivals at Rome instituted by Tarquin the Proud.
The principal magistrates of 47 towns in Latium usually assembled on
a mount near Rome, where they, together with the Roman magistrates,
offered a bull to Jupiter Latialis, of which they carried home some
part after the immolation, after they had sworn mutual friendship
and alliance. It continued but one day originally, but in process
of time four days were dedicated to its celebration. _Dionysius of
Halicarnassus_, bk. 4, ch. 49.――_Cicero_, ltr. 6.――_Livy_, bk. 21,
&c. The _feriæ_ among the Romans were certain days set apart to
celebrate festivals, and during that time it was unlawful for any
person to work. They were either public or private. The public were
of four different kinds. The _feriæ stativæ_ were certain immovable
days always marked in the calendar, and observed by the whole city
with much festivity and public rejoicing. The _feriæ conceptivæ_
were movable feasts, and the day appointed for the celebration was
always previously fixed by the magistrates or priests. Among these
were the _feriæ Latinæ_, which were first established by Tarquin,
and observed by the consuls regularly before they set out for
the provinces; the _Compitalia_, &c. The _feriæ imperativæ_ were
appointed only by the command of the consul, dictator, or pretor,
as a public rejoicing for some important victory gained over the
enemies of Rome. The _feriæ Nundinæ_ were regular days in which
the people of the country and neighbouring towns assembled together
and exposed their respective commodities to sale. They were called
Nundinæ, because kept every ninth day. The _feriæ privatæ_ were
observed only in families, in commemoration of birthdays, marriages,
funerals, and the like. The days on which the _feriæ_ were observed
were called by the Romans _festi dies_, because dedicated to mirth,
relaxation, and festivity.
=Fērōnia=, a goddess at Rome, who presided over the woods and groves.
The name is derived _a ferendo_, because she gave assistance to
her votaries, or perhaps from the town Feronia, near mount Soracte,
where she had a temple. It was usual to make a yearly sacrifice
to her, and to wash the face and hands in the waters of the sacred
fountain, which flowed near her temple. It is said that those who
were filled with the spirit of this goddess could walk barefooted
over burning coals without receiving any injury from the flames.
The goddess had a temple and a grove about three miles from Anxur,
and also another in the district of Capena. _Livy_, bk. 33, ch. 26.
――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, lis. 697 & 800.――_Varro_, _de Lingua
Latina_, bk. 4, ch. 10.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 13.――_Strabo_, bk. 5.
――_Horace_, bk. 1, satire 5, li. 24.
=Fescennia= (iorum, or ium), a town of Etruria, now _Galese_, where
the _Fescennine verses_ were first invented. These verses, the
name of which conveys an idea of vulgar obscenity, were a sort of
rustic dialogue spoken extempore, in which the actors exposed before
their audience the failings and vices of their adversaries, and by
satirical humour and merriment endeavoured to raise the laughter
of the company. They were often repeated at nuptials, and many
lascivious expressions were used for the general diversion, as also
at harvest home, when gestures were made adapted to the sense of the
unpolished verses that were used. They were proscribed by Augustus
as of immoral tendency. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 5.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 7, li. 695.――_Horace_, bk. 2, ltr. 1, li. 145.
=Fesŭlæ=, or =Fæsulæ=, a town of Etruria, where Sylla settled a colony.
_Cicero_, _Against Catiline_, bk. 3, ch. 6.
=Festus=, a friend of Domitian, who killed himself in an illness.
_Martial_, bk. 1, ltr. 79.――――Porcius, a proconsul who succeeded
Felix as governor of Judæa, under Claudius.
=Fibrēnus=, a river of Italy, falling into the Liris through Cicero’s
farm at Arpinum. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 400.――_Cicero_, _De
Legibus_, bk. 2, ch. 1.
=Ficana=, a town of Latium, at the south of Rome, near the Tiber.
_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 33.
=Ficaria=, a small island on the east of Sardinia, now _Serpentera_.
_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 7.
=Ficulea=, or =Ficulnea=, a town of Latium beyond mount Sacer, at
the north of Rome. Cicero had a villa there, and the road that led
to the town was called _Ficulnensis_, afterwards _Nomentana Via_.
_Cicero_, bk. 12, _Letters to Atticus_, ltr. 34.――_Livy_, bk. 1,
ch. 38; bk. 3, ch. 52.
=Fidēna=, an inland town of Latium, whose inhabitants are called
_Fidenates_. The place was conquered by the Romans B.C. 435.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 773.――_Juvenal_, satire 1, li. 44.
――_Livy_, bk. 1, chs. 14, 15 & 27; bk. 2, ch. 19; bk. 4, chs. 17
& 21.
=Fidentia=, a town of Gaul on the south of the Po, between Placentia
and Parma. _Velleius Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 28.――_Pliny_, bk. 3,
ch. 15.――_Cicero_, _De Inventione_, bk. 2, ch. 54.
=Fides=, the goddess of faith, oaths, and honesty, worshipped by the
Romans. Numa was the first who paid her divine honours.
=Fĭdĭcŭlæ=, a place of Italy. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 7, ch. 6.
=Fidius Dius=, a divinity by whom the Romans generally swore. He was
also called Sancus, or Sanctus, and Semipater, and he was solemnly
addressed in prayers the 5th of June, which was yearly consecrated
to his service. Some suppose him to be Hercules. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk.
6, li. 213.――_Varro_, _de Lingua Latina_, bk. 4, ch. 10.――_Dionysius
of Halicarnassus_, bks. 2 & 9.
=Fimbria=, a Roman officer who besieged Mithridates in Pritaine, and
failed in his attempts to take him prisoner. He was deserted by his
troops for his cruelty, upon which he killed himself. _Plutarch_,
_Lucullus_.
=Firmum=, now _Fermo_, a town of Picenum on the Adriatic, the port of
which was called _Castellum Firmanum_. _Cicero_, bk. 8, _Letters to
Atticus_, ltr. 12.――_Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 8.――_Velleius_, bk. 1, ch. 14.
=Marcus Firmius=, a powerful native of Seleucia, who proclaimed
himself emperor, and was at last conquered by Aurelian.
=Fiscellus=, a part of the Apennine mountains in Umbria, where the Nar
rises. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 518.――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 12.
=Flacilla Antonia=, a Roman matron in Nero’s age, &c. _Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 14, ch. 7.
=Flaccus=, a consul who marched against Sylla, and was assassinated
by Fimbria. _Plutarch._――――A poet. _See:_ Valerius.――――A governor of
Egypt, who died A.D. 39.――――Verrius, a grammarian, tutor to the two
grandsons of Augustus, and supposed author of the Capitoline marbles.
――――A name of Horace. _See:_ Horatius.
=Ælia Flacilla=, the mother of Arcadius and Honorius, was daughter of
Antonius, a prefect of Gaul.
=Flāmĭnia lex=, _agraria_, by Caius Flaminius the tribune, A.U.C. 525.
It required that the lands of Picenum, from which the Gauls Senones
had been expelled, should be divided among the Roman people.
=Flaminia via=, a celebrated road which led from Rome to Ariminum and
Aquileia. It received its name from Flaminius, who built it, and was
killed at the battle of Thrasymenus against Annibal.――――A gate of
Rome opening to the same road, now _del popolo_.
=Caius Flāmĭnius=, a Roman consul of a turbulent disposition, who was
drawn into a battle near the lake of Thrasymenus, by the artifice of
Annibal. He was killed in the engagement, with an immense number of
Romans, B.C. 217. The conqueror wished to give a burial to his body,
but it was not found in the heaps of slain. While tribune of the
people he proposed an agrarian law against the advice of his friends,
of the senate, and of his own father. _Cicero_, _de Inventione_, bk.
2, ch. 17.――_Livy_, bk. 22, ch. 3, &c.――_Polybius._――_Florus_, bk. 2,
ch. 6.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 1, ch. 6.
=Titus Quinctius Flāmĭnius=, or =Flaminīnus=, a celebrated Roman
raised to the consulship, A.U.C. 556. He was trained in the art
of war against Annibal, and he showed himself capable in every
respect to discharge with honour the great office with which he
was entrusted. He was sent at the head of the Roman troops against
Philip king of Macedonia, and in his expedition he met with uncommon
success. The Greeks gradually declared themselves his firmest
supporters, and he totally defeated Philip on the confines of Epirus,
and made all Locris, Phocis, and Thessaly tributary to the Roman
power. He granted peace to the conquered monarch, and proclaimed all
Greece free and independent at the Isthmian games. This celebrated
action procured the name of patrons of Greece to the Romans, and
insensibly paved their way to universal dominion. Flaminius behaved
among them with the greatest policy, and by his ready compliance
with their national customs and prejudices he gained uncommon
popularity, and received the name of father and deliverer of Greece.
He was afterwards sent ambassador to king Prusias, who had given
refuge to Annibal, and there his prudence and artifice hastened
out of the world a man who had long been the terror of the Romans.
Flaminius was found dead in his bed, after a life spent in the
greatest glory, in which he had imitated with success the virtues of
his model Scipio. _Plutarch_, _Parallel Lives_.――_Florus._――――Lucius,
the brother of the preceding, signalized himself in the wars of
Greece. He was expelled from the senate for killing a Gaul, by
Cato, his brother’s colleague in the censorship, an action which was
highly resented by Titus. _Plutarch_, _Flaminius_.――――Calp. Flamma,
a tribune, who at the head of 300 men saved the Roman army in Sicily,
B.C. 258, by engaging the Carthaginians and cutting them to pieces.
=Flanaticus sinus=, a bay of the Flanates, in Liburnia on the Adriatic,
now the gulf of _Carnero_. _Pliny_, bk. 3, chs. 19 & 21.
=Flāvia lex=, _agraria_, by Lucius Flavius, A.U.C. 693, for the
distribution of a certain quantity of lands among Pompey’s soldiers
and the commons.
=Flāviānum=, a town of Etruria, on the Tiber, called also Flavinium.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 696.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 492.
=Flāvinia=, a town of Latium, which assisted Turnus against Æneas.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 696.
=Flavius=, a senator who conspired with Piso against Nero, &c.
_Tacitus._――――A tribune of the people deposed by Julius Cæsar.――――A
Roman who informed Gracchus of the violent measures of the senate
against him.――――A brother of Vespasian, &c.――――A tribune who wounded
one of Annibal’s elephants in an engagement.――――A schoolmaster at
Rome in the age of Horace. Bk. 1, satire 6, li. 72.――――One of the
names of the emperor Domitian. _Juvenal_, satire 4, li. 37.
=Flevus=, the right branch of the Rhine, which formed a large lake on
its falling into the sea called _Flevo_, now _Zuider-Zee_. It was
afterwards called _Helium_, now _Ulie_, when its breadth became more
contracted, and a fort erected there obtained the name of _Flevum
Frisiorum_. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 2, ch. 6; bk. 4, li. 72.
――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 15.――_Mela_, bk. 3, ch. 2.
=Flōra=, the goddess of flowers and gardens among the Romans, the same
as the Chloris of the Greeks. Some suppose that she was originally
a common courtesan, who left to the Romans the immense riches which
she had acquired by prostitution and lasciviousness, in remembrance
of which a yearly festival was instituted in her honour. She was
worshipped even among the Sabines, long before the foundation of
Rome, and likewise among the Phoceans, who built Marseilles long
before the existence of the capital of Italy. Tatius was the first
who raised her a temple in the city of Rome. It is said that she
married Zephyrus, and that she received from him the privilege of
presiding over flowers, and of enjoying perpetual youth. _See:_
Floralia. She was represented as crowned with flowers, and holding
in her hand the horn of plenty. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 5, li. 195, &c.
_Varro_, _de Re Rustica_, bk. 1.――_Lactantius_, bk. 1, ch. 20.――――A
celebrated courtesan passionately loved by Pompey the Great. She was
so beautiful, that when the temple of Castor and Pollux at Rome was
adorned with paintings, her picture was drawn and placed amongst the
rest.――――Another courtesan, &c. _Juvenal_, satire 2, li. 49.
=Florālia=, games in honour of Flora at Rome. They were instituted
about the age of Romulus, but they were not celebrated with
regularity and proper attention till the year ♦A.U.C. 580. They
were observed yearly, and exhibited a scene of the most unbounded
licentiousness. It is reported that Cato wished once to be present
at the celebration, and that when he saw that the deference for
his presence interrupted the feast, he retired, not choosing to
be the spectator of the prostitution of naked women in a public
theatre. This behaviour so captivated the degenerate Romans, that
the venerable senator was treated with the most uncommon applause as
he retired. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 2, ch. 10.――_Varro_, _de Lingua
Latina_, bk. 1.――_Paterculus_, ch. 1.――_Pliny_, bk. 18, ch. 29.
♦ ‘U.C.’ replaced with ‘A.U.C.’
=Flōrentia=, a town of Italy on the Arnus, now _Florence_, the capital
of Tuscany. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 1, ch. 79.――_Florus_, bk. 3,
ch. 21.――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 5.
=Floriānus=, a man who wore the imperial purple at Rome only for two
months, A.D. 276.
=Flōrus Lucius Annæus Julius=, a Latin historian of the same family
which produced Seneca and Lucan, A.D. 116. He wrote an abridgment
of Roman annals in four books, composed in a florid and poetical
style, and rather a panegyric on many of the great actions of the
Romans than a faithful and correct recital of their history. He also
wrote poetry, and entered the lists against the emperor Adrian, who
satirically reproached him with frequenting taverns and places of
dissipation. The best editions of Florus are Duker’s, 2 vols., 8vo,
Leiden, 1722 & 1744; and that of J. Frid. Fischer, 8vo, Lipscomb,
1760.――――Julius, a friend of Horace, who accompanied Claudius Nero
in his military expeditions. The poet has addressed two epistles to
him.
=Fluōnia=, a surname of Juno Lucina, who under that appellation was
invoked by the Roman matrons to stop excessive discharges of blood.
_Festus_, _Lexicon of Festus_.
=Folia=, a woman of Ariminum, famous for her knowledge of poisonous
herbs and for her petulance. _Horace_, epode 5, li. 42.
=Fons solis=, a fountain in the province of Cyrene, cool at mid-day,
and warm at the rising and setting of the sun. _Herodotus_, bk. 4,
ch. 181.
=Fontānus=, a poet mentioned by _Ovid_, _ex Ponto_, bk. 4, poem 16.
=Fontēia=, a vestal virgin. _Cicero._
=Fontēius Capito=, an intimate friend of Horace. Bk. 1, satire 5,
li. 32.――――A Roman who raised commotions in Germany after the
death of Nero. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 1, ch. 7.――――A man who
conducted Cleopatra into Syria by order of Antony. _Plutarch_,
_Antonius_.
=Formiæ=, a maritime town of Campania at the south-east of Caieta. It
was anciently the abode of the Læstrygones, and it became known for
its excellent wines, and was called _Mamurrarum urbs_, from a family
of consequence and opulence who lived there. _Livy_, bk. 8, ch. 14;
bk. 38, ch. 36.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ode 20, li. 11; bk. 3, ode 17;
bk. 1, satire 5, li. 37.――_Pliny_, bk. 36, ch. 6.
=Formiānum=, a villa of Cicero near Formiæ, near which the orator was
assassinated. _Cicero_, _Letters to his Friends_, bk. 11, ltr. 27;
bk. 16, ltr. 10.――_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 16, ch. 10.
=Formio=, now _Risano_, a river of Istria, the ancient boundary of
Italy eastward, afterwards extended to the Arsia. _Pliny_, bk. 3,
chs. 18 & 19.
=Fornax=, a goddess at Rome, who presided over the baking of bread.
Her festivals, called _Fornacalia_, were first instituted by Numa.
_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 2, li. 525.
=Foro Appii=, a people of Italy, whose capital was called _Forum
Appii_. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 5.
=Fortūna=, a powerful deity among the ancients, daughter of Oceanus
according to Homer, or one of the Parcæ according to Pindar. She was
the goddess of fortune, and from her hand were derived riches and
poverty, pleasures and misfortunes, blessings and pains. She was
worshipped in different parts of Greece, and in Achaia her statue
held the horn of plenty in one hand, and had a winged Cupid at its
feet. In Bœotia she had a statue which represented her as holding
Plutus the god of riches in her arms, to intimate that fortune is
the source whence wealth and honours flow. Bupalus was the first
who made a statue of Fortune for the people of Smyrna, and he
represented her with the polar star upon her head, and the horn
of plenty in her hand. The Romans paid particular attention to the
goddess of Fortune, and had no less than eight different temples
erected to her honour in their city. Tullus Hostilius was the first
who built her a temple, and from that circumstance it is easily
known when her worship was first introduced among the Romans. Her
most famous temple in Italy was at Antium, in Latium, where presents
and offerings were regularly sent from every part of the country.
Fortune has been called Pherepolis the protectress of cities,
and Acrea from the temple of Corinth on an eminence, ἀκρος. She
was called Prænestine at Præneste in Italy, where she had also a
temple. Besides, she was worshipped among the Romans under different
names, such as Female fortune, Virile fortune, Equestrian, Evil,
Peaceful, Virgin, &c. On the 1st of April, which was consecrated
to Venus among the Romans, the Italian widows and marriageable
virgins assembled in the temple of Virile fortune, and after burning
incense and stripping themselves of their garments, they entreated
the goddess to hide from the eyes of their husbands whatever defects
there might be on their bodies. The goddess of fortune is represented
on ancient monuments with a horn of plenty, and sometimes two in
her hands. She is blindfolded, and generally holds a wheel in her
hands as an emblem of her inconstancy. Sometimes she appears with
wings, and treads upon the prow of a ship, and holds a rudder in
her hands. _Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 4.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_,
bk. 6, li. 569.――_Plutarch_, _de Fortuna Romanorum_ & _Caius Marcius
Coriolanus_.――_Cicero_, _de Divinatione_, bk. 2.――_Livy_, bk. 10.
――_Augustine_, _City of God_, bk. 4.――_Florus_, bk. 1.――_Valerius
Maximus_, bk. 1, ch. 5.――_Lucan_, bk. 2, &c.
=Fortūnātæ insulæ=, islands at the west of Mauritania in the Atlantic
sea. They are supposed to be the _Canary_ isles of the moderns,
thought to be only two in number, at a little distance one from
the other, and 10,000 stadia from the shores of Libya. They
were represented as the seats of the blessed, where the souls of
the virtuous were placed after death. The air was wholesome and
temperate, and the earth produced an immense number of various
fruits without the labours of men. When they had been described to
Sertorius in the most enchanting colours, that celebrated general
expressed a wish to retire thither, and to remove himself from
the noise of the world, and the dangers of war. _Strabo_, bk. 1.
――_Plutarch_, _Sertorius_.――_Horace_, bk. 4, ode 8, li. 27; epode 16.
――_Pliny_, bk. 6, chs. 31 & 32.
=Fŏrŭli=, a town of the Sabines, built on a stony place. _Strabo_,
bk. 5.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 714.
=Forum appii=, a town of Latium on the Appia Via. _Cicero_, bk. 1,
_Letters to Atticus_, ltr. 10.――_Horace_, bk. 1, satire 3, li. 3.
――――Augustum, a place at Rome. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 5, li. 552.
――――Allieni, a town of Italy, now _Ferrara_. _Tacitus_, _Histories_,
bk. 3, ch. 6.――――Aurelia, a town of Etruria, now _Montalto_.
_Cicero_, _Against Catiline_, bk. 1, ch. 9.――――Claudii, another
in Etruria, now _Oriolo_.――――Cornelii, another, now _Imola_, in
the Pope’s dominions. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 16.――_Cicero_, _Letters
to his Friends_, bk. 12, ltr. 5.――――Domitii, a town of Gaul,
now _Frontignan_, in Languedoc.――――Voconii, a town of Gaul, now
_Gonsaron_, between Antibes and Marseilles. _Cicero_, _Letters to
his Friends_, bk. 10, ltr. 17.――――Lepidi, a town of ancient Gaul,
south of the Po.――――Popilii, another at the south of Ravenna, on the
Adriatic.――――Flaminii, a town of Umbria, now _San Giavane_. _Pliny_,
bk. 3, ch. 14.――――Gallorum, a town of Gaul Togata, now _Castel
Franco_, in the Bolognese. _Cicero_, _Letters to his Friends_,
bk. 10, ltr. 30.――――Also a town of Venice called _Forojuliensis
urbs_, now _Friuli_. _Cicero_, _Letters to his Friends_, bk. 12,
ltr. 26.――――Julium, a town of Gaul Narbonensis, now _Frejus_, in
Provence. _Cicero_, _Letters to his Friends_, bk. 10, ltr. 17.
――_Strabo_, bk. 4.――――Lebnorum, a town of Insubria. _Polybius._
――――Sempronii, a town of Umbria, &c. Many other places bore the
name of _Forum_ wherever there was a public market, or rather where
the pretor held his court of justice (_forum vel conventus_), and
thence they were called sometimes _conventus_ as well as _fora_,
into which provinces were generally divided under the administration
of a separate governor. _Cicero_, _Against Verres_, bk. 2, ch. 20;
bk. 4, ch. 48; bk. 5, ch. 11; _Against Vatinius_, ch. 5; _Letters
to his Friends_, bk. 3, ltrs. 6 & 8; _Letters to Atticus_, bk. 5,
ltr. 21.
=Fosi=, a people of Germany near the Elbe, considered as the Saxons of
Ptolemy. _Tacitus_, _Germania_, ch. 36.
=Fossa=, the straits of _Bonifacio_ between Corsica and Sardinia,
called also Taphros. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 6.――――Drusi, or Drusiana,
a canal eight miles in length, opened by Drusus from the Rhine to
the Issel, below the separation of the Waal. _Suetonius_, _Claudius_,
ch. 1.――_Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 5, ch. 23.――――Mariana, a canal
cut by Marius from the Rhone to Marseilles during the Cimbrian war,
and now called _Galejon_. Sometimes the word is used in the plural,
_Fossæ_, as if more than one canal had been formed by Marius.
_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 4.――_Strabo_, bk. 4.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 5.
=Fossæ Philistinæ=, one of the mouths of the Po. _Tacitus_,
_Histories_, bk. 3, ch. 9.
=Franci=, a people of Germany and Gaul, whose country was called
Francia. _Claudian._
=Fraus=, a divinity worshipped among the Romans, daughter of Orcus and
Night. She presided over treachery, &c.
=Frĕgella=, a famous town of the Volsci, in Italy, on the Liris,
destroyed for revolting from the Romans, _Silius Italicus_, bk. 5,
li. 452.――_Livy_, bk. 8, ch. 22; bk. 27, ch. 10, &c.――_Cicero_,
_Letters to his Friends_, bk. 13, ltr. 76.
=Fregēnæ=, a town of Etruria. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 5.
=Frentāni=, a people of Italy, near Apulia, who received their name
from the river _Frento_, now _Fortore_, which runs through the
eastern part of their country, and falls into the Adriatic opposite
the islands of Diomede. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 11.――_Livy_, bk. 9,
ch. 45.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 520.
=Fretum= (_the sea_), is sometimes applied by eminence to the Sicilian
sea, or the straits of Messina. _Cæsar_, _Civil War_, bk. 1, ch. 29.
――_Florus_, bk. 1, ch. 26.――_Cicero_, bk. 2, _Letters to Atticus_,
ltr. 1.
=Frigĭdus=, a river of Tuscany.
=Frisii=, a people of Germany near the Rhine, now the _Frisons of
Friesland_. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 1, ch. 60; _Histories_, bk. 4,
chs. 15 & 72; _Germania_, ch. 36.
=Sextus Julius Frontīnus=, a celebrated geometrician, who made himself
known by the books which he wrote on aqueducts and stratagems
dedicated to Trajan. He ordered at his death that no monument should
be raised to his memory, saying _memoria nostri durabit, si vitam
meruimus_. The best edition of Frontinus is that of Oudendorp, 8vo,
Leiden, 1779.
=Fronto=, a preceptor of Marcus Antoninus, by whom he was greatly
esteemed.――――Julius, a learned Roman, who was so partial to the
company of poets, that he lent them his house and gardens, which
continually re-echoed the compositions of his numerous visitors.
_Juvenal_, satire 1, li. 12.
=Frŭsĭno=, a small town of the Volsci on one of the branches of
the Liris. _Juvenal_, satire 3, li. 223.――_Livy_, bk. 10, ch. 1.
――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 399.――_Cicero_, _Letters to Atticus_,
bk. 11, ltrs. 4 & 13.
=Fūcĭnus=, a lake of Italy in the country of the Marsi, at the north
of the Liris, attempted to be drained by Julius Cæsar and afterwards
by Claudius, by whom 30,000 men were employed for 11 years to
perforate a mountain to convey the water into the Liris, but with
no permanent success. The lake, surrounded by a ridge of high
mountains, is now called _Celano_, and is supposed to be 47 miles in
circumference, and not more than 12 feet deep on an average. _Pliny_,
bk. 36, ch. 15.――_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 12, ch. 56.――_Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 759.
=Fufĭdius=, a wretched usurer, &c. _Horace_, bk. 1, satire 2.
=Fufius Geminus=, a man greatly promoted by the interest of Livia, &c.
_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 5, chs. 1 & 2.
=Fugalia=, festivals at Rome to celebrate the flight of the Tarquins.
=Fulgĭnātes= (singular, Fulginas), a people of Umbria, whose chief
town was Fulginum, now _Foligno_. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 462.
――_Pliny_, bk. 1, ch. 4; bk. 3, ch. 14.
=Q. Fulgīnus=, a brave officer in Cæsar’s legions, &c. _Cæsar_, _Civil
War_.
=Fulgōra=, a goddess at Rome who presided over lightning. She was
addressed to save her votaries from the effects of violent storms of
thunder. _Augustine_, _City of God_, bk. 6, ch. 10.
=Fullinum= and =Fulginum=, a small town of Umbria.
=Fulvia lex=, was proposed but rejected A.U.C. 628, by Flaccus Fulvius.
It tended to make all the people of Italy citizens of Rome.
=Fulvia=, a bold and ambitious woman who married the tribune Clodius,
and afterwards Curio, and at last Marcus Antony. She took a part in
all the intrigues of her husband’s triumvirate, and showed herself
cruel as well as revengeful. When Cicero’s head had been cut off
by order of Antony, Fulvia ordered it to be brought to her, and
with all the insolence of barbarity, she bored the orator’s tongue
with her golden bodkin. Antony divorced her to marry Cleopatra, upon
which she attempted to avenge her wrongs, by persuading Augustus
to take up arms against her husband. When this scheme did not
succeed, she raised a faction against Augustus, in which she engaged
Lucius Antonius her brother-in-law, and when all her attempts proved
fruitless, she retired into the east, where her husband received
her with great coldness and indifference. This unkindness totally
broke her heart, and she soon after died, about 40 years before the
christian era. _Plutarch_, _Cicero_ & _Antonius_.――――A woman who
discovered to Cicero the designs of Catiline upon his life.
_Plutarch_, _Cicero_.
=Fulvius=, a Roman senator, intimate with Augustus. He disclosed the
emperor’s secrets to his wife, who made it public to all the Roman
matrons, for which he received so severe a reprimand from Augustus,
that he and his wife hanged themselves in despair.――――A friend of
Caius Gracchus, who was killed in a sedition with his son. His body
was thrown into the river, and his widow was forbidden to put on
mourning for his death. _Plutarch_, _Gracchus_.――――Flaccus Censor, a
Roman who plundered a marble temple of Juno, to finish the building
of one which he had erected to Fortune. He was always unhappy after
this sacrilege. _Livy_, bk. 25, ch. 2.――――Servius Nobilior, a Roman
consul who went to Africa after the defeat of Regulus. After he had
acquired much glory against the Carthaginians, he was shipwrecked
at his return with 200 Roman ships. His grandson Marcus was sent
to Spain, where he greatly signalized himself. He was afterwards
rewarded with the consulship.
=Fundānus=, a lake near Fundi in Italy, which discharges itself into
the Mediterranean. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 3, ch. 96.
=Fundi=, a town of Italy near Caieta, on the Appian road, at the
bottom of a small deep bay called _Lacus Fundanus_. _Horace_, bk. 1,
satire 5, li. 34.――_Livy_, bk. 8, chs. 14 & 19; bk. 38, ch. 36.
――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 5.――_Cicero_, _De Lege Agraria contra Rullum_,
bk. 2, ch. 25.――_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 4, ch. 59.――_Strabo_, bk. 5.
=Fŭriæ=, the three daughters of Nox and Acheron, or of Pluto and
Proserpine, according to some. _See:_ Eumenides.
=Fŭrii=, a family which migrated from Medullia in Latium, and came to
settle at Rome under Romulus, and was admitted among the patricians.
Camillus was of this family, and it was he who first raised it to
distinction. _Plutarch_, _Camillus_.
=Fŭria lex=, _de Testamentis_, by C. Furius the tribune. It forbade
any person to leave as a legacy more than 1000 _asses_, except
to the relations of the master who manumitted, with a few more
exceptions. _Cicero_, bk. 1, _Against Verres_, ch. 42.――_Livy_,
bk. 35.
=Furīna=, the goddess of robbers, worshipped at Rome. Some say that
she is the same as the Furies. Her festivals were called Furinalia.
_Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 3, ch. 8.――_Varro_, _de Lingua
Latina_, bk. 5, ch. 3.
=Furius=, a military tribune with Camillus. He was sent against the
Tuscans by his colleague.――――A Roman slave who obtained his freedom,
and applied himself with unremitted attention to cultivate a small
portion of land which he had purchased. The uncommon fruits which
he reaped from his labours rendered his neighbours jealous of his
prosperity. He was accused before a Roman tribunal of witchcraft,
but honourably acquitted.――――Marcus Bibaculus, a Latin poet of
Cremona, who wrote annals in Iambic verse, and was universally
celebrated for the wit and humour of his expressions. It is said
that Virgil imitated his poetry, and even borrowed some of his lines.
Horace, however, has not failed to ridicule his verses. _Quintilian_,
bk. 8, ch. 6, &c.――_Horace_, bk. 2, satire 5, li. 40.
=Furnius=, a man accused of adultery with Claudia Pulchra, and
condemned, &c. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 4, li. 52.――――A friend
of Horace, who was consul, and distinguished himself by his elegant
historical writings. Bk. 1, satire 10, li. 36.
=Aristotle Fuscus=, a friend of Horace, as conspicuous for the
integrity and propriety of his manners, as for his learning and
abilities. The poet addressed his 22nd Ode, bk. 1 & bk. 1, ltr. 10,
to him.――――Cornelius, a pretor sent by Domitian against the Daci,
where he perished. _Juvenal_, satire 4, li. 112.
=Fusia lex=, _de Comitiis_, A.U.C. 527, forbade any business to
be transacted at the public assemblies on certain days, though
among the _fasti_.――――Another, A.U.C. 690, which ordained that the
votes in a public assembly should be given separately.――――Caninia,
another by Camillus and C. Caninius Galbus, A.U.C. 751, to check the
manumission of slaves.
=Fusius=, a Roman orator. _Cicero_, bk. 2, _On Oratory_, ch. 22.――――A
Roman, killed in Gaul, while he presided there over one of the
provinces. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 7, ch. 3.――――A Roman actor,
whom Horace ridicules, bk. 2, satire 3, li. 60. He intoxicated
himself; and when on the stage he fell asleep whilst he personated
Ilione, where he ought to have been roused and moved by the cries of
a ghost; but in vain.
G
=Gabales=, a people of Aquitain. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 19.
=Gabaza=, a country of Asia, near Sogdiana. _Curtius_, bk. 8, ch. 4.
=Gabellus=, now _La Secchia_, a river falling in a northern direction
into the Po, opposite the Mincius. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 16.
=Gabēne= and =Gabiēne=, a country of Persia. _Diodorus_, bk. 19.
=Gabia= and =Gabina=. _See:_ Gabina.
=Găbiēnus=, a friend of Augustus, beheaded by order of Sextus Pompey.
It is maintained that he spoke after death.
=Găbii=, a city of the Volsci, built by the kings of Alba, but now
no longer in existence. It was taken by the artifice of Sextus the
son of Tarquin, who gained the confidence of the inhabitants by
deserting to them, and pretending that his father had ill-treated
him. Romulus and Remus were educated there, as it was the custom at
that time to send there the young nobility, and Juno was the chief
deity of the place. The inhabitants had a peculiar mode of tucking
up their dress, whence _Gabinus cinctus_. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6,
li. 773; bk. 7, lis. 612 & 682.――_Livy_, bk. 5, ch. 46; bk. 6, ch.
29; bk. 8, ch. 9; bk. 10, ch. 7.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 2, li. 709.
――_Plutarch_, _Romulus_.
=Găbīna=, the name of Juno, worshipped at Gabii. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 7, li. 682.
=Găbīnia lex=, _de Comitiis_, by Aulus Gabinius the tribune, A.U.C.
614. It required that in the public assemblies for electing
magistrates, the votes should be given by tablets, and not _vivâ
voce_.――――Another, for convening daily the senate, from the calends
of February to those of March.――――Another, _de Comitiis_, which
made it a capital punishment to convene any clandestine assembly,
agreeable to the old law of the 12 tables.――――Another, _de Militiâ_,
by Aulus Gabinius the tribune, A.U.C. 685. It granted Pompey the
power of carrying on the war against the pirates, during three
years, and of obliging all kings, governors, and states to supply
him with all the necessaries he wanted, over all the Mediterranean
sea, and in the maritime provinces, as far as 400 stadia from the
sea.――――Another, _de Usurâ_, by Aulus Gabinius the tribune, A.U.C.
685. It ordained that no action should be granted for the recovery
of any money borrowed upon small interest, to be lent upon larger.
This was a usual practice at Rome, which obtained the name of
_versuram facere_.――――Another, against fornication.
=Gabiniānus=, a rhetorician in the reign of Vespasian.
=Găbīnius=, a Roman historian.――――Aulus, a Roman consul, who made war
in Judæa, and re-established tranquillity there. He suffered himself
to be bribed, and replaced Ptolemy Auletes on the throne of Egypt.
He was accused, at his return, of receiving bribes. Cicero, at the
request of Pompey, ably defended him. He was banished, and died
about 40 years before Christ, at Salona.――――A lieutenant of Antony.
――――A consul, who behaved with uncommon rudeness to Cicero.
=Gades= (ium), =Gadis= (is), and =Gadīra=, a small island in the
Atlantic, on the Spanish coast, 25 miles from the columns of
Hercules. It was some time called _Tartessus_ and _Erythia_,
according to Pliny, and is now known by the name of _Cadiz_. Geryon,
whom Hercules killed, fixed his residence there. Hercules, surnamed
_Gaditanus_, had there a celebrated temple, in which all his labours
were engraved with excellent workmanship. The inhabitants were
called _Gaditani_, and their women were known for their agility
of body, and their incontinency. _Horace_, bk. 2, ode 2, li. 11.
――_Statius_, bk. 3, _Sylvæ_, poem 1, li. 183.――_Livy_, bk. 21,
ch. 21; bk. 24, ch. 49; bk. 26, ch. 43.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 23.
――_Strabo_, bk. 3.――_Cicero_, _for Cornelius Balbus_.――_Justin_,
bk. 44, ch. 4.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 35.――_Ptolemy_, bk. 2,
ch. 4.――_Paterculus_, bk. 1, ch. 2.
=Gādītānus=, a surname of Hercules, from Gades. _See:_ Gades.
=Gæsātæ=, a people on the Rhone, who assisted the Senones in taking
and plundering Rome under Brennus. _Strabo_, bk. 5.
=Gætūlia=, a country of Libya, near the Garamantes, which formed
part of king Masinissa’s kingdom. The country was the favourite
retreat of wild beasts, and is now called _Bildulgerid_. _Sallust_,
_Jugurthine War_.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 3, li. 287.――_Pliny_,
bk. 5, ch. 4.
=Gætūlĭcus, Cnæus Lentulus=, an officer in the age of Tiberius,
&c. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 4, ch. 42.――――A poet who wrote some
epigrams in which he displayed great genius, and more wit, though
he often indulged in indelicate expressions.
=Gala=, father of Masinissa, was king of Numidia.
=Galăbrii=, a nation near Thrace.
=Galactophăgi=, a people of Asiatic Scythia. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 3.
=Galæsus.= _See:_ Galesus.
=Galanthis=, a servant-maid of Alcmena, whose sagacity eased the
labours of her mistress. When Juno resolved to retard the birth
of Hercules, and hasten the labours of the wife of Sthenelus, she
solicited the aid of Lucina; who immediately repaired to the house
of Alcmena, and in the form of an old woman, sat near the door
with her legs crossed, and her fingers joined. In this posture she
uttered some magical words, which served to prolong the labours
of Alcmena, and render her state the more miserable. Alcmena had
already passed some days in the most excruciating torments, when
Galanthis began to suspect the jealousy of Juno; and concluded
that the old woman, who continued at the door always in the same
unchanged posture, was the instrument of the anger of the goddess.
With such suspicions Galanthis ran out of the house, and with a
countenance expressive of joy, she informed the old woman that her
mistress had just brought forth. Lucina, at the words, rose from her
posture, and that instant Alcmena was safely delivered. The uncommon
laugh which Galanthis raised upon this, made Lucina suspect that she
had been deceived. She seized Galanthis by the hair, and threw her
on the ground; and while she attempted to resist, she was changed
into a weasel, and condemned to bring forth her young, in the most
agonizing pains, by the mouth, by which she had uttered falsehood.
This transformation alludes to a vulgar notion among the ancients,
who believed this of the weasel, because she carries her young in
her mouth, and continually shifts from place to place. The Bœotians
paid great veneration to the weasel, which, as they supposed,
facilitated the labours of Alcmena. _Ælian_, _De Natura Animalium_,
bk. 2.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 9, fable 6.
=Galăta=, a town of Syria.――――An island near Sicily.――――A town of
Sicily.――――A mountain of Phocis.
=Gălătæ=, the inhabitants of Galatia. _See:_ Galatia.
=Gălătæa= and =Galathæa=, a sea-nymph, daughter of Nereus and Doris.
She was passionately loved by the Cyclops Polyphemus, whom she
treated with coolness and disdain; while Acis, a shepherd of Sicily,
enjoyed her unbounded affection. The happiness of these two lovers
was disturbed by the jealousy of the Cyclops, who crushed his rival
to pieces with a piece of a broken rock, while he sat in the bosom
of Galatæa. Galatæa was inconsolable for the loss of Acis, and as
she could not restore him to life, she changed him into a fountain.
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 13, li. 789.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9,
li. 103.――――The daughter of a Celtic king, from whom the Gauls were
called Galatæ. _Ammianus_, bk. 15.――――A country girl, &c. _Virgil_,
_Eclogues_, poem 3.
=Gălătia=, or =Gallogræcia=, a country of Asia Minor, between Phrygia,
the Euxine, Cappadocia, and Bithynia. It received its name from the
Gauls, who migrated there under Brennus, some time after the sacking
of Rome. _Strabo_, bk. 12.――_Justin_, bk. 37, ch. 4.――_Livy_, bk. 38,
chs. 12, 40.――_Lucan_, bk. 7, li. 540.――_Cicero_, bk. 6, _Letters to
Atticus_, ltr. 5.――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 32.――_Ptolemy_, bk. 5, ch. 4.
――――The name of ancient Gaul among the Greeks.
=Galaxia=, a festival, in which they boiled a mixture of barley, pulse,
and milk, called Γαλαξια by the Greeks.
=Galba=, a surname of the first of the Sulpicii, from the smallness of
his stature. The word signifies a small worm, or according to some,
it implies, in the language of Gaul, fatness, for which the founder
of the Sulpician family was remarkable.――――A king among the Gauls,
who made war against Julius Cæsar. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 2, ch.
4.――――A brother of the emperor Galba, who killed himself, &c.――――A
mean buffoon, in the age of Tiberius. _Juvenal_, satire 5, li. 4.
――――Servius, a lawyer at Rome, who defended the cause of adulterers
with great warmth, as being one of the fraternity. Horace ridicules
him, bk. 1, satire 2, li. 46.――――Servius Sulpicius, a Roman who
rose gradually to the greatest offices of the state, and exercised
his power in the provinces with equity and unremitted diligence.
He dedicated the greatest part of his time to solitary pursuits,
chiefly to avoid the suspicions of Nero. His disapprobation of the
emperor’s oppressive command in the provinces, was the cause of new
disturbances. Nero ordered him to be put to death, but he escaped
from the hands of the executioner, and was publicly saluted emperor.
When he was seated on the throne, he suffered himself to be governed
by favourites, who exposed to sale the goods of the citizens to
gratify their avarice. Exemptions were sold at a high price, and
the crime of murder was blotted out, and impunity purchased with a
large sum of money. Such irregularities in the emperor’s ministers
greatly displeased the people; and when Galba refused to pay the
soldiers the money which he had promised them when he was raised
to the throne, they assassinated him in the 73rd year of his age,
and in the eighth of his reign, and proclaimed Otho emperor in his
room, January 16th, A.D. 69. The virtues which had shone so bright
in Galba, when a private man, totally disappeared when he ascended
the
throne; and he who showed himself the most impartial judge, forgot
the duties of an emperor, and of a father of his people. _Suetonius_
& _Plutarch_, _Lives_.――_Tacitus._――――A learned man, grandfather
to the emperor of the same name. _Suetonius_, _Galba_, ch. 4.
――――Sergius, a celebrated orator before the age of Cicero. He showed
his sons to the Roman people, and implored their protection by which
means he saved himself from the punishment which either his guilt or
the persuasive eloquence of his adversaries, Marcus Cato and Lucius
Scribonius, urged as due to him. _Cicero_, _On Oratory_, bk. 1,
ch. 53; _Rhetorica ad Herennium_, bk. 4, ch. 5.
=Galēnus Claudius=, a celebrated physician in the age of Marcus
Antoninus and his successors, born at Pergamus, the son of an
architect. He applied himself with unremitted labour to the study
of philosophy, mathematics, and chiefly of physic. He visited the
most learned seminaries of Greece and Egypt; and at last came to
Rome, where he soon rendered himself famous by his profession. Many,
astonished at his cures, attributed them to magic, and said that
he had received all his knowledge from enchantments. He was very
intimate with Marcus Aurelius the emperor, after whose death he
returned to Pergamus, where he died, in his 90th year, A.D. 193.
He wrote no less than 300 volumes, the greatest part of which were
burnt in the temple of Peace at Rome, where they had been deposited.
Galenus confessed himself greatly indebted to the writings of
Hippocrates for his medical knowledge, and bestowed great encomiums
upon him. To the diligence, application, and experiments of these
two celebrated physicians, the moderns are indebted for many useful
discoveries; yet often their opinions are ill-grounded, their
conclusions hasty, and their reasoning false. What remains of the
works of Galen has been published, without a Latin translation, in 5
vols., folio, Basil. 1538. Galen was likewise edited, together with
Hippocrates, by Charterius, 13 vols., folio, Paris, 1679, but very
incorrect.
=Galeolæ=, certain prophets in Sicily. _Cicero._
=Galeria=, one of the Roman tribes.――――The wife of Vitellius. _Cæsar._
――_Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 2, ch. 60.――――Faustina, the wife of
the emperor Antoninus Pius.
=Gălērius=, a native of Dacia, made emperor of Rome by Diocletian.
_See:_ Maximianus.
=Gălēsus=, now _Galeso_, a river of Calabria, flowing into the bay
of Tarentum. The poets have celebrated it for the shady groves in
its neighbourhood, and the fine sheep which feed on its fertile
banks, and whose fleeces were said to be rendered soft when they
bathed in the stream. _Martial_, bk. 2, ltr. 43; bk. 4, ltr. 28.
――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 4, li. 126.――_Horace_, bk. 2, ode 6,
li. 10.――――A rich person of Latium, killed as he attempted to make a
reconciliation between the Trojans and Rutulians, when Ascanius had
killed the favourite stag of Tyrrheus; which was the prelude to all
the enmities between the hostile nations. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7,
li. 335.
=Galilæa=, a celebrated country of Syria, often mentioned in Scripture.
=Galinthiadia=, a festival at Thebes, in honour of Galinthias,
a daughter of Prœtus. It was celebrated before the festival of
Hercules, by whose orders it was first instituted.
=Galli=, a nation of Europe, naturally fierce, and inclined to war.
They were very superstitious, and in their sacrifices they often
immolated human victims. In some places they had large statues made
with twigs, which they filled with men, and reduced to ashes. They
believed themselves descended from Pluto; and from that circumstance
they always reckoned their time not by the days, as other nations,
but by the nights. Their obsequies were splendid, and not only
the most precious things, but even slaves and oxen, were burnt
on the funeral pile. Children, among them, never appeared in the
presence of their fathers, before they were able to bear arms in the
defence of their country. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_.――_Strabo_, bk. 4.
――_Tacitus._ _See:_ Gallia.――――The priests of Cybele, who received
that name from the river Gallus, in Phrygia, where they celebrated
the festivals. They mutilated themselves, before they were admitted
to the priesthood, in imitation of Atys the favourite of Cybele.
_See:_ Atys. The chief among them was called Archigallus, who in
his dress resembled a woman, and carried suspended to his neck a
large collar, with two representations of the head of Atys. _See:_
Corybantes, Dactyli, &c. _Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 4,
li. 36.――_Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 466.――_Lucian_, _de Deâ Syriâ_.
=Gallia=, a large country of Europe, called Galatia by the Greeks. The
inhabitants were called _Galli_, _Celtiberi_, and _Celtoscythæ_, by
themselves _Celtæ_, by the Greeks _Galatæ_. Ancient Gaul was divided
into four different parts by the Romans, called Gallia Belgica,
Narbonensis, Aquitania, and Celtica. Gallia _Belgia_ was the largest
province, bounded by Germany, Gallia Narbonensis, and the German
ocean; and contained the modern country of Alsace, Lorraine, Picardy
with part of the Low Countries, and of Champagne, and of the isle
of France. Gallia _Narbonensis_, which contained the provinces now
called Languedoc, Provence, Dauphinè, Savoy, was bounded by the Alps
and Pyrenean mountains, by Aquitania, Belgium, and the Mediterranean.
_Aquitania_ Gallia, now called the provinces of Poitou, Santonge,
Guienne, Berry, Perigord, Quercy, Limosin, Gascony, Auvergne, &c.,
was situate between the Garumna, the Pyrenean mountains, and the
ocean. Gallia _Celtica_, or _Lugdunensis_, was bounded by Belgium,
Gallia Narbonensis, the Alps, and the ocean. It contained the
country at present known by the name of Lyonnais, Touraine, Franche
Comté, Senenois, Switzerland, and part of Normandy. Besides these
great divisions, there is often mention made of Gallia Cisalpina,
or Citerior; Transalpina, or Ulterior, which refers to that part of
Italy which was conquered by some of the Gauls who crossed the Alps.
By Gallia _Cisalpina_, the Romans understood that part of Gaul which
lies in Italy; and by _Transalpina_, that which lies beyond the
Alps, in regard only to the inhabitants of Rome. Gallia _Cispadana_,
and _Transpadana_, is applied to a part of Italy, conquered by some
of the Gauls, and then it means the country on this side of the
Po, or beyond the Po, with respect to Rome. By Gallia _Togata_,
the Romans understood Cisalpine Gaul, where the Roman gowns, _togæ_,
were usually worn, as the inhabitants had been admitted to the rank
of citizenship at Rome. Gallia Narbonensis was called _Braccata_,
on account of the peculiar covering of the inhabitants for their
thighs. The epithet of _Comata_ is applied to Gallia Celtica, because
the people suffered their hair to grow to an uncommon length. The
inhabitants were great warriors; and their valour overcame the Roman
armies, took the city of Rome, and invaded Greece, in different ages.
They spread themselves over the greatest part of the world. They were
very superstitious in their religious ceremonies, and revered the
sacerdotal order as if they had been gods. _See:_ Druidæ. They long
maintained a bloody war against the Romans; and Cæsar resided 10
years in their country before he could totally subdue them. _Cæsar_,
_Gallic War_.――_Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 6.――_Strabo_, bk. 5, &c.
=Gallicānus mons=, a mountain of Campania.
=Gallĭcus ager=, was applied to the country between Picenum and
Ariminum, whence the Galli Senones were banished, and which was
divided among the Roman citizens. _Livy_, bk. 23, ch. 14; bk. 39,
ch. 44.――_Cicero_, _Against Catiline_, bk. 2.――_Cæsar_, _Civil War_,
bk. 1, ch. 29.――――Sinus, a part of the Mediterranean on the coast of
Gaul, now called the gulf of Lyons.
=Galliēnus Publius Lucinius=, a son of the emperor Valerian. He
reigned conjointly with his father for seven years, and ascended
the throne as sole emperor, A.D. 260. In his youth he showed his
activity and military character, in an expedition against the
Germans and Sarmatæ; but when he came to the purple, he delivered
himself up to pleasure and indolence. His time was spent in the
greatest debauchery; and he indulged himself in the grossest and
most lascivious manner, and his palace displayed a scene, at once
of effeminacy and shame, voluptuousness and immorality. He often
appeared with his hair powdered with golden dust; and enjoyed
tranquillity at home, while his provinces abroad were torn by civil
quarrels and seditions. He heard of the loss of a rich province, and
of the execution of a malefactor, with the same indifference; and
when he was apprised that Egypt had revolted, he only observed, that
he could live without the produce of Egypt. He was of a disposition
naturally inclined to raillery and the ridicule of others. When
his wife had been deceived by a jeweller, Gallienus ordered the
malefactor to be placed in the circus, in expectation of being
exposed to the ferocity of a lion. While the wretch trembled at
the expectation of instant death, the executioner, by order of the
emperor, let loose a capon upon him. An uncommon laugh was raised
upon this, and the emperor observed, that he who had deceived
others should expect to be deceived himself. In the midst of these
ridiculous diversions, Gallienus was alarmed by the revolt of two of
his officers, who had assumed the imperial purple. This intelligence
roused him from his lethargy; he marched against his antagonists,
and put all the rebels to the sword, without showing the least
favour either to rank, sex, or age. These cruelties irritated the
people and the army; emperors were elected, and no less than 30
tyrants aspired to the imperial purple. Gallienus resolved boldly to
oppose his adversaries; but in the midst of his preparations he was
assassinated at Milan by some of his officers, in the 50th year of
his age, A.D. 268.
=Gallinaria sylva=, a wood near Cumæ in Italy, famous as being the
retreat of robbers. _Juvenal_, satire 3, li. 307.
=Gallipŏlis=, a fortified town of the Salentines, on the Ionian sea.
=Gallogræcia=, a country of Asia Minor, near Bithynia and Cappadocia.
It was inhabited by a colony of Gauls, who assumed the name of
_Gallogræci_, because a number of Greeks had accompanied them in
their emigration. _Strabo_, bk. 2.
=Caius Gallōnius=, a Roman knight appointed over Gades, &c.
=P. Gallōnius=, a luxurious Roman, who, as was observed, never dined
well, because he was never hungry. _Cicero_, _de Finibus Bonorum et
Malorum_, bk. 2, chs. 8 & 28.
=Gallus.= _See:_ Alectryon.――――A general of Otho, &c. _Plutarch._――――A
lieutenant of Sylla.――――An officer of Marcus Antony, &c.――――Caius, a
friend of the great Africanus, famous for his knowledge of astronomy,
and his exact calculation of eclipses. _Cicero_, _de Senectute_.
――――Ælius, the third governor of Egypt in the age of Augustus.
――――Cornelius, a Roman knight, who rendered himself famous by his
poetical, as well as military talents. He was passionately fond of
the slave Lycoris, or Cytheris, and celebrated her beauty in his
poetry. She proved ungrateful, and forsook him to follow Marcus
Antony, which gave occasion to Virgil to write his tenth eclogue.
Gallus, as well as the other poets of his age, was in the favour of
Augustus, by whom he was appointed over Egypt. He became forgetful
of the favours he received; he pillaged the province, and even
conspired against his benefactor, according to some accounts, for
which he was banished by the emperor. This disgrace operated so
powerfully upon him, that he killed himself in despair, A.D. 26.
Some few fragments remain of his poetry, and it seems that he
particularly excelled in elegiac compositions. It is said that
Virgil wrote a eulogium on his poetical friend, and inserted it
at the end of his Georgics; but that he totally suppressed it, for
fear of offending his imperial patron, of whose favours Gallus had
shown himself so undeserving, and instead of that he substituted
the beautiful episode about Aristæus and Eurydice. This eulogium,
according to some, was suppressed at the particular desire of
Augustus. _Quintilian_, bk. 10, ch. 8.――_Virgil_, _Eclogues_, poems
6 & 10.――_Ovid_, _Ars Amatoria_, bk. 3, poem 15, li. 29.――――Vibius
Gallus, a celebrated orator of Gaul in the age of Augustus, of
whose orations Seneca has preserved some fragments.――――A Roman who
assassinated Decius the emperor, and raised himself to the throne.
He showed himself indolent and cruel, and beheld with the greatest
indifference the revolt of his provinces, and the invasion of
his empire, by the barbarians. He was at last assassinated by his
soldiers, A.D. 253.――――Flavius Claudius Constantinus, a brother of
the emperor Julian, raised to the imperial throne under the title
of Cæsar, by Constantius his relation. He conspired against his
benefactor, and was publicly condemned to be beheaded, A.D. 354.
――――A small river of Phrygia, whose waters were said to be very
efficacious, if drunk in moderation, in curing madness. _Pliny_,
bk. 32, ch. 2.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 4, li. 361.
=Gamaxus=, an Indian prince, brought in chains before Alexander for
revolting.
=Gamelia=, a surname of Juno, as _Gamelius_ was of Jupiter, on
account of their presiding over marriages.――――A festival privately
observed at three different times. The first was the celebration
of a marriage, the second was in commemoration of a birthday, and
the third was an anniversary of the death of a person. As it was
observed generally on the 1st of January, marriages on that day
were considered as of a good omen, and the month was called Gemelion
among the Athenians. _Cicero_, _de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum_,
bk. 2, ch. 31.
=Gandarītæ=, an Indian nation.
=Gangama=, a place near the Palus Mæotis.
=Gangrărĭdæ=, a people near the mouths of the Ganges. They were so
powerful that Alexander did not dare to attack them. Some attributed
this to the weariness and indolence of his troops. They were placed
by Valer. Flaccus among the deserts of Scythia. _Justin_, bk. 12,
ch. 8.――_Curtius_, bk. 9, ch. 2.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 27.
――_Flaccus_, bk. 6, li. 67.
=Ganges=, a large river of India, falling into the Indian ocean, said
by Lucan to be the boundary of Alexander’s victories in the east.
It inundates the adjacent country in the summer. Like other rivers,
it was held in the greatest veneration by the inhabitants, and this
superstition is said to exist still in some particular instances.
The Ganges is now discovered to rise in the mountains of Thibet, and
to run upwards of 2000 miles before it reaches the sea, receiving in
its course the tribute of several rivers, 11 of which are superior
to the Thames, and often equal to the great body of the waters of
the Rhine. _Lucan_, bk. 3, li. 230.――_Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Pliny_,
bk. 6, ch. 87.――_Curtius_, bk. 8, ch. 9.――_Mela_, bk. 3, ch. 7.
――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 31.
=Gannascus=, an ally of Rome, put to death by Corbulo the Roman
general, &c. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 11, ch. 18.
=Găny̆mēde=, a goddess, better known by the name of Hebe. She was
worshipped under this name in a temple at Phlius in Peloponnesus.
_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 13.
=Găny̆mēdes=, a beautiful youth of Phrygia, son of Tros, and brother
to Ilus and Assaracus. According to Lucan, he was son of Dardanus.
He was taken up to heaven by Jupiter as he was hunting, or rather
tending his father’s flocks on mount Ida, and he became the
cup-bearer of the gods in the place of Hebe. Some say that he was
carried away by an eagle, to satisfy the shameful and unnatural
desires of Jupiter. He is generally represented sitting on the back
of a flying eagle in the air. _Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 24.――_Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 28, li. 231.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 5, li. 252.
――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 10, li. 155.――_Horace_, bk. 4, ode 4.
=Garætĭcum=, a town of Africa.
=Gărămantes= (singular, Garamas), a people in the interior parts of
Africa, now called the deserts of Zara. They lived in common, and
acknowledged as their own only such children as resembled them,
and scarce clothed themselves, on account of the warmth of their
climate. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 4, li. 198; bk. 6, li. 795.――_Lucan_,
bk. 4, li. 334.――_Strabo_, bk. 2.――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 8.――_Silius
Italicus_, bk. 1, li. 142; bk. 11, li. 181.
=Gărămantis=, a nymph who became mother of Iarbas, Phileus, and
Pilumnus by Jupiter. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 4, li. 198.
=Gărămas=, a king of Libya, whose daughter was mother of Ammon by
Jupiter.
=Gărătas=, a river of Arcadia, near Tegea, on the banks of which Pan
had a temple. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 44.
=Gareătæ=, a people of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 45.
=Gareathyra=, a town of Cappadocia. _Strabo_, bk. 12.
=Gargānus=, now _St. Angelo_, a lofty mountain of Apulia, which
advances in the form of a promontory into the Adriatic sea. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 11, li. 257.――_Lucan_, bk. 5, li. 880.
=Gargăphia=, a valley near Platæa, with a fountain of the same name,
where Actæon was torn to pieces by his dogs. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 3, li. 156.
=Gargăris=, a king of the Curetes, who first found the manner of
collecting honey. He had a son by his daughter, whom he attempted in
vain to destroy. He made him his successor. _Justin_, bk. 44, ch. 44.
=Gargărus= (plural, a, orum), a town and mountain of Troas, near mount
Ida, famous for its fertility. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 1, li. 103.
――_Macrobius_, bk. 5, ch. 20.――_Strabo_, bk. 13.――_Pliny_, bk. 5,
ch. 30.
=Gargettus=, a village of Attica, the birthplace of Epicurus. _Cicero_,
_Letters to his Friends_, bk. 15, ltr. 16.
=Gargĭlius Martialis=, an historian.――――A celebrated hunter. _Horace_,
bk. 1, ltr. 6, li. 57.
=Gargittius=, a dog which kept Geryon’s flocks. He was killed by
Hercules.
=Garĭtes=, a people of Aquitain, in Gaul.
=Garumna=, a river of Gaul, now called _Garonne_, rising in the
Pyrenean mountains, and separating Gallia Celtica from Aquitania.
It falls into the bay of Biscay, and has, by the persevering labours
of ♦Louis XIV., a communication with the Mediterranean by the canal
of Languedoc, carried upwards of 100 miles through hills, and over
valleys. _Mela_, bk. 3, ch. 2.
♦ ‘Lewis’ replaced with ‘Louis’
=Gastron=, a general of Lacedæmon, &c. _Polybius_, bk. 2.
=Gatheæ=, a town of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 34.
=Gatheatas=, a river of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 34.
=Gaugramēla=, a village near Arbela, beyond the Tigris, where
Alexander obtained his third victory over Darius. _Curtius_, bk. 4,
ch. 9.――_Strabo_, bks. 2 & 16.
=Gaulus= and =Gauleon=, an island in the Mediterranean sea, opposite
Libya. It produces no venomous creatures. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 8.
=Gaurus=, a mountain of Campania, famous for its wines. _Lucan_, bk. 2,
li. 667.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 12, li. 160.――_Statius_, bk. 3,
_Sylvæ_, poem 5, li. 99.
=Gaus= and =Gaos=, a man who followed the interest of Artaxerxes,
from whom he revolted, and by whom he was put to death. _Diodorus_,
bk. 15.
=Gaza=, a famous town of Palestine, once well fortified, as being the
frontier place on the confines of Egypt. Alexander took it after a
siege of two months. _Diodorus_, bk. 17.
=Gebenna=, a town and mountain of Gaul. _Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 435.
=Gēdrōsia=, a barren province of Persia near India. _Strabo_, bk. 2.
=Gegănii=, a family of Alba, part of which migrated to Rome, under
Romulus. One of the daughters, called Gegania, was the first of the
vestals created by Numa. _Plutarch_, _Numa_.
=Gĕla=, a town on the southern parts of Sicily, about 10 miles from
the sea, according to Ptolemy, which received its name from a
small river in the neighbourhood, called _Gelas_. It was built by
a Rhodian and Cretan colony, 713 years before the christian era.
After it had continued in existence 404 years, Phintias tyrant of
Agrigentum carried the inhabitants to _Phintias_, a town in the
neighbourhood, which he had founded, and he employed the stones of
Gela to beautify his own city. Phintias was also called Gela. The
inhabitants were called _Gelenses_, _Geloi_, and _Gelani_. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 702.――_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 46.
=Gelānor=, a king of Argos, who succeeded his father, and was deprived
of his kingdom by Danaus the Egyptian. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 16.
_See:_ Danaus.
=Gellia Cornelia lex=, _de Civitate_, by Lucius Gellius and Cnæus
Cornelius Lentulus, A.U.C. 682. It enacted that all those who had
been presented with the privilege of citizens of Rome by Pompey
should remain in the possession of that liberty.
=Gellias=, a native of Agrigentum, famous for his munificence and his
hospitality. _Diodorus_, bk. 13.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 4, ch. 8.
=Gellius=, a censor, &c. _Plutarch_, _Pompey_.――――A consul who defeated
a party of Germans, in the interest of Spartacus. _Plutarch._
=Aulus Gellius=, a Roman grammarian in the age of Marcus Antonius,
about 130 A.D. He published a work which he called _Noctes Atticæ_,
because he composed it at Athens during the long nights of the
winter. It is a collection of incongruous matter, which contains
many fragments from the ancient writers, and often serves to explain
antique monuments. It was originally composed for the improvement
of his children, and abounds with many grammatical remarks. The best
editions of Aulus Gellius are that of Gronovius, 4to, Leiden, 1706,
and that of Conrad, 2 vols., 8vo, Lipscomb, 1762.
=Gelo= and =Gelon=, a son of Dinomenes, who made himself absolute
at Syracuse, 491 years before the christian era. He conquered the
Carthaginians at Himera, and made his oppression popular by his
great equity and moderation. He reigned seven years, and his death
was universally lamented at Syracuse. He was called the father of
his people, and the patron of liberty, and honoured as a demigod.
His brother Hiero succeeded him. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 42.
――_Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 153, &c.――_Diodorus_, bk. 11.――――A man who
attempted to poison Pyrrhus.――――A governor of Bœotia.――――A son of
Hiero the younger. _Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 9.――――A general of Phocis,
destroyed with his troops by the Thessalians. _Pausanias_, bk. 10,
ch. 1.
=Geloi=, the inhabitants of _Gela_. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 701.
=Gĕlōnes= and =Gĕlōni=, a people of Scythia, inured from their youth
to labour and fatigue. They painted themselves to appear more
terrible in battle. They were descended from Gelonus, a son of
Hercules. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 2, li. 15; _Æneid_, bk. 8,
li. 725,――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 1.――_Claudian_, _Against Rufinus_,
bk. 1, li. 315.
=Gelos=, a port of Caira. _Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 16.
=Gemĭni=, a sign of the zodiac which represents Castor and Pollux, the
twin sons of Leda.
=Gemĭnius=, a Roman, who acquainted Marcus Antony with the situation
of his affairs at Rome, &c.――――An inveterate enemy of Marius. He
seized the person of Marius, and carried him to Minturnæ. _Plutarch_,
_Caius Marius_.――――A friend of Pompey, from whom he received a
favourite mistress called Flora. _Plutarch._
=Gemĭnus=, an astronomer and mathematician of Rhodes, B.C. 77.
=Gemoniæ=, a place at Rome where the carcases of criminals were thrown.
_Suetonius_, _Tiberius_, chs. 53 & 61.――_Tacitus_, _Histories_,
bk. 3, ch. 74.
=Genābum=, a town of Gaul, now _Orleans_, on the Loire. _Cæsar_,
_Civil War_, bk. 7, ch. 3.――_Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 440.
=Genauni=, a people of Vindelicia. _Horace_, bk. 4, ode 14, li. 10.
=Gēnēva=, an ancient, populous, and well-fortified city in the country
of the Allobroges on the lake Lemanus, now of Geneva.
=Genīsus=, a man of Cyzicus, killed by the Argonauts, &c. _Flaccus_,
bk. 3, li. 45.
=Genius=, a spirit or dæmon, which, according to the ancients,
presided over the birth and life of every man. _See:_ Dæmon.
=Gensĕric=, a famous Vandal prince, who passed from Spain to Africa,
where he took Carthage. He laid the foundation of the Vandal kingdom
in Africa, and in the course of his military expeditions invaded
Italy, and sacked Rome in July, 455.
=Gentius=, a king of Illyricum, who imprisoned the Roman ambassadors at
the request of Perseus king of Macedonia. This offence was highly
resented by the Romans, and Gentius was conquered by Anicius, and
led in triumph with his family, B.C. 169. _Livy_, bk. 43, ch. 19, &c.
=Genua=, now _Genoa_, a celebrated town of Liguria, which Annibal
destroyed. It was rebuilt by the Romans. _Livy_, bk. 21, ch. 32;
bk. 28, ch. 46; bk. 30, ch. 1.
=Genūcius=, a tribune of the people.――――A consul.
=Genŭsus=, now _Semno_, a river of Macedonia, falling into the Adriatic
above Apollonia. _Lucan_, bk. 5, li. 462.
=Genutia lex=, _de magistratibus_, by Lucius Genutius the tribune,
A.U.C. 411. It ordained that no person should exercise the same
magistracy within 10 years, or be invested with two offices in one
year.
=Georgĭca=, a poem of Virgil in four books. The first treats of
ploughing the ground; the second of sowing it; the third speaks of
the management of cattle, &c.; and in the fourth, the poet gives an
account of bees, and of the manner of keeping them among the Romans.
The word is derived from γεα _terra_, and ἐργον _opus_, because it
particularly treats or husbandry. The work is dedicated to Mæcenas,
the great patron of poetry in the age of Virgil. The author was
seven years in writing and polishing it, and in that composition he
showed how much he excelled all other writers. He imitated Hesiod,
who wrote a poem nearly on the same subject, called _Works and Days_.
=Georgius Pisida.= _See:_ Pisida.
=Gephȳra=, one of the cities of the Seleucidæ in Syria. _Strabo_,
bk. 9.
=Gephȳræi=, a people of Phœnicia, who passed with Cadmus into Bœotia,
and from thence into Attica. _Herodotus_, bk. 5, ch. 57.
=Geræstus=, a port of Eubœa. _Livy_, bk. 31, ch. 45.
=Gerānia=, a mountain between Megara and Corinth.
=Geranthræ=, a town of Laconia. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 2.
=Geresticus=, a harbour of Teios in Ionia. _Livy_, bk. 37, ch. 27.
=Gergithum=, a town near Cumæ in Æolia _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 30.
=Gergōvia=, a town of Gaul. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 7, ch. 9.
=Gerion=, an ancient augur.
=Germānia=, an extensive country of Europe, at the east of Gaul. Its
inhabitants were warlike, fierce, and uncivilized, and always proved
a watchful enemy against the Romans. Cæsar first entered their
country, but he rather checked their fury than conquered them. His
example was followed by his imperial successors or their generals,
who sometimes entered the country to chastise the insolence of
the inhabitants. The ancient Germans were very superstitious, and,
in many instances, their religion was the same as that of their
neighbours the Gauls; whence some have concluded that these two
nations were of the same origin. They paid uncommon respect to their
women, who, as they believed, were endowed with something more than
human. They built no temples to their gods, and paid great attention
to the heroes and warriors whom the country had produced. Their rude
institutions gradually gave rise to the laws and manners which still
prevail in the countries of Europe, which their arms invaded or
conquered. Tacitus, in whose age even letters were unknown among
them, observed their customs with nicety, and has delineated them
with the genius of an historian and the reflection of a philosopher.
_Tacitus_, _Germania_.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 3; bk. 3, ch. 3.――_Cæsar_,
_Gallic War_.――_Strabo_, bk. 4.
=Germānĭcus Cæsar=, a son of Drusus and Antonia the niece of Augustus.
He was adopted by his uncle Tiberius, and raised to the most
important offices of the state. When his grandfather Augustus
died, he was employed in a war in Germany, and the affection
of the soldiers unanimously saluted him emperor. He refused the
unseasonable honour, and appeased the tumult which his indifference
occasioned. He continued his wars in Germany, and defeated the
celebrated Arminius, and was rewarded with a triumph at his return
to Rome. Tiberius declared him emperor of the east, and sent him
to appease the seditions of the Armenians. But the success of
Germanicus in the east was soon looked upon with an envious eye by
Tiberius, and his death was meditated. He was secretly poisoned at
Daphne near Antioch by Piso, A.D. 19, in the 34th year of his age.
The news of his death was received with the greatest grief and the
most bitter lamentations, and Tiberius seemed to be the only one
who rejoiced in the fall of Germanicus. He had married Agrippina,
by whom he had nine children, one of whom, Caligula, disgraced the
name of his illustrious father. Germanicus has been commended not
only for his military accomplishments, but also for his learning,
humanity, and extensive benevolence. In the midst of war, he devoted
some moments to study, and he favoured the world with two Greek
comedies, some epigrams, and a translation of Aratus in Latin verse.
_Suetonius._――――This name was common in the age of the emperors, not
only to those who had obtained victories over the Germans, but even
to those who had entered the borders of their country at the head of
an army. Domitian applied the name of _Germanicus_, which he himself
had vainly assumed, to the month of September, in honour of himself.
_Suetonius_, _Domitian_, ch. 13.――_Martial_, bk. 9, ltr. 2, li. 4.
=Germanii=, a people of Persia. _Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 125.
=Geronthræ=, a town of Laconia, where a yearly festival, called
_Geronthræa_, was observed in honour of Mars. The god had there
a temple with a grove, into which no woman was permitted to enter
during the time of the solemnity. _Pausanias_, _Laconia_.
♦=Gerrhæ=, a people of Scythia, in whose country the Borysthenes rises.
The kings of Scythia were generally buried in their territories.
_Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 71.
♦ ‘Gerhæ’ replaced with ‘Gerrhæ’
=Gersus= and =Gerrhus=, a river of Scythia. _Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 56.
=Gēryon= and =Gēryŏnes=, a celebrated monster, born from the union
of Chrysaor with Callirhoe, and represented by the poets as having
three bodies and three heads. He lived in the island of Gades, where
he kept numerous flocks, which were guarded by a two-headed dog,
called Orthos, and by Eurythion. Hercules, by order of Eurystheus,
went to Gades and destroyed Geryon, Orthos, and Eurythion, and
carried away all his flocks and herds to Tirynthus. _Hesiod_,
_Theogony_, li. 187.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 661; bk. 8,
li. 202.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 1, li. 277.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2.
――_Lucretius_, bk. 5, li. 28.
=Gessătæ=, a people of Gallia Togata. _Plutarch_, _Marcellus_.
=Gessoriăcum=, a town of Gaul, now _Boulogne_, in Picardy.
=Gessos=, a river of Ionia.
=Geta=, a man who raised seditions at Rome in Nero’s reign, &c.
_Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 2, ch. 72.――――Septimius, a son of the
emperor Severus, brother to Caracalla. In the eighth year of his age
he was moved with compassion at the fate of some of the partisans
of Niger and Albinus, who had been ordered to be executed; and his
father, struck with his humanity, retracted his sentence. After his
father’s death he reigned at Rome, conjointly with his brother; but
Caracalla, who envied his virtues, and was jealous of his popularity,
ordered him to be poisoned; and when this could not be effected, he
murdered him in the arms of his mother Julia, who, in the attempt
of defending the fatal blows from his body, received a wound in her
arm from the hand of her son, the 28th of March, A.D. 212. Geta had
not reached the 23rd year of his age, and the Romans had reason to
lament the death of so virtuous a prince, whilst they groaned under
the cruelties and oppression of Caracalla.
=Getæ= (singular, Getes), a people of European Scythia, near the
Daci. Ovid, who was banished in their country, describes them as a
savage and warlike nation. The word _Geticus_ is frequently used for
Thracian. _Ovid_, _ex Ponto_; _Tristia_, poem 5, li. 111.――_Strabo_,
bk. 7.――_Statius_, bk. 2, _Sylvæ_, poem 2, li. 61; bk. 3, poem 1,
li. 17.――_Lucan_, bk. 2, li. 54; bk. 3, li. 95.
=Getulia.= _See:_ Gætulia.
=Gĭgantes=, the sons of Cœlus and Terra, who, according to Hesiod,
sprang from the blood of the wound which Cœlus received from his
son Saturn; whilst Hyginus calls them sons of Tartarus and Terra.
They are represented as men of uncommon stature, and with strength
proportioned to their gigantic size. Some of them, as Cottus,
Briareus, and Gyges, had 50 heads and 100 arms, and serpents instead
of legs. They were of a terrible aspect; their hair hung loose about
their shoulders, and their beards were suffered to grow untouched.
Pallene and its neighbourhood was the place of their residence. The
defeat of the Titans, with whom they are often ignorantly confounded,
and to whom they were nearly related, incensed them against Jupiter,
and they all conspired to dethrone him. The god was alarmed, and
called all the deities to assist him against a powerful enemy
who made use of rocks, oaks, and burning woods for their weapons,
and who had already heaped mount Ossa upon Pelion, to scale with
more facility the walls of heaven. At the sight of such dreadful
adversaries, the gods fled with the greatest consternation into
Egypt, where they assumed the shape of different animals to screen
themselves from their pursuers. Jupiter, however, remembered
that they were not invincible, provided he called a mortal to his
assistance; and by the advice of Pallas, he armed his son Hercules
in his cause. With the aid of this celebrated hero, the giants were
soon put to flight and defeated. Some were crushed to pieces under
mountains, or buried in the sea, and others were flayed alive, or
beaten to death with clubs. _See:_ Enceladus, Aloides, Porphyrion,
Typhon, Otus, Titanes, &c. The existence of giants has been
supported by all the writers of antiquity, and received as an
undeniable truth. Homer tells us that Tityus, when extended on
the ground, covered nine acres; and that Polyphemus ate two of
the companions of Ulysses at once, and walked along the shores of
Sicily, leaning on a staff which might have served for the mast of
a ship. The Grecian heroes, during the Trojan war, and Turnus in
Italy, attacked their enemies by throwing stones, which four men of
the succeeding ages would have been unable to move. Plutarch also
mentions, in support of the gigantic stature, that Sertorius opened
the grave of Antæus in Africa, and found a skeleton which measured
six cubits in length. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 6.――_Pausanias_, bk.
1, ch. 2, &c.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, li. 151.――_Plutarch_,
_Sertorius_.――_Hyginus_, fable 28, &c.――_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bks. 7 &
10.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 1, li. 280; _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 580.
=Gigartum=, a town of Phœnicia.
=Gigis=, one of the female attendants of Parysatis, who was privy to
the poisoning of Statira. _Plutarch_, _Artaxerxes_.
=Gildo=, a governor of Africa in the reign of Arcadius. He died A.D.
398.
=Gillo=, an infamous adulterer in Juvenal’s age. _Juvenal_, satire 1,
li. 40.
=Gindanes=, a people of Libya, who fed on the leaves of the lotus.
_Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 176.
=Gindes=, a river of Albania, flowing into the Cyrus.――――Another of
Mesopotamia. _Tibullus_, bk. 4, poem 1, li. 141.
=Ginge.= _See:_ Gigis.
=Gingūnum=, a mountain of Umbria.
=Gippius=, a Roman who pretended to sleep, that his wife might indulge
her adulterous propensities, &c.
=Gisco=, son of Himilcon the Carthaginian general, was banished from
his country by the influence of his enemies. He was afterwards
recalled, and empowered by the Carthaginians to punish in what
manner he pleased those who had occasioned his banishment. He was
satisfied to see them prostrate on the ground and to place his foot
on their neck, showing that independence and forgiveness are two of
the most brilliant virtues of a great mind. He was made a general
soon after, in Sicily, against the Corinthians, about 309 years
before the christian era; and by his success and intrepidity he
obliged the enemies of his country to sue for peace.
=Glădiătōrii ludi=, combats originally exhibited on the grave of
deceased persons at Rome. They were first introduced at Rome by the
Bruti, upon the death of their father, A.U.C. 488. It was supposed
that the ghosts of the dead were rendered propitious by human blood;
therefore at funerals, it was usual to murder slaves in cool blood.
In succeeding ages, it was reckoned less cruel to oblige them to
kill one another like men, than to slaughter them like brutes,
therefore the barbarity was covered by the specious show of pleasure
and voluntary combat. Originally captives, criminals, or disobedient
slaves were trained up for combat; but when the diversion became
more frequent, and was exhibited on the smallest occasion, to
procure esteem and popularity, many of the Roman citizens enlisted
themselves among the gladiators, and Nero, at one show, exhibited
no less than 400 senators and 600 knights. The people were treated
with these combats not only by the great and opulent, but the very
priests had their _Ludi pontificales_, and _Ludi sacerdotales_. It
is supposed that there were no more than three pair of gladiators
exhibited by the Bruti. Their numbers, however, increased with
the luxury and power of the city; and the gladiators became so
formidable, that Spartacus, one of their body, had courage to take
up arms, and the success to defeat the Roman armies, only with a
train of his fellow-sufferers. The more prudent of the Romans were
sensible of the dangers which threatened the state by keeping such
a number of desperate men in arms, and therefore many salutary laws
were proposed to limit their number, as well as to settle the time
in which the show could be exhibited with safety and convenience.
Under the emperors, not only senators and knights, but even women
engaged among the gladiators, and seemed to forget the inferiority
of their sex. When there were to be any shows, hand-bills were
circulated to give notice to the people, and to mention the place,
number, time, and every circumstance requisite to be known. When
they were first brought upon the _arena_, they walked round the
place with great pomp and solemnity, and after that they were
matched in equal pairs with great nicety. They first had a skirmish
with wooden files, called _rudes_ or _arma lusoria_. After this
the effective weapons, such as swords, daggers, &c., called _arma
decretoria_, were given them, and the signal for the engagement was
given by the sound of a trumpet. As they had all previously sworn to
fight till death, or suffer death in the most excruciating torments,
the fight was bloody and obstinate, and when one signified his
submission by surrendering his arms, the victor was not permitted
to grant him his life without the leave and approbation of the
multitude. This was done by clenching the fingers of both hands
between each other, and holding the thumbs upright close together,
or by bending back their thumbs. The first of these was called
_pollicem premere_, and signified the wish of the people to spare
the life of the conquered. The other sign, called _pollicem vertere_,
signified their disapprobation, and ordered the victor to put his
antagonist to death. The victor was generally rewarded with a palm,
and other expressive marks of the people’s favour. He was most
commonly presented with a _pileus_ and _rudis_. When one of the
combatants received a remarkable wound, the people exclaimed _habet_,
and expressed their exultation by shouts. The combats of gladiators
were sometimes different either in weapons or dress, whence
they were generally distinguished into the following orders: The
_secutores_ were armed with a sword and buckler, to keep off the
net of their antagonists, the _retiarii_. These last endeavoured
to throw their net over the head of their antagonist, and in that
manner to entangle him, and prevent him from striking. If this did
not succeed, they betook themselves to flight. Their dress was a
short coat, with a hat tied under the chin with a broad ribbon.
They wore a trident in their left hand. The _Thraces_, originally
Thracians, were armed with a falchion, and small round shield. The
_myrmillones_, called also _Galli_, from their Gallic dress, ♦were
much the same as the _secutores_. They were, like them, armed with
a sword, and on the top of the head-piece they wore the figure of a
fish embossed, called μορμυρος, whence their name. The _Hoplomachi_
were completely armed from head to foot, as their name implies. The
_Samnites_, armed after the manner of the Samnites, wore a large
shield broad at the top, and growing more narrow at the bottom, more
conveniently to defend the upper parts of the body. The _Essedarii_
generally fought from the _essedum_, or chariot used by the ancient
Gauls and Britons. The _andabatæ_, ἀναβαται, fought on horseback,
with a helmet that covered and defended their faces and eyes. Hence
_andabatarum more pugnare_, is to fight blindfolded. The _meridiani_
engaged in the afternoon. The _postulatitii_ were men of great skill
and experience, and such as were generally produced by the emperors.
The _fiscales_ were maintained out of the emperor’s treasury,
_fiscus_. The _dimachæri_ fought with two swords in their hands,
whence their name. After these cruel exhibitions had been continued
for the amusement of the Roman populace, they were abolished by
Constantine the Great, near 600 years after their first institution.
They were, however, revived under the reign of Constantius and his
two successors, but Honorius for ever put an end to these cruel
barbarities.
♦ ‘where’ replaced with ‘were’
=Glanis=, a river of Cumæ,――――of Iberia,――――of Italy. _Silius
Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 454.
=Glanum=, a town of Gaul, now _St. Remi_, in Provence.
=Glaphy̆re= and =Glaphy̆ra=, a daughter of Archelaus the high priest
of Bellona in Cappadocia, celebrated for her beauty and intrigues.
She obtained the kingdom of Cappadocia for her two sons from Marcus
Antony, whom she corrupted by defiling the bed of her husband. This
amour of Antony with Glaphyra highly displeased his wife Fulvia,
who wished Augustus to avenge his infidelity by receiving from
her the same favours which Glaphyra received from Antony.――――Her
granddaughter bore the same name. She was a daughter of Archelaus
king of Cappadocia, and married Alexander, a son of Herod, by whom
she had two sons. After the death of Alexander, she married her
brother-in-law Archelaus.
=Glaphy̆rus=, an infamous adulterer. _Juvenal_, satire 6, li. 77.
=Glauce=, the wife of Actæus, daughter of Cychræus. _Apollodorus._
――――A daughter of Cretheus, mother of Telamon.――――One of the
Nereides.――――A daughter of Creon, who married Jason. _See:_ Creusa.
――――One of the Danaides. _Apollodorus._
=Glaucia=, a surname of the Servilian family. _Cicero_, _Orator_,
ch. 3.
=Glaucippe=, one of the Danaides. _Apollodorus._
=Glaucippus=, a Greek who wrote a treatise concerning the sacred rites
observed at Athens.
=Glaucon=, a writer of dialogues at Athens. _Diogenes Laërtius_,
_Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers_.
=Glauconŏme=, one of the Nereides.
=Glaucōpis=, a surname of Minerva, from the blueness of her eyes.
_Homer._――_Hesiod._
=Glaucus=, a son of Hippolchus the son of Bellerophon. He assisted
Priam in the Trojan war, and had the simplicity to exchange his
golden suit of armour with Diomedes for an iron one, whence came
the proverb of _Glauci et Diomedis permutatio_, to express a foolish
purchase. He behaved with much courage, and was killed by Ajax.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 483.――_Martial_, bk. 9, ltr. 96.
――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 6.――――A fisherman of Anthedon in Bœotia,
son of Neptune and Nais, or, according to others, of Polybius the
son of Mercury. As he was fishing, he observed that all the fishes
which he laid on the grass received fresh vigour as they touched the
ground, and immediately escaped from him by leaping into the sea. He
attributed the cause of it to the grass, and by tasting it, he found
himself suddenly moved with a desire of living in the sea. Upon
this he leaped into the water, and was made a sea deity by Oceanus
and Tethys, at the request of the gods. After this transformation
he became enamoured of the Nereid Scylla, whose ingratitude was
severely punished by Circe. _See:_ Scylla. He is represented like
the other sea deities, with a long beard, dishevelled hair, and
shaggy eyebrows, and with the tail of a fish. He received the gift
of prophecy from Apollo, and according to some accounts he was the
interpreter of Nereus. He assisted the Argonauts in their expedition,
and foretold them that Hercules and the two sons of Leda would one
day receive immortal honours. The fable of his metamorphosis has
been explained by some authors, who observe that he was an excellent
diver, who was devoured by fishes as he was swimming in the sea.
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 13, li. 905, &c.――_Hyginus_, fable
199.――_Athenæus_, bk. 7.――_Apollonius_, bk. 1.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.
――_Aristotle_, _Constitution of Delos_.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 22.
――――A son of Sisyphus king of Corinth, by Merope the daughter of
Atlas, born at Potnia, a village of Bœotia. He prevented his mares
from having any commerce with the stallions, in the expectation
that they would become swifter in running, upon which Venus inspired
the mares with such fury, that they tore his body to pieces as he
returned from the games which Adrastus had celebrated in honour of
his father. He was buried at Potnia. _Hyginus_, fable 250.――_Virgil_,
_Georgics_, bk. 3, li. 367.――_Apollodorus_, bks. 1 & 2.――――A son of
Minos II. and Pasiphae, who was smothered in a cask of honey. His
father, ignorant of his fate, consulted the oracle to know where he
was, and received for answer, that the soothsayer who best described
him an ox, which was of three different colours among his flocks,
would best give him intelligence of his son’s situation. Polyidus
was found superior to all the other soothsayers, and was commanded
by the king to find the young prince. When he had found him, Minos
confined him with the dead body, and told him that he never would
restore him his liberty if he did not restore his son to life.
Polyidus was struck with the king’s severity, but while he stood in
astonishment, a serpent suddenly came towards the body and touched
it. Polyidus killed the serpent, and immediately a second came, who
seeing the other without motion or signs of life, disappeared, and
soon after returned with a certain herb in his mouth. This herb he
laid on the body of the dead serpent, which was immediately restored
to life. Polyidus, who had attentively considered what passed,
seized the herb, and with it he rubbed the body of the dead prince,
who was instantly raised to life. Minos received Glaucus with
gratitude, but he refused to restore Polyidus to liberty, before
he taught his son the art of divination and prophecy. He consented
with great reluctance, and when he was at last permitted to return
to Argolis his native country, he desired his pupil to spit in his
mouth. Glaucus willingly consented, and from that moment he forgot
all the knowledge of divination and healing which he had received
from the instructions of Polyidus. Hyginus ascribes the recovery
of Glaucus to Æsculapius. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 3.――_Hyginus_,
fables 136 & 251, &c.――――A son of Epytus, who succeeded his father
on the throne of Messenia, about 10 centuries before the Augustan
age. He introduced the worship of Jupiter among the Dorians, and was
the first who offered sacrifices to Machaon the son of Æsculapius.
_Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 3.――――A son of Antenor, killed by Agamemnon.
_Dictys Cretensis_, bk. 4.――――An Argonaut, the only one of the crew
who was not wounded in a battle against the Tyrrhenians. _Athenæus_,
bk. 7, ch. 12.――――A son of Imbrasus, killed by Turnus. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 12, li. 343.――――A son of Hippolytus, whose descendants
reigned in Ionia.――――An athlete of Eubœa. _Pausanias_, bk. 6,
ch. 9.――――A son of Priam. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3.――――A physician
of Cleopatra. _Plutarch_, _Antonius_.――――A warrior in the age
of Phocion. _Plutarch_, _Phocion_.――――A physician exposed on a
cross, because Hephæstion died while under his care. _Plutarch_,
_Alexander_.――――An artist of Chios. _Pausanias._――――A Spartan.
_Pausanias._――――A grove of Bœotia. _Pausanias._――――A bay of Caria,
now the gulf of _Macri_. _Pausanias._――――An historian of Rhegium in
Italy.――――A bay and river of Libya,――――of Peloponnesus,――――of
Colchis, falling into the Phasis.
=Glautias=, a king of Illyricum, who educated Pyrrhus.
=Glicon=, a physician of Pansa, accused of having poisoned the wound
of his patron, &c. _Suetonius_, _Augustus_, ch. 11.
=Glissas=, a town of Bœotia, with a small river in the neighbourhood.
_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 19.
=Glycĕra=, a beautiful woman, celebrated by _Horace_, bk. 1, odes 19,
30.――――A courtesan of Sicyon, so skilful in making garlands, that
some attributed to her the invention of them.――――A famous courtesan,
whom Harpalus brought from Athens to Babylon.
=Gly̆cĕrium=, a harlot of Thespis, who presented her countrymen with
the painting of Cupid, which Praxiteles had given her.――――The
mistress of Pamphilus in Terence’s Andria.
=Gly̆con=, a man remarkable for his strength. _Horace_, bk. 1, ltr. 1,
li. 30.――――A physician who attended Pansa, and was accused of
poisoning his patron’s wound. _Suetonius_, _Augustus_, ch. 11.
=Glympes=, a town on the borders of the Lacedæmonians and Messenians.
_Polybius_, bk. 4.
=Gnatia=, a town of Apulia, about 30 miles from Brundusium, badly
supplied with water. _Horace_, bk. 1, satire 5.
=Gnidus.= _See:_ Cnidus.
=Gnossis= and =Gnossia=, an epithet given to Ariadne, because she
lived, or was born, at Gnossus. The crown which she received from
Bacchus, and which was made a constellation, is called _Gnossia
Stella_. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 1, li. 222.
=Gnossus=, a famous city of Crete, the residence of king Minos.
The name of _Gnossia tellus_ is often applied to the whole island.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 23.――_Strabo_, bk. 10.――_Homer_,
_Odyssey_.
=Gobanitio=, a chief of the Averni, uncle to Vercingetorix. _Cæsar_,
_Gallic War_, bk. 7, ch. 4.
=Gobar=, a governor of Mesopotamia, who checked the course of the
Euphrates, that it might not run rapidly through Babylon. _Pliny_,
bk. 6, ch. 26.
=Gobares=, a Persian governor, who surrendered to Alexander, &c.
_Curtius_, bk. 5, ch. 31.
=Gobryas=, a Persian, one of the seven noblemen who conspired against
the usurper Smerdis. _See:_ Darius. _Herodotus_, bk. 3, ch. 70.
=Golgi= (ōrum), a place of Cyprus, sacred to Venus _Golgia_ and to
Cupid. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 5.
=Gomphi=, a town of Thessaly, near the springs of the Peneus, at the
foot of mount Pindus.
=Gonātas=, one of the Antigoni.
=Goniădes=, nymphs in the neighbourhood of the river Cytherus.
_Strabo_, bk. 8.
=Gonippus= and =Panormus=, two youths of Andania, who disturbed the
Lacedæmonians when celebrating the festivals of Pollux. _Pausanias_,
bk. 4, ch. 27.
=Gonni= and =Gonocondylos=, a town of Thessaly at the entrance into
Tempe. _Livy_, bk. 36, ch. 10; bk. 42, ch. 54.――_Strabo_, bk. 4.
=Gonoessa=, a town of Troas. _Seneca_, _Troades_.
=Gonussa=, a town of Sicyon. _Pausanias._
=Gordiæi=, mountains in Armenia, where the Tigris rises, supposed to
be the Ararat of scripture.
=Gordiānus Marcus Antonius Africanus=, a son of Metius Marcellus,
descended from Trajan by his mother’s side. In the greatest
affluence, he cultivated learning, and was an example of piety and
virtue. He applied himself to the study of poetry, and composed a
poem in 30 books upon the virtues of Titus, Antoninus, and Marcus
Aurelius. He was such an advocate for good breeding and politeness,
that he never sat down in the presence of his father-in-law Annius
Severus, who paid him daily visits, before he was promoted to the
pretorship. He was some time after elected consul, and went to take
the government of Africa in the capacity of proconsul. After he
had attained his 80th year in the greatest splendour and domestic
tranquillity, he was roused from his peaceful occupations by the
tyrannical reign of the Maximini, and he was proclaimed emperor by
the rebellious troops of his province. He long declined to accept
the imperial purple, but the threats of immediate death gained
his compliance. Maximinus marched against him with the greatest
indignation; and Gordian sent his son, with whom he shared the
imperial dignity, to oppose the enemy. Young Gordian was killed;
and the father, worn out with age, and grown desperate on account of
his misfortunes, strangled himself at Carthage, before he had been
six weeks at the head of the empire, A.D. 236. He was universally
lamented by the army and people.――――Marcus Antoninus Africanus, son
of Gordianus, was instructed by Serenus Sammoticus, who left him
his library, which consisted of 62,000 volumes. His enlightened
understanding, and his peaceful disposition, recommended him to the
favour of the emperor Heliogabalus. He was made prefect of Rome,
and afterwards consul, by the emperor Alexander Severus. He passed
into Africa, in the character of lieutenant to his father, who
had obtained that province; and seven years after he was elected
emperor, in conjunction with him. He marched against the partisans of
Maximinus, his antagonist in Mauritania, and was killed in a bloody
battle on the 25th of June, A.D. 236, after a reign of about six
weeks. He was of an amiable disposition, but he has been justly
blamed by his biographers on account of his lascivious propensities,
which reduced him to the weakness and infirmities of old age, though
he was but in his 46th year at the time of his death.――――Marcus
Antoninus Pius, grandson to the first Gordian, was but 12 years
old when he was honoured with the title of Cæsar. He was proclaimed
emperor in the 16th year of his age, and his election was attended
with universal marks of approbation. In the 18th year of his age,
he married Furia Sabina Tranquilina daughter of Misitheus, a man
celebrated for his ♦eloquence and public virtues. Misitheus was
entrusted with the most important offices of the state by his
son-in-law, and his administration proved how deserving he was of
the confidence and affection of his imperial master. He corrected
the various abuses which prevailed in the state, and restored
the ancient discipline among the soldiers. By his prudence and
political sagacity, all the chief towns in the empire were stored
with provisions, which could maintain the emperor and a large army
during 15 days upon any emergency. Gordian was not less active than
his father-in-law; and when Sapor the king of Persia had invaded the
Roman provinces in the east, he boldly marched to meet him, and in
his way defeated a large body of Goths, in Mœsia. He conquered Sapor,
and took many flourishing cities in the east from his adversary. In
this success the senate decreed him a triumph, and saluted Misitheus
as the guardian of the republic. Gordian was assassinated in the
east, A.D. 244, by the means of Philip, who had succeeded to the
virtuous Misitheus, and who usurped the sovereign power by murdering
a warlike and amiable prince. The senate, sensible of his merit,
honoured him with a most splendid funeral on the confines of Persia,
and ordered that the descendants of the Gordians should ever be free,
at Rome, from all the heavy taxes and burdens of the state. During
the reign of Gordianus, there was an uncommon eclipse of the sun, in
which the stars appeared in the middle of the day.
♦ ‘eloqence’ replaced with ‘eloquence’
=Gordium=, a town of Phrygia. _Justin_, bk. 11, ch. 7.――_Livy_, bk. 38,
ch. 18.――_Curtius_, bk. 3, ch. 1.
=Gordius=, a Phrygian, who, though originally a peasant, was raised to
the throne. During a sedition, the Phrygians consulted the oracle,
and were told that all their troubles would cease as soon as they
chose for their king the first man they met going to the temple
of Jupiter, mounted on a chariot. Gordius was the object of their
choice, and he immediately consecrated his chariot in the temple
of Jupiter. The knot which tied the yoke to the draught tree, was
made in such an artful manner that the ends of the cord could not
be perceived. From this circumstance a report was soon spread, that
the empire of Asia was promised by the oracle to him that could
untie the Gordian knot. Alexander, in his conquest of Asia, passed
by Gordium; and as he wished to leave nothing undone which might
inspire his soldiers with courage, and make his enemies believe that
he was born to conquer Asia, he cut the knot with his sword; and
from that circumstance asserted that the oracle was really fulfilled,
and that his claims to universal empire were fully justified.
_Justin_, bk. 11, ch. 7.――_Curtius_, bk. 3, ch. 1.――_Arrian_, bk. 1.
――――A tyrant of Corinth. _Aristotle_.
=Gorgāsus=, a man who received divine honours at Pheræ in Messenia.
_Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 30.
=Gorge=, a daughter of Œneus king of Calydon, by Althæa daughter of
Thestius. She married Andremon, by whom she had Oxilus, who headed
the Heraclidæ when they made an attempt upon Peloponnesus. Her
tomb was seen at Amphissa in Locris. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 38.
――_Apollodorus_, bks. 1 & 2.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 8,
li. 542.――――One of the Danaides. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 1.
=Gorgias=, a celebrated sophist and orator, son of Carmantides
surnamed _Leontinus_, because born at Leontium in Sicily. He was
sent by his countrymen to solicit the assistance of the Athenians
against the Syracusans, and was successful in his embassy. He lived
to his 108th year, and died B.C. 400. Only two fragments of his
compositions are extant. _Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 17.――_Cicero_,
_Orator_, ch. 22, &c.; _De Senectute_, ch. 15; _Brutus_, ch. 15.
――_Quintilian_, bks. 3 & 12.――――An officer of Antiochus Epiphanes.
――――An Athenian, who wrote an account of all the prostitutes of
Athens. _Athenæus._――――A Macedonian, forced to war with Amyntas, &c.
_Curtius_, bk. 7, ch. 1.
=Gorgo=, the wife of Leonidas king of Sparta, &c.――――The name of the
ship which carried Perseus, after he had conquered Medusa.
=Gorgŏnes=, three celebrated sisters, daughters of Phorcys and Ceto,
whose names were Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa, all immortal except
Medusa. According to the mythologists, their hairs were entwined
with serpents, their hands were of brass, their wings of the colour
of gold, their body was covered with impenetrable scales, and their
teeth were as long as the tusks of a wild boar, and they turned to
stones all those on whom they fixed their eyes. Medusa alone had
serpents in her hair, according to Ovid, and this proceeded from
the resentment of Minerva, in whose temple Medusa had gratified the
passion of Neptune, who was enamoured of the beautiful colour of her
locks, which the goddess changed into serpents. Æschylus says that
they had only one tooth and one eye between them, of which they had
the use each in her turn; and accordingly it was at the time that
they were exchanging the eye, that Perseus attacked them, and cut
off Medusa’s head. According to some authors, Perseus, when he went
to the conquest of the Gorgons, was armed with an instrument like
a scythe by Mercury, and provided with a looking-glass by Minerva,
besides winged shoes, and a helmet of Pluto, which rendered all
objects clearly visible and open to the view, while the person who
wore it remained totally invisible. With weapons like these, Perseus
obtained an easy victory; and after his conquest, returned his arms
to the different deities whose favours and assistance he had so
recently experienced. The head of Medusa remained in his hands;
and after he had finished all his laborious expeditions, he gave it
to Minerva, who placed it on her ægis, with which she turned into
stones all such as fixed their eyes upon it. It is said, that after
the conquest of the Gorgons, Perseus took his flight in the air
towards Æthiopia; and that the drops of blood which fell to the
ground from Medusa’s head were changed into serpents, which have
ever since infested the sandy deserts of Libya. The horse Pegasus
also arose from the blood of Medusa, as well as Chrysaor with his
golden sword. The residence of the Gorgons was beyond the ocean
towards the west, according to Hesiod. Æschylus makes them inhabit
the eastern parts of Scythia; and Ovid, as the most received opinion,
supports that they lived in the inland parts of Libya, near the lake
of Triton, or the gardens of the Hesperides. Diodorus and others
explain the fable of the Gorgons, by supposing that they were a
warlike race of women near the Amazons, whom Perseus, with the help
of a large army, totally destroyed. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_ & _Shield
of Heracles_.――_Apollonius_, bk. 4.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, chs. 1
& 4, &c.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bks. 5 & 11.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6,
&c.――_Diodorus_, bks. 1 & 4.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 20, &c.
――_Aeschylus_, _Prometheus Bound_, act 4.――_Pindar_, _Pythian_,
odes 7 & 12; _Olympian_, poem 3.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 4,
li. 618, &c.――_Palæphatus_, _on the Daughters of Phorcys_.
=Gorgŏnia=, a surname of Pallas, because Perseus, armed with her shield,
had conquered the Gorgon, who had polluted her temple with Neptune.
=Gorgŏnius=, a man ridiculed by Horace for his ill smell. _Horace_,
bk. 1, satire 2, li. 27.
=Gorgŏphŏne=, a daughter of Perseus and Andromeda, who married
Perieres king of Messenia, by whom she had Aphareus and Leucippus.
After the death of Perieres, she married Œbalus, who made her mother
of Icarus and Tyndarus. She is the first whom the mythologists
mention as having had a second husband. _Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 2.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, chs. 2 & 3.――――One of the Danaides.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 1.
=Gorgŏphŏnus=, a son of Electryon and Anaxo. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2,
ch. 4.
=Gorgŏphŏra=, a surname of Minerva, from her ægis, on which was the
head of the Gorgon Medusa. _Cicero._
=Gorgus=, the son of Aristomenes the Messenian. He was married, when
young, to a virgin, by his father, who had experienced the greatest
kindnesses from her humanity, and had been enabled to conquer seven
Cretans who had attempted his life, &c. _Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 19.
――――A son of Theron tyrant of Agrigentum.――――A man whose knowledge
of metals proved very serviceable to Alexander, &c.
=Gorgythion=, a son of Priam, killed by Teucer. _Homer_, _Iliad_,
bk. 8.
=Gortuæ=, a people of Eubœa, who fought with the Medes at the battle
of Arbela. _Curtius_, bk. 4, ch. 12.
=Gortyn=, =Gortys=, and =Gortȳna=, an inland town of Crete. It was
on the inhabitants of this place that Annibal, to save his money,
practised an artifice recorded in _Cornelius Nepos_, _Hannibal_,
ch. 9.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.――_Lucan_, bk. 6, li. 214; bk. 7,
li. 214.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 11, li. 773.
=Gortȳnia=, a town of Arcadia in Peloponnesus. _Pausanias_, bk. 8,
ch. 28.
=Gotthi=, a celebrated nation of Germany, called also Gothones,
Gutones, Gythones, and Guttones. They were warriors by profession,
as well as all their savage neighbours. They extended their power
over all parts of the world, and chiefly directed their arms
against the Roman empire. Their first attempt against Rome was on
the provinces of Greece, whence they were driven by Constantine.
They plundered Rome, under Alaric, one of their most celebrated
kings, A.D. 410. From becoming the enemies of the Romans, the Goths
gradually became their mercenaries; and as they were powerful and
united, they soon dictated to their imperial masters, and introduced
disorder, anarchy, and revolutions in the west of Europe. _Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 2, ch. 2, &c.
=Gracchus Tiberius Sempronius=, father of Tiberius and Caius Gracchus,
twice consul, and once censor, was distinguished by his integrity
as well as his prudence and superior ability, both in the senate and
at the head of the armies. He made war in Gaul, and met with much
success in Spain. He married Sempronia, of the family of the Scipios,
a woman of great virtue, piety, and learning. _Cicero_, _On Oratory_,
bk. 1, ch. 48. Their children, Tiberius and Caius, who had been
educated under the watchful eye of their mother, rendered themselves
famous for their eloquence, seditions, and an obstinate attachment
to the interests of the populace, which at last proved fatal to
them. With a winning eloquence, affected moderation, and uncommon
popularity, Tiberius began to renew the Agrarian law, which had
already caused such dissensions at Rome. _See:_ Agraria. By the
means of violence, his proposition passed into a law, and he was
appointed commissioner, with his father-in-law Appius Claudius and
his brother Caius, to make an equal division of the lands among the
people. The riches of Attalus, which were left to the Roman people
by will, were distributed without opposition; and Tiberius enjoyed
the triumph of his successful enterprise, when he was assassinated
in the midst of his adherents by Publius Nasica, while the populace
were all unanimous to re-elect him to serve the office of tribune
the following year. The death of Tiberius checked for a while the
friends of the people; but Caius, spurred by ambition and furious
zeal, attempted to remove every obstacle which stood in his way by
force and violence. He supported the cause of the people with more
vehemence, but less moderation than Tiberius; and his success served
only to awaken his ambition, and animate his resentment against
the nobles. With the privileges of a tribune, he soon became the
arbiter of the republic, and treated the patricians with contempt.
This behaviour hastened the ruin of Caius, and in the tumult he
fled to the temple of Diana, where his friends prevented him from
committing suicide. This increased the sedition, and he was murdered
by order of the consul Opimius, B.C. 121, about 13 years after the
unfortunate end of Tiberius. His body was thrown into the Tiber,
and his wife was forbidden to put on mourning for his death. Caius
has been accused of having stained his hands in the blood of Scipio
Africanus the younger, who was found murdered in his bed. _Plutarch_,
_Parallel Lives_.――_Cicero_, _Catiline_, ch. 1.――_Lucan_, bk. 6,
li. 796.――_Florus_, bk. 2, ch. 17; bk. 3, ch. 14, &c.――――Sempronius,
a Roman, banished to the coast of Africa for his adulteries with
Julia the daughter of Augustus. He was assassinated by order of
Tiberius, after he had been banished 14 years. Julia also shared
his fate. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 1, ch. 53.――――A general of the
Sabines, taken by Quinctius Cincinnatus.――――A Roman consul, defeated
by Annibal, &c. _Cornelius Nepos_, _Hannibal_.
=Grādīvus=, a surname of Mars among the Romans, perhaps from
κραδαινειν, _brandishing a spear_. Though he had a temple without
the walls of Rome, and though Numa had established the Salii, yet
his favourite residence was supposed to be among the fierce and
savage Thracians and Getæ, over whom he particularly presided.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 35.――_Homer_, _Iliad_.――_Livy_, bk. 1,
ch. 20; bk. 2, ch. 45.
=Græci=, the inhabitants of Greece. _See:_ Græcia.
=Græcia=, a celebrated country of Europe, bounded on the west by
the Ionian sea, south by the Mediterranean sea, east by the Ægean,
and north by Thrace and Dalmatia. It is generally divided into
four large provinces: Macedonia, Epirus, Achaia or Hellas, and
Peloponnesus. This country has been reckoned superior to every
other part of the earth, on account of the salubrity of the air,
the temperature of the climate, the fertility of the soil, and above
all, the fame, learning, and arts of its inhabitants. The Greeks have
severally been called Achæans, Argians, Danai, Dolopes, Hellenians,
Ionians, Myrmidons, and Pelasgians. The most celebrated of their
cities were Athens, Sparta, Argos, Corinth, Thebes, Sicyon, Mycenæ,
Delphi, Trœzene, Salamis, Megara, Pylos, &c. The inhabitants, whose
history is darkened in its primitive ages with fabulous accounts and
traditions, supported that they were the original inhabitants of the
country, and born from the earth where they dwelt; and they heard
with contempt the probable conjectures which traced their origin
among the first inhabitants of Asia, and the colonies of Egypt.
In the first periods of their history, the Greeks were governed
by monarchs; and there were as many kings as there were cities.
The monarchical power gradually decreased; the love of liberty
established the republican government; and no part of Greece, except
Macedonia, remained in the hands of an absolute sovereign. The
expedition of the Argonauts first rendered the Greeks respectable
among their neighbours; and in the succeeding age, the wars of
Thebes and Troy gave opportunity to their heroes and demi-gods to
display their valour in the field of battle. The simplicity of the
ancient Greeks rendered them virtuous; and the establishment of
the Olympic games, in particular, where the noble reward of the
conqueror was a laurel crown, contributed to their aggrandizement,
and made them ambitious of fame, and not the slaves of riches.
The austerity of their laws, and the education of their youth,
particularly at Lacedæmon, rendered them brave and active,
insensible to bodily pain, fearless and intrepid in the time of
danger. The celebrated battles of Marathon, Thermopylæ, Salamis,
Platæa, and Mycale sufficiently show what superiority the courage of
a little army can obtain over millions of undisciplined barbarians.
After many signal victories over the Persians, they became elated
with their success; and when they found no one able to dispute their
power abroad, they turned their arms one against the other, and
leagued with foreign states to destroy the most flourishing of
their cities. The Messenian and Peloponnesian wars are examples
of the dreadful calamities which arise from civil discord and long
prosperity, and the success with which the gold and the sword of
Philip and of his son corrupted and enslaved Greece, fatally proved
that when a nation becomes indolent and dissipated at home, it
ceases to be respectable in the eyes of the neighbouring states. The
annals of Greece, however, abound with singular proofs of heroism
and resolution. The bold retreat of the 10,000, who had assisted
Cyrus against his brother Artaxerxes, reminded their countrymen of
their superiority over all other nations; and taught Alexander that
the conquest of the east might be effected with a handful of Grecian
soldiers. While the Greeks rendered themselves so illustrious
by their military exploits, the arts and sciences were assisted
by conquest, and received fresh lustre from the application and
industry of their professors. The labours of the learned were
received with admiration, and the merit of a composition was
determined by the applause or disapprobation of a multitude.
Their generals were orators; and eloquence seemed to be so nearly
connected with the military profession, that he was despised by
his soldiers who could not address them upon any emergency with
a spirited and well-delivered oration. The learning as well as
the virtues of Socrates procured him a name; and the writings of
Aristotle have, perhaps, gained him a more lasting fame than all the
conquests and trophies of his royal pupil. Such were the occupations
and accomplishments of the Greeks. Their language became almost
universal, and their country was the receptacle of the youths of the
neighbouring states, where they imbibed the principles of liberty
and moral virtue. The Greeks planted several colonies, and totally
peopled the western coasts of Asia Minor. In the eastern parts
of Italy there were also many settlements made; and the country
received from its Greek inhabitants the name of _Magna Græcia_.
For some time Greece submitted to the yoke of Alexander and his
successors; and at last, after a spirited though ineffectual
struggle in the Achæan league, it fell under the power of Rome, and
became one of its ♦dependent provinces, governed by a proconsul.
♦ ‘dependant’ replaced with ‘dependent’
=Græcia magna=, a part of Italy where the Greeks planted colonies,
whence the name. Its boundaries are very uncertain; some say that
it extended on the southern parts of Italy, and others suppose that
Magna Græcia comprehended only Campania and Lucania. To these some
add Sicily, which was likewise peopled by Greek colonies. _Ovid_,
_Fasti_, bk. 4, li. 64.――_Strabo_, &c.
=Græcīnus=, a senator put to death by Caligula, because he refused to
accuse Sejanus, &c. _Seneca_, _de Beneficiis_, bk. 2.
=Græcus=, a man from whom some suppose that Greece received its name.
_Aristotle._
=Graius=, an inhabitant of Greece.
=Grampius mons=, the Grampian mountains in Scotland. _Tacitus_,
_Agricola_, ch. 29.
=Granīcus=, a river of Bithynia, famous for the battle fought there
between the armies of Alexander and Darius, 22nd of May, B.C. 334,
when 600,000 Persians were defeated by 30,000 Macedonians.
_Diodorus_, bk. 17.――_Plutarch_, _Alexander_.――_Justin._――_Curtius_,
bk. 4, ch. 1.
=Granius Petronius=, an officer who, being taken by Pompey’s generals,
refused the life which was tendered to him; observing that Cæsar’s
soldiers received not, but granted, life. He killed himself.
_Plutarch_, _Cæsar_.――――A questor whom Sylla had ordered to be
strangled, only one day before he died a natural death. _Plutarch._
――――A son of the wife of Marius, by a former husband.――――Quintus, a
man intimate with Crassus and other illustrious men of Rome, whose
vices he lashed with an unsparing hand. _Cicero_, _Brutus_, chs. 43
& 46; _On Oratory_, bk. 2, ch. 60.
=Gratiæ=, three goddesses. _See:_ Charites.
=Grātiānus=, a native of Pannonia, father to the emperor Valentinian I.
He was raised to the throne, though only eight years old; and after
he had reigned for some time conjointly with his father, he became
sole emperor in the 16th year of his age. He soon after took, as his
imperial colleague, Theodosius, whom he appointed over the eastern
parts of the empire. His courage in the field was as remarkable as
his love of learning, and fondness of philosophy. He slaughtered
30,000 Germans in a battle, and supported the tottering state by
his prudence and intrepidity. His enmity to the Pagan superstition
of his subjects proved his ruin; and Maximinus, who undertook the
defence of the worship of Jupiter and of all the gods, was joined
by an infinite number of discontented Romans, and met Gratian near
Paris in Gaul. Gratian was forsaken by his troops in the field of
battle, and was murdered by the rebels, A.D. 383, in the 24th year
of his age.――――A Roman soldier, invested with the imperial purple
by the rebellious army in Britain, in opposition to Honorius. He was
assassinated four months after by those very troops to whom he owed
his elevation, A.D. 407.
=Gratidia=, a woman at Neapolis, called Canidia by Horace, epode 3.
=Gration=, a giant killed by Diana.
=Gratius Faliscus=, a Latin poet contemporary with Ovid, and mentioned
only by him among the more ancient authors. He wrote a poem on
coursing, called _Cynegeticon_, much commended for its elegance and
perspicuity. It may be compared to the Georgics of Virgil, to which
it is nearly equal in the number of verses. The latest edition is of
Amsterdam, 4to, 1728. _Ovid_, _ex Ponto_, bk. 4, poem 16, li. 34.
=Gravii=, a people of Spain. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 3, li. 366.
=Grăviscæ=, now _Eremo de St. Augustino_, a maritime town of Etruria,
which assisted Æneas against Turnus. The air was unwholesome, on
account of the marshes and stagnant waters in its neighbourhood.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 184.――_Livy_, bk. 40, ch. 29; bk. 41,
ch. 16.
=Gravius=, a Roman knight of Puteoli, killed at Dyrrachium, &c.
_Cæsar_, _Civil War_.
=Gregorius Theodore Thaumaturgus=, a disciple of Origen, afterwards
bishop of Neocæsarea, the place of his birth. He died A.D. 266,
and it is said he left only 17 idolaters in his diocese, where
he had found only 17 christians. Of his works, are extant his
congratulatory oration to Origen, a canonical epistle, and other
treatises in Greek, the best edition of which is that of Paris,
folio, 1622.――――Nazianzen, surnamed the _Divine_, was bishop
of Constantinople, which he resigned on its being disputed. His
writings rival those of the most celebrated orators of Greece
in eloquence, sublimity, and variety. His sermons are more for
philosophers than common hearers, but replete with seriousness and
devotion. Erasmus said that he was afraid to translate his works,
from the apprehension of not transfusing into another language the
smartness and acumen of his style, and the stateliness and happy
diction of the whole. He died A.D. 389. The best edition is that of
the Benedictines, the first volume of which, in folio, was published
at Paris, 1778.――――A bishop of Nyssa, author of the Nicene creed.
His style is represented as allegorical and affected; and he has
been accused of mixing philosophy too much with theology. His
writings consist of commentaries on scripture, moral discourses,
sermons on mysteries, dogmatical treatises, panegyrics on saints;
the best edition of which is that of Morell, 2 vols., folio, Paris,
1615. The bishop died, A.D. 396.――――Another christian writer, whose
works were edited by the Benedictines, in 4 vols., folio, Paris,
1705.
=Grinnes=, a people among the Batavians. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 5,
ch. 10.
=Grosphus=, a man distinguished as much for his probity as his riches,
to whom _Horace_ addressed bk. 2, ode 16.
=Grudii=, a people tributary to the Nervii, supposed to have inhabited
the country near Tournay or Bruges in Flanders. _Cæsar_, _Gallic
War_, bk. 5, ch. 38.
=Grumentum=, now _Armento_, an inland town of Lucania on the river
Aciris. _Livy_, bk. 23, ch. 37; bk. 27, ch. 41.
=Gryllus=, a son of Xenophon, who killed Epaminondas, and was himself
slain, at the battle of Mantinea, B.C. 363. His father was offering
a sacrifice when he received the news of his death, and he threw
down the garland which was on his head; but he replaced it when
he heard that the enemy’s general had fallen by his hands; and
he observed, that his death ought to be celebrated with every
demonstration of joy, rather than of lamentation. _Aristotle._
――_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 11, &c.――――One of the companions of
Ulysses, changed into a swine by Circe. It it said that he refused
to be restored to his human shape, and preferred the indolence and
inactivity of this squalid animal.
=Grynēum= and =Grynīum=, a town near Clazomenæ, where Apollo had a
temple with an oracle, on account of which he is called _Grynæus_.
_Strabo_, bk. 13.――_Virgil_, _Eclogues_, bk. 6, li. 72; _Æneid_,
bk. 4, li. 345.
=Grynēus=, one of the Centaurs, who fought against the Lapithæ, &c.
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12, li. 260.
=Gyărus= and =Gyăros=, an island in the Ægean sea, near Delos.
The Romans were wont to send their culprits there. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, li. 407.
=Gyas=, one of the companions of Æneas, who distinguished himself at
the games exhibited after the death of Anchises in Sicily. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 5, li. 118, &c.――――A part of the territories of
Syracuse, in the possession of Dionysius.――――A Rutulian, son of
Melampus, killed by Æneas in Italy. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10,
li. 318.
=Gȳgæus=, a lake of Lydia, 40 stadia from Sardis. _Propertius_, bk. 3,
poem 11, li. 18.
=Gȳge=, a maid of Parysatis.
=Gyges=, or =Gyes=, a son of Cœlus and Terra, represented as having
50 heads and 100 hands. He, with his brothers, made war against the
gods, and was afterwards punished in Tartarus. _Ovid_, _Tristia_,
bk. 4, poem 7, li. 18.――――A Lydian, to whom Candaules king of the
country showed his wife naked. The queen was so incensed at this
instance of imprudence and infirmity in her husband, that she
ordered Gyges, either to prepare for death himself, or to murder
Candaules. He chose the latter, and married the queen, and ascended
the vacant throne, about 718 years before the christian era. He was
the first of the Mermnadæ who reigned in Lydia. He reigned 38 years,
and distinguished himself by the immense presents which he made to
the oracle of Delphi. According to Plato, Gyges descended into a
chasm of the earth, where he found a brazen horse, whose sides he
opened, and saw within the body the carcase of a man of uncommon
size, from whose finger he took a famous brazen ring. This ring,
when put on his finger, rendered him invisible; and by means of its
virtue, he introduced himself to the queen, murdered her husband,
and married her, and usurped the crown of Lydia. _Herodotus_, bk. 1,
ch. 8.――♦_Plato_, _Dialogues_, bk. 10, _The Republic_.――_Valerius
Maximus_, bk. 7, ch. 1.――_Cicero_, _De Officiis_, bk. 3, ch. 9.――――A
man killed by Turnus in his wars with Æneas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 9, li. 762.――――A beautiful boy of Cnidos in the age of Horace.
_Horace_, bk. 2, ode 5, li. 30.
♦ ‘Plutarch’ replaced with ‘Plato’
=Gylippus=, a Lacedæmonian sent, B.C. 414, by his countrymen to assist
Syracuse against the Athenians. He obtained a celebrated victory
over Nicias and Demosthenes, the enemy’s generals, and obliged them
to surrender. He accompanied Lysander in his expedition against
Athens, and was present at the taking of that celebrated town. After
the fall of Athens, he was entrusted by the conqueror with the money
which had been taken in the plunder, which amounted to 1500 talents.
As he conveyed it to Sparta, he had the meanness to unsew the bottom
of the bags which contained it, and secreted about 300 talents. His
theft was discovered; and to avoid the punishment which he deserved,
he fled from his country, and by this act of meanness tarnished the
glory of his victorious actions. _Tibullus_, bk. 4, poem 1, li. 199.
――_Plutarch_, _Nicias_.――――An Arcadian in the Rutulian war. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 12, li. 272.
=Gymnăsia=, a large city near Colchis. _Diodorus_, bk. 14.
=Gymnăsium=, a place among the Greeks, where all the public exercises
were performed, and where not only wrestlers and dancers exhibited,
but also philosophers, poets, and rhetoricians repeated their
compositions. The room was high and spacious, and could contain many
thousands of spectators. The laborious exercises of the Gymnasium
were running, leaping, throwing the quoit, wrestling, and boxing,
which was called by the Greeks πενταθλον, and by the Romans
_quinquertia_. In riding, the athlete led a horse, on which he
sometimes was mounted, conducting another by the bridle, and jumping
from the one upon the other. Whoever came first to the goal and
jumped with the greatest agility, obtained the prize. In running
afoot the athletes were sometimes armed, and he who came first was
declared victorious. Leaping was a useful exercise; its primary
object was to teach the soldiers to jump over ditches, and to
pass over eminences during a siege, or in the field of battle.
In throwing the quoit, the prize was adjudged to him who threw it
furthest. The quoits were made either with wood, stone, or metal.
The wrestlers employed all their dexterity to bring their adversary
to the ground, and the boxers had their hands armed with gauntlets,
called also _cestus_. Their blows were dangerous, and often ended
in the death of one of the combatants. In wrestling and boxing,
the athletes were often naked, whence the word Gymnasium, γυμνος,
_nudus_. They anointed themselves with oil to brace their limbs, and
to render their bodies slippery and more difficult to be grasped.
_Pliny_, bk. 2, ltr. 17.――_Cornelius Nepos_, bk. 20, ch. 5.
=Gymnēsiæ=, two islands near the Iberus in the Mediterranean, called
Beleares by the Greeks. _Plutarch_, bk. 5, ch. 8.――_Strabo_, bk. 2.
=Gymnetes=, a people of Æthiopia, who lived almost naked. _Pliny_,
bk. 5, ch. 8.
=Gymniæ=, a town of Colchis. _Xenophon_, _Anabasis_, bk. 4.
=Gymnosophistæ=, a certain sect of philosophers in India, who,
according to some, placed their _summum bonum_ in pleasure, and
their _summum malum_ in pain. They lived naked, as their name
implies, and for 37 years they exposed themselves in the open air,
to the heat of the sun, the inclemency of the seasons, and the
coldness of the night. They were often seen in the fields fixing
their eyes full upon the disc of the sun from the time of its rising
till the hour of its setting. Sometimes they stood whole days upon
one foot in burning sand without moving, or showing any concern
for what surrounded them. Alexander was astonished at the sight
of a sect of men who seemed to despise bodily pain, and who inured
themselves to suffer the greatest tortures without uttering a groan,
or expressing any marks of fear. The conqueror condescended to visit
them, and his astonishment was increased when he saw one of them
ascend a burning pile with firmness and unconcern, to avoid the
infirmities of old age, and stand upright on one leg and unmoved,
whilst the flames surrounded him on every side. _See:_ Calanus. The
Brachmans were a branch of the sect of the Gymnosophistæ. _See:_
Brachmanes. _Strabo_, bk. 15, &c.――_Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 2.――_Cicero_,
_Tusculanæ Disputationes_, bk. 5.――_Lucan_, bk. 3, li. 240.
――_Curtius_, bk. 8, ch. 9.――_Dionysius._
=Gynæceas=, a woman said to have been the wife of Faunus, and the
mother of Bacchus and of Midas.
=Gynæcothœnas=, a name of Mars at Tegea, on account of a sacrifice
offered by the women without the assistance of the men, who were not
permitted to appear at this religious ceremony. _Pausanias_, bk. 8,
ch. 48.
=Gyndes=, now _Zeindeh_, a river of Assyria, falling into the Tigris.
When Cyrus marched against Babylon, his army was stopped by this
river, in which one of his favourite horses was drowned. This so
irritated the monarch that he ordered the river to be conveyed into
360 different channels by his army, so that after this division it
hardly reached the knee. _Herodotus_, bk. 1, chs. 189 & 202.
=Gythēum=, a seaport town of Laconia, at the mouth of the Eurotas in
Peloponnesus, built by Hercules and Apollo, who had there desisted
from their quarrels. The inhabitants were called _Gytheatæ_.
_Cicero_, _De Officiis_, bk. 3, ch. 11.
H
=Habis=, a king of Spain, who first taught his subjects agriculture,
&c. _Justin_, bk. 44, ch. 4.
=Hadrianopŏlis=, a town of Thrace, on the Hebrus.
=Hadriānus=, a Roman emperor. _See:_ Adrianus.――――Caeso Fabius,
a pretor in Africa, who was burnt by the people of Utica for
conspiring with the slaves. _Cicero_, _Against Verres_, bk. 1,
ch. 27; bk. 5, ch. 26.
=Hadriatĭcum mare.= _See:_ Adriaticum.
=Hædui.= _See:_ Ædui.
=Hæmon=, a Theban youth, son of Creon, who was so captivated with
the beauty of Antigone, that he killed himself on her tomb, when
he heard that she had been put to death by his father’s orders.
_Propertius_, bk. 2, poem 8, li. 21.――――A Rutulian engaged in the
wars of Turnus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 685.――――A friend of
Æneas against Turnus. He was a native of Lycia. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 10, li. 126.
=Hæmŏnia.= _See:_ Æmonia.
=Hæmus=, a mountain which separates Thrace from Thessaly, so high that
from its top are visible the Euxine and Adriatic seas, though this,
however, is denied by Strabo. It receives its name from Hæmus son of
Boreas and Orithyia, who married Rhodope, and was changed into this
mountain for aspiring to divine honours. _Strabo_, bk. 7, p. 313.
――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 11.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 6, li. 87.
――――A stage-player. _Juvenal_, satire 3, li. 99.
=Hages=, a brother of king Porus, who opposed Alexander, &c. _Curtius_,
bk. 8, chs. 5 & 14.――――One of Alexander’s flatterers.――――A man of
Cyzicus, killed by Pollux. _Flaccus_, bk. 3, li. 191.
=Hagno=, a nymph.――――A fountain of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 38.
=Hagnagora=, a sister of Aristomenes. _Pausanias._
=Halæsus= and =Halēsus=, a son of Agamemnon by Briseis or Clytemnestra.
When he was driven from home, he came to Italy, and settled on
mount Massicus in Campania, where he built Falisci, and afterwards
assisted Turnus against Æneas. He was killed by Pallas. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 724; bk. 10, li. 352.――――A river near Colophon
in Asia Minor. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 29.
=Halala=, a village at the foot of mount Taurus.
=Halcyŏne.= _See:_ Alcyone.
=Halentum=, a town at the north of Sicily. _Cicero_, _Against Verres_,
bk. 3, ch. 43; bk. 4, ch. 23.
=Halesa=, a town of Sicily. _Cicero_, _Against Verres_, bk. 2, ch. 7;
_Letters to his Friends_, bk. 13, ltr. 32.
=Halesius=, a mountain and river near Ætna, where Proserpine was
gathering flowers when she was carried away by Pluto. _Columella._
=Halia=, one of the Nereides. _Apollodorus._――――A festival at Rhodes
in honour of the sun.
=Haliacmon=, a river which separates Thessaly from Macedonia, and
falls into the Sinus Thermaicus. _Cæsar_, _Civil War_, bk. 3, ch. 36.
――_Pliny_, bk. 31, ch. 2.――_Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 127.
=Haliartus=, a town of Bœotia, founded by Haliartus the son of
Thersander. The monuments of Pandion king of Athens, and of Lysander
the Lacedæmonian general, were seen in that town. _Livy_, bk. 42,
chs. 44 & 63.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 32.――――A town of Peloponnesus.
=Halicarnassus=, now _Bodroun_, a maritime city of Caria, in Asia
Minor, where the mausoleum, one of the seven wonders of the world,
was erected. It was the residence of the sovereigns of Caria, and
was celebrated for having given birth to Herodotus, Dionysius,
Heraclitus, &c. _Maximus Tyrius_, bk. 35.――_Vitruvius_, _On
Architecture_.――_Diodorus_, bk. 17.――_Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 178.
――_Strabo_, bk. 14.――_Livy_, bk. 27, chs. 10 & 16; bk. 33, ch. 20.
=Halicyæ=, a town of Sicily, near Lilybæum, now _Saleme_. _Pliny_,
bk. 3, ch. 8.――_Cicero_, _Against Verres_, bk. 2, ch. 33.
――_Diodorus_, bk. 14.
=Halieis=, a town of Argolis.
=Halimede=, a Nereid.
=Halirrhotius=, a son of Neptune and Euryte, who ravished Alcippe
daughter of Mars, because she slighted his addresses. This violence
offended Mars, and he killed the ravisher. Neptune cited Mars to
appear before the tribunal of justice to answer for the murder of
his son. The cause was tried at Athens, in a place which has been
called from thence Areopagus (ἀρης _Mars_, and παγος _village_),
and the murderer was acquitted. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 14.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 21.
=Halithersus=, an old man, who foretold Penelope’s suitors the return
of Ulysses, and their own destruction. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 1.
=Halius=, a son of Alcinous, famous for his skill in dancing. _Homer_,
_Odyssey_, bk. 8, lis. 120 & 360.――――A Trojan, who came with Æneas
into Italy, where he was killed by Turnus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9,
li. 767.
=Halizōnes=, a people of Paphlagonia. _Strabo_, bk. 14.
=Halmus=, a son of Sisyphus, father to Chrysogone. He ♦reigned in
Orchomenos. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 35.
♦ ‘regined’ replaced with ‘reigned’
=Halmydessus=, a town of Thrace. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 2.
=Halocrătes=, a son of Hercules and Olympusa. _Apollodorus._
=Halōne=, an island of Propontis, opposite Cyzicus. _Pliny_, bk. 5,
ch. 31.
=Halonnēsus=, an island on the coast of Macedonia, at the bottom
of the Sinus Thermiacus. It was inhabited only by women, who had
slaughtered all the males, and they defended themselves against an
invasion. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.
=Halōtia=, a festival in Tegea. _Pausanias._
=Halōtus=, a eunuch, who used to taste the meat of Claudius. He
poisoned the emperor’s food by order of Agrippina. _Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 2, ch. 66.
=Halus=, a city of Achaia,――――of Thessaly,――――of Parthia.
=Hălyæetus=, a man changed into a bird of the same name. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 3, li. 176.
=Halyattes.= _See:_ Alyattes.
=Halycus=, now _Platani_, a river at the south of Sicily.
=Halys=, now _Kizil-ermark_, a river of Asia Minor, rising in
Cappadocia, and falling into the Euxine sea. It received its name
ἀπο του ἁλος from _salt_, because its waters are of a salt and
bitter taste, from the nature of the soil over which they flow. It
is famous for the defeat of Crœsus king of Lydia, who was mistaken
by the ambiguous words of this oracle:
Χροισος Ἁλυν διαβας μεγαλην ἀρχην διαλυσει.
_If Crœsus passes over the Halys, he shall destroy a
great empire._
That empire was his own. _Cicero_, _de Divinatione_, bk. 2, ch. 56.
――_Curtius_, bk. 4, ch. 11.――_Strabo_, bk. 12.――_Lucan_, bk. 3,
li. 272.――_Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 28.――――A man of Cyzicus, killed
by Pollux. _Valerius Flaccus_, bk. 3, li. 157.
=Halyzia=, a town of Epirus near the Achelous, where the Athenians
obtained a naval victory over the Lacedæmonians.
=Hamadryădes=, nymphs who lived in the country, and presided over
trees, with which they were said to live and die. The word is
derived from ἁμα _simul_, and δρυς _quercus_. _Virgil_, _Eclogues_,
poem 10.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, li. 647.
=Hamæ=, a town of Campania near Cumæ. _Livy_, bk. 23, ch. 25.
=Hamaxia=, a city of Cilicia.
=Hamilcar=, the name of some celebrated generals of Carthage. _See:_
Amilcar.
=Hammon=, the Jupiter of the Africans. _See:_ Ammon.
=Hannibal.= _See:_ Annibal.
=Hanno.= _See:_ Anno.
=Harcălo=, a man famous for his knowledge of poisonous herbs, &c. He
touched the most venomous serpents and reptiles without receiving
the smallest injury. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 1, li. 406.
=Harmatelia=, a town of the Brachmanes in India, taken by Alexander.
_Diodorus_, bk. 17.
=Harmatris=, a town of Æolia.
=Hămillus=, an infamous debauchee. _Juvenal_, satire 10, li. 224.
=Harmodius=, a friend of Aristogiton, who delivered his country from
the tyranny of the Pisistratidæ, B.C. 510. _See:_ Aristogiton. The
Athenians, to reward the patriotism of these illustrious citizens,
made a law that no one should ever bear the name of Aristogiton
and Harmodius. _Herodotus_, bk. 5, ch. 35.――_Pliny_, bk. 34, ch. 8.
――_Seneca_, _de Ira_, bk. 2.
=Harmŏnia=, or =Hermionea= [_See:_ Hermione], a daughter of Mars ♦and
Venus, who married Cadmus. It is said that Vulcan, to avenge the
infidelity of her mother, made her a present of a vestment dyed
in all sorts of crimes, which, in some measure, inspired all the
children of Cadmus with wickedness and impiety. _Pausanias_, bk. 9,
ch. 16, &c.
♦ ‘aad’ replaced with ‘and’
=Harmŏnĭdes=, a Trojan beloved by Minerva. He built the ships in which
Paris carried away Helen. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 5.
=Harpăgus=, a general of Cyrus. He conquered Asia Minor after he had
revolted from Astyages, who had cruelly forced him to eat the flesh
of his son, because he had disobeyed his orders in not putting to
death the infant Cyrus. _Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 108.――_Justin_,
bk. 1, chs. 5 & 6.――――A river near Colchis. _Diodorus_, bk. 14.
=Harpălice.= _See:_ Harpalyce.
=Harpălion=, a son of Pylæmenes king of Paphlagonia, who assisted
Priam during the Trojan war, and was killed by Merion. _Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 13, li. 643.
=Harpălus=, a man entrusted with the treasures of Babylon by Alexander.
His hopes that Alexander would perish in his expedition rendered him
dissipate, negligent, and vicious. When he heard that the conqueror
was returning with great resentment, he fled to Athens, where, with
his money, he corrupted the orators, among whom was Demosthenes.
When brought to justice, he escaped with impunity to Crete, where
he was at last assassinated by Thimbron, B.C. 325. _Plutarch_,
_Phocion_.――_Diodorus_, bk. 17.――――A robber who scorned the gods.
_Cicero_, bk. 3, _de Natura Deorum_.――――A celebrated astronomer of
Greece, 480 years B.C.
=Harpăly̆ce=, the daughter of Harpalycus king of Thrace. Her mother
died when she was but a child, and her father fed her with the milk
of cows and mares, and inured her early to sustain the fatigues of
hunting. When her father’s kingdom was invaded by Neoptolemus the
son of Achilles, she repelled and defeated the enemy with manly
courage. The death of her father, which happened soon after in a
sedition, rendered her disconsolate; she fled the society of mankind,
and lived in the forests upon plunder and rapine. Every attempt to
secure her proved fruitless, till her great swiftness was overcome
by intercepting her with a net. After her death the people of the
country disputed their respective right to the possessions which
she acquired by rapine, and they soon after appeased her manes, by
proper oblations on her tomb. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 321.
――_Hyginus_, fables 193 & 252.――――A beautiful virgin, daughter
of Clymenus and Epicaste of Argos. Her father became enamoured of
her, and gained her confidence, and enjoyed her company by means
of her nurse, who introduced him as a stranger. Some time after
she married Alastor; but the father’s passion became more violent
and uncontrollable in his daughter’s absence, and he murdered her
husband to bring her back to Argos. Harpalyce, inconsolable for the
death of her husband, and ashamed of her father’s passion, which
was then made public, resolved to revenge her wrongs. She killed
her younger brother, or, according to some, the fruit of her incest,
and served it before her father. She begged the gods to remove her
from the world, and she was changed into an owl, and Clymenus killed
himself. _Hyginus_, fable 253, &c.――_Parthenius_, _Narrationes
Amatoriæ_.――――A mistress of Iphiclus son of Thestius. She died
through despair on seeing herself despised by her lover. This
mournful story was composed in poetry, in the form of a dialogue
called Harpalyce. _Athenæus_, bk. 14.
=Harpăly̆cus=, one of the companions of Æneas, killed by Camilla.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 11, li. 675.――――The father of Harpalyce, king
of part of Thrace.
=Harpăsa=, a town of Caria.
=Harpăsus=, a river of Caria. _Livy_, bk. 38, ch. 13.
=Harpŏcrătes=, a divinity, supposed to be the same as Orus the son
of Isis among the Egyptians. He is represented as holding one of
his fingers on his mouth, and from thence he is called the god of
silence, and intimates that the mysteries of religion and philosophy
ought never to be revealed to the people. The Romans placed his
statues at the entrance of their temples. _Catullus_, poem 75.
――_Varro_, _de Lingua Latina_, bk. 4, ch. 10.
=Harpocration=, a Platonic philosopher of Argos, from whom Stobæus
compiled his eclogues.――――A sophist, called also Ælius.――――Valerius,
a rhetorician of Alexandria, author of a Lexicon on 10 orators.
――――Another, surnamed Caius.
=Harpylæ=, winged monsters, who had the face of a woman, with the body
of a vulture, and had their feet and fingers armed with sharp claws.
They were three in number, Aello, Ocypete, and Celeno, daughters of
Neptune and Terra. They were sent by Juno to plunder the tables of
Phineus, whence they were driven to the islands called Strophades
by Zethes and Calais. They emitted an infectious smell, and spoiled
whatever they touched by their filth and excrements. They plundered
Æneas during his voyage towards Italy, and predicted many of the
calamities which attended him. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 212;
bk. 6, li. 289.――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 265.
=Harudes=, a people of Germany. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 1, ch. 31.
=Haruspex=, a soothsayer at Rome, who drew omens by consulting the
entrails of beasts that were sacrificed. He received the name of
_Aruspex_, _ab aris aspiciendis_, and that of _Extispex_, _ab extis
inspiciendis_. The order of Aruspices was first established at Rome
by Romulus, and the first Haruspices were Tuscans by origin, as
they were particularly famous in that branch of divination. They
had received all their knowledge from a boy named Tages, who, as was
commonly reported, sprung from a clod of earth. _See:_ Tages. They
were originally three, but the Roman senate yearly sent six noble
youths, or, according to others, 12, to Etruria, to be instructed in
all the mysteries of the art. The office of the Haruspices consisted
in observing these four particulars: the beast before it was
sacrificed; its entrails; the flames which consumed the sacrifice;
and the flour, frankincense, &c., which was used. If the beast
was led up to the altar with difficulty, if it escaped from the
conductor’s hands, roared when it received the blow, or died in
agonies, the omen was unfortunate. But, on the contrary, if it
followed without compulsion, received the blow without resistance,
and died without groaning, and after much effusion of blood, the
Haruspex foretold prosperity. When the body of the victim was opened,
each part was scrupulously examined. If anything was wanting, if
it had a double liver, or a lean heart, the omen was unfortunate.
If the entrails fell from the hands of the Haruspex, or seemed
besmeared with too much blood, or if no heart appeared, as for
instance it happened in the two victims which Julius Cæsar offered
a little before his death, the omen was equally unlucky. When
the flame was quickly kindled, and when it violently consumed
the sacrifice, and arose pure and bright, and like a pyramid,
without any paleness, smoke, sparkling, or crackling, the omen was
favourable. But the contrary augury was drawn when the fire was
kindled with difficulty, and was extinguished before the sacrifice
was totally consumed, or when it rolled in circles round the victim
with intermediate spaces between the flames. In regard to the
frankincense, meal, water, and wine, if there was any deficiency
in the quantity, if the colour was different, or the quality was
changed, or if anything was done with irregularity, it was deemed
inauspicious. This custom of consulting the entrails of victims did
not originate in Tuscany, but it was in use among the Chaldeans,
Greeks, Egyptians, &c., and the more enlightened part of mankind
well knew how to render it subservient to their wishes or tyranny.
Agesilaus, when in Egypt, raised the drooping spirits of his
soldiers by a superstitious artifice. He secretly wrote in his
hand the word νεκη, _victory_, in large characters, and holding
the entrails of a victim in his hand till the impression was
communicated to the flesh, he showed it to the soldiers, and
animated them by observing that the gods signified their approaching
victories even by marking it in the body of the sacrificed animals.
_Cicero_, _de Divinatione_.
=Hasdrubal.= _See:_ Asdrubal.
=Quintus Haterius=, a patrician and orator at Rome under the first
emperors. He died in the 90th year of his age. _Tacitus_, _Annals_,
bk. 4, ch. 61.――――Agrippa, a senator in the age of Tiberius, hated
by the tyrant for his independence. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 6,
ch. 4.――――Antoninus, a dissipated senator, whose extravagance was
supported by Nero. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 13, ch. 34.
=Haustanes=, a man who conspired with Bessus against Darius, &c.
_Curtius_, bk. 8, ch. 5.
=Hebdŏle.= _See:_ Ebdome.
=Hebe=, a daughter of Jupiter and Juno. According to some she was the
daughter of Juno only, who conceived her after eating lettuces. As
she was fair, and always in the bloom of youth, she was called the
goddess of youth, and made by her mother cup-bearer to all the gods.
She was dismissed from her office by Jupiter, because she fell down
in an indecent posture as she was pouring nectar to the gods at a
grand festival, and Ganymedes the favourite of Jupiter succeeded her
as cup-bearer. She was employed by her mother to prepare her chariot,
and to harness her peacocks whenever requisite. When Hercules was
raised to the rank of a god he was reconciled to Juno by marrying
her daughter Hebe, by whom he had two sons, Alexiares and Anicetus.
As Hebe had the power of restoring gods and men to the vigour of
youth, she, at the instance of her husband, performed that kind
office to Iolas his friend. Hebe was worshipped at Sicyon, under
the name of _Dia_, and at Rome under the name of _Juventas_. She
is represented as a young virgin crowned with flowers, and arrayed
in a variegated garment. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 19; bk. 2, ch. 12.
――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 9, li. 400; _Fasti_, bk. 9, li. 76.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 3; bk. 2, ch. 7.
=Hēbēsus=, a Rutulian, killed in the night by Euryalus. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 344.
=Hebrus=, now _Marissa_, a river of Thrace, which was supposed to
roll its waters upon golden sands. It falls into the Ægean sea. The
head of Orpheus was thrown into it, after it had been cut off by the
Ciconian women. It received its name from Hebrus son of Cassandra,
a king of Thrace, who was said to have drowned himself there. _Mela_,
bk. 2, ch. 2.――_Strabo_, bk. 7.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 4, li. 463.
――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 11, li. 50.――――A youth of Lipara,
beloved by Neobule. _Horace_, bk. 3, ode 12.――――A man of Cyzicus,
killed by Pollux. _Flaccus_, bk. 3, li. 149.――――A friend of Æneas
son of Dolichaon, killed by Mezentius in the Rutulian war. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 696.
=Hecăle=, a poor old woman who kindly received Theseus as he was going
against the bull of Marathon, &c. _Plutarch_, _Theseus_.――――A town
of Attica.
=Hecalēsia=, a festival in honour of Jupiter of Hecale, instituted
by Theseus, or in commemoration of the kindness of Hecale, which
Theseus had experienced when he went against the bull of Marathon,
&c.
=Hecamēde=, a daughter of Arsinous, who fell to the lot of Nestor
after the plunder of Tenedos by the Greeks. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 11,
li. 623.
=Hecătæ fanum=, a celebrated temple sacred to Hecate at Stratonice in
Caria. _Strabo_, bk. 14.
=Hecatæus=, an historian of Miletus, born 549 years before Christ,
in the reign of Darius Hystaspes. _Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 143.
――――A Macedonian intimate with Alexander. _Diodorus_, bk. 17.――――A
Macedonian brought to the army against his will by Amyntas, &c.
_Curtius_, bk. 7, ch. 1.
=Hecăte=, a daughter of Perses and Asteria, the same as Proserpine or
Diana. She was called Luna in heaven, Diana on earth, and Hecate or
Proserpine in hell, whence her name of _Diva triformis, tergemina,
triceps_. She was supposed to preside over magic and enchantments,
and was generally represented like a woman with three heads, that
of a horse, a dog, or a boar; and sometimes she appeared with three
different bodies, and three different faces only with one neck.
Dogs, lambs, and honey were generally offered to her, especially in
highways and cross-roads, whence she obtained the name of _Trivia_.
Her power was extended over heaven, the earth, sea, and hell; and
to her kings and nations supposed themselves indebted for their
prosperity. _Ovid_, bk. 7, _Metamorphoses_, li. 94.――_Hesiod_,
_Theogony_.――_Horace_, bk. 3, ode 22.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 22.
――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 4, li. 511.
=Hecatēsia=, a yearly festival observed by the Stratonicensians in
honour of Hecate. The Athenians paid also particular worship to this
goddess, who was deemed the patroness of families and of children.
From this circumstance, the statues of the goddess were erected
before the doors of the houses, and upon every new moon a public
supper was always provided at the expense of the richest people, and
set in the streets, where the poorest of the citizens were permitted
to retire and feast upon it, while they reported that Hecate had
devoured it. There were also expiatory offerings to supplicate the
goddess to remove whatever evils might impend on the head of the
public, &c.
=Hecăto=, a native of Rhodes, pupil to Pænætius. He wrote on the
duties of man, &c. _Cicero_, bk. 3, _De Officiis_, ch. 15.
=Hecatomboia=, a festival celebrated in honour of Juno by the Argians
and people of Ægina. It receives its name from ἑκατον, and βους, a
sacrifice of 100 bulls, which were always offered to the goddess,
and the flesh distributed amongst the poorest citizens. There were
also public games, first instituted by Archinus, a king of Argos, in
which the prize was a shield of brass with a crown of myrtle.
=Hecatomphŏnia=, a solemn sacrifice offered by the Messenians to
Jupiter, when any of them had killed 100 enemies. _Pausanias_, bk. 4,
ch. 19.
=Hecatompŏlis=, an epithet applied to Crete, from the 100 cities which
it once contained.
=Hecatompy̆los=, an epithet applied to Thebes in Egypt on account of
its 100 gates. _Ammianus_, bk. 22, ch. 16.――――Also the capital of
Parthia, in the reign of the Arsacidæ. _Ptolemy_, bk. 6, ch. 5.
――_Strabo_, bk. 11.――_Pliny_, bk. 6, chs. 15 & 25.
=Hecatonnēsi=, small islands between Lesbos and Asia. _Strabo_, bk. 13.
=Hector=, son of king Priam and Hecuba, was the most valiant of
all the Trojan chiefs that fought against the Greeks. He married
Andromache the daughter of Eetion, by whom he had Astyanax. He was
appointed captain of all the Trojan forces, when Troy was besieged
by the Greeks; and the valour with which he behaved, showed how well
qualified he was to discharge that important office. He engaged with
the bravest of the Greeks, and according to Hyginus, no less than 31
of the most valiant of the enemy perished by his hand. When Achilles
had driven back the Trojans towards the city, Hector, too great to
fly, waited the approach of his enemy near the Scean gates, though
his father and mother, with tears in their eyes, blamed his rashness,
and entreated him to retire. The sight of Achilles terrified him,
and he fled before him in the plain. The Greek pursued, and Hector
was killed, and his body was dragged in cruel triumph by the
conqueror round the tomb of Patroclus, whom Hector had killed. The
body, after it had received the grossest of insults, was ransomed by
old Priam, and the Trojans obtained from the Greeks a truce of some
days to pay the last offices to the greatest of their leaders. The
Thebans boasted in the age of the geographer Pausanias, that they
had the ashes of Hector preserved in an urn, by order of an oracle;
which promised them undisturbed felicity if they were in possession
of that hero’s remains. The epithet of _Hectoreus_ is applied by the
poets to the Trojans, as best expressive of valour and intrepidity.
_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 1, &c.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, &c.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bks. 12 & 13.――_Dictys Cretensis._――_Dares Phrygius.
_――_Hyginus_, fables 90 & 112.――_Pausanias_, bk. 3 & bk. 9, ch. 18.
――_Quintus Smyrnæus_, bks. 1 & 3.――――A son of Parmenio drowned in
the Nile. Alexander honoured his remains with a magnificent funeral.
_Curtius_, bk. 4, ch. 8; bk. 6, ch. 9.
=Hecŭba=, daughter of Dymas, a Phrygian prince, or, according to
others, of Cisseus, a Thracian king, was the second wife of Priam
king of Troy, and proved the chastest of women, and the most tender
and unfortunate of mothers. When she was pregnant of Paris, she
dreamed that she had brought into the world a burning torch which
had reduced her husband’s palace and all Troy to ashes. So alarming
a dream was explained by the soothsayers, who declared that the son
she should bring into the world would prove the ruin of his country.
When Paris was born she exposed him on mount Ida to avert the
calamities which threatened her family; but her attempts to destroy
him were fruitless, and the prediction of the soothsayers was
fulfilled. _See:_ Paris. During the Trojan war she saw the greatest
part of her children perish by the hands of the enemy, and like
a mother she confessed her grief by her tears and lamentations,
particularly at the death of Hector her eldest son. When Troy was
taken, Hecuba, as one of the captives, fell to the lot of Ulysses,
a man whom she hated for his perfidy and avarice, and she embarked
with the conquerors for Greece. The Greeks landed in the Thracian
Chersonesus, to load with fresh honours the grave of Achilles.
During their stay the hero’s ghost appeared to them, and demanded,
to ensure the safety of their return, the sacrifice of Polyxena,
Hecuba’s daughter. They complied, and Polyxena was torn from her
mother to be sacrificed. Hecuba was inconsolable, and her grief was
still more increased at the sight of the body of her son Polydorus
washed on the shore, who had been recommended by his father to
the care and humanity of Polymnestor king of the country. _See:_
Polydorus. She determined to revenge the death of her son, and with
the greatest indignation went to the house of his murderer and tore
his eyes, and attempted to deprive him of his life. She was hindered
from executing her bloody purpose by the arrival of some Thracians,
and she fled with the female companions of her captivity. She was
pursued, and when she ran after the stones that were thrown at
her, she found herself suddenly changed into a bitch, and when
she attempted to speak, found that she could only bark. After this
metamorphosis she threw herself into the sea, according to Hyginus,
and that place was, from that circumstance, called _Cyneum_. Hecuba
had a great number of children by Priam, among whom were Hector,
Paris, Deiphobus, Pammon, Helenus, Polytes, Antiphon, Hipponous,
Polydorus, Troilus, and among the daughters, Creusa, Ilione, Laodice,
Polyxena, and Cassandra. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 11, li. 761;
bk. 13, li. 515.――_Hyginus_, fable 111.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3,
li. 44.――_Juvenal_, satire 10, li. 271.――_Strabo_, bk. 13.――_Dictys
Cretensis_, bks. 4 & 5.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 12.
=Hecŭbæ Sepulchrum=, a promontory of Thrace.
=Hedĭla=, a poetess of Samos.
=Hedonæum=, a village of Bœotia. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 31.
=Hedui.= _See:_ Ædui.
=Hedymēles=, an admired musician in Domitian’s age. The word signifies
_sweet music_. _Juvenal_, satire 6, li. 381.
=Hegelŏchus=, a general of 6000 Athenians sent to Mantinea to stop the
progress of Epaminondas. _Diodorus_, bk. 15.――――An Egyptian general
who flourished B.C. 128.
=Hegēmon=, a Thrasian poet in the age of Alcibiades. He wrote a poem
called Gigantomachia, besides other works. _Ælian_, _Varia Historia_,
bk. 4, ch. 11.――――Another poet, who wrote a poem on the battle of
Leuctra, &c. _Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 8, ch. 11.
=Hegesiănax=, an historian of Alexandria, who wrote an account of the
Trojan war.
=Hegesias=, a tyrant of Ephesus under the patronage of Alexander.
_Polyænus_, bk. 6.――――A philosopher who so eloquently convinced
his auditors of their failings and follies, and persuaded them that
there were no dangers after death, that many were guilty of suicide.
Ptolemy forbade him to continue his doctrines. _Cicero_, _Tusculanæ
Disputationes_, bk. 1, ch. 34.――――An historian.――――A famous orator
of Magnesia, who corrupted the elegant diction of Attica by the
introduction of Asiatic idioms. _Cicero_, _Orator_, chs. 67, 69;
_Brutus_, ch. 83.――_Strabo_, bk. 9.――_Plutarch_, _Alexander_.
=Hegesilŏchus=, one of the chief magistrates of Rhodes in the reign
of Alexander and his father Philip.――――Another native of Rhodes, 171
years before the christian era. He engaged his countrymen to prepare
a fleet of 40 ships to assist the Romans against Perseus king of
Macedonia.
=Hegesinous=, a man who wrote a poem on Attica. _Pausanias_, bk. 2,
ch. 29.
=Hegesinus=, a philosopher of Pergamus, of the second academy. He
flourished B.C. 193.
=Hegesippus=, an historian who wrote some things upon Pallene, &c.
=Hegesipy̆le=, a daughter of Olorus king of Thrace, who married
Miltiades and became mother of Cimon. _Plutarch._
=Hegesistrătus=, an Ephesian who consulted the oracle to know in what
particular place he should fix his residence. He was directed to
settle where he found peasants dancing with crowns of olives. This
was in Asia, where he founded Elea, &c.
=Hegetorĭdes=, a Thasian, who, upon seeing his country besieged by the
Athenians, and a law forbidding any one on pain of death to speak
of peace, went to the market-place with a rope about his neck, and
boldly told his countrymen to treat him as they pleased, provided
they saved the city from the calamities which the continuation of
the war seemed to threaten. The Thasians were awakened, the law was
abrogated, and Hegetorides pardoned, &c. _Polyænus._
=Helĕna=, the most beautiful woman of her age, sprung from one of the
eggs which Leda the wife of king Tyndarus brought forth after her
amour with Jupiter metamorphosed into a swan. _See:_ Leda. According
to some authors, Helen was daughter of Nemesis by Jupiter, and Leda
was only her nurse; and to reconcile this variety of opinions, some
imagine that Nemesis and Leda are the same persons. Her beauty was
so universally admired, even in her infancy, that Theseus, with his
friend Pirithous, carried her away before she had attained her 10th
year, and concealed her at Aphidnæ, under the care of his mother
Æthra. Her brothers Castor and Pollux recovered her by force of arms,
and she returned safe and unpolluted to Sparta, her native country.
There existed, however, a tradition recorded by Pausanius, that
Helen was of nubile years when carried away by Theseus, and that
she had a daughter by her ravisher, who was entrusted to the care
of Clytemnestra. This violence offered to her virtue did not in
the least diminish, but it rather augmented, her fame, and her
hand was eagerly solicited by the young princes of Greece. The most
celebrated of her suitors were Ulysses son of Laertes, Antilochus
son of Nestor, Sthenelus son of Capaneus, Diomedes son of Tydeus,
Amphilochus son of Cteatus, Meges son of Phileus, Agapenor son of
Ancæus, Thalpius son of Eurytus, Mnestheus son of Peteus, Schedius
son of Epistrophus, Polyxenus son of Agasthenes, Amphilochus son
of Amphiaraus, Ascalaphus and Ialmus sons of the god Mars, Ajax
son of Oileus, Eumelus son of Admetus, Polypœtes son of Pirithous,
Elphenor son of Chalcodon, Podalirius and Machaon sons of Æsculapius,
Leonteus son of Coronus, Philoctetes son of Pœan, Protesilaus son of
Iphiclus, Eurypilus son of Evemon, Ajax and Teucer sons of Telamon,
Patroclus son of Menœtius, Menelaus son of Atreus, Thoas, Idomeneus,
and Merion. Tyndarus was rather alarmed than pleased at the sight of
such a number of illustrious princes who eagerly solicited each to
become his son-in-law. He knew that he could not prefer one without
displeasing all the rest, and from this perplexity he was at last
drawn by the artifice of Ulysses, who began to be already known in
Greece by his prudence and sagacity. This prince, who clearly saw
that his pretensions to Helen would not probably meet with success
in opposition to so many rivals, proposed to extricate Tyndarus from
all his difficulties if he would promise him his niece Penelope in
marriage. Tyndarus consented, and Ulysses advised the king to bind,
by a solemn oath, all the suitors, that they would approve of the
uninfluenced choice which Helen should make of one among them; and
engage to unite together to defend her person and character, if ever
any attempts were made to ravish her from the arms of her husband.
The advice of Ulysses was followed, the princes consented, and Helen
fixed her choice upon Menelaus and married him. Hermione was the
early fruit of this union, which continued for three years with
mutual happiness. After this, Paris, son of Priam king of Troy, came
to Lacedæmon on pretence of sacrificing to Apollo. He was kindly
received by Menelaus, but shamefully abused his favours, and in
his absence in Crete he corrupted the fidelity of his wife Helen,
and persuaded her to follow him to Troy, B.C. 1198. At his return
Menelaus, highly sensible of the injury which he had received,
assembled the Grecian princes, and reminded them of their solemn
promises. They resolved to make war against the Trojans, but they
previously sent ambassadors to Priam to demand the restitution of
Helen. The influence of Paris at his father’s court prevented the
restoration, and the Greeks returned home without receiving the
satisfaction they required. Soon after their return their combined
forces assembled and sailed for the coast of Asia. The behaviour of
Helen during the Trojan war is not clearly known. Some assert that
she had willingly followed Paris, and that she warmly supported
the cause of the Trojans; while others believe that she always
sighed after her husband, and cursed the day in which she had
proved faithless to his bed. Homer represents her as in the last
instance, and some have added that she often betrayed the schemes
and resolutions of the Trojans, and secretly favoured the cause
of Greece. When Paris was killed in the ninth year of the war, she
voluntarily married Deiphobus, one of Priam’s sons, and when Troy
was taken she made no scruple to betray him, and to introduce the
Greeks into his chamber, to ingratiate herself with Menelaus. She
returned to Sparta, and the love of Menelaus forgave the errors
which she had committed. Some, however, say that she obtained her
life even with difficulty from her husband, whose resentment she
had kindled by her infidelity. After she had lived for some years
in Sparta, Menelaus died, and she was driven from Peloponnesus by
Megapenthes and Nicostratus, the illegitimate sons of her husband,
and she retired to Rhodes, where at that time Polyxo, a native
of Argos, reigned over the country. Polyxo remembered that her
widowhood originated in Helen, and that her husband Tlepolemus
had been killed in the Trojan war, which had been caused by the
debaucheries of Helen, therefore she meditated revenge. While
Helen retired one day to bathe in the river, Polyxo disguised her
attendants in the habits of furies, and sent them with orders to
murder her enemy. Helen was tied to a tree and strangled, and her
misfortunes were afterwards remembered, and the crimes of Polyxo
expiated by the temple which the Rhodians raised to Helen Dendritis,
or _tied to a tree_. There is a tradition mentioned by Herodotus,
which says that Paris was driven, as he returned from Sparta, upon
the coast of Egypt, where Proteus king of the country expelled him
from his dominions for his ingratitude to Menelaus, and confined
Helen. From that circumstance, therefore, Priam informed the Grecian
ambassadors that neither Helen nor her possessions were in Troy,
but in the hands of the king of Egypt. In spite of this assertion
the Greeks besieged the town and took it after 10 years’ siege, and
Menelaus by visiting Egypt, as he returned home, recovered Helen
at the court of Proteus, and was convinced that the Trojan war had
been undertaken on very unjust and unpardonable grounds. Helen was
honoured after death as a goddess, and the Spartans built her a
temple at Therapne, which had the power of giving beauty to all
the deformed women that entered it. Helen, according to some, was
carried into the island of Leuce after death, where she married
Achilles, who had been one of her warmest admirers. The age of Helen
has been a matter of deep inquiry among the chronologists. If she
was born of the same eggs as Castor and Pollux, who accompanied the
Argonauts in their expedition against Colchis about 35 years before
the Trojan war, according to some, she was no less than 60 years
old when Troy was reduced to ashes, supposing that her brothers
were only 15 when they embarked with the Argonauts. But she is
represented by Homer so incomparably beautiful during the siege of
Troy, that though seen at a ♦distance she influenced the counsellors
of Priam by the brightness of her charms; therefore we must suppose,
with others, that her beauty remained long undiminished, and
was extinguished only at her death. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 19,
&c.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 10, &c.――_Hyginus_, fable 77.
――_Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 112.――_Plutarch_, _Theseus_, &c.――_Cicero_,
_de Officiis_, bk. 3.――_Horace_, bk. 3, ode 3.――_Dictys Cretensis_,
bk. 1, &c.――_Quintus Smyrnæus_, chs. 10, 13, &c.――_Homer_, _Iliad_,
bk. 2, & _Odyssey_, bks. 4 & 15.――――A young woman of Sparta,
often confounded with the daughter of Leda. As she was going to be
sacrificed, because the lot had fallen upon her, an eagle came and
carried away the knife of the priest, upon which she was released,
and the barbarous custom of offering human victims was abolished.
――――An island on the coast of Attica, where Helen came after the
siege of Troy. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.――――A daughter of the emperor
Constantine, who married Julian.――――The mother of Constantine. She
died in her 80th year, A.D. 328.
♦ ‘distane’ replaced with ‘distance’
=Helĕnia=, a festival in Laconia, in honour of Helen, who received
there divine honours. It was celebrated by virgins riding upon mules,
and in chariots made of reeds and bulrushes.
=Hĕlēnor=, a Lydian prince who accompanied Æneas to Italy, and was
killed by the Rutulians. His mother’s name was Licymnia. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 444, &c.
=Hĕlĕnus=, a celebrated soothsayer, son of Priam and Hecuba, greatly
respected by all the Trojans. When Deiphobus was given in marriage
to Helen in preference to himself, he resolved to leave his country,
and he retired to mount Ida, where Ulysses took him prisoner by
the advice of Calchas. As he was well acquainted with futurity, the
Greeks made use of prayers, threats, and promises, to induce him to
reveal the secrets of the Trojans, and either the fear of death or
gratification of resentment seduced him to disclose to the enemies
of his country, that Troy could not be taken whilst it was in
possession of the Palladium, nor before Philoctetes came from his
retreat at Lemnos and assisted to support the siege. After the ruin
of his country, he fell to the share of Pyrrhus the son of Achilles,
and saved his life by warning him to avoid the dangerous tempest
which in reality proved fatal to all those who set sail. This
endeared him to Pyrrhus, and he received from his hand Andromache
the widow of his brother Hector, by whom he had a son called
Cestrinus. This marriage, according to some, was consummated
after the death of Pyrrhus, who lived with Andromache as his wife.
Helenus was the only one of Priam’s sons who survived the ruin of
his country. After the death of Pyrrhus, he reigned over part of
the Epirus, which he called Chaonia, in memory of his brother Chaon,
whom he had inadvertently killed. Helenus received Æneas as he
voyaged towards Italy, and foretold him some of the calamities which
attended his fleet. The manner in which he received the gift of
prophecy is doubtful. _See:_ Cassandra. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 6,
li. 76; bk. 7, li. 47.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 295, &c.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 11; bk. 2, ch. 33.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 13, lis. 99 & 723; bk. 15, li. 437.――――A Rutulian killed by
Pallas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 388.
=Helerni Lucus=, a place near Rome. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 6, li. 105.
=Heles=, or =Hales=, a river of Lucania near Velia. _Cicero_, _Letters
to Atticus_, bk. 16, ltr. 7; _Letters to his Friends_, bk. 7, ltr. 20.
=Hēliădes=, the daughters of the sun and Clymene. They were three in
number, Lampetie, Phaetusa, and Lampethusa, or seven, according to
Hyginus: Merope, Helie, Ægle, Lampetie, Phœbe, Ætheria, and Dioxippe.
They were so afflicted at the death of their brother Phaeton [_See:_
Phaeton], that they were changed by the gods into poplars, and their
tears into precious amber, on the banks of the river Po. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 2, li. 340.――_Hyginus_, fable 154.――――The first
inhabitants of Rhodes. This island being covered with mud when the
world was first created, was warmed by the cherishing beams of the
sun, and from thence sprang seven men, which were called Heliades,
ἀπο του ἡλιου, from the _sun_. The eldest of these, called Ochimus,
married Hegetoria, one of the nymphs of the island, and his brothers
fled from the country for having put to death, through jealousy, one
of their number. _Diodorus_, bk. 5.
=Heliastæ=, a name given to the judges of the most numerous tribunal
at Athens. They consisted of 1000, and sometimes of 1500, they were
seldom assembled, and only upon matters of the greatest importance.
_Demosthenes_, _Against Timocrates_.――_Diogenes Laërtius_, _Solon_.
=Helicāon=, a Trojan prince, son of Antenor. He married Laodice the
daughter of Priam, whose form Iris assumed to inform Helen of the
state of the rival armies before Troy. Helicaon was wounded in a
night engagement, but his life was spared by Ulysses, who remembered
the hospitality which he had received from his father Antenor.
_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2, li. 123.
=Hĕlĭce=, a star near the north pole, generally called Ursa Major. It
is supposed to receive its name from the town of Helice, of which
Calisto, who was changed into the Great Bear, was an inhabitant.
_Lucan_, bk. 2, li. 237.――――A town of Achaia, on the bay of Corinth,
overwhelmed by the inundation of the sea. _Pliny_, bk. 2, ch. 92.
――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 15, li. 293.――――A daughter of Silenus
king of Ægiale. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 24.――――A daughter of Lycaon
king of Arcadia.
=Hĕlīcon=, now _Zagaro-Vouni_, a mountain of Bœotia, on the borders
of Phocis. It was sacred to the muses, who had there a temple. The
fountain Hippocrene flowed from this mountain. _Strabo_, bk. 8.
――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 2, li. 219.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch.
28, &c.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 641.――――A river of Macedonia
near Dium. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 30.
=Hĕlīcŏniădes=, a name given to the Muses because they lived upon
mount Helicon, which was sacred to them.
=Helĭcōnis=, a daughter of Thespius. _Apollodorus._
=Heliodōrus=, one of the favourites of Seleucus Philopator king
of Syria. He attempted to plunder the temple of the Jews, about
176 years before Christ, by order of his master, &c.――――A Greek
mathematician of Larissa.――――A famous sophist, the best editions
of whose entertaining romance, called _Æthiopica_, are by Commelin,
8vo, 1596, and Bourdelot, 8vo, Paris, 1619.――――A learned Greek
rhetorician in the age of Horace.――――A man who wrote a treatise on
tombs.――――A poet.――――A geographer.――――A surgeon at Rome in Juvenal’s
age. _Juvenal_, satire 6, li. 372.
=Heliogabālus=, a deity among the Phœnicians.――――Marcus Aurelius
Antoninus, a Roman emperor, son of Varius Marcellus, called
Heliogabalus, because he had been priest of that divinity in
Phœnicia. After the death of Macrinus he was invested with the
imperial purple, and the senate, however unwilling to submit to a
youth only 14 years of age, approved of his election, and bestowed
upon him the title of Augustus. Heliogabalus made his grandmother
Mœsa and his mother Sœmias his colleagues on the throne; and to
bestow more dignity upon the sex, he chose a senate of women, over
which his mother presided, and prescribed all the modes and fashions
which prevailed in the empire. Rome, however, soon displayed a
scene of cruelty and debauchery; the imperial palace was full of
prostitution, and the most infamous of the populace became the
favourites of the prince. He raised his horse to the honours of the
consulship, and obliged his subjects to pay adoration to the god
Heliogabalus, which was no other than a large black stone, whose
figure resembled that of a cone. To this ridiculous deity temples
were raised at Rome, and the altars of the gods plundered to
deck those of the new divinity. In the midst of his extravagances
Heliogabalus married four wives, and not satisfied with following
the plain laws of nature, he professed himself to be a woman,
and gave himself up to one of his officers, called Hierocles. In
this ridiculous farce he suffered the greatest indignities from
his pretended husband without dissatisfaction, and Hierocles, by
stooping to infamy, became the most powerful of the favourites,
and enriched himself by selling favours and offices to the people.
Such licentiousness soon displeased the populace, and Heliogabalus,
unable to appease the seditions of his soldiers, whom his rapacity
and debaucheries had irritated, hid himself in the filth and
excrements of the camp, where he was found in the arms of his mother.
His head was severed from his body the 10th of March, A.D. 222, in
the 18th year of his age, after a reign of three years, nine months,
and four days. He was succeeded by Alexander Severus. His cruelties
were as conspicuous as his licentiousness. He burdened his subjects
with the most oppressive taxes; his halls were covered with carpets
of gold and silver tissue, and his mats were made with the down of
hares, and with the soft feathers which were found under the wings
of partridges. He was fond of covering his shoes with precious
stones, to draw the admiration of the people as he walked along
the streets, and he was the first Roman who ever wore a dress of
silk. He often invited the most common of the people to share his
banquets, and made them sit down on large bellows full of wind,
which, by suddenly emptying themselves, threw the guests on the
ground, and left them a prey to wild beasts. He often tied some of
his favourites on a large wheel, and was particularly delighted to
see them whirled round like Ixions, and sometimes suspended in the
air, or sunk beneath the water.
=Heliŏpŏlis=, now _Matarea_, a famous city of Lower Egypt, in which
was a temple sacred to the sun. The inhabitants worshipped a bull
called Mnevis, with the same ceremonies as the Apis of Memphis.
Apollo had an oracle there. _Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 3,
ch. 21.――_Pliny_, bk. 36, ch. 26.――_Strabo_, bk. 17.――_Diodorus_,
bk. 1.――――There was a small village of the same name without the
Delta, near Babylon.――――A town of Syria, now _Balbeck_. _Pliny_,
bk. 5, ch. 22.
=Helisson=, a town and river of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 29.
=Helium=, a name given to the mouth of the Maese in Germany. _Pliny_,
bk. 4, ch. 15.
=Helius=, a celebrated favourite of the emperor Nero, put to death by
order of Galba, for his cruelties.――――The Greek name of the sun, or
Apollo.
=Helixus=, a river of Cos.
=Hellanĭce=, a sister of Clitus, who was nurse to Alexander. _Curtius_,
bk. 8, ch. 1.
=Hellanĭcus=, a celebrated Greek historian, born at Mitylene. He
wrote a history of the ancient kings of the earth, with an account
of the founders of the most famous towns in every kingdom, and died
B.C. 411, in the 85th year of his age. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 3.
――_Cicero_, _On Oratory_, bk. 2, ch. 53.――_Aulus Gellius_, bk. 15,
ch. 23.――――A brave officer rewarded by Alexander. _Curtius_, bk. 5,
ch. 2.――――An historian of Miletus, who wrote a description of the
earth.
=Hellanocrătes=, a man of Larissa, &c. _Aristotle_, _Politics_, bk. 5,
ch. 10.
=Hellas=, an ancient name of Thessaly, more generally applied to the
territories of Acarnania, Attica, Ætolia, Doris, Locris, Bœotia, and
Phocis, and also to all Greece. It received this name from Deucalion,
and now forms a part of Livadia. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 7.――_Strabo_,
bk. 8.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 20.――――A
beautiful woman, mentioned by Horace as beloved by Marius: the lover
killed her in a fit of passion, and afterwards destroyed himself.
_Horace_, bk. 2, satire 3, li. 277.
=Helle=, a daughter of Athamas and Nephele, sister of Phryxus. She
fled from her father’s house, with her brother, to avoid the cruel
oppression of her mother-in-law Ino. According to some accounts she
was carried through the air on a golden ram, which her mother had
received from Neptune, and in her passage she became giddy, and fell
from her seat into that part of the sea which from her received the
name of Hellespont. Others say that she was carried on a cloud, or
rather upon a ship, from which she fell into the sea and was drowned.
Phryxus, after he had given his sister a burial on the neighbouring
coasts, pursued his journey and arrived safe in Colchus. _See:_
Phryxus. _Ovid_, _Heroides_, poem 13, &c. _Metamorphoses_, bk. 4,
fable 14.――_Pindar_, bk. 4, _Pythian_.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 34.
=Hellen=, son of Deucalion and Pyrrha, reigned in Phthiotis about 1495
years before the christian era, and gave the name of Hellenians to
his subjects. He had by his wife Orseis three sons, Æolus, Dorus,
and Xuthus, who gave their names to the three different nations
known under the name of Æolians, Dorians, and Ionians. These last
derive their name from Ion son of Xuthus, and from the difference
either of expression or pronunciation in their respective languages,
arose the different dialects well known in the Greek language.
_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 20; bk. 7, ch. 1.――_Diodorus_, bk. 5.
=Hellēnes=, the inhabitants of Greece. _See:_ Hellen.
=Hellespontias=, a wind blowing from the north-east. _Pliny_, bk. 2,
ch. 47.
=Hellespontus=, now the _Dardanelles_, a narrow strait between Asia
and Europe, near the Propontis, which received its name from Helle,
who was drowned there in her voyage to Colchis. _See:_ Helle. It is
about 60 miles long, and in the broadest parts, the Asiatic coast
is about three miles distant from the European, and only half a mile
in the narrowest, according to modern investigation; so that people
can converse one with the other from the opposite shores. It was
celebrated for the love and death of Leander [_See:_ Hero], and
for the bridge of boats which Xerxes built over it when he invaded
Greece. The folly of this great prince is well known in beating
and fettering the waves of the sea, whose impetuosity destroyed his
ships, and rendered all his labours ineffectual. _Strabo_, bk. 13.
――_Pliny_, bk. 8, ch. 32.――_Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 34.――_Polybius.
_――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 1.――_Ptolemy_, bk. 5, ch. 2.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 13, li. 407.――_Livy_, bk. 31, ch. 15; bk. 33,
ch. 33.――――The country along the Hellespont on the Asiatic coast
bears the same name. _Cicero_, _Against Verres_, bk. 1, ch. 24;
_Letters to his Friends_, bk. 13, ltr. 53.――_Strabo_, bk. 12.
――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 30.
=Hellopia=, a small country of Eubœa. The people were called
_Hellopes_. The whole island bore the same name, according to Strabo,
bk. 10.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.
=Hellōtia=, two festivals, one of which was observed in Crete, in
honour of Europa, whose bones were then carried in solemn procession,
with a myrtle garland no less than 20 cubits in circumference,
called ἑλλωτις. The other festival was celebrated at Corinth with
games and races, where young men entered the lists and generally
ran with burning torches in their hands. It was instituted in honour
of Minerva, surnamed Hellotis, ἀπο του ἑλους, _from a certain pond_
of Marathon, where one of her statues was erected, or ἀπο του ἑλειν
τον ἱππον τον Πεγασον, because by her assistance Bellerophon took
and managed the horse Pegasus, which was the original cause of the
institution of the festival. Others derive the name from Hellotis, a
Corinthian woman, from the following circumstance: When the Dorians
and the Heraclidæ invaded Peloponnesus, they took and burnt Corinth;
the inhabitants, and particularly the women, escaped by flight,
except Hellotis and her sister Eurytione, who took shelter in
Minerva’s temple, relying for safety upon the sanctity of the place.
When this was known, the Dorians set fire to the temple, and the
two sisters perished in the flames. This wanton cruelty was followed
by a dreadful plague; and the Dorians, to alleviate the misfortunes
which they suffered, were directed by the oracle to appease the
manes of the two sisters, and therefore they raised a new temple to
the goddess Minerva, and established the festivals which bore the
name of one of the unfortunate women.
=Helnes=, an ancient king of Arcadia, &c. _Polyænus_, bk. 1.
=Helōris=, a general of the people of Rhegium, sent to besiege Messana,
which Dionysius the tyrant defended. He fell in battle, and his
troops were defeated. _Diodorus_, bk. 14.
=Helōrum= and =Helōrus=, now _Muri Ucci_, a town and river of Sicily,
whose swollen waters generally inundate the neighbouring country.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 698.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 11,
li. 270.――――A river of Magna Græcia.
=Helos=, a place of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 36.――――A town of
Laconia, taken and destroyed by the Lacedæmonians under Agis III.,
of the race of the Heraclidæ, because they refused to pay the
tribute which was imposed upon them. The Lacedæmonians carried
their resentment so far, that, not satisfied with the ruin of the
city, they reduced the inhabitants to the lowest and most miserable
slavery, and made a law which forbade their masters either to
give them their liberty, or to sell them in any other country. To
complete their infamy, all the slaves of the state and the prisoners
of war were called by the mean appellation of _Helotæ_. Not only
the servile offices in which they were employed denoted their misery
and slavery, but they were obliged to wear peculiar garments, which
exposed them to greater contempt and ridicule. They never were
instructed in the liberal arts, and their cruel masters often
obliged them to drink to excess, to show the free-born citizens of
Sparta the beastliness and disgrace of intoxication. They once every
year received a number of stripes, that by this wanton flagellation
they might recollect that they were born and died slaves. The
Spartans even declared war against them; but Plutarch, who, from
interested motives, endeavours to palliate the guilt and cruelty
of the people of Lacedæmon, declares that it was because they
had assisted the Messenians in their war against Sparta, after it
had been overthrown by a violent earthquake. This earthquake was
supposed by all the Greeks to be a punishment from heaven for the
cruelties which the Lacedæmonians had exercised against the Helots.
In the Peloponnesian war, these miserable slaves behaved with
uncommon bravery, and were rewarded with their liberty by the
Lacedæmonians, and appeared in the temples and at public shows
crowned with garlands, and with every mark of festivity and triumph.
This exultation did not continue long, and the sudden disappearance
of these 2000 manumitted slaves was attributed to the inhumanity
of the Lacedæmonians. _Thucydides_, bk. 4.――_Pollux_, bk. 3, ch. 8.
――_Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Plutarch_, _Lycurgus_, &c.――_Aristotle_,
_Politics_, bk. 2.――_Pausanias_, _Laconia_, &c.
=Helōtæ= and =Helōtes=, the public slaves of Sparta, &c. _See:_ Helos.
=Helvetia=, a vestal virgin struck dead with lightning in Trajan’s
reign.
=Helvetii=, an ancient nation of Gaul, conquered by Julius Cæsar.
Their country is the modern Switzerland. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_,
bk. 1, &c.――_Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 1, chs. 67 & 69.
=Helvia=, the mother of Cicero.――――Ricina, a town of Picenum.
=Helvidia=, the name of a Roman family.
=Helvii=, now _Viviers_, a people of Gaul, along the Rhone. _Pliny_,
bk. 3, ch. 4.
=Helvillum=, a town of Umbria, supposed to be the same as Sullium, now
_Sigillo_. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 14.
=Helvīna=, a fountain of Aquinum where Ceres had a temple. _Juvenal_,
satire 3, li. 320.
=Helvius Cinna=, proposed a law, which, however, was not passed, to
permit Cæsar to marry whatever woman he chose. _Suetonius_, _Cæsar_,
bk. 52.――――A poet. _See:_ Cinna.
=Helum=, a river of Scythia.
=Helymus= and =Panopes=, two hunters at the court of Acestes in Sicily.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 5, li. 73, &c.
=Hemathion=, a son of Aurora and Cephalus, or Tithonus. _Apollodorus_,
bk. 3.
=Hemĭthea=, a daughter of Cycnus and Proclea. She was so attached to
her brother Tenes, that she refused to abandon him when his father
Cycnus exposed him on the sea. They were carried by the wind to
Tenedos, where Hemithea long enjoyed tranquillity, till Achilles,
captivated by her charms, offered her violence. She was rescued from
his embrace by her brother Tenes, who was instantly slaughtered by
the offended hero. Hemithea could not have been rescued from the
attempts of Achilles, had not the earth opened and swallowed her,
after she had fervently entreated the assistance of the gods. _See:_
Tenes. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 14.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.
=Hemon.= _See:_ Hæmon.
=Hemus.= _See:_ Hæmus.――――A Roman. _Juvenal_, satire 6, li. 197.
=Henĕti=, a people of Paphlagonia, who are said to have settled in
Italy near the Adriatic, where they gave the name of _Venetia_ to
their habitation. _Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 1.――_Euripides._
=Heniŏchi=, a people of Asiatic Sarmatia, near Colchis, descended
from Amphytus and Telechius, the charioteers (μνιοχοι) of Castor
and Pollux, and thence called Lacedæmonii. _Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 21.
――_Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 40.――_Flaccus_, bk. 3, li. 270; bk. 6,
li. 42.
=Henna.= _See:_ Enna.
=Hephæstia=, the capital town of Lemnos.――――A festival in honour of
Vulcan (Ἡφαιστος) at Athens. There was then a race with torches
between three young men. Each in his turn ran a race with a lighted
torch in his hand, and whoever could carry it to the end of the
course before it was extinguished, obtained the prize. They delivered
it one to the other after they finished their course, and from that
circumstance we see many allusions in ancient authors who compare
the vicissitudes of human affairs to this delivering of the torch,
particularly in these lines of Lucretius bk. 2:
_Inque brevi spatio mutantur sæcla animantum,
Et quasi cursores vitai lampada tradunt._
=Hephæstiădes=, a name applied to the Lipari isles as sacred to Vulcan.
=Hephæstii=, mountains in Lycia which are set on fire by the lightest
touch of a burning torch. Their very stones burnt in the middle of
water, according to _Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 106.
=Hephæstio=, a Greek grammarian of Alexandria in the age of the
emperor Verus. There remains of his compositions a treatise entitled
_Enchiridion de metris & poemate_, the best edition of which is that
of _Pauw_, 4to, Utrecht, 1726.
=Hephæstion=, a Macedonian famous for his intimacy with Alexander.
He accompanied the conqueror in his Asiatic conquests, and was so
faithful and attached to him, that Alexander often observed that
Craterus was the friend of the king, but Hephæstion the friend of
Alexander. He died at Ecbatana 325 years before the christian era,
according to some from excess of drinking, or eating. Alexander
was so inconsolable at the death of this faithful subject, that he
shed tears at the intelligence, and ordered the sacred fire to be
extinguished, which was never done but at the death of a Persian
monarch. The physician who attended Hephæstion in his illness was
accused of negligence, and by the king’s order inhumanly put to
death, and the games were interrupted. His body was entrusted to the
care of Perdiccas, and honoured with the most magnificent funeral
at Babylon. He was so like the king in features and stature, that he
was often saluted by the name of Alexander. _Curtius._――_Arrian_, bk.
7, &c.――_Plutarch_, _Alexander_.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 7,
ch. 8.
=Heptaphōnos=, a portico, which received this name, because the voice
was re-echoed seven times in it. _Pliny_, bk. 36, ch. 15.
=Heptapŏlis=, a country of Egypt, which contained seven cities.
=Heptapy̆los=, a surname of Thebes in Bœotia, from its seven gates.
=Hera=, the name of Juno among the Greeks.――――A daughter of Neptune
and Ceres when transformed into a mare. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3.――――A
town of Æolia and of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 7.――――A town
of Sicily, called also _Hybla_. _Cicero_, _Letters to Atticus_,
bk. 2, ltr. 1.
=Herăclēa=, an ancient town of Sicily, near Agrigentum. Minos planted
a colony there when he pursued Dædalus; and the town, anciently
known by the name of _Macara_, was called from him _Minoa_. It was
called Heraclea after Hercules, when he obtained a victory over
Eryx.――――A town of Macedonia.――――Another in Pontus, celebrated for
its naval power and its consequence among the Asiatic states. The
inhabitants conveyed home in their ships the 10,000 at their return.
――――Another in Crete.――――Another in Parthia.――――Another in Bithynia.
――――Another in Phthiotis, near Thermopylæ, called also _Trachinea_,
to distinguish it from others.――――Another in Lucania. _Cicero_,
_For Archias_, ch. 4.――――Another in Syria.――――Another in Chersonesus
Taurica.――――Another in Thrace, and three in Egypt, &c.――――There were
no less than 40 cities of that name in different parts of the world,
all built in honour of Hercules, whence the name is derived.――――A
daughter of Hiero tyrant of Sicily, &c.
=Heraclēia=, a festival at Athens celebrated every fifth year, in
honour of Hercules. The ♦Thespians and Thebans in Bœotia observed a
festival of the same name, in which they offered apples to the god.
This custom of offering apples arose from this: It was always usual
to offer sheep, but the overflowing of the river Asopus prevented
the votaries of the god from observing it with the ancient ceremony;
and as the word μηλον signifies both an _apple_ and a _sheep_, some
youths, acquainted with the ambiguity of the word, offered apples to
the god, with much sport and festivity. To represent the sheep, they
raised an apple upon four sticks as the legs, and two more were
placed at the top to represent the horns of the victim. Hercules was
delighted at the ingenuity of the youths, and the festivals were
ever continued with the offering of apples. _Pollux_, bk. 8, ch. 9.
There was also a festival at Sicyon in honour of Hercules. It
continued two days; the first was called ὀνοματας, the second
ἡρακλεια.――――At a festival of the same name at Cos, the priest
officiated with a mitre on his head, and in woman’s apparel.――――At
Lindus, a solemnity of the same name was also observed, and at the
celebration nothing was heard but execrations and profane words, and
whosoever accidentally dropped any other words, was accused of
having profaned the sacred rites.
♦ ‘Thisbians’ replaced with ‘Thespians’
=Heracleum=, a promontory of Cappadocia.――――A town of Egypt near
Canopus, on the western mouth of the Nile, to which it gave its name.
_Diodorus_, bk. 1.――_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 2, ch. 60.――_Strabo_,
bks. 2 & 17.――――The port town of Gnossus in Crete.
=Heracleōtes=, a surname of Dionysius the philosopher.――――A philosopher
of Heraclea, who, like his master Zeno, and all the Stoics, firmly
believed that pain was not an evil. A severe illness, attended with
the most acute pains, obliged him to renounce his principles, and at
the same time the philosophy of the Stoics, about 264 years before
the christian era. He became afterwards one of the Cyrenaic sect,
which placed the _summum bonum_ in pleasure. He wrote some poetry,
and chiefly treatises of philosophy. _Diogenes Laërtius_, _Lives and
Opinions of Eminent Philosophers_.
=Heraclīdæ=, the descendants of Hercules, greatly celebrated in ancient
history. Hercules at his death left to his son Hyllus all the rights
and claims which he had upon the Peloponnesus, and permitted him
to marry Iole, as soon as he came of age. The posterity of Hercules
were not more kindly treated by Eurystheus than their father had
been, and they were obliged to retire for protection to the court of
Ceyx king of Trachinia. Eurystheus pursued them thither; and Ceyx,
afraid of his resentment, begged the Heraclidæ to depart from his
dominions. From Trachinia they came to Athens, where Theseus the
king of the country, who had accompanied their father in some of his
expeditions, received them with great humanity, and assisted them
against their common enemy Eurystheus. Eurystheus was killed by the
hand of Hyllus himself, and his children perished with him, and all
the cities of the Peloponnesus became the undisputed property of
the Heraclidæ. Their triumph, however, was short; their numbers were
lessened by a pestilence, and the oracle informed them that they
had taken possession of the Peloponnesus, before the gods permitted
their return. Upon this they abandoned Peloponnesus, and came to
settle in the territories of the Athenians, where Hyllus, obedient
to his father’s commands, married Iole the daughter of Eurytus. Soon
after he consulted the oracle, anxious to recover the Peloponnesus,
and the ambiguity of the answer determined him to make a second
attempt. He challenged to single combat Atreus the successor of
Eurystheus on the throne of Mycenæ, and it was mutually agreed that
the undisturbed possession of the Peloponnesus should be ceded to
whosoever defeated his adversary. Echemus accepted the challenge
for Atreus, and Hyllus was killed, and the Heraclidæ a second time
departed from Peloponnesus. Cleodæus the son of Hyllus made a third
attempt, and was equally unsuccessful, and his son Aristomachus some
time after met with the same unfavourable reception, and perished
in the field of battle. Aristodemus, Temenus, and Chresphontes, the
three sons of Aristomachus, encouraged by the more expressive and
less ambiguous word of an oracle, and desirous to revenge the death
of their progenitors, assembled a numerous force, and with a fleet
invaded all Peloponnesus. Their expedition was attended with success,
and after some ♦decisive battles they became masters of all the
peninsula, which they divided among themselves two years after. The
recovery of the Peloponnesus by the descendants of Hercules forms an
interesting epoch in ancient history, which is universally believed
to have happened 80 years after the Trojan war, or 1104 years before
the christian era. This conquest was totally achieved about 120
years after the first attempt of Hyllus. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2,
ch. 7, &c.――_Herodotus_, bk. 9, ch. 26.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 17.
――_Paterculus_, bk. 1, ch. 2.――_Clement of Alexandria_, _Stromateis_,
bk. 1.――_Thucydides_, bk. 1, ch. 12, &c.――_Diodorus_, bk. 1, &c.
――_Aristotle_, _Politics_, bk. 7, ch. 26.
♦ ‘deicsive’ replaced with ‘decisive’
=Herăclīdes=, a philosopher of Heraclea in Pontus, for some time
disciple of Seusippus and Aristotle. He wished it to be believed
that he was carried into heaven the very day of his death, and the
more firmly to render it credible, he begged one of his friends
to put a serpent in his bed. The serpent disappointed him, and
the noise which the number of visitors occasioned, frightened him
from the bed before the philosopher had expired. He lived about 335
years before the christian era. _Cicero_, _Tusculanæ Disputationes_,
bk. 5; _Letters to his brother Quintus_, bk. 3.――_Diogenes Laërtius_,
_Pythagoras_.――――An historian of Pontus surnamed _Lembus_, who
flourished B.C. 177.――――A man who, after the retreat of Dionysius
the younger from Sicily, raised cabals against Dion, in whose hands
the sovereign power was lodged. He was put to death by Dion’s order.
_Cornelius Nepos_, _Dion._――――A youth of Syracuse, in the battle in
which Nicias was defeated.――――A son of Agathocles.――――A man placed
over a garrison at Athens by Demetrius.――――A sophist of Lycia, who
opened a school at Smyrna in the age of the emperor Severus.――――A
painter of Macedonia in the reign of king Perseus.――――An architect
of Tarentum, intimate with Philip king of Macedonia. He fled to
Rhodes on pretence of a quarrel with Philip, and set fire to the
Rhodian fleet. _Polyænus._――――A man of Alexandria.
=Heraclītus=, a celebrated Greek philosopher of Ephesus, who flourished
about 500 years before the christian era. His father’s name was
Hyson, or Heracion. Naturally of a melancholy disposition, he
passed his time in a solitary and unsocial manner, and received
the appellation of the obscure philosopher, and the mourner, from
his unconquerable custom of weeping at the follies, frailty, and
vicissitudes of human affairs. He employed his time in writing
different treatises, and one particularly, in which he supported
that there was a fatal necessity, and that the world was created
from fire, which he deemed a god omnipotent and omniscient. His
opinions about the origin of things were adopted by the Stoics,
and Hippocrates entertained the same notions of a supreme power.
Heraclitus deserves the appellation of man-hater, for the rusticity
with which he answered the polite invitations of Darius king of
Persia. To remove himself totally from the society of mankind, he
retired to the mountains, where for some time he fed on grass in
common with the wild inhabitants of the place. Such a diet was soon
productive of a dropsical complaint, and the philosopher condescended
to revisit the town. The enigmatical manner in which he consulted
the physicians made his applications unintelligible, and he was left
to depend for cure only upon himself. He fixed his residence on a
dunghill, in hopes that the continual warmth which proceeded from
it might dissipate the watery accumulation and restore him to the
enjoyment of his former health. Such a remedy proved ineffectual,
and the philosopher, despairing of a cure by the application of
ox-dung, suffered himself to die in the 60th year of his age. Some
say that he was torn to pieces by dogs. _Diogenes Laërtius_, _Lives
and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers_.――_Clement of Alexandria_,
_Stromateis_, bk. 5.――――A lyric poet.――――A writer of Halicarnassus,
intimate with Callimachus. He was remarkable for the elegance of his
style.――――A native of Lesbos, who wrote a history of Macedonia.――――A
writer of Sicyon, &c. _Plutarch._
=Heraclius=, a river of Greece. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 37.――――A
brother of Constantine, &c.――――A Roman emperor, &c.
=Heræa=, a town of Arcadia.――――Festivals at Argos in honour of Juno,
who was the patroness of that city. They were also observed by the
colonies of the Argives which had been planted at Samos and Ægina.
There were always two processions to the temple of the goddess
without the city walls. The first was of the men in armour, the
second of the women, among whom the priestess, a woman of the first
quality, was drawn in a chariot by white oxen. The Argives always
reckoned their years from her priesthood, as the Athenians from
their archons, and the Romans from their consuls. When they came
to the temple of the goddess they offered a hecatomb of oxen. Hence
the sacrifice is often called ἑκατομβια, and sometimes λεχερνα,
from λεχος, _a bed_, because Juno presided over marriages, births,
&c. There was a festival of the same name in Elis, celebrated every
fifth year, in which 16 matrons wove a garment for the goddess.
――――There were also others instituted by Hippodamia, who had
received assistance from Juno when she married Pelops. Sixteen
matrons, each attended by a maid, presided at the celebration.
The contenders were young virgins, who being divided in classes,
according to their age, ran races each in their order, beginning
with the youngest. The habit of all was exactly the same; their hair
was dishevelled, and their right shoulder bare to the breast, with
coats reaching no lower than the knee. She who obtained the victory
was rewarded with crowns of olives, and obtained a part of the ox
that was offered in sacrifice, and was permitted to dedicate her
picture to the goddess.――――There was also a solemn day of mourning
at Corinth which bore the same name, in commemoration of Medea’s
children, who were buried in Juno’s temple. They had been slain by
the Corinthians; who, as it is reported, to avert the scandal which
accompanied so barbarous a murder, presented Euripides with a large
sum of money to write a play, in which Medea is represented as the
murderer of her children.――――Another festival of the same name at
Pallene, with games in which the victor was rewarded with a garment.
=Heræi montes=, a chain of mountains at the north of Sicily.
_Diodorus_, bk. 14.
=Heræum=, a temple and grove of Juno, situate between Argos and Mycenæ.
――――A town of Thrace.
=Herbessus=, a town of Sicily at the north of ♦Agrigentum, built by a
Phœnician or Carthaginian colony. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 14, li. 265.
♦ ‘Arigentum’ replaced with ‘Agrigentum’
=Herbita=, an inland town of Sicily. _Cicero_, _Against Verres_, bk. 2,
ch. 64; bk. 3, ch. 32.
=Herceius=, an epithet given to Jupiter. _Ovid_, _Ibis_, li. 286.
――_Lucan_, bk. 9, li. 979.
=Herculanea via=, a mound raised between the Lucrine lake and the sea,
called also _Herculeum iter_. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 12, li. 118.
=Herculāneum=, a town of Campania, swallowed up, with Pompeii, by an
earthquake, produced from an eruption of mount Vesuvius, August 24th,
A.D. 79, in the reign of Titus. After being buried under the lava
for more than 1600 years, these famous cities were discovered in the
beginning of the 18th century; Herculaneum in 1713, about 24 feet
underground, by labourers digging for a well, and Pompeii 40 years
after, about 12 feet below the surface, and from the houses and
the streets, which in a great measure remain still perfect, have
been drawn busts, statues, manuscripts, paintings, and utensils,
which do not a little contribute to enlarge our notions concerning
the ancients, and develop many classical obscurities. The valuable
antiquities, so miraculously recovered, are preserved in the museum
of Portici, a small town in the neighbourhood, and the engravings,
&c., ably taken from them have been munificently presented to the
different learned bodies of Europe. _Seneca_, _Quæstiones naturales_,
bk. 6, chs. 1 & 26.――_Cicero_, _Letters to Atticus_, bk. 7, ltr. 3.
――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 4.――_Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 16.
=Hercŭles=, a celebrated hero, who, after death, was ranked among the
gods, and received divine honours. According to the ancients there
were many persons of the same name. Diodorus mentions three, Cicero
six, and some authors extend the number to no less than 43. Of all
these the son of Jupiter and Alcmena, generally called the Theban,
is the most celebrated, and to him, as may easily be imagined, the
actions of the others have been ♦attributed. The birth of Hercules
was attended with many miraculous and supernatural events; and it is
reported that Jupiter, who introduced himself to the bed of Alcmena,
was employed for three nights in forming a child whom he intended to
be the greatest hero the world ever beheld. _See:_ Alcmena. Hercules
was brought up at Tirynthus, or, according to Diodorus, at Thebes,
and before he had completed his eighth month, the jealousy of Juno,
intent upon his destruction, sent two snakes to devour him. The
child, not terrified at the sight of the serpents, boldly seized
them in both his hands and squeezed them to death, while his brother
Iphiclus alarmed the house with his frightful shrieks. _See:_
Iphiclus. He was early instructed in the liberal arts, and Castor
the son of Tyndarus taught him how to fight, Eurytus how to shoot
with a bow and arrows, Autolycus to drive a chariot, Linus to
play on the lyre, and Eumolpus to sing. He, like the rest of his
illustrious contemporaries, soon after became the pupil of the
centaur Chiron, and under him he perfected and rendered himself the
most valiant and accomplished of the age. In the 18th year of his
age he resolved to deliver the neighbourhood of mount Cithæron from
a huge lion which preyed on the flocks of Amphitryon his supposed
father, and which laid waste the adjacent country. He went to the
court of Thespius king of Thespis, who shared the general calamity,
and he received there a tender treatment, and was entertained during
50 days. The 50 daughters of the king became all mothers by Hercules,
during his stay at Thespis, and some say that it was effected in
one night. After he had destroyed the lion of mount Cithæron, he
delivered his country from the annual tribute of 100 oxen which
it paid to Erginus. _See:_ Erginus. Such public services became
universally known, and Creon, who then sat on the throne of Thebes,
rewarded the patriotic deeds of Hercules by giving him his daughter
in marriage, and entrusting him with the government of his kingdom.
As Hercules by the will of Jupiter was subject to the power of
Eurystheus [_See:_ Eurystheus], and obliged to obey him in every
respect, Eurystheus, acquainted with his successes and rising power,
ordered him to appear at Mycenæ and perform the labours which by
priority of birth he was empowered to impose upon him. Hercules
refused, and Juno, to punish his disobedience, rendered him so
delirious that he killed his own children by Megara, supposing them
to be the offspring of Eurystheus. _See:_ Megara. When he recovered
the use of his senses, he was so struck with the misfortunes which
had proceeded from his insanity, that he concealed himself and
retired from the society of men for some time. He afterwards
consulted the oracle of Apollo, and was told that he must be
subservient for 12 years to the will of Eurystheus, in compliance
with the commands of Jupiter; and that after he had achieved the
most celebrated labours, he should be reckoned in the number of
the gods. So plain and expressive an answer determined him to go
to Mycenæ, and to bear with fortitude whatever gods or men imposed
upon him. Eurystheus, seeing so great a man totally subjected to him,
and apprehensive of so powerful an enemy, commanded him to achieve
a number of enterprises the most difficult and arduous ever known,
generally called the 12 labours of Hercules. The favours of the
gods had completely armed him when he undertook his labours. He
had received a coat of arms and helmet from Minerva, a sword from
Mercury, a horse from Neptune, a shield from Jupiter, a bow and
arrows from Apollo, and from Vulcan a golden cuirass and brazen
buskins, with a celebrated club of brass according to the opinion
of some writers, but more generally supposed to be of wood, and cut
by the hero himself in the forest of Nemæa. The first labour imposed
upon Hercules by Eurystheus, was to kill the lion of Nemæa, which
ravaged the country near Mycenæ. The hero, unable to destroy him
with his arrows, boldly attacked him with his club, pursued him
to his den, and after a close and sharp engagement he choked him
to death. He carried the dead beast on his shoulders to Mycenæ,
and ever after clothed himself with the skin. Eurystheus was so
astonished at the sight of the beast, and at the courage of Hercules,
that he ordered him never to enter the gates of the city when he
returned from his expeditions, but to wait for his orders without
the walls. He even made himself a brazen vessel, into which he
retired whenever Hercules returned. The second labour of Hercules
was to destroy the Lernæan hydra, which had seven heads according
to Apollodorus, 50 according to Simonides, 100 according to Diodorus.
This celebrated monster he attacked with his arrows, and soon after
he came to a close engagement, and by means of his heavy club he
destroyed the heads of his enemy. But this was productive of no
advantage, for as soon as one head was beaten to pieces by the club,
immediately two sprang up, and the labour of Hercules would have
remained unfinished had he not commanded his friend Iolus to burn,
with a hot iron, the root of the head which he had crushed to pieces.
This succeeded [_See:_ Hydra], and Hercules became victorious,
opened the belly of the monster, and dipped his arrows in the gall
to render the wounds which he gave fatal and incurable. He was
ordered in his third labour to bring alive and unhurt into the
presence of Eurystheus a stag, famous for its incredible swiftness,
its golden horns, and brazen feet. This celebrated animal frequented
the neighbourhood of Œnoe, and Hercules was employed for a whole
year in continually pursuing it, and at last he caught it in a trap,
or when tired, or according to others, by slightly wounding it and
lessening its swiftness. As he returned victorious, Diana snatched
the goat from him, and severely reprimanded him for molesting an
animal which was sacred to her. Hercules pleaded necessity, and by
representing the commands of Eurystheus, he appeased the goddess
and obtained the beast. The fourth labour was to bring alive to
Eurystheus a wild boar which ravaged the neighbourhood of Erymanthus.
In this expedition he destroyed the centaurs [_See:_ ♣Centauri],
and caught the boar by closely pursuing him through the deep
snow. Eurystheus was so frightened at the sight of the boar, that,
according to Diodorus, he hid himself in his brazen vessel for some
days. In his fifth labour Hercules was ordered to clean the stables
of Augias, where 3000 oxen had been confined for many years. _See:_
Augias. For his sixth labour he was ordered to kill the carnivorous
birds which ravaged the country near the lake Stymphalis in Arcadia.
_See:_ Stymphalis. In his seventh labour he brought alive into
Peloponnesus a prodigious wild bull which laid waste the island of
Crete. In his eighth labour he was employed in obtaining the mares
of Diomedes, which fed upon human flesh. He killed Diomedes, and
gave him to be eaten by his mares, which he brought to Eurystheus.
They were sent to mount Olympus by the king of Mycenæ, where they
were devoured by the wild beasts; or, according to others, they were
consecrated to Jupiter, and their breed still existed in the age
of Alexander the Great. For his ninth labour, he was commanded to
obtain the girdle of the queen of the Amazons. _See:_ Hippolyte.
In his tenth labour he killed the monster Geryon king of Gades,
and brought to Argos his numerous flocks, which fed upon human
flesh. _See:_ Geryon. The eleventh labour was to obtain apples from
the garden of the Hesperides. _See:_ Hesperides. The twelfth and
last, and most dangerous of his labours, was to bring upon earth
the three-headed dog Cerberus. This was cheerfully undertaken by
Hercules, and he descended into hell by a cave on mount Tænarus.
He was permitted by Pluto to carry away his friends Theseus and
Pirithous, who were condemned to punishment in hell: and Cerberus
also was granted to his prayers, provided he made use of no arms,
but only force, to drag him away. Hercules, as some report, carried
him back to hell, after he had brought him before Eurystheus.
Besides these arduous labours, which the jealousy of ♥Eurystheus
imposed upon him, he also achieved others of his own accord, equally
great and celebrated. _See:_ Cacus, Antæus, Busiris, Eryx, &c. He
accompanied the Argonauts to Colchis before he delivered himself up
to the king of Mycenæ. He assisted the gods in their wars against
the giants, and it was through him alone that Jupiter obtained a
victory. _See:_ Gigantes. He conquered Laomedon, and pillaged Troy.
_See:_ Laomedon. When Iole, the daughter of Eurytus king of Œchalia,
of whom he was deeply enamoured, was refused to his entreaties, he
became the prey of a second fit of insanity, and he murdered Iphitus,
the only one of the sons of Eurytus who favoured his addresses to
Iole. _See:_ Iphitus. He was some time after purified of the murder,
and his insanity ceased; but the gods persecuted him more, and he
was visited by a disorder which obliged him to apply to the oracle
of Delphi for relief. The boldness with which the Pythia received
him irritated him, and he resolved to plunder Apollo’s temple,
and carry away the sacred tripod. Apollo opposed him, and a severe
conflict was begun, which nothing but the interference of Jupiter
with his thunderbolts could have prevented. He was upon this told
by the oracle that he must be sold as a slave, and remain three
years in the most abject servitude to recover from his disorder. He
complied; and Mercury, by order of Jupiter, conducted him to Omphale
queen of Lydia, to whom he was sold as a slave. Here he cleared all
the country from robbers; and Omphale, who was astonished at the
greatness of his exploits, restored him to liberty, and married him.
Hercules had Agelaus, and Lamon according to others, by Omphale,
from whom Crœsus king of Lydia was descended. He became also
enamoured of one of Omphale’s female servants, by whom he had
Alceus. After he had completed the years of his slavery, he returned
to Peloponnesus, where he re-established on the throne of Sparta
Tyndarus, who had been expelled by Hippocoon. He became one of
Dejanira’s suitors, and married her, after he had overcome all
his rivals. _See:_ Achelous. He was obliged to leave Calydon, his
father-in-law’s kingdom, because he had inadvertently killed a man
with a blow of his fist, and it was on account of this expulsion
that he was not present at the hunting of the Calydonian boar.
From Calydon he retired to the court of Ceyx king of Trachinia. In
his way he was stopped by the swollen streams of the Evenus, where
the centaur Nessus attempted to offer violence to Dejanira, under
the perfidious pretence of conveying her over the river. Hercules
perceived the distress of Dejanira, and killed the centaur, who, as
he expired, gave her a tunic, which, as he observed, had the power
of recalling a husband from unlawful love. _See:_ Dejanira. Ceyx
king of Trachinia received him and his wife with great marks of
friendship, and purified him of the murder which he had committed
at Calydon. Hercules was still mindful that he had once been refused
the hand of Iole, he therefore made war against her father Eurytus,
and killed him with three of his sons. Iole fell into the hands of
her father’s murderer, and found that she was loved by Hercules as
much as before. She accompanied him to mount Œta, where he was going
to raise an altar and offer a solemn sacrifice to Jupiter. As he had
not then the tunic in which he arrayed himself to offer a sacrifice,
he sent Lichas to Dejanira in order to provide himself a proper
dress. Dejanira, informed of her husband’s tender attachment to
Iole, sent him a philter, or more probably the tunic which she had
received from Nessus, and Hercules, as soon as he had put it on,
fell into a desperate distemper, and found the poison of the Lernæan
hydra penetrate through his bones. He attempted to pull off the
fatal dress, but it was too late, and in the midst of his pains
and tortures he inveighed in the most bitter imprecations against
the credulous Dejanira, the cruelty of Eurystheus, and the jealousy
and hatred of Juno. As the distemper was incurable, he implored the
protection of Jupiter, and gave his bow and arrows to Philoctetes,
and erected a large burning pile on the top of mount Œta. He spread
on the pile the skin of the Nemæan lion, and laid himself down
upon it as on a bed, leaning his head on his club. Philoctetes,
or according to others, Pæan or Hyllus, was ordered to set fire to
the pile, and the hero saw himself on a sudden surrounded with the
flames, without betraying any marks of fear or astonishment. Jupiter
saw him from heaven, and told to the surrounding gods that he would
raise to the skies the immortal parts of a hero who had cleared
the earth from so many monsters and tyrants. The gods applauded
Jupiter’s resolution; the burning pile was suddenly surrounded with
a dark smoke, and after the mortal parts of Hercules were consumed,
he was carried up to heaven in a chariot drawn by four horses. Some
loud claps of thunder accompanied his elevation, and his friends,
unable to find either his bones or ashes, showed their gratitude
to his memory by raising an altar where the burning pile had stood.
Menœtius the son of Actor offered him the sacrifice of a bull, a
wild boar, and a goat, and enjoined the people of Opus yearly to
observe the same religious ceremonies. His worship soon became
as universal as his fame, and Juno, who had once persecuted him
with such inveterate fury, forgot her resentment, and gave him her
daughter Hebe in marriage. Hercules has received many surnames and
epithets, either from the place where his worship was established,
or from the labours which he achieved. His temples were numerous and
magnificent, and his divinity revered. No dogs or flies ever entered
his temple at Rome, and that of Gades, according to Strabo, was
always forbidden to women and pigs. The Phœnicians offered quails
on his altars, and as it was supposed that he presided over dreams,
the sick and infirm were sent to sleep in his temples, that they
might receive in their dreams the agreeable presages of their
approaching recovery. The white poplar was particularly dedicated
to his service. Hercules is generally represented naked, with strong
and well-proportioned limbs; he is sometimes covered with the skin
of the Nemæan lion, and holds a knotted club in his hand, on which
he often leans. Sometimes he appears crowned with the leaves of
the poplar, and holding the horn of plenty under his arm. At other
times he is represented standing with Cupid, who instantly breaks to
pieces his arrows and his club, to intimate the passion of love in
the hero, who suffered himself to be beaten and ridiculed by Omphale,
who dressed herself in his armour while he was sitting to spin with
her female servants. The children of Hercules are as numerous as the
labours and difficulties which he underwent, and indeed they became
so powerful soon after his death, that they alone had the courage to
invade all Peloponnesus. _See:_ Heraclidæ. He was father of Deicoon
and Therimachus by Megara, of Ctesippus by Astydamia, of Palemon
by Autonoe, of Everes by Parthenope, of Glycisonetes, Gyneus, and
Odites by Dejanira, of Thessalus by Chalciope, of Thestalus by
Epicaste, of Tlepolemus by Astyoche, of Agathyrsus, Gelon, and
Scytha by Echidna, &c. Such are the most striking characteristics
of the life of Hercules, who is said to have supported for a while
the weight of the heavens upon his shoulders [_See:_ Atlas], and
to have separated by the force of his arm the celebrated mountains
which were afterwards called the boundaries of his labours. _See:_
Abyla. He is held out by the ancients as a true pattern of virtue
and piety, and as his whole life had been employed for the common
benefit of mankind, he was deservedly rewarded with immortality. His
judicious choice of virtue in preference to pleasure, as described
by Xenophon, is well known. _Diodorus_, bks. 1 & 4.――_Cicero_, _de
Natura Deorum_, bk. 1, &c.――_Apollodorus_, bks. 1 & 2.――_Pausanias_,
bks. 3, 5, 9, & 10.――_Hesiod_, _Shield of Heracles_, &c.――_Hyginus_,
fables 29, 32, &c.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 9, li. 236, &c.;
_Heroides_, poem 9; _Amores_; _Tristia_, &c.――_Homer_, _Iliad_,
bk. 8, &c.――_Theocritus_, poem 24.――_Euripides_, _Hercules
furens_.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8, li. 294.――_Lucan_, bks. 3
& 6.――_Apollonius_, bk. 2.――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 1.
――_Sophocles_, _Trachiniæ_.――♠_Plautus_, _Amphitryon_.――_Seneca_,
_Hercules Furens_ & _Hercules Œtaeus_.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 6;
bk. 11, &c.――_Philostratus_, _Imagines_, bk. 2, ch. 5.――_Herodotus_,
bk. 1, ch. 7; bk. 2, ch. 42, &c.――_Quintus Smyrnæus_, bk. 6, li.
207, &c.――_Callimachus_, _Hymn to Artemis_.――_Pindar_, _Olympian_,
ode 3.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 1, li. 438.――_Statius_, bk. 2,
_Thebiad_, li. 564.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 1.――_Lucian_, _Dialogi
Deorum_.――_Lactantius_, _De Falsa Religione_.――_Strabo_, bk. 3, &c.
――_Horace_, _Odes_, _Satires_, &c.――――A son of Alexander the Great.
――――A surname of the emperor Commodus, &c.
♦ ‘atrributed’ replaced with ‘attributed’
♣ ‘Centaur’ replaced with ‘Centauri’
♥ ‘Eurytheus’ replaced with ‘Eurystheus’
♠ ‘Plutarch’ replaced with ‘Plautus’
=Hercŭleum=, a promontory in the country of the Brutii.――――Fretum,
a name given to the strait which forms a communication between the
Atlantic and Mediterranean.
=Hercŭleus=, one of Agrippina’s murderers. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 14,
ch. 8.
=Hercŭleus Lacis=, a lake of Sicily.
=Hercŭlis Columnæ=, two lofty mountains, situate one on the most
southern extremities of Spain, and the other on the opposite part
of Africa. They were called by the ancients _Abyla_ and _Calpe_.
They are reckoned the boundaries of the labours of Hercules, and
according to ancient tradition they were joined together till they
were severed by the arm of the hero, and a communication opened
between the Mediterranean and Atlantic seas. _Dionysius Periegetes._
――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 1, li. 142.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 5; bk. 2,
ch. 6.――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 1.――――Monœci Portus, now _Monaco_,
a port town of Genoa. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 3, ch. 52.
――_Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 405.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 830.
――――Labronis _vel_ Liburni Portus, a seaport town, now _Leghorn_.
――――Promontorium, a cape at the bottom of Italy, on the Ionian sea,
now _Spartivento_.――――Insulæ, two islands near Sardinia. _Pliny_,
bk. 3, ch. 7.――――Portus, a seaport of the Brutii, on the western
coast.――――Lucus, a wood in Germany sacred to Hercules. _Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 2, ch. 12.――――A small island on the coast of Spain,
called also _Scombraria_, from the tunny fish (_Scombres_) caught
there. _Strabo_, bk. 3.
=Hercy̆na=, a nymph who accompanied Ceres as she travelled over the
world. A river of Bœotia bore her name. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 39.
=Hercy̆nia=, a celebrated forest of Germany, which, according to Cæsar,
required nine days’ journey to cross it; and which on some parts
was found without any boundaries, though travelled over for 60 days
successively. It contained the modern countries of Switzerland,
Basil, Spires, Transylvania, and a great part of Russia. In length
of time the trees were rooted up, and when population increased the
greatest part of it was made inhabitable. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk.
6, ch. 24.――_Mela._――_Livy_, bk. 5, ch. 54.――_Tacitus_, _Germania_,
ch. 30.
=Herdonia=, a small town of Apulia between the rivers Aufidus and
Cerbalus. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 1, li. 568.
=Herdonius=, a man put to death by Tarquin, because he had boldly
spoken against him in an assembly, &c.
=Herea=, a town of Arcadia on an eminence, the bottom of which
was watered by the Alpheus. It was built by Hereus the son of
Lycaon, and was said to produce a wine possessed of such unusual
properties, as to give fecundity to women, and cause madness in men.
_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 13, ch. 6.――_Pliny_, bk. 14, ch. 18.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 24.――_Ptolemy_, bk. 3, ch. 16.
=Herennius Senecio=, a Roman historian under Domitian. _Tacitus_,
_Agricola_, ch. 2, &c.――――An officer of Sertorius defeated by Pompey,
&c. _Plutarch._――――A centurion sent in pursuit of Cicero by Antony.
He cut off the orator’s head. _Plutarch_, _Cicero_.――――Caius, a man
to whom Cicero dedicates his book _de Rhetoricâ_, a work attributed
by some to Cornificius.――――A Samnite general, &c.――――Philo, a
Phœnician who wrote a book on Adrian’s reign. He also composed a
treatise divided into 12 parts, concerning the choice of books, &c.
=Hereus=, a son of Lyacon, who founded a city in Arcadia, called Herea.
_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 24.
=Herillus=, a philosopher of Chalcedon, disciple to Zeno. _Diogenes
Laërtius._
=Herĭlus=, a king of Præneste, son of the nymph Feronia. As he had
three lives, he was killed three times by Evander. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 8, li. 563.
=Hermăchus=, a native of Mitylene, successor and disciple of Epicurus,
B.C. 267.
=Hermæ=, statues of Mercury in the city of Athens. _Cicero_, _Letters
to Atticus_, bk. 1, ltrs. 4 & 8.――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Alcibiades_.
――――Two youths who attended those who consulted the oracle of
Trophonius. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 39.
=Hermæa=, a festival in Crete, when the masters waited upon the
servants. It was also observed at Athens and Babylon. _Pausanias_,
bk. 8, ch. 14.
=Hermæum=, a town of Arcadia.――――A promontory at the east of Carthage,
the most northern point of all Africa, now cape _Bon_. _Livy_,
bk. 29, ch. 27.――_Strabo_, bk. 17.
=Hermagŏras Æolĭdes=, a famous rhetorician, who came to Rome in the
age of Augustus.――――A philosopher of Amphipolis.――――A famous orator
and philosopher.
=Hermandica=, a town of the Vaccæi in Spain. _Livy_, bk. 21, ch. 5.
――_Polybius_, bk. 3.
=Hermandūri=, a people of Germany, called also Hermunduri.
=Hermanni=, a people of Germany.
=Hermaphrŏdītus=, a son of Venus and Mercury, educated on mount Ida
by the Naiades. At the age of 15 he began to travel to gratify his
curiosity. When he came to Caria, he bathed himself in a fountain,
and Salmacis, the nymph who presided over it, became enamoured of
him and attempted to seduce him. Hermaphroditus continued deaf to
all entreaties and offers; and Salmacis, endeavouring to obtain
by force what was denied by prayers, closely embraced him, and
entreated the gods to make them two, but one body. Her prayers were
heard, and Salmacis and Hermaphroditus, now two in one body, still
preserved the characteristics of both their sexes. Hermaphroditus
begged the gods that all who bathed in that fountain might become
effeminate. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 4, li. 347.――_Hyginus_,
fable 271.
=Hermas=, an ancient father of the church, in or near the age of the
apostles.
=Hermathēna=, a statue which represented Mercury and Minerva in
the same body. This statue was generally placed in schools where
eloquence and philosophy were taught, because these two deities
presided over the arts and sciences.
=Hermēas=, a tyrant of Mysia who revolted from Artaxerxes Ochus,
B.C. 350.――――A general of Antiochus, &c.
=Hermeias=, a native of Methymna who wrote a history of Sicily.
=Hermes=, the name of Mercury among the Greeks. _See:_ Mercurius.
――――A famous gladiator. _Martial_, bk. 5, ltr. 25.――――An Egyptian
philosopher. _See:_ Mercurius Trismegistus.
=Hermesiănax=, an elegiac poet of Colophon, son of Agoneus. He was
publicly honoured with a statue. _Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 17.――――A
native of Cyprus, who wrote a history of Phrygia. _Plutarch._
=Hermias=, a Galatian philosopher in the second century. His _irrisio
philosophorum gentilium_ was printed with Justin Martyr’s works,
folio, Paris, 1615 & 1636, and with the Oxford edition of Tatian,
8vo, 1700.
=Hermĭnius=, a general of the Hermanni, &c.――――A Roman who defended
a bridge with Cocles against the army of Porsenna. _Livy_, bk. 2,
ch. 10.――――A Trojan killed by Catillus in the Rutulian war. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 11, li. 642.
=Hermiŏne=, a daughter of Mars and Venus, who married Cadmus. The
gods, except Juno, honoured her nuptials with their presence, and
she received, as a present, a rich veil and a splendid necklace
which had been made by Vulcan. She was changed into a serpent
with her husband Cadmus, and placed in the Elysian fields. _See:_
Harmonia. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 4,
fable 13.――――A daughter of Menelaus and Helen. She was privately
promised in marriage to Orestes the son of Agamemnon; but her father,
ignorant of this pre-engagement, gave her hand to Pyrrhus the son
of Achilles, whose services he had experienced in the Trojan war.
Pyrrhus, at his return from Troy, carried home Hermione and married
her. Hermione, tenderly attached to her cousin Orestes, looked upon
Pyrrhus with horror and indignation. According to others, however,
Hermione received the addresses of Pyrrhus with pleasure, and even
reproached Andromache his concubine with stealing his affections
from her. Her jealousy for Andromache, according to some, induced
her to unite herself to Orestes, and to destroy Pyrrhus. She gave
herself to Orestes after this murder, and received the kingdom
of Sparta as a dowry. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 4.――_Euripides_,
_Andromache_ & _Orestes_.――_Ovid_, _Heroides_, poem 8.――_Propertius_,
bk. 1.――――A town of Argolis, where Ceres had a famous temple. The
inhabitants lived by fishing. The descent to hell from their country
was considered so short that no money, according to the usual right
of burial, was put into the mouth of the dead to be paid to Charon
for their passage. The sea on the neighbouring coast was called
_Hermionicus sinus_. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 5.――_Virgil_, _Ciris_,
li. 472.――_Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.――_Ptolemy_, bk. 3,
ch. 16.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 34.
=Hermiŏniæ=, a city near the Riphæan mountains. _Orpheus_, _Argonauts_.
=Hermiŏnĭcus sinus=, a bay on the coast of Argolis near Hermione.
_Strabo_, bks. 1 & 8.
=Hermippus=, a freedman, disciple of Philo, in the reign of Adrian, by
whom he was greatly esteemed. He wrote five books upon dreams.――――A
man who accused Aspasia the mistress of Pericles of impiety and
prostitution. He was son of Lysis, and distinguished himself as a
poet by 40 theatrical pieces and other compositions, some of which
are quoted by Athenæus. _Plutarch._――――A peripatetic philosopher of
Smyrna, who flourished B.C. 210.
=Hermŏcrătes=, a general of Syracuse, against Nicias the Athenian. His
lenity towards the Athenian prisoners was looked upon as treacherous.
He was banished from Sicily without even a trial, and he was
murdered as he attempted to return back to his country, B.C. 408.
――――_Plutarch_, _Nicias_, &c.――――A sophist celebrated for his rising
talents. He died in the 28th year of his age, in the reign of the
emperor Severus.――――The father-in-law of Dionysius tyrant of Sicily.
――――A Rhodian employed by Artaxerxes to corrupt the Grecian states,
&c.――――A sophist, preceptor to Pausanias the murderer of Philip.
_Diodorus_, bk. 16.
=Hermodōrus=, a Sicilian, pupil to Plato.――――A philosopher of Ephesus,
who is said to have assisted, as interpreter, the Roman decemvirs in
the composition of the 10 tables of laws, which had been collected
in Greece. _Cicero_, _Tusculanæ Disputationes_, bk. 5, ch. 36.
――_Pliny_, bk. 34, ch. 5.――――A native of Salamis, contemporary with
Philo the Athenian architect. _Cicero_, _Orator_, bk. 1, ch. 14.
――――A poet who wrote a book called Νομιμα on the laws of different
nations.
=Hermŏgĕnes=, an architect of Alabanda in Caria, employed in building
the temple of Diana at Magnesia. He wrote a book upon his profession.
――――A rhetorician in the second century, the best editions of whose
_rhetorica_ are that of Sturmius, 3 vols., 12mo, Strasbourg, 1571,
and of Laurentius, Geneva, 1614. He died A.D. 161, and it is said
that his body was opened, and his heart found hairy and of an
extraordinary size. At the age of 25, as is reported, he totally
lost his memory.――――A lawyer in the age of Diocletian.――――A musician.
_Horace_, bk. 1, satire 3, li. 129.――――A sophist of Tarsus, of such
brilliant talents, that at the age of 15 he excited the attention
and gained the patronage of the emperor Marcus Antoninus.
=Hermolāus=, a young Macedonian among the attendants of Alexander.
As he was one day hunting with the king he killed a wild boar which
was coming towards him. Alexander, who followed close behind him,
was so disappointed because the beast had been killed before he
could dart at it, that he ordered Hermolaus to be severely whipped.
This treatment irritated Hermolaus, and he conspired to take away
the king’s life, with others who were displeased with the cruel
treatment he had received. The plot was discovered by one of
the conspirators, and Alexander seized them, and asked what had
compelled them to conspire to take his life. Hermolaus answered for
the rest, and observed that it was unworthy of Alexander to treat
his most faithful and attached friends like slaves, and to shed
their blood without the least mercy. Alexander ordered him to be put
to death. _Curtius_, bk. 8, ch. 6.
=Hermopŏlis=, two towns of Egypt, now _Ashmunein_ and _Demenhur_.
_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 9.
=Hermotīmus=, a famous prophet of Clazomenæ. It is said that his
soul separated itself from his body and wandered in every part of
the earth to explain futurity, after which it returned again and
animated his frame. His wife, who was acquainted with the frequent
absence of his soul, took advantage of it and burnt his body, as
if totally dead, and deprived the soul of its natural receptacle.
Hermotimus received divine honours in a temple at Clazomenæ, into
which it was unlawful for women to enter. _Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 51,
&c.――_Lucian._
=Hermundūri=, a people of Germany, subdued by Aurelius. They were at
the north of the Danube, and were considered by Tacitus as a tribe
of the Suevi, but called, together with the Suevi, Hermiones by
Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 14.――_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 13, _extra_.
――_Velleius Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 106.
=Hermus=, a river of Asia Minor, whose sands, according to the poets,
were covered with gold. It flows near Sardes, and receives the
waters of the Pactolus and Hyllus, after which it falls into
the Ægean sea. It is now called _Kedous_ or _Sarabat_. _Virgil_,
_Georgics_, bk. 2, li. 137.――_Lucan_, bk. 3, li. 210.――_Martial_,
bk. 8, ltr. 78.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 1, li. 159.――_Pliny_, bk. 5,
ch. 29.
=Hernĭci=, a people of Campania celebrated for their inveterate
enmity to the rising power of Rome. _Livy_, bk. 9, chs. 43 & 44.
――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 4, li. 226.――_Juvenal_, satire 14, li. 183.
――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 8, ch. 10.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 7, li. 684.
=Hero=, a beautiful priestess of Venus at Sestus, greatly enamoured
of Leander, a youth of Abydos. These two lovers were so faithful to
one another, that Leander in the night escaped from the vigilance
of his family, and swam across the Hellespont, while Hero in Sestos
directed his course by holding a burning torch on the top of a high
tower. After many interviews of mutual affection and tenderness,
Leander was drowned in a tempestuous night as he attempted his
usual course, and Hero in despair threw herself down from her tower
and perished in the sea.――_Musæus Grammaticus_, _Leander & Hero_.
――_Ovid_, _Heroides_, poems 17 & 18.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 3,
li. 258.
=Herōdes=, surnamed the _Great_ and _Ascalonita_, followed the interest
of Brutus and Cassius, and afterwards that of Antony. He was made
king of Judæa by means of Antony, and after the battle of Actium
he was continued in his power by his flattery and submission to
Augustus. He rendered himself odious by his cruelty, and as he knew
that the day of his death would become a day of mirth and festivity,
he ordered the most illustrious of his subjects to be confined and
murdered the very moment that he expired, that every eye in the
kingdom might seem to shed tears at the death of Herod. He died
in the 70th year of his age, after a reign of 40 years. _Josephus._
――――Antipas, a son of Herod the Great, governor of Galileæ, &c.
――――Agrippa, a Jew intimate with the emperor Caligula, &c.――――This
name was common to many of the Jews. _Josephus._――――Atticus. _See:_
Atticus.
=Herodiānus=, a Greek historian, who flourished A.D. 247. He was born
at Alexander, and he was employed among the officers of the Roman
emperors. He wrote a Roman history in eight books, from the death
of Marcus Aurelius to Maximinus. His style is peculiarly elegant,
but it wants precision, and the work too plainly betrays that the
author was not a perfect master of geography. He is accused of being
too partial to Maximinus, and too severe upon Alexander Severus.
His book comprehends the history of 68 or 70 years, and he asserts
that he has been an eye-witness of whatever he has written. The best
editions of his history are that of Politian, 4to, Dovan, 1525, who
afterwards published a very valuable Latin translation, and that of
Oxford, 8vo, 1708.
=Herodicus=, a physician surnamed _Gymnastic_, who flourished B.C. 443.
――――A grammarian surnamed _Crateleus_, B.C. 123.
=Hērŏdŏtus=, a celebrated historian of Halicarnassus, whose father’s
name was Lyxes, and that of his mother Dryo. He fled to Samos when
his country laboured under the oppressive tyranny of Lygdamis, and
travelled over Egypt, Italy, and all Greece. He afterwards returned
to Halicarnassus, and expelled the tyrant; which patriotic deed, far
from gaining the esteem and admiration of the populace, displeased
and irritated them, so that Herodotus was obliged to fly to Greece
from the public resentment. To procure a lasting fame he publicly
repeated at the Olympic games the history which he had composed,
in his 39th year, B.C. 445. It was received with such universal
applause, that the names of the nine Muses were unanimously given to
the nine books into which it is divided. This celebrated composition,
which has procured its author the title of father of history, is
written in the Ionic dialect. Herodotus is among the historians what
Homer is among the poets, and Demosthenes among the orators. His
style abounds with elegance, ease, and sweetness; and if there is
any of the fabulous or incredible, the author candidly informs the
reader that it is introduced upon the narration of others. The work
is a history of the wars of the Persians against the Greeks, from
the age of Cyrus to the battle of Mycale in the reign of Xerxes,
and besides this, it gives an account of the most celebrated nations
in the world. Herodotus had written another history of Assyria and
Arabia, which is not extant. The life of Homer, generally attributed
to him, is supposed by some not to be the production of his pen.
Plutarch has accused him of malevolence towards the Greeks, an
imputation which can easily be refuted. The two best editions
of this great historian are that of Wesseling, folio, Amsterdam,
1763; and that of Glasgow, 9 vols., 12mo, 1761. _Cicero_, _de
Legibus_, ch. 1; _On Oratory_, ch. 2.――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_,
bk. 1.――_Quintilian_, bk. 10, ch. 1.――_Plutarch_, _de Herodoti
Malignitate_.――――A man who wrote a treatise concerning Epicurus.
_Diogenes Laërtius._――――A Theban wrestler of Megara, in the age of
Demetrius son of Antigonus. He was six feet and a half in height,
and he ate generally 20 pounds of flesh, with bread in proportion,
at each of his meals. _Athenæus_, bk. 16.――――Another, whose
victories are celebrated by Pindar.
=Heroes=, a name which was given by the ancients to such as were born
from a god, or to such as had signalized themselves by their actions,
and seemed to deserve immortality by the services which they had
rendered their country. The heroes which Homer describes, such as
Ajax, Achilles, &c., were of such prodigious strength, that they
could lift up and throw stones which the united force of four or
five men of his age could not have moved. The heroes were supposed
to be interested in the affairs of mankind after death, and they
were invoked with much solemnity. As the altars of the gods were
crowded with sacrifices and libations, so the heroes were often
honoured with a funeral solemnity, in which their great exploits
were enumerated. The origin of heroism might proceed from the
opinions of some philosophers, who taught that the souls of great
men were often raised to the stars, and introduced among the
immortal gods. According to the notions of the stoics, the ancient
heroes inhabited a pure and serene climate, situate above the moon.
=Herōis=, a festival, celebrated every ninth year by the Delphians, in
honour of a heroine. There were in the celebration a great number of
mysterious rites, with a representation of something like Semele’s
resurrection.
=Heron=, two mathematicians, one of whom is called the _ancient_
and the other the _younger_. The former, who lived about 100 years
before Christ, was disciple to Ctesibius, and wrote a curious book
translated into Latin, under the title of _Spiritualium Liber_; the
only edition of which is that of Baldus, _Aug._ _Vind._ 1616.
=Heroopŏlis=, a town of Egypt on the Arabic gulf.
=Herŏphĭla=, a Sibyl, who, as some suppose, came to Rome in the reign
of Tarquin. _See:_ Sibyllæ. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 12.
=Herophĭlus=, an impostor in the reign of Julius Cæsar, who pretended
to be the grandson of Marius. He was banished from Rome by Cæsar for
his seditions, and was afterwards strangled in prison.――――A Greek
physician, about 570 years before the christian era. He was one of
the first who dissected bodies. Pliny, Cicero, and Plutarch have
greatly commended him.
=Herostrătus.= _See:_ Erostratus.
=Herpa=, a town of Cappadocia.
=Herse=, a daughter of Cecrops king of Athens, beloved by Mercury.
The god disclosed his love to Aglauros, Herse’s sister, in hopes of
procuring an easy admission to Herse; but Aglauros, through jealousy,
discovered the amour. Mercury was so offended at her behaviour, that
he struck her with his caduceus and changed her into a stone. Herse
became mother of Cephalus by Mercury, and after death she received
divine honours at Athens. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 2, li. 559,
&c.――――A wife of Danaus. _Apollodorus._
=Hersephoria=, festivals of Athens in honour of Minerva, or more
probably of Herse.
=Hersĭlia=, one of the Sabines, carried away by the Romans at the
celebration of the Consualia. She was given and married to Romulus,
though, according to some, she married Hostus, a youth of Latium,
by whom she had Hostus Hostilius. After death she was presented
with immortality by Juno, and received divine honours under the
name of Ora. _Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 11.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 14,
li. 832.
=Hertha= and =Herta=, a goddess among the Germans, supposed to be the
same as the earth. She had a temple and a chariot dedicated to her
service in a remote island, and was supposed to visit the earth
at stated times, when her coming was celebrated with the greatest
rejoicings and festivity. _Tacitus_, _Germania_.
=Herŭli=, a savage nation in the northern parts of Europe, who
attacked the Roman power in its decline.
=Hesænus=, a mountain near Pæonia.
=Hēsiŏdus=, a celebrated poet, born at Ascra in Bœotia. His father’s
name was Dius, and his mother’s Pycimede. He lived in the age of
Homer, and even obtained a poetical prize in competition with him,
according to Varro and Plutarch. Quintilian, Philostratus, and
others maintain that Hesiod lived before the age of Homer; but
Velleius Paterculus and others support that he flourished about 100
years after him. Hesiod is the first who wrote a poem on agriculture.
This composition is called _The Works and the Days_; and besides
the instructions which are given to the cultivator of the field, the
reader is pleased to find many moral reflections worthy of a refined
Socrates or a Plato. His _Theogony_ is a miscellaneous narration
executed without art, precision, choice, judgment, or connection,
yet it is the more valuable for the faithful account it gives of the
gods of antiquity. His _Shield of Hercules_ is but a fragment of a
larger poem, in which it is supposed he gave an account of the most
celebrated heroines among the ancients. Hesiod, without being master
of the fire and sublimity of Homer, is admired for the elegance of
his diction, and the sweetness of his poetry. Besides these poems
he wrote others, now lost. Pausanias says that, in his age, Hesiod’s
verses were still written on tablets in the temple of the Muses, of
which the poet was a priest. If we believe _Clement of Alexandria_,
bk. 6, _Stromateis_, the poet borrowed much from Musæus. One of
Lucian’s dialogues bears the name of _Hesiod_, and in it the poet
is introduced as speaking of himself. Virgil, in his Georgics,
has imitated the compositions of Hesiod, and taken his _opera_ and
_dies_ for model, as he acknowledges. Cicero strongly commends him,
and the Greeks were so partial to his poetry and moral instructions,
that they ordered their children to learn all by heart. Hesiod
was murdered by the sons of Ganyctor of Naupactum, and his body
was thrown into the sea. Some dolphins brought back the body to
the shore, which was immediately known, and the murderers were
discovered by the poet’s dogs, and thrown into the sea. If Hesiod
flourished in the age of Homer, he lived 907 B.C. The best editions
of this poet are that of Robinson, 4to, Oxford, 1737; that of
Loesner, 8vo, Lipscomb, 1778; and that of Parma, 4to, 1785. _Cicero_,
_Letters to his Friends_, bk. 6, ltr. 18.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9,
ch. 3, &c.――_Quintilian_, bk. 10, ch. 1.――_Paterculus._――_Varro._
――_Plutarch_, _Septem Sapientium Convivium_, & _De Sollertia
Animalium_.
=Hēsiŏne=, a daughter of Laomedon king of Troy, by Strymo the daughter
of Scamander. It fell to her lot to be exposed to a sea monster,
to whom the Trojans yearly presented a marriageable virgin, to
appease the resentment of Apollo and Neptune, whom ♦Laomedon had
offended; but Hercules promised to deliver her, provided he received
as a reward six beautiful horses. Laomedon consented, and Hercules
attacked the monster just as he was going to devour Hesione, and he
killed him with his club. Laomedon, however, refused to reward the
hero’s services; and Hercules, incensed at his treachery, besieged
Troy, and put the king and all his family to the sword, except
Podarces, or Priam, who had advised his father to give the promised
horses to his sister’s deliverer. The conqueror gave Hesione in
marriage to his friend Telamon, who had assisted him during the war,
and he established Priam upon his father’s throne. The removal of
Hesione to Greece proved at last fatal to the Trojans; and Priam,
remembering with indignation that his sister had been forcibly
given to a foreigner, sent his son Paris to Greece to reclaim the
possessions of Hesione, or more probably to revenge his injuries
upon the Greeks by carrying away Helen, which gave rise, soon after,
to the Trojan war. Lycophron mentions that Hercules threw himself,
armed from head to foot, into the mouth of the monster to which
Hesione was exposed, and that he tore his belly to pieces, and came
out safe only with the loss of his hair, after a confinement of
three days. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 5, li. 638.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 5, &c.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 11,
li. 212.――――The wife of Nauplius.
♦ ‘Lamedon’ replaced with ‘Laomedon’
=Hespĕria=, a large island of Africa, once the residence of the
Amazons. _Diodorus_, bk. 3.――――A name common to both Italy and Spain.
It is derived from Hesper or Vesper, the setting sun, or the evening,
whence the Greeks called Italy Hesperia, because it was situate at
the setting sun, or in the west. The same name, for similar reasons,
was applied to Spain by the Latins. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, li.
634, &c.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ode 34, li. 4; bk. 1, ode 27, li. 28.
――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 7, li. 15.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 11,
li. 258.――――A daughter of the Cebrenus. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 11, li. 759.
=Hespĕrĭdes=, three celebrated nymphs, daughters of Hesperus.
Apollodorus mentions four, Ægle, Erythia, Vesta, and Arethusa; and
Diodorus confounds them with the Atlantides, and supposes that they
were the same number. They were appointed to guard the golden apples
which Juno gave to Jupiter on the day of their nuptials; and the
place of their residence, placed beyond the ocean by Hesiod, is more
universally believed to be near mount Atlas in Africa, according to
Apollodorus. This celebrated place or garden abounded with fruits
of the most delicious kind, and was carefully guarded by a dreadful
dragon, which never slept. It was one of the labours of Hercules
to procure some of the golden apples of the Hesperides. The hero,
ignorant of the situation of this celebrated garden, applied to the
nymphs in the neighbourhood of the Po for information, and was told
that Nereus the god of the sea, if properly managed [_See:_ Nereus],
would direct him in his pursuits. Hercules seized Nereus as he was
asleep, and the sea god, unable to escape from his grasp, answered
all the questions which he proposed. Some say that Nereus sent
Hercules to Prometheus, and that from him he received all his
information. When Hercules came into Africa, he repaired to Atlas,
and demanded of him three of the golden apples. Atlas unloaded
himself and placed the burden of the heavens on the shoulders
of Hercules, while he went in quest of the apples. At his return
Hercules expressed his wish to ease the burden by putting something
on his head, and when Atlas assisted him to remove his inconvenience,
Hercules artfully left the burden, and seized the apples, which
Atlas had thrown on the ground. According to other accounts,
Hercules gathered the apples himself, without the assistance of
Atlas, and he previously killed the watchful dragon which kept
the tree. These apples were brought to Eurystheus, and afterwards
carried back by Minerva into the garden of the Hesperides, as
they could be preserved in no other place. Hercules is sometimes
represented gathering the apples, and the dragon which guarded
the tree appears bowing down his head, as having received a mortal
wound. This monster, as it is supposed, was the offspring of Typhon,
and it had 100 heads and as many voices. This number, however, is
reduced by some to only one head. Those that attempt to explain
mythology, observe that the Hesperides were certain persons who
had an immense number of flocks, and that the ambiguous word μηλον,
which signifies an _apple_ and a _sheep_, gave rise to the fable
of the golden apples of the Hesperides. _Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 4, li. 637, &c.; bk. 9, li. 90.――_Hyginus_,
fable 30.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 5.――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_,
li. 215, &c.
=Hespĕris.= _See:_ Hesperus.――――A town of Cyrenaica, now _Bernic_
or _Bengazi_, where most authors have placed the garden of the
Hesperides.
=Hesperītis=, a country of Africa. _Diodorus_, bk. 4.
=Hespĕrus=, a son of Japetus, brother to Atlas. He came to Italy,
and the country received the name of _Hesperia_ from him, according
to some accounts. He had a daughter called Hesperis, who married
Atlas, and became mother of seven daughters, called Atlantides or
Hesperides. _Diodorus_, bk. 4.――――The name of Hesperus was also
applied to the planet Venus, when it appeared after the setting of
the sun. It was called _Phosphorus_ or _Lucifer_ when it preceded
the sun. _Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 2, ch. 2.――_Seneca_, _de
Hippolytus_, li. 749; _Medea_, li. 71.
=Hestia=, one of the Hesperides. _Apollodorus._
=Hestiæa=, a town of Eubœa.
=Hesus=, a deity among the Gauls, the same as the Mars of the Romans.
_Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 445.
=Hesychia=, a daughter of Thespius. _Apollodorus._
=Hesychius=, the author of a Greek lexicon in the beginning of the
third century, a valuable work which has been learnedly edited by
Albert, 2 vols., folio, Leiden, 1746.
=Hetricŭlum=, now _Latarico_, a town in the country of the Brutii.
_Livy_, bk. 30, ch. 19.
=Hetrūria= and =Etruria=, a celebrated country of Italy, at the west
of the Tiber. It originally contained 12 different nations, which
had each their respective monarch, called Lucumon. Their names
were Veientes, Clusini, Perusini, Cortonenses, Arretini, Vetuloni,
Volaterrani, Rusellani, Volscinii, Tarquinii, Falisci, and Cæretani.
The inhabitants were particularly famous for their superstition,
and great confidence in omens, dreams, auguries, &c. They all proved
powerful and resolute enemies to the rising empire of the Romans,
and were conquered only after much effusion of blood. _Pliny_, bk. 3,
ch. 5.――_Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Plutarch_, _Romulus_.――_Mela_, bk. 2,
ch. 4.
=Heurippa=, a surname of Diana.
=Hexapy̆lum=, a gate at Syracuse. The adjoining place of the city, or
the wall, bore the same name. _Diodorus_, bks. 11 & 14.――_Livy_,
bk. 24, ch. 21; bk. 25, ch. 24; bk. 32, ch. 39.
=Hiarbas=, or =Iarbas=, a king of Gætulia. _See:_ Iarbas.
=Hiber=, a name applied to a Spaniard, as living near the river
Hiberus or Iberus. _See:_ Iberus.
=Hibernia= and =Hybernia=, a large island at the west of Britain,
now called _Ireland_. Some of the ancients have called it Ibernia,
Juverna, Iris, Hierna, Ogygia, Ivernia. _Juvenal_, satire 2, li. 160.
――_Strabo_, bk. 4.――_Orpheus._――_Aristotle._
=Hibrildes=, an Athenian general. _Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 7.
=Hicetāon=, a son of Laomedon, brother to Priam and father of
Menalippus. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 3.――――The father of Thymœtes, who
came to Italy with Æneas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 133.
=Hicētas=, a philosopher of Syracuse, who believed that the earth
moved, and that all the heavenly bodies were stationary. _Diogenes
Laërtius_, _Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers_.――――A tyrant
of Syracuse. _See:_ Icetas.
=Hiempsal=, a king of Numidia, &c. _See:_ Hyempsal. _Plutarch._
=Hiera=, a woman who married Telephus king of Mysia, and who was said
to surpass Helen in beauty.――――The mother of Pandarus and Bitias
by Alcanor. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 673.――――One of the Lipari
islands, called also Theresia, now _Vulcano_. _Pausanias_, bk. 10,
ch. 11.
=Hierapŏlis=, a town of Syria, near the Euphrates.――――Another of
Phrygia, famous for hot baths, now _Bambukkalasi_.――――Another of
Crete.
=Hiĕrax=, a youth who awoke Argus, to inform him that Mercury was
stealing Io. Mercury killed him, and changed him into a bird of prey.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 2.――――Antiochus, king of Syria and brother
to Seleucus, received the surname of Hierax. _Justin_, bk. 37, ch. 3.
――――An Egyptian philosopher in the third century.
=Hierĭchus= (untis), the name of Jericho in the Holy Land, called the
city of palm trees, from its abounding in dates. _Pliny_, bk. 5,
ch. 14.――_Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 5, ch. 6.
=Hiĕro I.=, a king of Syracuse, after his brother Gelon, who rendered
himself odious in the beginning of his reign by his cruelty and
avarice. He made war against Theron the tyrant of Agrigentum, and
took Himera. He obtained three different crowns at the Olympic games,
two in horse-races, and one at a chariot-race. Pindar has celebrated
him as being victorious at Olympia. In the latter part of his reign
the conversation of Simonides, Epicharmus, Pindar, &c., softened
in some measure the roughness of his morals and the severity of his
government, and rendered him the patron of learning, genius, and
merit. He died, after a reign of 18 years, B.C. 467, leaving the
crown to his brother Thrasybulus, who disgraced himself by his vices
and tyranny. _Diodorus_, bk. 11.――――The second of that name, king
of Syracuse, was descended from Gelon. He was unanimously elected
king by all the states of the island of Sicily, and appointed to
carry on the war against the Carthaginians. He joined his enemies in
besieging Messana, which had surrendered to the Romans, but he was
beaten by Appius Claudius the Roman consul, and obliged to retire to
Syracuse, where he was soon blocked up. Seeing all hopes of victory
lost, he made peace with the Romans, and proved so faithful to his
engagements during the 59 years of his reign, that the Romans never
had a more firm or more attached ally. He died in the 94th year
of his age, about 225 years B.C. He was universally regretted, and
all the Sicilians showed by their lamentations that they had lost
a common father and a friend. He liberally patronized the learned,
and employed the talents of Archimedes for the good of his country.
He wrote a book on agriculture, now lost. He was succeeded by
Hieronymus. _Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bks. 4, 8.――_Justin_, bk. 23,
ch. 4.――_Florus_, bk. 2, ch. 2.――_Livy_, bk. 16.――――An Athenian,
intimate with Nicias the general. _Plutarch_, _Nicias_.――――A
Parthian, &c. _Tacitus._
=Hierocæsarea=, a town of Lydia. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 2, ch. 47;
bk. 3, ch. 62.
=Hierocepia=, an island near Paphos in Cyprus.
=Hierŏcles=, a persecutor of the christians under Diocletian, who
pretended to find inconsistencies in Scripture, and preferred the
miracles of Thyaneus to those of Christ. His writings were refuted
by Lactantius and Eusebius.――――A Platonic philosopher, who taught
at Alexandria, and wrote a book on providence and fate, fragments
of which are preserved by Photius; a commentary on the golden verses
of Pythagoras; and facetious moral verses. He flourished A.D. 485.
The best edition is that of Asheton and Warren, 8vo, London, 1742.
――――A general in the interest of Demetrius. _Polyænus_, bk. 5.――――A
governor of Bithynia and Alexandria, under Diocletian.――――An officer.
_See:_ Heliogabalus.
=Hierodūlum=, a town of Libya.
=Hieronĭca lex=, by Hiero tyrant of Sicily, to settle the quantity
of corn, the price and time of receiving it, between the farmers
of Sicily and the collector of the corn tax at Rome. This law, on
account of its justice and candour, was continued by the Romans when
they became masters of Sicily.
=Hierony̆mus=, a tyrant of Sicily, who succeeded his father or
grandfather Hiero, when only 15 years old. He rendered himself
odious by his cruelty, oppression, and debauchery. He abjured the
alliance of Rome, which Hiero had observed with so much honour and
advantage. He was assassinated, and all his family was overwhelmed
in his fall, and totally extirpated, B.C. 214.――――An historian of
Rhodes, who wrote an account of the actions of Demetrius Poliorcetes,
by whom he was appointed over Bœotia, B.C. 254. _Plutarch_,
_Demetrius_.――――An Athenian set over the fleet, while Conon went
to the king of Persia.――――A christian writer commonly called St.
_Jerome_, born in Pannonia, and distinguished for his zeal against
heretics. He wrote commentaries on the prophets, St. Matthew’s
gospel, &c., a Latin version known by the name of _Vulgate_,
polemical treatises, and an account of ecclesiastical writers
before him. Of his works, which are replete with lively animation,
sublimity, and erudition, the best edition is that of Vallersius,
folio, Veronæ, 1734 to 1740, 10 vols. Jerome died A.D. 420, in his
91st year.
=Hierophĭlus=, a Greek physician. He instructed his daughter Agnodice
in the art of midwifery, &c. _See:_ Agnodice.
=Hierosoly̆ma=, a celebrated city of Palestine, the capital of Judæa,
taken by Pompey, who, on that account, is surnamed _Hierosolymarius_.
Titus also took it and destroyed it, the 8th of September, A.D. 70,
according to Josephus, 2177 years after its foundation. In the siege
by Titus, 110,000 persons are said to have perished, and 97,000 to
have been made prisoners, and afterwards either sold for slaves, or
wantonly exposed, for the sport of their insolent victors, to the
fury of wild beasts. _Josephus_, _War of the Jews_, bk. 7, ch. 16,
&c.――_Cicero_, _Letters to Atticus_, bk. 2, ltr. 2.――_Flaccus_,
bk. 28.
=Hignatia via=, a large road, which led from the Ionian sea to the
Hellespont, across Macedonia, about 530 miles. _Strabo_, bk. 7.
=Hilaria=, a daughter of Leucippus and Philodice. As she and her
sister Phœbe were going to marry their cousins Lynceus and Idas,
they were carried away by Castor and Pollux, who married them.
Hilaria had Anagon by Castor, and she, as well as her sister,
obtained after death the honours which were generally paid to
heroes. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3.――_Propertius_, bk. 1, poem 2, li. 16.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 22; bk. 3, ch. 19.――――Festivals at Rome
in honour of the mother of the gods.
=Hilarius=, a bishop of Poictiers in France, who wrote several
treatises, the most famous of which is on the Trinity, in 12 books.
The only edition is that of the Benedictine monks, folio, Paris,
1693. Hilary died A.D. 372, in his 80th year.
=Hilleviōnes=, a people of Scandinavia. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 13.
=Himella=, now _Aia_, a small river in the country of the Sabines.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 714.
=Himĕra=, a city of Sicily built by the people of Zancle, and
destroyed by the Carthaginians 240 years after. _Strabo_, bk. 6.
――――There were two rivers of Sicily of the same name, the one, now
_Fiumi de Termini_, falling at the east of Panormus into the Tuscan
sea, with a town of the same name at its mouth, and also celebrated
baths. _Cicero_, _Against Verres_, bk. 4, ch. 33. The other, now
_Fiume Salso_, running in a southern direction, and dividing the
island in almost two parts. _Livy_, bk. 24, ch. 6; bk. 25, ch. 49.
――――The ancient name of the Eurotas. _Strabo_, bk. 6.――_Mela_, bk. 2,
ch. 7.――_Polybius._
=Himilco=, a Carthaginian sent to explore the western parts of Europe.
_Festus Avienius._――――A son of Amilcar, who succeeded his father in
the command of the Carthaginian armies in Sicily. He died with his
army by a plague, B.C. 398. _Justin_, bk. 19, ch. 2.
=Hippagŏras=, a man who wrote an account of the republic of Carthage.
_Athenæus_, bk. 14.
=Hippalcimus=, a son of Pelops and Hippodamia, who was among the
Argonauts.
=Hippalus=, the first who sailed in open sea from Arabia to India.
_Arrian_, _Periplus Ponti Euxini_.
=Hipparchia=, a woman in Alexander’s age, who became enamoured of
Crates the Cynic philosopher, because she heard him discourse.
She married him, though he at first disdained her addresses, and
represented his poverty and meanness. She was so attached to him
that she was his constant companion, and was not ashamed publicly
to gratify his impurest desires. She wrote some things, now lost.
_See:_ Crates. _Diogenes Laërtius_, bk. 6.――_Suidas._
=Hipparchus=, a son of Pisistratus, who succeeded his father as tyrant
of Athens, with his brother Hippias. He patronized some of the
learned men of the age, and distinguished himself by his fondness
for literature. The seduction of a sister of Harmodius raised him
many enemies, and he was at last assassinated by a desperate band
of conspirators, with Harmodius and Aristogiton at their head,
513 years before Christ. _Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 8, ch. 2.
――――One of Antony’s freedmen.――――The first person who was banished
by ostracism at Athens.――――The father of Asclepiades.――――A
mathematician and astronomer of Nicæa. He first discovered that the
interval between the vernal and the autumnal equinox is 186 days,
seven days longer than between the autumnal and vernal, occasioned
by the eccentricity of the earth’s orbit. He divided the heavens
into 49 constellations, 12 in the ecliptic, 21 in the northern,
and 16 in the southern hemisphere, and gave names to all the stars.
He makes no mention of comets. From viewing a tree on a plain from
different situations, which changed its apparent position, he was
led to the discovery of the parallax of the planets, or the distance
between their real or apparent position, viewed from the centre
and from the surface of the earth. He determined the longitude and
latitude, and fixed the first degree of longitude at the Canaries.
He likewise laid the first foundations of trigonometry, so essential
to facilitate astronomical studies. He was the first who, after
Thales and Sulpicius Gallus, found out the exact time of eclipses,
of which he made a calculation for 600 years. After a life of
labour in the service of science and astronomy, and after publishing
several treatises and valuable observations on the appearance of the
heavens, he died 125 years before the christian era. _Pliny_, bk. 2,
ch. 26, &c.――――An Athenian who conspired against Heraclides, who
kept Athens for Demetrius, &c. _Polyænus_, bk. 5.
=Hipparīnus=, a son of Dionysius, who ejected Calippus from Syracuse,
and seized the sovereign power for 27 years. _Polyænus_, bk. 5.
――――The father of Dion.
=Hippărion=, one of Dion’s sons.
=Hippăsus=, a son of Ceyx, who assisted Hercules against Eurytus.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――――A pupil of Pythagoras, born
at Metapontum. He supposed that everything was produced from
fire. _Diogenes Laërtius._――――A centaur killed at the nuptials
of Pirithous. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12, li. 352.――――An
illegitimate son of Priam. _Hyginus_, fable 90.
=Hippeus=, a son of Hercules by Procis, eldest of the 50 daughters of
Thestius. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 7.
=Hippi=, four small islands near Erythræ.
=Hippia=, a lascivious woman, &c. _Juvenal_, satire 6, li. 82.――――A
surname of Minerva, and also of Juno. _Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 15.
=Hippias=, a philosopher of Elis, who maintained that virtue consisted
in not being in want of the assistance of men. At the Olympic games,
he boasted that he was master of all the liberal and mechanical
arts; and he said that the ring upon his finger, the tunic, cloak,
and shoes, which he then wore, were all the work of his own hands.
_Cicero_, _On Oratory_, bk. 3, ch. 32.――――A son of Pisistratus,
who became tyrant of Athens after the death of his father, with
his brother Hipparchus. He was willing to revenge the death of his
brother, who had been assassinated, and for this violent measure he
was driven from his country. He fled to king Darius in Persia, and
was killed at the battle of Marathon, fighting against the Athenians,
B.C. 490. He had five children by Myrrhine the daughter of Callias.
_Herodotus_, bk. 6.――_Thucydides_, bk. 7.
=Hippis=, an historian and poet of Rhegium, in the reign of Xerxes.
_Ælian_, _De Natura Animalium_, bk. 8, ch. 33.
=Hippius=, a surname of Neptune, from his having raised a horse (ἱππος)
from the earth in his contest with Minerva concerning the giving a
name to Athens.
=Hippo=, a daughter of Scedasus, who, upon being ravished by the
ambassadors of Sparta, killed herself, cursing the city that gave
birth to such men. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 13.――――A celebrated town
of Africa, on the Mediterranean. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 3, li. 252.
――――_Strabo_, bk. 17, says that there are two of the same name in
Africa, one of which, by way of distinction, is called _Regius_.
_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 3; bk. 9, ch. 8.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 7.――_Livy_,
bk. 29, chs. 3 & 32.――――Also a town of Spain. _Livy_, bk. 39, ch. 30.
――――Of the Brutii.
=Hippobotes=, a large meadow near the Caspian sea, where 50,000 horses
could graze.
=Hippobotus=, a Greek historian, who composed a treatise on
philosophers. _Diogenes Laërtius_, _Pythagoras_.
=Hippocentauri=, a race of monsters who dwelt in Thessaly. _See:_
Centauri.
=Hippocoon=, a son of Œbalus, brother to Tyndarus. He was put to death
by Hercules, because he had driven his brother from the kingdom of
Lacedæmon. He was at the chase of the Calydonian boar. _Diodorus_,
bk. 4.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, &c.; bk. 3, ch. 10.――_Pausanias_,
_Laconia_.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 8, li. 314.――――A friend
of Æneas, son of Hyrtacus, who distinguished himself in the funeral
games of Sicily. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 492, &c.
=Hippocorystes=, a son of Ægyptus,――――of Hippocoon. _Apollodorus._
=Hippocrăte=, a daughter of Thespius. _Apollodorus._
=Hippŏcrătes=, a celebrated physician of Cos, one of the Cyclades.
He studied physic, in which his grandfather Nebrus was so eminently
distinguished; and he improved himself by reading the tablets in
the temples of the gods, where each individual had written down the
diseases under which he had laboured, and the means by which he had
recovered. He delivered Athens from a dreadful pestilence in the
beginning of the Peloponnesian war, and he was publicly rewarded
with a golden crown, the privileges of a citizen of Athens, and
the initiation at the grand festivals. Skilful and diligent in his
profession, he openly declared the measures which he had taken to
cure a disease, and candidly confesses, that of 42 patients which
were entrusted to his care, only 17 had recovered, and the rest had
fallen a prey to the distemper in spite of his medical applications.
He devoted all his time for the service of his country; and when
Artaxerxes invited him, even by force of arms, to come to his
court, Hippocrates firmly and modestly answered, that he was born
to serve his countrymen, and not a foreigner. He enjoyed the rewards
which his well-directed labours claimed, and while he lived in the
greatest popularity, he was carefully employed in observing the
symptoms and the growth of every disorder, and from his judicious
remarks, succeeding physicians have received the most valuable
advantages. The experiments which he had tried upon the human frame
increased his knowledge, and from his consummate observations,
he knew how to moderate his own life as well as to prescribe to
others. He died in the 99th year of his age, B.C. 361, free from all
disorders of the mind and body; and after death he received, with
the name of _Great_, the same honours which were paid to Hercules.
His writings, few of which remain, have procured him the epithet
of divine, and show that he was the Homer of his profession.
According to Galen, his opinion is as respectable as the voice of an
oracle. He wrote in the Ionic dialect, at the advice of Democritus,
though he was a Dorian. His memory is still venerated at Cos, and
the present inhabitants of the island show a small house, which
Hippocrates, as they mention, once inhabited. The best editions
of his works are that of Fæsius, Geneva, folio, 1657; of Linden,
2 vols., 8vo, Amsterdam, 1665; and that of Mackius, 2 vols., folio,
Viennæ, 1743. His treatises, especially the _Aphorisms_, have
been published separately. _Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 37.――_Cicero_, _On
Oratory_, bk. 3.――――An Athenian general in the Peloponnesian war.
_Plutarch._――――A mathematician.――――An officer of Chalcedon, killed
by Alcibiades. _Plutarch_, _Alcibiades_.――――A Syracusan defeated by
Marcellus.――――The father of Pisistratus.――――A tyrant of Gela.
=Hippocratia=, a festival in honour of Neptune, in Arcadia.
=Hippocrēne=, a fountain of Bœotia, near mount Helicon, sacred to the
muses. It first rose from the ground, when struck by the feet of the
horse Pegasus, whence the name ἱππου κρηνη, _the horse’s fountain_.
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, li. 256.
=Hippŏdămas=, a son of the Achelous,――――of Priam. _Apollodorus._
=Hippŏdăme= and =Hippodamīa=, a daughter of Œnomaus king of Pisa, in
Elis, who married Pelops son of Tantalus. Her father, who was either
enamoured of her himself, or afraid lest he should perish by one of
his daughter’s children, according to an oracle, refused to marry
her, except to him who could overcome him in a chariot-race. As the
beauty of Hippodamia was greatly celebrated, many courted her, and
accepted her father’s conditions, though death attended a defeat.
Thirteen had already been conquered, and forfeited their lives,
when Pelops came from Lydia and entered the lists. Pelops previously
bribed Myrtilus the charioteer of Œnomaus, and ensured himself
the victory. In the race, Œnomaus mounted on a broken chariot,
which the corrupted Myrtilus had purposely provided for him, was
easily overcome, and was killed in the course; and Pelops married
Hippodamia, and avenged the death of Œnomaus, by throwing into
the sea the perfidious Myrtilus, who claimed for the reward of
his treachery the favour which Hippodamia could grant only to her
husband. Hippodamia became mother of Atreus and Thyestes, and it
is said that she died of grief for the death of her father, which
her guilty correspondence with Pelops and Myrtilus had occasioned.
_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 3, li. 7.――_Hyginus_, fables 84 & 253.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 14, &c.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Ovid_,
_Heroides_, poems 8 & 17.――――A daughter of Adrastus king of Argos,
who married Pirithous king of the Lapithæ. The festivity which
prevailed on the day of her marriage was interrupted by the attempts
of Eurytus to offer her violence. _See:_ Pirithous. She is called
Ischomache by some, and Deidamia by others. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 12.――_Plutarch_, _Theseus_.――――A daughter of Danaus.
_Apollodorus._――――A mistress of Achilles, daughter of Brises.――――A
daughter of Anchises, who married Alcathous. _Homer_, _Iliad_,
bk. 13, li. 429.
=Hippŏdămus=, a man of Miletus, who settled a republic without any
previous knowledge of government. _Aristotle_, bk. 2, _Politics_.
――――A Pythagorean philosopher.――――An Athenian who gave his house
to his country, when he knew such a concession would improve the
port of the Piræus.――――An Athenian archon.――――A man famous for his
voracious appetite.
=Hippŏdĭce=, one of the Danaides. _Apollodorus._
=Hippodrŏmus=, a son of Hercules. _Apollodorus._――――A Thessalian,
who succeeded in a school at Athens, in the age of Marcus Antony.
_Philostratus._――――A place where horse-races were exhibited.
_Martial_, bk. 12, ltr. 50.
=Hippŏla=, a town of Peloponnesus. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 25.
=Hippŏlŏchus=, a son of Bellerophon, father to Glaucus, who commanded
the Lycians during the Trojan war.――――A son of Glaucus also bore the
same name. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 6, li. 119.――――A son of Antimachus,
slain in the Trojan war. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 11, li. 122.
=Hippŏly̆te=, a queen of the Amazons, given in marriage to Theseus by
Hercules, who had conquered her, and taken away her girdle by order
of Eurystheus. _See:_ Hercules. She had a son by Theseus, called
Hippolytus. _Plutarch_, _Theseus_.――_Propertius_, bk. 4, poem 3.
――――The wife of Acastus, who fell in love with Peleus, who was in
exile at her husband’s court. She accused him of incontinence, and
of attempts upon her virtue, before Acastus, only because he refused
to gratify her desires. She is also called Astyochia. _See:_ Acastus.
――――A daughter of Cretheus. _Apollodorus._
=Hippŏly̆tus=, a son of Theseus and Hippolyte, famous for his virtues
and his misfortunes. His stepmother Phædra fell in love with him,
and when he refused to pollute his father’s bed, she accused him of
offering violence to her person before Theseus. Her accusation was
readily believed, and Theseus entreated Neptune severely to punish
the incontinence of his son. Hippolytus fled from the resentment
of his father, and as he pursued his way along the sea-shore, his
horses were so frightened at the noise of sea-calves, which Neptune
had purposely sent there, that they ran among the rocks till his
chariot was broken and his body torn to pieces. Temples were raised
to his memory, particularly at Trœzene, where he received divine
honours. According to some accounts, Diana restored him to life.
_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 3, li. 268; _Metamorphoses_, bk. 15, li. 469.
――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 761, &c.――――A son of Ropalus king
of Sicyon, greatly beloved by Apollo. _Plutarch_, _Numa_.――――A giant
killed by Mercury.――――A son of Ægyptus. _Apollodorus_, bks. 1 & 2.
――――A christian writer in the third century, whose works have been
edited by Fabricius, Hamburg, folio, 1716.
=Hippŏmăchus=, a musician, who severely rebuked one of his pupils
because he was praised by the multitude, and observed that it was
the greatest proof of his ignorance. _Ælian_, _Varia Historia_,
bk. 2, ch. 6.
=Hippŏmĕdon=, a son of Nisimachus and Mythidice, who was one of the
seven chiefs who went against Thebes. He was killed by Ismarus son
of Acastus. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 6.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 36.
=Hippomedūsa=, a daughter of Danaus. _Apollodorus._
=Hippŏmĕnes=, an Athenian archon, who exposed his daughter Limone to
be devoured by horses, because guilty of adultery. _Ovid_, _Ibis_,
li. 459.――――A son of Macareus and Merope, who married Atalanta
[_See:_ Atalanta], with the assistance of Venus. These two fond
lovers were changed into lions by Cybele, whose temple they had
profaned in their impatience to consummate their nuptials. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 10, li. 585, &c.――――The father of Megareus.
=Hippomolgi=, a people of Scythia, who, as the name implies, lived
upon the milk of horses. Hippocrates has given an account of their
manner of living, _De Aere Aquis et Locis_, ♦ch. 18.――_Dionysius
Periegetes._
♦ ‘44’ replaced with ‘18’
=Hĭppon= and =Hippo=, a town of Africa.
=Hippōna=, a goddess who presided over horses. Her statues were placed
in horses’ stables. _Juvenal_, satire 8, li. 157.
=Hippōnax=, a Greek poet born at Ephesus, 540 years before the
christian era. He cultivated the same satirical poetry as
Archilochus, and was not inferior to him in the beauty or vigour of
his lines. His satirical raillery obliged him to fly from Ephesus.
As he was naturally deformed, two brothers, Buphalus and Anthermus,
made a statue of him, which, by the deformity of its features,
exposed the poet to universal ridicule. Hipponax resolved to avenge
the injury, and he wrote such bitter invectives and satirical
lampoons against them, that they hanged themselves in despair.
_Cicero_, _Letters to his Friends_, bk. 7, ltr. 24.
=Hipponiates=, a bay in the country of the Brutii.
=Hipponīum=, a city in the country of the Brutii, where Agathocles
built a dock. _Strabo._
=Hipponous=, the father of Peribœa and Capaneus. He was killed by the
thunderbolts of Jupiter before the walls of Thebes. _Apollodorus_,
bk. 1, ch. 8; bk. 3, ch. 1.――――The first name of Bellerophon.――――A
son of Priam.
=Hippopŏdes=, a people of Scythia, who have _horses’ feet_. _Dionysius
Periegetes._
=Hippostrătus=, a favourite of Lais.
=Hippŏtădes=, the patronymic of Æolus, grandson to Hippotas by Segesta,
as also of Amastrus his son, who was killed in the Rutulian war.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 11, li. 674.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 11,
li. 431.
=Hippŏtas=, or =Hippŏtes=, a Trojan prince, changed into a river.
_See:_ Crinisus.――――The father of Æolus, who from thence is called
Hippotades. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 10, li. 2.――_Ovid_, _Heroides_,
poem 18, li. 46; _Metamorphoses_, bk. 14, li. 224.
=Hippothoe=, a daughter of Mestor and Lysidice, carried away to the
islands called Echinades by Neptune, by whom she had a son named
Taphius. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 4.――――One of the Nereides.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 2.――――A daughter of Pelias. _Apollodorus._
=Hippŏthoon=, a son of Neptune and Alope daughter of Cercyon, exposed
in the woods by his mother, that her amours with the god might be
concealed from her father. Her shame was discovered, and her father
ordered her to be put to death. Neptune changed her into a fountain,
and the child was preserved by mares, whence his name, and when
grown up, placed on his grandfather’s throne by the friendship of
Theseus. _Hyginus_, fable 187.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 38.
=Hippothoontis=, one of the 12 Athenian tribes, which received its
name from Hippothoon.
=Hippŏthous=, a son of Lethus, killed by Ajax in the Trojan war.
_Homer_, _Iliad_, bks. 2 & 17.――――A son of Priam. _Apollodorus_,
bk. 3, ch. 12.――――A son of Ægyptus. _Apollodorus._――――One of the
hunters of the Calydonian boar. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1,
li. 307.
=Hippŏtion=, a prince who assisted the Trojans, and was killed by
Merion. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bks. 13 & 14.
=Hippūris=, one of the Cyclades. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.
=Hippus=, a river falling into the Phasis.
=Hipsides=, a Macedonian, &c. _Curtius_, bk. 7, ch. 7.
=Hira=, a maritime town of Peloponnesus. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 12.
=Hirpīni=, a people of the Samnites. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 560.
=Quinctius Hirpīnus=, a Roman, to whom Horace dedicated his bk. 2,
ode 11, and also bk. 1, ltr. 16.
=Hirtus=, a debauched fellow, &c. _Juvenal_, satire 10, li. 222.
=Hirtia lex=, _de magistratibus_, by Aulus Hirtius. It required that
none of Pompey’s adherents should be raised to any office or dignity
in the state.
=Hirtius Aulus=, a consul with Pansa, who assisted Brutus when
besieged at Mutina by Antony. They defeated Antony, but were both
killed in battle B.C. 43. _Suetonius_, _Augustus_, ch. 10.――――An
historian to whom the eighth book of Cæsar’s history of the
Gallic wars, as also that of the Alexandrian and Spanish wars, is
attributed. The style is inferior to that of Cæsar’s Commentaries.
The author, who was Cæsar’s friend, and Cicero’s pupil, is supposed
to be no other than the consul of that name.
=Hisbon=, a Rutulian, killed by Pallas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10,
li. 384.
=Hispălis=, an ancient town of Spain, now called _Seville_. _Pliny_,
bk. 3, ch. 3.――_Cicero_, _Letters to his Friends_, bk. 10, ltr. 32.
=Hispānia=, or =Hispāniæ=, called by the poets _Iberia_, _Hesperia_,
and _Hesperia Ultima_, a large country of Europe, separated from
Gaul by the Pyrenean mountains, and bounded on every other side
by the sea. Spain was first known to the merchants of Phœnicia,
and from them passed to the Carthaginians, to whose power it long
continued in subjection. The Romans became sole masters of it at the
end of the second Punic war, and divided it at first into _citerior_
and _ulterior_, which last was afterwards separated into _Bætica_
and _Lusitania_ by Augustus. The Hispania _citerior_ was also called
_Tarraconensis_. The inhabitants were naturally warlike, and they
often destroyed a life which was become useless, and even burdensome,
by its infirmities. Spain was famous for its rich mines of silver,
which employed 40,000 workmen, and daily yielded to the Romans no
less than 20,000 drachms. These have long since failed, though, in
the flourishing times of Rome, Spain was said to contain more gold,
silver, brass, and iron than the rest of the world. It gave birth to
Quintilian, Lucan, Martial, Mela, Silius, Seneca, &c. _Justin_, bk.
44.――_Strabo_, bk. 3.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 6.――_Pliny_, bk. 3, chs. 1
& 20.
=Hispānus=, a native of Spain. The word _Hispaniensis_ was also used,
but generally applied to a person living in Spain and not born there.
_Martial_, bk. 12, preface.
=Hispellum=, a town of Umbria.
=Hispo=, a noted debauchee, &c. _Juvenal_, satire 2, li. 50.
=Hispulla=, a lascivious woman. _Juvenal_, satire 6, li. 74.
=Histaspes=, a relation of Darius III., killed in a battle, &c.
_Curtius_, bk. 4, ch. 4.
=Hister=, a river. _See:_ Ister.
=Hister Pacuvius=, a man distinguished as much by his vices as his
immense riches. _Juvenal_, satire 2, li. 58.
=Histiæa=, a city of Eubœa, anciently called Talantia. It was near the
promontory called Ceneum. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2.
=Histiæōtis=, a country of Thessaly, situate below mount Olympus and
mount Ossa, anciently called Doris, from Dorus the son of Deucalion,
and inhabited by the Pelasgi. The Pelasgi were driven from the
country by the Cadmeans, and these last were also dispossessed by
the Perrhæbeans, who gave to their newly acquired possessions the
name of Histiæotis, or Estiæotis, from Estiæa, or Histiæa, a town of
Eubœa, which they had then lately destroyed, and whose inhabitants
they had carried to Thessaly with them. _Strabo._――_Herodotus_,
bk. 4.――――A small country of Eubœa, of which Histiæa, or Estiæa,
was the capital.
=Histiæus=, a tyrant of Miletus, who excited the Greeks to take up
arms against Persia. _Herodotus_, bk. 5, &c.――――An historian of
Miletus.
=Histria.= _See:_ Istria.
=Hodius=, a herald in the Trojan war.
=Holŏcron=, a mountain of Macedon.
=Homeromastix=, a surname given to Zoilus the critic.
=Hŏmērus=, a celebrated Greek poet, the most ancient of all the
profane writers. The age in which he lived is not known, though
some suppose it to be about 168 years after the Trojan war, or,
according to others, 160 years before the foundation of Rome.
According to Paterculus, he flourished 968 years before the
christian era, or 884, according to Herodotus, who supposes him
to be contemporary with Hesiod. The Arundelian Marbles fix his
era 907 years before Christ, and make him also contemporary with
Hesiod. This diversity of opinions proves the antiquity of Homer;
and the uncertainty prevails also concerning the place of his
nativity. No less than seven illustrious cities disputed the right
of having given birth to the greatest of poets, as it is well
expressed in these lines:
_Smyrna, Chios, Colophon, Salamis, Rhodos, Argos, Athenæ,
Orbis de patriâ certat, Homere, tuâ._
He was called _Melesigenes_, because supposed to be born on the
borders of the river Meles. There prevailed a report that he had
established a school at Chios in the latter part of his life; and,
indeed, this opinion is favoured by the present inhabitants of the
island, who still glory in showing to travellers the seats where
the venerable master and his pupils sat in the hollow of a rock,
at the distance of about four miles from the modern capital of the
island. These difficulties and doubts have not been removed, though
Aristotle, Herodotus, Plutarch, and others have employed their pen
in writing his life. In his two celebrated poems, called the Iliad
and Odyssey, Homer has displayed the most consummate knowledge of
human nature, and rendered himself immortal by the sublimity, the
fire, sweetness, and elegance of his poetry. He deserves a greater
share of admiration when we consider that he wrote without a model,
and that none of his poetical imitators have been able to surpass,
or, perhaps, to equal their great master. If there are any faults
found in his poetry, they are to be attributed to the age in which
he lived, and not to him; and we must observe that the world is
indebted to Homer for his happy successor Virgil. In his Iliad,
Homer has described the resentment of Achilles, and its fatal
consequences in the Grecian army, before the walls of Troy. In the
Odyssey, the poet has chosen for his subject the return of Ulysses
into his country, with the many misfortunes which attended his
voyage after the fall of Troy. These two poems are each divided into
24 books, the same number as the letters of the Greek alphabet, and
though the Iliad claims an uncontested superiority over the Odyssey,
yet the same force, the same sublimity and elegance, prevail, though
divested of its most powerful fire; and Longinus, the most refined
of critics, beautifully compares the Iliad to the mid-day, and the
Odyssey to the setting sun, and observes, that the latter still
preserves its original splendour and majesty, though deprived of
its meridian heat. The poetry of Homer was so universally admired,
that, in ancient times, every man of learning could repeat with
facility any passage in the Iliad or Odyssey; and, indeed, it was
a sufficient authority to settle disputed boundaries, or to support
any argument. The poems of Homer are the compositions of a man who
travelled and examined with the most critical accuracy whatever
deserved notice and claimed attention. Modern travellers are
astonished to see the different scenes which the pen of Homer
described about 3000 years ago still existing in the same unvaried
form, and the sailor who steers his course along the Ægean, sees all
the promontories and rocks which appeared to Nestor and Menelaus,
when they returned victorious from the Trojan war. The ancients had
such veneration for Homer, that they not only raised temples and
altars to him, but offered sacrifices, and worshipped him as a god.
The inhabitants of Chios celebrated festivals every fifth year in
his honour, and medals were struck, which represented him sitting
on a throne, holding his Iliad and Odyssey. In Egypt his memory was
consecrated by Ptolemy Philopator, who erected a magnificent temple,
within which was placed a statue of the poet, beautifully surrounded
with a representation of the seven cities which contended for the
honour of his birth. The inhabitants of Cos, one of the Sporades,
boasted that Homer was buried in their island; and the Cyprians
claimed the same honour, and said that he was born of Themisto, a
female native of Cyprus. Alexander was so fond of Homer, that he
generally placed his compositions under his pillow, with his sword;
and he carefully deposited the Iliad in one of the richest and most
valuable caskets of Darius, observing that the most perfect work of
human genius ought to be preserved in a box the most valuable and
precious in the world. It is said that Pisistratus tyrant of Athens
was the first who collected and arranged the Iliad and Odyssey in
the manner in which they now appear to us; and that it is to the
well-directed pursuits of Lycurgus that we are indebted for their
preservation. Many of the ancients have written the life of Homer,
yet their inquiries and labours have not much contributed to prove
the native place, the patronage and connections, of a man whom
some have represented as deprived of sight. Besides the Iliad and
Odyssey, Homer wrote, according to the opinion of some authors,
a poem upon Amphiaraus’s expedition against Thebes, besides the
Phoceis, the Cercopes, the small Iliad, the Epicichlides, and the
Batrachomyomachia, and many hymns to some of the gods. The merit
of originality is taken, very improperly perhaps, from Homer, by
those who suppose, with Clement of Alexandria, bk. 6 _Stromateis_,
that he borrowed from Orpheus, or that, according to Suidas [_voce_
Corinnus], he took his plan of the Iliad from Corinnus, an epic poet,
who wrote on the Trojan war, at the very time the Greeks besieged
that famed city. Agathon, an ancient painter, according to Ælian,
represented the merit of the poet in a manner as bold as it was
indelicate. Homer was represented as vomiting, and all other
poets as swallowing what he ejected. Of the numerous commentaries
published on Homer, that of Eustathius bishop of Thessalonica is
by far the most extensive and erudite. The best editions of Homer’s
Iliad and Odyssey may, perhaps, be found to be by Barnes, 2 vols.,
4to, Cambridge, 1711; that of Glasgow, 2 vols., folio, 1758; that
of Berglerus, 2 vols., 12mo, Amsterdam, 1707; that of Dr. Clarke of
the Iliad, 2 vols., 4to, 1729, and that of the Odyssey, 1740; and
that of Oxford, 5 vols., 8vo, 1780, containing the scholia, hymns,
and an index. _Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 53.――_Theocritus_, poem 16.
――_Aristotle_, _Poetics_.―― _Strabo._――_ Dio Chrysostom_, bk. 33,
_Orationes_.――_Pausanias_, bks. 2, 9, 10.――_Heliodorus_, bk. 3.
――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 13.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 8,
ch. 8.――_Quintilian_, bks. 1, 8, 10, 12.――_Paterculus_, bk. 1, ch. 5.
――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus._――_Plutarch_, _Alexander_, &c.――――One
of the Greek poets called Pleiades, born at Hierapolis, B.C. 263.
He wrote 45 tragedies, all lost.――――There were seven other poets,
of inferior note, who bore the name of Homer.
=Homŏle=, a lofty mountain of Thessaly, once the residence of the
Centaurs. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 675.
=Homŏlea=, a mountain of Magnesia.
=Homolippus=, a son of Hercules and Xanthis. _Apollodorus._
=Homoloides=, one of the seven gates of Thebes. _Statius_, _Thebiad_,
bk. 7, li. 252.
=Homonadenses=, a people of Cilicia.
=Honōrius=, an emperor of the western empire of Rome, who succeeded
his father Theodosius the Great, with his brother Arcadius. He
was neither bold nor vicious, but he was of a modest and timid
disposition, unfit for enterprise, and fearful of danger. He
conquered his enemies by means of his generals, and suffered himself
and his people to be governed by ministers who took advantage
of their imperial master’s indolence and inactivity. He died of
a dropsy in the 39th year of his age, 15th of August, A.D. 423.
He left no issue, though he married two wives. Under him and his
brother the Roman power was divided into two different empires.
The successors of Honorius, who fixed their residence at Rome, were
called the emperors of the west, and the successors of Arcadius,
who sat on the throne of Constantinople, were distinguished by the
name of emperors of the eastern Roman empire. This division of power
proved fatal to both empires, and they soon looked upon one another
with indifference, contempt, and jealousy.
=Honour=, a virtue worshipped at Rome. Her first temple was erected
by Scipio Africanus, and another was afterwards built by Claudius
Marcellus. _Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 2, ch. 23.
=Hora=, a goddess at Rome, supposed to be Hersilia, who married Romulus.
She was said to preside over beauty. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 14,
li. 851.
=Horacitæ=, a people near Illyricum.
=Horapollo=, a Greek writer, whose age is unknown. His _Hieroglyphica_,
a curious and entertaining book, has been edited by Cornelius de
Pauw, 4to, Utrecht, 1727.
=Horæ=, three sisters, daughters of Jupiter and Themis, according to
Hesiod called Eunomia, Dice, and Irene. They were the same as the
seasons who presided over the spring, summer, and winter, and were
represented by the poets as opening the gates of heaven and of
Olympus. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 5, li. 749.――_Pausanias_, bk. 5,
ch. 11.――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 902.
=Horātia=, the sister of Horatii, killed by her brother for mourning
the death of the Curiatii. _Cicero_, _de Inventione_, bk. 2, ch. 20.
=Hŏrātius Cocles.= _See:_ Cocles.――――Quintus Flaccus, a celebrated
poet, born at Venusia. His father was a freedman, and though poor
in his circumstances, he liberally educated his son, and sent him to
learn philosophy at Athens, after he had received the lessons of the
best masters at Rome. Horace followed Brutus from Athens, and the
timidity which he betrayed at the battle of Philippi so effectually
discouraged him, that he for ever abandoned the profession of arms,
and at his return to Rome he applied himself to cultivate poetry.
His rising talents claimed the attention of Virgil and Varius,
who recommended him to the care of Mecænas and Augustus, the most
celebrated patrons of literature. Under the fostering patronage of
the emperor and of his minister, Horace gave himself up to indolence
and refined pleasure. He was a follower of Epicurus, and while
he liberally indulged his appetites, he neglected the calls of
ambition, and never suffered himself to be carried away by the
tide of popularity or public employments. He even refused to become
the secretary of Augustus, and the emperor was not offended at his
refusal. He lived at the table of his illustrious patrons as if he
were in his own house; and Augustus, while sitting at his meals
with Virgil at his right hand, and Horace at his left, often
ridiculed the short breath of the former, and the watery eyes
of the latter, by observing that he sat between tears and sighs,
_Ego sum inter suspiria et lacrymas_. Horace was warm in his
friendship, and if ever any ill-judged reflection had caused offence,
the poet immediately made every concession which could effect
a reconciliation, and not destroy the good purposes of friendly
society. Horace died in the 57th year of his age, B.C. 8. His gaiety
was suitable to the liveliness and dissipation of a court; and his
familiar intimacy with Mecænas has induced some to believe that the
death of Horace was violent, and that he hastened himself out of
the world to accompany his friend. The 17th ode of his second book,
which was written during the last illness of Mecænas, is too serious
to be considered as a poetical rhapsody or unmeaning effusion, and
indeed, the poet survived the patron only three weeks, and ordered
his bones to be buried near those of his friend. He left all his
possessions to Augustus. The poetry of Horace, so much commended
for its elegance and sweetness, is deservedly censured for the
licentious expressions and indelicate thoughts which he too
frequently introduces. In his odes he has imitated Pindar and
Anacreon; and if he has confessed himself to be inferior to the
former, he has shown that he bears the palm over the latter by his
more ingenious and refined sentiments, by the ease and melody of
his expressions, and by the pleasing variety of his numbers. In his
satires and epistles, Horace displays much wit, and much satirical
humour, without much poetry, and his style, simple and unadorned,
differs little from prosaical composition. In his art of poetry
he has shown much taste and judgment, and has rendered in Latin
hexameters what Aristotle had, some ages before delivered to his
pupils in Greek prose. The poet gives judicious rules and useful
precepts to the most powerful and opulent citizens of Rome, who,
in the midst of peace and enjoyment, wished to cultivate poetry and
court the muses. The best editions of Horace will be found to be
that of Basil, folio, 1580, illustrated by 80 commentators; that of
Baxter’s, edited by Gesner, 8vo, Lipscomb, 1752; and that of Glasgow,
12mo, 1744. _Suetonius_, _Augustus_.――_Ovid_, _Tristia_, bk. 4,
poem 10, li. 49.――――Three brave Romans, born at the same birth, who
fought against the three Curiatii, about 667 years before Christ.
This celebrated fight was fought between the hostile camps of the
people of Alba and Rome, and on their success depended the victory.
In the first attack two of the Horatii were killed, and the only
surviving brother, by joining artifice to valour, obtained an
honourable trophy. By ♦pretending to fly from the field of battle,
he easily separated his antagonists, and, in attacking them one by
one, he was enabled to conquer them all. As he returned victorious
to Rome, his sister reproached him with the murder of one of the
Curiatii, to whom she was promised in marriage. He was incensed
at the rebuke, and killed his sister. This violence raised the
indignation of the people; he was tried and capitally condemned.
His eminent services, however, pleaded in his favour; the sentence
of death was exchanged for a more moderate, but more ignominious
punishment, and he was only compelled to pass under the yoke. A
trophy was raised in the Roman forum, on which he suspended the
spoils of the conquered Curiatii. _Cicero_, _de Inventione_, bk. 2,
ch. 26.――_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 24, &c.――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_,
bk. 3, ch. 3.――――A Roman consul, who defeated the Sabines.――――A
consul, who dedicated the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus. During
the ceremony he was informed of the death of his son, but he did
not forget the sacred character he then bore for the feelings of a
parent, and continued the dedication after ordering the body to be
buried. _Livy_, bk. 2.
♦ ‘pretenting’ replaced with ‘pretending’
=Horcias=, the general of 3000 Macedonians, who revolted from Antigonus
in Cappadocia. _Polyænus_, bk. 4.
=Hormisdas=, a name which some of the Persian kings bore in the reign
of the Roman emperors.
=Horesti=, a people of Britain, supposed to be the inhabitants of
Eskdale, now in Scotland. _Tacitus_, _Agricola_, ch. 38.
=Horratus=, a Macedonian soldier, who fought with another private
soldier in the sight of the whole army of Alexander. _Curtius_,
bk. 9, ch. 7.
=Hortensia=, a celebrated Roman lady, daughter of the orator
Hortensius, whose eloquence she had inherited in the most eminent
degree. When the triumvirs had obliged 14,000 women to give upon
oath an account of their possessions, to defray the expenses of
the state, ♦Hortensia undertook to plead their cause, and was so
successful in her attempt, that 1000 of her female fellow-sufferers
escaped from the avarice of the triumvirate. _Valerius Maximus_,
bk. 8, ch. 3.
♦ ‘Hortensa’ replaced with ‘Hortensia’
=Hortensia lex=, by Quintus Hortensius the dictator, A.U.C. 697. It
ordered the whole body of the Roman people to pay implicit obedience
to whatever was enacted by the commons. The nobility, before this
law was enacted, had claimed an absolute exemption.
=Horta=, a divinity among the Romans, who presided over youth, and
patronized all exhortations to virtue and honourable deeds. She is
the same as Hersilia.
=Horta=, or =Hortinum=, a town of the Sabines, on the confluence of
the Nar and the Tiber. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 716.
=Quintus Hortensius=, a celebrated orator, who began to distinguish
himself by his eloquence, in the Roman forum, at the age of 19.
His friend and successor Cicero speaks with great eulogium of his
oratorical powers, and mentions the uncommon extent of his memory.
The affected actions of Hortensius at the bar procured him the
ridiculous surname of _Dionysia_, a celebrated stage-dancer at the
time. He was pretor and consul, and died 50 years before Christ, in
his 63rd year. His orations are not extant. Quintilian mentions them
as undeserving the great commendations which Cicero had so liberally
bestowed upon them. Hortensius was very rich, and not less than
10,000 casks of Arvisian wine were found in his cellar after his
death. He had written pieces of amorous poetry, and annals, all lost.
_Cicero_, _Brutus_; _Letters to Atticus_; _On Oratory_, &c.――_Varro_,
_de Re Rustica_, bk. 3, ch. 5.――――Corbio, a grandson of the orator
of the same name, famous for his lasciviousness.――――A rich Roman,
who asked the elder Cato his wife, to procreate children. Cato gave
his wife to his friend, and took her again after his death. This
behaviour of Cato was highly censured at Rome, and it was observed,
that Cato’s wife had entered the house of Hortensius very poor,
but that she returned to the bed of Cato in the greatest opulence.
_Plutarch_, _Cato_.――――A Roman, slain by Antony on his brother’s
tomb. _Plutarch._――――A pretor, who gave up Macedonia to Brutus.
_Plutarch._――――One of Sylla’s lieutenants. _Plutarch._――――A Roman,
the first who introduced the eating of peacocks at Rome. This was at
the feast which he gave when he was created augur.
=Hortōna=, a town of Italy, on the confines of the Æqui. _Livy_, bk. 3,
ch. 30.
=Horus=, a son of Isis, one of the deities of the Egyptians.――――A king
of Assyria.
=Hospitālis=, a surname of Jupiter among the Romans as the god of
hospitality.
=Hostilia lex=, was enacted A.U.C. 583. By it such as were among the
enemies of the republic, or absent when the state required their
assistance, were guilty of rapine.
=Hostilia=, a large town on the Po. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 2, ch. 40.
――_Pliny_, bk. 21, ch. 12.
=Hostius Hostilius=, a warlike Roman, presented with a crown of boughs
by Romulus, for his intrepid behaviour in a battle. _Dionysius of
Halicarnassus._――――A consul.――――A Latin poet in the age of Julius
Cæsar, who composed a poem on the wars of Istria. _Macrobius_,
satire 6, chs. 3 & 5.
=Hunni=, a people of Sarmatia, who invaded the empire of Rome in the
fifth century, and settled in Pannonia, to which they gave the name
of Hungary.
=Hyacinthia=, an annual solemnity at Amyclæ, in Laconia, in honour
of Hyacinthus and Apollo. It continued for three days, during
which time the grief of the people was so great for the death of
Hyacinthus, that they did not adorn their hair with garlands during
their festivals, nor eat bread, but fed only upon sweetmeats. They
did not even sing pæans in honour of Apollo, or observe any of the
solemnities which were usual at other sacrifices. On the second day
of the festival there were a number of different exhibitions. Youths,
with their garments girt about them, entertained the spectators, by
playing sometimes upon the flute, or upon the harp, and by singing
anapestic songs, in loud, echoing voices, in honour of Apollo.
Others passed across the theatre mounted upon horses richly adorned,
and, at the same time, choirs of young men came upon the stage
singing their uncouth rustic songs, and accompanied by persons who
danced at the sound of vocal and instrumental music, according to
the ancient custom. Some virgins were also introduced in chariots of
wood, covered at the top and magnificently adorned. Others appeared
in race chariots. The city began then to be filled with joy, and
immense numbers of victims were offered on the altars of Apollo, and
the votaries liberally entertained their friends and slaves. During
this latter part of the festivity, all were eager to be present
at the games, and the city was almost left without inhabitants.
_Athenæus_, bk. 4.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 10, li. 219.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 3, chs. 1 & 19.
=Hyacinthus=, a son of Amyclas and Diomede, greatly beloved by Apollo
and Zephyrus. He returned the former’s love, and Zephyrus, incensed
at his coldness and indifference, resolved to punish his rival. As
Apollo, who was entrusted with the education of Hyacinthus, once
played at quoit with his pupil, Zephyrus blew the quoit, as soon
as it was thrown by Apollo, upon the head of Hyacinthus, and he was
killed with the blow. Apollo was so disconsolate at the death of
Hyacinthus, that he changed his blood into a flower, which bore his
name, and placed his body among the constellations. The Spartans
also established yearly festivals in honour of the nephew of their
king. _See:_ Hyacinthia. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 19.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 10, li. 185, &c.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, &c.
=Hyădes=, five daughters of Atlas king of Mauritania, who were so
disconsolate at the death of their brother Hyas, who had been killed
by a wild boar, that they pined away and died. They became stars
after death, and were placed near Taurus, one of the 12 signs of
the Zodiac. They received the name of Hyades from their brother
Hyas. Their names are Phaola, Ambrosia, Eudora, Coronis, and Polyxo.
To these some have added Thione and Prodice, and they maintained
that they were daughters of Hyas and Æthra, one of the Oceanides.
Euripides calls them daughters of Erechtheus. The ancients supposed
that the rising and setting of the Hyades were always attended with
much rain, whence the name (ὑω _pluo_). _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 5,
li. 165.――_Hyginus_, fable 182.――_Euripides_, _Ion_.
=Hyăgnis=, a Phrygian, father of Marsyas. He invented the flute.
_Plutarch_, _de Musica_.
=Hyăla=, a city at the mouth of the Indus, where the government is the
same as at Sparta.――――One of Diana’s attendant nymphs. _Ovid._
=Hyampŏlis=, a city of Phocis, on the Cephisus, founded by the
Hyanthes. _Herodotus_, bk. 8.
=Hyanthes=, the ancient name of the inhabitants of Bœotia, from king
Hyas. Cadmus is sometimes called _Hyanthius_, because he was king of
Bœotia. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 3, li. 147.
=Hyantis=, an ancient name of Bœotia.
=Hyarbita=, a man who endeavoured to imitate Timogenes, &c. _Horace_,
bk. 1, ltr. 19, li. 15.
=Hyas=, a son of Atlas of Mauritania by Æthra. His extreme fondness
for shooting proved fatal to him, and in his attempts to rob a
lioness of her whelps, he was killed by the enraged animal. Some say
that he died by the bite of a serpent, and others that he was killed
by a wild boar. His sisters mourned his death with such constant
lamentations, that Jupiter, in compassion for their sorrow, changed
them into stars. _See:_ Hyades. _Hyginus_, fable 192.――_Ovid_,
_Fasti_, bk. 5, li. 170.
=Hybla=, a mountain in Sicily, called afterwards _Megara_, where thyme
and odoriferous flowers of all sorts grew in abundance. It is famous
for its honey. There is at the foot of the mountain a town of the
same name. There is also another near mount Ætna, close to Catana.
_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 23.――_Strabo_, bk. 6.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.
――_Cicero_, _Against Verres_, bk. 3, ch. 43; bk. 5, ch. 25.――_Silius
Italicus_, bk. 14, li. 26.――_Statius_, bk. 14, li. 201.――――A city of
Attica bears also the name of Hybla.
=Hybrēas=, an orator of Caria, &c. _Strabo_, bk. 13.
=Hybrianes=, a people near Thrace.
=Hyccaron= (plural, a), a town of Sicily, the native place of Lais.
=Hyda= and =Hyde=, a town of Lydia, under mount Tmolus, which some
suppose to be the same as Sardes.
=Hydara=, a town of Armenia. _Strabo_, bk. 12.
=Hydarnes=, one of the seven noble Persians who conspired to destroy
the usurper Smerdis, &c. _Herodotus_, bks. 3 & 6.――_Strabo_, bk. 11.
=Hydaspes=, a river of Asia, flowing by Susa. _Virgil_, _Georgics_,
bk. 4, li. 211.――――Another in India, now _Behut_ or _Chelum_, the
boundaries of Alexander’s conquests in the east. It falls into the
Indus. _Curtius_, bk. 5, ch. 2.――_Lucan_, bk. 8, li. 227.――_Horace_,
bk. 1, ode 22, li. 7.――_Strabo_, bk. 15.――――A friend of Æneas,
killed in the Rutulian war. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 747.
=Hydra=, a celebrated monster, which infested the neighbourhood of
the lake Lerna in Peloponnesus. It was the fruit of Echidna’s union
with Typhon. It had 100 heads, according to Diodorus; 50, according
to Simonides; and nine, according to the more received opinion of
Apollodorus, Hyginus, &c. As soon as one of these heads was cut off,
two immediately grew up if the wound was not stopped by fire. It was
one of the labours of Hercules to destroy this dreadful monster, and
this he easily effected with the assistance of Iolas, who applied
a burning iron to the wounds as soon as one head was cut off. While
Hercules was destroying the hydra, Juno, jealous of his glory, sent
a sea-crab to bite his foot. This new enemy was soon despatched;
and Juno, unable to succeed in her attempts to lessen the fame of
Hercules, placed the crab among the constellations, where it is now
called the Cancer. The conqueror dipped his arrows in the gall of
the hydra, and, from that circumstance, all the wounds which he gave
proved incurable and mortal. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_.――_Apollodorus_,
bk. 2, ch. 5.――_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 17.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 9, li. 69.――_Horace_, bk. 4, ode 4, li. 61.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 6, li. 276; bk. 7, li. 658.
=Hydraotes=, a river of India, crossed by Alexander.
=Hydrophŏria=, a festival observed at Athens, called ἀπο του φορειν
ὑδωρ, _from carrying water_. It was celebrated in commemoration of
those who perished in the deluge of Deucalion and Ogyges.
=Hydruntum= and =Hydrus=, a city of Calabria, 50 miles south of
Brundusium. As the distance from thence to Greece was only 60 miles,
Pyrrhus, and afterwards Varro, Pompey’s lieutenant, meditated the
building here a bridge across the Adriatic. Though so favourably
situated, Hydrus, now called _Otranto_, is but an insignificant
town, scarce containing 3000 inhabitants. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 11.
――_Cicero_, bk. 15, _Letters to Atticus_, ltr. 21; bk. 16, ltr. 5.
――_Lucan_, bk. 5, li. 375.
=Hydrūsa=, a town of Attica. _Strabo_, bk. 9.
=Hyĕla=, a town of Lucania. _Strabo_, bk. 6.
=Hyempsal=, a son of Micipsa, brother to Adherbal, murdered by Jugurtha,
after the death of his father. _Sallust_, _Jugurthine War_.
=Hyettus=, a town of Bœotia. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 24.
=Hygeia=, or =Hygiea=, the goddess of health, daughter of Æsculapius,
held in great veneration among the ancients. Her statues represented
her with a veil, and the matrons usually consecrated their locks to
her. She was also represented on monuments as a young woman holding
a serpent in one hand, and in the other a cup, out of which the
serpent sometimes drank. According to some authors, Hygeia is the
same as Minerva, who received that name from Pericles, who erected
her a statue, because in a dream she had told him the means of
curing an architect, whose assistance he wanted to build a temple.
_Plutarch_, _Pericles_.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 23.
=Hygiana=, a town of Peloponnesus.
=Caius Julius Hygīnus=, a grammarian, one of the freedmen of Augustus.
He was a native of Alexandria; or, according to some, he was a
Spaniard, very intimate with Ovid. He was appointed librarian
to the library of mount Palatine, and he was able to maintain
himself by the liberality of Caius Licinius. He wrote a mythological
history, which he called fables, and _Poeticon Astronomicon_, besides
treatises on the cities of Italy, on such Roman families as were
descended from the Trojans, a book on agriculture, commentaries on
Virgil, the lives of great men, &c., now lost. The best edition of
Hyginus is that of Munkerus, 2 vols., 8vo, Amsterdam, 1681. These
compositions have been greatly mutilated, and their incorrectness
and their bad Latinity have induced some to suppose that they are
spurious. _Suetonius_, _Lives of the Grammarians_.
=Hyla= and =Hylas=, a river of Mysia, where Hylas was drowned.
_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 3, li. 6.――――A colony of Phocis.
=Hylactor=, one of Actæon’s dogs, from his barking (ὐλακτω, _latro_).
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 3.
=Hylæ=, a small town of Bœotia. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 7.
=Hylæus=, a name given to some centaurs, one of whom was killed
by Hercules on mount Pholoe. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8, li. 294.
――――Another, by Theseus, at the nuptials of Pirithous. _Statius_,
_Thebiad_, bk. 7, li. 267.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12, li. 378.
――――Another, killed by Bacchus. _Statius_, _Thebiad_, bk. 6, li. 530.
――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 2, li. 457.――――A fourth, killed by
Atalanta. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3.――――One of Actæon’s dogs.
=Hylas=, a son of Thiodamas king of Mysia and Menedice, stolen away
by Hercules, and carried on board the ship Argo to Colchis. On the
Asiatic coast the Argonauts landed to take a supply of fresh water,
and Hylas, following the example of his companions, went to the
fountain with a pitcher, and fell into the water and was drowned.
The poets have embellished this tragical story, by saying that the
nymphs of the river, enamoured of the beautiful Hylas, carried him
away; and that Hercules, disconsolate at the loss of his favourite
youth, filled the woods and mountains with his complaints, and
at last abandoned the Argonautic expedition to go and seek him.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9.――_Hyginus_, fables 14, 271.――_Virgil_,
_Eclogues_, poem 6.――_Propertius_, bk. 1, poem 20.――――A river of
Bithynia. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 32.
=Hylax=, a dog mentioned in _Virgil_, _Eclogues_, poem 8.
=Hylias=, a river of Magna Græcia.
=Hyllaicus=, a part of Peloponnesus, near Messenia.
=Hyllus=, a son of Hercules and Dejanira, who, soon after his father’s
death, married Iole. He, as well as his father, was persecuted by
the envy of Eurystheus, and obliged to fly from the Peloponnesus.
The Athenians gave a kind reception to Hyllus and the rest of the
Heraclidæ, and marched against Eurystheus. Hyllus obtained a victory
over his enemies, and killed with his own hand Eurystheus, and sent
his head to Alcmena his grandmother. Some time after he attempted
to recover the Peloponnesus with the Heraclidæ, and was killed in
single combat by Echemus king of Arcadia. _See:_ Heraclidæ, Hercules.
_Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 204, &c.――_Strabo_, bk. 9.――_Diodorus_, bk.
4.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 9, li. 279.――――A river of Lydia,
flowing into the Hernus. It is called also Phryx. _Livy_, bk. 37,
ch. 38.――_Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 180.
=Hylonŏme=, the wife of Cyllarus, who killed herself the moment her
husband was murdered by the Lapithæ. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12,
li. 405.
=Hylophăgi=, a people of Æthiopia. _Diodorus_, bk. 3.
=Hymĕnæus= and =Hymen=, the god of marriage among the Greeks, was son
of Bacchus and Venus, or, according to others, of Apollo and one of
the muses. Hymenæus, according to the more received opinions, was
a young Athenian of extraordinary beauty, but ignoble origin. He
became enamoured of the daughter of one of the richest and noblest
of his countrymen, and, as the rank and elevation of his mistress
removed him from her presence and conversation, he contented himself
to follow her wherever she went. In a certain procession, in which
all the matrons of Athens went to Eleusis, Hymenæus, to accompany
his mistress, disguised himself in woman’s clothes, and joined
the religious troop. His youth, and the fairness of his features,
favoured his disguise. A great part of the procession was seized
by the sudden arrival of some pirates, and Hymenæus, who shared the
captivity of his mistress, encouraged his female companions, and
assassinated their ravishers while they were asleep. Immediately
after this, Hymenæus repaired to Athens, and promised to restore to
liberty the matrons who had been enslaved, provided he was allowed
to marry one among them who was the object of his passion. The
Athenians consented, and Hymenæus experienced so much felicity in
his marriage state, that the people of Athens instituted festivals
in his honour, and solemnly invoked him at their nuptials, as the
Latins did their Thalassius. Hymen was generally represented as
crowned with flowers, chiefly with marjoram or roses, and holding
a burning torch in one hand, and in the other a vest of a purple
colour. It was supposed that he always attended at nuptials; for,
if not, matrimonial connections were fatal, and ended in the most
dreadful calamities; and hence people ran about calling aloud,
“Hymen! Hymen!” &c. _Ovid_, _Medeâ_; _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12,
li. 215.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, &c.――_Catullus_, poem 62.
=Hymettus=, a mountain of Attica, about 22 miles in circumference, and
about two miles from Athens, still famous for its bees and excellent
honey. There was also a quarry of marble there. Jupiter had there a
temple; whence he is called _Hymettius_. _Strabo_, bk. 9.――_Silius
Italicus_, bk. 2, li. 228; bk. 14, li. 200.――_Pliny_, bk. 36, ch. 3.
――_Horace_, bk. 2, ode 18, li. 3; bk. 2, satire 2, li. 15.――_Cicero_,
bk. 2, _de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum_, ch. 34.
=Hypæpa=, or =Ipepæ=, now _Berki_, a town of Lydia, sacred to Venus,
between mount Tmolus and the Caystrus. _Strabo_, bk. 13.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 11, li. 152.
=Hypæsia=, a country of Peloponnesus.
=Hypănis=, a river of European Scythia, now called _Bog_, which falls
into the Borysthenes, and with it into the Euxine. _Herodotus_, bk.
4, ch. 52, &c.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 15, li. 285.――――A river
of India.――――Another of Pontus. _Cicero_, _Tusculanæ Disputationes_,
bk. 2, ch. 39.――――A Trojan who joined himself to Æneas, and was
killed by his own people, who took him for one of the enemy in the
night that Troy was burned by the Greeks. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 2,
li. 428.
=Hyparīnus=, a son of Dion, who reigned at Syracuse for two years
after his father.――――The father of Dion.
=Hypătes=, a river of Sicily, near Camarina. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 14,
li. 231.
=Hypătha=, a town of Thessaly. _Livy_, bk. 41, ch. 25.
=Hypatia=, a native of Alexandria celebrated for her beauty, her
virtues, and her great erudition. She was assassinated 415 A.D.
=Hypēnor=, a Trojan killed by Diomedes at Troy. _Homer_, _Iliad_,
bk. 5, li. 144.
=Hyperbatus=, a pretor of the Achæans, B.C. 224.
=Hyperbius=, a son of Ægyptus. _Apollodorus._
=Hy̆perbŏrei=, a nation in the northern parts of Europe and Asia, who
were said to live to an incredible age, even to 1000 years, and in
the enjoyment of all possible felicity. The sun was said to rise
and set to them but once a year, and therefore, perhaps, they are
placed by Virgil under the north pole. The word signifies _people
who inhabit beyond the wind Boreas_. Thrace was the residence of
Boreas, according to the ancients. Whenever the Hyperboreans made
offerings they always sent them towards the south, and the people
of Dodona were the first of the Greeks who received them. The word
Hyperboreans is applied, in general, to all those who inhabit any
cold climate. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12; bk. 6, ch. 17.――_Mela_, bk. 3,
ch. 5.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 1, li. 240; bk. 3, lis. 169 & 381.
――_Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 13, &c.――_Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_,
bk. 3, ch. 23; bk. 4, ch. 12.
=Hyperea= and =Hyperīa=, a fountain of Thessaly, with a town of the
same name. _Strabo_, bk. 9.――――Another in Messenia, in Peloponnesus.
_Flaccus_, bk. 1, li. 375.
=Hyperesia=, a town of Achaia. _Strabo_, bk. 8.
=Hypĕrĭdes=, an Athenian orator, disciple to Plato and Socrates, and
long the rival of Demosthenes. His father’s name was Glaucippus.
He distinguished himself by his eloquence and the active part
which he took in the management of the Athenian republic. After the
unfortunate battle of Cranon, he was taken alive, and, that he might
not be compelled to betray the secrets of his country, he cut off
his tongue. He was put to death by order of Antipater, B.C. 322.
Only one of his numerous orations remains, admired for the sweetness
and elegance of his style. It is said that Hyperides once defended
the courtesan Phryne who was accused of impiety, and that when he
saw his eloquence ineffectual, he unveiled the bosom of his client,
upon which the judges, influenced by the sight of her beauty,
acquitted her. _Plutarch_, _Demosthenes_.――_Cicero_, _Orator_,
ch. 1, &c.――_Quintilian_, bk. 10, &c.
=Hypĕrīon=, a son of Cœlus and Terra, who married Thea, by whom he had
Aurora, the sun, and moon. Hyperion is often taken by the poets for
the sun itself. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, chs. 1
& 2.――_Homer_, _Hymn 3 to Apollo_.――――A son of Priam. _Apollodorus_,
bk. 1, ch. 2.
=Hypermnestra=, one of the 50 daughters of Danaus, who married Lynceus
son of Ægyptus. She disobeyed her father’s bloody commands, who had
ordered her to murder her husband the first night of her nuptials,
and suffered Lynceus to escape unhurt from the bridal bed. Her
father summoned her to appear before a tribunal for her disobedience,
but the people acquitted her, and Danaus was reconciled to her and
her husband, to whom he left his kingdom at his death. Some say
that Lynceus returned to Argos with an army, and that he conquered
and put to death his father-in-law, and usurped his crown. _See:_
Danaides. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 19.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2,
ch. 1.――_Ovid_, _Heroides_, poem 14.――――A daughter of Thestius.
_Apollodorus._
=Hyperŏchus=, a man who wrote a poetical history of Cuma. _Pausanias_,
bk. 10, ch. 12.
=Hyphæus=, a mountain of Campania. _Plutarch_, _Sulla_.
=Hypsa=, now _Belici_, a river of Sicily, falling into the Crinisus,
and then into the Mediterranean near Selinus. _Silius Italicus_,
bk. 14, li. 228.
=Hypsea=, a Roman matron, of the family of the Plautii. She was blind,
according to Horace; or, perhaps, was partial to some lover, who
was recommended neither by personal nor mental excellence. _Horace_,
bk. 1, satire 2, li. 91.
=Hypsēnor=, a priest of the Scamander, killed during the Trojan war.
_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 5.
=Hypseus=, a son of the river Peneus.――――A pleader at the Roman bar
before the age of Cicero. _Cicero_, _On Oratory_, bk. 1, ch. 36.
=Hypsicrătēa=, the wife of Mithridates, who accompanied her husband in
man’s clothes, when he fled before Pompey. _Plutarch_, _Pompey_.
=Hypsicrătes=, a Phœnician who wrote a history of his country, in
the Phœnician language. This history was saved from the flames of
Carthage, when that city was taken by Scipio, and translated into
Greek.
=Hypsipĭdes=, a Macedonian in Alexander’s army, famous for his
friendship for Menedemus, &c. _Curtius_, bk. 7, ch. 7.
=Hypsĭpy̆le=, a queen of Lemnos, daughter of Thoas and Myrine. During
her reign, Venus, whose altars had been universally slighted,
punished the Lemnian women, and rendered their mouths and breath so
extremely offensive to the smell, that their husbands abandoned them,
and gave themselves up to some female slaves, whom they had taken in
a war against Thrace. This contempt was highly resented by all the
women of Lemnos, and they resolved on revenge, and all unanimously
put to death their male relations, Hypsipyle alone excepted, who
spared the life of her father Thoas. Soon after this cruel murder,
the Argonauts landed at Lemnos, in their expedition to Colchis,
and remained for some time in the island. During their stay the
Argonauts rendered the Lemnian women mothers, and Jason, the
chief of the Argonautic expedition, left Hypsipyle pregnant at his
departure, and promised her eternal fidelity. Hypsipyle brought
twins, Euneus and Nebrophonus, whom some have called Deiphilus or
Thoas. Jason forgot his vows and promises to Hypsipyle, and the
unfortunate queen was soon after forced to leave her kingdom by the
Lemnian women, who conspired against her life, still mindful that
Thoas had been preserved by means of his daughter. Hypsipyle, in her
flight, was seized by pirates, and sold to Lycurgus king of Nemæa.
She was entrusted with the care of Archemorus the son of Lycurgus;
and, when the Argives marched against Thebes, they met Hypsipyle,
and obliged her to show them a fountain, where they might quench
their thirst. To do this more expeditiously, she laid down
the child on the grass, and in her absence he was killed by a
serpent. Lycurgus attempted to revenge the death of his son, but
Hypsipyle was screened from his resentment by Adrastus the leader
of the Argives. _Ovid_, _Heroides_, poem 6.――_Apollonius_, bk. 1.
――_Statius_, bk. 5, _Thebiad_.――_Flaccus_, bk. 2.――_Apollodorus_,
bk. 1, ch. 9; bk. 3, ch. 6.――_Hyginus_, fables 15, 74, &c. _See:_
Archemorus.
=Hyrcānia=, a large country of Asia, at the north of Parthia, and
at the west of Media, abounding in serpents, wild beasts, &c. It
is very mountainous, and unfit for drawing a cavalry in order of
battle. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 4, li. 367.――_Cicero_, _Tusculanæ
Disputationes_, bk. 1, ch. 45.――_Strabo_, bks. 2 & 11.――――A town
of Lydia, destroyed by a violent earthquake in the age of Tiberius.
_Livy_, bk. 37, ch. 38.
=Hyrcănum mare=, a large sea, called also _Caspian_. _See:_ Caspium
mare.
=Hyrcānus=, a name common to some of the high priests of Judea.
_Josephus._
=Hyria=, a country of Bœotia, near Aulis, with a lake, river, and town
of the same name. It is more probably situate near Tempe. It received
its name from Hyrie, a woman who wept so much for the loss of her
son, that she was changed into a fountain. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 7, li. 372.――_Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 170.――――A town of Isauria,
on the Calycadnus.
=Hyrieus=, or =Hyreus=, a peasant, or, as some say, a prince of
Tanagra, son of Neptune and Alcyone, who kindly entertained Jupiter,
Neptune, and Mercury, when travelling over Bœotia. Being childless,
he asked of the gods to give him a son without his marrying, as
he promised his wife, who was lately dead, and whom he tenderly
loved, that he never would marry again. The gods, to reward the
hospitality of Hyreus, made water in the hide of a bull, which had
been sacrificed the day before to their divinity, and they ordered
him to wrap it up and bury it in the ground for nine months. At the
expiration of the nine mouths, Hyreus opened the earth, and found
a beautiful child in the bull’s hide, whom he called Orion. _See:_
Orion.
=Hyrmina=, a town of Elis in Peloponnesus. _Strabo_, bk. 8.
=Hyrneto= and =Hyrnetho=, a daughter of Temenus king of Argos, who
married Deyphon son of Celeus. She was the favourite of her father,
who greatly enriched her husband. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 6.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 19.
=Hyrnĭthium=, a plain of Argos, near Epidaurus, fertile in olives.
_Strabo_, bk. 6.
=Hyrtăcus=, a Trojan of mount Ida, father to Nisus, one of the
companions of Æneas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9, lis. 177 & 406.
Hence the patronymic of _Hyrtacides_ is applied to Nisus. It is
also applied to Hippocoon. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 5, li. 492.
=Hysia=, a town of Bœotia, built by Nycteus, Antiope’s father.――――A
village of Argos.――――A city of Arcadia.――――The royal residence of
the king of Parthia.
=Hyspa=, a river of Sicily. _Silius Italicus_, ♦bk. 14, li. 228.
♦ ‘24’ replaced with ‘14’
=Hyssus= and =Hyssi=, a port and river of Cappadocia on the Euxine sea.
=Hystaspes=, a noble Persian, of the family of the Achæmenides. His
father’s name was Arsames. His son Darius reigned in Persia after
the murder of the usurper Smerdis. It is said by Ctesias that
he wished to be carried to see the royal monument which his son
had built between two mountains. The priests who carried him, as
reported, slipped the cord with which he was suspended in ascending
the mountain, and he died of the fall. Hystaspes was the first who
introduced the learning and mysteries of the Indian Brachmans into
Persia, and to his researches in India the sciences were greatly
indebted, particularly in Persia. Darius is called _Hystaspes_,
or son of Hystaspes, to distinguish him from his royal successors
of the same name. _Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 209; bk. 5, ch. 83.
――_Ctesias_, _Fragments_.
=Hystieus.= _See:_ Histiæus.
I [& J]
=Ia=, the daughter of Midas, who married Atys, &c.
=Iacchus=, a surname of Bacchus, _ab_ ἰαχειν, from the _noise_ and
_shouts_ which the bacchanals raised at the festivals of this deity.
_Virgil_, _Eclogues_, poem 6; _Georgics_, bk. 1, li. 166.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 4, ch. 15.――――Some suppose him to be a son of
Ceres; because in the celebration of the Eleusinian mysteries, the
word Iacchus was frequently repeated. _Herodotus_, bk. 8, ch. 65.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 2.
=Iader=, a river of Dalmatia.
=Ialēmus=, a wretched singer, son of the muse Calliope. _Athenæus_,
bk. 14.
=Ialmĕnus=, a son of Mars and Astyoche, who went to the Trojan war
with his brother Ascalaphus, with 30 ships, at the head of the
inhabitants of Orchomenes and Aspledon, in Bœotia. _Pausanias_,
bk. 2, ch. 37.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2, li. 19.
=Iāly̆sus=, a town of Rhodes, built by Ialysus, of whom Protogenes was
making a beautiful painting when Demetrius Poliorcetes took Rhodes.
The Telchines were born there. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, fable
9.――_Pliny_, bk. 35, ch. 6.――_Cicero_, bk. 2, _Letters to Atticus_,
ltr. 21.――_Plutarch_, _Demetrius_.――_Ælian_, bk. 12, ch. 5.
=Iambe=, a servant-maid of Metanira, wife of Celeus king of Eleusis,
who tried to exhilarate Ceres, when she travelled over Attica
in quest of her daughter Proserpine. From the jokes and stories
which she made use of, free and satirical verses have been called
_Iambics_. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 5.
=Iamblĭcus=, a Greek author who wrote the life of Pythagoras, and the
history of his followers, an exhortation to philosophy, a treatise
against Porphyry’s letter on the mysteries of the Egyptians, &c. He
was a great favourite with the emperor Julian, and died A.D. 363.
=Iamenus=, a Trojan killed by Leonteus. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 12,
lis. 139 & 193.
=Iamĭdæ=, certain prophets among the Greeks, descended from Iamus, a
son of Apollo, who received the gift of prophecy from his father,
which remained among his posterity. _Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 2.
=Janĭcŭlum= and =Janicularius mons=, one of the seven hills at Rome
joined to the city by Ancus Martius, and made a kind of citadel,
to protect the place against an invasion. This hill [_See:_ Janus],
which was on the opposite shore of the Tiber, was joined to the city
by the bridge Sublicius, the first ever built across the river, and
perhaps in Italy. It was less inhabited than the other parts of the
city, on account of the grossness of the air, though from its top
the eye could have a commanding view of the whole city. It is famous
for the burial of king Numa and of the poet Italicus. Porsenna king
of Etruria pitched his camp on mount Janiculum, and the senators
took refuge there in the civil wars, to avoid the resentment of
Octavius. _Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 33, &c.――_Dio Cassius_, bk. 47.――_Ovid_,
bk. 1, _Fasti_, li. 246.――_Virgil_, _[Aeneid]_, bk. 8, li. 358.
――_Martial_, bk. 4, ltr. 64; bk. 7, ltr. 16.
=Ianīra=, one of the Nereides.
=Ianthe=, a girl of Crete, who married Iphis. _See:_ Iphis. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 9, li. 714, &c.
=Ianthea=, one of the Oceanides.――――One of the Nereides. _Pausanias_,
bk. 4, ch. 30.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 8, li. 47.
=Jānus=, the most ancient king who reigned in Italy. He was a native
of Thessaly, and son of Apollo, according to some. He came to Italy,
where he planted a colony and built a small town on the river Tiber,
which he called Janiculum. Some authors make him son of Cœlus and
Hecate; and others make him a native of Athens. During his reign,
Saturn, driven from heaven by his son Jupiter, came to Italy, where
Janus received him with much hospitality, and made him his colleague
on the throne. Janus is represented with two faces, because he was
acquainted with the past and the future; or, according to others,
because he was taken for the sun, who opens the day at his rising,
and shuts it at his setting. Some statues represented Janus with
four heads. He sometimes appeared with a beard, and sometimes
without. In religious ceremonies, his name was always invoked the
first, because he presides over all gates and avenues, and it is
through him only that prayers can reach the immortal gods. From that
circumstance he often appears with a key in his right hand, and a
rod in his left. Sometimes he holds the number of 300 in one hand,
and in the other 65, to show that he presides over the year, of
which the first month bears his name. Some suppose that he is the
same as the world, or Cœlus; and from that circumstance they call
him Eanus, _ab eundo_, because of the revolution of the heavens. He
was called by different names, such as _Consivius_, _a conserendo_,
because he presided over generation; _Quirinus_ or _Martialis_,
because he presided over war. He is also called _Patuleius_ and
_Clausius_, because the gates of his temples were open during the
time of war, and shut in time of peace. He was chiefly worshipped
among the Romans, where he had many temples, some erected to Janus
Bifrons, others to Janus Quadrifrons. The temples of Quadrifrons
were built with four equal sides, with a door and three windows
on each side. The four doors were the emblems of the four seasons
of the year, and the three windows in each of the sides the three
months in each season, and, all together, the 12 months of the year.
Janus was generally represented in statues as a young man. After
death Janus was ranked among the gods, for his popularity and the
civilization which he had introduced among the wild inhabitants of
Italy. His temple, which was always open in times of war, was shut
only three times during above 700 years, under Numa, 234 B.C., and
under Augustus; and during that long period of time, the Romans were
continually employed in war. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 1, li. 65, &c.
――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 607.――_Varro_, _de Lingua Latina_,
bk. 1.――_Macrobius_, _Saturnalia_, bk. 1.――――A street at Rome near
the temple of Janus. It was generally frequented by usurers and
money-brokers, and booksellers also kept their shops there. _Horace_,
bk. 1, ltr. 1.
=Japetĭdes=, a musician at the nuptials of Perseus and Andromeda.
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, li. 111.
=Japĕtus=, a son of Cœlus or Titan by Terra, who married Asia, or,
according to others, Clymene, by whom he had Atlas, Menœtius,
Prometheus, and Epimetheus. The Greeks looked upon him as the
father of all mankind, and therefore from his antiquity old men
were frequently called Japeti. His sons received the patronymic of
_Iapetionides_. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 4, li. 631.――_Hesiod_,
_Theogony_, lis. 136 & 508.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 1.
=Iāpis=, an Ætolian, who founded a city upon the banks of the Timavus.
_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 3, li. 475.――――A Trojan, favourite
of Apollo, from whom he received the knowledge of the power of
medicinal herbs. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 12, li. 391.
=Iapy̆dia=, a district of Illyricum, now _Carniola_. _Livy_, bk. 43,
ch. 5.――_Tibullus_, bk. 4, li. 109.――_Cicero_, _Cornelius Balbus_,
ch. 14.
=Iāpy̆gia=, a country on the confines of Italy, situated in the
peninsula, between Tarentum and Brundusium. It is called by some
_Messapia_, _Peucetia_, and _Salentinum_. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 11.
――_Strabo_, bk. 6.
=Iapyx=, a son of Dædalus, who conquered a part of Italy, which he
called _Iapygia_. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 14, li. 458.――――A
wind which blows from Apulia, and is favourable to such as sail from
Italy towards Greece. It was nearly the same as the Caurus of the
Greeks. _Horace_, bk. 1, ode 3, li. 4; bk. 3, ode 7, li. 20.
=Iarbas=, a son of Jupiter and Garamantis, king of Gætulia, from whom
Dido bought land to build Carthage. He courted Dido, but the arrival
of Æneas prevented his success, and the queen, rather than marry
Iarbas, destroyed herself. _See:_ Dido. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 4, li.
36, &c.――_Justin_, bk. 18, ch. 6.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 3, li. 552.
=Iarchas= and =Jarchas=, a celebrated Indian philosopher. His seven
rings are famous for their power of restoring old men to the bloom
and vigour of youth, according to the tradition of _Philostratus_,
_Life of Apollonius of Tyana_.
=Iardānus=, a Lydian, father of Omphale the mistress of Hercules.
_Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 7.――――A river of Arcadia.――――Another in
Crete. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 7.
=Iasĭdes=, a patronymic given to Palinurus, as descended from a person
of the name of Jasius. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 5, li. 843.――――Also of
Jasus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 12, li. 392.
=Iăsion= and =Iăsius=, a son of Jupiter and Electra, one of the
Atlantides, who reigned over part of Arcadia, where he diligently
applied himself to agriculture. He married the goddess Cybele or
Ceres, and all the gods were present at the celebration of his
nuptials. He had by Ceres two sons, Philomelus and Plutus, to whom
some have added a third, Corybas, who introduced the worship and
mysteries of his mother in Phrygia. He had also a daughter, whom
he exposed as soon as born, saying that he would raise only male
children. The child, who was suckled by a she-bear and preserved,
rendered herself famous afterwards under the name of Atalanta.
Jasion was killed with a thunderbolt of Jupiter, and ranked among
the gods after death by the inhabitants of Arcadia. _Hesiod_,
_Theogony_, li. 973.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 168.――_Hyginus_,
_Poeticon Astronomicon_, bk. 2, ch. 4.
=Iăsis=, a name given to Atalanta daughter of Jasius.
=Iasius=, a son of Abas king of Argos.――――A son of Jupiter. _See:_
Iasion.
=Jāson=, a celebrated hero, son of Alcimede daughter of Phylacus,
by Æson the son of Cretheus and Tyro, the daughter of Salmoneus.
Tyro, before her connection with Cretheus the son of Æolus, had two
sons, Pelias and Neleus, by Neptune. Æson was king of Iolchis, and
at his death the throne was usurped by Pelias, and Æson the lawful
successor was driven to retirement and obscurity. The education of
young Jason was entrusted to the care of the centaur Chiron, and he
was removed from the presence of the usurper, who had been informed
by an oracle that one of the descendants of Æolus would dethrone him.
After he had made the most rapid progress in every branch of science,
Jason left the centaur, and by his advice went to consult the oracle.
He was ordered to go to Iolchos his native country, covered with the
spoils of a leopard, and dressed in the garments of a Magnesian. In
his journey he was stopped by the inundation of the river Evenus or
Enipeus, over which he was carried by Juno, who had changed herself
into an old woman. In crossing the stream he lost one of his sandals,
and at his arrival at Iolchos, the singularity of his dress and
the fairness of his complexion attracted the notice of the people,
and drew a crowd around him in the market-place. Pelias came to
see him with the rest, and as he had been warned by the oracle to
beware of a man who should appear at Iolchos with one foot bare
and the other shod, the appearance of Jason, who had lost one of
his sandals, alarmed him. His terrors were soon after augmented.
Jason, accompanied by his friends, repaired to the palace of Pelias,
and boldly demanded the kingdom which he had unjustly usurped.
The boldness and popularity of Jason intimidated Pelias; he was
unwilling to abdicate the crown, and yet he feared the resentment of
his adversary. As Jason was young and ambitious of glory, Pelias, at
once to remove his immediate claims to the crown, reminded him that
Ætes king of Colchis had severely treated and inhumanly murdered
their common relation Phryxus. He observed that such a treatment
called aloud for punishment, and that the undertaking would be
accompanied with much glory and fame. He further added, that his old
age had prevented him from avenging the death of Phryxus, and that
if Jason would undertake the expedition, he would resign to him the
crown of Iolchos, when he returned victorious from Colchis. Jason
readily accepted a proposal which seemed to promise such military
fame. His intended expedition was made known in every part of
Greece, and the youngest and the bravest of the Greeks assembled to
accompany him, and share his toils and glory. They embarked on board
a ship called Argo, and after a series of adventures they arrived
at Colchis. _See:_ Argonautæ. Ætes promised to restore the golden
fleece, which was the cause of the death of Phryxus, and of the
voyage of the Argonauts, provided they submitted to his conditions.
Jason was to tame bulls which breathed flames, and which had feet
and horns of brass, and to plough with them a field sacred to Mars.
After this he was to sow in the ground the teeth of a serpent, from
which armed men would arise, whose fury would be converted against
him who ploughed the field. He was also to kill a monstrous dragon
which watched night and day at the foot of the tree on which the
golden fleece was suspended. All were concerned for the fate of the
Argonauts; but Juno, who watched with an anxious eye over the safety
of Jason, extricated them from all these difficulties. Medea, the
king’s daughter, fell in love with Jason, and as her knowledge of
herbs, enchantments, and incantations was uncommon, she pledged
herself to deliver her lover from all his dangers if he promised
her eternal fidelity. Jason, not insensible to her charms and to
her promise, vowed eternal fidelity in the temple of Hecate, and
received from Medea whatever instruments and herbs could protect
him against the approaching dangers. He appeared in the field of
Mars, he tamed the fury of the oxen, ploughed the plain, and sowed
the dragon’s teeth. Immediately an army of men sprang from the field,
and ran towards Jason. He threw a stone among them, and they fell
one upon the other till all were totally destroyed. The vigilance
of the dragon was lulled to sleep by the power of herbs, and Jason
took from the tree the celebrated golden fleece, which was the
sole object of his voyage. These actions were all performed in the
presence of Æetes and his people, who were all equally astonished at
the boldness and success of Jason. After this celebrated conquest,
Jason immediately set sail for Europe with Medea, who had been
so instrumental in his preservation. Upon this Æetes, desirous to
revenge the perfidy of his daughter Medea, sent his son Absyrtus
to pursue the fugitives. Medea killed her brother, and strewed his
limbs in her father’s way, that she might more easily escape, while
he was employed in collecting the mangled body of his son. _See:_
Absyrtus. The return of the Argonauts in Thessaly was celebrated
with universal festivity; but Æson, Jason’s father, was unable to
attend on account of the infirmities of old age. This obstruction
was removed, and Medea, at the request of her husband, restored Æson
to the vigour and sprightliness of youth. _See:_ Æson. Pelias the
usurper of the crown of Iolchos wished also to see himself restored
to the flower of youth, and his daughters, persuaded by Medea, who
wished to avenge her husband’s wrongs, cut his body to pieces, and
placed his limbs in a cauldron of boiling water. Their credulity was
severely punished. Medea suffered the flesh to be consumed to the
bones, and Pelias was never restored to life. This inhuman action
drew the resentment of the populace upon Medea, and she fled to
Corinth with her husband Jason, where they lived in perfect union
and love during 10 successive years. Jason’s partiality for Glauce
the daughter of the king of the country afterwards disturbed their
matrimonial happiness, and Medea was divorced, that Jason might
more freely indulge his amorous propensities. This infidelity
was severely revenged by Medea [_See:_ Glauce], who destroyed her
children in the presence of their father. _See:_ Medea. After this
separation from Medea, Jason lived an unsettled and melancholy life.
As he was one day reposing himself by the side of the ship which
had carried him to Colchis, a beam fell upon his head, and he was
crushed to death. This tragical event had been predicted to him
before by Medea, according to the relation of some authors. Some say
that he afterwards returned to Colchis, where he seized the kingdom,
and reigned in great security. _Euripides_, _Medea_.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, fables 2, 3, &c.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.
――_Pausanias_, bks. 2 & 3.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9.――_Cicero_,
_de Natura Deorum_, bk. 3.――_Ovid_, _Tristia_, bk. 3, poem 9.
――_Strabo_, bk. 7.――_Apollonius._――_Flaccus._――_Hyginus_, fable 5,
&c.――_Pindar_, bk. 3, _Nemean_.――_Justin_, bk. 42, ch. 2, &c.
――_Seneca_, _Medea_.――_Tzetzes_, _On Lycophron_, li. 195, &c.
――_Athenæus_, bk. 13.――――A native of Argos, who wrote a history
of Greece in four books, which ended at the death of Alexander.
He lived in the age of Adrian.――――A tyrant of Thessaly, who made
an alliance with the Spartans, and cultivated the friendship of
Timotheus.――――Trallianus, a man who wrote tragedies, and gained
the esteem of the kings of Parthia. _Polyænus_, bk. 7.
=Jasonĭdæ=, a patronymic of Thoas and Euneus, sons of Jason and
Hypsipyle.
=Iasus=, a king of Argos, who succeeded his father Triopas.
_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 16.――――A son of Argus, father of Agenor.
――――A son of Argus and Ismena.――――A son of Lycurgus of Arcadia.
――――An island, with a town of the same name, on the coast of Caria.
The bay adjoining was called _Iasius sinus_. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 28.
――_Livy_, bk. 32, ch. 33; bk. 37, ch. 17.
=Iaxartes=, now _Sir_ or _Sihon_, a river of Sogdiana, mistaken by
Alexander for the Tanais. It falls into the east of the Caspian sea.
_Curtius_, bks. 6 & 7.――_Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 16.――_Arrian_, bk. 4,
ch. 15.
=Iazĭges=, a people on the borders of the Palus Mæotis. _Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 12, ch. 29.――_Ovid_, _Tristia_, bk. 2, li. 191; _ex
Ponto_, bk. 4, poem 7, li. 9.
=Ibēria=, a country of Asia, between Colchis on the west, and Albania
on the east, governed by kings. Pompey invaded it, and made great
slaughter of the inhabitants, and obliged them to surrender by
setting fire to the woods where they had fled for safety. It is
now called Georgia. _Plutarch_, _Lycurgus_, _Antonius_, &c.――_Dio
Cassius_, bk. 36.――_Florus_, bk. 3.――_Flaccus_, bk. 5, li. 166.
――_Appian_, _Wars in Spain_.――――An ancient name of Spain, derived
from the river Iberus. _Lucan_, bk. 6, li. 258.――_Horace_, bk. 4,
ode 14, li. 50.
=Ibērus=, a river of Spain, now called _Ebro_, which, after the
conclusion of the first Punic war, separated the Roman from the
Carthaginian possessions in that country. _Lucan_, bk. 4, li. 335.
――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 3.――_Horace_, bk. 4, ode 14, li. 50.――――A
river of Iberia in Asia, flowing from mount Caucasus into the Cyrus.
_Strabo_, bk. 3.――――A fabulous king of Spain.
=Ibi=, an Indian nation.
=Ibis=, a poem of the poet Callimachus, in which he bitterly satirizes
the ingratitude of his pupil the poet Apollonius. Ovid had also
written a poem which bears the same name, and which, in the same
satirical language, seems, according to the opinion of some,
to inveigh bitterly against Hyginus the supposed hero of the
composition. _Suidas._
=Iby̆cus=, a lyric poet of Rhegium, about 540 years before Christ. He
was murdered by robbers, and at the moment of death he implored the
assistance of some cranes which at that moment flew over his head.
Some time after, as the murderers were in the market-place, one of
them observed some cranes in the air, and said to his companions,
αἰ Ἰβυκου ἐκδικοι παρεισιν, _there are the birds that are conscious
of the death of Ibycus_. These words and the recent murder of Ibycus
raised suspicions in the people; the assassins were seized and
tortured, and they confessed their guilt. _Cicero_, _Tusculanæ
Disputationes_, bk. 4, ch. 43.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_.――――The
husband of Chloris, whom Horace ridicules, bk. 3, ode 15.
=Icadius=, a robber killed by a stone, &c. _Cicero_, _De Fato_, ch. 3.
=Icăria=, a small island in the Ægean sea, between Chio, Samos, and
Myconus, where the body of Icarus was thrown by the waves, and
buried by Hercules. _Ptolemy_, bk. 5, ch. 2.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.
――_Strabo_, bks. 10 & 14.
=Icăris= and =Icariotis=, a name given to Penelope as daughter of
Icarius.
=Icărium mare=, a part of the Ægean sea near the islands of Mycone and
Gyaros. _See:_ Icarus.
=Icărius=, an Athenian, father of Erigone. He gave wine to some
peasants, who drank it with the greatest avidity, ignorant of
its intoxicating nature. They were soon deprived of their reason,
and the fury and resentment of their friends and neighbours were
immediately turned upon Icarius, who perished by their hands. After
death he was honoured with public festivals, and his daughter was
led to discover the place of his burial by means of his faithful
dog Mœra. Erigone hung herself in despair, and was changed into
a constellation called Virgo. Icarius was changed into the star
Bootes, and the dog Mœra into the star Canis. _Hyginus_, fable 130.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 14.――――A son of Œbalus of Lacedæmon. He
gave his daughter Penelope in marriage to Ulysses king of Ithaca,
but he was so tenderly attached to her, that he wished her husband
to settle at Lacedæmon. Ulysses refused, and when he saw the earnest
petitions of Icarius, he told Penelope as they were going to embark,
that she might choose freely either to follow him to Ithaca, or to
remain with her father. Penelope blushed in the deepest silence,
and covered her head with her veil. Icarius upon this permitted
his daughter to go to Ithaca, and immediately erected a temple to
the goddess of modesty, on the spot where Penelope had covered her
blushes with her veil. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 16, li. 435.
=Icărus=, a son of Dædalus, who, with his father, flew with wings from
Crete to escape the resentment of Minos. His flight being too high,
proved fatal to him; the sun melted the wax which cemented his wings,
and he fell into that part of the Ægean sea which was called after
his name. _See:_ Dædalus. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 8, li. 178,
&c.――――A mountain of Attica.
=Iccius=, a lieutenant of Agrippa in Sicily. Horace writes to him,
bk. 1, ode 29, and ridicules him for abandoning the pursuits of
philosophy and the muses for military employments.――――One of the
Rhemi in Gaul, ambassador to Cæsar. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 2,
ch. 3.
=Icĕlos=, one of the sons of Somnus, who changed himself into all
sorts of animals, whence the name (εἰκελος, _similis_). _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 11, li. 640.
=Icēni=, a people of Britain who submitted to the Roman power. They
inhabited the modern counties of Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridge, &c.
_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 12, ch. 31.――_Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 5,
ch. 21.
=Icĕtas=, a man who obtained the supreme power at Syracuse after the
death of Dion. He attempted to assassinate Timoleon, for which he
was conquered, &c., B.C. 340. _Cornelius Nepos_, _Timoleon_.
=Ichnæ=, a town of Macedonia, whence Themis and Nemesis are called
Ichnæa. _Homer_, _Hymn 3 to Apollo_.
=Ichnūsa=, an ancient name of Sardinia, which it received from its
likeness to a human foot. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 17.――_Silius
Italicus_, bk. 12, li. 358.――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 7.
=Ichonūphys=, a priest of Heliopolis, at whose house Eudoxus resided
when he visited Egypt with Plato. _Diogenes Laërtius._
=Ichthyophăgi=, a people of Æthiopia, who received this name from
their eating fishes. There was also an Indian nation of the same
name, who made their houses with the bones of fishes. _Diodorus_,
bk. 3.――_Strabo_, bks. 2 & 12.――_Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 23; bk. 15,
ch. 7.
=Ichthys=, a promontory of Elis in Achaia. _Strabo_, bk. 11.
=Lucius Icilius=, a tribune of the people who made a law, A.U.C. 397,
by which mount Aventine was given to the Roman people to build
houses upon. _Livy_, bk. 3, ch. 54.――――A tribune who made a law,
A.U.C. 261, that forbade any man to oppose or interrupt a tribune
while he was speaking in an assembly. _Livy_ bk. 2, ch. 58.――――A
tribune who signalized himself by his inveterate enmity against the
Roman senate. He took an active part in the management of affairs
after the murder of Virginia, &c.
=Icius=, a harbour in Gaul, on the modern straits of Dover, from which
Cæsar crossed into Britain.
=Iconium=, the capital of Lycaonia, now _Koniech_. _Pliny_, bk. 5,
ch. 27.
=Icos=, a small island near Eubœa. _Strabo_, bk. 9.
=Ictinus=, a celebrated architect, 430 years B.C. He built a famous
temple to Minerva at Athens, &c.
=Ictumulōrum vicus=, a place at the foot of the Alps, abounding in
gold mines.
=Iculisma=, a town of Gaul, now _Angoulesme_, on the Charente.
=Ida=, a nymph of Crete, who went into Phrygia, where she gave her
name to a mountain of that country. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8, li.
177.――――The mother of Minos II.――――A celebrated mountain, or more
properly a ridge of mountains in Troas, chiefly in the neighbourhood
of Troy. The abundance of its waters became the source of many
rivers, and particularly of the Simois, Scamander, Æsepus, Granicus,
&c. It was on mount Ida that the shepherd Paris adjudged the prize
of beauty to the goddess Venus. It was covered with green woods,
and the elevation of its top opened a fine extensive view of the
Hellespont and the adjacent countries, from which reason the poets
say that it was frequented by the gods during the Trojan war.
_Strabo_, bk. 13.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 18.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk.
14, li. 283.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bks. 3, 5, &c.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_,
bk. 4, li. 79.――_Horace_, bk. 3, ode 11.――――A mountain of Crete,
the highest in the island, where it was reported that Jupiter was
educated by the Corybantes, who, on that account, were called Idæi.
_Strabo_, bk. 10.
=Idæa=, the surname of Cybele, because she was worshipped on mount Ida.
_Lucretius_, bk. 2, li. 611.
=Idæus=, a surname of Jupiter. An arm-bearer and charioteer of king
Priam, killed during the Trojan war. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li.
487.――――One of the attendants of Ascanius. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9,
li. 500.
=Idalis=, the country round mount Ida. _Lucan_, bk. 3, li. 204.
=Idălus=, a mountain of Cyprus, at the foot of which is _Idalium_, a
town with a grove sacred to Venus, who was called _Idalæa_. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 685.――_Catullus_, poems 37 & 62.――_Propertius_,
bk. 2, poem 13.
=Idanthyrsus=, a powerful king of Scythia, who refused to give his
daughter in marriage to Darius I. king of Persia. This refusal
was the cause of a war between the two nations, and Darius marched
against Idanthyrsus, at the head of 700,000 men. He was defeated,
and retired to Persia, after an inglorious campaign. _Strabo_,
bk. 13.
=Idarnes=, an officer of Darius, by whose negligence the Macedonians
took Miletus. _Curtius_, bk. 4, ch. 5.
=Idas=, a son of Aphareus and Arane, famous for his valour and
military glory. He was among the Argonauts, and married Marpessa,
the daughter of Evenus king of Ætolia. Marpessa was carried away by
Apollo, and Idas pursued his wife’s ravisher with bows and arrows,
and obliged him to restore her. _See:_ Marpessa. According to
Apollodorus, Idas, with his brother Lynceus, associated with Pollux
and Castor to carry away some flocks; but when they had obtained a
sufficient quantity of plunder, they refused to divide it into equal
shares. This provoked the sons of Leda. Lynceus was killed by Castor,
and Idas, to revenge his brother’s death, immediately killed Castor,
and in his turn perished by the hand of Pollux. According to Ovid
and Pausanias, the quarrel between the sons of Leda and those of
Aphareus arose from a more tender cause. Idas and Lynceus, as they
say, were going to celebrate their nuptials with Phœbe and Hilaira
the two daughters of Leucippus; but Castor and Pollux, who had been
invited to partake the common festivity, offered violence to the
brides, and carried them away. Idas and Lynceus fell in the attempt
to recover their wives. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 9.――_Hyginus_, fables
14, 100, &c.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 5, li. 700.――_Apollodorus_,
bks. 1 & 3.――_Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 2; bk. 5, ch. 18.――――A son of
Ægyptus.――――A Trojan killed by Turnus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9,
li. 575.
=Idea=, or =Idæa=, a daughter of Dardanus, who became the second
wife of Phineus king of Bithynia, and abused the confidence reposed
in her by her husband. _See:_ Phineus.――――The mother of Teucer by
Scamander. _Apollodorus._
=Idessa=, a town of Iberia on the confines of Colchis. _Strabo_,
bk. 11.
=Idex=, a small river of Italy, now _Idice_, near Bononia.
=Idistavisus=, a plain, now _Hastenbach_, where Germanicus defeated
Arminius, near Oldendorp, on the Weser, in Westphalia. _Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 2, ch. 16.
=Idmon=, son of Apollo and Asteria, or, as some say, of Cyrene, was
the prophet of the Argonauts. He was killed in hunting a wild boar
in Bithynia, where his body received a magnificent funeral. He
had predicted the time and manner of his own death. _Apollodorus_,
bk. 1, ch. 2.――_Orpheus._――――A dyer of Colophon, father to Arachne.
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 6, li. 8.――――A man of Cyzicus, killed
by Hercules, &c. _Flaccus_, bk. 3.――――A son of Ægyptus, killed by
his wife. _See:_ Danaides.
=Idŏmĕne=, a daughter of Pheres, who married Amythaon.
=Idŏmĕneus=, succeeded his father Deucalion on the throne of Crete,
and accompanied the Greeks to the Trojan war, with a fleet of 90
ships. During this celebrated war he rendered himself famous by his
valour, and slaughtered many of the enemy. At his return he made
a vow to Neptune in a dangerous tempest, that if he escaped from
the fury of the seas and storms, he would offer to the god whatever
living creature first presented itself to his eye on the Cretan
shore. This was no other than his own son, who came to congratulate
his father upon his safe return. Idomeneus performed his promise to
the god, and the inhumanity and rashness of his sacrifice rendered
him so odious in the eyes of his subjects, that he left Crete, and
migrated in quest of a settlement. He came to Italy, and founded
a city on the coast of Calabria, which he called Salentum. He died
in an extreme old age, after he had had the satisfaction of seeing
his new kingdom flourish, and his subjects happy. According to
the Greek scholiast of Lycophron, li. 1217, Idomeneus, during his
absence in the Trojan war, entrusted the management of his kingdom
to Leucos, to whom he promised his daughter Clisithere in marriage
at his return. Leucos at first governed with moderation; but he was
persuaded by Nauplius king of Eubœa to put to death Meda the wife of
his master, with her daughter Clisithere, and to seize the kingdom.
After these violent measures, he strengthened himself on the throne
of Crete; and Idomeneus, at his return, found it impossible to expel
the usurper. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 13, li. 358.――_Hyginus_,
fable 92.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 11, &c.; _Odyssey_, bk. 19.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 25.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 122.
――――A son of Priam.――――A Greek historian of Lampsacus, in the age of
Epicurus. He wrote a history of Samothrace, the life of Socrates, &c.
=Idŏthea=, a daughter of Prœtus king of Argos. She was restored to
her senses with her sisters, by Melampus. _See:_ Prœtides. _Homer_,
_Odyssey_, bk. 11.――――A daughter of Proteus, the god who told
Menelaus how he could return to his country in safety. _Homer_,
_Odyssey_, bk. 4, li. 363.――――One of the nymphs who educated Jupiter.
=Idrieus=, the son of Euromus of Caria, brother to Artimisia, who
succeeded to Mausolus, and invaded Cyprus. _Diodorus_, bk. 16.
――_Polyænus_, bk. 7.
=Idubeda=, a river and mountain of Spain. _Strabo_, bk. 3.
=Idūme= and =Idūmēa=, a country of Syria, famous for palm trees. Gaza
is its capital, where Cambyses deposited his riches, as he was going
to Egypt. _Lucan_, bk. 3, li. 216.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 5, li.
600.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 3, li. 12.
=Idya=, one of the Oceanides, who married Æetes king of Colchis, by
whom she had Medea, &c. _Hyginus._――_Hesiod._――_Cicero_, _de Natura
Deorum_, bk. 3.
=Jenisus=, a town of Syria. _Herodotus_, bk. 3, ch. 5.
=Jera=, one of the Nereides. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 18.
=Jerĭcho=, a city of Palestine, besieged and taken by the Romans,
under Vespasian and Titus. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 14.――_Strabo._
=Jerne=, a name of Ireland. _Strabo_, bk. 1.
=Jerŏmus= and =Jerony̆mus=, a Greek of Cardia, who wrote a history of
Alexander.――――A native of Rhodes, disciple of Aristotle, of whose
compositions some few historical fragments remain. _Dionysius of
Halicarnassus_, bk. 1.
=Jerusalem=, the capital of Judæa. _See:_ Hierosolyma.
=Jetæ=, a place of Sicily. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 14, li. 272.
=Igēni=, a people of Britain. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 12, &c.
=Igilium=, now _Giglio_, an island of the Mediterranean, on the coast
of Tuscany. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 1,
ch. 34.
=Ignatius=, an officer of Crassus in his Parthian expedition.――――A
bishop of Antioch, torn to pieces in the amphitheatre at Rome, by
lions, during a persecution, A.D. 107. His writings were letters to
the Ephesians, Romans, &c., and he supported the divinity of Christ,
and the propriety of the episcopal order, as superior to priests
and deacons. The best edition of his work is that of Oxford, in 8vo,
1708.
=Iguvium=, a town of Umbria, on the Via Flaminia, now _Gubio_.
_Cicero_, _Letters to Atticus_, bk. 7, ltr. 13.――_Silius Italicus_,
bk. 8, li. 460.
=Ilaīra=, or =Hilaira=, a daughter of Leucippus, carried away with her
sister Phœbe, by the sons of Leda, as she was going to be married,
&c.
=Ilba=, more properly Ilva, an island of the Tyrrhene sea, two miles
from the continent. _See:_ Ilua. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 173.
=Ilecaones= and =Ilecaonenses=, a people of Spain. _Livy_, bk. 22,
ch. 21.
=Ilerda=, now _Lerida_, a town of Spain, the capital of the Ilergetes,
on an eminence on the right bank of the river Sicoris in Catalonia.
_Livy_, bk. 21, ch. 23; bk. 22, ch. 21.――_Lucan_, bk. 4, li. 13.
=Ilergetes.= _See:_ Ilerda.
=Ilia=, or =Rhea=, a daughter of Numitor king of Alba, consecrated by
her uncle Amulius to the service of Vesta, which required perpetual
chastity, that she might not become a mother to dispossess him of
his crown. He was, however, disappointed; violence was offered to
Ilia, and she brought forth Romulus and Remus, who drove the usurper
from his throne, and restored the crown to their grandfather Numitor,
its lawful possessor. Ilia was buried alive by Amulius for violating
the laws of Vesta; and because her tomb was near the Tiber, some
supposed that she married the god of that river. _Horace_, bk. 1,
ode 2.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 277.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 2,
li. 598.――――A wife of Sylla.
=Iliăci ludi=, games instituted by Augustus, in commemoration of the
victory which he had obtained over Antony and Cleopatra. They are
supposed to be the same as the _Trojani ludi_ and the _Actia_; and
Virgil says they were celebrated by Æneas, and not because they
were instituted at the time when he wrote his poem, but because he
wished to compliment Augustus by making the founder of Lavinium
solemnize games on the very spot which was, many centuries after,
to be immortalized by the trophies of his patron. During these
games were exhibited horse-races, and gymnastic exercises. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 280.
=Iliăcus=, an epithet applied to such as belong to Troy. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 101.
=Iliădes=, a surname given to Romulus, as son of Ilia. _Ovid._――――A
name given to the Trojan women. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 484.
=Ilias=, a celebrated poem composed by Homer, upon the Trojan war. It
delineates the wrath of Achilles, and all the calamities which befel
the Greeks, from the refusal of that hero to appear in the field
of battle. It finished at the death of Hector, whom Achilles had
sacrificed to the shades of his friend Patroclus. It is divided into
24 books. _See:_ Homerus.――――A surname of Minerva, from a temple
which she had at Daulis in Phocis.
=Ilienses=, a people of Sardinia. _Livy_, bk. 43, ch. 19; bk. 41,
chs. 6 & 12.
=Ilion=, a town of Macedonia. _Livy_, bk. 31, ch. 27. _See:_ Ilium.
=Ilĭone=, the eldest daughter of Priam, who married Polymnestor king
of Thrace. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 657.
=Iliŏneus=, a Trojan, son of Phorbas. He came into Italy with Æneas.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 525.――――A son of Artabanus, made
prisoner by Parmenio, near Damascus. _Curtius_, bk. 3, ch. 13.
――――One of Niobe’s sons. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 6, fable 6.
=Ilipa=, a town of Bætica. _Livy_, bk. 35, ch. 1.
=Ilissus=, a small river of Attica, falling into the sea near the
Piræus. There was a temple on its banks sacred to the muses.
_Statius_, _Thebiad_, bk. 4, li. 52.
=Ilĭthyīa=, a goddess, called also Juno Lucina. Some suppose her to be
the same as Diana. She presided over the travails of women; and in
her temple at Rome, it was usual to carry a small piece of money as
an offering. This custom was first established by Servius Tullius,
who, by enforcing it, was enabled to know the exact number of the
Roman people. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 450.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk.
11, ode 19.――_Apollodorus_, bks. 1 & 2.――_Horace_, _Carmen Sæculare_.
――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 9, li. 283.
=Ilium=, or =Ilion=, a citadel of Troy, built by Ilus, one of the
Trojan kings, from whom it received its name. It is generally
taken for Troy itself; and some have supposed that the town was
called Ilium, and the adjacent country Troja. _See:_ Troja. _Livy_,
bk. 35, ch. 43; bk. 37, chs. 9 & 37.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1,
&c.――_Strabo_, bk. 13.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 13, li. 505.
――_Horace_, bk. 3, ode 3.――_Justin_, bk. 11, ch. 5; bk. 31, ch. 8.
=Illiberis=, a town of Gaul, through which Hannibal passed as he
marched into Italy.
=Illice=, now _Elche_, a town of Spain, with a harbour and bay, _Sinus
et Portus Illicitanus_, now _Alicant_. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 3.
=Illipŭla=, two towns of Spain, one of which is called Major, and the
other Minor.
=Illiturgis=, =Iliturgus=, or =Ilirgia=, a city of Spain, near the
modern Andujar, on the river Bætis, destroyed by Scipio, for having
revolted to the Carthaginians. _Livy_, bk. 23, ch. 49; bk. 24,
ch. 41; bk. 26, ch. 17.
=Ilorcis=, now _Lorca_, a town of Spain. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 3.
=Illy̆rĭcum=, =Illy̆ris=, and =Illy̆ria=, a country bordering on the
Adriatic sea, opposite Italy, whose boundaries have been different
at different times. It became a Roman province, after Gentius its
king had been conquered by the pretor Anicius; and it now forms
part of Croatia, Bosnia, and Sclavonia. _Strabo_, bks. 2 & 7.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 35.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 2, &c.――_Florus_,
bks. 1, 2, &c.
=Illy̆rīcus sinus=, that part of the Adriatic which is on the coast of
Illyricum.
=Illy̆rius=, a son of Cadmus and Hermione, from whom Illyricum received
its name. _Apollodorus._
=Ilua=, now _Elba_, an island in the Tyrrhene sea, between Italy
and Corsica, celebrated for its iron mines. The people are called
_Iluates_. _Livy_, bk. 30, ch. 39.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10,
li. 173.――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 6; bk. 34, ch. 14.
=Iluro=, now _Oleron_, a town of Gascony in France.
=Ilus=, the fourth king of Troy, was son of Tros by Callirhoe. He
married Eurydice the daughter of Adrastus, by whom he had Themis,
who married Capys, and Laomedon the father of Priam. He built, or
rather embellished, the city of Ilium, called also Troy, from his
father Tros. Jupiter gave him the Palladium, a celebrated statue
of Minerva, and promised that as long as it remained in Troy, so
long would the town remain impregnable. When the temple of Minerva
was in flames, Ilus rushed into the middle of the fire to save the
Palladium, for which action he was deprived of his sight by the
goddess; though he recovered it some time after. _Homer_, _Iliad_.
――_Strabo_, bk. 13.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 12.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_,
bk. 4, li. 33; bk. 6, li. 419.――――A name of Ascanius, while he was
at Troy. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 272.――――A friend of Turnus,
killed by Pallas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 400.
=Ilyrgis=, a town of Hispania Bætica, now _Ilora_. _Polybius._
=Imanuentius=, a king of part of Britain, killed by Cassivelaunus, &c.
――_Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 5.
=Imaus=, a large mountain of Scythia, which is part of mount Taurus.
It divides Scythia, which is generally called _Intra Imaum_,
and _Extra Imaum_. It extends, according to some, as far as the
boundaries of the eastern ocean. _Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 17.――_Strabo_,
bk. 1.
=Imbărus=, a part of mount Taurus in Armenia.
=Imbrăsĭdes=, a patronymic given to Asius, as son of Imbracus.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 123.
=Imbrăsĭdes=, a patronymic given to Glaucus and Lades, as sons of
Imbrasus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 12, li. 343.
=Imbrăsus=, or =Parthenius=, a river of Samos. Juno, who was worshipped
on its banks, received the surname of _Imbrasia_. _Pausanias_, bk. 7,
ch. 4.――――The father of Pirus, the leader of the Thracians during
the Trojan war. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bks. 10 & 12.――_Homer_, _Iliad_,
bk. 4, li. 520.
=Imbreus=, one of the Centaurs, killed by Dryas at the nuptials of
Pirithous. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12, li. 310.
=Imbrex Caius Licinius=, a poet. _See:_ Licinius.
=Imbrius=, a Trojan, killed by Teucer son of Mentor. He had married
Medesicaste, Priam’s daughter. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 13.
=Imbrivium=, a place of Samnium.
=Imbros=, now _Embro_, an island of the Ægean sea, near Thrace, 32
miles from Samothrace, with a small river and town of the same name.
Imbros was governed for some time by its own laws, but afterwards
subjected to the power of Persia, Athens, Macedonia, and the kings
of Pergamus. It afterwards became a Roman province. The divinities
particularly worshipped there were Ceres and Mercury. _Thucydides_,
bk. 8.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 13.――_Strabo_,
bk. 2.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Ovid_, _Tristia_, bk. 1, poem 10,
li. 18.
=Inăchi=, a name given to the Greeks, particularly the Argives, from
king Inachus.
=Inachia=, a name given to Peloponnesus, from the river Inachus.――――A
festival in Crete in honour of Inachus; or, according to others, of
Ino’s misfortunes.――――A courtesan in the age of _Horace_, Epode 12.
=Inăchĭdæ=, the name of the eight first successors of Inachus, on the
throne of Argos.
=Inăchĭles=, a patronymic of Epaphus, as grandson of Inachus. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, li. 704.――――Also of Perseus, descended from
Inachus. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 4, fable 11.
=Inăchis=, a patronymic of Io, as daughter of Inachus. _Ovid_, _Fasti_,
bk. 1, li. 454.
=Inăchium=, a town of Peloponnesus.
=Inăchus=, a son of Oceanus and Tethys, father of Io, and also of
Phoroneus and Ægialeus. He founded the kingdom of Argos, and was
succeeded by Phoroneus, B.C. 1807, and gave his name to a river of
Argos, of which he became the tutelar deity. He reigned 60 years.
_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 3, li. 151.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 3.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 15.――――A river of Argos.――――Another in
Epirus.
=Inamămes=, a river in the east of Asia, as far as which Semiramis
extended her empire. _Polyænus._
=Inarĭme=, an island near Campania, with a mountain under which
Jupiter confined the giant Typhœus. It is now called _Ischia_, and
is remarkable for its fertility and population. There was formerly
a volcano in the middle of the island. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9,
li. 716.
=Inărus=, a town of Egypt, in whose neighbourhood the town of Naucratis
was built by the Milesians.――――A tyrant of Egypt, who died B.C. 456.
=Incitātus=, a horse of the emperor Caligula, made high priest.
=Indathyrsus=. _See:_ Idanthyrsus.
=India=, the most celebrated and opulent of all the countries of
Asia, bounded on one side by the Indus, from which it derives its
name. It is situate at the south of the kingdoms of Persia, Parthia,
&c., along the maritime coasts. It has always been reckoned famous
for the riches it contains; and so persuaded were the ancients
of its wealth, that they supposed that its very sands were gold.
It contained 9000 different nations, and 5000 remarkable cities,
according to geographers. Bacchus was the first who conquered it. In
more recent ages, part of it was tributary to the power of Persia.
Alexander invaded it; but his conquest was checked by the valour of
Porus, one of the kings of the country, and the Macedonian warrior
was unwilling or afraid to engage another. Semiramis also extended
her empire far in India. The Romans knew little of the country, yet
their power was so universally dreaded, that the Indians paid homage
by their ambassadors to the emperors Antoninus, Trajan, &c. India
is divided into several provinces. There is an India _extra Gangem_,
an India _intra Gangem_, and an India _propria_; but these divisions
are not particularly noticed by the ancients, who, even in the age
of Augustus, gave the name of Indians to the Æthiopian nations.
_Diodorus_, bk. 1.――_Strabo_, bk. 1, &c.――_Mela_, bk. 3, ch. 7.
――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 28.――_Curtius_, bk. 8, ch. 10.――_Justin_,
bk. 1, ch. 2; bk. 12, ch. 7.
=Indibĭlis=, a princess of Spain betrothed to Albutius.
=Indĭgĕtes=, a name given to those deities who were worshipped only
in some particular places, or who were become gods from men, as
Hercules, Bacchus, &c. Some derive the word from _Inde et geniti_,
born at the same place where they received their worship. _Virgil_,
_Georgics_, bk. 1, li. 498.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 14,
li. 608.
=Indĭgĕti=, a people of Spain.
=Indus=, now _Sinde_, a large river of Asia, from which the adjacent
country has received the name of India. It falls into the Indian
ocean by two mouths. According to Plato, it was larger than the Nile;
and Pliny says that 19 rivers discharge themselves into it, before
it falls into the sea. _Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 2, ch. 52.
――_Strabo_, bk. 15.――_Curtius_, bk. 8, ch. 9.――_Diodorus_, bk. 2.
――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 3, li. 720.――_Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 20.――――A
river of Caria. _Livy_, bk. 38, ch. 14.
=Indutiomarus=, a Gaul, conquered by Cæsar, &c. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_.
=Inferum mare=, the Tuscan sea.
=Ino=, a daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia, who nursed Bacchus. She
married Athamas king of Thebes, after he had divorced Nephele, by
whom he had two children, Phryxus and Helle. Ino became mother of
Melicerta and Learchus, and soon conceived an implacable hatred
against the children of Nephele, because they were to ascend the
throne in preference to her own. Phryxus and Helle were informed
of Ino’s machinations, and they escaped to Colchis on a golden
ram. _See:_ Phryxus. Juno, jealous of Ino’s prosperity, resolved
to disturb her peace; and more particularly because she was of
the descendants of her greatest enemy, Venus. Tisiphone was sent,
by order of the goddess, to the house of Athamas; and she filled
the whole palace with such fury, that Athamas, taking Ino to be a
lioness, and her children whelps, pursued her, and dashed her son
Learchus against a wall. Ino escaped from the fury of her husband,
and from a high rock she threw herself into the sea, with Melicerta
in her arms. The gods pitied her fate, and Neptune made her a sea
deity, which was afterwards called Leucothoe. Melicerta became also
a sea god, known by the name of Palæmon. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 5.
――_Cicero_, _Tusculanæ Disputationes_; _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 3,
ch. 48.――_Plutarch_, _Convivium Septem Sapientium_, ch. 5.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 4, fable 13, &c.――_Pausanias_, bks. 1, 2, &c.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 4.――_Hyginus_, fables 12, 14, & 15.
=Inōa=, festivals in memory of Ino, celebrated yearly with sports and
sacrifices at Corinth. An anniversary sacrifice was also offered
to Ino at Megara, where she was first worshipped, under the name
of Leucothoe.――――Another in Laconia, in honour of the same. It was
usual at the celebration to throw cakes of flour into a pond, which,
if they sunk, were presages of prosperity; but if they swam on the
surface of the waters, they were inauspicious and very unlucky.
=Inous=, a patronymic given to the god Palæmon, as son of Ino.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 5, li. 823.
=Inōpus=, a river of Delos, which the inhabitants suppose to be the
Nile, coming from Egypt under the sea. It was near its banks that
Apollo and Diana were born. _Pliny_, bk. 2, ch. 103.――_Flaccus_,
bk. 5, li. 105.――_Strabo_, bk. 6.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 4.
=Insŭbres=, the inhabitants of Insubria, a country near the Po,
supposed to be of Gallic origin. They were conquered by the Romans,
and their country became a province, where the modern towns of Milan
and Pavia were built. _Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 11,
ch. 23.――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 17.――_Livy_, bk. 5, ch. 34.――_Ptolemy_,
bk. 3, ch. 1.
=Intaphernes=, one of the seven Persian noblemen who conspired against
Smerdis, who usurped the crown of Persia. He was so disappointed for
not obtaining the crown, that he fomented seditions against Darius,
who had been raised to the throne after the death of the usurper.
When the king had ordered him and all his family to be put to death,
his wife, by frequently visiting the palace, excited the compassion
of Darius, who pardoned her, and permitted her to redeem from
death any one of her relations whom she pleased. She obtained her
brother; and when the king expressed his astonishment, because she
preferred him to her husband and children, she replied that she
could procure another husband, and children likewise; out that she
could never have another brother, as her father and mother were dead.
Intaphernes was put to death. _Herodotus_, bk. 3.
=Intemelium=, a town at the west of Liguria, on the sea-shore.
_Cicero_, ♦_Letters to his Friends_, bk. 8, ch. 14.
♦ ‘Div.’ replaced with ‘Letters to his Friends’
=Interamna=, an ancient city of Umbria, the birthplace of the historian
Tacitus, and of the emperor of the same name. It is situate between
two branches of the Nar (_interamnes_), whence its name. _Varro_,
_de Lingua Latina_, bk. 4, ch. 5.――_Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 2,
ch. 64.――――A colony on the confines of Samnium, on the Liris.
=Intercatia=, a town of Spain.
=Interrex=, a supreme magistrate at Rome, who was intrusted with the
care of the government after the death of a king, till the election
of another. This office was exercised by the senators alone, and
none continued in power longer than five days, or, according to
Plutarch, only 12 hours. The first interrex mentioned in Roman
history, is after the death of Romulus, when the Romans quarrelled
with the Sabines concerning the choice of a king. There was
sometimes an interrex during the consular government; but this
happened only to hold assemblies in the absence of the magistrates,
or when the election of any of the acting officers was disputed.
_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 17.――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 2, ch. 15.
=Inui castrum.= _See:_ Castrum Inui. It received its name from Inuus,
a divinity supposed to be the same as the Faunus of the Latins, and
worshipped in this city.
=Inȳcus=, a city of Sicily. _Herodotus_.
=Io=, daughter of Inachus, or, according to others, of Jasus or
Pirenes, was priestess of Juno at Argos. Jupiter became enamoured
of her; but Juno, jealous of his intrigues, discovered the object
of his affections, and surprised him in the company of Io, though
he had shrouded himself in all the obscurity of clouds and thick
mists. Jupiter changed his mistress into a beautiful heifer; and
the goddess, who well knew the fraud, obtained from her husband the
animal whose beauty she had condescended to commend. Juno commanded
the hundred-eyed Argus to watch the heifer; but Jupiter, anxious for
the situation of Io, sent Mercury to destroy Argus, and to restore
her to liberty. _See:_ Argus. Io, freed from the vigilance of Argus,
was now persecuted by Juno; who sent one of the furies, or rather
a malicious insect, to torment her. She wandered over the greatest
part of the earth, and crossed over the sea, till at last she
stopped on the banks of the Nile, still exposed to the unceasing
torments of Juno’s insect. Here she entreated Jupiter to restore her
to her ancient form; and when the god had changed her from a heifer
into a woman, she brought forth Epaphus. Afterwards she married
Telegonus king of Egypt, or Osiris, according to others, and she
treated her subjects with such mildness and humanity, that after
death she received divine honours, and was worshipped under the name
of Isis. According to Herodotus, Io was carried away by Phœnician
merchants, who wished to make reprisals for Europa, who had been
stolen from them by the Greeks. Some suppose that Io never came
to Egypt. She is sometimes called _Phoronis_, from her brother
Phoroneus. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, li. 748.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 1, ch. 25; bk. 3, ch. 18.――_Moschus._――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2,
ch. 1.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 789.――_Hyginus_, fable 145.
=Iobates= and =Jobates=, a king of Lycia, father of Stenobœa, the
wife of Prœtus king of Argos. He was succeeded on the throne by
Bellerophon, to whom he had given one of his daughters, called
Philonoe, in marriage. _See:_ Bellerophon. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2,
ch. 2.――_Hyginus_, fable 57.
=Iobes=, a son of Hercules by a daughter of Thespius. He died in his
youth. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 7.
=Jocasta=, a daughter of Menœceus, who married Laius king of Thebes,
by whom she had Œdipus. She afterwards married her son Œdipus,
without knowing who he was, and had by him Eteocles, Polynices,
&c. _See:_ Laius, Œdipus. When she discovered that she had married
her own son, and had been guilty of incest, she hanged herself in
despair. She is called _Epicasta_ by some mythologists. _Statius_,
_Thebiad_, bk. 8, li. 42.――_Seneca_ & _Sophocles_, _Œdipus_.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 5.――_Hyginus_, fable 66, &c.――_Homer_,
_Odyssey_, bk. 11.
=Iolaia=, a festival at Thebes, the same as that called Heracleia.
It was instituted in honour of Hercules and his friend Iolas, who
assisted him in conquering the hydra. It continued during several
days, on the first of which were offered solemn sacrifices. The
next day horse-races and athletic exercises were exhibited. The
following day was set apart for wrestling; the victors were crowned
with garlands of myrtle, generally used at funeral solemnities. They
were sometimes rewarded with tripods of brass. The place where the
exercises were exhibited was called Iolaion, where there were to be
seen the monument of Amphitryon, and the cenotaph of Iolas, who was
buried in Sardinia. These monuments were strewed with garlands and
flowers on the day of the festival.
=Iŏlas=, or =Iolāus=, a son of Iphiclus king of Thessaly, who assisted
Hercules in conquering the hydra, and burnt with a hot iron the
place where the heads had been cut off, to prevent the growth of
others. _See:_ Hydra. He was restored to his youth and vigour by
Hebe, at the request of his friend Hercules. Some time afterwards,
Iolas assisted the Heraclidæ against Eurystheus, and killed the
tyrant with his own hand. According to Plutarch, Iolas had a
monument in Bœotia and Phocis, where lovers used to go and bind
themselves by the most solemn oaths of fidelity, considering the
place as sacred to love and friendship. According to Diodorus and
Pausanias, Iolas died and was buried in Sardinia, where he had gone
to make a settlement at the head of the sons of Hercules by the 50
daughters of Thespius. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 9, li. 399.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 4.――_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 17.――――A
compiler of a Phœnician history.――――A friend of Æneas, killed by
Catillus in the Rutulian wars. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 11, li. 640.
――――A son of Antipater, cup-bearer to Alexander. _Plutarch._
=Iolchos=, a town of Magnesia, above Demetrias, where Jason was born.
It was founded by Cretheus son of Æolus and Enaretta. Mela mentions
it as at some distance from the sea, though all the other ancient
geographers place it on the sea-shore. _Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 2.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9.――_Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Mela_, bk. 2,
ch. 3.――_Lucan_, bk. 3, li. 192.
=Iŏle=, a daughter of Eurytus king of Œchalia. Her father promised her
in marriage to Hercules, but he refused to perform his engagements,
and Iole was carried away by force. _See:_ Eurytus. It was to
extinguish the love of Hercules for Iole that Dejanira sent him the
poisoned tunic, which caused his death. _See:_ Hercules and Dejanira.
After the death of Hercules, Iole married his son Hyllus by Dejanira.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Ovid_ _Metamorphoses_, bk. 9, li. 279.
=Ion=, a son of Xuthus and Creusa daughter of Erechtheus, who married
Helice, the daughter of Selinus king of Ægiale. He succeeded on
the throne of his father-in-law, and built a city, which he called
Helice, on account of his wife. His subjects from him received the
name of Ionians, and the country that of Ionia. _See:_ Iones and
Ionia. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 7.――_Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 1.
――_Strabo_, bk. 7.――_Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 94; bk. 8, ch. 44.――――A
tragic poet of Chios, whose tragedies, when represented at Athens,
met with universal applause. He is mentioned and greatly commended
by Aristophanes and Athenæus, &c. _Athenæus_, bk. 10, &c.――――A
native of Ephesus, introduced in Plato’s dialogues as reasoning with
Socrates.
=Iōne=, one of the Nereides.
=Iōnes=, a name originally given to the subjects of Ion, who dwelt
at Helice. In the age of Ion the Athenians made a war against the
people of Eleusis, and implored his aid against their enemies. Ion
conquered the Eleusinians and Eumolpus, who was at their head; and
the Athenians, sensible of his services, invited him to come and
settle among them; and the more strongly to show their affection,
they assumed the name of Ionians. Some suppose that, after this
victory, Ion passed into Asia Minor, at the head of a colony. When
the Achæans were driven from Peloponnesus by the Heraclidæ, 80 years
after the Trojan war, they came to settle among the Ionians, who
were then masters of Ægialus. They were soon dispossessed of their
territories by the Achæans, and went to Attica, where they met with
a cordial reception. Their migration from Greece to Asia Minor was
about 60 years after the return of the Heraclidæ, B.C. 1044, and 80
years after the departure of the Æolians; and they therefore finally
settled themselves, after a wandering life of about 30 years.
=Iōnia=, a country of Asia Minor, bounded on the north by Æolia, on
the west by the Ægean and Icarian seas, on the south by Caria, and
on the east by Lydia and part of Caria. It was founded by colonies
from Greece, and particularly Attica, by the Ionians, or subjects
of Ion. Ionia was divided into 12 small states, which formed a
celebrated confederacy, often mentioned by the ancients. These 12
states were Priene, Miletus, Colophon, Clazomenæ, Ephesus, Lebedos,
Teos, Phocæa, Erythræ, Smyrna, and the capitals of Samos and Chios.
The inhabitants of Ionia built a temple, which they called _Pan
Ionium_, from the concourse of people that flocked there from every
part of Ionia. After they had enjoyed for some time their freedom
and independence, they were made tributary to the power of Lydia
by Crœsus. The Athenians assisted them to shake off the slavery of
the Asiatic monarchs; but they soon forgot their duty and relation
to their mother country, and joined Xerxes when he invaded Greece.
They were delivered from the Persian yoke by Alexander, and restored
to their original independence. They were reduced by the Romans
under the dictator Sylla. Ionia has been always celebrated for
the salubrity of the climate, the fruitfulness of the ground, and
the genius of its inhabitants. _Herodotus_, bk. 1, chs. 6 & 28.
――_Strabo_, bk. 14.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 2, &c.――_Pausanias_, bk. 7,
ch. 1.――――An ancient name given to Hellas, or Achaia, because it was
for some time the residence of the Ionians.
=Iōnium mare=, a part of the Mediterranean sea, at the bottom of the
Adriatic, lying between Sicily and Greece. That part of the Ægean
sea which lies on the coast of Ionia, in Asia, is called the _sea
of Ionia_, and not the _Ionian sea_. According to some authors, the
Ionian sea receives its name from Io, who swam across there, after
she had been metamorphosed into a heifer. _Strabo_, bk. 7, &c.
――_Dionysius Periegetes._
=Iōpas=, a king of Africa, among the suitors of Dido. He was an
excellent musician, poet, and philosopher, and he exhibited his
superior abilities at the entertainment which Dido gave to Æneas.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 744.
=Iōpe= and =Joppa=, now _Jafa_, a famous town of Phœnicia, more
ancient than the deluge, according to some traditions. It was about
40 miles from the capital of Judæa, and was remarkable for a seaport
much frequented, though very dangerous on account of the great rocks
that lie before it. _Strabo_, bk. 16, &c.――_Propertius_, bk. 2,
poem 28, li. 51.――――A daughter of Iphicles, who married Theseus.
_Plutarch._
=Iŏphon=, a son of Sophocles, who accused his father of imprudence
in the management of his affairs, &c. _Lucian_, _de Macrobii_.――――A
poet of Gnossus, in Crete. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 34.
=Jordānes=, a river of Judæa, illustrious in sacred history. It rises
near mount Libanus, and after running through the lake Samachonitis,
and that of Tiberias, it falls, after a course of 150 miles, into
the Dead sea. _Strabo_, bk. 16.
=Jornandes=, an historian who wrote a book on the Goths. He died
A.D. 552.
=Ios=, now _Nio_, an island in the Myrtoan sea, at the south of Naxos,
celebrated, as some say, for the tomb of Homer, and the birth of his
mother. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.
=Josēphus Flavius=, a celebrated Jew, born in Jerusalem, who
signalized his military abilities in supporting a siege of 47 days
against Vespasian and Titus, in a small town of Judæa. When the city
surrendered, there were not found less than 40,000 Jews slain, and
the number of captives amounted to 1200. Josephus saved his life
by flying into a cave, where 40 of his countrymen had also taken
refuge. He dissuaded them from committing suicide, and when they had
all drawn lots to kill one another, Josephus fortunately remained
the last, and surrendered himself to Vespasian. He gained the
conqueror’s esteem, by foretelling that he would become one day
the master of the Roman empire. Josephus was present at the siege
of Jerusalem by Titus, and received all the sacred books which it
contained from the conqueror’s hands. He came to Rome with Titus,
where he was honoured with the name and privileges of a Roman
citizen. Here he made himself esteemed by the emperors Vespasian
and Titus, and dedicated his time to study. He wrote the history of
the wars of the Jews, first in Syriac, and afterwards translated it
into Greek. This composition so pleased Titus, that he authenticated
it by placing his signature upon it, and preserving it in one of
the public libraries. He finished another work, which he divided
into 20 books, containing the history of the Jewish antiquities, in
some places subversive of the authority and miracles mentioned in
the scriptures. He also wrote two books to defend the Jews against
Apion their greatest enemy; besides an account of his own life, &c.
Josephus has been admired for his lively and animated style, the
bold propriety of his expressions, the exactness of his descriptions,
and the persuasive eloquence of his orations. He has been called the
Livy of the Greeks. Though in some cases inimical to the christians,
yet he has commended our Saviour so warmly, that St. Jerome calls
him a christian writer. Josephus died A.D. 93, in the 56th year of
his age. The best editions of his works are Hudson’s, 2 vols., folio,
Oxford, 1720, and Havercamp’s, 2 vols., folio, Amsterdam, 1726.
_Suetonius_, _Vespasian_, &c.
=Joviānus Flavius Claudius=, a native of Pannonia, elected emperor of
Rome by the soldiers after the death of Julian. He at first refused
to be invested with the imperial purple, because his subjects
followed the religious principles of the late emperor; but they
removed his groundless apprehensions, and when they assured him
that they were warm for christianity, he accepted the crown. He
made a disadvantageous treaty with the Persians, against whom Julian
was marching with a victorious army. Jovian died seven months and
20 days after his ascension, and was found in his bed suffocated
by the vapour of charcoal, which had been lighted in the room,
A.D. 364. Some attribute his death to intemperance, and say that he
was the son of a baker. He burned a celebrated library at Antioch.
_Marcellinus._
=Iphianassa=, a daughter of Prœtus king of Argos, who, with her
sisters Iphinoe and Lysippe, ridiculed Juno, &c. _See:_ Prœtides.
――――The wife of Endymion.
=Iphĭclus=, or =Iphicles=, a son of Amphitryon and Alcmena, born at
the same birth with Hercules. As these two children were together
in the cradle, Juno, jealous of Hercules, sent two large serpents
to destroy him. At the sight of the serpents, Iphicles alarmed the
house; but Hercules, though not a year old, boldly seized them,
one in each hand, and squeezed them to death. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2,
ch. 4.――_Theocritus._――――A king of Phylace, in Phthiotis, son of
Phylacus and Clymene. He had bulls famous for their bigness, and
the monster which kept them. Melampus, at the request of his brother
[_See:_ Melampus], attempted to steal them away, but he was caught
in the act, and imprisoned. Iphicles soon received some advantages
from the prophetical knowledge of his prisoner, and not only
restored him to liberty, but also presented him with the oxen.
Iphicles, who was childless, learned from the soothsayer how
to become a father. He had married Automedusa, and afterwards
a daughter of Creon king of Thebes. He was father to Podarce
and Protesilaus. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 11; _Iliad_, bk. 13.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9.――_Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 36.――――A
son of Thestius king of Pleuron. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 1.
=Iphicrătes=, a celebrated general of Athens, who, though son of
a shoemaker, rose from the lowest station to the highest offices
in the state. He made war against the Thracians, obtained some
victories over the Spartans, and assisted the Persian king against
Egypt. He changed the dress and arms of his soldiers, and rendered
them more alert and expeditious in using their weapons. He married
a daughter of Cotys king of Thrace, by whom he had a son called
Mnesteus, and died 380 B.C. When he was once reproached for the
meanness of his origin, he observed that he would be the first of
his family, but that his detractor would be the last of his own.
_Cornelius Nepos_, _Iphicrates_.――――A sculptor of Athens.――――An
Athenian sent to Darius III. king of Persia, &c. _Curtius_, bk. 3,
ch. 13.
=Iphĭdămus=, a son of Antenor and Theano, killed by Agamemnon. _Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 11.
=Iphĭdĕmīa=, a Thessalian woman, ravished by the Naxians, &c.
=Iphĭgēnĭa=, a daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. When the
Greeks, going to the Trojan war, were detained by contrary winds at
Aulis, they were informed by one of the soothsayers, that to appease
the gods, they must sacrifice Iphigenia, Agamemnon’s daughter, to
Diana. _See:_ Agamemnon. The father, who had provoked the goddess
by killing her favourite stag, heard this with the greatest horror
and indignation, and rather than to shed the blood of his daughter,
he commanded one of his heralds, as chief of the Grecian forces,
to order all the assembly to depart each to his respective home.
Ulysses and the other generals interfered, and Agamemnon consented
to immolate his daughter for the common cause of Greece. As
Iphigenia was tenderly loved by her mother, the Greeks sent for
her on pretence of giving her in marriage to Achilles. Clytemnestra
gladly permitted her departure, and Iphigenia came to Aulis: here
she saw the bloody preparations for the sacrifice; she implored the
forgiveness and protection of her father, but tears and entreaties
were unavailing. Calchas took the knife in his hand, and as he was
going to strike the fatal blow, Iphigenia suddenly disappeared,
and a goat of uncommon size and beauty was found in her place for
the sacrifice. This supernatural change animated the Greeks, the
wind suddenly became favourable, and the combined fleet set sail
from Aulis. Iphigenia’s innocence had raised the compassion of
the goddess on whose altar she was going to be sacrificed, and she
carried her to Taurica, where she entrusted her with the care of her
temple. In this sacred office Iphigenia was obliged, by the command
of Diana, to sacrifice all the strangers who came into that country.
Many had already been offered as victims on the bloody altar, when
Orestes and Pylades came to Taurica. Their mutual and unparalleled
friendship [_See:_ Pylades and Orestes] disclosed to Iphigenia
that one of the strangers whom she was going to sacrifice was her
brother; and, upon this, she conspired with the two friends to
fly from the barbarous country, and carry away the statue of the
goddess. They successfully effected their enterprise, and murdered
Thoas, who enforced the human sacrifices. According to some authors,
the Iphigenia who was sacrificed at Aulis was not a daughter of
Agamemnon, but a daughter of Helen by ♦Theseus. Homer does not speak
of the sacrifice of Iphigenia, though very minute in the description
of the Grecian forces, adventures, &c. The statue of Diana, which
Iphigenia brought away, was afterwards placed in the grove of
Aricia in Italy. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 22; bk. 3, ch. 16.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 12, li. 31.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 2, ch. 116.
――_Aeschylus._――_Euripides._
♦ ‘Thesus’ replaced with ‘Theseus’
=Iphĭmĕdīa=, a daughter of Tropias, who married the giant Alœus. She
fled from her husband, and had two sons, Otus and Ephialtes, by
Neptune, her father’s father. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 11, li. 124.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 22.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 7.
=Iphimedon=, a son of Eurystheus, killed in a war against the Athenians
and Heraclidæ. _Apollodorus._
=Iphĭmĕdūsa=, one of the daughters of Danaus, who married Euchenor.
_See:_ Danaides.
=Iphinoe=, one of the principal women of Lemnos, who conspired to
destroy all the males of the island after their return from a
Thracian expedition. _Flaccus_, bk. 2, li. 163.――――One of the
daughters of Prœtus. She died of a disease while under the care of
Melampus. _See:_ Prœtides.
=Iphinous=, one of the centaurs. _Ovid._
=Iphis=, son of Alector, succeeded his father on the throne of Argos.
He advised Polynices, who wished to engage Amphiaraus in the Theban
war, to bribe his wife Eriphyle, by giving her the golden collar
of Harmonia. This succeeded, and Eriphyle betrayed her husband.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 3.――_Flaccus_, bks. 1, 3, & 7.――――A beautiful
youth of Salamis, of ignoble birth. He became enamoured of Anaxarete,
and the coldness and contempt he met with rendered him so desperate
that he hung himself. Anaxarete saw him carried to his grave
without emotion, and was instantly changed into a stone. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 14, li. 703.――――A daughter of Thespius.
_Apollodorus._――――A mistress of Patroclus, given him by Achilles.
_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 9.――――A daughter of Ligdus and Telethusa, of
Crete. When Telethusa was pregnant, Ligdus ordered her to destroy
her child, if it proved a daughter, because his poverty could
not afford to maintain a useless charge. The severe orders of her
husband alarmed Telethusa, and she would have obeyed, had not Isis
commanded her in a dream to spare the life of her child. Telethusa
brought forth a daughter, which was given to a nurse, and passed
for a boy under the name of Iphis. Ligdus continued ignorant of the
deceit, and when Iphis was come to the years of puberty, her father
resolved to give her in marriage to Ianthe, the beautiful daughter
of Telestes. A day to celebrate the nuptials was appointed, but
Telethusa and her daughter were equally anxious to put off the
marriage; and, when all was unavailing, they implored the assistance
of Isis, by whose advice the life of Iphis had been preserved. The
goddess was moved; she changed the sex of Iphis, and, on the morrow,
the nuptials were consummated with the greatest rejoicings. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 9, li. 666, &c.
=Iphition=, an ally of the Trojans, son of Otryntheus and Nais, killed
by Achilles. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 20, li. 382.
=Iphĭtus=, a son of Eurytus king of Œchalia. When his father had
promised his daughter Iole to him who could overcome him or his sons
in drawing the bow, Hercules accepted the challenge, and came off
victorious. Eurytus refused his daughter to the conqueror, observing
that Hercules had killed one of his wives in a fury, and that Iole
might perhaps share the same fate. Some time after, Autolycus stole
away the oxen of Eurytus, and Hercules was suspected of the theft.
Iphitus was sent in quest of the oxen, and in his search he met with
Hercules, whose good favours he had gained by advising Eurytus to
give Iole to the conqueror. Hercules assisted Iphitus in seeking
the lost animals; but when he recollected the ingratitude of Eurytus,
he killed Iphitus by throwing him down from the walls of Tirynthus.
_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 21.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 6.――――A
Trojan, who survived the ruin of his country, and fled with Æneas
to Italy. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 2, li. 340, &c.――――A king of Elis,
son of Praxonides, in the age of Lycurgus. He re-established the
olympic games 338 years after their institution by Hercules, or
about 884 years before the christian era. This epoch is famous in
chronological history, as everything previous to it seems involved
in fabulous obscurity. _Paterculus_, bk. 1, ch. 8.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 5, ch. 4.
=Iphthime=, a sister of Penelope, who married Eumelus. She appeared,
by the power of Minerva, to her sister in a dream, to comfort her
in the absence of her son Telemachus. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 4,
li. 795.
=Ipsea=, the mother of Medea. _Ovid_, _Heroides_, poem 17, li. 232.
=Ipsus=, a place of Phrygia, celebrated for a battle which was fought
there, about 301 years before the christian era, between Antigonus
and his son, and Seleucus, Ptolemy, Lysimachus, and Cassander. The
former led into the field an army of above 70,000 foot and 10,000
horse, with 75 elephants. The latter’s forces consisted of above
64,000 infantry, besides 10,500 horse, 400 elephants, and 120
armed chariots. Antigonus and his son were defeated. _Plutarch_,
_Demetrius_.
=Ira=, a city of Messenia, which Agamemnon promised to Achilles, if
he would resume his arms to fight against the Trojans. This place is
famous in history, as having supported a siege of 11 years against
the Lacedæmonians. Its capture, B.C. 671, put an end to the second
Messenian war. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 9, lis. 150 & 292.――_Strabo_,
bk. 7.
=Irenæus=, a native of Greece, disciple of Polycarp, and bishop
of Lyons in France. He wrote on different subjects; but, as what
remains is in Latin, some suppose that he composed in that language,
and not in the Greek. Fragments of his works in Greek are, however,
preserved, which prove that his style was simple, though clear and
often animated. His opinions concerning the soul are curious. He
suffered martyrdom, A.D. 202. The best edition of his works is that
of Grabe, Oxford, folio, 1702.
=Irēne=, a daughter of Cratinus the painter. _Pliny_, bk. 35, ch. 11.
――――One of the seasons among the Greeks, called by the moderns Horæ.
Her two sisters were Dia and Eunomia, all daughters of Jupiter and
Themis. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 3.
=Iresus=, a delightful spot in Libya, near Cyrene, where Battus
fixed his residence. The Egyptians were once defeated there by the
inhabitants of Cyrene. _Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 158, &c.
=Iris=, a daughter of Thaumas and Electra, one of the Oceanides,
messenger of the gods, and more particularly of Juno. Her office
was to cut the thread which seemed to detain the soul in the body
of those that were expiring. She is the same as the rainbow, and,
from that circumstance, she is represented with wings, with all the
variegated and beautiful colours of the rainbow, and appears sitting
behind Juno ready to execute her commands. She is likewise described
as supplying the clouds with water to deluge the world. _Hesiod_,
_Theogony_, li. 266.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, li. 271 _et
seq._; bk. 4, li. 481; bk. 10, li. 585.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 4,
li. 694.――――A river of Asia Minor, rising in Cappadocia, and falling
into the Euxine sea. _Flaccus_, bk. 5, li. 121.――――A river of Pontus.
=Irus=, a beggar of Ithaca, who executed the commissions of Penelope’s
suitors. When Ulysses returned home, disguised in a beggar’s dress,
Irus hindered him from entering the gates, and even challenged
him. Ulysses brought him to the ground with a blow, and dragged
him out of the house. From his poverty originates the proverb,
_Iro pauperior_. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 8, lis. 1 & 35.――_Ovid_,
_Tristia_, bk. 3, poem 7, li. 42.――――A mountain of India.
=Is=, a small river falling into the Euphrates. Its waters abound with
bitumen. _Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 179.――――A small town on the river
of the same name. _Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 179.
=Isădas=, a Spartan, who, upon seeing the Thebans entering the city,
stripped himself naked, and with a spear and sword engaged the enemy.
He was rewarded with a crown for his valour. _Plutarch._
=Isæa=, one of the Nereides.
=Isæus=, an orator of Chalcis, in Eubœa, who came to Athens, and
became there the pupil of Lysias, and soon after the master
of Demosthenes. Some suppose that he reformed the dissipation
and imprudence of his early years by frugality and temperance.
Demosthenes imitated him in preference to Isocrates, because he
studied force and energy of expression rather than floridness of
style. Ten of his 64 orations are extant. _Juvenal_, satire 3,
li. 74.――_Plutarch_, _Lives of the Ten Orators_.――_Demosthenes._
――――Another Greek orator, who came to Rome, A.D. 17. He is greatly
recommended by Pliny the younger, who observes that he always spoke
extempore, and wrote with elegance, unlaboured ease, and great
correctness.
=Isamus=, a river of India.
=Isander=, a son of Bellerophon, killed in the war which his father
made against the Solymi. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 6.
=Isāpis=, a river of Umbria. _Lucan_, bk. 2, li. 406.
=Isar= and =Isara=, the _Isore_, a river of Gaul, where Fabius routed
the Allobroges. It rises at the east of Savoy, and falls into the
Rhone near Valence. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 4.――_Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 399.
――――Another called the Oyse, which falls into the Seine below Paris.
=Isar= and =Isæus=, a river of Vindelicia. _Strabo_, bk. 4.
=Isarchus=, an Athenian archon, B.C. 424.
=Isaura= (a, or orum), the chief town of Isauria. _Pliny_, bk. 5,
ch. 27.
=Isauria=, a country of Asia Minor, near mount Taurus, whose
inhabitants were bold and warlike. The Roman emperors, particularly
Probus and Gallus, made war against them and conquered them.
_Florus_, bk. 3, ch. 6.――_Strabo._――_Cicero_, bk. 15, _Letters to
his Friends_, ltr. 2.
=Isaurĭcus=, a surname of Publius Servilius, from his conquests over
the Isaurians. _Ovid_, bk. 1, _Fasti_, li. 594.――_Cicero_, bk. 5,
_Letters to Atticus_, ltr. 21.
=Isaurus=, a river of Umbria, falling into the Adriatic.――――Another in
Magna Græcia. _Lucan_, bk. 2, li. 406.
=Ischenia=, an annual festival at Olympia, in honour of Ischenus the
grandson of Mercury and Hiera, who, in a time of famine, devoted
himself for his country, and was honoured with a monument near
Olympia.
=Ischolaus=, a brave and prudent general of Sparta, &c. _Polyænus._
=Ischomăchus=, a noble athlete of Crotona, about the consulship of
Marcus Valerius and Publius Posthumius.
=Ischopŏlis=, a town of Pontus.
=Iscia.= _See:_ Œnotrides.
=Isdegerdes=, a king of Persia, appointed by the will of Arcadius,
guardian to Theodosius II. He died in his 31st year, A.D. 408.
=Isia=, certain festivals observed in honour of Isis, which continued
nine days. It was usual to carry vessels full of wheat and barley,
as the goddess was supposed to be the first who taught mankind the
use of corn. These festivals were adopted by the Romans, among whom
they soon degenerated into licentiousness. They were abolished by a
decree of the senate, A.U.C. 696. They were introduced again, about
200 years after, by Commodus.
=Isiacōrum portus=, a harbour on the shore of the Euxine, near Dacia.
=Isidōrus=, a native of Charax, in the age of Ptolemy Lagus, who wrote
some historical treatises, besides a description of Parthia.――――A
disciple of Chrysostom, called _Pelusiota_, from his living in Egypt.
Of his epistles 2012 remain written in Greek, with conciseness
and elegance. The best edition is that of Paris, folio, 1638.――――A
christian Greek writer, who flourished in the seventh century. He is
surnamed _Hispalensis_. His works have been edited, folio, de Breul,
Paris, 1601.
=Isis=, a celebrated deity of the Egyptians, daughter of Saturn and
Rhea, according to Diodorus of Sicily. Some suppose her to be the
same as Io, who was changed into a cow, and restored to her human
form in Egypt, where she taught agriculture, and governed the people
with mildness and equity, for which reason she received divine
honours after death. According to some traditions mentioned by
Plutarch, Isis married her brother Osiris, and was pregnant by
him even before she had left her mother’s womb. These two ancient
deities, as some authors observe, comprehended all nature, and all
the gods of the heathens. Isis was the Venus of Cyprus, the Minerva
of Athens, the Cybele of the Phrygians, the Ceres of Eleusis, the
Proserpine of Sicily, the Diana of Crete, the Bellona of the Romans,
&c. Osiris and Isis reigned conjointly in Egypt; but the rebellion
of Typhon the brother of Osiris proved fatal to this sovereign.
_See:_ Osiris and Typhon. The ox and cow were the symbols of Osiris
and Isis, because these deities, while on earth, had diligently
applied themselves in cultivating the earth. _See:_ Apis. As Isis
was supposed to be the moon, and Osiris the sun, she was represented
as holding a globe in her hand, with a vessel full of ears of corn.
The Egyptians believed that the yearly and regular inundations of
the Nile proceeded from the abundant tears which Isis shed for the
loss of Osiris, whom Typhon had basely murdered. The word _Isis_,
according to some, signifies _ancient_, and, on that account, the
inscriptions on the statues of the goddess were often in these words:
_I am all that has been, that shall be, and none among mortals has
hitherto taken off my veil_. The worship of Isis was universal in
Egypt; the priests were obliged to observe perpetual chastity, their
head was closely shaved, and they always walked barefooted, and
clothed themselves in linen garments. They never ate onions, they
abstained from salt with their meat, and were forbidden to eat the
flesh of sheep and of hogs. During the night they were employed in
continual devotion near the statue of the goddess. Cleopatra the
beautiful queen of Egypt was wont to dress herself like this goddess,
and affected to be called a second Isis. _Cicero_, _De Divinatione_,
bk. 1.――_Plutarch_, _De Iside et Osiride_.――_Diodorus_, bk. 1.
――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 1.――_Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 59.
――_Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 831.
=Ismărus= (Ismăra, plural), a rugged mountain of Thrace, covered with
vines and olives, near the Hebrus, with a town of the same name. Its
wines are excellent. The word _Ismarius_ is indiscriminately used
for Thracian. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 9.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk.
2, li. 37; _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 351.――――A Theban, son of Astacus.
――――A son of Eumolpus. _Apollodorus._――――A Lydian who accompanied
Æneas to Italy, and fought with great vigour against the Rutuli.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 139.
=Ismēne=, a daughter of Œdipus and Jocasta, who, when her sister
Antigone had been condemned to be buried alive by Creon, for giving
burial to her brother Polynices against the tyrant’s positive orders,
declared herself as guilty as her sister, and insisted upon being
equally punished with her. This instance of generosity was strongly
opposed by Antigone, who wished not to see her sister involved in
her calamities. _Sophocles_, _Antigone_.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch.
5.――――A daughter of the river Asopus, who married the hundred-eyed
Argus, by whom she had Jasus. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 2.
=Ismēnias=, a celebrated musician of Thebes. When he was taken
prisoner by the Scythians, Atheas the king of the country observed
that he liked the music of Ismenias better than the braying of an
ass. _Plutarch_, _Apophthegmata Laconica_.――――A Theban, bribed by
Timocrates of Rhodes, that he might use his influence to prevent the
Athenians and some other Grecian states from assisting Lacedæmon,
against which Xerxes was engaged in war. _Pausanias_, bk. 3,
ch. 9.――――A Theban general, sent to Persia with an embassy by
his countrymen. As none were admitted into the king’s presence
without prostrating themselves at his feet, Ismenias had recourse
to artifice to avoid doing an action which would have proved
disgraceful to his country. When he was introduced he dropped
his ring, and the motion he made to recover it from the ground
was mistaken for the most submissive homage, and Ismenias had a
satisfactory audience of the monarch.――――A river of Bœotia, falling
into the Euripus, where Apollo had a temple, from which he was
called _Ismenius_. A youth was yearly chosen by the Bœotians to
be the priest of the god, an office to which Hercules was once
appointed. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 10.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_
bk. 2.――_Strabo_, bk. 9.
=Ismenĭdes=, an epithet applied to the Theban women, as being near the
Ismenus, a river of Bœotia. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 4, li. 31.
=Ismenius=, a surname of Apollo at Thebes, where he had a temple on
the borders of the Ismenus.
=Ismēnus=, a son of Apollo and Melia, one of the Nereides, who gave
his name to the Ladon, a river of Bœotia, near Thebes, falling into
the Asopus, and thence into the Euripus. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 10.
――――A son of Asopus and Metope. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 12.――――A
son of Amphion and Niobe, killed by Apollo. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3,
ch. 5.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 6, fable 6.
=Isŏcrătes=, a celebrated orator, son of Theodorus, a rich musical
instrument maker at Athens. He was taught in the schools of Georgias
and Prodicus, but his oratorical abilities were never displayed in
public, and Isocrates was prevented by an unconquerable timidity
from speaking in the popular assemblies. He opened a school of
eloquence at Athens, where he distinguished himself by the number,
character, and fame of his pupils, and by the immense riches which
he amassed. He was intimate with Philip of Macedon, and regularly
corresponded with him; and to his familiarity with that monarch the
Athenians were indebted for some of the few peaceful years which
they passed. The aspiring ambition of Philip, however, displeased
Isocrates, and the defeat of the Athenians at Cheronæa had such an
effect upon his spirits, that he did not survive the disgrace of
his country, but died, after he had been four days without taking
any aliment, in the 99th year of his age, about 338 years before
Christ. Isocrates has always been much admired for the sweetness and
graceful simplicity of his style, for the harmony of his expressions,
and the dignity of his language. The remains of his orations extant
inspire the world with the highest veneration for his abilities as
a moralist, an orator, and, above all, as a man. His merit, however,
is lessened by those who accuse him of plagiarism from the works of
Thucydides, Lysias, and others, seen particularly in his panegyric.
He was so studious of correctness, that his lines are sometimes
poetry. The severe conduct of the Athenians against Socrates highly
displeased him, and, in spite of all the undeserved unpopularity
of that great philosopher, he put on mourning the day of his death.
About 31 of his orations are extant. Isocrates was honoured after
death with a brazen serpent by Timotheus, one of his pupils, and
Aphareus his adopted son. The best editions of Isocrates are that of
Battie, 2 vols., 8vo, Cambridge, 1729, and that of Auger, 3 vols.,
8vo, Paris, 1782. _Plutarch_, _Lives of the Ten Orators_, &c.
――_Cicero_, _Orator_, ch. 20; _De Inventione_, bk. 2, ch. 126;
_Brutus_, ch. 15; _On Oratory_, bk. 2, ch. 6.――_Quintilian_, bk. 2,
&c.――_Paterculus_, bk. 1, ch. 16.――――One of the officers of the
Peloponnesian fleet, &c. _Thucydides._――――One of the disciples of
Isocrates.――――A rhetorician of Syria, enemy to the Romans, &c.
=Issa=, now _Lissa_, an island in the Adriatic sea, on the coast of
Dalmatia.――――A town of Illyricum. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Strabo_,
bk. 1, &c.――_Marcellinus_, bk. 26, ch. 25.
=Isse=, a daughter of Macareus the son of Lycaon. She was beloved
by Apollo, who, to obtain her confidence, changed himself into the
form of a shepherd, to whom she was attached. This metamorphosis
of Apollo was represented on the web of Arachne. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 6, li. 124.
=Issus=, now _Aisse_, a town of Cilicia, on the confines of Syria,
famous for a battle fought there between Alexander the Great and
the Persians under Darius their king, in October, B.C. 333, in
consequence of which it was called _Nicopolis_. In this battle
the Persians lost, in the field of battle, 100,000 foot and 10,000
horse, and the Macedonians only 300 foot and 150 horse, according to
Diodorus Siculus. The Persian army, according to Justin, consisted
of 400,000 foot and 100,000 horse, and 61,000 of the former and 10,
000 of the latter were left dead on the spot, and 40,000 were taken
prisoners. The loss of the Macedonians, as he further adds, was
no more than 130 foot and 150 horse. According to Curtius, the
Persians slain amounted to 100,000 foot and 10,000 horse; and those
of Alexander to 32 foot and 150 horse killed, and 504 wounded. This
spot is likewise famous for the defeat of Niger by Severus, A.D. 194.
_Plutarch_, _Alexander_.――_Justin_, bk. 11, ch. 9.――_Curtius_, bk. 3,
ch. 7.――_Arrian._――_Diodorus_, bk. 17.――_Cicero_, bk. 5, _Letters to
Atticus_, ltr. 20; _Letters to his Friends_, bk. 2, ltr. 10.
=Ister= and =Istrus=, an historian, disciple to Callimachus. _Diogenes
Laërtius._――――A large river of Europe, falling into the Euxine sea,
called also the _Danube_. _See:_ Danubius.――――A son of Ægyptus.
_Apollodorus._
=Isthmia=, sacred games among the Greeks, which received their names
from the Isthmus of Corinth, where they were observed. They were
celebrated in commemoration of Melicerta, who was changed into a sea
deity, when his mother Ino had thrown herself into the sea with him
in her arms. The body of Melicerta, according to some traditions,
when cast upon the sea-shore, received an honourable burial, in
memory of which the Isthmian games were instituted, B.C. 1326.
They were interrupted after they had been celebrated with great
regularity during some years, and Theseus at last reinstituted them
in honour of Neptune, whom he publicly called his father. These
games were observed every third, or rather fifth, year, and held so
sacred and inviolable that even a public calamity could not prevent
the celebration. When Corinth was destroyed by Mummius the Roman
general, they were observed with the usual solemnity, and the
Sicyonians were entrusted with the superintendence, which had been
before one of the privileges of the ruined Corinthians. Combats
of every kind were exhibited, and the victors were rewarded with
garlands of pine leaves. Some time after the custom was changed, and
the victor received a crown of dry and withered parsley. The years
were reckoned by the celebration of the Isthmian games, as among
the Romans from the consular government. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 44;
bk. 2, chs. 1 & 2.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 5.――_Plutarch_, _Theseus_.
=Isthmius=, a king of Messenia, &c. _Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 3.
=Isthmus=, a small neck of land which joins one country to another,
and prevents the sea from making them separate, such as that of
Corinth, called often the Isthmus by way of eminence, which joins
Peloponnesus to Greece. Nero attempted to cut it across and make a
communication between the two seas, but in vain. It is now called
_Hexamili_. _Strabo_, bk. 1.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 2.――_Pliny_, bk. 4,
ch. 4.――_Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 101.
=Istiæotis=, a country of Greece, near Ossa. _See:_ Histiæotis.
=Istria=, a province at the west of Illyricum, at the top of the
Adriatic sea, whose inhabitants were originally pirates, and lived
on plunder. They were not subjected to Rome till six centuries after
the foundation of that city. _Strabo_, bk. 1.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.
――_Livy_, bk. 10, &c.――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 19.――_Justin_, bk. 9,
ch. 2.
=Istropŏlis=, a city of Thrace near the mouth of the Ister, founded by
a Milesian colony. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 11.
=Isus= and =Antĭphus=, sons of Priam, the latter by Hecuba, and the
former by a concubine. They were seized by Achilles, as they fed
their father’s flocks on mount Ida; but they were redeemed by Priam,
and fought against the Greeks. They were both killed by Agamemnon.
_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 11.――――A city of Bœotia. _Strabo_, bk. 9.
=Itălia=, a celebrated country of Europe, bounded by the Adriatic and
Tyrrhene seas, and by the Alpine mountains. It has been compared,
and with some similitude, to a man’s leg. It has borne, at different
periods, the different names of Saturnia, Œnotria, Hesperia,
Ausonia, and Tyrrhenia, and it received the name of Italy either
from Italus, a king of the country, or from Italos, a Greek word
which signifies _an ox_, an animal very common in that part of
Europe. The boundaries of Italy appear to have been formed by nature
itself, which seems to have been particularly careful in supplying
this country with whatever may contribute not only to the support,
but also to the pleasures and luxuries of life. It has been called
the garden of Europe; and the panegyric which Pliny bestows upon it
seems not in any degree exaggerated. The ancient inhabitants called
themselves _Aborigines_, offspring of the soil, and the country
was soon after peopled by colonies from Greece. The Pelasgi and the
Arcadians made settlements there, and the whole country was divided
into as many different governments as there were towns, till the
rapid increase of the Roman power [_See:_ Roma] changed the face
of Italy, and united all its states in support of one common cause.
Italy has been the mother of arts as well as of arms, and the
immortal monuments which remain of the eloquence and poetical
abilities of its inhabitants are universally known. It was divided
into 11 small provinces or regions by Augustus, though sometimes
known under the three greater divisions of Cisalpine Gaul, Italy
properly so called, and Magna Græcia. The sea above was called
_Superum_, and that at the south _Inferum_. _Ptolemy_, bk. 3, ch. 1.
――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus._――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Justin_, bk. 4,
&c.――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Dion_, _Alcibiades_, &c.――_Livy_, bk. 1,
ch. 2, &c.――_Varro_, _de Re Rustica_, bk. 2, chs. 1 & 5.――_Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 1, &c.――_Polybius_, bk. 2.――_Florus_, bk. 2.――_Ælian_,
_Varia Historia_, bk. 1, ch. 16.――_Lucan_, bk. 2, li. 397, &c.
――_Pliny_, bk. 3, chs. 5 & 8.
=Italĭca=, a town of Italy, called also Corfinium.――――A town of Spain,
now _Sevilla la Vieja_, built by Scipio for the accommodation of his
wounded soldiers. _Aulus Gellius_, bk. 16, ch. 13.――_Appian_, _Wars
in Spain_.
=Italĭcus=, a poet. _See:_ Silius Italicus.
=Itălus=, a son of Telegonus. _Hyginus_, fable 127.――――An Arcadian
prince, who came to Italy, where he established a kingdom, called
after him. It is supposed that he received divine honours after
death, as Æneas calls upon him among the deities to whom he paid his
adoration when he entered Italy. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 178.
――――A prince, whose daughter Roma by his wife Leucaria is said to
have married Æneas or Ascanius. _Plutarch_, _Romulus_.――――A king of
the Cherusci, &c. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 1, ch. 16.
=Itargris=, a river of Germany.
=Itea=, a daughter of Danaus. _Hyginus_, fable 170.
=Itemales=, an old man who exposed Œdipus on mount Cithæron, &c.
_Hyginus_, fable 65.
=Ithăca=, a celebrated island in the Ionian sea, on the western parts
of Greece, with a city of the same name, famous for being part of
the kingdom of Ulysses. It is very rocky and mountainous, measures
about 25 miles in circumference, and is now known by the name of
_Isola del Compare_, or _Thiachi_. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2, li. 139;
_Odyssey_, bk. 1, li. 186; bk. 4, li. 601; bk. 9, li. 20.――_Strabo_,
bks. 1 & 8.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.
=Ithacesiæ=, three islands opposite Vibo, on the coast of the Brutii.
――――Baiæ was called also _Ithacesiæ_, because built by Bajus the
pilot of Ulysses. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 540; bk. 12, li. 113.
=Ithobălus=, a king of Tyre, who died B.C. 595. _Josephus._
=Ithōme=, a town of Phthiotis. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2.――――Another of
Messenia, which surrendered, after 10 years’ siege, to Lacedæmon,
724 years before the christian era. Jupiter was call _Ithomates_,
from a temple which he had there, where games were also celebrated,
and the conqueror rewarded with an oaken crown. _Pausanias_, bk. 4,
ch. 32.――_Statius_, _Thebiad_, bk. 4, li. 179.――_Strabo_, bk. 8.
=Ithomaia=, a festival in which musicians contended, observed at
Ithome, in honour of Jupiter, who had been nursed by the nymphs
Ithome and Neda, the former of whom gave her name to a city, and
the latter to a river.
=Ithyphallus=, an obscene name of Priapus. _Columella_, bk. 10.
――_Diodorus_, bk. 1.
=Itius Portus=, a town of Gaul, now Wetsand, or Boulogne, in Picardy.
Cæsar set sail from thence on his passage into Britain. _Cæsar_,
_Gallic War_, bk. 4, ch. 21; bk. 5, chs. 2 & 5.
=Itōnia=, a surname of Minerva, from a place in Bœotia, where she was
worshipped.
=Itōnus=, a king of Thessaly, son of Deucalion, who first invented the
manner of polishing metals. _Lucan_, bk. 6, li. 402.
=Ituna=, a river of Britain, now Eden, in Cumberland.
=Itūræa=, a country of Palestine, whose inhabitants were very skilful
in drawing the bow. _Lucan_, bk. 7, lis. 230 & 514.――_Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 2, li. 448.――_Strabo_, bk. 17.
=Itūrum=, a town of Umbria.
=Ity̆lus=, a son of Zetheus and Ædon, killed by his mother. _See:_
Ædon. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 19, li. 462.
=Ityræi=, a people of Palestine. _See:_ Ituræa.
=Itys=, a son of Tereus king of Thrace by Procne, daughter of Pandion
king of Athens. He was killed by his mother when he was about six
years old, and served up as meat before his father. He was changed
into a pheasant, his mother into a swallow, and his father into
an owl. _See:_ Philomela. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 6, li. 620;
_Amores_, bk. 2, poem 14, li. 29.――_Horace_, bk. 4, ode 12.――――A
Trojan who came to Italy with Æneas, and was killed by Turnus.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 574.
=Juba=, a king of Numidia and Mauritania, who succeeded his father
Hiempsal, and favoured the cause of Pompey against Julius Cæsar.
He defeated Curio, whom Cæsar had sent to Africa, and after the
battle of Pharsalia, he joined his forces to those of Scipio. He
was conquered in a battle at Thapsus, and totally abandoned by his
subjects. He killed himself with Petreius, who had shared his good
fortune and his adversity. His kingdom became a Roman province, of
which Sallust was the first governor. _Plutarch_, _Pompey_ & _Cæsar_.
――_Florus_, bk. 4, ch. 12.――_Suetonius_, _Cæsar_, ch. 35.――_Dio
Cassius_, bk. 41.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 6.――_Lucan_, bk. 3, &c.
――_Cæsar_, _Civil War_, bk. 2.――_Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 54.――――The
second of that name was the son of Juba I. He was led among the
captives to Rome, to adorn the triumph of Cæsar. His captivity
was the source of the greatest honours, and his application to
study procured him more glory than he could have obtained from the
inheritance of a kingdom. He gained the hearts of the Romans by the
courteousness of his manners, and Augustus rewarded his fidelity
by giving him in marriage Cleopatra the daughter of Antony, and
conferring upon him the title of king, and making him master of all
the territories which his father once possessed. His popularity was
so great, that the Mauritanians rewarded his benevolence by making
him one of their gods. The Athenians raised him a statue, and the
Æthiopians worshipped him as a deity. Juba wrote a history of Rome
in Greek, which is often quoted and commended by the ancients, but
of which only a few fragments remain. He also wrote on the history
of Arabia and the antiquities of Assyria, chiefly collected from
Berosus. Besides these he composed some treatises upon the drama,
Roman antiquities, the nature of animals, painting, grammar, &c.,
now lost. _Strabo_, bk. 17.――_Suetonius_, _Caligula_, ch. 26.
――_Pliny_, bk. 5, chs. 25 & 32.――_Dio Cassius_, bk. 51, &c.
=Judacilius=, a native of Asculum celebrated for his patriotism, in
the age of Pompey, &c.
=Judæa=, a famous country of Assyria, bounded by Arabia, Egypt,
Phœnicia, the Mediterranean sea, and part of Syria. The inhabitants,
whose history is best collected from the Holy Scriptures, were
chiefly governed after their Babylonish captivity by the high
priests, who raised themselves to the rank of princes, B.C. 153, and
continued in the enjoyment of regal power till the age of Augustus.
_Plutarch_, _de Iside et Osiride_.――_Strabo_, bk. 16.――_Dio Cassius_,
bk. 36.――_Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 5, ch. 6.――_Lucan_, bk. 2,
li. 593.
=Jugālis=, a surname of Juno, because she presided over marriage.
_Festus_, _Lexicon of Festus_.
=Jugantes=, a people of Britain. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 12, ch. 32.
=Jugarius=, a street in Rome, below the Capitol.
=Jugurtha=, the illegitimate son of Manastabal the brother of Micipsa.
Micipsa and Manastabal were the sons of Masinissa king of Numidia.
Micipsa, who had inherited his father’s kingdom, educated his nephew
with his two sons, Adherbal and Hiempsal; but, as he was of an
aspiring disposition, he sent him with a body of troops to the
assistance of Scipio, who was besieging Numantia, hoping to lose
a youth whose ambition seemed to threaten the tranquillity of his
children. His hopes were frustrated; Jugurtha showed himself brave
and active, and endeared himself to the Roman general. Micipsa
appointed him successor to his kingdom with his two sons, but
the kindness of the father proved fatal to the children. Jugurtha
destroyed Hiempsal, and stripped Adherbal of his possessions, and
obliged him to fly to Rome for safety. The Romans listened to the
well-grounded complaints of Adherbal, but Jugurtha’s gold prevailed
among the senators, and the suppliant monarch, forsaken in his
distress, perished by the snares of his enemy. Cæcilius Metellus
was at last sent against Jugurtha, and his firmness and success
soon reduced the crafty Numidian, and obliged him to fly among his
savage neighbours for support. Marius and Sylla succeeded Metellus,
and fought with equal success. Jugurtha was at last betrayed by his
father-in-law Bocchus, from whom he claimed assistance, and he was
delivered into the hands of Sylla, after carrying on a war of five
years. He was exposed to the view of the Roman people, and dragged
in chains to adorn the triumph of Marius. He was afterwards put
in a prison, where he died six days after of hunger, B.C. 106. The
name and the wars of Jugurtha have been immortalized by the pen
of Sallust. _Sallust_, _Jugurthine War_.――_Florus_, bk. 3, ch. 1.
――_Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 10, &c.――_Plutarch_, _Caius Marius_ &
_Sulla_.――_Eutropius_, bk. 4, ch. 3.
=Julia lex=, _prima de provinciis_, by Julius Cæsar, A.U.C. 691. It
confirmed the freedom of all Greece; it ordained that the Roman
magistrates should act there as judges, and that the towns and
villages through which the Roman magistrates and ambassadors passed
should maintain them during their stay; that the governors, at the
expiration of their office, should leave a scheme of their accounts
in two cities of their province, and deliver a copy of it at the
public treasury; that the provincial governors should not accept
of a golden crown unless they were honoured with a triumph by the
senate; that no supreme commander should go out of his province,
enter any dominions, lead an army, or engage in a war, without the
previous approbation and command of the Roman senate and people.
――――Another, _de sumptibus_, in the age of Augustus. It limited the
expense of provisions on the _dies profesti_, or days appointed for
the transaction of business, to 200 sesterces; on common calendar
festivals to 300; and on all extraordinary occasions, such as
marriages, births, &c., to 1000.――――Another, _de provinciis_, by
Julius Cæsar Dictator. It ordained that no pretorian province should
be held more than one year, and a consular province more than two
years.――――Another, called also _Campana agraria_, by the same, A.U.C.
691. It required that all the lands of Campania, formerly rented
according to the estimation of the state, should be divided among
the plebeians, and that all the members of the senate should bind
themselves by an oath to establish, confirm, and protect that law.
――――Another, _de civitate_, by Lucius Julius Cæsar, A.U.C. 664. It
rewarded with the name and privileges of citizens of Rome all such
as, during the civil wars, had remained the constant friends of
the republican liberty. When that civil war was at an end, all the
Italians were admitted as free denizens, and composed eight new
tribes.――――Another, _de judicibus_, by Julius Cæsar. It confirmed
the Pompeian law in a certain manner, requiring the judges to be
chosen from the richest people in every _century_, allowing the
senators and knights in the number, and excluding the _tribuni
ærarii_.――――Another, _de ambitu_, by Augustus. It restrained the
illicit measures used at elections, and restored to the _comitia_
their ancient privileges, which had been destroyed by the ambition
and bribery of Julius Cæsar.――――Another, by Augustus, _de adulterio
& pudicitiâ_. It punished adultery with death. It was afterwards
confirmed and enforced by Domitian. _Juvenal_, satire 2, li. 30,
alludes to it.――――Another, called also _Papia_, or _Papia Poppæa_,
which was the same as the following, only enlarged by the consuls
Papius and Poppæus, A.U.C. 762.――――Another, _de maritandis
ordinibus_, by Augustus. It proposed rewards to such as engaged in
matrimony, of a particular description. It inflicted punishment on
celibacy, and permitted the patricians, the senators and sons of
senators excepted, to intermarry with the _libertini_, or children
of those that had been _liberti_, or servants manumitted. Horace
alludes to it when he speaks of _lex marita_.――――Another, _de
majestate_, by Julius Cæsar. It punished with _aquæ & ignis
interdictio_ all such as were found guilty of the _crimen
majestatis_, or treason against the state.
=Julia=, a daughter of Julius Cæsar, by Cornelia, famous for her
personal charms and for her virtues. She married Cornelius Cæpio,
whom her father obliged her to divorce to marry Pompey the Great.
Her amiable disposition more strongly cemented the friendship of the
father and of the son-in-law; but her sudden death in child-bed, B.C.
53, broke all ties of intimacy and relationship, and soon produced
a civil war. _Plutarch._――――The mother of Marcus Antony, whose
humanity is greatly celebrated in saving her brother-in-law Julius
Cæsar from the cruel prosecutions of her son.――――An aunt of Julius
Cæsar, who married Caius Marius. Her funeral oration was publicly
pronounced by her nephew.――――The only daughter of the emperor
Augustus, remarkable for her beauty, genius, and debaucheries.
She was tenderly loved by her father, who gave her in marriage to
Marcellus; after whose death she was given to Agrippa, by whom she
had five children. She became a second time a widow, and was married
to Tiberius. Her lasciviousness and debaucheries so disgusted her
husband, that he retired from the court of the emperor; and Augustus,
informed of her lustful propensities and infamy, banished her
from his sight, and confined her in a small island on the coast of
Campania. She was starved to death, A.D. 14, by order of Tiberius,
who had succeeded to Augustus as emperor of Rome. _Plutarch._――――A
daughter of the emperor Titus, who prostituted herself to her
brother Domitian.――――A daughter of Julia the wife of Agrippa, who
married Lepidas, and was banished for her licentiousness.――――A
daughter of Germanicus and Agrippina, born in the island of Lesbos,
A.D. 17. She married a senator called Marcus Vinucius, at the age
of 16, and enjoyed the most unbounded favours in the court of her
brother Caligula, who is accused of being her first seducer. She was
banished by Caligula on suspicion of conspiracy. Claudius recalled
her; but she was soon after banished by the powerful intrigues of
Messalina, and put to death about the 24th year of her age. She
was no stranger to the debaucheries of the age, and she prostituted
herself as freely to the meanest of the people as to the nobler
companions of her brother’s extravagance. Seneca, as some suppose,
was banished to Corsica for having seduced her.――――A celebrated
woman, born in Phœnicia. She is also called Domna. She applied
herself to the study of geometry and philosophy, &c., and rendered
herself conspicuous, as much by her mental as by her personal charms.
She came to Rome, where her learning recommended her to all the
literati of the age. She married Septimius Severus, who, 20 years
after this matrimonial connection, was invested with the imperial
purple. Severus was guided by the prudence and advice of Julia, but
he was blind to her foibles, and often punished with the greatest
severity those vices which were enormous in the empress. She is
even said to have conspired against the emperor, but she resolved to
blot out, by patronizing literature, the spots which her debauchery
and extravagance had rendered indelible in the eyes of virtue. Her
influence, after the death of Severus, was for some time productive
of tranquillity and cordial union between his two sons and
successors. Geta at last, however, fell a sacrifice to his brother
Caracalla, and Julia was even wounded in the arm while she attempted
to screen her favourite son from his brother’s dagger. According to
some, Julia committed incest with her son Caracalla, and publicly
married him. She starved herself when her ambitious views were
defeated by Macrinus, who aspired to the empire in preference to
her, after the death of Caracalla.――――A town of Gallia Togata.
=Juliacum=, a town of Germany, now _Juliers_.
=Juliānus=, a son of Julius Constantius, the brother of Constantine
the Great, born at Constantinople. The massacre which attended
the elevation of the sons of Constantine the Great to the throne,
nearly proved fatal to Julian and to his brother Gallus. The two
brothers were privately educated together, and taught the doctrines
of the christian religion, and exhorted to be modest, temperate,
and to despise the gratification of all sensual pleasures. Gallus
received the instructions of his pious teachers with deference
and submission, but Julian showed his dislike for christianity
by secretly cherishing a desire to become one of the votaries of
paganism. He gave sufficient proofs of this propensity when he went
to Athens in the 24th year of his age, where he applied himself to
the study of magic and astrology. He was some time after appointed
over Gaul, with the title of Cæsar, by Constans, and there he showed
himself worthy of the imperial dignity by his prudence, valour, and
the numerous victories which he obtained over the enemies of Rome in
Gaul and Germany. His mildness, as well as his condescension, gained
him the hearts of his soldiers; and when Constans, to whom Julian
was become suspected, ordered him to send him part of his forces
to go into the east, the army immediately mutinied, and promised
immortal fidelity to their leader, by refusing to obey the order of
Constans. They even compelled Julian, by threats and entreaties, to
accept of the title of independent emperor and of Augustus; and the
death of Constans, which soon after happened, left him sole master
of the Roman empire, A.D. 261. Julian then disclosed his religious
sentiments, and publicly disavowed the doctrines of christianity,
and offered solemn sacrifices to all the gods of ancient Rome. This
change of religious opinion was attributed to the austerity with
which he received the precepts of christianity, or, according to
others, to the literary conversation and persuasive eloquence of
some of the Athenian philosophers. From this circumstance, therefore,
Julian has been called _Apostate_. After he had made his public
entry at Constantinople, he determined to continue the Persian
war, and check those barbarians, who had for 60 years derided the
indolence of the Roman emperors. When he had crossed the Tigris,
he burned his fleet, and advanced with boldness into the enemy’s
country. His march was that of a conqueror; he met with no opposition
from a weak and indigent enemy; but the country of Assyria had
been left desolate by the Persians, and Julian, without corn or
provisions, was obliged to retire. As he could not convey his fleet
again over the streams of the Tigris, he took the resolution of
marching up the source of the river, and imitating the bold return
of the 10,000 Greeks. As he advanced through the country he defeated
the officers of Sapor the king of Persia; but an engagement proved
fatal to him, and he received a deadly wound as he animated his
soldiers to battle. He expired the following night, the 27th of June,
A.D. 363 in the 32nd year of his age. His last moments were spent
in a conversation with a philosopher about the immortality of the
soul, and he breathed his last without expressing the least sorrow
for his fate, or the suddenness of his death. Julian’s character has
been admired by some and censured by others, but the malevolence of
his enemies arises from his apostacy. As a man and as a monarch he
demands our warmest commendations; but we must blame his idolatry,
and despise his bigoted principles. He was moderate in his successes,
merciful to his enemies, and amiable in his character. He abolished
the luxuries which reigned in the court of Constantinople, and
dismissed with contempt the numerous officers who waited upon
Constantius, to anoint his head or perfume his body. He was frugal
in his meals and slept little, reposing himself on a skin spread on
the ground. He awoke at midnight, and spent the rest of the night
in reading or writing, and issued early from his tent to pay his
daily visit to the guards around the camp. He was not fond of public
amusements, but rather dedicated his time to study and solitude.
When he passed through Antioch in his Persian expedition, the
inhabitants of the place, offended at his religious sentiments,
ridiculed his person and lampooned him in satirical verses. The
emperor made use of the same arms for his defence, and rather than
destroy his enemies by the sword, he condescended to expose them to
derision, and unveil their follies and debaucheries in a humerous
work, which he called Misopogon, or _beard-hater_. He imitated the
virtuous example of Scipio and Alexander, and laid no temptation
for his virtue by visiting some female captives that had fallen into
his hands. In his matrimonial connections, Julian rather consulted
policy than inclination, and his marriage with the sister of
Constantius arose from his unwillingness to offend his benefactor,
rather than to obey the laws of nature. He was buried at Tarsus, and
afterwards his body was conveyed to Constantinople. He distinguished
himself by his writings, as well as by his military character.
Besides his Misopogon, he wrote the history of Gaul. He also wrote
two letters to the Athenians; and, besides, there are now extant 64
of his letters on various subjects. His Cæsars is the most famous
of all his compositions, being a satire upon all the Roman emperors
from Julius Cæsar to Constantine. It is written in the form of
a dialogue, in which the author severely attacks the venerable
character of Marcus Aurelius, whom he had proposed to himself as
a pattern, and speaks in scurrilous and abusive language of his
relation Constantine. It has been observed of Julian that, like
Cæsar, he could employ at the same time his hand to write, his
ear to listen, his eyes to read, and his mind to dictate. The best
edition of his works is that of Spanheim, folio, Leipsic, 1696;
and of the Cæsars, that of Heusinger, 8vo, Gothæ, 1741. _Julian._
――_Socrates._――_Eutropius._――_Ammianus Marcellinus._――_Libanius_,
&c.――――A son of Constantine.――――A maternal uncle of the emperor
Julian.――――A Roman emperor. _See:_ Didius.――――A Roman, who
proclaimed himself emperor in Italy during the reign of Diocletian,
&c.――――A governor of Africa.――――A counsellor of the emperor Adrian.
――――A general in Dacia, in Domitian’s reign.
=Julii=, a family of Alba, brought to Rome by Romulus, where they soon
rose to the greatest honours of the state. Julius Cæsar and Augustus
were of this family; and it was said, perhaps through flattery, that
they were lineally descended from Æneas the founder of Lavinium.
=Jūliomăgus=, a city of Gaul, now _Angers_, in Anjou.
=Juliopŏlis=, a town of Bithynia, supposed by some to be the same as
Tarsus of Cilicia.
=Jūlis=, a town of the island of Cos, which gave birth to Simonides,
&c. The walls of this city were all marble, and there are now some
pieces remaining entire above 12 feet in height, as the monuments of
its ancient splendour. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.
=Jūlius Cæsar.= _See:_ Cæsar.――――Agricola, a governor of Britain,
A.C. 80, who first discovered that Britain was an island by sailing
round it. His son-in-law, the historian Tacitus, has written an
account of his life. _Tacitus_, _Agricola_.――――Obsequens, a Latin
writer who flourished A.D. 214. The best edition of his book _de
prodigiis_ is that of Oudendorp, 8vo, Leiden, 1720.――――Sextus,
a pretor, &c. _Cicero_, _Rhetorica ad Herennium_, bk. 2, ch. 13.
――――Agrippa, banished from Rome by Nero, after the discovery of the
Pisonian conspiracy. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 15, ch. 71.――――Solinus,
a writer. _See:_ Solinus.――――Titianus, a writer in the age of
Diocletian. His son became famous for his oratorical powers, and was
made preceptor in the family of Maximinus. Julius wrote a history
of all the provinces of the Roman empire, greatly commended by the
ancients. He also wrote some letters, in which he happily imitated
the style and elegance of Cicero, for which he was called the _ape
of his age_.――――Africanus, a chronologer, who flourished A.D. 220.
――――Constantius, the father of the emperor Julian, was killed at
the accession of the sons of Constantine to the throne, and his son
nearly shared his fate.――――Pollux, a grammarian of Naupactus, in
Egypt. _See:_ Pollux.――――Canus, a celebrated Roman, put to death by
order of Caracalla. He bore the undeserved punishment inflicted on
him with the greatest resignation, and even pleasure.――――Proculus,
a Roman, who solemnly declared to his countrymen, after Romulus
had disappeared, that he had seen him above a human shape, and
that he had ordered him to tell the Romans to honour him as a god.
Julius was believed. _Plutarch_, _Romulus_.――_Ovid._――――Florus.
_See:_ Florus.――――Lucius Cæsar, a Roman consul, uncle to Antony the
triumvir the father of Cæsar the dictator. He died as he was putting
on his shoes.――――Celsus, a tribune imprisoned for conspiring against
Tiberius. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 6, ch. 14.――――Maximinus, a
Thracian, who, from a shepherd, became an emperor of Rome. _See:_
Maximinus.
=Iūlus=, the name of Ascanius the son of Æneas. _See:_ Ascanius.
――――A son of Ascanius, born in Lavinium. In the succession to the
kingdom of Alba, Æneas Sylvius the son of Æneas and Lavinia was
preferred to him. He was, however, made chief priest. _Dionysius of
Halicarnassus_, bk. 1.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 271.――――A son
of Antony the triumvir and Fulvi. _See:_ Antonius Julius.
=Jūnia lex=, _Sacrata_, by Lucius Junius Brutus the first tribune of
the people, A.U.C. 260. It ordained that the person of the tribune
should be held sacred and inviolable; that an appeal might be made
from the consuls to the tribunes; and that no senator should be able
to exercise the office of a tribune.――――Another, A.U.C. 627, which
excluded all foreigners from enjoying the privileges or names of
Roman citizens.
=Junia=, a niece of Cato of Utica, who married Cassius, and died 64
years after her husband had killed himself at the battle of Philippi.
――――Calvina, a beautiful Roman lady, accused of incest with her
brother Silanus. She was descended from Augustus. She was banished
by Claudius, and recalled by Nero. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 2, ch. 4.
=Junius Blæsus=, a proconsul of Africa under the emperors. _Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 3, ch. 35.――――Lupus, a senator who accused Vitellius
of aspiring to the sovereignty, &c. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 12,
ch. 42.――――Decimus Silanus, a Roman who committed adultery with
Julia the granddaughter of Augustus, &c. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 3,
ch. 24.――――Brutus. _See:_ Brutus.
=Jūno=, a celebrated deity among the ancients, daughter of Saturn and
Ops. She was sister to Jupiter, Pluto, Neptune, Vesta, Ceres, &c.
She was born at Argos, or, according to others, in Samos, and was
entrusted to the care of the Seasons, or, as Homer and Ovid mention,
to Oceanus and Tethys. Some of the inhabitants of Argolis supposed
that she had been brought up by the three daughters of the river
Asterion; and the people of Stymphalus, in Arcadia, maintained that
she had been educated under the care of Temenus the son of Pelasgus.
Juno was devoured by Saturn, according to some mythologists; and
according to Apollodorus she was again restored to the world by
means of a potion which Metis gave to Saturn, to make him throw up
the stone which his wife had given him to swallow instead of Jupiter.
_See:_ Saturnus. Jupiter was not insensible to the charms of his
sister; and the more powerfully to gain her confidence he changed
himself into a cuckoo, and raised a great storm, and made the air
unusually chill and cold. Under this form he went to the goddess,
all shivering. Juno pitied the cuckoo, and took him into her bosom.
When Jupiter had gained these advantages, he resumed his original
form, and obtained the gratification of his desires, after he had
made a solemn promise of marriage to his sister. The nuptials of
Jupiter and Juno were celebrated with the greatest solemnity: the
gods, all mankind, and all the brute creation, attended. Chelone, a
young woman, was the only one who refused to come, and who derided
the ceremony. For this impiety Mercury changed her into a tortoise,
and condemned her to perpetual silence; from which circumstance
the tortoise has always been used as a symbol of silence among the
ancients. By her marriage with Jupiter, Juno became the queen of all
the gods, and mistress of heaven and earth. Her conjugal happiness,
however, was frequently disturbed by the numerous amours of her
husband, and she showed herself jealous and inexorable in the
highest degree. Her severity to the mistresses and illegitimate
children of her husband was unparalleled. She persecuted Hercules
and his descendants with the most inveterate fury; and her
resentment against Paris, who had given the golden apple to Venus
in preference to herself, was the cause of the Trojan war and of
all the miseries which happened to the unfortunate house of Priam.
Her severities to Alcmena, Ino, Athamas, Semele, &c., are also well
known. Juno had some children by Jupiter. According to Hesiod she
was mother of Mars, Hebe, and Ilithyia, or Lucina; and besides these,
she brought forth Vulcan, without having any commerce with the other
sex, but only by smelling a certain plant. This was in imitation
of Jupiter, who had produced Minerva from his brain. According
to others, it was not Vulcan, but Mars, or Hebe, whom she brought
forth in this manner, and this was after eating some lettuces at
the table of Apollo. The daily and repeated debaucheries of Jupiter
at last provoked Juno to such a degree, that she retired to Eubœa,
and resolved for ever to forsake his bed. Jupiter produced a
reconciliation, after he had applied to Cithæron for advice, and
after he had obtained forgiveness by fraud and artifice. _See:_
Dædala. This reconciliation, however cordial ♦it might appear, was
soon dissolved by new offences; and, to stop the complaints of the
jealous Juno, Jupiter had often recourse to violence and blows. He
even punished the cruelties which she had exercised upon his son
Hercules, by suspending her from the heavens by a golden chain, and
tying a heavy anvil to her feet. Vulcan was punished for assisting
his mother in this degrading situation, and he was kicked down from
heaven by his father, and broke his leg by the fall. This punishment
rather irritated than pacified Juno. She resolved to revenge it,
and she engaged some of the gods to conspire against Jupiter and
to imprison him, but Thetis delivered him from this conspiracy, by
bringing to his assistance the famous Briareus. Apollo and Neptune
were banished from heaven for joining in the conspiracy, though some
attribute their exile to different causes. The worship of Juno was
universal, and even more than that of Jupiter, according to some
authors. Her sacrifices were offered with the greatest solemnity.
She was particularly worshipped at Argos, Samos, Carthage, and
afterwards at Rome. The ancients generally offered on her altars
a ewe lamb and a sow the first day of every month. No cows were
ever immolated to her, because she assumed the nature of that
animal when the gods fled into Egypt in their war with the giants.
Among the birds, the hawk, the goose, and particularly the peacock,
often called _Junonia avis_ [_See:_ Argus], were sacred to her. The
dittany, the poppy, and the lily were her favourite flowers. The
latter flower was originally of the colour of the crocus; but, when
Jupiter placed Hercules to the breasts of Juno while asleep, some of
her milk fell down upon earth, and changed the colour of the lilies
from purple to a beautiful white. Some of the milk also dropped in
that part of the heavens which, from its whiteness, still retains
the name of the milky way, _lactea via_. As Juno’s power was
extended over all the gods, she often made use of the goddess
Minerva as her messenger, and even had the privilege of hurling the
thunder of Jupiter when she pleased. Her temples were numerous, the
most famous of which were at Argos, Olympia, &c. At Rome, no woman
of debauched character was permitted to enter her temple, or even
to touch it. The surnames of Juno are various; they are derived
either from the function or things over which she presided, or from
the places where her worship was established. She was the queen of
the heavens; she protected cleanliness, and presided over marriage
and child-birth, and particularly patronized the most faithful and
virtuous of the sex, and severely punished incontinence and lewdness
in matrons. She was the goddess of all power and empire, and she was
also the patroness of riches. She is represented sitting on a throne
with a diadem on her head and a golden sceptre in her right hand.
Some peacocks generally sat by her, and a cuckoo often perched on
her sceptre, while Iris behind her displayed the thousand colours of
her beautiful rainbow. She is sometimes carried through the air in a
rich chariot drawn by peacocks. The Roman consuls, when they entered
upon office, were always obliged to offer her a solemn sacrifice.
The Juno of the Romans was called Matrona or Romana. She was
generally represented as veiled from head to foot, and the Roman
matrons always imitated this manner of dressing themselves, and
deemed it indecent in any married woman to leave any part of
her body but her face uncovered. She has received the surnames
of Olympia, Sarnia, Lacedæmonia, Argiva, Telchinia, Candrena,
Rescinthes, Prosymna, Imbrasia, Acrea, Cithæroneia, Bunea, Ammonia,
Fluonia, Anthea, Migale, Gemelia, Tropeia, Boopis, Parthenos,
Teleia, Xera, Egophage, Hyperchinia, Juga, Ilithyia, Lucina,
Pronuba, Caprotina, Mena, Populonia, Lacinia, Sospita, Moneta,
Curis, Domiduca, Februa, Opigenia, &c. _Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_,
bk. 2.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, &c.――_Apollodorus_, bks. 1, 2, 3.
――_Apollonius_, bk. 1.――_Argon._――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 1, &c.
――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, &c.――_Herodotus_, bks. 1, 2, 4, &c.
――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 1.――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 1.
――_Livy_, bks. 23, 24, 27, &c.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, &c.;
_Fasti_, bk. 5.――_Plutarch_, _Quæstiones Romanæ_.――_Tibullus_, bk. 4,
poem 13.――_Athenæus_, bk. 15.――_Pliny_, bk. 34.
♦ ‘in’ replaced with ‘it’
=Junonālia= and =Junonia=, festivals at Rome in honour of Juno, the
same as the Heræa of the Greeks. _See:_ Heræa. _Livy_, bk. 27,
ch. 37.
=Junōnes=, a name of the protecting genii of the women among the
Romans. They generally swore by them, as the men by their genii.
There were altars often erected to their honour. _Pliny_, bk. 2,
ch. 7.――_Seneca_, ltr. 110.
=Junōnia=, two islands, supposed to be among the Fortunate Islands.
――――A name which Gracchus gave to Carthage, when he went with 6000
Romans to rebuild it.
=Junonigĕna=, a surname of Vulcan, as son of Juno. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 4, li. 173.
=Junōnis promontorium=, a promontory of Peloponnesus.――――Laciniæ
templum, a temple of Juno in Italy, between Crotona and the Lacinian
promontory.
=Jūpĭter=, the most powerful of all the gods of the ancients. According
to Varro, there were no less than 300 persons of that name; Diodorus
mentions two; and Cicero three, two of Arcadia, and one of Crete. To
that of Crete, who passed for the son of Saturn and Ops, the actions
of the rest have been attributed. According to the opinion of the
mythologists, Jupiter was saved from destruction by his mother, and
entrusted to the care of the Corybantes. Saturn, who had received
the kingdom of the world from his brother Titan, on condition of not
raising male children, devoured all his sons as soon as born; but
Ops, offended at her husband’s cruelty, secreted Jupiter, and gave
a stone to Saturn, which he devoured on the supposition that it was
a male child. Jupiter was educated in a cave on mount Ida, in Crete,
and fed upon the milk of the goat Amalthæa, or upon honey, according
to others. He received the name of _Jupiter_, _quasi juvans pater_.
His cries were drowned by the noise of cymbals and drums, which the
Corybantes beat at the express command of Ops. _See:_ Corybantes. As
soon as he was a year old, Jupiter found him sufficiently strong to
make war against the Titans, who had imprisoned his father because
he had brought up male children. The Titans were conquered, and
Saturn set at liberty by the hands of his son. Saturn, however,
soon after, apprehensive of the power of Jupiter, conspired against
his life, and was, for this treachery, driven from his kingdom, and
obliged to fly for safety into Latium. Jupiter, now become the sole
master of the empire of the world, divided it with his brothers.
He reserved for himself the kingdom of heaven, and gave the empire
of the sea to Neptune, and that of the infernal regions to Pluto.
The peaceful beginning of his reign was soon interrupted by the
rebellion of the giants, who were sons of the earth, and who wished
to revenge the death of their relations the Titans. They were
so powerful that they hurled rocks, and heaped up mountains upon
mountains, to scale heaven, so that all the gods, to avoid their
fury, fled to Egypt, where they escaped from the danger by assuming
the form of different animals. Jupiter, however, animated them, and
by the assistance of Hercules, he totally overpowered the gigantic
race, which had proved such tremendous enemies. _See:_ Gigantes.
Jupiter, now freed from every apprehension, gave himself up to the
pursuit of pleasures. He married Metis, Themis, Eurynome, Ceres,
Mnemosyne, Latona, and Juno. _See:_ Juno. He became a Proteus to
gratify his passions. He introduced himself to Danae in a shower of
gold; he corrupted Antiope in the form of a satyr, and Leda in the
form of a swan; he became a bull to seduce Europa, and he enjoyed
the company of Ægina in the form of a flame of fire. He assumed the
habit of Diana to corrupt Callisto, and became Amphitryon to gain
the affections of Alcmena. His children were also numerous as well
as his mistresses. According to Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 3, he was
father of the Seasons, Irene, Eunomia, the Fates, Clotho, Lachesis,
and Atropos by Themis; of Venus by Dione; of the Graces, Aglaia,
Euphrosyne, and Thalia, by Eurynome the daughter of Oceanus; of
Proserpine by Styx; of the nine muses by Mnemosyne, &c. _See:_
Niobe, Laodamia, Pyrrha, Protogenia, Electra, Maia, Semele, &c. The
worship of Jupiter was universal; he was the Ammon of the Africans,
the Belus of Babylon, the Osiris of Egypt, &c. His surnames were
numerous, many of which he received from the place or function
over which he presided. He was severally called Jupiter Feretrius,
Inventor, Elicius, Capitolinus, Latialis, Pistor, Sponsor, Herceus,
Anxurus, Victor, Maximus, Optimus, Olympius, Fluvialis, &c. The
worship of Jupiter surpassed that of the other gods in solemnity.
His altars were not, like those of Saturn and Diana, stained with
the blood of human victims, but he was delighted with the sacrifice
of goats, sheep, and white bulls. The oak was sacred to him because
he first taught mankind to live upon acorns. He is generally
represented as sitting upon a golden or ivory throne, holding in
one hand thunderbolts just ready to be hurled, and in the other, a
sceptre of cypress. His looks express majesty, his beard flows long
and neglected, and the eagle stands with expanded wings at his feet.
He is sometimes represented with the upper parts of his body naked,
and those below the waist carefully covered, as if to show that he
is visible to the gods above, but that he is concealed from the
sight of the inhabitants of the earth. Jupiter had several oracles,
the most celebrated of which were at Dodona, and Ammon, in Libya.
As Jupiter was the king and father of gods and men, his power was
extended over the deities, and everything was subservient to his
will, except the Fates. From him mankind received their blessings
and their miseries, and they looked upon him as acquainted with
everything past, present, and future. He was represented at
Olympia with a crown like olive branches; his mantle was variegated
with different flowers, particularly by the lily, and the eagle
perched on the top of the sceptre which he held in his hand. The
Cretans represented Jupiter without ears, to signify that the
sovereign master of the world ought not to give a partial ear to any
particular person, but be equally candid and propitious to all. At
Lacedæmon he appeared with four heads, that he might seem to hear
with greater readiness the different prayers and solicitations which
were daily poured to him from every part of the earth. It is said
that Minerva came all armed from his brains when he ordered Vulcan
to open his head. _Pausanias_, bks. 1, 2, &c.――_Livy_, bks. 1,
4, 5, &c.――_Diodorus_, bks. 1 & 3.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bks. 1, 5,
&c.; _Odyssey_, bks. 1, 4, &c.; _Hymn 23 to Zeus_.――_Orpheus._
――_Callimachus_, _Hymn to Zeus_.――_Pindar_, _Olympian_, bks. 1, 3,
5.――_Apollonius_, bk. 1, &c.――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_; _Shield of
Heracles_; _Works and Days_.――_Lycophron_, _Cassandra_.――_Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bks. 1, 2, &c.; _Georgics_, bk. 3.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 1, fable 1, &c.――_Horace_, bk. 3, ode 1, &c.
=Jura=, a high ridge of mountains separating the Helvetii from the
Sequani, or Switzerland from Burgundy. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 1,
ch. 2.
=Justīnus Marcus Junianus=, a Latin historian in the age of Antoninus,
who epitomized the history of Trogus Pompeius. This epitome,
according to some traditions, was the cause that the comprehensive
work of Trogus was lost. It comprehends the history of the Assyrian,
Persian, Grecian, Macedonia, and Roman empires, &c., in a neat and
elegant style. It is replete with many judicious reflections and
animated harangues, but the author is often too credulous, and
sometimes examines events too minutely, while others are related
only in a few words too often obscure. The indecency of many of his
expressions is deservedly censured. The best editions of Justin are
that of Abraham Gronovius, 8vo, Leiden, 1719, that of Hearne, 8vo,
Oxford, 1703, and that of Barbou, 12mo, Paris, 1770.――――Martyr, a
Greek father, formerly a Platonic philosopher, born at Palestine. He
died in Egypt, and wrote two apologies for the christians, besides
his dialogue with a Jew; two treatises, &c., in a plain, unadorned
style. The best editions of Justin Martyr are that of Paris, folio,
1636; that of his apologies, 2 vols., 8vo, 1700 & 1703; and Jebb’s
dialogue with Trypho, published in London, 1722.――――An emperor of
the east, who reigned nine years, and died A.D. 526.――――Another,
who died A.D. 564, after a reign of 38 years.――――Another, who died
577 A.D., after a reign of 13 years.
=Juturna=, a sister of Turnus king of the Rutuli. She heard with
contempt the addresses of Jupiter, or, according to others, she was
not unfavourable to his passion, so that the god rewarded her love
with immortality. She was afterwards changed into a fountain of the
same name near the Numicus, falling into the Tiber. The waters of
that fountain were used in sacrifices, and particularly in those
of Vesta. They had the power to heal diseases. _Varro_, _de Lingua
Latina_, bk. 1, ch. 10.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 1, li. 708; bk. 2,
li. 585.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 12, li. 139.――_Cicero_, _For Aulus
Cluentius_, ch. 36.
=Juvenālis Decius Junius=, a poet born at Aquinum in Italy. He came
early to Rome, and passed some time in declaiming; after which he
applied himself to write satires, 16 of which are extant. He spoke
with virulence against the partiality of Nero for the pantomime
Paris, and though all his satire and declamation were pointed
against this ruling favourite of the emperor, yet Juvenal lived
in security during the reign of Nero. After the death of Nero,
the effects of the resentment of Paris were severely felt, and the
satirist was sent by Domitian as governor on the frontiers of Egypt.
Juvenal was then in the 80th year of his age, and he suffered much
from the trouble which attended his office, or rather his exile. He
returned, however, to Rome, after the death of Paris, and died in
the reign of Trajan, A.D. 128. His writings are fiery and animated,
and they abound with humour. He is particularly severe upon the vice
and dissipation of the age he lived in; but the gross and indecent
manner in which he exposed to ridicule the follies of mankind,
rather encourages than disarms the debauched and licentious. He
wrote with acrimony against all his adversaries, and whatever
displeased or offended him was exposed to his severest censure.
It is to be acknowledged that Juvenal is far more correct than
his contemporaries, a circumstance which some have attributed to
his judgment and experience, which were uncommonly mature, as his
satires were the productions of old age. He may be called, and
with reason, perhaps, the last of the Roman poets. After him poetry
decayed, and nothing more claims our attention as a perfect poetical
composition. The best editions are those of Casaubon, 4to, Leiden,
1695, with Persius, and of Hawkey, Dublin, 12mo, 1746, and of
Grævius, _cum notis variorum_, 8vo, Leiden, 1684.
=Juventas=, or =Juventus=, a goddess at Rome who presided over
youth and vigour. She is the same as the Hebe of the Greeks, and
represented as a beautiful nymph, arrayed in variegated garments.
_Livy_, bk. 5, ch. 54; bk. 21, ch. 62; bk. 36, ch. 36.――_Ovid_,
_ex Ponto_, bk. 1, ltr. 9, li. 12.
=Juverna=, or =Hibernia=, an island at the west of Britain, now called
_Ireland_. _Juvenal_, satire 2, li. 160.
=Ixibatæ=, a people of Pontus.
=Ixīon=, a king of Thessaly, son of Phlegas, or, according to Hyginus,
of Leontes, or, according to Diodorus, of Antion, by Perimela
daughter of Amythaon. He married Dia daughter of Eioneus or Deioneus,
and promised his father-in-law a valuable present for the choice
he had made of him to be his daughter’s husband. His unwillingness,
however, to fulfil his promises obliged Deioneus to have recourse to
violence to obtain it, and he stole away some of his horses. Ixion
concealed his resentment under the mask of friendship; he invited
his father-in-law to a feast at Larissa, the capital of his kingdom,
and when Deioneus was come, according to the appointment, he threw
him into a pit, which he had previously filled with wood and burning
coals. This premeditated treachery so irritated the neighbouring
princes, that all of them refused to perform the usual ceremony,
by which a man was then purified of murder, and Ixion was shunned
and despised by all mankind. Jupiter had compassion upon him, and
he carried him to heaven, and introduced him at the table of the
gods. Such a favour, which ought to have awakened gratitude in Ixion,
served only to inflame his lust; he became enamoured of Juno, and
attempted to seduce her. Juno was willing to gratify the passion
of Ixion, though according to others she informed Jupiter of the
attempts which had been made upon her virtue. Jupiter made a cloud
in the shape of Juno, and carried it to the place where Ixion had
appointed to meet Juno. Ixion was caught in the snare and from his
embrace with the cloud, he had the Centaurs, or, according to others,
Centaurus. _See:_ Centauri. Jupiter, displeased with the insolence
of Ixion, banished him from heaven; but when he heard that he had
seduced Juno, the god struck him with his thunder, and ordered
Mercury to tie him to a wheel in hell which continually whirls
round. The wheel was perpetually in motion, therefore the punishment
of Ixion was eternal. _Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Hyginus_, fable 62.
――_Pindar_, bk. 2, _Pythian_, poem 2.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk.
4, li. 484; _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 601.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 12, lis. 210 & 338.――_Philostratus_, _Imagines_, bk. 2, ch. 3.
――_Lactantius [Placidus]_ on [Statius’] _Thebaid_, bk. 2.――――One of
the Heraclidæ, who reigned at Corinth for 57 or 37 years. He was son
of Alethes.
=Ixīŏnĭdes=, the patronymic of Pirithous son of Ixion. _Propertius_,
bk. 2, poem 1, li. 38.
L
=Laander=, a youth, brother to Nicocrates tyrant of Cyrene &c.
――_Polyænus_, bk. 8.
=Laarchus=, the guardian of Battus of Cyrene. He usurped the sovereign
power for some time, and endeavoured to marry the mother of Battus,
the better to establish his tyranny. The queen gave him a friendly
invitation, and caused him to be assassinated, and restored the
power to Battus. _Polyænus._
=Labaris=, a king of Egypt after Sesostris.
=Labda=, a daughter of Amphion, one of the Bacchiadæ, born lame. She
married Ection, by whom she had a son whom she called Cypselus
because she saved his life in a coffer. _See:_ Cypselus. This coffer
was preserved at Olympia. _Herodotus_, bk. 5, ch. 92.――_Aristotle_,
_Politics_, bk. 5.
=Labdacĭdes=, a name given to Œdipus, as descended from Labdacus.
=Labdăcus=, a son of Polydorus by Nycteis, the daughter of Nycteus
king of Thebes. His father and mother died during his childhood,
and he was left to the care of Nycteus, who at his death left his
kingdom in the hands of Lycus, with orders to restore it to Labdacus
as soon as of age. He was father to Laius. It is unknown whether
he ever sat on the throne of Thebes. According to Statius his
father’s name was Phœnix. His descendants were called _Labdacides_.
_Statius_, _Thebiad_, bk. 6, li. 451.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 5.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 6; bk. 9, ch. 5.
=Labdalon=, a promontory of Sicily, near Syracuse. _Diodorus_, bk. 13.
=Labeālis=, a lake in Dalmatia, now _Scutari_, of which the
neighbouring inhabitants were called Labeates. _Livy_, bk. 44,
ch. 31; bk. 45, ch. 26.
=Lăbeo Antistius=, a celebrated lawyer in the age of Augustus, whose
views he opposed, and whose offers of the consulship he refused. His
works are lost. He was wont to enjoy the company and conversation
of the learned for six months, and the rest of the year was spent
in writing and composing. His father, of the same name, was one
of Cæsar’s murderers. He killed himself at the battle of Philippi.
_Horace_, bk. 1, satire 3, li. 82, has unjustly taxed him with
insanity because, no doubt, he inveighed against his patrons.
_Appian_, _The Civil Wars_, bk. 4.――_Suetonius_, _Augustus_, ch. 45.
――――A tribune of the people at Rome, who condemned the censor
Metellus to be thrown down from the Tarpeian rock, because he had
expelled him from the senate. This rigorous sentence was stopped
by the interference of another of the tribunes.――――Quintus Fabius,
a Roman consul, A.U.C. 571, who obtained a naval victory over the
fleet of the Cretans. He assisted Terence in composing his comedies,
according to some.――――Actius, an obscure poet who recommended
himself to the favour of Nero by an incorrect translation of
Homer into Latin. The work is lost, and only this curious line is
preserved by an old scholiast, _Persius_, bk. 1, li. 4, _Crudum
manducus Priamum, Priamique Pisinnos_.
=Lăbĕrius J. Decimus=, a Roman knight famous for his poetical talents
in writing pantomimes. Julius Cæsar compelled him to act one of his
characters on the stage. The poet consented with great reluctance,
but he showed his resentment during the acting of the piece by
throwing severe aspersions upon Julius Cæsar, by warning the
audience against his tyranny, and by drawing upon him the eyes
of the whole theatre. Cæsar, however, restored him to the rank
of knight which he had lost by appearing on the stage; but to his
mortification, when he went to take his seat among the knights,
no one offered to make room for him, and even his friend Cicero
said, _Recepissem te nisi angustè sederem_. Laberius was offended
at the affectation and insolence of Cicero, and reflected upon
his unsettled and pusillanimous behaviour during the civil wars of
Cæsar and Pompey, by the reply of _Mirum si angustè sedes, qui soles
duabas sellis sedere_. Laberius died 10 months after the murder
of Julius Cæsar. Some fragments remain of his poetry. _Macrobius_,
_Saturnalia_, bk. 2, chs. 3 & 7.――_Horace_, bk. 1, satire 10.
――_Seneca_, _de Controversiæ_, bk. 7, ch. 3.――_Suetonius_, _Cæsar_,
ch. 39.――――Quintus Durus, a tribune of the soldiers in Cæsar’s
legions, killed in Britain. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_.
=Labīcum=, now _Colonna_, a town of Italy, called also _Lavicum_,
between Gabii and Tusculum, which became a Roman colony about four
centuries B.C. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 796.――_Livy_, bk. 2,
ch. 39; bk. 4, ch. 47.
=Lăbiēnus=, an officer of Cæsar in the wars of Gaul. He deserted to
Pompey, and was killed at the battle of Munda. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_,
bk. 6, &c.――_Lucan_, bk. 5, li. 346.――――A Roman who followed the
interest of Brutus and Cassius, and became general of the Parthians
against Rome. He was conquered by the officers of Augustus. _Strabo_,
bks. 12 & 14.――_Dio Cassius_, bk. 48.――――Titus, an historian
and orator at Rome in the age of Augustus, who admired his own
compositions with all the pride of superior genius and incomparable
excellence. The senate ordered his papers to be burnt on account of
their seditious contents; and Labienus, unable to survive the loss
of his writings, destroyed himself. _Suetonius_, _Caligula_, ch. 16.
――_Seneca._
=Labinētus=, or =Labynētus=, a king of Babylon, &c. _Herodotus_, bk. 1,
ch. 74.
=Labotas=, a river near Antioch in Syria. _Strabo_, bk. 16.――――A son
of Echestratus, who made war against Argos, &c.
=Labradeus=, a surname of Jupiter in Caria. The word is derived from
_labrys_ which in the language of the country signifies a hatchet,
which Jupiter’s statue held in its hand. _Plutarch._
=Labron=, a part of Italy on the Mediterranean, supposed to be Leghorn.
_Cicero_ bk. 2, _Letters to his brother Quintus_, ltr. 6.
=Lăby̆rinthus=, a building whose numerous passages and perplexing
windings render the escape from it difficult, and almost
impracticable. There were four very famous among the ancients; one
near the city of Crocodiles or Arsinoe, another in Crete, a third
at Lemnos, and a fourth in Italy, built by Porsenna. That of Egypt
was the most ancient, and Herodotus, who saw it, declares that the
beauty and art of the building were almost beyond belief. It was
built by 12 kings, who at one time reigned in Egypt, and it was
intended for the place of their burial, and to commemorate the
actions of their reign. It was divided into 12 halls, or, according
to Pliny, into 16, or, as Strabo mentions, into 27. The halls were
vaulted, according to the relation of Herodotus. They had each six
doors, opening to the north, and the same number to the south, all
surrounded by one wall. The edifice contained 3000 chambers, 1500 in
the upper part, and the same number below. The chambers above were
seen by Herodotus, and astonished him beyond conception, but he
was not permitted to see those below, where were buried the holy
crocodiles and the monarchs whose munificence had raised the edifice.
The roofs and walls were encrusted with marble, and adorned with
sculptured figures. The halls were surrounded with stately and
polished pillars of white stone, and, according to some authors,
the opening of the doors was artfully attended with a terrible
noise like peals of thunder. The labyrinth of Crete was built by
Dædalus, in imitation of that of Egypt, and it is the most famous
of all in classical history. It was the place of confinement for
Dædalus himself, and the prison of the Minotaur. According to
Pliny the labyrinth of Lemnos surpassed the others in grandeur and
magnificence. It was supported by 40 columns of uncommon height and
thickness, and equally admirable for their beauty and splendour.
Modern travellers are still astonished at the noble and magnificent
ruins which appear of the Egyptian labyrinth, at the south of the
lake Mœris, about 30 miles from the ruins of Arsinoe. _Mela_, bk. 1,
ch. 9.――_Pliny_, bk. 36, ch. 13.――_Strabo_, bk. 10.――_Diodorus_, bk.
1.――_Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 148.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 5, li. 588.
=Lăcæna=, an epithet applied to a female native of Laconia, and, among
others, to Helen. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 511.
=Lăcĕdæemon=, a son of Jupiter and Taygeta the daughter of Atlas,
who married Sparta the daughter of Eurotas, by whom he had Amyclas
and Eurydice the wife of Acrisius. He was the first who introduced
the worship of the Graces in Laconia, and who first built them
a temple. From Lacedæmon and his wife, the capital of Laconia
was called Lacedæmon and Sparta. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 10.
――_Hyginus_, fable 155.――_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 1.――――A noble city
of Peloponnesus, the capital of Laconia called also _Sparta_, and
now known by the name of _Misitra_. It has been severally known by
the name of _Lelegia_, from the Leleges the first inhabitants of the
country, or from Lelex one of their kings; and _Œbalia_, from Œbalus
the sixth king from Eurotas. It was also called _Hecatompolis_
from the 100 cities which the whole province once contained. Lelex
is supposed to have been the first king. His descendants, 13 in
number, reigned successively after him, till the reign of the sons
of Orestes, when the Heraclidæ recovered the Peloponnesus, about 80
years after the Trojan war. Procles and Eurysthenes, the descendants
of the Heraclidæ, enjoyed the crown together, and after them it
was decreed that the two families should always sit on the throne
together. _See:_ Eurysthenes. These two brothers began to reign
B.C. 1102. Their successors in the family of Procles were called
_Proclidæ_, and afterwards _Eurypontidæ_, and those of Eurysthenes,
_Eurysthenidæ_, and afterwards _Agidæ_. The successors of Procles
on the throne began to reign in the following order: Sous 1060 B.C.,
after his father had reigned 42 years; Eurypon, 1028; Prytanis,
1021; Eunomus, 986; Polydectes, 907; Lycurgus, 898; Charilaus,
873; Nicander, 809; Theopompus, 770; Zeuxidamus, 723; Anaxidamus,
690; Archidamus, 651; Agasicles, 605; Ariston, 564; Demaratus,
526; Leotychides, 491; Archidamus, 469; Agis, 427; Agesilaus, 397;
Archidamus, 361; Agis II., 338; Eudamidas, 330; Archidamus, 295;
Eudamidas II., 268; Agis, 244; Archidamus, 230; Euclidus, 225;
Lycurgus, 219. The successors of Eurysthenes were Agis, 1059;
Echestratus, 1058; Labotas, 1023; Doryssus, 986; Agesilaus, 957;
Archelaus, 913; Teleclus, 853; Alcamenes, 813; Polydorus, 776;
Eurycrates, 724; Anaxander, 687; Eurycrates II., 644; Leon, 607;
Anaxandrides, 563; Cleomenes, 530; Leonidas, 491; Plistarchus,
under guardianship of Pausanius, 480; Plistoanax, 466; Pausanius,
408; Agesipolis, 397; Cleombrotus, 380; Agesipolis II., 371;
Cleomenes II., 370; Aretus or Areus, 309; Acrotatus, 265; Areus II.,
264; Leonidas, 257; Cleombrotus, 243; Leonidas restored, 241;
Cleomenes, 235; Agesipolis, 219. Under the two last kings, Lycurgus
and Agesipolis, the monarchical power was abolished, though
Machanidas the tyrant made himself absolute, B.C. 210, and Nabis,
206, for 14 years. In the year 191 B.C. Lacedæmon joined the Achæan
league, and about three years after the walls were demolished by
order of Philopœmen. The territories of Laconia shared the fate
of the Achæn confederacy, and the whole was conquered by Mummius,
147 B.C., and converted into a Roman province. The inhabitants of
Lacedæmon have rendered themselves illustrious for their courage
and intrepidity, for their love of honour and liberty, and for
their aversion to sloth and luxury. They were inured from their
youth to labour, and their laws commanded them to make war their
profession. They never applied themselves to any trade, but their
only employment was arms, and they left everything else to the care
of their slaves. _See:_ Helotæ. They hardened their body by stripes
and other manly exercises, and accustomed themselves to undergo
hardships, and even to die, without fear or regret. From their
valour in the field, and their moderation and temperance at home,
they were courted and revered by all the neighbouring princes, and
their assistance was severally implored to protect the Sicilians,
Carthaginians, Thracians, Egyptians, Cyreneans, &c. They were
forbidden by the laws of their country [_See:_ Lycurgus] to
visit foreign states, lest their morals should be corrupted by an
intercourse with effeminate nations. The austere manner in which
their children were educated, rendered them undaunted in the field
of battle, and from this circumstance, Leonidas, with a small
band, was enabled to resist the millions of the army of Xerxes at
Thermopylæ. The women were as courageous as the men, and many a
mother has celebrated with festivals the death of her son who had
fallen in battle, or has coolly put him to death, if, by a shameful
flight or loss of his arms, he brought disgrace upon his country. As
to domestic manners, the Lacedæmonians as widely differed from their
neighbours as in political concerns, and their noblest women were
not ashamed to appear on the stage hired for money. In the affairs
of Greece, the interest of the Lacedæmonians was often powerful, and
obtained the superiority for 500 years. Their jealousy of the power
and greatness of the Athenians is well known. The authority of their
monarchs was checked by the watchful eye of the Ephori, who had the
power of imprisoning the kings themselves if guilty of misdemeanours.
_See:_ Ephori. The Lacedæmonians are remarkable for the honour and
reverence which they paid to old age. The names of _Lacedæmon_ and
_Sparta_ are promiscuously applied to the capital of Laconia, and
often confounded together. The latter was applied to the metropolis,
and the former was reserved for the inhabitants of the suburbs,
or rather of the country contiguous to the walls of the city. This
propriety of distinction was originally observed, but in process of
time it was totally lost, and both appellatives were soon synonymous,
and indiscriminately applied to the city and country. _See:_ Sparta,
Laconia. The place where the city stood is now called _Paleo Chori_
(_the old town_), and the new one erected on its ruins at some
distance on the west is called _Misatra_. _Livy_, bk. 34, ch. 33;
bk. 45, ch. 28.――_Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Thucydides_, bk. 1.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 3.――_Justin_, bks. 2, 3, &c.――_Herodotus_, bk. 1, &c.
――_Plutarch_, _Lycurgus_, &c.――_Diodorus._――_Mela_, bk. 2. There
were some festivals celebrated at Lacedæmon, the names of which
are not known. It was customary for the women to drag all the old
bachelors round the altars, and beat them with their fists, that the
shame and ignominy to which they were exposed might induce them to
marry, &c. _Athenæus_, bk. 13.
=Lăcĕdæmŏnii= and =Lăcĕdæmŏnes=, the inhabitants of Lacedæmon. _See:_
Lacedæmon.
=Lăcĕdæmŏnius=, a son of Cimon by Clitoria. He received this name from
his father’s regard for the Lacedæmonians. _Plutarch._
=Lăcerta=, a soothsayer in Domitian’s age, who acquired immense riches
by his art. _Juvenal_, satire 7, li. 114.
=Lacetania=, a district at the north of Spain. _Livy_, bk. 21, ch. 23.
=Lachăres=, a man who seized the supreme power at Athens when the city
was in discord, and was banished B.C. 296. _Polyænus_, bk. 4.――――An
Athenian three times taken prisoner. He deceived his keepers, and
escaped, &c. _Polyænus_, bk. 3.――――A son of Mithridates king of
Bosphorus. He was received into alliance by Lucullus.――――A robber
condemned by Marcus Antony.――――An Egyptian, buried in the labyrinth
near Arsinoe.
=Laches=, an Athenian general in the age of Epaminondas. _Diodorus_,
bk. 12.――――An Athenian sent with Carias at the head of a fleet in
the first expedition undertaken against Sicily in the Peloponnesian
war. _Justin_, bk. 4, ch. 3.――――An artist who finished the Colossus
of Rhodes.
=Lăchĕsis=, one of the Parcæ, whose name is derived from λαχειν, _to
measure out by lot_. She presided over futurity, and was represented
as spinning the thread of life, or, according to others, holding the
spindle. She generally appeared covered with a garment variegated
with stars, and holding spindles in her hand. _See:_ Parcæ.
_Statius_, _Thebiad_, bk. 2, li. 249.――_Martial_, bk. 4, ltr. 54.
=Lacidas=, a Greek philosopher of Cyrene, who flourished B.C. 241. His
father’s name was Alexander. He was disciple of Arcesilaus, whom he
succeeded in the government of the second academy. He was greatly
esteemed by king Attalus, who gave him a garden where he spent his
hours in study. He taught his disciples to suspend their judgment,
and never speak decisively. He disgraced himself by the magnificent
funeral with which he honoured a favourite goose. He died through
excess of drinking. _Diogenes Laërtius_, bk. 4.
=Lacīdes=, a village near Athens, which derived its name from Lacius,
an Athenian hero, whose exploits are unknown. Here Zephyrus had an
altar sacred to him, and likewise Ceres and Proserpine a temple.
_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 37.
=Lăcīnia=, a surname of Juno from her temple at Lacinium in Italy,
which the Crotonians held in great veneration, and where there was
a famous statue of Helen by Zeuxis. _See:_ Zeuxis. On an altar near
the door were ashes which the wind could not blow away. Fulvius
Flaccus took away a marble piece from this sacred place, to finish
a temple that he was building at Rome to Fortuna Equestris; and
it is said that, for this sacrilege, he afterwards led a miserable
life, and died in the greatest agonies. _Strabo_, bk. 6.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 15, lis. 12 & 702.――_Livy_, bk. 42, ch. 3.
――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 1, ch. 1.
=Lacīnienses=, a people of Liburnia.
=Lacīnium=, a promontory of Magna Græcia, now cape _Colonna_, the
southern boundary of Tarentum in Italy, where Juno Lacinia had a
temple held in great veneration. It received its name from Lacinius,
a famous robber killed there by Hercules. _Livy_, bk. 24, ch. 3;
bk. 27, ch. 5; bk. 30, ch. 20.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 522.
=Lacmon=, a part of mount Pindus where the Inachus flows. _Herodotus_,
bk. 9, ch. 93.
=Laco=, a favourite of Galba, mean and cowardly in his character. He
was put to death.――――An inhabitant of Laconia or Lacedæmon.
=Lacobriga=, a city of Spain, where ♦Sertorius was besieged by
Metellus.
♦ ‘Sertorious’ replaced with ‘Sertorius’
=Lacōnia=, =Lacōnĭca=, and =Lacedæmon=, a country in the southern
parts of Peloponnesus, having Argos and Arcadia on the north,
Messenia on the west, the Mediterranean on the south, and the bay of
Argos at the east. Its extent from north to south was about 50 miles.
It is watered by the river Eurotas. The capital is called Sparta,
or Lacedæmon. The inhabitants never went on an expedition or engaged
an enemy but at the full moon. _See:_ Lacedæmon. The brevity with
which they always expressed themselves is now become proverbial, and
by the epithet of _Laconic_ we understand whatever is concise and
not loaded with unnecessary words. The word _Laconicum_ is applied
to some hot baths used among the ancients, and first invented at
Lacedæmon. _Cicero_, bk. 4, _Letters to Atticus_, ltr. 10.――_Strabo_,
bk. 1.――_Ptolemy_, bk. 3, ch. 16.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.
=Lacrătes=, a Theban, general of a detachment sent by Artaxerxes to
the assistance of the Egyptians. _Diodorus_, bk. 16.
=Lacrĭnes=, a Lacedæmonian ambassador to Cyrus. _Herodotus_, bk. 1,
ch. 152.
=Lactantius=, a celebrated christian writer, whose principal works are
_de irâ divinâ_, _de Dei operibus_, and his _divine institutions_,
in seven books, in which he proves the truth of the christian
religion, refutes objections, and attacks the illusions and
absurdities of paganism. The expressive purity, elegance, and energy
of his style have gained him the name of the christian Cicero. He
died A.D. 325.――――The best editions of his works are that of Sparke,
8vo, Oxford, 1684; that of Bimeman, 2 vols., 8vo, Lipscomb, 1739;
and that of Du Fresnoy, 2 vols., 4to, Paris, 1748.
=Lacter=, a promontory of the island of Cos.
=Lacydes=, a philosopher. _See:_ Lacidas.
=Lacȳdus=, an effeminate king of Argos.
=Ladas=, a celebrated courier of Alexander, born at Sicyon. He was
honoured with a brazen statue, and obtained a crown of Olympia.
_Martial_, bk. 10, ltr. 10.――_Juvenal_, satire 13, li. 97.
=Lade=, an island of the Ægean sea, on the coast of Asia Minor, where
was a naval battle between the Persians and Ionians. _Herodotus_,
bk. 6, ch. 7.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 35.――_Strabo_, bk. 17.
=Lades=, a son of Imbrasus, killed by Turnus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 12, li. 343.
=Ladocea=, a village of Arcadia. _Pausanias._
=Ladon=, a river of Arcadia, falling into the Alpheus. The
metamorphosis of Daphne into a laurel, and of Syrinx into a reed,
happened near its banks. _Strabo_, bk. 1.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 25.―― _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1,
li. 659.――――An Arcadian who followed Æneas into Italy, where he was
killed. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 413.――――One of Actæon’s dogs.
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 3, li. 216.
=Lælaps=, one of Actæon’s dogs. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 3.――――The
dog of Cephalus, given him by Procis. _See:_ Lelaps, &c. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 7.
=Lælia=, a vestal virgin.
=Læliānus=, a general, proclaimed emperor in Gaul by his soldiers,
A.D. 268, after the death of Gallienus. His triumph was short; he
was conquered and put to death after a few months’ reign by another
general called _Posthumus_, who aspired to the imperial purple as
well as himself.
=Caius Lælius=, a Roman consul, A.U.C. 614, surnamed _Sapiens_, so
intimate with Africanus the younger, that Cicero represents him
in his treatise _De Amicitiâ_, as explaining the real nature of
friendship, with its attendant pleasures. He made war with success
against Viriathus. It is said that he assisted Terence in the
composition of his comedies. His modesty, humanity, and the manner
in which he patronized letters, are as celebrated as his greatness
of mind and integrity in the character of a statesman. _Cicero_,
_On Oratory_.――――Another consul, who accompanied Scipio Africanus
the elder in his campaigns in Spain and Africa.――――Archelaus, a
famous grammarian. _Suetonius._
=Læna= and =Leæna=, the mistress of Harmodius and Aristogiton. Being
tortured because she refused to discover the conspirators, she bit
off her tongue, totally to frustrate the violent efforts of her
executioners.――――A man who was acquainted with the conspiracy formed
against Cæsar.
=Lænas=, a surname of the Popilii at Rome.
=Læneus=, a river of Crete, where Jupiter brought the ravished Europa.
_Strabo._
=Læpa Magna=, a town of Spain. _Mela_, bk. 3, ch. 1.
=Laertes=, a king of Ithaca, son of Arcesius and Chalcomedusa, who
married Anticlea the daughter of Autolycus. Anticlea was pregnant by
Sisyphus when she married Laertes, and eight months after her union
with the king of Ithaca, she brought forth a son called Ulysses.
_See:_ Anticlea. Ulysses was treated with paternal care by Laertes,
though not really his son, and Laertes ceded to him his crown and
retired into the country where he spent his time in gardening. He
was found in this mean employment by his son at his return from
the Trojan war, after 20 years’ absence, and Ulysses, at the sight
of his father, whose dress and old age declared his sorrow, long
hesitated whether he should suddenly introduce himself as his son,
or whether he should, as a stranger, gradually awaken the paternal
feelings of Laertes, who had believed that his son was no more. This
last measure was preferred, and when Laertes had burst into tears
at the mention which was made of his son, Ulysses threw himself on
his neck, exclaiming, “O father, I am he for whom you weep.” This
welcome declaration was followed by a recital of all the hardships
which Ulysses had suffered, and immediately after the father and son
repaired to the palace of Penelope the wife of Ulysses, whence all
the suitors who daily importuned the princess were forcibly removed.
Laertes was one of the Argonauts, according to _Apollodorus_, bk. 1,
ch. 9. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bks. 11 & 24.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 13, li. 32; _Heroides_, poem 1, li. 98.――――A city of Cilicia,
which gave birth to Diogenes, surnamed _Laërtius_ from the place of
his birth.
=Laërtius Diogenes=, a writer born at Laertes. _See:_ Diogenes.
=Læstry̆gŏnes=, the most ancient inhabitants of Sicily. Some suppose
them to be the same as the people of Leontium, and to have been
neighbours to the Cyclops. They fed on human flesh, and when
Ulysses came on their coasts, they sunk his ships and devoured his
companions. _See:_ Antiphates. They were of a gigantic stature,
according to Homer, who, however, does not mention their country,
but only speaks of Lamus as their capital. A colony of them, as some
suppose, passed over into Italy, with Lamus at their head, where
they built the town of Formiæ, whence the epithet of _Læstrygonia_
is often used for that of _Formiana_. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 5.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 14, li. 233, &c.; _Fasti_, bk. 4; _ex Ponto_,
bk. 4, ltr. 10.――_Tzetzes_, _On Lycophron_, lis. 662 & 818.――_Homer_,
_Odyssey_, bk. 10, li. 81.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 7, li. 276.
=Læta=, the wife of the emperor Gratian, celebrated for her humanity
and generous sentiments.
=Lætoria lex=, ordered that proper persons should be appointed to
provide for the security and the possession of such as were insane,
or squandered away their estates. It made it a high crime to abuse
the weakness of persons under such circumstances. _Cicero_, _de
Officiis_, bk. 3.
=Lætus=, a Roman whom Commodus condemned to be put to death. This
violence raised Lætus against Commodus; he conspired against him,
and raised Pertinax to the throne.――――A general of the emperor
Severus, put to death for his treachery to the emperor; or,
according to others, on account of his popularity.
=Lævi=, the ancient inhabitants of Gallia Transpadana.
=Lævīnus=, a Roman consul sent against Pyrrhus, A.U.C. 474. He informed
the monarch that the Romans would not accept him as an arbitrator
in the war with Tarentum, and feared him not as an enemy. He was
defeated by Pyrrhus.――――Publius Valerius, a man despised at Rome,
because he was distinguished by no good quality. _Horace_, bk. 1,
satire 6, li. 12.
=Lagaria=, a town of Lucania.
=Lagia=, a name of the island Delos. _See:_ Delos.
=Lagĭdes.= _See:_ Lagus.
=Laginia=, a town of Caria.
=Lagus=, a Macedonian of mean extraction. He received in marriage
Arsinoe the daughter of Meleager, who was then pregnant by king
Philip, and being willing to hide the disgrace of his wife, he
exposed the child in the woods. An eagle preserved the life of the
infant, fed him with her prey, and sheltered him with her wings
against the inclemency of the air. This uncommon preservation was
divulged by Lagus, who adopted the child as his own, and called
him Ptolemy, conjecturing that as his life had been so miraculously
preserved, his days would be spent in grandeur and affluence. This
Ptolemy became king of Egypt after the death of Alexander. According
to other accounts Arsinoe was nearly related to Philip king of
Macedonia, and her marriage with Lagus was not considered as
dishonourable, because he was opulent and powerful. The first of the
Ptolemies is called _Lagus_, to distinguish him from his successors
of the same name. Ptolemy, the first of the Macedonian kings of
Egypt, wished it to be believed that he was the legitimate son
of Lagus, and he preferred the name of _Lagides_ to all other
appellations. It is even said that he established a military order
in Alexandria, which was called Lageion. The surname of Lagides
was transmitted to all his descendants on the Egyptian throne till
the reign of Cleopatra, Antony’s mistress. Plutarch mentions an
anecdote which serves to show how far the legitimacy of Ptolemy
was believed in his age. A pedantic grammarian, says the historian,
once displaying his great knowledge of antiquity in the presence
of Ptolemy, the king suddenly interrupted him with the question
of, “Pray tell me, sir, who was the father of Peleus?” “Tell me,”
replied the grammarian, without hesitation, “tell me, if you
can, O king! who the father of Lagus was.” This reflection on
the meanness of the monarch’s birth did not in the least irritate
his resentment, though the courtiers all glowed with indignation.
Ptolemy praised the humour of the grammarian, and showed his
moderation and the mildness of his temper by taking him under his
patronage. _Pausanias_, _Attica_.――_Justin_, bk. 13.――_Curtius_,
bk. 4.――_Plutarch_, _De Cohibenda Ira_.――_Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 684.
――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 1, li. 196.――――A Rutulian, killed by Pallas
son of Evander. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 381.
=Lagūsa=, an island in the Pamphylian sea.――――Another near Crete.
_Strabo_, bk. 10.――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 31.
=Lagȳra=, a city of Taurica Chersonesus.
=Laiădes=, a patronymic of Œdipus son of Laius. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 6, fable 18.
=Laias=, a king of Arcadia, who succeeded his father Cypselus, &c.
_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 5.――――A king of Elis, &c.
=Lais=, a celebrated courtesan, daughter of Timandra the mistress of
Alcibiades, born at Hyccara in Sicily. She was carried away from her
native country into Greece, when Nicias the Athenian general invaded
Sicily. She first began to sell her favours at Corinth, for 10,000
drachmas, and the immense number of princes, noblemen, philosophers,
orators, and plebeians who courted her embraces, show how much
commendation is owed to her personal charms. The expenses which
attended her pleasures gave rise to the proverb of _Non cuivis
homini contingit adire Corinthum_. Even Demosthenes himself visited
Corinth for the sake of Lais, but when he was informed by the
courtesans that admittance to her bed was to be bought at the
enormous sum of about 300_l._ English money, the orator departed, and
observed that he would not buy repentance at so dear a price. The
charms which had attracted Demosthenes to Corinth, had no influence
upon Xenocrates. When Lais saw the philosopher unmoved by her beauty,
she visited his house herself; but there she had no reason to boast
of the licentiousness or easy submission of Xenocrates. Diogenes
the cynic was one of her warmest admirers, and though filthy in
his dress and manners, yet he gained her heart and enjoyed her most
unbounded favours. The sculptor Mycon also solicited the favours of
Lais, but he met with coldness; he, however, attributed the cause
of his ill reception to the whiteness of his hair, and dyed it of
a brown colour, but to no purpose. “Fool that thou art,” said the
courtesan, “to ask what I refused yesterday to thy father.” Lais
ridiculed the austerity of philosophers, and laughed at the weakness
of those who pretend to have gained a superiority over their
passions, by observing that the sages and philosophers of the
age were not above the rest of mankind, for she found them at her
door as often as the rest of the Athenians. The success which her
debaucheries met at Corinth encouraged Lais to pass into Thessaly,
and more particularly to enjoy the company of a favourite youth
called Hippostratus. She was, however, disappointed: the women of
the place, jealous of her charms, and apprehensive of her corrupting
the fidelity of their husbands, assassinated her in the temple of
Venus, about 340 years before the christian era. Some suppose that
there were two persons of this name, a mother and her daughter.
_Cicero_, _Letters to his Friends_, bk. 9, ltr. 26.――_Ovid_,
_Amores_, bk. 1, poem 5.――_Plutarch_, _Alcibiades_.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 2, ch. 2.
=Lāius=, a son of Labdacus, who succeeded to the throne of Thebes,
which his grandfather Nycteus had left to the care of his brother
Lycus, till his grandson came of age. He was driven from his kingdom
by Amphion and Zethus, who were incensed against Lycus for the
indignities which Antiope had suffered. He was afterwards restored,
and married Jocasta the daughter of Creon. An oracle informed him
that he should perish by the hand of his son, and in consequence of
this dreadful intelligence he resolved never to approach his wife. A
day spent in debauch and intoxication made him violate his vow, and
Jocasta brought forth a son. The child as soon as born was given to
a servant, with orders to put him to death. The servant was moved
with compassion, and only exposed him on mount Cithæron, where his
life was preserved by a shepherd. The child, called Œdipus, was
educated in the court of Polybus, and an unfortunate meeting with
his father in a narrow road proved his ruin. Œdipus ordered his
father to make way for him without knowing who he was. Laius refused,
and was instantly murdered by his irritated son. His armour-bearer
or charioteer shared his fate. _See:_ Œdipus. _Sophocles_, _Œdipus_.
――_Hyginus_, fables 9 & 66.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Apollodorus_,
bk. 3, ch. 5.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, chs. 5 & 26.――_Plutarch_, _de
Curiositate_.
=Lalăge=, one of Horace’s favourite mistresses. _Horace_, bk. 1,
ode 22, &c.――_Propertius_, bk. 4, poem 7.――――A woman censured for
her cruelty. _Martial_, bk. 2, ltr. 66.
=Lalassis=, a river of Isauria.
=Lamăchus=, a son of Xenophanes, sent into Sicily with Nicias. He
was killed B.C. 414, before Syracuse, where he had displayed much
courage and intrepidity. _Plutarch_, _Alcibiades_.――――A governor of
Heraclea in Pontus, who betrayed his trust to Mithridates, after he
had invited all the inhabitants to a sumptuous feast.
=Lamalmon=, a large mountain of Æthiopia.
=Lambrāni=, a people of Italy near the Lambrus. _Suetonius_, _Cæsar_.
=Lambrus=, a river of Cisalpine Gaul, falling into the Po.
=Lămia=, a town of Thessaly at the bottom of the Sinus Maliacus or
Lamiacus, and north of the river Sperchius, famous for a siege which
it supported after Alexander’s death. _See:_ Lamiacum. _Diodorus_,
bk. 16, &c.――_Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 6.――――A river of Greece
opposite mount Œta.――――A daughter of Neptune, mother of Hierophile,
an ancient Sibyl, by Jupiter. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 12.――――A
famous courtesan, mistress to Demetrius Poliorcetes. _Plutarch_,
_Demetrius_.――_Athenæus_, bk. 13.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 13,
ch. 9.
=Lamia= and =Auxesia=, two deities of Crete, whose worship was the
same as at Eleusis. The Epidaurians made them two statues of an
olive tree given them by the Athenians, provided they came to offer
a sacrifice to Minerva at Athens. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 30, &c.
=Lamiăcum bellum=, happened after the death of Alexander, when the
Greeks, and particularly the Athenians, incited by their orators,
resolved to free Greece from the garrisons of the Macedonians.
Leosthenes was appointed commander of a numerous force, and marched
against Antipater, who then presided over Macedonia. Antipater
entered Thessaly at the head of 13,000 foot and 600 horse, and was
beaten by the superior force of the Athenians and of their Greek
confederates. Antipater after this blow fled to Lamia, B.C. 323,
where he resolved, with all the courage and sagacity of a careful
general, to maintain a siege with about the 8000 or 9000 men that
had escaped from the field of battle. Leosthenes, unable to take the
city by storm, began to make a regular siege. His operations were
delayed by the frequent sallies of Antipater; and Leosthenes being
killed by the blow of a stone, Antipater made his escape out of
Lamia, and soon after, with the assistance of the army of Craterus
brought from Asia, he gave the Athenians battle near Cranon,
and though only 500 of their men were slain, yet they became so
dispirited, that they sued for peace from the conqueror. Antipater
at last with difficulty consented, provided they raised taxes in the
usual manner, received a Macedonian garrison, defrayed the expenses
of the war, and lastly, delivered into his hands Demosthenes and
Hyperides, the two orators, whose prevailing eloquence had excited
their countrymen against him. These disadvantageous terms were
accepted by the Athenians, yet Demosthenes had time to escape
and poison himself. Hyperides was carried before Antipater, who
ordered his tongue to be cut off, and afterwards put him to death.
_Plutarch_, _Demosthenes_.――_Diodorus_, bk. 17.――_Justin_, bk. 11,
&c.
=Lămiæ=, small islands in the Ægean, opposite Troas. _Pliny_, bk. 5,
ch. 31.――――A celebrated family at Rome, descended from Lamus.
――――Certain monsters of Africa, who had the face and breast of
a woman, and the rest of their body like that of a serpent. They
allured strangers to come to them, that they might devour them;
and though they were not endowed with the faculty of speech, yet
their hissings were pleasing and agreeable. Some believed them to be
witches, or rather evil spirits, who, under the form of a beautiful
woman, enticed young children and devoured them. According to
some, the fable of the Lamiæ is derived from the amours of Jupiter
with a certain beautiful woman called Lamia, whom the jealousy
of Juno rendered deformed, and whose children she destroyed; upon
which Lamia became insane, and so desperate that she ate up all the
children that came in her way. They are also called Lemures. _See:_
Lemures. _Philostratus_, _Life of Apollonius_.――_Horace_, _Art of
Poetry_, li. 340.――_Plutarch_, _de Curiositate_.――_Dion._
=Lămias Ælius=, a governor of Syria under Tiberius. He was honoured
with a public funeral by the senate; and as having been a
respectable and useful citizen, Horace has dedicated his ode 26,
bk. 1, to his praises, as also bk. 3, ode 17.――_Tacitus_, _Annals_,
bk. 6, ch. 27.――――Another during the reign of Domitian, put to death,
&c.
=Lamīrus=, a son of Hercules by Iole.
=Lampĕdo=, a woman of Lacedæmon, who was daughter, wife, sister, and
mother of a king. She lived in the age of Alcibiades. Agrippina the
mother of Claudius could boast the same honours. _Tacitus_, _Annals_,
bk. 12, chs. 22 & 37.――_Plutarch_, _Agesilaus_.――_Plato_, bk. 1,
_Alcibiades_.――_Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 41.
=Lampĕtia=, a daughter of Apollo and Neæra. She, with her sister
Phaetusa, guarded her father’s flocks in Sicily when Ulysses arrived
on the coasts of that island. These flocks were 14 in number, seven
herds of oxen, and seven flocks of sheep, consisting each of 50.
They fed by night as well as by day, and it was deemed unlawful
and sacrilegious to touch them. The companions of Ulysses, impelled
by hunger, paid no regard to their sanctity, or to the threats
and entreaties of their chief; but they carried away and killed
some of the oxen. The watchful keepers complained to their father,
and Jupiter, at the request of Apollo, punished the offence of the
Greeks. The hides of the oxen appeared to walk, and the flesh, which
was roasting by the fire, began to bellow, and nothing was heard but
dreadful noises and loud lowings. The companions of Ulysses embarked
on board their ships, but here the resentment of Jupiter followed
them. A storm arose, and they all perished except Ulysses, who saved
himself on the broken piece of a mast. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 12,
ch. 119.――_Propertius_, bk. 3, poem 12.――――According to _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 2, li. 349, Lampetia is one of the Heliades,
who was changed into a poplar tree at the death of her brother
Phaeton.
=Lampeto= and =Lampedo=, a queen of the Amazons, who boasted herself
to be the daughter of Mars. She gained many conquests in Asia, where
she founded several cities. She was surprised afterwards by a band
of barbarians, and destroyed with her female attendants. _Justin_,
bk. 2, ch. 4.
=Lampeus= and =Lampia=, a mountain of Arcadia. _Statius_, bk. 8.
=Lampon=, =Lampos=, or =Lampus=, one of the horses of Diomedes,――――of
Hector,――――of Aurora. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 8; _Odyssey_, bk. 23.
――――A son of Laomedon, father of Dolops.――――A soothsayer of Athens
in the age of Socrates. _Plutarch_, _Pericles_.
=Lampōnia= and =Lampōnium=, a city of Troas. _Herodotus_, bk. 5,
ch. 26.――――An island on the coast of Thrace. _Strabo_, bk. 13.
=Lamponius=, an Athenian general, sent by his countrymen to attempt
the conquest of Sicily. _Justin_, bk. 4, ch. 3.
=Lampridius Ælius=, a Latin historian in the fourth century, who wrote
the lives of some of the Roman emperors. His style is inelegant, and
his arrangements injudicious. His life of Commodus, Heliogabalus,
Alexander Severus, &c., is still extant, and to be found in the
works of the _Historiæ Augustæ Scriptores_.
=Lamprus=, a celebrated musician, &c.――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Epaminondas_.
=Lampsăcus= and =Lampsăcum=, now _Lamsaki_, a town of Asia Minor on
the borders of the Propontis, at the north of Abydos. Priapus was
the chief deity of the place, of which he was reckoned by some the
founder. His temple there was the asylum of lewdness and debauchery,
and exhibited scenes of the most unnatural lust, and hence the
epithet _Lampsacius_ is usual to express immodesty and wantonness.
Alexander resolved to destroy the city on account of the vices of
its inhabitants, and more probably for its firm adherence to the
interest of Persia. It was, however, saved from ruin by the artifice
of Anaximenes. _See:_ Anaximenes. It was formerly called Pityusa,
and received the name of Lampsacus, from Lampsace, a daughter of
Mandron, a king of Phrygia, who gave information to some Phoceans
who dwelt there, that the rest of the inhabitants had conspired
against their life. This timely information saved them from
destruction. The city afterwards bore the name of their preserver.
The wine of Lampsacus was famous and therefore a tribute of wine
was granted from the city by Xerxes to maintain the table of
Themistocles. _Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 19.――_Strabo_, bk. 13.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 9, ch. 31.――_Herodotus_, bk. 5, ch. 117.――_Cornelius Nepos_,
_Themistocles_, ch. 10.――_Ovid_, bk. 1, _Tristia_, poem 9, li. 26;
_Fasti_, bk. 8, li. 345.――_Livy_, bk. 33, ch. 38; bk. 35, ch. 42.
――_Martial_, bk. 11, poems 17, 52.
=Lamptera=, a town of Phocæa in Ionia. _Livy_, bk. 37, ch. 31.
=Lamptĕria=, a festival at Pellene, in Achaia, in honour of Bacchus,
who was surnamed Lampter, from λαμπειν, _to shine_, because, during
this solemnity, which was observed in the night, the worshippers
went to the temple of Bacchus, with lighted torches in their hands.
It was also customary to place vessels full of wine in several parts
of every street in the city. _Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 21.
=Lampus=, a son of Ægyptus.――――A man of Elis.――――A son of Prolaus.
=Lămus=, a king of the Læstrygones, who is supposed by some to have
founded Formiæ in Italy. The family of the Lamiæ at Rome was,
according to the opinion of some, descended from him. _Horace_,
bk. 3, ode 17.――――A son of Hercules and Omphale, who succeeded his
mother on the throne of Lydia. _Ovid_, _Heroides_, poem 9, li. 54.
――――A Latin chief killed by Nisus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 334.
――――A river of Bœotia. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 31.――――A Spartan
general hired by Nectanebus king of Egypt. _Diodorus_, bk. 16.――――A
city of Cilicia.――――A town near Formiæ built by the Læstrygones.
=Lămy̆rus=, _buffoon_, a surname of one of the Ptolemies.――――One of the
auxiliaries of Turnus, killed by Nisus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9,
li. 334.
=Lanassa=, a daughter of Cleodæus, who married Pyrrhus the son of
Achilles by whom she had eight children. _Plutarch_, _Pyrrhus_.
――_Justin_, bk. 17, ch. 3.――――A daughter of Agathocles, who married
Pyrrhus, whom she soon after forsook for Demetrius. _Plutarch._
=Lancēa=, a fountain, &c. _Pausanias._
=Lancia=, a town of Lusitania. _Florus_, bk. 4, ch. 12.
=Landi=, a people of Germany conquered by Cæsar.
=Langia=, a river of Peloponnesus, falling into the bay of Corinth.
=Langobardi=, a warlike nation of Germany, along the Sprhe, called
improperly Lombards by some. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 2, ch. 45;
_Germania_, ch. 40.
=Langrobriga=, a town of Lusitania.
=Lanŭvium=, a town of Latium, about 16 miles from Rome on the Appian
road. Juno had there a celebrated temple, which was frequented by
the inhabitants of Italy, and particularly by the Romans, whose
consuls on first entering upon office offered sacrifices to the
goddess. The statue of the goddess was covered with a goat’s skin,
and armed with a buckler and spear, and wore shoes which were turned
upwards in the form of a cone. _Cicero_, _For Lucius Murena_; _de
Natura Deorum_, bk. 1, ch. 29; _For Milo_, ch. 10.――_Livy_, bk. 8,
ch. 14.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 13, li. 364.
=Laobōtas=, or =Lābotas=, a Spartan king, of the family of the Agidæ,
who succeeded his father Echestratus, B.C. 1023. During his reign
war was declared against Argos, by Sparta. He sat on the throne for
37 years, and was succeeded by Doryssus his son. _Pausanias_, bk. 3,
ch. 2.
=Lāŏcoon=, a son of Priam and Hecuba, or, according to others, of
Antenor, or of Capys. As being priest of Apollo, he was commissioned
by the Trojans to offer a bullock to Neptune to render him
propitious. During the sacrifice two enormous serpents issued from
the sea, and attacked Laocoon’s two sons, who stood next to the
altar. The father immediately attempted to defend his sons, but
the serpents, falling upon him, squeezed him in their complicated
wreaths, so that he died in the greatest agonies. This punishment
was inflicted upon him for his temerity in dissuading the Trojans
to bring into the city the fatal wooden horse which the Greeks had
consecrated to Minerva, as also for his impiety in hurling a javelin
against the sides of the horse as it entered within the walls.
Hyginus attributes this to his marriage against the consent of
Apollo, or, according to others, for his polluting the temple by
his commerce with his wife Antiope before the statue of the god.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 2, lis. 41 & 201.――_Hyginus_, fable 135.
=Laodămas=, a son of Alcinous king of the Phæacians, who offered to
wrestle with Ulysses, while at his father’s court. Ulysses, mindful
of the hospitality of Alcinous, refused the challenge of Laodamas.
_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 7, li. 170.――――A son of Eteocles king of
Thebes. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 15.
=Lāŏdămīa=, a daughter of Acastus and Astydamia, who married
Protesilaus, the son of Iphiclus king of a part of Thessaly. The
departure of her husband for the Trojan war was the source of grief
to her, but when she heard that he had fallen by the hand of Hector,
her sorrow was increased. To keep alive the memory of her husband
whom she had tenderly loved, she ordered a wooden statue to be
made and regularly placed in her bed. This was seen by one of her
servants, who informed Iphiclus that his daughter’s bed was daily
defiled by an unknown stranger. Iphiclus watched his daughter, and
when he found that the intelligence was false, he ordered the wooden
image to be burned, in hopes of dissipating his daughter’s grief.
He did not succeed. Laodamia threw herself into the flames with the
image and perished. This circumstance has given occasion to fabulous
traditions related by the poets, which mention that Protesilaus was
restored to life, and to Laodamia, for three hours, and that when
he was obliged to return to the infernal regions, he persuaded his
wife to accompany him. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 447.――_Ovid_,
_Heroides_, poem 13.――_Hyginus_, fable 104.――_Propertius_, bk. 1,
poem 19.――――A daughter of Bellerophon, by Achemone the daughter
of king Iobates. She had a son by Jupiter, called Sarpedon. She
dedicated herself to the service of Diana, and hunted with her; but
her haughtiness proved fatal to her, and she perished by the arrows
of the goddess. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bks. 6, 12 & 16.――――A daughter
of Alexander king of Epirus, by Olympia the daughter of Pyrrhus.
She was assassinated in the temple of Diana, where she had fled
for safety during a sedition. Her murderer, called Milo, soon
after turned his dagger against his own breast and killed himself.
_Justin_, bk. 28, ch. 3.
=Lāŏdĭce=, a daughter of Priam and Hecuba, who became enamoured of
Acamas son of Theseus, when he came with Diomedes from the Greeks
to Troy with an embassy to demand the restoration of Helen. She
obtained an interview and the gratification of her desires at the
house of Philebia, the wife of a governor of a small town of Troas,
which the Greek ambassador had visited. She had a son by Acamas,
whom she called Munitus. She afterwards married Helicaon, son
of Antenor and Telephus king of Mysia. Some call her Astyoche.
According to the Greek scholiast of Lycophron, Laodice threw herself
down from the top of a tower and was killed, when Troy was sacked
by the Greeks. _Dictys Cretensis_, bk. 1.――_Pausanias_, bk. 13,
ch. 26.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bks. 3 & 6.――――One of the Oceanides.――――A
daughter of Cinyras, by whom Elatus had some children. _Apollodorus_,
bk. 3, ch. 14.――――A daughter of Agamemnon, called also Electra.
_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 9.――――A sister of Mithridates, who married
Ariarathes king of Cappadocia, and afterwards her own brother
Mithridates. During the secret absence of Mithridates, she
prostituted herself to her servants, in hopes that her husband was
dead; but when she saw her expectations frustrated, she attempted
to poison Mithridates, for which she was put to death.――――A queen
of Cappadocia, put to death by her subjects for poisoning five of
her children.――――A sister and wife of Antiochus II. She put to death
Berenice, whom her husband had married. _See:_ Antiochus II. She
was murdered by order of Ptolemy Evergetes, B.C. 246.――――A daughter
of Demetrius, shamefully put to death by Ammonius, the tyrannical
minister of the vicious Alexander Bala king of Syria.――――A daughter
of Seleucus.――――The mother of Seleucus. Nine months before she
brought forth she dreamt that Apollo had introduced himself into
her bed, and had presented her with a precious stone, on which was
engraved the figure of an anchor, commanding her to deliver it to
her son as soon as born. This dream appeared the more wonderful,
when in the morning she discovered in her bed a ring answering the
same description. Not only the son that she brought forth, called
Seleucus, but also all his successors of the house of the Seleucidæ,
had the mark of an anchor upon their thigh. _Justin._ _Appian_,
_Syrian Wars_ mentions this anchor, though in a different manner.
=Lāŏdĭcēa=, now _Ladik_, a city of Asia, on the borders of Caria,
Phrygia, and Lydia, celebrated for its commerce, and the fine soft
and black wool of its sheep. It was originally called _Diospolis_,
and afterwards _Rhoas_; and received the name of Laodicea, in honour
of Laodice the wife of Antiochus. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 29.――_Strabo_,
bk. 12.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 12.――_Cicero_, bk. 5, _Letters to
Atticus_, ltr. 15, _For Flaccus_.――――Another in Media, destroyed by
an earthquake in the age of Nero.――――Another in Syria, called by way
of distinction Laodicea _Cabiosa_, or _ad Libanum_.――――Another on
the borders of Cœlosyria. _Strabo._
=Lāŏdĭcēne=, a province of Syria, which receives its name from
Laodicea, its capital.
=Laodŏchus=, a son of Antenor, whose form Minerva borrowed to advise
Pandarus to break the treaty which subsisted between the Greeks and
Trojans. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 4.――――An attendant of Antilochus.
――――A son of Priam. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 12.――――A son of Apollo
and Phthia. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 7.
=Laogōnus=, a son of Bias, brother to Dardanus, killed by Achilles at
the siege of Troy. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 20, li. 461.――――A priest
of Jupiter, killed by Merion in the Trojan war. _Homer_, _Iliad_,
bk. 16, li. 604.
=Laogŏras=, a king of the Dryopes, who accustomed his subjects to
become robbers. He plundered the temple of Apollo at Delphi, and was
killed by Hercules. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.
=Laogŏre=, a daughter of Cinyras and Metharme daughter of Pygmalion.
She died in Egypt. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 14.
=Lāŏmĕdon=, son of Ilus king of Troy, married Strymon, called by some
Placia, or Leucippe, by whom he had Podarces, afterwards known by
the name of Priam, and Hesione. He built the walls of Troy, and
was assisted by Apollo and Neptune, whom Jupiter had banished from
heaven, and condemned to be subservient to the will of Laomedon for
one year. When the walls were finished, Laomedon refused to reward
the labours of the gods, and soon after his territories were laid
waste by the god of the sea, and his subjects were visited by a
pestilence sent by Apollo. Sacrifices were offered to the offended
divinities, but the calamities of the Trojans increased; and nothing
could appease the gods, according to the words of the oracle, but
annually to expose to a sea monster a Trojan virgin. Whenever the
monster appeared, the marriageable maidens were assembled, and the
lot decided which of them was doomed to death for the good of her
country. When this calamity had continued for five or six years, the
lot fell upon Hesione, Laomedon’s daughter. The king was unwilling
to part with a daughter whom he loved with uncommon tenderness, but
his refusal would irritate more strongly the wrath of the gods. In
the midst of his fears and hesitations, Hercules came and offered to
deliver the Trojans from this public calamity, if Laomedon promised
to reward him with a number of fine horses. The king consented, but
when the monster was destroyed, he refused to fulfil his engagements,
and Hercules was obliged to besiege Troy and take it by force of
arms. Laomedon was put to death after a reign of 29 years, his
daughter Hesione was given in marriage to Telamon, one of the
conqueror’s attendants, and Podarces was ransomed by the Trojans,
and placed upon his father’s throne. According to Hyginus, the
wrath of Neptune and Apollo was kindled against Laomedon, because
he refused to offer on their altars, as a sacrifice, all the
first-born of his cattle, according to a vow which he had made.
_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 21.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bks. 2 & 9.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 11, fable 6.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 5.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 20.――_Horace_, bk. 3, ode 3.――_Hyginus_,
fable 89.――――A demagogue of Messina in Sicily.――――A satrap of
Phœnicia, &c. _Curtius_, bk. 10, ch. 10.――――An Athenian, &c.
_Plutarch._――――An Orchomenian. _Plutarch._
=Laŏmĕdonteus=, an epithet applied to the Trojans from their king
Laomedon. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 4, li. 542; bk. 7, li. 105; bk. 8,
li. 18.
=Laŏmĕdontiădæ=, a patronymic given to the Trojans from Laomedon their
king. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 248.
=Laonŏme=, the wife of Polyphemus, one of the Argonauts.
=Laonŏmēne=, a daughter of Thespius, by whom Hercules had two sons,
Teles and Menippides, and two daughters, Lysidice and Stendedice.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 7.
=Laŏthoe=, a daughter of Altes, a king of the Leleges, who married
Priam and became mother of Lycaon and Polydorus. _Homer_, _Iliad_,
bk. 21, li. 85.――――One of the daughters of Thespius, mother of
Antidus by Hercules. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 7.
=Laous=, a river of Lacedæmon.
=Lapăthus=, a city of Cyprus.
=Laphria=, a surname of Diana at Patræ in Achaia, where she had a
temple with a statue of gold and ivory, which represented her in
the habit of a huntress. The statue was made by Menechmus and Soidas,
two artists of celebrity. This name was given the goddess from
Laphrius the son of Delphus, who consecrated the statue to her.
There was a festival of the goddess there, called also Laphria, of
which _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 18, gives an account.
=Laphystium=, a mountain in Bœotia, where Jupiter had a temple, whence
he was called _Laphystius_. It was here that Athamas prepared to
immolate Phryxus and Helle, whom Jupiter saved by sending them a
golden ram; whence the surname, and the homage paid to the god.
_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 34.
=Lapideus=, a surname of Jupiter among the Romans.
=Lăpĭthæ=, a people of Thessaly. _See:_ Lapithus.
=Lapĭtho=, a city of Cyprus.
=Lăpĭthus=, a son of Apollo by Stilbe. He was brother to Centaurus,
and married Orsinome daughter of Euronymus, by whom he had Phorbas
and Periphas. The name of _Lapithæ_ was given to the numerous
children of Phorbas and Periphas, or rather to the inhabitants of
the country, of which they had obtained the sovereignty. The chief
of the Lapithæ assembled to celebrate the nuptials of Pirithous, one
of their number, and among them were Theseus, Dryas, Hopleus, Mopsus,
Phalerus, Exadius, Prolochus, Titaresius, &c. The Centaurs were also
invited to partake the common festivity, and the amusements would
have been harmless and innocent, had not one of the intoxicated
Centaurs offered violence to Hippodamia the wife of Pirithous.
The Lapithæ resented the injury, and the Centaurs supported their
companions, upon which the quarrel became universal, and ended
in blows and slaughter. Many of the Centaurs were slain, and they
at last were obliged to retire. Theseus among the Lapithæ showed
himself brave and intrepid in supporting the cause of his friends,
and Nestor also was not less active in the protection of chastity
and innocence. This quarrel arose from the resentment of Mars, whom
Pirithous forgot or neglected to invite among the other gods at the
celebration of his nuptials, and therefore the divinity punished
the insult by sowing dissension among the festive assembly. _See:_
Centauri. Hesiod has described the battle of the Centaurs and
Lapithæ, as also Ovid in a more copious manner. The invention of
bits and bridles for horses is attributed to the Lapithæ. _Virgil_,
_Georgics_, bk. 3, li. 115; _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 601; bk. 7, li. 305.
――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12, li. 530; bk. 14, li. 670.
――_Hesiod_, _Shield of Heracles_.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Pindar_,
bk. 2, _Pythian_.――_Strabo_, bk. 9.――_Statius_, _Thebiad_, bk. 7,
li. 304.
=Lapithæum=, a town of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 20.
=Lara=, or =Laranda=, one of the Naiads, daughter of the river Almon
in Latium, famous for her beauty and her loquacity, which her
parents long endeavoured to correct, but in vain. She revealed to
Juno the amours of her husband Jupiter with Juturna, for which the
god cut off her tongue, and ordered Mercury to conduct her to the
infernal regions. The messenger of the gods fell in love with her
by the way, and gratified his passion. Lara became mother of two
children, to whom the Romans have paid divine honours, according to
the opinion of some, under the name of Lares. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 2,
li. 599.
=Larentia= and =Laurentia=, a courtesan in the first ages of Rome.
_See:_ Acca.
=Lăres=, gods of inferior power at Rome, who presided over houses and
families. They were two in number, sons of Mercury by Lara. _See:_
Lara. In process of time their power was extended not only over
houses, but also over the country and the sea, and we find Lares
_Urbani_ to preside over the cities, _Familiares_ over houses,
_Rustici_ over the country, _Compitales_ over cross-roads, _Marini_
over the sea, _Viales_ over the roads, _Patellarii_, &c. According
to the opinion of some, the worship of the gods Lares, who are
supposed to be the same as the manes, arises from the ancient custom
among the Romans and other nations of burying their dead in their
houses, and from their belief that their spirits continually hovered
over their houses, for the protection of the inhabitants. The
statues of the Lares resembling monkeys, and covered with the skin
of a dog, were placed in a niche behind the doors of the houses, or
around the hearths. At the feet of the Lares was the figure of a dog
barking, to intimate their care and vigilance. Incense was burnt on
their altars, and a sow was also offered on particular days. Their
festivals were observed at Rome in the month of May, when their
statues were crowned with garlands of flowers, and offerings of
fruit presented. The word Lares seems to be derived from the
Etruscan word _Lars_, which signifies conductor, or leader. _Ovid_,
_Fasti_, bk. 5, li. 129.――_Juvenal_, satire 8, li. 8.――_Plutarch_,
_Quæstiones Romanæ_.――_Varro_, _de Lingua Latina_, bk. 4, ch. 10.
――_Horace_, bk. 3, ode 23.――_Plautus_, _Aulularia_ & _Cistellaria_.
=Largra=, a well-known prostitute in Juvenal’s age. _Juvenal_,
satire 4, li. 25.
=Largus=, a Latin poet, who wrote a poem on the arrival of Antenor in
Italy, where he built the town of Padua. He composed with ease and
elegance. _Ovid_, _ex Ponto_, bk. 4, ltr. 16, li. 17.
=Larīdes=, a son of Daucus or Daunus, who assisted Turnus against
Æneas, and had his hand cut off with one blow by Pallas the son of
Evander. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 391.
=Lārīna=, a virgin of Italy, who accompanied Camilla in her war against
Æneas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 11, li. 655.
=Larīnum=, or =Lārīna=, now _Larino_, a town of the Frentani on the
Tifernus, before it falls into the Adriatic. The inhabitants were
called _Larinates_. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 15, li. 565.――_Cicero_,
_For Aulus Cluentius_, chs. 63, 64; _Letters to Atticus_, ltr. 12;
bk. 7, ltr. 13.――_Livy_, bk. 22, ch. 18; bk. 27, ch. 40.――_Cæsar_,
_Civil War_, bk. 1, ch. 23.
=Larissa=, a daughter of Pelasgus, who gave her name to some cities
in Greece. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 23.――――A city between Palestine
and Egypt, where Pompey was murdered and buried, according to some
accounts.――――A large city on the banks of the Tigris. It had a
small pyramid near it, greatly inferior to those of Egypt.――――A
city of Asia Minor, on the southern confines of Troas. _Strabo_,
bk. 13.――――Another in Æolia, 70 stadia from Cyme. It is surnamed
_Phriconis_ by Strabo, by way of distinction. _Strabo_, bk. 13.
――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2, li. 640.――――Another near Ephesus.
――――Another on the borders of the Peneus in Thessaly, also called
_Cremaste_ from its situation (_Pensilis_), the most famous of all
the cities of that name. It was here that Acrisius was inadvertently
killed by his grandson Perseus. Jupiter had there a famous temple,
on account of which he is called _Larissæus_. The same epithet is
also applied to Achilles, who reigned there. It is still extant,
and bears the same name. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 2, li. 542.
――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 2, li. 197.――_Lucan_, bk. 6.――_Livy_, bk.
31, ch. 46; bk. 42, ch. 56.――――A citadel of Argos, built by Danaus.
=Larissæus.= _See:_ Larissa.
=Larissus=, a river of Peloponnesus flowing between Elis and Achaia.
_Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Livy_, bk. 27, ch. 31.――_Pausanias_, bk. 8,
ch. 43.
=Larius=, a large lake of Cisalpine Gaul, through which the Addua runs
in its way into the Po, above Cremona. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 2,
li. 159.
=Larnos=, a small desolate island on the coast of Thrace.
=Laronia=, a shameless courtesan in Juvenal’s age. _Juvenal_, satire 2,
li. 86.
=Lars Tolumnius=, a king of the Veientes, conquered by the Romans, and
put to death, A.U.C. 329. _Livy_, bk. 4, chs. 17 & 19.
=Titus Lartius Flavius=, a consul who appeased a sedition raised by
the poorer citizens, and was the first dictator ever chosen at Rome,
B.C. 498. He made Spurius Cassius his master of horse. _Livy_, bk. 2,
ch. 18.――――Spurius, one of the three Romans who alone withstood
the fury of Porsenna’s army at the head of a bridge, while the
communication was cutting down behind them. His companions were
Cocles and Herminius. _See:_ Cocles. _Livy_, bk. 2, chs. 10 & 18.
――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus._――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 3, ch. 2.
――――The name of Lartius has been common to many Romans.
=Lartolætani=, a people of Spain.
=Larvæ=, a name given to the wicked spirits and apparitions which,
according to the notions of the Romans, issued from their graves
in the night and came to terrify the world. As the word _larva_
signifies a _mask_, whose horrid and uncouth appearance often serves
to frighten children, that name has been given to the ghosts or
spectres which superstition believes to hover around the graves
of the dead. Some call them Lemures. _Servius_, _Commentary on the
Aeneid of Vergil_, bk. 5, li. 64; bk. 6, li. 152.
=Larymna=, a town of Bœotia, where Bacchus had a temple and a statue.
――――Another in Caria. _Strabo_, bks. 9 & 16.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 16;
bk. 2, ch. 3.
=Larysium=, a mountain of Laconia. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 22.
=Lassia=, an ancient name of Andros.
=Lassus=, or =Lasus=, a dithyrambic poet, born at Hermione, in
Peloponnesus, about 500 years before Christ, and reckoned among the
wise men of Greece by some. He is particularly known by the answer
he gave to a man who asked him what could best render life pleasant
and comfortable? “Experience.” He was acquainted with music. Some
fragments of his poetry are to be found in Athenæus. He wrote an ode
upon the Centaurs, and a hymn to Ceres, without inserting the letter
S in the composition. _Athenæus_, bk. 10.
=Lasthĕnes=, a governor of Olynthus, corrupted by Philip king of
Macedonia.――――A Cretan demagogue, conquered by Metellus the Roman
general.――――A cruel minister at the court of the Seleucidæ, kings
of Syria.
=Lasthĕnīa=, a woman who disguised herself to come and hear Plato’s
lectures. _Diogenes Laërtius._
=Latăgus=, a king of Pontus, who assisted Æetes against the Argonauts,
and was killed by Darapes. _Flaccus_, bk. 5, li. 584.――――One of the
companions of Æneas, killed by Mezentius. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10,
li. 697.
=Laterānus Plautus=, a Roman consul elect, A.D. 65. A conspiracy
with Piso against the emperor Nero proved fatal to him. He was led
to execution, where he refused to confess the associates of the
conspiracy, and did not even frown at the executioner who was as
guilty as himself; but when a first blow could not sever his head
from his body, he looked at the executioner, and shaking his head,
he returned it to the hatchet with the greatest composure, and it was
cut off. There exists now a celebrated palace at Rome, which derives
its name from its ancient possessors the Laterani.
=Latĕrium=, the villa of Quintus Cicero at Arpinum, near the Liris.
_Cicero_, _Letters to Atticus_, bk. 10, ltr. 1; bk. 4, ltr. 7;
_Letters to his Friends_, bk. 3, ltr. 1.――_Pliny_, bk. 15, ch. 15.
=Latiālis=, a surname of Jupiter, who was worshipped by the inhabitants
of Latium upon mount Albanus at stated times. The festivals, which
were first instituted by Tarquin the Proud, lasted 15 days. _Livy_,
bk. 21. _See:_ Feriæ Latinæ.
=Latīni=, the inhabitants of Latium. _See:_ Latium.
=Latīnus Latiaris=, a celebrated informer, &c. _Tacitus._
=Latīnus=, a son of Faunus by Marica, king of the Aborigines in Italy,
who from him were called Latini. He married Amata, by whom he had a
son and a daughter. The son died in his infancy, and the daughter,
called Lavinia, was secretly promised in marriage by her mother to
Turnus king of the Rutuli, one of her most powerful admirers. The
gods opposed this union, and the oracles declared that Lavinia must
become the wife of a foreign prince. The arrival of Æneas in Italy
seemed favourable to this prediction, and Latinus, by offering his
daughter to the foreign prince, and making him his friend and ally,
seemed to have fulfilled the commands of the oracle. Turnus, however,
disapproved of the conduct of Latinus; he claimed Lavinia as his
lawful wife, and prepared to support his cause by arms. Æneas took
up arms in his own defence, and Latium was the seat of the war. After
mutual losses it was agreed that the quarrel should be decided by
the two rivals, and Latinus promised his daughter to the conqueror.
Æneas obtained the victory and married Lavinia. Latinus soon after
died, and was succeeded by his son-in-law. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9,
&c.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 13, &c.; _Fasti_, bk. 2, &c.
――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 1, ch. 13.――_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 1,
&c.――_Justin_, bk. 43, ch. 1.――――A son of Sylvius Æneas, surnamed
also Sylvius. He was the fifth king of the Latins, and succeeded
his father. He was father to Alba his successor. _Dionysius of
Halicarnassus_, bk. 1, ch. 15.――_Livy_, bk. 2, ch. 3.――――A son of
Ulysses and Circe also bore this name.
=Lătium=, a country of Italy near the river Tiber. It was originally
very circumscribed, extending only from the Tiber to Circeii, but
afterwards it comprehended the territories of the Volsci, Æqui,
Hernici, Ausones, Umbri, and Rutuli. The first inhabitants were
called _Aborigines_, and received the name of Latini, from Latinus
their king. According to others the word is derived from _lateo_,
_to conceal_, because Saturn concealed himself there when flying
the resentment of his son Jupiter. Laurentum was the capital of the
country in the reign of Latinus, Lavinium under Æneas, and Alba under
Ascanius. _See:_ Alba. The Latins, though originally known only among
their neighbours, soon rose in consequence when Romulus had founded
the city of Rome in their country. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 38;
bk. 8, li. 322.――_Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus._
――_Justin_, bk. 20, ch. 1.――_Plutarch_, _Romulus_.――_Pliny_, bk. 3,
ch. 12.――_Tacitus_, bk. 4, _Annals_, ch. 5.
=Latius=, a surname of Jupiter at Rome. _Statius_, bk. 5, _Sylvæ_,
poem 2, li. 392.
=Latmus=, a mountain of Caria near Miletus. It is famous for the
residence of Endymion, whom Diana regularly visited in the night,
whence he is often called _Latmius Heros_. _See:_ Endymion. _Mela_,
bk. 1, ch. 17.――_Ovid_, _Tristia_, bk. 2, li. 299; _Ars Amatoria_,
bk. 3, li. 83.――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 29.――_Strabo_, bk. 14.――_Cicero_,
bk. 1, _Tusculanæ Disputationes_, ch. 28.
=Latobius=, the god of health among the Corinthians.
=Latobrigri=, a people of Belgic Gaul.
=Latōis=, a name of Diana, as being the daughter of Latona.――――A
country house near Ephesus.
=Latomiæ=. _See:_ ♦Lautumiæ.
♦ ‘Latumiæ’ replaced with ‘Lautumiæ’
=Latōna=, a daughter of Cœus the Titan and Phœbe, or, according to
Homer, of Saturn. She was admired for her beauty, and celebrated
for the favours which she granted to Jupiter. Juno, always jealous
of her husband’s amours, made Latona the object of her vengeance,
and sent the serpent Python to disturb her peace and persecute her.
Latona wandered from place to place in the time of her pregnancy,
continually alarmed for fear of Python. She was driven from heaven,
and Terra, influenced by Juno, refused to give her a place where
she might find rest and bring forth. Neptune, moved with compassion,
struck with his trident, and made immovable the island of Delos,
which before wandered in the Ægean, and appeared sometimes above, and
sometimes below, the surface of the sea. Latona, changed into a quail
by Jupiter, came to Delos, where she resumed her original shape, and
gave birth to Apollo and Diana, leaning against a palm tree or an
olive. Her repose was of short duration. Juno discovered the place of
her retreat, and obliged her to fly from Delos. She wandered over the
greatest part of the world, and in Caria, where her fatigue compelled
her to stop, she was insulted and ridiculed by peasants of whom she
asked for water, while they were weeding a marsh. Their refusal and
insolence provoked her, and she intreated Jupiter to punish their
barbarity. They were all changed into frogs. She was exposed to
repeated insults by Niobe, who boasted herself greater than the
mother of Apollo and Diana, and ridiculed the presents which the
piety of her neighbours had offered to Latona. _See:_ Niobe. Her
beauty proved fatal to the giant Tityus, whom Apollo and Diana
put to death. _See:_ Tityus. At last Latona, though persecuted and
exposed to the resentment of Juno, became a powerful deity, and
saw her children receive divine honours. Her worship was generally
established where her children received adoration, particularly
at Argos, Delos, &c., where she had temples. She had an oracle in
Egypt, celebrated for the true, decisive answers which it gave.
_Diodorus_, bk. 5.――_Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 155.――_Pausanias_, bks.
2 & 3.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 21; _Hymns to Aphrodite & Artemis_.
――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, chs. 5 & 10.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 6, li. 160.――_Hyginus_, fable 140.
=Latopŏlis=, a city of Egypt. _Strabo._
=Latous=, a name ♦given to Apollo, as son of Latona. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 6, fable 9.
♦ ‘give’ replaced with ‘given’
=Latreus=, one of the Centaurs, who, after killing Halesus, was himself
slain by Cæneus. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12, li. 463.
=Laudămia=, a daughter of Alexander king of Epirus, and Olympias
daughter of Pyrrhus, killed in a temple of Diana, by the enraged
populace. _Justin_, bk. 28, ch. 3.――――The wife of Protesilaus. _See:_
Laodamia.
=Laudice.= _See:_ Laodice.
=Laverna=, the goddess of thieves and dishonest persons at Rome. She
did not only preside over robbers, called from her _Laverniones_,
but she protected such as deceived others, or performed their secret
machinations in obscurity and silence. Her worship was very popular,
and the Romans raised her an altar near one of the gates of the city,
which from that circumstance was called the gate of Laverna. She was
generally represented by a head without a body. _Horace_, bk. 1, ltr.
16, li. 60.――_Varro_, _de Lingua Latina_, bk. 4.――――A place mentioned
by _Plutarch_, &c.
=Lavernium=, a temple of Laverna, near Formiæ. _Cicero_, bk. 7,
_Letters to Atticus_, ltr. 8.
=Laufella=, a wanton woman, &c. _Juvenal_, satire 6, li. 319.
=Laviana=, a province of Armenia Minor.
=Lăvīnia=, a daughter of king Latinus and Amata. She was betrothed to
her relation king Turnus, but because the oracle ordered her father
to marry her to a foreign prince, she was given to Æneas after the
death of Turnus. _See:_ Latinus. At her husband’s death she was left
pregnant, and being fearful of the tyranny of Ascanius her son-in-law,
she fled into the woods, where she brought forth a son called Æneas
Sylvius. _Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 1.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bks. 6 & 7.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 14, li. 507.――_Livy_, bk. 1,
ch. 1.
=Lavīnium=, or =Lavīnum=, a town of Italy, built by Æneas, and called
by that name in honour of Lavinia, the founder’s wife. It was the
capital of Latium during the reign of Æneas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1,
li. 262.――_Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 1.
――_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 2.――_Justin_, bk. 43, ch. 2.
=Laura=, a place near Alexandria in Egypt.
=Laureacum=, a town at the confluence of the Ens and the Danube, now
_Lorch_.
=Laurentālia=, certain festivals celebrated at Rome in honour of
Laurentia, on the last day of April and the 23rd of December. They
were, in process of time, part of the Saturnalia. _Ovid_, _Fasti_,
bk. 3, li. 57.
=Laurentes agri=, the country in the neighbourhood of Laurentum.
_Tibullus_, bk. 2, poem 5, li. 41.
=Laurentia.= _See:_ Acca.
=Laurentīni=, the inhabitants of Latium. They received this name from
the great number of laurels which grew in the country. King Latinus
found one of uncommon largeness and beauty, when he was going to
build a temple to Apollo, and the tree was consecrated to the god,
and preserved with the most religious ceremonies. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 7, li. 59.
=Laurentius=, belonging to Laurentum or Latium. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 10, li. 709.
=Laurentum=, now _Paterno_, the capital of the kingdom of Latium in the
reign of Latinus. It is on the sea coast, east of the Tiber. _See:_
Laurentini. _Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 4.――_Livy_, bk. 1,
ch. 1.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 171.
=Laurion=, a place of Attica, where were gold mines, from which the
Athenians drew considerable revenues, and with which they built
their fleets by the advice of Themistocles. These mines failed before
the age of Strabo. _Thucydides_, bk. 2.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 1.
――_Strabo_, bk. 9.
=Lauron=, a town of Spain, where Pompey’s son was conquered by Cæsar’s
army.
=Laus=, now _Laino_, a town on the river of the same name, which forms
the southern boundary of Lucania. _Strabo_, bk. 6.
=Laus Pompeia=, a town of Italy, founded by a colony sent thither by
Pompey.
=Lausus=, a son of Numitor and brother of Ilia. He was put to death by
his uncle Amulius, who usurped his father’s throne. _Ovid_, _Fasti_,
bk. 4, li. 54.――――A son of Mezentius king of the Tyrrhenians, killed
by Æneas in the war which his father and Turnus made against the
Trojans. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 649; bk. 10, li. 426, &c.
=Lautium=, a city of Latium.
=Lautumiæ=, or =Latomiæ=, a prison at Syracuse, cut out of the solid
rock by Dionysius, and now converted into a subterraneous garden
filled with numerous shrubs, flourishing in luxuriant variety.
_Cicero_, _Against Verres_, bk. 5, ch. 27.――_Livy_, bk. 26, ch. 27;
bk. 32, ch. 26.
=Leades=, a son of Astacus, who killed Eteoclus. _Apollodorus._
=Lēæi=, a nation of Pæonia, near Macedonia.
=Leæna=, an Athenian harlot. _See:_ Læna.
=Leander=, a youth of Abydos, famous for his amours with Hero. _See:_
Hero.――――A Milesian who wrote an historical commentary upon his
country.
=Leandre=, a daughter of Amyclas, who married Arcas. _Apollodorus._
=Leandrias=, a Lacedæmonian refugee of Thebes, who declared, according
to an ancient oracle, that Sparta would lose the superiority over
Greece when conquered by the Thebans at Leuctra. _Diodorus_, bk. 15.
=Leanira=, a daughter of Amyclas. _See:_ Leandre.
=Learchus=, a son of Athamas and Ino, crushed to death against a wall
by his father, in a fit of madness. _See:_ Athamas. _Ovid_, _Fasti_,
bk. 6, li. 490.
=Lebădēa=, now _Lioadias_, a town of Bœotia, near mount Helicon. It
received this name from the mother of Aspledon, and became famous
for the oracle and cave of Trophonius. No moles could live there,
according to Pliny. _Strabo_, bk. 9.――_Pliny_, bk. 16, ch. 36.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 59.
=Lebĕdus=, or =Lebĕdos=, a town of Ionia, at the north of Colophon,
where festivals were yearly observed in honour of Bacchus, and where
Trophonius had a cave and a temple. Lysimachus destroyed it, and
carried part of the inhabitants to Ephesus. It had been founded by
an Athenian colony, under one of the sons of Codrus. _Strabo_, bk.
14.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ltr. 11, li. 7.――_Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 142.
――_Cicero_, bk. 1, _Divination_, ch. 33.
=Lebēna=, a commercial town of Crete, with a temple sacred to
Æsculapius. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 26.
=Lĕbinthos= and =Lebynthos=, an island in the Ægean sea, near Patmos.
_Strabo_, bk. 10.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 8, li. 222.
=Lechæum=, now _Pelago_, a port of Corinth in the bay of Corinth.
_Statius_, _Thebiad_, bk. 2, li. 381.――_Livy_, bk. 32, ch. 23.
=Lectum=, a promontory, now cape _Baba_, separating Troas from Æolia.
_Livy_, bk. 37, ch. 37.
=Lecythus=, a town of Eubœa.
=Leda=, a daughter of king Thespius and Eurythemis, who married Tyndarus
king of Sparta. She was seen bathing in the river Eurotas by Jupiter,
when she was some few days advanced in her pregnancy, and the god,
struck with her beauty, resolved to deceive her. He persuaded Venus
to change herself into an eagle, while he assumed the form of a
swan, and, after this metamorphosis, Jupiter, as if fearful of the
tyrannical cruelty of the bird of prey, fled through the air into
the arms of Leda, who willingly sheltered the trembling swan from
the assaults of his superior enemy. The caresses with which the
naked Leda received the swan, enabled Jupiter to avail himself of his
situation, and nine months after this adventure, the wife of Tyndarus
brought forth two eggs, of one of which sprang Pollux and Helena,
and of the other Castor and Clytemnestra. The two former were deemed
the offspring of Jupiter, and the others claimed Tyndarus for their
father. Some mythologists attributed this amour to Nemesis, and not
to Leda; and they further mention, that Leda was entrusted with the
education of the children which sprang from the eggs brought forth
by Nemesis. _See:_ Helena. To reconcile this diversity of opinions,
others maintain that Leda received the name of Nemesis after death.
Homer and Hesiod make no mention of the metamorphosis of Jupiter
into a swan, whence some have imagined that the fable was unknown
to these two ancient poets, and probably invented since their age.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 8; bk. 3, ch. 10.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 6, li. 109.――_Hesiod_, bk. 17, li. 55.――_Hyginus_, fable 77.
――_Isocrates_, _Helen_.――_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 11.――_Euripides_,
_Helen_.――――A famous dancer in the age of _Juvenal_, satire 6, li. 63.
=Ledæa=, an epithet given to Hermione, &c., as related to Leda.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 328.
=Ledus=, now _Lez_, a river of Gaul, near the modern Montpelier. _Mela_,
bk. 2, ch. 5.
=Lĕgio=, a corps of soldiers in the Roman armies, whose numbers have
been different at different times. The legion under Romulus consisted
of 3000 foot and 300 horse, and was soon after augmented to 4000,
after the admission of the Sabines into the city. When Annibal was
in Italy it consisted of 5000 soldiers, and afterwards it decreased
to 4000, or 4500. Marius made it consist of 6200, besides 700 horse.
This was the period of its greatness in numbers. Livy speaks of 10,
and even 18, legions kept at Rome. During the consular government it
was usual to levy and fit up four legions, which were divided between
the two consuls. This number was, however, often increased, as time
and occasion required. Augustus maintained a standing army of 23 or
25 legions, and this number was seldom diminished. In the reign of
Tiberius there were 27 legions, and the peace establishment of Adrian
maintained no less than 30 of these formidable brigades. They were
distributed over the Roman empire, and their stations were settled
and permanent. The peace of Britain was protected by three legions;
16 were stationed on the banks of the Rhine and Danube, viz. two in
Lower, and three in Upper Germany; one in Noricum, one in Rhætia,
three in Mœsia, four in Pannonia, and two in Dacia. Eight were
stationed on the Euphrates, six of which remained in Syria, and two
in Cappadocia; while the remote provinces of Egypt, Africa, and Spain
were guarded each by a single legion. Besides these the tranquillity
of Rome was preserved by 20,000 soldiers, who, under the titles
of city cohorts and of pretorian guards, watched over the safety
of the monarch and of the capital. The legions were distinguished
by different appellations, and generally borrowed their name from
the order in which they were first raised, as _prima_, _secunda_,
_tertia_, _quarta_, &c. Besides this distinction, another more
expressive was generally added, as from the name of the emperor
who embodied them, as _Augusta_, _Claudiana_, _Galbiana_, _Flavia_,
_Ulpia_, _Trajana_, _Antoniana_, &c.; from the provinces or quarters
where they were stationed, as _Britannica_, _Cyreniaca_, _Gallica_,
&c.; from the provinces which had been subdued by their valour,
as _Parthica_, _Scythica_, _Arabica_, _Africana_, &c.; from the
names of the deities whom their generals particularly worshipped,
as _Minervia_, _Apollinaris_, &c.; or from more trifling accidents,
as _Martia_, _Fulminatrix_, _Rapax_, _Adjutrix_, &c. Each legion was
divided into 10 _cohorts_, each cohort into three _manipuli_, and
every manipulus into two centuries or _ordines_. The chief commander
of the legion was called _legatus_, lieutenant. The standards borne
by the legions were various. In the first ages of Rome a wolf was the
standard, in honour of Romulus; after that a hog, because that animal
was generally sacrificed at the conclusion of a treaty, and therefore
it indicated that war is undertaken for the obtaining of peace. A
minotaur was sometimes the standard, to intimate the secrecy with
which the general was to act, in commemoration of the labyrinth.
Sometimes a horse or boar was used, till the age of Marius, who
changed all these for the eagle, being a representation of that bird
in silver, holding sometimes a thunderbolt in its claws. The Roman
eagle ever after remained in use, though Trajan made use of the
dragon.
=Leitus=, or =Letus=, a commander of the Bœotians at the siege of Troy.
He was saved from the victorious hand of Hector and from death by
Idomeneus. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bks. 2, 6 & 17.――――One of the Argonauts,
son of Alector. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 9.
=Lelaps=, a dog that never failed to seize and conquer whatever animal
he was ordered to pursue. It was given to Procris by Diana, and
Procris reconciled herself to her husband by presenting him with that
valuable present. According to some, Procris had received it from
Minos, as a reward for the dangerous wounds of which she had cured
him. _Hyginus_, fable 128.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, li. 771.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 19.――――One of Actæon’s dogs. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 3, li. 211.
=Lĕlĕges= (_a_ λεγω, _to gather_), a wandering people, composed of
different unconnected nations. They were originally inhabitants
of Caria, and went to the Trojan war with Altes their king.
Achilles plundered their country, and obliged them to retire to the
neighbourhood of Halicarnassus, where they fixed their habitation.
The inhabitants of Laconia and Megara bore this name for some time,
from Lelex, one of their kings. _Strabo_, bks. 7 & 8.――_Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 21, li. 85.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 7; bk. 5, ch. 30.
――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8, li. 725.――_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 1.
=Lelegeis=, a name applied to Miletus, because once possessed by the
Leleges. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 29.
=Lelex=, an Egyptian, who came with a colony to Megara, where he reigned
about 200 years before the Trojan war. His subjects were called from
him _Leleges_, and the place _Lelegeia mœnia_. _Pausanias_, bk. 3,
ch. 1.――――A Greek, who was the first king of Laconia in Peloponnesus.
His subjects were also called _Leleges_, and the country where he
reigned _Lelegia_. _Pausanias._
=Lemanis=, a place in Britain, where Cæsar is supposed to have first
landed, and therefore placed by some at Lime in Kent.
=Lemannus=, a lake in the country of the Allobroges, through which
the Rhone flows by Geneva. It is now called the lake of Geneva or
Lausanne. _Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 396.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 5.
=Lemnos=, an island in the Ægean sea between Tenedos, Imbros, and
Samothrace. It was sacred to Vulcan, called _Lemnius pater_, who
fell there when kicked down from heaven by Jupiter. _See:_ Vulcanus.
It was celebrated for two horrible massacres; that of the Lemnian
women murdering their husbands [_See:_ ♦Hypsipyle], and that of the
Lemnians, or Pelasgi, in killing all the children they had had by
some Athenian women, whom they had carried away to become their wives.
These two acts of cruelty have given rise to the proverb of _Lemnian
actions_, which is applied to all barbarous and inhuman deeds. The
first inhabitants of Lemnos were the Pelasgi, or rather the Thracians,
who were murdered by their wives. After them came the children of
the Lemnian widows by the Argonauts, whose descendants were at last
expelled by the Pelasgi, about 1100 years before the christian era.
Lemnos is about 112 miles in circumference, according to Pliny, who
says that it is often shadowed by mount Athos, though at the distance
of 87 miles. It has been called ♦_Hypsipyle_, from queen ♦Hypsipyle.
It is famous for a certain kind of earth or chalk, called _terra
Lemnia_ or _terra sigillata_, from the seal or impression which
it can bear. As the inhabitants were blacksmiths, the poets have
taken occasion to fix the forges of Vulcan in that island, and
to consecrate the whole country to his divinity. Lemnos is also
celebrated for a labyrinth, which, according to some traditions,
surpassed those of Crete and Egypt. Some remains of it were still
visible in the age of Pliny. The island of Lemnos, now called
_Stalimene_, was reduced under the power of Athens by Miltiades,
and the Carians, who then inhabited it, were obliged to emigrate.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8, li. 454.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 1, li.
593.――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Miltiades_.――_Strabo_, bks. 1, 2, & 7.
――_Herodotus_, bk. 6, ch. 140.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Apollonius_,
bk. 1, _Argonautica_.――_Flaccus_, bk. 2, li. 78.――_Ovid_, _Ars
Amatoria_, bk. 3, li. 672.――_Statius_, bk. 3, _Thebiad_, li. 274.
♦ ‘Hipsipyle’ replaced with ‘Hypsipyle’ for consistency
=Lemovices=, a people of Gaul, now _Limousin_ and _Limoges_. _Cæsar_,
_Gallic War_, bk. 7; ch. 4.
=Lemovii=, a nation of Germany. _Tacitus_, _Germania_.
=Lĕmŭres=, the manes of the dead. The ancients supposed that the souls
after death wandered all over the world, and disturbed the peace of
its inhabitants. The good spirits were called _Lares familiares_, and
the evil ones were known by the name of _Larvæ_, or _Lemures_. They
terrified the good, and continually haunted the wicked and impious;
and the Romans had the superstition to celebrate festivals in their
honour, called _Lemuria_, or ♦_Lemuralia_, in the month of May. They
were first instituted by Romulus to appease the manes of his brother
Remus, from whom they were called _Remuria_, and, by corruption,
_Lemuria_. These solemnities continued three nights, during which the
temples of the gods were shut and marriages prohibited. It was usual
for the people to throw black beans on the graves of the deceased, or
to burn them, as the smell was supposed to be insupportable to them.
They also muttered magical words, and, by beating kettles and drums,
they believed that the ghosts would depart and no longer come to
terrify their relations upon earth. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 5, li. 421,
&c.――_Horace_, bk. 2, ltr. 2, li. 209.――_Persius_, bk. 5, li. 185.
♦ ‘Lemurialia’ replaced with ‘Lemuralia’
=Lĕmūria= and =Lĕmŭrālia=. _See:_ Lemures.
=Lenæus=, a surname of Bacchus, from ληνος, _a wine-press_. There
was a festival called _Lenæa_, celebrated in his honour, in which
the ceremonies observed at the other festivals of the god chiefly
prevailed. There were, besides, poetical contentions, &c. _Pausanias._
――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 2, li. 4; _Æneid_, bk. 4, li. 207.
――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 4, li. 14.――――A learned grammarian,
ordered by Pompey to translate into Latin some of the physical
manuscripts of Mithridates king of Pontus.
=Lentŭlus=, a celebrated family at Rome, which produced many great
men in the commonwealth. The most illustrious were Lucius Cornelius
Lentulus, a consul, A.U.C. 427, who dispersed some robbers who
infested Umbria.――――Batiatus Lentulus, a man who trained up some
gladiators at Capua, which escaped from his school.――――Cornelius
Lentulus, surnamed _Sura_. He joined in Catiline’s conspiracy, and
assisted in corrupting the Allobroges. He was convicted in full
senate by Cicero, and put in prison and afterwards executed.――――A
consul who triumphed over the Samnites.――――Cnæus Lentulus, surnamed
_Gætulicus_, was made consul A.D. 26, and was some time after put
to death by Tiberius, who was jealous of his great popularity. He
wrote a history mentioned by Suetonius, and attempted also poetry.
――――Lucius Lentulus, a friend of Pompey, put to death in Africa.
――――Publius Cornelius Lentulus, a pretor, defeated by the rebellious
slaves in Sicily.――――Lentulus Spinther, a senator, kindly used by
Julius Cæsar, &c.――――A tribune at the battle of Cannæ.――――Publius
Lentulus, a friend of Brutus, mentioned by Cicero (_On Oratory_,
bk. 1, ch. 48) as a great and consummate statesman.――――Besides these,
there are a few others, whose name is only mentioned in history, and
whose life was not marked by any uncommon event. The consulship was
in the family of the Lentuli in the years of Rome 427, 479, 517, 518,
553, 555, 598, &c. _Tacitus_, _Annals_.――_Livy._――_Florus._――_Pliny._
――_Plutarch._――_Eutropius._
=Leo=, a native of Byzantium, who flourished 350 years before the
christian era. His philosophical and political talents endeared
him to his countrymen, and he was always sent upon every important
occasion as ambassador to Athens, or to the court of Philip king
of Macedonia. This monarch, well acquainted with the abilities of
Leo, was sensible that his views and claims to Byzantium would never
succeed while it was protected by the vigilance of such a patriotic
citizen. To remove him he had recourse to artifice and perfidy. A
letter was forged, in which Leo made solemn promises of betraying his
country to the king of Macedonia for money. This was no sooner known
than the people ran enraged to the house of Leo, and the philosopher,
to avoid their fury, and without attempting his justification,
strangled himself. He had written some treatises upon physic, and
also the history of his country, and the wars of Philip in seven
books, which have been lost. _Plutarch._――――A Corinthian at Syracuse,
&c.――――A king of Sparta.――――A son of Eurycrates. _Athenæus_, bk. 12.
――_Philostratus._――――An emperor of the east, surnamed the _Thracian_.
He reigned 17 years, and died A.D. 474, being succeeded by Leo II.
for 10 months, and afterwards by Zeno.
=Leocorion=, a monument and temple erected by the Athenians to Pasithea,
Theope, and Eubele, daughters of Leos, who immolated themselves when
an oracle had ordered that, to stop the raging pestilence, some of
the blood of the citizens must be shed. _Ælian_, bk. 12, ch. 28.
――_Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 3, ch. 19.
=Leocrătes=, an Athenian general, who flourished B.C. 460, &c.
_Diodorus_, bk. 11.
=Leodămas=, a son of Eteocles, one of the seven Theban chiefs who
defended the city against the Argives. He killed Ægialeus, and was
himself killed by Alcmæon.――――A son of Hector and Andromache. _Dictys
Cretensis._
=Leodŏcus=, one of the Argonauts. _Flaccus._
=Leogŏras=, an Athenian debauchee, who maintained the courtesan
Myrrhina.
=Leon=, a king of Sparta. _Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 204.――――A town of
Sicily, near Syracuse. _Livy_, bk. 24, ch. 25.
=Leona=, a courtesan, called also Læna. _See:_ Læna.
=Leonătus=, one of Alexander’s generals. His father’s name was Eunus.
He distinguished himself in Alexander’s conquest of Asia, and once
saved the king’s life in a dangerous battle. After the death of
Alexander, at the general division of the provinces, he received for
his portion that part of Phrygia which borders on the Hellespont. He
was empowered by Perdiccas to assist Eumenes in making himself master
of the province of Cappadocia, which had been allotted to him. Like
the rest of the generals of Alexander, he was ambitious of power and
dominion. He aspired to the sovereignty of Macedonia, and secretly
communicated to Eumenes the different plans he meant to pursue
to execute his designs. He passed from Asia into Europe to assist
Antipater against the Athenians, and was killed in a battle which
was fought soon after his arrival. Historians have mentioned, as
an instance of the luxury of Leonatus, that he employed a number of
camels to procure some earth from Egypt to wrestle upon, as, in his
opinion, it seemed better calculated for that purpose. _Plutarch_,
_Alexander_.――_Curtius_, bk. 3, ch. 12; bk. 6, ch. 8.――_Justin_, bk.
13, ch. 2.――_Diodorus_, bk. 18.――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Eumenes_.――――A
Macedonian with Pyrrhus in Italy against the Romans.
=Leonĭdas=, a celebrated king of Lacedæmon, of the family of the
Eurysthenidæ, sent by his countrymen to oppose Xerxes king of Persia,
who had invaded Greece with about five millions of souls. He was
offered the kingdom of Greece by the enemy, if he would not oppose
his views; but Leonidas heard the proposal with indignation, and
observed, that he preferred death for his country, to an unjust
though extensive dominion over it. Before the engagement Leonidas
exhorted his soldiers, and told them all to dine heartily, as
they were to sup in the realms of Pluto. The battle was fought at
Thermopylæ, and the 300 Spartans who alone had refused to abandon the
scene of action, withstood the enemy with such vigour, that they were
obliged to retire wearied and conquered during three successive days,
till Ephialtes, a Trachinian, had the perfidy to conduct a detachment
of Persians by a secret path up the mountains, whence they suddenly
fell upon the rear of the Spartans, and crushed them to pieces. Only
one escaped of the 300; he returned home, where he was treated with
insult and reproaches, for flying ingloriously from a battle in which
his brave companions, with their royal leader, had perished. This
celebrated battle, which happened 480 years before the christian era,
taught the Greeks to despise the number of the Persians, and to rely
upon their own strength, and intrepidity. Temples were raised to the
fallen hero, and festivals, called _Leonidea_, yearly celebrated at
Sparta, in which free-born youths contended. Leonidas, as he departed
for the battle from Lacedæmon, gave no other injunction to his
wife but, after his death, to marry a man of virtue and honour, to
raise from her children deserving of the name and greatness of her
first husband. _Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 120, &c.――_Cornelius Nepos_,
_Themistocles_.――_Justin_, bk. 2.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 1, ch. 6.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 4.――_Plutarch_, _Lycurgus_ & _Cleomenes_.
――――A king of Sparta after Areus II., ♦257 years before Christ.
He was driven from his kingdom by Cleombrotus his son-in-law, and
afterwards re-established.――――A preceptor to Alexander the Great.
――――A friend of Parmenio, appointed commander, by Alexander, of
the soldiers who lamented the death of Parmenio, and who formed
a separate cohort. _Curtius_, bk. 7, ch. 2.――――A learned man of
Rhodes, greatly commended by Strabo, &c.
♦ omitted word ‘years’ added
=Leontium= and =Leontīni=, a town of Sicily, about five miles distant
from the sea-shore. It was built by a colony from Chalcis in Eubæa,
and was, according to some accounts, once the habitation of the
Lætrygones, for which reason the neighbouring fields are often called
_Læstrygonii campi_. The country was extremely fruitful, whence
Cicero calls it the grand magazine of Sicily. The wine which it
produced was the best of the island. The people of Leontium implored
the assistance of the Athenians against the Syracusans, B.C. 427.
_Thucydides_, bk. 6.――_Polybius_, bk. 7.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 4, li.
467.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 14, li. 126.――_Cicero_, _Against Verres_,
bk. 5.
=Leontium=, a celebrated courtesan of Athens, who studied philosophy
under Epicurus, and became one of his most renowned pupils. She
prostituted herself to the philosopher’s scholars, and even to
Epicurus himself, if we believe the reports which were raised by some
of his enemies. _See:_ Epicurus. Metrodorus shared her favours in
the most unbounded manner, and by him she had a son, to whom Epicurus
was so partial, that he recommended him to his executors on his dying
bed. Leontium not only professed herself a warm admirer and follower
of the doctrines of Epicurus, but she even wrote a book in support
of them against Theophrastus. This book was valuable, if we believe
the testimony and criticism of Cicero, who praised the purity and
elegance of its style, and the truly Attic turn of the expressions.
Leontium had also a daughter called Danae, who married Sophron.
_Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 1, ch. 33.
=Leontocephălus=, a strongly fortified city of Phrygia. _Plutarch._
=Leonton=, or =Leontopŏlis=, a town of Egypt where lions were
worshipped. _Ælian_, _De Natura Animalium_, bk. 12, ch. 7.――_Pliny_,
bk. 5, ch. 10.
=Leontychides.= _See:_ Leotychides.
=Leos=, a son of Orpheus, who immolated his three daughters for the
good of Athens. _See:_ Leocorion.
=Leosthĕnes=, an Athenian general, who, after Alexander’s death, drove
Antipater to Thessaly, where he besieged him in the town of Lamia.
The success which for a while attended his arms was soon changed by
a fatal blow, which he received from a stone thrown by the besieged,
B.C. 323. The death of Leosthenes was followed by the total defeat of
the Athenian forces. The funeral oration over his body was pronounced
at Athens by Hyperides, in the absence of Demosthenes, who had been
lately banished for taking a bribe from Harpalus. _See:_ Lamiacum.
_Diodorus_, bks. 17 & 18.――_Strabo_, bk. 9.――――Another general of
Athens, condemned on account of the bad success which attended his
arms against Peparethos.
=Leotychĭdes=, a king of Sparta, son of Menares, of the family of the
Proclidæ. He was set over the Grecian fleet, and, by his courage
and valour, he put an end to the Persian war at the famous battle of
Mycale. It is said that he cheered the spirits of his fellow-soldiers
at Mycale, who were anxious for their countrymen in Greece, by
raising a report that a battle had been fought at Platæa, in which
the barbarians had been defeated. This succeeded, and though the
information was premature, yet a battle was fought at Platæa, in
which the Greeks obtained the victory the same day that the Persian
fleet was destroyed at Mycale. Leotychides was accused of a capital
crime by the Ephori, and, to avoid the punishment which his guilt
seemed to deserve, he fled to the temple of Minerva at Tegea, where
he perished, B.C. 469, after a reign of 22 years. He was succeeded by
his grandson Archidamus. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, chs. 7 & 8.――_Diodorus_,
bk. 11.――――A son of Agis king of Sparta by Timæa. The legitimacy of
his birth was disputed by some, and it was generally believed that
he was the son of Alcibiades. He was prevented from ascending the
throne of Sparta by Lysander, though Agis had declared him upon his
death-bed his lawful son and heir, and Agesilaus was appointed in
his place. _Cornelius Nepos_, _Agesilaus_.――_Plutarch._――_Pausanias_,
bk. 3, ch. 8.
=Lephyrium=, a city of Cilicia.
=Lepĭda=, a noble woman, accused of attempts to poison her husband,
from whom she had been separated for 20 years. She was condemned
under Tiberius. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 3, ch. 22.――――A woman who
married Scipio.――――Domitia, a daughter of Drusus and Antonia, great
niece to Augustus, and aunt to the emperor Nero. She is described by
Tacitus as a common prostitute, infamous in her manners, violent in
her temper, and yet celebrated for her beauty. She was put to death
by means of her rival Agrippina, Nero’s mother. _Tacitus._――――A wife
of Galba the emperor.――――A wife of Cassius, &c.
=Lepĭdus Marcus Æmĭlius=, a Roman, celebrated as being one of the
triumvirs with Augustus and Antony. He was of an illustrious family,
and, like the rest of his contemporaries, he was remarkable for
his ambition, to which were added a narrowness of mind, and a
great deficiency of military abilities. He was sent against Cæsar’s
murderers, and some time after, he leagued with Marcus Antony, who
had gained the heart of his soldiers by artifice, and that of their
commander by his address. When his influence and power among the
soldiers had made him one of the triumvirs, he showed his cruelty,
like his colleagues, by his proscriptions, and even suffered his
own brother to be sacrificed to the dagger of the triumvirate. He
received Africa as his portion in the division of the empire; but his
indolence soon rendered him despicable in the eyes of his soldiers
and of his colleagues; and Augustus, who was well acquainted with the
unpopularity of Lepidus, went to his camp and obliged him to resign
the power to which he was entitled as being a triumvir. After this
degrading event, he sunk into obscurity, and retired, by order of
Augustus, to Cerceii, a small town on the coast of Latium, where he
ended his days in peace, B.C. 13, and where he was forgotten as soon
as out of power. _Appian._――_Plutarch_, _Life of Augustus_.――_Florus_,
bk. 4, chs. 6 & 7.――――A Roman consul, sent to be the guardian of
young Ptolemy Epiphanes, whom his father had left to the care of
the Roman people. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 2, ch. 67.――_Justin_, bk.
30, ch. 3.――――A son of Julia the granddaughter of Augustus. He was
intended by Caius as his successor in the Roman empire. He committed
adultery with Agrippina when young. _Dio Cassius_, bk. 59.――――An
orator mentioned by _Cicero_, _Brutus_.――――A censor, A.U.C. 734.
=Lepīnus=, a mountain of Italy. _Columella_, bk. 10.
=Lepontii=, a people at the source of the Rhine. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 20.
=Lepreos=, a son of Pyrgeus, who built a town in Elis, which he called
after his own name. He laid a wager that he would eat as much as
Hercules; upon which he killed an ox and ate it up. He afterwards
challenged Hercules to a trial of strength, and was killed.
_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 5.
=Leprium=, or =Lepreos=, a town of Elis. _Cicero_, bk. 6, _Letters to
Atticus_, ltr. 2.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 5.
=Leptĭnes=, a general of Demetrius, who ordered Cnæus Octavius, one of
the Roman ambassadors, to be put to death.――――A son of Hermocrates
of Syracuse, brother to Dionysius. He was sent by his brother against
the Carthaginians, and experienced so much success, that he sunk 50
of their ships. He was afterwards defeated by Mago, and banished by
Dionysius. He always continued a faithful friend to the interests
of his brother, though naturally an avowed enemy to tyranny and
oppression. He was killed in a battle with the Carthaginians.
_Diodorus_, bk. 15.――――A famous orator at Athens, who endeavoured
to set the people free from oppressive taxes. He was opposed by
Demosthenes.――――A tyrant of Appollonia in Sicily, who surrendered to
Timoleon. _Diodorus_, bk. 16.
=Leptis=, the name of two cities of Africa, one of which, called
_Major_, now _Lebida_, was near the Syrtes, and had been built by a
Tyrian or Sidonian colony. The other, called _Minor_, now _Lemta_,
was about 18 Roman miles from Adrumentum. It paid every day a talent
to the republic of Carthage, by way of tribute. _Lucan_, bk. 2, li.
251.――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 19.――_Sallust_, _Jugurthine War_, ch. 77.
――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 8.――_Strabo_, bk. 3, li. 256.――_Cæsar_. _Civil
Wars_, bk. 2, ch. 38.――_Cicero_, bk. 5, _Against Verres_, ch. 59.
=Leria=, an island in the Ægean sea, on the coast of Caria, about 18
miles in circumference, peopled by a Milesian colony. Its inhabitants
were very dishonest. _Strabo_, bk. 10.――_Herodotus_, bk. 5, ch. 125.
=Lerĭna=, or =Planasia=, a small island in the Mediterranean, on the
coast of Gaul, at the east of the Rhone. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 1,
ch. 3.
=Lerna=, a country of Argolis, celebrated for a grove and a lake,
where, according to the poets, the Danaides threw the heads of their
murdered husbands. It was there also that Hercules killed the famous
hydra. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 803; bk. 12, li. 517.――_Strabo_,
bk. 8.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1,
li. 597.――_Lucretius_, bk. 5.――_Statius_, _Thebiad_, bk. 4, li. 638.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 15.――――There was a festival, called
_Lernæa_, celebrated there in honour of Bacchus, Proserpine, and
Ceres. The Argives used to carry fire to this solemnity from a temple
upon mount Crathis, dedicated to Diana. _Pausanias._
=Lero=, a small island on the coast of Gaul, called also Lerina.
=Leros.= _See:_ Leria.
=Lesbos=, a large island in the Ægean sea, now known by the name of
_Metelin_, 168 miles in circumference. It has been severally called
_Ægira_, _Lasia_, _Æthiope_, and _Pelasgia_, from the Pelasgi, by
whom it was first peopled, _Macaria_, from Macareus who settled in it,
and _Lesbos_, from the son-in-law and successor of Macareus, who bore
the same name. The chief towns of Lesbos were Methymna and Mitylene.
Lesbos was originally governed by kings, but they were afterwards
subjected to the neighbouring powers. The wine which it produced was
greatly esteemed by the ancients, and still is in the same repute
among the moderns. The Lesbians were celebrated among the ancients
for their skill in music, and their women for their beauty; but the
general character of the people was so debauched and dissipated,
that the epithet of _Lesbian_ was often used to signify debauchery
and extravagance. Lesbos has given birth to many illustrious
persons, such as Arion, Terpander, &c. The best verses were by way
of eminence often called _Lesboum carmen_, from Alcæus and Sappho,
who distinguished themselves for their poetical compositions, and
were also natives of the place. _Diodorus_, bk. 5.――_Strabo_, bk. 13.
――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 2, li. 90.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ltr. 11.
――_Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 160.
=Lesbus=, or =Lesbos=, a son of Lapithas, grandson of Æolus, who
married Methymna daughter of Macareus. He succeeded his father-in-law,
and gave his name to the island over which he reigned.
=Lesches=, a Greek poet of Lesbos, who flourished B.C. 600. Some
suppose him to be the author of the little Iliad, of which only few
verses remain, quoted by _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 25.
=Lestrȳgŏnes.= _See:_ Læstrygones.
=Letānum=, a town of Propontis, built by the Athenians.
=Lethæus=, a river of Lydia, flowing by Magnesia into the Mæander.
_Strabo_, bk. 10, &c.――――Another of Macedonia,――――of Crete.
=Lēthe=, one of the rivers of hell, whose waters the souls of the dead
drank after they had been confined for a certain space of time in
Tartarus. It had the power of making them forget whatever they had
done, seen, or heard before, as the name implies, ληθη, _oblivion_.
――――Lethe is a river of Africa, near the Syrtes, which runs under
the ground, and some time after rises again, whence the origin of the
fable of the Lethean streams of oblivion.――――There is also a river of
that name in Spain.――――Another in Bœotia, whose waters were drunk by
those who consulted the oracle of Trophonius. _Lucan_, bk. 9, li. 355.
――_Ovid_, _Tristia_, bk. 4, poem 1, li. 47.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_,
bk. 4, li. 545; _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 714.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 1,
li. 235; bk. 10, li. 555.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 39.――_Horace_,
bk. 4, ode 7, li. 27.
=Letus=, a mountain of Liguria. _Livy_, bk. 41, ch. 18.
=Levāna=, a goddess of Rome, who presided over the action of the person
who took up from the ground a newly born child, after it had been
placed there by the midwife. This was generally done by the father,
and so religiously observed was this ceremony, that the legitimacy of
a child could be disputed without it.
=Leuca=, a town of the Salentines, near a cape of the same name in
Italy. _Lucan_, bk. 5, li. 376.――――A town of Ionia,――――of Crete,
――――of Argolis. _Strabo_, bk. 6, &c.
=Leucas=, or =Leucadia=, an island of the Ionian sea, now called
_St. Maura_, near the coast of Epirus, famous for a promontory called
_Leucate_, _Leucas_, or _Leucates_, where desponding lovers threw
themselves into the sea. Sappho had recourse to this leap to free
herself from the violent passion which she entertained for Phaon. The
word is derived from λευκος, _white_, on account of the whiteness of
its rocks. Apollo had a temple on the promontory, whence he is often
called _Leucadius_. The island was formerly joined to the continent
by a narrow isthmus, which the inhabitants dug through after the
Peloponnesian war. _Ovid_, _Heroides_, poem 15, li. 171.――_Strabo_,
bk. 6, &c.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 15, li. 302.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 3, li. 274; bk. 8, li. 677.――――A town of Phœnicia.
=Leucasion=, a village of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 25.
=Leucaspis=, a Lycian, one of the companions of Æneas, drowned in the
Tyrrhene sea. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 334.
=Leucate.= _See:_ Leucas.
=Leuce=, a small island in the Euxine sea, of a triangular form,
between the mouths of the Danube and the Borysthenes. According to
the poets, the souls of the ancient heroes were placed there as in
the Elysian fields, where they enjoyed perpetual felicity, and reaped
the repose to which their benevolence to mankind, and their exploits
during life, seemed to entitle them. From that circumstance it has
often been called the island of the blessed, &c. According to some
accounts Achilles celebrated there his nuptials with Iphigenia, or
rather Helen, and shared the pleasures of the place with the manes
of Ajax, &c. _Strabo_, bk. 2.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Ammianus_,
bk. 22.――_Quintus Calaber [Smyrnæus]_, bk. 2, li. 773.――――One of the
Oceanides whom Pluto carried into his kingdom.
=Leuci=, a people of Gaul, between the Moselle and the Maese. Their
capital is now called _Toul_. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 1, ch. 40.
――――Mountains on the west of Crete, appearing at a distance like
_white_ clouds, whence the name.
=Leucippe=, one of the Oceanides.
=Leucippĭdes=, the daughters of Leucippus. _See:_ Leucippus.
=Leucippus=, a celebrated philosopher of Abdera, about 428 years before
Christ, disciple to Zeno. He was the first who invented the famous
system of atoms and of a vacuum, which was afterwards more fully
explained by Democritus and Epicurus. Many of his hypotheses have
been adopted by the moderns, with advantage. _Diogenes Laërtius_
has written his life.――――A brother of Tyndarus king of Sparta, who
married Philodice daughter of Inachus, by whom he had two daughters,
Hilaira and Phœbe, known by the patronymic of Leucippides. They were
carried away by their cousins Castor and Pollux, as they were going
to celebrate their nuptials with Lynceus and Idas. _Ovid_, _Fasti_,
bk. 4, li. 701.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 10, &c.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 3, chs. 17 & 26.――――A son of Xanthus, descended from Bellerophon.
He became deeply enamoured of one of his sisters, and when he was
unable to restrain his unnatural passion, he resolved to gratify it.
He acquainted his mother with it, and threatened to murder himself
if she attempted to oppose his views or remove the object of his
affection. The mother, rather than lose a son whom she tenderly
loved, cherished his passion, and by her consent her daughter yielded
herself to the arms of her brother. Some time after the father
resolved to give his daughter in marriage to a Lycian prince. The
future husband was informed that the daughter of Xanthus secretly
entertained a lover, and he communicated the intelligence to the
father. Xanthus upon this secretly watched his daughter, and when
Leucippus had introduced himself to her bed, the father, in his
eagerness to discover the seducer, occasioned a little noise in
the room. The daughter was alarmed, and as she attempted to escape
she received a mortal wound from her father, who took her to be
the lover. Leucippus came to her assistance, and stabbed his father
in the dark, without knowing who he was. This accidental parricide
obliged Leucippus to fly from his country. He came to Crete, where
the inhabitants refused to give him an asylum, when acquainted with
the atrociousness of his crime, and he at last came to Ephesus, where
he died in the greatest misery and remorse. _Hermesianax referenced
by Parthenius_, ch. 5.――――A son of Œnomaus, who became enamoured of
Daphne, and to obtain her confidence disguised himself in a female
dress, and attended his mistress as a companion. He gained the
affections of Daphne by his obsequiousness and attention, but his
artifice at last proved fatal through the influence and jealousy of
his rival Apollo; for when Daphne and her attendants were bathing
in the Ladon, the sex of Leucippus was discovered, and he perished
by the darts of the females. _Parthenius_, _Narrationes Amatoriæ_,
ch. 15.――_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 20.――――A son of Hercules by Marse,
one of the daughters of Thespius. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 7.
=Leucŏla=, a part of Cyprus.
=Leucon=, a tyrant of Bosphorus, who lived in great intimacy with
the Athenians. He was a firm patron of the useful arts, and greatly
encouraged commerce. _Strabo._――_Dio Cassius_, bk. 14.――――A son of
Athamas and Themisto. _Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 22.――――A king of Pontus
killed by his brother, whose bed he had defiled. _Ovid_, _Ibis_,
li. 3.――――A town of Africa near Cyrene. _Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 160.
=Leucōne=, a daughter of Aphidas, who gave her name to a fountain of
Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 44.
=Leucōnes=, a son of Hercules. _Apollodorus._
=Leuconoe=, a daughter of Lycambes. The Leuconoe to whom Horace
addressed his bk. 1, ode 11, seems to be a fictitious name.
=Leucopĕtra=, a place on the isthmus of Corinth, where the Achæans were
defeated by the consul Mummius.――――A promontory six miles east from
Rhegium in Italy, where the Apennines terminate and sink into the sea.
=Leucŏphrys=, a temple of Diana, with a city of the same name, near the
Mæander. The goddess was represented under the figure of a woman with
many breasts, and crowned with victory.――――An ancient name of Tenedos.
_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 14.――_Strabo_, bks. 13 & 14.
=Leucopŏlis=, a town of Caria.
=Leucos=, a river of Macedonia near Pydna.――――A man, &c. _See:_
Idomeneus.
=Leucosia=, a small island in the Tyrrhene sea. It received its name
from one of the companions of Æneas, who was drowned there, or from
one of the Sirens, who was thrown there by the sea. _Strabo_, bk. 5.
――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 15, li. 708.
=Leucosy̆rii=, a people of Asia Minor, called afterwards Cappadocians.
_Strabo_, bk. 12.――――The same name is given to the inhabitants of
Cilicia, where it borders on Cappadocia. _Cornelius Nepos_, bk. 14,
ch. 1.
=Leucŏthoe=, or =Leucothea=, the wife of Athamas, changed into a sea
deity. _See:_ Ino. She was called Matuta by the Romans, who raised
her a temple, where all the people, particularly women, offered
vows to their brother’s children. They did not entreat the deity to
protect their own children, because Ino had been unfortunate in hers.
No female slaves were permitted to enter the temple; or if their
curiosity tempted them to transgress this rule, they were beaten away
with the greatest severity. To this supplicating for other people’s
children, Ovid alludes in these lines, _Fasti_, bk. 6:
_Non tamen hanc pro stirpe suâ pia mater adorat,
Ipsa parum felix visa fuisse parens._
――――A daughter of king Orchamus by Eurynome. Apollo became enamoured
of her, and to introduce himself to her with greater facility, he
assumed the shape and features of her mother. Their happiness was
complete, when Clytia, who tenderly loved Apollo, and was jealous
of his amours with Leucothoe, discovered the whole intrigue to her
father, who ordered his daughter to be buried alive. The lover,
unable to save her from death, sprinkled nectar and ambrosia on
her tomb, which, penetrating as far as the body, changed it into a
beautiful tree, which bears frankincense. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 4, li. 196.――――An island in the Tyrrhene sea, near Capreæ.――――A
fountain of Samos.――――A town of Egypt,――――of Arabia. _Mela_, bk. 2,
ch. 7.――――A part of Asia which produces frankincense.
=Leuctra=, a village of Bœotia, between Platæa and Thespia, famous for
the victory which Epaminondas the Theban general obtained over the
superior force of Cleombrotus king of Sparta, on the 8th of July,
B.C. 371. In this famous battle 4000 Spartans were killed with their
king Cleombrotus, and no more than 300 Thebans. From that time the
Spartans lost the empire of Greece, which they had obtained for
nearly 500 years. _Plutarch_, _Pelopidas_ & _Agesilaus_.――_Cornelius
Nepos_, _Epaminondas_.――_Justin_, bk. 6, ch. 6.――_Xenophon_,
_Hellenica_.――_Diodorus_, bk. 15.――_Pausanias_, _Laconia_.――_Cicero_,
_de Officiis_, bk. 1, ch. 18; _Tusculanæ Disputationes_, bk. 1,
ch. 46; _Letters to Atticus_, bk. 6, ltr. 1.――_Strabo_, bk. 9.
=Leuctrum=, a town of Laconia. _Strabo_, bk. 8.
=Leucus=, one of the companions of Ulysses, killed before Troy by
Antiphus son of Priam. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 4, li. 491.
=Leucyanias=, a river of Peloponnesus, flowing into the Alpheus.
_Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 21.
=Levinus.= _See:_ Lævinus.
=Leutychĭdes=, a Lacedæmonian, made king of Sparta on the expulsion of
Demaratus. _Herodotus_, bk. 6, ch. 65, &c. _See:_ Leotychides.
=Lexovii=, a people of Gaul, at the mouth of the Seine, conquered with
great slaughter by a lieutenant of Julius Cæsar. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_.
=Libānius=, a celebrated sophist of Antioch in the age of the emperor
Julian. He was educated at Athens, and opened a school at Antioch,
which produced some of the best and most learned of the literary
characters of the age. Libanius was naturally vain and arrogant,
and he contemptuously refused the offers of the emperor Julian, who
wished to purchase his friendship and intimacy by raising him to
offices of the highest splendour and affluence in the empire. When
Julian had imprisoned the senators of Antioch for their impertinence,
Libanius undertook the defence of his fellow-citizens, and paid a
visit to the emperor, in which he astonished him by the boldness and
independence of his expressions, and the firmness and resolution of
his mind. Some of his orations, and above 1600 of his letters, are
extant; they discover much affectation and obscurity of style, and
we cannot perhaps much regret the loss of writings which afforded
nothing but a display of pedantry, and quotations from Homer.
Julian submitted his writings to the judgment of Libanius with the
greatest confidence, and the sophist freely rejected or approved, and
showed that he was more attached to the person than the fortune and
greatness of his prince. The time of his death is unknown. The best
edition of Libanius seems to be that of Paris, folio, 1606, with a
second volume published by Morell, 1627. His epistles have been
edited by Wolf, folio, 1738.
=Libănus=, a high mountain of Syria, famous for its cedars. _Strabo_,
bk. 6.
=Libentīna=, a surname of Venus, who had a temple at Rome, where the
young women used to dedicate the toys and childish amusements of
their youth, when arrived at nubile years. _Varro_, _de Lingua
Latina_, bk. 5, ch. 6.
=Līber=, a surname of Bacchus, which signifies _free_. He received
this name from his delivering some cities of Bœotia from slavery,
or, according to others, because wine, of which he was the patron,
delivered mankind from their cares, and made them speak with freedom
and unconcern. The word is often used for wine itself. _Seneca_, _de
Tranquilitate Animi_.
=Libĕra=, a goddess, the same as Proserpine. _Cicero_, _Against Verres_,
bk. 4, ch. 48.――――A name given to Ariadne by Bacchus, or Liber, when
he had married her. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 3, li. 513.
=Libĕrālia=, festivals yearly celebrated in honour of Bacchus, the
17th of March. Slaves were then permitted to speak with freedom, and
everything bore the appearance of independence. They were much the
same as the Dionysia of the Greeks. _Varro._
=Libertas=, a goddess of Rome who had a temple on mount Aventine,
raised by Tiberius Gracchus, and improved and adorned by Pollio
with many elegant statues and brazen columns, and a gallery in which
were deposited the public acts of the state. She was represented
as a woman in a light dress, holding a rod in one hand and a cap in
the other, both signs of independence, as the former was used by the
magistrates in the manumission of slaves, and the latter was worn
by slaves, who were soon to be set at liberty. Sometimes a cat was
placed at her feet, as this animal is very fond of liberty, and
impatient when confined. _Livy_, bk. 24, ch. 16; bk. 25, ch. 7.
――_Ovid_, _Tristia_, bk. 3, poem 1, li. 72.――_Plutarch_, _Gracchus_.
――_Dio Cassius_, bk. 44.
=Lībēthra=, a fountain of Magnesia in Thessaly, or of Bœotia,
according to some, sacred to the muses, who from thence are called
_Libethrides_. _Virgil_, _Eclogues_, poem 7, li. 21.――_Pliny_, bk. 4,
ch. 9.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.――_Strabo_, bks. 9 & 10.
=Lībethrĭdes=, a name given to the Muses from the fountain Libethra, or
from mount Libethrus in Thrace.
=Libici=, =Libecii=, or =Libri=, a people of Gaul who passed into Italy,
A.U.C. 364. _Livy_, bk. 5, ch. 35; bk. 21, ch. 38.――_Pliny_, bk. 3,
ch. 17.――_Polybius_, bk. 2.
=Libĭtīna=, a goddess at Rome, who presided over funerals. According to
some, she is the same as Venus, or rather Proserpine. Servius Tullius
first raised her a temple at Rome, where everything necessary for
funerals was exposed to sale, and where the registers of the dead
were usually kept. _Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 4.――_Livy_,
bk. 40, ch. 19.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 5, ch. 2.――_Plutarch_,
_Quæstiones Romanæ_.
=Libo=, a friend of Pompey, who watched over the fleet, &c. _Plutarch._
――――A Roman citizen, &c. _Horace_, bk. 1, ltr. 19.――――A friend of the
first triumvirate, who killed himself and was condemned after death.
=Libon=, a Greek architect who built the famous temple of Jupiter
Olympius. He flourished about 450 years before the christian era.
=Libophœnīces=, the inhabitants of the country near Carthage.
=Liburna=, a town of Dalmatia.
=Liburnia=, now _Croatia_, a country of Illyricum, between Istria and
Dalmatia, whence a colony came to settle in Apulia, in Italy. There
were at Rome a number of men whom the magistrates employed as public
heralds, who were called _Liburni_, probably from being originally
of Liburnian extraction. Some ships of a light construction but with
strong beaks were also called _Liburnian_. _Propertius_, bk. 2, poem
11, li. 44.――_Juvenal_, satire 4, li. 75.――_Martial_, bk. 1, ltr. 50,
li. 33.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ode 37, li. 30; Epode 1, li. 1.――_Lucan_,
bk. 3, li. 534.――_Pliny the Younger_, bk. 6, ltr. 16.――_Mela_, bk. 2,
ch. 3.――_Strabo_, bk. 7.――_Ptolemy_, bk. 2, ch. 17.
=Liburnĭdes=, an island on the coast of Liburnia, in the Adriatic.
_Strabo_, bk. 5.
=Liburnum mare=, the sea which borders on the coasts of Liburnia.
=Liburnus=, a mountain of Campania.
=Lĭbya=, a daughter of Epaphus and ♦Cassiope, who became mother of
Agenor and Belus by Neptune. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 1; bk. 3, ch.
1.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 44.――――A name given to Africa, one of the
three grand divisions of the ancient globe. Libya, properly speaking,
is only a part of Africa, bounded on the east by Egypt, and on the
west by that part called by the moderns the kingdom of Tripoli. The
ancients, according to some traditions mentioned by Herodotus and
others, sailed round Africa, by steering westward from the Red sea,
and entered the Mediterranean by the columns of Hercules, after a
perilous navigation of three years. From the word Libya, are derived
the epithets of _Libys_, _Libyssa_, _Libysis_, _Libystis_, _Libycus_,
_Libysticus_, _Libystinus_, _Libystæus_. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 4,
li. 106; bk. 5, li. 37.――_Lucan_, bk. 4.――_Sallust_, &c.
♦ ‘Cassiopea’ replaced with ‘Cassiope’ for consistency
=Liby̆cum mare=, that part of the Mediterranean which lies on the coast
of Cyrene. _Strabo_, bk. 2.
=Libycus= and =Libystis=. _See:_ Libya.
=Libys=, a sailor, &c. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 3.
=Libyssa=, a river of Bithynia, with a town of the same name, where was
the tomb of Annibal, still extant in the age of Pliny.
=Licates=, a people of Vindelicia.
=Licha=, a city near Lycia.
=Lichades=, small islands near Cæneum, a promontory of Eubœa, called
from Lichas. _See:_ Lichas. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 9, lis. 155,
218.――_Strabo_, bk. 9.
=Lichas=, a servant of Hercules who brought him the poisoned tunic
from Dejanira. He was thrown by his master into the sea with
great violence, and changed into a rock in the Eubœan sea, by the
compassion of the gods. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 9, li. 211.
=Liches=, an Arcadian who found the bones of Orestes buried at Tegea,
&c. _Herodotus._
=Licĭnia lex=, was enacted by Lucius Licinius Crassus and Quintus
Mutius, consuls, A.U.C. 659. It ordered all the inhabitants of Italy
to be enrolled on the list of citizens in their respective cities.
――――Another, by Caius Licinius Crassus the tribune, A.U.C. 608. It
transferred the right of choosing priests from the college to the
people. It was proposed, but did not pass.――――Another, by Caius
Licinius Stolo the tribune. It forbade any person to possess 500
acres of land, or keep more than 100 head of large cattle, or 500 of
small.――――Another, by Publius Licinius Varus, A.U.C. 545, to settle
the day for the celebration of the _Ludi Apollinares_, which was
before uncertain.――――Another, by Publius Licinius Crassus Dives,
B.C. 110. It was the same as the Fannian law, and further required
that no more than 30 _asses_ should be spent at any table on the
Calends, nones, or nundinæ, and only three pounds of fresh and one
of salt meat, on ordinary days. None of the fruits of the earth
were forbidden.――――Another, _de sodalitiis_, by Marcus Licinius the
consul, 692. It imposed a severe penalty on party clubs, or societies
assembled or frequented for election purposes, as coming under the
definition of _ambitus_, and of offering violence in some degree to
the freedom and independence of the people.――――Another, called also
_Æbutia_, by Licinius and Æbutius the tribunes. It enacted, that when
any law was proffered with respect to any office or power, the person
who proposed the bill, as well as his colleagues in office, his
friends and relations, should be declared incapable of being invested
with the said office or power.
=Licĭnia=, the wife of Caius Gracchus, who attempted to dissuade her
husband from his seditious measures by a pathetic speech. She was
deprived of her dowry after the death of Caius.――――A vestal virgin
accused of incontinence, but acquitted, A.U.C. 636.――――Another vestal,
put to death for her lasciviousness under Trajan.――――The wife of
Mæcenas, distinguished for conjugal tenderness. She was sister to
Proculeius, and bore also the name of Terentia. _Horace_, bk. 2,
ode 12, li. 13.
=Caius Licĭnius=, a tribune of the people, celebrated for the
consequence of his family, for his intrigues and abilities. He was a
plebeian, and was the first of that body who was raised to the office
of a master of horse to the dictator. He was surnamed _Stolo_, or
_useless sprout_, on account of the law which he had enacted during
his tribuneship. _See:_ Licinia lex, by Stolo. He afterwards made a
law which permitted the plebeians to share the consular dignity with
the patricians, A.U.C. 388. He reaped the benefit of this law, and
was one of the first plebeian consuls. This law was proposed and
passed by Licinius, as it is reported, at the instigation of his
ambitious wife, who was jealous of her sister, who had married a
patrician, and who seemed to be of a higher dignity in being the wife
of a consul. _Livy_, bk. 6, ch. 34.――_Plutarch._――――Caius Calvus,
a celebrated orator and poet in the age of Cicero. He distinguished
himself by his eloquence in the forum, and his poetry, which some
of the ancients have compared to Catullus. His orations are greatly
commended by Quintilian. Some believe that he wrote annals quoted
by Dionysius of Halicarnassus. He died in the 30th year of his age.
_Quintilian._――_Cicero_, _Brutus_, ch. 81.――――Macer, a Roman accused
by Cicero when pretor. He derided the power of his accuser, but when
he saw himself condemned he grew so desperate that he killed himself.
_Plutarch._――――Publius Crassus, a Roman sent against Perseus king
of Macedonia. He was at first defeated, but afterwards repaired his
losses and obtained a complete victory, &c.――――A consul sent against
Annibal.――――Another, who defeated the robbers that infested the
Alps.――――A high priest.――――Caius Imbrex, a comic poet in the age
of Africanus, preferred by some in merit to Ennius and Terence.
His Nævia and Neæra are quoted by ancient authors, but of all his
poetry only two verses are preserved. _Aulus Gellius._――――A consul,
&c.――――Lucullus. _See:_ Lucullus.――――Crassus. _See:_ Crassus.
――――Mucianus, a Roman who wrote about the history and geography of
the eastern countries, often quoted by Pliny. He lived in the reign
of Vespasian.――――Publius Tegula, a comic poet of Rome about 200
years before Christ. He is ranked as the fourth of the best comic
poets which Rome produced. Few lines of his compositions are extant.
He wrote an ode, which was sung all over the city of Rome by nine
virgins during the Macedonian war. _Livy_, bk. 31, ch. 12.――――Varro
Muræna, a brother of Proculeius, who conspired against Augustus with
Fannius Cæpio, and suffered for his crime. Horace addressed his bk. 2,
ode 10 to him, and recommended equanimity in every situation. _Dio
Cassius_, bk. 54.――――Caius Flavius Valerianus, a celebrated Roman
emperor. His father was a poor peasant of Dalmatia, and himself a
common soldier in the Roman armies. His valour recommended him to
the notice of Galerius Maximianus, who had once shared with him the
inferior and subordinate offices of the army, and had lately been
invested with the imperial purple by Diocletian. Galerius loved him
for his friendly services, particularly during the Persian war, and
he showed his regard for his merit by taking him as a colleague in
the empire, and appointing him over the province of Pannonia and
Rhœtia. Constantine, who was also one of the emperors, courted the
favour of Licinius, and made his intimacy more durable by giving him
his sister Constantia in marriage, A. D. 313. The continual successes
of Licinius, particularly against Maximinus, increased his pride,
and rendered him jealous of the greatness of his brother-in-law. The
persecutions of the christians, whose doctrines Constantine followed,
soon caused a rupture, and Licinius had the mortification to lose two
battles, one in Pannonia, and the other near Adrianopolis. Treaties
of peace were made between the contending powers, but the restless
ambition of Licinius soon broke them; and after many engagements
a decisive battle was fought near Chalcedonia. Ill fortune again
attended Licinius, who was conquered, and fled to Nicomedia, where
soon the conqueror obliged him to surrender, and to resign the
imperial purple. The tears of Constantia obtained forgiveness for
her husband, yet Constantine knew what a turbulent and active enemy
had fallen into his hands therefore he ordered him to be strangled
at Thessalonica, A.D. 324. His family was involved in his ruin. The
avarice, licentiousness, and cruelty of Licinius are as conspicuous
as his misfortunes. He was an enemy to learning, and this aversion
totally proceeded from his ignorance of letters, and the rusticity
of his education. His son by Constantia bore also the same name.
He was honoured with the title of Cæsar when scarce 20 months old.
He was involved in his father’s ruin, and put to death by order of
Constantine.
=Licīnus=, a barber and freedman of Augustus, raised by his master to
the rank and dignity of a senator, merely because he hated Pompey’s
family. _Horace_, _Art of Poetry_, li. 301.
=Licymnius=, a son of Electryon and brother of Alcmena. He was so
infirm in his old age, that when he walked, he was always supported
by a slave. Triptolemus son of Hercules, seeing the slave inattentive
to his duty, threw a stick at him, which unfortunately killed
Licymnius. The murderer fled to Rhodes. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 7.
――_Diodorus_, bk. 5.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2.――_Pindar_, _Olympian_,
poem 7.
=Lide=, a mountain of Caria. _Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 105.
=Quintus Ligarius=, a Roman proconsul of Africa, after Confidius. In
the civil wars he followed the interest of Pompey, and was pardoned
when Cæsar had conquered his enemies. Cæsar, however, and his
adherents were determined upon the ruin of Ligarius; but Cicero, by
an eloquent oration, still extant, defeated his accusers, and he was
pardoned. He became afterwards one of Cæsar’s murderers. _Cicero_,
_For Ligarius_.――_Plutarch_, _Cæsar_.
=Ligea=, one of the Nereides. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 4.
=Liger=, a Rutulian killed by Æneas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 576.
=Liger=, or =Ligĕris=, now _La Loire_, a large river of Gaul, falling
into the Atlantic ocean near Nantes. _Strabo_, bk. 4.――_Pliny_, bk. 4,
ch. 18.――_Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 7, chs. 55 & 75.
=Ligŏras=, an officer of Antiochus king of Syria, who took the town of
Sardis by stratagem, &c.
=Ligŭres=, the inhabitants of Liguria. _See:_ Liguria.
=Ligŭria=, a country on the west of Italy, bounded on the east by the
river Macra, on the south by part of the Mediterranean called the
_Ligustic sea_, on the west by the Varus, and on the north by the
Po. The commercial town of Genoa was anciently and is now the capital
of the country. The origin of the inhabitants is not known, though
in their character they are represented as vain, unpolished, and
addicted to falsehood. According to some they were descended from the
ancient Gauls and Germans, or, as others support, they were of Greek
origin, perhaps the posterity of the Ligyes mentioned by Herodotus.
Liguria was subdued by the Romans, and its chief harbour now bears
the name of _Leghorn_. _Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 442.――_Mela_, bk. 2,
ch. 1.――_Strabo_, bk. 4, &c.――_Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 2, ch. 15.
――_Pliny_, bk. 2, ch. 5, &c.――_Livy_, bk. 5, ch. 35; bk. 22, ch. 33;
bk. 39, ch. 6, &c.――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Hannibal_.――_Florus_, bk. 2,
ch. 8.
=Ligurīnus=, a poet. _Martial_, bk. 3, ltr. 50.――――A beautiful youth in
the age of Horace, bk. 4, ode 1, li. 33.
=Ligus=, a woman who inhabited the Alps. She concealed her son from the
pursuit of Otho’s soldiers, &c. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 2, ch. 13.
=Ligustĭcæ Alpes=, a part of the Alps which borders on Liguria,
sometimes called _Maritimi_.
=Ligusticum mare=, the north part of the Tyrrhene sea, now the gulf of
Genoa. _Pliny_, bk. 2, ch. 47.
=Ligyes=, a people of Asia who inhabited the country between Caucasus
and the river Phasis. Some suppose them to be a colony of the Ligyes
of Europe, more commonly called Ligures. _Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 72.
――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 1, ch. 10.――_Strabo_, bk. 4.
――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.
=Ligyrgum=, a mountain of Arcadia.
=Lilæa=, a town of Achaia near the Cephisus. _Statius_, _Thebiad_,
bk. 7, li. 348.
=Lĭly̆bæum=, now _Boco_, a promontory of Sicily, with a town of the same
name near the Ægates, now _Marsalla_. The town was strong and very
considerable, and it maintained long sieges against the Carthaginians,
Romans, &c., particularly one of 10 years against Rome in the first
Punic war. It had a port large and capacious, which the Romans, in
the wars with Carthage, endeavoured in vain to stop and fill up with
stones, on account of its convenience and vicinity to the coast of
Africa. Nothing now remains of this once powerful city but the ruins
of temples and aqueducts. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 706.――_Mela_,
bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Strabo_, bk. 6.――_Cicero_, _Against Verres_, bk. 5.
――_Cæsar_, _African War_.――_Diodorus_, bk. 22.
=Limæa=, a river of Lusitania. _Strabo_, bk. 3.
=Limenia=, a town of Cyprus. _Strabo_, bk. 14.
=Limnæ=, a fortified place on the borders of Laconia and Messenia.
_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 14.――――A town of the Thracian Chersonesus.
=Limnæum=, a temple of Diana at Limnæ, from which the goddess was called
Limnæa, and worshipped under that appellation at Sparta and in Achaia.
The Spartans wished to seize the temple in the age of Tiberius, but
the emperor interfered, and gave it to its lawful possessors the
Messenians. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 14; bk. 7, ch. 20.――_Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 4, ch. 43.
=Limnatidia=, a festival in honour of Diana, surnamed _Limnatis_, from
Limnæ, a school of exercise at Trœzene, where she was worshipped, or
from λιμναι, _ponds_, because she presided over fishermen.
=Limniăce=, the daughter of the Ganges, mother of Atys. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, li. 48.
=Limnonia=, one of the Nereides. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 18.
=Limon=, a place of Campania between Neapolis and Puteoli. _Statius_,
bk. 3, _Sylvæ_, poem 1.
=Limonum=, a town of Gaul, afterwards Pictavi, _Poictiers_. _Cæsar_,
_Gallic War_, bk. 8, ch. 26.
=Limyra=, a town of Lycia at the mouth of the Limyrus. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 9, li. 645.――_Velleius_, bk. 2, ch. 102.
=Lincasii=, a people of Gaul Narbonensis.
=Lindum=, a colony of Britain, now Lincoln.
=Lindus=, a city on the south-east part of Rhodes, built by Cercaphus
son of Sol and Cydippe. The Danaides built there a temple to Minerva,
and one of its colonies founded Gela in Sicily. It gave birth to
Cleobulus, one of the seven wise men, and to Chares and Laches, who
were employed in making and finishing the famous Colossus of Rhodes.
_Strabo_, bk. 14.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.
――_Pliny_, bk. 34.――_Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 153.――――A grandson of
Apollo. _Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 3.
=Lingrŏnes=, now _Langres_, a people of Gallia Belgica, made tributary
to Rome by Julius Cæsar. They passed into Italy, where they made some
settlements near the Alps at the head of the Adriatic. _Tacitus_,
_Histories_, bk. 4, ch. 55.――_Martial_, bk. 11, ltr. 57, li. 9; bk.
14, ltr. 159.――_Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 398.――_Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 1,
ch. 26.
=Linterna palus=, a lake of Campania. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 7, li. 278.
=Linternum=, a town of Campania at the mouth of the river Clanis,
where Scipio Africanus died and was buried. _Livy_, bk. 34, ch. 45.
――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 6, li. 654; bk. 7, li. 278.――_Cicero_,
bk. 10, _Letters to Atticus_, ltr. 13.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 15, li. 713.
=Linus.= This name is common to different persons whose history is
confused, and who are often taken one for the other. One was son of
Urania and Amphimarus the son of Neptune. Another was son of Apollo
by Psammathe, daughter of Crotopus king of Argos. Martial mentions
him in his ltr. 78, bk. 9. The third, son of Ismenius, and born at
Thebes in Bœotia, taught music to Hercules, who in a fit of anger
struck him on the head with his lyre and killed him. He was son of
Mercury and Urania, according to Diogenes, who mentions some of his
philosophical compositions, in which he asserted that the world had
been created in an instant. He was killed by Apollo for presuming to
compare himself to him. Apollodorus, however, and Pausanius mention
that his ridicule of Hercules on his awkwardness in holding the lyre
was fatal to him. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 4.――_Diogenes Laërtius_,
bk. 1.――_Virgil_, _Eclogues_, poem 4.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 15;
bk. 9, ch. 20.――――A fountain in Arcadia, whose waters were said to
prevent abortion. _Pliny_, bk. 31, ch. 2.
=Liodes=, one of Penelope’s suitors, killed by Ulysses. _Homer_,
_Odyssey_, 22, &c.
=Lipăra=, the largest of the Æolian islands, on the coast of Sicily, now
called the _Lipari_. It had a city of the same name, which, according
to Diodorus, it received from Liparus the son of Auson, king of these
islands, whose daughter Cyane was married by his successor Æolus,
according to Pliny. The inhabitants of this island were powerful by
sea, and from the great tributes which they paid to Dionysius the
tyrant of Syracuse, they may be called very opulent. The island was
celebrated for the variety of its fruits, and its raisins are still
in general repute. It had some convenient harbours, and a fountain
whose waters were much frequented on account of their medicinal
powers. According to Diodorus, Æolus reigned at Lipara before Liparus.
_Livy_, bk. 5, ch. 28.――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 9.――_Silius Italicus_,
bk. 14, li. 57.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 56; bk. 8, li. 417.
――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Strabo_, bk. 6.――――A town of Etruria.
=Lipăris=, a river of Cilicia, whose waters were like oil. _Pliny_,
bk. 5, ch. 27.――_Vitruvius_, bk. 8, ch. 3.
=Liphlum=, a town of the Æqui, taken by the Romans.
=Lipodorus=, one of the Greeks settled in Asia by Alexander, &c.
=Liquentia=, now _Livenza_, a river of Cisalpine Gaul, falling into the
Adriatic sea. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 18.
=Lircæus=, a fountain near Nemæa. _Statius_, _Thebiad_, bk. 4, li. 711.
=Liriŏpe=, one of the Oceanides, mother of Narcissus by the Cephisus.
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 3, li. 311.――――A fountain of Bœotia on
the borders of Thespis, where Narcissus was drowned, according to
some accounts.
=Liris=, now _Garigliano_, a river of Campania, which it separates from
Latium. It falls into the Mediterranean sea. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 4.
――_Horace_, bk. 3, ode 17.――_Lucan_, bk. 2, li. 424.――――A warrior
killed by Camilla, &c. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 11, li. 670.
=Lisinias=, a town of Thessaly. _Livy_, bk. 32, ch. 14.
=Lissa=, the name of a fury which Euripides introduces on the stage,
as conducted by Iris at the command of Juno, to inspire Hercules with
that fatal rage which ended in his death.
=Lisson=, a river of Sicily.
=Lissus=, now _Alesso_, a town of Macedonia, on the confines of
Illyricum. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 2.――_Livy_, bk. 44, ch. 10.――_Lucan_,
bk. 5, li. 719.――――A river of Thrace, falling into the Ægean sea,
between Thasos and Samothracia. It was dried up by the army of Xerxes,
when he invaded Greece. _Strabo_, bk. 7.――_Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 109.
=Lista=, a town of the Sabines, whose inhabitants are called Listini.
=Litabrum=, now _Buitrago_, a town of Spain Tarraconensis. _Livy_,
bk. 32, ch. 14; bk. 35, ch. 22.
=Litana=, a wood in Gallia Togata. _Livy_, bk. 23, ch. 24.
=Litavĭcus=, one of the Ædui, who assisted Cæsar with 10,000 men.
_Cæsar_, _Gallic Wars_, bk. 7, ch. 37.
=Liternum=, a town of Campania.
=Lithobŏlia=, a festival celebrated at Trœzene in honour of Lamia and
Auxesia, who came from Crete, and were sacrificed by the fury of
the seditious populace, and stoned to death. Hence the name of the
solemnity, λιθοβολια, _lapidation_.
=Lithrus=, a town of Armenia Minor. _Strabo._
=Lithubium=, a town of Liguria. _Livy_, bk. 32, ch. 29.
=Lityersas=, an illegitimate son of Midas king of Phrygia. He made
strangers prepare his harvest, and afterwards put them to death. He
was at last killed by Hercules. _Theocritus_, _Idylls_, poem 10.
=Līvia Drusilla=, a celebrated Roman lady, daughter of Lucius Drusus
Calidianus. She married Tiberius Claudius Nero, by whom she had the
emperor Tiberius and Drusus Germanicus. The attachment of her husband
to the cause of Antony was the beginning of her greatness. Augustus
saw her as she fled from the danger which threatened her husband, and
he resolved to marry her, though she was then pregnant. He divorced
his wife Scribonia, and with the approbation of the augurs, he
celebrated his nuptials with Livia. She now took advantage of the
passion of Augustus, in the share that she enjoyed of his power
and imperial dignity. Her children by Drusus were adopted by the
complying emperor; and, that she might make the succession of her
son Tiberius more easy and undisputed, Livia is accused of secretly
involving in one common ruin the heirs and nearest relations of
Augustus. Her cruelty and ingratitude are still more strongly marked,
when she is charged with having murdered her own husband to hasten
the elevation of Tiberius. If she was anxious for the aggrandizement
of her son, Tiberius proved ungrateful, and hated a woman to whom
he owed his life, his elevation, and his greatness. Livia died
in the 86th year of her age, A.D. 29. Tiberius showed himself as
undutiful after her death as before, for he neglected her funeral,
and expressly commanded that no honours, either private or public,
should be paid to her memory. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 1, ch. 3.
――_Suetonius_, _Augustus_ and _Tiberias_.――_Dio Cassius._――――Another.
_See:_ Drusilla.――――Another, called Horestilla, &c. She was debauched
by Galba, as she was going to marry Piso. _Suetonius_, _Galba_,
ch. 25.――――Another, called also Ocellina. She was Galba’s stepmother,
and committed adultery with him. _Suetonius_, _Galba_, ch. 3.
=Līvia lex=, _de sociis_, proposed to make all the inhabitants of Italy
free citizens of Rome. Marcus Livius Drusus, who framed it, was found
murdered in his house before it passed.――――Another by Marcus Livius
Drusus the tribune, A.U.C. 662, which required that the judicial
power should be lodged in the hands of an equal number of knights and
senators.
=Livineius=, a friend of Pompey, &c. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 3, ch. 11,
&c.
=Livilla=, a daughter of Drusus.――――A sister of Caligula, &c. _See:_
Julia.
=Līvius Andronīcus=, a dramatic poet, who flourished at Rome about
240 years before the christian era. He was the first who turned the
personal satires and fescennine verses, so long the admiration of the
Romans, into the form of a proper dialogue and regular play. Though
the character of a player, so valued and applauded in Greece, was
reckoned vile and despicable among the Romans, Andronicus acted a
part in his dramatic compositions and engaged the attention of his
audience, by repeating what he had laboriously formed after the
manner of the Greeks. Andronicus was the freedman of Marcus Livius
Salinator, whose children he educated. His poetry was grown obsolete
in the age of Cicero, whose nicety and judgment would not even
recommend the reading of it. Some few of his verses are preserved
in the _Corpus Poetarum_.――――Marcus Salinator, a Roman consul,
sent against the Illyrians. The success with which he finished the
campaign, and the victory which some years after he obtained over
Asdrubal, who was passing into Italy with a reinforcement for his
brother Annibal, show how deserving he was to be at the head of the
Roman armies. _Livy._――――Drusus, a tribune who joined the patricians
in opposing the ambitious views of Caius Gracchus. _Plutarch_,
_Tiberius Gracchus_.――――An uncle of Cato of Utica. _Plutarch.
_――――Titus, a native of Padua, celebrated for his writings. He
passed the greatest part of his life at Naples and Rome, but more
particularly at the court of Augustus, who liberally patronized the
learned, and encouraged the progress of literature. Few particulars
of his life are known, yet his fame was so universally spread even
in his lifetime, that an inhabitant of Gades traversed Spain, Gaul,
and Italy, merely to see the man whose writings had given him such
pleasure and satisfaction in the perusal. Livy died at Padua, in
his 67th year, and according to some, on that same day Rome was also
deprived of another of its brightest ornaments, by the death of the
poet Ovid, A.D. 17. It is said that Livia had appointed Livy to be
the preceptor to young Claudius the brother of Germanicus, but death
prevented the historian from enjoying an honour to which he was
particularly entitled by his learning and his universal knowledge.
The name of Livy is rendered immortal by his history of the Roman
empire. Besides this, he wrote some philosophical treatises and
dialogues, with a letter addressed to his son, on the merit of
authors, which ought to be read by young men. This letter is
greatly commended by Quintilian, who expatiates with great warmth
on the judgment and candour of the author. His Roman history was
comprehended in 140 books, of which only 35 are extant. It began with
the foundation of Rome, and was continued till the death of Drusus
in Germany. The merit of this history is well known, and the high
rank which Livy holds among historians will never be disputed. He is
always great; his style is clear and intelligible, laboured without
affectation, diffusive without tediousness, and argumentative without
pedantry. In his harangues he is bold and animated, and in his
narrations and descriptions he claims a decided superiority. He is
always elegant, and though many have branded his provincial words
with the name of _Patavinity_, yet the expressions, or rather the
orthography of words, which in Livy are supposed to distinguish a
native of a province of Italy from a native of Rome, are not loaded
with obscurity, and the perfect classic is as familiarly acquainted
with the one as with the other. Livy has been censured, and perhaps
with justice, for being too credulous, and burdening his history
with vulgar notions and superstitious tales. He may disgust when he
mentions that milk and blood were rained from heaven, or that an ox
spoke, or a woman changed her sex, yet he candidly confesses that
he recorded only what made an indelible impression upon the minds of
a credulous age. His candour has also been called in question, and
he has sometimes shown himself too partial to his countrymen, but
everywhere he is an indefatigable supporter of the cause of justice
and virtue. The works of Livy have been divided by some of the
moderns into 14 decades, each consisting of 10 books. The first
decade comprehends the history of 460 years. The second decade is
lost, and the third comprehends the history of the second Punic war,
which includes about 18 years. In the fourth decade, Livy treats of
the wars with Macedonia and Antiochus, which contain about 23 years.
For the first five books of the fifth decade, we are indebted to the
researches of the moderns. They were found at Worms, A.D. 1431. These
are the books that remain of Livy’s history, and the loss which the
celebrated work has sustained by the ravages of time, has in some
measure been compensated by the labours of Johann Freinshemius, who
with great attention and industry has made an epitome of the Roman
history, which is now incorporated with the remaining books of Livy.
The third decade seems to be superior to the others, yet the author
has not scrupled to copy from his contemporaries and predecessors,
and we find many passages taken word for word from Polybius, in which
the latter has shown himself more informed in military affairs, and
superior to his imitator. The best editions of Livy will be found to
be those of Maittaire, 6 vols., 12mo, London, 1722; of Drakenborch,
7 vols., 4to, Amsterdam, 1731; and of Ruddiman, 4 vols., 12mo,
Edinburgh, 1751.――――A governor of Tarentum, who delivered his trust
to Annibal, &c.――――A high priest who devoted Decius to the Dii
Manes.――――A commander of a Roman fleet sent against Antiochus in the
Hellespont.
=Lixus=, a river of Mauritania, with a city of the same name. Antæus
had a palace there, and according to some accounts it was in the
neighbourhood that Hercules conquered him. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 3,
li. 258.――_Mela_, bk. 3, ch. 10.――_Strabo_, bk. 2.――――A son of
Ægyptus. _Apollodorus._
=Lobon=, a native of Argos, who wrote a book concerning poets.
_Diogenes Laërtius._
=Lŏceus=, a man who conspired against Alexander with Dymnus, &c.
_Curtius_, bk. 6, ch. 7.
=Locha=, a large city of Africa, taken and plundered by Scipio’s
soldiers.
=Lochias=, a promontory and citadel of Egypt near Alexandria.
=Locri=, a town of Magna Græcia in Italy on the Adriatic, not far from
Rhegium. It was founded by a Grecian colony about 757 years before
the christian era, as some suppose. The inhabitants were called
_Locri_ or _Locrenses_. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 399――_Strabo.
_――_Pliny._――_Livy_, bk. 22, ch. 6; bk. 23, ch. 30.――――A town of
Locris in ♦Greece.
♦ ‘Greeee’ replaced with ‘Greece’
=Locris=, a country of Greece, whose inhabitants are known by the name
of _Ozolæ_, _Epicnemidii_, and _Opuntii_. The country of the Ozolæ,
called also _Epizephyrii_ from their westerly situation, was at the
north of the bay of Corinth, and extended above 12 miles northward.
On the west it was separated from Ætolia by the Evenus, and it
had Phocis at the east. The chief city was called Naupactus. The
Epicnemidii were at the north of the Ozolæ, and had the bay of Malia
at the east, and Œta on the north. They received their name from the
situation of their residence, near a mountain called Cnemis. They
alone, of all the Locrians, had the privilege of sending members
to the council of the Amphictyons. The Opuntii, who received their
name from their chief city called Opus, were situated on the borders
of the Euripus, and near Phocis and Eubœa. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 5.
――_Strabo_, bk. 6, &c.――_Ptolemy._――_Mela._――_Livy_, bk. 26, ch. 26;
bk. 28, ch. 6.――_Pausanias_, _Achaia_ & _Phocis_.
=Locusta=, a celebrated woman at Rome in the favour of Nero. She
poisoned Claudius and Britannicus, and at last attempted to destroy
Nero himself, for which she was executed. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 12,
ch. 66, &c.――_Suetonius_, _Nero_, ch. 33.
=Locutius.= _See:_ Aius.
=Lollia Paulīna=, a beautiful woman, daughter of Marcus Lollius, who
married Caius Memmius Regulus, and afterwards Caligula. She was
divorced and put to death by means of Agrippina. _Tacitus_, _Annals_,
bk. 12, ch. 1, &c.
=Lolliānus Spurius=, a general proclaimed emperor by his soldiers in
Gaul, and soon after murdered, &c.――――A consul, &c.
=Marcus Lollius=, a companion and tutor of Caius Cæsar the son-in-law
of Tiberius. He was consul, and offended Augustus by his rapacity in
the provinces. Horace has addressed two of his epistles to him, &c.
_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 3.
=Londīnum=, the capital of Britain, founded, as some suppose, between
the age of Julius Cæsar and Nero. It has been severally called
_Londinium_, _Lundinum_, &c. Ammianus calls it _vetustum oppidum_.
It is represented as a considerable, opulent, and commercial town,
in the age of Nero. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 14, ch. 33.――_Ammianus._
=Longārēnus=, a man guilty of adultery with Fausta, Sylla’s daughter.
_Horace_, bk. 1, satire 2, li. 67.
=Longimănus=, a surname of Artaxerxes, from his having one hand longer
than the other. The Greeks called him _Macrochir_. _Cornelius Nepos_,
_Kings_.
=Longīnus Dionysius Cassius=, a celebrated Greek philosopher and critic
of Athens. He was preceptor of the Greek language, and afterwards
minister, to Zenobia the famous queen of Palmyra, and his ardent
zeal and spirited activity in her cause proved at last fatal to him.
When the emperor Aurelian entered victorious the gates of Palmyra,
Longinus was sacrificed to the fury of the Roman soldiers, A.D. 273.
At the moment of death he showed himself great and resolute, and with
a philosophical and unparalleled firmness of mind, he even repressed
the tears and sighs of the spectators who pitied his miserable end.
Longinus has rendered his name immortal by his critical remarks on
ancient authors. His treatise on the sublime gives the world reason
to lament the loss of his other valuable compositions. The best
editions of this author are that of Tollius, 4to, Traja. ad Rhen.
1694, and that of Toup, 8vo, Oxford, 1778.――――Cassius, a tribune
driven out of the senate for favouring the interest of Julius Cæsar.
He was made governor of Spain by Cæsar, &c.――――A governor of Judæa.
――――A proconsul.――――A lawyer whom, though blind and respected, Nero
ordered to be put to death, because he had in his possession a
picture of Cassius, one of Cæsar’s murderers. _Juvenal_, satire 10,
li. 6.
=Longobardi=, a nation of Germany. _Tacitus_, _Germania_.
=Longŭla=, a town of Latium on the borders of the Volsci. _Livy_, bk. 2,
chs. 33 & 39; bk. 9, ch. 39.
=Longuntĭca=, a maritime city of Spain Tarraconensis. _Livy_, bk. 22,
ch. 20.
=Longus=, a Roman consul, &c.――――A Greek author who wrote a novel
called the amours of Daphnis and Chloe. The age in which he lived is
not precisely known. The best editions of this pleasing writer are
that of Paris, 4to, 1754, and that of Villoison, 8vo, Paris, 1778.
=Lordi=, a people of Illyricum.
=Lory̆ma=, a town of Doris. _Livy_, bk. 37, ch. 17.
=Lotis=, or =Lotos=, a beautiful nymph, daughter of Neptune. Priapus
offered her violence, and to save herself from his importunities
she implored the gods, who changed her into a tree called _Lotus_,
consecrated to Venus and Apollo. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 9,
li. 348.
=Lotŏphăgi=, a people on the coast of Africa near the Syrtes. They
received this name from their living upon the lotus. Ulysses visited
their country, at his return from the Trojan war. _Herodotus_, bk. 4,
ch. 177.――_Strabo_, bk. 17.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 7.――_Pliny_, bk. 5,
ch. 7; bk. 13, ch. 17.
=Lōus=, or =Aous=, a river of Macedonia near Apollonia.
=Lua=, a goddess at Rome, who presided over things which were purified
by lustrations, whence the name (_à luendo_). She is supposed to be
the same as Ops or Rhea.
=Luca=, now _Lucca_, a city of Etruria on the river Arnus. _Livy_,
bk. 21, ch. 5; bk. 41, ch. 13.――_Cicero_, bk. 13, _Letters to his
Friends_, ltr. 13.
=Lucăgus=, one of the friends of Turnus, killed by Æneas. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 575.
=Lūcāni=, a people of Italy, descended from the Samnites, or from the
Brutii.
=Lūcānia=, a country of Italy between the Tyrrhene and Sicilian seas,
and bounded by Pucetia, the Picentini, and the country of the Brutii.
The country was famous for its grapes. _Strabo_, bk. 6.――_Pliny_,
bk. 3, ch. 5.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 4.――_Livy_, bk. 8, ch. 17; bk. 9,
ch. 2; bk. 10, ch. 11.――_Horace_, bk. 2, ltr. 2, li. 178.
=Quintus Lucanius=, a centurion in Cæsar’s army, &c. _Cæsar_, _Gallic
War_, bk. 5.
=Lūcānus Marcus Annæus=, a native of Corduba in Spain. He was early
removed to Rome, where his rising talents, and more particularly his
lavished praises and panegyrics, recommended him to the emperor Nero.
This intimacy was soon productive of honour, and Lucan was raised to
the dignity of an augur and questor before he had attained the proper
age. The poet had the imprudence to enter the lists against his
imperial patron; he chose for his subject Orpheus, and Nero took the
tragical story of Niobe. Lucan obtained an easy victory, but Nero
became jealous of his poetical reputation, and resolved upon revenge.
The insults to which Lucan was daily exposed, provoked at last his
resentment, and he joined Piso in a conspiracy against the emperor.
The whole was discovered, and the poet had nothing left but to choose
the manner of his execution. He had his veins opened in a warm bath,
and as he expired he pronounced with great energy the lines which,
in his Pharsalia, bk. 3, lis. 639‒642, he had put into the mouth of
a soldier, who died in the same manner as himself. Some have accused
him of pusillanimity at the moment of his death, and say that, to
free himself from the punishment which threatened him, he accused
his own mother, and involved her in the crime of which he was guilty.
This circumstance, which throws an indelible blot upon the character
of Lucan, is not mentioned by some writers, who observe that he
expired with all the firmness of a philosopher. He died in his 26th
year, A.D. 65. Of all his compositions none but his _Pharsalia_
remains. This poem, which is an account of the civil wars of Cæsar
and Pompey, is unfinished. Opinions are various as to the merit of
the poetry. It possesses neither the fire of Homer, nor the melodious
numbers of Virgil. If Lucan had lived to a greater age, his judgment
and genius would have matured, and he might have claimed a more
exalted rank among the poets of the Augustan age. His expressions,
however, are bold and animated, his poetry entertaining, though his
irregularities are numerous, and, to use the words of Quintilian, he
is more an orator than a poet. He wrote a poem upon the burning of
Rome, now lost. It is said that his wife Polla Argentaria not only
assisted him in the composition of his poem, but even corrected it
after his death. Scaliger says that Lucan rather barks than sings.
The best editions of Lucan are those of Oudendorp, 4to, Leiden, 1728;
of Bentley, 4to, printed at Strawberry-hill, 1760; and of Barbou,
12mo, Paris, 1767. _Quintilian_, bk. 10.――_Suetonius._――_Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 15, &c.――_Martial_, bk. 7, ltr. 20.――――Ocellus, or
Ucellus, an ancient Pythagorean philosopher, whose age is unknown.
He wrote, in the Attic dialect, a book on the nature of the universe,
which he deemed eternal, and from it were drawn the systems adopted
by Aristotle, Plato, and Philo Judæus. This work was first translated
into Latin by Nogarola. Another book of Ocellus on laws, written
in the Doric dialect, was greatly esteemed by Archytas and Plato, a
fragment of which has been preserved by Stobæus, of which, however,
Ocellus is disputed to be the author. There is an edition of Ocellus,
with a learned commentary, by C. Emman. Vizzanius, Bononiæ, 1646, in
4to.
=Lŭcăria=, or =Lŭcĕria=, festivals at Rome, celebrated in a large grove
between the Via Salaria and the Tiber, where the Romans hid themselves
when besieged by the Gauls. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 1, ch. 77.
=Lucius Lucceius=, a celebrated historian, asked by Cicero to write
a history of his consulship. He favoured the cause of Pompey, but
was afterwards pardoned by Julius Cæsar. _Cicero_, _Letters to his
Friends_, bk. 5, ltr. 12, &c.
=Lucceius Albīnus=, a governor of Mauritania after Galba’s death, &c.
_Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 2, ch. 58.
=Lucentum= (or ia), a town of Spain, now _Alicant_.
=Lŭcĕres=, a body of horse, composed of Roman knights, first established
by Romulus and Tatius. It received its name either from _Lucumo_, an
Etrurian who assisted the Romans against the Sabines, or from _lucus_,
a grove where Romulus had erected an asylum, or a place of refuge for
all fugitives, slaves, homicides, &c., that he might people his city.
The Luceres were some of these men, and they were incorporated with
the legions. _Propertius_, bk. 4, poem 1, li. 31.
=Lucĕria=, a town of Apulia, famous for wool. _Livy_, bk. 9, chs. 2
& 12; bk. 10, ch. 35.――_Horace_, bk. 3, ode 15, li. 14.――_Lucan_,
bk. 2, li. 473.
=Lucerius=, a surname of Jupiter, as the father of light.
=Lucetius=, a Rutulian killed by Ilioneus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9,
li. 570.
=Luciānus=, a celebrated writer of Samosata. His father was poor in
his circumstances, and Lucian was early bound to one of his uncles,
who was a sculptor. This employment highly displeased him; he made no
proficiency in the art, and resolved to seek his livelihood by better
means. A dream in which Learning seemed to draw him to her, and to
promise fame and immortality, confirmed his resolutions, and he began
to write. The artifices and unfair dealings of a lawyer, a life which
he had embraced, disgusted him, and he began to study philosophy and
eloquence. He visited different places, and Antioch, Ionia, Greece,
Italy, Gaul, and more particularly Athens, became successively
acquainted with the depth of his learning and the power of his
eloquence. The emperor Marcus Aurelius was sensible of his merit,
and appointed him registrar to the Roman governor of Egypt. He died
A.D. 180, in his 90th year, and some of the moderns have asserted
that he was torn to pieces by dogs for his impiety, particularly
for ridiculing the religion of Christ. The works of Lucian, which
are numerous, and written in the Attic dialect, consist partly of
dialogues, in which he introduces different characters with much
dramatic propriety. His style is easy, simple, elegant, and animated,
and he has stored his compositions with many lively sentiments, and
much of the true Attic wit. His frequent obscenities, and his manner
of exposing to ridicule, not only the religion of his country, but
also that of every nation, have deservedly drawn upon him the censure
of every age, and branded him with the appellation of atheist and
blasphemer. He also wrote the life of Sostrates, a philosopher of
Bœotia, as also that of the philosopher Demonax. Some have also
attributed to him, with great impropriety, the life of Apollonius
Thyaneus. The best editions of Lucian are that of Grævius, 2 vols.,
8vo, Amsterdam, 1687, and that of Reitzius, 4 vols., 4to, Amsterdam,
1743.
=Lūcĭfer=, the name of the planet Venus, or morning star. It is called
_Lucifer_, when appearing in the morning before the sun; but when
it follows it, and appears some time after its setting, it is called
_Hesperus_. According to some mythologists, Lucifer was son of
Jupiter and Aurora.――――A christian writer, whose work was edited by
the Coleti, folio, Venice, 1778.
=Lucifĕri fanum=, a town of Spain.
=Caius Lūcīlius=, a Roman knight born at Aurunca, illustrious not only
for the respectability of his ancestors, but more deservedly for the
uprightness and the innocence of his own immaculate character. He
lived in the greatest intimacy with Scipio the first Africanus, and
even attended him in his war against Numantia. He is looked upon as
the founder of satire, and as the first great satirical writer among
the Romans. He was superior to his poetical predecessors at Rome;
and though he wrote with great roughness and inelegance, but with
much facility, he gained many admirers, whose praises have been often
lavished with too liberal a hand. Horace compares him to a river
which rolls upon its waters precious sand, accompanied with mire
and dirt. Of the 30 satires which he wrote, nothing but a few verses
remain. He died at Naples, in the 46th year of his age, B.C. 103. His
fragments have been collected and published with notes by Franciscus
Dousa, 4to, Leiden, 1597, and lastly by the Vulpii, 8vo, Patavium,
1735. _Quintilian_, bk. 10, ch. 1.――_Cicero_, _On Oratory_, bk. 2.
――_Horace._――――Lucilius, a famous Roman, who fled with Brutus after
the battle of Philippi. They were soon after overtaken by a party
of horse, and Lucilius suffered himself to be severely wounded by
the dart of the enemy, exclaiming that he was Brutus. He was taken
and carried to the conquerors, whose clemency spared his life.
_Plutarch._――――A tribune who attempted in vain to elect Pompey to
the dictatorship.――――A centurion, &c.――――A governor of Asia under
Tiberius.――――A friend of Tiberius.
=Lucilla=, a daughter of Marcus Aurelius, celebrated for the virtues
of her youth, her beauty, debaucheries, and misfortunes. At the age
of 16 her father sent her to Syria to marry the emperor Verus, who
was then employed in a war with the Parthians and ♦Armenians. The
conjugal virtues of Lucilla were great at first, but when she saw
Verus plunge himself into debauchery and dissipation, she followed
his example and prostituted herself. At her return to Rome she saw
the incestuous commerce of her husband with her mother, &c., and at
last poisoned him. She afterwards married an old but virtuous senator,
by order of her father, and was not ashamed soon to gratify the
criminal sensualities of her brother Commodus. The coldness and
indifference with which Commodus treated her afterwards determined
her on revenge, and she with many illustrious senators conspired
against his life A.D. 185. The plot was discovered, Lucilla was
banished, and soon after put to death by her brother, in the 38th
year of her age.
♦ ‘Arminians’ replaced with ‘Armenians’
=Lūcīna=, a goddess, daughter of Jupiter and Juno, or, according to
others, of Latona. As her mother brought her into the world without
pain, she became the goddess whom women in labour invoked, and she
presided over the birth of children. She receives this name either
from _lucus_, or from _lux_, as Ovid explains it:
_Gratia Lucinæ, dedit hæc tibi nomina lucus;
Aut quia principium tu, Dea, lucis habes._
Some suppose her to be the same as Diana and Juno, because these two
goddesses were also sometimes called Lucina, and presided over the
labours of women. She is called Ilythia by the Greeks. She had a
famous temple at Rome, raised A.U.C. 396. _Varro_, _de Lingua Latina_,
bk. 4.――_Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 2, ch. 27.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_,
bk. 2, li. 449.――_Horace_, _Carmen Sæculare_.
=Lucius=, a Roman soldier killed at the siege of Jerusalem, by saving
in his arms a man who jumped down from one of the walls. _Josephus._
――――A brother of Marcus Antony. _See:_ Lucius Antonius.――――A Roman
general, who defeated the Etrurians, &c.――――A relation of Julius
Cæsar. A Roman ambassador, murdered by the Illyrians.――――A consul,
&c.――――A writer, called by some Saturantius Apuleius. He was born in
Africa, on the borders of Numidia. He studied poetry, music, geometry,
&c., at Athens, and warmly embraced the tenets of the Platonists. He
cultivated magic, and some miracles are attributed to his knowledge
of enchantments. He wrote in Greek and Latin with great ease and
simplicity; his style, however, is sometimes affected, though his
eloquence was greatly celebrated in his age. Some fragments of his
compositions are still extant. He flourished in the reign of Marcus
Aurelius.――――A brother of Vitellius, &c.――――A son of Agrippa, adopted
by Augustus.――――A man put to death for his incontinence, &c.――――The
word Lucius is a prænomen common to many Romans, of whom an account
is given under their family names.
=Lūcrētia=, a celebrated Roman lady, daughter of Lucretius and wife
of Tarquinius Collatinus. Her accomplishments proved fatal to her,
and the praises which a number of young nobles at Ardea, among whom
were Collatinus and the sons of Tarquin, bestowed upon the domestic
virtues of their wives at home, were productive of a revolution in
the state. While every one was warm with the idea, it was universally
agreed to leave the camp and to go to Rome, to ascertain the veracity
of their respective assertions. Collatinus had the pleasure to see
his expectations fulfilled in the highest degree, and while the wives
of the other Romans were involved in the riot and dissipation of
a feast, Lucretia was found at home, employed in the midst of her
female servants, and easing their labour by sharing it herself. The
beauty and innocence of Lucretia inflamed the passion of Sextus the
son of Tarquin, who was a witness of her virtues and industry. He
cherished his flame, and he secretly retired from the camp, and came
to the house of Lucretia, where he met with a kind reception. He
showed himself unworthy of such a treatment, and in the dead of night
he introduced himself to Lucretia, who refused to his intreaties what
her fear of shame granted to his threats. She yielded to her ravisher
when he threatened to murder her, and to slay one of her slaves,
and put him in her bed, that this apparent adultery might seem to
have met with the punishment it deserved. Lucretia, in the morning,
sent for her husband and her father, and, after she had revealed
to them the indignities she had suffered from the son of Tarquin,
and entreated them to avenge her wrongs, she stabbed herself with
a dagger which she had previously concealed under her clothes. This
fatal blow was the signal of rebellion. The body of the virtuous
Lucretia was exposed to the eyes of the senate, and the violence and
barbarity of Sextus, joined with the unpopularity and oppression of
his father, so irritated the Roman populace, that that moment they
expelled the Tarquins for ever from Rome. Brutus, who was present at
the tragical death of Lucretia, kindled the flames of rebellion, and
the republican or consular government was established at Rome A.U.C.
244. _Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 57, &c.――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 4,
ch. 15.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 2, li. 741.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 6,
ch. 1.――_Plutarch._――_Augustine_, _City of God_, bk. 1, ch. 19.
――――The wife of Numa. _Plutarch._
=Lŭcrētĭlis=, now _Libretti_, a mountain in the country of the Sabines,
hanging over a pleasant valley, near which the house and farm of
Horace were situated. _Horace_, bk. 1, ode 17, li. 1.――_Cicero_,
bk. 7, _Letters to Atticus_, ltr. 11.
=Titius Lŭcrētius Carus=, a celebrated Roman poet and philosopher, who
was early sent to Athens, where he studied under Zeno and Phædrus.
The tenets of Epicurus and Empedocles, which then prevailed at Athens,
were warmly embraced by Lucretius, and when united with the infinite
of Anaximander and the atoms of Democritus, they were explained and
elucidated in a poem, in six books, which is called _De rerum naturâ_.
In this poem the masterly genius and unaffected elegance of the poet
are everywhere conspicuous; but the opinions of the philosopher are
justly censured, who gives no existence of power to a supreme Being,
but is the devoted advocate of atheism and impiety, and earnestly
endeavours to establish the mortality of the soul. This composition,
which has little claim to be called an heroic poem, was written and
finished while the poet laboured under a violent delirium, occasioned
by a philter, which the jealousy of his mistress or his wife Lucilia
had administered. It is said that he destroyed himself in the 44th
year of his age, about 54 years before Christ. Cicero, after his
death, revised and corrected his poems, which had been partly written
in the lucid intervals of reason and of sense. Lucretius, whose poem
shows that he wrote Latin better than any other man ever did, would
have proved no mean rival to Virgil, had he lived in the polished age
of Augustus. The best editions of his works are that of Creech, 8vo,
Oxford, 1695; that of Havercamp, 2 vols., 4to, Leiden, 1725; and that
of Glasgow, 12mo, 1759. _Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 36.――_Quintilian_,
bk. 3, ch. 1; bk. 10, ch. 1.――――Quintus, a Roman who killed himself
because the inhabitants of Sulmo, over which he was appointed with
a garrison, seemed to favour the cause of Julius Cæsar. _Cæsar_,
_Civil War_, bk. 1, ch. 18. He is also called Vespillo.――――Spurius
Tricipitinus, father of Lucretia wife of Collatinus, was made consul
after the death of Brutus, and soon after died himself. Horatius
Pulvillus succeeded him. _Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 58.――_Plutarch_,
_Publicola_.――――An interrex at Rome.――――A consul.――――Osella, a Roman,
put to death by Sylla because he had applied for the consulship
without his permission. _Plutarch._
=Lucrīnum=, a town of Apulia.
=Lūcrīnus=, a small lake of Campania, opposite Puteoli. Some believe
that it was made by Hercules when he passed through Italy with the
bulls of Geryon. It abounded with excellent oysters, and was united
by Augustus to the Avernus, and a communication formed with the sea,
near a harbour called _Julius Portus_. The Lucrine lake disappeared
on the 30th of September, 1538, in a violent earthquake, which raised
on the spot a mountain four miles in circumference, and about 1000
feet high, with a crater in the middle. _Cicero_, bk. 4, _Letters
to Atticus_, ltr. 10.――_Strabo_, bks. 5 & 6.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 4.
――_Propertius_, bk. 1, poem 11, li. 10.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 2,
li. 161.――_Horace_, bk. 2, ode 15.
=Caius Luctātius Catŭlus=, a Roman consul with Marius. He assisted his
colleague in conquering the Cimbrians. _See:_ Cimbricum bellum. He
was eloquent as well as valiant, and his history of his consulship,
which he wrote with great veracity, convinces us of his literary
talents. That history is lost. _Cicero_, _On Oratory_.――_Varro_, _de
Lingua Latina_.――_Florus_, bk. 2, ch. 2.――――Caius Catulus, a Roman
consul, who destroyed the Carthaginian fleet. _See:_ Catulus.
=Lucullea=, a festival established by the Greeks in honour of Lucullus,
who had behaved with great prudence and propriety in his province.
_Plutarch_, _Lucullus_.
=Luculli horti=, gardens of Lucullus, situate near Neapolis, &c.
_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 11, ch. 1.――――Villa, a country seat near
mount Misenus, where Tiberius died. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 6,
ch. 50.
=Lucullus Lucius Licinius=, a Roman celebrated for his fondness
of luxury and for his military talents. He was born about 115
years before the christian era, and soon distinguished himself by
his proficiency in the liberal arts, particularly eloquence and
philosophy. His first military campaign was in the Marsian war, where
his valour and cool intrepidity recommended him to public notice.
His mildness and constancy gained him the admiration and confidence
of Sylla, and from this connection he derived honour, and during his
questorship in Asia and pretorship in Africa, he rendered himself
more conspicuous by his justice, moderation, and humanity. He was
raised to the consulship A.U.C. 680, and entrusted with the care
of the Mithridatic war, and first displayed his military talents
in rescuing his colleague Cotta, whom the enemy had besieged in
Chalcedonia. This was soon followed by a celebrated victory over
the forces of Mithridates, on the borders of the Granicus, and by
the conquest of the Bithynia. His victories by sea were as great as
those by land, and Mithridates lost a powerful fleet near Lemnos.
Such considerable losses weakened the enemy, and Mithridates retired
with precipitation towards Armenia to the court of king Tigranes his
father-in-law. His flight was perceived, and Lucullus crossed the
Euphrates with great expedition, and gave battle to the numerous
forces which Tigranes had already assembled to support the cause of
his son-in-law. According to the exaggerated account of Plutarch,
no less than 100,000 foot and near 55,000 horse of the Armenians
lost their lives in that celebrated battle. All this carnage was
made by a Roman army amounting to no more than 18,000 men, of whom
only five were killed and 100 wounded during the combat. The taking
of Tigranocerta the capital of Armenia was the consequence of this
immortal victory, and Lucullus there obtained the greatest part of
the royal treasures. This continual success, however, was attended
with serious consequences. The severity of Lucullus, and the
haughtiness of his commands, offended his soldiers, and displeased
his adherents at Rome. Pompey was soon after sent to succeed him,
and to continue the Mithridatic war, and the interview which he had
with Lucullus began with acts of mutual kindness, and ended in the
most inveterate reproaches and open enmity. Lucullus was permitted
to retire to Rome, and only 1600 of the soldiers who had shared
his fortune and his glories were suffered to accompany him. He was
received with coldness at Rome, and he obtained with difficulty a
triumph which was deservedly claimed by his fame, his successes, and
his victories. In this ended the days of his glory; he retired to
the enjoyment of ease and peaceful society, and no longer interested
himself in the commotions which disturbed the tranquillity of
Rome. He dedicated his time to studious pursuits, and to literary
conversation. His house was enriched with a valuable library, which
was opened for the service of the curious, and of the learned.
Lucullus fell into a delirium in the last part of his life, and died
in the 67th or 68th year of his age. The people showed their respect
for his merit by their wish to give him an honourable burial in the
Campus Martius; but their offers were rejected, and he was privately
buried, by his brother, on his estate at Tusculum. Lucullus has
been admired for his many accomplishments, but he has been censured
for his severity and extravagance. The expenses of his meals were
immoderate; his halls were distinguished by the different names of
the gods; and, when Cicero and Pompey attempted to surprise him, they
were astonished at the costliness of a supper which had been prepared
upon the word of Lucullus, who had merely said to his servant that
he would sup in the hall of Apollo. In his retirement Lucullus was
fond of artificial variety; subterraneous caves and passages were
dug under the hills on the coast of Campania, and the sea water
was conveyed round the house and pleasure grounds, where the fishes
flocked in such abundance, that not less than 25,000 pounds worth
were sold at his death. In his public character Lucullus was humane
and compassionate, and he showed his sense of the vicissitudes of
human affairs by shedding tears at the sight of one of the cities of
Armenia, which his soldiers reduced to ashes. He was a perfect master
of the Greek and Latin languages, and he employed himself for some
time to write a concise history of the Marsic war in Greek hexameters.
Such are the striking characteristics of a man who meditated the
conquest of Parthia, and for a while gained the admiration of all
the inhabitants of the east by his justice and moderation, and who
might have disputed the empire of the world with a Cæsar or Pompey,
had not, at last, his fondness for retirement withdrawn him from
the reach of ambition. _Cicero_, _For Archias_, ch. 4; _Quæstiones
Academicæ_, bk. 2, ch. 1.――_Plutarch_, _Lives_.――_Florus_, bk. 3,
ch. 5.――_Strabo._――_Appian_, _Mithridatic Wars_, &c.――_Orosius_,
bk. 6, &c.――――A consul who went to Spain, &c.――――A Roman put to death
by Domitian.――――A brother of Lucius Lucullus, lieutenant under Sylla.
――――A pretor of Macedonia.
=Lŭcŭmo=, the first name of Tarquinius Priscus, afterwards changed
into Lucius. The word is Etrurian, and signifies prince or chief.
_Plutarch_, _Romulus_.
=Lucus=, a king of ancient Gaul.――――A town of Gaul at the foot of the
Alps.
=Lugdunensis Gallia=, a part of Gaul, which received its name from
Lugdunum, the capital city of the province. It was anciently called
Celtica. _See:_ Gallia.
=Lugdūnum=, a town of Gallia Celtica, built at the confluence of
the Rhone and the Arar, or Saone, by Manutius Plancus, when he was
governor of the province. This town, now called _Lyons_, is the
second city of France in point of population. _Juvenal_, satire 1,
li. 44.――_Strabo_, bk. 4.――――Batavorum, a town on the Rhine, just as
it falls into the ocean. It is now called _Leyden_, and is famous for
its university.――――Convenarum, a town at the foot of the Pyrenees,
now _St. Bertrand_ in Gascony.
=Lūna= (_the moon_), was the daughter of Hyperion and Terra, and
was the same, according to some mythologists, as Diana. She was
worshipped by the ancient inhabitants of the earth with many
superstitious forms and ceremonies. It was supposed that magicians
and enchanters, particularly those of Thessaly, had an uncontrollable
power over the moon, and that they could draw her down from heaven
at pleasure by the mere force of their incantations. Her eclipses,
according to their opinion, proceeded from thence; and on that
account it was usual to beat drums and cymbals to ease her labours,
and to render the power of magic less effectual. The Arcadians
believed that they were older than the moon. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 12, li. 263, &c.――_Tibullus_, bk. 1, poem 8, li. 21.――_Hesiod_,
_Theogony_.――_Virgil_, _Eclogues_, poem 8, li. 69.――――A maritime town
of Etruria, famous for the white marble which it produced, and called
also _Lunensis portus_. It contained a fine, capacious harbour, and
abounded in wine, cheese, &c. The inhabitants were naturally given
to augury, and the observation of uncommon phenomena. _Mela_, bk. 2,
ch. 4.――_Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 586.――_Pliny_, bk. 14, ch. 6.――_Livy_,
bk. 34, ch. 8.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 481.
=Lupa= (_a she-wolf_), was held in great veneration at Rome, because
Romulus and Remus, according to an ancient tradition, were suckled
and preserved by one of these animals. This fabulous story arises
from the surname of Lupa, _prostitute_, which was given to the wife
of the shepherd Fastulus, to whose care and humanity these children
owed their preservation. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 2, li. 415.――_Plutarch_,
_Romulus_.
=Lupercal=, a place at the foot of mount Aventine sacred to Pan, where
festivals called Lupercalia were yearly celebrated, and where the
she-wolf was said to have brought up Romulus and Remus. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 8, li. 343.
=Lupercālia=, a yearly festival observed at Rome the 15th of February,
in honour of the god Pan. It was usual first to sacrifice two goats
and a dog, and to touch with a bloody knife the foreheads of two
illustrious youths, who always were obliged to smile while they were
touched. The blood was wiped away with soft wool dipped in milk.
After this the skins of the victims were cut into thongs, with which
whips were made for the youths. With these whips the youths ran about
the streets all naked except the middle, and whipped freely all those
whom they met. Women in particular were fond of receiving the lashes,
as they superstitiously believed that they removed barrenness, and
eased the pains of child-birth. This excursion in the streets of
Rome was performed by naked youths, because Pan is always represented
naked, and a goat was sacrificed because that deity was supposed to
have the feet of a goat. A dog was added, as a necessary and useful
guardian of the sheepfold. This festival, as Plutarch mentions,
was first instituted by the Romans in honour of the she-wolf which
suckled Romulus and Remus. This opinion is controverted by others,
and Livy, with Dionysius of Halicarnassus, observes that they were
introduced into Italy by Evander. The name seems to be borrowed
from the Greek name of Pan, _Lycæus_, from λυκος, _a wolf_; not only
because these ceremonies were like the Lycæan festivals observed in
Arcadia, but because Pan, as god of shepherds, protected the sheep
from the rapacity of the wolves. The priests who officiated at the
Lupercalia were called _Luperci_. Augustus forbade any person above
the age of 14 to appear naked or to run about the streets during the
Lupercalia. Cicero, in his Philippics, reproaches Antony for having
disgraced the dignity of the consulship by running naked, and armed
with a whip, about the streets. It was during the celebration of
these festivals that Antony offered a crown to Julius Cæsar, which
the indignation of the populace obliged him to refuse. _Ovid_,
_Fasti_, bk. 2, li. 427.――_Varro_, _de Lingua Latina_, bk. 5, ch. 3.
=Luperci=, a number of priests at Rome, who assisted at the celebration
of the Lupercalia, in honour of the god Pan, to whose service they
were dedicated. This order of priests was the most ancient and
respectable of all the sacerdotal offices. It was divided into
two separate colleges, called _Fabiani_ and _Quintiliani_, from
Fabius and Quintilius, two of their high priests. The former was
instituted in honour of Romulus, and the latter of Remus. To these
two sacerdotal bodies Julius Cæsar added a third, called from himself
the _Julii_, and this action contributed not a little to render his
cause unpopular, and to betray his ambitious and aspiring views.
_See:_ Lupercalia. _Plutarch_, _Romulus_.――_Dio Cassius_, bk. 45.
――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8, li. 663.
=Lupercus=, a grammarian in the reign of the emperor Gallienus.
He wrote some grammatical pieces, which some have preferred to
Herodian’s compositions.
=Lupias=, or =Lupia=, now _Lippe_, a town of Germany, with a small
river of the same name falling into the Rhine. _Tacitus_, _Annals_,
bk. 1, &c.
=Lupus=, a general of the emperor Severus.――――A governor of Britain.
――――A questor in the reign of Tiberius, &c.――――A comic writer of
Sicily, who wrote a poem on the return of Menelaus and Helen to
Sparta, after the destruction of Troy. _Ovid_, _ex Ponto_, bk. 4,
ltr. 16, li. 26.――――Publius Rutilius, a Roman, who, contrary to
the omens, marched against the Marsi, and was killed with his army.
He has been taxed with impiety, and was severely censured in the
Augustan age. _Horace_, bk. 2, satire 1, li. 68.
=Lusitania=, a part of ancient Spain, whose extent and situation
have not been accurately defined by the ancients. According to the
more correct descriptions it extended from the Tagus to the sea
of Cantabria, and comprehended the modern kingdom of Portugal. The
inhabitants were warlike, and were conquered by the Roman army under
Dolabella, B.C. 99, with great difficulty. They generally lived
upon plunder, and were rude and unpolished in their manners. It was
usual among them to expose their sick in the high-roads, that their
diseases might be cured by the directions and advice of travellers.
They were very moderate in their meals, and never ate but of one
dish. Their clothes were commonly black, and they generally warmed
themselves by means of stones heated in the fire. _Strabo_, bk. 3.
――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 6; bk. 3, ch. 1.――_Livy_, bk. 21, ch. 43; bk. 27,
ch. 20.
=Lusius=, a river of Arcadia. _Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 3,
ch. 22.――_Pausanias_, _Arcadia_, ch. 28.
=Lusones=, a people of Spain, near the Iberus.
=Lustricus Brutianus=, a Roman poet. _Martial_, bk. 4, ltr. 23.
=Lutātius Catŭlus=, a Roman who shut the temple of Janus after peace
had been made with Carthage. _See:_ Luctatius.
=Luterius=, a general of the Gauls, defeated by Cæsar, &c.
=Lūtetia=, a town of Belgic Gaul, on the confluence of the rivers
Sequana and Matrona, which received its name, as some suppose, from
the quantity of clay, _lutum_, which is in its neighbourhood. Julius
Cæsar fortified and embellished it, from which circumstance some
authors call it _Julii Civitas_. Julian the apostate resided there
some time. It is now called _Paris_, the capital of France. _Cæsar_,
_Gallic War_, bks. 6 & 7.――_Strabo_, bk. 4.――_Ammianus_, bk. 20.
=Caius Lutorius Priscus=, a Roman knight, put to death by order of
Tiberius, because he had written a poem in which he had bewailed
the death of Germanicus, who then laboured under a severe illness.
_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 3, ch. 49, &c.
=Lyæus=, a surname of Bacchus. It is derived from λυειν, _solvere_,
because wine, over which Bacchus presides, gives freedom to the mind,
and delivers it from all cares and melancholy. _Horace_, epode 9.
――_Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 675.
=Lybas=, one of the companions of Ulysses, &c.
=Lybya=, or =Lybissa=, a small village of Bithynia, where Annibal was
buried.
=Lycăbas=, an Etrurian who had been banished from his country for
murder. He was one of those who offered violence to Bacchus, and
who were changed into dolphins. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 4,
li. 624.――――One of the Lapithæ who ran away from the battle which was
fought at the nuptials of Pirithous. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12,
li. 302.
=Lycabētus=, a mountain of Attica, near Athens. _Statius._
=Lycæa=, festivals in Arcadia, in honour of Pan the god of shepherds.
They are the same as the Lupercalia of the Romans.――――A festival
at Argos in honour of Apollo Lycæus, who delivered the Argives from
wolves, &c.
=Lycæum=, a celebrated place near the banks of the Ilissus in Attica.
It was in this pleasant and salubrious spot that Aristotle taught
philosophy, and as he generally instructed his pupils in walking,
they were called Peripatetics, ἀ περιπατεω, _ambulo_. The philosopher
continued his instructions for 12 years, till, terrified by the false
accusations of Eurymedon, he was obliged to fly to Chalcis.
=Lycæus=, a mountain of Arcadia, sacred to Jupiter, where a temple
was built in honour of the god by Lycaon the son of Pelasgus. It was
also sacred to Pan, whose festivals, called _Lycæa_, were celebrated
there. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 1, li. 16; _Æneid_, bk. 8, li. 343.
――_Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ode 17, li. 2.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, li. 698.
=Ly̆cambes=, the father of Neobule. He promised his daughter in marriage
to the poet Archilochus, and afterwards refused to fulfil his
engagement when she had been courted by a man whose opulence had more
influence than the fortune of the poet. This irritated Archilochus;
he wrote a bitter invective against Lycambes and his daughter, and
rendered them both so desperate by the satire of his composition,
that they hanged themselves. _Horace_, epode 6, li. 13.――_Ovid_,
_Ibis_, li. 52.――_Aristotle_, _Rhetoric_, bk. 3.
=Ly̆cāon=, the first king of Arcadia, son of Pelasgus and Melibœa. He
built a town called Lycosura on the top of mount Lycæus, in honour of
Jupiter. He had many wives, by whom he had a daughter called Callisto,
and 50 sons. He was succeeded on the throne by Nyctimus, the eldest
of his sons. He lived about 1820 years before the christian era.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 3.――_Hyginus_, fable 176.――_Catullus_, poem 76.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 2, &c.――――Another king of Arcadia,
celebrated for his cruelties. He was changed into a wolf by Jupiter,
because he offered human victims on the altars of the god Pan. Some
attribute this metamorphosis to another cause. The sins of mankind,
as they relate, were become so enormous, that Jupiter visited the
earth to punish their wickedness and impiety. He came to Arcadia,
where he was announced as a god, and the people began to pay proper
adoration to his divinity. Lycaon, however, who used to sacrifice
all strangers to his wanton cruelty, laughed at the pious prayers
of his subjects, and, to try the divinity of the god, he served up
human flesh on his table. This impiety so irritated Jupiter, that
he immediately destroyed the house of Lycaon, and changed him into a
wolf. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, li. 198, &c. These two monarchs
are often confounded together, though it appears that they were two
different characters, and that not less than an age elapsed between
their reigns.――――A son of Priam and Laothoe. He was taken by Achilles
and carried to Lemnos, whence he escaped. He was afterwards killed
by Achilles in the Trojan war. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 21, &c.――――The
father of Pandarus, killed by Diomedes before Troy.――――A Gnossian
artist, who made the sword which Ascanius gave to Euryalus. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 304.
=Ly̆cāŏnia=, a country of Asia, between Cappadocia, Pisidia, Pamphylia,
and Phrygia, made a Roman province under Augustus. Iconium was the
capital. _Strabo_, bk. 10.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 2.――_Livy_, bk. 27,
ch. 54; bk. 38, ch. 39.――――Arcadia bore also that name, from Lycaon,
one of its kings. _Dionysius of Halicarnassus._――――An island in the
Tiber.
=Ly̆cas=, a priest of Apollo in the interest of Turnus. He was killed
by Æneas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 315.――――Another officer of
Turnus. _Æneid_, bk. 10, ch. 561.
=Ly̆caste=, an ancient town of Crete, whose inhabitants accompanied
Idomeneus to the Trojan war. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2.――――A daughter
of Priam by a concubine. She married Polydamas the son of Antenor.
――――A famous courtesan of Drepanum, called Venus on account of her
great beauty. She had a son called Eryx, by Butes son of Amycus.
=Lycastum=, a town of Cappadocia.
=Lycastus=, a son of Minos I. He was father of Minos II., by Ida
the daughter of Corybas. _Diodorus_, bk. 4.――――A son of Minos and
Philonome daughter of Nyctimus. He succeeded his father on the throne
of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, chs. 3 & 4.
=Lyce=, one of the Amazons, &c. _Flaccus_, bk. 6, li. 374.
=Lyces=, a town of Macedonia. _Livy_, bk. 31, ch. 33.
=Lycēum.= _See:_ Lycæum.
=Lychnīdus=, now _Achridna_, a city with a lake of the same name, in
Illyricum. _Livy_, bk. 27, ch. 32; bk. 44, ch. 15.
=Ly̆cia=, a country of Asia Minor, bounded by the Mediterranean on
the south, Caria on the west, Pamphylia on the east, and Phrygia on
the north. It was anciently called _Milyas_ and _Tremile_, from the
Milyæ or Solymi, a people of Crete, who came to settle there. The
country received the name of Lycia, from Lycus the son of Pandion,
who established himself there. The inhabitants have been greatly
commended by all the ancients, not only for their sobriety and
justice, but their great dexterity in the management of the bow.
They were conquered by Crœsus king of Lydia, and afterwards by Cyrus.
Though they were subject to the power of Persia, yet they were
governed by their own kings, and only paid a yearly tribute to the
Persian monarch. They became part of the Macedonian empire when
Alexander came into the east, and afterwards were ceded to the house
of the Seleucidæ. The country was reduced into a Roman province
by the emperor Claudius. Apollo had there his celebrated oracle at
Patara, and the epithet _hiberna_ is applied to the country, because
the god was said to pass the winter in his temple. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 4, lis. 143 & 446; bk. 7, li. 816.――_Statius_, _Thebiad_, bk. 6,
li. 686.――_Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 173.――_Strabo_, bk. 13.――_Livy_,
bk. 37, ch. 16; bk. 38, ch. 39.
=Lycĭdas=, a centaur, killed by the Lapithæ at the nuptials of
Pirithous. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12, li. 310.――――A shepherd’s
name. _Virgil_, _Eclogues_.――――A beautiful youth, the admiration of
Rome in the age of Horace. _Horace_, bk. 1, ode 4, li. 19.
=Lycimna=, a town of Peloponnesus.
=Lycimnia=, a slave, mother of Helenor by a Lydian prince. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 446.
=Lyciscus=, an Athenian archon.――――A Messenian of the family of the
Æpytidæ. When his daughters were doomed by lot to be sacrificed
for the good of their country, he fled with them to Sparta, and
Aristodemus upon this cheerfully gave his own children and soon after
succeeded to the throne. _Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 9.――――A youth of
whom Horace was enamoured.
=Ly̆cius=, a son of Hercules and Toxicreta.――――A son of Lycaon.――――An
epithet given to Apollo from his temple in Lycia, where he gave
oracles, particularly at Patara, where the appellation of _Lyciæ
sortes_ was given to his answers, and even to the will of the fates.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 4, li. 346.――――A surname of Danaus.
=Ly̆cŏmēdes=, a king of Scyros, an island in the Ægean sea, son of
Apollo and Parthenope. He was secretly entrusted with the care of
young Achilles, whom his mother Thetis had disguised in woman’s
clothes, to remove him from the Trojan war, where she knew he must
unavoidably perish. Lycomedes has rendered himself infamous for his
treachery to Theseus, who had implored his protection when driven
from the throne of Athens by the usurper Mnestheus. Lycomedes, as
it is reported, either envious of the fame of his illustrious guest,
or bribed by the emissaries of Mnestheus, led Theseus to an elevated
place, on pretence of showing him the extent of his dominions,
and perfidiously threw him down a precipice, where he was killed.
_Plutarch_, _Theseus_.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 17; bk. 7, ch. 4.
――――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 13.――――An Arcadian, who, with 500
chosen men, put to flight 1000 Spartans and 500 Argives, &c.
_Diodorus_, bk. 15.――――A seditious person at Tegea.――――A Mantinean
general, &c.――――An Athenian, the first who took one of the enemy’s
ships at the battle of Salamis. _Plutarch._
=Lycon=, a philosopher of Troas, son of Astyonax, in the age of
Aristotle. He was greatly esteemed by Eumenes, Antiochus, &c. He died
in the 74th year of his age. _Diogenes Laërtius_, _Lives and Opinions
of Eminent Philosophers_.――――A man who wrote the life of Pythagoras.
――――A poet.――――A writer of epigrams.――――A player, greatly esteemed
by Alexander. A Syracusan who assisted in murdering Dion.――――A
peripatetic philosopher.
=Lycōne=, a city of Thrace.――――A mountain of Argolis. _Pausanias_,
bk. 2, ch. 24.
=Ly̆cōphron=, a son of Periander king of Corinth. The murder of his
mother Melissa by his father had such an effect upon him, that he
resolved never to speak to a man who had been so wantonly cruel
against his relations. This resolution was strengthened by the advice
of Procles his maternal uncle, and Periander at last banished to
Corcyra a son whose disobedience and obstinacy had rendered him
odious. Cypselus, the eldest son of Periander, being incapable of
reigning, Lycophron was the only surviving child who had any claim to
the crown of Corinth. But when the infirmities of Periander obliged
him to look for a successor, Lycophron refused to come to Corinth
while his father was there, and he was induced to leave Corcyra,
only on promise that Periander would come and dwell there while he
remained master of Corinth. This exchange, however, was prevented.
The Corcyreans, who were apprehensive of the tyranny of Periander,
murdered Lycophron before he left that island. _Herodotus_, bk. 3.
――_Aristotle._――――A brother of Thebe, the wife of Alexander tyrant
of Pheræ. He assisted his sister in murdering her husband, and he
afterwards seized the sovereignty. He was dispossessed by Philip of
Macedonia. _Plutarch._――_Diodorus_, bk. 16.――――A general of Corinth,
killed by Nicias. _Plutarch_, _Nicias_.――――A native of Cythera, son
of Mastor. He went to the Trojan war with Ajax the son of Telamon,
after the accidental murder of one of his citizens. He was killed,
&c. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 15, li. 450.――――A famous Greek poet and
grammarian, born at Chalcis, in Eubœa. He was one of the poets who
flourished under Ptolemy Philadelphus, and who, from their number,
obtained the name of Pleiades. Lycophron died by the wound of an
arrow. He wrote tragedies, the titles of 20 of which have been
preserved. The only remaining composition of this poet is called
_Cassandra_ or _Alexandra_. It contains 1474 verses, whose obscurity
has procured the epithet of _Tenebrosus_ to its author. It is a
mixture of prophetical effusions, which, as he supposes, were given
by Cassandra during the Trojan war. The best editions of Lycophron
are that of Basil, 1546, folio, enriched with the Greek commentary of
Tzetzes; that of Canter, 8vo, apud Commelin. 1596; and that of Potter,
folio, Oxford, 1702. _Ovid_, _Ibis_, li. 533.――_Statius_, bk. 5,
_Sylvæ_, poem 3.
=Lycopŏlis=, now _Siut_, a town of Egypt. It received this name on
account of the immense number of wolves, λυκοι, which repelled
an army of Æthiopians, who had invaded Egypt. _Diodorus_, bk. 1.
――_Strabo_, bk. 17.
=Lycopus=, an Ætolian who assisted the Cyreneans against Ptolemy.
_Polyænus_, bk. 8.
=Lycorea=, a town of Phocis at the top of Parnassus, where the people
of Delphi took refuge during Deucalion’s deluge, directed by the
howlings of wolves. _Pausanias_, _Phocis_, ch. 6.
=Lycoreus=, the supposed founder of Lycorea, on mount Parnassus, was
son of Apollo and Corycia. _Hyginus_, fable 161.
=Ly̆cōrias=, one of the attendant nymphs of Cyrene. _Virgil_, _Georgics_,
bk. 4, li. 339.
=Ly̆cōris=, a freedwoman of the senator Volumnius, also called
_Cytheris_, and _Volumnia_, from her master. She is celebrated for
her beauty and intrigues. The poet Gallus was greatly enamoured of
her, and his friend Virgil, in his 10th eclogue, comforts him for the
loss of the favours of Cytheris, who followed Marcus Antony’s camp,
and was become the Aspasia of Rome. The charms of Cleopatra, however,
prevailed over those of Cytheris, and the unfortunate courtesan lost
the favours of Antony and of all the world at the same time. Lycoris
was originally a comedian. _Virgil_, _Eclogues_, poem 10.――_Ovid_,
_Ars Amatoria_, bk. 3, li. 537.
=Lycormas=, a river of Ætolia, whose sands were of a golden colour. It
was afterwards called _Evenus_, from king Evenus, who threw himself
into it. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 2, li. 245.
=Lycortas=, the father of Polybius, who flourished B.C. 184. He was
chosen general of the Achæan league, and he revenged the death of
Philopœmen, &c. _Plutarch._
=Lycosūra=, a city built by Lycaon on mount Lycæus in Arcadia.
=Lyctus=, a town of Crete, the country of Idomeneus, whence he is often
called _Lyctius_. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 401.
=Lycurgrĭdes=, annual days of solemnity, appointed in honour of the
lawgiver of Sparta.――――A patronymic of a son of Lycurgus. _Ovid_,
_Ibis_, li. 503.
=Lycurgus=, a king of Nemæa, in Peloponnesus. He was raised from the
dead by Æsculapius. _Statius_, _Thebiad_, bk. 5, li. 638.――――A giant
killed by Osiris in Thrace. _Diodorus_, bk. 1.――――A king of Thrace,
son of Dryas. He has been represented as cruel and impious, on
account of the violence which he offered to Bacchus. He, according
to the opinion of the mythologists, drove Bacchus out of his kingdom,
and abolished his worship, for which impiety he was severely punished
by the gods. He put his own son Dryas to death in a fury, and he cut
off his own legs, mistaking them for vine boughs. He was put to death
in the greatest torments by his subjects, who had been informed by
the oracle that they should not taste wine till Lycurgus was no more.
This fable is explained by observing that the aversion of Lycurgus
for wine, over which Bacchus presided, arose from the filthiness and
disgrace of intoxication, and therefore the monarch wisely ordered
all the vines of his dominions to be cut down, that himself and his
subjects might be preserved from the extravagance and debauchery
which are produced by too free a use of wine. _Hyginus_, fable 132.
――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 6, li. 130.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 5.
――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 4, li. 22.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3,
li. 14.――_Horace_, bk. 2, ode 19.――――A son of Hercules and Praxithea
daughter of Thespius. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――――A son of Pheres
the son of Cretheus. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9.――――An orator of
Athens, surnamed _Ibis_, in the age of Demosthenes, famous for his
justice and impartiality when at the head of the government. He was
one of the 30 orators whom the Athenians refused to deliver up to
Alexander. Some of his orations are extant. He died about 330 years
before Christ. _Diodorus_, bk. 16.――――A king of Tegea, son of Aleus,
by Neæra the daughter of Pereus. He married Cleophile, called also
Eurynome, by whom he had Amphidamas, &c. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 9.
――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 7.――――A celebrated lawgiver of Sparta, son of
king Eunomus and brother to Polydectes. He succeeded his brother on
the Spartan throne; but when he saw that the widow of Polydectes was
pregnant, he kept the kingdom not for himself, but till Charilaus his
nephew was arrived to years of maturity. He had previously refused to
marry his brother’s widow, who wished to strengthen him on his throne
by destroying her own son Charilaus, and leaving him in the peaceful
possession of the crown. The integrity with which he acted, when
guardian of his nephew Charilaus, united with the disappointment and
the resentment of the queen, raised him many enemies, and he at last
yielded to their satire and malevolence, and retired to Crete. He
travelled like a philosopher, and visited Asia and Egypt without
suffering himself to be corrupted by the licentiousness and luxury
which prevailed there. The confusion which followed his departure
from Sparta now had made his presence totally necessary, and he
returned home at the earnest solicitations of his countrymen.
The disorders which reigned at Sparta induced him to reform the
government; and the more effectually to execute his undertaking,
he had recourse to the oracle of Delphi. He was received by the
priestess of the god with every mark of honour, his intentions were
warmly approved by the divinity, and he was called the friend of
gods, and himself rather god than man. After such a reception from
the most celebrated oracle of Greece, Lycurgus found no difficulty
in reforming the abuses of the state, and all were equally anxious
in promoting a revolution which had received the sanction of heaven.
This happened 884 years before the christian era. Lycurgus first
established a senate, which was composed of 28 senators, whose
authority preserved the tranquillity of the state, and maintained
a due and just equilibrium between the kings and the people,
by watching over the intrusions of the former, and checking the
seditious convulsions of the latter. All distinctions were destroyed,
and by making an equal and impartial division of the land among the
members of the commonwealth, Lycurgus banished luxury, and encouraged
the useful arts. The use of money, either of gold or silver, was
totally forbidden, and the introduction of heavy brass and iron coin
brought no temptations to the dishonest, and left every individual
in the possession of his effects without any fears of robbery or
violence. All the citizens dined in common, and no one had greater
claims to indulgence or luxury than another. The intercourse of
Sparta with other nations was forbidden, and few were permitted to
travel. The youths were entrusted to the public master as soon as
they had attained their seventh year, and their education was left to
the wisdom of the laws. They were taught early to think, to answer in
a short and laconic manner, and to excel in sharp repartee. They were
instructed and encouraged to carry things by surprise, but if ever
the theft was discovered they were subjected to a severe punishment.
Lycurgus was happy and successful in establishing and enforcing these
laws, and by his prudence and administration the face of affairs in
Lacedæmon was totally changed, and it gave rise to a set of men
distinguished for their intrepidity, their fortitude, and their
magnanimity. After this, Lycurgus retired from Sparta to Delphi, or,
according to others, to Crete, and before his departure he bound all
the citizens of Lacedæmon by a solemn oath, that neither they nor
their posterity would alter, violate, or abolish the laws which he
had established before his return. He soon after put himself to death,
and he ordered his ashes to be thrown into the sea, fearful lest,
if they were carried to Sparta, the citizens would call themselves
freed from the oath which they had taken, and empowered to make a
revolution. The wisdom and the good effect of the laws of Lycurgus
have been firmly demonstrated at Sparta, where for 700 years they
remained in full force, but the legislator has been censured as cruel
and impolitic. He has shown himself inhumane in ordering mothers to
destroy such of their children whose feebleness or deformity in their
youth seemed to promise incapability of action in maturer years,
and to become a burden to the state. His regulations about marriage
must necessarily be censured, and no true conjugal felicity can be
expected from the union of a man with a person whom he perhaps never
knew before, and whom he was compelled to choose in a dark room,
where all the marriageable women in the state assembled on stated
occasions. The peculiar dress which was appointed for the females
might be termed improper; and the law must for ever be called
injudicious, which ordered them to appear naked on certain days of
festivity, and wrestle in a public assembly promiscuously, with boys
of equal age with themselves. These things indeed contributed as much
to corrupt the morals of the Lacedæmonians, as the other regulations
seemed to be calculated to banish dissipation, riot, and debauchery.
Lycurgus has been compared to Solon, the celebrated legislator of
Athens, and it has been judiciously observed, that the former gave
his citizens morals conformable to the laws which he had established,
and that the latter had given the Athenians laws which coincided with
their customs and manners. The office of Lycurgus demanded resolution,
and he showed himself inexorable and severe. In Solon artifice
was requisite, and he showed himself mild and even voluptuous. The
moderation of Lycurgus is greatly commended, particularly when we
recollect that he treated with the greatest humanity and confidence
Alcander, a youth who had put out one of his eyes in a seditious
tumult. Lycurgus had a son called Antiorus, who left no issue. The
Lacedæmonians showed their respect for their great legislator, by
yearly celebrating a festival in his honour, called Lycurgidæ or
Lycurgides. The introduction of money into Sparta in the reign of
Agis the son of Archidamus was one of the principal causes which
corrupted the innocence of the Lacedæmonians, and rendered them the
prey of intrigue and of faction. The laws of Lycurgus were abrogated
by Philopœmen, B.C. 188, but only for a little time, as they were
soon after re-established by the Romans. _Plutarch_, _Lives_.
――_Justin_, bk. 3, ch. 2, &c.――_Strabo_, bks. 8, 10, 15, &c.
――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 2.――_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 2.
=Lycus=, a king of Bœotia, successor to his brother Nycteus, who left
no male issue. He was entrusted with the government only during the
minority of Labdacus, the son of the daughter of Nycteus. He was
further enjoined to make war against Epopeus, who had carried away
by force Antiope the daughter of Nycteus. He was successful in this
expedition. Epopeus was killed, and Lycus recovered Antiope and
married her, though she was his niece. This new connection highly
displeased his first wife Dirce, and Antiope was delivered to the
unfeeling queen and tortured in the most cruel manner. Antiope at
last escaped, and entreated her sons Zethus and Amphion to avenge
her wrongs. The children, incensed on account of the cruelties which
their mother had suffered, besieged Thebes, killed Lycus, and tied
Dirce to the tail of a wild bull, which dragged her till she died.
_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 5.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 5.――――A king
of Libya, who sacrificed whatever strangers came upon his coast. When
Diomedes, at his return from the Trojan war, had been shipwrecked
there, the tyrant seized him and confined him. He, however, escaped
by means of Callirhoe, the tyrant’s daughter, who was enamoured of
him, and who hung herself when she saw herself deserted.――――A son
of Neptune by Celæno, made king of a part of Mysia by Hercules. He
offered violence to Megara the wife of Hercules, for which he was
killed by the incensed hero. Lycus gave a kind reception to the
Argonauts. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 10.――_Hyginus_, fables 18,
31, 32, 137.――――A son of Ægyptus,――――of Mars,――――of Lycaon king of
Arcadia,――――of Pandion king of Athens.――――The father of Arcesilaus.
――――One of the companions of Æneas. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 3.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, &c.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, &c.――_Hyginus_,
fable 97 & 159.――――An officer of Alexander in the interest of
Lysimachus. He made himself master of Ephesus by the treachery of
Andron, &c. _Polyænus_, bk. 5.――――One of the Centaurs.――――A son of
Priam.――――A river of Phrygia, which disappears near Colosse, and
rises again at the distance of about four stadia, and at last falls
into the Mæander. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 15, li. 273.――――A
river of Sarmatia, falling into the Palus Mæotis.――――Another in
Paphlagonia, near Heraclea. _Ovid_, bk. 4, _ex Ponto_, poem 1, li.
47.――――Another in Assyria.――――Another in Armenia, falling into the
Euxine near the Phasis. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 4, li. 367.――――One
of the friends of Æneas, killed by Turnus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9,
li. 545.――――A youth beloved by Alcæus. _Horace_, bk. 1, ode 32.――――A
town of Crete.
=Lyde=, the wife of the poet Antimachus, &c. _Ovid_, _Tristia_, bk. 1,
poem 5.――――A woman in Domitian’s reign, who pretended that she could
remove barrenness by medicines. _Juvenal_, satire 2, li. 141.
=Lȳdia=, a celebrated kingdom of Asia Minor, whose boundaries were
different at different times. It was first bounded by Mysia Major,
Caria, Phrygia Major, and Ionia, but in its more flourishing times
it contained the whole country which lies between the Halys and the
Ægean sea. It was anciently called _Mæonia_, and received the name of
Lydia from Lydus, one of its kings. It was governed by monarchs who,
after the fabulous ages, reigned for 249 years in the following order:
Ardysus began to reign 797 B.C.; Alyattes, 761; Meles, 747; Candaules,
735; Gyges, 718; Ardysus II., 680; Sadyattes, 631; Alyattes II., 619;
and Crœsus, 562, who was conquered by Cyrus, B.C. 548, when the
kingdom became a province of the Persian empire. There were three
different races that reigned in Lydia, the Atyadæ, Heraclidæ, and
Mermnadæ. The history of the first is obscure and fabulous; the
Heraclidæ began to reign about the Trojan war, and the crown remained
in their family for about 505 years, and was always transmitted from
father to son. Candaules was the last of the Heraclidæ; and Gyges the
first, and Crœsus the last, of the Mermnadæ. The Lydians were great
warriors in the reign of the Mermnadæ. They invented the art of
coining gold and silver, and were the first who exhibited public
sports, &c. _Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 6; bk. 3, ch. 90; bk. 7, ch. 74.
――_Strabo_, bks. 2, 5, & 13.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 2.――_Pliny_, bk. 3,
ch. 5.――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 1.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.
――_Justin_, bk. 13, ch. 4.――――A mistress of Horace, &c., bk. 1, ode 8.
=Lydias=, a river of Macedonia.
=Lȳdius=, an epithet applied to the Tiber, because it passed near
Etruria, whose inhabitants were originally a Lydian colony. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 2, li. 781; bk. 8, li. 479.
=Lydus=, a son of Atys and Callithea, king of Mæonia, which from him
received the name of Lydia. His brother Tyrrhenus led a colony to
Italy, and gave the name of Tyrrhenia to the settlement which he made
on the coast of the Mediterranean. _Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 74.――――A
eunuch, &c.
=Lygdamis=, or =Lygdamus=, a man who made himself absolute at Naxos.
_Polyænus._――――A general of the Cimmerians who passed into Asia Minor,
and took Sardis in the reign of Ardyes king of Lydia. _Callimachus._
――――An athlete of Syracuse, the father of Artemisia the celebrated
queen of Halicarnassus. _Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 99.――――A servant of
the poet Propertius, or of his mistress Cynthia.
=Lygii=, a nation of Germany. _Tacitus_, _Germania_, ch. 42.
=Lygodesma=, a surname of Diana at Sparta, because her statue
was brought by Orestes from Taurus, shielded round with osiers.
_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 26.
=Lygus.= _See:_ Ligus.
=Lymīre=, a town of Lycia. _Ovid_ _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12.
=Lymax=, a river of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 41.
=Lyncīdes=, a man at the court of Cepheus. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_
bk. 4, fable 12.
=Lyncestæ=, a noble family of Macedonia, connected with the royal
family. _Justin_, bk. 11, ch. 2, &c.
=Lyncestes=, a son of Amyntas, in the army of Alexander, &c. _Curtius_,
bk. 7, &c.――――Alexander, a son-in-law of Antipater, who conspired
against Alexander and was put to death. _Curtius_, bk. 7.
=Lyncestius=, a river of Macedonia, whose waters were of an intoxicating
quality. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 17, li. 329.
=Lyncēus=, son of Aphareus, was among the hunters of the Calydonian
boar, and one of the Argonauts. He was so sharp-sighted that, as it
is reported, he could see through the earth, and distinguish objects
at the distance of above nine miles. He stole some oxen with his
brother Idas, and they were both killed by Castor and Pollux, when
they were going to celebrate their nuptials with the daughters of
Leucippus. _Apollodorus_, bks. 1 & 3.――_Hyginus_, fable.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 4, ch. 2.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 3, li. 303.――_Apollodorus_,
_Argonautica_, bk. 1.――――A son of Ægyptus, who married Hypermnestra
the daughter of Danaus. His life was spared by the love and humanity
of his wife. _See:_ Danaides. He made war against his father-in-law,
dethroned him, and seized his crown. Some say that Lynceus was
reconciled to Danaus, and that he succeeded him after his death,
and reigned 41 years. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 1.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 2, chs. 16, 19, 25.――_Ovid_, _Heroides_, poem 14.――――One of the
companions of Æneas, killed by Turnus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9,
li. 768.
=Lyncus=, =Lyncæus=, or =Lynx=, a cruel king of Scythia, or, according
to others, of Sicily. He received, with feigned hospitality,
Triptolemus, whom Ceres had sent all over the world to teach mankind
agriculture; and as he was jealous of his commission, he resolved to
murder this favourite of the gods in his sleep. As he was going to
give the deadly blow to Triptolemus, he was suddenly changed into
a lynx, an animal which is the emblem of perfidy and ingratitude.
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, li. 657.
=Lyncus=, a town of Macedonia, of which the inhabitants were called
Lyncestæ. _Pliny_, bk. 2, ch. 103; bk. 4, ch. 10.
=Lyndus=, a town of Sicily.
=Lyrcæ=, a people of Scythia, who live upon hunting.
=Lyrcæus=, a mountain of Arcadia. _See:_ Lycæus.――――A fountain.
_Statius_, _Thebiad_, bk. 4, li. 711.
=Lyrcea=, a town of Peloponnesus, formerly called Lyncea. _Pausanias_,
bk. 2, ch. 35.
=Lyrcus=, a king of Caunus in Caria, &c. _Parthenius._
=Lyrnessus=, a city of Cilicia, the native country of Briseis, called
from thence _Lyrnesseis_. It was taken and plundered by Achilles
and the Greeks at the time of the Trojan war, and the booty divided
among the conquerors. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2, li. 197.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 12, li. 108; _Heroides_, poem 3, li. 5;
_Tristia_, bk. 4, poem 1, li. 15.
=Lysander=, a celebrated general of Sparta, in the last years of the
Peloponnesian war. He drew Ephesus from the interest of Athens,
and gained the friendship of Cyrus the younger. He gave battle to
the Athenian fleet, consisting of 120 ships, at Ægospotamos, and
destroyed it all, except three ships, with which the enemy’s general
fled to Evagoras king of Cyprus. In this celebrated battle, which
happened 405 years before the christian era, the Athenians lost 3000
men, and with them their empire and influence among the neighbouring
states. Lysander well knew how to take advantage of his victory, and
the following year Athens, worn out by a long war of 27 years, and
discouraged by its misfortunes, gave itself up to the power of the
enemy, and consented to destroy the Piræus, to deliver up all its
ships, except 12, to recall all those who had been banished, and, in
short, to be submissive in every degree to the power of Lacedæmon.
Besides these humiliating conditions, the government of Athens
was totally changed, and 30 tyrants were set over it by Lysander.
This glorious success, and the honour of having put an end to the
Peloponnesian war, increased the pride of Lysander. He had already
begun to pave his way to universal power by establishing aristocracy
in the Grecian cities of Asia, and now he attempted to make the crown
of Sparta elective. In the pursuit of his ambition he used prudence
and artifice; and as he could not easily abolish a form of government
which ages and popularity had confirmed, he had recourse to the
assistance of the gods. His attempts, however, to corrupt the oracles
of Delphi, Dodona, and Jupiter Ammon, proved ineffectual, and he was
even accused of using bribes by the priests of the Libyan temple.
The sudden declaration of war against the Thebans saved him from
the accusations of his adversaries, and he was sent, together with
Pausanias, against the enemy. The plans of his military operations
were discovered, and the Haliartians, whose ruin he secretly
meditated, attacked him unexpectedly, and he was killed in a bloody
battle, which ended in the defeat of his troops, 394 years before
Christ. His body was recovered by his colleague Pausanias, and
honoured with a magnificent funeral. Lysander has been commended
for his bravery, but his ambition deserves the severest censure, and
his cruelty and his duplicity have greatly stained his character. He
was arrogant and vain in his public as well as private conduct, and
he received and heard with the greatest avidity the hymns which his
courtiers and flatterers sung to his honour. Yet in the midst of all
his pomp, his ambition, and intrigues, he died extremely poor, and
his daughters were rejected by two opulent citizens of Sparta, to
whom they had been betrothed during the life of their father. This
behaviour of the lovers was severely punished by the Lacedæmonians,
who protected from injury the children of a man whom they hated
for his sacrilege, his contempt of religion, and his perfidy. The
father of Lysander, whose name was Aristoclites or Aristocrates,
was descended from Hercules, though not reckoned of the race of the
Heraclidæ. _Plutarch_ & _Cornelius Nepos_, _Lives_.――_Diodorus_,
bk. 13.――――A Trojan chief, wounded by Ajax son of Telamon before
Troy. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 11, li. 491.――――One of the Ephori in the
reign of Agis, &c. _Plutarch._――――A grandson of the great Lysander.
_Pausanias._
=Lysandra=, a daughter of Ptolemy Lagus, who married Agathocles the son
of Lysimachus. She was persecuted by Arsinoe, and fled to Seleucus
for protection. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 9, &c.
=Lysaniax=, a man made king of Ituræa by Antony, &c.
=Lyse=, a daughter of Thespius. _Apollodorus._
=Lysiădes=, an Athenian, son of Phædrus the philosopher, &c.
_Cicero_, _Philippics_, bk. 5.――――An Athenian archon.――――A tyrant of
Megalopolis, who died B.C. 226. _Plutarch._
=Lysianassa=, one of the Nereides. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 2.――――A
daughter of Epaphus, mother of Busiris. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 5.
=Ly̆sias=, a celebrated orator, son of Cephalus, a native of Syracuse.
His father left Sicily and went to Athens, where Lysias was born
and carefully educated. In his 15th year he accompanied the colony
which the Athenians sent to Thurium, and after a long residence there
he returned home in his 47th year. He distinguished himself by his
eloquence, and by the simplicity, correctness, and purity of his
orations, of which he wrote no less than 425 according to Plutarch,
though the number may with more probability be reduced to 230. Of
these 34 are extant, the best editions of which are that of Taylor,
8vo, Cambridge. 1740, and that of Auger, 2 vols., 8vo, Paris, 1783.
He died in the 81st year of his age, 378 years before the christian
era. _Plutarch_, _Lives of the Ten Orators_.――_Cicero_, _Brutus_;
_On Oratory_.――_Quintilian_, bk. 3, &c.――_Diogenes Laërtius_,
bk. 2.――――An Athenian general, &c.――――A town of Phrygia. _Strabo._
――――Another of Syria, now _Berziech_, near Emesa.――――A tyrant of
Tarsus, B.C. 267.
=Lysĭcles=, an Athenian sent with Chares into Bœotia, to stop the
conquests of Philip of Macedonia. He was conquered at Chæronæa, and
sentenced to death for his ill conduct there.
=Lysĭdĭce=, a daughter of Pelops and Hippodamia, who married Mastor
the son of Perseus and Andromeda. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 4.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 14.――――A daughter of Thespius.
_Apollodorus._
=Lysimăche=, a daughter of Abas the son of Melampus. _Apollodorus_,
bk. 1, ch. 9.――――A daughter of Priam. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 12.
=Lysimăchia=, now _Hexamili_, a city on the Thracian Chersonesus.
_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 9.――――A town of Ætolia, built by Lysimachus.
_Strabo_, bks. 7 & 10.――――Another in Æolia. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 2.
=Lysimăchus=, a son of Agathocles, who was among the generals of
Alexander. After the death of that monarch, he made himself master
of part of Thrace, where he built a town which he called Lysimachia.
He sided with Cassander and Seleucus against Antigonus and Demetrius,
and fought with them at the celebrated battle of Ipsus. He afterwards
seized Macedonia, after expelling Pyrrhus from the throne, B.C.
286; but his cruelty rendered him odious, and the murder of his
son Agathocles so offended his subjects, that the most opulent and
powerful revolted from him and abandoned the kingdom. He pursued them
to Asia, and declared war against Seleucus, who had given them a kind
reception. He was killed in a bloody battle, 281 years before Christ,
in the 80th year of his age, and his body was found in the heaps
of slain only by the fidelity of a little dog, which had carefully
watched near it. It is said that the love and respect of Lysimachus
for his learned master Callisthenes proved nearly fatal to him. He,
as Justin mentions, was thrown into the den of a hungry lion, by
order of Alexander, for having given Callisthenes poison, to save
his life from ignominy and insult; and when the furious animal darted
upon him, he wrapped his hand in his mantle, and boldly thrust it
into the lion’s mouth, and by twisting his tongue killed an adversary
ready to devour him. This act of courage in his self-defence
recommended him to Alexander. He was pardoned, and ever after
esteemed by the monarch. _Justin_, bk. 15, ch. 3, &c.――_Diodorus_,
bk. 19, &c. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 10.――――An Acarnanian, preceptor
to Alexander the Great. He used to call himself Phœnix, his pupil
Achilles, and Philip Peleus. _Plutarch_, _Alexander_.――_Justin_,
bk. 15, ch. 3.――――An historian of Alexandria.――――A son of Aristides,
rewarded by the Athenians on account of the virtue of his father.
――――A chief priest among the Jews, about 204 years before Christ,
&c. _Josephus._――――A physician greatly attached to the notions of
Hippocrates.――――A governor of Heraclea in Pontus, &c.
=Lysimelia=, a marsh of Sicily near Syracuse.
=Lysinoe=, now _Aglasson_, a city of Asia, near Pamphylia. _Livy_,
bk. 38, ch. 15.
=Lysippe=, a daughter of Prœtus. _See:_ Prœtides.――――A daughter of
Thespius.
=Lysippus=, a famous statuary of Sicyon. He was originally a whitesmith,
and afterwards applied himself to painting, till his talents and
inclination taught him that he was born to excel in sculpture. He
flourished about 325 years before the christian era, in the age of
Alexander the Great. The monarch was so partial to the artist, that
he forbade any sculptor but Lysippus to make his statue. Lysippus
excelled in expressing the hair, and he was the first who made the
head of his statues less large, and the body smaller than usual, that
they might appear taller. This was observed by one of his friends,
and the artist gave for answer, that his predecessors had represented
men in their natural form, but that he represented them such as they
appeared. Lysippus made no less than 600 statues, the most admired
of which were those of Alexander; one of Apollo of Tarentum 40 cubits
high; one of a man coming out of a bath, with which Agrippa adorned
his baths; one of Socrates; and those of the 25 horsemen who were
drowned in the Granicus. These were so valued, that in the age of
Augustus, they were bought for their weight in gold. _Plutarch_,
_Alexander_.――_Cicero_, _Brutus_, ch. 164; _Rhetorica ad Herennium_,
bk. 4, ch. 148.――_Pliny_, bk. 37, ch. 7.――_Paterculus_, bk. 1, ch. 11.
――_Horace_, bk. 2, ltr. 1, li. 240.――――A comic poet, some of whose
plays are mentioned by Athenæus. _Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 37.――――A general
of the Achæan league.
=Lysis=, a Pythagorean philosopher, preceptor to Epaminondas. He
flourished about 388 years before the christian era. He is supposed
by some to be the author of the golden verses which are attributed to
Pythagoras. _Cornelius Nepos_, _Epaminondas_, ch. 2.
=Lysistrătus=, an Athenian parasite.――――A brother of Lysippus. He was
the first artist who ever made a statue with wax. _Pliny_, bk. 34,
ch. 8; bk. 35, ch. 12.
=Lysithous=, a son of Priam. _Apollodorus._
=Lyso=, a friend of Cicero, &c. _Cicero_, bk. 13, _Letters to his
Friends_, ltr. 19,
=Lystra=, a town of Lycaonia.
=Lytæa=, a daughter of Hyacinthus, put to death by the Athenians.
_Apollodorus._
=Lyzanias=, a king of Chalcis, &c.
M
=Macæ=, a people of Arabia Felix. _Mela_, bk. 3, ch. 8. They are placed
in Africa near the larger Syrtis by _Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 175.
――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 3, li. 275; bk. 5, li. 194.
=Macar=, a son of Criasius or Crinacus, the first Greek who led a colony
to Lesbos. His four sons took possession of the four neighbouring
islands, Chios, Samos, Cos, and Rhodes, which were called the seats
of the Macares, or the blessed (μακαρ, _beatus_). _Dionysius of
Halicarnassus_, bk. 1.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 24.――_Diodorus_, bk. 5.
――_Mela_, bk. 3, ch. 7.
=Măcăreus=, an ancient historian.――――A son of Æolus, who debauched his
sister Canace, and had a son by her. The father being informed of
the incest, ordered the child to be exposed, and sent a sword to
his daughter, and commanded her to destroy herself. Macareus fled to
Delphi, where he became priest of Apollo. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_;
_Heroides_, poem 11; _Ibis_, li. 562.――――One of the companions of
Ulysses, left at Caieta in Italy, where Æneas found him. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 14, li. 159.――――A son of Lycaon. _Apollodorus_,
bk. 3, ch. 8.――_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 3.
=Măcăria=, a daughter of Hercules and Dejanira. After the death
of Hercules, Eurystheus made war against the Heraclidæ, whom the
Athenians supported, and the oracle declared, that the descendants
of Hercules should obtain the victory if any one of them devoted him
self to death. This was cheerfully accepted by Macaria, who refused
to endanger the life of the children of Hercules by suffering the
victim to be drawn by lot, and the Athenians obtained a victory.
Great honours were paid to the patriotic Macaria, and a fountain of
Marathon was called by her name. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 32.――――An
ancient name of Cyprus.
=Macăris=, an ancient name of Crete.
=Macednus=, a son of Lycaon. _Apollodorus._
=Măcēdo=, a son of Osiris, who had a share in the divine honours which
were paid to his father. He was represented clothed in a wolf’s skin,
for which reason the Egyptians held that animal in great veneration.
_Diodorus_, bk. 1.――_Plutarch_, _De Iside et Osiride_.――――A man who
gave his name to Macedonia. Some supposed him to be the same as the
son or general of Osiris, whilst others consider him as the grandson
of Deucalion by the mother’s side. _Diodorus_, bk. 1.
=Măcēdŏnia=, a celebrated country, situated between Thrace, Epirus,
and Greece. Its boundaries have been different at different periods.
Philip increased it by the conquest of Thessaly and of part of Thrace,
and according to Pliny it contained no less than 150 different
nations. The kingdom of Macedonia, first founded B.C. 814, by Caranus,
a descendant of Hercules, and a native of Argos, continued in
existence 646 years, till the battle of Pydna. The family of Caranus
remained in possession of the crown until the death of Alexander the
Great, and began to reign in the following order: Caranus, after a
reign of 28 years, was succeeded by Cœnus, who ascended the throne
786 B.C.; Thurimas, 774; Perdiccas, 729; Argæus, 678; Philip, 640;
Æropas, 602; Alcetas or Alectas, 576; Amyntas, 547; Alexander, 497;
Perdiccas, 454; Archelaus, 413; Amyntas, 399; Pausanias, 398;
Amyntas II., 397; Argæus the tyrant, 390; Amyntas restored, 390;
Alexander II., 371; Ptolemy Alorites, 370; Perdiccas III., 366;
Philip son of Amyntas, 360; Alexander the Great, 336; Philip Aridæus,
323; Cassander, 316; Antipater and Alexander, 298; Demetrius king
of Asia, 294; Pyrrhus, 287; Lysimachus, 286; Ptolemy Ceraunus, 280;
Meleager, two months; Antipater the Etesian, 45 days; Antigonus
Gonatas, 277; Demetrius, 243; Antigonus Doson, 232; Philip, 221;
Perseus, 179; conquered by the Romans 168 B.C. at Pydna. Macedonia
has been severally called Æmonia, Mygdonia, Pæonia, Edonia, Æmathia,
&c. The inhabitants of Macedonia were naturally warlike, and though
in the infancy of their empire they were little known beyond the
borders of their country, yet they signalized themselves greatly in
the reign of Philip, and added the kingdom of Asia to their European
dominions by the valour of Alexander. The Macedonian phalanx, or body
of soldiers, was always held in the highest repute, and it resisted
and subdued the repeated attacks of the bravest and most courageous
enemies. _Livy_, bk. 44.――_Justin_, bk. 6, ch. 9; bk. 7, ch. 1, &c.
――_Strabo_, bk. 7.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 3, &c.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 10,
&c.――_Curtius_, bks. 3 & 4.――_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 7.
=Macedonĭcum bellum=, was undertaken by the Romans against Philip king
of Macedonia, some few months after the second Punic war, B.C. 200.
The cause of this war originated in the hostilities which Philip had
exercised against the Achæans, the friends and allies of Rome. The
consul Flaminius had the care of the war, and he conquered Philip on
the confines of Epires, and afterwards in Thessaly. The Macedonian
fleets were also defeated; Eubœa was taken; and Philip, after
continual losses, sued for peace, which was granted him in the
fourth year of the war. The ambition and cruelty of Perseus, the son
and successor of Philip, soon irritated the Romans. Another war was
undertaken, in which the Romans suffered two defeats. This, however,
did not discourage them; Paulus Æmilius was chosen consul in the 60th
year of his age, and entrusted with the care of the war. He came to
a general engagement near the city of Pydna. The victory sided with
the Romans, and 20,000 of the Macedonian soldiers were left on the
field of battle. This decisive blow put an end to the war, which had
already continued for three years, 168 years before the christian
era. Perseus and his sons Philip and Alexander were taken prisoners,
and carried to Rome to adorn the triumph of the conqueror. About 15
years after, new seditions were raised in Macedonia, and the false
pretensions of Andriscus, who called himself the son of Perseus,
obliged the Romans to send an army to quell the commotions. Andriscus
at first obtained many considerable advantages over the Roman forces,
till at last he was conquered and delivered to the consul Metellus,
who carried him to Rome. After these commotions, which are sometimes
called the third Macedonian war, Macedonia was finally reduced into a
Roman province, and governed by a regular proconsul, about 148 years
before the christian era.
=Macedonĭcus=, a surname given to Metellus, from his conquests in
Macedonia. It was also given to such as had obtained any victory in
that province.
=Macella=, a town of Sicily, taken by the consul Duillius. _Livy_,
bk. 26, ch. 21.
=Macer Æmylius=, a Latin poet of Verona, intimate with Tibullus and
Ovid, and commended for his genius, his learning, and the elegance
of his poetry. He wrote some poems upon serpents, plants, and birds,
mentioned by Ovid. He also composed a poem upon the ruins of Troy,
to serve as a supplement to Homer’s Iliad. His compositions are now
lost. He died B.C. 16. _Ovid_, _Tristia_, bk. 4, poem 10, li. 44;
_ex Ponto_, bk. 2, ltr. 10.――_Quintilian_, bk. 10, ch. 1.――――Lucius
Claudius, a propretor of Africa in the reign of Nero. He assumed the
title of emperor, and was put to death by order of Galba.
=Machæra=, a river of Africa.――――A common crier at Rome. _Juvenal_,
satire 7, li. 9.
=Machanĭdas=, a man who made himself absolute at Sparta. He was killed
by Philopœmen, after being defeated at Mantinea, B.C. 208. Nabis
succeeded him. _Plutarch._――_Livy_, bk. 27, ch. 30; bk. 28, chs. 5
& 7.
=Măchāon=, a celebrated physician, son of Æsculapius and brother to
Podalirus. He went to the Trojan war with the inhabitants of Trica,
Ithome, and Œchalia. According to some he was king of Messenia. As
physician to the Greeks, he healed the wounds which they received
during the Trojan war, and was one of those concealed in the wooden
horse. Some suppose that he was killed before Troy by Eurypylus the
son of Telephus. He received divine honours after death, and had a
temple in Messenia. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2, &c.――_Ovid_ _ex Ponto_,
bk. 3, ltr. 4.――_Quintus Smyrnæus_, bk. 6, li. 409.――_Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 2, lis. 263 & 426.
=Macra=, a river flowing from the Apennines, and dividing Liguria from
Etruria. _Lucan_, bk. 2, li. 426.――_Livy_, bk. 39, ch. 32.――_Pliny_,
bk. 3, ch. 5.
=Macri campi=, a plain in Cisalpine Gaul, near the river Gabellus.
_Livy_, bk. 41, ch. 18; bk. 45, ch. 12.――――A plain near Mutina bears
the same name. _Columella_, bk. 7, ch. 2.
=Macriānus Titus Fulvius Julius=, an Egyptian of obscure birth, who,
from a private soldier, rose to the highest command in the army,
and proclaimed himself emperor when Valerian had been made prisoner
by the Persians, A.D. 260. His liberality supported his usurpation;
his two sons Macrianus and Quietus were invested with the imperial
purple, and the enemies of Rome were severely defeated, either by
the emperors or their generals. When he had supported his dignity for
a year in the eastern parts of the world, Macrianus marched towards
Rome, to crush Gallienus, who had been proclaimed emperor. He was
defeated in Illyricum by the lieutenant of Gallienus, and put to
death with his son, at his own expressive request, A.D. 262.
=Macrīnus Marcus Opilius Severus=, a native of Africa, who rose
from the most ignominious condition to the rank of prefect of
the pretorian guards, and at last of emperor, after the death of
Caracalla, whom he inhumanly ♦sacrificed to his ambition, A.D. 217.
The beginning of his reign was popular; the abolition of the taxes,
and an affable and complaisant behaviour, endeared him to his
subjects. These promising appearances did not long continue, and the
timidity which Macrinus betrayed in buying the peace of the Persians
by a large sum of money, soon rendered him odious; and while he
affected to imitate the virtuous Aurelius without possessing the good
qualities of his heart, he became contemptible and insignificant.
This affectation irritated the minds of the populace, and when severe
punishments had been inflicted on some of the disorderly soldiers
the whole army mutinied; and their tumult was increased by their
consciousness of their power and numbers, which Macrinus had the
imprudence to betray, by keeping almost all the military force of
Rome encamped together in the plains of Syria. Heliogabalus was
proclaimed emperor, and Macrinus attempted to save his life by flight.
He was, however, seized in Cappadocia, and his head was cut off and
sent to his successor, June 7th, A.D. 218. Macrinus reigned about
two months and three days. His son, called Diadumenianus, shared his
father’s fate.――――A friend of the poet Persius, to whom his second
satire is inscribed.
♦ ‘sacrified’ replaced with ‘sacrificed’
=Macro=, a favourite of the emperor Tiberius, celebrated for his
intrigues, perfidy, and cruelty. He destroyed Sejanus, and raised
himself upon the ruins of that unfortunate favourite. He was
accessary to the murder of Tiberius, and conciliated the good opinion
of Caligula, by prostituting to him his own wife called Ennia. He
soon after became unpopular, and was obliged by Caligula to kill
himself together with his wife, A.D. 38.
=Macrŏbii=, a people of Æthiopia, celebrated for their justice and
the innocence of their manners. They generally lived to their 120th
year, some say 1000 years; and indeed from that longevity they have
obtained their name (μακρος βιος, _long life_), to distinguish them
more particularly from the other inhabitants of Æthiopia. After
so long a period spent in virtuous actions, and freed from the
♦indulgences of vice, and from maladies, they dropped into the
grave as to sleep, without pain and without terror. _Orpheus_,
_Argonautica_, li. 1105.――_Herodotus_, bk. 3, ch. 17.――_Mela_, bk. 3,
ch. 9.――_Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 48.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 8, ch. 3.
♦ ‘induligencies’ replaced with ‘indulgences’
=Macrobius=, a Latin writer, who died A.D. 415. Some suppose that
he was chamberlain to the emperor Theodosius II.; but this appears
groundless, when we observe that Macrobius was a follower of paganism,
and that none were admitted to the confidence of the emperor, or to
the enjoyment of high stations, except such as were of the christian
religion. Macrobius has rendered himself famous for a composition
called _Saturnalia_, a miscellaneous collection of antiquities and
criticism, supposed to have been the result of a conversation of
some of the learned Romans during the celebration of the Saturnalia.
This was written for the use of his son, and the bad latinity which
the author has often introduced, proves that he was not born in a
part of the Roman empire where the Latin tongue was spoken, as he
himself candidly confesses. The Saturnalia are useful for the learned
reflections which they contain, and particularly for some curious
observations on the two greatest epic poets of antiquity. Besides
this, Macrobius wrote a commentary on Cicero’s _Somnium Scipionis_,
which was likewise composed for the improvement of the author’s son,
and dedicated to him. The best editions are that of Gronovius, 8vo,
Leiden, 1670, and that of Lipscomb, 8vo, 1777.
=Macrŏchir=, a Greek name of Artaxerxes, the same as _Longimanus_.
This surname arises from his having one _hand longer_ than the other.
_Cornelius Nepos_, _Kings_.
=Macrōnes=, a nation of Pontus, on the confines of Colchis and Armenia.
_Flaccus_, bk. 5, li. 153.――_Herodotus._
=Mactorium=, a town of Sicily at the south, near Gela.
=Măcŭlōnus=, a rich and penurious Roman, &c. _Juvenal_, satire 7,
li. 40.
=Madaura=, a town on the borders of Numidia and Gætulia, of which the
inhabitants were called _Madaurenses_. It was the native place of
Apuleius. _Apuleius_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 11.
=Madestes=, a town of Thrace.
=Madetes=, a general of Darius, who bravely defended a place against
Alexander. The conqueror resolved to put him to death, though 30
orators pleaded for his life. Sisygambis prevailed over the almost
inexorable Alexander, and Madetes was pardoned. _Curtius_, bk. 5,
ch. 3.
=Maduatēni=, a people of Thrace. _Livy_, bk. 38, ch. 40.
=Madyes=, a Scythian prince who pursued the Cimmerians in Asia, and
conquered Cyaxares, B.C. 623. He held for some time the supreme power
of Asia Minor. _Herodotus_, bk. 8, ch. 103.
=Mæander=, a son of Oceanus and Tethys.――――A celebrated river of Asia
Minor, rising near Celænæ, and flowing through Caria and Ionia into
the Ægean sea between Miletus and Priene, after it has been increased
by the waters of the Marsyas, Lycus, Eudon, Lethæus, &c. It is
celebrated among the poets for its windings, which amount to no less
than 600, and from which all obliquities have received the name of
_Mæanders_. It forms in its course, according to the observations of
some travellers, the Greek letters ε, ζ, ξ, ς, and ω, and from its
windings Dædalus had the first idea of his famous labyrinth. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 8, li. 145, &c.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 5, li.
254.――_Lucan_, bk. 5, li. 208; bk. 6, li. 471.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk.
2.――_Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 29.――_Cicero_, _Piso_, ch. 22.――_Strabo_,
bk. 12, &c.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 17.
=Mæandria=, a city of Epirus.
=Mæatæ=, a people at the south of Scotland. _Dio Cassius_, bk. 76,
ch. 12.
=Mæcenas.= _See:_ Mecænas.
=Mædi=, a people of _Mædica_, a district of Thrace, near Rhodope.
_Livy_, bk. 26, ch. 25; bk. 40, ch. 21.
=Mælius=, a Roman, thrown down from the Tarpeian rock, for aspiring to
tyranny at Rome in the early ages of the republic.
=Mæmacteria=, sacrifices offered to Jupiter at Athens in the winter
month Mæmacterion. The god surnamed _Mæmactes_ was intreated to send
mild and temperate weather, as he presided over the seasons, and was
the god of the air.
=Mænădes=, a name of the Bacchantes, or priestesses of Bacchus. The
word is derived from μαινομαι, _to be furious_, because in the
celebration of their festivals, their gestures and actions were those
of mad women. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 4, li. 458.
=Mænăla=, a town of Spain.
=Mænălus= (plural, Mænala), a mountain of Arcadia sacred to the god
Pan, and greatly frequented by shepherds. It received its name from
Mænalus, a son of Lycaon. It was covered with pine trees, whose echo
and shade have been greatly celebrated by all the ancient poets.
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, li. 216.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_,
bk. 1, li. 17; _Eclogues_ poem 8, li. 24.――_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 3.
――_Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.――――A town of Arcadia.――――A
son of Lycaon.――――The father of Atalanta.
=Mænius=, a Roman consul.――――A dictator accused and honourably
acquitted, &c.――――A spendthrift at Rome. _Horace_, bk. 1, ltr. 15,
li. 26.
=Mænon=, a tyrant of Sicily, B.C. 285.
=Mænus=, a river of Germany, now called _the Mayne_, falling into the
Rhine at Mayence.
=Mæŏnia=, a country of Asia Minor, the same as Lydia. It is to be
observed, that only part of Lydia was known by the name of Mæonia,
that is, the neighbourhood of mount Tmolus, and the country watered
by the Pactolus. The rest on the sea coast was called Lydia. _Strabo_,
bk. 12.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_.――――The Etrurians, as being
descended from a Lydian colony, are often called _Mæonidæ_ (_Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 11, li. 759), and even the lake Thrasymenus in their
country is called _Mæonius lacus_. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 15, li. 35.
=Mæŏnĭdes=, a name given to the Muses, because Homer, their greatest
and worthiest favourite, was supposed to be a native of Mæonia.
=Mæŏnĭdes=, a surname of Homer, because, according to the opinion of
some writers, he was born in Mæon. _Ovid._――――The surname is also
applied to Bacchus, as he was worshipped in Mæonia.
=Mæŏnis=, an epithet applied to Omphale, as queen of Lydia or Mæonia.
_Ovid._――――The epithet is also applied to Arachne, as a native of
Lydia. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 6.
=Mæōtæ=, a people of Asiatic Sarmatia.
=Mæōtis Palus=, a large lake, or part of the sea between Europe and
Asia, at the north of the Euxine, to which it communicates by the
Cimmerian Bosphorus, now called the _sea of Azof_ or _Zaback_. It
was worshipped as a deity by the Massagetæ. It extends about 390
miles from south-west to north-east, and is about 600 miles in
circumference. The Amazons are called _Mæotides_, as living in
the neighbourhood. _Strabo._――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 1, &c.――_Justin_,
bk. 2, ch. 1.――_Curtius_, bk. 5, ch. 4.――_Lucan_, bk. 2, &c.――_Ovid_,
♦_Tristia_, bk. 3, poem 12; _epistles of Sabinus_, ltr. 2, li. 9.
――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 739.
♦ ‘Fasti’ replaced with ‘Tristia’
=Mæsia sylva=, a wood in Etruria, near the mouth of the Tiber. _Livy_,
bk. 1, ch. 33.
=Mævia=, an immodest woman. _Juvenal_, satire 1, li. 22.
=Mævius=, a poet of inferior note in the Augustan age, who made himself
known by his illiberal attacks on the character of the first writers
of his time, as well as by his affected compositions. His name would
have sunk in oblivion if Virgil had not ridiculed him in his third
eclogue, and Horace in his 10th epode.
=Magas=, a king of Cyrene, in the age of Ptolemy Philadelphus. He
reigned 50 years, and died B.C. 257. _Polyænus_, bk. 2.
=Magella=, a town of Sicily about the middle of the island.
=Magetæ=, a people of Africa.
=Magi=, a religious sect among the eastern nations of the world, and
particularly in Persia. They had great influence in the political as
well as religious affairs of the state, and a monarch seldom ascended
the throne without their previous approbation. Zoroaster was founder
of their sect. They paid particular homage to fire, which they deemed
a deity, as pure in itself, and the purifier of all things. In their
religious tenets they had two principles, one good, the source of
everything good; and the other evil, from whence sprang all manner
of ills. Their professional skill in the mathematics and philosophy
rendered everything familiar to them, and from their knowledge of the
phenomena of the heavens, the word Magi was applied to all learned
men; and in process of time, the Magi, from their experience and
profession, were confounded with the magicians who impose upon the
superstitious and credulous. Hence the word _Magi_ and _Magicians_
became synonymous among the vulgar. Smerdis, one of the Magi, usurped
the crown of Persia after the death of Cambyses, and the fraud was
not discovered till the seven noble Persians conspired against the
usurper, and elected Darius king. From this circumstance there was
a certain day on which none of the Magi were permitted to appear in
public, as the populace had the privilege of murdering whomsoever of
them they met. _Strabo._――_Cicero_, _de Divinatione_, bk. 1.
――_Herodotus_, bk. 3, ch. 62, &c.
=Magius=, a lieutenant of Piso, &c.――――A man in the interest of Pompey,
grandfather to the historian Velleius Paterculus, &c. _Paterculus_,
bk. 2, ch. 115.
=Magna Græcia=, a part of Italy. _See:_ Græcia Magna.
=Magna Mater=, a name given to Cybele.
=Magnentius=, an ambitious Roman, who distinguished himself by his
cruelty and perfidy. He conspired against the life of Constans,
and murdered him in his bed. This cruelty was highly resented by
Constantius; and the assassin, unable to escape from the fury of his
antagonist, murdered his own mother and the rest of his relations,
and afterwards killed himself by falling upon a sword, which he
had thrust against a wall. He was the first of the followers of
christianity who ever murdered his lawful sovereign, A.D. 353.
=Magnes=, a young man who found himself detained by the iron nails
which were under his shoes as he walked over a stone mine. This was
no other than the magnet, which received its name from the person
who had been first sensible of its powers. Some say that Magnes was a
slave of Medea, whom that enchantress changed into a magnet. _Orphic
Lithica_, bk. 10, li. 7.――――A son of Æolus and Anaretta, who married
Nais, by whom he had Pierus, &c. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 7.――――A
poet and musician of Smyrna, in the age of Gyges king of Lydia.
=Magnēsia=, a town of Asia Minor on the Mæander, about 15 miles from
Ephesus, now called _Guzelhizar_. It is celebrated for the death
of Themistocles, and for a battle which was fought there 187 years
before the christian era, between the Romans and Antiochus king of
Syria. The forces of Antiochus amounted to 70,000 men, according to
Appian, or 70,000 foot and 12,000 horse, according to Livy, which
have been exaggerated by ♦Florus to 300,000 men; the Roman army
consisted of about 28,000 or 30,000 men, 2000 of which were employed
in guarding the camp. The Syrians lost 50,000 foot and 4000 horse,
and the Romans only 300 killed, with 25 horse. It was founded by a
colony from Magnesia in Thessaly, and was commonly called _Magnesia
ad Mæandrum_, to distinguish it from another called _Magnesia ad
Sipylum_ in Lydia, at the foot of mount Sipylus. This last was
destroyed by an earthquake in the reign of Tiberius.――――A country on
the eastern parts of Thessaly, at the south of Ossa. It was sometimes
called _Æmonia_ and _Magnes Campus_. The capital was also called
Magnesia.――――A promontory of Magnesia in Thessaly. _Livy_, bk. 37.
――_Florus_, bk. 2.――_Appian._
♦ ‘Florius’ replaced with ‘Florus’
=Mago=, a Carthaginian general sent against Dionysius tyrant of Sicily.
He obtained a victory, and granted peace to the conquered. In a
battle which soon after followed this treaty of peace, Mago was
killed. His son, of the same name, succeeded to the command of the
Carthaginian army, but he disgraced himself by flying at the approach
of Timoleon, who had come to assist the Syracusans. He was accused
in the Carthaginian senate, and he prevented by suicide the execution
of the sentence justly pronounced against him. His body was hung on
a gibbet, and exposed to public ignominy.――――A brother of Annibal the
Great. He was present at the battle of Cannæ, and was deputed by his
brother to carry to Carthage the news of the celebrated victory which
had been obtained over the Roman armies. His arrival at Carthage was
unexpected, and more powerfully to astonish his countrymen on account
of the victory of Cannæ, he emptied in the senate-house the three
bushels of golden rings which had been taken from the Roman knights
slain in battle. He was afterwards sent to Spain, where he defeated
the two Scipios, and was himself, in another engagement, totally
ruined. He retired to the Baleares, which he conquered; and one of
the cities there still bears his name, and is called Portus Magonis,
_Port Mahon_. After this he landed in Italy with an army, and took
possession of part of Insubria. He was defeated in a battle by
Quintilius Varus, and died of a mortal wound 203 years before the
christian era. _Livy_, bk. 30, &c. _Cornelius Nepos_, _Hannibal_,
ch. 8, gives a very different account of his death, and says he either
perished in a shipwreck, or was murdered by his servants. Perhaps
Annibal had two brothers of that name.――――A Carthaginian, more known
by the excellence of his writings than by his military exploits. He
wrote 28 volumes upon husbandry; these were preserved by Scipio, at
the taking of Carthage, and presented to the Roman senate. They were
translated into Greek by Cassius Dionysius of Utica, and into Latin
by order of the Roman senate, though Cato had already written so
copiously upon the subject; and the Romans, as it has been observed,
consulted the writings of Mago with greater earnestness than the
books of the Sybilline verses. _Columella._――――A Carthaginian sent
by his countrymen to assist the Romans against Pyrrhus and the
Tarentines, with a fleet of 120 sail. This offer was politely refused
by the Roman senate. This Mago was father of Asdrubal and Hamilcar.
_Valerius Maximus._
=Magon=, a river of India falling into the Ganges. _Arrian._
=Māgrontiăcum=, or =Magontea=, a large city of Germany, now called
_Mentz_. _Tacitus_, bk. 4, _Histories_, bks. 15 & 23.
=Magus=, an officer of Turnus, killed by Æneas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 10, li. 522.
=Maherbal=, a Carthaginian who was at the siege of Saguntum, and who
commanded the cavalry of Annibal at the battle of Cannæ. He advised
the conqueror immediately to march to Rome, but Annibal required
time to consider on so bold a measure; upon which Maherbal observed,
that Annibal knew how to conquer, but not how to make a proper use of
victory.
=Maīa=, a daughter of Atlas and Pleione, mother of Mercury by Jupiter.
She was one of the Pleiades, the most luminous of the seven sisters.
_See:_ Pleiades. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 10.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 1, li. 301.――――A surname of Cybele.
=Majestas=, a goddess among the Romans, daughter of Honour and
Reverence. _Ovid_, bk. 5; _Fasti_, li. 25.
=Majoriānus Julius Valerius=, an emperor of the western Roman empire,
raised to the imperial throne A.D. 457. He signalized himself by his
private as well as public virtues. He was massacred, after a reign
of 37 years, by one of his generals, who envied in his master the
character of an active, virtuous, and humane emperor.
=Majorca=, the greatest of the islands called Baleares, on the coast of
Spain, in the Mediterranean. _Strabo._
=Mala Fortuna=, the goddess of evil fortune, was worshipped among the
Romans. _Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 3.
=Malēa=, a promontory of Lesbos.――――Another in Peloponnesus, at the
south of Laconia. The sea is so rough and boisterous there, that the
dangers which attended a voyage round it gave rise to the proverb
of _Cum ad Maleam deflexeris, obliviscere quæ sunt domi_. _Strabo_,
bks. 8 & 9.――_Lucan_, bk. 6, li. 58.――_Plutarch_, _Aratus_.――_Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 5, li. 193.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.――_Livy_, bk. 21,
ch. 44.――_Ovid_, _Amores_, bk. 2, poem 16, li. 24; poem 11, li. 20.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 23.
=Maleventum=, the ancient name of Beneventum. _Livy_, bk. 9, ch. 27.
=Malho=, or =Matho=, a general of an army of Carthaginian mercenaries,
258 B.C.
=Malia=, a city of Phthiotis, near mount Œta and Thermopylæ. There were
in its neighbourhood some hot mineral waters which the poet Catullus
has mentioned. From Malia a gulf or small bay in the neighbourhood,
at the western extremities of the island of Eubœa, has received the
name of the gulf of Malia, _Maliacum Fretum_, or _Maliacus Sinus_.
Some call it the gulf of Lamia, from its vicinity to Lamia. It is
often taken for the _Sinus Pelasgicus_ of the ancients. _Pausanias_,
bk. 1, ch. 4.――_Herodotus._
=Malii=, a people of Mesopotamia.
=Malis=, a servant-maid of Omphale, beloved by Hercules.
=Mallea=, or =Mallia aqua=. _See:_ Malia.
=Malleŏlus=, a man who murdered his mother, &c. _Cicero_, _Rhetorica ad
Herennium_, bk. 1, ch. 13.
=Mallius=, a Roman consul defeated by the Gauls, &c.
=Mallophŏra= (_lanam ferens_), a surname under which Ceres had a temple
at Megara, because she had taught the inhabitants the utility of
wool, and the means of tending sheep to advantage. This temple is
represented as so old in the age of Pausanias, that it was falling
to decay. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 44.
=Mallos=, a town of Cilicia. _Lucan_, bk. 3, li. 227.
=Malthīnus=, a name under which Horace has lashed some of his friends
or enemies. Bk. 1, satire 2, li. 27.
=Mamaus=, a river of Peloponnesus.
=Mamercus=, a tyrant of Catana, who surrendered to Timoleon. His
attempts to speak in a public assembly at Syracuse were received
with groans and hisses, upon which he dashed his head against a
wall, and endeavoured to destroy himself. The blows were not fatal,
and Mamercus was soon after put to death as a robber, B.C. 340.
_Polyænus_, bk. 5.――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Timoleon_.――――A dictator at
Rome, B.C. 437.――――A consul with Decimus Brutus.
=Mamerthes=, a Corinthian who killed his brother’s son in hopes of
reigning, upon which he was torn to pieces by his brother. _Ovid_,
_Ibis_.
=Mamertīna=, a town of Campania, famous for its wines.――――A name of
Messana in Sicily. _Martial_, bk. 13, ltr. 117.――_Strabo_, bk. 7.
=Mamertīni=, a mercenary band of soldiers which passed from Campania
into Sicily, at the request of Agathocles. When they were in the
service of Agathocles, they claimed the privilege of voting at the
election of magistrates at Syracuse, and had recourse to arms to
support their unlawful demands. The sedition was appeased by the
authority of some leading men, and the Campanians were ordered to
leave Sicily. In their way to the coast they were received with great
kindness by the people of Messana, and soon returned perfidy for
hospitality. They conspired against the inhabitants, murdered all
the males in the city, and married their wives and daughters, and
rendered themselves masters of the place. After this violence they
assumed the name of Mamertini, and called their city _Mamertina_,
from a provincial word, which in their language signified _martial_
or _warlike_. The Mamertines were afterwards defeated by Hiero, and
totally disabled from repairing their ruined affairs. _Plutarch_,
_Pyrrhus_, &c.
=Mamilia lex=, _de limitibus_, by the tribune Mamilius. It ordained
that in the boundaries of the lands five or six feet of land should
be left uncultivated, which no person could convert into private
property. It also appointed commissioners to see it carried into
execution.
=Mamilii=, a plebeian family at Rome, descended from the Aborigines.
They first lived at Tusculum, from whence they came to Rome. _Livy_,
bk. 3, ch. 29.
=Mamilius Octavius=, a son-in-law of Tarquin, who behaved with uncommon
bravery at the battle of Regillæ. He is also called Manilius. _See:_
Manilius.
=Mammea=, the mother of the emperor Severus, who died A.D. 235.
=Mamŭrius Veturius=, a worker in brass in Numa’s reign. He was ordered
by the monarch to make a number of ancylia or shields, like that
one which had fallen from heaven, that it might be difficult to
distinguish the true one from the others. He was very successful in
his undertaking, and he asked for no other reward, but that his name
might be frequently mentioned in the hymns which were sung by the
Salii in the feast of the Ancylia. This request was granted. _Ovid_,
_Fasti_, bk. 3, li. 392.――_Varro_, _de Lingua Latina_, bk. 5, ch. 6.
=Mamurra=, a Roman knight born at Formiæ. He followed the fortune of
Julius Cæsar in Gaul, where he greatly enriched himself. He built a
magnificent palace on mount Cœlius, and was the first who incrusted
his walls with marble. Catullus has attacked him in his epigrams.
Formiæ is sometimes called _Mamurrarum urbs_. _Pliny_, bk. 36, ch. 6.
=Manastăbal=, son of Masinissa, who was father to the celebrated
Jugurtha. _Sallust_, _Jugurthine War_.
=Caius Mancīnus=, a Roman general, who, though at the head of an army
of 30,000 men, was defeated by 4000 Numantians, B.C. 138. He was
dragged from the senate, &c. _Cicero_, _Orator_, bk. 1, ch. 40.
=Mandāne=, a daughter of king Astyages, married by her father to
Cambyses, an ignoble person of Persia. The monarch had dreamed
that his daughter’s urine had drowned all his city, which had been
interpreted in an unfavourable manner by the soothsayers, who assured
him that his daughter’s son would dethrone him. The marriage of
Mandane with Cambyses would, in the monarch’s opinion, prevent the
effects of the dream, and the children of this connection would, like
their father, be poor and unnoticed. The expectations of Astyages
were frustrated. He was dethroned by his grandson. _See:_ Cyrus.
_Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 107.
=Mandānes=, an Indian prince and philosopher, whom Alexander invited
by his ambassador, on pain of death, to come to his banquet, as
being the son of Jupiter. The philosopher ridiculed the threats and
promises of Alexander, &c. _Strabo_, bk. 15.
=Mandēla=, a village in the country of the Sabines, near Horace’s
country seat. _Horace_, bk. 1, ltr. 18, li. 105.
=Mandonius=, a prince of Spain, who for some time favoured the cause
of the Romans. When he heard that Scipio the Roman commander was
ill, he raised commotions in the provinces, for which he was severely
reprimanded and punished. _Livy_, bk. 29.
=Mandrŏcles=, a general of Artaxerxes, &c. _Cornelius Nepos_, _Datames_.
=Mandron=, a king of the Bebryces, &c. _Polyænus_, bk. 8.
=Mandubii=, a people of Gaul (now _Burgundy_), in Cæsar’s army, &c.
_Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 7, ch. 78.
=Mandubratius=, a young Briton who came over to Cæsar in Gaul. His
father Immanuentius was king in Britain, and had been put to death by
order of Cassivelaunus. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 5, ch. 20.
=Manduria=, a city of Calabria near Tarentum, whose inhabitants were
famous for eating dog’s flesh. _Pliny_, bk. 2, ch. 103.――_Livy_,
bk. 27, ch. 15.
=Manes=, a son of Jupiter and Tellus, who reigned in Mæonia. He was
father of Cotys, by Callirrhoe the daughter of Oceanus.
=Mānes=, a name generally applied by the ancients to the souls when
separated from the body. They were reckoned among the infernal
deities, and generally supposed to preside over the burying places
and the monuments of the dead. They were worshipped with great
solemnity, particularly by the Romans. The augurs always invoked
them when they proceeded to exercise their sacerdotal offices. Virgil
introduces his hero as sacrificing to the infernal deities, and
to the Manes, a victim whose blood was received in a ditch. The
word _manes_ is supposed to be derived from Mania, who was by some
reckoned the mother of those tremendous deities. Others derive it
from _manare, quod per omnia ætherea terrenaque manabant_, because
they filled the air, particularly in the night, and were intent
to molest and disturb the peace of mankind. Some say that _manes_
comes from _manis_, an old Latin word which signified _good_ or
_propitious_. The word _manes_ is differently used by ancient authors;
sometimes it is taken for the infernal regions, and sometimes it is
applied to the deities of Pluto’s kingdom, whence the epitaphs of the
Romans were always superscribed with D. M., _Dîs Manibus_, to remind
the sacrilegious and profane not to molest the monuments of the dead,
which were guarded with such sanctity. _Propertius_, bk. 1, poem 19.
――_Virgil_, bk. 4, _Georgics_, li. 469; _Æneid_, bk. 3, &c.――_Horace_,
bk. 1, satire 8, li. 28.――――A river of Locris.
=Manētho=, a celebrated priest of Heliopolis in Egypt, surnamed the
Mendesian, B.C. 261. He wrote in Greek a history of Egypt, which
has been often quoted and commended by the ancients, particularly
by Josephus. It was chiefly collected from the writings of Mercury,
and from the journals and annals which are preserved in the Egyptian
temples. This history has been greatly corrupted by the Greeks. The
author supported that all the gods of the Egyptians had been mere
mortals, and had all lived upon earth. This history, which is now
lost, had been epitomized, and some fragments of it are still extant.
There is extant a Greek poem ascribed to Manetho, in which the power
of the stars, which preside over the birth and fate of mankind, is
explained. The Apotelesmata of this author were edited in 4to, by
Gronovious, Leiden, 1698.
=Mania=, a goddess, supposed to be the mother of the Lares and Manes.
――――A female servant of queen Berenice the daughter of Ptolemy.――――A
mistress of Demetrius Poliorcetes, called also Demo, and Mania, from
her folly. _Plutarch_, _Demetrius_.
=Manilia lex=, by Manilius the tribune, A.U.C. 678. It required that
all the forces of Lucullus and his province, together with Bithynia,
which was then under the command of Glabrio, should be delivered to
Pompey, and that this general should, without any delay, declare war
against Mithridates, and still retain the command of the Roman fleet,
and the empire of the Mediterranean, as before.――――Another, which
permitted all those whose fathers had not been invested with public
offices, to be employed in the management of affairs.――――A woman
famous for her debaucheries. _Juvenal_, satire 6, li. 242.
=Mānīlius=, a Roman who married the daughter of Tarquin. He lived
at Tusculum, and received his father-in-law in his house, when
banished from Rome, &c. _Livy_, bk. 2, ch. 15.――――Caius, a celebrated
mathematician and poet of Antioch, who wrote a poetical treatise
on astronomy, of which five books are extant, treating of the fixed
stars. The style is not elegant. The age in which he lived is not
known, though some suppose that he flourished in the Augustan age. No
author, however, in the age of Augustus has made mention of Manilius.
The best editions of Manilius are those of Bentley, 4to, London, 1739,
and Stoeberus, 8vo, Strasbourg, 1767.――――Titus, a learned historian
in the age of Sylla and Marius. He is greatly commended by Cicero,
_pro Roscio_.――――Marcus, another mentioned by _Cicero_, _On Oratory_,
bk. 1, ch. 48, as supporting the character of a great lawyer, and of
an eloquent and powerful orator.
=Manĭmi=, a people in Germany. _Tacitus_, _Germania_, ch. 43.
=Manlia lex=, by the tribune Publius Manlius, A.U.C. 557. It revived
the office of _treviri epulones_, first instituted by Numa. The
_epulones_ were priests, who prepared banquets for Jupiter and the
gods at public festivals, &c.
=Manlius Torquātus=, a celebrated Roman, whose youth was distinguished
by a lively and cheerful disposition. These promising talents
were, however, impeded by a difficulty of speaking; and the father,
unwilling to expose his son’s rusticity at Rome, detained him in
the country. The behaviour of the father was publicly censured, and
Marius Pomponius the tribune cited him to answer for his unfatherly
behaviour to his son. Young Manlius was informed of this, and with
a dagger in his hand he entered the house of the tribune, and made
him solemnly promise that he would drop the accusation. This action
of Manlius endeared him to the people, and soon after he was chosen
military tribune. In a war against the Gauls, he accepted the
challenge of one of the enemy, whose gigantic stature and ponderous
arms had rendered him terrible and almost invincible in the eyes of
the Romans. The Gaul was conquered, and Manlius stripped him of his
arms, and from the collar (_torquis_) which he took from the enemy’s
neck, he was ever after surnamed _Torquatus_. Manlius was the
first Roman who was raised to the dictatorship without having been
previously consul. The severity of Torquatus to his son has been
deservedly censured. This father had the courage and heart to put to
death his son, because he had engaged one of the enemy, and obtained
an honourable victory, without his previous permission. This uncommon
rigour displeased many of the Romans; and though Torquatus was
honoured with a triumph, and commended by the senate for his services,
yet the Roman youth showed their disapprobation of the consul’s
severity, by refusing him at his return the homage which every other
conqueror received. Some time after the censorship was offered to
him, but he refused it, observing that the people could not bear
his severity, nor he the vices of the people. From the rigour of
Torquatus, all edicts and actions of severity and justice have been
called _Manliana edicta_. _Livy_, bk. 7, ch. 10.――_Valerius Maximus_,
bk. 6, ch. 9.――――Marcus, a celebrated Roman, whose valour was
displayed in the field of battle, even at the early age of 16. When
Rome was taken by the Gauls, Manlius with a body of his countrymen
fled into the Capitol, which he defended when it was suddenly
surprised in the night by the enemy. This action gained him the
surname of _Capitolinus_, and the geese, which by their clamour had
awakened him to arm himself in his own defence, were ever after held
sacred among the Romans. A law which Manlius proposed to abolish
the taxes on the common people, raised the senators against him. The
dictator Cornelius Cossus seized him as a rebel, but the people put
on mourning, and delivered from prison their common father. This did
not in the least check his ambition; he continued to raise factions,
and even secretly to attempt to make himself absolute, till at
last the tribunes of the people themselves became his accusers. He
was tried in the Campius Martius; but when the distant view of the
Capitol which Manlius had saved seemed to influence the people in his
favour, the court of justice was removed, and Manlius was condemned.
He was thrown down from the Tarpeian rock, A.U.C. 371, and to
render his ignominy still greater, none of his family were afterwards
permitted to bear the surname of _Marcus_, and the place where his
house had stood was deemed unworthy to be inhabited. _Livy_, bk. 5,
ch. 31; bk. 6, ch. 5.――_Florus_, bk. 1, chs. 13 & 26.――_Valerius
Maximus_, bk. 6, ch. 3.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 825.
――――Imperiosus, father of Manlius Torquatus. He was made dictator. He
was accused of detaining his son at home. _See:_ Manlius Torquatus.
――――Volsco, a Roman consul who received an army of Scipio in Asia,
and made war against the Gallo-grecians, whom he conquered. He
was honoured with a triumph at his return, though it was at first
strongly opposed. _Florus_, bk. 3, ch. 11.――_Livy_, bk. 38, ch. 12,
&c.――――Caius, or Aulus, a senator sent to Athens to collect the best
and wisest laws of Solon, A.U.C. 300. _Livy_, bk. 2, ch. 54; bk. 3,
ch. 31.――――Another, called also Cincinnatus. He made war against the
Etrurians and Veientes with great success, and he died of a wound
which he had received in a battle.――――Another, who in his pretorship
reduced Sardinia. He was afterwards made dictator.――――Another, who
was defeated by a rebel army of slaves in Sicily.――――A pretor in Gaul,
who fought against the Boii, with very little success.――――Another,
called Attilius, who defeated a Carthaginian fleet, &c.――――Another,
who conspired with Catiline against the Roman republic.――――Another,
in whose consulship the temple of Janus was shut.――――Another, who was
banished under Tiberius for his adultery.――――A Roman appointed judge
between his son Silanus and the province of Macedonia. When all the
parties had been heard, the father said, “It is evident that my son
has suffered himself to be bribed, therefore I deem him unworthy
of the republic and of my house, and I order him to depart from my
presence.” Silanus was so struck at the rigour of his father, that
he hanged himself. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 5, ch. 5.――――A learned man
in the age of Cicero.
=Mannus=, the son of Thiasto, both famous divinities among the Germans.
_Tacitus_, _Germania_, ch. 2.
=Julius Mansuētus=, a friend of Vitellius, who entered the Roman armies,
and left his son, then very young, at home. The son was promoted by
Galba, and soon after met a detachment of the partisans of Vitellius
in which his father was. A battle was fought, and Mansuetus was
wounded by the hand of his son, &c. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 3,
ch. 25.
=Mantinea=, a town of Arcadia in Peloponnesus. It was taken by Aratus
and Antigonus, and, on account of the latter, it was afterwards
called _Antigonia_. The emperor Adrian built there a temple in honour
of his favourite Alcinous. It is famous for the battle which was
fought there between Epaminondas at the head of the Thebans, and
the combined forces of Lacedæmon, Achaia, Elis, Athens, and Arcadia,
about 363 years before Christ. The Theban general was killed in the
engagement, and from that time Thebes lost its power and consequence
among the Grecian states. _Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Cornelius Nepos_,
_Epaminondas_.――_Diodorus_, bk. 15.――_Ptolemy_, bk. 3, ch. 16.
=Mantineus=, the father of Ocalea, who married Abas the son of Lynceus
and Hypermnestra. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 9.
=Mantinōrum oppidum=, a town of Corsica, now supposed to be _Bastia_.
=Mantius=, a son of Melampus.
=Manto=, a daughter of the prophet Tiresias, endowed with the gift
of prophecy. She was made prisoner by the Argives when the city of
Thebes fell into their hands, and as she was the worthiest part of
the booty, the conquerors sent her to Apollo the god of Delphi, as
the most valuable present they could make. Manto, often called Daphne,
remained for some time at Delphi, where she officiated as priestess,
and where she gave oracles. From Delphi she came to Claros in Ionia,
where she established an oracle of Apollo. Here she married Rhadius
the sovereign of the country, by whom she had a son called Mopsus.
Manto afterwards visited Italy, where she married Tiberinus the king
of Alba, or, as the poets mention, the god of the river Tiber. From
this marriage sprang Ocnus, who built a town in the neighbourhood,
which, in honour of his mother, he called Mantua. Manto, according to
a certain tradition, was so struck at the misfortunes which afflicted
Thebes, her native country, that she gave way to her sorrow, and was
turned into a fountain. Some suppose her to be the same who conducted
Æneas into hell, and who sold the Sibylline books to Tarquin the
Proud. She received divine honours after death. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 1, li. 199; bk. 10, li. 199.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 6,
li. 157.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 7.――_Strabo_,
bks. 14 & 16.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, chs. 10 & 33; bk. 7, ch. 3.
=Mantua=, a town of Italy beyond the Po, founded about 300 years before
Rome, by Bianor or Ocnus the son of Manto. It was the ancient capital
of Etruria. When Cremona, which had followed the interest of Brutus,
was given to the soldiers of Octavius, Mantua also, which was in the
neighbourhood, shared the common calamity, though it had favoured
the party of Augustus, and many of the inhabitants were tyrannically
deprived of their possessions. Virgil, who was among them, and a
native of the town, and from thence often called _Mantuanus_, applied
for redress to Augustus, and obtained it by means of his poetical
talents. _Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Virgil_, _Eclogues_, poem 1, &c.;
_Georgics_, ch. 3, li. 12; _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 180.――_Ovid_,
_Amores_, bk. 3, poem 15.
=Maracanda=, a town of Sogdiana.
=Mărătha=, a village of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 28.
=Mărăthon=, a village of Attica, 10 miles from Athens, celebrated for
the victory which the 10,000 Athenians and 1000 Platæans, under the
command of Miltiades, gained over the Persian army, consisting of
100,000 foot and 10,000 horse, or, according to Valerius Maximus,
of 300,000, or, as Justin says, of 600,000, under the command of
Datis and Artaphernes, on the 28th of Sept. 490, B.C. In this battle,
according to Herodotus, the Athenians lost only 192 men, and the
Persians 6300. Justin has raised the loss of the Persians in this
expedition and in the battle to 200,000 men. To commemorate this
immortal victory of their countrymen, the Greeks raised small
columns, with the names inscribed on the tombs of the fallen heroes.
It was also in the plains of Marathon that Theseus overcame a
celebrated bull, which ravaged the neighbouring country. Erigone
is called _Marathonia virgo_, as being born at Marathon. _Statius_,
bk. 5, _Sylvæ_, poem 3, li. 74.――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Miltiades._
――_Herodotus_, bk. 6, &c.――_Justin_, bk. 2, ch. 9.――_Valerius
Maximus_, bk. 5, ch. 3.――_Plutarch_, _Parallela minora_――――A king of
Attica, son of Epopeus, who gave his name to a small village there.
_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 1.――――A king of Sicyon.
=Marăthos=, a town of Phœnicia. _Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 12.
=Marcella=, a daughter of Octavia the sister of Augustus by Marcellus.
She married Agrippa.
=Marcellīnus Ammiānus=, a celebrated historian who carried arms under
Constantius, Julian, and Valens, and wrote a history of Rome from the
reign of Domitian, where Suetonius stops, to the emperor Valens. His
style is neither elegant nor laboured, but it is greatly valuable
for its veracity, and in many of the actions he mentions, the author
was nearly concerned. This history was composed at Rome, where
Ammianus retired from the noise and troubles of the camp, and does
not betray that severity against the christians which other writers
have manifested, though the author was warm in favour of paganism,
the religion which for a while was seated on the throne. It was
divided into 31 books, of which only the 18 last remain, beginning at
the death of Magnentius. Ammianus has been liberal in his encomiums
upon Julian, whose favours he enjoyed and who so eminently patronised
his religion. The negligence with which some facts are sometimes
mentioned, has induced many to believe that the history of Ammianus
has suffered much from the ravages of time, and that it has descended
to us mutilated and imperfect. The best editions of Ammianus are
those of Gronovius, folio, and 4to, Leiden, 1693, and of Ernesti,
8vo, Lipscomb, 1773.――――An officer under Julian.
=Marcellus Marcus Claudius=, a famous Roman general, who, after the
first Punic war, had the management of an expedition against the
Gauls, where he obtained the _Spolia opima_, by killing with his
own hand Viridomarus the king of the enemy. Such success rendered
him popular, and soon after he was entrusted to oppose Annibal in
Italy. He was the first Roman who obtained some advantage over this
celebrated Carthaginian, and showed his countrymen that Annibal
was not invincible. The troubles which were raised in Sicily by the
Carthaginians at the death of Hieronymus, alarmed the Romans, and
Marcellus, in his third consulship, was sent with a powerful force
against Syracuse. He attacked it by sea and land, but his operations
proved ineffectual, and the invention and industry of a philosopher
[_See:_ Archimedes] were able to baffle all the efforts, and to
destroy all the great and stupendous machines and military engines
of the Romans during three successive years. The perseverance of
Marcellus at last obtained the victory. The inattention of the
inhabitants during their nocturnal celebration of the festivals
of Diana, favoured his operations; he forcibly entered the town,
and made himself master of it. The conqueror enriched the capital
of Italy with the spoils of Syracuse, and when he was accused of
rapaciousness, for stripping the conquered city of all its paintings
and ornaments, he confessed that he had done it to adorn the public
buildings of Rome, and to introduce a taste for the fine arts and
elegance of the Greeks among his countrymen. After the conquest
of Syracuse, Marcellus was called upon by his country to oppose
a second time Annibal. In this campaign he behaved with greater
vigour than before; the greatest part of the towns of the Samnites,
which had revolted, were recovered by force of arms, and 3000 of the
soldiers of Annibal made prisoners. Some time after an engagement
with the Carthaginian general proved unfavourable; Marcellus had the
disadvantage; but on the morrow a more successful skirmish vindicated
his military character, and the honour of the Roman soldiers.
Marcellus, however, was not sufficiently vigilant against the snares
of his adversary. He imprudently separated himself from his camp, and
was killed in an ambuscade in the 60th year of his age, in his fifth
consulship, A.U.C. 546. His body was honoured with a magnificent
funeral by the conqueror, and his ashes were conveyed in a silver
urn to his son. Marcellus claims our commendation for his private
as well as public virtues; and the humanity of the general will ever
be remembered who, at the surrender of Syracuse, wept at the thought
that many were going to be exposed to the avarice and rapaciousness
of an incensed soldiery, which the policy of Rome and the laws of war
rendered inevitable. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 855.――_Paterculus_,
bk. 2, ch. 38.――_Plutarch_, _Lives_, &c.――――One of his descendants,
who bore the same name, signalized himself in the civil wars of Cæsar
and Pompey, by his firm attachment to the latter. He was banished by
Cæsar, but afterwards recalled at the request of the senate. Cicero
undertook his defence in an oration which is still extant.――――The
grandson of Pompey’s friend rendered himself popular by his universal
benevolence and affability. He was son of Marcellus, by Octavia the
sister of Augustus. He married Julia, that emperor’s daughter, and
was publicly intended as his successor. The suddenness of his death,
at the early age of 18, was the cause of much lamentation at Rome,
particularly in the family of Augustus, and Virgil procured himself
great favours by celebrating the virtues of this amiable prince.
_See:_ Octavia. Marcellus was buried at the public expense. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 883.――_Suetonius_, _Augustus_.――_Plutarch_,
_Marcellus_.――_Seneca_, _de Consolatione ad Marciam_.――_Paterculus_,
bk. 2, ch. 93.――――The son of the great Marcellus who took Syracuse,
was caught in the ambuscade which proved fatal to his father, but he
forced his way from the enemy and escaped. He received the ashes of
his father from the conqueror. _Plutarch_, _Marcellus_.――――A man who
conspired against Vespasian.――――The husband of Octavia the sister of
Augustus.――――A conqueror of Britain.――――An officer under the emperor
Julian.――――A man put to death by Galba.――――A man who gave Cicero
information of Catiline’s conspiracy.――――A colleague of Cato in
the questorship.――――A native of Pamphylia, who wrote an heroic poem
on physic, divided into 42 books. He lived in the reign of Marcus
Aurelius.――――A Roman drowned in a storm, &c.
=Marcia lex=, by Marcius Censorinus. It forbade any man to be invested
with the office of censor more than once.
=Marcia=, the wife of Regulus. When she heard that her husband had
been put to death at Carthage in the most excruciating manner, she
retorted the punishment, and shut up some Carthaginian prisoners in a
barrel, which she had previously filled with sharp nails. The senate
was obliged to stop the wantonness of her cruelty. _Diodorus_, bk. 24.
――――A favourite of the emperor Commodus, whom he poisoned.――――A
vestal virgin, punished for her incontinence.――――A daughter of Philip,
who married Cato the censor. Her husband gave her to his friend
Hortensius for the sake of procreating children, and after his death
he took her again to his own house.――――An ancient name of the island
of Rhodes.――――A daughter of Cato of Utica.――――A stream of water.
_See:_ Martia aqua.
=Marciāna=, a sister of the emperor Trajan, who, on account of her
public and private virtues and her amiable disposition, was declared
Augusta and empress by her brother. She died A.D. 113.
=Marcianopŏlis=, the capital of Lower Mœsia in Greece. It receives its
name in honour of the empress Marciana.
=Marciānus=, a native of Thrace, born of an obscure family. After he
had for some time served in the army as a common soldier, he was made
private secretary to one of the officers of Theodosius. His winning
address and uncommon talents raised him to higher stations; and
on the death of Theodosius II., A.D. 450, he was invested with the
imperial purple in the east. The subjects of the Roman empire had
reason to be satisfied with their choice. Marcianus showed himself
active and resolute, and when Attila, the barbarous king of the Huns,
asked of the emperor the annual tribute, which the indolence and
cowardice of his predecessors had regularly paid, the successor of
Theodosius firmly said that he kept his gold for his friends, but
that iron was the metal which he had prepared for his enemies. In
the midst of universal popularity Marcianus died, after a reign of
six years, in the 69th year of his age, as he was making warlike
preparations against the barbarians that had invaded Africa. His
death was lamented, and indeed his merit was great, since his
reign has been distinguished by the appellation of the golden age.
Marcianus married Pulcheria, the sister of his predecessor. It is
said, that in the years of his obscurity he found a man who had been
murdered, and that he had the humanity to give him a private burial,
for which circumstance he was accused of the homicide and imprisoned.
He was condemned to lose his life, and the sentence would have been
executed, had not the real murderer been discovered, and convinced
the world of the innocence of Marcianus.――――Capella, a writer. _See:_
Capella.
=Marcus Marcius Sabīnus=, was the progenitor of the Marcian family at
Rome. He came to Rome with Numa, and it was he who advised Numa to
accept of the crown which the Romans offered to him. He attempted
to make himself king of Rome, in opposition to Tullus Hostilius, and
when his efforts proved unsuccessful he killed himself. His son, who
married a daughter of Numa, was made high priest by his father-in-law.
He was father of Ancus Marcius. _Plutarch_, _Numa_.――――A Roman who
accused Ptolemy Auletes king of Egypt of misdemeanour in the Roman
senate.――――A Roman consul, defeated by the Samnites. He was more
successful against the Carthaginians, and obtained a victory, &c.
――――Another consul, who obtained a victory over the Etrurians.
――――Another, who defeated the Hernici.――――A Roman who fought against
Asdrubal.――――A man whom Catiline hired to assassinate Cicero.
=Marcius Saltus=, a place in Liguria, &c.
=Marcomanni=, a people of Germany, who originally dwelt on the banks of
the Rhine and the Danube. They proved powerful enemies to the Roman
emperors. Augustus granted them peace, but they were afterwards
subdued by Antoninus and Trajan, &c. _Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 109.
――_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 2, chs. 46 & 62; _Germania_, ch. 42.
=Marcus=, a prænomen common to many of the Romans. _See:_ Æmilius,
Lepidus, &c.――――A son of Cato, killed at Philippi, &c.――――Caryensis,
a general of the Achæan league, 255 B.C.
=Mardi=, a people of Persia, on the confines of Media. They were
very poor, and generally lived upon the flesh of wild beasts. Their
country, in later times, became the residence of the famous assassins
destroyed by Hulakou the grandson of Zingis Khan. _Herodotus_, bks.
1 & 3.――_Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 16.
=Mardia=, a place of Thrace, famous for a battle between Constantine
and Licinius, A.D. 315.
=Mardonius=, a general of Xerxes, who, after the defeat of his master
at Thermopylæ and Salamis, was left in Greece with an army of 300,000
chosen men, to subdue the country, and reduce it under the power
of Persia. His operations were rendered useless by the courage and
vigilance of the Greeks; and in a battle at Platæa, Mardonius was
defeated and left among the slain, B.C. 479. He had been commander
of the armies of Darius in Europe, and it was chiefly by his advice
that Xerxes invaded Greece. He was son-in-law of Darius. _Plutarch_,
_Aristotle_.――_Herodotus_, bks. 6, 7, & 8.――_Diodorus_, bk. 11.
――_Justin_, bk. 2, ch. 13, &c.
=Mardus=, a river of Media, falling into the Caspian sea.
=Mare Mortuum=, called also, from the _bitumen_ which it throws up,
the lake _Asphaltites_, is situate in Judæa, and is near 100 miles
long and 25 broad. Its waters are ♦saltier than those of the sea, but
the vapours exhaled from them are not so pestilential as have been
generally represented. It is supposed that the 13 cities, of which
Sodom and Gomorrah, as mentioned in the Scriptures, were the capital,
were destroyed by a volcano, and on the site a lake formed. Volcanic
appearances now mark the face of the country, and earthquakes are
frequent. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 6.――_Josephus_, _Jewish War_, bk. 4,
ch. 27.――_Strabo_, bk. 16, p. 764.――_Justin_, bk. 36, ch. 3.
♦ ‘salter’ replaced with ‘saltier’
=Măreōtis=, now _Siwah_, a lake in Egypt near Alexandria. Its
neighbourhood is famous for wine, though some make the _Mareoticum
vinum_ grow in Epirus, or in a certain part of Libya, called also
Mareotis, near Egypt. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 2, li. 91.――_Horace_,
bk. 1, ode 38, li. 14.――_Lucan_, bks. 3 & 10.――_Strabo_, bk. 17.
=Marginia= and =Margiania=, a town and country near the river Oxus,
at the east of Hyrcania, celebrated for its wines. The vines are so
uncommonly large that two men can scarcely grasp the trunk of one of
them. _Curtius_, bk. 7, ch. 10.――_Ptolemy_, bk. 5.
=Margītes=, a man against whom, as some suppose, Homer wrote a poem,
to ridicule his superficial knowledge, and to expose his affectation.
When Demosthenes wished to prove Alexander an inveterate enemy to
Athens, he called him another Margites.
=Margus=, a river of Mœsia falling into the Danube, with a town of the
same name, now _Kastolatz_.
=Mariăba=, a city in Arabia, near the Red sea.
=Maria lex=, by Caius Marius the tribune, A.U.C. 634. It ordered the
planks called _pontes_, on which the people stood up to give their
votes in the _comitia_, to be narrower, that no other might stand
there to hinder the proceedings of the assembly by appeal, or other
disturbances.――――Another, called also _Porcia_, by Lucius Marius and
Porcius, tribunes, A.U.C. 691. It fined a certain sum of money such
commanders as gave a false account to the Roman senate of the number
of the slain in a battle. It obliged them to swear to the truth of
their return when they entered the city, according to the best
computation.
=Mariamna=, a Jewish woman, who married Herodes, &c.
=Mariānæ fossæ=, a town of Gaul Narbonensis, which received its name
from the _dyke_ (_fossa_) which Marius opened from thence to the sea.
_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 4.――_Strabo_, bk. 4.
=Mariandynum=, a place near Bithynia, where the poets feign that
Hercules dragged Cerberus out of hell. _Dionysius of Halicarnassus._
――_Ptolemy_, bk. 5, ch. 1.――_Mela_, bk. 1, chs. 2 & 19; bk. 2, ch. 7.
=Mariānus=, a surname given to Jupiter from a temple built to his
honour by Marius. It was in this temple that the Roman senate
assembled to recall Cicero, a circumstance communicated to him in
a dream. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 1, ch. 7.
=Marīca=, a nymph of the river Liris, near Minturnæ. She married king
Faunus, by whom she had king Latinus, and she was afterwards called
Fauna and Fatua, and honoured as a goddess. A city of Campania bore
her name. Some suppose her to be the same as Circe. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 7, li. 47.――_Livy_, bk. 27, ch. 37.――――A wood on the borders of
Campania bore also the name of _Marica_, as being sacred to the nymph.
_Livy_, bk. 27, ch. 37.――_Horace_, bk. 3, ode 17, li. 7.
=Marīcus=, a Gaul thrown to lions, in the reign of Vitellius, who
refused to devour him, &c. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 2, ch. 61.
=Marīna=, a daughter of Arcadius, &c.
=Marīnis=, a friend of Tiberius, put to death, &c.
=Marion=, a king of Tyre in the age of Alexander the Great.
=Marissa=, an opulent town of Judæa.
=Marīta lex.= _See:_ Julia de Maritandis.
=Maris=, a river of Scythia.――――A son of Armisodares, who assisted
Priam against the Greeks, and was killed by Antilochus. _Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 6, li. 317.
=Marisus=, a river of Dacia.
=Caiaus Marius=, a celebrated Roman, who, from a peasant, became one
of the most powerful and cruel tyrants that Rome ever beheld during
her consular government. He was born at Arpinum, of obscure and
illiterate parents. His father bore the same name as himself, and
his mother was called Fulcinia. He forsook the meaner occupations of
the country for the camp, and signalized himself under Scipio at the
siege of Numantia. The Roman general saw the courage and intrepidity
of young Marius, and foretold the era of his future greatness. By
his seditions and intrigues at Rome, while he exercised the inferior
offices of the state, he rendered himself known; and his marriage
with Julia, who was of the family of the Cæsars, contributed in
some measure to raise him to consequence. He passed into Africa as
lieutenant to the consul Metellus against Jugurtha, and after he had
there ingratiated himself with the soldiers, and raised enemies to
his friend and benefactor, he returned to Rome, and canvassed for
the consulship. The extravagant promises he made to the people, and
his malevolent insinuations about the conduct of Metellus, proved
successful. He was elected, and appointed to finish the war against
Jugurtha. He showed himself capable in every degree to succeed
Metellus. Jugurtha was defeated and afterwards betrayed into the
hands of the Romans by the perfidy of Bocchus. No sooner was Jugurtha
conquered, than new honours and fresh trophies awaited Marius.
The provinces at Rome were suddenly invaded by an army of 300,000
barbarians, and Marius was the only man whose activity and boldness
could resist so powerful an enemy. He was elected consul, and sent
against the Teutones. The war was prolonged, and Marius was a third
and fourth time invested with the consulship. At last two engagements
were fought, and not less than 200,000 of the barbarian forces of
the Ambrones and Teutones were slain in the field of battle, and
90,000 made prisoners. The following year was also marked by a
total overthrow of the Cimbri, another horde of barbarians, in which
140,000 were slaughtered by the Romans, and 60,000 taken prisoners.
After such honourable victories, Marius, with his colleague Catulus,
entered Rome in triumph, and for his eminent services, he deserved
the appellation of the third founder of Rome. He was elected consul
a sixth time; and, as his intrepidity had delivered his country from
its foreign enemies, he sought employment at home, and his restless
ambition began to raise seditions and to oppose the power of Sylla.
This was the cause and the foundation of a civil war. Sylla refused
to deliver up the command of the forces with which he was empowered
to prosecute the Mithridatic war, and he resolved to oppose the
authors of a demand which he considered as arbitrary and improper. He
advanced to Rome, and Marius was obliged to save his life by flight.
The unfavourable winds prevented him from seeking a safer retreat
in Africa, and he was left on the coasts of Campania, where the
emissaries of his enemy soon discovered him in a marsh, where he had
plunged himself in the mud, and left only his mouth above the surface
for respiration. He was violently dragged to the neighbouring town of
Minturnæ, and the magistrates, all devoted to the interest of Sylla,
passed sentence of immediate death on their magnanimous prisoner. A
Gaul was commanded to cut off his head in the dungeon, but the stern
countenance of Marius disarmed the courage of the executioner, and,
when he heard the exclamation of _Tune, homo, audes occidere Caium
Marium_, the dagger dropped from his hand. Such an uncommon adventure
awakened the compassion of the inhabitants of Minturnæ. They released
Marius from prison, and favoured his escape to Africa, where he
joined his son Marius, who had been arming the princes of the country
in his cause. Marius landed near the walls of Carthage, and he
received no small consolation at the sight of the venerable ruins
of a once powerful city, which, like himself, had been exposed to
calamity, and felt the cruel vicissitude of fortune. This place of
his retreat was soon known, and the governor of Africa, to conciliate
the favours of Sylla, compelled Marius to fly to a neighbouring
island. He soon after learned that Cinna had embraced his cause at
Rome, when the Roman senate had stripped him of his consular dignity
and bestowed it upon one of his enemies. This intelligence animated
Marius; he set sail to assist his friend, only at the head of 1000
men. His army, however, gradually increased, and he entered Rome like
a conqueror. His enemies were inhumanly sacrificed to his fury. Rome
was filled with blood, and he who had once been called the father
of his country, marched through the streets of the city, attended by
a number of assassins, who immediately slaughtered all those whose
salutations were not answered by their leader. Such were the signals
for bloodshed. When Marius and Cinna had sufficiently gratified their
resentment, they made themselves consuls, but Marius, already worn
out with old age and infirmities, died 16 days after he had been
honoured with the consular dignity for the seventh time, B.C. 86. His
end was probably hastened by the uncommon quantities of wine which
he drank when labouring under a dangerous disease, to remove, by
intoxication, the stings of a guilty conscience. Such was the end
of Marius, who rendered himself conspicuous by his victories, and
by his cruelty. As he was brought up in the midst of poverty and
among peasants, it will not appear wonderful that he always betrayed
rusticity in his behaviour, and despised in others those polished
manners and that studied address which education had denied him. He
hated the conversation of the learned only because he was illiterate,
and if he appeared an example of sobriety and temperance, he owed
these advantages to the years of obscurity which he had passed at
Arpinum. His countenance was stern, his voice firm and imperious, and
his disposition untractable. He always betrayed the greatest timidity
in the public assemblies, as he had not been early taught to make
eloquence and oratory his pursuit. He was in the 70th year of his
age when he died, and Rome seemed to rejoice at the fall of a man
whose ambition had proved fatal to so many of her citizens. His
only qualifications were those of a great general, and with these
he rendered himself the most illustrious and powerful of the Romans,
because he was the only one whose ferocity seemed capable to oppose
the barbarians of the north. The manner of his death, according to
some opinions, remains doubtful, though some have charged him with
the crime of suicide. Among the instances which are mentioned of
his firmness this may be recorded: A swelling in the leg obliged him
to apply to a physician, who urged the necessity of cutting it off.
Marius gave it, and saw the operation performed without a distortion
of the face, and without a groan. The physician asked the other,
and Marius gave it with equal composure. _Plutarch_, _Lives_.
――_Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 9.――_Florus_, bk. 3, ch. 3.――_Juvenal_,
satire 8, li. 245, &c.――_Lucan_, bk. 2, li. 69.――――Caius, the son of
the great Marius, was as cruel as his father, and shared his good and
his adverse fortune. He made himself consul in the 25th year of his
age, and murdered all the senators who opposed his ambitious views.
He was defeated by Sylla, and fled to Præneste, where he killed
himself. _Plutarch_, _Caius Marius_.――――Priscus, a governor of Africa,
accused of extortion in his province by Pliny the younger, and
banished from Italy. _Pliny_, bk. 2, ltr. 11.――_Juvenal_, satire 1,
li. 48.――――A lover, &c. _See:_ Hellas.――――One of the Greek fathers
of the fifth century, whose works were edited by Garner, 2 vols.,
folio, Paris, 1673; and by Baluzius, Paris, 1684.――――Marcus Aurelius,
a native of Gaul, who, from the mean employment of a blacksmith,
became one of the generals of Gallienus, and at last caused himself
to be saluted emperor. Three days after this elevation, a man who had
shared his poverty without partaking of his more prosperous fortune,
publicly assassinated him, and he was killed by a sword which he
himself had made in the time of his obscurity. Marius has been often
celebrated for his great strength, and it is confidently reported
that he could stop, with one of his fingers only, the wheel of a
chariot in its most rapid course.――――Maximus, a Latin writer, who
published an account of the Roman emperors from Trajan to Alexander,
now lost. His compositions were entertaining, and executed with
great exactness and fidelity. Some have accused him of inattention,
and complain that his writings abounded with many fabulous and
insignificant stories.――――Celsus, a friend of Galba, saved from death
by Otho, &c. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 1, ch. 45.――――Sextus, a
rich Spaniard, thrown down from the Tarpeian rock, on account of his
riches, &c. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 6, ch. 19.
=Marmăcus=, the father of Pythagoras. _Diogenes Laërtius._
=Marmărenses=, a people of Lycia.
=Marmărĭca.= _See:_ Marmaridæ.
=Marmărĭdæ=, the inhabitants of that part of Lybia called _Marmarica_,
between Cyrene and Egypt. They were swift in running, and pretended
to possess some drugs or secret power to destroy the poisonous
effects of the bite of serpents. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 3, li. 300;
bk. 11, li. 182.――_Lucan_, bk. 4, li. 680; bk. 9, li. 894.
=Marmărion=, a town of Eubœa, whence Apollo is called _Marmarinus_.
_Strabo_, bk. 10.
=Maro.= _See:_ Virgilius.
=Marobodui=, a nation of Germany. _Tacitus_, _Germania_, ch. 42.
=Maron=, a son of Evanthes, high priest of Apollo in Africa, when
Ulysses touched upon the coast. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 9, li. 179.
――――An Egyptian who accompanied Osiris in his conquests, and built
a city in Thrace, called from him Maronea. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 2.
――_Diodorus_, bk. 1.
=Maronēa=, a city of the Cicones, in Thrace, near the Hebrus, of
which Bacchus is the chief deity. The wine has always been reckoned
excellent, and with it, it was supposed that Ulysses intoxicated the
Cyclops Polyphemus. _Pliny_, bk. 14, ch. 4.――_Herodotus._――_Mela_,
bk. 2, ch. 2,――_Tibullus_, bk. 4, poem 1, li. 57.
=Marpĕsia=, a celebrated queen of the Amazons, who waged a successful
war against the inhabitants of mount Caucasus. The mountain was
called _Marpesius Mons_ from its female conqueror. _Justin_, bk. 2,
ch. 4.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6.
=Marpessa=, a daughter of the Evenus, who married Idas, by whom she had
Cleopatra the wife of Meleager. Marpessa was tenderly loved by her
husband; and when Apollo endeavoured to carry her away, Idas followed
the ravisher with a bow and arrows, resolved on revenge. Apollo and
Idas were separated by Jupiter, who permitted Marpessa to go with
that of the two lovers whom she most approved of. She returned to her
husband. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 9, li. 549.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 8, li. 305.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 7.――_Pausanias_, bk. 4,
ch. 2; bk. 5, ch. 18.
=Marpesus=, a town of Mysia.――――A mountain of Paros, abounding in white
marble, whence _Marpesia cautes_. The quarries are still seen by
modern travellers. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 471.――_Pliny_, bk. 4,
ch. 12; bk. 36, ch. 5.
=Marres=, a king of Egypt, who had a crow which conveyed his letters
wherever he pleased. He raised a celebrated monument to this faithful
bird near the city of crocodiles. _Ælian_, _de Natura Animalium_,
bk. 6, ch. 7.
=Marrucīni=, a people of Picenum. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 15, li. 564.
=Marrŭvium=, or =Marrubium=, now _San Benedetto_, a place near
the Liris, in Italy. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 750.――_Silius
Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 497.
=Mars=, the god of war among the ancients, was the son of Jupiter and
Juno, according to Hesiod, Homer, and all the Greek poets, or of Juno
alone, according to Ovid. This goddess, as the poet mentions, wished
to become a mother without the assistance of the other sex, like
Jupiter, who had produced Minerva all armed from his head, and she
was shown a flower by Flora in the plains near Olenus, whose very
touch made women pregnant. _See:_ Juno. The education of Mars was
entrusted by Juno to the god Priapus, who instructed him in dancing
and in every manly exercise. His trial before the celebrated court
of the Areopagus, according to the authority of some authors, for the
murder of Hallirhotius, forms an interesting epoch in history. _See:_
Areopagitæ. The amours of Mars and Venus are greatly celebrated.
The god of war gained the affection of Venus, and obtained the
gratification of his desires; but Apollo, who was conscious of
their familiarities, informed Vulcan of his wife’s debaucheries, and
awakened his suspicions. Vulcan secretly laid a net around the bed,
and the two lovers were exposed in each other’s arms, to the ridicule
and satire of all the gods, till Neptune prevailed upon the husband
to set them at liberty. This unfortunate discovery so provoked
Mars, that he changed into a cock his favourite Alectryon, whom
he had stationed at the door to watch against the approach of the
sun [_See:_ Alectryon], and Venus also showed her resentment by
persecuting with the most inveterate fury the children of Apollo.
In the wars of Jupiter and the Titans, Mars was seized by Otus and
Ephialtes, and confined for 15 months, till Mercury procured him his
liberty. During the Trojan war Mars interested himself on the side
of the Trojans, but whilst he defended these favourites of Venus
with uncommon activity, he was wounded by Diomedes, and hastily
retreated to heaven to conceal his confusion and his resentment, and
to complain to Jupiter that Minerva had directed the unerring weapon
of his antagonist. The worship of Mars was not very universal among
the ancients; his temples were not numerous in Greece, but in Rome
he received the most unbounded honours, and the warlike Romans were
proud of paying homage to a deity whom they esteemed as the patron
of their city, and the father of the first of their monarchs. His
most celebrated temple at Rome was built by Augustus after the
battle of Philippi. It was dedicated to Mars ultor, or the _avenger_.
His priests among the Romans were called Salii; they were first
instituted by Numa, and their chief office was to guard the sacred
Ancylia, one of which, as was supposed, had fallen down from heaven.
Mars was generally represented in the naked figure of an old man,
armed with a helmet, a pike, and a shield. Sometimes he appeared in a
military dress, and with a long flowing beard, and sometimes without.
He generally rode in a chariot drawn by furious horses, which the
poets called Flight and Terror. His altars were stained with the
blood of the horse, on account of his warlike spirit, and of the wolf,
on account of his ferocity. Magpies and vultures were also offered
up to him, on account of their greediness and voracity. The Scythians
generally offered him asses, and the people of Caria dogs. The
weed called dog-grass was sacred to him, because it grows, as it is
commonly reported, in places which are fit for fields of battle, or
where the ground has been stained with the effusion of human blood.
The surnames of Mars are not numerous. He was called Gradivus, Mavors,
Quirinus, Salisubsulus, among the Romans. The Greeks called him Ares,
and he was the Enyalus of the Sabines, the Camulus of the Gauls,
and the Mamers of Carthage. Mars was father of Cupid, Anteros, and
Harmonia, by the goddess Venus. He had Ascalaphus and Ialmenus by
Astyoche; Alcippe by Agraulos; Molus, Pylus, Evenus, and Thestius,
by Demonice the daughter of Agenor. Besides these, he was the reputed
father of Romulus, Œnomaus, Bythis, Thrax, Diomedes of Thrace, &c. He
presided over gladiators, and was the god of hunting, and of whatever
exercises or amusements have something manly and warlike. Among the
Romans it was usual for the consul, before he went on an expedition,
to visit the temple of Mars, where he offered his prayers, and in a
solemn manner shook the spear which was in the hand of the ♦statue
of the god, at the same time exclaiming, “_Mars vigila!_ god of war,
watch over the safety of this city.” _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 5, li.
231; _Tristia_, bk. 2, li. 925.――_Hyginus_, fable 148.――_Virgil_,
_Georgics_, bk. 4, li. 346; _Æneid_, bk. 8, li. 701.――_Lucian_,
_Electrum_.――_Varro_, _de Lingua Latina_, bk. 4, ch. 10.――_Homer_,
_Odyssey_, bk. 1; _Iliad_, bk. 5.――_Flaccus_, bk. 6.――_Apollodorus_,
bk. 1, &c.――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_.――_Pindar_, ode 4, _Pythian_.
――_Quintus Smyrnæus_, bk. 14.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, chs. 21 & 28.
――_Juvenal_, satire 9, li. 102.
♦ ‘staute’ replaced with ‘statue’
=Marsala=, a town of Sicily.
=Marsæus=, a Roman, ridiculed by Horace, bk. 1, satire 2, li. 35, for
his prodigality to courtesans.
=Marse=, a daughter of Thespius. _Apollodorus._
=Marsi=, a nation of Germany, who afterwards came to settle near the
lake Fucinus in Italy, in a country chequered with forests, abounding
with wild boars and other ferocious animals. They at first proved
very inimical to the Romans, but in process of time they became their
firmest supporters. They are particularly celebrated for the civil
war in which they were engaged, and which from them has received the
name of the _Marsian war_. The large contributions which they made
to support the interest of Rome, and the number of men which they
continually supplied to the republic, rendered them bold and aspiring,
and they claimed, with the rest of the Italian states, a share of
the honours and privileges which were enjoyed by the citizens of
Rome, B.C. 91. This petition, though supported by the interest, the
eloquence, and the integrity of the tribune Drusus, was received
with contempt by the Roman senate; and the Marsi, with their allies,
showed their dissatisfaction by taking up arms. Their resentment
was increased when Drusus, their friend at Rome, had been basely
murdered by the means of the nobles; and they erected themselves into
a republic, and Corfinium was made the capital of their new empire. A
regular war was now begun, and the Romans led into the field an army
of 100,000 men, and were opposed by a superior force. Some battles
were fought in which the Roman generals were defeated, and the allies
reaped no inconsiderable advantages from their victories. A battle,
however, near Asculum, proved fatal to their cause: 4000 of them
were left dead on the spot; their general, Francus, a man of uncommon
experience and abilities, was slain, and such as escaped from the
field perished by hunger in the Apennines, where they had sought a
shelter. After many defeats, and the loss of Asculum, one of their
principal cities, the allies, grown dejected and tired of hostilities
which had already continued for three years, sued for peace one by
one, and tranquillity was at last re-established in the republic, and
all the states of Italy were made citizens of Rome. The armies of the
allies consisted of the Marsi, the Peligni, the Vestini, the Hirpini,
Pompeiani, Marcini, Picentes, Venusini, Ferentani, Apuli, Lucani, and
Samnites. The Marsi were greatly addicted to magic. _Horace_, epode 5,
li. 76; epode 27, li. 29.――_Appian._――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 8.
――_Paterculus_, bk. 2.――_Plutarch_, _Sertorius_, _Caius Marius_, &c.
――_Cicero_, _For Cornelius Balbus_.――_Strabo._――_Tacitus_, _Annals_,
bk. 1, chs. 50 & 56; _Germania_, ch. 2.
=Marsigni=, a people of Germany. _Tacitus_, _Germania_, ch. 43.
=Marsus Domitius=, a Latin poet.
=Marsyaba=, a town of Arabia.
=Marsyas=, a celebrated piper of Celænæ, in Phrygia, son of Olympus,
or of Hyagnis, or Œagrus. He was so skilful in playing on the
flute, that he is generally deemed the inventor of it. According to
the opinion of some, he found it when Minerva had thrown it aside
on account of the distortion of her face when she played upon it.
Marsyas was enamoured of Cybele, and he travelled with her as far as
Nysa, where he had the imprudence to challenge Apollo to a trial of
his skill as a musician. The god accepted the challenge, and it was
mutually agreed that he who was defeated should be flayed alive by
the conquerer. The Muses, or according to Diodorus, the inhabitants
of Nysa, were appointed umpires. Each exerted his utmost skill,
and the victory, with much difficulty, was adjudged to Apollo. The
god, upon this, tied his antagonist to a tree, and flayed him alive.
The death of Marsyas was universally lamented; the Fauns, Satyrs,
and Dryads wept at his fate, and from their abundant tears, arose a
river of Phrygia, well known by the name of Marsyas. The unfortunate
Marsyas is often represented on monuments as tied, his hands behind
his back, to a tree, while Apollo stands before him with his lyre
in his hand. In independent cities among the ancients the statue
of Marsyas was generally erected in the forum, to represent the
intimacy which subsisted between Bacchus and Marsyas, as the emblems
of liberty. It was also erected at the entrance of the Roman forum,
as a spot where usurers and merchants resorted to transact business,
being principally intended _in terrorem litigatorum_; a circumstance
to which Horace seems to allude, bk. 1, satire 6, li. 120. At
Celænæ, the skin of Marsyas was shown to travellers for some time;
it was suspended in the public place in the form of a bladder, or a
foot-ball. _Hyginus_, fable 165.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 6, li. 707;
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 6, fable 7.――_Diodorus_, bk. 3.――_Silius
Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 503.――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 29; bk. 7, ch. 56.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 30.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 4.――――The
sources of the Marsyas were near those of the Mæander, and those two
rivers had their confluence a little below the town of Celænæ. _Livy_,
bk. 38, ch. 13.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 2, li. 265.――_Lucan_,
bk. 3, li. 208.――――A writer who published a history of Macedonia,
from the first origin and foundation of that empire till the reign of
Alexander, in which he lived.――――An Egyptian who commanded the armies
of Cleopatra against her brother Ptolemy Physcon, whom she attempted
to dethrone.――――A man put to death by Dionysius the tyrant of Sicily.
=Martha=, a celebrated prophetess of Syria, whose artifice and fraud
proved of the greatest service to Caius Marius in the numerous
expeditions which he undertook. _Plutarch_, _Caius Marius_.
=Martia=, a vestal virgin, put to death for her incontinence.――――A
daughter of Cato. _See:_ Marcia.
=Martia aqua=, water at Rome, celebrated for its clearness and
salubrity. It was conveyed to Rome, at the distance of above 30 miles,
from the lake Fucinus, by Ancus Martius, whence it received its name.
_Tibullus_, bk. 3, poem 7, li. 26.――_Pliny_, bk. 31, ch. 3; bk. 36,
ch. 15.
=Martiāles ludi=, games celebrated at Rome in honour of Mars.
=Martiālis Marcus Valerius=, a native of Bilbilis, in Spain, who came
to Rome about the 20th year of his age, where he recommended himself
to notice by his poetical genius. As he was the panegyrist of the
emperors, he gained the greatest honours, and was rewarded in the
most liberal manner. Domitian gave him the tribuneship; but the
poet, unmindful of the favours he received, after the death of his
benefactor, exposed to ridicule the vices and cruelties of a monster,
whom in his lifetime he had extolled as the pattern of virtue,
goodness, and excellence. Trajan treated the poet with coldness, and
Martial, after he had passed 35 years in the capital of the world, in
the greatest splendour and affluence, retired to his native country,
where he had the mortification to be the object of malevolence,
satire, and ridicule. He received some favours from his friends, and
his poverty was alleviated by the ♦liberality of Pliny the younger,
whom he had panegyrized in his poems. Martial died about the 104th
year of the christian era, in the 75th year of his age. He is now
well known by the 14 books of epigrams which he wrote, and whose
merit is now best described by the candid confession of the author
in this line,
_Sunt bona, sunt quædam mediocria, sunt mala plura._
But the genius which he displays in some of his epigrams deserves
commendation, though many critics are liberal in their censure upon
his style, his thoughts, and particularly upon his puns, which are
often low and despicable. In many of his epigrams the poet has shown
himself a declared enemy to decency, and the book is to be read with
caution which can corrupt the purity of morals, and initiate the
votaries of virtue in the mysteries of vice. It has been observed of
Martial, that his talent was epigrams. Everything which he did was
the subject of an epigram. He wrote inscriptions upon monuments in
the epigrammatical style, and even a new year’s gift was accompanied
with a distich, and his poetical pen was employed in begging a favour
as well as in satirizing a fault. The best editions of Martial are
those of Rader, folio, Mogunt. 1627; of Schriverius, 12mo, Leiden,
1619; and of Smids, 8vo, Amsterdam, 1701.――――A friend of Otho.――――A
man who conspired against Caracalla.
♦ ‘liberalty’ replaced with ‘liberality’
=Martiānus.= _See:_ Marcianus.
=Martīna=, a woman skilled in the knowledge of poisonous herbs, &c.
_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 2, ch. 79, &c.
=Martiniānus=, an officer, made Cæsar by ♦Licinius, to oppose
Constantine. He was put to death by order of Constantine.
♦ ‘Linicius’ replaced with ‘Licinius’
=Martius=, a surname of Jupiter in Attica, expressive of his power and
valour. _Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 14.――――A Roman consul sent against
Perseus, &c.――――A consul against the Dalmatians, &c.――――Another, who
defeated the Carthaginians in Spain.――――Another, who defeated the
Privernates, &c.
=Marullus=, a tribune of the people, who tore the garlands which had
been placed upon Cæsar’s statues, and who ordered those that had
saluted him king to be imprisoned. He was deprived of his consulship
by Julius Cæsar. _Plutarch._――――A governor of Judæa.――――A Latin poet
in the age of Marcus Aurelius. He satirized the emperor with great
licentiousness, but his invectives were disregarded, and himself
despised.
=Marus= (the _Morava_), a river of Germany, which separates modern
Hungary and Moravia. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 2, ch. 63.
=Massa Bæbius=, an informer at the court of Domitian. _Juvenal_,
satire 1, li. 35.
=Masæsylii=, a people of Libya, where Syphax reigned. _See:_ Massyla.
=Masinissa=, son of Gala, was king of a small part of Africa, and
assisted the Carthaginians in their wars against Rome. He proved
a most indefatigable and courageous ally, but an act of generosity
rendered him amicable to the interests of Rome. After the defeat of
Asdrubal, Scipio, the first Africanus who had obtained the victory,
found, among the prisoners of war, one of the nephews of Masinissa.
He sent him back to his uncle loaded with presents, and conducted
him with a detachment for the safety and protection of his person.
Masinissa was struck with the generous action of the Roman general;
he forgot all former hostilities, and joined his troops to those of
Scipio. This change of sentiments was not the effect of a wavering
or unsettled mind, but Masinissa showed himself the most attached
and the firmest ally the Romans ever had. It was to his exertions
they owed many of their victories in Africa, and particularly in
that battle which proved fatal to Asdrubal and Syphax. The Numidian
conqueror, charmed with the beauty of Sophonisba, the captive wife
of Syphax, carried her to his camp and married her; but when he
perceived that this new connection displeased Scipio, he sent poison
to his wife, and recommended her to destroy herself, since he could
not preserve her life in a manner which became her rank, her dignity,
and fortune, without offending his Roman allies. In the battle
of Zama, Masinissa greatly contributed to the defeat of the great
Annibal, and the Romans, who had been so often spectators of his
courage and valour, rewarded his fidelity with the kingdom of Syphax,
and some of the Carthaginian territories. At his death Masinissa
showed the confidence which he had in the Romans, and the esteem he
entertained for the rising talents of Scipio Æmilianus, by entrusting
him with the care of his kingdom, and empowering him to divide it
among his sons. Masinissa died in the 97th year of his age, after
a reign of above 60 years, 149 years before the christian era. He
experienced adversity as well as prosperity, and in the first years
of his reign he was exposed to the greatest danger, and obliged often
to save his life by seeking a retreat among his savage neighbours.
But his alliance with the Romans was the beginning of his greatness,
and he ever after lived in the greatest affluence. He is remarkable
for the health which he long enjoyed. In the last years of his
life he was seen at the head of his armies behaving with the most
indefatigable activity, and he often remained for many successive
days on horseback without a saddle under him, or a covering upon his
head, and without showing the least mark of fatigue. This strength
of mind and body he chiefly owed to the temperance which he observed.
He was seen eating brown bread at the door of his tent like a private
soldier the day after he had obtained an immortal victory over the
armies of Carthage. He left 54 sons, three of whom were legitimate,
Micipsa, Gulussa, and Manastabal. The kingdom was fairly divided
among them by Scipio, and the illegitimate children received,
as their portion, very valuable presents. The death of Gulussa
and Manastabal soon after left Micipsa sole master of the large
possessions of Masinissa. _Strabo_, bk. 17.――_Polybius._――_Appian_,
_Lybica [Punic Wars]_.――_Cicero_, _de Senectute_.――_Valerius Maximus_,
bk. 8.――_Sallust_, _Jugurthine War_.――_Livy_, bk. 25, &c.――_Ovid_,
_Fasti_, bk. 6, li. 769.――_Justin_, bk. 33, ch. 1; bk. 38, ch. 6.
=Maso=, a name common to several persons mentioned by Cicero.
=Massăga=, a town of India, taken by Alexander the Great.
=Massăgĕte=, a people of Scythia, who had their wives in common, and
dwelt in tents. They had no temples, but worshipped the sun, to
whom they offered horses, on account of their swiftness. When their
parents had come to a certain age, they generally put them to death,
and ate their flesh mixed with that of cattle. Authors are divided
with respect to the place of their residence. Some place them near
the Caspian sea, others at the north of the Danube, and some confound
them with the Getæ and the Scythians. _Horace_, bk. 1, ode 35, li.
40.――_Dionysius Periegeta_, li. 738.――_Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 204.
――_Strabo_, bk. 1.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 2.――_Lucan_, bk. 2, li. 50.
――_Justin_, bk. 1, ch. 8.
=Massāna.= _See:_ Messana.
=Massāni=, a nation at the mouth of the Indus.
=Massĭcus=, a mountain of Campania near Minturnæ, famous for its wine,
which even now preserves its ancient character. _Pliny_, bk. 14,
ch. 6.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ode 1, li. 19.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 2,
li. 143.――――An Etrurian prince, who assisted Æneas against Turnus
with 1000 men. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 166, &c.
=Massilia=, a maritime town of Gaul Narbonensis, now called
_Marseilles_, founded B.C. 539, by the people of Phocæa, in Asia,
who quitted their country to avoid the tyranny of the Persians. It
is celebrated for its laws, its fidelity for the Romans, and for
its being long the seat of literature. It acquired great consequence
by its commercial pursuits during its infancy, and even waged
war against Carthage. By becoming the ally of Rome, its power was
established; but in warmly espousing the cause of Pompey against
Cæsar, its views were frustrated, and it was so much reduced by
the insolence and resentment of the conqueror, that it never after
recovered its independence and warlike spirit. _Herodotus_, bk. 1,
ch. 164.――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 4.――_Justin_, bk. 37, &c.――_Strabo_,
bk. 1.――_Livy_, bk. 5, ch. 3.――_Horace_, epode 16.――_Florus_, bk. 4,
ch. 2.――_Cicero_, _For Flaccus_, ch. 26; _De Officiis_, bk. 2,
♦ch. 28.――_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 4, ch. 44; _Agricola_, ch. 4.
♦ ‘8’ replaced with ‘28’
=Massȳla=, an inland part of Mauritania near mount Atlas. When the
inhabitants, called _Massyli_, went on horseback, they never used
saddles or bridles, but only sticks. Their character was warlike,
their manners simple, and their love of liberty unconquerable. Some
suppose them to be the same as the Masæylii, though others say half
the country belonged only to this last-mentioned people. _Livy_,
bk. 24, ch. 48; bk. 28, ch. 17; bk. 29, ch. 32.――_Silius Italicus_,
bk. 3, li. 282; bk. 16, li. 171.――_Lucan_, bk. 4, li. 682.――_Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 4, li. 132.
=Mastramela=, a lake near Marseilles, now _mer de Martegues_. _Pliny_,
bk. 3, ch. 4.
=Măsŭrius=, a Roman knight under Tiberius, learned, but poor. _Persius_,
bk. 5, li. 90.
=Masus Domitius=, a Latin poet. _See:_ Domitius.
=Matho=, an infamous informer, patronized by Domitian. _Juvenal_,
satire 1, li. 32.
=Matiēni=, a people in the neighbourhood of Armenia.
=Matĭnus=, a mountain of Apulia, abounding in yew trees and bees.
_Lucan_, bk. 9, li. 184.――_Horace_, bk. 4, ode 2, li. 27; epode 16,
li. 28.
=Matisco=, a town of the Ædui in Gaul, now called _Macon_.
=Matrālia=, a festival at Rome, in honour of Matuta or Ino. Only matrons
and freeborn women were admitted. They made offerings of flowers, and
carried their relations’ children in their arms, recommending them to
the care and patronage of the goddess whom they worshipped. _Varro_,
_de Lingua Latina_, bk. 5, ch. 22.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 6, li. 47.
――_Plutarch_, _Camillus_.
=Matrōna=, a river of Gaul, now called the _Marne_, falling into the
Seine. _Ausonius_, _Mosella_, li. 462.――――One of the surnames of Juno,
because she presided over marriage and over child-birth.
=Matronālia=, festivals at Rome in honour of Mars, celebrated by
married women, in commemoration of the rape of the Sabines, and of
the peace which their intreaties had obtained between their fathers
and husbands. Flowers were then offered in the temples of Juno.
_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 3, li. 229.――_Plutarch_, _Romulus_.
=Mattiăci=, a nation of Germany, now _Marpurg_, in Hesse. The _Mattiacæ
aquæ_ was a small town, now _Wisbaden_, opposite Mentz. _Tacitus_,
_Germania_, ch. 29; _Annals_, bk. 1, ch. 56.
=Mātūta=, a deity among the Romans, the same as the Leucothoe of the
Greeks. She was originally Ino, who was changed into a sea deity
[_See:_ Ino and Leucothoe], and she was worshipped by sailors as such,
at Corinth, in a temple sacred to Neptune. Only married women and
freeborn matrons were permitted to enter her temples at Rome, where
they generally brought the children of their relations in their arms.
_Livy_, bk. 5, &c.――_Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 3, li. 19.
=Mavors=, a name of Mars. _See:_ Mars.
=Mavortia=, an epithet applied to every country whose inhabitants were
warlike, but especially to Rome, founded by the reputed son of Mavors.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 280, and to Thrace, _Æneid_, bk. 3,
li. 13.
=Mauri=, the inhabitants of Mauritania. This name is derived from their
black complexion (μαυροι). Everything among them grew in greater
abundance and greater perfection than in other countries. _Strabo_,
bk. 17.――_Martial_, bk. 5, ltr. 29; bk. 12, ltr. 67.――_Silius
Italicus_, bk. 4, li. 569; bk. 10, li. 402.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 5;
bk. 3, ch. 10.――_Justin_, bk. 19, ch. 2.――_Sallust_, _Jugurthine War_.
――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 4, li. 206.
=Mauritānia=, a country on the western part of Africa, which forms the
modern kingdom of _Fez_ and _Morocco_. It was bounded on the west by
the Atlantic, south by Gætulia, and north by the Mediterranean, and
is sometimes called _Maurusia_. It became a Roman province in the
reign of the emperor Claudius. _See:_ Mauri.
=Maurus=, a man who flourished in the reign of Trajan, or, according to
others, of the Antonini. He was governor of Syene, in Upper Egypt. He
wrote a Latin poem upon the rules of poetry and versification.
=Maurūsii=, the people of Maurusia, a country near the columns of
Hercules. It is also called Mauritania. _See:_ Mauritania. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 4, li. 206.
=Mausōlus=, a king of Caria. His wife Artemisia was so disconsolate
at his death, which happened B.C. 353, that she drank up his ashes,
and resolved to erect one of the grandest and noblest monuments of
antiquity, to celebrate the memory of a husband whom she tenderly
loved. This famous monument, which passed for one of the seven
wonders of the world, was called _Mausoleum_, and from it all other
magnificent sepulchres and tombs have received the same name. It was
built by four different architects. Scopas erected the side which
faced the east, Timotheus had the south, Leochares had the west, and
Bruxis the north. Pithis was also employed in raising a pyramid over
this stately monument, and the top was adorned by a chariot drawn by
four horses. The expenses of this edifice were immense, and this gave
an occasion to the philosopher Anaxagoras to exclaim, when he saw it,
“How much money changed into stones!” _See:_ Artemisia. _Herodotus_,
bk. 7, ch. 99.――_Strabo_, bk. 14.――_Diodorus_, bk. 16.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 8, ch. 16.――_Florus_, bk. 4, ch. 11.――_Aulus Gellius_, bk. 10, ch.
18.――_Propertius_, bk. 3, poem 2, li. 21.――_Suetonius_, _Augustus_,
ch. 100.
=Maxentius Marcus Aurelius Valerius=, a son of the emperor Maximianus
Hercules. Some suppose him to have been a supposititious child. The
voluntary abdication of Diocletian, and of his father, raised him in
the state, and he declared himself independent emperor, or Augustus,
A.D. 306. He afterwards incited his father to reassume his imperial
authority, and in a perfidious manner destroyed Severus, who had
delivered himself into his hands and relied upon his honour for
the safety of his life. His victories and successes were impeded
by Galerius Maximianus, who opposed him with a powerful force. The
defeat and voluntary death of Galerius soon restored peace to Italy,
and Maxentius passed into Africa, where he rendered himself odious
by his cruelty and oppression. He soon after returned to Rome, and
was informed that Constantine was come to dethrone him. He gave his
adversary battle near Rome, and, after he had lost the victory, he
fled back to the city. The bridge over which he crossed the Tiber
was in a decayed state, and he fell into the river and was drowned,
on the 24th of September, A.D. 317. The cowardice and luxuries of
Maxentius are as conspicuous as his cruelties. He oppressed his
subjects with heavy taxes to gratify the cravings of his pleasures,
or the avarice of his favourites. He was debauched in his manners,
and neither virtue nor innocence were safe whenever he was inclined
to voluptuous pursuits. He was naturally deformed, and of an unwieldy
body. To visit a pleasure ground, or to exercise himself under a
marble portico, or to walk on a shady terrace, was to him a Herculean
labour, which required the greatest exertions of strength and
resolution.
=Cornelius Maximiliāna=, a vestal virgin, buried alive for incontinency,
A.D. 92.
=Maximiānus Herculius Marcus Aurelius Valerius=, a native of Sirmium,
in Pannonia, who served as a common soldier in the Roman armies. When
Diocletian had been raised to the imperial throne, he remembered the
valour and courage of his fellow-soldier Maximianus, and rewarded
his fidelity by making him his colleague in the empire, and by ceding
to him the command of the provinces of Italy, Africa, and Spain,
and the rest of the western territories of Rome. Maximianus showed
the justness of the choice of Diocletian by his victories over the
barbarians. In Britain success did not attend his arms; but in Africa
he defeated and put to death Aurelius Julianus, who had proclaimed
himself emperor. Soon after Diocletian abdicated the imperial purple,
and obliged Maximianus to follow his example on the 1st of April,
A.D. 304. Maximianus reluctantly complied with the command of a
man to whom he owed his greatness, but before the first year of his
resignation had elapsed, he was roused from his indolence and retreat
by the ambition of his son Maxentius. He reassumed the imperial
dignity, and showed his ingratitude to his son by wishing him to
resign the sovereignty, and to sink into a private person. This
proposal was not only rejected with the contempt which it deserved,
but the troops mutinied against Maximianus, and he fled for safety
to Gaul, to the court of Constantine, to whom he gave his daughter
Faustina in marriage. Here he again acted a conspicuous character,
and reassumed the imperial power, which his misfortunes had obliged
him to relinquish. This offended Constantine. But, when open violence
seemed to frustrate the ambitious views of Maximianus, he had
recourse to artifice. He prevailed upon his daughter Faustina
to leave the doors of her chamber open in the dead of night; and
when she promised faithfully to execute his commands, he secretly
introduced himself to her bed, where he stabbed to the heart the
man who slept by the side of his daughter. This was not Constantine;
Faustina, faithful to her husband, had apprised him of her father’s
machinations, and a eunuch had been placed in his bed. Constantine
watched the motions of his father-in-law, and when he heard the
fatal blow given to the eunuch, he rushed in with a band of soldiers,
and secured the assassin. Constantine resolved to destroy a man
who was so inimical to his nearest relations, and nothing was left
to Maximianus but to choose his own death. He strangled himself at
Marseilles, A.D. 310, in the 60th year of his age. His body was found
fresh and entire in a leaden coffin about the middle of the 11th
century.――――Galerius Valerius, a native of Dacia, who, in the first
years of his life, was employed in keeping his father’s flocks. He
entered the army, where his valour and bodily strength recommended
him to the notice of his superiors, and particularly to Diocletian,
who invested him with the imperial purple in the east, and gave him
his daughter Valeria in marriage. Galerius deserved the confidence
of his benefactor. He conquered the Goths and Dalmatians, and checked
the insolence of the Persians. In a battle, however, with the king
of Persia, Galerius was defeated; and, to complete his ignominy,
and render him more sensible of his disgrace, Diocletian obliged
him to walk behind his chariot arrayed in his imperial robes. This
humiliation stung Galerius to the quick; he assembled another army,
and gave battle to the Persians. He gained a complete victory,
and took the wives and children of his enemy. This success elated
Galerius to such a degree, that he claimed the most dignified
appellations, and ordered himself to be called the son of Mars.
Diocletian himself dreaded his power, and even, it is said, abdicated
the imperial dignity by means of his threats. This resignation,
however, is attributed by some to a voluntary act of the mind, and to
a desire of enjoying solitude and retirement. As soon as Diocletian
had abdicated, Galerius was proclaimed Augustus, A.D. 304, but his
cruelty soon rendered him odious, and the Roman people, offended
at his oppression, raised Maxentius to the imperial dignity the
following year, and Galerius was obliged to yield to the torrent of
his unpopularity, and to fly before his more fortunate adversary.
He died in the greatest agonies, A.D. 311. The bodily pains and
sufferings which preceded his death were, according to the christian
writers, the effects of the vengeance of an offended providence for
the cruelty which he had exercised against the followers of Christ.
In his character Galerius was wanton and tyrannical, and he often
feasted his eyes with the sight of dying wretches, whom his barbarity
had delivered to bears and other wild beasts. His aversion to learned
men arose from his ignorance of letters; and, if he was deprived
of the benefits of education, he proved the more cruel and the
more inexorable. _Lactantius_, _de Mortibus Persecutorum_, ch. 33.
――_Eusebius_, bk. 8, ch. 16.
=Maximīnus Caius Julius Verus=, the son of a peasant in Thrace. He
was originally a shepherd, and, by heading his countrymen against
the frequent attacks of the neighbouring barbarians and robbers,
he inured himself to the labours and to the fatigues of a camp.
He entered the Roman armies, where he gradually rose to the first
offices; and on the death of Alexander Severus he caused himself to
be proclaimed emperor, A. D. 235. The popularity which he had gained
when general of the armies, was at an end when he ascended the throne.
He was delighted with acts of the greatest barbarity, and no less
than 400 persons lost their lives on the false suspicion of having
conspired against the emperor’s life. They died in the greatest
torments, and, that the tyrant might the better entertain himself
with their sufferings, some were exposed to wild beasts, others
expired by blows, some were nailed on crosses, while others were shut
up in the bellies of animals just killed. The noblest of the Roman
citizens were the objects of his cruelty; and, as if they were more
conscious than others of his mean origin, he resolved to spare no
means to remove from his presence a number of men whom he looked
upon with an eye of envy, and who, as he imagined, hated him for his
oppression, and despised him for the poverty and obscurity of his
early years. Such is the character of the suspicious and tyrannical
Maximinus. In his military capacity he acted with the same ferocity;
and, in an expedition in Germany, he not only cut down the corn, but
he totally ruined and set fire to the whole country, to the extent of
450 miles. Such a monster of tyranny at last provoked the people of
Rome. The Gordians were proclaimed emperors, but their innocence and
pacific virtues were unable to resist the fury of Maximinus. After
their fall, the Roman senate invested 20 men of their number with
the imperial dignity and entrusted into their hands the care of the
republic. These measures so highly irritated Maximinus, that at the
first intelligence, he howled like a wild beast, and almost destroyed
himself by knocking his head against the walls of his palace. When
his fury was abated he marched to Rome, resolved on slaughter.
His bloody machinations were stopped, and his soldiers, ashamed of
accompanying a tyrant whose cruelties had procured him the name of
Busiris, Cyclops, and Phalaris, assassinated him in his tent before
the walls of Aquileia, A.D. 236, in the 65th year of his age. The
news of his death was received with the greatest rejoicings at Rome;
public thanksgivings were offered, and whole hecatombs flamed on
the altars. Maximinus has been represented by historians as of a
gigantic stature; he was eight feet high, and the bracelets of his
wife served as rings to adorn the fingers of his hand. His voracity
was as remarkable as his corpulence; he generally ate 40 pounds
of flesh every day, and drank 18 bottles of wine. His strength was
proportionable to his gigantic shape; he could alone draw a loaded
waggon, and, with a blow of his fist, he often broke the teeth in a
horse’s mouth; he also broke the hardest stones between his fingers,
and cleft trees with his hand. _Herodian._――_Jornandes_, _Getica_.
――_Capitol._ Maximinus made his son, of the same name, emperor,
as soon as he was invested with the purple, and his choice was
unanimously approved by the senate, by the people, and by the army.
――――Galerius Valerius, a shepherd of Thrace, who was raised to the
imperial dignity by Diocletian, A.D. 305. He was nephew to Galerius
Maximianus, by his mother’s side, and to him he was indebted for his
rise and consequence in the Roman armies. As Maximinus was ambitious
and fond of power, he looked with an eye of jealousy upon those who
shared the dignity of emperor with himself. He declared war against
Licinius, his colleague on the throne, but a defeat, which soon
after followed, on the 30th of April, A.D. 313, between Heraclea
and Adrianopolis, left him without resources and without friends.
His victorious enemy pursued him, and he fled beyond mount Taurus,
forsaken and almost unknown. He attempted to put an end to his
miserable existence, but his efforts were ineffectual, and though
his death is attributed by some to despair, it is more universally
believed that he expired in the greatest agonies of a dreadful
distemper, which consumed him, day and night, with inexpressible
pains, and reduced him to a mere skeleton. This miserable end,
according to the ecclesiastical writers, was the visible punishment
of heaven, for the barbarities which Maximinus had exercised against
the followers of christianity, and for the many blasphemies which he
had uttered. _Lactantius._――_Eusebius._――――A minister of the emperor
Valerian.――――One of the ambassadors of young Theodosius to Attila
king of the Huns.
=Maxĭmus Magnus=, a native of Spain, who proclaimed himself emperor,
A.D. 383. The unpopularity of Gratian favoured his usurpation, and
he was acknowledged by his troops. Gratian marched against him, but
he was defeated, and soon after assassinated. Maximus refused the
honours of a burial to the remains of Gratian; and, when he had
made himself master of Britain, Gaul, and Spain, he sent ambassadors
into the east, and demanded of the emperor Theodosius to acknowledge
him as his associate on the throne. Theodosius endeavoured to amuse
and delay him, but Maximus resolved to support his claim by arms,
and crossed the Alps. Italy was laid desolate, and Rome opened her
gates to the conqueror. Theodosius now determined to revenge the
audaciousness of Maximus, and had recourse to artifice. He began
to make a naval armament, and Maximus, not to appear inferior to
his adversary, had already embarked his troops, when Theodosius,
by secret and hastened marches, fell upon him, and besieged him at
Aquileia. Maximus was betrayed by his soldiers, and the conqueror,
moved with compassion at the sight of his fallen and dejected enemy,
granted him life, but the multitude refused him mercy, and instantly
struck off his head, A.D. 388. His son Victor, who shared the
imperial dignity with him, was soon after sacrificed to the fury
of the soldiers.――――Petronius, a Roman, descended of an illustrious
family. He caused Valentinian III. to be assassinated, and ascended
the throne; and, to strengthen his usurpation, he married the empress,
to whom he had the weakness and imprudence to betray that he had
sacrificed her husband to his love for her person. This declaration
irritated the empress; she had recourse to the barbarians to avenge
the death of Valentinian, and Maximus was stoned to death by his
soldiers, and his body thrown into the Tiber, A.D. 455. He reigned
only 77 days.――――Pupianus. _See:_ ♦Pupianus.――――A celebrated cynic
philosopher and magician of Ephesus. He instructed the emperor Julian
in magic; and according to the opinion of some historians, it was in
the conversation and company of Maximus that the apostacy of Julian
originated. The emperor not only visited the philosopher, but he even
submitted his writings to his inspection and censure. Maximus refused
to live in the court of Julian, and the emperor, not dissatisfied
with the refusal, appointed him high pontiff in the province of
Lydia, an office which he discharged with the greatest moderation and
justice. When Julian went into the east, the philosopher promised him
success, and even said that his conquests would be more numerous and
extensive than those of the son of Philip. He persuaded his imperial
pupil that, according to the doctrine of metempsychosis, his body
was animated by the soul which once animated the hero whose greatness
and victories he was going to eclipse. After the death of Julian,
Maximus was almost sacrificed to the fury of the soldiers, but
the interposition of his friends saved his life, and he retired to
Constantinople. He was soon after accused of magical practices before
the emperor Valens, and beheaded at Ephesus, A.D. 366. He wrote some
philosophical and rhetorical treatises, some of which were dedicated
to Julian. They are all now lost. _Ammianus._――――Tyrius, a Platonic
philosopher in the reign of Marcus Aurelius. This emperor, who was
naturally fond of study, became one of the pupils of Maximus, and
paid great deference to his instructions. There are extant of Maximus
41 dissertations on moral and philosophical subjects, written in
Greek, the best editions of which are that of Davis, 8vo, Cambridge,
1703; and that of Reiske, 2 vols., 8vo, Lipscomb, 1774.――――One of
the Greek fathers of the seventh century, whose works were edited
by Combesis, 2 vols., folio, Paris, 1675.――――Paulus Fabius, a consul
with Marcus Antony’s son. Horace speaks of him, bk. 4, ode 1, li. 10,
as of a gay, handsome youth, fond of pleasure, yet industrious
and indefatigable.――――An epithet applied to Jupiter, as being the
greatest and most powerful of all the gods.――――A native of Sirmium,
in Pannonia. He was originally a gardener, but, by enlisting in the
Roman army, he became one of the military tribunes, and his marriage
with a woman of rank and opulence soon rendered him independent. He
was father to the emperor Probus.――――A general of Trajan, killed in
the eastern provinces.――――One of the murderers of Domitian, &c.――――A
philosopher, native of Byzantium, in the age of Julian the emperor.
♦ Reference not found.
=Mazăca=, a large city of Cappadocia, the capital of the province. It
was called Cæsarea by Tiberius, in honour of Augustus.
=Mazāces=, a Persian governor of Memphis. He made a sally against the
Grecian soldiers of Alexander, and killed great numbers of them.
_Curtius_, bk. 4, ch. 1.
=Mazæus=, a satrap of Cilicia, under Artaxerxes Ochus.――――A governor
of Babylon, son-in-law to Darius. He surrendered to Alexander, &c.
_Curtius_, bk. 5, ch. 1.
=Mazāres=, a satrap of Media, who reduced Priene under the power of
Cyrus. _Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 161.
=Mazaxes= (singular, Mazax), a people of Africa, famous for shooting
arrows. _Lucan_, bk. 4, li. 681.
=Mazĕras=, a river of Hyrcania, falling into the Caspian sea.
_Plutarch._
=Mazīces= and =Mazȳges=, a people of Libya, very expert in the use of
missile weapons. The Romans made use of them as couriers, on account
of their great swiftness. _Suetonius_, _Nero_, ch. 30.――_Lucan_,
bk. 4, li. 684.
=Mecænas=, or =Mecœnas Caius ♦Cilnius=, a celebrated Roman knight,
descended from the kings of Etruria. He has rendered himself immortal
by his liberal patronage of learned men and of letters; and to his
prudence and advice Augustus acknowledged himself indebted for the
security which he enjoyed. His fondness for pleasure removed him
from the reach of ambition, and he preferred to die, as he was born,
a Roman knight, to all the honours and dignities which either the
friendship of Augustus or his own popularity could heap upon him. It
was from the result of his advice, against the opinion of Agrippa,
that Augustus resolved to keep the supreme power in his hands, and
not by a voluntary resignation to plunge Rome into civil commotions.
The emperor received the private admonitions of Mecœnas in the
same friendly manner as they were given, and he was not displeased
with the liberty of his friend, who threw a paper to him with these
words, “Descend from the tribunal, thou butcher!” while he sat in the
judgment-seat, and betrayed revenge and impatience in his countenance.
He was struck with the admonition, and left the tribunal without
passing sentence of death on the criminals. To the interference of
Mecœnas, Virgil owed the restitution of his lands, and Horace was
proud to boast that his learned friend had obtained his forgiveness
from the emperor, for joining the cause of Brutus at the battle of
Philippi. Mecœnas was himself fond of literature, and, according to
the most received opinion, he wrote a history of animals, a journal
of the life of Augustus, a treatise on the different natures and
kinds of precious stones, besides the two tragedies of Octavia and
Prometheus, and other things, all now lost. He died eight years
before Christ; and, on his death-bed, he particularly recommended his
poetical friend Horace to the care and confidence of Augustus. Seneca,
who has liberally commended the genius and abilities of Mecœnas,
has not withheld his censure from his dissipation, indolence, and
effeminate luxury. From the patronage and encouragement which the
princes of heroic and lyric poetry among the Latins received from
the favourite of Augustus, all patrons of literature have ever since
been called _Mecœnates_. Virgil dedicated to him his Georgics, and
Horace his odes. _Suetonius_, _Augustus_, ch. 66, &c.――_Plutarch_,
_Augustus_.――_Herodian_, bk. 7.――_Seneca_, ltrs. 19 & 92.
♦ ‘Cilnus’ replaced with ‘Cilnius’
=Mechaneus=, a surname of Jupiter, from his patronizing undertakings.
He had a statue near the temple of Ceres at Argos, and there the
people swore, before they went to the Trojan war, either to conquer
or to perish. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 22.
=Mecisteus=, son of Echius, or Talaus, was one of the companions of
Ajax. He was killed by Polydamus. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 6, li. 28,
&c.――――A son of Lycaon. _Apollodorus._
=Mecrida=, the wife of Lysimachus. _Polyænus_, bk. 6.
=Mēdēa=, a celebrated magician, daughter of Æetes king of Colchis.
Her mother’s name, according to the more received opinion of Hesiod
and Hyginus, was Idyia, or, according to others, Ephyre, Hecate,
Asterodia, Antiope, or Neræa. She was the niece of Circe. When Jason
came to Colchis in quest of the golden fleece, Medea became enamoured
of him, and it was to her well-directed labours that the Argonauts
owed their preservation. _See:_ Jason and Argonautæ. Medea had an
interview with her lover in the temple of Hecate, where they bound
themselves by the most solemn oaths, and mutually promised eternal
fidelity. No sooner had Jason overcome all the difficulties which
Æetes had placed in his way, than Medea embarked with the conquerors
for Greece. To stop the pursuit of her father, she tore to pieces
her brother Absyrtus, and left his mangled limbs in the way through
which Æetes was to pass. This act of barbarity some have attributed
to Jason, and not to her. When Jason reached Iolchos, his native
country, the return and victories of the Argonauts were celebrated
with universal rejoicings; but Æson the father of Jason was unable
to assist at the solemnity, on account of the infirmities of his age.
Medea, at her husband’s request, removed the weakness of Æson, and
by drawing away the blood from his veins, and filling them again
with the juice of certain herbs, she restored to him the vigour
and sprightliness of youth. This sudden change in Æson astonished
the inhabitants of Iolchos, and the daughters of Pelias were also
desirous to see their father restored, by the same power, to the
vigour of youth. Medea, willing to revenge the injuries which her
husband’s family had suffered from Pelias, increased their curiosity,
and by cutting to pieces an old ram and making it again, in their
presence, a young lamb, she totally determined them to try the same
experiment upon their father’s body. They accordingly killed him
of their own accord, and boiled his flesh in a cauldron; but Medea
refused to perform the same friendly offices to Pelias which she had
done to Æson, and he was consumed by the heat of the fire, and even
deprived of a burial. This action greatly irritated the people of
Iolchos, and Medea, with her husband, fled to Corinth to avoid the
resentment of an offended populace. Here they lived for 10 years
with much conjugal tenderness; but the love of Jason for Glauce, the
king’s daughter, soon interrupted their mutual harmony, and Medea was
divorced. Medea revenged the infidelity of Jason by causing the death
of Glauce, and the destruction of her family. _See:_ Glauce. This
action was followed by another still more atrocious. Medea killed two
of her children in their father’s presence, and when Jason attempted
to punish the barbarity of the mother, she fled through the air upon
a chariot drawn by winged dragons. From Corinth Medea came to Athens,
where, after she had undergone the necessary purification of her
murder, she married king Ægeus, or, according to others, lived in an
adulterous manner with him. From her connection with Ægeus, Medea had
a son, who was called Medus. Soon after, when Theseus wished to make
himself known to his father [_See:_ Ægeus], Medea, jealous of his
fame, and fearful of his power, attempted to poison him at a feast
which had been prepared for his entertainment. Her attempts, however,
failed of success, and the sight of the sword which Theseus wore by
his side, convinced Ægeus that the stranger against whose life he
had so basely conspired was no less than his own son. The father and
the son were reconciled, and Medea, to avoid the punishment which
her wickedness deserved, mounted her fiery chariot, and disappeared
through the air. She came to Colchis, where, according to some, she
was reconciled to Jason, who had sought her in her native country
after her sudden departure from Corinth. She died at Colchis, as
Justin mentions, when she had been restored to the confidence of
her family. After death she married Achilles in the Elysian fields,
according to the traditions mentioned by Simonides. The murder of
Mermerus and Pheres, the youngest of Jason’s children by Medea,
is not attributed to their mother according to Ælian, but the
Corinthians themselves assassinated them in the temple of Juno Acræa.
To avoid the resentment of the gods, and deliver themselves from the
pestilence which visited their country after so horrid a massacre,
they engaged the poet Euripides, for five talents, to write a tragedy,
which cleared them of the murder, and represented Medea as the cruel
assassin of her own children. And besides, that this opinion might
be the better credited, festivals were appointed, in which the mother
was represented with all the barbarity of a fury murdering her own
sons. _See:_ Heræa. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9.――_Hyginus_, fables
21, 22, 23, &c.――_Plutarch_, _Theseus_.――_Dionysius Periegetes._
――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 5, ch. 21.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch.
3; bk. 8, ch. 11.――_Euripides_, _Medea_.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4. ――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, fable 1; _Medicamina Faciei Femineæ_.
――_Strabo_, bk. 7.――_Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 3, ch. 19.
――_Apollonius_, _Argonautica_, bk. 3, &c.――_Orpheus._――_Flaccus._
――_Lucan_, bk. 4, li. 556.
=Medesicaste=, a daughter of Priam, who married Imbrius son of Mentor,
who was killed by Teucer during the Trojan war. _Homer_, _Iliad_,
bk. 13, ch. 172.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3.
=Media=, a celebrated country of Asia, bounded on the north by the
Caspian sea, west by Armenia, south by Persia, and east by Parthia
and Hyrcania. It was originally called _Aria_, till the age of Medus
the son of Medea, who gave it the name of Media. The province of
Media was first raised into a kingdom by its revolt from the Assyrian
monarchy, B.C. 820; and after it had for some time enjoyed a kind of
republican government, Deioces, by his artifice, procured himself to
be called king, 700 B.C. After a reign of 53 years he was succeeded
by Phraortes, B.C. 647; who was succeeded by Cyaxares, B.C. 625. His
successor was Astyages, B.C. 585, in whose reign Cyrus became master
of Media, B.C. 551; and ever after the empire was transferred to the
Persians. The Medes were warlike in the primitive ages of their power;
they encouraged polygamy, and were remarkable for the homage which
they paid to their sovereigns, who were styled kings of kings. This
title was afterwards adopted by their conquerors the Persians, and it
was still in use in the age of the Roman emperors. _Justin_, bk. 1,
ch. 5.――_Herodotus_, bk. 1, &c.――_Polybius_, bks. 5 & 10.――_Curtius_,
bk. 5, &c.――_Diodorus Siculus_, bk. 13.――_Ctesias._
=Medias=, a tyrant of Mysia, &c.
=Medĭcus=, a prince of Larissa, in Thessaly, who made war against
Lycophron tyrant of Pheræ. _Diodorus_, bk. 14.
=Mediolānum=, now _Milan_, the capital of Insubria at the mouth of the
Po. _Livy_, bk. 5, ch. 34; bk. 34, ch. 46.――――Aulercorum, a town of
Gaul, now _Evreux_, in Normandy.――――Santŏnum, another, now _Saintes_,
in Guienne.
=Mediomatrices=, a nation that lived on the borders of the Rhine, now
_Metz_. _Strabo_, bk. 4.――_Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 4, ch. 10.
=Mediterraneum mare=, a sea which divides Europe and Asia Minor from
Africa. It receives its name from its situation, _medio terræ_,
situate in _the middle of the land_. It has a communication with the
Atlantic by the columns of Hercules, and with the Euxine through the
Ægean. The word Mediterraneum does not occur in the classics; but it
is sometimes called _internum_, _nostrum_, or _medius liquor_, and
is frequently denominated in Scripture the _Great_ sea. The first
naval power that ever obtained the command of it, as recorded in
the fabulous epochs of the writer Castor, was Crete, under Minos.
Afterwards it passed into the hands of the Lydians, B.C. 1179; of the
Pelasgi, 1058; of the Thracians, 1000; of the Rhodians, 916; of the
Phrygians, 893; of the Cyprians, 868; of the Phœnicians, 826; of the
Egyptians, 787; of the Milesians, 753; of the Carians, 734; and of
the Lesbians, 676, which they retained for 69 years. _Horace_, bk. 3,
ode 3, li. 46.――_Pliny_, bk. 2, ch. 668.――_Sallust_, _Jugurthine War_,
ch. 17.――_Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 5, ch. 1.――_Livy_, bk. 26, ch. 42.
=Meditrīna=, the goddess of medicines, whose festivals, called
_Meditrinalia_, were celebrated at Rome the last day of September,
when they made offerings of fruits. _Varro_, _de Lingua Latina_,
bk. 5, ch. 3.
=Medoacus=, or =Meduacus=, a river in the country of the Veneti, falling
into the Adriatic sea. _Livy_, bk. 10, ch. 2.
=Medobithyni=, a people of Thrace.
=Medobriga=, a town of Lusitania, now destroyed. _Hirtius_, ch. 48.
=Medon=, son of Codrus, the seventeenth and last king of Athens, was
the first Archon that was appointed with regal authority, B.C. 1070.
In the election Medon was preferred to his brother Neleus, by the
oracle of Delphi, and he rendered himself popular by the justice and
moderation of his administration. His successors were called from him
_Medontidæ_, and the office of archon remained for above 200 years in
the family of Codrus under 12 perpetual archons. _Pausanias_, bk. 7,
ch. 2.――_Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 2.――――A man killed in the Trojan war.
Æneas saw him in the infernal regions. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li.
483.――――A statuary of Lacedæmon, who made a famous statue of Minerva,
seen in the temple of Juno at Olympia. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 17.
――――One of the Centaurs, &c. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12, li. 303.
――――One of the Tyrrhene sailors changed into dolphins by Bacchus.
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 3, li. 671.――――A river of Peloponnesus.
――――An illegitimate son of Ajax Oileus. _Homer._――――One of Penelope’s
suitors. _Ovid_, _Heroides_, poem 1.――――A man of Cyzicus, killed by
the Argonauts.――――A king of Argos, who died about 990 years B.C.――――A
son of Pylades by Electra. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 16.
=Medontias=, a woman of Abydos, with whom Alcibiades cohabited as with
a wife. She had a daughter, &c. _Lysias._
=Meduacus=, two rivers (_Major_, now _Brenta_, and _Minor_, now
_Bachilione_), falling, near Venice, into the Adriatic sea. _Pliny_,
bk. 3, ch. 16.――_Livy_, bk. 10, ch. 2.
=Meduana=, a river of Gaul, flowing into the Ligeris, now the _Mayne_.
_Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 438.
=Medullīna=, a Roman virgin ravished by her father, &c. _Plutarch_,
_Parallela minora_.――――An infamous courtesan in Juvenal’s age,
satire 6, li. 321.
=Medus=, now _Kur_, a river of Media, falling into the Araxes. Some
take Medus adjectively, as applying to any of the great rivers of
Media. _Strabo_, bk. 15.――_Horace_, bk. 2, ode 9, li. 21.――――A son
of Ægeus and Medea, who gave his name to a country of Asia. Medus,
when arrived to years of maturity, went to seek his mother, whom the
arrival of Theseus in Athens had driven away. _See:_ Medea. He came
to Colchis, where he was seized by his uncle Perses, who usurped the
throne of Æetes, his mother’s father, because the oracle had declared
that Perses should be murdered by one of the grandsons of Æetes.
Medus assumed another name, and called himself Hippotes son of Creon.
Meanwhile Medea arrived in Colchis, disguised in the habit of a
priestess of Diana, and when she heard that one of Creon’s children
was imprisoned, she resolved to hasten the destruction of a person
whose family she detested. To effect this with more certainty, she
told the usurper that Hippotes was really a son of Medea, sent by his
mother to murder him. She begged Perses to give her Hippotes, that
she might sacrifice him to her resentment. Perses consented. Medea
discovered that it was her own son, and she instantly armed him with
the dagger which she had prepared against his life, and ordered him
to stab the usurper. He obeyed, and Medea discovered who he was,
and made her son Medus sit on his grandfather’s throne. _Hesiod_,
_Theogony_.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1.――_Justin_,
bk. 42.――_Seneca_, _Medea_.――_Diodorus._
=Medūsa=, one of the three Gorgons, daughter of Phorcys and Ceto. She
was the only one of the Gorgons who was subject to mortality. She
is celebrated for her personal charms and the beauty of her locks.
Neptune became enamoured of her, and obtained her favours in the
temple of Minerva. This violation of the sanctity of the temple
provoked Minerva, and she changed the beautiful locks of Medusa,
which had inspired Neptune’s love, into serpents. According to
Apollodorus and others, Medusa and her sisters came into the world
with snakes on their heads, instead of hair, with yellow wings and
brazen hands. Their bodies were also covered with impenetrable scales,
and their very looks had the power of killing or turning to stones.
Perseus rendered his name immortal by his conquest of Medusa. He
cut off her head, and the blood that dropped from the wound produced
the innumerable serpents that infest Africa. The conqueror placed
Medusa’s head on the ægis of Minerva, which he had used in his
expedition. The head still retained the same petrifying power as
before, as it was fatally known in the court of Cepheus. _See:_
Andromeda. Some suppose that the Gorgons were a nation of women,
whom Perseus conquered. _See:_ Gorgones. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 4.
――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 4, li. 618.
――_Lucan_, bk. 9, li. 624.――_Apollonius_, bk. 4.――_Hyginus_ fable 151.
――――A daughter of Priam.――――A daughter of Sthenelus. _Apollodorus._
=Megabizi=, certain priests in Diana’s temple at Ephesus. They were all
eunuchs. _Quintilian_, bk. 5, ch. 12.
=Megabyzus=, one of the noble Persians who conspired against the
usurper Smerdis. He was set over an army in Europe by king Darius,
where he took Perinthus and conquered all Thrace. He was greatly
esteemed by his sovereign. _Herodotus_, bk. 3, &c.――――A son of
Zopyrus, satrap to Darius. He conquered Egypt, &c. _Herodotus_,
bk. 3, ch. 160.――――A satrap of Artaxerxes. He revolted from his
king, and defeated two large armies that had been sent against him.
The interference of his friends restored him to the king’s favour,
and he showed his attachment to Artaxerxes by killing a lion which
threatened his life in hunting. This act of affection in Megabyzus
was looked upon with envy by the king. He was discarded and
afterwards reconciled to the monarch by means of his mother. He died
in the 76th year of his age, B.C. 447, greatly regretted. _Ctesias._
=Megăcles=, an Athenian archon, who involved the greatest part of the
Athenians in the sacrilege which was committed in the conspiracy of
Cylon. _Plutarch_, _Solon_.――――A brother of Dion, who assisted his
brother against Dionysius, &c.――――A son of Alcmæon, who revolted
with some Athenians after the departure of Solon from Athens. He was
ejected by Pisistratus.――――A man who exchanged dress with Pyrrhus,
when assisting the Tarentines in Italy. He was killed in that
disguise.――――A native of Messana in Sicily, famous for his inveterate
enmity to Agathocles tyrant of Syracuse.――――A man who destroyed the
leading men of Mitylene, because he had been punished.――――A man who
wrote an account of the lives of illustrious persons.――――The maternal
grandfather of Alcibiades.
=Megaclides=, a peripatetic philosopher in the age of Protagoras.
=Megæra=, one of the furies, daughter of Nox and Acheron. The word is
derived from μεγαιρειν, _invidere, odisse_, and she is represented
as employed by the gods, like her sisters, to punish the crimes of
mankind, by visiting them with diseases, with inward torments, and
with death. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 12, li. 846. _See:_ Eumenides.
=Megăle=, the Greek name of Cybele the mother of the gods, whose
festivals were called Megalesia.
=Megaleas=, a seditious person of Corinth. He was seized for his
treachery to king Philip of Macedonia, upon which he destroyed
himself to avoid punishment.
=Megalesia=, games in honour of Cybele, instituted by the Phrygians,
and introduced at Rome in the second Punic war, when the statue
of the goddess was brought from Pessinus. _Livy_, bk. 29, ch. 14.
――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 4, li. 337.
=Megalia=, a small island of Campania, near Neapolis. _Statius_, bk. 2,
_Sylvæ_, ♦poem 3, li. 80.
♦ omitted from text
=Megalŏpŏlis=, a town of Arcadia in Peloponnesus, built by Epaminondas.
It joined the Achæan league, B.C. 232, and was taken and ruined by
Cleomenes king of Sparta. The inhabitants were called _Megalopolitæ_,
or _Megalopolitani_. _Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 14.
――_Livy_, bk. 28, ch. 8.
=Megamēde=, the wife of Thestius, mother by him of 50 daughters.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 2.
=Meganīra=, the wife of Celeus king of Eleusis in Attica. She was
mother of Triptolemus, to whom Ceres, as she travelled over Attica,
taught agriculture. She received divine honours after death, and she
had an altar raised to her, near the fountain where Ceres had first
been seen when she arrived in Attica. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 39.
――――The wife of Arcas. _Apollodorus._
=Megapenthes=, an illegitimate son of Menelaus, who, after his father’s
return from the Trojan war, was married to a daughter of Alector, a
native of Sparta. His mother’s name was Teridae, a slave of Menelaus.
_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 4.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3.
=Megāra=, a daughter of Creon king of Thebes, given in marriage to
Hercules, because he had delivered the Thebans from the tyranny of
the Orchomenians. _See:_ Erginus. When Hercules went to hell by order
of Eurystheus, violence was offered to Megara by Lycus, a Theban
exile, and she would have yielded to her ravisher had not Hercules
returned that moment and punished him with death. This murder
displeased Juno, and she rendered Hercules so delirious, that he
killed Megara and the three children he had by her, in a fit of
madness, thinking them to be wild beasts. Some say that Megara did
not perish by the hand of her husband, but that he afterwards married
her to his friend Iolas. The names of Megara’s children by Hercules
were Creontiades, Therimachus, and Deicoon. _Hyginus_, fable 82.
――_Seneca_, _Hercules_.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 6.――_Diodorus_,
bk. 4.
=Megāra= (æ, and plural, orum), a city of Achaia, the capital of a
country called _Megaris_, founded about 1131 B.C. It is situate
nearly at an equal distance from Corinth and Athens, on the Sinus
Saronicus. It was built upon two rocks, and is still in being, and
preserves its ancient name. It was called after Megareus the son of
Neptune, who was buried there, or from Megareus, a son of Apollo. It
was originally governed by 12 kings, but became afterwards a republic,
and fell into the hands of the Athenians, from whom it was rescued
by the Heraclidæ. At the battle of Salamis the people of Megara
furnished 20 ships for the defence of Greece, and at Platæa they
had 300 men in the army of Pausanias. There was here a sect of
philosophers called the _Megaric_, who held the world to be eternal.
_Cicero_, _Academica_, bk. 4, ch. 42; _On Oratory_, bk. 3, ch. 17;
_Letters to Atticus_, bk. 1, ltr. 8.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 39.
――_Strabo_, bk. 6.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.――――A town of Sicily,
founded by a colony from Megara in Attica, about 728 years before the
christian era. It was destroyed by Gelon king of Syracuse; and before
the arrival of the Megarean colony it was called _Hybla_. _Strabo_,
♦bk. 6, &c.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 689.
♦ ‘26’ replaced with ‘6’
=Megareus=, the father of Hippomenes, was son of Onchestus. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 10, li. 605.――――A son of Apollo.
=Megāris=, a small country of Achaia, between Phocis on the west and
Attica on the east. Its capital city was called Megara. _See:_ Megara.
_Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 8.――_Mela_, bk. 2, chs. 3 & 7.
=Megarsus=, a town of Sicily,――――of Cilicia.――――A river of India.
=Megasthĕnes=, a Greek historian in the age of Seleucus Nicanor, about
300 years before Christ. He wrote about the oriental nations, and
particularly the Indians. His history is often quoted by the ancients.
What now passes as his composition is spurious.
=Meges=, one of Helen’s suitors, governor of Dulichium and of the
Echinades. He went with 40 ships to the Trojan war. _Homer_, _Iliad_,
bk. 2.
=Megilla=, a native of Locris, remarkable for beauty, and mentioned by
Horace, bk. 1, ode 27, li. 11.
=Megista=, an island of Lycia, with a harbour of the same name. _Livy_,
bk. 37, ch. 22.
=Megistias=, a soothsayer, who told the Spartans that defended
Thermopylæ, that they all should perish, &c. _Herodotus_, bk. 7,
ch. 219, &c.――――A river. _See:_ Mella.
=Mela Pomponius=, a Spaniard, who flourished about the 45th year of the
christian era, and distinguished himself by his geography divided
into three books, and written with elegance, with great perspicuity
and brevity. The best editions of this book, called _De Situ Orbis_,
are those of Gronovius, 8vo, Leiden, 1722, and of Reinhold, 4to, Eton,
1761.
=Melænæ=, a village of Attica. _Statius_, _Thebiad_, bk. 12, li. 619.
=Melampus=, a celebrated soothsayer and physician of Argos, son of
Amythaon and Idomenea, or Dorippe. He lived at Pylos in Peloponnesus.
His servants once killed two large serpents, which had made their
nests at the bottom of a large oak, and Melampus paid so much regard
to these two reptiles, that he raised a burning pile and burned them
upon it. He also took particular care of their young ones, and fed
them with milk. Some time after this the young serpents crept to
Melampus as he slept on the grass near the oak, and, as if sensible
of the favours of their benefactor, they wantonly played around him,
and softly licked his ears. This awoke Melampus, who was astonished
at the sudden change which his senses had undergone. He found
himself acquainted with the chirping of the birds, and with all
their rude notes, as they flew around him. He took advantage of this
supernatural gift, and soon made himself perfect in the knowledge of
futurity, and Apollo also instructed him in the art of medicine. He
had soon after the happiness of curing the daughters of Prœtus, by
giving them hellebore, which from this circumstance has been called
_melampodium_, and as a reward for his trouble he married the eldest
of these princesses. _See:_ Prœtides. The tyranny of his uncle Neleus
king of Pylos obliged him to leave his native country, and Prœtus,
to show himself more sensible of his services, gave him part of
his kingdom, over which he established himself. About this time
the personal charms of Pero the daughter of Neleus had gained
many admirers, but the father promised his daughter only to him
who brought into his hands the oxen of Iphiclus. This condition
displeased many; but Bias, who was also one of her admirers, engaged
his brother Melampus to steal the oxen, and deliver them to him.
Melampus was caught in the attempt and imprisoned, and nothing but
his services as a soothsayer and physician to Iphiclus would have
saved him from death. All this pleaded in favour of Melampus, but
when he had taught the childless Iphiclus how to become a father, he
not only obtained his liberty, but also the oxen, and with them he
compelled Neleus to give Pero in marriage to Bias. A severe distemper,
which had rendered the women of Argos insane, was totally removed by
Melampus, and Anaxagoras, who then sat on the throne, rewarded his
merit by giving him part of his kingdom, where he established himself,
and where his posterity reigned during six successive generations.
He received divine honours after death, and temples were raised
to his memory. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 11, li. 287; bk. 15, li. 225.
――_Herodotus_, bks. 2 & 9.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 2.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 2, ch. 18; bk. 4, ch. 3.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 3, li. 550.
――――The father of Cisseus and Gyas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10.――――A
son of Priam. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3.――――One of Actæon’s dogs. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 3.
=Melampyges=, a surname of Hercules, from the black and hairy appearance
of his back, &c.
=Melanchætes=, one of Actæon’s dogs, so called from his _black hair_.
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 3.
=Melanchlæni=, a people near the Cimmerian Bosphorus.
=Melanchrus=, a tyrant of Lesbos, who died about 612 B.C.
=Melane=, the same as Samothrace.
=Melaneus=, a son of Eurytus, from whom Eretria has been called
Melaneis.――――A centaur. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12.――――One of
Actæon’s dogs. _Metamorphoses_, bk. 3.――――An Æthiopian, killed at the
nuptials of Perseus. _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5.
=Melanida=, a surname of Venus.
=Melanion=, the same as Hippomenes, who married Atalanta, according to
some mythologists. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3.
=Melanippe=, a daughter of Æolus, who had two children by Neptune,
for which her father put out both her eyes, and confined her in a
prison. Her children, who had been exposed and preserved, delivered
her from confinement, and Neptune restored to her her eye-sight. She
afterwards married Metapontus. _Hyginus_, fable 186.――――A nymph who
married Itonus son of Amphictyon, by whom she had Bœotus, who gave
his name to Bœotia. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 1.
=Melanippĭdes=, a Greek poet about 520 years before Christ. His
grandson, of the same name, flourished about 60 years after at the
court of Perdiccas II. of Macedonia. Some fragments of their poetry
are extant.
=Melanippus=, a priest of Apollo at Cyrene, killed by the tyrant
Nicocrates. _Polyænus_, bk. 8.――――A son of Astacus, one of the Theban
chiefs who defended the gates of Thebes against the army of Adrastus
king of Argos. He was opposed by Tydeus, whom he slightly wounded,
and at last was killed by Amphiaraus, who carried his head to Tydeus.
Tydeus, to take revenge of the wound he had received, bit the head
with such barbarity, that he swallowed the brains, and Minerva,
offended with his conduct, took away the herb which she had given
him to cure his wound, and he died. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 8.
――_Aeschylus_, _Seven Against Thebes_.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 18.
――――A son of Mars, who became enamoured of Cometho, a priestess of
Diana Triclaria. He concealed himself in the temple, and ravished his
mistress, for which violation of the sanctity of the place the two
lovers soon after perished by a sudden death, and the country was
visited by a pestilence, which was stopped only after the offering of
a human sacrifice by the direction of the oracle. _Pausanias_, bk. 7,
ch. 19.――――A Trojan, killed by Antilochus in the Trojan war. _Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 15.――――Another, killed by Patroclus.――――Another, killed
by Teucer.――――A son of Agrius.――――Another, son of Priam.――――A son of
Theseus.
=Melanosyri=, a people of Syria.
=Melanthii=, rocks near the island of Samos.
=Melanthius=, a man who wrote a history of Attica.――――A famous painter
of Sicyon. _Pliny_, bk. 35.――――A tragic poet of a very malevolent
disposition in the age of Phocion. _Plutarch._――――A Trojan, killed
by Eurypylus in the Trojan war. _Homer_, _Odyssey_.――――A shepherd in
_Theocritus_, _Idylls_.――――A goat-herd, killed by Telemachus after
the return of Ulysses. _Ovid_, ltr. 1, _Heroides_.――――An elegiac poet.
=Melantho=, a daughter of Proteus, ravished by Neptune under the form
of a dolphin. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 6, li. 12.――――One of
Penelope’s women, sister to Melanthius. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 18,
&c.; _Odyssey_, bk. 18.
=Melanthus=, =Melanthes=, or =Melanthius=, a son of Andropompus,
whose ancestors were kings of Pylos. He was driven from his paternal
kingdom by the Heraclidæ, and came to Athens, where king Thymœtes
resigned the crown to him, provided he fought a battle against
Xanthus, a general of the Bœotians, who made war against him. He
fought and conquered [_See:_ Apaturia], and his family, surnamed
the _Neliadæ_, sat on the throne of Athens, till the age of Codrus.
He succeeded to the crown 1128 years B.C., and reigned 37 years.
_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 18.――――A man of Cyzicus. _Flaccus._――――A
river of European Sarmatia, falling into the Borysthenes. _Ovid_,
_ex Ponto_, bk. 4, ltr. 10, li. 55.
=Melas= (æ), a river of Peloponnesus.――――Of Thrace, at the west of the
Thracian Chersonesus.――――Another in Thessaly,――――in Achaia,――――in
Bœotia,――――in Sicily,――――in Ionia,――――in Cappadocia.――――A son of
Neptune.――――Another, son of Proteus.――――A son of Phryxus, who was
among the Argonauts, and was drowned in that part of the sea which
bore his name. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1.
=Meldæ=, or =Meldorum urbs=, a city of Gaul, now _Meaux_, in Champagne.
=Mĕleāger=, a celebrated hero of antiquity, son of Œneus king of Ætolia,
by Althæa daughter of Thestius. The Parcæ were present at the moment
of his birth, and predicted his future greatness. Clotho said that
he would be brave and courageous, Lachesis foretold his uncommon
strength, and Atropos declared that he should live as long as that
fire-brand, which was on the fire, remained entire and unconsumed.
Althæa no sooner heard this, than she snatched the stick from the
fire, and kept it with the most jealous care, as the life of her
son was destined to depend upon its preservation. The fame of
Meleager increased with his years; he signalized himself in the
Argonautic expedition, and afterwards delivered his country from the
neighbouring inhabitants, who made war against his father, at the
instigation of Diana, whose altars Œneus had neglected. _See:_ Œneus.
No sooner were they destroyed than Diana punished the negligence
of Œneus by a greater calamity. She sent a huge wild boar, which
laid waste all the country, and seemed invincible on account of its
immense size. It became soon a public concern; all the neighbouring
princes assembled to destroy this terrible animal, and nothing
became more famous in mythological history than the hunting of
the Calydonian boar. The princes and chiefs who assembled, and who
are mentioned by mythologists, are Meleager son of Œneus, Idas and
Lynceus sons of Aphareus, Dryas son of Mars, Castor and Pollux sons
of Jupiter and Leda, Pirithous son of Ixion, Theseus son of Ægeus,
Anceus and Cepheus sons of Lycurgus, Admetes son of Pheres, Jason son
of Æson, Peleus and Telamon sons of Æacus, Iphicles son of Amphitryon,
Eurytryon son of Actor, Atalanta daughter of Schœneus, Iolas the
friend of Hercules, the sons of Thestius, Amphiaraus son of Oileus,
Protheus, Cometes, the brothers of Althæa, Hippothous son of Cercyon,
Leucippus, Adrastus, Ceneus, Phileus, Echeon, Lelex, Phœnix son of
Amyntor, Panopeus, Hyleus, Hippasus, Nestor, Menœtius the father of
Patroclus, Amphicides, Laertes the father of Ulysses, and the four
sons of Hippocoon. This troop of armed men attacked the boar with
unusual fury, and it was at last killed by Meleager. The conqueror
gave the skin and the head to Atalanta, who had first wounded
the animal. This partiality to a woman irritated the others, and
particularly Toxeus and Plexippus the brothers of Althæa, and they
endeavoured to rob Atalanta of the honourable present. Meleager
defended a woman, of whom he was enamoured, and killed his uncles
in the attempt. Meantime the news of this celebrated conquest had
already reached Calydon, and Althæa went to the temple of the gods to
return thanks for the victory which her son had gained. As she went
she met the corpses of her brothers that were brought from the chase,
and at this mournful spectacle she filled the whole city with her
lamentations. She was upon this informed that they had been killed
by Meleager, and in the moment of resentment, to revenge the death of
her brothers, she threw into the fire the fatal stick on which her
son’s life depended, and Meleager died as soon as it was consumed.
Homer does not mention the fire-brand, whence some have imagined
that this fable is posterior to that poet’s age. But he says that the
death of Toxeus and Plexippus so irritated Althæa, that she uttered
the most horrible curses and imprecations upon the head of her son.
Meleager married Cleopatra the daughter of Idas and Marpessa, as also
Atalanta, according to some accounts. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 8.
――_Apollonius_, _Argonautica_, bk. 1, li. 997; bk. 3, li. 518.
――_Flaccus_, bks. 1 & 6.――_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 31.――_Hyginus_,
fable 14.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 8.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 9.
――――A general who supported Aridæus when he had been made king, after
the death of his brother Alexander the Great.――――A brother of Ptolemy,
made king of Macedonia B.C. 280 years. He was but two months invested
with the regal authority.――――A Greek poet in the reign of Seleucus,
the last of the Seleucidæ. He was born at Tyre, and died at Cos.
It is to his well-directed labours that we are indebted for the
_Anthologia_, or collection of Greek epigrams, which he selected from
46 of the best and most esteemed poets. The original collection of
Meleager has been greatly altered by succeeding editors. The best
edition of the _Anthologia_ is that of Brunck, in three vols., 4to
and 8vo, Strasbourg, 1772.
=Mĕleāgrĭdes=, the sisters of Meleager, daughters of Œneus and Althæa.
They were so disconsolate at the death of their brother Meleager,
that they refused all aliments, and were, at the point of death,
changed into birds called Meleagrides, whose feathers and eggs, as it
is supposed, are of a different colour. The youngest of the sisters,
Gorge and Dejanira, who had been married, escaped this metamorphosis.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 8.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 8, li. 540.
――_Pliny_, bk. 10, ch. 26.
=Melesander=, an Athenian general, who died B.C. 414.
=Meles= (ētis), a river of Asia Minor, in Ionia, near Smyrna. Some
of the ancients supposed that Homer was born on the banks of that
river, from which circumstance they call him _Melisigènes_, and his
compositions _Meletææ chartæ_. It is even supported that he composed
his poems in a cave near the source of that river. _Strabo_, bk. 12.
――_Statius_, bk. 2, _Sylvæ_, poem 7, li. 34.――_Tibullus_, bk. 4,
poem 1, li. 201.――_Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 5.――――A beautiful Athenian
youth, greatly beloved by Timagoras, whose affections he repaid with
the greatest coldness and indifference. He even ordered Timagoras
to leap down a precipice, from the top of the citadel of Athens,
and Timagoras, not to disoblige him, obeyed, and was killed in the
fall. This token of true friendship and affection had such an effect
upon Meles, that he threw himself down from the place, to atone
by his death for the ingratitude which he had shown to Timagoras.
_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 30.――――A king of Lydia, who succeeded his
father Alyattes, about 747 years before Christ. He was father to
Candaules.
=Melesigĕnes=, or =Melesigĕna=, a name given to Homer. _See:_ Meles.
=Melia=, a daughter of Oceanus, who married Inachus.――――A nymph, &c.
_Apollodorus._――――A daughter of Oceanus, sister to Caanthus. She
became mother of Ismarus and Tenerus by Apollo. Tenerus was endowed
with the gift of prophecy, and the river Ladon in Bœtia assumed the
name of Ismarus. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 10.――――One of the Nereides.
――――A daughter of Agenor.
=Mĕlĭbœa=, a daughter of Oceanus, who married Pelasgus.――――A daughter
of Amphion and Niobe. _Apollodorus._――――A maritime town of Magnesia
in Thessaly, at the foot of mount Ossa, famous for dyeing wool.
The epithet of _Melibœus_ is applied to Philoctetes, because he
reigned there. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 401; bk. 5, li. 251.
――_Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 188.――――Also an island at the mouth of the
Orontes in Syria, whence _Melibœa purpura_. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.
=Melibœus=, a shepherd introduced in Virgil’s eclogues.
=Mĕlĭcerta=, =Melicertes=, or =Melicertus=, a son of Athamas and Ino.
He was saved by his mother from the fury of his father, who prepared
to dash him against the wall as he had done his brother Learchus.
The mother was so terrified that she threw herself into the sea,
with Melicerta in her arms. Neptune had compassion on the misfortunes
of Ino and her son, and changed them both into sea deities. Ino
was called Leucothoe or Matuta, and Melicerta was known among the
Greeks by the name of Palæmon, and among the Latins by that of
Portumnus. Some suppose that the Isthmian games were in honour of
Melicerta. _See:_ Isthmia. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9; bk. 3, ch. 4.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 44.――_Hyginus_, fables 1 & 2.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 4, li. 529, &c.――_Plutarch_ _de Convivium Septem
Sapientium_.
=Meligūnis=, one of the Æolian islands near Sicily.
=Melīna=, a daughter of Thespius, mother of Laomedon by Hercules.
=Melīsa=, a town of Magna Græcia.
=Melissa=, a daughter of Melissus king of Crete, who, with her sister
Amalthæa, fed Jupiter with the milk of goats. She first found out
the means of collecting honey; whence some have imagined that she was
changed into a bee, as her name is the Greek word for that insect.
_Columella._――――One of the Oceanides, who married Inachus, by whom
she had Phoroneus and Ægialus.――――A daughter of Procles, who married
Periander the son of Cypselus, by whom, in her pregnancy, she was
killed with a blow of his foot, by the false accusation of his
concubines. _Diogenes Laërtius._――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 28.――――A
woman of Corinth, who refused to initiate others in the festivals of
Ceres, after she had received admission. She was torn to pieces upon
this disobedience, and the goddess made a swarm of bees rise from her
body.
=Melissus=, a king of Crete, father to Melissa and Amalthæa. _Hyginus_,
_Poetica Astronomica_, bk. 2, ch. 13.――_Lactantius [Placidus]_, bk. 1,
ch. 22.――――An admiral of the Samian fleet, B.C. 441. He was defeated
by Pericles, &c. _Plutarch_, _Pericles_.――――A philosopher of Samos,
who maintained that the world was infinite, immovable, and without
a vacuum. According to his doctrines, no one could advance any
argument upon the power or attributes of Providence, as all human
knowledge was weak and imperfect. Themistocles was among his pupils.
He flourished about 440 years before the christian era. _Diogenes
Laërtius._――――A freedman of Mecænas, appointed librarian to Augustus.
He wrote some comedies. _Ovid_, _ex Ponto_, bk. 4, ltr. 16, li. 30.
――_Suetonius_, _Lives of the Grammarians_.
=Melĭta=, an island in the Libyan sea, between Sicily and Africa, now
called _Malta_. The soil was fertile, and the country famous for its
wool. It was first peopled by the Phœnicians. St. Paul was shipwrecked
there, and cursed all venomous creatures, which now are not to be
found in the whole island. Some, however, suppose that the island
on which the Apostle was shipwrecked, was another island of the same
name in the Adriatic on the coast of Illyricum, now called _Melede_.
Malta is now remarkable as being the residence of the knights of
Malta, formerly of St. John of Jerusalem, settled there A. D. 1530,
by the concession of Charles V., after their expulsion from Rhodes
by the Turks. _Strabo_, bk. 6.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Cicero_,
_Against Verres_, bk. 4, ch. 46.――――Another on the coast of Illyricum,
in the Adriatic, now _Melede_. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 26.――――An ancient
name of Samothrace. _Strabo_, bk. 10.――――One of the Nereides.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 5, li. 825.
=Melitene=, a province of Armenia.
=Melĭtus=, a poet and orator of Athens, who became one of the principal
accusers of Socrates. After his eloquence had prevailed, and Socrates
had been put ignominiously to death, the Athenians repented of their
severity to the philosopher, and condemned his accusers. Melitus
perished among them. His character was mean and insidious, and his
poems had nothing great or sublime. _Diogenes Laërtius._
=Spurius Melius=, a Roman knight accused of aspiring to tyranny, on
account of his uncommon liberality to the populace. He was summoned
to appear by the dictator Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, and when he
refused to obey, he was put to death by Ahala the master of horse,
A.U.C. 314.――_Varro_, _de Lingua Latina_, bk. 4.――_Valerius Maximus_,
bk. 6, ch. 3.
=Melixandrus=, a Milesian, who wrote an account of the wars of the
Lapithæ and Centaurs. _Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 11, ch. 2.
=Mella=, or =Mela=, a small river of Cisalpine Gaul, falling into
the Ollius, and with it into the Po. _Catullus_, poem 68, li. 33.
――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 4, li. 278.
=Mella Annæus=, the father of Lucan. He was accused of being privy
to Piso’s conspiracy against Nero, upon which he opened his veins.
_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 16, ch. 17.
=Melobōsis=, one of the Oceanides.
=Melon=, an astrologer, who feigned madness and burnt his house that he
might not go to an expedition, which he knew would be attended with
great calamities.――――An interpreter of king Darius. _Curtius_, bk. 5,
ch. 13.
=Melos=, now _Milo_, an island between Crete and Peloponnesus, about
24 miles from Scyllæum, about 60 miles in circumference, and of an
oblong figure. It enjoyed its independence for above 700 years before
the time of the Peloponnesian war. This island was originally peopled
by a Lacedæmonian colony, 1116 years before the christian era. From
this reason the inhabitants refused to join the rest of the islands
and the Athenians against the Peloponnesians. This refusal was
severely punished. The Athenians took Melos, and put to the sword
all such as were able to bear arms. The women and children were made
slaves, and the island left desolate. An Athenian colony repeopled
it, till Lysander reconquered it and re-established the original
inhabitants in their possessions. The island produced a kind of earth
successfully employed in painting and medicine. _Strabo_, bk. 7.
――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12; bk. 35, ch. 9.
――_Thucydides_, bk. 2, &c.
=Melpes=, now _Melpa_, a river of Lucania, falling into the Tyrrhene
sea. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 5.
=Melpia=, a village of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 38.
=Melpŏmĕne=, one of the Muses, daughter of Jupiter and Mnemosyne.
She presided over tragedy. Horace has addressed the finest of his
odes to her, as to the patroness of lyric poetry. She was generally
represented as a young woman with a serious countenance. Her garments
were splendid; she wore a buskin, and held a dagger in one hand, and
in the other a sceptre and crowns. _Horace_, bk. 3, ode 4.――_Hesiod_,
_Theogony_.
=Memaceni=, a powerful nation of Asia, &c. _Curtius._
=Memmia Sulpitia=, a woman who married the emperor Alexander Severus.
She died when young.
=Memmia lex=, ordained that no one should be entered on the calendar of
criminals who was absent on the public account.
=Memmius=, a Roman citizen, accused of _ambitus_. _Cicero_, _Letters to
his brother Quintus_, bk. 3.――――A Roman knight, who rendered himself
illustrious for his eloquence and poetical talents. He was made
tribune, pretor, and afterwards governor of Bithynia. He was accused
of extortion in his province, and banished by Julius Cæsar, though
Cicero undertook his defence. Lucretius dedicated his poem to him.
_Cicero_, _Brutus_.――――Regulus, a Roman of whom Nero observed, that
he deserved to be invested with the imperial purple. _Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 14, ch. 47.――――A Roman who accused Jugurtha before
the Roman people.――――A lieutenant of Pompey, &c.――――The family of
the Memmii were plebeians. They were descended, according to some
accounts, from Mnestheus the friend of Æneas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 5, li. 117.
=Memnon=, a king of Æthiopia, son of Tithonus and Aurora. He came with
a body of 10,000 men to assist his uncle Priam, during the Trojan war,
where he behaved with great courage, and killed Antilochus, Nestor’s
son. The aged father challenged the Æthiopian monarch, but Memnon
refused it on account of the venerable age of Nestor, and accepted
that of Achilles. He was killed in the combat, in the sight of the
Grecian and Trojan armies. Aurora was so disconsolate at the death
of her son, that she flew to Jupiter all bathed in tears, and begged
the god to grant her son such honours as might distinguish him from
other mortals. Jupiter consented, and immediately a numerous flight
of birds issued from the burning pile on which the body was laid,
and after they had flown three times round the flames, they divided
themselves into two separate bodies, and fought with such acrimony,
that above half of them fell down into the fire, as victims to
appease the manes of Memnon. These birds were called _Memnonides_;
and it has been observed by some of the ancients, that they never
failed to return yearly to the tomb of Memnon in Troas, and repeat
the same bloody engagement, in honour of the hero, from whom they
received their name. The Æthiopians or Egyptians, over whom Memnon
reigned, erected a celebrated statue to the honour of their monarch.
This statue had the wonderful property of uttering a melodious sound
every day, at sun-rising, like that which is heard at the breaking
of the string of a harp when it is wound up. This was effected by the
rays of the sun when they fell upon it. At the setting of the sun,
and in the night the sound was lugubrious. This is supported by the
testimony of the geographer Strabo, who confesses himself ignorant
whether it proceeded from the basis of the statue, or the people that
were then round it. This celebrated statue was dismantled by order
of Cambyses, when he conquered Egypt, and its ruins still astonish
modern travellers by their grandeur and beauty. Memnon was the
inventor of the alphabet, according to Anticlides, a writer mentioned
by Pliny, bk. 7, ch. 56. _Moschus_, _Epitaphios Bionis_.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 13, li. 578, &c.――_Ælian_, bk. 5, ch. 1.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 42; bk. 10, ch. 31.――_Strabo_, bks. 13
& 17.――_Juvenal_, satire 15, li. 5.――_Philostratus_, on _Apollodorus_.
――_Pliny_, bk. 36, ch. 7.――_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 9.――_Quintus
Calaber [Smyrnæus]._――――A general of the Persian forces, when
Alexander invaded Asia. He distinguished himself for his attachment
to the interest of Darius, his valour in the field, the soundness of
his counsels, and his great sagacity. He defended Milotus against
Alexander, and died in the midst of his successful enterprises, B.C.
333. His wife Barsine was taken prisoner with the wife of Darius.
_Diodorus_, bk. 16.――――A governor of Cœlosyria.――――A man appointed
governor of Thrace by Alexander.――――A man who wrote a history of
Heraclea in Pontus, in the age of Augustus.
=Memphis=, a celebrated town of Egypt, on the western banks of the
Nile, above the Delta. It once contained many beautiful temples,
particularly those of the god Apis (_bos Memphites_), whose worship
was observed with the greatest ceremonies. _See:_ Apis. It was in the
neighbourhood of Memphis that those famous pyramids were built, whose
grandeur and beauty still astonish the modern traveller. These noble
monuments of Egyptian vanity, which pass for one of the wonders of
the world, are about 20 in number, three of which, by their superior
size, particularly claim attention. The largest of these is 481 feet
in height measured perpendicularly, and the area of its basis is
on 480,249 square feet, or something more than 11 English acres of
ground. It has steps all round with massy and polished stones, so
large that the breadth and depth of every step is one single stone.
The smallest stone, according to an ancient historian, is not less
than 30 feet. The number of steps, according to modern observation,
amounts to 208, a number which is not always adhered to by travellers.
The place where Memphis formerly stood is not now known; the ruins
of its fallen grandeur were conveyed to Alexandria to beautify its
palaces, or to adorn the neighbouring cities. _Tibullus_, bk. 1, poem
7, li. 28.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 14, li. 660.――_Strabo_, bk. 17.
――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 9.――_Diodorus_, bk. 1.――_Plutarch_, _De Iside
et Osiride_.――_Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 10, &c.――_Josephus_, _Jewish
Antiquities_, bk. 8.――――A nymph, daughter of the Nile, who married
Ephesus, by whom she had Libya. She gave her name to the celebrated
city of Memphis. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 1.――――The wife of Danaus.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 1.
=Memphītis=, a son of Ptolemy Physcon king of Egypt. He was put to
death by his father.
=Mena=, a goddess worshipped at Rome, and supposed to preside over the
monthly infirmities of women. She was the same as Juno. According
to some, the sacrifices offered to her were young puppies that
still sucked their mother. _Augustine_, _City of God_, bk. 4, ch. 2.
――_Pliny_, bk. 29, ch. 4.
=Mena=, or =Menes=, the first king of Egypt, according to some accounts.
=Menalcas=, a shepherd in Virgil’s eclogues.
=Menalcĭdas=, an intriguing Lacedæmonian in the time of the famous
Achæan league. He was accused before the Romans, and he killed
himself.
=Menalippe=, a sister of Antiope queen of the Amazons, taken by
Hercules when that hero made war against this celebrated nation. She
was ransomed, and Hercules received in exchange the arms and belt of
the queen. _Juvenal_, satire 8, li. 229.――――A daughter of the centaur
Chiron, beloved and ravished by Æolus son of Hellen. She retired into
the woods to hide her disgrace from the eyes of her father, and when
she had brought forth she entreated the gods to remove her totally
from the pursuits of Chiron. She was changed into a mare, and called
Ocyroe. Some suppose that she assumed the name of Menalippe, and lost
that of Ocyroe. She became a constellation after death, called the
horse. Some authors call her Hippe, or Evippe. _Hyginus_, _Poetica
Astronomica_, bk. 2, ch. 18.――_Pollux_, bk. 4.――――Menalippe is a name
common to other persons, but it is generally spelt _Melanippe_ by the
best authors. _See:_ Melanippe.
=Menalippus.= _See:_ Melanippus.
=Menander=, a celebrated comic poet of Athens, educated under
Theophrastus. He was universally esteemed by the Greeks, and received
the appellation of Prince of the New Comedy. He did not disgrace his
compositions, like Aristophanes, by mean and indecent reflections
and illiberal satire, but his writings were replete with elegance,
refined wit, and judicious observations. Of 108 comedies which he
wrote, nothing remains but a few fragments. It is said that Terence
translated all these, and indeed we may have cause to lament the
loss of such valuable writings, when we are told by the ancients
that the elegant Terence, so much admired, was in the opinion of his
countrymen reckoned inferior to Menander. It is said that Menander
drowned himself in the 52nd year of his age, B.C. 293, because
the compositions of his rival Philemon obtained more applause than
his own. Only eight of his numerous comedies were rewarded with
a poetical prize. The name of his father was Diopythus, and that
of his mother Hegistrata. His fragments, with those of Philemon,
were published by Clericus, 8vo, 1709. _Quintilian_, bk. 10, ch. 1.
――_Paterculus_, bk. 1, ch. 16.――――A man who wrote an account of
embassies, &c.――――A king of Bactria, whose ashes were divided among
his subjects, &c.――――An historian of Ephesus.――――Another of Pergamus.
――――An Athenian general defeated at Ægospotamos by Lysander.――――An
Athenian sent to Sicily with Nicias.――――A man put to death by
Alexander for deserting a fortress of which he had the command.――――An
officer under Mithridates, sent against Lucullus.
=Menapii=, a people of Belgic Gaul, near the Mosa. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_.
=Menapis=, a Persian exile, made satrap of Hyrcania by Alexander.
_Curtius_, bk. 6, ch. 4.
=Menas=, a freedman of Pompey the Great, who distinguished himself by
the active and perfidious part which he took in the civil wars which
were kindled between the younger Pompey and Augustus. When Pompey
invited Augustus to his galley, Menas advised his master to seize
the person of his enemy, and at the same time the Roman empire, by
cutting the cables of his ship. “No,” replied Pompey, “I would have
approved of the measure if you had done it without consulting me; but
I scorn to break my word.” _Suetonius_, _Octavius Augustus_. Horace,
epode 4, has ridiculed the pride of Menas, and recalled to his mind
his former meanness and obscurity.
=Menchēres=, the twelfth king of Memphis.
=Mendes=, a city of Egypt, near Lycopolis, on one of the mouths of
the Nile, called the Mendesian mouth. Pan, under the form of a goat,
was worshipped there with the greatest solemnity. It was unlawful to
kill one of these animals, with which the Egyptians were not ashamed
to have public commerce, to the disgrace of human nature, from
the superstitious notion that such embraces had given birth to the
greatest heroes of antiquity, as Alexander, Scipio, &c. _Herodotus_,
bk. 2, chs. 42 & 46.――_Strabo_, bk. 17.――_Diodorus_, bk. 1.
=Menĕcles=, an orator of Alabanda in Caria, who settled at Rhodes.
_Cicero_, _On Oratory_, bk. 2, ch. 53.――_Strabo_, bk. 14.
=Meneclides=, a detractor of the character of Epaminondas. _Cornelius
Nepos_, _Epaminondas_.
=Menecrătes=, a physician of Syracuse, famous for his vanity and
arrogance. He was generally accompanied by some of his patients,
whose disorders he had cured. He disguised one in the habit of Apollo,
and the other in that of Æsculapius, while he reserved for himself
the title and name of Jupiter, whose power was extended over those
inferior deities. He crowned himself like the master of the gods;
and in a letter which he wrote to Philip king of Macedon, he styled
himself in these words, _Menecrates Jupiter to king Philip, greeting_.
The Macedonian monarch answered, _Philip to Menecrates, greeting, and
better sense_. Philip also invited him to one of his feasts, but when
the meats were served up, a table was put separate for the physician,
on which he was served only with perfumes and frankincense, like
the father of the gods. This entertainment displeased Menecrates; he
remembered that he was a mortal, and hurried away from the company.
He lived about 360 years before the christian era. The book which he
wrote on cures is lost. _Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 10, ch. 51.
――_Athenæus_, bk. 7, ch. 13.――――One of the generals of Seleucus.――――A
physician under Tiberius.――――A Greek historian of Nysa, disciple to
Aristarchus, B.C. 119. _Strabo_, bk. 16.――――An Ephesian architect
who wrote on agriculture. _Varro_, _de Re Rustica_.――――An historian.
――――A man appointed to settle the disputes of the Athenians and
Lacedæmonians in the eighth year of the Peloponnesian war. His
father’s name was Amphidorus.――――An officer in the fleet of Pompey
the son of Pompey the Great.
=Menedēmus=, an officer of Alexander, killed by the ♦Dahæ. _Curtius_,
bk. 7, ch. 6.――――A Socratic philosopher of Eretria, who was
originally a tent-maker, an employment which he left for the
profession of arms. The persuasive eloquence and philosophical
lectures of Plato had such an influence over him, that he gave up
his offices in the state to cultivate literature. It is said that he
died through melancholy when Antigonus, one of Alexander’s generals,
had made himself master of his country, B.C. 301, in the 74th year of
his age. Some attribute his death to a different cause, and say that
he was falsely accused of treason, for which he became so desperate
that he died, after he had passed seven days without taking any
aliments. He was called the _Eretrian Bull_, on account of his gravity.
_Strabo_, bk. 9.――_Diogenes Laërtius._――――A cynic philosopher of
Lampsacus, who said that he was come from hell to observe the sins
and wickedness of mankind. His habit was that of the furies, and his
behaviour was a proof of his insanity. He was the disciple of Colotes
of Lampsacus. _Diogenes Laërtius._――――An officer of Lucullus.――――A
philosopher of Athens. _Cicero_, _On Oratory_, bk. 1, ch. 19.
♦ ‘Danæ’ replaced with ‘Dahæ’
=Menegetas=, a boxer or wrestler in Philip of Macedon’s army, &c.
_Polyænus._
=Menĕlāi portus=, a harbour on the coast of Africa, between Cyrene
and Egypt. _Cornelius Nepos_, _Agesilaus_, ch. 8.――_Strabo_,
bk. 1.――――Mons, a hill near Sparta, with a fortification, called
_Menelaium_. _Livy_, bk. 34, ch. 28.
=Mĕnĕlāia=, a festival celebrated at Therapnæ in Laconia, in honour
of Menelaus. He had there a temple, where he was worshipped with his
wife Helen, as one of the supreme gods.
=Mĕnĕlāus=, a king of Sparta, brother to Agamemnon. His father’s name
was Atreus, according to Homer, or, according to the more probable
opinion of Hesiod, Apollodorus, &c., he was the son of Plisthenes and
Ærope. _See:_ Plisthenes. He was educated with his brother Agamemnon
in the house of Atreus, but soon after the death of this monarch,
Thyestes his brother usurped the kingdom, and banished the two
children of Plisthenes. Menelaus and Agamemnon came to the court
of Œneus king of Calydonia, who treated them with tenderness and
paternal care. From Calydonia they went to Sparta, where, like the
rest of the Grecian princes, they solicited the marriage of Helen
the daughter of king Tyndarus. By the artifice and advice of Ulysses,
Helen was permitted to choose a husband, and she fixed her eyes upon
Menelaus, and married him, after her numerous suitors had solemnly
bound themselves by an oath to defend her, and protect her person
against the violence or assault of every intruder. _See:_ Helena. As
soon as the nuptials were celebrated, ♦Tyndarus resigned the crown to
his son-in-law, and their happiness was complete. This was, however,
of short duration; Helen was the fairest woman of the age, and Venus
had promised Paris the son of Priam to reward him with such a beauty.
_See:_ Paris. The arrival of Paris in Sparta was the cause of great
revolutions. The absence of Menelaus in Crete gave opportunities to
the Trojan prince to corrupt the fidelity of Helen, and to carry away
home what the goddess of beauty had promised to him as his due. This
action was highly resented by Menelaus; he reminded the Greek princes
of their oath and solemn engagements when they courted the daughter
of Tyndarus, and immediately all Greece took up arms to defend his
cause. The combined forces assembled at Aulis in Bœotia, where they
chose Agamemnon for their general, and Calchas for their high priest;
and after their applications to the court of Priam for the recovery
of Helen had proved fruitless, they marched to meet their enemies in
the field. During the Trojan war Menelaus behaved with great spirit
and courage, and Paris must have fallen by his hand, had not Venus
interposed and redeemed him from certain death. He also expressed his
wish to engage Hector, but Agamemnon hindered him from fighting so
powerful an adversary. In the tenth year of the Trojan war, Helen,
as it is reported, obtained the forgiveness and the good graces of
Menelaus by introducing him with Ulysses, the night that Troy was
reduced to ashes, into the chamber of Deiphobus, whom she had married
after the death of Paris. This perfidious conduct totally reconciled
her to her first husband; and she returned with him to Sparta, during
a voyage of eight years. He died some time after his return. He had
a daughter called Hermione, and Nicostratus, according to some, by
Helen, and a son called Megapenthes by a concubine. Some say that
Menelaus went to Egypt on his return from the Trojan war to obtain
Helen, who had been detained there by the king of the country. _See:_
Helena. The palace which Menelaus once inhabited was still entire in
the days of Pausanias, as well as the temple which had been raised to
his memory by the people of Sparta. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 4, &c.;
_Iliad_, bk. 1, &c.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 10.――_Pausanias_, bk.
3, chs. 14 & 19.――_Dictys Cretensis_, bk. 2, &c.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 2, &c.――_Quintus Smyrnæus_ bk. 14.――_Ovid_, _Heroides_, poems 5
& 13.――_Hyginus_ fable 79.――_Euripides_, _Iphigeneia_.――_Propertius_,
bk. 2.――_Sophocles._――――A lieutenant of Ptolemy, set over Salamis.
_Polyænus._――_Pausanias._――――A city of Egypt. _Strabo_, bk. 14.――――A
mathematician in the age of the emperor Trajan.
♦ ‘Tyndaros’ replaced with ‘Tyndarus’
=Menēnius Agrippa=, a celebrated Roman who appeased the Roman populace
in the infancy of the consular government by repeating the well-known
fable of the belly and limbs. He flourished 495 B.C. _Livy_, bk. 2,
chs. 16, 32, 33.――――A Roman consul.――――An insane person in the age of
Horace.
=Menĕphron=, a man who attempted to offer violence to his own mother.
He was changed into a wild beast. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 7,
li. 387.
=Mēnes=, the first king of Egypt. He built the town of Memphis, as is
generally supposed, and deserved, by his abilities and popularity,
to be called a god after death. _Herodotus_, bk. 2, chs. 1 & 90.
――_Diodorus_, bk. 1.
=Menesthēi portus=, a town of Hispania ♦Bætica.
♦ ‘Bœtica’ replaced with ‘Bætica’
=Menesteus=, =Menestheus=, or =Mnestheus=, a son of Pereus, who so
insinuated himself into the favour of the people of Athens, that,
during the long absence of Theseus, he was elected king. The lawful
monarch at his return home was expelled, and Mnestheus established
his usurpation by his popularity and great moderation. As he had
been one of Helen’s suitors, he went to the Trojan war at the head of
the people of Athens, and died in his return in the island of Melos.
He reigned 23 years B.C. 1205, and was succeeded by Demophoon the
son of Theseus. _Plutarch_, _Theseus_.――――A son of Iphicrates, who
distinguished himself in the Athenian armies. _Cornelius Nepos_,
_Timoleon_.
=Menesthius=, a Greek killed by Paris in the Trojan war.
=Menetas=, a man set governor over Babylon by Alexander. _Curtius_,
bk. 5, ch. 1.
=Meninx=, or =Lotophagītis insula=, now _Zerbi_, an island on the
coast of Africa, near the Syrtis Minor. It was peopled by the people
of Neritos, and thence called _Neritia_. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 7.
――_Strabo_, bk. 17.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 3, li. 318.
=Menippa=, one of the Amazons who assisted Ætes, &c.
=Menippides=, a son of Hercules. _Apollodorus._
=Menippus=, a cynic philosopher of Phœnicia. He was originally a slave,
and obtained his liberty with a sum of money, and became one of the
greatest usurers at Thebes. He grew so desperate from the continual
reproaches and insults to which he was daily exposed on account of
his meanness, that he destroyed himself. He wrote 13 books of satires,
which have been lost. Marcus Varro composed satires in imitation of
his style, and called them _Menippean_.――――A native of Stratonice,
who was preceptor to Cicero for some time. _Cicero_, _Brutus_, ch. 91.
=Menius=, a plebeian consul at Rome. He was the first who made the
rostrum at Rome with the beaks (_rostra_) of the enemy’s ships.――――A
son of Lycaon, killed by the same thunderbolt which destroyed his
father. _Ovid_, _Ibis_, li. 472.
=Mennis=, a town of Assyria abounding in bitumen. _Curtius_, bk. 5,
ch. 1.
=Menodŏtus=, a physician.――――A Samian historian.
=Menœceus=, a Theban, father of Hipponome, Jocasta, and Creon.――――A
young Theban, son of Creon. He offered himself to death when Tiresias,
to ensure victory on the side of Thebes against the Argive forces,
ordered the Thebans to sacrifice one of the descendants of those who
sprang from the dragon’s teeth, and he killed himself near the cave
where the dragon of Mars had formerly resided. The gods required this
sacrifice because the dragon had been killed by Cadmus, and no sooner
was Creon dead than his countrymen obtained the victory. _Statius_,
_Thebiad_, bk. 10, li. 614.――_Euripides_, _Phœnician Women_.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 6.――_Cicero_, _Tusculanæ Disputationes_,
bk. 1, ch. 98.――_Sophocles_, _Antigone_.
=Menœtes=, the pilot of the ship Gyas, at the naval games exhibited by
Æneas at the anniversary of his father’s death. He was thrown into
the sea by Gyas for his inattention, and saved himself by swimming to
a rock. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 5, li. 161, &c.――――An Arcadian, killed
by Turnus in the wars of Æneas. _Æneid_, bk. 12, li. 517.
=Menœtiades.= _See:_ Menœtius.
=Menœtius=, a son of Actor and Ægina after her amour with Jupiter.
He left his mother and went to Opus, where he had, by Sthenele,
or, according to others, by Philomela or Polymela, Patroclus, often
called from him _Menœtiades_. Menœtius was one of the Argonauts.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 4, ch. 24.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 1, li. 307.
――_Hyginus_, fable 97.
=Menon=, a Thessalian commander in the expedition of Cyrus the younger
against his brother Artaxerxes. He was dismissed on the suspicion
that he had betrayed his fellow-soldiers. _Diodorus_, bk. 14.――――A
Thessalian refused the freedom of Athens, though he furnished a
number of auxiliaries to the people.――――The husband of Semiramis.
――――A sophist in the age of Socrates.――――One of the first kings of
Phrygia. _Dionysius of Halicarnassus._――――A scholar of Phidias, &c.
=Menophĭlus=, a eunuch to whom Mithridates, when conquered by Pompey,
entrusted the care of his daughter. Menophilus murdered the princess
for fear of her falling into the enemy’s hands. _Ammianus_, bk. 16.
=Menta=, or =Minthe=. _See:_ Minthe.
=Mentes=, a king of the Taphians in Ætolia, son of Anchialus, in the
time of the Trojan war.
=Mentissa=, a town of Spain. _Livy_, bk. 26, ch. 17.
=Mento=, a Roman consul, &c.
=Mentor=, a faithful friend of Ulysses.――――A son of Hercules.――――A king
of Sidonia, who revolted against Artaxerxes Ochus, and afterwards was
restored to favour by his treachery to his allies, &c. _Diodorus_,
bk. 16.――――An excellent artist in polishing cups and engraving flowers
on them. _Pliny_, bk. 33, ch. 11.――_Martial_, bk. 9, ltr. 63, ltr. 16.
=Menyllus=, a Macedonian set over the garrison which Antipater had
stationed at Athens. He attempted in vain to corrupt the innocence of
Phocion. _Plutarch._
=Mera=, a priest of Venus. _Statius_, _Thebiad_, bk. 8, li. 478.――――A
dog of Icarius, which by his cries showed Erigone where her murdered
father had been thrown. Immediately after this discovery the daughter
hung herself in despair, and the dog pined away, and was made a
constellation in the heavens known by the name of Canis. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, li. 363.――_Hyginus_, fable 130.――_Ælian_,
_Varia Historia_, bk. 7, ch. 28.
=Mera=, or =Mœra=, one of the Atlantides, who married Tegeates son of
Lycaon. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 48.
=Mercurii promontorium=, a cape of Africa near Clypea. _Livy_, bk. 26,
ch. 44; bk. 29, ch. 27.――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 4.
=Mercŭrius=, a celebrated god of antiquity, called Hermes by the Greeks.
There were no less than five of this name according to Cicero; a son
of Cœlus and Lux; a son of Valens and Coronis; a son of the Nile; a
son of Jupiter and Maia; and another called by the Egyptians Thaut.
Some add a sixth, a son of Bacchus and Proserpine. To the son of
Jupiter and Maia, the actions of all the others have been probably
attributed, as he is the most famous and the best known. Mercury
was the messenger of the gods, and of Jupiter in particular; he was
the patron of travellers and of shepherds; he conducted the souls
of the dead into the infernal regions, and not only presided over
orators, merchants, declaimers, but he was also the god of thieves,
pickpockets, and all dishonest persons. His name is derived _a
mercibus_, because he was the god of merchandise among the Latins.
He was born, according to the more received opinion, in Arcadia, on
mount Cyllene, and in his infancy he was entrusted to the care of the
Seasons. The day that he was born, or more probably the following day,
he gave an early proof of his craftiness and dishonesty, in stealing
away the oxen of Admetus which Apollo tended. He gave another proof
of his thievish propensity, by taking also the quiver and arrows of
the divine shepherd, and he increased his fame by robbing Neptune of
his trident, Venus of her girdle, Mars of his sword, Jupiter of his
sceptre, and Vulcan of many of his mechanical instruments. These
specimens of his art recommended him to the notice of the gods, and
Jupiter took him as his messenger, interpreter, and cup-bearer in
the assembly of the gods. This last office he discharged till the
promotion of Ganymede. He was presented by the king of heaven with
a winged cap called _petasus_, and with wings for his feet called
_talaria_. He had also a short sword called _herpe_, which he lent
to Perseus. With these he was enabled to go into whatever part of the
universe he pleased with the greatest celerity; and besides, he was
permitted to make himself invisible, and to assume whatever shape
he pleased. As messenger of Jupiter he was entrusted with all his
secrets. He was the ambassador and plenipotentiary of the gods, and
he was concerned in all alliances and treaties. He was the confidant
of Jupiter’s amours, and he often was set to watch over the jealousy
and intrigues of Juno. The invention of the lyre and its seven
strings is ascribed to him. This he gave to Apollo, and received in
exchange the celebrated caduceus with which the god of poetry used
to drive the flocks of king Admetus. _See:_ Caduceus. In the wars of
the giants against the gods, Mercury showed himself brave, spirited,
and active. He delivered Mars from the long confinement which he
suffered from the superior power of the Aloides. He purified the
Danaides of the murder of their husbands, he tied Ixion to his wheel
in the infernal regions, he destroyed the hundred-eyed Argus, he
sold Hercules to Omphale the queen of Lydia, he conducted Priam to
the tent of Achilles, to redeem the body of his son Hector, and he
carried the infant Bacchus to the nymphs of Nysa. Mercury had many
surnames and epithets. He was called Cyllenius, Caduceator, Acacetos,
from Acacos, an Arcadian; Acacesius, Tricephalos, Triplex, Chthonius,
Camillus, Agoneus, Delius, Arcas, &c. His children are also numerous
as well as his amours. He was father of Autolycus by Chione; of
Myrtillus by Cleobula; of Libys by Libya; of Echion and Eurytus by
Antianira; of Cephalus by Creusa; of Prylis by Issa; and of Priapus,
according to some. He was also father of Hermaphroditus by Venus; of
Eudorus by Polimela; of Pan by Dryope, or Penelope. His worship was
well established, particularly in Greece, Egypt, and Italy. He was
worshipped at Tanagra in Bœotia, under the name of Criophorus, and
represented as carrying a ram on his shoulders, because he delivered
the inhabitants from a pestilence by telling them to carry a ram in
that manner round the walls of their city. The Roman merchants yearly
celebrated a festival on the 15th of May, in honour of Mercury, in a
temple near the Circus Maximus. A pregnant sow was then sacrificed,
and sometimes a calf and particularly the tongues of animals were
offered. After the votaries had sprinkled themselves with water with
laurel leaves, they offered prayers to the divinity, and entreated
him to be favourable to them, and to forgive whatever artful measures,
false oaths, or falsehoods they had used or uttered in the pursuit
of gain. Sometimes Mercury appears on monuments with a large cloak
round his arm, or tied under his chin. The chief ensigns of his power
and offices are his _caduceus_, his _petasus_, and his _talaria_.
Sometimes he is represented sitting upon a crayfish, holding in one
hand his caduceus, and in the other the claws of the fish. At other
times he is like a young man without a beard, holding in one hand
a purse, as being the tutelary god of merchants, with a cock on his
wrists as an emblem of vigilance, and at his feet a goat, a scorpion,
and a fly. Some of his statues represented him as a youth _fascino
erecto_. Sometimes he rests his foot upon a tortoise. In Egypt
his statues represented him with the head of a dog, whence he was
often confounded with Anubis, and received the sacrifice of a stork.
Offerings of milk and honey were made because he was the god of
eloquence, whose powers were sweet and persuasive. The Greeks and
Romans offered tongues to him by throwing them into the fire, as
he was the patron of speaking of which the tongue is the organ.
Sometimes his statues represent him as without arms, because,
according to some, the power of speech can prevail over everything,
even without the assistance of arms. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 1, &c.;
_Iliad_, bk. 1, &c.; _Hymn to Hermes_.――_Lucian_, _Dialogi Mortuorum_.
――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 5, li. 667; _Metamorphoses_, bks. 1, 4,
11, 14.――_Martial_, bk. 9, ltr. 35.――_Statius_, _Thebiad_, bk. 4.
――_Pausanias_, bks. 1, 7, 8, & 9.――_Orpheus._――_Plutarch_, _Numa_.
――_Varro_, _de Lingua Latina_, bk. 6.――_Plato_, _Phædras_.――_Livy_,
bk. 36.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 1; _Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 48.
――_Diodorus_, bks. 4 & 5.――_Apollodorus_, bks. 1, 2, & 3.
――_Apollonius_, _Argonautica_, bk. 1.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ode 10.
――_Hyginus_, _Poetica Astronomica_, bk. 2.――_Tzetzes_, _Lycophron_,
li. 219.――_Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_.――_Lactantius [Placidus].
_――_Philostratus_, bk. 1, _Imagines_, ch. 27.――_Marcus Manilius.
_――_Macrobius_, bk. 1, _Saturnalia_, ch. 19.――――Trismegistus, a
priest and philosopher of Egypt, who taught his countrymen how to
cultivate the olive, and measure their lands, and to understand
hieroglyphics. He lived in the age of Osiris, and wrote 40 books
on theology, medicine, and geography, from which Sanchoniathon the
Phœnician historian has taken his theogonia. _Diodorus_, bks. 1, & 5.
――_Plutarch_, _de Iside et Osiride_.――_Cicero_, bk. 3, _de Natura
Deorum_.
=Merĕtrix=, a name under which Venus was worshipped at Abydos and at
Samos, because both those places had been benefited by the intrigues
or the influence of courtesans. _Athenæus_, bk. 13.
=Mēriŏnes=, a charioteer of Idomeneus king of Crete during the Trojan
war, son of Molus, a Cretan prince, and Melphidis. He signalized
himself before Troy, and fought with Deiphobus the son of Priam,
whom he wounded. He was greatly admired by the Cretans, who even
paid him divine honours after death. _Horace_, bk. 1, ode 6,
li. 15.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2, &c.――_Dictys Cretensis_, bk. 1,
&c.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 13, fable 1.――――A brother of Jason
son of Æson, famous for his great opulence and for his avarice.
_Polyænus_, bk. 6, ch. 1.
=Mermĕros=, a centaur. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12, li. 305.――――A
Trojan, killed by Antilochus.――――A son of Jason and Medea, who was
father to Ilus of Corinth. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 3.
=Mermnadæ=, a race of kings in Lydia, of which Gyges was the first.
They sat on the Lydian throne till the reign of Crœsus, who was
conquered by Cyrus king of Persia. They were descendants of the
Heraclidæ, and probably received the name of Mermnadæ from Mermnas,
one of their own family. They were descended from Lemnos, or,
according to others, from Agelaus, the son of Omphale by Hercules.
_Herodotus_, bk. 1, chs. 7 & 14.
=Meroe=, now _Nuabia_, an island of Æthiopia, with a town of the same
name, celebrated for its wines. Its original name was _Saba_, and
Cambyses gave it that of Meroe from his sister. _Strabo_, bk. 17.
――_Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 31.――_Pliny_, bk. 2, ch. 173.――_Mela_,
bk. 1.――_Lucan_, bk. 4, lis. 3, 33; bk. 10, lis. 163 & 303. =Merŏpe=,
one of the Atlantides. She married Sisyphus son of Æolus, and, like
her sisters, was changed into a constellation after death. _See:_
Pleiades. It is said, that in the constellation of the Pleiades the
star of Merope appears more dim and obscure than the rest, because
she, as the poets observe, married a mortal, while her sisters
married some of the gods or their descendants. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 4,
li. 175.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Hyginus_, fable 192.――_Apollodorus_,
bk. 1, ch. 9.――――A daughter of Cypselus, who married Cresphontes
king of Messenia, by whom she had three children. Her husband and two
of her children were murdered by Polyphontes. The murderer obliged
her to marry him, and she would have been forced to comply had not
Epytus or Telephontes, her third son, revenged his father’s death by
assassinating Polyphontes. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 6.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 4, ch. 3.――――A daughter of Œnopion, beloved by Orion.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 4.――――A daughter of the Cebrenus, who
married Æsacus the son of Priam.――――A daughter of Erechtheus, mother
of Dædalus. _Plutarch_, _Theseus_.――――A daughter of Pandarus.――――A
daughter of the river Sangarius, who married king Priam.
=Merops=, a king of the island of Cos, who married Clymene, one
of the Oceanides. He was changed into an eagle and placed among
the constellations. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, li. 763.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3.――_Hyginus_, _Poetica astronomica_, bk. 2,
ch. 16.――――A celebrated soothsayer of Percosus in Troas, who foretold
the death of his sons Adrastus and Amphius, who were engaged in the
Trojan war. They slighted their father’s advice, and were killed by
Diomedes. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2.――――One of the companions of Æneas,
killed by Turnus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 702.
=Meros=, a mountain of India sacred to Jupiter. It is called by Pliny,
bk. 6, ch. 21, Nysa. Bacchus was educated upon it, whence arose the
fable that Bacchus was confined in the thigh (μηρος) of his father.
_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Pliny_, bk. 8, ch. 13.――_Curtius_, bk. 8,
ch. 10.――_Diodorus_, bk. 1.
=Merŭla Cornelius=, a Roman who fought against the Gauls, and who was
made consul by Octavius in the place of Cinna. He some time after
killed himself in despair, &c. _Plutarch._
=Mesabătes=, a eunuch in Persia, flayed alive by order of Parysatis,
because he had cut off the head and right hand of Cyrus. _Plutarch_,
_Artaxerxes_.
=Mesabius=, a mountain of Bœotia, hanging over the Euripus. _Pausanias_,
bk. 9, ch. 22.
=Mesapia=, an ancient name of Bœotia.
=Mesaubius=, a servant of Eumæus the steward of Ulysses. _Homer_,
_Odyssey_, bk. 14, li. 449.
=Mesembria=, now _Miseuria_, a maritime city of Thrace. Hence
_Mesembriacus_. _Ovid_, bk. 1, _Tristia_, bk. 6, li. 37.――――Another
at the mouth of the Lissus.
=Mesene=, an island in the Tigris where Apamea was built, now _Disel_.
_Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 27.
=Mesomēdes=, a lyric poet in the age of the emperor Antoninus.
=Mesopotămia=, a country of Asia, which receives its name from its
situation (μεσος ποταμος) _between_ the _rivers_ Tigris and Euphrates.
It is yearly inundated by the Euphrates, and the water properly
conveyed over the country by canals. It is now called _Diarbec_.
_Strabo_, bk. 2.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 11.――_Cicero_, _de Natura
Deorum_, bk. 2, ch. 52.
=Messāla=, a name of Valerius Corvinus, from his having conquered
Messana in Sicily. This family was very ancient; the most celebrated
was a friend of Brutus, who seized the camp of Augustus at Philippi.
He was afterwards reconciled to Augustus, and died A.D. 9, in his
77th year. _Plutarch._――――Another consul, &c.――――The father of
Valeria, who married the dictator Sylla. _Plutarch._――――A great
flatterer at the court of Tiberius.――――A governor of Syria.――――A
tribune in one of the Roman legions during the civil war between
Vespasian and Vitellius, of which he wrote an historical account
mentioned by Tacitus, _Dialogue on Oratory_, ch. 14.――――A consul with
Domitius, &c.――――A painter at Rome, who flourished B.C. 235.――――A
writer, whose book _de Augusti progenie_ was edited 12mo, Leiden,
1648.
=Messalīna Valeria=, a daughter of Messala Barbatus. She married
the emperor Claudius, and disgraced herself by her cruelties and
incontinence. Her husband’s palace was not the only seat of her
lasciviousness, but she prostituted herself in the public streets,
and few men there were at Rome who could not boast of having enjoyed
the favours of the impure Messalina. Her extravagancies at last
irritated her husband; he commanded her to appear before him to
answer all the accusations which were brought against her, upon which
she attempted to destroy herself, and when her courage failed, one of
the tribunes, who had been sent to her, despatched her with his sword,
A.D. 48. It is in speaking of her debaucheries and lewdness that a
celebrated satirist says,
_Et lassata viris, necdum satiata, recessit_.
_Juvenal._――_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 11, ch. 37.――_Suetonius_,
_Claudius_.――_Dio Cassius._――――Another, called also Statilia. She
was descended from a consular family, and married the consul Atticus
Vistinus, whom Nero murdered. She received with great marks of
tenderness her husband’s murderer and married him. She had married
four husbands before she came to the imperial throne; and after
the death of Nero she retired to literary pursuits and peaceful
occupations. Otho courted her, and would have married her had he not
destroyed himself. In his last moments he wrote her a very pathetic
and consolatory letter, &c. _Tacitus_, _Annals_.
=Messālīnus Marcus Valerius=, a Roman officer in the reign of Tiberius.
He was appointed governor of Dalmatia, and rendered himself known by
his opposition to Piso, and by his attempts to persuade the Romans
of the necessity of suffering women to accompany the camps on
their different expeditions. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 3.――――One
of Domitian’s informers.――――A flatterer of the emperor Tiberius.
=Messāna=, an ancient and celebrated town of Sicily, on the straits
which separate Italy from Sicily. It was anciently called _Zancle_,
and was founded 1600 years before the christian era. The inhabitants,
being continually exposed to the depredation of the people of Cuma,
implored the assistance of the Messenians of Peloponnesus, and
with them repelled the enemy. After this victorious campaign, the
Messenians entered Zancle, and lived in such intimacy with the
inhabitants that they changed their name, and assumed that of the
Messenians, and called their city Messana. Another account say that
Anaxilaus tyrant of Rhegium made war against the Zancleans, with the
assistance of the Messenians of Peloponnesus, and that after he had
obtained a decisive victory, he called the conquered city Messana in
compliment to his allies, about 494 years before the christian era.
After this revolution at Zancle, the Mamertini took possession of it,
and made it the capital of the neighbouring country. _See:_ Mamertini.
It afterwards fell into the hands of the Romans, and was for some
time the chief of their possessions in Sicily. The inhabitants
were called Messanii, Messanienses, and Mamertini. The straits of
Messana have always been looked upon as very dangerous, especially
by the ancients, on account of the rapidity of the currents, and the
irregular and violent flowing and ebbing of the sea. _Strabo_, bk. 6.
――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 23.――_Diodorus_,
bk. 4.――_Thucydides_, bk. 1, &c.――_Herodotus_, bk. 6, ch. 23; bk. 7,
ch. 28.
=Messapia=, a country of Italy, between Tarentum and Brundusium. It
is the same as Calabria. It received its name from Messapus the son
of Neptune, who left a part of Bœotia called _Messapia_, and came
to Italy, where he assisted the Rutulians against Æneas. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 14, li. 513.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 691;
bk. 8, li. 6; bk. 9, li. 27.
=Messatis=, a town of Achaia. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 18.
=Messe=, a town in the island of Cythera. _Statius_, bk. 1, _Thebiad_,
bk. 4, li. 226.
=Messeis=, a fountain of Thessaly. _Strabo_, bk. 9.
=Messēne=, a daughter of Triopas king of Argos, who married Polycaon,
son of Lelex king of Laconia. She encouraged her husband to levy
troops, and to seize a part of Peloponnesus, which, after it had been
conquered, received her name. She received divine honours after her
death, and had a magnificent temple at Ithome, where her statue was
made half of gold and half of Parian marble. _Pausanias_, bk. 4,
chs. 1 & 13.
=Messēne=, or =Messēna=, now _Maura-Matra_, a city in the Peloponnesus,
the capital of the country called Messenia. The inhabitants have
rendered themselves famous for the war which they carried on against
the Spartans, and which received the appellation of the _Messenian
war_. The first Messenian war arose from the following circumstances.
The Messenians offered violence to some Spartan women, who had
assembled to offer sacrifices in a temple which was common to
both nations, and which stood on the borders of their respective
territories; and, besides, they killed Teleclus the Spartan king,
who attempted to defend the innocence of the females. This account,
according to the Spartan traditions, is contradicted by the
Messenians, who observe that Teleclus, with a chosen body of
Spartans, assembled at the temple before mentioned, disguised in
women’s clothes, and all secretly armed with daggers. This hostile
preparation was to surprise some of the neighbouring inhabitants;
and in a quarrel which soon after arose, Teleclus and his associates
were all killed. These quarrels were the cause of the first Messenian
war, which began B.C. 743. It was carried on with vigour and spirit
on both sides, and after many obstinate and bloody battles had been
fought and continued for 19 years, it was at last finished by the
taking of Ithome by the Spartans, a place which had stood a siege of
10 years, and been defended with all the power of the Messenians. The
insults to which the conquered Messenians were continually exposed
at last excited their resentment, and they resolved to shake off the
yoke. They suddenly revolted, and the second Messenian war was begun
685 B.C., and continued 14 years. The Messenians at first gained
some advantage, but a fatal battle in the third year of the war so
totally disheartened them, that they fled to Ira, where they resolved
to maintain an obstinate siege against their victorious pursuers.
The Spartans were assisted by the Samians in besieging Ira, and the
Messenians were at last obliged to submit to the superior power of
their adversaries. The taking of Ira by the Lacedæmonians, after
a siege of 11 years, put an end to the second Messenian war. Peace
was re-established for some time in Peloponnesus, but after the
expiration of 200 years, the Messenians attempted a third time to
free themselves from the power of Lacedæmon, B.C. 465. At that time
the Helots had revolted from the Spartans, and the Messenians, by
joining their forces to these wretched slaves, looked upon their
respective calamities as common, and thought themselves closely
interested in each other’s welfare. The Lacedæmonians were assisted
by the Athenians, but they soon grew jealous of one another’s power,
and their political connection ended in the most inveterate enmity,
and at last in open war. Ithome was the place in which the Messenians
had a second time gathered all their forces, and though 10 years had
already elapsed, both parties seemed equally confident of victory.
The Spartans were afraid of storming Ithome, as the oracle of Delphi
had threatened them with the greatest calamities if they offered any
violence to a place which was dedicated to the service of Apollo. The
Messenians, however, were soon obliged to submit to their victorious
adversaries, B.C. 453, and they consented to leave their native
country, and totally to depart from the Peloponnesus, solemnly
promising that if they ever returned into Messenia, they would suffer
themselves to be sold as slaves. The Messenians upon this, miserably
exiled, applied to the Athenians for protection, and were permitted
to inhabit Naupactus, whence some of them were afterwards removed to
take possession of their ancient territories in Messenia, during the
Peloponnesian war. The third Messenian war was productive of great
revolutions in Greece, and though almost a private quarrel, it soon
engaged the attention of all the neighbouring states, and kindled the
flames of dissension everywhere. Every state took up arms as if in
its own defence, or to prevent additional power and dominion from
being lodged in the hands of its rivals. The descendants of the
Messenians at last returned to Peloponnesus, B.C. 370, after a long
banishment of 300 years. _Pausanias_, _Messenia_, &c.――_Justin_,
bk. 3, ch. 4, &c.――_Strabo_, bk. 6, &c.――_Thucydides_, bk. 1, &c.
――_Diodorus_, bk. 11, &c.――_Plutarch_, _Cimon_, &c.――_Polyænus_,
bk. 3.――_Polybius_, bk. 4, &c.
=Messēnia=, a province of Peloponnesus, situate between Laconia, Elis,
Arcadia, and the sea. Its chief city is Messena. _See:_ Messena.
=Mestor=, a son of Perseus and Andromeda, who married Lysidice daughter
of Pelops, by whom he had Hippothoe.――――A son of Pterilaus.――――of
Priam. _Apollodorus._
=Mesūla=, a town of Italy, in the country of the Sabines.
=Metăbus=, a tyrant of the Privernates. He was father of Camilla, whom
he consecrated to the service of Diana, when he had been banished
from his kingdom by his subjects. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 11, li. 540.
=Metagitnia=, a festival in honour of Apollo, celebrated by the
inhabitants of Melite, who migrated to Attica. It receives its name
from its being observed in the month called Metagitnion.
=Metanīra=, the wife of Celeus king of Eleusis, who first taught
mankind agriculture. She is also called Meganira. _Apollodorus_,
bk. 1, ch. 5.
=Metapontum=, a town of Lucania in Italy, founded about 1269 years B.C.
by Metabus the father of Camilla, or Epeus, one of the companions
of Nestor. Pythagoras retired there for some time, and perished
in a sedition. Annibal made it his head-quarters when in that part
of Italy, and its attachment to Carthage was afterwards severely
punished by the Roman conquerors, who destroyed its liberties and
independence. A few broken pillars of marble are now the only
vestiges of Metapontum. _Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 4.
――_Justin_, bk. 12, ch. 2.――_Livy_, bks. 1, 8, 25, 27, &c.
=Metapontus=, a son of Sisyphus, who married ♦Theano. _See:_ ♦Theano.
_Hyginus_, fable 166.
♦ ‘Theana’ replaced with ‘Theano’ for consistency
=Metaurus=, now _Metro_, a town with a small river of the same name, in
the country of the Brutii. The river Metaurus falls into the Tyrrhene
sea above Sicily.――――Another, in Umbria, famous for the defeat of
Asdrubal by the consuls Livy and Nero. _Horace_, bk. 4, ode 4, li. 38.
――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 4.――_Lucan_, bk. 2, li. 495.
=Metella=, the wife of Sylla.
=Metelli [Metellus]=, the surname of the family of the Cæcilii at Rome,
the most known of whom were:――A general who defeated the Achæans,
took Thebes, and invaded Macedonia, &c.――――Quintus Cæcilius, who
rendered himself illustrious by his successes against Jugurtha the
Numidian king, from which he was surnamed _Numidicus_. He took, in
this expedition, the celebrated Marius as his lieutenant, and he had
soon cause to repent of the confidence he had placed in him. Marius
raised himself to power by defaming the character of his benefactor,
and Metellus was recalled to Rome, and accused of extortion and
ill-management. Marius was appointed successor to finish the
Numidian war, and Metellus was acquitted of the crimes laid to his
charge before the tribunal of the Roman knights, who observed that
the probity of his whole life and the greatness of his exploits
were greater proofs of his innocence than the most powerful
arguments. _Cicero_, _On Oratory_, bk. 1, ch. 48.――_Sallust_,
_Jugurthine War_.――――Lucius Cæcilius, another, who saved from the
flames the palladium, when Vesta’s temple was on fire. He was then
high priest. He lost his sight and one of his arms in doing it, and
the senate, to reward his zeal and piety, permitted him always to
be drawn to the senate-house in a chariot, an honour which no one
had ever before enjoyed. He also gained a great victory over the
Carthaginians in the first Punic war, and led in his triumph 13
generals and 120 elephants taken from the enemy. He was honoured
with the dictatorship, and the office of master of horse, &c.
――――Quintus Cæcilius Celer, another, who distinguished himself
by his spirited exertions against Catiline. He married Clodia
the sister of Clodius, who disgraced him by her incontinence and
lasciviousness. He died 57 years B.C. He was greatly lamented by
Cicero, who shed tears at the loss of one of his most faithful
and valuable friends. _Cicero_, _For Marcus Cæcilius._――――Lucius
Cæcilius, a tribune in the civil wars of Julius Cæsar and Pompey.
He favoured the cause of Pompey, and opposed Cæsar when he entered
Rome with a victorious army. He refused to open the gates of
Saturn’s temple, in which were deposited great treasures, upon
which they were broken open by Cæsar, and Metellus retired,
when threatened with death.――――Quintus Cæcilius, the grandson of
the high priest, who saved the palladium from the flames, was a
warlike general, who, from his conquest of Crete and Macedonia,
was surnamed _Macedonicus_. He had six sons, of whom four are
particularly mentioned by Plutarch.――――Quintus Cæcilius, surnamed
_Balearicus_, from his conquest of the Baleares.――――Lucius Cæcilius,
surnamed _Diadematus_, but supposed the same as that called Lucius
with the surname of _Dalmaticus_, from a victory obtained over
the Dalmatians during his consulship with Mutius Scævola.――――Caius
Cæcilius, surnamed _Caprarius_, who was consul with Carbo, A.U.C.
641.――――The fourth was Marcus, and of these four brothers it is
remarkable, that two of them triumphed in one day, but over what
nations is not mentioned by _Eutropius_, ch. 4.――――Nepos, a consul,
&c.――――Another, who accused Caius Curio, his father’s detractor,
and who also vented his resentment against Cicero when going to
banishment.――――Another, who, as tribune, opposed the ambition
of Julius Cæsar.――――A general of the Roman armies against
the Sicilians and Carthaginians. Before he marched he offered
sacrifices to all the gods, except Vesta, for which neglect the
goddess was so incensed that she demanded the blood of his daughter
Metella. When Metella was going to be immolated, the goddess placed
a heifer in her place, and carried her to a temple at Lanuvium,
of which she became the priestess.――――Lucius Cæcilius, or Quintus,
surnamed _Creticus_, from his conquest in Crete, B.C. 66, is
supposed by some to be the son of Metellus Macedonicus.――――Cimber,
one of the conspirators against Julius Cæsar. It was he who gave
the signal to attack and murder the dictator in the senate-house.
――――Pius, a general in Spain, against Sertorius, on whose head
he set a price of 100 talents, and 20,000 acres of land. He
distinguished himself also in the Marsian war, and was high priest.
He obtained the name of _Pius_ from the sorrow he showed during the
banishment of his father Metellus _Numidicus_, whom he caused to be
recalled. _Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 5.――_Sallust_, _Jugurthine War_,
ch. 44.――――A consul who commanded in Africa, &c. _Valerius Maximus._
――_Pliny._――_Plutarch._――_Livy._――_Paterculus_, bk. 2.――_Florus_,
bk. 3, ch. 8.――_Pausanias_, bk. 7, chs. 8 & 13.――_Cicero_,
_Tusculanæ Disputationes_, &c.――_Juvenal_, satire 3, li. 138.
――_Appian_, _Civil Wars_.――_Cæsar_, _Civil War_.――_Sallust_,
_Jugurthine War_.
=Metharma=, a daughter of Pygmalion king of Cyprus, and mother of
Adonis by Cinyras, &c. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 14.
=Methīon=, the father of Phorbas, &c. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5,
fable 3.
=Methodius=, a bishop of Tyre, who maintained a controversy against
Porphyry. The best edition of his works is that of Paris, folio, 1657.
=Methōne=, a town of Peloponnesus, where king Philip gained his first
battle over the Athenians, B.C. 360.――――A town of Macedonia, south
of Pella, in the siege of which, according to _Justin_, bk. 7, ch. 6,
Philip lost his right eye.――――Another in Magnesia. _Homer_, _Iliad_,
bk. 2, li. 71.
=Methydrium=, a town of Peloponnesus, near Megalopolis. _Valerius
Flaccus._
=Methymna= (now _Porto Petero_), a town of the island of Lesbos, which
received its name from a daughter of ♦Macareus. It is the second
city of the island in greatness, population, and opulence, and its
territory is fruitful, and the wines it produces excellent. It was
the native place of Arion. When the whole island of Lesbos revolted
from the power of the Athenians, Methymna alone remained firm to its
ancient allies. _Diodorus_, bk. 5.――_Thucydides_, bk. 3.――_Horace_,
bk. 2, satire 8, li. 50.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 3, li. 90.
♦ ‘Marcareus’ replaced with ‘Macareus’
=Metiadūsa=, a daughter of Eupalamus, who married Cecrops, by whom she
had Pandion. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 15.
=Metilia lex=, was enacted A.U.C. 536, to settle the power of the
dictator, and of his master of horse, within certain bounds.
=Metilii=, a patrician family, brought from Alba to Rome by Tullus
Hostilius. _Dionysius of Halicarnassus._
=Metilius=, a man who accused Fabius Maximus before the senate, &c.
=Mētiŏchus=, a son of Miltiades, who was taken by the Phœnicians,
and given to Darius king of Persia. He was tenderly treated by the
monarch, though his father had conquered the Persian armies in the
plains of Marathon. _Plutarch._――_Herodotus_, bk. 6, ch. 41.――――An
Athenian entrusted with the care of the roads, &c. _Plutarch._
=Metion=, a son of Erechtheus king of Athens and Praxithea. He married
Alcippe daughter of Mars and Agraulos. His sons drove Pandion from
the throne of Athens, and were afterwards expelled by Pandion’s
children. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 15.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 6.
=Metis=, one of the Oceanides. She was Jupiter’s first wife, celebrated
for her great prudence and sagacity above the rest of the gods.
Jupiter, who was afraid lest she should bring forth into the world
a child more cunning and greater than himself, devoured her in the
first month of her pregnancy. Some time after this adventure the god
had his head opened, from which issued Minerva, armed from head to
foot. According to Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 2, Metis gave a portion to
Saturn, and obliged him to throw up the children whom he had devoured.
_Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 890.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 7, ch. 3.
――_Hyginus._
=Metiscus=, a charioteer to Turnus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 12, li. 469.
=Metius Curtius=, one of the Sabines who fought against the Romans,
on account of the stolen virgins.――――Suffetius, a dictator of Alba,
in the reign of Tullus Hostilius. He fought against the Romans,
and at last, finally to settle their disputes, he proposed a single
combat between the Horatii and Curiatii. The Albans were conquered,
and Metius promised to assist the Romans against their enemies.
In a battle against the Veientes and Fidenates, Metius showed his
infidelity by forsaking the Romans at the first onset, and retired
to a neighbouring eminence, to wait for the event of the battle, and
to fall upon whatever side proved victorious. The Romans obtained the
victory, and Tullus ordered Metius to be tied between two chariots,
which were drawn by four horses two different ways, and his limbs
were torn away from his body, about 669 years before the christian
era. _Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 23, &c.――_Florus_, bk. 1, ch. 3.――_Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 8, li. 642.――――A critic. _See:_ Tarpa.――――Carus, a
celebrated informer under Domitian, who enriched himself with the
plunder of those who were sacrificed to the emperor’s suspicion.
=Metœcia=, festivals instituted by Theseus in commemoration of the
people of Attica having removed to Athens.
=Meton=, an astrologer and mathematician of Athens. His father’s
name was Pausanias. He refused to go to Sicily with his countrymen,
and pretended to be insane, because he foresaw the calamities that
attended that expedition. In a book called _Enneadecaterides_, or
the cycle of 19 years, he endeavoured to adjust the course of the
sun and the moon, and supported that the solar and lunar years could
regularly begin from the same point in the heavens. This is called by
the moderns _the golden numbers_. He flourished B.C. 432. _Vitruvius_,
bk. 1.――_Plutarch_, _Nicias_. A native of Tarentum, who pretended to
be intoxicated that he might draw the attention of his countrymen,
when he wished to dissuade them from making an alliance with king
Pyrrhus. _Plutarch_, _Pyrrhus_.
=Metŏpe=, the wife of the river Sangarius. She was mother of Hecuba.
――――The daughter of Ladon, who married the Asopus.――――A river of
Arcadia.
=Metra=, the daughter of Eresichthon, a Thessalian prince, beloved by
Neptune. When her father had spent all his fortune to gratify the
canine hunger under which he laboured, she prostituted herself to her
neighbours, and received for reward oxen, goats, and sheep, which she
presented to Eresichthon. Some say that she had received from Neptune
the power of changing herself into whatever animal she pleased,
and that her father sold her continually to gratify his hunger, and
that she instantly assumed a different shape, and became again his
property. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 8, fable 21.
=Metragryrte=, one of the names of Tellus, or Cybele.
=Metrobius=, a player greatly favoured by Sylla. _Plutarch._
=Metrŏcles=, a pupil of Theophrastus, who had the care of the education
of Cleombrotus and Cleomenes. He suffocated himself when old and
infirm. _Diogenes Laërtius._
=Metrodōrus=, a physician of Chios, B.C. 444. He was the disciple of
Democritus, and had Hippocrates among his pupils. His compositions
on medicine, &c., are lost. He supported that the world was eternal
and infinite, and denied the existence of motion. _Diogenes Laërtius._
――――A painter and philosopher of Stratonice, B.C. 171. He was sent
to Paulus Æmylius, who, after the conquest of Perseus, demanded of
the Athenians a philosopher and a painter; the former to instruct
his children, and the latter to make a painting of his triumphs.
Metrodorus was sent, as in him alone were united the philosopher and
the painter. _Pliny_, bk. 35, ch. 11.――_Cicero_, bk. 5, _De Finibus
Bonorum et Malorum_, ch. 1; _On Oratory_, bk. 4; _Academica._
――♦_Diogenes Laërtius_, _Epicurus_.――――A friend of Mithridates, sent
as ambassador to Tigranes king of Armenia. He was remarkable for his
learning, moderation, humanity, and justice. He was put to death by
his royal master for his infidelity, B.C. 72. _Strabo._――_Plutarch._
――――Another, of a very retentive memory.
♦ ‘Diod.’ replaced with ‘Diogenes Laërtius’
=Metrophănes=, an officer of Mithridates, who invaded Eubœa, &c.
=Metropŏlis=, a town of Phrygia on the Mæander.――――Another of Thessaly
near Pharsalia.
=Mettius=, a chief of the Gauls, imprisoned by Julius Cæsar. _Cæsar_,
_Gallic War_.
=Mettus.= _See:_ Metius.
=Metulum=, a town of Liburnia, in besieging of which Augustus was
wounded. _Dio Cassius_, bk. 49.
=Mevania=, now _Bevagna_, a town of Umbria, on the Clitumnus,
the birthplace of the poet Propertius. _Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 473.
――_Propertius_, bk. 4, poem 1, li. 124.
=Mevius=, a wretched poet. _See:_ Mævius.
=Mezentius=, a king of the Tyrrhenians when Æneas came into Italy. He
was remarkable for his cruelties, and put his subjects to death by
slow tortures, or sometimes tied a man to a dead corpse face to face,
and suffered him to die in that condition. He was expelled by his
subjects, and fled to Turnus, who employed him in his war against the
Trojans. He was killed by Æneas, with his son Lausus. _Dionysius of
Halicarnassus_, bk. 1, ch. 15.――_Justin_, bk. 43, ch. 1.――_Livy_, bk.
1, ch. 2.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 648; bk. 8, li. 482.――_Ovid_,
_Fasti_, bk. 4, li. 881.
=Micea=, a virgin of Elis, daughter of Philodemus, murdered by a
soldier called Lucius, &c. _Plutarch_, _Mulierum virtutes_.
=Micipsa=, a king of Numidia, son of Masinissa, who, at his death,
B.C. 119, left his kingdom between his sons Adherbal and Hiempsal,
and his nephew Jugurtha. Jugurtha abused his uncle’s favours by
murdering his two sons. _Sallust_, _Jugurthine War_.――_Florus_, bk. 3,
ch. 1.――_Plutarch_, _Gaius Gracchus_.
=Micythus=, a youth through whom Diomedon, by order of the Persian
king, made an attempt to bribe Epaminondas. _Cornelius Nepos_,
_Epaminondas_, ch. 4.――――A slave of Anaxilaus of Rhegium. _Herodotus_,
bk. 7, ch. 170.
=Mĭdas=, a king of Phrygia, son of Gordius, or Gorgius. In the
early part of his life, according to some traditions, he found a
large treasure, to which he owed his greatness and opulence. The
hospitality he showed to Silenus the preceptor of Bacchus, who had
been brought to him by some peasants, was liberally rewarded; and
Midas, when he conducted the old man back to the god, was permitted
to choose whatever recompence he pleased. He had the imprudence and
the avarice to demand of the god that whatever he touched might be
turned into gold. His prayer was granted, but he was soon convinced
of his injudicious choice; and when the very meats which he attempted
to eat became gold in his mouth, he begged Bacchus to take away a
present which must prove so fatal to the receiver. He was ordered
to wash himself in the river Pactolus, whose sands were turned into
gold by the touch of Midas. Some time after this adventure, Midas had
the imprudence to support that Pan was superior to Apollo in singing
and playing upon the flute, for which rash opinion the offended
god changed his ears into those of an ass, to show his ignorance
and stupidity. This Midas attempted to conceal from the knowledge
of his subjects, but one of his servants saw the length of his
ears, and being unable to keep the secret, and afraid to reveal it,
apprehensive of the king’s resentment, he opened a hole in the earth,
and after he had whispered there that Midas had the ears of an ass,
he covered the place as before, as if he had buried his words in the
ground. On that place, as the poets mention, grew a number of reeds,
which, when agitated by the wind, uttered the same sound that had
been buried beneath, and published to the world that Midas had the
ears of an ass. Some explain the fable of the ears of Midas by the
supposition that he kept a number of informers and spies, who were
continually employed in gathering every seditious word that might
drop from the mouths of his subjects. Midas, according to Strabo,
died of drinking hot bull’s blood. This he did, as Plutarch mentions,
to free himself from the numerous ill dreams which continually
tormented him. Midas, according to some, was son of Cybele. He
built a town, which he called Ancyræ. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 11, fable 5.――_Plutarch_, _de Superstitione_.――_Strabo_, bk. 1.
――_Hyginus_, fables 191, 274.――_Maximus Tyrius_, ch. 30.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 1, ch. 4.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 1, ch. 6.――_Herodotus_, bk. 1,
ch. 14.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bks. 4 & 12.――_Cicero_, _De
Divinatione_, bk. 1, ch. 36; bk. 2, ch. 31.
=Midea=, a town of Argolis. _Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 20.――――Of Lycia.
_Statius_, _Thebiad_, bk. 4, li. 45.――――Of Bœotia, drowned by the
inundations of the lake Copais. _Strabo_, bk. 8.――――A nymph, who had
Aspledon by Neptune. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 38.――――A mistress of
Electryon. _Apollodorus._
=Milānion=, a youth who became enamoured of Atalanta. He is supposed by
some to be the same as Meleager or Hippomanes. _Ovid_, _Ars Amatoria_,
bk. 2, li. 188.――――A son of Amphidamas.
=Mīlēsii=, the inhabitants of Miletus. _See:_ Miletus.
=Milesiorum murus=, a place of Egypt, at the entrance of one of the
mouths of the Nile.
=Milesius=, a surname of Apollo.――――A native of Miletus.
=Milētia=, one of the daughters of Scedasus, ravished with her sister
by some young Thebans. _Plutarch_ & _Pausanias_.
=Milētium=, a town of Calabria, built by the people of Miletus of Asia.
――――A town of Crete. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2, li. 154.
=Mīlētus=, a son of Apollo, who fled from Crete to avoid the wrath
of Minos, whom he meditated to dethrone. He came to Caria, where
he built a city which he called by his own name. Some suppose that
he only conquered a city there called Anactoria, which assumed
his name. They further say, that he put the inhabitants to the
sword, and divided the women among his soldiers. Cyanea, a daughter
of the Mæander, fell to his share. _Strabo_, bk. 14.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 9, li. 446.――_Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 2.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 1.――――A celebrated town of Asia Minor,
the capital of all Ionia, situate about 10 stadia south of the mouth
of the river Mæander, near the sea coast on the confines of Ionia and
Caria. It was founded by a Cretan colony under Miletus, or, according
to others, by Neleus the son of Codrus, or by Sarpedon, Jupiter’s
son. It has successively been called _Lelegeis_, _Pithyusa_, and
_Anactoria_. The inhabitants, called _Milesii_, were very powerful,
and long maintained an obstinate war against the kings of Lydia.
They early applied themselves to navigation, and planted no less
than 80 colonies, or, according to Seneca, 380, in different parts
of the world. Miletus gave birth to Thales, Anaximenes, Anaximander,
Hecatæus, Timotheus the musician, Pittacus, one of the seven wise
men, &c. Miletus was also famous for a temple and an oracle of Apollo
Didymæus, and for its excellent wool, with which were made stuffs and
garments, held in the highest reputation, both for softness, elegance,
and beauty. The words _Milesiæ fabulæ_, or _Milesiaca_, were used to
express wanton and ludicrous plays. _Ovid_, _Tristia_, bk. 2, li. 413.
――_Capitolinus_, _Life of Albinus_, ch. 11.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk.
3, li. 306.――_Strabo_, bk. 15.――_Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 2.――_Mela_,
bk. 1, ch. 17.――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 29.――_Herodotus_, bk. 1, &c.
――_Seneca_, _de Consolatione ad Helviam_.
=Milias=, a part of Lycia.
=Milichus=, a freedman who discovered Piso’s conspiracy against Nero.
_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 15, ch. 54.
=Milinus=, a Cretan king, &c.
=Milionia=, a town of the Samnites, taken by the Romans.
=Mīlo=, a celebrated athlete of Crotona in Italy. His father’s name was
Diotimus. He early accustomed himself to carry the greatest burdens,
and by degrees became a monster in strength. It is said that he
carried on his shoulders a young bullock four years old, for above 40
yards, and afterwards killed it with one blow of his fist, and ate it
up in one day. He was seven times crowned at the Pythian games, and
six at Olympia. He presented himself a seventh time, but no one had
the courage or boldness to enter the lists against him. He was one of
the disciples of Pythagoras, and to his uncommon strength the learned
preceptor and his pupils owed their life. The pillar which supported
the roof of the school suddenly gave way, but Milo supported the
whole weight of the building, and gave the philosopher and his
auditors time to escape. In his old age Milo attempted to pull up
a tree by the roots and break it. He partly effected it, but his
strength being gradually exhausted, the tree, when half cleft,
re-united, and his hands remained pinched in the body of the tree.
He was then alone, and being unable to disentangle himself, he was
eaten up by the wild beasts of the place, about 300 years before
the christian era. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 15.――_Cicero_, _de
Senectute_.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 9, ch. 12.――_Strabo_, bk. 16.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 11.――――Titus Annius, a native of Lanuvium,
who attempted to obtain the consulship at Rome by intrigue and
seditious tumults. Clodius the tribune opposed his views, yet Milo
would have succeeded had not an unfortunate event totally frustrated
his hopes. As he was going into the country, attended by his wife and
a numerous retinue of gladiators and servants, he met on the Appian
road his enemy Clodius, who was returning to Rome with three of his
friends and some domestics completely armed. A quarrel arose between
the servants. Milo supported his attendants, and the dispute became
general. Clodius received many severe wounds, and was obliged to
retire to a neighbouring cottage. Milo pursued his enemy in his
retreat, and ordered his servants to despatch him. Eleven of the
servants of Clodius shared his fate, as also the owner of the house
who had given them a reception. The body of the murdered tribune
was carried to Rome, and exposed to public view. The enemies of Milo
inveighed bitterly against the violence and barbarity with which the
sacred person of a tribune had been treated. Cicero undertook the
defence of Milo, but the continual clamours of the friends of Clodius,
and the sight of an armed soldiery, which surrounded the seat of
judgment, so terrified the orator, that he forgot the greatest part
of his arguments, and the defence he made was weak and injudicious.
Milo was condemned and banished to Massilia. Cicero soon after sent
his exiled friend a copy of the oration which he had delivered in his
defence, in the form in which we have it now; and Milo, after he had
read it, exclaimed, “O Cicero, hadst thou spoken before my accusers
in those terms, Milo would not be now eating figs at Marseilles.” The
friendship and cordiality of Cicero and Milo were the fruits of long
intimacy and familiar intercourse. It was by the successful labours
of Milo that the orator was recalled from banishment and restored to
his friends. _Cicero_, _For Milo_.――_Paterculus_, bk. 2, chs. 47 &
68.――_Dio Cassius_, bk. 40.――――A general of the forces of Pyrrhus.
He was made governor of Tarentum, and that he might be reminded of
his duty to his sovereign, Pyrrhus sent him as a present a chain,
which was covered with the skin of Nicias the physician, who had
perfidiously offered the Romans to poison his royal master for a sum
of money. _Polyænus_, bk. 8, &c.――――A tyrant of Pisa in Elis, thrown
into the river Alpheus by his subjects for his oppression. _Ovid_,
_Ibis_, li. 325.
=Milōnius=, a drunken buffoon at Rome, accustomed to dance when
intoxicated. _Horace_, bk. 2, satire 1, li. 24.
=Miltas=, a soothsayer, who assisted Dion in explaining prodigies, &c.
=Miltiădes=, an Athenian, son of Cypselus, who obtained a victory in a
chariot race at the Olympic games, and led a colony of his countrymen
to the Chersonesus. The causes of this appointment are striking
and singular. The Thracian Dolonci, harassed by a long war with the
Absynthians, were directed by the oracle of Delphi to take for their
king the first man they met in their return home, who invited them
to come under his roof and partake of his entertainments. This was
Miltiades, whom the appearance of the Dolonci, their strange arms
and garments, had struck. He invited them to his house, and was made
acquainted with the commands of the oracle. He obeyed, and when the
oracle of Delphi had approved a second time the choice of the Dolonci,
he departed for the Chersonesus, and was invested by the inhabitants
with sovereign power. The first measure he took was to stop the
further incursions of the Absynthians, by building a strong wall
across the isthmus. When he had established himself at home, and
fortified his dominions against foreign invasion, he turned his arms
against Lampsacus. His expedition was unsuccessful; he was taken in
an ambuscade, and made prisoner. His friend Crœsus king of Lydia was
informed of his captivity, and he procured his release by threatening
the people of Lampsacus with his severest displeasure. He lived a
few years after he had recovered his liberty. As he had no issue, he
left his kingdom and his possessions to Stesagoras the son of Cimon,
who was his brother by the same mother. The memory of Miltiades
was greatly honoured by the Dolonci, and they regularly celebrated
festivals and exhibited shows in commemoration of a man to whom they
owed their greatness and preservation. Some time after Stesagoras
died without issue, and Miltiades the son of Cimon, and the brother
of the deceased, was sent by the Athenians with one ship to take
possession of the Chersonesus. At his arrival Miltiades appeared
mournful, as if lamenting the recent death of his brother. The
principal inhabitants of the country visited the new governor to
condole with him; but their confidence in his sincerity proved fatal
to them. Miltiades seized their persons, and made himself absolute
in Chersonesus; and to strengthen himself he married Hegesipyla, the
daughter of Olorus the king of the Thracians. His prosperity, however,
was of short duration. In the third year of his government his
dominions were threatened by an invasion of the Scythian Nomades,
whom Darius had some time before irritated by entering their country.
He fled before them, but as their hostilities were but momentary,
he was soon restored to his kingdom. Three years after he left
Chersonesus and set sail for Athens, where he was received with
great applause. He was present at the celebrated battle of Marathon,
in which all the chief officers ceded their power to him, and left
the event of the battle to depend upon his superior abilities.
He obtained an important victory [_See:_ Marathon] over the more
numerous forces of his adversaries; and when he had demanded of his
fellow-citizens an olive crown as the reward of his valour in the
field of battle, he was not only refused, but severely reprimanded
for presumption. The only reward, therefore, that he received for
a victory which proved so beneficial to the interests of universal
Greece, was in itself simple and inconsiderable, though truly great
in the opinion of that age. He was represented in the front of a
picture among the rest of the commanders who fought at the battle of
Marathon, and he seemed to exhort and animate his soldiers to fight
with courage and intrepidity. Some time after Miltiades was entrusted
with a fleet of 70 ships, and ordered to punish those islands which
had revolted to the Persians. He was successful at first, but a
sudden report that the Persian fleet was coming to attack him,
changed his operations as he was besieging Paros. He raised the
siege and returned to Athens, where he was accused of treason, and
♦particularly of holding a correspondence with the enemy. The falsity
of these accusations might have appeared, if Miltiades had been
able to come into the assembly. A wound which he had received before
Paros detained him at home, and his enemies, taking advantage of his
absence, became more eager in their accusations and louder in their
clamours. He was condemned to death, but the rigour of the sentence
was retracted on the recollection of his great services to the
Athenians, and he was put into prison till he had paid a fine of
50 talents to the state. His inability to discharge so great a
sum detained him in confinement, and soon after his wounds became
incurable, and he died about 489 years before the christian era. His
body was ransomed by his son Cimon, who was obliged to borrow and
pay the 50 talents, to give his father a decent burial. The crimes
of Miltiades were probably aggravated in the eyes of his countrymen
when they remembered how he made himself absolute in Chersonesus;
and in condemning the barbarity of the Athenians towards a general
who was the source of their military prosperity, we must remember the
jealousy which ever reigns among a free and independent people, and
how watchful they are in defence of the natural rights which they
see wrested from others by violence and oppression. Cornelius Nepos
has written the life of Miltiades the son of Cimon; but his history
is incongruous and not authentic; and the author, by confounding the
actions of the son of Cimon with those of the son of Cypselus, has
made the whole dark and unintelligible. Greater reliance in reading
the actions of both the Miltiades is to be placed on the narration
of Herodotus, whose veracity is confirmed, and who was indisputably
more informed and more capable of giving an account of the life and
exploits of men who flourished in his age, and of which he could see
the living monuments. Herodotus was born about six years after the
famous battle of Marathon, and Cornelius Nepos, as a writer of the
Augustan age, flourished about 450 years after the age of the father
of history. _Cornelius Nepos_, _Lives_.――_Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 137;
bk. 6, ch. 34, &c.――_Plutarch_, _Cimon_.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 5,
ch. 3.――_Justin_, bk. 2.――_Pausanias._――――An Archon of Athens.
♦ ‘paticularly’ replaced with ‘particularly’
=Milto=, a favourite mistress of Cyrus the younger. _See:_ Aspasia.
=Milvius=, a parasite at Rome, &c. _Horace_, bk. 2, satire 7.――――A
bridge at Rome over the Tiber, now called _Pont de Molle_. _Cicero_,
_Letters to Atticus_, bk. 13, ltr. 33.――_Sallust_, _Catilinæ
Coniuratio_, ch. 45.――_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 13, ch. 47.
=Milyas=, a country of Asia Minor, better known by the name of Lycia.
Its inhabitants, called _Milyades_, and afterwards _Solymi_, were
among the numerous nations which formed the army of Xerxes in his
invasion of Greece. _Herodotus._――_Cicero_, _Against Verres_, bk. 1,
ch. 38.
=Mimallŏnes=, the Bacchanals, who, when they celebrated the orgies
of Bacchus, put horns on their heads. They are also called
_Mimallonides_, and some derive their name from the mountain
Mimas. _Persius_, bk. 1, li. 99.――_Ovid_, _Ars Amatoria_, li. 541.
――_Statius_, _Thebiad_, bk. 4, li. 660.
=Mimas=, a giant whom Jupiter destroyed with thunder. _Horace_, bk. 3,
ode 4.――――A high mountain of Asia Minor, near Colophon. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 2, fable 5.――――A Trojan, son of Theano and
Amycus, born on the same night as Paris, with whom he lived in
great intimacy. He followed the fortune of Æneas, and was killed by
Mezentius. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 702.
=Mimnermus=, a Greek poet and musician of Colophon in the age of Solon.
He chiefly excelled in elegiac poetry, whence some have attributed
the invention of it to him; and, indeed, he was the poet who made
elegy an amorous poem, instead of a mournful and melancholy tale.
In the expression of love, Propertius prefers him to Homer, as this
verse shows:
_Plus in amore valet Mimnermi versus Homero_.
In his old age Mimnermus became enamoured of a young girl called
Nanno. Some few fragments of his poetry remain, collected by Stobæus.
He is supposed by some to be the inventor of the pentameter verse,
which others, however, attribute to Callinus or Archilochus. The
surname of _Ligustiades_, λιγυς (_shrill-voiced_), has been applied
to him, though some imagine the word to be the name of his father.
_Strabo_, bks. 1 & 14.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 29.――_Diogenes
Laërtius_, bk. 1.――_Propertius_, bk. 1, poem 9, li. 11.――_Horace_,
bk. 1, ltr. 6, li. 65.
=Mincius=, now _Mincio_, a river of Venetia, flowing from the lake
Benacus, and falling into the Po. Virgil was born on its banks.
_Virgil_, _Eclogues_, poem 7, li. 13; _Germania_, ch. 3, li. 15;
_Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 206.
=Mindărus=, a commander of the Spartan fleet during the Peloponnesian
war. He was defeated by the Athenians, and died 410 B.C. _Plutarch._
=Mīnēĭdes=, the daughters of Minyas or Mineus, king of Orchomenos
in Bœotia. They were three in number, Leuconoe, Leucippe, and
Alcithoe. Ovid calls the two first Clymene and Iris. They derided
the orgies of Bacchus, for which impiety the god inspired them
with an unconquerable desire of eating human flesh. They drew
lots which of them should give up her son as food to the rest. The
lot fell upon Leucippe, and she gave up her son Hippasus, who was
instantly devoured by the three sisters. They were changed into
bats. In commemoration of this bloody crime, it was usual among
the Orchomenians for the high priest, as soon as the sacrifice
was finished, to pursue, with a drawn sword, all the women who had
entered the temple, and even to kill the first he came up to. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 4, fable 12.――_Plutarch_, _Quæstiones Græcæ_,
ch. 38.
=Mĭnerva=, the goddess of wisdom, war, and all the liberal arts, was
produced from Jupiter’s brain without a mother. The god, as it is
reported, married Metis, whose superior prudence and sagacity above
the rest of the gods, made him apprehend that the children of such
a union would be of a more exalted nature, and more intelligent
than their father. To prevent this, Jupiter devoured Metis in
her pregnancy, and some time after, to relieve the pains which he
suffered in his head, he ordered Vulcan to cleave it open. Minerva
came all armed and grown up from her father’s brain, and immediately
was admitted into the assembly of the gods, and made one of the most
faithful counsellors of her father. The power of Minerva was great
in heaven; she could hurl the thunders of Jupiter, prolong the life
of men, bestow the gift of prophecy, and, indeed, she was the only
one of all the divinities whose authority and consequence were equal
to those of Jupiter. The actions of Minerva are numerous, as well as
the kindnesses by which she endeared herself to mankind. Her quarrel
with Neptune concerning the right of giving a name to the capital
of Cecropia deserves attention. The assembly of the gods settled
the dispute by promising the preference to whichever of the two
gave the most useful and necessary present to the inhabitants of the
earth. Neptune, upon this, struck the ground with his trident, and
immediately a horse issued from the earth. Minerva produced the olive,
and obtained the victory by the unanimous voice of the gods, who
observed that the olive, as the emblem of peace, is far preferable
to the horse, the symbol of war and bloodshed. The victorious deity
called the capital _Athenæ_, and became the tutelar goddess of the
place. Minerva was always very jealous of her power, and the manner
in which she punished the presumption of Arachne is well known.
_See:_ Arachne. The attempts of Vulcan to offer her violence, are
strong marks of her virtue. Jupiter had sworn by the Styx to give
to Vulcan, who had made him a complete suit of armour, whatever he
desired. Vulcan demanded Minerva, and the father of the gods, who
had permitted Minerva to live in perpetual celibacy, consented, but
privately advised his daughter to make all the resistance she could
to frustrate the attempts of her lover. The prayers and force of
Vulcan proved ineffectual, and her chastity was not violated, though
the god left on her body the marks of his passion, and, from the
impurity which proceeded from this scuffle, and which Minerva threw
down upon the earth, wrapped up in wool, was born Erichthon, an
uncommon monster. _See:_ Erichthonius. Minerva was the first who
built a ship, and it was her zeal for navigation, and her care for
the Argonauts, which placed the prophetic tree of Dodona behind the
ship Argo, when going to Colchis. She was known among the ancients by
many names. She was called Athena, Pallas [_See:_ Pallas], Parthenos,
from her remaining in perpetual celibacy; Tritonia, because
worshipped near the lake Tritonis; Glaucopis, from the blueness of
her eyes; Agorea, from her presiding over markets; Hippia, because
she first taught mankind how to manage the horse; Stratea and Area,
from her martial character; Coryphagenes, because born from Jupiter’s
brain; Sais, because worshipped at Sais, &c. Some attributed to her
the invention of the flute, whence she was surnamed Andon, Luscinia,
Musica, Salpiga, &c. She, as it is reported, once amused herself
in playing upon her favourite flute before Juno and Venus, but
the goddesses ridiculed the distortion of her face in blowing the
instrument. Minerva, convinced of the justness of their remarks
by looking at herself in a fountain near mount Ida, threw away the
musical instrument, and denounced a melancholy death to him who
found it. Marsyas was the miserable proof of the veracity of her
expressions. The worship of Minerva was universally established;
she had magnificent temples in Egypt, Phœnicia, all parts of Greece,
Italy, Gaul, and Sicily. Sais, Rhodes, and Athens particularly
claimed her attention, and it is even said that Jupiter rained a
shower of gold upon the island of Rhodes, which had paid so much
veneration and such an early reverence to the divinity of his
daughter. The festivals celebrated in her honour were solemn and
magnificent. _See:_ Panathenæa. She was invoked by every artist,
and particularly such as worked in wool, embroidery, painting, and
sculpture. It was the duty of almost every member of society to
implore the assistance and patronage of a deity who presided over
sense, taste, and reason. Hence the poets have had occasion to say,
_Tu nihil invitâ dices faciesve Minervâ_,
and,
_Qui bene placârit Pallada, doctus erit_.
Minerva was represented in different ways, according to the different
characters in which she appeared. She generally appeared with a
countenance full more of masculine firmness and composure, than of
softness and grace. Most usually she was represented with a helmet on
her head, with a large plume nodding in the air. In one hand she held
a spear, and in the other a shield, with the dying head of Medusa
upon it. Sometimes this Gorgon’s head was on her breastplate, with
living serpents writhing round it, as well as round her shield and
helmet. In most of her statues she is represented as sitting, and
sometimes she holds in one hand a distaff, instead of a spear. When
she appeared as the goddess of the liberal arts she was arrayed in
a variegated veil, which the ancients called _peplum_. Sometimes
Minerva’s helmet was covered at the top with the figure of a cock,
a bird which, on account of his great courage, is properly sacred to
the goddess of war. Some of her statues represented her helmet with
a sphinx in the middle, supported on either side by griffins. In
some medals, a chariot drawn by four horses, or sometimes a dragon
or a serpent, with winding spires, appear at the top of her helmet.
She was partial to the olive tree; the owl and the cock were her
favourite birds, and the dragon among reptiles was sacred to her.
The functions, offices, and actions of Minerva seem so numerous, that
they undoubtedly originate in more than one person. Cicero speaks of
five persons of this name; a Minerva, mother of Apollo; a daughter
of the Nile, who was worshipped at Sais, in Egypt; a third, born from
Jupiter’s brain; a fourth, daughter of Jupiter and Coryphe; and a
fifth, daughter of Pallas, generally represented with winged shoes.
This last put her father to death because he attempted her virtue.
_Pausanias_, bks. 1, 2, 3, &c.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ode 16; bk. 3,
ode 4.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 2, &c.――_Strabo_, bks. 6, 9, & 13.
――_Philostratus_, _Imagines_, bk. 2.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 3, &c.;
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 6.――_Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 1, ch. 15;
bk. 3, ch. 23, &c.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, &c.――_Pindar_, _Olympian_,
poem 7.――_Lucan_, bk. 9, li. 354.――_Sophocles_, _Œdipus_.――_Homer_,
_Iliad_, &c.; _Odyssey_; _Hymn to Pallas Athena_.――_Diodorus_,
bk. 5.――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_.――_Aeschylus_, _Eumenides_.――_Lucian_,
_Dialogues_.――_Clement of Alexandria_, _Stromateis_, bk. 2.
――_Orpheus_, _Hymns_, poem 31.――_Quintus Smyrnæus_, bk. 14, li. 448.
――_Apollonius_, bk. 1.――_Hyginus_, fable 168.――_Statius_, _Thebiad_,
bk. 2, li. 721; bk. 7, &c.――_Callimachus_, _Hymn to Demeter_.
――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 12.――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Pausanias_.
――_Plutarch_, _Lycurgus_, &c.――_Thucydides_, bk. 1.――_Herodotus_,
bk. 5.
=Minervæ Castrum=, a town of Calabria, now _Castro_.――――Promontorium, a
cape at the most southern extremity of Campania.
=Mĭnervālia=, festivals at Rome in honour of Minerva, celebrated in
the months of March and June. During this solemnity scholars obtained
some relaxation from their studious pursuits, and the present,
which it was usual for them to offer to their masters, was called
_Minerval_, in honour of the goddess Minerva, who patronized
over literature. _Varro_, _de Re Rustica_, bk. 3, ch. 2.――_Ovid_,
_Tristia_, bk. 3, li. 809.――_Livy_, bk. 9, ch. 30.
=Mĭnio=, now _Mignone_, a river of Etruria, falling into the Tyrrhene
sea. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 183.――――One of the favourites of
Antiochus king of Syria.
=Minnæi=, a people of Arabia, on the Red sea. _Pliny_, bk. 12, ch. 14.
=Minoa=, a town of Sicily, built by Minos when he was pursuing Dædalus,
and called also _Heraclea_.――――A town of Peloponnesus.――――A town of
Crete.
=Minois=, belonging to Minos. Crete is called _Minoia regna_, as being
the legislator’s kingdom. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 14.――――A
patronymic of Ariadne. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 8, li. 157.
=Minos=, a king of Crete, son of Jupiter and Europa, who gave laws to
his subjects, B.C. 1406, which still remained in full force in the
age of the philosopher Plato. His justice and moderation procured
him the appellation of the favourite of the gods, the confidant of
Jupiter, the wise legislator, in every city of Greece; and, according
to the poets, he was rewarded for his equity, after death, with the
office of supreme and absolute judge in the infernal regions. In this
capacity, he is represented sitting in the middle of the shades and
holding a sceptre in his hand. The dead plead their different causes
before him, and the impartial judge shakes the fatal urn, which is
filled with the destinies of mankind. He married Ithona, by whom he
had Lycastes, who was the father of Minos II. _Homer_, _Odyssey_,
bk. 19, li. 178.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 432.――_Apollodorus_,
bk. 3, ch. 1.――_Hyginus_, fable 41.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Horace_,
bk. 1, ode 28.
=Minos II.=, was a son of Lycastes, the son of Minos I. king of Crete.
He married Pasiphae the daughter of Sol and Perseis, and by her
he had many children. He increased his paternal dominions by the
conquest of the neighbouring islands, but he showed himself cruel
in the war which he carried on against the Athenians, who had put
to death his son Androgeus. _See:_ Androgeus. He took Megara by
the treachery of Scylla [_See:_ Scylla], and, not satisfied with
a victory, he obliged the vanquished to bring him yearly to Crete
seven chosen boys, and the same number of virgins, to be devoured
by the Minotaur. _See:_ Minotaurus. This bloody tribute was at last
abolished when Theseus had destroyed the monster. _See:_ Theseus.
When Dædalus, whose industry and invention had fabricated the
labyrinth, and whose imprudence, in assisting Pasiphae in the
gratification of her unnatural desires, had offended Minos, fled
from the place of his confinement with wings [_See:_ Dædalus], and
arrived safe in Sicily, the incensed monarch pursued the offender,
resolved to punish his infidelity. Cocalus king of Sicily, who
had hospitably received Dædalus, entertained his royal guest with
dissembled friendship; and that he might not deliver to him a man
whose ingenuity and abilities he so well knew, he put Minos to death.
Some say that it was the daughters of Cocalus who put the king of
Crete to death, by detaining him so long in a bath till he fainted,
after which they suffocated him. Minos died about 35 years before
the Trojan war. He was father of Androgeus, Glaucus, and Deucalion,
and two daughters, Phædra and Ariadne. Many authors have confounded
the two monarchs of this name, the grandfather and the grandson,
but Homer, Plutarch, and Diodorus prove plainly that they were
two different persons. _Pausanias_, _Achaia_, ch. 4.――_Plutarch_,
_Theseus_.――_Hyginus_, fable 41.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 8,
li. 141.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 21.
――_Plutarch_, _Parallela minora_.――_Athenæus._――_Flaccus_, bk. 14.
=Minōtaurus=, a celebrated monster, half a man and half a bull,
according to this verse of Ovid, _Ars Amatoria_, bk. 2, li. 24,
_Semibovemque virum, semivirumque bovem_.
It was the fruit of Pasiphae’s amour with a bull. Minos refused to
sacrifice a white bull to Neptune, an animal which he had received
from the god for that purpose. This offended Neptune, and he made
Pasiphae the wife of ♦Minos enamoured of this fine bull, which had
been refused to his altars. Dædalus prostituted his talents in being
subservient to the queen’s unnatural desires, and, by his means,
Pasiphae’s horrible passions were gratified, and the Minotaur came
into the world. Minos confined in the labyrinth a monster which
convinced the world of his wife’s lasciviousness and indecency, and
reflected disgrace upon his family. The Minotaur usually devoured
the chosen young men and maidens, whom the tyranny of Minos yearly
extracted from the Athenians. Theseus delivered his country from this
shameful tribute, when it had fallen to his lot to be sacrificed to
the voracity of the Minotaur, and, by means of Ariadne, the king’s
daughter, he destroyed the monster, and made his escape from the
windings of the labyrinth. The fabulous traditions of the Minotaur,
and of the infamous commerce of Pasiphae with a favourite bull, have
been often explained. Some suppose that Pasiphae was enamoured of one
of her husband’s courtiers, called Taurus, and that Dædalus favoured
the passion of the queen by suffering his house to become the retreat
of the two lovers. Pasiphae, some time after, brought twins into the
world, one of whom greatly resembled Minos, and the other Taurus.
In the natural resemblance of their countenance with that of their
supposed fathers originated their name, and consequently the fable
of the Minotaur. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 8, fable 2.――_Hyginus_,
fable 40.――_Plutarch_, _Theseus_.――_Palæphatus._――_Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 6, li. 26.
♦ ‘Minys’ replaced with ‘Minos’
=Minthe=, a daughter of Cocytus, loved by Pluto. Proserpine discovered
her husband’s amour, and changed his mistress into an herb, called by
the same name, _mint_. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 10, li. 729.
=Minturnæ=, a town of Campania, between Sinuessa and Formiæ. It was in
the marshes, in its neighbourhood, that Marius concealed himself in
the mud, to avoid the partisans of Sylla. The people condemned him to
death, but when his voice alone had terrified the executioner, they
showed themselves compassionate, and favoured his escape. Marica was
worshipped there; hence _Maricæ regna_ applied to the place. _Strabo_,
bk. 2.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 4.――_Livy_, bk. 8, ch. 10; bk. 10, ch. 21;
bk. 27, ch. 38.――_Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 14.――_Lucan_, bk. 2, li. 424.
=Mĭnŭtia=, a vestal virgin, accused of debauchery on account of the
beauty and elegance of her dress. She was condemned to be buried
alive because a female supported the false accusation, A.U.C. 418.
_Livy_, bk. 8, ch. 15.――――A public way from Rome to Brundusium.
_See:_ Via.
=Mĭnŭtius Augurinus=, a Roman consul slain in a battle against the
Samnites.――――A tribune of the people, who put Mælius to death when
he aspired to the sovereignty of Rome. He was honoured with a brazen
statue for causing the corn to be sold at a reduced price to the
people. _Livy_, bk. 4, ch. 16.――_Pliny_, bk. 18, ch. 3.――――Rufus, a
master of horse to the dictator Fabius Maximus. His disobedience to
the commands of the dictator was productive of an extension of his
prerogative, and the master of the horse was declared equal in power
to the dictator. Minutius, soon after this, fought with ill success
against Annibal, and was saved by the interference of Fabius; which
circumstance had such an effect upon him, that he laid down his power
at the feet of his deliverer, and swore that he would never act again
but by his directions. He was killed at the battle of Cannæ. _Livy.
_――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Hannibal_.――――A Roman consul who defended
Coriolanus from the insults of the people, &c.――――Another, defeated
by the Æqui, and disgraced by the dictator Cincinnatus.――――An officer
under Cæsar, in Gaul, who afterwards became one of the conspirators
against his patron. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 6, ch. 29.――――A
tribune who warmly opposed the views of Caius Gracchus.――――A Roman,
chosen dictator, and obliged to lay down his office, because, during
the time of his election, the sudden cry of a rat was heard.――――A
Roman, one of the first who were chosen questors.――――Felix, an
African lawyer, who flourished 207 A.D. He has written an elegant
dialogue in defence of the christian religion, called _Octavius_,
from the principal speaker in it. This book was long attributed
to Arnobius, and even printed as an eighth book (_Octavus_), till
Balduinus discovered the imposition in his edition of Felix, 1560.
The two last editions are that of Davies, 8vo, Cambridge, 1712; and
of Gronovius, 8vo, Leiden, 1709.
=Minyæ=, a name given to the inhabitants of Orchomenos in Bœotia,
from Minyas king of the country. Orchomenos the son of Minyas
gave his name to the capital of the country, and the inhabitants
still retained their original appellation, in contradistinction to
the Orchomenians of Arcadia. A colony of Orchomenians passed into
Thessaly and settled in Iolchos; from which circumstance the people
of the place, and particularly the Argonauts, were called Minyæ. This
name they received, according to the opinion of some, not because a
number of Orchomenians had settled among them, but because the chief
and noblest of them were descended from the daughters of Minyas. Part
of the Orchomenians accompanied the sons of Codrus when they migrated
to Ionia. The descendants of the Argonauts, as well as the Argonauts
themselves, received the name of Minyæ. They first inhabited Lemnos,
where they had been born from the Lemnian women who had murdered
their husbands. They were driven from Lemnos by the Pelasgi about
1160 years before the christian era, and came to settle in Laconia,
from whence they passed into Calliste with a colony of Lacedæmonians.
_Hyginus_, fable 14.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 6.――_Apollonius_, bk. 1,
_Argonautica_.――_Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 145.
=Mĭnyas=, a king of Bœotia, son of Neptune and Tritogenia the daughter
of Æolus. Some make him the son of Neptune and Callirrhoe, or of
Chryses, Neptune’s son, and Chrysogenia the daughter of Halmus.
He married Clytodora, by whom he had Presbon, Periclymenus, and
Eteoclymenus. He was father of Orchomenos, Diochithondes, and Athamas,
by a second marriage with Phanasora the daughter of Paon. According
to Plutarch and Ovid, he had three daughters, called Leuconoe,
Alcithoe, and Leucippe. They were changed into bats. _See:_ Mineides.
_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 36.――_Plutarch_, _Quæstiones Græcæ_, ch. 38.
――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 4, lis. 1 & 468.
=Miny̆cus=, a river of Thessaly, falling into the sea near Arene, called
afterwards Orchomenus. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 11.――_Strabo_, bk. 8.
=Minyeides.= _See:_ Mineides.
=Minyia=, a festival observed at Orchomenus, in honour of Minyas the
king of the place. The Orchomenians were called Minyæ, and the river
upon whose banks their town was built, Mynos.――――A small island near
Patmos.
=Minytus=, one of Niobe’s sons. _Apollodorus._
=Miraces=, a eunuch of Parthia, &c. _Flaccus_, bk. 6, li. 690.
=Misēnum=, or =Misenus=. _See:_ Misenus.
=Misēnus=, a son of Æolus, who was piper to Hector. After Hector’s
death he followed Æneas to Italy, and was drowned on the coast
of Campania, because he had challenged one of the Tritons. Æneas
afterwards found his body on the sea-shore, and buried it on a
promontory which bears his name, now _Miseno_. There was also a town
of the same name on the promontory, at the west of the bay of Naples,
and it had also a capacious harbour, where Augustus and some of
the Roman emperors generally kept stationed one of their fleets.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 239; bk. 6, lis. 164 & 234.――_Strabo_,
bk. 5.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 4.――_Livy_, bk. 24, ch. 13.――_Tacitus_,
_Histories_, bk. 2, ch. 9; _Annals_, bk. 15, ch. 51.
=Misitheus=, a Roman celebrated for his virtues and his misfortunes. He
was father-in-law to the emperor Gordian, whose counsels and actions
he guided by his prudence and moderation. He was sacrificed to the
ambition of Philip, a wicked senator who succeeded him as prefect of
the pretorian guards. He died A.D. 243, and left all his possessions
to be appropriated for the good of the public.
=Mithras=, a god of Persia, supposed to be the sun, or, according to
others, Venus Urania. His worship was introduced at Rome, and the
Romans raised him altars, on which was this ♦inscription, _Deo Soli
Mithræ_, or _Soli Deo invicto Mithræ_. He is generally represented
as a young man, whose head is covered with a turban, after the manner
of the Persians. He supports his knee upon a bull that lies on the
ground, and one of whose horns he holds in one hand, while with
the other he plunges a dagger into his neck. _Statius_, _Thebiad_,
bk. 1, li. 720.――_Curtius_, bk. 4, ch. 13.――_Claudian_, _de consulatu
Stilichonis_, bk. 1.
♦ ‘incription’ replaced with ‘inscription’
=Mithracenses=, a Persian who fled to Alexander after the murder of
Darius by Bessus. _Curtius_, bk. 5.
=Mithradātes=, a herdsman of Astyages, ordered to put young Cyrus
to death. He refused, and educated him at home as his own son, &c.
_Herodotus._――_Justin._
=Mithrēnes=, a Persian who betrayed Sardes, &c. _Curtius_, bk. 3.
=Mithridātes I.=, was the third king of Pontus. He was tributary to the
crown of Persia, and his attempts to make himself independent proved
fruitless. He was conquered in a battle, and obtained peace with
difficulty. Xenophon calls him merely a governor of Cappadocia. He
was succeeded by Ariobarzanes, B.C. 363. _Diodorus._――_Xenophon._
=Mithridātes II.=, king of Pontus, was grandson to Mithridates I. He
made himself master of Pontus, which had been conquered by Alexander,
and had been ceded to Antigonus at the general division of the
Macedonian empire among the conqueror’s generals. He reigned about
26 years, and died at the advanced age of 84 years, B.C. 302. He was
succeeded by his son Mithridates III. Some say that Antigonus put
him to death, because he favoured the cause of Cassander. _Appian_,
_Mithridatic Wars_.――_Diodorus._
=Mithridātes III.=, was son of the preceding monarch. He enlarged his
paternal possessions by the conquest of Cappadocia and Paphlagonia,
and died after a reign of 36 years. _Florus._
=Mithridātes IV.=, succeeded his father Ariobarzanes, who was the son
of Mithridates III.
=Mithridātes V.=, succeeded his father Mithridates IV., and strengthened
himself on his throne by an alliance with Antiochus the Great, whose
daughter Laodice he married. He was succeeded by his son Pharnaces.
=Mithridātes VI.=, succeeded his father Pharnaces. He was the first of
the kings of Pontus who made alliance with the Romans. He furnished
them with a fleet in the third Punic war, and assisted them against
Aristonicus, who had laid claim to the kingdom of Pergamus. This
fidelity was rewarded; he was called _Evergetes_, and received
from the Roman people the province of Phrygia Major, and was called
the friend and ally of Rome. He was murdered B.C. 123. _Appian_,
_Mithridatic Wars_.――_Justin_, bk. 37, &c.
=Mithridātes VII.=, surnamed _Eupator_ and _The Great_, succeeded
his father Mithridates VI., though only at the age of 11 years.
The beginning of his reign was marked by ambition, cruelty, and
artifice. He murdered his own mother, who had been left by his father
co-heiress of the kingdom, and he fortified his constitution by
drinking antidotes against the poison with which his enemies at
court attempted to destroy him. He early inured his body to hardship,
and employed himself in many manly exercises, often remaining whole
months in the country, and making the frozen snow and the earth the
place of his repose. Naturally ambitious and cruel, he spared no
pains to acquire himself power and dominion. He murdered the two sons
whom his sister Laodice had had by Ariarathes king of Cappadocia, and
placed one of his own children, only eight years old, on the vacant
throne. These violent proceedings alarmed Nicomedes king of Bithynia,
who married Laodice the widow of Ariarathes. He suborned a youth to
be king of Cappadocia, as the third son of Ariarathes, and Laodice
was sent to Rome to impose upon the senate, and assure them that her
third son was still alive, and that his pretensions to the kingdom
of Cappadocia were just and well grounded. Mithridates used the same
arms of dissimulation. He also sent to Rome Gordius, the governor
of his son, who solemnly declared before the Roman people, that
the youth who sat on the throne of Cappadocia was the third son
and lawful heir of Ariarathes, and that he was supported as such by
Mithridates. This intricate affair displeased the Roman senate, and
finally to settle the dispute between the two monarchs, the powerful
arbiters took away the kingdom of Cappadocia from Mithridates, and
Paphlagonia from Nicomedes. These two kingdoms, being thus separated
from their original possessors, were presented with their freedom
and independence; but the Cappadocians refused it, and received
Ariobarzanes for king. Such were the first seeds of enmity between
Rome and the king of Pontus. _See:_ Mithridaticum bellum. Mithridates
never lost an opportunity by which he might lessen the influence
of his adversaries; and the more effectually to destroy their power
in Asia, he ordered all the Romans that were in his dominions to
be massacred. This was done in one night, and no less than 150,000,
according to Plutarch, or 80,000 Romans, as Appian mentions, were
made, at one blow, the victims of his cruelty. This universal
massacre called aloud for revenge. Aquilius, and soon after Sylla,
marched against Mithridates with a large army. The former was made
prisoner, but Sylla obtained a victory over the king’s generals,
and another decisive engagement rendered him master of all Greece,
Macedonia, Ionia, and Asia Minor, which had submitted to the
victorious arms of the monarch of Pontus. This ill fortune was
aggravated by the loss of about 200,000 men, who were killed in the
several engagements that had been fought; and Mithridates, weakened
by repeated ill success by sea and land, sued for peace from the
conqueror, which he obtained on condition of defraying the expenses
which the Romans had incurred by the war, and of remaining satisfied
with the possessions which he had received from his ancestors.
While these negotiations of peace were carried on, Mithridates
was not unmindful of his real interests. His poverty, and not his
inclinations, obliged him to wish for peace. He immediately took
the field, with an army of 140,000 infantry and 16,000 horse, which
consisted of his own forces and those of his son-in-law Tigranes king
of Armenia. With such a numerous army, he soon made himself master
of the Roman provinces in Asia; none dared to oppose his conquests,
and the Romans, relying on his fidelity, had withdrawn the greatest
part of their armies from the country. The news of his warlike
preparations was no sooner heard, than Lucullus the consul marched
into Asia, and without delay blocked up the camp of Mithridates, who
was then besieging Cyzicus. The Asiatic monarch escaped from him,
and fled into the heart of his kingdom. Lucullus pursued him with the
utmost celerity, and would have taken him prisoner after a battle,
had not the avidity of his soldiers preferred the plundering of a
mule loaded with gold, to the taking of a monarch who had exercised
such cruelties against their countrymen, and shown himself so
faithless to the most solemn engagements. After this escape,
Mithridates was more careful about the safety of his person, and he
even ordered his wives and sisters to destroy themselves, fearful of
their falling into the enemy’s hands. The appointment of Glabrio to
the command of the Roman forces, instead of Lucullus, was favourable
to Mithridates, and he recovered the greatest part of his dominions.
The sudden arrival of Pompey, however, soon put an end to his
victories. A battle, in the night, was fought near the Euphrates,
in which the troops of Pontus laboured under every disadvantage.
The engagement was by moonlight, and, as the moon then shone in
the face of the enemy, the lengthened shadows of the arms of the
Romans having induced Mithridates to believe that the two armies
were close together, the arrows of his soldiers were darted from a
great distance, and their efforts rendered ineffectual. A universal
overthrow ensued, and Mithridates, bold in his misfortunes, rushed
through the thick ranks of the enemy, at the head of 800 horsemen,
500 of which perished in the attempt to follow him. He fled to
Tigranes, but that monarch refused an asylum to his father-in-law,
whom he had before supported with all the collected forces of his
kingdom. Mithridates found a safe retreat among the Scythians, and,
though destitute of power, friends, and resources, yet he meditated
the destruction of the Roman empire, by penetrating into the heart
of Italy by land. These wild projects were rejected by his followers,
and he sued for peace. It was denied to his ♦ambassadors, and the
victorious Pompey declared that, to obtain it, Mithridates must ask
it in person. He scorned to trust himself into the hands of his enemy,
and resolved to conquer or to die. His subjects refused to follow him
any longer, and they revolted from him, and made his son Pharnaces
king. The son showed himself ungrateful to his father, and even,
according to some writers, he ordered him to be put to death. This
unnatural treatment broke the heart of Mithridates; he obliged his
wife to poison herself, and attempted to do the same himself. It was
in vain; the frequent antidotes he had taken in the early part of his
life strengthened his constitution against the poison, and, when this
was unavailing, he attempted to stab himself. The blow was not mortal;
and a Gaul, who was then present, at his own request, gave him the
fatal stroke, about 63 years before the christian era, in the 72nd
year of his age. Such were the misfortunes, abilities, and miserable
end of a man, who supported himself so long against the power of
Rome, and who, according to the declaration of the Roman authors,
proved a more powerful and indefatigable adversary to the capital of
Italy, than the great Annibal, and Pyrrhus, Perseus, or Antiochus.
Mithridates has been commended for his eminent virtues, and censured
for his vices. As a commander he deserves the most unbounded applause,
and it may create admiration to see him waging war with such success
during so many years against the most powerful people on earth,
led to the field by a Sylla, a Lucullus, and a Pompey. He was the
greatest monarch that ever sat on a throne, according to the opinion
of Cicero; and, indeed, no better proof of his military character can
be brought, than the mention of the great rejoicings which happened
in the Roman armies and in the capital at the news of his death.
No less than 12 days were appointed for public thanksgivings to the
immortal gods, and Pompey, who had sent the first intelligence of
his death to Rome, and who had partly hastened his fall, was rewarded
with the most uncommon honours. _See:_ Ampia lex. It is said that
Mithridates conquered 24 nations, whose different languages he
knew, and spoke with the same ease and fluency as his own. As a
man of letters he also deserves attention. He was acquainted with
the Greek language, and even wrote in that dialect a treatise on
botany. His skill in physic is well known, and even now there is a
celebrated antidote which bears his name, and is called _Mithridate_.
Superstition, as well as nature, had united to render him great; and
if we rely upon the authority of Justin, his birth was accompanied
by the appearance of two large comets, which were seen for 70 days
successively, and whose splendour eclipsed the mid-day sun, and
covered the fourth part of the heavens. _Justin_, bk. 37, ch. 1,
&c.――_Strabo._――_Diodorus_, bk. 14.――_Florus_, bk. 3, ch. 5, &c.
――_Plutarch_, _Sulla_; _Lucullus_; _Caius Marius_; & _Pompey_.
――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 4, ch. 6, &c.――_Dio Cassius_, bk. 30,
&c.――_Appian_, _Mithridatic Wars_.――_Pliny_, bk. 2, ch. 97; bk. 7,
ch. 24; bk. 25, ch. 2; bk. 33, ch. 3, &c.――_Cicero_, _On Pompey’s
Command_, &c.――_Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 18.――_Eutropius_, bk. 5.
――_Josephus_, bk. 14.――_Orosius_, bk. 6, &c.
♦ ‘ambassaders’ replaced with ‘ambassadors’
=Mithridātes=, a king of Parthia, who took Demetrius prisoner.――――A
man made king of Armenia by Tiberius. He was afterwards imprisoned
by Caligula, and set at liberty by Claudius. He was murdered by one
of his nephews, and his family were involved in his ruin. _Tacitus_,
_Annals_.――――Another, king of Armenia.――――A king of Pergamus, who
warmly embraced the cause of Julius Cæsar, and was made king of
Bosphorus by him. Some supposed him to be the son of the great
Mithridates by a concubine. He was murdered, &c.――――A king of
Iberia.――――Another of Comagena.――――A celebrated king of Parthia, who
enlarged his possessions by the conquest of some of the neighbouring
countries. He examined with a careful eye the constitution and
political regulations of the nations he had conquered, and framed
from them, for the service of his own subjects, a code of laws.
_Justin._――_Orosius._――――Another, who murdered his father, and made
himself master of the crown.――――A king of Pontus, put to death by
order of Galba, &c.――――A man in the armies of Artaxerxes. He was
rewarded by the monarch for having wounded Cyrus the younger; but,
when he boasted that he had killed him, he was cruelly put to death.
_Plutarch_, _Artaxerxes_.――――A son of Ariobarzanes, who basely
murdered Datames. _Cornelius Nepos_, _Datames_.
=Mithridātĭcum bellum=, begun 89 years B.C., was one of the longest and
most celebrated wars ever carried on by the Romans against a foreign
power. The ambition of Mithridates, from whom it receives its name,
may be called the cause and origin of it. His views upon the kingdom
of Cappadocia, of which he was stripped by the Romans, first engaged
him to take up arms against the republic. Three Romans officers,
Lucius Cassius the proconsul, Marcus Aquilius, and Quintus Oppius,
opposed Mithridates with the troops of Bithynia, Cappadocia,
Paphlagonia, and Gallo-græcia. The army of these provinces, together
with the Roman soldiers in Asia, amounted to 70,000 men and 6000
horse. The forces of the king of Pontus were greatly superior to
these; he led 250,000 foot, 40,000 horse, and 130 armed chariots into
the field of battle, under the command of Neoptolemus and Archelaus.
His fleet consisted of 400 ships of war, well manned and provisioned.
In an engagement the king of Pontus obtained the victory, and
dispersed the Roman forces in Asia. He became master of the greatest
part of Asia, and the Hellespont submitted to his power. Two of the
Roman generals were taken, and Marcus Aquilius, who was principally
entrusted with the conduct of the war, was carried about in Asia, and
exposed to the ridicule and insults of the populace, and at last put
to death by Mithridates, who ordered melted gold to be poured down
his throat, as a slur upon the avidity of the Romans. The conqueror
took every possible advantage; he subdued all the islands of the
Ægean sea, and, though Rhodes refused to submit to his power, yet
all Greece was soon overrun by his general Archelaus, and made
tributary to the kingdom of Pontus. Meanwhile the Romans, incensed
against Mithridates on account of his perfidy, and of his cruelty
in massacring 80,000 of their countrymen in one day all over Asia,
appointed Sylla to march into the east. Sylla landed in Greece, where
the inhabitants readily acknowledged his power; but Athens shut her
gates against the Roman commander, and Archelaus, who defended it,
defeated, with the greatest courage, all the efforts and operations
of the enemy. This spirited defence was of short duration. Archelaus
retreated into Bœotia, where Sylla soon followed him. The two hostile
armies drew up in a line of battle near Chæronea, and the Romans
obtained the victory, and of the almost innumerable forces of the
Asiatics, no more than 10,000 escaped. Another battle in Thessaly,
near Orchomenos, proved equally fatal to the king of Pontus. Dorylaus,
one of his generals, was defeated, and he soon after sued for peace.
Sylla listened to the terms of accommodation, as his presence at Rome
was now become necessary to quell the commotions and cabals which
his enemies had raised against him. He pledged himself to the king
of Pontus to confirm him in the possession of his dominions, and to
procure him the title of friend and ally of Rome; and Mithridates
consented to relinquish Asia and Paphlagonia, to deliver Cappadocia
to Ariobarzanes, and Bithynia to Nicomedes, and to pay to the Romans
2000 talents to defray the expenses of the war, and to deliver into
their hands 70 galleys, with all their rigging. Though Mithridates
seemed to have re-established peace in his dominions, yet Fimbria,
whose sentiments were contrary to those of Sylla, and who made
himself master of the army of Asia by intrigue and oppression,
kept him under continual alarms, and rendered the existence of his
power precarious. Sylla, who had returned from Greece to ratify the
treaty which had been made with Mithridates, rid the world of the
tyrannical Fimbria; and the king of Pontus, awed by the resolution
and determined firmness of his adversary, agreed to the conditions,
though with reluctance. The hostile preparations of Mithridates,
which continued in the time of peace, became suspected by the Romans,
and Muræna, who was left as governor of Asia in Sylla’s absence, and
who wished to make himself known by some conspicuous action, began
hostilities by taking Comana and plundering the temple of Bellona.
Mithridates did not oppose him, but he complained of this breach of
peace before the Roman senate. Muræna was publicly reprimanded; but,
as he did not cease from hostilities, it was easily understood that
he acted by the private directions of the Roman people. The king
upon this marched against him, and a battle was fought, in which both
the adversaries claimed the victory. This was the last blow which
the king of Pontus received in this war, which is called the second
Mithridatic war, and which continued for about three years. Sylla
at that time was made perpetual dictator at Rome, and he commanded
Muræna to retire from the kingdom of Mithridates. The death of Sylla
changed the face of affairs; the treaty of peace between the king
of Pontus and the Romans, which had never been committed to writing,
demanded frequent explanations, and Mithridates at last threw off
the mask of friendship, and declared war. Nicomedes, at his death,
left his kingdom to the Romans, but Mithridates disputed their
right to the possessions of the deceased monarch, and entered the
field with 120,000 men, besides a fleet of 400 ships in his ports,
16,000 horsemen to follow him, and 100 chariots armed with scythes.
Lucullus was appointed over Asia, and entrusted with the care of
the Mithridatic war. His valour and prudence showed his merit; and
Mithridates, in his vain attempts to take Cyzicum, lost no less
than 300,000 men. Success continually attended the Roman arms. The
king of Pontus was defeated in several bloody engagements, and with
difficulty saved his life, and retired to his son-in-law Tigranes
king of Armenia. Lucullus pursued him; and, when his applications
for the person of the fugitive monarch had been despised by Tigranes,
he marched to the capital of Armenia, and terrified, by his sudden
approach, the numerous forces of the enemy. A battle ensued. The
Romans obtained an easy victory, and no less than 100,000 foot
of the Armenians perished, and only five men of the Romans were
killed. Tigranocerta, the rich capital of the country, fell into
the conqueror’s hands. After such signal victories, Lucullus had the
mortification to see his own troops mutiny, and to be dispossessed of
the command by the arrival of Pompey. The new general showed himself
worthy to succeed Lucullus. He defeated Mithridates, and rendered
his affairs so desperate, that the monarch fled for safety into the
country of the Scythians; where, for a while, he meditated the ruin
of the Roman empire, and, with more wildness than prudence, secretly
resolved to invade Italy by land, and march an army across the
northern wilds of Asia and Europe to the Apennines. Not only the
kingdom of Mithridates had fallen into the enemy’s hands, but also
all the neighbouring kings and princes were subdued, and Pompey saw
prostrate at his feet Tigranes himself, that king of kings, who had
lately treated the Romans with such contempt. Meantime, the wild
projects of Mithridates terrified his subjects; and they, fearful
to accompany him in a march of above 2000 miles across a barren and
uncultivated country, revolted, and made his son king. The monarch,
forsaken in his old age, even by his own children, put an end to his
life [_See:_ Mithridates VII.], and gave the Romans cause to rejoice,
as the third Mithridatic war was ended in his fall, B.C. 63. Such
were the unsuccessful struggles of Mithridates against the power
of Rome. He was always full of resources, and the Romans had never
a greater or more dangerous war to sustain. The duration of the
Mithridatic war is not precisely known. According to Justin, Orosius,
Floras, and Eutropius, it lasted 40 years; but the opinion of others,
who fix its duration to 30 years, is far more credible; and, indeed,
by proper calculation, there elapsed no more than 26 years from the
time that Mithridates first entered the field against the Romans,
till the time of his death. _Appian_, _ Mithridatic Wars_.――_Justin_,
bk. 37, &c.――_Florus_, bk. 2, &c.――_Livy._――_Plutarch_, _Lucullus_,
&c.――_Orosius._――_Paterculus._――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus._
=Mithridātis=, a ♦daughter of Mithridates the Great. She was poisoned
by her father.
♦ ‘daughther’ replaced with ‘daughter’
=Mithrobarzānes=, a king of Armenia, &c.――――An officer sent by Tigranes
against Lucullus, &c. _Plutarch._――――The father-in-law of Datames.
=Mĭty̆lēne= and =Hĭty̆lĕnæ=, the capital city of the island of Lesbos,
which receives its name from Mitylene the daughter of Macareus, a
king of the country. It was greatly commended by the ancients for
the stateliness of its buildings and the fruitfulness of its soil,
but more particularly for the great men whom it produced. Pittacus,
Alcæus, Sappho, Terpander, Theophanes, Hellenicus, &c., were all
natives of Mitylene. It was long a seat of learning, and, with Rhodes
and Athens, it had the honour of having educated many of the great
men of Rome and Greece. In the Peloponnesian war the Mityleneans
suffered greatly for their revolt from the power of Athens; and, in
the Mithridatic wars, they had the boldness to resist the Romans,
and disdain the treaties which had been made between Mithridates and
Sylla. _Cicero_, _On the Agrarian Law_.――_Strabo_, bk. 13.――_Mela_,
bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Diodorus_, bks. 3 & 12.――_Paterculus_, bk. 1, ch. 4.
――_Horace_, bk. 1, ode 7, &c.――_Thucydides_, bk. 3, &c.――_Plutarch_,
_Pompey_, &c.
=Mitys=, a man whose statue fell upon his murderer, and crushed him to
death, &c. _Aristotle_, bk. 10, _Poetics_.――――A river of Macedonia.
=Mizæi=, a people of Elymais.
=Mnasalces=, a Greek poet, who wrote epigrams. _Athenæus._――_Strabo._
=Mnasias=, an historian of Phœnicia.――――Another of Colophon.――――A third
of Patræ, in Achaia, who flourished 141 B.C.
=Mnasicles=, a general of Thymbro, &c. _Diodorus_, ♦bk. 18.
♦ ‘58’ replaced with ‘18’
=Mnasīlus=, a youth who assisted Chromis to tie the old Silenus, whom
they found asleep in a cave. Some imagine that Virgil spoke of Varus
under the name of Mnasilus. _Virgil_, _Eclogues_, poem 6, li. 13.
=Mnasippidas=, a Lacedæmonian, who imposed upon the credulity of the
people, &c. _Polyænus._
=Mnasippus=, a Lacedæmonian, sent with a fleet of 65 ships and 1500 men
to Corcyra, where he was killed, &c. _Diodorus_, bk. 15.
=Mnasitheus=, a friend of Aratus.
=Mnason=, a tyrant of Elatia, who gave 1200 pieces of gold for 12
pictures of 12 gods to Asclepiodorus. _Pliny_, bk. 35, ch. 16.
=Mnasyrium=, a place in Rhodes. _Strabo_, bk. 14.
=Mnemon=, a surname given to Artaxerxes on account of his retentive
memory. _Cornelius Nepos_, _Kings_.――――A Rhodian.
=Mnēmŏsy̆ne=, a daughter of Cœlus and Terra, mother of the nine Muses
by Jupiter, who assumed the form of a shepherd to enjoy her company.
The word _Mnemosyne_ signifies _memory_, and therefore the poets
have rightly called memory the mother of the Muses, because it is to
that mental endowment that mankind are indebted for their progress
in science. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 6, fable 4.――_Pindar_,
_Isthmean_, ch. 6.――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1,
ch. 1, &c.――――A fountain of Bœotia, whose waters were generally drunk
by those who consulted the oracle of Trophonius. _Pausanias_, bk. 9,
ch. 39.
=Mnesarchus=, a celebrated philosopher of Greece, pupil to Panætius,
&c. _Cicero_, _On Oratory_, bk. 1, ch. 11.
=Mnesidămus=, an officer who conspired against the lieutenant of
Demetrius. _Polyænus_, bk. 5.
=Mnesilaus=, a son of Pollux and Phœbe. _Apollodorus._
=Mnesimăche=, a daughter of Dexamenus king of Olenus, courted by
Eurytion, whom Hercules killed. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2.
=Mnesimăchus=, a comic poet.
=Mnester=, a freedman of Agrippina, who murdered himself at the death
of his mistress. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 14, ch. 9.
=Mnestheus=, a Trojan, descended from Assaracus. He was a competitor
for the prize given to the best sailing vessel by Æneas, at the
funeral games of Anchises in Sicily, and became the progenitor of the
family of the Memmii at Rome. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 4, li. 116, &c.
――――A son of Peteus. _See:_ Menestheus.――――A freedman of Aurelian, &c.
_Eutropius_, bk. 9.――_Aurelius Victor._
=Mnestia=, a daughter of Danaus. _Apollodorus._
=Mnestra=, a mistress of Cimon.
=Mnĕvis=, a celebrated bull, sacred to the sun in the town of
Heliopolis. He was worshipped with the same superstitious ceremonies
as Apis, and, at his death, he received the most magnificent funeral.
He was the emblem of Osiris. _Diodorus_, bk. 1.――_Plutarch_, _de
Iside et Osiride_.
=Moaphernes=, the uncle of Strabo’s mother, &c. _Strabo_, bk. 12.
=Modestus=, a Latin writer, whose book _De re Militari_ has been
elegantly edited in 2 vols., 8vo, Vesaliæ, 1670.
=Modia=, a rich widow at Rome. _Juvenal_, satire 3, li. 130.
=Mœcia=, one of the tribes at Rome. _Livy_, bk. 8, ch. 17.
=Mœnus=, now _Mayne_, a river of Germany, which falls into the Rhine
near Mentz. _Tacitus_, _Germania_, ch. 28.
=Mœragĕtes=, _fatorum ductor_, a surname of Jupiter. _Pausanias_,
bk. 5, ch. 15.
=Mœris=, a king of India, who fled at the approach of Alexander.
_Curtius_, bk. 9, ch. 8.――――A steward of the shepherd Menalcas in
_Virgil’s_, _Eclogues_, poem 9.――――A king of Egypt. He was the last
of the 300 kings from Menes to Sesostris, and reigned 68 years.
_Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 13.――――A celebrated lake in Egypt, supposed
to have been dug by the king of the same name. It is about 220 miles
in circumference, and intended as a reservoir for the superfluous
waters during the inundation of the Nile. There were two pyramids in
it, 600 feet high, half of which lay under the water, and the other
appeared above the surface. _Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 4, &c.――_Mela_,
bk. 1, ch. 6.――_Pliny_, bk. 36, ch. 12.
=Mœdi=, a people of Thrace, conquered by Philip of Macedonia.
=Mœon=, a Sicilian, who poisoned Agathocles, &c.
=Mœra=, a dog. _See:_ Mera.
=Mœsia=, a country of Europe, bounded on the south by the mountains of
Dalmatia, north by mount Hæmus, extending from the confluence of the
Savus and the Danube to the shores of the Euxine. It was divided into
Upper and Lower Mœsia. Lower Mœsia was on the borders of the Euxine,
and contained that tract of country which received the name of Pontus
from its vicinity to the sea, and which is now part of _Bulgaria_.
Upper Mœsia lies beyond the other, in the inland country, now called
_Servia_. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 26.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 1,
li. 102.
=Moleia=, a festival in Arcadia, in commemoration of a battle in which
Lycurgus obtained the victory.
=Molion=, a Trojan prince, who distinguished himself in the defence
of his country against the Greeks as the friend and companion of
Thymbræus. They were slain by Ulysses and Diomedes. _Homer_, _Iliad_,
bk. 11, li. 320.
=Molīŏne=, the wife of Actor son of Phorbas. She became mother
of Cteatus and Eurytus, who, from her, are called _Molionides_.
_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 14.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 7.
=Molo=, a philosopher of Rhodes, called also Apollonius. Some are of
opinion that Apollonius and Molo are two different persons, who were
both natives of Alabanda, and disciples of Menecles, of the same
place. They both visited Rhodes, and there opened a school, but Molo
flourished some time after Apollonius. Molo had Cicero and Julius
Cæsar among his pupils. _See:_ Apollonius. _Cicero_, _On Oratory_.
――――A prince of Syria, who revolted against Antiochus, and killed
himself when his rebellion was attended with ill success.
=Moloeis=, a river of Bœotia, near Platæa.
=Mŏlorchus=, an old shepherd near Cleonæ, who received Hercules with
great hospitality. The hero, to repay the kindness he received,
destroyed the Nemæan lion, which laid waste the neighbouring country
and, therefore, the Nemæan games, instituted on this occasion, are to
be understood by the words _Lucus Molorchi_. There were two festivals
instituted in his honour, called _Molorcheæ_. _Martial_, bk. 9,
ltr. 44; bk. 14, ltr. 44.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 5.――_Virgil_,
_Georgics_, bk. 3, li. 19.――_Statius_, _Thebiad_, bk. 4, li. 160.
=Mŏlossi=, a people of Epirus, who inhabited that part of the country
which was called _Molossia_, or _Molossis_ from king Molossus. This
country had the bay of Ambracia on the south, and the country of
the Perrhæbeans on the east. The dogs of the place were famous,
and received the name of _Molossi_ among the Romans. Dodona was the
capital of the country according to some writers. Others, however,
reckon it as the chief city of Thesprotia. _Lucretius_, bk. 5,
lis. 10, 62.――_Lucan_, bk. 4, li. 440.――_Strabo_, bk. 7.――_Livy._
――_Justin_, bk. 7, ch. 6.――_Cornelius Nepos_, bk. 2, ch. 8.
――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 3, li. 495.――_Horace_, bk. 2, satire 6,
li. 114.
=Mŏlossia=, or =Molossis=. _See:_ Molossi.
=Molossus=, a son of Pyrrhus and Andromache. He reigned in Epirus,
after the death of Helenus, and part of his dominions received the
name of Molossia from him. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 11.――――A surname
of Jupiter in Epirus.――――An Athenian general, &c. _Pausanias_,
_Theseus_.――――The father of Merion of Crete. _See:_ Molus. _Homer_,
_Odyssey_, bk. 6.
=Molpadia=, one of the Amazons, &c. _Plutarch._
=Molpus=, an author who wrote a history of Lacedæmon.
=Molus=, a Cretan, father of Meriones. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 6.――――A
son of Deucalion.――――Another, son of Mars and Demonice.
=Molycrion=, a town of Ætolia, between the Evenus and Naupactum.
_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 3.
=Momemphis=, a town of Egypt. _Strabo_, bk. 17.
=Momus=, the god of pleasantry among the ancients, was son of Nox,
according to Hesiod. He was continually employed in satirizing the
gods, and whatever they did was freely turned to ridicule. He blamed
Vulcan, because in the human form which he had made of clay, he had
not placed a window in his breast, by which whatever was done or
thought there might be easily brought to light. He censured the house
which Minerva had made, because the goddess had not made it movable,
by which means a bad neighbourhood might be avoided. In the bull
which Neptune had produced, he observed that his blows might have
been surer if his eyes had been placed near his horns. Venus herself
was exposed to his satire; and when the sneering god had found no
fault in the body of the naked goddess, he observed, as she retired,
that the noise of her feet was too loud, and greatly improper in the
goddess of beauty. These illiberal reflections upon the gods were the
cause that Momus was driven from heaven. He is generally represented
raising a mask from his face, and holding a small figure in his hand.
_Hesiod_, _Theogony_.――_Lucian_, _Hermotimus_.
=Mona=, an island between Britain and Hibernia, anciently inhabited by
a number of Druids. It is supposed by some to be the modern island of
_Anglesey_, and by others, the island of _Man_. _Tacitus_, _Annals_,
bk. 14, chs. 18 & 29.
=Monæses=, a king of Parthia, who favoured the cause of Marcus Antony
against Augustus. _Horace_, bk. 3, ode 6, li. 9.――――A Parthian in the
age of Mithridates, &c.
=Monda=, a river between the Durius, and Tagus, in Portugal. _Pliny_,
bk. 4, ch. 22.
=Monēsus=, a general killed by Jason at Colchis, &c.
=Monēta=, a surname of Juno among the Romans. She received it because
she advised them to sacrifice a pregnant sow to Cybele, to avert an
earthquake. _Cicero_, _De Divinatione_, bk. 1, ch. 15. _Livy_ says
(bk. 7, ch. 28) that a temple was vowed to Juno under this name, by
the dictator Furius, when the Romans waged war against the Aurunci,
and that the temple was raised to the goddess by the senate, on
the spot where the house of Manlius Capitolinus had formerly stood.
_Suidas_, however, says, that Juno was surnamed _Moneta_, from
assuring the Romans, when in the war against Pyrrhus they complained
of want of pecuniary resources, that money could never fail to those
who cultivated justice.
=Monĭma=, a beautiful woman of Miletus, whom Mithridates the Great
married. When his affairs grew desperate, Mithridates ordered his
wives to destroy themselves; Monima attempted to strangle herself,
but when her efforts were unavailing, she ordered one of her
attendants to stab her. _Plutarch_, _Lucullus_.
=Monimus=, a philosopher of Syracuse.
=Monŏdus=, a son of Prusias. He had one continued bone instead of a row
of teeth, whence his name (μονος ὁδους). _Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 16.
=Monœcus=, now _Monaco_, a town and port of Liguria, where Hercules had
a temple; whence he is called _Monœcius_, and the harbour _Herculis
Portus_. _Strabo_, bk. 4.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 830.
=Monoleus=, a lake of Æthiopia.
=Monophăge=, sacrifices in Ægina.
=Monophĭlus=, a eunuch of Mithridates. The king entrusted him with the
care of one of his daughters; and the eunuch, when he saw the affairs
of his master in a desperate situation, stabbed her, lest she should
fall into the enemy’s hands, &c.
=Mons Sacer=, a mountain near Rome, where the Roman populace retired in
a tumult, which was the cause of the election of the tribunes.
=Mons Sevērus=, a mountain near Rome, &c.
=Montānus=, a poet who wrote in hexameter and elegiac verses. _Ovid_,
_ex Ponto_.――――An orator under Vespasian.――――A favourite of Messalina.
――――One of the senators whom Domitian consulted about boiling a
turbot. _Juvenal_, satire 4.
=Mony̆chus=, a powerful giant, who could root up trees and hurl them
like a javelin. He receives his name from his having the feet of a
horse, as the word implies. _Juvenal_, satire 1, li. 11.
=Mony̆ma.= _See:_ Monima.
=Mony̆mus=, a servant of Corinth, who, not being permitted by his master
to follow Diogenes the cynic, pretended madness, and obtained his
liberty. He became a great admirer of the philosopher, and also of
Crates, and even wrote something in the form of facetious stories.
_Diogenes Laërtius._
=Mophis=, an Indian prince conquered by Alexander.
=Mopsium=, a hill and town of Thessaly, between Tempe and Larissa.
_Livy_, bk. 42.
=Mopsopia=, an ancient name of Athens, from Mopsus, one of its kings,
and from thence the epithet of _Mopsopius_ is often applied to an
Athenian.
=Mopsuhestia=, or =Mopsos=, a town of Cilicia near the sea. _Cicero_,
_Letters to his Friends_, bk. 3, ch. 8.
=Mopsus=, a celebrated prophet, son of Manto and Apollo, during the
Trojan war. He was consulted by Amphimachus king of Colophon, who
wished to know what success would attend his arms in a war which
he was going to undertake. He predicted the greatest calamities;
but Calchas, who had been a soothsayer of the Greeks during the
Trojan war, promised the greatest successes. Amphimachus followed
the opinion of Calchas, but the opinion of Mopsus was fully verified.
This had such an effect upon Calchas that he died soon after. His
death is attributed by some to another mortification of the same
nature. The two soothsayers, jealous of each other’s fame, came
to a trial of their skill in divination. Calchas first asked his
antagonist how many figs a neighbouring tree bore. “Ten thousand
except one,” replied Mopsus, “and one single vessel can contain them
all.” The figs were gathered, and his conjectures were true. Mopsus,
now to try his adversary, asked him how many young ones a certain
pregnant sow would bring forth. Calchas confessed his ignorance, and
Mopsus immediately said that the sow would bring forth on the morrow
10 young ones, of which only one should be a male, all black, and
that the females should all be known by their white streaks. The
morrow proved the veracity of his prediction, and Calchas died by
excess of the grief which this defeat produced. Mopsus after death
was ranked among the gods; and had an oracle at Malia, celebrated
for the true and decisive answers which it gave. _Strabo_, bk. 9.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 3.――_Ammianus_, bk. 14, ch. 8.――_Plutarch_,
_de Defectu Oraculorum_.――――A son of Ampyx and Chloris, born at
Titaressa in Thessaly. He was the prophet and soothsayer of the
Argonauts, and died at his return from Colchis by the bite of a
serpent in Libya. Jason erected to him a monument on the sea-shore,
where afterwards the Africans built him a temple where he gave
oracles. He has often been confounded with the son of Manto, as
their professions and their names were alike. _Hyginus_, fables 14,
128, 173.――_Strabo_, bk. 9.――――A shepherd of that name in _Virgil_,
_Eclogues_.
=Morgantium= (or ia), a town of Sicily, near the mouth of the Simethus.
_Cicero_, _Against Verres_, bk. 3, ch. 18.
=Morĭni=, a people of Belgic Gaul, on the shores of the British ocean.
The shortest passage to Britain was from their territories. They
were called _extremi hominum_ by the Romans, because situate on the
extremities of Gaul. Their city, called _Morinorum castellum_, is now
_Mount Cassel_, in Artois; and _Morinorum civitas_, is _Terouenne_,
on the Lis. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8, li. 726.――_Cæsar_, bk. 4,
_Gallic War_, ch. 21.
=Moritasgus=, a king of the Senones at the arrival of Cæsar in Gaul.
_Cæsar_, _Gallic War_.
=Morius=, a river of Bœotia. _Plutarch._
=Morpheus=, the son and minister of the god Somnus, who naturally
imitated the grimaces, gestures, words, and manners of mankind. He is
sometimes called the god of sleep. He is generally represented as a
sleeping child of great corpulence, and with wings. He holds a vase
in one hand, and in the other are some poppies. He is represented by
Ovid as sent to inform by a dream and a vision the unhappy Alcyone
of the fate of her husband Ceyx. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 11,
fable 10.
=Mors=, one of the infernal deities born of Night, without a father.
She was worshipped by the ancients, particularly by the Lacedæmonians,
with great solemnity, and represented not as an actually existing
power, but as an imaginary being. Euripides introduces her in one of
his tragedies on the stage. The moderns represent her as a skeleton
armed with a scythe and a scymetar.
=Mortuum mare.= _See:_ Mare Mortuum.
=Morys=, a Trojan killed by Meriones during the Trojan war. _Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 13, &c.
=Mosa=, a river of Belgic Gaul falling into the German ocean, and now
called the _Maese_ or _Meuse_. The bridge over it, _Mosæpons_, is now
supposed to be _Maestricht_. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 4, ch. 66.
=Moscha=, now _Mascat_, a port of Arabia on the Red sea.
=Moschi=, a people of Asia, at the west of the Caspian sea. _Mela_,
bk. 1, ch. 2; bk. 3, ch. 5.――_Lucan_, bk. 3, li. 270.
=Moschion=, a name common to four different writers, whose compositions,
character, and native place are unknown. Some fragments of their
writings remain, some few verses and a treatise _de morbis mulierum_,
edited by Gesner, 4to, Basil, 1566.
=Moschus=, a Phœnician who wrote the history of his country in his own
mother tongue.――――A philosopher of Sidon. He is supposed to be the
founder of anatomical philosophy. _Strabo._――――A Greek Bucolic poet
in the age of Ptolemy Philadelphus. The sweetness and elegance of his
eclogues, which are still extant, make the world regret the loss of
poetical pieces no ways inferior to the productions of Theocritus.
The best editions of Moschus with Bion is that of Heskin, 8vo,
Oxford, 1748.――――A Greek rhetorician of Pergamus in the age of Horace,
defended by Torquatus in an accusation of having poisoned some of his
friends. _Horace_, bk. 1, ltr. 5, li. 9.
=Mosella=, a river of Belgic Gaul falling into the Rhine at Coblentz,
and now called the _Moselle_. _Florus_, bk. 3, ch. 10.――_Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 13, ch. 53.
=Moses=, a celebrated legislator and general among the Jews, well
known in sacred history. He was born in Egypt 1571 B.C., and after he
had performed his miracles before Pharaoh, conducted the Israelites
through the Red sea, and given them laws and ordinances, during their
peregrination of 40 years in the wilderness of Arabia, he died at the
age of 120. His writings have been quoted and commended by several of
the heathen authors, who have divested themselves of their prejudices
against a Hebrew, and extolled his learning and the effects of his
wisdom. _Longinus._――_Diodorus_, bk. 1.
=Mosychlus=, a mountain of Lemnos. _Nicander._
=Mosynæci=, a nation on the Euxine sea, in whose territories the 10,000
Greeks stayed on their return from Cunaxa. _Xenophon._
=Mothōne=, a town of Magnesia, where Philip lost one of his eyes.
_Justin_, bk. 7, ch. 6. The word is oftener spelt Methone.
=Motya=, a town of Sicily, besieged and taken by Dionysius tyrant of
Syracuse.
=Muciānus=, a facetious and intriguing general under Otho and Vitellius,
&c.
=Mucius.= _See:_ Mutius.
=Mucræ=, a village of Samnium. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 565.
=Mulcĭber=, a surname of Vulcan (_a mulcendo ferrum_), from his
occupation. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 2, li. 5. _See:_ Vulcanus.
=Mulŭcha=, a river of Africa, dividing Numidia from Mauritania. _Pliny_,
bk. 5, ch. 2.
=Mulvius pons=, a bridge on the Flaminian way, about one mile distant
from Rome. _Martial_, bk. 3, ltr. 14.
=Lucius Mummius=, a Roman consul sent against the Achæans, whom he
conquered, B.C. 147. He destroyed Corinth, Thebes, and Chalcis, by
order of the senate, and obtained the surname of _Achaicus_ from
his victories. He did not enrich himself with the spoils of the
enemy, but returned home without any increase of fortune. He was so
unacquainted with the value of the paintings and works of the most
celebrated artists of Greece, which were found in the plunder of
Corinth, that he said to those who conveyed them to Rome, that if
they lost them or injured them, they should make others in their
stead. _Paterculus_, bk. 1, ch. 13.――_Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Pliny_,
bk. 34, ch. 7; bk. 37, ch. 1.――_Florus_, bk. 2, ch. 6.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 5, ch. 24.――――Publius, a man commended by Caius Publicius for
the versatility of his mind, and the propriety of his manners.
_Cicero_, _On Oratory_, bk. 2.――――A Latin poet. _Macrobius_, bk. 1,
_Saturnalia_, ch. 10.――――Marcus, a pretor. _Cicero_, _Against Verres_.
――――Spurius, a brother of Achaicus before mentioned, distinguished as
an orator, and for his fondness for the stoic philosophy. _Cicero_,
_Brutus_, ch. 25; _Letters to Atticus_, bk. 13, ltr. 6.――――A
lieutenant of Crassus defeated, &c. _Plutarch_, _Crassus_.
=Munatius Plancus=, a consul sent to the rebellious army of Germanicus.
He was almost killed by the incensed soldiery, who suspected that it
was through him that they had not all been pardoned and indemnified
by a decree of the senate. Calpurnius rescued him from their fury.
――――An orator and disciple of Cicero. His father, grandfather, and
great grandfather bore the same name. He was with Cæsar in Gaul, and
was made consul with Brutus. He promised to favour the republican
cause for some time, but he deserted again to Cæsar. He was long
Antony’s favourite, but he left him at the battle of Actium to
conciliate the favours of Octavius. His services were great in the
senate; for through his influence and persuasion, that venerable body
flattered the conqueror of Antony with the appellation of Augustus.
He was rewarded with the office of censor. _Plutarch_, _Antonius_.
――――Gratus, a Roman knight who conspired with Piso against Nero.
_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 15, ch. 30.――――_Suetonius_, _Augustus_,
ch. 23.――――A friend of Horace, epode 3, li. 31.
=Munda=, a small town of Hispania Bætica, celebrated for a battle which
was fought there on the 17th of March, B.C. 45, between Cæsar and
the republican forces of Rome, under Labienus and the sons of Pompey.
Cæsar obtained the victory after an obstinate and bloody battle, and
by this blow put an end to the Roman republic. Pompey lost 30,000
men, and Cæsar only 1000, and 500 wounded. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 3,
li. 400.――_Hirtius_, _Spanish War_, ch. 27.――_Lucan_, bk. 1.
=Munītus=, a son of Laodice, the daughter of Priam by Acamas. He was
entrusted to the care of Æthra as soon as born, and at the taking of
Troy he was made known to his father, who saved his life, and carried
him to Thrace, where he was killed by the bite of a serpent.
_Parthenius_, ch. 10.
=Muny̆chia= (and æ), a port of Attica, between the Piræus and the
promontory of Sunium, called after king _Munychus_, who built there
a temple to Diana, and in whose honour he instituted festivals called
_Munychia_. The temple was held so sacred that whatever criminals
fled there for refuge were pardoned. During the festivals they
offered small cakes which they called _amphiphontes_, ἀπο τον
ἁμφιφαειν, _from shining all round_, because there were lighted
torches hung round when they were carried to the temple, or because
they were offered at the full moon, at which time the solemnity was
observed. It was particularly in honour of Diana, who is the same as
the moon, because it was full moon when Themistocles conquered the
Persian fleet at Salamis. The port of Munychia was well fortified and
of great consequence; therefore the Lacedæmonians, when sovereigns
of Greece, always kept a regular garrison there. _Plutarch._――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 2, li. 709.――_Strabo_, bk. 2.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 1, ch. 1.
=Muræna=, a celebrated Roman, left at the head of the armies of the
republic in Asia by Sylla. He invaded the dominions of Mithridates
with success, but soon after met with a defeat. He was honoured
with a triumph at his return to Rome. He commanded one of the wings
of Sylla’s army at the battle against Archelaus near Chæronea. He
was ably defended in an oration by Cicero, when his character was
attacked and censured. _Cicero_, _for Lucius Murena_.――_Appian_,
_Mithridatic Wars_.――――A man put to death for conspiring against
Augustus, B.C. 22.
=Murcia.= _See:_ Murtia.
=Murcus=, an enemy of the triumvirate of Julius Cæsar.――――Statius, a
man who murdered Piso in Vesta’s temple in Nero’s reign. _Tacitus_,
_Histories_, bk. 1, ch. 43.
=Murgantia=, a town of Samnium. _Livy_, bk. 25, ch. 27.
=Murrhēnus=, a friend of Turnus, killed by Æneas, &c. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 12, li. 529.
=Mursa=, now _Essek_, a town of Hungary, where the Drave falls into the
Danube.
=Murtia=, or =Myrtia= (_a_ μυρτος), a supposed surname of Venus,
because she presided over the _myrtle_. This goddess was the
patroness of idleness and cowardice. _Varro_, _de Lingua Latina_,
bk. 4, ch. 32.
=Mus=, a Roman consul. _See:_ Decius.
=Musa Antonius=, a freedman and physician of Augustus. He cured his
imperial master of a dangerous disease under which he laboured, by
recommending to him the use of the cold bath. He was greatly rewarded
for this celebrated cure. He was honoured with a brazen statue by the
Roman senate, which was placed near that of Æsculapius, and Augustus
permitted him to wear a golden ring, and to be exempted from all
taxes. He was not so successful in recommending the use of the cold
bath to Marcellus, as he had been to Augustus, and his illustrious
patient died under his care. The cold bath was for a long time
discontinued, till Charmis of Marseilles introduced it again, and
convinced the world of its great benefits. Musa was brother to
Euphorbus the physician of king Juba. Two small treatises, _de
herbâ Botanicâ_, and _de tuendâ Valetudine_, are supposed to be the
productions of his pen.――――A daughter of Nicomedes king of Bithynia.
She attempted to recover her father’s kingdom from the Romans, but
to no purpose, though Cæsar espoused her cause. _Paterculus_, bk. 2.
――_Suetonius_, _Julius Cæsar_.
=Musæ=, certain goddesses who presided over poetry, music, dancing,
and all the liberal arts. They were daughters of Jupiter and
Mnemosyne, and were nine in number: Clio, Euterpe, Thalia, Melpomene,
Terpsichore, Erato, Polyhymnia, Calliope, and Urania. Some suppose
that there were in ancient times only three Muses, Melete, Mneme,
and Aœde; others four, Telxiope, Aœde, Arche, Melete. They were,
according to others, daughters of Pierus and Antiope, from which
circumstance they are called _Pierides_. The name of Pierides might
probably be derived from mount Pierus, where they were born. They
have been severally called _Castalides_, _Aganippides_, _Lebethrides_,
_Aonides_, _Heliconiades_, &c., from the places where they were
worshipped, or over which they presided. Apollo, who was the patron
and the conductor of the Muses, has received the name of _Musagetes_,
or leader of the Muses. The same surname was also given to Hercules.
The palm tree, the laurel, and all the fountains of Pindus, Helicon,
Parnassus, &c., were sacred to the Muses. They were generally
represented as young, beautiful, and modest virgins. They were fond
of solitude, and commonly appeared in different attire, according to
the arts and sciences over which they presided. _See:_ Clio, Euterpe,
Thalia, Melpomene, &c. Sometimes they were represented as dancing
in a chorus, to intimate the near and indissoluble connection which
exists between the liberal arts and sciences. The Muses sometimes
appear with wings, because by the assistance of wings they freed
themselves from the violence of Pyrenæus. Their contest with the
daughters of Pierus is well known. _See:_ Pierides. The worship
of the Muses was universally established, particularly in the
enlightened parts of Greece, Thessaly, and Italy. No sacrifices
were ever offered to them, though no poet ever began a poem without
a solemn invocation to the goddesses who presided over verse. There
were festivals instituted in their honour in several parts of Greece,
especially among the Thespians, every fifth year. The Macedonians
observed also a festival in honour of Jupiter and the Muses. It
had been instituted by king Archelaus, and it was celebrated with
stage plays, games, and different exhibitions, which continued
nine days, according to the number of the Muses. _Plutarch_,
_Amatorius_.――_Pollux._――_Aeschines_, _Against Timarchus_.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 29.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 3.――_Cicero_,
_de Natura Deorum_, bk. 3, ch. 21.――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_.――_Virgil_,
_Æneid_.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 4, li. 310.――_Homer_, _Hymn 25
to the Muses and Apollo_.――_Juvenal_, satire 7.――_Diodorus_, bk. 1.
――_Martial_, bk. 4, ltr. 14.
=Musæus=, an ancient Greek poet, supposed to have been son or disciple
of Linus or Orpheus, and to have lived about 1410 years before the
christian era. Virgil has paid great honour to his memory by placing
him in the Elysian fields attended by a great multitude, and taller
by the head than his followers. None of the poet’s compositions are
extant. The elegant poem of the loves of Leander and Hero was written
by a Musæus, who flourished in the fourth century, according to the
more received opinions. Among the good editions of Musæus two may
be selected as the best; that of Rover, 8vo, Leiden, 1727, and that
of Schroder, 8vo, Leovard, 1743. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 677.
――_Diogenes Laërtius._――――A Latin poet, whose compositions were very
obscene. _Martial_, bk. 12, ltr. 96.――――A poet of Thebes who lived
during the Trojan war.
=Musonius Rufus=, a stoic philosopher of Etruria in the reign of
Vespasian. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 3, ch. 81.
=Mustēla=, a man greatly esteemed by Cicero. _Letters to Atticus_,
bk. 12.――――A gladiator. _Cicero._
♦=Muta=, a goddess who presided over silence, among the Romans. _Ovid_,
_Fasti_, bk. 2, li. 580.
♦ corrected alphabetic order.
=Muthullus=, a river of Numidia. _Sallust_, _Jugurthine War_, ch. 48.
=Mutia=, a daughter of Quintus Mutius Scævola, and sister of Metellus
Celer. She was Pompey’s third wife. Her incontinent behaviour so
disgusted her husband, that at his return from the Mithridatic
war, he divorced her, though she had borne him three children. She
afterwards married Marcus Scaurus. Augustus greatly esteemed her.
_Plutarch_, _Pompey_.――――A wife of Julius Cæsar, beloved by Clodius
the tribune. _Suetonius_, _Julius Cæsar_, ch. 50.――――The mother of
Augustus.
=Mutia lex=, the same as that which was enacted by Licinius Crassus,
and Quintus Mutius, A.U.C. 657. _See:_ Licinia lex.
=Mutica=, or =Mutyce=, a town of Sicily west of the cape Pachynus.
_Cicero_, _Against Verres_, bk. 3, ch. 43.
=Mutilia=, a woman intimate with Livia Augusta. _Tacitus_, _Annals_,
bk. 4, ch. 12.
=Mutĭna=, a Roman colony of Cisalpine Gaul, where Marcus Antony
besieged Decimus Brutus, whom the consuls Pansa and Hirtius delivered.
Two battles on the 15th of April, B.C. 43, were fought there, in
which Antony was defeated, and at last obliged to retire. Mutina is
now called _Modena_. _Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 41; bk. 7, li. 872.――_Silius
Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 592.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 15, li. 822.
――_Cicero_, _Letters to his Friends_, bk. 10, ltr. 14; _Brutus_,
ltr. 5.
=Mutīnes=, one of Annibal’s generals, who was honoured with the freedom
of Rome on delivering up Agrigentum. _Livy_, bk. 25, ch. 41; bk. 27,
ch. 5.
=Mutinus.= _See:_ Mutunus.
=Mutius=, the father-in-law of Caius Marius.――――A Roman who saved
the life of young Marius by conveying him away from the pursuit of
his enemies in a load of straw.――――A friend of Tiberius Gracchus,
by whose means he was raised to the office of a tribune.――――Caius
Scævola, surnamed _Cordus_, became famous for his courage and
intrepidity. When Porsenna king of Etruria had besieged Rome to
reinstate Tarquin in all his rights and privileges, Mutius determined
to deliver his country from so dangerous an enemy. He disguised
himself in the habit of a Tuscan, and as he could fluently speak the
language, he gained an easy introduction into the camp, and soon into
the royal tent. Porsenna sat alone with his secretary when Mutius
entered. The Roman rushed upon the secretary and stabbed him to the
heart, mistaking him for his royal master. This occasioned a noise,
and Mutius, unable to escape, was seized and brought before the king.
He gave no answer to the inquiries of the courtiers, and only told
them that he was a Roman; and to give them a proof of his fortitude,
he laid his right hand on an altar of burning coals, and sternly
looking at the king, and without uttering a groan, he boldly told him
that 300 young Romans like himself had conspired against his life,
and entered the camp in disguise, determined either to destroy him
or perish in the attempt. This extraordinary confession astonished
Porsenna; he made peace with the Romans, and retired from their city.
Mutius obtained the surname of _Scævola_, because he had lost the use
of his right hand by burning it in the presence of the Etrurian king.
_Plutarch_, _Parallela minora_.――_Florus_, bk. 1, ch. 10.――_Livy_,
bk. 2, ch. 12.――――Quintus Scævola, a Roman consul. He obtained a
victory over the Dalmatians, and signalized himself greatly in the
Marsian war. He is highly commended by Cicero, whom he instructed in
the study of civil law. _Cicero._――_Plutarch._――――Another, appointed
proconsul of Asia, which he governed with so much popularity, that
he was generally proposed to others as a pattern of equity and
moderation. Cicero speaks of him as eloquent, learned, and ingenious,
equally eminent as an orator and as a lawyer. He was murdered in the
temple of Vesta, during the civil war of Marius and Sylla, 82 years
before Christ. _Plutarch._――_Cicero_, _On Oratory_, bk. 1, ch. 48.
――_Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 22.
=Mutūnus=, or =Mutīnus=, a deity among the Romans, much the same as
the Priapus of the Greeks. The Roman matrons, and particularly new
married women, disgraced themselves by the obscene ceremonies which
custom obliged them to observe before the statue of this impure deity.
_Augustine_, _City of God_, bk. 4, ch. 9; bk. 6, ch. 9.――_Lactantius_,
bk. 1, ch. 20.
=Mutuscæ=, a town of Umbria. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 711.
=Muzeris=, a town of India, now _Vizindruk_. _Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 23.
=Myagrus=, or =Myodes=, a divinity among the Egyptians, called also
Achor. He was entreated by the inhabitants to protect them from flies
and serpents. His worship passed into Greece and Italy. _Pliny_,
bk. 10, ch. 28.――_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 26.
=My̆căle=, a celebrated magician, who boasted that she could draw down
the moon from her orb. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12, li. 263.――――A
city and promontory of Asia Minor opposite Samos, celebrated for a
battle which was fought there between the Greeks and Persians on the
22nd of September, 479 B.C., the same day that Mardonius was defeated
at Platæa. The Persians were about 100,000 men, that had just
returned from the unsuccessful expedition of Xerxes in Greece. They
had drawn their ships to the shore and fortified themselves, as if
determined to support a siege. They suffered the Greeks to disembark
from their fleet without the least molestation, and were soon obliged
to give way before the cool and resolute intrepidity of an inferior
number of men. The Greeks obtained a complete victory, slaughtered
some thousands of the enemy, burned their camp, and sailed back to
Samos with an immense booty, in which were seventy chests of money
among other very valuable things. _Herodotus._――_Justin_, bk. 2,
ch. 14.――_Diodorus._――――A woman’s name. _Juvenal_, satire 4, li. 141.
=Mycalessus=, an inland town of Bœotia, where Ceres had a temple.
_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 19.
=My̆cēnæ=, a town of Argolis, in Peloponnesus, built by Perseus son of
Danae. It was situate on a small river at the east of the Inachus,
about 50 stadia from Argos, and received its name from Mycene,
a nymph of Laconia. It was once the capital of a kingdom, whose
monarchs reigned in the following order: Acrisius, 1344 B.C.; Perseus,
Electryon, Mæstor, and Sthenelus, and Sthenelus alone for eight years;
Atreus and Thyestes, Agamemnon, Ægysthus, Orestes, Æpytus, who was
dispossessed 1104 B.C., on the return of the Heraclidæ. The town of
Mycenæ was taken and laid in ruins by the Argives, B.C. 568; and it
was almost unknown where it stood in the age of the geographer Strabo.
_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 16.――_Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 6, li. 839.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3. The word _Mycenæus_ is used
for Agamemnon, as he was one of the kings of Mycenæ.
=Mycēnis= (idis), a name applied to Iphigenia, as residing at Mycenæ.
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12, li. 34.
=Mycerīnus=, a son of Cheops king of Egypt. After the death of his
father he reigned with great justice and moderation. _Herodotus_,
bk. 2, ch. 129.
=Myciberna=, a town of the Hellespont. _Diodorus_, bk. 12.
=Mycithus=, a servant of Anaxilaus tyrant of Rhegium. He was entrusted
with the care of the kingdom, and of the children of the deceased
prince, and he exercised his power with such fidelity and moderation,
that he acquired the esteem of all the citizens, and at last restored
the kingdom to his master’s children when come to years of maturity,
and retired to peace and solitude with a small portion. He is called
by some Micalus. _Justin_, bk. 4, ch. 2.
=Mycon=, a celebrated painter, who with others assisted in making and
perfecting the _Pœcile_ of Athens. He was the rival of Polygnotus.
_Pliny_, bks. 33 & 35.――――A youth of Athens changed into a poppy by
Ceres.
=Mycŏnos= (or e), one of the Cyclades between Delos and Icaria, which
received its name from Myconus, an unknown person. It is about three
miles at the east of Delos, and is 36 miles in circumference. It
remained long uninhabited on account of the frequent earthquakes
to which it was subject. Some suppose that the giants whom Hercules
killed were buried under that island, whence arose the proverb of
_everything is under Mycone_, applied to those who treat of different
subjects under one and the same title, as if none of the defeated
giants had been buried under no other island or mountain about Mycone.
Strabo observes, and his testimony is supported by that of modern
travellers, that the inhabitants of Mycone became bald very early,
even at the age of 20 or 25, from which circumstance they were called,
by way of contempt, _the bald heads of Mycone_. Pliny says that
the children of the place were always born without hair. The island
was poor, and the inhabitants very avaricious; whence Archilochus
reproached a certain Pericles, that he came to a feast like a
Myconian, that is, without previous invitation. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 3, li. 76.――_Strabo_, bk. 10.――_Pliny_, bk. 11, ch. 37; bk. 12,
ch. 7; bk. 14, ch. 1.――_Athenæus_, bk. 1.――_Thucydides_, bk. 3, ch.
29.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, li. 463.
=Mydon=, one of the Trojan chiefs who defended Troy against the Greeks.
He was killed by Antilochus. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 5, li. 580.
=Myecphŏris=, a town in Egypt, in a small island near Bubastis.
=Myēnus=, a mountain of Ætolia. _Plutarch_, _de Fluviis_.
=Mygdon=, a brother of Amycus, killed in a war against Hercules.――――A
brother of Hecuba. _See:_ Mygdonus.
=Mygdŏnia=, a small province of Macedonia, near Thrace, between
the rivers Axius and Strymon. The inhabitants, called _Mygdones_,
migrated into Asia, and settled near Troas, where the country
received the name of their ancient habitation. Cybele was called
_Mygdonia_, from the worship she received in Mygdonia in Phrygia.
_Horace_, bk. 2, ode 12, li. 22; bk. 3, ode 16, li. 41.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 6, li. 45.――――A small province of Mesopotamia
bears also the name of Mygdonia, and was probably peopled by a
Macedonian colony. _Flaccus_, bk. 3, &c.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 10.
――_Ovid_, _Heroides_, poem 20.――_Horace_, bk. 2, ode 12.
=Mygdŏnus=, or =Mygdon=, a brother of Hecuba, Priam’s wife, who reigned
in part of Thrace. His son Corœbus was called _Mygdonides_, from him.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 2, li. 341.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 3.――――A
small river running through Mesopotamia.
=Mylassa= (orum), a town of Caria. _Livy_, bk. 38, ch. 39.
=Myle=, or =Mylas=, a small river on the east of Sicily, with a town of
the same name. _Livy_, bk. 24, chs. 30 & 31.――_Suetonius_, _Augustus_,
ch. 16.――――Also a town of Thessaly, now _Mulazzo_. _Livy_, bk. 42,
ch. 54.
=Myles=, a son of Lelex.
=Mylitta=, a surname of Venus among the Assyrians, in whose temples
all the women were obliged to prostitute themselves to strangers.
_Herodotus_, bk. 1, chs. 131 & 199.――_Strabo_, bk. 16.
=Myndus=, a maritime town of Caria near Halicarnassus. _Cicero_,
_Letters to his Friends_, bk. 3, ltr. 8.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 16.
――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 29.
=Mynes=, a prince of Lyrnessus, who married Briseis. He was killed by
Achilles, and his wife became the property of the conqueror. _Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 3.
=Myniæ.= _See:_ Minyæ.
=Myŏnia=, a town of Phocis. _Pausanias._
=Myonēsus=, a town and promontory of Ionia, now _Jalanghi-Liman_.
_Livy_, bk. 37, chs. 13 & 27.
=Myra= (orum, or æ), a town of Lycia, on a high hill, two miles from
the sea. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 27.――_Strabo_, bk. 14.
=Myriandros=, a town of Seleucia in Syria, on the bay of Issus, which
is sometimes called _Sinus Myriandricus_. _Livy_, bk. 2, ch. 108.
=Myrīna=, a maritime town of Æolia, called also _Sebastopolis_, and
now _Sanderlic_. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 2, ch. 47.――_Livy_, bk. 33,
ch. 30.――_Strabo_, bk. 13.――――A queen of the Amazons, &c. _Dionysius
of Halicarnassus_, bk. 4.――――A town of Lemnos, now _Palio Castro_.
_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.――――A town of Asia, destroyed by an earthquake
in Trajan’s reign.――――The wife of Thoas king of Lemnos, by whom she
had ♦Hypsipyle.
♦ ‘Hipsipyle’ replaced with ‘Hypsipyle’ for consistency
=Myrīnus=, a surname of Apollo, from Myrina in Æolia, where he was
worshipped.――――A gladiator. _Martial_, bk. 12, ltr. 29.
=Myriœ=, a town of Arcadia, called also Megalopolis.
=Myrlææ=, or =Apamea=, a town of Bithynia. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 32.
=Myrmecĭdes=, an artist of Miletus, mentioned as making chariots
so small that they could be covered by the wing of a fly. He also
inscribed an elegiac distich on a grain of Indian sesamum. _Cicero_,
bk. 4, _Academica._――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 1.
=Myrmĭdŏnes=, a people on the southern borders of Thessaly, who
accompanied Achilles to the Trojan war. They received their name from
Myrmidon, a son of Jupiter and Eurymedusa, who married one of the
daughters of Æolus son of Hellen. His son Actor married Ægina the
daughter of the Asopus. He gave his name to his subjects, who dwelt
near the river Peneus in Thessaly. According to some, the Myrmidons
received their name from their having been originally ants, μυρμηκες.
_See:_ Æacus. According to Strabo, they received it from their
industry, because they imitated the diligence of the ants, and like
them were indefatigable, and were continually employed in cultivating
the earth. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, li. 654.――_Strabo._
――_Hyginus_, fable 52.
=Myron=, a tyrant of Sicyon.――――A man of Priene, who wrote a history
of Messenia. _Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 6.――――A celebrated statuary of
Greece, peculiarly happy in imitating nature. He made a cow so much
resembling life, that even bulls were deceived and approached her
as if alive, as is frequently mentioned by many epigrams in the
Anthologia. He flourished about 442 years before Christ. _Ovid_,
_Ars Amatoria_, bk. 3, li. 319.――_Pausanias._――_Juvenal_ satire 8.
――_Propertius_, bk. 2, poem 41.
=Myronianus=, an historian. _Diogenes Laërtius._
=Myronides=, an Athenian general who conquered the Thebans. _Polyænus._
=Myrrha=, a daughter of Cinyras king of Cyprus. She became enamoured
of her father, and introduced herself into his bed unknown. She had
a son by him, called Adonis. When Cinyras was apprised of the incest
he had committed, he attempted to stab his daughter, and Myrrha
fled into Arabia, where she was changed into a tree called myrrh.
_Hyginus_, fables 58 & 275.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 10, li. 298.
――_Plutarch_, _Parallela minora_.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3.
=Myrsĭlus=, a son of Myrsus, the last of the Heraclidæ who reigned in
Lydia. He is also called Candaules. _See:_ Candaules.
=Myrsus=, the father of Candaules. _Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 7.――――A
Greek historian in the age of Solon.
=Myrtăle=, a courtesan of Rome, mistress to the poet Horace, bk. 1,
ode 33.
=Myrtea=, a surname of Venus. _See:_ Murtia.
=Myrtĭlus=, son of Mercury and Phaetusa, or Cleobule, or Clymene, was
arm-bearer to Œnomaus king of Pisa. He was so experienced in riding
and in the management of horses, that he rendered those of Œnomaus
the swiftest in all Greece. His infidelity proved at last fatal
to him. Œnomaus had been informed by an oracle that his daughter
Hippodamia’s husband would cause his death, and on that account
he resolved to marry her only to him who should overcome him in a
chariot race. This seemed totally impossible, and to render it more
terrible, Œnomaus declared that death would be the consequence of a
defeat in the suitors. The charms of Hippodamia were so great, that
many sacrificed their life in the fruitless endeavour to obtain her
hand. Pelops at last presented himself, undaunted at the fate of
those who had gone before him, but before he entered the course he
bribed Myrtilus, and assured him that he should share Hippodamia’s
favours if he returned victorious from the race. Myrtilus, who was
enamoured of Hippodamia, gave an old chariot to Œnomaus, which broke
in the course and caused his death. Pelops gained the victory, and
married Hippodamia; and when Myrtilus had the audacity to claim the
reward promised to his perfidy, Pelops threw him headlong into the
sea, where he perished. The body of Myrtilus, according to some,
was carried by the waves to the sea-shore, where he received an
honourable burial, and as he was the son of Mercury, he was made
a constellation. _Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Hyginus_, fable 84 & 224.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 14.――_Apollonius_, bk. 1.
=Myrtis=, a Greek woman who distinguished herself by her poetical
talents. She flourished about 500 years B.C., and instructed the
celebrated Corinna in the several rules of versification. Pindar
himself, as some report, was also one of her pupils.
=Myrtōum mare=, a part of the Ægean sea which lies between Eubœa,
Attica, and Peloponnesus, as far as cape Melea. It receives this
name from Myrto, a woman; or from Myrtos, a small island opposite
to Carystos in Eubœa; or from Myrtilus the son of Mercury, who was
drowned there, &c. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 14.――_Hyginus_, fable 84.
――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 11.
=Myrtuntium=, a name given to that part of the sea which lies on the
coast of Epirus, between the bay of Ambracia and Leucas.
=Myrtūsa=, a mountain of Libya. _Callimachus_, _Hymn to Apollo_.
=Mys= (Myos), an artist famous in working and polishing silver. He
beautifully represented the battle of the Centaurs and Lapithæ, on a
shield in the hand of Minerva’s statue made by Phidias. _Pausanias_,
bk. 1, ch. 28.――_Martial_, bk. 8, ltrs. 34 & 51; bk. 14, ltr. 93.
――_Propertius_, bk. 3, poem 9, li. 14.
=Myscellus=, or =Miscellus=, a native of Rhypæ in Achaia, who founded
Crotona in Italy according to an oracle, which told him to build a
city where he found rain with fine weather. The meaning of the oracle
long perplexed him, till he found a beautiful woman all in tears in
Italy, which circumstance he interpreted in his favour. According
to some, Myscellus, who was the son of Hercules, went out of
Argos without the permission of the magistrates, for which he was
condemned to death. The judges had put each a black ball as a sign
of condemnation, but Hercules changed them all and made them white,
and had his son acquitted, upon which Myscellus left Greece and came
to Italy, where he built Crotona. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 15,
li. 19.――_Strabo_, bks. 6 & 8.――_Suidas._
=Mysia=, a country of Asia Minor, generally divided into major and
minor. Mysia minor was bounded on the north and west by the Propontis
and Bithynia, and Phrygia on the southern and eastern borders. Mysia
major had Æolia on the south, the Ægean on the west, and Phrygia on
the north and east. Its chief cities were Cyzicum, Lampsacus, &c.
The inhabitants were once very warlike, but they greatly degenerated;
and the words _Mysorum ultimus_ were emphatically used to signify a
person of no merit. The ancients generally hired them to attend their
funerals as mourners, because they were naturally melancholy and
inclined to shed tears. They were once governed by monarchs. They
are supposed to be descended from the Mysians of Europe, a nation
which inhabited that part of Thrace which was situate between mount
Hæmus and the Danube. _Strabo._――_Herodotus_, bk. 1, &c.――_Cicero_,
_Against Verres_.――_Flaccus_, ch. 27.――_Florus_, bk. 3, ch. 5.
――_Appian_, _Mithridatic Wars_.――――A festival in honour of Ceres,
surnamed Mysia from Mysias, an Argive, who raised her a temple near
Pallene in Achaia. Some derive the words ἀπο του μυσιαν, _to cloy_,
or _satisfy_, because Ceres was the first who satisfied the wants of
men by giving them corn. The festival continued during seven days, &c.
=Myson=, a native of Sparta, one of the seven wise men of Greece.
When Anacharsis consulted the oracle of Apollo, to know which was
the wisest man in Greece, he received for answer, he who was now
ploughing his fields. This was Myson. _Diogenes Laërtius_, _Lives
and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers_.
=Mystes=, a son of the poet Valgius, whose early death was so lamented
by the father, that Horace wrote an ode to allay the grief of his
friend. _Horace_, bk. 2, ode 9.
=Mythecus=, a sophist of Syracuse. He studied cookery, and when he
thought himself sufficiently skilled in dressing meat, he went to
Sparta, where he gained much practice, especially among the younger
citizens. He was soon after expelled the city by the magistrates, who
observed that the aid of Mythecus was unnecessary, as hunger was the
best seasoning.
=My̆tilēne.= _See:_ Mitylene.
=Myus= (_Myuntis_), a town of Ionia on the confines of Caria, founded
by a Grecian colony. It is one of the 12 capital cities of Ionia,
situate at the distance of about 30 stadia from the mouth of the
Mæander. Artaxerxes king of Persia gave it to Themistocles to
maintain him in meat. Magnesia was to support him in bread, and
Lampsacus in wine. _Cornelius Nepos_, _Themistocles_.――_Strabo_,
bk. 14.――_Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 142.――_Diodorus_, bk. 11.
N
=Nabazanes=, an officer of Darius III., at the battle of Issus. He
conspired with Bessus to murder his royal master, either to obtain
the favour of Alexander or to seize the kingdom. He was pardoned by
Alexander. _Curtius_, bk. 3, &c.――_Diodorus_, bk. 17.
=Năbăthæa=, a country of Arabia, of which the capital was called Petra.
The word is often applied to any of the eastern countries of the
world by the poets, and seems to be derived from Nabath the son of
Ishmael. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, li. 61; bk. 5, li. 163.
――_Strabo_, bk. 16.――_Lucan_, bk. 4, li. 63.――_Juvenal_, satire 11,
li. 126.――_Seneca_, _Hercules Œtaeus_, li. 160, &c.
=Nābis=, a celebrated tyrant of Lacedæmon, who in all acts of cruelty
and oppression surpassed a Phalaris or a Dionysius. His house was
filled with flatterers and with spies, who were continually employed
in watching the words and the actions of his subjects. When he had
exercised every art in plundering the citizens of Sparta, he made a
statue, which in resemblance was like his wife, and was clothed in
the most magnificent apparel, and whenever any one refused to deliver
up his riches, the tyrant led him to the statue, which immediately,
by means of secret springs, seized him in its arms, and tormented him
in the most excruciating manner with bearded points and prickles, hid
under the clothes. To render his tyranny more popular, Nabis made an
alliance with Flaminius the Roman general, and pursued with the most
inveterate enmity the war which he had undertaken against the Achæans.
He besieged Gythium and defeated Philopœmen in a naval battle. His
triumph was short; the general of the Achæans soon repaired his
losses, and Nabis was defeated in an engagement, and treacherously
murdered, as he attempted to save his life by flight, B.C. 192, after
a usurpation of 14 years. _Polybius_, bk. 13.――_Justin_, bks. 30 & 31.
――_Plutarch_, _Philopœmen_.――_Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 8.――_Florus_,
bk. 2, ch. 7.――――A priest of Jupiter Ammon, killed in the second
Punic war, as he fought against the Romans. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 15,
li. 672.
=Nabonassar=, a king of Babylon, after the division of the Assyrian
monarchy. From him the _Nabonassarean epoch_ received its name,
agreeing with the year of the world 3237, or 746 B.C.
=Nacri campi=, a place of Gallia Togata near Mutina. _Livy_, bk. 41,
ch. 18.
=Nadagara.= _See:_ ♦Nagara.
♦ reference not found
=Nænia=, the goddess of funerals at Rome, whose temple was without the
gates of the city. The songs which were sung at funerals were also
called _nænia_. They were generally filled with the praises of the
deceased, but sometimes they were so unmeaning and improper, that the
word became proverbial to signify nonsense. _Varro_, ♦_Antiquitates
rerum humanarum et divinarum_.――_Plautus_, _Asinaria_. ♠act 4,
scene 1, li. 63.
♦ ‘de Vitâ P. R.’ replaced with ‘Antiquitates rerum humanarum
et divinarum’
♠ ‘41’ replaced with ‘4’
=Cnæus Nævius=, a Latin poet in the first Punic war. He was originally
in the Roman armies, but afterwards he applied himself to study and
wrote comedies, besides a poetical account of the first Punic war,
in which he had served. His satirical disposition displeased the
consul Metellus, who drove him from Rome. He passed the rest of his
life in Utica, where he died, about 203 years before the christian
era. Some fragments of his poetry are extant. _Cicero_, _Tusculanæ
Disputationes_, bk. 1, ch. 1; _de Senectute_.――_Horace_, bk. 2, ltr.
1, li. 53.――――A tribune of the people at Rome, who accused Scipio
Africanus of extortion.――――An augur in the reign of Tarquin. To
convince the king and the Romans of his power as an augur, he cut
a flint with a razor, and turned the ridicule of the populace into
admiration. Tarquin rewarded his merit by erecting to him a statue
in the _comitium_, which was still in being in the age of Augustus.
The razor and flint were buried near it under an altar, and it was
usual among the Romans to make witnesses in civil causes swear near
it. This miraculous event of cutting a flint with a razor, though
believed by some writers, is treated as fabulous and improbable by
Cicero, who himself had been an augur. _Dionysius of Halicarnassus._
――_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 36.――_Cicero_, _de Divinatione_, bk. 1, ch. 17;
_De Natura Deorum_, bk. 2, ch. 3; bk. 3, ch. 6.
=Nævŏlus=, an infamous pimp in Domitian’s reign. _Juvenal_, satire 9,
li. 1.
=Naharvali=, a people of Germany. _Tacitus_, _Germania_, ch. 43.
=Nāiădes=, or =Naides=, certain inferior deities who presided over
rivers, springs, wells, and fountains. The Naiades generally
inhabited the country, and resorted to the woods or meadows near the
stream over which they presided, whence the name (ναιειν, _to flow_).
They are represented as young and beautiful virgins, often leaning
upon an urn, from which flows a stream of water. Ægle was the
fairest of the Naiades, according to Virgil. They were held in great
veneration among the ancients, and often sacrifices of goats and
lambs were offered to them, with libations of wine, honey, and oil.
Sometimes they received only offerings of milk, fruit, and flowers.
_See:_ Nymphæ. _Virgil_, _Eclogues_.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 14,
li. 328.――_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 13.
=Nais=, one of the Oceanides, mother of Chiron or Glaucus by Magnes.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9.――――A nymph, mother by Bucolion of Ægesus
and Pedasus. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 6.――――A nymph in an island of
the Red sea, who by her incantations turned to fishes all those
who approached her residence, after she had admitted them to her
embraces. She was herself changed into a fish by Apollo. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 4, li. 49, &c.――――The word is used for water
by _Tibullus_, bk. 3, poem 7.
=Naissus=, or =Nessus=, now _Nissa_, a town of Mœsia, the birthplace of
Constantine, ascribed by some to Illyricum or Thrace.
=Nantuates=, a people of Gaul near the Alps. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_,
bk. 3, ch. 1.
=Napææ=, certain divinities among the ancients, who presided over the
hills and woods of the country. Some suppose that they were tutelary
deities of the fountains, and the Naiades of the sea. Their name is
derived from ναπη, _a grove_. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 4, li. 535.
=Napata=, a town of Æthiopia.
=Naphĭlus=, a river of Peloponnesus, falling into the Alpheus.
_Pausanias_, bk. 1.
=Nar=, now _Nera_, a river of Umbria, whose waters, famous for
their sulphureous properties, pass through the lake Velinus, and
issuing from thence with great rapidity, fall into the Tiber.
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 14, li. 330.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7,
li. 517.――_Cicero_, _Letters to Atticus_, bk. 4, ltr. 15.――_Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 1, ch. 79; bk. 3, ch. 9.
=Narbo Martius=, now _Narbonne_, a town of Gaul, founded by the consul
Marcius, A.U.C. 636. It became the capital of a large province of
Gaul, which obtained the name of Gallia _Narbonensis_. _Paterculus_,
bk. 1, ch. 15; bk. 2, ch. 8.――_Pliny_, bk. 3.
=Narbonensis Gallia=, one of the four great divisions of ancient Gaul,
was bounded by the Alps, the Pyrenean mountains, Aquitania, Belgicum,
and the Mediterranean, and contained the modern provinces of
Languedoc, Provence, Dauphiné, and Savoy.
=Narcæus=, a son of Bacchus and Physcoa. _Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 15.
=Narcea=, a surname of Minerva in Elis, from her temple there, erected
by Narcæus.
=Narcissus=, a beautiful youth, son of Cephisus and the nymph Liriope,
born at Thespis in Bœotia. He saw his image reflected in a fountain,
and became enamoured of it, thinking it to be the nymph of the place.
His fruitless attempts to approach this beautiful object so provoked
him, that he grew desperate and killed himself. His blood was changed
into a flower, which still bears his name. The nymphs raised a
funeral pile to burn his body, according to Ovid, but they found
nothing but a beautiful flower. Pausanias says that Narcissus had a
sister as beautiful as himself, of whom he became deeply enamoured.
He often hunted in the woods in her company, but his pleasure was
soon interrupted by her death; and still to keep afresh her memory,
he frequented the groves, where he had often attended her, or
reposed himself on the brim of a fountain, where the sight of his
own reflected image still awakened tender sentiments. _Pausanias_,
bk. 9, ch. 21.――_Hyginus_, fable 271.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 3,
li. 346, &c.――_Philostratus_, bk. 1.――――A freedman and secretary of
Claudius, who abused his trust and the infirmities of his imperial
master, and plundered the citizens of Rome to enrich himself.
Messalina, the emperor’s wife, endeavoured to remove him, but
Narcissus sacrificed her to his avarice and resentment. Agrippina,
who succeeded in the place of Messalina, was more successful.
Narcissus was banished by her intrigues, and compelled to kill
himself, A.D. 54. The emperor greatly regretted his loss, as he had
found him subservient to his most criminal and extravagant pleasures.
_Tacitus._――_Suetonius._――――A favourite of the emperor Nero, put to
death by Galba.――――A wretch who strangled the emperor Commodus.
=Nargara=, a town of Africa, where Hannibal and Scipio came to a parley.
_Livy_, bk. 30, ch. 29.
=Narisci=, a nation of Germany, in the Upper Palatinate. _Tacitus_,
_Germania_, ch. 42.
=Narnia=, or =Narna=, anciently _Nequinum_, now _Narni_, a town of
Umbria, washed by the river Nar, from which it received its name. In
its neighbourhood are still visible the remains of an aqueduct and of
a bridge, erected by Augustus. _Livy_, bk. 10, ch. 9.
=Naro=, now _Narenta_, a river of Dalmatia, falling into the Adriatic,
and having the town of _Narona_, now called _Narenza_, on its banks,
a little above the mouth.
=Narses=, a king of Persia, A.D. 294, defeated by Maximianus Galerius,
after a reign of seven years.――――A eunuch in the court of Justinian,
who was deemed worthy to succeed Belisarius, &c.――――A Persian general,
&c.
=Narthēcis=, a small island near Samos.
=Narycia=, =Narycium=, or =Naryx=, a town of Magna Græcia, built by
a colony of Locrians after the fall of Troy. The place in Greece
from which they came bore the same name, and was the country of
Ajax Oileus. The word _Narycian_ is more universally understood as
applying to the Italian colony, near which pines and other trees grew
in abundance. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 2, li. 438; _Æneid_, bk. 3,
li. 399.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 15, li. 705.
=Nasămōnes=, a savage people of Libya near the Syrtes, who generally
lived upon plunder. _Curtius_, bk. 4, ch. 7.――_Lucan_, bk. 9, li. 439.
――_Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 165.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 2, li. 116;
bk. 11, li. 180.
=Nascio=, or =Natio=, a goddess at Rome who presided over the birth of
children. She had a temple at Ardea. _Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_,
bk. 3, ch. 18.
=Nasīca=, the surname of one of the Scipios. Nasica was the first who
invented the measuring of time by water, B.C. 159, about 134 years
after the introduction of sun-dials at Rome. _See:_ Scipio.――――An
avaricious fellow who married his daughter to Coranus, a man as
mean as himself, that he might not only not repay the money he
had borrowed, but moreover become his creditor’s heir. Coranus,
understanding his meaning, purposely alienated his property from
him and his daughter, and exposed him to ridicule. _Horace_, bk. 2,
satire 5, li. 64, &c.
=Nasidiēnus=, a Roman knight, whose luxury, arrogance, and ostentation,
exhibited at an entertainment which he gave to Mecænas, were
ridiculed by Horace, bk. 2, satire 8.
=Lucius Nasidius=, a man sent by Pompey to assist the people of
Massilia. After the battle of Pharsalia, he followed the interests
of Pompey’s children, and afterwards revolted to Antony. _Appian._
=Naso=, one of the murderers of Julius Cæsar.――――One of Ovid’s names.
_See:_ Ovidius.
=Nassus=, or =Nasus=, a town of Acarnania, near the mouth of the
Achelous. _Livy_, bk. 26, ch. 24. Also a part of the town of Syracuse.
=Nasua=, a general of the Suevi, when Cæsar was in Gaul.
=Natālis Antonius=, a Roman knight who conspired against Nero with
Piso. He was pardoned for discovering the conspiracy, &c. _Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 15, ch. 50.
=Natiso=, now _Natisone_, a river rising in the Alps, and falling into
the Adriatic east of Aquileia. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 18.
=Natta=, a man whose manner of living was so mean, that his name became
almost proverbial at Rome. _Horace_, bk. 1, ode 6, li. 224.
=Nava=, now _Nape_, a river of Germany, falling into the Rhine at
Bingen, below Mentz. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 4, ch. 70.
=Naubŏlus=, a charioteer of Laius king of Thebes.――――A Phocean, father
of Iphitus. The sons of Iphitus were called _Naubolides_, from their
grandfather.――――A son of Lernus, one of the Argonauts.
=Naucles=, a general of the mercenary troops of Lacedæmon against
Thebes, &c.
=Naucrătes=, a Greek poet, who was employed by Artemisia to write a
panegyric upon Mausolus.――――Another poet. _Athenæus_, bk. 9.――――An
orator who endeavoured to alienate the cities of Lycia from the
interest of Brutus.
=Naucrătis=, a city of Egypt on the left side of the Canopic mouth
of the Nile. It was celebrated for its commerce, and no ship was
permitted to land at any other place, but was obliged to sail
directly to the city, there to deposit its cargo. It gave birth to
Athenæus. The inhabitants were called _Naucratitæ_, or _Naucratiotæ_.
_Herodotus_, bk. 2, chs. 97 & 179.――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 9.
=Navius Actius=, a famous augur. _See:_ Nævius.
=Naulŏchus=, a maritime town of Sicily near Pelorum.――――A town of
Thrace on the Euxine sea. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 11.――――A promontory of
the island of Imbros.――――A town of the Locri. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 3.
=Naupactus=, or =Naupactum=, a city of Ætolia, at the mouth of the
Evenus, now called _Lepanto_. The word is derived from ναυς and
πηγνυμι because it was there that the Heraclidæ _built_ the first
_ship_, which carried them to Peloponnesus. It first belonged to the
Locri Ozolæ, and afterwards fell into the hands of the Athenians,
who gave it to the Messenians, who had been driven from Peloponnesus
by the Lacedæmonians. It became the property of the Lacedæmonians,
after the battle of Ægospotamos, and it was restored to the Locri.
Philip of Macedonia afterwards took it, and gave it to the Ætolians,
from which circumstance it has generally been called one of the chief
cities of their country. _Strabo_, bk. 4.――_Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 25.
――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 2, li. 43.
=Nauplia=, a maritime city of Peloponnesus, the naval station of the
Argives. The famous fountain Canathos was in its neighbourhood.
_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 38.――_Strabo_, bk. 8.
=Naupliădes=, a patronymic of Palamedes son of Nauplius. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 13, li. 39.
=Nauplius=, a son of Neptune and Amymone, king of Eubœa. He was father
to the celebrated Palamedes, who was so unjustly sacrificed to the
artifice and resentment of Ulysses by the Greeks during the Trojan
war. The death of Palamedes highly irritated Nauplius, and to avenge
the injustice of the Grecian princes, he attempted to debauch their
wives and ruin their character. When the Greeks returned from the
Trojan war, Nauplius saw them with pleasure distressed in a storm on
the coasts of Eubœa, and to make their disaster still more universal,
he lighted fires on such places as were surrounded with the most
dangerous rocks, that the fleet might be shipwrecked upon the coast.
This succeeded, but Nauplius was so disappointed when he saw Ulysses
and Diomedes escape from the general calamity, that he threw himself
into the sea. According to some mythologists, there were two persons
of this name.――――A native of Argos, who went to Colchis with Jason.
He was son of Neptune and Amymone. The other was king of Eubœa,
and lived during the Trojan war. He was, according to some, son
of Clytonas, one of the descendants of Nauplius the Argonaut. The
Argonaut was remarkable for his knowledge of sea affairs, and of
astronomy. He built the town of Nauplia, and sold Auge daughter of
Aleus to king Teuthras, to withdraw her from her father’s resentment.
_Orpheus_, _Argonautica_.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Apollonius_,
bk. 1, &c.――_Flaccus_, bks. 1 & 5.――_Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 4, ch. 35.――_Hyginus_, fable 116.
=Nauportus=, a town of Pannonia on a river of the same name, now called
_Ober_, or _Upper Laybach_. _Velleius Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 110.
――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 18.――_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 1, ch. 20.
=Naura=, a country of Scythia in Asia. _Curtius_, bk. 3.――――Of India
within the Ganges. _Arrian._
=Nausĭcaa=, a daughter of Alcinous king of the Phæaceans. She met
Ulysses shipwrecked on her father’s coasts, and it was to her
humanity that he owed the kind reception which he experienced from
the king. She married, according to Aristotle and Dictys, Telemachus
the son of Ulysses, by whom she had a son called Perseptolis or
Ptoliporthus. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 6.――_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 19.
――_Hyginus_, fable 126.
=Nausĭcles=, an Athenian, sent to assist the Phocians with 5000 foot, &c.
=Nausīmĕnes=, an Athenian, whose wife lost her voice from the alarm she
received in seeing her son guilty of incest.
=Nausithoe=, one of the Nereides.
=Nausithous=, a king of the Phæaceans, father to Alcinous. He was son
of Neptune and Peribœa. Hesiod makes him son of Ulysses and Calypso.
_Hesiod_, _Theogony_, bk. 1, li. 16.――――The pilot of the vessel which
carried Theseus into Crete.
=Naustathmus=, a port of Phocæa in Ionia. _Livy_, bk. 37, ch. 31.
――――Also a part of Cyrenaica, now _Bondaria_. _Strabo_, bk. 17.
=Nautes=, a Trojan soothsayer, who comforted Æneas when his fleet had
been burnt in Sicily. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 5, li. 704. He was the
progenitor of the Nautii at Rome, a family to whom the Palladium of
Troy was, in consequence of the service of their ancestors, entrusted.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 5, li. 794.
=Naxos=, now _Naxia_, a celebrated island in the Ægean sea, the
largest and most fertile of all the Cyclades, about 105 miles in
circumference, and 30 broad. It was formerly called _Strongyle_,
_Dia_, _Dionysias_, and _Callipolis_, and received the name of Naxos
from Naxus, who was at the head of a Carian colony, which settled
in the island. Naxos abounds with all sorts of fruits, and its
wines are still in the same repute as formerly. The Naxians were
anciently governed by kings, but they afterwards exchanged this form
of government for a republic, and enjoyed their liberty till the age
of Pisistratus, who appointed a tyrant over them. They were reduced
by the Persians; but in the expedition of Darius and Xerxes against
Greece, they revolted and fought on the side of the Greeks. During
the Peloponnesian war, they supported the interest of Athens. Bacchus
was the chief deity of the island. The capital was also called
Naxos; and near it, on the 20th Sept., B.C. 377, the Lacedæmonians
were defeated by Chabrias. _Thucydides_, bk. 1, &c.――_Herodotus._
――_Diodorus_, bk. 5, &c.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 3, li. 636.
――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 125.――_Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 16.
――_Pindar._――――An ancient town on the eastern side of Sicily, founded
759 years before the christian era. There was also another town at
the distance of five miles from Naxos, which bore the same name, and
was often called, by contradistinction, _Taurominium_. _Pliny_, bk. 3.
――_Diodorus_, bk. 13.――――A town of Crete, noted for hones. _Pliny_,
bk. 36, ch. 7.――――A Carian who gave his name to the greatest of the
Cyclades.
=Nazianzus=, a town of Cappadocia where St. Gregory was born, and hence
he is called _Nazianzenus_.
=Nea=, or =Nova insula=, a small island between Lemnos and the
Hellespont, which rose out of the sea during an earthquake. _Pliny_,
bk. 2, ch. 87.
=Neæra=, a nymph, mother of Phaetusa and Lampetia by the Sun. _Homer_,
_Odyssey_, bk. 12.――――A woman mentioned by Virgil’s _Eclogues_,
poem 3.――――A mistress of the poet Tibullus.――――A favourite of Horace.
――――A daughter of Pereus, who married Aleus, by whom she had Cepheus,
Lycurgus, and Auge, who was ravished by Hercules. _Apollodorus_,
bk. 3, ch. 9.――_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 4.――――The wife of Autolycus.
_Pausanias._――――A daughter of Niobe and Amphion.――――The wife of
Strymon. _Apollodorus._
=Neæthus=, now _Neto_, a river of Magna Græcia near Crotona. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 15, li. 51.
=Nealces=, a friend of Turnus in his war against Æneas. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 753.
=Nealices=, a painter, amongst whose capital pieces are mentioned a
painting of Venus, a sea-fight between the Persians and Egyptians,
and an ass drinking on the shore, with a crocodile preparing to
attack it.
=Neandros= (or ia), a town of Troas. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 30.
=Neanthes=, an orator and historian of Cyzicum, who flourished 257
years B.C.
=Neapŏlis=, a city of Campania, anciently called Parthenope, and now
known by the name of Naples, rising like an amphitheatre at the back
of a beautiful bay 30 miles in circumference. As the capital of that
part of Italy, it is now inhabited by upwards of 350,000 souls, who
exhibit the opposite marks of extravagant magnificence, and extreme
poverty. Augustus called it Neapolis. _Suetonius_, _Augustus_, ch. 98.
――――A town in Africa.――――A city of Thrace.――――A town of Egypt,――――of
Palestine,――――of Ionia.――――Also a part of Syracuse. _Livy_, bk. 25,
ch. 24.――_Cicero_, _Against Verres_, bk. 5.
=Nearchus=, an officer of Alexander in his Indian expedition. He
was ordered to sail upon the Indian ocean with Onesicritus, and to
examine it. He wrote an account of this voyage and of the king’s life;
but his veracity has been called in question by Arrian. After the
king’s death he was appointed over Lycia and Pamphylia. _Curtius_, bk.
9, ch. 10.――_Polyænus_, bk. 9.――_Justin_, bk. 13, ch. 4.――_Strabo_,
bk. 2, &c.――――A beautiful youth, &c. _Horace_, bk. 3, ode 20.――――An
old man mentioned by Cicero, _de Senectute_.
=Nebo=, a high mountain near Palestine, beyond Jordan, from the top of
which Moses was permitted to view the promised land.
=Nebrissa=, a town of Spain, now _Lebrixa_.
=Nebrōdes=, a mountain of Sicily, where the Himera rises. _Silius
Italicus_, bk. 14, li. 237.
=Nebrophŏnos=, a son of Jason and Hypsipyle. _Apollodorus._――――One of
Actæon’s dogs. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 3.
=Nebŭla=, a name given to Nephele the wife of Athamas. _Lactantius
[Placidus]_ on _Achilleid_ of _Statius_, bk. 1, ch. 65.
=Necessĭtas=, a divinity who presided over the destinies of mankind,
and who was regarded as the mother of the Parcæ. _Pausanias_, bk. 2,
ch. 4.
=Nechos=, a king of Egypt, who attempted to make a communication
between the Mediterranean and Red seas, B.C. 610. No less than
12,000 men perished in the attempt. It was discovered in his reign
that Africa was circumnavigable. _Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 158; bk. 4,
ch. 42.
=Necropŏlis=, one of the suburbs of Alexandria.
=Nectanēbus= and =Nectanābis=, a king of Egypt, who defended his
country against the Persians, and was succeeded by Tachos, B.C. 363.
His grandson, of the same name, made an alliance with Agesilaus king
of Sparta, and with his assistance he quelled a rebellion of his
subjects. Some time after he was joined by the Sidonians, Phœnicians,
and inhabitants of Cyprus, who had revolted from the king of Persia.
This powerful confederacy was soon attacked by Darius the king of
Persia, who marched at the head of his troops. Nectanebus, to defend
his frontiers against so dangerous an enemy, levied 20,000 mercenary
soldiers in Greece, the same number in Libya, and 60,000 were
furnished in Egypt. This numerous body was not equal to the Persian
forces; and Nectanebus, defeated in a battle, gave up all hopes of
resistance, and fled into Æthiopia, B.C. 350, where he found a safe
asylum. His kingdom of Egypt became from that time tributary to the
king of Persia. _Plutarch_, _Agesilaus_.――_Diodorus_, bk. 16, &c.
――_Polyænus._――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Agesilaus_.
=Necysia=, a solemnity observed by the Greeks in memory of the dead.
=Neis=, the wife of Endymion. _Apollodorus._
=Neleus=, a son of Neptune and Tyro. He was brother to Pelias,
with whom he was exposed by his mother, who wished to conceal her
infirmities from her father. They were preserved and brought to Tyro,
who had then married Cretheus king of Iolchos. After the death of
Cretheus, Pelias and Neleus seized the kingdom of Iolchos, which
belonged to Æson, the lawful son of Tyro by the deceased monarch.
After they had reigned for some time conjointly, Pelias expelled
Neleus from Iolchos. Neleus came to Aphareus king of Messenia, who
treated him with kindness, and permitted him to build a city, which
he called Pylos. Neleus married Chloris the daughter of Amphion,
by whom he had a daughter and 12 sons, who were all, except Nestor,
killed by Hercules, together with their father. Neleus promised
his daughter in marriage only to him who brought him the bulls of
Iphiclus. Bias was the successful lover. _See:_ Melampus. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 6, li. 418.――_Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 36.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9; bk. 2, ch. 6.――――A river of Eubœa.
=Nelo=, one of the Danaides. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2.
=Nemæa=, a town of Argolis between Cleonæ and Phlius, with a wood,
where Hercules, in the 16th year of his age, killed the celebrated
Nemæan lion. This animal, born of the hundred-headed Typhon, infested
the neighbourhood of Nemæa, and kept the inhabitants under continual
alarms. It was the first labour of Hercules to destroy it; and the
hero, when he found that his arrows and his club were useless against
an animal whose skin was hard and impenetrable, seized him in his
arms and squeezed him to death. The conqueror clothed himself in the
skin, and games were instituted to commemorate so great an event. The
Nemæan games were originally instituted by the Argives in honour of
Archemorus, who died by the bite of a serpent [_See:_ Archemorus],
and Hercules some time after renewed them. They were one of the four
great and solemn games which were observed in Greece. The Argives,
Corinthians, and the inhabitants of Cleonæ generally presided by
turns at the celebration, in which were exhibited foot and horse
races, chariot races, boxing, wrestling, and contests of every kind,
both gymnical and equestrian. The conqueror was rewarded with a crown
of olives, afterwards of green parsley, in memory of the adventure of
Archemorus, whom his nurse laid down on a sprig of that plant. They
were celebrated every third, or, according to others, every fifth
year, or more properly on the first and third year of every Olympiad,
on the 12th day of the Corinthian month _Panemos_, which corresponds
to our August. They served as an era to the Argives, and to the
inhabitants of the neighbouring country. It was always usual for
an orator to pronounce a funeral oration in memory of the death
of Archemorus, and those who distributed the prizes were always
dressed in mourning. _Livy_, bk. 27, chs. 30 & 31; bk. 34, ch. 41.
――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 9, li. 97, _Epistles_, ltr. 9, li. 61.
――_Pausanias_, _Corinthia_.――_Clement of Alexandria._――_Athenæus.
_――_Polyænus._――_Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Hyginus_, fables 30 & 273.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 6.――――A river of Peloponnesus falling
into the bay of Corinth. _Livy_, bk. 33, ch. 15.
=Nemausus=, a town of Gaul, in Languedoc, near the mouth of the Rhone,
now _Nismes_.
=Nemesia=, festivals in honour of Nemesis. _See:_ Nemesis.
=Marcus Aurelius Olympius Nemesiānus=, a Latin poet, born at Carthage,
of no very brilliant talents, in the third century, whose poems on
hunting and bird-catching were published by Burman, inter scriptores
rei venaticæ, 4to, Leiden, 1728.
=Nĕmĕsis=, one of the infernal deities, daughter of Nox. She was the
goddess of vengeance, always prepared to punish impiety, and at the
same time liberally to reward the good and virtuous. She is made one
of the Parcæ by some mythologists, and is represented with a helm
and a wheel. The people of Smyrna were the first who made her statues
with wings, to show with what celerity she is prepared to punish the
crimes of the wicked, both by sea and land, as the helm and the wheel
in her hands intimate. Her power did not only exist in this life, but
she was also employed after death to find out the most effectual and
rigorous means of correction. Nemesis was particularly worshipped at
Rhamnus in Attica, where she had a celebrated statue 10 cubits long,
made of Parian marble by Phidias, or, according to others, by one
of his pupils. The Romans were also particularly attentive to the
adoration of a deity whom they solemnly invoked, and to whom they
offered sacrifices before they declared war against their enemies,
to show the world that their wars were undertaken upon the most just
grounds. Her statue at Rome was in the Capitol. Some suppose that
Nemesis was the person whom Jupiter deceived in the form of a swan,
and that Leda was entrusted with the care of the children which
sprang from the two eggs. Others observe that Leda obtained the name
of Nemesis after death. According to Pausanias, there were more than
one Nemesis. The goddess Nemesis was surnamed _Rhamnusia_ because
worshipped at Rhamnus, and _Adrastia_ from the temple which Adrastus
king of Argos erected to her, when he went against Thebes, to revenge
the indignities which his son-in-law Polynices had suffered in being
unjustly driven from his kingdom by Eteocles. The Greeks celebrated
a festival called _Nemesia_, in memory of deceased persons, as the
goddess Nemesis was supposed to defend the relics and the memory of
the dead from all insult. _Hyginus_, _Poetica Astronomica_, bk. 2,
ch. 8.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 33.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 10.
――――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 224.――_Pliny_, bk. 11, ch. 28; bk. 26,
ch. 5.――――A mistress of Tibullus, bk. 2, poem 3, li. 55.
=Nemesius=, a Greek writer, whose elegant and useful treatise, _de
Naturâ Hominis_, was edited in 12mo, Ant. apud Plant. 1565, and in
8vo, Oxford, 1671.
=Nemetacum=, a town of Gaul, now _Arras_.
=Nemetes=, a nation of Germany, now forming the inhabitants of Spire,
which was afterwards called _Noviomagus_. _Tacitus_, _Germania_,
ch. 28.
=Nemoralia=, festivals observed in the woods of Aricia, in honour
of Diana, who presided over the country and the forests, on which
account that part of Italy was sometimes denominated _Nemorensis
ager_. _Ovid_, _de Ars Amatoria_, bk. 1, li. 259.
=Nemossus= (or um), the capital of the Arverni in Gaul, now _Clermont_.
_Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 419.――_Strabo_, bk. 4.
=Neobūle=, a daughter of Lycambes, betrothed to the poet Archilochus.
_See:_ Lycambes. _Horace_, epode 6, li. 13; bk. 1, ltr. 3, li. 79.
――_Ovid_, _Ibis_, li. 54.――――A beautiful woman, to whom Horace
addressed bk. 3, ode 12.
=Neocæsaria=, a town of Pontus.
=Neochabis=, a king of Egypt.
=Neŏcles=, an Athenian philosopher, father, or according to Cicero,
brother to the philosopher Epicurus. _Cicero_, bk. 1, _de Natura
Deorum_, ch. 21.――_Diogenes Laërtius._――――The father of Themistocles.
_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 2, &c.――_Cornelius Nepos_,
_Themistocles_.
=Neogĕnes=, a man who made himself absolute, &c. _Diodorus_, bk. 15.
=Neomoris=, one of the Nereides. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1.
=Neon=, a town of Phocis.――――There was also another of the same name in
the same country, on the top of Parnassus. It was afterwards called
_Tithorea_. _Plutarch_, _Sulla_.――_Pausanias_, _Phocis_.――_Herodotus_,
bk. 8, ch. 32.――――One of the commanders of the 10,000 Greeks who
assisted Cyrus against Artaxerxes.
=Neontīchos=, a town of Æolia near the Hermus. _Herodotus._――_Pliny._
=Neōptŏlĕmus=, a king of Epirus, son of Achilles and Deidamia, called
_Pyrrhus_ from the _yellow_ colour of his hair. He was carefully
educated under the eye of his mother, and gave early proofs of
his valour. After the death of Achilles, Calchas declared, in
the assembly of the Greeks, that Troy could not be taken without
the assistance of the son of the deceased hero. Immediately upon
this, Ulysses and Phœnix were commissioned to bring Pyrrhus to the
war. He returned with them with pleasure, and received the name of
Neoptolemus (_new soldier_), because he had come late to the field.
On his arrival before Troy, he paid a visit to the tomb of his father,
and wept over his ashes. He afterwards, according to some authors,
accompanied Ulysses to Lemnos, to engage Philoctetes to come to the
Trojan war. He greatly signalized himself during the remaining time
of the siege, and he was the first who entered the wooden horse. He
was inferior to none of the Grecian warriors in valour, and Ulysses
and Nestor alone could claim a superiority over him in eloquence,
wisdom, and address. His cruelty, however, was as great as that of
his father. Not satisfied with breaking down the gates of Priam’s
palace, he exercised the greatest barbarities upon the remains of
his family, and without any regard to the sanctity of the place
where Priam had taken refuge, he slaughtered him without mercy;
or, according to others, dragged him by the hair to the tomb of
his father, where he sacrificed him, and where he cut off his head,
and carried it in exultation through the streets of Troy, fixed on
the point of a spear. He also sacrificed Astyanax to his fury, and
immolated Polyxena on the tomb of Achilles, according to those who
deny that that sacrifice was voluntary. When Troy was taken, the
captives were divided among the conquerors, and Pyrrhus had for his
share Andromache the widow of Hector, and Helenus the son of Priam.
With these he departed for Greece, and he probably escaped from
destruction by giving credit to the words of Helenus, who foretold
him that, if he sailed with the rest of the Greeks, his voyage would
be attended with fatal consequences, and perhaps with death. This
obliged him to take a different course from the rest of the Greeks,
and he travelled over the greatest part of Thrace, where he had a
severe encounter with queen Harpalyce. _See:_ Harpalyce. The place of
his retirement after the Trojan war is not known. Some maintain that
he went to Thessaly, where his grandfather still reigned; but this
is confuted by others, who observe, perhaps with more reason, that
he went to Epirus, where he laid the foundation of a new kingdom,
because his grandfather Peleus had been deprived of his sceptre by
Acastus the son of Pelias. Neoptolemus lived with Andromache after
his arrival in Greece, but it is unknown whether he treated her as a
lawful wife or a concubine. He had a son by this unfortunate princess,
called Molossus, and two others, if we rely on the authority of
Pausanias. Besides Andromache, he married Hermione the daughter
of Menelaus, as also Lanassa the daughter of Cleodæus, one of the
descendants of Hercules. The cause of his death is variously related.
Menelaus, before the Trojan war, had promised his daughter Hermione
to Orestes, but the services he experienced from the valour and
the courage of Neoptolemus during the siege of Troy, induced him
to reward his merit by making him his son-in-law. The nuptials were
accordingly celebrated, but Hermione became jealous of Andromache,
and because she had no children, she resolved to destroy her Trojan
rival, who seemed to steal away the affections of their common
husband. In the absence of Neoptolemus at Delphi, Hermione attempted
to murder Andromache, but she was prevented by the interference of
Peleus, or, according to others, of the populace. When she saw her
schemes defeated, she determined to lay violent hands upon herself,
to avoid the resentment of Neoptolemus. The sudden arrival of Orestes
changed her resolution, and she consented to elope with her lover to
Sparta. Orestes at the same time, to revenge and to punish his rival,
caused him to be assassinated in the temple of Delphi, and he was
murdered at the foot of the altar by Machareus the priest, or by the
hand of Orestes himself, according to Virgil, Paterculus, and Hyginus.
Some say that he was murdered by the Delphians, who had been bribed
by the presents of Orestes. It is unknown why Neoptolemus went to
Delphi. Some support that he wished to consult the oracle to know
how he might have children by the barren Hermione; others say that
he went thither to offer the spoils which he had obtained during the
Trojan war, to appease the resentment of Apollo, whom he had provoked
by calling him the cause of the death of Achilles. The plunder of
the rich temple of Delphi, if we believe others, was the object
of the journey of Neoptolemus, and it cannot but be observed that
he suffered the same death and the same barbarities which he had
inflicted in the temple of Minerva upon the aged Priam and his
wretched family. From this circumstance, the ancients have made use
of the proverb _Neoptolemic revenge_, when a person had suffered
the same savage treatment which others had received from his hand.
The Delphians celebrated a festival with great pomp and solemnity
in memory of Neoptolemus, who had been slain in his attempt to
plunder their temple, because, as they said, Apollo, the patron
of the place, had been in some manner accessary to the death of
Achilles. _Paterculus_, bk. 1, ch. 1.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bks. 2
& 3.――_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 24.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 13,
lis. 334, 455, &c.; _Heroides_, poem 8.――_Strabo_, bk. 9.――_Pindar_,
_Nemean_, poem 7.――_Euripides_, _Andromache_ & _Orestes_, &c.
――_Plutarch_, _Pyrrhus_.――_Justin_, bk. 17, ch. 3.――_Dictys
Cretensis_, bks. 4, 5, & 6.――_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 11, li. 504;
_Iliad_, bk. 19, li. 326.――_Sophocles_, _Philoctetes_.――_Apollodorus_,
bk. 3, ch. 13.――_Hyginus_, fables 97 & 102.――_Philostratus_,
_Heroicus_, ch. 19, &c.――_Dares Phrygius._――_Quintus Smyrnæus_,
bk. 14.――――A king of the Molossi, father of Olympias the mother of
Alexander. _Justin_, bk. 17, ch. 3.――――Another, king of Epirus.――――An
uncle of the celebrated Pyrrhus who assisted the Tarentines. He
was made king of Epirus by the Epirots, who had revolted from their
lawful sovereign, and was put to death when he attempted to poison
his nephew, &c. _Plutarch_, _Pyrrhus_.――――A tragic poet of Athens,
greatly favoured by Philip king of Macedonia. When Cleopatra, the
monarch’s daughter, was married to Alexander of Epirus, he wrote some
verses which proved to be prophetic of the tragical death of Philip.
_Diodorus_, bk. 16.――――A relation of Alexander. He was the first
who climbed the walls of Gaza when that city was taken by Alexander.
After the king’s death he received Armenia as his province, and made
war against Eumenes. He was supported by Craterus, but an engagement
with Eumenes proved fatal to his cause. Craterus was killed, and
himself mortally wounded by Eumenes, B.C. 321. _Cornelius Nepos_,
_Eumenes_.――――One of the officers of Mithridates the Great, beaten
by Lucullus in a naval battle. _Plutarch_, _Lucullus_.――――A tragic
writer.
=Neoris=, a large country of Asia, near Gedrosia, almost destitute
of waters. The inhabitants were called _Neoritæ_, and it was usual
among them to suspend their dead bodies from the boughs of trees.
_Diodorus_, bk. 17.
=Nepe=, a constellation of the heavens, the same as Scorpio.――――An
inland town of Etruria, called also _Nepete_, whose inhabitants are
called _Nepesini_. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 490.――_Livy_, bk. 5,
ch. 19; bk. 26, ch. 34.
=Nephalia=, festivals in Greece, in honour of Mnemosyne the mother
of the Muses, and Aurora, Venus, &c. No wine was used during the
ceremony, but merely a mixture of water and honey. _Pollux_, bk. 6,
ch. 3.――_Athenæus_, bk. 15.――_Suidas._
=Nĕphĕle=, the first wife of Athamas king of Thebes, and mother of
Phryxus and Helle. She was repudiated on pretence of being subject to
fits of insanity, and Athamas married Ino the daughter of Cadmus, by
whom he had several children. Ino became jealous of Nephele, because
her children would succeed to their father’s throne before hers, by
right of seniority, and she resolved to destroy them. Nephele was
apprised of her wicked intentions, and she removed her children from
the reach of Ino, by giving them a celebrated ram, sprung from the
union of Neptune and Theophane, on whose back they escaped to Colchis.
_See:_ Phryxus. Nephele was afterwards changed into a cloud, whence
her name is given by the Greeks to the clouds. Some call her _Nebula_,
which word is the Latin translation of _Nephele_. The fleece of the
ram, which saved the life of Nephele’s children, is often called the
_Nephelian fleece_. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9.――_Hyginus_, fable 2,
&c.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 11, li. 195.――_Flaccus_, bk. 11,
li. 56.――――A mountain of Thessaly, once the residence of the Centaurs.
=Nephĕlis=, a cape of Cilicia. _Livy_, bk. 33, ch. 20.
=Nepherītes=, a king of Egypt, who assisted the Spartans against Persia,
when Agesilaus was in Asia. He sent them a fleet of 100 ships, which
were intercepted by Conon, as they were sailing towards Rhodes, &c.
_Diodorus_, bk. 14.
=Nephus=, a son of Hercules.
=Nepia=, a daughter of Jasus, who married Olympus king of Mysia, whence
the plains of Mysia are sometimes called _Nepiæ campi_.
=Nepos, Cornelius=, a celebrated historian in the reign of Augustus.
He was born at Hostilia, and, like the rest of his learned
contemporaries, he shared the favours and enjoyed the patronage of
the emperor. He was the intimate friend of Cicero and of Atticus,
and recommended himself to the notice of the great and opulent
by delicacy of sentiment and a lively disposition. According to
some writers, he composed three books of chronicles, as also a
biographical account of all the most celebrated kings, generals,
and authors of antiquity. Of all his valuable compositions, nothing
remains but his lives of the illustrious Greek and Roman generals,
which have often been attributed to Æmylius Probus, who published
them in his own name in the age of Theodosius, to conciliate the
favour and the friendship of that emperor. The language of Cornelius
has always been admired, and as a writer of the Augustan age, he is
entitled to many commendations for the delicacy of his expressions,
the elegance of his style, and the clearness and precision of his
narrations. Some support that he translated Dares Phrygius from
the Greek original; but the inelegance of the diction, and its many
incorrect expressions, plainly prove that it is the production,
not of a writer of the Augustan age, but the spurious composition
of a more modern pen. Cornelius speaks of his account of the Greek
historians _Dion_, ch. 3. Among the many good editions of Cornelius
Nepos, two may be selected as the best, that of Verheyk, 8vo, Leiden,
1773, and that of Glasgow, 12mo, 1761.――――Julius, an emperor of the
west, &c.
=Nepotiānus Flavius Popilius=, a son of Eutropia the sister of the
emperor Constantine. He proclaimed himself emperor after the death of
his cousin Constans, and rendered himself odious by his cruelty and
oppression. He was murdered by Anicetus, after one month’s reign, and
his family were involved in his ruin.
=Nepthys=, wife of Typhon, became enamoured of Osiris her brother-in-law,
and introduced herself to his bed. She had a son called Anubis by him.
_Plutarch_, _De Iside et Osiride_.
=Neptūni fanum=, a place near Cenchreæ. _Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 19.
――――Another in the island of Calauria.――――Another near Mantinea.
=Neptūnia=, a town and colony of Magna Græcia.
=Neptūnium=, a promontory of Arabia at the entrance of the gulf.
=Neptūnius=, an epithet applied to Sextus Pompey, because he believed
himself to be god of the sea, or descended from him, on account
of his superiority in ships, &c. _Horace_ epode 9.――_Dio Cassius_,
bk. 48.
=Neptūnus=, a god, son of Saturn and Ops, and brother to Jupiter, Pluto,
and Juno. He was devoured by his father the day of his birth, and
again restored to life by means of Metis, who gave Saturn a certain
potion. Pausanias says that his mother concealed him in a sheepfold
in Arcadia, and that she imposed upon her husband, telling him that
she had brought a colt into the world, which was instantly devoured
by Saturn. Neptune shared with his brothers the empire of Saturn, and
received as his portion the kingdom of the sea. This, however, did
not seem equivalent to the empire of heaven and earth, which Jupiter
had claimed, therefore he conspired to dethrone him, with the rest
of the gods. The conspiracy was discovered, and Jupiter condemned
Neptune to build the walls of Troy. _See:_ Laomedon. A reconciliation
was soon after made, and Neptune was reinstituted to all his rights
and privileges. Neptune disputed with Minerva the right of giving a
name to the capital of Cecropia, but he was defeated, and the olive
which the goddess suddenly raised from the earth was deemed more
serviceable for the good of mankind than the horse which Neptune had
produced by striking the ground with his trident, as that animal is
the emblem of war and slaughter. This decision did not please Neptune;
he renewed the combat by disputing for Trœzene, but Jupiter settled
their disputes by permitting them to be conjointly worshipped there,
and by giving the name of Polias, or the _protectress of the city_,
to Minerva, and that of king of Trœzene to the god of the sea. He
also disputed his right for the isthmus of Corinth with Apollo;
and Briareus the Cyclops, who was mutually chosen umpire, gave the
isthmus to Neptune, and the promontory to Apollo. Neptune, as being
god of the sea, was entitled to more power than any of the other
gods, except Jupiter. Not only the ocean, rivers, and fountains were
subjected to him, but he also could cause earthquakes at his pleasure,
and raise islands from the bottom of the sea with a blow of his
trident. The worship of Neptune was established in almost every part
of the earth, and the Libyans in particular venerated him above all
other nations, and looked upon him as the first and greatest of the
gods. The Greeks and the Romans were also attached to his worship,
and they celebrated their isthmian games and Consualia with the
greatest solemnity. He was generally represented sitting in a chariot
made of a shell, and drawn by sea-horses or dolphins. Sometimes he is
drawn by winged horses, and holds his trident in his hand, and stands
up as his chariot flies over the surface of the sea. Homer represents
him as issuing from the sea, and in three steps crossing the whole
horizon. The mountains and the forests, says the poet, trembled as he
walked; the whales, and all the fishes of the sea, appear round him,
and even the sea herself seems to feel the presence of her god. The
ancients generally sacrificed a bull and a horse on his altars, and
the Roman soothsayers always offered to him the gall of the victims,
which in taste resembles the bitterness of the sea water. The amours
of Neptune are numerous. He obtained, by means of a dolphin, the
favours of Amphitrite, who had made a vow of perpetual celibacy,
and he placed among the constellations the fish which had persuaded
the goddess to become his wife. He also married Venilia and Salacia,
which are only the names of Amphitrite according to some authors,
who observed that the former word is derived from _venire_, alluding
to the continual motion of the sea. Salacia is derived from _Salum_,
which signifies the sea, and is applicable to Amphitrite. Neptune
became a horse to enjoy the company of Ceres. _See:_ Arion. To
deceive Theophane, he changed himself into a ram. _See:_ Theophane.
He assumed the form of the river Enipeus, to gain the confidence of
Tyro the daughter of Salmoneus, by whom he had Pelias and Neleus.
He was also father of Phorcus and Polyphemus by Thoossa; of Lycus,
Nycteus, and Euphemus by Celeno; of Chryses by Chrysogenia; of Ancæus
by Astypalea; of Bœotus and Helen by Antiope; of Leuconoe by Themisto;
of Agenor and Bellerophon by Eurynome the daughter of Nysus; of
Antas by Alcyone the daughter of Atlas; of Abas by Arethusa; of
Actor and Dictys by Agemede the daughter of Augias; of Megareus by
Œnope daughter of Epopeus; of Cycnus by Harpalyce; of Taras, Otus,
Ephialtes, Dorus, Alesus, &c. The word _Neptunus_ is often used
metaphorically by the poets, to signify _sea water_. In the Consualia
of the Romans, horses were led through the streets finely equipped
and crowned with garlands, as the god in whose honour the festivals
were instituted had produced the horse, an animal so beneficial
for the use of mankind. _Pausanias_, bks. 1, 2, &c.――_Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 7, &c.――_Varro_, _de Lingua Latina_, bk. 4.――_Cicero_,
_de Natura Deorum_, bk. 2, ch. 26; bk. 2, ch. 25.――_Hesiod_,
_Theogony_.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 12, &c.; bks. 2, 3, &c.
――_Apollodorus_, bks. 1, 2, &c.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 6, li.
117, &c.――_Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 50; bk. 4, ch. 188.――_Macrobius_,
_Saturnalia_, bk. 1, ch. 17.――_Augustine_, _City of God_, bk. 18.
――_Plutarch_, _Themistocles_.――_Hyginus_, fable 157.――_Euripides_,
_Phœnician Women_.――_Flaccus._――_Apollonius Rhodius._
=Nēreĭdes=, nymphs of the sea, daughters of Nereus and Doris. They
were 50, according to the greater number of the mythologists, whose
names are as follows: Sao, Amphitrite, Proto, Galatæa, Thoe, Eucrate,
Eudora, Galena, Glauce, Thetis, Spio, Cymothoe, Melita, Thalia, Agave,
Eulimene, Erato, Pasithea, Doto, Eunice, Nesea, Dynamene, Pherusa,
Protomelia, Actea, Panope, Doris, Cymatolege, Hippothoe, Cymo, Eione,
Hipponoe, Cymodoce, Neso, Eupompe, Pronoe, Themisto, Glauconome,
Halimede, Pontoporia, Evagora, Liagora, Polynome, Laomedia,
Lysianassa, Autonoe, Menippe, Evarne, Psamathe, Nemertes. In those
which Homer mentions, to the number of 30, we find the following
names different from those spoken of by Hesiod: Halia, Limmoria, Iera,
Amphitroe, Dexamene, Amphinome, Callianira, Apseudes, Callanassa,
Clymene, Janira, Nassa, Mera, Orythya, Amathea. Apollodorus, who
mentions 45, mentions the following names different from the others:
Glaucothoe, Protomedusa, Pione, Plesaura, Calypso, Cranto, Neomeris,
Dejanira, Polynoe, Melia, Dione, Isea, Dero, Eumolpe, Ione, Ceto.
Hyginus and others differ from the preceding authors in the following
names: Drymo, Xantho, Ligea, Phyllodoce, Cydippe, Lycorias, Cleio,
Beroe, Ephira, Opis, Asia, Deopea, Arethusa, Crenis, Eurydice, and
Leucothoe. The Nereides were implored as the rest of the deities;
they had altars chiefly on the coast of the sea, where the piety
of mankind made offerings of milk, oil, and honey, and often of
the flesh of goats. When they were on the sea-shore they generally
resided in grottos and caves which were adorned with shells, and
shaded by the branches of vines. Their duty was to attend upon the
more powerful deities of the sea, and to be subservient to the will
of Neptune. They were particularly fond of alcyons, and as they
had the power of ruffling or calming the waters, they were always
addressed by sailors, who implored their protection, that they might
grant them a favourable voyage and a prosperous return. They are
represented as young and handsome virgins, sitting on dolphins and
holding Neptune’s trident in their hand, or sometimes garlands of
flowers. _Orpheus_, _Hymn_ 23.――_Catullus_, _Marriage of Peleus and
Thetis_.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 11, li. 361, &c.――_Statius_,
bk. 2, _Sylvæ_, poem 2; bk. 3, _Sylvæ_, poem 1.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2,
ch. 1.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, chs. 2, & 3.――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_.
――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 18, li. 39.――_Pliny_, bk. 36, ch. 5.
――_Hyginus_, &c.
=Nereius=, a name given to Achilles, as son of Thetis, who was one of
the Nereides. _Horace_, epode 17, li. 8.
=Nēreus=, a deity of the sea, son of Oceanus and Terra. He married
Doris, by whom he had 50 daughters, called the Nereides. _See:_
Nereides. Nereus was generally represented as an old man with a
long flowing beard, and hair of an azure colour. The chief place of
his residence was in the Ægean sea, where he was surrounded by his
daughters, who often danced in choruses round him. He had the gift
of prophecy, and informed those that consulted him with the different
fates that attended them. He acquainted Paris with the consequences
of his elopement with Helen; and it was by his directions that
Hercules obtained the golden apples of the Hesperides. But the
sea-god often evaded the importunities of inquirers by assuming
different shapes, and totally escaping from their grasp. The word
_Nereus_ is often taken for the sea itself. Nereus is sometimes
called the most ancient of all the gods. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_.
――_Hyginus._――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 18.――_Apollodorus._――_Orpheus_,
_Argonautica_.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ode 13.――_Euripides_, _Iphigeneia_.
=Nerio=, or =Neriēne=, the wife of Mars. _Aulus Gellius_, ch. 21.
=Nerĭphus=, a desert island near the Thracian Chersonesus.
=Nerĭtos=, a mountain in the island of Ithaca, as also a small island
in the Ionian sea, according to Mela. The word Neritos is often
applied to the whole island of Ithaca, and Ulysses the king of it is
called _Neritius dux_, and his ship _Neritia navis_. The people of
Saguntum, as descended from a Neritian colony, are called _Neritia
proles_. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 2, li. 317.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 3, li. 271.――_Pliny_, bk. 4.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 13, li. 712; _Remedia Amoris_, li. 263.
=Nerĭtum=, a town of Calabria, now called _Nardo_.
=Nerius=, a silversmith in the age of Horace, bk. 2, satire 3, li. 69.
――――A usurer in Nero’s age, who was so eager to get money that he
married as often as he could, and as soon destroyed his wives by
poison, to possess himself of their estates. _Persius_, bk. 2, li. 14.
=Nero Claudius Domitius Cæsar=, a celebrated Roman emperor, son of
Caius Domitius Ahenobarbus and Agrippina the daughter of Germanicus.
He was adopted by the emperor Claudius, A.D. 50, and four years
after he succeeded to him on the throne. The beginning of his reign
was marked by acts of the greatest kindness and condescension,
by affability, complaisance, and popularity. The object of his
administration seemed to be the good of his people; and when he was
desired to sign his name to a list of malefactors that were to be
executed, he exclaimed, “I wish to heaven I could not write.” He was
an enemy to flattery, and when the senate had liberally commended
the wisdom of his government, Nero desired them to keep their praises
till he deserved them. These promising virtues were soon discovered
to be artificial, and Nero displayed the propensities of his nature.
He delivered himself from the sway of his mother, and at last
ordered her to be assassinated. This unnatural act of barbarity might
astonish some of the Romans, but Nero had his devoted adherents; and
when he declared that he had taken away his mother’s life to save
himself from ruin, the senate applauded his measures, and the people
signified their approbation. Many of his courtiers shared the unhappy
fate of Agrippina, and Nero sacrificed to his fury or caprice all
such as obstructed his pleasure, or diverted his inclination. In the
night he generally sallied out from his palace, to visit the meanest
taverns and all the scenes of debauchery which Rome contained.
In this nocturnal riot he was fond of insulting the people in the
streets, and his attempts to offer violence to the wife of a Roman
senator nearly cost him his life. He also turned actor, and publicly
appeared on the Roman stage in the meanest characters. In his
attempts to excel in music, and to conquer the disadvantages of a
hoarse, rough voice, he moderated his meals, and often passed the
day without eating. The celebrity of the Olympian games attracted
his notice. He passed into Greece, and presented himself as a
candidate for the public honours. He was defeated in wrestling,
but the flattery of the spectators adjudged him the victory, and
Nero returned to Rome with all the pomp and ♦splendour of an eastern
conqueror, drawn in the chariot of Augustus, and attended by a band
of musicians, actors, and stage dancers, from every part of the
empire. These private and public amusements of the emperor were
indeed innocent; his character was injured, but not the lives of the
people. But his conduct soon became more abominable; he disguised
himself in the habit of a woman, and was publicly married to one of
his eunuchs. This violence to nature and decency was soon exchanged
for another; Nero resumed his sex, and celebrated his nuptials with
one of his meanest catamites, and it was on this occasion that one
of the Romans observed that the world would have been happy if Nero’s
father had had such a wife. But now his cruelty was displayed in a
more superlative degree, and he sacrificed to his wantonness his wife
Octavia Poppæa, and the celebrated writers, Seneca, Lucan, Petronius,
&c. The christians also did not escape his barbarity. He had heard of
the burning of Troy, and as he wished to renew that dismal scene, he
caused Rome to be set on fire in different places. The conflagration
became soon universal, and during nine successive days the fire
was unextinguished. All was desolation; nothing was heard but
the lamentations of mothers whose children had perished in the
flames, the groans of the dying, and the continual fall of palaces
and buildings. Nero was the only one who enjoyed the general
consternation. He placed himself on the top of a high tower, and he
sang on his lyre the destruction of Troy, a dreadful scene which
his barbarity had realized before his eyes. He attempted to avert
the public odium from his head, by a feigned commiseration of the
miseries of his subjects. He began to repair the streets and the
public buildings at his own expense. He built himself a celebrated
palace, which he called his golden house. It was profusely adorned
with gold and precious stones, and with whatever was rare and
exquisite. It contained spacious fields, artificial lakes, woods,
gardens, orchards, and whatever could exhibit beauty and grandeur.
The entrance of this edifice could admit a large colossus of the
emperor 120 feet high; the galleries were each a mile long, and
the whole was covered with gold. The roofs of the dining halls
represented the firmament in motion as well as in figure, and
continually turned round night and day, showering down all sorts of
perfumes and sweet waters. When this grand edifice, which, according
to Pliny, extended all round the city, was finished, Nero said, that
now he could lodge like a man. His profusion was not less remarkable
in all his other actions. When he went a-fishing, his nets were made
with gold and silk. He never appeared twice in the same garment,
and when he undertook a voyage, there were thousands of servants
to take care of his wardrobe. This continuation of debauchery and
extravagance at last roused the resentment of the people. Many
conspiracies were formed against the emperor, but they were generally
discovered, and such as were accessary suffered the greatest
punishments. The most dangerous conspiracy against Nero’s life
was that of Piso, from which he was delivered by the confession of
a slave. The conspiracy of Galba proved more successful; and the
conspirator, when he was informed that his plot was known to Nero,
declared himself emperor. The unpopularity of Nero favoured his cause;
he was acknowledged by all the Roman empire, and the senate condemned
the tyrant that sat on the throne to be dragged naked through the
streets of Rome, and whipped to death, and afterwards to be thrown
down from the Tarpeian rock like the meanest malefactor. This,
however, was not done, and Nero, by a voluntary death, prevented the
execution of the sentence. He killed himself, A.D. 68, in the 32nd
year of his age, after a reign of thirteen years and eight months.
Rome was filled with acclamations at the intelligence, and the
citizens, more strongly to indicate their joy, wore caps such as
were generally used by slaves who had received their freedom. Their
vengeance was not only exercised against the statues of the deceased
tyrant, but his friends were the objects of the public resentment,
and many were crushed to pieces in such a violent manner, that one
of the senators, amid the universal joy, said that he was afraid they
should soon have cause to wish for Nero. The tyrant, as he expired,
begged that his head might not be cut off from his body, and exposed
to the insolence of an enraged populace, but that the whole might be
burned on the funeral pile. His request was granted by one of Galba’s
freedmen, and his obsequies were performed with the usual ceremonies.
Though his death seemed to be the source of universal gladness, yet
many of his favourites lamented his fall, and were grieved to see
that their pleasures and amusements were stopped by the death of the
patron of debauchery and extravagance. Even the king of Parthia sent
ambassadors to Rome to condole with the Romans, and to beg that they
would honour and revere the memory of Nero. His statues were also
crowned with garlands of flowers, and many believed that he was not
dead, but that he would soon make his appearance, and take a due
vengeance upon his enemies. It will be sufficient to observe, in
finishing the character of this tyrannical emperor, that the name
of _Nero_ is even now used emphatically to express a barbarous and
unfeeling oppressor. Pliny calls him the common enemy and the fury of
mankind, and in this he has been followed by all writers, who exhibit
Nero as the pattern of the most execrable barbarity and unpardonable
wantonness. _Plutarch_, _Galba_.――_Suetonius_, _Lives_.――_Pliny_, bk.
7, ch. 8, &c.――_Dio Cassius_, bk. 64.――_Aurelius Victor._――_Tacitus_,
_Annals_.――――Claudius, a Roman general sent into Spain to succeed
the two Scipios. He suffered himself to be imposed upon by Asdrubal,
and was soon after succeeded by young Scipio. He was afterwards
made consul, and intercepted Asdrubal, who was passing from Spain
into Italy with a large reinforcement for his brother Annibal. An
engagement was fought near the river Metaurus, in which 56,000 of
the Carthaginians were left on the field of battle, and great numbers
taken prisoners, 207 B.C. Asdrubal the Carthaginian general was
also killed, and his head cut off and thrown into his brother’s camp
by the conquerors. _Appian_, _Hannibalic War_.――_Orosius_, bk. 4.
――_Livy_, bk. 27, &c.――_Horace_, bk. 4, ode 4, li. 37.――_Florus_, bk.
2, ch. 6.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 4, ch. 1.――――Another, who opposed
Cicero when he wished to punish with death such as were accessary
to Catiline’s conspiracy.――――A son of Germanicus, who was ruined by
Sejanus, and banished from Rome by Tiberius. He died in the place of
his exile. His death was voluntary, according to some. _Suetonius_,
_Tiberius_.――――Domitian was called _Nero_, because his cruelties
surpassed those of his predecessors, and also _Calvus_, from the
baldness of his head. _Juvenal_, satire 4.――――The Neros were of the
Claudian family, which, during the republican times of Rome, was
honoured with 28 consulships, five dictatorships, six triumphs, seven
censorships, and two ovations. They assumed the surname of Nero,
which, in the language of the Sabines, signifies _strong_ and
_warlike_.
♦ ‘slendour’ replaced with ‘splendour’
=Neronia=, a name given to Artaxata by Tiridates, who had been restored
to his kingdom by Nero, whose favours he acknowledged by calling the
capital of his dominions after the name of his benefactor.
=Neroniānæ Thermæ=, baths at Rome, made by the emperor Nero.
=Nertobrigia=, a town of Spain on the Bilbilis.
=Nerva Cocceius=, a Roman emperor after the death of Domitian, A.D.
96. He rendered himself popular by his mildness, his generosity, and
the active part he took in the management of affairs. He suffered no
statues to be raised to his honour, and he applied to the use of the
government all the gold and silver statues which flattery had erected
to his predecessor. In his civil character he was the pattern of good
manners, of sobriety, and temperance. He forbade the mutilation of
male children, and gave no countenance to the law which permitted
the marriage of an uncle with his niece. He made a solemn declaration
that no senator should suffer death during his reign; and this he
observed with such sanctity that, when two members of the senate
had conspired against his life, he was satisfied to tell them that
he was informed of their wicked machinations. He also conducted
them to the public spectacles, and seated himself between them, and
when a sword was offered to him, according to the usual custom, he
desired the conspirators to try it upon his body. Such goodness of
heart, such confidence in the self-conviction of the human mind,
and such reliance upon the consequence of his lenity and indulgence,
conciliated the affection of all his subjects. Yet, as envy and
danger are the constant companions of greatness, the pretorian
guards at last mutinied, and Nerva nearly yielded to their fury. He
uncovered his aged neck in the presence of the incensed soldiery, and
bade them wreak their vengeance upon him, provided they spared the
life of those to whom he was indebted for the empire, and whom his
honour commanded him to defend. His seeming submission was unavailing,
and he was at last obliged to surrender to the fury of his soldiers
some of his friends and supporters. The infirmities of his age,
and his natural timidity, at last obliged him to provide himself
against any future mutiny or tumult, by choosing a worthy successor.
He had many friends and relations, but he did not consider the
aggrandizement of his family, and he chose for his son and successor
Trajan, a man of whose virtues and greatness of mind he was fully
convinced. This voluntary choice was approved by the acclamations
of the people, and the wisdom and prudence which marked the reign of
Trajan showed how discerning was the judgment, and how affectionate
were the intentions, of Nerva for the good of Rome. He died on the
27th of July, A.D. 98, in his 72nd year, and his successor showed
his respect for his merit and his character by raising him altars
and temples in Rome, and in the provinces, and by ranking him in
the number of the gods. Nerva was the first Roman emperor who was
of foreign extraction, his father being a native of Crete. _Pliny_,
_Panegyrics_.――_Dio Cassius_, bk. 69.――――Marcus Cocceius, a consul
in the reign of Tiberius. He starved himself, because he would not be
concerned in the extravagance of the emperor.――――A celebrated lawyer,
consul with the emperor Vespasian. He was father to the emperor of
that name.
=Nervii=, a warlike people of Belgic Gaul, who continually upbraided
the neighbouring nations for submitting to the power of the Romans.
They attacked Julius Cæsar, and were totally defeated. Their country
forms the modern province of _Hainault_. _Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 428.
――_Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 2, ch. 15.
=Nerulum=, an inland town of Lucania, now _Lagonegro_. _Livy_, bk. 9,
ch. 20.
=Nerium=, or =Artabrum=, a promontory of Spain, now cape _Finisterre_.
_Strabo_, bk. 3.
=Nesactum=, a town of Istria at the mouth of the Arsia, now _Castel
Nuovo_.
=Nesæa=, one of the Nereides. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 4, li. 338.
=Nesimăchus=, the father of Hippomedon, a native of Argos, who was one
of the seven chiefs who made war against Thebes. _Hyginus_, fable 70.
――_Scholiast_ on _Statius_, _Thebaid_, bk. 1, li. 44.
=Nesis= (is, or idis), now _Nisita_, an island on the coast of
Campania, famous for asparagus. Lucan and Statius speak of its air
as unwholesome and dangerous. _Pliny_, bk. 19, ch. 8.――_Lucan_,
bk. 6, li. 90.――_Cicero_, _Letters to Atticus_, bk. 16, ltrs. 1
& 2.――_Statius_, bk. 3, _Sylvæ_, poem 1, li. 148.
=Nessus=, a celebrated centaur, son of Ixion and the Cloud. He offered
violence to Dejanira, whom Hercules had entrusted to his care,
with orders to carry her across the river Evenus. _See:_ Dejanira.
Hercules saw the distress of his wife from the opposite shore of the
river, and immediately he let fly one of his poisoned arrows, which
struck the centaur to the heart. Nessus, as he expired, gave the
tunic he then wore to Dejanira, assuring her that, from the poisoned
blood which had flowed from his wounds, it had received the power
of calling a husband away from unlawful loves. Dejanira received
it with pleasure, and this mournful present caused the death of
Hercules. _See:_ Hercules. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Ovid_,
ltr. 9.――_Seneca_, _Hercules Furens_.――_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 28.
――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.――――A river. _See:_ Nestus.
=Nestŏcles=, a famous statuary of Greece, rival to Phidias. _Pliny_,
bk. 34, ch. 8.
=Nestor=, a son of Neleus and Chloris, nephew to Pelias and grandson
to Neptune. He had 11 brothers, who were all killed, with his father,
by Hercules. His tender age detained him at home, and was the cause
of his preservation. The conqueror spared his life, and placed him
on the throne of Pylos. He married Eurydice the daughter of Clymenes,
or, according to others, Anaxibia the daughter of Atreus. He early
distinguished himself in the field of battle, and was present at
the nuptials of Pirithous, when a bloody battle was fought between
the Lapithæ and Centaurs. As king of Pylos and Messenia he led his
subjects to the Trojan war, where he distinguished himself among the
rest of the Grecian chiefs by eloquence, address, wisdom, justice,
and an uncommon prudence of mind. Homer displays his character as
the most perfect of all his heroes; and Agamemnon exclaims, that
if he had 10 generals like Nestor, he should soon see the walls
of Troy reduced to ashes. After the Trojan war, Nestor retired to
Greece, where he enjoyed, in the bosom of his family, the peace and
tranquillity which were due to his wisdom and to his old age. The
manner and the time of his death are unknown; the ancients are all
agreed that he lived three generations of men, which length of time
some suppose to be 300 years, though more probably only 90, allowing
30 years for each generation. From that circumstance, therefore, it
was usual among the Greeks and the Latins, when they wished a long
and happy life to their friends, to wish them to see the years of
Nestor. He had two daughters, Pisidice and Polycaste; and seven sons,
Perseus, Straticus, Aretus, Echephron, Pisistratus, Antilochus, and
Trasimedes. Nestor was one of the Argonauts, according to _Valerius
Flaccus_, bk. 1, li. 380, &c.――_Dictys Cretensis_, bk. 1, ch. 13, &c.
――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 1, &c.; _Odyssey_, bks. 3 & 11.――_Hyginus_,
fables 10 & 273.――_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 26; bk. 4, chs. 3 & 31.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9; bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 12, li. 162, &c.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ode 15.――――A poet of Lycaonia
in the age of the emperor Severus. He was father to Pisander, who,
under the emperor Alexander, wrote some fabulous stories.――――One of
the body-guards of Alexander. _Polyænus._
=Nestorius=, a bishop of Constantinople, who flourished A.D. 431.
He was condemned and degraded from his episcopal dignity for his
heretical opinions, &c.
=Nestus=, or =Nessus=, now _Nesto_, a small river of Thrace, rising
in mount Rhodope, and falling into the Ægean sea above the island of
Thasos. It was for some time the boundary of Macedonia on the east,
in the more extensive power of that kingdom.
=Netum=, a town of Sicily, now called _Noto_, on the eastern coast.
_Silius Italicus_, bk. 14, li. 269.――_Cicero_, _Against Verres_,
bk. 4, ch. 26; bk. 5, ch. 51.
=Neuri=, a people of Sarmatia. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 1.
=Nicæa=, a widow of Alexander, who married Demetrius.――――A daughter
of Antipater, who married Perdiccas.――――A city of India, built by
Alexander on the very spot where he had obtained a victory over king
Porus.――――A town of Achaia near Thermopylæ, on the bay of Malia.――――A
town of Illyricum.――――Another in Corsica.――――Another in Thrace,――――in
Bœotia.――――A town of Bithynia (now _Nice_, or _Is-nik_), built by
Antigonus, the son of Philip king of Macedonia. It was originally
called _Antigonia_, and afterwards _Nicæa_ by Lysimachus, who gave
it the name of his wife, who was daughter of Antipater.――――A town
of Liguria, built by the people of Massilia, in commemoration of a
victory.
=Nicagŏras=, a sophist of Athens in the reign of the emperor Philip.
He wrote the lives of illustrious men, and was reckoned one of the
greatest and most learned men of his age.
=Nicander=, a king of Sparta, son of Charillus, of the family of
the Proclidæ. He reigned 39 years, and died B.C. 770.――――A writer
of Chalcedon.――――A Greek grammarian, poet, and physician, of
Colophon, 137 B.C. His writings were held in estimation, but his
judgment cannot be highly commended, since, without any knowledge
of agriculture, he ventured to compose a book on that intricate
subject. Two of his poems, entitled _Theriaca_, on hunting, and
_Alexipharmaca_, on antidotes against poison, are still extant; the
best editions of which are those of Gorræus, with a translation in
Latin verse by Grevinus, a physician at Paris, 4to, Paris, 1557, and
Salvinus, 8vo, Florence, 1764. _Cicero_, bk. 1, _On Oratory_, ch. 16.
=Nicānor=, a man who conspired against the life of Alexander. _Curtius_,
bk. 6.――――A son of Parmenio, who died in Hyrcania, &c.――――A surname
of Demetrius. _See:_ Demetrius II.――――An unskilful pilot of Antigonus.
_Polyænus._――――A servant of Atticus. _Cicero_, bk. 5, ltr. 3.――――A
Samian, who wrote a treatise on rivers.――――A governor of Media,
conquered by Seleucus. He had been governor over the Athenians under
Cassander, by whose orders he was put to death.――――A general of the
emperor Titus, wounded at the siege of Jerusalem.――――A man of Stagira,
by whom Alexander the Great sent a letter to recall the Grecian
exiles. _Diodorus_, bk. 18.――――A governor of Munychia, who seized
the Piræus, and was at last put to death by Cassander, because he
wished to make himself absolute over Attica. _Diodorus_, bk. 18.――――A
brother of Cassander, destroyed by Olympias. _Diodorus_, bk. 19.――――A
general of Antiochus king of Syria. He made war against the Jews, and
showed himself uncommonly cruel.
=Nicarchus=, a Corinthian philosopher in the age of Periander.
_Plutarch._――――An Arcadian chief, who deserted to the Persians,
at the return of the 10,000 Greeks.
=Nicarthīdes=, a man set over Persepolis by Alexander.
=Nicātor=, a surname of Seleucus king of Syria, from his having been
unconquered.
=Nice=, a daughter of Thestius. _Apollodorus._
=Nicephorium=, a town of Mesopotamia, on the Euphrates, where Venus had
a temple. _Livy_, bk. 32, ch. 33.――_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 6, ch. 41.
=Nicephŏrius=, now _Khabour_, a river which flowed by the walls of
Tigranocerta. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 15, ch. 4.
=Nicephŏrus Cæsar=, a Byzantine historian, whose works were edited
folio, Paris, 1661.――――Gregoras, another, edited folio, Paris, 1702.
――――A Greek ecclesiastical historian, whose works were edited by
Ducæus, 2 vols., Paris, 1630.
=Nicer=, now the _Necker_, a river of Germany, falling into the Rhine
at the modern town of Manheim. _Ausonius_, _Mosella_, li. 423.
=Nicerātus=, a poet who wrote a poem in praise of Lysander.――――The
father of Nicias.
=Nicetas=, one of the Byzantine historians, whose works were edited
folio, Paris, 1647.
=Niceteria=, a festival at Athens, in memory of the victory which
Minerva obtained over Neptune, in their dispute about giving a name
to the capital of the country.
=Nicia=, a city. _See:_ Nicæa.――――A river falling into the Po at
Brixellum. It is now called _Lenza_, and separates the duchy of
Modena from Parma.
=Nicias=, an Athenian general, celebrated for his valour and for his
misfortunes. He early conciliated the good will of the people by his
liberality, and he established his military character by taking the
island of Cythera from the power of Lacedæmon. When Athens determined
to make war against Sicily, Nicias was appointed, with Alcibiades and
Lamachus, to conduct the expedition, which he reprobated as impolitic,
and as the future cause of calamities to the Athenian power. In
Sicily he behaved with great firmness, but he often blamed the quick
and inconsiderate measures of his colleagues. The success of the
Athenians remained long doubtful. Alcibiades was recalled by his
enemies to take his trial, and Nicias was left at the head of affairs.
Syracuse was surrounded by a wall, and though the operations were
carried on slowly, yet the city would have surrendered, had not the
sudden appearance of Gylippus, the Corinthian ally of the Sicilians,
cheered up the courage of the besieged at the most critical moment.
Gylippus proposed terms of accommodation to the Athenians, which were
refused; some battles were fought, in which the Sicilians obtained
the advantage, and Nicias at last, tired of his ill success, and
grown desponding, demanded of the Athenians a reinforcement or a
successor. Demosthenes, upon this, was sent with a powerful fleet,
but the advice of Nicias was despised, and the admiral, by his
eagerness to come to a decisive engagement, ruined his fleet and the
interest of Athens. The fear of his enemies at home prevented Nicias
from leaving Sicily; and when, at last, a continued series of ill
success obliged him to comply, he found himself surrounded on every
side by the enemy, without hope of escaping. He gave himself up to
the conquerors with all his army, but the assurances of safety which
he had received soon proved vain and false, and he was no sooner
in the hands of the enemy than he was shamefully put to death with
Demosthenes. His troops were sent to quarries, where the plague and
hard labour diminished their numbers and aggravated their misfortunes.
Some suppose that the death of Nicias was not violent. He perished
about 413 years before Christ, and the Athenians lamented in him
a great and valiant but unfortunate general. _Plutarch_, _Lives_.
――_Cicero._――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Alcibiades_.――_Thucydides_, bk. 4,
&c.――_Diodorus_, bk. 15.――――A grammarian of Rome, intimate with
Cicero. _Cicero_, _Letters_.――――A man of Nicæa, who wrote a history
of philosophers.――――A physician of Pyrrhus king of Epirus, who made
an offer to the Romans of poisoning his master for a sum of money.
The Roman general disdained his offers, and acquainted Pyrrhus with
his treachery. He is oftener called Cineas.――――A painter of Athens in
the age of Alexander. He was chiefly happy in his pictures of women.
_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 2, ch. 31.
=Nicippe=, a daughter of Pelops, who married Sthenelus.――――A daughter
of Thespius. _Apollodorus._
=Nicippus=, a tyrant of Cos, one of whose sheep brought forth a lion,
which was considered as portending his future greatness, and his
elevation to the sovereignty. _Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 1,
ch. 29.
=Nico=, one of the Tarentine chiefs who conspired against the life of
Annibal. _Livy_, bk. 30.――――A celebrated architect and geometrician.
He was father to the celebrated Galen the prince of physicians.
――――One of the slaves of Craterus.――――The name of an ass which
Augustus met before the battle of Actium, a circumstance which
he considered as a favourable omen.――――The name of an elephant
remarkable for his fidelity to king Pyrrhus.
=Nicochăres=, a Greek comic poet in the age of Aristophanes.
=Nicŏcles=, a familiar friend of Phocion, condemned to death.
_Plutarch._――――A king of Salamis, celebrated for his contest with a
king of Phœnicia, to prove which of the two was most effeminate.――――A
king of Paphos, who reigned under the protection of Ptolemy king of
Egypt. He revolted from his friend to the king of Persia, upon which
Ptolemy ordered one of his servants to put him to death, to strike
terror into the other dependent princes. The servant, unwilling to
murder the monarch, advised him to kill himself. Nicocles obeyed, and
all his family followed his example, 310 years before the christian
era.――――An ancient Greek poet, who called physicians a happy race of
men, because light published their good deeds to the world, and the
earth hid all their faults and imperfections.――――A king of Cyprus,
who succeeded his father Evagoras on the throne, 374 years before
Christ. It was with him that the philosopher Isocrates corresponded.
――――A tyrant of Sicyon, deposed by means of Aratus the Achæan.
_Plutarch_, _Aratus_.
=Nicocrătes=, a tyrant of Cyrene.――――An author at Athens.――――A king of
Salamis in Cyprus, who made himself known by the valuable collection
of books which he had. _Athenæus_, bk. 1.
=Nicocreon=, a tyrant of Salamis in the age of Alexander the Great.
He ordered the philosopher Anaxarchus to be pounded to pieces in a
mortar.
=Nicodēmus=, an Athenian appointed by Conon over the fleet which was
going to the assistance of Artaxerxes. _Diodorus_, bk. 14.――――A
tyrant of Italy, &c.――――An ambassador sent to Pompey by Aristobulus.
=Nicodōrus=, a wrestler of Mantinea, who studied philosophy in his
old age. _Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 2, ch. 22.――_Suidas._――――An
Athenian archon.
=Nicodrŏmus=, a son of Hercules and Nice. _Apollodorus._――――An Athenian
who invaded Ægina, &c.
=Nicolāus=, a philosopher.――――A celebrated Syracusan, who endeavoured,
in a pathetic speech, to dissuade his countrymen from offering
violence to the Athenian prisoners who had been taken with Nicias
their general. His eloquence was unavailing.――――An officer of Ptolemy
against Antigonus.――――A peripatetic philosopher and historian in the
Augustan age.
=Nicomăcha=, a daughter of Themistocles.
=Nicomăchus=, the father of Aristotle, whose son also bore the same
name. The philosopher composed his 10 books of morals for the use
and improvement of his son, and thence they are called Nicomachea.
_Suidas._――――One of Alexander’s friends, who discovered the
conspiracy of Dymus. _Curtius_, bk. 6.――――An excellent painter.――――A
Pythagorean philosopher.――――A Lacedæmonian general, conquered by
Timotheus.――――A writer in the fifth century, &c.
=Nicomēdes I.=, a king of Bithynia, about 278 years before the
christian era. It was by his exertions that this part of Asia became
a monarchy. He behaved with great cruelty to his brothers, and built
a town which he called by his own name, _Nicomedia_. _Justin._
――_Pausanias_, &c.
=Nicomēdes II.=, was ironically surnamed _Philopater_, because he
drove his father Prusias from the kingdom of Bithynia, and caused
him to be assassinated, B.C. 149. He reigned 59 years. Mithridates
laid claim to his kingdom, but all their disputes were decided by
the Romans, who deprived Nicomedes of the province of Paphlagonia,
and his ambitious rival of Cappadocia. He gained the affections of
his subjects by a courteous behaviour, and by a mild and peaceful
government. _Justin._
=Nicomēdes III.=, son and successor of the preceding, was dethroned by
his brother Socrates, and afterwards by the ambitious Mithridates.
The Romans re-established him on his throne, and encouraged him to
make reprisals upon the king of Pontus. He followed their advice, and
he was, at last, expelled another time from his dominions, till Sylla
came into Asia, who restored him to his former power and affluence.
_Strabo._――_Appian._
=Nicomēdes IV.=, was son and successor of Nicomedes III. He passed his
life in an easy and tranquil manner, and enjoyed the peace which his
alliance with the Romans had procured him. He died B.C. 75, without
issue, and left his kingdom, with all his possessions, to the Roman
people. _Strabo_, bk. 12.――_Appian_, _Mithridatic Wars_.――_Justin_,
bk. 38, ch. 2, &c.――_Florus_, bk. 3, ch. 5.
=Nicomēdes=, a celebrated geometrician in the age of the philosopher
Eratosthenes. He made himself known by his useful machines, &c.――――An
engineer in the army of Mithridates.――――One of the preceptors of the
emperor Marcus Antoninus.
=Nicomēdia= (now _Is-nikmid_), a town of Bithynia, founded by
Nicomedes I. It was the capital of the country, and it has been
compared, for its beauty and greatness, to Rome, Antioch, or
Alexandria. It became celebrated for being, for some time, the
residence of the emperor Constantine and most of his imperial
successors. Some suppose that it was originally called _Astacus_, and
_Olbia_, though it is generally believed that they were all different
cities. _Ammianus_, bk. 17.――_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 12.――_Pliny_,
bk. 5, &c.――_Strabo_, bk. 12, &c.
=Nicon=, a pirate of Phære in Peloponnesus, &c. _Polyænus._――――An
athlete of Thasos, 14 times victorious at the Olympic games.――――A
native of Tarentum. _See:_ Nico.
=Niconia=, a town of Pontus.
=Nicophanes=, a famous painter of Greece, whose pieces are mentioned
with commendation. _Pliny_, bk. 35, ch. 10.
=Nicŏphron=, a comic poet of Athens some time after the age of
Aristophanes.
=Nicŏpolis=, a city of Lower Egypt.――――A town of Armenia, built by
Pompey the Great in memory of a victory which he had there obtained
over the forces of Mithridates. _Strabo_, bk. 12.――――Another, in
Thrace, built on the banks of the Nestus by Trajan, in memory of a
victory which he obtained there over the barbarians.――――A town of
Epirus, built by Augustus after the battle of Actium.――――Another,
near Jerusalem, founded by the emperor Vespasian.――――Another, in
Mœsia.――――Another, in Dacia, built by Trajan to perpetuate the memory
of a celebrated battle.――――Another, near the bay of Issus, built by
Alexander.
=Nicostrăta=, a courtesan who left all her possessions to Sylla.――――The
same as Carmente mother of Evander.
=Nicostrătus=, a man of Argos of great strength. He was fond of
imitating Hercules by clothing himself in a lion’s skin. _Diodorus_,
bk. 16.――――One of Alexander’s soldiers. He conspired against the
king’s life, with Hermolaus. _Curtius_, bk. 8.――――A painter who
expressed great admiration at the sight of Helen’s picture by Zeuxis.
_Ælian_, bk. 14, ch. 47.――――A dramatic actor of Ionia.――――A comic
poet of Argos.――――An orator of Macedonia, in the reign of the emperor
Marcus Antoninus.――――A son of Menelaus and Helen. _Pausanias_, bk. 2,
ch. 18.――――A general of the Achæans, who defeated the Macedonians.
=Nicotelea=, a celebrated woman of Messenia, who said that she became
pregnant of Aristomenes by a serpent. _Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 14.
=Nicotĕles=, a Corinthian drunkard, &c. _Ælian_, _Varia Historia_,
bk. 2, ch. 14.
=Niger=, a friend of Marcus Antony, sent to him by Octavia.――――A
surname of Clitus, whom Alexander killed in a fit of drunkenness.
――――Caius Pescennius Justus, a celebrated governor in Syria, well
known by his valour in the Roman armies, while yet a private man. At
the death of Pertinax he was declared emperor of Rome, and his claims
to that elevated situation were supported by a sound understanding,
prudence of mind, moderation, courage, and virtue. He proposed
to imitate the actions of the venerable Antoninus, of Trajan, of
Titus, and Marcus Aurelius. He was remarkable for his fondness for
ancient discipline, and never suffered his soldiers to drink wine,
but obliged them to quench their thirst with water and vinegar. He
forbade the use of silver and gold utensils in his camp, all the
bakers and cooks were driven away, and the soldiers ordered to live,
during the expedition they undertook, merely upon biscuits. In his
punishments Niger was inexorable; he condemned 10 of his soldiers to
be beheaded in the presence of the army, because they had stolen and
eaten a fowl. The sentence was heard with groans: the army interfered;
and when Niger consented to diminish the punishment for fear of
kindling a rebellion, he yet ordered the criminals to make each a
restoration of 10 fowls to the person whose property they had stolen.
They were, besides, ordered not to light a fire the rest of the
campaign, but to live upon cold aliments, and to drink nothing but
water. Such great qualifications in a general seemed to promise the
restoration of ancient discipline in the Roman armies, but the death
of Niger frustrated every hope of reform. Severus, who had also been
invested with the imperial purple, marched against him; some battles
were fought, and Niger was at last defeated, A.D. 194. His head was
cut off and fixed to a long spear, and carried in triumph through
the streets of Rome. He reigned about one year. _Herodian_, bk. 3.
――_Eutropius._
=Niger=, or =Nigris= (itis), a river of Africa, which rises in Æthiopia,
and falls by three mouths into the Atlantic, little known to the
ancients, and not yet satisfactorily explored by the moderns. _Pliny_,
bk. 5, chs. 1 & 8.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 4; bk. 3, ch. 10.――_Ptolemy_,
bk. 4, ch. 6.
=Publius Nigidius Figŭlus=, a celebrated philosopher and astrologer
at Rome, one of the most learned men of his age. He was intimate
with Cicero, and gave his most unbiassed opinions concerning the
conspirators who had leagued to destroy Rome with Catiline. He was
made pretor, and honoured with a seat in the senate. In the civil
wars he followed the interest of Pompey, for which he was banished
by the conqueror. He died in the place of his banishment, 47 years
before Christ. _Cicero_, _Letters to his Friends_, bk. 4, ltr. 13.
――_Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 639.
=Nigrītæ=, a people of Africa, who dwell on the banks of the Niger.
_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 4.――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 1.
=Nileus=, a son of Codrus, who conducted a colony of Ionians to
Asia, where he built Ephesus, Miletus, Priene, Colophon, Myus,
Teos, Lebedos, Clazomenæ, &c. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 2, &c.――――A
philosopher who had in his possession all the writings of Aristotle.
_Athenæus_, bk. 1.
=Nilus=, a king of Thebes, who gave his name to the river which flows
through the middle of Egypt, and falls into the Mediterranean sea.
The Nile, anciently called _Ægyptus_, is one of the most celebrated
rivers in the world. Its sources were unknown to the ancients,
and the moderns were till lately ignorant of their situation,
whence an impossibility is generally meant by the proverb of _Nili
caput quærere_. It flows through the middle of Egypt in a northern
direction, and when it comes to the town of Cercasorum, it then
divides itself into several streams, and falls into the Mediterranean
by seven mouths. The most eastern canal is called the Pelusian,
and the most western is called the Canopic mouth. The other canals
are the Sebennytican, that of Sais, the Mendesian, Bolbitinic, and
Bucolic. They have all been formed by nature, except the two last,
which have been dug by the labours of men. The island which the Nile
forms by its division into several streams is called _Delta_, from
its resemblance to the fourth letter in the Greek alphabet. The Nile
yearly overflows the country, and it is to those regular inundations
that the Egyptians are indebted for the fertile produce of their
lands. It begins to rise in the month of May for 100 successive days,
and then decreases gradually the same number of days. If it does not
rise as high as 16 cubits, a famine is generally expected, but if it
exceeds this by many cubits, it is of the most dangerous consequences;
houses are overturned, the cattle are drowned, and a great number
of insects are produced from the mud, which destroy the fruits of
the earth. The river, therefore, proves a blessing or a calamity to
Egypt, and the prosperity of the nation depends so much upon it, that
the tributes of the inhabitants were in ancient times, and are still
under the present government, proportioned to the rise of the waters.
The causes of the overflowings of the Nile, which remained unknown
to the ancients, though searched with the greatest application, are
owing to the heavy rains which regularly fall in Æthiopia, in the
months of April and May, and which rush down like torrents upon the
country, and lay it all under water. These causes, as some people
suppose, were well known to Homer, as he seems to show it, by saying
that the Nile flowed down from heaven. The inhabitants of Egypt, near
the banks of the river, were called _Niliaci_, _Niligenæ_, &c., and
large canals were also from this river denominated _Nili_ or _Euripi_.
_Cicero_, _De Legibus_, bk. 2, ch. 1; _Letters to his brother
Quintus_, bk. 3, ltr. 9; _Letters to Atticus_, bk. 11, ltr. 12.
――_Strabo_, bk. 17.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, li. 187; bk. 15,
li. 753.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 9; bk. 3, ch. 9.――_Seneca_, _Quæstiones
Naturales_, bk. 4.――_Lucan_, bks. 1, 2, &c.――_Claudian_, _de Nilus_.
――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 4, li. 288; _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 800; bk.
9, li. 31.――_Diodorus_, bk. 1, &c.――_Herodotus_, bk. 2.――_Lucretius_,
bk. 6, li. 712.――_Ammianus_, bk. 22.――_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 32.
――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 10.――――One of the Greek fathers, who flourished
A.D. 440. His works were edited at Rome, folio, 2 vols., 1668 & 1678.
=Ninnius=, a tribune who opposed Clodius the enemy of Cicero.
=Ninias.= _See:_ Ninyas.
=Ninus=, a son of Belus, who built a city to which he gave his own
name, and founded the Assyrian monarchy, of which he was the first
sovereign, B.C. 2059. He was very warlike, and extended his conquests
from Egypt to the extremities of India and Bactriana. He became
enamoured of Semiramis the wife of one of his officers, and he
married her after her husband had destroyed himself through fear of
his powerful rival. Ninus reigned 52 years, and at his death he left
his kingdom to the care of his wife Semiramis, by whom he had a son.
The history of Ninus is very obscure, and even fabulous according
to the opinion of some. Ctesias is the principal historian from
whom it is derived, but little reliance is to be placed upon him,
when Aristotle deems him unworthy to be believed. Ninus after death
received divine honours, and became the Jupiter of the Assyrians
and the Hercules of the Chaldeans. _Ctesias._――_Diodorus_, bk. 2.
――_Justin_, bk. 1, ch. 1.――_Herodotus_, bk. 2.――――A celebrated city,
now _Nino_, the capital of Assyria, built on the banks of the Tigris
by Ninus, and called _Nineveh_ in Scripture. It was, according to
the relation of Diodorus Siculus, 15 miles long, nine broad, and 48
in circumference. It was surrounded by large walls 100 feet high, on
the top of which three chariots could pass together abreast, and was
defended by 1500 towers, each 200 feet high. Ninus was taken by the
united armies of Cyaxares and Nabopolassar king of Babylon, B.C. 606.
_Strabo_, bk. 1.――_Diodorus_, bk. 2.――_Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 185, &c.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 33.――_Lucian._
=Ninyas=, a son of Ninus and Semiramis, king of Assyria, who succeeded
his mother, who had voluntarily abdicated the crown. Some suppose
that Semiramis was put to death by her own son, because she had
encouraged him to commit incest. The reign of Ninyas is remarkable
for its luxury and extravagance. The prince left the care of the
government to his favourites and ministers, and gave himself up to
pleasure, riot, and debauchery, and never appeared in public. His
successors imitated the example of his voluptuousness, and therefore
their names or history are little known till the age of Sardanapalus.
_Justin_, bk. 1, ch. 2.――_Diodorus_, bk. 1, &c.
=Niŏbe=, a daughter of Tantalus king of Lydia by Euryanassa or Dione.
She married Amphion the son of Jasus, by whom she had 10 sons and
10 daughters according to Hesiod, or two sons and three daughters
according to Herodotus. Homer and Propertius say that she had six
daughters and as many sons, and Ovid, Apollodorus, &c., according to
the more received opinion, support that she had seven sons and seven
daughters. The names of the sons were Sipylus, Minytus, Tantalus,
Agenor, Phædimus, Damasichthon, and Ismenus; and those of the
daughters, Cleodoxa, Ethodæa or Thera, Astyoche, Phthia, Pelopia or
Chloris, Asticratea, and Ogygia. The number of her children increased
the pride of Niobe, and she not only had the imprudence to prefer
herself to Latona, who had only two children, but she even insulted
her, and ridiculed the worship which was paid to her, observing that
she had a better claim to altars and sacrifices than the mother of
Apollo and Diana. This insolence provoked Latona, who entreated her
children to punish the arrogant Niobe. Her prayers were heard, and
immediately all the sons of Niobe expired by the darts of Apollo,
and all the daughters except Chloris, who had married Neleus king
of Polos, were equally destroyed by Diana; and Niobe, struck at the
suddenness of her misfortunes, was changed into a stone. The carcases
of Niobe’s children, according to Homer, were left unburied in the
plains for nine successive days, because Jupiter changed into stones
all such as attempted to inter them. On the tenth day they were
honoured with a funeral by the gods. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 24.
――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 12, ch. 36.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3,
ch. 5.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, fable 5.――_Hyginus_, fable 9.
――_Horace_, bk. 4, ode 6.――_Propertius_, bk. 2, poem 6.――――A daughter
of Phoroneus king of Peloponnesus by Laodice. She was beloved by
Jupiter, by whom she had a son called Argus, who gave his name to
Argia or Argolis, a country of Peloponnesus. _Pausanias_, bk. 2,
ch. 22.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 1; bk. 3, ch. 8.
=Niphæus=, a man killed by horses, &c. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10,
li. 570.
=Niphātes=, a mountain of Asia, which divides Armenia from Assyria, and
from which the Tigris takes its rise. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 3,
li. 30.――_Strabo_, bk. 11.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 15.――――A river of
Armenia, falling into the Tigris. _Horace_, bk. 2, ode 9, li. 20.
――_Lucan_, bk. 3, li. 245.
=Niphe=, one of Diana’s companions. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 3,
li. 245.
=Nireus=, a king of Naxos, son of Charops and Aglaia, celebrated for
his beauty. He was one of the Grecian chiefs during the Trojan war.
_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2.――_Horace_, bk. 2, ode 20.
=Nisa=, a town of Greece. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2.――――A country-woman.
_Virgil_, _Eclogues_, poem 8.――――A place. _See:_ Nysa.――――A
celebrated plain of Media near the Caspian sea, famous for its
horses. _Herodotus_, bk. 3, ch. 106.
=Nisæa=, a naval station on the coasts of Megaris. _Strabo_, bk. 8.
――――A town of Parthia, called also Nisa.
=Nisæe=, a sea-nymph. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 5, li. 826.
=Niseia.= _See:_ Nisus.
=Nisĭbis=, a town of Mesopotamia, built by a colony of Macedonians on
the Tigris, and celebrated as being a barrier between the provinces
of Rome and the Persian empire during the reign of the Roman emperors.
It was sometimes called _Antiochia Mygdonica_. _Josephus_, bk. 20,
ch. 2.――_Strabo_, bk. 11.――_Ammianus_, bk. 25, &c.――_Pliny_, bk. 6,
ch. 13.
=Nisus=, a son of Hyrtacus, born on mount Ida near Troy. He came to
Italy with Æneas, and signalized himself by his valour against the
Rutulians. He was united in the closest friendship with Euryalus,
a young Trojan, and with him he entered, in the dead of night, the
enemy’s camp. As they were returning victorious, after much bloodshed,
they were perceived by the Rutulians, who attacked Euryalus. Nisus,
in endeavouring to rescue his friend from the enemy’s darts, perished
himself with him, and their heads were cut off and fixed on a spear,
and carried in triumph to the camp. Their death was greatly lamented
by all the Trojans, and their great friendship, like that of a
Pylades and an Orestes, or of a Theseus and Pirithous, is become
proverbial. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 176, &c.――――A king of
Dulichium, remarkable for his probity and virtue. _Homer_, _Odyssey_,
bk. 18.――――A king of Megara, son of Mars, or more probably of Pandion.
He inherited his father’s kingdom with his brothers, and received
as his portion the country of Megaris. The peace of the brothers was
interrupted by the hostilities of Minos, who wished to avenge the
death of his son Androgeus, who had been murdered by the Athenians.
Megara was besieged, and Attica laid waste. The fate of Nisus
depended totally upon a yellow lock, which, as long as it continued
upon his head, according to the words of an oracle, promised him
life, and success to his affairs. His daughter Scylla (often called
_Niseia Virgo_) saw from the walls of Megara the royal besieger, and
she became desperately enamoured of him. To obtain a more immediate
interview with this object of her passion, she stole away the
fatal hair from her father’s head as he was asleep; the town was
immediately taken, but Minos disregarded the services of Scylla, and
she threw herself into the sea. The gods changed her into a lark,
and Nisus assumed the nature of the hawk at the very moment that he
gave himself death, not to fall into the enemy’s hands. These two
birds have continually been at variance with each other, and Scylla,
by her apprehensions at the sight of her father, seems to suffer
the punishment which her perfidy deserved. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3,
ch. 15.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 19.――_Strabo_, bk. 9.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 8, li. 6, &c.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 1,
li. 404, &c.
=Nisȳros=, an island in the Ægean sea, at the west of Rhodes, with a
town of the same name. It was originally joined to the island of Cos,
according to Pliny, and it bore the name of _Porphyris_. Neptune, who
was supposed to have separated them with a blow of his trident, and
to have there overwhelmed the giant Polybotes, was worshipped there,
and called _Nisyreus_. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 6.――_Mela_, bk. 2,
ch. 7.――_Strabo_, bk. 10.
=Nitētis=, a daughter of Apries king of Egypt, married by his successor
Amasis to Cyrus. _Polyænus_, bk. 8.
=Nitiobriges=, a people of Gaul, supposed to be _Agenois_, in Guienne.
_Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 7, ch. 7.
=Nitōcris=, a celebrated queen of Babylon, who built a bridge across
the Euphrates, in the middle of that city, and dug a number of
reservoirs for the superfluous waters of that river. She ordered
herself to be buried over one of the gates of the city, and placed an
inscription on her tomb, which signified that her successors would
find great treasures within if ever they were in need of money, but
that their labours would be but ill repaid if ever they ventured to
open it without necessity. Cyrus opened it through curiosity, and
was struck to find within these words: _If thy avarice had not been
insatiable, thou never wouldst have violated the monuments of the
dead_. _Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 185.――――A queen of Egypt, who built
a third pyramid.
=Nitria=, a country of Egypt with two towns of the same name, above
Memphis.
=Nivaria=, an island at the west of Africa, supposed to be _Teneriff_,
one of the Canaries. _Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 32.
=Noas=, a river of Thrace falling into the Ister. _Herodotus_, bk. 4,
ch. 46.
=Nocmon=, a Trojan killed by Turnus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 767.
=Noctilūca=, a surname of Diana. She had a temple at Rome on mount
Palatine, where torches were generally lighted in the night. _Varro_,
_de Lingua Latina_, bk. 4.――_Horace_, bk. 4, ode 6, li. 38.
=Nola=, an ancient town of Campania, which became a Roman colony before
the first Punic war. It was founded by a Tuscan, or, according to
others, by an Eubœan colony. It is said that Virgil had introduced
the name of Nola in his Georgics, but that, when he was refused a
glass of water by the inhabitants as he passed through the city, he
totally blotted it out of his poem, and substituted the word _ora_,
in the 225th line of the second book of his Georgics. Nola was
besieged by Annibal, and bravely defended by Marcellus. Augustus died
there on his return from Neapolis to Rome. Bells were first invented
there in the beginning of the fifth century, from which reason they
have been called _Nolæ_, or _Campanæ_, in Latin. The inventor was
St. Paulinus, the bishop of the place, who died A.D. 431, though
many imagine that bells were known long before, and only introduced
into churches by that prelate. Before his time, congregations were
called to the church by the noise of wooden rattles (_sacra ligna_).
_Paterculus_, bk. 1, ch. 7.――_Suetonius_, _Augustus_.――_Silius
Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 517; bk. 12, li. 161.――_Aulus Gellius_, bk. 7,
ch. 20.――_Livy_, bk. 23, chs. 14 & 39; bk. 24, ch. 13.
=Nomădes=, a name given to all those uncivilized people who had no
fixed habitation, and who continually changed the place of their
residence, to go in quest of fresh pasture for the numerous cattle
which they tended. There were Nomades in Scythia, India, Arabia,
and Africa. Those of Africa were afterwards called _Numidians_, by
a small change of the letters which composed their name. _Silius
Italicus_, bk. 1, li. 215.――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 3.――_Herodotus_, bk.
1, ch. 15; bk. 4, ch. 187.――_Strabo_, bk. 7.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 1;
bk. 3, ch. 4.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 3, li. 343.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 8, ch. 43.
=Nomæ=, a town of Sicily. _Diodorus_, bk. 11.――_Silius Italicus_,
bk. 14, li. 266.
=Nomentānus=, an epithet applied to Lucius Cassius as a native of
Nomentum. He is mentioned by Horace as a mixture of luxury and
dissipation. _Horace_, bk. 1, satire 2, li. 102 & _alibi_.
=Nomentum=, a town of the Sabines in Italy, famous for wine, and now
called _Lamentana_. The dictator Quintus Servilius Priscus gave the
Veientes and Fidenates battle there A.U.C. 312, and totally defeated
them. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 4, li. 905.――_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 38; bk. 4,
ch. 22.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 773.
=Nomii=, mountains of Arcadia. _Pausanias._
=Nomius=, a surname given to Apollo, because he fed (νεμω, _pasco_),
the flocks of king Admetus in Thessaly. _Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_,
bk. 3, ch. 23.
=Nōnācris=, a town of Arcadia, which received its name from a wife of
Lycaon. There was a mountain of the same name in the neighbourhood.
Evander is sometimes called _Nonacrius heros_, as being an Arcadian
by birth, and Atalanta _Nonacria_, as being a native of the
place. _Curtius_, bk. 10, ch. 10.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 5, li. 97;
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 8, fable 10.――_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 17, &c.
=Nonius=, a Roman soldier, imprisoned for paying respect to Galba’s
statues, &c. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 1, ch. 56.――――A Roman who
exhorted his countrymen after the fatal battle of Pharsalia, and the
flight of Pompey, by observing that eight standards (_aquilæ_) still
remained in the camp, to which Cicero answered, _Recte, si nobis cum
graculis bellum esset_.
=Nonnius Marcellus=, a grammarian, whose treatise _de variâ
significatione verborum_ was edited by Mercer, 8vo, Paris, 1614.
=Nonnus=, a Greek writer of the fifth century, who wrote an account
of the embassy he had undertaken to Æthiopia, among the Saracens
and other eastern nations. He is also known by his _Dionysiaca_, a
wonderful collection of heathen mythology and erudition, edited 4to,
Antwerp, 1569. His _paraphrase_ on John was edited by Heinsius, 8vo,
Leiden, 1627.
=Nonus=, a Greek physician, whose book _de omnium morborum curatione_
was edited in 12mo, Strasbourg, 1568.
=Nopia=, or =Cinopia=, a town of Bœotia, where Amphiaraus had a temple.
=Nōra=, now _Nour_, a place of Phrygia, where Eumenes retired for some
time, &c. _Cornelius Nepos._――――A town. _See:_ Norax.
=Norax=, a son of Mercury and Eurythæa, who led a colony of Iberians
into Sardinia, where he founded a town, to which he gave the name of
Nora. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 17.
=Norba=, a town of the Volsci. _Livy_, bk. 2, ch. 34.――――Cæsarea, a
town of Spain on the Tagus.
=Caius Norbānus=, a young and ambitious Roman who opposed Sylla, and
joined his interest to that of young Marius. In his consulship he
marched against Sylla, by whom he was defeated, &c. _Plutarch._――――A
friend and general of Augustus, employed in Macedonia against the
republicans. He was defeated by Brutus, &c.
=Norĭcum=, a country of ancient Illyricum, which now forms a part of
modern _Bavaria_ and _Austria_. It extended between the Danube, and
part of the Alps and Vindelicia. Its savage inhabitants, who were
once governed by kings, made many incursions upon the Romans, and
were at last conquered under Tiberius, and the country became a
dependent province. In the reign of Diocletian, Noricum was divided
into two parts, _Ripense_ and _Mediterranean_. The iron that was
drawn from Noricum was esteemed excellent, and thence _Noricus ensis_
was used to express the goodness of a sword. _Dionysius Periegetes.
_――_Strabo_, bk. 4.――_Pliny_, bk. 34, ch. 14.――_Tacitus_, _Histories_,
bk. 3, ch. 5.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ode 16, li. 9.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 14, li. 712.
=Northippus=, a Greek tragic poet.
=Nortia=, a name given to the goddess of Fortune among the Etrurians.
_Livy_, bk. 7, ch. 3.
=Nothus=, a son of Deucalion.――――A surname of Darius king of Persia,
from his illegitimacy.
=Notium=, a town of Æolia near the Cayster. It was peopled by the
inhabitants of Colophon, who left their ancient habitations because
Notium was more conveniently situated in being on the seashore.
_Livy_, bk. 37, chs. 26, 38, 39.
=Notus=, the south wind, called also Auster.
=Novæ= (_tabernæ_), the new shops built in the forum at Rome, and
adorned with the shields of the Cimbri. _Cicero_, _On Oratory_,
bk. 2, ch. 66.――――The _Veteres tabernæ_ were adorned with those of
the Samnites. _Livy_, bk. 9, ch. 40.
=Novaria=, a town of Cisalpine Gaul, now _Novara_, in Milan. _Tacitus_,
_Histories_, bk. 1, ch. 70.
=Novātus=, a man who severely attacked the character of Augustus, under
a fictitious name. The emperor discovered him, and only fined him a
small sum of money.
=Novesium=, a town of the Ubii, on the west of the Rhine, now called
_Nuys_, near Cologne. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 4, ch. 26, &c.
=Noviodūnum=, a town of the Ædui in Gaul, taken by Julius Cæsar. It is
pleasantly situated on the Ligeris, and now called _Noyon_, or, as
others suppose, _Nevers_. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 2, ch. 12.
=Noviomagus=, or =Neomagus=, a town of Gaul, now _Nizeux_, in Normandy.
――――Another, called also _Nemetes_, now _Spire_.――――Another, in
Batavia, now _Nimeguen_, on the south side of the Waal.
=Novium=, a town of Spain, now _Noya_.
=Novius Priscus=, a man banished from Rome by Nero, on suspicion that
he was accessary to Piso’s conspiracy. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 15,
ch. 71.――――A man who attempted to assassinate the emperor Claudius.
――――Two brothers obscurely born, distinguished in the age of Horace
for their officiousness. _Horace_, bk. 1, satire 6.
=Novum Comum=, a town of Insubria on the lake Larinus, of which the
inhabitants were called _Novocomenses_. _Cicero_, _De Divinatione_,
bk. 13, ch. 55.
=Nox=, one of the most ancient deities among the heathens, daughter of
Chaos. From her union with her brother Erebus she gave birth to the
Day and the Light. She was also the mother of the Parcæ, Hesperides,
Dreams, of Discord, Death, Momus, Fraud, &c. She is called by some
of the poets the mother of all things, of gods as well as of men, and
therefore she was worshipped with great solemnity by the ancients.
She had a famous statue in Diana’s temple at Ephesus. It was usual
to offer her a black sheep, as she was the mother of the furies. The
cock was also offered to her, as that bird proclaims the approach of
day, during the darkness of the night. She is represented as mounted
on a chariot, and covered with a veil bespangled with stars. The
constellations generally went before her as her constant messengers.
Sometimes she is seen holding two children under her arms, one of
which is black, representing death, or rather night, and the other
white, representing sleep or day. Some of the moderns have described
her as a woman veiled in mourning, and crowned with poppies, and
carried on a chariot drawn by owls and bats. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6,
li. 950.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 1, li. 455.――_Pausanias_, bk. 10,
ch. 38.――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_, lis. 125 & 212.
=Nuceria=, a town of Campania taken by Annibal. It became a Roman
colony under Augustus, and was called _Nuceria Constantia_, or
_Alfaterna_. It now bears the name of _Nocera_, and contains about
30,000 inhabitants. _Lucan_, bk. 2, li. 472.――_Livy_, bk. 9, ch. 41;
bk. 27, ch. 3.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 531.――_Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bks. 13 & 14.――――A town of Umbria at the foot of the
Apennines. _Strabo._――_Pliny._
=Nuithones=, a people of Germany, possessing the country now called
Mecklenburg and Pomerania. _Tacitus_, _Germania_, ch. 40.
=Numa Martius=, a man made governor of Rome by Tullus Hostilius. He was
son-in-law of Numa Pompilius, and father to Ancus Martius. _Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 6, ch. 11.――_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 20.
=Numa Pompilius=, a celebrated philosopher, born at Cures, a village of
the Sabines, on the day that Romulus laid the foundation of Rome. He
married Tatia, the daughter of Tatius the king of the Sabines, and at
her death he retired into the country to devote himself more freely
to literary pursuits. At the death of Romulus, the Romans fixed upon
him to be their new king, and two senators were sent to acquaint
him with the decisions of the senate and of the people. Numa refused
their offers, and it was not but at the repeated solicitations and
prayers of his friends that he was prevailed upon to accept the
royalty. The beginning of his reign was popular, and he dismissed
the 300 body-guards which his predecessor had kept around his person,
observing that he did not distrust a people who had compelled him to
reign over them. He was not, like Romulus, fond of war and military
expeditions, but he applied himself to tame the ferocity of his
subjects, to inculcate in their minds a reverence for the Deity,
and to quell their dissensions by dividing all the citizens into
different classes. He established different orders of priests, and
taught the Romans not to worship the Deity by images; and from his
example no graven or painted statues appeared in the temples or
sanctuaries of Rome for upwards of 160 years. He encouraged the
report which was spread of his paying regular visits to the nymph
Egeria, and made use of her name to give sanction to the laws and
institutions which he had introduced. He established the college
of the vestals, and told the Romans that the safety of the empire
depended upon the preservation of the sacred _ancyle_ or _shield_
which, as was generally believed, had dropped down from heaven. He
dedicated a temple to Janus, which, during his whole reign, remained
shut, as a mark of peace and tranquillity at Rome. Numa died after a
reign of 43 years, in which he had given every possible encouragement
to the useful arts, and in which he had cultivated peace, B.C. 672.
Not only the Romans, but also the neighbouring nations, were eager
to pay their last offices to a monarch whom they revered for his
abilities, moderation, and humanity. He forbade his body to be burnt
according to the custom of the Romans, but he ordered it to be buried
near mount Janiculum, with many of the books which he had written.
These books were accidentally found by one of the Romans, about
400 years after his death, and as they contained nothing new or
interesting, but merely the reasons why he had made innovations in
the form of worship and in the religion of the Romans, they were
burnt by order of the senate. He left behind one daughter called
Pompilia, who married Numa Martius, and became the mother of Ancus
Martius, the fourth king of Rome. Some say that he had also four
sons, but this opinion is ill-founded. _Plutarch_, _Lives_.――_Varro._
――_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 18.――_Pliny_, bks. 13 & 14, &c.――_Florus_,
bk. 1, ch. 2.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 809; bk. 9, li. 562.
――_Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 3, chs. 2 & 17.――_Valerius
Maximus_, bk. 1, ch. 2.――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 2, ch. 59.
――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 3, &c.――――One of the Rutulian chiefs killed in
the night by Nisus and Euryalus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 454.
=Numāna=, a town of Picenum in Italy, of which the people were called
_Numanates_. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 4.
=Numantia=, a town of Spain near the sources of the river Durius,
celebrated for the war of 14 years which, though unprotected by walls
and towers, it bravely maintained against the Romans. The inhabitants
obtained some advantages over the Roman forces till Scipio Africanus
was empowered to finish the war, and to see the destruction of
Numantia. He began the siege with an army of 60,000 men, and was
bravely opposed by the besieged, who were no more than 4000 men
able to bear arms. Both armies behaved with uncommon valour, and the
courage of the Numantines was soon changed into despair and fury.
Their provisions began to fail, and they fed upon the flesh of their
horses, and afterwards on that of their dead companions, and at last
were necessitated to draw lots to kill and devour one another. The
melancholy situation of their affairs obliged some to surrender to
the Roman general. Scipio demanded them to deliver themselves up on
the morrow; they refused, and when a longer time had been granted
to their petitions, they retired and set fire to their houses, and
all destroyed themselves, B.C. 133, so that not even one remained to
adorn the triumph of the conqueror. Some historians, however, deny
that, and support that a number of Numantines delivered themselves
into Scipio’s hands, and that 50 of them were drawn in triumph at
Rome, and the rest sold as slaves. The fall of Numantia was more
glorious than that of Carthage or Corinth, though inferior to them.
The conqueror obtained the surname of _Numantinus_. _Florus_, bk. 2,
ch. 18.――_Appian_, _Wars in Spain_.――_Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 3.
――_Cicero_, bk. 1, _De Officiis_.――_Strabo_, bk. 3.――_Mela_, bk. 2,
ch. 6.――_Plutarch._――_Horace_, bk. 2, ode 12, li. 1.
=Numantīna=, a woman accused under Tiberius of making her husband
insane by enchantments, &c. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 4, ch. 22.
=Numānus Remŭlus=, a Rutulian who accused the Trojans of effeminacy. He
had married the younger sister of Turnus, and was killed by Ascanius
during the Rutulian war. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 592, &c.
=Numēnes=, a follower of the doctrines of Plato and Pythagoras, born at
Apamea in Syria. He flourished in the reign of Marcus Antoninus.
=Numenia=, or =Neomenia=, a festival observed by the Greeks at the
beginning of every lunar month, in honour of all the gods, but
especially of Apollo or the Sun, who is justly deemed the author
of light, and of whatever distinction is made in the months,
seasons, days, and nights. It was observed with games and public
entertainments which were provided at the expense of rich citizens,
and which were always frequented by the poor. Solemn prayers were
offered at Athens during the solemnity, for the prosperity of the
republic. The demigods as well as the heroes of the ancients were
honoured and invoked in the festival.
=Numenius=, a philosopher, who supposed that Chaos, from which the
world was created, was animated by an evil and maleficent soul. He
lived in the second century.
=Numentāna via=, a road at Rome, which led to mount Sacer through the
gate Viminalis. _Livy_, bk. 3, ch. 52.
=Numeria=, a goddess at Rome who presided over numbers. _Augustine_,
_City of God_, bk. 4, ch. 11.
=Numeriānus Marcus Aurelius=, a son of the emperor Carus. He accompanied
his father into the east with the title of Cæsar, and at his death
he succeeded him with his brother Carinus, A.D. 282. His reign was
short. Eight months after his father’s death, he was murdered in
his litter by his father-in-law, Arrius Aper, who accompanied him in
an expedition. The murderer, who hoped to ascend the vacant throne,
continued to follow the litter as if the emperor was alive, till he
found a proper opportunity to declare his sentiments. The stench of
the body, however, soon discovered his perfidy, and he was sacrificed
to the fury of the soldiers. Numerianus had been admired for his
learning as well as his moderation. He was naturally an eloquent
speaker, and in poetry he was inferior to no writer of his age.――――A
friend of the emperor Severus.
=Numerius=, a man who favoured the escape of Marius to Africa, &c.――――A
friend of Pompey taken by Julius Cæsar’s adherents, &c. _Pliny._
=Numicia via=, one of the great Roman roads, which led from the capital
to the town of Brundusium.
=Nŭmīcus=, a small river of Latium, near Lavinium, where the dead body
of Æneas was found, and where Anna, Dido’s sister, drowned herself.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 150, &c.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 1,
li. 359.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 14, li. 358, &c.; _Fasti_,
bk. 3, li. 643.――――A friend of Horace, to whom he addressed bk. 1,
ltr. 6.
=Numĭda=, a surname given by Horace, bk. 1, ode 36, to one of the
generals of Augustus, from his conquests in Numidia. Some suppose
that it is Pomponius; others, Plotius.
=Nŭmĭdia=, an inland country of Africa, which now forms the kingdom
of _Algiers_ and _Bildulgerid_. It was bounded on the north by the
Mediterranean sea, south by Gætulia, west by Mauritania, and east
by a part of Libya, which was called Africa Propria. The inhabitants
were called _Nomades_, and afterwards _Numidæ_. It was the kingdom of
Masinissa, which was the occasion of the third Punic war, on account
of the offence which he had received from the Carthaginians. Jugurtha
reigned there, as also Juba the father and son. It was conquered,
and became a Roman province, of which Sallust was the first governor.
The Numidians were excellent warriors, and in their expeditions
they always endeavoured to engage with the enemy in the night-time.
They rode without saddles or bridles, whence they have been called
_infræni_. They had their wives in common, as the rest of the
barbarian nations of antiquity. _Sallust_, _Jugurthine War_.
――_Florus_, bk. 2, ch. 15.――_Strabo_, bks. 2 & 17.――_Mela_, bk. 1,
ch. 4, &c.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 15, li. 754.
=Numidius Quadratus=, a governor of Syria under Claudius. _Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 12.
=Numistro=, a town of the Brutii in Italy. _Livy_, bk. 45, ch. 17.
=Nŭmĭtor=, a son of Procas king of Alba, who inherited his father’s
kingdom with his brother Amulius, and began to reign conjointly with
him. Amulius was too avaricious to bear a colleague on the throne; he
expelled his brother, and that he might more safely secure himself,
he put to death his son Lausus, and consecrated his daughter Ilia to
the service of the goddess Vesta, which demanded perpetual celibacy.
These great precautions were rendered abortive. Ilia became pregnant,
and though the two children whom she brought forth were exposed
in the river by order of the tyrant, their life was preserved,
and Numitor was restored to his throne by his grandsons, and the
tyrannical usurper was put to death. _Dionysius of Halicarnassus.
_――_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 3.――_Plutarch_, _Romulus_.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_,
bk. 4, li. 55, &c.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 768.――――A son of
Phorcus, who fought with Turnus against Æneas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 10, li. 342.――――A rich and dissolute Roman in the age of Juvenal,
satire 7, li. 74.
=Numitōrius=, a Roman who defended Virginia, to whom Appius wished to
offer violence. He was made military tribune.――――Quintus Pullus, a
general of Fregellæ, &c. _Cicero_, _de Inventione_, bk. 2, ch. 34.
=Numonius=. _See:_ Vala.
=Nuncoreus=, a son of Sesostris king of Egypt, who made an obelisk,
some ages after brought to Rome, and placed in the Vatican. _Pliny_,
bk. 26, ch. 11.――――He is called Pheron by Herodotus.
=Nundīna=, a goddess whom the Romans invoked when they named their
children. This happened the ninth day after their birth, whence the
name of the goddess, _Nona dies_. _Macrobius_, _Saturnalia_, bk. 1,
ch. 16.
=Nundīnæ=. _See:_ Feriæ.
=Nursæ=, a town of Italy. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 744.
=Nurscia=, a goddess who patronized the Etrurians. _Juvenal_, satire 10,
li. 74.
=Nursia=, now _Norza_, a town of Picenum, whose inhabitants are called
_Nursini_. Its situation was exposed, and the air considered as
unwholesome. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 416.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 7, li. 716.――_Martial_, bk. 13, ltr. 20.――_Livy_, bk. 28, ch. 45.
=Nutria=, a town of Illyricum. _Polybius_, bk. 2.
=Nycteis=, a daughter of Nycteus, who was mother of Labdacus.――――A
patronymic of Antiope the daughter of Nycteus, mother of Amphion and
Zethus by Jupiter, who had assumed the shape of a satyr to enjoy her
company. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 6, li. 110.
=Nyctelia=, festivals in honour of Bacchus [_See:_ Nyctelius], observed
on mount Cithæron. _Plutarch_, _Convivium Septem Sapientium_.
=Nyctelius=, a surname of Bacchus, because his orgies were celebrated
in the night (νυξ _nox_, τελεω _perficio_). The words _latex
Nyctelius_ thence signify wine. _Seneca_, _Œdipus_.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 1, ch. 40.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 4, li. 15.
=Nycteus=, a son of Hyrieus and Clonia.――――A son of Chthonius.――――A son
of Neptune by Celene, daughter of Atlas king of Lesbos, or of Thebes,
according to the more received opinion. He married a nymph of Crete,
called Polyxo or Amalthæa, by whom he had two daughters, Nyctimene
and Antiope. The first of these disgraced herself by her criminal
amours with her father, into whose bed she introduced herself by
means of her nurse. When the father knew the incest which he had
committed, he attempted to stab his daughter, who was immediately
changed by Minerva into an owl. Nycteus made war against Epopeus, who
had carried away Antiope, and died of a wound which he had received
in an engagement, leaving his kingdom to his brother Lycus, whom he
entreated to continue the war, and punish Antiope for her immodest
conduct. _See:_ Antiope. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 6.――_Hyginus_,
fables 157 & 204.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 2, li. 590, &c.;
bk. 6, li. 110, &c.
=Nyctimĕne=, a daughter of Nycteus. _See:_ Nycteus.
=Nyctĭmus=, a son of Lycaon king of Arcadia. He died without issue, and
left his kingdom to his nephew Arcas the son of Callisto. _Pausanias_,
bk. 8, ch. 4.
=Nymbæum=, a lake of Peloponnesus in Laconia. _Pausanias_, bk. 3,
li. 23.
=Nymphæ=, certain female deities among the ancients. They were generally
divided into two classes, nymphs of the land and nymphs of the sea.
Of the nymphs of the earth, some presided over woods, and were called
_Dryades_ and _Hamadryades_; others presided over mountains, and
were called _Oreades_; some presided over hills and dales, and were
called _Napææ_, &c. Of the sea nymphs, some were called _Oceanides_,
_Nereides_, _Naiades_, _Potamides_, _Limnades_, &c. These presided
not only over the sea, but also over rivers, fountains, streams,
and lakes. The nymphs fixed their residence not only in the sea,
but also on mountains, rocks, in woods or caverns, and their grottos
were beautified by evergreens and delightful and romantic scenes. The
nymphs were immortal, according to the opinion of some mythologists;
others supposed that, like men, they were subject to mortality,
though their life was of long duration. They lived for several
thousand years, according to Hesiod, or, as Plutarch seems obscurely
to intimate, they lived above 9720 years. The number of the nymphs
is not precisely known. They were, according to Hesiod, above 3000,
whose power was extended over the different places of the earth,
and the various functions and occupations of mankind. They were
worshipped by the ancients, though not with so much solemnity as the
superior deities. They had no temples raised to their honour, and
the only offerings they received were milk, honey, oil, and sometimes
the sacrifice of a goat. They were generally represented as young and
beautiful virgins, veiled up to the middle, and sometimes they held a
vase, from which they seemed to pour water. Sometimes they had grass,
leaves, and shells, instead of vases. It was deemed unfortunate to
see them naked, and such sight was generally attended by a delirium,
to which Propertius seems to allude in this verse, wherein he speaks
of the innocence and simplicity of the primitive ages of the world,
_Nec fuerat nudas pœna videre Deas_.
The nymphs were generally distinguished by an epithet which denoted
the place of their residence; thus the nymphs of Sicily were
called _Sicelides_; those of Corycus, _Corycides_, &c. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, li. 320; bk. 5, li. 412; bk. 9, li. 651, &c.;
_Fasti_, bk. 3, li. 769.――_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 4.――_Plutarch_,
_de Defectu Oraculorum_.――_Orpheus_, _Argonautica_.――_Hesiod_,
_Theogony_.――_Propertius_, bk. 3, poem 12.――_Homer_, _Odyssey_,
bk. 14.
=Nymphæum=, a port of Macedonia. _Cæsar_, _Civil War_.――――A promontory
of Epirus on the Ionian sea.――――A place near the walls of Apollonia,
sacred to the nymphs, where Apollo had also an oracle. The place was
also celebrated for the continual flames of fire which seemed to rise
at a distance from the plains. It was there that a sleeping satyr was
once caught and brought to Sylla as he returned from the Mithridatic
war. This monster had the same features as the poets ascribed to the
satyr. He was interrogated by Sylla and by his interpreters, but his
articulations were unintelligible, and the Roman spurned from him a
creature which seemed to partake of the nature of a beast more than
that of a man. _Plutarch_, _Sulla_.――_Dio Cassius_, bk. 41.――_Pliny_,
bk. 5, ch. 29.――_Strabo_, bk. 7.――_Livy_, bk. 42, chs. 36 & 49.――――A
city of Taurica Chersonesus.――――The building at Rome where the nymphs
were worshipped bore also this name, being adorned with their statues
and with fountains and waterfalls, which afforded an agreeable and
refreshing coolness.
=Nymphæus=, a man who went into Caria at the head of a colony of
Melians, &c. _Polyænus_, bk. 8.
=Nymphidius=, a favourite of Nero, who said that he was descended
from Caligula. He was raised to the consular dignity, and soon after
disputed the empire with Galba. He was slain by the soldiers, &c.
_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 15.
=Nymphis=, a native of Heraclea, who wrote a history of Alexander’s
life and actions, divided into 24 books. _Ælian_, bk. 7, _de Natura
Animalium_.
=Nymphodōrus=, a writer of Amphipolis.――――A Syracusan who wrote a
history of Sicily.
=Nympholleptes=, or =Nymphomănes=, _possessed by the nymphs_. This name
was given to the inhabitants of mount Cithæron, who believed that
they were inspired by the nymphs. _Plutarch_, _Aristeides_.
=Nymphon=, a native of Colophon, &c. _Cicero_, _Letters to his brother
Quintus_, bk. 1.
=Nypsius=, a general of Dionysius the tyrant, who took Syracuse, and
put all the inhabitants to the sword. _Diodorus_, bk. 16.
=Nysa=, or =Nyssa=, a town of Æthiopia, at the south of Egypt, or,
according to others, of Arabia. This city, with another of the same
name in India, was sacred to the god Bacchus, who was educated there
by the nymphs of the place, and who received the name of Dionysius,
which seems to be compounded of Διος and ♦Νυσα, the name of his
father, and that of the place of his education. The god made this
place the seat of his empire, and the capital of the conquered
nations of the east. Diodorus, in his third and fourth books, has
given a prolix account of the birth of the god at Nysa, and of
his education and heroic actions. _Mela_, bk. 3, ch. 7.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 4, li. 13, &c.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 7, li.
198.――_Curtius_, bk. 8, ch. 10.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 805.
――――According to some geographers there were no less than 10 places
of the name of Nysa. One of these was on the coast of Eubœa, famous
for its vines, which grew in such an uncommon manner, that if a twig
was planted in the ground in the morning, it was said immediately
to produce grapes, which were full ripe in the evening.――――A city of
Thrace.――――Another seated on the top of mount Parnassus, and sacred
to Bacchus. _Juvenal_, satire 7, li. 63.
♦ ‘Νμσα’ replaced with ‘Νυσα’
=Nysæus=, a surname of Bacchus, because he was worshipped at Nysa.
_Propertius_, bk. 3, poem 17, li. 22.――A son of Dionysius of Syracuse.
_Cornelius Nepos_, _Dion_.
=Nysas=, a river of Africa, rising in Æthiopia.
=Nysisæ portæ=, a small island in Africa.
=Nysiădes=, a name given to the nymphs of Nysa, to whose care Jupiter
entrusted the education of his son Bacchus. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 3, li. 314, &c.
=Nysīros=, an island. _See:_ Nisyros.
=Nysius=, a surname of Bacchus as the protecting god of Nysa. _Cicero_,
_Flaccus_, ch. 25.
=Nyssa=, a sister of Mithridates the Great. _Plutarch._
O
=Oarses=, the original name of Artaxerxes Memnon.
=Oarus=, a river of Sarmatia, falling into the Palus Mœotis.
_Herodotus_, bk. 4.
=Oăsis=, a town about the middle of Libya, at the distance of seven
days’ journey from Thebes in Egypt, where the Persian army, sent by
Cambyses to plunder Jupiter Ammon’s temple, was lost in the sands.
There were two other cities of that name very little known. Oasis
became a place of banishment under the lower empire. _Strabo_, bk. 17.
――_Zosimus_, bk. 5, ch. 97.――_Herodotus_, bk. 3, ch. 26.
=Oaxes=, a river of Crete, which received its name from Oaxus the son
of Apollo. _Virgil_, _Eclogues_, poem 1, li. 66.
=Oaxus=, a town of Crete where Etearchus reigned, who founded Cyrene.
――――A son of Apollo and the nymph Anchiale.
=Obringa=, now _Ahr_, a river of Germany, falling into the Rhine above
Rimmagen.
=Obultronius=, a questor put to death by Galba’s orders, &c. _Tacitus._
=Ocalea=, or =Ocalia=, a town of Bœotia. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2.
――――A daughter of Mantineus, who married Abas son of Lynceus and
Hypermnestra, by whom she had Acrisius and Prœtus. _Apollodorus_,
bk. 2, ch. 2.
=Oceia=, a woman who presided over the sacred rites of Vesta for 57
years with the greatest sanctity. She died in the reign of Tiberius,
and the daughter of Domitius succeeded her. _Tacitus_, _Annals_,
bk. 2, ch. 86.
=Oceănĭdes= and =Oceanītĭdes=, sea nymphs, daughters of Oceanus, from
whom they received their name, and of the goddess Tethys. They were
3000 according to Apollodorus, who mentions the names of seven of
them: Asia, Styx, Electra, Doris, Eurynome, Amphitrite, and Metis.
Hesiod speaks of the eldest of them, and reckons 41: Pitho, Admete,
Prynno, Ianthe, Rhodia, Hippo, Callirhoe, Urania, Clymene, Idyia,
Pasithoe, Clythia, Zeuxo, Galuxaure, Plexaure, Perseis, Pluto, Thoe,
Polydora, Melobosis, Dione, Cerceis, Xantha, Acasta, Ianira, Telestho,
Europa, Menestho, Petrea, Eudora, Calypso, Tyche, Ocyroe, Crisia,
Amphiro, with those mentioned by Apollodorus, except Amphitrite.
Hyginus mentions 16, whose names are almost all different from
those of Apollodorus and Hesiod, which difference proceeds from the
mutilation of the original text. The Oceanides, like the rest of
the inferior deities, were honoured with libations and sacrifices.
Prayers were offered to them, and they were entreated to protect
sailors from storms and dangerous tempests. The Argonauts, before
they proceeded on their expedition, made an offering of flour,
honey, and oil, on the sea-shore, to all the deities of the sea,
and sacrificed bulls to them, and entreated their protection. When
the sacrifice was made on the sea-shore the blood of the victim was
received in a vessel, but when it was in the open sea, the blood
was permitted to run down into the waters. When the sea was calm,
the sailors generally offered a lamb or a young pig, but if it
was agitated by the winds, and rough, a black bull was deemed
the most acceptable victim. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 3.――_Horace._
――_Apollonius_, _Argonautica_.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 4, li. 341.
――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 349.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1.
=Oceănus=, a powerful deity of the sea, son of Cœlus and Terra. He
married Tethys, by whom he had the most principal rivers, such
as the Alpheus, Peneus, Strymon, &c., with a number of daughters
who are called from him Oceanides. _See:_ Oceanides. According to
Homer, Oceanus was the ♦father of all the gods, and on that account
he received frequent visits from the rest of the deities. He is
generally represented as an old man with a long flowing beard, and
sitting upon the waves of the sea. He often holds a pike in his hand,
whilst ships under sail appear at a distance, or a sea monster stands
near him. Oceanus presided over every part of the sea, and even the
rivers were subjected to his power. The ancients were superstitious
in their worship to Oceanus, and revered with great solemnity a
deity to whose care they entrusted themselves when going on any
voyage. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 5, li. 81, &c.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1.――_Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 3, ch. 20.
――_Homer_, _Iliad_.
♦ ‘fathers’ replaced with ‘father’
=Ocellus=, an ancient philosopher of Lucania. _See:_ Lucanus.
=Ocēlum=, a town of Gaul. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 1, ch. 10.
=Ocha=, a mountain of Eubœa, and the name of Eubœa itself.――――A sister
of Ochus, buried alive by his orders.
=Ochesius=, a general of Ætolia in the Trojan war. _Homer_, _Iliad_,
bk. 5.
=Ochus=, a surname given to Artaxerxes III., king of Persia. _See:_
Artaxerxes.――――A man of Cyzicus, who was killed by the Argonauts.
_Flaccus_, bk. 3.――――A prince of Persia, who refused to visit his
native country for fear of giving all the women each a piece of gold.
_Plutarch._――――A river of India, or of Bactriana. _Pliny_, bk. 6,
ch. 16; bk. 31, ch. 7.――――A king of Persia. He exchanged his name
for that of Darius. _See:_ Darius Nothus.
=Ocnus=, a son of the Tiber and of Manto, who assisted Æneas against
Turnus. He built a town, which he called Mantua after his mother’s
name. Some suppose that he is the same as Bianor. _Virgil_,
_Eclogues_, poem 9; _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 198.――――A man remarkable
for his industry. He had a wife as remarkable for her profusion;
she always consumed and lavished away whatever the labours of her
husband had earned. He is represented as twisting a cord, which an
ass standing by eats up as soon as he makes it; whence the proverb
of _the cord of Ocnus_ often applied to labour which meets no return,
and which is totally lost. _Propertius_, bk. 4, poem 3, li. 21.
――_Pliny_, bk. 35, ch. 11.――_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 29.
=Ocricŭlum=, now _Otricoli_, a town of Umbria near Rome. _Cicero_, _For
Milo_.――_Livy_, bk. 19, ch. 41.
=Ocridion=, a king of Rhodes, who was reckoned in the number of the
gods after death. _Plutarch_, _Græcæ Quæstiones_, ch. 27.
=Ocrīsia=, a woman of Corniculum, who was one of the attendants of
Tanaquil the wife of Tarquinius Priscus. As she was throwing into
the flames, as offerings, some of the meats that were served on
the table of Tarquin, she suddenly saw in the fire what Ovid calls
_obscœni forma virilis_. She informed the queen of it, and when by
her orders she had approached near it, she conceived a son who was
called Servius Tullus, and who, being educated in the king’s family,
afterwards succeeded to the vacant throne. Some suppose that Vulcan
had assumed that form which was presented to the eyes of Ocrisia, and
that the god was the father of the sixth king of Rome. _Plutarch_,
_de Fortuna Romanorum_.――_Pliny_, bk. 36, ch. 27.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_,
bk. 6, li. 627.
=Octacillius=, a slave who was manumitted, and who afterwards taught
rhetoric at Rome. He had Pompey the Great in the number of his pupils.
_Suetonius_, _Rhetoricians_.――_Martial_, bk. 10, ltr. 79.
=Octāvia=, a Roman lady, sister to the emperor Augustus, and celebrated
for her beauty and virtues. She married Claudius Marcellus, and after
his death, Marcus Antony. Her marriage with Antony was a political
step to reconcile her brother and her husband. Antony proved for
some time attentive to her, but he soon after despised her for
Cleopatra, and when she attempted to withdraw him from this unlawful
amour by going to meet him at Athens, she was secretly rebuked, and
totally banished from his presence. This affront was highly resented
by Augustus, and though Octavia endeavoured to pacify him by
palliating her husband’s behaviour, he resolved to revenge her cause
by arms. After the battle of Actium and the death of Antony, Octavia,
forgetful of the injuries she had received, took into her house all
the children of her husband and treated them with maternal tenderness.
Marcellus her son by her first husband was married to a niece of
Augustus, and publicly intended as a successor to his uncle. His
sudden death plunged all his family into the greatest grief. Virgil,
whom Augustus patronized, undertook upon himself to pay a melancholy
tribute to the memory of a young man whom Rome regarded as her future
father and patron. He was desired to repeat his composition in the
presence of Augustus and of his sister. Octavia burst into tears as
soon as the poet began; but when he mentioned, _Tu Marcellus eris_,
she swooned away. This tender and pathetic encomium upon the merit
and the virtues of young Marcellus was liberally rewarded by Octavia,
and Virgil received 10,000 sesterces for every one of the verses.
Octavia had two daughters by Antony, Antonia Major and Antonia Minor.
The elder married Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, by whom she had Cnæus
Domitius the father of the emperor Nero, by Agrippina the daughter
of Germanicus. Antonia Minor, who was as virtuous and as beautiful
as her mother, married Drusus the son of Tiberius, by whom she
had Germanicus and Claudius, who reigned before Nero. The death
of Marcellus continually preyed upon the mind of Octavia, who died
of melancholy about 10 years before the christian era. Her brother
paid great regard to her memory, by pronouncing himself her funeral
oration. The Roman people also showed their respect for her virtues
by their wish to pay her divine honours. _Suetonius_, _Augustus_.
――_Plutarch_, _Antonius_, &c.――――A daughter of the emperor Claudius
by Messalina. She was betrothed to Silanus, but by the intrigues of
Agrippina, she was married to the emperor Nero in the 16th year of
her age. She was soon after divorced on pretence of barrenness, and
the emperor married Poppæa, who exercised her enmity upon Octavia by
causing her to be banished into Campania. She was afterwards recalled
at the instance of the people, and Poppæa, who was resolved on her
ruin, caused her again to be banished to an island, where she was
ordered to kill herself by opening her veins. Her head was cut off
and carried to Poppæa. _Suetonius_ in _Claudius_, ch. 27; _Nero_,
chs. 7 & 35.――_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 12.
=Octāviānus=, or =Octāvius Cæsar=, the nephew of Cæsar the dictator.
After the battle of Actium and the final destruction of the Roman
republic, the servile senate bestowed upon him the title and surname
of _Augustus_, as more expressive of his greatness and dignity.
_See:_ Augustus.
=Octāvius=, a Roman officer who brought Perseus king of Macedonia a
prisoner to the consul. He was sent by his countrymen to be guardian
to Ptolemy Eupator the young king of Egypt, where he behaved with
the greatest arrogance. He was assassinated by Lysias, who was before
regent of Egypt. The murderer was sent to Rome.――――A man who opposed
Metellus in the reduction of Crete by means of Pompey. He was obliged
to retire from the island.――――A man who banished Cinna from Rome,
and became remarkable for his probity and fondness of discipline. He
was seized and put to death by order of his successful rivals Marius
and Cinna.――――A Roman who boasted of being in the number of Cæsar’s
murderers. His assertions were false, yet he was punished as if he
had been accessary to the conspiracy.――――A lieutenant of Crassus
in Parthia. He accompanied his general to the tent of the Parthian
conqueror, and was killed by the enemy as he attempted to hinder them
from carrying away Crassus.――――A governor of Cilicia. He died in his
province, and Lucullus made applications to succeed him, &c.――――A
tribune of the people at Rome, whom Tiberias Gracchus his colleague
deposed.――――A commander of the forces of Antony against Augustus.
――――An officer who killed himself, &c.――――A tribune of the people,
who debauched a woman of Pontus from her husband. She proved
unfaithful to him, upon which he murdered her. He was condemned
under Nero. _Tacitus_, _Annals_ & _Histories_.――_Plutarch_, _Lives_.
――_Florus._――_Livy_, &c.――――A poet in the Augustan age, intimate
with Horace. He also distinguished himself as an historian. _Horace_,
bk. 1, satire 10, li. 82.
=Octodūrus=, a village in the modern country of Switzerland, now called
_Martigny_. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 3, ch. 1.
=Octogesa=, a town of Spain, a little above the mouth of the Iberus,
now called _Mequinensa_. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 1, ch. 61.
=Octolophum=, a place of Greece. _Livy_, bk. 31.
=Ocyălus=, one of the Phæacians with Alcinous. _Homer_, _Odyssey_.
=Ocypĕte=, one of the Harpies, who infected whatever she touched.
The name signifies _swift flying_. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 265.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9.――――A daughter of Thaumas.――――A
daughter of Danaus.
=Ocy̆roe=, a daughter of Chiron by Chariclo, who had the gift of
prophecy. She was changed into a mare. _See:_ Melanippe. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 2, li. 638, &c.――――A woman, daughter of Chesias,
carried away by Apollo, as she was going to a festival at Miletus.
=Odenātus=, a celebrated prince of Palmyra. He early inured himself to
bear fatigues, and by hunting leopards and wild beasts, he accustomed
himself to the labours of a military life. He was faithful to the
Romans; and when Aurelian had been taken prisoner by Sapor king
of Persia, Odenatus warmly interested himself in his cause, and
solicited his release by writing a letter to the conqueror and
sending him presents. The king of Persia was offended at the liberty
of Odenatus; he tore the letter, and ordered the presents which
were offered to be thrown into a river. To punish Odenatus, who had
the impudence, as he observed, to pay homage to so great a monarch
as himself, he ordered him to appear before him, on pain of being
devoted to instant destruction, with all his family, if he dared to
refuse. Odenatus disdained the summons of Sapor, and opposed force
to force. He obtained some advantages over the troops of the Persian
monarch, and took his wife prisoner with a great and rich booty.
These services were seen with gratitude by the Romans; and Gallienus,
the then reigning emperor, named Odenatus as his colleague on the
throne, and gave the title of Augustus to his children and to his
wife, the celebrated Zenobia. Odenatus, invested with new power,
resolved to signalize himself more conspicuously by conquering the
northern barbarians, but his exaltation was short, and he perished by
the dagger of one of his relations, whom he had slightly offended in
a domestic entertainment. He died at Emessa, about the 267th year of
the christian era. Zenobia succeeded to all his titles and honours.
=Odessus=, a seaport town at the west of the Euxine sea in Lower Mœsia,
below the mouths of the Danube. _Ovid_, bk. 1, _Tristia_, poem 9,
li. 57.
=Odeum=, a musical theatre at Athens. _Vitruvius_, bk. 5, ch. 9.
=Odīnus=, a celebrated hero of antiquity, who flourished about 70 years
before the christian era, in the northern parts of ancient Germany,
or the modern kingdom of Denmark. He was at once a priest, a soldier,
a poet, a monarch, and a conqueror. He imposed upon the credulity
of his superstitious countrymen, and made them believe that he could
raise the dead to life, and that he was acquainted with futurity.
When he had extended his power, and increased his fame by conquest
and by persuasion, he resolved to die in a different manner from
other men. He assembled his friends, and with a sharp point of a
lance he made on his body nine different wounds in the form of a
circle, and as he expired he declared he was going into Scythia,
where he should become one of the immortal gods. He further added
that he would prepare bliss and felicity for such of his countrymen
as lived a virtuous life, who fought with intrepidity, and who died
like heroes in the field of battle. These injunctions had the desired
effect; his countrymen superstitiously believed him, and always
recommended themselves to his protection whenever they engaged in a
battle, and they entreated him to receive the souls of such as had
fallen in war.
=Odītes=, a son of Ixion, killed by Mopsus at the nuptials of Pirithous.
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12, li. 457.――――A prince killed at the
nuptials of Andromeda. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, li. 97.
=Odoācer=, a king of the Heruli, who destroyed the western empire of
Rome, and called himself king of Italy, A.D. 476.
=Odomanti=, a people of Thrace on the eastern banks of the Strymon.
_Livy_, bk. 45, ch. 4.
=Odŏnes=, a people of Thrace.
=Odry̆sæ=, an ancient people of Thrace, between Abdera and the river
Ister. The epithet of _Odrysius_ is often applied to a Thracian.
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 6, li. 490; bk. 13, li. 554.――_Statius_,
_Achilleis_, bk. 1, li. 184.――_Livy_, bk. 39, ch. 53.
=Odyssēa=, one of Homer’s epic poems, in which he describes in 24 books
the adventures of Ulysses on his return from the Trojan war, with
other material circumstances. The whole of the action comprehends no
more than 55 days. It is not so esteemed as the Iliad of that poet.
_See:_ Homerus.
=Odyssēum=, a promontory of Sicily, at the west of Pachynus.
=Œa=, a city of Africa, now Tripoli. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 4.――_Silius
Italicus_, bk. 3, li. 257.――――Also a place in Ægina. _Herodotus_,
bk. 5, ch. 83.
=Œagrus=, or =Œager=, the father of Orpheus by Calliope. He was king
of Thrace, and from him mount Hæmus, and also the Hebrus, one of the
rivers of the country, have received the appellation of _Œagrius_,
though Servius, in his commentaries, disputes the explanation of
Diodorus, by asserting that the Œagrus is a river of Thrace, whose
waters supply the streams of the Hebrus. _Ovid_, _Ibis_, li. 414.
――_Apollonius_, bk. 1, _Argonautica_.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 4,
li. 524.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 5, li. 463.――_Diodorus._
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 3.
=Œanthe= and =Œanthia=, a town of Phocis, where Venus had a temple.
_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 38.
=Œax=, a son of Nauplius and Clymene. He was brother to Palamedes, whom
he accompanied to the Trojan war, and whose death he highly resented
on his return to Greece, by raising disturbances in the family of
some of the Grecian princes. _Dictys Cretensis._――_Apollodorus_,
bk. 2.――_Hyginus_, fable 117.
=Œbălia=, the ancient name of Laconia, which it received from king
Œbalus, and thence _Œbalides puer_ is applied to Hyacinthus as a
native of the country, and _Œbalius sanguis_ is used to denominate
his blood. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 1.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 10.
――――The same name is given to Tarentum because built by a Lacedæmonian
colony, whose ancestors were governed by Œbalus. _Virgil_, _Georgics_,
bk. 4, li. 125.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 12, li. 451.
=Œbălus=, a son of Argalus or Cynortas, who was king of Laconia. He
married Gorgophone the daughter of Perseus, by whom he had Hippocoon,
Tyndarus, &c. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 1.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3,
ch. 10.――――A son of Telon and the nymph Sebethis, who reigned in the
neighbourhood of Neapolis in Italy. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 734.
=Œbăres=, a satrap of Cyrus, against the Medes. _Polyænus_, bk. 7.――――A
groom of Darius son of Hystaspes. He was the cause that his master
obtained the kingdom of Persia, by his artifice in making his horse
neigh first. _See:_ Darius I. _Herodotus_, bk. 3, ch. 85.――_Justin_,
bk. 1, ch. 10.
=Œchălia=, a country of Peloponnesus in Laconia, with a small town of
the same name. This town was destroyed by Hercules, while Eurytus
was king over it, from which circumstance it was often called
_Eurytopolis_.――――A small town of Eubœa, where, according to some,
Eurytus reigned, and not in Peloponnesus. _Strabo_, bks. 8, 9, & 10.
――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8, li. 291.――_Ovid_, _Heroides_, poem 9;
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 9, li. 136.――_Sophocles_, _Trachiniæ_, li. 74
& _Scholia_.
=Œclīdes=, a patronymic of Amphiaraus son of Œcleus. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 8, fable 7.
=Œcleus.= _See:_ Oicleus.
=Œcumenius=, wrote in the middle of the 10th century a paraphrase of
some of the books of the New Testament in Greek, edited in two vols.,
folio, Paris, 1631.
=Œdipŏdia=, a fountain of Thebes in Bœotia.
=Œdĭpus=, a son of Laius king of Thebes and Jocasta. As being descended
from Venus by his father’s side, Œdipus was born to be exposed to
all the dangers and the calamities which Juno could inflict upon the
posterity of the goddess of beauty. Laius the father of Œdipus was
informed by the oracle, as soon as he married Jocasta, that he must
perish by the hands of his son. Such dreadful intelligence awakened
his fears, and to prevent the fulfilling of the oracle, he resolved
never to approach Jocasta; but his solemn resolutions were violated
in a fit of intoxication. The queen became pregnant, and Laius, still
intent to stop this evil, ordered his wife to destroy her child as
soon as it came into the world. The mother had not the courage to
obey, yet she gave the child as soon as born to one of her domestics,
with orders to expose him on the mountains. The servant was moved
with pity, but to obey the commands of Jocasta, he bored the feet of
the child, and suspended him with a twig by the heels to a tree on
mount Cithæron, where he was soon found by one of the shepherds of
Polybus king of Corinth. The shepherd carried him home; and Peribœa
the wife of Polybus, who had no children, educated him as her own
child, with maternal tenderness. The accomplishments of the infant,
who was named Œdipus, on account of the swelling of his feet (οἰδεω
_tumeo_, ποδες _pedes_), soon became the admiration of the age. His
companions envied his strength and his address; and one of them, to
mortify his rising ambition, told him he was an illegitimate child.
This raised his doubts; he asked Peribœa, who, out of tenderness,
told him that his suspicions were ill-founded. Not satisfied with
this, he went to consult the oracle of Delphi, and was there told not
to return home, for if he did, he must necessarily be the murderer of
his father, and the husband of his mother. This answer of the oracle
terrified him; he knew no home but the house of Polybus, therefore he
resolved not to return to Corinth, where such calamities apparently
attended him. He travelled towards Phocis, and in his journey, met in
a narrow road Laius on a chariot with his arm-bearer. Laius haughtily
ordered Œdipus to make way for him. Œdipus refused, and a contest
ensued, in which Laius and his arm-bearer were both killed. As Œdipus
was ignorant of the quality and of the rank of the men whom he had
just killed, he continued his journey, and was attracted to Thebes by
the fame of the Sphynx. This terrible monster, which Juno had sent to
lay waste the country [_See:_ ♦Sphinx], resorted in the neighbourhood
of Thebes, and devoured all those who attempted to explain, without
success, the enigmas which he proposed. The calamity was now become
an object of public concern, and as the successful explanation of an
enigma would end in the death of the Sphynx, Creon, who at the death
of Laius had ascended the throne of Thebes, promised his crown and
Jocasta to him who succeeded in the attempt. The enigma proposed was
this: What animal in the morning walks upon four feet, at noon upon
two, and in the evening upon three? This was left for Œdipus to
explain; he came to the monster and said, that man, in the morning
of life, walks upon his hands and his feet; when he has attained the
years of manhood, he walks upon his two legs; and in the evening,
he supports his old age with the assistance of a staff. The monster,
mortified at the true explanation, dashed his head against a rock and
perished. Œdipus ascended the throne of Thebes, and married Jocasta,
by whom he had two sons, Polynices and Eteocles, and two daughters,
Ismene and Antigone. Some years after, the Theban territories were
visited with a plague; and the oracle declared that it should cease
only when the murderer of king Laius was banished from Bœotia. As
the death of Laius had never been examined, and the circumstances
that attended it never known, this answer of the oracle was of the
greatest concern to the Thebans; but Œdipus, the friend of his people,
resolved to overcome every difficulty by the most exact inquiries.
His researches were successful, and he was soon proved to be the
murderer of his father. The melancholy discovery was rendered the
more alarming when Œdipus considered, that he had not only murdered
his father, but that he had committed incest with his mother. In the
excess of his grief he put out his eyes, as unworthy to see the light,
and banished himself from Thebes, or, as some say, was banished by
his own sons. He retired towards Attica, led by his daughter Antigone,
and came near Colonus, where there was a grove sacred to the Furies.
He remembered that he was doomed by the oracle to die in such a place,
and to become the source of prosperity to the country in which his
bones were buried. A messenger upon this was sent to Theseus king of
the country, to inform him of the resolution of Œdipus. When Theseus
arrived, Œdipus acquainted him, with a prophetic voice, that the gods
had called him to die in the place where he stood; and to show the
truth of this he walked, himself, without the assistance of a guide,
to the spot where he must expire. Immediately the earth opened, and
Œdipus disappeared. Some suppose that Œdipus had not children by
Jocasta, and that the mother murdered herself as soon as she knew the
incest which had been committed. His tomb was near the Areopagus, in
the age of Pausanias. Some of the ancient poets represent him in hell,
as suffering the punishment which crimes like his seemed to deserve.
According to some, the four children which he had were by Euriganea
the daughter of Periphas, whom he married after the death of Jocasta.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 5.――_Hyginus_, fable 66, &c.――_Euripides_,
_Phœnician Women_, &c.――_Sophocles_, _Œdipus Tyrannus_ & _Colonus_,
Antigone, &c.――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 1.――_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk.
11, ch. 270.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 5, &c.――_Statius_, _Thebaid_,
bk. 8, li. 642.――_Seneca_, _Œdipus_.――_Pindar_, _Olympian_, ch. 2.
――_Diodorus_, bk. 5.――_Athenæus_, bks. 6 & 10.
♦ ‘Sphynx’ replaced with ‘Sphinx’ to match listing
=Œme=, a daughter of Danaus by Crino. _Apollodorus._
=Œnanthes=, a favourite of young Ptolemy king of Egypt.
=Œne=, a small town of Argolis. The people were called _Œneadæ_.
=Œnea=, a river of Assyria. _Ammianus._
=Œneus=, a king of Calydon in Ætolia, son of Parthaon, or Portheus, and
Euryte. He married Althæa the daughter of Thestius, by whom he had
Clymenus, Meleager, Gorge, and Dejanira. After Althæa’s death, he
married Peribœa the daughter of Hipponous, by whom he had Tydeus. In
a general sacrifice, which Œneus made to all the gods upon reaping
the rich produce of his fields, he forgot Diana, and the goddess,
to revenge this unpardonable neglect, incited his neighbours to take
up arms against him, and, besides, she sent a wild boar to lay waste
the country of Calydonia. The animal was at last killed by Meleager
and the neighbouring princes of Greece, in a celebrated chase, known
by the name of the chase of the Calydonian boar. Some time after,
Meleager died, and Œneus was driven from his kingdom by the sons of
his brother Agrius. Diomedes, however, his grandson, soon restored
him to his throne; but the continual misfortunes to which he was
exposed rendered him melancholy. He exiled himself from Calydon, and
left his crown to his son-in-law Andremon. He died as he was going
to Argolis. His body was buried by the care of Diomedes, in a town of
Argolis, which from him received the name of _Œnoe_. It is reported
that Œneus received a visit from Bacchus, and that he suffered the
god to enjoy the favours of Althæa, and to become the father of
Dejanira, for which Bacchus permitted that the wine of which he was
the patron should be called among the Greeks by the name of Œneus
(οἰνος). _Hyginus_, fable 129.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 8.――_Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 9, li. 539.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2,
ch. 25.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 8, li. 510.
=Œniadæ=, a town of Acarnania. _Livy_, bk. 26, ch. 24; bk. 38, ch. 11.
=Œnĭdes=, a patronymic of Meleager son of Œneus. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 8, fable 10.
=Œnoe=, a nymph who married Sicinus, the son of Thoas king of Lemnos.
From her the island of Sicinus had been called Œnoe.――――Two villages
of Attica were also called Œnoe. _Herodotus_, bk. 5, ch. 74.――_Pliny_,
bk. 4, ch. 7.――――A city of Argolis, where Œneus fled when driven
from Calydon. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 25.――――A town of Elis in the
Peloponnesus. _Strabo._――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 8.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 1, &c.
=Œnŏmaus=, a son of Mars, by Sterope the daughter of Atlas. He was
king of Pisa in Elis, and father of Hippodamia, by Evarete daughter
of Acrisius, or Eurythoa the daughter of Danaus. He was informed
by the oracle that he should perish by the hands of his son-in-law,
therefore as he could skilfully drive a chariot he determined to
marry his daughter only to him who could outrun him, on condition
that all who entered the list should agree to lay down their life,
if conquered. Many had already perished, when Pelops son of Tantalus
proposed himself. He previously bribed Myrtilus the charioteer of
Œnomaus, by promising him the enjoyment of the favours of Hippodamia,
if he proved victorious. Myrtilus gave his master an old chariot,
whose axletree broke on the course, which was from Pisa to the
Corinthian isthmus, and Œnomaus was killed. Pelops married Hippodamia,
and became king of Pisa. As he expired, Œnomaus entreated Pelops to
revenge the perfidy of Myrtilus, which was executed. Those that had
been defeated when Pelops entered the lists, were Marmax, Alcathous,
Euryalus, Eurymachus, Capetus, Lasius, Acrias, Chalcodon, Lycurgus,
Tricolonus, Prias, Aristomachus, Æolius, Eurythrus, and Chronius.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 4.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 5, ch. 17; bk. 6, ch. 11, &c.――_Apollonius Rhodius_, bk. 1.
――_Propertius_, bk. 1, poem 2, li. 20.――_Ovid_, _Ibis_, li. 367;
_Ars Amatoria_, bk. 2, li. 8; _Heroides_, poem 8, li. 70.
=Œnon=, a part of Locris on the bay of _Corinth_.
=Œnōna=, an ancient name of the island Ægina. It is also called
_Œnopia_. _Herodotus_, bk. 8, ch. 46.――――Two villages of Attica are
also called Œnona, or rather Œnoe.――――A town of Troas, the birthplace
of the nymph Œnone. _Strabo_, bk. 13.
=Œnōne=, a nymph of mount Ida, daughter of the river Cebrenus in
Phrygia. As she had received the gift of prophecy, she foretold to
Paris, whom she married before he was discovered to be the son of
Priam, that his voyage into Greece would be attended with the most
serious consequences, and the total ruin of his country, and that he
should have recourse to her medicinal knowledge at the hour of death.
All these predictions were fulfilled; and Paris, when he had received
the fatal wound, ordered his body to be carried to Œnone, in hopes
of being cured by her assistance. He expired as he came into her
presence; and Œnone was so struck at the sight of his dead body, that
she bathed it with her tears, and stabbed herself to the heart. She
was mother of Corythus by Paris, and this son perished by the hand
of his father when he attempted, at the instigation of Œnone, to
persuade him to withdraw his affection from Helen. _Dictys Cretensis._
――_Ovid_, _de Remedia Amoris_ li. 457; _Heroides_, poem 5.――_Lucan_,
bk. 9.
=Œnŏpia=, one of the ancient names of the island Ægina. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, li. 473.
=Œnopĭdes=, a mathematician of Chios. _Diodorus_, bk. 1.
=Œnopion=, a son of Ariadne by Theseus, or, according to others, by
Bacchus. He married Helice, by whom he had a daughter called Hero,
or Merope, of whom the giant Orion became enamoured. The father,
unwilling to give his daughter to such a lover, and afraid of
provoking him by an open refusal, evaded his applications, and at
last put out his eyes when he was intoxicated. Some suppose that
this violence was offered to Orion after he had dishonoured Merope.
Œnopion received the island of Chios from Rhadamanthus, who had
conquered most of the islands of the Ægean sea, and his tomb was
still seen there in the age of Pausanias. Some suppose, and with more
probability, that he reigned not at Chios, but at Ægina, which from
him was called Œnopia. _Plutarch_, _Theseus_.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1,
ch. 4.――_Diodorus._――_Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 4.――_Apollonius Rhodius_,
bk. 3.
=Œnōtri=, the inhabitants of Œnotria.
=Œnōtria=, a part of Italy, which was afterwards called _Lucania_.
It received this name from Œnotrus the son of Lycaon, who settled
there with a colony of Arcadians. The Œnotrians afterwards spread
themselves into Umbria and as far as Latium, and the country of the
Sabines, according to some writers. The name of Œnotria is sometimes
applied to Italy. That part of Italy where Œnotrus settled, was
before inhabited by the Ausones. _Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 8,
ch. 11.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 3.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, li.
536; bk. 7, li. 85.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 220.
=Œnotrĭdes=, two small islands on the coast of Lucania, where some of
the Romans were banished by the emperors. They were called Ischia and
Pontia.
=Œnōtrus=, a son of Lycaon of Arcadia. He passed into Magna Græcia
with a colony, and gave the name of Œnotria to that part of the
country where he settled. _Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 1,
ch. 11.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 3.
=Œnūsæ=, small islands near Chios. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 31.
――_Thucydides_, bk. 8.――――Others on the coast of the Peloponnesus,
near Messenia. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 17.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.
=Œonus=, a son of Licymnius, killed at Sparta, where he accompanied
Hercules; and as the hero had promised Licymnius to bring back his
son, he burnt his body and presented the ashes to the afflicted
father. From this circumstance arose a custom of burning the dead
among the Greeks. _Scholia_, _Homer_, _Iliad_.――――A small river of
Laconia. _Livy_, bk. 34, ch. 28.
=Œnoe=, an island of Bœotia formed by the Asopus. _Herodotus_, bk. 9,
ch. 50.
=Œta=, now _Banina_, a celebrated mountain between Thessaly and
Macedonia, upon which Hercules burnt himself. Its height has given
occasion to the poets to feign that the sun, moon, and stars arose
behind it. Mount Œta, properly speaking, is a long chain of mountains
which runs from the straits of Thermopylæ and the gulf of Malia, in
a western direction, to mount Pindus, and from thence to the bay of
Ambracia. The straits or passes of mount Œta are called the straits
of Thermopylæ, from the hot baths and mineral waters which are in
the neighbourhood. These passes are not more than 25 feet in breadth.
_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.――_Catullus_, poem 66, li. 54.――_Apollodorus_,
bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 20, &c.――_Ovid_, _Heroides_,
poem 9; _Metamorphoses_, bk. 2, li. 216; bk. 9, li. 204, &c.
――_Virgil_, _Eclogues_, poem 8.――_Pliny_, bk. 25, ch. 5.――_Seneca_,
_Medea_.――_Lucan_, bk. 3, &c.――――A small town at the foot of mount
Œta near Thermopylæ.
=Œty̆lus=, or =Œty̆lum=, a town of Laconia, which received its name
from Œtylus, one of the heroes of Argos. Serapis had a temple there.
_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 25.
=Ofellus=, a man whom, though unpolished, Horace represents as a
character exemplary for wisdom, economy, and moderation. _Horace_,
bk. 2, satire 2, li. 2.
=Ofi=, a nation of Germany. _Tacitus_, _Germania_, ch. 28.
=Ogdolăpis=, a navigable river flowing from the Alps. _Strabo_, bk. 6.
=Ogdōrus=, a king of Egypt.
=Oglosa=, an island in the Tyrrhene sea, east of Corsica, famous for
wine, and now called _Monte Christo_. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 6.
=Ogmius=, a name of Hercules among the Gauls. _Lucian_, _Hercules_.
=Ogoa=, a deity of Mylassa in Caria, under whose temple, as was
supposed, the sea passed. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 10.
=Ogulnia lex=, by Quintus and Cnæus Ogulnius, tribunes of the people,
A.U.C. 453. It increased the number of pontifices and augurs from
four to nine. The addition was made to both orders from plebeian
families.――――A Roman lady as poor as she was lascivious. _Juvenal_,
satire 6, li. 351.
=Ogy̆ges=, a celebrated monarch, the most ancient of those that reigned
in Greece. He was son of Terra, or, as some suppose, of Neptune,
and married Thebe the daughter of Jupiter. He reigned in Bœotia,
which from him is sometimes called _Ogygia_, and his power was also
extended over Attica. It is supposed that he was of Egyptian or
Phœnician extraction; but his origin, as well as the age in which
he lived, and the duration of his reign, are so obscure and unknown,
that the epithet of _Ogygian_ is often applied to everything of
dark antiquity. In the reign of Ogyges there was a deluge, which so
inundated the territories of Attica, that they remained waste for
near 200 years. This, though it is very uncertain, is supposed to
have happened about 1764 years before the christian era, and previous
to the deluge of Deucalion. According to some writers, it was owing
to the overflowing of one of the rivers of the country. The reign
of Ogyges was also marked by an uncommon appearance in the heavens,
and, as it is reported, the planet Venus changed her colour, diameter,
figure, and her course. _Varro_, _de Re Rustica_, bk. 3, ch. 1.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 5.――_Augustine_, _City of God_, bk. 18, &c.
=Ogy̆gia=, a name of one of the gates of Thebes in Bœotia. _Lucan_,
bk. 1, li. 675.――――One of the daughters of Niobe and Amphion, changed
into stones. _Apollodorus._――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 8.――――An ancient
name of Bœotia, from Ogyges, who reigned there.――――The island of
Calypso, opposite the promontory of Lacinium in Magna Græcia, where
Ulysses was shipwrecked. The situation, and even the existence of
Calypso’s island, is disputed by some writers. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 10.
――_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 1, lis. 52 & 85; bk. 5, li. 254.
=Ocy̆ris=, an island in the Indian ocean.
=Oicleus=, a son of Antiphates and Zeuxippe, who married Hypermnestra
daughter of Thestius, by whom he had Iphianira, Polybœa, and
Amphiaraus. He was killed by Laomedon when defending the ships which
Hercules had brought to Asia, when he made war against Troy. _Homer_,
_Odyssey_, bk. 15.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 8;
bk. 3, ch. 6.――_Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 17.
=Oīleus=, a king of the Locrians. His father’s name was Odoedocus,
and his mother’s Agrianome. He married Eriope, by whom he had Ajax,
called _Oileus_ from his father, to discriminate him from Ajax the
son of Telamon. He had also another son called Medon, by a courtesan
called Rhene. Oileus was one of the Argonauts. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk.
1, li. 45.――_Apollonius_, bk. 1.――_Hyginus_, fables 14 & 18.――_Homer_,
_Iliad_, bks. 13 & 15.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 10.
=Olane=, one of the mouths of the Po.――――A mountain of Armenia.
=Olanus=, a town of Lesbos.
=Olastræ=, a people of India. _Lucan_, bk. 3, li. 249.――_Pliny_, bk. 6,
ch. 20.
=Olba=, or =Olbus=, a town of Cilicia.
=Olbia=, a town of Sarmatia at the confluence of the Hypanis and the
Borysthenes, about 15 miles from the sea, according to Pliny. It was
afterwards called _Borysthenes_ and _Miletopolis_, because peopled
by a Milesian colony, and is now supposed to be _Oczakow_. _Strabo_,
bk. 7.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.――――A town of Bithynia. _Mela_, bk. 1,
ch. 19.――――A town of Gallia Narbonensis. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 5.――――The
capital of Sardinia. _Claudian._
=Olbius=, a river of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 14.
=Olbus=, one of Æetes’ auxiliaries. _Valerius Flaccus_, bk. 6, li. 639.
=Olchinium=, or =Olcinium=, now _Dulcigno_, a town of Dalmatia, on the
Adriatic. _Livy_, bk. 45, ch. 26.
=Olbades=, a people of Spain. _Livy_, bk. 21, ch. 5.
=Oleăros=, or =Oliaros=, one of the Cyclades, about 16 miles in
circumference, separated from Paros by a strait of seven miles.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 126.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 7,
li. 469.――_Strabo_, bk. 10.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.
=Oleatrum=, a town of Spain near Saguntum. _Strabo._
=Olen=, a Greek poet of Lycia, who flourished some time before the age
of Orpheus, and composed many hymns, some of which were regularly
sung at Delphi, on solemn occasions. Some suppose that he was the
first who established the oracle of Apollo at Delphi where he first
delivered oracles. _Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 35.
=Olenius=, a Lemnian killed by his wife. _Valerius Flaccus_, bk. 2,
li. 164.
=Olĕnus=, a son of Vulcan, who married Lethæa, a beautiful woman, who
preferred herself to the goddesses. She and her husband were changed
into stones by the deities. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 10, li. 68.
――――A famous soothsayer of Etruria. _Pliny_, bk. 28, ch. 2.
=Olĕnus=, or =Olenum=, a town of Peloponnesus between Patræ and Cyllene.
The goat Amalthæa, which was made a constellation by Jupiter, is
called _Olenia_, from its residence there. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 22.
――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 3.――_Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Apollodorus_,
bk. 1, ch. 8.――――Another in Ætolia.
=Oleorus=, one of the Cyclades, now _Antiparo_.
=Olgasys=, a mountain of Galatia.
=Oligyrtis=, a town of Peloponnesus.
=Olinthus=, a town of Macedonia. _See:_ Olynthus.
=Olisipo=, now _Lisbon_, a town of ancient Spain on the Tagus, surnamed
_Felicitas Julia_ (_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 22), and called by some
Ulysippo, and said to be founded by Ulysses. _Mela_, bk. 3, ch. 1.
――_Solinus_, bk. 23.
=Olitingi=, a town of Lusitania. _Mela_, bk. 3, ch. 1.
=Olīzon=, a town of Magnesia in Thessaly. _Homer._
=Titus Ollius=, the father of Poppæa, destroyed on account of his
intimacy with Sejanus, &c. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 13, ch. 45.――――A
river rising in the Alps, and falling into the Po, now called the
_Oglio_. _Pliny_, bk. 2, ch. 103.
=Ollovĭco=, a prince of Gaul, called the friend of the republic by the
Roman senate. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 7, ch. 31.
=Olmiæ=, a promontory near Megara.
=Olmius=, a river of Bœotia, near Helicon, sacred to the Muses.
_Statius_, _Thebaid_, bk. 7, li. 284.
=Oloosson=, now _Alessone_, a town of Magnesia. _Homer._
=Olophyxus=, a town of Macedonia on mount Athos. _Herodotus_, bk. 7,
ch. 22.
=Olpæ=, a fortified place of Epirus, now _Forte Castri_.
=Olus= (untis), a town at the west of Crete.
=Olympeum=, a place of Delos.――――Another in Syracuse.
=Olympia= (orum), celebrated games which received their name either
from Olympia, where they were observed, or from Jupiter Olympius, to
whom they were dedicated. They were, according to some, instituted
by Jupiter after his victory over the Titans, and first observed by
the Idæi Dactyli, B.C. 1453. Some attribute the institution to Pelops,
after he had obtained a victory over Œnomaus and married Hippodamia;
but the more probable, and indeed the more received opinion is, that
they were first established by Hercules in honour of Jupiter Olympius,
after a victory obtained over Augias, B.C. 1222. Strabo objects
to this opinion, by observing that if they had been established in
the age of Homer, the poet would have undoubtedly spoken of them,
as he is in every particular careful to mention the amusements and
diversions of the ancient Greeks. But they were neglected after
their first institution by Hercules, and no notice was taken of them,
according to many writers, till Iphitus, in the age of the lawgiver
of Sparta, renewed them, and instituted the celebration with greater
solemnity. This reinstitution, which happened B.C. 884, forms a
celebrated epoch in Grecian history, and is the beginning of the
Olympiad. _See:_ Olympias. They, however, were neglected for some
time after the age of Iphitus, till Corœbus, who obtained a victory,
B.C. 776, reinstituted them to be regularly and constantly celebrated.
The care and superintendence of the games were entrusted to the
people of Elis, till they were excluded by the Pisæans, B.C. 364,
after the destruction of Pisa. These obtained great privileges
from this appointment; they were in danger neither of violence nor
war, but they were permitted to enjoy their possessions without
molestation, as the games were celebrated within their territories.
Only one person superintended till the 50th Olympiad, when two were
appointed. In the 103rd Olympiad, the number was increased to 12,
according to the number of the tribes of Elis. But in the following
Olympiad, they were reduced to eight, and afterwards increased to 10,
which number continued till the reign of Adrian. The presidents were
obliged solemnly to swear that they would act impartially, and not
take any bribes, or discover why they rejected some of the combatants.
They generally sat naked, and held before them the crown which was
prepared for the conqueror. There were also certain officers to
keep good order and regularity, called ἀλυται, much the same as the
Roman lictors, of whom the chief was called ἀλυταρχης. No women were
permitted to appear at the celebration of the Olympian games, and
whoever dared to trespass this law was immediately thrown down from
a rock. This, however, was sometimes neglected, for we find not
only women present at the celebration, but also some among the
combatants, and some rewarded with the crown. The preparations for
these festivals were great. No person was permitted to enter the
lists if he had not regularly exercised himself 10 months before the
celebration at the public gymnasium of Elis. No unfair dealings were
allowed, and whoever attempted to bribe his adversary was subjected
to a severe fine. No criminals, nor such as were connected with
impious and guilty persons, were suffered to present themselves as
combatants; and even the father and relations were obliged to swear
that they would have recourse to no artifice which might decide the
victory in favour of their friends. The wrestlers were appointed
by lot. Some little balls, superscribed with a letter, were thrown
into a silver urn, and such as drew the same letter were obliged to
contend one with the other. He who had an odd letter remained the
last, and he often had the advantage, as he was to encounter the last
who had obtained the superiority over his adversary. He was called
ἐφεδρος. In these games were exhibited running, leaping, wrestling,
boxing, and the throwing of the quoit, which was called altogether
πενταθλον, or _quinquertium_. Besides these, there were horse and
chariot races, and also contentions in poetry, eloquence, and the
fine arts. The only reward that the conqueror obtained, was a crown
of olive; which, as some suppose, was in memory of the labours of
Hercules, which was accomplished for the universal good of mankind,
and for which the hero claimed no other reward than the consciousness
of having been the friend of humanity. So small and trifling a
reward stimulated courage and virtue, and was more the source
of great honours than the most unbounded treasures. The statues
of the conquerors, called Olympionicæ, were erected at Olympia,
in the sacred wood of Jupiter. Their return home was that of a
warlike conqueror; they were drawn in a chariot by four horses, and
everywhere received with the greatest acclamations. Their entrance
into their native city was not through the gates, but, to make it
more grand and more solemn, a breach was made in the walls. Painters
and poets were employed in celebrating their names; and indeed the
victories severally obtained at Olympia are the subjects of the most
beautiful odes of Pindar. The combatants were naked; a scarf was
originally tied round the waist, but when it had entangled one of
the adversaries, and been the cause that he lost the victory, it was
laid aside, and no regard was paid to decency. The Olympic games were
observed every fifth year, or, to speak with greater exactness, after
a revolution of four years, and in the first month of the fifth year,
and they continued for five successive days. As they were the most
ancient and the most solemn of all the festivals of the Greeks, it
will not appear wonderful that they drew so many people together,
not only inhabitants of Greece, but of the neighbouring islands
and countries. _Pindar_, _Olympian_, chs. 1 & 2.――_Strabo_, bk. 8.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 67, &c.――_Diodorus_, bk. 1, &c.――_Plutarch_,
_Theseus_, _Lycurgus_, &c.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 10, li. 1.
――_Cicero_, _Tusculanæ Disputationes_, bk. 1, ch. 46.――_Lucian_,
_Anacharsis_.――_Tzetzes_, _Lycophron_.――♦_Aristotle._――_Statius_,
_Thebaid_, bk. 6.――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Preface_.――_Virgil_,
_Georgics_, bk. 3, li. 49.――――A town of Elis in Peloponnesus,
where Jupiter had a temple with a celebrated statue 50 cubits high,
reckoned one of the seven wonders of the world. The Olympic games
were celebrated in the neighbourhood. _Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 3, ch. 8.
♦ ‘Aristotel’ replaced with ‘Aristotle’
=Olympias=, a certain space of time which elapsed between the
celebration of the Olympic games. The Olympic games were celebrated
after the expiration of four complete years, whence some have said
that they were observed every fifth year. This period of time was
called Olympiad, and became a celebrated era among the Greeks,
who computed their time by it. The custom of reckoning time by the
celebration of the Olympic games was not introduced at the first
institution of these festivals, but, to speak accurately, only the
year in which Corœbus obtained the prize. This Olympiad, which has
always been reckoned the first, fell, according to the accurate and
learned computations of some of the moderns, exactly 776 years before
the christian era, in the year of the Julian period 3938, and 23
years before the building of Rome. The games were exhibited at the
time of the full moon, next after the summer solstice; therefore
the Olympiads were of unequal length, because the time of the full
moon differs 11 days every year, and for that reason they sometimes
began the next day after the solstice, and at other times four weeks
after. The computations by Olympiads ceased, as some suppose, after
the 364th, in the year 440 of the christian era. It was universally
adopted, not only by the Greeks, but by many of the neighbouring
countries, though still the Pythian games served as an epoch to
the people of Delphi and to the Bœotians, the Nemæan games to the
Argives and Arcadians, and the Isthmian to the Corinthians and the
inhabitants of the Peloponnesian isthmus. To the Olympiads history
is much indebted. They have served to fix the time of many momentous
events, and indeed before this method of computing time was observed,
every page of history is mostly fabulous, and filled with obscurity
and contradiction, and no true chronological account can be properly
established and maintained with certainty. The mode of computation,
which was used after the suppression of the Olympiads and of the
consular fasti of Rome, was more useful as it was more universal;
but while the era of the creation of the world prevailed in the east,
the western nations in the sixth century began to adopt with more
propriety the christian epoch, which was propagated in the eighth
century, and at last, in the tenth, became legal and popular.――――A
celebrated woman, who was daughter of a king of Epirus, and who
married Philip king of Macedonia, by whom she had Alexander the Great.
Her haughtiness, and more probably her infidelity, obliged Philip
to repudiate her, and to marry Cleopatra the niece of king Attalus.
Olympias was sensible of this injury, and Alexander showed his
disapprobation of his father’s measures by retiring from the court to
his mother. The murder of Philip, which soon followed this disgrace,
and which some have attributed to the intrigues of Olympias, was
productive of the greatest extravagancies. The queen paid the highest
honour to her husband’s murderer. She gathered his mangled limbs,
placed a crown of gold on his head, and laid his ashes near those of
Philip. The administration of Alexander, who had succeeded his father,
was, in some instances, offensive to Olympias; but when the ambition
of her son was concerned, she did not scruple to declare publicly
that Alexander was not the son of Philip, but that he was the
offspring of an enormous serpent which had supernaturally introduced
itself into her bed. When Alexander was dead, Olympias seized the
government of Macedonia, and to establish her usurpation, she cruelly
put to death Aridæus, with his wife Eurydice, as also Nicanor the
brother of Cassander, with 100 leading men of Macedonia, who were
inimical to her interest. Such barbarities did not long remain
unpunished; Cassander besieged her in Pydna, where she had retired
with the remains of her family, and she was obliged to surrender
after an obstinate siege. The conqueror ordered her to be accused,
and to be put to death. A body of 200 soldiers were directed to put
the bloody commands into execution, but the splendour and majesty
of the queen disarmed their courage, and she was at last massacred
by those whom she had cruelly deprived of their children, about 316
years before the christian era. _Justin_, bk. 7, ch. 6; bk. 9, ch. 1.
――_Plutarch_, _Alexander_.――_Curtius._――_Pausanias._――――A fountain of
Arcadia which flowed for one year and the next was dry. _Pausanias_,
bk. 8, ch. 29.
=Olympiodōrus=, a musician who taught Epaminondas music. _Cornelius
Nepos._――――A native of Thebes in Egypt, who flourished under
Theodosius II., and wrote 22 books of history, in Greek, beginning
with the seventh consulship of Honorius, and the second of Theodosius,
to the period when Valentinian was made emperor. He wrote also
an account of an embassy to some of the barbarian nations of the
north, &c. His style is censured by some as low, and unworthy of
an historian. The commentaries of Olympiodorus on the _Meteora_ of
Aristotle, were edited with Aldus Manutius, 1550, in folio.――――An
Athenian officer, present at the battle of Platæa, where he behaved
with great valour. _Plutarch._
=Olympius=, a surname of Jupiter at Olympia, where the god had a
celebrated temple and statue, which passed for one of the seven
wonders of the world. It was the work of Phidias. _Pausanias_,
bk. 7, ch. 2.――――A native of Carthage, called also Nemesianus.
_See:_ Nemesianus.――――A favourite at the court of Honorius, who
was the cause of Stilicho’s death.
=Olympus=, a physician of Cleopatra queen of Egypt, who wrote some
historical treatises. _Plutarch_, _Antonius_.――――A poet and musician
of Mysia, son of Mæon and disciple to Marsyas. He lived before the
Trojan war, and distinguished himself by his amatory elegies, his
hymns, and particularly the beautiful airs which he composed, and
which were still preserved in the age of Aristophanes. _Plato_,
_Minos_.――_Aristotle_, _Politics_, bk. 8.――――Another musician of
Phrygia, who lived in the age of Midas. He is frequently confounded
with the preceding. _Pollux_, bk. 4, ch. 10.――――A son of Hercules
and Eubœa. _Apollodorus._――――A mountain of Macedonia and Thessaly,
now _Lacha_. The ancients supposed that it touched the heavens with
its top; and, from that circumstance, they have placed the residence
of the gods there, and have made it the court of Jupiter. It is about
one mile and a half in perpendicular height, and is covered with
pleasant woods, caves, and grottoes. On the top of the mountain,
according to the notions of the poets, there was neither wind nor
rain, nor clouds, but an eternal spring. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 1,
&c.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bks. 2, 6, &c.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_.
――_Lucan_, bk. 5.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.――_Strabo_, bk. 8.――――A
mountain of Mysia, called the Mysian Olympus, a name which it still
preserves.――――Another in Elis.――――Another in Arcadia.――――Another in
the island of Cyprus, now _Santa Croce_. Some suppose the Olympus of
Mysia and of Cilicia to be the same.――――A town on the coast of Lycia.
=Olympusa=, a daughter of Thespius. _Apollodorus._
=Olynthus=, a celebrated town and republic of Macedonia, on the isthmus
of the peninsula of Pallene. It became famous for its flourishing
situation, and for its frequent disputes with the Athenians and
Lacedæmonians, and with king Philip, who destroyed it, and sold
the inhabitants for slaves. _Cicero_, _Against Verres_.――_Plutarch_,
_de Cohibenda Ira_, &c.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 2.――_Herodotus_, bk. 1,
ch. 127.――_Curtius_, bk. 8, ch. 9.
=Olyras=, a river near Thermopylæ, which, as the mythologists report,
attempted to extinguish the funeral pile on which Hercules was
consumed. _Strabo_, bk. 9.
=Olyzon=, a town of Thessaly.
=Omarius=, a Lacedæmonian sent to Darius, &c. _Curtius_, bk. 3, ch. 13.
=Ombi= and =Tentyra=, two neighbouring cities of Egypt, whose
inhabitants were always in discord one with another. _Juvenal_,
satire 15, li. 35.
=Ombri.= _See:_ ♦Umbria.
♦ ‘Umbri’ replaced with ‘Umbria’ to match listing
=Omŏle=, or =Homŏle=, a mountain of Thessaly. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7,
li. 675.――――There were some festivals called _Homoleia_, which were
celebrated in Bœotia in honour of Jupiter, surnamed _Homoleius_.
=Omophagia=, a festival in honour of Bacchus. The word signifies _the
eating of raw flesh_. _See:_ Dionysia.
=Omphăle=, a queen of Lydia, daughter of Jardanus. She married Tmolus,
who, at his death, left her mistress of his kingdom. Omphale had
been informed of the great exploits of Hercules, and wished to see
so illustrious a hero. Her wish was soon gratified. After the murder
of Eurytus, Hercules fell sick, and was ordered to be sold as a slave,
that he might recover his health, and the right use of his senses.
Mercury was commissioned to sell him, and Omphale bought him, and
restored him to liberty. The hero became enamoured of his mistress,
and the queen favoured his passion, and had a son by him, whom some
call Agelaus, and others Lamon. From this son were descended Gyges
and Crœsus; but this opinion is different from the account which
makes these Lydian monarchs spring from Alcæus, a son of Hercules by
Malis, one of the female servants of Omphale. Hercules is represented
by the poets as so desperately enamoured of the queen that, to
conciliate her esteem, he spins by her side among her women, while
she covers herself with the lion’s skin, and arms herself with the
club of the hero, and often strikes him with her sandals for the
uncouth manner with which he holds the distaff, &c. Their fondness
was mutual. As they once travelled together, they came to a grotto
on mount Tmolus, where the queen dressed herself in the habit of her
lover, and obliged him to appear in a female garment. After they had
supped, they both retired to rest in different rooms, as a sacrifice
on the morrow to Bacchus required. In the night, Faunus, or rather
Pan, who was enamoured of Omphale, introduced himself into the cave.
He went to the bed of the queen, but the lion’s skin persuaded him
that it was the dress of Hercules, and therefore he repaired to the
bed of Hercules, in hopes to find there the object of his affection.
The female dress of Hercules deceived him, and he laid himself down
by his side. The hero was awakened, and kicked the intruder into
the middle of the cave. The noise awoke Omphale, and Faunus was
discovered lying on the ground, greatly disappointed and ashamed.
_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 2, li. 305, &c.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9;
bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Propertius_, bk. 3, poem 11,
li. 17.
=Omphălos=, a place of Crete, sacred to Jupiter, on the borders of the
river Triton. It received its name from the umbilical cord (ὀμφαλος)
of Jupiter, which fell there soon after his birth. _Diodorus._
=Omphis=, a king of India, who delivered himself up to Alexander the
Great. _Curtius_, bk. 8, ch. 12.
=Onæum=, or =Oæneum=, a promontory and town of Dalmatia. _Livy_, bk. 43,
ch. 19.
=Onārus=, a priest of Bacchus, who is supposed to have married Ariadne
after she had been abandoned by Theseus. _Plutarch_, _Theseus_.
=Onasĭmus=, a sophist of Athens, who flourished in the reign of
Constantine.
=Onātas=, a famous statuary of Ægina son of Micon. _Pausanias_, bk. 8,
ch. 42.
=Onchemītes=, a wind which blows from Onchesmus, a harbour of
Epirus, towards Italy. The word is sometimes spelt _Anchesites_
and _Anchemites_. _Cicero_, _Letters to Atticus_, bk. 7, ltr. 2.
――_Ptolemæus._
=Onchestus=, a town of Bœotia, founded by Onchestus, a son of Neptune.
_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 26.
=Oneion=, a place of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 25.
=Onesicrĭtus=, a cynic philosopher of Ægina, who went with Alexander
into Asia, and was sent to the Indian Gymnosophists. He wrote a
history of the king’s life, which has been censured for the romantic,
exaggerated, and improbable narrative it gives. It is asserted that
Alexander, upon reading it, said that he should be glad to come to
life again for some time, to see what reception the historian’s work
met with. _Plutarch_, _Alexander_.――_Curtius_, bk. 9, ch. 10.
=Onesĭmus=, a Macedonian nobleman, treated with great kindness by the
Roman emperors. He wrote an account of the life of the emperor Probus,
and of Carus, with great precision and elegance.
=Onesippus=, a son of Hercules. _Apollodorus._
=Onesius=, a king of Salamis, who revolted from the Persians.
=Onetorĭdes=, an Athenian officer, who attempted to murder the garrison
which Demetrius had stationed at Athens, &c. _Polyænus_, bk. 5.
=Onium=, a place of Peloponnesus, near Corinth.
=Onoba=, a town near the columns of Hercules. _Mela_, bk. 3, ch. 1.
=Onobala=, a river of Sicily.
=Onochŏnus=, a river of Thessaly, falling into the Peneus. It was dried
up by the army of Xerxes. _Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 196.
=Onomacrĭtus=, a soothsayer of Athens. It is generally believed that
the Greek poem on the Argonautic expedition, attributed to Orpheus,
was written by Onomacritus. The elegant poems of Musæus are also, by
some, supposed to be the production of his pen. He flourished about
516 years before the christian era, and was expelled from Athens by
Hipparchus, one of the sons of Pisistratus. _Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 6.
――――A Locrian, who wrote concerning laws, &c. _Aristotle_, bk. 2,
_Politics_.
=Onomarchus=, a Phocian, son of Euthycrates and brother of Philomelus,
whom he succeeded, as general of his countrymen, in the sacred
war. After exploits of valour and perseverance, he was defeated
and slain in Thessaly by Philip of Macedon, who ordered his body to
be ignominiously hung up, for the sacrilege offered to the temple
of Delphi. He died 353 B.C. _Aristotle_, _Politics_, bk. 5, ch. 4.
――_Diodorus_, bk. 16.――――A man to whose care Antigonus entrusted the
keeping of Eumenes. _Cornelius Nepos_, _Eumenes_.
=Onomastorĭdes=, a Lacedæmonian ambassador sent to Darius, &c.
_Curtius_, bk. 3, ch. 13.
=Onomastus=, a freedman of the emperor Otho. _Tacitus._
=Onophas=, one of the seven Persians who conspired against the usurper
Smerdis. _Ctesias._――――An officer in the expedition of Xerxes against
Greece.
=Onosander=, a Greek writer, whose book _De Imperatoris Institutione_
has been edited by Schwebel, with a French translation, folio,
Nuremberg, 1752.
=Onythes=, a friend of Æneas, killed by Turnus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 12, li. 514.
=Opalia=, festivals celebrated by the Romans, in honour of Ops, on the
14th of the calends of January.
=Ophēlas=, a general of Cyrene, defeated by Agathocles.
=Opheltes=, a son of Lycurgus king of Thrace. He is the same as
Archemorus. _See:_ Archemorus.――――The father of Euryalus, whose
friendship with Nisus is proverbial. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9,
li. 201.――――One of the companions of Acœtes, changed into a dolphin
by Bacchus. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 3, fable 8.
=Ophensis=, a town of Africa. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 4, ch. 50.
=Ophiădes=, an island on the coast of Arabia, so called from the great
number of serpents found there. It belonged to the Egyptian kings,
and was considered valuable for the topaz it produced. _Diodorus_,
bk. 3.
=Ophias=, a patronymic given to Combe, as daughter of Ophius, an
unknown person. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, li. 382.
=Ophioneus=, was an ancient soothsayer in the age of Aristodemus. He
was born blind.
=Ophis=, a small river of Arcadia, which falls into the Alpheus.
=Ophiūsa=, the ancient name of Rhodes.――――A small island near Crete.
――――A town of Sarmatia.――――An island near the Baleares, so called
from the number of serpents which it produced (ὀφις, _serpens_). It
is now called _Formentera_.
=Ophrynium=, a town of Troas on the Hellespont. Hector had a grove
there. _Strabo_, bk. 13.
=Opĭci=, the ancient inhabitants of Campania, from whose mean
occupations the word _Opicus_ has been used to express disgrace.
_Juvenal_, satire 3, li. 207.
=Opilius=, a grammarian who flourished about 94 years before Christ. He
wrote a book called _Libri Musarum_.
=Lucius Opimius=, a Roman who made himself consul in opposition to
the interests and efforts of the Gracchi. He showed himself a most
inveterate enemy to Caius Gracchus and his adherents, and behaved,
during his consulship, like a dictator. He was accused of bribery,
and banished. He died of want at Dyrrachium. _Cicero_, _For Sestius_,
_For Plancius_, & _Against Piso_.――_Plutarch._――――A Roman, who killed
one of the Cimbri in single combat.――――A rich usurer at Rome in the
age of Horace, bk. 2, satire 3, li. 142.
=Opis=, a town on the Tigris, afterwards called Antiochia. _Xenophon_,
_Anabasis_, bk. 2.――――A nymph who was among Diana’s attendants.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 11, lis. 532 & 867.――――A town near the mouth
of the Tigris.――――One of Cyrene’s attendants. _Virgil_, _Georgics_,
bk. 4, li. 343.
=Opĭter=, a Roman consul, &c.
=Opitergīni=, a people near Aquileia, on the Adriatic. Their chief city
was called _Opitergum_, now _Oderso_. _Lucan_, bk. 4, li. 416.
=Opītes=, a native of Argos, killed by Hector in the Trojan war.
_Homer_, _Iliad_.
=Oppia=, a vestal virgin, buried alive for her incontinence.
=Oppia lex=, by Caius Oppius the tribune, A.U.C. 540. It required that
no woman should wear above half an ounce of gold, have party-coloured
garments, or be carried in any city or town, or to any place within
a mile’s distance, unless it was to celebrate some sacred festivals
or solemnities. This famous law, which was made while Annibal was
in Italy, and while Rome was in distressed circumstances, created
discontent, and, 18 years after, the Roman ladies petitioned the
assembly of the people that it might be repealed. Cato opposed it
strongly, and made many satirical reflections upon the women for
their appearing in public to solicit votes. The tribune Valerius, who
had presented their petition to the assembly, answered the objections
of Cato, and his eloquence had such an influence on the minds of
the people, that the law was instantly abrogated with the unanimous
consent of all the _comitia_, Cato alone excepted. _Livy_, bks. 33
& 34.――_Cicero_, _On Oratory_, bk. 3.
=Oppiānus=, a Greek poet of Cilicia in the second century. His father’s
name was Agesilaus, and his mother’s Zenodota. He wrote some poems,
celebrated for their elegance and sublimity. Two of his poems are
now extant, five books on fishing called _alieuticon_, and four on
hunting called _cynegeticon_. The emperor Caracalla was so pleased
with his poetry, that he gave him a piece of gold for every verse of
his cynegeticon; from which circumstance the poem received the name
of the golden verses of Oppian. The poet died of the plague in the
30th year of his age. His countrymen raised statues to his honour,
and engraved on his tomb that the gods had hastened to call back
Oppian in the flower of youth, only because he had already excelled
all mankind. The best edition of his works is that of Schneider, 8vo,
Strasbourg, 1776.
=Oppidius=, a rich old man introduced by Horace, bk. 2, satire 3,
li. 168, as wisely dividing his possessions among his two sons, and
warning them against those follies and that extravagance which he
believed he saw rising in them.
=Caius Oppius=, a friend of Julius Cæsar, celebrated for his life of
Scipio Africanus, and of Pompey the Great. In the latter he paid not
much regard to historical facts, and took every opportunity to defame
Pompey, to extol the character of his patron Cæsar. In the age of
Suetonius, he was deemed the true author of the Alexandrian, African,
and Spanish wars, which some attribute to Cæsar, and others to Aulus
Hirtius. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 12.――_Suetonius_, _Cæsar_, ch. 53.
――――An officer sent by the Romans against Mithridates. He met with
ill success, and was sent in chains to the king, &c.――――A Roman who
saved his aged father from the dagger of the triumvirate.
=Ops= (_opis_), a daughter of Cœlus and Terra, the same as the Rhea
of the Greeks, who married Saturn, and became mother of Jupiter.
She was known among the ancients by the different names of _Cybele_,
_Bona Dea_, _Magna Mater_, _Thya_, _Tellus_, _Proserpina_, and even
of _Juno_ and _Minerva_; and the worship which was paid to these
apparently several deities was offered merely to one and the same
person, mother of the gods. The word _Ops_ seems to be derived from
_Opus_; because the goddess, who is the same as the earth, gives
nothing without _labour_. Tatius built her a temple at Rome. She was
generally represented as a matron, with her right hand opened, as if
offering assistance to the helpless, and holding a loaf in her left
hand. Her festivals were called _Opalia_, &c. _Varro_, _de Lingua
Latina_, bk. 4.――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 2, &c.――_Tibullus_,
poem 4, li. 68.――_Pliny_, bk. 19, ch. 6.
=Optātus=, one of the fathers, whose works were edited by Du Pin, folio,
Paris, 1700.
=Optĭmus Maximus=, epithets given to Jupiter to denote his greatness,
omnipotence, and supreme goodness. _Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_,
bk. 2, ch. 25.
=Opus= (_opuntis_), a city of Locris, on the Asopus, destroyed by an
earthquake. _Strabo_, bk. 9.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.――_Livy_, bk. 28,
ch. 7.
=Ora=, a town in India, taken by Alexander.――――One of Jupiter’s
mistresses.
=Oracŭlum=, an answer of the gods to the questions of men, or the
place where those answers were given. Nothing is more famous than the
ancient oracles of Egypt, Greece, Rome, &c. They were supposed to be
the will of the gods themselves, and they were consulted, not only
upon every important matter, but even in the affairs of private life.
To make peace or war, to introduce a change of government, to plant a
colony, to enact laws, to raise an edifice, to marry, were sufficient
reasons to consult the will of the gods. Mankind, in consulting them,
showed that they wished to pay implicit obedience to the command
of the divinity, and, when they had been favoured with an answer,
they acted with more spirit and with more vigour, conscious that the
undertaking had met with the sanction and approbation of heaven. In
this, therefore, it will not appear wonderful that so many places
were sacred to oracular purposes. The small province of Bœotia could
once boast of her 25 oracles, and Peloponnesus of the same number.
Not only the chief of the gods gave oracles, but, in process of time,
heroes were admitted to enjoy the same privileges; and the oracles
of a Trophonius and an Antinous were soon able to rival the fame of
Apollo and of Jupiter. The most celebrated oracles of antiquity were
those of Dodona, Delphi, Jupiter Ammon, &c. _See:_ Dodona, Delphi,
Ammon. The temple of Delphi seemed to claim a superiority over the
other temples; its fame was once more extended, and its riches were
so great, that not only private persons, but even kings and numerous
armies, made it an object of plunder and of rapine. The manner
of delivering oracles was different. A priestess at Delphi [_See:_
Pythia] was permitted to pronounce the oracles of the god, and her
delivery of the answers was always attended with acts of apparent
madness and desperate fury. Not only women but even doves, were the
ministers of the temple of Dodona; and the suppliant votary was often
startled to hear his questions readily answered by the decayed trunk
or the spreading branches of a neighbouring oak. Ammon conveyed his
answers in a plain and open manner; but Amphiaraus required many
ablutions and preparatory ceremonies, and he generally communicated
his oracles to his suppliants in dreams and visions. Sometimes
the first words that were heard, after issuing from the temple,
were deemed the answers of the oracles, and sometimes the nodding
or shaking of the head of the statue, the motions of fishes in a
neighbouring lake, or their reluctance in accepting the food which
was offered to them, were as strong and valid as the most express and
the minutest explanations. The answers were also sometimes given in
verse, or written on tablets, but their meaning was always obscure,
and often the cause of disaster to such as consulted them. Crœsus,
when he consulted the oracle of Delphi, was told that, if he crossed
the Halys, he should destroy a great empire; he supposed that that
empire was the empire of his enemy, but unfortunately it was his own.
The words of _Credo te, Æacida, Romanos vincere posse_, which Pyrrhus
received when he wished to assist the Tarentines against the Romans,
by a favourable interpretation for himself, proved his ruin. Nero
was ordered by the oracle of Delphi to beware of 73 years; but the
pleasing idea that he should live to that age, rendered him careless,
and he was soon convinced of his mistake, when Galba, in his 73rd
year, had the presumption to dethrone him. It is a question among
the learned whether the oracles were given by the inspiration of evil
spirits, or whether they proceeded from the imposture of the priests.
Imposture, however, and forgery cannot long flourish, and falsehood
becomes its own destroyer; and, on the contrary, it is well known
how much confidence an enlightened age, therefore, much more the
credulous and the superstitious, place upon dreams and romantic
stories. Some have strongly believed that all the oracles of the
earth ceased at the birth of Christ, but the supposition is false.
It was, indeed, the beginning of their decline; but they remained in
repute, and were consulted, though perhaps not so frequently, till
the fourth century, when christianity began to triumph over paganism.
The oracles often suffered themselves to be bribed. Alexander did it,
but it is well known that Lysander failed in the attempt. Herodotus,
who first mentioned the corruption which often prevailed in the
oracular temples of Greece and Egypt, has been severely treated for
his remarks by the historian Plutarch. Demosthenes is also a witness
of the corruption, and he observed that the oracles of Greece were
servilely subservient to the will and pleasure of Philip king of
Macedon, as he beautifully expresses it by the word φιλιππιζειν. If
some of the Greeks, and other European and Asiatic countries, paid
so much attention to oracles, and were so fully persuaded of their
veracity, and even divinity, many of their leading men and of their
philosophers were apprised of their deceit, and paid no regard to
the command of priests, whom money could corrupt, and interposition
silence. The Egyptians showed themselves the most superstitious
of mankind, by their blind acquiescence to the imposition of the
priests, who persuaded them that the safety and happiness of their
life depended upon the mere motions of an ox, or the tameness of
a crocodile. _Homer_, _Iliad_; _Odyssey_, bk. 10.――_Herodotus_,
bks. 1 & 2.――_Xenophon_, _Memorabilia_.――_Strabo_, bks. 5, 7, &c.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, &c.――_Plutarch_, _de Defectu Oraculorum_;
_Agesilaus_; _De Herodoti Malignitate_.――_Cicero_, _de Divinatione_
bk. 1, ch. 19.――_Justin_, bk. 24, ch. 6.――_Livy_, bk. 37.
――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 6.――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Lysander_.
――_Aristophanes_, _Knights_ & _Wealth_.――_Demosthenes_, _Philippics_.
――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1.
=Oræa=, a small country of Peloponnesus. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 30.
――――Certain solemn sacrifices of fruits offered in the four seasons
of the year, to obtain mild and temperate weather. They were offered
to the goddesses who presided over the seasons, who attended upon the
sun, and who received divine worship at Athens.
=Orasus=, a man who killed Ptolemy the son of Pyrrhus.
=Orates=, a river of European Scythia. _Ovid_, _ex Ponto_, bk. 4,
poem 10, li. 47. As this river is not now known, Vossius reads Cretes,
a river which is found in Scythia. _Valerius Flaccus_, bk. 4, li. 719.
――_Thucydides_, bk. 4.
=Orbelus=, a mountain of Thrace or Macedonia.
=Orbĭlius Pupillus=, a grammarian of Beneventum, who was the first
instructor of the poet Horace. He came to Rome in the consulship
of Cicero, and there, as a public teacher, acquired more fame than
money. He was naturally of a severe disposition, of which his pupils
often felt the effects. He lived almost to his 100th year, and lost
his memory some time before his death. _Suetonius_, _Lives of the
Grammarians_, ch. 9.――_Horace_, bk. 2, ltr. 1, li. 71.
=Orbitanium=, a town of the Samnites. _Livy_, bk. 24, ch. 20.
=Orbōna=, a mischievous goddess at Rome, who, as it was supposed, made
children die. Her temple at Rome was near that of the gods Lares.
_Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 3, ch. 25.――_Pliny_, bk. 2, ch. 7.
=Orcădes=, islands on the northern coasts of Britain, now called
the _Orkneys_. They were unknown till Britain was discovered to be
an island by Agricola, who presided there as governor. _Tacitus_,
_Agricola_.――_Juvenal_ satire 2, li. 161.
=Orchālis=, an eminence of Bœotia, near Haliartus, called also Alopecos.
_Plutarch_, _Lysander_.
=Orchămus=, a king of Assyria, father of Leucothoe by Eurynome.
He buried his daughter alive for her amours with Apollo. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 4, li. 212.
=Orchia lex=, by Orchius the tribune, A.U.C. 566. It was enacted
to limit the number of guests that were to be admitted at an
entertainment; and it also enforced that, during supper, which was
the chief meal among the Romans, the doors of every house should be
left open.
=Orchomĕnus=, or =Orchomĕnum=, a town of Bœotia, at the west of
the lake Copais. It was anciently called _Minyeia_, and from
that circumstance the inhabitants were often called _Minyans_ of
Orchomenos. There was at Orchomenos a celebrated temple, built by
Eteocles son of Cephisus, sacred to the Graces, who were from thence
called the Orchomenian goddesses. The inhabitants founded Teos in
conjunction with the Ionians, under the sons of Codrus. _Pliny_, bk.
4, ch. 8.――_Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 146.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 37.
――_Strabo_, bk. 9.――――A town of Arcadia, at the north of Mantinea.
_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2.――――A town of Thessaly, with a river of the
same name. _Strabo._――――A son of Lycaon king of Arcadia, who gave his
name to a city of Arcadia, &c. _Pausanias_, bk. 8.――――A son of Minyas
king of Bœotia, who gave the name of Orchomenians to his subjects.
He died without issue, and the crown devolved to Clymenus the son of
Presbon, &c. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 36.
=Orcus=, one of the names of the god of hell, the same as Pluto, though
confounded by some with Charon. He had a temple at Rome. The word
_Orcus_ is generally used to signify the infernal regions. _Horace_,
bk. 1, ode 29, &c.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 4, li. 502, &c.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 14, li. 116.
=Orcynia=, a place of Cappadocia, where Eumenes was defeated by
Antigonus.
=Ordessus=, a river of Scythia, which falls into the Ister. _Herodotus._
=Ordovices=, the people of North Wales in Britain, mentioned by
_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 12, ch. 53.
=Oreădes=, nymphs of the mountains (ὀρος, _mons_), daughters of
Phoroneus and Hecate. Some call them Orestiades, and give them
Jupiter for father. They generally attended upon Diana, and
accompanied her in hunting. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 504.
――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 6.――_Strabo_, bk. 10.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 8, li. 787.
=Oreas=, a son of Hercules and Chryseis.
=Orestæ=, a people of Epirus. They received their name from Orestes,
who fled to Epirus when cured of his insanity. _Lucan_, bk. 3,
li. 249.――――Of Macedonia. _Livy_, bk. 33, ch. 34.
=Orestes=, a son of ♦Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. When his father was
cruelly murdered by Clytemnestra and Ægisthus, young Orestes was
saved from his mother’s dagger by means of his sister Electra, called
Laodicea by Homer, and he was privately conveyed to the house of
Strophius, who was king of Phocis, and who had married a sister of
Agamemnon. He was tenderly treated by Strophius, who educated him
with his son Pylades. The two young princes soon became acquainted,
and, from their familiarity, arose the most inviolable attachment
and friendship. When Orestes was arrived to the years of manhood, he
visited Mycenæ, and avenged his father’s death by assassinating his
mother Clytemnestra, and her adulterer Ægisthus. The manner in which
he committed this murder is variously reported. According to Æschylus
he was commissioned by Apollo to avenge his father, and, therefore,
he introduced himself, with his friend Pylades, at the court of
Mycenæ, pretending to bring the news of the death of Orestes from
king Strophius. He was at first received with coldness, and when
he came into the presence of Ægisthus, who wished to inform himself
of the particulars, he murdered him, and soon after Clytemnestra
shared the adulterer’s fate. Euripides and Sophocles mention the same
circumstance. Ægisthus was assassinated after Clytemnestra, according
to Sophocles; and, in Euripides, Orestes is represented as murdering
the adulterer, while he offers a sacrifice to the nymphs. This
murder, as the poet mentions, irritates the guards, who were present,
but Orestes appeases their fury by telling them who he is, and
immediately he is acknowledged king of the country. Afterwards he
stabs his mother, at the instigation of his sister Electra, after he
has upbraided her for her infidelity and cruelty to her husband. Such
meditated murders receive the punishment which, among the ancients,
was always supposed to attend parricide. Orestes is tormented by the
Furies, and exiles himself to Argos, where he is still pursued by the
avengeful goddesses. Apollo himself purifies him, and he is acquitted
by the unanimous opinion of the Areopagites, whom Minerva herself
instituted on this occasion, according to the narration of the
poet Æschylus, who flatters the Athenians in his tragical story, by
representing them as passing judgment even upon the gods themselves.
According to Pausanias, Orestes was purified of the murder, not at
Delphi, but at Trœzene, where still was seen a large stone at the
entrance of Diana’s temple, upon which the ceremonies of purification
had been performed by nine of the principal citizens of the place.
There was also, at Megalopolis in Arcadia, a temple dedicated to the
Furies, near which Orestes cut off one of his fingers with his teeth
in a fit of insanity. These different traditions are confuted by
Euripides, who says that Orestes, after the murder of his mother,
consulted the oracle of Apollo at Delphi, where he was informed that
nothing could deliver him from the persecutions of the Furies, if he
did not bring into Greece Diana’s statue, which was in the Taurica
Chersonesus, and which, as it is reported by some, had fallen
down from heaven. This was an arduous enterprise. The king of the
Chersonesus always sacrificed on the altars of the goddess all such
as entered the borders of his country. Orestes and his friend were
both carried before Thoas the king of the place, and they were doomed
to be sacrificed. Iphigenia was then priestess of Diana’s temple,
and it was her office to immolate these strangers. The intelligence
that they were Grecians delayed the preparations, and Iphigenia was
anxious to learn something about a country which had given her birth.
_See:_ Iphigenia. She even interested herself in their misfortunes,
and offered to spare the life of one of them provided he would convey
letters to Greece from her hand. This was a difficult trial; never
was friendship more truly displayed, according to the words of Ovid,
_ex Ponto_, bk. 3, poem 2:
_Ire jubet Pylades carum moriturus Orestem,
Hic negat; inque vicem pugnat uterque mori._
At last Pylades gave way to the pressing entreaties of his friend,
and consented to carry the letters of Iphigenia to Greece. These were
addressed to Orestes himself, and, therefore, these circumstances
soon led to a total discovery of the connections of the priestess
with the man whom she was going to immolate. Iphigenia was convinced
that he was her brother Orestes, and, when the causes of their
journey had been explained, she resolved, with the two friends, to
fly from Chersonesus, and to carry away the statue of Diana. Their
flight was discovered, and Thoas prepared to pursue them; but Minerva
interfered, and told him that all had been done by the will and
approbation of the gods. Some suppose that Orestes came to Cappadocia
from Chersonesus, and that there he left the statue of Diana at
Comana. Others contradict this tradition, and, according to Pausanias,
the statue of Diana Orthia was the same as that which had been
carried away from the Chersonesus. Some also suppose that Orestes
brought it to Aricia, in Italy, where Diana’s worship was established.
After these celebrated adventures, Orestes ascended the throne of
Argos, where he reigned in perfect security, and married Hermione
the daughter of Menelaus, and gave his sister to his friend Pylades.
The marriage of Orestes with Hermione is a matter of dispute among
the ancients. All are agreed that she had been promised to the son
of Agamemnon, but Menelaus had married her to Neoptolemus the son
of Achilles, who had shown himself so truly interested in his cause
during the Trojan war. The marriage of Hermione with Neoptolemus
displeased Orestes; he remembered that she had been early promised to
him, and therefore he resolved to recover her by force or artifice.
This he effected by causing Neoptolemus to be assassinated, or
assassinating him himself. According to Ovid’s epistle of Hermione
to Orestes, Hermione had always been faithful to her first lover,
and even it was by her persuasion that Orestes removed her from the
house of Neoptolemus. Hermione was dissatisfied with the partiality
of Neoptolemus for Andromache, and her attachment for Orestes was
increased. Euripides, however, and others, speak differently of
Hermione’s attachment to Neoptolemus: she loved him so tenderly, that
she resolved to murder Andromache, who seemed to share, in a small
degree, the affection of her husband. She was ready to perpetrate
the horrid deed when Orestes came into Epirus, and she was easily
persuaded by the foreign prince to withdraw herself, in her husband’s
absence, from a country which seemed to contribute so much to her
sorrows. Orestes, the better to secure the affections of Hermione,
assassinated Neoptolemus [_See:_ Neoptolemus], and retired to his
kingdom of Argos. His old age was crowned with peace and security,
and he died in the 90th year of his age, leaving his throne to his
son Tisamenes by Hermione. Three years after, the Heraclidæ recovered
the Peloponnesus, and banished the descendants of Menelaus from the
throne of Argos. Orestes died in Arcadia, as some suppose, by the
bite of a serpent; and the Lacedæmonians, who had become his subjects
at the death of Menelaus, were directed by an oracle to bring his
bones to Sparta. They were some time after discovered at Tegea, and
his stature appeared to be seven cubits, according to the traditions
mentioned by Herodotus and others. The friendship of Orestes
and of Pylades became proverbial, and the two friends received
divine honours among the Scythians, and were worshipped in temples.
_Pausanias_, bks. 1, 2, 4, &c.――_Paterculus_, bk. 1, chs. 1 & 3.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, &c.――_Strabo_, bks. 9 & 13.――_Ovid_,
_Heroides_, poem 8; _Ex Ponto_, bk. 3, poem 2; _Metamorphoses_, bk.
15; _Ibis_.――_Euripides_; _Orestes_; _Andromache_, &c. _Iphigeneia_.
――_Sophocles_, _Electra_, &c.――_Aeschylus_, _Eumenides_; _Agamemnon_,
&c.――_Horodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 69.――_Hyginus_, fables 120 & 261.
――_Plutarch_, _Lycurgus_.――_Dictys Cretensis_, bk. 6, &c.――_Pindar_,
_Pythian_, bk. 2.――_Pliny_, bk. 33.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3,
&c.――_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 3, li. 304; bk. 4, li. 530.――_Tzetzes_,
_On Lycophron_, li. 1374.――――A son of Achelaus. _Apollodorus._――――A
man sent as ambassador, by Attila king of the Huns, to the emperor
Theodosius. He was highly honoured at the Roman court, and his
son Augustulus was the last emperor of the western empire.――――A
governor of Egypt under the Roman emperors.――――A robber of Athens who
pretended madness, &c. _Aristophanes_, _Acharnians_, li. 1166.――――A
general of Alexander. _Curtius_, bk. 4, ch. 108.
♦ ‘Agememnon’ replaced with ‘Agamemnon’
=Oresteum=, a town of Arcadia, about 18 miles from Sparta. It was
founded by Orestheus, a son of Lycaon, and originally called
_Oresthesium_, and afterwards _Oresteum_, from Orestes the son
of Agamemnon, who resided there for some time after the murder
of Clytemnestra. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 8.――_Euripides._
=Orestīdæ=, the descendants or subjects of Orestes the son of Agamemnon.
They were driven from the Peloponnesus by the Heraclidæ, and came
to settle in a country which, from them, was called _Orestida_,
at the south-west of Macedonia. Some suppose that that part of
Greece originally received its name from Orestes, who fled and built
there a city, which gave its founder’s name to the whole province.
_Thucydides_, bk. 2.――_Livy_, bk. 31.
=Aurelia Orestilla=, a mistress of Catiline. _Cicero_, ♦_Letters to his
Friends_, bk. 8, ch. 7.
♦ ‘ad. Div. 7,’ replaced with ‘Letters to his Friends, bk. 8’
=Orestis=, or =Orestida=, a part of Macedonia. _Cicero_, _On the
Responses of the Haruspices_, ch. 16.
=Orĕtæ=, a people of Asiatic Sarmatia, on the Euxine sea.
=Oretāni=, a people of Spain, whose capital was _Oretum_, now _Oreto_.
_Livy_, bk. 21, ch. 11; bk. 35, ch. 7.
=Oretillia=, a woman who married Caligula, by whom she was soon after
banished.
=Orēum=, one of the principal towns of Eubœa. _Livy_, bk. 28, ch. 6.
=Orga=, or =Orgas=, a river of Phrygia, falling into the Mæander.
_Strabo._――_Pliny._
=Orgessum=, a town of Macedonia. _Livy_, bk. 31, ch. 27.
=Orgetŏrix=, one of the chief men of the Helvetii, while Cæsar was in
Gaul. He formed a conspiracy against the Romans, and, when accused,
he destroyed himself. _Cæsar._
=Orgia=, festivals in honour of Bacchus. They are the same as the
_Bacchanalia_, _Dionysia_, &c., which were celebrated by the ancients
to commemorate the triumph of Bacchus in India. _See:_ Dionysia.
=Oribăsus=, a celebrated physician, greatly esteemed by the emperor
Julian, in whose reign he flourished. He abridged the works of
Galenus, and of all the most respectable writers on physic, at the
request of the emperor. He accompanied Julian into the east, but his
skill proved ineffectual in attempting to cure the fatal wound which
his benefactor had received. After Julian’s death, he fell into the
hands of the barbarians. The best edition of his works is that of
Dundas, 4to, Leiden, 1745.――――One of Actæon’s dogs, _ab_ ὀρος, _mons_,
and (βαινω, _scando_. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_.
=Orĭcum=, or =Orĭcus=, a town of Epirus, on the Ionian sea, founded by
a colony from Colchis, according to Pliny. It was called _Dardania_,
because Helenus and Andromache, natives of Troy or Dardania, reigned
over the country after the Trojan war. It had a celebrated harbour,
and was greatly esteemed by the Romans on account of its situation,
but it was not well defended. The tree which produces the turpentine
grew there in abundance. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 136.――_Livy_,
bk. 24, ch. 40.――_Pliny_, bk. 2, ch. 89.――_Cæsar_, _Civil War_, bk. 3,
ch. 1, &c.――_Lucan_, bk. 3, li. 187.
=Oriens=, in ancient geography, is taken for all the most eastern parts
of the world, such as Parthia, India, Assyria, &c.
=Origen=, a Greek writer, as much celebrated for the easiness of his
manners, his humility, and modesty, as for his learning and the
sublimity of his genius. He was surnamed _Adamantus_, from his
assiduity; and became so rigid a christian that he made himself
a eunuch, by following the literal sense of a passage in the
Greek testament, which speaks of the voluntary eunuchs of Christ.
He suffered martyrdom in his 69th year, A.D. 254. His works
were excellent and numerous, and contained a number of homilies,
commentaries on the Holy Scriptures, and different treatises, besides
the _Hexapla_, so called from its being divided into six columns, the
first of which contained the Hebrew text, the second the same text
in Greek characters, the third the Greek version of the Septuagint,
the fourth that of Aquila, the fifth that of Symmachus, and the sixth
Theodotion’s Greek version. This famous work first gave the hint for
the compilation of our Polyglot Bibles. The works of Origen have been
learnedly edited by the Benedictine monks, though the whole is not
yet completed, in 4 vols., folio, Paris, 1733, 1740, and 1759. The
Hexapla was published in 8vo, at Lipscomb, 1769, by Carl Friedrich
Bahrdt.
=Orīgo=, a courtesan in the age of Horace. _Horace_, bk. 1, satire 2,
li. 55.
=Orinus=, a river of Sicily.
=Oriobătes=, a general of Darius at the battle of Arbela, &c. _Curtius_,
bk. 4.
=Orīon=, a celebrated giant sprung from the urine of Jupiter, Neptune,
and Mercury. These three gods, as they travelled over Bœotia, met
with great hospitality from Hyrieus, a peasant of the country, who
was ignorant of their dignity and character. They were entertained
with whatever the cottage afforded, and, when Hyrieus had discovered
that they were gods, because Neptune told him to fill up Jupiter’s
cup with wine, after he had served it before the rest, the old man
welcomed them by the voluntary sacrifice of an ox. Pleased with his
piety, the gods promised to grant him whatever he required, and the
old man, who had lately lost his wife, to whom he had promised never
to marry again, desired them that, as he was childless, they would
give him a son without another marriage. The gods consented, and
they ordered him to bury in the ground the skin of the victim, into
which they had all three made water. Hyrieus did as they commanded,
and when, nine months after, he dug for the skin, he found in it
a beautiful child, whom he called _Urion, ab urinâ_. The name was
changed into Orion, by the corruption of one letter, as Ovid says,
_Perdidit antiquum littera prima sonum_. Orion soon rendered himself
celebrated, and Diana took him among her attendants, and even became
deeply enamoured of him. His gigantic stature, however, displeased
Œnopion king of Chios, whose daughter Hero or Merope he demanded
in marriage. The king, not to deny him openly, promised to make him
his son-in-law as soon as he delivered his island from wild beasts.
This task, which Œnopion deemed impracticable, was soon performed
by Orion, who eagerly demanded his reward. Œnopion, on pretence of
complying, intoxicated his illustrious guest, and put out his eyes
on the seashore, where he had laid himself down to sleep. Orion,
finding himself blind when he awoke, was conducted by the sound
to a neighbouring forge, where he placed one of the workmen on his
back, and by his directions, went to a place where the rising sun
was seen with the greatest advantage. Here he turned his face towards
the luminary, and, as it is reported, he immediately recovered his
eyesight, and hastened to punish the perfidious cruelty of Œnopion.
It is said that Orion was an excellent workman in iron, and that he
fabricated a subterraneous palace for Vulcan. Aurora, whom Venus had
inspired with love, carried him away to the island of Delos, to enjoy
his company with the greater security; but Diana, who was jealous
of this, destroyed Orion with her arrows. Some say that Orion had
provoked Diana’s resentment, by offering violence to Opis, one of her
female attendants, or, according to others, because he had attempted
the virtue of the goddess herself. According to Ovid, Orion died
of the bite of a scorpion, which the earth produced, to punish his
vanity in boasting that there was not on earth any animal which he
could not conquer. Some say that Orion was the son of Neptune and
Euryale, and that he had received from his father the privilege and
power of walking over the sea without wetting his feet. Others made
him son of Terra, like the rest of the giants. He had married a nymph
called Sida before his connection with the family of Œnopion; but
Sida was the cause of her own death, by boasting herself fairer than
Juno. According to Diodorus, Orion was a celebrated hunter, superior
to the rest of mankind by his strength and uncommon stature. He built
the port of Zancle, and fortified the coast of Sicily against the
frequent inundations of the sea, by heaping a mound of earth, called
Pelorum, on which he built a temple to the gods of the sea. After
death, Orion was placed in heaven, where one of the constellations
still bears his name. The constellation of Orion, placed near the
feet of the bull, is composed of 17 stars, in the form of a man
holding a sword, which has given occasion to the poets often to speak
of Orion’s sword. As the constellation of Orion, which rises about
the 9th day of March, and sets about the 21st of June, is generally
supposed to be accompanied, at its rising, with great rains and
storms, it has acquired the epithet of _aquosus_, given it by Virgil.
Orion was buried in the island of Delos, and the monument which the
people of Tanagra in Bœotia showed, as containing the remains of this
celebrated hero, was nothing but a cenotaph. The daughters of Orion
distinguished themselves as much as their father; and when the oracle
had declared that Bœotia should not be delivered from a dreadful
pestilence before two of Jupiter’s children were immolated on the
altars, they joyfully accepted the offer, and voluntarily sacrificed
themselves for the good of their country. Their names were Menippe
and Metioche. They had been carefully educated by Diana, and Venus
and Minerva had made them very rich and valuable presents. The
deities of hell were struck at the patriotism of the two females,
and immediately two stars were seen to arise from the earth, which
still smoked with the blood, and they were placed in the heavens in
the form of a crown. According to Ovid, their bodies were burned by
the Thebans, and from their ashes arose two persons whom the gods
soon after changed into constellations. _Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Homer_,
_Odyssey_, bk. 5, li. 121; bk. 11, li. 309.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3,
li. 517.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 4.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bks. 8 & 13; _Fasti_, bk. 5, &c.――_Hyginus_, fable 125, & _Poetica
Astronomica_, bk. 2, ch. 44, &c.――_Propertius_, bk. 2, poem 13.
――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, &c.――_Horace_, bk. 2, ode 13; bk. 3,
odes 4 & 27; _Epodes_, poem 10, &c.――_Lucan_, bk. 1, &c.――_Catullus_,
_Carmina_.――_Palæphatus_, bk. 1.――_Parthenius_, _Narrationes
Amatoriae_, ch. 20.
=Orissus=, a prince of Spain, who put Hamilcar to flight, &c.
=Orisulla Livia=, a Roman matron, taken away from Piso, &c.
=Orītæ=, a people of India, who submitted to Alexander, &c. _Strabo_,
bk. 15.
=Orithyia=, a daughter of Erechtheus king of Athens by Praxithea.
She was courted and carried away by Boreas king of Thrace, as she
crossed the Ilissus, and became mother of Cleopatra, Chione, Zetus,
and Calais. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1.――_Apollonius_, bk. 3, ch. 15.
――_Orpheus._――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 6, li. 706; _Fasti_,
bk. 5, li. 204.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 19; bk. 5, ch. 19.――――One of
the Nereides.――――A daughter of Cecrops, who bore Europus to Macedon.
――――One of the Amazons, famous for her warlike and intrepid spirit.
_Justin_, bk. 2, ch. 4.
=Orĭtias=, one of the hunters of the Calydonian boar. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 8, fable 8.
=Oriundus=, a river of Illyricum. _Livy_, bk. 44, ch. 31.
=Ormĕnus=, a king of Thessaly, son of Cercaphus. He built a town which
was called Ormenium. He was father of Amyntor. _Homer_, _Iliad_,
bk. 9, li. 448.――――A man who settled at Rhodes.――――A son of Eurypylus,
&c.
=Ornea=, a town of Argolis, famous for a battle fought there between
the Lacedæmonians and Argives. _Diodorus._
=Orneates=, a surname of Priapus, at Ornea.
=Orneus=, a centaur, son of Ixion and the Cloud. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 12, li. 302.――――A son of Erechtheus king of
Athens, who built Ornea in Peloponnesus. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 25.
=Ornithiæ=, a wind blowing from the north in the spring, and so called
from the appearance of birds (ὀρνιθες, _aves_). _Columella_, bk. 11,
ch. 2.
=Ornītron=, a town of Phœnicia between Tyre and Sidon.
=Ornitus=, a friend of Æneas, killed by Camilla in the Rutulian wars.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 11, li. 677.
=Ornospădes=, a Parthian, driven from his country by Artabanus. He
assisted Tiberius, and was made governor of Macedonia, &c. _Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 6, ch. 37.
=Ornytion=, a son of Sisyphus king of Corinth, father of Phocus.
_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 17.
=Ornytus=, a man of Cyzicus, killed by the Argonauts, &c. _Valerius
Flaccus_, bk. 3, li. 173.
=Oroanda=, a town of Pisidia, now Haviran. _Livy_, bk. 38, ch. 18.
=Orobia=, a town of Eubœa.
=Orobii=, a people of Italy, near Milan.
=Orōdes=, a prince of Parthia, who murdered his brother Mithridates,
and ascended his throne. He defeated Crassus the Roman triumvir, and
poured melted gold down the throat of his fallen enemy, to reproach
him for his avarice and ambition. He followed the interest of Cassius
and Brutus at Philippi. It is said that, when Orodes became old and
infirm, his 30 children applied to him, and disputed in his presence
their right to the succession. Phraates, the eldest of them, obtained
the crown from his father, and to hasten him out of the world, he
attempted to poison him. The poison had no effect; and Phraates,
still determined on his father’s death, strangled him with his own
hands, about 37 years before the christian era. Orodes had then
reigned about 50 years. _Justin_, bk. 42, ch. 4.――_Paterculus_,
bk. 2, ch. 30.――――Another king of Parthia, murdered for his cruelty.
_Josephus_, bk. 18, _Jewish Antiquities_.――――A son of Artabanus king
of Armenia. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 6, ch. 33.――――One of the friends
of Æneas in Italy, killed by Mezentius. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10,
li. 732, &c.
=Orœtes=, a Persian governor of Sardis, famous for his cruel murder of
Polycrates. He died B.C. 521. _Herodotus._
=Oromĕdon=, a lofty mountain in the island of Cos. _Theocritus_, poem 7.
――――A giant. _Propertius_, bk. 3, poem 7, li. 48.
=Orontas=, a relation of Artaxerxes, sent to Cyprus, where he made
peace with Evagoras, &c. _Polyænus_, bk. 7.
♦=Orontes=, a satrap of Mysia, B.C. 385, who rebelled from Artaxerxes,
&c. _Polyænus._――――A governor of Armenia. _Polyænus._――――A king of
the Lycians during the Trojan war, who followed Æneas, and perished
in a shipwreck. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 117; bk. 6, li. 34.
――――A river of Syria (now _Asi_), rising in Cœlosyria, and falling,
after a rapid and troubled course, into the Mediterranean, below
Antioch. According to Strabo, who mentions some fabulous accounts
concerning it, the Orontes disappeared under ground for the space of
five miles. The word _Oronteus_ is often used as Syrius. _Dionysius
Periegetes._――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 2, li. 248.――_Strabo_,
bk. 16.――_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 20.
♦ ‘Orantes’ replaced with ‘Orontes’
=Orophernes=, a man who seized the kingdom of Cappadocia. He died
B.C. 154.
=Orōpus=, a town of Bœotia, on the borders of Attica, near the Euripus,
which received its name from Oropus, a son of Macedon. It was the
frequent cause of quarrels between the Bœotians and the Athenians,
whence some have called it one of the cities of Attica, and was at
last confirmed in the possession of the Athenians by Philip king of
Macedon. Amphiaraus had a temple there. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 34.
――_Strabo_, bk. 9.――――A small town of Eubœa.――――Another in Macedonia.
=Orosius=, a Spanish writer, A.D. 416, who published a universal
history, in seven books, from the creation to his own time, in which,
though learned, diligent, and pious, he betrayed a great ignorance
of the knowledge of historical facts, and of chronology. The best
edition is that of Havercamp, 4to, Leiden, 1767.
=Orospeda=, a mountain of Spain. _Strabo_, bk. 3.
=Orpheus=, a son of Œager by the muse Calliope. Some suppose him to be
the son of Apollo, to render his birth more illustrious. He received
a lyre from Apollo, or, according to some, from Mercury, upon which
he played with such a masterly hand, that even the most rapid rivers
ceased to flow, the savage beasts of the forest forgot their wildness,
and the mountains moved to listen to his song. All nature seemed
charmed and animated, and the nymphs were his constant companions.
Eurydice was the only one who made a deep impression on the melodious
musician, and their nuptials were celebrated. Their happiness,
however, was short; Aristaeus became enamoured of Eurydice, and, as
she fled from her pursuer, a serpent, that was lurking in the grass,
bit her foot, and she died of the poisonous wound. Her loss was
severely felt by Orpheus, and he resolved to recover her, or perish
in the attempt. With his lyre in his hand, he entered the infernal
regions, and gained an easy admission to the palace of Pluto.
The king of hell was charmed with the melody of his strains; and,
according to the beautiful expressions of the poets, the wheel of
Ixion stopped, the stone of Sisyphus stood still, Tantalus forgot his
perpetual thirst, and even the Furies relented. Pluto and Proserpine
were moved with his sorrow, and consented to restore him Eurydice,
provided he forbore looking behind till he had come to the extremest
borders of hell. The conditions were gladly accepted, and Orpheus was
already in sight of the upper regions of the air, when he forgot his
promises, and turned back to look at his long-lost Eurydice. He saw
her, but she instantly vanished from his eyes. He attempted to follow
her, but he was refused admission; and the only comfort he could find,
was to soothe his grief at the sound of his musical instrument, in
grottoes, or on the mountains. He totally separated himself from the
society of mankind; and the Thracian women, whom he had offended by
his coldness to their amorous passion, or, according to others, by
his unnatural gratifications and impure indulgencies, attacked him
while they celebrated the orgies of Bacchus, and after they had torn
his body to pieces, they threw his head into the Hebrus, which still
articulated the words “Eurydice! Eurydice” as it was carried down the
stream into the Ægean sea. Orpheus was one of the Argonauts, of which
celebrated expedition he wrote a poetical account, still extant.
This is doubted by Aristotle, who says, according to Cicero, that
there never existed an Orpheus, but that the poems which pass under
his name are the compositions of a Pythagorean philosopher named
Cecrops. According to some of the moderns, the _Argonautica_, and the
other poems attributed to Orpheus, are the production of the pen of
Onomacritus, a poet who lived in the age of Pisistratus tyrant of
Athens. Pausanias, however, and Diodorus Siculus, speak of Orpheus as
a great poet and musician, who rendered himself equally celebrated by
his knowledge of the art of war, by the extent of his understanding,
and by the laws which he enacted. Some maintain that he was killed
by a thunderbolt. He was buried at Pieria in Macedonia, according
to Apollodorus. The inhabitants of Dion boasted that his tomb was in
their city, and the people of mount Libethrus, in Thrace, claimed the
same honour, and further observed, that the nightingales, which built
their nests near his tomb, sang with greater melody than all other
birds. Orpheus, as some report, after death received divine honours,
the muses gave an honourable burial to his remains, and his lyre
became one of the constellations in the heavens. The best edition of
Orpheus is that of Gesner, 8vo, Lipscomb, 1764. _Diodorus_, bk. 1, &c.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, &c.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9, &c.――_Cicero_,
_de Natura Deorum_, bk. 1, ch. 38.――_Apollonius_, bk. 1.――_Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 645; _Georgics_, bk. 4, li. 457, &c.――_Hyginus_,
fable 14, &c.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 10, fable 1, &c.; bk. 11,
fable 1.――_Plato_, _Republic_, bk. 10.――_Horace_, bk. 1, odes 13 & 35.
――_Orpheus._
=Orphĭca=, a name by which the orgies of Bacchus were called, because
they had been introduced in Europe from Egypt by Orpheus.
=Orphne=, a nymph of the infernal regions, mother of Ascalaphus by
Acheron. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, li. 542.
=Orsedĭce=, a daughter of Cinyras and Metharme. _Apollodorus._
=Orseis=, a nymph who married Hellen. _Apollodorus._
=Orsillus=, a Persian who fled to Alexander, when Bessus murdered
Darius. _Curtius_, bk. 5, ch. 31.
=Orsilŏchus=, a son of Idomeneus, killed by Ulysses in the Trojan
war, &c. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 13, li. 260.――――A son of the river
Alpheus.――――A Trojan killed by Camilla in the Rutulian wars, &c.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 11, lis. 636 & 690.
=Orsīnes=, one of the officers of Darius at the battle of Arbela.
_Curtius_, bk. 10, ch. 1.
=Orsippus=, a man of Megara, who was prevented from obtaining a prize
at the Olympic games, because his clothes were entangled as he
ran. This circumstance was the cause that, for the future, all the
combatants were obliged to appear naked. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 44.
=Marcus Ortalus=, a grandson of Hortensius, who was induced to marry
by a present from Augustus, who wished that ancient family not to be
extinguished. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 2, ch. 37.――_Valerius Maximus_,
bk. 3, ch. 5.――_Suetonius_, _Tiberius_.
=Orthagŏras=, a man who wrote a treatise on India, &c. _Ælian_, _de
Natura Animalium_.――――A musician in the age of Epaminondas.――――A
tyrant of Sicyon, who mingled severity with justice in his government.
The sovereign authority remained upwards of 100 years in his family.
=Orthæa=, a daughter of Hyacinthus. _Apollodorus._
=Orthe=, a town of Magnesia. _Pliny._
=Orthia=, a surname of Diana at Sparta. In her sacrifices it was usual
for boys to be whipped. _See:_ Diamastigosis. _Plutarch_, _Theseus_,
&c.
=Orthosia=, a town of Caria. _Livy_, bk. 45, ch. 25.――――Of Phœnicia.
_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 20.
=Orthrus=, or =Orthos=, a dog which belonged to Geryon, from which and
the Chimæra sprung the Sphinx and the Nemæan lion. He had two heads,
and was sprung from the union of Echidna and Typhon. He was destroyed
by Hercules. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 310.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2,
ch. 5.
=Ortōna.= _See:_ Artona.
=Ortygia=, a grove near Ephesus. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 3, ch. 16.
――――A small island of Sicily, within the bay of Syracuse, which
formed once one of the four quarters of that great city. It was in
this island that the celebrated fountain Arethusa arose. Ortygia
is now the only part remaining of the once famed Syracuse, about
two miles in circumference, and inhabited by 18,000 souls. It has
suffered, like the towns on the eastern coast, by the eruptions of
Ætna. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 694.――_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 15,
li. 403.――――An ancient name of the island of Delos. Some suppose
that it received this name from Latona, who fled thither when changed
into a quail (ὀρτυξ) by Jupiter, to avoid the pursuit of Juno. Diana
was called _Ortygia_, as being born there; as also Apollo. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, li. 651; _Fasti_, bk. 5, li. 692.――_Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 124.
=Ortygius=, a Rutulian killed by Æneas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9,
li. 573.
=Orus=, or =Horus=, one of the gods of the Egyptians, son of Osiris
and Isis. He assisted his mother in avenging his father, who had been
murdered by Typhon. Orus was skilled in medicine, he was acquainted
with futurity, and he made the good and the happiness of his subjects
the sole object of his government. He was the emblem of the sun among
the Egyptians, and he was generally represented as an infant, swathed
in variegated clothes. In one hand he held a staff, which terminated
in the head of a hawk, in the other a whip with three thongs.
_Herodotus_, bk. 2.――_Plutarch_, _Iside et Osiride_.――_Diodorus_,
bk. 1.――――The first king of Trœzene. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 30.
=Oryander=, a satrap of Persia, &c. _Polyænus_, bk. 7.
=Oryx=, a place of Arcadia on the Ladon. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 25.
=Osaces=, a Parthian general, who received a mortal wound from Cassius.
_Cicero_, _Letters to Atticus_, bk. 5, ltr. 20.
=Osca=, a town of Spain, now _Huesca_, in Arragon. _Livy_, bk. 34,
ch. 10.
=Oschophŏria=, a festival observed by the Athenians. It receives its
name ἀπο του φερειν τας ὀσχας, _from carrying boughs hung up with
grapes_, called ὀσχαι. Its original institution is thus mentioned by
_Plutarch_, _Theseus_. Theseus, at his return from Crete, forgot to
hang out the white sail by which his father was to be apprised of his
success. This neglect was fatal to Ægeus, who threw himself into the
sea and perished. Theseus no sooner reached the land, than he sent
a herald to inform his father of his safe return, and in the mean
time he began to make the sacrifices which he vowed when he first
set sail from Crete. The herald, on his entrance into the city, found
the people in great agitation. Some lamented the king’s death, while
others, elated at the sudden news of the victory of Theseus, crowned
the herald with garlands in demonstration of their joy. The herald
carried back the garlands on his staff to the sea-shore, and after
he had waited till Theseus had finished his sacrifice, he related the
melancholy story of the king’s death. Upon this, the people ran in
crowds to the city, showing their grief by cries and lamentations.
From that circumstance, therefore, at the feast of the Oschophoria,
not the herald but his staff is crowned with garlands, and all the
people that are present always exclaim ἐλελευ, ιου, ιου, the first
of which expresses haste, and the other a consternation or depression
of spirits. The historian further mentions that Theseus, when he
went to Crete, did not take with him the usual number of virgins, but
that, instead of two of them, he filled up the number with two youths
of his acquaintance, whom he made pass for women, by disguising
their dress, and by using them to the ointment and perfumes of women,
as well as by a long and successful imitation of their voice. The
imposition succeeded; their sex was not discovered in Crete, and
when Theseus had triumphed over the Minotaur, he, with these two
youths, led a procession with branches in their hands, in the same
habit which is still used at the celebration of the Oschophoria. The
branches which were carried were in honour of Bacchus or of Ariadne,
or because they returned in autumn when the grapes were ripe. Besides
this procession, there was also a race exhibited, in which only young
men whose parents were both alive were permitted to engage. It was
usual for them to run from the temple of Bacchus to that of Minerva,
which was on the sea-shore. The place where they stopped was called
ὀσχοφοριον, because the _boughs_ which they carried in their hands
were deposited there. The reward of the conqueror was a cup called
τεντα πλοα, _five-fold_, because it contained a mixture of five
different things――wine, honey, cheese, meal, and oil. _Plutarch_,
_Theseus_.
=Osci=, a people between Campania and the country of the Volsci, who
assisted Turnus against Æneas. Some suppose that they are the same
as the _Opici_, the word Osci being a diminutive or abbreviation
of the other. The language, the plays, and ludicrous expressions
of this nation, are often mentioned by the ancients, and from their
indecent tendency some suppose the word _obscænum_ (_quasi oscenum_)
is derived. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 4, ch. 14.――_Cicero_, _Letters
to his Friends_, bk. 7, ltr. 1.――_Livy_, bk. 10, ch. 20.――_Strabo_,
bk. 5.――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 5.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 730.
=Oscius=, a mountain, with a river of the same name, in Thrace.
_Thucydides._
=Oscus=, a general of the fleet of the emperor Otho. _Tacitus_, bk. 1,
_Histories_, bk. 17.
=Osi=, a people of Germany. _Tacitus_, _Germania_, chs. 28 & 43.
=Osinius=, a king of Clusium, who assisted Æneas against Turnus.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 655.
=Osīris=, a great deity of the Egyptians, son of Jupiter and Niobe.
All the ancients greatly differ in their opinions concerning this
celebrated god, but they all agree that, as king of Egypt, he took
particular care to civilize his subjects, to polish their morals,
to give them good and salutary laws, and to teach them agriculture.
After he had accomplished a reform at home, Osiris resolved to go
and spread cultivation in the other parts of the earth. He left his
kingdom to the care of his wife Isis, and of her faithful minister
Hermes or Mercury. The command of his troops at home was left to the
trust of Hercules, a warlike officer. In this expedition Osiris was
accompanied by his brother Apollo, and by Anubis, Macedo, and Pan.
His march was through Æthiopia, where his army was increased by the
addition of the Satyrs, a hairy race of monsters, who made dancing
and playing on musical instruments their chief study. He afterwards
passed through Arabia, and visited the greatest part of the kingdoms
of Asia and Europe, where he enlightened the minds of men by
introducing among them the worship of the gods, and a reverence for
the wisdom of a supreme being. At his return home Osiris found the
minds of his subjects roused and agitated. His brother Typhon had
raised seditions, and endeavoured to make himself popular. Osiris,
whose sentiments were always of the most pacific nature, endeavoured
to convince his brother of his ill conduct, but he fell a sacrifice
to the attempt. Typhon murdered him in a secret apartment and cut his
body to pieces, which were divided among the associates of his guilt.
Typhon, according to Plutarch, shut up his brother in a coffer and
threw him into the Nile. The inquiries of Isis discovered the body of
her husband on the coast of Phœnicia, where it had been conveyed by
the waves, but Typhon stole it as it was being carried into Memphis,
and he divided it amongst his companions, as was before observed.
This cruelty incensed Isis; she revenged her husband’s death, and,
with her son Orus, she defeated Typhon and the partisans of his
conspiracy. She recovered the mangled pieces of her husband’s body,
the genitals excepted, which the murderer had thrown into the sea;
and to render him all the honour which his humanity deserved, she
made as many statues of wax as there were mangled pieces of his body.
Each statue contained a piece of the flesh of the dead monarch; and
Isis, after she had summoned in her presence, one by one, the priests
of all the different deities in her dominions, gave them each a
statue, intimating that in doing that she had preferred them to all
the other communities of Egypt, and she bound them by a solemn oath
that they would keep secret that mark of her favour, and endeavour
to show their sense of it by establishing a form of worship and
paying divine honours to their prince. They were further directed
to choose whatever animals they pleased to represent the person and
the divinity of Osiris, and they were enjoined to pay the greatest
reverence to that representative of divinity, and to bury it when
dead with the greatest solemnity. To render their establishment
more popular, each sacerdotal body had a certain portion of land
allotted to them to maintain them, and to defray the expenses which
necessarily attended their sacrifices and ceremonial rites. That part
of the body of Osiris which had not been recovered was treated with
more particular attention by Isis, and she ordered that it should
receive honours more solemn, and at the same time more mysterious,
than the other members. _See:_ Phallica. As Osiris had particularly
instructed his subjects in cultivating the ground, the priests chose
the ox to represent him, and paid the most superstitious veneration
to that animal. _See:_ Apis. Osiris, according to the opinion of some
mythologists, is the same as the sun, and the adoration which is paid
by different nations to an Anubis, a Bacchus, a Dionysius, a Jupiter,
a Pan, &c., is the same as that which Osiris received in the Egyptian
temples. Isis also after death received divine honours as well as
her husband, and as the ox was the symbol of the sun, or Osiris,
so the cow was the emblem of the moon, or of Isis. Nothing can
give a clearer idea of the power and greatness of Osiris than this
inscription, which has been found on some ancient monuments: _Saturn,
the youngest of all the gods, was my father: I am Osiris, who
conducted a large and numerous army as far as the deserts of India,
and travelled over the greatest part of the world, and visited the
streams of the Ister, and the remote shores of the ocean, diffusing
benevolence to all the inhabitants of the earth_. Osiris was
generally represented with a cap on his head like a mitre, with two
horns; he held a stick in his left hand, and in his right a whip with
three thongs. Sometimes he appears with the head of a hawk, as that
bird, from its quick and piercing eyes, is a proper emblem of the
sun. _Plutarch_, _De Iside et Osiride_.――_Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 144.
――_Diodorus_, bk. 1.――_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 12, li. 323.――_Ælian_,
_de Natura Animalium_, bk. 3.――_Lucian_, _de Syria Dea_.――_Pliny_,
bk. 8.――――A Persian general, who lived 450 B.C.――――A friend of Turnus,
killed in the Rutulian war. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 12, li. 458.
=Osismii=, a people of Gaul in Britany. _Mela_, bk. 3, ch. 2.――_Cæsar_,
_Gallic War_, bk. 2, ch. 34.
=Osphăgus=, a river of Macedonia. _Livy_, bk. 31, ch. 39.
=Osrhoēne=, a country of Mesopotamia, which received this name from one
of its kings called Osrhoes.
=Ossa=, a lofty mountain of Thessaly, once the residence of the
Centaurs. It was formerly joined to mount Olympus, but Hercules, as
some report, separated them, and made between them the celebrated
valley of Tempe. This separation of the two mountains was more
probably effected by an earthquake, which happened, as fabulous
accounts represent, about 1885 years before the christian era. Ossa
was one of those mountains which the giants, in their wars against
the gods, heaped up one on the other to scale the heavens with more
facility. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1,
li. 155; bk. 2, li. 225; bk. 7, li. 224; _Fasti_, bk. 1, li. 307;
bk. 3, li. 441.――_Strabo_, bk. 2.――_Lucan_, bks. 1 & 6.――_Virgil_,
_Georgics_, bk. 1, li. 281.――――A town of Macedonia.
=Osteōdes=, an island near the Lipari isles.
=Ostia=, a town built on the mouth of the river Tiber by Ancus Martius
king of Rome, about 16 miles distant from Rome. It had a celebrated
harbour, and was so pleasantly situated, that the Romans generally
spent a part of the year there as in a country seat. There was a
small tower in the port like the Pharos of Alexandria, built upon the
wreck of a large ship which had been sunk there, and which contained
the obelisks of Egypt, with which the Roman emperors intended to
adorn the capital of Italy. In the age of Strabo the sand and mud
deposited by the Tiber had choked the harbour, and added much to the
size of the small islands, which sheltered the ships at the entrance
of the river. Ostia, and her harbour called _Portus_, became
gradually separated, and are now at a considerable distance from the
sea. _Florus_, bk. 1, ch. 4; bk. 3, ch. 21.――_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 33.
――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 4.――_Suetonius._――_Pliny._
=Ostorius Scapŭla=, a man made governor of Britain. He died A.D. 55.
_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 16, ch. 23.――――Another, who put himself
to death when accused before Nero, &c. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 14,
ch. 48.――――Sabinus, a man who accused Soranus, in Nero’s reign.
_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 16, ch. 33.
=Ostracine=, a town of Egypt on the confines of Palestine. _Pliny_,
bk. 5, ch. 12.
=Osymandyas=, a magnificent king of Egypt in a remote period.
=Otacilius=, a Roman consul sent against the Carthaginians, &c.
=Otānes=, a noble Persian, one of the seven who conspired against the
usurper Smerdis. It was through him that the usurpation was first
discovered. He was afterwards appointed by Darius over the sea-coast
of Asia Minor, and took Byzantium. _Herodotus_, bk. 3, ch. 70, &c.
=Otho Marcus Salvius=, a Roman emperor descended from the ancient
kings of Etruria. He was one of Nero’s favourites, and as such he
was raised to the highest offices of the state, and made governor
of Pannonia by the interest of Seneca, who wished to remove him from
Rome, lest Nero’s love for Poppæa should prove his ruin. After Nero’s
death Otho conciliated the favour of Galba the new emperor; but when
he did not gain his point, and when Galba had refused to adopt him
as his successor, he resolved to make himself absolute, without any
regard to the age and dignity of his friend. The great debts which
he had contracted encouraged his avarice, and he caused Galba to be
assassinated, and he made himself emperor. He was acknowledged by
the senate and the Roman people, but the sudden revolt of Vitellius
in Germany rendered his situation precarious, and it was mutually
resolved that their respective right to the empire should be decided
by arms. Otho obtained three victories over his enemies, but in a
general engagement near Brixellum, his forces were defeated, and he
stabbed himself when all hopes of success were vanished, after a
reign of about three months, on the 20th of April, A.D. 69. It has
been justly observed that the last moments of Otho’s life were those
of a philosopher. He comforted his soldiers who lamented his fortunes,
and he expressed his concern for their safety, when they earnestly
solicited to pay him the last friendly offices before he stabbed
himself, and he observed that it was better that one man should
die, than that all should be involved in ruin for his obstinacy. His
nephew was pale and distressed, fearing the anger and haughtiness of
the conqueror; but Otho comforted him, and observed that Vitellius
would be kind and affectionate to the friends and relations of Otho,
since Otho was not ashamed to say, that in the time of their greatest
enmity the mother of Vitellius had received every friendly treatment
from his hand. He also burnt the letters which, by falling into the
hands of Vitellius, might provoke his resentment against those who
had favoured the cause of an unfortunate general. These noble and
humane sentiments of a man who was the associate of Nero’s shameful
pleasures, and who stained his hand in the blood of his master, have
appeared to some wonderful, and passed for the features of policy,
and not of a naturally virtuous and benevolent heart. _Plutarch_,
_Lives_.――_Suetonius._――_Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 2, ch. 50, &c.
――_Juvenal_, satire 2, li. 90.――――Roscius, a tribune of the people,
who, in Cicero’s consulship, made a regulation to permit the Roman
knights at public spectacles to have the 14 first rows after the
seats of the senators. This was opposed with virulence by some, but
Cicero ably defended it, &c. _Horace_, epode 4, li. 10.――――The father
of the Roman emperor Otho was the favourite of Claudius.
=Othryădes=, one of the 300 Spartans who fought against 300 Argives,
when those two nations disputed their respective right to Thyrea. Two
Argives, Alcinor and Cronius, and Othryades, survived the battle. The
Argives went home to carry the news of their victory, but Othryades,
who had been reckoned among the number of the slain, on account of
his wounds, recovered himself and carried some of the spoils, of
which he had stripped the Argives, into the camp of his countrymen;
and after he had raised a trophy, and had written with his own
blood, the word _vici_ on his shield, he killed himself, unwilling
to survive the death of his countrymen. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 3,
ch. 2.――_Plutarch_, _Parallela Minora_.――――A patronymic given to
Pantheus the Trojan priest of Apollo, from his father Othryas.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 2, li. 319.
=Othryoneus=, a Thracian who came to the Trojan war in hopes of
marrying Cassandra. He was killed by Idomeneus. _Homer_, _Iliad_,
bk. 13.
=Othrys=, a mountain, or rather a chain of mountains, in Thessaly,
the residence of the Centaurs. _Strabo_, bk. 9.――_Herodotus_, bk. 7,
ch. 129.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 675.
=Otreus=, a king of Phrygia, son of Cisseus and brother to Hecuba.
=Otrœda=, a small town on the confines of Bithynia.
=Otus= and =Ephialtes=, sons of Neptune. _See:_ Aloides.
=Otys=, a prince of Paphlagonia, who revolted from the Persians to
Agesilaus. _Xenophon._
=Ovia=, a Roman lady, wife of Cneaus Lollius. _Cicero_, _Letters to
Atticus_, bk. 12, ltr. 21.
=Publius Ovīdius Naso=, a celebrated Roman poet, born at Sulmo on the
20th of March, about 43 B.C. As he was intended for the bar, his
father sent him early to Rome, and removed him to Athens in the 16th
year of his age. The progress of Ovid in the study of eloquence was
great, but the father’s expectations were frustrated; his son was
born a poet, and nothing could deter him from pursuing his natural
inclination, though he was often reminded that Homer lived and
died in the greatest poverty. Everything he wrote was expressed in
poetical numbers, as he himself says, _et quod tentabam scribere
versus erat_. A lively genius and a fertile imagination soon gained
him admirers; the learned became his friends; Virgil, Propertius,
Tibullus, and Horace, honoured him with their correspondence, and
Augustus patronized him with the most unbounded liberality. These
favours, however, were but momentary, and the poet was soon after
banished to Tomos, on the Euxine sea, by the emperor. The true cause
of this sudden exile is unknown. Some attribute it to a shameful
amour with Livia the wife of Augustus, while others support that it
arose from the knowledge which Ovid had of the unpardonable incest
of the emperor with his daughter Julia. These reasons are, indeed,
merely conjectural; the cause was of a very private and very secret
nature, of which Ovid himself is afraid to speak, as it arose from
error and not from criminality. It was, however, something improper
in the family and court of Augustus, as these lines seem to indicate.
_Cur aliquid vidi? Cur noxia lumina feci?
Cur imprudenti cognita culpa mihi est?
Inscius Actæon vidit sine veste Dianam;
Præda fuit canibus non minus ille suis._
Again,
_Inscia quod crimen viderunt lumina plector,
Peccatumque oculos est habuisse meum._
And in another place,
_Perdiderunt cum me duo crimina, carmen et error,
Alterius facti culpa silenda mihi est._
In his banishment, Ovid betrayed his pusillanimity, and however
afflicted and distressed his situation was, yet the flattery and
impatience which he showed in his writings are a disgrace to his pen,
and expose him more to ridicule than pity. Though he prostituted his
pen and his time to adulation, yet the emperor proved deaf to all
entreaties, and refused to listen to his most ardent friends at Rome
who wished for the return of the poet. Ovid, who undoubtedly wished
for a Brutus to deliver Rome of her tyrannical Augustus, continued
his flattery even to meanness; and, when the emperor died, he was
so mercenary as to consecrate a temple to the departed tyrant on the
shores of the Euxine, where he regularly offered frankincense every
morning. Tiberius proved as regardless as his predecessor to the
entreaties which were made for Ovid, and the poet died in the seventh
or eighth year of his banishment, in the 59th year of his age, A.D.
17, and was buried at Tomos. In the year 1508 of the christian era,
the following epitaph was found at Stain, in the modern kingdom of
Austria:
_Hic situs est vates quem Divi Cæsaris ira.
Augusti patriâ cedere jussit humo.
Sæpe miser voluit patriis occumbere terris,
Sed frustra! Hunc illi fata dedere locum._
This, however, is an imposition, to render celebrated an obscure
corner of the world, which never contained the bones of Ovid. The
greatest part of Ovid’s poems are remaining. His _Metamorphoses_,
in 15 books, are extremely curious, on account of the many different
mythological facts and traditions which they relate, but they can
have no claim to an epic poem. In composing this the poet was more
indebted to the then existing traditions, and to the theogony of
the ancients, than to the powers of his own imagination. His _Fasti_
were divided into 12 books, the same number as the constellations in
the zodiac; but of these, six have perished, and the learned world
have reason to lament the loss of a poem which must have thrown so
much light upon the religious rites and ceremonies, festivals and
sacrifices, of the ancient Romans, as we may judge from the six
that have survived the ravages of time and barbarity. His _Tristia_,
which are divided into five books, contain much elegance and
softness of expression, as also his _Elegies_ on different subjects.
The _Heroides_ are nervous, spirited, and diffuse, the poetry is
excellent, the language varied, but the expressions are often too
wanton and indelicate, a fault which is common in his compositions.
His three books of _Amorum_, and the same number _de Arte Amandi_,
with the other _de Remedio Amoris_, are written with great elegance,
and contain many flowery descriptions; but the doctrine which they
hold forth is dangerous, and they are to be read with caution,
as they seem to be calculated to corrupt the heart, and sap the
foundations of virtue and morality. His _Ibis_, which is written in
imitation of a poem of Callimachus, of the same name, is a satirical
performance. Besides these, there are extant some fragments of other
poems, and among these some of a tragedy called _Medea_. The talents
of Ovid as a dramatic writer have been disputed, and some have
observed that he, who is so often void of sentiment, was not born
to shine as a tragedian. Ovid has attempted perhaps too many sorts
of poetry at once. On whatever he has written, he has totally
exhausted the subject, and left nothing unsaid. He everywhere paints
nature with a masterly hand, and gives strength to the most vulgar
expressions. It has been judiciously observed, that his poetry, after
his banishment from Rome, was destitute of that spirit and vivacity
which we admire in his other compositions. His _Fasti_ are perhaps
the best written of all his poems, and after them we may fairly rank
his love verses, his _Heroides_, and, after all, his _Metamorphoses_,
which were not totally finished when Augustus sent him into
banishment. His _Epistles from Pontus_ are the language of an
abject and pusillanimous flatterer. However critics may censure the
indelicacy and the inaccuracies of Ovid, it is to be acknowledged
that his poetry contains great sweetness and elegance, and, like
that of Tibullus, charms the ear and captivates the mind. Ovid
married three wives, but of the last alone he speaks with fondness
and affection. He had only one daughter, but by which of his wives
is unknown; and she herself became mother of two children, by two
husbands. The best editions of Ovid’s works are those of Burman,
4 vols., 4to, Amsterdam, 1727; of Leiden, 1670, in 8vo, and of
Utrecht, in 12mo, 4 vols., 1713. _Ovid_, _Tristia_, bks. 3 & 4,
&c.――_Paterculus_, bk. 2.――_Martial_, bks. 3 & 8.――――A man who
accompanied his friend Cæsonius when banished from Rome by Nero.
_Martial_, bk. 7, ltr. 43.
=Ovinia lex= was enacted to permit the censors to elect and admit among
the number of the senators the best and the worthiest of the people.
=Ovinius=, a freedman of Vatinius, the friend of Cicero, &c.
_Quintilian_, bk. 3, ch. 4.――――Quintus, a Roman senator, punished
by Augustus for disgracing his rank in the court of Cleopatra.
_Eutropius_, bk. 1.
=Oxathres=, a brother of Darius, greatly honoured by Alexander, and
made one of his generals. _Curtius_, bk. 7, ch. 5.――――Another Persian,
who favoured the cause of Alexander. _Curtius._
=Oxidătes=, a Persian whom Darius condemned to death. Alexander took
him prisoner, and some time after made him governor of Media. He
became oppressive, and was removed. _Curtius_, bk. 8, ch. 3; bk. 9,
ch. 8.
=Oximes=, a people of European Sarmatia.
=Oxionæ=, a nation of Germans, whom superstitious traditions represented
as having the countenance human, and the rest of the body like that
of beasts. _Tacitus_, _Germania_, ch. 46.
=Oxus=, a large river of Bactriana, now _Gihon_, falling into the east
of the Caspian sea. _Pliny_, bk. 16, ch. 6.――――Another in Scythia.
=Oxyares=, a king of Bactriana, who surrendered to Alexander.
=Oxycānus=, an Indian prince in the age of Alexander, &c.
=Oxydrăcæ=, a nation of India. _Curtius_, bk. 9, ch. 4.
=Oxy̆lus=, a leader of the Heraclidæ, when they recovered the
Peloponnesus. He was rewarded with the kingdom of Elis. _Pausanias_,
bk. 5, ch. 4.――――A son of Mars and Protogenia. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1,
ch. 7.
=Oxynthes=, a king of Athens, B.C. 1149. He reigned 12 years.
=Oxypŏrus=, a son of Cinyras and Metharme. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 14.
=Oxyrynchus=, a town of Egypt on the Nile. _Strabo._
=Ozīnes=, a Persian imprisoned by Craterus, because he attempted to
revolt from Alexander. _Curtius_, bk. 9, ch. 10.
=Ozŏlæ=, or =Ozŏli=, a people who inhabited the eastern parts of Ætolia,
which were called _Ozolea_. This tract of territory lay at the north
of the bay of Corinth, and extended about 12 miles northward. They
received their name from the _bad stench_ (ὀζη) of their bodies and
of their clothing, which was the raw hides of wild beasts, or from
the offensive smell of the body of Nessus the Centaur, which after
death was left to putrefy in the country without the honours of a
burial. Some derive it with more propriety from the stench of the
stagnated waters in the neighbouring lakes and marshes. According to
a fabulous tradition, they received their name from a very different
circumstance. During the reign of a son of Deucalion, a bitch brought
into the world a stick instead of whelps. The stick was planted in
the ground by the king, and it grew up to a large vine and produced
grapes, from which the inhabitants of the country were called _Ozolæ_,
not from ὀζειν, _to smell bad_, but from ὀζος, _a branch or sprout_.
The name of Ozolæ, on account of its indelicate signification, highly
displeased the inhabitants, and they exchanged it soon for that of
Ætolians. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 38.――_Herodotus_, bk. 8, ch. 32.
P
=Pacatianus Titus Julius=, a general of the Roman armies, who proclaimed
himself emperor in Gaul, about the latter part of Philip’s reign. He
was soon after defeated, A.D. 249, and put to death, &c.
=Paccius=, an insignificant poet in the age of Domitian. _Juvenal_,
satire 7, li. 12.
=Paches=, an Athenian, who took Mitylene, &c. _Aristotle_, _Politics_,
bk. 4.
=Păchīnus=, or =Pachynus=, now _Passaro_, a promontory of Sicily,
projecting about two miles into the sea, in the form of a peninsula,
at the south-east corner of the island, with a small harbour of the
same name. _Strabo_, bk. 6.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 3, li. 699.――_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 25.
=Marcus Paconius=, a Roman put to death by Tiberius, &c. _Suetonius_,
_Tiberias_, ch. 61.――――A stoic philosopher, son of the preceding. He
was banished from Italy by Nero, and he retired from Rome with the
greatest composure and indifference. _Arrian_, bk. 1, ch. 1.
=Pacŏrus=, the eldest of the 30 sons of Orodes king of Parthia, sent
against Crassus, whose army he defeated, and whom he took prisoner.
He took Syria from the Romans and supported the republican party
of Pompey, and of the murderers of Julius Cæsar. He was killed in a
battle by Ventidius Bassus, B.C. 39, on the same day (9th of June)
that Crassus had been defeated. _Florus_, bk. 4, ch. 9.――_Horace_,
bk. 3, ode 6, li. 9.――――A king of Parthia, who made a treaty
of alliance with the Romans, &c.――――Another, intimate with king
Decebalus.
=Pactōlus=, a celebrated river of Lydia, rising in mount Tmolus, and
falling into the Hermus after it has watered the city of Sardes. It
was in this river that Midas washed himself when he turned into gold
whatever he touched, and from that circumstance it ever after rolled
golden sands, and received the name of _Chrysorrhoas_. It is called
Tmolus by Pliny. Strabo observes that it had no golden sands in his
age. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 142.――_Strabo_, bk. 18.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 11, li. 86.――_Herodotus_, bk. 5, ch. 110.
――_Pliny_, bk. 33, ch. 8.
=Pactyas=, a Lydian entrusted with the care of the treasures of Crœsus
at Sardes. The immense riches which he could command, corrupted him,
and, to make himself independent, he gathered a large army. He laid
siege to the citadel of Sardes, but the arrival of one of the Persian
generals soon put him to flight. He retired to Cumæ and afterwards to
Lesbos, where he was delivered into the hands of Cyrus. _Herodotus_,
bk. 1, ch. 154, &c.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 35.
=Pactye=, a town of the Thracian Chersonesus.
=Pactyes=, a mountain of Ionia, near Ephesus. _Strabo_, bk. 14.
=Pācŭvius Marcus=, a native of Brundusium, son of the sister of the
poet Ennius, who distinguished himself by his skill in painting, and
by his poetical talents. He wrote satires and tragedies which were
represented at Rome, and of some of which the names are preserved,
as Peribœa, Hermione, Atalanta, Ilione, Teucer, Antiope, &c. Orestes
was considered as the best finished performance; the style, however,
though rough and without either purity or elegance, deserved the
commendation of Cicero and Quintilian, who perceived strong rays
of genius and perfection frequently beaming through the clouds of
the barbarity and ignorance of the times. The poet in his old age
retired to Tarentum, where he died in his 90th year, about 131 years
before Christ. Of all his compositions about 437 scattered lines are
preserved in the collections of Latin poets. _Cicero_, _On Oratory_,
bk. 2; _Rhetorica ad Herennium_, bk. 2, ch. 27.――_Horace_, bk. 2,
ltr. 1, li. 56.――_Quintilian_, bk. 10, ch. 10.
=Padæi=, an Indian nation, who devoured their sick before they died.
_Herodotus_, bk. 3, ch. 99.
=Padinum=, now _Bondeno_, a town on the Po, where it begins to branch
into different channels. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 15.
=Pădua=, a town called also _Patavium_, in the country of the Venetians,
founded by Antenor immediately after the Trojan war. It was the
native place of the historian Livy. The inhabitants were once so
powerful, that they could levy an army of 20,000 men. _Strabo_,
bk. 5.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 4.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 251.
=Padus= (now called the _Po_), a river in Italy, known also by the name
of _Eridanus_, which forms the northern boundary of the territories
of Italy. It rises in mount Vesulus, one of the highest mountains
of the Alps, and after it has collected in its course the waters of
above 30 rivers, discharges itself in an eastern direction into the
Adriatic sea by seven mouths, two of which only, the Plana or Volano,
and the Padusa, were formed by nature. It was formerly said that it
rolled gold dust in its sand, which was carefully searched by the
inhabitants. The consuls Caius Flaminius Nepos and Publius Furius
Philus were the first Roman generals who crossed it. The Po is famous
for the death of Phaeton, who, as the poets mention, was thrown down
there by the thunderbolts of Jupiter. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 2,
li. 258, &c.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 4.――_Lucan_, bk. 2, &c.――_Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 680.――_Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Pliny_, bk. 37, ch. 2.
=Padūsa=, the most southern mouth of the Po, considered by some writers
as the Po itself. _See:_ Padus. It was said to abound in swans, and
from it there was a cut to the town of Ravenna. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 11, li. 455.
=Pæan=, a surname of Apollo, derived from the word _pæan_, a hymn
which was sung in his honour, because he had killed the serpent
Python, which had given cause to the people to exclaim _Io Pæan!_ The
exclamation of Io Pæan! was made use of in speaking to the other gods,
as it often was a demonstration of joy. _Juvenal_, satire 6, li. 171.
――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, li. 358; bk. 14, li. 720.――_Lucan_,
bk. 1, &c.――_Strabo_, bk. 18.
=Pædaretus=, a Spartan who, on not being elected in the number of
the 300 sent on an expedition, &c., declared that, instead of being
mortified, he rejoiced that 300 men better than himself could be
found in Sparta. _Plutarch_, _Lycurgus_.
=Pædius=, a lieutenant of Julius Cæsar in Spain, who proposed a law
to punish with death all such as were concerned in the murder of his
patron, &c.
=Pæmāni=, a people of Belgic Gaul, supposed to have dwelt in the
country at the west of Luxemburg. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 2, ch. 4.
=Pæon=, a Greek historian. _Plutarch_, _Theseus_.――――A celebrated
physician who cured the wounds which the gods received during the
Trojan war. From him, physicians are sometimes called _Pæonii_, and
herbs serviceable in medicinal processes, _Pæoniæ herbæ_. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 769.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 15, li. 535.
=Pæŏnes=, a people of Macedonia, who inhabited a small part of the
country called _Pæonia_. Some believe that they were descended from a
Trojan colony. _Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 1.――_Herodotus_, bk. 5, ch. 13,
&c.
♦=Pæŏnia=, a country of Macedonia at the west of the Strymon. It
received its name from Pæon, a son of Endymion, who settled there.
_Livy_, bk. 42, ch. 51; bk. 45, ch. 29.――――A small town of Attica.
♦ ‘Peŏnia’ replaced with ‘Pæŏnia’
=Pæŏnĭdes=, a name given to the daughters of Pierus, who were defeated
by the Muses, because their mother was a native of Pæonia. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, last fable.
=Pæos=, a small town of Arcadia.
=Pæsos=, a town of the Hellespont, called also _Apæsos_, situated
at the north of Lampsacus. When it was destroyed, the inhabitants
migrated to Lampsacus, where they settled. They were of Milesian
origin. _Strabo_, bk. 13.――_Homer_ _Iliad_, bk. 2.
=Pæstum=, a town of Lucania, called also _Neptunia_ and _Posidonia_
by the Greeks, where the soil produced roses which blossomed twice
a year. The ancient walls of the town, about three miles in extent,
are still standing, and likewise venerable remains of temples and
porticoes. The _Sinus Pæstanus_ on which it stood is now called the
gulf of _Salerno_. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 4, li. 119.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 15, li. 708; _ex Ponto_, bk. 2, poem 4, li. 28.
=Pætovium=, a town of Pannonia.
=Pætus Cæcinna=, the husband of Arria. _See:_ Arria.――――A governor of
Armenia, under Nero.――――A Roman who conspired with Catiline against
his country.――――A man drowned as he was going to Egypt to collect
money. _Propertius_, bk. 3, poem 7, li. 5.
=Pagæ=, a town of Megaris,――――of Locris. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 3.
=Păgăsæ=, or =Păgăsa=, a town of Magnesia, in Macedonia, with a harbour
and a promontory of the same name. The ship Argo was built there, as
some suppose, and, according to Propertius, the Argonauts set sail
from that harbour. From that circumstance not only the ship Argo,
but also the Argonauts themselves, were ever after distinguished by
the epithet of _Pagasæus_. Pliny confounds Pagasæ with Demetrias,
but they are different, and the latter was peopled by the inhabitants
of the former, who preferred the situation of Demetrias for its
conveniences. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, li. 1; bk. 8, li. 349.
――_Lucan_, bk. 2, li. 715; bk. 6, li. 400.――_Mela_, bk. 2, chs. 3 & 7.
――_Strabo_, bk. 9.――_Propertius_, bk. 1, poem 20, li. 17.――_Pliny_,
bk. 4, ch. 8.――_Apollodorus Rhodius_, bk. 1, li. 238, &c.
=Păgăsus=, a Trojan killed by Camilla. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 11,
li. 670.
=Pagræ=, a town of Syria, on the borders of Cilicia. _Strabo_, bk. 16.
=Pagus=, a mountain of Æolia. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 5.
=Palācium=, or =Palātium=, a town of the Thracian Chersonesus.――――A
small village on the Palatine hill, where Rome was afterwards built.
=Palæ=, a town at the south of Corsica, now _St. Bonifacio_.
=Palæa=, a town of Cyprus,――――of Cephallenia.
=Palæapŏlis=, a small island on the coast of Spain. _Strabo._
=Palæmon=, or =Palemon=, a sea deity, son of Athamas and Ino. His
original name was _Melicerta_, and he assumed that of Palæmon, after
he had been changed into a sea deity by Neptune. _See:_ Melicerta.
――――A noted grammarian at Rome in the age of Tiberius, who made
himself ridiculous by his arrogance and luxury. _Juvenal_, satire 6,
li. 451.――_Martial_, bk. 2, ltr. 86.――――A son of Neptune, who was
amongst the Argonauts. _Apollodorus._
=Palæpăphos=, the ancient town of Paphos in Cyprus, adjoining to the
new. _Strabo_, bk. 14.
=Palæpharsālus=, the ancient town of Pharsalus in Thessaly. _Cæsar_,
_Alexandrine War_, ch. 48.
=Palæphătus=, an ancient Greek philosopher, whose age is unknown,
though it can be ascertained that he flourished between the times
of Aristotle and Augustus. He wrote five books _de incredibilibus_,
of which only the first remains, and in it he endeavours to explain
fabulous and mythological traditions by historical facts. The best
edition of Palæphatus is that of Johann Friedrich Fischer, in 8vo,
Lipscomb, 1773.――――An heroic poet of Athens, who wrote a poem on the
creation of the world.――――A disciple of Aristotle, born at Abydos.
――――An historian of Egypt.
=Palepŏlis=, a town of Campania, built by a Greek colony, where Naples
afterwards was erected. _Livy_, bk. 8, ch. 22.
=Palæste=, a village of Epirus near Oricus, where Cæsar first landed
with his fleet. _Lucan_, bk. 5, li. 460.
=Palæstīna=, a province of Syria, &c. _Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 105.
――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 3, li. 606.――_Strabo_, bk. 16.
=Palæstīnus=, an ancient name of the river Strymon.
=Palætyrus=, the ancient town of Tyre on the continent. _Strabo_,
bk. 16.
=Pălămēdes=, a Grecian chief, son of Nauplius king of Eubœa by Clymene.
He was sent by the Greek princes, who were going to the Trojan war,
to bring Ulysses to the camp, who, to withdraw himself from the
expedition, pretended insanity, and, the better to impose upon
his friends, used to harness different animals to a plough, and to
sow salt instead of barley into the furrows. The deceit was soon
perceived by Palamedes; he knew that the regret to part from his
wife Penelope, whom he had lately married, was the only reason of
the pretended insanity of Ulysses; and to demonstrate this, Palamedes
took Telemachus, whom Penelope had lately brought into the world,
and put him before the plough of his father. Ulysses showed that he
was not insane, by turning the plough a different way not to hurt
his child. This having been discovered, Ulysses was obliged to attend
the Greek princes to the war, but an immortal enmity arose between
Ulysses and Palamedes. The king of Ithaca resolved to take every
opportunity to distress him: and when all his expectations were
frustrated, he had the meanness to bribe one of his servants, and
to make him dig a hole in his master’s tent, and there conceal a
large sum of money. After this Ulysses forged a letter in Phrygian
characters, which king Priam was supposed to have sent to Palamedes.
In the letter the Trojan king seemed to entreat Palamedes to deliver
into his hands the Grecian army, according to the conditions which
had been previously agreed upon, when he received the money. This
forged letter was carried, by means of Ulysses, before the princes of
the Grecian army. Palamedes was summoned, and he made the most solemn
protestations of innocence. But all was in vain; the money that was
discovered in his tent served only to corroborate the accusation, and
he was found guilty by all the army, and stoned to death. Homer is
silent about the miserable fate of Palamedes, and Pausanias mentions
that it had been reported by some, that Ulysses and Diomedes had
drowned him in the sea as he was fishing on the coast. Philostratus,
who mentions the tragical story above related, adds that Achilles
and Ajax buried his body with great pomp on the sea-shore, and that
they raised upon it a small chapel, where sacrifices were regularly
offered by the inhabitants of Troas. Palamedes was a learned man as
well as a soldier, and, according to some, he completed the alphabet
of Cadmus by the addition of the four letters θ, ξ, χ, φ, during the
Trojan war. To him, also, is attributed the invention of dice and
backgammon; and it is said he was the first who regularly ranged an
army in a line of battle, and who placed sentinels round a camp, and
excited their vigilance and attention by giving them a watchword.
_Hyginus_, fables 95, 105, &c.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, &c.――_Dictys
Cretensis_, bk. 2, ch. 15.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 13, lis. 56
& 308.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 31.――_Marcus Manilius_, bk. 4, li.
205.――_Philostratus_, bk. 10, ch. 6.――_Euripides_, _Phœnician Women_.
――_Martial_, bk. 13, ltr. 75.――_Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 56.
=Palantia=, a town of Spain. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 6.
=Pălātīnus mons=, a celebrated hill, the largest of the seven hills
on which Rome was built. It was upon it that Romulus laid the first
foundation of the capital of Italy, in a quadrangular form, and there
also he kept his court, as well as Tullus Hostilius and Augustus,
and all the succeeding emperors, from which circumstance the word
_Palatium_ has ever since been applied to the residence of a monarch
or prince. The Palatine hill received its name from the goddess
_Pales_, or from the _Palatini_, who originally inhabited the place,
or from _balare_ or _palare_, the bleatings of sheep, which were
frequent there, or perhaps from the word _palantes_, wandering,
because Evander, when he came to settle in Italy, gathered all the
inhabitants, and made them all one society. There were some games
celebrated in honour of Augustus, and called Palatine, because kept
on the hill. _Dio Cassius_, bk. 53.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 12, li.
709.――_Livy_, bk. 1, chs. 7 & 33.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 14,
li. 822.――_Juvenal_, satire 9, li. 23.――_Martial_, bk. 1, ltr. 71.
――_Varro_, _de Lingua Latina_, bk. 4, ch. 3.――_Cicero_, _Against
Catiline_, bk. 1.――――Apollo, who was worshipped on the Palatine hill,
was also called _Palatinus_. His temple there had been built, or
rather repaired, by Augustus, who had enriched it with a library,
valuable for the various collections of Greek and Latin manuscripts
which it contained, as also for the Sibylline books deposited there.
_Horace_, bk. 1, ltr. 3, li. 17.
=Palantium=, a town of Arcadia.
=Palēis=, or =Palæ=, a town in the island of Cephallenia. _Pausanias_,
bk. 6, ch. 15.
=Pales=, the goddess of sheepfolds and of pastures among the Romans.
She was worshipped with great solemnity at Rome, and her festivals,
called _Palilia_, were celebrated the very day that Romulus began to
lay the foundation of the city of Rome. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 3,
lis. 1 & 294.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 4, li. 722, &c.――_Paterculus_,
bk. 1, ch. 8.
=Palfurius Sura=, a writer, removed from the senate by Domitian, who
suspected him of attachment to Vitellius, &c. _Juvenal_, satire 4,
li. 53.
=Palibothra=, a city of India, supposed now to be _Patna_, or,
according to others, _Allahabad_. _Strabo_, bk. 15.
=Palīci=, or =Palisci=, two deities, sons of Jupiter by Thalia, whom
Æschylus calls Ætna, in a tragedy which is now lost, according to
the words of Macrobius. The nymph Ætna, when pregnant, entreated
her lover to remove her from the pursuit of Juno. The god concealed
her in the bowels of the earth, and when the time of her delivery
was come, the earth opened, and brought into the world two children,
who received the name of Palici, ἀπο του παλιν ἰκεσθαι, _because
they came again into the world from the bowels of the earth_. These
deities were worshipped with great ceremonies by the Sicilians, and
near their temple were two small lakes of sulphureous water, which
were supposed to have sprung out of the earth at the same time that
they were born. Near these pools it was usual to take the most solemn
oaths, by those who wished to decide controversies and quarrels. If
any of the persons who took the oaths perjured themselves, they were
immediately punished in a supernatural manner; and those whose oath,
by the deities of the place, was sincere, departed unhurt. The Palici
had also an oracle, which was consulted upon great emergencies,
and which rendered the truest and most unequivocal answers. In
a superstitious age, the altars of the Palici were stained with
the blood of human sacrifices, but this barbarous custom was soon
abolished, and the deities were satisfied with their usual offerings.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 585.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5,
li. 506.――_Diodorus_, bk. 2.――_Macrobius_, _Saturnalia_, bk. 5,
ch. 10.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 14, li. 219.
=Palīlia=, a festival celebrated by the Romans, in honour of the
goddess Pales. The ceremony consisted in burning heaps of straw, and
leaping over them. No sacrifices were offered, but the purifications
were made with the smoke of horses’ blood, and with the ashes of a
calf that had been taken from the belly of his mother, after it had
been sacrificed, and with the ashes of beans. The purification of
the flocks was also made with the smoke of sulphur, of the olive, the
pine, the laurel, and the rosemary. Offerings of mild cheese, boiled
wine, and cakes of millet, were afterwards made to the goddess. This
festival was observed on the 21st of April, and it was during the
celebration that Romulus first began to build his city. Some call
this festival Parilia _quasi a pariendo_, because the sacrifices were
offered to the divinity for the fecundity of the flocks. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 14, li. 774; _Fasti_, bk. 4, li. 721, &c.; bk. 6,
li. 257.――_Propertius_, bk. 4, poem 1, li. 19.――_Tibullus_, bk. 2,
poem 5, li. 87.
=Pălĭnūrus=, a skilful pilot of the ship of Æneas. He fell into the
sea in his sleep, and was three days exposed to the tempests and the
waves of the sea, and at last came safe to the sea-shore near Velia,
where the cruel inhabitants of the place murdered him to obtain
his clothes. His body was left unburied on the sea-shore, and as,
according to the religion of the ancient Romans, no person was
suffered to cross the Stygian lake before 100 years were elapsed,
if his remains had not been decently buried, we find Æneas, when he
visited the infernal regions, speaking to Palinurus, and assuring
him, that though his bones were deprived of a funeral, yet the place
were his body was exposed should soon be adorned with a monument and
bear his name, and accordingly a promontory was called Palinurus, now
_Palinuro_. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 513; bk. 5, li. 840, &c.;
bk. 6, li. 341.――_Ovid_, _de Remedia Amoris_, li. 577.――_Mela_, bk. 2,
ch. 4.――_Strabo._――_Horace_, bk. 3, ode 4, li. 28.
=Paliscōrum=, or =Palīcōrum stagnum=, a sulphureous pool in Sicily.
_See:_ Palici.
=Paliurus=, now _Nahil_, a river of Africa, with a town of the same
name at its mouth, at the west of Egypt, on the Mediterranean.
_Strabo_, bk. 17.
=Pallădes=, certain virgins of illustrious parents, who were consecrated
to Jupiter by the Thebans of Egypt. It was required that they should
prostitute themselves, an infamous custom which was considered as a
purification, during which they were publicly mourned, and afterwards
they were permitted to marry. _Strabo_, bk. 17.
=Pallădium=, a celebrated statue of Pallas. It was about three cubits
high, and represented the goddess as sitting and holding a pike in
her right hand, and in her left a distaff and a spindle. It fell
down from heaven near the tent of Ilus, as that prince was building
the citadel of Ilium. Some, nevertheless, suppose that it fell at
Pessinus in Phrygia, or, according to others, Dardanus received it
as a present from his mother Electra. There are some authors who
maintain that the Palladium was made with the bones of Pelops by
Abaris; but Apollodorus seems to say that it was no more than a piece
of clock-work, which moved of itself. However discordant the opinions
of ancient authors be about this famous statue, it is universally
agreed that on its preservation depended the safety of Troy. This
fatality was well known to the Greeks during the Trojan war, and
therefore Ulysses and Diomedes were commissioned to steal it away.
They effected their purpose; and if we rely upon the authority of
some authors, they were directed how to carry it away by Helenus the
son of Priam, who proved in this unfaithful to his country, because
his brother Deiphobus, at the death of Paris, had married Helen, of
whom he was enamoured. Minerva was displeased with the violence which
was offered to her statue, and, according to Virgil, the Palladium
itself appeared to have received life and motion, and by the flashes
which started from its eyes, and its sudden springs from the earth,
it seemed to show the resentment of the goddess. The true Palladium,
as some authors observe, was not carried away from Troy by the Greeks,
but only one of the statues of similar size and shape, which were
placed near it, to deceive whatever sacrilegious persons attempted
to steal it. The Palladium, therefore, as they say, was conveyed
safe from Troy to Italy by Æneas, and it was afterwards preserved by
the Romans with the greatest secrecy and veneration, in the temple
of Vesta, a circumstance which none but the vestal virgins knew.
_Herodian_, bk. 1, ch. 14, &c.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 6, li. 442, &c.;
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 13, li. 336.――_Dictys Cretensis_, bk. 1, ch. 5.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 12.――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 1,
&c.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 10.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 2, li. 166; bk.
9, li. 151.――_Plutarch_, _Parallela minora_.――_Lucan_, bk. 9.――_Dares
Phrygius._――_Juvenal_, satire 3, li. 139.
=Palladius=, a Greek physician, whose treatise on fevers was edited 8vo,
Leiden, 1745.――――A learned Roman under Adrian, &c.
=Pallantēum=, a town of Italy, or perhaps more properly a citadel
built by Evander, on mount Palatine, from whence its name originates.
Virgil says it was called after Pallas the grandfather of Evander;
but Dionysius derives its name from Palantium, a town of Arcadia.
_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 1, ch. 31.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 8, lis. 54 & 341.
=Pallantia=, a town of _Spain_, now _Palencia_, on the river Cea.
_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 6.
=Pallantias=, a patronymic of Aurora, as being related to the giant
Pallas. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 9, fable 12.
=Pallantides=, the 50 sons of Pallas the son of Pandion and the brother
of Ægeus. They were all killed by Theseus the son of Ægeus, whom they
opposed when he came to take possession of his father’s kingdom. This
opposition they showed in hopes of succeeding to the throne, as Ægeus
left no children except Theseus, whose legitimacy was even disputed,
as he was born at Trœzene. _Plutarch_, _Theseus_.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1,
ch. 22.
=Pallas= (ădis), a daughter of Jupiter, the same as Minerva. The
goddess received this name either because she killed the giant
_Pallas_, or perhaps from the spear which she seems to _brandish_ in
her hands (παλλειν). For the functions, power, and character of the
goddess, _See:_ Minerva.
=Pallas= (antis), a son of king Evander, sent with some troops to
assist Æneas. He was killed by Turnus the king of the Rutuli, after
he had made a great slaughter of the enemy. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8,
li. 104, &c.――――One of the giants, son of Tartarus and Terra. He was
killed by Minerva, who covered herself with his skin, whence, as some
suppose, she is called Pallas. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 12.――――A
son of Crius and Eurybia, who married the nymph Styx, by whom he had
Victory, Valour, &c. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_.――――A son of Lycaon.――――A
son of Pandion, father of Clytus and Butes. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 7, fable 17.――_Apollodorus._――――A freedman of Claudius, famous
for the power and the riches he obtained. He advised the emperor,
his master, to marry Agrippina, and to adopt her son Nero for
his successor. It was by his means, and those of Agrippina, that
the death of Claudius was hastened, and that Nero was raised to
the throne. Nero forgot to whom he was indebted for the crown. He
discarded Pallas, and some time after caused him to be put to death,
that he might make himself master of his great riches, A.D. 61.
_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 12, ch. 53.
=Pallēne=, a small peninsula of Macedonia, formerly called _Phlegra_,
situate above the bay of Thermæ on the Ægean sea, and containing
five cities, the principal of which is called Pallene. It was in this
place, according to some of the ancients, that an engagement happened
between the gods and the giants. _Livy_, bk. 31, ch. 45; bk. 45, ch.
30.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 4, li. 391.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 15, li. 357.――――A village of Attica, where Minerva had a temple,
and where the Pallantides chiefly resided. _Herodotus_, bk. 1, chs. 1,
161.――_Plutarch_, _Theseus_.
=Pallenses=, a people of Cephallenia, whose chief town was called Pala
or Palæa. _Livy_, bk. 38, ch. 18.――_Polybius_, bk. 3, ch. 3.
=Palma=, a governor of Syria.
=Palmaria=, a small island opposite Tarracina in Latium. _Pliny_, bk. 3,
ch. 6.
=Palmȳra=, the capital of _Palmyrene_, a country on the eastern
boundaries of Syria, now called _Theudemor_, or _Tadmor_. It is
famous for being the seat of the celebrated Zenobia and Odenatus,
in the reign of the emperor Aurelian. It is now in ruins, and the
splendour and magnificence of its porticoes, temples, and palaces,
are now frequently examined by the curious and the learned. _Pliny_,
bk. 6, chs. 26 & 30.
=Palphurius=, one of the flatterers of Domitian. _Juvenal_, satire 4,
li. 53.
=Palumbinum=, a town of Samnium. _Livy_, bk. 10, ch. 45.
=Pamīsos=, a river of Thessaly, falling into the Peneus. _Herodotus_,
bk. 7, ch. 129.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 8.――――Another of Messenia in
Peloponnesus.
=Pammēnes=, an Athenian general, sent to assist Megalopolis against
the Mantineans, &c.――――An astrologer.――――A learned Grecian, who was
preceptor to Brutus. _Cicero_, _Brutus_, ch. 97, _Orator_, ch. 9.
=Pammon=, a son of Priam and Hecuba. _Apollodorus._
=Pampa=, a village near Tentyra in Thrace. _Juvenal_, satire 15, li. 76.
=Pamphĭlus=, a celebrated painter of Macedonia in the age of Philip,
distinguished above his rivals by a superior knowledge of literature,
and the cultivation of those studies which taught him to infuse more
successfully grace and dignity into his pieces. He was founder of the
school for painting at Sicyon, and he made a law which was observed
not only in Sicyon, but all over Greece, that none but the children
of noble and dignified persons should be permitted to learn painting.
Apelles was one of his pupils. _Diogenes Laërtius._――――A son of
Neoclides, among the pupils of Plato. _Diogenes Laërtius._
=Pamphos=, a Greek poet, supposed to have lived before Hesiod’s age.
=Pamphy̆la=, a Greek woman who wrote a general history in 33 books, in
Nero’s reign. This history, so much commended by the ancients, is
lost.
=Pamphy̆lia=, a province of Asia Minor, anciently called _Mopsopia_,
and bounded on the south by a part of the Mediterranean, called
the _Pamphylian sea_, west by Lycia, north by Pisidia, and east
by Cilicia. It abounded with pastures, vines, and olives, and was
peopled by a Grecian colony. _Strabo_, bk. 14.――_Mela_, bk. 1.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 3.――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 26.――_Livy_,
bk. 37, chs. 23 & 40.
=Pan= was the god of shepherds, of huntsmen, and of all the inhabitants
of the country. He was the son of Mercury by Dryope, according to
Homer. Some give him Jupiter and Callisto for parents, others Jupiter
and Ybis or Oneis. Lucian, Hyginus, &c., support that he was the son
of Mercury and Penelope the daughter of Icarius, and that the god
gained the affections of the princess under the form of a goat, as
she tended her father’s flocks on mount Taygetus, before her marriage
with the king of Ithaca. Some authors maintain that Penelope became
mother of Pan during the absence of Ulysses in the Trojan war, and
that he was the offspring of all the suitors that frequented the
palace of Penelope, whence he received the name of _Pan_, which
signifies _all_ or _everything_. Pan was a monster in appearance; he
had two small horns on his head, his complexion was ruddy, his nose
flat, and his legs, thighs, tail, and feet were those of a goat. The
education of Pan was entrusted to a nymph of Arcadia, called Sinoe,
but the nurse, according to Homer, terrified at the sight of such
a monster, fled away and left him. He was wrapped up in the skin of
beasts by his father, and carried to heaven, where Jupiter and the
gods long entertained themselves with the oddity of his appearance.
Bacchus was greatly pleased with him, and gave him the name of Pan.
The god of shepherds chiefly resided in Arcadia, where the woods and
the most rugged mountains were his habitation. He invented the flute
with seven reeds, which he called _Syrinx_, in honour of a beautiful
nymph of the same name, to whom he attempted to offer violence, and
who was changed into a reed. He was continually employed in deceiving
the neighbouring nymphs, and often with success. Though deformed
in his shape and features, yet he had the good fortune to captivate
Diana, and of gaining her favour, by transforming himself into
a beautiful white goat. He was also enamoured of a nymph of the
mountains called Echo, by whom he had a son called Lynx. He also paid
his addresses to Omphale queen of Lydia, and it is well known in what
manner he was received. _See:_ Omphale. The worship of Pan was well
established, particularly in Arcadia, where he gave oracles on mount
Lycæus. His festivals, called by the Greeks _Lycæa_, were brought
to Italy by Evander, and they were well known at Rome by the name
of the Lupercalia. _See:_ Lupercalia. The worship, and the different
functions of Pan, are derived from the mythology of the ancient
Egyptians. This god was one of the eight great gods of the Egyptians,
who ranked before the other 12 gods, whom the Romans called
_Consentes_. He was worshipped with the greatest solemnity over all
Egypt. His statues represented him as a goat, not because he was
really such, but this was done for mysterious reasons. He was the
emblem of fecundity, and they looked upon him as the principle of all
things. His horns, as some observe, represented the rays of the sun,
and the brightness of the heavens was expressed by the vivacity and
the ruddiness of his complexion. The star which he wore on his breast
was the symbol of the firmament, and his hairy legs and feet denoted
the inferior parts of the earth, such as the woods and plants. Some
suppose that he appeared as a goat because, when the gods fled into
Egypt, in their war against the giants, Pan transformed himself into
a goat, an example which was immediately followed by all the deities.
Pan, according to some, is the same as Faunus, and he is the chief
of all the Satyrs. Plutarch mentions that, in the reign of Tiberius,
an extraordinary voice was heard near the Echinades, in the Ionian
sea, which exclaimed that the great Pan was dead. This was readily
believed by the emperor, and the astrologers were consulted; but
they were unable to explain the meaning of so supernatural a voice,
which probably proceeded from the imposition of one of the courtiers
who attempted to terrify Tiberius. In Egypt, in the town of Mendes,
which word also signifies a _goat_, there was a sacred goat kept with
the most ceremonious sanctity. The death of this animal was always
attended with the greatest solemnities, and, like that of another
Apis, became the cause of a universal mourning. As Pan usually
terrified the inhabitants of the neighbouring country, that kind of
fear which often seizes men, and which is only ideal and imaginary,
has received from him the name of _panic fear_. This kind of terror
has been exemplified not only in individuals, but in numerous
armies, such as that of Brennus, which was thrown into the greatest
consternation at Rome, without any cause or plausible reason. _Ovid_,
_Fasti_, bk. 1, li. 396; bk. 2, li. 277; _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1,
li. 689.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 1, li. 17; _Æneid_, bk. 8,
li. 343; _Georgics_, ch. 3, li. 392.――_Juvenal_, satire 2, li. 142.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 30.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 13, li. 327.
――_Varro_, _de Lingua Latina_, bk. 5, ch. 3.――_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 5.
――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 1.――_Herodotus_, bk. 2, chs. 46 &
145, &c.――_Diodorus_, bk. 1.――_Orpheus_, _Hymns_, poem 10.――_Homer_,
_Hymn to Pan_.――_Lucian_, _Dialogi Deorum_, Dialogue of Pan and Hermes
(Mercury).――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 4.
=Pănăcēa=, a goddess, daughter of Æsculapius, who presided over health.
_Lucan_, bk. 9, li. 918.――_Pliny_, bk. 35, ch. 11, &c.
=Panætius=, a stoic philosopher of Rhodes, 138 B.C. He studied at
Athens for some time, of which he refused to become a citizen,
observing, that a good and modest man ought to be satisfied with one
country. He came to Rome, where he reckoned among his pupils Lælius
and Scipio the second Africanus. To the latter he was attached by
the closest ties of friendship and partiality; he attended him in
his expeditions, and partook of all his pleasures and amusements. To
the interest of their countryman at Rome, the Rhodians were greatly
indebted for their prosperity and the immunities which they for some
time enjoyed. Panætius wrote a treatise on the duties of man, whose
merit can be ascertained from the encomiums which Cicero bestows upon
it. _Cicero_, _de Officiis_; _de Divinatione_, bk. 1; _Academica_, bk.
2, ch. 2; _De Natura Deorum_, bk. 2, ch. 46.――――A tyrant of Leontini
in Sicily, B.C. 613. _Polyænus_, bk. 5.
=Panætolium=, a general assembly of the Ætolians. _Livy_, bk. 31,
ch. 29; bk. 35, ch. 32.
=Panares=, a general of Crete, defeated by Metellus, &c.
=Panariste=, one of the waiting-women of Berenice the wife of king
Antiochus. _Polyænus_, bk. 8.
=Panathenæa=, festivals in honour of Minerva the patroness of Athens.
They were first instituted by Erechtheus or Orpheus, and called
_Athenæa_, but Theseus afterwards renewed them, and caused them to
be celebrated and observed by all the tribes of Athens, which he had
united into one, and from this reason the festivals received their
name. Some suppose that they are the same as the Roman _Quinquatria_,
as they are often called by that name among the Latins. In the first
years of the institution, they were observed only during one day, but
afterwards the time was prolonged, and the celebration was attended
with greater pomp and solemnity. The festivals were two; the _great
Panathenæa_ (μεγαλα), which were observed every fifth year, beginning
on the 22nd of the month called _Hecatombæon_, or the 7th of July;
and the _lesser Panathenæa_ (μικρα), which were kept every third year,
or rather annually, beginning on the 20th or 21st of the month called
_Thargelion_, corresponding to the 5th or 6th day of the month of
May. In the lesser festivals there were three games conducted by 10
presidents chosen from the 10 tribes of Athens, who continued four
years in office. On the evening of the first day there was a race
with torches, in which men on foot, and afterwards on horseback,
contended. The same was also exhibited in the greater festivals. The
second combat was gymnical, and exhibited a trial of strength and
bodily dexterity. The last was a musical contention, first instituted
by Pericles. In the songs they celebrated the generous undertaking
of Harmodius and Aristogiton, who opposed the Pisistratidæ, and of
Thrasybulus, who delivered Athens from its 30 tyrants. Phrynis of
Mitylene was the first who obtained the victory by playing upon the
harp. There were, besides, other musical instruments, on which they
played in concert, such as flutes, &c. The poets contended in four
plays, called from their number τετραλογια. The last of these was
a satire. There was also at Sunium an imitation of a naval fight.
Whoever obtained the victory in any of these games was rewarded with
a vessel of oil, which he was permitted to dispose of in whatever
manner he pleased, and it was unlawful for any other person to
transport that commodity. The conqueror also received a crown of
the olives which grew in the groves of Academus, and were sacred
to Minerva, and called μορειαι, from μορος, _death_, in remembrance
of the tragical end of Hallirhotius the son of Neptune, who cut his
own legs when he attempted to cut down the olive which had given
the victory to Minerva in preference to his father, when these two
deities contended about giving a name to Athens. Some suppose that
the word is derived from μερος, _a part_, because these olives were
given by contribution by all such as attended at the festivals. There
was also a dance called _Pyrrhichia_, performed by young boys in
armour, in imitation of Minerva, who thus expressed her triumph over
the vanquished Titans. Gladiators were also introduced when Athens
became tributary to the Romans. During the celebration no person was
permitted to appear in dyed garments, and if any one transgressed
he was punished according to the discretion of the president of the
games. After these things, a sumptuous sacrifice was offered, in
which every one of the Athenian boroughs contributed an ox, and the
whole was concluded by an entertainment for all the company with the
flesh that remained from the sacrifice. In the greater festivals,
the same rites and ceremonies were usually observed, but with more
solemnity and magnificence. Others were also added, particularly
the procession, in which Minerva’s sacred πεπλος, or _garment_,
was carried. This garment was woven by a select number of virgins,
called ἐργαστικαι, from ἐργον, _work_. They were superintended by
two of the ἀρρηφοροι, or young virgins, not above 17 years of age
nor under 11, whose garments were white and set off with ornaments of
gold. Minerva’s _peplus_ was of a white colour, without sleeves, and
embroidered with gold. Upon it were described the achievements of the
goddess, particularly her victories over the giants. The exploits of
Jupiter and the other gods were also represented there, and from that
circumstance men of courage and bravery are said to be ἀξιοι πεπλου,
worthy to be portrayed on Minerva’s sacred garment. In the procession
of the _peplus_, the following ceremonies were observed. In the
_ceramicus_, without the city, there was an engine built in the form
of a ship, upon which Minerva’s garment was hung as a sail, and the
whole was conducted, not by beasts, as some have supposed, but by
subterraneous machines, to the temple of Ceres Eleusinia, and from
thence to the citadel, where the _peplus_ was placed upon Minerva’s
statue, which was laid upon a bed woven or strewed with flowers,
which was called πλακις. Persons of all ages, of every sex and
quality, attended the procession, which was led by old men and women
carrying olive branches in their hands, from which reason they were
called θαλλοφοροι, _bearers of green boughs_. Next followed men of
full age with shields and spears. They were attended by the μετοικοι,
or _foreigners_, who carried small boats as a token of their
foreign origin, and from that account they were called σκαφηφοροι,
_boat-bearers_. After them came the women, attended by the
wives of the foreigners, called ὑδριαφοροι, because they carried
_water-pots_. Next to these came young men crowned with millet
and singing hymns to the goddess, and after them followed select
virgins of the noblest families, called κανηφοροι, _basket-bearers_,
because they carried baskets, in which were certain things
necessary for the celebration, with whatever utensils were
also requisite. These several necessaries were generally in
the possession of the chief manager of the festival called
ἀρχιθεωρος, who distributed them when occasion offered. The virgins
were attended by the daughters of the foreigners, who carried
umbrellas and little seats, from which they were named διφρηφοροι,
_seat-carriers_. The boys, called παιδαμικοι, as it may be supposed,
led the rear, clothed in coats generally worn at processions. The
necessaries for this and every other festival were prepared in a
public hall erected for that purpose, between the Piræan gate and
the temple of Ceres. The management and the care of the whole was
entrusted to the ὑομοφυλακες, or people employed in seeing the
rites and ceremonies properly observed. It was also usual to set
all prisoners at liberty, and to present golden crowns to such as
had deserved well of their country. Some persons were also chosen
to sing some of Homer’s poems, a custom which was first introduced
by Hipparchus the son of Pisistratus. It was also customary in this
festival, and every other quinquennial festival, to pray for the
prosperity of the Platæans, whose services had been so conspicuous
at the battle of Marathon. _Plutarch_, _Theseus_.――_Pausanias_,
_Arcadia_, ch. 2.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 8, ch. 2.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 14.
=Panchæa=, =Panchēa=, or =Panchaia=, an island of Arabia Felix, where
Jupiter Triphylius had a magnificent temple.――――A part of Arabia
Felix, celebrated for the myrrh, frankincense, and perfumes which
it produced. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 2, li. 139; bk. 4, li. 379;
_The Gnat_, li. 87.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, li. 309, &c.
――_Diodorus_, bk. 5.――_Lucretius_, bk. 2, li. 417.
=Panda=, two deities at Rome, who presided, one over the openings of
roads, and the other over the openings of towns. _Varro_, _de Re
Rustica_, bk. 1.――_Aulus Gellius_, bk. 13, ch. 22.
=Pandama=, a girl of India favoured by Hercules, &c. _Polyænus_, bk. 1.
=Pandaria=, or =Pandataria=, a small island of the Tyrrhene sea.
=Pandărus=, a son of Lycaon, who assisted the Trojans in their war
against the Greeks. He went to the war without a chariot, and
therefore he generally fought on foot. He broke the truce which had
been agreed upon between the Greeks and Trojans, and wounded Menelaus
and Diomedes, and showed himself brave and unusually courageous. He
was at last killed by Diomedes; and Æneas, who then carried him in
his chariot, by attempting to revenge his death, nearly perished by
the hands of the furious enemy. _Dictys Cretensis_, bk. 2, ch. 35.
――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bks. 2 & 5.――_Hyginus_, fable 112.――_Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 5, li. 495.――_Strabo_, bk. 14.――_Servius_, _Aeneid_,
bk. 5, li. 495 ff.――――A son of Alcanor, killed with his brother Bitias
by Turnus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 735.――――A native of Crete,
punished with death for being accessary to the theft of Tantalus.
What this theft was is unknown. Some, however, suppose that Tantalus
stole the ambrosia and the nectar from the tables of the gods to
which he had been admitted, or that he carried away a dog which
watched Jupiter’s temple in Crete, in which crime Pandarus was
concerned, and for which he suffered. Pandarus had two daughters,
Camiro and Clytia, who were also deprived of their mother by a sudden
death, and left without friends or protectors. Venus had compassion
upon them, and she fed them with milk, honey, and wine. The goddesses
were all equally interested in their welfare. Juno gave them wisdom
and beauty, Diana a handsome figure and regular features, and Minerva
instructed them in whatever domestic accomplishment can recommend a
wife. Venus wished to make their happiness still more complete; and
when they were come to nubile years, the goddess prayed Jupiter to
grant them kind and tender husbands. But in her absence the Harpies
carried away the virgins and delivered them to the Eumenides, to
share the punishment which their father suffered. _Pausanias_, bk. 10,
ch. 30.――_Pindar._
=Pandărus=, or =Pandareus=, a man who had a daughter called Philomela.
She was changed into a nightingale, after she had killed, by mistake,
her son Itylus, whose death she mourned in the greatest melancholy.
Some suppose him to be the same as Pandion king of Athens.
=Pandataria=, an island on the coast of Lucania, now called _Santa
Maria_.
=Pandates=, a friend of Datames at the court of Artaxerxes. _Cornelius
Nepos_, _Datames_.
=Pandemia=, a surname of Venus, expressive of her great power over the
affections of mankind.
=Pandēmus=, one of the surnames of the god of love among the Egyptians
and the Greeks, who distinguished two Cupids, one of whom was the
vulgar, called Pandemus, and another of a purer and more celestial
origin. _Plutarch_, _Amatorius_.
=Pandia=, a festival at Athens established by Pandion, from whom it
received its name, or because it was observed in honour of Jupiter,
who can τα παντα διγευειν, _move and turn all things_ as he pleases.
Some suppose that it concerned the moon, because it does παντοτε
ἰεναι, _moves incessantly_, by showing itself day and night, rather
than the sun, which never appears but in the day-time. It was
celebrated after the Dionysia, because Bacchus is sometimes taken for
the Sun or Apollo, and therefore the brother, or, as some will have
it, the son, of the moon.
=Pandīon=, a king of Athens, son of Erichthon and Pasithea, who
succeeded his father, B.C. 1437. He became father of Procne and
Philomela, Erechtheus and Butes. During his reign, there was such
an abundance of corn, wine, and oil, that it was publicly reported
that Bacchus and Minerva had personally visited Attica. He waged a
successful war against Labdacus king of Bœotia, and gave his daughter
Procne in marriage to Tereus king of Thrace, who had assisted him.
The treatment which Philomela received from her brother-in-law Tereus
[_See:_ Philomela] was the source of infinite grief to Pandion, and
he died through excess of sorrow, after a reign of 40 years.――――There
was also another Pandion, son of Cecrops II. by Metiaduca, who
succeeded to his father, B.C. 1307. He was driven from his paternal
dominions, and fled to Pylas king of Megara, who gave him his
daughter Pelia in marriage, and resigned his crown to him. Pandion
became father of four children, called from him _Pandionidæ_, Ægeus,
Pallas, Nisus, and Lycus. The eldest of these children recovered
his father’s kingdom. Some authors have confounded the two Pandions
together in such an indiscriminate manner, that they seem to have
been only one and the same person. Many believe that Philomela and
Procne were the daughters, not of Pandion I., but of Pandion II.
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 6, li. 676.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3,
ch. 15.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 5.――_Hyginus_, fable 48.――――A son
of Phineus and Cleopatra, deprived of his eyesight by his father.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 15.――――A son of Ægyptus and Hephæstina.
――――A king of the Indies in the age of Augustus.
=Pandōra=, a celebrated woman, the first mortal female that ever lived,
according to the opinion of the poet Hesiod. She was made with clay
by Vulcan at the request of Jupiter, who wished to punish the impiety
and artifice of Prometheus, by giving him a wife. When this woman
of clay had been made by the artist, and received life, all the
gods vied in making her presents. Venus gave her beauty and the art
of pleasing, the Graces gave her the power of captivating, Apollo
taught her how to sing, Mercury instructed her in eloquence, and
Minerva gave her the most rich and splendid ornaments. From all these
valuable presents, which she had received from the gods, the woman
was called _Pandora_, which intimates that she had received _every_
necessary _gift_, παν δωρον. Jupiter after this gave her a beautiful
box, which she was ordered to present to the man who married her; and
by the commission of the god, Mercury conducted her to Prometheus.
The artful mortal was sensible of the deceit, and as he had always
distrusted Jupiter, as well as the rest of the gods, since he had
stolen fire away from the sun to animate his man of clay, he sent
away Pandora without suffering himself to be captivated by her charms.
His brother Epimetheus was not possessed of the same prudence and
sagacity. He married Pandora, and when he opened the box which she
presented to him, there issued from it a multitude of evils and
distempers, which dispersed themselves all over the world, and which,
from that fatal moment, have never ceased to afflict the human race.
Hope was the only one who remained at the bottom of the box, and it
is she alone who has the wonderful power of easing the labours of man,
and of rendering his troubles and his sorrows less painful in life.
_Hesiod_, _Theogony_ & _Works and Days_.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 7.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 24.――_Hyginus_, fable 14.――――A daughter
of Erechtheus king of Athens. She was sister to Protogenia, who
sacrificed herself for her country at the beginning of the Bœotian
war.
=Pandōrus=, a son of Erechtheus king of Athens.
=Pandosia=, a town in the country of the Brutii, situate on a mountain.
Alexander king of the Molossi died there. _Strabo_, bk. 6.――――A town
of Epirus. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 1.
=Pandrŏsos=, a daughter of Cecrops king of Athens, sister to Aglauros
and Herse. She was the only one of the sisters who had not the fatal
curiosity to open a basket which Minerva had entrusted to their care
[_See:_ Erichthonius], for which sincerity a temple was raised to her
near that of Minerva, and a festival instituted in her honour, called
_Pandrosia_. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 2, li. 738.――_Apollodorus_,
bk. 3.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, &c.
=Panenus=, or =Panæus=, a celebrated painter who was for some time
engaged in painting the battle of Marathon. _Pliny_, bk. 35.
=Pangæus=, a mountain of Thrace, anciently called _Mons Caraminus_,
and joined to mount Rhodope near the sources of the river Nestus.
It was inhabited by four different nations. It was on this mountain
that Lycurgus the Thracian king was torn to pieces, and that Orpheus
called the attention of the wild beasts, and of the mountains
and woods, to listen to his song. It abounded in gold and silver
mines. _Herodotus_, bk. 5, ch. 16, &c.; bk. 7, ch. 113.――_Virgil_,
_Georgics_, bk. 4, li. 462.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 3, li. 739.
――_Thucydides_, bk. 2.――_Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 679; bk. 7, li. 482.
=Paniasis=, a man who wrote a poem upon Hercules, &c. _See:_ Panyasis.
=Panionium=, a place at the foot of mount Mycale, near the town of
Ephesus in Asia Minor, sacred to Neptune of Helice. It was in this
place that all the states of Ionia assembled, either to consult for
their own safety and prosperity, or to celebrate festivals, or to
offer a sacrifice for the good of all the nation, whence the name
πανιωγιον, _all Ionia_. The deputies of the 12 Ionian cities which
assembled there were those of Miletus, Myus, Priene, Ephesus, Lebedos,
Colophon, Clazomenæ, Phocæa, Teos, Chios, Samos, and Erythræ. If the
bull offered in sacrifice bellowed, it was accounted an omen of the
highest favour, as the sound was particularly acceptable to the god
of the sea, as in some manner it resembled the roaring of the waves
of the ocean. _Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 148, &c.――_Strabo_, bk. 14.
――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 17.
=Panius=, a place at Cœlo-Syria, where Antiochus defeated Scopas,
B.C. 198.
=Pannŏnia=, a large country of Europe, bounded on the east by Upper
Mœsia, south by Dalmatia, west by Noricum, and north by the Danube.
It was divided by the ancients into Lower and Upper Pannonia. The
inhabitants were of Celtic origin, and were first invaded by Julius
Cæsar, and conquered in the reign of Tiberius. Philip and his son
Alexander some ages before had successively conquered it. Sirmium
was the ancient capital of all Pannonia, which contains the modern
provinces of Croatia, Carniola, Sclavonia, Bosnia, Windisch, March,
with part of Servia, and of the kingdoms of Hungary and Austria.
_Lucan_, bk. 3, li. 95; bk. 6, li. 220.――_Tibullus_, bk. 4, poem 1,
li. 109.――_Pliny_, bk. 3.――_Dio Cassius_, bk. 49.――_Strabo_, bks.
4 & 7.――_Jornandes._――_Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 9.――_Suetonius_,
_Augustus_, ch. 20.
=Panolbius=, a Greek poet, mentioned by Suidas.
=Panomphæus=, a surname of Jupiter, either because he was worshipped
by every nation on earth, or because he heard the prayers and the
supplications which were addressed to him, or because the rest of the
gods derived from him their knowledge of futurity (πας _omnis_, ὀμφη
_vox_). _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 11, li. 198.――_Homer_, _Iliad_,
bk. 8.
=Panŏpe=, or =Panŏpēa=, one of the Nereides, whom sailors generally
invoked in storms. Her name signifies, _giving every assistance, or
seeing everything_. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 251.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 5, li. 825.――――One of the daughters of Thespius. _Apollodorus_,
bk. 2, ch. 7.――――A town of Phocis, called also Panopeus. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 3, li. 19.――_Livy_, bk. 32, ch. 18.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 10, ch. 4.――_Statius_, _Thebaid_, bk. 7, li. 344.――_Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 2, li. 27; _Odyssey_, bk. 11, li. 580.
=Panŏpes=, a famous huntsman among the attendants of Acestes king of
Sicily, who was one of those that engaged in the games exhibited by
Æneas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 5, li. 300.
=Panŏpeus=, a son of Phocus and Asterodia, who accompanied Amphitryon
when he made war against the Teleboans. He was father to Epeus, who
made the celebrated wooden horse at the siege of Troy. _Pausanias_,
bk. 2, ch. 29.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 4.――――A town of Phocis,
between Orchomenos and the Cephisus. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 4.
――_Strabo_, bk. 9.
=Panopion=, a Roman saved from death by the uncommon fidelity of his
servant. When the assassins came to murder him as being proscribed,
the servant exchanged clothes with his master, and let him escape by
a back door. He afterwards went into his master’s bed, and suffered
himself to be killed, as if Panopion himself. _Valerius Maximus._
=Panopŏlis=, _the city of Pan_, a town of Egypt, called also _Chemmis_.
Pan had there a temple, where he was worshipped with great solemnity,
and represented in a statue _fascino longissimo et erecto_.
_Diodorus_, bk. 5.――_Strabo_, bk. 17.
=Panoptes=, a name of Argus, from the power of his eyes. _Apollodorus_,
bk. 2.
=Panormus=, now called _Palermo_, a town of Sicily, built by the
Phœnicians, on the north-west part of the island, with a good and
capacious harbour. It was the strongest hold of the Carthaginians
in Sicily, and it was at last taken with difficulty by the Romans.
_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 14, li. 262.――――A
town of the Thracian Chersonesus.――――A town of Ionia, near Ephesus,
――――Another in Crete,――――in Macedonia,――――Achaia,――――Samos.――――A
Messenian who insulted the religion of the Lacedæmonians. _See:_
Gonippus.
=Panotii=, a people of Scythia, said to have very large ears. _Pliny_,
bk. 4, ch. 13.
=Pansa Cætronianus Vibius=, a Roman consul who, with Aulus Hirtius,
pursued the murderers of Julius Cæsar, and was killed in a battle
near Mutina. On his death-bed he advised young Octavius to unite
his interest with that of Antony, if he wished to revenge the death
of Julius Cæsar, and from his friendly advice soon after rose the
celebrated second triumvirate. Some suppose that Pansa was put
to death by Octavius himself, or, through him, by the physician
Glicon, who poured poison into the wounds of his patient. Pansa and
Hirtius were the two last consuls who enjoyed the dignity of chief
magistrates of Rome with full power. The authority of the consuls
afterwards dwindled into a shadow. _Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 6.――_Dio
Cassius_, bk. 46.――_Ovid_, _Tristia_ bk. 3, poem 5.――_Plutarch_ &
_Appian_.
=Pantagnostus=, a brother of Polycrates tyrant of Samos. _Polyænus_,
bk. 1.
=Pantagyas=, a small river on the eastern coast of Sicily, which falls
into the sea, after running a short space in rough cascades over
rugged stones and precipices. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 689.
――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 14, li. 232.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 4,
li. 471.
=Pantaleon=, a king of Pisa, who presided at the Olympic games, B.C. 664,
after excluding the Eleans, who on that account expunged the Olympiad
from the Fasti, and called it the second Anolympiad. They had called
for the same reason the eighth the first Anolympiad, because the
Pisæans presided.――――An Ætolian chief. _Livy_, bk. 42, ch. 15.
=Pantanus lacus=, the lake of _Lesina_, is situate in Apulia at the
mouth of the Freuto. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 12.
=Pantauchus=, a man appointed over Ætolia by Demetrius, &c. _Plutarch._
=Panteus=, a friend of Cleomenes king of Sparta, &c. _Plutarch._
=Panthides=, a man who married Italia the daughter of Themistocles.
=Panthea=, the wife of Abradates, celebrated for her beauty and conjugal
affection. She was taken prisoner by Cyrus, who refused to visit her,
not to be ensnared by the power of her personal charms. She killed
herself on the body of her husband, who had been slain in a battle,
&c. _See:_ Abradates. _Xenophon_, _Cyropædia_.――_Suidas._――――The
mother of Eumæus the faithful servant of Ulysses.
=Pantheon=, a celebrated temple at Rome, built by Agrippa, in the reign
of Augustus, and dedicated to all the gods, whence the name πας θεος.
It was struck with lightning some time after, and partly destroyed.
♦Adrian repaired it, and it still remains at Rome, converted into a
christian temple, the admiration of the curious. _Pliny_, bk. 36,
ch. 15.――_Marcellinus_, bk. 16, ch. 10.
♦ ‘Adarin’ replaced with ‘Adrian’
=Pantheus=, or =Panthus=, a Trojan, son of Othryas the priest of Apollo.
When his country was burnt by the Greeks, he followed the fortune of
Æneas, and was killed. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 2, li. 429.
=Panthoĭdes=, a patronymic of Euphorbus the son of Panthous. Pythagoras
is sometimes called by that name, as he asserted that he was
Euphorbus during the Trojan war. _Horace_, bk. 1, ode 28, li. 10.
――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 15, li. 161.――――A Spartan general
killed by Pericles at the battle of Tanagra.
=Panticăpæum=, now _Kerche_, a town of Taurica Chersonesus, built by
the Milesians, and governed some time by its own laws, and afterwards
subdued by the kings of Bosphorus. It was, according to Strabo, the
capital of the European Bosphorus. Mithridates the Great died there.
_Pliny._――_Strabo._
=Panticăpes=, a river of European Scythia, which falls into the
Borysthenes, supposed to be the _Samara_ of the moderns. _Herodotus_,
bk. 4, ch. 54.
=Pantilius=, a buffoon, ridiculed by _Horace_, bk. 1, satire 10, li. 78.
=Panyăsis=, an ancient Greek, uncle to the historian Herodotus. He
celebrated Hercules in one of his poems, and the Ionians in another,
and was universally esteemed. _Athenæus_, bk. 2.
=Panyăsus=, a river of Illyricum, falling into the Adriatic, near
Dyrrhachium. _Ptolemy._
=Papæus=, a name of Jupiter among the Scythians. _Herodotus_, bk. 4.
=Păphāges=, a king of Ambracia, killed by a lioness deprived of her
whelps. _Ovid_, _Ibis_, li. 502.
=Paphia=, a surname of Venus, because the goddess was worshipped at
Paphos.――――An ancient name of the island of Cyprus.
=Paphlăgŏnia=, now _Penderachia_, a country of Asia Minor, situate
at the west of the river Halys, by which it was separated from
Cappadocia. It was divided on the west from the Bithynians, by
the river Parthenius. _Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 72.――_Strabo_, bk. 4.
――_Mela._――_Pliny._――_Curtius_, bk. 6, ch. 11.――_Cicero_, _De Lege
Agraria contra Rullum_, bk. 2, chs. 2 & 9.
=Paphos=, now _Bafo_, a famous city of the island of Cyprus, founded,
as some suppose, about 1184 years before Christ, by Agapenor, at the
head of a colony from Arcadia. The goddess of beauty was particularly
worshipped there, and all male animals were offered on her altars,
which, though 100 in number, daily smoked with the profusion of
Arabian frankincense. The inhabitants were very effeminate and
lascivious, and the young virgins were permitted by the laws of the
place to get a dowry by prostitution. _Strabo_, bk. 8, &c.――_Pliny_,
bk. 2, ch. 96.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 8.
――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 419, &c.; bk. 10, li. 51, &c.
――_Horace_, bk. 1, ode 30, li. 1.――_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 3, ch. 62;
_Histories_, bk. 2, ch. 2.
=Paphus=, a son of Pygmalion, by a statue which had been changed into
a woman by Venus. _See:_ Pygmalion. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 10,
li. 297.
=Papia lex=, _de peregrinis_, by Papius the tribune, A.U.C. 688, which
required that all strangers should be driven away from Rome. It was
afterwards confirmed and extended by the Junian law.――――Another,
called _Papia Poppæa_, because it was enacted by the tribunes Marcus
Papius Mutilus and Quintus Poppæus Secundus, who had received
consular power from the consuls for six months. It was called the
Julian law, after it had been published by order of Augustus, who
himself was of the Julian family. _See:_ Julia lex, _de Maritandis
ordinibus_.――――Another, to empower the high priest to choose 20
virgins for the service of the goddess Vesta.――――Another, in the age
of Augustus. It gave the patron a certain right to the property of
his client, if he had left a specified sum of money, or if he had not
three children.
=Papiānus=, a man who proclaimed himself emperor some time after the
Gordians. He was put to death.
=Papias=, an early christian writer, who first propagated the doctrine
of the Millennium. There are remaining some historical fragments of
his.
=Papinianus=, a writer, A.D. 212. _See:_ Æmylius Papinianus.
=Papinius=, a tribune who conspired against Caligula.――――A man who
destroyed himself, &c. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 6, ch. 49.
=Pāpĭria=, the wife of Paulus Æmylius. She was divorced. _Plutarch._
=Papiria lex=, by Papirius Carbo, A.U.C. 621. It required that, in
passing or rejecting laws in the _comitia_, the votes should be given
on tablets.――――Another, by the tribune Papirius, which enacted that
no person should consecrate any edifice, place, or thing, without the
consent and permission of the people. _Cicero_, _On his House_, ch.
50.――――Another, A.U.C. 563, to diminish the weight, and increase the
value of the Roman _as_.――――Another, A.U.C. 421, to give the freedom
of the city to the citizens of Acerræ.――――Another, A.U.C. 623. It was
proposed, but not passed. It recommended the right of choosing a man
tribune of the people as often as he wished.
=Pāpĭrius=, a centurion engaged to murder Piso the proconsul of Africa.
_Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 4, ch. 49.――――A patrician, chosen _rex
sacrorum_, after the expulsion of the Tarquins from Rome.――――A Roman
who wished to gratify his unnatural desires upon the body of one of
his slaves called Publilius. The slave refused, and was inhumanly
treated. This called for the interference of justice, and a decree
was made which forbade any person to be detained in fetters, but
only for a crime that deserved such a treatment, and only till
the criminal had suffered the punishment which the laws directed.
Creditors also had a right to arrest the goods, and not the person,
of their debtors. _Livy_, bk. 8, ch. 28.――――Carbo, a Roman consul who
undertook the defence of Opimius, who was accused of condemning and
putting to death a number of citizens on mount Aventinus, without the
formalities of a trial. His client was acquitted.――――Cursor, a man
who first erected a sun-dial in the temple of Quirinus at Rome, B.C.
293; from which time the days began to be divided into hours.――――A
dictator who ordered his master of horse to be put to death, because
he had fought and conquered the enemies of the republic without his
consent. The people interfered, and the dictator pardoned him. Cursor
made war against the Sabines and conquered them, and also triumphed
over the Samnites. His great severity displeased the people. He
flourished about 320 years before the christian era. _Livy_, bk. 9,
ch. 14.――――One of his family surnamed _Prætextatus_, from an action
of his whilst he wore the _prætexta_, a certain gown for young men.
His father, of the same name, carried him to the senate-house, where
affairs of the greatest importance were then in debate before the
senators. The mother of young Papirius wished to know what had passed
in the senate; but Papirius, unwilling to betray the secrets of that
august assembly, amused his mother by telling her that it had been
considered whether it would be more advantageous to the republic to
give two wives to one husband, than two husbands to one wife. The
mother of Papirius was alarmed, and she communicated the secret to
the other Roman matrons, and, on the morrow, they assembled in the
senate, petitioning that one woman might have two husbands, rather
than one husband two wives. The senators were astonished at this
petition, but young Papirius unravelled the whole mystery, and from
that time it was made a law among the senators, that no young man
should for the future be introduced into the senate-house, except
Papirius. This law was carefully observed till the age of Augustus,
who permitted children of all ages to hear the debates of the
senators. _Macrobius_, _Saturnalia_, bk. 1, ch. 6.――――Carbo, a friend
of Cinna and Marius. He raised cabals against Sylla and Pompey, and
was at last put to death by order of Pompey, after he had rendered
himself odious by a tyrannical consulship, and after he had been
proscribed by Sylla.――――A consul defeated by the armies of the Cimbri.
――――Crassus, a dictator who triumphed over the Samnites.――――A consul
murdered by the Gauls, &c.――――A son of Papirius Cursor, who defeated
the Samnites, and dedicated a temple to Romulus Quirinus.――――Maso, a
consul who conquered Sardinia and Corsica, and reduced them into the
form of a province. At his return to Rome, he was refused a triumph,
upon which he introduced a triumphal procession, and walked with his
victorious army to the capitol, wearing a crown of myrtle upon his
head. His example was afterwards followed by such generals as were
refused a triumph by the Roman senate. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 3, ch.
6.――――The family of the Papirii was patrician, and long distinguished
for its services to the state. It bore the different surnames of
_Crassus_, _Cursor_, _Mugillanus_, _Maso_, _Prætextatus_, and _Pætus_,
of which the three first branches became the most illustrious.
=Pappia lex=, was enacted to settle the rights of husbands and wives,
if they had no children.――――Another, by which a person less than 50
years old could not marry another of 60.
=Pappus=, a philosopher and mathematician of Alexandria, in the reign
of Theodosius the Great.
=Papyrius.= _See:_ Papirius.
=Parabyston=, a tribunal of Athens, where causes of inferior
consequences were tried by 11 judges. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 40.
=Paradīsus=, a town of Syria or Phœnicia. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 23.
――_Strabo_, bk. 16.――――In the plains of Jericho there was a large
palace, with a garden beautifully planted with trees, and called
_Balsami Paradisus_.
=Parætacæ=, or =Taceni=, a people between Media and Persia, where
Antigonus was defeated by Eumenes. _Cornelius Nepos_, _Eumenes_,
ch. 8.――_Strabo_, bks. 11 & 16.――_Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 26.
=Parætonium=, a town of Egypt at the west of Alexandria, where Isis
was worshipped. The word _Parætonius_ is used to signify Egyptian,
and is sometimes applied to Alexandria, which was situate in the
neighbourhood. _Strabo_, bk. 17.――_Florus_, bk. 4, ch. 11.――_Lucan_,
bk. 3, li. 295; bk. 10, li. 9.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 9,
li. 712; _Amores_, bk. 2, poem 13, li. 7.
=Parăli=, a division of the inhabitants of Attica. They received this
name from their being near the _sea coast_, παρα and ἁλς.
=Parălus=, a friend of Dion, by whose assistance he expelled Dionysius.
――――A son of Pericles. His premature death was greatly lamented by
his father. _Plutarch._
=Parasia=, a country at the east of Media.
=Parasius=, a son of Philonomia by a shepherd. He was exposed on
Erymanthus by his mother, with his twin brother Lycastus. Their lives
were preserved.
=Parcæ=, powerful goddesses, who presided over the birth and the life
of mankind. They were three in number, Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos,
daughters of Nox and Erebus, according to Hesiod, or of Jupiter and
Themis, according to the same poet in another poem. Some make them
daughters of the sea. Clotho, the youngest of the sisters, presided
over the moment in which we are born, and held a distaff in her hand;
Lachesis spun out all the events and actions of our life; and Atropos,
the eldest of the three, cut the thread of human life with a pair
of scissors. Their different functions are well expressed in this
ancient verse:
_Clotho colum retinet, Lachesis net, et Atropos occat._
The name of the Parcæ, according to Varro, is derived _a partu_
or _parturiendo_, because they presided over the birth of men; and
by corruption the word _parca_ is formed from _parta_ or _partus_:
but, according to Servius, they are called so by antiphrasis, _quod
nemini parcant_. The power of the Parcæ was great and extensive. Some
suppose that they were subjected to none of the gods but Jupiter,
while others support that even Jupiter himself was obedient to their
commands; and, indeed, we see the father of the gods, in Homer’s
Iliad, unwilling to see Patroclus perish, yet obliged, by the
superior power of the Fates, to abandon him to his destiny. According
to the more received opinion, they were the arbiters of the life
and death of mankind, and whatever good or evil befalls us in the
world, immediately proceeds from the Fates or Parcæ. Some make them
ministers of the king of hell, and represent them as sitting at
the foot of his throne; others represent them as placed on radiant
thrones, amidst the celestial spheres, clothed in robes spangled with
stars, and wearing crowns on their heads. According to Pausanias, the
names of the Parcæ were different from those already mentioned. The
most ancient of all, as the geographer observes, was Venus Urania,
who presided over the birth of men; the second was Fortune; Ilythia
was the third. To these some add a fourth, Proserpina, who often
disputes with Atropos the right of cutting the thread of human
life. The worship of the Parcæ was well established in some cities
of Greece, and though mankind were well convinced that they were
inexorable, and that it was impossible to mitigate them, yet they
were eager to show a proper respect to their divinity, by raising
them temples and statues. They received the same worship as the
Furies, and their votaries yearly sacrificed to them black sheep,
during which solemnity the priests were obliged to wear garlands
of flowers. The Parcæ were generally represented as three old women
with chaplets made with wool, and interwoven with the flowers of the
narcissus. They were covered with a white robe, and fillet of the
same colour, bound with chaplets. One of them held a distaff, another
the spindle, and the third was armed with scissors, with which she
cut the thread which her sisters had spun. Their dress is differently
represented by some authors. Clotho appears in a variegated robe,
and on her head is a crown of seven stars. She holds a distaff in her
hand, reaching from heaven to earth. The robe which Lachesis wore was
variegated with a great number of stars, and near her were placed a
variety of spindles. Atropos was clothed in black; she held scissors
in her hand, with clues of thread of different sizes, according to
the length and shortness of the lives, whose destinies they seemed
to contain. Hyginus attributes to them the invention of these Greek
letters, α, β, η, τ, υ, and others call them the secretaries of
heaven, and the keepers of the archives of eternity. The Greeks call
the Parcæ by the different names of μοιρα, αἰσα, κηρ, εἰμαρμενη,
which are expressive of their power and of their inexorable decrees.
_Hesiod_, _Theogony_ & _Shield of Heracles_.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1,
ch. 40; bk. 3, ch. 11; bk. 5, ch. 15.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 20;
_Odyssey_, bk. 7.――_Theocritus._――_Callimachus_, _Hymn to Artemis_.
――_Ælian_, _De Natura Animalium_, bk. 10.――_Pindar_, _Olympian_, poem
10; _Nemean_, poem 7.――_Euripides_, _Iphigeneia_.――_Plutarch_, _de
Faciæ Quæ in Orbe Lunæ Apparet_.――_Hyginus_, in preface to fables &
fable 277.――_Varro._――_Orpheus_, hymn 58.――_Apollonius_, bk. 1, &c.
――_Claudian_, _de Raptu Proserpinæ_.――_Lycophron_ & Tzetzes, &c.
――_Horace_, bk. 2, ode 6, &c.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, li.
533.――_Lucan_, bk. 3.――_Virgil_, _Eclogues_, poem 4; _Æneid_, bk. 3,
&c.――_Seneca_, _Hercules Furens_.――_Statius_, _Thebaid_, bk. 6.
=Parentalia=, a festival annually observed at Rome in honour of the
dead. The friends and relations of the deceased assembled on the
occasion, when sacrifices were offered, and banquets provided. Æneas
first established it. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 2, li. 544.
=Parentium=, a port and town of Istria. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 19.
=Păris=, the son of Priam king of Troy by Hecuba, also called
_Alexander_. He was destined, even before his birth, to become the
ruin of his country; and when his mother, in the first month of
her pregnancy, had dreamed that she should bring forth a torch
which should set fire to her palace, the soothsayers foretold the
calamities which might be expected from the imprudence of her future
son, and which would end in the destruction of Troy. Priam, to
prevent so great and so alarming an evil, ordered his slave Archelaus
to destroy the child as soon as born. The slave, either touched
with humanity, or influenced by Hecuba, did not destroy him, but
was satisfied to expose him on mount Ida, where the shepherds of the
place found him, and educated him as their own son. Some attribute
the preservation of his life, before he was found by the shepherds,
to the motherly tenderness of a she-bear which suckled him. Young
Paris, though educated among shepherds and peasants, gave early
proofs of courage and intrepidity, and from his care in protecting
the flocks of mount Ida against the rapacity of the wild beasts, he
obtained the name of Alexander (_helper_ or _defender_). He gained
the esteem of all the shepherds, and his graceful countenance and
manly deportment recommended him to the favour of Œnone, a nymph of
Ida, whom he married, and with whom he lived with the most perfect
tenderness. Their conjugal peace was soon disturbed. At the marriage
of Peleus and Thetis, the goddess of discord, who had not been
invited to partake of the entertainment, showed her displeasure by
throwing into the assembly of the gods who were at the celebration
of the nuptials, a golden apple on which were written the words
_Detur pulchriori_. All the goddesses claimed it as their own: the
contention at first became general, but at last only three, Juno,
Venus, and Minerva, wished to dispute their respective right to
beauty. The gods, unwilling to become arbiters in an affair of so
tender and so delicate a nature, appointed Paris to adjudge the prize
of beauty to the fairest of the goddesses, and indeed the shepherd
seemed properly qualified to decide so great a contest, as his wisdom
was so well established, and his prudence and sagacity so well known.
The goddesses appeared before their judge without any covering or
ornament, and each tried by promises and entreaties to gain the
attention of Paris, and to influence his judgment. Juno promised him
a kingdom; Minerva, military glory; and Venus, the fairest woman in
the world for his wife, as Ovid expresses it, _Heroides_, poem 17,
li. 118,
_Udaque cum regnum; belli daret altera laudem;
Tyndaridis conjux, tertia dixit, eris._
After he had heard their several claims and promises, Paris adjudged
the prize to Venus, and gave her the golden apple, to which, perhaps,
she seemed entitled as the goddess of beauty. This decision of Paris
in favour of Venus drew upon the judge and his family the resentment
of the two other goddesses. Soon after Priam proposed a contest among
his sons and other princes, and promised to reward the conqueror with
one of the finest bulls of mount Ida. His emissaries were sent to
procure the animal, and it was found in the possession of Paris, who
reluctantly yielded it up. The shepherd was desirous of obtaining
again this favourite animal, and he went to Troy and entered the
list of the combatants. He was received with the greatest applause,
and obtained the victory over his rivals, Nestor the son of Neleus;
Cycnus son of Neptune; Polites, Helenus, and Deiphobus sons of Priam.
He also obtained a superiority over Hector himself, and the prince,
enraged to see himself conquered by an unknown stranger, pursued
him closely, and Paris must have fallen a victim to his brother’s
resentment, had he not fled to the altar of Jupiter. This sacred
retreat preserved his life, and Cassandra the daughter of Priam,
struck with the similarity of the features of Paris with those of her
brothers, inquired his birth and his age. From these circumstances
she soon discovered that he was her brother, and as such she
introduced him to her father and to his children. Priam acknowledged
Paris as his son, forgetful of the alarming dream which had
influenced him to meditate his death, and all jealousy ceased among
the brothers. Paris did not long suffer himself to remain inactive;
he equipped a fleet, as if willing to redeem Hesione, his father’s
sister, whom Hercules had carried away and obliged to marry Telamon
the son of Æacus. This was the pretended motive of his voyage, but
the causes were far different. Paris recollected that he was to
be the husband of the fairest of women; and if he had been led to
form those expectations while he was an obscure shepherd of Ida, he
had now every plausible reason to see them realized, since he was
acknowledged son of the king of Troy. Helen was the fairest woman
of the age, and Venus had promised her to him. On these grounds,
therefore, he visited Sparta, the residence of Helen, who had married
Menelaus. He was received with every mark of respect, but he abused
the hospitality of Menelaus, and while the husband was absent in
Crete, Paris persuaded Helen to elope with him and fly to Asia. Helen
consented, and Priam received her into his palace without difficulty,
as his sister was then detained in a foreign country, and as he
wished to show himself as hostile as possible to the Greeks. This
affair was soon productive of serious consequences. When Menelaus had
married Helen, all her suitors had bound themselves by a solemn oath
to protect her person, and to defend her from every violence [_See:_
Helena], and therefore the injured husband reminded them of their
engagements, and called upon them to recover Helen. Upon this all
Greece took up arms in the cause of Menelaus; Agamemnon was chosen
general of all the combined forces, and a regular war was begun.
_See:_ Troja. Paris, meanwhile, who had refused Helen to the
petitions and embassies of the Greeks, armed himself with his
brothers and subjects to oppose the enemy; but the success of the
war was neither hindered nor accelerated by his means. He fought with
little courage, and at the very sight of Menelaus, whom he had so
recently injured, all his resolution vanished, and he retired from
the front of the army, where he walked before like a conqueror. In
a combat with Menelaus, which he undertook at the persuasion of his
brother Hector, Paris must have perished, had not Venus interfered,
and stolen him from the resentment of his adversary. He nevertheless
wounded, in another battle, Machaon, Euryphilus, and Diomedes, and,
according to some opinions, he killed with one of his arrows the
great Achilles. _See:_ Achilles. The death of Paris is differently
related; some suppose that he was mortally wounded by one of the
arrows of Philoctetes, which had been once in the possession of
Hercules, and that when he found himself languid on account of his
wounds, he ordered himself to be carried to the feet of Œnone, whom
he had basely abandoned, and who, in the years of his obscurity,
had foretold him that he would solicit her assistance in his dying
moments. He expired before he came into the presence of Œnone, and
the nymph, still mindful of their former loves, threw herself upon
his body, and stabbed herself to the heart, after she had plentifully
bathed it with her tears. According to some authors, Paris did not
immediately go to Troy when he left the Peloponnesus, but he was
driven on the coast of Egypt, where Proteus, who was king of the
country, detained him, and when he heard of the violence which had
been offered to the king of Sparta, he kept Helen at his court,
and permitted Paris to retire. _See:_ Helena. _Dictys Cretensis_,
bks. 1, 3, & 4.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 12.――_Homer_, _Iliad_.
――_Ovid_, _Heroides_, poems 5, 16, & 17.――_Quintus Calabrus
[Smyrnæus]_, bk. 10, li. 290.――_Horace_, ode 3.――_Euripides_,
_Iphigeneia_.――_Hyginus_, fables 92 & 273.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1,
&c.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 12, ch. 42.――_Pausanias_, bk. 10,
ch. 27.――_Cicero_, _de Divinatione_.――_Lycophron_. & _Tzetzes_ on
_Lycophron_.――――A celebrated player at Rome, in the good graces of
the emperor Nero, &c. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 13, ch. 19, &c.
=Parisădes=, a king of Pontus in the age of Alexander the Great.
――――Another, king of Bosphorus.
=Parīsii=, a people and a city of Celtic Gaul, now called _Paris_, the
capital of the kingdom of France. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 6, ch. 3.
=Parisus=, a river of Pannonia, falling into the Danube. _Strabo._
=Parium=, now _Camanar_, a town of Asia Minor, on the Propontis, where
Archilochus was born, as some say. _Strabo_, bk. 10.――_Pliny_, bk. 7,
ch. 2; bk. 36, ch. 5.
=Parma=, a town of Italy, near Cremona, celebrated for its wool, and
now for its cheese. The poet Cassius and the critic Macrobius were
born there. It was made a Roman colony, A.U.C. 569. The inhabitants
are called _Parmenenses_ and _Parmani_. _Livy_, bk. 39, ch. 55.
――_Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ltr. 4, li. 3.――_Cicero_,
_Philippics_, bk. 14, li. 3.――_Varro_, _de Lingua Latina_, bk. 7,
ch. 31.――_Martial_, bk. 2, ltr. 43, li. 4; bk. 3, ltr. 13, li. 8 &
ltr. 14, li. 155.
=Parmenĭdes=, a Greek philosopher of Elis, who flourished about 505
years before Christ. He was son of Pyres of Elis, and the pupil
of Xenophanes, or of Anaximander, according to some. He maintained
that there were only two elements, fire and the earth; and he taught
that the first generation of men was produced from the sun. He first
discovered that the earth was round, and habitable only in the two
temperate zones, and that it was suspended in the centre of the
universe, in a fluid lighter than air, so that all bodies left to
themselves fell on its surface. There were, as he supposed, only two
sorts of philosophy,――one founded on reason, and the other on opinion.
He digested this unpopular system in verses, of which a few fragments
remain. _Diogenes Laërtius._
=Parmenio=, a celebrated general in the armies of Alexander, who
enjoyed the king’s confidence, and was more attached to his person as
a man than as a monarch. When Darius king of Persia offered Alexander
all the country which lies at the west of the Euphrates, with his
daughter Statira in marriage, and 10,000 talents of gold, Parmenio
took occasion to observe that he would, without hesitation, accept of
these conditions, if he were Alexander. “So would I, were I Parmenio,”
replied the conqueror. This friendship, so true and inviolable, was
sacrificed to a moment of resentment and suspicion; and Alexander,
who had too eagerly listened to a light and perhaps a false
accusation, ordered Parmenio and his son to be put to death, as if
guilty of treason against his person. Parmenio was in the 70th year
of his age, B.C. 330. He died in the greatest popularity, and it
has been judiciously observed, that Parmenio obtained many victories
without Alexander, but Alexander not one without Parmenio. _Curtius_,
bk. 7, &c.――_Plutarch_, _Alexander_.
=Parnassus=, a mountain of Phocis, anciently called _Larnassos_, from
the _boat_ of Deucalion (λαρναξ), which was carried there in the
universal deluge. It received the name of Parnassus from Parnassus
the son of Neptune by Cleobula, and was sacred to the Muses, and
to Apollo and Bacchus. The soil was barren, but the valleys and
the green woods that covered its sides, rendered it agreeable, and
fit for solitude and meditation. Parnassus is one of the highest
mountains of Europe, and it is easily seen from the citadel of
Corinth, though at the distance of about 80 miles. According to the
computation of the ancients, it is one day’s journey round. At the
north of Parnassus, there is a large plain, about eight miles in
circumference. The mountain, according to the poets, had only two
tops, called _Hyampea_ and _Tithorea_, on one of which the city of
Delphi was situated, and thence it was called _Biceps_. _Strabo_, bks.
8, 9.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, li. 317; bk. 2, li. 221; bk. 5,
li. 278.――_Lucan_, bk. 5, li. 71; bk. 3, li. 173.――_Livy_, bk. 42,
ch. 16.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 15, li. 311.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 6.――_Propertius_, bk. 2, poem 23, li. 13;
bk. 3, poem 11, li. 54.――――A son of Neptune, who gave his name to a
mountain of Phocis.
=Parnes= (etis), a mountain of Africa, abounding in vines. _Statius_,
bk. 12, _Thebaid_, li. 620.
=Parnessus=, a mountain of Asia near Bactriana. _Dionysius Periegeta_,
li. 737.
=Parni=, a tribe of the Scythians, who invaded Parthia. _Strabo_,
bk. 11.
=Paron= and =Heraclides=, two youths who killed a man who had insulted
their father. _Plutarch_, _Apophthegmata Laconica_.
=Paropamisus=, a ridge of mountains at the north of India, called the
_Stony Girdle_, or Indian Caucasus. _Strabo_, bk. 15.
=Paropus=, now _Colisano_, a town at the north of Sicily, on the shores
of the Tyrrhene sea. _Polybius_, bk. 1, ch. 24.
=Paroreia=, a town of Thrace, near mount Hæmus. _Livy_, bk. 39, ch. 27.
――――A town of Peloponnesus.――――A district of Phrygia Magna. _Strabo_,
bk. 12.
=Paros=, a celebrated island among the Cyclades, about 7½ miles distant
from Naxos, and 28 from Delos. According to Pliny, it is half as
large as Naxos, that is, about 36 or 37 miles in circumference, a
measure which some of the moderns have extended to 50 and even 80
miles. It has borne the different names of _Pactia_, _Minoa_, _Hiria_,
_Demetrias_, _Zacynthus_, _Cabarnis_, and _Hyleassa_. It received
the name of Paros, which it still bears, from Paros, a son of Jason,
or, as some maintain, of Parrhasius. The island of Paros was rich
and powerful, and well known for its famous marble, which was always
used by the best statuaries. The best quarries were those of Marpesus,
a mountain where still caverns of the most extraordinary depth are
seen by modern travellers, and admired as the sources from whence
the ♦labyrinth of Egypt and the porticoes of Greece received their
splendour. According to Pliny, the quarries were so uncommonly deep,
that, in the clearest weather, the workmen were obliged to use lamps,
from which circumstance the Greeks have called the marble _Lychnites_,
worked by the light of lamps. Paros is also famous for the fine
cattle which it produces, and for its partridges, and wild pigeons.
The capital city was called Paros. It was first peopled by the
Phœnicians, and afterwards a colony of Cretans settled in it. The
Athenians made war against it, because it had assisted the Persians
in the invasion of Greece, and took it, and it became a Roman
province in the age of Pompey. Archilochus was born there. The
_Parian_ marbles, perhaps better known by the appellation of
_Arundelian_, were engraved in this island in capital letters, B.C.
264, and, as a valuable chronicle, preserved the most celebrated
epochas of Greece, from the year 1582 B.C. These valuable pieces of
antiquity were procured originally by M. de Peirisc, a Frenchman,
and afterwards purchased by the earl of Arundel, by whom they were
given to the university of Oxford, where they are still to be seen.
Prideaux published an account of all the inscriptions in 1676. _Mela_,
bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Miltiades_ &
_Alcibiades_.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 593; _Georgics_, bk. 3,
li. 34.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 3, li. 419; bk. 7, li. 466.
――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 14; bk. 36, ch. 17.――_Diodorus_, bk. 5, &
_Thucydides_, bk. 1.――_Herodotus_, bk. 5, &c.――_Horace_, bk. 1,
ode 19, li. 6.
♦ ‘labryrinth’ replaced with ‘labyrinth’
=Parphŏrus=, a native of Colophon, who, at the head of a colony, built
a town at the foot of Ida, which was abandoned for a situation nearer
his native city. _Strabo_, bk. 14.――_Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 3.
=Parrhăsia=, a town of Arcadia, founded by Parrhasius the son of
Jupiter. The Arcadians are sometimes called _Parrhasians_, and
Arcas _Parrhasis_, and Carmenta, Evander’s mother, _Parrhasiadea_.
_Lucan_, bk. 2, li. 237.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8, li. 333.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 8, li. 315; _Fasti_, bk. 1, li. 618; _Tristia_,
bk. 1, li. 190.――_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 27.
=Parrhăsius=, a famous painter, son of Evenor of Ephesus, in the age
of Zeuxis, about 415 years before Christ. He was a great master of
his profession, and particularly excelled in strongly expressing
the violent passions. He was blessed with a great genius, and much
invention, and he was particularly happy in his designs. He acquired
himself great reputation by his pieces, but by none more than that
in which he allegorically represented the people of Athens with all
the injustice, the clemency, the fickleness, timidity, the arrogance
and inconsistency, which so eminently characterized that celebrated
nation. He once entered the lists against Zeuxis, and when they had
produced their respective pieces, the birds came to pick with the
greatest avidity the grapes which ♦Zeuxis had painted. Immediately
Parrhasius exhibited his piece, and Zeuxis said, “Remove your
curtain, that we may see the painting.” The curtain was the painting,
and Zeuxis acknowledged himself conquered, by exclaiming, “Zeuxis
has deceived birds, but Parrhasius has deceived Zeuxis himself”.
Parrhasius grew so vain of his art, that he clothed himself in purple,
and wore a crown of gold, calling himself the king of painters. He
was lavish in his own praises, and by his vanity too often exposed
himself to the ridicule of his enemies. _Plutarch_, _Theseus_;
_Quomodo Adolescens Poetas Audire Debeat_.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch.
28.――_Pliny_, bk. 35, ch. 10.――_Horace_, bk. 4, ode 8.――――A son of
Jupiter, or, according to some, of Mars, by a nymph called Philonomia.
♦ ‘Xeuxis’ replaced with ‘Zeuxis’
=Parthamisiris=, a king of Armenia, in the reign of Trajan.
=Parthāon=, a son of Agenor and Epicaste, who married Euryte daughter
of Hippodamus, by whom he had many children, among whom were Œneus
and Sterope. Parthaon was brother to Demonice, the mother of Evenus
by Mars, and also to Molus, Pylus, and Thestius. He is called
Portheus by Homer, _Iliad_, bk. 14.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 7.
――_Hyginus_, fables 129 & 239.――――A son of Peripetus and father of
Aristas. _Pausanias_, bk. 8.
=Parthĕniæ= and =Parthĕnii=, a certain number of desperate citizens
of Sparta. During the Messenian war, the Spartans were absent from
their city for the space of 10 years, and it was unlawful for them to
return, as they had bound themselves by a solemn oath not to revisit
Sparta before they had totally subdued Messenia. This long absence
alarmed the Lacedæmonian women, as well as the magistrates. The
Spartans were reminded by their wives, that if they continued in
their resolution, the state must at last decay for want of citizens,
and when they had duly considered this embassy, they empowered all
the young men in the army, who had come to the war while yet under
age, and who therefore were not bound by the oath, to return to
Sparta, and, by a familiar and promiscuous intercourse with all the
unmarried women of the state, to raise a future generation. It was
carried into execution, and the children that sprang from this union
were called Partheniæ, or _sons of virgins_ (παρθενος). The war
with Messenia was some time after ended, and the Spartans returned
victorious; but the cold indifference with which they looked upon
the Partheniæ was attended with serious consequences. The Partheniæ
knew they had no legitimate fathers, and no inheritance, and
that therefore their life depended upon their own exertions. This
drove them almost to despair. They joined with the Helots, whose
maintenance was as precarious as their own, and it was mutually
agreed to murder all the citizens of Sparta, and to seize their
possessions. This massacre was to be done at a general assembly, and
the signal was the throwing of a cap in the air. The whole, however,
was discovered through the diffidence and apprehensions of the Helots;
and when the people had assembled, the Partheniæ discovered that all
was known, by the voice of a crier, who proclaimed that no man should
throw up his cap. The Partheniæ, though apprehensive of punishment,
were not visibly treated with greater severity; their calamitous
condition was attentively examined, and the Spartans, afraid of
another conspiracy, and awed by their numbers, permitted them to
sail for Italy, with Phalantus their ringleader at their head. They
settled in Magna Græcia, and built Tarentum, about 707 years before
Christ. _Justin_, bk. 3, ch. 5.――_Strabo_, bk. 6.――_Pausanias_, on
_Laconia_, &c.――_Plutarch_, _Apophthegmata Laconica_.
=Parthĕnias=, a river of Peloponnesus, flowing by Elis. _Pausanias_,
bk. 6, ch. 21.――――The ancient name of Samos. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 31.
=Parthĕnion=, a mountain of Peloponnesus at the north of Tegea.
_Pausanias._
=Parthĕnius=, a river of Paphlagonia, which, after separating Bithynia,
falls into the Euxine sea, near Sesamum. It received its name either
because the _virgin_ Diana (παρθενος) bathed herself there, or
perhaps it received it from the purity and mildness of its waters.
_Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 104.――_Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 2.――――A mountain
of Arcadia, which was said to abound in tortoises. Here Telephus
had a temple. Atalanta was exposed on its top and brought up there.
_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 54.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 13.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――――A favourite of the emperor Domitian.
He conspired against his imperial master, and assisted to murder him.
――――A river of European Sarmatia. _Ovid_, _ex Ponto_, bk. 4, poem 10,
li. 49.――――A friend of Æneas killed in Italy. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 10, li. 748.――――A Greek writer, whose romance, _de Amatoriis
Affectionibus_ has been edited in 12mo, Basil, 1531.
=Parthĕnon=, a temple of Athens, sacred to Minerva. It was destroyed by
the Persians, and afterwards rebuilt by Pericles in a more magnificent
manner, and still exists. All the circumstances which related to
the birth of Minerva were beautifully and minutely represented in
bas-relief, on the front of the entrance. The statue of the goddess,
26 cubits high, and made of gold and ivory, passed for one of the
masterpieces of Phidias. _Pliny_, bk. 34.
=Parthĕnŏpæus=, a son of Meleager and Atalanta, or, according to some,
of Milanion and another Atalanta. He was one of the seven chiefs
who accompanied Adrastus the king of Argos in his expedition against
Thebes. He was killed by Amphidicus. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 9.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 12; bk. 9, ch. 19.――――A son of Talaus.
=Parthĕnŏpe=, one of the Sirens.――――A daughter of Stymphalus.
_Apollodorus._――――A city of Campania, afterwards called Neapolis,
or _the new city_, when it had been beautified and enlarged by a
colony from Eubœa. It is now called _Naples_. It received the name
of Parthenope from one of the Sirens, whose body was found on the
sea-shore there. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 4, li. 564.――_Strabo_,
bks. 1 & 5.――_Paterculus_, bk. 1, ch. 4.――_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 12,
li. 167.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 12, li. 33.
=Parthia=, a celebrated country of Asia, bounded on the west by
Media, south by Carmania, north by Hyrcania, and east by Aria, &c.,
containing, according to Ptolemy, 25 large cities, the most capital
of which was called _Hecatompylos_, from its _hundred gates_. Some
suppose that the present capital of the country is built on the
ruins of Hecatompylos. According to some authors, the Parthians
were Scythians by origin, who made an invasion on the more southern
provinces of Asia, and at last fixed their residence near Hyrcania.
They long remained unknown and unnoticed, and became successively
tributary to the empire of the Assyrians, Medes, and Persians. When
Alexander invaded Asia, the Parthians submitted, like the other
dependent provinces of Persia, and they were for some time under
the power of Eumenes, Antigonus, Seleucus, Nicanor, and Antiochus,
till the rapacity and oppression of Agathocles, a lieutenant of the
latter, roused their spirit, and fomented rebellion. Arsaces, a man
of obscure origin, but blessed with great military powers, placed
himself at the head of his countrymen, and laid the foundation of
the Parthian empire, about 250 years before the christian era. The
Macedonians attempted in vain to recover it; a race of active and
vigilant princes, who assumed the surname of _Arsacides_, from the
founder of their kingdom, increased its power, and rendered it so
formidable, that, while it possessed 18 kingdoms between the Caspian
and Arabian seas, it even disputed the empire of the world with the
Romans, and could never be subdued by that nation, which had seen
no people on earth unconquered by their arms. It remained a kingdom
till the reign of Artabanus, who was killed about the year 229 of the
christian era, and from that time it became a province of the newly
re-established kingdom of Persia, under Artaxerxes. The Parthians
were naturally strong and warlike, and were esteemed the most expert
horsemen and archers in the world. The peculiar custom of discharging
their arrows while they were retiring full speed, has been greatly
celebrated by the ancients, particularly by the poets, who all
observe that their flight was more formidable than their attacks.
This manner of fighting, and the wonderful address and dexterity
with which it was performed, gained them many victories. They were
addicted much to drinking, and to every manner of lewdness, and
their laws permitted them to raise children even by their mothers
and sisters. _Strabo_, bks. 2, 6, &c.――_Curtius_, bk. 6, ch. 11.
――_Florus_, bk. 3, ch. 5.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 3, li. 31, &c.;
_Æneid_ bk. 7, li. 606.――_Ovid_, _Ars Amatoria_, bk. 1, &c., _Fasti_,
bk. 5, li. 580.――_Dio Cassius_, bk. 40.――_Ptolemy_, bk. 6, ch. 5.
――_Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 25.――_Polybius_, bk. 5, &c.――_Marcellinus._
――_Herodian_, bk. 3, &c.――_Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 230; bk. 6, li. 50;
bk. 10, li. 53.――_Justin_, bk. 41, ch. 1.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ode 19,
li. 11; bk. 2, ode 13, li. 17.
=Parthini=, a people of Illyricum. _Livy_, bk. 29, ltr. 12; bk. 33,
ch. 34; bk. 44, ch. 30.――_Suetonius_, _Augustus_, ch. 19.――_Cicero_,
_Against Piso_, ch. 40.
=Parthytēne=, a province of Parthia, according to Ptolemy, though some
authors support that it is the name of Parthia itself.
=Parysădes=, a king of Pontus, B.C. 310. _Diodorus._――――A king of the
Cimmerian Bosphorus, who flourished 284 B.C.
=Parysătis=, a Persian princess, wife of Darius Ochus, by whom she
had Artaxerxes, Memnon, and Cyrus the younger. She was so extremely
partial to her younger son, that she committed the greatest cruelties
to encourage his ambition, and she supported him with all her
interest in his rebellion against his brother Memnon. The death
of Cyrus at the battle of Cunaxa, was revenged with the grossest
barbarity, and Parysatis sacrificed to her resentment all such as she
found concerned in his fall. She also poisoned Statira the wife of
her son Artaxerxes, and ordered one of the eunuchs of the court to
be flayed alive, and his skin to be stretched on two poles before her
eyes, because he had, by order of the king, cut off the hand and the
head of Cyrus. These cruelties offended Artaxerxes, and he ordered
his mother to be confined in Babylon; but they were soon after
reconciled, and Parysatis regained all her power and influence till
the time of her death. _Plutarch_, _Artaxerxes_.――_Ctesiphon._
=Pasargada=, a town of Persia, near Carmania, founded by Cyrus on the
very spot where he had conquered Astyages. The kings of Persia were
always crowned there, and the Pasargadæ were the noblest families of
Persia, in the number of which were the Achæmenides. _Strabo_, bk. 15.
――_Pliny_, bk. 8, ch. 26.――_Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 125.――_Mela_,
bk. 3, ch. 8.
=Paseas=, a tyrant in Sicyon in Peloponnesus, father to Abantidas, &c.
_Plutarch_, _Aratus_.
=Pasicles=, a grammarian, &c.
=Pasicrătes=, a king of part of the island of Cyprus. _Plutarch._
=Pasiphae=, a daughter of the Sun and of Perseis, who married Minos king
of Crete. She disgraced herself by her unnatural passion for a bull,
which, according to some authors, she was enabled to gratify by means
of the artist Dædalus. This celebrated bull had been given to Minos
by Neptune, to be offered on his altars, but as the monarch refused
to sacrifice the animal on account of his beauty, the god revenged
his disobedience by inspiring Pasiphæ with an unnatural love for it.
This fabulous tradition, which is universally believed by the poets,
who observe that the Minotaur was the fruit of this infamous commerce,
is refuted by some writers, who suppose that the infidelity of
Pasiphæ to her husband was betrayed in her affection for an officer
called Taurus; and that Dædalus, by permitting his house to be
the asylum of the two lovers, was looked upon as accessary to the
gratification of Pasiphæ’s lust. From this amour with Taurus, as it
is further remarked, the queen became mother of twins, and the name
of _Minotaurus_ arises from the resemblance of the children to the
husband and the lover of Pasiphæ. Minos had four sons by Pasiphæ,
Castreus, Deucalion, Glaucus, and Androgeus, and three daughters,
Hecate, Ariadne, and Phædra. _See:_ Minotaurus. _Plato_, _Minos_.
――_Plutarch_, _Theseus_.――_Apollonius_, bk. 2, ch. 1.――_Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 24.――_Hyginus_, fable 40.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.
――_Ovid_, _Heroides_, poem 4, lis. 57 & 165.
=Pasithea=, one of the Graces, also called Aglaia. _Pausanias_, bk. 9,
ch. 35.――――One of the Nereides. _Hesiod._――――A daughter of Atlas.
=Pasitĭgris=, a name given to the river Tigris. _Strabo_, bk. 15.
――_Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 20.
=Passaron=, a town of Epirus, where, after sacrificing to Jupiter, the
kings swore to govern according to law, and the people to obey and
to defend the country. _Plutarch_, _Pyrrhus_.――_Livy_, bk. 45, chs.
26 & 33.
=Passiēnus=, a Roman who reduced Numidia, &c. _Tacitus_, _Annals_.
――――Paulus, a Roman knight, nephew to the poet Propertius, whose
elegiac compositions he imitated. He likewise attempted lyric poetry,
and with success, and chose for his model the writings of Horace.
_Pliny_, ltrs. 6 & 9.――――Crispus, a man distinguished as an orator,
but more as the husband of Domitia, and afterwards of Agrippina,
Nero’s mother, &c. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 6, ch. 20.
=Pasus=, a Thessalian in Alexander’s army, &c.
=Patala=, a harbour at the mouth of the Indus, in an island called
_Patale_. The river here begins to form a Delta like the Nile. Pliny
places this island within the torrid zone. _Pliny_, bk. 2, ch. 73.
――_Curtius_, bk. 9, ch. 7.――_Strabo_, bk. 15.――_Arrian_, bk. 6,
ch. 17.
=Pătăra= (orum), now _Patera_, a town of Lycia, situate on the eastern
side of the mouth of the river Xanthus, with a capacious harbour,
a temple, and an oracle of Apollo, surnamed _Patareus_, where was
preserved and shown, in the age of Pausanias, a brazen cap, which
had been made by the hands of Vulcan, and presented by the god to
Telephus. The god was supposed by some to reside for the six winter
months at Patara, and the rest of the year at Delphi. The city was
greatly embellished by Ptolemy Philadelphus, who attempted in vain to
change its original name into that of his wife Arsinoe. _Livy_, bk.
37, ch. 15.――_Strabo_, bk. 14.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 41.――_Horace_,
bk. 3, ode 14, li. 64.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, li. 516.
――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 15.
=Pătăvium=, a city of Italy, at the north of the Po, on the shores
of the Adriatic, now called _Padua_, and once said to be capable of
sending 20,000 men into the field. _See:_ Padua. It is the birthplace
of Livy, from which reason some writers have denominated _Patavinity_
those peculiar expressions and provincial dialect, which they seem
to discover in the historian’s style, not strictly agreeable to
the purity and refined language of the Roman authors who flourished
in or near the Augustan age. _Martial_, bk. 11, ltr. 17, li. 8.
――_Quintilian_, bk. 1, chs. 5, 56; bk. 8, ch. 13.――_Livy_, bk. 10,
ch. 2; bk. 41, ch. 27.――_Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 4.
=Patercŭlus=, a Roman, whose daughter Sulpicia was pronounced the
chastest matron at Rome. _Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 35.――――Velleius, an
historian. _See:_ Velleius.
=Patizithes=, one of the Persian Magi, who raised his brother to the
throne because he resembled Smerdis the brother of Cambyses, &c.
_Herodotus_, bk. 3, ch. 61.
=Patmos=, one of the Cyclades, with a small town of the same
name, situate at the south of Icaria, and measuring 30 miles in
circumference, according to Pliny, or only 18, according to modern
travellers. It has a large harbour, near which are some broken
columns, the most ancient in that part of Greece. The Romans
generally banished their culprits there. It is now called _Palmosa_.
_Strabo._――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.
=Patræ=, an ancient town at the north-west of Peloponnesus, anciently
called _Aroe_. Diana had there a temple, and a famous statue of gold
and ivory. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 6.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 6,
li. 417.――_Livy_, bk. 27, ch. 29.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.
=Patro=, a daughter of Thestius. _Apollodorus._――――An epicurean
philosopher intimate with Cicero. _Cicero_, _Letters to his Friends_,
bk. 13, ch. 1.
=Pātrōcles=, an officer of the fleet of Seleucus and Antiochus. He
discovered several countries, and it is said that he wrote a history
of the world. _Strabo._――_Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 17.
=Patrocli=, a small island on the coast of Attica. _Pausanias_, bk. 4,
ch. 5.
=Pātrōclus=, one of the Grecian chiefs during the Trojan war, son of
Menœtius by Sthenele, whom some call Philomela, or Polymela. The
accidental murder of Clysonymus the son of Amphidamus, in the time
of his youth, obliged him to fly from Opus, where his father reigned.
He retired to the court of Peleus king of Phthia, where he was kindly
received, and where he contracted the most intimate friendship with
Achilles the monarch’s son. When the Greeks went to the Trojan war,
Patroclus also accompanied them at the express command of his father,
who had visited the court of Peleus, and he embarked with 10 ships
from Phthia. He was the constant companion of Achilles, and he lodged
in the same tent; and when his friend refused to appear in the field
of battle, because he had been offended by Agamemnon, Patroclus
imitated his example, and by his absence was the cause of the
overthrow of the Greeks. But at last Nestor prevailed upon him to
return to the war, and Achilles permitted him to appear in his armour.
The valour of Patroclus, together with the terror which the sight of
the arms of Achilles inspired, soon routed the victorious armies of
the Trojans, and obliged them to fly within their walls for safety.
He would have broken down the walls of the city; but Apollo, who
interested himself for the Trojans, placed himself to oppose him, and
Hector, at the instigation of the god, dismounted from his chariot
to attack him, as he attempted to strip one of the Trojans whom he
had slain. The engagement was obstinate, but at last Patroclus was
overpowered by the valour of Hector, and the interposition of Apollo.
His arms became the property of the conqueror, and Hector would have
severed his head from his body had not Ajax and Menelaus intervened.
His body was at last recovered and carried to the Grecian camp, where
Achilles received it with the bitterest lamentations. His funeral was
observed with the greatest solemnity. Achilles sacrificed near the
burning pile 12 young Trojans, besides four of his horses, and two
of his dogs, and the whole was concluded by the exhibition of funeral
games, in which the conquerors were liberally rewarded by Achilles.
The death of Patroclus, as it is described by Homer, gave rise to
new events; Achilles forgot his resentment against Agamemnon, and
entered the field to avenge the fall of his friend, and his anger was
gratified only by the slaughter of Hector, who had more powerfully
kindled his wrath by appearing at the head of the Trojan armies
in the armour which had been taken from the body of Patroclus. The
patronymic of _Actorides_ is often applied to Patroclus, because
Actor was father to Menœtius. _Dictys Cretensis_, bk. 1, &c.――_Homer_,
bk. 9, _Iliad_, &c.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 13.――_Hyginus_, fables
97 & 275.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 13, li. 273.――――A son of
Hercules. _Apollodorus._――――An officer of Ptolemy Philadelphus.
=Patron=, an Arcadian at the games exhibited by Æneas in Sicily.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 5, li. 298.
=Patrous=, a surname of Jupiter among the Greeks, represented by his
statues as having three eyes, which some suppose to signify that he
reigned in three different places, in heaven, on earth, and in hell.
_Pausanias_, bk. 2.
=Patulcius=, a surname of Janus, which he received _a pateo_, because
the doors of his temple were always open in the time of war. Some
suppose that he received it because he presided over gates, or
because the year began by the celebration of his festivals. _Ovid_,
_Fasti_, bk. 1, li. 129.
=Paventia=, a goddess who presided over terror at Rome, and who was
invoked to protect her votaries from its effects. _Augustine_, _City
of God_, bk. 4, ch. 11.
=Paula=, the first wife of the emperor Heliogabalus. She was daughter
of the prefect of the pretorian guards. The emperor divorced her, and
Paula retired to solitude and obscurity with composure.
=Paulīna=, a Roman lady who married Saturninus, a governor of Syria, in
the reign of the emperor Tiberius. Her conjugal peace was disturbed,
and violence was offered to her virtue by a young man called Mundus,
who was enamoured of her, and who had caused her to come to the
temple of Isis by means of the priests of the goddess, who declared
that Anubis wished to communicate to her something of moment.
Saturninus complained to the emperor of the violence which had been
offered to his wife, and the temple of Isis was overturned and Mundus
banished, &c. _Josephus_, _Antiquities_, bk. 18, ch. 4.――――The wife
of the philosopher Seneca, who attempted to kill herself when Nero
had ordered her husband to die. The emperor, however, prevented
her, and she lived some few years after in the greatest melancholy.
_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 15, ch. 63, &c.――――A sister of the emperor
Adrian.――――The wife of the emperor Maximinus.
=Paulīnus Pompeius=, an officer in Nero’s reign, who had the command of
the German armies, and finished the works on the banks of the Rhine,
which Drusus had begun 63 years before. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 13,
ch. 53.――_Suetonius._――――A Roman general, the first who crossed mount
Atlas with an army. He wrote a history of this expedition in Africa,
which is lost. Paulinus also distinguished himself in Britain, &c. He
followed the arms of Otho against Vitellius. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 1.
――――Valerius, a friend of Vespasian.――――Julius, a Batavian nobleman,
put to death by Fonteius Capito, on pretence of rebellion. _Tacitus_,
_Histories_, bk. 4, ch. 13.
=Paulus Æmylius=, a Roman, son of the Æmylius who fell at Cannæ,
was celebrated for his victories, and received the surname of
_Macedonicus_ from his conquest of Macedonia. In the early part of
life he distinguished himself by his uncommon application, and by his
fondness for military discipline. His first appearance in the field
was attended with great success, and the barbarians that had revolted
in Spain were reduced with the greatest facility under the power of
the Romans. In his first consulship his arms were directed against
the Ligurians, whom he totally subjected. His applications for a
second consulship proved abortive; but when Perseus the king of
Macedonia had declared war against Rome, the abilities of Paulus
were remembered, and he was honoured with the consulship about the
60th year of his age. After this appointment he behaved with uncommon
vigour, and soon a general engagement was fought near Pydna. The
Romans obtained the victory, and Perseus saw himself deserted by all
his subjects. In two days the conqueror made himself master of all
Macedonia, and soon after the fugitive monarch was brought into his
presence. Paulus did not exult over his fallen enemy; but when he
had gently rebuked him for his temerity in attacking the Romans,
he addressed himself in a pathetic speech to the officers of his
army who surrounded him, and feelingly enlarged on the instability
of fortune, and the vicissitude of all human affairs. When he had
finally settled the government of Macedonia with 10 commissioners
from Rome, and after he had sacked 70 cities of Epirus, and divided
the booty amongst his soldiers, Paulus returned to Italy. He
was received with the usual acclamations, and though some of the
seditious soldiers attempted to prevent his triumphal entry into the
capital, yet three days were appointed to exhibit the fruits of his
victories. Perseus, with his wretched family, adorned the triumph of
the conqueror, and as they were dragged through the streets before
the chariot of Paulus, they drew tears of compassion from the people.
The riches which the Romans derived from this conquest were immense,
and the people were freed from all taxes till the consulship of
Hirtius and Pansa; but while every one of the citizens received some
benefit from the victories of Paulus, the conqueror himself was poor,
and appropriated for his own use nothing of the Macedonian treasures
except the library of Perseus. In the office of censor, to which he
was afterwards elected, Paulus behaved with the greatest moderation,
and at his death, which happened about 168 years before the christian
era, not only the Romans, but their very enemies, confessed, by
their lamentations, the loss which they had sustained. He had married
Papiria, by whom he had two sons, one of whom was adopted by the
family of Maximus, and the other by that of Scipio Africanus. He had
also two daughters, one of whom married a son of Cato, and the other
Ælius Tubero. He afterwards divorced Papiria; and when his friends
wished to reprobate his conduct in doing so, by observing that she
was young and handsome, and that she had made him father of a fine
family, Paulus replied, that the shoe which he then wore was new and
well made, but that he was obliged to leave it off, though no one but
himself, as he said, knew where it pinched him. He married a second
wife, by whom he had two sons, whose sudden death exhibited to
the Romans, in the most engaging view, their father’s philosophy
and stoicism. The elder of these sons died five days before Paulus
triumphed over Perseus, and the other three days after the public
♦procession. This domestic calamity did not shake the firmness of the
conqueror; yet before he retired to a private station, he harangued
the people, and in mentioning the severity of fortune upon his family,
he expressed his wish that every evil might be averted from the
republic by the sacrifice of the domestic prosperity of an individual.
_Plutarch_, _Lives_.――_Livy_, bks. 43, 44, &c. _Justin_, bk. 33,
ch. 1, &c.――――Samosatenus, an author in the reign of Gallienus.
――――Maximus. _See:_ Maximus Fabius.――――Ægineta, a Greek physician
whose work was edited _apud_, _Aldus Manutius_, Venice, folio, 1528.
――――Lucius Æmylius, a consul, who, when opposed to Annibal in Italy,
checked the rashness of his colleague Varro, and recommended an
imitation of the conduct of the great Fabius, by harassing and not
facing the enemy in the field. His advice was rejected, and the
battle of Cannæ, so glorious to Annibal, and so fatal to Rome, soon
followed. Paulus was wounded, but when he might have escaped from
the slaughter, by accepting a horse generously offered by one of
his officers, he disdained to fly, and perished by the darts of the
enemy. _Horace_, ode 12, li. 38.――_Livy_, bk. 22, ch. 39.――――Julius,
a Latin poet in the age of Adrian and Antoninus. He wrote some
poetical pieces, recommended by Aulus Gellius.
♦ ‘processsion’ replaced with ‘procession’
=Pāulus.= _See:_ Æmylius.
=Pavor=, an emotion of the mind which received divine honours among
the Romans, and was considered of a most tremendous power, as
the ancients swore by her name in the most solemn manner. Tullus
Hostilius, the third king of Rome, was the first who built her
temples, and raised altars to her honour, as also to Pallor the
goddess of paleness. _Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 3, ch. 17.
=Pausanias=, a Spartan general, who greatly signalized himself at
the battle of Platæa, against the Persians. The Greeks were very
sensible of his services, and they rewarded his merit with the tenth
of the spoils taken from the Persians. He was afterwards set at
the head of the Spartan armies, and extended his conquests in Asia;
but the haughtiness of his behaviour created him many enemies, and
the Athenians soon obtained a superiority in the affairs of Greece.
Pausanias was dissatisfied with his countrymen, and he offered to
betray Greece to the Persians, if he received in marriage, as the
reward of his perfidy, the daughter of their monarch. His intrigues
were discovered by means of a youth, who was entrusted with his
letters to Persia, and who refused to go, on the recollection that
such as had been employed in that office before had never returned.
The letters were given to the Ephori of Sparta, and the perfidy of
Pausanias laid open. He fled for safety to a temple of Minerva, and
as the sanctity of the place screened him from the violence of his
pursuers, the sacred building was surrounded with heaps of stones,
the first of which was carried there by the indignant mother of the
unhappy man. He was starved to death in the temple, and died about
471 years before the christian era. There was a festival, and solemn
games instituted in his honour, in which only free-born Spartans
contended. There was also an oration spoken in his praise, in which
his actions were celebrated, particularly the battle of Platæa, and
the defeat of Mardonius. _Cornelius Nepos_, _Lives_.――_Plutarch_,
_Aristeides_ & _Themistocles_.――_Herodotus_, bk. 9.――――A favourite of
Philip king of Macedonia. He accompanied the prince in an expedition
against the Illyrians, in which he was killed.――――Another, at the
court of king Philip, very intimate with the preceding. He was
grossly and unnaturally abused by Attalus, one of the friends of
Philip, and when he complained of the injuries he had received, the
king in some measure disregarded his remonstrances, and wished them
to be forgotten. This incensed Pausanias; he resolved to revenge
himself, and when he had heard from his master Hermocrates the
sophist that the most effectual way to render himself illustrious was
to murder a person who had signalized himself by uncommon actions,
he stabbed Philip as he entered a public theatre. After this bloody
action he attempted to make his escape to his chariot, which waited
for him at the gate of the city, but he was stopped accidentally
by the twig of a vine, and fell down. Attalus, Perdiccas, and other
friends of Philip, who pursued him, immediately fell upon him and
despatched him. Some support that Pausanias committed this murder
at the instigation of Olympias the wife of Philip, and of her
son Alexander. _Diodorus_, bk. 16.――_Justin_, bk. 9.――_Plutarch_,
_Apophthegmata Laconica_.――――A king of Macedonia, deposed by Amyntas,
after a year’s reign. _Diodorus._――――Another, who attempted to
seize upon the kingdom of ♦Macedonia, from which he was prevented
by Iphicrates the Athenian.――――A friend of Alexander the Great,
made governor of Sardis.――――A physician in the age of Alexander.
_Plutarch._――――A celebrated orator and historian, who settled at Rome,
A.D. 170, where he died in a very advanced age. He wrote a history
of Greece, in 10 books, in the Ionic dialect, in which he gives,
with great precision and geographical knowledge, an account of the
situation of its different cities, their antiquities, and the several
curiosities which they contained. He has also interwoven mythology in
his historical account, and introduced many fabulous traditions and
superstitious stories. In each book the author treats of a separate
country, such as Attica, Arcadia, Messenia, Elis, &c. Some suppose
that he gave a similar description of Phœnicia and Syria. There was
another Pausanias, a native of Cæsarea in Cappadocia, who wrote some
declamations, and who is often confounded with the historian of that
name.――――The best edition of Pausanias is that of Khunius, folio,
Lipscomb, 1696.――――A Lacedæmonian, who wrote a partial account of his
country.――――A statuary of Apollonia, whose abilities were displayed
in adorning Apollo’s temple at Delphi. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 9.
――――A king of Sparta, of the family of the Eurysthenidæ, who died 397
B.C., after a reign of 14 years.
♦ ‘Macedona’ replaced with ‘Macedonia’
=Pausias=, a painter of Sicyon, the first who understood how to apply
colours to wood or ivory by means of fire. He made a beautiful
painting of his mistress Glycere, whom he represented as sitting
on the ground, and making garlands with flowers, and from this
circumstance the picture, which was bought afterwards by Lucullus for
two talents, received the name of _Stephanoplocon_. Some time after
the death of Pausias, the Sicyonians were obliged to part with the
pictures which they possessed to deliver themselves from an enormous
debt, and Marcus Scaurus the Roman bought them all, in which were
those of Pausias, to adorn the theatre, which had been built during
his edileship. Pausias lived about 350 years before Christ. _Pliny_,
bk. 35, ch. 11.
=Pausily̆pus=, a mountain near Naples, which receives its name from
the beauty of its situation, (παυω λυπη, _cessare facio dolor_). The
natives show there the tomb of Virgil, and regard it with the highest
veneration. There were near some fish-ponds belonging to the emperor.
The mountain is now famous for a subterraneous passage near half
a mile in length, and 22 feet in breadth, which affords a safe and
convenient passage to travellers. _Statius_, bk. 4, _Sylvæ_, poem 4,
li. 52.――_Pliny_, bk. 9, ch. 53.――_Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Seneca_, ltrs. 5
& 57.
=Pax=, an allegorical divinity among the ancients. The Athenians raised
her a statue, which represented her as holding Plutus the god of
wealth in her lap, to intimate that peace gives rise to prosperity
and to opulence; and they were the first who erected an altar
to her honour after the victories obtained by Timotheus over the
Lacedæmonian power, though Plutarch asserts it had been done after
the conquests of Cimon over the Persians. She was represented among
the Romans with the horn of plenty, and also carrying an olive branch
in her hand. The emperor Vespasian built her a celebrated temple at
Rome, which was consumed by fire in the reign of Commodus. It was
customary for men of learning to assemble in that temple, and even to
deposit their writings there, as in a place of the greatest security.
Therefore when it was burnt, not only books, but also many valuable
things, jewels, and immense treasures, were lost in the general
conflagration. _Cornelius Nepos_, _Timotheus_, bk. 2.――_Plutarch_,
_Cimon_.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 16.
=Paxos=, a small island between Ithaca and the Echinades in the Ionian
sea.
=Peas=, a shepherd, who, according to some, set on fire the pile on
which Hercules was burnt. The hero gave him his bow and arrows.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 2.
=Pedæus=, an illegitimate son of Antenor. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 7.
=Pedācia=, a woman of whom Horace, bk. 1, satire 8, li. 39, speaks of
as a contemptible character.
=Pedāni.= _See:_ Pedum.
=Pedānius=, a prefect of Rome, killed by one of his slaves for having
denied him his liberty, &c. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 14, ch. 42.
=Pedasa= (orum), a town of Caria, near Halicarnassus. _Livy_, bk. 33,
ch. 30.
=Pedăsus=, a son of Bucolion the son of Laomedon. His mother was one
of the Naiades. He was killed in the Trojan war by Euryalus. _Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 6, li. 21.――――One of the four horses of Achilles. As
he was not immortal like the other three, he was killed by Sarpedon.
_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 16.――――A town near Pylos in the Peloponnesus.
=Pediadis=, a part of Bactriana, through which the Oxus flows.
_Polybius._
=Pedias=, the wife of Cranaus.
=Pedius Blæsus=, a Roman, accused by the people of Cyrene of plundering
the temple of Æsculapius. He was condemned under Nero, &c. _Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 14, ch. 18.――――A nephew of Julius Cæsar, who commanded
one of his legions in Gaul, &c.――――Poplicola, a lawyer in the age of
Horace. His father was one of Julius Cæsar’s heirs, and became consul
with Augustus after Pansa’s death.
=Pedo=, a lawyer, patronized by Domitian. _Juvenal_, satire 7, li. 129.
――――Albinovanus. _See:_ Albinovanus.
=Pedianus Asconius=, flourished A.D. 76.
=Pedum=, a town of Latium, about 10 miles from Rome, conquered by
Camillus. The inhabitants were called _Pedani_. _Livy_, bk. 2, ch. 39;
bk. 8, chs. 13 & 14.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ltr. 4, li. 2.
=Pegæ=, a fountain at the foot of mount Arganthus in Bithynia, into
which Hylas fell. _Propertius_, bk. 1, poem 20, li. 33.
=Pegăsĭdes=, a name given to the Muses from the horse Pegasus, or from
the fountain which Pegasus had raised from the ground, by striking it
with his foot. _Ovid_, _Heroides_, poem 15, li. 27.
=Pēgăsis=, a name given to Œnone by Ovid, _Heroides_, poem 5, because
she was daughter of the _river_ (πηγη) Cebrenus.
=Pegăsium stagnum=, a lake near Ephesus, which arose from the earth when
Pegasus struck it with his foot.
=Pegăsus=, a winged horse sprung from the blood of Medusa, when Perseus
had cut off her head. He received his name from his being born,
according to Hesiod, near the _sources_ (πηγη) of the ocean. As
soon as born he left the earth, and flew up into heaven, or rather,
according to Ovid, he fixed his residence on mount Helicon, where,
by striking the earth with his foot, he instantly raised a fountain,
which has been called Hippocrene. He became the favourite of the
Muses; and being afterwards tamed by Neptune or Minerva, he was
given to Bellerophon to conquer the Chimæra. No sooner was this fiery
monster destroyed, than Pegasus threw down his rider, because he was
a mortal, or rather, according to the more received opinion, because
he attempted to fly to heaven. This act of temerity in Bellerophon
was punished by Jupiter, who sent an insect to torment Pegasus,
which occasioned the melancholy fall of his rider. Pegasus continued
his flight up to heaven, and was placed among the constellations by
Jupiter. Perseus, according to Ovid, was mounted on the horse Pegasus,
when he destroyed the sea monster which was going to devour Andromeda.
_Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 282.――_Horace_, bk. 4, ode 11, li. 20.
――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 6, li. 179.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, chs. 3
& 4.――_Lycophron_, li. 17.――_Pausanias_, bk. 12, chs. 3 & 4.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 4, li. 785.――_Hyginus_, fable 57.
=Pelăgo=, a eunuch, one of Nero’s favourites, &c. _Tacitus_, _Annals_,
bk. 14, ch. 59.
=Pelăgon=, a man killed by a wild boar. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 8,
li. 360.――――A son of Asopus and Metope.――――A Phocian, one of whose
men conducted Cadmus, and showed him where, according to the oracle,
he was to build a city.
=Pelagonia=, one of the divisions of Macedonia at the north. _Livy_,
bk. 26, ch. 25; bk. 31, ch. 28.
=Pelarge=, a daughter of Potneus, who re-established the worship of
Ceres in Bœotia. She received divine honours after death. _Pausanias_,
bk. 9, ch. 25.
=Pelasgi=, a people of Greece, supposed to be one of the most ancient
in the world. They first inhabited Argolis in Peloponnesus, which
from them received the name of _Pelasgia_, and about 1883 years
before the christian era they passed into Æmonia, and were afterwards
dispersed in several parts of Greece. Some of them fixed their
habitation in Epirus, others in Crete, others in Italy, and others in
Lesbos. From these different changes of situation in the Pelasgians,
all the Greeks are indiscriminately called Pelasgians, and their
country Pelasgia, though, more properly speaking, it should be
confined to Thessaly, Epirus, and Peloponnesus, in Greece. Some of
the Pelasgians, that had been driven from Attica, settled at Lemnos,
where some time after they carried some Athenian women, whom they
had seized in an expedition on the coast of Attica. They raised some
children by these captive females, but they afterwards destroyed
them with their mothers, through jealousy, because they differed
in manners as well as language from them. This horrid murder was
attended by a dreadful pestilence, and they were ordered, to expiate
their crime, to do whatever the Athenians commanded them. This
was to deliver their possessions into their hands. The Pelasgians
seem to have received their name from Pelasgus, the first king and
founder of their nation. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 1.――_Strabo_, bk. 5.
――_Herodotus_, bk. 1.――_Plutarch_, _Romulus_.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 1.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_.――_Flaccus._――_Seneca_, _Medea_ &
_Agamemnon_.
=Pelasgia=, or =Pelasgiotis=, a country of Greece, whose inhabitants
are called _Pelasgi_ or _Pelasgiotæ_. Every country of Greece, and
all Greece in general, is indiscriminately called Pelasgia, though
the name should be more particularly confined to a part of Thessaly,
situate between the Peneus, the Aliacmon, and the Sperchius. The
maritime borders of this part of Thessaly were afterwards called
_Magnesia_, though the sea or its shore still retained the name of
_Pelasgicus Sinus_, now the gulf of _Volo_. Pelasgia is also one of
the ancient names of Epirus, as also of Peloponnesus. _See:_ Pelasgi.
=Pelasgus=, a son of Terra, or, according to others, of Jupiter and
Niobe, who reigned in Sicyon, and gave his name to the ancient
inhabitants of Peloponnesus.
=Pĕlēthrŏnii=, an epithet given to the Lapithæ, because they inhabited
the town of _Pelethronium_, at the foot of mount Pelion in Thessaly;
or because one of their number bore the name of Pelethronius. It
is to them that mankind is indebted for the invention of the bit
with which they tamed their horses with so much dexterity. _Virgil_,
_Georgics_, bk. 3, li. 115.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12, li. 452.
――_Lucan_, bk. 6, li. 387.
=Peleus=, a king of Thessaly, son of Æacus and Endeis the daughter of
Chiron. He married Thetis, one of the Nereides, and was the only one
among mortals who married an immortal. He was accessary to the death
of his brother Phocus, and on that account he was obliged to leave
his father’s dominions. He retired to the court of Eurytus the son of
Actor, who reigned at Phthia, or according to the less received
opinion of Ovid, he fled to Ceyx king of Trachinia. He was purified
of his murder by Eurytus, with the usual ceremonies, and the monarch
gave him his daughter Antigone in marriage. Some time after this
Peleus and Eurytus went to the chase of the Calydonian boar, where
the father-in-law was accidentally killed by an arrow which his
son-in-law had aimed at the beast. This unfortunate event obliged him
to banish himself from the court of Phthia, and he retired to Iolchos,
where he was purified of the murder of Eurytus, by Acastus the king
of the country. His residence at Iolchos was short; Astydamia the
wife of Acastus became enamoured of him, and when she found him
insensible to her passionate declaration, she accused him of attempts
upon her virtue. The monarch partially believed the accusations of
his wife, but not to violate the laws of hospitality, by putting him
instantly to death, he ordered his officers to conduct him to mount
Pelion, on pretence of hunting, and there to tie him to a tree, that
he might become the prey of the wild beasts of the place. The orders
of Acastus were faithfully obeyed; but Jupiter, who knew the
innocence of his grandson Peleus, ordered Vulcan to set him at
liberty. As soon as he had been delivered from danger, Peleus
assembled his friends to punish the ill-treatment which he had
received from Acastus. He forcibly took Iolchos, drove the king from
his possessions, and put to death the wicked Astydamia. After the
death of Antigone, Peleus courted Thetis, of whose superior charms
Jupiter himself had been enamoured. His pretensions however, were
rejected, and, as he was a mortal, the goddess fled from him with the
greatest abhorrence; and the more effectually to evade his inquiries,
she generally assumed the shape of a bird, or of a tree, or of a
tigress. Peleus became more animated from her refusal; he offered a
sacrifice to the gods, and Proteus informed him that to obtain Thetis
he must surprise her while she was asleep in her grotto, near the
shores of Thessaly. This advice was immediately followed, and Thetis,
unable to escape from the grasp of Peleus, at last consented to marry
him. Their nuptials were celebrated with the greatest solemnity, and
all the gods attended, and made them each the most valuable presents.
The goddess of discord was the only one of the deities who was not
present, and she punished this seeming neglect by throwing an apple
into the midst of the assembly of the gods, with the inscription of
_Detur pulchriori_. _See:_ Discordia. From the marriage of Peleus and
Thetis was born Achilles, whose education was early entrusted to the
Centaur Chiron, and afterwards to Phœnix the son of Amyntor. Achilles
went to the Trojan war, at the head of his father’s troops, and
Peleus gloried in having a son who was superior to all the Greeks
in valour and intrepidity. The death of Achilles was the source of
grief to Peleus; and Thetis, to comfort her husband, promised him
immortality, and ordered him to retire into the grottos of the island
of Leuce, where he would see and converse with the manes of his son.
Peleus had a daughter called Polydora, by Antigone. _Homer_, _Iliad_,
bk. 9, li. 482.――_Euripides_, _Andromache_.――_Catullus_, _Marriage of
Peleus and Thetis_ [poem 64].――_Ovid_, _Heroides_, poem 5; _Fasti_,
bk. 2; _Metamorphoses_, bk. 11, fables 7 & 8.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3,
ch. 12.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 29.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Hyginus_,
fable 54.
=Peliădes=, the daughters of Pelias. _See:_ Pelias.
=Pelias=, the twin brother of Neleus, was son of Neptune, by Tyro the
daughter of Salmoneus. His birth was concealed from the world by his
mother, who wished her father to be ignorant of her incontinence. He
was exposed in the woods, but his life was preserved by shepherds,
and he received the name of _Pelias_, from a spot of the colour of
_lead_ in his face. Some time after this adventure, Tyro married
Cretheus, son of Æolus king of Iolchos, and became mother of three
children, of whom Æson was the eldest. Meantime Pelias visited his
mother, and was received in her family; and, after the death of
Cretheus, he unjustly seized the kingdom, which belonged to the
children of Tyro, by the deceased monarch. To strengthen himself in
his usurpation, Pelias consulted the oracle, and when he was told to
beware of one of the descendants of Æolus, who should come to his
court with one foot shod, and the other bare, he privately removed
the son of Æson, after he had publicly declared that he was dead.
These precautions proved abortive. Jason the son of Æson, who had
been educated by Chiron, returned to Iolchos, when arrived to years
of maturity; and as he had lost one of his shoes in crossing the
river Anaurus, or the Evenus, Pelias immediately perceived that this
was the person whom he was advised so much to dread. His unpopularity
prevented him from acting with violence against a stranger, whose
uncommon dress and commanding aspect had raised admiration in his
subjects. But his astonishment was excited when he saw Jason arrive
at his palace, with his friends and his relations, and boldly
demand the kingdom which he usurped. Pelias was conscious that his
complaints were well founded, and therefore, to divert his attention,
he told him that he would voluntarily resign the crown to him if he
went to Colchis to avenge the death of Phryxus the son of Athamas,
whom Æetes had cruelly murdered. He further observed that the
expedition would be attended with the greatest glory, and that
nothing but the infirmities of old age had prevented him himself from
vindicating the honour of his country, and the injuries of his family
by punishing the assassin. This, so warmly recommended, was as warmly
accepted by the young hero, and his intended expedition was made
known all over Greece. _See:_ Jason. During the absence of Jason, in
the Argonautic expedition, Pelias murdered Æson and all his family;
but, according to the more received opinion of Ovid, Æson was still
living when the Argonauts returned, and he was restored to the vigour
of youth by the magic of Medea. This sudden change in the vigour and
the constitution of Æson astonished all the inhabitants of Iolchos,
and the daughters of Pelias, who had received the patronymic of
_Peliades_, expressed their desire to see their father’s infirmities
vanish by the same powerful arts. Medea, who wished to avenge the
injuries which her husband Jason had received from Pelias, raised the
desires of the Peliades, by cutting an old ram to pieces, and boiling
the flesh in a cauldron, and afterwards turning it into a fine young
lamb. After they had seen this successful experiment, the Peliades
cut their father’s body to pieces, after they had drawn all the blood
from his veins, on the assurance that Medea would replenish them by
her incantations. The limbs were immediately put into a cauldron of
boiling water, but Medea suffered the flesh to be totally consumed,
and refused to give the Peliades the promised assistance, and the
bones of Pelias did not even receive a burial. The Peliades were four
in number, Alceste, Pisidice, Pelopea, and Hippothoe, to whom Hyginus
adds Medusa. Their mother’s name was Anaxibia, the daughter of Bias,
or Philomache, the daughter of Amphion. After this parricide, the
Peliades fled to the court of Admetus, where Acastus the son-in-law
of Pelias pursued them, and took their protector prisoner. The
Peliades died, and were buried in Arcadia. _Hyginus_, fables 12, 13,
& 14.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, fables 3 & 4; _Heroides_, poem
12, li. 129.――_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 11.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch.
9.――_Seneca_, _Medea_.――_Apollonius_, _Argonautica_, bk. 1.――_Pindar_,
_Pythian_, poem 4.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.――――A Trojan chief wounded by
Ulysses during the Trojan war. He survived the ruin of his country,
and followed the fortune of Æneas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 2, li. 431.
――――The ship Argo is called _Pelias arbor_, built of the trees of
mount Pelion.――――The spear of Achilles. _See:_ Pelion.
=Pelīdes=, a patronymic of Achilles, and of Pyrrhus, as being descended
from Peleus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 2, li. 264.
=Pēligni=, a people of Italy, who dwelt near the Sabines and Marsi,
and had Corfinium and Sulmo for their chief towns. The most expert
magicians were among the Peligni, according to Horace. _Livy_, bk. 8,
chs. 6 & 29; bk. 9, ch. 41.――_Ovid_, _ex Ponto_, bk. 1, poem 8, li.
42.――_Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Horace_, bk. 3, ode 19, li. 8.
=Pelignus=, a friend of the emperor Claudius, made governor of
Cappadocia. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 12, ch. 49.
=Pelinæus=, a mountain of Chios.
=Pelinnæum=, or =Pelinna=, a town of Macedonia. _Strabo_, bk. 14.
――_Livy_, bk. 36, chs. 10 & 14.
=Pelion= and =Pelios=, a celebrated mountain of Thessaly, whose top is
covered with pine trees. In their wars against the gods, the giants,
as the poets mention, placed mount Ossa upon Pelion, to scale the
heavens with more facility. The celebrated spear of Achilles, which
none but the hero could wield, had been cut down on this mountain,
and was thence called _Pelias_. It was a present from his preceptor
Chiron, who, like the other Centaurs, had fixed his residence here.
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, li. 155; bk. 13, li. 199.――_Mela_,
bk. 2, ch. 3.――_Strabo_, bk. 9.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 1, li. 281;
bk. 3, li. 94.――_Seneca_, _Hercules_ & _Medea_.
=Pelium=, a town of Macedonia. _Livy_, bk. 31, ch. 40.
=Pella=, a celebrated town of Macedonia, on the Ludias, not far
from the Sinus Thermaicus, which became the capital of the country
after the ruin of Edessa. Philip king of Macedonia was educated
there, and Alexander the Great was born there, whence he is often
called _Pellæus juvenis_. The tomb of the poet Euripides was in the
neighbourhood. The epithet _Pellæus_ is often applied to Egypt or
Alexandria, because the Ptolemies, kings of the country, were of
Macedonian origin. _Martial_, bk. 13, ltr. 85.――_Lucan_, bk. 5, li.
60; bk. 8, lis. 475 & 607; bk. 9, lis. 1016 & 1073; bk. 10, li. 55.
――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.――_Strabo_, bk. 7.――_Livy_, bk. 42, ch. 41.
=Pellāne=, a town of Laconia, with a fountain whose waters have a
subterraneous communication with the waters of another fountain.
_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 21.――_Strabo_, bk. 8.
=Pellēne=, a town of Achaia, in the Peloponnesus, at the west of Sicyon,
famous for its wool. It was built by the giant Pallas, or, according
to others, by Pellen of Argos, son of Phorbas, and was the country
of Proteus the sea-god. _Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 26.
――_Livy_, bk. 33, ch. 14.
=Pĕlŏpēa=, or =Pĕlŏpīa=, a daughter of Thyestes the brother of Atreus.
She had a son by her father, who had offered her violence in a wood,
without knowing that she was his own daughter. Some suppose that
Thyestes purposely committed the incest, as the oracle had informed
him that his wrongs should be avenged, and his brother destroyed,
by a son who should be born from him and his daughter. This proved
too true. Pelopea afterwards married her uncle Atreus, who kindly
received in his house his wife’s illegitimate child, called Ægysthus,
because preserved by goats (αἰγες) when exposed in the mountains.
Ægysthus became his uncle’s murderer. _See:_ Ægysthus. _Hyginus_,
fable 87, &c.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 12.――_Ovid_, _Ibis_,
li. 359.――_Seneca_, _Agamemnon_.
=Pelŏpēia=, a festival observed by the people of Elis in honour of
Pelops. It was kept in imitation of Hercules, who sacrificed to
Pelops in a trench, as it was usual, when the manes and the infernal
gods were the objects of worship.
=Pelŏpīa=, a daughter of Niobe.――――A daughter of Pelias.――――The mother
of Cycnus.
=Pelopĭdas=, a celebrated general of Thebes, son of Hippoclus. He
was descended of an illustrious family, and was remarkable for his
immense possessions, which he bestowed with great liberality to
the poor and necessitous. Many were the objects of his generosity;
but when Epaminondas had refused to accept his presents, Pelopidas
disregarded all his wealth, and preferred before it the enjoyment of
his friend’s conversation and of his poverty. From their friendship
and intercourse the Thebans derived the most considerable advantages.
No sooner had the interest of Sparta prevailed at Thebes, and the
friends of liberty and national independence been banished from the
city, than Pelopidas, who was in the number of the exiles, resolved
to free his country from foreign slavery. His plan was bold and
animated, and his deliberations were slow. Meanwhile Epaminondas,
who had been left by the tyrants at Thebes, as being in appearance
a worthless and insignificant philosopher, animated the youths of
the city, and at last Pelopidas, with 11 of his associates, entered
Thebes, and easily massacred the friends of the tyranny, and freed
the country from foreign masters. After this successful enterprise,
Pelopidas was unanimously placed at the head of the government; and
so confident were the Thebans of his abilities as a general and a
magistrate, that they successively re-elected him 13 times to fill
the honourable office of governor of Bœotia. Epaminondas shared with
him the sovereign power, and it was to their valour and prudence that
the Thebans were indebted for a celebrated victory at the battle of
Leuctra. In a war which Thebes carried on against Alexander tyrant
of Pheræ, Pelopidas was appointed commander; but his imprudence,
in trusting himself unarmed into the enemy’s camp, nearly proved
fatal to him. He was taken prisoner, but Epaminondas restored him to
liberty. The perfidy of Alexander irritated him, and he was killed
bravely fighting in a celebrated battle in which his troops obtained
the victory, B.C. 364 years. He received an honourable burial. The
Thebans showed their sense for his merit by their lamentations; they
sent a powerful army to revenge his death on the destruction of the
tyrant of Pheræ; and his relations and his children were presented
with immense donations by the cities of Thessaly. Pelopidas is
admired for his valour, as he never engaged an enemy without
obtaining the advantage. The impoverished state of Thebes before his
birth, and after his fall, plainly demonstrates the superiority of
his genius and of his abilities; and it has been justly observed,
that with Pelopidas and Epaminondas the glory and the independence
of the Thebans rose and set. _Plutarch_ & _Cornelius Nepos_, _Lives_.
――_Xenophon_, _Hellenica_.――_Diodorus_, bk. 15.――_Polybius._
=Peloponnesiăcum bellum=, a celebrated war which continued for 27 years
between the Athenians and the inhabitants of Peloponnesus with their
respective allies. It is the most famous and the most interesting of
all the wars which have happened between the inhabitants of Greece;
and for the minute and circumstantial description which we have of
the events and revolutions which mutual animosity produced, we are
indebted more particularly to the correct and authentic writings of
Thucydides and of Xenophon. The circumstances which gave birth to
this memorable war are these. The power of Athens, under the prudent
and vigorous administration of Pericles, was already extended over
Greece, and it had procured itself many admirers and more enemies,
when the Corcyreans, who had been planted by a Corinthian colony,
refused to pay their founders those marks of respect and reverence
which among the Greeks every colony was obliged to pay to its mother
country. The Corinthians wished to punish that infidelity; and when
the people of Epidamnus, a considerable town on the Adriatic, had
been invaded by some of the barbarians of Illyricum, the people
of Corinth gladly granted to the Epidamnians that assistance which
had in vain been solicited from the Corcyreans, their founders and
their patrons. The Corcyreans were offended at the interference of
Corinth in the affairs of their colony; they manned a fleet, and
obtained a victory over the Corinthian vessels which had assisted
the Epidamnians. The subsequent conduct of the Corcyreans, and their
insolence to some of the Elians, who had furnished a few ships to the
Corinthians, provoked the Peloponnesians, and the discontent became
general. Ambassadors were sent by both parties to Athens to claim its
protection, and to justify these violent proceedings. The greatest
part of the Athenians heard their various reasonings with moderation
and with compassion; but the enterprising ambition of Pericles
prevailed, and when the Corcyreans had reminded the people of Athens,
that in all the states of Peloponnesus they had to dread the most
malevolent enemies, and the most insidious of rivals, they were
listened to with attention, and were promised support. This step was
no sooner taken, than the Corinthians appealed to the other Grecian
states, and particularly to the Lacedæmonians. Their complaints
were accompanied by those of the people of Megara and of Ægina, who
bitterly inveighed against the cruelty, injustice, and insolence
of the Athenians. This had due weight with the Lacedæmonians, who
had long beheld with concern and with jealousy the ambitious power
of the Athenians, and they determined to support the cause of the
Corinthians. However, before they proceeded to hostilities, an
embassy was sent to Athens, to represent the danger of entering
into a war with the most powerful and flourishing of all the Grecian
states. This alarmed the Athenians, but when Pericles had eloquently
spoken of the resources and the actual strength of the republic,
and of the weakness of the allies, the clamours of his enemies
were silenced, and the answer which was returned to the Spartans
was taken as a declaration of war. The Spartans were supported by
all the republics of the Peloponnesus, except Argos and part of
Achaia, besides the people of Megara, Bœotia, Phocis, Locris, Leucas,
Ambracia, and Anactorium. The Platæans, the Lesbians, Carians,
Chians, Messenians, Acarnanians, Zacynthians, Corcyreans, Dorians,
and Thracians, were the friends of the Athenians, with all the
Cyclades, except Eubœa, Samos, Melos, and Thera. The first blow had
already been struck, May 7, B.C. 431, by an attempt of the Bœotians
to ♦surprise Platæa; and therefore Archidamus king of Sparta, who had
in vain recommended moderation to the allies, entered Attica at the
head of an army of 60,000 men, and laid waste the country by fire
and sword. Pericles, who was at the head of the government, did not
attempt to oppose them in the field; but a fleet of 150 ships set
sail, without delay, to ravage the coasts of the Peloponnesus. Megara
was also depopulated by an army of 20,000 men, and the campaign of
the first year of the war was concluded in celebrating, with the most
solemn pomp, the funerals of such as had nobly fallen in battle. The
following year was remarkable for a pestilence which raged in Athens,
and which destroyed the greatest part of the inhabitants. The public
calamity was still heightened by the approach of the Peloponnesian
army on the borders of Attica, and by the ♠unsuccessful expedition
of the Athenians against Epidaurus and in Thrace. The pestilence
which had carried away so many of the Athenians proved also fatal
to Pericles, and he died about two years and six months after the
commencement of the Peloponnesian war. The following years did not
give rise to decisive events; but the revolt of Lesbos from the
alliance of the Athenians was productive of fresh troubles. Mitylene
the capital of the island was recovered, and the inhabitants treated
with the greatest cruelty. The island of Corcyra became also the
seat of new seditions, and those citizens who had been carried away
prisoners by the Corinthians, and for political reasons treated
with lenity, and taught to despise the alliance of Athens, were no
sooner returned home, than they raised commotions and endeavoured
to persuade their countrymen to join the Peloponnesian confederates.
This was strongly opposed; but both parties obtained by turns the
superiority, and massacred, with the greatest barbarity, all those
who obstructed their views. Some time after Demosthenes the Athenian
general invaded Ætolia, where his arms were attended with the
greatest success. He also fortified Pylos in the Peloponnesus, and
gained so many advantages over the confederates, that they sued for
peace, which the insolence of Athens refused. The fortune of the war
soon after changed, and the Lacedæmonians, under the prudent conduct
of Brasidas, made themselves masters of many valuable places in
Thrace. But this victorious progress was soon stopped by the death
of their general, and that of Cleon the Athenian commander; and the
pacific disposition of Nicias, who was now at the head of Athens,
made overtures of peace and universal tranquillity. Plistoanax the
king of the Spartans wished them to be accepted; but the intrigues
of the Corinthians prevented the discontinuation of the war, and
therefore hostilities began anew. But while war was carried on with
various success in different parts of Greece, the Athenians engaged
in a new expedition; they yielded to the persuasive eloquence of
Gorgias of Leontium, and the ambitious views of Alcibiades, and
sent a fleet of 20 ships to assist the Sicilian states against the
tyrannical power of Syracuse, B.C. 416. This was warmly opposed by
Nicias; but the eloquence of Alcibiades prevailed, and a powerful
fleet was sent against the capital of Sicily. These vigorous though
impolitic measures of the Athenians were not viewed with indifference
by the confederates. Syracuse, in her distress, implored the
assistance of Corinth, and Gylippus was sent to direct her operations,
and to defend her against the power of her enemies. The events of
battles were dubious, and though the Athenian army was animated by
the prudence and intrepidity of Nicias, and the more hasty courage of
Demosthenes, yet the good fortune of Syracuse prevailed; and after a
campaign of two years of bloodshed, the fleets of Athens were totally
ruined, and the few soldiers that survived the destructive siege,
made prisoners of war. So fatal a blow threw the people of Attica
into consternation and despair, and while they sought for resources
at home, they severely felt themselves deprived of support abroad,
their allies were alienated by the intrigues of the enemy, and
rebellion was fomented in their dependent states and colonies on
the Asiatic coast. The threatened ruin, however, was timely averted,
and Alcibiades, who had been treated with cruelty by his countrymen,
and who had for some time resided in Sparta, and directed her
military operations, now exerted himself to defeat the designs of
the confederates, by inducing the Persians to espouse the cause of
his country. But in a short time after, the internal tranquillity
of Athens was disturbed, and Alcibiades, by wishing to abolish the
democracy, called away the attention of his fellow-citizens from
the prosecution of a war which had already cost them so much blood.
This, however, was but momentary; the Athenians soon after obtained a
naval victory, and the Peloponnesian fleet was defeated by Alcibiades.
The Athenians beheld with rapture the success of their arms; but
when their fleet, in the absence of Alcibiades, had been defeated
and destroyed near Andros by Lysander the Lacedæmonian admiral, they
showed their discontent and mortification by eagerly listening to
the accusations which were brought against their naval leader, to
whom they gratefully had acknowledged themselves indebted for their
former victories. Alcibiades was disgraced in the public assembly,
and 10 commanders were appointed to succeed him in the management
of the republic. This change of admirals, and the appointment of
Callicratidas to succeed Lysander, whose office had expired with the
revolving year, produced new operations. The Athenians fitted out a
fleet, and the two nations decided their superiority near Arginusæ,
in a naval battle. Callicratidas was killed, and the Lacedæmonians
conquered, but the rejoicings which the intelligence of this victory
occasioned were soon stopped, when it was known that the wrecks of
some of the disabled ships of the Athenians, and the bodies of the
slain, had not been saved from the sea. The admirals were accused in
the tumultuous assembly, and immediately condemned. Their successors
in office were not so prudent, but they were more unfortunate in
their operations. Lysander was again placed at the head of the
Peloponnesian forces, instead of Eteonicus, who had succeeded to the
command at the death of Callicratidas. The age and the experience
of this general seemed to promise something decisive, and indeed
an opportunity was not long wanting for the display of his military
character. The superiority of the Athenians over that of the
Peloponnesians, rendered the former insolent, proud, and negligent,
and when they had imprudently forsaken their ships to indulge their
indolence, or pursue their amusements on the sea-shore at Ægospotamus,
Lysander attacked their fleet, and his victory was complete. Of
180 sail, only nine escaped, eight of which fled, under the command
of Conon, to the island of Cyprus, and the other carried to Athens
the melancholy news of the defeat. The Athenian prisoners were all
massacred; and when the Peloponnesian conquerors had extended their
dominion over the states and communities of Europe and Asia, which
formerly acknowledged the power of Athens, they returned home to
finish the war by the reduction of the capital of Attica. The siege
was carried on with vigour, and supported with firmness, and the
first Athenian who mentioned capitulation to his countrymen, was
instantly sacrificed to the fury and the indignation of the populace,
and all the citizens unanimously declared, that the same moment would
terminate their independence and their lives. This animated language,
however, was not long continued; the spirit of faction was not yet
extinguished at Athens; and it proved, perhaps, more destructive
to the public liberty, than the operations and assaults of the
Peloponnesian besiegers. During four months, negotiations were
carried on with the Spartans by the aristocratical part of the
Athenians, and at last it was agreed that to establish the peace,
the fortifications of the Athenian harbours must be demolished,
together with the long walls which joined them to the city; all their
ships, except 12, were to be surrendered to the enemy; they were
to resign every pretension to their ancient dominions abroad; to
recall from banishment all the members of the late aristocracy; to
follow the Spartans in war, and, in the time of peace, to frame their
constitution according to the will and the prescriptions of their
Peloponnesian conquerors. The terms were accepted, and the enemy
entered the harbour, and took possession of the city, that very
day on which the Athenians had been accustomed to celebrate the
anniversary of the immortal victory which their ancestors had
obtained over the Persians about 76 years before, near the island of
Salamis. The walls and fortifications were instantly levelled with
the ground, and the conquerors observed, that in the demolition of
Athens, succeeding ages would fix the era of Grecian freedom. The
day was concluded with a festival, and the recitation of one of the
tragedies of Euripides, in which the misfortunes of the daughter of
Agamemnon, who was reduced to misery, and banished from her father’s
kingdom, excited a kindred sympathy in the bosom of the audience, who
melted into tears at the recollection that one moment had likewise
reduced to misery and servitude the capital of Attica, which was
once called the common patroness of Greece, and the scourge of Persia.
This memorable event happened about 404 years before the christian
era, and 30 tyrants were appointed by Lysander over the government
of the city. _Xenophon_, _Hellenica_.――_Plutarch_, _Lysander_,
_Pericles_, _Alcibiades_, _Nicias_, & _Agesilaus_.――_Diodorus_,
bk. 11, &c.――_Aristophanes._――_Thucydides._――_Plato._――_Aristotle._
――_Lycias._――_Isocrates._――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Lysander_,
_Alcibiades_, &c.――_Cicero_, _De Officiis_, bk. 1, ch. 24.
♦ ‘supprise’ replaced with ‘surprise’
♠ ‘unsuccesful’ replaced with ‘unsuccessful’
=Peloponnēsus=, a celebrated peninsula which comprehends the most
southern parts of Greece. It received its name from Pelops, who
settled there, as the name indicates (πηλοπος νησος, _the island
of Pelops_). It had been called before _Argia_, _Pelasgia_, and
_Argolis_, and in its form, it has been observed by the moderns,
highly to resemble the leaf of the plane tree. Its present name
is _Morea_, which seems to be derived either from the Greek word
μορεα, or the Latin _morus_, which signifies a _mulberry tree_,
which is found there in great abundance. The ancient Peloponnesus
was divided into six different provinces, Messenia, Laconia, Elis,
Arcadia, Achaia propria, and Argolis, to which some add Sicyon.
These provinces all bordered on the sea-shore, except Arcadia. The
Peloponnesus was conquered, some time after the Trojan war, by the
Heraclidæ or descendants of Hercules, who had been forcibly expelled
from it. The inhabitants of this peninsula rendered themselves
illustrious, like the rest of the Greeks, by their genius, their
fondness for the fine arts, the cultivation of learning, and the
profession of arms, but in nothing more than by a celebrated war,
which they carried on against Athens and her allies for 27 years, and
which from them received the name of the Peloponnesian war. _See:_
Peloponnesiacum bellum. The Peloponnesus scarce extended 200 miles in
length, and 140 in breadth, and about 563 miles in circumference. It
was separated from Greece by the narrow isthmus of Corinth, which, as
being only five miles broad, Demetrius, Cæsar, Nero, and some others,
attempted in vain to cut, to make a communication between the bay
of Corinth, and the Saronicus sinus. _Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Thucydides._
――_Diodorus_, bk. 12, &c.――_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 21; bk. 8, ch. 1.
――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 6.――_Herodotus_, bk. 8,
ch. 40.
=Pelopēa mœnia=, is applied to the cities of Greece, but more
particularly to Mycenæ and Argos, where the descendants of Pelops
reigned. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 2, li. 193.
=Pelops=, a celebrated prince, son of Tantalus king of Phrygia. His
mother’s name was Euryanassa, or, according to others, Euprytone, or
Eurystemista, or Dione. He was murdered by his father, who wished to
try the divinity of the gods who had visited Phrygia, by placing on
their table the limbs of his son. The gods perceived his perfidious
cruelty, and they refused to touch the meat, except Ceres, whom the
recent loss of her daughter had rendered melancholy and inattentive.
She ate one of the shoulders of Pelops, and therefore, when Jupiter
had compassion on his fate, and restored him to life, he placed a
shoulder of ivory instead of that which Ceres had devoured. This
shoulder had an uncommon power, and it could heal by its very touch
every complaint, and remove every disorder. Some time after, the
kingdom of Tantalus was invaded by Tros king of Troy, on pretence
that he had carried away his son Ganymedes. This rape had been
committed by Jupiter himself; the war, nevertheless, was carried on,
and Tantalus, defeated and ruined, was obliged to fly with his son
Pelops, and to seek a shelter in Greece. This tradition is confuted
by some, who support that Tantalus did not fly into Greece, as he had
been some time before confined by Jupiter in the infernal regions for
his impiety, and therefore Pelops was the only one whom the enmity
of Tros persecuted. Pelops came to Pisa, where he became one of the
suitors of Hippodamia the daughter of king Œnomaus, and he entered
the lists against the father, who promised his daughter only to him
who could outrun him in a chariot race. Pelops was not terrified
at the fate of the 13 lovers, who before him had entered the course
against Œnomaus, and had, according to the conditions proposed,
been put to death when conquered. He previously bribed Myrtilus the
charioteer of Œnomaus, and therefore he easily obtained the victory.
_See:_ Œnomaus. He married Hippodamia, and threw headlong into the
sea Myrtilus, when he claimed the reward of his perfidy. According
to some authors, Pelops had received some winged horses from Neptune,
with which he was enabled to outrun Œnomaus. When he had established
himself on the throne of Pisa, Hippodamia’s possession, he extended
his conquests over the neighbouring countries, and from him the
peninsula, of which he was one of the monarchs, received the name of
Peloponnesus. Pelops, after death, received divine honours, and he
was as much revered above all the other heroes of Greece, as Jupiter
was above the rest of the gods. He had a temple at Olympia, near that
of Jupiter, where Hercules consecrated to him a small portion of land,
and offered to him a sacrifice. The place where this sacrifice had
been offered was religiously observed, and the magistrates of the
country yearly, on coming upon office, made there an offering of
a black ram. During the sacrifice, the soothsayer was not allowed,
as at other times, to have a share of the victim, but he alone who
furnished the wood was permitted to take the neck. The wood for
sacrifices, as may be observed, was always furnished by some of the
priests to all such as offered victims, and they received a price
equivalent to what they gave. The white poplar was generally used in
the sacrifices made to Jupiter and to Pelops. The children of Pelops
by Hippodamia were Pitheus, Trœzen, Atreus, Thyestes, &c., besides
some by concubines. The time of his death is unknown, though it is
universally agreed that he survived for some time Hippodamia. Some
suppose that the Palladium of the Trojans was made with the bones
of Pelops. His descendants were called _Pelopidæ_. Pindar, who,
in his first Olympic, speaks of Pelops, confutes the traditions of
his ivory shoulder, and says that Neptune took him up to heaven to
become the cup-bearer to the gods, from which he was expelled, when
the impiety of Tantalus wished to make mankind partake of the nectar
and the entertainments of the gods. Some suppose that Pelops first
instituted the Olympic games in honour of Jupiter, and to commemorate
the victory which he had obtained over Œnomaus. _Pausanias_, bk. 5,
ch. 1, &c.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 5.――_Euripides_, _Iphigeneia_.
――_Diodorus_, bk. 3.――_Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 18.
――_Pindar_, _Olympian_, bk. 1.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 3, li. 7.
――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 6, li. 404, &c.――_Hyginus_, fables 9,
82, & 83.
=Pelor=, one of the men who sprang from the teeth of the dragon killed
by Cadmus. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 5.
=Peloria=, a festival observed by the Thessalians, in commemoration of
the news which they received by one Pelorious, that the mountains of
Tempe had been separated by an earthquake, and that the waters of the
lake which lay there stagnated, had found a passage into the Alpheus,
and left behind a vast, pleasant, and most delightful plain, &c.
_Athenæus_, bk. 3.
=Pelōrus= (_v._ is-dis, _v._ ias-iados), now Cape _Faro_, one of the
three great promontories of Sicily, on whose top is erected a tower
to direct the sailor on his voyage. It lies near the coast of Italy,
and received its name from Pelorus, the pilot of the ship which
carried away Annibal from Italy. This celebrated general, as it is
reported, was carried by the tides into the straits of Charybdis, and
as he was ignorant of the coast, he asked the pilot of his ship the
name of the promontory, which appeared at a distance. The pilot told
him it was one of the capes of Sicily, but Annibal gave no credit to
his information, and murdered him on the spot, on the apprehension
that he would betray him into the hands of the Romans. He was,
however, soon convinced of his error, and found that the pilot had
spoken with great fidelity; and therefore, to pay honour to his
memory, and to atone for his cruelty, he gave him a magnificent
funeral, and ordered that the promontory should bear his name, and
from that time it was called Pelorus. Some suppose that this account
is false, and they observe that it bore that name before the age of
Annibal. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 9, ch. 8.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.
――_Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, lis. 411 & 687.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, li. 350; bk. 13, li. 727; bk. 15, li. 706.
=Peltæ=, a town of Phrygia.
=Pelūsium=, now _Tineh_, a town of Egypt, situate at the entrance of
one of the mouths of the Nile, called from it Pelusian. It is about
20 stadia from the sea, and it has received the name of _Pelusium_
from the lakes and marshes (♦πυλος) which are in its neighbourhood.
It was the key of Egypt on the side of Phœnicia, as it was impossible
to enter the Egyptian territories without passing by Pelusium, and
therefore on that account it was always well fortified and garrisoned,
as it was of such importance for the security of the country. It
produced lentils, and was celebrated for the linen stuffs made there.
It is now in ruins. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 9.――_Columella_, bk. 5, ch. 10.
――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 3, li. 25.――_Lucan_, bk. 8, li. 466; bk. 9,
li. 83; bk. 10, li. 53.――_Livy_, bk. 44, ch. 19; bk. 45, ch. 11.
――_Strabo_, bk. 17.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 1, li. 228.
♦ ‘πμλος’ replaced with ‘πυλος’
=Pĕnātes=, certain inferior deities among the Romans, who presided
over houses and the domestic affairs of families. They were called
_Penates_, because they were generally placed in the innermost and
most secret parts of the house, _in Penitissimâ ædium parte, quod_,
as Cicero says, _penitus insident_. The place ♦where they stood was
afterwards called _penetralia_, and they themselves received the name
of _Penetrales_. It was in the option of every master of a family to
choose his Penates, and therefore Jupiter, and some of the superior
gods, are often invoked as patrons of domestic affairs. According
to some, the gods Penates were divided into four classes; the first
comprehended all the celestial, the second the sea-gods, the third
the gods of hell, and the last all such heroes as had received
divine honours after death. The Penates were originally the manes of
the dead, but when superstition had taught mankind to pay uncommon
reverence to the statues and images of their deceased friends, their
attention was soon exchanged for regular worship, and they were
admitted by their votaries to share immortality and power over the
world, with a Jupiter or a Minerva. The statues of the Penates were
generally made with wax, ivory, silver, or earth, according to the
affluence of the worshipper, and the only offerings they received
were wine, incense, fruits, and sometimes the sacrifice of lambs,
sheep, goats, &c. In the early ages of Rome, human sacrifices were
offered to them; but Brutus, who expelled the Tarquins, abolished
this unnatural custom. When offerings were made to them, their
statues were crowned with garlands, poppies, or garlic, and besides
the monthly day that was set apart for their worship, their festivals
were celebrated during the Saturnalia. Some have confounded the
Lares and the Penates, but they were different. _Cicero_, _de Natura
Deorum_, bk. 2, ch. 27; _Against Verres_, bk. 2.――_Dionysius of
Halicarnassus_, bk. 1.
♦ ‘were’ replaced with ‘where’
=Pendalium=, a promontory of Cyprus.
=Pēneia=, or =Penēis=, an epithet applied to Daphne, as daughter of
Peneus. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, li. 452.
=Penelius=, one of the Greeks killed in the Trojan war. _Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 2, li. 494.――――A son of Hippalmus among the Argonauts.
=Pēnĕlŏpe=, a celebrated princess of Greece, daughter of Icarius,
and wife of Ulysses king of Ithaca. Her marriage with Ulysses was
celebrated about the same time that Menelaus married Helen, and she
retired with her husband to Ithaca, against the inclination of her
father, who wished to detain her at Sparta, her native country. She
soon after became mother of Telemachus, and was obliged to part with
great reluctance from her husband, whom the Greeks obliged to go to
the Trojan war. _See:_ Palamedes. The continuation of hostilities
for 10 years made her sad and melancholy; but when Ulysses did not
return like the other princes of Greece at the conclusion of the
war, her fears and her anxieties were increased. As she received
no intelligence of his situation, she was soon beset by a number of
importuning suitors, who wished her to believe that her husband was
shipwrecked, and that therefore, she ought no longer to expect his
return, but forget his loss, and fix her choice and affections on one
of her numerous admirers. She received their addresses with coldness
and disdain; but as she was destitute of power, and a prisoner, as it
were, in their hands, she yet flattered them with hopes and promises,
and declared that she would make choice of one of them, as soon as
she had finished a piece of tapestry, on which she was employed.
The work was done in a dilatory manner, and she baffled their eager
expectations, by undoing in the night what she had done in the
daytime. This artifice of Penelope has given rise to the proverb of
_Penelope’s web_, which is applied to whatever labour can never be
ended. The return of Ulysses, after an absence of 20 years, however,
delivered her from her fears and from her dangerous suitors. Penelope
is described by Homer as a model of female virtue and chastity, but
some more modern writers dispute her claims to modesty and continence,
and they represent her as the most debauched and voluptuous of her
sex. According to their opinions, therefore, she liberally gratified
the desires of her suitors, in the absence of her husband, and had a
son whom she called Pan, as if to show that he was the offspring of
all her admirers. Some, however, suppose that Pan was son of Penelope
by Mercury, and that he was born before his mother’s marriage with
Ulysses. The god, as it is said, deceived Penelope, under the form
of a beautiful goat, as she was tending her father’s flocks on one
of the mountains of Arcadia. After the return of Ulysses, Penelope
had a daughter, who was called Ptoliporthe; but if we believe the
traditions that were long preserved at Mantinea, Ulysses repudiated
his wife for her incontinence during his absence, and Penelope
fled to Sparta, and afterwards to Mantinea, where she died and was
buried. After the death of Ulysses, according to Hyginus, she married
Telegonus, her husband’s son by Circe, by order of the goddess
Minerva. Some say that her original name was Arnea, or Amirace, and
that she was called Penelope, when some river birds called Penelopes
had saved her from the waves of the sea, when her father had exposed
her. Icarius had attempted to destroy her, because the oracles had
told him that his daughter by Peribœa would be the most dissolute of
her sex, and a disgrace to his family. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 10.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 12.――_Homer_, _Iliad_ & _Odyssey_.――_Ovid_,
_Heroides_, poem 1; _Metamorphoses_.――_Aristotle_, _History of
Animals_, bk. 8.――_Hyginus_, fable 127.――_Aristophanes_, _The Birds_.
――_Pliny_, bk. 37.
=Pēneus=, a river of Thessaly, rising on mount Pindus, and falling
into the Thermean gulf, after a wandering course between mount Ossa
and Olympus, through the plains of Tempe. It received its name from
Peneus, a son of Oceanus and Tethys. The Peneus anciently inundated
the plains of Thessaly, till an earthquake separated the mountains
Ossa and Olympus, and formed the beautiful vale of Tempe, where
the waters formerly stagnated. From this circumstance, therefore,
it obtained the name of Arexes, _ab_ ἀρασσω, _scindo_. Daphne the
daughter of the Peneus, according to the fables of the mythologists,
was changed into a laurel on the banks of this river. This tradition
arises from the quantity of laurels which grow near the Peneus.
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, li. 452, &c.――_Strabo_, bk. 9.
――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 4, li. 317.
――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.――――Also a small river of Elis in Peloponnesus,
better known under the name of Araxes. _Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 24.
――_Strabo_, bks. 8 & 11.
=Penidas=, one of Alexander’s friends, who went to examine Scythia
under pretence of an embassy. _Curtius_, bk. 6, ch. 6.
=Penīnæ alpes=, a certain part of the Alps. _Livy_, bk. 21, ch. 38.
=Pentapŏlis=, a town of India.――――A part of Africa near Cyrene. It
received this name on account of the _five cities_ which it contained,
Cyrene, Arsinoe, Berenice, Ptolemais, or Barce, and Apollonia.
_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 5.――――Also part of Palestine, containing the five
cities of Gaza, Gath, Ascalon, Azotus, and Ekron.
=Pentelĭcus=, a mountain of Attica, where were found quarries of
beautiful marble. _Strabo_, bk. 9.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 32.
=Penthesĭlēa=, a queen of the Amazons, daughter of Mars by Otrera, or
Orithya. She came to assist Priam in the last years of the Trojan war,
and fought against Achilles, by whom she was slain. The hero was so
struck with the beauty of Penthesilea, when he stripped her of her
arms, that he even shed tears for having too violently sacrificed
her to his fury. Thersites laughed at the partiality of the hero, for
which ridicule he was instantly killed. Lycophron says that Achilles
slew Thersites because he had put out the eyes of Penthesilea when
she was yet alive. The scholiast of Lycophron differs from that
opinion, and declares, that it was commonly believed that Achilles
offered violence to the body of Penthesilea when she was dead,
and that Thersites was killed because he had reproached the hero
for this infamous action, in the presence of all the Greeks. The
death of Thersites so offended Diomedes that he dragged the body of
Penthesilea out of the camp, and threw it into the Scamander. It is
generally supposed that Achilles was enamoured of the Amazon before
he fought with her, and that she had by him a son called Cayster.
_Dictys Cretensis_, bks. 3 & 4.――_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 31.
――_Quintus Calaber [Smyrnæus]_, bk. 1.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, li.
495; bk. 11, li. 662.――_Dares Phrygius._――_Lycophron_, _Cassandra_,
li. 995, &c.――_Hyginus_, fable 112.
=Pentheus=, son of Echion and Agave, was king of Thebes in Bœotia. His
refusal to acknowledge the divinity of Bacchus was attended with the
most fatal consequences. He forbade his subjects to pay adoration to
this new god; and when the Theban women had gone out of the city to
celebrate the orgies of Bacchus, Pentheus, apprised of the debauchery
which attended the solemnity, ordered the god himself, who conducted
the religious multitude, to be seized. His orders were obeyed with
reluctance, but when the doors of the prison in which Bacchus had
been confined opened of their own accord, Pentheus became more
irritated, and commanded his soldiers to destroy the whole band of
the bacchanals. This, however, was not executed, for Bacchus inspired
the monarch with the ardent desire of seeing the celebration of the
orgies. Accordingly, he hid himself in a wood on mount Cithæron,
from whence he could see all the ceremonies unperceived. But here
his curiosity soon proved fatal; he was descried by the bacchanals,
and they all rushed upon him. His mother was the first who attacked
him, and her example was instantly followed by her two sisters, Ino
and Autonoe, and his body was torn to pieces. Euripides introduces
Bacchus among his priestesses, when Pentheus was put to death; but
Ovid, who relates the whole in the same manner, differs from the
Greek poet only in saying, that not Bacchus himself, but one of
his priests, was present. The tree on which the bacchanals found
Pentheus, was cut down by the Corinthians, by order of the oracle,
and with it two statues of the god of wine were made, and placed in
their forum. _Hyginus_, fable 184.――_Theocritus_, poem 26.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 3, fables 7, 8, & 9.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 4,
li. 469.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 5.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 5.
――_Euripides_, _Bacchæ_.――_Seneca_, _Phœnissæ_ & _Hippolytus_.
=Penthĭlus=, a son of Orestes by Erigone the daughter of Ægysthus, who
reigned conjointly with his brother Tisamenus at Argos. He was driven
some time after from his throne by the Heraclidæ, and he retired to
Achaia, and thence to Lesbos, where he planted a colony. _Pausanias_,
bk. 5, ch. 4.――_Strabo_, bk. 13.――_Paterculus_ bk. 1, ch. 1.
=Penthylus=, a prince of Paphos, who assisted Xerxes with 12 ships.
He was seized by the Greeks, to whom he communicated many important
things concerning the situation of the Persians, &c. _Herodotus_,
bk. 7, ch. 195.
=Pepărēthos=, a small island of the Ægean sea, on the coast of
Macedonia, about 20 miles in circumference. It abounded in olives,
and its wines have always been reckoned excellent. They were not,
however, palatable before they were seven years old. _Pliny_, bk. 4,
ch. 12.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, li. 470.――_Livy_, bk. 28,
ch. 5; bk. 31, ch. 58.
=Pephnos=, a town of Laconia. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 26.
=Pephrēdo=, a sea nymph, daughter of Phorcys and Ceto. She was born
with white hair, and thence surnamed Graia. She had a sister called
Enyo. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 270.――_Apollodorus._
=Peræa=, or =Beræa=, a country of Judæa, near Egypt. _Pliny_, bk. 5,
ch. 14.――――A part of Caria, opposite to Rhodes. _Livy_, bk. 32, ch.
33.――――A colony of the Mityleneans in Æolia. _Livy_, bk. 37, ch. 21.
=Perasippus=, an ambassador sent to Darius by the Lacedæmonians, &c.
_Curtius_, bk. 3, ch. 13.
=Percōpe=, or =Percote=, a city which assisted Priam during the Trojan
war. _See:_ Percote.
=Percosius=, a man acquainted with futurity. He attempted in vain to
dissuade his two sons from going to the Trojan war by telling them
that they should perish there.
=Percōte=, a town on the Hellespont, between Abydos and Lampsacus, near
the sea-shore. Artaxerxes gave it to Themistocles, to maintain his
wardrobe. It is sometimes called Percope. _Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 117.
――_Homer._
=Perdiccas=, the fourth king of Macedonia, B.C. 729, was descended from
Temenus. He increased his dominions by conquest, and in the latter
part of his life, he showed his son Argeus where he wished to be
buried, and told him, that as long as the bones of his descendants
and successors on the throne of Macedonia were laid in the same grave,
so long would the crown remain in their family. These injunctions
were observed till the time of Alexander, who was buried out
of Macedonia. _Herodotus_, bks. 7 & 8.――_Justin_, bk. 7, ch. 2.
――――Another, king of Macedonia, son of Alexander. He reigned during
the Peloponnesian war, and assisted the Lacedæmonians against Athens.
He behaved with great courage on the throne, and died B.C. 413, after
a long reign of glory and independence, during which he had subdued
some of his barbarian neighbours.――――Another, king of Macedonia, who
was supported on his throne by Iphicrates the Athenian against the
intrusions of Pausanias. He was killed in a war against the Illyrians,
B.C. 360. _Justin_, bk. 7, &c.――――One of the friends and favourites
of Alexander the Great. At the king’s death he wished to make himself
absolute; and the ring which he had received from the hand of the
dying Alexander, seemed in some measure to favour his pretensions.
The better to support his claims to the throne, he married Cleopatra
the sister of Alexander, and strengthened himself by making a league
with Eumenes. His ambitious views were easily discovered by Antigonus,
and the rest of the generals of Alexander, who all wished, like
Perdiccas, to succeed to the kingdom and honours of the deceased
monarch. Antipater, Craterus, and Ptolemy, leagued with Antigonus
against him, and after much bloodshed on both sides, Perdiccas was
totally ruined, and at last assassinated in his tent in Egypt, by his
own officers, about 321 years before the christian era. Perdiccas had
not the prudence and the address which were necessary to conciliate
the esteem and gain the attachment of his fellow-soldiers, and this
impropriety of his conduct alienated the heart of his friends, and
at last proved his destruction. _Plutarch_, _Alexander_.――_Diodorus_,
bks. 17 & 18.――_Curtius_, bk. 10.――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Eumenes_.
――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 12.
=Perdix=, a young Athenian, son of the sister of Dædalus. He invented
the saw, and seemed to promise to become a greater artist than had
ever been known. His uncle was jealous of his rising fame, and he
threw him down from the top of a tower and put him to death. Perdix
was changed into a bird which bears his name. _Hyginus_, fables 39 &
274.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 4, ch. 15.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 8,
li. 220, &c.
=Perenna.= _See:_ Anna.
=Perennis=, a favourite of the emperor Commodus. He is described by
some as a virtuous and impartial magistrate, while others paint
him as a cruel, violent, and oppressive tyrant, who committed the
greatest barbarities to enrich himself. He was put to death for
aspiring to the empire. _Herodian._
=Pereus=, a son of Elatus and Laodice, grandson of Arcas. He left only
one daughter, called Neæra, who was mother of Auge, and of Cepheus
and Lycurgus. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3.――_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 4.
=Perga=, a town of Pamphylia. _See:_ Perge, _Livy_, bk. 38, ch. 57.
=Pergămus= (Pergama plural), the citadel of the city of Troy. The word
is often used for Troy. It was situated in the most elevated part
of the town, on the shores of the river Scamander. Xerxes mounted to
the top of this citadel when he reviewed his troops as he marched to
invade Greece. _Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 43.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1,
li. 466, &c.
=Pergamus=, now _Pergamo_, a town of Mysia, on the banks of the Caycus.
It was the capital of a celebrated empire called the kingdom of
Pergamus, which was founded by Philæterus, a eunuch, whom Lysimachus,
after the battle of Ipsus, had entrusted with the treasures which
he had obtained in the war. Philæterus made himself master of the
treasures and of Pergamus, in which they were deposited, B.C. 283,
and laid the foundation of an empire, over which he himself presided
for 20 years. His successors began to reign in the following order:
His nephew Eumenes ascended the throne 263 B.C.; Attalus, 241;
♦Eumenes II., 197; Attalus Philadelphus, 159; Attalus Philomator,
138, who, B.C. 133, left the Roman people heirs to his kingdom, as
he had no children. The right of the Romans, however, was disputed by
a usurper, who claimed the empire as his own, and Aquilius the Roman
general was obliged to conquer the different cities one by one, and
to gain their submission by poisoning the waters which were conveyed
to their houses till the whole was reduced into the form of a
dependent province. The capital of the kingdom of Pergamus was famous
for a library of 200,000 volumes, which had been collected by the
different monarchs who had reigned there. This noble collection was
afterwards transported to Egypt by Cleopatra, with the permission of
Antony, and it adorned and enriched the Alexandrian library, till it
was most fatally destroyed by the Saracens, A.D. 642. Parchment was
first invented and made use of at Pergamus, to transcribe books, as
Ptolemy king of Egypt had forbidden the exportation of papyrus from
his kingdom, in order to prevent Eumenes from making a library as
valuable and as choice as that of Alexandria. From this circumstance
parchment has been called _charta pergamena_. Galenus the physician
and Apollodorus the mythologist were born there. Æsculapius was the
chief deity of the country. _Pliny_, bks. 5 & 15.――_Isidorus_, bk. 6,
ch. 11.――_Strabo_, bk. 13.――_Livy_, bk. 29, ch. 11; bk. 31, ch. 46.
――_Pliny_, bk. 10, ch. 21; bk. 13, ch. 11.――――A son of Neoptolemus
and Andromache, who, as some suppose, founded Pergamus in Asia.
_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 11.
♦ ‘Enmenes’ replaced with ‘Eumenes’
=Perge=, a town of Pamphylia, where Diana had a magnificent temple,
whence her surname of Pergæa. Apollonius the geometrician was born
there. _Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 14.――_Strabo_, bk. 14.
=Pergus=, a lake of Sicily near Enna, where Proserpine was carried away
by Pluto. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, li. 386.
=Perĭander=, a tyrant of Corinth, son of Cypselus. The first years of
his government were mild and popular, but he soon learnt to become
oppressive, when he had consulted the tyrant of Sicily, about the
surest way of reigning. He received no other answer but whatever
explanation he wished to place on the Sicilian tyrant’s having, in
the presence of his messenger, plucked, in a field, all the ears
of corn which seemed to tower above the rest. Periander understood
the meaning of this answer. He immediately surrounded himself with
a numerous guard, and put to death the richest and most powerful
citizens of Corinth. He was not only cruel to his subjects, but his
family also were objects of his vengeance. He committed incest with
his mother, and put to death his wife Melissa, upon false accusation.
He also banished his son Lycophron to the island of Corcyra, because
the youth pitied and wept at the miserable end of his mother, and
detested the barbarities of his father. Periander died about 585
years before the christian era, in his 80th year, and by the meanness
of his flatterers, he was reckoned one of the seven wise men of
Greece. Though he was tyrannical, yet he patronized the fine arts; he
was fond of peace, and he showed himself the friend and the protector
of genius and of learning. He used to say that a man ought solemnly
to keep his word, but not to hesitate to break it if ever it clashed
with his interest. He said also, that not only crimes ought to be
punished, but also every wicked and corrupt thought. _Diogenes
Laërtius_ in _Lives_.――_Aristotle_, bk. 5, _Politics_.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 2.――――A tyrant of Ambracia, whom some rank with the seven wise
men of Greece, and not the tyrant of Corinth.――――A man distinguished
as a physician, but contemptible as a poet. _Plutarch._――_Lucan._
=Periarchus=, a naval commander of Sparta, conquered by Conon.
_Diodorus._
=Peribœa=, the second wife of Œneus king of Calydon, was daughter
of Hipponous. She became mother of Tydeus. Some suppose that Œneus
debauched her, and afterwards married her. _Hyginus_, fable 69.――――A
daughter of Alcathous, sold by her father on suspicion that she
was courted by Telamon, son of Æacus king of Ægina. She was carried
to Cyprus, where Telamon the founder of Salamis married her, and
she became mother of Ajax. She also married Theseus, according to
some. She is also called Eribœa. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, chs. 17 & 42.
――_Hyginus_, fable 97.――――The wife of Polybus king of Corinth, who
educated Œdipus as her own child.――――A daughter of Eurymedon, who
became mother of Nausithous by Neptune.――――The mother of Penelope,
according to some authors.
=Peribomius=, a noted debauchee, &c. _Juvenal_, satire 2, li. 16.
=Perĭcles=, an Athenian of a noble family, son of Xanthippus and
Agariste. He was naturally endowed with great powers, which he
improved by attending the lectures of Damon, of Zeno, and of
Anaxagoras. Under these celebrated masters, he became a commander,
a statesman, and an orator, and gained the affections of the people
by his uncommon address and well-directed liberality. When he took
a share in the administration of public affairs, he rendered himself
popular by opposing Cimon, who was the favourite of the nobility;
and to remove every obstacle which stood in the way of his ambition,
he lessened the dignity and the power of the court of the Areopagus,
which the people had been taught for ages to respect and to venerate.
He also attacked Cimon, and caused him to be banished by the
ostracism. Thucydides also, who had succeeded Cimon on his banishment,
shared the same fate, and Pericles remained for 15 years the sole
minister, and, as it may be said, the absolute sovereign of a
republic which always showed itself so jealous of her liberties,
and which distrusted so much the honesty of her magistrates. In
his ministerial capacity Pericles did not enrich himself, but the
prosperity of Athens was the object of his administration. He made
war against the Lacedæmonians, and restored the temple of Delphi to
the care of the Phocians, who had been illegally deprived of that
honourable trust. He obtained a victory over the Sicyonians near
Nemæa, and waged a successful war against the inhabitants of Samos,
at the request of his favourite mistress, Aspasia. The Peloponnesian
war was fomented by his ambitious views [_See:_ Peloponnesiacum
bellum], and when he had warmly represented the flourishing state,
the opulence, and actual power of his country, the Athenians did not
hesitate a moment to undertake a war against the most powerful
republics of Greece, a war which continued for 27 years, and which
was concluded by the destruction of their empire, and the demolition
of their walls. The arms of the Athenians were for some time crowned
with success; but an unfortunate expedition raised clamours against
Pericles, and the enraged populace attributed all their losses to
him, and to make atonement for their ill success, they condemned
him to pay 50 talents. This loss of popular favour by republican
caprice, did not so much affect Pericles as the recent death of
all his children; and when the tide of unpopularity was passed by,
he condescended to come into the public assembly, and to view with
secret pride the contrition of his fellow-citizens, who universally
begged his forgiveness for the violence which they had offered to his
ministerial character. He was again restored to all his honours, and
if possible invested with more power and more authority than before;
but the dreadful pestilence which had diminished the number of his
family proved fatal to him, and about 429 years before Christ in his
70th year, he fell a sacrifice to that terrible malady which robbed
Athens of so many of her citizens. Pericles was for 40 years at the
head of the administration, 25 with others, and 15 alone; and the
flourishing state of the empire during his government gave occasion
to the Athenians publicly to lament his loss, and venerate his
memory. As he was expiring, and seemingly senseless, his friends
that stood around his bed expatiated with warmth on the most glorious
actions of his life, and the victories which he had won, when he
suddenly interrupted their tears and conversation, by saying that,
in mentioning the exploits that he had achieved, and which were
common to him with all generals, they had forgotten to mention a
circumstance which reflected far greater glory upon him as a minister,
a general, and above all, as a man. “It is,” says he, “that not a
citizen in Athens has been obliged to put on mourning on my account.”
The Athenians were so pleased with his eloquence that they compared
it to thunder and lightning, and, as to another father of the gods,
they gave him the surname of Olympian. The poets, his flatterers,
said that the goddess of persuasion, with all her charms and
attractions, dwelt upon his tongue. When he marched at the head
of the Athenian armies, Pericles observed that he had the command
of a free nation that were Greeks, and citizens of Athens. He also
declared, that not only the hand of a magistrate, but also his eyes
and his tongue, should be pure and undefiled. Yet great and venerable
as his character may appear, we must not forget the follies of
Pericles. His vicious partiality for the celebrated courtesan Aspasia
subjected him to the ridicule and the censure of his fellow-citizens;
but if he triumphed over satire and malevolent remarks, the Athenians
had occasion to execrate the memory of a man who by his example
corrupted the purity and innocence of their morals, and who made
licentiousness respectable, and the indulgence of every impure desire
the qualification of the soldier as well as of the senator. Pericles
lost all his legitimate children by the pestilence, and to call a
natural son by his own name he was obliged to repeal a law which he
had made against spurious children, and which he had enforced with
great severity. This son, called Pericles, became one ♦of the 10
generals who succeeded Alcibiades in the administration of affairs,
and, like his colleagues, he was condemned to death by the Athenians,
after the unfortunate battle of Arginusæ. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 25.
――_Plutarch_, _Lives_.――_Quintilian_, bk. 12, ch. 9.――_Cicero_,
_On Oratory_, bk. 3.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 4, ch. 10.
――_Xenophon_, _Hellenica_.――_Thucydides._
♦ duplicate ‘of’ removed
=Periclymĕnus=, one of the 12 sons of Neleus, brother to Nestor, killed
by Hercules. He was one of the Argonauts, and had received from
Neptune his grandfather the power of changing himself into whatever
shape he pleased. _Apollodorus._――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12,
li. 556.
=Peridia=, a Theban woman, whose son was killed by Turnus in the
Rutulian war. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 12, li. 515.
=Periegētes Dionysius=, a poet. _See:_ Dionysius.
=Periēres=, a son of Æolus, or, according to others, of Cynortas.
_Apollodorus._――――The charioteer of Menœceus. _Apollodorus._
=Perigĕnes=, an officer of Ptolemy, &c.
=Perigŏne=, a woman who had a son called Melanippus by Theseus. She
was daughter of Synnis the famous robber, whom Theseus killed.
She married Deioneus the son of Eurytus, by consent of Theseus.
_Plutarch_, _Theseus_.――_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 25.
=Perilāus=, an officer in the army of Alexander the Great. _Curtius_,
bk. 10.――――A tyrant of Argos.
=Perilēus=, a son of Icarius and Peribœa.
=Perilla=, a daughter of Ovid the poet. She was extremely fond of
poetry and literature. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 3, poem 7, li. 1.
=Perillus=, an ingenious artist at Athens, who made a brazen bull
for Phalaris tyrant of Agrigentum. This machine was fabricated to
put criminals to death by burning them alive, and it was such that
their cries were like the roaring of a bull. When Perillus gave it
to Phalaris, the tyrant made the first experiment upon the donor,
and cruelly put him to death by lighting a slow fire under the belly
of the bull. _Pliny_, bk. 34, ch. 8.――_Ovid_, _Ars Amatoria_, bk. 1,
li. 653; _Ibis_, li. 439.――――A lawyer and usurer in the age of Horace.
_Horace_, bk. 2, satire 3, li. 75.
=Perimēde=, a daughter of Æolus, who married Achelous.――――The wife
of Licymnius.――――A woman skilled in the knowledge of herbs and of
enchantments. _Theocritus_, poem 2.
=Perimēla=, a daughter of Hippodamus, thrown into the sea for receiving
the addresses of the Achelous. She was changed into an island in the
Ionian sea, and became one of the Echinades. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 8, li. 690.
=Perinthia=, a play of Menander’s. _Terence_, _Andria_, prologue, li. 9.
=Pĕrinthus=, a town of Thrace, on the Propontis, anciently surnamed
_Mygdonica_. It was afterwards called _Heraclea_, in honour of
Hercules, and now _Erekli_. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 2.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 1, ch. 29.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 11.――_Livy_, bk. 33, ch. 30.
=Peripatetĭci=, a sect of philosophers at Athens, disciples to
Aristotle. They derived this name from the place where they were
taught, called _Peripaton_, in the Lyceum, or because they received
the philosopher’s lectures as they _walked_ (περιπατουντες). The
Peripatetics acknowledged the dignity of human nature, and placed
their _summum bonum_, not in the pleasures of passive sensation,
but in the due exercise of the moral and intellectual faculties.
The habit of this exercise, when guided by reason, constituted the
highest excellence of man. The philosopher contended that our own
happiness chiefly depends upon ourselves, and though he did not
require in his followers that self-command to which others pretended,
yet he allowed a moderate degree of perturbation, as becoming human
nature, and he considered a certain sensibility of passion totally
necessary, as by resentment we are enabled to repel injuries, and
the smart which past calamities have inflicted renders us careful to
avoid the repetition. _Cicero_, _Academica_, bk. 2, &c.
=Perĭphas=, a man who attempted, with Pyrrhus, Priam’s palace, &c.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 2, li. 476.――――A son of Ægyptus, who married
Actæa. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 1.――――One of the Lapithæ. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 12, li. 449.――――One of the first kings of Attica,
before the age of Cecrops, according to some authors.
=Periphēmus=, an ancient hero of Greece, to whom Solon sacrificed at
Salamis, by order of the oracle.
♦=Periphētes=, a robber of Attica, son of Vulcan, destroyed by Theseus.
He is also called Corynetes. _Hyginus_, fable 38.――_Diodorus_, bk. 5.
♦ ‘Periphātes’ replaced with ‘Periphētes’
Resorted in alphebetical order.
=Perisades=, a people of Illyricum.
=Peristhĕnes=, a son of Ægyptus, who married Electra. _Apollodorus._
=Peritanus=, an Arcadian who enjoyed the company of Helen after her
elopement with Paris. The offended lover punished the crime by
mutilation, whence mutilated persons were called Peritani in Arcadia.
_Ptolemy Hephæstion_, bk. 1, near the beginning.
=Peritas=, a favourite dog of Alexander the Great, in whose honour the
monarch built a city.
=Peritonium=, a town of Egypt, on the western side of the Nile,
esteemed of great importance, as being one of the keys of the country.
Antony was defeated there by Caius Gallus the lieutenant of Augustus.
=Permessus=, a river of Bœotia, rising in mount Helicon, and flowing
all round it. It received its name from Permessus, the father of a
nymph called Aganippe, who also gave her name to one of the fountains
of Helicon. The river Permessus, as well as the fountain Aganippe,
were sacred to the Muses. _Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Propertius_, bk. 2,
poem 8.
=Pero=, or =Perone=, a daughter of Neleus king of Pylos by Chloris.
Her beauty drew many admirers, but she married Bias son of Amythaon,
because he had by the assistance of his brother Melampus [_See:_
Melampus], and according to her father’s desire, recovered some oxen
which Hercules had stolen away; and she became mother of Talaus.
_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 11, li. 284.――_Propertius_, bk. 2, poem 2, li.
17.――_Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 36.――――A daughter of Cimon, remarkable
for her filial affection. When her father had been sent to prison,
where his judges had condemned him to starve, she supported his life
by giving him the milk of her breasts, as to her own child. _Valerius
Maximus_, bk. 5, ch. 4.
=Peroe=, a fountain of Bœotia, called after Peroe, a daughter of the
Asopus. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 4.
=Perola=, a Roman who meditated the death of Hannibal in Italy. His
father Pacuvius dissuaded him from assassinating the Carthaginian
general.
=Perpenna Marcus=, a Roman who conquered Aristonicus in Asia, and took
him prisoner. He died B.C. 130.――――Another, who joined the rebellion
of Sertorius, and opposed Pompey. He was defeated by Metellus,
and some time after he had the meanness to assassinate Sertorius,
whom he had invited to his house. He fell into the hands of Pompey,
who ordered him to be put to death. _Plutarch_, _Sertorius_.
――_Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 30.――――A Greek who obtained the consulship
at Rome. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 3, ch. 4.
=Perperēne=, a place of Phrygia, where, as some suppose, Paris adjudged
the prize of beauty to Venus. _Strabo_, bk. 5.
=Perranthes=, a hill of Epirus, near Ambracia. _Livy_, bk. 38, ch. 4.
=Perrhæbia=, a part of Thessaly situate on the borders of the Peneus,
extending between the town of Atrax and the vale of Tempe. The
inhabitants were driven from their possessions by the Lapithæ, and
retired into Ætolia, where part of the country received the name of
_Perrhæbia_. _Propertius_, bk. 2, poem 5, li. 33――_Strabo_, bk. 9.
――_Livy_, bk. 33, ch. 34; bk. 39, ch. 34.
=Persa=, or =Perseis=, one of the Oceanides, mother of Æetes, Circe,
and Pasiphae by Apollo. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3.
=Persæ=, the inhabitants of Persia. _See:_ Persia.
=Persæus=, a philosopher intimate with Antigonus, by whom he was
appointed over the Acrocorinth. He flourished B.C. 274. _Diogenes
Laërtius_, _Zeno of Citium_.
=Persēe=, a fountain near Mycenæ, in Peloponnesus. _Pausanias_, bk. 2,
ch. 16.
=Persēis=, one of the Oceanides.――――A patronymic of Hecate, as daughter
of Perses. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, li. 69.
=Persĕphŏne=, a daughter of Jupiter and Ceres, called also Proserpine.
_See:_ Proserpina.――――The mother of Amphion by Jasus.
=Persĕpŏlis=, a celebrated city, the capital of the Persian empire.
It was laid in ruins by Alexander after the conquest of Darius.
The reason of this is unknown. Diodorus says that the sight of
about 800 Greeks, whom the Persians had shamefully mutilated, so
irritated Alexander, that he resolved to punish the barbarity of
the inhabitants of Persepolis, and of the neighbouring country, by
permitting his soldiers to plunder their capital. Others suppose
that Alexander set it on fire at the instigation of Thias, one of his
courtesans, when he had passed the day in drinking and in riot and
debauchery. The ruins of Persepolis, now _Estakar_, or _Tehel-Minar_,
still astonish the modern traveller by their grandeur and
magnificence. _Curtius_, bk. 5, ch. 7.――_Diodorus_, bk. 17, &c.
――_Arrian._――_Plutarch_, _Alexander_.――_Justin_, bk. 11, ch. 14.
=Perses=, a son of Perseus and Andromeda. From him the Persians, who
were originally called _Cephenes_, received their name. _Herodotus_,
bk. 7, ch. 61.――――A king of Macedonia. _See:_ Perseus.
=Perseus=, a son of Jupiter and Danae, the daughter of Acrisius. As
Acrisius had confined his daughter in a brazen tower to prevent her
becoming a mother, because he was to perish, according to the words
of an oracle, by the hands of his daughter’s son, Perseus was no
sooner born [_See:_ Danae] than he was thrown into the sea with his
mother Danae. The hopes of Acrisius were frustrated; the slender boat
which carried Danae and her son was driven by the winds on the coasts
of the island of Seriphos, one of the Cyclades, where they were found
by a fisherman called Dictys, and carried to Polydectes the king
of the place. They were treated with great humanity, and Perseus
was entrusted to the care of the priests of Minerva’s temple. His
rising genius and manly courage, however, soon displeased Polydectes,
and the monarch, who wished to offer violence to Danae, feared
the resentment of her son. Yet Polydectes resolved to remove every
obstacle. He invited all his friends to a sumptuous entertainment,
and it was requisite that all such as came should present the monarch
with a beautiful horse. Perseus was in the number of the invited,
and the more particularly so, as Polydectes knew that he could not
receive from him the present which he expected from all the rest.
Nevertheless, Perseus, who wished not to appear inferior to the
others in magnificence, told the king that as he could not give him
a horse, he would bring him the head of Medusa, the only one of the
Gorgons who was subject to mortality. The offer was doubly agreeable
to Polydectes, as it would remove Perseus from Seriphos, and on
account of its seeming impossibility, the attempt might perhaps end
in his ruin. But the innocence of Perseus was patronized by the gods.
Pluto lent him his helmet, which had the wonderful power of making
its bearer invisible; Minerva gave him her buckler, which was as
resplendent as glass; and he received from Mercury wings and the
talaria, with a short dagger, made of diamonds, and called _herpe_.
According to some it was from Vulcan, and not from Mercury, that he
received the _herpe_, which was in form like a scythe. With these
arms Perseus began his expedition, and traversed the air, conducted
by the goddess Minerva. He went to the Graiæ, the sisters of the
Gorgons, who, according to the poets, had wings like the Gorgons, but
only one eye and one tooth between them all, of which they made use,
each in her turn. They were three in number, according to Æschylus
and Apollodorus; or only two, according to Ovid and Hesiod. With
Pluto’s helmet, which rendered him invisible, Perseus was enabled
to steal their eye and their tooth while they were asleep, and he
returned them only when they had informed him where their sisters the
Gorgons resided. When he had received every necessary information,
Perseus flew to the habitation of the Gorgons, which was situate
beyond the western ocean, according to Hesiod and Apollodorus; or
in Libya, according to Ovid and Lucan; or in the deserts of Asiatic
Scythia, according to Æschylus. He found these monsters asleep;
and as he knew that if he fixed his eyes upon them, he should be
instantly changed into a stone, he continually looked on his shield,
which reflected all the objects as clearly as the best of glasses.
He approached them, and with a courage which the goddess Minerva
supported, he cut off Medusa’s head with one blow. The noise awoke
the two immortal sisters, but Pluto’s helmet rendered Perseus
invisible, and the attempts of the Gorgons to revenge Medusa’s death
proved fruitless; the conqueror made his way through the air, and
from the blood which dropped from Medusa’s head sprang all those
innumerable serpents which have ever since infested the sandy deserts
of Libya. Chrysaor also, with the golden sword, sprung from these
drops of blood, as well as the horse Pegasus, which immediately flew
through the air, and stopped on mount Helicon, where he became the
favourite of the Muses. Meantime Perseus had continued his journey
across the deserts of Libya; but the approach of night obliged him
to alight in the territories of Atlas king of Mauritania. He went
to the monarch’s palace, where he hoped to find a kind reception
by announcing himself as the son of Jupiter, but in this he was
disappointed. Atlas recollected that, according to an ancient oracle,
his gardens were to be robbed of their fruit by one of the sons of
Jupiter, and therefore he not only refused Perseus the hospitality
which he demanded, but he even offered violence to his person.
Perseus, finding himself inferior to his powerful enemy, showed him
Medusa’s head, and instantly Atlas was changed into a large mountain
which bore the same name in the deserts of Africa. On the morrow
Perseus continued his flight, and as he passed across the territories
of Libya, he discovered, on the coasts of Æthiopia, the naked
Andromeda, exposed to a sea monster. He was struck at the sight,
and offered her father Cepheus to deliver her from instant death,
if he obtained her in marriage as a reward of his labours. Cepheus
consented, and immediately Perseus raised himself in the air, flew
towards the monster, which was advancing to devour Andromeda, and
he plunged his dagger in ♦its right shoulder, and destroyed it.
This happy event was attended with the greatest rejoicings. Perseus
raised three altars to Mercury, Jupiter, and Pallas, and after he
had offered the sacrifice of a calf, a bullock, and a heifer, the
nuptials were celebrated with the greatest festivity. The universal
joy, however, was soon disturbed. Phineus, Andromeda’s uncle, entered
the palace with a number of armed men, and attempted to carry away
the bride, whom he had courted and admired long before the arrival of
Perseus. The father and mother of Andromeda interfered, but in vain;
a bloody battle ensued, and Perseus must have fallen a victim to the
rage of Phineus, had not he defended himself at last with the same
arms which proved fatal to Atlas. He showed the Gorgon’s head to his
adversaries, and they were instantly turned to stone, each in the
posture and attitude in which he then stood. The friends of Cepheus,
and such as supported Perseus, shared not the fate of Phineus, as the
hero had previously warned them of the power of Medusa’s head, and
of the services which he received from it. Soon after this memorable
adventure Perseus retired to Seriphos, at the very moment that his
mother Danae fled to the altar of Minerva, to avoid the pursuit
of Polydectes, who attempted to offer her violence. Dictys, who
had saved her from the sea, and who, as some say, was the brother
of Polydectes, defended her against the attempts of her enemies,
and therefore Perseus, sensible of his merit, and of his humanity,
placed him on the throne of Seriphos, after he had with Medusa’s head
turned into stones the wicked Polydectes, and the officers who were
the associates of his guilt. He afterwards restored to Mercury his
talaria and his wings, to Pluto his helmet, to Vulcan his sword, and
to Minerva her shield; but as he was more particularly indebted to
the goddess of wisdom for her assistance and protection, he placed
the Gorgon’s head on her shield, or rather, according to the more
received opinion, on her ægis. After he had finished these celebrated
exploits, Perseus expressed a wish to return to his native country;
and accordingly he embarked for the Peloponnesus, with his mother and
Andromeda. When he reached the Peloponnesian coasts he was informed
that Teutamias king of Larissa was then celebrating funeral games
in honour of his father. This intelligence drew him to Larissa to
signalize himself in throwing the quoit, of which, according to some,
he was the inventor. But here he was attended by an evil fate, and
had the misfortune to kill a man with a quoit which he had thrown in
the air. This was no other than his grandfather Acrisius, who, on the
first intelligence that his grandson had reached the Peloponnesus,
fled from his kingdom of Argos to the court of his friend and ally
Teutamias, to prevent the fulfilling of the oracle which had obliged
him to treat his daughter with so much barbarity. Some suppose, with
Pausanias, that Acrisius had gone to Larissa to be reconciled to
his grandson, whose fame had been spread in every city of Greece;
and Ovid maintains that the grandfather was under the strongest
obligations to his son-in-law, as through him he had received his
kingdom, from which he had been forcibly driven by the sons of his
brother Prœtus. This unfortunate murder greatly depressed the spirits
of Perseus: by the death of Acrisius he was entitled to the throne
of Argos, but he refused to reign there; and to remove himself from a
place which reminded him of the parricide which he had unfortunately
committed, he exchanged his kingdom for that of Tirynthus, and the
maritime coast of Argolis, where Megapenthes the son of Prœtus then
reigned. When he had finally settled in this part of the Peloponnesus,
he determined to lay the foundations of a new city, which he made
the capital of his dominions, and which he called _Mycenæ_, because
the pommel of his sword, called by the Greeks _myces_, had fallen
there. The time of his death is unknown, yet it is universally agreed
that he received divine honours like the rest of the ancient heroes.
He had statues at Mycenæ, and in the island of Seriphos, and the
Athenians raised him a temple, in which they consecrated an altar in
honour of Dictys, who had treated Danae and her infant son with so
much paternal tenderness. The Egyptians also paid particular honour
to his memory, and asserted that he often appeared among them wearing
shoes two cubits long, which was always interpreted as a sign of
fertility. Perseus had by Andromeda, Alceus, Sthenelus, Nestor,
Electryon, and Gorgophone, and after death, according to some
mythologists, he became a constellation in the heavens. _Herodotus_,
bk. 2, ch. 91.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 4, &c.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 2, chs. 16 & 18; bk. 3, ch. 17, &c.――_Apollonius_, _Argonautica_,
bk. 4, li. 1509.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 9, li. 442.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 4, fable 16; bk. 5, fable 1, &c.――_Lucan_,
bk. 9, li. 668.――_Hyginus_, fable 64.――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 270,
& _Shield of Heracles_.――_Pindar_, _Pythian_, li. 7, & _Olympian_,
bk. 3.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 9.――_Propertius_, bk. 2.――_Athenæus_,
bk. 13.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 14.――_Tzetzes_, on _Lycophron_, ch. 17.
――――A son of Nestor and Anaxibia. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9.――――A
writer who published a treatise on the republic of Sparta.――――A
philosopher, disciple to Zeno. _See:_ Persæus.
♦ ‘his’ replaced with ‘its’
=Perseus=, or =Perses=, a son of Philip king of Macedonia. He
distinguished himself, like his father, by his enmity to the Romans,
and when he had made sufficient preparations, he declared war
against them. His operations, however, were slow and injudicious;
he wanted courage and resolution, and though he at first obtained
some advantage over the Roman armies, yet his avarice and his
timidity proved destructive to his cause. When Paulus was appointed
to the command of the Roman armies in Macedonia, Perseus showed his
inferiority by his imprudent encampments, and when he had at last
yielded to the advice of his officers, who recommended a general
engagement, and drawn up his forces near the walls of Pydna, B.C. 168,
he was the first who ruined his own cause, and, by flying as soon as
the battle was begun, he left the enemy masters of the field. From
♦Pydna, Perseus fled to Samothrace, but he was soon discovered in his
obscure retreat, and brought into the presence of the Roman conqueror,
where the meanness of his behaviour exposed him to ridicule, and
not to mercy. He was carried to Rome, and dragged along the streets
of the city to adorn the triumph of the conqueror. His family was
also exposed to the sight of the Roman populace, who shed tears on
viewing in their streets, dragged like a slave, a monarch who had
once defeated their armies, and spread alarm all over Italy, by the
greatness of his military preparations, and by his bold undertakings.
Perseus died in prison, or, according to some, he was put to a
shameful death the first year of his captivity. He had two sons,
Philip and Alexander, and one daughter, whose name is not known.
Alexander, the younger of these, was hired to a Roman carpenter, and
led the greatest part of his life in obscurity, till his ingenuity
raised him to notice. He was afterwards made secretary to the senate.
_Livy_, bk. 40, &c.――_Justin_, bk. 33, ch. 1, &c.――_Plutarch_,
_Æmilius Paulus_.――_Florus_, bk. 2, ch. 12.――_Propertius_, bk. 4,
poem 12, li. 39.
♦ ‘Pydua’ replaced with ‘Pydna’
=Persia=, a celebrated kingdom of Asia, which, in its ancient state,
extended from the Hellespont to the Indus, above 2800 miles, and
from Pontus to the shores of Arabia, above 2000 miles. As a province,
Persia was but small, and according to the description of Ptolemy,
it was bounded on the north by Media, west by Susiana, south by the
Persian gulf, and east by Carmania. The empire of Persia, or the
Persian monarchy, was first founded by Cyrus the Great, about 559
years before the christian era, and under the succeeding monarchs
it became one of the most considerable and powerful kingdoms of the
earth. The kings of Persia began to reign in the following order:
Cyrus, B.C. 559; Cambyses 529; and, after the usurpation of Smerdis
for seven months, Darius, 521; Xerxes the Great, 485; Artabanus seven
months, and Artaxerxes Longimanus, 464; Xerxes II., 425; Sogdianus
seven months, 424; Darius II., or Nothus, 423; Artaxerxes II., or
Memnon, 404; Artaxerxes III., or Ochus, 358; Arses, or Arogus, 337;
and Darius III., or Codomanus, 335, who was conquered by Alexander
the Great, 331. The destruction of the Persian monarchy by the
Macedonians was easily effected, and from that time Persia became
tributary to the Greeks. After the death of Alexander, when the
Macedonian empire was divided among the officers of the deceased
conqueror, Seleucus Nicanor made himself master of the Persian
provinces, till the revolt of the Parthians introduced new
revolutions in the east. Persia was partly reconquered from the
Greeks, and remained tributary to the Parthians for near 500 years.
After this the sovereignty was again placed into the hands of the
Persians, by the revolt of Artaxerxes, a common soldier, A.D. 229,
who became the founder of the second Persian monarchy, which proved
so inimical to the power of the Roman emperors. In their national
character, the Persians were warlike, they were early taught to
ride, and to handle the bow, and by the manly exercises of hunting,
they were inured to bear the toils and fatigues of a military life.
Their national valour, however, soon degenerated, and their want of
employment at home soon rendered them unfit for war. In the reign of
Xerxes, when the empire of Persia was in its most flourishing state,
a small number of Greeks were enabled repeatedly to repel for three
successive days an almost innumerable army. This celebrated action,
which happened at Thermopylæ, shows in a strong light the superiority
of the Grecian soldiers over the Persians, and the battles that
before, and a short time after, were fought between the two nations
at Marathon, Salamis, Platæa, and Mycale, are again an incontestible
proof that these Asiatics had more reliance upon their numbers and
upon the splendour and richness of their arms, than upon the valour
and the discipline of their troops. Their custom, too prevalent among
the eastern nations, of introducing luxury into the camp, proved
also in some measure destructive to their military reputation, and
the view which the ancients give us of the army of Xerxes, of his
cooks, stage-dancers, concubines, musicians, and perfumers, is no
very favourable sign of the sagacity of a monarch, who, by his nod,
could command millions of men to flock to his standard. In their
religion the Persians were very superstitious; they paid the greatest
veneration to the sun, the moon, and the stars, and they offered
sacrifices to fire, but the supreme Deity was never represented by
statues among them. They permitted polygamy, and it was no incest
among them to marry a sister or a mother. In their punishments they
were extremely severe, even to barbarity. The monarch always appeared
with the greatest pomp and dignity; his person was attended by a
guard of 15,000 men, and he had besides a body of 10,000 chosen
horsemen, called _immortal_. He styled himself, like the rest
of the eastern monarchs, the king of kings, as expressive of his
greatness and his power. The Persians were formerly called _Cephenes_,
_Achæmenians_, and _Artæi_, and they are often confounded with the
Parthians by the ancient poets. They received the name of Persians
from Perses the son of Perseus and Andromeda, who is supposed to
have settled among them. Persepolis was the capital of the country.
_Curtius_, bk. 4, ch. 14; bk. 5, ch. 3.――_Plutarch_, _Artaxerxes_,
_Alexander_, &c.――_Mela_, bk. 1, &c.――_Strabo_, bk. 2, ch. 15.
――_Xenophon_, _Cyropædia_.――_Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 125, &c.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2.――_Marcellinus_, ch. 23.
=Persĭcum mare=, or =Persicus sinus=, a part of the Indian ocean on the
coast of Persia and Arabia, now called the gulf of _Balgora_.
=Persis=, a province of Persia, bounded by Media, Carmania, Susiana,
and the Persian gulf. It is often taken for Persia itself.
=Aulus Persius Flaccus=, a Latin poet of Volaterræ. He was of an
equestrian family, and he made himself known by his intimacy with
the most illustrious Romans of the age. The early part of his life
was spent in his native town, and at the age of 16 he was removed
to Rome, where he studied philosophy under Cornutus the celebrated
stoic. He also received the instructions of Palemon the grammarian,
and Virginius the rhetorician. Naturally of a mild disposition,
his character was unimpeached, his modesty remarkable, and his
benevolence universally admired. He distinguished himself by his
satirical humour, and made the faults of the orators and poets of his
age, the subject of his poems. He did not even spare Nero, and the
more effectually to expose the emperor to ridicule, he introduced
into his satires some of his verses. The _torva mimalloneis implerunt
cornua bombis_, with the three following verses, are Nero’s,
according to some. But though he was so severe upon the vicious
and ignorant, he did not forget his friendship for Cornutus, and he
showed his regard for his character and abilities by making mention
of his name with great propriety in his satires. It was by the advice
of his learned preceptor that he corrected one of his poems in which
he had compared Nero to Midas, and at his representation he altered
the words _Auriculas asini Mida rex habet_, into _Auriculas asini
quis non habet_? Persius died in the 30th year of his age, A.D. 62,
and left all his books, which consisted of 700 volumes, and a large
sum of money, to his preceptor; but Cornutus only accepted the
books, and returned the money to the sisters and friends of the
deceased. The satires of Persius are six in number, blamed by some
for obscurity of style and of language. But though they may appear
almost unintelligible to some, it ought to be remembered that they
were read with pleasure and with avidity by his contemporaries, and
that the only difficulties which now appear to the moderns, arise
from their not knowing the various characters which they described,
the vices which they lashed, and the errors which they censured. The
satires of Persius are generally printed with those of Juvenal, the
best editions of which will be found to be by Hennin, 4to, Leiden,
1695, and by Hawkey, 12mo, Dublin, 1746. The best edition of Persius,
separate, is that of Meric Casaubon, 12mo, London, 1647. _Martial._
――_Quintilian_, bk. 10, ch. 1.――_Augustine_, _de Magistro_, ch. 9.
――_Lactantius._――――A man whose quarrel with Rupilius is mentioned in
a ridiculous manner by Horace, satire 7. He is called _Hybrida_, as
being son of a Greek by a Roman woman.
=Pertĭnax Publius Helvius=, a Roman emperor after the death of Commodus.
He was descended from an obscure family, and, like his father, who
was either a slave or the son of a manumitted slave, he for some
time followed the mean employment of drying wood and making charcoal.
His indigence, however, did not prevent him from receiving a liberal
education, and indeed he was for some time employed in teaching a
number of pupils the Greek and the Roman languages in Etruria. He
left this laborious profession for a military life, and by his valour
and intrepidity, he gradually rose to offices of the highest trust
in the army, and was made consul by Marcus Aurelius for his eminent
services. He was afterwards entrusted with the government of Mœsia,
and at last he presided over the city of Rome as governor. When
Commodus was murdered, Pertinax was universally selected to succeed
to the imperial throne, and his refusal, and the plea of old age and
increasing infirmities, did not prevent his being saluted emperor
and Augustus. He acquiesced with reluctance, but his mildness, his
economy, and the popularity of his administration, convinced the
senate and the people of the prudence and the justice of their choice.
He forbade his name to be inscribed on such places or estates as were
part of the imperial domain, and exclaimed that they belonged not to
him, but to the public. He melted all the silver statues which had
been raised to his vicious predecessor, and he exposed to public sale
all his concubines, his horses, his arms, and all the instruments of
his pleasure and extravagance. With the money raised from these he
enriched the empire, and was enabled to abolish all the taxes which
Commodus had laid on the rivers, ports, and highways through the
empire. This patriotic administration gained him the affection of the
worthiest and most discerning of his subjects, but the extravagant
and luxurious raised their clamours against him, and when Pertinax
attempted to introduce among the pretorian guards that discipline
which was so necessary to preserve the peace and tranquillity of Rome,
the flames of rebellion were kindled, and the minds of the soldiers
totally alienated. Pertinax was apprised of this mutiny, but he
refused to fly at the hour of danger. He scorned the advice of his
friends who wished him to withdraw from the impending storm, and he
unexpectedly appeared before the seditious pretorians, and without
fear or concern, boldly asked them whether they, who were bound
to defend the person of their prince and emperor, were come to
betray him and to shed his blood. His undaunted assurance and his
intrepidity would have had the desired effect, and the soldiers had
already begun to retire, when one of the most seditious advanced and
darted his javelin at the emperor’s breast, exclaiming, “The soldiers
send you this.” The rest immediately followed the example, and
Pertinax, muffling up his head, and calling upon Jupiter to avenge
his death, remained unmoved, and was instantly dispatched. His head
was cut off, and carried upon the point of a spear as in triumph
to the camp. This happened on the 28th of March, A.D. 193. Pertinax
reigned only 87 days, and his death was the more universally lamented,
as it proceeded from a seditious tumult, and robbed the Roman
empire of a wise, virtuous, and benevolent emperor. _Dio Cassius._
――_Herodian._――_Capitol._
=Pertunda=, a goddess at Rome, who presided over the consummation of
marriage. Her statue was generally placed in the bridal chamber.
_Varro_, in _Augustine_, _City of God_, bk. 6, ch. 9.
=Perŭsia=, now _Perugia_, an ancient town of Etruria on the Tiber,
built by Ocnus. Lucius Antonius was besieged there by Augustus,
and obliged to surrender. _Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 41.
――_Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 74.――_Livy_, bk. 9, ch. 37; bk. 10, chs.
30 & 37.
=Pescennius.= _See:_ Niger.――――A man intimate with Cicero.
=Pessīnus= (untis), a town of Phrygia, where Atys, as some suppose, was
buried. It is particularly famous for a temple and a statue of the
goddess Cybele, who was from thence called _Pessinuntia_. _Strabo_,
bk. 12.――_Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 17.――_Livy_, bk. 29, chs. 10 & 11.
=Petălia=, a town of Eubœa.
=Petălus=, a man killed by Perseus at the court of Cepheus. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, li. 115.
=Petelia=, or =Petellia=, a town. _See:_ Petilia.
=Petelīnus lacus=, a lake near one of the gates of Rome. _Livy_, bk. 6,
ch. 20.
=Peteon=, a town of Bœotia. _Statius_, _Thebaid_, bk. 7, li. 333.
――_Strabo_, bk. 9.
=Peteus=, a son of Orneus, and grandson of Erechtheus. He reigned in
Attica, and became father of Menestheus, who went with the Greeks
to the Trojan war. He is represented by some of the ancients as a
monster, half a man and half a beast. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 10.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 35.
=Petilia=, now _Strongoli_, a town of Magna Græcia, the capital of
Lucania, built or perhaps only repaired by Philoctetes, who, after
his return from the Trojan war, left his country Melibœa, because his
subjects had revolted. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 4.――_Livy_, bk. 23, ch. 20.
――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 402.――_Strabo_, bk. 6.
=Petilia lex=, was enacted by Petilius the tribune to make an inquiry
and know how much money had been obtained from the conquests over
king Antiochus.
=Petilii=, two tribunes who accused Scipio Africanus of extortion. He
was acquitted.
=Petīlius=, a pretor who persuaded the people of Rome to burn the books
which had been found in Numa’s tomb, about 400 years after his death.
His advice was followed. _Plutarch_, _Numa_.――――A plebeian decemvir,
&c.――――A governor of the capitol, who stole away the treasures
entrusted to his care. He was accused, but, though guilty, he was
acquitted, as being the friend of Augustus. _Horace_, bk. 1, satire 4,
li. 94.
=Petosīrīs=, a celebrated mathematician of Egypt. _Juvenal_, satire 6,
li. 580.
=Petra=, the capital town of Arabia Petræa. _Strabo_, bk. 16.――――A town
of Sicily, near Hybla, whose inhabitants are called _Petrini_ and
_Petrenses_.――――A town of Thrace. _Livy_, bk. 40, ch. 22.――――Another
of Pieria in Macedonia. _Livy_, bk. 39, ch. 26.――_Cicero_, _Against
Verres_, bk. 1, ch. 39.――――An elevated place near Dyrrachium, _Lucan_,
bk. 6, lis. 16 & 70.――_Cæsar_, _Civil War_, bk. 3, ch. 40.――――Another
in Elis.――――Another near Corinth.
=Petræa=, one of the Oceanides. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_.――――A part of
Arabia, which has Syria at the east, Egypt on the west, Palestine
on the north, and Arabia Felix at the south. This part of Arabia was
rocky, whence it has received its name. It was for the most part also
covered with barren sands, and was interspersed with some fruitful
spots. Its capital was called Petra.
=Petreius=, a Roman soldier who killed his tribune during the Cimbrian
wars, because he hesitated to attack the enemy. He was rewarded
for his valour with a crown of grass. _Pliny_, bk. 22, ch. 6.――――A
lieutenant of Caius Antonius, who defeated the troops of Catiline.
He took the part of Pompey against Julius Cæsar. When Cæsar had been
victorious in every part of the world, Petreius, who had retired
into Africa, attempted to destroy himself by fighting with his friend
king Juba in single combat. Juba was killed first, and Petreius
obliged one of his slaves to run him through. _Sallust_, _Catilinæ
Coniuratio_.――_Appian._――_Cæsar_, bk. 1, _Civil War_.――――A centurion
in Cæsar’s army in Gaul, &c. Some read Petronius.
=Petrĭnum=, a town of Campania. _Horace_, bk. 1, ltr. 5, li. 5.
=Petrocorii=, the inhabitants of the modern town of Perigord in France.
_Cæsar_, bk. 7, _Gallic War_, ch. 75.
=Petronia=, the wife of Vitellius. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 2,
ch. 64.
=Petrōnius=, a governor of Egypt, appointed to succeed Gallus. He
behaved with great humanity to the Jews, and made war against Candace
queen of Æthiopia. _Strabo_, bk. 17.――――A favourite of Nero, put
to death by Galba.――――A governor of Britain.――――A tribune killed in
Parthia with Crassus.――――A man banished by Nero to the Cyclades, when
Piso’s conspiracy was discovered. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 15.――――A
governor of Britain in Nero’s reign. He was put to death by Galba’s
orders.――――Maximus, a Roman emperor. _See:_ Maximus.――――Arbiter,
a favourite of the emperor Nero, and one of the ministers and
associates of all his pleasures and his debauchery. He was naturally
fond of pleasure and effeminate, and he passed his whole nights in
revels and the days in sleep. He indulged himself in all the delights
and gaieties of life; but though he was the most voluptuous of the
age, yet he moderated his pleasures, and wished to appear curious
and refined in luxury and extravagance. Whatever he did seemed to
be performed with an air of unconcern and negligence; he was affable
in his behaviour, and his witticisms and satirical remarks appeared
artless and natural. He was appointed proconsul of Bithynia, and
afterwards he was rewarded with the consulship; in both of which
honourable employments he behaved with all the dignity which became
one of the successors of a Brutus or a Scipio. With his office he
laid down his artificial gravity, and gave himself up to the pursuit
of pleasure; the emperor became more attached to him, and seemed
fonder of his company; but he did not long enjoy the imperial favours.
Tigellinus, likewise one of Nero’s favourites, jealous of his fame,
accused him of conspiring against the emperor’s life. The accusation
was credited, and Petronius immediately resolved to withdraw himself
from Nero’s punishment by a voluntary death. This was performed in a
manner altogether unprecedented, A.D. 66. Petronius ordered his veins
to be opened; but without the eagerness of terminating his agonies,
he had them closed at intervals. Some time after they were opened,
and as if he wished to die in the same careless and unconcerned
manner as he had lived, he passed his time in discoursing with
his friends upon trifles, and listened with the greatest avidity
to love verses, amusing stories, or laughable epigrams. Sometimes
he manumitted his slaves or punished them with stripes. In this
ludicrous manner he spent his last moments, till nature was exhausted;
and before he expired he wrote an epistle to the emperor, in which he
had described with a masterly hand his nocturnal extravagances, and
the daily impurities of his actions. This letter was carefully sealed,
and after he had conveyed it privately to the emperor, Petronius
broke his signet, that it might not after his death become a snare
to the innocent. Petronius distinguished himself by his writings, as
well as by his luxury and voluptuousness. He is the author of many
elegant but obscene compositions still extant, among which is a poem
on the civil wars of Pompey and Cæsar, superior in some respects to
the Pharsalia of Lucan. There is also the feast of _Trimalcion_, in
which he paints with too much licentiousness the pleasures and the
debaucheries of a corrupted court and of an extravagant monarch;
reflections on the instability of human life; a poem on the vanity of
dreams; another on the education of the Roman youth; two treatises,
&c. The best editions of Petronius are those of Burman, 4to, Utrecht,
1709, and Reinesius, 8vo, 1731.
=Pettius=, a friend of Horace, to whom the poet addressed his eleventh
epode.
=Petus=, an architect. _See:_ Satyrus.
=Peuce=, a small island at the mouth of the Danube. The inhabitants
are called _Peucæ_ and _Peucini_. _Strabo_, bk. 7.――_Lucan_, bk. 3,
li. 202.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.
=Peucestes=, a Macedonian set over Egypt by Alexander. He received
Persia at the general division of the Macedonian empire at the king’s
death. He behaved with great cowardice after he had joined himself
to Eumenes. _Cornelius Nepos_, _Eumenes_.――_Plutarch._――_Curtius_,
bk. 4, ch. 8.――――An island which was visited by the Argonauts at
their return from the conquest of the golden fleece.
=Peucĕtia=, a part of Magna Græcia in Italy, at the north of the bay
of Tarentum, between the Apennines and Lucania, called also _Mesapia_
and _Calabria_. It received its name from Peucetus the son of Lycaon,
of Arcadia. _Strabo_, bk. 6.――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 11.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 14, li. 513.――_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 13.
=Peucīni=, a nation of Germany, called also _Basternæ_. _Tacitus_,
_Germania_, ch. 46.
=Peucolāus=, an officer who conspired with Dymnus against Alexander’s
life. _Curtius_, bk. 6.――――Another, set over Sogdiana. _Curtius_,
bk. 7.
=Pexodōrus=, a governor of Caria, who offered to give his daughter in
marriage to Aridæus the illegitimate son of Philip. _Plutarch._
=Phacium=, a town of Thessaly. _Livy_, bk. 32, ch. 13; bk. 36, ch. 13.
=Phacūsa=, a town of Egypt on the eastern mouth of the Nile.
=Phæa=, a celebrated sow which infested the neighbourhood of Cromyon.
It was destroyed by Theseus as he was travelling from Trœzene to
Athens to make himself known to his father. Some suppose that the
boar of Calydon sprung from this sow. Phæa, according to some authors,
was no other than a woman who prostituted herself to strangers,
whom she murdered and afterwards plundered. _Plutarch_, _Theseus_.
――_Strabo_, bk. 8.
=Phæācia=, an island of the Ionian sea, near the coast of Epirus,
anciently called _Scheria_, and afterwards _Corcyra_. The inhabitants,
called _Phæaces_, were a luxurious and dissolute people, from which
reason a glutton was generally stigmatized by the epithet of _Phæax_.
When Ulysses was shipwrecked on the coast of Phæacia, Alcinous was
then king of the island, whose gardens have been greatly celebrated.
_Horace_, bk. 1, ltr. 15, li. 24.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 13,
li. 719.――_Strabo_, bks. 6 & 7.――_Propertius_, bk. 3, poem 2, li. 13.
=Phæax=, an inhabitant of the island of Phæacia. _See:_ Phæacia.――――A
man who sailed with Theseus to Crete.――――An Athenian who opposed
Alcibiades in his administration.
=Phæcasia=, one of the Sporades in the Ægean. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.
=Phædĭmus=, one of Niobe’s children. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 5.――――A
Macedonian general who betrayed Eumenes to Antigonus.――――A celebrated
courier of Greece. _Statius_, bk. 6.
=Phædon=, an Athenian put to death by the 30 tyrants. His daughters, to
escape the oppressors and preserve their chastity, threw themselves
together into a well.――――A disciple of Socrates. He had been seized
by pirates in his younger days, and the philosopher, who seemed to
discover something uncommon and promising in his countenance, bought
his liberty for a sum of money, and ever after esteemed him. Phædon,
after the death of Socrates, returned to Elis his native country,
where he founded a sect of philosophers called _Elean_. The name
of Phædon is affixed to one of the dialogues of Plato. _Macrobius_,
_Saturnalia_, bk. 1, ch. 11.――_Diogenes Laërtius._――――An archon at
Athens, when the Athenians were directed by the oracle to remove the
bones of Theseus to Attica. _Plutarch_, _Theseus_.
=Phædra=, a daughter of Minos and Pasiphae, who married Theseus, by
whom she became mother of Acamas and Demophoon. They had already
lived for some time in conjugal felicity, when Venus, who hated
all the descendants of Apollo, because that god had discovered her
amours with Mars, inspired Phædra with an unconquerable passion for
Hippolytus the son of Theseus, by the Amazon Hippolyte. This shameful
passion Phædra long attempted to stifle, but in vain; and therefore,
in the absence of Theseus, she addressed Hippolytus with all the
impatience of a desponding lover. Hippolytus rejected her with horror
and disdain; but Phædra, incensed on account of the reception she
had met, resolved to punish his coldness and refusal. At the return
of Theseus she accused Hippolytus of attempts upon her virtue. The
credulous father listened to the accusation, and without hearing the
defence of Hippolytus, he banished him from his kingdom, and implored
Neptune, who had promised to grant three of his requests, to punish
him in some exemplary manner. As Hippolytus fled from Athens, his
horses were suddenly terrified by a huge sea-monster, which Neptune
had sent on the shore. He was dragged through precipices and over
rocks, and he was trampled under the feet of his horses, and crushed
under the wheels of his chariot. When the tragical end of Hippolytus
was known at Athens, Phædra confessed her crime, and hung herself in
despair, unable to survive one whose death her wickedness and guilt
had occasioned. The death of Hippolytus, and the infamous passion
of Phædra, are the subject of one of the tragedies of Euripides, and
of Seneca. Phædra was buried at Trœzene, where her tomb was still
seen in the age of the geographer Pausanias, near the temple of
Venus, which she had built to render the goddess favourable to her
incestuous passion. There was near her tomb a myrtle, whose leaves
were all full of small holes, and it was reported that Phædra had
done this with a hair-pin, when the vehemence of her passion had
rendered her melancholy and almost desperate. She was represented
in a painting in Apollo’s temple at Delphi, as suspended by a cord,
and balancing herself in the air, while her sister Ariadne stood
near to her, and fixed her eyes upon her; a delicate idea, by which
the genius of the artist intimated her melancholy end. _Plutarch_,
_Theseus_.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 22; bk. 2, ch. 32.――_Diodorus_,
bk. 4.――_Hyginus_, fables 47 & 243.――_Euripides_, _Hippolytus_ &
_Seneca_, _Phædra_.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 445.――_Ovid_,
_Heroides_, poem 4.
=Phædria=, a village of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 35.
=Phædrus=, one of the disciples of Socrates. _Cicero_, _de Natura
Deorum_, bk. 1.――――An Epicurean philosopher.――――A Thracian who
became one of the freedmen of the emperor Augustus. He translated
into iambic verses the fables of Æsop, in the reign of the emperor
Tiberius. They are divided into five books, valuable for their
precision, purity, elegance, and simplicity. They remained long
buried in oblivion, till they were discovered in the library of St.
Remi, at Rheims, and published by Peter Pithou, a Frenchman, at the
end of the 16th century. Phædrus was for some time persecuted by
Sejanus, because this corrupt minister believed that he was satirized
and abused in the encomiums which the poet everywhere pays to virtue.
The best editions of Phædrus are those of Burman, 4to, Leyden, 1727;
Hoogstraten, 4to, Amsterdam, 1701; and Barbou, 12mo, Paris, 1754.
=Phædy̆ma=, a daughter of Otanes, who first discovered that Smerdis, who
had ascended the throne of Persia at the death of Cambyses, was an
impostor. _Herodotus_, bk. 3, ch. 69.
=Phæmonōe=, a priestess of Apollo.
=Phænarēte=, the mother of the philosopher Socrates. She was a midwife
by profession.
=Phænias=, a peripatetic philosopher, disciple of Aristotle. He wrote a
history of tyrants. _Diogenes Laërtius._
=Phænna=, one of the two Graces, worshipped at Sparta, together with
her sister Clita. Lacedæmon first paid them particular honour.
_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 35.
=Phænnis=, a famous prophetess in the age of Antiochus. _Pausanias_,
bk. 10, ch. 15.
=Phæsana=, a town of Arcadia.
=Phæstum=, a town of Crete. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 3, li. 296.
――――Another of Macedonia. _Livy_, bk. 56, ch. 13.
=Phaĕton=, a son of the sun, or Phœbus and Clymene, one of the
Oceanides. He was son of Cephalus and Aurora, according to Hesiod
and Pausanias, or of Tithonus and Aurora, according to Apollodorus.
He is, however, more generally acknowledged to be the son of Phœbus
and Clymene. Phaeton was naturally of a lively disposition, and a
handsome figure. Venus became enamoured of him, and entrusted him
with the care of one of her temples. This distinguishing favour of
the goddess rendered him vain and aspiring; and when Epaphus the
son of Io had told him to check his pride, that he was not the son
of Phœbus, Phaeton resolved to know his true origin, and at the
instigation of his mother, he visited the palace of the sun. He
begged Phœbus, that if he really were his father, he would give him
incontestible proofs of his paternal tenderness, and convince the
world of his legitimacy. Phœbus swore by the Styx that he would grant
him whatever he required, and no sooner was the oath uttered, than
Phaeton demanded of him to drive his chariot for one day. Phœbus
represented the impropriety of such a request, and the dangers
to which it would expose him; but in vain; and, as the oath was
inviolable, and Phaeton unmoved, the father instructed his son how
he was to proceed in his way through the regions of the air. His
explicit directions were forgotten, or little attended to; and
no sooner had Phaeton received the reins from his father, than he
betrayed his ignorance and incapacity to guide the chariot. The
flying horses became sensible of the confusion of their driver,
and immediately departed from the usual track. Phaeton repented too
late of his rashness, and already heaven and earth were threatened
with a universal conflagration, when Jupiter, who had perceived the
disorder of the horses of the sun, struck the rider with one of his
thunderbolts, and hurled him headlong from heaven into the river Po.
His body, consumed with fire, was found by the nymphs of the place,
and honoured with a decent burial. His sisters mourned his unhappy
end, and were changed into poplars by Jupiter. _See:_ Phaetontiades.
According to the poets, while Phaeton was unskilfully driving the
chariot of his father, the blood of the Æthiopians was dried up, and
their skin became black, a colour which is still preserved among the
greatest part of the inhabitants of the torrid zone. The territories
of Libya were also parched up, according to the same tradition,
on account of their too great vicinity to the sun; and ever since,
Africa, unable to recover her original verdure and fruitfulness,
has exhibited a sandy country, and uncultivated waste. According to
those who explain this poetical fable, Phaeton was a Ligurian prince,
who studied astronomy, and in whose age the neighbourhood of the Po
was visited with uncommon heats. The horses of the sun are called
_Phaetontis equi_, either because they were guided by Phaeton, or
from the Greek word (φαεθων), which expresses the splendour and
lustre of that luminary. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 5, li. 105.――_Hesiod_,
_Theogony_, li. 985.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, fable 17; bk. 2,
fable 1, &c.――_Apollonius_, bk. 4, _Argonautica_.――_Horace_, bk. 1,
ode 11.――_Seneca_, _Medea_.――_Apollodorus._――_Hyginus_, fable 156.
=Phaĕtontiădes=, or =Phaetontides=, the sisters of Phaeton, who were
changed into poplars by Jupiter. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 2,
li. 346. _See:_ Heliades.
=Phaetūsa=, one of the Heliades changed into poplars, after the death
of their brother Phaeton. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 2, li. 346.
=Phæus=, a town of Peloponnesus.
=Phagesia=, a festival among the Greeks, observed during the celebration
of the Dionysia. It received its name from the good _eating_ and
living that then universally prevailed, φαγειν.
=Phalacrine=, a village of the Sabines, where Vespasian was born.
_Suetonius_, _Vespasian_, ch. 2.
=Phalæ=, wooden towers at Rome, erected in the circus. _Juvenal_,
satire 6, li. 589.
=Phalæcus=, a general of Phocis against the Bœotians, killed at the
battle of Cheronæa. _Diodorus_, bk. 16.
=Phalæsia=, a town of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 35.
=Phalanna=, a town of Perrhæbia. _Livy_, bk. 42, ch. 54.
=Phalanthus=, a Lacedæmonian, who founded Tarentum in Italy, at the head
of the Partheniæ. His father’s name was Aracus. As he went to Italy
he was shipwrecked on the coast, and carried to shore by a dolphin,
and from that reason there was a dolphin placed near his statute in
the temple of Apollo at Delphi. _See:_ Partheniæ. He received divine
honours after death. _Justin_, bk. 3, ch. 4.――_Pausanias_, bk. 10,
ch. 10.――_Horace_, bk. 2, ode 6, li. 11.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 11,
li. 16.――――A town and mountain of the same name in Arcadia. _Persius_,
bk. 8, ch. 35.
=Phălăris=, a tyrant of Agrigentum, who made use of the most
excruciating torments to punish his subjects on the smallest
suspicion. Perillus made him a brazen bull, and when he had presented
it to Phalaris, the tyrant ordered the inventor to be seized, and the
first experiment to be made on his body. These cruelties did not long
remain unrevenged; the people of Agrigentum revolted in the tenth
year of his reign, and put him to death in the same manner as he
had tortured Perillus and many of his subjects after him, B.C. 552.
The brazen bull of Phalaris was carried by Amilcar to Carthage;
but when that city was taken by Scipio, it was delivered again to
the inhabitants of Agrigentum by the Romans. There are now some
letters extant written by a certain Abaris to Phalaris, with their
respective answers, but they are supposed by some to be spurious. The
best edition is that of the learned Boyle, Oxford, 1718. _Cicero_,
_Against Verres_, bk. 4; _Letters to Atticus_, bk. 7, ltr. 12;
_De Officiis_, bk. 2.――_Ovid_, _de Ars Amatoria_, bk. 1, li. 663.
――_Juvenal_, satire 8, li. 81.――_Pliny_, bk. 34, ch. 8.――_Diodorus._
――――A Trojan killed by Turnus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 762.
=Phalarium=, a citadel of Syracuse, where Phalaris’s bull was placed.
=Phalărus=, a river of Bœotia, falling into the Cephisus. _Pausanias_,
bk. 9, ch. 34.
=Phalcidon=, a town of Thessaly. _Polyænus_, bk. 4.
=Phaleas=, a philosopher and legislator, &c. _Aristotle._
=Phalēreus Demetrius.= _See:_ Demetrius.
=Phaleria=, a town of Thessaly. _Livy_, bk. 32, ch. 15.
=Phalēris=, a Corinthian who led a colony to Epidamnus from Corcyra.
=Phalēron=, or =Phalerum=, or =Phalera= (orum), or =Phalerus portus=,
an ancient harbour of Athens, about 25 stadia from the city, which,
for its situation and smallness, was not very fit for the reception
of many ships.――――A place of Thessaly.
=Phalērus=, a son of Alcon, one of the Argonauts. _Orpheus._
=Phalias=, a son of Hercules and Heliconis daughter of Thestius.
_Apollodorus._
=Phallĭca=, festivals observed by the Egyptians in honour of Osiris.
They receive their name from φαλλος _simulachrum ligneum membri
virilis_. The institution originated in this: After the murder
of Osiris, Isis was unable to recover among the other limbs the
privities of her husband; and therefore, as she paid particular
honour to every part of his body, she distinguished that which was
lost with more honour, and paid it more attention. Its representation,
called _phallus_, was made with wood, and carried during the sacred
festivals which were instituted in honour of Osiris. The people held
it in the greatest veneration; it was looked upon as an emblem of
fecundity, and the mention of it among the ancients never conveyed
any impure thought or lascivious reflection. The festivals of the
_phallus_ were imitated by the Greeks, and introduced into Europe by
the Athenians, who made the procession of the _phallus_ part of the
celebration of the Dionysia of the god of wine. Those that carried
the _phallus_, at the end of a long pole, were called _phallophori_.
They generally appeared among the Greeks, besmeared with the dregs of
wine, covered with skins of lambs, and wearing on their heads a crown
of ivy. _Lucian_, _de Syria Dea_.――_Plutarch_, _De Iside et Osiride_.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 2.
=Phalysius=, a citizen of Naupactum, who recovered his sight by reading
a letter sent him by Æsculapius. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, final chapter.
=Phanæus=, a promontory of the island of Chios, famous for its wines.
It was called after a king of the same name, who reigned there.
_Livy_, bk. 36, ch. 43.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 2, li. 98.
=Phanaræa=, a town of Cappadocia. _Strabo._
=Phanas=, a famous Messenian, &c., who died B.C. 682.
=Phanes=, a man of Halicarnassus, who fled from Amasis king of Egypt,
to the court of Cambyses king of Persia, whom he advised, when he
invaded Egypt, to pass through Arabia. _Herodotus_, bk. 3, ch. 4.
=Phaneta=, a town of Epirus. _Livy_, bk. 32, ch. 28.
=Phanŏcles=, an elegiac poet of Greece, who wrote a poem on that
unnatural sin of which Socrates is accused by some. He supported
that Orpheus had been the first who disgraced himself by that
filthy indulgence. Some of his fragments are remaining. _Clement of
Alexandria_, _Stromateis_, bk. 6.
=Phanodēmus=, an historian who wrote on the antiquities of Attica.
=Phantasia=, a daughter of Nicarchus of Memphis, in Egypt. Some have
supposed that she wrote a poem on the Trojan war, and another on the
return of Ulysses to Ithaca, from which compositions Homer copied
the greatest part of his Iliad and Odyssey, when he visited Memphis,
where they were deposited.
=Phanus=, a son of Bacchus, who was among the Argonauts. _Apollodorus._
=Phaon=, a boatman of Mitylene in Lesbos. He received a small box of
ointment from Venus, who had presented herself to him in the form
of an old woman, to be carried over into Asia, and as soon as he
had rubbed himself with what the box contained, he became one of the
most beautiful men of his age. Many were captivated with the charms
of Phaon, and, among others, Sappho the celebrated poetess. Phaon
gave himself up to the pleasures of Sappho’s company; but, however,
he soon conceived a disdain for her, and Sappho, mortified at his
coldness, threw herself into the sea. Some say that Phaon was beloved
by the goddess of beauty, who concealed him for some time among
lettuces. Ælian says that Phaon was killed by a man whose bed he was
defiling. _Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 12.――_Ovid_, _Heroides_,
poem 21.――_Palæphatus_, _de Incredibilia_, ch. 49.――_Athenæus._
――_Lucian_, _Dialogi Mortuorum_, bk. 9.
=Phara=, a town of Africa, burnt by Scipio’s soldiers.
=Pharacĭdes=, a general of the Lacedæmonian fleet, who assisted
Dionysius the tyrant of Sicily against the Carthaginians. _Polyænus_,
bk. 2.
=Pharæ=, or =Pheræ=, a town of Crete.――――Another in Messenia.
_Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 30. _See:_ Pheræ.
=Pharasmănes=, a king of Iberia, in the reign of Antoninus, &c.
_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 6, ch. 33.
=Pharax=, a Lacedæmonian officer, who attempted to make himself
absolute in Sicily.――――A Thessalian, whose son, called Cyanippus,
married a beautiful woman, called Leuconoe, who was torn to pieces
by his dogs. _Parthenius._
=Pharis=, a town of Laconia, whose inhabitants are called _Pharitæ_.
_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 30.――――A son of Mercury and Philodamea, who
built Pharæ in Messenia. _Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 30.
=Pharmecūsa=, an island of the Ægean sea, where Julius Cæsar was seized
by some pirates. _Suetonius_, _Cæsar_, ch. 4.――――Another, where was
shown Circe’s tomb. _Strabo._
=Pharnabāzus=, a satrap of Persia, son of a person of the same name,
B.C. 409. He assisted the Lacedæmonians against the Athenians,
and gained their esteem by his friendly behaviour and support. His
conduct, however, towards Alcibiades, was of the most perfidious
nature, and he did not scruple to betray to his mortal enemies the
man whom he had long honoured with his friendship. _Cornelius Nepos_,
_Alcibiades._――_Plutarch._――――An officer under Eumenes.――――A king of
Iberia.
=Pharnăce=, a town of Pontus. _Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 4.――――The mother of
Cinyras king of Pontus. _Suidas._
=Pharnăces=, a son of Mithridates king of Pontus, who favoured the
Romans against his father. He revolted against Mithridates, and even
caused him to be put to death, according to some accounts. In the
civil wars of Julius Cæsar and Pompey, he interested himself for
neither of the contending parties; upon which Cæsar turned his army
against him, and conquered him. It was to express the celerity of his
operations in conquering Pharnaces, that the victorious Roman made
use of these words, _Veni, vidi, vici_. _Florus_, bk. 3.――_Suetonius_,
_Cæsar_, ch. 37.――_Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 55.――――A king of Pontus,
who made war with Eumenes, B.C. 181.――――A king of Cappadocia.――――A
librarian of Atticus. _Cicero_, _Letters to Atticus_.
=Pharnapātes=, a general of Orodes king of Parthia, killed in a battle
by the Romans.
=Pharnaspes=, the father of Cassandra the mother of Cambyses.
=Pharnus=, a king of Media, conquered by Ninus king of Assyria.
=Pharos=, a small island in the bay of Alexandria, about seven furlongs
distant from the continent. It was joined to the Egyptian shore
with a causeway by Dexiphanes, B.C. 284, and upon it was built a
celebrated tower, in the reign of Ptolemy Soter and Philadelphus,
by Sostratus the son of Dexiphanes. This tower, which was called the
tower of Pharos, and which passed for one of the seven wonders of the
world, was built with white marble, and could be seen at the distance
of 100 miles. On the top, fires were constantly kept to direct
sailors in the bay, which was dangerous and difficult of access.
The building of this tower cost the Egyptian monarch 800 talents,
which were equivalent to above 165,000_l._ English, if Attic, or if
Alexandrian, double that sum. There was this inscription upon it,
_King Ptolemy to the Gods the saviours, for the benefit of sailors_;
but Sostratus the architect, wishing to claim all the glory, engraved
his own name upon the stones, and afterwards filled the hollow with
mortar, and wrote the above-mentioned inscription. When the mortar
had decayed by time, Ptolemy’s name disappeared, and the following
inscription then became visible: _Sostratus the Cnidian, son of
Dexiphanes, to the Gods the saviours, for the benefit of sailors_.
The word _Pharius_ is often used as Egyptian. _Lucan_, bk. 2, li. 636;
bk. 3, li. 260; bk. 6, li. 308; bk. 9, li. 1005, &c.――_Ovid_, _Ars
Amatoria_, bk. 3, li. 635.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, chs. 31 & 85; bk. 36, ch.
13.――_Strabo_, bk. 17.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Pliny_, bk. 13, ch.
11.――_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 4.――_Flaccus_, bk. 2.――_Statius_, bk. 3,
_Sylvæ_, poem 2, li. 102.――――A watch-tower near Capreæ.――――An island
on the coast of Illyricum, now called _Lesina_. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.
――――The emperor Claudius ordered a tower to be built at the entrance
of the port of Ostia, for the benefit of sailors, and it likewise
bore the name of _Pharos_, an appellation afterwards given to every
other edifice which was raised to direct the course of sailors,
either with lights, or by signals. _Juvenal_, satire 11, li. 76.
――_Suetonius._
=Pharsălus=, now _Farsa_, a town of Thessaly, in whose neighbourhood
is a large plain called _Pharsalia_, famous for a battle which was
fought there between Julius Cæsar and Pompey, in which the former
obtained the victory. In that battle, which was fought on the 12th of
May, B.C. 48, Cæsar lost about 200 men, or, according to others, 1200.
Pompey’s loss was 15,000, or 25,000 according to others, and 24,000
of his army were made prisoners of war by the conqueror. _Lucan_,
bk. 1, &c.――_Plutarch_, _Pompey_ & _Cæsar_.――_Appian_, _Civil Wars_.
――_Cæsar_, _Civil War_.――_Suetonius_, _Cæsar_.――_Dio Cassius._
――――That poem of Lucan, in which he gives an account of the civil
wars of Cæsar and Pompey, bears the name of Pharsalia. _See:_ Lucanus.
=Pharte=, a daughter of Danaus. _Apollodorus._
=Pharus=, a Rutulian killed by Æneas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10,
li. 322.
=Pharusii=, or =Phaurusii=, a people of Africa, beyond Mauritania.
_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 4.
=Pharybus=, a river of Macedonia, falling into the Ægean sea. It is
called by some Baphyrus.
=Pharycadon=, a town of Macedonia, on the Peneus. _Strabo_, bk. 9.
=Pharyge=, a town of Locris.
=Phasēlis=, a town of Pamphylia, at the foot of mount Taurus, which was
long the residence of pirates. _Strabo_, bk. 14.――_Lucan_, bk. 8, ch.
251.――_Cicero_, _On the Agrarian Law_, bk. 2, ch. 19.
=Phasiana=, a country of Asia, near the river Phasis. The inhabitants
called _Phasiani_, are of Egyptian origin.
=Phasias=, a patronymic given to Medea, as being born near the Phasis.
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 7.
=Phasis=, a son of Phœbus and Ocyroe.――――A river of Colchis, rising
in the mountains of Armenia, now called _Faoz_, and falling into the
east of the Euxine. It is famous for the expedition of the Argonauts,
who entered it after a long and perilous voyage, from which reason
all dangerous voyages have been proverbially intimated by the words
of _sailing to the Phasis_. There were on the banks of the Phasis
a great number of large birds, of which, according to some of the
ancients, the Argonauts brought some to Greece, and which were
called on that account _pheasants_. The Phasis was reckoned by
the ancients one of the largest rivers of Asia. _Pliny_, bk. 10,
ch. 48.――_Martial_, bk. 13, ltr. 62.――_Strabo_, bk. 11.――_Mela_,
bk. 1, ch. 19.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, &c.――_Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 44.
――_Orpheus._
=Phassus=, a son of Lycaon. _Apollodorus._
=Phauda=, a town of Pontus.
=Phavorīnus=, a writer, the best edition of whose Greek Lexicon is that
in folio, Venice, 1712.
=Phayllus=, a tyrant of Ambracia.――――The brother of Onomarchus of
Phocis, &c. _See:_ Phocis. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 2.
=Phea=, or =Pheia=, a town of Elis. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 7.
=Phecadum=, an inland town of Macedonia. _Livy_, bk. 31, ch. 41.
=Phegeus=, or =Phlegeus=, a companion of Æneas, killed by Turnus.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 765.――――Another, likewise killed
by Turnus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 12, li. 371, &c.――――A priest
of Bacchus, the father of Alphesibœa, who purified Alcmæon of his
mother’s murder, and gave him his daughter in marriage. He was
afterwards put to death by the children of Alcmæon by Callirhoe,
because he had ordered Alcmæon to be killed when he had attempted to
recover a collar which he had given to his daughter. _See:_ Alcmæon.
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 9, li. 412.
=Phellia=, a river of Laconia. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 20.
=Phelloe=, a town of Achaia near Ægira, where Bacchus and Diana each
had a temple. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 26.
=Phellus=, a place of Attica.――――A town of Elis, near Olympia. _Strabo._
=Phemius=, a man introduced by Homer as a musician among Penelope’s
suitors. Some say that he taught Homer, for which the grateful poet
immortalized his name. _Homer_, _Odyssey_.――――A man who, according
to some, wrote an account of the return of the Greeks from the
Trojan war. The word is applied by Ovid, _Amores_, bk. 3, li. 7,
indiscriminately to any person who excels in music.
=Phemonoe=, a priestess of Apollo, who is supposed to have invented
heroic verses. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 6.
=Phenēum=, a town of Arcadia, whose inhabitants, called _Pheneatæ_,
worshipped Mercury. _Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 3.
=Pheneus=, a town with a lake of the same name in Arcadia, whose waters
were unwholesome in the night and wholesome in the daytime. _Cicero_,
_de Natura Deorum_, bk. 3, ch. 22.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8, li. 165.
――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 15, li. 332.――――A son of Melas, killed
by Tydeus. _Apollodorus._
=Pheræ=, a town of Thessaly, where the tyrant Alexander reigned, whence
he was called _Pheræus_. _Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Cicero_, bk. 2, _de
Officis_.――_Ovid_, _Ibis_, li. 321.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 9,
ch. 13.――――A town of Attica.――――Another in Laconia in Peloponnesus.
_Livy_, bk. 35, ch. 30.
=Pheræus=, a surname of Jason, as being a native of Pheræ.
=Pheraules=, a Persian whom Cyrus raised from poverty to affluence.
He afterwards gave up all his possessions to enjoy tranquillity in
retirement. _Xenophon_, _Cyropaedia_.
=Pherĕclus=, one of the Greeks during the Trojan war. _Ovid_,
_Heroides_, poem 15.――――A pilot of the ship of Theseus, when he went
to Crete. _Plutarch_, _Theseus_.
=Pherēcrătes=, a comic poet of Athens, in the age of Plato and
Aristophanes. He is supposed to have written 21 comedies, of which
only a few verses remain. He introduced living characters on the
stage, but never abused the liberty which he had taken, either by
satire or defamation. He invented a sort of verse, which from him has
been called _Pherecratian_. It consisted of the three last feet of
an hexameter verse, of which the first was always a spondee, as for
instance, the third verse of Horace’s bk. 1, ode 5, _Grato Pyrrha sub
antro._――――Another, descended from Deucalion. _Cicero_, _Tusculanæ
Disputationes_.
=Pherecȳdes=, a philosopher of Scyros, disciple of Pittacus, one of the
first who delivered his thoughts in prose. He was acquainted with the
periods of the moon, and foretold eclipses with the greatest accuracy.
The doctrine of the immortality of the soul was first supported
by him, as also that of the metempsychosis. Pythagoras was one of
his disciples, remarkable for his esteem and his attachment to his
learned master. When Pherecydes lay dangerously ill in the island of
Delos, Pythagoras hastened to give him every assistance in his power,
and when all his efforts had proved ineffectual, he buried him, and
after he had paid him the last offices, he retired to Italy. Some,
however, suppose, that Pherecydes threw himself down from a precipice
as he was going to Delphi, or, according to others, he fell a
sacrifice to the lousy disease, B.C. 515, in the 85th year of his
age. _Diogenes Laërtius._――_Lactantius [Placidus]._――――An historian
of Leros, surnamed the Athenian. He wrote a history of Attica, now
lost, in the age of Darius Hystaspes.――――A tragic poet.
=Pherendates=, a Persian set over Egypt by Artaxerxes.
=Pherephate=, a surname of Proserpine, from the production of corn.
=Pheres=, a son of Cretheus and Tyro, who built Pheræ in Thessaly,
where he reigned. He married Clymene, by whom he had Admetus and
Lycurgus. _Apollodorus._――――A son of Medea, stoned to death by the
Corinthians, on account of the poisonous clothes which he had given
to Glauce, Creon’s daughter. _See:_ Medea. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 3.
――――A friend of Æneas, killed by Halesus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10,
li. 413.
=Pheretias=, a patronymic of Admetus son of Pheres. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, li. 291.
=Pheretīma=, the wife of Battus king of Cyrene, and mother of
Arcesilaus. After her son’s death, she recovered the kingdom by means
of Amasis king of Egypt, and to avenge the murder of Arcesilaus, she
caused all his assassins to be crucified round the walls of Cyrene,
and she cut off the breasts of their wives, and hung them up near the
bodies of their husbands. It is said that she was devoured alive by
worms, a punishment which, according to some of the ancients, was
inflicted by Providence for her unparalleled cruelties. _Polyænus_,
bk. 8.――_Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 204, &c.
=Pherinum=, a town of Thessaly.
=Pheron=, a king of Egypt, who succeeded Sesostris. He was blind,
and he recovered his sight by washing his eyes, according to the
directions of the oracle, in the urine of a woman who had never had
any unlawful connexions. He tried his wife first, but she appeared
to have been faithless to his bed, and she was burnt with all those
whose urine could not restore sight to the king. He married the woman
whose urine proved beneficial. _Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 111.
=Pherūsa=, one of the Nereides. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1.
=Phiăle=, one of Diana’s nymphs. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 3.――――A
celebrated courtesan. _Juvenal_, satire 10, li. 238.
=Phialia=, or =Phigalia=, a town of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 3.
=Phiălus=, a king of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 3.
=Phicores=, a people near the Palus Mæotis. _Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 19.
=Phidias=, a celebrated statuary of Athens, who died B.C. 432. He made
a statue of Minerva, at the request of Pericles, which was placed
in the Pantheon. It was made with ivory and gold, and measured 39
feet in height. His presumption raised him many enemies, and he
was accused of having carved his own image and that of Pericles on
the shield of the statue of the goddess, for which he was banished
from Athens by the clamorous populace. He retired to Elis, where
he determined to revenge the ill-treatment he had received from his
countrymen, by making a statue which should eclipse the fame of that
of Minerva. He was successful in the attempt; and the statue he made
of Jupiter Olympius was always reckoned the best of all his pieces,
and has passed for one of the wonders of the world. The people of
Elis were so sensible of his merit, and of the honour he had done
to their city, that they appointed his descendants to the honourable
office of keeping clean that magnificent statue, and of preserving
it from injury. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 4.――_Cicero_, _On Oratory_.
――_Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Quintilian_, bk. 12, ch. 10.――_Plutarch_,
_Pericles_.
=Phidilē=, a woman. _See:_ ♦Phidyle.
♦ ‘Phidyle’ not referenced in the text.
=Phidippĭdes= a celebrated courier, who ran from Athens to Lacedæmon,
about 152 English miles, in two days, to ask of the Lacedæmonians
assistance against the Persians. The Athenians raised a temple to his
memory. _Herodotus_, bk. 6, ch. 105.――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Miltiades._
=Phiditia=, a public entertainment at Sparta, where much frugality was
observed, as the word (φειδιτια, from φειδομαι, _parco_) denotes.
Persons of all ages were admitted; the younger frequented it as
a school of temperance and sobriety, where they were trained to
good manners and useful knowledge, by the example and discourse of
their elders. _Cicero_, _Tusculanæ Disputationes_, bk. 5, ch. 34.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 10.
=Phidon=, a man who enjoyed the sovereign power at Argos, and is
supposed to have invented scales and measures, and coined silver at
Ægina. He died B.C. 854. _Aristotle._――_Herodotus_, bk. 6, ch. 127.
――――An ancient legislator at Corinth.
=Phidy̆re=, a female servant of Horace, to whom he addressed bk. 3,
ode 23.
=Phigalei=, a people of Peloponnesus, near Messenia. They were
naturally fond of drinking, and negligent of domestic affairs.
_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 39.
=Phila=, the eldest daughter of Antipater, who married Craterus. She
afterwards married Demetrius, and when her husband had lost the
kingdom of Macedonia, she poisoned herself. _Plutarch._――――A town of
Macedonia. _Livy_, bk. 42, ch. 67; bk. 44, chs. 2 & 34.――――An island
called also ♦Phila.
♦ ‘Phla’ replaced with ‘Phila’
=Philadelphia=, now _Alahasher_, a town of Lydia. _Pliny_, bk. 5,
ch. 29.――――Another, in Cilicia,――――Arabia,――――-Syria.
=Philadelphus=, a king of Paphlagonia, who followed the interest
of Marcus Antony.――――The surname of one of the Ptolemies, king of
Egypt, by antiphrasis, because he destroyed all his brothers. _See:_
Ptolemæus II.
♦=Philæ=, a town and island of Egypt, above the smaller cataract, but
placed opposite Syene by _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 9. Isis was worshipped
there. _Lucan_, bk. 10, li. 313.――_Seneca_, _Quæstiones Naturales_,
bk. 4, ch. 2.――――One of the Sporades. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.
♦ ‘Phile’ replaced with ‘Philæ’
=Philæni=, two brothers of Carthage. When a contest arose between the
Cyreneans and Carthaginians, about the extent of their territories,
it was mutually agreed that, at a stated hour, two men should depart
from each city, and that, wherever they met, there they should fix
the boundaries of their country. The Philæni accordingly departed
from Carthage, and met the Cyreneans, when they had advanced far
into their territories. This produced a quarrel, and the Cyreneans
supported that the Philæni had left Carthage before the appointment,
and that therefore they must retire or be buried in the sand. The
Philæni refused, upon which they were overpowered by the Cyreneans,
and accordingly buried in the sand. The Carthaginians, to commemorate
the patriotic deeds of the Philæni, who had sacrificed their lives
that the extent of their country might not be diminished, raised two
altars on the place where their bodies had been buried, which they
called _Philænorum aræ_. These altars were the boundaries of the
Carthaginian dominions, which on the other side extended as far as
the columns of Hercules, which is about 2000 miles, or, according
to the accurate observations of the moderns, only 1420 geographical
miles. _Sallust_, _Jugurthine War_, chs. 19 & 79.――_Silius Italicus_,
bk. 15, li. 704.
=Philænis=, or =Phileris=, a courtesan. _See:_ Phileris.
=Philæus=, a son of Ajax, by Lyside the daughter of Coronus, one of the
Lapithæ. Miltiades, as some suppose, was descended from him.――――A son
of Augeas, who upbraided his father for not granting what Hercules
justly claimed for cleaning his stables. _See:_ Augeas. He was placed
upon his father’s throne by Hercules. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2.
=Philammon=, a celebrated musician, son of Apollo and Chione.――――A man
who murdered Arsinoe, and who was slain by her female attendants.
=Philanthus=, a son of Prolaus of Elis, killed at the Olympic games.
_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 3.
=Philarchus=, a hero who gave assistance to the Phocians when the
Persians invaded Greece.
=Philēmon=, a Greek comic poet, contemporary with Menander. He obtained
some poetical prizes over Menander, not so much by the merit of his
composition, as by the intrigues of his friends. Plautus imitated
some of his comedies. He lived to his 97th year, and died, as it is
reported, of laughing, on seeing an ass eat figs, B.C. 274.――――His
son, who bore the same name, wrote 54 comedies, of which some
few fragments remain, which do not seem to entitle him to great
rank among the Greek comic writers. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 9, ch.
12――_Quintilian_, bk. 10.――_Plutarch_, _de Cohibenda Ira_.――_Strabo_,
bk. 14.――――A poor man of Phrygia. _See:_ Baucis.――――An illegitimate
son of Priam.
=Philēne=, a town of Attica between Athens and Tanagra. _Statius_,
_Thebaid_, bk. 4, li. 102.
=Philēris=, an immodest woman, whom Philocrates the poet lampooned.
_Martial_, bk. 7.
=Philĕros=, a town of Macedonia. _Pliny._
=Philesius=, a leader of the 10,000 Greeks after the battle of Cunaxa.
=Philetærus=, a eunuch made governor of Pergamus by Lysimachus. He
quarrelled with Lysimachus, and made himself master of Pergamus,
where he laid the foundations of a kingdom called the kingdom of
Pergamus, B.C. 283. He reigned there for 20 years, and at his death
he appointed his nephew Eumenes as his successor. _Strabo_, bk. 13.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 8.――――A Cretan general who revolted from
Seleucus, and was conquered, &c. _Polyænus_, bk. 4.
=Philētas=, a grammarian and poet of Cos, in the reign of king Philip,
and of his son Alexander the Great. He was made preceptor to Ptolemy
Philadelphus. The elegies and epigrams which he wrote have been
greatly commended by the ancients, and some fragments of them are
still preserved in Athenæus. He was so small and slender, according
to the improbable accounts of Ælian, that he always carried pieces of
lead in his pockets, to prevent being blown away by the wind. _Ælian_,
_Varia Historia_, bk. 9, ch. 14.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 1, poem 5.
――_Propertius_, bk. 3, poem 1.――――An historian.
=Philetius=, a faithful steward of Ulysses, who, with Eumeus, assisted
him in destroying the suitors, who had not only insulted the queen,
but wasted the property of the absent monarch. _Homer_, _Odyssey_,
bk. 20, &c.
=Philĭdas=, a friend of Pelopidas, who favoured the conspiracy formed
to expel the Spartans from Thebes. He received the conspirators in
his own house.
=Philides=, a dealer in horses in the age of Themistocles. _Plutarch_,
_Themistocles_.
=Philinna=, a courtesan, mother of Aridæus, by Philip the father of
Alexander.
=Philīnus=, a native of Agrigentum, who fought with Annibal against
the Romans. He wrote a partial history of the Punic wars. _Cornelius
Nepos_, _Hannibal_.――_Polybius._
=Philippei=, or =Phillippi=, certain pieces of money coined in the
reign of Philip of Macedonia, and with his image. _Horace_, bk. 2,
ltr. 1, li. 284.――_Livy_, bk. 34, ch. 52; bk. 37, ch. 59; bk. 39,
chs. 5 & 7.
=Philippi=, a town of Macedonia, anciently called _Datos_, and situate
at the east of the Strymon on a rising ground, which abounds with
springs and water. It was called Philippi after Philip king of
Macedonia, who fortified it against the incursions of the barbarians
of Thrace, and became celebrated for two battles which were fought
there in October, B.C. 42, at the interval of about 20 days, between
Augustus and Antony, and the republican forces of Brutus and Cassius,
in which the former obtained the victory. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 15, li. 284.――_Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 45.――_Florus_, bk. 4, ch. 7.
――_Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 7, &c.――_Appian_, bk. 2, _Civil Wars_.
――_Plutarch_, _Antonius_.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 1, li. 490.
――_Suetonius_, _Augustus_, ch. 2.
=Philippĭdes=, a comic poet in Alexander’s age.――――A courier, called
also Phidippides.
=Philippŏpŏlis=, a town of Thrace, near the Hebrus, built by Philip the
father of Alexander. _Livy_, bk. 39, ch. 53.――――Of Thessaly, called
Philippi.
=Philippus I.=, son of Argæus, succeeded his father on the throne of
Macedonia, and reigned 38 years, B.C. 640.――――The second of that
name was the fourth son of Amyntas king of Macedonia. He was sent
to Thebes as a hostage by his father, where he learnt the art of war
under Epaminondas, and studied with the greatest care the manners and
the pursuits of the Greeks. He was recalled to Macedonia, and at the
death of his brother Perdiccas, he ascended the throne as guardian
and protector of the youthful years of his nephew. His ambition,
however, soon discovered itself, and he made himself independent.
The valour of a prudent general, and the policy of an experienced
statesman, seemed requisite to ensure his power. The neighbouring
nations, ridiculing the youth and inexperience of the new king
of Macedonia, appeared in arms, but Philip soon convinced them of
their error. Unable to meet them as yet in the field of battle, he
suspended their fury by presents, and soon turned his arms against
Amphipolis, a colony tributary to the Athenians. Amphipolis was
conquered, and added to the kingdom of Macedonia, and Philip
meditated no less than the destruction of a republic which had
rendered itself so formidable to the rest of Greece, and had even
claimed submission from the princes of Macedonia. His designs,
however, were as yet immature, and before he could make Athens an
object of conquest, the Thracians and the Illyrians demanded his
attention. He made himself master of a Thracian colony, to which he
gave the name of Philippi, and from which he received the greatest
advantages on account of the golden mines in the neighbourhood.
In the midst of his political prosperity, Philip did not neglect
the honour of his family. He married Olympias, the daughter of
Neoptolemus king of the Molossi; and when, some time after he became
father of Alexander, the monarch, conscious of the inestimable
advantages which arise from the lessons, the example, and the
conversation of a learned and virtuous preceptor, wrote a letter
with his own hand to the philosopher Aristotle, and begged him to
retire from his usual pursuits, and to dedicate his whole time to the
instruction of the young prince. Everything seemed now to conspire
to his aggrandizement, and historians have observed, that Philip
received in one day the intelligence of three things which could
gratify the most unbounded ambition, and flatter the hopes of the
most aspiring monarch: the birth of a son, an honourable crown at
the Olympic games, and a victory over the barbarians of Illyricum.
But all these increased rather than satiated his ambition; he
declared his inimical sentiments against the power of Athens, and
the independence of all Greece, by laying siege to Olynthus, a place
which, on account of its situation and consequence, would prove most
injurious to the interests of the Athenians, and most advantageous to
the intrigues and military operations of every Macedonian prince. The
Athenians, roused by the eloquence of Demosthenes, sent 17 vessels
and 2000 men to the assistance of Olynthus, but the money of Philip
prevailed over all their efforts. The greatest part of the citizens
suffered themselves to be bribed by the Macedonian gold, and Olynthus
surrendered to the enemy, and was instantly reduced to ruins. His
successes were as great in every part of Greece; he was declared head
of the Amphictyonic council, and was entrusted with the care of the
sacred temple of Apollo at Delphi. If he was recalled to Macedonia,
it was only to add fresh laurels to his crown, by victories over
his enemies in Illyricum and Thessaly. By assuming the mask of a
moderator and peacemaker he gained confidence, and in attempting to
protect the Peloponnesians against the encroaching power of Sparta,
he rendered his cause popular, and by ridiculing the insults that
were offered to his person as he passed through Corinth, he displayed
to the world his moderation and philosophic virtues. In his attempts
to make himself master of Eubœa, Philip was unsuccessful; and
Phocion, who despised his gold as well as his meanness, obliged him
to evacuate an island whose inhabitants were as insensible to the
charms of money, as they were unmoved at the horrors of war, and
the bold efforts of a vigilant enemy. From Eubœa he turned his arms
against the Scythians, but the advantages which he obtained over
this indigent nation were inconsiderable, and he again made Greece
an object of plunder and rapine. He advanced far into Bœotia, and
a general engagement was fought at Chæronea. The fight was long and
bloody, but Philip obtained the victory. His behaviour after the
battle reflects great disgrace upon him as a man, and as a monarch.
In the hour of festivity, and during the entertainment which he had
given to celebrate the trophies he had won, Philip sallied from his
camp, and with the inhumanity of a brute he insulted the bodies of
the slain, and exulted over the calamities of the prisoners of war.
His insolence, however, was checked when Demades, one of the Athenian
captives, reminded him of his meanness, by exclaiming, “Why do you,
O king, act the part of a Thersites, when you can represent with so
much dignity the elevated character of an Agamemnon?” The reproof
was felt; Demades received his liberty, and Philip learned how to
gain popularity even among his fallen enemies, by relieving their
wants and easing their distresses. At the battle of Chæronea the
independence of Greece was extinguished; and Philip, unable to
find new enemies in Europe, formed new enterprises, and meditated
new conquests. He was nominated general of the Greeks against the
Persians, and was called upon as well from inclination as duty to
revenge those injuries which Greece had suffered from the invasions
of Darius and of Xerxes. But he was stopped in the midst of his
warlike preparations; he was stabbed by Pausanius as he entered the
theatre, at the celebration of the nuptials of his daughter Cleopatra.
This murder has given rise to many reflections upon the causes which
produced it; and many who consider the recent repudiation of Olympias,
and the resentment of Alexander, are apt to investigate the causes
of his death in the bosom of his family. The ridiculous honours which
Olympias paid to her husband’s murderer strengthened the suspicion,
yet Alexander declared that he invaded the kingdom of Persia to
revenge his father’s death upon the Persian satraps and princes,
by whose immediate intrigues the assassination had been committed.
The character of Philip is that of a sagacious, artful, prudent, and
intriguing monarch: he was brave in the field of battle, eloquent and
dissimulating at home; and he possessed the wonderful art of changing
his conduct according to the disposition and caprice of mankind,
without ever altering his purpose, or losing sight of his ambitious
aims. He possessed much perseverance, and in the execution of his
plans he was always vigorous. The hand of an assassin prevented him
from achieving the boldest and the most extensive of his undertakings;
and he might have acquired as many laurels, and conquered as many
nations, as his son Alexander did in the succeeding reign, and the
kingdom of Persia might have been added to the Macedonian empire,
perhaps with greater moderation, with more glory, and with more
lasting advantages. The private character of Philip lies open to
censure, and raises indignation. The admirer of his virtues is
disgusted to find him amongst the most abandoned prostitutes, and
disgracing himself by the most unnatural crimes and lascivious
indulgencies, which can make even the most debauched and the most
profligate to blush. He was murdered in the 47th year of his age,
and the 24th of his reign, about 336 years before the christian era.
His reign is become uncommonly interesting, and his administration a
matter of instruction. He is the first monarch whose life and actions
are described with peculiar accuracy and historical faithfulness.
Philip was the father of Alexander the Great and of Cleopatra by
Olympias; he had also by Audaca, an Illyrian, Cyna, who married
Amyntas the son of Perdiccas, Philip’s elder brother; by Nicasipolis,
a Thessalian, Nicæa, who married Cassander; by Philinna, a Larissæan
dancer, Aridæus, who reigned some time after Alexander’s death;
by Cleopatra the niece of Attalus, Caranus and Europa, who were
both murdered by Olympias; and Ptolemy the first king of Egypt by
Arsinoe, who in the first month of her pregnancy was married to
Lagus. _Demosthenes_, _Philippics_ & _Olynthiacs_.――_Justin_ 7, &c.
――_Diodorus_, bk. 16.――_Plutarch_, _Alexander_, _Demosthenes_, &
_Apophthegmata Laconica_.――_Isocrates_, _ad Philippum_.――_Curtius_,
bk. 1, &c.――_Æschines._――_Pausanias_, _Bœotia_, &c.――――The last king
of Macedonia, of that name, was son of Demetrius. His infancy, at the
death of his father, was protected by Antigonus, one of his friends,
who ascended the throne, and reigned for 12 years, with the title
of independent monarch. When Antigonus died, Philip recovered
his father’s throne, though only 15 years of age, and he early
distinguished himself by his boldness and his ambitious views. His
cruelty, however, to Aratus, soon displayed his character in its true
light; and to the gratification of every vice, and every extravagant
propensity, he had the meanness to sacrifice this faithful and
virtuous Athenian. Not satisfied with the kingdom of Macedonia,
Philip aspired to become the friend of Annibal, and wished to share
with him the spoils which the distresses and continual loss of the
Romans seemed soon to promise. But his expectations were frustrated;
the Romans discovered his intrigues, and though weakened by the
valour and artifice of the Carthaginian, yet they were soon enabled
to meet him in the field of battle. The consul Lævinus entered
without delay his territories of Macedonia, and after he had obtained
a victory over him near Apollonia, and reduced his fleet to ashes,
he compelled him to sue for peace. This peaceful disposition was
not permanent, and when the Romans discovered that he had assisted
their immortal enemy Annibal with men and money they appointed Titus
Quinctius Flaminius to punish his perfidy, and the violation of
the treaty. The Roman consul, with his usual expedition, invaded
Macedonia; and in a general engagement which was fought near
Cynocephale, the hostile army was totally defeated, and the monarch
saved his life with difficulty by flying from the field of battle.
Destitute of resources, without friends either at home or abroad,
Philip was obliged to submit to the mercy of the conqueror, and to
demand peace by his ambassadors. It was granted with difficulty.
The terms were humiliating; but the poverty of Philip obliged him
to accept the conditions, however disadvantageous and degrading
to his dignity. In the midst of these public calamities the peace
of his family was disturbed; and Perses, the eldest of his sons
by a concubine, raised seditions against his brother Demetrius,
whose condescension and humanity had gained popularity among the
Macedonians, and who, from his residence at Rome as a hostage,
had gained the good graces of the senate, and by the modesty
and innocence of his manners, had obtained forgiveness from that
venerable body for the hostilities of his father. Philip listened
with too much avidity to the false accusation of Perses; and when
he heard it asserted that Demetrius wished to rob him of his crown,
he no longer hesitated to punish with death so unworthy and so
ungrateful a son. No sooner was Demetrius sacrificed to credulity,
than Philip became convinced of his cruelty and rashness, and, to
punish the perfidy of Perses, he attempted to make Antigonus, another
son, his successor on the Macedonian throne. But he was prevented
from executing his purpose by death, in the 42nd year of his reign,
179 years before the christian era. The assassin of Demetrius
succeeded his father; and with the same ambition, with the same
rashness and oppression, renewed the war against the Romans till his
empire was destroyed and Macedonia became a Roman province. Philip
has been compared with his great ancestor of the same name; but
though they possessed the same virtues, the same ambition, and were
tainted with the same vices, yet the father of Alexander was more
sagacious and more intriguing, and the son of Demetrius was more
suspicious, more cruel, and more implacable; and according to the
pretended prophecy of one of the Sibyls, Macedonia was indebted to
one Philip for her rise and consequence among nations, and under
another Philip she lamented the loss of her power, her empire,
and her dignity. _Polybius_, bk. 16, &c.――_Justin_, bk. 29, &c.
――_Plutarch_, _Titus Flamininus_.――_Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 8.――_Livy_,
bk. 31, &c.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 4, ch. 8.――_Orosius_, bk. 4,
ch. 20.――――Marcus Julius, a Roman emperor, of an obscure family in
Arabia, from which he was surnamed _Arabian_. From the lowest rank
in the army he gradually rose to the highest offices, and when he
was made general of the pretorian guards he assassinated Gordian to
make himself emperor. To establish himself with more certainty on
the imperial throne, he left Mesopotamia a prey to the continual
invasions of the Persians, and hurried to Rome, where his election
was universally approved by the senate and the Roman people. Philip
rendered his cause popular by his liberality and profusion; and it
added much to his splendour and dignity that the Romans during his
reign commemorated the foundation of their city, a solemnity which
was observed but once every 100 years, and which was celebrated with
more pomp and more magnificence than under the preceding reigns. The
people were entertained with games and spectacles, the theatre of
Pompey was successively crowded during three days and three nights,
and 2000 gladiators bled in the circus at once, for the amusement and
pleasure of a gazing populace. His usurpation, however, was short;
Philip was defeated by Decius, who had proclaimed himself emperor in
Pannonia, and he was assassinated by his own soldiers near Verona,
in the 45th year of his age, and the 5th of his reign, A.D. 249. His
son, who bore the same name, and who had shared with him the imperial
dignity, was also massacred in the arms of his mother. Young Philip
was then in the 12th year of his age, and the Romans lamented in
him the loss of rising talents, of natural humanity, and endearing
virtues. _Aurelius Victor._――_Zosimus._――――A native of Acarnania,
physician to Alexander the Great. When the monarch had been suddenly
taken ill, after bathing in the Cydnus, Philip undertook to remove
the complaint when the rest of the physicians believed that all
medical assistance would be ineffectual. But as he was preparing
his medicine, Alexander received a letter from Parmenio, in which he
was advised to beware of his physician Philip, as he had conspired
against his life. The monarch was alarmed; and when Philip presented
him the medicine, he gave him Parmenio’s letter to peruse, and
began to drink the potion. The serenity and composure of Philip’s
countenance, as he read the letter, removed every suspicion from
Alexander’s breast, and he pursued the directions of his physician,
and in a few days recovered. _Plutarch_, _Alexander_.――_Curtius_,
bk. 3.――_Arrian_, bk. 2.――――A son of Alexander the Great, murdered
by order of Olympias.――――A governor of Sparta.――――A son of Cassander.
――――A man who pretended to be the son of Perses, that he might lay
claim to the kingdom of Macedonia. He was called _Pseudophilippus_.
――――A general of Cassander, in Ætolia.――――A Phrygian, made governor
of Jerusalem by Antiochus, &c.――――A son of Herod the Great, in the
reign of Augustus.――――A brother of Alexander the Great, called also
Aridæus. _See:_ Aridæus.――――A freedman of Pompey the Great. He found
his master’s body deserted on the sea-shore, in Egypt, and he gave it
a decent burial, with the assistance of an old Roman soldier, who had
fought under Pompey.――――The father-in-law of the emperor Augustus.
――――A Lacedæmonian who wished to make himself absolute in Thebes.
――――An officer made master of Parthia, after the death of Alexander
the Great.――――A king of part of Syria, son of Antiochus Gryphus.――――A
son of Antipater in the army of Alexander.――――A brother of Lysimachus,
who died suddenly after hard walking and labour.――――An historian of
Amphipolis.――――A Carthaginian, &c.――――A man who wrote a history of
Caria.――――A native of Megara, &c.――――A native of Pamphylia, who wrote
a diffuse history from the creation down to his own time. It was not
much valued. He lived in the age of Theodosius II.
=Philiscus=, a famous sculptor, whose statues of Latona, Venus,
Diana, the Muses, and a naked Apollo, were preserved in the portico
belonging to Octavia.――――A Greek comic poet. _Pliny_, bk. 11, ch. 9.
――――An Athenian who received Cicero when he fled to Macedonia.――――An
officer of Artaxerxes, appointed to make peace with the Greeks.
=Philistion=, a comic poet of Nicæa in the age of Socrates. _Martial_,
bk. 2, ltr. 41.――――A physician of Locris. _Aulus Gellius_, bk. 7,
ch. 12.
=Philistus=, a musician of Miletus.――――A Syracusan, who, during his
banishment from his native country, wrote a history of Sicily, in 12
books, which was commended by some, though condemned for inaccuracy
by Pausanias. He was afterwards sent against the Syracusans by
Dionysius the younger, and he killed himself when overcome by the
enemy, 356 B.C. _Plutarch_, _Dion_.――_Diodorus_, bk. 13.
=Phillo=, an Arcadian maid, by whom Hercules had a son. The father,
named Alcimedon, exposed his daughter, but she was saved by means
of her lover, who was directed to the place where she was doomed to
perish, by the chirping of a magpie, which imitated the plaintive
cries of a child. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 12.
=Philo=, a Jewish writer of Alexandria, A.D. 40, sent as ambassador
from his nation to Caligula. He was unsuccessful in his embassy, of
which he wrote an entertaining account; and the emperor, who wished
to be worshipped as a god, expressed his dissatisfaction with the
Jews, because they refused to place his statues in their temples. He
was so happy in his expressions, and elegant in his variety, that he
has been called the Jewish Plato, and the book which he wrote on the
sufferings of the Jews in the reign of Caius, met with such unbounded
applause in the Roman senate, where he read it publicly, that he was
permitted to consecrate it in the public libraries. His works were
divided into three parts, of which the first related to the creation
of the world, the second spoke of sacred history, and in the third
the author made mention of the laws and customs of the Jewish nation.
The best edition of Philo is that of Mangey, 2 vols., folio, London,
1742.――――A man who fell in love with his daughter, called Proserpine,
as she was bathing. He had by her a son, Mercurius Trismegistus.――――A
man who wrote an account of a journey to Arabia.――――A philosopher who
followed the doctrines of Carneades, B.C. 100.――――Another philosopher
of Athens, tutor to Cicero.――――A grammarian in the first century.
――――An architect of Byzantium, who flourished about three centuries
before the christian era. He built a dock at Athens, where ships were
drawn in safety, and protected from storms. _Cicero_, _On Oratory_,
bk. 1, ch. 14.――――A Greek christian writer, whose work was edited at
Rome, 4to, 1772.――――A dialectic philosopher, 260 B.C.
=Philobœotus=, a mountain of Bœotia. _Plutarch._
=Philochorus=, a man who wrote a history of Athens in 17 books,
a catalogue of the archons, two books of olympiads, &c. He died
B.C. 222.
=Philŏcles=, one of the admirals of the Athenian fleet, during the
Peloponnesian war. He recommended to his countrymen to cut off the
right hand of such of the enemies as were taken, that they might
be rendered unfit for service. His plan was adopted by all the
10 admirals except one; but their expectations were frustrated,
and instead of being conquerors, they were totally defeated at
Ægospotamos by Lysander, and Philocles, with 3000 of his countrymen,
was put to death, and denied the honours of a burial. _Plutarch_,
_Lysander_.――――A general of Ptolemy king of Egypt.――――A comic poet.
――――Another, who wrote tragedies at Athens.
=Philocrātes=, an Athenian, famous for his treachery, &c.――――A writer
who published a history of Thessaly.――――A servant of Caius Gracchus.
――――A Greek orator.
=Philoctētes=, son of Pœan and Demonassa, was one of the Argonauts,
according to Flaccus and Hyginus, and the arm-bearer and particular
friend of Hercules. He was present at the death of Hercules, and
because he had erected the burning pile on which the hero was
consumed, he received from him the arrows which had been dipped in
the gall of the hydra, after he had bound himself by a solemn oath
not to betray the place where his ashes were deposited. He had no
sooner paid the last office to Hercules, than he returned to Melibœa,
where his father reigned. From thence he visited Sparta, where he
became one of the numerous suitors of Helen, and soon after, like the
rest of those princes who had courted the daughter of Tyndarus, and
who had bound themselves to protect her from injury, he was called
upon by Menelaus to accompany the Greeks to the Trojan war, and he
immediately set sail from Melibœa with seven ships, and repaired
to Aulis, the general rendezvous of the combined fleet. He was
here prevented from joining his countrymen, and the offensive smell
which arose from a wound in his foot, obliged the Greeks, at the
instigation of Ulysses, to remove him from the camp, and he was
accordingly carried to the island of Lemnos, or, as others say, to
Chryse, where Phimachus the son of Dolophion was ordered to wait upon
him. In this solitary retreat he was suffered to remain for some time,
till the Greeks, on the tenth year of the Trojan war, were informed
by the oracle that Troy could not be taken without the arrows of
Hercules, which were then in the possession of Philoctetes. Upon this
Ulysses, accompanied by Diomedes, or, according to others, by Pyrrhus,
was commissioned by the rest of the Grecian army to go to Lemnos,
and to prevail upon Philoctetes to come and finish the tedious siege.
Philoctetes recollected the ill-treatment which he had received from
the Greeks, and particularly from Ulysses, and therefore he not only
refused to go to Troy, but he even persuaded Pyrrhus to conduct him
to Melibœa. As he embarked, the manes of Hercules forbade him to
proceed, but immediately to repair to the Grecian camp, where he
should be cured of his wounds, and put an end to the war. Philoctetes
obeyed, and after he had been restored to his former health by
Æsculapius, or, according to some, by Machaon, or Podalirus, he
destroyed an immense number of the Trojan enemy, among whom was Paris
the son of Priam, with the arrows of Hercules. When by his valour
Troy had been ruined, he set sail from Asia, but as he was unwilling
to visit his native country, he came to Italy, where, by the
assistance of his Thessalian followers, he was enabled to build a
town in Calabria, which he called Petilia. Authors disagree about
the causes of the wound which Philoctetes received on the foot. The
most ancient mythologists support that it was the bite of the serpent
which Juno had sent to torment him, because he had attended Hercules
in his last moments, and had buried his ashes. According to another
opinion, the princes of the Grecian army obliged him to discover
where the ashes of Hercules were deposited, and as he had made
an oath not to mention the place, he only with his foot struck
the ground where they lay, and by this means concluded he had not
violated his solemn engagement. For this, however, he was soon after
punished, and the fall of one of the poisoned arrows from his quiver
upon the foot which had struck the ground, occasioned so offensive
a wound, that the Greeks were obliged to remove him from their camp.
The sufferings and adventures of Philoctetes are the subject of one
of the best tragedies of Sophocles, _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 46.
――_Pindar_, _Pythian_, poem 1.――_Dictys Cretensis_, bk. 1, ch. 14.
――_Seneca_, _Hercules_.――_Sophocles_, _Philoctetes_.――_Quintus
Calaber [Smyrnæus]_, bks. 9 & 10.――_Hyginus_, fables 26, 97, & 102.
――_Diodorus_, bks. 2 & 4.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 13, li. 329;
bk. 9, li. 234; _Tristia_, bk. 5, poem 2.――_Cicero_, _Tusculanæ
Disputationes_, ch. 2.――_Ptolemy_, _Hephæstion_, ch. 6.
=Philocyprus=, a prince of Cyprus in the age of Solon, by whose advice
he changed the situation of a city, which in gratitude he called Soli.
_Plutarch_, _Solon_.
=Philodamēa=, one of the Danaides, mother of Phares by Mercury.
_Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 22.
=Philodēmus=, a poet in the age of Cicero, who rendered himself known
by his lascivious and indelicate verses. _Cicero_, _de Finibus
Bonorum et Malorum_, bk. 2.――_Horace_, bk. 1, satire 2, li. 121.――――A
comic poet, ridiculed by Aristophanes.
=Philodĭce=, a daughter of Inachus, who married Leucippus.
=Philolāus=, a son of Minos by the nymph Paria, from whom the island
of Paros received its name. Hercules put him to death, because he
had killed two of his companions. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 1.――――A
Pythagorean philosopher of Crotona, B.C. 374, who first supported
the diurnal motion of the earth round its axis, and its annual motion
round the sun. _Cicero_, _Academica_, bk. 4, ch. 39, has ascribed
this opinion to the Syracusan philosopher Nicetas, and likewise to
Plato; and from this passage some supposed that Copernicus started
the idea of the system which he afterwards established. _Diogenes
Laërtius._――_Cicero_, _On Oratory_, bk. 3.――_Plutarch._――――A lawgiver
of Thebes. He was a native of Corinth, and of the family of the
Bacchiades, &c. _Aristotle_, bk. 2, _Politics_, final chapter.――――A
mechanic of Tarentum.――――A surname of Æsculapius, who had a temple in
Laconia, near the Asopus.
=Philolŏgus=, a freedman of Cicero. He betrayed his master to Antony,
for which he was tortured by Pomponia the wife of Cicero’s brother,
and obliged to cut off his own flesh by piece-meal, and to boil and
eat it up. _Plutarch_, _Cicero_, &c.
=Philomăche=, the wife of Pelias king of Iolchos. According to some
writers, she was daughter to Amphion king of Thebes, though she is
more generally called Anaxibia daughter of Bias. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1.
=Philombrŏtus=, an archon at Athens, in whose age the state was
entrusted to Solon, when torn by factions. _Plutarch_, _Solon_.
=Philomēdus=, a man who made himself absolute in Phocæa, by promising
to assist the inhabitants. _Polyænus._
=Phĭlŏmēla=, a daughter of Pandion king of Athens, and sister to
Procne, who had married Tereus king of Thrace. Procne separated from
Philomela, to whom she was particularly attached, spent her time in
great melancholy till she prevailed upon her husband to go to Athens,
and bring his sister to Thrace. Tereus obeyed his wife’s injunctions,
but he had no sooner obtained Pandion’s permission to conduct
Philomela to Thrace, than he became enamoured of her, and resolved to
gratify his passion. He dismissed the guards, whom the suspicions of
Pandion had appointed to watch his conduct, and he offered violence
to Philomela, and afterwards cut off her tongue, that she might not
be able to discover his barbarity, and the indignities which she
had suffered. He confined her also in a lonely castle, and after he
had taken every precaution to prevent a discovery, he returned to
Thrace, and he told Procne that Philomela had died by the way, and
that he had paid the last offices to her remains. Procne, at this
sad intelligence, put on mourning for the loss of Philomela; but a
year had scarcely elapsed before she was secretly informed that her
sister was not dead. Philomela, during her captivity, described on
a piece of tapestry her misfortunes and the brutality of Tereus, and
privately conveyed it to Procne. She was then going to celebrate the
orgies of Bacchus when she received it; she disguised her resentment,
and as, during the festivals of the god of wine, she was permitted to
rove about the country, she hastened to deliver her sister Philomela
from her confinement, and she concerted with her on the best measures
of punishing the cruelty of Tereus. She murdered her son Itylus, who
was in the sixth year of his age, and served him up as food before
her husband during the festival. Tereus, in the midst of his repast,
called for Itylus, but Procne immediately informed him that he was
then feasting on his flesh, and that instant Philomela, by throwing
on the table the head of Itylus, convinced the monarch of the cruelty
of the scene. He drew his sword to punish Procne and Philomela, but
as he was going to stab them to the heart, he was changed into a
hoopoe, Philomela into a nightingale, Procne into a swallow, and
Itylus into a pheasant. This tragical scene happened at Daulis
in Phocis; but Pausanias and Strabo, who mention the whole of the
story, are silent about the transformation; and the former observes
that Tereus, after this bloody repast, fled to Megara, where he
destroyed himself. The inhabitants of the place raised a monument to
his memory, where they offered yearly sacrifices, and placed small
pebbles instead of barley. It was on this monument that the birds
called hoopoes were first seen; hence the fable of his metamorphosis.
Procne and Philomela died through excess of grief and melancholy, and
as the nightingale’s and swallow’s voice is peculiarly plaintive and
mournful, the poets have embellished the fable by supposing that the
two unfortunate sisters were changed into birds. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3,
ch. 14.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 42; bk. 10, ch. 4.――_Hyginus_, fable
45.――_♦Strabo_, bk. 9.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 6, fables 9 & 10.
――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 4, lis. 15 & 511.――――A daughter of Actor
king of the Myrmidons.
♦ ‘Stabo’ replaced with ‘Strabo’
=Philomēlum=, a town of Phrygia. _Cicero_, _Letters to Atticus_, bk. 5,
ltr. 20; _Against Verres_, bk. 3, ch. 83.
=Philomēlus=, a general of Phocis, who plundered the temple of Delphi,
and died B.C. 354. _See:_ Phocis.――――A rich musician. _Martial_,
bk. 4, ltr. 5.
=Philon=, a general of some Greeks, who settled in Asia. _Diodorus_,
bk. 18.
=Philonides=, a courier of Alexander, who ran from Sicyon to Elis,
160 miles, in nine hours, and returned the same journey in 15 hours.
_Pliny_, bk. 2, ch. 71.
=Philonis=, a name of Chione daughter of Dædalion, made immortal by
Diana.
=Philonoe=, a daughter of Tyndarus king of Sparta by Leda daughter of
Thestius. _Apollodorus._――――A daughter of Iobates king of Lycia, who
married Bellerophon. _Pliny_, bk. 2.
=Philonŏme=, a daughter of Nyctimus king of Arcadia, who threw into
the Erymanthus two children whom she had by Mars. The children
were preserved, and afterwards ascended their grandfather’s throne.
_Plutarch_, _Pericles_.――――The second wife of Cycnus the son of
Neptune. She became enamoured of Tennes, her husband’s son by his
first wife Proclea the daughter of Clytius, and when he refused to
gratify her passion, she accused him of attempts upon her virtue.
Cycnus believed the accusation, and ordered Tennes to be thrown into
the sea, &c. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 14.
=Philonŏmus=, a son of Electryon king of Mycenæ by Anaxo. _Apollodorus_,
bk. 2.
=Philonus=, a village of Egypt. _Strabo._
=Philopător=, a surname of one of the Ptolemies, king of Egypt. _See:_
Ptolemæus.
=Philophron=, a general who, with 5000 soldiers, defended Pelusium
against the Greeks who invaded Egypt. _Diodorus_, bk. 16.
=Philopœmen=, a celebrated general of the Achæan league, born at
Megalopolis. His father’s name was Grangis. His education was begun
and finished under Cassander, Ecdemus, and Demophanes, and he early
distinguished himself in the field of battle, and appeared fond of
agriculture and a country life. He proposed himself Epaminondas for a
model, and he was not unsuccessful in imitating the prudence and the
simplicity, the disinterestedness and activity, of this famous Theban.
When Megalopolis was attacked by the Spartans, Philopœmen, then in
the 30th year of his age, gave the most decisive proofs of his valour
and intrepidity. He afterwards assisted Antigonus, and was present
in the famous battle in which the Ætolians were defeated. Raised to
the rank of chief commander, he showed his ability to discharge that
important trust, by killing with his own hand Mechanidas the ♦tyrant
of Sparta; and if he was defeated in a naval battle by Nabis, he
soon after repaired his losses by taking the capital of Laconia, B.C.
188, and by abolishing the laws of ♠Lycurgus, which had flourished
there for such a length of time. Sparta, after its conquest, became
tributary to the Achæans, and Philopœmen enjoyed the triumph of
having reduced to ruins one of the greatest and the most powerful
of the cities of Greece. Some time after the Messenians revolted
from the Achæan league, and Philopœmen, who headed the Achæans,
unfortunately fell from his horse, and was dragged to the enemy’s
camp. ♣Dinocrates the general of the Messenians treated him with
great severity; he was thrown into a dungeon, and obliged to drink
a dose of poison. When he received the cup from the hand of the
executioner, Philopœmen asked him how his countrymen had behaved in
the field of battle; and when he heard that they had obtained the
victory, he drank the whole with pleasure, exclaiming that this was
comfortable news. The death of Philopœmen, which happened about 183
years before the christian era, in his 70th year, was universally
lamented, and the Achæans, to revenge his fate, immediately marched
to Messenia, where Dinocrates, to avoid their resentment, killed
himself. The rest of his murderers were dragged to his tomb, where
they were sacrificed; and the people of Megalopolis, to show further
their great sense of his merit, ordered a bull to be yearly offered
on his tomb, and hymns to be sung in his praise, and his actions to
be celebrated in a panegyrical oration. He had also statues raised
to his memory, which some of the Romans attempted to violate, and
to destroy, to no purpose, when Mummius took Corinth. Philopœmen
has been justly called by his countrymen the last of the Greeks.
_Plutarch_, _ Lives_.――_Justin_, bk. 32, ch. 4.――_Polybius._――――A
native of Pergamus, who died B.C. 138.
♦ ‘tyant’ replaced with ‘tyrant’
♠ ‘Lyturgus’ replaced with ‘Lycurgus’
♣ ‘Dioncrates’ replaced with ‘Dinocrates’
=Phĭlostrătus=, a famous sophist born at Lemnos, or, according to some,
at Athens. He came to Rome, where he lived under the patronage of
Julia the wife of the emperor Severus, and he was entrusted by the
empress with all the papers which contained some account or anecdotes
of Apollonius Thyanæus, and he was ordered to review them, and with
them to compile a history. The life of Apollonius is written with
elegance, but the improbable accounts, the fabulous stories, and
the exaggerated details which it gives, render it disgusting. There
is, besides, another treatise remaining of his writings, &c. He died
A.D. 244. The best edition of his writings is that of Olearius, folio,
Lipscomb, 1709.――――His nephew, who lived in the reign of Heliogabalus,
wrote an account of sophists.――――A philosopher in the reign of Nero.
――――Another in the age of Augustus.
=Philōtas=, a son of Parmenio, distinguished in the battles of
Alexander, and at last accused of conspiring against his life. He was
tortured and stoned to death, or, according to some, struck through
with darts by the soldiers, B.C. 330. _Curtius_, bk. 6, ch. 11.
――_Plutarch._――_Arrian._――――An officer in the army of Alexander.
――――Another, who was made master of Cilicia, after Alexander’s death.
――――A physician in the age of Antony. He ridiculed the expenses and
the extravagance of this celebrated Roman. _Plutarch._
=Philotĕra=, the mother of Mylo, &c. _Polyænus_, bk. 8.
=Philotĭmus=, a freedman of Cicero. _Cicero_, _De Divinatione_, bk. 3,
ch. 9.
=Philōtis=, a servant-maid at Rome, who saved her countrymen from
destruction. After the siege of Rome by the Gauls, the Fidenates
assembled an army, under the command of Lucius Posthumius, and
marched against the capital, demanding all the wives and daughters
in the city, as the conditions of peace. This extraordinary demand
astonished the senators, and when they refused to comply, Philotis
advised them to send all their female slaves disguised in matron’s
clothes, and she offered to march herself at the head. Her advice was
followed, and when the Fidenates had feasted late in the evening, and
were quite intoxicated, and fallen asleep, Philotis lighted a torch
as a signal for her countrymen to attack the enemy. The whole was
successful, the Fidenates were conquered, and the senate, to reward
the fidelity of the female slaves, permitted them to appear in the
dress of the Roman matrons. _Plutarch_, _Romulus_.――_Varro_, _de
Lingua Latina_, bk. 5.――_Ovid_, _de Ars Amatoria_, bk. 2.
=Philoxĕnus=, an officer of Alexander, who received Cilicia, at the
general division of the provinces.――――A son of Ptolemy, who was given
to Pelopidas as a hostage.――――A dithyrambic poet of Cythera, who
enjoyed the favour of Dionysius tyrant of Sicily for some time, till
he offended him by seducing one of his female singers. During his
confinement, Philoxenus composed an allegorical poem, called Cyclops,
in which he had delineated the character of the tyrant under the
name of Polyphemus, and represented his mistress under the name of
Galatæa, and himself under that of Ulysses. The tyrant, who was fond
of writing poetry, and of being applauded, removed Philoxenus from
his dungeon, but the poet refused to purchase his liberty, by saying
things unworthy of himself, and applauding the wretched verses of
Dionysius, and therefore he was sent to the quarries. When he was
asked his opinion at a feast about some verses which Dionysius had
just repeated, and which the courtiers had received with the greatest
applause, Philoxenus gave no answer, but he ordered the guards that
surrounded the tyrant’s table to take him back to the quarries.
Dionysius was pleased with his pleasantry and with his firmness,
and immediately forgave him. Philoxenus died at Ephesus, about 380
years before Christ. _Plutarch._――――A celebrated musician of Ionia.
――――A painter of Eretria, who made for Cassander an excellent
representation of the battle of Alexander with Darius. He was pupil
to Nicomachus. _Pliny_, bk. 31, ch. 10.――――A philosopher, who wished
to have the neck of a crane, that he might enjoy the taste of his
aliments longer, and with more pleasure. _Aristotle_, _Eudemian
Ethics_, bk. 3.
=Philyllius=, a comic poet. _Athenæus._
=Phily̆ra=, one of the Oceanides, who was met by Saturn in Thrace. The
god, to escape from the vigilance of Rhea, changed himself into a
horse, to enjoy the company of Philyra by whom he had a son, half a
man and half a horse, called Chiron. Philyra was so ashamed of giving
birth to such a monster, that she entreated the gods to change her
nature. She was metamorphosed into the linden tree, called by her
name among the Greeks. _Hyginus_, fable 138.――――The wife of Nauplius.
=Philyres=, a people near Pontus.
=Phily̆rĭdes=, a patronymic of Chiron the son of Philyra. _Ovid_, _Ars
Amatoria_.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 3, li. 550.
=Phineus=, a son of Agenor king of Phœnicia, or, according to some, of
Neptune, who became king of Thrace, or, as the greater part of the
mythologists support, of Bithynia. He married Cleopatra the daughter
of Boreas, whom some call Cleobula, by whom he had Plexippus and
Pandion. After the death of Cleopatra, he married Idæa the daughter
of Dardanus. Idæa, jealous of Cleopatra’s children, accused them of
attempts upon their father’s life and crown, or, according to some,
of attempts upon her virtue, and they were immediately condemned by
Phineus to be deprived of their eyes. This cruelty was soon after
punished by the gods. Phineus suddenly became blind, and the Harpies
were sent by Jupiter to keep him under continual alarm, and to spoil
the meats which were placed on his table. He was some time after
delivered from these dangerous monsters by his brothers-in-law
Zetes and Calais, who pursued them as far as the Strophades. He
also recovered his sight by means of the Argonauts, whom he had
received with great hospitality, and instructed in the easiest and
speediest way by which they could arrive in Colchis. The causes of
the blindness of Phineus are a matter of dispute among the ancients,
some supposing that this was inflicted by Boreas, for his cruelty
to his grandson, whilst others attribute it to the anger of Neptune,
because he had directed the sons of Phryxus how to escape from
Colchis to Greece. Many, however, think that it proceeded from his
having rashly attempted to develop futurity, while others assert that
Zetes and Calais put out his eyes on account of his cruelty to their
nephews. The second wife of Phineus is called by some Dia, Eurytia,
Danae, and Idothea. Phineus was killed by Hercules. _Argonautica_,
bk. 2.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9; bk. 3, ch. 15.――_Diodorus_,
bk. 4.――_Hyginus_, fable 19.――_Orpheus._――_Flaccus._――――The brother
of Cepheus king of Æthiopia. He was going to marry his niece
Andromeda, when her father Cepheus was obliged to give her up to be
devoured by a sea monster, to appease the resentment of Neptune. She
was, however, delivered by Perseus, who married her by the consent
of her parents, for having destroyed the sea monster. This marriage
displeased Phineus; he interrupted the ceremony, and, with a number
of attendants, attacked Perseus and his friends. Perseus defended
himself, and turned into stone Phineus and his companions, by showing
them the Gorgon’s head. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, chs. 1 & 4.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, fables 1 & 2.――_Hyginus_, fable 64.――――A son
of Melas.――――A son of Lycaon king of Arcadia.――――A son of Belus and
Anchinoe.
=Phinta=, a king of Messenia, &c. _Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 4.
=Phinthias=, a fountain where it is said nothing could sink. _Pliny_,
bk. 31, ch. 2.
=Phintia=, a town of Sicily, at the mouth of the Himera. _Cicero_,
_Against Verres_, bk. 3, ch. 83.
=Phintias=, called also Pithias, Pinthias, and Phytias, a man famous
for his unparalleled friendship for Damon. _See:_ Damon. _Cicero_,
_de Officiis_, bk. 3, bk. 10; _Tusculanæ Disputationes_, bk. 5,
ch. 22.――_Diodorus_, bk. 6.――――A tyrant of Agrigentum, B.C. 282.
=Phinto=, a small island between Sardinia and Corsica, now _Figo_.
=Phla=, a small island in the lake Tritonis. _Herodotus_, bk. 4,
ch. 178.
=Phlegelas=, an Indian king beyond the Hydaspes, who surrendered to
Alexander. _Curtius_, bk. 9, ch. 1.
=Phlegĕthon=, a river of hell, whose waters were _burning_, as the word
φλεγεθω, from which the name is derived, seems to indicate. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 550.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 15, li. 532.
――_Seneca_, Thyestes _Hippolytus_.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 13,
li. 564.
=Phlegias=, a man of Cyzicus when the Argonauts visited it, &c.
_Flaccus._
=Phlegon=, a native of Tralles in Lydia, one of the emperor Adrian’s
freedmen. He wrote different treatises on the long-lived, on
wonderful things, besides an historical account of Sicily, 16 books
on the olympiads, an account of the principal places in Rome, three
books of fasti, &c. Of these some fragments remain. His style was not
elegant, and he wrote without judgment or precision. His works have
been edited by Meursius, 4to, Leiden, 1620.――――One of the horses of
the sun. The word signifies _burning_. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 2.
=Phlegra=, or =Phlegræus Campus=, a place of Macedonia, afterwards
called _Pallene_, where the giants attacked the gods and were
defeated by Hercules. The combat was afterwards renewed in Italy, in
a place of the same name near Cumæ. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 538;
bk. 9, li. 305.――_Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Diodorus_, bks. 4 & 5.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 10, li. 151; bk. 12, li. 378; bk. 15, li. 532.
――_Statius_, bk. 5, _Sylvæ_, poem 3, li. 196.
=Phlegyæ=, a people of Thessaly. Some authors place them in Bœotia.
They received their name from Phlegyas the son of Mars, with whom
they plundered and burned the temple of Apollo at Delphi. Few of them
escaped to Phocis, where they settled. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 36.
――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 13, li. 301.――_Strabo_, bk. 9.
=Phlegyas=, a son of Mars by Chryse daughter of Halmus, was king of
the Lapithæ in Thessaly. He was father of Ixion and Coronis, to whom
Apollo offered violence. When the father heard that his daughter
had been so wantonly abused, he marched an army against Delphi, and
reduced the temple of the god to ashes. This was highly resented.
Apollo killed Phlegyas and placed him in hell, where a huge stone
hangs over his head, and keeps him in continual alarms, by its
appearance of falling every moment. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 36.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 5.――_Pindar_, _Pythian_, bk. 3.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, li. 87.――_Servius_, _Commentary on the Aeneid
of Vergil_, bk. 6, li. 618.
=Phlias=, one of the Argonauts, son of Bacchus and Ariadne. _Pausanias_,
bk. 2, ch. 12.
=Phliasia=, a country of Peloponnesus, near Sicyon, of which Phlius was
the capital.
=Phlius=, (genitive, untis), a town in Peloponnesus, now _Staphlica_,
in the territory of Sicyon.――――Another, in Elis.――――Another, in
Argolis, now _Drepano_.
=Phlœus=, a surname of Bacchus, expressive of his youth and vigour.
_Plutarch_, _Quæstiones Convivales_, bk. 5, qu. 8.
=Phobētor=, one of the sons of Somnus, and his principal minister.
His office was to assume the shape of serpents and wild beasts, to
inspire terror into the minds of men, as his name intimates (φοβεω).
The other two ministers of Somnus were Phantasia and Morpheus. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 11, li. 640.
=Phobos=, son of Mars, and god of terror among the ancients, was
represented with a lion’s head, and sacrifices were offered to him
to deprecate his appearance in armies. _Plutarch_, _Amatorius_.
=Phocæa=, now _Fochia_, a maritime town of Ionia, in Asia Minor, with
two harbours, between Cumæ and Smyrna, founded by an Athenian colony.
It received its name from Phocus the leader of the colony, or from
_phocæ_, _sea calves_, which are found in great abundance in the
neighbourhood. The inhabitants, called _Phocæi_ and _Phocæenses_,
were expert mariners, and founded many cities in different parts of
Europe. They left Ionia, when Cyrus attempted to reduce them under
his power, and they came after many adventures into Gaul, where they
founded _Massilia_, now Marseilles. The town of Marseilles is often
distinguished by the epithet of _Phocaica_, and its inhabitants
called _Phocæenses_. Phocæa was declared independent by Pompey,
and under the first emperors of Rome it became one of the most
flourishing cities of Asia Minor. _Livy_, bk. 5, ch. 34; bk. 37, ch.
31; bk. 38, ch. 39.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 17.――_Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch.
3.――_Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 165.――_Strabo_, bk. 14.――_Horace_, epode
16.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 6, li. 9.――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 4.
=Phocenses= and =Phocĭci=, the inhabitants of Phocis in Greece.
=Phocilides=, a Greek poet and philosopher of Miletus, about 540
years before the christian era. The poetical piece now extant called
νουθετικον, and attributed to him, is not of his composition, but of
another poet who lived in the reign of Adrian.
=Phocion=, an Athenian, celebrated for his virtues, private as well as
public. He was educated in the school of Plato and Xenocrates, and as
soon as he appeared among the statesmen of Athens, he distinguished
himself by his prudence and moderation, his zeal for the public
good, and his military abilities. He often checked the violent and
inconsiderate measures of Demosthenes, and when the Athenians seemed
eager to make war against Philip king of Macedonia, Phocion observed
that war should never be undertaken without the strongest and most
certain expectations of success and victory. When Philip endeavoured
to make himself master of Eubœa, Phocion stopped his progress,
and soon obliged him to relinquish his enterprise. During the time
of his administration he was always inclined to peace, though he
never suffered his countrymen to become indolent, and to forget the
jealousy and rivalship of their neighbours. He was 45 times appointed
governor of Athens, and no greater encomium can be passed upon his
talents as a minister and statesman, than that he never solicited
that high, though dangerous, office. In his rural retreat, or at
the head of the Athenian armies, he always appeared barefooted, and
without a cloak, whence one of his soldiers had occasion to observe,
when he saw him dressed more warmly than usual during a severe winter,
that since Phocion wore his cloak it was a sign of the most inclement
weather. If he was the friend of temperance and discipline, he was
not a less brilliant example of true heroism. Philip, as well as
his son Alexander, attempted to bribe him, but to no purpose; and
Phocion boasted in being one of the poorest of the Athenians, and
in deserving the appellation of _the Good_. It was through him that
Greece was saved from an impending war, and he advised Alexander
rather to turn his arms against Persia, than to shed the blood of
the Greeks, who were either his allies or his subjects. Alexander
was so sensible of his merit and of his integrity, that he sent him
100 talents from the spoils which he had obtained from the Persians,
but Phocion was too great to suffer himself to be bribed; and when
the conqueror had attempted a second time to oblige him, and to
conciliate his favour, by offering him the government and possession
of five cities, the Athenian rejected the presents with the same
indifference, and with the same independent mind. But not totally to
despise the favours of the monarch, he begged Alexander to restore to
their liberty four slaves that were confined in the citadel of Sardis.
Antipater, who succeeded in the government of Macedonia after the
death of Alexander, also attempted to corrupt the virtuous Athenian,
but with the same success as his royal predecessor; and when a friend
had observed to Phocion, that if he could so refuse the generous
offers of his patrons, yet he should consider the good of his
children, and accept them for their sake, Phocion calmly replied,
that if his children were like him they could maintain themselves
as well as their father had done, but if they behaved otherwise he
declared that he was unwilling to leave them anything which might
either supply their extravagancies, or encourage their debaucheries.
But virtues like these could not long stand against the insolence
and fickleness of an Athenian assembly. When the Piræus was taken,
Phocion was accused of treason, and therefore, to avoid the public
indignation, he fled for safety to Polyperchon. Polyperchon sent
him back to Athens, where he was immediately condemned to drink the
fatal poison. He received the indignities of the people with uncommon
composure; and when one of his friends lamented his fate, Phocion
exclaimed, “This is no more than what I expected; this treatment
the most illustrious citizens of Athens have received before me.” He
took the cup with the greatest serenity of mind, and as he drank the
fatal draught, he prayed for the prosperity of Athens, and bade his
friends to tell his son Phocus not to remember the indignities which
his father had received from the Athenians. He died about 318 years
before the christian era. His body was deprived of a funeral by order
of the ungrateful Athenians, and if it was at last interred, it was
by stealth, under a hearth, by the hand of a woman who placed this
inscription over his bones: _Keep inviolate, O sacred hearth, the
precious remains of a good man, till a better day restores them to
the monument of their forefathers, when Athens shall be delivered of
her frenzy, and shall be more wise_. It has been observed of Phocion,
that he never appeared elated in prosperity, or dejected in adversity,
he never betrayed pusillanimity by a tear, nor joy by a smile. His
countenance was stern and unpleasant, but he never behaved with
severity; his expressions were mild, and his rebukes gentle. At the
age of 80 he appeared at the head of the Athenian armies like the
most active officer, and to his prudence and cool valour in every
period of life his citizens acknowledged themselves much indebted.
His merits were not buried in oblivion; the Athenians repented of
their ingratitude, and honoured his memory by raising him statues,
and putting to a cruel death his guilty accusers. _Plutarch_ &
_Cornelius Nepos_, _Lives_.――_Diodorus_, bk. 16.
=Phocis=, a country of Greece, bounded on the east by Bœotia, and by
Locris on the west. It originally extended from the bay of Corinth
to the sea of Eubœa, and reached on the north as far as Thermopylæ,
but its boundaries were afterwards more contracted. Phocis received
its name from Phocus, a son of Ornytion, who settled there. The
inhabitants were called _Phocenses_, and from thence the epithet
of _Phocicus_ was formed. Parnassus was the most celebrated of
the mountains of Phocis, and Delphi was the greatest of its towns.
Phocis is rendered famous for a war which it maintained against
some of the Grecian republics, and which has received the name of
the _Phocian war_. This celebrated war originated in the following
circumstances: ――When Philip king of Macedonia had, by his intrigues
and well-concerted policy, fomented divisions in Greece, and
disturbed the peace of every republic, the Greeks universally became
discontented in their situation, fickle in their resolutions, and
jealous of the prosperity of the neighbouring states. The Amphictyons,
who were the supreme rulers of Greece, and who at that time were
subservient to the views of the Thebans, the inveterate enemies of
the Phocians, showed the same spirit of fickleness, and, like the
rest of their countrymen, were actuated by the same fears, the same
jealousy and ambition. As the supporters of religion, they accused
the Phocians of impiety for ploughing a small portion of land which
belonged to the god of Delphi. They immediately commanded that the
sacred field should be laid waste, and that the Phocians, to expiate
their crime, should pay a heavy fine to the community. The inability
of the Phocians to pay the fine, and that of the Amphictyons to
enforce their commands by violence, gave rise to new events. The
people of Phocis were roused by the eloquence and the popularity
of Philomelus, one of their countrymen, and when this ambitious
ringleader had liberally contributed the great riches he possessed
for the good of his countrymen, they resolved to oppose the
Amphictyonic council by force of arms. He seized the rich temple
of Delphi, and employed the treasures which it contained to raise a
mercenary army. During two years hostilities were carried on between
the Phocians and their enemies, the Thebans and the people of Locris,
but no decisive battles were fought; and it can only be observed,
that the Phocian prisoners were always put to an ignominious death,
as guilty of the most abominable sacrilege and impiety, a treatment
which was liberally retaliated on such of the army of the Amphictyons
as became the captives of the enemy. The defeat, however, and death
of Philomelus for a while checked their successes; but the deceased
general was soon succeeded in the command by his brother, called
Onomarchus, his equal in boldness and ambition, and his superior in
activity and enterprise. Onomarchus rendered his cause popular, the
Thessalians joined his army, and the neighbouring states observed at
least a strict neutrality, if they neither opposed nor favoured his
arms. Philip of Macedonia, who had assisted the Thebans, was obliged
to retire from the field with dishonour, but a more successful battle
was fought near Magnesia, and the monarch, by crowning the head of
his soldiers with laurel, and telling them that they fought in the
cause of Delphi and heaven, obtained a complete victory. Onomarchus
was slain, and his body exposed on a gibbet; 6000 shared his fate,
and their bodies were thrown into the sea, as unworthy of funeral
honours, and 3000 were taken alive. This fatal defeat, however,
did not ruin the Phocians; Phayllus, the only surviving brother of
Philomelus, took the command of their armies, and doubling the pay
of his soldiers, he increased his forces by the addition of 9000 men
from Athens, Lacedæmon, and Achaia. But all this numerous force at
last proved ineffectual; the treasures of the temple of Delphi, which
had long defrayed the expenses of the war, began to fail; dissensions
arose among the ringleaders of Phocis; and when Philip had crossed
the straits of Thermopylæ, the Phocians, relying on his generosity,
claimed his protection, and implored him to plead their cause before
the Amphictyonic council. His feeble intercession was not attended
with success, and the Thebans, the Locrians, and the Thessalians, who
then composed the Amphictyonic council, unanimously decreed that the
Phocians should be deprived of the privilege of sending members among
the Amphictyons. Their arms and their horses were to be sold, for the
benefit of Apollo; they were to pay the annual sum of 60,000 talents
till the temple of Delphi had been restored to its ancient splendour
and opulence; their cities were to be dismantled, and reduced to
distinct villages, which were to contain no more than 60 houses
each, at the distance of a furlong from one another, and all the
privileges and the immunities of which they were stripped, were to
be conferred on Philip king of Macedonia, for his eminent services
in the ♦prosecution of the Phocian war. The Macedonians were ordered
to put these cruel commands into execution. The Phocians were unable
to make resistance, and 10 years after they had undertaken the sacred
war, they saw their country laid desolate, their walls demolished,
and their cities in ruins, by the wanton jealousy of their enemies,
and the inflexible cruelty of the Macedonian soldiers, B.C. 348.
They were not, however, long under this disgraceful sentence; their
well-known valour and courage recommended them to favour, and they
gradually regained their influence and consequence by the protection
of the Athenians, and the favours of Philip. _Livy_, bk. 32, ch. 18.
――_Ovid_, bk. 2, _Amores_, poem 6, li. 15; _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5,
li. 276.――_Demosthenes._――_Justin_, bk. 8, &c.――_Diodorus_, bk. 16,
&c.――_Plutarch_, _Demosthenes_, _Lysander_, _Pericles_, &c.――_Strabo_,
bk. 5.――_Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 5.
♦ ‘prosetion’ replaced with ‘prosecution’
=Phocus=, son of Phocion, was dissolute in his manners and unworthy of
the virtues of his great father. He was sent to Lacedæmon to imbibe
there the principles of sobriety, of temperance, and frugality. He
cruelly revenged the death of his father, whom the Athenians had put
to death. _Plutarch_, _Phocion_ & _Apophthegmata Laconica_.――――A son
of Æacus by Psamathe, killed by Telamon. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 12.
――――A son of Ornytion, who led a colony of Corinthians into Phocis.
He cured Antiope, a daughter of Nycteus, of insanity, and married her,
and by her became father of Panopeus and Crisus. _Pausanias_, bk. 2,
ch. 4.
=Phocylides=, an ancient poet. _See:_ Phocilides.
=Phœbas=, a name applied to the priestess of Apollo’s temple at Delphi.
_Lucan_, bk. 5, li. 128, &c.
=Phœbe=, a name given to Diana, or the moon, on account of the
brightness of that luminary. She became, according to Apollodorus,
mother of Asteria and Latona. _See:_ Diana.――――A daughter of
Leucippus and Philodice, carried away, with her sister Hilaira,
by Castor and Pollux, as she was going to marry one of the sons
of Aphareus. _See:_ Leucippides. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 10.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 22.
=Phœbeum=, a place near Sparta.
=Phœbĭdas=, a Lacedæmonian general sent by the Ephori to the assistance
of the Macedonians against the Thracians. He seized the citadel
of Thebes; but though he was disgraced and banished from the
Lacedæmonian army for this perfidious measure, yet his countrymen
kept possession of the town. He died B.C. 377. _Cornelius Nepos_,
_Pelopidas_.――_Diodorus_, bk. 14, &c.
=Phœbigĕna=, a surname of Æsculapius, &c., as being descended from
Phœbus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, ♦bk. 7, li. 773.
♦ book reference omitted in text
=Phœbus=, a name given to Apollo, or the sun. This word expresses the
brightness and splendour of that luminary (φοιβος). _See:_ Apollo.
=Phœmos=, a lake of Arcadia.
=Phœnīce=, or =Phœnīcia=, a country of Asia, at the east of the
Mediterranean, whose boundaries have been different in different
ages. Some suppose that the names of Phœnicia, Syria, and Palestine
are indiscriminately used for one and the same country. Phœnicia,
according to Ptolemy, extended on the north as far as the Eleutherus,
a small river which falls into the Mediterranean sea, a little below
the island of Aradus, and it had Pelusium or the territories of Egypt
as its more southern boundary, and Syria on the east. Sidon and Tyre
were the most capital towns of the country. The inhabitants were
naturally industrious; the invention of letters is attributed to them,
and commerce and navigation were among them in the most flourishing
state. They planted colonies on the shores of the Mediterranean,
particularly Carthage, Hippo, Marseilles, and Utica; and their
manufactures acquired such a superiority over those of other nations,
that among the ancients, whatever was elegant, great, or pleasing,
either in apparel, or domestic utensils, received the epithet of
_Sidonian_. The Phœnicians were originally governed by kings. They
were subdued by the Persians, and afterwards by Alexander, and
remained tributary to his successors and to the Romans. They were
called Phœnicians, from Phœnix son of Agenor, who was one of their
kings, or, according to others, from the great number of _palm trees_
(θοινικες) which grow in the neighbourhood. _Herodotus_, bk. 4,
ch. 42; bk. 5, ch. 58.――_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 15.――_Mela_, bk. 1,
ch. 11; bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Strabo_, bk. 16.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 1.
――_Lucretius_, bk. 2, li. 829.――_Pliny_, bk. 2, ch. 47; bk. 5, ch. 12.
――_Curtius_, bk. 4, ch. 2.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, &c.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 12, li. 104; bk. 14, li. 345; bk. 15, li. 288.
=Phœnīce=, a town of Epirus. _Livy_, bk. 22, ch. 12.
=Phœnīcia.= _See:_, Phœnice.
=Phœnīcus=, a mountain of Bœotia.――――Another in Lycia, called also
_Olympus_, with a town of the same name.――――A port of Erythræ. _Livy_,
bk. 56, ch. 45.
=Phœnicŭsa=, now _Felicudi_, one of the Æolian islands.
=Phœnissa=, a patronymic given to Dido, as a native of Phœnicia.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 4, li. 529.
=Phœnix=, son of Amyntor king of Argos by Cleobule, or Hippodamia,
was preceptor to young Achilles. When his father proved faithless to
his wife, on account of his fondness for a concubine called Clytia,
Cleobule, jealous of her husband, persuaded her son Phœnix to
ingratiate himself into the favours of his father’s mistress. Phœnix
easily succeeded, but when Amyntor discovered his intrigues, he drew
a curse upon him, and the son was soon after deprived of his sight
by divine vengeance. According to some, Amyntor himself put out the
eyes of his son, which so cruelly provoked him, that he meditated
the death of his father. Reason and piety, however, prevailed over
passion, and Phœnix, not to become a parricide, fled from Argos
to the court of Peleus king of Phthia. Here he was treated with
tenderness. Peleus carried him to Chiron, who restored to him his
eyesight, and soon after he was made preceptor to Achilles, his
benefactor’s son. He was also presented with the government of many
cities, and made king of the Dolopes. He accompanied his pupil to
the Trojan war, and Achilles was ever grateful for the instructions
and precepts which he had received from Phœnix. After the death of
Achilles, Phœnix, with others, was commissioned by the Greeks to
return to Greece, to bring to the war young Pyrrhus. This commission
he performed with success, and after the fall of Troy, he returned
with Pyrrhus, and died in Thrace. He was buried at Æon, or, according
to Strabo, near Trachinia, where a small river in the neighbourhood
received the name of Phœnix. _Strabo_, bk. 9.――_Homer_, _Iliad_,
bk. 9, &c.――_Ovid_, _Ibis_, li. 259.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 7.
――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 2, li. 762.――――A son of Agenor, by a nymph
who was called Telephassa, according to Apollodorus and Moschus, or,
according to others, Epimedusa, Perimeda, or Agriope. He was, like
his brothers Cadmus and Cilix, sent by his father in pursuit of his
sister Europa, whom Jupiter had carried away under the form of a bull,
and when his inquiries proved unsuccessful, he settled in a country
which, according to some, was from him called _Phœnicia_. From him,
as some suppose, the Carthaginians were called _Pœni_. _Apollodorus_,
bk. 3.――_Hyginus_, fable 178.――――The father of Adonis, according
to Hesiod.――――A Theban, delivered to Alexander, &c.――――A native of
Tenedos, who was an officer in the service of Eumenes.
=Pholoe=, one of the horses of Admetus.――――A mountain of Arcadia, near
Pisa. It received its name from Pholus the friend of Hercules, who
was buried there. It is often confounded with another of the same
name in Thessaly, near mount Othrys. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 6.――_Lucan_,
bk. 3, li. 198; bk. 6, li. 388; bk. 7, li. 449.――_Ovid_, bk. 2,
_Fasti_, li. 273.――――A female servant, of Cretan origin, given with
her two sons to Sergestus by Æneas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 5, li. 285.
――――A courtesan in the age of Horace. _Horace_, bk. 1, ode 33, li. 7.
=Pholus=, one of the Centaurs, son of Silenus and Melia, or, according
to others, of Ixion and the cloud. He kindly entertained Hercules
when he was going against the boar of Erymanthus, but he refused
to give him wine, as that which he had belonged to the rest of the
Centaurs. Hercules, upon this, without ceremony, broke the cask and
drank the wine. The smell of the liquor drew the Centaurs from the
neighbourhood to the house of Pholus, but Hercules stopped them when
they forcibly entered the habitation of his friend, and killed the
greatest part of them. Pholus gave the dead a decent funeral, but he
mortally wounded himself with one of the arrows which were poisoned
with the venom of the hydra, and which he attempted to extract
from the body of one of the Centaurs. Hercules, unable to cure him,
buried him when dead, and called the mountain where his remains were
deposited by the name of _Pholoe_. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 3.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 2, li. 456; _Æneid_, bk. 8, li. 294.
――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 1.――_Lucan_, bks. 3, 6 &
7.――_Statius Thebaid_, bk. 2.――――One of the friends of Æneas, killed
by Turnus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 12, li. 341.
=Phorbas=, a son of Priam and Epithesia, killed during the Trojan
war by Menelaus. The god Somnus borrowed his features when he
deceived Palinurus, and threw him into the sea near the coast of
Italy. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 5, li. 842.――――A son of Lapithus, who
married Hyrmine the daughter of Epeus, by whom he had Actor. Pelops,
according to Diodorus, shared his kingdom with Phorbas, who also,
says the same historian, established himself at Rhodes, at the head
of a colony from Elis and Thessaly, by order of the oracle, which
promised, by his means only, deliverance from the numerous serpents
which infested the island. _Diodorus_, bk. 2.――_Pausanias_, bk. 5,
ch. 1.――――A shepherd of Polybus king of Corinth.――――A man who profaned
Apollo’s temple, &c. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 11, li. 414.――――A
king of Argos.――――A native of Cyrene, son of Methion, killed by
Perseus. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, fable 3.
=Phorcus=, or =Phorcys=, a sea deity, son of Pontus and Terra, who
married his sister Ceto, by whom he had the Gorgons, the dragon
that kept the apples of the Hesperides, and other monsters. _Hesiod_,
_Theogony_.――_Apollodorus._――――One of the auxiliaries of Priam,
killed by Ajax during the Trojan war. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 17.――――A
man whose seven sons assisted Turnus against Æneas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 10, li. 328.
=Phormio=, an Athenian general, whose father’s name was Asopicus. He
impoverished himself to maintain and support the dignity of his army.
His debts were some time after paid by the Athenians, who wished to
make him their general, an office which he refused, while he had so
many debts, observing that it was unbecoming an officer to be at the
head of an army, when he knew that he was poorer than the meanest of
his soldiers.――――A general of Crotona.――――A peripatetic philosopher
of Ephesus, who once gave a lecture upon the duties of an officer,
and a military profession. The philosopher was himself ignorant of
the subject which he treated, upon which Hannibal the Great, who
was one of his auditors, exclaimed that he had seen many doting old
men, but never one worse than Phormio. _Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_,
bk. 2.――――An Athenian archon.――――A disciple of Plato, chosen by the
people of Elis to make a reformation in their government and their
jurisprudence.
=Phormis=, an Arcadian who acquired great riches at the court of Gelon
and Hiero in Sicily. He dedicated the brazen statue of a mare to
Jupiter Olympius in Peloponnesus, which so much resembled nature,
that horses came near it, as if it had been alive. _Pausanias_, bk. 5,
ch. 27.
=Phŏrōneus=, the god of a river of Peloponnesus of the same name. He
was son of the river Inachus by Melissa, and he was the second king
of Argos. He married a nymph called Cerdo, or Laodice, by whom he had
Apis, from whom Argolis was called Apia, and Niobe, the first woman
of whom Jupiter became enamoured. Phoroneus taught his subjects the
utility of laws, and the advantages of a social life and of friendly
intercourse, whence the inhabitants of Argolis are often called
_Phoronæi_. Pausanias relates that Phoroneus, with the Cephisus,
Asterion, and Inachus, were appointed as umpires in a quarrel between
Neptune and Juno, concerning their right of patronizing Argolis. Juno
gained the preference, upon which Neptune, in a fit of resentment,
dried up all the four rivers, whose decision he deemed partial. He
afterwards restored them to their dignity and consequence. Phoroneus
was the first who raised a temple to Juno. He received divine honours
after death. His temple still existed at Argos, under Antoninus the
Roman emperor. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 15, &c.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2,
ch. 1.――_Hyginus_, fable 143.
=Phorōnis=, a patronymic of Io the sister of Phoroneus. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, li. 625.
=Phorōnium=, a town of Argolis, built by Phoroneus.
=Photīnus=, a eunuch who was prime minister to Ptolemy king of Egypt.
When Pompey fled to the court of Ptolemy, after the battle of
Pharsalia, Photinus advised his master not to receive him, but to
put him to death. His advice was strictly followed. Julius Cæsar some
time after visited Egypt, and Photinus raised seditions against him,
for which he was put to death. When Cæsar triumphed over Egypt and
Alexandria, the pictures of Photinus, and of some of the Egyptians,
were carried in the procession at Rome. _Plutarch._
=Photius=, a son of Antonina, who betrayed to Belisarius his wife’s
debaucheries.――――A patrician in Justinian’s reign.
=Phoxus=, a general of the Phocæans, who burnt Lampsacus, &c.
_Polyænus_, bk. 8.――――A tyrant of Chalcis, banished by his subjects,
&c. _Aristotle_, _Politics_, bk. 5, ch. 4.
=Phraates I.=, a king of Parthia, who succeeded Arsaces III., called
also Phriapatius. He made war against Antiochus king of Syria, and
was defeated in three successive battles. He left many children
behind him, but as they were all too young, and unable to succeed
to the throne, he appointed his brother Mithridates king, of whose
abilities and military prudence he had often been a spectator.
_Justin_, bk. 41, ch. 5.
=Phraates II.=, succeeded his father Mithridates as king of Parthia;
and made war against the Scythians, whom he called to his assistance
against Antiochus king of Syria, and whom he refused to pay, on
the pretence that they came too late. He was murdered by some Greek
mercenaries, who had been once his captives, and who had enlisted in
his army, B.C. 129. _Justin_, bk. 42, ch. 1.――_Plutarch_, _Pompey_.
=Phraates III.=, succeeded his father Pacorus on the throne of Parthia,
and gave one of his daughters in marriage to Tigranes the son of
Tigranes king of Armenia. Soon after he invaded the kingdom of
Armenia, to make his son-in-law sit on the throne of his father.
His expedition was attended with ill success. He renewed a treaty
of alliance which his father had made with the Romans. At his return
in Parthia, he was assassinated by his sons Orodes and Mithridates.
_Justin._
=Phraates IV.=, was nominated king of Parthia by his father Orodes,
whom he soon after murdered, as also his own brothers. He made war
against Marcus Antony with great success, and obliged him to retire
with much loss. Some time after he was dethroned by the Parthian
nobility, but he soon regained his power, and drove away the usurper,
called Tiridates. The usurper claimed the protection of Augustus the
Roman emperor, and Phraates sent ambassadors to Rome to plead his
cause, and gain the favour of his powerful judge. He was successful
in his embassy: he made a treaty of peace and alliance with the Roman
emperor, restored the ensigns and standards which the Parthians had
taken from Crassus and Antony, and gave up his four sons with their
wives as hostages, till his engagements were performed. Some suppose
that Phraates delivered his children into the hands of Augustus to
be confined at Rome, that he might reign with greater security, as he
knew his subjects would revolt as soon as they found any one of his
family inclined to countenance their rebellion, though at the same
time they scorned to support the interest of any usurper who was not
of the royal house of the Arsacidæ. He was, however, at last murdered
by one of his concubines, who placed her son called Phraatices on the
throne. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 7, ch. 6.――_Justin_, bk. 42, ch. 5.
――_Dio Cassius_, bk. 51, &c.――_Plutarch_, _Antonius_, &c.――_Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 6, ch. 32.
=Phraates=, a prince of Parthia in the reign of Tiberius.――――A satrap
of Parthia. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 6, ch. 42.
=Phraatices=, a son of Phraates IV. He, with his mother, murdered
his father, and took possession of the vacant throne. His reign
was short; he was deposed by his subjects, whom he had offended
by cruelty, avarice, and oppression.
=Phradates=, an officer in the army of Darius at the battle of Arbela.
=Phragrandæ=, a people of Thrace. _Livy_, bk. 26, ch. 25.
=Phrahates=, the same as Phraates. _See:_ Phraates.
=Phranicates=, a general of the Parthian armies, &c. _Strabo_, bk. 16.
=Phraortes=, succeeded his father Deioces on the throne of Media. He
made war against the neighbouring nations, and conquered the greatest
part of Asia. He was defeated and killed in a battle by the Assyrians,
after a reign of 22 years, B.C. 625. His son Cyaxares succeeded him.
It is supposed that the Arphaxad mentioned in Judith is Phraortes.
_Pausanias._――_Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 102.――――A king of India,
remarkable for his frugality. _Philostratus._
=Phrasĭcles=, a nephew of Themistocles, whose daughter Nicomacha he
married. _Plutarch_, _Themistocles_.
=Phrasimus=, the father of Praxithea. _Apollodorus._
=Phrasius=, a Cyprian soothsayer, sacrificed on an altar by Busiris
king of Egypt.
=Phrataphernes=, a general of the Massagetæ, who surrendered to
Alexander. _Curtius_, bk. 8.――――A satrap who, after the death of
Darius, fled to Hyrcania, &c. _Curtius._
=Phriapatius=, a king of Parthia, who flourished B.C. 195.
=Phricium=, a town near Thermopylæ. _Livy_, bk. 36, ch. 13.
=Phrixus=, a river of Argolis. There is also a small town of that name
in Elis, built by the Minyæ. _Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 148.
=Phronĭma=, a daughter of Etearchus king of Crete. She was delivered to
a servant to be thrown into the sea, by order of her father, at the
instigation of his second wife. The servant was unwilling to murder
the child, but as he was bound by an oath to throw her into the
sea, he accordingly let her down into the water by a rope, and took
her out again unhurt. Phronima was afterwards in the number of the
concubines of Polymnestus, by whom she became mother of Battus the
founder of Cyrene. _Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 154.
=Phrontis=, son of Onetor, pilot of the ship of Menelaus, after the
Trojan war, was killed by Apollo just as the ship reached Sunium.
_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 3, li. 282.――_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 25.
――――One of the Argonauts. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1.
=Phruri=, a Scythian nation.
=Phryges=, a river of Asia Minor, dividing Phrygia from Caria, and
falling into the Hermus. _Pausanias._
=Phrygia=, a country of Asia Minor, generally divided into Phrygia
Major and Minor. Its boundaries are not properly or accurately
defined by ancient authors, though it appears that it was situate
between Bithynia, Lydia, Cappadocia and Caria. It received its
name from the _Bryges_, a nation of Thrace, or Macedonia, who came
to settle there, and from their name, by corruption, arose the
word _Phrygia_. Cybele was the chief deity of the country, and
her festivals were observed with the greatest solemnity. The most
remarkable towns, besides Troy, were Laodice, Hierapolis, and Synnada.
The invention of the pipe of reeds, and of all sorts of needlework,
is attributed to the inhabitants, who are represented by some authors
as stubborn, but yielding to correction (hence _Phryx verberatus
melior_), as imprudent, effeminate, servile, and voluptuous; and to
this _Virgil_ seems to allude. _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 617. The Phrygians,
like all other nations, were called barbarians by the Greeks; their
music (_Phrygii cantus_) was of a grave and solemn nature, when
opposed to the brisker and more cheerful Lydian airs. _Mela_, bk. 1,
ch. 19.――_Strabo_, bk. 2, &c.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 13,
li. 429, &c.――_Cicero_, bk. 7, _Letters to his Friends_, ltr. 18.
――_Flaccus_, bk. 27.――_Dio Cassius_, bk. 1, ch. 50.――_Pliny_, bk. 1,
ch. 4.――_Horace_, bk. 2, ode 9, li. 16.――_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 25.
――_Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 73.――――A city of Thrace.
=Phryne=, a celebrated prostitute who flourished at Athens about 328
years before the christian era. She was mistress to Praxiteles, who
drew her picture. _See:_ Praxiteles. This was one of his best pieces,
and it was placed in the temple of Apollo at Delphi. It is said that
Apelles painted his Venus Anadyomene after he had seen Phryne on the
sea-shore naked, and with dishevelled hair. Phryne became so rich
by the liberality of her lovers, that she offered to rebuild, at her
own expense, Thebes, which Alexander had destroyed, provided this
inscription was placed on the walls: _Alexander diruit, sed meretrix
Phryne refecit_. This was refused. _Pliny_, bk. 34, ch. 8.――――There
was also another of the same name who was accused of impiety. When
she saw that she was going to be condemned, she unveiled her bosom,
which so influenced her judges, that she was immediately acquitted.
_Quintilian_, bk. 2, ch. 15.
=Phrynĭcus=, a general of Samos, who endeavoured to betray his country
to the Athenians, &c.――――A flatterer at Athens.――――A tragic poet of
Athens, disciple to Thespis. He was the first who introduced a female
character on the stage. _Strabo_, bk. 14.――――A comic poet.
=Phrynis=, a musician of Mitylene, the first who obtained a musical
prize at the Panathenæa at Athens. He added two strings to the lyre,
which had always been used with seven by all his predecessors, B.C.
438. It is said that he was originally a cook at the house of Hiero
king of Sicily.――――A writer in the reign of Commodus, who made a
collection, in 36 books, of phrases and sentences from the best Greek
authors, &c.
=Phryno=, a celebrated general of Athens, who died B.C. 590.
=Phryxus=, a son of ♦Athamas king of Thebes by Nephele. After the
repudiation of his mother, he was persecuted with the most inveterate
fury by his stepmother Ino, because he was to sit on the throne
of Athamas, in preference to the children of a second wife. He was
apprised of Ino’s intentions upon his life by his mother Nephele,
or, according to others, by his preceptor; and the better to make his
escape, he secured part of his father’s treasures, and privately left
Bœotia, with his sister Helle, to go to their friend and relation
Æetes king of Colchis. They embarked on board a ship, or, according
to the fabulous account of the poets and mythologists, they mounted
on the back of a ram whose fleece was of gold, and proceeded on their
journey through the air. The height to which they were carried made
Helle giddy, and she fell into the sea. Phryxus gave her a decent
burial on the sea-shore, and after he had called the place Hellespont
from her name, he continued his flight, and arrived safe in the
kingdom of Æetes, where he offered the ram on the altars of Mars.
The king received him with great tenderness, and gave him his
daughter Chalciope in marriage. She had by him Phrontis, Melias,
Argos, Cylindrus, whom some call Cytorus, Catis, Lorus, and Hellen.
Some time after he was murdered by his father-in-law, who envied
him the possession of the golden fleece; and Chalciope, to prevent
her children from sharing their father’s fate, sent them privately
from Colchis to Bœotia, as nothing was to be dreaded there from the
jealousy or resentment of Ino, who was then dead. The fable of the
flight of Phryxus to Colchis on a ram has been explained by some, who
observe that the ship on which he embarked was either called by that
name, or carried on her prow the figure of that animal. The fleece of
gold is explained by recollecting that Phryxus carried away immense
treasures from Thebes. Phryxus was placed among the constellations
of heaven after death. The ram which carried him to Asia is said to
have been the fruit of Neptune’s amour with Theophane the daughter of
Altis. This ram had been given to Athamas by the gods, to reward his
piety and religious life, and Nephele procured it for her children,
just as they were going to be sacrificed to the jealousy of Ino.
The murder of Phryxus was some time after amply revenged by the
Greeks. It gave rise to a celebrated expedition which was achieved
under Jason and many of the princes of Greece, and which had for its
object the recovery of the golden fleece, and the punishment of the
king of Colchis for his cruelty to the son of Athamas. _Diodorus_,
bk. 4.――_Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 197.――_Apollodorus_, _Argonautica_.
――_Orpheus._――_Flaccus._――_Strabo._――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9.
――_Pindar_, _Pythian_, poem 4.――_Hyginus_, fables 14, 188, &c.
――_Ovid_, _Heroides_, poem 18; _Metamorphoses_, bk. 4.――――A small
river of Argolis.
♦ ‘Athmas’ replaced with ‘Athamas’
=Phthia=, a town of Phthiotis, at the east of mount Othrys in Thessaly,
where Achilles was born, and from which he is often called _Phthius
heros_. _Horace_, bk. 4, ode 6, li. 4.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk.
13, li. 156.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.――_Propertius_, bk. 2, poem 14, li.
38.――_Cicero_, _Tusculanæ Disputationes_, bk. 1, ch. 10.――――A nymph
of Achaia, beloved by Jupiter, who, to seduce her, disguised himself
under the shape of a pigeon. _Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 1, ch. 15.
――――A daughter of Amphion and Niobe, killed by Diana. _Apollodorus._
=Phthiōtis=, a small province of Thessaly, between the Pelasgicus sinus,
and the Maliacus sinus, Magnesia, and mount Œta. It was also called
Achaia. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 8.
=Phya=, a tall and beautiful woman of Attica, whom Pisistratus, when
he wished to re-establish himself a third time in his tyranny,
dressed like the goddess Minerva, and led to the city on a chariot,
making the populace believe that the goddess herself came to restore
him to power. The artifice succeeded. _Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 59.
――_Polyænus_, bk. 1, ch. 40.
=Phycus= (untis), a promontory near Cyrene, now called _Ras-al-sem_.
_Lucan_, bk. 9.
=Phylăce=, a town of Thessaly, built by Phylacus. Protesilaus reigned
there, from whence he is often called _Phylacides_. _Lucan_, bk. 6,
li. 252.――――A town of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 34.――――A town
of Epirus. _Livy_, bk. 45, ch. 26.
=Phylăcus=, a son of Deion king of Phocis. He married Clymene the
daughter of Mynias, and founded Phylace. _Apollodorus._
=Phylarchus=, a Greek biographer, who flourished B.C. 221. He was
accused of partiality by _Plutarch_, _Aratus_.
=Phylas=, a king of Ephyre, son of Antiochus and grandson of Hercules.
=Phyle=, a well-fortified village of Attica, at a little distance from
Athens. _Cornelius Nepos_, _Thrasybulus._
=Phyleis=, a daughter of Thespius. _Apollodorus._
=Phylēus=, one of the Greek captains during the Trojan war.――――A son of
Augeas. He blamed his father for refusing to pay Hercules what he had
promised him for cleaning his stables. He was placed on his father’s
throne by Hercules.
=Phylĭra.= _See:_ Philyra.
=Phylla=, the wife of Demetrius Poliorcetes, and mother of Stratonice
the wife of Seleucus.
=Phyllalia=, a part of Arcadia.――――A place in Thessaly.
=Phylleius=, a mountain, country, and town of Macedonia. _Apollonius_,
_Argonautica_, bk. 1.
=Phyllis=, a daughter of Sithon, or, according to others, of Lycurgus
king of Thrace, who hospitably received Demophoon the son of Theseus,
who, at his return from the Trojan war, had stopped on her coasts.
She became enamoured of him, and did not find him insensible to
her passion. After some months of mutual tenderness and affection,
Demophoon set sail for Athens, where his domestic affairs recalled
him. He promised faithfully to return as soon as a month was expired;
but either his dislike for Phyllis, or the irreparable situation
of his affairs, obliged him to violate his engagement, and the
queen, grown desperate on account of his absence, hanged herself,
or, according to others, threw herself down a precipice into the
sea, and perished. Her friends raised a tomb over her body, where
there grew up certain trees, whose leaves at a particular season of
the year, suddenly became wet, as if shedding tears for the death
of Phyllis. According to an old tradition mentioned by Servius,
Virgil’s commentator, Phyllis was changed by the gods into an almond
tree, which is called _Phylla_ by the Greeks. Some days after this
metamorphosis, Demophoon revisited Thrace, and when he heard of the
fate of Phyllis, he ran and clasped the tree, which, though at that
time stripped of its leaves, suddenly shot forth and blossomed, as if
still sensible of tenderness and love. The absence of Demophoon from
the house of Phyllis has given rise to a beautiful epistle of Ovid,
supposed to have been written by the Thracian queen, about the fourth
month after her lover’s departure. _Ovid_, _Heroides_, poem 2; _De
Ars Amatoria_, bk. 2, li. 353; _Tristia_, bk. 2, li. 437.――_Hyginus_,
fable 59.――――A country woman introduced in Virgil’s eclogues.――――The
nurse of the emperor Domitian. _Suetonius_, _Domitian_, ch. 17.――――A
country of Thrace, near mount Pangæus. _Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 13.
=Phyllius=, a young Bœotian, uncommonly fond of Cygnus the son of Hyria,
a woman of Bœotia. Cygnus slighted his passion, and told him that, to
obtain a return of affection, he must previously destroy an enormous
lion, take alive two large vultures, and sacrifice on Jupiter’s
altars a wild bull that infested the country. This he easily effected
by means of artifice, and by the advice of Hercules he forgot his
partiality for the son of Hyria. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, li.
372.――_Nicander_, _Heteroeumena_, bk. 3.――――A Spartan remarkable for
the courage with which he fought against Pyrrhus king of Epirus.
=Phyllŏdŏce=, one of Cyrene’s attendant nymphs. _Virgil_, _Georgics_,
bk. 4, li. 336.
=Phyllos=, a country of Arcadia.――――A town of Thessaly near Larissa,
where Apollo had a temple.
=Phyllus=, a general of Phocis during the Phocian or sacred war against
the Thebans. He had assumed the command after the death of his
brothers Philomelus and Onomarchus. He is called by some Phayllus.
_See:_ Phocis.
=Physcella=, a town of Macedonia. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.
=Physcion=, a famous rock of Bœotia, which was the residence of the
Sphinx, and against which the monster destroyed himself, when his
enigmas were explained by Œdipus. _Plutarch._
=Physcoa=, a woman of Elis, mother of Narcæus by Bacchus. _Pausanias_,
bk. 5, ch. 16.
=Physcon=, a surname of one of the Ptolemies, king of Egypt, from the
great prominency of his belly (φνοκη, _venter_). _Athenæus_, bk. 2,
ch. 23.
=Physcos=, a town of Caria, opposite Rhodes. _Strabo_, bk. 14.
=Physcus=, a river of Asia falling into the Tigris. The 10,000 Greeks
crossed it on their return from Cunaxa.
=Phytălĭdes=, the descendants of Phytalus, a man who hospitably
received and entertained Ceres, when she visited Attica. _Plutarch_,
_Theseus_.
=Phyton=, a general of the people of Rhegium, against Dionysius the
tyrant of Sicily. He was taken by the enemy and tortured, B.C. 387,
and his son was thrown into the sea. _Diodorus_, bk. 14.
=Phyxium=, a town of Elis.
=Pia=, or =Pialia=, festivals instituted in honour of Adrian, by the
Emperor Antoninus. They were celebrated at Puteoli, on the second
year of the Olympiads.
=Piăsus=, a general of the Pelasgi. _Strabo_, bk. 13.
=Picēni=, the inhabitants of Picenum, called also _Picentes_. They
received their name from _picus_, a bird by whose auspices they had
settled in that part of Italy. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 425.
――_Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 4.
=Picentia=, the capital of the Picentini.
=Picentīni=, a people of Italy between Lucania and Campania on the
Tuscan sea. They are different from the Piceni or Picentes, who
inhabited Picenum. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 450.――_Tacitus_,
_Histories_, bk. 4, ch. 62.
=Picēnum=, or =Picēnus ager=, a country of Italy near the Umbrians
and Sabines, on the borders of the Adriatic. _Livy_, bk. 21, ch. 6;
bk. 22, ch. 9; bk. 27, ch. 43.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 10, li. 313.
――_Horace_, bk. 2, satire 3, li. 272.――_Martial_, bk. 1, ltr. 44.
=Picra=, a lake of Africa, which Alexander crossed when he went to
consult the oracle of Ammon. _Diodorus._
=Pictæ=, or =Picti=, a people of Scythia, called also _Agathyrsæ_. They
received this name from their painting their bodies with different
colours, to appear more terrible in the eyes of their enemies.
A colony of these, according to Servius, Virgil’s commentator,
emigrated to the northern parts of Britain, where they still
preserved their name and their savage manners, but they are mentioned
only by later writers. _Marcellinus_, bk. 27, ch. 18.――_Claudian_,
_de Consulatu Honorii_, li. 54.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.――_Mela_,
bk. 2, ch. 1.
=Pictāvi=, or =Pictŏnes=, a people of Gaul in the modern country of
_Poictou_. _Cæsar_, bk. 7, _Gallic War_, ch. 4.
=Pictăvium=, a town of Gaul.
=Fabius Pictor=, a consul under whom silver was first coined at Rome,
A.U.C. 485.
=Picumnus= and =Pilumnus=, two deities at Rome, who presided over
the auspices that were required before the celebration of nuptials.
Pilumnus was supposed to patronize children, as his name seems, in
some manner, to indicate, _quod pellat mala infantiæ_. The manuring
of lands was first invented by Picumnus, from which reason he is
called _Sterquilinius_. Pilumnus is also invoked as the god of bakers
and millers, as he is said to have first invented how to grind corn.
Turnus boasted of being one of his lineal descendants. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 4.――_Varro._
=Picus=, a king of Latium, son of Saturn, who married Venilia, who is
also called Canens, by whom he had Faunus. He was tenderly loved by
the goddess Pomona, and he returned a mutual affection. As he was
one day hunting in the woods, he was met by Circe, who became deeply
enamoured of him, and who changed him into a woodpecker, called
by the name of _picus_ among the Latins. His wife Venilia was so
disconsolate when she was informed of his death, that she pined away.
Some suppose that Picus was the son of Pilumnus, and that he gave out
prophecies to his subjects, by means of a favourite woodpecker, from
which circumstance originated the fable of his being metamorphosed
into a bird. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, lis. 48, 171, &c.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 14, li. 320, &c.
=Pidorus=, a town near mount Athos. _Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 122.
=Pidytes=, a man killed by Ulysses during the Trojan war.
=Piĕlus=, a son of Neoptolemus king of Epirus, after his father.
_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 11.
=Pĭĕra=, a fountain of Peloponnesus, between Elis and Olympia.
_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 16.
=Piĕria=, a small tract of country in Thessaly or Macedonia, from which
the epithet of _Pierian_ was applied to the Muses, and to poetical
compositions. _Martial_, bk. 9, ltr. 88, li. 3.――_Horace_, bk. 4, ode
8, li. 20.――――A place between Cilicia and Syria.――――One of the wives
of Danaus, mother of six daughters, called Actea, Podarce, Dioxippe,
Adyte, Ocypete, and Pilarge. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2.――――The wife of
Oxylus the son of Hæmon, and mother of Ætolus and Laias. _Pausanias_,
bk. 5, ch. 3.――――The daughter of Pythas, a Milesian, &c.
=Piĕrĭdes=, a name given to the Muses, either because they were born
in Pieria, in Thessaly, or because they were supposed by some to be
the daughters of Pierus, a king of Macedonia, who settled in Bœotia.
――――Also the daughters of Pierus, who challenged the Muses to a trial
in music, in which they were conquered, and changed into magpies. It
may perhaps be supposed that the victorious Muses assumed the name
of the conquered daughters of Pierus, and ordered themselves to be
called Pierides, in the same manner as Minerva was called Pallas
because she had killed the giant Pallas. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 5, li. 300.
=Piĕris=, a mountain of Macedonia. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 29.
=Piĕrus=, a mountain of Thessaly, sacred to the Muses, who were from
thence, as some imagine, called _Pierides_.――――A rich man of Thessaly,
whose nine daughters, called Pierides, challenged the Muses, and were
changed into magpies when conquered. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 29.――――A
river of Achaia, in Peloponnesus.――――A town of Thessaly. _Pausanias_,
bk. 7, ch. 21.――――A mountain with a lake of the same name in
Macedonia.
=Piĕtas=, a virtue which denotes veneration for the deity, and love
and tenderness to our friends. It received divine honours among the
Romans, and was made one of their gods. Acilius Glabrio first erected
a temple to this new divinity, on the spot where a woman had fed with
her own milk her aged father, who had been imprisoned by the order of
the senate, and deprived of all aliments. _Cicero_, _De Divinatione_,
bk. 1.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 5, ch. 4.――_Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 36.
=Pigres= and =Mattyas=, two brothers, &c. _Herodotus._――――The name of
three rivers.
=Pigrum mare=, a name applied to the Northern sea, from its being
frozen. The word _Pigra_ is applied to the Palus Mœotis. _Ovid_, bk.
4, _ex Ponto_, ltr. 10, li. 61.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 13.――_Tacitus_,
_Germania_, ch. 45.
=Pilumnus=, the god of bakers at Rome. _See:_ Picumnus.
=Pimpla=, a mountain of Macedonia, with a fountain of the same name,
on the confines of Thessaly, near Olympus, sacred to the Muses, who
on that account are often called _Pimpleæ_ and _Pimpleades_. _Horace_,
bk. 1, ode 26, li. 9.――_Strabo_, bk. 10.――_Martial_, bk. 12, ltr. 11,
li. 3.――_Statius_, bk. 1, _Sylvæ_, poem 4, li. 26; _Sylvæ_, poem 2,
li. 36.
=Pimprana=, a town on the Indus. _Arrian._
=Pinăre=, an island of the Ægean sea.――――A town of Syria, at the south
of mount Amanus. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 25.――――Of Lycia. _Strabo_,
bk. 14.
=Pinārius= and =Potitius=, two old men of Arcadia, who came with
Evander to Italy. They were instructed by Hercules, who visited the
court of Evander, how they were to offer sacrifices to his divinity,
in the morning, and in the evening, immediately at sunset. The
morning sacrifice they punctually performed, but on the evening
Potitius was obliged to offer the sacrifice alone, as Pinarius
neglected to come till after the appointed time. This negligence
offended Hercules, and he ordered that for the future Pinarius and
his descendants should preside over the sacrifices, but that Potitius,
with his posterity, should wait upon the priests as servants, when
the sacrifices were annually offered to him on mount Aventine.
This was religiously observed till the age of Appius Claudius,
who persuaded the Potitii, by a large bribe, to discontinue their
sacred office, and to have the ceremony performed by slaves. For this
negligence, as the Latin authors observe, the Potitii were deprived
of sight, and the family became a little time after totally extinct.
_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 7.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8, li. 269, &c.
――_Victor_, _de Origo Gentis Romanæ_, ch. 8.
=Marcus Pinārius Rusca=, a pretor, who conquered Sardinia, and defeated
the Corsicans. _Cicero_, _On Oratory_, bk. 2.
=Pinarus=, or =Pindus=, now _Delifou_, a river falling into the sea
near Issus, after flowing between Cilicia and Syria. _Dionysius
Periegeta._
=Pincum=, a town of Mœsia Superior, now _Gradisca_.
=Pindărus=, a celebrated lyric poet of Thebes. He was carefully trained
from his earliest years to the study of music and poetry, and he was
taught how to compose verses with elegance and simplicity, by Myrtis
and Corinna. When he was young, it is said that a swarm of bees
settled on his lips, and there left some honeycombs as he reposed
on the grass. This was universally explained as a prognostic of
his future greatness and celebrity, and indeed he seemed entitled
to notice when he had conquered Myrtis in a musical conquest. He
was not, however, so successful against Corinna, who obtained five
times, while he was competitor, a poetical prize, which, according
to some, was adjudged rather to the charms of her person, than to the
brilliancy of her genius, or the superiority of her composition. In
the public assemblies of Greece, where females were not permitted to
contend, Pindar was rewarded with the prize, in preference to every
other competitor; and as the conquerors at Olympia were the subject
of his compositions, the poet was courted by statesmen and princes.
His hymns and pæans were repeated before the most crowded assemblies
in the temples of Greece; and the priestess of Delphi declared that
it was the will of Apollo that Pindar should receive the half of all
the first fruit offerings that were annually heaped on his altars.
This was not the only public honour which he received; after his
death, he was honoured with every mark of respect, even to adoration.
His statue was erected at Thebes in the public place where the games
were exhibited, and six centuries after it was viewed with pleasure
and admiration by the geographer Pausanias. The honours which had
been paid to him while alive, were also shared by his posterity; and
at the celebration of one of the festivals of the Greeks, a portion
of the victim which had been offered in sacrifice, was reserved for
the descendants of the poet. Even the most inveterate enemies of the
Thebans showed regard for his memory, and the Spartans spared the
house which the prince of Lyrics had inhabited, when they destroyed
the houses and the walls of Thebes. The same respect was also paid
him by Alexander the Great when Thebes was reduced to ashes. It
is said that Pindar died at the advanced age of 86, B.C. 435. The
greatest part of his works have perished. He had written some hymns
to the gods, poems in honour of Apollo, dithyrambics to Bacchus, and
odes on several victories obtained at the four greatest festivals
of the Greeks, the Olympic, Isthmian, Pythian, and Nemean games.
Of all these, the odes are the only compositions extant, admired
for sublimity of sentiments, grandeur of expression, energy and
magnificence of style, boldness of metaphors, harmony of numbers, and
elegance of diction. In these odes, which were repeated with the aid
of musical instruments, and accompanied by the various inflections
of the voice, with suitable attitudes and proper motions of the body,
the poet has not merely celebrated the place where the victory was
won, but has introduced beautiful episodes, and by unfolding the
greatness of his heroes, the dignity of their characters, and the
glory of the several republics where they flourished, he has rendered
the whole truly beautiful and in the highest degree interesting.
Horace has not hesitated to call Pindar inimitable, and this
panegyric will not perhaps appear too offensive when we recollect
that succeeding critics have agreed in extolling his beauties, his
excellence, the fire, animation, and enthusiasm of his genius. He has
been censured for his affectation in composing an ode from which the
letter S was excluded. The best editions of Pindar are those of Heyne,
4to, Gottingen, 1773; of Glasgow, 12mo, 1774; and of Schmidius, 4to,
Witteberg, 1616. _Athenæus._――_Quintilian_, bk. 10, ch. 1.――_Horace_,
bk. 4, ode 2.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 3.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1,
ch. 8; bk. 9, ch. 23.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 9, ch. 12.――_Plutarch_,
_Alexander_.――_Curtius_, bk. 1, ch. 13.――――A tyrant of Ephesus, who
killed his master at his own request, after the battle of Philippi.
_Plutarch._――――A Theban, who wrote a Latin poem on the Trojan war.
=Pindăsus=, a mountain of Troas.
=Pindenissus=, a town of Cilicia, on the borders of Syria. Cicero, when
proconsul in Asia, besieged it for 25 days and took it. _Cicero_,
_For Marcus Cælius_; _Letters to his Friends_, bk. 2, ltr. 10.
=Pindus=, a mountain, or rather a chain of mountains, between Thessaly,
Macedonia, and Epirus. It was greatly celebrated as being sacred to
the Muses and to Apollo. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, li. 570.
――_Strabo_, bk. 18.――_Virgil_, _Eclogues_, poem 10.――_Lucan_, bk. 1,
li. 674; bk. 6, li. 339.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.――――A town of Doris
in Greece, called also Cyphas. It was watered by a small river of
the same name which falls into the Cephisus, near Lilæa. _Herodotus_,
bk. 1, ch. 56.
=Pingus=, a river of Mœsia, falling into the Danube. _Pliny_, bk. 3,
ch. 26.
=Pinna=, a town of Italy at the mouth of the Matrinus, south of Picenum.
_Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 518.
=Pinthias.= _See:_ Phinthias.
=Pintia=, a town of Spain, now supposed to be _Valladolid_.
=Pion=, one of the descendants of Hercules, who built _Pionia_, near
the Caycus in Mysia. It is said that smoke issued from his tomb as
often as sacrifices were offered to him. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 18.
=Pione=, one of the Nereides. _Apollodorus._
=Piŏnia=, a town of Mysia, near the Caycus.
=Piræus=, or =Pyræeus=, a celebrated harbour at Athens, at the mouth
of the Cephisus, about three miles distant from the city. It was
joined to the town by two walls, in circumference seven miles and
a half, and 60 feet high, which Themistocles wished to raise in a
double proportion. One of these was built by Pericles, and the other
by Themistocles. The towers which were raised on the walls to serve
as a defence, were turned into dwelling-houses, as the population
of Athens gradually increased. It was the most capacious of all
the harbours of the Athenians, and was naturally divided into three
large basins called Cantharos, Aphrodisium, and Zea, improved by
the labours of Themistocles, and made sufficiently commodious for
the reception of a fleet of 400 ships, in the greatest security. The
walls which joined it to Athens, with all the fortifications, were
totally demolished when Lysander put an end to the Peloponnesian war
by the reduction of Attica. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 1.――_Strabo_,
bk. 9.――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Themistocles_.――_Florus_, bk. 3, ch. 5.
――_Justin_, bk. 5, ch. 8.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 6, li. 446.
=Piranthus=, a son of Argus and Evadne, brother to Jasus, Epidaurus,
and Perasus. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, chs. 16 & 17.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2.
=Pirēne=, a daughter of Danaus.――――A daughter of Œbalus, or, according
to others, of the Achelous. She had by Neptune two sons, called
Leches and Cenchrius, who gave their names to two of the harbours of
Corinth. Pirene was so disconsolate at the death of her son Cenchrius,
who had been killed by Diana, that she pined away, and was dissolved,
by her continual weeping, into a fountain of the same name, which was
still seen at Corinth in the age of Pausanias. The fountain Pirene
was sacred to the Muses, and, according to some, the horse Pegasus
was then drinking some of its waters, when Bellerophon took it to
go and conquer the Chimæra. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 3.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 2, li. 240.
=Pirĭthous=, a son of Ixion and the cloud, or, according to others,
of Dia the daughter of Deioneus. Some make him son of Dia by Jupiter,
who assumed the shape of a horse whenever he paid his addresses to
his mistress. He was king of the Lapithæ, and, as an ambitious prince,
he wished to become acquainted with Theseus, king of Athens, of whose
fame and exploits he had heard so many reports. To see him, and at
the same time to be a witness of his valour, he resolved to invade
his territories with an army. Theseus immediately met him on the
borders of Attica, but at the sight of one another the two enemies
did not begin the engagement, but, struck with the appearance of
each other, they stepped between the hostile armies. Their meeting
was like that of the most cordial friends, and Pirithous, by giving
Theseus his hand as a pledge of his sincerity, promised to repair all
the damages which his hostilities in Attica might have occasioned.
From that time, therefore, the two monarchs became the most intimate
and the most attached of friends, so much, that their friendship,
like that of Orestes and Pylades, is become proverbial. Pirithous
some time after married Hippodamia, and invited not only the heroes
of his age, but also the gods themselves, and his neighbours the
Centaurs, to celebrate his nuptials. Mars was the only one of the
gods who was not invited, and to punish this neglect, the god of
war was determined to raise a quarrel among the guests, and to
disturb the festivity of the entertainment. Eurythion, captivated
with the beauty of Hippodamia, and intoxicated with wine, attempted
to offer violence to the bride, but he was prevented by Theseus,
and immediately killed. This irritated the rest of the Centaurs;
the contest became general, but the valour of Theseus, Pirithous,
Hercules, and the rest of the Lapithæ, triumphed over their enemies.
Many of the Centaurs were slain, and the rest saved their lives
by flight. _See:_ Lapithus. The death of Hippodamia left Pirithous
very disconsolate, and he resolved with his friend Theseus, who had
likewise lost his wife, never to marry again, except to a goddess, or
one of the daughters of the gods. This determination occasioned the
rape of Helen by the two friends; the lot was drawn, and it fell to
the share of Theseus to have the beautiful prize. Pirithous upon this
undertook with his friend to carry away Proserpine and to marry her.
They descended into the infernal regions, but Pluto, who was apprised
of their machinations to disturb his conjugal peace, stopped the two
friends and confined them there. Pirithous was tied to his father’s
wheel, or, according to Hyginus, he was delivered to the furies to be
continually tormented. His punishment, however, was short, and when
Hercules visited the kingdom of Pluto, he obtained from Proserpine
the pardon of Pirithous, and brought him back to his kingdom safe
and unhurt. Some suppose that he was torn to pieces by the dog
Cerberus. _See:_ Theseus. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12, fable 4
& 5.――_Hesiod_, _Shield of Heracles_.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 10.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 8; bk. 2, ch.
5.――_Hyginus_, fables 14, 79, 155.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Plutarch_,
_Theseus_.――_Horace_, bk. 4, ode 7.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7,
li. 304.――_Martial_, bk. 7, ltr. 23.
=Pirus=, a captain of the Thracians during the Trojan war, killed by
Thoas king of Ætolia. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 4.
=Pirustæ=, a people of Illyricum. _Livy_, bk. 45, ch. 26.
=Pisa=, a town of Elis, on the Alpheus at the west of the Peloponnesus,
founded by Pisus the son of Perieres, and grandson of Æolus. Its
inhabitants accompanied Nestor to the Trojan war, and they enjoyed
long the privilege of presiding at the Olympic games, which were
celebrated near their city. This honourable appointment was envied by
the people of Elis, who made war against the Piseans, and after many
bloody battles took their city and totally demolished it. It was at
Pisa that Œnomaus murdered the suitors of his daughter, and that he
himself was conquered by Pelops. The inhabitants were called _Pisæi_.
Some have doubted the existence of such a place as Pisa; but this
doubt originates from Pisa’s having been destroyed in so remote an
age. The horses of Pisa were famous. The year on which the Olympic
games were celebrated, was often called _Pisæus annus_, and the
victory which was obtained there was called _Pisææ ramus olivæ_.
_See:_ Olympia. _Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Ovid_, _Tristia_, bk. 2, li. 386;
bk. 4, poem 10, li. 95.――_Mela_, bk. 2.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 3,
li. 180.――_Statius_, _Thebaid_, bk. 7, li. 417.――_Pausanias_, bk. 6,
ch. 22.
=Pisæ=, a town of Etruria, built by a colony from Pisa in the
Peloponnesus. The inhabitants were called _Pisani_. Dionysius of
Halicarnassus affirms that it existed before the Trojan war, but
others support that it was built by a colony of Pisæans, who were
shipwrecked on the coast of Etruria at their return from the Trojan
war. Pisæ was once a very powerful and flourishing city, which
conquered the Baleares, together with Sardinia and Corsica. The
sea on the neighbouring coast was called the bay of Pisæ. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 179.――_Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Lucan_, bk. 2, li. 401.
――_Livy_, bk. 39, ch. 2; bk. 45, ch. 13.――_Pliny_, bk. 2, ch. 103.
=Pisæus=, a surname of Jupiter at Pisa.
=Pisander=, a son of Bellerophon, killed by the Solymi.――――A Trojan
chief, killed by Menelaus. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 13, li. 601.――――One
of Penelope’s suitors, son of Polyctor. _Ovid_, _Heroides_, poem 1.
――――A son of Antimachus, killed by Agamemnon during the Trojan war.
He had had recourse to entreaties and promises, but in vain, as
the Grecian wished to resent the advice of Antimachus, who opposed
the restoration of Helen. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 11, li. 123.――――An
admiral of the Spartan fleet during the Peloponnesian war. He
abolished the democracy at Athens, and established the aristocratical
government of the 400 tyrants. He was killed in a naval battle by
Conon the Athenian general near Cnidus, in which the Spartans lost
50 galleys, B.C. 394. _Diodorus._――――A poet of Rhodes, who composed
a poem called _Heraclea_, in which he gave an account of all the
labours and all the exploits of Hercules. He was the first who ever
represented his hero armed with a club. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 22.
=Pisātes=, or =Pisæi=, the inhabitants of Pisa in the Peloponnesus.
=Pisaurus=, now _Poglia_, a river of Picenum, with a town called
_Pisaurum_, now _Pesaro_, which became a Roman colony in the
consulship of Claudius Pulcher. The town was destroyed by an
earthquake in the beginning of the reign of Augustus. _Mela_, bk. 2,
ch. 4.――_Catullus_, poem 82.――_Pliny_, bk. 3.――_Livy_, bk. 39, ch. 44;
bk. 41, ch. 27.
=Pisēnor=, a son of Ixion and the cloud.――――One of the ♦ancestors of
the nurse of Ulysses. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 1.
♦ ‘ancestor’ replaced with ‘ancestors’
=Piseus=, a king of ♦Etruria, about 260 years before the foundation of
Rome. _Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 26.
♦ ‘Etrura’ replaced with ‘Etruria’
=Pisias=, a general of the Argives in the age of Epaminondas.――――A
statuary at Athens, celebrated for his pieces. _Pausanias._
=Pĭsĭdia=, an inland country of Asia Minor, between Phrygia, Pamphylia,
Galatia, and Isauria. It was rich and fertile. The inhabitants were
called _Pisidæ_. _Cicero_, _de Divinatione_, bk. 1, ch. 1.――_Mela_,
bk. 1, ch. 2.――_Strabo_, bk. 12.――_Livy_, bk. 37, chs. 54 & 56.
=Pisidĭce=, a daughter of Æolus, who married Myrmidon.――――A daughter
of Nestor.――――A daughter of Pelias.――――The daughter of a king of
Methymna in Lesbos. She became enamoured of Achilles when he invaded
her father’s kingdom, and she promised to deliver the city into his
hands if he would marry her. Achilles agreed to the proposal, but
when he became master of Methymna, he ordered Pisidice to be stoned
to death for her perfidy. _Parthenius_, _Narrationes Amatoriæ_,
ch. 21.
=Pisis=, a native of Thespia, who gained uncommon influence among
the Thebans, and behaved with great courage in the defence of their
liberties. He was taken prisoner by Demetrius, who made him governor
of Thespia.
=Pisistrătĭdæ=, the descendants of Pisistratus tyrant of Athens. _See:_
Pisistratus.
=Pisistrătĭdes=, a man sent as ambassador to the satraps of the king of
Persia, by the Spartans.
=Pisistrătus=, an Athenian, son of Hippocrates, who early distinguished
himself by his valour in the field, and by his address and eloquence
at home. After he had rendered himself the favourite of the populace
by his liberality, and by the intrepidity with which he had fought
their battles, particularly near Salamis, he resolved to make himself
master of his country. Everything seemed favourable to his views;
but Solon alone, who was then at the head of affairs, and who had
lately instituted his celebrated laws, opposed him, and discovered
his duplicity and artful behaviour before the public assembly.
Pisistratus was not disheartened by the measures of his relation
Solon, but he had recourse to artifice. In returning from his country
house, he cut himself in various places, and after he had exposed his
mangled body to the eyes of the populace, deplored his misfortunes,
and accused his enemies of attempts upon his life, because he was
the friend of the people, the guardian of the poor, and the reliever
of the oppressed; he claimed a chosen body of 50 men from the
populace to defend his person in future from the malevolence and the
cruelty of his enemies. The unsuspecting people unanimously granted
his request, though Solon opposed it with all his influence; and
Pisistratus had no sooner received an armed band, on whose fidelity
and attachment he could rely, than he seized the citadel of Athens,
and made himself absolute. The people too late perceived their
credulity; yet, though the tyrant was popular, two of the citizens,
Megacles and Lycurgus, conspired together against him, and by their
means he was forcibly ejected from the city. His house and all his
effects were exposed to sale, but there was found in Athens only one
man who would buy them. The private dissensions of the friends of
liberty proved favourable to the expelled tyrant, and Megacles, who
was jealous of Lycurgus, secretly promised to restore Pisistratus
to all his rights and privileges in Athens, if he would marry
his daughter. Pisistratus consented, and, by the assistance of
his father-in-law, he was soon enabled to expel Lycurgus, and to
re-establish himself. By means of a woman called Phya, whose shape
was tall, and whose features were noble and commanding, he imposed
upon the people, and created himself adherents even among his enemies.
Phya was conducted through the streets of the city, and, showing
herself subservient to the artifice of Pisistratus, she was announced
as Minerva, the goddess of wisdom and the patroness of Athens, who
was come down from heaven to re-establish her favourite Pisistratus,
in a power which was sanctioned by the will of the gods, and favoured
by the affection of the people. In the midst of his triumph, however,
Pisistratus felt himself unsupported, and some time after, when
he repudiated the daughter of Megacles, he found that not only the
citizens, but even his very troops, were alienated from him by the
influence, the intrigues, and the bribery of his father-in-law.
He fled from Athens, where he could no longer maintain his power,
and retired to Eubœa. Eleven years after, he was drawn from his
obscure retreat, by means of his son Hippias, and he was a third
time received by the people of Athens as their master and sovereign.
Upon this he sacrificed to his resentment the friends of Megacles,
but he did not lose sight of the public good; and while he sought
the aggrandizement of his family, he did not neglect the dignity and
the honour of the Athenian name. He died about 527 years before the
christian era, after he had enjoyed the sovereign power at Athens for
33 years, including the years of his banishment, and he was succeeded
by his son Hipparchus. Pisistratus claims our admiration for his
justice, his liberality, and his moderation. If he was dreaded and
detested as a tyrant, the Athenians loved and respected his private
virtues and his patriotism as a fellow-citizen; and the opprobrium
which generally falls on his head may be attributed not to the
severity of his administration, but to the republican principles of
the Athenians, who hated and exclaimed against the moderation and
equity of the mildest sovereign, while they flattered the pride
and gratified the guilty desires of the most tyrannical of their
fellow-subjects. Pisistratus often refused to punish the insolence
of his enemies; and when he had one day been violently accused of
murder, rather than inflict immediate punishment upon the man who
had criminated him, he went to the Areopagus, and there convinced the
Athenians that the accusations of his enemies were groundless, and
that his life was irreproachable. It is to his labours that we are
indebted for the preservation of the poems of Homer, and he was the
first, according to Cicero, who introduced them at Athens, in the
order in which they now stand. He also established a public library
at Athens; and the valuable books which he had diligently collected,
were carried into Persia when Xerxes made himself master of the
capital of Attica. Hipparchus and Hippias, the sons of Pisistratus,
who have received the name of _Pisistratidæ_, rendered themselves
as illustrious as their father; but the flames of liberty were too
powerful to be extinguished. The Pisistratidæ governed with great
moderation, yet the name of tyrant or sovereign was insupportable to
the Athenians. Two of the most respectable of the citizens, called
Harmodius and Aristogiton, conspired against them, and Hipparchus
was dispatched in a public assembly. This murder was not, however,
attended with any advantage, and though the two leaders of the
conspiracy, who have been celebrated through every age for their
patriotism, were supported by the people, yet Hippias quelled
the tumult by his uncommon firmness and prudence, and for a while
preserved that peace in Athens which his father had often been
unable to command. This was not long to continue, Hippias was at
last expelled by the united efforts of the Athenians and of their
allies of Peloponnesus; and he left Attica, when he found himself
unable to maintain his power and independence. The rest of the family
of Pisistratus followed him in his banishment, and after they had
refused to accept the liberal offers of the princes of Thessaly, and
the king of Macedonia, who wished them to settle in their respective
territories, the Pisistratidæ retired to Sigæum, which their father
had, in the summit of his power, conquered and bequeathed to his
posterity. After the banishment of the Pisistratidæ, the Athenians
became more than commonly jealous of their liberty, and often
sacrificed the most powerful of their citizens, apprehensive of
the influence which popularity and a well-directed liberality might
gain among the fickle and unsettled populace. The Pisistratidæ were
banished from Athens about 18 years after the death of Pisistratus,
B.C. 510. _Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 13, ch. 14.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 7, ch. 26.――_Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 59; bk. 6, ch. 103.――_Cicero_,
_On Oratory_, bk. 3.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 1, ch. 2.――――A son of
Nestor. _Apollodorus._――――A king of Orchomenos, who rendered himself
odious by his cruelty towards his nobles. He was put to death by
them; and they carried away his body from the public assembly, by
hiding each a piece of his flesh under their garments, to prevent
a discovery from the people, of whom he was a great favourite.
_Plutarch_, _Parallela minora_.――――A Theban attached to the Roman
interest while the consul Flaminius was in Greece. He assassinated
the pretor of Bœotia, for which he was put to death, &c.
=Piso=, a celebrated family at Rome, which was a branch of the
Calpurnians, descended from Calpus the son of Numa. Before the death
of Augustus, 11 of this family had obtained the consulship, and
many had been honoured with triumphs, on account of their victories
in the different provinces of the Roman empire. Of this family the
most famous were――――Lucius Calpurnius, who was tribune of the people
about 149 years before Christ, and afterwards consul. His frugality
procured him the surname of _Frugi_, and he gained the greatest
honours as an orator, a lawyer, a statesman, and an historian. He
made a successful campaign in Sicily, and rewarded his son, who
had behaved with great valour during the war, with a crown of gold,
which weighed 20 pounds. He composed some annals and harangues, which
were lost in the age of Cicero. His style was obscure and inelegant.
――――Caius, a Roman consul, A.U.C. 687 who supported the consular
dignity against the tumults of the tribunes, and the clamours of
the people. He made a law to restrain the cabals which generally
prevailed at the election of the chief magistrates.――――Cneus, another
consul under Augustus. He was one of the favourites of Tiberius, by
whom he was appointed governor of Syria, where he rendered himself
odious by his cruelty. He was accused of having poisoned Germanicus;
and when he saw that he was shunned and despised by his friends, he
destroyed himself, A.D. 20.――――Lucius, a governor of Spain, who was
assassinated by a peasant, as he was travelling through the country;
the murderer was seized and tortured, but he refused to confess
the causes of the murder.――――Lucius, a private man accused of
having uttered seditious words against the emperor Tiberius. He
was condemned, but a natural death saved him from the hands of the
executioner.――――Lucius, a governor of Rome for 20 years, an office
which he discharged with the greatest justice and credit. He was
greatly honoured by the friendship of Augustus, as well as of his
successor, a distinction he deserved, both as a faithful citizen
and a man of learning. Some, however, say that Tiberius made him
governor of Rome, because he had continued drinking with him a
night and two days, or two days and two nights, according to Pliny.
Horace dedicated his poem, _De Arte Poeticâ_, to his two sons, whose
partiality for literature had distinguished them among the rest of
the Romans, and who were fond of cultivating ♦poetry in their leisure
hours. _Plutarch_, _Cæsar_.――_Pliny_, bk. 18, ch. 3.――――Cneus, a
factious and turbulent youth, who conspired against his country with
Catiline. He was among the friends of Julius Cæsar.――――Caius, a Roman
who was at the head of a celebrated conspiracy against the emperor
Nero. He had rendered himself a favourite of the people by his
private as well as public virtues, by the generosity of his behaviour,
his fondness of pleasure with the voluptuous, and his austerity with
the grave and the reserved. He had been marked by some as a proper
person to succeed the emperor; but the discovery of the plot by a
freed man who was among the conspirators, soon cut him off, with
all his partisans. He refused to court the affections of the people
and of the army, when the whole had been made public; and instead of
taking proper measures for his preservation, either by proclaiming
himself emperor, as his friends advised, or by seeking a retreat in
the distant provinces of the empire, he retired to his own house,
where he opened the veins of both his arms, and bled to death.
――――Lucius, a senator who followed the emperor Valerian into Persia.
He proclaimed himself emperor after the death of Valerian, but he
was defeated and put to death a few weeks after, A.D. 261, by Valens,
&c.――――Licimanus, a senator adopted by the emperor Galba. He was put
to death by Otho’s orders.――――A son-in-law of Cicero.――――A patrician,
whose daughter married Julius Cæsar. _Horace._――_Tacitus_, _Annals_
& _Histories_.――_Valerius Maximus._――_Livy._――_Suetonius._――_Cicero_,
_de Officiis_, &c.――_Plutarch_, _Cæsar_, &c.――――One of the 30 tyrants
appointed over Athens by Lysander.
♦ ‘poety’ replaced with ‘poetry’
=Pĭsōnis villa=, a place near Baiæ in Campania, which the emperor Nero
often frequented. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 1.
=Pissirus=, a town of Thrace, near the river Nestus. _Herodius_, bk. 7,
ch. 109.
=Pistor=, a surname given to Jupiter by the Romans, signifying _baker_,
because when their city was taken by the Gauls, the god persuaded
them to throw down loaves from the Tarpeian hill where they were
besieged, that the enemy might from thence suppose that they were not
in want of provisions, though in reality they were near surrendering
through famine. This deceived the Gauls, and they soon after raised
the siege. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 6, lis. 350, 394, &c.
=Pistoria=, now _Pistoja_, a town of Etruria, at the foot of the
Apennines, near Florence, where ♦Catiline was defeated. _Sallust_,
_Catilinæ Coniuratio_, ch. 47.――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 4.
♦ ‘Cataline’ replaced with ‘Catiline’
=Pisus=, a son of Aphareus, or, according to others, of Perieres.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 3.――_Pausanias_, bk. 5.
=Pisuthnes=, a Persian satrap of Lydia, who revolted from Darius Nothus.
His father’s name was Hystaspes. _Plutarch_, _Artaxerxes_.
=Pităne=, a town of Æolia in Asia Minor. The inhabitants made bricks
which swam on the surface of the water. _Lucan_, bk. 3, li. 305.
――_Strabo_, bk. 13.――_Vitruvius_, bk. 2, ch. 3.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch.
18.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, li. 357.――――A town of Laconia.
_Pindar_, ode 6, li. 46.
=Pitarātus=, an Athenian archon, during whose magistracy Epicurus died.
_Cicero_, _De Fato_, ch. 9.
=Pithecūsa=, a small island on the coast of Etruria, anciently called
_Ænaria_ and _Enarina_, with a town of the same name, on the top of
a mountain. The frequent earthquakes to which it was subject obliged
the inhabitants to leave it. There was a volcano in the middle of
the island, which has given occasion to the ancients to say that the
giant Typhon was buried there. Some suppose that it received its name
from πιθηκοι, _monkeys_, into which the inhabitants were changed by
Jupiter. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 14, li. 90.――_Pliny_, bk. 3,
ch. 6.――_Pindar_, _Pythian_, poem 1.――_Strabo_, bk. 1.
=Pitheus.= _See:_ Pittheus.
=Pitho=, called also _Suada_, the goddess of persuasion among the
Greeks and Romans supposed to be the daughter of Mercury and Venus.
She was represented with a diadem on her head, to intimate her
influence over the hearts of men. One of her arms appears raised,
as in the attitude of an orator haranguing in a public assembly, and
with the other she holds a thunderbolt, and fetters made with flowers,
to signify the powers of reasoning and the attractions of eloquence.
A caduceus, as a symbol of persuasion, appears at her feet, with the
writings of Demosthenes and Cicero, the two most celebrated among
the ancients, who understood how to command the attention of their
audience, and to rouse and animate their various passions.――――A Roman
courtesan. She received this name on account of the allurements which
her charms possessed, and of her winning expressions.
=Pitholāus= and =Lycophron=, seized upon the sovereign power of Pheræ,
by killing Alexander. They were ejected by Philip of Macedonia.
_Diodorus_, bk. 16.
=Pīthŏleon=, an insignificant poet of Rhodes, who mingled Greek and
Latin in his compositions. He wrote some epigrams against Julius
Cæsar, and drew upon himself the ridicule of Horace, on account of
the inelegance of his style. _Suetonius_, _Lives of the Rhetoricians_.
――_Horace_, bk. 1, satire 10, li. 21.――_Macrobius_, bk. 2,
_Saturnalia_, ch. 2.
=Pithon=, one of the body-guards of Alexander, put to death by Antiochus.
=Pithys=, a nymph beloved by Pan. Boreas was also fond of her, but she
slighted his addresses, upon which he dashed her against a rock, and
she was changed into a pine tree.
=Pittăcus=, a native of Mitylene in Lesbos, was one of the seven wise
men of Greece. His father’s name was Cyrrhadius. With the assistance
of the sons of Alcæus, he delivered his country from the oppression
of the tyrant Melanchrus, and in the war which the Athenians waged
against Lesbos he appeared at the head of his countrymen, and
challenged to single combat Phrynon, the enemy’s general. As the
event of the war seemed to depend upon this combat, Pittacus had
recourse to artifice, and when he engaged, he entangled his adversary
in a net, which he had concealed under his shield, and easily
despatched him. He was amply rewarded for his victory, and his
countrymen, sensible of his merit, unanimously appointed him governor
of their city with unlimited authority. In this capacity Pittacus
behaved with great moderation and prudence, and after he had governed
his fellow-citizens with the strictest justice, and after he had
established and enforced the most salutary laws, he voluntarily
resigned the sovereign power after he had enjoyed it for 10 years,
observing that the virtues and innocence of private life were
incompatible with the power and influence of a sovereign. His
disinterestedness gained him many admirers, and when the Mityleneans
wished to reward his public services by presenting him with an
immense tract of territory, he refused to accept more land than what
should be contained within the distance to which he could throw a
javelin. He died in the 82nd year of his age, about 570 years before
Christ, after he had spent the last 10 years of his life in literary
ease, and peaceful retirement. One of his favourite maxims was,
that man ought to provide against misfortunes to avoid them; but
that if they ever happened he ought to support them with patience
and resignation. In prosperity friends were to be acquired, and
in the hour of adversity their faithfulness was to be tried. He
also observed, that in our actions it was imprudent to make others
acquainted with our designs, for if we failed we had exposed
ourselves to censure and to ridicule. Many of his maxims were
inscribed on the walls of Apollo’s temple at Delphi, to show the
world how great an opinion the Mityleneans entertained of his
abilities as a philosopher, a moralist, and a man. By one of his
laws, every fault committed by a man when intoxicated, deserved
double punishment. The titles of some of his writings are preserved
by Laërtius, among which are mentioned elegiac verses, some laws
in prose, addressed to his countrymen, epistles, and moral precepts
called _adomena_. _Diogenes Laërtius._――_Aristotle_, _Politics_.
――_Plutarch_, _Convivium Septem Sapientium_.――_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch.
24.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 2, &c.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 6,
ch. 2, sect. 5.――――A grandson of Porus king of India.
=Pitthea=, a town near Trœzene. Hence the epithet of _Pittheus_ in
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 15, li. 296.
=Pitthēus=, a king of Trœzene in Argolis, son of Pelops and Hippodamia.
He was universally admired for his learning, wisdom, and application;
he publicly taught in a school at Trœzene, and even composed a book,
which was seen by Pausanias the geographer. He gave his daughter
Æthra in marriage to Ægeus king of Athens, and he himself took
particular care of the youth and education of his grandson Theseus.
He was buried at Trœzene, which he had founded, and on his tomb
were seen, for many ages, three seats of white marble, on which he
sat, with two other judges, whenever he gave laws to his subjects
or settled their disputes. _Pausanias_, bks. 1 & 2.――_Plutarch_,
_Theseus_.――_Strabo_, bk. 8.
=Pituanius=, a mathematician in the age of Tiberius, thrown down from
the Tarpeian rock, &c. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 2.
=Pitulāni=, a people of Umbria. Their chief town was called _Pitulum_.
=Pityæa=, a town of Asia Minor. _Apollonius._
=Pityassus=, a town of Pisidia. _Strabo._
=Pityonēsus=, a small island on the coast of Peloponnesus, near
Epidaurus. _Pliny._
=Pityus= (untis), now _Pitchinda_, a town of Colchis. _Pliny_, bk. 6,
ch. 5.
=Pityūsa=, a small island on the coast of Argolis. _Pliny_, bk. 4,
ch. 12.――――A name of Chios.――――Two small islands in the Mediterranean,
near the coast of Spain, of which the larger was called _Ebusus_,
and the smaller _Ophiusa_. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Strabo._――_Pliny_,
bk. 3, ch. 5.
=Pius=, a surname given to the emperor Antoninus, on account of his
piety and virtue.――――A surname given to a son of Metellus, because
he interested himself so warmly to have his father recalled from
banishment.
=Placentia=, now called _Placenza_, an ancient town and colony of Italy,
at the confluence of the Trebia and Po. _Livy_, bk. 21, chs. 25 & 56;
bk. 37, ch. 10.――――Another, near Lusitania, in Spain.
=Placideianus=, a gladiator in Horace’s age, bk. 2, satire 7.
=Placidia=, a daughter of Theodosius the Great, sister to Honorius
and Arcadius. She married Adolphus king of the Goths, and afterwards
Constantine, by whom she had Valentinian III. She died A.D. 449.
=Placidius Julius=, a tribune of a cohort, who imprisoned the emperor
Vitellius, &c. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 3, ch. 85.
=Planasia=, a small island of the ♦Tyrrhene sea.――――Another, on the
coast of Gaul, where Tiberius ordered Agrippa the grandson of
Augustus to be put to death. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 1, ch. 3.――――A
town on the Rhone.
♦ ‘Tyrhene’ replaced with ‘Tyrrhene’
=Plancīna=, a woman celebrated for her intrigues and her crimes, who
married Piso, and was accused with him of having murdered Germanicus,
in the reign of Tiberius. She was acquitted either by means of the
empress Livia, or on account of the partiality of the emperor for her
person. She had long supported the spirits of her husband, during his
confinement, but when she saw herself freed from the accusation, she
totally abandoned him to his fate. Subservient in everything to the
will of Livia, she, at her instigation, became guilty of the greatest
crimes, to injure the character of Agrippina. After the death of
Agrippina, Plancina was accused of the most atrocious villanies, and,
as she knew she could not elude justice, she put herself to death,
A.D. 33. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 6, ch. 26, &c.
=Lucius Plancus Munatius=, a Roman, who rendered himself ridiculous
by his follies and his extravagance. He had been consul, and had
presided over a province in the capacity of governor; but he forgot
all his dignity, and became one of the most servile flatterers
of Cleopatra and Antony. At the court of the Egyptian queen in
Alexandria, he appeared in the character of the meanest stage dancer,
and in a comedy he personated Glaucus, and painted his body of a
green colour, dancing on a public stage quite naked, only with a
crown of green reeds on his head, while he had tied behind his back
the tail of a large sea fish. This exposed him to the public derision,
and when Antony had joined the rest of his friends in censuring him
for his unbecoming behaviour, he deserted to Octavius, who received
him with great marks of friendship and attention. It was he who
proposed, in the Roman senate, that the title of Augustus should
be conferred on his friend Octavius, as expressive of the dignity and
the reverence which the greatness of his exploits seemed to claim.
Horace has dedicated bk. 1, ode 7, to him; and he certainly deserved
the honour, from the elegance of his letters, which are still
extant, written to Cicero. He founded a town in Gaul, which he called
Lugdunum. _Plutarch_, _Antonius_.――――A patrician, proscribed by the
second triumvirate. His servants wished to save him from death, but
he refused it, rather than to expose their persons to danger.
=Phangon=, a courtesan of Miletus, in Ionia.
=Platæa=, a daughter of Asopus king of Bœotia. _Pausanias_, bk. 9,
ch. 1, &c.――――An island on the coast of Africa in the Mediterranean.
It belonged to the Cyreneans. _Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 157.
=Platæa=, and æ (arum), a town of Bœotia, near mount Cithæron, on
the confines of Megaris and Attica, celebrated for a battle fought
there between Mardonius the commander of Xerxes king of Persia,
and Pausanias the Lacedæmonian, and the Athenians. The Persian
army consisted of 300,000 men, 3000 of which scarce escaped with
their lives by flight. The Grecian army, which was greatly inferior,
lost but few men, and among these 91 Spartans, 52 Athenians, and 16
Tegeans, were the only soldiers found in the number of the slain. The
plunder which the Greeks obtained in the Persian camp was immense.
Pausanias received the tenth of all the spoils, on account of his
uncommon valour during the engagement, and the rest were rewarded
each according to their respective merit. This battle was fought on
the 22nd September, the same day as the battle of Mycale, 479 B.C.,
and by it Greece was totally delivered for ever from the continual
alarms to which she was exposed on account of the Persian invasions,
and from that time none of the princes of Persia dared to appear with
a hostile force beyond the Hellespont. The Platæans were naturally
attached to the interest of the Athenians, and they furnished them
with 1000 soldiers when Greece was attacked by Datis the general of
Darius. Platæa was taken by the Thebans, after a famous siege, in the
beginning of the Peloponnesian war, and destroyed by the Spartans,
B.C. 427. Alexander rebuilt it, and paid great encomiums to the
inhabitants, on account of their ancestors, who had so bravely fought
against the Persians at the battle of Marathon, and under Pausanias.
_Herodotus_, bk. 8, ch. 50.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 1.――_Plutarch_,
_Alexander_, &c.――_Cornelius Nepos_, &c.――_Cicero_, _de Officiis_,
bk. 1, ch. 18.――_Strabo._――_Justin._
=Platanius=, a river of Bœotia. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 24.
=Plato=, a celebrated philosopher at Athens, son of Ariston and
Parectonia. His original name was Aristocles, and he received that of
Plato from the largeness of his shoulders. As one of the descendants
of Codrus, and as the offspring of a noble, illustrious, and opulent
family, Plato was educated with care, his body was formed and
invigorated with gymnastic exercises, and his mind was cultivated
and enlightened by the study of poetry and of geometry, from which
he derived that acuteness of judgment and warmth of imagination which
have stamped his character as the most subtle and flowery writer of
antiquity. He first began his literary career by writing poems and
tragedies; but he was soon disgusted with his own productions, when,
at the age of 20, he was introduced into the presence of Socrates,
and when he was enabled to compare and examine, with critical
accuracy, the merit of his compositions with those of his poetical
predecessors. He therefore committed to the flames these productions
of his early years, which could not command the attention or gain
the applause of a maturer age. During eight years he continued to be
one of the pupils of Socrates; and if he was prevented by a momentary
indisposition from attending the philosopher’s last moments, yet he
collected from the conversation of those that were present, and from
his own accurate observations, the minutest and most circumstantial
accounts, which can exhibit, in its truest colours, the concern
and sensibility of the pupil, and the firmness, virtues, and moral
sentiments of the dying philosopher. After the death of Socrates,
Plato retired from Athens, and to acquire that information which the
accurate observer can derive in foreign countries, he began to travel
over Greece. He visited Megara, Thebes, and Elis, where he met with
the kindest reception from his fellow-disciples, whom the violent
death of their master had likewise removed from Attica. He afterwards
visited Magna Græcia, attracted by the fame of the Pythagorean
philosophy, and by the learning, abilities, and reputation of its
professors, Philolaus, Archytas, and Eurytus. He afterwards passed
into Sicily, and examined the eruptions and fires of the volcano
of that island. He also visited Egypt, where then the mathematician
Theodorus flourished, and where he knew that the tenets of the
Pythagorean philosophy and metempsychosis had been fostered and
cherished. When he had finished his travels, Plato retired to
the groves of Academus, in the neighbourhood of Athens, where
his lectures were soon attended by a crowd of learned, noble, and
illustrious pupils; and the philosopher, by refusing to have a share
in the administration of affairs, rendered his name more famous, and
his school more frequented. During forty years he presided at the
head of the academy, and there he devoted his time to the instruction
of his pupils, and composed those dialogues which have been the
admiration of every age and country. His studies, however, were
interrupted for a while, whilst he obeyed the pressing calls
and invitations of Dionysius, and whilst he persuaded the tyrant
to become a man, the father of his people, and the friend of
liberty. _See:_ Dionysius II. In his dress the philosopher was not
ostentatious; his manners were elegant but modest, simple without
affectation; and the great honours which his learning deserved were
not paid to his appearance. When he came to the Olympian games,
Plato resided, during the celebration, in a family who were totally
strangers to him. He ate and drank with them, he partook of their
innocent pleasures and amusements; but though he told them his name
was Plato, yet he never spoke of the employment which he pursued
at Athens, and never introduced the name of that philosopher whose
doctrines he followed, and whose death and virtues were favourite
topics of conversation in every part of Greece. When he returned home,
he was attended by the family which had so kindly entertained him;
and, as being a native of Athens, he was desired to show them the
great philosopher whose name he bore: their surprise was great when
he told them that he himself was the Plato whom they wished to behold.
In his diet he was moderate, and, indeed, to sobriety and temperance
in the use of food, and to the want of those pleasures which enfeeble
the body and enervate the mind, some have attributed his preservation
during the tremendous pestilence which raged at Athens with so much
fury at the beginning of the Peloponnesian war. Plato was never
subject to any long or lingering indisposition, and though change of
climate had enfeebled a constitution naturally strong and healthy,
the philosopher lived to an advanced age, and was often heard to say,
when his physicians advised him to leave his residence at Athens,
where the air was impregnated by the pestilence, that he would
not advance one single step to gain the top of mount Athos, were
he assured to attain the great longevity which the inhabitants of
that mountain were said to enjoy above the rest of mankind. Plato
died on his birthday, in the 81st year of his age, about 348 years
before the christian era. His last moments were easy and without pain,
and, according to some, he expired in the midst of an entertainment,
or, according to Cicero, as he was writing. The works of Plato are
numerous; they are all written in the form of a dialogue, except 12
letters. He speaks always by the mouth of others, and the philosopher
has nowhere made mention of himself except once in his dialogue
intituled Phædon, and another time in his apology for Socrates. His
writings were so celebrated, and, his opinion so respected, that he
was called divine; and for the elegance, melody, and sweetness of his
expressions, he was distinguished by the appellation of the Athenian
bee. Cicero had such an esteem for him, that in the warmth of
panegyric, he exclaimed, _Errare meherculè malo cum Platone quàm cum
istis vera sentire_; and Quintilian said that, when he read Plato, he
seemed to hear not a man, but a divinity speaking. His style, however,
though admired and commended by the best and most refined of critics
among the ancients, has not escaped the censure of some of the
moderns; and the philosopher has been blamed, who supports that fire
is a pyramid tied to the earth by numbers, that the world is a figure
consisting of 12 pentagons, and who, to prove the metempsychosis and
the immortality of the soul, asserts that the dead are born from the
living, and the living from the dead. The speculative mind of Plato
was employed in examining things divine and human, and he attempted
to fix and ascertain, not only the practical doctrine of morals and
politics, but the more subtle and abstruse theory of mystical
theogony. His philosophy was universally received and adopted, and it
has not only governed the opinions of the speculative part of mankind,
but it continues still to influence the reasoning, and to divide the
sentiments, of the moderns. In his system of philosophy he followed
the physics of Heraclitus, the metaphysical opinions of Pythagoras,
and the morals of Socrates. He maintained the existence of two beings,
one self-existent, and the other formed by the hand of a pre-existent
creature, god and man. The world was created by that self-existent
cause, from the rude undigested mass of matter which had existed
from all eternity, and which had even been animated by an irregular
principle of motion. The origin of evil could not be traced under the
government of a deity, without admitting a stubborn intractability
and wildness congenial to matter, and from these, consequently, could
be demonstrated the deviations from the laws of nature, and from
thence the extravagant passions and appetites of men. From materials
like these were formed the four elements, and the beautiful structure
of the heavens and the earth; and into the active but irrational
principle of matter, the divinity infused a rational soul. The souls
of men were formed from the remainder of the rational soul of the
world, which had previously given existence to the invisible gods and
demons. The philosopher, therefore, supported the doctrine of ideal
forms, and the pre-existence of the human mind, which he considered
as emanations of the Deity, which can never remain satisfied with
objects or things unworthy of their divine original. Men could
perceive, with their corporeal senses, the types of immutable things
and the fluctuating objects of the material world; but the sudden
changes to which these are continually obnoxious, create innumerable
disorders, and hence arise deception, and, in short, all the errors
and miseries of human life. Yet, in whatever situation man may be,
he is still an object of divine concern; and, to recommend himself
to the favour of the pre-existent cause, he must comply with the
purposes of his creation, and, by proper care and diligence, he can
recover those immaculate powers with which he was naturally endowed.
All science the philosopher made to consist in reminiscence, and in
recalling the nature, forms, and proportions of those perfect and
immutable essences with which the human mind had been conversant.
From observations like these, the summit of felicity might be
attained by removing from the material, and approaching nearer to
the intellectual world, by curbing and governing the passions which
were ever agitated and inflamed by real and imaginary objects. The
passions were divided into two classes: the first consisted of the
irascible passions, which originated in pride or resentment, and were
seated in the breast; the other, founded on the love of pleasure, was
the concupiscible part of the soul seated in the belly, and inferior
parts of the body. These different orders induced the philosopher
to compare the soul to a small republic, of which the reasoning and
judging powers were stationed in the head, as in a firm citadel, and
of which the senses were its guards and servants. By the irascible
part of the soul men asserted their dignity, repelled injuries, and
scorned danger; and the concupiscible part provided for the support
and the necessities of the body, and when governed with propriety, it
gave rise to temperance. Justice was produced by the regular dominion
of reason, and by the submission of the passions; and prudence arose
from the strength, acuteness, and perfection of the soul, without
which all other virtues could not exist. But, amidst all this, wisdom
was not easily attained; at their creation all minds were not endowed
with the same excellence, the bodies which they animated on earth
were not always in harmony with the divine emanation; some might be
too weak, others too strong, and on the first years of a man’s life
depended his future consequence; as an effeminate and licentious
education seemed calculated to destroy the purposes of the divinity,
while the contrary produced different effects, and tended to
cultivate and improve the reasoning and judging faculty, and to
produce wisdom and virtue. Plato was the first who supported the
immortality of the soul upon arguments solid and permanent, deduced
from truth and experience. He did not imagine that the diseases,
and the death of the body, could injure the principle of life and
destroy the soul, which, of itself, was of divine origin, and of an
uncorrupted and immutable essence, which, though inherent for a while
in matter, could not lose that power which was the emanation of God.
From doctrines like these, the great founder of Platonism concluded
that there might exist in the world a community of men, whose
passions could be governed with moderation, and who, from knowing
the evils and miseries which arise from ill conduct, might aspire to
excellence, and attain that perfection which can be derived from the
proper exercise of the rational and moral powers. To illustrate this
more fully, the philosopher wrote a book, well known by the name of
the republic of Plato, in which he explains with acuteness, judgment,
and elegance the rise and revolution of civil society; and so
respected was his opinion as a legislator, that his scholars were
employed in regulating the republics of Arcadia, Elis, and Cnidus, at
the desire of those states, and Xenocrates gave political rules for
good and impartial government to the conqueror of the east. The best
editions of Plato are those of Frankfurt, folio, 1602; and Bipontium,
12 vols. 8vo, 1718. _Plato_, _Dialogues_, &c.――_Cicero_, _de
Officiis_, bk. 1; _de Divinatione_, bk. 1, ch. 36; _de Natura Deorum_,
bk. 2, ch. 12; _Tusculanæ Disputationes_, bk. 1, ch. 17.――_Plutarch_,
_Solon_, &c.――_Seneca_, _Epistulæ_.――_Quintilian_, bk. 10, ch. 1, &c.
――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bks. 2 & 4.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 30.
――_Diogenes Laërtius._――――A son of Lycaon king of Arcadia.――――A Greek
poet, called the prince of the middle comedy, who flourished B.C. 445.
Some fragments remain of his pieces.
=Plator=, a man of Dyrrhachium, put to death by Piso. _Cicero_,
_Against Piso_, ch. 34.
=Plavis=, a river of Venetia, in Italy.
=Plautia lex=, was enacted by Marcus Plautius the tribune, A.U.C. 664.
It required every tribe annually to choose 15 persons of their body,
to serve as judges, making the honour common to all the three orders,
according to the majority of votes in every tribe.――――Another, called
also _Plotia_, A.U.C. 675. It punished with the _interdictio ignis &
aquæ_, all persons who were found guilty of attempts upon the state,
or the senators or magistrates, or such as appeared in public, armed
with an evil design, or such as forcibly expelled any person from his
legal ♦possessions.
♦ ‘possesions’ replaced with ‘possessions’
=Plautiānus Fulvius=, an African of mean birth, who was banished
for his seditious behaviour in the years of his obscurity. In his
banishment, Plautianus formed an acquaintance with Severus, who, some
years after, ascended the imperial throne. This was the beginning
of his prosperity; Severus paid the greatest attention to him, and,
if we believe some authors, their familiarity and intercourse were
carried beyond the bounds of modesty and propriety. Plautianus shared
the favours of Severus on the throne as well as in obscurity. He
was invested with as much power as his patron at Rome, and in the
provinces; and, indeed, he wanted but the name of emperor to be his
equal. His table was served with more delicate meats than that of
the emperor; when he walked in the public streets he received the
most distinguishing honours, and a number of criers ordered the most
noble citizens, as well as the meanest beggars, to make way for the
favourite of the emperor, and not to fix their eyes upon him. He
was concerned in all the rapine and destruction which were committed
through the empire, and he enriched himself with the possessions of
those who had been sacrificed to the emperor’s cruelty or avarice. To
complete his triumph, and to make himself still greater, Plautianus
married his favourite daughter Plautilla to Caracalla the son of the
emperor, and so eager was the emperor to indulge his inclinations in
this and in every other respect, that he declared he loved Plautianus
so much that he would even wish to die before him. The marriage of
Caracalla with Plautilla was attended with serious consequences.
The son of Severus had complied with great reluctance, and, though
Plautilla was amiable in her manners, commanding in aspect, and of
a beautiful countenance, yet the young prince often threatened to
punish her haughty and imperious behaviour as soon as he succeeded to
the throne. Plautilla reported the whole to her father, and to save
his daughter from the vengeance of Caracalla, Plautianus conspired
against the emperor and his son. The conspiracy was discovered, and
Severus forgot his attachment to Plautianus, and the favours he had
heaped upon him, when he heard of his perfidy. The wicked minister
was immediately put to death, and Plautilla banished to the island
of Lipari, with her brother Plautius, where, seven years after,
she was put to death by order of Caracalla, A.D. 211. Plautilla had
two children, a son who died in his childhood, and a daughter, whom
Caracalla murdered in the arms of her mother. _Dio Cassius._
=Plautilla=, a daughter of Plautianus the favourite minister of Severus.
_See:_ Plautianus.――――The mother of the emperor Nerva, descended of a
noble family.
=Plautius=, a Roman, who became so disconsolate at the death of his
wife, that he threw himself upon her burning pile. _Valerius Maximus_,
bk. 4, ch. 6.――――Caius, a consul sent against the Privernates, &c.
――――Aulus, a governor of Britain who obtained an ovation for the
conquests he had gained there over the barbarians.――――One of Otho’s
friends. He dissuaded him from killing himself.――――Lateranus, an
adulterer of Messalina, who conspired against Nero, and was capitally
condemned.――――Aulus, a general who defeated the Umbrians and the
Etrurians.――――Caius, another general, defeated in Lusitania.――――A man
put to death by order of Caracalla.――――Marcus Sylvanus, a tribune,
who made a law to prevent seditions in the public assemblies.
――――Rubellius, a man accused before Nero, and sent to Asia, where he
was assassinated.
=Marcus Accius Plautus=, a comic poet, born at Sarsina, in Umbria.
Fortune proved unkind to him, and, from competence, he was reduced
to the meanest poverty, by engaging in a commercial line. To maintain
himself, he entered into the family of a baker as a common servant,
and while he was employed in grinding corn, he sometimes dedicated
a few moments to the comic muse. Some, however, confute this account
as false, and support that Plautus was never obliged to the laborious
employments of a bakehouse for his maintenance. He wrote 25 comedies,
of which only 20 are extant. He died about 184 years before the
christian era; and Varro, his learned countryman, wrote this stanza,
which deserved to be engraved on his tomb:
_Postquam morte captus est Plautus,
Comœdia luget, scena est deserta;
Deinde risus, ludus, jocusque, & numeri
Innumeri simul omnes collacrymârunt._
The plays of Plautus were ♦universally esteemed at Rome, and the
purity, the energy, and the elegance of his language were, by
other writers, considered as objects of imitation; and Varro, whose
judgment is great, and generally decisive, declares, that if the
Muses were willing to speak Latin, they would speak in the language
of Plautus. In the Augustan age, however, when the Roman language
became more pure and refined, the comedies of Plautus did not
appear free from inaccuracy. The poet, when compared to the more
elegant expressions of a Terence, was censured for his negligence
in versification, his low wit, execrable puns, and disgusting
obscenities. Yet, however censured as to language or sentiments,
Plautus continued to be a favourite on the stage. If his expressions
were not choice or delicate, it was ♦universally admitted that he was
more happy than other comic writers in his pictures; the incidents of
his plays were more varied, the acts more interesting, the characters
more truly displayed, and the catastrophe more natural. In the
reign of the emperor Diocletian, his comedies were still acted on
the public theatres; and no greater compliment can be paid to his
abilities as a comic writer, and no greater censure can be passed
upon his successors in dramatic composition, than to observe, that
for 500 years, with all the disadvantages of obsolete language and
diction, in spite of the change of manners, and the revolutions of
government, he commanded and received that applause which no other
writer dared to dispute with him. The best editions of Plautus
are that of Gronovius, 8vo, Leiden, 1664; that of Barbou, 12mo, in
3 vols., Paris, 1759; that of Ernesti, 2 vols., 8vo, Lipscomb, 1760;
and that of Glasgow, 3 vols., 12mo, 1763. _Varro_ on _Quintilian_, bk.
10, ch. 1.――_Cicero_, _de Officiis_, bk. 1, &c.; _On Oratory_, bk. 3,
&c.――_Horace_, bk. 2, ltr. 1, lis. 58, 170; _Art of Poetry_, lis. 54
& 270.――――Ælianus, a high priest, who consecrated the capitol in the
reign of Vespasian. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 4, ch. 53.
♦ ‘univerally’ replaced with ‘universally’
=Plēiădes=, or =Vergĭliæ=, a name given to seven of the daughters of
Atlas by Pleione or Æthra, one of the Oceanides. They were placed
in the heavens after death, where they formed a constellation called
Pleiades, near the back of the bull in the Zodiac. Their names were
Alcyone, Merope, Maia, Electra, Taygeta, Sterope, and Celeno. They
all, except Merope, who married Sisyphus king of Corinth, had some
of the immortal gods for their suitors. On that account, therefore,
Merope’s star is dim and obscure among the rest of her sisters,
because she married a mortal. The name of the Pleiades is derived
from the Greek word πλεειν, _to sail_, because that constellation
shows the time most favourable to navigators, which is in the spring.
The name of Vergiliæ they derive from _ver_, _the spring_. They are
sometimes called _Atlantides_, from their father, or _Hesperides_,
from the gardens of that name, which belonged to Atlas. _Hyginus_,
fable 192; _Poetica Astronomica_, bk. 2, ch. 21.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 13, li. 293; _Fasti_, bk. 5, lis. 106 & 170;
_Hesiod_, _Works and Days_.――_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 5.――_Horace_,
bk. 4, ode 14.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 1, li. 138; bk. 4, li. 233.
――――Seven poets, who, from their number, have received the name of
Pleiades, near the age of Philadelphus Ptolemy king of Egypt. Their
names were Lycophron, Theocritus, Aratus, Nicander, Apollonius,
Philicus, and Homerus the younger.
=Pleiōne=, one of the Oceanides, who married Atlas king of Mauritania,
by whom she had 12 daughters, and a son called Hyas. Seven of the
daughters were changed into a constellation called _Pleiades_, and
the rest into another called _Hyades_. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 5, li. 84.
=Plemmy̆rium=, now _Massa Oliveri_, a promontory with a small castle of
that name, in the bay of Syracuse. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 693.
=Plemneus=, a king of Sicyon, son of Peratus. His children always died
as soon as born, till Ceres, pitying his misfortune, offered herself
as a nurse to his wife as she was going to be brought to bed. The
child lived by the care and protection of the goddess, and Plemneus
was no sooner acquainted with the dignity of his nurse, than he
raised her a temple. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, chs. 5 & 11.
=Pleumosii=, a people of Belgium, the inhabitants of modern Tournay.
_Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 5, ch. 38.
=Pleurātus=, a king of Illyricum. _Livy_, bk. 26, ch. 24.
=Pleuron=, a son of Ætolus, who married Xantippe the daughter of Dorus,
by whom he had Agenor. He founded a city in Ætolia on the Evenus,
which bore his name. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 7.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch.
2.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 15, li. 310.――_Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 13.
――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, li. 382.
=Plexaure=, one of the Oceanides. _Hesiod._
=Plexippus=, a son of Thestius, brother to Althæa the wife of Œneus.
He was killed by his nephew Meleager, in hunting the Calydonian boar.
His brother Toxeus shared his fate. _See:_ Althæa and Meleager.――――A
son of Phineus and Cleopatra, brother to Pandion king of Athens.
_Apollodorus._
=Caius Plinius Secundus=, surnamed the _Elder_, was born at Verona, of
a noble family. He distinguished himself in the field, and, after he
had been made one of the augurs at Rome, he was appointed governor
of Spain. In his public character he did not neglect the pleasures
of literature; the day was employed in the administration of the
affairs of his province, and the night was dedicated to study. Every
moment of time was precious to him; at his meals one of his servants
read to him books valuable for their information, and from them he
immediately made copious extracts, in a memorandum book. Even while
he dressed himself after bathing, his attention was called away
from surrounding objects, and he was either employed in listening to
another, or in dictating himself. To a mind so earnestly dedicated
to learning, nothing appeared too laborious, no undertaking too
troublesome. He deemed every moment lost which was not devoted to
study, and from these reasons he never appeared at Rome but in a
chariot, and wherever he went, he was always accompanied by his
amanuensis. He even censured his nephew, Pliny the younger, because
he had indulged himself with a walk, and sternly observed, that he
might have employed those moments to better advantage. But if his
literary pursuits made him forget the public affairs, his prudence,
his abilities, and the purity and innocence of his character, made
him known and respected. He was courted and admired by the emperors
Titus and Vespasian, and he received from them all the favours which
a virtuous prince could offer, and an honest subject receive. As he
was at Misenum, where he commanded the fleet, which was then
stationed there, Pliny was surprised at the sudden appearance of
a cloud of dust and ashes. He was then ignorant of the cause which
produced it, and he immediately set sail in a small vessel for
mount Vesuvius, which he at last discovered to have made a dreadful
eruption. The sight of a number of boats that fled from the coast
to avoid the danger, might have deterred another, but the curiosity
of Pliny excited him to advance with more boldness, and though his
vessel was often covered with stones and ashes, that were continually
thrown up by the mountain, yet he landed on the coast. The place
was deserted by the inhabitants, but Pliny remained there during
the night, the better to observe the mountain, which, during the
obscurity, appeared to be one continual blaze. He was soon disturbed
by a dreadful earthquake, and the contrary wind on the morrow
prevented him from returning to Misenum. The eruption of the volcano
increased, and at last the fire approached the place where the
philosopher made his observations. Pliny endeavoured to fly before
it, but though he was supported by two of his servants, he was unable
to escape. He soon fell down, suffocated by the thick vapours that
surrounded him, and the insupportable stench of sulphureous matter.
His body was found three days after, and decently buried by his
nephew, who was then at Misenum with the fleet. This memorable event
happened in the 79th year of the christian era, and the philosopher
who perished by the eruptions of the volcano, has been called by some
the martyr of nature. He was then in the 56th year of his age. Of the
works which he composed, none are extant but his natural history in
37 books. It is a work, as Pliny the younger says, full of erudition,
and as varied as nature itself. It treats of the stars, the heavens,
wind, rain, hail, minerals, trees, flowers, and plants, besides
an account of all living animals, birds, fishes, and beasts; a
geographical description of every place on the globe, and a history
of every art and science, of commerce and navigation, with their rise,
progress, and several improvements. He is happy in his descriptions
as a naturalist; he writes with force and energy, and though many of
his ideas and conjectures are sometimes ill-founded, yet he possesses
that fecundity of imagination, and vivacity of expression, which are
requisite to treat a subject with propriety, and to render a history
of nature pleasing, interesting, and, above all, instructive. His
style possesses not the graces of the Augustan age; he has neither
its purity and elegance, nor its simplicity, but it is rather cramped,
obscure, and sometimes unintelligible. Yet for all this it has ever
been admired and esteemed, and it may be called a compilation of
everything which had been written before his age on the various
subjects which he treats, and a judicious collection from the
most excellent treatises which had been composed on the various
productions of nature. Pliny was not ashamed to mention the authors
which he quoted; he speaks of them with admiration, and while he
pays the greatest compliment to their abilities, his encomiums
show, in the strongest light, the goodness, the sensibility, and
the ingenuousness of his own mind. He had written 160 volumes of
remarks and annotations on the various authors which he had read,
and so great was the opinion in his contemporaries of his erudition
and abilities, that a man called Lartius Lutinius offered to buy
his notes and observations for the enormous sum of about 3242_l._
English money. The philosopher, who was himself rich and independent,
rejected the offer, and his compilations, after his death, came into
the hands of his nephew Pliny. The best editions of Pliny are that
of Harduin, 3 vols., folio, Paris, 1723; that of Frantzius, 10 vols.,
8vo, Lipscomb, 1728; that of Brotier, 6 vols., 12mo, Paris, 1779;
and the Variorum 8vo, in 8 vols., Lipscomb, 1778 to 1789. _Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 1, ch. 69; bk. 13, ch. 20; bk. 15, ch. 53.――_Pliny_,
_Epistulæ_, &c.――――Caius Cæcilius Secundus, surnamed the _Younger_,
was son of Lucius Cæcilius by the sister of Pliny the elder. He was
adopted by his uncle, whose name he assumed, and whose estates and
effects he inherited. He received the greatest part of his education
under Quintilian, and at the age of 19 he appeared at the bar,
where he distinguished himself so much by his eloquence, that he
and Tacitus were reckoned the two greatest orators of their age.
He did not make his profession an object of gain like the rest of
the Roman orators, but he refused fees from the rich as well as from
the poorest of his clients, and declared that he cheerfully employed
himself for the protection of innocence, the relief of the indigent,
and the detection of vice. He published many of his harangues and
orations, which have been lost. When Trajan was invested with the
imperial purple, Pliny was created consul by the emperor. This honour
the consul acknowledged in a celebrated panegyric, which, at the
request of the Roman senate, and in the name of the whole empire,
he pronounced on Trajan. Some time after he presided over Pontus
and Bithynia, in the office and with the power of proconsul, and by
his humanity and philanthropy the subject was freed from the burden
of partial taxes, and the persecution which had been begun against
the christians of his province was stopped, when Pliny solemnly
declared to the emperor that the followers of Christ were a meek and
inoffensive sect of men, that their morals were pure and innocent,
that they were free from all crimes, and that they voluntarily bound
themselves by the most solemn oaths to abstain from vice, and to
relinquish every sinful pursuit. If he rendered himself popular in
his province, he was not less respected at Rome. He was there the
friend of the poor, the patron of learning, great without arrogance,
affable in his behaviour, and an example of good breeding, sobriety,
temperance, and modesty. As a father and a husband his character
was amiable; as a subject he was faithful to his prince; and as a
magistrate he was candid, open, and compassionate. His native country
shared, among the rest, his unbounded benevolence; and Comum, a small
town of Insubria, which gave him birth, boasted of his liberality in
the valuable and choice library of books which he collected there. He
also contributed towards the expenses which attended the education of
his countrymen, and liberally spent part of his estate for the
advancement of literature, and for the instruction of those whom
poverty otherwise deprived of the advantages of a public education.
He made his preceptor Quintilian and the poet Martial objects of his
benevolence, and when the daughter of the former was married, Pliny
wrote to the father with the greatest civility; and while he observed
that he was rich in the possession of learning, though poor in the
goods of fortune, he begged of him to accept, as a dowry for his
beloved daughter, 50,000 sesterces, about 300_l._ “I would not,”
continued he, “be so moderate, were I not assured, from your modesty
and disinterestedness, that the smallness of the present will render
it acceptable.” He died in the 52nd year of his age, A.D. 113. He had
written a history of his own times, which is lost. It is said that
Tacitus did not begin his history till he had found it impossible
to persuade Pliny to undertake that laborious task; and, indeed,
what could not have been expected from the panegyrist of Trajan,
if Tacitus acknowledged himself inferior to him in delineating the
character of the times? Some suppose, but falsely, that Pliny wrote
the lives of illustrious men, universally ascribed to Cornelius Nepos.
He also wrote poetry, but his verses have all perished, and nothing
of his learned work remains, but his panegyric on the emperor Trajan,
and 10 books of letters, which he himself collected and prepared for
the public, from a numerous and respectable correspondence. These
letters contain many curious and interesting facts; they abound with
many anecdotes of the generosity and the humane sentiments of the
writer. They are written with elegance and great purity, and the
reader everywhere discovers that affability, that condescension
and philanthropy, which so egregiously marked the advocate of
the christians. These letters are esteemed by some equal to the
voluminous epistles of Cicero. In his panegyric, Pliny’s style is
florid and brilliant; he has used, to the greatest advantage, the
liberties of the panegyrist, and the eloquence of the courtier. His
ideas are new and refined, but his diction is distinguished by that
affectation and pomposity which marked the reign of Trajan. The best
editions of Pliny are those of Gesner, 8vo, Lipscomb, 1770, and of
Lallemand, 12mo, Paris apud Barbou; and of the panegyric separate,
that of Schwartz, 4to, 1746, and of the epistles, the Variorum,
Leiden, 1669, 8vo. _Pliny_, _Epistulæ_.――_Vossius._――_Sidonius._
=Plinthīne=, a town of Egypt on the Mediterranean.
=Plistarchus=, son of Leonidas, of the family of the Eurysthenidæ,
succeeded on the Spartan throne at the death of Cleombrotus.
_Herodotus_, bk. 9, ch. 10.――――A brother of Cassander.
=Plisthanus=, a philosopher of Elis, who succeeded in the school of
Phædon. _Diogenes Laërtius._
=Plisthĕnes=, a son of Atreus king of Argos, father of Menelaus and
Agamemnon, according to Hesiod and others. Homer, however, calls
Menelaus and Agamemnon sons of Atreus, though they were in reality
the children of Plisthenes. The father died very young, and the two
children were left in the house of their grandfather, who took care
of them and instructed them. From his attention to them, therefore,
it seems probable that Atreus was universally acknowledged their
protector and father, and thence their surname of _Atridæ_. _Ovid_,
_Remedia Amoris_, li. 778.――_Dictys Cretensis_, bk. 1.――_Homer_,
_Iliad_.
=Plistīnus=, a brother of Faustulus the shepherd, who saved the life of
Romulus and Remus. He was killed in a scuffle which happened between
the two brothers.
=Plistoănax= and =Plistōnax=, son of Pausanias, was general of the
Lacedæmonian armies in the Peloponnesian war. He was banished from
his kingdom of Sparta for 19 years, and was afterwards recalled by
order of the oracle of Delphi. He reigned 58 years. He had succeeded
Plistarchus. _Thucydides._
=Plistus=, a river of Phocis falling into the bay of Corinth. _Strabo_,
bk. 9.
=Plotæ=, small islands on the coast of Ætolia, called also Strophades.
=Plotīna Pompeia=, a Roman lady who married Trajan while he was yet a
private man. She entered Rome in the procession with her husband when
he was saluted emperor, and distinguished herself by the affability
of her behaviour, her humanity, and liberal offices to the poor and
friendless. She accompanied Trajan in the east, and at his death she
brought back his ashes to Rome, and still enjoyed all the honours
and titles of a Roman empress under Adrian, who by her means had
succeeded to the vacant throne. At her death, A.D. 122, she was
ranked among the gods, and received divine honours, which, according
to the superstition of the times, she seemed to deserve, from her
regard for the good and prosperity of the Roman empire, and for her
private virtues. _Dionysius of Halicarnassus._
=Plotinopŏlis=, a town of Thrace, built by the emperor Trajan, and
called after Plotina, the founder’s wife.――――Another in Dacia.
=Plotīnus=, a Platonic philosopher of Lycopolis in Egypt. He was
for eleven years a pupil of Ammonius the philosopher, and after he
had profited by all the instructions of his learned preceptor, he
determined to improve his knowledge, and to visit the territories
of India and Persia to receive information. He accompanied Gordian
in his expedition into the east, but the day which proved fatal to
the emperor, nearly terminated the life of the philosopher. He saved
himself by flight, and the following year he retired to Rome, where
he publicly taught philosophy. His school was frequented by people
of every sex, age, and quality; by senators as well as plebeians, and
so great was the opinion of the public of his honesty and candour,
that many, on their death-bed, left all their possessions to his care,
and entrusted their children to him, as a superior being. He was the
favourite of all the Romans; and while he charmed the populace by the
force of his eloquence, and the senate by his doctrines, the emperor
Gallienus courted him, and admired the extent of his learning. It
is even said that the emperor and the empress Salonina intended to
rebuild a decayed city of Campania, and to appoint the philosopher
over it, that there he might experimentally know, while he presided
over a colony of philosophers, the validity and the use of the ideal
laws of the republic of Plato. This plan was not executed, through
the envy and malice of the enemies of Plotinus. The philosopher,
at last become helpless and infirm, returned to Campania, where the
liberality of his friends for a while maintained him. He died A.D.
270, in the 66th year of his age, and as he expired, he declared
that he made his last and most violent efforts to give up what there
was most divine in him and in the rest of the universe. Amidst the
great qualities of the philosopher, we discover some ridiculous
singularities. Plotinus never permitted his picture to be taken,
and he observed, that to see a painting of himself in the following
age, was beneath the notice of an enlightened mind. These reasons
also induced him to conceal the day, the hour, and the place of
his birth. He never made use of medicines, and though his body was
often debilitated by abstinence or too much study, he despised to
have recourse to a physician, and thought that it would degrade the
gravity of a philosopher. His writings have been collected by his
pupil Porphyry. They consist of 54 different treatises divided into
six equal parts, written with great spirit and vivacity; but the
reasonings are abstruse, and the subjects metaphysical. The best
edition is that of Picinus, folio, Basil, 1580.
=Plotius Crispīnus=, a stoic philosopher and poet, whose verses were
very inelegant, and whose disposition was morose, for which he has
been ridiculed by Horace, and called _Aretalogus_. _Horace_, bk. 1,
satire 1, li. 4.――――Gallus, a native of Lugdunum, who taught grammar
at Rome, and had Cicero among his pupils. _Cicero_, _On Oratory_.
――――Griphus, a man made senator by Vespasian. _Tacitus_, _Histories_,
bk. 3.――――A centurion in Cæsar’s army. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 3,
ch. 19.――――Tucca, a friend of Horace and of Virgil, who made him his
heir. He was selected by Augustus, with Varius, to review the Æneid
of Virgil. _Horace_, bk. 1, satire 5, li. 40.――――Lucius, a poet in
the age of the great Marius, whose exploits he celebrated in his
verses.
=Plusios=, a surname of Jupiter at Sparta, expressive of his power to
grant riches. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 19.
=Plutarchus=, a native of Chæronea, descended of a respectable family.
His father, whose name is unknown, was distinguished for his learning
and virtue, and his grandfather, called Lamprias, was also as
conspicuous for his eloquence and the fecundity of his genius. Under
Ammonius, a reputable teacher at Delphi, Plutarch was made acquainted
with philosophy and mathematics, and so well established was his
character, that he was appointed by his countrymen, while yet very
young, to go to the Roman proconsul, in their name, upon an affair of
the most important nature. This commission he executed with honour to
himself, and with success for his country. He afterwards travelled in
quest of knowledge, and after he had visited, like a philosopher and
an historian, the territories of Egypt and Greece, he retired to Rome,
where he opened a school. His reputation made his school frequented.
The emperor Trajan admired his abilities, and honoured him with the
office of consul, and appointed him governor of Illyricum. After
the death of his imperial benefactor, Plutarch removed from Rome to
Chæronea, where he lived in the greatest tranquillity, respected by
his fellow-citizens, and raised to all the honours which his native
town could bestow. In this peaceful and solitary retreat, Plutarch
closely applied himself to study, and wrote the greatest part of
his works, and particularly his Lives. He died in an advanced age
at Chæronea, about the 140th year of the christian era. Plutarch
had five children by his wife, called Timoxena, four sons and one
daughter. Two of the sons and the daughter died when young, and those
that survived were called Plutarch and Lamprias, and the latter did
honour to his father’s memory, by giving to the world an ♦accurate
catalogue of his writings. In his private and public character,
the historian of Chæronea was the friend of discipline. He boldly
asserted the natural right of mankind, liberty; but he recommended
obedience and submissive deference to magistrates, as necessary to
preserve the peace of society. He supported that the most violent
and dangerous public factions arose too often from private disputes
and from misunderstanding. To render himself more intelligent, he
always carried a commonplace book with him, and he preserved with
the greatest care whatever judicious observations fell in the course
of conversation. The most esteemed of his works are his lives of
illustrious men, of whom he examines and delineates the different
characters with wonderful skill and impartiality. He neither
misrepresents the virtues, nor hides the foibles of his heroes. He
writes with precision and with fidelity, and though his diction is
neither pure nor elegant, yet there is energy and animation, and
in many descriptions he is inferior to no historian. In some of his
narrations, however, he is often too circumstantial, his remarks are
often injudicious; and when he compares the heroes of Greece with
those of Rome, the candid reader can easily remember which side of
the Adriatic gave the historian birth. Some have accused him of not
knowing the genealogy of his heroes, and have censured him for his
superstition; yet for all this, he is the most entertaining, the
most instructive, and interesting of all the writers of ancient
history; and were a man of true taste and judgment asked what book
he wished to save from destruction, of all the profane compositions
of antiquity, he would perhaps without hesitation reply, the Lives
of Plutarch. In his moral treatises, Plutarch appears in a different
character, and his misguided philosophy and erroneous doctrines
render some of these inferior compositions puerile and disgusting.
They, however, contain many useful lessons and curious facts,
and though they are composed without connection, compiled without
judgment, and often abound with improbable stories and false
reasonings, yet they contain much information and many useful
reflections. The best editions of Plutarch are that of Francfort,
2 vols., folio, 1599; that of Stephens, 6 vols., 8vo, 1572; the
Lives by Reiske, 12 vols., 8vo, Lipscomb. 1775; and the Moralia,
&c., by Wyttenbach. _Plutarch._――――A native of Eretria, during the
Peloponnesian war. He was defeated by the Macedonians. _Plutarch_,
_Phocion_.
♦ ‘acurate’ replaced with ‘accurate’
=Plutia=, a town of Sicily. _Cicero_, _Against Verres_.
=Pluto=, a son of Saturn and Ops, inherited his father’s kingdom with
his brothers Jupiter and Neptune. He received as his lot the kingdom
of hell, and whatever lies under the earth, and as such he became
the god of the infernal regions, of death and funerals. From his
functions, and the place he inhabited, he received different names.
He was called _Dis_, _Hades_, or _Ades_, _Clytopolon_, _Agelastus_,
_Orcus_, &c. As the place of his residence was obscure and gloomy,
all the goddesses refused to marry him; but he determined to obtain
by force what was denied to his solicitations. As he once visited
the island of Sicily, after a violent earthquake, he saw Proserpine
the daughter of Ceres gathering flowers in the plains of Enna,
with a crowd of female attendants. He became enamoured of her, and
immediately carried her away upon his chariot drawn by four horses.
To make his retreat more unknown, he opened himself a passage through
the earth, by striking it with his trident in the lake of Cyane in
Sicily, or, according, to others, on the borders of the Cephisus
in Attica. Proserpine called upon her attendants for help, but in
vain, and she became the wife of her ravisher, and the queen of hell.
Pluto is generally represented as holding a sceptre with two teeth;
he has also keys in his hand, to intimate that whoever enters his
kingdom can never return. He is looked upon as a hard-hearted and
inexorable god, with a grim and dismal countenance, and for that
reason no temples were raised to his honour, as to the rest of the
superior gods. Black victims, and particularly a bull, were the
only sacrifices which were offered to him, and their blood was
not sprinkled on the altars, or received in vessels, as at other
sacrifices, but it was permitted to run down into the earth, as if
it were to penetrate as far as the realms of the god. The Syracusans
yearly sacrificed to him black bulls, near the fountain of Cyane,
where, according to the received traditions, he had disappeared
with Proserpine. Among plants, the cypress, the narcissus, and the
maiden-hair were sacred to him, as also everything which was deemed
inauspicious, particularly the number two. According to some of the
ancients, Pluto sat on a throne of sulphur, from which issued the
rivers Lethe, Cocytus, Phlegethon, and Acheron. The dog Cerberus
watched at his feet, the Harpies hovered round him, Proserpine
sat on his left hand, and near to the goddess stood the Eumenides,
with their heads covered with snakes. The Parcæ occupied the right,
and they each held in their hands the symbols of their office, the
distaff, the spindle, and the scissors. Pluto is called by some the
father of the Eumenides. During the war of the gods and the Titans,
the Cyclops made a helmet which rendered the bearer invisible, and
gave it to Pluto. Perseus was armed with it when he conquered the
Gorgons. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_.――_Homer_, _Iliad_.――_Apollodorus_,
bk. 1, &c.――_Hyginus_, fable 155; _Poetica Astronomica_, bk. 2.
――_Statius_, _Thebaid_, bk. 8.――_Diodorus_, bk. 5.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, fable 6.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 36.
――_Orpheus_, hymn 17, &c.――_Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 2,
ch. 26.――_Plato_, _The Republic_.――_Euripides_, _Medea_; _Hippolytus_.
――_Aeschylus_, _Persians_; _Prometheus Bound_.――_Varro_, _de Lingua
Latina_, bk. 4.――_Catullus_, poem 3.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 4,
li. 502; _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 273; bk. 8, li. 296.――_Lucan_, bk. 6,
li. 715.――_Horace_, bk. 2, odes 3 & 18.――_Seneca_, _Hercules Furens_.
=Plutonium=, a temple of Pluto in Lydia. _Cicero_, _De Divinatione_,
bk. 1, ch. 36.
=Plutus=, a son of Jasion, or Jasius, by Ceres the goddess of corn,
has been confounded by many of the mythologists with Pluto, though
plainly distinguished from him as being the god of riches. He was
brought up by the goddess of peace, and on that account, Pax was
represented at Athens as holding the god of wealth in her lap. The
Greeks spoke of him as of a fickle divinity. They represented him
as blind, because he distributed riches indiscriminately; he was
lame, because he came slow and gradually; but had wings, to intimate
that he flew away with more velocity than he approached mankind.
_Lucian_, _Timon_.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, chs. 16 & 26.――_Hyginus_,
_Poetica Astronomica_.――_Aristophanes_, _Plutus_.――_Diodorus_, bk. 5.
――_Hesoid_, _Theogony_, li. 970.――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 1,
ch. 53.
=Pluvius=, a surname of Jupiter as god of _rain_. He was invoked by
that name among the Romans, whenever the earth was parched up with
continual heat, and was in want of refreshing showers. He had an
altar in the temple on the capitol. _Tibullus_, bk. 1, poem 7, li. 26.
=Plynteria=, a festival among the Greeks, in honour of Aglauros, or
rather of Minerva, who received from the daughter Cecrops the name
of Aglauros. The word seems to be derived from πλυνειν, _lavare_,
because, during the solemnity, they undressed the statue of the
goddess and _washed_ it. The day on which it was observed was
universally looked upon as unfortunate and inauspicious, and on
that account no person was permitted to appear in the temples, as
they were purposely surrounded with ropes. The arrival of Alcibiades
in Athens that day, was deemed very unfortunate; but, however, the
success that ever after attended him, proved it to be otherwise. It
was customary at this festival to bear in procession a cluster of
figs, which intimated the progress of civilization among the first
inhabitants of the earth, as figs served them for food after they had
found a dislike for acorns. _Pollux._
=Pnigeus=, a village of Egypt, near Phœnicia. _Strabo_, bk. 16.
=Pnyx=, a place of Athens, set apart by Solon for holding assemblies.
_Cornelius Nepos_, _Atticus_, ch. 3.――_Plutarch_, _Theseus_ &
_Themistocles_.
=Poblicius=, a lieutenant of Pompey in Spain.
=Podalirius=, a son of Æsculapius and Epione. He was one of the pupils
of the Centaur Chiron, and he made himself under him such a master
of medicine, that, during the Trojan war, the Greeks invited him to
their camp, to stop a pestilence which had baffled the skill of all
their physicians. Some, however, suppose that he went to the Trojan
war not in the capacity of a physician in the Grecian army, but as a
warrior, attended by his brother Machaon, in 30 ships, with soldiers
from Œchalia, Ithome, and Trica. At his return from the Trojan war,
Podalirius was shipwrecked on the coast of Caria, where he ♦was cured
of the falling sickness and married a daughter of Damœtas the king
of the place. He fixed his habitation there, and built two towns,
one of which he called Syrna, by the name of his wife. The Carians,
after his death, built him a temple, and paid him divine honours.
_Dictys Cretensis._――_Quintus Smyrnæus_, bks. 6 & 9.――_Ovid_ _de
Ars Amatoria_, bk. 2; _Tristia_, poem 6.――_Pausanias_, bk. 3.――――A
Rutulian engaged in the wars of Æneas and Turnus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 12, li. 304.
♦ omitted word ‘was’ inserted
=Podarce=, a daughter of Danaus. _Apollodorus._
=Podarces=, a son of Iphiclus of Thessaly, who went to the Trojan war.
――――The first name of Priam. When Troy was taken by Hercules, he was
redeemed from slavery by his sister Hesione, and from thence received
the name of Priam. _See:_ Priamus.
=Podares=, a general of Mantinea, in the age of Epaminondas.
_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 9.
=Podarge=, one of the Harpies, mother of two of the horses of Achilles
by the Zephyrs. The word intimates the _swiftness_ of her _feet_.
=Podargus=, a charioteer of Hector. _Homer._
=Pœas=, son of Thaumacus, was among the Argonauts.――――The father of
Philoctetes. The son is often called _Pœantia proles_, on account of
his father. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 13, li. 45.
=Pœcĭle=, a celebrated portico at Athens, which received its name from
the _variety_ (ποικιλος) of paintings which it contained. It was
there that Zeno kept his school, and the stoics also received their
lessons there, whence their name (_à_ στοα, _a porch_). The Pœcile
was adorned with pictures of gods and benefactors, and among many
others were those of the siege and sacking of Troy, the battle of
Theseus against the Amazons, the fight between the Lacedæmonians and
Athenians at Œnoe in Argolis, and of Atticus the great friend of
Athens. The only reward which Miltiades obtained after the battle of
Marathon, was to have his picture drawn more conspicuous than that of
the rest of the officers that fought with him, in the representation
which was made of the engagement, which was hung up in the Pœcile,
in commemoration of that celebrated victory. _Cornelius Nepos_,
_Miltiades_ & _Atticus_, ch. 3.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1.――_Pliny_, bk. 35.
=Pœni=, a name given to the Carthaginians. It seems to be a corruption
of the word _Phœni_ or _Phœnices_, as the Carthaginians were of
Phœnician origin. _Servius_, _on Virgil_, bk. 1, li. 302.
=Pœon.= _See:_ Pæon.
=Pœonia=, a part of Macedonia. _See:_ Pæonia.
=Pœus=, a part of mount Pindus.
=Pogon=, a harbour of the Trœzenians on the coast of the Peloponnesus.
It received this name on account of its appearing to come forward
before the town of Trœzene, as the _beard_ (πωγων) does from the chin.
_Strabo_, bk. 1.――_Mela_, bk. 2.
=Pola=, a city of Istria, founded by the Colchians, and afterwards
made a Roman colony, and called _Pietas Julia_. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 9.
――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.――_Strabo_, bks. 1 & 5.
=Polemarchus.= _See:_ Archon.――――The assassin of Polydorus king of
Sparta. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 3.
=Polemocratia=, a queen of Thrace, who fled to Brutus after the murder
of Cæsar. She retired from her kingdom because her subjects had
lately murdered her husband.
=Pŏlĕmon=, a youth of Athens, son of Philostratus. He was much given
to debauchery and extravagance, and spent the greatest part of his
life in riot and drunkenness. He once, when intoxicated, entered the
school of Xenocrates, while the philosopher was giving his pupils a
lecture upon the effects of intemperance, and he was so struck with
the eloquence of the academician, and the force of his arguments,
that from that moment he renounced the dissipated life he had led,
and applied himself totally to the study of philosophy. He was
then in the 30th year of his age, and from that time he never drank
any other liquor but water; and after the death of Xenocrates he
succeeded in the school where his reformation had been affected. He
died about 270 years before Christ, in an extreme old age. _Diogenes
Laërtius_, _Lives_.――_Horace_, bk. 2, satire 3, li. 254.――_Valerius
Maximus_, bk. 6, ch. 9.――――A son of Zeno the rhetorician, made king
of Pontus by Antony. He attended his patron in his expedition against
Parthia. After the battle of Actium, he was received into favour by
Augustus, though he had fought in the cause of Antony. He was killed
some time after by the barbarians near the Palus Mæotis, against
whom he had made war. _Strabo._――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus._――――His
son, of the same name, was confirmed on his father’s throne by Roman
emperors, and the province of Cilicia was also added to his kingdom
by Claudius.――――An officer in the army of Alexander, intimate with
Philotas, &c. _Curtius_, bk. 7, ch. 1, &c.――――A rhetorician at Rome,
who wrote a poem on weights and measures still extant. He was master
to Perseus the celebrated satirist, and died in the age of Nero.――――A
sophist of Laodice in Asia Minor, in the reign of Adrian. He was
often sent to the emperor with an embassy by his countrymen, which he
executed with great success. He was greatly favoured by Adrian, from
whom he extracted much money. In the 56th year of his age he buried
himself alive, as he laboured with the gout. He wrote declamations in
Greek.
=Polemonium=, now _Vatija_, a town of Pontus, at the east of the mouth
of the ♦Thermodon.
♦ ‘Theomodon’ replaced with ‘Thermodon’
=Polias=, a surname of Minerva, as protectress of cities.
=Polichna=, a town of Troas on Ida. _Herodotus_, bk. 6, ch. 28.
――――Another of Crete. _Thucydides_, bk. 2, ch. 85.
=Polieia=, a festival at Thebes in honour of Apollo, who was
represented there with _grey hair_ (πολιος), contrary to the practice
of all other places. The victim was a bull, but when it happened
once that no bull could be found, an ox was taken from the cart and
sacrificed. From that time the sacrifice of labouring oxen was deemed
lawful, though before it was looked upon as a capital crime.
=Poliorcētes= (_destroyer of cities_), a surname given to Demetrius son
of Antigonus. _Plutarch_, _Demetrius_.
=Polisma=, a town of Troas, on the Simois. _Strabo_, bk. 13.
=Polistrătus=, an Epicurean philosopher born the same day as
Hippoclides, with whom he always lived in the greatest intimacy. They
both died at the same hour. _Diogenes Laërtius._――_Valerius Maximus_,
bk. 1.
=Polītes=, a son of Priam and Hecuba, killed by Pyrrhus in his father’s
presence. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 2, li. 526, &c. His son, who bore
the same name, followed Æneas into Italy, and was one of the friends
of young Ascanius. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 5, li. 564.
=Politorium=, a city of the Latins destroyed by the Romans, before
Christ 639. _Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 33.
=Pollinea=, a prostitute, &c. _Juvenal_, satire 2, li. 68.
=Polla Argentaria=, the wife of the poet Lucan. She assisted her
husband in correcting the three first books of his Pharsalia.
_Statius_, _Sylvæ_, bks. 1 & 2.
=Pollentia=, now _Polenza_, a town of Liguria in Italy, famous for wool.
There was a celebrated battle fought there between the Romans and
Alaric king of the Huns, about the 403rd year of the christian era,
in which the former, according to some, obtained the victory. _Mela_,
bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Pliny_, bk. 8, ch. 48.――_Suetonius_, _Tiberius_, ch.
37.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 598.――_Cicero_, bk. 11, _Letters
to his Friends_, ltr. 13.――――A town of Majorca. _Pliny_ & _Mela_.
――――Of Picenum. _Livy_, bk. 39, ch. 44; bk. 41, ch. 27.
=Polles=, a Greek poet whose writings were so obscure and unintelligible
that his name became proverbial. _Suidas._
=Pollio Caius Asinius=, a Roman consul under the reign of Augustus,
who distinguished himself as much by his eloquence and writings as by
his exploits in the field. He defeated the Dalmatians, and favoured
the cause of Antony against Augustus. He patronized, with great
liberality, the poets Virgil and Horace, who have immortalized him
in their writings. He was the first who raised a public library at
Rome, and indeed his example was afterwards followed by many of the
emperors. In his library were placed the statues of all the learned
men of every age, and Varro was the only person who was honoured
there during his lifetime. He was with Julius Cæsar when he crossed
the Rubicon. He was greatly esteemed by Augustus, when he had become
one of his adherents, after the ruin of Antony. Pollio wrote some
tragedies, orations, and a history, which was divided into 17 books.
All those compositions are lost, and nothing remains of his writings
except a few letters to Cicero. He died in the 80th year of his age,
A.D. 4. He is the person in whose honour Virgil has inscribed his
fourth eclogue, _Pollio_, as a reconciliation was effected between
Augustus and Antony during his consulship. The poet, it is supposed
by some, makes mention of a son of the consul born about this time,
and is lavish in his excursions into futurity, and his predictions
of approaching prosperity. _Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 86.――_Horace_,
bk. 2, ode 1; satire 10, bk. 1.――_Virgil_, _Eclogues_, poems 3 & 4.
――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 8, ch. 13.――_Quintilian_, bk. 10.――――Annius,
a man accused of sedition before Tiberius, and acquitted. He
afterwards conspired against Nero, &c. _Tacitus_, ♦_Annals_, bk. 6,
ch. 9; bk. 15, ch. 56.――――Vedius, one of the friends of Augustus, who
used to feed his fishes with human flesh. This cruelty was discovered
when one of his servants broke a glass in the presence of Augustus,
who had been invited to a feast. The master ordered the servant to be
seized; but he threw himself at the feet of the emperor, and begged
him to interfere, and not to suffer him to be devoured by fishes.
Upon this the causes of his apprehension were examined, and Augustus,
astonished at the barbarity of his favourite, caused his servant to
be dismissed, all the fish-ponds to be filled up, and the crystal
glasses of Pollio to be broken to pieces.――――A man who poisoned
Britannicus, at the instigation of Nero.――――An historian in the age
of Constantine the Great.――――A sophist in the age of Pompey the Great.
――――A friend of the emperor Vespasian.
♦ Book title omitted in text
=Pollis=, a commander of the Lacedæmonian fleet defeated at Naxos, B.C.
377. _Diodorus._
=Pollius Felix=, a friend of the poet Statius, to whom he dedicated his
second Sylva.
=Pollupex=, now _Final_, a town of Genoa.
=Pollutia=, a daughter of Lucius Vetus, put to death after her husband
Rubellius Plautus, by order of Nero, &c. _Tacitus_, bk. 16, _Annals_,
chs. 10 & 11.
=Pollux=, a son of Jupiter by Leda the wife of Tyndarus. He was brother
to Castor. _See:_ Castor.――――A Greek writer, who flourished A.D. 186,
in the reign of Commodus, and died in the 58th year of his age. He
was born at Naucratis, and taught rhetoric at Athens, and wrote a
useful work called _Onomasticon_, of which the best edition is that
of Hemsterhusius, 2 vols., folio, Amsterdam, 1706.
=Poltis=, a king of Thrace, in the time of the Trojan war.
=Polus=, a celebrated Grecian actor.――――A sophist of Agrigentum.
=Polusca=, a town of Latium, formerly the capital of the Volsci. The
inhabitants were called _Pollustini_. _Livy_, bk. 2, ch. 39.
=Polyænus=, a native of Macedonia, who wrote eight books in Greek of
stratagems, which he dedicated to the emperors Antoninus and Verus,
while they were making war against the Parthians. He wrote also
other books which have been lost, among which was a history, with
a description of the city of Thebes. The best editions of his
stratagems are those of Masvicius, 8vo, Leiden, 1690, and of Mursinna,
12mo, Berlin, 1756.――――A friend of Philopœmen.――――An orator in the
age of Julius Cæsar. He wrote in three books an account of Antony’s
expedition in Parthia, and likewise published orations.――――A
mathematician, who afterwards followed the tenets of Epicurus,
and disregarded geometry as a false and useless study. _Cicero_,
_Academicæ Quæstiones_, bk. 4.
=Polyānus=, a mountain of Macedonia, near Pindus. _Strabo._
=Polyarchus=, the brother of a queen of Cyrene, &c. _Polyænus_, bk. 8.
=Polybidas=, a general after the death of Agesipolis the Lacedæmonian.
He reduced Olynthus.
=Polybius=, or =Poly̆bus=, a king of Corinth, who married Peribœa, whom
some have called Merope. He was son of Mercury by Chthonophyle, the
daughter of Sicyon king of Sicyon. He permitted his wife, who had no
children, to adopt and educate as her own son, Œdipus, who had been
found by his shepherds exposed in the woods. He had a daughter called
Lysianassa, whom he gave in marriage to Talaus son of Bias king of
Argos. As he had no male child, he left his kingdom to Adrastus,
who had been banished from his throne, and who had fled to Corinth
for protection. _Hyginus_, fable 66.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 6.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 5.――_Seneca_, _Œdipus_, li. 812.
=Polybius=, a native of Megalopolis in Peloponnesus, son of Lycortas.
He was early initiated in the duties, and made acquainted with the
qualifications, of a statesman, by his father, who was a strong
supporter of the Achæan league, and under him Philopœmen was taught
the art of war. In Macedonia he distinguished himself by his valour
against the Romans, and when Perseus had been conquered, he was
carried to the capital of Italy as a prisoner of war. But he was not
long buried in the obscurity of a dungeon. Scipio and Fabius were
acquainted with his uncommon abilities as a warrior and as a man of
learning, and they made him their friend by kindness and attention.
Polybius was not insensible to their merit; he accompanied Scipio
in his expeditions, and was present at the taking of Carthage and
Numantia. In the midst of his prosperity, however, he felt the
distresses of his country, which had been reduced into a Roman
province, and, like a true patriot, he relieved its wants, and eased
its servitude by making use of the influence which he had acquired
by his acquaintance with the most powerful Romans. After the death
of his friend and benefactor Scipio, he retired from Rome, and passed
the rest of his days at Megalopolis, where he enjoyed the comforts
and honours which every good man can receive from the gratitude of
his citizens, and from the self-satisfaction which attends a humane
and benevolent heart. He died in the 82nd year of his age, about 124
years before Christ, of a wound which he had received by a fall from
his horse. He wrote a universal history in Greek, divided into 40
books, which began with the wars of Rome with the Carthaginians, and
finished with the conquest of Macedonia by Paulus. The greatest part
of this valuable history is lost; the five first books are extant,
and of the 12 following the fragments are numerous. The history
of Polybius is admired for its authenticity, and he is, perhaps,
the only historian among the Greeks who was experimentally and
professedly acquainted with the military operations and the political
measures of which he makes mention. He has been recommended in every
age and country as the best master in the art of war, and nothing
can more effectually prove the esteem in which he was held among the
Romans, than to mention that Brutus the murderer of Cæsar perused
his history with the greatest attention, epitomized it, and often
retired from the field where he had drawn his sword against Octavius
and Antony, to read the instructive pages which describe the great
actions of his ancestors. Polybius, however great and entertaining,
is sometimes censured for his unnecessary digressions, for his
uncouth and ill-digested narrations, for his negligence, and
the inaccurate arrangement of his words. But everywhere there is
instruction to be found, information to be collected, and curious
facts to be obtained, and it reflects not much honour upon Livy for
calling the historian, from whom he has copied whole books almost
word for word, without gratitude or acknowledgment, _haudquaquam
spernendus auctor_. Dionysius also, of Halicarnassus, is one of
his most violent accusers; but the historian has rather exposed his
ignorance of true criticism, than discovered inaccuracy or inelegance.
The best editions of Polybius are those of Gronovius, 3 vols., 8vo,
Amsterdam, 1670; of Ernesti, 3 vols., 8vo, 1764; and of Schweighæuser,
7 vols., 8vo, Lipscomb, 1785. _Plutarch_, _Philopœmen_, preface.
――_Livy_, bk. 30, ch. 45.――_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 30.――――A freedman
of Augustus. _Suetonius._――――A physician, disciple, and successor of
Hippocrates.――――A soothsayer of Corinth, who foretold to his sons the
fate that attended them in the Trojan war.
=Polybœa=, a daughter of Amyclas and Diomede, sister to Hyacinthus.
_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 19.
=Polybœtes.= _See:_ Polypœtes.
=Polybōtes=, one of the giants who made war against Jupiter. He was
killed by Neptune, who crushed him under a part of the island of
Cos, as he was walking across the Ægean. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 2.
――_Hyginus_, preface to fables.
=Polybus=, a king of Thebes in Egypt in the time of the Trojan war.
_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 22, li. 284.――――One of Penelope’s suitors.
_Ovid_, _Heroides_, poem 1.――――A king of Sicyon.――――A king of Corinth.
_See:_ Polybius.
=Polycāon=, a son of Lelex, who succeeded his brother Myles. He
received divine honours after death, with his wife Messene, at
Lacedæmon, where he had reigned. _Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 1, &c.――――A
son of Butes, who married a daughter of Hyllus.
=Polycarpus=, a famous Greek writer, born at Smyrna, and educated at
the expense of a rich but pious lady. Some suppose that he was St.
John’s disciple. He became bishop of Smyrna, and went to Rome to
settle the festival of Easter, but to no purpose. He was condemned
to be burnt at Smyrna, A.D. 167. His epistle to the Philippians is
simple and modest, yet replete with useful precepts and rules for the
conduct of life. The best edition of Polycarp’s epistle is that of
Oxford, 8vo, 1708, being annexed to the works of Ignatius.
=Polycaste=, the youngest of the daughters of Nestor. According to some
authors she married Telemachus, when he visited her father’s court in
quest of Ulysses.
=Polychăres=, a rich Messenian, said to have been the cause of the war
which was kindled between the Spartans and his countrymen, which was
called the first Messenian war.
=Polyclēa=, the mother of Thessalus, &c.
=Poly̆cles=, an Athenian in the time of Demetrius, &c. _Polyænus_, bk. 5.
――――A famous athlete, often crowned at the four solemn games of the
Greeks. He had a statue in Jupiter’s grove at Olympia. _Pausanias_,
bk. 6, ch. 1.
=Polyclētus=, a celebrated statuary of Sicyon, about 232 years before
Christ. He was universally reckoned the most skilful artist of his
profession among the ancients, and the second rank was given to
Phidias. One of his pieces, in which he had represented a body-guard
of the king of Persia, was so happily executed, and so nice and exact
in all its proportions, that it was looked upon as a most perfect
model, and accordingly called _the Rule_. He was acquainted with
architecture. _Pausanias_, bks. 2 & 6.――_Quintilian_, bk. 12, ch. 10.
――――Another, who lived about 30 years after.――――A favourite of the
emperor Nero, put to death by Galba.
=Polyclītus=, an historian of Larissa. _Athenæus_, bk. 12.――_Ælian_,
bk. 16, ch. 41.
=Polycrătes=, a tyrant of Samos, well known for the continual flow of
good fortune which attended him. He became very powerful, and made
himself master, not only of the neighbouring islands, but also of
some cities on the coast of Asia. He had a fleet of 100 ships of
war, and was so universally respected, that Amasis the king of Egypt
made a treaty of alliance with him. The Egyptian monarch, however,
terrified by his continued prosperity, advised him to chequer his
enjoyments, by relinquishing some of his most favourite objects.
Polycrates complied, and threw into the sea a beautiful seal, the
most valuable of his jewels. The voluntary loss of so precious a seal
afflicted him for some time, but in a few days after, he received as
a present a large fish, in whose belly the jewel was found. Amasis
no sooner heard this, than he rejected all alliance with the tyrant
of Samos, and observed, that sooner or later his good fortune would
vanish. Some time after Polycrates visited Magnesia on the Mæander,
where he had been invited by Orœtes the governor. He was shamefully
put to death, 522 years before Christ, merely because the governor
wished to terminate the prosperity of Polycrates. The daughter
of Polycrates had dissuaded her father from going to the house
of Orœtes, on account of the bad dreams which she had had, but
her advice was disregarded. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 14.――_Strabo_,
bk. 14.――_Herodotus_, bk. 3, ch. 22, &c.――――A sophist of Athens,
who, to engage the public attention, wrote a panegyric on Busiris and
Clytemnestra. _Quintilian_, bk. 2, ch. 17.――――An ancient statuary.
=Polycrēta=, or =Polycrīta=, a young woman of Naxos, who became the
wife of Diognetus the general of the Erythreans, &c. _Polyænus_,
bk. 8.――――Another woman of Naxos, who died through the excess of joy.
_Plutarch_, _de Mulierum virtutes_.
=Polycrĭtus=, a man who wrote the life of Dionysius the tyrant of
Sicily.――_Diogenes Laërtius._
=Polyctor=, the husband of Stygna, one of the Danaides. _Apollodorus_,
bk. 2, ch. 1.――――The father of Pisander, one of Penelope’s suitors.
――――An athlete of Elis. It is said that he obtained a victory at
Olympia by bribing his adversary Sosander, who was superior to him in
strength and courage. _Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 21.
=Polydæmon=, an Assyrian prince killed by Perseus. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, fable 3.
=Polydămas=, a Trojan, son of Antenor by Theano the sister of Hecuba.
He married Lycaste, a natural daughter of Priam. He is accused by
some of having betrayed his country to the Greeks. _Dares Phrygius._
――――A son of Panthous, born the same night as Hector. He was
inferior in valour to none of the Trojans, except Hector, and his
prudence, the wisdom of his counsels, and the firmness of his mind,
claimed equal admiration, and proved most salutary to his unfortunate
and misguided countrymen. He was at last killed by Ajax, after he had
slaughtered a great number of the enemy. _Dictys Cretensis_, bk. 1,
&c.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 12, &c.――――A celebrated athlete, son of
Nicias, who imitated Hercules in whatever he did. He killed a lion
with his fist, and it is said that he could stop with his hand a
chariot in its most rapid course. He was one day with some of his
friends in a cave, when on a sudden a large piece of rock came
tumbling down; and while all fled away, he attempted to receive the
fallen fragment in his arms. His prodigious strength, however, was
insufficient, and he was instantly crushed to pieces under the rock.
_Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 5.――――One of Alexander’s officers, intimate
with Parmenio. _Curtius_, bk. 4, ch. 15.
=Polydamna=, a wife of Thonis king of Egypt. It is said that she gave
Helen a certain powder, which had the wonderful power of driving away
care and melancholy. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 4, li. 228.
=Polydectes=, a king of Sparta, of the family of the Proclidæ. He was
son of Eunomus. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 7.――――A son of Magnes, king
of the island of Seriphos. He received with great kindness Danae and
her son Perseus, who had been exposed on the sea by Acrisius. _See:_
Perseus. He took particular care of the education of Perseus; but
when he became enamoured of Danae, he removed him from his kingdom,
apprehensive of his resentment. Some time after he paid his addresses
to Danae, and when she rejected him, he prepared to offer her
violence. Danae fled to the altar of Minerva for protection, and
Dictys the brother of Polydectes, who had himself saved her from the
sea-waters, opposed her ravisher and armed himself in her defence.
At this critical moment, Perseus arrived, and with Medusa’s head
he turned into stones Polydectes, with the associates of his guilt.
The crown of Seriphos was given to Dictys, who had shown himself so
active in the cause of innocence. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5,
li. 242.――_Hyginus_, fable 63, &c.――――A sculptor of Greece. _Pliny._
=Polydeucēa=, a fountain of Laconia, near Therapne. _Strabo_, bk. 9.
=Polydōra=, a daughter of Peleus king of Thessaly, by Antigone the
daughter of Eurytion. She married the river Sperchius, by whom she
had Mnestheus. _Apollodorus._――――One of the Oceanides. _Hesiod._――――A
daughter of Meleager king of Calydon, who married Protesilaus. She
killed herself when she heard that her husband was dead. The wife
of Protesilaus is more commonly called Laodamia. _See:_ Protesilaus.
_Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 2.――――A daughter of Perieres.――――An island of
the Propontis near Cyzicus.
=Polydōrus=, a son of Alcamenes king of Sparta. He put an end to the
war which had been carried on during 20 years, between Messenia and
his subjects; and during his reign, the Lacedæmonians planted two
colonies, one at Crotona, and the other at Locri. He was universally
respected. He was assassinated by a nobleman, called Polemarchus. His
son Eurycrates succeeded him 724 years before Christ. _Pausanias_,
bk. 3.――_Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 204.――――A celebrated carver of Rhodes,
who with one stone made the famous statue of Laocoon and his children.
_Pliny_, bk. 34, ch. 8.――――A son of Hippomedon, who went with the
Epigoni to the second Theban war. _Pausanias_, bk. 2.――――A son of
Cadmus and Hermione, who married Nycteis, by whom he had Labdacus
the father of Laius. He had succeeded to the throne of Thebes,
when his father had gone to Illyricum. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3.――――A
brother of Jason of Pheræ, who killed his brother and seized upon his
possessions. _Diodorus_, bk. 15.――――A son of Priam killed by Achilles.
――――Another son of Priam by Hecuba, or, according to others, by
Laothoe the daughter of Altes king of Pedasus. As he was young
and inexperienced when Troy was besieged by the Greeks, his father
removed him to the court of Polymnestor king of Thrace, and also
entrusted to the care of the monarch a large sum of money, and the
greatest part of his treasures, till his country was freed from
foreign invasion. No sooner was the death of Priam known in Thrace,
than Polymnestor made himself master of the riches which were in
his possession; and to ensure them the better, he assassinated young
Polydorus, and threw his body into the sea, where it was found by
Hecuba. _See:_ Hecuba. According to Virgil, the body of Polydorus was
buried near the shore by his assassin, and there grew on his grave
a myrtle, whose boughs dropped blood, when Æneas, going to Italy,
attempted to tear them from the tree. _See:_ Polymnestor. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bks. 3, 21, &c.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 12.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 3, li. 432.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 20.――_Dictys
Cretensis_, bk. 2, ch. 18.
=Polygius=, a surname of Mercury. _Pausanias._
=Polygnōtus=, a celebrated painter of Thasos, about 422 years before
the christian era. His father’s name was Aglaophon. He adorned
one of the public porticoes of Athens with his paintings, in which
he had represented the most striking events of the Trojan war. He
particularly excelled in giving grace, liveliness, and expression to
his pieces. The Athenians were so pleased with him, that they offered
to reward his labours with whatever he pleased to accept. He declined
this generous offer, and the Amphictyonic council, which was composed
of the representatives of the principal cities of Greece, ordered
that Polygnotus should be maintained at the public expense ♦wherever
he went.――_Quintilian_, bk. 12, ch. 10.――_Pliny_, bks. 33 & 34.
――_Plutarch_, _Cimon_.――_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 25, &c.――――A
statuary. _Pliny_, bk. 34.
♦ ‘whereever’ replaced with ‘wherever’
=Polygŏnus= and =Telegonus=, sons of Proteus and Coronis, were killed
by Hercules. _Apollodorus._
=Polyhymnia= and =Polymnia=, one of the Muses, daughter of Jupiter and
Mnemosyne. She presided over singing and rhetoric, and was deemed the
inventress of harmony. She was represented veiled in white, holding
a sceptre in her left hand, and with her right raised up, as if
ready to harangue. She had a crown of jewels on her head. _Hesiod_,
_Theogony_, lis. 75 & 915.――_Plutarch_, _Convivium Septem Sapientium_.
――_Horace_, bk. 1, ode 1.――_Ovid_ _Fasti_, bk. 5, lis. 9 & 53.
=Polyidus=, a physician who brought back to life Glaucus the son of
Minos, by applying to his body a certain herb, with which he had seen
a serpent restore life to another which was dead. _See:_ Glaucus.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 3.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 43.――――A son
of Hercules by one of the daughters of Thestius. _Apollodorus._――――A
Corinthian soothsayer, called also _Polybius_.――――A dithyrambic poet,
painter, and musician.
=Polylāus=, a son of Hercules and Crathe, daughter of Thespius.
=Polymĕnes=, an officer appointed to take care of Egypt after it had
been conquered by Alexander. _Curtius_, bk. 4, ch. 8.
=Polymēde=, a daughter of Autolycus, who married Æson, by whom she had
Jason. She survived her husband only a few days. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1,
ch. 13.
=Polymedon=, one of Priam’s illegitimate children.
=Polymēla=, one of Diana’s companions. She was daughter of Phylas,
and had a son by Mercury. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 16.――――A daughter of
Æolus, seduced by Ulysses.――――A daughter of Actor. She was the first
wife of Peleus the father of Achilles.
=Polymnestes=, a Greek poet of Colophon. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 14.
――――A native of Thera, father of Battus, or Aristotle, by Phronima
the daughter of Etearchus king of Oaxus. _Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 150.
=Polymnestor=, a king of the Thracian Chersonesus, who married Ilione,
the eldest of Priam’s daughters. When the Greeks besieged Troy, Priam
sent the greatest part of his treasures, together with Polydorus,
the youngest of his sons, to Thrace, where they were entrusted to
the care of Polymnestor. The Thracian monarch paid every attention
to his brother-in-law; but when he was informed that Priam was dead,
he murdered him to become master of the riches which were in his
possession. At that time, the Greeks were returning victorious from
Troy, followed by all the captives, among whom was Hecuba the mother
of Polydorus. The fleet stopped on the coast of Thrace, where one of
the female captives discovered on the shore the body of Polydorus,
whom Polymnestor had thrown into the sea. The dreadful intelligence
was immediately communicated to the mother, and Hecuba, who
recollected the frightful dreams which she had had on the preceding
night, did not doubt but Polymnestor was the cruel assassin. She
resolved to revenge her son’s death, and immediately she called out
Polymnestor, as if wishing to impart to him a matter of the most
important nature. The tyrant was drawn into the snare, and was no
sooner introduced into the apartments of the Trojan princess, than
the female captives rushed upon him and put out his eyes with their
pins, while Hecuba murdered his two children who had accompanied
him. According to Euripides, the Greeks condemned Polymnestor to be
banished into a distant island for his perfidy. Hyginus, however,
relates the whole differently, and observes, that when Polydorus
was sent to Thrace, Ilione his sister took him instead of her son
Deiphilus, who was of the same age, apprehensive of her husband’s
cruelty. The monarch was unacquainted with the imposition; he looked
upon Polydorus as his own son, and treated Deiphilus as the brother
of Ilione. After the destruction of Troy, the conquerors, who wished
the house and family of Priam to be totally extirpated, offered
Electra the daughter of Agamemnon to Polymnestor, if he would destroy
Ilione and Polydorus. The monarch accepted the offer, and immediately
despatched his own son Deiphilus, whom he had been taught to regard
as Polydorus. Polydorus, who passed as the son of Polymnestor,
consulted the oracle after the murder of Deiphilus, and when he was
informed that his father was dead, his mother a captive in the hands
of the Greeks, and his country in ruins, he communicated the answer
of the god to Ilione, whom he had always regarded as his mother.
Ilione told him the measures she had pursued to save his life,
and upon this he avenged the perfidy of Polymnestor by putting out
his eyes. _Euripides_, _Hecuba_.――_Hyginus_, fable 102.――_Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 45, &c.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 13,
li. 430, &c.――――A king of Arcadia, succeeded on the throne by Ecmis.
_Pausanias_, bk. 8.――――A young Milesian who took a hare in running,
and afterwards obtained a prize at the Olympic games.
=Poly̆nīces=, a son of Œdipus king of Thebes by Jocasta. He inherited
his father’s throne with his brother Eteocles, and it was mutually
agreed between the two brothers, that they should reign each a year
alternately. Eteocles first ascended the throne by right of seniority;
but when the year was expired, he refused to resign the crown to his
brother. Polynices, upon this, fled to Argos, where he married Argia,
the daughter of Adrastus the king of the country, and levied a large
army, at the head of which he marched to Thebes. The command of this
army was divided among seven celebrated chiefs, who were to attack
the seven gates of the city of Thebes. The battle was decided by a
single combat between the two brothers, who both killed one another.
_See:_ Eteocles. _Aeschylus_, _Seven Against Thebes_.――_Euripides_,
_Phoenician Women_.――_Seneca_, _Œdipus_.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.
――_Hyginus_, fable 68, &c.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 20; bk. 9, ch. 5.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 5.
=Polynoe=, one of the Nereides. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 2.
=Polypēmon=, a famous thief, called also _Procrustes_, who plundered
all the travellers about the Cephisus, and near Eleusis in Attica.
He was killed by Theseus. Ovid calls him father of Procrustes, and
Apollodorus of Sinus. _See:_ Procrustes. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 38.
――_Ovid_, _Ibis_, li. 409.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Plutarch_, _Theseus_.
=Polyperchon=, or =Polysperchon=, one of the officers of Alexander.
Antipater, at his death, appointed him governor of the kingdom of
Macedonia, in preference to his own son Cassander. Polyperchon,
though old, and a man of experience, showed great ignorance in the
administration of the government. He became cruel, not only to the
Greeks, or such as opposed his ambitious views, but even to the
helpless and innocent children and friends of Alexander, to whom he
was indebted for his rise and military reputation. He was killed in a
battle 309 B.C. _Curtius._――_Diodorus_, bk. 17, &c.――_Justin_, bk. 13.
=Polyphēmus=, a celebrated Cyclops, king of all the Cyclops in
Sicily, and son of Neptune and Thoosa the daughter of Phorcys. He
is represented as a monster of strength, of tall stature, and one
eye in the middle of the forehead. He fed upon human flesh, and kept
his flocks on the coasts of Sicily, when Ulysses, at his return from
the Trojan war, was driven there. The Grecian prince, with 12 of his
companions, visited the coast, and were seized by the Cyclops, who
confined them in his cave, and daily devoured two of them. Ulysses
would have shared the fate of his companions, had he not intoxicated
the Cyclops, and put out his eye with a firebrand while he was asleep.
Polyphemus was awaked by the sudden pain; he stopped the entrance
of his cave, but Ulysses made his escape by creeping between the
legs of the rams of the Cyclops, as they were led out to feed on the
mountains. Polyphemus became enamoured of Galatæa, but his addresses
were disregarded, and the nymph shunned his presence. The Cyclops
was more earnest, and when he saw Galatæa surrender herself to the
pleasures of Acis, he crushed his rival with a piece of a broken
rock. _Theocritus_, poem 1.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 13, li. 772.
――_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 19.――_Euripides_, _Cyclops_.――_Hyginus_,
fable 125.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 619, &c.――――One of the
Argonauts, son of Elatus and Hippea. _Hyginus_, fable 14.
=Polyphonta=, one of Diana’s nymphs, daughter of Hipponus and Thraosa.
=Polyphontes=, one of the Heraclidæ, who killed Cresphontes king of
Messenia, and usurped his crown. _Hyginus_, fable 137.――――One of the
Theban generals, under Eteocles. _Aeschylus_, _Seven Against Thebes_.
=Polypœtes=, a son of Pirithous and Hippodamia, at the Trojan war.
_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2.――_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 26.――――A son
of Apollo by Pythia.――――One of the Trojans whom Æneas saw when he
visited the infernal regions. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 484.
=Polysperchon.= _See:_ Polyperchon.
=Polystrātus=, a Macedonian soldier, who found Darius after he had been
stabbed by Bessus, and gave him water to drink, and carried the last
injunctions of the dying monarch to Alexander. _Curtius_, bk. 5, ch.
13.――――An epicurean philosopher who flourished B.C. 238.
=Polytecnus=, an artist of Colophon, who married Ædon the daughter of
Pandarus.
=Polytion=, a friend of Alcibiades, with whom he profaned the mysteries
of Ceres. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 2.
=Polytimētus=, a river of Sogdiana. _Curtius_, bk. 6, ch. 4.
=Polyphron=, a prince killed by his nephew Alexander the tyrant of
Pheræ.
=Polytrŏpus=, a man sent by the Lacedæmonians with an army against the
Arcadians. He was killed at Orchomenus. _Diodorus_, bk. 15.
=Polyxĕna=, a daughter of Priam and Hecuba, celebrated for her beauty
and accomplishments. Achilles became enamoured of her, and solicited
her hand, and their marriage would have been consummated, had not
Hector her brother opposed it. Polyxena, according to some authors,
accompanied her father when he went to the tent of Achilles to redeem
the body of his son Hector. Some time after, the Grecian hero came
into the temple of Apollo to obtain a sight of the Trojan princess,
but he was murdered there by Paris; and Polyxena, who had returned
his affection, was so afflicted at his death, that she went and
sacrificed herself on his tomb. Some, however, suppose that that
sacrifice was not voluntary, but that the manes of Achilles appeared
to the Greeks as they were going to embark, and demanded of them
the sacrifice of Polyxena. The princess, who was in the number of
the captives, was upon this dragged to her lover’s tomb, and there
immolated by Neoptolemus the son of Achilles. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 13, fable 5, &c.――_Dictys Cretensis_, bks. 3 & 5.――_Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 321.――_Catullus_, poem 65.――_Hyginus_, fable 90.
=Polyxenĭdas=, a Syrian general, who flourished B.C. 192.
=Polyxĕnus=, one of the Greek princes during the Trojan war. His
father’s name was Agasthenes. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 5, ch. 3.――――A son of Medea by Jason.――――A young Athenian who
became blind, &c. _Plutarch_, _Parallela minora_.――――A general of
Dionysius, from whom he revolted.
=Polyxo=, a priestess of Apollo’s temple in Lemnos. She was also nurse
to queen Hypsipyle. It was by her advice that the Lemnian women
murdered all their husbands. _Apollonius_, bk. 1.――_Flaccus_, bk. 2.
――_Hyginus_, fable 15.――――One of the Atlantides.――――A native of Argos,
who married Tlepolemus son of Hercules. She followed him to Rhodes,
after the murder of his uncle Licymnius, and when he departed for
the Trojan war with the rest of the Greek princes, she became the
sole mistress of the kingdom. After the Trojan war, Helen fled from
Peloponnesus to Rhodes, where Polyxo reigned. Polyxo detained her,
and to punish her as being the cause of a war, in which Tlepolemus
had perished, she ordered her to be hanged on a tree by her
female servants, disguised in the habit of Furies. _See:_ Helena.
_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 19.――――The wife of Nycteus.――――One of the
wives of Danaus.
=Polyzēlus=, a Greek poet of Rhodes. He had written a poem on the
origin and birth of Bacchus, Venus, the Muses, &c. Some of his verses
are quoted by Athenæus. _Hyginus_, _Poetica Astronomica_, bk. 2,
ch. 14.――――An Athenian archon.
=Pomaxæthres=, a Parthian soldier, who killed Crassus, according to
some. _Plutarch._
=Pometia=, =Pometii=, =Pometia Suessa=, a town of the Volsci in Latium,
totally destroyed by the Romans, because it had revolted. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 775.――_Livy_, bk. 2, ch. 17.
=Pometīna=, one of the tribes of the people at Rome.
=Pomōna=, a nymph at Rome, who was supposed to preside over gardens and
to be the goddess of all sorts of fruit trees. She had a temple at
Rome, and a regular priest called _Flamen Pomonalis_, who offered
sacrifices to her divinity, for the preservation of fruit. She was
generally represented as sitting on a basket full of flowers and
fruit, and holding a bough in one hand and apples in the other.
Pomona was particularly delighted with the cultivation of the earth;
she disdained the toils of the field, and the fatigues of hunting.
Many of the gods of the country endeavoured to gain her affection,
but she received their addresses with coldness. Vertumnus was the
only one who, by assuming different shapes, and introducing himself
into her company, under the form of an old woman, prevailed upon
her to break her vow of celibacy and to marry him. This deity was
unknown among the Greeks. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 14, li. 628,
&c.――_Festus_, _Lexicon of Festus_.
=Pompeia=, a daughter of Sextus Pompey by Scribonia. She was promised
to Marcellus, as a means of procuring a reconciliation between her
father and the triumvirs, but she married Scribonius Libo.――――A
daughter of Pompey the Great, Julius Cæsar’s third wife. She was
accused of incontinence, because Clodius had introduced himself in
women’s clothes into the room where she was celebrating the mysteries
of Cybele. Cæsar repudiated her upon this accusation. _Plutarch._
――――The wife of Annæus Seneca, was the daughter of Pompeius Paulinus.
――――There was a portico at Rome, called _Pompeia_, much frequented
by all orders of people. _Ovid_, _Ars Amatoria_, li. 67.――_Martial_,
bk. 11, ltr. 48.
=Pompeia lex=, by Pompey the Great, _de ambitu_, A.U.C. 701. It
ordained that whatever person had been convicted of the crime
of _ambitus_, should be pardoned, provided he could impeach two
others of the same crime, and occasion the condemnation of one of
them.――――Another by the same, A.U.C. 701, which forbade the use
of _laudatores_ in trials, or persons who gave a good character of
the prisoner then impeached.――――Another by the same, A.U.C. 683.
It restored to the tribunes their original power and authority, of
which they had been deprived by the Cornelian law.――――Another by
the same, A.U.C. 701. It shortened the forms of trials, and enacted
that the three first days of a trial should be employed in examining
witnesses, and it allowed only one day to the parties to make their
accusation and defence. The plaintiff was confined to two hours, and
the defendant to three. This law had for its object the riots, which
happened from the quarrels of Clodius and Milo.――――Another by the
same, A.U.C. 698. It required that the judges should be the richest
of every century, contrary to the usual form. It was, however,
requisite that they should be such as the Aurelian law prescribed.
――――Another of the same, A.U.C. 701. Pompey was by this empowered to
continue in the government of Spain five years longer.
=Pompeiānus Jupiter=, a large statue of Jupiter, near Pompey’s theatre,
whence it received its name. _Pliny_, bk. 34, ch. 7.
=Pompeiānus=, a Roman knight of Antioch, raised to offices of the
greatest trust, under the emperor Aurelius, whose daughter Lucilla
he married. He lived in great popularity at Rome, and retired from
the court when Commodus succeeded to the imperial crown. He ought,
according to Julian’s opinion, to have been chosen and adopted as
successor by Marcus Aurelius.――――A general of Maxentius, killed by
Constantine.――――A Roman put to death by Caracalla.
=Pompeii=, or =Pompeium=, a town of Campania, built, as some suppose,
by Hercules, and so called because the hero there exhibited the long
procession (_pompa_) of the herds of Geryon, which he had obtained
by conquest. It was partly demolished by an earthquake, A.D. 63,
and afterwards rebuilt. Sixteen years after it was swallowed up by
another earthquake, which accompanied one of the eruptions of mount
Vesuvius. Herculaneum, in its neighbourhood, shared the same fate.
The people of the town were then assembled in a theatre, where
public spectacles were exhibited. _See:_ Herculaneum. _Livy_, bk. 9,
ch. 38.――_Strabo_, bk. 6.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 4.――_Dionysius of
Halicarnassus_, bk. 1.――_Seneca_, _Quæstiones Naturales_, bk. 4.
――_Solinus_, bk. 8.
=Pompeiopŏlis=, a town of Cilicia, formerly called _Soli_. _Mela_,
bk. 1, ch. 13.――――Another in Paphlagonia, originally called
_Eupatoria_, which name was exchanged when Pompey conquered
Mithridates.
=Quintus Pompeius=, a consul who carried on war against the Numantines,
and made a shameful treaty. He is the first of that noble family,
of whom mention is made. _Florus_, bk. 2, ch. 18.――――Cneus, a Roman
general, who made war against the Marsi, and triumphed over the
Piceni. He declared himself against Cinna and Marius, and supported
the interest of the republic. He was surnamed _Strabo_, because he
squinted. While he was marching against Marius, a plague broke out in
his army, and raged with such violence, that it carried away 11,000
men in a few days. He was killed by a flash of lightning, and as he
had behaved with cruelty while in power, the people dragged his body
through the streets of Rome with an iron hook, and threw it into the
Tiber. _Paterculus_, bk. 2.――_Plutarch_, _Pompey_.―――― Rufus, a Roman
consul with Sylla. He was sent to finish the Marsian war, but the
army mutinied at the instigation of Pompeius Strabo, whom he was to
succeed in command, and he was assassinated by some of the soldiers.
_Appian_, _Civil Wars_, bk. 1.――――A general who succeeded Metellus
in Spain, and was the occasion of a war with Numantia.――――Another
general, taken prisoner by Mithridates.――――Sextus, a governor of
Spain, who cured himself of the gout by placing himself in corn above
the knee. _Pliny_, bk. 22, ch. 25.――――Rufus, a grandson of Sylla.
――――A tribune of the soldiers in Nero’s reign, deprived of his office
when Piso’s conspiracy was discovered. _Tacitus._――――A consul praised
for his learning and abilities. _Ovid_, _ex Ponto_, bk. 4, poem 1.
――――A son of Theophanes of Mitylene, famous for his intimacy with
Pompey the Great, and for his writings. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 6.
――――A tribune of a pretorian cohort under Galba.――――A Roman knight,
put to death by the emperor Claudius for his adultery with Messalina.
_Tacitus_, bk. 11, _Annals_.――――Cneus, surnamed _Magnus_, from the
greatness of his exploits, was son of Pompeius Strabo and Lucilia.
He early distinguished himself in the field of battle, and fought
with success and bravery under his father, whose courage and military
prudence he imitated. He began his career with great popularity;
the beauty and elegance of his person gained him admirers, and by
pleading at the bar he displayed his eloquence, and received the
most unbounded applause. In the disturbances which agitated Rome,
by the ambition and avarice of Marius and Sylla, Pompey followed the
interest of the latter, and by levying three legions for his service
he gained his friendship and his protection. In the 26th year of
his age, he conquered Sicily, which was in the power of Marius and
his adherents, and in 40 days he regained all the territories of
Africa, which had forsaken the interest of Sylla. This rapid success
astonished the Romans, and Sylla, who admired and dreaded the rising
power of Pompey, recalled him to Rome. Pompey immediately obeyed,
and the dictator, by saluting him with the appellation of the Great,
showed to the world what expectations he formed from the maturer age
of his victorious lieutenant. This sounding title was not sufficient
to gratify the ambition of Pompey; he demanded a triumph, and when
Sylla refused to grant it, he emphatically exclaimed, that the
sun shone with more ardour at his rising than at his setting. His
assurance gained what petitions and entreaties could not obtain,
and he was the first Roman knight who, without an office under the
appointment of the senate, marched in triumphal procession through
the streets of Rome. He now appeared, not as a ♦dependent, but
as a rival, of the dictator, and his opposition to his measures
totally excluded him from his will. After the death of Sylla, Pompey
supported himself against the remains of the Marian faction, which
was headed by Lepidus. He defeated them, put an end to the war which
the revolt of Sertorius in Spain had occasioned, and obtained a
second triumph, though still a private citizen, about 73 years before
the christian era. He was soon after made consul, and in that office
he restored the tribunitial power to its original dignity, and in
40 days removed the pirates from the Mediterranean, where they had
reigned for many years, and by their continual plunder and audacity,
almost destroyed the whole naval power of Rome. While he prosecuted
the piratical war, and extirpated these maritime robbers in their
obscure retreat in Cilicia, Pompey was called to greater undertakings,
and by the influence of his friends at Rome, and of the tribune
Manilius, he was empowered to finish the war against two of the most
powerful monarchs of Asia――Mithridates king of Pontus, and Tigranes
king of Armenia. In this expedition Pompey showed himself no ways
inferior to Lucullus, who was then at the head of the Roman armies,
and who resigned with reluctance an office which would have made
him the conqueror of Mithridates and the master of all Asia. His
operations against the king of Pontus were bold and vigorous, and
in a general engagement the Romans so totally defeated the enemy,
that the Asiatic monarch escaped with difficulty from the field of
battle. _See:_ Mithridaticum bellum. Pompey did not lose sight of the
advantages which despatch would ensure; he entered Armenia, received
the submission of king Tigranes, and after he had conquered the
Albanians and Iberians, visited countries which were scarce known
to the Romans, and, like a master of the world, disposed of kingdoms
and provinces, and received homage from 12 crowned heads at once; he
entered Syria, and pushed his conquests as far as the Red sea. Part
of Arabia was subdued, Judea became a Roman province, and when he had
now nothing to fear from Mithridates, who had voluntarily destroyed
himself, Pompey returned to Italy with all the pomp and majesty of
an eastern conqueror. The Romans dreaded his approach; they knew his
power and his influence among his troops, and they feared the return
of another tyrannical Sylla. Pompey, however, banished their fears;
he disbanded his army, and the conqueror of Asia entered Rome like
a private citizen. This modest and prudent behaviour gained him
more friends and adherents than the most unbounded power, aided with
profusion and liberality. He was honoured with a triumph, and the
Romans, for three successive days, gazed with astonishment on the
riches and the spoils which their conquests had acquired in the east,
and expressed their raptures at the sight of the different nations,
habits, and treasures which preceded the conqueror’s chariot. But
it was not this alone which gratified the ambition, and flattered
the pride of the Romans; the advantages of their conquests were more
lasting than an empty show, and when 20,000 talents were brought
into the public treasury, and when the revenues of the republic were
raised from 50 to 85 millions of drachmæ, Pompey became more powerful,
more flattered, and more envied. To strengthen himself, and to
triumph over his enemies, Pompey soon after united his interest
with that of Cæsar and Crassus, and formed the first triumvirate,
by solemnly swearing that their attachment should be mutual, their
cause common, and their union permanent. The agreement was completed
by the marriage of Pompey with Julia the daughter of Cæsar, and
the provinces of the republic were arbitrarily divided among the
triumvirs. Pompey was allotted Africa and the two Spains, while
Crassus repaired to Syria, to add Parthia to the empire of Rome,
and Cæsar remained satisfied with the rest, and the continuation of
his power as governor of Gaul for five additional years. But this
powerful confederacy was soon broken; the sudden death of Julia,
and the total defeat of Crassus in Syria, shattered the political
bands which held the jarring interest of Cæsar and Pompey united.
Pompey dreaded his father-in-law, and yet he affected to despise
him; and by suffering anarchy to prevail in Rome, he convinced his
fellow-citizens of the necessity of investing him with dictatorial
power. But while the conqueror of Mithridates was as a sovereign
at Rome, the adherents of Cæsar were not silent. They demanded that
either the consulship should be given to him, or that he should be
continued in the government of Gaul. This just demand would perhaps
have been granted, but Cato opposed it, and when Pompey sent for the
two legions which he had lent to Cæsar, the breach became more wide,
and a civil war inevitable. Cæsar was privately preparing to meet
his enemies, while Pompey remained indolent, and gratified his pride
in seeing all Italy celebrate his recovery from an indisposition by
universal rejoicings. But he was soon roused from his inactivity, and
it was now time to find his friends, if anything could be obtained
from the caprice and the fickleness of a people which he had once
delighted and amused, by the exhibition of games and spectacles
in a theatre which could contain 20,000 spectators. Cæsar was now
near Rome, he had crossed the Rubicon, which was a declaration of
hostilities, and Pompey, who had once boasted that he could raise
legions to his assistance by stamping on the ground with his foot,
fled from the city with precipitation, and retired to Brundusium
with the consuls and part of the senators. His cause, indeed, was
popular; he had been invested with discretionary power, the senate
had entreated him to protect the republic against the usurpation and
tyranny of Cæsar, and Cato, by embracing his cause, and appearing in
his camp, seemed to indicate that he was the friend of the republic,
and the assertor of Roman liberty and independence. But Cæsar was
now master of Rome, and in 60 days all Italy acknowledged his power,
and the conqueror hastened to Spain, there to defeat the interest
of Pompey, and to alienate the hearts of his soldiers. He was too
successful, and when he had gained to his cause the western parts of
the Roman empire, Cæsar crossed Italy and arrived in Greece, where
Pompey had retired, supported by all the power of the east, the
wishes of the republican Romans, and a numerous and well-disciplined
army. Though superior in numbers, he refused to give the enemy battle,
while Cæsar continually harassed him, and even attacked his camp.
Pompey repelled him with great success, and he might have decided the
war, if he had continued to pursue the enemy, while their confusion
was great, and their escape almost impossible. Want of provisions
obliged Cæsar to advance towards Thessaly; Pompey pursued him,
and in the plains of Pharsalia the two armies engaged. The whole
was conducted against the advice and approbation of Pompey; and
by suffering his troops to wait for the approach of the enemy, he
deprived his soldiers of that advantage which the army of Cæsar
obtained by running to the charge with spirit, vigour, and animation.
The cavalry of Pompey soon gave way, and the general retired to his
camp, overwhelmed with grief and shame. But here there was no safety;
the conqueror pushed on every side, and Pompey disguised himself, and
fled to the sea-coast, whence he passed to Egypt, where he hoped to
find a safe asylum, till better and more favourable moments returned,
in the court of Ptolemy, a prince whom he had once protected and
ensured on his throne. When Ptolemy was told that Pompey claimed
his protection, he consulted his ministers, and had the baseness to
betray and to deceive him. A boat was sent to fetch him on shore,
and the Roman general left his galley, after an affectionate and
tender parting with his wife Cornelia. The Egyptian sailors sat in
sullen silence in the boat, and when Pompey disembarked, Achillas
and Septimius assassinated him. His wife, who had followed him with
her eyes to the shore, was a spectator of the bloody scene, and she
hastened away from the bay of Alexandria, not to share his miserable
fate. He died B.C. 48, in the 58th or 59th year of his age, the
day after his birthday. His head was cut off and sent to Cæsar, who
turned away from it with horror, and shed a flood of tears. The body
was left for some time naked on the sea-shore, till the humanity
of Philip, one of his freedmen, and an old soldier who had often
followed his standard to victory, raised a burning pile, and
deposited his ashes under a mound of earth. Cæsar erected a monument
on his remains, and the emperor Adrian, two centuries after, when
he visited Egypt, ordered it to be repaired at his own expense,
and paid particular honour to the memory of a great and good man.
The character of Pompey is that of an intriguing and artful general,
and the _oris probi_ and _animo inverecundo_ of Sallust, short
and laconic as it may appear, is the best and most descriptive
picture of his character. He wished it to appear that he obtained
all his honours and dignity from merit alone, and as the free and
unprejudiced favour of the Romans, while he secretly claimed them by
faction and intrigue; and he who wished to appear the patron and an
example of true discipline and ancient simplicity, was not ashamed
publicly to bribe the populace to gain an election, or support his
favourites. Yet amidst all this dissimulation, which was perhaps but
congenial with the age, we perceive many other striking features;
Pompey was kind and clement to the conquered, and generous to his
captives, and he buried at his own expense Mithridates, with all the
pomp and solemnity which the greatness of his power and the extent
of his dominions seemed to claim. He was an enemy to flattery, and
when his character was impeached by the malevolence of party, he
condescended, though consul, to appear before the censorial tribunal,
and to show that his actions and measures were not subversive of the
peace and the independence of the people. In his private character
he was as remarkable; he lived with great temperance and moderation,
and his house was small, and not ostentatiously furnished. He
destroyed with great prudence the papers which were found in the
camp of Sertorius, lest mischievous curiosity should find causes to
accuse the innocent, and to meditate their destruction. With great
disinterestedness he refused the presents which princes and monarchs
offered to him, and he ordered them to be added to the public revenue.
He might have seen a better fate, and terminated his days with more
glory, if he had not acted with such imprudence when the flames of
civil war were first kindled; and he reflected with remorse, after
the battle of Pharsalia, upon his want of usual sagacity and military
prudence, in fighting at such a distance from the sea, and in leaving
the fortified places of Dyrrachium, to meet in the open plain an
enemy, without provisions, without friends, and without resources.
The misfortunes which attended him after the conquest of Mithridates,
are attributed by christian writers to his impiety in profaning the
temple of the Jews, and in entering with the insolence of a conqueror
the Holy of Holies, where even the sacred person of the high priest
of the nation was not admitted but upon the most solemn occasions.
His duplicity of behaviour in regard to Cicero is deservedly censured,
and he should not have violently sacrificed to party and sedition a
Roman whom he had ever found his firmest friend and adherent. In his
meeting with Lucullus he cannot but be taxed with pride, and he might
have paid more deference and more honour to a general who was as able
and more entitled than himself to finish the Mithridatic war. Pompey
married four different times. His first matrimonial connection was
with Antistia the daughter of the pretor Antistius, whom he divorced,
with great reluctance, to marry Æmylia the daughter-in-law of Sylla.
Æmylia died in child-bed; and Pompey’s marriage with Julia the
daughter of Cæsar was a step more of policy than affection. Yet Julia
loved Pompey with great tenderness, and her death in child-bed was
the signal of war between her husband and her father. He afterwards
married Cornelia the daughter of Metellus Scipio, a woman commended
for her virtues, beauty, and accomplishments. _Plutarch_, _Lives_.
――_Florus_, bk. 4.――_Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 29.――_Dio Cassius._
――_Lucan._――_Appian._――_Cæsar_, _Civil War_.――_Cicero_, _Orator_, ch.
68, _Letters to Atticus_, bk. 7, ltr. 25; _Letters to his Friends_,
bk. 13, ltr. 19.――_Eutropius._――――The two sons of Pompey the Great,
called _Cneus_ and _Sextus_, were masters of a powerful army, when
the death of their father was known. They prepared to oppose the
conqueror, but Cæsar pursued them with his usual vigour and success,
and at the battle of Munda they were defeated, and Cneus was left
among the slain. Sextus fled to Sicily, where he for some time
supported himself; but the murder of Cæsar gave rise to new events,
and if Pompey had been as prudent and as sagacious as his father, he
might have become, perhaps, as great and as formidable. He treated
with the triumvirs as an equal, and when Augustus and Antony had the
imprudence to trust themselves without arms and without attendants
in his ship, Pompey, by following the advice of his friend Menas,
who wished him to cut off the illustrious persons who were masters of
the world, and now in his power, might have made himself as absolute
as Cæsar; but he refused, and observed it was unbecoming the son of
Pompey to act with such duplicity. This friendly meeting of Pompey
with two of the triumvirs was not productive of advantages to him;
he wished to have no superior, and hostilities began. Pompey was at
the head of 350 ships, and appeared so formidable to his enemies, and
so confident of success in himself, that he called himself the son of
Neptune, and the lord of the sea. He was, however, soon defeated in
a naval engagement by Octavius and Lepidus, and of all his numerous
fleet, only 17 sail accompanied his flight into Asia. Here for a
moment he raised seditions, but Antony ordered him to be seized and
put to death about 35 years before the christian era. _Plutarch_,
_Antonius_, &c.――_Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 55, &c.――_Florus_, bk. 4,
ch. 2, &c.――――Trogus. _See:_ Trogus.――――Sextus Festus, a Latin
grammarian, of whose treatise _de verborum significatione_, the best
edition is in 4to, Amsterdam, 1699.
♦ ‘dependant’ replaced with ‘dependent’
=Pompelon=, a town of Spain, now _Pompeluna_, the capital of Navarre.
_Pliny_, bk. 1, ch. 3.
=Pompĭlius Numa=, the second king of Rome. _See:_ Numa. The descendants
of the monarch were called _Pompilius Sanguis_, an expression applied
by Horace to the Pisos. _Art of Poetry_, li. 292.――――Andronicus, a
grammarian of Syria, who opened a school at Rome, and had Cicero and
Cæsar among his pupils. _Suetonius._
=Pompĭlia=, a daughter of Numa Pompilius. She married Numa Martius, by
whom she had Ancus Martius the fourth king of Rome.
=Pompīlus=, a fisherman of Ionia. He carried into Miletus Ocyroe the
daughter of Chesias, of whom Apollo was enamoured; but before he had
reached the shore, the god changed the boat into a rock, Pompilus
into a fish of the same name, and carried away Ocyroe. _Pliny_, bk. 6,
ch. 29; bk. 9, ch. 15; bk. 32, ch. 11.
=Pompiscus=, an Arcadian. _Polyænus_, bk. 5.
=Pompōnia=, the wife of Quintus Cicero, sister to Pomponius Atticus.
She punished with the greatest cruelty Philologus, the slave who had
betrayed her husband to Antony, and she ordered him to cut his flesh
by piecemeal, and afterwards to boil it and eat it in her presence.
――――A daughter of Pomponius Græcinus, in the age of Augustus, &c.
――――Another matron, banished from Rome by Domitian, and recalled by
Nerva.
=Pompōnius=, the father of Numa, advised his son to accept the regal
dignity which the Roman ambassadors offered to him.――――A celebrated
Roman intimate with Cicero. He was surnamed Atticus from his long
residence at Athens. _See:_ Atticus.――――Flaccus, a man appointed
governor of Mœsia and Syria by Tiberius, because he had continued
drinking and eating with him for two days without intermission.
_Suetonius_, _Tiberius_, ch. 42.――――A tribune of the people in the
time of Servilius Ahala the consul.――――Labeo, a governor of Mœsia,
accused of ill management in his province. He destroyed himself by
opening his veins. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 6, li. 29.――――Mela, a
Spaniard, who wrote a book on geography. _See:_ Mela.――――A proconsul
of Africa, accused by the inhabitants of his province, and acquitted,
&c.――――A Roman who accused Manlius the dictator of cruelty. He
triumphed over Sardinia, of which he was made governor. He escaped
from Rome, and the tyranny of the triumvirs, by assuming the habit of
a pretor, and by travelling with his servants disguised in the dress
of lictors with their fasces.――――Secundus, an officer in Germany in
the age of Nero. He was honoured with a triumph for a victory over
the barbarians of Germany. He wrote some poems greatly celebrated
by the ancients for their beauty and elegance. They are lost.――――A
friend of Caius Gracchus. He was killed in attempting to defend him.
_Plutarch_, _Tiberius Gracchus_.――――An officer taken prisoner by
Mithridates.――――A dissolute youth, &c. _Horace_, bk. 1, satire 4,
li. 52.――――Sextus, a lawyer, disciple to Papinian, &c.
=Pomposiānus=, a Roman put to death by Domitian. He had before been
made consul by Vespasian.
=Pomptina.= _See:_ Pontina.
=Caius Pomptinus=, a Roman officer, who conquered the Allobroges after
the defeat of Catiline. _Cicero_ bk. 4, _Letters to Atticus_, ltr. 16;
bk. 6, ltr. 3.
=Pompus=, a king of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 5.
=Pons Ælius=, was built by the emperor Adrian at Rome. It was the
second bridge of Rome in following the current of the Tiber. It is
still to be seen, the largest and most beautiful in Rome.――――Æmylius,
an ancient bridge at Rome, originally called _Sublicius_, because
built with wood (_sublicæ_). It was raised by Ancus Martius, and
dedicated with great pomp and solemnity by the Roman priests. It was
rebuilt with stones by Æmylius Lepidus, whose name it assumed. It
was much injured by the overflowing of the river, and the emperor
Antoninus, who repaired it, made it all with white marble. It was the
last of all the bridges of Rome, in following the course of the river,
and some vestiges of it may still be seen.――――Aniensis was built
across the river Anio, about three miles from Rome. It was rebuilt
by the eunuch Narses, and called after him when destroyed by the
Goths.――――Cestus was built in the reign of Tiberius, by a Roman
called Cestius Gallus, from whom it received its name, and carried
back from an island of the Tiber, to which the Fabricius conducted.
――――Aurelianus was built with marble by the emperor ♦Antoninus.
――――Armoniensis was built by Augustus, to join the Flaminian to the
Æmylian road.――――Bajanus was built at Baiæ in the sea by Caligula.
It was supported by boats, and measured about six miles in length.
――――Janicularis received its name from its vicinity to mount
Janiculum. It is still standing.――――Milvius was about one mile
from Rome. It was built by the censor Ælius Scaurus. It was near
it that Constantine defeated Maxentius.――――Fabricius was built by
Fabricius, and carried to an island of the Tiber.――――Gardius was
built by Agrippa.――――Palatinus, near mount Palatine, was also called
_Senatorius_, because the senators walked over it in procession when
they went to consult the Sibylline books. It was begun by Marcus
Fulvius, and finished in the censorship of Lucius Mummius, and some
remains of it are still visible.――――Trajani was built by Trajan
across the Danube, celebrated for its bigness and magnificence. The
emperor built it to assist more expeditiously the provinces against
the barbarians, but his successor destroyed it, as he supposed that
it would be rather an inducement for the barbarians to invade the
empire. It was raised on 20 piers of hewn stones, 150 feet from the
foundation, 60 feet broad, and 170 feet distant one from the other,
extending in length above a mile. Some of the pillars are still
standing.――――Another was built by Trajan over the Tagus, part of
which still remains. Of temporary bridges, that of Cæsar over the
Rhine was the most famous.――――The largest single-arched bridge known
is over the river Elaver in France, called _Pons Veteris Brivatis_.
The pillars stand on two rocks, at the distance of 195 feet. The
arch is 84 feet high above the water.――――Suffragiorum was built in
the Campus Martius, and received its name, because the populace were
obliged to pass over it whenever they delivered their suffrages at
the elections of magistrates and officers of the state.――――Tirensis,
a bridge of Latium between Arpinum and Minturnæ.――――Triumphalis was
on the way to the capitol, and passed over by those who triumphed.
――――Narniensis joined two mountains near Narnia, built by Augustus,
of stupendous height, 60 miles from Rome; one arch of it remains,
about 100 feet high.
♦ ‘Antonnius’ replaced with ‘Antoninus’
=Pontia=, a Roman matron who committed adultery with Sagitta, &c.
_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 12.――――A mother infamous for her cruelty.
_Martial_, bk. 1, ltr. 34.――――A surname of Venus at Hermione.
_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 34.――――A woman condemned by Nero as guilty
of a conspiracy. She killed herself by opening her veins. She was
daughter of Petronius and wife of Bolanus. _Juvenal_, satire 6, li.
637.――――An island in the Tyrrhene sea, where Pilate, surnamed Pontius,
is supposed to have lived. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 6.――_Ptolemy_, bk. 3,
ch. 1. _See:_ Œnotrides.
=Pontĭcum mare=, the sea of Pontus, generally called the Euxine.
=Pontīcus=, a poet of Rome, contemporary with Propertius, by whom he
is compared to Homer. He wrote an account of the Theban war in heroic
verse. _Propertius_, bk. 1, poem 7.――――A man in Juvenal’s age, fond
of boasting of the antiquity and great actions of his family, yet
without possessing himself one single virtue.
=Pontīna=, or =Pomptina lacus=, a lake in the country of the Volsci,
through which the great Appian road passed. Travellers were sometimes
conveyed in a boat, drawn by a mule, in the canal that ran along
the road from Forum Appii to Tarracina. This lake is now become
so dangerous, from the exhalations of its stagnant water, that
travellers avoid passing near it. _Horace_, bk. 1, satire 5, li. 9.
――_Lucan_, bk. 3, li. 85.
=Pontīnus=, a friend of Cicero.――――A tribune of the people, who
refused to rise up when Cæsar passed in triumphal procession. He
was one of Cæsar’s murderers, and was killed at the battle of Mutina.
_Suetonius_, _Cæsar_, ch. 78.――_Cicero_, bk. 10, _Letters to his
Friends_.――――A mountain of Argolis, with a river of the same name.
_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 73.
=Pontius Aufidianus=, a Roman citizen, who, upon hearing that violence
had been offered to his daughter, punished her and her ravisher with
death. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 6, ch. 1.――――Herennius, a general
of the Samnites, who surrounded the Roman army under the consuls
Titus Veturius and Publius Posthumius. As there was no possibility of
escaping for the Romans, Pontius consulted his father what he could
do with an army that were prisoners in his hands. The old man advised
him either to let them go untouched, or put them all to the sword.
Pontius rejected his father’s advice, and spared the lives of the
enemy, after he had obliged them to pass under the yoke with the
greatest ignominy. He was afterwards conquered, and obliged, in his
turn, to pass under the yoke. Fabius Maximus defeated him, when he
appeared again at the head of another army, and he was afterwards
shamefully put to death by the Romans, after he had adorned the
triumph of the conqueror. _Livy_, bk. 9, ch. 1, &c.――――Cominius,
a Roman who gave information to his countrymen who were besieged
in the capitol, that Camillus had obtained a victory over the Gauls.
_Plutarch._――――A Roman slave who told Sylla, in a prophetic strain,
that he brought him success from Bellona.――――One of the favourites
of Albucilla. He was degraded from the rank of a senator. _Tacitus._
――――Titus, a Roman centurion, whom Cicero _de Senectute_ mentions as
possessed of uncommon strength.
=Pontus=, a kingdom of Asia Minor, bounded on the east by Colchis, west
by the Halys, north by the Euxine sea, and south by part of Armenia.
It was divided into three parts, according to Ptolemy; Pontus
_Galaticus_, of which Amasia was the capital, Pontus _Polemoniacus_,
from its chief town Polemonium, and Pontus _Cappadocius_, of which
Trapezus was the capital. It was governed by kings, the first of whom
was Artabazes, either one of the seven Persian noblemen who murdered
the usurper Smerdis, or one of their descendants. The kingdom of
Pontus was in its most flourishing state under Mithridates the Great.
When Julius Cæsar had conquered it, it became a Roman province,
though it was often governed by monarchs who were tributary to the
power of Rome. Under the emperors a regular governor was always
appointed over it. Pontus produced castors, whose testicles were
highly valued among the ancients for their salutary qualities in
medicinal processes. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 1, li. 58.――_Mela_,
bk. 1, chs. 1 & 19.――_Strabo_, bk. 12.――_Cicero_, _De Legibus_.
――_Manitius._――_Appian._――_Ptolemy_, bk. 5, ch. 6.――――A part of Mysia
in Europe, on the borders of the Euxine sea, where Ovid was banished,
and from whence he wrote his four books of epistles _ex Ponto_, and
his six books _de Tristibus_. _Ovid_, _ex Ponto_.――――An ancient deity,
father of Phorcys, Thaumas, Nereus, Eurybia, and Ceto by Terra. He is
the same as Oceanus. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 2.
=Pontus Euxīnus=, a celebrated sea, situate at the west of Colchis
between Asia and Europe, at the north of Asia Minor. It is called the
_Black sea_ by the moderns. _See:_ Euxinus.
=Marcus Popilius=, a consul who was informed, as he was offering a
sacrifice, that a sedition was raised in the city against the senate.
Upon this he immediately went to the populace in his sacerdotal robes,
and quieted the multitude with a speech. He lived about the year of
Rome 404. _Livy_, bk. 9, ch. 21.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 7, ch. 8.
――――Caius, a consul, who, when besieged by the Gauls, abandoned his
baggage to save his army. _Cicero_, _Rhetorica ad Herennium_, bk. 1,
ch. 15.――――Lænas, a Roman ambassador to Antiochus king of Syria. He
was commissioned to order the monarch to abstain from hostilities
against Ptolemy king of Egypt, who was an ally of Rome. Antiochus
wished to evade him by his answers, but Popilius, with a stick which
he had in his hand, made a circle round him on the sand, and bade
him, in the name of the Roman senate and people, not to go beyond
it before he spoke decisively. This boldness intimidated Antiochus;
he withdrew his garrisons from Egypt, and no longer meditated a war
against Ptolemy. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 6, ch. 4.――_Livy_, bk. 45,
ch. 12.――_Paterculus_, bk. 1, ch. 10.――――A tribune of the people who
murdered Cicero, to whose eloquence he was indebted for his life when
he was accused of parricide. _Plutarch._――――A pretor who banished the
friends of Tiberius Gracchus from Italy.――――A Roman consul who made
war against the people of Numantia, on pretence that the peace had
not been firmly established. He was defeated by them.――――A senator
who alarmed the conspirators against Cæsar, by telling them that the
whole plot was discovered.――――A Roman emperor. _See:_ Nepotianus.
=Poplicŏla=, one of the first consuls. _See:_ Publicola.
=Poppæa Sabīna=, a celebrated Roman matron, daughter of Titus Ollius.
She married a Roman knight called Rufus Crispinus, by whom she had a
son. Her personal charms, and the elegance of her figure, captivated
Otho, who was then one of Nero’s favourites. He carried her away
and married her; but Nero, who had seen her, and had often heard
her accomplishments extolled, soon deprived him of her company, and
sent him out of Italy, on pretence of presiding over one of the Roman
provinces. After he had taken this step, Nero repudiated his wife
Octavia, on pretence of barrenness, and married Poppæa. The cruelty
and avarice of the emperor did not long permit Poppæa to share the
imperial dignity, and though she had already made him father of a son,
he began to despise her, and even to use her with barbarity. She died
of a blow which she received from his foot when many months advanced
in her pregnancy, about the 65th year of the christian era. Her
funeral was performed with great pomp and solemnity, and statues were
raised to her memory. It is said that she was so anxious to preserve
her beauty and the elegance of her person, that 500 asses were kept
on purpose to afford her milk in which she used daily to bathe. Even
in her banishment she was attended by 50 of these animals for the
same purpose, and from their milk she invented a kind of ointment or
pomatum, to preserve beauty, called _poppæanum_ from her. _Pliny_,
bk. 11, ch. 41.――_Dio Cassisus_, bk. 65.――_Juvenal_, satire 6.
――_Suetonius_, _Nero_ & _Otho_.――_Tacitus_, ♦_Annals_, bks. 13 & 14.
――――A beautiful woman at the court of Nero. She was mother to the
preceding. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 11, ch. 1, &c.
♦ Book title omitted in text
=Poppæus Sabīnus=, a Roman of obscure origin, who was made governor
of some of the Roman provinces. He destroyed himself, &c. _Tacitus_,
bk. 6, _Annals_, ch. 39.――――Sylvanus, a man of consular dignity, who
brought to Vespasian a body of 600 Dalmatians.――――A friend of Otho.
=Populonia=, or =Populanium=, a town of Etruria, near Pisæ, destroyed
in the civil wars of Sylla. _Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 10, li. 172.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 5.――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 5.
=Porata=, a river of Dacia, now _Pruth_, falling into the Danube a
little below Axiopoli.
=Porcia=, a sister of Cato of Utica, greatly commended by Cicero.――――A
daughter of Cato of Utica, who married Bibulus, and after his death,
Brutus. She was remarkable for her prudence, philosophy, courage,
and conjugal tenderness. She gave herself a heavy wound in the thigh,
to see with what fortitude she could bear pain; and when her husband
asked her the reason of it, she said that she wished to try whether
she had courage enough to share not only his bed, but to partake of
his most hidden secrets. Brutus was astonished at her constancy, and
no longer detained from her knowledge the conspiracy which he and
many other illustrious Romans had formed against Julius Cæsar. Porcia
wished them success, and though she betrayed fear, and fell into a
swoon the day that her husband was gone to assassinate the dictator,
yet she was faithful to her promise, and dropped nothing which might
affect the situation of the conspirators. When Brutus was dead, she
refused to survive him, and attempted to end her life as a daughter
of Cato. Her friends attempted to terrify her; but when she saw that
every weapon was removed from her reach, she swallowed burning coals
and died, about 42 years before the christian era. Valerius Maximus
says that she was acquainted with her husband’s conspiracy against
Cæsar when she gave herself the wound. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 3,
ch. 2; bk. 4, ch. 6.――_Plutarch_, _Brutus_, &c.
=Porcia lex=, _de civitate_, by Marcus Porcius the tribune, A.U.C. 453.
It ordained that no magistrate should punish with death, or scourge
with rods, a Roman citizen when condemned, but only permit him to
go into exile. _Sallust_, _Catilinae Coniuratio_.――_Livy_, bk. 10.
――_Cicero_, _For Rabirius Postumus_.
=Porcina=, a surname of the orator Marcus Æmilius Lepidus, who lived a
little before Cicero’s age, and was distinguished for his abilities.
_Cicero_, _Rhetorica ad Herennium_, bk. 4, ch. 5.
=Marcus Porcius Latro=, a celebrated orator who killed himself when
labouring under a quartan ague, A.U.C. 750.――――Licinius, a Latin poet
during the time of the third Punic war, commended for the elegance,
the graceful ease, and happy wit of his epigrams.――――A Roman senator
who joined the conspiracy of Catiline.――――A son of Cato of Utica,
given much to drinking.
=Poredorax=, one of the 40 Gauls whom Mithridates ordered to be put
to death, and to remain unburied for conspiring against him. His
mistress at Pergamus buried him against the orders of the monarch.
_Plutarch_, _Mulierum Virtutes_.
=Porīna=, a river of Peloponnesus. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 85.
=Poroselēne=, an island near Lesbos. _Strabo_, bk. 13.――_Pliny_, bk. 5,
ch. 31.
=Porphyrion=, a son of Cœlus and Terra, one of the giants who made war
against Jupiter. He was so formidable, that Jupiter, to conquer him,
inspired him with love for Juno, and while the giant endeavoured to
obtain his wishes, he, with the assistance of Hercules, overpowered
him. _Horace_, bk. 3, ode 4.――_Martial_, bk. 13, ltr. 78.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 6.
=Porphy̆ris=, a name of the island Cythera.
=Porphyrius=, a Platonic philosopher of Tyre. He studied eloquence
at Athens under Longinus, and afterwards retired to Rome, where he
perfected himself under Plotinus. Porphyry was a man of universal
information, and, according to the testimony of the ancients, he
excelled his contemporaries in the knowledge of history, mathematics,
music, and philosophy. He expressed his sentiments with elegance and
with dignity, and while other philosophers studied obscurity in their
language, his style was remarkable for its simplicity and grace. He
applied himself to the study of magic, which he called a theourgic
or divine operation. The books that he wrote were numerous, and
some of his smaller treatises are still extant. His most celebrated
work, which is now lost, was against the religion of Christ, and in
this theological contest he appeared so formidable, that most of the
fathers of the church have been employed in confuting his arguments,
and developing the falsehood of his assertions. He has been
universally called the greatest enemy which the christian religion
had, and, indeed, his doctrines were so pernicious, that a copy
of his book was publicly burnt by order of Theodosius, A.D. 388.
Porphyry resided for some time in Sicily, and died at the advanced
age of 71, A.D. 304. The best edition of his life of Pythagoras is
that of Kuster, 4to, Amsterdam, 1707, that of his treatise, _De
Abstinentiâ_, is De Rhoer, Utrecht, 8vo, 1767, and that _De Antro
Nympharum_, in 8vo, Utrecht, 1765.――――A Latin poet in the reign of
Constantine the Great.
=Porrima=, one of the attendants of Carmente when she came from Arcadia.
_Ovid_, bk. 1, _Fasti_, li. 633.
=Porsenna=, or =Porsĕna=, a king of Etruria, who declared war against
the Romans because they refused to restore Tarquin to his throne and
to his royal privileges. He was at first successful; the Romans were
defeated, and Porsenna would have entered the gates of Rome, had not
Cocles stood at the head of a bridge, and supported the fury of the
whole Etrurian army, while his companions behind were cutting off the
communication with the opposite shore. This act of bravery astonished
Porsenna; but when he had seen Mutius Scævola enter his camp with
an intention to murder him, and when he had seen him burn his hand
without emotion to convince him of his fortitude and intrepidity,
he no longer dared to make head against a people so brave and so
generous. He made a peace with the Romans, and never after supported
the claims of Tarquin. The generosity of Porsenna’s behaviour to
the captives was admired by the Romans, and to reward his humanity
they raised a brazen statue to his honour. _Livy_, bk. 2, ch. 9, &c.
――_Plutarch_, _Publicola_.――_Florus_, bk. 1, ch. 10.――_Horace_, epode
16.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8, li. 646.
=Porta Capēna=, a gate at Rome, which leads to the Appian road. _Ovid_,
_Fasti_, bk. 6, li. 192.――――Aurelia, a gate at Rome, which received
its name from Aurelius, a consul who made a road which led to Pisæ,
all along the coast of Etruria.――――Asinaria led to mount Cœlius.
It received its name from the family of the Asinii.――――Carmentalis
was at the foot of the capitol, built by Romulus. It was afterwards
called _Scelerata_, because the 300 Fabii marched through when they
went to fight an enemy, and were killed near the river Cremera.
――――Janualis was near the temple of Janus.――――Esquilina was also
called _Metia_, _Taurica_, or _Libitinensis_, and all criminals
who were going to be executed generally passed through, as also
dead bodies which were carried to be burnt on mount Esquilinus.
――――Flaminia, called also _Flumentana_, was situate between the
capitol and mount Quirinalis, and through it the Flaminian road
passed.――――Fontinalis led to the Campus Martius. It received its name
from the great number of fountains that were near it.――――Navalis was
situate near the place where the ships came from Ostia.――――Viminalis
was near mount Viminalis.――――Trigemina, called also _Ostiensis_,
led to the town of Ostia.――――Catularia was near the Carmentalis
Porta, at the foot of mount Viminalis.――――Collatina received its name
from its leading to Collatia.――――Collina, called also _Quirinalis_,
_Agonensis_, and _Salaria_, was near Quirinalis Mons. Annibal rode up
to this gate and threw a spear into the city. It is to be observed,
that at the death of Romulus there were only three or four gates at
Rome, but the number was increased, and in the time of Pliny there
were 37, when the circumference of the walls was 13 miles and 200
paces.
=Portia= and =Portius=. _See:_ Porcia and Porcius.
=Portmos=, a town of Eubœa. _Demosthenes._――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 5.
=Portumnalia=, festivals of Portumnus at Rome, celebrated on the 17th
of August, in a very solemn and lugubrious manner, on the borders
of the Tiber. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 6, li. 547.――_Varro_, _de Lingua
Latina_, bk. 5, ch. 3.
=Portumnus=, a sea deity. _See:_ Melicerta.
=Porus=, the god of plenty at Rome. He was son of Metis or Prudence.
_Plato._――――A king of India, when Alexander invaded Asia. The
conqueror of Darius ordered him to come and pay homage to him, as a
dependent prince. Porus scorned his commands, and declared he would
go and meet him on the frontiers of his kingdom sword in hand, and
immediately he marched a large army to the banks of the Hydaspes.
The stream of the river was rapid; but Alexander crossed it in the
obscurity of the night, and defeated one of the sons of the Indian
monarch. Porus himself renewed the battle, but the valour of the
Macedonians prevailed, and the Indian prince retired covered with
wounds, on the back of one of his elephants. Alexander sent one of
the kings of India to demand him to surrender, but Porus killed the
messenger, exclaiming, “Is not this the voice of the wretch who has
abandoned his country?” and when he at last was prevailed upon to
come before the conqueror, he approached him as an equal. Alexander
demanded of him how he wished to be treated. “Like a king,” replied
the Indian monarch. This magnanimous answer so pleased the Macedonian
conqueror, that he not only restored him his dominions, but he
increased his kingdom by the conquest of new provinces; and Porus, in
acknowledgment of such generosity and benevolence, became one of the
most faithful and attached friends of Alexander, and never violated
the assurances of peace which he had given him. Porus is represented
as a man of uncommon stature, great strength, and proportionable
dignity. _Plutarch_, _Alexander_.――_Philostratus_, bk. 2, ch. 10.
――_Curtius_, bk. 8, ch. 8, &c.――_Claudianus_, _De Consulatu Honorii_,
ch. 4.――――Another king of India in the reign of Alexander.――――A king
of Babylon.
=Pŏsīdes=, a eunuch and freedman of the emperor Claudius, who rose to
honours by the favour of his master. _Juvenal_, satire 14, li. 94.
=Posidēum=, a promontory and town of Ionia, where Neptune had a temple.
_Strabo_, bk. 14.――――A town of Syria below Libanus. _Pliny_, bk. 5,
ch. 20.――――A town near the Strymon, on the borders of Macedonia.
_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 10.
=Posīdon=, the name of Neptune among the Greeks.
=Posidonia=, a town of Lucania, better known by the name of Pæstum.
_See:_ Pæstum.
=Posidonium=, a town or temple of Neptune, near Cænis in Italy, where
the straits of Sicily are narrowest, and scarce a mile distant from
the opposite shore.
=Posidonius=, a philosopher of Apamea. He lived at Rhodes for some
time, and afterwards came to Rome, where, after cultivating the
friendship of Pompey and Cicero, he died in his 84th year. He wrote
a treatise on the nature of the gods, and also attempted to measure
the circumference of the earth; he accounted for the tides from the
motion of the moon, and calculated the height of the atmosphere to be
400 stadia, nearly agreeing with the ideas of the moderns. _Cicero_,
_Tusculanæ Disputationes_, bk. 5, ch. 37.――_Strabo_, bk. 14.
――――Another philosopher, born at Alexandria in Egypt.
=Posio=, a native of Magnesia, who wrote a history of the Amazons.
=Posthumia=, a vestal virgin, accused of adultery and acquitted.――――The
wife of Servius Sulpicius. _Cicero_, _Epistles_.――――A daughter of
Sylla.
=Posthumius Albīnus=, a man who suffered himself to be bribed by
Jugurtha, against whom he had been sent with an army.――――A writer
at Rome whom Cato ridiculed for composing a history in Greek, and
afterwards offering apologies for the inaccuracy and inelegance of
his expressions.――――Tubero, a master of horse to the dictator Æmilius
Mamercus. He was himself made dictator in the war which the Romans
waged against the Volsci, and he punished his son with death for
fighting against his orders, A.U.C. 312. _Livy_, bk. 4, ch. 23.
――――Spurius, a consul sent against the Samnites. He was taken in an
ambush by Pontius, the enemy’s general, and obliged to pass under
the yoke with all his army. He saved his life by a shameful treaty,
and when he returned to Rome he persuaded the Romans not to reckon as
valid the engagements he had made with the enemy, as it was without
their advice. He was given up to the enemy because he could not
perform his engagements; but he was released by Pontius for his
generous and patriotic behaviour.――――Aulus, a dictator who defeated
the Latins and the Volsci.――――Tubertus, another dictator, who
defeated the Æqui and Volsci.――――Lucius, a consul sent against the
Samnites.――――A general who defeated the Sabines, and who was the
first who obtained an ovation.――――A man poisoned by his wife.――――A
general who conquered the Æqui, and who was stoned by the army,
because he refused to divide the promised spoils. _Florus_, bk. 22.
――――Lucius, a Roman consul who was defeated by the Boii. He was left
among the slain, and his head was cut off from his body, and carried
in triumph by the barbarians into their temples, where they made with
the skull a sacred vessel to offer libations to their gods.――――Marcus
Crassus Latianus, an officer proclaimed emperor in Gaul, A.D. 260.
He reigned with great popularity, and gained the affection of his
subjects by his humanity and moderation. He took his son of the same
name as a colleague on the throne. They were both assassinated by
their soldiers, after a reign of six years.――――Megilthus, a consul
against the Samnites and Tarentines.――――Quintus, a man put to death
by Antony.――――A soothsayer in the age of Sylla.――――Spurius, an enemy
of Tiberius Gracchus.――――Albus, a Roman decemvir, sent to Athens to
collect the most salutary laws of Solon, &c. _Livy_, bk. 3, ch. 31.
――――Sylvius, a son of Æneas and Sylvia.
=Postverta=, a goddess at Rome, who presided over the painful travails
of women. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 1, li. 633.
=Postumia via=, a Roman road about the town of Hostilia.
=Postumius.= _See:_ Posthumius.
=Potamĭdes=, nymphs who presided over rivers and fountains, as their
name (ποταμος, _fluvius_) implies.
=Potamon=, a philosopher of Alexandria, in the age of Augustus. He
wrote several treatises, and confined himself to the doctrines of no
particular sect of philosophers.
=Potamos=, a town of Attica, near Sunium. _Strabo_, bk. 9.
=Potentia=, a town of Picenum. _Livy_, bk. 39, ch. 44.
=Pothīnus=, a eunuch, tutor to Ptolemy king of Egypt. He advised the
monarch to murder Pompey, when he claimed his protection after the
battle of Pharsalia. He stirred up commotions in Alexandria, when
Cæsar came there, upon which the conqueror ordered him to be put to
death. _Lucan_, bk. 8, li. 483; bk. 10, li. 95.
=Pothos=, one of the deities of the Samothracians. _Pliny_, bk. 36,
ch. 5.
=Potidæa=, a town of Macedonia, situate in the peninsula of Pallene.
It was founded by a Corinthian colony, and became tributary to the
Athenians, from whom Philip of Macedonia took it. The conqueror gave
it to the Olynthians, to render them more attached to his interest.
Cassander repaired and enlarged it, and called it _Cassandria_, a
name which it still preserves, and which has given occasion to Livy
to say, that Cassander was the original founder of that city. _Livy_,
bk. 44, ch. 11.――_Demosthenes_, _Olynthiac_.――_Strabo_, bk. 7.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 23.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 2.
=Potidania=, a town of Ætolia. _Livy_, bk. 28, ch. 8.
=Potīna=, a goddess at Rome, who presided over children’s potions.
_Varro._
=Potitius.= _See:_ Pinarius.
=Potniæ=, a town of Bœotia, where Bacchus had a temple. The Potnians,
having once murdered the priest of the god, were ordered by the
oracle, to appease his resentment, yearly to offer on his altars
a young man. This unnatural sacrifice was continued for some years,
till Bacchus himself substituted a goat, from which circumstance he
received the appellation of _Ægobolus_ and _Ægophagus_. There was
here a fountain whose waters made horses run mad as soon as they were
touched. There were also here certain goddesses called _Potniades_,
on whose altars, in a grove sacred to Ceres and Proserpine, victims
were sacrificed. It was also usual, at a certain season of the year,
to conduct into the grove young pigs, which were found the following
year in the groves of Dodona. The mares of Potniæ destroyed their
master Glaucus son of Sisyphus. _See:_ Glaucus. _Pausanias_, bk. 9,
ch. 8.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 3, li. 267.――_Ælian_, _Varia
Historia_, bk. 15, ch. 25.――――A town of Magnesia, whose pastures gave
madness to asses, according to Pliny.
=Practium=, a town and a small river of Asia Minor, on the Hellespont.
=Præcia=, a courtesan at Rome, who influenced Cethegus, and procured
Asia as a consular province for Lucullus. _Plutarch_, _Lucullus_.
=Præneste=, a town of Latium, about 21 miles from Rome, built by
Telegonus son of Ulysses and Circe, or, according to others, by
Cæculus the son of Vulcan. There was a celebrated temple of Fortune
there, with two famous images, as also an oracle, which was long in
great repute. _Cicero_, _De Divinatione_, bk. 2, ch. 41.――_Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 680.――_Horace_, bk. 3, ode 4.――_Statius_, bk. 1,
_Sylvæ_, poem 3, li. 80.
=Præsos=, a small town of Crete, destroyed in a civil war by one of the
neighbouring cities.
=Præsti=, a nation of India. _Curtius_, bk. 9, ch. 8.
=Prætōria=, a town of Dacia, now _Cronstadt_.――――Another, now _Aoust_,
in Piedmont.
=Prætorius=, a name ironically applied to As. Sempronius Rufus, because
he was disappointed in his solicitations for the pretorship, as being
too dissolute and luxurious in his manners. He was the first who had
a stork brought to his table. _Horace_, bk. 2, satire 2, li. 50.
=Prætutium=, a town of Picenum. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 15, li. 568.
――_Livy_, bk. 22, ch. 9; bk. 27, ch. 43.
=Prasiane=, now _Verdant_, a large island at the mouth of the Indus.
_Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 20.
=Prasias=, a lake between Macedonia and Thrace, where were silver mines.
_Herodotus_, bk. 5, ch. 17.
=Prasii=, a nation of India in Alexander’s age. _Curtius_, bk. 9, ch. 2.
=Pratellia lex=, was enacted by Pratellius the tribune, A.U.C. 398, to
curb and check the ambitious views of men who were lately advanced in
the state. _Livy_, bk. 7, ch. 15.
=Pratinas=, a Greek poet of Phlius, contemporary with Æschylus. He
was the first among the Greeks who composed satires, which were
represented as farces. Of these 32 were acted, as also 18 of his
tragedies, one of which only obtained the poetical prize. Some of his
verses are extant, quoted by Athenæus. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 13.
=Praxagŏras=, an Athenian writer, who published a history of the kings
of his own country. He was then only 19 years old, and, three years
after, he wrote the life of Constantine the Great. He had also
written the life of Alexander, all now lost.
=Praxias=, a celebrated statuary of Athens. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 18.
=Praxidămas=, a famous athlete of Ægina. _Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 18.
=Praxidĭce=, a goddess among the Greeks, who presided over the
execution of enterprises, and who punished all evil actions.
_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 33.
=Praxĭla=, a lyric poetess of Sicyon, who flourished about 492 years
before Christ. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 13.
=Praxiphănes=, a Rhodian, who wrote a learned commentary on the obscure
passages of Sophocles.――――An historian. _Diogenes Laërtius._
=Praxis=, a surname of Venus at Megara. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 43.
=Praxitĕles=, a famous sculptor of Magna Græcia, who flourished about
324 years before the christian era. He chiefly worked on Parian
marble, on account of its beautiful whiteness. He carried his art to
the greatest perfection, and was so happy in copying nature, that his
statues seemed to be animated. The most famous of his pieces was a
Cupid which he gave to Phryne. This celebrated courtesan, who wished
to have the best of all the statues of Praxiteles, and who could not
depend upon her own judgment in the choice, alarmed the sculptor,
by telling him his house was on fire. Praxiteles upon this showed
his eagerness to save his Cupid from the flames, above all his other
pieces; but Phryne restrained his fears, and, by discovering her
artifice, obtained the favourite statue. The sculptor employed his
chisel in making a statue of this beautiful courtesan, which was
dedicated in the temple of Delphi, and placed between the statues of
Archidamus king of Sparta, and Philip king of Macedon. He also made
a statue of Venus, at the request of the people of Cos, and gave them
their choice of the goddess, either naked or veiled. The former was
superior to the other in beauty and perfection, but the inhabitants
of Cos preferred the latter. The ♦Cnidians, who did not wish to
patronize modesty and decorum with the same eagerness as the people
of Cos, bought the naked Venus, and it was so universally esteemed,
that Nicomedes king of Bithynia offered the Cnidians to pay an
enormous debt under which they laboured, if they would give him
their favourite statue. This offer was not accepted. The famous Cupid
was bought of the Thespians by Caius Cæsar and carried to Rome, but
Claudius restored it to them, and Nero afterwards obtained possession
of it. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 40; bk. 8, ch. 9.――_Pliny_, bk. 7, chs.
34 & 36.
♦ ‘Cnidans’ replaced with ‘Cnidians’
=Praxithea=, a daughter of Phrasimus and Diogenea. She married
Erechtheus king of Athens, by whom she had Cecrops, Pandarus, and
Metion, and four daughters, Procris, Creusa, Chthonia, and Orithyia.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 15.――――A daughter of Thestius, mother of
some children by Hercules. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――――A daughter
of Erechtheus, sacrificed by order of the oracle.
=Prelius=, a lake of Tuscany, now _Castiglione_. _Cicero_, _For Milo_,
ch. 27.――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 5.
=Presbon=, a son of Phryxus, father of Clymenus.――――A son of Clytodora
and Minyas also bore the same name. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, chs. 34 & 37.
=Pretor=, one of the chief magistrates at Rome. The office of pretor
was first instituted A.U.C. 388, by the senators, who wished by some
new honour to compensate for the loss of the consulship, of which
the plebeians had claimed a share. The pretor received his name a
_præeundo_. Only one was originally elected, and another A.U.C. 501.
One of them was totally employed in administering justice among
the citizens, whence he was called pretor _urbanus_; and the other
appointed judges in all causes which related to foreigners. In the
year of Rome 520, two more pretors were created to assist the consul
in the government of the provinces of Sicily and Sardinia, which had
been lately conquered, and two more when Spain was reduced into the
form of a Roman province, A.U.C. 521. Sylla the dictator added two
more, and Julius Cæsar increased the number to 10, and afterwards
to 16, and the second triumvirate to 64. After this their numbers
fluctuated, being sometimes 18, 16, or 12, till, in the decline
of the empire, their dignity decreased, and their numbers were
reduced to three. In his public capacity the pretor administered
justice, protected the rights of widows and orphans, presided at the
celebration of public festivals, and in the absence of the consul
assembled or prorogued the senate as he pleased. He also exhibited
shows to the people, and in the festivals of the Bona Dea, where
no males were permitted to appear, his wife presided over the rest
of the Roman matrons. Feasts were announced and proclaimed by him,
and he had the power to make and repeal laws, if it met with the
approbation of the senate and people. The questors were subject to
him, and in the absence of the consuls, he appeared at the head of
the armies, and in the city he kept a register of all the freedmen
of Rome, with the reasons for which they had received their freedom.
In the provinces the pretors appeared with great pomp; six lictors
with the fasces walked before them, and when the empire was increased
by conquests, they divided, like the consuls, their government, and
provinces were given them by lot. When the year of their pretorship
was elapsed, they were called _proprætors_, if they still continued
at the head of their province. At Rome the pretors appeared also with
much pomp; two lictors preceded them, they wore the _prætexta_, or
the white robe with purple borders, they sat in curule chairs, and
their tribunal was distinguished by a sword and a spear, while they
administered justice. The tribunal was called _prætorium_. When they
rode they appeared on white horses at Rome, as a mark of distinction.
The pretor who appointed judges to try foreign causes, was called
_prætor peregrinus_. The pretors _Cereales_, appointed by Julius
Cæsar, were employed in providing corn and provision for the city.
They were on that account often called _frumentarii_.
=Preugĕnes=, a son of Agenor. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 2; bk. 7, chs.
18 & 20.
=Prexaspes=, a Persian who put Smerdis to death, by order of king
Cambyses. _Herodotus_, bk. 3, ch. 30.
=Priamĭdes=, a patronymic applied to Paris, as being son of Priam. It
is also given to Hector, Deiphobus, and all the other children of
the Trojan monarch. _Ovid_, _Heroides_.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3,
li. 235.
=Priămus=, the last king of Troy, was son of Laomedon by Strymo, called
Placia by some. When Hercules took the city of Troy [_See:_ Laomedon],
Priam was in the number of his prisoners, but his sister Hesione
redeemed him from captivity, and he exchanged his original name of
Podarces for that of _Priam_, which signifies _bought_ or _ransomed_.
_See:_ Podarces. He was also placed on his father’s throne by
Hercules, and he employed himself with well-directed diligence in
repairing, fortifying, and embellishing the city of Troy. He had
married, by his father’s orders, Arisba, whom now he divorced for
Hecuba the daughter of Dimas, or Cisseus, a neighbouring prince.
He had by Hecuba 17 children, according to Cicero, or, according to
Homer, 19; the most celebrated of whom are Hector, Paris, Deiphobus,
Helenus, Pammon, Polites, Antiphus, Hipponous, Troilus, Creusa,
Laodice, Polyxena, and Cassandra. Besides these he had many others
by concubines. Their names, according to Apollodorus, are Melampus,
Gorgythion, Philæmon, Glaucus, Agathon, Evagoras, Hippothous,
Chersidamas, Hippodamas, Mestor, Atas, Dorcylus, Dryops, Lycaon,
Astygonus, Bias, Evander, Chromius, Telestas, Melius, Cebrion,
Laodocus, Idomeneus, Archemachus, Echephron, Hyperion, Ascanius,
Arrhetus, Democoon, Dejoptes, Echemon, Clovius, Ægioneus, Hypirychus,
Lysithous, Polymedon, Medusa, Lysimache, Medesicaste, and Aristodeme.
After he had reigned for some time in the greatest prosperity, Priam
expressed a desire to recover his sister Hesione, whom Hercules had
carried into Greece, and married to Telamon his friend. To carry
this plan into execution, Priam manned a fleet, of which he gave
the command to his son Paris, with orders to bring back Hesione.
Paris, to whom the goddess of beauty had promised the fairest woman
in the world [_See:_ Paris], neglected in some measure his father’s
injunctions, and as if to make reprisals upon the Greeks, he carried
away Helen the wife of Menelaus king of Sparta, during the absence of
her husband. Priam beheld this with satisfaction, and he countenanced
his son by receiving in his palace the wife of the king of Sparta.
This rape kindled the flames of war; all the suitors of Helen, at
the request of Menelaus [_See:_ Menelaus], assembled to revenge the
violence offered to his bed, and a fleet, according to some, of 140
ships under the command of the 69 chiefs that furnished them, set
sail for Troy. Priam might have averted the impending blow by the
restoration of Helen; but this he refused to do, when the ambassadors
of the Greeks came to him, and he immediately raised an army to
defend himself. Troy was soon besieged; frequent skirmishes took
place, in which the success was various, and the advantages on both
sides inconsiderable. The siege was continued for 10 successive years,
and Priam had the misfortune to see the greatest part of his children
massacred by the enemy. Hector, the eldest of these, was the only one
upon whom now the Trojans looked for protection and support; but he
soon fell a sacrifice to his own courage, and was killed by Achilles.
Priam severely felt his loss, and as he loved him with the greatest
tenderness, he wished to ransom his body, which was in the enemy’s
camp. The gods, according to Homer, interested themselves in favour
of old Priam. Achilles was prevailed upon by his mother, the goddess
Thetis, to restore Hector to Priam, and the king of Troy passed
through the Grecian camp conducted by Mercury the messenger of the
gods, who with his rod had made him invisible. The meeting of Priam
and Achilles was solemn and affecting; the conqueror paid to the
Trojan monarch that attention and reverence which was due to his
dignity, his years, and his misfortunes, and Priam in a suppliant
manner addressed the prince whose favours he claimed, and kissed
the hands that had robbed him of the greatest and the best of his
children. Achilles was moved by his tears and entreaties; he restored
Hector, and permitted Priam a truce of 12 days for the funeral of his
son. Some time after Troy was betrayed into the hands of the Greeks
by Antenor and Æneas, and Priam upon this resolved to die in defence
of his country. He put on his armour and advanced to meet the Greeks,
but Hecuba by her tears and entreaties detained him near an altar of
Jupiter, whither she had fled for protection. While Priam yielded to
the prayers of his wife, Polites, one of his sons, fled also to the
altar before Neoptolemus, who pursued him with fury. Polites, wounded
and overcome, fell dead at the feet of his parents, and the aged
father, fired with indignation, ventured the most bitter invectives
against the Greek, who paid no regard to the sanctity of altars and
temples, and raising his spear darted it upon him. The spear hurled
by the feeble hand of Priam touched the buckler of Neoptolemus, and
fell to the ground. This irritated the son of Achilles; he seized
Priam by his grey hairs, and without compassion or reverence for the
sanctity of the place, he plunged his dagger into his breast. His
head was cut off, ♦and the mutilated body was left among the heaps of
slain. _Dictys Cretensis_, bk. 1, &c.――_Dares Phrygius._――_Herodotus_,
bk. 2, ch. 120.――_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 25.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk.
22, &c.――_Euripides_, _Troades_.――_Cicero_, _Tusculanæ Disputationes_,
bk. 1, ch. 35.――_Quintus Smyrnæus_, bk. 1.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 2, li. 507, &c.――_Horace_, ode 10, li. 14.――_Hyginus_, fable 110.
――_Quintus Calaber [Smyrnæus]_, bk. 15, li. 226.
♦ ‘und’ replaced with ‘and’
=Priāpus=, a deity among the ancients, who presided over gardens, and
the parts of generation in the sexes. He was son of Venus by Mercury
or Adonis, or, according to the more received opinion, by Bacchus.
The goddess of beauty, who was enamoured of Bacchus, went to meet
him as he returned victorious from his Indian expedition, and by him
she had Priapus, who was born at Lampsacus. Priapus was so deformed
in all his limbs, particularly the genitals, by means of Juno, who
had assisted at the delivery of Venus, that the mother, ashamed to
have given birth to such a monster, ordered him to be exposed on the
mountains. His life, however, was preserved by the shepherds, and he
received the name of Priapus _propter deformitatem & membri virilis
magnitudinem_. He soon became a favourite of the people of Lampsacus,
but he was expelled by the inhabitants on account of the freedom
which he took with their wives. This violence was punished by the
son of Venus, and when the Lampsacenians had been afflicted with a
disease in the genitals, Priapus was recalled, and temples erected to
his honour. Festivals were also celebrated, and the people, naturally
idle and indolent, gave themselves up to every lasciviousness and
impurity during the celebration. His worship was also introduced
in Rome; but the Romans revered him more as a god of orchards and
gardens, than as the patron of licentiousness. A crown painted with
different colours was offered to him in the spring, and in the summer
a garland of ears of corn. An ass was generally sacrificed to him,
because that animal, by its braying, awoke the nymph Lotis, to whom
Priapus was going to offer violence. He is generally represented with
a human face and the ears of a goat; he holds a stick in his hand,
with which he terrifies birds, as also a club to drive away thieves,
and a scythe to prune the trees and cut down corn. He was crowned
with the leaves of the vine, and sometimes with laurel or rocket.
The last of these plants was sacred to him, as it is said to raise
the passions and excite love. Priapus is often distinguished by
the epithet of _phallus_, _fascinus_, _Ictyphallus_, or _ruber_, or
_rubicundus_, which are all expressive of his deformity. _Catullus_,
poems 19 & 20.――_Columella_, bk. 2, _de Res Rustica_.――_Horace_,
bk. 1, satire 1.――_Tibullus_, bk. 1, poem 1, li. 18.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_,
bk. 1, li. 415; bk. 6, li. 319.――_Virgil_, _Eclogues_, poem 7, li. 33;
_Georgics_, bk. 4, li. 111.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 31.――_Hyginus_,
fable 190.――_Diodorus_, bk. 1.――――A town of Asia Minor near Lampsacus,
now _Caraboa_. Priapus was the chief deity of the place, and from him
the town received its name, because he had taken refuge there when
banished from Lampsacus. _Strabo_, bk. 12.――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 32.
――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 19.――――An island near Ephesus. _Pliny_, bk. 5,
ch. 31.
=Priēne=, a maritime town of Asia Minor, at the foot of mount Mycale,
one of the 12 independent cities of Ionia. It gave birth to Bias,
one of the seven wise men of Greece. It had been built by an Athenian
colony. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 2; bk. 8, ch. 14.――_Strabo_, bk. 12.
=Prima=, a daughter of Romulus and Hersilia.
=Prion=, a place at Carthage.
=Prisciānus=, a celebrated grammarian at Athens, in the age of the
emperor Justinian.
=Priscilla=, a woman praised for her conjugal affection by Statius,
bk. 5, _Sylvæ_, poem 1.
=Priscus Servilius=, a dictator at Rome who defeated the Veientes and
the Fidenates.――――A surname of the elder Tarquin king of Rome. _See:_
Tarquinius.――――A governor of Syria, brother to the emperor Philip.
He proclaimed himself emperor in Macedonia when he was informed of
his brother’s death, but he was soon after conquered and put to death
by Decius, Philip’s murderer.――――A friend of the emperor Severus.
――――A friend of the emperor Julian, almost murdered by the populace.
――――Helvidius, a questor in Achaia during the reign of Nero,
remarkable for his independent spirit. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 4,
ch. 6.――_Juvenal._――――An officer under Vitellius.――――One of the
emperor Adrian’s friends.――――A friend of Domitian.――――An orator,
whose dissipated and luxurious manners Horace ridicules, bk. 1,
satire 7, li. 9.
=Pristis=, the name of one of the ships that engaged in the naval
combat which was exhibited by Æneas at the anniversary of his
father’s death. She was commanded by Mnestheus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 1, li. 116.
=Privernus=, a Rutulian killed by Capys in the wars between Æneas and
Turnus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 576.
=Privernum=, now _Piperno Vecchio_, a town of the Volsci in Italy,
whose inhabitants were called _Privernates_. It became a Roman colony.
_Livy_, bk. 8, ch. 10.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 11, li. 540.――_Cicero_,
bk. 1, _De Divinatione_, ch. 43.
=Proba=, the wife of the emperor Probus.――――A woman who opened the
gates of Rome to the Goths.
=Probus Marcus Aurelius Severus=, a native of Sirmium in Pannonia. His
father was originally a gardener, who, by entering the army, rose
to the rank of a military tribune. His son obtained the same office
in the 22nd year of his age, and he distinguished himself so much by
his probity, his valour, his intrepidity, moderation, and clemency,
that, at the death of the emperor Tacitus, he was invested with
the imperial purple by the voluntary and uninfluenced choice of
his soldiers. His election was universally approved by the Roman
senate and the people; and Probus, strengthened on his throne by the
affection and attachment of his subjects, marched against the enemies
of Rome, in Gaul and Germany. Several battles were fought, and after
he had left 400,000 barbarians dead in the field, Probus turned
his arms against the Sarmatians. The same success attended him, and
after he had quelled and terrified to peace the numerous barbarians
of the north, he marched through Syria against the Blemmyes
in the neighbourhood of Egypt. The Blemmyes were defeated with
great slaughter, and the military character of the emperor was so
well established, that the king of Persia sued for peace by his
ambassadors, and attempted to buy the conqueror’s favour with the
most splendid presents. Probus was then feasting upon the most common
food when the ambassadors were introduced; but without even casting
his eyes upon them, he said, that if their master did not give proper
satisfaction to the Romans, he would lay his territories desolate,
and as naked as the crown of his head. As he spoke, the emperor took
off his cap, and showed the baldness of his head to the ambassadors.
The conditions were gladly accepted by the Persian monarch, and
Probus retired to Rome to convince his subjects of the greatness
of his conquests, and to claim from them the applause which their
ancestors had given to the conqueror of Macedonia or the destroyer of
Carthage, as he passed along the streets of Rome. His triumph lasted
several days, and the Roman populace were long entertained with
shows and combats. But the Roman empire, delivered from its foreign
enemies, was torn by civil discord; and peace was not re-established
till three usurpers had been severally defeated. While his
subjects enjoyed tranquillity, Probus encouraged the liberal
arts; he permitted the inhabitants of Gaul and Illyricum to plant
vines in their territories, and he himself repaired 70 cities in
different parts of the empire which had been reduced to ruins.
He also attempted to drain the waters which were stagnated in the
neighbourhood of Sirmium, by conveying them to the sea by artificial
canals. His armies were employed in this laborious undertaking; but
as they were unaccustomed to such toils, they soon mutinied, and
fell upon the emperor as he was passing into one of the towns of
Illyricum. He fled into an iron tower which he himself had built to
observe the marshes, but as he was alone, and without arms, he was
soon overpowered and murdered, in the 50th year of his age, after a
reign of six years and four months, on the second of November, after
Christ 282. The news of his death was received with the greatest
consternation; not only his friends, but his very enemies, deplored
his fate, and even the army, which had been concerned in his fall,
erected a monument over his body, and placed upon it this inscription:
_Hic Probus imperator, verè probus, situs est, victor omnium gentium
barbararum, victor etiam tyrannorum_. He was then preparing in a
few days to march against the Persians that had revolted, and his
victories there might have been as great as those he obtained in the
two other quarters of the globe. He was succeeded by Carus, and his
family, who had shared his greatness, immediately retired from Rome,
not to become objects either of private or public malice. _Zosimus._
――_Probus._――_Saturninus._――――Æmilius, a grammarian in the age of
Theodosius. The lives of excellent commanders, written by Cornelius
Nepos, have been falsely attributed to him by some authors.――――An
oppressive prefect of the pretorian guards, in the reign of
Valentinian.
=Procas=, a king of Alba after his father Aventinus. He was father of
Amulius and Numitor. _Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 3.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 14, li. 622.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 767.
=Prochy̆ta=, an island of Campania in the bay of Puteoli, now _Procida_.
It was situated near Inarima, from which it was said that it had
been separated by an earthquake. It received its name, according to
Dionysius, from the nurse of Æneas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 2, li. 715.
――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 2.
=Procilius=, a Latin historian in the age of Pompey the Great. _Varro._
=Procilla Julia=, a woman of uncommon virtue, killed by the soldiers of
Otho. _Tacitus_, _Agricola_, ch. 4.
=Caius Valerius Procillus=, a prince of Gaul, intimate with Cæsar.
=Proclēa=, a daughter of Clitius, who married Cycnus, a son of Neptune.
_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 14.
=Procles=, a son of Aristodemus and Argia, born at the same birth
as Eurysthenes. There were continual dissensions between the two
brothers, who both sat on the Spartan throne, _See:_ Eurysthenes and
Lacedæmon.――――A native of Andros in the Ægean sea, who was crowned
at the Olympic games. _Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 14.――――A man who headed
the Ionians when they took Samos. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 4.――――A
Carthaginian writer, son of Eucrates. He wrote some historical
treatises, of which Pausanias has preserved some fragments.
_Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 35.――――A tyrant of Epidaurus, put to death
and thrown into the sea. _Plutarch_, _de Defectu Oraculorum_.――――A
general of the Naxians in Sicily, who betrayed his country to
Dionysius the tyrant for a sum of money.
=Proclidæ=, the descendants of Procles, who sat on the throne of Sparta,
together with the Eurysthenidæ. _See:_ Lacedæmon and Eurysthenes.
=Procne.= _See:_ Progne.
=Proconnēsus=, now _Marmora_, an island of the Propontis, at the
north-east of Cyzicus; also called _Elaphonnesus_ and _Neuris_. It
was famous for its fine marble. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 32.――_Strabo_,
bk. 13.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.
=Procopius=, a celebrated officer of a noble family in Cilicia, related
to the emperor Julian, with whom he lived in great intimacy. He
was universally admired for his integrity, but he was not destitute
of ambition or pride. After he had signalized himself under Julian
and his successor, he retired from the Roman provinces among the
barbarians in the Thracian Chersonesus, and some time after he
suddenly made his appearance at Constantinople, when the emperor
Valens had marched into the east, and he proclaimed himself master
of the eastern empire. His usurpation was universally acknowledged,
and his victories were so rapid, that Valens would have resigned
the imperial purple, had not his friends intervened. But now fortune
changed; Procopius was defeated in Phrygia, and abandoned by his army.
His head was cut off, and carried to Valentinian in Gaul, A.D. 366.
Procopius was slain in the 42nd year of his age, and he had usurped
the title of emperor for above eight months. _Ammianus Marcellinus_,
bks. 25 & 26.――――A Greek historian of Cæsarea in Palestine, secretary
to the celebrated Belisarius, A.D. 534. He wrote the history of
the reign of Justinian, and greatly celebrated the hero, whose
favours and patronage he enjoyed. This history is divided into eight
books, two of which give an account of the Persian war, two of the
Vandals, and four of the Goths, to the year 553, which was afterwards
continued in five books by Agathias till 559. Of this performance the
character is great, though perhaps the historian is often too severe
on the emperor. The works of Procopius were edited in 2 vols., folio,
Paris, 1662.
=Procris=, a daughter of Erechtheus king of Athens. She married
Cephalus. _See:_ Cephalus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 445.――――A
daughter of Thestius.
=Procrustes=, a famous robber of Attica, killed by Theseus near the
Cephisus. He tied travellers on a bed, and if their length exceeded
that of the bed, he used to cut it off, but if they were shorter,
he had them stretched to make their length equal to it. He is called
by some Damastes and Polypemon. _Ovid_, _Heroides_, poem 2, li. 69;
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 9, li. 43.――_Plutarch_, _Theseus_.
=Procŭla=, a prostitute in Juvenal’s age, satire 2, li. 68.
=Procūleius=, a Roman knight, very intimate with Augustus. He is
celebrated for his humanity and paternal kindness to his brothers
Muræna and Scipio, with whom he divided his possessions, after they
had forfeited their estates, and incurred the displeasure of Augustus
for siding with young Pompey. He was sent by Augustus to Cleopatra,
to endeavour to bring her alive into his presence, but to no purpose.
He destroyed himself when labouring under a heavy disease. _Horace_,
bk. 2, ode 2.――_Plutarch_, _Antonius_.――_Pliny_, bk. 36, ch. 24.――――A
debauchee in Nero’s reign. _Juvenal_, satire 1, li. 40.
=Procŭlus Julius=, a Roman who, after the death of Romulus, declared
that he had seen him in his appearance more than human, and that
he had ordered him to bid the Romans to offer him sacrifices under
the name of Quirinus, and to rest assured that Rome was destined by
the gods to become the capital of the world. _Plutarch_, _Romulus_.
――_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 16.――――Geganius, a Roman consul.――――Placitius,
a Roman who conquered the Hernici.――――A friend of Vitellius.――――A
consul under Nerva.――――A man accused of extortion.――――An African in
the age of Aurelius. He published a book entitled _de regionibus_,
or _religionibus_, on foreign countries, &c.――――An officer who
proclaimed himself emperor in Gaul, in the reign of Probus. He was
soon after defeated, and exposed on a gibbet. He was very debauched
and licentious in his manners, and had acquired riches by piratical
excursions.
=Procyon=, a star near Sirius, or the dog-star, before which it
generally rises in July. Cicero calls it _Anticanis_, which is of the
same signification (προ κυων). _Horace_, bk. 3, ode 29.――_Cicero_,
_de Natura Deorum_, bk. 2, ch. 44.
=Prodĭcus=, a sophist and rhetorician of Cos, about 396 years before
Christ. He was sent as ambassador by his countrymen to Athens, where
he publicly taught, and had among his pupils Euripides, Socrates,
Theramenes, and Isocrates. He travelled from town to town in Greece,
to procure admirers and get money. He made his auditors pay to hear
him harangue, which has given occasion to some of the ancients to
speak of the orations of Prodicus for 50 drachmas. In his writings,
which were numerous, he composed a beautiful episode, in which virtue
and pleasure were introduced, as attempting to make Hercules one of
their votaries. The hero at last yielded to the charms of virtue and
rejected pleasure. This has been imitated by Lucian. Prodicus was at
last put to death by the Athenians on pretence that he corrupted the
morals of their youth. _Xenophon_, _Memorabilia_.
=Proerna=, a town of Phthiotis. _Livy_, bk. 63, ch. 14.
=Prœrosia=, a surname of Ceres. Her festivals, celebrated at Athens and
Eleusis before the sowing of corn, bore the same name. _Meursius_,
_Eleusinia_.
=Prœtĭdes=, the daughters of Prœtus king of Argolis, were three
in number, Lysippe, Iphinoe, and Iphianassa. They became insane
for neglecting the worship of Bacchus, or, according to others,
for preferring themselves to Juno, and they ran about the fields,
believing themselves to be cows, and flying away not to be harnessed
to the plough or to the chariot. Prœtus applied to Melampus to cure
his daughters of their insanity, but he refused to employ him when he
demanded the third part of his kingdom as a reward. This neglect of
Prœtus was punished, the insanity became contagious, and the monarch
at last promised Melampus two parts of his kingdom and one of his
daughters, if he would restore them and the Argian women to their
senses. Melampus consented, and after he had wrought the cure, he
married the most beautiful of the Prœtides. Some have called them
Lysippe, Ipponoe, and Cyrianassa. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 2.
――_Virgil_, _Eclogues_, poem 6, li. 48.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 15.――_Lactantius [Placidus]_ on _Statius_, _Thebaid_, bks. 1 & 3.
=Prœtus=, a king of Argos, son of Abas and Ocalea. He was twin brother
to Acrisius, with whom he quarrelled even before their birth. This
dissension between the two brothers increased with their years. After
their father’s death, they both tried to obtain the kingdom of Argos;
but the claims of Acrisius prevailed, and Prœtus left Peloponnesus
and retired to the court of Jobates king of Lycia, where he married
Stenobœa, called by some Antea or Antiope. He afterwards returned to
Argolis, and by means of his father-in-law he made himself master of
Tirynthus. Stenobœa had accompanied her husband to Greece, and she
became by him mother of the Prœtides, and of a son called Megapenthes,
who after his father’s death succeeded on the throne of Tirynthus.
_See:_ Stenobœa. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 6, li. 160.――_Apollodorus_,
bk. 2, ch. 2.
=Progne=, a daughter of Pandion king of Athens by Zeuxippe. She married
Tereus king of Thrace, by whom she had a son called Itylus or Itys.
_See:_ Philomela.
=Prolăus=, a native of Elis, father to Philanthus and Lampus by Lysippe.
_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 2.
=Promăchus=, one of the Epigoni, son of Parthenopæus. _Pausanias_,
bk. 2, ch. 20.――――A son of Psophis daughter of Eryx king of Sicily.
_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 34.――――An athlete of Pallene.――――A son of
Æson, killed by Pelias. _Apollodorus._
=Promathĭdas=, an historian of Heraclea.
=Promathion=, a man who wrote a history of Italy. _Plutarch_, _Romulus_.
=Promĕdon=, a native of the island of Naxos, &c.
=Promenæa=, one of the priestesses of the temple of Dodona. It was from
her that Herodotus received the tradition that two doves had flown
from Thebes in Egypt, one to Dodona, and the other to the temple of
Jupiter Ammon, where they gave oracles.――_Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 55.
=Promethei jugum= and =antrum=, a place on the top of mount Caucasus,
in Albania.
=Promētheus=, a son of Iapetus by Clymene, one of the Oceanides. He was
brother to Atlas, Menœtius, and Epimetheus, and surpassed all mankind
in cunning and fraud. He ridiculed the gods, and deceived Jupiter
himself. He sacrificed two bulls, and filled their skins, one with
the flesh and the other with the bones, and asked the father of the
gods which of the two he preferred as an offering. Jupiter became
the dupe of his artifice, and chose the bones, and from that time
the priests of the temples were ever after ordered to burn the whole
victims on the altars, the flesh and the bones altogether. To punish
Prometheus and the rest of mankind, Jupiter took fire away from the
earth, but the son of Iapetus outwitted the father of the gods. He
climbed the heavens by the assistance of Minerva, and stole fire from
the chariot of the sun, which he brought down upon the earth at the
end of a ferula. This provoked Jupiter the more; he ordered Vulcan
to make a woman of clay, and after he had given her life, he sent her
to Prometheus, with a box of the richest and most valuable presents
which she had received from the gods. _See:_ Pandora. Prometheus, who
suspected Jupiter, took no notice of Pandora or her box, but he made
his brother Epimetheus marry her, and the god, now more irritated,
ordered Mercury, or Vulcan, according to Æschylus, to carry this
artful mortal to mount Caucasus, and there tie him to a rock, where
for 30,000 years a vulture was to feed upon his liver, which was
never diminished, though continually devoured. He was delivered from
this painful confinement about 30 years afterwards by Hercules, who
killed the bird of prey. The vulture, or, according to others, the
eagle which devoured the liver of Prometheus, was born from Typhon
and Echidna. According to Apollodorus, Prometheus made the first man
and woman that ever were upon the earth with clay, which he animated
by means of the fire which he had stolen from heaven. On this account,
therefore, the Athenians raised him an altar in the grove of Academus,
where they yearly celebrated games to his honour. During these games
there was a race, and he who carried a burning torch in his hand
without extinguishing it obtained the prize. Prometheus, as it is
universally credited, had received the gift of prophecy; and all the
gods, and even Jupiter himself, consulted him as a most infallible
oracle. To him mankind are indebted for the invention of many of the
useful arts; he taught them the use of plants, with their physical
power, and from him they received the knowledge of taming horses
and different animals, either to cultivate the ground, or for
the purposes of luxury. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_, lis. 510 & 550.
――_Apollodorus_, bks. 1 & 2.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 30; bk. 5,
ch. 11.――_Hyginus_, fable 144.――_Aeschylus_, _Prometheus Bound_.
――_Virgil_, _Eclogues_, poem 6.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1,
li. 82.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ode 3.――_Seneca_, _Medea_, li. 823.
=Promēthis= and =Promethīdes=, a patronymic applied to the children
of Prometheus, as to Deucalion, &c. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 10,
li. 390.
=Promethus= and =Damasichthon=, two sons of Codrus, who conducted
colonies into Asia Minor. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 3.
=Promŭlus=, a Trojan killed by Turnus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9,
li. 574.
=Pronapĭdes=, an ancient Greek poet of Athens, who was, according to
some, preceptor to Homer. It is said that he first taught the Greeks
how to write from the left to the right, contrary to the custom of
writing from the right to the left, which is still observed by some
of the eastern nations. _Diodorus_, bk. 3.
=Pronax=, a brother of Adrastus king of Argos, son of Talaus and
Lysimache. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 18.
=Pronoe=, a daughter of Phorbas, mother of Pleuron and Calydon by Æolus.
=Pronŏmus=, a Theban who played so skilfully on the lute, that
the invention of that musical instrument is attributed to him.
_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 12.――_Athenæus_, bk. 14, ch. 7.
=Pronous=, a son of Phlegeas, killed by the sons of Alcmæon.
=Pronŭba=, a surname of Juno, because she presided over marriages.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 4, li. 166.
=Propertius Sextus Aurelius=, a Latin poet born at Mevania, in Umbria.
His father was a Roman knight, whom Augustus proscribed, because
he had followed the interest of Antony. He came to Rome, where his
genius and poetical talents soon recommended him to the notice of the
great and powerful. Mecænas, Gallus, and Virgil became his friends,
and Augustus his patron. Mecænas wished him to attempt an epic poem,
of which he proposed the emperor for hero; but Propertius refused,
observing that his abilities were unequal to the task. He died
about 19 years before Christ, in the 40th year of his age. His works
consist of four books of elegies, which are written with so much
spirit, vivacity, and energy, that many authors call him the prince
of the elegiac poets among the Latins. His poetry, though elegant,
is not free from faults, and the many lascivious expressions which
he uses deservedly expose him to censure. Cynthia, who is the heroine
of all his elegies, was a Roman lady, whose real name was Hostia, or
Hostilia, of whom the poet was deeply enamoured. Though Mevania is
more generally supposed to be the place of his birth, yet four other
cities of Umbria have disputed the honour of it; Hespillus, Ameria,
Perusia, and Assisium. The best edition is that of Santenius, 4to,
Utrecht, 1780; and when published together with Catullus and Tibullus,
those of Grævius, 8vo, Utrecht, 1680, and of Vulpius, 4 vols.,
Patavii, 1737, 1749, 1755, and the edition of Barbou, 12mo, Paris,
1754. _Ovid_, _Tristia_, bk. 2, li. 465; bk. 4, poem 10, li. 55;
_De Ars Amatoria_, bk. 3, li. 333.――_Martial_, bk. 8, ltr. 73; bk. 14,
ltr. 189.――_Quintilian_, bk. 10, ch. 1.――_Pliny_, bk. 6, _Letters_;
bk. 9, ltr. 22.
=Propœtĭdes=, some women of Cyprus, severely punished by Venus,
whose divinity they had despised. They sent their daughters to the
sea-shore, where they prostituted themselves to strangers. The poets
have feigned that they were changed into stones, on account of their
insensibility to every virtuous sentiment. _Justin_, bk. 18, ch. 5.
――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 10, li. 238.
=Propontis=, a sea which has a communication with the Euxine, by the
Thracian Bosphorus, and with the Ægean by the Hellespont, now called
the sea of _Marmora_. It is about 175 miles long and 62 broad, and
it received its name from its vicinity to Pontus. _Mela_, bk. 1,
ch. 19.――_Strabo_, bk. 2.――_Ovid_, bk. 1; _Tristia_, bk. 9, li. 29.
――_Propertius_, bk. 3, poem 22.
=Propylea=, a surname of Diana. She had a temple at Eleusis in Attica.
=Proselystius=, a surname of Neptune among the Greeks. _Pausanias_,
bk. 2.
=Proserpĭna=, a daughter of Ceres by Jupiter, called by the Greeks
_Persephone_. She was so beautiful, that the father of the gods
himself became enamoured of her, and deceived her by changing himself
into a serpent, and folding her in his wreaths. Proserpine made
Sicily the place of her residence, and delighted herself with the
beautiful views, the flowery meadows, and limpid streams, which
surrounded the plains of Enna. In this solitary retreat, as she
amused herself with her female attendants in gathering flowers, Pluto
carried her away into the infernal regions, of which she became the
queen. _See:_ Pluto. Ceres was so disconsolate at the loss of her
daughter, that she travelled all over the world, but her inquiries
were in vain, and she never could have discovered whither she had
been carried, had not she found the girdle of Proserpine on the
surface of the waters of the fountain Cyane, near which the ravisher
had opened himself a passage to his kingdom by striking the earth
with his trident. Ceres soon learned from the nymph Arethusa that her
daughter had been carried away by Pluto, and immediately she repaired
to Jupiter, and demanded of him to punish the ravisher. Jupiter in
vain attempted to persuade the mother that Pluto was not unworthy
of her daughter, and when he saw that she was inflexible for the
restitution of Proserpine, he said that she might return on earth,
if she had not taken any aliments in the infernal regions. Her return,
however, was impossible. Proserpine, as she walked in the Elysian
fields, had gathered a pomegranate from a tree and eaten it, and
Ascalaphus was the only one who saw it, and for his discovery the
goddess instantly turned him into an owl. Jupiter, to appease the
resentment of Ceres, and soothe her grief, permitted that Proserpine
should remain six months with Pluto in the infernal regions, and
that she should spend the rest of the year with her mother on earth.
As queen of hell, and wife of Pluto, Proserpine presided over the
death of mankind, and, according to the opinion of the ancients, no
one could die, if the goddess herself, or Atropos her minister, did
not cut off one of the hairs from the head. From this superstitious
belief, it was usual to cut off some of the hair of the deceased, and
to strew it at the door of the house, as an offering for Proserpine.
The Sicilians were very particular in their worship to Proserpine,
and as they believed that the fountain Cyane had risen from the earth
at the very place where Pluto had opened himself a passage, they
annually sacrificed there a bull, of which they suffered the blood
to run into the water. Proserpine was universally worshipped by
the ancients, and she was known by the different names of _Core_,
_Theogamia_, _Libitina_, _Hecate_, _Juno inferna_, _Anthesphoria_,
_Cotyto_, _Deois_, _Libera_, &c. _Plutarch_, _Lucullus_.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 8, ch. 37; bk. 9, ch. 31.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, fable
6; _Fasti_, bk. 4, li. 417.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 4, li. 698;
bk. 6, li. 138.――_Strabo_, bk. 7.――_Diodorus_, bk. 5.――_Cicero_,
_Against Verres_, bk. 4.――_Hyginus_, fable 146.――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 3.――_Orpheus_, _Hymn 28_.――_Claudian_,
_de Raptu Proserpinæ_.
=Prosopītis=, an island in one of the mouths of the Nile. _Herodotus_,
bk. 2, ch. 4.
=Prosper=, one of the fathers who died A.D. 466. His works have been
edited by Mangeant, folio, Paris, 1711.
=Prosymna=, a part of Argolis, where Juno was worshipped. It received
its name from a nymph of the same name, daughter of Asterion, who
nursed Juno. _Pausanias_, bk. 2.
=Protagŏras=, a Greek philosopher of Abdera in Thrace, who was
originally a porter. He became one of the disciples of Democritus,
when that philosopher had seen him carrying faggots on his head,
poised in a proper equilibrium. He soon rendered himself ridiculous
by his doctrines, and in a book which he published, he denied the
existence of a Supreme Being. This doctrine he supported by observing,
that his doubts arose from the uncertainty of the existence of a
Supreme Power, and from the shortness of human life. This book was
publicly burnt at Athens, and the philosopher banished from the city,
as a worthless and contemptible being. Protagoras visited from Athens
different islands in the Mediterranean, and died in Sicily in a very
advanced age, about 400 years before the christian era. He generally
reasoned by dilemmas, and always left the mind in suspense about all
the questions which he proposed. Some suppose that he was drowned.
_Diogenes Laërtius_, bk. 9.――♦_Plato_, _Protagoras_.――――A king of
Cyprus, tributary to the court of Persia.――――Another.
♦ ‘Plutarch’ replaced with ‘Plato’
=Protagorĭdes=, an historian of Cyzicus, who wrote a treatise on the
games of Daphne, celebrated at Antioch.
=Protei columnæ=, a place in the remotest parts of Egypt. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 11, li. 262.
=Protesilai turris=, the monument of Protesilaus, on the Hellespont.
_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 11.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 2.
=Prōtĕsĭlāus=, a king of part of Thessaly, son of Iphiclus, originally
called Iolaus, grandson of Phylacus, and brother to Alcimede the
mother of Jason. He married Laodamia the daughter of Acastus, and
some time after he departed with the rest of the Greeks for the
Trojan war with 40 sail. He was the first of the Greeks who set
foot on the Trojan shore, and as such he was doomed by the oracle
to perish, therefore he was killed as soon as he had leaped from his
ship, by Æneas or Hector. Homer has not mentioned the person who
killed him. His wife Laodamia destroyed herself when she heard of
his death. _See:_ Laodamia. Protesilaus has received the patronymic
of _Phylacides_ either because he was descended from Phylace, or
because he was a native of Phylace. He was buried on the Trojan
shore, and, according to Pliny, there were near his tomb certain
trees which grew to an extraordinary height, which, as soon as they
could be discovered and seen from Troy, immediately withered and
decayed, and afterwards grew up again to their former height, and
suffered the same vicissitude. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2, li. 205.
――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12, fable 1; _Heroides_, poem 13,
li. 17.――_Propertius_, bk. 1, poem 19.――_Hyginus_, fable 103, &c.
=Proteus=, a sea deity, son of Oceanus and Tethys, or, according to
some, of Neptune and Phœnice. He had received the gift of prophecy
from Neptune because he had tended the monsters of the sea, and from
his knowledge of futurity mankind received the greatest services.
He usually resided in the Carpathian sea, and, like the rest of
the gods, he reposed himself on the sea-shore, where such as wished
to consult him generally resorted. He was difficult of access, and
when consulted he refused to give answers, by immediately assuming
different shapes, and if not properly secured in fetters, eluding the
grasp in the form of a tiger, or a lion, or disappearing in a flame
of fire, a whirlwind, or a rushing stream. Aristæus and Menelaus
were in the number of those who consulted him, as also Hercules.
Some suppose that he was originally king of Egypt, known among his
subjects by the name of Cetes, and they assert that he had two sons,
Telegonus and Polygonus, who were both killed by Hercules. He had
also some daughters, among whom were Cabira, Eidothea, and Rhetia.
_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 4, li. 360.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 8,
fable 10; _Amores_, poem 12, li. 36.――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 243.
――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 4, li. 387.――_Hyginus_, fable 118.
――_Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 112.――_Diodorus_, bk. 1.
=Prothēnor=, a Bœotian who went to the Trojan war. _Homer_, _Iliad_,
bk. 2.
=Protheus=, a Greek at the Trojan war.――――A Spartan who endeavoured to
prevent a war with the Thebans.
=Prothous=, a son of Lycaon of Arcadia. _Apollodorus._――――A son of
Agrius.
=Proto=, one of the Nereides. _Apollodorus._
=Protogenēa=, a daughter of Calydon, by Æolia the daughter of Amythaon.
She had a son called Oxylus by Mars. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1.
=Protogĕnes=, a painter of Rhodes, who flourished about 328 years
before Christ. He was originally so poor that he painted ships to
maintain himself. His countrymen were ignorant of his ingenuity
before Apelles came to Rhodes, and offered to buy all his pieces.
This opened the eyes of the Rhodians; they became sensible of the
merit of their countrymen, and liberally rewarded him. Protogenes
was employed for seven years in finishing a picture of Jalysus,
a celebrated huntsman, supposed to have been the son of Apollo,
and the founder of Rhodes. During all this time the painter lived
upon lupines and water, thinking that such aliments would leave him
greater flights of fancy; but all this did not seem to make him more
successful in the perfection of his picture. He was to represent in
the piece a dog panting, and with froth at his mouth, but this he
never could do with satisfaction to himself; and when all his labours
seemed to be without success, he threw his sponge upon the piece in
a fit of anger. Chance alone brought to perfection what the utmost
labours of art could not do; the fall of the sponge upon the picture
represented the froth of the mouth of the dog in the most perfect
and natural manner, and the piece was universally admired. Protogenes
was very exact in his representations, and copied nature with the
greatest nicety, but this was blamed as a fault by his friend Apelles.
When Demetrius besieged Rhodes he refused to set fire to a part of
the city which might have made him master of the whole, because he
knew that Protogenes was then working in that quarter. When the town
was taken, the painter was found closely employed in a garden in
finishing a picture; and when the conqueror asked him why he showed
not more concern at the general calamity, he replied, that Demetrius
made war against the Rhodians, and not against the fine arts.
_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 3.――_Pliny_, bk. 35, ch. 10.――_Ælian_,
_Varia Historia_, bk. 12.――_Juvenal_, satire 3, li. 120.――_Plutarch_,
_Demetrius_.――――One of Caligula’s favourites, famous for his cruelty
and extravagance.
=Protogenīa=, a daughter of Deucalion and Pyrrha. She was beloved
by Jupiter, by whom she had Æthlius the father of Endymion.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 7.――_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 1.――_Hyginus_,
fable 155.――――Another. _See:_ Protogenea.
=Protomedūsa=, one of the Nereides, called Protomelia by Hesiod.
_Theogony_, li. 245.
=Proxĕnus=, a Bœotian of great authority at Thebes, in the age of
Xenophon. _Polyænus._――――A writer who published historical accounts
of Sparta. _Athenæus._
=Prudentius Aurelius Clemens=, a Latin poet who flourished A.D. 392,
and was successively a soldier, an advocate, and a judge. His poems
are numerous, and all theological, devoid of the elegance and purity
of the Augustan age, and yet greatly valued. The best editions are
the Delphin, 4to, Paris, 1687; that of Cellarius, 12mo, Halæ, 1703;
and that of Parma, 2 vols., 4to, 1788.
=Prumnides=, a king of Corinth.
=Prusa=, a town of Bithynia, built by king Prusias, from whom it
received its name. _Strabo_, bk. 12.――_Pliny_, bk. 10, ltr. 16.
=Prusæus Dion=, flourished A.D. 105.
=Prusias=, a king of Bithynia, who flourished 221 B.C.――――Another,
surnamed _Venator_, who made an alliance with the Romans when they
waged war with Antiochus king of Syria. He gave a kind reception
to Annibal, and by his advice he made war against Eumenes king of
Pergamus, and defeated him. Eumenes, who was an ally of Rome as well
as Prusias, complained before the Romans of the hostilities of the
king of Bithynia. Quinctius Flaminius was sent from Rome to settle
the disputes of the two monarchs, and he was no sooner arrived in
Bithynia, than Prusias, to gain his favour, prepared to deliver to
him, at his request, the celebrated Carthaginian, to whom he was
indebted for all the advantages which he had obtained over Eumenes;
but Annibal prevented it by a voluntary death. Prusias was obliged
by the Roman ambassador to make a restitution of the provinces he
had conquered, and by his meanness he continued to enjoy the favours
of the Romans. When some time after he visited the capital of Italy,
he appeared in the habit of a manumitted slave, calling himself
the freedman of the Romans; and when he was introduced into the
senate-house, he saluted the senators by the name of visible deities,
of saviours and deliverers. Such abject behaviour rendered him
contemptible not only in the eyes of the Romans, but of his subjects,
and when he returned home the Bithynians revolted, and placed his
son Nicomedes on the throne. The banished monarch fled to Nicomedia,
where he was assassinated near the altar of Jupiter, about 149 years
before Christ. Some say that his son became his murderer. Prusias,
according to Polybius, was the meanest of monarchs, without honesty,
without morals, virtue, or principle; he was cruel and cowardly,
intemperate and voluptuous, and an enemy to all learning. He was
naturally deformed, and he often appeared in public in the habit of
a woman, to render his deformities more visible. _Polybius._――_Livy._
――_Justin_, bk. 31, &c.――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Hannibal_.――_Plutarch_,
_Titus Flamininus_, &c.
=Prymno=, one of the Oceanides.
=Prytănes=, certain magistrates at Athens who presided over the senate,
and had the privilege of assembling it when they pleased, festivals
excepted. They generally met in a large hall, called _prytaneum_,
where they gave audiences, offered sacrifices, and feasted together
with all those who had rendered signal service to their country. The
Prytanes were elected from the senators which were in number 500,
50 of which were chosen from each tribe. When they were elected, the
names of the 10 tribes of Athens were thrown into one vessel, and in
another were placed nine black beans and a white one. The tribe whose
name was drawn with the white bean, presided the first, and the rest
in the order in which they were drawn. They presided each for 35 days,
as the year was divided into 10 parts; but it is unknown what tribe
presided the rest of those days which were supernumerary. When the
number of tribes was increased to 12, each of the Prytanes presided
one full month.――――Some of the principal magistrates of Corinth were
also called Prytanes.
=Prytănis=, a king of Sparta, of the family of the Proclidæ.
_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 36.――――One of the friends of Æneas killed by
Turnus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 767.
=Psamăthe=, one of the Nereides, mother of Phocus by Æacus king of
Ægina. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 12.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 11,
li. 398.――_Flaccus_, ♦bk. 1, li. 364.――――A daughter of Crotopus king
of Argos. She became mother of Linus by Apollo, and to conceal her
shame from her father, she exposed her child, which was found by dogs
and torn to pieces. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 43.――――A fountain and
town of Thebes. _Flaccus_, bk. 1, li. 364.
♦ Book reference omitted in text.
=Psamathos=, a town and port of Laconia. _Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 25.
=Psammenītus=, succeeded his father Amasis on the throne of Egypt.
Cambyses made war against him, and as he knew that the Egyptians
paid the greatest veneration to cats, the Persian monarch placed some
of these animals at the head of his army, and the enemy, unable to
defend themselves, and unwilling to kill those objects of adoration,
were easily conquered. Psammenitus was twice beaten at Pelusium and
in Memphis, and became one of the prisoners of Cambyses, who treated
him with great humanity. Psammenitus, however, raised seditions
against the Persian monarch; and attempted to make the Egyptians
rebel, for which he was put to death by drinking bull’s blood. He had
reigned about six months. He flourished about 525 years before the
christian era. _Herodotus_, bk. 3, ch. 10, &c.
=Psammetĭchus=, a king of Egypt. He was one of the 12 princes who
shared the kingdom among themselves; but as he was more popular
than the rest, he was banished from his dominions, and retired into
the marshes near the sea-shore. A descent of some of the Greeks
upon Egypt proved favourable to his cause: he joined the enemy,
and defeated the 11 princes who had expelled him from the country.
He rewarded the Greeks, by whose valour he had recovered Egypt, he
allotted them some territory on the sea-coast, patronized the liberal
arts, and encouraged commerce among his subjects. He made useless
inquiries to find the sources of the Nile, and he stopped, by bribes
and money, a large army of Scythians that were marching against
him. He died 617 years before the christian era, and was buried in
Minerva’s temple at Sais. During his reign there was a contention
among some of the neighbouring nations about the antiquity of their
language. Psammetichus took a part in the contest. He confined
two young children and fed them with milk; the shepherd to whose
care they were entrusted was ordered never to speak to them, but to
watch diligently their articulations. After some time the shepherd
observed, that whenever he entered the place of their confinement
they repeatedly exclaimed _Beccos_, and he gave information of this
to the monarch. Psammetichus made inquiries, and found that the word
_Beccos_ signified bread in the Phœnician language, and from that
circumstance, therefore, it was universally concluded that the
language of Phœnicia was of the greatest antiquity. _Herodotus_,
bk. 2, ch. 28, &c.――_Polyænus_, bk. 8.――_Strabo_, bk. 16.――――A son
of Gordius, brother to Periander, who held the tyranny at Corinth
for three years, B.C. 584. _Aristotle_, _Politics_, bk. 5, ch. 12.
=Psammis=, or =Psammuthis=, a king of Egypt, B.C. 376.
=Psaphis=, a town on the confines of Attica and Bœotia. There was there
an oracle of Amphiaraus.
=Psapho=, a Libyan who taught a number of birds which he kept to say,
“Psapho is a god,” and afterwards gave them their liberty. The birds
did not forget the words which they had been taught, and the Africans
paid divine honours to Psapho. _Ælian._
=Psecas=, one of Diana’s attendant nymphs. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 3.
=Psophis=, a town of Arcadia near the river Erymanthus, whose name it
originally bore, and afterwards that of Phegia. _Statius_, _Thebaid_,
bk. 4, li. 296.――_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 24.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 5, li. 607.――――A river and town of Elis.――――A daughter of Eryx.
――――A town of Acarnania.――――Another of Libya.
=Psyche=, a nymph whom Cupid married and carried into a place of bliss,
where he long enjoyed her company. Venus put her to death because
she had robbed the world of her son; but Jupiter, at the request of
Cupid, granted immortality to Psyche. The word signifies _the soul_,
and this personification of Psyche first mentioned by Apuleius is
posterior to the Augustan age, though still it is connected with
ancient mythology. Psyche is generally represented with the wings
of a butterfly, to intimate the lightness of the soul, of which the
butterfly is the symbol, and on that account, among the ancients,
when a man had just expired, a butterfly appeared fluttering above,
as if rising from the mouth of the deceased.
=Psychrus=, a river of Thrace. When sheep drank of its waters they were
said always to bring forth black lambs. _Aristotle._
=Psylli=, a people of Libya near the Syrtes, very expert in curing
the venomous bite of serpents, which had no fatal effect upon them.
_Strabo_, bk. 17.――_Dio Cassius_, bk. 51, ch. 14.――_Lucan_, bk. 9,
lis. 894, 937.――_Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 173.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9,
ch. 28.
=Pteleum=, a town of Thessaly on the borders of Bœotia. _Lucan_, bk. 6,
li. 852.――_Livy_, bk. 35, ch. 43.
=Pterelaus=, a son of Taphius, presented with immortality from Neptune,
provided he kept on his head a yellow lock. His daughter cut it off
and he died. He reigned at Taphos in Argos, &c. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2,
ch. 4.
=Pteria=, a well-fortified town of Cappadocia. It was in the
neighbourhood, according to some, that Crœsus was defeated by Cyrus.
_Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 76.
=Ptolederma=, a town of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 27.
=Ptolemæum=, a certain place at Athens dedicated to exercise and study.
_Cicero_, bk. 5, _de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum_.
=Ptolemæus I.=, surnamed _Lagus_, a king of Egypt, son of Arsinoe, who,
when pregnant by Philip of Macedonia, married Lagus, a man of mean
extraction. _See:_ Lagus. Ptolemy was educated in the court of the
king of Macedonia; he became one of the friends and associates of
Alexander, and when that monarch invaded Asia, the son of Arsinoe
attended him as one of his generals. During the expedition, he
behaved with uncommon valour; he killed one of the Indian monarchs
in single combat, and it was to his prudence and courage that
Alexander was indebted for the reduction of the rock Aornus. After
the conqueror’s death, in the general division of the Macedonian
empire, Ptolemy obtained as his share the government of Egypt, with
Libya, and part of the neighbouring territories of Arabia. In this
appointment the governor soon gained the esteem of the people by
acts of kindness, by benevolence, and clemency; and though he did not
assume the title of independent monarch till 19 years after, yet he
was so firmly established, that the attempts of Perdiccas to drive
him away from his possessions proved abortive; and Ptolemy, after the
murder of his rival by Grecian soldiers, might have added the kingdom
of Macedonia to his Egyptian territories. He made himself master of
Cœlosyria, Phœnicia, and the neighbouring coast of Syria, and when he
had reduced Jerusalem, he carried about 100,000 prisoners to Egypt,
to people the extensive city of Alexandria, which became the capital
of his dominions. After he had rendered these prisoners the most
attached and faithful of his subjects by his liberality and the
grant of privileges, Ptolemy assumed the title of king of Egypt, and
soon after reduced Cyprus under his power. He made war with success
against Demetrius and Antigonus, who disputed his right to the
provinces of Syria, and from the assistance he gave to the people of
Rhodes against their common enemies, he received the name of _Soter_.
While he extended his dominions, Ptolemy was not negligent of the
advantages of his people. The bay of Alexandria being dangerous of
access, he built a tower to conduct the sailors in the obscurity of
the night [_See:_ Pharos], and that his subjects might be acquainted
with literature, he laid the foundation of a library, which, under
the succeeding reigns, became the most celebrated in the world. He
also established in the capital of his dominions a society called
_museum_, of which the members, maintained at the public expense,
were employed in philosophical researches, and in the advancement of
science and the liberal arts. Ptolemy died in the 84th year of his
age, after a reign of 39 years, about 284 years before Christ. He was
succeeded by his son Ptolemy Philadelphus, who had been his partner
on the throne the last 10 years of his reign. Ptolemy Lagus has been
commended for his abilities, not only as a sovereign, but as a writer,
and among the many valuable compositions which have been lost, we
are to lament a history of Alexander the Great, by the king of Egypt,
greatly admired and valued for elegance and authenticity. All his
successors were called _Ptolemies_ from him. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch.
7.――_Justin_, bk. 13, &c.――_Polybius_, bk. 2.――_Arrian._――_Curtius._
――_Plutarch_, _Alexander_.
=Ptolemæus II.=, son of Ptolemy I., succeeded his father on the
Egyptian throne, and was called _Philadelphus_ by antiphrasis,
because he killed two of his brothers. He showed himself worthy in
every respect to succeed his great father, and, conscious of the
advantages which arise from an alliance with powerful nations, he
sent ambassadors to Italy to solicit the friendship of the Romans,
whose name and military reputation had become universally known
for the victories which they had just obtained over Pyrrhus and
the Tarentines. His ambassadors were received with marks of the
greatest attention, and immediately after four Roman senators came
to Alexandria, where they gained the admiration of the monarch and
of his subjects, and, by refusing the crowns of gold and the rich
presents which were offered to them, convinced the world of the
virtue and of the disinterestedness of their nation. But while
Ptolemy strengthened himself by alliance with foreign powers, the
internal peace of his kingdom was disturbed by the revolt of Magas
his brother, king of Cyrene. The sedition, however, was stopped,
though kindled by Antiochus king of Syria, and the death of the
rebellious prince re-established peace for some time in the family of
Philadelphus. Antiochus the Syrian king married Berenice the daughter
of Ptolemy, and the father, though old and infirm, conducted his
daughter to her husband’s kingdom, and assisted at the nuptials.
Philadelphus died in the 64th year of his age, 246 years before
the christian era. He left two sons and a daughter by Arsinoe the
daughter of Lysimachus. He had afterwards married his sister Arsinoe,
whom he loved with uncommon tenderness, and to whose memory he began
to erect a celebrated monument. _See:_ Dinocrates. During the whole
of his reign, Philadelphus was employed in exciting industry, and in
encouraging the liberal arts and useful knowledge among his subjects.
The inhabitants of the adjacent countries were allured by promises
and presents to increase the number of the Egyptian subjects, and
Ptolemy could boast of reigning over 33,339 well-peopled cities.
He gave every possible encouragement to commerce, and by keeping
two powerful fleets, one in the Mediterranean, and the other in the
Red sea, he made Egypt the mart of the world. His army consisted of
200,000 foot, 40,000 horse, besides 300 elephants and 2000 armed
chariots. With justice, therefore, he has been called the richest
of all the princes and monarchs of his age, and, indeed, the remark
is not false when it is observed, that at his death he left in his
treasury 750,000 Egyptian talents, a sum equivalent to two hundred
millions sterling. His palace was the asylum of learned men, whom
he admired and patronized. He paid particular attention to Euclid,
Theocritus, Callimachus, and Lycophron, and by increasing the library
which his father had founded, he showed his taste for learning, and
his wish to encourage genius. This celebrated library at his death
contained 200,000 volumes of the best and choicest books, and it
was afterwards increased to 700,000 volumes. Part of it was burnt by
the flames of Cæsar’s fleet when he set it on fire to save himself,
a circumstance, however, not mentioned by the general, and the whole
was again magnificently repaired by Cleopatra, who added to the
Egyptian library that of the kings of Pergamus. It is said that
the Old Testament was translated into Greek during his reign, a
translation which has been called Septuagint, because translated by
the labours of 70 different persons. _Eutropius._――_Justin_, bk. 17,
ch. 2, &c.――_Livy._――_Plutarch._――_Theocritus._――_Athenæus_, bk. 12.
――_Pliny_, bk. 13, ch. 12.――_Dio Cassius_, bk. 42.――_Aulus Gellius_,
bk. 6, ch. 17.
=Ptolemæus III.=, succeeded his father Philadelphus on the Egyptian
throne. He early engaged in a war against Antiochus Theus, for his
unkindness to Berenice, the Egyptian king’s sister, whom he had
married with the consent of Philadelphus. With the most rapid success
he conquered Syria and Cilicia, and advanced as far as the Tigris,
but a sedition at home stopped his progress, and he returned to
Egypt loaded with the spoils of conquered nations. Among the immense
riches which he brought, he had above 2500 statues of the Egyptian
gods, which Cambyses had carried away into Persia when he conquered
Egypt. These were restored to the temples, and the Egyptians called
their sovereign _Evergetes_, in acknowledgment of his attention,
beneficence, and religious zeal for the gods of his country. The
last years of Ptolemy’s reign were passed in peace, if we except the
refusal of the Jews to pay the tribute of 20 silver talents which
their ancestors had always paid to the Egyptian monarchs. He also
interested himself in the affairs of Greece, and assisted Cleomenes
the Spartan king against the leaders of the Achæan league; but he had
the mortification to see his ally defeated, and even a fugitive in
Egypt. Evergetes died 221 years before Christ, after a reign of 25
years, and, like his two illustrious predecessors, he was the patron
of learning, and, indeed, he is the last of the Lagides who gained
popularity among his subjects by clemency, moderation and humanity,
and who commanded respect even from his enemies, by valour, prudence,
and reputation. It is said that he deposited 15 talents in the
hands of the Athenians to be permitted to translate the original
manuscripts of Æschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles. _Plutarch_,
_Cleomenes_, &c.――_Polybius_, bk. 2.――_Justin_, bk. 29, &c.
=Ptolemæus IV.=, succeeded his father Evergetes on the throne of
Egypt, and received the surname of _Philopater_ by antiphrasis,
because, according to some historians, he destroyed his father by
poison. He began his reign with acts of the greatest cruelty, and
he successively sacrificed to his avarice his own mother, his wife,
his sister, and his brother. He received the name of _Tiphon_ from
his extravagance and debauchery, and that of _Gallus_, because he
appeared in the streets of Alexandria like one of the bacchanals,
and with all the gestures of the priests of Cybele. In the midst of
his pleasures, Philopater was called to war against Antiochus king
of Syria, and at the head of a powerful army he soon invaded his
enemies’ territories, and might have added the kingdom of Syria to
Egypt, if he had made a prudent use of the victories which attended
his arms. In his return he visited Jerusalem, but the Jews prevented
him forcibly from entering their temple, for which insolence to his
majesty the monarch determined to extirpate the whole nation. He
ordered an immense number of Jews to be exposed in a plain, and
trodden under the feet of elephants, but, by a supernatural instinct,
the generous animals turned their fury not on those that had been
devoted to death, but upon the Egyptian spectators. This circumstance
terrified Philopater, and he behaved with more than common kindness
to a nation which he had so lately devoted to destruction. In the
latter part of his reign, the Romans, whom a dangerous war with
Carthage had weakened, but at the same time roused to superior
activity, renewed, for political reasons, the treaty of alliance
which had been made with the Egyptian monarchs. Philopater at last,
weakened and enervated by intemperance and continual debauchery, died
in the 37th year of his age, after a reign of 17 years, 204 years
before the christian era. His death was immediately followed by the
murder of the companions of his voluptuousness and extravagance, and
their carcases were dragged with the greatest ignominy through the
streets of Alexandria. _Polybius._――_Justin_, bk. 30, &c.――_Plutarch_,
_Cleomenes_.
=Ptolemæus V.=, succeeded his father Philopater as king of Egypt,
though only in the fourth year of his age. During the years of his
minority he was under the protection of Sosibius and of Aristomenes,
by whose prudent administration Antiochus was dispossessed of the
provinces of Cœlosyria and Palestine, which he had conquered by
war. The Romans also renewed their alliance with him after their
victories over Annibal, and the conclusion of the second Punic war.
This flattering embassy induced Aristomenes to offer the care of
the patronage of the young monarch to the Romans, but the regent
was confirmed in his honourable office, and by making a treaty of
alliance with the people of Achaia, he convinced the Egyptians that
he was qualified to wield the sceptre and to govern the nation. But
now that Ptolemy had reached his 14th year, according to the laws and
customs of Egypt, the years of his minority had expired. He received
the surname of _Epiphanes_, or Illustrious, and was crowned at
Alexandria with the greatest solemnity, and the faithful Aristomenes
resigned into his hands an empire which he had governed with honour
to himself and with credit to his sovereign. Young Ptolemy was no
sooner delivered from the shackles of a superior, than he betrayed
the same vices which had characterized his father; the counsels of
Aristomenes were despised, and the minister who for 10 years had
governed the kingdom with equity and moderation, was sacrificed
to the caprice of the sovereign, who abhorred him for the salutary
advice which his own vicious inclinations did not permit him to
follow. His cruelties raised seditions among his subjects, but
these were twice quelled by the prudence and the moderation of one
Polycrates, the most faithful of his corrupt ministers. In the midst
of his extravagance, Epiphanes did not forget his alliance with
the Romans; above all others he showed himself eager to cultivate
friendship with a nation from whom he could derive so many advantages,
and during their war against Antiochus he offered to assist them with
money against a monarch whose daughter Cleopatra he had married, but
whom he hated on account of the seditions he raised in the very heart
of Egypt. After a reign of 24 years, 180 years before Christ, Ptolemy
was poisoned by his ministers, whom he had threatened to rob of their
possessions, to carry on a war against Seleucus king of Syria. _Livy_,
bk. 35, ch. 13, &c.――_Justin_, &c.
=Ptolemæus VI.=, succeeded his father Epiphanes on the Egyptian throne,
and received the surname of _Philometor_, on account of his hatred
against his mother Cleopatra. He was in the sixth year of his age
when he ascended the throne, and during his minority the kingdom was
governed by his mother, and at her death by a eunuch, who was one of
his favourites. He made war against Antiochus Epiphanes king of Syria,
to recover the provinces of Palestine and Cœlosyria, which were part
of the Egyptian dominions, and after several successes he fell into
the hands of his enemy, who detained him in confinement. During
the captivity of Philometor, the Egyptians raised to the throne his
younger brother Ptolemy Evergetes, or Physcon, also son of Epiphanes,
but he was no sooner established in his power than Antiochus
turned his arms against Egypt, drove the usurper ♦out, and restored
Philometor to all his rights and privileges as king of Egypt. This
artful behaviour of Antiochus was soon comprehended by Philometor,
and when he saw that Pelusium, the key of Egypt, had remained in
the hands of his Syrian ally, he recalled his brother Physcon,
and made him partner on the throne, and concerted with him how to
repel their common enemy. This union of interest in the two royal
brothers incensed Antiochus; he entered Egypt with a large army,
but the Romans checked his progress and obliged him to retire. No
sooner were they delivered from the impending war, than Philometor
and Physcon, whom the fear of danger had united, began with
mutual jealousy to oppose each other’s views. Physcon was at last
banished by the superior power of his brother, and as he could
find no support in Egypt, he immediately repaired to Rome. To
excite more effectually the compassion of the Romans, and to gain
their assistance, he appeared in the meanest dress, and took his
residence in the most obscure corner of the city. He received
an audience from the senate, and the Romans settled the dispute
between the two royal brothers, by making them independent of one
another, and giving the government of Libya and Cyrene to Physcon,
and confirming Philometor in the possession of Egypt, and the
island of Cyprus. These terms of accommodation were gladly accepted,
but Physcon soon claimed the dominion of Cyprus, and in this he
was supported by the Romans, who wished to aggrandize themselves by
the diminution of the Egyptian power. Philometor refused to deliver
up the island of Cyprus, and to call away his brother’s attention,
he fomented the seeds of rebellion in Cyrene. But the death of
Philometor, 145 years before the christian era, left Physcon master
of Egypt and all the dependent provinces. Philometor has been
commended by some historians for his clemency and moderation.
_Diodorus._――_Livy._――_Polybius._
♦ omitted word ‘out’ inserted
=Ptolemæus VII.=, surnamed Physcon, on account of the prominence of his
belly, ascended the throne of Egypt after the death of his brother
Philometer, and as he had reigned for some time conjointly with
him [_See:_ Ptolemæus VI.], his succession was approved, though the
wife and the son of the deceased monarch laid claim to the crown.
Cleopatra was supported in her claims by the Jews, and it was at last
agreed that Physcon should marry the queen, and that her son should
succeed on the throne at his death. The nuptials were accordingly
celebrated, but on that very day the tyrant murdered Cleopatra’s
son in her arms. He ordered himself to be called _Evergetes_,
but the Alexandrians refused to do it, and stigmatized him with
the appellation of _Kakergetes_, or evil-doer, a surname which
he deserved by his tyranny and oppression. A series of barbarity
rendered him odious, but as no one attempted to rid Egypt of her
tyranny, the Alexandrians abandoned their habitations, and fled from
a place which continually streamed with the blood of their massacred
fellow-citizens. If their migration proved fatal to the commerce
and prosperity of Alexandria, it was of the most essential service
to the countries where they retired; and the numbers of Egyptians
that sought a safer asylum in Greece and Asia, introduced among the
inhabitants of those countries the different professions that were
practised with success in the capital of Egypt. Physcon endeavoured
to repeople the city which his cruelty had laid desolate; but the
fear of sharing the fate of the former inhabitants, prevailed more
than the promise of riches, rights, and immunities. The king at last,
disgusted with Cleopatra, repudiated her, and married her daughter by
Philometor, called also Cleopatra. He still continued to exercise the
greatest cruelty upon his subjects, but the prudence and vigilance
of his ministers kept the people in tranquillity, till all Egypt
revolted when the king had basely murdered all the young men of
Alexandria. Without friends or support in Egypt he fled to Cyprus,
and Cleopatra the divorced queen ascended the throne. In his
banishment Physcon dreaded lest the Alexandrians should also place
the crown on the head of his son, by his sister Cleopatra, who was
then governor of Cyrene, and under these apprehensions he sent for
the young prince, called Memphitis, to Cyprus, and murdered him as
soon as he reached the shore. To make the barbarity more complete
he sent the limbs of Memphitis to Cleopatra, and they were received
as the queen was going to celebrate her birthday. Soon after this he
invaded Egypt with an army, and obtained a victory over the forces of
Cleopatra, who, being left without friends or assistance, fled to her
eldest daughter Cleopatra, who had married Demetrius king of Syria.
This decisive blow restored Physcon to his throne, where he continued
to reign for some time, hated by his subjects, and feared by his
enemies. He died at Alexandria in the 67th year of his age, after a
reign of 29 years, about 116 years before Christ. Some authors have
extolled Physcon for his fondness for literature; they have observed,
that from his extensive knowledge he was called the _philologist_,
and that he wrote a comment upon Homer, besides a history in 24 books,
admired for its elegance, and often quoted by succeeding authors
whose pen was employed on the same subject. _Diodorus._――_Justin_,
bk. 38, &c.――_Athenæus_, bk. 2.――_Porphyry._
=Ptolemæus VIII.=, surnamed _Lathyrus_, from an excrescence like a
pea on the nose, succeeded his father Physcon as king of Egypt. He
had no sooner ascended the throne, than his mother Cleopatra, who
reigned conjointly with him, expelled him to Cyprus, and placed the
crown on the head of his brother Ptolemy Alexander, her favourite
son. Lathyrus, banished from Egypt, became king of Cyprus; and soon
after he appeared at the head of a large army, to make war against
Alexander Jannæus king of Judæa, through whose assistance and
intrigue he had been expelled by Cleopatra. The Jewish monarch was
conquered, and 50,000 of his men were left on the field of battle.
Lathyrus, after he had exercised the greatest cruelty upon the Jews,
and made vain attempts to recover the kingdom of Egypt, retired to
Cyprus till the death of his brother Alexander restored him to his
native dominions. Some of the cities of Egypt refused to acknowledge
him as their sovereign; and Thebes, for its obstinacy, was closely
besieged for three successive years, and from a powerful and populous
city, it was reduced to ruins. In the latter part of his reign
Lathyrus was called upon to assist the Romans with a navy for the
conquest of Athens; but Lucullus, who had been sent to obtain the
wanted supply, though received with kingly honours, was dismissed
with evasive and unsatisfactory answers, and the monarch refused to
part with troops which he deemed necessary to preserve the peace of
his kingdom. Lathyrus died 81 years before the christian era, after a
reign of 36 years since the death of his father Physcon, 11 of which
he had passed with his mother Cleopatra on the Egyptian throne, 18 in
Cyprus, and seven after his mother’s death. He was succeeded by his
only daughter Cleopatra, whom Alexander the son of Ptolemy Alexander,
by means of the dictator Sylla, soon after married and murdered.
_Josephus_, _Jewish Antiquities_.――_Justin_, bk. 39.――_Plutarch_,
_Lucullus_.――_Appian_, _Mithridatic Wars_.
=Ptolemæus IX.= _See:_ Alexander Ptolemy I.
=Ptolemæus X.= _See:_ Alexander Ptolemy II.
=Ptolemæus XI.= _See:_ Alexander Ptolemy III.
=Ptolemæus XII.=, the illegitimate son of Lathyrus, ascended the throne
of Egypt at the death of Alexander III. He received the surname of
_Auletes_, because he played skilfully on the flute. His rise showed
great marks of prudence and circumspection; and as his predecessor
by his will had left the kingdom of Egypt to the Romans, Auletes
knew that he could not be firmly established on his throne without
the approbation of the Roman senate. He was successful in his
applications, and Cæsar, who was then consul, and in want of money,
established his succession, and granted him the alliance of the
Romans, after he had received the enormous sum of about 1,162,500_l._
sterling. But these measures rendered him unpopular at home, and when
he had suffered the Romans quietly to take possession of Cyprus, the
Egyptians revolted, and Auletes was obliged to fly from his kingdom,
and seek protection among the most powerful of his allies. His
complaints were heard at Rome, at first with indifference, and the
murder of 100 noblemen of Alexandria, whom the Egyptians had sent
to justify their proceedings before the Roman senate, rendered him
unpopular and suspected. Pompey, however, supported his cause, and
the senators decreed to re-establish Auletes on his throne; but as
they proceeded slowly in the execution of their plans, the monarch
retired from Rome to Ephesus, where he lay concealed for some time in
the temple of Diana. During his absence from Alexandria, his daughter
Berenice had made herself absolute, and established herself on the
throne by a marriage with Archelaus, a priest of Bellona’s temple
at Comana; but she was soon driven from Egypt, when Gabinius, at the
head of a Roman army, approached to replace Auletes on his throne.
Auletes was no sooner restored to power, than he ♦sacrificed to
his ambition his daughter Berenice, and behaved with the greatest
ingratitude and perfidy to Rabirius, a Roman who had supplied him
with money when expelled from his kingdom. Auletes died four years
after his restoration, about 51 years before the christian era. He
left two sons and two daughters; and by his will ordered the eldest
of his sons to marry the eldest of his sisters, and to ascend with
her the vacant throne. As these children were young, the dying
monarch recommended them to the protection and paternal care of the
Romans, and accordingly Pompey the Great was appointed by the senate
to be their patron and their guardian. Their reign was as turbulent
as that of their predecessors, and it is remarkable for no uncommon
events, only we may observe that the young queen was the Cleopatra
who soon after became so celebrated as being the mistress of Julius
Cæsar, the wife of Marcus Antony, and the last of the Egyptian
monarchs of the family of Lagus. _Cicero_, _For Rabirius_.――_Strabo_,
bk. 17.――_Dio Cassius_, bk. 39.――_Appian_, _Civil Wars_.
♦ ‘sacrified’ replaced with ‘sacrificed’
=Ptolemæus XIII.=, surnamed _Dionysius_ or _Bacchus_, ascended the
throne of Egypt conjointly with his sister Cleopatra, whom he had
married, according to the directions of his father Auletes. He was
under the care and protection of Pompey the Great [_See:_ Ptolemæus
XII.], but the wickedness and avarice of his ministers soon obliged
him to reign independent. He was then in the 13th year of his age,
when his guardian, after the fatal battle of Pharsalia, came to the
shores of Egypt, and claimed his protection. He refused to grant the
required assistance, and by the advice of his ministers he basely
murdered Pompey, after he had brought him to shore under the mask of
friendship and cordiality. To curry the favour of the conqueror of
Pharsalia, Ptolemy cut off the head of Pompey; but Cæsar turned with
indignation from such perfidy, and when he arrived at Alexandria,
he found the king of Egypt as faithless to his cause as to that of
his fallen enemy. Cæsar sat as judge to hear the various claims of
the brother and sister to the throne; and to satisfy the people, he
ordered the will of Auletes to be read, and confirmed Ptolemy and
Cleopatra in the possession of Egypt, and appointed the two younger
children masters of the island of Cyprus. This fair and candid
decision might have left no room for dissatisfaction, but Ptolemy was
governed by cruel and avaricious ministers, and therefore he refused
to acknowledge Cæsar as a judge or a mediator. The Roman enforced
his authority by arms, and three victories were obtained over the
Egyptian forces. Ptolemy, who had been for some time a prisoner in
the hands of Cæsar, now headed his armies; but a defeat was fatal,
and as he attempted to save his life by flight, he was drowned in the
Nile, about 46 years before Christ, and three years and eight months
after the death of Auletes. Cleopatra, at the death of her brother,
became sole mistress of Egypt; but as the Egyptians were no friends
to female government, Cæsar obliged her to marry her younger brother
Ptolemy, who was then in the 11th year of his age. _Appian_, _Civil
Wars_.――_Cæsar_, _Alexandrine War_.――_Strabo_, bk. 17.――_Josephus_,
_Antiquities_.――_Dio Cassius._――_Plutarch_, _Antonius_, &c.
――_Suetonius_ _Cæsar_.
=Ptolemæus Apion=, king of Cyrene, was the illegitimate son of Ptolemy
Physcon. After a reign of 20 years he died; and as he had no children,
he made the Romans heirs of his dominions. The Romans presented his
subjects with their independence. _Livy_, bk. 70.――――Ceraunus, a
son of Ptolemy Soter by Eurydice the daughter of Antipater. Unable
to succeed to the throne of Egypt, Ceraunus fled to the court of
Seleucus, where he was received with friendly marks of attention.
Seleucus was then king of Macedonia, an empire which he had lately
acquired by the death of Lysimachus in a battle in Phrygia; but his
reign was short, and Ceraunus perfidiously murdered him and ascended
his throne, 280 B.C. The murderer, however, could not be firmly
established in Macedonia, as long as Arsinoe the widow and the
children of Lysimachus were alive, and entitled to claim his kingdom
as the lawful possession of their father. To remove these obstacles,
Ceraunus made offers of marriage to Arsinoe, who was his own sister.
The queen at first refused, but the protestations and solemn promises
of the usurper at last prevailed upon her to consent. The nuptials,
however, were no sooner celebrated, than Ceraunus murdered the two
young princes, and confirmed his usurpation by rapine and cruelty.
But now three powerful princes claimed the kingdom of Macedonia
as their own: Antiochus the son of Seleucus; Antigonus the son of
Demetrius; and Pyrrhus the king of Epirus. These enemies, however,
were soon removed; Ceraunus conquered Antigonus in the field of
battle, and stopped the hostilities of his two other rivals by
promises and money. He did not long remain inactive; a barbarian
army of Gauls claimed a tribute from him, and the monarch immediately
marched to meet them in the field. The battle was long and bloody.
The Macedonians might have obtained the victory, if Ceraunus had
shown more prudence. He was thrown down from his elephant, and taken
prisoner by the enemy, who immediately tore his body to pieces.
Ptolemy had been king of Macedonia only 18 months. _Justin_, bk. 24,
&c.――_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 10.――――An illegitimate son of Ptolemy
Lathyrus king of Cyprus, of which he was tyrannically dispossessed
by the Romans. Cato was at the head of the forces which were sent
against Ptolemy by the senate, and the Roman general proposed to
the monarch to retire from the throne, and to pass the rest of his
days in the obscure office of high priest in the temple of Venus at
Paphos. This offer was rejected with the indignation which it merited,
and the monarch poisoned himself at the approach of the enemy.
The treasures found in the island amounted to the enormous sum of
1,356,250_l._ sterling, which were carried to Rome by the conquerors.
_Plutarch_, _Cato_.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 9.――_Florus_, bk. 3.
――――A man who attempted to make himself king of Macedonia, in
opposition to Perdiccas. He was expelled by Pelopidas.――――A son of
Pyrrhus king of Epirus, by Antigone the daughter of Berenice. He was
left governor of Epirus, when Pyrrhus went to Italy to assist the
Tarentines against the Romans, where he presided with great prudence
and moderation. He was killed, bravely fighting in the expedition
which Pyrrhus undertook against Sparta and Argos.――――A eunuch, by
whose friendly assistance Mithridates the Great saved his life after
a battle with Lucullus.――――A king of Epirus, who died very young as
he was marching an army against the Ætolians, who had seized part of
his dominions. _Justin_, bk. 28.――――A king of Chalcidica in Syria,
about 30 years before Christ. He opposed Pompey when he invaded Syria,
but he was defeated in the attempt, and the conqueror spared his life
only upon receiving 1000 talents. _Josephus_, _Antiquities_, bk. 13.
――――A nephew of Antigonus, who commanded an army in the Peloponnesus.
He revolted from his uncle to Cassander, and some time after he
attempted to bribe the soldiers of Ptolemy Lagus king of Egypt, who
had invited him to his camp. He was seized and imprisoned for his
treachery, and the Egyptian monarch at last ordered him to drink
hemlock.――――A son of Seleucus, killed in the celebrated battle which
was fought at Issus, between Darius and Alexander the Great.――――A
son of Juba, made king of Mauritania. He was son of Cleopatra Selene
the daughter of Marcus Antony, and the celebrated Cleopatra. He was
put to death by Caius Caligula. _Dio Cassius._――_Tacitus_, _Annals_,
bk. 11.――――A friend of Otho.――――A favourite of Antiochus king of
Syria. He was surnamed _Macron_.――――A Jew, famous for his cruelty and
avarice. He was for some time governor of Jericho, about 135 years
before Christ.――――A powerful Jew during the troubles which disturbed
the peace of Judæa, in the reign of Augustus.――――A son of Antony by
Cleopatra, surnamed _Philadelphus_ by his father, and made master of
Phœnicia, Syria, and all the territories of Asia Minor, which were
situated between the Ægean and the Euphrates. _Plutarch_, _Antonius_.
――――A general of Herod king of Judæa.――――A son of Chrysermus, who
visited Cleomenes king of Sparta, when imprisoned in Egypt.――――A
governor of Alexandria, put to death by Cleomenes.――――Claudius,
a celebrated geographer and astrologer in the reign of Adrian and
Antoninus. He was a native of Alexandria, or, according to others, of
Pelusium, and on account of his great learning, he received the name
of most wise, and most divine, among the Greeks. In his system of the
world, he places the earth in the centre of the universe, a doctrine
universally believed and adopted till the 16th century, when it was
confuted and rejected by Copernicus. His geography is valued for its
learning, and the very useful information which he gives. Besides his
system and his geography Ptolemy wrote other books, in one of which
he gives an account of the fixed stars, of 1022 of which he mentions
the certain and definite longitude and latitude. The best edition of
Ptolemy’s geography is that of Bertius, folio, Amsterdam, 1618, and
that of his treatise _de Judiciis Astrologicis_ by Camerarii, 4to,
1555; and of the _Harmonica_, 4to, Wallis, Oxford, 1683.
=Ptolemāis=, a town of Thebais in Egypt, called after the Ptolemies,
who beautified it. There was also another city of the same name in
the territories of Cyrene. It was situate on the sea-coast, and,
according to some, it was the same as Barce. _See:_ Barce.――――A city
of Palestine, called also _Acon_. _Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 8; bk. 3, ch. 8.
――_Pliny_, bk. 2, ch. 73.――_Strabo_, bk. 14, &c.
=Ptoly̆cus=, a statuary of Corcyra, pupil to Critias the Athenian.
_Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 3.
=Ptous=, a son of Athamas and Themisto, who gave his name to a mountain
of Bœotia, upon which he built a temple to Apollo, surnamed _Ptous_.
The god had also a celebrated oracle on mount Ptous. _Plutarch_,
_de Defectu Oraculorum_.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 23.――_Apollodorus_,
bk. 1, ch. 9.
=Publicia lex=, forbade any person to play with bad or ♦fraudulent
designs.
♦ ‘fradulent’ replaced with ‘fraudulent’
=Publicius=, a Roman freedman, so much like Pompey the Great, that they
were often confounded together. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 9, ch. 14.
=Publicŏla=, a name given to Publius Valerius, on account of his great
popularity. _See:_ Valerius. _Plutarch_, _Publicola_.――_Livy_, bk. 2,
ch. 8.――_Pliny_, bk. 30, ch. 15.
=Publilia lex=, was made by Publilius Philo the dictator, A.U.C. 445.
It permitted one of the censors to be elected from the plebeians,
since one of the consuls was chosen from that body. _Livy_, bk. 8,
ch. 12.――――Another, by which it was ordained, that all laws should be
previously approved by the senators, before they were proposed by the
people.
=Publius Syrus=, a Syrian mimic poet, who flourished about 44 years
before Christ. He was originally a slave sold to a Roman patrician,
called Domitius, who brought him up with great attention, and
gave him his freedom when of age. He gained the esteem of the most
powerful at Rome, and reckoned Julius Cæsar among his patrons. He
soon eclipsed the poet Laberius, whose burlesque compositions were
in general esteem. There remains of Publius a collection of moral
sentences, written in iambics, and placed in alphabetical order; the
newest edition of which is that of Patavium. _Josephus Cominus_, 1740.
=Publius=, a prænomen common among the Romans.――――Caius, a man who
conspired with Brutus against Julius Cæsar.――――A pretor who conquered
Palæpolis. He was only a plebeian, and though neither consul nor
dictator, he obtained a triumph in spite of the opposition of the
senators. He was the first who was honoured with a triumph during a
pretorship.――――A Roman consul who defeated the Latins, and was made
dictator.――――A Roman flatterer in the court of Tiberius.――――A tribune
who accused Manlius, &c.
=Pudīcĭtia=, a goddess who, as her name implies, presided over chastity.
She had two temples at Rome. _Festus_, _Lexicon of Festus_.――_Livy_,
bk. 10, ch. 7.
=Pulchĕria=, a daughter of the emperor Theodosius the Great, famous
for her piety, moderation, and virtues.――――A daughter of Arcadius,
who held the government of the Roman empire for many years. She was
mother of Valentinian. Her piety, and her private as well as public
virtues, have been universally admired. She died A.D. 452, and was
interred at Ravenna, where her tomb is still to be seen.――――A sister
of Theodosius, who reigned absolute for some time in the Roman empire.
=Pulchrum=, a promontory near Carthage, now _Rasafran_. _Livy_, bk. 29,
ch. 27.
=Pullus=, a surname of Numitorius.
=Punĭcum bellum.= The first Punic war was undertaken by the Romans
against Carthage, B.C. 264. The ambition of Rome was the origin of
this war. For upwards of 240 years, the two nations had beheld with
secret jealousy each other’s power, but they had totally eradicated
every cause of contention, by settling, in three different treaties,
the boundaries of their respective territories, the number of their
allies, and how far one nation might sail in the Mediterranean
without giving offence to the other. Sicily, an island of the highest
consequence to the Carthaginians as a commercial nation, was the
seat of the first dissensions. The Mamertini, a body of Italian
mercenaries, were appointed by the king of Syracuse to guard the
town of Messana, but this tumultuous tribe, instead of protecting the
citizens, basely massacred them, and seized their possessions. This
act of cruelty raised the indignation of all the Sicilians, and Hiero
king of Syracuse, who had employed them, prepared to punish their
perfidy; and the Mamertini, besieged in Messana, and without friends
or resources, resolved to throw themselves for protection into the
hands of the first power that could relieve them. They were, however,
divided in their sentiments, and while some implored the assistance
of Carthage, others called upon the Romans for protection. Without
hesitation or delay, the Carthaginians entered Messana, and the
Romans also hastened to give to the Mamertini that aid which had been
claimed from them with as much eagerness as from the Carthaginians.
At the approach of the Roman troops, the Mamertini, who had implored
their assistance, took up arms, and forced the Carthaginians to
evacuate Messana. Fresh forces were poured in on every side, and
though Carthage seemed superior in arms and in resources, yet the
valour and intrepidity of the Romans daily appeared more formidable,
and Hiero, the Syracusan king, who hitherto had embraced the interest
of the Carthaginians, became the most faithful ally of the republic.
From a private quarrel the war became general. The Romans obtained
a victory in Sicily, but as their enemies were masters at sea, the
advantages which they gained were small and inconsiderable. To make
themselves equal to their adversaries, they aspired to the dominion
of the sea, and in 60 days timber was cut down, and a fleet of 120
galleys completely manned and provisioned. The successes they met
with at sea were trivial, and little advantages could be gained over
an enemy that were sailors by actual practice and long experience.
♦Duillius at last obtained a victory, and he was the first Roman who
ever received a triumph after a naval battle. The losses which they
had already sustained induced the Carthaginians to sue for peace, and
the Romans, whom an unsuccessful descent upon Africa, under Regulus
[_See:_ Regulus], had rendered diffident, listened to the proposal,
and the first Punic war was concluded B.C. 241, on the following
terms:――The Carthaginians pledged themselves to pay to the Romans,
within 20 years, the sum of 3000 Euboic talents; they promised to
release all the Roman captives without ransom, to evacuate Sicily,
and the other islands in the Mediterranean, and not to molest Hiero
king of Syracuse, or his allies. After this treaty, the Carthaginians,
who had lost the dominion of Sardinia and Sicily, made new conquests
in Spain, and soon began to repair their losses by industry and
labour. They planted colonies, and secretly prepared to revenge
themselves upon their powerful rivals. The Romans were not insensible
of their successes in Spain, and to stop their progress towards Italy,
they made stipulations with the Carthaginians, by which they were
not permitted to cross the Iberus, or to molest the cities of their
allies the Saguntines. This was for some time observed, but when
Annibal succeeded to the command of the Carthaginian armies in Spain,
he spurned the boundaries which the jealousy of Rome had set to his
arms, and he immediately formed the siege of Saguntum. The Romans
were apprised of the hostilities which had been begun against their
allies, but Saguntum was in the hands of the active enemy before
they had taken any steps to oppose him. Complaints were carried
to Carthage, and war was determined on by the influence of Annibal
in the Carthaginian senate. Without delay or diffidence, B.C. 218,
Annibal marched a numerous army of 90,000 foot and 12,000 horse
towards Italy, resolved to carry on the war to the gates of Rome.
He crossed the Rhone, the Alps, and the Apennines, with uncommon
celerity, and the Roman consuls who were stationed to stop his
progress were severally defeated. The battles of Trebia, of Ticinus,
and of the lake of Thrasymenus, threw Rome into the greatest
apprehensions, but the prudence and the dilatory measures of the
dictator Fabius soon taught them to hope for better times. Yet the
conduct of Fabius was universally censured as cowardice, and the two
consuls who succeeded him in the command, by pursuing a different
plan of operations, soon brought on a decisive action at Cannæ, in
which 45,000 Romans were left in the field of battle. This bloody
victory caused so much consternation at Rome, that some authors have
declared that if Annibal had immediately marched from the plains of
Cannæ to the city, he would have met with no resistance, but would
have terminated a long and dangerous war with glory to himself,
and the most inestimable advantages to his country. This celebrated
victory at Cannæ left the conqueror master of two camps, and of
an immense booty; and the cities which had hitherto observed a
neutrality, no sooner saw the defeat of the Romans, than they eagerly
embraced the interest of Carthage. The news of this victory was
carried to Carthage by Mago, and the Carthaginians refused to believe
it till three bushels of golden rings were spread before them, which
had been taken from the Roman knights in the field of battle. After
this Annibal called his brother Asdrubal from Spain with a large
reinforcement; but the march of Asdrubal was intercepted by the
Romans, his army was defeated, and himself slain. Affairs now had
taken a different turn, and Marcellus, who had the command of the
Roman legions in Italy, soon taught his countrymen that Annibal was
not invincible in the field. In different parts of the world the
Romans were making very rapid conquests, and if the sudden arrival of
a Carthaginian army in Italy at first raised fears and apprehensions,
they were soon enabled to dispute with their enemies for the
sovereignty of Spain and the dominion of the sea. Annibal no longer
appeared formidable in Italy; if he conquered towns in Campania or
Magna Græcia, he remained master of them only while his army hovered
in the neighbourhood, and if he marched towards Rome the alarm he
occasioned was but momentary; the Romans were prepared to oppose him,
and his retreat was therefore the more dishonourable. The conquests
of young Scipio in Spain had now raised the expectations of the
Romans, and he had no sooner returned to Rome than he proposed to
remove Annibal from the capital of Italy by carrying the war to
the gates of Carthage. This was a bold and hazardous enterprise,
but though Fabius opposed it, it was universally approved by the
Roman senate, and young Scipio was empowered to sail to Africa. The
conquests of the young Roman were as rapid in Africa as in Spain,
and the Carthaginians, apprehensive for the fate of their capital,
recalled Annibal from Italy, and preferred their safety at home
to the maintaining of a long and expensive war in another quarter
of the globe. Annibal received their orders with indignation, and
with tears in his eyes he left Italy, where for 16 years he had
known no superior in the field of battle. At his arrival in Africa,
the Carthaginian general soon collected a large army, and met his
exulting adversary in the plains of Zama. The battle was long and
bloody, and though one nation fought for glory, and the other for the
dearer sake of liberty, the Romans obtained the victory, and Annibal,
who had sworn eternal enmity to the gods of Rome, fled from Carthage
after he had advised his countrymen to accept the terms of the
conqueror. This battle of Zama was decisive, the Carthaginians sued
for peace, which the haughty conquerors granted with difficulty.
The conditions were these: Carthage was permitted to hold all
the possessions which she had in Africa before the war, and to be
governed by her own laws and institutions. She was ordered to make
restitution of all the ships and other effects which had been taken
in violation of a truce that had been agreed upon by both nations.
She was to surrender the whole of her fleet, except 10 galleys;
she was to release and deliver up all the captives, deserters, or
fugitives, taken or received during the war; to indemnify Masinissa
for all the losses which he had sustained; to deliver up all her
elephants, and for the future never more to tame or break any more
of these animals. She was not to make war upon any nation whatever
without the consent of the Romans, and she was to reimburse the
Romans, to pay the sum of 10,000 talents, at the rate of 200 talents
a year for 50 years, and she was to give up hostages from the noblest
families for the performance of these several articles; and till the
ratification of the treaty, to supply the Roman forces with money
and provisions. These humiliating conditions were accepted 201 B.C.,
and immediately 4000 Roman captives were released, 500 galleys were
delivered and burnt on the spot, but the immediate exaction of 200
talents was more severely felt, and many of the Carthaginian senators
burst into tears. During the 50 years which followed the conclusion
of the second Punic war, the Carthaginians were employed in repairing
their losses by unwearied application and industry; but they found
still in the Romans a jealous rival and a haughty conqueror, and
in Masinissa the ally of Rome an intriguing and ambitious monarch.
The king of Numidia made himself master of one of their provinces;
but as they were unable to make war without the consent of Rome,
the Carthaginians sought relief by embassies, and made continual
complaints in the Roman senate of the tyranny and oppression of
Masinissa. Commissioners were appointed to examine the cause of their
complaints; but as Masinissa was the ally of Rome, the interest of
the Carthaginians was neglected, and whatever seemed to depress their
republic was agreeable to the Romans. Cato, who was in the number of
the commissioners, examined the capital of Africa with a jealous eye;
he saw it with concern, rising as it were from its ruins; and when
he returned to Rome he declared, in full senate, that the peace of
Italy would never be established while Carthage was in being. The
senators, however, were not guided by his opinion, and the _delenda
est Carthago_ of Cato did not prevent the Romans from acting with
moderation. But while the senate were debating about the existence of
Carthage, and while they considered it as a dependent power, and not
as an ally, the wrongs of Africa were without redress, and Masinissa
continued his depredations. Upon this the Carthaginians resolved to
do their cause that justice which the Romans had denied them; they
entered the field against the Numidians, but they were defeated in
a bloody battle by Masinissa, who was then 90 years old. In this
bold measure they had broken the peace; and as their late defeat had
rendered them desperate, they hastened with all possible speed to
the capital of Italy to justify their proceedings, and to implore
the forgiveness of the Roman senate. The news of Masinissa’s victory
had already reached Italy, and immediately some forces were sent to
Sicily, and from thence ordered to pass into Africa. The ambassadors
of Carthage received evasive and unsatisfactory answers from the
senate; and when they saw the Romans landed at Utica, they resolved
to purchase peace by the most submissive terms which even the most
abject slaves could offer. The Romans acted with the deepest policy;
no declaration of war had been made, though hostilities appeared
inevitable; and in answer to the submissive offers of Carthage,
the consuls replied, that to prevent every cause of quarrel, the
Carthaginians must deliver into their hands 300 hostages, all
children of senators, and of the most noble and respectable families.
The demand was great and alarming, but it was no sooner granted,
than the Romans made another demand, and the Carthaginians were told
that peace could not continue, if they refused to deliver up all
their ships, their arms, engines of war, with all their naval and
military stores. The Carthaginians complied, and immediately 40,000
suits of armour, 20,000 large engines of war, with a plentiful store
of ammunition and missile weapons, were surrendered. After this
duplicity had succeeded, the Romans laid open the final resolutions
of the senate, and the Carthaginians were then told that, to avoid
hostilities, they must leave their ancient habitations and retire
into the inland parts of Africa, and found another city, at the
distance of not less than 10 miles from the sea. This was heard with
horror and indignation; the Romans were fixed and inexorable, and
Carthage was filled with tears and lamentations. But the spirit of
liberty and independence was not yet extinguished in the capital of
Africa, and the Carthaginians determined to sacrifice their lives for
the protection of their gods, the tombs of their forefathers, and the
place which had given them birth. Before the Roman army approached
the city, preparations to support a siege were made, and the ramparts
of Carthage were covered with stones, to compensate for the weapons
and instruments of war which they had ignorantly betrayed to the
duplicity of their enemies. Asdrubal, whom the despair of his
countrymen had banished on account of the unsuccessful expedition
against Masinissa, was immediately recalled; and, in the moment of
danger, Carthage seemed to have possessed more spirit and more vigour
than when Annibal was victorious at the gates of Rome. The town was
blocked up by the Romans, and a regular siege begun. Two years were
spent in useless operations, and Carthage seemed still able to rise
from its ruins, to dispute for the empire of the world; when Scipio,
the descendant of the great Scipio, who finished the second Punic
war, was sent to conduct the siege. The vigour of his operations
soon baffled the efforts and the bold resistance of the besieged;
the communications which they had with the land were cut off, and the
city, which was 20 miles in circumference, was completely surrounded
on all sides by the enemy. Despair and famine now raged in the city,
and Scipio gained access to the city walls, where the battlements
were low and unguarded. His entrance into the streets was disputed
with uncommon fury, the houses as he advanced were set on fire to
stop his progress; but when a body of 50,000 persons of either sex
had claimed quarter, the rest of the inhabitants were disheartened,
and such as disdained to be prisoners of war perished in the flames,
which gradually destroyed their habitations, 147 B.C., after a
continuation of hostilities for three years. During 17 days Carthage
was in flames; and the soldiers were permitted to redeem from the
fire whatever possession they could. But while others profited from
the destruction of Carthage, the philosophic general, struck by the
melancholy aspect of the scene, repeated two lines from Homer, which
contained a prophecy concerning the fall of Troy. He was asked by
the historian Polybius to what he then applied his prediction. “To
my country,” replied Scipio; “for her too I dread the vicissitude
of human affairs, and in her turn she may exhibit another flaming
Carthage.” This remarkable event happened about the year of Rome
606. The news of this victory caused the greatest rejoicings at Rome;
and immediately commissioners were appointed by the Roman senate,
not only to raze the walls of Carthage, but even to demolish and
burn the very materials with which they were made: and in a few days,
that city which had been once the seat of commerce, the model of
magnificence, the common store of the wealth of nations, and one
of the most powerful states of the world, left behind no traces of
its splendour, of its power, or even of its existence. _Polybius._
――_Orosius._――_Appian_, _Punic Wars_, &c.――_Florus._――_Plutarch_,
_Cato_, &c.――_Strabo._――_Livy_, _Epitaph_.――_Diodorus._
♦ ‘Duilius’ replaced with ‘Duillius’
=Pupia lex=, _de senatu_, required that the senate should not be
assembled from the 18th of the calends of February to the calends of
the same month, and that before the embassies were either accepted or
rejected, the senate should be held on no account.
=Pupiēnus Marcus Claudius Maximus=, a man of an obscure family, who
raised himself by his merit to the highest offices in the Roman
armies, and gradually became a pretor, consul, prefect of Rome, and
a governor of the provinces. His father was a blacksmith. After the
death of the Gordians, Pupienus was elected with Balbinus to the
imperial throne, and to rid the world of the usurpation and tyranny
of the Maximini, he immediately marched against these tyrants; but
he was soon informed that they had been sacrificed to the fury and
resentment of their own soldiers; and therefore he retired to Rome
to enjoy the tranquillity which his merit claimed. He soon after
prepared to make war against the Persians, who insulted the majesty
of Rome, but in this he was prevented, and massacred A.D. 236, by
the pretorian guards. Balbinus shared his fate. Pupienus is sometimes
called Maximus. In his private character he appeared always grave
and serious; he was the constant friend of justice, moderation, and
clemency, and no greater encomium can be passed upon his virtues than
to say that he was invested with the purple without soliciting for
it, and that the Roman senate said that they had selected him from
thousands because they knew no person more worthy or better qualified
to support the dignity of an emperor.
=Pupius=, a centurion of Pompey’s army, seized by Cæsar’s soldiers, &c.
_Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 1, ch. 13.
=Puppius=, a tragic poet in the age of Julius Cæsar. His tragedies were
so pathetic, that when they were represented on the Roman stage, the
audience melted into tears, from which circumstance Horace calls them
_lacrymosa_, bk. 1, ltr. 1, li. 67.
=Purpurăriæ=, two islands of the Atlantic on the African coast, now
_Lancarota_ and _Fortaventura_. _Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 31; bk. 35, ch. 6.
=Puteŏli=, a maritime town of Campania, between Baiæ and Naples,
founded by a colony from Cumæ. It was originally called Dicæarchia,
and afterwards _Puteoli_, from the great number of _wells_ that
were in the neighbourhood. It was much frequented by the Romans, on
account of its mineral waters and hot baths, and near it Cicero had a
villa called _Puteolanum_. It is now called _Puzzoli_, and contains,
instead of its ancient magnificence, not more than 10,000 inhabitants.
_Silius Italicus_, bk. 13, li. 385.――_Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Varro_, _de
Lingua Latina_, bk. 4, ch. 5.――_Cicero_, _Philippics_, bk. 8, ch. 3;
_Letters to his Friends_, bk. 15, ltr. 5.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 4.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 7.
=Puticŭlæ=, a place near the Esquiline gate, where the meanest of the
Roman populace were buried. Part of it was converted into a garden by
Mecænas, who received it as a present from Augustus. _Horace_, bk. 1,
satire 8, li. 8.――_Varro_, _de Lingua Latina_, bk. 4, ch. 5.
=Pyanepsia=, an Athenian festival celebrated in honour of Theseus
and his companions; who, after their return from Crete, were
entertained with all manner of fruits, and particularly pulse. From
this circumstance, the Pyanepsia was ever after commemorated by
the _boiling of pulse_, ἀπο του ἑψειν πυανα. Some, however, suppose
that it was observed in commemoration of the Heraclidæ, who were
entertained with pulse by the Athenians.
=Pydna=, a town of Macedonia, originally called _Citron_, situate
between the mouth of the rivers Aliacmon and Lydius. It was in this
city that Cassander massacred Olympias the mother of Alexander the
Great, his wife Roxane, and his son Alexander. Pydna is famous for a
battle which was fought there, on the 22nd of June, B.C. 168, between
the Romans under Paulus, and king Perseus, in which the latter was
conquered, and Macedonia soon after reduced to the form of a Roman
province. _Justin_, bk. 14, ch. 6.――_Florus._――_Plutarch_, _Æmilius
Paulus_.――_Livy_, bk. 44, ch. 10.
=Pygela=, a seaport town of Ionia. _Livy_, bk. 37, ch. 11.
=Pygmæi=, a nation of dwarfs, in the extremest parts of India, or,
according to others, in Æthiopia. Some authors affirm that they were
no more than one foot high, and that they built their houses with
egg-shells. Aristotle says that they lived in holes under the earth,
and that they came out in the harvest time with hatchets to cut down
the corn as if to fell a forest. They went on goats and lambs of
proportionable stature to themselves, to make war against certain
birds, whom some call cranes, which came there yearly from Scythia
to plunder them. They were originally governed by Gerana, a princess
who was changed into a crane, for boasting herself fairer than Juno.
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 6, li. 90.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 3.
――_Strabo_, bk. 7.――_Aristotle_, _History of Animals_, bk. 8, ch. 12.
――_Juvenal_, satire 13, li. 186.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, &c.――_Mela_, bk. 3,
ch. 8.――_Suetonius_, _Augustus_, ch. 83.――_Philostratus_, _Imagines_,
bk. 2, ch. 22, mentions that Hercules once fell asleep in the deserts
of Africa, after he had conquered Antæus, and that he was suddenly
awakened by an attack which had been made upon his body by an army of
these Liliputians, who discharged their arrows with great fury upon
his arms and legs. The hero, pleased with their courage, wrapped the
greatest number of them in the skin of the Nemæan lion, and carried
them to Eurystheus.
=Pygmæon=, a surname of Adonis in Cyprus. _Hesychius._
=Pygmălion=, a king of Tyre, son of Belus, and brother to the
celebrated Dido, who founded Carthage. At the death of his father,
he ascended the vacant throne, and soon became odious by his cruelty
and avarice. He sacrificed everything to the gratification of his
predominant passions, and he did not even spare the life of Sichæus,
Dido’s husband, because he was the most powerful and opulent of
all the Phœnicians. This murder he committed in a temple, of which
Sichæus was the priest; but instead of obtaining the riches which he
desired, Pygmalion was shunned by his subjects, and Dido, to avoid
further acts of cruelty, fled away with her husband’s treasures, and
a large colony, to the coast of Africa, where she founded a city.
Pygmalion died in the 56th year of his age, and in the 47th of his
reign. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 347, &c.――_Justin_, bk. 18, ch.
5.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 1.――――A celebrated
statuary of the island of Cyprus. The debauchery of the females of
Amathus, to which he was a witness, created in him such an aversion
for the fair sex, that he resolved never to marry. The affection
which he had denied to the other sex, he liberally bestowed upon the
works of his own hands. He became enamoured of a beautiful statue
of marble which he had made, and at his earnest request and prayers,
according to the mythologists, the goddess of beauty changed the
favourite statue into a woman, whom the artist married, and by whom
he had a son called Paphus, who founded the city of that name in
Cyprus. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 10, fable 9.
=Pylădes=, a son of Strophius king of Phocis, by one of the sisters
of Agamemnon. He was educated, together with his cousin Orestes, with
whom he formed the most inviolable friendship, and whom he assisted
to revenge the murder of Agamemnon, by assassinating Clytemnestra
and Ægysthus. He also accompanied him to Taurica Chersonesus, and for
his services Orestes rewarded him by giving him his sister Electra
in marriage. Pylades had by her two sons, Medon and Strophius. The
friendship of Orestes and Pylades became proverbial. _See:_ Orestes.
_Euripides_, _Iphigeneia_.――_Æschylus_, _Agamemnon_, &c.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 1, ch. 28.――――A celebrated Greek musician, in the age of
Philopœmen. _Plutarch_, _Philopœmen_.――――A mimic in the reign of
Augustus, banished, and afterwards recalled.
=Pylæ=, a town of Asia, between Cappadocia and Cilicia. _Cicero_, bk. 5,
_Letters to Atticus_. The word _Pylæ_, which signifies _gates_, was
often applied by the Greeks to any straits or passages which opened a
communication between one country and another, such as the straits of
Thermopylæ, of Persia, Hyrcania, &c.
=Pylæmĕnes=, a Paphlagonian, son of Melius, who came to the Trojan war,
and was killed by Menelaus. His son, called Harpalion, was killed by
Meriones. _Dictys Cretensis_, bk. 2, ch. 34.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2,
li. 358.――――A king of Mæonia, who sent his sons, Mestes and Antiphus,
to the Trojan war.――――Another, son of Nicomedes, banished from
Paphlagonia by Mithridates, and restored by Pompey. _Eutropius_,
bks. 5 & 6.
=Pylagŏræ=, a name given to the Amphictyonic council, because they
always assembled at Pylæ, near the temple of Delphi.
=Pylāon=, a son of Neleus and Chloris, killed by Hercules with his
brothers. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9.
=Pylarge=, a daughter of Danaus. _Apollodorus._
=Pylartes=, a Trojan killed by Patroclus. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 16,
li. 695.
=Pylas=, a king of Megara. He had the misfortune accidentally to
kill his uncle Bias, for which he fled away, leaving his kingdom
to Pandion his son-in-law, who had been driven from Athens.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 15.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 39.
=Pylēne=, a town of Ætolia. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2.
=Pyleus=, a Trojan chief, killed by Achilles.――――A son of Clymenus king
of Orchomenos.
=Pylleon=, a town of Thessaly. _Livy_, bk. 42, ch. 42.
=Pylo=, a daughter of Thespius, mother of Hippotas. _Apollodorus._
=Pylos=, now _Navarin_, a town of Messenia, situate on the western
coast of the Peloponnesus, opposite the island Sphacteria in the
Ionian sea. It was also called _Coryphasion_, from the promontory
on which it was erected. It was built by Pylus, at the head of a
colony from Megara. The founder was dispossessed of it by Neleus,
and fled into Elis, where he dwelt in a small town, which he also
called Pylos.――――A town of Elis, at the mouth of the river Alpheus,
between the Peneus and the Selleis.――――Another town of Elis, called
_Triphyliacha_, from Triphylia, a province of Elis, where it was
situate. These three cities, which bore the name of Pylos, disputed
their respective right to the honour of having given birth to the
celebrated Nestor son of Neleus. The Pylos which is situated near the
Alpheus seems to win the palm, as it had in its neighbourhood a small
village called Geranus, and a river called Geron, of which Homer
makes mention. Pindar, however, calls Nestor king of Messenia, and
therefore gives the preference to the first-mentioned of these three
cities. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 19; bk. 3, ch. 15.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 1, ch. 39.――_Strabo_, bk. 9.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2, _Odyssey_,
bk. 3.
=Pylus=, a town. _See:_ Pylos.――――A son of Mars by Demonice the
daughter of Agenor. He was present at the chase of the Calydonian
boar. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1.
=Pyra=, part of mount Œta, on which the body of Hercules was burnt.
_Livy_, bk. 36, ch. 30.
=Pyracmon=, one of Vulcan’s workmen in the forges of mount Ætna. The
name is derived from two Greek words which signify _fire_ and _an
anvil_. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8, li. 425.
=Pyracmos=, a man killed by Cæneus. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12,
li. 460.
=Pyræchmes=, a king of Eubœa.――――A king of Pæonia during the Trojan war.
=Pyrămus=, a youth of Babylon, who became enamoured of Thisbe, a
beautiful virgin who dwelt in the neighbourhood. The flame was mutual,
and the two lovers, whom their parents forbade to marry, regularly
received each other’s addresses through the chink of a wall, which
separated their houses. After the most solemn vows of sincerity they
both agreed to elude the vigilance of their friends, and to meet one
another at the tomb of Ninus, under a white mulberry tree, without
the walls of Babylon. Thisbe came first to the appointed place, but
the sudden arrival of a lioness frightened her away; and as she fled
into a neighbouring cave she dropped her veil, which the lioness
found and besmeared with blood. Pyramus soon arrived; he found
Thisbe’s veil all bloody, and concluding that she had been torn to
pieces by the wild beasts of the place, he stabbed himself with his
sword. Thisbe, when her fears were vanished, returned from the cave,
and at the sight of the dying Pyramus, she fell upon the sword which
still reeked with his blood. This tragical scene happened under a
white mulberry tree, which, as the poets mention, was stained with
the blood of the lovers, and ever after bore fruit of the colour of
blood. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 4, li. 55, &c.――_Hyginus_, fable
243.――――A river of Cilicia, rising in mount Taurus, and falling into
the Pamphylian sea. _Cicero_, bk. 3, _Letters to his Friends_, ltr.
11.――_Dionysius Periegetes._
=Pyrenæa Venus=, a town of Gallia ♦Narbonensis.
♦ ‘Narbonesis’ replaced with ‘Narbonensis’
=Pyrēnæi=, a mountain, or a long ridge of high mountains, which
separate Gaul from Spain, and extend from the Atlantic to the
Mediterranean sea. They receive their name from Pyrene the daughter
of Bebrycius [_See:_ Pyrene], or from the fire (πυρ) which once raged
there for several days. This fire was originally kindled by shepherds,
and so intense was the heat which it occasioned, that all the silver
mines of the mountains were melted, and ran down in large rivulets.
This account is deemed fabulous by Strabo and others. _Diodorus_,
bk. 5.――_Strabo_, bk. 3.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 6.――_Silius Italicus_,
bk. 3, li. 415.――_Livy_, bk. 21, ch. 60.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 34.
=Pyrenæus=, a king of Thrace, who, during a shower of rain, gave
shelter in his house to the nine muses, and attempted to offer
them violence. The goddesses upon this took to their wings and flew
away. Pyrenæus, who attempted to follow them, as if he had wings,
threw himself down from the top of a tower and was killed. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, li. 274.
=Pyrēne=, a daughter of Bebrycius king of the southern parts of Spain.
Hercules offered violence to her before he went to attack Geryon,
and she brought into the world a serpent, which so terrified her,
that she fled into the woods, where she was torn to pieces by wild
beasts.――――A nymph, mother of Cycnus by Mars. _Apollodorus._――――A
fountain near Corinth.――――A small village in Celtic Gaul, near which,
according to some, the river Ister took its rise.
=Pyrgi=, an ancient town of Etruria, on the sea coast. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 184.――_Livy_, bk. 36, ch. 3.
=Pyrgion=, an historian who wrote on the laws of Crete. _Athenæus._
=Pyrgo=, the nurse of Priam’s children, who followed Æneas in his
flight from Troy. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 5, li. 645.
=Pyrgotĕles=, a celebrated engraver on gems in the age of Alexander the
Great. He had the exclusive privilege of engraving the conqueror, as
Lysippus was the only sculptor who was permitted to make statues of
him. _Pliny_, bk. 37, ch. 1.
=Pyrgrus=, a fortified place of Elis in the Peloponnesus.
=Pyrippe=, a daughter of Thespius.
=Pyro=, one of the Oceanides. _Hesiod._
=Pyrodes=, a son of Cilix, said to be the first who discovered and
applied to human purposes the fire concealed in flints. _Pliny_,
bk. 7, ch. 56.
=Pyrois=, one of the horses of the sun. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 2,
li. 153.
=Pyronia=, a surname of Diana. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 16.
=Pyrrha=, a daughter of Epimetheus and Pandora, who married Deucalion
the son of Prometheus, who reigned in Thessaly. In her age all
mankind were destroyed by a deluge, and she alone, with her husband,
escaped from the general destruction, by saving themselves in a boat
which Deucalion had made by his father’s advice. When the waters
had retired from the surface of the earth, Pyrrha, with her husband,
went to the oracle of Themis, where they were directed, to repair
the loss of mankind, to throw stones behind their backs. They
obeyed, and the stones which Pyrrha threw were changed into women,
and those of Deucalion into men. _See:_ Deucalion. Pyrrha became
mother of Amphictyon, Hellen, and Protogenea by Deucalion. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, li. 350, &c.――_Hyginus_, fable 153.
――_Apollonius of Rhodes_, bk. 3, li. 1085.――――A daughter of Creon
king of Thebes. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 10.――――The name which
Achilles bore when he disguised himself in women’s clothes, at the
court of Lycomedes. _Hyginus_, fable 96.――――A town of Eubœa. _Mela_,
bk. 2, ch. 7.――――A promontory of Phthiotis, on the bay of Malia.――――A
town of Lesbos.――――A beautiful courtesan at Rome, of whom Horace was
long an admirer. _Horace_, bk. 1, ode 5.
=Pyrrheus=, a place in the city of Ambracia. _Livy_, bk. 38, ch. 5.
=Pyrrhi castra=, a place of Lucania. _Livy_, bk. 35, ch. 27.
=Pyrrhias=, a boatman of Ithaca, remarkable for his humanity. He
delivered from slavery an old man who had been taken by pirates, and
robbed of some pots full of pitch. The old man was so grateful for
his kindness, that he gave the pots to his deliverer, after he had
told him that they contained gold under the pitch. Pyrrhias, upon
this, offered the sacrifice of a bull to the old man, and retained
him in his house, with every act of kindness and attention, till the
time of his death. _Plutarch_, _Quæstiones Græcæ_.――――A general of
the Ætolians, defeated by Philip, king of Macedonia.
=Pyrrhicha=, a kind of dance, said to be invented and introduced into
Greece by Pyrrhus the son of Achilles. The dancers were generally
armed. _Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 56.
=Pyrrhicus=, a free town of Laconia. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 21.
――_Athenæus_, bk. 14.
=Pyrrhidæ=, a patronymic given to the successors of Neoptolemus in
Epirus.
=Pyrrho=, a philosopher of Elis, disciple to Anaxarchus, and originally
a painter. His father’s name was Plistarchus, or Pistocrates. He was
in continual suspense of judgment; he doubted of everything, never
made any conclusions, and when he had carefully examined a subject,
and investigated all its parts, he concluded by still doubting of its
evidence. This manner of doubting in the philosopher has been called
_Pyrrhonism_, and his disciples have received the appellation of
sceptics, inquisitors, examiners, &c. He pretended to have acquired
an uncommon dominion over opinion and passions. The former of these
virtues he called _ataraxia_, and the latter _matriopathia_, and so
far did he carry his want of common feeling and sympathy, that he
passed with unconcern near a ditch in which his master Anaxarchus
had fallen, and where he nearly perished. He was once in a storm,
and when all hopes were vanished, and destruction certain, the
philosopher remained unconcerned; and while the rest of the crew were
lost in lamentations, he plainly told them to look at a pig which
was then feeding himself on board the vessel, exclaiming, “This is
a true model for a wise man.” As he showed so much indifference in
everything, and declared that life and death were the same thing,
some of his disciples asked him why he did not hurry himself out of
the world. “Because,” says he, “there is no difference between life
and death.” When he walked in the streets he never looked behind,
or moved from the road for a chariot, even in its most rapid course;
and, indeed, as some authors remark, this indifference for his safety
often exposed him to the greatest and most imminent dangers, from
which he was saved by the interference of his friends who followed
him. He flourished B.C. 304, and died at the advanced age of 90.
He left no writings behind him. His countrymen were so partial
to him that they raised statues to his memory, and exempted all
the philosophers of Elis from taxes. _Diogenes Laërtius_, bk. 9.
――_Cicero_, _On Oratory_, bk. 3, ch. 17.――_Aulus Gellius_, bk. 11,
ch. 5.――_Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 24.
=Pyrrhus=, a son of Achilles and Deidamia the daughter of king
Lycomedes, who received this name from the _yellowness_ of his hair.
He was also called Neoptolemus, or _new warrior_, because he came
to the Trojan war in the last year of the celebrated siege of the
capital of Troas. _See:_ Neoptolemus.――――A king of Epirus, descended
from Achilles by the side of his mother, and from Hercules by that
of his father, and son of Æacides and Phthia. He was saved when an
infant, by the fidelity of his servants, from the pursuits of the
enemies of his father, who had been banished from his kingdom, and he
was carried to the court of Glautias king of Illyricum, who educated
him with great tenderness. Cassander king of Macedonia wished to
despatch him, as he had so much to dread from him; but Glautias
not only refused to deliver him up into the hands of his enemy but
he even went with an army and placed him on the throne of Epirus,
though only 12 years of age. About five years after, the absence of
Pyrrhus, to attend the nuptials of one of the daughters of ♦Glautias,
raised new commotions. The monarch was expelled from his throne by
Neoptolemus, who had usurped it after the death of Æacides; and being
still without resources, he applied to his brother-in-law Demetrius
for assistance. He accompanied Demetrius at the battle of Ipsus, and
fought there with all the prudence and intrepidity of an experienced
general. He afterwards passed into Egypt, where, by his marriage
with Antigone the daughter of Berenice, he soon obtained a sufficient
force to attempt the recovery of his throne. He was successful in
the undertaking, but to remove all causes of quarrel, he took the
usurper to share with him the royalty, and some time after he put him
to death under pretence that he had attempted to poison him. In the
subsequent years of his reign, Pyrrhus engaged in the quarrels which
disturbed the peace of the Macedonian monarchy; he marched against
Demetrius, and gave the Macedonian soldiers fresh proofs of his
valour and activity. By dissimulation he ingratiated himself in the
minds of his enemy’s subjects, and when Demetrius laboured under
a momentary illness, Pyrrhus made an attempt upon the crown of
Macedonia, which, if not then successful, soon after rendered him
master of the kingdom. This he shared with Lysimachus for seven
months, till the jealousy of the Macedonians, and the ambition
of his colleague, obliged him to retire. Pyrrhus was meditating
new conquests, when the Tarentines invited him to Italy to assist
them against the encroaching power of Rome. He gladly accepted the
invitation, but his passage across the Adriatic proved nearly fatal,
and he reached the shores of Italy, after the loss of the greatest
part of his troops in a storm. At his entrance into Tarentum, B.C.
280, he began to reform the manners of the inhabitants, and by
introducing the strictest discipline among their troops, to accustom
them to bear fatigue and to despise dangers. In the first battle
which he fought with the Romans, he obtained the victory, but for
this he was more particularly indebted to his elephants, whose bulk
and uncommon appearance astonished the Romans and terrified their
cavalry. The number of the slain was equal on both sides, and the
conqueror said that such another victory would totally ruin him. He
also sent Cineas, his chief minister, to Rome, and though victorious,
he sued for peace. These offers of peace were refused, and when
Pyrrhus questioned Cineas about the manners and the character of
the Romans, the sagacious minister replied, that their senate was a
venerable assembly of kings, and that to fight against them, was to
attack another Hydra. A second battle was fought near Asculum, but
the slaughter was so great, and the valour so conspicuous on both
sides, that the Romans and their enemies reciprocally claimed the
victory as their own. Pyrrhus still continued the war in favour of
the Tarentines, when he was invited into Sicily by the inhabitants,
who laboured under the yoke of Carthage, and the cruelty of their own
petty tyrants. His fondness of novelty soon determined him to quit
Italy; he left a garrison at Tarentum, and crossed over to Sicily,
where he obtained two victories over the Carthaginians, and took many
of their towns. He was for a while successful, and formed the project
of invading Africa; but soon his popularity vanished, his troops
became insolent, and he behaved with haughtiness, and showed himself
oppressive, so that his return to Italy was deemed a fortunate event
for all Sicily. He had no sooner arrived at Tarentum than he renewed
hostilities with the Romans with great acrimony, but when his army of
80,000 men had been defeated by 20,000 of the enemy, under Curius, he
left Italy with precipitation, B.C. 274, ashamed of the enterprise,
and mortified by the victories which had been obtained over one
of the descendants of Achilles. In Epirus he began to repair his
military character by attacking Antigonus, who was then on the
Macedonian throne. He gained some advantages over his enemy, and was
at last restored to the throne of Macedonia. He afterwards marched
against Sparta, at the request of Cleonymus, but when all his
vigorous operations were insufficient to take the capital of Laconia,
he retired to Argos, where the treachery of Aristeus invited him. The
Argives desired him to retire, and not to interfere in the affairs of
their republic, which were confounded by the ambition of two of their
nobles. He complied with their wishes, but in the night he marched
his forces into the town, and might have made himself master of
the place had he not retarded his progress by entering it with his
elephants. The combat that ensued was obstinate and bloody, and the
monarch, to fight with more boldness, and to encounter dangers with
more facility, exchanged his dress. He was attacked by one of the
enemy, but as he was going to run him through in his own defence,
the mother of the Argive, who saw her son’s danger from the top of
a house, threw down a tile and brought Pyrrhus to the ground. His
head was cut off, and carried to Antigonus, who gave his remains a
magnificent funeral, and presented his ashes to his son Helenus, 272
years before the christian era. Pyrrhus has been deservedly commended
for his talents as a general; and not only his friends, but also
his enemies, have been warm in extolling him; and Annibal declared,
that for experience and sagacity the king of Epirus was the first
of commanders. He had chosen Alexander the Great for a model, and in
everything he wished not only to imitate, but to surpass him. In the
art of war none were superior to him; he not only made it his study
as a general, but even he wrote many books on encampments, and the
different ways of training up an army, and whatever he did was by
principle and rule. His uncommon understanding and his penetration
are also admired; but the general is severely censured, who has
no sooner conquered a country, than he looks for other victories,
without regarding or securing what he has already obtained, by
measures and regulations honourable to himself, and advantageous to
his subjects. The Romans passed great encomiums upon him, and Pyrrhus
was no less struck with their magnanimity and valour; so much indeed,
that he exclaimed that if he had soldiers like the Romans, or if
the Romans had him for a general, he would leave no corner of the
earth unseen, and no nation unconquered. Pyrrhus married many wives,
and all for political reasons; besides Antigone, he had Lanassa the
daughter of Agathocles, as also a daughter of Autoleon king of Pæonia.
His children, as his biographer observes, derived a warlike spirit
from their father, and when he was asked by one to which of them he
should leave the kingdom of Epirus, he replied, to him who has the
sharpest sword. _Ælian_, _De Natura Animalium_, bk. 10.――_Plutarch_,
_Lives_.――_Justin_, bk. 17, &c.――_Livy_, bks. 13 & 14.――_Horace_, bk.
3, ode 6.――――A king of Epirus, son of Ptolemy, murdered by the people
of Ambracia. His daughter, called Laudamia, or Deidamia, succeeded
him. _Pausanias._――――A son of Dædalus.
♦ ‘Glautius’ replaced with ‘Glautias’
=Pyste=, the wife of Seleucus, taken prisoner by the Gauls, &c.
_Polyænus_, bk. 2.
=Pythagŏras=, a celebrated philosopher, born at Samos. His father
Mnesarchus was a person of distinction, and therefore the son
received that education which was most calculated to enlighten his
mind and invigorate his body. Like his contemporaries, he was early
made acquainted with poetry and music; eloquence and astronomy became
his private studies, and in gymnastic exercises he often bore the
palm for strength and dexterity. He first made himself known in
Greece, at the Olympic games, where he obtained, in the 18th year
of his age, the prize for wrestling; and, after he had been admired
for the elegance and the dignity of his person, and the brilliancy
of his understanding, he retired into the east. In Egypt and Chaldæa
he gained the confidence of the priests, and learned from them the
artful policy, and the symbolic writings, by which they governed the
prince as well as the people, and, after he had spent many years in
gathering all the information which could be collected from antique
tradition concerning the nature of the gods and the immortality
of the soul, Pythagoras revisited his native island. The tyranny
of Polycrates at Samos disgusted the philosopher, who was a great
advocate for national independence; and though he was the favourite
of the tyrant, he retired from the island, and a second time assisted
at the Olympic games. His fame was too well known to escape notice;
he was saluted in the public assembly by the name of _Sophist_, or
wise man; but he refused the appellation, and was satisfied with that
of philosopher, or, _the friend of wisdom_. “At the Olympic games,”
said he, in explanation of this new appellation he wished to assume,
“some are attracted with the desire of obtaining crowns and honours,
others come to expose their different commodities to sale, while
curiosity draws a third class, and the desire of contemplating
whatever deserves notice in that celebrated assembly; thus, on the
more extensive theatre of the world, while many struggle for the
glory of a name, and many pant for the advantages of fortune, a few,
and indeed but a few, who are neither desirous of money nor ambitious
of fame, are sufficiently gratified to be spectators of the wonder,
the hurry, and the magnificence of the scene.” From Olympia, the
philosopher visited the republics of Elis and Sparta, and retired
to Magna Græcia, where he fixed his habitation in the town of
Crotona, about the 40th year of his age. Here he founded a sect
which has received the name of _the Italian_, and he soon saw himself
surrounded by a great number of pupils, which the recommendation of
his mental as well as his personal accomplishments had procured. His
skill in music and medicine, and his knowledge of mathematics and of
natural philosophy, gained him friends and admirers, and amidst the
voluptuousness that prevailed among the inhabitants of Crotona, the
Samian sage found his instructions respected and his approbation
courted; the most debauched and effeminate were pleased with the
eloquence and the graceful delivery of the philosopher, who boldly
upbraided them for their vices, and called them to more virtuous and
manly pursuits. These animated harangues were attended with rapid
success, and a reformation soon took place in the morals and the life
of the people of Crotona. The females were exhorted to become modest,
and they left off their gaudy ornaments; the youths were called away
from their pursuits of pleasure, and instantly they forgot their
intemperance, and paid to their parents that submissive attention and
deference which the precepts of Pythagoras required. As to the old,
they were directed no longer to spend their time in amassing money,
but to improve their understanding, and to seek that peace and those
comforts of mind which frugality, benevolence, and philanthropy alone
can produce. The sober and religious behaviour of the philosopher
strongly recommended the necessity and importance of these precepts.
Pythagoras was admired for his venerable aspect; his voice was
harmonious, his eloquence persuasive, and the reputation he had
acquired by his distant travels, and by being crowned at the Olympic
games, was great and important. He regularly frequented the temples
of the gods, and paid his devotion to the divinity at an early
hour; he lived upon the purest and most innocent food, he clothed
himself like the priests of the Egyptian gods, and by his continual
purifications and regular offerings, he seemed to be superior to the
rest of mankind in sanctity. These artful measures united to render
him an object not only of reverence, but of imitation. To set himself
at a greater distance from his pupils, a number of years was required
to try their various dispositions; the most talkative were not
permitted to speak in the presence of their master before they had
been his auditors for five years, and those who possessed a natural
taciturnity were allowed to speak after a probation of two years.
When they were capable of receiving the secret instructions of the
philosopher, they were taught the use of cyphers and hieroglyphic
writings, and Pythagoras might boast that his pupils could correspond
together, though in the most distant regions, in unknown characters;
and by the signs and words which they had received, they could
discover, though strangers and barbarians, those that had been
educated in the Pythagorean school. So great was his authority among
his pupils, that to dispute his word was deemed a crime, and the most
stubborn were drawn to coincide with the opinions of their opponent,
when they helped their arguments by the words of _the master said so_,
an expression which became proverbial in _jurare in verba magistri_.
The great influence which the philosopher possessed in his school
was transferred to the world: the pupils divided the applause and
the approbation of the people with their venerable master, and in
a short time the rulers and the legislators of all the principal
towns of Greece, Sicily, and Italy, boasted in being the disciples
of Pythagoras. The Samian philosopher was the first who supported
the doctrine of _metempsychosis_, or transmigration of the soul into
different bodies, and those notions he seemed to have imbibed among
the priests of Egypt, or in the solitary retreats of the Brachmans.
More strenuously to support his chimerical system, he declared he
recollected the different bodies which his soul had animated before
that of the son of Mnesarchus. He remembered to have been Æthalides
the son of Mercury, to have assisted the Greeks during the Trojan
war in the character of Euphorbus [_See:_ Euphorbus], to have been
Hermotimus, afterwards a fisherman, and last of all Pythagoras.
He forbade his disciples to eat flesh, as also beans, because he
supposed them to have been produced from the same putrefied matter
from which, at the creation of the world, man was formed. In his
theological system Pythagoras supported that the universe was created
from a shapeless heap of passive matter by the hands of a powerful
being, who himself was the mover and soul of the world, and of whose
substance the souls of mankind were a portion. He considered numbers
as the principles of everything, and perceived in the universe
regularity, correspondence, beauty, proportion, and harmony, as
intentionally produced by the Creator. In his doctrines of morality,
he perceived in the human mind propensities common to us with the
brute creation; but besides these, and the passions of avarice and
ambition, he discovered the nobler seeds of virtue, and supported
that the most ample and perfect gratification was to be found in
the enjoyment of moral and intellectual pleasures. The thoughts
of the past he considered as always present to us, and he believed
that no enjoyment could be had where the mind was disturbed by
consciousness of guilt, or fears about futurity. This opinion induced
the philosopher to recommend to his followers a particular mode
of education. The tender years of the Pythagoreans were employed
in continual labour, in study, in exercise, and repose; and the
philosopher maintained his well-known and important maxim, that many
things, especially love, are best learnt late. In a more advanced age,
the adult was desired to behave with caution, spirit, and patriotism,
and to remember that the community and civil society demanded
his exertions, and that the good of the public, and not his own
private enjoyments, were the ends of his creation. From lessons like
these, the Pythagoreans were strictly enjoined to call to mind, and
carefully to review, the actions, not only of the present, but of the
preceding days. In their acts of devotion, they early repaired to the
most solitary places of the mountains, and after they had examined
their private and public conduct, and conversed with themselves,
they joined in the company of their friends, and early refreshed
their body with light and frugal aliments. Their conversation was
of the most innocent nature; political or philosophic subjects were
discussed with propriety, but without warmth, and after the conduct
of the following day was regulated, the evening was spent with the
same religious ceremony as the morning, in a strict and partial
self-examination. From such regularity nothing but the most salutary
consequences could arise, and it will not appear wonderful that
the disciples of Pythagoras were so much respected and admired
as legislators, and imitated for their constancy, friendship, and
humanity. The authors that lived in, and after, the age of Alexander,
have rather tarnished than brightened the glory of the founder of the
Pythagorean school, and they have obscured his fame by attributing
to him actions which were dissonant with his character as a man and
a moralist. To give more weight to his exhortations, as some writers
mention, Pythagoras retired into a subterraneous cave, where his
mother sent him intelligence of everything which happened during
his absence. After a certain number of months he again reappeared on
the earth, with a grim and ghastly countenance, and declared, in the
assembly of the people, that he was returned from hell. From similar
exaggerations, it has been asserted that he appeared at the Olympic
games with a golden thigh, and that he could write in letters of
blood whatever he pleased on a looking-glass, and that, by setting it
opposite to the moon, when full, all the characters which were on the
glass became legible on the moon’s disc. They also support that, by
some magical words, he tamed a bear, stopped the flight of an eagle,
and appeared on the same day and at the same instant in the cities
of Crotona and Metapontum, &c. The time and the place of the death
of this great philosopher are unknown; yet many suppose that he died
at Metapontum about 497 years before Christ; and so great was the
veneration of the people of Magna Græcia for him, that he received
the same honours as were paid to the immortal gods, and his house
became a sacred temple. Succeeding ages likewise acknowledged his
merits, and when the Romans, A.U.C. 411, were commanded by the oracle
of Delphi to erect a statue to the bravest and wisest of the Greeks,
the distinguished honour was conferred on Alcibiades and Pythagoras.
Pythagoras had a daughter, called Damo. There is now extant a
poetical composition ascribed to the philosopher, and called the
_golden verses of Pythagoras_, which contain the greatest part of
his doctrines and moral precepts; but many support that it is a
supposititious composition, and that the true name of the writer was
Lysis. Pythagoras distinguished himself also by his discoveries in
geometry, astronomy, and mathematics, and it is to him that the world
is indebted for the demonstration of the 47th proposition of the
first book of Euclid’s elements, about the square of the hypothenuse.
It is said that he was so elated after making the discovery, that
he made an offering of a hecatomb to the gods; but the sacrifice
was undoubtedly of small oxen, made with wax, as the philosopher was
ever an enemy to shedding the blood of all animals. His system of
the universe, in which he placed the sun in the centre, and all the
planets moving in elliptical orbits round it, was deemed chimerical
and improbable, till the deep inquiries and the philosophy of the
16th century proved it, by the most accurate calculations, to be true
and incontestable. Diogenes Laërtius, Porphyry, Iamblicus, and others,
have written an account of his life, but with more erudition, perhaps,
than veracity. _Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 1, ch. 5; _Tusculanæ
Disputationes_, bk. 4, ch. 1.――_Diogenes Laërtius_, bk. 8, &c.
――_Hyginus_, fable 112.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 15, li. 60,
&c.――_Plato._――_Pliny_, bk. 34, ch. 6.――_Aulus Gellius_, bk. 9.
――_Iamblic._――_Porphyry._――_Plutarch._――――A soothsayer of Babylon,
who foretold the death of Alexander and of Hephæstion, by consulting
the entrails of victims.――――A tyrant of Ephesus.――――One of Nero’s
wicked favourites.
=Pytheas=, an archon at Athens.――――A native of Massilia, famous for
his knowledge of astronomy, mathematics, philosophy, and geography.
He also distinguished himself by his travels, and, with a mind that
wished to seek information in every corner of the earth, he advanced
far into the northern seas, and discovered the island of Thule, and
entered that then unknown sea, which is now called the _Baltic_. His
discoveries in astronomy and geography were ingenious, and, indeed,
modern navigators have found it expedient to justify and accede
to his conclusions. He was the first who established a distinction
of climate by the length of days and nights. He wrote different
treatises in Greek, which have been lost, though some of them
were extant in the beginning of the fifth century. Pytheas lived,
according to some, in the age of Aristotle. _Strabo_, bk. 2,
&c.――_Pliny_, bk. 37.――――An Athenian rhetorician, in the age of
Demosthenes, who distinguished himself by his intrigues, rapacity,
and his opposition to the measures of Demosthenes, of whom he
observed that his orations smelt of the lamp. Pytheas joined
Antipater after the death of Alexander the Great. His orations were
devoid of elegance, harsh, unconnected, and diffuse, and from this
circumstance he has not been ranked among the orators of Athens.
_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 7, ch. 7.――_Plutarch_, _Demosthenes_
& _Politica Præcepta_.
=Pythes=, a native of Abdera, in Thrace, son of Andromache, who
obtained a crown at the Olympian games. _Pliny_, bk. 34, ch. 7.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 14.
=Pytheus=, a Lydian in the age of Xerxes, famous for his riches. He
kindly entertained the monarch and all his army, when he was marching
on his expedition against Greece, and offered him to defray the
expenses of the whole war. Xerxes thanked him with much gratitude,
and promised to give him whatever he should require. Pytheus asked
him to dismiss his son from the expedition; upon which the monarch
ordered the young man to be cut in two, and one half of the body to
be placed on the right hand of the way, and the other on the left,
that his army might march between them. _Plutarch_, _de Mulierum
Virtutes_.――_Herodotus._
=Pythia=, the priestess of Apollo at Delphi. She delivered the answer
of the god to such as came to consult the oracle, and was supposed
to be suddenly inspired by the sulphureous vapours which issued from
the hole of a subterraneous cavity within the temple, over which
she sat bare on a three-legged stool, called a tripod. In this
stool was a small aperture, through which the vapour was inhaled by
the priestess, and, at this divine inspiration, her eyes suddenly
sparkled, her hair stood on end, and a shivering ran over all her
body. In this convulsive state she spoke the oracles of the god,
often with loud howlings and cries, and her articulations were
taken down by the priest, and set in order. Sometimes the spirit of
inspiration was more gentle, and not always violent; yet Plutarch
mentions one of the priestesses who was thrown into such an excessive
fury, that not only those that consulted the oracle, but also the
priest that conducted her to the sacred tripod, and attended her
during the inspiration, were terrified and forsook the temple; and
so violent was the fit, that she continued for some days in the most
agonizing situation, and at last died. The Pythia, before she placed
herself on the tripod, used to wash her whole body, and particularly
her hair, in the waters of the fountain Castalis, at the foot of
mount Parnassus. She also shook a laurel tree that grew near the
place, and sometimes ate the leaves with which she crowned herself.
The priestess was originally a virgin, but the institution was
changed when Echecrates, a Thessalian, had offered violence to one of
them, and none but women who were above the age of 50 were permitted
to enter upon that sacred office. They always appeared dressed in the
garments of virgins, to intimate their purity and modesty, and they
were solemnly bound to observe the strictest laws of temperance and
chastity, that neither fantastical dresses nor lascivious behaviour
might bring the office, the religion, or the sanctity of the
place into contempt. There was originally but one Pythia, besides
subordinate priests, and afterwards two were chosen, and sometimes
more. The most celebrated of all these is Phemonoe, who is supposed
by some to have been the first who gave oracles at Delphi. The
oracles were always delivered in hexameter verses, a custom which was
some time after discontinued. The Pythia was consulted only one month
in the year, about the spring. It was always required that those
who consulted the oracle should make large presents to Apollo, and
from thence arose the opulence, splendour, and the magnificence of
that celebrated temple of Delphi. Sacrifices were also offered to the
divinity, and if the omens proved unfavourable, the priestess refused
to ♦give an answer. There were generally five priests who assisted
at the offering of the sacrifices, and there was also another who
attended the Pythia, and assisted her in receiving the oracle. _See:_
♠Delphi, Oraculum. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 5.――_Diodorus_, bk. 16.
――_Strabo_, bks. 6 & 9.――_Justin_, bk. 24, ch. 5.――_Plutarch_, _De
Defectu Oraculorum_.――_Euripides_, _Ion_.――_Dio Chrysostom._――――Games
celebrated in honour of Apollo, near the temple of Delphi. They
were at first instituted, according to the more received opinion, by
Apollo himself, in commemoration of the victory which he had obtained
over the serpent Python, from which they received their name; though
others maintain that they were first established by Agamemnon, or
Diomedes, or by Amphictyon, or, lastly, by the council of Amphictyons,
B.C. 1263. They were originally celebrated once in nine years, but
afterwards every fifth year, or the second year of every olympiad,
according to the number of the Parnassian nymphs who congratulated
Apollo after his victory. The gods themselves were originally among
the combatants, and, according to some authors, the first prize was
won by Pollux, in boxing; by Castor, in horse-races; by Hercules,
in the pancratium; by Zetes, in fighting with the armour; by Calais,
in running; by Telamon, in wrestling; and by Peleus in throwing the
quoit. These illustrious conquerors were rewarded by Apollo himself,
who was present, with crowns and laurels. Some, however, observe
that it was nothing but a musical contention, in which he who sung
best the praises of Apollo obtained the prize, which was presents
of gold or silver, which were afterwards exchanged for a garland
of the palm tree, or of beech leaves. It is said that Hesiod was
refused admission to these games because he was not able to play upon
the harp, which was required of all such as entered the lists. The
songs which were sung were called Πυθικοι νομοι, _the Pythian modes_,
divided into five parts, which contained a representation of the
fight and victory of Apollo over Python; ἀνακρουσις, _the preparation
for the fight_; ἐμπειρα, _the first attempt_; κατακελευσμος, _taking
breath and collecting courage_; ἰαμβοι και δακτυλοι, _the insulting
sarcasms of the god over his vanquished enemy_; συριγγες, _an
imitation of the hisses of the serpent_, just as he expired under
the blows of Apollo. A dance was also introduced; and in the 48th
Olympiad, the Amphictyons, who presided over the games, increased
the number of musical instruments by the addition of a flute; but,
as it was more peculiarly used in funeral songs and lamentations,
it was soon rejected as unfit for merriment, and the festivals which
represented the triumph of Apollo over the conquered serpent. The
Romans, according to some, introduced them into their city, and
called them Apollinares ludi. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, chs. 13 & 37.
――_Strabo_, bk. 9.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, li. 447.――_Pliny_,
bk. 7.――_Livy_, bk. 25.
♦ ‘gave’ replaced with ‘give’
♠ ‘Delphia’ replaced with ‘Delphi’
=Pythias=, a Pythagorean philosopher, intimate with Damon. _See:_
Phintias.――――A road which led from Thessaly to Tempe. _Ælian._――――A
comic character, &c.
=Pythion=, an Athenian killed, with 420 soldiers, when he attempted to
drive the garrison of Demetrius from Athens, &c. _Polyænus_, bk. 5.
=Pythium=, a town of Thessaly. _Livy_, bk. 42, ch. 53; bk. 44, ch. 2.
=Pythius=, a Syracusan, who defrauded Canius, a Roman knight, to
whom he had sold his gardens, &c. _Cicero_, _de Officiis_, bk. 3,
ch. 14.――――A surname of Apollo, which he had received for his
having conquered the serpent Python, or because he was worshipped at
Delphi; called also Pytho. _Macrobius_, bk. 1, _Saturnalia_, ch. 17.
――_Propertius_, bk. 2, poem 33, li. 16.
=Pytho=, the ancient name of the town of Delphi, which it received
ἀπο του πυθεσθαι, because the serpent which Apollo killed, _rotted
there_. It was also called Parnassia Nape. _See:_ Delphi.
=Pythochăris=, a musician, who assuaged the fury of some wolves by
playing on a musical instrument, &c. _Ælian._
=Pythŏcles=, an Athenian descended from Aratus. It is said, that on his
account, and for his instruction, Plutarch wrote the life of Aratus.
――――A man put to death with Phocion.――――A man who wrote on Italy.
=Pythodōrus=, an Athenian archon in the age of Themistocles.
=Pytholāus=, the brother of Theba, the wife of Alexander tyrant of
Pheræ. He assisted his sister in despatching her husband. _Plutarch._
=Python=, a native of Byzantium, in the age of Philip of Macedonia. He
was a great favourite of the monarch who sent him to the Thebes, when
that city, at the instigation of Demosthenes, was going to take arms
against Philip. _Plutarch_, _Demosthenes_.――_Diodorus._――――One of
the friends of Alexander, put to death by Ptolemy Lagus.――――A man who
killed Cotys king of Thrace at the instigation of the Athenians.――――A
celebrated serpent sprung from the mud and stagnated waters which
remained on the surface of the earth after the deluge of Deucalion.
Some, however, suppose that it was produced from the earth by Juno,
and sent by the goddess to persecute Latona, who was then pregnant by
Jupiter. Latona escaped his fury by means of her lover, who changed
her into a quail during the remaining months of her pregnancy, and
afterwards restored her to her original shape in the island of Delos,
where she gave birth to Apollo and Diana. Apollo, as soon as he was
born, attacked the monster and killed him with his arrows, and in
commemoration of the victory which he had obtained, he instituted the
celebrated Pythian games. _Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 7;
bk. 10, ch. 6.――_Hyginus._――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, li. 438,
&c.――_Lucan_, bk. 5, li. 134.
=Pythonĭce=, an Athenian prostitute greatly honoured by Harpalus,
whom Alexander some time before had entrusted with the treasures of
Babylon. He married her; and according to some, she died at the very
moment that the nuptials were going to be celebrated. He raised her
a splendid monument on the road which led from Athens to Eleusis,
which cost him 30 talents. _Diodorus_, bk. 17.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1.
――_Athenæus_, bk. 13, &c.
=Pythonissa=, a name given to the priestess of Apollo’s temple at
Delphi. She is more generally called Pythia. _See:_ Pythia. The word
_Pythonissa_ was commonly applied to women who attempted to explain
futurity.
=Pytna=, a part of mount Ida.
=Pyttalus=, a celebrated athlete, son of Lampis of Elis, who obtained a
prize at the Olympic games. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 16.
Q
=Quaderna=, a town of Italy.
=Quadi=, an ancient nation of Germany, near the country of the
Marcomanni, on the borders of the Danube, in modern Moravia. They
rendered themselves celebrated by their opposition to the Romans, by
whom they were often defeated, though not totally subdued. _Tacitus_,
_Germania_, chs. 42 & 43; _Annals_, bk. 2, ch. 63.
=Quadrātus=, a surname given to Mercury, because some of his statues
were square. The number 4, according to Plutarch, was sacred to
Mercury, because he was born on the 4th day of the month. _Plutarch_,
_Convivium Septem Sapientium_, ch. 9.――――A governor of Syria in the
age of Nero.
=Quadrĭfrons=, or =Quadrĭceps=, a surname of Janus, because he was
represented with four heads. He had a temple on the Tarpeian rock,
raised by Lucius Catulus.
=Quæstōres=, two officers at Rome, first created A.U.C. 269. They
received their name _a quærendo_, because they collected the revenues
of the state, and had the total management of the public treasury.
The questorship was the first office which could be had in the state.
It was requisite that the candidates should be 24 or 25 years of age,
or, according to some, 27. In the year 332, A.U.C., two more were
added to the others, to attend the consuls, to take care of the
pay of the armies abroad, and sell the plunder and booty which had
been acquired by conquest. These were called _Peregrini_, whilst
the others, whose employment was in the city, received the name of
_Urbani_. When the Romans were masters of all Italy, four more were
created, A.U.C. 439, to attend the proconsuls and propretors in
their provinces, and to collect all the taxes and customs which
each particular district owed to the republic. They were called
_Provinciales_. Sylla the dictator created 20 questors, and Julius
Cæsar 40, to fill up the vacant seats in the senate; from whence it
is evident that the questors ranked as senators in the senate. The
questors were always appointed by the senate at Rome, and if any
person was appointed to the questorship without their permission, he
was only called _proquestor_. The quæstores urbani were apparently of
more consequence than the rest, the treasury was entrusted to their
care, they kept an account of all the receipts and disbursements,
and the Roman eagles or ensigns were always in their possession when
the armies were not on an expedition. They required every general
before he triumphed to tell them, upon his oath, that he had given
a just account of the number of the slain on both sides, and that
he had been saluted _imperator_ by the soldiers, a title which every
commander generally received from his army after he had obtained
a victory, and which was afterwards confirmed and approved by the
senate. The city questors had also the care of the ambassadors; they
lodged and received them, and some time after, when Augustus was
declared emperor, they kept the decrees of the senate, which had been
before entrusted with the ediles and the tribunes. This gave rise
to two new offices of trust and honour, one of which was _quæstor
palatii_, and the other _quæstor principis_, or _augusti_, sometimes
called _candidatus principis_. The tent of the questor in the camp
was called _quæstorium_. It stood near that of the general. _Varro_,
_de Lingua Latina_, bk. 4.――_Livy_, bk. 4, ch. 43.――_Dio Cassius_,
bk. 43.
=Quari=, a people of Gaul.
=Quarius=, a river of Bœotia.
=Quercens=, a Rutulian who fought against the Trojans. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 684.
=Querquetulānus=, a name given to mount Cœlius at Rome, from the oaks
which grew there. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 4, ch. 65.
=Quiētis fanum=, a temple without the walls of the city of Rome. Quies
was the goddess of rest. Her temple was situate near the Colline gate.
_Livy_, bk. 4, ch. 4.――_Augustine_, _City of God_, bk. 4, ch. 16.
=Lucius Quiētus=, an officer under the emperor Trajan, who behaved with
great valour in the expeditions which were undertaken by the army
which he commanded. He was put to death by Adrian.
=Quinctia prata.= _See:_ Quintia.
=Quinctiānus=, a man who conspired against Nero, for which he was put
to death.
=Quinctilia=, a comedian who refused to betray a conspiracy which had
been formed against Caligula.
=Quinctius Titus=, a Roman consul who gained some victories over the
Æqui and the Volsci, and obtained a triumph for subduing Præneste.
――――Cæso, a man accused before the Roman people, and vindicated by
his father Cincinnatus.――――A Roman celebrated for his frugality.
_See:_ Cincinnatus.――――A master of horse.――――A Roman consul when
Annibal invaded Italy.――――A brother of Flaminius, banished from
the senate by Cato, for killing a Gaul.――――An officer killed by the
Carthaginians.――――An officer under Dolabella.――――Another who defeated
the Latins.――――A consul who obtained a victory over the Volsci.
――――Hirpinus. _See:_ Hirpinus.
=Quinda=, a town of Cilicia.
=Quindecimvĭri=, an order of priests whom Tarquin the Proud appointed
to take care of the Sibylline books. They were originally two, but
afterwards the number was increased to 10, to whom Sylla added five
more, whence their name. _See:_ Decemviri and Duumviri.
=Quinquatria=, a festival in honour of Minerva at Rome, which continued
during five days. The beginning of the celebration was the 18th of
March. The first day sacrifices and oblations were presented, but,
however, without the effusion of blood. On the second, third, and
fourth days, shows of gladiators were exhibited, and on the fifth day
there was a solemn procession through the streets of the city. On the
days of the celebration, scholars obtained holidays, and it was usual
for them to offer prayers to Minerva for learning and wisdom, which
the goddess patronized; and on their return to school they presented
their master with a gift which has received the name of _Minerval_.
They were much the same as the Panathenæa of the Greeks. Plays were
also acted, and disputations were held on subjects of literature.
They received their name from the _five_ days which were devoted for
the celebration.
=Quinquennāles ludi=, games celebrated by the Chians in honour of Homer
every fifth year. There were also some games among the Romans which
bore this name. They are the same as the Actian games. _See:_ Actia.
=Quintia Prata=, a place on the borders of the Tiber near Rome, which
had been cultivated by the great Cincinnatus. _Livy_, bk. 3, ch. 26.
=Quintiliānus Marcus Fabius=, a celebrated rhetorician born in Spain.
He opened a school of rhetoric at Rome, and was the first who
obtained a salary from the state as being a public teacher. After
he had remained 20 years in this laborious employment, and obtained
the merited applause of the most illustrious Romans, not only as a
preceptor, but as a pleader at the bar, Quintilian, by the permission
of the emperor Domitian, retired to enjoy the fruits of his labours
and industry. In his retirement he assiduously dedicated his time
to the study of literature, and wrote a treatise on the causes
of the corruption of eloquence. Some time after, at the pressing
solicitations of his friends, he wrote his _institutiones oratoricæ_,
the most perfect and complete system of oratory extant. It is divided
into 12 books, in which the author explains from observation, as well
as from experience, what can constitute a good and perfect orator,
and in this he not only mentions the pursuits and the employments
of the rhetorician, but he also speaks of his education, and begins
with the attention which ought to be shown him even in his cradle.
He was appointed preceptor to the two young princes whom Domitian
destined for his successors on the throne, but the pleasures which
the rhetorician received from the favours and the attention of the
emperor and from the success which his writings met in the world,
were embittered by the loss of his wife, and of his two sons. It
is said that Quintilian was poor in his retirement, and that his
indigence was relieved by the liberality of his pupil Pliny the
younger. He died A.D. 95. His Institutions were discovered in the
1415th year of the christian era, in an old tower of a monastery
at St. Gal, by Poggio Bracciolini, a native of Florence. The best
editions of Quintilian are those of Gesner, 4to, Göttingen, 1738; of
Leiden, 8vo, _cum notis variorum_, 1665; of Gibson, 4to, Oxford, 1693;
and that of Rollin, republished in 8vo, London, 1792.
=Quintilius Varus=, a Roman governor of Syria. _See:_ Varus.――――A
friend of the emperor Alexander.――――A man put to death by the emperor
Severus.
=Quintilla=, a courtesan at Rome, &c. _Juvenal_, satire 7, li. 75.
=Quintillus Marcus Aurelius Claudius=, a brother of Claudius, who
proclaimed himself emperor, and 17 days after destroyed himself by
opening his veins in a bath, when he heard that Aurelian was marching
against him, about the 270th year of the christian era.
=Quintius Curtius Rufus=, a Latin historian, who flourished, as some
suppose, in the reign of Vespasian or Trajan. He has rendered himself
known by his history of the reign of Alexander the Great. This
history was divided into 10 books, of which the two first, the end
of the fifth, and the beginning of the sixth, are lost. This work is
admired for the elegance, the purity, and the floridness of its style.
It is, however, blamed for great anachronisms and glaring mistakes in
geography as well as history. Freinshemius has written a supplement
to Curtius, in which he seems to have made some very satisfactory
amends for the loss of which the history had suffered, by a learned
collection of facts and circumstances from all the different authors
who have employed their pen in writing an account of Alexander, and
of his Asiatic conquests. Some suppose that the historian is the same
with that Curtius Rufus who lived in the age of Claudius, under whom
he was made consul. This Rufus was born of an obscure family, and he
attended a Roman questor in Africa, when he was met at Adrumentum by
a woman above a human shape, as he was walking under the porticoes
in the middle of the day. This extraordinary character addressed
the indigent Roman, and told him that the day should come in which
he should govern Africa with consular power. This strange prophecy
animated Rufus; he repaired to Rome, where he gained the favours
of the emperor, obtained consular honours, and at last retired as
proconsul to Africa, where he died. The best editions of Curtius are
those of Elzevir, 8vo, Amsterdam, 1673; of Snakenburg, 4to, Leiden,
1724; and of Barbou, 12mo, Paris, 1757. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 11,
ch. 23, &c.
♦=Quintus=, or =Quinctius=, one of the names of Cincinnatus. _Persius_,
bk. 1, li. 73.――――Pedius, a painter. _See:_ Pedius.
♦ Out of alphabetical order in the text.
=Quintus Veranius=, a governor of Cappadocia.――――Cicero, the brother of
Cicero.――――Catulus, a Roman consul.――――A friend of Cæsar.
=Quirinalia=, festivals in honour of Romulus, surnamed Quirinus,
celebrated on the 13th of the calends of March.
=Quirinālis=, a hill at Rome, originally called _Agonius_, and
afterwards _Collinus_. The name of Quirinalis is obtained from the
inhabitants of Cures, who settled there under their king Tatius. It
was also called _Cabalinus_, from two marble statues of a horse, one
of which was the work of Phidias, and the other of Praxiteles. _Livy_,
bk. 1, ch. 44.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, li. 375; _Metamorphoses_, bk. 14,
li. 843.――――One of the gates of Rome near mount Quirinalis.
=Quirīnus=, a surname of Mars among the Romans. This name was also
given to Romulus when he had been made a god by his superstitious
subjects. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 2, li. 475.――――Also a surname of the
god Janus.――――Sulpitius, a Roman consul, born at Lanuvium. Though
descended of an obscure family, he was raised to the greatest honours
by Augustus. He was appointed governor of Syria, and was afterwards
made preceptor to Caius the grandson of the emperor. He married
Æmilia Lepida the granddaughter of Sylla and Pompey, but some time
after he shamefully repudiated her. He died A.D. 22. _Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 3, &c.
=Quirītes=, a name given to the Roman citizens, because they admitted
into their city the Sabines, who inhabited the town of Cures, and
who on that account were called _Quirites_. After this union, the
two nations were indiscriminately and promiscuously called by that
name. It is, however, to be observed that the word was confined to
Rome, and not used in the armies, as we find some of the generals
applying it only to such of their soldiers as they dismissed or
disgraced. Even some of the emperors appeased a sedition, by calling
their rebellious soldiers by the degrading appellation of Quirites.
_Suetonius_, _Cæsar_, ch. 170.――_Lampridius_, bk. 53.――_Lucan_,
bk. 5, li. 558.――_Horace_, bk. 4, ode 14, li. 1.――_Varro_, _de Lingua
Latina_, bk. 4.――_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 13.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 2,
li. 479.
R
=Rabirius Caius=, a Roman knight, who lent an immense sum of money
to Ptolemy Auletes king of Egypt. The monarch afterwards not only
refused to repay him, but even confined him, and endangered his life.
Rabirius escaped from Egypt with difficulty, but at his return to
Rome, he was accused by the senate of having lent money to an African
prince, for unlawful purposes. He was ably defended by Cicero, and
acquitted with difficulty. _Cicero_, _For Rabirius_.――――A Latin poet
in the age of Augustus, who wrote, besides satires and epigrams,
a poem on the victory which the emperor had gained over Antony at
Actium. Seneca has compared him to Virgil for elegance and majesty,
but Quintilian is not so favourable to his poetry.――――An architect in
the reign of Domitian, who built a celebrated palace for the emperor,
of which the ruins are still seen at Rome.
=Racillia=, the wife of Cincinnatus. _Livy_, bk. 3, ch. 26.
=Racilius=, a tribune who complained in the senate of the faction of
Clodius. _Cicero_, _Against Verres_, bk. 2, ch. 12; _Letters to his
brother Quintus_, bk. 2, ch. 1.
=Ræsaces=, an officer of Artaxerxes. He revolted from his master, and
fled to Athens.
=Ramises=, a king of Egypt. _See:_ Rhamses.
=Ramnes=, or =Rhamnenses=, one of the three centuries instituted by
Romulus. After the Roman people had been divided into three tribes,
the monarch elected out of each 100 young men of the best and noblest
families, with which he formed three companies of horse. One of them
was called _Ramnes_, either from the tribe of which it was chosen, or
from Romulus. Another was called _Tatian_, and the third _Luceres_.
_Varro_, _de Lingua Latina_, bk. 4, ch. 9.――_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 13.
――_Horace_, _Art of Poetry_, li. 304.――_Plutarch_, _Romulus_.
=Randa=, a village of Persia, where 3000 rebellious Persians were slain
by Chiles. _Polyænus_, bk. 7.
=Rapo=, a Rutulian chief, &c. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 748.
=Rascipŏlis=, a Macedonian sent to the assistance of Pompey. _Cæsar_,
_Civil War_, bk. 3, ch. 4.
=Ravenna=, a town of Italy on the Adriatic, which became celebrated
under the Roman emperors for its capacious harbour, which could
contain 250 ships, and for being for some time the seat of the
western empire. It was difficult of access by land, as it stood on a
small peninsula; and so ill supplied with water, that it was sold at
a higher price than wine, according to Martial. The emperors kept one
of their fleets there, and the other at Misenum, on the other side
of Italy. It was founded by a colony of Thessalians, or, according
to others, of Sabines. It is now fallen from its former grandeur, and
is a wretched town situate at the distance of about four miles from
the sea, and surrounded with swamps and marshes. _Strabo_, bk. 5.
――_Suetonius_, _Augustus_, ch. 49.――_Pliny_, bk. 36, ch. 12.――_Mela_,
bk. 2, ch. 4.――_Martial_, bk. 3, ltr. 93, li. 8, &c.
=Rāvŏla=, a celebrated debauchee, &c. _Juvenal._
=Rauraci=, a people of Gaul, whose chief town is now Augst on the Rhine.
_Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 1, ch. 5.
=Reāte=, a pleasant town of Umbria, built, as some suppose, before the
Trojan war, about 15 miles from Fanum Vacunæ, near the lake Velinus.
Cybele was the chief deity of the place. It was famous for its asses.
_Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 1.――_Varro_, _de
Re Rustica_, bk. 1.――_Livy_, bk. 25, ch. 7; bk. 26, ch. 11; bk. 28,
ch. 45.――_Cicero_, _Against Catiline_, bk. 3, ch. 2; _de Natura
Deorum_, bk. 2, ch. 2.
=Redicŭlus=, a deity whose name is derived from the word _redire_ (to
return). The Romans raised a temple to this imaginary deity on the
spot where Annibal had retired when he approached Rome, as if to
besiege it. _Festus_, _Lexicon of Festus_.
=Redŏnes=, a nation among the Armorici, now the people of _Rennes_ and
_St. Maloes_, in Brittany. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 2, ch. 41.
=Regillæ=, or =Regillum=, a town in the country of the Sabines in Italy,
about 20 miles from Rome, celebrated for a battle which was fought
there, A.U.C. 258, between 24,000 Romans and 40,000 Etrurians, who
were headed by the Tarquins. The Romans obtained the victory, and
scarce 10,000 of the enemy escaped from the field of battle. Castor
and Pollux, according to some accounts, were seen mounted on white
horses, and fighting at the head of the Roman army. _Livy_, bk. 2,
ch. 16.――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 5.――_Plutarch_, _Caius
Marcius Coriolanus_.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 1.――_Florus_, bk. 1.
――_Suetonius_, _Tiberias_, ch. 1.
=Regilliānus Q. Nonius=, a Dacian who entered the Roman armies, and was
raised to the greatest honours under Valerian. He was elected emperor
by the populace, who were dissatisfied with Gallienus, and was soon
after murdered by his soldiers, A.D. 262.
=Regillus=, a small lake of Latium, whose waters fall into the Anio,
at the east of Rome. The dictator Posthumius defeated the Latin army
near it. _Livy_, bk. 2, ch. 19.
=Regīnum=, a town of Germany, now supposed Ratisbon or Regensburg.
=Regium Lepidum=, a town of Modena, now _Regio_, at the south of the Po.
_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 15.――_Cicero_, bk. 12, _Letters to his Friends_,
ltr. 5; bk. 13, ltr. 7.
=Marcus Attilius Regŭlus=, a consul during the first Punic war. He
reduced Brundusium, and in his second consulship he took 64, and
sunk 30 galleys of the Carthaginian fleet, on the coast of Sicily.
Afterwards he landed in Africa, and so rapid was his success, that in
a short time he defeated three generals, and made himself master of
about 200 places of consequence on the coast. The Carthaginians sued
for peace, but the conqueror refused to grant it, and soon after he
was defeated in a battle by Xanthippus, and 30,000 of his men were
left on the field of battle, and 15,000 taken prisoners. Regulus
was in the number of the captives, and he was carried in triumph to
Carthage. He was afterwards sent by the enemy to Rome, to propose an
accommodation, and an exchange of prisoners; and if his commission
was unsuccessful, he was bound by the most solemn oaths to return to
Carthage without delay. When he came to Rome, Regulus dissuaded his
countrymen from accepting the terms which the enemy proposed, and
when his opinion had had due influence on the senate, he then retired
to Carthage agreeable to his engagements. The Carthaginians were told
that their offers of peace had been rejected at Rome by the means of
Regulus, and therefore they prepared to punish him with the greatest
severity. His eyebrows were cut, and he was exposed for some days to
the excessive heat of the meridian sun, and afterwards confined in
a barrel, whose sides were everywhere filled with large iron spikes,
till he died in the greatest agonies. His sufferings were heard
at Rome, and the senate permitted his widow to inflict whatever
punishments she pleased on some of the most illustrious captives of
Carthage, who were in their hands. She confined them also in presses
filled with sharp iron points, and was so exquisite in her cruelty,
that the senate at last interfered, and stopped the barbarity of
her punishments. Regulus died about 251 years before Christ. _Silius
Italicus_, bk. 6, li. 319.――_Florus_, bk. 2, ch. 3.――_Horace_, bk. 3,
ode 5.――_Cicero_, _de Officiis_, bk. 1, ch. 13.――_Valerius Maximus_,
bk. 1, ch. 1; bk. 9, ch. 2.――_Livy_, ltr. 16.――――Memmius, a Roman
made governor of Greece by Caligula. While Regulus was in this
province, the emperor wished to bring the celebrated statue of
Jupiter Olympius, by Phidias, to Rome; but this was supernaturally
prevented, and according to ancient authors, the ship which was to
convey it was destroyed by lightning, and the workmen who attempted
to remove the statue were terrified away by sudden noises. _Dio
Cassius._――――A man who condemned Sejanus.――――Roscius, a man who held
the consulship but for one day, in the reign of Vitellius.
=Remi=, a nation of Gaul, whose principal town, Duricortorium, is now
Rheims, in the north of Champagne. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 17.――_Cæsar_,
_Gallic War_, bk. 2, ch. 5.
=Remmia lex=, _de judiciis_, was enacted to punish all calumniators.
The letter K was marked on their forehead. This law was abolished by
Constantine the Great. _Cicero_, _For Quintus Roscius_.
=Rĕmŭlus=, a chief of Tibur, whose arms were seized by the Rutulians,
and afterwards became part of the plunder which Euryalus obtained.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 360.――――A friend of Turnus, trampled to
death by his horse, which Orsilochus had wounded. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 11, li. 636, &c.
=Rĕmŭlus Sylvius=, a king of Alba, destroyed by lightning on account of
his impiety. _Ovid_, _Tristia_, bk. 4, li. 50.
=Remuria=, festivals established at Rome by Romulus, to appease the
manes of his brother Remus. They were afterwards called _Lemuria_,
and celebrated yearly.
=Remus=, the brother of Romulus, was exposed, together with him, by the
cruelty of his grandfather. In the contest which happened between the
two brothers about building a city, Romulus obtained the preference,
and Remus, for ridiculing the rising walls, was put to death by his
brother’s orders, or by Romulus himself. _See:_ Romulus. The Romans
were afflicted with a plague after this murder, upon which the oracle
was consulted, and the manes of Remus appeased by the institution
of the Remuria. _Ovid._――――One of the auxiliaries of Turnus against
Æneas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 330.
=Resæna=, a town of Mesopotamia, famous for the defeat of Sapor by
Gordian.
=Resus=, a small river of Asia Minor, falling into the Mæander.
=Retina=, a village near Misenum. _Pliny_, bk. 6, ltr. 16.
=Reudigni=, a nation of Germany. _Tacitus_, _Germania_, ch. 40.
=Rha=, a large river, now the _Volga_, of Russia. A medicinal root
which grew on its bank was called _Rha barbarum_, _Rhubarb_.
=Rhacia=, a promontory in the Mediterranean sea, projecting from the
Pyrenean mountains.
=Rhacius=, a Cretan prince, the first of that nation who entered Ionia
with a colony. He seized Claros, of which he became the sovereign.
He married Manto the daughter of Tiresias, who had been seized on his
coasts. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 3.
=Rhacōtis=, an ancient name of Alexandria the capital of Egypt.
_Strabo._――_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 21.
=Rhadamanthus=, a son of Jupiter and Europa. He was born in Crete,
which he abandoned about the 30th year of his age. He passed into
some of the Cyclades, where he reigned with so much justice and
impartiality, that the ancients have said he became one of the judges
of hell, and that he was employed in the infernal regions in obliging
the dead to confess their crimes, and in punishing them for their
offences. Rhadamanthus reigned not only over some of the Cyclades,
but over many of the Greek cities of Asia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8,
ch. 53.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 9, li. 435.――_Diodorus_, bk. 5.
――_Plato._――_Homer_. _Iliad_, bk. 4, li. 564.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 6, li. 566.
=Rhadamistus=, a son of Pharnasmanes king of Iberia. He married Zenobia,
the daughter of his uncle Mithridates king of Armenia, and some
time after put him to death. He was put to death by his father for
his cruelties, about the year 52 of the christian era. _Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 13, ch. 37.
=Rhadius=, a son of Neleus.
=Rhæteum=, a city of Phrygia.
=Rhæti=, or =Ræti=, an ancient and warlike nation of Etruria. They were
driven from their native country by the Gauls, and went to settle on
the other side of the Alps. _See:_ Rhætia. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 10.
――_Justin_, bk. 20, ch. 5.
=Rhætia=, a country at the north of Italy, between the Alps and the
Danube, which now forms the territories of the Grisons, of the Tyrol,
and part of Italy. It was divided into two parts, _Rhætia prima_ and
_Rhætia secunda_. The first extended from the sources of the Rhine
to those of the Licus or Lek, a small river which falls into the
Danube. The other, called also _Vindelicia_, extended from the Licus
to another small river called Œnus, or Inn, towards the east. The
principal towns of Rhætia were called Curia, Tridentum, Belunum,
Feltria. The Rhætians rendered themselves formidable by the frequent
invasions which they made upon the Roman empire, and were at last
conquered by Drusus the brother of Tiberius, and others under the
Roman emperors. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 2, li. 96.――_Strabo_, bk. 4.
――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 20; bk. 14, ch. 2, &c.――_Horace_, bk. 4, ode 4
& 14.
=Rhamnes=, a king and augur, who assisted Turnus against Æneas. He was
killed in the night by Nisus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 325.
=Rhamnus=, a town of Attica, famous for a temple of Amphiaraus, and a
statue of the goddess Nemesis, who was from thence called _Rhamnusia_.
This statue was made by Phidias, out of a block of Parian marble,
which the Persians intended as a pillar to be erected to commemorate
their expected victory over Greece. _Pausanias_, bk. 1.――_Pliny_,
bk. 36.
=Rhamnusia=, a name of Nemesis. _See:_ Rhamnus.
=Rhampsinītus=, an opulent king of Egypt, who succeeded Proteus.
He built a large tower with stones at Memphis, where his riches
were deposited, and of which he was robbed by the artifice of the
architect, who had left a stone in the wall easily movable, so as to
admit a plunderer. _Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 121, &c.
=Rhamses=, or =Ramises=, a powerful king of Egypt, who, with an army
of 700,000 men, conquered Æthiopia, Libya, Persia, and other eastern
nations. In his reign, according to Pliny, Troy was taken. Some
authors consider him to be the same as Sesostris. _Tacitus_, _Annals_,
bk. 2, ch. 60.――_Pliny_, bk. 36, ch. 8.
=Rhanis=, one of Diana’s attendant nymphs. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 3.
=Rharos=, or =Rharium=, a plain of Attica, where corn was first sown
by Triptolemus. It received its name from the sower’s father, who was
called Rharos. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, chs. 14 & 38.
=Rhascupŏris=, a king of Thrace, who invaded the possessions of Cotys,
and was put to death by order of Tiberius, &c. _Tacitus_, _Annals_,
bk. 2, ch. 64.
=Rhea=, a daughter of Cœlus and Terra, who married Saturn, by whom she
had Vesta, Ceres, Juno, Pluto, Neptune, &c. Her husband, however,
devoured them all as soon as born, as he had succeeded to the throne
with the solemn promise that he would raise no male children, or,
according to others, because he had been informed by an oracle
that one of his sons would dethrone him. To stop the cruelty of her
husband, Rhea consulted her parents, and was advised to impose upon
him, or perhaps to fly into Crete. Accordingly, when she brought
forth, the child was immediately concealed, and Saturn devoured up
a stone which his wife had given him as her own child. The fears
of Saturn were soon proved to be well founded. A year after, the
child, whose name was Jupiter, became so strong and powerful, that
he drove his father from his throne. Rhea has been confounded by
the mythologists with some of the other goddesses, and many have
supposed that she was the same divinity that received adoration
under the various names of Bona Dea, Cybele, Dindymena, Magna mater,
Ceres, Vesta, Titæa, and Terra, Tellus, and Ops. _See:_ Cybele,
Ceres, Vesta, &c. Rhea, after the expulsion of her husband from his
throne, followed him to Italy, where he established a kingdom. Her
benevolence in this part of Europe was so great, that the golden
age of Saturn is often called the age of Rhea. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_.
――_Orpheus_, _Hymns_.――_Homer_, _Hymns_.――_Æschylus_, _Prometheus
Bound_.――_Euripides_, _Bacchæ_ & _Electra_.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 4,
li. 197.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 1, &c.――――Sylvia, the mother
of Romulus and Remus. She is also called Ilia. _See:_ Ilia.――――A
nymph of Italy, who is said to have borne a son called Aventinus to
Hercules. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 659.
=Rhebas=, or =Rhebus=, a river of Bithynia, flowing from mount Olympus
into the Euxine sea. _Flaccus_, bk. 7, li. 698.
=Rhedŏnes.= _See:_ Redones.
=Rhegium=, now _Rheggio_, a town of Italy, in the country of the
Brutii, opposite Messana in Sicily, where a colony of Messenians
under Alcidamidas settled, B.C. 723. It was originally called
_Rhegium_, and afterwards _Rhegium Julium_, to distinguish it from
_Rhegium Lepidi_, a town of Cisalpine Gaul. Some suppose that it
received its name from the Greek word ῥηγνυμι, _to break_, because
it is situate on the straits of Charybdis, which were formed when
the island of Sicily, as it were, was broken and separated from
the continent of Italy. This town has always been subject to great
earthquakes, by which it has often been destroyed. The neighbourhood
is remarkable for its great fertility, and for its delightful views.
_Silius Italicus_, bk. 13, li. 94.――_Cicero_, _For Archias_, ch. 3.
――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 14, lis. 5 & 48.――_Justin_, bk. 4,
ch. 1.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 4.――_Strabo_, bk. 6.
=Rhegusci=, a people of the Alps.
=Rhemi.= _See:_ Remi.
=Rhene=, a small island of the Ægean, about 200 yards from Delos, 18
miles in circumference. The inhabitants of Delos always buried their
dead there, and their women also retired there during their labour,
as their own island was consecrated to Apollo, where Latona had
brought forth, and where no dead bodies were to be inhumated. Strabo
says that it was uninhabited, though it was once as populous and
flourishing as the rest of the Cyclades. Polycrates conquered it,
and consecrated it to Apollo, after he had tied it to Delos, by means
of a long chain. Rhene was sometimes called the small Delos, and
the island of Delos the great Delos. _Thucydides_, bk. 3.――_Strabo_,
bk. 10.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.
=Rheni=, a people on the borders of the Rhine.
=Rhenus=, one of the largest rivers of Europe, which divides Germany
from Gaul. It rises in the Rhætian Alps, and falls into the German
ocean. Virgil has called it _bicornis_, because it divides itself
into two streams. The river Rhine was a long time a barrier between
the Romans and the Germans, and on that account its banks were
covered with strong castles. Julius Cæsar was the first Roman who
crossed it to invade Germany. The waters of that river were held in
great veneration, and were supposed by the ancient Germans to have
some peculiar virtue, as they threw their children into it, either
to try the fidelity of the mothers, or to brace and invigorate their
limbs. If the child swam on the surface, the mother was acquitted
of suspicion, but if it sunk to the bottom, its origin was deemed
illegitimate. In modern geography the Rhine is known as dividing
itself into four large branches; the Waal, Lech, Issel, and the
Rhine. That branch which still retains the name of Rhine loses
itself in the sands above modern Leyden, and is afterwards no longer
known by its ancient appellation, since the year 860, A.D., when
inundations of the sea destroyed the regularity of its mouth. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 2, li. 258.――_Strabo_, bk. 4.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch.
3; bk. 5, ch. 2.――_Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 4, ch. 10.――_Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 2, ch. 6.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8, li. 727.――――A
small river of Italy, falling into the Po on the south, now _Rheno_.
_Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 600.――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 16; bk. 16,
ch. 36.
=Rheomitres=, a Persian who revolted from Artaxerxes, &c. _Diodorus_,
bk. 15.――――A Persian officer killed at the battle of Issus. _Curtius_,
bk. 2, ch. 5.
=Rhesus=, a king of Thrace, son of the Strymon and Terpsichore, or,
according to others, of Eioneus by Euterpe. After many warlike
exploits and conquests in Europe, he marched to the assistance of
Priam king of Troy, against the Greeks. He was expected with great
impatience, as an ancient oracle had declared that Troy should never
be taken if the horses of Rhesus drank the waters of the Xanthus, and
fed upon the grass of the Trojan plains. This oracle was well known
to the Greeks, and therefore two of their best generals, Diomedes
and Ulysses, were commissioned by the rest to intercept the Thracian
prince. The Greeks entered his camp in the night, slew him, and
carried away his horses to their camp. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 10.
――_Dictys Cretensis_, bk. 2.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 3.――_Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 473.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 13, li. 98.
=Rhetogĕnes=, a prince of Spain, who surrendered to the Romans, and was
treated with great humanity.
=Rhetĭco=, a mountain of Rhætia.
=Rheunus=, a place in Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 23.
=Rhexēnor=, a son of Nausithous king of Phæacia. _Homer_, _Odyssey_,
bk. 7.――――The father of Chalciope, the wife of Ægeus king of Athens.
――――A musician who accompanied Antony in Asia.
=Rhexibius=, an athlete of Opus, who obtained a prize in the Olympic
games, and had a statue in the grove of Jupiter. _Pausanias_, bk. 6,
ch. 18.
=Rhiānus=, a Greek poet of Thrace, originally a slave. He wrote an
account of the war between Sparta and Messenia, which continued for
20 years, as also a history of the principal revolutions and events
which had taken place in Thessaly. Of this poetical composition
nothing but a few verses are extant. He flourished about 200 years
before the christian era. _Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 6.
=Rhidago=, a river of Hyrcania falling into the Caspian sea. _Curtius_,
bk. 6, ch. 4.
=Rhimotăcles=, a king of Thrace, who revolted from Antony to
Augustus. He boasted of his attachment to the emperor’s person at an
entertainment, upon which Augustus said, _proditionem amo, proditores
vero odi_.
=Rhinocolūra=, a town on the borders of Palestine and Egypt. _Livy_,
bk. 45, ch. 11.
♦=Rhinthon=, a Greek poet of Tarentum, in the age of Alexander.
_Cicero_, _Letters to Atticus_, ltr. 20.
♦ Out of alphabetical order in the text.
=Rhion=, a promontory of Achaia, opposite to Antirrhium in Ætolia,
at the mouth of the Corinthian gulf, called also the Dardanelles of
Lepanto. The strait between Naupactum and Patræ bore also the same
name. The tomb of Hesiod was at the top of the promontory. _Livy_,
bk. 27, ch. 30; bk. 38, ch. 7.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 2.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 7, ch. 22.
=Rhipha=, or =Rhiphe=, a town of Arcadia. _Statius_, bk. 4, _Thebaid_,
li. 286.
=Rhiphæi=, large mountains at the north of Scythia, where, as
some suppose, the Gorgons had fixed their residence. The name of
_Rhiphæan_ was applied to any cold mountain in a northern country,
and, indeed, these mountains seem to have existed only in the
imagination of the poets, though some make the Tanais rise there.
_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.――_Lucan_, bk. 3, li. 272; bk. 3, li. 282; bk.
4, li. 418.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 1, li. 240; bk. 4, li. 518.
=Rhipheus=, one of the Centaurs. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_.――――A Trojan
praised for his justice, &c. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 2, li. 426.
_See:_ Ripheus.
=Rhium.= _See:_ Rhion.
=Rhizonitæ=, a people of Illyricum, whose chief town was called
_Rhizinium_. _Livy_, bk. 45, ch. 26.
=Rhoda=, now _Roses_, a seaport town of Spain. _Livy_, bk. 34, ch. 8.
――――A town on the Rhone, from which the river received its name. It
was ruined in Pliny’s age. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 4.
=Rhodănus=, a river of Gallia Narbonensis, arising in the Rhætian Alps,
and falling into the Mediterranean sea, near Marseilles. It is one
of the largest and most rapid rivers of Europe, now known by the
name of the _Rhone_. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 5; bk. 3, ch. 3.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 2, li. 258.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 3, li. 477.
――_Marcellinus_, bk. 15, &c.――_Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 1, ch. 1.
――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 4.――_Strabo_, bk. 4.――_Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 433;
bk. 6, li. 475.
=Rhode=, a daughter of Neptune. _Apollodorus._――――Of Danaus.
_Apollodorus._
=Rhodia=, one of the Oceanides. _Hesiod._――――A daughter of Danaus.
_Apollodorus._
=Rhodogȳne=, a daughter of Phraates king of Parthia, who married
Demetrius, when he was in banishment at her father’s court.
_Polyænus_, bk. 8.
=Rhŏdŏpe=, or =Rhodōpis=, a celebrated courtesan of Greece, who was
fellow-servant with Æsop, at the court of a king of Samos. She was
carried to Egypt by Xanthus, and her liberty was at last bought by
Charaxes of Mitylene, the brother of Sappho, who was enamoured of
her, and who married her. She sold her favours at Naucratis, where
she collected so much money, that, to render her name immortal, she
consecrated a number of spits in the temple of Apollo at Delphi;
or, according to others, erected one of the pyramids of Egypt. Ælian
says that, as Rhodope was one day bathing herself, an eagle carried
away one of her sandals, and dropped it near Psammetichus king of
Egypt, at Memphis. The monarch was struck with the beauty of the
sandal, strict inquiry was made to find the owner, and Rhodope, when
discovered, married Psammetichus. _Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 134, &c.
――_Ovid_, _Heroides_, poem 15.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 13,
ch. 33. Perizonius supposes there were two persons of that name.
=Rhŏdŏpe=, a high mountain of Thrace, extending as far as the Euxine
sea, all across the country, nearly in an eastern direction. Rhodope,
according to the poets, was the wife of Hæmus king of Thrace, who
was changed into this mountain, because she preferred herself to Juno
in beauty. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 6, li. 87, &c.――_Virgil_,
_Eclogues_, poem 8; _Georgics_, bk. 3, li. 351.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 2.
――_Strabo_, bk. 7.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 2, li. 73.――_Seneca_,
_Hercules Oetaeus_.
=Rhodopēius=, is used in the same signification as Thracian, because
Rhodope was a mountain of that country. _Ovid_, _Ars Amatoria_, bk. 3,
li. 321; _Heroides_, poem 2.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 4, li. 461.
=Rhodunia=, the top of mount Œta. _Livy_, bk. 36, ch. 16.
=Rhodus=, a celebrated island in the Carpathian sea, 120 miles in
circumference, at the south of Caria, from which it is distant
about 20 miles. Its principal cities were Rhodes, founded about 408
years before the christian era, Lindus, Camisus, Jalysus. Rhodes
was famous for the siege which it supported against Demetrius, and
for a celebrated statue of Apollo. _See:_ Colossus. The Rhodians
were originally governed by kings, and were independent, but this
government was at last exchanged for a democracy and an aristocracy.
They were naturally given up to commerce, and, during many ages, they
were the most powerful nation by sea. Their authority was respected,
and their laws were so universally approved, that every country made
use of them to decide disputes concerning maritime affairs, and they
were at last adopted by other commercial nations, and introduced into
the Roman codes, from whence they have been extracted to form the
basis of the maritime regulations of modern Europe. When Alexander
made himself master of Asia, the Rhodians lost their independence,
but they soon after asserted their natural privileges under his
cruel successors, and continued to hold that influence among nations
to which their maritime power and consequence entitled them. They
assisted Pompey against Cæsar, and were defeated by Cassius, and
became dependent upon the Romans. The island of Rhodes has been known
by the several names of _Ophiusa_, _Stadia_, _Telchinus_, _Corymbia_,
_Trinacria_, _Æthrea_, _Asteria_, _Poessa_, _Atabyria_, _Oloessa_,
_Marcia_, and _Pelagia_. It received the name of Rhodes, either on
account of Rhode, a beautiful nymph who dwelt there, and who was one
of the favourites of Apollo, or because _roses_ (ῥοδον) grew in great
abundance all over the island. _Strabo_, bk. 14.――_Homer_, _Iliad_,
bk. 2.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Diodorus_, bk. 5.――_Pliny_, bk. 2,
chs. 62 & 87; bk. 5, ch. 31.――_Florus_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Pindar_,
_Olympian_, poem 7.――_Lucan_, bk. 8, li. 248.――_Cicero_, _On Pompey’s
Command_; _Brutus_, ltr. 13.――_Livy_, bk. 27, ch. 30; bk. 31, ch. 2.
=Rhœbus=, a horse of Mezentius, whom his master addressed with the
determination to conquer or to die, when he saw his son Lausus
brought lifeless from the battle. This beautiful address is copied
from Homer, where likewise Achilles addresses his horses. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 861.
=Rhœcus=, one of the Centaurs who attempted to offer violence to
Atalanta. He was killed at the nuptials of Pirithous by Bacchus.
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12, li. 301.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_,
bk. 2.――――One of the giants killed by Bacchus, under the form of a
lion, in the war which these sons of the earth waged against Jupiter
and the gods. _Horace_, bk. 2, ode 19, li. 23.
=Rhœo=, a nymph beloved by Apollo. _Diodorus_, bk. 5.
=Rhœtēum=, or =Rhœtus=, a promontory of Troas, on the Hellespont, near
which the body of Ajax was buried. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 11,
li. 197; bk. 4, _Fasti_, li. 279.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 505;
bk. 12, li. 456.
=Rhœtius=, a mountain of Corsica, now _Rosso_.
=Rhœtus=, a king of the Marrubii, who married a woman called Casperia,
to whom Archemorus, his son by a former wife, offered violence.
After this incestuous attempt, ♦Archemorus fled to Turnus king of
the Rutuli. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 388.――――A Rutulian killed
by Euryalus in the night. _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 344.――――An Æthiopian
killed by Perseus. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, li. 38.
♦ ‘Archemorous’ replaced with ‘Archemorus’
=Rhosaces=, a Persian killed by Clitus as he was going to stab
Alexander at the battle of the Granicus. _Curtius_, bk. 8, ch. 1.
=Rhosus=, a town of Syria, on the gulf of Issus, celebrated for its
earthen wares. _Cicero_, bk. 6, _Letters to Atticus_, ltr. 1.
=Rhoxalāni=, a people at the north of the Palus Mæotis. _Tacitus_,
_Histories_, bk. 1, ch. 79.
=Rhoxāna=, or =Roxāna=, a mistress of Alexander, daughter of a Persian
satrap. _See:_, Roxana.
=Rhoxāni=, a nation against whom Mithridates made war.
=Rhutēni= and =Rhuthēni=, a people of Gaul.
=Rhyndăcus=, a large river of Mysia, in Asia Minor. _Pliny_, bk. 5,
ch. 32.
=Rhynthon=, a dramatic writer of Syracuse, who flourished at Tarentum,
where he wrote 38 plays. Authors are divided with respect to the
merit of his compositions, and the abilities of the writer. _See:_
Rhinthon.
=Rhypæ=, a town of Achaia, at the west of Helice.
=Rigodulum=, a village of Germany, now _Rigol_, near Cologne. _Tacitus_,
_Histories_, bk. 4, ch. 71.
=Riphæi.= _See:_ Rhiphæi.
=Ripheus=, a Trojan who joined Æneas the night that Troy was reduced
to ashes, and was at last killed after making a great carnage of the
Greeks. He is commended for his love of justice and equity. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 2, lis. 339 & 426.――――One of the Centaurs killed by
Theseus at the nuptials of Pirithous. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12,
li. 352.
=Rixamăræ=, a people of Illyricum. _Livy_, bk. 45, ch. 26.
=Robīgo=, or =Rubīgo=, a goddess at Rome, particularly worshipped
by husbandmen, as she presided over corn. Her festivals, called
_Robigalia_, were celebrated on the 25th of April, and incense was
offered to her, as also the entrails of a sheep and of a dog. She was
intreated to preserve the corn from blights. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 4,
li. 911.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 1, li. 151.――_Varro_, _de Lingua
Latina_, bk. 5; _de Re Rustica_, bk. 1, ch. 1.
=Rodumna=, now _Roanne_, a town of the Ædui, on the Loire.
=Roma=, a city of Italy, the capital of the Roman empire, situate on
the banks of the river Tiber, at the distance of about 16 miles from
the sea. The name of its founder, and the manner of its foundation,
are not precisely known. Romulus, however, is universally supposed
to have laid the foundations of that celebrated city, on the 20th
of April, according to Varro, in the year 3961 of the Julian period,
3251 years after the creation of the world, 753 before the birth of
Christ, and 431 years after the Trojan war, and in the fourth year
of the sixth Olympiad. In its original state, Rome was but a small
castle on the summit of mount Palatine; and the founder, to give
his followers the appearance of a nation or a barbarian horde, was
obliged to erect a standard as a common asylum, for every criminal,
debtor, or murderer, who fled from their native country to avoid the
punishment which attended them. From such an assemblage a numerous
body was soon collected, and before the death of the founder, the
Romans had covered with their habitations the Palatine, Capitoline,
Aventine, Esquiline hills, with mount Cœlius and Quirinalis. After
many successful wars against the neighbouring states, the views of
Romulus were directed to regulate a nation naturally fierce, warlike,
and uncivilized. The people were divided into classes, the interests
of the whole were linked in a common chain, and the labours of the
subject, as well as those of his patron, tended to the same end,
the aggrandizement of the state. Under the successors of Romulus,
the power of Rome was increased, and the boundaries of her dominions
extended; while one was employed in regulating the forms of worship,
and inculcating in the minds of his subjects a reverence for the
deity, the other was engaged in enforcing discipline among the army,
and raising the consequence of the soldiers in the government of the
state; and a third made the object of his administration consist in
adorning his capital, in beautifying its edifices, and in fortifying
it with towers and walls. During 244 years the Romans were governed
by kings, but the tyranny, the oppression, and the violence of the
last of these monarchs and of his family, became so atrocious, that a
revolution was effected in the state, and the democratical government
was established. The monarchical government existed under seven
princes, who began to reign in the following order: Romulus, B.C. 753;
and after one year’s interregnum, Numa, 715; Tullus Hostilius, 672;
Ancus Martius, 640; Tarquin Priscus, 616; Servius Tullius, 578; and
Tarquin the Proud, 534, expelled 25 years after, B.C. 509; and this
regal administration has been properly denominated the infancy of the
Roman empire. After the expulsion of the Tarquins from the throne,
the Romans became more sensible of their consequence: with their
liberty they acquired a spirit of faction, and they became so jealous
of their independence, that the first of their consuls who had been
the most zealous and animated in the assertion of their freedom,
was banished from the city because he bore the name, and was of the
family, of the tyrants; and another, to stop their suspicions, was
obliged to pull down his house, whose stateliness and magnificence
above the rest seemed incompatible with the duties and the rank of a
private citizen. They knew more effectually their power when they had
fought with success against Porsenna the king of Etruria, and some of
the neighbouring states, who supported the claim of the tyrant, and
attempted to replace him on his throne by force of arms. A government
which is entrusted into the hands of two of the most distinguished
of its members, for the limited space of one year, cannot but give
rise to great men, glorious exploits, and tremendous seditions. The
general who is placed at the head of an army during a campaign, must
be active and diligent, when he knows that his power is terminated
with the year, and if he has a becoming ambition, he will distinguish
his consulship by some uncommon act of valour, before he descends
from the dignity of an absolute magistrate to the dependence of a
fellow-citizen. Yet these attempts for the attainment of glory often
failed of success; and though the Romans could once boast that every
individual in their armies could discharge with fidelity and honour
the superior offices of magistrate and consul, there are to be found
in their annals many years marked by overthrows, or disgraced by the
ill conduct, the oppression, and the wantonness of their generals.
_See:_ Consul. To the fame which their conquests and daily successes
had gained abroad, the Romans were not a little indebted for their
gradual rise to superiority; and to this may be added the policy of
the census, which every fifth year told them their actual strength,
and how many citizens were able to bear arms. And indeed it was no
small satisfaction to a people who were continually making war, to
see that, in spite of all the losses which they might sustain in the
field, the increase of the inhabitants of the city was prodigious,
and almost incredible; and had Romulus lived after the battle of
Actium, he would have been persuaded with difficulty that above
4,000,000 of inhabitants were contained within those walls, which in
the most flourishing period of his reign could scarce muster an army
of 3000 infantry and 300 horse. But when Rome had flourished under
the consular government for about 120 years, and had beheld with
pleasure the conquests of her citizens over the neighbouring states
and cities, which, according to a Roman historian, she was ashamed to
recollect in the summit of her power, an irruption of the barbarians
of Gaul rendered her very existence precarious, ♦and her name was
nearly extinguished. The valour of an injured individual [_See:_
Camillus] saved it from destruction, yet not before its buildings and
temples were reduced to ashes. This celebrated event, which gave the
appellation of another founder of Rome to Camillus, has been looked
upon as a glorious era to the Romans. The huts and cottages which
Romulus had erected, and all his successors repaired, were totally
consumed, and when the city arose again from its ruins, the streets
were enlarged, convenience as well as order was observed, taste and
regularity were consulted, and the poverty, ignorance, and rusticity
of the Romans seemed to be extinguished with their old habitations.
But no sooner were they freed from the fears of their barbarian
invaders, than they turned their arms against those states which
refused to acknowledge their superiority, or yield their independence.
Their wars with Pyrrhus and the Tarentines displayed their character
in a different view; if they before had fought for freedom and
independence, they now drew their sword for glory; and here we may
see them conquered in the field, and yet refusing to grant that
peace for which their conqueror himself had sued. The advantages
they gained from their battles with Pyrrhus were many. The Roman name
became known in Greece, Sicily, and Africa, and in losing or gaining
a victory, the Romans were enabled to examine the manœuvres, observe
the discipline, and contemplate the order and the encampments of
those soldiers whose friends and ancestors had accompanied Alexander
the Great in the conquest of Asia. Italy became subjected to the
Romans at the end of the war with the Tarentines, and that period of
time has been called the second age, or the adolescence of the Roman
empire. After this memorable era they tried their strength not only
with distant nations, but also upon a new element; and in the long
wars which they waged against Carthage, they acquired territory,
and obtained the sovereignty of the sea; and though Annibal for
16 years kept them in continual alarms, hovered round their gates,
and destroyed their armies almost before their walls, yet they
were doomed to conquer [_See:_ Punicum bellum], and soon to add the
kingdom of Macedonia [_See:_ Macedonicum bellum] and the provinces
of Asia [_See:_ Mithridaticum bellum] to their empire. But while we
consider the Romans as a nation subduing their neighbours by war,
their manners, their counsels, and their pursuits at home are not to
be forgotten. To be warriors was their profession; their assemblies
in the Campus Martius were a meeting of armed men, and very properly
denominated an army. Yet while their conquests were so extensive
abroad, we find them torn by factions at home; and so far was the
resentment of the poorer citizens carried, that we see the enemy at
the gates of the city, while all are unwilling to take up arms and to
unite in the defence of their common liberty. The senators and nobles
were ambitious of power, and endeavoured to retain in their hands
that influence which had been exercised with so much success, and
such cruelty, by their monarchs. This was the continual occasion of
tumults and sedition. The people were jealous of their liberty. The
oppression of the nobles irritated them, and the stripes to which
they were too often exposed without mercy, was often productive of
revolutions. The plebeians, though originally the poorest and most
contemptible citizens of an indigent nation, whose food in the first
ages of the empire was only bread and salt, and whose drink was
water, soon gained rights and privileges by their opposition. Though
really slaves, they became powerful in the state; one concession
from the patricians produced another, and when their independence
was boldly asserted by their tribunes, they were admitted to share
in the highest offices of the state, and the laws which forbade the
intermarriage of plebeian and patrician families were repealed, and
the meanest peasant could by valour and fortitude be raised to the
dignity of dictator and consul. It was not till these privileges
were obtained by the people from the senate, that Rome began to enjoy
internal peace and tranquillity; her battles were then fought with
more vigour, her soldiers were more animated, and her sovereignty was
more universally established. But supreme power lodged in the hands
of a factious and ambitious citizen, becomes too often dangerous.
The greatest oppression and tyranny took place of subordination and
obedience; and from those causes proceeded the unparalleled slaughter
and effusion of blood under a Sylla and a Marius. It has been
justly observed, that the first Romans conquered their enemies by
valour, temperance, and fortitude; their moderation also and their
justice were well known among their neighbours, and not only private
possessions, but even mighty kingdoms and empires, were left in their
power, to be distributed among a family or to be ensured in the hands
of a successor. They were also chosen umpires to decide quarrels,
but in this honourable office they consulted their own interest;
they artfully supported the weaker side, that the more powerful might
be reduced, and gradually become their prey. Under Julius Cæsar and
Pompey, the rage of civil war was carried to unprecedented excess: it
was not merely to avenge a private injury, but it was a contest for
the sovereignty; and though each of the adversaries wore the mask
of pretended sincerity, and professed himself to be the supporter of
the republic, no less than the abolition of freedom and the public
liberty was the aim. What Julius began, his adopted son achieved:
the ancient spirit of national independence was extinguished at Rome;
and after the battle of Actium, the Romans seemed unable to govern
themselves without the assistance of a chief, who, under the title
of _imperator_, an appellation given to every commander by his army
after some signal victory, reigned with as much power and as much
sovereignty as another Tarquin. Under their emperors, the Romans
lived a luxurious and indolent life; they had long forgot to appear
in the field, and their wars were left to be waged by mercenary
troops, who fought without spirit or animosity, and who were ever
ready to yield to him who bought their allegiance and fidelity with
the greatest sums of money. Their leaders themselves were not the
most prudent or the most humane; the power which they had acquired
by bribery was indeed precarious, and among a people where not
only the highest offices of the state, but even the imperial purple
itself, are exposed to sale, there cannot be expected much happiness
or tranquillity in the palace of the emperor. The reigns of the
successors of Augustus were distinguished by variety; one was
the most abandoned and profligate of men, whom his own vices and
extravagance hurried out of the world, while his successor, perhaps
the most clement, just, and popular of princes, was sacrificed in
the midst of his guards and attendants by the dagger of some offended
favourite or disappointed eunuch. Few indeed were the emperors of
Rome whose days were not shortened by poison, or the sword of an
assassin. If one for some time had the imprudence to trust himself
in the midst of a multitude, at last to perish by his own credulity,
the other consulted his safety, but with no better success, in the
innumerable chambers of his palace, and changed every day, to elude
discovery, the place of his retirement. After they had been governed
by a race of princes, remarkable for the variety of their characters,
the Roman possessions were divided into two distinct empires, by the
enterprising Constantine, A.D. 328. Constantinople became the seat
of the eastern empire, and Rome remained in the possession of the
western emperors, and continued to be the capital of their dominions.
In the year 800 of the christian era, Rome with Italy was delivered
by Charlemagne, the then emperor of the west, into the hands of the
Pope, who still continues to hold the sovereignty, and to maintain
his independence under the name of the Ecclesiastical States. The
original poverty of the Romans has often been disguised by their
poets and historians, who wished it to appear that a nation who were
masters of the world, had had better beginning than to be a race
of shepherds and robbers. Yet it was to this simplicity they were
indebted for their successes. Their houses were originally destitute
of every ornament, they were made with unequal boards, and covered
with mud, and these served them rather as a shelter against the
inclemency of the seasons than for relaxation and ease. Till the age
of Pyrrhus, they despised riches, and many salutary laws were enacted
to restrain luxury and to punish indolence. They observed great
temperance in their meals; young men were not permitted to drink
wine till they had attained their 30th year, and it was totally
forbidden to women. Their national spirit was supported by policy;
the triumphal procession of a conqueror along the streets amidst the
applause of thousands, was well calculated to promote emulation, and
the number of gladiators who were regularly introduced not only in
public games and spectacles, but also at private meetings, served
to cherish their fondness for war, whilst it steeled their hearts
against the calls of compassion; and when they could gaze with
pleasure upon wretches whom they forcibly obliged to murder one
another, they were not inactive in the destruction of those whom they
considered as inveterate foes or formidable rivals in the field. In
their punishments, civil as well as military, the Romans were strict
and rigorous; a deserter was severely whipped and sold as a slave,
and the degradation from the rank of a soldier and dignity of a
citizen was the most ignominious stigma which could be affixed upon a
seditious mutineer. The transmarine victories of the Romans proved at
last the ruin of their innocence and bravery. They grew fond of the
luxury of the Asiatics; and, conquered by the vices and indolence of
those nations whom they had subdued, they became as effeminate and as
dissolute as their captives. Marcellus was the first who introduced
a taste for the fine arts among his countrymen. The spoils and
treasures that were obtained in the plunder of Syracuse and Corinth,
rendered the Romans partial to elegant refinement and ornamental
equipage. Though Cato had despised philosophy [_See:_ Carneades],
and declared that war was the only profession of his countrymen, the
Romans, by their intercourse with the Greeks, soon became fond of
literature; and though they had once banished the sophists of Athens
from their city, yet they beheld with rapture their settlement among
them in the principal towns of Italy, after the conquest of Achaia.
They soon after began to imitate their polished captives, and to
cultivate poetry with success. From the valour of their heroes and
conquerors, indeed, the sublimest subjects were offered to the genius
of their poets; but of the little that remains to celebrate the early
victories of Rome, nothing can be compared to the nobler effusions
of the Augustan age. Virgil has done so much for the Latin name that
the splendour and the triumphs of his country are forgotten for a
while, when we are transported in the admiration of the majesty of
his numbers, the elegant delicacy of his expressions, and the fire
of his muse; and the applauses given to the lyric powers of Horace,
the softness of Tibullus, the vivacity of Ovid, and to the ♠superior
compositions of other respectable poets, shall be unceasing so long
as the name of Rome excites our reverence and our praises, and so
long as genius, virtue, and abilities are honoured amongst mankind.
Though they originally rejected with horror a law which proposed the
building of a public theatre, and the exhibition of plays, like the
Greeks, yet the Romans soon proved favourable to the compositions of
their countrymen. Livius was the first dramatic writer of consequence
at Rome, whose plays began to be exhibited A.U.C. 514. After him
Nævius and Ennius wrote for the stage; and in a more polished period
Plautus, Terence, Cæcilius, and Afranius claimed the public attention
and gained the most unbounded applause. Satire did not make its
appearance at Rome till 100 years after the introduction of comedy,
and so celebrated was Lucilius in this kind of writing, that he was
called the inventor of it. In historical writing the progress of the
Romans was slow and inconsiderable, and for many years they employed
the pen of foreigners to compile their annals, till the superior
abilities of a Livy were made known. In their worship and sacrifices
the Romans were uncommonly superstitious; the will of the gods was
consulted on every occasion, and no general marched to an expedition
without the previous assurance from the augurs that the omens were
propitious, and his success almost indubitable. Their sanctuaries
were numerous; they raised altars not only to the gods, who, as
they supposed, presided over their city, but also to the deities of
conquered nations, as well as to the different passions and virtues.
There were no less than 420 temples at Rome, crowded with statues;
the priests were numerous, and each divinity had a particular college
of sacerdotal servants. Their wars were declared in the most awful
and solemn manner, and prayers were always offered in the temples for
the prosperity of Rome, when a defeat had been sustained or a victory
won. The power of fathers over their children was very extensive,
and indeed unlimited; they could sell them or put them to death at
pleasure, without the forms of a trial, or the interference of the
civil magistrate. Many of their ancient families were celebrated for
the great men whom they had produced, but the vigorous and interested
part they took in the government of the republic exposed them often
to danger; and some have observed that the Romans sunk into indolence
and luxury when the Cornelii, the Fabii, the Æmylii, the Marcelli,
&c., who had so often supported their spirit and led them to victory,
had been extinguished in the bloody wars of Marius and of the two
triumvirates. When Rome was become powerful, she was distinguished
from other cities by the flattery of her neighbours and citizens; a
form of worship was established to her as a deity, and temples were
raised in her honour, not only in the city but in the provinces. The
goddess Roma was represented like Minerva, all armed and sitting on a
rock, holding a pike in her hand, with her head covered with a helmet,
and a trophy at her feet. _Livy_, bk. 1, &c.――_Cato_, _de Re Rustica_.
――_Virgil_, _Eclogues_, _Georgics_, & _Æneid_.――_Horace_, bk. 2,
satire 6, &c.――_Florus_, bk. 1, ch. 1, &c.――_Paterculus._――_Tacitus_,
_Annals_ & _Histories_.――_Tibullus_, bk. 4.――_Lucan._――_Plutarch_,
_Romulus_, _Numa_, &c.――_Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 1, &c.
――_Pliny_, bk. 7, &c.――_Justin_, bk. 43.――_Varro_, _de Lingua Latina_,
bk. 5.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 1, &c.――_Martial_, bk. 12, ltr. 8.
――――A daughter of Evander.――――A Trojan woman who came to Italy with
Æneas.――――A daughter of Italus and Luceria. It was after one of these
females, according to some authors, that the capital of Italy was
called Roma.
♦ ‘aud’ replaced with ‘and’
♠ ‘superor’ replaced with ‘superior’
=Romāni=, the inhabitants of Rome. _See:_ Roma.
=Romānus=, an officer under Theodosius.――――Another, poisoned by Nero.
――――A son of Constans, &c.
=Romilius Marcellus=, a Roman centurion in Galba’s reign, &c. _Tacitus_,
bk. 1, _Histories_.
=Romŭla=, a name given to the fig tree under which Romulus and Remus
were found. _Ovid._, bk. 2, _Fasti_, li. 412.
=Romulea=, a town of the Samnites. _Livy_, bk. 10, ch. 17.
=Rōmŭlĭdæ=, a patronymic given to the Roman people from Romulus their
first king, and the founder of their city. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8,
li. 638.
=Romŭlus=, a son of Mars and Ilia, grandson of Numitor king of Alba,
was born at the same birth with Remus. These two children were thrown
into the Tiber by order of Amulius, who usurped the crown of his
brother Numitor; but they were preserved, and, according to Florus,
the river stopped its course, and a she-wolf came and fed them with
her milk, till they were found by Faustulus, one of the king’s
shepherds, who educated them as his own children. When they knew
their real origin, the twins, called Romulus and Remus, put Amulius
to death, and restored the crown to their grandfather Numitor. They
afterwards undertook to build a city, and to determine which of the
two brothers should have the management of it, they had recourse
to omens and the flight of birds. Remus went to mount Aventine, and
Romulus to mount Palatine. Remus saw first a flight of six vultures,
and soon after, Romulus 12; and therefore, as his number was greater,
he began to lay the foundations of the city, hoping that it would
become a warlike and powerful nation, as the birds from which he had
received the omen were fond of prey and slaughter. Romulus marked
with a furrow the place where he wished to erect the walls; but their
slenderness was ridiculed by Remus, who leaped over them with the
greatest contempt. This irritated Romulus, and Remus was immediately
put to death, either by the hand of his brother or one of the workmen.
When the walls were built, the city was without inhabitants; but
Romulus, by making an asylum of a sacred grove, soon collected a
number of fugitives, foreigners, and criminals, whom he received as
his lawful subjects. Yet, however numerous these might be, they were
despised by the neighbouring inhabitants, and none were willing to
form matrimonial connections with them. But Romulus obtained by force
what was denied to his petitions. The Romans celebrated games in
honour of the god Consus, and forcibly carried away all the females
who had assembled there to be spectators of these unusual exhibitions.
These violent measures offended the neighbouring nations; they made
war against the ravishers with various success, till at last they
entered Rome, which had been betrayed to them by one of the stolen
virgins. A violent engagement was begun in the middle of the Roman
forum; but the Sabines were conquered, or, according to Ovid, the
two enemies laid down their arms when the women had rushed between
the two armies, and by their tears and entreaties raised compassion
in the bosoms of their parents and husbands. The Sabines left their
original possessions and came to live in Rome, where Tatius their
king shared the sovereign power with Romulus. The introduction of
the Sabines into the city of Rome was attended with the most salutary
consequences, and the Romans, by pursuing this plan, and admitting
the conquered nations among their citizens, rendered themselves
more powerful and more formidable. Afterwards Romulus divided the
lands which he had obtained by conquest; one part was reserved for
religious uses, to maintain the priests, to erect temples, and to
consecrate altars; the other was appropriated for the expenses of the
state; and the third part was equally distributed among his subjects,
who were divided into three classes or tribes. The most aged and
experienced, to the number of 100, were also chosen, whom the monarch
might consult in matters of the highest importance, and from their
age they were called _senators_, and from their authority _patres_.
The whole body of the people were also distinguished by the name of
patricians and plebeians, patron and client, who by mutual interest
were induced to preserve the peace of the state, and to promote the
public good. Some time after Romulus disappeared as he was giving
instructions to the senators, and the eclipse of the sun, which
happened at that time, was favourable to the rumour which asserted
that the king had been taken up to heaven, 714 B.C., after a reign of
39 years. This was further confirmed by Julius Proculus, one of the
senators, who solemnly declared, that as he returned from Alba, he
had seen Romulus in a form above human, and that he had directed him
to tell the Romans to pay him divine honours under the name of
_Quirinus_, and to assure them that their city was doomed one day to
become the capital of the world. This report was immediately credited,
and the more so as the senators dreaded the resentment of the people,
who suspected them of having offered him violence. A temple was
raised to him, and a regular priest, called _Flamen Quirinalis_,
was appointed to offer him sacrifices. Romulus was ranked by the
Romans among the 12 great gods, and it is not to be wondered that
he received such distinguished honours, when the Romans considered
him as the founder of their city and empire, and the son of the god
of war. He is generally represented like his father, so much that
it is difficult to distinguish them. The fable of the two children
of Rhea Sylvia being nourished by a she-wolf, arose from Lupa,
Faustulus’s wife, having brought them up. _See:_ Acca. _Dionysius
of Halicarnassus_, bks. 1 & 2.――_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 4, &c.――_Justin_,
bk. 43, chs. 1 & 2.――_Florus_, bk. 1, ch. 1.――_Plutarch_, _Romulus_.
――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 3, ch. 2; bk. 5, ch. 3.――_Pliny_, bk. 15,
ch. 18, &c.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 2, lis. 342, 605.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 14, lis. 616 & 845; _Fasti_, bk. 4, &c.
――_Horace_, bk. 3, ode 3.――_Juvenal_, satire 18, li. 272.
=Romŭlus Sylvius=, or =Alladius=, a king of Alba.――――Momyllus
Augustulus, the last of the emperors of the western empire of Rome.
His country was conquered A.D. 476, by the Heruli, under Odoacer, who
assumed the name of king of Italy.
=Romus=, a son of Æneas by Lavinia. Some suppose that he was the
founder of Rome.――――A son of Æmathion sent by Diomedes to Italy, and
also supposed by some to be the founder of Rome.
=Roscia lex=, _de theatris_, by Lucius Roscius Otho the tribune, A.U.C.
685. It required that none should sit in the first 14 seats of the
theatre, if they were not in possession of 400 sestertia, which was
the fortune required to be a Roman knight.
=Roscianum=, the port of Thurii, now _Rossano_.
=Quintus Roscius=, a Roman actor, born at Lanuvium, so celebrated on
the stage that every comedian of excellence and merit has received
his name. His eyes were naturally distorted, and he always appeared
on the stage with a mask, but the Romans obliged him to act his
characters without, and they overlooked the deformities of his
face, that they might the better hear his elegant pronunciation,
and be delighted with the sweetness of his voice. He was accused on
suspicion of dishonourable practices; but Cicero, who had been one of
his pupils, undertook his defence, and cleared him of the malevolent
aspersions of his enemies, in an elegant oration still extant.
Roscius wrote a treatise, in which he compared with great success
and much learning the profession of the orator with that of the
comedian. He died about 60 years before Christ. _Horace_, bk. 2,
ltr. 1.――_Quintilian._――_Cicero_, _For Quintus Roscius the Actor_;
_On Oratory_, bk. 3; _de Divinatione_, bk. 1, &c.; _Tusculanæ
Disputationes_, bk. 3, &c.――_Plutarch_, _Cicero_.――――Sextus, a rich
citizen of Ameria, murdered in the dictatorship of Sylla. His son,
of the same name, was accused of the murder, and eloquently defended
by Cicero, in an oration still extant, A.U.C. 673. _Cicero_, _For
Quintus Roscius the Actor_.――――Lucius, a lieutenant of Cæsar’s army
in Gaul.――――Otho, a tribune, who made a law to discriminate the
knights from the common people at public spectacles.
=Rosiæ campus=, or =Rosia=, a beautiful plain in the country of the
Sabines, near the lake Velinum. _Varro_, _de Re Rustica_, bk. 1,
ch. 7.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 712.――_Cicero_, bk. 4, _Letters
to Atticus_, ltr. 15.
=Rosillanus ager=, a territory in Etruria.
=Rosius=, a harbour of Cilicia.――――A man made consul only for one day
under Vitellius, &c. _Tacitus._
=Rosulum=, a town of Etruria, now _Monte Rosi_.
=Rotomagus=, a town of Gaul, now _Rouen_.
=Roxāna=, a Persian woman, taken prisoner by Alexander. The conqueror
became enamoured of her and married her. She behaved with great
cruelty after Alexander’s death, and she was at last put to death
by Cassander’s order. She was daughter of Darius, or, according to
others, of one of his satraps. _Curtius_, bk. 8, ch. 4; bk. 10, ch. 6.
――_Plutarch_, _Alexander_.――――A wife of Mithridates the Great, who
poisoned herself.
=Roxolāni=, a people of European Sarmatia, who proved very active and
rebellious in the reign of the Roman emperors.
=Rubeæ=, the _north cape_ at the north of Scandinavia.
=Rubellius Blandus=, a man who married Julia the daughter of Drusus, &c.
――――One of the descendants of Augustus, treacherously put to death by
Nero, &c. _Tacitus._――――Plautus, an illustrious Roman who disgraced
himself by his arrogance and ambitious views. _Juvenal_, satire 8,
li. 39.
=Rubi=, now _Ruvo_, a town of Apulia, from which the epithet _Rubeus_
is derived, applied to bramble bushes which grew there. The
inhabitants were called _Rubitini_. _Horace_, bk. 1, satire 5, li. 94.
――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 1, li. 266.
=Rubĭcon=, now _Rugone_, a small river of Italy, which it separates
from Cisalpine Gaul. It rises in the Apennine mountains, and falls
into the Adriatic sea. By crossing it, and thus transgressing the
boundaries of his province, Julius Cæsar declared war against the
senate and Pompey, and began the civil wars. _Lucan_, bk. 1, lis. 185
& 213.――_Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Suetonius_, _Cæsar_, ch. 32.――_Pliny_,
bk. 3, ch. 15.
=Rubiēnus Lappa=, a tragic poet in the age of Juvenal, conspicuous
as much for his great genius as his poverty. _Juvenal_, satire 7,
li. 72.
=Rubīgo=, a goddess. _See:_ Robigo.
=Rubo=, the _Dwina_, a river which falls into the Baltic at Riga.
=Rubra saxa=, a place of Etruria, near Veii, at the distance of above
eight miles from Rome. _Martial_, bk. 4, ltr. 64, li. 15.――_Livy_,
bk. 3, ch. 49.
=Rubria lex=, was enacted after the taking of Carthage, to make an
equal division of the lands in Africa.
=Rubrius=, a Roman knight accused of treason under Tiberius, &c.
_Tacitus._――――A man who fled to Parthia on suspicion that the Roman
affairs were ruined.――――A friend of Vitellius.――――An obscure Gaul
in great favour with Domitian. _Juvenal_, satire 4, li. 145.――――An
officer in Cæsar’s army.
=Rubrum mare= (_the Red sea_), is situate between Arabia, Egypt, and
Æthiopia, and is often called Erythræum mare, and confounded with
the Arabicus sinus, and the Indian sea. _Pliny_, bk. 6, chs. 23 & 24.
――_Livy_, bk. 36, ch. 17; bk. 42, ch. 52; bk. 45, ch. 9.――_Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 8, li. 686.――_Lucan_, bk. 8, li. 853.
=Rudiæ=, a town of Calabria near Brundusium, built by a Greek colony,
and famous for giving birth to the poet Ennius. _Cicero_, _For
Archias_, ch. 10.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 12, li. 396.――_Mela_, bk. 2,
ch. 4.
=Ruffīnus=, a general in Gaul in the reign of Vitellius, &c. _Tacitus_,
_Histories_, bk. 2, ch. 94.
=Ruffus Crispīnus=, an officer of the pretorian guards under Claudius.
He was banished by Agrippina for his attachment to Britannicus
and Octavius the sons of Messalina, and put himself to death. His
wife Poppæa Sabina, by whom he had a son called Ruffinus Crispinus,
afterwards married Nero. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 12, ch. 42; bk.
16, ch. 17.――――A soldier presented with a civic crown for preserving
the life of a citizen, &c.
=Rufiāna=, a town of Gaul, now _Rufash_, in Alsace.
=Rufilius=, a Roman ridiculed by Horace, satire 2, li. 27, for his
effeminacy.
=Julius Rufinianus=, a rhetorician, &c.
=Rufinus=, a general of Theodosius, &c.
=Rufræ=, a town of Campania, of which the inhabitants were called
_Rufreni_. _Cicero_, bk. 10, _Letters to his Friends_, ltr. 71.
――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 568.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7,
li. 739.
=Rufrium=, a town of Samnium, now _Ruvo_. _Livy_, bk. 8, ch. 25.
=Rufus=, a Latin historian. _See:_ Quintius.――――A friend of Commodus,
famous for his avarice and ambition.――――One of the ancestors of Sylla,
degraded from the rank of a senator because 10 pounds’ weight of
gold were found in his house.――――A governor of Judæa.――――A man who
conspired against Domitian.――――A poet of Ephesus in the reign of
Trajan. He wrote six books on simples, now lost.――――A Latin poet.
――――Sempronius. _See:_ Prætorius.
=Rugia=, now _Rugen_, an island of the Baltic.
=Rugii=, a nation of Germany. _Tacitus_, _Germania_, ch. 43.
=Rupilius=, an officer surnamed _Rex_, for his authoritative manners.
He was proscribed by Augustus and fled to Brutus. _Horace_,
bk. 1, satire 7, li. 1.――――A writer whose treatises _de figuris
sententiarum_, &c., were edited by Runken, 8vo, Leiden, 1786.
=Ruscino=, a town of Gaul at the foot of the Pyrenees. _Livy_, bk. 21,
ch. 24.――――A seaport town of Africa. _Livy_, bk. 30, ch. 10.
=Ruscius=, a town of Gaul.
=Rusconia=, a town of Mauritania. _Livy_, bk. 21, ch. 24.
=Rusellæ=, an inland town of Etruria destroyed by the Romans. _Livy_,
bk. 28, ch. 45.
=Ruspĭna=, a town of Africa near Adrumetum. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 3,
li. 260.――_Hirtius_, _African War_, li. 640.
=Rustĭcus Lucius Junius Arulenus=, a man put to death by Domitian.
He was the friend and preceptor of Pliny the younger, who praises
his abilities, and he is likewise commended by Tacitus, bk. 16,
_Histories_, ch. 26.――_Pliny_, bk. 1, ltr. 14.――_Suetonius_,
_Domitian_.――――A friend of Marcus Aurelius.
=Rusuccurum=, a town of Mauritania, believed to be modern Algiers.
=Rutēni=, a people of Gaul, now _Ruvergne_, in Guienne. _Cæsar_,
_Gallic War_.
=Rutila=, a deformed old woman, who lived near 100 years, &c. _Pliny_,
bk. 7, ch. 48.――_Juvenal_, satire 10, li. 294.
=Publius Rutilius Rufus=, a Roman consul in the age of Sylla,
celebrated for his virtues and writings. He refused to comply with
the requests of his friends because they were unjust. When Sylla had
banished him from Rome he retired to Smyrna, amidst the acclamations
and praises of the people; and when some of his friends wished him
to be recalled home by means of a civil war, he severely reprimanded
them, and said, that he wished rather to see his country blush at
his exile, than to plunge it into distress by his return. He was the
first who taught the Roman soldiers the principles of fencing, and
by thus mixing dexterity with valour, rendered their attacks more
certain, and more irresistible. During his banishment he employed his
time in study, and wrote a history of Rome in Greek, and an account
of his own life in Latin, besides many other works. _Ovid_, _Fasti_,
bk. 6, li. 563.――_Seneca_, _de Beneficiis_.――_Cicero_, _Brutus_; _On
Oratory_, bk. 1, ch. 53.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 2, ch. 3; bk. 6, ch.
4.――_Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 9.――――A Roman proconsul, who is supposed
to have encouraged Mithridates to murder all the Romans who were in
his province.――――Lupus, a pretor, who fled away with three cohorts
from Tarracina.――――A rhetorician. _Quintilian_, bk. 3, ch. 1.――――A
man who went against Jugurtha.――――A friend of Nero.――――Claudius
Numantianus, a poet of Gaul, in the reign of Honorius. According
to some he wrote a poem on mount Ætna. He wrote also an itinerary,
published by Burman in the Poetæ Latini Minores, Leiden, 4to, 1731.
=Rutilus=, a rich man reduced to beggary by his extravagance. _Juvenal_,
satire 11, li. 2.
=Rutŭba=, a river of Liguria, falling from the Apennines into the
Mediterranean. _Lucan_, bk. 2, li. 422.――――Of Latium, falling into
the Tiber. _Lucan_, bk. 2, li. 422.
=Rutŭbus=, a gladiator, &c. _Horace_, bk. 2, satire 7, li. 96.
=Rŭtŭli=, a people of Latium, known as well as the Latins, by the
name of _Aborigines_. When Æneas came into Italy, Turnus was their
king, and they supported him in the war which he waged against this
foreign prince. The capital of their dominions was called Ardea.
_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 4, li. 883; _Metamorphoses_, bk. 14, li. 455,
&c.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, 7, &c.――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 5.
=Rŭtŭpæ=, a seaport town on the southern coasts of Britain, abounding
in excellent oysters, whence the epithet of Rutupinus. Some suppose
that it is the modern town of _Dover_, but others _Richborough_ or
_Sandwich_. _Lucan_, bk. 6, li. 67.――_Juvenal_, satire 4, li. 141.
=Ryphæi montes.= _See:_ ♦Rhiphæi.
♦ ‘Rhipæi’ replaced with ‘Rhiphæi’
S
=Saba=, a town of Arabia, famous for frankincense, myrrh, and aromatic
plants. The inhabitants were called _Sabæi_. _Strabo_, bk. 16.
――_Diodorus_, bk. 3.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 1, li. 57; _Æneid_,
bk. 1, li. 420.
=Sabăchus=, or =Sabacon=, a king of Æthiopia, who invaded Egypt and
reigned there, after the expulsion of king Amasis. After a reign
of 50 years he was terrified by a dream, and retired into his own
kingdom. _Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 137, &c.
=Sabæi=, a people of Arabia. _See:_ Saba.
=Sabāta=, a town of Liguria with a safe and beautiful harbour,
supposed to be the modern _Savona_. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 461.
――_Strabo_, bk. 4.――――A town of Assyria.
=Sabatha=, a town of Arabia, now _Sanaa_.
=Sabatra=, a town of Syria. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 3, li. 256.
=Sabatini=, a people of Samnium, living on the banks of the Sabatus, a
river which falls into the Vulturnus. _Livy_, bk. 26, ch. 33.
=Sabazius=, a surname of Bacchus, as also of Jupiter. _Cicero_, _de
Natura Deorum_, bk. 3, ch. 23.――_Arnobius_, bk. 4.
=Sabbas=, a king of India.
=Sabella=, the nurse of the poet Horace, bk. 1, satire 9, li. 29.
=Sabelli=, a people of Italy, descended from the Sabines, or, according
to some, from the Samnites. They inhabited that part of the country
which lies between the Sabines and the Marsi. Hence the epithet of
_Sabellicus_. _Horace_, bk. 3, ode 6.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 3,
li. 255.
=Sabellus=, a Latin poet in the reign of Domitian and Nerva.
=Julia Sabīna=, a Roman matron, who married Adrian by means of Plotina
the wife of Trajan. She is celebrated for her private as well as
public virtues. Adrian treated her with the greatest asperity, though
he had received from her the imperial purple; and the empress was so
sensible of his unkindness, that she boasted in his presence that she
had disdained to make him a father, lest his children should become
more odious or more tyrannical than he himself was. The behaviour
of Sabina at last so exasperated Adrian that he poisoned her, or,
according to some, obliged her to destroy herself. The emperor at
that time laboured under a mortal disease, and therefore he was the
more encouraged to sacrifice Sabina to his resentment, that she might
not survive him. Divine honours were paid to her memory. She died
after she had been married 38 years to Adrian, A.D. 138.
=Sabīni=, an ancient people of Italy, reckoned among the Aborigines,
or those inhabitants whose origin was not known. Some suppose that
they were originally a Lacedæmonian colony, who settled in that
part of the country. The possessions of the Sabines were situated in
the neighbourhood of Rome, between the river Nar and the Anio, and
bounded on the north by the Apennines and Umbria, south by Latium,
east by the Æqui, and Etruria on the west. The greatest part of the
contiguous nations were descended from them, such as the Umbrians,
the Campanians, the Sabelli, the Osci, Samnites, Hernici, Æqui, Marsi,
Brutii, &c. The Sabines are celebrated in ancient history as being
the first who took up arms against the Romans, to avenge the rape of
their females at a spectacle where they had been invited. After some
engagements, the greatest part of the Sabines left their ancient
possessions, and migrated to Rome, where they settled with their new
allies. They were at last totally subdued, about the year of Rome
373, and ranked as Roman citizens. Their chief cities were Cures,
Fidenæ, Reate, Crustumerium, Corniculum, Nomentum, Collatia, &c. The
character of the nation for chastity, for purity of morals, and for
the knowledge of herbs and incantations, was very great. _Horace_,
epode 17, li. 28.――_Cicero_, _Against Vatinius_, ch. 15.――_Pliny_, bk.
3, ch. 12.――_Livy_, bk. 1, chs. 9 & 18.――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_,
bk. 2, ch. 51.――_Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Florus_, bk. 1, ch. 1; bk. 3,
ch. 18.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 424.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 14, lis. 775 & 797; _Ars Amatoria_, bk. 1, li. 101; ♦_Amores_,
bk. 3, poem 8, li. 61.――_Juvenal_, satire 10, li. 197.
♦ Book name omitted from text.
=Sabiniānus=, a general who revolted in Africa, in the reign of Gordian,
and was defeated soon after, A.D. 240.――――A general of the eastern
empire, &c.
=Sabīnus Aulus=, a Latin poet intimate with Ovid. He wrote some
epistles and elegies, in the number of which were mentioned, an
epistle from Æneas to Dido, from Hippolytus to Phædra, and from Jason
to ♦Hypsipyle, from Demophoon to Phyllis, from Paris to Œnome, from
Ulysses to Penelope; the three last of which, though said to be his
composition, are spurious. _Ovid_, _Amores_, bk. 2, poem 13, li. 27.
――――A man from whom the Sabines received their name. He received
divine honours after death, and was one of those deities whom Æneas
invoked when he entered Italy. He was supposed to be of Lacedæmonian
origin. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 171.――――An officer of Cæsar’s
army defeated by the Gauls.――――Julius, an officer who proclaimed
himself emperor in the beginning of Vespasian’s reign. He was soon
after defeated in a battle; and, to escape from the conqueror, he hid
himself in a subterraneous cave, with two faithful domestics, where
he continued unseen for nine successive years. His wife found out
his retreat, and spent her time with him, till her frequent visits
to the cave discovered the place of his concealment. He was dragged
before Vespasian, and by his orders put to death, though his friends
interested themselves in his cause, and his wife endeavoured to
raise the emperor’s pity, by showing him the twins whom she had
brought forth in their subterraneous retreat.――――Cornelius, a man
who conspired against Caligula, and afterwards destroyed himself.
――――Titius, a Roman senator, shamefully accused and condemned
by Sejanus. His body, after execution, was dragged through the
streets of Rome, and treated with the greatest indignities. His dog
constantly followed the body, and when it was thrown into the Tiber,
the faithful animal plunged in after it, and was drowned. _Pliny_,
bk. 8, ch. 40.――――Poppæus, a Roman consul, who presided above 24
years over Mœsia, and obtained a triumph for his victories over the
barbarians. He was a great favourite of Augustus and of Tiberius.
_Tacitus_, _Annals_.――――Flavius, a brother of Vespasian, killed by
the populace. He was well known for his fidelity to Vitellius. He
commanded in the Roman armies 35 years, and was governor of Rome for
12.――――A friend of Domitian.――――A Roman who attempted to plunder the
temple of the Jews.――――A friend of the emperor Alexander.――――A lawyer.
♦ ‘Hipsipyle’ replaced with ‘Hypsipyle’ for consistency.
=Sabis=, now _Sambre_, a river of Belgic Gaul, falling into the Maese
at Namur. _Cæsar_, bk. 2, chs. 16 & 18.
=Sabota=, the same as Sabatha.
=Sabracæ=, a powerful nation of India. _Curtius_, bk. 9, ch. 8.
=Sabrăta=, a maritime town of Africa, near the Syrtes. It was a Roman
colony, about 70 miles from the modern Tripoli. _Silius Italicus_,
bk. 3, li. 256.――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 4.
=Sabrina=, the _Severn_ in England.
=Sabŭra=, a general of Juba king of Numidia, defeated and killed in a
battle. _Lucan_, bk. 4, li. 722.
=Saburānus=, an officer of the pretorian guards. When he was appointed
to this office by the emperor Trajan, the prince presented him with a
sword, saying, “Use this weapon in my service as long as my commands
are just; but turn it against my own breast, whenever I become cruel
or malevolent.”
=Sabus=, one of the ancient kings of the Sabines; the same as Sabinus.
_See:_ Sabinus.――――A king of Arabia.
=Sacădas=, a musician and poet of Argos, who obtained three several
times the prize at the Pythian games. _Plutarch_, _de Musica_.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 14.
=Sacæ=, a people of Scythia, who inhabited the country that lies at the
east of Bactriana and Sogdiana, and towards the north of mount Imaus.
The name of Sacæ was given in general to all the Scythians, by the
Persians. They had no towns, according to some writers, but lived in
tents. _Ptolemy_, bk. 6, ch. 13.――_Herodotus_, bk. 3, ch. 93; bk. 7,
ch. 63.――_Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 17.――_Solinus_, ch. 62.
=Sacer mons=, a mountain near Rome. _See:_ Mons sacer.
=Sacer lucus=, a wood of Campania, on the Liris.
=Sacer portus=, or =Sacri portus=, a place of Italy, near Præneste,
famous for a battle that was fought there between Sylla and Marius,
in which the former obtained the victory. _Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 26.
――_Lucan_, bk. 2, li. 134.
=Sacrāni=, a people of Latium, who assisted Turnus against Æneas.
They were descended from the Pelasgians, or from a priest of Cybele.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 796.
=Sacrātor=, one of the friends of Turnus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10,
li. 747.
=Sacra via=, a celebrated street of Rome, where a treaty of peace
and alliance was made between Romulus and Tatis. It led from the
amphitheatre to the capitol, by the temple of the goddess of peace,
and the temple of Cæsar. The triumphal processions passed through
it to go to the capitol. _Horace_, bk. 4, ode 2; bk. 1, satire 9.
――_Livy_, bk. 2, ch. 13.――_Cicero_, _For Plancius_, ch. 7, _Letters
to Atticus_, bk. 4, ltr. 4.
=Sacrāta lex=, _militaris_, A.U.C. 411, by the dictator Valerius Corvus,
as some suppose, enacted that the name of no soldier which had been
entered in the muster roll should be struck out but by his consent,
and that no person who had been a military tribune should execute the
office of _ductor ordinum_.
=Marcus Sacrātĭvir=, a friend of Cæsar, killed at Dyrrachium. _Cæsar_,
_Gallic War_.
=Sacri portus.= _See:_ Sacer portus.
=Sacrum bellum=, a name given to the wars carried on concerning the
temple of Delphi. The first began B.C. 448, and in it the Athenians
and Lacedæmonians were auxiliaries on opposite sides. The second war
began 357 B.C., and finished nine years after by Philip of Macedonia,
who destroyed all the cities of the Phocians. _See:_ Phocis.
――――Promontorium, a promontory of Spain, now _Cape St. Vincent_,
called by Strabo the most westerly part of the earth.
=Sadales=, a son of Cotys king of Thrace, who assisted Pompey with a
body of 500 horsemen. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 3.――_Cicero_,
_Against Verres_, bk. 1.
=Sadus=, a river of India.
=Sadyātes=, one of the Mermnadæ, who reigned in Lydia 12 years after
his father Gyges. He made war against the Milesians for six years.
_Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 16, &c.
=Sætabis=, a town of Spain near the Lucro, on a rising hill, famous for
its fine linen. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 3, li. 373.
=Sagalassus=, a town of Pisidia on the borders of Phrygia, now
_Sadjaklu_. _Livy_, bk. 38, ch. 15.
=Sagăna=, a woman acquainted with magic and enchantments. _Horace_,
epode 5, li. 25.
=Sagăris=, a river of Asia, rising from mount Dindymus in Phrygia, and
falling into the Euxine. _See:_ Sangaris. _Ovid_, _ex Ponto_, bk. 4,
poem 10, li. 47.――――One of the companions of Æneas, killed by Turnus.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 5, li. 263; bk. 9, li. 575.
=Claudius Sagitta=, an officer who encouraged Piso to rebel against the
emperor Nero, &c. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 4, ch. 49.
=Sagra=, a small river of Italy in the country of the Brutii, where
130,000 Crotoniatæ were routed by 10,000 Locrians and Rhegians.
_Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 2, ch. 2.――_Strabo_, bk. 6.
=Saguntum=, or =Saguntus=, a town of Hispania Tarraconensis at the
west of the Iberus, about one mile from the sea-shore, now called
_Morvedro_. It had been founded by a colony of Zacynthians, and by
some of the Rutuli of Ardea. Saguntum is celebrated for the clay in
its neighbourhood, with which cups, _pocula Saguntina_, were made,
but more particularly it is famous as being the cause of the second
Punic war, and for the attachment of its inhabitants to the interest
of Rome. Hannibal took it after a siege of about eight months; and
the inhabitants, not to fall into the enemy’s hands, burnt themselves
with their houses, and with all their effects. The conqueror
afterwards rebuilt it, and placed a garrison there, with all the
noblemen whom he detained as hostages from the several neighbouring
nations of Spain. Some suppose that he called it _Spartagene_.
_Florus_, bk. 2, ch. 6.――_Livy_, bk. 21, chs. 2, 7, 9.――_Silius
Italicus_, bk. 1, li. 271.――_Lucan_, bk. 3, li. 250.――_Strabo_, bk. 3.
――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 6.
=Sais=, now _Sa_, a town in the Delta of Egypt, situate between the
Canopic and Sebennytican mouths of the Nile, and anciently the
capital of Lower Egypt. There was there a celebrated temple dedicated
to Minerva, with a room cut out of one stone, which had been conveyed
by water from Elephantis by the labours of 2000 men in three years.
The stone measured on the outside 21 cubits long, 14 broad, and eight
high. Osiris was also buried near the town of Sais. The inhabitants
were called _Saitæ_. One of the mouths of the Nile, which is
adjoining to the town, has received the name of _Saiticum_. _Strabo_,
bk. 17.――_Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 17, &c.
=Sala=, a town of Thrace, near the mouths of the Hebrus.――――A town of
Mauritania.――――Of Phrygia.――――A river of Germany falling into the
Elbe, near which are salt-pits. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 13, ch. 57.
――――Another falling into the Rhine, now the _Issel_.
=Salăcon=, a poor man who pretended to be uncommonly rich, &c. _Cicero_,
_De Divinatione_, bk. 7, ch. 24.
♦=Salamantica=, a town of Spain, now _Salamanca_.
♦ Placed in alphabetical order.
=Salamīnia=, a name given to a ship at Athens, which was employed by
the republic in conveying the officers of state to their different
administrations abroad, &c.――――A name given to the island of Cyprus,
on account of Salamis, one of its capital cities.
=Sălămis=, a daughter of the river Asopus by Methone. Neptune became
enamoured of her, and carried her to an island of the Ægean, which
afterwards bore her name, and where she gave birth to a son called
Cenchreus. _Diodorus_, bk. 4.
=Sălămis=, =Salamins=, or =Salamīna=, now _Colouri_, an island in the
Saronicus sinus, on the southern coast of Attica, opposite Eleusis,
at the distance of about a league, with a town and harbour of the
same name. It is about 50 miles in circumference. It was originally
peopled by a colony of Ionians, and afterwards by some of the Greeks
from the adjacent islands and countries. It is celebrated for a
battle which was fought there between the fleet of the Greeks and
that of the Persians, when Xerxes invaded Attica. The enemy’s ships
amounted to above 2000, and those of the Peloponnesians to about 380
sail. In this engagement, which was fought on the 20th of October,
B.C. 480, the Greeks lost 40 ships, and the Persians about 200,
besides an immense number which were taken, with all the ammunition
they contained. The island of Salamis was anciently called _Sciras_,
_Cychria_, or _Cenchria_, and its bay the gulf of _Engia_. It is said
that Xerxes attempted to join it to the continent. Teucer and Ajax,
who went to the Trojan war, were natives of Salamis. _Strabo_, bk. 2.
――_Herodotus_, bk. 8, ch. 56, &c.――_Plutarch_ & _Cornelius Nepos_,
_Themistocles_, &c.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 5,
ch. 3.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 35, &c.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.
――_Lucan_, bk. 5, li. 109.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 14, li. 283.
=Sălămis=, or =Salămīna=, a town at the east of the island of Cyprus.
It was built by Teucer, who gave it the name of the island Salamis,
from which he had been banished about 1270 years before the christian
era; and from this circumstance the epithets of _ambigua_ and of
_altera_ were applied to it, as the mother country was also called
_vera_, for the sake of distinction. His descendants continued
masters of the town for above 800 years. It was destroyed by
an earthquake, and rebuilt in the fourth century, and called
_Constantia_. _Strabo_, bk. 9.――_Herodotus_, bk. 8, ch. 94, &c.
――_Horace_, bk. 1, ode 7, li. 21.――_Paterculus_, bk. 1, ch. 1.
――_Lucan_, bk. 3, li. 183.
=Sălāpia=, or =Sălăpiæ=, now _Salpe_, a town of Apulia, where Annibal
retired after the battle of Cannæ, and where he devoted himself to
licentious pleasure, forgetful of his fame, and of the interests of
his country. It was taken from the Carthaginian general by Marcellus.
Some remains of this place may be traced near a lake called _Salapina
Palus_, now used for making salt, which, from the situation near the
sea, is easily conveyed by small boats to ships of superior burden.
_Lucan_, bk. 5, li. 377.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 3, ch. 8.――_Pliny_,
bk. 3, ch. 11.
=Salăra=, a town of Africa propria, taken by Scipio. _Livy_, bk. 29,
ch. 34, &c.
=Salaria=, a street and gate at Rome which led towards the country of
the Sabines. It received the name of _Salaria_, because salt (_sal_)
was generally conveyed to Rome that way. _Martial_, bk. 4, ltr. 64.
――――A bridge called _Salarius_, was built four miles from Rome
through the Salarian gate on the river _Anio_.
=Salassi=, a people of Cisalpine Gaul who were in continual war with
the Romans. They cut off 10,000 Romans under Appius Claudius, A.U.C.
610, and were soon after defeated, and at last totally subdued and
sold as slaves by Augustus. Their country, now called _Val de Aousta_,
after a colony settled there, and called _Augusta Prætoria_, was
situate in a valley between the Alps Graiæ and Penninæ, or Great and
Little St. Bernard. _Livy_, bk. 21, ch. 38.――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 17.
――_Strabo_, bk. 4.
=Saleius=, a poet of great merit in the age of Domitian, yet pinched
by poverty, though born of illustrious parents, and distinguished by
purity of manners and integrity of mind. _Juvenal_, satire 7, li. 80.
――_Quintilian_, bk. 10, ch. 1.
=Salēnii=, a people of Spain. _Mela_, bk. 3, ch. 1.
=Salentīni=, a people of Italy, near Apulia, on the southern coast of
Calabria. Their chief towns were Brundusium, Tarentum, and Hydruntum.
_Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 579.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 400.
――_Varro_, _de Re Rustica_, bk. 1, ch. 24.――_Strabo_, bk. 6.――_Mela_,
bk. 2, ch. 4.
=Salernum=, now _Salerno_, a town of the Picentini, on the shores of
the Tyrrhene sea, south of Campania, and famous for a medical school
in the lower ages. _Pliny_, bk. 13, ch. 3.――_Livy_, bk. 34, ch. 45.
――_Lucan_, bk. 2, li. 425.――_Paterculus_, bk. 1, ch. 15.――_Horace_,
bk. 1, ltr. 15.
=Salganeus=, or =Salganea=, a town of Bœotia, on the Euripus. _Livy_,
bk. 35, ch. 37, &c.
=Salia=, a town of Spain, where Prudentius was born. _Mela._
=Salica=, a town of Spain.
=Salii=, a college of priests at Rome, instituted in honour of Mars,
and appointed by Numa to take care of the sacred shields called
Ancylia, B.C. 709. _See:_ Ancyle. They were 12 in number, the three
elders among them had the superintendence of all the rest; the first
was called _præsul_, the second _vates_, and the third _magister_.
Their number was afterwards doubled by Tullus Hostilius, after he
had obtained a victory over the Fidenates, in consequence of a vow
which he had made to Mars. The Salii were all of patrician families,
and the office was very honourable. The 1st of March was the day
on which the Salii observed their festivals in honour of Mars. They
were generally dressed in a short scarlet tunic, of which only the
edges were seen; they wore a large purple-coloured belt about the
waist, which was fastened with brass buckles. They had on their heads
round bonnets with two corners standing up, and they wore in their
right hand a small rod, and in their left a small buckler. In the
observation of their solemnity they first offered sacrifices, and
afterwards went through the streets dancing in measured motions,
sometimes all together, or at other times separately, while musical
instruments were playing before them. They placed their body in
different attitudes, and struck with their rods the shields which
they held in their hands. They also sung hymns in honour of the
gods, particularly of Mars, Juno, Venus, and Minerva, and they were
accompanied in the chorus by a certain number of virgins, habited
like themselves, and called _Saliæ_. The Salii instituted by Numa
were called _Palatini_, in contradistinction from the others, because
they lived on mount Palatine, and offered their sacrifices there.
Those that were added by Tullus were called _Collini_, _Agonales_, or
_Quirinales_, from a mountain of the same name, where they had fixed
their residence. Their name seems to have been derived _a saliendo_,
or _saltando_, because during their festivals it was particularly
requisite that they should leap and dance. Their feasts and
entertainments were uncommonly rich and sumptuous, whence _dapes
saliares_ is proverbially applied to such repasts as are most
splendid and costly. It was usual among the Romans when they declared
war, for the Salii to shake their shields with great violence, as if
to call upon the god Mars to come to their assistance. _Livy_, bk. 1,
ch. 20.――_Varro_, _de Lingua Latina_, bk. 4, ch. 15.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_,
bk. 3, li. 387.――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 3.――_Florus_,
bk. 1, ch. 2, &c.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8, li. 285.――――A nation of
Germany who invaded Gaul, and were conquered by the emperor Julian.
_Ammianus Marcellinus_, bk. 17.
=Salinātor=, a surname common to the family of the Livii and others.
=Salius=, an Acarnanian at the games exhibited by Æneas in Sicily, and
killed in the wars with Turnus. It is said by some that he taught the
Latins those ceremonies, accompanied with dancing, which afterwards
bore his name in the appellation of the Salii. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 5, li. 298; bk. 10, li. 753.
=Crispus Sallustius=, a Latin historian, born at Amiternum, in the
country of the Sabines. He received his education at Rome, and made
himself known as a public magistrate in the office of questor and
consul. His licentiousness, and the depravity of his manners, however,
did not escape the censure of the age, and Sallust was degraded from
the dignity of a senator, B.C. 50. His amour with Fausta the daughter
of Sylla was a strong proof of his debauchery; and Milo the husband,
who discovered the adulterer in his house, revenged the violence
offered to his bed, by beating him with stripes, and selling him
his liberty at a high price. A continuation of extravagance could
not long be supported by the income of Sallust, but he extricated
himself from all difficulties by embracing the cause of Cæsar. He was
restored to the rank of senator, and made governor of Numidia. In the
administration of his province, Sallust behaved with unusual tyranny;
he enriched himself by plundering the Africans, and at his return to
Rome he built himself a magnificent house, and bought gardens, which,
from their delightful and pleasant situation, still preserve the
name of the gardens of Sallust. He married Terentia the divorced wife
of Cicero; and from this circumstance, according to some, arose an
immortal hatred between the historian and the orator. Sallust died
in the 51st year of his age, 35 years before the christian era. As
a writer he is peculiarly distinguished. He had composed a history
of Rome, but nothing remains of it except a few fragments, and his
only compositions extant are his history of Catiline’s conspiracy,
and of the wars of Jugurtha king of Numidia. In these celebrated
works the author is greatly commended for his elegance, the vigour
and animation of his sentences; he everywhere displays a wonderful
knowledge of the human heart, and paints with a masterly hand the
causes that gave rise to the great events which he relates. No one
was better acquainted with the vices that prevailed in the capital of
Italy, and no one seems to have been more severe against the follies
of the age, and the failings of which he himself was guilty in the
eyes of the world. His descriptions are elegantly correct, and his
harangues are nervous and animated, and well suiting the character
and the different pursuits of the great men in whose mouths they are
placed. The historian, however, is blamed for tedious and insipid
exordiums, which often disgust the reader without improving him;
his affectation of old and obsolete words and phrases is also
censured, and particularly his unwarrantable partiality in some of
his narrations. Though faithful in every other respect, he has not
painted the character of Cicero with all the fidelity and accuracy
which the reader claims from the historian; and in passing in
silence over many actions which reflect the greatest honour on
the first husband of Terentia, the rival of Cicero has disgraced
himself, and rendered his compositions less authentic. There are
two orations or epistles to Cæsar, concerning the regulations of the
state, attributed to him, as also an oration against Cicero, whose
authenticity some of the moderns have disputed. The best editions of
Sallust, are those of Haverkamp, 2 vols., 4to, Amsterdam, 1742; and
of Edinburgh, 12mo, 1755. _Quintilian_, bk. 10, ch. 1.――_Suetonius_,
_The Grammarians_ in _The Cæsars_.――_Martial_, bk. 14, ltr. 191.――――A
nephew of the historian, by whom he was adopted. He imitated the
moderation of Mæcenas, and remained satisfied with the dignity of a
Roman knight, when he could have made himself powerful by the favours
of Augustus and Tiberius. He was very effeminate and luxurious.
Horace dedicated bk. 2, ode 2, to him. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 1.
――_Pliny_, bk. 34.――――Secundus Promotus, a native of Gaul, very
intimate with the emperor Julian. He is remarkable for his integrity,
and the soundness of his counsels. Julian made ♦him prefect of Gaul.
――――There is also another Sallust, called _Secundus_, whom some
have improperly confounded with Promotus. Secundus was also one of
Julian’s favourites, and was made by him prefect of the east. He
conciliated the good graces of the Romans by the purity of his morals,
his fondness for discipline, and his religious principles. After the
death of the emperor Jovian, he was universally named by the officers
of the Roman empire to succeed on the imperial throne; but he refused
this great though dangerous honour, and pleaded infirmities of body
and old age. The Romans wished upon this to invest his son with the
imperial purple, but Secundus opposed it, and observed that he was
too young to support the dignity.――――A prefect of Rome in the reign
of Valentinian.――――An officer in Britain.
♦ removed duplicate ‘him’
=Salmăcis=, a fountain of Caria, near Halicarnassus, which rendered
effeminate all those who drank of its waters. It was there that
Hermaphroditus changed his sex, though he still retained the
characteristics of his own. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 4, li. 285;
bk. 15, li. 319.――_Hyginus_, fable 271.――_Festus_, _Lexicon of
Festus_.
=Salmōne=, a town of Elis in Peloponnesus, with a fountain, from which
the Enipeus takes its source, and falls into the Alpheus, about 40
stadia from Olympia, which, on account of that, is called _Salmonis_.
_Ovid_, bk. 3, _Amores_, poem 6, li. 43.――――A promontory at the east
of Crete. _Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 5.
=Salmoneus=, a king of Elis, son of Æolus and Enarette, who married
Alcidice, by whom he had Tyro. He wished to be called a god, and
to receive divine honours from his subjects; therefore to imitate
the thunder, he used to drive his chariot over a brazen bridge,
and darted burning torches on every side, as if to imitate the
lightning. This impiety provoked Jupiter. Salmoneus was struck with
a thunderbolt, and placed in the infernal regions near his brother
Sisyphus. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 11, li. 235.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1,
ch. 9.――_Hyginus_, fable 60.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 6, li. 585.
=Salmōnis=, a name given to Olympia. _See:_ Salmone.――――The patronymic
of Tyro daughter of Salmoneus. _Ovid_, _Amores_, bk. 3, poem 6,
li. 43.
=Salmus= (untis), a town of Asia near the Red sea, where Alexander saw
a theatrical representation. _Diodorus_, bk. 17.
=Salmydessus=, a bay on the Euxine sea.
=Salo=, now _Xalon_, a river in Spain, falling into the Iberus.
_Martial_, bk. 10, ltr. 20.
=Salodurum=, now _Soleure_, a town of the Helvetii.
=Salōme=, a queen of Judæa. This name was common to some of the
princesses in the family of Herod, &c.
=Salon=, a country of Bithynia.
=Sălōna=, or =Salōne=, a town of Dalmatia, about 10 miles distant from
the coast of the Adriatic, conquered by Pollio, who on that account
called his son Saloninos, in honour of the victory. It was the native
place of the emperor Diocletian, and he retired there to enjoy peace
and tranquillity, after he had abdicated the imperial purple, and
built a stately palace, the ruins of which were still seen in the
16th century. A small village of the same name preserves the traces
of its fallen grandeur. Near is Spalatro. _Lucan_, bk. 4, li. 404.
――_Cæsar_, _Civil War_, bk. 9.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.
=Salonīna=, a celebrated matron who married the emperor Gallienus, and
distinguished herself by her private as well as public virtues. She
was a patroness of all the fine arts, and to her clemency, mildness,
and benevolence, Rome was indebted some time for her peace and
prosperity. She accompanied her husband in some of his expeditions,
and often called him away from the pursuits of pleasure to make war
against the enemies of Rome. She was put to death by the hands of the
conspirators, who also assassinated her husband and family, about the
year 268 of the christian era.
=Salonīnus=, a son of Asinius Pollio. He received his name from the
conquest of Salona by his father. Some suppose that he is the hero of
Virgil’s fourth eclogue, in which the return of the golden age is so
warmly and beautifully anticipated.――――Publius Licinius Cornelius, a
son of Gallienus by Salonina, sent into Gaul, there to be taught the
art of war. He remained there some time, till the usurper Posthumius
arose, and proclaimed himself emperor. Saloninus was upon this
delivered up to his enemy and put to death in the 10th year of his
age.
=Salonius=, a friend of Cato the censor. The daughter of Censorius
married Salonius in his old age. _Plutarch._――――A tribune and
centurion of the Roman army, hated by the populace for his strictness.
=Salpis=, a colony of Etruria, whose inhabitants are called
_Salpinates_. _Livy_, bk. 5, ch. 31.
=Salsum=, a river in Spain. _Cæsar._
=Salvian=, one of the fathers of the fifth century, of whose works the
best edition is the 12mo, Paris, 1684.
=Salvidiēnus=, an officer of the army of Augustus. He was betrayed by
Antony, and put to death.――――A Latin writer in the age of the emperor
Probus.
=Salvius=, a flute-player, saluted king by the rebellious slaves of
Sicily in the age of Marius. He maintained for some time war against
the Romans.――――A nephew of the emperor Otho.――――A friend of Pompey.
――――A man put to death by Domitian.――――A freedman of Atticus.
_Cicero_, ♦_Letters to Atticus_, bk. 10.――――Another of the sons of
Hortensius. _Cicero_, _Letters to Atticus_.
♦ ‘ad Div. c. 11.’ replaced with ‘Letters to Atticus, bk. 10’
=Salus=, the goddess of health at Rome, worshipped by the Greeks under
the name of Hygeia. _Livy_, bks. 9 & 10.
=Salyes=, a people of Gaul on the Rhone. _Livy_, bk. 5, chs. 34 & 35;
bk. 21, ch. 26.
=Samăra=, a river of Gaul, now called _the Somme_, which falls into the
British channel near Abbeville.
=Samaria=, a city and country of Palestine, famous in sacred history.
The inhabitants, called _Samaritans_, were composed of heathens and
rebellious Jews, and on having a temple built there after the form of
that of Jerusalem, a lasting enmity arose between the people of Judæa
and of Samaria, so that no intercourse took place between the two
countries, and the name of Samaritan became a word of reproach, and
as it were a curse.
=Samarobriva=, a town of Gaul, now _Amiens_, in Picardy.
=Sambūlos=, a mountain near Mesopotamia, where Hercules was worshipped.
_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 12, ch. 13.
=Sambus=, an Indian king defeated by Alexander. _Diodorus_, bk. 17.
――――A river of India.
=Same=, or =Samos=, a small island in the Ionian ♦sea near Ithaca,
called also _Cephallenia_. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 271.
♦ ‘sear’ replaced with ‘sea’
=Samia=, a daughter of the river Mæander. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 4.
――――A surname of Juno, because she was worshipped at Samos.
=Samnītæ=, or =Amnitæ=, a people of Gaul.
=Samnītes=, a people of Italy, who inhabited the country situate
between Picenum, Campania, Apulia, and ancient Latium. They
distinguished themselves by their implacable hatred against the
Romans, in the first ages of that empire, till they were at last
totally extirpated, B.C. 272, after a war of 71 years. Their chief
town was called Samnium, or Samnis. _Livy_, bk. 7, &c.――_Florus_,
bk. 1, ch. 16, &c.; bk. 3, ch. 18.――_Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Lucan_, bk. 2.
――_Eutropius_, bk. 2.
=Samnium=, a town and part of Italy inhabited by the Samnites. _See:_
Samnites.
=Samochonites=, a small lake of _Palestine_.
=Samonium=, a promontory of Crete.
=Samos=, an island in the Ægean sea, on the coast of Asia Minor, from
which it is divided by a narrow strait, with a capital of the same
name, built B.C. 986. It is about 87 miles in circumference, and
is famous for the birth of Pythagoras. It has been anciently called
_Parthenia_, _Anthemusa_, _Stephane_, _Melamphyllus_, _Anthemus_,
_Cyparissia_, and _Dryusa_. It was first in the possession of the
Leleges, and afterwards of the Ionians. The people of Samos were at
first governed by kings, and afterwards the form of their government
became democratical and oligarchical. Samos was in its most
flourishing situation under Polycrates, who had made himself absolute
there. The Samians assisted the Greeks against the Persians, when
Xerxes invaded Europe, and were reduced under the power of Athens,
after a revolt, by Pericles, B.C. 441. They were afterwards subdued
by Eumenes king of Pergamus, and were restored to their ancient
liberty by Augustus. Under Vespasian, Samos became a Roman province.
Juno was held in the greatest veneration there; her temple was
uncommonly magnificent, and it was even said that the goddess had
been born there under a willow tree, on the banks of the Imbrasus.
_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Pausanias_, bk. 7, chs. 2 & 4.――_Plutarch_,
_Pericles_.――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 31.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1,
li. 20.――_Thucydides._――――The islands of Samothrace and Cephallenia
were also known by the name of Samos.
=Samosăta=, a town of Syria, near the Euphrates, below mount Taurus,
where Lucian was born.
=Samothrāce=, or =Samothrācia=, an island in the Ægean sea, opposite
the mouth of the Hebrus, on the coast of Thrace, from which it
is distant about 32 miles. It was known by the ancient names of
_Leucosia_, _Melitis_, _Electria_, _Leucania_, and _Dardani_. It was
afterwards called Samos, and distinguished from the Samos which lies
on the coast of Ionia by the epithet of _Thracian_, or by the name of
Samothrace. It is about 38 miles in circumference, according to Pliny,
or only 20 according to modern travellers. The origin of the first
inhabitants of Samothrace is unknown. Some, however, suppose that
they were Thracians, and that the place was afterwards peopled by the
colonies of the Pelasgians, Samians, and Phœnicians. Samothrace is
famous for a deluge which inundated the country, and reached the very
top of the highest mountains. This inundation, which happened before
the age of the Argonauts, was owing to the sudden overflow of the
waters of the Euxine, which the ancients considered merely as a lake.
The Samothracians were very religious; and as all mysteries were
supposed to have taken their origin there, the island received the
name of _sacred_, and was a safe and inviolable asylum to all
fugitives and criminals. The island was originally governed by kings,
but afterwards the government became democratical. It enjoyed all its
rights and immunities under the Romans till the reign of Vespasian,
who reduced it, with the rest of the islands in the Ægean, into
the form of a province. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.――_Strabo_, bk. 10.
――_Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 108, &c.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 208.
――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 4.――_Florus_, bk. 2,
ch. 12.
=Samus=, a son of Ancæus and Samia, grandson of Neptune. _Pausanias_,
bk. 7, ch. 4.
=Sana=, a town of mount Athos, near which Xerxes began to make a
channel to convey the sea.
=Sanaos=, a town of Phrygia. _Strabo._
=Sanchoniăthon=, a Phœnician historian, born at Berytus, or, according
to others, at Tyre. He flourished a few years before the Trojan war,
and wrote, in the language of his country, a history in nine books,
in which he amply treated of the theology and antiquities of Phœnicia,
and the neighbouring places. It was compiled from the various records
found in the cities, and the annals which were usually kept in the
temples of the gods among the ancients. This history was translated
into Greek by Philo, a native of Byblus, who lived in the reign of
the emperor Adrian. Some few fragments of this Greek translation are
extant. Some, however, suppose them to be spurious, while others
contend that they are true and authentic.
=Sancus=, =Sangus=, or =Sanctus=, a deity of the Sabines introduced
among the gods of Rome under the name of _Dius Fidius_. According
to some, Sancus was father to Sabus, or Sabinus, the first king of
the Sabines. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 421.――_Varro_, _de Lingua
Latina_, bk. 4, ch. 10.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 6, li. 213.
=Sandace=, a sister of Xerxes.
=Sandaliotis=, a name given to Sardinia, from its resemblance to a
sandal. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 7.
=Sandalium=, a small island of the Ægean, near Lesbos.――A port of
Pisidia. _Strabo._
=Sandanis=, a Lydian, who advised Crœsus not to make war against the
Persians.
=Sandānes=, a river of Thrace near Pallene.
=Sandrocottus=, an Indian of a mean origin. His impertinence to
Alexander was the beginning of his greatness; the conqueror ordered
him to be seized, but Sandrocottus fled away, and at last dropped
down overwhelmed with fatigue. As he slept on the ground, a lion
came to him, and gently licked the sweat from his face. This uncommon
tameness of the animal appeared supernatural to Sandrocottus, and
raised his ambition. He aspired to the monarchy, and after the death
of Alexander, he made himself master of a part of the country which
was in the hands of Seleucus. _Justin_, bk. 15, ch. 4.
=Sane=, or =Sana=, a town of Macedonia. _See:_ Sana.
=Sangăla=, a town of India destroyed by Alexander. _Arrian_,
♦_Anabasis_, bk. 5.
♦ Book name omitted in text.
=Sangărius=, or =Sangăris=, a river of Phrygia, rising in mount
Dindymus, and falling into the Euxine. The daughter of the Sangarius
became pregnant of Altes only from gathering the boughs of an almond
tree on the banks of the river. Hecuba, according to some, was
daughter of this river. Some of the poets call it Sagaris. _Ovid_,
_ex Ponto_, bk. 4, poem 10.――_Claudian_, _Against Eutropius_, bk. 2.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 17.
=Sanguinius=, a man condemned for ill language, &c. _Tacitus_, _Annals_,
bk. 6, ch. 7.
=Sannyrion=, a tragic poet of Athens. He composed many dramatical
pieces, one of which was called Io, and another Danae. _Athenæus_,
bk. 9.
=Santŏnes= and =Santŏne=, now _Saintonge_, a people with a town of
the same name in Gaul. _Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 422.――_Martial_, bk. 3,
ltr. 96.
=Saon=, an historian. _Dionysius of Halicarnassus._――――A man who first
discovered the oracle of Trophonius. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 40.
=Sapæi=, or =Saphæi=, a people of Thrace, called also Sintii. _Ovid_,
_Fasti_, bk. 1, li. 389.
=Sapirene=, an island of the Arabic gulf. _Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 29.
=Sapis=, now _Savio_, a river of Gaul Cispadana, falling into the
Adriatic. _Lucan_, bk. 2, li. 406.
=Sapor=, a king of Persia, who succeeded his father Artaxerxes about
the 238th year of the christian era. Naturally fierce and ambitious,
Sapor wished to increase his paternal dominions by conquest; and as
the indolence of the emperors of Rome seemed favourable to his views,
he laid waste the provinces of Mesopotamia, Syria, and Cilicia; and
he might have become master of all Asia, if Odenatus had not stopped
his progress. If Gordian attempted to repel him, his efforts were
weak, and Philip, who succeeded him on the imperial throne, bought
the peace of Sapor with money. Valerian, who was afterwards invested
with the purple, marched against the Persian monarch, but he was
defeated and taken prisoner. Odenatus no sooner heard that the Roman
emperor was a captive in the hands of Sapor, than he attempted to
release him by force of arms. The forces of Persia were cut to pieces;
the wives and the treasures of the monarch fell into the hands of
the conqueror, and Odenatus penetrated, with little opposition, into
the very heart of the kingdom. Sapor, soon after this defeat, was
assassinated by his subjects, A.D. 273, after a reign of 32 years. He
was succeeded by his son called Hormisdas. _Marcellinus_, &c.――――The
second of that name succeeded his father Hormisdas on the throne
of Persia. He was as great as his ancestor of the same name; and by
undertaking a war against the Romans, he attempted to enlarge his
dominions, and to add the provinces on the west of the Euphrates
to his empire. His victories alarmed the Roman emperors, and Julian
would have perhaps seized him in the capital of his dominions, if he
had not received a mortal wound. Jovian, who succeeded Julian, made
peace with Sapor; but the monarch, always restless and indefatigable,
renewed hostilities, invaded Armenia, and defeated the emperor Valens.
Sapor died A.D. 380, after a reign of 70 years, in which he had
often been the sport of fortune. He was succeeded by Artaxerxes, and
Artaxerxes by Sapor III., a prince who died after a reign of five
years, A.D. 389, in the age of Theodosius the Great. _Marcellinus_, &c.
=Sappho=, or =Sapho=, celebrated for her beauty, her poetical talents,
and her amorous disposition, was born in the island of Lesbos, about
600 years before Christ. Her father’s name, according to Herodotus,
was Scamandronymus, or, according to others, Symon, or Semus, or
Etarchus, and her mother’s name was Cleis. Her tender passions were
so violent, that some have represented her attachments to three of
her female companions, Telesiphe, Atthis, and Megara, as criminal,
and, on that account, have given her the surname of _Tribas_. She
conceived such a passion for Phaon, a youth of Mitylene, that upon
his refusal to gratify her desires, she threw herself into the sea
from mount Leucas. She had composed nine books in lyric verses,
besides epigrams, elegies, &c. Of all these compositions, nothing
now remains but two fragments, whose uncommon sweetness and elegance
show how meritoriously the praises of the ancients have been bestowed
upon a poetess, who for the sublimity of her genius was called the
10th Muse. Her compositions were all extant in the age of Horace.
The Lesbians were so sensible of the merit of Sappho, that, after
her death, they paid her divine honours, and raised her temples
and altars, and stamped their money with her image. The poetess has
been censured for writing with that licentiousness and freedom which
so much disgraced her character as a woman. The Sapphic verse has
been called after her name. _Ovid_, _Heroides_, poem 15; _Tristia_,
bk. 2, li. 365.――_Horace_, bk. 2, ode 13.――_Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch.
135.――_Statius_, bk. 5, _Sylvæ_, poem 3, li. 155.――_Ælian_, _Varia
Historia_, bk. 12, chs. 18 & 29.――_Pliny_, bk. 22, ch. 8.
=Saptine=, a daughter of Darius the last king of Persia, offered in
marriage to Alexander.
=Saracene=, part of Arabia Petræa, the country of the Saracens who
embraced the religion of Mahomet.
=Saracori=, a people who go to war riding on asses. _Ælian_, _Varia
Historia_, bk. 12.
=Sarangæ=, a people near Caucasus. _Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 16.
=Saranges=, a river of India, falling into the Hydraotes, and thence
into the Indus.
=Sarapāni=, a people of Colchis. _Strabo._
=Sarapus=, a surname of Pittacus, one of the seven wise men of Greece.
=Sarasa=, a fortified place of Mesopotamia, on the Tigris. _Strabo._
=Saraspades=, a son of Phraates king of Parthia, sent as a hostage to
Augustus, &c. _Strabo._
=Saravus=, now _Soar_, a river of Belgium, falling into the Moselle.
=Sardanapālus=, the 40th and last king of Assyria, celebrated for his
luxury and voluptuousness. The greatest part of his time was spent
in the company of his eunuchs, and the monarch generally appeared
in the midst of his concubines disguised in the habit of a female,
and spinning wool for his amusement. This effeminacy irritated his
officers; Belesis and Arsaces conspired against him, and collected
a numerous force to dethrone him. Sardanapalus quitted his
voluptuousness for a while, and appeared at the head of his armies.
The rebels were defeated in three successive battles, but at last
Sardanapalus was beaten and besieged in the city of Ninus for two
years. When he despaired of success, he burned himself in his palace,
with his eunuchs, concubines, and all his treasures, and the empire
of Assyria was divided among the conspirators. This famous event
happened B.C. 820, according to Eusebius; though Justin and others,
with less probability, place it 80 years earlier. Sardanapalus was
made a god after death. _Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 150.――_Diodorus_,
bk. 2.――_Strabo_, bk. 14.――_Cicero_, _Tusculanæ Disputationes_, bk. 5,
ch. 35.
♦=Sardes.= _See:_ Sardis.
♦ Placed in alphabetical order.
=Sardi=, the inhabitants of Sardinia. _See:_ Sardinia.
=Sardĭnia=, the greatest island in the Mediterranean after Sicily, is
situate between Italy and Africa, at the south of Corsica. It was
originally called _Sandaliotis_, or _Ichnusa_, from its resembling
the human foot (ἰχνος), and it received the name of Sardinia from
Sardus, a son of Hercules, who settled there with a colony which
he had brought with him from Libya. Other colonies, under Aristæus,
Norax, and Iolas, also settled there. The Carthaginians were long
masters of it, and were dispossessed by the Romans in the Punic wars,
B.C. 231. Some call it, with Sicily, one of the granaries of Rome.
The air was very unwholesome, though the soil was fertile, in corn,
in wine, and oil. Neither wolves nor serpents are found in Sardinia,
nor any poisonous herb, except one, which, when eaten, contracts the
nerves, and is attended with a paroxysm of laughter, the forerunner
of death; hence _risus Sardonicus, Sardous_. _Cicero_, _Letters to
his Friends_, bk. 7, ch. 25.――_Servius_, _on Virgil_, bk. 7, eclogue
41.――_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 2, ch. 85.――_Mela_, bk. 3, ch. 7.
――_Strabo_, bks. 2 & 5.――_Cicero_, _On Pompey’s Command_; _Letters
to his brother Quintus_, bk. 2, ltr. 3.――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 7.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 17.――_Varro_, _de Re Rustica_.――_Valerius
Maximus_, bk. 7, ch. 6.
=Sardica=, a town of Thrace, at the north of mount Hæmus.
=Sardis=, or =Sardes=, now _Sart_, a town of Asia Minor, the capital
of the kingdom of Lydia, situate at the foot of mount Tmolus, on
the banks of the Pactolus. It is celebrated for the many sieges
it sustained against the Cimmerians, Persians, Medes, Macedonians,
Ionians, and Athenians, and for the battle in which, B.C. 262,
Antiochus Soter was defeated by Eumenes king of Pergamus. It was
destroyed by an earthquake in the reign of Tiberius, who ordered
it to be rebuilt. It fell into the hands of Cyrus, B.C. 548, and
was burnt by the Athenians, B.C. 504, which became the cause of
the invasion of Attica by Darius. _Plutarch_, _Alexander_.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 11, lis. 137, 152, &c.――_Strabo_, bk. 13.
――_Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 7, &c.
=Sardones=, the people of Roussilon in France, at the foot of the
Pyrenees. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 4.
=Sardus=, a son of Hercules, who led a colony to Sardinia and gave it
his name.
=Sarephta=, a town of Phœnicia between Tyre and Sidon, now _Sarfand_.
=Sariaster=, a son of Tigranes king of Armenia, who conspired against
his father, &c. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 9, ch. 11.
=Sariphi=, mountains at the east of the Caspian.
=Sarmătæ=, or =Sauromătæ=, the inhabitants of Sarmatia. _See:_ Sarmatia.
=Sarmătia=, an extensive country at the north of Europe and Asia,
divided into European and Asiatic. The European was bounded by the
ocean on the north, Germany and the Vistula on the west, the Jazygæ
on the south, and the Tanais on the east. The Asiatic was bounded
by Hyrcania, the Tanais, and the Euxine sea. The former contains
the modern kingdoms of _Russia_, _Poland_, _Lithuania_, and _Little
Tartary_; and the latter, _Great Tartary_, _Circassia_, and the
neighbouring country. The Sarmatians were a savage uncivilized nation,
often confounded with the Scythians, naturally warlike, and famous
for painting their bodies to appear more terrible in the field of
battle. They were well known for their lewdness, and they passed
among the Greeks and Latins by the name of barbarians. In the time
of the emperors they became very powerful, and disturbed the peace
of Rome by their frequent incursions; till at last, increased by
the savage hordes of Scythia, under the barbarous names of Huns,
Vandals, Goths, Alans, &c., they successfully invaded and ruined the
empire in the third and fourth centuries of the christian era. They
generally lived on the mountains without any habitation, except their
_chariots_, whence they have been called _Hamaxobii_. They lived upon
plunder, and fed upon milk mixed with the blood of horses. _Strabo_,
bk. 7, &c.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 4.――_Diodorus_, bk. 2.――_Florus_,
bk. 4, ch. 12.――_Lucan_, bk. 1, &c. _Juvenal_, satire 2.――_Ovid_,
_Tristia_, bk. 3, &c.
=Sarmatĭcum mare=, a name given to the Euxine sea, because on the coast
of Sarmatia. _Ovid_, bk. 4, _ex Ponto_, poem 10, li. 38.
=Sarmentus=, a scurrilous person, mentioned by _Horace_, bk. 1,
satire 5, li. 56.
=Sarnius=, a river of Asia, near Hyrcania.
=Sarnus=, a river of Picenum, dividing it from Campania, and falling
into the Tuscan sea. _Statius_, bk. 1, _Sylvæ_, poem 2, li. 265.
――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 738.――_Strabo_, bk. 5.
=Saron=, a king of Trœzene, unusually fond of hunting. He was drowned
in the sea, where he had swum for some miles in pursuit of a stag. He
was made a sea god by Neptune, and divine honours were paid to him by
the Trœzenians. It was customary for sailors to offer him sacrifices
before they embarked. That part of the sea where he was drowned was
called _Saronicus sinus_, on the coast of Achaia, near the isthmus
of Corinth. Saron built a temple to Diana at Trœzene, and instituted
festivals to her honour, called from himself Saronia, _Pausanias_,
bk. 2, ch. 30.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.――_Strabo_, bk. 8.
=Saronĭcus sinus=, now _the gulf of Engia_, a bay of the Ægean sea,
lying at the south of Attica, and on the north of the Peloponnesus.
The entrance into it is between the promontory of Sunium and that
of Scyllæum. Some suppose that this part of the sea received its
name from Saron, who was drowned there, or from a small river which
discharged itself on the coast, or from a small harbour of the same
name. The Saronic bay is about 62 miles in circumference, 23 miles
in its broadest, and 25 in its longest part, according to modern
calculation.
=Sarpēdon=, a son of Jupiter by Europa the daughter of Agenor. He
banished himself from Crete, after he had in vain attempted to make
himself king in preference to his elder brother Minos, and he retired
to Caria, where he built the town of Miletus. He went to the Trojan
war to assist Priam against the Greeks, where he was attended by his
friend and companion Glaucus. He was at last killed by Patroclus,
after he had made a great slaughter of the enemy, and his body, by
order of Jupiter, was conveyed to Lycia by Apollo, where his friends
and relations paid him funeral honours, and raised a monument to
perpetuate his valour. According to some mythologists, the brother
of king Minos, and the prince who assisted Priam, were two different
persons. This last was king of Lycia, and son of Jupiter by Laodamia
the daughter of Bellerophon, and lived about 100 years after the age
of the son of Europa. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 1.――_Herodotus_,
bk. 1, ch. 173.――_Strabo_, bk. 12.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 16.――――A
son of Neptune, killed by Hercules for his barbarous treatment of
strangers.――――A learned preceptor of Cato of Utica. _Plutarch_,
_Cato_.――――A town of Cilicia, famous for a temple sacred to Apollo
and Diana.――――Also a promontory of the same name in Cilicia, beyond
which Antiochus was not permitted to sail by a treaty of peace which
he had made with the Romans. _Livy_, bk. 38, ch. 38.――_Mela_, bk. 1,
ch. 13.――――A promontory of Thrace.――――A Syrian general who flourished
B.C. 143.
=Sarra=, a town of Phœnicia, the same as _Tyre_. It receives its
name from a small shell-fish of the same name which was found in
the neighbourhood, and with whose blood garments were dyed. Hence
came the epithet of _sarranus_, so often applied to Tyrian colours,
as well as to the inhabitants of the colonies of the Tyrians,
particularly Carthage. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 6, li. 662; bk. 13,
li. 205.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 2, li. 506.――_Festus_, _Lexicon
of Festus_.
=Sarrastes=, a people of Campania on the Sarnus, who assisted Turnus
against Æneas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 738.
=Sarron=, a king of the Celtæ, so famous for his learning, that from
him philosophers were called _Sarronidæ_. _Diodorus_, bk. 6, ch. 9.
=Sars=, a town of Spain, near cape Finisterre.
=Sarsĭna=, an ancient town of Umbria, where the poet Plautus was born.
The inhabitants are called _Sarsinates_. _Martial_, bk. 9, ltr. 59.
――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 14.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 462.
=Sarus=, a river of Cappadocia. _Livy_, bk. 33, ch. 41.
=Sasanda=, a town of Caria. _Diodorus_, bk. 14.
=Sason=, an island at the entrance of the Adriatic sea, lying between
Brundusium and Aulon on the coast of Greece. It is barren and
inhospitable. _Strabo_, bk. 6.――_Lucan_, bk. 2, li. 627; bk. 5,
li. 650.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 7, li. 480.――――A river falling into
the Adriatic.
=Satarchæ=, a people near the Palus Mæotis. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 1.
――_Flaccus_, bk. 6, li. 144.
=Sataspes=, a Persian hung on a cross by order of Xerxes, for offering
violence to the daughter of Megabyzus. His father’s name was Theaspes.
_Herodotus_, bk. 4.
=Satibarzanes=, a Persian made satrap of the Arians by Alexander, from
whom he afterwards revolted. _Curtius_, bks. 6 & 7.
=Satīcŭla= and =Saticulus=, a town near Capua. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7,
li. 729.――_Livy_, bk. 9, ch. 21; bk. 23, ch. 39.
=Sātis=, a town of Macedonia.
=Satræ=, a people of Thrace. _Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 111.
=Satrapēni=, a people of Media, under Tigranes. _Plutarch._
=Satricum=, a town of Italy, taken by Camillus. _Livy_, bk. 6, ch. 8.
=Satropaces=, an officer in the army of Darius, &c. _Curtius_, bk. 4,
ch. 9.
=Satŭra=, a lake of Latium, forming part of the Pontine lakes. _Silius
Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 382.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 801.
=Satureium=, or =Satureum=, a town of Calabria, near Tarentum, with
famous pastures and horses, whence the epithet of _satureianus_ in
_Horace_, bk. 1, satire 6.
=Satureius=, one of Domitian’s murderers.
=Saturnālia=, festivals in honour of Saturn, celebrated the 16th or
the 17th, or, according to others, the 18th of December. They were
instituted long before the foundation of Rome, in commemoration of
the freedom and equality which prevailed on earth in the golden reign
of Saturn. Some, however, suppose that the Saturnalia were first
observed at Rome in the reign of Tullus Hostilius, after a victory
obtained over the Sabines; while others support that Janus first
instituted them in gratitude to Saturn, from whom he had learnt
agriculture. Others suppose that they were first celebrated in the
year of Rome 257, after a victory obtained over the Latins by the
dictator Posthumius. The Saturnalia were originally celebrated only
for one day, but afterwards the solemnity continued for three, four,
five, and at last for seven days. The celebration was remarkable for
the liberty which universally prevailed. The slaves were permitted
to ridicule their masters, and to speak with freedom upon every
subject. It was usual for friends to make presents one to another;
all animosity ceased, no criminals were executed, schools were shut,
war was never declared, but all was mirth, riot, and debauchery.
In the sacrifices the priests made their offerings with their heads
uncovered, a custom which was never observed at other festivals.
_Seneca_, ltr. 18.――_Cato_, _de Re Rustica_, bk. 57.――_Suetonius_,
_Vespasian_, ch. 19.――_Cicero_, _Letters to Atticus_, bk. 5, ltr. 20.
=Saturnia=, a name given to Italy, because Saturn had reigned there
during the golden age. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 2, li. 173.――――A
name given to Juno, as being the daughter of Saturn. _Virgil_,
_Georgics_, bk. 2, li. 173; _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 80.――――An ancient
town of Italy, supposed to be built by Saturn, on the Tarpeian rock.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8, li. 358.――――A colony of Etruria. _Livy_,
bk. 39, ch. 55.
=Saturnīnus Publius Sempronius=, a general of Valerian, proclaimed
emperor in Egypt by his troops after he had rendered himself
celebrated by his victories over the barbarians. His integrity, his
complaisance and affability, had gained him the affection of the
people, but his fondness for ancient discipline provoked his soldiers,
who wantonly murdered him in the 43rd year of his age, A.D. 262.
――――Sextius Julius, a Gaul, intimate with Aurelian. The emperor
esteemed him greatly, not only for his virtues, but for his abilities
as a general, and for the victories which he had obtained in
different parts of the empire. He was saluted emperor at Alexandria,
and compelled by the clamorous army to accept of the purple, which
he rejected with disdain and horror. Probus, who was then emperor,
marched his forces against him, and besieged him in Apamea, where
he destroyed himself when unable to make head against his powerful
adversary.――――Appuleius, a tribune of the people who raised a
sedition at Rome, intimidated the senate, and tyrannized for three
years. Meeting at last with opposition, he seized the capitol, but
being induced by the hopes of a reconciliation to trust himself
amidst the people, he was suddenly torn to pieces. His sedition
has received the name of _Appuleiana_ in the Roman annals. _Florus._
――――Lucius, a seditious tribune, who supported the oppression of
Marius. He was at last put to death on account of his tumultuous
disposition. _Plutarch_, _Caius Marius_.――_Florus_, bk. 3, ch. 16.
――――An officer in the court of Theodosius, murdered for obeying the
emperor’s orders, &c.――――Pompeius, a writer in the reign of Trajan.
He was greatly esteemed by Pliny, who speaks of him with great
warmth and approbation, as an historian, a poet, and an orator.
Pliny always consulted the opinion of Saturninus before he published
his compositions.――――Sentius, a friend of Augustus and Tiberius. He
succeeded Agrippa in the government of the provinces of Syria and
Phœnicia.――――Vitellius, an officer among the friends of the emperor
Otho.
=Saturnius=, a name given to Jupiter, Pluto, and Neptune, as being the
sons of Saturn.
=Saturnus=, a son of Cœlus, or Uranus, by Terra, called also Titea,
Thea, or Titheia. He was naturally artful, and by means of his mother,
he revenged himself on his father, whose cruelty to his children had
provoked the anger of Thea. The mother armed her son with a scythe,
which was fabricated with the metals drawn from her bowels, and as
Cœlus was going to unite himself to Thea, Saturn mutilated him, and
for ever prevented him from increasing the number of his children,
whom he treated with unkindness, and confined in the infernal regions.
After this the sons of Cœlus were restored to liberty, and Saturn
obtained his father’s kingdom by the consent of his brother, provided
he did not bring up any male children. Pursuant to this agreement,
Saturn always devoured his sons as soon as born, because, as some
observe, he dreaded from them a retaliation of his unkindness to his
father, till his wife Rhea, unwilling to see her children perish,
concealed from her husband the birth of Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto,
and instead of the children she gave him large stones, which he
immediately swallowed without perceiving the deceit. Titan was some
time after informed that Saturn had concealed his male children,
therefore he made war against him, dethroned and imprisoned him with
Rhea; and Jupiter, who was secretly educated in Crete, was no sooner
grown up, than he flew to deliver his father, and to replace him
on the throne. Saturn, unmindful of his son’s kindness, conspired
against him, when he heard that he raised cabals against him, but
Jupiter banished him from his throne, and the father fled for safety
into Italy, where the country retained the name of _Latium_, as being
the place of his _concealment_ (_lateo_). Janus, who was then king
of Italy, received Saturn with marks of attention; he made him his
partner on the throne; and the king of heaven employed himself in
civilizing the barbarous manners of the people of Italy, and in
teaching them agriculture and the useful and liberal arts. His reign
there was so mild and popular, so beneficent and virtuous, that
mankind have called it the _golden age_, to intimate the happiness
and tranquillity which the earth then enjoyed. Saturn was father
of Chiron the centaur by Philyra, whom he had changed into a mare,
to avoid the importunities of Rhea. The worship of Saturn was not
so solemn or so universal as that of Jupiter. It was usual to offer
human victims on his altars, but this barbarous custom was abolished
by Hercules, who substituted small images of clay. In the sacrifices
of Saturn, the priest always performed the ceremony with his head
uncovered, which was unusual at other solemnities. The god is
generally represented as an old man, bent through age and infirmity.
He holds a scythe in his right hand, with a serpent which bites its
own tail, which is an emblem of time and of the revolution of the
year. In his left hand he holds a child, which he raises up as if
instantly to devour it. Tatius king of the Sabines first built a
temple to Saturn on the Capitoline hill, a second was afterwards
added by Tullus Hostilius, and a third by the first consuls. On his
statues were generally hung fetters in commemoration of the chains
he had worn when imprisoned by Jupiter. From this circumstance, all
slaves that obtained their liberty generally dedicated their fetters
him. During the celebration of the Saturnalia, the chains were taken
from the statues to intimate the freedom and the independence which
mankind enjoyed during the golden age. One of his temples at Rome
was appropriated for the public treasury, and it was there also that
the names of foreign ambassadors were enrolled. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 1.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8, li. 319.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 8.――_Tibullus_, poem 3, li. 35.――_Homer_,
_Iliad_.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 4, li. 197; _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1,
li. 123.
=Satŭrum=, a town of Calabria, where stuffs of all kinds were dyed in
different colours with great success. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 2,
li. 197; bk. 4, li. 335.
=Săty̆ri=, demigods of the country, whose origin is unknown. They are
represented like men, but with the feet and the legs of goats, short
horns on the head, and the whole body covered with thick hair. They
chiefly attended upon Bacchus, and rendered themselves known in
his orgies by their riot and lasciviousness. The first fruits of
everything were generally offered to them. The Romans promiscuously
called them _Fauni_, _Panes_, and _Sylvani_. It is said that a
Satyr was brought to Sylla as that general returned from Thessaly.
The monster had been surprised asleep in a cave; but his voice was
inarticulate when brought into the presence of the Roman general, and
Sylla was so disgusted with it, that he ordered it to be instantly
removed. The monster answered in every degree the description which
the poets and painters have given of the Satyrs. _Pausanias_, bk. 1,
ch. 23.――_Plutarch_, _Sulla_.――_Virgil_, eclogue 5, li. 13.――_Ovid_,
_Heroides_, poem 4, li. 171.
=Saty̆rus=, a king of Bosphorus, who reigned 14 years, &c. His father’s
name was Spartacus. _Diodorus_, bk. 20.――――An Athenian who attempted
to eject the garrison of Demetrius from the citadel, &c. _Polyænus._
――――A Greek actor who instructed Demosthenes, and taught him how to
have a good and strong delivery.――――A man who assisted in murdering
Timophanes, by order of his brother Timoleon.――――A Rhodian sent
by his countrymen to Rome, when Eumenes had accused some of the
allies of intentions to favour the interest of Macedonia against the
republic.――――A peripatetic philosopher and historian, who flourished
B.C. 148.――――A tyrant of Heraclea, 346 B.C.――――An architect who,
together with Petus, is said to have planned and built the celebrated
tomb which Artemisia erected to the memory of Mausolus, and which
became one of the wonders of the world. The honour of erecting it is
ascribed to others.
=Savera=, a village of Lycaonia.
=Saufeius Trogus=, one of Messalina’s favourites, punished by Claudius,
&c. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 11, ch. 35.――――Appius, a Roman, who died
on his return from the bath upon taking mead, &c. _Pliny_, bk. 7,
ch. 53.
=Savo=, or =Savona=, a town with a small river of the same name in
Campania. _Statius_, ♦_Sylvæ_, bk. 4.――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 5.――――A
town of Liguria.
♦ Book name omitted in text.
=Sauromatæ=, a people in the northern parts of Europe and Asia. They
are called _Sarmatæ_ by the Latins. _See:_ Sarmatia.
=Saurus=, a famous robber of Elis, killed by Hercules. _Pausanias_,
bk. 6, ch. 21.――――A statuary. _Pliny_, bk. 36, ch. 5.
=Savus=, a river of Pannonia, rising in Noricum, at the north of
Aquileia, and falling into the Danube, after flowing through Pannonia,
in an eastern direction. _Claudian_, _De Consulatu Stilichonis_,
bk. 2.――――A small river of Numidia, falling into the Mediterranean.
=Saxŏnes=, a people of Germany, near the Chersonesus Cimbrica.
_Ptolemy_, bk. 3, ch. 11.――_Claudian_, bk. 1, _Against Eutropius_,
li. 392.
=Saziches=, an ancient legislator of Egypt.
=Scæa=, one of the gates of Troy, where the tomb of Laomedon was seen.
The name is derived by some from σκαιος (_sinster_), because it was
through this avenue that the fatal horse was introduced. _Homer_,
_Iliad_.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 13, li. 73.――――One of the Danaides.
Her husband’s name was Dayphron. _Apollodorus._
=Scæva=, a soldier in Cæsar’s army, who behaved with great courage at
Dyrrachium. _Lucan_, bk. 6, li. 144.――――Memor, a Latin poet in the
reign of Titus and Domitian.――――A man who poisoned his own mother.
_Horace_, bk. 2, satire 1, li. 53.――――A friend of Horace, to whom the
poet addressed bk. 1, ltr. 17. He was a Roman knight.
=Scævŏla.= _See:_ Mutius.
=Scalabis=, now _St. Irene_, a town of ancient Spain.
=Scaldis=, or =Scaldium=, a river of Belgium, now called the _Scheld_,
and dividing the modern country of the Netherlands from Holland.
_Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 6, li. 33.――――Pons, a town on the same
river, now called _Condé_. _Cæsar._
=Scamander=, or =Scamandros=, a celebrated river of Troas, rising at
the east of mount Ida, and falling into the sea below Sigæum. It
receives the Simois in its course, and towards its mouth it is very
muddy, and flows through marshes. This river, according to Homer, was
called Xanthus by the gods, and Scamander by men. The waters of the
Scamander had the singular property of giving a beautiful colour to
the hair or the wool of such animals as bathed in them; and from this
circumstance the three goddesses, Minerva, Juno, and Venus, bathed
there before they appeared before Paris, to obtain the golden apple.
It was usual among all the virgins of Troas to bathe in the Scamander,
when they were arrived to nubile years, and to offer to the god their
virginity in these words, Λαβε μου, Σκαμανδρε, την παεθενιαν. The god
of the Scamander had a regular priest, and sacrifices offered to him.
Some suppose that the river received its name from Scamander the son
of Corybas. _Ælian_, _De Natura Animalium_, bk. 8, ch. 21.――_Strabo_,
bks. 1 & 13.――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 30.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 18.
――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 5.――_Plutarch._――_Æschines_, ltr. 10.――――A
son of Corybas and Demodice, who brought a colony from Crete into
Phrygia, and settled at the foot of mount Ida, where he introduced
the festivals of Cybele, and the dances of the Corybantes. He some
time after lost the use of his senses and threw himself into the
river Xanthus, which ever after bore his name. His son-in-law Teucer
succeeded him in the government of the colony. He had two daughters,
Thymo and Callirhoe. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 12.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.
=Scamandria=, a town on the Scamander. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 30.
=Scamandrius=, one of the generals of Priam, son of Strophius. He was
killed by Menelaus. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 5, li. 49.
=Scandaria=, a promontory in the island of Cos. _Strabo_, bk. 14.
=Scandinavia=, a name given by the ancients to that tract of territory
which contains the modern kingdoms of Norway, Sweden, Denmark,
Lapland, Finland, &c., supposed by them to be an island. _Pliny_,
bk. 4, ch. 13.
=Scantia Sylva=, a wood of Campania, the property of the Roman people.
_Cicero._
=Scantilla=, the wife of Didius Julianus. It was by her advice that her
husband bought the empire which was exposed to sale at the death of
Pertinax.
=Scantinia lex.= _See:_ Scatinia.
=Scaptesyle=, a town of Thrace, near Abdera, abounding in silver and
gold mines, belonging to Thucydides, who is supposed there to have
written his history of the Peloponnesian war. _Lucretius_, bk. 6,
li. 810.――_Plutarch_, _Cimon_.
=Scaptia=, a town of Latium. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 396.
――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 5.――_Livy_, bk. 8, ch. 17.
=Scaptius=, an intimate friend of Brutus. _Cicero_, _Letters to
Atticus_, bk. 5, &c. His brother was a merchant of Cappadocia.
=Scapŭla=, a native of Corduba, who defended that town against Cæsar,
after the battle of Munda. When he saw that all his efforts were
useless against the Roman general, he destroyed himself. _Cæsar_,
_Hispanic War_, ch. 33.――――A usurper. _Cicero_, _Letters to Atticus_,
bk. 12, ltr. 37.
=Scandon=, a town on the confines of Dalmatia.
=Scardii=, a ridge of mountains of Macedonia, which separates it from
Illyricum. _Livy_, bk. 43, ch. 20.
=Scarphia=, or =Scarphe=, a town near Thermopylæ, on the confines of
Phthiotis. _Seneca_, _Troades_.
=Scatinia lex=, _de pudicitiâ_, by Caius Scatinius Aricinus the
tribune, was enacted against those who kept catamites, and such as
prostituted themselves to any vile or unnatural service. The penalty
was originally a fine, but it was afterwards made a capital crime
under Augustus. It is sometimes called _Scantinia_, from a certain
_Scantinius_ upon whom it was first executed.
=Scaurus Marcus Æmylius=, a Roman consul who distinguished himself
by his eloquence at the bar, and by his successes in Spain in the
capacity of commander. He was sent against Jugurtha, and some time
after accused of suffering himself to be bribed by the Numidian
prince. Scaurus conquered the Ligurians, and in his censorship he
built the Milvian bridge at Rome, and began to pave the road, which
from him was called the Æmylian. He was originally very poor. He
wrote some books, and among these a history of his own life, all now
lost.――――His son, of the same name, made himself known by the large
theatre which he built during his edileship. This theatre, which
could contain 30,000 spectators, was supported by 360 columns of
marble, 38 feet in height, and adorned with 3000 brazen statues.
This celebrated edifice, according to Pliny, proved more fatal to
the manners and the simplicity of the Romans, than the proscriptions
and wars of Sylla had done to the inhabitants of the city. Scaurus
married Murcia. _Cicero_, _Brutus_.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 4,
ch. 4.――_Pliny_, bk. 34, ch. 7; bk. 36, ch. 2.――――A Roman of consular
dignity. When the Cimbri invaded Italy, the son of Scaurus behaved
with great cowardice, upon which the father sternly ordered him never
to appear again in the field of battle. The severity of this command
rendered young Scaurus melancholy, and he plunged a sword into his
own heart, to free himself from further ignominy.――――Aurelius, a
Roman consul taken prisoner by the Gauls. He was put to a cruel death
because he told the king of the enemy not to cross the Alps to invade
Italy, which was universally deemed unconquerable.――――Marcus Æmilius,
a man in the reign of Tiberius accused of adultery with Livia, and
put to death. He was an eloquent orator, but very lascivious and
debauched in his morals.――――Mamercus, a man put to death by Tiberius.
――――Maximus, a man who conspired against Nero.――――Terentius, a Latin
grammarian. He had been preceptor to the emperor Adrian. _Aulus
Gellius_, bk. 11, ch. 15.
=Scedăsus=, a native of Leuctra in Bœotia. His two daughters, Meletia
and Molpia, whom some called Theano and Hippo, were ravished by some
Spartans, in the reign of Cleombrotus, and after this they killed
themselves, unable to survive the loss of their honour. The father
became so disconsolate, that when he was unable to obtain relief from
his country, he killed himself on their tomb. _Pausanias_, bk. 9,
ch. 13.――_Plutarch_, _Amatoriæ narrationes_, ch. 3.
=Scelerātus=, a plain of Rome near the Colline gate, where the vestal
Minucia was buried alive, when convicted of adultery. _Livy_, bk. 8,
ch. 15.――――One of the gates of Rome was called _Scelerata_, because
the 300 Fabii, who were killed at the river Cremera, had passed
through it when they went to attack the enemy. It was before named
_Carmentalis_.――――There was also a street at Rome formerly called
_Cyprius_, which received the name of the _Sceleratus vicus_, because
there Tullia ordered her postilion to drive her chariot over the body
of her father, king Servius. _Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 48.――_Ovid_, _Ibis_,
li. 365.
=Scena=, a town on the confines of Babylon. _Strabo_, bk. 16.――――A
river of Ireland, now the _Shannon_. _Orosius_, bk. 1, ch. 2.
=Scenitæ=, Arabians who live in tents. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 11.
=Scepsis=, a town of Troas, where the works of Theophrastus and
Aristotle were long concealed underground, and damaged by the wet, &c.
_Strabo_, bk. 10.
=Schedia=, a small village of Egypt, with a dockyard between the
western mouths of the Nile and Alexandria. _Strabo._
=Schedius=, one of Helen’s suitors. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, chs. 4 & 30.
=Scheria=, an ancient name of Corcyra. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 5.
――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.
=Schœneus=, a son of Athamas.――――The father of Atalanta.
=Schœnus=, or =Scheno=, a port of Peloponnesus, on the Saronicus sinus.
――――A village near Thebes, with a river of the same name.――――A river
of Arcadia.――――Another near Athens.
=Sciastes=, a surname of Apollo at Lacedæmon, from the village
Scias where he was particularly worshipped. _Lycophron_, li. 562.
――_Tzetzes_, on the same reference.
=Sciăthis=, a mountain of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 14.
=Sciăthos=, an island in the Ægean sea, opposite mount Pelion, on the
coast of Thessaly. _Valerius Flaccus_, bk. 2.
=Scidros=, a town of Magna Græcia.
=Scillus=, a town of Peloponnesus, near Olympia, where Xenophon wrote
his history.
=Scilūrus=, a king of Scythia, who had 80 sons. _See:_ Scylurus.
=Scinis=, a cruel robber who tied men to the boughs of trees, which
he had forcibly brought together, and which he afterwards unloosed,
so that their limbs were torn in an instant from their body. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, li. 440.
=Scinthi=, a people of Germany.
=Sciōne=, a town of Thrace, in the possession of the Athenians. It
revolted and passed into the hands of the Lacedæmonians during the
Peloponnesian war. It was built by a Grecian colony on their return
from the Trojan war. _Thucydides_, bk. 4.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 2.
――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 10.
=Scīpiădæ=, a name applied to the two Scipios, who obtained the surname
of _Africanus_, from the conquest of Carthage. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 6, li. 843.
=Scipio=, a celebrated family at Rome, who obtained the greatest
honours in the republic. The name seems to be derived from _scipio_,
which signifies a _stick_, because one of the family had conducted
his blind father, and had been to him as a stick. The Scipios were a
branch of the Cornelian family. The most illustrious were:――Publius
Cornelius, a man made master of horse by Camillus, &c.――――A Roman
dictator.――――Lucius Cornelius, a consul, A.U.C. 456, who defeated
the Etrurians near Volaterra.――――Another consul, A.U.C. 495.――――Cnæus,
surnamed Asina, was consul A.U.C. 494 and 500. He was conquered
in his first consulship in a naval battle, and lost 17 ships. The
following year he took Aleria, in Corsica, and defeated Hanno the
Carthaginian general, in Sardinia. He also took 200 of the enemy’s
ships, and the city of Panormum in Sicily. He was father to Publius
and Cneus Scipio. Publius, in the beginning of the second Punic war,
was sent with an army to Spain to oppose Annibal; but when he heard
that his enemy had passed over into Italy, he attempted by his quick
marches and secret evolutions to stop his progress. He was conquered
by Annibal near the Ticinus, where he nearly lost his life, had not
his son, who was afterwards surnamed Africanus, courageously defended
him. He again passed into Spain, where he obtained some memorable
victories over the Carthaginians, and the inhabitants of the country.
His brother Cneus shared the supreme command with him, but their
great confidence proved their ruin. They separated their armies, and
soon after Publius was furiously attacked by the two Asdrubals and
Mago, who commanded the Carthaginian armies. The forces of Publius
were too few to resist with success the three Carthaginian generals.
The Romans were cut to pieces, and their commander was left on the
field of battle. No sooner had the enemy obtained this victory than
they immediately marched to meet Cneus Scipio, whom the revolt of
30,000 Celtiberians had weakened and alarmed. The general, who was
already apprised of his brother’s death, secured an eminence, where
he was soon surrounded on all sides. After desperate acts of valour
he was left among the slain, or, according to some, he fled into a
tower, where he was burnt with some of his friends by the victorious
enemy. _Livy_, bk. 21, &c.――_Polybius_, bk. 4.――_Florus_, bk. 2, ch.
6, &c.――_Eutropius_, bk. 3, ch. 8, &c.――――Publius Cornelius, surnamed
_Africanus_, was son of Publius Scipio, who was killed in Spain. He
first distinguished himself at the battle of Ticinus, where he saved
his father’s life by deeds of unexampled valour and boldness. The
battle of Cannæ, which proved so fatal to the Roman arms, instead of
disheartening Scipio, raised his expectations, and he no sooner heard
that some of his desperate countrymen wished to abandon Italy, and
to fly from the insolence of the conqueror, than with his sword in
his hand, and by his firmness and example, he obliged them to swear
eternal fidelity to Rome, and to put to immediate death the first
man who attempted to retire from his country. In his 21st year,
Scipio was made an edile, an honourable office which was never given
but to such as had reached their 27th year. Some time after, the
Romans were alarmed by the intelligence that the commanders of their
forces in Spain, Publius and Cneus Scipio, had been slaughtered, and
immediately young Scipio was appointed to avenge the death of his
father and of his uncle, and to vindicate the military honour of the
republic. It was soon known how able he was to be at the head of an
army; the various nations of Spain were conquered, and in four years
the Carthaginians were banished from that part of the continent.
The whole province became tributary to Rome; New Carthage submitted
in one day, and in a battle 54,000 of the enemy were left dead on
the field. After these signal victories Scipio was recalled to Rome,
which still trembled at the continual alarms of Annibal, who was at
her gates. The conqueror of the Carthaginians in Spain was looked
upon as a proper general to encounter Annibal in Italy; but Scipio
opposed the measures which his countrymen wished to pursue, and he
declared in the senate that if Annibal was to be conquered he must
be conquered in Africa. These bold measures were immediately adopted,
though opposed by the eloquence, age, and experience of the great
Fabius, and Scipio was empowered to conduct the war on the coasts of
Africa. With the dignity of consul he embarked for Carthage. Success
attended his arms; his conquests were here as rapid as in Spain; the
Carthaginian armies were routed, the camp of the crafty Asdrubal was
set on fire during the night, and his troops totally defeated in a
drawn battle. These repeated losses alarmed Carthage; Annibal, who
was victorious at the gates of Rome, was instantly recalled to defend
the walls of his country, and the two greatest generals of the age
met each other in the field. Terms of accommodation were proposed;
but in the parley which the two commanders had together, nothing
satisfactory was offered, and while the one enlarged on the
vicissitudes of human affairs, the other wished to dictate like a
conqueror, and recommended the decision of the controversy to the
sword. The celebrated battle was fought near Zama, and both generals
displayed their military knowledge in drawing up their armies and in
choosing their ground. Their courage and intrepidity were not less
conspicuous in charging the enemy; a thousand acts of valour were
performed on both sides, and though the Carthaginians fought in their
own defence, and the Romans for fame and glory, yet the conqueror
of Italy was vanquished. About 20,000 Carthaginians were slain,
and the same number made prisoners of war, B.C. 202. Only 2000 of
the Romans were killed. This battle was decisive; the Carthaginians
sued for peace, which Scipio at last granted on the most severe and
humiliating terms. The conqueror after this returned to Rome, where
he was received with the most unbounded applause, honoured with a
triumph, and dignified with the appellation of _Africanus_. Here
he enjoyed for some time the tranquillity and the honours which his
exploits merited, but in him also, as in other great men, fortune
showed herself inconstant. Scipio offended the populace in wishing
to distinguish the senators from the rest of the people at the public
exhibitions; and when he canvassed for the consulship for two of his
friends, he had the mortification to see his application slighted,
and the honours which he claimed bestowed on a man of no character,
and recommended by neither abilities nor meritorious actions. He
retired from Rome no longer to be a spectator of the ingratitude of
his countrymen, and in the capacity of lieutenant he accompanied his
brother against Antiochus king of Syria. In this expedition his arms
were attended with usual success, and the Asiatic monarch submitted
to the conditions which the conquerors dictated. At his return to
Rome, Africanus found the malevolence of his enemies still unabated.
Cato, his inveterate rival, raised seditions against him, and the
Petilli, two tribunes of the people, accused the conqueror of Annibal
of extortion in the provinces of Asia, and of living in an indolent
and luxurious manner. Scipio condescended to answer to the accusation
of his calumniators; the first day was spent in hearing the different
charges, but when he again appeared on the second day of his trial,
the accused interrupted his judges, and exclaimed, “Tribunes and
fellow-citizens, on this day, this very day, did I conquer Annibal
and the Carthaginians: come, therefore, with me, Romans; let us go
to the capitol, and there return our thanks to the immortal gods
for the victories which have attended our arms.” These words had
the desired effect; the tribes and all the assembly followed Scipio,
the court was deserted, and the tribunes were left alone in the seat
of judgment. Yet when this memorable day was past and forgotten,
Africanus was a third time summoned to appear; but he had fled before
the impending storm, and retired to his country house at Liternum.
The accusation was therefore stopped, and the accusers silenced,
when one of the tribunes, formerly distinguished for his malevolence
against Scipio, rose to defend him, and declared in the assembly,
that it reflected the highest disgrace on the Roman people, that the
conqueror of Annibal should become the sport of the populace, and
be exposed to the malice and envy of disappointed ambition. Some
time after Scipio died in the place of his retreat, about 184 years
before Christ, in the 48th year of his age; and so great an aversion
did he express, as he expired, for the depravity of the Romans, and
the ingratitude of their senators, that he ordered his bones not to
be conveyed to Rome. They were accordingly inhumated at Liternum,
where his wife Æmilia the daughter of Paulus Æmilius, who fell at the
battle of Cannæ, raised a mausoleum on his tomb, and placed upon it
his statue, with that of the poet Ennius, who had been the companion
of his peace and of his retirement. If Scipio was robbed during
his lifetime of the honours which belonged to him as the conqueror
of Africa, he was not forgotten when dead. The Romans viewed his
character with reverence; with raptures they read of his warlike
actions, and Africanus was regarded in the following ages as a
pattern of virtue, of innocence, courage, and liberality. As a
general, the fame and the greatness of his conquests explain his
character; and indeed we hear that Annibal declared himself inferior
to no general that ever lived except Alexander the Great, and Pyrrhus
king of Epirus; and when Scipio asked him what rank he would claim,
if he had conquered him, the Carthaginian general answered, “If
I had conquered you, Scipio, I would call myself greater than the
conqueror of Darius and the ally of the Tarentines.” As an instance
of Scipio’s continence, ancient authors have faithfully recorded
that the conqueror of Spain refused to see a beautiful princess that
had fallen into his hands after the taking of New Carthage, and that
he not only restored her inviolate to her parents, but also added
immense presents for the person to whom she was betrothed. It was
to the artful complaisance of Africanus that the Romans owed their
alliance with Masinissa king of Numidia, and also that with king
Syphax. The friendship of Scipio and Lælius is well known. _Polybius_,
bk. 6.――_Plutarch._――_Florus_, bk. 2, ch. 6.――_Cicero_, _Brutus_, &c.
――_Eutropius._――――Lucius Cornelius, surnamed _Asiaticus_, accompanied
his brother Africanus in his expeditions in Spain and Africa. He was
rewarded with the consulship, A.U.C. 564, for his services to the
state, and he was empowered to attack Antiochus king of Syria, who
had declared war against the Romans. Lucius was accompanied in this
campaign by his brother Africanus; and by his own valour, and the
advice of the conqueror of Annibal, he soon routed the enemy, and in
a battle near the city of Sardes he killed 50,000 foot and 4000 horse.
Peace was soon after settled by the submission of Antiochus, and the
conqueror, at his return home, obtained a triumph, and the surname
of Asiaticus. He did not, however, long enjoy his prosperity; Cato,
after the death of Africanus, turned his fury against Asiaticus,
and the two Petilli, his devoted favourites, presented a petition
to the people, in which they prayed that an inquiry might be made
to know what money had been received from Antiochus and his allies.
The petition was instantly received, and Asiaticus, charged to have
suffered himself to be corrupted by Antiochus, was summoned to appear
before the tribunal of Terentius Culeo, who was on this occasion
created pretor. The judge, who was an inveterate enemy to the family
of the Scipios, soon found Asiaticus, with his two lieutenants and
his questor, guilty of having received the first 6000 pounds weight
of gold, and 480 pounds weight of silver, and the others nearly
an equal sum, from the monarch against whom, in the name of the
Roman people, they were enjoined to make war. Immediately they were
condemned to pay large fines; but while the others gave security,
Scipio declared that he had accounted to the public for all the money
which he had brought from Asia, and therefore that he was innocent.
For this obstinacy Scipio was dragged to prison, but his cousin
Nasica pleaded his cause before the people, and the pretor instantly
ordered the goods of the prisoner to be seized and confiscated. The
sentence was executed, but the effects of Scipio were insufficient to
pay the fine, and it was the greatest justification of his innocence,
that whatever was found in his house had never been in the possession
of Antiochus or his subjects. This, however, did not totally liberate
him; he was reduced to poverty, and refused to accept the offer of
his friends and of his clients. Some time after he was appointed
to settle the disputes between Eumenes and Seleucus, and at his
return the Romans, ashamed of their severity towards him, rewarded
his merit with such uncommon liberality, that Asiaticus was enabled
to celebrate games in honour of his victory over Antiochus, for
10 successive days, at his own expense. _Livy_, bk. 38, ch. 55, &c.
――_Eutropius_, bk. 4.――――Nasica, was son of Cneus Scipio, and cousin
to Scipio Africanus. He was refused the consulship, though supported
by the interest and the fame of the conqueror of Annibal; but he
afterwards obtained it, and in that honourable office conquered the
Boii, and gained a triumph. He was also successful in an expedition
which he undertook in Spain. When the statue of Cybele was brought
to Rome from Phrygia, the Roman senate delegated one of their body,
who was the most remarkable for the purity of his manners and the
innocence of his life, to go and meet the goddess in the harbour
of Ostia. Nasica was the object of their choice, and as such he was
enjoined to bring the statue of the goddess to Rome with the greatest
pomp and solemnity. Nasica also distinguished himself by the active
part which he took in confuting the accusations laid against the
two Scipios, Africanus and Asiaticus.――――There was also another of
the same name, who distinguished himself by his enmity against the
Gracchi, to whom he was nearly related. _Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 1,
&c.――_Florus_, bk. 2, ch. 15.――_Livy_, bk. 29, ch. 14, &c.――――Publius
Æmilianus, son of Paulus the conqueror of Perseus, was adopted by
the son of Scipio Africanus. He received the same surname as his
grandfather, and was called _Africanus the younger_, on account of
his victories over Carthage. Æmilianus first appeared in the Roman
armies under his father, and afterwards distinguished himself as
a legionary tribune in the Spanish provinces, where he killed a
Spaniard of gigantic stature, and he obtained a mural crown at the
siege of Intercata. He passed into Africa to demand a reinforcement
from king Masinissa the ally of Rome, and he was the spectator of a
long and bloody battle which was fought between that monarch and the
Carthaginians, and which soon produced the third Punic war. Some time
after Æmilianus was made edile, and next appointed consul, though
under the age required for that important office. The surname which
he had received from his grandfather, he was doomed lawfully to
claim as his own. He was empowered to finish the war with Carthage,
and as he was permitted by the senate to choose his colleague, he
took with him his friend Lælius, whose father of the same name had
formerly enjoyed the confidence and shared the victories of the
first Africanus. The siege of Carthage was already begun, but the
operations of the Romans were not continued with vigour. Scipio
had no sooner appeared before the walls of the enemy, than every
communication with the land was cut off, and that they might not
have the command of the sea, a stupendous mole was thrown across
the harbour with immense labour and expense. This, which might have
disheartened the most active enemy, rendered the Carthaginians more
eager in the cause of freedom and independence; all the inhabitants,
without distinction of rank, age, or sex, employed themselves without
cessation to dig another harbour, and to build and equip another
fleet. In a short time, in spite of the vigilance and activity of
Æmilianus, the Romans were astonished to see another harbour formed,
and 50 galleys suddenly issuing under sail, ready for the engagement.
This unexpected fleet, by immediately attacking the Roman ships,
might have gained the victory, but the delay of the Carthaginians
proved fatal to their cause, and the enemy had sufficient time
to prepare themselves. Scipio soon got the possession of a small
eminence in the harbour, and, by the success of his subsequent
operations, he broke open one of the gates of the city and entered
the streets, where he made his way by fire and sword. The surrender
of above 50,000 men was followed by the reduction of the citadel,
and the total submission of Carthage, B.C. 147. The captive city
was set on fire, and though Scipio was obliged to demolish its very
walls to obey the orders of the Romans, yet he wept bitterly over
the melancholy and tragical scene; and in bewailing the miseries
of Carthage, he expressed his fears lest Rome, in her turn, in some
future age, should exhibit such a dreadful conflagration. The return
of Æmilianus to Rome was that of another conqueror of Annibal, and,
like him, he was honoured with a magnificent triumph, and received
the surname of _Africanus_. He was not long left in the enjoyment
of his glory, before he was called to obtain fresh honours. He was
chosen consul a second time, and appointed to finish the war which
the Romans had hitherto carried on without success or vigorous
exertions against Numantia. The fall of Numantia was more noble
than that of the capital of Africa, and the conqueror of Carthage
obtained the victory only when the enemies had been consumed by
famine or by self-destruction, B.C. 133. From his conquests in Spain,
Æmilianus was honoured with a second triumph, and with the surname
of _Numantinus_. Yet his popularity was short, and, by telling
the people that the murder of their favourite, his brother-in-law
Gracchus, was lawful, since he was turbulent and inimical to the
peace of the republic, Scipio incurred the displeasure of the
tribunes, and was received with hisses. His authority for a moment
quelled their sedition, when he reproached them for their own
cowardice, and exclaimed, “Factious wretches, do you think your
clamours can intimidate me; me, whom the fury of your enemies never
daunted? Is this the gratitude that you owe to my father Paulus who
conquered Macedonia, and to me? Without my family you were slaves. Is
this the respect you owe to your deliverers? Is this your affection?”
This firmness silenced the murmurs of the assembly, and some time
after Scipio retired from the clamours of Rome to Caieta, where,
with his friend Lælius, he passed the rest of his time in innocent
pleasure and amusement, in diversions which had pleased them when
children; and the two greatest men that ruled the state, were often
seen on the sea-shore picking up light pebbles, and throwing them
on the smooth surface of the waters. Though fond of retirement and
literary ease, yet Scipio often interested himself in the affairs of
the state. His enemies accused him of aspiring to the dictatorship,
and the clamours were most loud against him, when he had opposed the
Sempronian law, and declared himself the patron of the inhabitants
of the provinces of Italy. This active part of Scipio was seen with
pleasure by the friends of the republic, and not only the senate,
but also the citizens, the Latins, and neighbouring states conducted
their illustrious friend and patron to his house. It seemed also the
universal wish that the troubles might be quieted by the election
of Scipio to the dictatorship, and many presumed that that honour
would be on the morrow conferred upon him. In this, however, the
expectations of Rome were frustrated. Scipio was found dead in his
bed, to the astonishment of the world; and those who inquired for the
causes of this sudden death, perceived violent marks on his neck, and
concluded that he had been strangled, B.C. 128. This assassination,
as it was then generally believed, was committed by the triumvirs,
Papirius Carbo, Caius Gracchus, and Fulvius Flaccus, who supported
the Sempronian law, and by his wife Sempronia, who is charged with
having introduced the murderers into his room. No inquiries were made
after the authors of his death; Gracchus was the favourite of the
mob, and the only atonement which the populace made for the death of
Scipio was to attend his funeral, and to show their concern by their
cries and loud lamentations. The second Africanus has often been
compared to the first of that name; they seemed to be equally great
and equally meritorious, and the Romans were unable to distinguish
which of the two was entitled to a greater share of their regard and
admiration. Æmilianus, like his grandfather, was fond of literature,
and he saved from the flames of Carthage many valuable compositions,
written by Phœnician and Punic authors. In the midst of his greatness
he died poor, and his nephew Quintus Fabius Maximus, who inherited
his estate, scarce found in his house 32 pounds weight of silver,
and two and a half of gold. His liberality to his brother and to his
sisters deserves the greatest commendations, and, indeed, no higher
encomium can be passed upon his character, private as well as public,
than the words of his rival Metellus, who told his sons, at the death
of Scipio, to go and attend the funeral of the greatest man that
ever lived or should live in Rome. _Livy_, bk. 44, &c.――_Cicero_,
_de Senectute_, _Orator_, _Brutus_, &c.――_Polybius._――_Appian._
――_Paterculus_, bk. 1, ch. 12, &c.――_Florus._――――A son of the first
Africanus, taken captive by Antiochus king of Syria, and restored to
his father without a ransom. He adopted as his son young Æmilianus
the son of Paulus Æmilius, who was afterwards surnamed Africanus.
Like his father Scipio, he distinguished himself by his fondness
for literature, and his valour in the Roman armies.――――Metellus,
the father-in-law of Pompey, appointed commander in Macedonia. He
was present at the battle of Pharsalia, and afterwards retired to
Africa with Cato. He was defeated by Cæsar at Thapsus. _Plutarch._
――――Salutio, a mean person in Cæsar’s army in Africa. The general
appointed him his chief commander, either to ridicule him, or because
there was an ancient oracle that declared that the Scipios would
ever be victorious in Africa. _Plutarch._――――Lucius Cornelius, a
consul who opposed Sylla. He was at last deserted by his army, and
proscribed.――――The commander of a cohort in the reign of Vitellius.
=Scira=, an annual solemnity observed at Athens in honour of Minerva,
or, according to others, of Ceres and Proserpine. It received its
name either from Sciras, a small town of Attica, or from a native of
Eleusis, called Scirus.
=Sciradium=, a promontory of Attica, on the Saronicus sinus.
=Sciras=, a name of Ægina. Minerva was also called Sciras. _Strabo_,
bk. 9.
=Sciressa=, a mountain of Arcadia. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 5.
=Sciron=, a celebrated thief in Attica, who plundered the inhabitants
of the country, and threw them down from the highest rocks into
the sea, after he had obliged them to wait upon him and to wash his
feet. Theseus attacked him, and treated him as he treated travellers.
According to Ovid, the earth as well as the sea refused to receive
the bones of Sciron, which remained for some time suspended in the
air, till they were changed into large rocks called _Scironia Saxa_,
situate between Megara and Corinth. There was a road near them which
bore the name of Sciron, naturally small and narrow, but afterwards
enlarged by the emperor Adrian. Some suppose that Ino threw herself
into the sea, from one of these rocks. Sciron had married the
daughter of Cychreus, a king of Salamis. He was brother-in-law to
Telamon the son of Æacus. _Ovid_, bk. 7, _Metamorphoses_, li. 444;
_Heroides_, poem 2, li. 69.――_Strabo_, bk. 9.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 13.
――_Pliny_, bk. 2, ch. 47.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Hyginus_, fable 38.
――_Propertius_, bk. 3, poem 14, li. 12.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 44.
――_Seneca_, _Quæstiones naturales_, bk. 5, ch. 17.
=Scirus=, a village of Arcadia, of which the inhabitants are called
_Sciritæ_.――――A plain and river of Attica, near Megara. _Pausanias_,
bk. 1, ch. 36.
=Scissis=, a town of Spain. _Livy_, bk. 21, ch. 60.
=Scodra=, a town of Illyricum, where Gentius resided. _Livy_, bk. 43,
ch. 20.
=Scolus=, a mountain of Bœotia.――――A town of Macedonia, near Olynthus.
_Strabo._
=Scombrus=, a mountain of Thrace, near Rhodope.
=Scopas=, an architect and sculptor of Ephesus, for some time employed
in making the mausoleum which Artemisia raised to her husband, and
which was reckoned one of the seven wonders of the world. One of
his statues of Venus was among the antiquities with which Rome was
adorned. Scopas lived about 450 years before Christ. _Pausanias_,
bk. 1, ch. 43, &c.――_Horace_, bk. 4, ode 8.――_Vitruvius_, bk. 9,
ch. 9.――_Pliny_, bk. 34, ch. 8; bk. 36, ch. 5.――――An Ætolian who
raised some forces to assist Ptolemy Epiphanes king of Egypt,
against his enemies Antiochus and his allies. He afterwards conspired
against the Egyptian monarch, and was put to death, B.C. 196.――――An
ambassador to the court of the emperor Domitian.
=Scopium=, a town of Thessaly.
=Scordisci= and =Scordiscæ=, a people of Pannonia and Thrace, well
known during the reign of the Roman emperors for their barbarity and
uncivilized manners. They were fond of drinking human blood, and they
generally sacrificed their captive enemies to their gods. _Livy_,
bk. 41, ch. 19.――_Strabo_, bk. 7.――_Florus_, bk. 3, ch. 4.
=Scoti=, the ancient inhabitants of Scotland, mentioned as different
from the Picts. _Claudian_, _de Tertio Consulatu Honorii_, li. 54.
=Scotīnus=, a surname of Heraclitus. _Strabo_, bk. 15.
=Scotussa=, a town of Thessaly at the north of Larissa and of the
Peneus, destroyed by Alexander of Pheræ. _Livy_, bk. 28, chs. 5 & 7;
bk. 36, ch. 14.――_Strabo_, bks. 7 & 9.――_Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 5.
――――Another in Macedonia. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 10.
=Scribonia=, a daughter of Scribonius, who married Augustus after he
had divorced Claudia. He had by her a daughter, the celebrated Julia.
Scribonia was some time after repudiated, that Augustus might marry
Livia. She had been married twice before she became the wife of the
emperor. _Suetonius_, _Augustus_, ch. 62.――――A woman who married
Crassus.
=Scriboniānus=, a man in the age of Nero. Some of his friends wished
him to be competitor for the imperial purple against Vespasian, which
he declined. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 4, ch. 39.――――There were
also two brothers of that name, who did nothing without each other’s
consent. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 4, ch. 41.
=Scribonius=, a man who made himself master of the kingdom of Bosphorus.
――――A physician in the age of Augustus and Tiberius.――――A man who
wrote annals, A.D. 22. The best edition of Scribonius is that of
Patavium, 4to, 1655.――――A friend of Pompey, &c.
=Scultenna=, a river of Gaul Cispadana, falling into the Po, now called
_Panaro_. _Livy_, bk. 41, chs. 12 & 18.――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 16.
=Scylacēum=, a town of the Brutii, built by Mnestheus at the head of
an Athenian colony. As Virgil has applied the epithet _Navifragum_
to Scylaceum, some suppose that either the poet was mistaken in his
knowledge of the place, because there are no apparent dangers to
navigation there, or that he confounds this place with a promontory
of the same name on the Tuscan sea. Servius explains this passage by
supposing that the houses of the place were originally built with the
shipwrecked vessels of Ulysses’ fleet――a most puerile explanation!
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 553.――_Strabo_, bk. 6.
=Scylax=, a geographer and mathematician of Caria, in the age of Darius
son of Hystaspes, about 550 years before Christ. He was commissioned
by Darius to make discoveries in the east, and after a journey of
30 months he visited Egypt. Some suppose that he was the first who
invented geographical tables. The latest edition of the _Periplus_ of
Scylax, is that of Gronovius, 4to, Leiden, 1597. _Herodotus_, bk. 4,
ch. 44.――_Strabo._――――A river of Cappadocia.
=Scylla=, a daughter of Nisus king of Megara, who became enamoured
of Minos, as that monarch besieged her father’s capital. To make
him sensible of her passion, she informed him that she would deliver
Megara into his hands if he promised to marry her. Minos consented,
and as the prosperity of Megara depended on a golden hair, which was
on the head of Nisus, Scylla cut it off as her father was asleep, and
from that moment the sallies of the Megareans were unsuccessful, and
the enemy easily became master of the place. Scylla was disappointed
in her expectations, and Minos treated her with such contempt and
ridicule, that she threw herself from a tower into the sea, or,
according to other accounts, she was changed into a lark by the
gods, and her father into a hawk. _Ovid_, _Tristia_, bk. 2, li. 393.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 34.――_Propertius_, bk. 3, poem 19, li. 21.
――_Hyginus_, fable 198.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 1, li. 405, &c.
――――A daughter of Typhon, or, as some say, of Phorcys, who was
greatly loved by Glaucus, one of the deities of the sea. Scylla
scorned the addresses of Glaucus, and the god, to render her
more propitious, applied to Circe, whose knowledge of herbs and
incantations was universally admired. Circe no sooner saw him than
she became enamoured of him, and instead of giving him the required
assistance, she attempted to make him forget Scylla, but in vain. To
punish her rival, Circe poured the juice of some poisonous herbs into
the waters of the fountain where Scylla bathed, and no sooner had the
nymph touched the place than she found every part of her body below
the waist changed into frightful monsters like dogs, which never
ceased barking. The rest of her body assumed an equally hideous form.
She found herself supported by 12 feet, and she had six different
heads, each with three rows of teeth. This sudden metamorphosis so
terrified her, that she threw herself into that part of the sea which
separates the coast of Italy and Sicily, where she was changed into
rocks, which continued to bear her name, and which were universally
deemed by the ancients as very dangerous to sailors, as well as
the whirlpool of Charybdis on the coast of Sicily. During a tempest
the waves are described by modern navigators as roaring dreadfully
when driven into the rough and uneven cavities of the rock. _Homer_,
_Odyssey_, bk. 12, li. 85.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 14, li. 66,
&c.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 34.――_Hyginus_, fable 199. Some authors,
as _Propertius_, bk. 4, poem 4, li. 39, and _Virgil_, eclogue 6,
li. 74, with _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 4, li. 500, have confounded the
daughter of Typhon with the daughter of Nisus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 3, li. 424, &c.――――A ship in the fleet of Æneas, commanded by
Cloanthus, &c. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 5, li. 122.
=Scyllæum=, a promontory of Peloponnesus on the coast of Argolis.――――A
promontory of the Brutii in Italy, supposed to be the same as
Scylaceum, near which was the famous whirlpool Scylla, from which the
name is derived.
=Scyllias=, a celebrated swimmer who enriched himself by diving after
the goods which had been shipwrecked in the Persian ships near Pelium.
It is said that he could dive 80 stadia under the water. _Herodotus_,
bk. 8, ch. 8.――_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 19.
=Scyllis= and =Dipœnus=, statuaries of Crete before the age of Cyrus
king of Persia. They were said to be sons and pupils of Dædalus, and
they established a school at Sicyon, where they taught the principles
of their profession. _Pausanias._――_Pliny_, bk. 36, ch. 4.
=Scyllus= (untis), a town of Achaia, given to Xenophon by the
Lacedæmonians. _Strabo._
=Scylūrus=, a monarch who left 80 sons. He called them to his bedside
as he expired, and by enjoining them to break a bundle of sticks tied
together, and afterwards separately, he convinced them that, when
altogether firmly united, their power would be insuperable, but,
if ever disunited, they would fail an easy prey to their enemies.
_Plutarch_, _de Garrulitate_.
=Scyppium=, a town in the neighbourhood of Colophon. _Pausanias_, bk. 7,
ch. 3.
=Scyras=, a river of Laconia. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 25.
=Scyrias=, a name applied to Deidamia as a native of Scyros. _Ovid_,
_Ars Amatoria_, ♦bk. 1, li. 682.
♦ Book number omitted from text.
=Scyros=, a rocky and barren island in the Ægean, at the distance
of about 28 miles north-east from Eubœa, 60 miles in circumference.
It was originally in the possession of the Pelasgians and Carians.
Achilles retired there not to go to the Trojan war, and became father
of Neoptolemus by Deidamia the daughter of king Lycomedes. Scyros was
conquered by the Athenians under Cimon. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 10,
li. 508.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, li. 464; bk. 13, li. 156.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 7.――_Strabo_, bk. 9.
=Scythæ=, the inhabitants of Scythia. _See:_ Scythia.
=Scythes=, or =Scytha=, a son of Jupiter by a daughter of Tellus.
Half his body was that of a man, and the rest that of a serpent. He
became king of a country which he called Scythia. _Diodorus_, bk. 2.
――――A son of Hercules and Echidna.
=Scythia=, a large country situate in the most northern parts of
Europe and Asia, from which circumstance it is generally denominated
European and Asiatic. The most northern parts of Scythia were
uninhabited on account of the extreme coldness of the climate. The
more southern parts in Asia that were inhabited were distinguished
by the name of Scythia _intra et extra Imaum_, &c. The boundaries of
Scythia were unknown to the ancients, as no traveller had penetrated
beyond the vast tracts of land which lay at the north, east, and west.
Scythia comprehended the modern kingdoms of Tartary, Russia in Asia,
Siberia, Muscovy, the Crimea, Poland, part of Hungary, Lithuania,
the northern parts of Germany, Sweden, Norway, &c. The Scythians
were divided into several nations or tribes; they had no cities, but
continually changed their habitations. They inured themselves to bear
labour and fatigue; they despised money, and lived upon milk, and
covered themselves with the skins of their cattle. The virtues seemed
to flourish among them, and that philosophy and moderation which
other nations wished to acquire by study, seemed natural to them.
Some authors, however, represent them as a savage and barbarous
people, who fed upon human flesh, who drank the blood of their
enemies, and used the skulls of travellers as vessels in their
sacrifices to their gods. The Scythians made several irruptions
upon the more southern provinces of Asia, especially B.C. 624, when
they remained in possession of Asia Minor for 28 years, and we find
them at different periods extending their conquests in Europe, and
penetrating as far as Egypt. Their government was monarchical, and
the deference which they paid to their sovereigns was ♦unparalleled.
When the king died, his body was carried through every province,
where it was received in solemn procession, and afterwards buried.
In the first centuries after Christ they invaded the Roman empire
with the Sarmatians. _See:_ Sarmatia. _Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 4, &c.
――_Strabo_, bk. 7.――_Diodorus_, bk. 2.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 5,
ch. 4.――_Justin_, bk. 2, ch. 1, &c.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1,
li. 64; bk. 2, li. 224.
♦ ‘uuparalleled’ replaced with ‘unparalleled’
=Scythīnus=, a Greek poet of Teos in Ionia, who wrote iambics.
_Diogenes Laërtius_, _Heraclides_.――_Athenæus_, bk. 11.
=Scython=, a man changed into a woman. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 4,
li. 280.
=Scythopŏlis=, a town of Syria, said to have been built by Bacchus.
_Strabo_, bk. 16.――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 18.
=Scythotauri=, a people of Chersonesus Taurica. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.
=Sebasta=, a town of Judæa.――――Another in Cilicia.――――The name was
common to several cities, as it was in honour of Augustus.
=Sebastīa=, a city of Armenia.
=Sebennȳtus=, a town of the Delta in Egypt. The branch of the Nile
which flows near it has been called the _Sebennytic_. _Pliny_, bk. 5,
ch. 10.
=Sebētus=, a small river of Campania, falling into the bay of Naples,
whence the epithet _Sebethis_, given to one of the nymphs who
frequented its borders, and became mother of Œbalus by Telon.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 734.
=Sebusiāni=, or =Segusiani=, a people of Celtic Gaul.
=Sectānus=, an infamous debauchee in the age of Horace, bk. 1, satire 4,
li. 112.
=Secundus Julius=, a man who published some harangues and orations in
the age of the emperor Titus.――――A favourite of Nero.――――One of the
associates of Sejanus.
=Seditāni=, or =Sedentāni=, a people of Spain. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 3,
li. 372.
=Sedūni=, an ancient nation of Belgic Gaul. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_,
bk. 3.
=Sedusii=, a people of Germany near the Suevi. _Cæsar._
=Segesta=, a town of Sicily founded by Æneas, or, according to some, by
Crinisus. _See:_ Ægesta.
=Segestes=, a German, friendly to the Roman interest in the time of
Germanicus. His daughter married Arminius. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 1,
ch. 55.
=Segetia=, a divinity at Rome, invoked by the husbandmen that the
harvest might be plentiful. _Augustine_, _City of God_, bk. 4, ch. 8.
――_Macrobius_, bk. 1, ch. 16.――_Pliny_, bk. 18, ch. 2.
=Segni=, a people with a town of the same name in Belgic Gaul. _Cæsar_,
_Gallic War_, bk. 6.
=Segrobrica=, a town of Spain near Saguntum. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 3.
=Segōnax=, a prince in the southern parts of Britain, who opposed Cæsar,
by order of Cassivelaunus, &c. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 5, ch. 22.
=Segontia=, or =Seguntia=, a town of Hispania Tarraconensis. _Livy_,
bk. 34, ch. 10.
=Segontiăci=, a people of Belgic Gaul, who submitted to Julius Cæsar.
=Segovia=, a town of Spain, of great power in the age of the Cæsars.
――――There was also another of the same name in Lusitania. Both had
been founded by the Celtiberi.
=Seguntium=, a town of Britain, supposed to be _Carnarvon_ in Wales.
_Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 5, ch. 21.
=Segusiāni=, a people of Gaul on the Loire. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_,
bk. 1, ch. 10.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 18.
=Segusio=, a town of Piedmont on the Durias. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 17.
=Ælius Sejānus=, a native of Vulsinum in Tuscany, who distinguished
himself in the court of Tiberius. His father’s name was Seuis Strabo,
a Roman knight, commander of the pretorian guards. His mother was
descended from the Junian family. Sejanus first gained the favours
of Caius Cæsar the grandson of Augustus, but afterwards he attached
himself to the interest and the views of Tiberius, who then sat on
the imperial throne. The emperor, who was naturally of a suspicious
temper, was free and open with Sejanus, and while he distrusted
others, he communicated his greatest secrets to this fawning
favourite. Sejanus improved this confidence, and when he had found
that he possessed the esteem of Tiberius, he next endeavoured to
become the favourite of the soldiers and the darling of the senate.
As commander of the pretorian guards he was the second man in Rome,
and in that important office he made use of insinuations and every
mean artifice to make himself beloved and revered. His affability and
condescension gained him the hearts of the common soldiers, and by
appointing his own favourites and adherents to places of trust and
honour, all the officers and centurions of the army became devoted
to his interest. The views of Sejanus in this were well known; yet
to advance with more success, he attempted to gain the affection of
the senators. In this he met with no opposition. A man who has the
disposal of places of honour and dignity, and who has the command
of the public money, cannot but be the favourite of those who are in
need of his assistance. It is even said that Sejanus gained to his
views all the wives of the senators, by a private and most secret
promise of marriage to each of them, whenever he had made himself
independent and sovereign of Rome. Yet however successful with
the best and noblest families in the empire, Sejanus had to combat
numbers in the house of the emperor; but these seeming obstacles were
soon removed. All the children and grandchildren of Tiberius were
sacrificed to the ambition of the favourite under various pretences;
and Drusus the son of the emperor, by striking Sejanus, made his
destruction sure and inevitable. Livia the wife of Drusus was gained
by Sejanus, and though the mother of many children, she was prevailed
upon to assist her adulterer in the murder of her husband, and she
consented to marry him when Drusus was dead. No sooner was Drusus
poisoned than Sejanus openly declared his wish to marry Livia. This
was strongly opposed by Tiberius; and the emperor, by recommending
Germanicus to the senators for his successor, rendered Sejanus bold
and determined. He was more urgent in his demands; and when he could
not gain the consent of the emperor, he persuaded him to retire to
solitude from the noise of Rome and the troubles of the government.
Tiberius, naturally fond of ease and luxury, yielded to his
representations, and retired to Campania, leaving Sejanus at the head
of the empire. This was highly gratifying to the favourite, and he
was now without a master. Prudence and moderation might have made him
what he wished to be; but Sejanus offended the whole empire when he
declared that he was emperor of Rome, and Tiberius only the dependent
prince of the island of Capreæ, where he had retired. Tiberius was
upon this fully convinced of the designs of Sejanus; and when he had
been informed that his favourite had had the meanness and audacity
to ridicule him by introducing him on the stage, the emperor ordered
him to be accused before the senate. Sejanus was deserted by all his
pretended friends, as soon as by fortune; and the man who aspired
to the empire, and who called himself the favourite of the people,
the darling of the pretorian guards, and the companion of Tiberius,
was seized without resistance, and the same day strangled in prison,
A.D. 31. His remains were exposed to the fury and insolence of the
populace, and afterwards thrown into the Tiber. His children and
all his relations were involved in his ruin, and Tiberius sacrificed
to his resentment and suspicions all those who were even connected
with Sejanus, or had shared his favours and enjoyed his confidence.
_Tacitus_, bk. 3, _Annals_, &c.――_Dio Cassius_, bk. 58.――_Suetonius_,
_Tiberias_.
=Cnæus Seius=, a Roman who had a famous horse of large size and
uncommon beauty. He was put to death by Antony, and it was observed,
that whoever obtained possession of his horse, which was supposed to
be of the same race as the horses of Diomedes destroyed by Hercules,
and which was called _Sejanus equus_, became unfortunate, and lost
all his property, with every member of his family. Hence arose the
proverb, _ille homo habet Sejanum equum_, applied to such as were
oppressed with misfortunes. _Aulus Gellius_, bk. 3, ch. 9.
=Seius Strabo=, the father of Sejanus, was a Roman knight, and
commander of the pretorian guards.
=Selasia.= _See:_ Sellasia.
=Selemnus=, a river of Achaia. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 23. _See:_
Selimnus.
=Selēne=, the wife of Antiochus king of Syria, put to death by Tigranes
king of Armenia. She was daughter of Physcon king of Egypt, and had
first married her brother Lathurus, according to the custom of her
country, and afterwards, by desire of her mother, her other brother
Gryphus. At the death of Gryphus she had married Antiochus, surnamed
Eusebes, the son of Antiochus Cyzicenus, by whom she had two sons.
According to Appian, she first married the father, and after his
death, his son Eusebes. _Appian_, _Syrian Wars_, &c.
=Seleucēna=, or =Seleucis=, a country of Syria, in Asia. _See:_
Seleucis.
=Seleucīa=, a town of Syria, on the sea-shore, generally called
_Pieria_, to distinguish it from others of the same name. There were
no less than eight other cities which were called Seleucia, and which
had all received their name from Seleucus Nicator. They were all
situate in the kingdom of Syria, in Cilicia, and near the Euphrates.
_Florus_, bk. 3, ch. 11.――_Plutarch_, _Demosthenes_.――_Mela_, bk. 1,
ch. 12.――_Strabo_, bks. 11 & 15.――_Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 26.――――Also
the residence of the Parthian kings. _Cicero_, bk. 8, _Letters to his
Friends_, ltr. 14.
=Seleucĭdæ=, a surname given to those monarchs who sat on the throne of
Syria, which was founded by Seleucus the son of Antiochus, from whom
the word is derived. The era of the Seleucidæ begins with the taking
of Babylon by Seleucus, B.C. 312, and ends at the conquest of Syria
by Pompey, B.C. 65. The order in which these monarchs reigned is
shown in the account of Syria. _See:_ Syria.
=Seleucis=, a division of Syria, which received its name from Seleucus,
the founder of the Syrian empire after the death of Alexander the
Great. It was also called _Tetrapolis_, from the four cities which it
contained, called also sister cities; Seleucia called after Seleucus,
Antioch called after his father, Laodicea after his mother, and
Apamea after his wife. _Strabo_, bk. 16.
=Seleucus I.=, one of the captains of Alexander the Great, surnamed
_Nicator_, or _Victorious_, was son of Antiochus. After the king’s
death, he received Babylon as his province; but his ambitious
views, and his attempt to destroy Eumenes as he passed through his
territories, rendered him so unpopular, that he fled for safety to
the court of his friend Ptolemy king of Egypt. He was soon after
enabled to recover Babylon, which Antigonus had seized in his absence,
and he increased his dominions by the immediate conquest of Media,
and some of the neighbouring provinces. When he had strengthened
himself in his empire, Seleucus imitated the example of the rest
of the generals of Alexander, and assumed the title of independent
monarch. He afterwards made war against Antigonus, with the united
forces of Ptolemy, Cassander, and Lysimachus; and after this monarch
had been conquered and slain, his territories were divided among his
victorious enemies. When Seleucus became master of Syria, he built a
city there, which he called Antioch in honour of his father, and made
it the capital of his dominions. He also made war against Demetrius
and Lysimachus, though he had originally married Stratonice the
daughter of the former, and had lived in the closest friendship with
the latter. Seleucus was at last murdered by one of his servants
called Ptolemy Ceraunus, a man on whom he bestowed the greatest
favours, and whom he had distinguished by acts of the most unbounded
confidence. According to Arrian, Seleucus was the greatest and most
powerful of the princes who inherited the Macedonian empire after the
death of Alexander. His benevolence has been commended; and it has
been observed, that he conquered not to enslave nations, but to make
them more happy. He founded no less than 34 cities in different parts
of his empire, which he peopled with Greek colonies, whose national
industry, learning, religion, and spirit, were communicated to
the indolent and luxurious inhabitants of Asia. Seleucus was a
great benefactor to the Greeks; he restored to the Athenians the
library and statues which Xerxes had carried away from their city
when he invaded Greece, and among them were those of Harmodius and
Aristogiton. Seleucus was murdered 280 years before the christian era,
in the 32nd year of his reign, and the 78th, or, according to others,
the 73rd year of his age, as he was going to conquer Macedonia,
where he intended to finish his days in peace and tranquillity in
that province where he was born. He was succeeded by Antiochus Soter.
_Justin_, bk. 13, ch. 4; bk. 15, ch. 4; bk. 16, ch. 3, &c.
――_Plutarch_, _Demosthenes_.――_Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 17.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 8, ch. 51.――_Josephus_, _Antiquities_, bk. 12.
=Seleucus II.=, surnamed _Callinicus_, succeeded his father Antiochus
Theus on the throne of Syria. He attempted to make war against
Ptolemy king of Egypt, but his fleet was shipwrecked in a violent
storm, and his armies soon after conquered by his enemy. He was at
last taken prisoner by Arsaces, an officer who made himself powerful
by the dissensions which reigned in the house of the Seleucidæ,
between the two brothers Seleucus and Antiochus; and after he had
been a prisoner for some time in Parthia, he died of a fall from his
horse, B.C. 226, after a reign of 20 years. Seleucus had received the
surname of _Pogon_, from his long beard, and that of _Callinicus_,
ironically to express his very unfortunate reign. He had married
Laodice the sister of one of his generals, by whom he had two sons,
Seleucus and Antiochus, and a daughter whom he gave in marriage to
Mithridates king of Pontus. _Strabo_, bk. 16.――_Justin_, bk. 27.
――_Appian_, _Syrian Wars_.
=Seleucus III.=, succeeded his father Seleucus II. on the throne of
Syria, and received the surname of _Ceraunus_, by antiphrasis, as he
was a very weak, timid, and irresolute monarch. He was murdered by
two of his officers, after a reign of three years, B.C. 223, and his
brother Antiochus, though only 15 years old, ascended the throne, and
rendered himself so celebrated that he acquired the name of the Great.
_Appian._
=Seleucus IV.=, succeeded his father Antiochus the Great on the throne
of Syria. He was surnamed _Philopater_, or, according to Josephus,
_Soter_. His empire had been weakened by the Romans when he became
monarch, and the yearly tribute of 1000 talents to those victorious
enemies concurred in lessening his power and consequence among
nations. Seleucus was poisoned after a reign of 12 years, B.C. 175.
His son Demetrius had been sent to Rome, there to receive his
education, and he became a prince of great abilities. _Strabo_,
bk. 16.――_Justin_, bk. 32.――_Appian._
=Seleucus V.=, succeeded his father Demetrius Nicator on the throne of
Syria, in the 20th year of his age. He was put to death in the first
year of his reign by Cleopatra his mother, who had also sacrificed
her husband to her ambition. He is not reckoned by many historians in
the number of the Syrian monarchs.
=Seleucus VI.=, one of the Seleucidæ, son of Antiochus Gryphus, killed
his uncle Antiochus Cyzicenus, who wished to obtain the crown of
Syria. He was some time after banished from his kingdom by Antiochus
Pius son of Cyzicenus, and fled to Cilicia, where he was burnt in a
palace by the inhabitants, B.C. 93. _Appian._――_Josephus._
=Seleucus=, a prince of Syria, to whom the Egyptians offered the crown
of which they had robbed Auletes. Seleucus accepted it, but he soon
disgusted his subjects, and received the surname of _Cybiosactes_,
or _Scullion_, for his meanness and avarice. He was at last murdered
by Berenice, whom he had married.――――A servant of Cleopatra the
last queen of Egypt, who accused his mistress, before Octavianus, of
having secreted part of her jewels and treasures.――――A mathematician
intimate with Vespasian the Roman emperor.――――A part of the Alps.
――――A Roman consul.――――A celebrated singer. _Juvenal_, satire 10,
li. 211.――――A king of the Bosphorus, who died B.C. 429.
=Selge=, a town of Pamphylia, made a colony by the Lacedæmonians.
_Livy_, bk. 36, ch. 13.――_Strabo._
=Selimnus=, a shepherd of Achaia, who for some time enjoyed the
favours of the nymph Argyra without interruption. Argyra was at last
disgusted with her lover, and the shepherd died through melancholy,
and was changed into a river of the same name. Argyra was also
changed into a river of the same name. Argyra was also changed into
a fountain, and was fond of mingling her waters with those of the
Selimnus. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 23.
=Selīnuns=, or =Selīnus= (untis), a town on the southern parts of
Sicily, founded A.U.C. 127, by a colony from Megara. It received
its name from σελινον, _parsley_, which grew there in abundance. The
marks of its ancient consequence are visible in the venerable ruins
now found in its neighbourhood. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 705.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 19.――――A river of Elis in Peloponnesus,
which watered the town of Scillus. _Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 6.
――――Another in Achaia.――――Another in Sicily.――――A river and town of
Cilicia, where Trajan died. _Livy_, bk. 33, ch. 20.――_Strabo_, bk. 14.
――――Two small rivers near Diana’s temple at Ephesus. _Pliny_, bk. 5,
ch. 29.――――A lake at the entrance of the Cayster. _Strabo_, bk. 14.
=Sellasia=, a town of Laconia, where Cleomenes was defeated by the
Achæans, B.C. 222. Scarce 200 of a body of 5000 Lacedæmonians
survived the battle. _Plutarch._
=Sellēis=, a river of Peloponnesus falling into the Ionian sea. _Homer_,
_Iliad_.
=Selletæ=, a people of Thrace near mount Hæmus. _Livy_, bk. 38, ch. 40.
=Selli=, an ancient nation of Epirus near Dodona. _Lucan_, bk. 3,
li. 180.――_Strabo_, bk. 7.
=Selymbria=, a town of Thrace on the Propontis. _Livy_, bk. 39, ch. 39.
=Sĕmĕle=, a daughter of Cadmus by Hermione the daughter of Mars and
Venus. She was tenderly beloved by Jupiter; but Juno, who was always
jealous of her husband’s amours, and who hated the house of Cadmus
because they were related to the goddess of beauty, determined to
punish this successful rival. She borrowed the girdle of Ate, which
contained every wickedness, deceit, and perfidy, and in the form of
Beroe, Semele’s nurse, she visited the house of Jupiter’s mistress.
Semele listened with attention to the artful admonitions of the false
Beroe, and was at last persuaded to entreat her lover to come to her
arms with the same majesty as he approached Juno. This rash request
was heard with horror by Jupiter; but as he had sworn by the Styx
to grant Semele whatever she required, he came to her bed attended
by the clouds, the lightning, and thunderbolts. The mortal nature
of Semele could not endure so much majesty, and she was instantly
consumed with fire. The child, however, of which she was pregnant,
was saved from the flames by Mercury, or, according to others, by
Dirce, one of the nymphs of the Achelous, and Jupiter placed him in
his thigh the rest of the time which he ought to have been in his
mother’s womb. This child was called Bacchus, or Dionysius. Semele
immediately after death was honoured with immortality under the name
of Thyone. Some, however, suppose that she remained in the infernal
regions till Bacchus her son was permitted to bring her back. There
were in the temple of Diana, at Trœzene, two altars raised to the
infernal gods, one of which was over an aperture, through which, as
Pausanias reports, Bacchus returned from hell with his mother. Semele
was particularly worshipped at Brasiæ in Laconia, where, according to
a certain tradition, she had been driven by the winds with her son,
after Cadmus had exposed her on the sea on account of her incontinent
amour with Jupiter. The mother of Bacchus, though she received
divine honours, had no temples; she had a statue in a temple of
Ceres, at Thebes, in Bœotia. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 24; bk. 9,
ch. 5.――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 14, li. 323.
――_Orpheus_, _Hymns_.――_Euripides_, _Bacchæ_.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3,
ch. 4.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 3, li. 254; _Fasti_, bk. 3,
li. 715.――_Diodorus_, bks. 3 & 4.
=Semigermāni=, a name given to the Helvetii, a people of Germany.
_Livy_, bk. 21, ch. 38.
=Semiguntus=, a general of the Cherusci, taken prisoner by Germanicus,
&c. _Strabo_, bk. 7.
=Sĕmīrămis=, a celebrated queen of Assyria, daughter of the goddess
Derceto by a young Assyrian. She was exposed in a desert, but her
life was preserved by doves for one whole year, till Simmas, one
of the shepherds of Ninus, found her, and brought her up as his own
child. Semiramis, when grown up, married Menones the governor of
Nineveh, and accompanied him to the siege of Bactra, where, by her
advice and prudent directions, she hastened the king’s operations
and took the city. These eminent services, but chiefly her uncommon
beauty, endeared her to Ninus. The monarch asked her of her husband,
and offered him instead, his daughter Sosana; but Menones, who
tenderly loved Semiramis, refused, and when Ninus had added threats
to entreaties, he hung himself. No sooner was Menones dead than
Semiramis, who was of an aspiring soul, married Ninus, by whom she
had a son called Ninyas. Ninus was so fond of Semiramis, that at
her request he resigned the crown to her, and commanded her to be
proclaimed queen and sole empress of Assyria. Of this, however,
he had cause to repent; Semiramis put him to death, the better to
establish herself on the throne, and when she had no enemies to fear
at home, she began to repair the capital of her empire, and by her
means Babylon became the most superb and magnificent city in the
world. She visited every part of her dominions, and left everywhere
immortal monuments of her greatness and benevolence. To render the
roads passable and communication easy, she hollowed mountains and
filled up valleys; and water was conveyed at a great expense, by
large and convenient aqueducts, to barren deserts and unfruitful
plains. She was not less distinguished as a warrior. Many of the
neighbouring nations were conquered; and when Semiramis was once told,
as she was dressing her hair, that Babylon had revolted, she left
her toilette with precipitation, and though only half dressed, she
refused to have the rest of her head adorned before the sedition was
quelled and tranquillity re-established. Semiramis has been accused
of licentiousness, and some authors have observed that she regularly
called the strongest and stoutest men in her army to her arms, and
afterwards put them to death, that they might not be living witnesses
of her incontinence. Her passion for her son was also unnatural, and
it was this criminal propensity which induced Ninyas to destroy his
mother with his own hands. Some say that Semiramis was changed into
a dove after death, and received immortal honours in Assyria. It is
supposed that she lived about 1965 years before the christian era,
and that she died in the 62nd year of her age, and the 25th of her
reign. Many fabulous reports have been propagated about Semiramis,
and some have declared that for some time she disguised herself
and passed for her son Ninyas. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 9, ch. 3.
――_Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 184.――_Diodorus_, bk. 2.――_Mela_, bk. 1,
ch. 3.――_Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Paterculus_, bk. 1, ch. 6.――_Justin_,
bk. 1, ch. 1, &c.――_Propertius_, bk. 3, poem 11, li. 21.――_Plutarch_,
_de Alexandri magni fortuna aut virtute_, &c.――_Ovid_, _Amores_,
bk. 1, poem 5, li. 11; _Metamorphoses_, bk. 4, li. 58.――_Marcellinus_,
bk. 14, ch. 6.
=Semnŏnes=, a people of Italy, on the borders of Umbria.――――Of Germany,
on the Elbe and Oder.
=Semōnes=, inferior deities of Rome, that were not in the number of
the 12 great gods. Among these were Faunus, the Satyrs, Priapus,
Vertumnus, Janus, Pan, Silenus, and all such illustrious heroes as
had received divine honours after death. The word seems to be the
same as _semi homines_, because they were inferior to the supreme
gods and superior to men. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 6, li. 213.
=Semosanctus=, one of the gods of the Romans among the _Indigetes_, or
such as were born and educated in their country.
=Sempronia=, a Roman matron, mother of the two Gracchi, celebrated
for her learning, and her private as well as public virtues.――――Also
a sister of the Gracchi, who is accused of having assisted the
triumvirs Carbo, Gracchus, and Flaccus to murder her husband Scipio
Africanus the younger. The name of Sempronia was common to the female
descendants of the family of the Sempronii, Gracchi, and Scipios.
=Semprōnia lex=, _de magistratibus_, by Caius Sempronius Gracchus the
tribune, A.U.C. 630, ordained that no person who had been legally
deprived of a magistracy for misdemeanours should be capable of
bearing an office again. This law was afterwards repealed by the
author.――――Another, _de civitate_, by the same, A.U.C. 630. It
ordained that no capital judgment should be passed over a Roman
citizen without the concurrence and authority of the senate. There
were also some other regulations, included in this law.――――Another,
_de comitiis_, by the same, A.U.C. 635. It ordained that, in giving
their votes, the centuries should be chosen by lot, and not give it
according to the order of their classes.――――Another, _de comitiis_,
by the same, the same year, which granted to the Latin allies of Rome
the privilege of giving votes at elections, as if they were Roman
citizens.――――Another, _de provinciis_, by the same, A.U.C. 630. It
enacted that the senators should be permitted before the assembly of
the consular _comitia_, to determine as they pleased the particular
provinces which should be proposed to the consuls, to be divided
by lot, and that the tribunes should be deprived of the power of
interposing against a decree of the senate.――――Another, called
_agraria prima_, by Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus the tribune, A.U.C.
620. It confirmed the _lex agraria Licinia_, and enacted that all
such as were in possession of more lands than that law allowed,
should immediately resign them, to be divided among the poor citizens.
Three commissioners were appointed to put this law into execution;
and its consequences were so violent, as it was directly made against
the nobles and senators, that it cost the author his life.――――Another,
called _agraria altera_, by the same. It required that all the ready
money which was found in the treasury of Attalus king of Pergamus,
who had left the Romans his heirs, should be divided among the poorer
citizens of Rome, to supply them with all the various instruments
requisite in husbandry, and that the lands of that monarch should be
farmed by the Roman censors, and the money drawn from thence should
be divided among the people.――――Another, _frumentaria_, by Caius
Sempronius Gracchus. It required that a certain quantity of corn
should be distributed among the people, so much to every individual,
for which it was required that they should only pay the trifling sum
of a _semissis_, and a _triens_.――――Another, _de usurâ_, by Marcus
Sempronius the tribune, A.U.C. 560. It ordained that, in lending
money to the Latins and the allies of Rome, the Roman laws should be
observed as well as among the citizens.――――Another, _de judicibus_,
by the tribune Caius Sempronius, A.U.C. 630. It required that the
right of judging, which had been assigned to the Senatorian order
by Romulus, should be transferred from them to the Roman knights.
――――Another, _militaris_, by the same, A.U.C. 630. It enacted that
the soldiers should be clothed at the public expense, without any
diminution of their usual pay. It also ordered that no person should
be obliged to serve in the army before the age of 17.
=Semprōnius Aulus Atratinus=, a senator who opposed the Agrarian law,
which was proposed by the consul Cassius, soon after the election of
the tribunes.――――Lucius Atratinus, a consul A.U.C. 310. He was one
of the first censors with his colleague in the consulship, Papirius.
――――Caius, a consul summoned before an assembly of the people because
he had fought with ill success against the Volsci.――――Blæsus, a
consul who obtained a triumph for some victories gained in Sicily.
――――Sophus, a consul against the Æqui. He also fought against the
Picentes, and during the engagement there was a dreadful earthquake.
The soldiers were terrified, but Sophus encouraged them, and observed
that the earth trembled only for fear of changing its old masters.
――――A man who proposed a law that no person should dedicate a temple
or altar, without the previous approbation of the magistrates, A.U.C.
449. He repudiated his wife because she had gone to see a spectacle
without his permission or knowledge.――――Rufus, a senator, banished
from the senate, because he had killed a crane to serve him as
food.――――Tuditanus, a man sent against Sardinia by the Romans.――――A
legionary tribune, who led away from Cannæ the remaining part of
the soldiers who had not been killed by the Carthaginians. He was
afterwards consul, and fought in the field against Annibal with
great success. He was killed in Spain.――――Tiberius Longus, a Roman
consul defeated by the Carthaginians in an engagement which he had
begun against the approbation of his colleague Cornelius Scipio. He
afterwards obtained victories over Hanno and the Gauls.――――Tiberius
Gracchus, a consul who defeated the Carthaginians and the Campanians.
He was afterwards betrayed by Fulvius, a Lucanian, into the hands
of the Carthaginians, and was killed, after he had made a long and
bloody resistance against the enemy. Annibal showed great honour to
his remains; a funeral pile was raised at the head of the camp, and
the enemy’s cavalry walked round it in solemn procession.――――Gracchus,
a man who had debauched Julia. _See:_ Gracchus.――――A eunuch, made
governor of Rome by Caracalla.――――Densus, a centurion of a pretorian
cohort who defended the person of Galba against his assassins. He was
killed in the attempt.――――The father of the Gracchi. _See:_ Gracchus.
――――A censor, who was also sent as ambassador to the court of Egypt.
――――A tribune of the people, &c. _Tacitus._――_Florus._――_Livy._
――_Plutarch_, _Cæsar_.――_Appian._――――An emperor. _See:_ Saturninus.
=Semurium=, a place near Rome, where Apollo had a temple. _Cicero_,
_Philippics_, bk. 6, ch. 6.
=Sena=, or =Senogallia=, a town of Umbria in Italy, on the Adriatic,
built by the Senones, after they had made an irruption into Italy,
A.U.C. 396; and on that account called Gallica. There was also a
small river in the neighbourhood which bore the name of _Sena_. It
was near it that Asdrubal was defeated by Claudius Nero. _Cornelius
Nepos_, _Cato._――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 454.――_Livy_, bk. 27,
ch. 46.――_Cicero_, _Brutus_, ch. 18.
=Sĕnātus=, the chief council of the state among the Romans. The
members of this body, called _senatores_ on account of their _age_,
and _patres_ on account of their _authority_, were of the greatest
consequence in the republic. The senate was first instituted by
Romulus to govern the city, and to preside over the affairs of the
state during his absence. This was continued by his successors; but
Tarquin II. disdained to consult them, and by having his own council
chosen from his favourites, and from men who were totally devoted to
his interest, he diminished the authority and the consequence of the
senators, and slighted the concurrence of the people. The senators
whom Romulus created were 100, to whom he afterwards added the same
number when the Sabines had migrated to Rome. Tarquin the ancient
made the senate consist of 300, and this number remained fixed for
a long time. After the expulsion of the last Tarquin, whose tyranny
had thinned the patricians as well as the plebeians, 164 new senators
were chosen to complete the 300; and as they were called _conscripts_,
the senate ever afterwards consisted of members who were denominated
_patres_ and _conscripti_. The number continued to fluctuate during
the times of the republic, but gradually increased to 700, and
afterwards to 900 under Julius Cæsar, who filled the senate with men
of every rank and order. Under Augustus, the senators amounted to
1000, but this number was reduced to 300, which being the cause of
complaints, induced the emperor to limit the number to 600. The place
of a senator was always bestowed upon merit; the monarchs had the
privilege of choosing the members, and after the expulsion of the
Tarquins, it was one of the rights of the consuls, till the election
of the censors, who from their office seemed most capable of making
choice of men whose character was irreproachable, whose morals were
pure, and relations honourable. Sometimes the assembly of the people
elected senators, but it was only upon some extraordinary occasions;
there was also a dictator chosen to fill up the number of the senate
after the battle of Cannæ. Only particular families were admitted
into the senate; and when the plebeians were permitted to share the
honours of the state, it was then required that they should be born
of free citizens. It was also required that the candidates should be
knights before their admission into the senate. They were to be above
the age of 25, and to have previously passed through the inferior
offices of questor, tribune of the people, edile, pretor, and consul.
Some, however, suppose that the senators whom Romulus chose were all
old men; yet his successors neglected this, and often men who were
below the age of 25 were admitted by courtesy into the senate. The
dignity of a senator could not be supported without the possession of
80,000 sesterces, or about 7000_l._ English money; and therefore such
as squandered away their money, and whose fortune was reduced below
this sum, were generally struck out of the list of senators. This
regulation was not made in the first ages of the republic, when the
Romans boasted of their poverty. The senators were not permitted to
be of any trade or profession. They were distinguished from the rest
of the people by their dress; they wore the laticlave, half boots
of a black colour, with a crescent or silver buckle in the form of
a C; but this last honour was confined only to the descendants of
those 100 senators who had been elected by Romulus, as the letter C
seems to imply. They had the sole right of feasting publicly in the
capitol in ceremonial habits; they sat in curule chairs, and at the
representation of plays and public spectacles, they were honoured
with particular seats. Whenever they travelled abroad, even on their
own business, they were maintained at the public expense, and always
found provisions for themselves and their attendants ready prepared
on the road; a privilege that was generally termed _free legation_.
On public festivals they wore the _prætexta_, or long white robe,
with purple borders. The right of convoking the senate belonged
only to the monarchs; and after the expulsion of the Tarquins, to
the consuls, the dictator, master of the horse, governor of Rome,
and tribunes of the people; but no magistrate could exercise this
privilege except in the absence of a superior officer, the tribunes
excepted. The time of meeting was generally three times a month, on
the calends, nones, and ides. Under Augustus they were not assembled
on the nones. It was requisite that the place where they assembled
should have been previously consecrated by the augur. This was
generally in the temple of Concord, of Jupiter Capitolinus, Apollo,
Castor and Pollux, &c., or in the Curiæ called Hostilia, Julia,
Pompeia, &c. When audience was given to foreign ambassadors, the
senators assembled without the walls of the city, either in the
temples of Bellona or of Apollo; and the same ceremony as to their
meeting was also observed when they transacted business with their
generals, as the ambassadors of foreign nations, and the commanders
of armies, while in commission, were not permitted to appear within
the walls of the city. To render their decrees valid and authentic,
a certain number of members was requisite, and such as were absent
without some proper cause, were always fined. In the reign of
Augustus, 400 senators were requisite to make a senate. Nothing
was transacted before sunrise, or after sunset. In their office
the senators were the guardians of religion; they disposed of the
provinces as they pleased, they prorogued the assemblies of the
people, they appointed thanksgivings, nominated their ambassadors,
distributed the public money, and, in short, had the management of
everything political or civil in the republic, except the creating
of the magistrates, the enacting of laws, and the declarations of
war or peace, which were confined to the assemblies of the people.
Rank was always regarded in their meetings; the chief magistrates of
the state, such as the consuls, the pretors, and censors, sat first;
after these the inferior magistrates, such as the ediles and questors,
and last of all, those that then exercised no office in the state.
Their opinions were originally collected, each according to his age;
but when the office of censor was instituted, the opinion of the
_princeps senatus_, or the person whose name stood first on the
censor’s list, was first consulted, and afterwards those who were
of consular dignity, each in their respective order. In the age of
Cicero the consuls elect were first consulted; and in the age of
Cæsar, he was permitted to speak first till the end of the year,
on whom the consul had originally conferred that honour. Under the
emperors the same rules were observed, but the consuls were generally
consulted before all others. When any public matter was introduced
into the senate, which was always called _referre ad senatum_, any
senator whose opinion was asked, was permitted to speak upon it as
long as he pleased; and on that account it was often usual for the
senators to protract their speeches till it was too late to determine.
When the question was put, they passed to the side of that speaker
whose opinion they approved, and a majority of votes was easily
collected, without the trouble of counting the numbers. This mode
of proceeding was called _pedibus in alicujus sententiam ire_; and
therefore, on that account, the senators who had not the privilege
of speaking, but only the right of giving a silent vote, such as bore
some curule honours, and on that account were permitted to sit in the
senate, but not to deliberate, were denominated _pedarii senatores_.
After the majority had been known, the matter was determined, and
a _senatus consultum_ was immediately written by the clerks of the
house, at the feet of the chief magistrates, and it was signed by all
the principal members of the house. When there was not a sufficient
number of members to make a senate, the decision was called _senatus
autoritas_; but it was of no consequence if it did not afterwards
pass into a _senatus consultum_. The tribunes of the people, by the
word _veto_, could stop the debates, and the decrees of the assembled
senate, as also any one who was of equal authority with him who had
proposed the matter. The _senatus consulta_ were left in the custody
of the consuls, who could suppress or preserve them; but about the
year of Rome 304, they were always deposited in the temple of Ceres,
and afterwards in the treasury, by the ediles of the people. The
degradation of the senators was made by the censor, by omitting their
names when he called over the list of the senate. This was called
_præterire_. A senator could be again introduced into the senate
if he could repair his character or fortune, which had been the
causes why the censor had lawfully called him unqualified, and had
challenged his opposition. The meeting of the senate was often sudden,
except the particular times already mentioned, upon any emergency.
After the death of Julius Cæsar, they were not permitted to meet on
the ides of March, which were called _parricidium_, because on that
day the dictator had been assassinated. The sons of senators, after
they had put on the _toga virilis_, were permitted to come into
the senate, but this was afterwards limited. _See:_ Papirius. The
rank and authority of the senators, which were so conspicuous in the
first ages of the republic, and which caused the minister of Pyrrhus
to declare that the Roman senate was a venerable assembly of kings,
dwindled into nothing under the emperors. Men of the lowest character
were admitted into the senate; the emperors took pleasure in robbing
this illustrious body of their privileges and authority, and the
senators themselves, by their manners and servility, contributed
as much as the tyranny of the sovereign to diminish their own
consequence; and by applauding the follies of a Nero, and the
cruelties of a Domitian, they convinced the world that they no
longer possessed sufficient prudence or authority to be consulted on
matters of weight and importance. In the election of successors to
the imperial purple after Augustus, the approbation of the senate was
consulted, but it was only a matter of courtesy, and the concurrence
of a body of men was little regarded who were without power, and
under the control of a mercenary army. The title of _Clarissimus_ was
given to the senators under the emperors, and, indeed, this was the
only distinction which they had in compensation for the loss of their
independence. The senate was abolished by Justinian, 13 centuries
after its first institution by Romulus.
=Senĕca Marcus Annæus=, a native of Corduba in Spain, who married
Helvia, a woman of Spain, by whom he had three sons, Seneca the
philosopher, Annæus Novatus, and Annæus Mela, the father of the
poet Lucan. Seneca made himself known by some declamations, of which
he made a collection from the most celebrated orators of the age;
and from that circumstance, and for distinction, he obtained the
appellation of _declamator_. He left Corduba, and went to Rome,
where he became a Roman knight. His son Lucius Annæus Seneca, who
was born about six years before Christ, was early distinguished by
his extraordinary talents. He was taught eloquence by his father,
and received lessons in philosophy from the best and most celebrated
stoics of the age. As one of the followers of the Pythagorean
doctrines, Seneca observed the most reserved abstinence, and in his
meals never ate the flesh of animals; but this he abandoned at the
representation of his father, when Tiberius threatened to punish
some Jews and Egyptians, who abstained from certain meats. In the
character of a pleader, Seneca appeared with great advantage, but the
fear of Caligula, who aspired to the name of an eloquent speaker, and
who consequently was jealous of his fame, deterred him from pursuing
his favourite study, and he sought a safer employment in canvassing
for the honours and offices of the state. He was made questor, but
the aspersions which were thrown upon him on account of a shameful
amour with Julia Livilla, removed him from Rome, and the emperor
banished him for some time into Corsica. During his banishment, the
philosopher wrote some spirited epistles to his mother, remarkable
for elegance of language and for sublimity; but he soon forgot his
philosophy and disgraced himself by his flatteries to the emperor,
and in wishing to be recalled, even at the expense of his innocence
and character. The disgrace of Messalina at Rome, and the marriage
of Agrippina with Claudius, proved favourable to Seneca; and after
he had remained five years in Corsica, he was recalled by the empress
to take care of the education of her son Nero, who was destined to
succeed to the empire. In the honourable duty of preceptor, Seneca
gained applause; and as long as Nero followed his advice, Rome
enjoyed tranquillity, and believed herself safe and happy under
the administration of the son of Agrippina. Some, however, are
clamorous against the philosopher, and observe that Seneca initiated
his pupil in those unnatural vices and abominable indulgences which
disgraced him as a monarch and as a man. This may be the language of
malevolence, or the insinuation of jealousy. In the corrupted age of
Nero, the preceptor had to withstand the clamours of many wicked and
profligate ministers; and if he had been the favourite of the emperor,
and shared his pleasures, his debauchery and extravagance, Nero would
not perhaps have been so anxious of destroying a man whose example,
from vicious inclinations, he could not follow, and whose salutary
precepts his licentious associates forbade him to obey. Seneca was
too well acquainted with the natural disposition of Nero to think
himself secure; he had been accused of having amassed the most ample
riches, and of having built sumptuous houses, and adorned beautiful
gardens, during the four years in which he had attended Nero as a
preceptor, and therefore he desired his imperial pupil to accept of
the riches, and the possessions which his attendance on his person
had procured, and to permit him to retire to solitude and study.
Nero refused with artful duplicity, and Seneca, to avoid further
suspicions, kept himself at home for some time as if labouring
under a disease. In the conspiracy of Piso, which happened some time
after, and in which some of the most noble of the Roman senators
were concerned, Seneca’s name was mentioned by Natalis, and Nero,
who was glad of an opportunity of sacrificing him to his secret
jealousy, ordered him to destroy himself. Seneca very probably was
not accessary to the conspiracy, and the only thing which could be
produced against him as a crimination, was trivial and unsatisfactory.
Piso, as Natalis declared, had complained that he never saw Seneca,
and the philosopher had observed in answer, that it was not proper
or conducive to their common interest to see one another often. He
further pleaded indisposition, and said that his own life depended
upon the safety of Piso’s person. Seneca was at table with his wife
Paulina and two of his friends, when the messenger from Nero arrived.
He heard the words which commanded him to destroy himself, with
philosophical firmness, and even with joy; and observed, that such a
mandate might have long been expected from a man who had murdered his
own mother, and assassinated all his friends. He wished to dispose
of his possessions as he pleased, but this was refused; and when
he heard this, he turned to his friends who were weeping at his
melancholy fate, and told them, that since he could not leave them
what he believed his own, he would leave them at least his own
life for an example, an innocent conduct which they might imitate,
and by which they might acquire immortal fame. Against their tears
and wailings he exclaimed with firmness, and asked them whether
they had not learnt better to withstand the attacks of fortune, and
the violence of tyranny? As for his wife, he attempted to calm her
emotions, and when she seemed resolved to die with him, he said he
was glad to find his example followed with so much constancy. Their
veins were opened at the same moment, but the life of Paulina was
preserved, and Nero, who was partial to her ordered the blood to
be stopped; and from that moment, according to some authors, the
philosopher’s wife seemed to rejoice that she could still enjoy the
comforts of life. Seneca’s veins bled but slowly, and it has been
observed, that the sensible and animated conversation of his dying
moments was collected by his friends, and that it has been preserved
among his works. To hasten his death he drank a dose of poison, but
it had no effect, and therefore he ordered himself to be carried into
a hot bath, to accelerate the operation of the draught, and to make
the blood flow more freely. This was attended with no better success;
and as the soldiers were clamorous, he was carried into a stove, and
suffocated by the steam, on the 12th of April, in the 65th year of
the christian era, in his 53rd year. His body was burnt without pomp
or funeral ceremony, according to his will, which he had made when
he enjoyed the most unbounded favours of Nero. The compositions of
Seneca are numerous, and chiefly on moral subjects. He is so much
admired for his refined sentiments and virtuous precepts, for his
morality, his constancy, and his innocence of manners, that St.
Jerome has not hesitated to rank him among christian writers. His
style is nervous, it abounds with ornament, and seems well suited to
the taste of the age in which he lived. The desire of recommending
himself and his writings to the world, obliged him too often to
depreciate the merit of the ancients, and to sink into obscurity.
His treatises are _de irâ_, _de consolatione_, _de Providentiâ_,
_de tranquillitate animi_, _de clementiâ_, _de sapientis constantiâ_,
_de otio sapientis_, _de brevitate vitæ_, _de beneficiis_, _de vitâ
beatâ_, besides his _naturales quæstiones_, _ludus in Claudium_,
_moral letters_, &c. There are also some tragedies ascribed to
_Seneca._ Quintilian supposes that the _Medea_ is his composition,
and according to others, the _Troas_ and the _Hippolytus_ were also
written by him, and the _Agamemnon_, _Hercules furens_, _Thyestes_
& _Hercules in Oetâ_ by his father, Seneca the declaimer. The
best editions of Seneca are those of Antwerp, folio, 1615, and of
Gronovius, 3 vols., Amsterdam, 1672; and those of his tragedies,
are that of Schroder’s, 4to, Delft, 1728, and the 8vo of Gronovius,
Leiden, 1682. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 12, &c.――_Dio Cassius._
――_Suetonius_, _Nero_, &c.――_Quintilian._
=Claudius Senecio=, one of Nero’s favourites, and the associate of his
pleasures and debauchery.――――Tullius, a man who conspired against
Nero, and was put to death though he turned informer against the rest
of the conspirators.――――A man put to death by Domitian, for writing
an account of the life of Helvidius, one of the emperor’s enemies.
――――One of Constantine’s enemies.――――A man who from a restless and
aspiring disposition acquired the surname of _Grandio_. _Seneca_,
_Suasoriæ_, ch. 1.
=Senia=, a town of Liburnia, now Segna. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 21.
=Senna=, or =Sena=, a river of Umbria. _See:_ Sena. _Lucan_, bk. 2,
li. 407.
=Senŏnes=, an uncivilized nation of Gallia Transalpina, who left their
native possessions, and under the conduct of Brennus, invaded Italy
and pillaged Rome. They afterwards united with the Umbri, Latins,
and Etrurians to make war against the Romans, till they were totally
destroyed by Dolabella. The chief of their towns in that part of
Italy where they settled near Umbria, and which from them was called
Senogallia, were Fanum Fortunæ, Sena, Pisaurum, and Ariminum. _See:_
Cimbri. _Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 254.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 454.
――_Livy_, bk. 5, ch. 35, &c.――_Florus._――――A people of Germany near
the Suevi.
=Sentia lex=, _de senatu_, by Cnæus Sentius the consul, A.U.C. 734,
enacted the choosing of proper persons to fill up the number of
senators.
=Sentinum=, a town of Umbria. _Livy_, bk. 10, chs. 27 & 30.
=Sentius Cnæus=, a governor of Syria, under the emperors.――――A governor
of Macedonia.――――Septimius, one of the soldiers of Pompey, who
assisted the Egyptians in murdering him.――――A Roman emperor. _See:_
Severus.――――A writer in the reign of the emperor Alexander, of whose
life he wrote an account in Latin, or, according to others, in Greek.
=Sepias=, a cape of Magnesia in Thessaly, at the north of Eubœa, now
_St. George_.
=Seplasia=, a place of Capua, where ointments were sold. _Cicero_,
_Against Piso_, chs. 7 & 11.
=Septem aquæ=, a portion of the lake near Reate. _Cicero_, bk. 4,
_Letters to Atticus_, ltr. 15.――――Fratres, a mountain of Mauritania,
now _Gebel-Mousa_. _Strabo_, bk. 17.――――Maria, the entrance of the
seven mouths of the Po.
=Septempeda=, a town of Picenum.
=Septerion=, a festival observed once in nine years at Delphi, in
honour of Apollo. It was a representation of the pursuit of Python by
Apollo, and of the victory obtained by the god.
=Titus Septimius=, a Roman knight distinguished by his poetical
compositions both lyric and tragic. He was intimate with Augustus
as well as Horace, who has addressed the sixth of his second book of
Odes to him.――――A centurion put to death, &c. _Tacitus_, _Annals_,
bk. 1, ch. 32.――――A native of Africa, who distinguished himself
at Rome as a poet. He wrote, among other things, a hymn in praise
of Janus. Only 11 of his verses are preserved. _Marcus Terentius
[Varro]._――_Petrus Crinitus_, _Lives_.
=Lucius Septimuleius=, a friend of Caius Gracchus. He suffered himself
to be bribed by Opimius, and had the meanness to carry his friend’s
head fixed to a pole through the streets of Rome.
=Sepyra=, a town of Cilicia, taken by Cicero when he presided over that
province. _Cicero_, _Letters to his Friends_, bk. 15, ch. 4.
=Sequăna=, a river of Gaul, which separates the territories of the
Belgæ and the Celtæ, and is now called _la Seine_. _Strabo_, bk. 4.
――_Mela_, bk. 3, ch. 2.――_Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 425.
=Sequăni=, a people of Gaul near the territories of the Ædui, between
the Saone and mount Jura, famous for their wars against Rome, &c.
_See:_ Ædui. The country which they inhabited is now called _Franche
Compté_, or _Upper Burgundy_. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_.
=Sequinius=, a native of Alba, who married one of his daughters to
Curiatius of Alba, and the other to Horatius, a citizen of Rome. The
two daughters were brought to bed on the same day, each of three male
children.
=Serapio=, a surname given to one of the Scipios, because he resembled
a swine-herd of that name.――――A Greek poet who flourished in the age
of Trajan. He was intimate with Plutarch.――――An Egyptian put to death
by Achillas, when he came at the head of an embassy from Ptolemy, who
was a prisoner in the hands of Julius Cæsar.――――A painter. _Pliny_,
bk. 35, ch. 10.
=Serāpis=, one of the Egyptian deities, supposed to be the same
as Osiris. He had a magnificent temple at Memphis, another very
rich at Alexandria, and a third at Canopus. The worship of Serapis
was introduced at Rome, by the emperor Antoninus Pius, A.D. 146,
and the mysteries celebrated on the 6th of May, but with so much
licentiousness that the senate were soon after obliged to abolish
them. Herodotus, who speaks in a very circumstantial manner of the
deities, and of the religion of the Egyptians, makes no mention of
the god Serapis. Apollodorus says it is the same as the bull Apis.
_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 18; bk. 2, ch. 34.――_Tacitus_, _Histories_,
bk. 4, ch. 83.――_Strabo_, bk. 17.――_Martial_, bk. 9, ltr. 30.
=Serbōnis=, a lake between Egypt and Palestine.
=Serēna=, a daughter of Theodosius, who married Stilicho. She was put
to death, &c. _Claudian._
=Sereniānus=, a favourite of Gallus the brother of Julian. He was put
to death.
=Serēnus Samonicus=, a physician in the age of the emperor Severus and
Caracalla. There remains a poem of his composition on medicine, the
last edition of which is that of 1706, in 8vo, Amsterdam.――――Vibius,
a governor of Spain, accused of cruelty in the government of his
province, and put to death by order of Tiberius.
=Seres=, a nation of Asia, according to Ptolemy, between the Ganges
and the eastern ocean in the modern Thibet. They were naturally of
a meek disposition. Silk, of which the fabrication was unknown to
the ancients, who imagined that the materials were collected from
the leaves of trees, was brought to Rome from their country, and on
that account it received the name of _Sericum_, and thence a garment
or dress of silk is called _serica vestis_. Heliogobalus the Roman
emperor was the first who wore a silk dress, which at that time was
sold for its weight in gold. It afterwards became very cheap, and
consequently was the common dress among the Romans. Some suppose
that the Seres are the same as the Chinese. _Ptolemy_, bk. 6, ch. 16.
――_Horace_, bk. 1, ode 29, li. 9.――_Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 19; bk. 19,
lis. 142 & 292.――_Ovid_, _Am._ 1, poem 14, li. 6.――_Virgil_,
_Georgics_, bk. 2, li. 121.
=Sergestus=, a sailor in the fleet of Æneas, from whom the family of
the Sergii at Rome were descended. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 5, li. 121.
=Sergia=, a Roman matron. She conspired with others to poison their
husbands. The plot was discovered, and Sergia, with some of her
accomplices, drank poison and died.
=Sergius=, one of the names of Catiline.――――A military tribune at the
siege of Veii. The family of the Sergii was patrician, and branched
out into the several families of the _Fidenates_, _Sili_, _Catilinæ_,
_Nattæ_, _Ocellæ_, and _Planci_.
=Sergius= and =Sergiōlus=, a deformed youth, greatly admired by the
Roman ladies in Juvenal’s age. _Juvenal_, satire 6, li. 105, _et seq._
=Serīphus=, an island in the Ægean sea, about 36 miles in circumference,
according to Pliny only 12, very barren, and uncultivated. The
Romans generally sent their criminals there in banishment, and it was
there that Cassius Severus the orator was exiled, and there he died.
According to Ælian, the frogs of this island never croaked, but when
they were removed from the island to another place, they were more
noisy and clamorous than others; hence the proverb of _seriphia rana_,
applied to a man who neither speaks nor sings. This, however, is
found to be a mistake by modern travellers. It was on the coast of
Seriphos that the chest was discovered in which Acrisius had exposed
his daughter Danae and her son Perseus. _Strabo_, bk. 10.――_Ælian_,
_De Natura Animalium_, bk. 3, ch. 37.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9.――_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 4, ch. 21.
――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, li. 242; bk. 7, li. 65.
=Sermyla=, a town of Macedonia. _Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 122.
=Seron=, a general of Antiochus Epiphanes.
=Serrānus=, a surname given to Cincinnatus, because he was found
_sowing_ his fields when told that he had been elected dictator.
Some, however, suppose that Serranus was a different person from
Cincinnatus. _Pliny_, bk. 18, ch. 3.――_Livy_, bk. 3, ch. 26.
――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 844.――――One of the auxiliaries of
Turnus, killed in the night by Nisus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9,
li. 335.――――A poet of some merit in Domitian’s reign. _Juvenal_,
satire 7, li. 80.
=Serrheum=, a fortified place of Thrace. _Livy_, bk. 31, ch. 16.
=Quintus Sertorius=, a Roman general, son of Quintus and Rhea, born at
Nursia. His first campaign was under the great Marius, against the
Teutones and Cimbri. He visited the enemy’s camp as a spy, and had
the misfortune to lose one eye in the first battle he fought. When
Marius and Cinna entered Rome and slaughtered all their enemies,
Sertorius accompanied them, but he expressed his sorrow and concern
at the melancholy death of so many of his countrymen. He afterwards
fled for safety into Spain, when Sylla had proscribed him, and
in this distant province he behaved himself with so much address
and valour that he was looked upon as the prince of the country.
The Lusitanians universally revered and loved him, and the Roman
general did not show himself less attentive to their interest, by
establishing public schools, and educating the children of the
country in the polite arts, and the literature of Greece and Rome.
He had established a senate, over which he presided with consular
authority, and the Romans, who followed his standard, paid equal
reverence to his person. They were experimentally convinced of
his valour and ♦magnanimity as a general, and the artful manner in
which he imposed upon the credulity of his adherents in the garb
of religion, did not diminish his reputation. He pretended to hold
commerce with heaven by means of a white hind which he had tamed with
great success, and which followed him everywhere, even in the field
of battle. The success of Sertorius in Spain, and his popularity
among the natives, alarmed the Romans. They sent some troops
to oppose him, but with little success. Four armies were found
insufficient to crush or even hurt Sertorius; and Pompey and Metellus,
who never engaged an enemy without obtaining the victory, were driven
with dishonour from the field. But the favourite of the Lusitanians
was exposed to the dangers which usually attend greatness. Perpenna,
one of his officers who was jealous of his fame and tired of a
superior, conspired against him. At a banquet the conspirators began
to open their intentions by speaking with freedom and licentiousness
in the presence of Sertorius, whose age and character had hitherto
claimed deference from others. Perpenna overturned a glass of wine,
as a signal for the rest of the conspirators, and immediately
Antonius, one of his officers, stabbed Sertorius, and the example
was followed by all the rest, 73 years before Christ. Sertorius has
been commended for his love of justice and moderation. The flattering
description which he heard of the Fortunate Islands when he passed
into the west of Africa, almost tempted him to bid adieu to the world,
and perhaps he would have retired from the noise of war, and the
clamours of envy, to end his days in the bosom of a peaceful and
solitary island, had not the stronger calls of ambition and the love
of fame prevailed over the intruding reflections of a moment. It has
been observed that in his latter days ♠Sertorius became indolent,
and fond of luxury and wanton cruelty; yet we must confess that in
affability, clemency, complaisance, generosity, and military valour,
he not only surpassed his contemporaries, but the rest of the Romans.
_Plutarch_, _Lives_.――_Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 30, &c.――_Florus_, bk.
3, ch. 21, &c.――_Appian_, _Civil Wars_.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 1,
ch. 2; bk. 7, ch. 3.――_Eutropius._――_Aulus Gellius_, bk. 15, ch. 22.
♦ ‘magnamimity’ replaced with ‘magnanimity’
♠ ‘Sertorious’ replaced with ‘Sertorius’
=Servæus=, a man accused by Tiberius of being privy to the conspiracy
of Sejanus. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 6, ch. 7.
=Serviānus=, a consul in the reign of Adrian. He was a great favourite
of the emperor Trajan.
=Servilia=, a sister of Cato of Utica, greatly enamoured of Julius
Cæsar, though her brother was one of the most inveterate enemies of
her lover. To convince Cæsar of her affection, she sent him a letter
filled with the most tender expressions of regard for his person. The
letter was delivered to Cæsar in the senate-house, while they were
debating about punishing the associates of Catiline’s conspiracy;
and when Cato saw it, he exclaimed that it was a letter from the
conspirators, and insisted immediately on its being made public.
Upon this Cæsar gave it to Cato, and the stern senator had no sooner
read its contents, than he threw it back, with the words of “Take it,
drunkard.” From the intimacy which existed between Servilia and Cæsar,
some have supposed that the dictator was the father of Marcus Brutus.
_Plutarch_, _Cæsar_.――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Atticus_.――――Another sister
of Cato, who married Silanus. _Cornelius Nepos_, _Atticus_.――――A
daughter of Thrasea, put to death by order of Nero with her father.
Her crime was the consulting of magicians only to know what would
happen in her family.
=Servilia lex=, _de pecuniis repetundis_, by Caius Servilius the pretor,
A.U.C. 653. It punished severely such as were guilty of peculation
and extortion in the provinces. Its particulars are not precisely
known.――――Another, _de judicibus_, by Quintus Servilius Cæpio the
consul, A.U.C. 648. It divided the right of judging between the
senators and the equites, a privilege which, though originally
belonging to the senators, had been taken from them and given to
the equites.――――Another, _de civitate_, by Caius Servilius, ordained
that if a Latin accused a Roman senator, so that he was condemned,
the accuser should be honoured with the name and the privileges of a
Roman citizen.――――Another, _agraria_, by Publius Servilius Rullus the
tribune, A.U.C. 690. It required the immediate sale of certain houses
and lands which belonged to the people, for the purchase of others in
a different part of Italy. It required that 10 commissioners should
be appointed to see it carried into execution, but Cicero prevented
its passing into a law by the three orations which he pronounced
against it.
=Serviliānus=, a Roman consul defeated by Viriathus, in Spain, &c.
=Servilius Quintus=, a Roman who in his dictatorship defeated the Æqui.
――――Publius, a consul who supported the cause of the people against
the nobles, and obtained a triumph in spite of the opposition of
the senate, after defeating the Volsci. He afterwards changed his
opinions, and very violently opposed the people because they had
illiberally treated him.――――A proconsul killed at the battle of Cannæ
by Annibal.――――Ahala, a master of horse to the dictator Cincinnatus.
When Mælius refused to appear before the dictator to answer the
accusations which were brought against him on suspicion of his
aspiring to tyranny, Ahala slew him in the midst of the people whose
protection he claimed. Ahala was accused for this murder and banished,
but his sentence was afterwards repealed. He was raised to the
dictatorship.――――Marcus, a man who pleaded in favour of Paulus
Æmilius, &c.――――An augur prosecuted by Lucullus for his inattention
in his office. He was acquitted.――――A pretor ordered by the senate
to forbid Sylla to approach Rome. He was ridiculed and insulted by
the conqueror’s soldiers.――――A man appointed to guard the sea-coast
of Pontus by Pompey.――――Publius, a proconsul of Asia during the
age of Mithridates. He conquered Isauria, for which service he was
surnamed _Isauricus_, and rewarded with a triumph.――――A Roman general
who defeated an army of Etrurians.――――An informer in the court of
Tiberius.――――A favourite of Augustus.――――Geminus, a Roman consul who
opposed Annibal with success.――――Nonianus, a Latin historian, who
wrote a history of Rome, in the reign of Nero. There were more than
one writer of this name, as Pliny speaks of a Servilius remarkable
for his eloquence and learning; and Quintilian mentions another
also illustrious for his genius and literary merit.――――Casca, one
of Cæsar’s murderers.――――The family of the Servilii was of patrician
rank, and came to settle at Rome after the destruction of Alba,
where they were promoted to the highest offices of the state. To the
several branches of this family were attached the different surnames
of _Ahala_, _Axilla_, _Priscas_, _Cæpio_, _Structus_, _Geminus_,
_Pulex_, _Vatia_, _Casca_, _Fidenas_, _Longus_, and _Tucca_.――――Lacus,
a lake near Rome. _Cicero_, _For Sextus Roscius of Ameria_, ch. 32.
=Servius Tullius=, the sixth king of Rome, was son of Ocrisia, a slave
of Corniculum, by Tullius, a man slain in the defence of his country
against the Romans. Ocrisia was given by Tarquin to Tanaquil his
wife, and she brought up her son in the king’s family, and added the
name of _Servius_ to that which he had inherited from his father,
to denote his _slavery_. Young Servius was educated in the palace of
the monarch with great care, and though originally a slave, he raised
himself so much to consequence, that Tarquin gave him his daughter in
marriage. His own private merit and virtues recommended him to notice
not less than the royal favours, and Servius, become the favourite
of the people and the darling of the soldiers, by his liberality and
complaisance, was easily raised to the throne on the death of his
father-in-law. Rome had no reason to repent of her choice. Servius
endeared himself still more as a warrior and as a legislator.
He defeated the Veientes and the Tuscans, and by a proper act of
policy he established the census, which told him that Rome contained
about 84,000 inhabitants. He increased the number of the tribes,
he beautified and adorned the city, and enlarged its boundaries
by taking within its walls the hills Quirinalis, Viminalis, and
Esquilinus. He also divided the Roman people into tribes, and that
he might not seem to neglect the worship of the gods, he built
several temples to the goddess of fortune, to whom he deemed himself
particularly indebted for obtaining the kingdom. He also built a
temple to Diana on mount Aventine, and raised himself a palace on the
hill Esquilinus. Servius married his two daughters to the grandsons
of his father-in-law; the elder to Tarquin, and the younger to Aruns.
This union, as might be supposed, tended to ensure the peace of his
family; but if such were his expectations, he was unhappily deceived.
The wife of Aruns, naturally fierce and impetuous, murdered her own
husband to unite herself to Tarquin, who had likewise assassinated
his wife. These bloody measures were no sooner pursued than Servius
was murdered by his own son-in-law, and his daughter Tullia showed
herself so inimical to filial gratitude and piety, that she ordered
her chariot to be driven over the mangled body of her father, B.C.
534. His death was universally lamented, and the slaves annually
celebrated a festival in his honour, in the temple of Diana on mount
Aventine, the day that he was murdered. Tarquinia, his wife, buried
his remains privately, and died the following day. _Livy_, bk. 1,
ch. 41.――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 4.――_Florus_, bk. 1,
ch. 6.――_Cicero_, _Letters to his Friends_, bk. 1, ch. 53.――_Valerius
Maximus_, bk. 1, ch. 6.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 6, li. 601.――――Galba,
a seditious person who wished to refuse a triumph to Paulus
Æmylius after the conquest of Macedonia.――――Claudius, a grammarian.
_Suetonius_, _Lives of the Grammarians_.――――A friend of Sylla, who
applied for the consulship to no purpose.――――Cornelius, a consul
in the first ages of the republic, &c.――――Sulpitius, an orator
in the age of Cicero and Hortensius. He was sent as ambassador to
Marcus Antony, and died before his return. Cicero obtained a statue
for him from the senate and the Roman people, which was raised
in the Campus Martius. Besides orations he wrote verses, which
were highly censured for their indelicacy. His works are lost.
_Cicero_, _Brutus_, _Philippics_, &c.――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ltr. 3.――――A
despicable informer in the Augustan age. _Horace_, bk. 2, satire 1,
li. 47.――――Honoratus Maurus, a learned grammarian in the age of
young Theodosius. He wrote Latin commentaries upon Virgil, still
extant.
=Sesara=, a daughter of Celeus king of Eleusis, sister of Triptolemus.
_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 38.
=Sesostris=, a celebrated king of Egypt some ages before the Trojan
war. His father ordered all the children in his dominions who were
born on the same day with him to be publicly educated, and to pass
their youth in the company of his son. This succeeded in the highest
degree, and Sesostris had the pleasure to find himself surrounded by
a number of faithful ministers and active warriors, whose education
and intimacy with their prince rendered them inseparably devoted to
his interest. When Sesostris had succeeded on his father’s throne,
he became ambitious of military fame, and after he had divided his
kingdom into 36 different districts, he marched at the head of a
numerous army to make the conquest of the world. Libya, Æthiopia,
Arabia, with all the islands of the Red sea, were conquered, and
the victorious monarch marched through Asia, and penetrated further
into the east than the conqueror Darius. He also invaded Europe,
and subdued the Thracians; and that the fame of his conquests might
long survive him, he placed columns in the several provinces he had
subdued; and many ages after, this pompous inscription was read in
many parts of Asia: “Sesostris the king of kings has conquered this
territory by his arms.” At his return home the monarch employed his
time in encouraging the fine arts, and in improving the revenues of
his kingdom. He erected 100 temples to the gods for the victories
which he had obtained, and mounds of earth were heaped up in several
parts of Egypt, where cities were built for the reception of the
inhabitants during the inundations of the Nile. Some canals were also
dug near Memphis to facilitate navigation, and the communication of
one province with another. In his old age Sesostris, grown infirm
and blind, destroyed himself, after a reign of 44 years, according
to some. His mildness towards the conquered has been admired, while
some have upbraided him for his cruelty and insolence in causing his
chariot to be drawn by some of the monarchs whom he had conquered.
The age of Sesostris is so remote from every authentic record, that
many have supported that the actions and conquests ascribed to this
monarch are uncertain and totally fabulous. _Herodotus_, bk. 2,
ch. 102, &c.――_Diodorus_, bk. 1.――_Valerius Flaccus_, bk. 5, li. 419.
――_Pliny_, bk. 33, ch. 3.――_Lucan_, bk. 10, li. 276.――_Strabo_,
bk. 16.
=Sessites=, now _Sessia_, a river of Cisalpine Gaul, falling into the
Po. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 16.
=Sestias=, a name applied to Hero, as born at Sestos. _Statius_, bk. 6,
_Thebaid_, li. 547.
=Sestius=, a friend of Brutus, with whom he fought at the battle of
Philippi. Augustus resigned the consulship in his favour, though he
still continued to reverence the memory of Brutus.――――A governor of
Syria.
=Sestos=, or =Sestus=, a town of Thrace on the shores of the Hellespont,
exactly opposite Abydos on the Asiatic side. It is celebrated for
the bridge which Xerxes built there across the Hellespont, as also
for being the seat of the amours of Hero and Leander. _Mela_, bk. 2,
ch. 2.――_Strabo_, bk. 13.――_Musæus_, _Hero & Leander_.――_Virgil_,
_Georgics_, bk. 3, li. 258.――_Ovid_, _Heroides_, poem 18, ltr. 2.
=Sesuvii=, a people of Celtic Gaul. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_.
=Setăbis=, a town of Spain between New Carthage and Saguntum, famous
for the manufacture of linen. There was also a small river of the
same name in the neighbourhood. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 16, li. 474.
――_Strabo_, bk. 2.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 6.――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 3;
bk. 19, ch. 1.
=Sethon=, a priest of Vulcan, who made himself king of Egypt after the
death of Anysis. He was attacked by the Assyrians and delivered from
this powerful enemy by an immense number of rats, which in one night
gnawed their bow-strings and thongs, so that on the morrow their arms
were found to be useless. From this wonderful circumstance Sethon
had a statue which represented him with a rat in his hand, with the
inscription of, “Whoever fixes his eyes upon me, let him be pious.”
_Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 141.
=Setia=, a town of Latium above the Pontine marshes, celebrated for
its wines, which Augustus is said to have preferred to all others.
_Pliny_, bk. 14, ch. 6.――_Juvenal_, satire 5, li. 34; satire 10,
li. 27.――_Martial_, bk. 13, ltr. 112.
=Sevēra Julia Aquilia=, a Roman lady, whom the emperor Heliogabalus
married. She was soon after repudiated, though possessed of all the
charms of the mind and body which could captivate the most virtuous.
――――Valeria, the wife of Valentinian, and the mother of Gratian, was
well known for her avarice and ambition. The emperor, her husband,
repudiated her and afterwards took her again. Her prudent advice at
last ensured her son Gratian on the imperial throne.――――The wife of
Philip the Roman emperor.
=Severiānus=, a governor of Macedonia, father-in-law to the emperor
Philip.――――A general of the Roman armies in the reign of Valentinian,
defeated by the Germans.――――A son of the emperor Severus.
=Sevērus Lucius Septimius=, a Roman emperor born at Leptis in Africa,
of a noble family. He gradually exercised all the offices of
the state, and recommended himself to the notice of the world by
an ambitious mind and a restless activity, that could, for the
gratification of avarice, endure the most complicated hardships.
After the murder of Pertinax, Severus resolved to remove Didius
Julianus, who had bought the imperial purple when exposed to sale
by the licentiousness of the pretorians, and therefore he proclaimed
himself emperor on the borders of Illyricum, where he was stationed
against the barbarians. To support himself in this bold measure, he
took as his partner in the empire Albinus, who was at the head of
the Roman forces in Britain, and immediately marched towards Rome, to
crush ♦Didius and all his partisans. He was received as he advanced
through the country with universal acclamations, and Julianus himself
was soon deserted by his favourites, and assassinated by his own
soldiers. The reception of Severus at Rome was sufficient to gratify
his pride; the streets were strewed with flowers, and the submissive
senate were ever ready to grant whatever honours or titles the
conqueror claimed. In professing that he had assumed the purple only
to revenge the death of the virtuous Pertinax, Severus gained many
adherents, and was enabled not only to disarm, but to banish the
pretorians, whose insolence and avarice were become alarming not
only to the citizens, but to the emperor. But while he was victorious
at Rome, Severus did not forget that there was another competitor
for the imperial purple. Pescennius Niger was in the east at the head
of a powerful army, and with the name and ensigns of Augustus. Many
obstinate battles were fought between the troops and officers of the
imperial rivals, till on the plains of Issus, which had been above
five centuries before covered with the blood of the Persian soldiers
of Darius, Niger was totally ruined by the loss of 20,000 men. The
head of Niger was cut off and sent to the conqueror, who punished
in a most cruel manner all the partisans of his unfortunate rival.
Severus afterwards pillaged Byzantium, which had shut her gates
against him; and after he had conquered several nations in the
east, he returned to Rome, resolved to destroy Albinus, with whom
he had hitherto reluctantly shared the imperial power. He attempted
to assassinate him by his emissaries; but when this had failed of
success, Severus had recourse to arms, and the fate of the empire
was again decided on the plains of Gaul. Albinus was defeated, and
the conqueror was so elated with the recollection that he had now no
longer a competitor for the purple, that he insulted the dead body of
his rival, and ordered it to be thrown into the Rhone, after he had
suffered it to putrefy before the door of his tent, and to be torn to
pieces by his dogs. The family and the adherents of ♠Albinus shared
his fate; and the return of Severus to the capital exhibited the
bloody triumphs of Marius and Sylla. The richest of the citizens
were sacrificed, and their money became the property of the emperor.
The wicked Commodus received divine honours, and his murderers were
punished in the most wanton manner. Tired of the inactive life which
he led in Rome, Severus marched into the east, with his two sons
Caracalla and Geta, and with uncommon success made himself master
of Seleucia, Babylon, and Ctesiphon; and advanced without opposition
far into the Parthian territories. From Parthia the emperor marched
towards the more southern provinces of Asia: after he had visited
the tomb of Pompey the Great, he entered Alexandria; and after he
had granted a senate to that celebrated city, he viewed with the
most criticizing and inquisitive curiosity the several monuments
and ruins which that ancient kingdom contains. The revolt of Britain
recalled him from the east. After he had reduced it under his power,
he built a wall across the northern part of the island, to defend
it against the frequent invasions of the Caledonians. Hitherto
successful against his enemies, Severus now found the peace of his
family disturbed. Caracalla attempted to murder his father as he was
concluding a treaty of peace with the Britons; and the emperor was so
shocked at the undutifulness of his son, that on his return home he
called him into his presence, and after he had upbraided him for his
ingratitude and perfidy, he offered him a drawn sword, adding, “If
you are so ambitious of reigning alone, now imbrue your hands in the
blood of your father, and let not the eyes of the world be witnesses
of your want of filial tenderness.” If these words checked Caracalla,
yet he did not show himself concerned, and Severus, worn out with
infirmities which the gout and the uneasiness of his mind increased,
soon after died, exclaiming he had been everything man could wish,
but that he was then nothing. Some say that he wished to poison
himself, but that when this was denied, he ate to great excess, and
soon after expired at York on the 4th of February, in the 211th year
of the christian era, in the 66th year of his age, after a reign
of 17 years, eight months, and three days. Severus has been so much
admired for his military talents, that some have called him the most
warlike of the Roman emperors. As a monarch he was cruel, and it has
been observed that he never did an act of humanity or forgave a fault.
In his diet he was temperate, and he always showed himself an open
enemy to pomp and splendour. He loved the appellation of a man of
letters, and he even composed a history of his own reign, which
some have praised for its correctness and veracity. However cruel
Severus may appear in his punishments and in his revenge, many have
endeavoured to exculpate him, and observed that there was need of
severity in an empire whose morals were so corrupted, and where no
less than 3000 persons were accused of adultery during the space of
17 years. Of him, as of Augustus, some were found to say, that it
would have been better for the world if he had never been born, or
had never died. _Dio Cassius._――_Herodian._――_Aurelius Victor._, &c.
――――Alexander Marcus Aurelius, a native of Phœnicia, adopted by
Heliogabalus. His father’s name was Genesius Marcianus, and his
mother’s Julia Mammæa, and he received the surname of _Alexander_,
because he was born in a temple sacred to Alexander the Great. He was
carefully educated, and his mother, by paying particular attention to
his morals, and the character of his preceptors, preserved him from
those infirmities and that licentiousness which old age too often
attributes to the depravity of youth. At the death of Heliogabalus,
who had been jealous of his virtues, Alexander, though only in the
14th year of his age, was proclaimed emperor, and his nomination was
approved by the universal shouts of the army, and the congratulations
of the senate. He had not long been on the throne before the peace of
the empire was disturbed by the incursions of the Persians. Alexander
marched into the east without delay, and soon obtained a decisive
victory over the barbarians. At his return to Rome he was honoured
with a triumph, but the revolt of the Germans soon after called him
away from the indolence of the capital. His expedition in Germany was
attended with some success, but the virtues and the amiable qualities
of Alexander were forgotten in the stern and sullen strictness of the
disciplinarian. His soldiers, fond of repose, murmured against his
severity; their clamours were fomented by the artifice of Maximinus,
and Alexander was murdered in his tent, in the midst of his camp,
after a reign of 13 years and nine days, on the 18th of March, A.D.
235. His mother Mammæa shared his fate with all his friends; but
this was no sooner known than the soldiers punished with immediate
death all such as had been concerned in the murder except Maximinus.
Alexander has been admired for his many virtues, and every historian,
except Herodian, is bold to assert, that if he had lived, the Roman
empire might soon have been freed from those tumults and abuses which
continually disturbed her peace, and kept the lives of her emperors
and senators in perpetual alarms. His severity in punishing offences
was great, and such as had robbed the public, were they even the most
intimate friends of the emperor, were indiscriminately sacrificed
to the tranquillity of the state, which they had violated. The great
offices of the state, which had before his reign been exposed to
sale, and occupied by favourites, were now bestowed upon merit, and
Alexander could boast that all his officers were men of trust and
abilities. He was a patron of literature, and he dedicated the hours
of relaxation to the study of the best Greek and Latin historians,
orators, and poets; and in the public schools which his liberality
and the desire of encouraging learning had founded, he often heard
with pleasure and satisfaction the eloquent speeches and declamations
of his subjects. The provinces were well supplied with provisions,
and Rome was embellished with many stately buildings and magnificent
porticoes. _Alexander Polyhistor_, _Lives_.――_Herodian._――_Zosim._
――_Aurelius Victor._――――Flavius Valerius, a native of Illyricum,
nominated Cæsar by Galerius. He was put to death by Maximianus, A.D.
307.――――Julius, a governor of Britain under Adrian.――――A general of
Valens.――――Libius, a man proclaimed emperor of the west, at Ravenna,
after the death of Majorianus. He was soon after poisoned.――――Lucius
Cornelius, a Latin poet in the age of Augustus, for some time
employed in the judicial proceedings of the forum.――――Cassius,
an orator banished into the island of Crete by Augustus, for his
illiberal language. He was banished 17 years, and died in Seriphos.
He is commended as an able orator, yet declaiming with more warmth
than prudence. His writings were destroyed by order of the senate.
_Suetonius_, _Octavian Augustus_.――_Quintilian._――――Sulpitius, an
ecclesiastical historian, who died A.D. 420. The best of his works
is his _Historia Sacra_, from the creation of the world to the
consulship of Stilicho, of which the style is elegant, and superior
to that of the age in which he lived. The best edition is in
2 vols., 4to, Patavii, 1741.――――An officer under the emperor Julian.
――――Aquilius, a native of Spain, who wrote an account of his own life
in the reign of the emperor Valens.――――An officer of Valentinian,
&c.――――A prefect of Rome, &c.――――A celebrated architect employed in
building Nero’s golden palace at Rome after the burning of that city.
――――A mountain of Italy, near the Fabaris. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7,
li. 713.
♦ ‘Didus’ replaced with ‘Didius’
♠ ‘Albinius’ replaced with ‘Albinus’
=Sevo=, a ridge of mountains between Norway and Sweden, now called
_Fiell_, or _Dofre_. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 15.
=Seuthes=, a man who dethroned his monarch, &c.――――A friend of
Perdiccas, one of Alexander’s generals.――――A Thracian king, who
encouraged his countrymen to revolt, &c. This name is common to
several of the Thracian princes.
=Sextia=, a woman celebrated for her virtue and her constancy, put to
death by Nero. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 16, ch. 10.
=Sextia Licinia lex=, _de Magistratibus_, by Caius Licinius and
Lucius Sextius the tribunes, A.U.C. 386. It ordained that one of the
consuls should be elected from among the plebeians.――――Another, _de
religione_, by the same, A.U.C. 385. It enacted that a decemvirate
should be chosen from the patricians and plebeians instead of the
_decemviri sacris faciundis_.
=Sextiæ Aquæ=, now _Aix_, a place of Cisalpine Gaul, where the Cimbri
were defeated by Marius. It was built by Caius Sextius, and is famous
for its cold and hot springs. _Livy_, bk. 61.――_Velleius Paterculus_,
bk. 1, ch. 15.
=Sextilia=, the wife of Vitellius. She became mother of two children.
_Suetonius_, _Lives_.――――Another in the same family. _Tacitus_,
_Histories_, bk. 2, ch. 64.
=Sextilius=, a governor of Africa, who ordered Marius, when he landed
there, to depart immediately from his province. Marius heard this
with some concern, and said to the messengers, “Go and tell your
master that you have seen the exiled Marius sitting on the ruins
of Carthage.” _Plutarch_, _Caius Marius_.――――A Roman preceptor, who
was seized and carried away by pirates, &c.――――One of the officers
of Lucullus.――――Hæna, a poet. _See:_ ♦Hæna.――――An officer sent to
Germany, &c. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 3, ch. 7.
♦ No matching reference
=Sextius=, a lieutenant of Cæsar in Gaul.――――A seditious tribune in
the first ages of the republic.――――Lucius was remarkable for his
friendship with Brutus; he gained the confidence of Augustus, and was
consul. Horace, who was in the number of his friends, dedicated bk. 1,
ode 4, to him.――――The first plebeian consul.――――A dictator.――――One of
the sons of Tarquin. _See:_ Tarquinius.
=Sextus=, a prænomen given to the sixth son of a family.――――A son of
Pompey the Great. _See:_ Pompeius.――――A stoic philosopher, born at
Cheronæa in Bœotia. Some suppose that he was Plutarch’s nephew. He
was preceptor to Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus.――――A governor of
Syria.――――A philosopher in the age of Antoninus. He was one of the
followers of the doctrines of Pyrrho. Some of his works are still
extant. The best edition of the treatise of Sextus Pompeis Festus,
_Lexicon of Festus_, is that of Amsterdam, 4to, 1669.
=Sibæ=, a people of India. _Strabo._
=Sibaris.= _See:_ Sybaris.
=Sibīni=, a people near the Suevi.
=Siburtius=, a satrap of Arachosia, in the age of Alexander, &c.
=Sibyllæ=, certain women inspired by heaven, who flourished in
different parts of the world. Their number is unknown. Plato speaks
of one, others of two, Pliny of three, Ælian of four, and Varro of
10, an opinion which is universally adopted by the learned. These
10 Sibyls generally resided in the following places: Persia, Libya,
Delphi, Cumæ in Italy, Erythræa, Samos, Cumæ in Æolia, Marpessa on
the Hellespont, Ancyra in Phrygia, and Tiburtis. The most celebrated
of the Sibyls is that of Cumæ in Italy, whom some have called by the
different names of Amalthæa, Demophile, Herophile, Daphne, Manto,
Phemonoe, and Deiphobe. It is said that Apollo became enamoured of
her, and that, to make her sensible of his passion, he offered to
give her whatever she should ask. The Sibyl demanded to live as many
years as she had grains of sand in her hand, but unfortunately forgot
to ask for the enjoyment of the health, vigour, and bloom, of which
she was then in possession. The god granted her her request, but
she refused to gratify the passion of her lover, though he offered
her perpetual youth and beauty. Some time after she became old and
decrepit, her form decayed, and melancholy paleness and haggard looks
succeeded to bloom and cheerfulness. She had already lived about 700
years when Æneas came to Italy, and, as some have imagined, she had
three centuries more to live before her years were as numerous as the
grains of sand which she had in her hand. She gave Æneas instructions
how to find his father in the infernal regions, and even conducted
him to the entrance of hell. It was usual for the Sibyl to write her
prophecies on leaves which she placed at the entrance of her cave,
and it required particular care in such as consulted her to take
up those leaves before they were dispersed by the wind, as their
meaning then became incomprehensible. According to the most authentic
historians of the Roman republic, one of the Sibyls came to the
palace of Tarquin II., with nine volumes, which she offered to
sell for a very high price. The monarch disregarded her, and she
immediately disappeared, and soon after returned, when she had burned
three of the volumes. She asked the same price for the remaining six
books; and when Tarquin refused to buy them, she burned three more,
and still persisted in demanding the same sum of money for the three
that were left. This extraordinary behaviour astonished Tarquin; he
bought the books, and the Sibyl instantly vanished, and never after
appeared to the world. These books were preserved with great care by
the monarch, and called the _Sibylline verses_. A college of priests
was appointed to have the care of them; and such reverence did the
Romans entertain for these prophetic books, that they were consulted
with the greatest solemnity, and only when the state seemed to be
in danger. When the capitol was burnt in the troubles of Sylla,
the Sibylline verses, which were deposited there, perished in the
conflagration; and to repair the loss which the republic seemed to
have sustained, commissioners were immediately sent to different
parts of Greece, to collect whatever verses could be found of the
inspired writings of the Sibyls. The fate of the Sibylline verses,
which were collected after the conflagration of the capitol, is
unknown. There are now eight books of Sibylline verses extant, but
they are universally reckoned spurious. They speak so plainly of our
Saviour, of his sufferings, and of his death, as even to surpass far
the sublime prediction of Isaiah in description, and therefore from
this very circumstance, it is evident that they were composed in the
second century, by some of the followers of christianity, who wished
to convince the heathens of their error, by assisting the cause of
truth with the arms of pious artifice. The word _Sibyl_ seems to be
derived from σιου, Æolice for Διος, _Jovis_, and βουλη, _consilium_.
_Plato_, _Phædras_.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 12, ch. 35.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 12, &c.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 14, lis. 109 & 140.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3,
li. 445; bk. 6, li. 36.――_Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 564.――_Pliny_, bk. 13,
ch. 13.――_Florus_, bk. 4, ch. 1.――_Sallust._――_Cicero_, _Against
Catiline_, ch. 3.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 1, ch. 1; bk. 8, ch. 15,
&c.
=Sica=, a man who showed much attention to Cicero in his banishment.
Some suppose that he is the same as the Vibius Siculus mentioned by
_Plutarch_, _Cicero_.――_Cicero_, _Letters to Atticus_, bk. 8, ltr. 12;
_Letters to his Friends_, bk. 14, chs. 4, 15.
=Sĭcambri=, or =Sicambria=, a people of Germany, conquered by the
Romans. They revolted against Augustus, who marched against them,
but did not totally reduce them. Drusus conquered them, and they were
carried away from their native country to inhabit some of the more
westerly provinces of Gaul. _Dio Cassius_, bk. 54.――_Strabo_, bk. 4.
――_Horace_, bk. 4, ode 2, li. 36; ode 14, li. 51.――_Tacitus_, bk. 2,
_Annals_, ch. 26.
=Sicambria=, the country of the Sicambri, formed the modern provinces
of Guelderland. _Claudian_, _Against Eutropius_, bk. 1, li. 383.
=Sĭcāni=, a people of Spain, who left their native country and passed
into Italy, and afterwards into Sicily, which they called _Sicania_.
They inhabited the neighbourhood of mount Ætna, where they built
some cities and villages. Some reckoned them the next inhabitants
of the island after the Cyclops. They were afterwards driven from
their ancient possessions by the Siculi, and retired into the western
parts of the island. _Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 1.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bks. 5 & 13.――_Virgil_, _Eclogues_, poem 10; _Æneid_,
bk. 7, li. 795.――_Diodorus_, bk. 5.――_Horace_, epode 17, li. 32.
=Sĭcānia= and =Sīcănia=, an ancient name of Italy, which it received
from the Sicani, or from Sicanus their king, or from Sicanus, a small
river in Spain, in the territory where they lived, as some suppose.
The name was more generally given to Sicily. _See:_ Sicani.
=Sicca=, a town of Numidia at the west of Carthage. _Sallust_,
_Jugurthine War_, ch. 56.
=Sicĕlis= (Sīcĕlĭdes, plural), an epithet applied to the inhabitants
of Sicily. The Muses are called _Sicelides_ by Virgil, because
Theocritus was a native of Sicily, whom the Latin poet, as a writer
of Bucolic poetry, professed to imitate. _Virgil_, _Eclogues_, poem 4.
=Sichæus=, called also _Sicharbas_ and _Acerbas_, was a priest of the
temple of Hercules in Phœnicia. His father’s name was Plisthenes. He
married Elisa the daughter of Belus, and sister to king Pygmalion,
better known by the name of Dido. He was so extremely rich, that
his brother-in-law murdered him to obtain his possessions. This
murder Pygmalion concealed from his sister Dido; and he amused her by
telling her that her husband had gone upon an affair of importance,
and that he would soon return. This would have perhaps succeeded
had not the shades of Sichæus appeared to Dido, and related to her
the cruelty of Pygmalion, and advised her to fly from Tyre, after
she had previously secured some treasures, which, as he mentioned,
were concealed in an obscure and unknown place. According to Justin,
Acerbas was the uncle of Dido. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 347, &c.
――_Paterculus_, bk. 1, ch. 6.――_Justin_, bk. 18, ch. 4.
=Sicĭlia=, the largest and most celebrated island in the Mediterranean
sea, at the bottom of Italy. It was anciently called _Sicania_,
_Trinacria_, and _Triquetra_. It is of a triangular form, and has
three celebrated promontories, one looking towards Africa, called
Lilybæum; Pachynum looking towards Greece; and Pelorum towards
Italy. Sicily is about 600 miles in circumference, celebrated for
its fertility, so much that it was called one of the granaries of
Rome, and Pliny says that it rewards the husbandman an hundredfold.
Its most famous cities were Syracuse, Messana, Leontini, Lilybæum,
Agrigentum, Gela, Drepanum, Eryx, &c. The highest and most famous
mountain in the island is Ætna, whose frequent eruptions are
dangerous, and often fatal to the country and its inhabitants, from
which circumstance the ancients supposed that the forges of Vulcan
and the Cyclops were placed there. The poets feign that the Cyclops
were the original inhabitants of this island, and that after them
it came into the possession of the Sicani, a people of Spain, and
at last of the Siculi, a nation of Italy. _See:_ Siculi. The plains
of Enna are well known for their excellent honey; and, according to
Diodorus, the hounds lost their scent in hunting on account of the
many odoriferous plants that profusely perfumed the air. Ceres and
Proserpine were the chief deities of the place, and it was there,
according to poetical tradition, that the latter was carried away by
Pluto. The Phœnicians and Greeks settled some colonies there, and at
last the Carthaginians became masters of the whole island till they
were dispossessed of it by the Romans in the Punic wars. Some authors
suppose that Sicily was originally joined to the continent, and that
it was separated from Italy by an earthquake, and that the straits
of the Charybdis were formed. The inhabitants of Sicily were so
fond of luxury, that _Siculæ mensæ_ became proverbial. The rights of
citizens of Rome were extended to them by Marcus Antony. _Cicero_,
bk. 14, _Letters to Atticus_, ltr. 12; _Against Verres_, bk. 2,
ch. 13.――_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 9, &c.――_Justin_, bk. 4, ch. 1, &c.
――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 414, &c.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 14,
li. 11, &c.――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 8, &c.――――The island of Naxos in the
Ægean, was called Little Sicily on account of its fruitfulness.
=Lucius Sicinius Dentātus=, a tribune of Rome, celebrated for his
valour and the honours he obtained in the field of battle, during the
period of 40 years, in which he was engaged in the Roman armies. He
was present in 121 battles: he obtained 14 civic crowns, three mural
crowns, eight crowns of gold, 83 golden collars, 60 bracelets, 18
lances, 23 horses with all their ornaments, and all as the reward of
his uncommon services. He could show the scars of 45 wounds, which he
had received all in his breast, particularly in opposing the Sabines
when they took the capitol. The popularity of Sicinius became odious
to Appius Claudius, who wished to make himself absolute at Rome, and
therefore, to remove him from the capital, he sent him to the army,
by which, soon after his arrival, he was attacked and murdered. Of
100 men who were ordered to fall upon him, Sicinius killed 15, and
wounded 30; and, according to Dionysius, the surviving number had
recourse to artifice to overpower him, by killing him with a shower
of stones and darts thrown at a distance, about 405 years before
the christian era. For his uncommon courage Sicinius has been called
the Roman Achilles. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 3, ch. 2.――_Dionysius of
Halicarnassus_, bk. 8.――――Vellutus, one of the first tribunes in Rome.
He raised cabals against Coriolanus, and was one of his accusers.
_Plutarch_, _Coriolanus_.――――Sabinus, a Roman general who defeated
the Volsci.
=Sicīnus=, a man privately sent by Themistocles to deceive Xerxes, and
to advise him to attack the combined forces of the Greeks. He had been
preceptor to Themistocles. _Plutarch._――――An island, &c.
=Sicŏrus=, now _Segre_, a river of Hispania Tarraconensis, rising in
the Pyrenean mountains, and falling into the Iberus, a little above
its mouth. It was near this city that Julius Cæsar conquered Afranius
and Petreius, the partisans of Pompey. _Lucan_, bk. 4, lis. 14, 130,
&c.――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 3.
=Sicŭli=, a people of Italy, driven from their possessions by the
Opici. They fled into Sicania, or Sicily, where they settled in the
territories which the Sicani inhabited. They soon extended their
borders, and after they had conquered their neighbours the Sicani,
they gave their name to the island. This, as some suppose, happened
about 300 years before Greek colonies settled in the island, or about
1059 years before the christian era. _Diodorus_, bk. 5.――_Dionysius
of Halicarnassus._――_Strabo._
=Sicŭlum fretum=, the sea which separates Sicily from Italy, is 15
miles long, but in some places so narrow, that the barking of dogs
can be heard from shore to shore. This strait is supposed to have
been formed by an earthquake, which separated the island from the
continent. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 8.
=Sicyon=, now _Basilico_, a town of Peloponnesus, the capital of
Sicyonia. It is celebrated as being the most ancient kingdom
of Greece, which began B.C. 2089, and ended B.C. 1088, under a
succession of monarchs of whom little is known, except the names.
Ægialeus was the first king. Some time after, Agamemnon made himself
master of the place, and afterwards it fell into the hands of
the Heraclidæ. It became very powerful in the time of the Achæan
league, which it joined B.C. 251, at the persuasion of Aratus. The
inhabitants of Sicyon are mentioned by some authors as dissolute and
fond of luxury, hence the _Sicyonian shoes_, which were once very
celebrated, were deemed marks of effeminacy. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3,
ch. 5.――_Lucretius_, bk. 1, li. 1118.――_Livy_, bk. 32, ch. 16;
bk. 33, ch. 15.――_Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.――_Plutarch_,
_Demosthenes_.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 1, &c.――_Cicero_, _On
Oratory_, bk. 1, ch. 54.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 2, li. 519.
=Sicyonia=, a province of Peloponnesus, on the bay of Corinth, of which
Sicyon was the capital. It is the most eminent kingdom of Greece, and
in its flourishing situation, not only its dependent states, but also
the whole Peloponnesus, were called Sicyonia. The territory is said
to abound with corn, wine, and olives, and also with iron mines. It
produced many celebrated men, particularly artists. _See:_ Sicyon.
=Side=, the wife of Orion, thrown into hell by Juno, for boasting
herself fairer than the goddess. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 4.――――A
daughter of Belus.――――A daughter of Danaus.――――A town of Pamphylia.
_Livy_, bk. 37, ch. 23.――_Cicero_, bk. 3, _Letters to his Friends_,
ltr. 6.
=Sidēro=, the stepmother of Tyro, killed by Pelias.
=Sidicīnum=, a town of Campania, called also _Teanum_. _See:_ Teanum.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 727.
=Sidon=, an ancient city of Phœnicia, the capital of the country, with
a famous harbour, now called _Said_. It is situate on the shores of
the Mediterranean, at the distance of about 50 miles from Damascus
and 24 from Tyre. The people of Sidon were well known for their
industry, their skill in arithmetic, in astronomy, and commercial
affairs, and in sea voyages. They, however, had the character of
being very dishonest. Their women were peculiarly happy in working
embroidery. The invention of glass, of linen, and of a beautiful
purple dye, is attributed to them. The city of Sidon was taken by
Ochus king of Persia, after the inhabitants had burnt themselves and
the city, B.C. 351; but it was afterwards rebuilt by its inhabitants.
_Lucan_, bk. 3, li. 217; bk. 10, li. 141.――_Diodorus_, bk. 16.
――_Justin_, bk. 11, ch. 10.――_Pliny_, bk. 36, ch. 26.――_Homer_,
_Odyssey_, bk. 15, li. 411.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 12.
=Sidoniorum insulæ=, islands in the Persian gulf. _Strabo_, bk. 16.
=Sidōnis=, is the country of which Sidon was the capital, situate
at the west of Syria, on the coast of the Mediterranean. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 2, fable 19.――――Dido, as a native of the country,
is often called Sidonis. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 14, li. 80.
=Sidonius Caius Sollius Apollinaris=, a christian writer, born A.D.
430. He died in the 52nd year of his age. There are remaining of his
compositions, some letters and different poems, consisting chiefly
of panegyrics on the great men of his time, written in heroic verse,
and occasionally in other metre, of which the best edition is that
of Labbæus, Paris, 4to, 1652.――――The epithet of _Sidonius_ is applied
not only to the natives of Sidon, but it is used to express the
excellence of anything, especially embroidery or dyed garments.
Carthage is called _Sidonia urbs_, because built by Sidonians.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 682.
=Siena Julia=, a town of Etruria. _Cicero_, _Brutus_, ch. 18.
――_Tacitus_, bk. 4, _Histories_, ch. 45.
♦=Siga=, now _Ned-Roma_, a town of Numidia, famous as the residence of
Syphax. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 11.
♦ ‘Sida’ replaced with ‘Siga’
=Sigæum=, or =Sigēum=, now cape _Incihisari_, a town of Troas, on a
promontory of the same name, where the Scamander falls into the sea,
extending six miles along the shore. It was near Sigæum that the
greatest part of the battles between the Greeks and Trojans were
fought, as Homer mentions, and there Achilles was buried. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 2, li. 312; bk. 7, li. 294.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 12, li. 71.――_Lucan_, bk. 9, li. 962.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 18.
――_Strabo_, bk. 13.――_Dictys Cretensis_, bk. 5, ch. 12.
=Signia=, an ancient town of Latium, whose inhabitants were called
_Signini_. The wine of Signia was used by the ancients for medicinal
purposes. _Martial_, bk. 13, ltr. 116.――――A mountain of Phrygia.
_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 29.
=Sigovessus=, a prince among the Celtæ, in the reign of Tarquin.
_Livy_, bk. 5, ch. 34.
=Sigȳni=, =Sigunæ=, or =Sigynnæ=, a nation of European Scythia, beyond
the Danube. _Herodotus_, bk. 5, ch. 9.
=Sila=, or =Syla=, a large wood in the country of the Brutii near
the Apennines, abounding in much pitch. _Strabo_, bk. 6.――_Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 12, li. 713.
=Silāna Julia=, a woman at the court of Nero, remarkable for her
licentiousness and impurities. She married Caius Julius, by whom she
was divorced.
=Decimus Silānus=, a son of Titus Manlius Torquatus, accused of
extortion in the management of the province of Macedonia. The
father himself desired to hear the complaints laid against his
son, and after he had spent two days in examining the charges of
the Macedonians, he pronounced on the third day his son guilty of
extortion, and unworthy to be called a citizen of Rome. He also
banished him from his presence, and so struck was the son at the
severity of his father, that he hanged himself on the following
night. _Livy_, bk. 54.――_Cicero_, _de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum_.
――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 5, ch. 8.――――Caius Junius, a consul under
Tiberius, accused of extortion, and banished to the island of Cythere.
_Tacitus._――――Marcus, a lieutenant of Cæsar’s armies in Gaul.――――The
father-in-law of Caligula. _Suetonius_, _ Caligula_, ch. 22.――――A
propretor in Spain, who routed the Carthaginian forces there, while
Annibal was in Italy.――――Turpilius, a lieutenant of Metellus against
Jugurtha. He was accused by Marius, though totally innocent, and
condemned by the malice of his judges.――――Torquatus, a man put to
death by Nero.――――Lucius, a man betrothed to Octavia the daughter
of Claudius. Nero took Octavia away from him, and on the day of her
nuptials, ♦Silanus killed himself.――――An augur in the army of the
10,000 Greeks, at their return from Cunaxa.
♦ ‘Salinus’ replaced with ‘Silanus’
=Sĭlărus=, a river of Picenum, rising in the Apennine mountains,
and falling into the Tyrrhene sea. Its waters, as it is reported,
petrified all leaves that fell into it. _Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Mela_,
bk. 2, ch. 4.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 3, li. 146.――_Pliny_, bk. 2,
ch. 103.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 2, li. 582.
=Silēni=, a people on the banks of the Indus. _Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 20.
=Silēnus=, a demi-god, who became the nurse, the preceptor, and
attendant of the god Bacchus. He was, as some suppose, son of Pan,
or, according to others, of Mercury, or of Terra. Malea in Lesbos was
the place of his birth. After death he received divine honours, and
had a temple in Elis. Silenus is generally represented as a fat and
jolly old man, riding on an ass, crowned with flowers, and always
intoxicated. He was once found by some peasants in Phrygia, after he
had lost his way, and could not follow Bacchus, and he was carried
to king Midas, who received him with great attention. He detained
him for 10 days, and afterwards restored him to Bacchus, for which he
was rewarded with the power of turning into gold whatever he touched.
Some authors assert that Silenus was a philosopher, who accompanied
Bacchus in his Indian expedition, and assisted him by the soundness
of his counsels. From this circumstance, therefore, he is often
introduced speaking with all the gravity of a philosopher concerning
the formation of the world, and the nature of things. The Fauns
in general, and the Satyrs, are often called Sileni. _Pausanias_,
bk. 3, ch. 25; bk. 6, ch. 24.――_Philostratus_, bk. 23.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 4.――_Hyginus_, fable 191.――_Diodorus_, bk. 3,
&c.――_Cicero_, _Tusculanæ Disputationes_, bk. 1, ch. 48.――_Ælian_,
_Varia Historia_, bk. 3, ch. 18.――_Virgil_, _Eclogues_, poem 6, li.
13.――――A Carthaginian historian who wrote an account of the affairs
of his country in the Greek language.――――An historian who wrote an
account of Sicily.
=Silicense=, a river of Spain.
=Silicis mons=, a town near Padua.
=Silis=, a river of Venetia in Italy, falling into the Adriatic.
_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 18.
=Catius Silius Italĭcus=, a Latin poet, who was originally at the bar,
where he for some time distinguished himself, till he retired from
Rome more particularly to consecrate his time to study. He was consul
the year that Nero was murdered. Pliny has observed, that when Trajan
was invested with the imperial purple, Silius refused to come to Rome
and congratulate him like the rest of his fellow-citizens, a neglect
which was never resented by the emperor, or insolently mentioned by
the poet. ♦Silius was in possession of a house where Cicero had lived,
and another in which was the tomb of Virgil, and it has been justly
remarked, that he looked upon no temple with greater reverence than
upon the sepulchre of the immortal poet, whose steps he followed,
but whose fame he could not equal. The birthday of Virgil was yearly
celebrated with unusual pomp and solemnity by Silius; and for his
partiality, not only to the memory, but to the compositions of the
Mantuan poet, he has been called the ape of Virgil. Silius starved
himself when labouring under an imposthume which his physicians were
unable to remove, in the beginning of Trajan’s reign, about the 75th
year of his age. There remains a poem of Italicus, on the second
Punic war, divided into 17 books, greatly commended by Martial. The
moderns have not been so favourable in their opinions concerning its
merit. The poetry is weak and inelegant, yet the author deserves to
be commended for his purity, the authenticity of his narrations, and
his interesting descriptions. He has everywhere imitated Virgil, but
with little success. ♦Silius was a great collector of antiquities.
His son was honoured with the consulship during his lifetime. The
best editions of Italicus will be found to be Drakenborch’s in 4to,
Utrecht, 1717, and that of Cellarius, 8vo, Lipscomb, 1695. _Martial_,
bk. 11, ltr. 49, &c.――――Caius, a man of consular dignity, greatly
beloved by Messalina for his comely appearance and elegant address.
Messalina obliged him to divorce his wife, that she might enjoy his
company without intermission. Silius was forced to comply, though
with reluctance, and he was at last put to death for the adulteries
which the empress obliged him to commit. _Tacitus._――_Suetonius._
――_Dio Cassius._――――A tribune in Cæsar’s legions in Gaul.――――A
commander in Germany, put to death by Sejanus. _Tacitus_, _Annals_,
bks. ♠3 & 4.
♦ ‘Silinus’ replaced with ‘Silius’
♠ ‘5’ replaced with ‘3’
=Silphium=, a part of Libya.
=Silpia=, a town of Spain. _Livy_, bk. 28, ch. 12.
=Silvānus=, a rural deity, son of an Italian shepherd by a goat. From
this circumstance he is generally represented as half a man and
half a goat. According to Virgil, he was son of Picus, or, as others
report, of Mars, or, according to Plutarch, of Valeria Tusculanaria,
a young woman, who introduced herself into her father’s bed, and
became pregnant by him. The worship of Silvanus was established
only in Italy, where, as some authors have imagined, he reigned in
the age of Evander. This deity was sometimes represented holding
a cypress in his hand, because he became enamoured of a beautiful
youth called Cyparissus, who was changed into a tree of the
same name. Silvanus presided over gardens and limits, and he is
often confounded with the Fauns, Satyrs, and Silenus. _Plutarch_,
_Parallela minora_.――_Virgil_, _Eclogues_, poem 10; _Germania_,
bk. 1, li. 20; bk. 2, li. 493.――_Ælian_, _de Natura Animalium_,
bk. 6, ch. 42.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 10.――_Horace_, epode 2.
――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus._――――A man who murdered his wife
Apronia, by throwing her down from one of the windows of her
chambers.――――One of those who conspired against Nero.――――An officer
of Constantius, who revolted and made himself emperor. He was
assassinated by his soldiers.
=Silvium=, a town of Apulia, now _Gorgolione_. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 11.
――――A town of Istria.
=Silures=, the people of South Wales in Britain.
=Simbrivius=, or =Simbruvius=, a lake of Latium, formed by the Anio.
_Tacitus_, bk. 14, _Annals_, ch. 22.
=Simena=, a town of Lycia near Chimæra. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 27.
=Simēthus=, or =Symēthus=, a town and river at the east of Sicily,
which served as a boundary between the territories of the people of
Catana and the Leontini. In its neighbourhood the gods Palici were
born. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 584.
=Simĭlæ=, a grove at Rome where the orgies of Bacchus were celebrated.
_Livy_, bk. 39, ch. 12.
=Similis=, one of the courtiers of Trajan, who removed from Rome into
the country to enjoy peace and solitary retirement.
=Simmias=, a philosopher of Thebes, who wrote dialogues.――――A
grammarian of Rhodes.――――A Macedonian suspected of conspiracy against
Alexander, on account of his intimacy with Philotas. _Curtius_, bk. 7,
ch. 1.
=Simo=, a comic character in Terence.
=Sĭmois= (entis), a river of Troas, which rises in mount Ida and falls
into the Xanthus. It is celebrated by Homer and most of the ancients
poets, as in its neighbourhood were fought many battles during
the Trojan war. It is found to be but a small rivulet by modern
travellers, and even some have disputed its existence. _Homer_,
_Iliad_.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 104; bk. 3, li. 302, &c.
――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 31, li. 324.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 18.
=Simosius=, a Trojan prince, son of Anthemion, killed by Ajax. _Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 4, li. 473.
=Simon=, a currier of Athens, whom Socrates often visited on account
of his great sagacity and genius. He collected all the information
he could receive from the conversation of the philosopher, and
afterwards published it with his own observations in 33 dialogues.
He was the first of the disciples of Socrates who attempted to give
an account of the opinions of his master concerning virtue, justice,
poetry, music, honour, &c. These dialogues were extant in the age
of the biographer Diogenes, who has preserved their title. _Diogenes
Laërtius_, bk. 2, ch. 14.――――Another who wrote on rhetoric. _Diogenes
Laërtius_, bk. 2, ch. 14.――――A sculptor. _Diogenes Laërtius_, bk. 2,
ch. 14.――――The name of Simon was common among the Jews.
=Sĭmōnĭdes=, a celebrated poet of Cos, who flourished 538 years B.C.
His father’s name was Leoprepis, or Theoprepis. He wrote elegies,
epigrams, and dramatical pieces, esteemed for their elegance and
sweetness, and composed also epic poems, one on Cambyses king of
Persia, &c. Simonides was universally courted by the princes of
Greece and Sicily, and according to one of the fables of Phædrus,
he was such a favourite of the gods, that his life was miraculously
preserved in an entertainment when the roof of the house fell upon
all those who were feasting. He obtained a poetical prize in the
80th year of his age, and he lived to his 90th year. The people
of Syracuse, who had hospitably honoured him when alive, erected a
magnificent monument to his memory. Simonides, according to some,
added the four letters η, ω, ξ, ψ to the alphabet of the Greeks.
Some fragments of his poetry are extant. According to some, the
grandson of the elegiac poet of Cos was also called Simonides. He
flourished a few years before the Peloponnesian war, and was the
author of some books of inventions, genealogies, &c. _Quintilian_,
bk. 10, ch. 1.――_Phædras_, bk. 4, fables 21 & 24.――_Horace_,
bk. 2, ode 1, li. 38.――_Herodotus_, bk. 5, ch. 102.――_Cicero_,
_On Oratory_, &c.――_Aristotle._――_Pindar_, _Isthmean_, poem 2.
――_Catullus_, bk. 1, poem 39.――_Lucian_, _Macrobii_.――_Ælian_,
_Varia Historia_, bk. 8, ch. 2.
=Simplicius=, a Greek commentator on Aristotle, whose works were all
edited in the 16th century, and the latter part of the 15th, but
without a Latin version.
=Simŭlus=, an ancient poet, who wrote some verses on the Tarpeian rock.
_Plutarch_, _Romulus_.
=Simus=, a king of Arcadia after Phialus. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 5.
=Simyra=, a town of Phœnicia. _Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 12.
=Sinæ=, a people of India called by Ptolemy the most eastern nation of
the world.
=Sindæ=, islands in the Indian ocean, supposed to be the _Nicobar_
islands.
=Sindi=, a people of European Scythia, on the Palus Mæotis. _Flaccus_,
bk. 6, li. 86.
=Singæi=, a people on the confines of Macedonia and Thrace.
=Singara=, a city at the north of Mesopotamia, now _Sinjar_.
=Singulis=, a river of Spain falling into the Guadalquiver.
=Singus=, a town of Macedonia.
=Sinis=, a famous robber. _See:_ Scinis.
=Sinnaces=, a Parthian of an illustrious family, who conspired against
his prince, &c. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 6, ch. 31.
=Sinnăcha=, a town of Mesopotamia, where Crassus was put to death by
Surena.
=Sinoe=, a nymph of Arcadia, who brought up Pan.
=Sinon=, a son of Sisyphus, who accompanied the Greeks to the Trojan
war, and there distinguished himself by his cunning and fraud, and
his intimacy with Ulysses. When the Greeks had fabricated the famous
wooden horse, Sinon went to Troy with his hands bound behind his back,
and by the most solemn protestations, assured Priam that the Greeks
were gone from Asia, and that they had been ordered to sacrifice one
of their soldiers, to render the wind favourable to their return,
and that because the lot had fallen upon him, at the instigation
of Ulysses, he had fled away from their camp, not to be cruelly
immolated. These false assertions were immediately credited by the
Trojans, and Sinon advised Priam to bring into his city the wooden
horse which the Greeks had left behind them, and to consecrate it to
Minerva. His advice was followed, and Sinon in the night, to complete
his perfidy, opened the side of the horse, from which issued a number
of armed Greeks, who surprised the Trojans, and pillaged their city.
_Dares Phrygius._――_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 8, li. 492; bk. 11, li.
521.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 2, li. 79, &c.――_Pausanias_, bk. 10,
ch. 27.――_Quintus Smyrnæus_, bk. 12, &c.
=Sinōpe=, a daughter of the Asopus by Methron. She was beloved by
Apollo, who carried her away to the border of the Euxine sea, in Asia
Minor, where she gave birth to a son called Syrus. _Diodorus_, bk. 4.
――――A seaport town of Asia Minor, in Pontus, now _Sinah_, founded or
rebuilt by a colony of Milesians. It was long an independent state,
till Pharnaces king of Pontus seized it. It was the capital of Pontus,
under Mithridates, and was the birthplace of Diogenes the cynic
philosopher. It received its name from Sinope, whom Apollo carried
there. _Ovid_, _ex Ponto_, bk. 1, poem 3, li. 67.――_Strabo_, bks. 2 &
12.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 19.――――The original name
of Sinuessa.
=Sinorix=, a governor of Gaul, &c. _Polyænus_, bk. 8.
=Sintice=, a district of Macedonia.
=Sintii=, a nation of Thracians, who inhabited Lemnos, when Vulcan fell
there from heaven. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 1, li. 594.
=Sinuessa=, a maritime town of Campania, originally called _Sinope_.
It was celebrated for its hot baths and mineral waters, which
cured people of insanity, and rendered women prolific. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 15, li. 715.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 4.――_Strabo_,
bk. 5.――_Livy_, bk. 22, ch. 13.――_Martial_, bk. 6, ltr. 42; bk. 11,
ltr. 8.――_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 12.
=Sion=, one of the hills on which Jerusalem was built.
=Siphnos=, now _Sifano_, one of the Cyclades, situate at the west of
Paros, 20 miles in circumference, according to Pliny, or, according
to modern travellers, 40. Siphnos had many excellent harbours, and
produced great plenty of delicious fruit. The inhabitants were so
depraved, that their licentiousness became proverbial. They, however,
behaved with spirit in the Persian wars, and refused to give earth
and water to the emissaries of Xerxes in token of submission. There
were some gold mines in Siphnos, of which Apollo demanded a tenth
part. When the inhabitants refused to continue to offer part of their
gold to the god of Delphi, the island was inundated, and the mines
disappeared. The air was so wholesome that many of the natives lived
to their 120th year. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 11.――_Herodotus_, bk. 8,
ch. 46.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 7.――_Strabo_, bk. 10.
=Sipontum=, =Sipus=, or =Sepus=, a maritime town in Apulia in Italy,
founded by Diomedes after his return from the Trojan war. _Strabo_,
bk. 6.――_Lucan_, bk. 5, li. 377.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 4.
=Sipy̆lum= and =Sipy̆lus=, a town of Lydia, with a mountain of the same
name near the Meander, formerly called _Ceraunius_. The town was
destroyed by an earthquake, with 12 others in the neighbourhood,
in the reign of Tiberius. _Strabo_, bks. 1 & 2.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1,
ch. 20.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 5.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 24.
――_Hyginus_, fable 9.――_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 2, ch. 47.――――One of
Niobe’s children, killed by Apollo. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 6,
fable 6.
=Sirbo=, a lake between Egypt and Palestine, now _Sebaket Bardoil_.
_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 13.
=Sīrēnes=, sea nymphs who charmed so much with their melodious voice,
that all forgot their employments to listen with more attention, and
at last died for want of food. They were daughters of the Achelous
by the muse Calliope, or, according to others, by Melpomene or
Terpsichore. They were three in number, called Parthenope, Ligeia,
and Leucosia, or, according to others, Mœolpe, Aglaophonos, and
Thelxiope, or Thelxione, and they usually lived in a small island
near cape Pelorus in Sicily. Some authors suppose that they were
monsters, who had the form of a woman above the waist, and the rest
of the body like that of a bird; or rather that the whole body was
covered with feathers, and had the shape of a bird, except the head,
which was that of a beautiful female. This monstrous form they had
received from Ceres, who wished to punish them, because they had not
assisted her daughter when carried away by Pluto. But, according to
Ovid, they were so disconsolate at the rape of Proserpine, that they
prayed the gods to give them wings that they might seek her in the
sea as well as by land. The Sirens were informed by the oracle, that
as soon as any persons passed by them without suffering themselves
to be charmed by their ♦songs, they should perish; and their melody
had prevailed in calling the attention of all passengers, till
Ulysses, informed of the power of their voice by Circe, stopped the
ears of his companions with wax, and ordered himself to be tied to
the mast of his ship, and no attention to be paid to his commands,
should he wish to stay and listen to their song. This was a salutary
precaution. Ulysses made signs for his companions to stop, but they
were disregarded, and the fatal coast was passed with safety. Upon
this artifice of Ulysses, the Sirens were so disappointed, that they
threw themselves into the sea and perished. Some authors say that the
Sirens challenged the Muses to a trial of skill in singing, and that
the latter proved victorious, and plucked the feathers from the wings
of their adversaries, with which they made themselves crowns. The
place where the Sirens destroyed themselves was afterwards called
_Sirenis_, on the coast of Sicily. Virgil, however, _Æneid_, bk. 5,
li. 864, places the _Sirenum Scoupli_ on the coast of Italy, near
the island of Caprea. Some suppose that the Sirens were a number of
lascivious women in Sicily, who prostituted themselves to strangers,
and made them forget their pursuits while drowned in unlawful
pleasures. The Sirens are often represented holding, one a lyre, a
second a flute, and the third singing. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 6.
――_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 12, li. 167.――_Strabo_, bk. 6.――_Ammianus_,
bk. 29, ch. 2.――_Hyginus_, fable 141.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 4.
――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, li. 555; _De Ars Amatoria_, bk. 3,
li. 311.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 12, li. 33.
♦ ‘sons’ replaced with ‘songs’
=Sirenūsæ=, three small rocky islands near the coast of Campania, where
the Sirens were supposed to reside.
=Siris=, a town of Magna Græcia, founded by a Grecian colony after the
Trojan war, at the mouth of the river of the same name. There was
a battle fought near it between Pyrrhus and the Romans. _Dionysius
Periegetes_, li. 221.――――The Æthiopians gave that name to the Nile
before its divided streams united into one current. _Pliny_, bk. 5,
ch. 9.――――A town of Pæonia in Thrace.
=Sirius=, or =Canicŭla=, the dog-star, whose appearance, as the
ancients supposed, always caused great heat on the earth. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 141.
=Sirmio=, now _Sermione_, a peninsula in the lake Benacus, where
Catullus had a villa. _Catullus_, poem 31.
=Sirmium=, the capital of Pannonia, at the confluence of the Savus and
Bacuntius, very celebrated during the reign of the Roman emperors.
=Sisamnes=, a judge flayed alive for his partiality, by order of
Cambyses. His skin was nailed on the benches of the other judges, to
incite them to act with candour and impartiality. _Herodotus_, bk. 5,
ch. 25.
=Sisapho=, a Corinthian, who had murdered his brother, because he had
put his children to death. _Ovid_, _Ibis_.
=Sisapo=, a town of Spain, famous for its vermilion mines, whose
situation is not well ascertained. _Pliny_, bk. 33, ch. 7.――_Cicero_,
_Philippics_, bk. 2, ch. 19.
=Siscia=, a town of Pannonia, now _Sisseg_.
=Sisenes=, a Persian deserter, who conspired against Alexander, &c.
_Curtius_, bk. 3, ch. 7.
=Lucius Sisenna=, an ancient historian among the Romans, 91 B.C. He
wrote an account of the republic, of which Cicero speaks with great
warmth, and also translated from the Greek the Milesian fables of
Aristides. Some fragments of his compositions are quoted by different
authors. _Ovid_, _Tristia_, bk. 2, li. 443.――_Cicero_, _Brutus_,
ltrs. 64 & 67.――_Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 9.――――Cornelius, a Roman,
who, on being reprimanded in the senate for the ill conduct and
depraved manners of his wife, accused publicly Augustus of unlawful
commerce with her. _Dio Cassius_, bk. 54.――――The family of the
Cornelii and Apronii received the surname of Sisenna. They are
accused of intemperate loquacity in the Augustan age, by _Horace_,
bk. 1, satire 7, li. 8.
=Sisigambis=, or =Sisygambis=, the mother of Darius the last king of
Persia. She was taken prisoner by Alexander the Great at the battle
of Issus, with the rest of the royal family. The conqueror treated
her with uncommon tenderness and attention; he saluted her as his
own mother, and what he had sternly denied to the petitions of his
favourites and ministers, he often granted to the intercession of
Sisygambis. The regard of the queen for Alexander was uncommon, and,
indeed, she no sooner heard that he was dead, than she killed herself,
unwilling to survive the loss of so generous an enemy; though she
had seen, with less concern, the fall of her son’s kingdom, the ruin
of his subjects, and himself murdered by his servants. She had also
lost, in one day, her husband and 80 of her brothers, whom Ochus
had assassinated to make himself master of the kingdom of Persia.
_Curtius_, bk. 4, ch. 9; bk. 10, ch. 5.
=Sisimithræ=, a fortified place of Bactriana, 15 stadia high, 80 in
circumference, and plain at the top. Alexander married Roxana there.
_Strabo_, bk. 11.
=Sisocostus=, one of the friends of Alexander, entrusted with the care
of the rock Aornus. _Curtius_, bk. 8, ch. 11.
=Sisy̆phus=, a brother of Athamas and Salmoneus, son of Æolus and
Enaretta, the most crafty prince of the heroic ages. He married
Merope the daughter of Atlas, or, according to others, of Pandareus,
by whom he had several children. He built Ephyre, called afterwards
Corinth, and he debauched Tyro the daughter of Salmoneus, because
he had been told by an oracle that his children by his brother’s
daughter would avenge the injuries which he had suffered from the
malevolence of Salmoneus. Tyro, however, as Hyginus says, destroyed
the two sons whom she had by her uncle. It is reported that Sisyphus,
mistrusting Autolycus, who stole the neighbouring flocks, marked
his bulls under the feet, and when they had been carried away by the
dishonesty of his friend, he confounded and astonished the thief by
selecting from his numerous flocks those bulls which, by the mark,
he knew to be his own. The artifice of Sisyphus was so pleasing to
Autolycus, who had now found one more cunning than himself, that he
permitted him to enjoy the company of his daughter Anticlea, whom a
few days after he gave in marriage to Laertes of Ithaca. After his
death, Sisyphus was condemned in hell to roll to the top of a hill
a large stone, which had no sooner reached the summit than it fell
back into the plain with impetuosity, and rendered his punishment
eternal. The causes of this rigorous sentence are variously reported.
Some attribute it to his continual depredations in the neighbouring
country, and his cruelty in laying heaps of stones on those whom he
had plundered, and suffering them to expire in the most agonizing
torments. Others, to the insult offered to Pluto, in chaining Death
in his palace, and detaining her till Mars, at the request of the
king of hell, went to deliver her from confinement. Others suppose
that Jupiter inflicted this punishment because he told Asopus where
his daughter Ægina had been carried away by her ravisher. The more
followed opinion, however, is, that Sisyphus, on his death-bed,
entreated his wife to leave his body unburied, and when he came
into Pluto’s kingdom, he received the permission of returning upon
earth to punish this seeming negligence of his wife, but, however,
on promise of immediately returning. But he was no sooner out of the
infernal regions, than he violated his engagements, and when he was
at last brought back to hell by Mars, Pluto, to punish his want of
fidelity and honour, condemned him to roll a huge stone to the top
of a mountain. The institution of the Pythian games is attributed
by some to Sisyphus. To be of the blood of Sisyphus was deemed
disgraceful among the ancients. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 11, li. 592.
――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 616.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 4,
li. 459; bk. 13, li. 32; _Fasti_, bk. 4, li. 175; _Ibis_, li. 191.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, &c.――_Hyginus_, fable 60.――_Horace_, bk. 2, ode
14, li. 20.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 4.――――A son of Marcus Antony,
who was born deformed, and received the name of Sisyphus, because
he was endowed with genius and an excellent understanding. _Horace_,
bk. 1, satire 3, li. 47.
=Sitalces=, one of Alexander’s generals, imprisoned for his cruelty and
avarice in the government of his province. _Curtius_, bk. 10, ch. 1.
――――A king of Thrace, B.C. 436.
=Sithnĭdes=, certain nymphs of a fountain in Megara. _Pausanias_, bk. 1,
ch. 40.
=Sithon=, a king of Thrace.――――An island in the Ægean.
=Sithŏnia=, a country of Thrace between mount Hæmus and the Danube.
Sithonia is often applied to all Thrace, and thence the epithet
_Sithonis_, so often used by the poets. It received its name from
king Sithon. _Horace_, bk. 1, ode 18, li. 9.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 6, li. 588; bk. 7, li. 466; bk. 13, li. 571.――_Herodotus_, bk. 7,
ch. 122.
=Sitius=, a Roman who assisted Cæsar in Africa with great success. He
was rewarded with a province of Numidia. _Sallust_, _Jugurthine War_,
ch. 21.
=Sitones=, a nation of Germany, or modern Norway, according to some.
_Tacitus_, _Germania_, ch. 45.
=Sittace=, a town of Assyria. _Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 27.
=Smaragdus=, a town of Egypt on the Arabian gulf, where emeralds
(_smaragdi_) were dug. _Strabo_, bk. 16.
=Smenus=, a river of Laconia rising in mount Taygetus, and falling into
the sea near Hypsos. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 24.
=Smerdis=, a son of Cyrus, put to death by order of his brother
Cambyses. As his execution was not public, and as it was only known
to one of the officers of the monarch, one of the Magi of Persia, who
was himself called Smerdis, and who greatly resembled the deceased
prince, declared himself king, at the death of Cambyses. This
usurpation would not, perhaps, have been known, had not he taken too
many precautions to conceal it. After he had reigned for six months
with universal approbation, seven noblemen of Persia conspired to
dethrone him, and when this had been executed with success, they
chose one of their number to reign in the usurper’s place, B.C. 521.
This was Darius the son of Hystaspes. _Herodotus_, bk. 3, ch. 30.
――_Justin_, bk. 1, ch. 9.
=Smilax=, a beautiful shepherdess who became enamoured of Crocus. She
was changed into a flower, as also her lover. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 4, li. 283.
=Smilis=, a statuary of Ægina in the age of Dædalus. _Pausanias_, bk. 7.
=Smindyrides=, a native of Sybaris, famous for his luxury. _Ælian_,
_Varia Historia_, bk. 9, ch. 24, & bk. 12, ch. 24.
=Smintheus=, one of the surnames of Apollo in Phrygia, where the
inhabitants raised him a temple, because he had destroyed a number
of rats that infested the country. These rats were called σμινθαι, in
the language of Phrygia, whence the surname. There is another story
similar to this related by the Greek scholiast of _Homer_, _Iliad_,
bk. 1, li. 39.――_Strabo_, bk. 13.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12,
li. 585.
=Smyrna=, a celebrated seaport town of Ionia in Asia Minor, built, as
some suppose, by Tantalus, or, according to others, by the Æolians.
It has been subject to many revolutions, and been severally in
the possession of the Æolians, Ionians, Lydians, and Macedonians.
Alexander, or according to Strabo, Lysimachus, rebuilt it 400 years
after it had been destroyed by the Lydians. It was one of the richest
and most powerful cities of Asia, and became one of the 12 cities
of the Ionian confederacy. The inhabitants were given much to luxury
and indolence, but they were universally esteemed for their valour
and intrepidity when called to action. Marcus Aurelius repaired it
after it had been destroyed by an earthquake, about the 180th year
of the christian era. Smyrna still continues to be a very commercial
town. The river Meles flows near its walls. The inhabitants of Smyrna
believed that Homer was born among them, and to confirm this opinion
they not only paid him divine honours, but showed a place which
bore the poet’s name, and also had a brass coin in circulation which
was called _Homerium_. Some suppose that it was called Smyrna from
an Amazon of the same name who took possession of it. _Herodotus_,
bk. 1, ch. 16, &c.――_Strabo_, bks. 12 & 14.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 8,
li. 565.――_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 8.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 17.――――A
daughter of Thias, mother of Adonis.――――An Amazon.――――The name of a
poem which Cinna, a Latin poet, composed in nine years, and which was
worthy of admiration, according to _Catullus_, poem 94.
=Smyrnæus=, a Greek poet of the third century, called also Calaber.
_See:_ Calaber.
=Soana=, a river of Albania. _Ptolemy._
=Soanda=, a town of Armenia.
=Soanes=, a people of Colchis, near Caucasus, in whose territories
the rivers abound with golden sands, which the inhabitants gather
in wool skins, whence, perhaps, arose the fable of the golden fleece.
_Strabo_, bk. 11.――_Pliny_, bk. 33, ch. 3.
=Sōcrătes=, the most celebrated philosopher of all antiquity, was
a native of Athens. His father Sophroniscus was a statuary, and
his mother Phænarete was by profession a midwife. For some time he
followed the occupation of his father, and some have mentioned the
statues of the graces, admired for their simplicity and elegance,
as the work of his own hands. He was called away from this meaner
employment, of which, however, he never blushed, by Crito, who
admired his genius and courted his friendship. Philosophy soon became
the study of Socrates, and under Archelaus and Anaxagoras he laid the
foundation of that exemplary virtue which succeeding ages have ever
loved and venerated. He appeared like the rest of his countrymen in
the field of battle; he fought with boldness and intrepidity, and to
his courage two of his friends and disciples, Xenophon and Alcibiades,
owed the preservation of their lives. But the character of Socrates
appears more conspicuous and dignified as a philosopher and moralist
than as a warrior. He was fond of labour, he inured himself to suffer
hardships, and he acquired that serenity of mind and firmness of
countenance, which the most alarming dangers could never destroy, or
the most sudden calamities alter. If he was poor, it was from choice,
and not the effects of vanity, or the wish of appearing singular. He
bore injuries with patience, and the insults of malice or resentment
he not only treated with contempt, but even received with a mind
that expressed some concern, and felt compassion for the depravity
of human nature. So singular and so venerable a character was admired
by the most enlightened of the Athenians. Socrates was attended by
a number of illustrious pupils, whom he instructed by his exemplary
life, as well as by his doctrines. He had no particular place where
to deliver his lectures, but as the good of his countrymen, and the
reformation of their corrupted morals, and not the aggregation of
riches, was the object of his study, he was present everywhere, and
drew the attention of his auditors either in the groves of Academus,
the Lyceum, or on the banks of the Ilyssus. He spoke with freedom
on every subject, religious as well as civil; and had the courage to
condemn the violence of his countrymen, and to withstand the torrent
of resentment, by which the Athenian generals were capitally punished
for not burying the dead at the battle of Arginusæ. This independence
of spirit, and that visible superiority of mind and genius over the
rest of his countrymen, created many enemies to Socrates; but as his
character was irreproachable, and his doctrines pure, and void of all
obscurity, the voice of malevolence was silent. Yet Aristophanes soon
undertook, at the instigation of Melitus, in his comedy of the Clouds,
to ridicule the venerable character of Socrates on the stage; and
when once the way was open to calumny and defamation, the fickle and
licentious populace paid no reverence to the philosopher whom they
had before regarded as a being of a superior order. When this had
succeeded, Melitus stood forth to criminate him, together with Anytus
and Lycon, and the philosopher was summoned before the tribunal of
the 500. He was accused of corrupting the Athenian youth, of making
innovations in the religion of the Greeks, and of ridiculing the many
gods whom the Athenians worshipped; yet, false as this might appear,
the accusers relied for the success of their cause upon the perjury
of false witnesses, and the envy of the judges, whose ignorance
would readily yield to misrepresentation, and be influenced and
guided by eloquence and artifice. In this their expectations were not
frustrated, and while the judges expected submission from Socrates,
and that meanness of behaviour and servility of defence which
distinguished criminals, the philosopher, perhaps, accelerated his
own fall by the firmness of his mind, and his uncomplying integrity.
Lysias, one of the most celebrated orators of the age, composed
an oration in a laboured and pathetic style, which he offered to
his friend to be pronounced as his defence in the presence of his
judges. Socrates read it, but after he had praised the eloquence
and the animation of the whole, he rejected it, as neither manly
nor expressive of fortitude, and comparing it to Sicyonian shoes,
which, though fitting, were proofs of effeminacy, he observed, that a
philosopher ought to be conspicuous for magnanimity and for firmness
of soul. In his apology he spoke with great animation, and confessed
that while others boasted that they were acquainted with everything,
he himself knew nothing. The whole discourse was full of simplicity
and noble grandeur, the energetic language of offended innocence. He
modestly said, that what he possessed was applied for the service of
the Athenians; it was his wish to make his fellow-citizens happy, and
it was a duty which he performed by the special command of the gods,
“whose authority,” said he, emphatically to his judges, “I regard
more than yours.” Such language from a man who was accused of a
capital crime, astonished and irritated the judges. Socrates was
condemned, but only by a majority of three voices; and when he was
demanded, according to the spirit of the Athenian laws, to pass
sentence on himself, and to mention the death he preferred, the
philosopher said, “For my attempts to teach the Athenian youth
justice and moderation, and render the rest of my countrymen more
happy, let me be maintained at the public expense the remaining
years of my life in the Prytaneum, an honour, O Athenians, which
I deserve more than the victors of the Olympic games. They make
their countrymen more happy in appearance, but I have made you so
in reality.” This exasperated the judges in the highest degree, and
he was condemned to drink hemlock. Upon this he addressed the court,
and more particularly the judges who had decided in his favour, in
a pathetic speech. He told them that to die was a pleasure, since
he was going to hold converse with the greatest heroes of antiquity;
he recommended to their paternal care his defenceless children,
and as he returned to prison, he exclaimed: “I go to die, you to
live; but which is the best the Divinity alone can know.” The solemn
celebration of the Delian festivals [_See:_ Delia] prevented his
execution for 30 days, and during that time he was confined in the
prison and loaded with irons. His friends, and particularly his
disciples, were his constant attendants; he discoursed with them upon
different subjects with all his usual cheerfulness and serenity. He
reproved them for their sorrow, and when one of them was uncommonly
grieved because he was to suffer, though innocent, the philosopher
replied, “Would you then have me die guilty?” With this composure he
spent his last days. He continued to be a preceptor till the moment
of his death, and instructed his pupils on questions of the greatest
importance; he told them his opinions in support of the immortality
of the soul, and reprobated with acrimony the prevalent custom of
suicide. He disregarded the intercession of his friends, and when
it was in his power to make his escape out of prison he refused it,
and asked, with his usual pleasantry, where he could escape death.
“Where,” says he to Crito, who had bribed the gaoler, and made
his escape certain, “where shall I fly, to avoid this irrevocable
doom passed on all mankind?” When the hour to drink the poison
was come, the executioner presented him the cup with tears in his
eyes. Socrates received it with composure, and after he had made a
libation to the gods, he drank it with an unaltered countenance, and
a few moments after he expired. Such was the end of a man whom the
uninfluenced answer of the oracle of Delphi had pronounced the wisest
of mankind. Socrates died 400 years before Christ, in the 70th year
of his age. He was no sooner buried than the Athenians repented of
their cruelty; his accusers were universally despised and shunned.
One suffered death, some were banished, and others, with their own
hands, put an end to the life which their severity to the best of
the Athenians had rendered insupportable. The actions, sayings, and
opinions of Socrates have been faithfully recorded by two of the most
celebrated of his pupils, Xenophon and Plato, and everything which
relates to the life and circumstances of this great philosopher is
now minutely known. To his poverty, his innocence, and his example,
the Greeks were particularly indebted for their greatness and
splendour; and the learning which was universally disseminated by his
pupils, gave the whole nation a consciousness of their superiority
over the rest of the world, not only in the polite arts, but in
the more laborious exercises, which their writings celebrated. The
philosophy of Socrates forms an interesting epoch in the history of
the human mind. The son of Sophroniscus derided the more abstruse
inquiries and metaphysical researches of his predecessors, and by
first introducing moral philosophy, he induced mankind to consider
themselves, their passions, their opinions, their duties, actions,
and faculties. From this it was said that the founder of the Socratic
school drew philosophy down from heaven upon the earth. In his
attendance upon religious worship, Socrates was himself an example;
he believed the divine origin of dreams and omens, and publicly
declared that he was accompanied by a dæmon or invisible conductor
[_See:_ Dæmon], whose frequent interposition stopped him from the
commission of evil, and the guilt of misconduct. This familiar spirit,
however, according to some, was nothing more than a sound judgment
assisted by prudence and long experience, which warned him at the
approach of danger, and from a general speculation of mankind could
foresee what success would attend an enterprise, or what calamities
would follow an ill-managed administration. As a supporter of the
immortality of the soul, he allowed the perfection of a supreme
knowledge, from which he deduced the government of the universe. From
the resources of experience as well as nature and observation, he
perceived the indiscriminate dispensation of good and evil to mankind
by the hand of Heaven, and he was convinced that none but the most
inconsiderate would incur the displeasure of their Creator to avoid
poverty or sickness, or gratify a sensual appetite, which must at the
end harass their soul with remorse and the consciousness of guilt.
From this natural view of things, he perceived the relation of one
nation with another, and how much the tranquillity of civil society
depended upon the proper discharge of these respective duties.
The actions of men furnished materials also for his discourse; to
instruct them was his aim, and to render them happy was the ultimate
object of his daily lessons. From principles like these, which were
enforced by the unparalleled example of an affectionate husband, a
tender parent, a warlike soldier, and a patriotic citizen in Socrates,
soon after the celebrated sects of the Platonists, the Peripatetics,
the Academics, Cyrenaics, Stoics, &c., arose. Socrates never wrote
for the public eye, yet many support that the tragedies of his
pupil Euripides were partly composed by him. He was naturally of a
licentious disposition, and a physiognomist observed, in looking in
the face of the philosopher, that his heart was the most depraved,
immodest, and corrupted that ever was in the human breast. This
nearly cost the satirist his life, but Socrates upbraided his
disciples, who wished to punish the physiognomist, and declared
that his assertions were true, but that all his vicious propensities
had been duly corrected and curbed by means of reason. Socrates
made a poetical version of Æsop’s fables, while in prison. _Diogenes
Laërtius._――_Xenophon._――_Pluto._――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 22.
――_Plutarch_, _On the Opinions of the Philosophers_, &c.――_Cicero_,
_On Oratory_, bk. 1, ch. 54; _Tusculanæ Disputationes_, bk. 1, ch. 41,
&c.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 3, ch. 4.――――A leader of the Achæans,
at the battle of Cunaxa. He was seized and put to death by order of
Artaxerxes.――――A governor of Cilicia under Alexander the Great.――――A
painter.――――A Rhodian in the age of Augustus. He wrote an account of
the civil wars.――――A scholiast born A.D. 380, at Constantinople. He
wrote an ecclesiastical history from the year 309, where Eusebius
ended, down to 450, with great exactness and judgment, of which the
best edition is that of Reading, folio, Cambridge. 1720.――――An island
on the coast of Arabia.
=Sœmias Julia=, mother of the emperor Heliogabalus, was made president
of a senate of women, which she had elected to decide the quarrels
and the affairs of the Roman matrons. She at last provoked the people
by her debaucheries, extravagance, and cruelties, and was murdered
with her son and family. She was a native of Apamea; her father’s
name was Julius Avitus, and her mother’s Masa. Her sister Julia
Mammæa married the emperor Septimus Severus.
=Sogdiāna=, a country of Asia, bounded on the north by Scythia, east by
the Sacæ, south by Bactriana, and west by Margiana, and now known by
the name of _Zagatay_, or _Usbec_. The people were called _Sogdiani_.
The capital was called Marcanda. _Herodotus_, bk. 3, ch. 93.
――_Curtius_, bk. 7, ch. 10.
=Sogdiānus=, a son of Artaxerxes Longimanus, who murdered his elder
brother, king Xerxes, to make himself master of the Persian throne.
He was but seven months in possession of the crown. His brother Ochus,
who reigned under the name of Darius Nothus, conspired against him,
and suffocated him in a tower full of warm ashes.
=Sol= (_the sun_), was an object of veneration among the ancients.
It was particularly worshipped by the Persians, under the name of
Mithras; and was the Baal or Bel of the Chaldeans, the Belphegor
of the Moabites, the Moloch of the Canaanites, the Osiris of the
Egyptians, and the Adonis of the Syrians. The Massagetæ sacrificed
horses to the sun on account of their swiftness. According to some of
the ancient poets, Sol and Apollo were two different persons. Apollo,
however, and Phœbus and Sol, are universally supposed to be the same
deity.
=Solicinium=, a town of Germany, now _Sultz_, on the Neckar.
=Solīnus Caius Julius=, a grammarian at the end of the first century,
who wrote a book called _Polyhistor_, which is a collection
of historical remarks and geographical annotations on the most
celebrated places of every country. He has been called Pliny’s ape,
because he imitated that well-known naturalist. The last edition of
the Polyhistor is that of Nuremberg, _ex editione Salamasii_. 1777.
=Solis Fons=, a celebrated fountain in Libya. _See:_ Ammon.
=Soloe=, or =Soli=, a town of Cyprus, built on the borders of the
Clarius by an Athenian colony. It was originally called _Æpeia_,
till Solon visited Cyprus, and advised Philocyprus, one of the
princes of the island, to change the situation of his capital. His
advice was followed; a new town was raised in a beautiful plain, and
called after the name of the Athenian philosopher. _Strabo_, bk. 14.
――_Plutarch_, _Solon_.――――A town of Cilicia on the sea-coast, built
by the Greeks and Rhodians. It was afterwards called _Pompeiopolis_,
from Pompey, who settled a colony of pirates there. _Pliny_, bk. 5,
ch. 27.――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus._ Some suppose that the Greeks,
who settled in either of these two towns, forgot the purity of their
native language, and thence arose the term _Solecismus_, applied to
an inelegant or improper expression.
=Solœis=, or =Soloentia=, a promontory of Libya at the extremity
of mount Atlas, now cape _Cantin_.――――A town of Sicily, between
Panormus and Himera, now _Solanto_. _Cicero_, _Against Verres_,
bk. 3, ch. 43.――_Thucydides_, bk. 6.
=Solon=, one of the seven wise men of Greece, was born at Salamis, and
educated at Athens. His father’s name was Euphorion, or Exechestides,
one of the descendants of king Codrus, and by his mother’s side he
reckoned among his relations the celebrated Pisistratus. After he
had devoted part of his time to philosophical and political studies,
Solon travelled over the greatest part of Greece, but at his return
home he was distressed with the dissensions which were kindled among
his countrymen. All fixed their eyes upon Solon as a deliverer, and
he was unanimously elected archon and sovereign legislator. He might
have become absolute, but he refused the dangerous office of king of
Athens, and, in the capacity of lawgiver, he began to make a reform
in every department. The complaints of the poorer citizens found
redress, all debts were remitted, and no one was permitted to seize
the person of his debtor if unable to make a restoration of his
money. After he had made the most salutary regulations in the state,
and bound the Athenians by a solemn oath that they would faithfully
observe his laws for the space of 100 years, Solon resigned the
office of legislator and removed himself from Athens. He visited
Egypt, and in the court of Crœsus king of Lydia he convinced the
monarch of the instability of fortune, and told him, when he wished
to know whether he was not the happiest of mortals, that Tellus, an
Athenian, who had always seen his country in a flourishing state,
who had seen his children lead a virtuous life, and who had himself
fallen in defence of his country, was more entitled to happiness than
the possessor of riches and the master of empires. After 10 years’
absence Solon returned to Athens, but he had the mortification to
find the greatest part of his regulations disregarded by the factious
spirit of his countrymen, and the usurpation of Pisistratus. Not to
be longer a spectator of the divisions that reigned in his country,
he retired to Cyprus, where he died at the court of king Philocyprus,
in the 80th year of his age, 558 years before the christian era.
The salutary consequences of the laws of Solon can be discovered
in the length of time they were in force in the republic of Athens.
For above 400 years they flourished in full vigour, and Cicero, who
was himself a witness of their benign influence, passes the highest
encomiums upon the legislator, whose superior wisdom framed such a
code of regulations. It was the intention of Solon to protect the
poorer citizens, and by dividing the whole body of the Athenians into
four classes, three of which were permitted to discharge the most
important offices and magistracies of the state, and the last to
give their opinion in the assemblies, but not have a share in the
distinctions and honours of their superiors, the legislator gave the
populace a privilege which, though at first small and inconsiderable,
soon rendered them masters of the republic, and of all the affairs
of government. He made a reformation in the Areopagus, he increased
the authority of the members, and permitted them yearly to inquire
how every citizen maintained himself, and to punish such as lived
in idleness, and were not employed in some honourable and lucrative
profession. He also regulated the Prytaneum, and fixed the number of
its judges at 400. The sanguinary laws of Draco were all cancelled,
except that against murder, and the punishment denounced against
every offender was proportioned to his crime; but Solon made no
law against parricide or sacrilege. The former of these crimes, he
said, was too horrible to human nature for a man to be guilty of
it, and the latter could never be committed, because the history
of Athens had never furnished a single instance. Such as had died
in the service of their country were buried with great pomp, and
their family was maintained at the public expense; but such as
had squandered away their estates, such as refused to bear arms in
defence of their country, or paid no attention to the infirmities
and distress of their parents, were branded with infamy. The laws
of marriage were newly regulated; it became a union of affection and
tenderness, and no longer a mercenary contract. To speak with ill
language against the dead as well as the living, was made a crime,
and the legislator wished that the character of his fellow-citizens
should be freed from the aspersions of malevolence and envy. A person
that had no children was permitted to dispose of his estates as he
pleased, and the females were not allowed to be extravagant in their
dress or expenses. To be guilty of adultery was a capital crime,
and the friend and associate of lewdness and debauchery was never
permitted to speak in public, for, as the philosopher observed, a man
who has no shame, is not capable of being intrusted with the people.
These celebrated laws were engraven on several tables, and that they
might be better known and more familiar to the Athenians, they were
written in verse. The indignation which Solon expressed on seeing the
tragical representations of Thespis, is well known, and he sternly
observed, that if falsehood and fiction were tolerated on the stage,
they would soon find their way among the common occupations of men.
According to Plutarch, Solon was reconciled to Pisistratus; but this
seems to be false, as the legislator refused to live in a country
where the privileges of his fellow-citizens were trampled upon by
the usurpation of a tyrant. _See:_ Lycurgus. _Plutarch_, _Solon_.
――_Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 29.――_Diogenes Laërtius_, bk. 1.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 40.――_Cicero._
=Solona=, a town of Gaul Cispadana on the Utens.
=Solonium=, a town of Latium on the borders of Etruria. _Plutarch_,
_Caius Marius_.――_Cicero_, _de Divinatione_, bk. 1.
=Solva=, a town of Noricum.
=Solus= (untis), a maritime town of Sicily. _See:_ Solœis. _Strabo_,
bk. 14.
=Soly̆ma= and =Soly̆mæ=, a town of Lycia. The inhabitants, called
_Solymi_, were anciently called _Milyades_, and afterwards _Termili_
and _Lycians_. Sarpedon settled among them. _Strabo_, bk. 14.
――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 6.――_Pliny_, bk. 5, chs. 27 & 29.――――An
ancient name of Jerusalem. _See:_ Hierosolyma. _Juvenal_, satire 6,
li. 543.
=Somnus=, son of Erebus and Nox, was one of the infernal deities, and
presided over sleep. His palace, according to some mythologists,
is a dark cave where the sun never penetrates. At the entrance
are a number of poppies and somniferous herbs. The god himself is
represented as asleep on a bed of feathers with black curtains. The
dreams stand by him, and Morpheus, as his principal minister, watches
to prevent the noise from awaking him. The Lacedæmonians always
placed the image of Somnus near that of death. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_.
――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 14.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 893.
――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 11.
=Sonchis=, an Egyptian priest, in the age of Solon. It was he who told
that celebrated philosopher a number of traditions, particularly
about the Atlantic isles, which he represented as more extensive than
the continent of Africa and Asia united. This island disappeared, it
is said, in one day and one night. _Plutarch_, _de Iside et Osiride_,
&c.
=Sontiătes=, a people in Gaul.
=Sopăter=, a philosopher of Apamea, in the age of the emperor
Constantine. He was one of the disciples of Iamblicus, and after his
death he was at the head of the Platonic philosophers.
=Sophax=, a son of Hercules and Tinga the widow of Antæus, who founded
the kingdom of Tingis, in Mauritania, and from whom were descended
Diodorus, and Juba king of Mauritania. _Strabo_, bk. 3.
=Sophēne=, a country of Armenia, on the borders of Mesopotamia. _Lucan_,
bk. 2, li. 593.
=Sŏphŏcles=, a celebrated tragic poet of Athens, educated in the school
of Æschylus. He distinguished himself not only as a poet, but also as
a statesman. He commanded the Athenian armies, and in several battles
he shared the supreme command with Pericles, and exercised the office
of archon with credit and honour. The first appearance of Sophocles
as a poet reflects great honour on his abilities. The Athenians had
taken the island of Scyros, and to celebrate that memorable event, a
yearly contest for tragedy was instituted. Sophocles on this occasion
obtained the prize over many competitors, in the number of whom
was Æschylus, his friend and his master. This success contributed
to encourage the poet; he wrote for the stage with applause, and
obtained the poetical prize 20 different times. Sophocles was the
rival of Euripides for public praise; they divided the applause
of the populace, and while the former surpassed in the sublime and
majestic, the other was not inferior in the tender and pathetic. The
Athenians were pleased with their contention, and as the theatre was
at that time an object of importance and magnitude, and deemed an
essential and most magnificent part of the religious worship, each
had his admirers and adherents; but the two poets, captivated at
last by popular applause, gave way to jealousy and rivalship. Of
120 tragedies which Sophocles composed, only seven are extant: Ajax,
Electra, Œdipus the tyrant, Antigone, the Trachiniæ, Philoctetes, and
Œdipus at Colonos. The ingratitude of the children of Sophocles is
well known. They wished to become immediate masters of their father’s
possessions, and therefore, tired of his long life, they accused
him before the Areopagus of insanity. The only defence the poet made
was to read his tragedy of Œdipus at Colonos, which he had lately
finished, and then he asked his judges, whether the author of such
a performance could be taxed with insanity? The father upon this
was acquitted, and the children returned home covered with shame
and confusion. Sophocles died in the 91st year of his age, 406 years
before Christ, through excess of joy, as some authors report, of
having obtained a poetical prize at the Olympic games. Athenæus has
accused Sophocles of licentiousness and debauchery, particularly when
he commanded the armies of Athens. The best editions of Sophocles are
those of Capperonier, 2 vols., 4to, Paris, 1780; of Glasgow, 2 vols.,
12mo, 1745; of Geneva, 4to, 1603; and that by Brunck, 4 vols., 8vo,
1786. _Cicero_, _Against Catiline_; _de Divinatione_, bk. 1, ch. 25.
――_Plutarch_, _Cimon_, &c.――_Quintilian_, bk. 1, ch. 10; bk. 10,
ch. 1.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 8, ch. 7; bk. 9, ch. 12.――_Pliny_,
bk. 7, ch. 53.――_Athenæus_, bk. 10, &c.
=Sophonisba=, a daughter of Asdrubal the Carthaginian, celebrated for
her beauty. She married Syphax, a prince of Numidia, and when her
husband was conquered by the Romans and Masinissa, she fell a captive
into the hands of the enemy. Masinissa became enamoured of her, and
married her. This behaviour displeased the Romans; and Scipio, who
at that time had the command of the armies of the republic in Africa,
rebuked the monarch severely, and desired him to part with Sophonisba.
This was an arduous task for Masinissa, yet he dreaded the Romans.
He entered Sophonisba’s tent with tears in his eyes, and told her
that, as he could not deliver her from captivity and the jealousy of
the Romans, he recommended her, as the strongest pledge of his love
and affection for her person, to die like the daughter of Asdrubal.
Sophonisba obeyed, and drank, with unusual composure and serenity,
the cup of poison which Masinissa sent to her, about 203 years before
Christ. _Livy_, bk. 30, ch. 12, &c.――_Sallust_, _Jugurthine War_.
――_Justin._
=Sophron=, a comic poet of Syracuse, son of Agathocles and Damasyllis.
His compositions were so universally esteemed, that Plato is said
to have read them with rapture. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 8, ch. 7.
――_Quintilian_, bk. 1, ch. 10.
=Sophroniscus=, the father of Socrates.
=Sophronia=, a Roman lady whom Maxentius took by force from her
husband’s house, and married. Sophronia killed herself when she saw
that her affections were abused by the tyrant.
=Sophrosy̆ne=, a daughter of Dionysius by Dion’s sister.
=Sopŏlis=, the father of Hermolaus. _Curtius_, bk. 8, ch. 7.――――A
painter in Cicero’s age. _Cicero_, _Letters to Atticus_, bk. 4,
ltr. 16.
=Sora=, a town of the Volsci, of which the inhabitants were called
_Sorani_. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 395.――_Cicero_, _For
Plancius_.
=Soractes= and =Soracte=, a mountain of Etruria, near the Tiber, seen
from Rome, at the distance of 26 miles. It was sacred to Apollo, who
is from thence surnamed _Soractis_; and it is said that the priests
of the god could walk over burning coals without hurting themselves.
There was, as some report, a fountain on mount Soracte, whose waters
boiled at sunrise, and instantly killed all such birds as drank
of them. _Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Pliny_, bk. 2, ch. 93; bk. 7, ch. 2.
――_Horace_, bk. 1, ode 9.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 11, li. 785.
――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 5.
=Sorānus=, a man put to death by Nero. _See:_ Valerius.――――The father
of Atilia the first wife of Cato.
=Sorex=, a favourite of Sylla, and the companion of his debaucheries.
_Plutarch._
=Sorge=, a daughter of Œneus king of Calydon, by Æthea daughter
of Thestius. She married Andremon, and was mother of Oxilus.
_Apollodorus_, bks. 1 & 2.
=Soritia=, a town of Spain.
=Sosia Galla=, a woman at the court of Tiberius, banished, &c.
_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 4, ch. 19.
=Sosibius=, a grammarian of Laconia, B.C. 255. He was a great favourite
of Ptolemy Philopator, and advised him to murder his brother, and
the queen his wife, called Arsinoe. He lived to a great age, and was
on that account called _Polychronos_. He was afterwards permitted
to retire from the court, and spend the rest of his days in peace
and tranquillity after he had disgraced the name of minister by the
most abominable crimes, and the murder of many of the royal family.
His son, of the same name, was preceptor to king Ptolemy Epiphanes.
――――The preceptor of Britannicus the son of Claudius. _Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 11, ch. 1.
=Sosĭcles=, a Greek who behaved with great valour when Xerxes invaded
Greece.
=Sosicrătes=, a noble senator among the Achæans, put to death because
he wished his countrymen to make peace with the Romans.
=Sosigĕnes=, an Egyptian mathematician, who assisted Julius Cæsar in
regulating the Roman calendar. _Suetonius._――_Diodorus._――_Pliny_,
bk. 18, ch. 25.――――A commander of the fleet of Eumenes. _Polyænus_,
bk. 4.――――A friend of Demetrius Poliorcetes.
=Sosii=, celebrated booksellers at Rome, in the age of Horace, bk. 1,
ltr. 20, li. 2.
=Sosĭlus=, a Lacedæmonian in the age of Annibal. He lived in great
intimacy with the Carthaginian, taught him Greek, and wrote the
history of his life. _Cornelius Nepos_, _Hannibal_.
=Sosipăter=, a grammarian in the reign of Honorius. He published five
books of observations on grammar.――――A Syracusan magistrate.――――A
general of Philip king of Macedonia.
=Sosis=, a seditious Syracusan, who raised tumults against Dion.
When accused before the people he saved himself by flight, and thus
escaped a capital punishment.
=Sosistrătus=, a tyrant of Syracuse, in the age of Agathocles. He
invited Pyrrhus into Sicily, and afterwards revolted from him. He was
at last removed by Hermocrates. _Polyænus_, bk. 1.――――Another tyrant.
_Polyænus_, bk. 1.
=Sospis=, a consul who followed the interest of Mark Antony.――――A
governor of Syria.――――A Roman consular dignity, to whom Plutarch
dedicated his Lives.
=Sospĭta=, a surname of Juno in Latium. Her most famous temple was at
Lanuvium. She had also two at Rome, and her statue was covered with
a goat-skin, with a buckler, &c. _Livy_, bks. 3, 6, 8, &c.――_Festus_,
_Lexicon of Festus_.
=Sosthĕnes=, a general of Macedonia, who flourished B.C. 281. He
defeated the Gauls under Brennus, and was killed in the battle.
_Justin_, bk. 24, ch. 5.――――A native of Cnidos, who wrote a history
of Iberia. _Plutarch._
=Sostrătus=, a friend of Hermolaus, put to death for conspiring against
Alexander. _Curtius_, bk. 1, ch. 6.――――A grammarian in the age of
Augustus. He was Strabo’s preceptor. _Strabo_, bk. 14.――――A statuary.
――――An architect of Cnidos, B.C. 284, who built the white tower of
Pharos, in the bay of Alexandria. He inscribed his name upon it.
_See:_ Pharos. _Strabo_, bk. 17.――_Pliny_, bk. 30, ch. 12.――――A
priest of Venus at Paphos, among the favourites of Vespasian.
_Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――――A favourite of Hercules.
――――A Greek historian, who wrote an account of Etruria.――――A poet,
who wrote a poem on the expedition of Xerxes into Greece. _Juvenal_,
satire 10, li. 178.
=Sotădes=, an athlete. A Greek poet of Thrace. He wrote verses against
Philadelphus Ptolemy, for which he was thrown into the sea in a cage
of lead. He was called _Cinædus_, not only because he was addicted
to the abominable crime which the surname indicates, but because he
wrote a poem in commendation of it. Some suppose, that instead of
the word _Socraticos_ in the 2nd satire, verse the 10th, of Juvenal,
the word _Sotadicos_ should be inserted, as the poet Sotades, and
not the philosopher Socrates, deserved the appellation of Cinædus.
Obscene verses were generally called _Sotadea carmina_ from him.
They could be turned and read different ways without losing their
measure or sense, such as the following, which can be read
backwards:
_Roma tibi subito motibus ibit amor.
Si bene te tua laus taxat, sua laute tenebis.
Sole medere pede, ede, perede melos._
_Quintilian_, bk. 1, ch. 8; bk. 9, ch. 4.――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ltr. 3.
――_Ausonius_, ltr. 17, li. 29.
=Soter=, a surname of the first Ptolemy.――――It was also common to other
monarchs.
=Soteria=, days appointed for thanksgivings and the offerings of
sacrifices for deliverance from danger. One of these was observed at
Sicyone, to ♦commemorate the deliverance of that city from the hands
of the Macedonians, by Aratus.
♦ ‘commemmorate’ replaced with ‘commemorate’
=Soterĭcus=, a poet and historian in the age of Diocletian. He wrote
a panegyric on that emperor, as also a life of Apollonius Thyanæus.
His works, greatly esteemed, are now lost, except some few fragments
preserved by the scholiast of Lycophron.
=Sothis=, an Egyptian name of the constellation called Sirius, which
received divine honours in that country.
=Sotiates=, a people of Gaul, conquered by Cæsar. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_,
bk. 3, chs. 20 & 21.
=Sotion=, a grammarian and philosopher of Alexandria, preceptor to
Seneca. _Seneca_, ltrs. 49 & 58.
=Sotius=, a philosopher in the reign of Tiberius.
=Sous=, a king of Sparta, who made himself known by his valour, &c.
=Sozŏmen=, an ecclesiastical historian, who died 450 A.D. His history
extends from the year 324 to 429, and is dedicated to Theodosius the
younger, being written in a style of inelegance and mediocrity. The
best edition is that of Reading, folio, Cambridge, 1720.
=Spaco=, the name of Cyrus. _Justin_, bk. 1, ch. 4.――_Herodotus._
=Sparta=, a celebrated city of Peloponnesus, the capital of Laconia,
situate on the Eurotas, at the distance of about 30 miles from its
mouth. It received its name from Sparta the daughter of Eurotas, who
married Lacedæmon. It was also called Lacedæmon. _See:_ Lacedæmon.
=Spartăcus=, a king of Pontus.――――Another, king of Bosphorus, who
died B.C. 433. His son and successor of the same name died B.C. 407.
――――Another, who died 284 B.C.――――A Thracian shepherd, celebrated for
his abilities and the victories which he obtained over the Romans.
Being one of the gladiators who were kept at Capua in the house of
Lentulus, he escaped from the place of his confinement, with 30 of
his companions, and took up arms against the Romans. He soon found
himself with 10,000 men equally resolute with himself, and though
at first obliged to hide himself in the woods and solitary retreats
of Campania, he soon laid waste the country; and when his followers
were increased by additional numbers, and better disciplined, and
more completely armed, he attacked the Roman generals in the field
of battle. Two consuls and other officers were defeated with much
loss, and Spartacus, superior in counsel and abilities, appeared more
terrible, though often deserted by his fickle attendants. Crassus
was sent against him, but this celebrated general at first despaired
of success. A bloody battle was fought, in which, at last, the
gladiators were defeated. Spartacus ♦behaved with great valour: when
wounded in the leg, he fought on his knees, covering himself with his
buckler in one hand, and using his sword with the other; and when at
last he fell, he fell upon a heap of Romans, whom he had sacrificed
to his fury, B.C. 71. In this battle no less than 40,000 of the
rebels were slain, and the war totally finished. _Florus_, bk. 3,
ch. 20.――_Livy_, bk. 95.――_Eutropius_, bk. 6, ch. 2.――_Plutarch_,
_Crassus_.――_Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 30.――_Appian._
♦ ‘bahaved’ replaced with ‘behaved’
=Spartæ=, or =Sparti=, a name given to those men who sprang from the
dragon’s teeth which Cadmus sowed. They all destroyed one another,
except five, who survived and assisted Cadmus in building Thebes.
=Spartāni=, or =Spartiātæ=, the inhabitants of Sparta. _See:_ Sparta,
Lacedæmon.
=Spartiānus Ælius=, a Latin historian who wrote the lives of all
the Roman emperors, from Julius Cæsar to Diocletian. He dedicated
them to Diocletian, to whom, according to some, he was related. Of
these compositions only the life of Adrian, Verus, Didius Julianus,
Septimus Severus, Caracalla, and Geta, are extant, published among
the Scriptores Historiæ Augustæ. Spartianus is not esteemed as an
historian or biographer.
=Spechia=, an ancient name of the island of Cyprus.
=Spendius=, a Campanian deserter who rebelled against the Romans and
raised tumults, and made war against Amilcar the Carthaginian general.
=Spendon=, a poet of Lacedæmon.
=Sperchīa=, a town of Thessaly, on the banks of the Sperchius.
_Ptolemy._
=Sperchīus=, a river of Thessaly, rising on mount Œta, and falling
into the sea in the bay of Malia, near Anticyra. The name is supposed
to be derived from its rapidity (σπερχειν, _festinare_). Peleus
vowed to the god of this river the hair of his son Achilles, if ever
he returned safe from the Trojan war. _Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 198.
――_Strabo_, bk. 9.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 23, li. 144.――_Apollodorus_,
bk. 3, ch. 13.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1,
li. 557; bk. 2, li. 250; bk. 7, li. 230.
=Spermatophăgi=, a people who lived in the extremest parts of Egypt.
They fed upon the fruits that fell from the trees.
=Speusippus=, an Athenian philosopher, nephew, as also successor, of
Plato. His father’s name was Eurymedon, and his mother’s Potone. He
presided in Plato’s school for eight years, and disgraced himself
by his extravagance and debauchery. Plato attempted to check him,
but to no purpose. He died of the lousy sickness, or killed himself,
according to some accounts, B.C. 339. _Plutarch_, _Lysander_.
――_Diogenes Laërtius_, bk. 4.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 4, ch. 1.
=Sphacteriæ=, three small islands opposite Pylos, on the coast of
Messenia. They are also called _Sphagiæ_.
=Spherus=, an arm-bearer of Pelops son of Tantalus. He was buried in
a small island near the isthmus of Corinth, which, from him, was
called _Sphetia_. _Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 10.――――A Greek philosopher,
disciple to Zeno of Cyprus, 243 B.C. He came to Sparta in the age of
Agis and Cleomenes, and opened a school there. _Plutarch_, _Agis_.
――_Diodorus._
=Sphinx=, a monster which had the head and breasts of a woman, the body
of a dog, the tail of a serpent, the wings of a bird, the paws of a
lion, and a human voice. It sprang from the union of Orthos with the
Chimæra, or of Typhon with Echidna. The Sphinx had been sent into
the neighbourhood of Thebes by Juno, who wished to punish the family
of Cadmus, which she persecuted with immortal hatred, and it laid
this part of Bœotia under continual alarms by proposing enigmas, and
devouring the inhabitants if unable to explain them. In the midst
of their consternation the Thebans were told by the oracle, that
the Sphinx would destroy herself as soon as one of the enigmas she
proposed was explained. In this enigma she wished to know what animal
walked on four legs in the morning, two at noon, and three in the
evening. Upon this, Creon king of Thebes promised his crown and his
sister Jocasta in marriage to him who could deliver his country from
the monster by a successful explanation of the enigma. It was at
last happily explained by Œdipus, who observed that man walked on
his hands and feet when young, or in the morning of life, at the noon
of life he walked erect, and in the evening of his days he supported
his infirmities upon a stick. _See:_ Œdipus. The Sphinx no sooner
heard this explanation than she dashed her head against a rock, and
immediately expired. Some mythologists wish to unriddle the fabulous
traditions about the Sphinx, by the supposition that one of the
daughters of Cadmus, or Laius, infested the country of Thebes by
her continual depredations, because she had been refused a part of
her father’s possessions. The lion’s paw expressed, as they observe,
her cruelty, the body of the dog her lasciviousness, her enigmas
the snares she laid for strangers and travellers, and her wings
the despatch she used in her expeditions. _Plutarch._――_Hesiod_,
_Theogony_, li. 326.――_Hyginus_, fable 68.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3,
ch. 5.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Ovid_, _Ibis_, li. 378.――_Strabo_, bk. 9.
――_Sophocles_, _Œdipus Tyrannus_.
=Sphodrias=, a Spartan who, at the instigation of Cleombrotus,
attempted to seize the Piræus. _Diodorus_, bk. 15.
=Sphragidium=, a retired cave on mount Cithæron in Bœotia. The nymphs
of the place, called _Sphragitides_, were yearly honoured with a
sacrifice by the Athenians, by order of the oracle of Delphi, because
they had lost few men at the battle of Platæa. _Pliny_, bk. 35, ch. 6.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 3.――_Plutarch_, _Aristeides_.
=Spicillus=, a favourite of Nero. He refused to assassinate his master,
for which he was put to death in a cruel manner.
=Spina=, now _Primaso_, a town on the most southern mouth of the Po.
_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 16.
=Spintharus=, a Corinthian architect, who built Apollo’s temple at
Delphi. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 5.――――A freedman of Cicero. _Letters
to Atticus_, bk. 13, ltr. 25.
=Spinther=, a Roman consul. He was one of Pompey’s friends, and
accompanied him at the battle of Pharsalia, where he betrayed his
meanness by being too confident of victory, and contending for
the possession of Cæsar’s offices and gardens before the action.
_Plutarch._
=Spio=, one of the Nereides. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 5, li. 26.
=Spitamĕnes=, one of the officers of king Darius, who conspired against
the murderer Bessus, and delivered him to Alexander. _Curtius_, bk. 7,
ch. 5.
=Spithobătes=, a satrap of Ionia, son-in-law of Darius. He was killed
at the battle of the Granicus. _Diodorus_, bk. 17.
=Spithridates=, a Persian killed by Clitus as he was going to strike
Alexander dead.――――A Persian satrap in the age of Lysander.
=Spoletium=, now _Spoleto_, a town of Umbria, which bravely withstood
Annibal while he was in Italy. The people were called _Spoletani_.
Water is conveyed to the town from a neighbouring ♦fountain by an
aqueduct of such a great height, that in one place the top is raised
above the foundation 230 yards. An inscription over the gates still
commemorates the defeat of Annibal. _Martial_, bk. 13, ltr. 20.
♦ ‘fountani’ replaced with ‘fountain’
=Spŏrădes=, a number of islands in the Ægean sea. They received their
name _à_ σπειρω, _spargo_, because they are scattered in the sea at
some distance from Delos, and in the neighbourhood of Crete. Those
islands that are contiguous to Delos, and that encircle it, are
called _Cyclades_. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Strabo_, bk. 2.
=Spurīna=, a mathematician and astrologer, who told Julius Cæsar to
beware of the ides of March. As he went to the senate-house on the
morning of the ides, Cæsar said to Spurina, “The ides are at last
come.” “Yes,” replied Spurina, “but not yet past.” Cæsar was murdered
a few moments after. _Suetonius_, _Cæsar_, ch. 81.――_Valerius
Maximus_, bks. 1 & 8.
=Spurius=, a prænomen common to many of the Romans.――――One of Cæsar’s
murderers.――――Latius, a Roman who defended the bridge over the Tiber
against Porsenna’s army.――――A friend of Otho, &c.
=Lucius Staberius=, a friend of Pompey, set over Apollonia, which he
was obliged to yield to Cæsar, because the inhabitants favoured his
cause. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_.――――An avaricious fellow, who wished it
to be known that he was uncommonly rich. _Horace_, bk. 2, satire 3,
li. 89.
=Stabiæ=, a maritime town of Campania on the bay of Puteoli, destroyed
by Sylla, and converted into a villa, whither Pliny endeavoured to
escape from the eruption of Vesuvius, in which he perished. _Pliny_,
bk. 3, ch. 5; bk. 6, ch. 16.
=Stabŭlum=, a place in the Pyrenees, where a communication was open
from Gaul into Spain.
=Stagīra=, a town on the borders of Macedonia, near the bay into
which the Strymon discharges itself, at the south of Amphipolis;
founded 665 years before Christ. Aristotle was born there, from
which circumstance he is called _Stagirites_. _Thucydides_, bk. 4.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 4.――_Diogenes Laërtius_, _Solon_.――_Ælian_,
_Varia Historia_, bk. 3, ch. 46.
=Staius=, an unprincipled wretch, in Nero’s age, who murdered all his
relations. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 19.
=Stalēnus=, a senator who sat as judge in the trial of Cluentius, &c.
_Cicero_, _For Aulus Cluentius_.
=Staphy̆lus=, one of the Argonauts, son of Theseus, or, according to
others, of Bacchus and Ariadne. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9.
=Stasander=, an officer of Alexander, who had Aria at the general
division of the provinces. _Curtius_, bk. 8, ch. 3.
=Staseas=, a peripatetic philosopher, engaged to instruct young Marcus
Piso in philosophy. _Cicero_, _On Oratory_, bk. 1, ch. 22.
=Stasicrătes=, a statuary and architect in the wars of Alexander, who
offered to make a statue of mount Athos, which was rejected by the
conqueror, &c.
=Stasileus=, an Athenian killed at the battle of Marathon. He was one
of the 10 pretors.
=Statilli=, a people of Liguria, between the Tænarus and the Apennines.
_Livy_, bk. 42, ch. 7.――_Cicero_, bk. 11, _Letters to his Friends_,
ltr. 11.
=Statilia=, a woman who lived to a great age, as mentioned by Seneca,
ltr. 77.――――Another. _See:_ Messalina.
=Statilius=, a young Roman celebrated for his courage and constancy.
He was an inveterate enemy to Cæsar, and when Cato murdered himself,
he attempted to follow his example, but was prevented by his friends.
The conspirators against Cæsar wished him to be in their number, but
the answer which he gave displeased Brutus. He was at last killed by
the army of the triumvirs. _Plutarch._――――Lucius, one of the friends
of Catiline. He joined in his conspiracy, and was put to death.
_Cicero_, _Against Catiline_, ch. 2.――――A young general in the
war which the Latins undertook against the Romans. He was killed,
with 25,000 of his troops.――――A general who fought against Antony.
――――Taurus, a proconsul of Africa. He was accused of consulting
magicians, upon which he put himself to death. _Tacitus_, _Annals_,
bk. 12, ch. 59.
=Statĭnæ=, islands on the coast of Campania, raised from the sea by an
earthquake. _Pliny_, bk. 2, ch. 88.
=Statīra=, a daughter of Darius, who married Alexander. The conqueror
had formerly refused her, but when she had fallen into his hands at
Issus, the nuptials were celebrated with uncommon splendour. No less
than 9000 persons attended, to each of whom Alexander gave a golden
cup, to be offered to the gods. Statira had no children by Alexander.
She was cruelly put to death by Roxana, after the conqueror’s death.
_Justin_, bk. 12, ch. 12.――――A sister of Darius the last king of
Persia. She also became his wife, according to the manners of the
Persians. She died after an abortion, in Alexander’s camp, where
she was detained as a prisoner. She was buried with great pomp by
the conqueror. _Plutarch_, _Alexander_.――――A wife of Artaxerxes
Memnon, poisoned by her mother-in-law queen Parysatis. _Plutarch_,
_Artaxerxes_.――――A sister of Mithridates the Great. _Plutarch._
=Statius Cæcilius=, a comic poet in the age of Ennius. He was a
native of Gaul, and originally a slave. His latinity was bad, yet
he acquired great reputation by his comedies. He died a little after
Ennius. _Cicero_, _de Senectute_.――――Annæus, a physician, the friend
of the philosopher Seneca. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 15, ch. 64.
――――Publius Papinius, a poet born at Naples, in the reign of the
emperor Domitian. His father’s name was Statius of Epirus, and his
mother’s Agelina. Statius has made himself known by two epic poems,
the _Thebais_ in 12 books, and the _Achilleis_ in two books, which
remained unfinished on account of his premature death. There are,
besides, other pieces composed on several subjects, which are extant,
and well known under the name of _Sylvæ_, divided into four books.
The two epic poems of Statius are dedicated to Domitian, whom the
poet ranks among the gods. They were universally admired in his age
at Rome, but the taste of the times was corrupted, though some of
the moderns have called them inferior to no Latin compositions except
Virgil’s. The style of Statius is bombastic and affected, and he
often forgets the poet to become the declaimer and the historian.
In his _Sylvæ_, which were written generally extempore, are many
beautiful expressions and strokes of genius. Statius, as some suppose,
was poor, and he was obliged to maintain himself by writing for
the stage. None of his dramatic pieces are extant. Martial has
satirized him, and what Juvenal has written in his praise, some have
interpreted as an illiberal reflection upon him. Statius died about
the 100th year of the christian era. The best editions of his works
are that of Barthius, 2 vols., 4to, Zwickau, 1664, and that of the
Variorum, 8vo, Leiden, 1671; and of the Thebais, separate, that of
Warrington, 2 vols., 12mo, 1778.――――Domitius, a tribune in the age of
Nero, deprived of his office when Piso’s conspiracy was discovered.
_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 15, ch. 17.――――A general of the Samnites.
――――An officer of the pretorian guards, who conspired against Nero.
=Stator=, a surname of Jupiter, given him by Romulus, because he
_stopped_ (_sto_) the flight of the Romans in a battle against the
Sabines. The conqueror erected him a temple under that name. _Livy_,
bk. 1, ch. 12.
=Stellates=, a field remarkable for its fertility, in Campania.
_Cicero_, _On the Agrarian Law_, bk. 1, ch. 70.――_Suetonius_, _Cæsar_,
ch. 20.
=Stellio=, a youth turned into an elf by Ceres, because he derided the
goddess, who drank with avidity when tired and afflicted in her vain
pursuit of her daughter Proserpine. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5,
li. 445.
=Stena=, a narrow passage on the mountains near Antigonia, in Chaonia.
_Livy_, bk. 32, ch. 5.
=Stenobœa.= _See:_ Sthenobœa.
=Stenocrătes=, an Athenian who conspired to murder the commander of the
garrison which Demetrius had placed in the citadel, &c. _Polyænus_,
bk. 5.
=Stentor=, one of the Greeks who went to the Trojan war. His voice
alone was louder than that of 50 men together. _Homer_, _Iliad_,
bk. 5, li. 784.――_Juvenal_, satire 13, li. 112.
=Stentoris lacus=, a lake near Enos in Thrace. _Herodotus_, bk. 7,
ch. 58.
=Stephănus=, a musician of Media, upon whose body Alexander made an
experiment in burning a certain sort of bitumen called naphtha.
_Strabo_, bk. 16.――_Plutarch_, _Alexander_.――――A Greek writer of
Byzantium, known for his dictionary giving an account of the towns
and places of the ancient world, of which the best edition is that
of Gronovius, 2 vols., folio, Leiden, 1694.
=Sterŏpe=, one of the Pleiades, daughters of Atlas. She married Œnomaus
king of Pisa, by whom she had Hippodamia, &c.――――A daughter of
Parthaon, supposed by some to be the mother of the Sirens.――――A
daughter of Cepheus.――――A daughter of Pleuron,――――of Acastus,――――of
Danaus,――――of Cebrion.
=Sterŏpes=, one of the Cyclops. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8, li. 425.
=Stersichŏrus=, a lyric Greek poet of Himera, in Sicily. He was
originally called _Tisias_, and obtained the name of Stersichorus
from the alterations which he made in music and dancing. His
compositions were written in the Doric dialect, and comprised in
26 books, all now lost, except a few fragments. Some say he lost his
eyesight for writing invectives against Helen, and that he received
it only upon making a recantation of what he had said. He was the
first inventor of that fable of the horse and the stag, which Horace
and some other poets have imitated, and this he wrote to prevent
his countrymen from making an alliance with Phalaris. According to
some, he was the first who wrote an epithalamium. He flourished 556
B.C., and died at Cantana, in the 85th year of his age. _Isocrates_,
_Helen_.――_Aristotle_, _Rhetoric_.――_Strabo_, bk. 3.――_Lucian_,
_Macrobii_.――_Cicero_, _in Against Verres_, bk. 2, ch. 35.
――_Plutarch_, _de Musica_.――_Quintilian_, bk. 10, ch. 1.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 3, ch. 19; bk. 10, ch. 26.
=Stertinius=, a stoic philosopher, ridiculed by Horace, bk. 2, satire 3.
He wrote in Latin verse 220 books on the philosophy of the stoics.
=Stesagŏras=, a brother of Miltiades. _See:_ Miltiades.
=Stesilēa=, a beautiful woman of Athens, &c.
=Stesilēus=, a beautiful youth of Cos, loved by Themistocles and
Aristides, and the cause of jealousy and dissension between these
celebrated men. _Plutarch_, _Cimon_.
=Stesimbrŏtus=, an historian very inconsistent in his narrations. He
wrote an account of Cimon’s exploits. _Plutarch_, _Cimom_.――――A son
of Epaminondas, put to death by his father, because he had fought the
enemy without his orders, &c. _Plutarch._――――A musician of Thasos.
=Sthenele=, a daughter of Acastus, wife of Menœtius. _Apollodorus_,
bk. 3, ch. 13.――――A daughter of Danaus by Memphis. _Apollodorus_,
bk. 2, ch. 1.
=Sthenĕlus=, a king of Mycenæ, son of Perseus and Andromeda. He married
Nicippe the daughter of Pelops, by whom he had two daughters, and a
son called Eurystheus, who was born, by Juno’s influence, two months
before the natural time, that he might obtain a superiority over
Hercules, as being older. Sthenelus made war against Amphitryon, who
had killed Electryon and seized his kingdom. He fought with success,
and took his enemy prisoner, whom he transmitted to Eurystheus.
_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 19, li. 91.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 4.
――――One of the sons of Ægyptus by Tyria.――――A son of Capaneus. He
was one of the Epigoni, and of the suitors of Helen. He went to the
Trojan war, and was one of those who were shut up in the wooden horse,
according to Virgil. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 18.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bks. 2 & 10.――――A son of Androgeus the son of Minos. Hercules made
him king of Thrace. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 5.――――A king of Argos,
who succeeded his father Crotopus. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 16.――――A
son of Actor, who accompanied Hercules in his expedition against the
Amazons. He was killed by one of these females.――――A son of Melas,
killed by Tydeus. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 8.
=Sthenis=, a statuary of Olynthus.――――An orator of Himera in Sicily,
during the civil wars of Pompey. _Plutarch_, _Pompey_.
=Stheno=, one of the three Gorgons.
=Sthenobœa=, a daughter of Jobates king of Lycia, who married Prœtus
king of Argos. She became enamoured of Bellerophon, who had taken
refuge at her husband’s court, after the murder of his brother, and
when he refused to gratify her criminal passion, she accused him
before Prœtus of attempts upon her virtue. According to some she
killed herself after his departure. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 6, li. 162.
――_Hyginus_, fable 57.――――Many mythologists call her Antæa.
=Stilbe=, or =Stilbia=, a daughter of Peneus by Creusa, who became
mother of Centaurus and Lapithus by Apollo. _Diodorus_, bk. 4.
=Stilbo=, a name given to the planet Mercury by the ancients, from its
shining appearance. _Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 2, ch. 20.
=Stĭlĭcho=, a general of the emperor Theodosius the Great. He behaved
with much courage, but under the emperor Honorius he showed himself
turbulent and disaffected. As being of barbarian extraction, he
wished to see the Roman provinces laid desolate by his countrymen,
but in this he was disappointed. Honorius discovered his intrigues,
and ordered him to be beheaded about the year of Christ 408. His
family were involved in his ruin. Claudian has been loud in his
praises, and Zosimus, _Historia Nova_, bk. 5, denies the truth of
the charges laid against him.
=Stilpo=, a celebrated philosopher of Megara, who flourished 336
years before Christ, and was greatly esteemed by Ptolemy Soter.
He was naturally addicted to riot and debauchery, but he reformed
his manners when he opened a school at Megara. He was universally
respected, his school was frequented, and Demetrius, when he
plundered Megara, ordered the house of the philosopher to be left
safe and unmolested. It is said that he intoxicated himself when
ready to die, to alleviate the terrors of death. He was one of the
chiefs of the Stoics. _Plutarch_, _Demosthenes_.――_Diogenes Laërtius_,
bk. 2.――_Seneca_, _de Constantia_.
=Stĭmĭcon=, a shepherd’s name in Virgil’s fifth eclogue.
=Stiphĭlus=, one of the Lapithæ, killed in the house of Pirithous.
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12.
=Stobæus=, a Greek writer who flourished A.D. 405. His work is valuable
for the precious relics of ancient literature which he has preserved.
The best edition is that of Geneva, folio, 1609.
=Stobi=, a town of Pœonia, in Macedonia. _Livy_, bk. 33, ch. 19; bk. 40,
ch. 21.
=Stœchădes=, five small islands in the Mediterranean, on the coast of
Gaul, now the _Hieres_, near Marseilles. They were called Ligustides
by some, but Pliny speaks of them as only three in number. _Stephanus
Byzantius._――_Lucan_, bk. 3, li. 515.――_Strabo_, bk. 4.
=Stœni=, a people living among the Alps. _Livy_, bk. 62.
=Stoĭci=, a celebrated sect of philosophers founded by Zeno of
Citium. They received the name from the _portico_ (στυα), where
the philosopher delivered his lectures. They preferred virtue to
everything else, and whatever was opposite to it, they looked upon
as the greatest of evils. They required, as well as the disciples of
Epicurus, an absolute command over the passions, and they supported
that man alone, in the present state of his existence, could attain
perfection and felicity. They encouraged suicide, and believed that
the doctrine of future punishments and rewards was unnecessary to
excite or intimidate their followers. _See:_ Zeno.
=Strabo=, a name among the Romans, given to those whose eyes were
naturally deformed or distorted. Pompey’s father was distinguished
by that name.――――A native of Amasia, on the borders of Cappadocia,
who flourished in the age of Augustus and Tiberius. He first studied
under Xenarchus the peripatetic, and afterwards warmly embraced the
tenets of the Stoics. Of all his compositions nothing remains but
his geography, divided into 17 books, a work justly celebrated for
its elegance, its purity, the erudition and universal knowledge of
the author. It contains an account, in Greek, of the most celebrated
places of the world, the origin, the manners, religion, prejudices,
and government of nations; the foundation of cities, and the accurate
history of each separate province. Strabo travelled over great part
of the world in quest of information, and to examine with the most
critical inquiry, not only the situation of the places, but also the
manners of the inhabitants, whose history he meant to write. In the
two first books the author wishes to show the necessity of geography;
in the 3rd he gives a description of Spain; in the 4th of Gaul and
the British isles. The 5th and 6th contain an account of Italy and
the neighbouring islands; the 7th, which is mutilated at the end,
gives a full description of Germany, and the country of the Getæ,
Illyricum, Taurica, Chersonesus, and Epirus. The affairs of Greece
and the adjacent islands are separately treated in the 8th, 9th, and
10th; and in the four next Asia, within mount Taurus; and in the 15th
and 16th, Asia without Taurus, India, Persia, Syria, and Arabia; the
last book gives an account of Egypt, Æthiopia, Carthage, and other
places of Africa. Among the books of Strabo which have been lost,
were historical commentaries. This celebrated geographer died A.D.
25. The best editions of his geography are those of Casaubon, folio,
Paris, 1620; and of Amsterdam, 2 vols., folio, 1707.――――A Sicilian,
so clear-sighted, that he could distinguish objects at the distance
of 130 miles, with the same ease as if they had been near.
=Stratarchas=, the grandfather of the geographer Strabo. His father’s
name was Dorylaus. _Strabo_, bk. 10.
=Strato=, or =Straton=, a king of the island Aradus, received into
alliance by Alexander. _Curtius_, bk. 4, ch. 1.――――A king of Sidon,
dependent upon Darius. Alexander deposed him, because he refused to
surrender. _Curtius_, bk. 4, ch. 1.――――A philosopher of Lampsacus,
disciple and successor in the school of Theophrastus, about 289 years
before the christian era. He applied himself with uncommon industry
to the study of nature, and was surnamed _Physicus_; and after the
most mature investigations, he supported that nature was inanimate,
and that there was no god but nature. He was appointed preceptor
to Ptolemy Philadelphus, who not only revered his abilities and
learning, but also rewarded his labours with unbounded liberality.
He wrote different treatises, all now lost. _Diogenes Laërtius_,
bk. 5.――_Cicero_, _Academica_, bk. 1, ch. 9; bk. 4, ch. 38, &c.――――A
physician.――――A peripatetic philosopher.――――A native of Epirus, very
intimate with Brutus the murderer of Cæsar. He killed his friend
at his own request.――――A rich Orchomenian who destroyed himself,
because he could not obtain in marriage a young woman of Haliartus.
_Plutarch._――――A Greek historian who wrote the life of some of the
Macedonian kings.――――An athlete of Achaia, twice crowned at the
Olympic games. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 23.
=Stratŏcles=, an Athenian general at the battle of Cheronæ, &c.,
_Polyænus._――――A stage-player in Domitian’s reign. _Juvenal_,
satire 3, li. 99.
=Straton.= _See:_ Strato.
=Stratŏnīce=, a daughter of Thespius. _Apollodorus._――――A daughter
of Pleuron. _Apollodorus._――――A daughter of Ariarathes king of
Cappadocia, who married Eumenes king of Pergamus, and became mother
of Attalus. _Strabo_, bk. 13.――――A daughter of Demetrius Poliorcetes,
who married Seleucus king of Syria. Antiochus, her husband’s son
by a former wife, became enamoured of her, and married her with his
father’s consent, when the physicians had told him that if he did not
comply, his son’s health would be impaired. _Plutarch_, _Demetrius_.
――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 5, ch. 7.――――A concubine of Mithridates
king of Pontus. _Plutarch_, _Pompey_.――――The wife of Antigonus,
mother of Demetrius Poliorcetes.――――A town of Caria, made a
Macedonian colony. _Strabo_, bk. 14.――_Livy_, bk. 33, chs. 18 & 33.
――――Another, in Mesopotamia.――――A third, near mount Taurus.
=Stratonīcus=, an opulent person in the reign of Philip, and of his son
Alexander, whose riches became proverbial. _Plutarch._――――A musician
of Athens in the age of Demosthenes. _Athenæus_, bk. 6, ch. 6; bk. 8,
ch. 12.
=Stratonis turris=, a city of Judea, afterwards called Cæsarea by Herod
in honour of Augustus.
=Stratos=, a city of Æolia. _Livy_, bk. 36, ch. 11.――――Of Acarnania.
=Strenua=, a goddess at Rome, who gave vigour and energy to the weak
and indolent. _Augustine_, _City of God_, bk. 4, chs. 11 & 16.
=Strongy̆le=, now _Strombolo_, one of the islands called Æolides in the
Tyrrhene sea, near the coast of Sicily. It has a volcano, 10 miles
in circumference, which throws up flame continually, and of which
the crater is on the side of the mountain. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.
――_Strabo_, bk. 6.――_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 11.
=Strophădes=, two islands in the Ionian sea, on the western coasts of
the Peloponnesus. They were anciently called _Plotæ_, and received
the name of Strophades from στρεφω, _verto_, because Zethes and
Calais, the sons of Boreas, returned from thence by order of Jupiter,
after they had driven the Harpies there from the tables of Phineus.
The fleet of Æneas stopped near the Strophades. The largest of these
two islands is not above five miles in circumference. _Hyginus_,
fable 19.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 13,
li. 709.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 210.――_Strabo_, bk. 8.
=Strophius=, a son of Crisus king of Phocis. He married a sister of
Agamemnon, called Anaxibia, or Astyochia, or, according to others,
Cyndragora, by whom he had Pylades, celebrated for his friendship
with Orestes. After the murder of Agamemnon by Clytemnestra and
Ægisthus, the king of Phocis educated at his own house, with the
greatest care, his nephew, whom Electra had secretly removed from the
dagger of his mother and her adulterer. Orestes was enabled, by means
of Strophius, to revenge the death of his father. _Pausanias_, bk. 2,
ch. 29.――_Hyginus_, fables 1, 17.――――A son of Pylades by Electra the
sister of Orestes.
=Struthophăgi=, a people of Æthiopia, who fed on sparrows, as their
name signifies.
=Struthus=, a general of Artaxerxes against the Lacedæmonians, B.C. 393.
=Stryma=, a town of Thrace, founded by a Thasian colony. _Herodotus_,
bk. 7, ch. 109.
=Strymno=, a daughter of the Scamander, who married Laomedon.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 12.
=Strymon=, a river which separates Thrace from Macedonia, and falls
into a part of the Ægean sea, which has been called _Strymonicus
sinus_. A number of cranes, as the poets say, resorted on its banks
in the summer time. Its eels were excellent. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 2.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 5.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 1, li. 120;
bk. 4, li. 508; _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 265.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 2, li. 251.
=Stubera=, a town of Macedonia, between the Axius and Erigon. _Livy_,
bk. 31, ch. 39.
=Stura=, a river of Cisalpine Gaul, falling into the Po.
=Sturni=, a town of Calabria.
=Stymphālia=, or =Stymphālis=, a part of Macedonia. _Livy_, bk. 45,
ch. 30.――――A surname of Diana.
=Stymphālus=, a king of Arcadia, son of Elatus and Laodice. He made
war against Pelops, and was killed in a truce. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3,
ch. 9.――_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 4.――――A town, river, lake, and
fountain of Arcadia, which receives its name from king Stymphalus.
The neighbourhood of the lake Stymphalus was infested with a number
of voracious birds, like cranes or storks, which fed upon human flesh,
and which were called _Stymphalides_. They were at last destroyed by
Hercules, with the assistance of Minerva. Some have confounded them
with the Harpies, while others pretend that they never existed but in
the imagination of the poets. Pausanias, however, supports that there
were carnivorous birds like the Stymphalides, in Arabia. _Pausanias_,
bk. 8, ch. 4.――_Statius_, _Thebaid_, bk. 4, li. 298.――――A lofty
mountain of Peloponnesus in Arcadia.
=Stygne=, a daughter of Danaus. _Statius_, _Sylvæ_, bk. 4, poem 6.
――_Apollodorus._
=Styra=, a town of Eubœa.
=Stȳrus=, a king of Albania, to whom Æetes promised his daughter
Medea in marriage, to obtain his assistance against the Argonauts.
_Flaccus_, bk. 3, li. 497; bk. 8, li. 358.
=Styx=, a daughter of Oceanus and Tethys. She married Pallas, by whom
she had three daughters, Victory, Strength, and Valour. _Hesiod_,
_Theogony_, lis. 363 & 384.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 2.――――A
celebrated river of hell, round which it flows nine times. According
to some writers, the Styx was a small river of Nonacris in Arcadia,
whose waters were so cold and venomous, that they proved fatal to
such as tasted them. Among others, Alexander the Great is mentioned
as a victim to their fatal poison, in consequence of drinking
them. They even consumed iron, and broke all vessels. The wonderful
properties of this water suggested the idea that it was a river of
hell, especially when it disappeared in the earth a little below
its fountain head. The gods held the waters of the Styx in such
veneration, that they always swore by them; an oath which was
inviolable. If any of the gods had perjured themselves, Jupiter
obliged them to drink the waters of the Styx, which lulled them for
one whole year into a senseless stupidity; for the nine following
years they were deprived of the ambrosia and the nectar of the gods,
and after the expiration of the years of their punishment, they were
restored to the assembly of the deities, and to all their original
privileges. It is said that this veneration was shown to the Styx,
because it received its name from the nymph Styx, who, with her three
daughters, assisted Jupiter in his war against the Titans. _Hesiod_,
_Theogony_, lis. 384, 775.――_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 10, li. 513.
――_Herodotus_, bk. 6, ch. 74.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, lis. 323,
439, &c.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 3.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 3, li. 29, &c.――_Lucan_, bk. 6, li. 378, &c.――_Pausanias_, bk. 8,
chs. 17 & 18.――_Curtius_, bk. 10, ch. 10.
=Suada=, the goddess of persuasion, called Pitho by the Greeks. She
had a form of worship established to her honour first by Theseus.
She had a statue in the temple of Venus Praxis at Megara. _Cicero_,
_Brutus_, bk. 15.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, chs. 22 & 43; bk. 9, ch. 35.
=Suana=, a town of Etruria.
=Suardones=, a people of Germany. _Tacitus_, _Germania_, ch. 40.
=Suasa=, a town of Umbria.
=Subatrii=, a people of Germany, over whom Drusus triumphed. _Strabo_,
bk. 7.
=Subi=, a small river of Catalonia.
=Sublicius=, the first bridge erected at Rome over the Tiber. _See:_
Pons.
=Submontorium=, a town of Vindelicia, now _Augsburg_.
=Subota=, small islands at the east of Athos. _Livy_, bk. 44, ch. 28.
=Subur=, a river of Mauritania.――――A town of Spain.
=Suburra=, a street in Rome where all the licentious, dissolute, and
lascivious Romans and courtesans resorted. It was situate between
mount Viminalis and Quirinalis, and was remarkable as having been the
residence of the obscurer years of Julius Cæsar. _Suetonius_, _Cæsar_.
――_Varro_, _de Lingua Latina_, bk. 4, ch. 8.――_Martial_, bk. 8,
ltr. 66.――_Juvenal_, satire 3, li. 5.
=Sucro=, now _Xucar_, a river of Hispania Tarraconensis, celebrated
for a battle fought there between Sertorius and Pompey, in which
the former obtained the victory. _Plutarch._――――A Rutulian killed by
Æneas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 12, li. 505.
=Sudertum=, a town of Etruria. _Livy_, bk. 26, ch. 23.
=Suessa=, a town of Campania, called also _Aurunca_, to distinguish
it from Suessa Pometia, the capital of the Volsci. _Strabo_, bk. 5.
――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 5.――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 4.
――_Livy_, bks. 1 & 2.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 775.――_Cicero_,
_Philippics_, bk. 3, ch. 4; bk. 4, ch. 2.
=Suessitani=, a people of Spain. _Livy_, bk. 25, ch. 34.
=Suessŏnes=, a powerful nation of Belgic Gaul, reduced by Julius Cæsar.
_Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 2.
=Suessula=, a town of Campania. _Livy_, bk. 7, ch. 37; bk. 23, ch. 14.
♦=Suetonius Caius Paulinus=, the first Roman general who crossed
mount Atlas with an army, of which expedition he wrote an account.
He presided over Britain as governor for about 20 years, and was
afterwards made consul. He forsook the interest of Otho, and attached
himself to Vitellius.――――Caius Tranquillus, a Latin historian,
son of a Roman knight of the same name. He was favoured by Adrian,
and became his secretary, but he was afterwards banished from the
court for want of attention and respect to the empress Sabina. In
his retirement Suetonius enjoyed the friendship and correspondence
of Pliny the younger, and dedicated his time to study. He wrote a
history of the Roman kings, divided into three books; a catalogue of
all the illustrious men of Rome, a book on the games and spectacles
of the Greeks, &c., which are all now lost. The only one of his
compositions extant, is the lives of the 12 first Cæsars, and some
fragments of his catalogue of celebrated grammarians. Suetonius,
in his Lives, is praised for his impartiality and correctness. His
expressions, however, are often too indelicate, and it has been
justly observed, that while he exposed the deformities of the Cæsars,
he wrote with all the licentiousness and extravagance with which
they lived. The best editions of Suetonius are that of Pitiscus, 4to,
2 vols., Leiden, 1714; that of Oudendorp, 2 vols., 8vo, Leiden, 1751;
and that of Ernesti, 8vo, Lipscomb, 1775. _Pliny_, bk. 1, ltr. 11;
bk. 5, ltr. 11, &c.
♦ ‘Setonius’ replaced with ‘Suetonius’
=Suetri=, a people of Gaul near the Alps.
♦=Suevi=, a people of Germany, between the Elbe and the Vistula, who
made frequent incursions upon the territories of Rome under the
emperors. _Lucan_, bk. 2, li. 51.
♦ ‘Suovi’ replaced with ‘Suevi’
=Suevius=, a Latin poet in the age of Ennius.
=Suffetala=, an inland town of Mauritania.
=Suffēnus=, a Latin poet in the age of Catullus. He was but of moderate
abilities, but puffed up with a high idea of his own excellence, and
therefore deservedly exposed to the ridicule of his contemporaries.
_Catullus_, poem 22.
=Suffetius=, or =Suftius=. _See:_ Metius.
=Suidas=, a Greek writer who flourished A.D. 1100. The best edition of
his excellent Lexicon is that of Kuster, 3 vols., folio, Cambridge.
1705.
=Publius Suilius=, an informer in the court of Claudius, banished
under Nero, by means of Seneca, and sent to the Baleares. _Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 14, ch. 42, &c.――――Cæsorinus, a guilty favourite of
Messalina. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 11, ch. 36.
=Suiones=, a nation of Germany, supposed the modern _Swedes_. _Tacitus_,
_Germania_, ch. 44.
=Sulchi=, a town at the south of Sardinia. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.
――_Claudian_, _Gildonic War_, li. 518.――_Strabo_, bk. 5.
=Sulcius=, an informer whom Horace describes as hoarse with the
number of defamations which he daily gave. _Horace_, bk. 1, satire 4,
li. 65.
=Sulga=, now _Sorgue_, a small river of Gaul, falling into the Rhone.
_Strabo_, bk. 4.
=Sulla.= _See:_ Sylla.
=Sulmo=, now _Sulmona_, an ancient town of the Peligni, at the distance
of about 90 miles from Rome, founded by Solymus, one of the followers
of Æneas. Ovid was born there. _Ovid_, _passim_.――_Silius Italicus_,
bk. 8, li. 511.――_Strabo_, bk. 5.――――A Latin chief killed in the
night by Nisus, as he was going with his companions to destroy
Euryalus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 412.
=Sulpitia=, a daughter of Paterculus, who married Fulvius Flaccus.
She was so famous for her chastity, that she consecrated a temple
to ♦Venus Verticordia, a goddess who was implored to turn the hearts
of the Roman women to virtue. _Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 35.――――A poetess
in the age of Domitian, against whom she wrote a poem, because he
had banished the philosophers from Rome. This composition is still
extant. She had also written a poem on conjugal affection, commended
by Martial, ltr. 35, now lost.――――A daughter of Servius Sulpitius,
mentioned in the fourth book of elegies, falsely attributed to
Tibullus.
♦ ‘Venis’ replaced with ‘Venus’
=Sulpitia lex=, _militaris_, by Caius Sulpicius the tribune, A.U.C. 665,
invested Marius with the full power of the war against Mithridates,
of which Sylla was to be deprived.――――Another, _de senatu_, by
Servius Sulpicius the tribune, A.U.C. 665. It required that no
senator should owe more than 2000 drachmæ.――――Another, _de civitate_,
by Publius Sulpitius the tribune, A.U.C. 665. It ordered that the
new citizens who composed the eight tribes lately created, should
be divided among the 35 old tribes, as a greater honour.――――Another,
called also Sempronia, _de religione_, by Publius Sulpicius Saverrio
and Publius Sempronius Sophus, consuls, A.U.C. 449. It forbade any
person to consecrate a temple or altar without the permission of the
senate and the majority of the tribunes.――――Another, to empower the
Romans to make war against Philip of Macedonia.
=Sulpitius=, or =Sulpicius=, an illustrious family at Rome, of whom
the most celebrated are:――Peticus, a man chosen dictator against the
Gauls. His troops mutinied when he first took the field, but soon
after he engaged the enemy and totally defeated them. _Livy_, bk. 7.
――――Saverrio, a consul who gained a victory over the Æqui. _Livy_,
bk. 9, ch. 45.――――Caius Paterculus, a consul sent against the
Carthaginians. He conquered Sardinia and Corsica, and obtained a
complete victory over the enemy’s fleet. He was honoured with a
triumph at his return to Rome. _Livy_, bk. 17.――――Spurius, one of
the three commissioners whom the Romans sent to collect the best laws
which could be found in the different cities and republics of Greece.
_Livy_, bk. 3, ch. 10.――――One of the first consuls who received
intelligence that a conspiracy was formed in Rome to restore the
Tarquins to power, &c.――――A priest who died of the plague in the
first ages of the republic at Rome.――――Publius Galba, a Roman consul
who signalized himself greatly during the war which his countrymen
waged against the Achæans and the Macedonians.――――Severus, a writer.
_See:_ Severus.――――Publius, one of the associates of Marius, well
known for his intrigues and cruelty. He made some laws in favour of
the allies of Rome, and he kept about 3000 young men in continual
pay, whom he called his anti-senatorial band, and with these he had
often the impertinence to attack the consul in the popular assemblies.
He became at last so seditious, that he was proscribed by Sylla’s
adherents, and immediately murdered. His head was fixed on a pole
in the rostrum, where he had often made many seditious speeches
in the capacity of tribune. _Livy_, bk. 77.――――A Roman consul who
fought against Pyrrhus and defeated him.――――Caius Longus, a Roman
consul, who defeated the Samnites and killed 30,000 of their men.
He obtained a triumph for this celebrated victory. He was afterwards
made dictator to conduct a war against the Etrurians.――――Rufus, a
lieutenant of Cæsar in Gaul.――――One of Messalina’s favourites, put
to death by Claudius.――――Publius Quirinus, a consul in the age of
Augustus.――――Camerinus, a proconsul of Africa, under Nero, accused
of cruelty, &c. _Tacitus_, bk. 13, _Annals_, ch. 52.――――Gallus, a
celebrated astrologer in the age of Paulus. He accompanied the consul
in his expedition against Perseus, and told the Roman army that the
night before the day on which they were to give the enemy battle
there would be an eclipse of the moon. This explanation encouraged
the soldiers, which, on the contrary, would have intimidated them,
if not previously acquainted with the causes of it. Sulpitius was
universally respected, and he was honoured a few years after with
the consulship. _Livy_, bk. 44, ch. 37.――_Pliny_, bk. 2, ch. 12.
――――Apollinaris, a grammarian in the age of the emperor Marcus
Aurelius. He left some letters and a few grammatical observations
now lost. _Cicero._――_Livy._――_Plutarch._――_Polybius._――_Florus._
――_Eutropius._
=Summānus=, a surname of Pluto, as prince of the dead, _summus manium_.
He had a temple at Rome, erected during the wars with Pyrrhus, and
the Romans believed that the thunderbolts of Jupiter were in his
power during the night. _Cicero_, _De Divinatione_.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_,
bk. 6, li. 731.
=Sunici=, a people of Germany on the shores of the Rhine. _Tacitus_,
_Histories_, bk. 4, ch. 66.
=Sunides=, a soothsayer in the army of Eumenes. _Polyænus_, bk. 4.
=Sunium=, a promontory of Attica, about 45 miles distant from the
Piræus. There was there a small harbour, as also a town. Minerva
had there a beautiful temple, whence she was called _Sunias_. There
are still extant some ruins of this temple. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 7.
――_Strabo_, bk. 9.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 1.――_Cicero_, _Letters to
Atticus_, bk. 7, ltr. 3; bk. 13, ltr. 10.
=Suovetaurilia=, a sacrifice among the Romans, which consisted of the
immolation of a sow (_sus_), a sheep (_ovis_), and a bull (_taurus_),
whence the name. It was generally observed every fifth year.
=Supĕrum mare=, a name of the Adriatic sea, because it was situate
above Italy. The name of _Mare Inferum_ was applied for the opposite
reasons to the sea below Italy. _Cicero_, _For Aulus Cluentius_, &c.
=Sura Æmylius=, a Latin writer, &c. _Velleius Paterculus_, bk. 1,
ch. 6.――――Lucius Licinius, a favourite of Trajan, honoured with the
consulship.――――A writer in the age of the emperor Gallienus. He wrote
a history of the reign of the emperor.――――A city on the Euphrates.
――――Another in Iberia.――――A river of Germany, whose waters fall into
the Moselle. _Ausonius_, _Mosella_.
=Surēna=, a powerful officer in the armies of Orodes king of Parthia.
His family had the privilege of crowning the kings of Parthia. He
was appointed to conduct the war against the Romans, and to protect
the kingdom of Parthia against Crassus, who wished to conquer it. He
defeated the Roman triumvir, and after he had drawn him perfidiously
to a conference, he ordered his head to be cut off. He afterwards
returned to Parthia, mimicking the triumphs of the Romans. Orodes
ordered him to be put to death, B.C. 52. Surena has been admired for
his valour, his sagacity as a general, and his prudence and firmness
in the execution of his plans; but his perfidy, his effeminate
manners, and his lasciviousness have been deservedly censured.
_Polyænus_, bk. 7.――_Plutarch_, _Crassus_.
=Surium=, a town at the south of Colchis.
=Surrentum=, a town of Campania, on the bay of Naples, famous for
the wine which was made in the neighbourhood. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 4.
――_Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ltr. 17, li. 52.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 15, li. 710.――_Martial_, bk. 13, ltr. 110.
=Surus=, one of the Ædui, who made war against Cæsar. _Cæsar_, _Gallic
War_, bk. 8, ch. 45.
=Susa= (orum), now _Suster_, a celebrated city of Asia, the chief town
of Susiana, and the capital of the Persian empire, built by Tithonus
the father of Memnon. Cyrus took it. The walls of Susa were above
120 stadia in circumference. The treasures of the kings of Persia
were generally kept there, and the royal palace was built with white
marble, and its pillars were covered with gold and precious stones.
It was usual with the kings of Persia to spend the summer at Ecbatana,
and the winter at Susa, because the climate was more warm than at
any other royal residence. It has been called _Memnonia_, or the
palace of Memnon, because that prince reigned there. _Pliny_, bk. 6,
ch. 26, &c.――_Lucan_, bk. 2, li. 49.――_Strabo_, bk. 15.――_Xenophon_,
_Cyropædia_.――_Propertius_, bk. 2, poem 13.――_Claudian._
=Susăna=, a town of Hispania Tarraconensis. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 3,
li. 384.
=Susarion=, a Greek poet of Megara, who is supposed, with Dolon, to be
the inventor of comedy, and to have first introduced it at Athens on
a movable stage, B.C. 562.
=Susiāna=, or =Susis=, a country of Asia, of which the capital was
called Susa, situate at the east of Assyria. Lilies grow in great
abundance in Susiana, and it is from that plant that the province
received its name, according to some, as _Susan_ is the name of a
_lily_ in Hebrew.
=Susidæ pylæ=, narrow passes over mountains, from Susiana into Persia.
_Curtius_, bk. 5, ch. 3.
=Suthul=, a town of Numidia, where the king’s treasures were kept.
_Sallust_, _Jugurthine War_, ch. 37.
=Sutrium=, a town of Etruria, about 24 miles north-west of Rome. Some
suppose that the phrase _Ire Sutrium_, to act with despatch, arises
from the celerity with which Camillus recovered the place, but Festus
explains it differently. _Plautus_, _Casina_, act 3, scen 1, li. 10.
――_Livy_, bk. 26, ch. 34.――_Paterculus_, bk. 1, ch. 14.――_Livy_,
bk. 9, ch. 32.
=Syagrus=, an ancient poet, the first who wrote on the Trojan war. He
is called _Segaris_, by Diogenes Laërtius, who adds that he lived
in Homer’s age, of whom he was the rival. _Ælian_, _Varia Historia_,
bk. 14, ch. 21.
=Sybăris=, a river of Lucania in Italy, whose waters were said to
render men more strong and robust. _Strabo_, bk. 6.――_Pliny_, bk. 3,
ch. 11; bk. 31, ch. 2.――――There was a town of the same name on its
banks on the bay of Tarentum, which had been founded by a colony of
Achæans. Sybaris became very powerful, and in its most flourishing
situation it had the command of four neighbouring nations, of
25 towns, and could send an army of 300,000 men into the field.
The walls of the city were said to extend six miles and a half in
circumference, and the suburbs covered the banks of the Crathis for
the space of seven miles. It made a long and vigorous resistance
against the neighbouring town of Crotona, till it was at last
totally reduced by the disciples of Pythagoras, B.C. 501. Sybaris
was destroyed no less than five times, and always repaired. In a
more recent age the inhabitants became so effeminate, that the word
_Sybarise_ became proverbial to intimate a man devoted to pleasure.
There was a small town built in the neighbourhood about 444 years
before the christian era, and called Thurium, from a small fountain
called Thuria, where it was built. _Diodorus_, bk. 12.――_Strabo_,
bk. 6.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 9, ch. 24.――_Martial_, bk. 12,
ltr. 96.――_Plutarch_, _Pelopidas_, &c.――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 10, &c.
――――A friend of Æneas, killed by Turnus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 12,
li. 363.――――A youth enamoured of Lydia, &c. _Horace_, bk. 1, ode 8,
li. 2.
=Sybarīta=, an inhabitant of Sybaris. _See:_ Sybaris.
=Sybota=, a harbour of Epirus. _Cicero_, bk. 5, _Letters to Atticus_,
ltr. 9.――_Strabo_, bk. 7.
=Sybŏtas=, a king of the Messenians in the age of Lycurgus the Spartan
legislator. _Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 4.
=Sycinnus=, a slave of Themistocles, sent by his master to engage
Xerxes to fight against the fleet of the Peloponnesians.
=Sycurium=, a town of Thessaly at the foot of Ossa. _Livy_, bk. 42,
ch. 54.
=Syedra=, a town of Cilicia.
=Syēne=, now _Assuan_, a town of Thebais, on the extremities of Egypt.
Juvenal the poet was banished there on pretence of commanding a
pretorian cohort stationed in the neighbourhood. It was famous for
its quarries of marble. _Strabo_, bks. 1 & 2.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 9.
――_Pliny_, bk. 36, ch. 8.――_Ovid_, _ex Ponto_, bk. 1, poem 5, li. 79;
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, li. 74.――_Lucan_, bk. 2, li. 587; bk. 8,
li. 851; bk. 10, li. 234.
=Syenesius=, a Cilician who, with Labinetus of Babylon, concluded a
peace between Alyattes king of Lydia, and Cyaxares king of Media,
while both armies were terrified by a sudden eclipse of the sun, B.C.
585. _Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 74.
=Syennesis=, a satrap of Cilicia, when Cyrus made war against his
brother Artaxerxes. He wished to favour both the brothers by sending
one of his sons into the army of Cyrus and another to Artaxerxes.
=Sylēa=, a daughter of Corinthus.
=Syleum=, a town of Pamphylia.
=Syleus=, a king of Aulis.
=Sylla Lucius Cornelius=, a celebrated Roman of a noble family. The
poverty of his early years was relieved by the liberality of the
courtesan Nicopolis, who left him heir to a large fortune; and with
the addition of the immense wealth of his mother-in-law, he soon
appeared one of the most opulent of the Romans. He first entered
the army under the great Marius, whom he accompanied in Numidia in
the capacity of questor. He rendered himself conspicuous in military
affairs; and Bocchus, one of the princes of Numidia, delivered
Jugurtha into his hands for the Roman consul. The rising fame of
Sylla gave umbrage to Marius, who was always jealous of an equal,
as well as of a superior; but the ill language which he might use,
rather inflamed than extinguished the ambition of Sylla. He left the
conqueror of Jugurtha, and carried arms under Catullus. Some time
after he obtained the pretorship, and was appointed by the Roman
senate to place Ariobarzanes on the throne of Cappadocia, against
the views and interest of Mithridates king of Pontus. This he easily
effected: one battle left him victorious; and before he quitted the
plains of Asia, the Roman pretor had the satisfaction to receive
in his camp the ambassadors of the king of Parthia, who wished
to make a treaty of alliance with the Romans. Sylla received them
with haughtiness, and behaved with such arrogance, that one of them
exclaimed, “Surely this man is master of the world, or doomed to be
such!” At his return to Rome, he was commissioned to finish the war
with the Marsi, and when this was successfully ended, he was rewarded
with the consulship, in the 50th year of his age. In this capacity
he wished to have the administration of the Mithridatic war; but he
found an obstinate adversary in Marius, and he attained the summit of
his wishes only when he had entered Rome sword in hand. After he had
slaughtered all his enemies, set a price upon the head of Marius, and
put to death the tribune Sulpitius, who had continually opposed his
views, he marched towards Asia, and disregarded the flames of discord
which he left behind him unextinguished. Mithridates was already
master of the greatest part of Greece; and Sylla, when he reached
the coast of Peloponnesus, was delayed by the siege of Athens, and
of the Piræus. His operations were carried on with vigour, and when
he found his money fail, he made no scruple to take the riches of the
temples of the gods to bribe his soldiers, and render them devoted
to his service. His boldness succeeded. The Piræus surrendered;
and the conqueror, as if struck with reverence at the beautiful
porticoes where the philosophic followers of Socrates and Plato had
often disputed, spared the city of Athens, which he had devoted to
destruction, and forgave the living for the sake of the dead. Two
celebrated battles at Cheronæa and Orchomenos, rendered him master
of Greece. He crossed the Hellespont, and attacked Mithridates in
the very heart of his kingdom. The artful monarch, who well knew
the valour and perseverance of his adversary, made proposals of
peace; and Sylla, whose interest at home was then decreasing, did
not hesitate to put an end to a war which had rendered him master
of so much territory, and which enabled him to return to Rome like
a conqueror, and to dispute with his rival the sovereignty of the
republic with a victorious army. Muræna was left at the head of the
Roman forces in Asia, and Sylla hastened to Italy. In the plains of
Campania, he was met by a few of his adherents, whom the success of
his rivals had banished from the capital, and he was soon informed,
that if he wished to contend with Marius, he must encounter 15
generals, followed by 25 well-disciplined legions. In these critical
circumstances he had recourse to artifice, and while he proposed
terms of accommodation to his adversaries, he secretly strengthened
himself, and saw, with pleasure, his armies daily increase by the
revolt of soldiers whom his bribes or promises had corrupted. Pompey,
who afterwards merited the surname of Great, embraced his cause, and
marched to the camp with three legions. Soon after he appeared in the
field with advantage; the confidence of Marius decayed with his power,
and Sylla entered Rome like a tyrant and a conqueror. The streets
were daily filled with dead bodies, and 7000 citizens, to whom the
conqueror had promised pardon, were suddenly massacred in the circus.
The senate, at that time assembled in the temple of Bellona, heard
the shrieks of their dying countrymen; and when they inquired into
the cause of it, Sylla coolly replied, “They are only a few rebels
whom I have ordered to be chastised.” If this had been the last and
most dismal scene, Rome might have been called happy; but it was only
the beginning of her misfortunes. Each succeeding day exhibited a
great number of slaughtered bodies, and when one of the senators had
the boldness to ask the tyrant when he meant to stop his cruelties,
Sylla, with an air of unconcern, answered, that he had not yet
determined, but that he would take it into his consideration. The
slaughter was continued; a list of such as were proscribed was daily
stuck in the public streets, and the slave was rewarded to bring his
master’s head, and the son was not ashamed to imbrue his hands in the
blood of his father for money. No less than 4700 of the most powerful
and opulent were slain, and Sylla wished the Romans to forget his
cruelties in aspiring to the title of perpetual dictator. In this
capacity he made new laws, abrogated such as were inimical to his
views, and changed every regulation where his ambition was obstructed.
After he had finished whatever the most absolute sovereign may do
from his own will and authority, Sylla abdicated the dictatorial
power, and retired to a solitary retreat at Puteoli, where he spent
the rest of his days, if not in literary ease and tranquillity, yet
far from the noise of arms, in the midst of riot and debauchery. The
companions of his retirement were the most base and licentious of the
populace, and Sylla took pleasure still to wallow in voluptuousness,
though on the verge of life, and covered with infirmities. His
intemperance hastened his end, his blood was corrupted, and an
imposthume was bred in his bowels. He at last died in the greatest
torments of the lousy disease, about 78 years before Christ, in the
60th year of his age; and it has been observed, that, like Marius,
on his death-bed, he wished to drown the stings of conscience and
remorse by continual intoxication. His funeral was very magnificent;
his body was attended by the senate and the vestal virgins, and
hymns were sung to celebrate his exploits and to honour his memory.
A monument was erected in the field of Mars, on which appeared an
inscription written by himself, in which he said, that the good
services he had received from his friends, and the injuries of his
enemies, had been returned with unexampled usury. The character of
Sylla is that of an ambitious, dissimulating, credulous, tyrannical,
debauched, and resolute commander. He was revengeful in the highest
degree, and the surname of _Felix_, or _the Fortunate_, which he
assumed, showed that he was more indebted to fortune than to valour
for the great fame which he had acquired. But in the midst of all
this, who cannot admire the moderation and philosophy of a man,
who when absolute master of a republic, which he had procured by
his cruelty and avarice, silently abdicates the sovereign power,
challenges a critical examination of his administration, and retires
to live securely in the midst of thousands whom he has injured and
offended? The Romans were pleased and astonished at his abdication;
and when the insolence of a young man had been vented against
the dictator, he calmly answered, “This usage may perhaps deter
another to resign his power to follow my example, if ever he
becomes absolute.” Sylla has been commended for the patronage
which he gave to the arts and sciences. He brought from Asia the
extensive library of Apellicon the Peripatetic philosopher, in
which were the works of Aristotle and Theophrastus, and he himself
composed 22 books of memoirs concerning himself. _Cicero_, _Against
Verres_, &c.――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Atticus_.――_Paterculus_, bk. 2,
ch. 17, &c.――_Livy_, bk. 75, &c.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 20.
――_Florus_, bk. 3, ch. 5, &c.; bk. 4, ch. 2, &c.――_Valerius
Maximus_, bk. 12, &c.――_Polybius_, bk. 5.――_Justin_, bks. 37 & 38.
――_Eutropius_, bk. 5, ch. 2.――_Plutarch_, _Lives_.――――A nephew of
the dictator, who conspired against his country because he had been
deprived of his consulship for bribery.――――Another relation, who
also joined in the same conspiracy.――――A man put to death by Nero
at Marseilles, where he had been banished.――――A friend of Cato,
defeated and killed by one of Cæsar’s lieutenants.――――A senator
banished from the senate for his prodigality by Tiberius.
=Syllis=, a nymph, mother of Zeuxippus by Apollo. _Pausanias_, bk. 2,
ch. 6.
=Syloes=, a promontory of Africa.
=Sylŏson=, a man who gave a splendid garment to Darius son of Hystaspes,
when a private man. Darius, when raised to the throne of Persia,
remembered the gift of Syloson with gratitude. _Strabo_, bk. 14.
=Sylvānus=, a god of the woods. _See:_ Silvanus.
=Sylvia=, or =Ilia=, the mother of Romulus. _See:_ Rhea.――――A daughter
of Tyrrhenus, whose favourite stag was wounded by Ascanius. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 503.
=Sylvius=, a son of Æneas by Lavinia, from whom afterwards all the
kings of Alba were called _Sylvii_. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 763.
=Syma=, or =Syme=, a town of Asia.――――A nymph, mother of Chthonius by
Neptune. _Diodorus_, bk. 5.
=Symbŏlum=, a place of Macedonia, near Philippi, on the confines of
Thrace.
=Symmăchus=, an officer in the army of Agesilaus.――――A celebrated
orator in the age of Theodosius the Great. His father was prefect of
Rome. He wrote against the christians, and 10 books of his letters
are extant, which have been refuted by Ambrose and Prudentius. The
best editions of Symmachus are that of Geneva, 8vo, 1598, and that
of Paris, 4to, 1604.――――A writer in the second century. He translated
the Bible into Greek, of which few fragments remain.
=Symplegădes=, or =Cyaneæ=, two islands or rocks at the entrance of the
Euxine sea. _See:_ Cyaneæ.
=Symus=, a mountain of Armenia, from which the Araxes flows.
=Syncellus=, one of the Byzantine historians, whose works were edited
in folio, Paris, 1652.
=Synesius=, a bishop of Cyrene in the age of Theodosius the younger,
as conspicuous for his learning as his piety. He wrote 155 epistles,
besides other treatises, in Greek, in a style pure and elegant,
and bordering much upon the poetic. The last edition is in 8vo,
Paris, 1605; inferior, however, to the _editio princeps_ by Dionysius
Pectavius, folio, Paris, 1613. The best edition of Synesius _de
febribus_ is that of Bernard, Amsterdam, 1749.
=Synnalaxis=, a nymph of Ionia, who had a temple at Heraclea in Elis.
_Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 22.
=Synnas= (adis), or =Synnada= (plural), a town of Phrygia, famous
for its marble quarries. _Strabo_, bk. 12.――_Claudian_, _Against
Eutropius_, bk. 2.――_Martial_, bk. 9, ltr. 77.――_Statius_, bk. 1,
_Sylvæ_, poem 5, li. 41.
=Synnis=, a famous robber of Attica. _See:_ Scinis.
=Synōpe=, a town on the borders of the Euxine. _See:_ Sinope.
=Syphæum=, a town of the Brutii in Italy. _Livy_, bk. 30, ch. 19.
=Syphax=, a king of the Masæsylii in Libya, who married Sophonisba the
daughter of Asdrubal, and forsook the alliance of the Romans to join
himself to the interest of his father-in-law, and of Carthage. He
was conquered in a battle by Masinissa the ally of Rome, and given to
Scipio the Roman general. The conqueror carried him to Rome, where he
adorned his triumph. Syphax died in prison 201 years before Christ,
and his possessions were given to Masinissa. According to some, the
descendants of Syphax reigned for some time over a part of Numidia,
and continued to make opposition to the Romans. _Livy_, bk. 24, &c.
――_Plutarch_, _Scipio_.――_Florus_, bk. 2, ch. 6.――_Polybius._
――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 16, lis. 171 & 188.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 6,
li. 769.
=Syraces=, one of the Sacæ, who mutilated himself, and, by pretending
to be a deserter, brought Darius, who made war against his country,
into many difficulties. _Polyænus_, bk. 7.
=Syracosia=, festivals at Syracuse celebrated during 10 days, in which
women were busily employed in offering sacrifices.――――Another yearly
observed near the lake of Syracuse, where, as they supposed, Pluto
had disappeared with Proserpine.
=Syracūsæ=, a celebrated city of Sicily, founded about 732 years
before the christian era by Archias, a Corinthian, and one of the
Heraclidæ. In its flourishing state it extended 22½ English miles in
circumference, and was divided into four districts, Ortygia, Acradina,
Tycha, and Neapolis, to which some add a fifth division, Epipolæ, a
district little inhabited. These were of themselves separate cities,
and were fortified with three citadels, and three-folded walls.
Syracuse had two capacious harbours separated from one another by
the island of Ortygia. The greatest harbour was about 5000 paces
in circumference, and its entrance 500 paces wide. The people of
Syracuse were very opulent and powerful, and though subject to
tyrants, they were masters of vast possessions and dependent states.
The city of Syracuse was well built, its houses were stately and
magnificent; and it has been said, that it produced the best and most
excellent of men when they were virtuous, but the most wicked and
depraved when addicted to vicious pursuits. The women of Syracuse
were not permitted to adorn themselves with gold, or wear costly
garments, except such as prostituted themselves. Syracuse gave birth
to Theocritis and Archimedes. It was under different governments;
and after being freed from the tyranny of Thrasybulus, B.C. 446, it
enjoyed security for 61 years, till the usurpation of the Dionysii,
who were expelled by Timoleon, B.C. 343. In the age of the elder
Dionysius, an army of 100,000 foot and 10,000 horse, and 400 ships,
were kept in constant pay. It fell into the hands of the Romans,
under the consul Marcellus, after a siege of three years, B.C. 212.
_Cicero_, _Against Verres_, bk. 4, chs. 52 & 53.――_Strabo_, bks. 1
& 8.――_Cornelius Nepos._――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Livy_, bk. 23, &c.
――_Plutarch_, _Marcellus_, &c.――_Florus_, bk. 2, ch. 6.――_Silius
Italicus_, bk. 14, li. 278.
=Syria=, a large country of Asia, whose boundaries are not accurately
ascertained by the ancients. Syria, generally speaking, was bounded
on the east by the Euphrates, north by mount Taurus, west by the
Mediterranean, and south by Arabia. It was divided into several
districts and provinces, among which were Phœnicia, Seleucis, Judæa
or Palestine, Mesopotamia, Babylon, and Assyria. It was also called
_Assyria_; and the words Syria and Assyria, though distinguished and
defined by some authors, were often used indifferently. Syria was
subjected to the monarchs of Persia; but after the death of Alexander
the Great, Seleucus, surnamed Nicator, who had received this province
as his lot in the division of the Macedonian dominions, raised it
into an empire, known in history by the name of the kingdom of Syria
or Babylon, B.C. 312. Seleucus died after a reign of 32 years, and
his successors, surnamed the _Seleucidæ_, ascended the throne in the
following order: Antiochus, surnamed Soter, 280 B.C.; Antiochus Theos,
261; Seleucus Callinicus, 246; Seleucus Ceraunus, 226; Antiochus
the Great, 223; Seleucus Philopator, 187; Antiochus Epiphanes, 175;
Antiochus Eupator, 164; Demetrius Soter, 162; Alexander Balas, 150;
Demetrius Nicator, 146; Antiochus VI., 144; Diodotus Tryphon, 147;
Antiochus Sidetes, 139; Demetrius Nicator restored, 130; Alexander
Zebina, 127, who was dethroned by Antiochus Grypus, 123; Antiochus
Cyzicenus, 112, who takes part of Syria, which he calls Cœlesyria;
Philip and Demetrius Eucerus, 93, and in Cœlesyria, Antiochus Pius;
Aretas was king of Cœlesyria, 85; Tigranes, king of Armenia, 83; and
Antiochus Asiaticus, 69, who was dethroned by Pompey, B.C. 65; in
consequence of which Syria became a Roman province. _Herodotus_, bks.
2, 3 & 7.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, _Argonautica_.――_Strabo_, bks. 12 &
16.――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Datames_.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 2.――_Ptolemy_,
bk. 5, ch. 6.――_Curtius_, bk. 6.――_Dionysius Periegetes._
=Syriăcum mare=, that part of the Mediterranean sea which is on the
coast of Phœnicia and Syria.
=Syrinx=, a nymph of Arcadia, daughter of the river Ladon. Pan became
enamoured of her, and attempted to offer her violence; but Syrinx
escaped, and at her own request was changed by the gods into a reed
called Syrinx by the Greeks. The god made himself a pipe with the
reeds, into which his favourite nymph had been changed. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, li. 691.――_Martial_, bk. 9, ltr. 63.
=Syrophœnix=, the name of an inhabitant of the maritime coast of Syria.
_Juvenal_, satire 8.
=Syros=, one of the Cyclades in the Ægean sea, at the east of Delos,
about 20 miles in circumference, very fruitful in wine and corn of
all sorts. The inhabitants lived to a great old age, because the air
was wholesome. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 15, li. 504.――_Strabo_, bk. 10.
――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――――A town of Caria. _Pausanias_, bk. 3,
ch. 26.
=Syrtes=, two large sand-banks in the Mediterranean on the coast of
Africa, one of which was near Leptis, and the other near Carthage.
As they often changed places, and were sometimes very high or very
low under the water, they were deemed most dangerous in navigation,
and proved fatal to whatever ships touched upon them. From this
circumstance, therefore, the word has been used to denote any
part of the sea of which the navigation was attended with danger,
either from whirlpools or hidden rocks. _Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 7; bk. 2,
ch. 7.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 4, li. 41.――_Lucan_, bk. 9, li. 303.
――_Sallust_, _ Jugurthine War_.
=Syrus=, an island. _See:_ Syros.――――A son of Apollo by Sinope the
daughter of the Asopus, who gave his name to Syria. _Plutarch_,
_Lucullus_.――――A writer. _See:_ Publius.
=Sysigambis=, the mother of Darius. _See:_ Sisygambis.
=Sysimethres=, a Persian satrap, who had two children by his mother,
an incestuous commerce tolerated by the laws of Persia. He opposed
Alexander with 2000 men, but soon surrendered. He was greatly
honoured by the conqueror. _Curtius_, bk. 8, ch. 4.
=Sysinas=, the elder son of Datames, who revolted from his father to
Artaxerxes.
=Sythas=, a river of Peloponnesus, flowing through Sicyonia into the
bay of Corinth. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 7.
T
=Taautes=, a Phœnician deity, the same as the Saturn of the Latins, and
probably the Thoth, or Thaut, the Mercury of the Egyptians. _Cicero_,
_de Natura Deorum_, bk. 3, ch. 22.――_Varro._
=Tabæ=, a town of Pisidia. _Livy_, bk. 38, ch. 13.
=Tabellariæ leges=, laws made by suffrages delivered upon tables
(_tabellæ_), and not _vivâ voce_. There were four of these laws, the
_Gabinia lex_, A.U.C. 614, by Gabinius; the _Cassia_, by Cassius,
A.U.C. 616; the _Papiria_, by Carbo, A.U.C. 622; and the _Cælia_,
by Cælius, A.U.C. 646. _Cicero_, _de Legibus_, bk. 3, ch. 16.
=Tabernæ novæ=, a street in Rome where shops were built. _Livy_, bk. 3,
ch. 48.――――Rhenanæ, a town of Germany on the confluence of the
Felbach and the Rhine, now _Rhin-Zabern_.――――Riguæ, now _Bern-Castel_,
on the Moselle.――――Triboccorum, a town of Alsace in France, now
_Saverne_.
=Tabor=, a mountain of Palestine.
=Tabrăca=, a maritime town of Africa, near Hippo, made a Roman colony.
The neighbouring forests abounded with monkeys. _Juvenal_, satire 10,
li. 194.――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 3.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 7.――_Silius
Italicus_, bk. 3, li. 256.
=Tabuda=, a river of Germany, now the _Scheldt_. _Ptolemy._
=Taburnus=, a mountain of Campania, which abounded with olives.
_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 2, li. 38; _Æneid_, bk. 12, li. 715.
=Tacape=, a town of Africa.
=Tacatua=, a maritime town of Numidia.
=Tacfarīnas=, a Numidian who commanded an army against the Romans in
the reign of Tiberius. He had formerly served in the Roman legions,
but in the character of an enemy, he displayed the most inveterate
hatred against his benefactor. After he had severally defeated the
officers of Tiberius, he was at last routed and killed in the field
of battle, fighting with uncommon fury, by Dolabella. _Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 2, &c.
=Tachampso=, an island in the Nile, near Thebais. The Egyptians
held one half of this island, and the rest was in the hands of the
Æthiopians. _Herodotus_, bk. 2.
=Tachos=, or =Tachus=, a king of Egypt, in the reign of Artaxerxes
Ochus, against whom he sustained a long war. He was assisted by the
Greeks, but his confidence in Agesilaus king of Lacedæmon proved
fatal to him. Chabrias the Athenian had been entrusted with the fleet
of the Egyptian monarch, and Agesilaus was left with the command of
the mercenary army. The Lacedæmonian disregarded his engagements,
and by joining with Nectanebus, who had revolted from Tachus, he
ruined the affairs of the monarch, and obliged him to save his life
by flight. Some observe that Agesilaus acted with that duplicity to
avenge himself upon Tachus, who had insolently ridiculed his short
and deformed stature. The expectations of Tachus had been raised by
the fame of Agesilaus; but when he saw the lame monarch, he repeated
on the occasion the fable of the mountain which brought forth a mouse,
upon which Agesilaus replied with asperity, though he called him a
mouse, yet he soon should find him to be a lion. _Cornelius Nepos_,
_Agesilaus._
=Tacina=, a river of the Brutii.
=Tacĭta=, a goddess who presided over silence. Numa, as some say, paid
particular veneration to this divinity.
=Tacĭtus ♦Publius Cornelius=, a celebrated Latin historian, born in the
reign of Nero. His father was a Roman knight, who had been appointed
governor of Belgic Gaul. The native genius and the rising talents of
Tacitus were beheld with rapture by the emperor Vespasian, and as he
wished to protect and patronize merit, he raised the young historian
to places of trust and honour. The succeeding emperors were not less
partial to Tacitus, and Domitian seemed to forget his cruelties, when
virtue and innocence claimed his patronage. Tacitus was honoured with
the consulship, and he gave proofs of his eloquence at the bar by
supporting the cause of the injured Africans against the proconsul
Marius Priscus, and in causing him to be condemned for his avarice
and extortion. The friendly intercourse of Pliny and Tacitus has
often been admired, and many have observed, that the familiarity
of these two great men arose from similar principles, and a perfect
conformity of manners and opinions. Yet Tacitus was as much the
friend of a republican government, as Pliny was an admirer of the
imperial power, and of the short-lived virtues of his patron Trajan.
Pliny gained the heart of his adherents by affability, and all the
elegant graces which became the courtier and the favourite, while
Tacitus conciliated the esteem of the world by his virtuous conduct,
which prudence and love of honour ever guided. The friendship of
Tacitus and of Pliny almost became proverbial, and one was scarce
mentioned without the other, as the following instance may indicate.
At the exhibition of the spectacles in the circus, Tacitus held a
long conversation on different subjects with a Roman knight, with
whom he was unacquainted; and when the knight asked him whether he
was a native of Italy, the historian told him that he was not unknown
to him, and that for their distant acquaintance he was indebted to
literature. “Then you are,” replied the knight, “either Tacitus or
Pliny.” The time of Tacitus was not employed in trivial pursuits; the
orator might have been forgotten if the historian had not flourished.
Tacitus wrote a treatise on the manners of the Germans, a composition
admired for the fidelity and exactness with which it is executed,
though some have declared that the historian delineated manners and
customs with which he was not acquainted, and which never existed.
His life of Cnaeus Julius Agricola, whose daughter he had married,
is celebrated for its purity, elegance, and the many excellent
instructions and important truths which it relates. His history of
the Roman emperors is imperfect; of the 28 years of which it treated,
that is from the 69th to the 96th year of the christian era, nothing
remains but the year 69, and part of the 70th. His annals were the
most extensive and complete of his works. The history of the reign
of Tiberius, Caius, Claudius, and Nero, was treated with accuracy and
attention, yet we are to lament the loss of the history of the reign
of Caius, and the beginning of that of Claudius. Tacitus had reserved
for his old age the history of the reign of Nerva and Trajan, and
he also proposed to give to the world an account of the interesting
administration of Augustus; but these important subjects never
employed the pen of the historian, and as some of the ancients
observe, the only compositions of Tacitus were contained in 30 books,
of which we have now left only 16 of his annals, and five of his
history. The style of Tacitus has always been admired for peculiar
beauties: the thoughts are great; there is a sublimity, force, weight,
and energy; everything is treated with precision and dignity. Yet
many have called him obscure, because he was fond of expressing his
ideas in few words. This was the fruit of experience and judgment;
the history appears copious and diffuse, while the annals, which were
written in his old age, are less flowing as to style, more concise,
and more heavily laboured. His Latin is remarkable for being pure and
classical; and though a writer in the decline of the Roman empire,
he has not used obsolete words, antiquated phrases, or barbarous
expressions, but with him everything is sanctioned by the authority
of the writers of the Augustan age. In his biographical sketches
he displays an uncommon knowledge of human nature; he paints every
scene with a masterly hand, and gives each object its proper size
and becoming colours. Affairs of importance are treated with dignity,
the secret causes of events and revolutions are investigated from
their primeval source, and the historian everywhere shows his reader
that he was a friend of public liberty and national independence, a
lover of truth, and of the general good and welfare of mankind, and
an inveterate enemy to oppression and to a tyrannical government. The
history of the reign of Tiberius is his masterpiece: the deep policy,
the dissimulation and various intrigues of this celebrated prince,
are painted with all the fidelity of the historian; and Tacitus
boasted in saying, that he neither would flatter the follies, or
maliciously or partially represent the extravagance, of the several
characters he delineated. Candour and impartiality were his standard,
and his claim to these essential qualifications of an historian have
never been disputed. It is said that the emperor Tacitus, who boasted
in being one of the descendants of the historian, ordered the works
of his ancestor to be placed in all public libraries, and directed
that 10 copies, well ascertained for accuracy and exactness, should
be yearly written, that so great and so valuable a work might not
be lost. Some ecclesiastical writers have exclaimed against Tacitus
for the partial manner in which he speaks of the Jews and christians;
but it should be remembered that he spoke the language of the Romans,
and that the ♠peculiarities of the christians could not but draw upon
them the odium and the ridicule of the pagans, and the imputation of
superstition. Among the many excellent editions of Tacitus, these may
pass for the best: that of Rome, folio, 1515; that in 8vo, 2 vols.,
Leiden, 1673; that in usum Delphim, 4 vols., 4to, Paris, 1682; that
of Lipscomb, 2 vols., 8vo, 1714; of Gronovius, 2 vols., 4to, 1721;
that of Brotier, 7 vols., 12mo, Paris, 1776; that of Ernesti, 2 vols.,
8vo, Lipscomb, 1777; and Barbou’s, 3 vols., 12mo, Paris, 1760.
――――Marcus Claudius, a Roman chosen emperor by the senate, after the
death of Aurelian. He would have refused this important and dangerous
office, but the pressing solicitations of the senate prevailed,
and in the 70th year of his age he complied with the wishes of his
countrymen, and accepted the purple. The time of his administration
was very popular, the good of the people was his care, and as
a pattern of moderation, economy, temperance, regularity, and
impartiality, Tacitus found no equal. He abolished the several
brothels which under the preceding reigns had filled Rome with
licentiousness and obscenity; and by ordering all the public baths to
be shut at sunset, he prevented the commission of many irregularities,
which the darkness of the night had hitherto sanctioned. The senators
under Tacitus seemed to have recovered their ancient dignity and
long-lost privileges. They were not only the counsellers of the
emperor, but they even seemed to be his masters; and when Florianus,
the brother-in-law of Tacitus, was refused the consulship, the
emperor said, that the senate, no doubt, could fix upon a more
deserving object. As a warrior, Tacitus is inferior to few of the
Romans; and during a short reign of about six months, he not only
repelled the barbarians who had invaded the territories of Rome in
Asia, but he prepared to make war against the Persians and Scythians.
He died in Cilicia as he was on his expedition, of a violent
distemper, or, according to some, he was destroyed by the secret
dagger of an assassin, on the 13th of April, in the 276th year
of the christian era. Tacitus has been commended for his love of
learning; and it has been observed, that he never passed a day
without consecrating some part of his time to reading or writing. He
has been accused of superstition, and authors have recorded that he
never studied on the second day of each month, a day which he deemed
inauspicious and unlucky. _Tacitus_, _Agricola_.――_Zosimus._
♦ ‘C.’ replaced with ‘Publius’
♠ ‘peculiarites’ replaced with ‘peculiarities’
=Tader=, a river of Spain, near New Carthage.
=Tædai=, a prostitute at Rome, &c., _Juvenal_, Satire 2, li. 49.
=Tænărus=, now _Matapan_, a promontory of Laconia, the most southern
point of Europe, where Neptune had a temple. There was there a large
and deep cavern, whence issued a black and unwholesome vapour, from
which circumstance the poets have imagined that it was one of the
entrances of hell, through which Hercules dragged Cerberus from
the infernal regions. This fabulous tradition arises, according
to Pausanias, from the continual resort of a large serpent near
the cavern of Tænarus, whose bite was mortal. The serpent, as the
geographer observes, was at last killed by Hercules, and carried
to Eurystheus. The town of Tænarus was at the distance of about 40
stadia from the promontory, and was famous for marble of a beautiful
green colour. The town, as well as the promontory, received its name
from Tænarus, a son of Neptune. There were some festivals celebrated
there, called _Tænaria_, in honour of Neptune, surnamed _Tænarius_.
_Homer_, _Hymn to Apollo_, li. 413.――_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 14.
――_Lucan_, bk. 6, li. 648.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 2, li. 247;
bk. 10, lis. 13 & 83.――_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 25.――_Apollodorus_,
bk. 2, ch. 5.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.――_Strabo_, bk. 8.
=Tænias=, a part of the lake Mœotis. _Strabo._
=Tagaste=, a town of Numidia. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 4.
=Tages=, a son of Genius, grandson of Jupiter, was the first who taught
the 12 nations of the Etrurians the science of augury and divination.
It is said that he was found by a Tuscan ploughman in the form
of a clod, and that he assumed a human shape to instruct this
nation, which became so celebrated for their knowledge of omens
and incantations. _Cicero_, _de Divinatione_ bk. 2, ch. 23.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 15, li. 558.――_Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 673.
=Tagonius=, a river of Hispania Tarraconensis.
=Tagus=, a river of Spain, which falls into the Atlantic after it has
crossed Lusitania or Portugal, and now bears the name of _Tajo_.
The sands of the Tagus, according to the poets, were covered with
gold. _Mela_, bk. 3, ch. 1.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 2, li. 251.
――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 4, li. 234.――_Lucan_, bk. 7, li. 755.
――_Martial_, bk. 4, ltr. 55, &c.――――A Latin chief killed by Nisus.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 418.――――A Trojan killed by Turnus.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 12, li. 513.
=Talasius=. _See:_ ♦Thalassius.
♦ ‘Thalasius’ replaced with ‘Thalassius’
=Talaus=, a son of Bias and Pero, father of Adrastus by Lysimache. He
was one of the Argonauts. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9; bk. 3, ch. 6.
=Talayra=, the sister of Phœbe. She is also called _Hilaira_. _See:_
Phœbe.
=Talĕtum=, a temple sacred to the sun on mount Taygetus in Laconia.
Horses were generally offered there for sacrifice. _Pausanias._
=Talthybius=, a herald in the Grecian camp during the Trojan war, the
particular minister and friend of Agamemnon. He brought away Briseis
from the tent of Achilles by order of his master. Talthybius died at
Ægium in Achaia. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 1, li. 320, &c.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 7, ch. 23.
=Talus=, a youth, son of the sister of Dædalus, who invented the saw,
compasses, and other mechanical instruments. His uncle became jealous
of his growing fame, and murdered him privately; or, according to
others, he threw him down from the citadel of Athens. Talus was
changed into a partridge by the gods. He is also called _Calus_,
_Acalus_, _Perdix_, and _Taliris_. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 1.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 21.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 8.――――A
son of Œnopion. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 4.――――A son of Cres, the
founder of the Cretan nation. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 53.――――A friend
of Æneas, killed by Turnus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 12, li. 513.
=Tamaris=, a river of Spain.
=Tamărus=, a mountain of Epirus, called also _Tmarus_ and _Tomarus_.
_Strabo._
=Tamasea=, a beautiful plain of Cyprus, sacred to the goddess of beauty.
It was in this place that Venus gathered the golden apples with which
Hippomanes was enabled to overtake Atalanta. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 10, li. 644.――_Pliny_, bk. 5.――_Strabo_, bk. 14.
=Tamesis=, a river of Britain, now the Thames. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_,
bk. 5, ch. 11.
=Tamos=, a native of Memphis, made governor of Ionia, by young Cyrus.
After the death of Cyrus, Tamos fled into Egypt, where he was
murdered on account of his immense treasures. _Diodorus_, bk. 14.
――――A promontory of India in the Ganges.
=Tampius=, a Roman historian.
=Tamyras=, a river of Phœnicia, between Tyre and Sidon.
=Tamyris=, a queen. _See:_ Thomyris.
=Tanăgra=, a town of Bœotia, near the Euripus, between the Asopus and
Thermodon, famous for fighting-cocks. It was founded by Pœmandros,
a son of Chæresilaus the son of Jasius, who married Tanagra the
daughter of Æolus, or, according to some, of the Asopus. Corinna was
a native of Tanagra. _Strabo_, bk. 9.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, chs. 20
& 23.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 13, li. 25.
=Tanăgrus=, or =Tanāger=, now _Negro_, a river of Lucania in Italy,
remarkable for its cascades, and the beautiful meanders of its
streams, through a fine picturesque country. _Virgil_, _Georgics_,
bk. 3, li. 151.
=Tanais=, a eunuch, freedman to Mæcenas. _Horace_, bk. 1, satire 1,
li. 105.――――A river of Scythia, now the _Don_, which divides Europe
from Asia, and falls into the Palus Mæotis after a rapid course, and
after it has received the additional streams of many small rivulets.
A town at its mouth bore the same name. _Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 19.
――_Strabo_, bks. 11 & 16.――_Curtius_, bk. 6, ch. 2.――_Lucan_,
bks. 3, 8, &c.――――A deity among the Persians and Armenians, who
patronized slaves; supposed to be the same as Venus. The daughters
of the noblest of the Persians and Armenians prostituted themselves
in honour of this deity, and were received with greater regard and
affection by their suitors. Artaxerxes the son of Darius was the
first who raised statues to Tanais in the different provinces of
his empire, and taught his subjects to pay her divine honours.
_Curtius_, bk. 5, ch. 1.――_Strabo_, bk. 11.
=Tanăquil=, called also _Caia Cæcilia_, was the wife of Tarquin the
fifth king of Rome. She was a native of Tarquinia, where she married
Lucumon, better known by the name of _Tarquin_, which he assumed
after he had come to Rome at the representation of his wife, whose
knowledge of augury promised him something uncommon. Her expectations
were not frustrated; her husband was raised to the throne, and
she shared with him the honours of royalty. After the murder of
Tarquin, Tanaquil raised her son-in-law Servius Tullius to the throne,
and ensured him the succession. She distinguished herself by her
liberality; and the Romans in succeeding ages had such a veneration
for her character, that the embroidery she had made, her girdle, as
also the robe of her son-in-law, which she had worked with her own
hands, were preserved with the greatest sanctity. Juvenal bestows
the appellation of _Tanaquil_ on all such women as were imperious,
and had the command of their husbands. _Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 34, &c.
――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 3, ch. 59.――_Florus_, bk. 1,
chs. 5 & 8.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 13, li. 818.
=Tanas=, a river of Numidia. _Sallust_, _Jugurthine War_, ch. 90.
=Tanetum=, a town of Italy, now _Tonedo_, in the duchy of Modena.
=Tanfanæ lucus=, a sacred grove in Germany, in the country of the Marsi,
between the Ems and Lippe. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 1, ch. 51.
=Tanis=, a city of Egypt, on one of the eastern mouths of the Nile.
=Tantălĭdes=, a patronymic applied to the descendants of Tantalus, such
as Niobe, Hermione, &c.――――Agamemnon and Menelaus, as grandsons of
Tantalus, are called _Tantalidæ fratres_. _Ovid_, _Heroides_, poem 8,
lis. 45 & 122.
=Tantălus=, a king of Lydia, son of Jupiter by a nymph called Pluto.
He was father of Niobe, Pelops, &c., by Dione, one of the Atlantides,
called by some Euryanassa. Tantalus is represented by the poets as
punished in hell with an insatiable thirst, and placed up to the chin
in the midst of a pool of water, which, however, flows away as soon
as he attempts to taste it. There hangs also above his head a bough
richly loaded with delicious fruit, which, as soon as he attempts
to seize, is carried away from his reach by a sudden blast of wind.
According to some mythologists, his punishment is to sit under a
huge stone hung at some distance over his head, and as it seems
every moment ready to fall, he is kept under continual alarms and
never-ceasing fears. The causes of this eternal punishment are
variously explained. Some declare that it was inflicted upon him
because he stole a favourite dog, which Jupiter had entrusted to his
care to keep his temple in Crete. Others say that he stole away the
nectar and ambrosia from the tables of the gods, when he was admitted
into the assemblies of heaven, and that he gave it to mortals on
earth. Others support that this proceeds from his cruelty and impiety
in killing his son Pelops, and in serving his limbs as food before
the gods, whose divinity and power he wished to try, when they
had stopped at his house as they passed over Phrygia. There were
also others who impute it to his lasciviousness in carrying away
Ganymedes to gratify the most unnatural of passions. _Pindar_,
_Olympian_, bk. 1.――_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 11, li. 581.――_Cicero_,
_Tusculanæ Disputationes_, bk. 1, ch. 5; bk. 4, ch. 16.――_Euripides_,
_Iphigeneia_.――_Propertius_, bk. 2, poem 1, li. 66.――_Horace_,
bk. 1, satire 1, li. 68.――――A son of Thyestes, the first husband of
Clytemnestra. _Pausanias_, bk. 2.――――One of Niobe’s children. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 6, fable 6.
=Tanusius Germinus=, a Latin historian intimate with Cicero. _Seneca_,
ltr. 93.――_Suetonius_, _Cæsar_, ch. 9.
=Taphiæ=, islands in the Ionian sea between Achaia and Leucadia. They
were also called _Teleboides_. They received these names from Taphius
and Telebous, the sons of Neptune who reigned there. The Taphians
made war against Electryon king of Mycenæ, and killed all his sons;
upon which the monarch promised his kingdom and his daughter in
marriage to whoever could avenge the death of his children upon the
Taphians. Amphitryon did it with success, and obtained the promised
reward. The Taphians were expert sailors, but too fond of plunder and
piratical excursions. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 1, lis. 181 & 419; bk.
15, li. 426.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 4.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.
=Taphius=, a son of Neptune by Hippothoe the daughter of Nestor. He
was king of the Taphiæ, to which he gave his name. _Strabo_, bk. 16.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 4.
=Taphius=, or =Taphiassus=, a mountain of Locris on the confines of
Ætolia.
=Taphiusa=, a place near Leucas, where a stone is found called
_Taphiusius_. _Pliny_, bk. 36, ch. 21.
=Taphræ=, a town on the isthmus of the Taurica Chersonesus, now
_Precop_. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 1.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.
=Taphros=, the strait between Corsica and Sardinia, now _Bonifacio_.
=Taprobăne=, an island in the Indian ocean, now called _Ceylon_. Its
inhabitants were very rich, and lived to a great age. Their country
was visited by two summers and two winters. Hercules was their chief
deity, and as the sovereignty was elective, and only from among
unmarried men, the monarch was immediately deposed if he became a
father. _Ptolemy_, bk. 6.――_Strabo_, bk. 2.――_Ovid_, _ex Ponto_,
bk. 8, poem 5, li. 80.
=Tapsus=, a maritime town of Africa. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 3.――――A
small and lowly situated peninsula on the eastern coast of Sicily.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 619.――――A man of Cyzicus, killed by
Pollux. _Valerius Flaccus_, bk. 2, li. 191.
=Tapyri=, a people near Hyrcania. _Dionysius Periegetes._
=Tarănis=, a name of Jupiter among the Gauls, to whom human sacrifices
were offered. _Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 446.
=Taras=, a son of Neptune, who built Tarentum, as some suppose.
=Tarasco=, a town of Gaul, now _Tarascon_ in Provence.
=Taraxippus=, a deity worshipped at Elis. His statue was placed near
the race-ground, and his protection was implored that no harm might
happen to the horses during the games. _Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 20, &c.
――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 2.
=Tarbelli=, a people of Gaul at the foot of the Pyrenees, which from
thence are sometimes called _Tarbellæ_. _Tibullus_, bk. 1, poem 7,
li. 13.――_Lucan_, bk. 4, li. 121.――_Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 3,
ch. 27.
=Tarchetius=, an impious king of Alba. _Plutarch_, _Romulus_.
=Tarchon=, an Etrurian chief, who assisted Æneas against the Rutuli.
Some suppose that he founded Mantua. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8,
li. 693.――――A prince of Cilicia. _Lucan_, bk. 9, li. 219.
=Tarchondimŏtus=, a prince of Cilicia. _Lucan_, bk. 11, li. 219.
=Tarentum=, =Tarentus=, or =Taras=, a town of Calabria, situate on
a bay of the same name, near the mouth of the river Galesus. It
was founded, or rather repaired, by a Lacedæmonian colony, about
707 years before Christ, under the conduct of Phalanthus. Long
independent, it maintained its superiority over 13 tributary cities;
and could once arm 100,000 foot and 3000 horse. The people of
Tarentum were very indolent, and as they were easily supplied with
all necessaries as well as luxuries from Greece, they gave themselves
up to voluptuousness, so that _the delights of Tarentum_ became
proverbial. The war which they supported against the Romans, with the
assistance of Pyrrhus king of Epirus, and which has been called the
_Tarentine war_, is greatly celebrated in history. This war, which
had been undertaken B.C. 281, by the Romans, to avenge the insults
the Tarentines had offered to their ships when near their harbour,
was terminated after 10 years; 300,000 prisoners were taken, and
Tarentum became subject to Rome. The government was democratical;
there were, however, some monarchs who reigned there. It was for some
time the residence of Pythagoras, who inspired the citizens with the
love of virtue, and rendered them superior to their neighbours in
the cabinet as well as in the field of battle. The large, beautiful,
and capacious harbour of Tarentum is greatly commended by ancient
historians. Tarentum, now called _Tarento_, is inhabited by about
18,000 souls, who still maintain the character of their forefathers
in idleness and effeminacy, and live chiefly by fishing. _Florus_,
bk. 1, ch. 18.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 2, ch. 2.――_Plutarch_,
_Pyrrhus_.――_Pliny_, bk. 8, ch. 6; bk. 15, ch. 10; bk. 34, ch. 7.
――_Livy_, bk. 12, ch. 13, &c.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 4.――_Strabo_, bk. 6.
――_Horace_, bk. 1, ltr. 7, li. 45.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 5,
ch. 20.
=Tarichæum=, a fortified town of Judæa. _Cicero_, _Letters to his
Friends_, bk. 12, ch. 11.――――Several towns on the coast of Egypt bore
this name from their _pickling_ fish. _Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 15, &c.
=Tarnæ=, a town mentioned by Homer, _Iliad_, bk. 5.――――A fountain of
Lydia, near Tmolus. _Strabo._――――A river of Aquitania.
=Tarpa Spurius Mætius=, a critic at Rome in the age of Augustus. He
was appointed with four others in the temple of Apollo, to examine
the merit of every poetical composition, which was to be deposited
in the temple of the Muses. In this office he acted with great
impartiality, though many taxed him with want of candour. All the
pieces that were represented on the Roman stage had previously
received his approbation. _Horace_, bk. 1, satire 10, li. 38.
=Tarpeia=, the daughter of Tarpeius the governor of the citadel of Rome,
promised to open the gates of the city to the Sabines, provided they
gave her their gold bracelets, or, as she expressed it, what they
carried on their left hands. Tatius the king of the Sabines consented,
and as he entered the gates, to punish her perfidy, he threw not only
his bracelet but his shield upon Tarpeia. His followers imitated his
example, and Tarpeia was crushed under the weight of the bracelets
and shields of the Sabine army. She was buried in the capitol, which
from her has been called the Tarpeian rock, and there afterwards
many of the Roman malefactors were thrown down a deep precipice.
_Plutarch_, _Romulus_.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 1, li. 261.――_Amores_,
bk. 1, poem 10, li. 50.――_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 11.――_Propertius_, bk. 4,
poem 4.――――A vestal virgin in the reign of Numa.――――One of the
warlike female attendants of Camilla in the Rutulian war. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 11, li. 665.
=Tarpeia lex=, was enacted A.U.C. 269, by Spurius Tarpeius, to empower
all the magistrates of the republic to lay fines on offenders. This
power belonged before only to the consuls. This fine was not to
exceed two sheep and 30 oxen.
=Spurius Tarpeius=, the governor of the citadel of Rome, under Romulus.
His descendants were called _Montani_ and _Capitolini_.
=Tarpeius mons=, a hill at Rome about 80 feet in perpendicular height,
from whence the Romans threw down their condemned criminals. It
received its name from _Tarpeia_, who was buried there, and is the
same as the _Capitoline_ hill. _Livy_, bk. 6, ch. 20.――_Lucan_, bk. 7,
li. 758.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8, lis. 347 & 652.
=Tarquinii=, now _Turchina_, a town of Etruria, built by Tarchon,
who assisted Æneas against Turnus. Tarquinius Priscus was born or
educated there, and he made it a Roman colony when he ascended the
throne. _Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Pliny_, bk. 2, ch. 95.――_Livy_, bk. 2,
ch. 34; bk. 27, ch. 4.
=Tarquinia=, a daughter of Tarquinius Priscus, who married Servius
Tullius. When her husband was murdered by Tarquinius Superbus, she
privately conveyed away his body by night, and buried it. This preyed
upon her mind, and the night following she died. Some have attributed
her death to excess of grief, or to suicide, while others, perhaps
more justly, have suspected Tullia the wife of young Tarquin of the
murder.――――A vestal virgin, who, as some suppose, gave the Roman
people a large piece of land, which was afterwards called the Campus
Martius.
=Tarquinius Priscus=, the fifth king of Rome, was son of Demaratus,
a native of Greece. His first name was Lucumon, but this he changed
when, by the advice of his wife Tanaquil, he had come to Rome. He
called himself Lucius, and assumed the surname of Tarquinius, because
born in the town of Tarquinii, in Etruria. At Rome he distinguished
himself so much by his liberality and engaging manners, that Ancus
Martius, the reigning monarch, nominated him, at his death, the
guardian of his children. This was insufficient to gratify the
ambition of Tarquin; the princes were young, and an artful oration
delivered to the people immediately transferred the crown of the
deceased monarch on the head of Lucumon. The people had every reason
to be satisfied with their choice. Tarquin reigned with moderation
and popularity. He increased the number of the senate, and made
himself friends by electing 100 new senators from the plebeians,
whom he distinguished by the appellation of _Patres minorum gentium_,
from those of the patrician body, who were called _Patres majorum
gentium_. The glory of the Roman arms, which was supported with so
much dignity by the former monarch, was not neglected in this reign,
and Tarquin showed that he possessed vigour and military prudence in
the victories which he obtained over the united forces of the Latins
and Sabines, and in the conquest of the 12 nations of Etruria. He
repaired, in the time of peace, the walls of the capital; the public
places were adorned with elegant buildings and useful ornaments, and
many centuries after, such as were spectators of the stately mansions
and golden palaces of Nero, viewed with more admiration and greater
pleasure the more simple, though not less magnificent, edifices of
Tarquin. He laid the foundations of the capitol, and to the industry
and the public spirit of this monarch, the Romans were indebted for
their aqueducts and subterraneous sewers, which supplied the city
with fresh and wholesome water, and removed all the filth and ordure,
which in a great capital too often breed pestilence and diseases.
Tarquin was the first who introduced among the Romans the custom to
canvass for offices of trust and honour; he distinguished the monarch,
the senators, and other inferior magistrates with particular robes
and ornaments, with ivory chairs at spectacles, and the hatchets
carried before the public magistrates were by his order surrounded
with bundles of sticks, to strike more terror, and to be viewed with
greater reverence. Tarquin was assassinated by the two sons of his
predecessor, in the 80th year of his age, 38 of which he had sat on
the throne, 578 years before Christ. _Dionysius of Halicarnassus_,
bk. 3, ch. 59.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 1, ch. 4; bk. 3, ch. 2.
――_Florus_, bk. 1, ch. 5, &c.――_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 31.――_Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 817.――――The second Tarquin, surnamed _Superbus_,
from his pride and insolence, was grandson of Tarquinius Priscus. He
ascended the throne of Rome after his father-in-law Servius Tullius,
and was the seventh and last king of Rome. He married Tullia the
daughter of Tullius, and it was at her instigation that he murdered
his father-in-law, and seized the kingdom. The crown which he had
obtained with violence, he endeavoured to keep by a continuation
of tyranny. Unlike his royal predecessors, he paid no regard to the
decisions of the senate, or the approbation of the public assemblies,
and by wishing to disregard both, he incurred the jealousy of the one
and the odium of the other. The public treasury was soon exhausted
by the continual extravagance of Tarquin, and to silence the murmurs
of his subjects, he resolved to call their attention to war. He was
successful in his military operations, and the neighbouring cities
submitted; but while the siege of Ardea was continued, the wantonness
of the son of Tarquin at Rome for ever stopped the progress of his
arms; and the Romans, whom a series of barbarity and oppression had
hitherto provoked, no sooner saw the virtuous Lucretia stab herself,
not to survive the loss of her honour [_See:_ Lucretia], than the
whole city and camp arose with indignation against the monarch.
The gates of Rome were shut against him, and Tarquin was for ever
banished from his throne, in the year of Rome 244. Unable to find
support from even one of his subjects, Tarquin retired among the
Etrurians, who attempted in vain to replace him on his throne. The
republican government was established at Rome, and all Italy refused
any longer to support the cause of an exiled monarch against a nation,
who heard the name of Tarquin, of king, and tyrant, mentioned with
equal horror and indignation. Tarquin died in the 90th year of his
age, about 14 years after his expulsion from Rome. He had reigned
about 25 years. Though Tarquin appeared so odious among the Romans,
his reign was not without its share of glory. His conquests were
numerous; to beautify the buildings and porticoes at Rome was his
wish, and with great magnificence and care he finished the capitol,
which his predecessor of the same name had begun. He also bought
the Sibylline books which the Romans consulted with such religious
solemnity. _See:_ Sibyllæ. _Cicero_, _For Rabirius on a Charge
of Treason_ & _Tusculanæ Disputationes_, bk. 3, ch. 27.――_Livy_,
bk. 1, ch. 46, &c.――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 3, ch. 48, &c.
――_Florus_, bk. 1, chs. 7 & 8.――_Pliny_, bk. 8, ch. 41.――_Plutarch._
――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 9, ch. 11.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 2, li.
687.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 817.――_Eutropius._――――Collatinus,
one of the relations of Tarquin the Proud, who married Lucretia.
_See:_ Collatinus.――――Sextius, the eldest of the sons of Tarquin the
Proud, rendered himself known by a variety of adventures. When his
father besieged Gabii, young Tarquin publicly declared that he was
at variance with the monarch, and the report was the more easily
believed when he came before Gabii with his body all mangled and
bloody with stripes. This was an agreement between the father and
the son, and Tarquin had no sooner declared that this proceeded
from the tyranny and oppression of his father, than the people of
Gabii entrusted him with the command of their armies, fully convinced
that Rome could never have a more inveterate enemy. When he had thus
succeeded, he despatched a private messenger to his father, but the
monarch gave no answer to be returned to his son. Sextius inquired
more particularly about his father, and when he heard from the
messenger that when the message was delivered, Tarquin cut off with a
stick the tallest poppies in his garden, the son followed the example
by putting to death the most noble and powerful citizens of Gabii.
The two soon fell into the hands of the Romans. The violence which
some time after Tarquinius offered to Lucretia, was the cause of
his father’s exile, and the total expulsion of his family from Rome.
_See:_ Lucretia. Sextius was at last killed, bravely fighting in a
battle during the war which the Latins sustained against Rome in the
attempt of re-establishing the Tarquins on their throne. _Ovid_,
_Fasti_.――_Livy._――――A Roman senator who was accessary to Catiline’s
conspiracy.
=Tarquitius Crescens=, a centurion under Cæsennius Pætus. _Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 15, ch. 11.――――Priscus, an officer in Africa, who
accused the proconsul, &c. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 12, ch. 59;
bk. 14, ch. 46.
=Tarquĭtus=, a son of Faunus and Dryope, who assisted Turnus against
Æneas. He was killed by Æneas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 550.
=Tarracīna=, a town of the Volsci in Latium, between Rome and Neapolis.
It was also called Anxur, because the infant Jupiter was worshipped
there under that name, which signifies beardless. _Livy_, bk. 4,
ch. 29.――_Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 4.――_Festus_, _Lexicon
of Festus_.
=Tarrăco=, now _Tarragona_, a city of Spain, situate on the shores
of the Mediterranean, founded by the two Scipios, who planted a
Roman colony there. The province of which it was the capital was
called _Tarraconensis_, and was famous for its wines. Hispania
_Tarraconensis_, which was also called by the Romans Hispania
_Citerior_, was bounded on the east by the Mediterranean, the ocean
on the west, the Pyrenean mountains and the sea of the Cantabri on
the north, and Lusitania and Bætica on the south. _Martial_, bk. 10,
ltr. 104; bk. 13, ltr. 118.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 6.――_Silius Italicus_,
bk. 3, li. 369; bk. 15, li. 177.
=Tarrutius.= _See:_ Acca Laurentia.
=Tarsa=, a Thracian, who rebelled under Tiberius, &c. _Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 4, ch. 50.
=Tarsius=, a river of Troas. _Strabo._
=Tarsus=, now _Tarasso_, a town of Cilicia, on the Cydnus, founded
by Triptolemus and a colony of Argives, or, as others say, by
Sardanapalus, or by Perseus. Tarsus was celebrated for the great
men it produced. It was once the rival of Alexandria and Athens in
literature and the study of the polite arts. The people of Tarsus
wished to ingratiate themselves into the favour of Julius Cæsar by
giving the name of _Juliopolis_ to their city, but it was soon lost.
_Lucan_, bk. 3, li. 225.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 13.――_Strabo_, bk. 14.
=Tartărus=, (plural, a, orum), one of the regions of hell, where,
according to the ancients, the most impious and guilty among mankind
were punished. It was surrounded by a brazen wall, and its entrance
was continually hidden from the sight by a cloud of darkness, which
is represented three times more gloomy than the obscurest night.
According to Hesiod it was a separate prison, at a greater distance
from the earth than the earth is from the heavens. Virgil says that
it was surrounded by three impenetrable walls, and by the impetuous
and burning streams of the river Phlegethon. The entrance was by
a large and lofty tower, whose gates were supported by columns
of adamant, which neither gods nor men could open. In Tartarus,
according to Virgil, were punished such as had been disobedient to
their parents, traitors, adulterers, faithless ministers, and such as
had undertaken unjust and cruel wars, or had betrayed their friends
for the sake of money. It was also the place where Ixion, Tityus, the
Danaides, Tantalus, Sisyphus, &c., were punished, according to Ovid.
_Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 720.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 13, li. 591.
――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6.――_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 11.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 4, fable 13.――――A small river of Italy, near
Verona. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 3, ch. 9.
=Tartessus=, a town in Spain near the columns of Hercules, on the
Mediterranean. Some suppose that it was afterwards called _Carteia_,
and it was better known by the name of _Gades_, when Hercules had set
up his columns on the extremity of Spain and Africa. There is also a
town called Tartessus, in a small island formed by the river of the
same name, near Gades in Iberia. Tartessus has been called the most
distant town in the extremities of Spain, by the Romans, as also the
place where the poets imagined the sun unharnessed his tired horses.
_Silius Italicus_, bk. 3, lis. 399 & 411; bk. 10, li. 538.――_Mela_,
bk. 2, ch. 6.――_Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 19.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 14, li. 416.――_Strabo_, bk. 3.
=Taruana=, a town of Gaul, now _Terrouen_ in Artois.
=Lucius Taruntius Spurina=, a mathematician who flourished 61 years B.C.
_Cicero_, _de Divinatione_, bk. 2, ch. 47.
=Tarus=, a river of Gaul, falling into the Po.
=Tarusates=, a people of Gaul, now _Turcan_. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_,
bk. 3, chs. 23 & 27.
=Taruscum=, a town of Gaul.
=Tarvisium=, a town of Italy, now _Treviso_, in the Venetian states.
=Tasgretius Cornūtus=, a prince of Gaul, assassinated in the age of
Cæsar. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 5, ch. 25.
=Tatian=, one of the Greek fathers, A.D. 172. The best edition of his
works is that of Worth, 8vo, Oxford, 1700.
=Tatienses=, a name given to one of the tribes of the Roman people by
Romulus, in honour of Tatius king of the Sabines. The Tatienses, who
were partly the ancient subjects of the king of the Sabines, lived on
mounts Capitolinus and Quirinalis.
=Tātius Titus=, king of Cures among the Sabines, made war against
the Romans after the rape of the Sabines. The gates of the city
were betrayed into his hands by Tarpeia, and the army of the Sabines
advanced as far as the Roman forum, where a bloody battle was fought.
The cries of the Sabine virgins at last stopped the fury of the
combatants, and an agreement was made between the two nations. Tatius
consented to leave his ancient possessions, and with his subjects of
Cures, to come and live in Rome, which, as stipulated, was permitted
still to bear the name of its founder, whilst the inhabitants adopted
the name of Quirites in compliment to the new citizens. After he
had for six years shared the royal authority with Romulus, in the
greatest union, he was murdered at Lanuvium, B.C. 742, for an act of
cruelty to the ambassadors of the Laurentes. This was done by order
of his royal colleague, according to some authors. _Livy_, bk. 1,
ch. 10, &c.――_Plutarch_, _Romulus_.――_Cicero_, _For Cornelius Balbus_.
――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 14, li. 804.――_Florus_, bk. 1, ch. 1.
=Tatta=, a large lake of Phrygia, on the confines of Pisidia.
=Tavola=, a river of Corsica.
=Taua=, a town of the Delta in Egypt.
=Taulantii=, a people of Illyricum on the Adriatic. _Livy_, bk. 45,
ch. 26.――_Lucan_, bk. 6, li. 16.
=Taunus=, a mountain in Germany, now _Heyrich_ or _Hoche_, opposite
Mentz. _Tacitus_, bk. 1, _Annals_, ch. 56.
=Taurania=, a town of Italy in the country of the Brutii.
=Taurantes=, a people of Armenia, between Artaxata and Tigranocerta.
_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 14, ch. 24.
=Tauri=, a people of European Sarmatia, who inhabited Taurica
Chersonesus, and sacrificed all strangers to Diana. The statue of
this goddess, which they believed to have fallen down from heaven,
was carried away to Sparta by Iphigenia and Orestes. _Strabo_, bk. 12.
――_Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 99, &c.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 1.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 3, ch. 16.――_Euripides_, _Iphigeneia_.――_Ovid_, _ex Ponto_, bk. 1,
poem 2, li. 80.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 14, li. 260.――_Juvenal_,
satire 15, li. 116.
=Taurĭca Chersonēsus=, a large peninsula of Europe at the south-west of
the Palus Mæotis, now called the _Crimea_. It is joined by an isthmus
to Scythia, and is bounded by the Cimmerian Bosphorus, the Euxine sea,
and the Palus Mœotis. The inhabitants, called _Tauri_, were a savage
and uncivilized nation. _Strabo_, bk. 4.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.
_See:_ Tauri.
=Taurĭca=, a surname of Diana, because she was worshipped by the
inhabitants of Taurica Chersonesus.
=Taurīni=, the inhabitants of Taurinum, a town of Cisalpine Gaul,
now called _Turin_, in Piedmont. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 3, li. 646.
――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 17.
=Taurisci=, a people of Mysia. _Strabo_, bk. 7.――――Of Noricum, among
the Alps. _Strabo_, bk. 4.
=Tauriscus=, a sculptor. _See:_ Apollonius.
=Taurium=, a town of the Peloponnesus. _Polybius._
=Taurominium=, a town of Sicily, between Messana and Catana, built by
the Zancleans, Sicilians, and Hybleans, in the age of Dionysius the
tyrant of Syracuse. The hills in the neighbourhood were famous for
the fine grapes which they produced, and they surpassed almost the
whole world for the extent and beauty of their prospects. There is
a small river near it called _Taurominius_. _Diodorus_, bk. 16.
=Taurus=, the largest mountain of Asia, as to extent. One of its
extremities is in Caria, and it extends not only as far as the most
eastern extremities of Asia, but it also branches in several parts,
and runs far into the north. Mount Taurus was known by several names,
particularly in different countries. In Cilicia, where it reaches
as far as the Euphrates, it was called Taurus. It was known by the
names of _Amanus_, from the bay of Issus as far as the Euphrates; of
_Antitaurus_ from the western boundaries of Cilicia up to Armenia;
of _Montes Matieni_ in the country of the Leucosyrians; of _Mons
Moschicus_ at the south of the river Phasis; of _Amaranta_ at the
north of the Phasis; of _Caucasus_ between the Hyrcanian and Euxine
seas; of _Hyrcanii Montes_, near Hyrcania; of _Imaus_ in the more
eastern parts of Asia. The word Taurus was more properly confined to
the mountains which separate Phrygia and Pamphylia from Cilicia. The
several passes which were opened in the mountains were called _Pylæ_,
and hence frequent mention is made in ancient authors of the Armenian
Pylæ, Cilician Pylæ, &c. _Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 15; bk. 3, chs. 7
& 8.――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 27.――――A mountain in Germany. _Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 6, ch. 41.――――Of Sicily.――――Titus Statilius, a consul
distinguished by his intimacy with Augustus, as well as by a theatre
which he built, and the triumph which he obtained after a prosperous
campaign in Africa. He was made prefect of Italy by his imperial
friend.――――A proconsul of Africa, accused by Agripina, who wished
him to be condemned, that she might become mistress of his gardens.
_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 12, ch. 59.――――An officer of Minos king
of Crete. He had an amour with Pasiphae, whence arose the fable of
the Minotaur, from the son, who was born some time after. _See:_
Minotaurus. Taurus was vanquished by Theseus, in the games which
Minos exhibited in Crete. _Plutarch_, _Theseus_.
=Taxĭla= (plural), a large country in India, between the Indus and the
Hydaspes. _Strabo_, bk. 15.
=Taxĭlus=, or =Taxiles=, a king of Taxila in the age of Alexander,
called also _Omphis_. He submitted to the conqueror, who rewarded him
with great liberality. _Diodorus_, bk. 17.――_Plutarch_, _Alexander_.
――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 5, ch. 6.――_Curtius_, bk. 8,
ch. 14.――――A general of Mithridates, who assisted Archelaus against
the Romans in Greece. He was afterwards conquered by Muræna the
lieutenant of Sylla.
=Taximaquilus=, a king in the southern parts of Britain when Cæsar
invaded it. _Cæsar_, bk. 5, _Gallic War_, ch. 22.
=Taygēte=, or =Taygēta=, a daughter of Atlas and Pleione, mother of
Lacedæmon by Jupiter. She became one of the Pleiades after death.
_Hyginus_, fables 155 & 192.――_Pausanias_, in _Laconia_, chs. 1 & 18.
=Taygētus=, or =Taygēta= (orum), a mountain of Laconia, in Peloponnesus,
at the west of the river Eurotas. It hung over the city of Lacedæmon,
and it is said that once a part of it fell down by an earthquake, and
destroyed the suburbs. It was on this mountain that the Lacedæmonian
women celebrated the orgies of Bacchus. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 5.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 1.――_Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Lucan_, bk. 5,
li. 52.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 2, li. 488.
=Teānum=, a town of Campania, on the Appian road, at the east of the
Liris, called _Sidicinum_, to be distinguished from another town of
the same name at the west of Apulia, at a small distance from the
coast of the Adriatic. The rights of citizenship were extended to
it under Augustus. _Cicero_, _For Aulus Cluentius_, chs. 9 & 69.
_Philostratus_, bk. 12, ch. 11.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ltr. 1.――_Pliny_,
bk. 31, ch. 2.――_Livy_, bk. 22, ch. 27.
=Tearus=, a river of Thrace, rising in the same rock from 38 different
sources, some of which are hot, and others cold. Darius raised a
column there when he marched against the Scythians, as if to denote
the sweetness and salubrity of the waters of that river. _Herodotus_,
bks. 4, 5, 90, &c.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 11.
=Teātea=, =Teate=, or =Tegeate=, a town of Latium. _Silius Italicus_,
bk. 8, li. 522; bk. 17, li. 457.
=Teches=, a mountain of Pontus, from which the 10,000 Greeks had first
a view of the sea. _Xenophon_, _Anabasis_, bk. 4.
=Techmessa=, the daughter of a Phrygian prince, called by some Teuthras,
and by others Teleutas. When her father was killed in war by Ajax son
of Telamon, the young princess became the property of the conqueror,
and by him she had a son called Eurysaces. Sophocles, in one of his
tragedies, represents Techmessa as moving her husband to pity by her
tears and entreaties, when he wished to stab himself. _Horace_, bk. 2,
ode 1, li. 6.――_Dictys Cretensis._――_Sophocles_, _Ajax_.
=Tecmon=, a town of Epirus. _Livy_, bk. 45, ch. 26.
=Tecnatis=, a king of Egypt.
=Tectămus=, a son of Dorus, grandson of Hellen the son of Deucalion,
went to Crete with the Ætolians and Pelasgians, and reigned there. He
had a son called Asterius by the daughter of Cretheus.
=Tectosăges=, or =Tectosăgæ=, a people of Gallia Narbonensis, whose
capital was the modern Toulouse. They received the name of Tectosagæ
_quod sagis tegerentur_. Some of them passed into Germany, where they
settled near the Hercynian forest, and another colony passed into
Asia, where they conquered Phrygia, Paphlagonia, and Cappadocia. The
Tectosagæ were among those Gauls who pillaged Rome under Brennus,
and who attempted some time after to plunder the temple of Apollo
at Delphi. At their return home from Greece they were visited by
a pestilence, and ordered, to stop it, to throw into the river all
the riches and plunder which they had obtained in their distant
excursions. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 6, ch. 23.――_Strabo_, bk. 4.
――_Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 3.――_Livy_, bk. 38, ch. 16.
――_Florus_, bk. 2, ch. 11.――_Justin_, bk. 32.
=Tecum=, a river of Gaul falling from the Pyrenees into the
Mediterranean.
=Tedanius=, a river of Liburnia. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 21.
=Tĕgēa=, or =Tegæa=, now _Moklai_, a town of Arcadia in the
Peloponnesus, founded by Tegeates, a son of Lycaon, or, according
to others, by Aleus. The gigantic bones of Orestes were found buried
there and removed to Sparta. Apollo and Pan were worshipped there,
and there also Ceres, Proserpine, and Venus had each a temple. The
inhabitants were called _Tegeates_; and the epithet _Tegæa_ is given
to Atalanta, as a native of the place. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 8,
fable 7; _Fasti_, bk. 6, li. 531.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 5, li. 293.
――_Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 45, &c.
=Tegula Publius Licinius=, a comic poet who flourished B.C. 198.
=Tegyra=, a town of Bœotia where Apollo _Tegyrœus_ was worshipped.
There was a battle fought there between the Thebans and the
Peloponnesians.
=Teios.= _See:_ Teos.
=Teium=, a town of Paphlagonia on the Euxine sea.
=Tela=, a town of Spain.
=Tĕlămon=, a king of the island of Salamis, son of Æacus and Endeis. He
was brother to Peleus, and father to Teucer and to Ajax, who on that
account is often called _Telamonius heros_. He fled from Megara, his
native country, after he had accidentally murdered his brother Phocus
in playing with the quoit, and he sailed to the island of Salamis,
where he soon after married Glauce, the daughter of Cychreus the
king of the place. At the death of his father-in-law, who had no
male issue, Telamon became king of Salamis. He accompanied Jason
in his expedition to Colchis, and was arm-bearer to Hercules, when
that hero took Laomedon prisoner, and destroyed Troy. Telamon was
rewarded by Hercules for his services with the hand of Hesione, whom
the conqueror had obtained among the spoils of Troy, and with her he
returned to Greece. He also married Peribœa, whom some call Eribœa.
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 13, li. 151.――_Sophocles_, _Ajax_.
――_Pindar_, _Isthmean_, ch. 6.――_Statius_, _Thebaid_, bk. 6.
――_Apollodorus_, bks. 1, 2, &c.――_Pausanias_, _Corinthia_.――_Hyginus_,
fable 97, &c.――――A seaport town of Etruria. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 4.
=Telamoniădes=, a patronymic given to the descendants of Telamon.
=Telchīnes=, a people of Rhodes, said to have been originally from
Crete. They were the inventors of many useful arts, and, according
to Diodorus, passed for the sons of the sea. They were the first who
raised statues to the gods. They had the power of changing themselves
into whatever shape they pleased, and, according to Ovid, they could
poison and fascinate all objects with their eyes, and cause rain
and hail to fall at pleasure. The Telchinians insulted Venus, for
which the goddess inspired them with a sudden fury, so that they
committed the grossest crimes, and offered violence even to their own
mothers. Jupiter destroyed them all by a deluge. _Diodorus._――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, li. 365, &c.
=Telchīnia=, a surname of Minerva at Teumessa in Bœotia, where she
had a temple. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 19.――――Also a surname of
Juno in Rhodes, where she had a statue at Ialysus raised by the
Telchinians, who settled there.――――Also an ancient name of Crete,
as the place from whence the Telchines of Rhodes were descended.
_Statius_, bk. 6, _Sylvæ_, poem 6, li. 47.
=Telchīnius=, a surname of Apollo among the Rhodians. _Diodorus_, bk. 5.
=Telchis=, a son of Europs the son of Ægialeus. He was one of the first
kings of the Peloponnesus.
=Telea=, a surname of Juno in Bœotia.
=Teleboæ=, or =Teleboes=, a people of Ætolia, called also _Taphians_;
some of whom left their native country, and settled in the island of
Capreæ. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 715. _See:_ Taphiæ.
=Teleboas=, a son of Ixion and the cloud. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 11.――――A son of Lycaon. _Apollodorus._
=Teleboides=, islands opposite Leucadia. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.
=Telĕcles=, or =Telĕclus=, a Lacedæmonian king of the family of the
Agidæ, who reigned 40 years, B.C. 813. _Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 205.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 2.――――A philosopher, disciple of Lacidas,
B.C. 214.――――A Milesian.
=Teleclīdes=, an Athenian comic poet in the age of Pericles, one of
whose plays, called the Amphictyon, is mentioned by ancient authors.
_Plutarch_, _Nicias_.――_Athenæus._
=Tēlĕgŏnus=, a son of Ulysses and Circe, born in the island of Ææa,
where he was educated. When arrived to the years of manhood, he went
to Ithaca to make himself known to his father, but he was shipwrecked
on the coast, and, being destitute of provisions, he plundered some
of the inhabitants of the island. Ulysses and Telemachus came to
defend the property of their subjects against this unknown invader; a
quarrel arose, and Telegonus killed his father without knowing who he
was. He afterwards returned to his native country, and, according to
Hyginus, he carried thither his father’s body, where it was buried.
Telemachus and Penelope also accompanied him in his return, and soon
after the nuptials of Telegonus and Penelope were celebrated by order
of Minerva. Penelope had by Telegonus a son called Italus, who gave
his name to Italy. Telegonus founded Tusculum and Tibur or Præneste,
in Italy, and, according to some, he left one daughter called Mamilia,
from whom the patrician family of the Mamilii at Rome were descended.
_Horace_, bk. 3, ode 29, li. 8.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bks. 3 & 4.
_Tristia_, bk. 1, poem 1.――_Plutarch_, _Parallela minora_.――_Hyginus_,
fable 12.――_Diodorus_, bk. 7.――――A son of Proteus, killed by Hercules.
_Apollodorus._――――A king of Egypt, who married Io after she had been
restored to her original form by Jupiter. _Apollodorus._
=Tēlĕmăchus=, a son of Ulysses and Penelope. He was still in the cradle
when his father went with the rest of the Greeks to the Trojan war.
At the end of this celebrated war, Telemachus, anxious to see his
father, went to seek him, and as the place of his residence, and the
cause of his long absence, were then unknown, he visited the court
of Menelaus and Nestor to obtain information. He afterwards returned
to Ithaca, where the suitors of his mother Penelope had conspired to
murder him; but he avoided their snares, and by means of Minerva, he
discovered his father, who had arrived in the island two days before
him, and was then in the house of Eumæus. With this faithful servant
and Ulysses, Telemachus concerted how to deliver his mother from the
importunities of her suitors, and it was effected with success. After
the death of his father, Telemachus went to the island of Ææa, where
he married Circe, or, according to others, Cassiphone the daughter
of Circe, by whom he had a son called Latinus. He some time after had
the misfortune to kill his mother-in-law Circe, and fled to Italy,
where he founded Clusium. Telemachus was accompanied in his visit
to Nestor and Menelaus by the goddess of wisdom, under the form of
Mentor. It is said that, when a child, Telemachus fell into the sea,
and that a dolphin brought him safe to shore, after he had remained
some time under water. From this circumstance Ulysses had the
figure of a dolphin engraved on the seal which he wore on his ring.
_Hyginus_, fables 95 & 125.――_Ovid_, _Heroides_, poem 1, li. 98.
――_Horace_, bk. 1, ltr. 7, li. 41.――_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 2, &c.
――_Lycophron_, _Alexandra_.
=Telĕmus=, a Cyclops who was acquainted with futurity. He foretold
to Polyphemus all the evils which he some time after suffered from
Ulysses. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 13, li. 771.
=Telephassa=, the mother of Cadmus, Phœnix, and Cilix by Agenor. She
died in Thrace, as she was seeking her daughter Europa, whom Jupiter
had carried away. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, chs. 1 & 4.
=Tĕlĕphus=, a king of Mysia, son of Hercules and Auge the daughter of
Aleus. He was exposed as soon as born on mount Parthenius, but his
life was preserved by a goat, and by some shepherds. According to
Apollodorus, he was exposed, not on a mountain, but in the temple
of Minerva, at Tegea, or, according to a tradition mentioned by
Pausanias, he was left to the mercy of the waves with his mother,
by the cruelty of Aleus, and carried by the winds to the mouth of
the Caycus, where he was found by Teuthras the king of the country,
who married, or rather adopted as his daughter, Auge, and educated
her son. Some, however, suppose that Auge fled to Teuthras to avoid
the anger of her father, on account of her amour with Hercules.
Yet others declare that Aleus gave her to Nauplius to be ♦severely
punished for her incontinence, and that Nauplius, unwilling to injure
her, sent her to Teuthras king of Bithynia, by whom she was adopted.
Telephus, according to the more received opinions, was ignorant of
his origin, and he was ordered by the oracle, if he wished to know
his parents, to go to Mysia. Obedient to this injunction, he came
to Mysia, where Teuthras offered him his crown, and his adopted
daughter Auge in marriage, if he would deliver his country from the
hostilities of Idas the son of Aphareus. Telephus readily complied,
and at the head of the Mysians, he soon routed the enemy, and
received the promised reward. As he was going to unite himself to
Auge, the sudden appearance of an enormous serpent separated the
two lovers; Auge implored the assistance of Hercules, and was soon
informed by the god that Telephus was her own son. When this was
known, the nuptials were not celebrated, and Telephus some time after
married one of the daughters of king Priam. As one of the sons of the
Trojan monarch, Telephus prepared to assist Priam against the Greeks,
and with heroic valour he attacked them when they had landed on his
coast. The carnage was great, and Telephus was victorious, had not
Bacchus, who protected the Greeks, suddenly raised a vine from the
earth, which entangled the feet of the monarch, and laid him flat
on the ground. Achilles immediately rushed upon him, and wounded
him so severely, that he was carried away from the battle. The wound
was mortal, but Telephus was informed by the oracle, that he alone
who had inflicted it could totally cure it. Upon this, applications
were made to Achilles, but in vain; the hero observed that he was
no physician, till Ulysses, who knew that Troy could not be taken
without the assistance of one of the sons of Hercules, and who wished
to make Telephus the friend of the Greeks, persuaded Achilles to obey
the directions of the oracle. Achilles consented, and as the weapon
which had given the wound could alone cure it, the hero scraped the
rust from the point of his spear, and, by applying it to the sore,
gave it immediate relief. It is said that Telephus showed himself so
grateful to the Greeks, that he accompanied them to the Trojan war,
and fought with them against his father-in-law. _Hyginus_, fable 101.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 48.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 7, &c.
――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 12, ch. 42.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.
――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 1, poem 1, &c.――_Philostratus_, _Heroicus_.
――_Pliny._――――A friend of Horace, remarkable for his beauty and the
elegance of his person. He was the favourite of Lydia the mistress
of Horace, &c. _Horace_, bk. 1, ode 12; bk. 4, ode 11, li. 21.――――A
slave who conspired against Augustus. _Suetonius_, _Augustus_.
――――Lucius Verus, wrote a book on the rhetoric of Homer, as also a
comparison of that poet with Plato, and other treatises, all lost.
♦ ‘sevevely’ replaced with ‘severely’
=Telesia=, a town of Campania, taken by Annibal. _Livy_, bk. 21, ch. 13;
bk. 24, ch. 20.
=Telesĭcles=, a Parian, father to the poet Archilochus by a slave
called Enippo. _Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 10, ch. 13.
=Telesilla=, a lyric poetess of Argos, who bravely defended her country
against the Lacedæmonians, and obliged them to raise the siege. A
statue was raised to her honour in the temple of Venus. _Pausanias_,
bk. 2, ch. 20.
=Telesinicus=, a Corinthian auxiliary at Syracuse, &c. _Polyænus_,
bk. 5.
=Telesīnus=, a general of the Samnites, who joined the interest of
Marius, and fought against the generals of Sylla. He marched towards
Rome and defeated Sylla with great loss. He was afterwards routed in
a bloody battle, and left in the number of the slain, after he had
given repeated proofs of valour and courage. _Plutarch_, _Sulla_,
&c.――――A poet of considerable merit in Domitian’s reign. _Juvenal_,
satire 7, li. 25.
=Telesippus=, a poor man of Pheræ, father to the tyrant Dinias.
_Polyænus_, bk. 2.
=Telestagŏras=, a man of Naxos, whose daughters were ravished by
some of the nobles of the island, in consequence of which they were
expelled by the direction of Lygdamis, &c. _Athenæus_, bk. 8.
=Telestas=, a son of Priam. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 12.――――An athlete
of Messenia. _Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 14.――――A king of Corinth, who
died 779 B.C.
=Telestes=, a dithyrambic poet, who flourished B.C. 402.
=Telesto=, one of the Oceanides. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_.
=Telethes=, a mountain in Eubœa.
=Telethūsa=, the wife of Lygdus or Lyctus, a native of Crete. She
became mother of a daughter, who was afterwards changed into a boy.
_See:_ Iphis. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 9, li. 681.
=Teleurias=, a prince of Macedonia, &c. _Xenophon._
=Teleutias=, the brother of Agesilaus, who was killed by the Olynthians,
&c.
=Teleute=, a surname of Venus among the Egyptians. _Plutarch_, _de
Iside et Osiride_.
=Tellenæ=, a town of Latium, now destroyed. _Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 33.
=Telles=, a king of Achaia, son of Tisamenes. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 6.
=Tellias=, a famous soothsayer of Elis, in the age of Xerxes. He was
greatly honoured in Phocis, where he had settled, and the inhabitants
raised him a statue in the temple of Apollo, at Delphi. _Pausanias_,
bk. 10, ch. 1.――_Herodotus_, bk. 8, ch. 27.
=Tellis=, a Greek lyric poet, the father of Brasidas.
=Tellus=, a divinity, the same as the earth, the most ancient of all
the gods after Chaos. She was mother by Cœlus of Oceanus, Hyperion,
Ceus, Rhea, Japetus, Themis, Saturn, Phœbe, Tethys, &c. Tellus is
the same as the divinity who is honoured under the several names of
Cybele, Rhea, Vesta, Ceres, Tithea, Bona Dea, Proserpine, &c. She
was generally represented in the character of Tellus, as a woman with
many breasts, distended with milk, to express the fecundity of the
earth. She also appeared crowned with turrets, holding a sceptre in
one hand and a key in the other; while at her feet was lying a tame
lion without chains, as if to intimate that every part of the earth
can be made fruitful by means of cultivation. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_,
li. 130.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 137.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1,
ch. 1.――――A poor man, whom Solon called happier than Crœsus the rich
and ambitious king of Lydia. Tellus had the happiness to see a strong
and healthy family of children, and at last to fall in the defence of
his country. _Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 30.――――An Italian who is said to
have had commerce with his mares, and to have had a daughter called
Hippone, who became the goddess of horses.
=Telmessus=, or =Telmissus=, a town of Caria, whose inhabitants were
skilled in augury and the interpretation of dreams. _Cicero_, _de
Divinatione_, bk. 1.――_Strabo_, bk. 14.――_Livy_, bk. 37, ch. 16.
――――Another in Lycia.――――A third in Pisidia.
=Telo Martius=, a town at the south of Gaul, now _Toulon_.
=Telon=, a skilful pilot of Massilia, killed during the siege of that
city by Cæsar. _Lucan_, bk. 3, li. 592.――――A king of the Teleboæ, who
married Sebethis, by whom he had Œbalus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7,
li. 734.
=Telos=, a small island near Rhodes.
=Telphūsa=, a nymph of Arcadia, daughter of the Ladon who gave
her name to a town and fountain of that place. The waters of the
fountain Telphusa were so cold, that Tiresias died by drinking them.
_Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Strabo_, bk. 9.――_Lycophron_, li. 1040.
=Telxiŏpe=, one of the muses according to _Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_,
bk. 3, ch. 21.
=Telys=, a tyrant of Sybaris.
=Temathea=, a mountain of Messenia. _Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 34.
=Temēnium=, a place in Messene, where Temenus was buried.
=Temĕnītes=, a surname of Apollo, which he received at Temenos, a small
place near Syracuse, where he was worshipped. _Cicero_, _Against
Verres_.
=Temĕnos=, a place of Syracuse, where Apollo, called Temenites, had
a statue. _Cicero_, _Against Verres_, bk. 4, ch. 53.――_Suetonius_,
_Tiberius_, ch. 74.
=Temĕnus=, the son of Aristomachus, was the first of the Heraclidæ, who
returned to Peloponnesus with his brother Ctesiphontes, and in the
reign of Tisamenes king of Argos. Temenus made himself master of the
throne of Argos, from which he expelled the reigning sovereign. After
death he was succeeded by his son-in-law Deiphon, who had married his
daughter Hyrnetho, and this succession was in preference to his own
son. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, chs. 18 & 19.
――――A son of Pelasgus, who was entrusted with the care of Juno’s
infancy. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 22.
=Temerinda=, the name of the Paulus Mæotis among the natives.
=Temĕsa=, a town of Cyprus.――――Another in Calabria in Italy, famous
for its mines of copper, which were exhausted in the age of Strabo.
_Cicero_, _Against Verres_, bk. 5, ch. 15.――_Livy_, bk. 34, ch. 35.
――_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 1, li. 184.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 5,
li. 441; _Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, li. 207.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 4.
――_Strabo_, bk. 6.
=Temnes=, a king of Sidon.
=Temnos=, a town of Æolia, at the mouth of the Hermus. _Herodotus_,
bk. 1, ch. 49.――_Cicero_, _Flaccus_, ch. 18.
=Tempe= (plural), a valley in Thessaly, between mount Olympus at the
north and Ossa at the south, through which the river Peneus flows
into the Ægean. The poets have described it as the most delightful
spot on the earth, with continually cool shades and verdant walks,
which the warbling of birds rendered more pleasant and romantic, and
which the gods often honoured with their presence. Tempe extended
about five miles in length, but varied in the dimensions of its
breadth so as to be in some places scarce one acre and a half wide.
All valleys that are pleasant, either for their situation or the
mildness of their climate, are called _Tempe_ by the poets. _Strabo_,
bk. 9.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Dionysius
Periegetes_, li. 219.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 3, ch. 1.
――_Plutarch_, _de Musica_.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 2, li. 469.
――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, li. 569.
=Tenchtheri=, a nation of Germany, who frequently changed the place of
their habitation. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 13, ch. 56; _Histories_,
bk. 4, ch. 21.
=Tendera=, a town of Caria. _Livy_, bk. 33, ch. 18.
=Tenea=, a part of Corinth. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.
=Tenĕdia securis.= _See:_ Tenes.
=Tĕnĕdos=, a small and fertile island of the Ægean sea, opposite Troy,
at the distance of about 12 miles from Sigæum, and 56 miles north
from Lesbos. It was anciently called _Leucophrys_, till Tenes the son
of Cycnus settled there and built a town, which he called Tenedos,
from which the whole island received its name. It became famous
during the Trojan war, as it was there that the Greeks concealed
themselves, the more effectually to make the Trojans believe that
they were returned home without finishing the siege. _Homer_,
_Odyssey_, bk. 3, li. 59.――_Diodorus_, bk. 5.――_Strabo_, bk. 13.
――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 2, li. 21.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1,
li. 540; bk. 12, li. 109.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.
=Tenĕrus=, son of Apollo and Melia, received from his father the
knowledge of futurity. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 10.
=Tenes=, a son of ♦Cycnus and Proclea. He was exposed on the sea, on
the coast of Troas, by his father, who credulously believed his wife
Philonome, who had fallen in love with Cycnus, and accused him of
attempts upon her virtue, when he refused to gratify her passion.
Tenes arrived in Leucophrys, which he called Tenedos, and of which he
became the sovereign. Some time after ♦Cycnus discovered the guilt of
his wife Philonome, and as he wished to be reconciled to his son whom
he had so grossly injured, he went to Tenedos. But when he had tied
his ship to the shore, Tenes cut off the cable with a hatchet, and
suffered his father’s ship to be tossed about in the sea. From this
circumstance the _hatchet of Tenes_ is become proverbial to intimate
a resentment that cannot be pacified. Some, however, suppose that the
proverb arose from the severity of a law made by a king of Tenedos
against adultery, by which the guilty were both put to death by a
hatchet. The hatchet of Tenes was carefully preserved at Tenedos, and
afterwards deposited by Periclytus son of Eutymachus, in the temple
of Delphi, where it was still seen in the age of Pausanias. Tenes,
as some suppose, was killed by Achilles, as he defended his country
against the Greeks, and he received divine honours after death.
His statue at Tenedos was carried away by Verres. _Strabo_, bk. 13.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 14.――――A general of 4000 mercenary Greeks
sent by the Egyptians to assist the Phœnicians. _Diodorus_, bk. 16.
♦ ‘Cyncus’ replaced with ‘Cycnus’
=Tĕnĕsis=, a part of Æthiopia. _Strabo._
=Tennes=, a king of Sidon, who, when his country was besieged by the
Persians, burnt himself and the city together, B.C. 351.
=Tennum=, a town of Æolia.
=Tenos=, a small island in the Ægean, near Andros, called _Ophiussa_,
and also _Hydrussa_, from the number of its fountains. It was very
mountainous, but it produced excellent wines, universally esteemed
by the ancients. Tenos was about 15 miles in extent. The capital was
also called Tenos.――_Strabo_, bk. 10.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, li. 469.
=Tenty̆ra= (plural) and =Tentyris=, a small town of Egypt, on the
Nile, whose inhabitants were at enmity with the crocodiles, and made
war against those who paid them adoration. _Seneca_, _Quæstiones
Naturales_, bk. 4, ch. 2.――_Strabo_, bk. 17.――_Juvenal_, satire 15.
――_Pliny_, bk. 25, ch. 8.
=Tenty̆ra= (_melius_ Tempyra), a place of Thrace, opposite Samothrace.
_Ovid_, _Tristia_, bk. 1, poem 9, li. 21.
=Teos=, or =Teios=, now _Sigagik_, a maritime town on the coast of
Ionia in Asia Minor, opposite Samos. It was one of the 12 cities
of the Ionian confederacy, and gave birth to Anacreon and Hecatæus,
who is by some deemed a native of Miletus. According to Pliny, Teos
was an island. Augustus repaired Teos, whence he is often called the
founder of it on ancient medals. _Strabo_, bk. 14.――_Mela_, bk. 1,
ch. 17.――_Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 3.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 8,
ch. 5.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ode 17, li. 18.――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 31.
=Terēdon=, a town on the Arabian gulf. _Dionysius Periegeta_, li. 982.
=Terentia=, the wife of Cicero. She became mother of Marcus Cicero, and
of a daughter called Tulliola. Cicero repudiated her because she had
been faithless to his bed, when he was banished in Asia. Terentia
married Sallust, Cicero’s enemy, and afterwards Messala Corvinus.
She lived to her 103rd, or, according to Pliny, to her 117th year.
_Plutarch_, _Cicero_.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 8, ch. 13.――_Cicero_,
_Letters to Atticus_, bk. 11, ltr. 16, &c.――――The wife of Scipio
Africanus.――――The wife of Mecænas, with whom it was said that
Augustus carried on an intrigue.
=Terentia lex=, called also Cassia, _frumentaria_, by Marcus Terentius
Varro Lucullus and Caius Cassius, A.U.C. 680. It ordered that the
same price should be given for all corn bought in the provinces, to
hinder the exactions of the questors.――――Another, by Terentius the
tribune, A.U.C. 291, to elect five persons to define the power of the
consuls, lest they should abuse the public confidence, by violence or
rapine.
=Terentiānus=, a Roman to whom Longinus dedicated his treatise on
the sublime.――――Maurus, a writer who flourished A.D. 240. The last
edition of his treatise _de literis, syllabis, et metris Horatii_,
is by Mycillus, Frankfurt, 8vo, 1584. _Martial_, bk. 1, ltr. 70.
=Terentius Publius=, a native of Carthage in Africa, celebrated for the
comedies which he wrote. He was sold as a slave to Terentius Lucanus,
a Roman senator, who educated him with great care, and manumitted
him for the brilliancy of his genius. He bore the name of his master
and benefactor, and was called _Terentius_. He applied himself to
the study of Greek comedy with uncommon assiduity, and merited the
friendship and patronage of the learned and powerful. Scipio the
elder Africanus, and his friend Lælius, have been suspected, on
account of their intimacy, of assisting the poet in the composition
of his comedies; and the fine language, the pure expressions, and
delicate sentiments with which the plays of Terence abound, seem,
perhaps, to favour the supposition. Terence was in the 25th year
of his age when his first play appeared on the Roman stage. All his
compositions were received with great applause, but when the words
_Homo sum, humani nil a me alienum puto_,
were repeated, the plaudits were reiterated, and the audience, though
composed of foreigners, conquered nations, allies, and citizens of
Rome, were unanimous in applauding the poet, who spoke with such
elegance and simplicity the language of nature, and supported the
native independence of man. The talents of Terence were employed
rather in translation than in the effusions of originality. It is
said that he translated 108 of the comedies of the poet Menander,
six of which only are extant, his Andria, Eunuch, Heautontimorumenos,
Adelphi, Phormio, and Hecyra. Terence is admired for the purity of
his language, and the artless elegance and simplicity of his diction,
and for a continual delicacy of sentiment. There is more originality
in Plautus, more vivacity in the intrigues, and more surprise in
the catastrophes of his plays; but Terence will ever be admired
for his taste, his expressions, and his faithful pictures of nature
and manners, and the becoming dignity of his several characters.
Quintilian, who candidly acknowledges the deficiencies of the Roman
comedy, declares that Terence was the most elegant and refined of all
the comedians whose writings appeared on the stage. The time and the
manner of his death are unknown. He left Rome in the 35th year of his
age, and never after appeared there. Some suppose that he was drowned
in a storm as he returned from Greece, about 159 years before Christ,
though others imagine he died in Arcadia or Leucadia, and that his
death was accelerated by the loss of his property, and particularly
of his plays which perished in a shipwreck. The best editions of
Terence are those of Westerhovius, 2 vols., 4to, Amsterdam, 1726;
of Edinburgh, 12mo, 1758; of Cambridge, 4to, 1723; Hawkey’s, 12mo,
Dublin, 1745; and that of Zeunius, 8vo, Lipscomb, 1774. _Cicero_,
_Letters to Atticus_, bk. 7, ltr. 3.――_Paterculus_, bk. 1, ch. 17.
――_Quintilian_, bk. 10, ch. 1.――_Horace_, bk. 2, ltr. 1, li. 59.
――――Culeo, a Roman senator, taken by the Carthaginians, and redeemed
by Africanus. When Africanus triumphed, Culeo followed his chariot
with a _pileus_ on his head. He was some time after appointed judge
between his deliverer and the people of Asia, and had the meanness to
condemn him and his brother Asiaticus, though both innocent. _Livy_,
bk. 30, ch. 45.――――A tribune who wished the number of the citizens
of Rome to be increased.――――Evocatus, a man who, as it was supposed,
murdered Galba. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 1, ch. 41.――――Lentinus, a
Roman knight condemned for perjury.――――Varro, a writer. _See:_ Varro.
――――A consul with Æmilius Paulus at the battle of Cannæ. He was
the son of a butcher, and had followed for some time the profession
of his father. He placed himself totally in the power of Hannibal,
by making an improper disposition of his army. After he had been
defeated, and his colleague slain, he retired to Canusium, with the
remains of his slaughtered countrymen, and sent word to the Roman
senate of his defeat. He received the thanks of this venerable
body, because he had engaged the enemy, however improperly, and
not despaired of the affairs of the republic. He was offered the
dictatorship, which he declined. _Plutarch._――_Livy_, bk. 22, &c.
――――An ambassador sent to Philip king of Macedonia.――――Massaliora,
an edile of the people, &c.――――Marcus, a friend of Sejanus, accused
before the senate for his intimacy with that discarded favourite. He
made a noble defence, and was acquitted. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 6.
=Terentus=, a place in the Campus Martius near the capitol, where the
infernal deities had an altar. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 1, li. 504.
=Tēreus=, a king of Thrace, son of Mars and Bistonis. He married Progne
the daughter of Pandion king of Athens, whom he had assisted in a war
against Megara. He offered violence to his sister-in-law Philomela,
whom he conducted to Thrace by desire of Progne. _See:_ Philomela and
Progne.――――A friend of Æneas, killed by Camilla. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 11, li. 675.
=Tergeste= and =Tergestum=, now _Trieste_, a town of Italy on the
Adriatic sea, made a Roman colony. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3, &c.
――_Dionysius Periegetes_, li. 380.――_Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 110.
――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 18.
=Terias=, a river of Sicily near Catana.
=Teribazus=, a nobleman of Persia, sent with a fleet against Evagoras
king of Cyprus. He was accused of treason, and removed from office,
&c. _Polyænus_, bk. 7.
=Teridae=, a concubine of Menelaus.
=Teridates=, a favourite eunuch at the court of Artaxerxes. At his
death the monarch was in tears for three days, and was consoled
at last only by the arts and the persuasion of Aspasia, one of his
favourites. _Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 12, ch. 1.
=Terigum=, a town of Macedonia.
=Terina=, a town of the Brutii.
=Terioli=, now _Tirol_, a fortified town at the north of Italy, in the
country of the Grisons.
=Termentia=, or =Termes=, a town of Hispania Tarraconensis.
=Termera=, a town of Caria.
=Termĕrus=, a robber of Peloponnesus, who killed people by crushing
their head against his own. He was slain by Hercules in the same
manner. _Plutarch_, _Theseus_.
=Termesus=, a river of Arcadia.
=Termilæ=, a name given to the Lycians.
=Terminalia=, annual festivals at Rome, observed in honour of the god
Terminus, in the month of February. It was then usual for peasants to
assemble near the principal landmarks which separated their fields,
♦and after they had crowned them with garlands and flowers, to make
libations of milk and wine, and to sacrifice a lamb or a young pig.
They were originally established by Numa, and though at first it
was forbidden to shed the blood of victims, yet in process of time
landmarks were plentifully sprinkled with it. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 2,
li. 641.――_Cicero_, _Philippics_, bk. 12, ch. 10.
♦ ‘aad’ replaced with ‘and’
=Terminālis=, a surname of Jupiter, because he presided over the
boundaries and lands of individuals, before the worship of the god
Terminus was introduced. _Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 2.
=Termĭnus=, a divinity at Rome who was supposed to preside over bounds
and limits, and to punish all unlawful usurpation of land. His
worship was first introduced at Rome by Numa, who persuaded his
subjects that the limits of their lands and estates were under the
immediate inspection of heaven. His temple was on the Tarpeian rock,
and he was represented with a human head without feet or arms, to
intimate that he never moved, wherever he was placed. The people of
the country assembled once a year with their families, and crowned
with garlands and flowers the stones which ♦separated their different
possessions, and offered victims to the god who presided over their
boundaries. It is said that when Tarquin the Proud wished to build a
temple on the Tarpeian rock to Jupiter, the god Terminus refused to
give way, though the other gods resigned their seats with
cheerfulness; whence Ovid has said,
_Restitit, et mango cum Jove templa tenet_.
_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 2.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 2, li. 641.
――_Plutarch_, _Numa_.――_Livy_, bk. 5.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9.
♦ ‘separted’ replaced with ‘separated’
=Termissus=, or =Termessus=, a town of Pisidia.
=Terpander=, a lyric poet and musician of Lesbos, 675 B.C. It is said
that he appeased a tumult at Sparta by the melody and sweetness of
his notes. He added three strings to the lyre, which before his time
had only four. _Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 12, ch. 50.――_Plutarch_,
_de Musica_.
=Terpsĭchŏre=, one of the muses, daughter of Jupiter and Mnemosyne.
She presided over dancing, of which she was reckoned the inventress,
as her name intimates, and with which she delighted her sisters. She
is represented like a young virgin crowned with laurel, and holding
in her hand a musical instrument. _Juvenal_, satire 7, li. 35.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1.――_Eustathius_, _ad Iliadem_, bk. 10.
=Terpsicrăte=, a daughter of Thespius. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 7.
=Terra=, one of the most ancient deities in mythology, wife of Uranus,
and mother of Oceanus, the Titans, Cyclops, Giants, Thea, Rhea,
Themis, Phœbe, ♦Tethys, and Mnemosyne. By the Air she had Grief,
Mourning, Oblivion, Vengeance, &c. According to Hyginus, she is the
same as Tellus. _See:_ Tellus.
♦ ‘Thetys’ replaced with ‘Tethys’
=Terracīna.= _See:_ Tarricina.
=Terrasidius=, a Roman knight in Cæsar’s army in Gaul. _Cæsar_, _Gallic
War_, bk. 3, chs. 7 & 8.
=Terror=, an emotion of the mind which the ancients have made a deity,
and one of the attendants of the god Mars, and of Bellona.
=Tertia=, a sister of Clodius the tribune, &c.――――A daughter of Paulus
the conqueror of Perseus. _Cicero_, _De Divinatione_, bk. 1, ch. 46.
――――A daughter of Isidorus. _Cicero_, _Against Verres_, bk. 3,
ch. 34.――――A sister of Brutus, who married Cassius. She was also
called _Tertulla_ and _Junia_. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 3, ch. 76.
――_Suetonius_, _Cæsar_, ch. 50.――_Cicero_, _Letters to Brutus_,
ltrs. 5 & 6; _Letters to Atticus_, bk. 15, ltr. 11; bk. 16, ltr. 20.
=Tertius Julianus=, a lieutenant in Cæsar’s legions.
=Tertulliānus Quintus Septimius Florens=, a celebrated christian writer
of Carthage, who flourished A.D. 196. He was originally a pagan, but
afterwards embraced christianity, of which he became an able advocate
by his writings, which showed that he was possessed of a lively
imagination, impetuous eloquence, elevated style, and strength of
reasoning. The most famous and esteemed of his numerous works, are
his _Apology for the Christians_, and his _Prescriptions_. The best
edition of Tertullian is that of Semlerus, 4 vols., 8vo, Halle, 1770;
and of his Apology, that of Havercamp, 8vo, Leiden, 1718.
=Tethys=, the greatest of the sea deities, was wife of Oceanus,
and daughter of Uranus and Terra. She was mother of the chiefest
rivers of the universe, such as the Nile, the Alpheus, the Mæander,
Simois, Peneus, Evenus, Scamander, &c., and about 3000 daughters
called Oceanides. Tethys is confounded by some mythologists with
her granddaughter Thetis the wife of Peleus, and the mother of
Achilles. The word _Tethys_ is poetically used to express the sea.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 1, &c.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 1, li. 31.
――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 2, li. 509; bk. 9, li. 498; _Fasti_,
bk. 2, li. 191.――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 336.――_Homer_, _Iliad_,
bk. 14, li. 302.
=Tetis=, a river of Gaul flowing from the Pyrenees. _Mela_, bk. 2,
ch. 5.
=Tetrapŏlis=, a name given to the city of Antioch the capital of Syria,
because it was divided into four separate districts, each of which
resembled a city. Some apply the word to _Seleucis_, which contained
the four large cities of Antioch near Daphne, Laodicea, Apamea, and
Seleucia in Pieria.――――The name of four towns at the north of Attica.
_Strabo_, bk. 8.
=Tĕtrĭca=, a mountain of the Sabines near the river Fabaris. It was
very rugged and difficult of access, whence the epithet _Tetricus_
was applied to persons of a morose and melancholy disposition.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 713.
=Tetrĭcus=, a Roman senator, saluted emperor in the reign of Aurelian.
He was led in triumph by his successful adversary, who afterwards
heaped the most unbounded honours upon him and his son of the same
name.
=Teucer=, a king of Phrygia, son of the Scamander by Ida. According
to some authors he was the first who introduced among his subjects
the worship of Cybele, and the dances of the Corybantes. The country
where he reigned was from him called _Teucria_, and his subjects
_Teucri_. His daughter Batea married Dardanus, a Samothracian prince,
who succeeded him in the government of Teucria. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3,
ch. 12.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 108.――――A son of Telamon
king of Salamis, by Hesione the daughter of Laomedon. He was one of
Helen’s suitors, and accordingly accompanied the Greeks to the Trojan
war, where he signalized himself by his valour and intrepidity. It is
said that his father refused to receive him into his kingdom, because
he had left the death of his brother Ajax unrevenged. This severity
of the father did not dishearten the son; he left Salamis, and
retired to Cyprus, where, with the assistance of Belus king of Sidon,
he built a town, which he called Salamis, after his native country.
He attempted, to no purpose, to recover the island of Salamis after
his father’s death. He built a temple to Jupiter in Cyprus, on which
a man was annually sacrificed till the reign of the Antonines. Some
suppose that Teucer did not return to Cyprus, but that, according
to a less received opinion, he went to settle in Spain, where new
Carthage was afterwards built, and thence into Galatia. _Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 1, li. 281.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 623.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 12.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 29.
――_Justin_, bk. 44, ch. 3.――_Paterculus_, bk. 1, ch. 1.――――One of
the servants of Phalaris of Agrigentum.
=Teucri=, a name given to the Trojans, from Teucer their king. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 1, lis. 42 & 239.
=Teucria=, a name given to Troy, from Teucer one of its kings. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 2, li. 26.
=Teucteri=, a people of Germany, at the east of the Rhine. _Tacitus_,
_Germania_, ch. 22.
=Teumessus=, a mountain of Bœotia with a village of the same name,
where Hercules, when young, killed an enormous lion. _Statius_,
_Thebaid_, bk. 1, li. 331.
=Teuta=, a queen of Illyricum, B.C. 231, who ordered some Roman
ambassadors to be put to death. This unprecedented murder was the
cause of a war, which ended in her disgrace. _Florus_, bk. 2, ch. 5.
――_Pliny_, bk. 34, ch. 6.
=Teutamias=, or =Teutamis=, a king of Larissa. He instituted games in
honour of his father, where Perseus killed his grandfather Acrisius
with a quoit.
=Teutamus=, a king of Assyria, the same as Tithonus the father of
Memnon. _Diodorus_, bk. 5.
=Teutas=, or =Teutates=, a name of Mercury among the Gauls. The
people offered human victims to this deity. _Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 445.
――_Cæsar_, _Gallic War_.
=Teuthrania=, a part of Mysia where the Caycus rises.
=Teuthras=, a king of Mysia on the borders of the Caycus. He adopted
as his daughter, or, according to others, married, Auge the daughter
of Aleus, when she fled away into Asia from her father, who wished to
punish her for her amours with Hercules. Some time after his kingdom
was invaded by Idas the son of Aphareus, and to remove this enemy, he
promised Auge and his crown to any one who could restore tranquillity
to his subjects. This was executed by Telephus, who afterwards
proved to be the son of Auge, who was promised in marriage to him
by right of his successful expedition. The 50 daughters of Teuthras,
who became mothers by Hercules, are called _Teuthrantia turba_.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 7, &c.――_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 25.――_Ovid_,
_Tristia_, bk. 2, li. 19; _Heroides_, poem 9, li. 51.――_Hyginus_,
fable 100.――――A river’s name.――――One of the companions of Æneas in
Italy. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 402.
=Teutoburgiensis saltus=, a forest of Germany, between the Ems and
Lippa, where Varus and his legions were cut to pieces. _Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 1, ch. 60.
=Teutomatus=, a prince of Gaul, among the allies of Rome.
=Teutŏni= and =Teutŏnes=, a people of Germany, who with the Cimbri made
incursions upon Gaul, and cut to pieces two Roman armies. They were
at last defeated by the consul Marius, and an infinite number made
prisoners. _See:_ Cimbri. _Cicero_, _On Pompey’s Command_.――_Florus_,
bk. 3, ch. 3.――_Plutarch_, _Caius Marius_.――_Martial_, bk. 14,
ltr. 26.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 14.
=Thabenna=, an inland town of Africa, _African War_, ch. 77.
=Thabusium=, a fortified place of Phrygia. _Livy_, bk. 38, ch. 14.
=Thais=, a famous courtesan of Athens, who accompanied Alexander in his
Asiatic conquests, and gained such an ascendancy over him, that she
made him burn the royal palace of Persepolis. After Alexander’s death,
she married Ptolemy king of Egypt. Menander celebrated her charms
both mental and personal, which were of a superior nature, and on
this account she is called _Menandrea_ by _Propertius_, bk. 2, poem 6.
――_Ovid_, _Ars Amatoria_, bk. 3, li. 604; _Remedia Amoris_, li. 384.
――_Plutarch_, _Alexander_.――_Juvenal_, satire 3, li. 93.――_Athenæus_,
bk. 13, ch. 13.
=Thala=, a town of Africa. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 3, ch. 21.
=Thalăme=, a town of Messenia, famous for a temple and oracle of
Pasiphae. _Plutarch_, _Agis_.
=Thalassius=, a beautiful young Roman in the reign of Romulus. At the
rape of the Sabines, one of these virgins appeared remarkable for
beauty and elegance, and her ravisher, afraid of many competitors,
exclaimed, as he carried her away, that it was for Thalassius. The
name of Thalassius was no sooner mentioned, than all were eager to
preserve so beautiful a prize for him. Their union was attended with
so much happiness, that it was ever after usual at Rome to make use
of the word _Thalassius_ at nuptials, and to wish those that were
married the felicity of Thalassius. He is supposed by some to be
the same as _Hymen_, as he was made a deity. _Plutarch_, _Romulus_.
――_Martial_, bk. 3, ltr. 92.――_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 9.
=Thales=, one of the seven wise men of Greece, born at Miletus in Ionia.
He was descended from Cadmus: his father’s name was Examius, and his
mother’s Cleobula. Like the rest of the ancients, he travelled in
quest of knowledge, and for some time resided in Crete, Phœnicia,
and Egypt. Under the priests of Memphis he was taught geometry,
astronomy, and philosophy, and enabled to measure with exactness
the vast height and extent of a pyramid merely by its shadow. His
discoveries in astronomy were great and ingenious; and he was the
first who calculated with accuracy a solar eclipse. He discovered
the solstices and equinoxes, he divided the heavens into five zones,
and recommended the division of the year into 365 days, which was
universally adopted by the Egyptian philosophy. Like Homer, he
looked upon water as the principle of everything. He was the founder
of the Ionic sect, which distinguished itself for its deep and
abstruse speculations under the successors and pupils of the Milesian
philosopher, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Anaxagoras, and Archelaus the
master of Socrates. Thales was never married; and when his mother
pressed him to choose a wife, he said he was too young. The same
exhortations were afterwards repeated, but the philosopher eluded
them by observing that he was then too old to enter the matrimonial
state. He died in the 96th year of his age, about 548 years before
the christian era. His compositions on philosophical subjects are
lost. _Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 7.――_Plato._――_Diogenes Laërtius_,
bk. 1.――_Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, &c.――――A lyric poet of Crete,
intimate with Lycurgus. He prepared by his rhapsodies the minds of
the Spartans to receive the rigorous institutions of his friend, and
inculcated a reverence for the peace of civil society.
=Thalestria=, or =Thalestris=, a queen of the Amazons, who, accompanied
by 300 women, came 35 days’ journey to meet Alexander in his Asiatic
conquests, to raise children by a man whose fame was so great, and
courage so uncommon. _Curtius_, bk. 6, ch. 5.――_Strabo_, bk. 11.
――_Justin_, bk. 2, ch. 4.
=Thaletes=, a Greek poet of Crete, 900 B.C.
=Thălīa=, one of the Muses, who presided over festivals, and over
pastoral and comic poetry. She is represented leaning on a column,
holding a mask in her right hand, by which she is distinguished from
her sisters, as also by a shepherd’s crook. Her dress appears shorter,
and not so ornamented as that of the other Muses. _Horace_, bk. 4,
ode 6, li. 25.――_Martial_, bk. 9, ltr. 75.――_Plutarch_, _Convivium
Septem Sapientium_, &c.――_Virgil_, _Eclogues_, poem 6, li. 2.――――One
of the Nereides. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 5,
li. 826.――――An island in the Tyrrhene sea.
=Thallo=, one of the Horæ or Seasons, who presided over the spring.
_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 35.
=Thalpius=, a son of Eurytus, one of Helen’s suitors. _Apollodorus_,
bk. 3, ch. 10.
=Thalyssia=, Greek festivals celebrated by the people of the country
in honour of Ceres, to whom the first fruits were regularly offered.
_Scholia_ on _Theocritus_, poem 3.
=Thamĭras=, a Cilician who first introduced the art of augury in Cyprus,
where it was religiously preserved in his family for many years.
_Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 2, ch. 3.
=Thamuda=, a part of Arabia Felix.
=Thamyras=, or =Thamyris=, a celebrated musician of Thrace. His
father’s name was Philammon, and his mother’s Argiope. He became
enamoured of the Muses, and challenged them to a trial of skill. His
challenge was accepted, and it was mutually agreed that the conqueror
should be totally at the disposal of his victorious adversary. He
was conquered, and the Muses deprived him of his eyesight and his
melodious voice, and broke his lyre. His poetical compositions are
lost. Some accused him of having first introduced into the world the
unnatural vice of which Sotades is accused. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2,
li. 594; bk. 5, li. 599.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 3.――_Ovid_,
_Amores_, bk. 3, poem 7, li. 62; _Ars Amatoria_, bk. 3, li. 399.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 33.
=Thamyris=, one of the petty princes of the Dacæ, in the age of Darius,
&c.――――A queen of the Massagetæ. _See:_ Thomyris.――――A Trojan killed
by Turnus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 12, li. 341.
=Thapsăcus=, a city on the Euphrates.
=Thapsus=, a town of Africa Propria, where Scipio and Juba were
defeated by Cæsar. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 3, li. 261.――_Livy_, bk. 29,
ch. 30; bk. 33, ch. 48.――――A town at the north of Syracuse in Sicily.
=Thargelia=, festivals in Greece, in honour of Apollo and Diana.
They lasted two days, and the youngest of both sexes carried olive
branches, on which were suspended cakes and fruits. _Athenæus_,
bk. 12.
=Thariădes=, one of the generals of Antiochus, &c.
=Tharops=, the father of Œager, to whom Bacchus gave the kingdom of
Thrace, after the death of Lycurgus. _Diodorus_, bk. 4.
=Thasius=, or =Thrasius=, a famous soothsayer of Cyprus, who told
Busiris king of Egypt, that to stop a dreadful plague which afflicted
his country, he must offer a foreigner to Jupiter. Upon this the
tyrant ordered him to be seized and sacrificed to the god, as he was
not a native of Egypt. _Ovid_, _de Ars Amatoria_, bk. 1, li. 549.
――――A surname of Hercules, who was worshipped at Thasos.
=Thasos=, or =Thasus=, a small island in the Ægean, on the coast of
Thrace, opposite the mouth of the Nestus, anciently known by the
name of _Æria_, _Odonis_, _Æthria_, _Acte_, _Ogygia_, _Chryse_, and
_Ceresis_. It received that of Thasos from Thasus the son of Agenor,
who settled there when he despaired of finding his sister Europa. It
was about 40 miles in circumference, and so uncommonly fruitful, that
the fertility of Thasos became proverbial. Its wine was universally
esteemed, and its marble quarries were also in great repute, as well
as its mines of gold and silver. The capital of the island was also
called Thasos. _Livy_, bk. 33, chs. 30 & 55.――_Herodotus_, bk. 2,
ch. 44.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 25.――_Ælian_,
_Varia Historia_, bk. 4, &c.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 2, li. 91.
――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Cimon_, ch. 2.
=Thasus=, a son of Neptune, who went with Cadmus to seek Europa. He
built the town of Thasus in Thrace. Some make him brother of Cadmus.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 1.
=Thaumaci=, a town of Thessaly on the Maliac gulf. _Livy_, bk. 32,
ch. 4.
=Thaumantias= and =Thaumantis=, a name given to Iris the messenger
of Juno, because she was the daughter of Thaumas the son of Oceanus
and Terra by one of the Oceanides. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_.――_Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 5.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 4, li. 479;
bk. 14, li. 845.
=Thaumas=, a son of Neptune and Terra, who married Electra, one of the
Oceanides, by whom he had Iris and the ♦Harpies, &c. _Apollodorus_,
bk. 1, ch. 2.
♦ ‘Harpyies’ replaced with ‘Harpies’
=Thaumasius=, a mountain of Arcadia, on whose top, according to some
accounts, Jupiter was born.
=Thea=, a daughter of Uranus and Terra. She married her brother
Hyperion, by whom she had the sun, the moon, Aurora, &c. She is also
called Thia, Titæa, Rhea, Tethys, &c.――――One of the Sporades.
=Theagĕnes=, a man who made himself master of Megara, &c.――――An athlete
of Thaos, famous for his strength. His father’s name was Timosthenes,
a friend of Hercules. He was crowned above 1000 times at the public
games of the Greeks, and became a god after death. _Pausanias_, bk. 6,
chs. 6 & 11.――_Plutarch._――――A Theban officer, who distinguished
himself at the battle of Cheronæa. _Plutarch._――――A writer who
published commentaries on Homer’s works.
=Theages=, a Greek philosopher, disciple of Socrates. _Plato._――_Ælian_,
_Varia Historia_, bk. 4, &c.
=Theangela=, a town of Caria.
=Theāno=, the wife of Metapontus son of Sisyphus, presented some twins
to her husband, when he wished to repudiate her for her barrenness.
The children were educated with the greatest care, and some time
afterwards Theano herself became the mother of twins. When they were
grown up she encouraged them to murder the supposititious children,
who were to succeed to their father’s throne in preference to them.
They were both killed in the attempt, and the father, displeased
with the conduct of Theano, repudiated her to marry the mother of the
children whom he had long considered as his own. _Hyginus_, fable 186.
――――A daughter of Cisseus, sister to Hecuba, who married Antenor, and
was supposed to have betrayed the Palladium to the Greeks, as she was
priestess of Minerva. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 6, li. 298.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 10, ch. 27.――_Dictys Cretensis_, bk. 5, ch. 8.――――One of the
Danaides. Her husband’s name was Phantes. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 1.
――――The wife of the philosopher Pythagoras, daughter of Pythanax of
Crete, or, according to others, of Brontinus of Crotona. _Diogenes
Laërtius_, bk. 8, ch. 42.――――The daughter of Pythagoras.――――A poetess
of Locris.――――A priestess of Athens, daughter of Menon, who refused
to pronounce a curse upon Alcibiades when he was accused of having
mutilated all the statues of Mercury. _Plutarch._――――The mother of
Pausanias. She was the first, as it is reported, who brought a stone
to the entrance of Minerva’s temple, to shut up her son when she
heard of his crimes and perfidy to his country. _Polyænus_, bk. 8.
――――A daughter of Scedasus, to whom some of the Lacedæmonians offered
violence at Leuctra.――――A Trojan matron, who became mother of Mimas
by Amycus, the same night that Paris was born. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 10, li. 703.
=Theānum=, a town of Italy. _See:_ Teanum.
=Thearidas=, a brother of Dionysius the elder. He was made admiral of
his fleet. _Diodorus_, bk. 14.
=Thearius=, a surname of Apollo at Trœzene. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 51.
=Theatetes=, a Greek epigrammatist.
=Theba=, or =Thebe=, a town of Cilicia. _See:_ Thebæ.
=Thebæ= (arum), a celebrated city, the capital of Bœotia, situate on
the banks of the river Ismenus. The manner of its foundation is not
precisely known. Cadmus is supposed to have first begun to found it
by building the citadel Cadmea. It was afterwards finished by Amphion
and Zethus; but, according to Varro, it owed its origin to Ogyges.
The government of Thebes was monarchical, and many of the sovereigns
are celebrated for their misfortunes, such as Laius, Œdipus,
Polynices, Eteocles, &c. The war which Thebes supported against the
Argives, is famous as well as that of the Epigoni. The Thebans were
looked upon as an indolent and sluggish nation, and the words of
_Theban pig_, became proverbial to express a man remarkable for
stupidity and inattention. This, however, was not literally true;
under Epaminondas, the Thebans, though before dependent, became
masters of Greece, and everything was done according to their will
and pleasure. When Alexander invaded Greece, he ordered Thebes to
be totally demolished, because it had revolted against him, except
the house where the poet Pindar had been born and educated. In this
dreadful period 6000 of its inhabitants were slain, and 30,000 sold
for slaves. Thebes was afterwards repaired by Cassander the son of
Antipater, but it never rose to its original consequence, and Strabo,
in his age, mentions it merely as an inconsiderable village. The
monarchical government was abolished there at the death of Xanthus,
about 1190 years before Christ, and Thebes became a republic. It
received its name from Thebe the daughter of Asopus, to whom the
founder Amphion was nearly related. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 4,
&c.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 6; bk. 9,
ch. 5.――_Strabo_, bk. 9.――_Plutarch_, _Pelopidas_, _Pelopidas_,
& _Alexander_.――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Pelopidas_, _Epaminondas_, &c.
――_Horace_, _Art of Poetry_, li. 394.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_.――――A
town at the south of Troas, built by Hercules, and also called
_Placia_ and _Hypoplacia_. It fell into the hands of the Cilicians,
who occupied it during the Trojan war. _Curtius_, bk. 3, ch. 4.
――_Livy_, bk. 37, ch. 19.――_Strabo_, bk. 11.――――An ancient celebrated
city of Thebais in Egypt, called also _Hecatompylos_, on account
of its 100 gates, and _Diospolis_, as being sacred to Jupiter. In
the time of its splendour, it extended above 23 miles, and upon any
emergency could send into the field, by each of its 100 gates, 20,000
fighting men and 200 chariots. Thebes was ruined by Cambyses king of
Persia, and few traces of it were seen in the age of Juvenal. _Pliny_,
bk. 5, ch. 9.――_Juvenal_, satire bk. 15, li. 16.――_Tacitus_, _Annals_,
bk. 2.――_Herodotus_, bks. 2 & 3.――_Diodorus_, bk. 2.――_Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 9, li. 381.――_Strabo_, bk. 17.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 9.
――――A town of Africa, built by Bacchus.――――Another in Thessaly.
_Livy_, bk. 28, ch. 7.――――Another in Phthiotis.
=Thebais=, a country in the southern parts of Egypt, of which Thebes
was the capital.――――There have been some poems which have borne the
name of Thebais, but of these the only one extant is the Thebais
of Statius. It gives an account of the war of the Thebans against
the Argives, in consequence of the dissension of Eteocles with his
brother Polynices. The poet was 12 years in composing it.――――A river
of Lydia.――――A name given to a native of Thebes.
=Thebe=, a daughter of the Asopus, who married Zethus. _Apollodorus_,
bk. 3, ch. 5.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 5.――――The wife of Alexander
tyrant of Pheræ. She was persuaded by Pelopidas to murder her husband.
=Theia=, a goddess. _See:_ Thea.
=Theias=, a son of Belus, who had an incestuous intercourse with his
daughter Smyrna.
=Thelephassa=, the second wife of Agenor, called also _Telaphassa_.
=Thelpūsa=, a nymph of Arcadia. _See:_ ♦Telphusa.
♦ ‘Telpusa’ replaced with ‘Telphusa’
=Thelxion=, a son of Apis, who conspired against his father, who was
king of Peloponnesus. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 5.――_Apollodorus_,
bk. 2, ch. 1.
=Thelxiope=, one of the Muses, according to some writers. _Cicero_,
_de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum_.
=Themeneus=, a son of Aristomachus, better known by the name of Temenus.
=Themesion=, a tyrant of Eretria. _Diodorus_, bk. 15.
=Themillas=, a Trojan, &c. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 376.
=Themis=, a daughter of Cœlus and Terra, who married Jupiter against
her own inclination. She became mother of Dice, Irene, Eunomia, the
Parcæ and Horæ; and was the first to whom the inhabitants of the
earth raised temples. Her oracle was famous in Attica in the age of
Deucalion, who consulted it with great solemnity, and was instructed
how to repair the loss of mankind. She was generally attended by the
seasons. Among the moderns she is represented as holding a sword in
one hand, and a pair of scales in the other. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 1, li. 321.――――A daughter of Ilus, who married Capys, and became
mother of Anchises. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 12.
=Themiscy̆ra=, a town of Cappadocia, at the mouth of the Thermodon,
belonging to the Amazons. The territories round it bore the same name.
=Themĭson=, a famous physician of Laodicea, disciple to Asclepiades.
He was founder of a sect called Methodists, because he wished to
introduce methods to facilitate the learning and the practice of
physic. He flourished in the Augustan age. _Pliny_, bk. 29, ch. 1.
――_Juvenal_, satire 10.――――One of the generals and ministers of
Antiochus the Great. He was born at Cyprus. _Ælian_, _Varia Historia_,
bk. 2, ch. 41.
=Themista=, or =Themistis=, a goddess, the same as Themis.
=Themistĭus=, a celebrated philosopher of Paphlagonia in the age of
Constantius, greatly esteemed by the Roman emperors, and called
_Euphrades_, the fine speaker, from his eloquent and commanding
delivery. He was made a Roman senator, and always distinguished for
his ♦liberality and munificence. His school was greatly frequented.
He wrote, when young, some commentaries on Aristotle, fragments of
which are still extant, and 33 of his orations. He professed himself
to be an enemy to flattery, and though he often deviates from this
general rule in his addresses to the emperors, yet he strongly
recommends humanity, wisdom, and clemency. The best edition of
Themistius is that of Harduin, folio, Paris, 1684.
♦ ‘liberalty’ replaced with ‘liberality’
=Themisto=, a daughter of Hypseus, was the third wife of Athamas king
of Thebes, by whom she had four sons, called Ptous, Leucon, Schœneus,
and Erythroes. She endeavoured to kill the children of Ino, her
husband’s second wife, but she killed her own, by means of Ino, who
lived in her house in the disguise of a servant-maid, and to whom she
entrusted her bloody intentions, upon which she destroyed herself.
_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 23.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9.――――A woman
mentioned by Polyænus.――――The mother of the poet Homer, according to
a tradition mentioned by Pausanias, bk. 10, ch. 24.
=Themistŏcles=, a celebrated general born at Athens. His father’s name
was Neocles, and his mother’s Euterpe, or Abrotonum, a native of
Halicarnassus, or of Thrace, or Acarnaia. The beginning of his youth
was marked by vices so flagrant, and an inclination so incorrigible,
that his father disinherited him. This, which might have disheartened
others, roused the ambition of Themistocles, and the protection
which he was denied at home, he sought in courting the favours of the
populace, and in sharing the ♦administration of public affairs. When
Xerxes invaded Greece, Themistocles was at the head of the Athenian
republic, and in this capacity the fleet was entrusted to his care.
When the Lacedæmonians under Leonidas were opposing the Persians at
Thermopylæ, the naval operations of Themistocles, and of the combined
fleet of the Peloponnesians, were directed to destroy the armament
of Xerxes, and to ruin his maritime power. The obstinate wish of the
generals to command the Grecian fleet might have proved fatal to the
interest of the allies, had not Themistocles freely relinquished his
pretensions, and by nominating his rival Eurybiades master of the
expedition, shown the world that his ambition could stoop when his
country demanded his assistance. The Persian fleet was distressed at
Artemisium by a violent storm, and the feeble attack of the Greeks;
but a decisive battle had never been fought if Themistocles had not
used threats and entreaties, and even called religion to his aid,
and the favourable answers of the oracle, to second his measures.
The Greeks, actuated by different views, were unwilling to make head
by sea against an enemy whom they saw victorious by land, plundering
their cities and destroying all by fire and sword; but before they
were dispersed, Themistocles sent intelligence of their intentions
to the Persian monarch. Xerxes, by immediately blocking them with his
fleet, in the bay of Salamis, prevented their escape, and while he
wished to crush them all at one blow, he obliged them to fight for
their safety, as well as for the honour of their country. This battle,
which was fought near the island of Salamis, B.C. 480, was decisive;
the Greeks obtained the victory, and Themistocles the honour of
having destroyed the formidable navy of Xerxes. Further to ensure
the peace of his country, Themistocles informed the Asiatic monarch
that the Greeks had conspired to cut the bridge which he had built
across the Hellespont, and to prevent his retreat into Asia. This met
with equal success; Xerxes hastened away from Greece, and while he
believed the words of Themistocles, that his return would be disputed,
he left his forces without a general, and his fleets an easy conquest
to the victorious Greeks. These signal services to his country
endeared Themistocles to the Athenians, and he was universally called
the most warlike and most courageous of all the Greeks who fought
against the Persians. He was received with the most distinguished
honours, and by his prudent administration, Athens was soon fortified
with strong walls, her Pireus was rebuilt, and her harbours were
filled with a numerous and powerful navy, which rendered her the
mistress of Greece. Yet in the midst of that glory, the conqueror of
Xerxes incurred the displeasure of his countrymen, which had proved
so fatal to many of his illustrious predecessors. He was banished
from the city, and after he had sought in vain a safe retreat among
the republics of Greece, and the barbarians of Thrace, he threw
himself into the arms of a monarch, whose fleets he had defeated,
and whose father he had ruined. Artaxerxes, the successor of Xerxes,
received the illustrious Athenian with kindness; and though he
had formerly set a price upon his head, yet he made him one of his
greatest favourites, and bestowed three rich cities upon him, to
provide him with bread, wine, and meat. Such kindness from a monarch,
from whom he, perhaps, expected the most hostile treatment, did
not alter the sentiments of Themistocles. He still remembered that
Athens gave him birth, and according to some writers, the wish of not
injuring his country, and therefore his inability of carrying on war
against Greece, at the request of Artaxerxes, obliged him to destroy
himself by drinking bull’s blood. The manner of his death, however,
is uncertain, and while some affirm that he poisoned himself, others
declare that he fell a prey to a violent distemper in the city of
Magnesia, where he had fixed his residence, while in the dominions of
the Persian monarch. His bones were conveyed to Attica and honoured
with a magnificent tomb by the Athenians, who began to repent too
late of their cruelty to the saviour of his country. Themistocles
died in the 65th year of his age, about 449 years before the
christian era. He has been admired as a man naturally courageous,
of a disposition fond of activity, ambitious of glory and enterprise.
Blessed with a provident and discerning mind, he seemed to rise
superior to misfortunes, and in the midst of adversity, possessed
of resources which could enable him to regain his splendour, and
even to command fortune. _Plutarch_ & _Cornelius Nepos_, _Lives_.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 1; bk. 8, ch. 52.――_Ælian_, _Varia
Historia_, bk. 2, ch. 12; bk. 9, ch. 18; bk. 13, ch. 40.――――A writer,
some of whose letters are extant.
♦ ‘adminstration’ replaced with ‘administration’
=Themistogĕnes=, an historian of Syracuse, in the age of Artaxerxes
Memnon. He wrote on the wars of Cyrus the younger, a subject ably
treated afterwards by Xenophon.
=Theŏcles=, an opulent citizen of Corinth, who liberally divided his
riches among the poor. Thrasonides, a man equally rich with himself,
followed the example. _Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 14, ch. 24.――――A
Greek statuary. _Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 19.
=Theŏclus=, a Messenian poet and soothsayer, who died B.C. 671.
_Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 15, &c.
=Theoclymĕnus=, a soothsayer of Argolis, descended from Melampus. His
father’s name was Thestor. He foretold the speedy return of Ulysses
to Penelope and Telemachus. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 15, li. 225, &c.
――_Hyginus_, fable 128.
=Theŏcrĭtus=, a Greek poet who flourished at Syracuse, in Sicily, 282
B.C. His father’s name was Praxagoras or Simichus, and his mother’s
Philina. He lived in the age of Ptolemy Philadelphus, whose praises
he sung, and whose favours he enjoyed. Theocritus distinguished
himself by his poetical compositions, of which 30 idyllia and some
epigrams are extant, written in the Doric dialect, and admired for
their beauty, elegance, and simplicity. Virgil, in his eclogues, has
imitated and often copied him. Theocritus has been blamed for the
many indelicate and obscene expressions which he uses; and while
he introduces shepherds and peasants with all the rusticity and
ignorance of nature, he often disguises their character by making
them speak on high and exalted subjects. It is said he wrote some
invectives against Hiero king of Syracuse, who ordered him to be
strangled. He also wrote a ludicrous poem called _Syrinx_, and placed
his verses in such order that they represented the pipe of the god
Pan. The best editions of Theocritus, are Warton’s, 2 vols., 4to,
Oxford, 1770; that of Heinsius, 8vo, Oxford, 1699; that of Valkenaer,
8vo, Leiden, 1781; and that of Reiske, 2 vols., 4to, Lipscomb, 1790.
_Quintilian_, bk. 10, ch. 1.――_Diogenes Laërtius_, bk. 5.――――A Greek
historian of Chios, who wrote an account of Libya. _Plutarch._
♦=Theodămas=, or =Thiodamas=, a king of Mysia, in Asia Minor. He was
killed by Hercules, because he refused to treat him and his son with
hospitality. _Ovid_, _Ibis_, li. 438.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 7.
――_Hyginus_, fable 271.
♦ ‘Thodămas’ replaced with ‘Theodămas’
=Theodectes=, a Greek orator and poet of Phaselis in Pamphylia, son of
Aristander, and disciple of Isocrates. He wrote 50 tragedies, besides
other works now lost. He had such a happy memory that he could repeat
with ease whatever verses were spoken in his presence. When Alexander
passed through Phaselis, he crowned with garlands the statue which
had been erected to the memory of the deceased poet. _Cicero_,
_Tusculanæ Disputationes_, bk. 1, ch. 24; _Orator_, ch. 51, &c.
――_Plutarch._――_Quintilian._
=Theodonis=, a town of Germany, now _Thionville_, on the Moselle.
=Theodōra=, a daughter-in-law of the emperor Maximian, who married
Constantius.――――A daughter of Constantine.――――A woman who, from being
a prostitute, became empress to Justinian, and distinguished herself
by her intrigues and enterprises.――――The name of Theodora is common
to the empresses of the east in a later period.
=Theodoretus=, one of the Greek fathers who flourished A.D. 425, whose
works have been edited, 5 vols., folio, Paris, 1642, and 5 vols.,
Halæ, 1769 to 1774.
=Theodoritus=, a Greek ecclesiastical historian, whose works have been
best edited by Reading, folio, Cambridge. 1720.
=Theodōrus=, a Syracusan of great authority among his countrymen, who
severely inveighed against the tyranny of Dionysius.――――A philosopher,
disciple to Aristippus. He denied the existence of a God. He was
banished from Cyrene, and fled to Athens, where the friendship of
Demetrius Phalereus saved him from the accusations which were carried
to the Areopagus against him. Some suppose that he was at last
condemned to death for his impiety, and that he drank poison.――――A
preceptor to one of the sons of Antony, whom he betrayed to Augustus.
――――A consul in the reign of Honorius. Claudian wrote a poem upon
him, in which he praises him with great liberality.――――A secretary of
Valens. He conspired against the emperor and was beheaded.――――A man
who compiled a history of Rome. Of this, nothing but his history of
the reigns of Constantine and Constantius is extant.――――A comic actor.
――――A player on the flute in the age of Demetrius Poliorcetes, who
contemptuously rejected the favours of Lamia the mistress of the
monarch.――――A Greek poet of Colophon, whose compositions are lost.
――――A sophist of Byzantium, called _Logodaidalos_ by Plato.――――A
Greek poet in the age of Cleopatra. He wrote a book of metamorphoses,
which Ovid imitated, as some suppose.――――An artist of Samos about 700
years B.C. He was the first who found out the art of melting iron,
with which he made statues.――――A priest, father of Isocrates.――――A
Greek writer, called also _Prodromus_. The time in which he lived
is unknown. There is a romance of his composition extant, called the
amours of Rhodanthe and Dosicles, the only edition of which was by
Gaulminus, 8vo, Paris, 1625.
=Theodosia=, now _Caffa_, a town in the Cimmerian Bosphorus. _Mela_,
bk. 2, ch. 1.
=Theodosiopŏlis=, a town of Armenia, built by Theodosius, &c.
=Theodosius Flavius=, a Roman emperor surnamed _Magnus_, from the
greatness of his exploits. He was invested with the imperial purple
by Gratian, and appointed over Thrace and the eastern provinces,
which had been in the possession of Valentinian. The first years of
his reign were marked by different conquests over the barbarians.
The Goths were defeated in Thrace, and 4000 of their chariots, with
an immense number of prisoners of both sexes, were the reward of the
victory. This glorious campaign intimidated the inveterate enemies
of Rome; they sued for peace, and treaties of alliance were made with
distant nations, who wished to gain the favours and the friendship
of a prince whose military virtues were so conspicuous. Some
conspiracies were formed against the emperor, but Theodosius totally
disregarded them; and while he punished his competitors for the
imperial purple, he thought himself sufficiently secure in the love
and the affection of his subjects. His reception at Rome was that of
a conqueror; he triumphed over the barbarians, and restored peace in
every part of the empire. He died of a dropsy at Milan, in the 60th
year of his age, after a reign of 16 years, the 17th of January,
A.D. 395. His body was conveyed to Constantinople, and buried by his
son Arcadius, in the tomb of Constantine. Theodosius was the last
of the emperors who was the sole master of the whole Roman empire.
He left three children, Arcadius and Honorius, who succeeded him,
and Pulcheria. Theodosius has been commended by ancient writers,
as a prince blessed with every virtue, and debased by no vicious
propensity. Though master of the world, he was a stranger to that
pride and arrogance which too often disgrace the monarch; he was
affable in his behaviour, benevolent and compassionate, and it was
his wish to treat his subjects as himself was treated when a private
man and a ♦dependent. Men of merit were promoted to places of trust
and honour, and the emperor was fond of patronizing the cause of
virtue and learning. His zeal as a follower of christianity has been
applauded by all the ecclesiastical writers, and it was the wish of
Theodosius to support the revealed religion, as much by his example,
meekness, and christian charity, as by his edicts and ecclesiastical
institutions. His want of clemency, however, in one instance, was too
openly betrayed, and when the people of Thessalonica had unmeaningly,
perhaps, killed one of his officers, the emperor ordered his soldiers
to put all the inhabitants to the sword, and no less than 6000
persons, without distinction of rank, age, or sex, were cruelly
butchered in that town in the space of three hours. This violence
irritated the ecclesiastics, and Theodosius was compelled by St.
Ambrose to do open penance in the church, and publicly to make
atonement for an act of barbarity which had excluded him from
the bosom of the church, and the communion of the faithful. In
his private character Theodosius was an example of soberness and
temperance; his palace displayed becoming grandeur, but still
with moderation. He never indulged in luxury, or countenanced
superfluities. He was fond of bodily exercise, and never gave himself
up to pleasure and enervating enjoyments. The laws and regulations
which he introduced in the Roman empire, were of the most salutary
nature. _Socrates of Constantinople_, bk. 5, &c.――_Zosimus_, bk. 4,
&c.――_Ambrose._――_Augustine._――_Claudian_, &c.
♦ ‘dependant’ replaced with ‘dependent’
=Theodosius II.=, succeeded his father Arcadius as emperor of the
western Roman empire, though only in the eighth year of his age.
He was governed by his sister Pulcheria, and by his ministers and
eunuchs, in whose hands was the disposal of the offices of state,
and all places of trust and honour. He married Eudoxia, the daughter
of a philosopher called Leontius, a woman remarkable for her virtues
and piety. The territories of Theodosius were invaded by the Persians,
but the emperor soon appeared at the head of a numerous force,
and the two hostile armies met on the frontiers of the empire. The
consternation was universal on both sides; without even a battle,
the Persians fled, and no less than 100,000 were lost in the waters
of the Euphrates. Theodosius raised the siege of Nisibis, where his
operations failed of success, and he averted the fury of the Huns
and Vandals by bribes and promises. He died on the 29th of July,
in the 49th year of his age, A.D. 450, leaving only one daughter,
Licinia Eudoxia, whom he married to the emperor Valentinian III. The
carelessness and inattention of Theodosius to public affairs are well
known. He signed all the papers that were brought to him without even
opening them or reading them, till his sister apprised him of his
negligence, and rendered him more careful and diligent, by making him
sign a paper, in which he delivered into her hand, Eudoxia his wife
as a slave and menial servant. The laws and regulations which were
promulgated under him, and selected from the most useful and salutary
institutions of his imperial predecessors, have been called the
_Theodosian code_. Theodosius was a warm advocate for the christian
religion, but he has been blamed for his partial attachment to those
who opposed the orthodox faith. _Sozomen._――_Socrates_, &c.
=Theodosius=, a lover of Antonina the wife of Belisarius.――――A
mathematician of Tripoli, who flourished 75 B.C. His treatise, called
Sphærica, is best edited by Hunt, 8vo, Oxford, 1707.――――A Roman
general, father of Theodosius the Great; he died A.D. 376.
=Theodŏta=, a beautiful courtesan of Elis, whose company was frequented
by Socrates. _Xenophon_, _on Socrates_.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_,
bk. 13, ch. 32.――――A Roman empress, &c.
=Theodotian=, an interpreter, in the reign of Commodus.
=Theodŏtus=, an admiral of the Rhodians, sent by his countrymen to make
a treaty with the Romans.――――A native of Chios, who, as preceptor and
counsellor of Ptolemy, advised the feeble monarch to murder Pompey.
He carried the head of the unfortunate Roman to Cæsar, but the
resentment of the conqueror was such that the mean assassin fled, and
after a wandering and miserable life in the cities of Asia, he was
at last put to death by Brutus. _Plutarch_, _Brutus_ & _Pompey_.――――A
Syracusan, accused of a conspiracy against Hieronymus the tyrant of
Syracuse.――――A governor of Bactriana in the age of Antiochus, who
revolted and made himself king, B.C. 250.――――A friend of the emperor
Julian.――――A Phœnician historian.――――One of the generals of Alexander.
=Theognētes=, a Greek tragic poet. _Athenæus._
=Theognis=, a Greek poet of Megara, who flourished about 549 years
before Christ. He wrote several poems, of which only few sentences
are now extant, quoted by Plato and other Greek historians and
philosophers, and intended as precepts for the conduct of human
life. The morals of the poet have been censured as neither decorous
nor chaste. The best edition of Theognis is that of Blackwall, 12mo,
London, 1706.――――There was also a tragic poet of the same name, whose
compositions were so lifeless and inanimated, that they procured him
the name of _Chion_, or _snow_.
=Theomnestus=, a rival of Nicias in the administration of public
affairs at Athens. _Strabo_, bk. 14.――――A statuary of Sardinia.
_Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 15.――――An Athenian philosopher, among the
followers of Plato’s doctrines. He had Brutus, Cæsar’s murderer,
among his pupils.――――A painter. _Pliny_, bk. 35.
=Theon=, a philosopher, who used frequently to walk in his sleep.
_Diogenes Laërtius._――――An astronomer of Smyrna, in the reign of
Adrian.――――A painter of Samos. _Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 3,
ch. 44.――――Another philosopher. _Diogenes Laërtius._――――An infamous
reviler. _Horace_, bk. 1, ltr. 19.
=Theonoe=, a daughter of Thestor, sister to Calchas. She was carried
away by sea pirates, and sold to Icarus king of Caria, &c. _Hyginus_,
fable 190.――――A daughter of Proteus and a Nereid, who became enamoured
of Canobus, the pilot of a Trojan vessel, &c.
=Theope=, one of the daughters of Leos.
=Theophăne=, a daughter of Bisaltus, whom Neptune changed into a sheep,
to remove her from her numerous suitors, and conveyed to the island
Crumissa. The god afterwards assumed the shape of a ram, and under
this transformation he had by the nymph a ram with a golden fleece,
which carried Phryxus to Colchis. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 6,
li. 177.――_Hyginus_, fable 188.
=Theophănes=, a Greek historian, born at Mitylene. He was very intimate
with Pompey, and from his friendship with the Roman general, his
countrymen derived many advantages. After the battle of Pharsalia,
he advised Pompey to retire to the court of Egypt. _Cicero_, _For
Archias_, &c.――_Paterculus._――_Plutarch_, _Cicero_ & _Pompey_.――――His
son Marcus Pompeius Theophanes was made governor of Asia, and enjoyed
the intimacy of Tiberius.――――The only edition of Theophanes the
Byzantine historian, is that of Paris, folio, 1649.
=Theophania=, festivals celebrated at Delphi in honour of Apollo.
=Theophĭlus=, a comic poet of Athens.――――A governor of Syria in the age
of Julian.――――A friend of Piso.――――A physician, whose treatise _de
Urinis_ is best edited by Guidotius, Leiden, 1728, and another by
Morell, 8vo, Paris, 1556.――――One of the Greek fathers, whose work
_ad Autolycum_ is best edited in 12mo, by Wolf, Hamburg, 1724.――――The
name of Theophilus is common among the primitive christians.
=Theophrastus=, a native of Eresus in Lesbos, son of a fuller. He
studied under Plato, and afterwards under Aristotle, whose friendship
he gained, and whose warmest commendations he deserved. His original
name was _Tyrtamus_, but this the philosopher made him exchange
for that of _Euphrastus_, to intimate his excellence in speaking,
and afterwards for that of _Theophrastus_, which he deemed still
more expressive of his eloquence, the brilliancy of his genius, and
the elegance of his language. After the death of Socrates, when the
malevolence of the Athenians drove all the philosopher’s friends
from the city, Theophrastus succeeded Aristotle in the Lyceum, and
rendered himself so conspicuous, that in a short time the number of
his auditors was increased to 2000. Not only his countrymen courted
his applause, but kings and princes were desirous of his friendship:
and Cassander and Ptolemy, two of the most powerful of the successors
of Alexander, regarded him with more than usual partiality.
Theophrastus composed many books, and Diogenes has enumerated the
titles of above 200 treatises, which he wrote with great elegance
and copiousness. About 20 of these are extant, among which are his
history of stones, his treatise on plants, on the winds, on the signs
of fair weather, &c., and his Characters, an excellent moral treatise,
which was begun in the 99th year of his age. He died, loaded with
years and infirmities, in the 107th year of his age, B.C. 288,
lamenting the shortness of life, and complaining of the partiality
of nature in granting longevity to the crow and to the stag, but
not to man. To his care we are indebted for the works of Aristotle,
which the dying philosopher entrusted to him. The best edition
of Theophrastus, is that of Heinsius, folio, Leiden, 1613; and of
his Characters, that of Needham, 8vo, Cambridge. 1712, and that of
Fischer, 8vo, Coburg, 1763. _Cicero_, _Tusculanæ Disputationes_,
bk. 3, ch. 28; _Brutus_, ch. 31; _Orator_, ch. 19, &c.――_Strabo_,
bk. 13.――_Diogenes Laërtius_, _Lives_.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_,
bk. 2, ch. 8; bk. 34, ch. 20; bk. 8, ch. 12.――_Quintilian_, bk. 10,
ch. 1.――_Plutarch_, _Adversus Colotem_.――――An officer entrusted with
the care of the citadel of Corinth by Antigonus. _Polyænus._
=Theopolĕmus=, a man who, with his brother Hiero, plundered Apollo’s
temple at Delphi, and fled away for fear of being punished. _Cicero_,
_Against Verres_, bk. 5.
=Theopŏlis=, a name given to Antioch, because the christians first
received their name there.
=Theopompus=, a king of Sparta, of the family of the Proclidæ, who
succeeded his father Nicander, and distinguished himself by the many
new regulations which he introduced. He created the Ephori, and died,
after a long and peaceful reign, B.C. 723. While he sat on the throne,
the Spartans made war against Messenia. _Plutarch_, _Lycurgus_.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 7.――――A famous Greek historian of Chios,
disciple of Isocrates, who flourished B.C. 354. All his compositions
are lost, except a few fragments quoted by ancient writers. He is
compared to Thucydides and Herodotus as an historian, yet he is
severely censured for his satirical remarks and illiberal reflections.
He obtained a prize in which his master was a competitor, and he was
liberally rewarded for composing the best funeral oration in honour
of Mausolus. His father’s name was Damasistratus. _Dionysius of
Halicarnassus_, bk. 1.――_Plutarch_, _Lysis_.――_Cornelius Nepos_, bk.
7.――_Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 18.――_Quintilian_, bk. 10, ch. 1.――――An
Athenian, who attempted to deliver his countrymen from the tyranny of
Demetrius. _Polyænus_, bk. 5.――――A comic poet in the age of Menander.
He wrote 24 plays, all lost.――――A son of Demaratus, who obtained
several crowns at the Olympic games. _Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 10.
――――An orator and historian of Cnidus, very intimate with Julius
Cæsar. _Strabo_, bk. 14.――――A Spartan general, killed at the battle
of Tegyra.――――A philosopher of Cheronæa, in the reign of the emperor
Philip.
=Theophylactus Simocatta=, a Byzantine historian, whose works were
edited folio, Paris, 1647.――――One of the Greek fathers who flourished
A.D. 1070. His works were edited at Venice, 4 vols., 1754 to 1763.
=Theorius=, a surname of Apollo at Trœzene, where he had a very ancient
temple. It signifies clear-sighted.
=Theotīmus=, a wrestler of Elis, in the age of Alexander. _Pausanias_,
bk. 6, ch. 17.――――A Greek who wrote a history of Italy.
=Theoxĕna=, a noble lady of Thessaly, who threw herself into the sea,
when unable to escape from the soldiers of king Philip, who pursued
her. _Livy_, bk. 40, ch. 4.
=Theoxenia=, a festival celebrated in honour of all the gods in every
city of Greece, but especially at Athens. Games were then observed,
and the conqueror who obtained the prize received a large sum of
money, or, according to others, a vest beautifully ornamented. The
Dioscuri established a festival of the same name, in honour of the
gods who had visited them at one of their entertainments.
=Theoxenius=, a surname of Apollo.
=Thera=, a daughter of Amphion and Niobe. _Hyginus_, fable 69.――――One
of the Sporades in the Ægean sea, anciently called _Callista_,
now _Santorin_. It was first inhabited by the Phœnicians, who were
left there under Membliares by Cadmus, when he went in quest of his
sister Europa. It was called Thera by Theras the son of Autesion, who
settled there with a colony from Lacedæmon. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 1.
――_Herodotus_, bk. 4.――_Strabo_, bk. 8.――――A town of Caria.
=Therambus=, a town near Pallene. _Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 123.
=Theramĕnes=, an Athenian philosopher and general in the age of
Alcibiades. His father’s name was Agnon. He was one of the 30 tyrants
of Athens, but he had no share in the cruelties and oppression which
disgraced their administration. He was accused by Critias, one of
his colleagues, because he opposed their views, and he was condemned
to drink hemlock, though defended by his own innocence, and the
friendly intercession of the philosopher Socrates. He drank the
poison with great composure, and poured some of it on the ground,
with the sarcastical exclamation of, “This is to the health of
Critias.” This happened about 404 years before the christian era.
Theramenes, on account of the fickleness of his disposition, has been
called _Cothurnus_, a part of the dress used both by men and women.
_Cicero_, _On Oratory_, bk. 3, ch. 16.――_Plutarch_, _Alcibiades_, &c.
――_Cornelius Nepos._
=Therapne=, or =Terapne=, a town of Laconia, at the west of the Eurotas,
where Apollo had a temple called Phœbeum. It was but a very short
distance from Lacedæmon, and, indeed, some authors have confounded
it with the capital of Laconia. It received its name from Therapne,
a daughter of Lelex. Castor and Pollux were born there, and on that
account they were sometimes called _Therapnæi fratres_. _Pausanias_,
bk. 3, ch. 14.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 5, li. 223.――_Silius Italicus_,
bk. 6, li. 303; bk. 8, li. 414; bk. 13, li. 43.――_Livy_, bk. 2, ch.
16.――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 2, ch. 49.――_Statius_, bk. 7,
_Thebaid_, li. 793.
=Theras=, a son of Autesion of Lacedæmon, who conducted a colony to
Callista, to which he gave the name of _Thera_. He received divine
honours after death. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, chs. 1 & 15.
=Therimăchus=, a son of Hercules by Megara. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2,
chs. 4 & 7.
=Therippidas=, a Lacedæmonian, &c. _Diodorus_, bk. 15.
=Theritas=, a surname of Mars in Laconia.
=Therma=, a town of Africa. _Strabo._――――A town of Macedonia,
afterwards called _Thessalonica_, in honour of the wife of Cassander,
and now _Salonichi_. The bay in the neighbourhood of Therma is called
_Thermæus_, or _Thermaicus sinus_, and advances far into the country,
so much, that Pliny has named it _Macedonicus sinus_, by way of
eminence, to intimate its extent. _Strabo._――_Tacitus_, _Annals_,
bk. 5, ch. 10.――_Herodotus._
=Thermæ= (baths), a town of Sicily, where were the baths of Selinus,
now _Sciacca_.――――Another, near Panormus, now _Thermini_. _Silius
Italicus_, bk. 14, li. 23.――_Cicero_, _Against Verres_, bk. 2, ch. 35.
=Thermōdon=, now _Termeh_, a famous river of Cappadocia, in the ancient
country of the Amazons, falling into the Euxine sea near Themiscyra.
There was also a small river of the same name in Bœotia, near Tanagra,
which was afterwards called _Hæmon_. _Strabo_, bk. 11.――_Herodotus_,
bk. 9, ch. 27.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 19.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 1;
bk. 9, ch. 19.――_Plutarch_, _Demosthenes_.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 11,
li. 659.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 2, li. 249, &c.
=Thermopy̆læ=, a small pass leading from Thessaly into Locris and Phocis.
It has a large ridge of mountains on the west, and the sea on the
east, with deep and dangerous marshes, being in the narrowest part
only 25 feet in breadth. Thermopylæ receives its name from the _hot
baths_ which are in the neighbourhood. It is celebrated for a battle
which was fought there B.C. 480, on the 7th of August, between Xerxes
and the Greeks, in which 300 Spartans resisted for three successive
days repeatedly the attacks of the most brave and courageous of
the Persian army, which, according to some historians, amounted to
5,000,000. There was also another battle fought there between the
Romans and Antiochus king of Syria. _Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 176,
&c.――_Strabo_, bk. 9.――_Livy_, bk. 36, ch. 15.――_Mela_, bk. 2,
ch. 3.――_Plutarch_, _Marcus Cato_, &c.――_Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 15.
=Thermum=, a town of Ætolia on the Evenus. _Polybius_, bk. 5.
=Thermus=, a man accused in the reign of Tiberius, &c.――――A man put to
death by Nero.――――A town of Ætolia, the capital of the country.
=Therodămas=, a king of Scythia, who, as some report, fed lions with
human blood, that they might be more cruel. _Ovid_, _Ibis_, li. 383.
=Theron=, a tyrant of Agrigentum, who died 472 B.C. He was a native of
Bœotia, and son of Ænesidamus, and he married Damarete the daughter
of Gelon of Sicily. _Herodotus_, bk. 7.――_Pindar_, _Olympian_, ch. 2.
――――One of Actæon’s dogs. _Ovid._――――A Rutulian who attempted to
kill Æneas. He perished in the attempt. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10,
li. 312.――――A priest in the temple of Hercules at Saguntum, &c.
_Silius Italicus_, bk. 2, li. 149.――――A Theban descended from the
Spartæ. _Statius_, _Thebaid_, bk. 2, li. 572.――――A daughter of Phylas,
beloved by Apollo. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 40.
=Therpander=, a celebrated poet and musician of Lesbos. _See:_
Terpander.
=Thersander=, a son of Polynices and Argia. He accompanied the Greeks
to the Trojan war, but he was killed in Mysia by Telephus, before
the confederate army reached the enemy’s country. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 2, li. 261.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 7.――――A son of Sisyphus
king of Corinth.――――A musician of Ionia.
=Thersĭlŏchus=, a leader of the Pæonians in the Trojan war, killed by
Achilles. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 483.――――A friend of Æneas,
killed by Turnus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 12, li. 363.――――An athlete
at Corcyra, crowned at the Olympic games. _Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 13.
=Thersippus=, a son of Agrius, who drove Œneus from the throne of
Calydon.――――A man who carried a letter from Alexander to Darius.
_Curtius._――――An Athenian author, who died 954 B.C.
=Thersītes=, an officer, the most deformed and illiberal of the Greeks
during the Trojan war. He was fond of ridiculing his fellow-soldiers,
particularly Agamemnon, Achilles, and Ulysses. Achilles killed him
with one blow of his fist, because he laughed at his mourning the
death of Penthesilea. _Ovid_, _ex Ponto_, bk. 4, poem 17, li. 15.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 8.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2, li. 212, &c.
=Theseidæ=, a patronymic given to the Athenians from Theseus, one of
their kings. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 2, li. 383.
=Theseis=, a poem written by Codrus, containing an account of the life
and actions of Theseus, and now lost. _Juvenal_, satire 1, li. 2.
=Theseus=, a king of Athens, and son of Ægeus by Æthra the daughter of
Pittheus, was one of the most celebrated of the heroes of antiquity.
He was educated at Trœzene in the house of Pittheus, and as he was
not publicly acknowledged to be the son of the king of Athens, he
passed for the son of Neptune. When he came to years of maturity,
he was sent by his mother to his father, and a sword was given him,
by which he might make himself known to Ægeus in a private manner.
_See:_ Ægeus. His journey to Athens was not across the sea, as it was
usual with travellers, but Theseus determined to signalize himself
in going by land, and encountering difficulties. The road which led
from Trœzene to Athens was infested with robbers and wild beasts,
and almost impassable; but these obstacles were easily removed by
the courageous son of Ægeus. He destroyed Corynetes, Synnis, Sciron,
Cercyon, Procrustes, and the celebrated Phæa. At Athens, however,
his reception was not cordial; Medea lived there with Ægeus, and as
she knew that her influence would fall to the ground, if Theseus was
received in his father’s house, she attempted to destroy him before
his arrival was made public. Ægeus was himself to give the cup of
poison to this unknown stranger at a feast, but the sight of his
sword on the side of Theseus reminded him of his amours with Æthra.
He knew him to be his son, and the people of Athens were glad to find
that this illustrious stranger, who had cleared Attica from robbers
and pirates, was the son of their monarch. The Pallantides, who
expected to succeed their uncle Ægeus on the throne, as he apparently
had no children, attempted to assassinate Theseus; but they fell a
prey to their own barbarity, and were all put to death by the young
prince. The bull of Marathon next engaged the attention of Theseus.
The labour seemed arduous, but he caught the animal alive, and after
he had led it through the streets of Athens, he sacrificed it to
Minerva, or the god of Delphi. After this Theseus went to Crete among
the seven chosen youths whom the Athenians yearly sent to be devoured
by the Minotaur. The wish to deliver his country from so dreadful a
tribute, engaged him to undertake this expedition. He was successful
by means of Ariadne the daughter of Minos, who was enamoured of him,
and after he had escaped from the labyrinth with a clue of thread,
and killed the Minotaur [_See:_ Minotaurus], he sailed from Crete
with the six boys and seven maidens, whom his victory had equally
redeemed from death. In the island of Naxos, where he was driven by
the winds, he had the meanness to abandon Ariadne, to whom he was
indebted for his safety. The rejoicings which his return might have
occasioned at Athens were interrupted by the death of Ægeus, who
threw himself into the sea when he saw his son’s ship return with
black sails, which was the signal of ill success. _See:_ Ægeus. His
ascension on his father’s throne was universally applauded, B.C.
1235. The Athenians were governed with mildness, and Theseus made
new regulations, and enacted new laws. The number of the inhabitants
of Athens was increased by the liberality of the monarch, religious
worship was attended with more than usual solemnity, a court was
instituted which had the care of all civil affairs, and Theseus made
the government democratical, while he reserved for himself only the
command of the armies. The fame which he had gained by his victories
and policy, made his alliance courted; but Pirithous king of the
Lapithæ, alone wished to gain his friendship, by meeting him in
the field of battle. He invaded the territories of Attica, and when
Theseus had marched out to meet him, the two enemies, struck at the
sight of each other, rushed between their two armies, to embrace one
another in the most cordial and affectionate manner, and from that
time began the most sincere and admired friendship, which has become
proverbial. Theseus was present at the nuptials of his friend, and
was the most eager and courageous of the Lapithæ, in the defence of
Hippodamia and her female attendants, against the brutal attempts
of the Centaurs. When Pirithous had lost Hippodamia, he agreed with
Theseus, whose wife Phædra was also dead, to carry away some of
the daughters of the gods. Their first attempt was upon Helen the
daughter of Leda, and after they had obtained this beautiful prize,
they cast lots, and she became the property of Theseus. The Athenian
monarch entrusted her to the care of his mother Æthra, at Aphidnæ,
till she was of nubile years, but the resentment of Castor and Pollux
soon obliged him to restore her safe into their hands. Helen, before
she reached Sparta, became mother of a daughter by Theseus, but this
tradition, confirmed by some ancient mythologists, is confuted by
others, who affirm that she was but nine years old when carried
away by the two royal friends, and Ovid introduces her in one of
his epistles, saying, _Excepto redii passa timore nihil_. Some time
after Theseus assisted his friend in procuring a wife, and they both
descended into the infernal regions to carry away Proserpine. Pluto,
apprised of their intentions, stopped them. Pirithous was placed on
his father’s wheel, and Theseus was tied to a huge stone on which
he had sat to rest himself. Virgil represents him in this eternal
state of punishment repeating to the shades in Tartarus the words
of _Discite justitiam moniti, et non temnere divos_. Apollodorus,
however, and others declare that he was not long detained in hell;
when Hercules came to steal the dog Cerberus, he tore him away from
the stone, but with such violence, that his skin was left behind.
The same assistance was given to Pirithous, and the two friends
returned upon the earth by the favour of Hercules and the consent
of the infernal deities, not, however, without suffering the most
excruciating torments. During the captivity of Theseus in the
kingdom of Pluto, Mnestheus, one of the descendants of Erechtheus,
ingratiated himself into the favours of the people of Athens, and
obtained the crown in preference to the children of the absent
monarch. At his return Theseus attempted to eject the usurper, but
to no purpose. The Athenians had forgotten his many services, and
he retired with great mortification to the court of Lycomedes king
of the island of Scyros. After paying him much attention, Lycomedes,
either jealous of his fame, or bribed by the presence of Mnestheus,
carried him to a high rock, on pretence of showing him the extent
of his dominions, and threw him down a deep precipice. Some suppose
that Theseus inadvertently fell down this precipice, and that he
was crushed to death without receiving any violence from Lycomedes.
The children of Theseus, after the death of Mnestheus, recovered
the Athenian throne, and that the memory of their father might
not be without the honours due to a hero, they brought his remains
from Scyros, and gave them a magnificent burial. They also raised
him statues and a temple, and festivals and games were publicly
instituted to commemorate the actions of a hero who had rendered
such services to the people of Athens. These festivals were still
celebrated with original solemnity in the age of Pausanias and
Plutarch, about 1200 years after the death of Theseus. The historians
disagree from the poets in their accounts about this hero, and
they all suppose that, instead of attempting to carry away the wife
of Pluto, the two friends wished to seduce a daughter of Aidoneus
king of the Molossi. This daughter, as they say, bore the name
of Proserpine, and the dog which kept the gates of the palace was
called Cerberus, and hence, perhaps, arises the fiction of the poets.
Pirithous was torn to pieces by the dog, but Theseus was confined
in prison, from whence he made his escape some time after by the
assistance of Hercules. Some authors place Theseus and his friend in
the number of the Argonauts, but they were both detained, either in
the infernal regions, or in the country of the Molossi, in the time
of Jason’s expedition to Colchis. _Plutarch_, _Lives_.――_Apollodorus_,
bk. 3.――_Hyginus_, fables 14 & 79.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 2, &c.
――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, li. 433; _Ibis_, li. 412; _Fasti_,
bk. 3, lis. 473 & 491; _Heroides._――_Diodorus_, bks. 1 & 4.――_Lucan_,
bk. 2, li. 612.――_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 21, li. 293.――_Hesiod_,
_Shield of Heracles_.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 4, ch. 5.
――_Statius_, _Thebaid_, bk. 5, li. 432――_Propertius_, bk. 3.
――_Lactantius_, on _Thebaid_ of _Statius_.――_Philostratus_,
_Imagines_, bk. 1.――_Flaccus_, bk. 2.――_Apollonius_, bk. 1.――_Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 617.――_Seneca_, _Hippolytus_.――_Statius_,
_Achilles_, bk. 1.
=Thesīdæ=, a name given to the people of Athens, because they were
governed by Theseus.
=Thesĭdes=, a patronymic applied to the children of Theseus, especially
Hippolytus. _Ovid_, _Heroides_, poem 4, li. 65.
=Thesmophŏra=, a surname of Ceres, as lawgiver, in whose honour
festivals were instituted called _Thesmophoria_. The Thesmophoria
were instituted by Triptolemus, or, according to some, by Orpheus,
or the daughters of Danaus. The greatest part of the Grecian
cities, especially Athens, observed them with great solemnity. The
worshippers were free-born women, whose husbands were obliged to
defray the expenses of the festival. They were assisted by a priest
called στεφανοφορος, because he carried a crown on his head. There
were also certain virgins who officiated, and were maintained at the
public expense. The freeborn women were dressed in white robes, to
intimate their spotless innocence; they were charged to observe the
strictest chastity during three or five days before the celebration,
and during the four days of the solemnity; and on that account it was
usual for them to strew their bed with _agnus castus_, _fleabane_,
and all such herbs as were supposed to have the power of expelling
all venereal propensities. They were also charged not to eat
pomegranates, or to wear garlands on their heads, as the whole was
to be observed with the greatest signs of seriousness and gravity,
without any display of wantonness or levity. It was, however, usual
to jest at one another, as the goddess Ceres had been made to smile
by a merry expression when she was sad and melancholy for the recent
loss of her daughter Proserpine. Three days were required for the
preparation, and upon the 11th of the month called Pyanepsion, the
women went to Eleusis, carrying books on their heads, in which the
laws which the goddess had invented were contained. On the 14th
of the same month the festival began, on the 16th day a fast was
observed, and the women sat on the ground in token of humiliation. It
was usual during the festival to offer prayers to Ceres, Proserpine,
Pluto, and Calligenia, whom some suppose to be the nurse or favourite
maid of the goddess of corn, or perhaps one of her surnames. There
were some sacrifices of a mysterious nature, and all persons whose
offence was small were released from confinement. Such as were
initiated at the festivals of Eleusis assisted at the Thesmophoria.
The place of high priest was hereditary in the family of Eumolpus.
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 10, li. 431; _Fasti_, bk. 4, li. 619.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 4.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 4, li. 58.
――_Sophocles_, _Œdipus at Colonus_.――_Clement of Alexandria_.
=Thesmothĕtæ=, a name given to the last six Archons among the Athenians,
because they took particular care to enforce the laws, and to see
justice impartially administered. They were at that time nine in
number.
=Thespia=, now _Neocorio_, a town of Bœotia, at the foot of mount
Helicon, which received its name from Thespia the daughter of Asopus,
or from Thespius. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 7.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 26.
――_Strabo_, bk. 9.
=Thespiădæ=, the sons of Thespiades. _See:_ Thespius.
=Thespiădes=, a name given to the 50 daughters of Thespius. _See:_
Thespius. _Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Seneca_, _Hercules Œtaeus_, li. 369.
――――Also a surname of the nine muses, because they were held in
great veneration in Thespia. _Flaccus_, bk. 2, li. 368.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, li. 310.
=Thespis=, a Greek poet of Attica, supposed by some to be the inventor
of tragedy, 536 years before Christ. His representations were very
rustic and imperfect. He went from town to town upon a cart, on which
was erected a temporary stage, where two actors, whose faces were
daubed with the lees of wine, entertained the audience with choral
songs, &c. Solon was a great enemy to his dramatic representations.
_Horace_, _Art of Poetry_, li. 276.――_Diogenes Laërtius._
=Thespius=, a king of Thespia, in Bœotia, son of Erechtheus, according
to some authors. He was desirous that his 50 daughters should have
children by Hercules, and therefore when that hero was at his court
he permitted him to enjoy their company. This, which, according to
some, was effected in one night, passes for the 13th and most arduous
of the labours of Hercules, as the two following lines from the
_arcana arcanissima_ indicate:
_Tertius hinc decimus labor est durissimus, unâ
Quinquaginta simul stupravit nocte puellas._
All the daughters of Thespius brought male children into the world,
and some of them twins, particularly Procris the eldest, and the
youngest. Some suppose that one of the Thespiades refused to admit
Hercules to her arms, for which the hero condemned her to pass all
her life in continual celibacy, and to become the priestess of a
temple he had at Thespia. The children of the Thespiades, called
_Thespiadæ_, went to Sardinia, where they made a settlement with
Iolaus, the friend of their father. Thespius is often confounded by
ancient authors with Thestius, though the latter lived in a different
place, and, as king of Pleuron, sent his sons to the hunting of the
Calydonian boar. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 4.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9,
chs. 26 & 27.――_Plutarch._
=Thesprōtia=, a country of Epirus, at the west of Ambracia, bounded on
the south by the sea. It is watered by the rivers Acheron and Cocytus,
which the poets, after Homer, have called the streams of hell. The
oracle of Dodona was in Thesprotia. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 14,
li. 315.――_Strabo_, bk. 7, &c.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 17.――_Lucan_,
bk. 3, li. 179.
=Thesprōtus=, a son of Lycaon king of Arcadia. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3,
ch. 8.
=Thessălia=, a country of Greece, whose boundaries have been different
at different periods. Properly speaking, Thessaly was bounded on the
south by the northern parts of Greece, or Græcia propria; east, by
the Ægean; north, by Macedonia and Mygdonia; and west, by Illyricum
and Epirus. It was generally divided into four separate provinces,
Thessaliotis, Pelasgiotis, Istiæotis, and Phthiotis, to which some
add Magnesia. It has been severally called _Æmonia_, _Pelasgicum_,
_Argos_, _Hellas_, _Argeia_, _Dryopis_, _Pelasgia_, _Pyrrhæa_,
_Æmathia_, &c. The name of Thessaly is derived from Thessalus, one of
its monarchs. Thessaly is famous for a deluge which happened there in
the age of Deucalion. Its mountains and cities are also celebrated,
such as Olympus, Pelion, Ossa, Larissa, &c. The Argonauts were partly
natives of Thessaly. The inhabitants of the country passed for a
treacherous nation, so that false money was called Thessalian coin,
and a perfidious action, Thessalian deceit. Thessaly was governed by
kings, till it became subject to the Macedonian monarchs. The cavalry
was universally esteemed, and the people were superstitious, and
addicted to the study of magic and incantations. Thessaly is now
called _Janna_. _Lucan_, bk. 6, li. 438, &c.――_Dionysius Periegetes_,
li. 219.――_Curtius_, bk. 3, ch. 2.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 3,
ch. 1.――_Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 36; bk. 10, ch. 1.――_Mela_, bk. 2,
ch. 3.――_Justin_, bk. 7, ch. 6.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.
=Thessălion=, a servant of Mentor of Sidon, in the age of Artaxerxes
Ochus, &c. _Diodorus_, bk. 16.
=Thessaliotis=, a part of Thessaly at the south of the river Peneus.
=Thessalonīca=, an ancient town of Macedonia, first called _Therma_,
and Thessalonica, after Thessalonica the wife of Cassander. According
to ancient writers it was once very powerful, and it still continues
to be a place of note. _Strabo_, bk. 7.――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus._
――_Cicero_, _Against Piso_, ch. 17.――_Livy_, bk. 29, ch. 17; bk. 40,
ch. 4; bk. 44, chs. 10 & 45.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.――――A daughter of
Philip king of Macedonia, sister to Alexander the Great. She married
Cassander, by whom she had a son called Antipater, who put her to
death. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 7.
=Thessălus=, a son of Æmon.――――A son of Hercules and Calliope daughter
of Euryphilus. Thessaly received its name from one of these.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 2.――_Dictys Cretensis_, bk. 2.――――A physician
who invited Alexander to a feast at Babylon to give him poison.――――A
physician of Lydia in the age of Nero. He gained the favours of
the great and opulent at Rome, by the meanness and servility of
his behaviour. He treated all physicians with contempt, and thought
himself superior to all his predecessors.――――A son of Cimon, who
accused Alcibiades because he imitated the mysteries of Ceres.――――A
son of Pisicratus.――――A player in the age of Alexander.
=Thestălus=, a son of Hercules and Epicaste. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2,
ch. 7.
=Theste=, a sister of Dionysius the elder, tyrant of Syracuse. She
married Philoxenus, and was greatly esteemed by the Sicilians.
=Thestia=, a town of Ætolia, between the Evenus and Achelous.
_Polybius_, bk. 5.
=Thestiădæ= and =Thestiădes=. _See:_ Thespiadæ and Thespiades.
=Thestiădæ=, the sons of Thestius, Toxeus, and Plexippus. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 8, li. 286.
=Thestias=, a patronymic of Althæa, daughter of Thestius. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 8.
=Thestis=, a fountain in the country of Cyrene.
=Thestius=, a king of Pleuron, and son of Parthaon, was father to
Toxeus, Plexippus, and Althæa.――――A king of Thespia. _See:_ Thespius.
The sons of Thestius, called _Thestiadæ_, were killed by Meleager at
the chase of the Calydonian boar. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 7.
=Thestor=, a son of Idmon and Laothoe, father to Calchas. From him
Calchas is often called _Thestorides_. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk.
12, li. 19.――_Statius_, bk. 1, _Achilleis_, li. 497.――_Apollonius_,
bk. 1, li. 239.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 1, li. 69.
=Thesty̆lis=, a country-woman mentioned in Theocritus and Virgil.
=Thetis=, one of the sea deities, daughter of Nereus and Doris, often
confounded with Tethys her grandmother. She was courted by Neptune
and Jupiter; but when the gods were informed that the son she would
bring forth must become greater than his father, their addresses
were stopped, and Peleus the son of Œacus was permitted to solicit
her hand. Thetis refused him, but the lover had the artifice to
catch her when asleep, and, by binding her strongly, he prevented
her from escaping from his grasp, in assuming different forms. When
Thetis found that she could not elude the vigilance of her lover she
consented to marry him, though much against her inclination. Their
nuptials were celebrated on mount Pelion with great pomp; all the
deities attended except the goddess of discord, who punished the
negligence of Peleus, by throwing into the midst of the assembly a
golden apple, to be given to the fairest of all the goddesses. _See:_
Discordia. Thetis became mother of several children by Peleus, but
all these she destroyed by fire in attempting to see whether they
were immortal. Achilles must have shared the same fate, if Peleus had
not snatched him from her hand as she was going to repeat the cruel
operation. She afterwards rendered him invulnerable by plunging him
in the waters of the Styx, except that part of the heel by which
she held him. As Thetis well knew the fate of her son, she attempted
to remove him from the Trojan war by concealing him in the court of
Lycomedes. This was useless. He went with the rest of the Greeks.
The mother, still anxious for his preservation, prevailed upon Vulcan
to make him a suit of armour; but when it was done, she refused the
god the favours which she had promised him. When Achilles was killed
by Paris, Thetis issued out of the sea with the Nereides to mourn
his death, and after she had collected his ashes in a golden urn,
she raised a monument to his memory, and instituted festivals in his
honour. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 244, &c.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1,
chs. 2 & 9; bk. 3, ch. 13.――_Hyginus_, fable 54.――_Homer_, _Iliad_,
bk. 1, &c.; _Odyssey_, bk. 24, li. 55.――_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 18,
&c.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 11, fable 7; bk. 12, fable 1, &c.
=Theutis=, or =Teuthis=, a prince of a town of the same name in Arcadia,
who went to the Trojan war. He quarrelled with Agamemnon at Aulis,
and when Minerva, under the form of Melas son of Ops, attempted to
pacify him, he struck the goddess and returned home. Some say that
the goddess afterwards appeared to him and showed him the wound
which he had given her in the thigh, and that he died soon after.
_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 28.
=Thia=, the mother of the sun, moon, and Aurora by Hyperion. _See:_
Thea. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 371.――――One of the Sporades, that
rose out of the sea in the age of Pliny. _Pliny_, bk. 27, ch. 12.
=Thias=, a king of Assyria.
=Thimbron=, a Lacedæmonian, chosen general to conduct a war against
Persia. He was recalled, and afterwards reappointed. He died B.C. 391.
_Diodorus_, bk. 17.――――A friend of Harpalus.
=Thiodamas=, the father of Hylas. _See:_ ♦Theodamas.
♦ ‘Theodamus’ replaced with ‘Theodamas’
=Thirmidia=, a town of Numidia, where Hiempsal was slain. _Sallust_,
_Jugurthine War_, ch. 2.
=Thisbe=, a beautiful woman of Babylon. _See:_ Pyramus.――――A town of
Bœotia, between two mountains. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 32.
=Thisias=, a Sicilian writer.
=Thiosa=, one of the three nymphs who fed Jupiter in Arcadia. She built
a town which bore her name in Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 38.
=Thistie=, a town of Bœotia. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 7.
=Thoantium=, a place on the sea coast at Rhodes.
=Thoas=, a king of Taurica Chersonesus, in the age of Orestes and
Pylades. He would have immolated these two celebrated strangers on
Diana’s altars, according to the barbarous customs of the country,
had they not been delivered by Iphigenia. _See:_ Iphigenia. According
to some, Thoas was the son of Borysthenes. _Ovid_, _ex Ponto_, bk. 3,
poem 2.――――A king of Lemnos, son of Bacchus and Ariadne the daughter
of Minos, and husband to Myrine. He had been made king of Lemnos by
Rhadamanthus. He was still alive when the Lemnian women conspired
to kill all the males in the island, but his life was spared by
his only daughter ♦Hypsipyle, in whose favour he had resigned the
crown. ♦Hypsipyle obliged her father to depart secretly from Lemnos,
to escape from the fury of the women, and he arrived safe in a
neighbouring island, which some call Chios, though many suppose
that Thoas was assassinated by the enraged females before he had
left Lemnos. Some mythologists confound the king of Lemnos with that
of Chersonesus, and suppose that they were one and the same man.
According to their opinion, Thoas was very young when he retired
from Lemnos, and after that he went to Taurica Chersonesus, where
he settled. _Flaccus_, bk. 8, li. 208.――_Hyginus_, fables 74, 120.
――_Ovid_, _Ibis_, li. 384; _Heroides_, poem 6, li. 114.――_Statius_,
_Thebaid_, bk. 6, lis. 262 & 486.――_Apollonius of Rhodes_, bk. 1, lis.
209 & 615.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9; bk. 3, ch. 6.――_Euripides_,
_Iphigeneia_.――――A son of Andremon and Gorge the daughter of Œneus.
He went to the Trojan war with 15, or rather 40 ships. _Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 2, &c.――_Dictys Cretensis_, bk. 1.――_Hyginus_, fable 97.
――――A famous huntsman. _Diodorus_, bk. 4.――――A son of Icarius.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 10.――――A son of Jason and ♦Hypsipyle queen
of Lemnos. _Statius_, _Thebaid_, bk. 6, li. 342.――――A son of Ornytion,
grandson of Sisyphus.――――A king of Assyria, father of Adonis and
Myrrha, according to _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 14.――――A man who made
himself master of Miletus.――――An officer of Ætolia, who strongly
opposed the views of the Romans, and favoured the interest of
Antiochus, B.C. 193.――――One of the friends of Æneas in Italy, killed
by Halesus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 415.
♦ ‘Hipsipyle’ replaced with ‘Hypsipyle’ for consistency
=Thoe=, one of the Nereides. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 245.――――One of
the horses of Admetus.――――One of the Amazons, &c. _Valerius Flaccus_,
bk. 6, li. 376.
=Tholus=, a town of Africa.
=Thomȳris=, called also Tamyris, Tameris, Thamyris, and Tomeris,
was queen of the Massagetæ. After her husband’s death, she marched
against Cyrus, who wished to invade her territories, cut his army to
pieces, and killed him on the spot. The barbarous queen ordered the
head of the fallen monarch to be cut off and thrown into a vessel
full of human blood, with the insulting words of _satia te sanguine
quem sitisti_. Her son had been conquered by Cyrus before she marched
herself at the head of her armies. _Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 205.
――_Justin_, bk. 1, ch. 8.――_Tibullus_, bk. 4, poem 1, li. 143.
=Thon=, an Egyptian physician, &c.
=Thonis=, a courtesan of Egypt.
=Thoon=, a Trojan chief killed by Ulysses. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 13, li. 259.――――One of the giants who made war against Jupiter.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 6.
=Thoosa=, a sea nymph, daughter of Phorcys, and mother of Polyphemus by
Neptune. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 236.――_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 1,
li. 71.
=Thoōtes=, one of the Grecian heralds.
=Thoranius=, a general of Metellus, killed by Sertorius. _Plutarch._
=Thorax=, a mountain near Magnesia in Ionia, where the grammarian
Daphitas was suspended on a cross for his abusive language against
kings and absolute princes, whence the proverb _cave a Thorace_.
_Strabo_, bk. 14.――――A Lacedæmonian officer who served under Lysander,
and was put to death by the Ephori. _Plutarch_, _Lysander_.――――A man
of Larissa, who paid much attention to the dead body of Antigonus, &c.
_Plutarch_, _Lysander_, &c.
=Thoria lex=, _agraria_, by Spurius Thorius the tribune. It ordained
that no person should pay any rent for the land which he possessed.
It also made some regulations about grazing and pastures. _Cicero_,
_Brutus_.
=Thornax=, a mountain of Argolis. It received its name from Thornax,
a nymph who became mother of Buphagus by Japetus. The mountain was
afterwards called _Coccygia_, because Jupiter changed himself there
into a cuckoo. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 27.
=Thorsus=, a river of Sardinia. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 17.
=Thoth=, an Egyptian deity, the same as Mercury.
=Thous=, a Trojan chief, &c.――――One of Actæon’s dogs.
=Thrāce=, a daughter of Titan.――――A name of Thrace. _See:_ Thracia.
=Thrāces=, the inhabitants of Thrace. _See:_ Thracia.
=Thrācia=, a large country of Europe, at the south of Scythia, bounded
by mount Hæmus. It had the Ægean sea on the south, on the west
Macedonia and the river Strymon, and on the east the Euxine sea, the
Propontis, and the Hellespont. Its northern boundaries extended as
far as the Ister, according to Pliny and others. The Thracians were
looked upon as a cruel and barbarous nation; they were naturally
brave and warlike, addicted to drinking and venereal pleasures, and
they sacrificed without the smallest humanity their enemies on the
altars of their gods. Their government was originally monarchical,
and divided among a number of independent princes. Thrace is barren
as to its soil. It received its name from Thrax the son of Mars, the
chief deity of the country. The first inhabitants lived upon plunder,
and on the milk and flesh of sheep. It forms now the province of
_Romania_. _Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 99; bk. 5, ch. 3.――_Strabo_,
bk. 1, &c.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, &c.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 2, &c.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 29, &c.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 11,
li. 92; bk. 13, li. 565, &c.――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Alcibiades_, ch. 11.
=Thracidæ=, an illustrious family at Delphi, destroyed by Philomelus
because they opposed his views. _Diodorus_, bk. 16.
=Thracis=, a town of Phocis. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 3.
=Thrăseas=, or =Thrasius=, a soothsayer. _See:_ Thrasius.――――Pætus,
a stoic philosopher of Patavium, in the age of Nero, famous for his
independence and generous sentiments. He died A.D. 66. _Juvenal_,
satire 5, li. 36.――_Martial_, bk. 1, ltr. 19.――_Tacitus_, _Annals_,
bk. 15, ch. 16.
=Thrasideus=, succeeded his father Theron as tyrant of Agrigentum.
He was conquered by Hiero, and soon after put to death. _Diodorus_,
bk. 11.
=Thrasimenus.= _See:_ Thrasymenus.
=Thrasius=, a general of a mercenary band in Sicily, who raised a
sedition against Timoleon. _Diodorus_, bk. 16.――――A spendthrift at
Rome, &c. _Horace_, bk. 2, satire 2, li. 99.
=Thraso=, a painter. _Strabo_, bk. 14.――――A favourite of Hieronymus,
who espoused the interest of the Romans. He was put to death by the
tyrant.――――The character of a captain in Terence.
=Thrasybūlus=, a famous general of Athens, who began the expulsion
of the 30 tyrants of his country, though he was only assisted by 30
of his friends. His efforts were attended with success, B.C. 401,
and the only reward he received for this patriotic action was a
crown made with two twigs of an olive branch; a proof of his own
disinterestedness and of the virtues of his countrymen. The Athenians
employed a man whose abilities and humanity were so ♦conspicuous,
and Thrasybulus was sent with a powerful fleet to recover their
lost power in the Ægean, and on the coast of Asia. After he had
gained many advantages, this great man was killed in his camp by the
inhabitants of Aspendus, whom his soldiers had plundered without his
knowledge, B.C. 391. _Diodorus_, bk. 14.――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Lives._
――_Cicero._――_Philostratus._――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 4, ch. 1.――――A
tyrant of Miletus, B.C. 634.――――A soothsayer descended from Apollo.
_Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 2.――――A son of Gelon, banished from Syracuse,
of which he was the tyrant, B.C. 466.――――An Athenian in the army of
the Persians, who supported the siege of Halicarnassus.
♦ ‘conspicious’ replaced with ‘conspicuous’
=Thrasydæus=, a king of Thessaly, &c.
=Thrasyllus=, a man of Attica, so disordered in his mind that he
believed all the ships which entered the Piræus to be his own. He
was cured by means of his brother, whom he liberally reproached
for depriving him of that happy illusion of mind. _Ælian_, _Varia
Historia_, bk. 4, ch. 25.――――A general of the Athenians in the age
of Alcibiades, with whom he obtained a victory over the Persians.
_Thucydides_, bk. 8.――――A Greek Pythagorean philosopher and
mathematician, who enjoyed the favours and the friendship of Augustus
and Tiberius. _Suetonius_, _Tiberius_.
=Thrasy̆măchus=, a native of Carthage, who became the pupil of Isocrates
and of Plato. Though he was a public teacher at Athens, he starved
for want of bread, and at last hanged himself. _Juvenal_, satire 7,
li. 204.――――A man who abolished democracy at Cumæ. _Aristotle_,
_Politics_, bk. 5, ch. 5.
=Thrasymēdes=, a son of Nestor king of Pylos, by Anaxibia the daughter
of Bias. He was one of the Grecian chiefs during the Trojan war.
_Hyginus_, fable 27.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 26.――――A son of
Philomelus, who carried away a daughter of Pisistratus, whom he
married. _Polyænus_, bk. 5.
=Thrăsy̆mēnus=, a lake of Italy near Perusium, celebrated for a battle
fought there between Annibal and the Romans, under Flaminius, B.C.
217. No less than 15,000 Romans were left dead on the field of battle,
and 10,000 taken prisoners, or, according to Livy, 6000, or Polybius,
15,000. The loss of Annibal was about 1500 men. About 10,000 Romans
made their escape, all covered with wounds. This lake is now called
the lake of _Perugia_. _Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 6,
li. 765.――_Plutarch._
=Threicius=, of Thrace. Orpheus is called, by way of eminence,
_Threicius Sacerdos_. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 645.
=Threissa=, an epithet applied to Harpalyce, a native of Thrace.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 310.
=Threpsippas=, a son of Hercules and Panope. _Apollodorus._
=Thriambus=, one of the surnames of Bacchus.
=Thronium=, a town of Phocis, where the Boagrius falls into the sea,
in the Sinus Malicus. _Livy_, bk. 36, ch. 20.――_Strabo_, bk. 9.
――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 7.――――Another of Thesprotia.
=Thryon=, a town of Messenia, near the Alpheus. _Strabo_, bk. 8.
――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2.
=Thryus=, a town of Peloponnesus, near Elis.
=Thūcy̆dĭdes=, a celebrated Greek historian, born at Athens. His
father’s name was Olorus, and among his ancestors he reckoned the
great Miltiades. His youth was distinguished by an eager desire
to excel in the vigorous exercises and gymnastic amusements which
called the attention of his contemporaries, and when he had reached
the years of manhood, he appeared in the Athenian armies. During
the Peloponnesian war he was commissioned by his countrymen to
relieve Amphipolis; but the quick march of Brasidas the Lacedæmonian
general defeated his operations, and Thucydides, unsuccessful in his
expedition, was banished from Athens. This happened in the eighth
year of this celebrated war, and in the place of his banishment
the general began to write an impartial history of the important
events which had happened during his administration, and which
still continued to agitate the several states of Greece. This famous
history is continued only to the 21st year of the war, and the
remaining part of the time, till the demolition of the walls
of Athens, was described by the pen of Theopompus and Xenophon.
Thucydides wrote in the Attic dialect, as possessed of more vigour,
purity, elegance, and energy. He spared neither time nor money to
procure authentic materials; and the Athenians, as well as their
enemies, furnished him with many valuable communications, which
contributed to throw great light on the different transactions of the
war. His history has been divided into eight books, the last of which
is imperfect, and supposed to have been written by his daughter.
The character of this interesting history is well known, and the
noble emulation of the writer will ever be admired, who shed tears
when he heard Hercules repeat his history of the Persian wars at the
public festivals of Greece. The historian of Halicarnassus has been
compared with the son of Olorus, but each has his peculiar excellence.
Sweetness of style, grace, and elegance of expression, may be called
the characteristics of the former, while Thucydides stands unequalled
for the fire of his descriptions, the conciseness, and, at the
same time, the strong and energetic matter of his narratives. His
relations are authentic, as he himself was interested in the events
he mentions; his impartiality is indubitable, as he nowhere betrays
the least resentment against his countrymen, and the factious
partisans of Cleon, who had banished him from Athens. Many have
blamed the historian for the injudicious distribution of his subjects;
and while, for the sake of accuracy, the whole is divided into
summers and winters, the thread of history is interrupted, the
scene continually shifted; and the reader, unable to pursue events
to the end, is transported from Persia to Peloponnesus, or from the
walls of Syracuse to the coast of Corcyra. The animated harangues
of Thucydides have been universally admired; he found a model in
Herodotus, but he greatly surpassed the original; and succeeding
historians have adopted, with success, a peculiar mode of writing
which introduces a general addressing himself to the passions and
the feelings of his armies. The history of Thucydides was so admired,
that Demosthenes, to perfect himself as an orator, transcribed it
eight different times, and read it with such attention, that he
could almost repeat it by heart. Thucydides died at Athens, where
he had been recalled from his exile, in his 80th year, 391 years
before Christ. The best editions of Thucydides are those of Duker,
folio, Amsterdam, 1731; of Glasgow, 12mo, 8 vols., 1759; of Hudson,
folio, Oxford, 1796, and the 8vo of Zweibrücken, 1788. _Cicero_,
_On Oratory_, &c.――_Diodorus_, bk. 12.――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_,
_Thucydides_.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 12, ch. 50.
――_Quintilian._――――A son of Milesias, in the age of Pericles. He
was banished for his opposition to the measures of Pericles, &c.
=Thuisto=, one of the deities of the Germans. _Tacitus._
=Thūle=, an island in the most northern parts of the German ocean,
to which, on account of its great distance from the continent,
the ancients gave the epithet of _ultima_. Its situation was never
accurately ascertained, hence its present name is unknown by modern
historians. Some suppose that it is the island now called Iceland or
part of Greenland, whilst others imagine it to be the Shetland isles.
_Statius_, bk. 3, _Sylvæ_, poem 5, li. 20.――_Strabo_, bk. 1.――_Mela_,
bk. 3, ch. 6.――_Tacitus_, _Agricola_, ch. 10.――_Pliny_, bk. 2, ch. 75;
bk. 4, ch. 16.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 1, li. 30.――_Juvenal_,
satire 15, li. 112.
=Thuriæ=, =Thurii=, or =Thurium=, a town of Lucania in Italy, built
by a colony of Athenians, near the ruins of Sybaris, B.C. 444. In the
number of this Athenian colony were Lysias and Herodotus. _Strabo_,
bk. 6.――_Pliny_, bk. 12, ch. 4.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 4.――――A town of
Messenia. _Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 31.――_Strabo_, bk. 8.
=Thurīnus=, a name given to Augustus when he was young, either because
some of his progenitors were natives of Thurium, or because they had
distinguished themselves there. _Suetonius_, _Augustus_, ch. 7.
=Thuscia=, a country of Italy, the same as Etruria. _See:_ Etruria.
=Thya=, a daughter of the Cephisus.――――A place near Delphi.
=Thyădes= (singular, Thyas), a name of the Bacchanals. They received
it from _Thyas_ daughter of _Castalius_, and mother of Delphus by
Apollo. She was the first woman who was priestess of the god Bacchus.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 4, li. 302.――_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 4.
=Thyămis=, a river of Epirus falling into the Ionian sea. _Pausanias_,
bk. 1, ch. 11.――_Cicero_, bk. 7, _Letters to Atticus_, ltr. 2.
=Thyana=, a town of Cappadocia. _Strabo._
=Thyatira=, a town of Lydia, now _Akisar_. _Livy_, bk. 37, chs. 8 & 44.
=Thybarni=, a people near Sardes. _Diodorus_, bk. 17.
=Thyesta=, a sister of Dionysius the tyrant of Syracuse.
=Thyestes=, a son of Pelops and Hippodamia, and grandson of Tantalus,
debauched Ærope the wife of his brother Atreus, because he refused
to take him as his colleague on the throne of Argos. This was no
sooner known, than Atreus divorced Ærope, and banished Thyestes
from his kingdom; but soon after, the more effectually to punish his
infidelity, he expressed a wish to be reconciled to him, and recalled
him to Argos. Thyestes was received by his brother at an elegant
entertainment, but he was soon informed that he had been feeding
upon the flesh of one of his own children. This Atreus took care
to communicate to him by showing him the remains of his son’s body.
This action appeared so barbarous, that, according to the ancient
mythologists, the sun changed his usual course, not to be a spectator
of so bloody a scene. Thyestes escaped from his brother, and fled to
Epirus. Some time after he met his daughter Pelopea in a grove sacred
to Minerva, and he offered her violence without knowing who she was.
This incest, however, according to some, was intentionally committed
by the father, as he had been told by an oracle, that the injuries he
had received from Atreus would be avenged by a son born from himself
and Pelopea. The daughter, pregnant by her father, was seen by her
uncle Atreus and married, and some time after she brought into the
world a son, whom she exposed in the woods. The life of the child
was preserved by goats; he was called Ægysthus, and presented to his
mother, and educated in the family of Atreus. When grown to years
of maturity, the mother gave her son Ægysthus a sword, which she
had taken from her unknown ravisher in the grove of Minerva, with
hopes of discovering who he was. Meantime Atreus, intent to punish
his brother, sent Agamemnon and Menelaus to pursue him, and when
at last they found him, he was dragged to Argos, and thrown into a
close prison. Ægysthus was sent to murder Thyestes, but the father
recollected the sword, which was raised to stab him, and a few
questions convinced him that his assassin was his own son. Pelopea
was present at this discovery, and when she found that she had
committed incest with her father, she asked Ægysthus to examine
the sword, and immediately plunged it into her own breast. Ægysthus
rushed from the prison to Atreus, with the bloody weapon, and
murdered him near an altar, as he wished to offer thanks to the gods
on the supposed death of Thyestes. At the death of Atreus, Thyestes
was placed on his brother’s throne by Ægysthus, from which he was
soon after driven by Agamemnon and Menelaus. He retired from Argos,
and was banished into the island of Cythera by Agamemnon, where he
died. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 4.――_Sophocles_, _Ajax_.――_Hyginus_,
fable 86, &c.――_Ovid_, _Ibis_, li. 359.――_Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 544;
bk. 7, li. 451.――_Seneca_, _Thyestes_.
=Thymbra=, a small town of Lydia near Sardes, celebrated for a battle
which was fought there between Cyrus and Crœsus, in which the latter
was defeated. The troops of Cyrus amounted to 196,000 men, besides
chariots, and those of Crœsus were twice as numerous.――――A plain
in Troas, through which a small river, called Thymbrius, falls in
its course to the Scamander. Apollo had there a temple, and from
thence he is called _Thymbræus_. Achilles was killed there by Paris,
according to some. _Strabo_, bk. 13.――_Statius_, bk. 4, _Sylvæ_,
poem 7, li. 22.――_Dictys Cretensis_, bk. 2, ch. 52; bk. 2, ch. 1.
=Thymbræus=, a surname of Apollo. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 4, li. 323;
_Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 85. _See:_ Thymbra.
=Thymbris=, a concubine of Jupiter, said to be mother of Pan.
_Apollodorus._――――A fountain and river of Sicily. _Theocritus_,
poem 1, li. 100.
=Thymbron.= _See:_ Thimbron.
=Thymĕle=, a celebrated female dancer, favoured by Domitian. _Juvenal_,
satire 1, li. 36.――_Statius_, bk. 6, li. 36.
=Thymiathis=, a river of Epirus. _Strabo_, bk. 7.
=Thymochăres=, an Athenian defeated in a battle by the Lacedæmonians.
=Thymœtes=, a king of Athens, son of Oxinthas, the last of the
descendants of Theseus, who reigned at Athens. He was deposed because
he refused to accept a challenge sent by Xanthus king of Bœotia, and
was succeeded by a Messenian, B.C. 1128, who repaired the honour of
Athens by fighting the Bœotian king. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 18.――――A
Trojan prince, whose wife and son were put to death by order of Priam.
It was to revenge the king’s cruelty that he persuaded his countrymen
to bring the wooden horse within their city. He was son of Laomedon,
according to some. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 2, li. 32.――_Dictys
Cretensis_, bk. 4, ch. 4.――――A son of Hicetaon, who accompanied Æneas
into Italy, and was killed by Turnus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10,
li. 123; bk. 12, li. 364.
=Thyni=, or =Bythyni=, a people of Bithynia, hence the word _Thyna merx_
applied to their commodities. _Horace_, bk. 3, ode 7, li. 3.――_Pliny_,
bk. 4, ch. 11.
=Thyodămas.= _See:_ ♦Theodamas.
♦ ‘Theodamus’ replaced with ‘Theodamas’
=Thyōne=, a name given to Semele after she had been presented with
immortality by her son Bacchus. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 5.
=Thyōneus=, a surname of Bacchus from his mother Semele, who was called
_Thyone_. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 5.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ode 17,
li. 23.――_Ovid_, bk. 4, _Metamorphoses_, li. 13.
=Thyotes=, a priest of the Cabiri, in Samothrace. _Flaccus_, bk. 2,
li. 438.
=Thyre=, a town of the Messenians, famous for a battle fought there
between the Argives and the Lacedæmonians. _Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 82.
――_Statius_, _Thebaid_, bk. 4, li. 48.
=Thyrea=, an island on the coast of Peloponnesus, near Hermione.
_Herodotus_, bk. 6, ch. 76.
=Thyreum=, a town of Acarnania, whose inhabitants are called
_Thyrienses_. _Livy_, bk. 36, ch. 11; bk. 38, ch. 9.
=Thyreus=, a son of Lycaon king of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 3.
――――A son of Œneus king of Calydon. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 8.
=Thyrĭdes=, three small islands at the point of Tænarus. _Pliny_, bk. 4,
ch. 12.
=Thyrsagĕtæ=, a people of Sarmatia, who live upon hunting. _Pliny_,
bk. 4, ch. 12.
=Thyrsus=, a river of Sardinia, now _Oristagni_.
=Thysos=, a town near mount Athos.
=Thyus=, a satrap of Paphlagonia, who revolted from Artaxerxes, and was
seized by Datames. _Cornelius Nepos_, _Datames_.
=Tiasa=, a daughter of the Eurotas, who gave her name to a river in
Laconia. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 18.
=Tibarēni=, a people of Cappadocia, on the borders of the Thermodon.
――――A people of Pontus. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 20.
=Tiberias=, a town of Galilee, built by Herod, near a lake of the same
name, and called after Tiberius. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 16.――_Josephus_,
_Antiquities_, bk. 18, ch. 3.
=Tiberīnus=, son of Capetus, and king of Alba, was drowned in the river
Albula, which on that account assumed the name of _Tiberis_, of which
he became the protecting god. _Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 3.――_Cicero_, _de
Natura Deorum_, bk. 2, ch. 20.――_Varro_, _de Lingua Latina_, bk. 4,
ch. 5, &c.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 2, li. 389; bk. 4, li. 47.
=Tibĕris=, =Tyberis=, =Tiber=, or =Tibris=, a river of Italy on whose
banks the city of Rome was built. It was originally called _Albula_,
from the whiteness of its waters, and afterwards Tiberis, when
Tiberinus king of Alba had been drowned there. It was also named
_Tyrrhenus_, because it watered Etruria, and _Lydius_, because the
inhabitants of the neighbourhood were supposed to be of Lydian origin.
The Tiber rises in the Apennines, and falls into the Tyrrhene sea, 16
miles below Rome, after dividing Latium from Etruria. _Ovid_, _Fasti_,
bk. 4, lis. 47, 329, &c.; bk. 5, li. 641; _Ibis_, li. 514.――_Lucan_,
bk. 1, li. 381, &c.――_Varro_, _de Lingua Latina_, bk. 4, ch. 5.
――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 30.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ode 2, li. 13.
――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 4.――_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 3.
=Tibērius Claudius Drusus Nero=, a Roman emperor after the death
of Augustus, was descended from the family of the Claudii. In his
early years he commanded popularity by entertaining the populace
with magnificent shows and fights of gladiators, and he gained some
applause in the funeral oration which he pronounced over his father,
though only nine years old. His first appearance in the Roman armies
was under Augustus, in the war against the Cantabri; and afterwards,
in the capacity of general, he obtained victories in different parts
of the empire, and was rewarded with a triumph. Yet, in the midst
of his glory, Tiberius fell under the displeasure of Augustus, and
retired to Rhodes, where he continued for seven years as an exile,
till, by the influence of his mother Livia with the emperor, he
was recalled. His return to Rome was the more glorious; he had the
command of the Roman armies in Illyricum, Pannonia, and Dalmatia,
and seemed to divide the sovereign power with Augustus. At the death
of this celebrated emperor, Tiberius, who had been adopted, assumed
the reins of government; and while with dissimulation and affected
modesty he wished to decline the dangerous office, he found time to
try the fidelity of his friends, and to make the greatest part of
the Romans believe that he was invested with the purple, not from
his own choice, but by the recommendation of Augustus, and the urgent
entreaties of the Roman senate. The beginning of his reign seemed to
promise tranquillity to the world. Tiberius was a watchful guardian
of the public peace; he was the friend of justice, and never assumed
the sounding titles which must disgust a free nation, but he was
satisfied to say of himself that he was the master of his slaves,
the general of his soldiers, and the father of the citizens of Rome.
That seeming moderation, however, which was but the fruit of the
deepest policy, soon disappeared, and Tiberius was viewed in his real
character. His ingratitude to his mother Livia, to whose intrigues
he was indebted for the purple, his cruelty to his wife Julia, and
his tyrannical oppression and murder of many noble senators, rendered
him odious to the people, and suspected even by his most intimate
favourites. The armies mutinied in Pannonia and Germany, but the
tumults were silenced by the prudence of the generals and the
fidelity of the officers, and the factious demagogues were abandoned
to their condign punishment. This acted as a check upon Tiberius in
Rome; he knew from thence, as his successors experienced, that his
power was precarious, and his very existence in perpetual danger.
He continued as he had begun, to pay the greatest deference to the
senate; all libels against him he disregarded, and he observed that,
in a free city, the thoughts and the tongue of every man should be
free. The taxes were gradually lessened, and luxury restrained by
the salutary regulations, as well as by the prevailing example and
frugality of the emperor. While Rome exhibited a scene of peace
and public tranquillity, the barbarians were severally defeated on
the borders of the empire, and Tiberius gained new honours, by the
activity and valour of Germanicus and his other faithful lieutenants.
Yet the triumphs of Germanicus were beheld with jealousy. Tiberius
dreaded his power, he was envious of his popularity, and the death of
that celebrated general in Antioch was, as some suppose, accelerated
by poison, and the secret resentment of the emperor. Not only his
relations and friends, but the great and opulent, were sacrificed
to his ambition, cruelty, and avarice; and there was scarce in Rome
one single family that did not reproach Tiberius for the loss of a
brother, a father, or a husband. He at last retired to the island of
Capreæ, on the coast of Campania, where he buried himself in unlawful
pleasures. The care of the empire was entrusted to favourites, among
whom Sejanus for a while shone with uncommon splendour. In this
solitary retreat the emperor proposed rewards to such as invented
new pleasures, or could produce fresh luxuries. He forgot his age,
as well as his dignity, and disgraced himself by the most unnatural
vices and enormous indulgencies, which can draw a blush even upon the
countenance of the most debauched and abandoned. While the emperor
was lost to himself and the world, the provinces were harassed on
every side by the barbarians, and Tiberius found himself insulted
by those enemies whom hitherto he had seen fall prostrate at his
feet with every mark of submissive adulation. At last, grown weak
and helpless through infirmities, he thought of his approaching
dissolution; and as he well knew that Rome could not exist without
a head, he nominated, as his successor, Caius Caligula. Many might
inquire, why a youth naturally so vicious and abandoned as Caius was
chosen to be the master of an extensive empire; but Tiberius wished
his own cruelties to be forgotten in the barbarities which might be
displayed in the reign of his successor, whose natural propensities
he had well defined, in saying of Caligula that he bred a serpent for
the Roman people, and a Phaeton for the rest of the empire. Tiberius
died at Misenum the 16th of March, A.D. 37, in the 78th year of his
age, after a reign of 22 years, six months, and 26 days. Caligula was
accused of having hastened his end by suffocating him. The joy was
universal when his death was known; and the people of Rome, in the
midst of sorrow, had a moment to rejoice, heedless of the calamities
which awaited them in the succeeding reigns. The body of Tiberius was
conveyed to Rome, and burnt with great solemnity. A funeral oration
was pronounced by Caligula, who seemed to forget his benefactor while
he expatiated on the praises of Augustus, Germanicus, and his own.
The character of Tiberius has been examined with particular attention
by historians, and his reign is the subject of the most perfect
and elegant of all the compositions of Tacitus. When a private man,
Tiberius was universally esteemed; when he had no superior, he was
proud, arrogant, jealous, and revengeful. If he found his military
operations conducted by a warlike general, he affected moderation and
virtue; but when he got rid of the powerful influence of a favourite,
he was tyrannical and dissolute. If, as some observe, he had lived
in the times of the Roman republic, he might have been as conspicuous
as his great ancestors; but the sovereign power lodged in his hands,
rendered him vicious and oppressive. Yet, though he encouraged
informers and favoured flattery, he blushed at the mean servilities
of the senate, and derided the adulation of his courtiers, who
approached him, he said, as if they approached a savage elephant.
He was a patron of learning; he was an eloquent and ready speaker,
and dedicated some part of his time to study. He wrote a lyric
poem, entitled, “A Complaint on the death of Lucius Cæsar,” as also
some Greek pieces in imitation of some of his favourite authors. He
avoided all improper expressions, and all foreign words he totally
wished to banish from the Latin tongue. As instances of his humanity,
it has been recorded that he was uncommonly liberal to the people of
Asia Minor, whose cities had been destroyed by a violent earthquake,
A.D. 17. One of his officers wished him to increase the taxes. “No,”
said Tiberius; “a good shepherd must shear, not flay, his sheep.” The
senators wished to call the month of November, in which he was born,
by his name, in imitation of Julius Cæsar and Augustus, in the months
of July and August; but this he refused, saying, “What will you do,
conscript fathers, if you have thirteen Cæsars?” Like the rest of
the emperors, he received divine honours after death, and even during
his life. It has been wittily observed by Seneca, that he never was
intoxicated but once all his life, for he continued in a perpetual
state of intoxication from the time he gave himself to drinking till
the last moment of his life. _Suetonius_, _Lives_, &c.――_Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 6, &c.――_Dio Cassius._――――A friend of Julius Cæsar,
whom he accompanied in the war of Alexandria. Tiberius forgot the
favours he had received from his friend; and when he was assassinated,
he wished all his murderers to be publicly rewarded.――――One of the
Gracchi. _See:_ Gracchus.――――Sempronius, a son of Drusus and Livia
the sister of Germanicus, put to death by Caligula.――――A son of
Brutus, put to death by his father, because he had conspired with
other young noblemen to restore Tarquin to his throne.――――A Thracian
made emperor of Rome in the latter ages of the empire.
=Tibēsis=, a river of Scythia, flowing from mount Hæmus into the Ister.
_Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 49.
=Tibiscus=, now _Teisse_, a river of Dacia, with a town of the same
name, now _Temeswar_. It falls into the Danube.
=Tibris=. _See:_ Tiberis.
=Tibŭla=, a town of Sardinia, now _Lango Sardo_.
=Tibullus Aulus Albius=, a Roman knight celebrated for his poetical
compositions. He followed Messala Corvinus into the island of Corcyra,
but he was soon dissatisfied with the toils of war, and retired
to Rome, where he gave himself up to literary ease, and to all the
effeminate indolence of an Italian climate. His first composition
was to celebrate the virtues of his friend Messala; but his more
favourite study was writing love verses, in praise of his mistresses
Delia and Plautia, of Nemesis and Neæra, and in these elegant
effusions he showed himself the most correct of the Roman poets. As
he had espoused the cause of Brutus, he lost his possessions when the
soldiers of the triumvirate were rewarded with lands; but he might
have recovered them if he had condescended, like Virgil, to make
his court to Augustus. Four books of elegies are the only remaining
pieces of his composition. They are uncommonly elegant and beautiful,
and possessed with so much grace and purity of sentiment, that the
writer is deservedly ranked as the prince of elegiac poets. Tibullus
was intimate with the literary men of his age, and for some time
he had a poetical contest with Horace, in gaining the favours of an
admired courtesan. Ovid has written a beautiful elegy on the death of
his friend. The poems of Tibullus are generally published with those
of Propertius and Catullus, of which the best editions are that of
Vulpius, Patavii, 1737, 1749, 1755; that of Barbou, 12mo, Paris, 1755;
and that by Heyne, 8vo, Lipscomb, 1776. _Ovid_, bk. 3, _Amores_, poem
9; _Tristia_, bk. 2, li. 487.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ltr. 4; bk. 1, ode 33,
li. 1.――_Quintilian_, bk. 10, ch. 1.
=Tibur=, an ancient town of the Sabines, about 20 miles north of
Rome, built, as some say, by Tiburtus the son of Amphiaraus. It was
watered by the Anio, and Hercules was the chief deity of the place,
from which circumstance it has been called _Herculei muri_. In the
neighbourhood, the Romans, on account of the salubrity of the air,
had their several villas where they retired; and there also Horace
had his favourite country seat, though some place it nine miles
higher. _Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Cicero_, bk. 2, _Orations_, ch. 65.
――_Suetonius_, _Caligula_, ch. 21.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 630.
――_Horace_, bk. 3, ode 4, &c.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 6, li. 61, &c.
=Lucius Tiburtius=, a centurion in Cæsar’s army, wounded by Pompey’s
soldiers.
=Tiburtus=, the founder of Tibur, often called _Tiburtia mænia_. He was
one of the sons of Amphiaraus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 670.
=Tichis=, now _Tech_, a river of Spain, falling into the Mediterranean.
=Tichius=, a name given to the top of mount Œta. _Livy_, bk. 36, ch. 16.
=Ticĭda=, a Roman poet a few years before the age of Cicero, who wrote
epigrams, and praised his mistress Metella under the fictitious name
of Petilla. _Ovid_, _Tristia_, bk. 2, li. 433.
=Ticīnus=, now _Tesino_, a river near _Ticinum_, a small town of Italy,
where the Romans were defeated by Annibal. The town of Ticinum was
also called _Pavia_. The Ticinus falls into the Po. _Strabo_, bk. 5.
――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 4, li. 81.
=Tidius=, a man who joined Pompey, &c.
=Tiessa=, a river of Laconia, falling into the Eurotas. _Pausanias_,
bk. 3, ch. 18.
=Tifāta=, a mountain of Campania, near Capua. _Statius_, _Sylvæ_, bk. 4.
=Tifernum=, a name common to three towns of Italy. One of them, for
distinction’s sake, is called _Metaurense_, near the Metaurus,
in Umbria; the other, _Tiberinum_, on the Tiber; and the third,
_Samniticum_, in the country of the Sabines. _Livy_, bk. 10, ch. 14.
――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 14.――_Pliny_, Sect. 4, ltr. 1.
=Tifernus=, a mountain and river in the country of the Samnites.
_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 11.――_Livy_, bk. 10, ch. 30.――_Mela_, bk. 3,
ch. 4.
=Tigasis=, a son of Hercules.
=Tigellīnus=, a Roman celebrated for his intrigues and perfidy
in the court of Nero. He was appointed judge at the trial of the
conspirators who had leagued against Nero, for which he was liberally
rewarded with triumphal honours. He afterwards betrayed the emperor,
and was ordered to destroy himself, 68 A.D. _Tacitus_, _Histories_,
bk. 1, ch. 72.――_Plutarch._――_Juvenal_, satire 1.
=Tigellius=, a native of Sardinia, who became the favourite of Julius
Cæsar, of Cleopatra and Augustus, by his mimicry and facetiousness.
He was celebrated for the melody of his voice, yet he was of a mean
and ungenerous disposition, and of unpleasing manners, as _Horace_,
bk. 1, satire 2, li. 3 _et seq._ insinuates.
=Tigrānes=, a king of Armenia, who made himself master of Assyria and
Cappadocia. He married Cleopatra the daughter of Mithridates, and by
the advice of his father-in-law, he declared war against the Romans.
He despised these distant enemies, and even ordered the head of the
messenger to be cut off who first told him that the Roman general
was boldly advancing towards his capital. His pride, however, was
soon abated, and though he ordered the Roman consul Lucullus to be
brought alive into his presence, he fled with precipitation from his
capital, and was soon after defeated near mount Taurus. This totally
disheartened him; he refused to receive Mithridates into his palace,
and even set a price upon his head. His mean submission to Pompey,
the successor of Lucullus in Asia, and a bribe of 60,000 talents,
insured him on his throne, and he received a garrison in his capital,
and continued at peace with the Romans. His second son of the same
name revolted against him, and attempted to dethrone him with the
assistance of the king of Parthia, whose daughter he had married.
This did not succeed, and the son had recourse to the Romans, by whom
he was put in possession of Sophene, while the father remained quiet
on the throne of Armenia. The son was afterwards sent in chains to
Rome, for his insolence to Pompey. _Cicero_, _On Pompey’s Command_.
――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 5, ch. 1.――_Paterculus_, bk. 2, chs. 33 &
37.――_Justin_, bk. 40, chs. 1 & 2.――_Plutarch_, _Lucullus_, _Pompey_,
&c.――――A king of Armenia in the reign of Tiberius. He was put to
death. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 6, ch. 40.――――One of the royal
family of the Cappadocians, chosen by Tiberius to ascend the throne
of Armenia.――――A general of the Medes.――――A man appointed king of
Armenia by Nero. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 14, ch. 26.――――A prince of
Armenia in the age of Theodosius.
=Tigranocerta=, now _Sered_, the capital of Armenia, was built by
Tigranes, during the Mithridatic war, on a hill between the springs
of the Tigris and mount Taurus. Lucullus, during the Mithridatic war,
took it with difficulty, and found in it immense riches, and no less
than 8000 talents in ready money. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 15, ch. 4.
――_Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 9.
=Tigres=, a river of Peloponnesus, called also _Harpys_, from a person
of the same name drowned in it. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9.
=Tigris=, now _Basilensa_, a river of Asia, rising on mount Niphates
in Armenia, and falling into the Persian gulf. It is the eastern
boundary of Mesopotamia. The Tigris now falls into the Euphrates,
though in the age of Pliny the two separate channels of these rivers
could be easily traced. _Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 27.――_Justin_, bk. 42,
ch. 3.――_Lucan_, bk. 3, li. 256.
=Tigurīni=, a warlike people among the Helvetii, now forming the modern
cantons of _Switz_, _Zurich_, _Schaffhausen_, and _St. Gall_. Their
capital was Tigurnum. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_.
=Tilatæi=, a people of Thrace. _Thucydides_, bk. 2.
=Tilavemptus=, a river of Italy falling into the Adriatic at the west
of Aquileia.
=Tilfossius=, a mountain of Bœotia.――――Also a fountain at the tomb of
Tiresias. _Pausanias_, _Bœotia_, ch. 33.
=Tilium=, a town of Sardinia, now _Argentera_.
=Tillius Cimber.= _See:_ Tullius.
=Tilox=, a north-west cape of Corsica.
=Tilphussus=, a mountain of Bœotia.
=Timachus=, a river of Mœsia falling into the Danube. The neighbouring
people were called Timachi. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 26.
=Timæ=, the wife of Agis king of Sparta, was debauched by Alcibiades,
by whom she had a son. This child was rejected in the succession
to the throne, though Agis, on his death-bed, declared him to be
legitimate. _Plutarch_, _Agesilaus_.
=Timæus=, a friend of Alexander, who came to his assistance when he
was alone surrounded by the Oxydracæ. He was killed in the encounter.
_Curtius_, bk. 9, ch. 5.――――An historian of Sicily, who flourished
about 262 B.C., and died in the 96th year of his age. His father’s
name was Andromachus. He was banished from Sicily by Agathocles.
His general history of Sicily, and that of the wars of Pyrrhus,
were in general esteem, and his authority was great, except when he
treated of Agathocles. All his compositions are lost. _Plutarch_,
_Nicias_.――_Cicero_, _On Oratory_.――_Diodorus_, bk. 5.――_Cornelius
Nepos._――――A writer who published some treatises concerning ancient
philosophers. _Diogenes Laërtius_, _Empedocles_.――――A Pythagorean
philosopher, born at Locris. He followed the doctrines of the founder
of the metempsychosis, but in some parts of his system of the world
he differed from him. He wrote a treatise on the nature and the soul
of the world, in the Doric dialect, still extant. _Plato_, _Timæus_.
――_Plutarch._――――An Athenian in the age of Alcibiades. _Plutarch._
――――A sophist, who wrote a book called _Lexicon vocum Platonicarum_.
=Timagĕnes=, a Greek historian of Alexandria, 54 B.C., brought to
Rome by Gabinius, and sold as a slave to the son of Sylla. His
great abilities procured him his liberty, and gained the favours
of the great, and of Augustus. The emperor discarded him for his
impertinence; and Timagenes, to revenge himself on his patron,
burnt the interesting history which he had composed of his reign.
_Plutarch._――_Horace_, bk. 1, ltr. 19, li. 15.――_Quintilian._――――An
historian and rhetorician of Miletus.――――A man who wrote an account
of the life of Alexander. _Curtius_, bk. 9, ch. 5.――――A general,
killed at Cheronæa.
=Timagŏras=, an Athenian, capitally punished for paying homage to
Darius, according to the Persian manner of kneeling on the ground,
when he was sent to Persia as ambassador. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 6,
ch. 3.――_Suidas._――――Another. _See:_ Meles.
=Timandra=, a daughter of Leda, sister to Helen. She married Echemus of
Arcadi. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 5.――――A mistress of Alcibiades.
=Timandrĭdes=, a Spartan celebrated for his virtues. _Ælian_, _Varia
Historia_, bk. 14, ch. 32.
=Timanthes=, a painter of Sicyon, in the reign of Philip the father of
Alexander the Great. In his celebrated painting of Iphigenia going
to be immolated, he represented all the attendants overwhelmed with
grief; but his superior genius, by covering the face of Agamemnon,
left to the conception of the imagination the deep sorrows of the
father. He obtained a prize, for which the celebrated Parrhasius was
a competitor. This was in painting an Ajax with all the fury which
his disappointments could occasion, when deprived of the arms of
Achilles. _Cicero_, _On Oratory_.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 8, ch. 11.
――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 9, ch. 11.――――An athlete of Cleone,
who burnt himself when he perceived that his strength began to fail.
_Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 8.
=Timarchus=, a philosopher of Alexandria, intimate with Lamprocles
the disciple of Socrates. _Diogenes Laërtius_.――――A rhetorician, who
hung himself when accused of licentiousness by Æschines.――――A Cretan,
accused before Nero of oppression. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 15,
ch. 20.――――An officer in Ætolia, who burnt his ships to prevent
the flight of his companions, and to ensure himself the victory.
_Polyænus_, bk. 5.――――A king of Salamis.――――A tyrant of Miletus,
in the age of Antiochus, &c.
=Timareta=, a priestess of the oracle of Dodona. _Herodotus_, bk. 2,
ch. 94.
=Timasion=, one of the leaders of the 10,000 Greeks, &c.
=Timasitheus=, a prince of Lipara, who obliged a number of pirates
to spare some Romans who were going to make an offering of the
spoils of Veii to the god of Delphi. The Roman senate rewarded him
very liberally, and 137 years after, when the Carthaginians were
dispossessed of Lipara, the same generosity was nobly extended to
his descendants in the island. _Diodorus_, bk. 14.――_Plutarch_,
_Camillus_.
=Tĭmāvus=, a broad river of Italy rising from a mountain, and, after
running a short space, falling by seven mouths, or, according to
some, by one, into the Adriatic sea. There are, at the mouth of the
Timavus, small islands with hot springs of water. _Mela_, bk. 2,
ch. 4.――_Virgil_, _Eclogues_, poem 8, li. 6; _Æneid_, bk. 1, lis. 44
& 248.――_Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Pliny_, bk. 2, ch. 103.
=Timesius=, a native of Clazomenæ, who began to build Abdera. He
was prevented by the Thracians, but honoured as a hero at Abdera.
_Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 168.
=Timochăris=, an astronomer of Alexandria, 294 B.C. _See:_ Aristillus.
=Timoclēa=, a Theban lady, sister to Theogenes, who was killed at
Cheronæa. One of Alexander’s soldiers offered her violence, after
which she led her ravisher to a well, and while he believed that
immense treasures were concealed there, Timoclea threw him into it.
Alexander commended her virtue, and forbade his soldiers to hurt the
Theban females. _Plutarch_, _Alexander_.
=Timŏcles=, two Greek poets of Athens, who wrote some theatrical pieces,
the one six, and the other 11, some verses of which are extant.
_Athenæus_, bk. 6.――――A statuary of Athens. _Pausanias_, bk. 10,
ch. 34.
=Timocrătes=, a Greek philosopher of uncommon austerity.――――A Syracusan
who married Arete when Dion had been banished into Greece by
Dionysius. He commanded the forces of the tyrant.
=Timocreon=, a comic poet of Rhodes, who obtained poetical, as well as
gymnastic, prizes at Olympia. He lived about 476 years before Christ,
distinguished for his voracity, and for his resentment against
Simonides and Themistocles. The following epitaph was written on his
grave:
_Multa bibens, et multa vorans, mala denique dicens
Multis, hic jaceo Timocreon Rhodius._
=Timodēmus=, the father of Timoleon.
=Timolāus=, a Spartan, intimate with Philopœmen, &c.――――A son of the
celebrated Zenobia.――――A general of Alexander, put to death by the
Thebans.
=Timoleon=, a celebrated Corinthian, son of Timodemus and Demariste.
He was such an enemy to tyranny, that he did not hesitate to
murder his own brother Timophanes, when he attempted, against his
representations, to make himself absolute in Corinth. This was viewed
with pleasure by the friends of liberty; but the mother of Timoleon
conceived the most inveterate aversion for her son, and for ever
banished him from her sight. This proved painful to Timoleon; a
settled melancholy dwelt upon his mind, and he refused to accept
of any offices in the state. When the Syracusans, oppressed with
the tyranny of Dionysius the younger, and of the Carthaginians,
had solicited the assistance of the Corinthians, all looked upon
Timoleon as a proper deliverer, but all applications would have been
disregarded, if one of the magistrates had not awakened in him the
sense of natural liberty. “Timoleon,” says he, “if you accept of the
command of this expedition, we will believe that you have killed a
tyrant; but if not, we cannot but call you your brother’s murderer.”
This had due effect, and Timoleon sailed for Syracuse in 10 ships,
accompanied by about 1000 men. The Carthaginians attempted to
oppose him, but Timoleon eluded their vigilance. Icetas, who had the
possession of the city, was defeated, and Dionysius, who despaired
of success, gave himself up into the hands of the Corinthian general.
This success gained Timoleon adherents in Sicily; many cities which
hitherto had looked upon him as an impostor, claimed his protection;
and when he was at last master of Syracuse by the total overthrow of
Icetas and of the Carthaginians, he razed the citadel which had been
the seat of tyranny, and erected on the spot a common hall. Syracuse
was almost destitute of inhabitants, and at the solicitation of
Timoleon, a Corinthian colony was sent to Sicily; the lands were
equally divided among the citizens, and the houses were sold for
1000 talents, which were appropriated to the use of the state, and
deposited in the treasury. When Syracuse was thus delivered from
tyranny, the conqueror extended his benevolence to the other states
of Sicily, and all the petty tyrants were reduced and banished from
the island. A code of salutary laws was framed for the Syracusans;
and the armies of Carthage, which had attempted again to raise
commotions in Sicily, were defeated, and peace was at last
re-established. The gratitude of the Sicilians was shown everywhere
to their deliverer. Timoleon was received with repeated applause
in the public assemblies, and though a private man, unconnected
with the government, he continued to enjoy his former influence
at Syracuse: his advice was consulted on matters of importance,
and his authority respected. He ridiculed the accusations
of malevolence, and when some informers had charged him with
oppression, he rebuked the Syracusans who were going to put
the accusers to immediate death. A remarkable instance of his
providential escape from the dagger of an assassin, has been
recorded by one of his biographers. As he was going to offer a
sacrifice to the gods after a victory, two assassins, sent by the
enemies, approached his person in disguise. The arm of one of the
assassins was already lifted up, when he was suddenly stabbed by
an unknown person, who made his escape from the camp. The other
assassin, struck at the fall of his companion, fell before Timoleon,
and confessed, in the presence of the army, the conspiracy that
had been formed against his life. The unknown assassin was in
the mean time pursued, and when he was found, he declared that he
had committed no crime in avenging the death of a beloved father,
whom the man he had stabbed had murdered in the town of Leontini.
Inquiries were made, and his confessions were found to be true.
Timoleon died at Syracuse, about 337 years before the christian era.
His body received an honourable burial, in a public place called
from him _Timoleonteum_; but the tears of a grateful nation were
more convincing proofs of the public regret, than the institution
of festivals and games yearly to be observed on the day of his
death. _Cornelius Nepos_ & _Plutarch_, _Lives_.――_Polyænus_, bk. 5,
ch. 3.――_Diodorus_, bk. 16.
=Timōlus.= _See:_ Tmolus.
=Timomăchus=, a painter of Byzantium, in the age of Sylla and Marius.
His painting of Medea murdering her children, and his Ajax, were
purchased for 80 talents by Julius Cæsar, and deposited in the temple
of Venus at Rome. _Pliny_, bk. 35, ch. 11.――――A general of Athens,
sent to assist the Thebans. _Xenophon._
=Timon=, a native of Athens, called _Misanthrope_, for his
unconquerable aversion to mankind and to all society. He was fond of
Apemantus, another Athenian whose character was similar to his own,
and he said that he had some partiality for Alcibiades, because he
was one day to be his country’s ruin. Once he went into the public
assembly, and told his countrymen that he had a fig tree on which
many had ended their life with a halter, and that as he was going
to cut it down to raise a building on the spot, he advised all such
as were inclined to destroy themselves, to hasten and go and hang
themselves in his garden. _Plutarch_, _Alcibiades_, &c.――_Lucan_,
_Timon_.――_Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 12.――――A Greek poet, son of
Timarchus, in the age of Ptolemy Philadelphus. He wrote several
dramatic pieces, all now lost, and died in the 90th year of his age.
_Diogenes Laërtius._――_Athenæus_, bks. 6 & 13.――――An athlete of Elis.
_Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 12.
=Timophănes=, a Corinthian, brother to Timoleon. He attempted to make
himself tyrant of his country, by means of the mercenary soldiers
with whom he had fought against the Argives and Cleomenes. Timoleon
wished to convince him of the impropriety of his measures, and when
he found him unmoved, he caused him to be assassinated. _Plutarch_ &
_Cornelius Nepos_, _Timoleon_.――――A man of Mitylene, celebrated for
his riches, &c.
=Timotheus=, a poet and musician of Miletus, son of Thersander or
Philopolis. He was received with hisses the first time he exhibited
as musician in the assembly of the people; and further applications
would have totally been abandoned, had not Euripides discovered his
abilities, and encouraged him to follow a profession in which he
afterwards gained so much applause. He received the immense sum of
1000 pieces of gold from the Ephesians, because he had composed a
poem in honour of Diana. He died about the 90th year of his age, two
years before the birth of Alexander the Great. There was also another
musician of Bœtia in the age of Alexander, often confounded with the
musician of Miletus. He was a great favourite of the conqueror of
Darius. _Cicero_, _de Legibus_, bk. 2, ch. 15.――_Pausanias_, bk. 3,
ch. 12.――_Plutarch_, _de Musica_, _de Fortuna_, &c.――――An Athenian
general, son of Conon. He signalized himself by his valour and
magnanimity, and showed that he was not inferior to his great
father in military prudence. He seized Corcyra, and obtained several
victories over the Thebans, but his ill success in one of his
expeditions disgusted the Athenians, and Timotheus, like the rest of
his noble predecessors, was fined a large sum of money. He retired
to Chalcis, where he died. He was so disinterested, that he never
appropriated any of the plunder to his own use, but after one of his
expeditions, he filled the treasury of Athens with 1200 talents. Some
of the ancients, to imitate his continual successes, have represented
him sleeping by the side of Fortune, while the goddess drove cities
into his net. He was intimate with Plato, at whose table he learned
temperance and moderation. _Athenæus_, bk. 10, ch. 3.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 1, ch. 29.――_Plutarch_, _Sulla_, &c.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_,
bk. 2, chs. 10 & 18; bk. 3, ch. 16.――_Cornelius Nepos._――――A Greek
statuary. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 32.――――A tyrant of Heraclea, who
murdered his father. _Diodorus_, bk. 16.――――A king of the Sapæi.
=Timoxĕnus=, a governor of Sicyon, who betrayed his trust, &c.
_Polyænus._――――A general of the Achæans.
=Tingis=, now _Tangiers_, a maritime town of Africa in Mauritania,
built by the giant Antæus. Sertorius took it, and as the tomb of the
founder was near the place, he caused it to be opened, and found in
it a skeleton six cubits long. This increased the veneration of the
people for their founder. _Plutarch_, _Sertorius_.――_Mela_, bk. 1,
ch. 5.――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 1.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 3, li. 258.
=Tinia=, a river of Umbria, now _Topino_, falling into the Clitumnus.
_Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 454.
=Tipha=, a town of Bœtia, where Hercules had a temple. _Ovid_, ltr. 6,
li. 48.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 32.
=Tiphys=, the pilot of the ship of the Argonauts, was son of Hagnius,
or, according to some, of Phorbas. He died before the Argonauts
reached Colchis, at the court of Lycus in the Propontis, and Erginus
was chosen in his place. _Orphica._――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9.
――_Apollonius._――_Valerius Flaccus._――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 32.
――_Hyginus_, fables 14 & 18.
=Tiphysa=, a daughter of Thestius. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 7.
=Tīrĕsias=, a celebrated prophet of Thebes, son of Everus and Chariclo.
He lived to a great age, which some authors have called as long as
seven generations of men, others six, and others nine, during the
time that Polydorus, Labdacus, Laius, Œdipus, and his sons sat on the
throne of Thebes. It is said that in his youth he found two serpents
in the act of copulation on mount Cyllene, and that when he had
struck them with a stick to separate them, he found himself suddenly
changed into a girl. Seven years after he found again some serpents
together in the same manner, and he recovered his original sex,
by striking them a second time with his wand. When he was a woman,
Tiresias had married, and it was from those reasons, according to
some of the ancients, that Jupiter and Juno referred to his decision,
a dispute in which the deities wished to know which of the sexes
received greater pleasure from the connubial state. Tiresias, who
could speak from actual experience, decided in favour of Jupiter,
and declared, that the pleasure which the female received was 10
times greater than that of the male. Juno, who supported a different
opinion, and gave the superiority to the male sex, punished Tiresias
by depriving him of his eyesight. But this dreadful loss was in some
measure repaired by the humanity of Jupiter, who bestowed upon him
the gift of prophecy, and permitted him to live seven times more
than the rest of men. These causes of the blindness of Tiresias,
which are supported by the authority of Ovid, Hyginus, and others,
are contradicted by Apollodorus, Callimachus, Propertius, &c., who
declare that this was inflicted upon him as a punishment, because he
had seen Minerva bathing in the fountain Hippocrene, on mount Helicon.
Chariclo, who accompanied Minerva, complained of the severity with
which her son was treated; but the goddess, who well knew that this
was the irrevocable punishment inflicted by Saturn on such mortals
as fix their eyes upon a goddess without her consent, alleviated the
misfortunes of Tiresias, by making him acquainted with futurity, and
giving him a staff which could conduct his steps with as much safety
as if he had the use of his eye-sight. During his lifetime, Tiresias
was an infallible oracle to all Greece. The generals, during the
Theban war, consulted him, and found his predictions verified. He
drew his prophecies sometimes from the flight or the language of
birds, in which he was assisted by his daughter Manto, and sometimes
he drew the manes from the infernal regions to know futurity, with
mystical ceremonies. He at last died, after drinking the waters of a
cold fountain, which froze his blood. He was buried with great pomp
by the Thebans on mount Tilphusses, and honoured as a god. His oracle
at Orchomenos was in universal esteem. Homer represents Ulysses
as going to the infernal regions to consult Tiresias concerning
his return to Ithaca. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 6.――_Theocritus_,
_Idylls_, poem 24, li. 70.――_Statius_, _Thebaid_, bk. 2, li. 96.
――_Hyginus_, fable 75.――_Aeschylus_, _Seven Against Thebes_.
――_Sophocles_, _Œdipus Tyrannus_.――_Pindar_, _Nemean_, poem 1.
――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 11.――_Plutarch_,
_Convivium Septem Sapientium_, &c.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 33.
=Tiribāses=, an officer of Artaxerxes killed by the guards for
conspiring against the king’s life, B.C. 394. _Plutarch_,
_Artaxerxes_.
=Tirida=, a town of Thrace where Diomedes lived. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 11.
=Tiridātes=, a king of Parthia, after the expulsion of Phraates by his
subjects. He was soon after deposed, and fled to Augustus in Spain.
_Horace_, bk. 1, ode 26.――――A man made king of Parthia by Tiberius,
after the death of Phraates, in opposition to Artabanus. _Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 6, &c.――――A keeper of the royal treasures at Persepolis,
who offered to surrender to Alexander the Great. _Curtius_, bk. 5,
ch. 5, &c.――――A king of Armenia, in the reign of Nero.――――A son of
Phraates, &c.
=Tiris=, a general of the Thracians, who opposed Antiochus. _Polyænus_,
bk. 4.
=Tiro Tullius=, a freedman of Cicero, greatly esteemed by his master
for his learning and good qualities. It is said that he invented
shorthand writing among the Romans. He wrote the life of Cicero and
other treatises now lost. _Cicero_, _Letters to Atticus_, &c.
=Tirynthia=, a name given to Alcmena, because she lived at Tirynthus.
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 6.
=Tirynthus=, a town of Argolis in the Peloponnesus, founded by Tyrinx
son of Argus. Hercules generally resided there, whence he is called
_Tirynthius heros_. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, chs. 16 & 25.――_Pliny_, bk. 4,
ch. 5.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 3, chs. 15 & 49.――_Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 662.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 217.
=Tisæum=, a mountain of Thessaly. _Polybius._
=Tisagŏras=, a brother of Miltiades, called also Stesagoras. _Cornelius
Nepos_, _Miltiades_.
=Tisamĕnes=, or =Tisamĕnus=, a son of Orestes and Hermione the daughter
of Menelaus, who succeeded on the throne of Argos and Lacedæmon.
The Heraclidæ entered his kingdom in the third year of his reign,
and he was obliged to retire with his family into Achaia. He was
some time after killed in a battle against the Ionians, near Helice.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 1; bk. 7, ch. 1.
――――A king of Thebes, son of Thersander and grandson of Polynices.
The Furies, who continually persecuted the house of Œdipus, permitted
him to live in tranquillity, but they tormented his son and successor
Autesion, and obliged him to retire to Doris. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch.
5; bk. 9, ch. 6.――――A native of Elis, crowned twice at the Olympic
games. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 11.
=Tisandrus=, one of the Greeks concealed with Ulysses in the wooden
horse. Some suppose him to be the same as Thersander the son of
Polynices. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 2, li. 261.
=Tisarchus=, a friend of Agathocles, by whom he was murdered, &c.
_Polyænus_, bk. 5.
=Tisdra=, a town of Africa. _Cæsar_, _African War_, ch. 76.
=Tisiarus=, a town of Africa.
=Tisias=, an ancient philosopher of Sicily, considered by some as the
inventor of rhetoric, &c. _Cicero_, _de Inventione_, bk. 2, ch. 2;
_Orations_, bk. 1, ch. 18.
=Tīsĭphŏne=, one of the Furies, daughter of Nox and Acheron, who was
the minister of divine vengeance upon mankind, and visited them with
plagues and diseases, and punished the wicked in Tartarus. She was
represented with a whip in her hand, serpents hung from her head,
and were wreathed round her arms instead of bracelets. By Juno’s
direction she attempted to prevent the landing of Io in Egypt, but
the god of the Nile repelled her, and obliged her to retire to hell.
_Statius_, _Thebaid_, bk. 1, li. 59.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 3,
li. 552; _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 555.――_Horace_, bk. 1, satire 8, li. 34.
――――A daughter of Alcmæon and Manto.
=Tisiphŏnus=, a man who conspired against Alexander tyrant of Pheræ,
and seized the sovereign power, &c. _Diodorus_, bk. 16.
=Tissa=, now _Randazzo_, a town of Sicily. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 14,
li. 268.――_Cicero_, _Against Verres_, bk. 3, ch. 38.
=Tissamĕnus.= _See:_ Tisamenus.
=Tissaphernes=, an officer of Darius.――――A satrap of Persia, commander
of the forces of Artaxerxes, at the battle of Cunaxa, against Cyrus.
It was by his valour and intrepidity that the king’s forces gained
the victory, and for this he obtained the daughter of Artaxerxes
in marriage, and all the provinces of which Cyrus was governor. His
popularity did not long continue, and the king ordered him to be put
to death when he had been conquered by Agesilaus, 395 B.C. _Cornelius
Nepos._――――An officer in the army of Cyrus, killed by Artaxerxes at
the battle of Cunaxa. _Plutarch._
=Titæa=, the mother of the Titans. She is supposed to be the same as
Thea, Rhea, Terra, &c.
=Titan=, or =Titānus=, a son of Cœlus and Terra, brother to Saturn and
Hyperion. He was the eldest of the children of Cœlus; but he gave his
brother Saturn the kingdom of the world, provided he raised no male
children. When the birth of Jupiter was concealed, Titan made war
against Saturn, and with the assistance of his brothers the Titans,
he imprisoned him till he was replaced on the throne by his son
Jupiter. This tradition is recorded by Lactantius, a christian writer,
who took it from the dramatic compositions of Ennius, now lost. None
of the ancient mythologists, such as Apollodorus, Hesiod, Hyginus,
&c., have made mention of Titan. Titan is a name applied to Saturn by
Orpheus and Lucian, to the sun by Virgil and Ovid, and to Prometheus
by Juvenal. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, li. 10.――_Juvenal_,
satire 14, li. 35.――_Diodorus_, bk. 5.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 11.
――_Orpheus_, hymn 13.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 4, li. 119.
=Titāna=, a town of Sicyonia in Peloponnesus. Titanus reigned there.
――――A man skilled in astronomy. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 11.
=Titānes=, a name given to the sons of Cœlus and Terra. They were
45 in number, according to the Egyptians. Apollodorus mentions 13,
Hyginus six, and Hesiod 20, among whom are the Titanides. The most
known of the Titans are Saturn, Hyperion, Oceanus, Japetus, Cottus,
and Briareus, to whom Horace adds Typhœus, Mimas, Porphyrion, Rhœtus,
and Enceladus, who are by other mythologists reckoned among the
giants. They were all of a gigantic stature, and with proportionable
strength. They were treated with great cruelty by Cœlus, and
confined in the bowels of the earth, till their mother pitied their
misfortunes, and armed them against their father. Saturn, with a
scythe, cut off the genitals of his father, as he was going to unite
himself to Terra, and threw them into the sea, and from the froth
sprang a new deity, called Venus; as also Alecto, Tisiphone, and
Megæra, according to Apollodorus. When Saturn succeeded his father,
he married Rhea; but he devoured all his male children, as he had
been informed by an oracle that he should be dethroned by them as
a punishment for his cruelty to his father. The wars of the Titans
against the gods are very celebrated in mythology. They are often
confounded with that of the giants; but it is to be observed, that
the war of the Titans was against Saturn, and that of the giants
against Jupiter. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 135, &c.――_Apollodorus_,
bk. 1, ch. 1.――_Aeschylus_, _Prometheus Bound_.――_Callimachus_, _Hymn
to Delos_, li. 17.――_Diodorus_, bk. 1.――_Hyginus_, preface to fables.
=Titānia=, a patronymic applied to Pyrrha, as granddaughter of Titan,
and likewise to Diana. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, li. 395;
bk. 2, &c.
=Titanīdes=, the daughters of Cœlus and Terra; reduced in number to
six, according to Orpheus. The most celebrated were Tethys, Themis,
Dione, Thea, Mnemosyne, Ops, Cybele, Vesta, Phœbe, and Rhea. _Hesiod_,
_Theogony_, li. 145, &c.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 1.
=Titānus=, a river in Peloponnesus, with a town and mountain of the
same name.
=Titaresus=, a river of Thessaly, called also Eurotas, flowing into
the Teneus, but without mingling its thick and turbid waters with
the transparent stream. From the unwholesomeness of its water,
it was considered as deriving its source from the Styx. _Lucan_,
bk. 6, li. 376.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2, li. 751.――_Strabo_, bk. 8.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 18.
=Titēnus=, a river of Colchis, falling into the Euxine sea.
_Apollonius_, bk. 4.
=Tithenidia=, a festival of Sparta, in which _nurses_, τθηναι, conveyed
male infants entrusted to their charge to the temple of Diana, where
they sacrificed young pigs. During the time of the solemnity, they
generally danced and exposed themselves in ridiculous postures; there
were also some entertainments given near the temple, where tents
were erected. Each had a separate portion allotted him, together
with a small loaf, a piece of new cheese, part of the entrails of the
victims, and figs, beans, and green vetches, instead of sweetmeats.
=Tithōnus=, a son of Laomedon king of Troy, by Strymo the daughter
of the Scamander. He was so beautiful that Aurora became enamoured
of him, and carried him away. He had by her Memnon and Æmathion.
He begged of Aurora to be immortal, and the goddess granted it; but
as he had forgotten to ask the vigour, youth, and beauty which he
then enjoyed, he soon grew old, infirm, and ♦decrepit; and as life
became insupportable to him, he prayed Aurora to remove him from the
world. As he could not die, the goddess changed him into a cicada,
or grasshopper. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 5.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_,
bk. 1, li. 447; _Æneid_, bk. 4, li. 585; bk. 8, li. 384.――_Hesiod_,
_Theogony_, li. 984.――_Diodorus_, bk. 1.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 1,
li. 461; ♠bk. 3, li. 403.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ode 28; bk. 2, ode 16.
♦ ‘discrepit’ replaced with ‘decrepit’
♠ ‘Book 9’ replaced with ‘Book 3’
=Tithorea=, one of the tops of Parnassus. _Herodotus_, bk. 8, ch. 32.
=Tithraustes=, a Persian satrap, B.C. 395, ordered to murder
Tissaphernes by Artaxerxes. He succeeded to the offices which the
slaughtered favourite enjoyed. He was defeated by the Athenians under
Cimon.――――An officer in the Persian court, &c.――――The name was common
to some of the superior officers of state in the court of Artaxerxes.
_Plutarch._――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Datames_ & _Conon_.
=Titia=, a deity among the Milesians.
=Titia lex=, _de magistratibus_, by Publius Titius the tribune, A.U.C.
710. It ordained that a triumvirate of magistrates should be invested
with consular power to preside over the republic for five years. The
persons chosen were Octavius, Antony, and Lepidus.――――Another, _de
provinciis_, which required that the provincial questors, like the
consuls and pretors, should receive their provinces by lot.
=Titiāna Flavia=, the wife of the emperor Pertinax, disgraced herself
by her debaucheries and incontinence. After the murder of her husband
she was reduced to poverty, and spent the rest of her life in an
obscure retreat.
=Titiānus Atilius=, a noble Roman put to death, A.D. 156, by the senate
for aspiring to the purple. He was the only one proscribed during the
reign of Antoninus Pius.――――A brother of Otho.
=Titii=, priests of Apollo at Rome, who observed the flight of doves,
and drew omens from it. _Varro_, _de Lingua Latina_, bk. 4, ch. 45.
――_Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 602.
=Titinius=, a tribune of the people in the first ages of the republic.
――――A friend of Cassius, who killed himself.――――One of the slaves who
revolted at Capua. He betrayed his trust to the Roman generals.
=Titius Proculus=, a Roman knight, appointed to watch Messalina.
_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 11, ch. 35.――――A tribune of the people who
enacted the Titian law.――――An orator of a very dissolute character.
――――One of Pompey’s murderers.――――One of Antony’s officers.――――A man
who foretold a victory to Sylla.――――Septimus, a poet in the Augustan
age, who distinguished himself by his lyric and tragic compositions,
now lost. _Horace_, bk. 1, ltr. 3, li. 9.
=Titormus=, a shepherd of Ætolia, called another _Hercules_, on account
of his prodigious strength. He was stronger than his contemporary,
Milo of Crotona, as he could lift on his shoulders a stone which the
Crotonian moved with difficulty. _Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 12,
ch. 22.――_Herodotus_, bk. 6, ch. 127.
=Titurius=, a friend of Julia Silana, who informed against Agrippina,
&c. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 13.――――A lieutenant of Cæsar in Gaul,
killed by Ambiorix.――_Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 5, ch. 29, &c.
=Titus Vespasianus=, son of Vespasian and Flavia Domitilla, became
known by his valour in the Roman armies, particularly at the siege
of Jerusalem. In the 79th year of the christian era, he was invested
with the imperial purple, and the Roman people had every reason to
expect in him the barbarities of a Tiberius and the debaucheries of
a Nero. While in the house of Vespasian, Titus had been distinguished
for his extravagance and incontinence; his attendants were the most
abandoned and dissolute; and it seemed that he wished to be superior
to the rest of the world in the gratification of every impure desire,
and in every unnatural vice. From such a private character, which
still might be curbed by the authority and example of a father,
what could be expected but tyranny and ♦oppression? Yet Titus became
a model of virtue, and in an age and office in which others wish
to gratify all their appetites, the emperor abandoned his usual
profligacy, he forgot his debaucheries, and Berenice, whom he had
loved with uncommon ardour, even to render himself despised by the
Roman people, was dismissed from his presence. When raised to the
throne, he thought himself bound to be the father of his people, the
guardian of virtue, and the patron of liberty; and Titus is, perhaps,
the only monarch who, when invested with uncontrollable power,
bade adieu to those vices, those luxuries and indulgencies, which
as a private man he never ceased to gratify. He was moderate in his
entertainments, and though he often refused the donations which were
due to sovereignty, no emperor was ever more generous and magnificent
than Titus. All informers were banished from his presence, and even
severely punished. A reform was made in the judicial proceedings, and
trials were no longer permitted to be postponed for years. The public
edifices were repaired, and baths were erected for the convenience
of the people. Spectacles were exhibited, and the Roman populace were
gratified with the sight of a naval combat in the ancient naumachia,
and the sudden appearance of 5000 wild beasts brought into the circus
for their amusement. To do good to his subjects was the ambition of
Titus, and it was at the recollection that he had done no service, or
granted no favour, one day, that he exclaimed in the memorable words
of “My friends, I have lost a day!” A continual wish to be benevolent
and kind, made him popular; and it will not be wondered, that he who
could say that he had rather die himself, than be the cause of the
destruction of one of his subjects, was called the love and delight
of mankind. Two of the senators conspired against his life, but
the emperor disregarded their attempts; he made them his friends by
kindness, and, like another Nerva, presented them with a sword to
destroy him. During his reign, Rome was three days on fire, the towns
of Campania were destroyed by an eruption of Vesuvius, and the empire
was visited by a pestilence which carried away an infinite number
of inhabitants. In this time of public calamity, the emperor’s
benevolence and philanthropy were conspicuous. Titus comforted the
afflicted as a father, he alleviated their distresses by his liberal
bounties, and as if they were but one family, he exerted himself
for the good and preservation of the whole. The Romans, however, had
not long to enjoy the favours of this magnificent prince. Titus was
taken ill, and as he retired into the country of the Sabines to his
father’s house, his indisposition was increased by a burning fever.
He lifted his eyes to heaven, and with modest submission complained
of the severity of fate which removed him from the world when young,
where he had been employed in making a grateful people happy. He died
the 13th of September, A.D. 81, in the 41st year of his age, after
a reign of two years, two months, and 20 days. The news of his death
was received with lamentations; Rome was filled with tears, and all
looked upon themselves as deprived of the most benevolent of fathers.
After him Domitian ascended the throne, not without incurring the
suspicion of having hastened his brother’s end, by ordering him to
be placed, during his agony, in a tub full of snow, where he expired.
Domitian has also been accused of raising commotions, and of making
attempts to dethrone his brother; but Titus disregarded them, and
forgave the offender. Some authors have reflected with severity upon
the cruelties which Titus exercised against the Jews; but though
certainly a disgrace to the benevolent features of his character,
we must consider him as an instrument in the hands of Providence,
exerted for the punishment of a wicked and infatuated people.
_Josephus_, _Jewish War_, bk. 7, ch. 16, &c.――_Suetonius._――_Dio
Cassius_, &c.
♦ ‘oppresssion’ replaced with ‘oppression’
=Titus Tatius=, a king of the Sabines. _See:_ Tatius.――――Livius, a
celebrated historian. _See:_ Livius.――――A son of Junius Brutus,
put to death by order of his father, for conspiring to restore the
Tarquins.――――A friend of Coriolanus.――――A native of Crotona, engaged
in Catiline’s conspiracy.
=Tīty̆rus=, a shepherd introduced in Virgil’s eclogues, &c.――――A large
mountain of Crete.
=Tityus=, a celebrated giant, son of Terra; or, according to others,
of Jupiter, by Elara the daughter of Orchomenos. He was of such a
prodigious size, that his mother died in travail after Jupiter had
drawn her from the bowels of the earth, where she had been concealed
during her pregnancy to avoid the anger of Juno. Tityus attempted to
offer violence to Latona, but the goddess delivered herself from his
importunities, by calling to her assistance her children, who killed
the giant with their arrows. He was placed in hell, where a serpent
continually devoured his liver; or, according to others, where
vultures perpetually fed upon his entrails, which grew again as soon
as devoured. It is said that Tityus covered nine acres when stretched
on the ground. He had a small chapel with an altar in the island
of Eubœa. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 4.――_Pindar_, _Pythian_, ch. 4.
――_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 7, li. 325; bk. 11, li. 575.――_Apollonius
of Rhodes_, bk. 1, li. 182, &c.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 525.
――_Horace_, bk. 3, ode 4, li. 77.――_Hyginus_, fable 55.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 4, li. 457.――_Tibullus_, bk. 1, poem 3, li. 75.
=Tium=, or =Tion=, a maritime town of Paphlagonia, built by the
Milesians. _Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 9.
=Tlēpŏlemus=, a son of Hercules and Astyochia, born at Argos. He left
his native country after the accidental murder of Licymnius, and
retired to Rhodes, by order of the oracle, where he was chosen king,
as being one of the sons of Hercules. He went to the Trojan war with
nine ships, and was killed by Sarpedon. There were some festivals
established at Rhodes in his honour, called _Tlepolemia_, in which
men and boys contended. The victors were rewarded with poplar crowns.
_Homer_, _Iliad_.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Diodorus_, bk. 5.
――_Hyginus_, fable 97.――――One of Alexander’s generals, who obtained
Carmania at the general division of the Macedonian empire. _Diodorus_,
bk. 18.――――An Egyptian general, who flourished B.C. 207.
=Tmarus=, a Rutulian in the wars of Æneas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9,
li. 685.――――A mountain of Thesprotia, called _Tomarus_ by _Pliny_.
=Tmolus=, a king of Lydia, who married Omphale, and was son of Sipylus
and Chthonia. He offered violence to a young nymph called Arriphe,
at the foot of Diana’s altar, for which impiety he was afterwards
killed by a bull. The mountain on which he was buried bore his name.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 6.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 11, fable
4.――_Hyginus_, fable 191.――――A town of Asia Minor, destroyed by
an earthquake.――――A mountain of Lydia, now _Bouzdag_, on which the
river Pactolus rises. The air was so wholesome near Tmolus, that the
inhabitants generally lived to their 150th year. The neighbouring
country was very fertile, and produced many vines, saffron, and
odoriferous flowers. _Strabo_, bk. 13, &c.――_Herodotus_, bk. 1,
ch. 84, &c.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 2, &c.――_Silius Italicus_,
bk. 7, li. 210.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 1, li. 56; bk. 2, li. 98.
=Togāta=, an epithet applied to a certain part of Gaul where the
inhabitants were distinguished by the peculiarity of their dress.
_See:_ Gallia.
=Togonius Gallus=, a senator of ignoble birth, devoted to the interest
of Tiberius, whom he flattered, &c. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 6, ch. 2.
=Tolbiacum=, a town of Gallia Belgica, south of Juliers.
=Tolenus=, a river of Latium, now _Salto_, falling into the Velinus.
_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 9, li. 561.
=Toletum=, now _Toledo_, a town of Spain on the Tagus.
=Tolistoboii=, a people of Galatia in Asia, descended from the Boii of
Gaul. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 32.――_Livy_, bk. 58, chs. 15 & 16.
=Tollentīnum=, a town of Picenum. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 13.
=Tolmĭdes=, an Athenian officer, defeated and killed in a battle in
Bœotia, 477 B.C. _Polyænus_, bk. 7.
=Tolōsa=, now _Toulouse_, the capital of Languedoc, a town of Gallia
Narbonensis, which became a Roman colony under Augustus, and was
afterwards celebrated for the cultivation of the sciences. Minerva
had there a rich temple, which Cæpio the consul plundered, and as
he was never after fortunate, the words _aurum Tolosanum_ became
proverbial. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 5.――_Cicero_,
_de Natura Deorum_, bk. 3, ch. 20.
=Tolumnus=, an augur in the army of Turnus against Æneas. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 11, li. 429.――――A king of Veii, killed by Cornelius
Cossus after he had ordered the ambassadors of Rome to be
assassinated. _Livy_, bk. 4, ch. 19.
=Tolus=, a man whose head was found in digging for the foundation of
the capitol, in the reign of Tarquin, whence the Romans concluded
that their city should become the head or mistress of the world.
=Tomæum=, a mountain of Peloponnesus. _Thucydides._
=Tomărus=, or =Tmarus=. _See:_ Tmarus.
=Tomisa=, a country between Cappadocia and Taurus. _Strabo._
=Tomos=, or =Tomi=, a town situate on the western shore of the Euxine
sea, about 36 miles from the mouth of the Danube. The word is derived
from τεμνω, _seco_, because Medea, as it is said, _cut to pieces_
the body of her brother Absyrtus there. It is celebrated as being the
place where Ovid was banished by Augustus. Tomos was the capital of
Lower Mœsia, founded by a Milesian colony, B.C. 633.――_Strabo_, bk. 7.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 2.――_Ovid_, _ex
Ponto_, bk. 4, poem 14, li. 59; _Tristia_, bk. 3, poem 9, li. 33, &c.
=Tomyris.= _See:_ Thomyris.
=Tonea=, a solemnity observed at Samos. It was usual to carry Juno’s
statue to the sea-shore, and to offer cakes before it, and afterwards
to replace it again in the temple. This was in commemoration of the
theft of the Tyrrhenians, who attempted to carry away the statue of
the goddess, but were detained in the harbour by an invisible force.
=Tongillius=, an avaricious lawyer, &c. _Juvenal_, satire 7, li. 130.
=Topāzos=, an island in the Arabian gulf, anciently called _Ophiodes_
from the quantity of serpents that were there. The valuable stone
called topaz is found there. _Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 20.
=Topiris=, or =Torpus=, a town of Thrace.
=Torĭni=, a people of Scythia. _Valerius Flaccus_, bk. 6.
=Torōne=, a town of Macedonia. _Livy_, bk. 31, ch. 45.――――Of Epirus.
=Torquāta=, one of the vestal virgins, daughter of Caius Silanus. She
was a vestal for 64 years. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 3, ch. 69.
=Torquātus=, a surname of Titus Manlius. _See:_ Manlius.――――Silanus,
an officer put to death by Nero.――――A governor of Oricum, in the
interest of Pompey. He surrendered to Julius Cæsar, and was killed in
Africa. _Hirtius_, _Africican War_, ch. 96.――――An officer in Sylla’s
army.――――A Roman sent ambassador to the court of Ptolemy Philometor
of Egypt.
=Tortor=, a surname of Apollo. He had a statue at Rome under that name.
=Torus=, a mountain of Sicily, near Agrigentum.
=Toryne=, a small town near Actium. The word in the language of the
country signifies a _ladle_, which gave Cleopatra occasion to make a
pun when it fell into the hands of Augustus. _Plutarch_, _Antonius_.
=Toxandri=, a people of Gallia Belgica. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 7.
=Toxaridia=, a festival at Athens, in honour of Toxaris, a Scythian
hero who died there.
=Toxeus=, a son of Œneus, killed by his father. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1,
ch. 8.
=Toxicrăte=, a daughter of Thespius.
=Quintus Trabea=, a comic poet at Rome, in the age of Regulus. Some
fragments of his poetry remain. _Cicero_, _Tusculanæ Disputationes_,
bk. 4, ch. 31; _de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum_, bk. 2, ch. 4.
=Trachălus Marcus Galerius=, a consul in the reign of Nero, celebrated
for his eloquence as an orator, and for a majestic and commanding
aspect. _Quintilian._――_Tacitus._――――One of the friends and ministers
of Otho.
=Trachas=, a town of Latium. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 15, li. 717.
=Trāchīnia=, a small country of Phthiotis, on the bay of Malea,
near mount Œta. The capital was called Trachis, or Trachina,
where Hercules went after he had killed Eunomus. _Strabo_, bk. 9.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 11,
li. 269.
=Trachonītis=, a part of Judæa, on the other side of the Jordan.
_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 14.
=Tragurium=, a town of Dalmatia on the sea.
=Tragus=, a river of Arcadia, falling into the Alpheus. _Pausanias_,
bk. 8, ch. 33.
=Trajanopŏlis=, a town of Thrace.――――A name given to Selinus of Cilicia,
where Trajan died.
=Trajānus Marcus Ulpius Crinītus=, a Roman emperor, born at Italica in
Spain. His great virtues, and his private as well as public character,
and his services to the empire, both as an officer, a governor, and a
consul, recommended him to the notice of Nerva, who solemnly adopted
him as his son; invested him during his lifetime with the imperial
purple, and gave him the name of Cæsar and of Germanicus. A little
time after Nerva died, and the election of Trajan to the vacant
throne was confirmed by the unanimous rejoicings of the people,
and the free concurrence of the armies on the confines of Germany
and the banks of the Danube. The noble and independent behaviour of
Trajan evinced the propriety and goodness of Nerva’s choice, and the
attachment of the legions; and the new emperor seemed calculated to
ensure peace and domestic tranquillity to the extensive empire of
Rome. All the actions of Trajan showed a good and benevolent prince,
whose virtues truly merited the encomiums which the pen of an elegant
and courteous panegyrist has paid. The barbarians continued quiet,
and the hostilities which they generally displayed at the election of
a new emperor whose military abilities they distrusted, were now few.
Trajan, however, could not behold with satisfaction and unconcern the
insolence of the Dacians, who claimed from the Roman people a tribute
which the cowardice of Domitian had offered. The sudden appearance
of the emperor on the frontiers awed the barbarians to peace; but
Decebalus, their warlike monarch, soon began hostilities by violating
the treaty. The emperor entered the enemy’s country, by throwing a
bridge across the rapid stream of the Danube, and a battle was fought
in which the slaughter was so great, that in the Roman camp linen
was wanted to dress the wounds of the soldiers. Trajan obtained the
victory, and Decebalus, despairing of success, destroyed himself,
and Dacia became a province of Rome. That the ardour of the Roman
soldiers in defeating their enemies might not cool, an expedition was
undertaken into the east, and Parthia threatened with immediate war.
Trajan passed through the submissive kingdom of Armenia, and, by his
well-directed operations, made himself master of the provinces of
Assyria and Mesopotamia. He extended his conquests in the east, he
obtained victories over unknown nations; and when on the extremities
of India, he lamented that he possessed not the vigour and youth of
an Alexander, that he might add unexplored provinces and kingdoms
to the Roman empire. These successes in different parts of the
world gained applause, and the senators were profuse in the honours
they decreed to the conqueror. This, however, was but the blaze of
transient glory. Trajan had no sooner signified his intentions of
returning to Italy, than the conquered barbarians appeared again
in arms, and the Roman empire did not acquire one single acre of
territory from the conquests of her sovereign in the east. The return
of the emperor towards Rome was hastened by indisposition; he stopped
in Cilicia, and in the town of Selinus, which afterwards was called
Trajanopolis, he was seized with a flux, and a few days after expired,
in the beginning of August, A.D. 117, after a reign of 19 years, six
months, and 15 days, in the 64th year of his age. He was succeeded
on the throne by Adrian, whom the empress Plotina introduced to the
Roman armies, as the adopted son of her husband. The ashes of Trajan
were carried to Rome, and deposited under the stately column which
he had erected a few years before. Under this emperor the Romans
enjoyed tranquillity, and for a moment supposed that their prosperity
was complete under a good and virtuous sovereign. Trajan was fond
of popularity, and he merited it. The sounding titles of Optimus,
and the father of his country, were not unworthily bestowed upon
a prince who was equal to the greatest generals of antiquity, and
who, to indicate his affability, and his wish to listen to the
just complaints of his subjects, distinguished his palace by the
inscription of _the public palace_. Like other emperors, he did
not receive with an air of unconcern the homage of his friends, but
rose from his seat and went cordially to salute them. He refused
the statues which the flattery of favourites wished to erect to him,
and he ridiculed the follies of an enlightened nation, that could
pay adoration to cold, inanimate pieces of marble. His public entry
into Rome gained him the hearts of the people; he appeared on foot,
and showed himself an enemy to parade and an ostentatious equipage.
When in his camp, he exposed himself to the fatigues of war,
like the meanest soldier, and crossed the most barren deserts and
extensive plains on foot, and in his dress and food displayed all
the simplicity which once gained the approbation of the Romans in
their countryman Fabricius. All the oldest soldiers he knew by their
own name; he conversed with them with great familiarity, and never
retired to his tent before he had visited the camp, and by a personal
attendance convinced himself of the vigilance and the security of his
army. As a friend he was not less distinguished than as a general.
He had a select number of intimates, whom he visited with freedom
and openness, and at whose tables he partook many a moderate repast
without form or ceremony. His confidence, however, in the good
intentions of others, was, perhaps, carried to excess. His favourite
Sura had once been accused of attempts upon his life, but Trajan
disregarded the informer, and as he was that same day invited to
the house of the supposed conspirator, he went thither early. To try
further the sincerity of Sura, he ordered himself to be shaved by his
barber, to have a medicinal application made to his eyes by the hand
of his surgeon, and to bathe together with him. The public works of
Trajan are also celebrated; he opened free and easy communications
between the cities of his provinces, he planted many colonies, and
furnished Rome with all the corn and provisions which could prevent
a famine in the time of calamity. It was by his directions that the
architect Apollodorus built that celebrated column which is still
to be seen at Rome, under the name of Trajan’s column. The area on
which it stands was made by the labours of men, and the height of
the pillar proves that a large hill, 144 feet high, was removed at a
great expense, A.D. 114, to commemorate the victories of the reigning
prince. His persecutions of the christians were stopped by the
interference of the humane Pliny, but he was unusually severe upon
the Jews, who had barbarously murdered 200,000 of his subjects, and
even fed upon the flesh of the dead. His vices have been obscurely
seen through a reign of continued splendour and popularity, yet he
is accused of incontinence and many unnatural indulgencies. He was
too much addicted to drinking, and his wish to be styled lord has
been censured by those who admired the dissimulated moderation and
the modest claims of an Augustus. _Pliny_, _Panegyrics_, &c.――_Dio
Cassius._――_Eutropius._――_Ammianus._――_Spartian._――_Josephus_,
_Jewish Wars_.――_Aurelius Victor._――――The father of the emperor, who
likewise bore the name of Trajan, was honoured with the consulship
and a triumph, and the rank of a patrician by the emperor Vespasian.
――――A general of the emperor Valens.――――A son of the emperor Decius.
=Trajectus Rheni=, now _Utrecht_, the capital of one of the provinces
of Holland.
=Tralles=, a town of _Lydia_, now _Sultanhisar_. _Juvenal_, satire 3,
li. 70.――_Livy_, bk. 37, ch. 45.――――A people of Illyricum.
=Transtiberīna=, a part of the city of Rome, on one side of the
Tiber. Mount Vatican was in that part of the city. _Martial_, bk. 1,
ltr. 109.
=Trapēzus=, a city of Pontus, built by the people of Sinope, now called
_Trebizond_. It had a celebrated harbour on the Euxine sea, and
became famous under the emperors of the eastern empire, of which it
was for some time the magnificent capital. _Tacitus_, _Histories_,
bk. 3, ch. 47.――_Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 4.――――A town of Arcadia near the
Alpheus. It received its name from a son of Lycaon. _Apollodorus_,
bk. 3, ch. 8.
=Trasimenus.= _See:_ Thrasymenus.
=Trasullus=, a man who taught Tiberius astrology at Rhodes, &c.
=Traulus Montānus=, a Roman knight, one of Messalina’s favourites, put
to death by Claudius. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 11, ch. 36.
=Treba=, a town of the Æqui. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 12.
=Caius Trebātius Testas=, a man banished by Julius Cæsar for following
the interest of Pompey, and recalled by the eloquence of Cicero.
He was afterwards reconciled to Cæsar. Trebatius was not less
distinguished for his learning than for his integrity, his military
experience, and knowledge of law. He wrote nine books on religious
ceremonies, and treatises on civil law; and the verses that he
composed proved him a poet of no inferior consequence. _Horace_,
bk. 2, satire 1, li. 4.
=Trebelliānus Caius Annius=, a pirate who proclaimed himself emperor
of Rome, A.D. 264. He was defeated and slain in Isauria, by the
lieutenants of Gallienus.
=Trebelliēnus Rufus=, a pretor appointed governor of the children
of king Cotys, by Tiberius.――――A tribune who opposed the Gabinian
law.――――A Roman who numbered the inhabitants of Gaul. He was made
governor of Britain. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 6, ch. 39.
=Trebellius Pollio=, a Latin historian, who wrote an account of the
lives of the emperors. The beginning of this history is lost; part
of the reign of Valerian, and the life of the two Gallieni, with the
30 tyrants, are the only fragments remaining. He flourished A.D. 305.
=Trĕbia=, a river of Cisalpine Gaul, rising in the Apennines, and
falling into the Po, at the west of Placentia. It is celebrated for
the victory which Annibal obtained there over the forces of Lucius
Sempronius the Roman consul. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 4, li. 486.
――_Lucan_, bk. 2, li. 46.――_Livy_, bk. 21, chs. 54 & 56.――――A town of
Latium. _Livy_, bk. 2, ch. 39.――――Of Campania. _Livy_, bk. 23, ch. 14.
――――Of Umbria. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 14.
=Trebius=, an officer in Cæsar’s army in Gaul.――――A parasite in
Domitian’s reign. _Juvenal_, satire 4.
=Trĕbōnia lex=, _de provinciis_, by Lucius Trebonius the tribune, A.U.C.
698. It gave Cæsar the chief command in Gaul for five years longer
than was enacted by the Vatinian law, and in this manner prevented
the senators from recalling or superseding him.――――Another, by the
same, on the same year, conferred the command of the provinces of
Syria and Spain on Cassius and Pompey for five years. _Dio Cassius_,
bk. 39.――――Another, by Lucius Trebonius the tribune, A.U.C. 305,
which confirmed the election of the tribunes in the hands of the
Roman people. _Livy_, bks. 3 & 5.
=Trĕbōnius=, a soldier remarkable for his continence, &c.――――Caius, one
of Cæsar’s friends, made through his interest pretor and consul. He
was afterwards one of his benefactor’s murderers. He was killed by
Dolabella at Smyrna. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 5, ch. 17.――_Cicero_,
_Philippics_, bk. 11, ch. 2.――_Paterculus_, bks. 56 & 69.――_Livy_,
bk. 119.――_Dio Cassius_, bk. 47.――_Horace_, bk. 1, satire 4, li. 14.
――――Garucianus, a governor of Africa, who put to death the proconsul
Clodius Macer, by Galba’s orders. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 1,
ch. 7.――――A tribune who proposed a law at Rome, and imprisoned Cato,
because he opposed it.――――One of the adherents of Marius.――――A man
caught in adultery, and severely punished in the age of Horace.
=Trebŭla=, a town of the Sabines, celebrated for cheese. The
inhabitants were called Trebulani. _Cicero_, _On the Agrarian
Law_, bk. 2, ch. 25.――_Livy_, bk. 23.――_Pliny_, bk. 3, chs. 5 & 12.
――_Martial_, bk. 5, ltr. 72.――――Another, in Campania. _Livy_, bk. 23,
ch. 39.
=Trerus=, a river of Latium, falling into the Liris.
=Tres Tabernæ=, a place on the Appian road, where travellers took
refreshment. _Cicero_, _Letters to Atticus_, bk. 1, ltr. 13; bk. 2,
ltrs. 10 & 11.
=Trevĕri=, a town and people of Belgium, now called _Triers_. _Mela_,
bk. 3, ch. 2.
=Triaria=, a woman well known for her cruelty. She was the wife of
Lucius Vitellius. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bks. 1 & 3.
=Caius Triarius=, an orator commended by Cicero.――――A friend of Pompey.
He had for some time the care of the war in Asia against Mithridates,
whom he defeated, and by whom he was afterwards beaten. He was killed
in the civil wars of Pompey and Cæsar. _Cæsar_, _Civil War_, bk. 3,
ch. 5.
=Triballi=, a people of Thrace, or, according to some, of Lower Mœsia.
They were conquered by Philip the father of Alexander; and some ages
after, they maintained a long war against the Roman emperors. _Pliny._
=Triboci=, a people of Alsace in Gaul. _Tacitus_, _Germania_, ch. 28.
=Tribulium=, a town of Dalmatia.
=Tribūni Plebis=, magistrates at Rome, created in the year ♦A.U.C. 261,
when the people after a quarrel with the senators had retired to Mons
Sacer. The two first were Caius Licinius and Lucius Albinius, but
their number was soon after raised to five, and 37 years after to 10,
which remained fixed. Their office was annual, and as the first had
been created on the 4th of the ides of December, that day was ever
after chosen for the election. Their power, though at first small,
and granted by the patricians to appease the momentary seditions
of the populace, soon became formidable, and the senators repented
too late of having consented to elect magistrates, who not only
preserved the rights of the people, but could summon assemblies,
propose laws, stop the consultations of the senate, and even
abolish their decrees by the word _Veto_. Their approbation was
also necessary to confirm the _senatus consulta_, and this was done
by affixing the letter T under it. If any irregularity happened
in the state, their power was almost absolute; they criticized the
conduct of all the public magistrates, and even dragged a consul
to prison, if the measures he pursued were hostile to the peace
of Rome. The dictator alone was their superior, but when that
magistrate was elected, the office of tribune was not, like that
of all other inferior magistrates, abolished while he continued at
the head of the state. The people paid them so much deference, that
their person was held sacred, and thence they were always called
_Sacrosancti_. To strike them was a capital crime, and to interrupt
them while they spoke in the assemblies, called for the immediate
interference of power. The marks by which they were distinguished
from other magistrates were not very conspicuous. They wore no
particular dress, only a beadle called _viator_ marched before them.
They never sat in the senate, though, some time after, their office
entitled them to the rank of senators. Yet, great as their power
might appear, they received a heavy wound from their number, and as
their consultations and resolutions were of no effect if they were
not all unanimous, the senate often took advantage of their avarice,
and by gaining one of them by bribes, they, as it were, suspended
the authority of the rest. The office of tribune of the people,
though at first deemed mean and servile, was afterwards one of
the first steps that led to more honourable employments, and as
no patrician was permitted to canvass for the tribuneship, we find
many that descended among the plebeians to exercise that important
office. From the power with which they were at last invested by the
activity, the intrigues, and continual applications of those who
were in office, they became almost absolute in the state, and it
has been properly observed, that they caused far greater troubles
than those which they were at first created to silence. Sylla,
when raised to the dictatorship, gave a fatal blow to the authority
of the tribunes, and by one of his decrees, they were no longer
permitted to harangue and inflame the people; they could make
no laws; no appeal lay to their tribunal; and such as had been
tribunes were not permitted to solicit for the other offices of
the state. This disgrace, however, was but momentary; at the death
of the tyrant the tribunes recovered their privileges by means of
Cotta and Pompey the Great. The office of tribune remained in full
force till the age of Augustus, who, to make himself more absolute,
and his person sacred, conferred the power and office upon himself,
whence he was called _tribunitiâ potestate donatus_. His successors
on the throne imitated his example, and as the emperor was the
real and official tribune, such as were appointed to the office
were merely nominal without power or privilege. Under Constantine
the tribuneship was totally abolished. The tribunes were never
permitted to sleep out of the city, except at the _Feriæ Latinæ_,
when they went with other magistrates to offer sacrifices upon
a mountain near Alba. Their houses were always open, and they
received every complaint, and were ever ready to redress the wrongs
of their constituents. Their authority was not extended beyond the
walls of the city.――――There were also other officers who bore the
name of tribunes, such as the _tribuni militum_ or _militares_,
who commanded a division of the legions. They were empowered to
decide all quarrels that might arise in the army; they took care of
the camp, and gave the watchword. There were only three at first,
chosen by Romulus, but the number was at last increased to six in
every legion. After the expulsion of the Tarquins, they were chosen
by the consuls; but afterwards the right of electing them was
divided between the people and the consuls. They were generally
of senatorian and equestrian families, and the former were called
_laticlavii_, and the latter _angusticlavii_, from their peculiar
dress. Those that were chosen by the consuls were called _Rutuli_,
because the right of the consuls to elect them was confirmed by
Rutulus, and those elected by the people were called _Comitiati_,
because chosen in the Comitia. They wore a golden ring, and were
in office no longer than six months. When the consuls were elected,
it was usual to choose 14 tribunes from the knights, who had served
five years in the army, and who were called _juniores_, and 10 from
the people who had been in 10 campaigns, who were called _seniores_.
――――There were also some officers called _tribuni militum consulari
potestate_, elected instead of consuls, A.U.C. 310. They were only
three originally, but the number was afterwards increased to six
or more, according to the will and pleasure of the people and the
emergencies of the state. Part of them were plebeians, and the rest
of patrician families. When they had subsisted for about 70 years,
not without some interruption, the office was totally abolished,
as the plebeians were admitted to share the consulship, and
the consuls continued at the head of the state till the end of
the commonwealth.――――The _tribuni cohortium prætorianarum_ were
entrusted with the person of the emperor, which they guarded and
protected.――――The _tribuni ærarii_ were officers chosen from among
the people, who kept the money which was to be applied to defray
the expenses of the army. The richest persons were always chosen,
as much money was requisite for the pay of the soldiers. They
were greatly distinguished in the state, and they shared with the
senators and Roman knights the privileges of judging. They were
abolished by Julius Cæsar, but Augustus re-established them, and
created 200 more, to decide causes of smaller importance.――――The
_tribuni celerum_ had the command of the guard which Romulus
chose for the safety of his person. They were 100 in number,
distinguished for their probity, their opulence, and their nobility.
――――The _tribuni voluptatum_ were commissioned to take care
of the amusements which were prepared for the people, and that
nothing might be wanting in the exhibitions. This office was also
honourable.
♦ ‘U.C.’ replaced with ‘A.U.C.’
=Tricala=, a fortified place at the south of Sicily, between Selinus
and Agrigentum. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 14, li. 271.
=Tricasses=, a people of Champagne in Gaul.
=Tricastīni=, a people of Gallia Narbonensis. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 3,
li. 466.――_Livy_, bk. 21, ch. 31.
=Triccæ=, a town of Thessaly, where Æsculapius had a temple. The
inhabitants went to the Trojan war. _Livy_, bk. 32, ch. 13.――_Homer_,
_Iliad_.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 8.
=Trichonium=, a town of Ætolia.
=Tricipitinus.= _See:_ Lucretius.
=Triclaria=, a yearly festival celebrated by the inhabitants of three
cities in Ionia, to appease the anger of Diana _Triclaria_, whose
temple had been defiled by the adulterous commerce of Menalippus
and Cometho. It was usual to sacrifice a boy and a girl, but this
barbarous custom was abolished by Eurypilus. The three cities were
Aroe, Messatis, and Anthea, whose united labours had erected the
temple of the goddess. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 19.
=Tricorii=, a people of Gaul, now _Dauphiné_. _Livy_, bk. 21, ch. 31.
=Tricorythus=, a town of Attica.
=Tricrēna=, a place of Arcadia, where, according to some, Mercury was
born. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 16.
=Tridentum=, a town of Cisalpine Gaul, now called _Trent_, and famous
in history for the ecclesiastical council which sat there 18 years to
regulate the affairs of the church, A.D. 1545.
=Trieterīca=, festivals in honour of Bacchus celebrated every three
years. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 4, li. 302.
=Tripānum=, a place of Latium near Sinuessa. _Livy_, bk. 8, ch. 11.
=Tripolīnus=, a mountain of Campania famous for wine. _Martial_, bk. 13,
ltr. 104.――_Pliny_, bk. 14, ch. 7.
=Trigemĭna=, one of the Roman gates, so called because the three
Horatii went through it against the Curiatii. _Livy_, bk. 4, ch. 16;
bk. 35, ch. 41; bk. 40, ch. 51.
=Trinăcria=, or =Trinăcris=, one of the ancient names of Sicily from
its triangular form. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 384, &c.
=Trinium=, a river of Italy falling into the Adriatic.
=Trinobantes=, a people of Britain in modern Essex and Middlesex.
_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 14, ch. 31.――_Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 5,
ch. 20.
=Triocăla=, or =Triocla=, a town in the southern parts of Sicily.
_Silius Italicus_, bk. 14, li. 271.
=Triŏpas=, or =Triops=, a son of Neptune by Canace the daughter of
Æolus. He was father of Iphimedia and of Erisichthon, who is called
on that account _Triopeius_, and his daughter _Triopeia_. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 8, li. 754.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 7.――――A
son of Phorbas, father to Agenor, Jasus, and Messene. _Homer_, _Hymn
3 to Apollo_, li. 211.――――A son of Piranthus.
=Triphȳlia=, one of the ancient names of Elis. _Livy_, bk. 28, ch. 8.
――――A mountain where Jupiter had a temple in the island Panchaia,
whence he is called _Triphylius_.
=Triopium=, a town of Caria.
=Tripŏlis=, an ancient town of Phœnicia, built by the liberal
contribution of Tyre, Sidon, and Aradus, whence the name.――――A town
of Pontus.――――A district of Arcadia,――――of Laconia. _Livy_, bk. 35,
ch. 27.――――Of Thessaly, _Livy_, bk. 42, ch. 53.――――A town of Lydia or
Caria.――――A district of Africa between the Syrtes.
♦=Trīptŏlĕmus=, a son of Oceanus and Terra, or, according to some, of
Trochilus, a priest of Argos. According to the more received opinion
he was son of Celeus king of Attica by Neræa, whom some have called
Metanira, Cothonea, Hyona, Melani, or Polymnia. He was born at
Eleusis in Attica, and was cured in his youth of a severe illness by
the care of Ceres, who had been invited into the house of Celeus, by
the monarch’s children, as she travelled over the country in quest
of her daughter. To repay the kindness of Celeus, the goddess took
particular notice of his son. She fed him with her own milk, and
placed him on burning coals during the night, to destroy whatever
particles of mortality he had received from his parents. The mother
was astonished at the uncommon growth of her son, and she had the
curiosity to watch Ceres. She disturbed the goddess by a sudden cry,
when Triptolemus was laid on the burning ashes, and as Ceres was
therefore unable to make him immortal, she taught him agriculture,
and rendered him serviceable to mankind, by instructing him how to
sow corn, and make bread. She also gave him her chariot, which was
drawn by two dragons, and in this celestial vehicle he travelled all
over the earth, and distributed corn to all the inhabitants of the
world. In Scythia the favourite of Ceres nearly lost his life; but
Lyncus the king of the country, who had conspired to murder him, was
changed into a lynx. At his return to Eleusis, Triptolemus restored
Ceres her chariot, and established the Eleusinian festivals and
mysteries in honour of the deity. He reigned for some time, and
after death received divine honours. Some suppose that he accompanied
Bacchus in his Indian expedition. _Diodorus._――_Hyginus_, fable 147.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 14; bk. 8, ch. 4.――_Justin_, bk. 2, ch. 6.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 5.――_Callimachus_, _Hymn to Demeter_,
li. 22.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, li. 646; _Fasti_, bk. 4,
li. 501; _Tristia_, bk. 3, poem 8, li. 1.
♦ ‘Trīppŏlĕmus’ replaced with ‘Trīptŏlĕmus’
=Triquĕtra=, a name given to Sicily by the Latins, for its triangular
form. _Lucretius_, bk. 1, li. 78.
=Trismegistus=, a famous Egyptian. _See:_ Mercurius.
=Tritia=, a daughter of the river Triton, mother of Menalippus by Mars.
――――A town in Achaia, built by her son, bore her name. _Pausanias_,
bk. 7, ch. 22.
=Tritogenia=, a surname of Pallas. _Hesiod._――_Festus_, _Lexicon of
Festus_.
=Triton=, a sea deity, son of Neptune by Amphitrite, or, according
to some, by Celeno, or Salacia. He was very powerful among the sea
deities, and could calm the ocean and abate storms at pleasure. He
is generally represented as blowing a shell. His body above the waist
is like that of a man, and below a dolphin. Some represent him with
the fore feet of a horse. Many of the sea deities are called Tritons,
but the name is generally applied to those only who are half men
and half fishes. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 4.――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_,
li. 930.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, li. 333.――_Cicero_, _de
Natura Deorum_, bk. 1, ch. 28.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 148;
bk. 6, li. 173.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 20.――――A river of Africa
falling into the lake Tritonis.――――One of the names of the Nile.――――A
small river of Bœotia, or Thessaly.
=Tritōnis=, a lake and river of Africa, near which Minerva had a temple,
whence she is surnamed _Tritonis_, or _Tritonia_. _Herodotus_, bk. 4,
ch. 178.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 33.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 2,
li. 171.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 7.――――Athens is also called _Tritonis_,
because dedicated to Minerva.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5.
=Tritonon=, a town of Doris. _Livy_, bk. 28, ch. 7.
=Triventum=, a town of the Samnites.
=Trivia=, a surname given to Diana, because she presided over all
places where three roads met. At the new moon the Athenians offered
her sacrifices, and a sumptuous entertainment, which was generally
distributed among the poor. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 13; bk. 7,
li. 774.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 2, li. 416; _Fasti_, bk. 1,
li. 389.
=Triviæ antrum=, a place in the valley of Aricia, where the nymph
Egeria resided. _Martial_, bk. 6, ltr. 47.
=Triviæ lucus=, a place of Campania, in the bay of Cumæ. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 13.
=Trivīcum=, a town in the country of the Hirpini in Italy. _Horace_,
bk. 1, satire 5, li. 79.
=Triumvĭri=, _reipublicæ constituendæ_, were three magistrates
appointed equally to govern the Roman state with absolute power.
These officers gave a fatal blow to the expiring independence of
the Roman people, and became celebrated for their different pursuits,
their ambition, and their various fortunes. The first triumvirate,
B.C. 60, was in the hands of Julius Cæsar, Pompey, and Crassus, who
at the expiration of their office kindled a civil war. The second
and last triumvirate, B.C. 43, was under Augustus, Marcus Antony,
and Lepidus, and through them the Romans totally lost their liberty.
Augustus disagreed with his colleagues, and after he had defeated
them, he made himself absolute in Rome. The triumvirate was in full
force at Rome for the space of about 12 years.――――There were also
officers who were called _triumviri capitales_, created A.U.C. 464.
They took cognizance of murders and robberies, and everything in
which slaves were concerned. Criminals under sentence of death were
entrusted to their care, and they had them executed according to the
commands of the pretors.――――The _triumviri nocturni_ watched over the
safety of Rome in the night-time, and in case of fire were ever ready
to give orders, and to take the most effectual measures to extinguish
it.――――The _triumviri agrarii_ had the care of colonies that were
sent to settle in different parts of the empire. They made a fair
division of the lands among the citizens, and exercised over the new
colony all the power which was placed in the hands of the consuls at
Rome.――――The _triumviri monetales_ were masters of the mint, and had
the care of the coin, hence their office was generally intimated by
the following letters often seen on ancient coins and medals: ♦IIIVIR.
A. A. A. F. F. i.e., _Triumviri auro, argento, ære flando, feriendo_.
Some suppose that they were created only in the age of Cicero, as
those who were employed before them were called _Denariorum flandorum
curatores_.――――The _triumviri valetudinis_ were chosen when Rome
was visited by a plague or some pestiferous distemper, and they
took particular care of the temples of health and virtue.――――The
_triumviri senatus legendi_ were appointed to name those that were
most worthy to be made senators from among the plebeians. They
were first chosen in the age of Augustus, as before this privilege
belonged to the kings, and afterwards devolved upon the consuls and
the censors, A.U.C. 310.――――The _triumviri mensarii_ were chosen in
the second Punic war, to take care of the coin and prices of exchange.
♦ ‘HIVIR’ replaced with ‘IIIVIR’
=Triumvirorum insula=, a place on the Rhine which falls into the Po,
where the triumvirs Antony, Lepidus, and Augustus met to divide
the Roman empire after the battle of Mutina. _Dio Cassius_, bk. 46,
ch. 55.――_Appian_, _Civil Wars_, ch. 4.
=Troădes=, the inhabitants of Troas.
=Troas=, a country of Phrygia, in Asia Minor, of which Troy was the
capital. When Troas is taken for the whole kingdom of Priam, it
may be said to contain Mysia and Phrygia Minor; but if only applied
to that part of the country where Troy was situate, its extent
is confined within very narrow limits. Troas was anciently called
_Dardania_. _See:_ Troja.
=Trochois=, a lake in the island of Delos, near which Apollo and Diana
were born.
=Trocmi=, a people of Galatia. _Livy_, bk. 38, ch. 16.
=Trœzēne= a town of Argolis, in Peloponnesus, near the Saronicus Sinus,
which received its name from Trœzen the son of Pelops, who reigned
there for some time. It is often called _Theseis_, because Theseus
was born there; and _Posidonia_, because _Neptune_ was worshipped
there. _Statius_, _Thebaid_, bk. 4, li. 81.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2,
ch. 50.――_Plutarch_, _Theseus_.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 8,
li. 556; bk. 15, li. 296.――――Another town at the south of the
Peloponnesus.
=Trogiliæ=, three small islands near Samos.
=Trogilium=, a part of mount Mycale, projecting into the sea. _Strabo_,
bk. 14.
=Trogilus=, a harbour of Sicily. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 14, lis. 2, 59.
=Troglody̆tæ=, a people of Æthiopia, who dwelt in caves (τρωγλη _specus_,
δυμι _subeo_). They were all shepherds, and had their wives in common.
_Strabo_, bk. 1.――_Mela_, bk. 1, chs. 4 & 8.――_Pliny_, bk. 1, ch. 8;
bk. 37, ch. 10.
=Trogus Pompeius=, a Latin historian, B.C. 41, born in Gaul. His
father was one of the friends and adherents of Julius Cæsar, and
his ancestors had obtained privileges and honours from the most
illustrious of the Romans. Trogus wrote a universal history of all
the most important events that had happened from the beginning of the
world to the age of Augustus, divided into 44 books. This history,
which was greatly admired for its purity and elegance, was epitomized
by Justin, and is still extant. Some suppose that the epitome is the
cause that the original of Trogus is lost. _Justin_, bk. 47, ch. 5.
――_Augustine_, _City of God_, bk. 4, ch. 6.
=Troja=, a city, the capital of Troas, or, according to others, a
country of which Ilium was the capital. It was built on a small
eminence near mount Ida, and the promontory of Sigæum, at the
distance of about four miles from the sea-shore. Dardanus the
first king of the country built it, and called it _Dardania_, and
from Troas, one of his successors, it was called _Troja_, and from
Ilus, _Ilion_. Neptune is also said to have built, or more properly
repaired, its walls, in the age of king Laomedon. This city has been
celebrated by the poems of Homer and Virgil, and of all the wars
which have been carried on among the ancients, that of Troy is the
most famous. The Trojan war was undertaken by the Greeks, to recover
Helen, whom Paris the son of Priam king of Troy had carried away
from the house of Menelaus. All Greece united to avenge the cause of
Menelaus, and every prince furnished a certain number of ships and
soldiers. According to Euripides, Virgil, and Lycophron, the armament
of the Greeks amounted to 1000 ships. Homer mentions them as being
1186, and Thucydides supposes that they were 1200 in number. The
number of men which these ships carried is unknown; yet, as the
largest contained about 120 men each, and the smallest 50, it may
be supposed that no less than 100,000 men were engaged in this
celebrated expedition. Agamemnon was chosen general of all these
forces; but the princes and kings of Greece were admitted among his
counsellors, and by them all the operations of the war were directed.
The most celebrated of the Grecian princes that distinguished
themselves in this war, were Achilles, Ajax, Menelaus, Ulysses,
Diomedes, Protesilaus, Patroclus, Agamemnon, Nestor, Neoptolemus,
&c. The Grecian army was opposed by a more numerous force. The king
of Troy received assistance from the neighbouring princes in Asia
Minor, and reckoned among his most active generals, Rhesus king of
Thrace, and Memnon, who entered the field with 20,000 Assyrians and
Æthiopians. Many of the adjacent cities were reduced and plundered
before the Greeks approached their walls; but when the siege
was begun, the enemies on both sides gave proofs of valour and
intrepidity. The army of the Greeks, however, was visited by a plague,
and the operations were not less retarded by the quarrel of Agamemnon
and Achilles. The loss was great on both sides; the most valiant of
the Trojans, and particularly of the sons of Priam, were slain in
the field; and, indeed, so great was the slaughter, that the rivers
of the country are represented as filled with dead bodies and suits
of armour. After the siege had been carried on for 10 years, some
of the Trojans, among whom were Æneas and Antenor, betrayed the city
into the hands of the enemy, and Troy was reduced to ashes. The poets,
however, support that the Greeks made themselves masters of the place
by artifice. They secretly filled a large wooden horse with armed men,
and led away their army from the plains, as if to return home. The
Trojans brought the wooden horse into their city, and in the night,
the Greeks that were confined within the sides of the animal rushed
out and opened the gates to their companions, who had returned from
the place of their concealment. The greatest part of the inhabitants
were put to the sword, and the others carried away by the conquerors.
This happened, according to the Arundelian marbles, about 1184 years
before the christian era, in the 3530th year of the Julian period, on
the night between the 11th and 12th of June, 408 years before the
first olympiad. Some time after, a new city was raised, about 30
stadia from the ruins of the old Troy; but though it bore the ancient
name, and received ample donations from Alexander the Great, when he
visited it in his Asiatic expedition, yet it continued to be small,
and in the age of Strabo it was nearly in ruins. It is said that
Julius Cæsar, who wished to pass for one of the descendants of Æneas,
and consequently to be related to the Trojans, intended to make it
the capital of the Roman empire, and to transport there the senate
and the Roman people. The same apprehensions were entertained in the
reign of Augustus, and according to some, an ode of Horace, _Justum
et tenacem propositi virum_, was written purposely to dissuade the
emperor from putting into execution so wild a project. _See:_ Paris,
Æneas, Antenor, Agamemnon, Ilium, Laomedon, Menelaus, &c. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_.――_Homer._――_Ovid._――_Diodorus_, &c.
=Trojāni= and =Trojugĕnæ=, the inhabitants of Troy.
=Trojāni ludi=, games instituted by Æneas, or his son Ascanius, to
commemorate the death of Anchises, and celebrated in the circus
at Rome. Boys of the best families, dressed in a neat manner, and
accoutred with suitable arms and weapons, were permitted to enter the
list. Sylla exhibited them in his dictatorship, and under Augustus
they were observed with unusual pomp and solemnity. A mock fight on
horseback, or sometimes on foot, was exhibited. The leader of the
party was called _princeps juventutis_, and was generally the son
of a senator, or the heir apparent to the empire. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 5, li. 602.――_Suetonius_, _Cæsar_ & _Augustus_.――_Plutarch_,
_Sulla_.
=Troĭlus=, a son of Priam and Hecuba, killed by Achilles during the
Trojan war. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 12.――_Horace_, bk. 2, ode 9,
li. 16.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 474.
=Tromentīna=, one of the Roman tribes. _Livy_, bk. 6, ch. 5.
=Tropæa=, a town of the Brutii.――――A stone monument on the Pyrenees,
erected by Pompey.――――Drusi, a town of Germany where Drusus died, and
Tiberius was saluted emperor by the army.
=Trophonius=, a celebrated architect, son of Erginus king of Orchomenos
in Bœotia. He built Apollo’s temple at Delphi, with the assistance
of his brother Agamedes, and when he demanded of the god a reward for
his trouble, he was told by the priestess to wait eight days, and to
live during that time with all cheerfulness and pleasure. When the
days were passed, Trophonius and his brother were found dead in their
bed. According to Pausanias, however, he was swallowed up alive in
the earth; and when afterwards the country was visited by a great
drought, the Bœotians were directed to apply to Trophonius for relief,
and to seek him at Lebadea, where he gave oracles in a cave. They
discovered this cave by means of a swarm of bees, and Trophonius
told them how to ease their misfortunes. From that time Trophonius
was honoured as a god; he passed for the son of Apollo, a chapel
and a statue were erected to him, and sacrifices were offered to
his divinity when consulted to give oracles. The cave of Trophonius
became one of the most celebrated oracles of Greece. Many ceremonies
were required, and the suppliant was obliged to make particular
sacrifices, to anoint his body with oil, and to bathe in the waters
of certain rivers. He was to be clothed in a linen robe, and, with a
cake of honey in his hand, he was directed to descend into the cave
by a narrow entrance, from whence he returned backwards after he had
received an answer. He was always pale and dejected at his return,
and thence it became proverbial to say of a melancholy man, that he
had consulted the oracle of Trophonius. There were annually exhibited
games in honour of Trophonius at Lebadea. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 37,
&c.――_Cicero_, _Tusculanæ Disputationes_, bk. 1, ch. 47.――_Plutarch._
――_Pliny_, bk. 34, ch. 7.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 3, ch. 45.
=Tros=, a son of Ericthonius king of Troy, who married Callirhoe
the daughter of the Scamander, by whom he had Ilus, Assaracus, and
Ganymedes. He made war against Tantalus king of Phrygia, whom he
accused of having stolen away the youngest of his sons. The capital
of Phrygia was called Troja from him, and the country itself Troas.
_Virgil_, bk. 3, _Georgics_, li. 36.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 20,
li. 219.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 12.
=Trossŭlum=, a town of Etruria, which gave the name of _Trossuli_
to the Roman knights who had taken it without the assistance of
foot soldiers. _Pliny_, bk. 32, ch. 2.――_Seneca_, ltrs. 86 & 87.
――_Persius_, bk. 1, li. 82.
=Trotilum=, a town of Sicily. _Thucydides_, bk. 6.
=Truentum=, or =Truentinum=, a river of Picenum, falling into the
Adriatic. There is also a town of the same name in the neighbourhood.
_Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 434.――_Mela_, bk. 2.――_Pliny_, bk. 3,
ch. 13.
=Trypherus=, a celebrated cook, &c. _Juvenal_, bk. 11.
=Tryphiodorus=, a Greek poet and grammarian of Egypt in the sixth
century, who wrote a poem in 24 books on the destruction of Troy,
from which he excluded the α in the first book, the β in the second,
and the γ in the third, &c.
=Tryphon=, a tyrant of Apamea in Syria, put to death by Antiochus.
_Justin_, bk. 36, ch. 1.――――A surname of one of the Ptolemies.
_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 14, li. 31.――――A grammarian of
Alexander in the age of Augustus.
=Tubantes=, a people of Germany. _Tacitus_, bk. 1, ch. 51.
=Tubĕro Quintus Ælius=, a Roman consul, son-in-law of Paulus the
conqueror of Perseus. He is celebrated for his poverty, in which he
seemed to glory as well as the rest of his family. Sixteen of the
Tuberos, with their wives and children, lived in a small house, and
maintained themselves with the produce of a little field, which they
cultivated with their own hand. The first piece of silver plate that
entered the house of Tubero was a small cup which his father-in-law
presented to him after he had conquered the king of Macedonia.――――A
learned man.――――A governor of Africa.――――A Roman general who marched
against the Germans under the emperors. He was accused of treason,
and acquitted.
=Tuburbo=, two towns of Africa, called Major and Minor.
=Tucca Plautius=, a friend of Horace and Virgil. He was, with Varus and
Plotius, ordered by Augustus, as some report, to revise the Æneid of
Virgil, which remained uncorrected on account of the premature death
of the poet. _Horace_, bk. 1, satire 5, li. 40; satire 10, li. 84.
――――A town of Mauritania.
=Tuccia=, an immodest woman in Juvenal’s age. _Juvenal_, satire 6,
li. 64.
=Tucia=, a river near Rome. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 13, li. 5.
=Tuder=, or =Tudertia=, an ancient town of Umbria. The inhabitants were
called _Tudertes_. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 4, li. 222.
=Tudri=, a people of Germany. _Tacitus_, _Germania_, ch. 42.
=Tugia=, now _Toia_, a town of Spain. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 1.
=Tugīni=, or =Tugēni=, a people of Germany.
=Tuisto=, a deity of the Germans, son of Terra, and the founder of the
nation. _Tacitus_, _Germania_, bk. 2.
=Tulcis=, a river of Spain, falling into the Mediterranean, now
_Francoli_.
=Tulingi=, a people of Germany between the Rhine and the Danube.
_Cæsar_, bk. 1, ch. 5, _Gallic War_.
=Tulla=, one of Camilla’s attendants in the Rutulian war. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 11, li. 656.
=Tullia=, a daughter of Servius Tullius king of Rome. She married
Tarquin the Proud, after she had murdered her first husband Arunx,
and consented to see Tullius assassinated, that Tarquin might be
raised to the throne. It is said that she ordered her chariot to
be driven over the body of her aged father, which had been thrown
all mangled and bloody into one of the streets of Rome. She was
afterwards banished from Rome with her husband. _Ovid_, _Ibis_,
li. 363.――――Another daughter of Servius Tullius, who married Tarquin
the Proud. She was murdered by her own husband, that ♦he might marry
her ambitious sister of the same name.――――A daughter of Cicero.
_See:_ Tulliola.――――A debauched woman. _Juvenal_, satire 6, li. 306.
♦ ‘she’ replaced with ‘he’
=Tullia lex=, _de senatu_, by Marcus Tullius Cicero, A.U.C. 689,
enacted that those who had a _libera legatio_ granted them by the
senate, should hold it no more than one year. Such senators as had
a _libera legatio_ travelled through the provinces of the empire
without any expense, as if they were employed in the affairs of
the state.――――Another, _de ambitu_, by the same, the same year. It
forbade any person, two years before he canvassed for an office,
to exhibit a show of gladiators, unless that case had devolved upon
him by will. Senators guilty of the crime of _ambitu_ were punished
with the _aquæ et ignis interdictio_ for 10 years, and the penalty
inflicted on the commons was more severe than that of the Calpurnian
law.
=Tulliānum=, a subterraneous prison in Rome, built by Servius Tullius,
and added to the other called _Robur_, where criminals were confined.
_Sallust_, _Conspiracy of Catiline_.
=Tulliŏla=, or =Tullia=, a daughter of Cicero by Terentia. She married
Caius Piso, and afterwards Furius Crassipes, and lastly Publius
Cornelius Dolabella. With this last husband she had every reason to
be dissatisfied. Dolabella was turbulent, and consequently the cause
of much grief to Tullia and her father. Tullia died in child-bed,
about 44 years before Christ. Cicero was so inconsolable on this
occasion, that some have accused him of an unnatural partiality
for his daughter. According to a ridiculous story which some of
the moderns report, in the age of Pope Paul III., a monument was
discovered on the Appian road with the superscription of _Tulliolæ
filiæ meæ_. The body of a woman was found in it, which was reduced
to ashes as soon as touched; there was also a lamp burning, which was
extinguished as soon as the air gained admission there, and which was
supposed to have been lighted above 1500 years. _Cicero._――_Plutarch_,
_Cicero_.
=Tullius Cimber=, the son of a freedman, rose to great honours, and
followed the interest of Pompey. He was reconciled to Julius Cæsar,
whom he murdered with Brutus. _Plutarch._――――Cicero, a celebrated
orator. _See:_ Cicero.――――The son of the orator Cicero. _See:_
Cicero.――――Servius, a king of Rome. _See:_ Servius.――――Senecio, a
man accused of conspiracy against Nero with Piso.――――A friend of Otho.
――――One of the kings of Rome. _See:_ Servius.
=Tullus Hostilius=, the third king of Rome after the death of Numa. He
was of a warlike and active disposition, and signalized himself by
his expedition against the people of Alba, whom he conquered, and
whose city he destroyed after the famous battle of the Horatii and
Curiatii. He afterwards carried his arms against the Latins and the
neighbouring states with success, and enforced reverence for majesty
among his subjects. He died with all his family, about 640 years
before the christian era, after a reign of 32 years. The manner of
his death is not precisely known. Some suppose that he was killed
by lightning, while he was performing some magical ceremonies in his
own house; or, according to the more probable accounts of others, he
was murdered by Ancus Martius, who set fire to the palace, to make it
be believed that the impiety of Tullus had been punished by heaven.
_Florus_, bk. 1, ch. 3.――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 3,
ch. 1.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 814.――_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 22.
――_Pausanias._――――A consul, A.U.C. 686. _Horace_, bk. 3, ode 8,
li. 12.
=Tunēta=, or =Tunis=, a town of Africa, near which Regulus was defeated
and taken by Xanthippus. _Livy_, bk. 30, ch. 9.
=Tungri=, a name given to some of the Germans, supposed to live on
the banks of the Maese, whose chief city, called Atuatuca, is now
_Tongeren_. The river of the country is now the _Spaw_. _Tacitus_,
_Germania_, bk. 2.
=Caius Turanius=, a Latin tragic poet in the age of Augustus. _Ovid_,
_ex Ponto_, bk. 4, poem 16, li. 29.
=Turba=, a town of Gaul.
=Turbo=, a gladiator, mentioned _Horace_, bk. 2, satire 3, li. 310.
He was of small stature, but uncommonly courageous.――――A governor of
Pannonia, under the emperors.
=Turdetăni=, or =Turduti=, a people of Spain, inhabiting both sides of
the Bætis. _Livy_, bk. 21, ch. 6; bk. 28, ch. 39; bk. 34, ch. 17.
=Turesis=, a Thracian who revolted from Tiberius.
=Turias=, a river of Spain falling into the Mediterranean near Valentia,
now the ♦_Guadalquiver_.
♦ ‘Guadalavier’ replaced with ‘Guadalquiver’
=Turicum=, a town of Gaul, now _Zurich_, in Switzerland.
=Turiosa=, a town of Spain.
=Turius=, a corrupt judge in the Augustan age. _Horace_, bk. 2,
satire 1, li. 49.
=Turnus=, a king of the Rutuli, son of Daunus and Venilia. He made
war against Æneas, and attempted to drive him away from Italy, that
he might not marry the daughter of Latinus, who had been previously
engaged to him. His efforts were attended with no success, though
supported with great courage and a numerous army. He was conquered,
and at last killed in a single combat by Æneas. He is represented
as a man of uncommon strength. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 56, &c.
――_Tibullus_, bk. 2, poem 5, li. 49.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 4, li. 879;
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 14, li. 451.
=Turŏnes=, a people of Gaul, whose capital, Cæsarodunum, is the modern
_Tours_.
=Turpio.= _See:_ Ambivius.
=Turrus=, a river of Italy falling into the Adriatic.
=Turullius=, one of Cæsar’s murderers.
=Turuntus=, a river of Sarmatia, supposed to be the Dwina, or Duna.
=Tuscania= and =Tuscia=, a large country at the west of Rome, the same
as Etruria. _See:_ Etruria.
=Tusci=, the inhabitants of Etruria.――――The villa of Pliny the younger
near the sources of the Tiber. _Pliny_, ltrs. 5 & 6.
=Tusculānum=, a country house of Cicero, near Tusculum, where,
among other books, the orator composed his Quæstiones, concerning
the contempt of death, &c., in five books. _Cicero_, _Tusculanæ
Disputationes_, bk. 1, ch. 4; _Letters to Atticus_, bk. 15, ltr. 2;
_Letters to his Friends_, bk. 2, ch. 1.
=Tuscŭlum=, a town of Latium on the declivity of a hill, about 12 miles
from Rome, founded by Telegonus the son of Ulysses and Circe. It is
now called _Frescati_, and is famous for the magnificent villas in
its neighbourhood. _Cicero_, _Letters to Atticus_.――_Strabo_, bk. 5.
――_Horace_, bk. 3, ode 23, li. 8, &c.
=Tuscus=, belonging to Etruria. The Tiber is called _Tuscus Amnis_,
from its situation. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 199.
=Tuscus vicus=, a small village near Rome. It received this name from
the Etrurians of Porsenna’s army that settled there. _Livy_, bk. 2,
ch. 14.
=Tuscum mare=, a part of the Mediterranean on the coast of Etruria.
_See:_ Tyrrhenum.
=Tuta=, a queen of Illyricum, &c. _See:_ Teuta.
=Tutia=, a vestal virgin accused of incontinence. She proved herself to
be innocent by carrying water from the Tiber to the temple of Vesta
in a sieve, after a solemn invocation to the goddess. _Livy_, bk. 20.
――――A small river six miles from Rome, where Annibal pitched his camp,
when he retreated from the city. _Livy_, bk. 26, ch. 11.
=Tuticum=, a town of the Hirpini.
=Tyăna=, a town at the foot of mount Taurus in Cappadocia, where
Apollonius was born, whence he is called _Tyaneus_. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 8, li. 719.――_Strabo_, bk. 12.
=Tyanītis=, a province of Asia Minor, near Cappadocia.
=Tybris.= _See:_ Tiberis.――――A Trojan who fought in Italy with Æneas
against Turnus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 124.
=Tybur=, a town of Latium on the Anio. _See:_ Tibur.
=Tyche=, one of the Oceanides. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 360.――――A part
of the town of Syracuse. _Cicero_, _Against Verres_, bk. 4, ch. 53.
=Tychius=, a celebrated artist of Hyle in Bœotia, who made Hector’s
shield, which was covered with the hides of seven oxen. _Ovid_,
_Fasti_, bk. 3, li. 823.――_Strabo_, bk. 9.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 7,
li. 220.
=Tyde=, a town of Hispania Tarraconensis. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 3,
li. 367.
=Tydeus=, a son of Œneus king of Calydon and Peribœa. He fled from his
country after the accidental murder of one of his friends, and found
a safe asylum in the court of Adrastus king of Argos, whose daughter
Deiphyle he married. When Adrastus wished to replace his son-in-law
Polynices on the throne of Thebes, Tydeus undertook to go and declare
war against Eteocles, who usurped the crown. The reception he met
provoked his resentment; he challenged Eteocles and his officers
to single combat, and defeated them. On his return to Argos he slew
50 of the Thebans who had conspired against his life, and lay in an
ambush to surprise him; and only one of the number was permitted to
return to Thebes, to bear the tidings of the fate of his companions.
He was one of the seven chiefs of the army of Adrastus, and during
the Theban war he behaved with great courage. Many of the enemies
expired under his blows, till he was at last wounded by Menalippus.
Though the blow was fatal, Tydeus had the strength to dart at his
enemy, and to bring him to the ground, before he was carried away
from the fight by his companions. At his own request, the dead body
of Menalippus was brought to him, and after he had ordered the head
to be cut off, he began to tear out the brains with his teeth. The
savage barbarity of Tydeus displeased Minerva, who was coming to
bring him relief and to make him immortal, and the goddess left him
to his fate, and suffered him to die. He was buried at Argos, where
his monument was still to be seen in the age of Pausanias. He was
father to Diomedes. Some suppose that the cause of his flight to
Argos was the murder of the son of Melus, or, according to others, of
Alcathous his father’s brother, or perhaps his own brother Olenius.
_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 4, lis. 365, 387.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 8;
bk. 3, ch. 6.――_Aeschylus_, _Seven Against Thebes_.――_Pausanias_, bk.
9, ch. 18.――_Diodorus_, bk. 2.――_Euripides_, _Suppliants_.――_Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 479.――_Ovid_, _Ibis_, li. 350, &c.
=Tydīdes=, a patronymic of Diomedes, as son of Tydeus. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 101.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ode 15, li. 28.
=Tylos=, a town of Peloponnesus near Tænarus, now _Bahrain_.
=Tymber=, a son of Daunus, who assisted Turnus. His head was cut off in
an engagement by Pallas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 391, &c.
=Tymōlus=, a mountain. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 6, li. 15. _See:_
Tmolus.
=Tympania=, an inland town of Elis.
=Tynphæi=, a people between Epirus and Thessaly.
=Tyndărĭdæ=, a patronymic of the children of Tyndarus, as Castor,
Pollux, and Helen, &c. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 8.――――A people of
Colchis.
=Tyndăris=, a patronymic of Helen daughter of Tyndarus. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 2, li. 569.――――A town of Sicily near Pelorus, founded
by a Messenian colony. _Strabo_, bk. 6.――_Pliny_, bk. 2, ch. 91.
――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 14, li. 209.――――Horace gave this name to one
of his mistresses, as best expressive of all female accomplishments,
bk. 1, ode 17, li. 10.――――A name given to Cassandra. _Ovid_, _Ars
Amatoria_, bk. 2, li. 408.――――A town of Colchis on the Phasis.
_Pliny._
=Tyndărus=, son of Œbalus and Gorgophone, or, according to some,
of Perieres. He was king of Lacedæmon, and married the celebrated
Leda, who bore him Timandra, Philonoe, &c., and also became mother
of Pollux and Helen by Jupiter. _See:_ Leda, Castor, Pollux,
Clytemnestra, &c.
=Tynnĭchus=, a general of Heraclea. _Polyænus._
=Typhœus=, or =Typhon=, a famous giant, son of Tartarus and Terra,
who had 100 heads like those of a serpent or a dragon. Flames of
devouring fire were darted from his mouth and from his eyes, and he
uttered horrid yells, like the dissonant shrieks of different animals.
He was no sooner born, than, to avenge the death of his brothers the
giants, he made war against heaven, and so frightened the gods that
they fled away and assumed different shapes. Jupiter became a ram,
Mercury an ibis, ♦Apollo a crow, Juno a cow, Bacchus a goat, Diana a
cat, Venus a fish, &c. The father of the gods at last resumed courage,
and put Typhœus to flight with his thunderbolts, and crushed him
under mount Ætna, in the island of Sicily, or, according to some,
under the island Inarime. Typhœus became father of Geryon, Cerberus,
and Orthos by his union with Echidna. _Hyginus_, fables 152 & 196.
――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, li. 325.――_Aeschylus_, _Seven
Against Thebes_.――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 820.――_Homer_, _Hymns_.
――_Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 156.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 716.
♦ ‘Appollo’ replaced with ‘Apollo’
=Typhon=, a giant whom Juno produced by striking the earth. Some of the
poets make him the same as the famous Typhœus. _See:_ Typhœus.――――A
brother of Osiris, who married Nepthys. He laid snares for his
brother during his expedition, and murdered him at his return. The
death of Osiris was avenged by his son Orus, and Typhon was put to
death. _See:_ Osiris. He was reckoned among the Egyptians to be the
cause of every evil, and on that account generally represented as a
wolf and a crocodile. _Plutarch_, _de Iside et Osiride_.――_Diodorus_,
bk. 1.
=Tyrannion=, a grammarian of Pontus, intimate with Cicero. His original
name was Theophrastus, and he received that of Tyrannion, from his
austerity to his pupils. He was taken by Lucullus, and restored to
his liberty by Muræna. He opened a school in the house of his friend
Cicero, and enjoyed his friendship. He was extremely fond of books,
and collected a library of about 30,000 volumes. To his care and
industry the world is indebted for the preservation of Aristotle’s
works.――――There was also one of his disciples called Diocles, who
bore his name. He was a native of Phœnicia, and was made prisoner in
the war of Augustus and Antony. He was bought by Dymes, one of the
emperors favourites, and afterwards by Terentia, who gave him his
liberty. He wrote 68 different volumes, in one of which he proved
that the Latin tongue was derived from the Greek; and another in
which Homer’s poems were corrected, &c.
=Tyrannus=, a son of Pterelaus.
=Tyras=, or =Tyra=, a river of European Sarmatia, falling into the
Euxine sea, between the Danube and the Borysthenes, and now called
the _Niester_. _Ovid_, _ex Ponto_, bk. 4, poem 10, li. 50.
=Tyres=, one of the companions of Æneas in his wars against Turnus. He
was brother to Teuthras. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 403.
=Tyridates=, a rich man in the age of Alexander, &c. _Curtius._
=Tyrii=, or =Tyrus=, a town of Magna Græcia.
=Tyriotes=, a eunuch of Darius, who fled from Alexander’s camp, to
inform his master of the queen’s death. _Curtius_, bk. 4, ch. 10.
=Tyro=, a beautiful nymph, daughter of Salmoneus king of Elis and
Alcidice. She was treated with great severity by her mother-in-law
Sidero, and at last removed from her father’s house by her uncle
Cretheus. She became enamoured of the Enipeus; and as she often
walked on the banks of the river, Neptune assumed the shape of her
favourite lover, and gained her affections. She had two sons, Pelias
and Neleus, by Neptune, whom she exposed, to conceal her incontinence
from the world. The children were preserved by shepherds, and when
they had arrived at years of maturity, they avenged their mother’s
injuries by assassinating the cruel Sidero. Some time after her
amour with Neptune, Tyro married her uncle Cretheus, by whom she had
Amythaon, Pheres, and Æson. Tyro is often called _Salmonis_ from her
father. _Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 11, li. 234.――_Pindar_, _Pythian_, ch.
4.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Propertius_,
bk. 1, poem 13, li. 20; bk. 2, poem 30, li. 51; bk. 3, poem 19,
li. 13.――_Ovid_, _Amores_, bk. 3, poem 6, li. 43.――_Ælian_, _Varia
Historia_, bk. 12, ch. 42.
=Tyros=, an island of Arabia.――――A city of Phœnicia. _See:_ Tyrus.
=Tyrrheidæ=, a patronymic given to the sons of Tyrrheus, who kept the
flocks of Latinus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 484.
=Tyrrhēni=, the inhabitants of Etruria. _See:_ Etruria.
=Tyrrhēnum mare=, that part of the Mediterranean which lies on the
coast of Etruria. It is also called _Inferum_, as being at the bottom
or south of Italy.
=Tyrrhēnus=, a son of Atys king of Lydia, who came to Italy, where part
of the country was called after him. _Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 4, ch. 55.――_Paterculus_, bk. 1, ch. 1.――――A friend of
Æneas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 11, li. 612.
=Tyrrheus=, a shepherd of king Latinus, whose stag being killed by the
companions of Ascanius, was the first cause of war between Æneas and
the inhabitants of Latium. Hence the word _Tyrrheides_. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 485.――――An Egyptian general, B.C. 91.
=Tyrsis=, a place in the Balearides, supposed to be the palace of
Saturn.
=Tyrtæus=, a Greek elegiac poet, born in Attica, son of Archimbrotus.
In the second Messenian war, the Lacedæmonians were directed by the
oracle to apply to the Athenians for a general, if they wished to
finish their expedition with success, and they were contemptuously
presented with Tyrtæus. The poet, though ridiculed for his many
deformities, and his ignorance of military affairs, animated the
Lacedæmonians with martial songs, just as they wished to raise the
siege of Ithome, and inspired them with so much courage, that they
defeated the Messenians. For his services, he was made a citizen of
Lacedæmon, and treated with great attention. Of the compositions of
Tyrtæus nothing is extant but the fragments of four or five elegies.
He flourished about 684 B.C. _Justin_, bk. 2, ch. 5.――_Strabo_, bk. 8.
――_Aristotle_, _Politics_, bk. 5, ch. 7.――_Horace_, _Art of Poetry_,
li. 402.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 12, ch. 50.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 4, ch. 6, &c.
=Tyrus=, or =Tyros=, a very ancient city of Phœnicia, built by the
Sidonians, on a small island at the south of Sidon, about 200 stadia
from the shore, and now called _Sur_. There were, properly speaking,
two places of that name, the old Tyros, called _Palætyros_, on the
sea-shore, and the other in the island. It was about 19 miles in
circumference, including Palætyros, but, without it, about four miles.
Tyre was destroyed by the princes of Assyria, and afterwards rebuilt.
It maintained its independence till the age of Alexander, who took
it with much difficulty, and only after he had joined the island to
the continent by a mole, after a siege of seven months, on the 20th
of August, B.C. 332. The Tyrians were naturally industrious; their
city was the emporium of commerce, and they were deemed the inventors
of scarlet and purple colours. They founded many cities in different
parts of the world, such as Carthage, Gades, Leptis, Utica, &c.,
which on that account are often distinguished by the epithet _Tyria_.
The buildings of Tyre were very splendid and magnificent; the walls
were 150 feet high, with a proportionate breadth. Hercules was the
chief deity of the place. It had two large and capacious harbours,
and a powerful fleet, and was built, according to some writers, about
2760 years before the christian era. _Strabo_, bk. 16.――_Herodotus_,
bk. 2, ch. 44.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 12.――_Curtius_, bk. 4, ch. 4.
――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, lis. 6, 339, &c.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 1,
&c. _Metamorphoses_, bks. 5 & 10.――_Lucan_, bk. 3, &c.――――A nymph,
mother of Venus, according to some.
=Tysias=, a man celebrated by Cicero. _See:_ Tisias.
U & V
=Vacatione= (_lex de_), was enacted concerning the exemption from
military service, and contained this very remarkable clause, _nisi
bellum Gallicum exoriatur_, in which case the priests themselves were
not exempted from service. This can intimate how apprehensive the
Romans were of the Gauls, by whom their city had once been taken.
=Vacca=, a town of Numidia. _Sallust_, _Jugurthine War_.――――A river of
Spain.
=Vaccæi=, a people at the north of Spain. _Livy_, bk. 21, ch. 5; bk. 35,
ch. 7; bk. 46, ch. 47.
=Vaccus=, a general, &c. _Livy_, bk. 8, ch. 19.
=Vacūna=, a goddess at Rome, who presided over repose and leisure, as
the word indicates (_vacare_). Her festivals were observed in the
month of December. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 6, li. 307.――_Horace_, bk. 1,
ltr. 10, li. 49.
=Vadimōnis lacus=, now _Bassano_, a lake of Etruria, whose waters were
sulphureous. The Etrurians were defeated there by the Romans, and the
Gauls by Dolabella. _Livy_, bk. 9, ch. 39.――_Florus_, bk. 1, ch. 13.
――_Pliny_, bk. 8, ltr. 20.
=Vaga=, a town of Africa. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 3, li. 259.
=Vagedrūsa=, a river of Sicily between the towns of Camarina and Gela.
_Silius Italicus_, bk. 14, li. 229.
=Vagellius=, an obscene lawyer of Mutina. _Juvenal_, satire 16, li. 23.
=Vagēni=, or =Vagienni=, a people of Liguria, at the sources of the Po,
whose capital was called _Augusta Vagiennorum_. _Silius Italicus_,
bk. 8, li. 606.
=Vahālis=, a river of modern Holland, now called the _Waal_. _Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 2, ch. 6.
=Vala Caius Numonius=, a friend of Horace, to whom the poet addressed
bk. 1, ltr. 15.
=Valens Flavius=, a son of Gratian, born in Pannonia. His brother
Valentinian took him as his colleague on the throne, and appointed
him over the eastern parts of the Roman empire. The bold measures and
the threats of the rebel Procopius frightened the new emperor; and
if his friends had not interfered, he would have willingly resigned
all his pretensions to the empire which his brother had entrusted to
his care. By perseverance, however, Valens was enabled to destroy his
rival, and to distinguish himself in his wars against the northern
barbarians. But his lenity to these savage intruders proved fatal
to the Roman power; and by permitting some of the Goths to settle in
the provinces of Thrace, and to have free access to every part of the
country, Valens encouraged them to make depredations on his subjects,
and to disturb their tranquillity. His eyes were opened too late;
he attempted to repel them, but he failed in the attempt. A bloody
battle was fought, in which the barbarians obtained some advantage,
and Valens was hurried away by the obscurity of the night, and
the affection of the soldiers for his person, into a lonely house,
which the Goths set on fire. Valens, unable to make his escape, was
burnt alive in the 50th year of his age, after a reign of 13 years,
A.D. 378. He has been blamed for his superstition and cruelty, in
putting to death all such of his subjects whose name began by _Theod_,
because he had been informed by his favourite astrologers that his
crown would devolve upon the head of an officer whose name began
with these letters. Valens did not possess any of the great qualities
which distinguish a good and powerful monarch. He was illiterate, and
of a disposition naturally indolent and inactive. Yet though timorous
in the highest degree, he was warlike; and though fond of ease, he
was acquainted with the character of his officers, and preferred none
but such as possessed merit. He was a great friend to discipline,
a pattern of chastity and temperance, and he showed himself always
ready to listen to the just complaints of his subjects, though he
gave an attentive ear to flattery and malevolent informations.
_Ammianus_, &c.――――Valerius, a proconsul of Achaia, who proclaimed
himself emperor of Rome, when Marcian, who had been invested with
the purple in the east, attempted to assassinate him. He reigned only
six months, and was murdered by his soldiers, A.D. 261.――――Fabius, a
friend of Vitellius, whom he saluted emperor, in opposition to Otho.
He was greatly honoured by Vitellius, &c.――――A general of the emperor
Honorius.――――The name of the second Mercury mentioned by _Cicero_,
_de Natura Deorum_, bk. 3, ch. 22, but considered as more properly
belonging to Jupiter.
=Valentia=, one of the ancient names of Rome.――――A town of Spain, a
little below Saguntum, founded by Julius Brutus, and for some time
known by the name of Julia Collonia.――――A town of Italy.――――Another,
in Sardinia.
=Valentiniānus I.=, a son of Gratian, raised to the imperial throne
by his merit and valour. He kept the western part of the empire for
himself, and appointed over the east his brother Valens. He gave
the most convincing proof of his military valour in the victories
which he obtained over the barbarians in the provinces of Gaul, the
deserts of Africa, and on the banks of the Rhine and the Danube.
The insolence of the Quadi he punished with great severity; and
when these desperate and indigent barbarians had deprecated the
conqueror’s mercy, Valentinian treated them with contempt, and
upbraided them with every mark of resentment. While he spoke with
such warmth, he broke a blood-vessel, and fell lifeless on the ground.
He was conveyed into his palace by his attendants, and soon after
died, after suffering the greatest agonies, from violent fits and
contortions of his limbs, on the 17th of November, A.D. 375. He was
then in the 55th year of his age, and had reigned 12 years. He has
been represented by some as cruel and covetous in the highest degree.
He was naturally of an irascible disposition, and he gratified his
pride in expressing a contempt for those who were his equals in
military abilities, or who shone for gracefulness or elegance of
address. _Ammianus._
=Valentinianus II.=, second son of Valentinian I., was proclaimed
emperor about six days after his father’s death, though only five
years old. He succeeded his brother, Gratian, A.D. 383, but his youth
seemed to favour dissension, and the attempts and the usurpations
of rebels. He was robbed of his throne by Maximus, four years after
the death of Gratian; and in this helpless situation he had recourse
to Theodosius, who was then emperor of the east. He was successful
in his applications; Maximus was conquered by Theodosius, and
Valentinian entered Rome in triumph, accompanied by his benefactor.
He was some time after strangled by one of his officers, a native of
Gaul, called Arbogastes, in whom he had placed too much confidence,
and from whom he expected more deference than the ambition of a
barbarian could pay. Valentinian reigned nine years. This happened
the 15th of May, A.D. 392, at Vienne, one of the modern towns of
France. He has been commended for his many virtues, and the applause
which the populace bestowed upon him was bestowed upon real merit.
He abolished the greatest part of the taxes; and because his subjects
complained that he was too fond of the amusements of the circus, he
ordered all such festivals to be abolished, and all the wild beasts
that were kept for the entertainment of the people to be slain. He
was remarkable for his benevolence and clemency, not only to his
friends, but even to such as had conspired against his life; and
he used to say that tyrants alone are suspicious. He was fond of
imitating the virtues and exemplary life of his friend and patron
Theodosius, and if he had lived longer, the Romans might have enjoyed
peace and security.
=Valentinianus III.=, was son of Constantius and Placidia the
daughter of Theodosius the Great, and therefore, as related to the
imperial family, he was saluted emperor in his youth, and publicly
acknowledged as such at Rome, the 3rd of October, A.D. 423, about
the sixth year of his age. He was at first governed by his mother,
and the intrigues of his generals and courtiers; and when he came to
years of discretion, he disgraced himself by violence, oppression,
and incontinence. He was murdered in the midst of Rome, A.D. 454, in
the 36th year of his age, and 31st of his reign, by Petronius Maximus,
to whose wife he had offered violence. The vices of Valentinian III.
were conspicuous; every passion he wished to gratify at the expense
of his honour, his health, and character; and as he lived without
one single act of benevolence or kindness, he died lamented by none,
though pitied for his imprudence and vicious propensities. He was the
last of the family of Theodosius.
=Valentinianus=, a son of the emperor Gratian, who died when very young.
=Valeria=, a sister of Publicola, who advised the Roman matrons to go
and deprecate the resentment of Coriolanus. _Plutarch_, _Coriolanus_.
――――A daughter of Publicola, given as a hostage to Porsenna by the
Romans. She fled from the enemy’s country with Clœlia, and swam
across the Tiber. _Plutarch_, _de Mulierum Virtutibus_.――――A daughter
of Messala, sister to Hortensius, who married Sylla.――――The wife
of the emperor Valentinian.――――The wife of the emperor Galerius, &c.
――――A road in Sicily, which led from Messana to Lilybæum.――――A town
of Spain. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 3.
=Valeria lex=, _de provocatione_, by Publius Valerius Poplicola the
sole consul, A.U.C. 245. It permitted the appeal from a magistrate to
the people, and forbade the magistrate to punish a citizen for making
the appeal. It further made it a capital crime for a citizen to
aspire to the sovereignty of Rome, or to exercise any office without
the choice and approbation of the people. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 4,
ch. 1.――_Livy_, bk. 2, ch. 8.――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 4.
――――Another, _de debitoribus_, by Valerius Flaccus. It required that
all creditors should discharge their debtors, on receiving a fourth
part of the whole sum.――――Another, by Marcus Valerius Corvinus, A.U.C.
453, which confirmed the first Valerian law, enacted by Poplicola.
――――Another, called also _Horatia_, by Lucius Valerius and Marcus
Horatius the consuls, A.U.C. 305. It revived the first Valerian law,
which, under the triumvirate, had lost its force.――――Another, _de
magistratibus_, by Publius Valerius Poplicola sole consul, A.U.C. 245.
It created two questors to take care of the public treasure, which
was for the future to be kept in the temple of Saturn. _Plutarch_,
_Publicola_.――_Livy_, bk. 2.
=Valeriānus Publius Licinius=, a Roman, proclaimed emperor by the
armies in Rhætia, A.D. 254. The virtues which shone in him when
a private man, were lost when he ascended the throne. Formerly
distinguished for his temperance, moderation, and many virtues,
which fixed the uninfluenced choice of all Rome upon him, Valerian,
invested with the purple, displayed inability and meanness. He was
cowardly in his operations, and though acquainted with war, and the
patron of science, he seldom acted with prudence, or favoured men of
true genius and merit. He took his son Gallienus as his colleague in
the empire, and showed the malevolence of his heart by persecuting
the christians whom he had for a while tolerated. He also made
war against the Goths and Scythians; but in an expedition which he
undertook against Sapor king of Persia, his arms were attended with
ill success. He was conquered in Mesopotamia, and when he wished to
have a private conference with Sapor, the conqueror seized his person,
and carried him in triumph to his capital, where he exposed him, and
in all the cities of his empire, to the ridicule and insolence of his
subjects. When the Persian monarch mounted on horseback, Valerian
served as a footstool, and the many other insults which he suffered
excited indignation even among the courtiers of Sapor. The monarch at
last ordered him to be flayed alive, and salt to be thrown over his
mangled body, so that he died in the greatest torments. His skin was
tanned, and painted in red; and that the ignominy of the Roman empire
might be lasting, it was nailed in one of the temples of Persia.
Valerian died in the 71st year of his age, A.D. 260, after a reign
of seven years.――――A grandson of Valerian the emperor. He was put to
death when his father, the emperor Gallienus, was killed.――――One of
the generals of the usurper Niger.――――A worthy senator, put to death
by Heliogabalus.
=Valerius Publius=, a celebrated Roman surnamed _Poplicola_, from
his popularity. He was very active in assisting Brutus to expel
the Tarquins, and he was the first that took an oath to support the
liberty and independence of his country. Though he had been refused
the consulship, and had retired with great dissatisfaction from the
direction of affairs, yet he regarded the public opinion; and when
the jealousy of the Romans inveighed against the towering appearance
of his house, he acknowledged the reproof, and in making it lower,
he showed his wish to be on a level with his fellow-citizens, and not
to erect what might be considered as a citadel for the oppression of
his country. He was afterwards honoured with the consulship, on the
expulsion of Collatinus, and he triumphed over the Etrurians, after
he had gained the victory in the battle in which Brutus and the sons
of Tarquin had fallen. Valerius died after he had been four times
consul, and enjoyed the popularity, and received the thanks and the
gratitude, which people redeemed from slavery and oppression usually
pay to their patrons and deliverers. He was so poor, that his body
was buried at the public expense. The Roman matrons mourned his death
a whole year. _Plutarch_, _Lives_.――_Florus_, bk. 1, ch. 9.――_Livy_,
bk. 3, ch. 8, &c.――――Corvinus, a tribune of the soldiers under
Camillus. When the Roman army were challenged by one of the Senones,
remarkable for his strength and stature, Valerius undertook to
engage him, and obtained an easy victory, by means of a crow that
assisted him, and attacked the face of the Gaul, whence his surname
of _Corvinus_. Valerius triumphed over the Etrurians, and the
neighbouring states that made war against Rome, and was six times
honoured with the consulship. He died in the 100th year of his age,
admired and regretted for many public and private virtues. _Valerius
Maximus_, bk. 8, ch. 13.――_Livy_, bk. 7, ch. 27, &c.――_Plutarch_,
_Caius Marius_.――_Cicero_, _Against Catiline_.――――Antias, an
excellent Roman historian often quoted, and particularly by Livy.
――――Marcus Corvinus Messala, a Roman, made consul with Augustus. He
distinguished himself by his learning as well as military virtues.
He lost his memory about two years before his death, and according to
some, he was even ignorant of his own name. _Suetonius_, _Augustus_.
――_Cicero_, _Brutus_.――――Soranus, a Latin poet in the age of Julius
Cæsar, put to death for betraying a secret. He acknowledged no god,
but the soul of the universe.――――Maximus, a brother of Poplicola.
――――A Latin historian who carried arms under the sons of Pompey. He
dedicated his time to study, and wrote an account of all the most
celebrated sayings and actions of the Romans, and other illustrious
persons, which is still extant, and divided into nine books. It
is dedicated to Tiberius. Some have supposed that he lived after
the age of Tiberius, from the want of purity and elegance which so
conspicuously appear in his writings, unworthy of the correctness of
the golden age of the Roman literature. The best editions of Valerius
are those of Torrenius, 4to, Leiden, 1726, and of Vorstius, 8vo,
Berlin, 1672.――――Marcus, a brother of Poplicola, who defeated the
army of the Sabines in two battles. He was honoured with a triumph,
and the Romans, to show the sense of his great merit, built him a
house on mount Palatine, at the public expense.――――Potitus, a general
who stirred up the people and army against the decemvirs, and Appius
Claudius in particular. He was chosen consul, and conquered the
Volsci and Æqui.――――Flaccus, a Roman, intimate with Cato the censor,
whose friendship he honourably shared. He was consul with him, and
cut off an army of 10,000 of the Insubres and Boii in Gaul, in one
battle. He was also chosen censor, and prince of the senate, &c.――――A
Latin poet who flourished under Vespasian. He wrote a poem in eight
books on the Argonautic expedition, but it remained unfinished on
account of his premature death. The Argonauts were there left on
the sea in their return home. Some critics have been lavish in their
praises upon Flaccus, and have called him the second poet of Rome,
after Virgil. His poetry, however, is deemed by some frigid and
languishing, and his style uncouth and inelegant. The best editions
of Flaccus are those of Burman, Leiden, 1724, and 12mo, Utrecht, 1702.
――――Asiaticus, a celebrated Roman, accused of having murdered one
of the relations of the emperor Claudius. He was condemned by the
intrigues of Messalina, though innocent, and he opened his veins,
and bled to death. _Tacitus_, _Annals_.――――A friend of Vitellius.
――――Fabianus, a youth condemned under Nero, for counterfeiting the
will of one of his friends, &c. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 14, ch. 42.
――――Lævinus, a consul who fought against Pyrrhus during the Tarentine
war. _See:_ Lævinus.――――Præconius, a lieutenant of Cæsar’s army in
Gaul, slain in a skirmish.――――Paulinus, a friend of Vespasian, &c.
=Valerus=, a friend of Turnus against Æneas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10,
li. 752.
=Valgius Rufus=, a Roman poet in the Augustan age, celebrated for
his writings. He was very intimate with Horace. _Tibullus_, ♦bk. 1,
li. 180.――_Horace_, bk. 1, satire 10, li. 82.
♦ removed extraneous ‘3’
=Vandalii=, a people of Germany. _Tacitus_, _Germania_, ch. 3.
=Vangiŏnes=, a people of Germany. Their capital, Borbetomagus, is now
called _Worms_. _Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 431.――_Cæsar_, _Gallic War_,
bk. 1, ch. 51.
=Vannia=, a town of Italy, north of the Po, now called _Civita_.
=Vannius=, a king of the Suevi, banished under Claudius, &c. _Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 12, ch. 29.
=Vapineum=, a town of Gaul.
=Varanes=, a name common to some of the Persian monarchs, in the age of
the Roman emperors.
=Vardæi=, a people of Dalmatia. _Cicero_, _Letters to his Friends_,
bk. 5, ltr. 9.
=Varia=, a town of Latium.
=Varia lex=, _de majestate_, by the tribune ♦Quintus Varius, A.U.C. 662.
It ordained that all such as had assisted the confederates in their
war against Rome, should be publicly tried.――――Another, _de civiate_,
by Quintus Varius Hybrida. It punished all such as were suspected of
having assisted or supported the people of Italy in their petition to
become free citizens of Rome. _Cicero_, _For Milo_, ch. 36; _Brutus_,
chs. 56, 88, &c.
♦ ‘L. Varrus’ replaced with ‘Quintus Varius’
=Varīni=, a people of Germany. _Tacitus_, _Germania_, ch. 40.
=Varisti=, a people of Germany.
=Lucius Varius=, or =Varus=, a tragic poet intimate with Horace
and Virgil. He was one of those whom Augustus appointed to revise
Virgil’s Æneid. Some fragments of his poetry are still extant.
Besides tragedies, he wrote a panegyric on the emperor. Quintilian
says, bk. 10, that his Thyestes was equal to any composition of the
Greek poets. _Horace_, bk. 1, satire 5, li. 40.――――A man who raised
his reputation by the power of his oratory. _Cicero_, _On Oratory_,
bk. 1, ch. 25.――――One of the friends of Antony, surnamed _Cotylon_.
――――A man in the reign of Otho, punished for his adulteries, &c.
=Varro Marcus Terentius=, a Roman consul defeated at Cannæ, by Annibal.
_See:_ Terentius. A Latin writer, celebrated for his great learning.
He wrote no less than 500 different volumes, which are all now
lost, except a treatise _de Re Rusticâ_, and another _de Linguâ
Latinâ_, in five books, written in his 80th year, and dedicated to
the orator Cicero. He was Pompey’s lieutenant in his piratical wars,
and obtained a naval crown. In the civil wars he was taken by Cæsar
and proscribed, but he escaped. He has been greatly commended by
Cicero for his erudition, and St. Augustin says that it cannot but be
wondered how Varro, who read such a number of books, could find time
to compose so many volumes; and how he who composed so many volumes,
could be at leisure to peruse such a variety of books, and gain
so much literary information. He died B.C. 28, in the 88th year of
his age. The best edition of Varro is that of Dordrac, 8vo, 1619.
_Cicero_, _Academica_, &c.――_Quintilian._――――Atacinus, a native of
Gaul, in the age of Julius Cæsar. He translated into Latin verse
the Argonautica of Apollonius Rhodius, with great correctness and
elegance. He also wrote a poem entitled _de Bello Sequanico_, besides
epigrams and elegies. Some fragments of his poetry are still extant.
He failed in his attempt to write satire. _Horace_, bk. 1, satire 10,
li. 46.――_Ovid_, _Amores_, bk. 1, li. 15.――_Quintilian_, bk. 10,
ch. 1.
=Varrōnis villa=, now _Vicovaro_, was situate on the Anio, in the
country of the Sabines. _Cicero_, _Philippics_, bk. 2, ltr. 41.
=Varus Quintilius=, a Roman proconsul, descended from an illustrious
family. He was appointed governor of Syria, and afterwards made
commander of the armies in Germany. He was surprised by the enemy,
under Arminius, a crafty and dissimulating chief, and his army
was cut to pieces. When he saw that everything was lost, he killed
himself, A.D. 10, and his example was followed by some of his
officers. His head was afterwards sent to Augustus at Rome, by one
of the barbarian chiefs, as also his body; and so great was the
influence of this defeat upon the emperor, that he continued for
whole months to show all the marks of dejection, and of deep sorrow,
often exclaiming, “O Varus, restore me my legions!” The bodies of
the slain were left in the field of battle, where they were found six
years after by Germanicus, and buried with great pomp. Varus has been
taxed with indolence and cowardice, and some have intimated, that
if he had not trusted too much to the insinuations of the barbarian
chiefs, he might have not only escaped ruin, but awed the Germans to
their duty. His avarice was also conspicuous; he went poor to Syria,
whence he returned loaded with riches. _Horace_, bk. 1, ode 24.
――_Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 117.――_Florus_, bk. 4, ch. 12.――_Virgil_,
_Eclogues_, poem 6.――――A son of Varus, who married a daughter of
Germanicus. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 4, ch. 6.――――The father and
grandfather of Varus, who was killed in Germany, slew themselves with
their own swords, the one after the battle of Philippi, and the other
in the plains of Pharsalia.――――Quintilius, a friend of Horace, and
other great men in the Augustan age. He was a good judge of poetry,
and a great critic, as Horace, _Art of Poetry_, li. 438, seems to
insinuate. The poet has addressed the 18th ode of his first book to
him, and in the 24th he mourns pathetically his death. Some suppose
this Varus to be the person killed in Germany, while others believe
him to be a man who devoted his time more to the muses than to war.
_See:_ Varius.――――Lucius, an epicurean philosopher, intimate with
Julius Cæsar. Some suppose that it was to him that Virgil inscribed
his sixth eclogue. He is commended by _Quintilian_, bk. 6, chs. 3, 78.
――――Alfrenus, a Roman, who, though originally a shoemaker, became
consul, and distinguished himself by his abilities as an orator. He
was buried at the public expense, an honour granted to few, and only
to persons of merit. _Horace_, bk. 1, satire 3.――――Accius, one of
the friends of Cato in Africa, &c.――――A river which falls into the
Mediterranean, to the west of Nice, after separating Liguria from
Gallia Narbonensis. _Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 404.
=Vasates=, a people of Gaul.
=Vascŏnes=, a people of Spain, on the Pyrenees. They were so reduced
by a famine by Metellus, that they fed on human flesh. _Pliny_, bk. 3,
ch. 3.――_Ausonius_, bk. 2, li. 100.――_Juvenal_, satire 15, li. 93.
=Vasio=, a town of Gaul in modern Provence. _Cicero_, _Letters to his
Friends_, bk. 10, ltr. 34.
=Vaticānus=, a hill at Rome, near the Tiber and the Janiculum, which
produced wine of no great esteem. It was disregarded by the Romans on
account of the unwholesomeness of the air, and the continual stench
of the filth that was there, and of stagnated waters. Heliogabalus
was the first who cleared it of all disagreeable nuisances. It is now
admired for ancient monuments and pillars, for a celebrated public
library, and for the palace of the pope. _Horace_, bk. 1, ode 20.
=Vătiēnus=, now _Saterno_, a river rising in the Alps and falling into
the Po. _Martial_, bk. 3, ltr. 67.――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 16.
=Vātinia lex=, _de provinciis_, by the tribune Publius Vatinius, A.U.C.
694. It appointed Cæsar governor of Gallia Cisalpina and Illyricum,
for five years, without a decree of the senate, or the usual custom
of casting lots. Some persons were also appointed to attend him as
lieutenants without the interference of the senate. His army was to
be paid out of the public treasury, and he was empowered to plant a
Roman colony in the town of Novocomum in Gaul.――――Another by Publius
Vatinius the tribune, A.U.C. 694, _de repetundis_, for the better
management of the trial of those who were accused of extortion.
=Vatinius=, an intimate friend of Cicero, once distinguished for his
enmity to the orator. He hated the people of Rome for their great
vices and corruption, whence excessive hatred became proverbial
in the words _Vatinianum odium_. _Catullus_, bk. 14, li. 3.――――A
shoemaker, ridiculed for his deformities, and the oddity of his
character. He was one of Nero’s favourites, and he surpassed the
rest of the courtiers in flattery, and in the commission of every
impious deed. Large cups, of no value, are called _Vatiniana_ from
him, because he used one which was both ill-shaped and uncouth.
_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 13, ch. 34.――_Juvenal._――_Martial_, bk. 14,
ltr. 96.
=Ubii=, a people of Germany near the Rhine, transported across the
river by Agrippa, who gave them the name of Agrippinenses, from
his daughter Agrippina, who had been born in the country. Their
chief town, Ubiorum oppidum, is now _Cologne_. _Tacitus_, _Germania_,
ch. 28; _Annals_, bk. 12, ch. 27.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 17.――_Cæsar_,
bk. 4, ch. 30.
=Ucălĕgon=, a Trojan chief, remarkable for his great age, and praised
for the soundness of his counsels and his good intentions, though
accused by some of betraying his country to the enemy. His house was
first set on fire by the Greeks. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 2, li. 312.
――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 3, li. 148.
=Ucetia=, a town of Gaul.
=Ucubis=, now _Lucubi_, a town of Spain. _Hirtius._
=Udina=, or =Vedĭnum=, now _Udino_, a town of Italy.
=Vectis=, the isle of _Wight_, south of Britain. _Suetonius_, _Claudius_,
ch. 5.
=Vectius=, a rhetorician, &c. _Juvenal_, satire 7, li. 150.
=Vectones.= _See:_ Vettones.
=Vedius Pollio=, a friend of Augustus, very cruel to his servants, &c.
_See:_ Pollio.――――Aquila, an officer at the battle of Bebriacum, &c.
_Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 2, ch. 44.
=Vegetius=, a Latin writer, who flourished B.C. 386. The best edition
of his treatise _de Re Militari_, together with Modestus, is that of
Paris, 4to, 1607.
=Vegia=, an island on the coast of Dalmatia.
=Veia=, a sorceress, in the age of Horace, epode 5, li. 29.
=Veianus=, a gladiator, in the age of Horace, bk. 1, ltr. 1, li. 4.
=Veientes=, the inhabitants of Veii. They were carried to Rome, where
the tribe they composed was called _Veientina_. _See:_ Veii.
=Veiento Fabricius=, a Roman, as arrogant as he was satirical. Nero
banished him for his libellous writings. _Juvenal_, satire 3, li. 185.
=Veii=, a powerful city of Etruria, at the distance of about 12 miles
from Rome. It sustained many long wars against the Romans, and was at
last taken and destroyed by Camillus, after a siege of 10 years. At
the time of its destruction, Veii was larger and far more magnificent
than the city of Rome. Its situation was so eligible, that the Romans,
after the burning of the city by the Gauls, were long inclined to
migrate there, and totally abandon their native home; and this would
have been carried into execution, if not opposed by the authority and
eloquence of Camillus. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 2, li. 195.――_Cicero_,
_De Divinatione_, bk. 1, ch. 44.――_Horace_, bk. 2, satire 3, li. 143.
――_Livy_, bk. 5, ch. 21, &c.
=Vejŏvis=, or =Vejupĭter=, a deity of ill omen at Rome. He had a temple
on the Capitoline hill built by Romulus. Some suppose that he was
the same as Jupiter _the infant_, or _in the cradle_, because he
was represented without thunder, or a sceptre, and had only by his
side the goat Amalthæa, and the Cretan nymph who fed him when young.
_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 3, li. 430.
=Velabrum=, a marshy piece of ground on the side of the Tiber, between
the Aventine, Palatine, and Capitoline hills, which Augustus drained,
and where he built houses. The place was frequented as a market,
where oil, cheese, and other commodities were exposed to sale.
_Horace_, bk. 2, satire 3, li. 229.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 6, li. 401.
――_Tibullus_, bk. 2, poem 5, li. 33.――_Plautus_, bk. 3, _Captivi_,
ch. 1, li. 29.
=Velanius=, one of Cæsar’s officers in Gaul, &c.
=Velauni=, a people of Gaul.
=Velia=, a maritime town of Lucania, founded by a colony of Phoceans,
about 600 years after the coming of Æneas into Italy. The port in its
neighbourhood was called _Velinus portus_. _Strabo_, bk. 6.――_Mela_,
bk. 2, ch. 4.――_Cicero_, _Philippics_, bk. 10, ch. 4.――_Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 366.――――An eminence near the Roman forum, where
Poplicola built himself a house. _Livy_, bk. 2, ch. 6.――_Cicero_,
bk. 7, _Letters to Atticus_, ltr. 15.
=Velica=, or =Vellica=, a town of the Cantabri.
=Velīna=, a part of the city of Rome, adjoining mount Palatine. It
was also one of the Roman tribes. _Horace_, bk. 1, ltr. 6, li. 52.
――_Cicero_, bk. 4, _Letters to Atticus_, ltr. 15.
=Velīnus=, a lake in the country of the Sabines, formed by the stagnant
waters of the Velinus, between some hills near Reate. The river
Velinus rises in the Apennines, and after it has formed the lake, it
falls into the Nar, near Spoletium. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 517.
――_Cicero_, _De Divinatione_, bk. 1, ch. 36.
=Veliocassi=, a people of Gaul.
=Veliterna=, or =Velitræ=, an ancient town of Latium on the Appian road,
20 miles at the east of Rome. The inhabitants were called _Veliterni_.
It became a Roman colony. _Livy_, bk. 8, ch. 12, &c.――_Suetonius_
_Augustus_.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 378, &c.
=Vellari=, a people of Gaul.
=Vellaunodūnum=, a town of the Senones, now _Beaune_. _Cæsar_, ♦_Gallic
War_, bk. 7, ch. 11.
♦ Book name omitted from text.
=Velleda=, a woman famous among the Germans, in the age of Vespasian,
and worshipped as a deity. _Tacitus_, _Germania_, ch. 8.
=Velleius Paterculus=, a Roman historian, descended from an equestrian
family of Campania. He was at first a military tribune in the Roman
armies, and for nine years served under Tiberius in the various
expeditions which he undertook in Gaul and Germany. Velleius wrote an
epitome of the history of Greece, and of Rome, and of other nations
of the most remote antiquity, but of this authentic composition there
remain only fragments of the history of Greece and Rome from the
conquest of Perseus, by Paulus, to the 17th year of the reign of
Tiberius, in two books. It is a judicious account of celebrated men
and illustrious cities; the historian is happy in his descriptions,
and accurate in his dates; his pictures are true, and his narrations
lively and interesting. The whole is candid and impartial, but only
till the reign of the Cæsars, when the writer began to be influenced
by the presence of the emperor, or the power of his favourites.
Paterculus is deservedly censured for his invectives against
Cicero and Pompey, and his encomiums on the cruel Tiberius, and the
unfortunate Sejanus. Some suppose that he was involved in the ruin
of this disappointed courtier, whom he had extolled as a pattern of
virtue and morality. The best editions of Paterculus are those of
Ruhnkenius, 8vo, 2 vols., Leiden, 1779; of Barbou, Paris, 12mo, 1777;
and of Burman, 8vo, Leiden, 1719.――――Caius, the grandfather of the
historian of that name, was one of the friends of Livia. He killed
himself when old and unable to accompany Livia in her flight.
=Velocasses=, the people of _Vexin_, in Normandy. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_,
bk. 2, ch. 4.
=Venāfrum=, a town of Campania near Arpinum, abounding in olive trees.
It became a Roman colony. It had been founded by Diomedes. _Horace_,
bk. 2, ode 6, li. 16.――_Martial_, bk. 13, ltr. 98.――_Juvenal_,
satire 5, li. 86.――_Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 5.
=Venedi=, a people of Germany, near the mouth of the Vistula, or gulf
of Dantzic. _Tacitus_, _Germania_, ch. 46.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 13.
=Veneli=, a people of Gallia Celtica.
=Venĕti=, a people of Italy in Cisalpine Gaul, near the mouth of the Po.
They were descended from a nation of Paphlagonia, who settled there
under Antenor some time after the Trojan war. The Venetians, who have
been long a powerful and commercial nation, were originally very poor,
whence a writer in the age of the Roman emperors said, they had no
other fence against the waves of the sea but hurdles, no food but
fish, no wealth besides their fishing-boats, and no merchandise but
salt. _Strabo_, bk. 4, &c.――_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 1.――_Mela_, bk. 1,
ch. 2; bk. 2, ch. 4.――_Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 3, ch. 8.――_Lucan_,
bk. 4, li. 134.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 605.――――A nation of
Gaul, at the south of Armorica, on the western coast, powerful by sea.
Their chief city is now called _Vannes_. _Cæsar_, bk. 3, _Gallic War_,
ch. 8.
=Venĕtia=, a part of Gaul, on the mouths of the Po. _See:_ Veneti.
=Venetus Paulus=, a centurion who conspired against Nero with Piso,
&c. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 15, ch. 50.――――A lake through which the
Rhine passes, now _Bodensee_ or _Constance_. _Mela_, bk. 3, ch. 2.
=Vĕnīlia=, a nymph, sister to Amata, and mother of Turnus by Daunus.
Amphitrite the sea goddess is also called Venilia. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 10, li. 76.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 14, li. 334.――_Varro_,
_de Lingua Latina_, bk. 4, ch. 10.
=Vennones=, a people of the Rhæetian Alps.
=Venonius=, an historian mentioned by _Cicero_, _Letters to Atticus_,
bk. 12, ltr. 3, &c.
=Venta Belgarum=, a town of Britain, now _Winchester_.――――Silurum, a
town of Britain, now _Caerwent_, in Monmouthshire.――――Icenorum, now
_Norwich_.
=Venti.= The ancients, and especially the Athenians, paid particular
attention to the winds, and offered them sacrifices as to deities,
intent upon the destruction of mankind, by continually causing storms,
tempests, and earthquakes. The winds were represented in different
attitudes and forms. The four principal winds were _Eurus_, the
south-east, who is represented as a young man flying with great
impetuosity, and often appearing in a playsome and wanton humour.
_Auster_, the south wind, appeared generally as an old man with
grey hair, a gloomy countenance, a head covered with clouds, a sable
vesture, and dusky wings. He is the dispenser of rain, and of all
heavy showers. _Zephyrus_ is represented as the mildest of all the
winds. He is young and gentle, and his lap is filled with vernal
flowers. He married Flora the goddess, with whom he enjoyed the most
perfect felicity. _Boreas_, or the north wind, appears always rough
and shivering. He is the father of rain, snow, hail, and tempests,
and is always represented as surrounded with impenetrable clouds.
Those of inferior note were _Solanus_, whose name is seldom mentioned.
He appeared as a young man holding fruit in his lap, such as peaches,
oranges, &c. _Africus_, or south-west, is represented with black
wings, and a melancholy countenance. _Corus_, or north-west, drives
clouds of snow before him, and _Aquilo_, the north-east, is equally
dreadful in appearance. The winds, according to some mythologists,
were confined in a large cave, of which Æolus had the management;
and without this necessary precaution, they would have overturned
the earth, and reduced everything to its original chaos. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 57, &c.
=Ventĭdius Bassus=, a native of Picenum, born of an obscure family.
When Asculum was taken, he was carried before the triumphant chariot
of Pompeius Strabo, hanging on his mother’s breast. A bold, aspiring
soul, aided by the patronage of the family of Cæsar, raised him from
the mean occupation of a chairman and muleteer to dignity in the
state. He displayed valour in the Roman armies, and gradually arose
to the offices of tribune, pretor, high priest, and consul. He made
war against the Parthians, and conquered them in three great battles,
B.C. 39. He was the first Roman ever honoured with a triumph over
Parthia. He died greatly lamented by all the Roman people, and was
buried at the public expense. _Plutarch_, _Antonius_.――_Juvenal_,
satire 7, li. 199.――――Cumanus, governor of Palestine, &c. _Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 13, ch. 54.――――Two brothers in the age of Pompey, who
favoured Carbo’s interest, &c. _Plutarch._
=Venŭleius=, a writer in the age of the emperor Alexander.――――A friend
of Verres. _Cicero_, _Against Verres_, bk. 3, ch. 42.
=Venŭlus=, one of the Latin elders sent into Magna Græcia to demand the
assistance of Diomedes, &c. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8, li. 9.
=Vĕnus=, one of the most celebrated deities of the ancients. She was
the goddess of beauty, the mother of love, the queen of laughter,
the mistress of the graces and of pleasures, and the patroness
of courtesans. Some mythologists speak of more than one Venus.
Plato mentions two, Venus Urania the daughter of Uranus, and Venus
Popularia the daughter of Jupiter and Dione. Cicero speaks of four, a
daughter of Cœlus and Light, one sprung from the froth of the sea, a
third, daughter of Jupiter and the Nereid Dione, and a fourth born at
Tyre, and the same as the Astarte of the Syrians. Of these, however,
the Venus sprung from the froth of the sea, after the mutilated
part of the body of Uranus had been thrown there by Saturn, is the
most known, and of her in particular ancient mythologists, as well
as painters, make mention. She arose from the sea near the island
of Cyprus, or, according to Hesiod, of Cythera, whither she was
wafted by the zephyrs, and received on the sea-shore by the seasons,
daughters of Jupiter and Themis. She was soon after carried to
heaven, where all the gods admired her beauty, and all the goddesses
became jealous of her personal charms. Jupiter attempted to gain her
affections and even wished to offer her violence, but Venus refused,
and the god, to punish her obstinacy, gave her in marriage to his
ugly and deformed son Vulcan. This marriage did not prevent the
goddess of Love from gratifying her favourite passions, and she
defiled her husband’s bed by her amours with the gods. Her intrigue
with Mars is the most celebrated. She was caught in her lover’s arms,
and exposed to the ridicule and laughter of all the gods. _See:_
Alectryon. Venus became mother of Hermione, Cupid, and Anteros by
Mars; by Mercury she had Hermaphroditus; by Bacchus, Priapus; and
by Neptune, Eryx. Her great partiality for Adonis made her abandon
the seats of Olympus [_See:_ Adonis], and her regard for Anchises
obliged her often to visit the woods and solitary retreats of mount
Ida. _See:_ Anchises, Æneas. The power of Venus over the heart was
supported and assisted by a celebrated girdle, called _zone_ by
the Greeks, and _cestus_ by the Latins. This mysterious girdle gave
beauty, grace, and elegance, when worn even by the most deformed; and
it excited love and rekindled extinguished flames. Juno herself was
indebted to this powerful ornament to gain the favours of Jupiter,
and Venus, though herself possessed of every charm, no sooner put
on her cestus, than Vulcan, unable to resist the influence of love,
forgot all the intrigues and infidelities of his wife, and fabricated
arms even for her illegitimate children. The contest of Venus for
the golden apple of Discord is well known. She gained the prize over
Pallas and Juno [_See:_ Paris, Discordia], and rewarded her impartial
judge with the hand of the fairest woman in the world. The worship of
Venus was universally established; statues and temples were erected
to her in every kingdom, and the ancients were fond of paying homage
to a divinity who presided over generation, and by whose influence
alone mankind existed. In her sacrifices and in the festivals
celebrated in her honour, too much licentiousness prevailed, and
public prostitution was often part of the ceremony. Victims were
seldom offered to her, or her altars stained with blood, though we
find Aspasia making repeated sacrifices. No pigs, however, or male
animals were deemed acceptable. The rose, the myrtle, and the apple,
were sacred to Venus; and among birds, the dove, the swan, and the
sparrow, were her favourites; and among fishes, those called the
aphya and the lycostomus. The goddess of beauty was represented among
the ancients in different forms. At Elis she appeared seated on a
goat, with one foot resting on a tortoise. At Sparta and Cythera,
she was represented armed like Minerva, and sometimes wearing chains
on her feet. In the temple of Jupiter Olympius, she was represented
by Phidias, as rising from the sea, received by love, and crowned by
the goddess of persuasion. At Cnidos her statue, made by Praxiteles,
represented her naked, with one hand hiding what modesty keeps
concealed. Her statue at Elephantis was the same, with only a naked
Cupid by her side. In Sicyon she held a poppy in one hand, and in the
other an apple, while on her head she had a crown, which terminated
in a point, to intimate the pole. She is generally represented with
her son Cupid, on a chariot drawn by doves, or at other times by
swans and sparrows. The surnames of the goddess are numerous, and
only show how well established her worship was all over the earth.
She was called _Cypria_, because particularly worshipped in the
island of Cyprus, and in that character she was often represented
with a beard, and the male parts of generation, with a sceptre in
her hand, and the body and dress of a female, whence she is called
_duplex Amathusia_ by Catullus. She received the name of _Paphia_,
because worshipped at Paphos, where she had a temple with an altar,
on which rain never fell, though exposed in the open air. Some
of the ancients called her _Apostrophia_ or _Epistrophia_, as
also Venus _Urania_, and Venus _Pandemos_. The first of these she
received as presiding over wantonness and incestuous enjoyments;
the second because she patronized pure love, and chaste and moderate
gratifications; and the third because she favoured the propensities
of the vulgar, and was fond of sensual pleasures. The Cnidians raised
her temples under the name of Venus _Acræa_, of _Doris_, and of
_Euploea_. In her temple under the name of Euploea, at Cnidos, was
the most celebrated of her statues, being the most perfect piece of
Praxiteles. It was made with white marble, and appeared so engaging,
and so much like life, that, according to some historians, a youth
of the place introduced himself in the night into her temple, and
attempted to gratify his passions on the lifeless image. Venus was
also surnamed _Cytheræa_, because she was the chief deity of Cythera;
_Exopolis_, because her statue was without the city of Athens;
_Phallommeda_, from her affection for the phallus; _Philommedis_,
because the queen of laughter; _Telessigama_, because she presided
over marriage; _Caliada_, _Colotis_, or _Colias_, because worshipped
on a promontory of the same name in Attica; _Area_, because armed
like Mars; _Verticordia_, because she could turn the hearts of women
to cultivate chastity; _Apaturia_, because she deceived; _Calva_,
because she was represented bald; _Ericyna_, because worshipped at
Eryx; _Etaira_, because the patroness of courtesans; _Acidalia_,
because of a fountain of Orchomenos: _Basilea_, because the queen of
love; _Myrtea_, because the myrtle was sacred to her; _Libertina_,
from her inclinations to gratify lust; _Mechanitis_, in allusion
to the many artifices practised in love, &c., &c. As goddess of
the sea, because born in the bosom of the waters, Venus was called
_Pontia_, _Marina_, _Limnesia_, _Epipontia_, _Pelagia_, _Saligenia_,
_Pontogenia_, _Aligena_, _Thalassia_, &c., and as rising from the sea,
the name of _Anadyomene_ is applied to her, and rendered immortal by
the celebrated painting of Apelles, which represented her as issuing
from the bosom of the waves, and wringing her tresses on her shoulder.
_See:_ Anadyomene. _Cicero_ _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 2, ch. 27;
bk. 3, ch. 23.――_Orpheus_, Hymn 54.――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_.――_Sappho._
――_Homer_, _Hymn to Aphrodite_, &c.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 5, li.
800, &c.――_Ovid_, _Heroides_, poems 15, 16, 19, &c.; _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 4, fable 5, &c.――_Diodorus_, bks. 1 & 5.――_Hyginus_, fables 94,
271.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 1; bk. 4, ch. 30; bk. 5, ch. 18.
――_Martial_, bk. 6, ltr. 13.――_Euripides_, _Helen_, _Iphigeneia
in Taurus_.――_Plutarch_, _Amatorius_.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_,
bk. 12, ch. 1.――_Athenæus_, bk. 12, &c.――_Catullus._――_Lactantius_,
_de Falsa Religione_.――_Quintus Calaber [Smyrnæus]_, bk. 11.
――_Lucian_, _Dialogi_, &c.――_Strabo_, bk. 14.――_Tacitus_, _Annals_,
bk. 3, &c.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 8, ch. 11.――_Pliny_, bk. 36.
――_Horace_, bk. 3, ode 26; bk. 4, ode 11, &c.――――A planet called
by the Greeks Phosphorus, and by the Latins Lucifer, when it rises
before the sun, but when it follows it, Hesperus or Vesper. _Cicero_,
_de Natura Deorum_, bk. 2, ch. 20; _Somnium Scipionis_.
=Venus Pyrenæa=, a town of Spain near the borders of Gaul.
=Venŭsia=, or =Venŭsium=, a town of Apulia, where Horace was born. Part
of the Roman army fled thither after the defeat at Cannæ. The town,
though in ruins, contains still many pieces of antiquity, especially
a marble bust preserved in the great square, and said falsely to be
an original representation of Horace. Venusia was on the confines of
Lucania, whence the poet said _Lucanus an Apulus anceps_, and it was
founded by Diomedes, who called it Venusia or Aphrodisia, after Venus,
whose divinity he wished to appease. _Strabo_, bks. 5 & 6.――_Horace_,
bk. 2, satire 1, li. 35.――_Livy_, bk. 22, ch. 54.――_Pliny_, bk. 3,
ch. 11.
=Veragri=, a people between the Alps and the Allobroges. _Livy_, bk. 21,
ch. 38.――_Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 3, ch. 1.
=Verania=, the wife of Piso Licinianus, whom Galba adopted.
=Veranius=, a governor of Britain under Nero. He succeeded Didius
Gallus. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 14.
=Verbānus lacus=, now _Majora_, a lake of Italy, from which the Ticinus
flows. It is in the modern duchy of Milan, and extends 50 miles in
length from south to north, and five or six in breadth. _Strabo_,
bk. 4.
=Verbigenus=, a village in the country of the Celtæ.
=Verbinum=, a town in the north of Gaul.
=Vercellæ=, a town on the borders of Insubria, where Marius defeated
the Cimbri. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 17.――_Cicero_, _Letters to his
Friends_, bk. 11, ltr. 19.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 598.
=Vercingetŏrix=, a chief of the Gauls, in the time of Cæsar. He was
conquered and led in triumph, &c. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 7, ch. 4.
――_Florus_, bk. 3, ch. 10.
=Veresis=, a small river of Latium falling into the Anio.
=Vergasillaunus=, one of the generals and friends of Vercingetorix.
_Cæsar_, _Gallic War_.
=Vergæ=, a town of the Brutii. _Livy_, bk. 30, ch. 19.
=Vergellus=, a small river near Cannæ, falling into the Aufidus, over
which Annibal made a bridge with the slaughtered bodies of the Romans.
_Florus_, bk. 2, ch. 6.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 9, ch. 11.
=Vergilia=, the wife of Coriolanus, &c.
=Vergilia=, a town of Spain, supposed to be Murcia.
=Vergiliæ=, seven stars, called also _Pleiades_. When they set, the
ancients began to sow their corn. They received their name from the
spring, _quia vere oriantur_. _Propertius_, bk. 1, poem 8, li. 18.
――_Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 2, ch. 44.
=Verginius=, one of the officers of the Roman troops in Germany, who
refused the absolute power which his soldiers offered to him.
_Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 1, ch. 8.――――A rhetorician in the age of
Nero, banished on account of his great fame. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk.
15, ch. 71.
=Vergium=, a town of Spain.
=Vergobretus=, one of the chiefs of the Ædui, in the age of Cæsar, &c.
_Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 1, ch. 16.
=Verĭtas= (_truth_), was not only personified by the ancients, but
also made a deity, and called the daughter of Saturn and the mother
of Virtue. She was represented like a young virgin, dressed in white
apparel, with all the marks of youthful diffidence and modesty.
Democritus used to say that she hid herself at the bottom of a well,
to intimate the difficulty with which she is found.
=Verodoctius=, one of the Helvetii. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 1, ch. 7.
=Veromandui=, a people of Gaul, the modern Vermandois. The capital is
now St. Quintin. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 2.
=Vērōna=, a town of Venetia, on the Athesis, in Italy, founded, as
some suppose, by Brennus the leader of the Gauls. Cornelius Nepos,
Catullus, and Pliny the elder were born there. It was adorned with a
circus and an amphitheatre by the Roman emperors, which still exist,
and it still preserves its ancient name. _Pliny_, bk. 9, ch. 22.
――_Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Ovid_, _Amores_, bk. 3, poem 15, li. 7.
=Verōnes=, a people of Hispania Tarraconensis. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 3,
li. 578.
=Verrecīnum=, a town in the country of the Volsci. _Livy_, bk. 4, ch. 1,
&c.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 6, ch. 5.
=Caius Verres=, a Roman who governed the province of Sicily as pretor.
The oppression and rapine of which he was guilty, while in office, so
offended the Sicilians, that they brought an accusation against him
before the Roman senate. Cicero undertook the cause of the Sicilians,
and pronounced those celebrated orations which are still extant.
Verres was defended by Hortensius, but as he despaired of the success
of his defence, he left Rome without waiting for his sentence, and
lived in great affluence in one of the provinces. He was at last
killed by the soldiers of Antony the triumvir, about 26 years after
his voluntary exile from the capital. _Cicero_, _Against Verres_.
――_Pliny_, bk. 34, ch. 2.――_Lactantius_, bk. 2, ch. 4.
=Verritus=, a general of the Frisii in the age of Nero, &c. _Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 13, ch. 54.
=Verrius Flaccus=, a freedman and grammarian famous for his powers
in instructing. He was appointed over the grandchildren of Augustus,
and also distinguished himself by his writings. _Aulus Gellius_,
bk. 4, ch. 5.――_Suetonius_, _Lives of the Grammarians_.――――A Latin
critic, B.C. 4, whose works have been edited with Dacier’s and
Clerk’s notes, 4to, Amsterdam, 1699.
=Verrūgo=, a town in the country of the Volsci. _Livy_, bk. 4, ch. 1.
=Vertico=, one of the Nervii who deserted to Cæsar’s army, &c. _Cæsar_,
_Gallic War_, bk. 6, ch. 45.
=Verticordia=, one of the surnames of Venus, the same as the
_Apostrophia_ of the Greeks, because her assistance was implored to
turn the hearts of the Roman matrons, and teach them to follow virtue
and modesty. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 8.
=Vertiscus=, one of the Rhemi, who commanded a troop of horse in
Cæsar’s army. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 8, ch. 12.
=Vertumnus=, a deity among the Romans, who presided over the spring and
over orchards. He endeavoured to gain the affections of the goddess
Pomona; and to effect this, he assumed the shape and dress of a
fisherman, of a soldier, a peasant, a reaper, &c., but all to no
purpose, till, under the form of an old woman, he prevailed upon
his mistress and married her. He is generally represented as a young
man crowned with flowers, covered up to the waist, and holding in
his right hand fruit, and a crown of plenty in his left. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 14, li. 642, &c.――_Propertius_, bk. 4, poem 2,
li. 2.――_Horace_, bk. 2, satire 7, li. 14.
=Verulæ=, a town of the Hernici. _Livy_, bk. 9, ch. 42.
=Verulānus=, a lieutenant under Corbulo, who drove away Tiridates from
Media, &c. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 14, ch. 26.
=Verus Lucius Ceionius Commodus=, a Roman emperor, son of Ælius and
Domitia Lucilla. He was adopted in the 7th year of his age by Marcus
Aurelius, at the request of Adrian, and he married Lucilia the
daughter of his adopted father, who also took him as his colleague on
the throne. He was sent by Marcus Aurelius to oppose the barbarians
in the east. His arms were attended with success, and he obtained
a victory over the Parthians. He was honoured with a triumph at his
return home, and soon after he marched with his imperial colleague
against the Marcomanni in Germany. He died in this expedition of
an apoplexy, in the 39th year of his age, after a reign of eight
years and some months. His body was brought back to Rome, and buried
by Marcus Aurelius with great pomp and solemnity. Verus has been
greatly censured for his debaucheries, which appeared more enormous
and disgusting, when compared with the temperance, meekness, and
popularity of Aurelius. The example of his father did not influence
him, and he often retired from the frugal and moderate repast of
Aurelius, to the profuse banquets of his own palace, where the night
was spent in riot and debauchery, with the meanest of the populace,
with stage-dancers, buffoons, and lascivious courtesans. At one
entertainment alone, where there were no more than 12 guests, the
emperor spent no less than six millions of sesterces, or about
32,200_l._ sterling. But it is to be observed, that whatever was most
scarce and costly was there; the guests never drank twice out of the
same cup; and whatever vessels they had touched, they received as a
present from the emperor when they left the palace. In his Parthian
expedition, Verus did not check his vicious propensities; for four
years he left the care of the war to his officers, while he retired
to the voluptuous retreats of Daphne, and the luxurious banquets
of Antioch. His fondness for a horse has been faithfully recorded.
The animal had a statue of gold, he was fed with almonds and raisins
by the hand of the emperor, he was clad in purple, and kept in the
most splendid of the halls of the palace, and when dead, the emperor,
to express his sorrow, raised him a magnificent monument on mount
Vatican. Some have suspected Marcus Aurelius of despatching Verus
to rid the world of his debaucheries and guilty actions, but this
seems to be the report of malevolence.――――Lucius Annæus, a son of the
emperor Aurelius, who died in Palestine.――――The father of the emperor
Verus. He was adopted by the emperor Adrian, but like his son he
disgraced himself by his debaucheries and extravagance. He died
before Adrian.
=Vesbius=, or =Vesubius.= _See:_ Vesuvius.
=Vescia=, a town of Campania. _Livy_, bk. 8, ch. 11.
=Vescianum=, a country house of Cicero in Campania, between Capua and
Nola. _Cicero_ bk. 15, _Letters to Atticus_, ltr. 2.
=Flaccus Vescularius=, a Roman knight intimate with Tiberius, &c.
_Tacitus_, _Annals_.
♦=Vesontio=, a town of Gaul, now _Besancon_. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_,
♠bk. 1, ch. 38.
♦ ‘Vesentio’ replaced with ‘Vesontio’
♠ Book reference omitted in text.
=Vesentium=, a town of Tuscany.
=Veseris=, a place or river near mount Vesuvius. _Livy_, bk. 8, ch. 8.
――_Cicero_, _De Officiis_, bk. 3, ch. 31.
=Vesēvius= and =Vesēvus.= _See:_ Vesuvius.
=Vesidia=, a town of Tuscany.
=Vesonna=, a town of Gaul, now _Perigueux_.
=Vespaciæ=, a small village of Umbria, near Nursia. _Suetonius_,
_Vespasian_, ch. 1.
=Vespasiānus Titus Flavius=, a Roman emperor, descended from an obscure
family at Reate. He was honoured with the consulship, not so much by
the influence of the imperial courtiers, as by his own private merit,
and his public services. He accompanied Nero into Greece, but he
offended the prince by falling asleep while he repeated one of his
poetical compositions. This momentary resentment of the emperor did
not prevent Vespasian from being sent to carry on a war against the
Jews. His operations were crowned with success; many of the cities
of Palestine surrendered, and Vespasian began the siege of Jerusalem.
This was, however, achieved by the hands of his son Titus, and the
death of Vitellus and the affection of his soldiers hastened his
rise, and he was proclaimed emperor at Alexandria. The choice of
the army was approved by every province of the empire; but Vespasian
did not betray any signs of pride at so sudden and so unexpected
an exaltation, and though once employed in the mean office of a
horse-doctor, he behaved, when invested with the imperial purple,
with all the dignity and greatness which became a successor of
Augustus. In the beginning of his reign Vespasian attempted to reform
the manners of the Romans, and he took away an appointment which
he had a few days before granted to a young nobleman who approached
him to return him thanks, all smelling of perfumes and covered
with ointment, adding, “I had rather you had smelt of garlic.” He
repaired the public buildings, embellished the city, and made the
great roads more spacious and convenient. After he had reigned with
great popularity for 10 years, Vespasian died with a pain in his
bowels, A.D. 79, in the 70th year of his age. He was the first Roman
emperor that died a natural death, and he was also the first who was
succeeded by his own son on the throne. Vespasian has been admired
for his great virtues. He was clement, he gave no ear to flattery,
and for a long time refused the title of father of his country, which
was often bestowed upon the most worthless and tyrannical of the
emperors. He despised informers, and rather than punish conspirators,
he rewarded them with great liberality. When the king of Parthia
addressed him with the subscription of “Arsaces king of kings to
Flavius Vespasianus,” the emperor was no way dissatisfied with the
pride and insolence of the monarch, and answered him again in his
own words, “Flavius Vespasianus to Arsaces king of kings.” To men
of learning and merit, Vespasian was very liberal: 100,000 sesterces
were annually paid from the public treasury to the different
professors that were appointed to encourage and promote the arts and
sciences. Yet in spite of this apparent generosity, some authors have
taxed Vespasian with avarice. According to their accounts, he loaded
the provinces with new taxes, he bought commodities, that he might
sell them to a greater advantage, and even laid an impost upon urine,
which gave occasion to Titus to ridicule the meanness of his father.
Vespasian, regardless of his son’s observation, was satisfied to show
him the money that was raised from so productive a tax, asking him
at the same time whether it smelt offensive. His ministers were the
most avaricious of his subjects, and the emperor used very properly
to remark that he treated them as sponges, by wetting them when dry,
and squeezing them when they were wet. He has been accused of selling
criminals their lives, and of condemning the most opulent to make
himself master of their possessions. If, however, he was guilty of
these meaner practices, they were all under the name of one of his
concubines, who wished to enrich herself by the avarice and credulity
of the emperor. _Suetonius_, _Lives_.――_Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 4.
=Vesper=, or =Vespĕrus=, a name applied to the planet Venus when it was
the evening star. _Virgil._
=Vessa=, a town of Sicily.
=Vesta=, a goddess, daughter of Rhea and Saturn, sister to Ceres and
Juno. She is often confounded by the mythologists with Rhea, Ceres,
Cybele, Proserpine, Hecate, and Tellus. When considered as the
mother of the gods, she is the mother of Rhea and Saturn; and when
considered as the patroness of the vestal virgins and the goddess
of fire, she is called the daughter of Saturn and Rhea. Under this
last name she was worshipped by the Romans. Æneas was the first
who introduced her mysteries into Italy, and Numa built her a
temple where no males were permitted to go. The palladium of Troy
was supposed to be preserved within her sanctuary, and a fire was
continually kept lighted by a certain number of virgins, who had
dedicated themselves to the service of the goddess. _See:_ Vestales.
If the fire of Vesta was ever extinguished, it was supposed to
threaten the republic with some sudden calamity. The virgin by whose
negligence it had been extinguished, was severely punished, and it
was kindled again by the rays of the sun. The temple of Vesta was of
a round form, and the goddess was represented in a long, flowing robe,
with a veil on her head, holding in one hand a lamp, or a two-eared
vessel, and in the other a javelin, or sometimes a palladium. On some
medals she appears holding a drum in one hand, and a small figure
of victory in the other. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 454.――_Cicero_,
_de Legibus_, bk. 2, ch. 12.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 1.――_Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 2, li. 296.――_Diodorus_, bk. 5.――_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 6;
_Tristia_, bk. 3.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 1, ch. 1.――_Plutarch_,
_Numa_.――_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 14.
=Vestāles=, priestesses among the Romans, consecrated to the service of
Vesta, as their name indicates. This office was very ancient, as the
mother of Romulus was one of the vestals. Æneas is supposed to have
first chosen the vestals. Numa first appointed four, to which number
Tarquin added two. They were always chosen by the monarchs, but after
the expulsion of the Tarquins, the high priest was entrusted with
the care of them. As they were to be virgins, they were chosen young,
from the age of six to ten; and if there was not a sufficient number
that presented themselves as candidates for the office, 20 virgins
were selected, and they upon whom the lot fell were obliged to
become priestesses. Plebeians as well as patricians were permitted
to propose themselves, but it was required that they should be born
of a good family, and be without blemish or deformity, in every
part of their body. For 30 years they were to remain in the greatest
continence; the 10 first years were spent in learning the duties of
the order; the 10 following were employed in discharging them with
fidelity and sanctity, and the 10 last in instructing such as had
entered the noviciate. When the 30 years were elapsed, they were
permitted to marry, or if they still preferred celibacy, they waited
upon the rest of the vestals. As soon as a vestal was initiated,
her head was shaved, to intimate the liberty of her person, as
she was then free from the shackles of parental authority, and she
was permitted to dispose of her possessions as she pleased. The
employment of the vestals was to take care that the sacred fire of
Vesta was not extinguished, for if it ever happened, it was deemed
the prognostic of great calamities to the state; the offender was
punished for her negligence, and severely scourged by the high priest.
In such a case all was consternation at Rome, and the fire was
again kindled by glasses with the rays of the sun. Another equally
particular charge of the vestals was to keep a sacred pledge, on
which depended the very existence of Rome, which, according to some,
was the palladium of Troy, or some of the mysteries of the gods
of Samothrace. The privileges of the vestals were great; they had
the most honourable seats at public games and festivals; a lictor
with the fasces always preceded them when they walked in public;
they were carried in chariots when they pleased; and they had the
power of pardoning criminals when led to execution, if they declared
that their meeting was accidental. Their declarations in trials
were received without the formality of an oath; they were chosen
as arbiters in causes of moment and in the execution of wills, and
so great was the deference paid them by the magistrates, as well as
by the people, that the consuls themselves made way for them, and
bowed their fasces when they passed before them. To insult them was
a capital crime, and whoever attempted to violate their chastity, was
beaten to death with scourges. If any of them died while in office,
their body was buried within the walls of the city, an honour granted
to few. Such of the vestals as proved incontinent were punished
in the most rigorous manner. Numa ordered them to be stoned, but
Tarquin the elder dug a large hole under the earth, where a bed
was placed with a little bread, wine, water, and oil, and a lighted
lamp, and the guilty vestal was stripped of the habit of her order,
and compelled to descend into the subterraneous cavity, which was
immediately shut, and she was left to die through hunger. Few of
the vestals were guilty of incontinence, and for the space of 1000
years, during which the order continued established from the reign
of Numa, only 18 were punished for the violation of their vow. The
vestals were abolished by Theodosius the Great, and the fire of
Vesta extinguished. The dress of the vestals was peculiar; they
wore a white vest with purple borders, a white linen surplice called
_linteum supernum_, above which was a great purple mantle which
flowed to the ground, and which was tucked up when they offered
sacrifices. They had a close covering on their head, called _infula_,
from which hung ribands, or _vitta_. Their manner of living was
sumptuous, as they were maintained at the public expense, and though
originally satisfied with the simple diet of the Romans, their tables
soon after displayed the luxuries and the superfluities of the great
and opulent. _Livy_, 2, &c.――_Plutarch_, _Numa_, &c.――_Valerius
Maximus_, bk. 1, ch. 1.――_Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 3, ch. 30.
――_Florus_, bk. 1.――_Propertius_, bk. 4, poem 11.――_Tacitus_, bk. 4,
ch. 10.
=Vestālia=, festival in honour of Vesta, observed at Rome on the 9th
of June. Banquets were then prepared before the houses, and meat
was sent to the vestals to be offered to the gods; millstones were
decked with garlands, and the asses that turned them were led round
the city covered with garlands. The ladies walked in the procession
bare-footed to the temple of the goddess, and an altar was erected
to Jupiter surnamed Pistor. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 6, li. 305.
=Vestalium Mater=, a title given by the senate to Livia the mother
of Tiberius, with the permission to sit among the vestal virgins at
plays. _Tacitus_, bk. 4, _Annals_, ch. 16.
=Vestia Oppia=, a common prostitute of Capua.
=Vesticius Spurina=, an officer sent by Otho to the borders of the Po,
&c. _Tacitus._
=Vestilius Sextus=, a pretorian disgraced by Tiberius, because he was
esteemed by Drusus. He killed himself. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 4,
ch. 16.
=Vestilla=, a matron of a patrician family, who declared publicly
before the magistrates that she was a common prostitute. She was
banished to the island of Seriphos for her immodesty.
=Vestīni=, a people of Italy near the Sabines, famous for the making of
cheese. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 5.――_Martial_, bk. 13, ltr. 31.――_Strabo_,
bk. 5.
=Lucius Vestīnus=, a Roman knight appointed by Vespasian to repair the
capitol, &c. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 4, ch. 53.――_Livy_, bk. 8,
ch. 29.――――A consul put to death by Nero in the time of Piso’s
conspiracy.
=Vesvius.= _See:_ Vesuvius.
=Vesŭlus=, now _Viso_, a large mountain of Liguria, near the Alps,
where the Po takes its rise. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 708.
――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 19.
=Vesŭvius=, a mountain of Campania, about six miles at the east of
Naples, celebrated for its volcano, and now called _Mount Soma_.
The ancients, particularly the writers of the Augustan age, spoke of
Vesuvius as a place covered with orchards and vineyards, of which the
middle was dry and barren. The first eruption of this volcano was in
the 79th year of the christian era under Titus. It was accompanied
by an earthquake, which overturned several cities of Campania,
particularly Pompeii and Herculaneum, and the burning ashes which it
threw up were carried not only over the neighbouring country, but as
far as the shores of Egypt, Libya, and Syria. This eruption proved
fatal to Pliny the naturalist. From that time the eruptions have
been frequent. Vesuvius continually throws up a smoke, and sometimes
ashes and flames. The perpendicular height of this mountain is 3780
feet. _Dio Cassius_, bk. 46.――_Varro_, _de Re Rustica_, bk. 1, ch. 6.
――_Livy_, bk. 23, ch. 39.――_Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Tacitus_, _Histories_,
bk. 1, ch. 2.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 4.――_Pliny_, bk. 6, ltr. 16.
――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 12, li. 152, &c.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_,
bk. 2, li. 224.――_Martial_, bk. 4, ltrs. 43 & 44.
=Vetera castra=, a Roman encampment in Germany, which became a town,
now _Sanlen_, near Cleves. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 4, ch. 18;
_Annals_, bk. 1, ch. 45.
=Vettius Spurius=, a Roman senator who was made interrex at the death
of Romulus, till the election of another king. He nominated Numa, and
resigned his office. _Plutarch_, _Numa_.――――A man who accused Cæsar
of being concerned in Catiline’s conspiracy.――――Cato, one of the
officers of the allies in the Marsian war. He defeated the Romans,
and was at last betrayed and murdered.――――A Roman knight who became
enamoured of a young female at Capua, and raised a tumult among
the slaves who proclaimed him king. He was betrayed by one of his
adherents, upon which he laid violent hands upon himself.
=Vettona=, a town of Umbria. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 14.
=Vettōnes=, =Vetones=, or =Vectones=, an ancient nation of Spain.
_Silius Italicus_, bk. 3, li. 378.――_Pliny_, bk. 25, ch. 8.
=Vetulōnia=, one of the chief cities of Etruria, whose hot waters
were famous. The Romans were said to derive the badges of their
magisterial offices from thence. _Pliny_, bk. 2, ch. 103; bk. 3,
ch. 3.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 484.
=Vetūria=, one of the Roman tribes, divided into two branches of the
Junii and Senii. It received its name from the _Veturian_ family,
which was originally called _Vetusian_. _Livy_, bk. 36.――――The mother
of Coriolanus. She was solicited by all the Roman matrons to go
to her son with her daughter-in-law, and entreat him not to make
war against his country. She went and prevailed over Coriolanus,
and for her services to the state, the Roman senate offered to
reward her as she pleased. She only asked to raise a temple to the
goddess of female fortune, which was done on the very spot where
she had pacified her son. _Livy_, bk. 2, ch. 40.――_Dionysius of
Halicarnassus_, bk. 7, &c.
=Veturius=, a Roman artist who made shields for Numa. _See:_ Mamurius.
――――Caius, a Roman consul, accused before the people, and fined
because he had acted with imprudence while in office.――――A Roman who
conspired against Galba. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 1, ch. 25.――――A
consul appointed one of the decemvirs.――――Another consul defeated by
the Samnites, and obliged to pass under the yoke with great ignominy.
――――A tribune of the people, &c.
=Lucius Vetus=, a Roman who proposed to open a communication between
the Mediterranean and the German ocean by means of a canal. He was
put to death by order of Nero.――――A man accused of adultery, &c.
=Ufens=, a river of Italy near Tarracina. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7,
li. 892.――――Another river of Picenum. _Livy_, bk. 5, ch. 35.――――A
prince who assisted Turnus against Æneas. The Trojan monarch made
a vow to sacrifice his four sons to appease the manes of his friend
Pallas, in the same manner as Achilles is represented killing some
Trojan youths on the tomb of Patroclus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7,
li. 745; bk. 10, li. 518. He was afterwards killed by Gyas. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 12, li. 460.
=Ufentina=, a Roman tribe first created A.U.C. 435, with the tribe
_Falerina_, in consequence of the great increase of population at
Rome. _Livy_, bk. 9, ch. 20.――_Festus._
=Via Æmylia=, a celebrated road, made by the consul Marcus Æmylius
Lepidus, A.U.C. 567. It led with the Flaminian road to Aquileia.
There was also another of the same name in Etruria, which led from
Pisæ to Dertona.――――Appia, was made by the censor Appius, and led
from Rome to Capua, and from Capua to Brundusium, to the distance
of 350 miles, which the Romans call a five days’ journey. It passed
successively through the towns and stages of Aricia, Forum Appii,
Tarracina, Fundi, Minturnæ, Sinuessa, Capua, Caudium, Beneventum,
Equotuticum, Herdonia, Canusium, Barium, Egnatia, to Brundusium.
It was called, by way of eminence, _regina viarum_, made so strong,
and the stones so well cemented together, that it remained entire
for many hundred years. Some parts of it are still to be seen in the
neighbourhood of Naples. Appius carried it only 130 miles, as far
as Capua, A.U.C. 442, and it was finished as far as Brundusium by
Augustus.――――There was also another road called Minucia or Numicia,
which led to Brundusium, but by what places is now uncertain.
――――Flaminia, was made by the censor Flaminius, A.U.C. 533. It led
from the Campus Martius to the modern town of Rimini, on the Adriatic,
through the country of the Osci and Etrurians, at the distance
of about 360 miles.――――Lata, one of the ancient streets of Rome.
――――Valeria, led from Rome to the country of the Marsi, through
the territories of the Sabines. There were, besides, many streets
and roads of inferior note, such as the Aurelia, Cassia, Campania,
Ardentina, Labicana, Domitiana, Ostiensis, Prænestina, &c., all of
which were made and constantly kept in repair at the public expense.
=Viadrus=, the classical name of the Oder, which rises in Moravia, and
falls by three mouths into the Baltic. _Ptolemy._
=Vibidia=, one of the vestal virgins in the favour of Messalina, &c.
_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 11, ch. 32.
=Vibidius=, a friend of Mæcenas. _Horace_, bk. 2, satire 8, li. 22.
=Vibius=, a Roman who refused to pay any attention to Cicero when
banished, though he had received from him the most unbounded favours.
――――Siculus. _See:_ Sica.――――A proconsul of Spain, banished for
ill conduct.――――A Roman knight accused of extortion in Africa, and
banished.――――A man who poisoned himself at Capua.――――Sequester, a
Latin writer, whose treatise _de Fluminibus_, &c., is best edited by
Oberlin, 8vo, Strasbourg, 1778.
=Vibo=, a town of Lucania, anciently called _Hipponium_ and _Hippo_.
_Cicero_. _Letters to Atticus_, bk. 3, ch. 3.――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 5.
――――A town of Spain,――――of the Brutii.
=Vibulēnus Agrippa=, a Roman knight accused of treason. He attempted
to poison himself, and was strangled in prison, though almost dead.
_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 6, ch. 40.――――A mutinous soldier in the army
of Germanicus, &c.
=Vibullius Rufus=, a friend of Pompey, taken by Cæsar, &c. _Plutarch._
――_Cicero_, _Letters_.――――A pretor in Nero’s reign.
=Vica Pota=, a goddess at Rome, who presided over victory (à _vincere_
et _potiri_). _Livy_, bk. 2, ch. 7.
=Vicellius=, a friend of Galba, who brought him news of Nero’s death.
=Vicentia=, or =Vicetia=, a town of Cisalpine Gaul, at the north-west
of the Adriatic. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 3.
=Victor Sextus Aurelius=, a writer in the age of Constantius. He gave
the world a concise history of the Roman emperors, from the age of
Augustus to his own time, or A.D. 360. He also wrote an abridgment of
the Roman history before the age of Julius Cæsar, which is now extant,
and ascribed by different authors to Cornelius Nepos, to Tacitus,
Suetonius, Pliny, &c. Victor was greatly esteemed by the emperors,
and honoured with the consulship. The best editions of Victor are
that of Pitiscus, 8vo, Utrecht, 1696; and that of Artnzenius, 4to,
Amsterdam, 1733.
=Victōria=, one of the deities of the Romans, called by the Greeks
_Nice_, supposed to be the daughter of the giant Pallas, or of Titan
and Styx. The goddess of victory was sister to Strength and Valour,
and was one of the attendants of Jupiter. She was greatly honoured
by the Greeks, particularly at Athens. Sylla raised her a temple at
Rome, and instituted festivals in her honour. She was represented
with wings, crowned with laurel, and holding the branch of a palm
tree in her hand. A golden statue of this goddess, weighing 320
pounds, was presented to the Romans by Hiero king of Syracuse,
and deposited in the temple of Jupiter, on the Capitoline hill.
_Livy_, bk. 22.――_Varro_, _de Lingua Latina_.――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_.
――_Hyginus_, preface to fables.――_Suetonius._
=Victoriæ mons=, a place of Spain at the mouth of the Iberus. _Livy_,
bk. 24, ch. 41.
=Victōrius=, a man of Aquitain, who, A.D. 463, invented the paschal
cycle of 532 years.
=Victorīna=, a celebrated matron who placed herself at the head of the
Roman armies, and made war against the emperor Gallienus. Her son
Victorinus, and her grandson of the same name, were declared emperors,
but when they were assassinated, Victorina invested with the imperial
purple one of her favourites called Tetricus. She was some time after
poisoned, A.D. 269, and according to some by Tetricus himself.
=Victorīnus=, a christian writer, who composed a worthless epic poem
on the death of the seven children mentioned in the Maccabees, and
distinguished himself more by the active part he took in his writings
against the Arians.
=Victumviæ=, a small town of Insubria near Placentia. _Livy_, bk. 21,
ch. 45.
=Vicus longus=, a street at Rome, where an altar was raised to the
goddess Pudicitia, or the modesty of the plebeians. _Livy_, bk. 10,
ch. 23.――――Cyprius, a place on the Esquiline hill, where the Sabines
dwelt.
=Viducasses=, a people of Normandy. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 18.
=Vienna=, a town of Gallia Narbonensis on the Rhone, below Lyons.
_Strabo_, bk. 1.――_Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 7, ch. 9.
=Villia lex=, _annalis_ or _annaria_, by Lucius Villius the tribune,
A.U.C. 574, defined the proper age required for exercising the office
of a magistrate, 25 years for the questorship, 27 or 28 for the
edileship or tribuneship, for the office of pretor 30, and for that
of consul 43. _Livy_, bk. 11, ch. 44.
=Villius=, a tribune of the people, author of the Villian law, and
thence called _Annalis_, a surname borne by his family. _Livy_,
bk. 11, ch. 44.――――Publius, a Roman ambassador sent to Antiochus. He
held a conference with Annibal, who was at that monarch’s court.――――A
man who disgraced himself by his criminal amours with the daughter of
Sylla. _Horace_, bk. 1, satire 2, li. 64.
=Viminālis=, one of the seven hills on which Rome was built, so called
from the number of osiers (_vimines_) which grew there. Servius
Tullius first made it part of the city. Jupiter had a temple there,
whence he was called Viminalis. _Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 44.――_Varro_, _de
Lingua Latina_, bk. 4, ch. 8.
=Vinalia=, festivals at Rome in honour of Jupiter and Venus.
♦=Vincentius=, one of the christian fathers, A.D. 434, whose works are
best edited by Baluzius, Paris, 1669.
♦ ‘Vicentius’ replaced with ‘Vincentius’
=Vincius=, a Roman knight, condemned under Nero. _Tacitus_, _Annals_,
bk. 14, ch. 40.――――An officer in Germany.
=Vindalius=, a writer in the reign of Constantius, who wrote 10 books
on agriculture.
=Vindelĭci=, an ancient people of Germany, between the heads of the
Rhine and the Danube. Their country, which was called _Vindelicia_,
forms now part of Swabia and Bavaria, and their chief town, _Augusta
Vindelicorum_, is now ♦Augsburg. _Horace_, bk. 4, ode 4, li. 18.
♦ ‘Ausburg’ replaced with ‘Augsburg’
=Vindemiātor=, a constellation that rose about the nones of March.
_Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 3, li. 407.――_Pliny_, bk. 18, ch. 13.
=Vindex Julius=, a governor of Gaul, who revolted against Nero, and
determined to deliver the Roman empire from his tyranny. He was
followed by a numerous army, but at last defeated by one of the
emperor’s generals. When he perceived that all was lost he laid
violent hands upon himself, 68 A.D. _Seutonius_, _Galba_.――_Tacitus_,
_Histories_, bk. 1, ch. 51.――_Pliny_, bk. 9, ltr. 19.
=Vindicius=, a slave who discovered the conspiracy which some of the
most noble of the Roman citizens had formed to restore Tarquin to
his throne. He was amply rewarded and made a citizen of Rome. _Livy_,
bk. 2, ch. 5.――_Plutarch_, _Publicola_.
=Vindili=, a nation of Germany. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 14.
=Vindonissa=, now _Wendish_, a town of the Helvetii on the Aar, in the
territory of Berne. _Tacitus_, bk. 4, _Histories_, chs. 61 & 70.
=Vinicius=, a Roman consul poisoned by Messalina, &c.――――A man who
conspired against Nero, &c.
=Vinidius=, a miser mentioned by Horace, bk. 1, satire 1, li. 95. Some
manuscripts read Numidius and Umidius.
=Titus Vinius=, a commander in the pretorian guards, intimate with
Galba, of whom he became the first minister. He was honoured with
the consulship, and some time after murdered. _Tacitus_, _Histories_,
bk. 1, chs. 11, 42 & 48.――_Plutarch._――――A man who revolted from Nero.
=Vinnius Asella=, a servant of Horace, to whom ltr. 13 is addressed, as
injunctions how to deliver to Augustus some poems from his master.
=Vipsania=, a daughter of Marcus Agrippa, mother of Drusus. She was
the only one of Agrippa’s daughters who died a natural death. She
was married to Tiberius when a private man, and when she had been
repudiated, she married Asinius Gallus. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 1,
ch. 12; bk. 3, ch. 19.
=Virbius= (qui inter _viros bis_ fuit), a name given to Hippolytus,
after he had been brought back to life by Æsculapius, at the instance
of Diana, who pitied his unfortunate end. Virgil makes him son of
Hippolytus. _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 762.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 15,
li. 544.――_Hyginus_, fable 251.
=Publius Virgĭlius Marco=, called _the prince of the Latin poets_, was
born at Andes, a village near Mantua, about 70 years before Christ,
on the 15th of October. His first years were spent at Cremona, where
his taste was formed, and his rising talents first exercised. The
distribution of the lands of Cremona to the soldiers of Augustus,
after the battle of Philippi, nearly proved fatal to the poet, and
when he attempted to dispute the possession of his fields with a
soldier, Virgil was obliged to save his life from the resentment
of the lawless veteran, by swimming across a river. This was the
beginning of his greatness; he with his father repaired to Rome,
where he soon formed an acquaintance with Mecænas, and recommended
himself to the favours of Augustus. The emperor restored his lands
to the poet, whose modest muse knew so well how to pay the tribute of
gratitude, and his first _bucolic_ was written to thank the patron,
as well as to tell the world that his favours were not unworthily
bestowed. The 10 bucolics were written in about three years. The poet
showed his countrymen that he could write with graceful simplicity,
with elegance, delicacy of sentiments, and with purity of language.
Some time after, Virgil undertook the _Georgics_, a poem the most
perfect and finished of all Latin compositions. The _Æneid_ was
begun, as some suppose, at the particular request of Augustus, and
the poet, while he attempted to prove that the Julian family was
lineally descended from the founder of Lavinium, visibly described in
the pious and benevolent character of his hero the amiable qualities
of his imperial patron. The great merit of this poem is well known,
and it will ever remain undecided which of the two poets, either
Homer or Virgil, is more entitled to our praise, our applause, and
our admiration. The writer of the Iliad stood as a pattern to the
favourite of Augustus. The voyage of Æneas is copied from the Odyssey;
and for his battles, Virgil found a model in the wars of Troy, and
the animated descriptions of the Iliad. The poet died before he had
revised this immortal work, which had already engaged his time for
11 successive years. He had attempted to attend his patron in the
east, but he was detained at Naples on account of his ill health.
He, however, went to Athens, where he met Augustus in his return, but
he soon after fell sick at Megara, and though indisposed, he ordered
himself to be removed to Italy. He landed at Brundusium, where a few
days after he expired, the 22nd of September, in the 51st year of his
age, B.C. 19. He left the greatest part of his immense possessions
to his friends, particularly to Mecænas, Tucca, and Augustus, and
he ordered, as his last will, his unfinished poem to be burnt. These
last injunctions were disobeyed; and according to the words of an
ancient poet, Augustus saved his favourite Troy from a second and
more dismal conflagration. The poem was delivered by the emperor
to three of his literary friends. They were ordered to revise and
to expunge whatever they deemed improper; but they were strictly
enjoined not to make any additions, and hence, as some suppose, the
causes that so many lines of the Æneid are unfinished, particularly
in the last books. The body of the poet, according to his own
directions, was conveyed to Naples, and interred with much solemnity
in a monument, erected on the road that leads from Naples to Puteoli.
The following modest distich was engraved on the tomb, written by the
poet some few moments before he expired:
_Mantua me genuit; Calabri rapuere; tenet nunc
Parthenope: cecini pascua, rura, duces._
The Romans were not insensible of the merit of their poet. Virgil
received much applause in the capital, and when he entered the
theatre, he was astonished and delighted to see the crowded audience
rise up to him as to an emperor, and welcome his approach by
reiterated plaudits. He was naturally modest, and of a timorous
disposition. When people crowded to gaze upon him, or pointed at him
with the finger with rapture, the poet blushed, and stole away from
them, and often hid himself in shops to be removed from the curiosity
and the admiration of the public. The most liberal and gratifying
marks of approbation he received were from the emperor and from
Octavia. He attempted in his Æneid to paint the virtues, and to
lament the premature death of the son of Octavia, and he was desired
by the emperor to repeat the lines in the presence of the afflicted
mother. He had no sooner begun _O nate_, &c., than Octavia burst
into tears; he continued, but he had artfully suppressed the name of
her son, and when he repeated in the 16th line the well-known words,
_Tu Marcellus eris_, the princess swooned away, and the poet withdrew,
but not without being liberally rewarded. Octavia presented him 10
sesterces for every one of his verses in praise of her son, the whole
of which was equivalent to 2000_l._ English money. As an instance
of his modesty, the following circumstance has been recorded. Virgil
wrote this distich, in which he compared his patron to Jupiter,
_Nocte pluit totâ, redeunt spectacula mane,
Divisum imperium cum Jove Cæsar habet,_
and placed it in the night on the gates of the palace of Augustus.
Inquiries were made for the author by order of Augustus, and when
Virgil had the diffidence not to declare himself, Bathyllus, a
contemptible poet of the age, claimed the verses as his own, and was
liberally rewarded. This displeased Virgil; he again wrote the verses
near the palace and under them
_Hos ego versiculos feci, tulit alter honores_;
with the beginning of another line in these words,
_Sic vos non vobis_,
four times repeated. Augustus wished the lines to be finished.
Bathyllus seemed unable, and Virgil at last, by completing the stanza
in the following order――
_Sic vos non vobis nidificatis aves;
Sic vos non vobis vellera fertis oves;
Sic vos non vobis mellificatis apes;
Sic vos non vobis fertis aratra boves;_
proved himself to be the author of the distich, and the poetical
usurper became the sport and ridicule of Rome. In the works of
Virgil we can find a more perfect and satisfactory account of the
religious ceremonies and customs of the Romans, than in all the other
Latin poets, Ovid excepted. Everything he mentions is founded upon
historical truth, and though he borrowed much from his predecessors,
and even whole lines from Ennius, yet he has had the happiness to
make it all his own. He was uncommonly severe in revising his own
poetry, and he used often to compare himself to a bear that licks
her cubs into shape. In his connections, Virgil was remarkable;
his friends enjoyed his unbounded confidence, and his library and
possessions seemed to be the property of the public. Like other great
men, he was not without his enemies and detractors in his lifetime,
but from their aspersions he received additional lustre. Among the
very numerous and excellent editions of Virgil, these few may be
collected as the best: that of Masvicius, 2 vols., 4to, Leovardiæ,
1717; of Baskerville, 4to, Birmingham, 1757; of the Variorum, in 8vo,
Leiden, 1661; of Heyne, 4 vols., 8vo, Lipscomb, 1767; of Edinburgh,
2 vols., 12mo, 1755; and of Glasgow, 12mo, 1758. _Paterculus_,
bk. 2, ch. 36.――_Horace_, bk. 1, satire 5, li. 40.――_Propertius_,
bk. 2, poem 34, li. 61.――_Ovid_, _Tristia_, bk. 4, poem 10, li. 51.
――_Martial_, bk. 8, ltr. 56.――_Juvenal_, satire 11, li. 178.
――_Quintilian_, bk. 10, ch. 1.――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ltr. 21.――――Caius, a
pretor of Sicily, who, when Cicero was banished, refused to receive
the exiled orator, though his friend, for fear of the resentment of
Clodius. _Cicero_, _Letters to his brother Quintus_.
=Virgĭnia=, a daughter of the centurion Lucius Virginius. Appius
Claudius the decemvir became enamoured of her, and attempted to
remove her from the place where she resided. She was claimed by one
of his favourites as the daughter of a slave, and Appius, in the
capacity and with the authority of judge, had pronounced the sentence,
and delivered her into the hands of his friend, when Virginius,
informed of his violent proceedings, arrived from the camp. The
father demanded to see his daughter, and when this request was
granted, he snatched a knife and plunged it into Virginia’s breast,
exclaiming, “This is all, my dearest daughter, I can give thee, to
preserve thy chastity from the lust and violence of a tyrant.” No
sooner was the blow given, than Virginius ran to the camp with the
bloody knife in his hand. The soldiers were astonished and incensed,
not against the murderer, but the tyrant that was the cause of
Virginia’s death, and they immediately marched to Rome. Appius
was seized, but he destroyed himself in prison, and prevented the
execution of the law. Spurius Oppius, another of the decemvirs who
had not opposed the tyrant’s views, killed himself also, and Marcus
Claudius the favourite of Appius was put to death, and the decemviral
power abolished, about 449 years before Christ. _Livy_, bk. 3, ch. 44,
&c.――_Juvenal_, satire 10, li. 294.
=Virginius=, the father of Virginia, made tribune of the people. _See:_
Virginia.――――A tribune of the people who accused Quinctius Cæso the
son of Cincinnatus. He increased the number of the tribunes to 10,
and distinguished himself by his seditions against the patricians.
――――Another tribune in the age of Camillus, fined for his opposition
to a law which proposed going to Veii.――――An augur who died of the
plague.――――Caius, a pretor of Sicily, who opposed the entrance of
Cicero into his province, though under many obligations to the orator.
Some read Virgilius.――――A tribune who encouraged Cinna to criminate
Sylla.――――One of the generals of Nero in Germany. He made war against
Vindex and conquered him. He was treated with great coldness by Galba,
whose interest he had supported with so much success. He refused all
dangerous stations, and though twice offered the imperial purple,
he rejected it with disdain. _Plutarch._――――A Roman orator and
rhetorician.
=Viriāthus=, a mean shepherd of Lusitania, who gradually rose to power,
and by first heading a gang of robbers, saw himself at last followed
by a numerous army. He made war against the Romans with uncommon
success, and for 14 years enjoyed the envied title of protector of
public liberty in the provinces of Spain. Many generals were defeated,
and Pompey himself was ashamed to find himself beaten. Cæpio was at
last sent against him. But his despair of conquering him by force
of arms, obliged him to have recourse to artifice, and he had the
meanness to bribe the servants of Viriathus to murder their master,
B.C. 40. _Florus_, bk. 2, ch. 17.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 6, ch. 4.
――_Livy_, bks. 52 & 54.
=Viridomărus=, a young man of great power among the Ædui. Cæsar greatly
honoured him, but he fought at last against the Romans. _Cæsar_,
_Gallic War_, bk. 7, ch. 39, &c.
=Viriplāca=, a goddess among the Romans who presided over the peace of
families, whence her name (_virum placare_). If any quarrel happened
between a man and his wife, they generally repaired to the temple of
the goddess, which was erected on the Palatine mount, and came back
reconciled. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 2, ch. 1.
=Virro=, a fictitious name introduced in Juvenal’s fifth satire.
=Virtus.= All virtues were made deities among the Romans. Marcellus
erected two temples, one to Virtue, and the other to Honour. They
were built in such a manner, that to see the temple of Honour it was
necessary to pass through that of Virtue; a happy allegory among a
nation free and independent. The principal Virtues were distinguished,
each by their attire. Prudence was known by her rule, and her
pointing to a globe at her feet; Temperance had a bridle; Justice had
an equal balance, and Fortitude leant against her sword; Honesty was
clad in a transparent vest; Modesty appeared veiled; Clemency wore an
olive branch, and Devotion threw incense upon an altar; Tranquillity
was seen to lean on a column; Health was known by her serpent,
Liberty by her cap, and Gaiety by her myrtle. _Cicero_, _de Natura
Deorum_, bk. 2, ch. 23.――_Plautus_, _Amphitruo_, _Prologue_.――_Livy_,
bk. 29, ch. 11.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 1, ch. 1.――_Augustine_,
_City of God_, bk. 4, ch. 20.
=Visargis=, a river of Germany, now called the _Weser_, and falling
into the German ocean. Varus and his legions were cut to pieces there
by the Germans. _Velleius Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 105.――_Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 1, ch. 70; bk. 2, ch. 9.
=Viscellæ=, now _Weltz_, a town of Noricum, between the Ens and Mure.
=Spurius Cassius Viscellinus=, _Cicero_, _De Amicitia_, ch. 11.
=Visellia lex=, was made by Visellius Varro the consul, A.U.C. 776, to
restrain the introduction of improper persons into the offices of the
state.
=Lucius Visellius Varro=, a lieutenant in Germany under Tiberius.
_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 3, ch. 41; bk. 4, ch. 17.
=Visellus=, a man whose father-in-law the commentators of Horace
believe to have been afflicted with a hernia, on their observations
on this verse (bk. 1, satire 1, li. 105), _Est inter Tanaim quiddam,
socerumque Viselli_.
=Vistŭla=, a river falling into the Baltic, the eastern boundary of
ancient Germany.
=Vitellia=, a Roman colony on the borders of the Æqui. _Livy_, bk. 5,
ch. 29.
=Vitellius Aulus=, a Roman raised by his vices to the throne. He was
descended from one of the most illustrious families of Rome, and as
such he gained an easy admission to the palace of the emperors. The
greatest part of his youth was spent at Capreæ, where his willingness
and compliance to gratify the most vicious propensities of Tiberius
raised his father to the dignity of consul and governor of Syria.
The applause he gained in this school of debauchery was too great
and flattering to induce Vitellius to alter his conduct, and no
longer to be one of the votaries of vice. Caligula was pleased
with his skill in driving a chariot. Claudius loved him because
he was a great gamester, and he recommended himself to the favours
of Nero by wishing him to sing publicly in the crowded theatre.
With such an insinuating disposition, it is not to be wondered
that Vitellius became so great. He did not fall with his patrons,
like the other favourites, but the death of an emperor seemed to
raise him to greater honours, and to procure him fresh applause.
He passed through all the offices of the state, and gained over the
soldiery by donations and liberal promises. He was at the head of the
♦Roman legions in Germany when Otho was proclaimed emperor, and the
exaltation of his rival was no sooner heard in the camp, than he was
likewise invested with the purple by his soldiers. He accepted with
pleasure the dangerous office, and instantly marched against Otho.
Three battles were fought, and in all Vitellius was conquered. A
fourth, however, in the plains between Mantua and Cremona, left him
master of the field and of the Roman empire. He feasted his eyes in
viewing the bodies of the slain and the ground covered with blood,
and regardless of the insalubrity of the air, proceeding from so many
carcases, he told his attendants that the smell of a dead enemy was
always sweet. His first care was not like that of a true conqueror,
to alleviate the distresses of the conquered, or patronize the
friends of the dead, but it was to insult their misfortunes, and
to intoxicate himself with the companions of his debauchery in the
field of battle. Each successive day exhibited a scene of greater
extravagance. Vitellius feasted four or five times a day, and such
was his excess that he often made himself vomit to begin his repast
afresh, and to gratify his palate with more luxury. His food was of
the most rare and exquisite nature; the deserts of Libya, the shores
of Spain, and the waters of the Carpathian sea, were diligently
searched to supply the table of the emperor. The most celebrated of
his feasts was that with which he was treated by his brother Lucius.
The table, among other meats, was covered with 2000 different dishes
of fish, and 7000 of fowls, and so expensive was he in everything,
that above seven millions sterling were spent in maintaining his
table in the space of four months; and Josephus has properly observed,
that if Vitellius had reigned long, the great opulence of all
the Roman empire would have been found insufficient to defray the
expenses of his banquets. This extravagance, which delighted the
favourites, soon raised the indignation of the people. Vespasian was
proclaimed emperor by the army, and his minister Primus was sent to
destroy the imperial glutton. Vitellius concealed himself under the
bed of the porter of his palace, but this obscure retreat betrayed
him; he was dragged naked through the streets, his hands were tied
behind his back, and a drawn sword was placed under his chin to
make him lift his head. After suffering the greatest insults from
the populace, he was at last carried to the place of execution, and
put to death with repeated blows. His head was cut off and fixed
to a pole, and his mutilated body dragged with a hook and thrown
into the Tiber, A.D. 69, after a reign of one year, except 12 days.
_Suetonius._――_Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 2.――_Eutropius._――_Dio
Cassius._――_Plutarch._――――Lucius, the father of the emperor, obtained
great honours by his flattery to the emperors. He was made governor
of Syria, and in this distant province he obliged the Parthians
to sue for peace. His adulation to Messalina is well known, and he
obtained as a particular favour the honourable office of pulling off
the shoes of the empress, &c. _Suetonius_, &c.――――A brother of the
emperor, who enjoyed his favours by encouraging his gluttony, &c.
――――Publius, an uncle of the emperor of that name. He was accused
under Nero of attempts to bribe the people with money from the
treasury against the emperor. He killed himself before his trial.
――――One of the flatterers of Tiberius.――――An officer of the
pretorians under Otho.――――A son of the emperor Vitellius, put to
death by one of his father’s friends.――――Some of the family of the
Vitellii conspired with the Aquilii and other illustrious Romans to
restore Tarquin to his throne. Their conspiracy was discovered by the
consuls, and they were severely punished. _Plutarch_, &c.
♦ ‘Romans’ replaced with ‘Roman’
=Viterbum=, a town of Tuscany, where Fanum Volumnæ stood. It is not
mentioned by classical writers. _Livy_, bk. 4, chs. 23 & 61; bk. 5,
ch. 17.
=Vitia=, a mother put to death by Tiberius for weeping at the death of
her son, &c. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 7, ch. 10.
=Vītrĭcus=, a surname of Mars. _Ovid._
=Marcus Vitruvius Pollio=, a celebrated architect in the age of
Augustus, born at Formiæ. He is known only by his writings, and
nothing is recorded in history of his life or private character. He
wrote a treatise on his profession, which he dedicated to Augustus,
and it is the only book on architecture now extant written by the
ancients. In this work he plainly shows that he was master of his
profession, and that he possessed both genius and abilities. The best
edition of Vitruvius is that of De Laet, Amsterdam, 1649.
=Vitŭla=, a deity among the Romans who presided over festivals and
rejoicings. _Macrobius_, bk. 3, ch. 2.
=Vitularia via=, a road in the country of Arpinum. _Cicero_, _Letters
to his brother Quintus_, bk. 3, ltr. 1.
=Ulpia Trajāna=, a Roman colony planted in Sarmatia by Trajan.
=Ulpiānus Domitius=, a lawyer in the reign of Alexander Severus,
of whom he became the secretary and principal minister. He raised a
persecution against the christians, and was at last murdered by the
pretorian guards, of which he had the command, A.D. 226. There are
some fragments of his compositions on civil law still extant. The
Greek commentaries of Ulpian on Demosthenes were printed in folio,
1527, _with Aldus Manutius_.――――Marcellus, an officer in the age of
Commodus.――――Julianus, a man sent to oppose Heliogabalus, &c.
=Ulŭbræ=, a small town of Latium on the river Astura, where Augustus
was educated. _Juvenal_, satire 10, li. 102.――_Horace_, bk. 1,
ltr. 11.
=Ulysses=, a king of the islands of Ithaca and Dulichium, son of
Anticlea and Laertes, or, according to some, of Sisyphus. _See:_
Sisyphus and Anticlea. He became, like the other princes of Greece,
one of the suitors of Helen, but as he despaired of success in his
applications, on account of the great numbers of his competitors, he
solicited the hand of Penelope the daughter of Icarius. Tyndarus the
father of Helen favoured the addresses of Ulysses, as by him he was
directed to choose one of his daughter’s suitors without offending
the others, and to bind them all by a solemn oath, that they would
unite together in protecting Helen if any violence was ever offered
to her person. Ulysses had no sooner obtained the hand of Penelope,
than he returned to Ithaca, where his father resigned him the crown,
and retired to peace and rural solitude. The rape of Helen, however,
by Paris, did not long permit him to remain in his kingdom, and as
he was bound to defend her against every intruder, he was summoned
to the war with the other princes of Greece. Pretending to be insane,
not to leave his beloved Penelope, he yoked a horse and a bull
together, and ploughed the sea-shore, where he sowed salt instead
of corn. This dissimulation was soon discovered, and Palamedes,
by placing before the plough of Ulysses his infant son Telemachus,
convinced the world that the father was not mad who had the
providence to turn away the plough from the furrow, not to hurt
his child. Ulysses was therefore obliged to go to the war, but he
did not forget him who had discovered his pretended insanity. _See:_
Palamedes. During the Trojan war, the king of Ithaca was courted
for his superior prudence and sagacity. By his means Achilles was
discovered among the daughters of Lycomedes king of Scyros [_See:_
Achilles], and Philoctetes was induced to abandon Lemnos, and to
fight the Trojans with the arrows of Hercules. _See:_ Philoctetes.
He was not less distinguished for his activity and valour. With
the assistance of Diomedes he murdered Rhesus, and slaughtered the
sleeping Thracians in the midst of their camp, [_See:_ Rhesus and
Dolon], and he introduced himself into the city of Priam, and carried
away the Palladium of the Trojans. _See:_ Palladium. For these
eminent services he was universally applauded by the Greeks, and
he was rewarded with the arms of Achilles, which Ajax had disputed
with him. After the Trojan war Ulysses embarked on board his ships
to return to Greece, but he was exposed to a number of misfortunes
before he reached his native country. He was thrown by the winds
upon the coasts of Africa, and visited the country of the Lotophagi,
and of the Cyclops in Sicily. Polyphemus, who was the king of the
Cyclops, seized Ulysses with his companions, five of whom he devoured
[_See:_ Polyphemus], but the prince of Ithaca intoxicated him and
put out his eye, and at last escaped from the dangerous cave where
he was confined, by tying himself under the belly of the sheep of
the Cyclops when led to pasture. In Æolia he met with a friendly
reception, and Æolus gave him, confined in bags, all the wind
which could obstruct his return to Ithaca, but the curiosity of
his companions to know what the bags contained proved nearly fatal.
The winds rushed with impetuosity, and all the fleet was destroyed,
except the ship which carried Ulysses. From thence he was thrown
upon the coasts of the Læstrygones, and of the island Æea, where
the magician Circe changed all his companions into pigs for their
voluptuousness. He escaped their fate by means of an herb which he
had received from Mercury, and after he had obliged the magician by
force of arms to restore his companions to ♦their original shape, he
yielded to her charms, and made her mother of Telegonus. He visited
the infernal regions and consulted Tiresias how to regain his country
in safety; and after he had received every necessary information,
he returned on earth. He passed along the coasts of the Sirens
unhurt, by the directions of Circe [_See:_ Sirenes], and escaped
the whirlpools and shoals of Scylla, and Charybdis. On the coast of
Sicily his companions stole and killed some oxen that were sacred to
Apollo, for which the god destroyed the ships, and all were drowned
except Ulysses, who saved himself on a plank, and swam to the island
of Calypso, in Ogygia. There, for seven years, he forgot Ithaca,
in the arms of the goddess, by whom he had two children. The gods
at last interfered, and Calypso, by order of Mercury, suffered him
to depart, after she had furnished him with a ship, and everything
requisite for the voyage. He had almost reached the island of Corcyra,
when Neptune, still mindful that his son Polyphemus had been robbed
of his sight by the perfidy of Ulysses, raised a storm and sunk his
ship. Ulysses swam with difficulty to the island of the Phæacians,
where the kindness of Nausicaa, and the humanity of her father king
Alcinous, entertained him for a while. He related the series of
his misfortunes to the monarch, and at last, by his benevolence,
he was conducted in a ship to Ithaca. The Phæacians laid him on the
sea-shore as he was asleep, and Ulysses found himself safely restored
to his country after a long absence of 20 years. He was well informed
that his palace was besieged by a number of suitors, who continually
disturbed the peace of Penelope, and therefore he assumed the habit
of a beggar, by the advice of Minerva, and made himself known to his
son, and his faithful shepherd Eumæus. With them he took measures to
re-establish himself on his throne; he went to the palace, and was
personally convinced of the virtues and of the fidelity of Penelope.
Before his arrival was publicly known, all the importuning suitors
were put to death, and Ulysses restored to the peace and bosom of
his family. _See:_ Laertes, Penelope, Telemachus, Eumæus. He lived
about 16 years after his return, and was at last killed by his son
Telegonus, who had landed in Ithaca, with the hopes of making himself
known to his father. This unfortunate event had been foretold to
him by Tiresias, who assured him that he should die by the violence
of something that was to issue from the bosom of the sea. _See:_
Telegonus. According to some authors, Ulysses went to consult the
oracle of Apollo after his return to Ithaca, and he had the meanness
to seduce Erippe the daughter of a king of Epirus, who had treated
him with great kindness. Erippe had a son by him whom she called
Euryalus. When come to years of puberty, Euryalus was sent to Ithaca
by his mother, but Penelope no sooner knew who he was than she
resolved to destroy him. Therefore, when Ulysses returned, he put to
immediate death his unknown son on the crimination of Penelope his
wife, who accused him of attempts upon her virtue. The adventures
of Ulysses in his return to Ithaca from the Trojan war are the
subject of Homer’s Odyssey. _Homer_, _Iliad_ & _Odyssey_.――_Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bks. 2, 3, &c.――_Dictys Cretensis_, bk. 1, &c.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 13; _Heroides_, poem 1.――_Hyginus_, fable 201,
&c.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 10.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, chs. 17 & 22;
bk. 3, ch. 12; bk. 7, ch. 4.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 13,
ch. 12.――_Horace_, bk. 3, ode 29, li. 8.――_Parthenius_, _Narrationes
Amatoriæ_, ch. 3.――_Plutarch._――_Pliny_, bk. 35.――_Tzetzes_, _ad
Lycurgus_.
♦ ‘his’ replaced with ‘their’
=Ulysseum=, a promontory of Sicily, west of Pachinus.
=Umber=, a lake of Umbria near the Tiber. _Propertius_, bk. 4, poem 1,
li. 124.
=Umbra Pompeia=, a portico of Pompey at Rome. _Martial_, bk. 5, ltr. 10.
=Umbria=, a country of Italy, separated from Etruria by the Tiber,
bounded on the north by the Adriatic sea, east by Picenum and the
country of the Sabines, and south by the river Nar. Some derive the
word Umbria _ab imbribus_, the frequent showers that were supposed
to fall there, or from the shadow (_umbra_) of the Apennines which
hung over it. Umbria had many cities of note. The Umbrians opposed
the Romans in the infancy of their empire, but afterwards they
became their allies, about the year ♦A.U.C. 434. _Catullus_, bk. 40,
li. 11.――_Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 12.――_Dionysius of
Halicarnassus._
♦ ‘U.C.’ replaced with ‘A.U.C.’
=Umbrigius=, a soothsayer, who foretold approaching calamities to Galba.
_Juvenal_, satire 3, li. 21.――_Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 1, ch. 27.
=Umbro=, a navigable river of Italy. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 5.――――A
general who assisted Turnus against Æneas, and was killed during
the war. He could assuage the fury of serpents by his songs, and
counteract the poisonous effects of their bite. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 7, li. 752; bk. 10, li. 544.
=Unca=, a surname of Minerva among the Phœnicians and Thebans.
=Unchæ=, a town of Mesopotamia.
=Undecemvĭri=, magistrates at Athens, to whom such as were publicly
condemned were delivered to be executed. _Cornelius Nepos_, _Phocion_.
=Unelli=, a people of Cotantin in Gaul, conquered by Cæsar. _Cæsar_,
_Gallic War_, bk. 2, ch. 34.
=Unigĕna=, a surname of Minerva, as sprung of Jupiter alone.
=Unxia=, a surname of Juno, derived from _ungere_, to anoint, because
it was usual among the Romans for the bride to anoint the threshold
of her husband, and from this necessary ceremony wives were called
_Unxores_, and afterwards _Uxores_, from Unxia, who presided over
them. _Arnobius_, bk. 3.
=Vocetius=, part of mount Jura in Gaul. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 1,
ch. 68.
=Vŏcōnia lex=, _de testamentis_, by Quintus Voconius Saxa the tribune,
A.U.C. 584, enacted that no woman should be left heiress to an estate,
and that no rich person should leave by his will more than the fourth
part of his fortune to a woman. This step was taken to prevent the
decay of the noblest and most illustrious of the families of Rome.
This law was abrogated by Augustus.
=Voconii forum=, a town of Gaul, between Antibes and Marseilles.
_Cicero_, bk. 10, _Letters to his Friends_, ltr. 17.
=Vŏcōnius Victor=, a Latin poet, &c. _Martial_, bk. 7, ltr. 28.――――Saxa,
a tribune who made a law.――――An officer of Lucullus in Asia.
=Vocontia=, now _Vasio_. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 3, li. 167.
=Vŏgēsus=, now _Vauge_, a mountain of Belgic Gaul, which separates the
Sequani from the Lingones. _Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 397.――_Cæsar_, _Gallic
War_, bk. 4, ch. 10.
=Volæ=, a city of the Æqui. _Livy_, bk. 4, ch. 49.
=Volaginius=, a soldier who assassinated one of his officers, &c.
_Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 2, ch. 75.
=Volana=, a town of the Samnites.
=Volandum=, a fortified place of Armenia.
=Volaterra=, an ancient town of Etruria, famous for hot baths. Perseus
the satirist was born there. _Livy_, bk. 10, ch. 12.――_Strabo_, bk. 5.
――_Cicero_, bk. 15, _Letters to his Friends_, ltr. 4.
=Volcæ=, or =Volgæ=, a people of Gaul between the Garonne and the Rhone.
_Livy_, bk. 21, ch. 26.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 5.
=Volci=, an inland town of Lucania, now _Lauria_. _Livy_, bk. 27,
ch. 15.――――A town of Etruria. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 5.
=Vologĕses=, a name common to many of the kings of Parthia, who made
war against the Roman emperors. _Tacitus_, bk. 12, _Annals_, ch. 14.
=Volscens=, a Latin chief who discovered Nisus and Euryalus as they
returned from the Rutulian camp loaded with spoils. He killed
Euryalus, and was himself immediately stabbed by Nisus. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 9, lis. 370 & 442.
=Volsci=, or =Volci=, a people of Latium, whose territories are bounded
on the south by the Tyrrhene sea, north by the country of the Hernici
and Marsi, west by the Latins and Rutulians, and east by Campania.
Their chief cities were Antium, Circeii, Anxur, Corioli, Fregellæ,
Arpinum, &c. Ancus king of Rome made war against them, and in the
time of the republic they became formidable enemies, till they were
at last conquered with the rest of the Latins. _Livy_, bks. 3 & 4.
――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 2, li. 168; _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 505;
bk. 11, li. 546, &c.――_Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Mela_, bk. 2, chs. 4 & 5.
=Volsinium=, a town of Etruria in Italy, destroyed, according to Pliny,
bk. 2, ch. 53, by fire from heaven. The inhabitants numbered their
years by fixing nails in the temple of Nortia, a Tuscan goddess.
_Livy_, bk. 5, ch. 31; bk. 7, ch. 3.――_Juvenal_, satire 15, li. 191.
――_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 4.
=Voltinia=, one of the Roman tribes.
=Volubilis=, a town of Africa, supposed Fez, the capital of Morocco.
_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 1.
=Volumnæ Fanum=, a temple in Etruria, sacred to the goddess Volumna,
who presided over the will and over complaisance, where the states of
the country used to assemble. Viterbo now stands on the spot. _Livy_,
bk. 4, ch. 23; bk. 5, ch. 17; bk. 6, ch. 2.
=Volumnia=, the wife of Coriolanus. _Livy_, bk. 2, ch. 40.――――The
freedwoman of Volumnius Eutrapelus. _Cicero_, _Philippics_, bk. 2,
ch. 24.
=Volumnus= and =Volumna=, two deities who presided over the will.
They were chiefly invoked at marriages to preserve concord between
the husband and wife. They were particularly worshipped by the
Etrurians. _Livy_, bk. 4, ch. 61.
=T. Volumnius=, a Roman famous for his friendship towards Marcus
Lucullus, whom Marcus Antony had put to death. His great lamentations
were the cause that he was dragged to the triumvir, of whom he
demanded to be conducted to the body of his friend, and there to
be put to death. His request was easily granted. _Livy_, bk. 124,
ch. 20.――――A mimic whom Brutus put to death.――――An Etrurian who wrote
tragedies in his own native language.――――A consul who defeated the
Samnites and the Etrurians, &c. _Livy_, bk. 9.――――A friend of Marcus
Brutus. He was preserved when that great republican killed himself,
and he wrote an account of his death and of his actions, from which
Plutarch selected some remarks.――――A prefect of Syria, B.C. 11.――――A
Roman knight put to death by Catiline.
=Voluptas= and =Volupia=, the goddess of sensual pleasures, worshipped
at Rome, where she had a temple. She was represented as a young
and beautiful woman, well dressed, and elegantly adorned, seated
on a throne, and having virtue under her feet. _Cicero_, _de Natura
Deorum_, bk. 2, ch. 25.――_Macrobius_, bk. 1, ch. 10.――_Augustine_,
_City of God_, bk. 4, ch. 8.
=Caius Volusēnus=, a military tribune in Cæsar’s army, &c. _Cæsar_,
_Gallic War_, bk. 3.
=Volusiānus=, a Roman taken as colleague on the imperial throne, by his
father Gallus. He was killed by his soldiers.
=Vŏlŭsius=, a poet of Patavia, who wrote, like Ennius, the annals
of Rome in verse. _Seneca_, ltr. 93.――_Catullus_, bk. 96, li. 7.
――――Saturninus, a governor of Rome, who died in the 93rd year of his
age, beloved and respected, under Nero. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 13.
――――Caius, a soldier at the siege of Cremona, &c.――――One of Nero’s
officers. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 15, ch. 51.
=Volusus=, a friend of Turnus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 11, li. 463.
=Volux=, a son of Bocchus, whom the Romans defeated. Sylla suspected
his fidelity, &c. _Sallust_, _Jugurthine War_, ch. 105.
=Vomanus=, a river of Picenum in Italy. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 13.
――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 438.
=Vonōnes=, a king of Parthia expelled by his subjects, and afterwards
placed on the throne of Armenia. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 12,
ch. 14.――――Another king of Armenia.――――A man made king of Parthia by
Augustus.
=Vopiscus=, a native of Syracuse, 303, A.D. who wrote the life of
Aurelian, Tacitus, Florianus, Probus, Firmus, Carus, &c. He is one
of the six authors who are called _Historiæ Augustæ scriptores_, but
he excels all others in the elegance of his style, and the manner
in which he relates the various actions of the emperors. He is not,
however, without his faults, and we look in vain for the purity or
perspicuity of the writers of the Augustan age.
=Vŏrānus=, a freedman of Quintus Luctatius Catulus, famous for his
robberies as well as his cunning, &c. _Horace_, bk. 1, satire 8,
li. 39.
=Votiēnus Montanus=, a man of learning, banished to one of the Baleares
for his malevolent reflections upon Tiberius. Ovid has celebrated him
as an excellent poet. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 4, ch. 42.
=Upis=, the father of one of the Dianas, mentioned by the ancients,
from which circumstance Diana herself is called _Upis_. _Cicero_,
_de Natura Deorum_, bk. 3, ch. 23.――_Callimachus_, _Artemis_.
=Urănia=, one of the Muses, daughter of Jupiter and Mnemosyne, who
presided over astronomy. She is generally called mother of Linus
by Apollo, and of the god Hymenæus by Bacchus. She was represented
as a young virgin dressed in an azure-coloured robe, crowned
with stars, and holding a globe in her hands, and having many
mathematical instruments placed round. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 77.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 2.――_Hyginus_, fable 161.――――A surname of
Venus, the same as _Celestial_. She was supposed, in that character,
to preside over beauty and generation, and was called daughter of
Uranus or Cœlus by the Light. Her temples in Asia, Africa, Greece,
and Italy were numerous. _Plato_, _Convivium Septem Sapientium_.
――_Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 3, ch. 23.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1,
ch. 14, &c.; bk. 7, ch. 26, &c.――――A town of Cyprus.
=Urănii=, or =Urii=, a people of Gaul.
=Uranopŏlis=, a town at the top of Athos.
=Urănus=, or =Ouranus=, a deity, the same as Cœlus, the most ancient
of all the gods. He married Tithea or the Earth, by whom he had Ceus,
Creus, Hyperion, Mnemosyne, Cottus, Phœbe, Briareus, Thetis, Saturn,
Gyges, called from their mother Titans. His children conspired
against him, because he confined them in the bosom of the earth, and
his son Saturn mutilated him, and drove him from his throne.
=Urba=, now _Orbe_, a town of the Helvetii, on a river of the same name.
=Urbicua=, a town of Hispania Tarraconensis.
=Urbicus=, an actor at Rome, in Domitian’s reign. _Juvenal_, satire 6.
=Urbinum=, now _Urbino_, a town of Umbria. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 14.
=Urgo=, now _Gorgona_, an island in the bay of Pisa, 25 miles west of
Leghorn, famous for anchovies. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 6.
=Uria=, a town of Calabria, built by a Cretan colony, and called also
Hyria. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 11.――_Strabo_, bk. 6.――――Of Apulia.
=Urites=, a people of Italy. _Livy_, bk. 42, ch. 48.
=Ursentum=, a town of the Brutii, now _Orso_. _Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 11.
=Ursidius=, an adulterer. _Juvenal_, satire 6, li. 38.
=Uscana=, a town of Macedonia. _Livy_, bk. 43, ch. 18.
=Usceta=, a town of Africa Propria. _Aulus Hirtius_, _African War_,
ch. 89.
=Uscudama=, a town of Thrace. _Eutropius_, bk. 6, ch. 8.
=Usipĕtes=, or =Usipii=, a people of Germany. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_,
bk. 4, ch. 1, &c.
=Ustīca=, a town in an island on the coast of Sicily, near Panormum.
_Horace_, bk. 1, ode 17, li. 11.
=Utens=, a river of Gaul, now _Montone_, falling into the Adriatic by
Ravenna. _Livy_, bk. 5, ch. 35.
=Utĭca=, now _Satcor_, a celebrated city of Africa, on the coast
of the Mediterranean, on the same bay as Carthage, founded by a
Tyrian colony above 287 years before Carthage. It had a large and
commodious harbour, and it became the metropolis of Africa, after
the destruction of Carthage in the third Punic war, and the Romans
granted it all the lands situate between Hippo and Carthage. It
is celebrated for the death of Cato, who from thence is called
_Uticensis_, or of Utica. _Strabo_, bk. 17.――_Lucan_, bk. 6, li. 306.
――_Justin_, bk. 18, ch. 4.――_Pliny_, bk. 16, ch. 40.――_Livy_, bk. 25,
ch. 31.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 3, li. 242.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ltr. 20,
li. 513.
=Vulcanālia=, festivals in honour of Vulcan, brought to Rome from
Præneste, and observed in the month of August. The streets were
illuminated, fires kindled everywhere, and animals thrown into the
flames, as a sacrifice to the deity. _Varro_, _de Lingua Latina_,
bk. 5.――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 1.――_Columella_, bk. 11.
――_Pliny_, bk. 18, ch. 13.
=Vulcāni insula=, or =Vulcania=, a name given to the islands between
Sicily and Italy, now called Lipari. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8,
li. 422. They received it because there were there subterraneous
fires, supposed to be excited by Vulcan the god of fire.
=Vulcanius Terentianus=, a Latin historian, who wrote an account of the
life of the three Gordians, &c.
=Vulcānus=, a god of the ancients who presided over fire, and was
the patron of all artists who worked iron and metal. He was son of
Juno alone, who in this wished to imitate Jupiter, who had produced
Minerva from his brains. According to Homer, he was son of Jupiter
and Juno, and the mother was so disgusted with the deformities of
her son, that she threw him into the sea as soon as born, where he
remained for nine years. According to the more received opinion,
Vulcan was educated in heaven with the rest of the gods, but his
father kicked him down from ♦Olympus, when he attempted to deliver
his mother, who had been fastened by a golden chain for her insolence.
He was nine days in coming from heaven upon earth, and he fell in the
island of Lemnos, where, according to Lucian, the inhabitants, seeing
him in the air, caught him in their arms. He, however, broke his leg
by the fall, and ever after remained lame of one foot. He fixed his
residence in Lemnos, where he built himself a palace, and raised
forges to work metals. The inhabitants of the island became sensible
of his industry, and were taught all the useful arts which could
civilize their rude manners, and render them serviceable to the good
of society. The first work of Vulcan was, according to some, a throne
of gold with secret springs, which he presented to his mother to
avenge himself for her want of affection towards him. Juno no sooner
was seated on the throne, than she found herself unable to move.
The gods attempted to deliver her by breaking the chains which
held her, but to no purpose, and Vulcan alone had the power to set
her at liberty. Bacchus intoxicated him, and prevailed upon him to
come to Olympus, where he was reconciled to his parents. Vulcan has
been celebrated by the ancient poets for the ingenious works and
automatical figures which he made, and many speak of two golden
statues, which not only seemed animated, but which walked by his side,
and even assisted him in the working of metals. It is said that, at
the request of Jupiter, he made the first woman that ever appeared
on earth, well known under the name of Pandora. _See:_ Pandora. The
Cyclops of Sicily were his ministers and attendants, and with him
they fabricated not only the thunderbolts of Jupiter, but also arms
for the gods and the most celebrated heroes. His forges were supposed
to be under mount Ætna, in the island of Sicily, as well as in every
part of the earth where there were volcanoes. The most known of
the works of Vulcan which were presented to mortals are the arms of
Achilles, those of Æneas, the shield of Hercules described by Hesiod,
a collar given to ♠Hermione the wife of Cadmus, and a sceptre, which
was in the possession of Agamemnon king of Argos and Mycenæ. The
collar proved fatal to all those that wore it, but the sceptre, after
the death of Agamemnon, was carefully preserved at Cheronæa, and
regarded as a divinity. The amours of Vulcan are not numerous. He
demanded Minerva from Jupiter, who had promised him in marriage
whatever goddess he should choose, and when she refused his
addresses, he attempted to offer her violence. Minerva resisted with
success, though there remained on her body some marks of Vulcan’s
passion, which she threw down upon earth wrapped up in wool. _See:_
♣Erichthonius. This disappointment in his love was repaired by
Jupiter, who gave him one of the Graces. Venus is universally
acknowledged to have been the wife of Vulcan; but her infidelity is
well known, as well as her amours with Mars, which were discovered by
Phœbus, and exposed to the gods by her own husband. _See:_ Alectryon.
The worship of Vulcan was well established, particularly in Egypt,
at Athens, and at Rome. It was usual, in the sacrifices that were
offered to him, to burn the whole victim, and not reserve part of it,
as in the immolations to the rest of the gods. A calf and a boar pig
were the principal victims offered. Vulcan was represented as covered
with sweat, blowing with his nervous arm the fires of his forges.
His breast was hairy, and his forehead was blackened with smoke. Some
represent him lame and deformed, holding a hammer raised in the air,
ready to strike; while with the other hand he turns, with pincers,
a thunderbolt on his anvil, for which an eagle waits by his side to
carry it to Jupiter. He appears on some monuments with a long beard,
dishevelled hair, half naked, and a small round cap on his head,
while he holds a hammer and pincers in his hand. The Egyptians
represented him under the figure of a monkey. Vulcan has received
the names of _Mulciber_, _Pamphanes_, _Clytotechnes_, _Pandamator_,
_Cyllopodes_, _Chalaipoda_, &c., all expressive of his lameness and
his profession. He was father of Cupid by Venus; of Cæculus, Cecrops,
Cacus, Periphetes, Cercyon, Ocrisia, &c. Cicero speaks of more than
one deity of the name of Vulcan. One he calls son of Cœlus and father
of Apollo by Minerva; the second he mentions is son of the Nile, and
called Phtas by the Egyptians; the third was the son of Jupiter and
Juno, and fixed his residence in Lemnos; and the fourth who built
his forges in the Lipari islands was son of Menalius. Vulcan seems
to have been admitted into heaven more for ridicule than any other
purpose. He seems to be the great cuckold of Olympus, and even his
wife is represented as laughing at his deformities, and mimicking
his lameness to gain the smiles of her lovers. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_
& _Shield of Heracles_, lis. 140 & 320.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 3,
&c.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 1, li. 57; bk. 15, li. 18; bk. 11, li. 397,
&c.――_Diodorus_, bk. 5.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 20; bk. 3, ch. 17.
――_Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 3, ch. 22.――_Herodotus_, bks. 2
& 3.――_Varro_, _de Lingua Latina_.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, 7, &c.
♦‘Olympas’ replaced with ‘Olympus’
♠‘Hermoine’ replaced with ‘Hermione’
♣‘Erichsithonius’ replaced with ‘Erichthonius’
=Vulcātius=, a Roman knight, who conspired with Piso against Nero, &c.
_Tacitus._――――A senator in the reign of Diocletian, who attempted to
write a history of all such as had reigned at Rome, either as lawful
sovereigns or by usurpation. Of his works nothing is extant but an
account of Avidius Cassius, who revolted in the east during the reign
of Marcus Aurelius, which some ascribe to Spartianus.
=Vulsīnum=, a town of Etruria. _See:_ Volsinium.
=Vulso=, a Roman consul who invaded Africa with Regulus.――――Another
consul. He had the provinces of Asia while in office, and triumphed
over the Galatians.
=Vultŭra=, or =Vulturaria=, a mountain on the borders of Apulia.
_Horace_, bk. 3, ode 4, li. 9.――_Lucan_, bk. 9, li. 183.
=Vulturius=, a man who conspired against his country with Catiline.
=Vulturnius=, a surname of Apollo. _See:_ Vulturnus.
=Vulturnum=, a town of Campania, near the mouth of the Vulturnus.
_Livy_, bk. 25, ch. 20.――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 5.――――Also an ancient
name of Capua. _Livy_, bk. 4, ch. 37.
=Vulturnus=, a river of Campania rising in the Apennines, and
falling into the Tyrrhene sea, after passing by the town of Capua.
_Lucretius_, bk. 5, li. 664.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, li. 729.
――――The god of the Tiber was also known by that name. _Varro_, _de
Lingua Latina_, bk. 4, ch. 5.――――The wind, which received the name
of Vulturnus when it blew from the side of the Vulturnus, highly
incommoded the Romans at the battle of Cannæ. _Livy_, bk. 22, chs. 43
& 46.――――A surname of Apollo on mount Lissus in Ionia, near Ephesus.
The god received this name from a shepherd who raised him a temple
after he had been drawn out of a subterraneous cavern by vultures.
=Vulsinum=, a town of Etruria, where Sejanus was born.
=Uxama=, a town of Spain on the Iberus. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 3,
li. 384.
=Uxantis=, now _Ushant_, an island on the coast of Britany.
=Uxellodunum=, a town of Gaul defended by steep rocks, now _Puech
d’Issoiu_. _Cæsar_, _Gallic War_, bk. 8, ch. 33.
=Uxentum=, a town of Calabria, now _Ugento_.
=Uxii=, mountains of Armenia, with a nation of the same name,
conquered by Alexander. The Tigris rises in their country. _Strabo._
――_Diodorus._
=Uxisama=, an island in the western ocean.
=Uzita=, an inland town of Africa destroyed by Cæsar. _Hirtius_,
_African War_, ch. 41, &c.
X
=Xanthe=, one of the Oceanides. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 356.
=Xanthi=, a people of Thrace.――――The inhabitants of Xanthus in Asia.
_See:_ Xanthus.
=Xanthia Phoceus=, a Roman whom Horace addresses in his bk. 2, ode 4,
and of whom he speaks as enamoured of a servant-maid.
=Xanthĭca=, a festival observed by the Macedonians in the month called
Xanthicus, the same as April. It was then usual to make a lustration
of the army with great solemnity. A bitch was cut into two parts,
and one half of the body placed on one side, and the other part on
the other side, after which the soldiers marched between, and they
imitated a real battle by a sham engagement.
=Xanthippe=, a daughter of Dorus. _See:_ Xantippe.
=Xanthippus=, a son of Melas killed by Tydeus. _See:_ Xantippus.
=Xantho=, one of Cyrene’s attendant nymphs. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 4,
li. 336.
=Xanthus=, or =Xanthos=, a river of Troas, in Asia Minor. It is the
same as the _Scamander_, but, according to Homer, it was called
Xanthus by the gods and Scamander by men. _See:_ Scamander.――――A
river of Lycia, anciently called _Sirbes_. It was sacred to Apollo,
and fell into the sea near Patara. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 6, li. 172.
――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 4, li. 143.――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 15.――――One
of the horses of Achilles, who spoke to his master when chid with
severity, and told him he must soon be killed. _Homer_, _Iliad_,
bk. 19.――――One of the horses given to Juno by Neptune, and afterwards
to the sons of Leda.――――An historian of Sardes in the reign of
Darius.――――A Greek historian of Lydia, who wrote an account of his
country, of which some fragments remain. _Dionysius of Halicarnassus._
――――A king of Lesbos.――――A king of Bœotia, who made war against
the Athenians. He was killed by the artifice of Melanthus. _See:_
Apaturia.――――A Greek poet. _Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 4, ch. 26.
――_Suidas._――――A philosopher of Samos, in whose house Æsop lived some
time as servant.――――A town of Lycia, on the river of the same name,
at the distance of about 15 miles from the sea-shore. The inhabitants
were celebrated for their love of liberty and national independence.
Brutus laid siege to their city, and when at last they were unable
longer to support themselves against the enemy, they set fire to
their houses and destroyed themselves. The conqueror wished to spare
them, but though he offered rewards to his soldiers if they brought
any of the Xanthians alive into his presence, only 150 were saved,
much against their will. _Appian_, bk. 4.――_Plutarch_, _Brutus_.
=Xantĭcles=, one of the leaders of the 10,000 Greeks, after the battle
of Cunaxa.
=Xantippe=, a daughter of Dorus, who married Pleuron, by whom she had
Agenor, &c. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 7.――――The wife of Socrates,
remarkable for her ill humour and peevish disposition, which are
become proverbial. Some suppose that the philosopher was acquainted
with her moroseness and insolence before he married her, and that
he took her for his wife to try his patience, and inure himself to
the malevolent reflections of mankind. She continually tormented him
with her impertinence; and one day, not satisfied with using the most
bitter invectives, she emptied a vessel of dirty water on his head,
upon which the philosopher coolly observed, “After thunder there
generally falls rain.” _Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 7, ch. 10;
bk. 9, ch. 7; bk. 11, ch. 12.――_Diogenes Laërtius_, _Socrates_.
=Xantippus=, a Lacedæmonian general who assisted the Carthaginians
in the first Punic war. He defeated the Romans, 256 B.C., and took
the celebrated Regulus prisoner. Such signal services deserved to
be rewarded, but the Carthaginians looked with envious jealousy upon
Xantippus, and he retired to Corinth after he had saved them from
destruction. Some authors support that the Carthaginians ordered him
to be assassinated, and his body to be thrown into the sea as he was
returning home; while others say that they had prepared a leaky ship
to convey him to Corinth, which he artfully avoided. _Livy_, bk. 18
& bk. 28, ch. 43.――_Appian_, _Punic Wars_.――――An Athenian general
who defeated the Persian fleet at Mycale with Leotychides. A statue
was erected to his honour at the citadel of Athens. He made some
conquests in Thrace, and increased the power of Athens. He was father
to the celebrated Pericles by Agariste the niece of Clisthenes, who
expelled the Pisistratidæ from Athens. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 7;
bk. 8, ch. 52.――――A son of Pericles who disgraced his father by his
disobedience, his ingratitude, and his extravagance. He died of the
plague in the Peloponnesian war. _Plutarch._
=Xenagŏras=, an historian. _Dionysius of Halicarnassus._――――A
philosopher who measured the height of mount Olympus.
=Xenarchus=, a comic poet.――――A peripatetic philosopher of Seleucia,
who taught at Alexandria and at Rome, and was intimate with Augustus.
_Strabo_, bk. 14.――――A pretor of the Achæan league, who wished to
favour the interest of Perseus king of Macedonia against the Romans.
=Xenares=, an intimate friend of Cleomenes king of Sparta.
=Xenetus=, a rich Locrian, whose daughter Doris married Dionysius of
Sicily, &c. _Aristotle_, _Politics_, bk. 5, ch. 7.
=Xeneus=, a Chian writer who composed a history of his country.
=Xeniădes=, a Corinthian who went to buy Diogenes the Cynic when sold
as a slave. He asked him what he could do; upon which the Cynic
answered, “Command freemen.” This noble answer so pleased Xeniades,
that he gave the Cynic his liberty, and entrusted him with the care
and education of his children. _Diogenes Laërtius._――_Aulus Gellius_,
bk. 2, ch. 18.
=Xenius=, a surname given to Jupiter as the god of _hospitality_.
=Xenoclea=, a priestess of Apollo’s temple at Delphi, from whom
Hercules extorted an oracle by force, when she refused to answer
him because he was not purified of the blood and death of Iphitus.
_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 13.
=Xenŏcles=, a tragic writer, who obtained four times a poetical prize
in a contention in which Euripides was competitor, either through the
ignorance or by the bribery of his judges. The names of his tragedies
which obtained the victory were Œdipus, Lycaon, Bacchæ, Athamas
Satyricus, against the Alexander, Palamedes, Trojani, and Sisyphus
Satyricus of Euripides. His grandson bore also the name of Xenocles,
and excelled in tragical compositions. _Ælian_, _Varia Historia_,
bk. 2, ch. 8.――――A Spartan officer in the expedition which Agesilaus
undertook against the Persians.――――An architect of Eleusis.――――A
friend of Aratus.――――One of the friends of Cicero.――――A celebrated
rhetorician of Adramyttium. _Strabo_, bk. 13.
=Xenocrătes=, an ancient philosopher born at Chalcedonia, and educated
in the school of Plato, whose friendship he gained, and whose
approbation he merited. Though of a dull and sluggish disposition, he
supplied the defects of nature by unwearied attention and industry,
and was at last found capable of succeeding in the school of Plato
after Speusippus, about 339 years before Christ. He was remarkable
as a disciplinarian, and he required that his pupils should be
acquainted with mathematics before they came under his care, and he
even rejected some who had not the necessary qualification, saying
that they had not yet found the key of philosophy. He recommended
himself to his pupils not only by precepts, but more powerfully
by example, and since the wonderful change he had made upon the
conduct of one of his auditors [_See:_ Polemon], his company was
as much shunned by the dissolute and extravagant, as it was courted
by the virtuous and benevolent. Philip of Macedon attempted to gain
his confidence with money, but with no success. Alexander in this
imitated his father, and sent some of his friends with 50 talents
for the philosopher. They were introduced, and supped with Xenocrates.
The repast was small, frugal, and elegant, without ostentation.
On the morrow, the officers of Alexander wished to pay down the
50 talents, but the philosopher asked them whether they had not
perceived from the entertainment of the preceding day that he was not
in want of money. “Tell your master,” said he, “to keep his money;
he has more people to maintain than I have.” Yet, not to offend the
monarch, he accepted a small sum, about the 200th part of one talent.
His character was not less conspicuous in every other particular,
and he has been cited as an instance of virtue from the following
circumstance: The courtesan Lais had pledged herself to forfeit
an immense sum of money, if she did not triumph over the virtue of
Xenocrates. She tried every art, assumed the most captivating looks,
and used the most tempting attitudes to gain the philosopher, but
in vain; and she declared at last that she had not lost her money,
as she had pledged herself to conquer a human being, not a lifeless
stone. Though so respected and admired, yet Xenocrates was poor,
and he was dragged to prison, because he was unable to pay a small
tribute to the state. He was delivered from confinement by one of his
friends. His integrity was so well known, that when he appeared in
the court as a witness, the judges dispensed with his oath. He died
B.C. 314, in his 82nd year, after he had presided in the academy
for above 25 years. It is said that he fell in the night with his
head into a basin of water, and that he was suffocated. He had
written above 60 treatises on different subjects, all now lost.
He acknowledged no other deity but heaven, and the seven planets.
_Diogenes Laërtius._――_Cicero_, _Letters to Atticus_, bk. 10, ltr. 1,
&c. _Tusculanæ Disputationes_, bk. 5, ch. 32.――_Valerius Maximus_,
bk. 2, ch. 10.――_Lucian._――――A physician in the age of Nero, not in
great esteem. His Greek treatise, _de alimento ex aquatilibus_, is
best edited by Franzius, Lipscomb, 8vo, 1774.――――An excellent painter.
_Pliny_, bk. 34, ch. 8.
=Xenodamus=, an illegitimate son of Menelaus by Gnossia. _Apollodorus_,
bk. 3, ch. 11.――――An athlete of Anticyra. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 36.
=Xēnodĭce=, a daughter of Syleus, killed by Hercules. _Apollodorus_,
bk. 2, ch. 6.――――A daughter of Minos and Pasiphae. _Apollodorus_,
bk. 3, ch. 1.
=Xenodŏchus=, a Messenian crowned at the Olympic games. _Pausanias_,
bk. 4, ch. 5.――――A native of Cardia, &c.
=Xenophănes=, a Greek philosopher of Colophon, disciple of Archelaus,
B.C. 535. He wrote several poems and treatises, and founded a
sect which was called the Eleatic, in Sicily. Wild in his opinions
about astronomy, he supposed that the stars were extinguished every
morning, and rekindled at night; that eclipses were occasioned by
the temporary extinction of the sun; that the moon was inhabited,
and 18 times bigger than the earth; and that there were several suns
and moons for the convenience of the different climates of the earth.
He further imagined that God and the world were the same, and he
credited the eternity of the universe, but his incoherent opinion
about the divinity raised the indignation of his countrymen, and
he was banished. He died very poor, when about 100 years old.
_Cicero_, _Academica Priora_, bk. 4, ch. 37; _de Divinatione_, bk. 1,
ch. 3; _De Natura Deorum_, bk. 1, ch. 11.――_Lactantius_, _Divinae
institutiones_, bk. 3, ch. 23.――――A governor of Olbus, in the age of
Marcus Antony. _Strabo_, bk. 14.――――One of the ministers of Philip,
who went to Annibal’s camp, and made a treaty of alliance between
Macedonia and Carthage.
=Xenophĭlus=, a Pythagorean philosopher, who lived to his 170th year,
and enjoyed all his faculties to the last. He wrote upon music, and
thence he was called the musician. _Lucian_, _Macrobii_.――_Pliny_, bk.
7, ch. 50.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 8, ch. 13.――――One of Alexander’s
generals. _Curtius_, bk. 5, ch. 2.――――A robber of whom Aratus hired
some troops.
=Xenŏphon=, an Athenian, son of Gryllus, celebrated as a general, an
historian, and a philosopher. In the school of Socrates he received
those instructions and precepts which afterwards so eminently
distinguished him at the head of an army, in literary solitude, and
as the prudent father of a family. He was invited by Proxenus, one of
his intimate friends, to accompany Cyrus the younger in an expedition
against his brother Artaxerxes king of Persia; but he refused to
comply without previously consulting his venerable master, and
inquiring into the propriety of such a measure. Socrates strongly
opposed it, and observed that it might raise the resentment of his
countrymen, as Sparta had made an alliance with the Persian monarch;
but, however, before he proceeded further, he advised him to consult
the oracle of Apollo. Xenophon paid due deference to the injunctions
of Socrates, but as he was ambitious of glory, and eager to engage
in a distant expedition, he hastened with precipitation to Sardis,
where he was introduced to the young prince, and treated with great
attention. In the army of Cyrus, Xenophon showed that he was a true
disciple of Socrates, and that he had been educated in the warlike
city of Athens. After the decisive battle in the plains of Cunaxa,
and the fall of young Cyrus, the prudence and vigour of his mind were
called into action. The 10,000 Greeks who had followed the standard
of an ambitious prince were now at the distance of above 600 leagues
from their native home, in a country surrounded on every side by a
victorious enemy, without money, without provisions, and without a
leader. Xenophon was selected from among the officers to superintend
the retreat of his countrymen, and though he was often opposed by
malevolence and envy, yet his persuasive eloquence and his activity
convinced the Greeks that no general could extricate them from every
difficulty better than the disciple of Socrates. He rose superior to
danger, and though under continual alarms from the sudden attacks of
the Persians, he was enabled to cross rapid rivers, penetrate through
vast deserts, gain the tops of mountains, till he could rest secure
for a while and refresh his tired companions. This celebrated retreat
was at last happily effected; the Greeks returned home after a march
of 1155 parasangs, or leagues, which was performed in 215 days, after
an absence of 15 months. The whole, perhaps, might now be forgotten,
or at least obscurely known, if the great philosopher who planned it
had not employed his pen in describing the dangers which he escaped,
and the difficulties which he surmounted. He was no sooner returned
from Cunaxa, than he sought new honours in following the fortune of
Agesilaus in Asia. He enjoyed his confidence, he fought under his
standard, and conquered with him in the Asiatic provinces, as well
as at the battle of Coronæa. His fame, however, did not escape the
aspersions of jealousy; he was publicly banished from Athens for
accompanying Cyrus against his brother, and being now without a home,
he retired to Scillus, a small town of the Lacedæmonians, in the
neighbourhood of Olympia. In this solitary retreat he dedicated his
time to literary pursuits, and as he had acquired riches in his
Asiatic expeditions, he began to adorn and variegate by the hand of
art, for his pleasure and enjoyment, the country which surrounded
Scillus. He built a magnificent temple to Diana, in imitation of that
of Ephesus, and spent part of his time in rural employments, or in
hunting in the woods and mountains. His peaceful occupations, however,
were soon disturbed. A war arose between the Lacedæmonians and Elis,
and the sanctity of Diana’s temple, and the venerable age of the
philosopher, who lived in the delightful retreats of Scillus, were
disregarded, and Xenophon, driven by the Elians from his favourite
spot, where he had composed and written for the information of
posterity, and the honour of his country, retired to the city of
Corinth. In this place he died in the 90th year of his age, 359
years before the christian era. The works of Xenophon are numerous.
He wrote an account of the expedition of Cyrus, called _the Anabasis_,
and as he had no inconsiderable share in the enterprise, his
description must be authentic, as he was himself an eye-witness.
Many, however, have accused him of partiality. He appeared often
too fond of extolling the virtues of his favourite Cyrus, and while
he describes with contempt the imprudent operations of the Persians,
he does not neglect to show that he was a native of Greece. His
_Cyropædia_, divided into eight books, has given rise to much
criticism, and while some warmly maintain that it is a faithful
account of the life and the actions of Cyrus the Great, and declare
that it is supported by the authority of Scripture, others as
vehemently deny its authenticity. According to the opinions of
Plato and of Cicero, the Cyropædia of Xenophon was a moral romance,
and these venerable philosophers support that the historian did
not so much write what Cyrus had been, as what every true, good,
and virtuous monarch ought to be. His _Hellenica_ were written as a
continuation of the history of Thucydides; and in his _Memorabilia_
of Socrates, and in his _Apology_, he has shown himself, as Valerius
Maximus observes, a perfect master of the philosophy of that great
man, and he has explained his doctrines and moral precepts with all
the success of persuasive eloquence and conscious integrity. These
are the most famous of his compositions, besides which there are
other small tracts, his eulogium given on Agesilaus, his œconomics,
on the duties of domestic life, the dialogue entitled Hiero, in
which he happily describes and compares the misery which attended the
tyrant, with the felicity of a virtuous prince; a treatise on hunting,
the symposium of the philosophers, on the government of Athens and
Sparta, a treatise on the revenues of Attica, &c. The simplicity
and the elegance of Xenophon’s diction have procured him the name
of the Athenian muse, and the bee of Greece, and they have induced
Quintilian to say that the graces dictated his language, and that
the goddess of persuasion dwelt upon his lips. His sentiments, as to
the divinity and religion, were the same as those of the venerable
Socrates; he supported the immortality of the soul, and exhorted
his friends to cultivate those virtues which ensure the happiness of
mankind, with all the zeal and fervour of a christian. He has been
quoted as an instance of tenderness and of resignation on Providence.
As he was offering a sacrifice, he was informed that Gryllus his
eldest son had been killed at the battle of Mantinea. Upon this he
tore the garland from his head, but when he was told that his son had
died like a Greek, and had given a mortal wound to Epaminondas, the
enemy’s general, he replaced the flowers on his head, and continued
the sacrifice, exclaiming that the pleasure he derived from the
valour of his son was greater than the grief which his unfortunate
death occasioned. The best editions of Xenophon are those of
Leunclavius, folio, Frankfurt, 1596, of Ernesti, 4 vols., 8vo,
Lipscomb, 1763, and the Glasgow edition, 12mo; of the Cyropædia,
1767, the expedition of Cyrus, 1764, the Memorabilia, 1761, and
the history of Greece, 1762, and likewise the edition of Zeunius,
published at Leipsic, in 8vo, in 6 vols., between the years 1778 and
1791. _Cicero_, _Orator_, ch. 19.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 5, ch. 10.
――_Quintilian_, bk. 10, ch. 2.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 3, ch.
13; bk. 4, ch. 5.――_Diogenes Laërtius_, _Xenophon_.――_Seneca._――――A
writer in the beginning of the fourth century, known by his Greek
romance in five books, _De Amoribus Anthiæ et Abrocomæ_, published in
8vo and 4to by Cocceius, London, 1726.――――A physician of the emperor
Claudius, born in the island of Cos, and said to be descended from
the Asclepiades. He enjoyed the emperor’s favours, and through him
the people of Cos were exempt from all taxes. He had the meanness
to poison his benefactor at the instigation of Agrippina. _Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 12, chs. 61 & 67.――――An officer under Adrian, &c.
=Xera=, a town of Spain, now _Xerex_, where the Moors gained a battle
over Roderic king of the Goths, and became masters of the country.
=Xerolibya=, a part of Africa between Egypt and Cyrene.
=Xerxena=, a part of Armenia. _Strabo_, bk. 11.
=Xerxes I.=, succeeded his father Darius on the throne of Persia, and
though but the second son of the monarch, he was preferred to his
elder brother Artabazanes. The causes alleged for this preference
were, that Artabazanes was son of Darius when a private man, and
that Xerxes was born, after his father had been raised on the Persian
throne, of Atossa the daughter of Cyrus. Xerxes continued the warlike
preparations of his father, and added the revolted kingdom of Egypt
to his extensive possessions. He afterwards invaded Europe, and
entered Greece with an army which, together with the numerous retinue
of servants, eunuchs, and women that attended it, amounted to no
less than 5,283,220 souls. This multitude, which the fidelity of the
historians has not exaggerated, was stopped at Thermopylæ, by the
valour of 300 Spartans, under king Leonidas. Xerxes, astonished that
such a handful of men should dare to oppose his progress, ordered
some of his soldiers to bring them alive into his presence; but
for three successive days the most valiant of the Persian troops
were repeatedly defeated in attempting to execute the monarch’s
injunctions, and the courage of the Spartans might perhaps have
triumphed longer, if a Trachinian had not led a detachment to the
top of the mountain, and suddenly fallen upon the devoted Leonidas.
The king himself nearly perished on this occasion, and it has been
reported that, in the night, the desperate Spartans sought, for
a while, the royal tent, which they found deserted, and wandered
through the Persian army, slaughtering thousands before them. The
battle of Thermopylæ was the beginning of the disgrace of Xerxes.
The more he advanced, it was to experience new disappointments; his
fleet was defeated at Artemisium and Salamis, and though he burnt the
deserted city of Athens, and trusted to the artful insinuations of
Themistocles, yet he found his millions unable to conquer a nation
that was superior to him in the knowledge of war and maritime affairs.
Mortified with the ill success of his expedition, and apprehensive
of imminent danger in an enemy’s country, Xerxes hastened to Persia,
and in 30 days he marched over all that territory which before he
had passed with much pomp and parade in the space of six months.
Mardonius, the best of his generals, was left behind with an army
of 300,000 men, and the rest that had survived the ravages of war,
of famine, and pestilence, followed their timid monarch into Thrace,
where his steps were marked by the numerous birds of prey that
hovered round him, and fed upon the dead carcases of the Persians.
When he reached the Hellespont, Xerxes found the bridge of boats
which he had erected there totally destroyed by the storms, and he
crossed the straits in a small fishing vessel. Restored to his
kingdom and safety, he forgot his dangers, his losses, and his
defeats, and gave himself up to riot and debauchery. His indolence
and luxurious voluptuousness offended his subjects, and Artabanus,
the captain of his guards, conspired against him, and murdered him
in his bed, in the 21st year of his reign, about 464 years before
the christian era. The personal accomplishments of Xerxes have been
commended by ancient authors, and Herodotus observes that there was
not one man among the millions of his army that was equal to the
monarch in comeliness or stature, or that was as worthy to preside
over a great and extensive empire. The picture is finished, and the
character of Xerxes completely known, when we hear Justin exclaim
that the vast armament which invaded Greece was without a head.
Xerxes has been cited as an instance of humanity. When he reviewed
his millions from a stately throne in the plains of Asia, he suddenly
shed a torrent of tears on the recollection that the multitude of
men he saw before his eyes in 100 years should be no more. His pride
and insolence have been deservedly censured; he ordered chains to be
thrown into the sea, and the waves to be whipped, because the first
bridge he had laid across the Hellespont had been destroyed by a
storm. He cut a channel through mount Athos, and saw his fleet sail
in a place which before was dry ground. The very rivers were dried
up by his army as he advanced towards Greece, and the cities which he
entered reduced to want and poverty. _Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 183; bk.
7, ch. 2, &c.――_Diodorus_, bk. 11.――_Strabo_, bk. 9.――_Ælian_, bk. 3,
_Varia Historia_, ch. 25.――_Justin_, bk. 2, ch. 10, &c.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 3, ch. 4; bk. 8, ch. 46.――_Lucan_, bk. 2, li. 672.――_Plutarch_,
_Themistocles_, &c. _Valerius Maximus._――_Isocrates_, _Panathenaicus_.
――_Seneca_, _de Constantia Sapientis_, ch. 4.
=Xerxes II.=, succeeded his father Artaxerxes Longimanus on the throne
of Persia, 425 B.C., and was assassinated in the first year of his
reign by his brother Sogdianus.
=Xerxes=, a painter of Heraclea, who made a beautiful representation of
Venus.
=Xeuxes=, an officer of Antiochus the Great king of Syria.
=Xiline=, a town of Colchis.
=Xiphonia=, a promontory of Sicily at the north of Syracuse, now
_Cruce_. _Strabo_, bk. 6.――――Also a town near it, now _Augusta_.
=Xois=, an island formed by the mouths of the Nile. _Strabo_, bk. 17.
=Xuthia=, the ancient name of the plains of Leontium in Sicily.
_Diodorus_, bk. 5.
=Xuthus=, a son of Hellen, grandson of Deucalion. He was banished from
Thessaly by his brothers, and came to Athens, where he married Creusa
the daughter of king Erechtheus, by whom he had Achæus and Ion. He
retired after the death of his father-in-law into Achaia, where he
died. According to some, he had no children, but adopted Ion, the son
whom Creusa, before her marriage, had borne to Apollo. _Apollodorus_,
bk. 1, ch. 7.――_Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 1.――_Euripides_, _Ion_, bk. 1,
scene 1.
=Xychus=, a Macedonian who told Philip of his cruelty when he had put
his son Demetrius to death, at the instigation of Perseus.
=Xylenopŏlis=, a town at the mouth of the Indus, built by Alexander,
supposed to be _Laheri_. _Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 23.
=Xyline=, a town of Pamphylia. _Livy_, bk. 38, ch. 15.
=Xylopŏlis=, a town of Macedonia. _Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 10.
=Xynias=, a lake of Thessaly, or, according to some, of Bœotia. _Livy_,
bk. 32, ch. 13; bk. 33, ch. 3.
=Xynoichia=, an anniversary day observed at Athens in honour of Minerva,
and in commemoration of the time in which the people of Attica left
their country seats, and, by advice of Theseus, all united in one
body.
Z
=Zabatus=, a river of Media, falling into the Tigris, near which the
10,000 Greeks stopped in their return. _Xenophon._
=Zabdicēne=, a province of Persia.
=Zabirna=, a town of Libya, where Bacchus destroyed a large beast that
infested the country. _Diodorus_, bk. 3.
=Zabus=, a river of Assyria, falling into the Tigris.
=Zacynthus=, a native of Bœotia, who accompanied Hercules when he went
into Spain to destroy Geryon. At the end of the expedition he was
entrusted with the care of Geryon’s flocks by the hero, and ordered
to conduct them to Thebes. As he went on his journey, he was bit by
a serpent, and some time after died. His companions carried his body
away, and buried it in an island of the Ionian sea, which from that
time was called _Zacynthus_. The island of Zacynthus, now called
_Zante_, is situate at the south of Cephalenia, and at the west of
the Peloponnesus. It is about 60 miles in circumference. _Livy_, bk.
26, ch. 24.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.――_Strabo_, bks. 2 & 8.――_Mela_,
bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 1, li. 246; bk. 9, li. 24.
――_Ovid_, _Ars Amatoria_, bk. 2, li. 432.――_Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 23.
――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 270.――――A son of Dardanus.
_Pausanias_, bk. 8.
=Zadris=, a town of Colchis.
=Zagræus=, a son of Jupiter and Proserpine, the same as the first
Bacchus, of whom Cicero speaks. Some say that Jupiter obtained
Proserpine’s favours in the form of a serpent in one of the caves
of Sicily, where her mother had concealed her from his pursuits, and
that from this union Zagræus was born.
=Zagrus=, a mountain on the confines of Media and Babylonia. _Strabo_,
bk. 11.
=Zalates=, an effeminate youth brought to Rome from Armenia as a
hostage, &c. _Juvenal_, satire 20, li. 164.
=Zaleucus=, a lawgiver of the Locrians in Italy, and one of the
disciples of Pythagoras, 550 B.C. He was very humane, and at the
same time very austere, and he attempted to enforce his laws more
by inspiring shame than dread. He had wisely decreed that a person
guilty of adultery should lose both his eyes. His philosophy was
called to a trial when he was informed that his son was an adulterer.
He ordered the law to be executed; the people interfered, but
Zaleucus resisted, and rather than violate his own institutions, he
commanded one of his own eyes, and one of those of his son, to be
put out. This made such an impression upon the people, that while
Zaleucus presided over the Locrians, no person was again found
guilty of adultery. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 1, ch. 2; bk. 6, ch. 5.
――_Cicero_, _de Legibus_, bk. 2, ch. 6; _Letters to Atticus_, bk. 6,
ltr. 1.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 2, ch. 37; bk. 3, ch. 17;
bk. 13, ch. 24.――_Strabo_, bk. 6.
=Zama=, or =Zagma=, a town of Numidia, 300 miles from Carthage,
celebrated for the victory which Scipio obtained there over the great
Annibal, B.C. 202. Metellus besieged it, and was obliged to retire
with great loss. After Juba’s death it was destroyed by the Romans.
_Hirtius_, _African War_, ch. 91.――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Hannibal_.
――_Livy_, bk. 30, ch. 29.――_Sallust_, _Jugurthine War_.――_Florus_,
bk. 3, ch. 1.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 3, li. 261.――_Strabo_, bk. 17.
――――A town of Cappadocia,――――of Mesopotamia.
=Zameis=, a debauched king of Assyria, son of Semiramis and Ninus, as
some report. He reigned 38 years.
=Zamolxis=, or =Zalmoxis=, a slave and disciple of Pythagoras. He
accompanied his master in Egypt, and afterwards retired into the
country of the Getæ, which had given him birth. He began to civilize
his countrymen, and the more easily to gain reputation, he concealed
himself for three years in a subterraneous cave, and afterwards made
them believe that he was just raised from the dead. Some place him
before the age of Pythagoras. After death he received divine honours.
_Diodorus._――_Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 19, &c.
=Zancle=, a town of Sicily, on the straits which separate that island
from Italy. It received its name from its appearing like a scythe,
which was called ξανκλον in the language of the country, or, as
others say, because the scythe with which Saturn mutilated his father
fell there, or because, as Diodorus reports, a person named Zanclus
had either built it or exercised its sovereignty. Zancle fell into
the hands of the Samians 497 years before the christian era, and
three years after it was recovered by Anaxilaus the Messenian tyrant
of Rhegium, who gave it the name of his native country, and called it
_Messana_. It was founded, as most chronologers support, about 1058
years before the christian era, by the pirates of Cumæ in Italy,
and peopled by Samians, Ionians, and Chalcidians. _Strabo_, bk. 6.
――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 1, li. 662.――_Ovid_,
_Fasti_, bk. 4, li. 499; _Metamorphoses_, bk. 14, li. 6; bk. 15,
li. 290.――_Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 23.
=Zarax=, a town of Peloponnesus.
=Zarbiēnus=, a petty monarch of Asia, who was gained to the interest
of the Romans by one of the officers of Lucullus. Tigranes put him
to death for his desertion, and his funeral was celebrated with great
magnificence by the Roman general. _Plutarch_, _Lucullus_.
=Zariaspes=, a Persian who attempted to revolt from Alexander, &c.
_Curtius_, bk. 9, ch. 10.――――A river, now _Dehash_, on which Bactria,
the capital of Bactriana, was built. It is called Bactrus by Curtius,
bk. 7, ch. 4.――_Pliny_, bk. 6, chs. 15 & 16.
=Zathes=, a river of Armenia.
=Zaueces=, a people of Libya. _Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 193.
=Zebīna Alexander=, an impostor who usurped the throne of Syria, at the
instigation of Ptolemy Physcon.
=Zela=, or =Zelia=, a town of Pontus near the river Lycus, where Cæsar
defeated Pharnaces son of Mithridates. In expressing this victory,
the general used the words, _Veni_, _vidi_, _vinci_. _Suetonius_,
_Cæsar_, ch. 37.――_Hirtius_, _Alexandrine War_, ch. 72.――――A town of
Troas at the foot of Ida.――――Another in Lycia.
=Zelasium=, a promontory of Thessaly. _Livy_, bk. 31, ch. 46.
=Zeles=, a town of Spain.
=Zelus=, a daughter of Pallas.
=Zeno=, a philosopher of Elia or Velia in Italy, the disciple, or,
according to some, the adopted son of Parmenides, and the supposed
inventor of dialectic. His opinions about the universe, the unity,
incomprehensibility, and immutability of all things, were the same
with those of Xenophanes and the rest of the Eleatic philosophers.
It is said that he attempted to deliver his country from the tyranny
of Nearchus. His plot was discovered, and he was exposed to the most
excruciating torments to reveal the name of his accomplices, but this
he bore with unparalleled fortitude, and not to be at last conquered
by tortures, he cut off his tongue with his teeth, and spit it into
the face of the tyrant. Some say that he was pounded alive in a
mortar, and that in the midst of his torments he called to Nearchus,
as if to reveal something of importance; the tyrant approached him,
and Zeno, as if willing to whisper to him, caught his ear with his
teeth, and bit it off. _Cicero_, _Tusculanæ Disputationes_, bk. 2,
ch. 22; _De Natura Deorum_, bk. 3, ch. 33.――_Diodorus Siculus_,
_Fragment_.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 3, ch. 3.――_Diogenes Laërtius_,
bk. 9.――――The founder of the sect of the stoics, born at Citium
in the island of Cyprus. The first part of his life was spent
in commercial pursuits, but he was soon called to more elevated
employments. As he was returning from Phœnicia, a storm drove his
ship on the coast of Attica, and he was shipwrecked near the Piræus.
This moment of calamity he regarded as the beginning of his fame. He
entered the house of a bookseller, and, to dissipate his melancholy
reflections, he began to read. The book was written by Xenophon;
and the merchant was so pleased and captivated by the eloquence
and beauties of the philosopher, that from that time he renounced
the pursuits of a busy life, and applied himself to the study of
philosophy. Ten years were spent in frequenting the school of Crates,
and the same number under Stilpo, Xenocrates, and Polemon. Perfect
in every branch of knowledge, and improved from experience as well
as observation, Zeno opened a school at Athens, and soon saw himself
attended by the great, the learned, and the powerful. His followers
were called _Stoics_, because they received the instructions of the
philosopher in the portico called στοα. He was so respected during
his lifetime, that the Athenians publicly decreed him a brazen statue
and a crown of gold, and engraved their decree, to give it more
publicity, on two columns in the academy, and in the Lyceum. His
life was an example of soberness and moderation; his manners were
austere, and to his temperance and regularity he was indebted for the
continual flow of health which he always enjoyed. After he had taught
publicly for 48 years, he died in the 98th year of his age, B.C. 264,
a stranger to diseases, and never incommoded by a real indisposition.
He was buried in that part of the city called Ceramicus, where the
Athenians raised him a monument. The founder of the stoic philosophy
shone before his followers as a pure example of imitation. Virtue he
perceived to be the ultimate aim of his researches. He wished to live
in the world as if nothing was properly his own; he loved others, and
his affections were extended even to his enemies. He felt a pleasure
in being kind, benevolent, and attentive, and he found that these
sentiments of pleasure were reciprocal. He saw a connection and
dependence in the system of the universe, and perceived that from
thence arose the harmony of civil society, the tenderness of parents,
and filial gratitude. In the attainment of virtue the goods of the
mind were to be preferred to those of the body, and when that point
was once gained, nothing could equal our happiness and perfection,
and the stoic could view with indifference health or sickness, riches
or poverty, pain and pleasure, which could neither move nor influence
the serenity of his mind. Zeno recommended resignation; he knew that
the laws of the universe cannot be changed by man, and therefore he
wished that his disciples should not in prayer deprecate impending
calamities, but rather beseech Providence to grant them fortitude
to bear the severest trials with pleasure and due resignation to the
will of Heaven. An arbitrary command over the passions was one of
the rules of stoicism; to assist our friends in the hour of calamity
was our duty, but to give way to childish sensations was unbecoming
our nature. Pity, therefore, and anger, were to be banished from the
heart, propriety and decorum were to be the guides in everything, and
the external actions of men were the best indications of their inward
feelings, their secret inclinations, and their character. It was the
duty of the stoic to study himself; in the evening he was enjoined to
review with critical accuracy the events of the day, and to regulate
his future conduct with more care, and always to find an impartial
witness within his own breast. Such were the leading characters of
the stoic philosophy, whose followers were so illustrious, so perfect,
and so numerous, and whose effects were productive of such exemplary
virtues in the annals of the human mind. Zeno in his maxims used to
say, that with virtue man could live happy under the most pressing
calamities. He said that nature had given us two ears, and only
one mouth, to tell us that we ought to listen more than speak. He
compared those whose actions were dissonant with their professions,
to the coin of Alexandria, which appeared beautiful to the eye,
though made of the basest metals. He acknowledged only one God,
the soul of the universe, which he conceived to be the body, and
therefore he believed that those two together united, the soul and
the body, formed one perfect animal, which was the god of the stoics.
Amongst the most illustrious followers of his doctrine, and as the
most respectable writers, may be mentioned _Epictetus_, _Seneca_,
the emperor _Antoninus_, &c. _Cicero_, _Academica_, bk. 1, ch. 12;
_De Natura Deorum_, bk. 1, ch. 14; bk. 2, chs. 8 & 24; bk. 3, ch. 24;
_For Marcellus_; _Orator_, ch. 32, &c.; _de Finibus Bonorum et
Malorum._――_Seneca._――_Epictetus._――_Arrian._――_Ælian_, _Varia
Historia_, bk. 9, ch. 26.――_Diogenes Laërtius._――――An Epicurean
philosopher of Sidon, who numbered among his pupils Cicero, Pomponius
Atticus, Cotta, Pompey, &c. _Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 1,
chs. 21 & 34.――――A rhetorician, father to Polemon, who was made king
of Pontus.――――The son of Polemon, who was king of Armenia, was also
called Zeno. _Strabo_, bk. 12.――_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 2, ch. 56.
――――A native of Lepreos, son of Calliteles, crowned at the Olympic
games, and honoured with a statue in the grove of Jupiter, and at
Olympia. _Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 15.――――A general of Antiochus.――――A
philosopher of Tarsus, B.C. 207.――――The name of Zeno was common to
some of the Roman emperors on the throne of Constantinople, in the
fifth and sixth centuries.
=Zenobia=, a queen of Iberia, wife to Rhadamistus. She accompanied
her husband when he was banished from his kingdom by the Armenians;
but as she was unable to follow him on account of her pregnancy,
she entreated him to murder her. Rhadamistus long hesitated, but
fearful of her falling into the hands of his enemy, he obeyed,
and threw her body into the Araxes. Her clothes kept her up on the
surface of the water, where she was found by some shepherds, and
as the wound was not mortal, her life was preserved, and she was
carried to Tiridates, who acknowledged her as queen. _Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 12, ch. 51.――――Septimia, a celebrated princess of
Palmyra, who married Odenatus, whom Gallienus acknowledged as his
partner on the Roman throne. After the death of her husband, which,
according to some authors, she is said to have hastened, Zenobia
reigned in the east as regent of her infant children, who were
honoured with the title of Cæsars. She assumed the name of Augusta,
and she appeared in imperial robes, and ordered herself to be
styled the queen of the east. The troubles which at that time
agitated the western parts of the empire, prevented the emperor
from checking the insolence and ambition of this princess, who
boasted to be sprung from the Ptolemies of Egypt. Aurelian was
no sooner invested with the imperial purple than he marched into
the east, determined to punish the pride of Zenobia. He well knew
her valour, and he was not ignorant that in her wars against the
Persians she had distinguished herself no less than Odenatus.
She was the mistress of the east; Egypt acknowledged her power,
and all the provinces of Asia Minor were subject to her command.
When Aurelian approached the plains of Syria, the Palmyrean queen
appeared at the head of 700,000 men. She bore the labours of the
field like the meanest of her soldiers, and walked on foot fearless
of danger. Two battles were fought; the courage of the queen
gained the superiority, but an imprudent evolution of the Palmyrean
cavalry ruined her cause; and while they pursued with spirit the
flying enemy, the Roman infantry suddenly fell upon the main body
of Zenobia’s army, and the defeat was inevitable. The queen fled
to Palmyra, determined to support a siege. Aurelian followed her,
and after he had almost exhausted his stores, he proposed terms
of accommodation, which were rejected with disdain by the warlike
princess. Her hopes of victory, however, soon vanished, and though
she harassed the Romans night and day by continual sallies from her
walls, and the working of her military engines, she despaired of
success when she heard that the armies which were marching to her
relief from Armenia, Persia, and the east, had partly been defeated
and partly bribed from her allegiance. She fled from Palmyra in the
night, but Aurelian, who was apprised of her escape, pursued her,
and she was caught as she was crossing the river Euphrates. She was
brought into the presence of Aurelian, and though the soldiers were
clamorous for her death, she was reserved to adorn the triumph of
the conqueror. She was treated with great humanity, and Aurelian
gave her large possessions near Tibur, where she was permitted
to live the rest of her days in peace, with all the grandeur and
majesty which became a queen of the east, and a warlike princess.
Her children were patronized by the emperor, and married to persons
of the first distinction at Rome. Zenobia has been admired not only
for her military abilities, but also for her literary talents. She
was acquainted with every branch of useful learning, and spoke with
fluency the language of the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Latins.
She composed an abridgment of the history of the oriental nations,
and of Egypt, which was greatly commended by the ancients. She
received no less honour from the patronage she afforded to the
celebrated Longinus, who was one of her favourites, and who taught
her the Greek tongue. She has also been praised for her great
chastity, and her constancy, though she betrayed too often her
propensities to cruelty and intoxication when in the midst of her
officers. She fell into the hands of Aurelian about the 273rd year
of the christian era. _Aurelius Victor._――_Zosimus_, &c.――――A town
of Syria on the Euphrates.
=Zenobii insulæ=, small islands at the mouth of the Arabian gulf.
=Zenodōrus=, a sculptor in the age of Nero. He made a statue of Mercury,
as also a colossus for the emperor, which was 110 or 120 feet high,
and which was consecrated to the sun. The head of this colossus was
some time after broken by Vespasian, who placed there the head of
an Apollo surrounded with seven beams, each of which was seven feet
and a half long. From this famous colossus the modern coliseum, whose
ruins are now so much admired at Rome, took its name. _Pliny_, bk. 54,
ch. 7.
=Zenodotia=, a town of Mesopotamia, near Nicephorium. _Plutarch_,
_Crassus_.
=Zenodōtus=, a native of Trœzene, who wrote a history of Umbria.
_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 2.――――A grammarian of Alexandria,
in the age of Ptolemy Soter, by whom he was appointed to take care of
the celebrated library of Alexandria. He died B.C. 245.
=Zenothemis=, a Greek writer. _Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 17, ch. 30.
=Zephyrium=, a promontory of Magna Græcia towards the Ionian sea,
whence, according to some, the Locrians are called _Epizephyrii_.
――――A town of Cilicia. _Livy_, bk. 33, ch. 20.――――A cape of Crete,
now _San Zuane_.――――Of Pontus, &c.
=Zephy̆rum=, a promontory in the island of Cyprus, where Venus had
a temple built by Ptolemy Philadelphus, whence she was called
_Zephyria_. It was in this temple that Arsione made an offering of
her hair to the goddess of beauty.
=Zephy̆rus=, one of the winds, son of Astreus and Aurora, the same as
the _Favonius_ of the Latins. He married a nymph called Chloris, or
Flora, by whom he had a son called Carpos. Zephyr was said to produce
flowers and fruits by the sweetness of his breath. He had a temple
at Athens, where he was represented as a young man of delicate form,
with two wings on his shoulders, and with his head covered with all
sorts of flowers. He was ♦supposed to be the same as the west wind.
_Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 377.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 135;
bk. 2, li. 417; bk. 4, li. 223, &c.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1,
li. 64; bk. 15, li. 700.――_Propertius_, bk. 1, poem 16, li. 34, &c.
♦ ‘suppossd’ replaced with ‘supposed’
=Zerynthus=, a town of Samothrace, with a cave sacred to Hecate. The
epithet of _Zerynthius_ is applied to Apollo, and also to Venus.
_Ovid_, _Tristia_, bk. 1, poem 9, li. 19.――_Livy_, bk. 38, ch. 41.
=Zethes=, =Zetes=, or =Zetus=, a son of Boreas king of Thrace and
Orithyia, who accompanied, with his brother Cailas, the Argonauts
to Colchis. In Bithynia, the two brothers, who are represented
with wings, delivered Phineus from the continual persecution of
the Harpies, and drove these monsters as far as the islands called
Strophades, where at last they were stopped by Iris, who promised
them that Phineus should no longer be tormented by them. They
were both killed, as some say, by Hercules during the Argonautic
expedition, and were changed into those winds which generally
blow eight or ten days before the dog-star appears, and are called
Prodromi by the Greeks. Their sister Cleopatra married Phineus king
of Bithynia. _Orpheus_, _Argonautica_.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9;
bk. 3, ch. 15.――_Hyginus_, fable 14.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 8,
li. 716.――_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 18.――_Valerius Flaccus._
=Zetta=, a town of Africa, near Thapsus, now _Zerbi_. _Strabo_, bk. 17.
――_Hirtius_, _African War_, ch. 68.
=Zetus=, or =Zethus=, a son of Jupiter and Antiope, brother to Amphion.
The two brothers were born on mount Cithæron, where Antiope had fled
to avoid the resentment of her father Nycteus. When they had attained
the years of manhood, they collected a number of their friends to
avenge the injuries which their mother had suffered from Lycus, the
successor of Nycteus on the throne of Thebes, and from his wife Dirce.
Lycus was put to death, and his wife tied to the tail of a wild bull,
that dragged her over rocks and precipices till she died. The crown
of Thebes was seized by the two brothers, not only as the reward of
this victory, but as their inheritance, and Zethus surrounded the
capital of his dominions with a strong wall, while his brother amused
himself with playing on his lyre. Music and verses were disagreeable
to Zethus, and, according to some, he prevailed upon his brother
no longer to pursue so unproductive a study. _Hyginus_, fable 7.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 6, &c.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, chs. 5 & 10.
――_Horace_, bk. 1, ltr. 18, li. 41.
=Zeugis=, a portion of Africa, in which Carthage was. The other
division was called _Byzacium_. _Isidorus_, bk. 14, ch. 5.――_Pliny_,
bk. 5, ch. 4.
=Zeugma=, a town of Mesopotamia, on the western bank of the Euphrates,
where was a well-known passage across the river. It was the eastern
boundary of the Roman empire, and in Pliny’s age a chain of iron was
said to extend across it. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 24.――_Strabo_, bk. 16.
――_Curtius_, bk. 3, ch. 7.――_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 12, ch. 12.――――A
town of Dacia.
=Zeus=, a name of Jupiter among the Greeks, expressive of his being the
father of mankind, and by whom all things live. _Diodorus_, bk. 5.
=Zeuxidămus=, a king of Sparta, of the family of the Proclidæ. He was
father of Archidamus and grandson of Theopompus, and was succeeded by
his son Archidamus. _Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 7.
=Zeuxidas=, a pretor of the Achæan league, deposed because he had
promised to his countrymen an alliance with the Romans.
=Zeuxippe=, a daughter of Eridanus, mother of Butes, one of the
Argonauts, &c. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 15.――――A daughter of
Laomedon. She married Sicyon, who after his father-in-law’s death
became king of that city of Peloponnesus, which from him has been
called Sicyon. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 6.
=Zeuxis=, a celebrated painter, born at Heraclea, which some suppose to
be the Heraclea of Sicily. He flourished about 468 years before the
christian era, and was the disciple of Apollodorus, and contemporary
with Parrhasius. In the art of painting he surpassed not only all
his contemporaries, but also his master, and became so sensible,
and at the same time so proud, of the value of his pieces, that he
refused to sell them, observing that no sum of money, however great,
was sufficient to buy them. His most celebrated paintings were his
Jupiter sitting on a throne, surrounded by the gods; his Hercules
strangling the serpents in the presence of his affrighted parents;
his modest Penelope; and his Helen, which was afterwards placed in
the temple of Juno Lacinia, in Italy. This last piece he had painted
at the request of the people of Crotona, and that he might not be
without a model, they sent him the most beautiful of their virgins.
Zeuxis examined their naked beauties, and retained five, from whose
elegance and graces united, he conceived in his mind the form of
the most perfect woman in the universe, which his pencil at last
executed with wonderful success. His contest with Parrhasius is well
known [_See:_ Parrhasius]; but though he represented nature in such
perfection, and copied all her beauties with such exactness, he
often found himself deceived. He painted grapes, and formed an idea
of the goodness of his piece from the birds which came to eat the
fruit on the canvas. But he soon acknowledged that the whole was
an ill-executed piece, as the figure of the man who carried the
grapes was not done with sufficient expression to terrify the birds.
According to some, Zeuxis died from laughing at a comical picture
which he had made of an old woman. _Cicero_, _de Inventione_, bk. 2,
ch. 1.――_Plutarch_, _Parallela minora_, &c.――_Quintilian._
=Zeuxo=, one of the Oceanides. _Hesiod._
=Zilia=, or =Zelis=, a town in Mauritania, at the mouth of a river of
the same name. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 1.
=Zimara=, a town of Armenia Minor, 12 miles from the sources of the
Euphrates. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 24.
=Zingis=, a promontory of Æthiopia, near the entrance of the Red sea,
now cape _Orfui_.
=Ziobĕris=, a river of Hyrcania, whose rapid course is described by
_Curtius_, bk. 6, ch. 4.
=Zipætes=, a king of Bithynia, who died in his 70th year, B.C. 279.
=Zitha=, a town of Mesopotamia.
=Ziza=, a town of Arabia.
=Zōĭlus=, a sophist and grammarian of Amphipolis, B.C. 259. He rendered
himself known by his severe criticisms on the works of Isocrates
and Plato, and the poems of Homer, for which he received the name
of _Homeromastic_, or the chastiser of Homer. He presented his
criticisms to Ptolemy Philadelphus, but they were rejected with
indignation, though the author declared that he starved for want of
bread. Some say that Zoilus was cruelly stoned to death, or exposed
on a cross by order of Ptolemy, while others support that he was
burnt alive at Smyrna. The name of _Zoilus_ is generally applied
to austere critics. The works of this unfortunate grammarian are
lost. _Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 11, ch. 10.――_Dionysius of
Halicarnassus._――_Ovid_, _Remedia Amoris_, li. 266.――――An officer
in the army of Alexander.
=Zoippus=, a son-in-law of Hiero of Sicily.
=Zona=, a town of Africa. _Dio Cassius_, bk. 48.――――Of Thrace, on the
Ægean sea, where the woods are said to have followed the strains of
Orpheus. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 2.――_Herodotus._
=Zonăras=, one of the Byzantine historians, whose Greek Annals were
edited, 2 vols., folio, Paris, 1686.
=Zopy̆rio=, one of Alexander’s officers left in Greece when the
conqueror was in Asia, &c. _Curtius_, bk. 10, ch. 1.
=Zopy̆rion=, a governor of Pontus, who made war against Scythia, &c.
_Justin_, bk. 2, ch. 3.
=Zopy̆rus=, a Persian, son of Megabyzus, who, to show his attachment
to Darius the son of Hystaspes, while he besieged Babylon, cut
off his ears and nose, and fled to the enemy, telling them that he
had received such a treatment from his royal master because he had
advised him to raise the siege, as the city was impregnable. This
was credited by the Babylonians, and Zopyrus was appointed commander
of all their forces. When he had totally gained their confidence,
he betrayed the city into the hands of Darius, for which he was
liberally rewarded. The regard of Darius for Zopyrus could never be
more strongly expressed than in what he used often to say, that he
had rather have Zopyrus not mutilated than 20 Babylons. _Herodotus_,
bk. 3, ch. 154, &c.――_Plutarch_, _Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata_,
ch. 3.――_Justin_, bk. 1, ch. 10.――――An orator of Clazomenæ.
_Quintilian_, bk. 3, ch. 6.――――A physician in the age of Mithridates.
He gave the monarch a description of an antidote which would prevail
against all sorts of poisons. The experiment was tried upon criminals,
and succeeded.――――A physician in the age of Plutarch.――――An officer
of Argos, who cut off the head of Pyrrhus. _Plutarch._――――A man
appointed master of Alcibiades, by Pericles. _Plutarch._――――A
physiognomist. _Cicero_, _de Fato_, ch. 5.――――A rhetorician of
Colophon. _Diogenes Laërtius._
=Zoroanda=, a part of Taurus between Mesopotamia and Armenia, near
which the Tigris flows. _Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 27.
=Zoroaster=, a king of Bactria, supposed to have lived in the age of
Ninus king of Assyria, some time before the Trojan war. According to
Justin, he first invented magic, or the doctrines of the Magi, and
rendered himself known by his deep and acute researches in philosophy,
the origin of the world, and the study of astronomy. He was respected
by his subjects and contemporaries for his abilities as a monarch,
a lawgiver, and a philosopher, and though many of his doctrines are
puerile and ridiculous, yet his followers are still found in numbers
in the wilds of Persia, and the extensive provinces of India. Like
Pythagoras, Zoroaster admitted no visible object of devotion except
fire, which he considered as the most proper emblem of a supreme
being; which doctrines seem to have been preserved by Numa, in
the worship and ceremonies which he instituted in honour of Vesta.
According to some of the moderns, the doctrines, the laws, and
regulations of this celebrated Bactrian are still extant, and they
have been lately introduced in Europe in a French translation by
Marcus Anquetil. The age of Zoroaster is so little known that many
speak of two, three, four, and even six lawgivers of that name. Some
authors, who support that two persons only of this name flourished,
describe the first as an astronomer living in Babylon, 2459 years
B.C., whilst the era of the other, who is supposed to have been
a native of Persia, and the restorer of the religion of the Magi,
is fixed 589, and by some 519 years B.C. _Justin_, bk. 1, ch. 1.
――_Augustine_, _City of God_, bk. 21, ch. 14.――_Orosius_, bk. 1.
――_Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 10; bk. 30, ch. 1.
=Zosĭmus=, an officer in the reign of Theodosius the younger, about
the year 410 of the christian era. He wrote the history of the Roman
emperors in Greek, from the age of Augustus to the beginning of the
fifth century, of which only the five first books, and the beginning
of the sixth, are extant. In the first of those he is very succinct
in his account from the time of Augustus to the reign of Diocletian,
but in the succeeding he becomes more diffuse and interesting. His
composition is written with elegance, but not much fidelity, and the
author showed his malevolence against the christians in his history
of Constantine, and some of his successors. The best editions of
Zosimus are that of Celarius, 8vo. Jenæ, 1728, and that of Reiemier,
8vo, Lipscomb, 1784.
=Zosine=, the wife of king Tigranes, led in triumph by Pompey.
_Plutarch._
=Zoster=, a town, harbour, and promontory of Attica. _Cicero_, _Letters
to Atticus_, bk. 5, ltr. 12.
=Zosteria=, a surname of Minerva. She had two statues under that name
in the city of Thebes, in Bœotia. The word signified girt, or armed
for battle, words synonymous among the ancients. _Pausanias_, bk. 9,
ch. 17.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2, li. 478; bk. 11, li. 15.
=Zotale=, a place near Antiochia in Margiana, where the Margus was
divided into small streams. _Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 16.
=Zothraustes=, a lawgiver among the Arimaspi. _Diodorus._
=Zuchis=, a lake to the east of the Syrtis Minor, with a town of the
same name, famous for a purple dye, and salt-fish. _Strabo_, bk. 17.
=Zygantes=, a people of Africa.
=Zygia=, a surname of Juno, because she presided over marriage (_a_
ζευγνυμι _jungo_). She is the same as the _Pronuba_ of the Latins.
_Pindar._――_Pollux_, bk. 3, ch. 3.
=Zygii=, a savage nation at the north of Colchis. _Strabo_, bk. 11.
=Zygopŏlis=, a town of Cappadocia, on the borders of Colchis. _Strabo_,
bk. 12.
=Zygrītæ=, a nation of Libya.
APPENDIX OF TABLES
GRECIAN MEASURES OF LENGTH REDUCED TO
English
paces. ft. in. dec.
_Dactylus_ or _Digit_ 0 0 0 7554¹¹⁄₁₆
4 _Doron_ 0 0 3 0218¾
10 2½ _Lichas_ 0 0 4 5546⅞
11 2¾ 1¹⁄₁₀ _Orthodoron_ 0 0 8 3101⁹⁄₁₆
12 3 1⅕ 1¹⁄₁₁ _Spithame_ 0 0 9 0656¼
16 4 1⅗ 5¹⁄₁₁ 1⅓ _Foot_ 0 1 0 0875
18 4½ 1⅘ 1⁷⁄₁₁ 1½ 1⅛ _Cubit_ (πυγμη) 0 1 1 5984⅜
20 5 2 1⁹⁄₁₁ 1⅔ 1¼ 1½ _Pygon_ 0 1 3 1093⅜
24 6 2⅖ 2²⁄₁₁ 2 1½ 1⅓ 1⅕ _Larger Cubit_ (πηχυς) 0 1 6 13125
96 24 9⅖ 8⁸⁄₁₁ 8 6 5⅓ 4⅕ 4 _Pace_ (οργυια) 0 6 0 525
9600 2400 960 872⁸⁄₁₁ 800 600 533½ 480 400 100 _Stadium_ 100 4 4 5
76800 19200 7680 6981⁹⁄₁₁ 6400 4800 4266⅔ 3840 3200 800 8 _Milion_ 805 5 0 0
ROMAN MEASURES OF LENGTH REDUCED TO
English
paces. ft. in. dec.
_Digitus transversus_ 0 0 0 725¼
1⅓ _Unica_ 0 0 0 967
4 3 _Palmus minor_ 0 0 2 901
16 12 4 _Pes_ 0 0 11 604
20 15 5 1¼ _Palmpipes_ 0 1 2 505
24 18 6 1½ 1⅕ _Cubitus_ 0 1 5 406
40 30 10 2½ 2 1 _Gradus_ 0 2 5 01
80 60 20 5 4 3⅓ 2 _Passus_ 0 4 10 02
10000 7500 2500 625 500 416⅔ 250 125 _Stadium_ 120 4 4 5
80000 60000 20000 5000 4000 3333⅓ 2000 1000 8 _Milliare_ 967 0 0 0
The Grecian square measures were the _plethron_, or acre, containing
1444, as some say, or as others report, 10,000 square feet; the
_aroura_, which was half the _plethron_. The _aroura_ of the
Egyptians was the square of 100 cubits.
The Roman square measure was the _jugerum_, which, like their _libra_
and their _as_, was divided into twelve parts called _unciæ_, as the
following table shows:――
Square English Square Square
Unciæ. feet. Scruples. roods. poles. feet.
1 _As_ or 12 28800 288 2 18 250,05
¹¹⁄₁₂ _Deunx_ 11 26400 264 2 10 183,85
⅚ _Dextans_ 10 24000 240 2 2 117,64
¾ _Dodrans_ 9 21600 216 1 34 51,42
⅔ _Bes_ 8 19200 192 1 25 257,46
⁷⁄₁₂ _Septunx_ 7 16800 168 1 17 191,25
½ _Semis_ 6 14400 144 1 9 125,03
⁵⁄₁₂ _Quincunx_ 5 12000 120 1 1 58,82
⅓ _Triens_ 4 9600 96 0 32 264,85
¼ _Quadrans_ 3 7200 72 0 24 198,64
⅙ _Sextans_ 2 4800 48 0 16 132,43
¹⁄₁₂ _Uncia_ 1 2400 24 0 8 66,21
N.B. The _Actus Major_ was 14,400 square feet, equal to a _Semis_.
The _Clima_ was 3600 square feet, equal to a _sescuncia_, or
an _uncia_ and a half, and the _actus minimus_ was equal to a
_sextans_.
The Roman _as_ or _æs_ was called so because it was made of brass.
ATTIC MEASURES OF CAPACITY FOR THINGS LIQUID,
REDUCED TO THE ENGLISH WINE MEASURE.
sol.
gals. pts. in. dec.
_Cochlearion_ 0 ¹⁄₁₂₀ 0 0356⁵⁄₁₂
2 _Cheme_ 0 ¹⁄₆₀ 0 0712⅝
2½ 1¼ _Mystron_ 0 ¹⁄₄₈ 0 089¹¹⁄₄₈
5 2½ 2 _Conche_ 0 ¹⁄₂₄ 0 178¹¹⁄₂₄
10 5 4 2 _Cyathus_ 0 ¹⁄₁₂ 0 356¹¹⁄₁₂
15 7½ 6 3 1½ _Oxybaphon_ 0 ⅛ 0 335⅜
60 30 24 12 6 4 _Cotyle_ 0 ½ 2 141½
120 60 48 24 12 8 2 _Xestes_ 0 1 4 283
720 360 388 144 72 48 12 6 _Chous_ 0 6 25 698
8640 4320 3456 1728 864 576 144 72 12 _Metretes_ 10 2 19 626
ROMAN MEASURES OF CAPACITY FOR THINGS LIQUID,
REDUCED TO ENGLISH WINE MEASURE.
sol.
gals. pts. in. dec.
_Ligula_ 0 ¹⁄₄₈ 0 117⁶⁄₁₂
4 _Cyathus_ 0 ¹⁄₁₂ 0 469⅔
6 1½ _Acetabulum_ 0 ⅛ 0 704½
12 3 2 _Quartarius_ 0 ¼ 1 409
24 6 4 2 _Hemina_ 0 ½ 2 818
48 12 8 4 2 _Sextarius_ 0 1 5 636
288 72 48 24 12 6 _Congius_ 0 7 4 942
1152 288 192 96 48 24 4 _Urna_ 3 4½ 5 33
2304 576 384 192 96 48 8 2 _Amphora_ 7 1 10 66
46080 11520 7680 3840 1920 960 160 40 20 _Culeus_ 143 3 11 095
N.B. The _quadrantal_ is the same as the _amphora_. The _Cadus_,
_Congiarius_, and _Dolium_ denote no certain measure. The Romans
divided the _Sextarius_, like the _libra_, into 12 equal parts,
called _Cyathi_, and therefore their _calices_ were called
_sextantes_, _quadrantes_, _trientes_, &c., according to the number
of _cyathi_ which they contained.
ATTIC MEASURE OF CAPACITY FOR THINGS DRY,
REDUCED TO ENGLISH CORN MEASURE.
sol.
pecks. gals. pts. in. dec.
_Cochlearion_ 0 0 0 0 276⁷⁄₂₀
1 _Cyathus_ 0 0 0 2 763½
15 1½ _Oxybaphon_ 0 0 0 4 144¾
60 6 4 _Cotyle_ 0 0 0 16 579
120 12 8 2 _Xestes_ 0 0 0 33 158
180 18 12 3 1½ _Chœnix_ 0 0 1 15 705¾
8040 864 576 144 72 48 _Medimnus_ 4 0 6 3 501
N.B. Besides this _Medimnus_, which is the _Medicus_, there was a
_Medimnus Georgicus_, equal to six Roman _Modii_.
ROMAN MEASURES OF CAPACITY FOR THINGS DRY,
REDUCED TO ENGLISH CORN MEASURE.
sol.
pecks. gals. pts. in. dec.
_Ligula_ 0 0 ¹⁄₄₈ 0 01
4 _Cyathus_ 0 0 ¹⁄₁₂ 0 04
6 1½ _Acetabulum_ 0 0 ⅛ 0 06
24 6 4 _Hemina_ 0 0 ½ 0 24
48 12 8 2 _Sextarius_ 0 0 1 0 48
384 96 64 16 8 _Semimodius_ 0 1 0 3 84
768 192 128 32 16 2 _Modius_ 1 0 0 7 68
THE MOST ANCIENT GRECIAN WEIGHTS, REDUCED TO ENGLISH TROY WEIGHT.
lb. oz. dwt. gr. dec.
_Drachma_ 0 0 6 2 ²²⁄₄₉
100 _Mina_ 1 1 0 4 ⁴⁴⁄₄₉
6000 60 _Talentum_ 65 0 12 5 ⁴³⁄₄₉
LESS ANCIENT GRECIAN AND ROMAN WEIGHTS,
REDUCED TO ENGLISH TROY WEIGHT.
lb. oz. dwt. gr. dec.
_Lentes_ 0 0 0 0 ⁸⁵⁄₁₁₂
4 _Siliquæ_ 0 0 0 3 ¹⁄₂₈
12 3 _Obolus_ 0 0 0 9 ³⁄₂₈
24 6 2 _Scriptulum_ 0 0 0 18 ³⁄₁₄
72 18 6 3 _Drachma_ 0 0 2 6 ⁹⁄₁₄
96 24 8 4 1⅓ _Sextula_ 0 0 3 0 ⁶⁄₇
144 36 12 6 2 1½ _Sicilius_ 0 0 4 13 ²⁄₇
192 48 16 8 2⅔ 2 1⅓ _Duella_ 0 0 6 1 ⁵⁄₇
576 144 48 24 8 6 4 3 _Unica_ 0 0 18 5 ¹⁄₇
6912 1728 576 288 96 72 48 36 12 _Libra_ 0 10 18 13 ⁵⁄₇
N.B. The Roman ounce is the English _avoirdupois_ ounce, which was
anciently divided into seven _denarii_, and eight _drachmæ_, and as
they reckoned the _denarius_ equal to an Attic _drachma_, the Attic
weights were one-eighth heavier than the correspondent weights
among the Romans.
The Greeks divided their _obolus_ into _chalci_ and smaller
proportions; some into six _chalci_, and every _chalcus_ into seven
smaller parts; and others divided into eight _chalci_, and each
_chalcus_ into eight parts.
THE GREATER WEIGHTS REDUCED TO ENGLISH TROY WEIGHT.
lb. oz. dwt. gr.
_Libra_ 0 10 18 13⁵⁄₇
1¹⁄₂₄ _Mina Attica communis_ 0 11 7 16²⁄₇
⅓ 1⁷⁄₂₅ _Mina Attica media_ 1 2 11 10²⁄₇
62½ 60 46⅞ _Talentum Atticum commune_ 56 11 0 17¹⁄₇
N.B. There was also another Attic talent which consisted of 80, or,
according to some, of 100 _minæ_. It must, however, be remembered,
that every _mina_ contains 100 _drachmæ_, and every talent 60
_minæ_. The talents differ according to the different standard of
their _minæ_ and _drachmæ_, as the following table indicates:――
lb. oz. dwt. gr.
_The Mina Ægyptiaca_ } { 133⅓ } { 1 5 6 22²⁶⁄₄₉
_Antiochica_ } Consists { 133⅓ } Equivalent { 1 5 6 22²⁶⁄₄₉
_Cleopatræ } of Attic { } to English {
Ptolemaica_ } drachmæ { 144 } troy { 1 6 14 16³²⁄₄₉
_Alexandrina } { } weight {
Dioscoridis_ } { 160 } { 1 8 16 7⁴¹⁄₄₉
_The Talentum } { } {
Ægyptiacum_ } { 80 } { 86 8 16 8
_Antiochicum_ } Consists { 80 } Equivalent { 86 8 16 8
_Ptolemaicum } of Attic { } to English {
Cleop._ } minæ { 86⅔ } troy { 93 11 11 0
_Alexandriæ_ } { 96 } weight { 104 0 19 14
_Insulanum_ } { 120 } { 130 1 4 12
_Antiochiæ_ } { 360 } { 390 3 13 11
THE VALUE AND PROPORTION OF THE GRECIAN COINS.
£ s. d. q.
_Lepton_ 0 0 0 0³¹⁄₃₃₆
7 _Chalcus_ 0 0 0 0³¹⁄₄₈
14 2 _Dichalcus_ 0 0 0 1⁷⁄₂₄
28 4 2 _Hemiobolus_ 0 0 0 2⁷⁄₁₂
56 8 4 2 _Obolus_ 0 0 1 1⅙
112 16 8 4 2 _Diobolus_ 0 0 2 2⅓
224 32 16 8 4 2 _Tetrobolus_ 0 0 5 0⅔
336 48 24 12 6 3 1½ _Drachma_ 0 0 7 3
662 96 48 24 12 6 3 2 _Didrachmon_ 0 1 3 2
1324 112 96 48 24 12 6 4 2 _Tetradrachmon_ 0 2 7 0
1660 384 120 60 30 15 7½ 5 2½ 1¼ _Pentadrachmon_ 0 3 2 3
N.B. The _drachma_, and the _didrachmon_, were silver, the others
generally of brass. The _tridrachmon_, _triobolus_, &c., were
sometimes coined. The _drachma_ and the _denarius_ are here
supposed to be equal, though often the former exceeded in weight.
The gold coin among the Greeks was the _stater aureus_, which weighed
two Attic _drachmæ_, or half the _stater argenteus_, and was worth
25 Attic _drachmæ_, of silver, or in £ s. d.
English money 0 16 1¾
Or according to the proportion of gold to silver,
at present 1 0 9
The _Stater Cyzicenus_ exchanged for 28 Attic _drachmæ_,
or 0 18 1
The _Stater Philippi_ and _Stater Alexandri_ were of
the same value.
The _Stater Daricus_, according to Josephus,
was worth 50 Attic _drachmæ_, or 1 12 3½
The _Stater Cræsi_ was of the same value.
THE VALUE AND PROPORTION OF THE ROMAN COINS.
£ s. d. q.
_Terentius_ 0 0 0 0⁷⁷⁵⁄₁₀₀₀
2 _Sembella_ 0 0 0 1¹¹⁄₂₀
4 2 _Libella_, or _As_ 0 0 0 3¹⁄₁₀
10 5 2½ _Sestertius_ 0 0 1 3¾
20 10 5 2 _Quinarius_, or _Victoriatus_ 0 0 3 3½
40 20 10 4 2 _Denarius_ 0 0 7 3
N.B. The _denarius_, _victoriatus_, _sestertius_, and sometimes
the _as_, were of silver, the others were of brass. The _triens_,
_sextans_, _uncia_, _sextula_, and _dupondius_, were sometimes
coined of brass.
THE COMPUTATION OF MONEY AMONG THE GREEKS WAS BY DRACHMÆ,
AS FOLLOWS:――
£ s. d. q.
1 _Drachma_ 0 0 7 3
10 _Drachmæ_ 0 6 5 2
100 _Drachmæ_ equal to a _Mina_ 3 4 7
10 _Minæ_ 32 5 10
60 _Minæ_ equal to a _Talent_ 193 15 0
10 _Talents_ 1937 10 0
100 _Talents_ 19375 0 0
AMONG THE ROMANS THE COMPUTATION WAS BY SESTERTII NUMMI, AS――
£ s. d. q.
A _Sestertius_ 0 0 0 1½
10 _Sestertii_ 0 1 7 1¾
1000 _Sestertii_ equal to one _Sestertium_ 8 1 5 2
10 _Sestertia_ 80 14 7 0
100 _Sestertia_ 807 5 10 0
1000 _Sestertia_ or _decies Sestertiûm_
(centies und.) or _decies centena
millia nummûm_ 8072 18 4 0
_Centies_ vel _centies H. S._ 80729 3 4 0
_Millies H. S._ 807291 13 4 0
_Millies centies H. S._ 888020 16 8 0
_The Mina Syria_ } { 25
_Ptolemaica_ } { 33⅓
_Antiochica_ } Was { 100
_Euboica_ } worth { 100
_Babylonica_ } of { 116
_Attica major_ } Attic { 133⅓
_Tyria_ } _Drachmæ_ { 133⅓
_Æginæa_ } { 166⅔
_Rhodia_ } { 166⅔
_The Talentum Syrium_ } { 15
_Ptolemaicum_ } { 20
_Antiochicum_ } Was { 60
_Euboicum_ } worth { 60
_Babylonicum_ } of { 70
_Atticum majus_ } Attic { 80
_Tyrium_ } _minæ_ { 80
_Æginæum_ } { 100
_Rhodium_ } { 100
_Ægyptium_ } { 80
The Roman gold coin was the _aureus_, which generally weighed
double the _denarius_.
£ s. d. q.
The value of it was, according to the first
proportion of coinage mentioned by Pliny 1 4 3 3
Or according to the proportion of coinage at
present 1 0 9
According to the decuple proportion mentioned
by Livy and Julius Pollux 0 12 11
According to Tacitus, as it was afterwards valued
and exchanged for 25 _denarii_ 0 16 1 3
The value of coin underwent many changes during the existence of
the Roman republic, and stood, as Pliny mentions it, as follows:
In the reign of Servius } The _as_ { 1 pound
A.U.C. 490 } weighed { 2 ounces
A.U.C. 537 } of brass { 1 ounce
A.U.C. 586 } { ½ ounce
A.U.C. 485 } The _denarius_ { 10 _asses_
A.U.C. 537 } exchanged for { 16 _asses_
A.U.C. 547, a scruple of gold was worth 20 _sestertii_;
coined afterwards of the pound of gold, 20 _denarii
aurei_; and in Nero’s reign of the pound of gold, 45
_denarii aurei_.
N. B. In the above tables of money, it is to be observed that the
silver has been reckoned at 5_s._ and gold at _£_4 per ounce.
A talent of gold among the Jews was worth _£_5475, and one of
silver _£_342 3_s._ 9_d._
The greater talent of the Romans was worth _£_99 6_s._ 8_d._, and
the less _£_60, or, as some say, _£_75, and the great talent
_£_1125.
The value of the Roman _pondo_ is not precisely known, though some
suppose it equivalent to an Attic _mina_, or _£_3 4_s._ 7_d._
It is used indifferently by ancient authors for _æs_, _as_, and
_mina_, and was supposed to consist of 100, or 96 _denarii_. It
is to be observed, that whenever the word _pondo_ is joined to
numbers, it signifies the same as _libra_, but when it is used
with other words it bears the same signification as the σταθμη
or ὁλκη of the Greeks, or the _pondus_ of the Latins. The word
_nummus_, when mentioned as a sum of money, was supposed to be
equivalent to a _sestertius_, and though the words _sestertius_
and _nummus_ are often joined together, yet their signification
is the same, and they intimate no more than either does
separately.
We must particularly remark, that in reckoning their _sesterces_,
the Romans had an art which can be rendered intelligible by the
observation of these rules: If a numeral noun agreed in case,
gender, and number with the word _sestertius_, it denoted
precisely as many _sestertii_; as for example, _decem sestertii_
was ten _sestertii_. If a numeral noun of another case was
joined with the genitive plural of _sestertius_, it denoted so
many thousand, as _decem sestertiûm_ signifies so many thousand
_sestertii_. If the adverb numeral was joined, it denoted so
many hundred thousand, as _decies sestertiûm_ was ten hundred
thousand _sesterii_. If the numeral adverb was put by itself,
the signification was not altered; therefore _decies_, _vigesies_,
&c., in a sentence, imply as many hundred thousand _sestertii_,
or hundred _sestertia_, as if the word _sestertiûm_ was expressed.
The _denarius_, which was the chief silver coin used at Rome,
received its name because it contained _denos æris_, ten _asses_.
The _as_ is often expressed by an Lucius because it was one pound
weight; and the _sestertius_, because it was equivalent to two
pounds and a half of brass, is frequently denoted by H. S. or
L. L. S.
The Roman _libra_ contained twelve ounces of silver, and was worth
about _£_3, sterling.
The Roman talent was supposed to be equivalent to twenty-four
_sestertia_, or nearly _£_193 sterling.
THE END.
Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO.
Edinburgh & London
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