LEMPRIERE’S CLASSICAL DICTIONARY by JOHN LEMPRIERE

VOLUME # 2  M – Z  (See Vol # 1 For  A – L)

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A CLASSICAL DICTIONARY

CONTAINING A COPIOUS ACCOUNT OF ALL THE PROPER NAMES

MENTIONED BY ANCIENT AUTHORS WITH THE VALUE OF COINS,

WEIGHTS, AND MEASURES USED AMONG THE GREEKS AND ROMANS

WITHOUT THE CLASSICAL CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE

BY  JOHN LEMPRIERE, D.D.

LONDON: GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS, Limited

NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON AND CO.

1904

Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson & Co. At the Ballantyne Press

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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 researchs 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.

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A CLASSICAL DICTIONARY,

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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.

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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.

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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 165,000l. 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 3242l. 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 300l. “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 1,162,500l. 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 1,356,250l. 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.

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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.

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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’

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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 7000l. 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.

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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.

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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 32,200l. 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 2000l. 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.

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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.

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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.

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