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Aegis worn by Athena.

From Torso at Dresden. From Ancient Statues.

AEGIS (αἰγίς) signifies, literally, a goat-skin. According to ancient mythology, the aegis worn by Zeus was the hide of the goat Amaltheia, which had suckled him in his infancy. Homer always represents it as part of the armour of Zeus, whom on this account he distinguishes by the epithet aegis-bearing (αἰγίοχος). He, however, asserts, that it was borrowed on different occasions both by Apollo and Athena. The aegis was connected with the shield of Zeus, either serving as a covering over it, or as a belt by which it was suspended from the right shoulder. Homer accordingly uses the word to denote not only the goat-skin, which it properly signified, but also the shield to which it belonged. The aegis was adorned in a style corresponding to the might and majesty of the father of the gods. In the middle of it was fixed the appalling Gorgon’s head, and its border was surrounded with golden tassels (θύσανοι), each of which was worth a hecatomb. The aegis is usually seen on the statues of Athena, in which it is a sort of scarf falling obliquely over the right shoulder, so as to pass round the body under the left arm. The serpents of the Gorgon’s head are transferred to the border of the skin. (See the left-hand figure in the cut.) The later poets and artists represent the aegis as a breast-plate covered with metal in the form of scales. (See the right-hand figure.)

AENĔĀTŌRES, were those who blew upon wind instruments in the Roman army; namely, the buccinatores, cornicines, and tubicines. They were also employed in the public games.

AENIGMA (αἴνιγμα), a riddle. It was an ancient custom among the Greeks to amuse themselves by proposing riddles at their symposia, or drinking parties. Those who were successful in solving them, received a prize, which usually consisted of wreaths, cakes, &c., while those who were unsuccessful were condemned to drink in one breath a certain quantity of wine, sometimes mixed with salt water. Those riddles which have come down to us are mostly in hexameter verse. The Romans seem to have been too serious to find any great amusement in riddles.

AENUM, or ĂHĒNUM (sc. vas), a brazen vessel, used for boiling. The word is also frequently used in the sense of a dyer’s copper; and, as purple was the most celebrated dye of antiquity, we find the expressions Sidonium aënum, Tyrium aënum, &c.

AEŌRA, or ĔŌRA (αἰώρα, ἐώρα), a festival at Athens, accompanied with sacrifices and banquets, whence it is sometimes called εὔδειπνος. It was probably instituted in honour of Icarius and his daughter Erigone.

AERA. [Chronologia.]

AERĀRĬI, a class of Roman citizens, who were not included in the thirty tribes instituted by Servius Tullius. Although citizens, they did not possess the suffragium, or right of voting in the comitia. They were cives sine suffragio. They also paid the tribute in a different manner from the other citizens. The Aerarians were chiefly artisans and freedmen. The Caerites, or inhabitants of the Etruscan town of Caere, who obtained the franchise in early times, but without the suffragium, were probably the first body of aerarians. Any Roman citizen guilty of a crime punishable by the censors, might be degraded to the rank of an aerarian; so that his civic rights were suspended, at least for the time that he was an aerarian. All citizens so degraded were classed among the Caerites; whence we find the expressions aerarium facere and in tabulas Caeritum referre used as synonymous. Persons who were made infames likewise became aerarians, for they lost the jus honorum and the suffragium. The aerarians had to pay a tributum pro capite which was considerably higher than that paid by the other citizens. They were not allowed to serve in the legions.

AERĀRĬI TRĬBŪNI. [Aes Equestre.]

AERĀRĬUM (τὸ δημόσιον), the public treasury at Rome, and hence the public money itself. After the banishment of the kings the temple of Saturn was employed as the place for keeping the public money, and it continued to be so used till the later times of the empire. Besides the public money and the accounts connected with it, various other things were preserved in the treasury; of these the most important were:—1. The standards of the legions. 2. The various laws passed from time to time, engraven on brazen tables. 3. The decrees of the senate, which were entered there in books kept for the purpose, though the original documents were preserved in the temple of Ceres under the custody of the aediles. 4. Various other public documents, the reports and despatches of all generals and governors of provinces, the names of all foreign ambassadors that came to Rome, &c. Under the republic the aerarium was divided into two parts: the common treasury, in which were deposited the regular taxes, and from which were taken the sums of money needed for the ordinary expenditure of the state; and the sacred treasury (aerarium sanctum or sanctius), which was never touched except in cases of extreme peril. Both of these treasuries were in the temple of Saturn, but in distinct parts of the temple. The produce of a tax of five per cent. (vicesima) upon the value of every manumitted slave, called aurum vicesimarium, was paid into the sacred treasury, as well as a portion of the immense wealth obtained by the Romans in their conquests in the East. Under Augustus the provinces and the administration of the government were divided between the senate, as the representative of the old Roman people, and the Caesar: all the property of the former continued to be called aerarium, and that of the latter received the name of fiscus. Augustus also established a third treasury, to provide for the pay and support of the army, and this received the name of aerarium militare. He also imposed several new taxes to be paid into this aerarium. In the time of the republic, the entire management of the revenues of the state belonged to the senate; and under the superintendence and control of the senate the quaestors had the charge of the aerarium. In B.C. 28, Augustus deprived the quaestors of the charge of the treasury and gave it to two praefects, whom he allowed the senate to choose from among the praetors at the end of their year of office. Various other changes were made with respect to the charge of the aerarium, but it was eventually entrusted, in the reign of Trajan, to praefects, who appear to have held their office for two years.

AES (χαλκός), properly signifies a compound of copper and tin, corresponding to what we call bronze. It is incorrect to translate it brass, which is a combination of copper and zinc, since all the specimens of ancient objects, formed of the material called aes, are found upon analysis to contain no zinc. The employment of aes was very general among the ancients; money, vases, and utensils of all sorts, being made of it. All the most ancient coins in Rome and the old Italian states were made of aes, and hence money in general was called by this name. For the same reason we have aes alienum, meaning debt, and aera in the plural, pay to the soldiers. The Romans had no other coinage except bronze or copper (aes), till B.C. 269, five years before the first Punic war, when silver was first coined; gold was not coined till sixty-two years after silver. The first coinage of aes is usually attributed to Servius Tullius, who is said to have stamped the money with the image of cattle (pecus), whence it is called pecunia. According to some accounts, it was coined from the commencement of the city, and we know that the old Italian states possessed a bronze or copper coinage from the earliest times. The first coinage was the as [As], which originally was a pound weight; but as in course of time the weight of the as was reduced not only in Rome, but in the other Italian states, and this reduction in weight was not uniform in the different states, it became usual in all bargains to pay the asses according to their weight, and not according to their nominal value. The aes grave was not the old heavy coins as distinguished from the lighter modern; but it signified any number of copper coins reckoned according to the old style, by weight. There was, therefore, no occasion for the state to suppress the circulation of the old copper coins, since in all bargains the asses were not reckoned by tale, but by weight.—Bronze or copper (χαλκός) was very little used by the Greeks for money in early times. Silver was originally the universal currency, and copper appears to have been seldom coined till after the time of Alexander the Great. The copper coin was called Chalcous (χαλκούς). The smallest silver coin at Athens was the quarter-obol, and the chalcous was the half of that, or the eighth of an obol. In later times, the obol was coined of copper as well as silver.

AES CIRCUMFORĀNĔUM, money borrowed from the Roman bankers (argentarii), who had shops in porticoes round the forum.

AES ĔQUESTRE, AES HORDĔĀRĬUM, and AES MĪLĬTĀRE, were the ancient terms for the pay of the Roman soldiers, before the regular stipendium was introduced. The aes equestre was the sum of money given for the purchase of the horse of an eques; the aes hordearium, the sum paid yearly for its keep, in other words the pay of an eques; and the aes militare, the pay of a foot soldier. None of this money seems to have been taken from the public treasury, but to have been paid by certain private persons, to whom this duty was assigned by the state. The aes hordearium, which amounted to 2000 asses, had to be paid by single women (viduae, i.e. both maidens and widows) and orphans (orbi), provided they possessed a certain amount of property. The aes equestre, which amounted to 10,000 asses, was probably also paid by the same class of persons. The aes militare, the amount of which is not expressly mentioned, had to be paid by the tribuni aerarii, and if not paid, the foot soldiers had a right of distress against them. It is generally assumed that these tribuni aerarii were magistrates connected with the treasury, and that they were the assistants of the quaestors; but there are good reasons for believing that the tribuni aerarii were private persons, who were liable to the payment of the aes militare, and upon whose property a distress might be levied, if the money were not paid. They were probably persons whose property was rated at a certain sum in the census, and we may conjecture that they obtained the name of tribuni aerarii because they levied the tributum, which was imposed for the purpose of paying the army, and then paid it to the soldiers. These tribuni aerarii were no longer needed when the state took into its own hands the payment of the troops; but they were revived in B.C. 70, as a distinct class in the commonwealth, by the Lex Aurelia, which gave the judicia to the senators, equites and tribuni aerarii.

AES UXŌRĬUM, was a tax paid by men who reached old age without having married. It was first imposed by the censors in B.C. 403. [Lex Julia et Papia Poppaea.]

AESYMNĒTES (αἰσυμνήτης), a person who was sometimes invested with unlimited power in the Greek states. His power partook in some degree of the nature both of kingly and tyrannical authority; since he was appointed legally, and did not usurp the government, but at the same time was not bound by any laws in his public administration. The office was not hereditary, nor was it held for life; but it only continued for a limited time, or till some object was accomplished. Thus we read that the inhabitants of Mytilene appointed Pittacus aesymnetes, in order to prevent the return of Alcaeus and the other exiles. Dionysius compares it with the dictatorship of Rome. In some states, such as Cyme and Chalcedon, it was the title borne by the regular magistrates.

AETAS. [Infans; Impubes.]

AETŌLĬCUM FOEDUS (κοινὸν τῶν Αἰτώλων), the Aetolian league, appears as a powerful political body soon after the death of Alexander the Great, viz. during the Lamian war against Antipater. The characteristic difference between the Aetolian and Achaean leagues was that the former originally consisted of a confederacy of nations or tribes, while the latter was a confederacy of towns. The sovereign power of the confederacy was vested in the general assemblies of all the confederates (κοινὸν τῶν Αἰτώλων, concilium Aetolorum), and this assembly had the right to discuss all questions respecting peace and war, and to elect the great civil or military officers of the league. The ordinary place of meeting was Thermon, but on extraordinary occasions assemblies were also held in other towns belonging to the league, though they were not situated in the country of Aetolia Proper. The questions which were to be brought before the assembly were sometimes discussed previously by a committee, selected from the great mass, and called Apocleti (ἀπόκλητοι). The general assembly usually met in the autumn, when the officers of the league were elected. The highest among them, as among those of the Achaean league, bore the title of Strategus (στρατηγός), whose office lasted only for one year. The strategus had the right to convoke the assembly; he presided in it, introduced the subjects for deliberation, and levied the troops. The officers next in rank to the strategus were the hipparchus and the public scribe. The political existence of the league was destroyed in B.C. 189 by the treaty with Rome, and the treachery of the Roman party among the Aetolians themselves caused in B.C. 167 five hundred and fifty of the leading patriots to be put to death, and those who survived the massacre were carried to Rome as prisoners.

ĀĔTŌMA (ἀέτωμα). [Fastigium.]

AFFĪNES, AFFĪNĬTAS, or ADFĪNES, ADFĪNĬTAS. Affines are the cognati [Cognati] of husband and wife, the cognati of the husband becoming the affines of the wife, and the cognati of the wife the affines of the husband. The father of a husband is the socer of the husband’s wife, and the father of a wife is the socer of the wife’s husband. The term socrus expresses the same affinity with respect to the husband’s and wife’s mothers. A son’s wife is nurus, or daughter-in-law to the son’s parents; a wife’s husband is gener, or son-in-law to the wife’s parents. Thus the avus, avia—pater, mater—of the wife became by the marriage respectively the socer magnus, prosocrus, or socrus magna—socer, socrus—of the husband, who becomes with respect to them severally progener and gener. In like manner the corresponding ancestors of the husband respectively assume the same names with respect to the son’s wife, who becomes with respect to them pronurus and nurus. The son and daughter of a husband or wife born of a prior marriage are called privignus and privigna, with respect to their step-father or step-mother; and with respect to such children, the step-father and step-mother are severally called vitricus and noverca. The husband’s brother becomes levir with respect to the wife, and his sister becomes glos (the Greek γάλως). Marriage was unlawful among persons who had become such affines as above mentioned.

ĂGALMA (ἄγαλμα) is a general name for a statue or image to represent a god.

ĂGĀSO, a groom, whose business it was to take care of the horses. The word is also used for a driver of beasts of burden, and is sometimes applied to a slave who had to perform the lowest menial duties.

ĂGĂTHŎERGI (ἀγαθοεργοί). In time of war the kings of Sparta had a body-guard of three hundred of the noblest of the Spartan youths (ἱππεῖς), of whom the five eldest retired every year, and were employed for one year under the name of Agathoergi, in missions to foreign states.

ĂGĔLA (ἀγέλη), an assembly of young men in Crete, who lived together from their eighteenth year till the time of their marriage. An agela always consisted of the sons of the most noble citizens, and the members of it were obliged to marry at the same time.

ĂGĒMA (ἄγημα from ἄγω), the name of a chosen body of troops in the Macedonian army, usually consisting of horsemen.

ĂGER PUBLĬCUS, the public land, was the land belonging to the Roman state. It was a recognised principle among the Italian nations that the territory of a conquered people belonged to the conquerors. Accordingly, the Romans were constantly acquiring fresh territory by the conquest of the surrounding people. The land thus acquired was usually disposed of in the following way. 1. The land which was under cultivation was either distributed among colonists, who were sent to occupy it, or it was sold, or it was let out to farm. 2. The land which was then out of cultivation, and which, owing to war, was by far the greater part, might be occupied by any of the Roman citizens on the payment of a portion of the yearly produce; a tenth of the produce of arable land, and a fifth of the produce of the land planted with the vine, the olive, and other valuable trees. 3. The land which had previously served as the common pasture land of the conquered state, or was suitable for the purpose, continued to be used as pasture land by the Roman citizens, who had, however, to pay a certain sum of money for the cattle which they turned upon it. The occupation of the public land spoken of above under the second head was always expressed by the words possessio and possidere, and the occupier of the land was called the possessor. The land continued to be the property of the state; and accordingly we must distinguish between the terms possessio, which merely indicated the use or enjoyment of the land, and dominium, which expressed ownership, and was applied to private land, of which a man had the absolute ownership. The right of occupying the public land belonged only to citizens, and consequently only to the patricians originally, as they were the state. The plebeians were only subjects, and consequently had no right to the property of the state; but it is probable that they were permitted to feed their cattle on the public pasture lands. Even when the plebeians became a separate estate by the constitution of Servius Tullius, they still obtained no right to share in the possession of the public land, which continued to be the exclusive privilege of the patricians; but as a compensation, each individual plebeian received an assignment of a certain quantity of the public land as his own property. Henceforth the possession of the public land was the privilege of the patricians, and an assignment of a portion of it the privilege of the plebeians. As the state acquired new lands by conquest, the plebeians ought to have received assignments of part of them, but since the patricians were the governing body, they generally refused to make any such assignment, and continued to keep the whole as part of the ager publicus, whereby the enjoyment of it belonged to them alone. Hence, we constantly read of the plebeians claiming, and sometimes enforcing, a division of such land. With the extension of the conquests of Rome, the ager publicus constantly increased, and thus a large portion of Italy fell into the hands of the patricians, who frequently withheld from the state the annual payments of a tenth and a fifth, which they were bound to pay for the possession of the land, and thus deprived the state of a fund for the expenses of the war. In addition to which they used slaves as cultivators and shepherds, since freemen were liable to be drawn off from field-labour to military service, and slave-labour was consequently far cheaper. In this way the number of free labourers was diminished, and that of slaves augmented. To remedy this state of things several laws were from time to time proposed and carried, which were most violently opposed by the patricians. All laws which related to the public land are called by the general title of Leges Agrariae, and accordingly all the early laws relating to the possession of the public land by the patricians, and to the assignment of portions of it to the plebeians, were strictly agrarian laws; but the first law to which this name is usually applied was proposed soon after the establishment of the republic by the consul, Sp. Cassius, in B.C. 486. Its object was to set apart the portion of the public land which the patricians were to possess, to divide the rest among the plebeians, to levy the payment due for the possession, and to apply it to paying the army. The first law, however, which really deprived the patricians of the advantages they had previously enjoyed in the occupation of the public land was the agrarian law of C. Licinius Stolo (B.C. 366), which limited each individual’s possession of public land to 500 jugera, and declared that no individual should have above 100 large and 500 smaller cattle on the public pastures: it further enacted that the surplus land was to be divided among the plebeians. As this law, however, was soon disregarded, it was revived again by Tib. Sempronius Gracchus (B.C. 133), with some alterations and additions. The details of the other agrarian laws mentioned in Roman history are given under the name of the lex by which they are called. [Lex.]

AGGER (χῶμα), from ad and gero, was used in general for a heap or mound of any kind. It was more particularly applied:—(1) To a mound, usually composed of earth, which was raised round a besieged town, and which was gradually increased in breadth and height, till it equalled or overtopped the walls. The agger was sometimes made, not only of earth, but of wood, hurdles, &c.; whence we read of the agger being set on fire.—(2) To the earthen wall surrounding a Roman encampment, composed of the earth dug from the ditch (fossa), which was usually 9 feet broad and 7 feet deep; but if any attack was apprehended, the depth was increased to 12 feet and the breadth to 13 feet. Sharp stakes, &c., were usually fixed upon the agger, which was then called vallum. When both words are used, the agger means the mound of earth, and the vallum the stakes, &c., which were fixed upon the agger.

ĂGITĀTŌRES. [Circus.]

AGMEN. [Exercitus.]

AGNĀTI. [Cognati.]

AGNŌMEN [Nomen.]

ĂGŌNĀLĬA or ĂGŌNĬA, one of the most ancient festivals at Rome, its institution being attributed to Numa Pompilius. It was celebrated on the 9th of January, the 21st of May, and the 11th of December; to which we should probably add the 17th of March, the day on which the Liberalia was celebrated, since this festival is also called Agonia or Agonium Martiale. The object of this festival was a disputed point among the ancients themselves. The victim which was offered was a ram; the person who offered it was the rex sacrificulus; and the place where it was offered was the regia. Now the ram was the usual victim presented to the guardian gods of the state, and the rex sacrificulus and the regia could be employed only for such ceremonies as were connected with the highest gods and affected the weal of the whole state. Regarding the sacrifice in this light, we see a reason for its being offered several times in the year. The etymology of the name was also a subject of much dispute among the ancients; and the various etymologies that were proposed are given at length by Ovid (Fast. i. 319-332). None of these, however, are at all satisfactory; and we would therefore suggest that it may have received its name from the sacrifice having been offered on the Quirinal hill, which was originally called Agonus.

ĂGŌNES (ἀγῶνες), the general term among the Greeks for the contests at their great national games. The word also signified law-suits, and was especially employed in the phrase ἀγῶνες τιμητοί and ἀτίμητοι. [Timema.]

ĂGONŎTHĔTAE (ἀγωνοθέται), persons in the Grecian games who decided disputes, and adjudged the prizes to the victors. Originally, the person who instituted the contest and offered the prize was the Agonothetes, and this continued to be the practice in those games which were instituted by kings or private persons. But in the great public games, such as the Isthmian, Pythian, &c., the Agonothetae were either the representatives of different states, as the Amphictyons at the Pythian games, or were chosen from the people in whose country the games were celebrated. During the flourishing times of the Grecian republics the Eleans were the Agonothetae in the Olympic games, the Corinthians in the Isthmian games, the Amphictyons in the Pythian games, and the Corinthians, Argives, and inhabitants of Cleonae in the Nemaean games. The Agonothetae were also called Aesymnetae (αἰσυμνῆται), Agonarchae (ἀγωνάρχαι), Agonodicae (ἀγωνοδίκαι), Athlothetae (ἀθλοθέται), Rhabduchi (ῥαβδοῦχοι), or Rhabdonomi (ῥαβδονόμοι, from the staff which they carried as an emblem of authority), Brabeis (βραβεῖς), and Brabeutae (βραβευταί).

ĂGŎRA (ἀγορά) properly means an assembly of any kind, and is usually employed by Homer to designate the general assembly of the people. The Agora seems to have been considered an essential part of the constitution of the early Grecian states. It was usually convoked by the king, but occasionally by some distinguished chieftain, as, for example, by Achilles before Troy. The king occupied the most important seat in these assemblies, and near him sat the nobles, while the people stood or sat in a circle around them. The people appear to have had no right of speaking or voting in these assemblies, but merely to have been called together to hear what had been already agreed upon in the council of the nobles, and to express their feelings as a body. The council of the nobles is called Boulé (βουλή) and Thoöcus (θόωκος), and sometimes even Agora. Among the Athenians, the proper name for the assembly of the people was Ecclesia (ἐκκλησία), and among the Dorians Halia (ἁλία). The term Agora was confined at Athens to the assemblies of the phylae and demi. The name Agora was early transferred from the assembly itself to the place in which it was held; and thus it came to be used for the market-place, where goods of all descriptions were bought and sold. Hence it answers to the Roman forum.

ĂGŎRĀNŎMI (ἀγορανόμοι), public functionaries in most of the Grecian states, whose duties corresponded in many respects with those of the Roman aediles. At Athens their number was ten, five for the city, and five for the Peiraeus, and they were chosen by lot. The principal duty of the Agoranomi was, as their name imports, to inspect the market, and to see that all the laws respecting its regulation were properly observed. They had the inspection of all things that were sold in the market, with the exception of corn, which was subject to the jurisdiction of special officers, called Sitophylaces (σιτοφύλακες). They regulated the price and quantity of articles exposed for sale, and punished all persons convicted of cheating, especially by means of false weights and measures. They had the power of fining all citizens who infringed upon the rules of the market, and of whipping all slaves and foreigners guilty of a like offence. They also collected the market dues, and had the care of all the temples and fountains in the market place.

AGRĀRĬAE LĒGES. [Ager Publicus; Lex.]

AGRAULĬA (ἀγραύλια) was a festival celebrated by the Athenians in honour of Agraulos, the daughter of Cecrops. It was perhaps connected with the solemn oath, which all Athenians, when they arrived at manhood (ἔφηβοι), were obliged to take in the temple of Agraulos, that they would fight for their country, and always observe its laws.

AGRĪMENSŌRES, or “land surveyors,” a college established under the Roman emperors. Like the jurisconsults, they had regular schools, and were paid handsome salaries by the state. Their business was to measure unassigned lands for the state, and ordinary lands for the proprietors, and to fix and maintain boundaries. Their writings on the subject of their art were very numerous; and we have still scientific treatises on the law of boundaries, such as those by Frontinus and Hyginus.

AGRIŌNĬA (ἀγριώνια), a festival which was celebrated at Orchomenus, in Boeotia, in honour of Dionysus, surnamed Agrionius. A human being used originally to be sacrificed at this festival, but this sacrifice seems to have been avoided in later times. One instance, however, occurred in the days of Plutarch.

AGRONŎMI (ἀγρονόμοι), the country-police, probably in Attica, whose duties corresponded in most respects to those of the astynomi in the city, and who appear to have performed nearly the same duties as the hylori (ὑλωροί).

AGRŎTĔRAS THŬSIA (ἀγροτέρας θυσία), a festival celebrated every year at Athens in honour of Artemis, surnamed Agrotera (from ἄγρα, the chase). It was solemnized on the sixth of the month of Boëdromion, and consisted of a sacrifice of 500 goats, which continued to be offered in the time of Xenophon. Its origin is thus related:—When the Persians invaded Attica, the Athenians made a vow to sacrifice to Artemis Agrotera as many goats as there should be enemies slain at Marathon. But as the number of enemies slain was so great that an equal number of goats could not be found at once, the Athenians decreed that 500 should be sacrificed every year.

AGYRTAE (ἀγύρται), mendicant priests, who were accustomed to travel through the different towns of Greece, soliciting alms for the gods whom they served, and whose images they carried, either on their shoulders or on beasts of burthen. They were, generally speaking, persons of the lowest and most abandoned character.

ĂHĒNUM. [Aenum.]

AIKIAS DĬKĒ (αἰκίας δίκη), an action brought at Athens, before the court of the Forty (οἱ τετταράκοντα), against any individual who had struck a citizen. Any citizen who had been thus insulted might proceed against the offending party, either by the αἰκίας δίκη, which was a private action, or by the ὕβρεως γραφή, which was looked upon in the light of a public prosecution.

AITHOUSA (αἴθουσα), a word only used by Homer, is probably for αἴθουσα στοά, a portico exposed to the sun. From the passages in which it occurs, it seems to denote a covered portico, opening on to the court of the house, αὐλή, in front of the vestibule, πρόθυρον.

ĀLA, part of a Roman house. [Domus.]

ĀLA, ĀLĀRES, ĀLĀRĬI. Ala, which literally means a wing, was from the earliest epochs employed to denote the wing of an army, but in process of time was frequently used in a restricted sense.—(1) When a Roman army was composed of Roman citizens exclusively, the flanks of the infantry when drawn up in battle array were covered on the right and left by the cavalry; and hence Ala denoted the body of horse which was attached to and served along with the foot-soldiers of the legion.—(2) When, at a later date, the Roman armies were composed partly of Roman citizens and partly of Socii, either Latini or Italici, it became the practice to marshal the Roman troops in the centre of the battle line and the Socii upon the wings. Hence ala and alarii denoted the contingent furnished by the allies, both horse and foot, and the two divisions were distinguished as dextera ala and sinistra ala.—(3) When the whole of the inhabitants of Italy had been admitted to the privileges of Roman citizens the terms alarii, cohortes alariae were transferred to the foreign troops serving along with the Roman armies.—(4) Lastly, under the empire, the term ala was applied to regiments of horse, raised it would seem with very few exceptions in the provinces, serving apart from the legions and the cavalry of the legions.

ĂLĂBARCHĒS (ἀλαβάρχης), the chief magistrate of the Jews at Alexandria, whose duties, as far as the government was concerned, chiefly consisted in raising and paying the taxes.

ĂLĂBASTER or ĂLĂBASTRUM, a vessel or pot used for containing perfumes, or rather ointments, made of that species of marble which mineralogists call gypsum, and which is usually designated by the name of alabaster. When varieties of colour occur in the same stone, and are disposed in bands or horizontal strata, it is often called onyx alabaster; and when dispersed irregularly, as if in clouds, it is distinguished as agate alabaster. The term seems to have been employed to denote vessels appropriated to these uses, even when they were not made of the material from which it is supposed they originally received their name. Thus Theocritus speaks of golden alabastra. These vessels were of a tapering shape, and very often had a long narrow neck, which was sealed; so that when Mary, the sister of Lazarus, is said by St. Mark to break the alabaster box of ointment for the purpose of anointing our Saviour, it appears probable that she only broke the extremity of the neck, which was thus closed.

ĀLĀRĬI. [Ala.]

ĂLAUDA, a Gaulish word, the prototype of the modern French Alouette, denoting a small crested bird of the lark kind. The name alauda was bestowed by Julius Caesar on a legion of picked men, which he raised at his own expense among the inhabitants of Transalpine Gaul, about the year B.C. 55, which he equipped and disciplined after the Roman fashion, and on which he at a subsequent period bestowed the freedom of the state. The designation was, in all probability, applied from a plume upon the helmet, resembling the “apex” of the bird in question, or from the general shape and appearance of the head-piece.

ALBŎGĂLĒRUS. [Apex.]

ALBUM, a tablet of any material on which the praetor’s edicts, and the rules relating to actions and interdicts, were written. The tablet was put up in a public place, in order that all the world might have notice of its contents. According to some authorities, the album was so called because it was either a white material or a material whitened, and of course the writing would be of a different colour. According to other authorities, it was so called because the writing was in white letters. Probably the word album originally meant any tablet containing anything of a public nature. We know that it was, in course of time, used to signify a list of any public body; thus we find album judicum, or the body out of which judices were to be chosen [Judex], and album senatorium, or list of senators.

ĀLĔA, gaming, or playing at a game of chance of any kind: hence aleo, aleator, a gamester, a gambler. Playing with tali, or tesserae, was generally understood, because this was by far the most common game of chance among the Romans. Gaming was forbidden by the Roman laws, both during the times of the republic and under the emperors, but was tolerated in the month of December at the Saturnalia, which was a period of general relaxation; and old men were allowed to amuse themselves in this manner at all times.

ĂLĬCŬLA (ἄλλιξ or ἄλληξ), an upper dress, in all probability identical with the chlamys.

ĂLIMENTĀRII PŬĔRI ET PŬELLAE. In the Roman republic the poorer citizens were assisted by public distributions of corn, oil, and money, which were called congiaria. [Congiarium.] The Emperor Nerva was the first who extended them to children, and Trajan appointed them to be made every month, both to orphans and to the children of poor parents. The children who received them were called pueri et puellae alimentarii, and also (from the emperor) pueri puellaeque Ulpiani.

ĀLĬPĬLUS, a slave, who attended on bathers to remove the superfluous hair from their bodies.

ĂLIPTAE (ἀλείπται), among the Greeks, were persons who anointed the bodies of the athletae preparatory to their entering the palaestra. The chief object of this anointing was to close the pores of the body, in order to prevent much perspiration, and the weakness consequent thereon. The athleta was again anointed after the contest, in order to restore the tone of the strained muscles. He then bathed, and had the dust, sweat, and oil scraped off his body, by means of an instrument similar to the strigil of the Romans, and called stlengis (στλεγγίς), and afterwards xystra (ξύστρα). The aliptae took advantage of the knowledge they necessarily acquired of the state of the muscles of the athletae, and their general strength or weakness of body, to advise them as to their exercises and mode of life. They were thus a kind of medical trainers. Among the Romans the aliptae were slaves who scrubbed and anointed their masters in the baths. They, too, like the Greek aliptae, appear to have attended to their masters’ constitution and mode of life. They were also called unctores. They used in their operations a kind of scraper called strigil, towels (lintea), a cruise of oil (guttus), which was usually of horn, a bottle (ampulla), and a small vessel called lenticula.

Allocutio (Coin of Nero.)

ALLŎCŪTĬO, an harangue made by a Roman imperator to his soldiers, to encourage them before battle, or on other occasions. On coins we frequently find a figure of an imperator standing on a platform and addressing the soldiers below him. Such coins bear the epigraph ADLOCUTIO.

Allocutio. (Coin of Galba.)

ALŌA or HALŌA (ἀλῶα, ἁλῶα), an Attic festival, but celebrated principally at Eleusis, in honour of Demeter and Dionysus, the inventors of the plough and protectors of the fruits of the earth.

ALTĀRE. [Ara.]

ĂLŪTA. [Calceus.]

ĂLỸTAE (ἀλύται), persons whose business it was to keep order in the public games. They received their orders from an alytarches (ἀλυτάρχης), who was himself under the direction of the agonothetae, or hellenodicae.

ĀMĂNŬENSIS, or AD MĂNUM SERVUS, a slave, or freedman, whose office it was to write letters and other things under his master’s direction. The amanuenses must not be confounded with another sort of slaves, also called ad manum servi, who were always kept ready to be employed in any business.

ĂMĂRYNTHĬA, or ĂMĂRYSĬA (ἀμαρύνθια or ἀμαρύσια), a festival of Artemis Amarynthia or Amarysia, celebrated, as it seems, originally at Amarynthus in Euboea, with extraordinary splendour, but also solemnised in several places in Attica, such as Athmone.

AMBARVĀLIĂ. [Arvales Fratres.]

AMBĬTUS, which literally signifies “a going about,” cannot, perhaps, be more nearly expressed than by our word canvassing. After the plebs had formed a distinct class at Rome, and when the whole body of the citizens had become very greatly increased, we frequently read, in the Roman writers, of the great efforts which it was necessary for candidates to make in order to secure the votes of the citizens. At Rome, as in every community into which the element of popular election enters, solicitation of votes, and open or secret influence and bribery, were among the means by which a candidate secured his election to the offices of state. The following are the principal terms occurring in the Roman writers in relation to the canvassing for the public offices:—A candidate was called petitor; and his opponent with reference to him competitor. A candidate (candidatus) was so called from his appearing in the public places, such as the fora and Campus Martius, before his fellow-citizens, in a whitened toga. On such occasions the candidate was attended by his friends (deductores), or followed by the poorer citizens (sectatores), who could in no other manner show their good will or give their assistance. The word assiduitas expressed both the continual presence of the candidate at Rome and his continual solicitations. The candidate, in going his rounds or taking his walk, was accompanied by a nomenclator, who gave him the names of such persons as he might meet; the candidate was thus enabled to address them by their name, an indirect compliment, which could not fail to be generally gratifying to the electors. The candidate accompanied his address with a shake of the hand (prensatio). The term benignitas comprehended generally any kind of treating, as shows, feasts, &c. The ambitus, which was the object of several penal enactments, taken as a generic term, comprehended the two species—ambitus and largitiones (bribery). Liberalitas and benignitas are opposed by Cicero, as things allowable, to ambitus and largitio, as things illegal. Money was paid for votes; and, in order to insure secrecy and secure the elector, persons called interpretes were employed to make the bargain, sequestres to hold the money till it was to be paid, and divisores to distribute it. The offence of ambitus was a matter which belonged to the judicia publica, and the enactments against it were numerous. One of the earliest, though not the earliest of all, the Lex Cornelia Baebia (B.C. 181) was specially directed against largitiones. Those convicted under it were incapacitated from being candidates for ten years. The Lex Cornelia Fulvia (B.C. 159) punished the offence with exile. The Lex Acilia Calpurnia (B.C. 67) imposed a fine on the offending party, with exclusion from the senate and all public offices. The Lex Tullia (B.C. 63), passed in the consulship of Cicero, in addition to the penalty of the Acilian law, inflicted ten years’ exsilium on the offender; and, among other things, forbade a person to exhibit gladiatorial shows (gladiatores dare) within any two years in which he was a candidate, unless he was required to do so, on a fixed day, by a testator’s will. Two years afterwards the Lex Aufidia was proposed, but not passed; by which, among other things, it was provided that, if a candidate promised (pronuntiavit) money to a tribe, and did not pay it, he should be unpunished; but, if he did pay the money, he should further pay to each tribe (annually?) 3000 sesterces as long as he lived. This absurd proposal occasioned the witticism of Cicero, who said that Clodius observed the law by anticipation; for he promised, but did not pay. The Lex Licinia (B.C. 55) was specially directed against the offence of sodalitium, or the wholesale bribery of a tribe by gifts and treating; and another lex, passed (B.C. 52) when Pompey was sole consul, had for its object the establishment of a speedier course of proceeding on trials for ambitus. All these enactments failed in completely accomplishing their object. That which no law could suppress, so long as the old popular forms retained any of their pristine vigour, was accomplished by the imperial usurpation. Caesar, when dictator, nominated some of the candidates for public offices: as to the consulship, he managed the appointments to that office just as he pleased. The popular forms of election were observed during the time of Augustus. Tiberius transferred the elections from the comitia to the senate, by which the offence of ambitus, in its proper sense, entirely disappeared. The trials for ambitus were numerous in the time of the republic. The oration of Cicero in defence of L. Murena, who was charged with ambitus, and that in defence of Cn. Plancius, who was charged with sodalitium, are both extant.

AMBRŎSĬA (ἀμβροσία), the food of the gods, which conferred upon them eternal youth and immortality, and was brought to Jupiter by pigeons. It was also used by the gods for anointing their body and hair; whence we read of the ambrosial locks of Jupiter.

AMBŪBAIAE (probably from the Syriac abub aubub, a pipe), Eastern dancing girls, who frequented chiefly the Circus at Rome, and obtained their living by prostitution and lascivious songs and dances.

AMBURBĬUM, a sacrifice which was performed at Rome for the purification of the city.

AMENTUM. [Hasta.]

ĂMICTŌRĬUM. [Strophium.]

ĂMICTUS. The verb amicire is commonly opposed to induere, the former being applied to the putting on of the outer garment, the pallium, laena, or toga (ἱμάτιον, φᾶρος); the latter, to the putting on of the inner garment, the tunic (χιτών). In consequence of this distinction, the verbal nouns amictus and indutus, even without any further denomination of the dress being added, indicate respectively the outer and inner clothing. In Greek amicire is expressed by ἀμφιέννυσθαι, ἀμπέχεσθαι, ἐπιβάλλεσθαι, περιβάλλεσθαι: and induere by ἐνδύνειν. Hence came ἀμπεχόνη, ἐπίβλημα, and ἐπιβόλαιον, περίβλημα, and περιβόλαιον, an outer garment, a cloak, a shawl; and ἔνδυμα, an inner garment, a tunic, a shirt.

AMPHICTỸŎNES (ἀμφικτύονες). Institutions called amphictyonic appear to have existed in Greece from time immemorial. They seem to have been originally associations of neighbouring tribes, formed for the regulation of mutual intercourse and the protection of a common temple or sanctuary, at which the representatives of the different members met, both to transact business and to celebrate religious rites and games. One of these associations was of much greater importance than all the rest, and was called, by way of eminence, the Amphictyonic League or Council (ἀμφικτυονία). It differed from other similar associations in having two places of meeting, the sanctuaries of two divinities; which were the temple of Demeter, in the village of Anthela, near Thermopylae, where the deputies met in autumn; and that of Apollo, at Delphi, where they assembled in spring. Its connexion with the latter place not only contributed to its dignity, but also to its permanence. Its early history is involved in obscurity. Most of the ancients suppose it to have been founded by Amphictyon, the son of Deucalion and Pyrrha, from whom they imagined that it derived its name: but this opinion is destitute of all foundation, and arose from the ancients assigning the establishment of their institutions to some mythical hero. There can be little doubt as to the true etymology of the word. It was originally written ἀμφικτίονες, and consequently signified those that dwelt around some particular locality. Its institution, however, is clearly of remote antiquity. It was originally composed of twelve tribes (not cities or states, it must be observed), each of which tribes contained various independent cities or states. We learn from Aeschines, that in B.C. 343, eleven of these tribes were as follows:—The Thessalians, Boeotians (not Thebans only), Dorians, Ionians, Perrhaebians, Magnetes, Locrians, Oetaeans or Oenianians, Phthiots or Achaeans of Phthia, Malians, and Phocians; other lists leave us in doubt whether the remaining tribe were the Dolopes or Delphians; but as the Delphians could hardly be called a distinct tribe, their nobles appearing to have been Dorians, it seems probable that the Dolopes were originally members, and afterwards supplanted by the Delphians. All the states belonging to each of these tribes were on a footing of perfect equality. Thus Sparta enjoyed no advantages over Dorium and Cytinium, two small towns in Doris: and Athens, an Ionic city, was on a par with Eretria in Euboea, and Priene in Asia Minor, two other Ionic cities. The ordinary council was called Pylaea (πυλαία), from its meeting in the neighbourhood of Pylae (Thermopylae), but the name was given to the session at Delphi as well as to that at Thermopylae. The council was composed of two classes of representatives, one called Pylagorae (Πυλαγόραι), and the other Hieromnemones (Ἱερομνήμονες). Athens sent three Pylagorae and one Hieromnemon; of whom the former were elected apparently for each session, and the latter by lot, probably for a longer period. Respecting the relative duties of the Pylagorae and Hieromnemones we have little information: the name of the latter implies that they had a more immediate connection with the temple. We are equally in the dark respecting the numbers who sat in the council and its mode of proceeding. It would seem that all the deputies had seats in the council, and took part in its deliberations; but if it be true, as appears from Aeschines, that each of the tribes had only two votes, it is clear that all the deputies could not have voted. In addition to the ordinary council, there was an ecclesia (ἐκκλησία), or general assembly, including not only the classes above mentioned, but also those who had joined in the sacrifices, and were consulting the god. It was convened on extraordinary occasions by the chairman of the council. Of the duties of the Amphictyons nothing will give us a clearer view than the oath they took, which was as follows:—“They would destroy no city of the Amphictyons, nor cut off their streams in war or peace; and if any should do so, they would march against him, and destroy his cities; and should any pillage the property of the god, or be privy to or plan anything against what was in his temple (at Delphi), they would take vengeance on him with hand and foot, and voice, and all their might.” From this oath we see that the main duty of the deputies was the preservation of the rights and dignity of the temple of Delphi. We know, too, that after it was burnt down (B.C. 548), they contracted with the Alcmaeonidae for its rebuilding. History, moreover, teaches that if the council produced any palpable effects, it was from their interest in Delphi; and though they kept up a standing record of what ought to have been the international law of Greece, they sometimes acquiesced in, and at other times were parties to, the most iniquitous acts. Of this the case of Crissa is an instance. This town lay on the Gulf of Corinth, near Delphi, and was much frequented by pilgrims from the West. The Crissaeans were charged by the Delphians with undue exactions from these strangers. The council declared war against them, as guilty of a wrong against the god. The war lasted ten years, till, at the suggestion of Solon, the waters of the Pleistus were turned off, then poisoned, and turned again into the city. The besieged drank their fill, and Crissa was soon razed to the ground; and thus, if it were an Amphictyonic city, was a solemn oath doubly violated. Its territory—the rich Cirrhaean plain—was consecrated to the god, and curses imprecated upon whomsoever should till or dwell in it. Thus ended the First Sacred War (B.C. 585), in which the Athenians were the instruments of Delphian vengeance. The second or Phocian war (B.C. 350) was the most important in which the Amphictyons were concerned; and in this the Thebans availed themselves of the sanction of the council to take vengeance on their enemies, the Phocians. To do this, however, it was necessary to call in Philip of Macedon, who readily proclaimed himself the champion of Apollo, as it opened a pathway to his own ambition. The Phocians were subdued (B.C. 346), and the council decreed that all their cities, except Abae, should be razed, and the inhabitants dispersed in villages not containing more than fifty persons. Their two votes were given to Philip, who thereby gained a pretext for interfering with the affairs of Greece; and also obtained the recognition of his subjects as Hellenes. The Third Sacred War arose from the Amphissians tilling the devoted Cirrhaean plain. The Amphictyons called in the assistance of Philip, who soon reduced the Amphissians to subjection. Their submission was immediately followed by the battle of Chaeroneia (B.C. 338), and the extinction of the independence of Greece. In the following year, a congress of the Amphictyonic states was held, in which war was declared as if by united Greece against Persia, and Philip elected commander-in-chief. On this occasion the Amphictyons assumed the character of national representatives as of old, when they set a price upon the head of Ephialtes, for his treason to Greece at Thermopylae. It has been sufficiently shown that the Amphictyons themselves did not observe the oaths they took; and that they did not much alleviate the horrors of war, or enforce what they had sworn to do, is proved by many instances. Thus, for instance, Mycenae was destroyed by Argos (B.C. 535), Thespiae and Plataeae by Thebes, and Thebes herself swept from the face of the earth by Alexander, without the Amphictyons raising one word in opposition. Indeed, a few years before the Peloponnesian war, the council was a passive spectator of what Thucydides calls the Sacred War (ὁ ἱερὸς πόλεμος), when the Lacedaemonians made an expedition to Delphi, and put the temple into the hands of the Delphians, the Athenians, after their departure, restoring it to the Phocians. The council is rarely mentioned after the time of Philip. We are told that Augustus wished his new city, Nicopolis (A.D. 31), to be enrolled among the members. Pausanias, in the second century of our era, mentions it as still existing, but deprived of all power and influence.

AMPHĬDRŎMĬA (ἀμφιδρόμια or δρομιάμφιον ἧμαρ), a family festival of the Athenians, at which the newly-born child was introduced into the family, and received its name. The friends and relations of the parents were invited to the festival of the amphidromia, which was held in the evening, and they generally appeared with presents. The house was decorated on the outside with olive branches when the child was a boy, or with garlands of wool when the child was a girl; and a repast was prepared for the guests. The child was carried round the fire by the nurse, and thus, as it were, presented to the gods of the house and to the family, and at the same time received its name, to which the guests were witnesses. The carrying of the child round the hearth was the principal part of the solemnity, from which its name was derived.