as much as to say That a Man that has a distemper'd Head or a crackt Brain should go to Anticyra to cure it with Hellebore ANTIGONE the Daughter of OEdipus King of Thebes she serv'd as an Eye to her Father after he had lost his Sight in his Banishment Going to pay her last respects to her Brother Polynices at his Funeral against the express Command of Creon she was condemn'd by him to be starv'd to Death in Prison but she prevented her Death by hanging herself Prince Haemon Creon's Son who was about to marry her slew himself also upon her Body in a Fit of amorous Despair The Poet Sophocles handles this Tragical Subject in his Tragedy of that Name so nobly that the Athenians gave him for his reward the Government of the Isle of Samos There was another Antigone the Daughter of Laomedon whom Juno changed into a Stork because she equall'd her in Beauty ANTILOCHUS the Son of Nestor who accompanied him to the Siege of Troy was slain by Memnon whilst he endeavoured to ward the blow from his Father Nestor Xenophon tells us in the beginning of his Treatise of Hunting That Antilochus having exposed his own Life to save his Fathers deserv'd so well that the Greeks gave him the Name of Philopator a true Lover of his Father Quintus Calaber relates the matter otherwise That Antilochus having seen two of his Father Nestor ' s Captains Erenthus and Pheron stain by Memnon attempted to revenge their Death upon him but having pushed him with his Javelin Memnon run him through with his Lance. Nestor Commanded his other Son Thrasymedes to fetch off the Body of his Brother but Achilles interposing slew Memnon Nevertheless Ovid. tells us That Antilochus was slain by Hestor ANTINOUS of Bithynia the Emperor Adrian's Favourite who was drowned in the Nile in a Voyage from Egypt The Emperor was so sensibly touched with his Loss that to comfort himself he plac'd him in the rank of the immortal Gods causing Temples to be built to him erecting Altars and appointing Priests and Sacrifices He caused several Medals to be stamp'd to perpetuate his Memory and plac'd his Statues in the Colleges We have Three Medals of his upon the Reverse of the First there is the Figure of a Temple with the Emperor Adrian built upon the Nile in Honour of him with these Greek words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Adrianus construxit At the bottom of this Temple there is drawn a Crocodile a Creature that abounds in the Nile where Antinous dyed Leonicus in his Historia variâ says That he saw at Venice a Silver Medal of Antinous on which were these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Antinous the Here. On the reverse of this Medal is represented a Sheep with an Inscription quite worn out There is yet a Third Medal of Antinous wherein on one side is the Portraiture of this young Bithynian Lad of extraordinary Beauty with these Greek Letters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hostilius Marcellus Sacerdos Antinoi Achaeis dicavit On the reverse is the Horse Pegasus with Mercury having his winged Shooes on and his Caduceus ANTIOPE the Daughter of Nycteus and Wife of Lycus King of Thebes whom Jupiter enjoy'd in the form of a Satyr which was the cause that her Husband divorc'd her and marryed Dirce who imprison'd Antiope but she escaped and fled to Mount Citheron where she brought forth Twins Zethus and Amphion who being grown up reveng'd the Wrong done to their Mother upon Lycus and his Wife Dirce. ANTIUM a Sea-Town built by Ascanius according to Solinus or as Dionysius Halicarnassus will have it by one of the Children of Ulysses and Circe upon a Promontory or the top of a Rock 32 Miles from Oftia it was the Metropolis of Volsci with whom the Romans had War for Two Hundred Years Camillus took it from them and carryed all the Beaks of their Ships away and laid 'em up at Rome in the place of their Comitia or Assemblies called from thence Rostra This City was given to the old Praetorian Soldiers and Nero caused a Port to be built there Antiun says Suetonius coloniam deduxit ascriptis veteranis è praetorio ubi portum operis sumptuosissimi fecit ANTONINUS the adopted Son of Adrian to whom he succeeded He was Surnamed Pius for his excellent Morals and sweet Temper to which a reverse of a Medal alludes which represents Aeneas carrying his Father Anchises upon his Shoulders from Troy This was the Badge of Piety and Love towards Parents among the Antients Antoninus had a long Visage which the Physiogmonists say is a sign of Good Nature and Kindness to which we may add a sweet modest and majestick Air and a due proportion of all parts of his Face as in the rest of his Body He must be acknowledg'd to be a Prince good merciful just liberal sober and eloquent one that was truly worthy to govern so great an Empire This Emperor was compard to Numa and indeed they had a very great resemblance one to the other both as to their Minds and the Lineaments of their Face He caus'd the Temple of Augustus which was much ruined to be rebuilt and rais'd a new one to his Predecessor Adrian who adopted him He dyed in the Seventieth Year of his Age and was as much lamented as if he had been a very young Man and 't was observ'd that he gave up the Ghost as if he had been in a sleep Heaven recompensing the sweetness of his Life by the easiness of his Death He govern'd the Empire Twenty two Years and Seven Months or Twenty four Years according to others ANTONINUS See Marcus Aurelius Antoninus ANTONINUS HELIOGABALUS See Heliogabalus M. ANTONIUS Mark Anthony a Trium-vir the Grand-Son of Mark Anthony the Orator and Brother of Lucius He took Caesar's part when he was Tribune of the People and Augur He went into Gallia and engag'd him in a Civil-War against Pompey and his Followers Attempting to possess himself of Mutina Brutus's Province he was declar'd an Enemy to the Senate and People of Rome by the perswasion of Cicero He establish'd the Triumvirate of Octavius Caesar Lampidius and himself which they all Three manag'd with much Cruelty Caesar abandon'd Cicero to the Resentments of Anthony who caus'd his Head to be cut off as he was carryed in his Litter and set it up in the Rostrum where the Roman Orators us'd to plead In the beginning of his Triumvirate he divorc'd his Wife Fulvia to marry Octavia the Sister of Augustus but he left her a little time after for Cleopatra Queen of Egypt with whom he was extremely enamour'd which so enrag'd Augustus that he rais'd an Army against him and defeated him at that famous Sea-fight near Actium The year following he pursu'd him as far as Alexandria whither he fled but seeing himself deserted by his Friends he kill'd himself at the Age of 56 years ANTRONIUS the Croatian had a Cow of wonderful Beauty and he
these Gallows and then drawing them again with a Hook they cast them into the Tiber Tandem apud Gemonias minutissimis ictibus excarnificatus atque confectus est inde unco tractus in Tiberim This Historian seems to intimate that they were tied there before they were dead These Gallows stood in the fourteenth Ward of the City GENETHLIUS An Epithet given to Jupiter because Poets represent him presiding over the Generation and Nativities of Children GENIUS A Divinity whom ancient Phllosophers esteemed to be the Son of God and the Father of Men. They allowed a Genius or Intelligence to each Province Town and Person who took care of the Affairs of this World They allowed also Genius's to Forests Fountains Trees Eloquence Sciences and Joy and it appears by several Medals particularly one of Nero GENIO AUGUSTI GENIO SENATUS GENIO P. ROMANI GENIO EXERCITUUM Upon these Medals the figure of God Genius is represented veiled at the middle of the Body holding with one hand a Horn of Plenty and with the other a Cup for the Sacrifice and before the Statue there was an Altar and a Fire thereon Which agrees with the description that Ammianus Marcellinus has given us of the same in the 25th Book of the Emperor Julianus's Deeds Censorinus in his Book intituled de Die Natali says that as soon as Men are born they are put under the tuition of God Genius and Euclid tells us that Men have two Genins's one good and the other bad Plutarch relates in the life of Brutus that he saw by night in a Dream a Fantome by the light of a Lamp that was in his Chamber and having asked him who he was he answer'd him that he was his bad Genius Each person offered Sacrifice every year to his Genius and particularly upon Birth-days with leven and salted Dough and sometimes with a Pig two months old and scattered Flowers and sprinkled Wine to him and the Sacrifice being over they made a great Feast for their Friends and thus the Comedians was called Genio indulgere or Genio volupe facere In the beginning it was not permitted to swear by the Genius of the Prince but afterwards the most solemn Oaths were those that were sworn by the Genius of the Emperor and Suetonius assures that Caligula put many to death because they refused to swear by his Genius Apuleius has writ a Treatise of the Genius or evil Spirit of Socrates The name of Genius among some who call themselves Christians is given to the good Angels attending Men or States The Pagans rank'd Venus Priapus and Genius among the number of the Gods who are intrusted with the care of Men's Generation By these three Divinities the Heathens understood nothing else but the fecundity of nature that brings forth every day so many living Creatures as Festus says Genius est Deorum filius parens hominum ex quo homines gignuntur propterea Genius meus nominatur quia me genuit the Genius is the Son of the Gods and the Father of Men and my Genius is called Genius because he has begotten me This worship was rendered to Nature not only because of the celestial Intelligence who presides over our Generation but also because of the fecundity of the Stars and Elements giving Being to so many Creatures Censorinus affirms that there was no bloody Sacrifice offered to Genius wherefore Persius says funde merum Genio for Men would not shed Blood upon their birth-day He is called Genius because he is the God who is intrusted with the care of Men as soon as they are born And this Author tells us still that this Genius never leaves Men from the first instant of their life to the last and has a very great Authority over them and that some Men confounded him with the God Lar and admitted two Genius's in Houses where Husband and Wife lived together Eundem esse Genium Larem multi veteres memoriae prodiderunt hunc in not maximam quinimo omnem habere potestatem creditum est Non nulli binos Genios in its duntaxat domibus quae essent maritae colendos putaverunt The Tabula Caebetis says that Genius directs those who come into the World the way they should observe that many forget the Directions but that yet he gives them warning that they are not to mind the Goods of Fortune which might be taken away from them Monet Genius id Fortuna esse ingenium ut quae dederit eripiat and tells them still that Men who don't hearken to his precepts come to a bad end GERMANIA See after GERMANICUS GERMANICUS The Son of Drusus and Nephew to the Emperor Tiberius He married Agrippina the Grand-Daughter of Augustus and had six Children by her viz. three Sons and three Daughters Nero Drusus Caligula Agrippina Drusilla and Livia In the time he commanded six Legions in Germany he refused the Empire that the Legions offered him after the death of Augustus He took the sirname of Germanicus because he had subdued Germany and triumphed over the Germans at last he died in Syrla being poisoned by Piso's order and was lamented by all the Inhabitants of Syria and Neighbouring Provinces thereof A Hero says Tacitus worthy of respect both for his discourse and presence whose Fortune was without Envy his Reputation without blemish and his Majestick Countenance without arrogance his Funeral Pomp tho' without splendor and great show was yet Illustrious only by the commemoration of his Virtues and celebration of his Glory Some more nicely observing his Life his Age his Gate and the Circumstances of his Death have compared him to Alexander the Great Both fine Men of good meen and great birth who died something more than thirty years old by a Conspiracy of their own Men in a foreign Country Before his Corps was reduced to Ashes it was exposed in the publick place of Antioch which was appointed for his Burial The Senate ordained great Honours to his Memory viz. That his Name should be solemnized in the Salian Hymn that in all the places where the Priests of Augustus should meet they should set him an Ivory Chair and a Crown of Oak upon it that a Statue of Ivory should be carried for him at the opening of the Circian Games that no body should be chosen Augur or Pontiff in his room but that a Triumphal Arch should be erected to his Memory at Rome Mount Amanus in Syria and on the Banks of the River Rhine and that his Atchievements should be engraven upon them with this Inscription That he Died for the Commonwealth That a Monument should be fet up for him in the City of Antioch where his Corps was burnt and a Tribunal at Epidaphne where he was dead They ordered also his Picture drawn in a golden Shield of an extraordinary bigness should be set up amongst the Orators The Squadron of the Youth was called by Equestrian Order the Squadron of Germanicus and they ordered that at the Ides of
oppress'd with a multitude of Business There were also Aediles in municipal Cities like those at Rome AEDILITAS Aedility the Magistracy of the Aediles which lasted a year It included many Magistrates and their different Offices such as these of the Consul the Chief Justice Surveyor of the High-ways and the High Treasurer This Office continued in the Empire according to Justus Lipsius till Constantines's time who suppress'd it together with other Magistracies of the Empire AEDITUUS or AEDITIMUS a Sacrist or Sexton a Treasurer to the Temples of the False Gods who took care of the Offerings and other Ornaments of the Gods AEDITUA a Sucrist of the Female Deities with whom was intrusted the keeping of the Treasures of the Temple AEDON the Wife of King Zethus the Brother of Amphiron she by mistake kill'd her own Son Itylus instead of the Son of her Brother-in-law whom she hated She designed to have kill'd her self when she found her mistake but the Gods in compassion chang'd her into a Linnet who is always complaining of this Misfortune in her Song AEGEON a Giant See Briarens AEGEUS the Son of Pandion King of Athens who begot Theseus upon the Nymph Aethra Minos King of Candia declar'd War against him to revenge the Death of his Son Androgeus whom some of the Athenians had kill'd In this War the Athenians had considerable Losses which forc'd them to desire a Peace and it was granted them on condition that they should send every year six young Men of the better sort of Families to be expos'd to the Minotaure for appeasing the Ghost of his Son The Lot fell upon Theseus the Son of King Aegeus who escap'd the Fury of this Monster But Aegeus seeing the Ship return which had carry'd this cruel Oblation and not percieving the white Flag set up as had been agreed between them he suppos'd his Son was dead which put him into such a Fit of Despair that he threw himself head-long into the Sea The Athenians instituted Feasts to his Honour and sacrific'd to him as a Sea-God and an Adopted Son of Neptune AEGEUM MARE the Aegean Sea otherwise call'd Archipelago or the White-Sea 'T is a part of the Gulph of the Mediterranean Sea which begins at the Eastern part of the Isthmus of Corinth or the Promontory Suniam and reaches as far as the Hellespont dividing Greece and Europe from Asia Suidas would have this Sea call'd the Aegean upon account of Aegeus who threw himself headlong into it supposing his Son Theseus who went to fight the Minotaure had been slain Others give it this Name upon the account of a Rock which lies between the two Isles of Tenedos and Chio having the shape of a Goat The Isles of this Sea were divided by the Antients into Cyclades and Sporades they reckon'd fifty of the Cyclades which encompass'd the Isle of Delos like a Circle but the Sporades were scatter'd here and there towards the Isle of Crete or Candia AEGERIA a Nymph or Deity that was worship'd in the Forest Aricina which Titus Livius places seven miles from Rome but Festus says it lay only a little way without the Gate Collina Numa Pompilius the second King of Rome feign'd that he had frequent Conversation with this Deity that he might add greater Weight and Authority to his Laws and Ordinances and root them deeper in the Minds of the Romans making them believe that this Nymph Aegeria dictated them to him Ovid makes her the Wife of Numa who was changed into a Fountain by Diana Fast lib. 3. ver 275. Aegeria est quae praebet aquas Dea grata Camoenis Illa Numae conjux consiliumque fuit She was reverenc'd by the Romans as a Deity and the Women with child pray'd to her in the time of their Travel that by her Aid they might be safely deliver'd of their Children as we learn from Festus Aegeria nymphae sacrificabant praegnantes quod eam putabant facile conceptum alvo egerere She was also call'd Fluonia because she stop'd the Bloody-flux in Women AEGIALA the Wife of Diomedes whom Venus inspir'd with so brutish a Passion that she prostituted her self to all Commers in revenge for the Wound she had receiv'd from her Husband at the War of Troy Diomedes not being able to endure the Whoredoms of his Wife abandon'd her and retir'd into Italy where he agreed with Danaus for one part of his Kingdom which was call'd Graecia Magna He built there a City call'd Argos Hippium and in after times Argyrippa as Servius says upon the eleventh of the Aeneids AEGINA an Island with a City of the same Name near to Peloponnesus and Attica which was distant only four Leagues from the famous Port Pynaeum in the lower part of Athens It was also so call'd from Aegina the Daughter of Asopus King of Baeotia by whom Jupiter in a Disguise of Fire had two Sons call'd Aeacus and Rhadamanthus AEGIOCHUS a Surname given to Jupiter from a Goat which the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon the account of the Milk with which he was nourish'd in his Infancy by the Nymphs Amalthaea and Melissa The Poets tell us that when this Goat died Jupiter cover'd his Shield with its Skin but afterwards he brought it to life again and plac'd it among the Celestial Signs AEGIS the Goat-skin of Jupiter a Buckler cover'd with the Skin of the Goat of Amalthaea the Nurse of Jupiter This Buckler he gave to Pallas who painted the Head of Medusa upon it the bare Sight whereof petrifi'd both Men and Beasts Jupiter took upon him the Name of Aegiochus i. e. the Goat-skin-Bearer AEGIS a frightful Monster born of the Earth which vomited Fire wherewith all the Forests of Phrygia were consum'd from Mount Taurus as far as the Indies This forc'd the Inhabitants to abandon the Country But Minerva kill'd this Monster and cover'd her Buckler with its Skin that it might serve not only for Defence but also for a Mark of her Victory Thus Natalis Comes relates the Fable lib. 4. cap. 5. Aegidem feram vocam monstrum prope inexpugnahile obtruncâ—â—it c. AEGISTHUS born of the incestuous mixture of Thyestes with his own Daughter Pelopia He was expos'd to Beasts by his Father in order to conceal his Crime but the Shepherds sav'd him and fed him with the Milk of a Goat from whence he was call'd Aegysthus When he came to age he kill'd his Uncle Atreus the Father of Agamemnon and afterwards Agamemnon also at a Feast by the help of his own Wife Clytemnestra whom he had abus'd But Orestes the Son of Agamemnon reveng'd the Death of his Father by killing Aegysthus and the faithless Clytemnestra AEGIOCHUS 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Surname of Jupiter the same with Aegiochus There are several Medals of the Emperours Philip and Valerian upon the Reverse whereof is represented a Goat with this Inscription Jovi Conservatori Augusti and on the other side a Goat carrying Jupiter
an Hecattomb of these Artificial Creatures to the Gods BRABEIA the Rewards which the Ancients gave to Actors Dancing-Women Jack-puddings Vaulters and Stage-players BRABEUTES was he who in the publick Shows and Plays ordered them provide the Expence and distributed the Rewards BRACCAE Breeches the Linnen which covers the secret Parts as our Linings This word is from the Celtae who gave the Name of Gallia Bracata to that part of France called afterward Gallia Narbonensis They were a sort of Breeches or as others think a short Gown Mr. Du Cange accounts them that part of the Cloaths that cover the Thighs as our Breeches do that the word comes from Brace or Braccae because they were short Salmasius will have it to be derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and others think it comes from the Hebrew Borec which signifies a Knee because that Garment reached no further than their Knees BRACHIALE a defensive Armour to secure the Arm. The Compleat Horsemen of Old wore them The Switz-Foot also do so now but they are only the Pike-men BRACHMANES Brachmans Philosophers and Poets among the Indians Strabo gives us an elegant Description of these Brachmans and represents them to us as a Nation devoted as much to Religion as the Jews were As soon as their Children are born their Doctors come and bless their Mothers and give them some virtuous Instructions While they are in their Infancy they appoint them Masters and accustom them to a thrifty way of Living They teach their Philosophy in Woods and allow none to marry till they are Thirty Seven Years of Age Their Life is very laborious and mortifying but after that they allow something more Liberty Their Doctrine was that this Life is only a preparation and passage to an eternal and happy Life to those who live well That the joy and grief good and evil of this World are but Dreams and Fantoms They were much of the same Opinions with the Greeks that the World had a beginning and should have an end That God made it governs it is present in it and fills it Strabo afterward relates a Discourse which Alexander the Great had with one of the most famous Brachmans named Calanus who laughed at the rich Garments of Alexander telling him that in the Golden Age Nature produced a great Plenty of those things but now Jupiter had changed the State of Affairs and obliged Men to procure themselves another sort of Plenty by Arts Labour and Thriftiness that Men began to abuse this second Favour which was a just Reason to think that the World was now quite changed St. Clement of Alexandria speaks of the Brachmans almost in the same manner as Strabo He assures us that they would not eat any living Creature nor drink Wine observed a continual Continency eat but once a Day and some of them only once in Two or Three Days and that they looked upon Death as a Passage into another Life BRANCHIDAE the Priests of Apollo Didymaeus who uttered his Oracles near the Promontory of Ionia This Name was from one Branchut a Thessalian who affirmed himself to be the Son of Apollo and to whom Sacrifices were offered as to a God BRIAREUS one of the Giants the Son of Coelum and Terra who had an Hundred Arms according to the Fable He was chosen by the Sun and Neotune to decide their difference about the Territory of Corinth which he adjudged to Neptune and gave the Sun the Promontory above the City BRITANNICUS the Son of the Emperor Claudius and Messalina His Mother-in-Law Agrippina raised Nero to the Empire to his Prejudice by means of Tiberius He was poisoned at the Age of Fourteen Years by Nero's Order The Account which Tacitus gives of him is this Among other Pastimes which the Youth used at the Feast of the Saturnalia there was a certain Play in which they made a King who commanded all the Company It fell to Nero's Lot to be chosen who gave trifling Commands sometimes to one and sometimes to another but when he came to Britannicus he ordered him to rise up and reherse some Verses thinking to make him laughed at but he not seeking to excuse himself began a Poem wherein he complained of the Wrong done him and described the Misfortune of a Prince who had been deprived of his Kingdom where by he moved the Compassion of all present Then Nero being nearly touched with this Affront resolved to kill him immediately by poisoning him and to that end gave a Commission to the Captain of the Praetorian Band named Pollio who had in his Custody that famous Woman for poisoning named Locusta whom he had before made use of to destroy the Father of Britannicus It was a Custom for the Emperors Children to dine with the other Princes who were of the same Age at a Table that was not served with so much State Wherefore to prevent that the Person who was to tast Britannicus's Meat and Drink should not be poisoned they gave him some Drink a little too hot which when he had tasted he gave to the young Prince who refusing to drink it they gave him some cooler Water which was poisoned and seized all his Members in such a manner that he lost his Speech and Life in an Instant He was carried into Mars's Field with very little Ceremony but in so great a Tempest that the People took it for a mark of the divine Anger who detested so black and infamous an Action BRONTES one of the Cyclops who wrought in Vulcan's Forge so called from the Greek Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Thunder because of the Noise and Clatter which he makes upon his Anvil Hesiod makes him the Son of Coelum and Terra as well as the other Cyclops Styropes and Piracmon BROTHEUS the Son of Vulcan and Minerva who seeing himself derided for his Deformity cast himself into the Fire preferring Death before a contemptible Life BRUMALIA the Saturnalia which were kept at the Winter Solstice or upon the shortest Day of the Year See SATURNALIA BRUTUS the Name of several Romans Lucius Junius Brutus the Founder of the Liberty and Common-wealth of Rome which had been governed by Seven Kings Successively He had seemed till the Death of Lucretia to be of a very dull and slow Wit but the Death of that famous Woman changed him on a sudden for he delivered a funeral Oration in praise of her so well that the People looked upon this Proof of his excellent Wit and Eloquence for a Prodigy and Miracle from the Gods The People at the Conclusion of this Speech cried out LIBERTY and made Brutus Consul giving him an absolute Power He was slain in a single Fight with Aruns the Son of Tarquinius but slew his Enemy at the same time The Roman Matrons lamented him and wore Mourning for him a whole Year acknowledging him the Revenger of the violated Ghastity of their Sex in the Person of Lâ—â—retia M. and Decius Brutus were the Institutors
that he return'd to the Camp and reveng'd the death of his Friend upon Hector by killing him and dragging his dead Body about the Walls of Troy but he falling in love with Polixine the Daughter of Priam and having demanded her for his Wife was treacherously slain by Paris with an Arrow shot at his Heel which was the only place of his Body wherein he was mortal Divine Honours were decreed to him after his Death to be performed upon his Tomb and in obedience to the Oracle of Dodona the Thessalians offer'd there every year a Sacrifice of two Bulls one white and the other black which they brought from their own Country whither also they took care to bring Wood from Mount Pelion and Water from the River Specchius together with Garlands made of Flowers which were called immortal because they never faded Philostratus on the Picture of Achilles and Quintus Calaber in lib. 3 of his Paralipomena do not agree to all the Circumstances in the History of Achilles here related The common Opinion is That he was educated in the Island of Scyro with the Daughters of King Lycomedes which is the Sentiment of Hyginus But Philostratus thinks that he was sent by his Father against the Island of Scyro to revenge the Death of Theseus whom Lycomedes had cruelly put to death Pausanias in his Attica is of the same Opinion for he tells us That Scyro was taken by Achilles as well as the King Lycomedes Quintus Calaber maintains that Apollo kill'd Achilles with an Arrow Apollo says he being angry at the insolent Answer which Achilles gave him drew a Bow and shot him in the Heel with an Arrow of which Wound he died And Hyginus tells us that Apollo to give him this Wound assumed the shape of Paris ACHOR otherwise call'd Myagris or Myodes the God of Flies to whom the Greeks and Cyrenians sacrific'd to drive away the Flies which annoy'd them and infected their Country S. Gregory Nazianzen in his first Invective against Julian calls him Accaron because the Accaronites a People of Judea made an Idol of him whom they call'd Beelzebuth i. e. the God of Flies Pliny relates that Hercules had been very much annoy'd by these Insects at Olympia but after he had sacrific'd to Jupiter under the Name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Fly-chasing God they flew all away over the River Alphaeus and never annoy'd him more nor any of those who sacrific'd to him in the Temples built for him after he was plac'd among the number of the Gods For Solinus tells us that no Flies nor Dogs could ever enter into a Chappel built to Hercules at Rome by Octavius Herennius ACIDALIA an Epithet given to Venus the Goddess of Love because she was the cause of great Uneasiness and Vexation to those who were in Love Some think that she was also so call'd from a Fountain of that Name wherein the Three Graces which always attended her us'd to bath themselves ACILIA the Name of a very illustrious Roman Family from which was descended the generous Consul Acilius Glabrio to whom the People of Rome erected a Statue cover'd with Leaves of Gold for having defeated the Army of Antiochus in the narrow passage of Tempe and made a great slaughter of the Asiaticks This Consul erected a Statue on horseback of pure Gold which he plac'd in the Temple of Piety and consecrated to the Memory of his Father whose Effigies it was This was the first Statue of that precious Metal that was ever seen at Rome from the time of its first foundation ACINACES a kind of Cutlass or Scimetre us'd among the Persians ACNUA a sort of Measure for Land among the antient Measures call'd otherwise Actus quadratus which was a Square whereof each side was 26 foot long which contain'd as Authors tell us the moiety of a Jugerum or of the Acre of the Latines Vossius says that it is plainly read Acnua in the Manuscripts yet he would have it read Acna to give credit to his own Etymology which derives it from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is a Measure of twelve feet as he himself tells us he adds afterwards that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifi'd also a Measure of 26 feet but this he does not prove ACONITUM Wolvesbane an Herb very venomous whereof there are many kinds 't is said that its Name comes from Acona a City of Bithynia round about which it grows in great abundance The Poets feign that this Herb sprung up from the Froth which the Dog Cerberus cast forth when Hercules drag'd him by force out of Hell for which reason great quantities of it are found near to Heraclea of Pontus where is the Cavern by which Hercules descended thither 'T is said that all its Venom is in its Root for there is no hurt in its Leaves or Fruit. The Symptoms of this Poyson are these It makes the Eyes water very much oppresses the Stomach causes frequent breaking of wind backwards Nevertheless the Antients us'd it as a Medicin against the biting of a Scorpion the burning heat whereof the bare touch of Wolvesbane did presently extinguish ACONTIUS a young Man of the Isle of Cea who coming one day to Delos to the Sacrifice of Diana fell in love with the fair Cydippe but fearing a Denyal if he should desire her in Marriage upon the account of the inequality of his Birth and Fortune he contriv'd this Stratagem to win her he wrote these two Versues upon an Apple Juro tibi sanè per mystica sacra Dianae Me tibi venturam comitem sponsamque futuram and then threw the Apple at the Feet of Cydippe who taking it up read these Verses and bound herself to the Oath which was upon it Whereupon every time she had a mind to marry she was presently taken dangerously sick which she interpreted to be a just Punishment for the Violation of her Faith and therefore to appease Diana she married Acontius ACRATES the Genius or Demon of the Bacchantes whose Mouth only was represented in Figures as Pausanias tell us ACRISIUS the last King of the Argives and the Brother of Praetus to whom he succeeded according to Eusebius He understanding by the Oracle that he was to be kill'd by a Son of his Daughter Danae shut her up in a Tower of Brass to preserve himself from this Mischief But Jupiter falling in love with this unfortunate Princess found a way to come at her for he changing himself into a shower of Gold unaccountably pass'd through the Tiles of the House and she was found with child of a Son who was call'd Perseus Acrisius being inform'd of this caus'd his Daughter with her Child to be shut up in a Chest and commanded them both to be cast into the Sea The Chest swimming for some time upon the Water was at last thrown up upon the Isle of Sâ—riphe where Polydectes reign'd who receiv'd them graciously and fell in love with
most infamous People and by his own Example he encourag'd the Workmen When he was Pro-Consul finding himself besieg'd in his Camp by the Ligurians who had amus'd him in vain he try'd all ways possible to disintangle himself but being very much press'd without any hopes of receiving Succours he forc'd his way through the Enemies and then defeated 'em reduc'd 'em to beg a Peace and to deliver him Hostages Perseus King of the Macedonians having pitch'd his Camp advantagiously upon Mount Olympus Paul Aemilius endeavour'd by all means to dislodg him from thence and having discover'd a Path which led to a Hill whereon was built the Temple of Apollo Pythius he sent his Two adopted Sons Scipio Africanus and Fabius Maximus to seize upon it Perseus having notice of it stopt up their Passage but was forc'd to decamp and give him battel which Paul Aemilius joyfully accepted The Fight was well maintain'd on both sides but at last the Victory fell to the Romans who left 20000 Macedonians dead upon the place Perseus escap'd with the Cavalry but distrusting their Fidelity he came and surrender'd himself to the Proconsul who led him in triumph to Rome with Three of his Children The youngest call'd Alexander became very skilful in the Art of Turning and Joyners Work Such was the Fate of the last Successor to Alexander the Great and by his Defeat Macedonia was reduc'd into a Province and made tributary to the Romans after it had been govern'd by Thirty Kings during the space of 923 Years AENEAS a Phrygian by Nation descendfrom the Kings of Troy in this order Dardanus was the Father of Erichtonius and he was the Father of Tros who had Three Children Ilus Assaracus and Ganimedes From Ilus descended Laomedon and from Laomedon Priam the last King of Troy Assaracus married his Grand-Daughter Clytidora the Daughter of Laomedon by whom he had Capys and Capys had Anchises the Father of Aeneas by the Nymph Nais and Anchises had Aeneas by the Goddess Venus Whether it were that the Perfections of the Mother of Aeneas caus'd the Name of the Goddess of the Graces to be given unto her or that Anchises had a mind to conceal her true Name and invented this Fable to render his Son the more venerable or that he thought thereby to raise the Value of his own Merits I say whatever was the cause of it this is certain that no other Name of the Mother of Aeneas is to be met with but that of Venus From hence it appears that Virgil had reason to call Aeneas a Dardanian for besides that he descended from Dardanus there was also occasion to call him so because his Fathers ordinary abode was in Dardania Upon the first noise of the Descent upon the Greeks Aeneas threw himself into Troy to defend it Dyctis Cretensis expresly accuses him of giving the Palladium to Diomedes and betraying the City Titus Livius does not accūse him of Treachery but he is of opinion that the Greeks treated him favourably as well as Antenor because these two Princes were for Peace and for restoring Helena who was the cause of that War to her Husband Menelaus Sabellicus having rejected the Opinion of Dio advances another of his own Aeneas says he not being able to perswade the Trojans to Peace and being otherwise discontented treated secretly with the Greeks and let them in by one of the Gates of the City upon which was the figure of a Horse This gave occasion to the Fiction of a Wooden Horse which is mention'd by Homer and after him by Virgil. Dionysius Halicarnassaeus on the contrary affirms That Aeneas made extraordinary Efforts to defend Troy and the Palace of King Priam that he seeing himself abandon'd the Citadel forc'd and Priam kill'd retir'd with all his Family and those who escap'd death at the sacking of the City to Mount Ida by the favour of the Night while the Enemy was busie in taking the Spoil that then he built many Ships with the Trees he found upon that Mountain and after he had equip'd 'em with Necessaries he embarqu'd with the rest of the Trojans upon the Hellespont and made his first Descent into a Peninsula of Thracia call'd Pellena where he built a City of his own Name From thence he sail'd to Delos and from Delos to Cythera from Cythera to Zacintha from Zacintha to Leucada from Leucada to Ictium from Ictium to Ambracia After this he coasted along the Sea-side and cast Anchor at Buthrota from whence he transported himself to Dodona and there having consulted the Oracle he was confirm'd in his design of going into Italy whereupon he reimbarqu'd and steer'd his course towards Sicily and made a Descent upon Laurentum after he had pass'd through many Dangers at Sea which proceeded from the Hatred of the implacable Juno After he landed in the Country he discover'd in it many Springs of Water and perceiv'd a Sow in a Wood with Thirty small Boar-Pigs as the Oracle of Dodona had foretold to him Littoreis ingens inventa sub Ilicibus sus Triginta capitum foetus enixa jacebit Alba solo recubant albi circum ubera nati Is locus urbis erit Aen. l. 3. v. 390. seq King Latinus and the Rutuli being alarm'd at the arrival of these new Guests came forth to fight 'em and drive 'em out of their Country But the Latines having suffer'd many Losses and Turnus being overcome by Aeneas in a Duel at last a Peace was concluded by the Marriage of Lavinia to Aeneas who built a City call'd Lavinium from the Name of his Wife This for the present united the Aborigines and Trojans under the common Name of Latines in Honour of his Father-in-Law Latinus This has no relation at all to the Etymology of Latium à latendo in which there is some reference to the Prophecies of Numbers of Daniel which are justifi'd by the Event Aeneas was kill'd in a Battel against the Rutuli on the Banks of the River Numicus and because he did not appear again after this Fight this gave occasion to the common Report that he was carried up into Heaven tho' 't is much more probable that he fell into the River when he was fighting and was detain'd at the bottom by the weight of his Armour Nevertheless a little Temple was built to him with this Inscription Patri Dei indigeti qui Numici amnis undas temperat And here it may be observ'd that the Kingdom of Latium seems rather to have given Name to Latinus than that this King should give his Name to this Kingdom for Latium was before Latinus who reign'd 43 Years over the Latines S. Austin has abridg'd the History of Aeneas Lib. 8. De Civ Dei cap. 19. After the sacking of Troy Aeneas came into Italy with Twenty Ships which carried thither the surviving Trojans Latinus was then King of it but after his death Aeneas reign'd Three Years in Italy Because his Body did not appear after his death the Latins made a
to the People that all the Commonwealth was but one great Body of which the Senate is the Head and Stomach which seems alone to devour all that the Labour and Industry of the other Parts can get but in Reality 't is only to distribute it to the rest of the Body to nourish and strengthen it and if the Members do not daily supply them with the usual Nourishment they themselves would soon be found to be without Vigour Heat or Life This excellent Comparison was so aptly apply'd and so zealously explained by Agrippa that the People were reconciled to the Senate who consented to the Election of a Tribune chosen out of the People to protect them against the Authority of the great Ones This Magistrate had a right to oppose the Consultations of the Senate by saying this Word Veto i. e. I oppose it and forbid you to proceed further AGRIPPA named Marcus a Man of a mean Original a Favourite of Augustus Admiral of the Empire a great Captain and a Companion of that Prince in his Victories He assisted him much in obtaining that Victory which he had in the Sea-fight against Sextus Pompeius of which Virgil speaks Augustus bestow'd the Consulship upon him twice together and as a Surplus of his Favour he made him his Son-in-Law by marrying his Daughter Julia to him who had been first married to Marcellus his Nephew who died without Children This Agrippa had two Daughters and three Sons viz. Calus Lucius and Agrippa who was a Posthumous Child i. e. born after his Father's Death Augustus adopted Caius and Lucius before they were seventeen years of Age he had them proclaimed Princes of the Youth and earnestly desired that they might be chosen Consuls The first married Livia the Sister of Germanicus These two Princes were soon taken from him by the Wickedness of another Livia their Mother-in-Law or by their own Misfortunes one in a Voyage to Spain whither he went to command the Armies and the other in his Return from Armenia from whence he came ill of a Wound As for Agrippa the posthumous Child Augustus complain'd of him and caused him to be banish'd by a Decree of the Senate into the Isle Planasia He was indeed a stupid and brutish Prince and withal a simple Man Tiberius who succeeded Augustus made his Access to the Empire remarkable by the Death of Agrippa who being surpriz'd was slain by a Centurion whom he sent on purpose without making any Defence Tacit. Annal lib. 1. AGRIPPA Herod the Son of Aristobulus whom Herod the Elder put to Death He was King of the Jews and had the Favour of the Emperour Caligula who at his coming to the Crown released him from Prison where Tiberius had shut him up for wishing Caligula had his place This Emperour besides his Liberty gave him a Chain of Gold of the same weight with that which he had worn out of Love to him while he was in Prison and gave him the Tetrarchy of his Uncle Philip who died without Children and allow'd him to take upon him the Title of The King of the Jews He made himself infamous at his Arrival at Jerusalem by the Death of St. James the Great and the Imprisonment of St. Peter But his Cruelty was not long unpunish'd for as he was in Caesarea Palaestine busied in the Celebration of the Publick Plays for the Health of the Emperour he was struck on a sudden as he was making a Speech to the People with a surprising terrible Pain of which soon after he died AGRIPPINA the Grand-daughter of Augustus and Daughter of Marcus Agrippa was the Wife of Germanicus the Son of Drusus the Brother of Tiberius Some believe that her Husband was poisoned by Cn. Piso tho this Crime was but weakly proved at the Condemnation of Piso She carried her Husband's Ashes to Rome and laid them in the Tomb of the Caesors Tacitus says she was a Woman of an haughty and untameable Spirit but she aton'd for her Passions by her Chastity and the Love she bare to her Husband AGRIPPINA named Julia who married at her second Marriage the Emperour Claudius who was her Uncle but she soon after poison'd him with what she put into Mushrooms which afterwards at Rome were called The Food of the Gods Britannicus who was Claudius's Son by his first Marriage ought to have succeeded him in the Empire but Agrippina advanc'd her Son Nero to it contrary to his Right that she herself might reign under the Name of her Son She had him by Domitius Aeneobarbus her first Husband and Claudius adopted him into his Family which opened a way for his Accession to the Sovereign Dignity But this ambitious Princess was well rewarded for it for Nero caused her to be slain by Anicetus and for compleating her Infamy order'd that the Day of her Nativity should be reckon'd among the unfortunate Days AJAX the Locrian the Son of Oileus so named from the City and Country of Locris near Mount Parnassus He signaliz'd himself at the Siege of Troy by many notable Exploits After the taking of the City he pluck'd Cassandra the Daughter of King Priam from the Altar of Minerva to which she was fled as an Asylum Some say he ravish'd her and that Minerva being provok'd reveng'd the Fact by slaying him with a Thunderbolt which sir'd his Ship and so drowned him in the Sea But Philostratus says the contrary that Ajax offer'd no Force to Cassandra but that Agamemnon took her away from him having seen her in his Tent and to avoid the Mischief he might design against him fled by Sea in the night and suffer'd Shipwrack by a Tempest that overtook him The Greeks much lamented him and made an extraordinary Funeral for him for they fill'd a Ship with Wood as if they would make a Funeral-Pile for him slew several black Beasts in honour of him and having also set up black Sails in the Ship they set it on fire about break of day and left it to run into the Main Sea all in a flame till it was consum'd to Ashes AJAX TELAMONIUS the Son of Telamon King of Salamis and the fair Eriboea according to Pindar He was one of the most valiant Greeks that was at the Siege of Troy After the Death of Achilles he pretended that his Armour belonged to him as the next of kin but Thetis exposing them to the Publick that every one that pretended a Right to them might claim them V lysses disputed it with him and gained them Ajax was thereupon so much enraged that he fell upon a Flock of Sheep with his Sword drawn and brandished and slew them supposing them to be Grecians and then he thrust himself through with his own Sword and died AIUS LOCUTIUS a Speaking Voice to which the Romans erected an Altar according to Cicero and Aulus Gellius or a small Temple according to P. Victor in the New-street The occasion of it as Cicero and Livy relate was thus One named M. Ceditius a Plebeian
January August and December each of 'em two to April June September and November each of 'em one But because in these latter times there is still an Errour found in this Calculation and the Equinoxes insensibly go back from the point where Julius Caesar had fix'd them they have found out that the year had not just 365 days and six hours but wanted about 11 minutes which in 131 years make the Aequioxes go back about a day for an hour having 60 such minutes a day must have 1440 which being divided by 11 make 130 and 10 over so that the Aequinoxes were come back to the tenth of March. For which reason in the year 1582 Pope Gregory XIII to reform this Error caus'd 10 days to be taken from the Year to bring the Aequinoxes to the 21 of March and the 22 and 23 of September and to prevent the like for the future he order'd that since 131 thrice counted make 393 i. e. almost 400 years this matter should be regulated by Centuries to make the account more easie and compleat so that in 400 years the Bissextile of 3 years should come to 100 Bissextiles And this is that which is call'd The Gregorian Year The Jews count their years by weeks and call the seventh Sabbatical in which they were not allow'd to plow their Ground and were oblig'd to set all their Bond-Servants at liberty They had also their Year of Jubilee and Release which was every 50 years or according to others every 49 years so that every year of Jubilee was also Subbatical but yet more famous than others and then all Possessions and whatever else had been alienated return'd to its first Owner The Greeks counted their years by Olympiads of which every one contain'd the space of four whole and compleat years These Olympiads took their Names from the Olympick Games which were celebrated near the City of Pisa otherwise call'd Olympia in Peloponnesus from whence they were call'd Olympicks These years were also called Iphitus's because Iphitus first appointed them or ' at least reviv'd that Solemnity The Romans counted by Lustra of which every one is 4 compleat years or the beginning of the fifth This word comes from Luo which signifies to pay because at the beginning of every fifth year they paid the Tribute impos'd on them by the Censors They also counted their Year by a Nail which they fix'd in a Wall of the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus The Year is divided into four Parts or Seasons viz. Spring Summer Autumn and Winter The Aegyptians divided it but into three Parts Spring Summer and Autumn allotting to each Season four months They represented the Spring by a Rose the Summer by an Ear of Corn and the Autumn by Grapes and other Fruits Nonnius at the end of his Lib. 11. of his Dionysinca describes the four Seasons of the year thus The Seasons saith he appear to the Eye of the Colour of a Rose the Daughters of the inconstent Year come into the House of their Father The Winter casts a seeble Ray having her Face and Hair cover'd with Snow and her Breast with Hoar-Frost her Teeth chatter and all her Body is rough-coated with Cold. The Spring crowned with Roses sends forth a sweet Smell and makes Garlands of Flowers for Venus and Adonis The Summer holds in one hand a Sickle and in the other Ears of Corn. And lastly the Autumn appears crowned with Vine Branches loaden with Grapes and carrying in her hands a Basket of Fruits The Greeks begin to count the Years from the Creation of the World on the first of September At Rome there are two ways of reckoning the Year one begins at Christmass because of the Nativity of our Saviour and the Notaries of Rome use this Date setting to their Deeds à Nativitate and the other at March because of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ this is the Reason that the Popes Bulls are thus dated Anno Incarnationis The antient French Historians began the year at the Death of St. Martin who dy'd in the year of Christ 401 or 402. They began not in France to reckon the year from January till 1564 by virtue of an Ordinance of Charles IX King of France for before they began the day next after Easter about the twenty fifth of March. ANQUIRERE capite or pecuniâ in the Roman Law to require that a Person be condemn'd to Death or fined ANSER a Goose This Domestick Fowl was in great Esteem among the Romans for having sav'd the Capitol from the Invasion of the Gauls by her Cackling and clapping of her Wings They were kept in the Temple of Juno and the Censors at their entrance into their Office provided Meat for them There was also every year a Feast kept at Rome at which they carry'd a Silver Image of a Goose in state upon a Pageant adorn'd with rich Tapstry with a Dog which was hang'd to punish that Creature because he did not bark at the arrival of the Gauls ANTAEUS the Son of Neptune and Terra and one of the Giants which dwelt in the Desarts of Libya He forc'd all Travellers to wrestle with him and kill'd them He made a Vow to build Neptune a Temple of the Sculls of those he kill'd He attack'd Hercules who taking him by the middle of his Body choak'd him in the Air it being impossible to kill him otherwise for as often as he threw him upon the ground that Giant recover'd new Strength which the Earth his Mother supply'd him with ANTECESSORES this Word properly signifies those who excel in any Art or Science Justinian has honour'd those Doctors of Law who taught publickly with this Title there were four of them in every College and they made up the Council of State ANTECOENA the First Course the first Dish set upon the Table it was either Fruits or Sweet Wine or some part of the Entertainment ANTENOR a Trojan Prince who is said to have deliver'd the Palladium of Troy to the Greeks which was the cause that the City was taken After the City was taken and destroy'd he came into Sclavonia about the Streights of the Adriatick Sea where he built a City of his own Name which is since call'd Padua ANTEROS the Son of Mars and Venus and Brother of Cupid See Amor. ANTESTARI in the Law signifies to bear Witness against any one whence it is that Horace says in his Sat. 9. lib. 1. v. 76. Vis antestari Will you bear Witness And he that would did only offers the Tip of his Ear Ego verò oppono auriculam I offer my Ear immediately to shew that I consent ANTEVORTA and POSTVORTA Deities honour'd by the Romans who took care of what is past and what is future and whom they made the Companions of Providence ANTICYRA an Island lying between the Streights of Meliacum and Mount Oeta There grew says Pliny the best Hellebore which is an excellent Herb to purge the Brain from whence comes the Proverb Naviget Anticyram
of the People who protected these superstitions as sacred and mysterious ARA a Celestial sign so call'd from the Altar which the Cyclopes erected and on which the Gods swore to assist Jupiter in his War against the Giants for after their defeat this Altar was plac'd among the Stars ARAE certain Rocks in the Sea at which Luttutius Catulus obtain'd a Naval Victory over the Carthaginians and where a Peace was made between them and the Romans which put an end to the first Punick Wat in the Year from the building of Rome DXII. Saxa vocant Itali mediis quae in fluctibus aras c. Virg. 1. Aeneid v. 112. Ara Maxima an Altar call'd the greatest from the great quantity of Stones of which it was built as Servius tells us This Altar was erected at Rome to Hercules in the Marketket place for Oxen near the Schola Graeca and hard by the Entrance of the Circus maximus The occasion of building it was this Cacus being kill'd by Hercules Evander who had observ'd something very great and extraordinary in his Physiognomy desir'd to know his Name and understanding that he was call'd Hercules he cry'd out immediatly that it was he of whom his Mother Carmenta had foretold extraordinary Prodigies of Courage for which an Altar was to be erected to him which should be call'd Ara maxima that he himself should appoint his own Sacrifice and prescribe the manner of it to Posterity Immediatly Hercules sacrific'd a fine Heifer out of the Herd and appointed those of the Family of the Potitii and Pinarii to be his Priests Or according to Propertius this Altar was erected to him for finding again his Drove of Cattel Maxima quae gregibus deveta est ara repertis Ara per has inquit Maxima sacta manus Ara Lugdunensis an Altar in the City of Lyons dedicated to Augustus in the Year of Rome DCCXLIV This Altar was in a Temple which was erected at the common charge of Sixty several Nations of the Gauls together with so many Statues which bore the Names of each of these Nations In this Temple the Emperor Caligula appointed Ludi Academici as Suetonius says to which great numbers of Orators and Poets came from several parts of the World to perform their best in Eloquence and Poetry But because it was ordain'd that they who were out-done should be plung'd in the River Saone if they did not like the performance of their Tongue this gave occasion to Juvenal to express any great fear by way of Proverb by the timerousness of an Orator who was to harangue before the Altar of Lyons Palleat ut nudis pressit qui calcibus anguem Aut Lugdunensem Rhetor dicturus ad aram Juv. Sat. 1. v. 43. Arachne the Daughter of Idmon of Lydia very skilful in the art of Weaving She was so rash that she would be esteem'd more excellent than Minerva but this Goddess punish'd her by tearing her Work in pieces and giving her a blow with her shuttle which so mightily offended Arachne that she hang'd her self in despair But Minerva afterwards pitying her misfortune chang'd her into a Spider which still makes Cobwebs in the Air. ARBITER an Arbitrator a Judge in an amicable manner whom the Pretor appointed for Partners to end their differences and Arbitrators in general are such as are chosen and agreed upon by Two Parties for determining any Controversies between them To which end they sign'd a Bond of Arbitration to submit to the Award given about the differences under the forfeiture of a certain Summ of Money to be paid by those who refus'd to stand to it ARBORES Trees The Pagan Gods says Phaedrus in ancient times made choice of certain Trees which they had a mind to take into their Protection Thus Jupiter chose the Oak-tree Venus the Myttle Apollo the Laurel Cybele the Pine-tree Hercules the high Poplar Minerva the Olive-tree and Bacchus the Ivy. Men did then also reverence Trees Woods and Plants as being the Temples or Bodies of some living and intelligent Divinities The Egyptians abstain'd from Onions and Leeks because they durst not handle these Gods which grew in their Gardens as we learn from Juvenal Porrum Cape nefas violare frangere morsa O sanctas geutes quibus hac nascuntur in hortis Numina Sat. 15. v. 9. Pliny tells us that if the Ancients ador'd Trees it was only because they look'd upon them as the Temples of some Divinity This Testimony of Pliny shews plainly that if the Romans ador'd Groves and their Silence Lucos in iis ipsa silentia adoramus this Worship was only paid to some intelligent Divinity or to some Genius which they believ'd to preside over and also to have their Residence in these Trees Ovid speaking of an impious Profaner of sacred Groves and of a great Oak under which the Dryades often us'd their innocent Diversions tells us that this Oak being struck with an Axe by the bold Profaner declar'd that a Nymph lodg'd in the Tree who died at the same time with the Tree but that her Death should not long remain unpunish'd He mentions elsewhere a Mother who was chang'd into a Tree and desir'd her Son never to touch any Trees but look upon them as the Bodies of some-Nymphs Horace devoted a Pine-tree to Diana at which he engag'd every Year to offer Sacrifice Montium custos nemorumquc Virgo Imminens villae tua pinus esto Quam per exactos ego laetus annos Verris obliquum meditantis ictum Sanguine donem Lib. 3. od 22. ARCAS the Son of Jupiter and Calisto the Daughter of Lycaon King of Arcadia with whom Jupiter fell in love Juno to be reveng'd of her Rival chang'd her into a Bear which Diana shot dead with her Arrows in complaisance to Juno Pausanias in his Arcadica says that she was then with Child of Arcas and that Jupiter sent Mercury to save the Infant alive and plac'd the Mother in the number of the Stars under the Name of Ursa major i. e. the great Bear When Arcas grew up to be a great Boy he was presented by some Hunters to Lycaon his Grandfather who yet did not know him But it hap'ned that Jupiter came one day to see Lycaon and this King having a mind to try whether he was truly a God or no caus'd Arcas to be kill'd and cut into morsels and so serv'd up as Meat for Jupiter But he immediatly punish'd his cruelty by changing him into a Wolf and Arcas into the little Bear Vrsa minor These Two Bears says Vitruvius are plac'd in the Artic Circle so that their Backs touch one another having their Bellies turn'd a contrary way one to one side and the other to the other side The little Bear is call'd by the Grecians Cynosura and the great one Helice Their Heads are opposite to one another and their Tails also remove from one another for each Head as it goes forward on each side is to the right of each Tail ARCADES
could not better restifie the extreme Love she had for her Husband than by drinking his Ashes and making her self by this means his Sepulchre Yet she built him a stately Monument in the City of Halicarnassus enrich'd with Images of Marble which was accounted one of the Wonders of the World and a Master-Piece of Architecture This Work has so far merited the approbation of all Ages that all the magnificent Monuments of Kings and other Heroes are nam'd from it Mausolea Artemisia died 2 Years after her Husband for grief that she had lost him We must not here conceal a brave Action which she did after the Death of Mausolus which was this Having taken upon her the Government of the Kingdom the Rhodians could not endure that a Woman should reign over all Caria and therefore they equipt out a Fleet to make themselves Masters of the Kingdom But Artemisia being inform'd of it gave orders that a Fleet of Ships should he hid in the little Harbour which the King had caus'd to be cut together with Gally-Slaves and such Military Men as had been accustom'd to fight at Sea and that the rest should appear openly upon the Ramparts Then the Rhodians approaching with their Fleet very well equipp'd as it was just ready to enter into the great Harbour the Queen gave a signal from the Walls to give them to understand that the City would surrender Whereupon the Rhodians left their Ships and went into the City and immediately Artemisia caus'd the little Harbour to be open'd out of which came the Fleet and went into the great Harbour where the Rhodians had left their Ships these her Fleet carried away with them into the open Sea after they had furnish'd them with Seamen and Souldiers and at the same time the Rhodians having no means left of escaping were all kill'd in the publick Place wherein they were found shut up Nevertheless the Queen went streight to the Isle of Rhodes with the Ships of the Rhodians and the Inhabitants seeing the Ships return crown'd with Laurel receiv'd their Enemies whom they took for their own People returning Victorious But Artemisia posses'd her self of their City Vetruvius from whom I have taken this History says that the Mausoleum was built in the City of Halicarnassus Although Mausolus says he was born at Mylassus yet he resolv'd to fix his abode at Halicarnassus seeing that was a Place of a very advantageous Situation and very convenient for Commerce as having a very good Harbour The Place on which it stood was bending after the manner of a Theatre and in the lower part of it which was near the Harbour he design'd to build a pubblick Exchange but in the middle of the Decsivity of the Hill he made a great and wide Street in which was built that excellent Work called the Mausoleum which is one of the 7 Wonders of the World There is a Medal of Queen Artemisia which on the Reverse has the Figure of the Pyramid of the Mausoleum which she built for her Husband It is of Silver and well cut On one side of it there is the Face of the Princess having her Hair encompassed with a Royal Diadem on the other there is the Pyramid of the Mausoleum and on the top of it there is a Man standing upright leaning upon a half Pike and upon the lowermost Leg of the Pyramid there is the Greek Letter Φ. to signifie the Affection which Artemisia had for her Husband together with these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is also another sort of Medal of Brass on which there is the perfect and entire Figure of the Mausoleum ARTEMISUM a Temple in Italy in the Forest of Aricia whose Original was as follows Pylades and Orestes having suffer'd Shipwrack when they were just ready to be Sacrific'd kill'd those that guarded them and massacred K. Thoas and after that carried away captive the Priestess of Diana and the Goddess her self to whom they were to be offered in Sacrifice They landed in Italy and built a Temple to Diana which was called Artemisium or Dianium where Slaves are sacrific'd to that Goddess and whose Priest ought to be a fugitive Slave ARVALES the Fratres Avales so called ab arvis i. e. from the Fields because they Preside over the Sacrifices that were offered to Bacchus and Ceres for the Preservation of the Fruits of the Earth Fulgentius gives the following Account of their Original The Nurse of Romulus called Accâ— Laurentia had a custom of offering every Year a Sacrifice to desire of the Gods a plentiful Crop and in doing this she was accompanied with her 12 Children But one of them being dead Romulus who was very willing to countenance this Devotion of his Nurse put himself in his stead to fill up the number of Twelve and gave this Society the Name of the Twelve Arval Brethren which they have kept ever since They held their Assemblies commonly at the Capitol in the Temple of Concord or in a Wood consecrated to the Goddess Dia about 5 Miles distant from Rome and which liâ—es in that way which now is called Via Campana They wore a Crown made of Ears of Corn tied up with a white Ribbon Those who were promoted to this Dignity were made Noble and exempted from all Offices in the City and from Taxes Some Authors have thought that they had the Authority of determining the Limits of Lands and Inheritances but others attribute this Authority to certain Persons who are also called Arvales Sacerdotes ARUSPEX One that divin'd by Inspection of the Entrails of Beasts which the Ancients kill'd in Sacrifice to the Gods from which they drew Prognosticks of future Events ARUSPICINA Divination by the Entrails of Beasts slain to the God's This sort of Divination is very ancient and was practis'd by the Chaldeans Egyptians Greeks and Africans and afterwards by the Tuscans who became most excellent in it From them the Romans learn'd this Science Romulus at first instituted Three Aruspices one for each Tribe into which he divided his People afterwards the Senate ordain'd that a certain number of Young Men of a noble Family should be sent to Tuscany to be better instructed in this Science Cicero limits the Numbers to Six Valerius Maximus makes 10 of them and some others 12. 'T is said that Tages the Son of Genius and Grandson of Jupiter taught the Tuscans this Art and Cicero in the 2d Book of Divination relates to us something of the Fabulous Story of this Tages viz. That when a Peasant was tilling the Ground the Coulter of his Plough happen'd to cut deeper than was usual and then he saw a Clod assume the Figure of a young Infant whom the Inhabitants called Tages and that this Tages instructed the Peasant presently how he might predict things to come by Animals This is also confirm'd by Ovid. Indiginae dixere Tagem qui primus Hetruscam Edocuit gentem casus aperire futuros Ovid. lib. 15. Metam v. 558. This Art
one Day to these Four Months April June September and November and so made them consist of 30 Days and to the Month of February he left 28 Days for the common Years and 29 for the Year called Bissextile that so there might be no Change made in the Ceremonies of the Sacrifices which were offered in this Month to the Infernal Gods As soon as these Things were thus order'd and Sosigenes had finished his Work the Emperor publish'd an Edict wherein he set forth the Reformation he had made of the Calendar and commanded it to be used through all the Roman Empire And because of the Negligence of those to whom the Care was committed of distributing the Intercalatory Months the Beginning of the Year was then found to anticipate its true Place 67 whole Days therefore this Time must be some way spent to restore the first Day of the next Year to its due Place at the Winter-â—oâ—stice and to this end Two Months were made of these 67 Days which were ordered to be intercalated between the Months of November and December from whence it came to pass that the Year of the Correction of the Calendar by Julius Caesar which was called the Julian Correction consisted of 15 Months and of 445 Days and upon this Account it was called the Year of Confusion because in it that great Number of Days was to be absorbed which brought so great Confusion into the Account of Time But to accommodate the Matter in some measure to the Genius of the Romans who had been so long accustomed to the Lunar Year the Emperor would not begin his Year precisely on the Day of the Winter solstice but only on the Day of the New-Moon which followed next after it which happened by Chance at the time of this Correction of the Calendar to be about Eight Days after the Solstice from hence it comes to pass that the Julian Year in all succeeding Times hath still preserved the same Beginning i. e. the first Day of January which is about Eight Days after the Solstice of Capricorn Julius Caesar drew a great deal of envy upon himself by this Correction of the Calendar of which we have an Instance in that picquant Raâ—llery of Cicero upon this Occasion One of his Friends discoursing with him happen'd to say that Lyra was to set to Morrow Cras Lyra occidit said he to whom Cicero immediately reported Nempe ex Edicto yes quoth he by vertue of an Edict Yet this did nowise hinder this Reformation from being generally received and observed after the Death of Caesar which happened the next Year after it And to give the greater Authority to this Usage it fell out also that Marcus Antonius in his Consulship order'd that the Month called Quintilis which was that in which Julius Caesar was born should bear his Name and for the Future be called Julius as it happened afterwards to the Month Sextilis to which was given the Name of Augustus both which Names are still continued down to our Time 'T is true the Priests by their Ignorance committed a considerable Error in the Observation of the first Years for not understanding this Intercalation of a Day was to be made every Four Years they thought that the Fourth Year was to be reckoned from that wherein the preceeding Intercalation was made and not from that which follow'd next after it by which means they left only Two common Years instead of Three between the Two Intercalary Years from whence it came to pass that they intercalated Twelve Days in the Space of 36 Years whereas Nine only should have been intercalated in that Space and so they put back the Beginning of the Year Three Days Which being observ'd by Augustus Successor to Julius Caesar he presently caused this Error to be amended by ordering that for the first Twelve Years no Intercalation should be made that by this means these Three superfluous Days might be absorbed and Things might be restored to their first Institution which continued eversince without any Interruption until the End of the last Age when some thought themselves oblig'd to take Pains in making another Correction of the Calendar Here follows the Copy of an ancient Roman Calendar which some curions Antiquaries have gathered together out of divers Monuments that it might be published There are Six different Columns in it the first contains the Letters which they called Nundinales the Second notes the Days which they called Easti Nefasti and Comittales which are also signified by Letters the Third contains the Number of Meto which is called the Golden Number the Fourth is for the Days in Order which are marked with Arabick Figures or Characters the Fifth divides the Month into Calends Nones and Ides according to the ancient Way of the Romans and the Sixth contains their Festivals and divers other Ceremonies of which we shall treat more largely hereafter In this Calendar to which we have given the Name of the Calendar of Julius Caesar although it appears to have been made since Augustus's Time is to be seen 1. The same Order and Succession of the Months which was instituted by Numa Pompilius and such as we have set down before 2. These Seven Months January March May Quintilis or July Sextilis or August October and Decembor have each of them 31 Days and these Four April June September and November have only 30 but February for the common Years has only 28 Days and for the Intercalary or Bissextile it has 29. 3. This Series of Eight Letters which we have called Literae Nundinales is continued without Interruption from the first to the last Day of the Year that there might always be one of them to signifie those Days of the Year on which those Meetings were held that were called by the Romans Nundinae and which returned every Ninth Day to the end that the Roman Citizens might come out of the Country to the City to be informed of what concerned either Religion or Government These Letters are so placed that if the Nundinal Day of the first Year was under the Letter A which is at the 1st the 9th the 17th the 25th of January c. the Letter of the Nundinal Day for the next Year must be D which is at the 5th the 13th the 21st of the same Month c. for the Letter A being found at the 27th of December if from this Day we reckon Eight Letters besides the Letters B C D E which remain after A in the Month of December we must take Four other Letters at the Beginning of January in the next Year A B C D and so the Letter D which is first found in the Month of January will be the 9th after the last A in the Month of December preceeding and consequently it will be the Nundinal Letter or that Letter which notes the Days set apart for these Meetings which may be also called by the Name of Faires or publick Markets Thus by the same way of
the Foundation of that City is attributed flying from Thebes after the Epigoni had destroyed it landed in those Parts where pouring out her Tears she made a Fountain which gave Name to that Place It is also an Isle in the Archipelago between Tenedos and Soio dedicated to Apollo as Callimachus testifies in these Verses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. CLAUDIA a Vestal Virgin who taking too much Care in dressing her self caused her Behaviour to be suspected and her Chastity to be questioned but she deared her self by a Prodigy that happened thus For she seeing the Ship which brought the Statue of Cybele the Mother of the Gods sticking in the Sand so that it could not be got ashoar by all the Arts and Labour they could use pray'd to the Goddess to clear her in Publick and immediately casting her Girdle upon it she pulled it to Land without any trouble which undeceiv'd the People Ovid L. 4. Fastorum CLAUDIANA the Claudian Family very illustrious amongst the Romans from which several of the Emperors were descended as Claudius and Nero. It came from Appius Claudius King of the Sabines from whom came Appius Claudius who paved the Way called from his Name Via Appia and made the Conduit at Rome as also Appius Claudius Caecus and Appius Claudius Crassinus who made himself Dictator See Appius CLAUDIUS PULCHER who lost the Battle against Asdrubal at the Seige of Lilibaum His Defeat is attributed to the Contempt which he cast upon a Presage made from the Holy Poultrey for when the Coop was brought before him that he might take the Augury himself he perceived that the Poultrey were not at all moved by the Corn they gave them whereupon he cast the Coop and holy Poultrey into the Sea saying these Words in Raillery Let them drink since they will not eat CLAUDIUS the Roman Emperor who was the Son of Drusus the Nephew of Tiberius and Uncle of Caligula whom he succeeded after his Death Seneca has given us a Description of the Person and Intellects of this Emperor Claudius in his Apocolocyntosis where he imputes to him all imaginable Defects Suetonius tells us that he was not ill made It is true that he had weak Legs and a Trembling in his Head but these Defects were caused by Poison given him when he was young which made him simple forgetful and timerous so that he gave himself up to be governed by his Freemen He had a fat Neck and his Lips were always foaming with Spittle which some think is represented upon his Medals as well as mentioned by Historians with all other Signs of Weakness which betrayed the Defects of his Mind Nevertheless he seemed desirous to make amends for these Imperfections by his Study for he applied himself closely to the Greek Tongue History and Grammar He likewise composed a Book before his Reign to prove the Necessity of adding Three Letters to the Latin Alphabet and when he was Emperor he put them into it with ease but they died with him for we find them only in the Inscriptions of his Time He executed the Office of a Censor with great Severity and restrained the Liberties of the Theatre by most rigorous Edicts He was exasperated by the Insolence of the People who publickly affronted the most eminent Roman Ladies and Publius Pomponius who had been Consul because he had made a Play which was acted He forbad also lending Money to the Children under Age because to save themselves from the Hands of their Creditors they were tempted to seek the Lives of their Fathers Afterwards he finished the Aquaeducts begun by Caligula which brought the Water from the Simbruin Fountains into the City and made some Regulations in the Science of foretelling Things to come by the Entrails of Beasts He put his Wife Messalinae to Death who was one of the lewdest Princesses that ever lived for she was married to Silius in publick while her Husband was alive He after married Agrippina the Daughter of Germanicus and his own Niece who poisoned him some Years after with a Dish of Mushrooms by the Help of Locusta a Woman famous for Poisoning and the Emperor's Physician named Xenophon who pretending to help his Vomiting put a poison'd Feather into his Throat of which he died CLAUDIANUS Claudian a Poet known over all the World whom all learned Men agree to come nearest the Majesty of Virgil of any that have endeavoured to imitate him and to have been least infected with the Corruptions of his Age. His Invectives against Ruffinus and Eutropius are the best Pieces he has written and perhaps nothing can be more compleat in their kind Scaliger in his Treatise of Poetry says that he was tired with the meaness of his Matter but he supplied all Defects by his Readiness of Wit for his Fancy is happy his Expression apposite his Verse unaffected his Judgment accurate and his Ornaments pleasant for their Ingenuity CLAVUS a Nail In the Consulship of L. Genutius and L. Aemilius Mamercus in the Year 4352. according to the Julian Account 3690 of the World and 362 before Jesus Christ the Plague continuing to lay waste Rome compelled the Romans to flie to the Ceremony of driving a Nail which had never been done before but to keep an Account of the Years according to an ancient Law That the Great Praetor should drive a Nail on the Third Day of September From this Time this Political Ceremony was turned into Superstition and simple People were made to believe that this Action would be effectual to avert publick Calamities and to fasten them as I may say with this Nail This Nail was made of Brass and it was driven into the Wall behind the Chappel of Minerva in the Capitol on the Right-hand of the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus and to perform this Ceremony a Dictator was made LATUS-CLAVUS or LATI-CLAVIUM or TUNICA-CLAVATA and ANGUSTUS-CLAVUS or ANGUSTI-CLAVIUM a Gown or Coat which the Roman Senators and Knights and High-Priests wore upon which were set Buttons having Heads like Nails more or less wide according to the Quality of the Persons or Offices This Coat thus adorned with Buttons in the Shape of Nail-heads was a Mark of Distinction Senators wore them large and so were called Laticlavii instead of Senatores as Suetonius calls them Bini Laticlavii for Two Senators and when they were degraded this Coat was taken from them on the Contrary Knights wore a Coat with Buttons more narrow and from thence were called Angusticlavi The Senators did not gird this Coat and from thence it was called Tunica recta whereas the Knights wore a Girdle about it The Priests likewise might wear the Coat with large Buttons when they sacrificed called from thence Laticlavus Sacerdotalis In the Times of the Emperors the Coat with large Buttons was bestowed as a Mark of Honour and Distinction upon the Governours of Provinces and such as had served the Emperor faithfully as the blew Garter and Marshal's Staff
in Honour of the Dead And after the Games were over the Successor to the Empire holding in his Hand a burning Torch set the Funeral Pile on fire and immediately after an Eagle was seen flying up from the top of it in the middle of the Fire and Smoak This Eagle carried away the Soul of the Dead into the company of the Immortal Gods as they thought and then presently they worshipped him erected Altars to his Honour and ordained Priests and Sacrifices for him at Rome and the other Cities of the Empire Seneca makes a pleasant Jest upon the Apotheosis or Deification of Claudius which deserves to be the Readers curiosity CONSECRATIO PONTIFICUM The consecration of the Roman Pontiffs Prudentius relates in what manner the highest Priest was consecrated among the Pagans They let him down into a hole dressed in his Priestly habit and covered the hole with a plank bored through in many places then the Victimarius or the Butcher-priest and the other Ministers attending the Sacrifices brought upon the plank a Bull adorned with Garlands of Flowers and having thrust the Knife into his Throat his blood was shed poured upon the plank and dropt down through the holes of it upon the Pontiff who did rub his Eyes Nose Ears and his Tongue itself with it After this ceremony they took him out of the hole allover bloody and saluted him with these words Salve Pontifex Maximâ— and having changed his cloaths conducted him to his House where was a great Feast ready for them the description whereof we have from Macrob. Summus Sacerdos nempe sub terram scrobe Actâ in profundum consecrandus mergitur Mirè insulatus festa vittis tempora Nectens coronâ tum repexus aureâ Cinâ—tu Gabinio Sericâ fultus toga Taâ—ulis supernè strata texunt pulpita Rimosa rari pâ—gmatis compagibus Scinâ—â—â—t subinâ—e vel terebrant aream Crebroque lignum perforant acumâ—â—â— Pateat minutis ut frequens hiatibut Huc taurus ingens fronte torvâ bispidi Sertis revinctus aut per armos floreis Aut impeditus cornibus deducitur Hic ut statuta est immolanda bellua Pictus sacrato dividunt venabulo Eructat amplum vulnus undam sanguinis Ferventis inque texta pontis subditi Fundit vaporum flumen latè aestuat Tam per frequentes mille rimarum vias Illapsus imber tabidum rorem pluit Defossius intùs quem sacerdos excipit Guttas ad omnes sturpe subjectans caput Et veste omni putrefactus corpore Qui nos supinat obvias offert genas Supponit aures labra nares objicit Oculos ipsos proluit liquoribus Nec jam palato parcit linguam rigat Postquam cadaver sanguine egesto rigens Compage ab illa Flamines retraxerint Procedit inde Pontifex visu horridus Ostentat udum verticem barbam gravem Omnes salutant atque adorant emiâ—ùs CONSENTES DIJ. They were Gods which the Heathens thought Members of the Councils of the Gods and principally of Jupiter St August lib. 4. de civit Dei cap. 23. CONSTANTINUS sirnamed MAGNUS Constantine the Great Son to Constantius and Helena He defeated Maxentius the Tyrant with the standard of the cross the sign whereof appeared to him in the air with these words written upon it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in hoc vince He was instructed in the Christian Religion and baptized by Silvester Bishop of Rome He gave liberty to the Christians built many Churches and endowed them very richly He gave to Pope Silvester and his Successors the City of Rome to be their own with all the Imperial Badges after he had transferred the Seat of the Empire to Constantinople called the New Rome He died in the sixty sixth year of his Age and the 31st of his Reign CONSUALIA Feasts instituted by Romulus according to Livy when he stole the Sabine Virgins for he had found an Altar under ground says Plutarch dedicated to God Consus or the God of Counsel and this Altar was always kept covered till the Feast of Consualia when they had Horse-races in Neptune's Honour CONSUL a Soveraign Roman Magistrate that was created upon this occasion Lucretia Collatinus his wife having been ravished in a country house by the son of Tarquinius Superbus in the absence of her husband came to Rome and cast herself at the feet of Spurius Lucretius her father and entreated him to call his friends before whom she plainly related how she had been abused by the son of Tarquinius and withal told them 'T is for you to revenge your honour for mine shall be wash'd preseutly with my own blood which I will shed pure to the Gods After she had spoken these words she thrust a Dagger into her breast and expired in the presence of the whole assembly This tragick death exasperated the people and encouraged them to attempt the recovery of their liberty and to shake off the Royal Authority Wherefore they establish'd a kind of Government mixt of Aristocracy and Democracy the people chose every year two Magistrates whom they call'd Consuls because they took care of their Country and gave counsel to their Country-men They enter'd upon this publick office the thirteenth day of December Their garments were enrich'd with Purple like those of the Kings and were attended like them with Lictors or Serjeants who carried bundles of Rods or Axes they owned no Superiours but the Gods and the Laws but when the time of their Magistracy was expired they were liable to be impeached before the people and to give an account of their administration The Senate was the Councel of Consuls and judg'd of all sorts of affairs but without prejudice to the right of appealing to the people The first Authors of the Roman Liberty viz. Lucius Junius Brutus and Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus were created Consuls in the year of the creation of the world 3545 Julian Period 4205 before the birth of our Saviour 509 and from the foundation of Rome 244. Tarquinius Collatinus was put out of his Office before the year of his Consulship was expired Brutus forc'd him to leave it off because he was of the Tarquinian Family and Publius Valerius was chosen in his room to fulfil his time The Consuls were chosen every year in the Field of Mars by the Roman people assembled by hundreds In the first times of the Commonwealth no man could pretend to this dignity but such as were of the Patrician Family viz. Noblemen but afterwards the people obtained that one of the Consuls should be taken out from among them and Sextius was the first Consul chosen out of the people notwithstanding the opposition of the Nobility as it is related by Livy Comitia Consulum adversâ nobilitate habita quibus L. Sextius de plebe primus Consul factus est in the year 388. Plinius Junii tells us that Licmins Stolo who had been Tribune with Sextius was the first Consul taken out of the people but all other Authors are of a contrary
says Delatus est a clementissimis Principibus ordinarius consulatus he was made Consul the first of January Constantine the Great restored the antient custom and ordered that the Consulship should be for a whole year making yet some titular Consuls as Julius Caesar had done according to Suetonius Cassiodorus relates a formular made use of by the Emperors in conferring the dignity of a Consul which may be seen lib. 6. Ep. 21. A Catalogue of the Roman Consuls And an Abridgment of all the memorable deeds that were transacted during their respective Consulate THe Romans having driven away Terquinius Superbus resolved never to suffer any more the Government of Kings and established a kind of Government mixt of Aristocracy and Democracy the people chose every year two Soveraign Magistrates called Consuls because they bestowed their Counsels and care upon their Country Their authority was equal and had no other limits but the time They were cloathed with purple like Kings and had Serjeants as well as they or Mace-bearers carrying bundles of Rods with an Ax bound up in the midst of them owning no Superiours but the Gods and the Laws The Senate was the Council of the Consuls and judged of all sorts of affairs but there was appeal from them to the people They had also other Judges and inferiour Magistrates of whom we shall speak in the sequel of this Book This change happened in the year of the creation of the world 3545. of the foundation of Rome 244. and before the birth of our Saviour 509. The first Consuls were the Authors of the publick liberty viz. LUCIUS JUNIUS BRUTUS and LUCIUS TARQUINIUS COLLATINUS This last was not only forced to quit his Consulship but also to go out of Rome because his name was the same with that of the banished Tarquinius and PUBLIUS VALERIUS was chosen Consul in his room to make an end of the year Brutus having called the people together and caused them to take an Oath that they should never submit themselves to the Royal Authority afterwards he increased the Senate with three hundred new Senators and was killed at the head of the Horse fighting against Aruns Tarquinius his Son The Ladies mourned a whole year for him because they lookt upon him as the Revenger of violated chastity in the person of Lucretia Valerius chose for his colleague in the room of Brutus either Titus Lucretius as Livy says or Spurius Lucretius Tricipitinus Father to Lucretia Anno Mundi 3547. Romae 246. M. HORATIUS PULVILLUS P. VALERIUS Horatius dedicated the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus which Tarquinius had built he signalized his courage at the Siege that Porsenna King of Tuscany had laid before Rome who having seized upon Janiculum Castle attacked the Sublician Bridge which had a communication with the Town and had almost got possession of it but Horatius alone made head against the Enemies at the entry of the Bridge whilst his own men were cutting it down behind him and then threw himself down into the Tiber and got safe into the Town having received no wounds in the very midst of the Darts his Enemies flung at him A. M. 3548. R. 247. M. VALER VOLUSIUS PUBLIUS POSTHUMIUS TUBERTUS The Calendars of the Capitol record two Consuls after these viz. Spur. Largius Flavus or Ruus and T. Herennius Aquilinus and instead of Marcus the Roman Calendars record T. Valerius Cassiodorus P. Valerius Plutarch agrees with Livy and adds the Sirname of Tubertus to that of Posthumius which Livy doth not mention These two Consuls got two great Victories over the Sabines for which they obtain'd the Honour of publiek Triumph A. M. 3550. R. 249. Publius Valerius Publicola Titus Lucretius Plutarch records this Consulship as the fourth of Valerius and Dionysius Halicarnasseus puts M. Horatius in the room of Iucretius During this Consulship Appius Clausus a Sabine who was afterwards named Claudius came to shelter himself at Rome with those of his Party to the number of five thousand He was received in the Senate where he took a place as Senator and the freedom of Citizens was bestowed upon the other Men that came along with him with two Acres of Ground to each of them upon the Banks of Anio A. M. 3551. R. 250. MENENIUS AGRIPPA LANATUS PUBLIUS POSTHUMIUS TUBERTUS Valerius Publicola died in the beginning of the following Year crowned with Glory and Blessings the Roman Ladies mourned for him as they did for the death of Brutus The Sabines made an Irruption into the Roman Territories Posthumius the Consul made head against them but they forc'd him to retire to a disadvantageous place where they besieg'd him yet Agrippa's Colleague got him off and vanquish'd the Sabines The great Triumph was decreed to Agrippa and the lesser called Ovatio to Posthamius A. M. 3552. R. 251. VIRGINIUS OPITER TRICOSTUS SPUR CASSIUS VICELLINUS These Consuls defeated the Aruntians and cut off the Head of all their Generals after they had led them in Triumph The Lands of the Aruntians were destributed to the People to punish them for the plunder they had committed in the Roman Country A. M. 3553. R. 252. POSTHUMIUS CAMINUS ARUNCUS T. LAERTIUS Cassiodorus reckons two Years less but this supputation agrees with Eutropius Upon the rumour that Manilius Tarquiniu's Son-in-law was making a powerful League against the Romans to restore Tarquinius the Senate re-united the authority of the Consuls in the person of one Magistrate whom they created and called him Dictator He had power of life and death over the Romans and had four and twenty Lictors walking before him The first that was honour'd with this Office was T. Largius A. M. 3554. R. 253. SERVIUS SULPITIUS M. TULLUS or TULLIUS LONGUS There was nothing considerable done this year during which all things were quiet A. M. 3555. R. 254. T. AEBUTIUS HELLUA C. or L. or P. VETURIUS GEMINUS The Consuls besieged Fidenas and proclaimed war against the Latins who had sided with all the Enemies of Rome A. M. 3556. R. 255. CLELIUS SICULUS T. or LAERTIUS FLAVUS The Latins having made a Confederacy with the people called Volcae the Romans made Aulus Posthumius Dictator to resist them The Armies did encounter near Lake Regillus where there was a bloody and obstinate Fight and it was reported that Castor and Pollux had fought for the Ro-mans under the shape of two young Horsemen and that they had themselves brought to Rome the news of the Victory obtained by the Romans The Senate ordered the honour of Triumph to the Dictator A. M. 3557. R. 256. AULUS SEMPRONIUS ATTRATINUS M. MINUTIUS AUGURINUS They dedicated the Temple of Saturn and instituted the Feasts called Saturnalia for the 17th day of December Tarquinius and Manilius engaged seventeen Commonalties of the Latins against Rome A. M. 3558. R. 257. AULUS POSTHUMIUS ALBUS REGILLENSIS T. VIRGINIUS TRICOSTUS A War was proclaimed against the Volcae A. M. 3559. R. 258. APPIUS CLAUDIUS SABICUS M. or P. SERVILIUS PRISNUS This Year was
triumphal Chariot A. M. 3613. R. 312. M. FABIUS VIBULLANUS POSTHUMIUS OEBUTIUS HELLUA CORNICEN A Colony of Romans and Rutili was sent into Ardea and the Lands that were conquer'd in the time of the Consulship of Quintius were restored to the Ardeates A. M. 3614. R. 313. C. FURIUS PACILLUS L. PAPYRIUS CRASSUS The Tribune Petilius propos'd the Agrarian Law but to no purpose A. M. 3615. R. 314. PROCULUS GEGANIUS MACERINUS LUCIUS MENENIUS LANATUS Rome was afflicted with Famine and a very dangerous Sedition was fomented by Spurius Melius an ambitious rich Man who bribed the favour of the People by distributing Corn and Money amongst them A. M. 3616. R. 315. TITUS QUINTIUS CAPITOLINUS MENENIUS AGRIPPA LANATUS The Famine grew more raging than the foregoing year and gave an opportunity to Melius to exercise his liberality and advance his ambitious practices Minutius Commissioner for the Provisions acquainted the Senate with it who created L. Quintius Cincinnatus Dictator He called Melius to answer for the same but being check'd by his Conscience he fled away Servilius pursued him and kill'd him in the place of the Assembly The Tribunes exasperated so highly the people under pretence of the death of Melius that the Senate was forc'd to name Military Tribunes MILITARY TRIBVNES A. M. 3617. R. 316. AEMILIUS MAMERCUS TITUS QUINTIUS Son to CINCINNATUS L. JULIUS JULUS The Town of Fidena rebelled and delivered up-herself to the Volcae The Senate sent some Deputies to Fidena to know the reason of such a sudden alteration but the Fidenates killed the Deputies whereupon Consuls were created CONSVLS A. M. 3618. R. 317. M. GEGANIUS MACERINUS L. SERGIUS who was afterwards called FIDENAS The Consul Sergius won a Battle over the Fidenates the Volcae and the Falisci on the Bank of the River Anio but the Romans suffer'd so great a loss in this Engagement that they created Aemilius Mamercus Dictator who got the Victory over these three Nations after Cossus a Military Tribune kill'd Volumnius King of the Volcae in single Combat The Dictator triumph'd and Cassus obtained the Ovation or lesser Triumph wherein he appear'd loaded with Spoils called Opima the first that were seen in a Triumph since the time of Romulus A. M. 3619. R. 318. M. PAPYRIUS or CORNELIUS MALUGINENSIS L. PAPYRIUS CRASSUS The Plague raged at Rome and the people was so frighted by several prodigies that they did not enquire into the impeachment against Spurius Melius nor the murther committed in his person by Servilius A. M. 3620. R. 319. C. JULIUS JULUS L. VIRGINIUS TRICOSTUS The Plague was still violent and gave an opportunity to the Fidenates and the Veientes to enter into the Roman Territories and came as far as the Gate called Collina but the Dictator Aulus Sirvilius Structus or Priscus drove them away and pursued them to Fidena which he besieged and took it by force of Arms. A. M. 3621. R. 320. M. MANILIUS CAPITOLINUS Q. SULPITIUS COSSUS or CAIUS JULIUS JULUS L. VIRGINIUS TRICOSTUS The Vientes frighted by the taking of Fidena sent Deputies to the twelve Commonalties of Tuscany to make themselves sure of their assistance against the Romans who chose Aemilius Mamercus Dictator for the second time He ordered that the Censors should be but one year and a half in their Office The Censors out of a revenge for this Order taxed Mamercus as soon as he had laid down the Office of Dictator the people grumbled at it and would not approve of what the Censors had done TRIBVNES A. 3622. R. 321. M. FABIUS VIBULLANUS M POLLIUS L. SERGIUS FIDENAS The plague and the fears of a Famine secured the tranquility of the City A. M. 3623. R. 322. L. PINARIUS MAMERCUS L. FURIUS MEDULLINUS SPUR POSTHUMIUS ALBUS The most considerable among the Plebeians perswaded the Tribunes to propose a Law by which it should be forbidden to all men standing for offices to be dress'd in white Gowns Cassiodorus mentions nothing of what was transacted since the third Consulship of C. Julius and L. Virginius not so much as the name of any Magistrate till the following Consulship CONSVLS A. M. 3624. R. 323. T. QUINTIUS POENUS CINCINNATUS CNEUS JULIUS MENTO The Volcae and the Veientes having joyned their Forces together obliged the Romans to name for Dictator Posthumius Tubertus who defeated the Enemies took their Camp and spoils which he carried in his triumph The Consul Julius dedicated the Temple of Apollo A. M. 3625. R. 324. L. PAPYRIUS CRASSUS L. JULIUS JULUS The people called Aequi desired to enter into alliance with the Roman people but they were denied The Senate prevented the Tribunes of the people in the design they had to demand the release of Fines for they released them to get the affection of the people without being asked for by the Tribunes A. M. 3626. R. 325. L. SERGIUS FIDENAS HOSTILIUS LUCRETIUS TRICIPITINUS There was nothing worth observation transacted this year A. M. 3627. R. 326. AULUS SORNELIUS COSSUS T. QUINTINUS POENUS CINCINNATUS An extream dry weather occasioned a sort of itch in Rome of which few people were free some new superstitions were taking ground among the people but they were suppressed A. M. 3628. R. 327. C. SERVILIUS HALA STRUCTUS L. PAPYRIUS MUGILLANENSIS The Senate sent some Heralds to Veii to ask of the Veientes satisfaction for the goods they had plundered in the Roman Territory and upon their refusal a War was proclaimed against them MILITARY TRIBVNES A. M. 3629. R. 328. T. QUINTIUS POENUS CINCINNATUS C. FURIUS MARCUS POSTHUMUS AULUS CORNELIUS COSSUS The last of them staid in the City to manage the affairs and his three colleagues went against the Veii but they were vigorously repulsed Upon this misfortune Aemelius Mamercus was made Dictator who went to rescue the Military Tribunes The rumour of this success filled the Fidenates with hopes of recovering their liberties therefore they killed all the Romans in their Colony and joyned themselves to the Veii The Dictator fought them routed and pursued them so closely that the Romans got promiscuously with them into Fidena took it and put the Inhabitants thereof to death The Dictator made an end of this War in sixteen days A. M. 3630. R. 329. AULUS SEMPRONIUS ATTRATINUS L. QUINTIUS CINCINNATUS L. FURIUS MEDULLINUS T. HORATIUS BARBUSUS A Truce of twenty years was granted to the Veii A. M. 3631. R. 330. C. CLAUDIUS CRASSUS SPUR NAUTIUS SERGIUS RUTILIUS FIDENAS SERTUS JULIUS TULLUS or JULUS There was magnificent games celebrated at Rome CONSVLS A. M. 3632. R. 331. C. SEMPRONIUS ATTRATINUS Q. FABIUS VIBULLANUS Sempronius was like to lose the Roman Army in the fight against the Volcae had not the valour of Sextus Tarpeius a Brigadeer saved it for having possessed himself of a rising ground he gave opportunity to the Consul to get off with the Army TRIBVNES A. M. 3633. R. 332. L. MANLIUS CAPITOLINUS Q. ANTONIUS MERENDA L. PAPYRIUS MUGILLANENSIS Hortensius Tribune of the people charged Sempronius with the ill success
of the whole people to whom he granted Fabius his life saying unto him Live thou Fabius more glorious for this universal love of the people than for the Victory thou hast got over the enemy and may the Gods grant that thy bad example do not prove prejudicial to the State A. M. 3730. R. 429. C. SULPITIUS LONGUS Q. AEMILIUS or AURELIUS CERETANUS The Samnites broke the Truce which was made for a year The Tribunes of the people accus'd the Tusculans of being concern'd in the Rebellion of the inhabitants of Priverna but they came to Rome with their wives and children and cleared themselves A. M. 3731. R. 430. Q. FABIUS L. FULVIUS They created Aulus Cornelius Arvina Dictator who pursued the Samnites and made so great a slaughter of them that they begged for Peace offering to surrender up all that they had taken during the War A. M. 3732. R. 431. T. VETURIUS CALVINUS SP. POSTHUMIUS ALBINUS The Samnites were sent back again and Peace was denied unto them Pontius their General raised all the force he could and incamp'd on the top of Furcae Caudinae called now Stretto d'Arpeia or Jugo di Santa Maria or Vallo di Guardano Pontius ordered ten the most resolute of his Souldiers to disguise themselves like Shepherds and gave them some Cattel to drive these new Shepherds were taken by the Roman Forragers who brought them before the Consuls They were severally examined and all affirmed that the Samnites were busied at the siege of Luceria The Consuls deceived by this false report went down thro the narrow passage of the Valley but as soon as they were got into it the Samnites appeared upon the tops of the Mountains They endeavoured all they could to pass the Defilé but the passage was stopt with strong barricadoes of Trees hewn down Then they attempted to go back again but they found their retreat obstructed so that they were taken like Wild Boars in Nets The Samnites brought them all under shameful subjection M. Fabius Ambustus was elected Dictator A. M. 3733. R. 432. QUINTUS PUBLIUS PHILO L. PAPYRIUS CURSOR The Consuls of the foregoing year delivered themselves up willingly to the Samnites with the other Commanders who had signed the Treaty of the Furcae Caudinae to wash away the shame the Roman people had been reproached with concerning it The War was renewed against the Samnâ—eâ—s and Papyrâ—us besieged Luceria and took it and conquer'd Pontius and seven thousand of his men and set six hundred Hostages at liberty that were kept Prisoner there A. M. 3734. R. 433. LUCIUS PAPYRIUS CURSOR or MALUGINENSIS Q. AEMILIUS CERETANUS They named M. Aemilevs Papus Dictator Papyrius put the Garrison of the Samnites to the Sword which had been driven from Satricum A. M. 3735 R. 434. M. FOLLIUS FELCINA L. PLAUTIUS VENNO A Truce for two years only was granted to the Samnites instead of the Peace they sued for A Roman Governour was sent to Capua for the first time A. M. 3736. R. 435. C. JUNIUS BUBULCUS Q. AEMILIUS BARBULA The Roman Law began to be received in all Italy A. M. 3737. R. 436. AULUS SPURIUS or SEMPRONIUS NAUTIUS RUTILIUS M. POPILIUS LAENAS They made L. Aemilius Dictator who engaged twice the Samnites in the first engagement the advantage was equal on both sides but in the second fight the Samnites were defeated Q. Fabius was elected Dictator to succeed him A. M. 3739. R. 438. M. PETILIUS LIBO C. SULPITIUS LONGUS Cassiodorus mentions two other Consuls before these viz. L. Papyrius Junior Q. Publicius or Publius Chilo The Consuls took the Town of Sora by treachrey and all the Inhabitants were put to the Sword except only two hundred and twenty five of the chief Authors of the rebellion who were sent to Rome where they were publickly whipt and then beheaded The Senate created Q. Menenius Dictator A. M. 3740. R. 439. L. PAPYRIUS CURSOR Q. JUNIUS BRUTUS BUBULCUS Junius took Nola and the Fort of Fregellae C. Petillius was made Dictator to drive the Nail to stop the Plague A. M. 3741. R. 440. M. VALERIUS P. DECIUS Valerius made an end of the War with the Samnites Appius Claudius came out of his Censorship during which the way called after his name via Appia was paved by his care He made also the Canal of Rome called Appian which brought the Anio into Rome and was called Aqua Claudia it carried the waters to the very top of Mount Aventini All the Potitie died this year though they were thirty young men of that name in twelve Families A. M. 3742. R. 441. C. JUNIUS BRUTUS BUBULCUS Q. AEMILIUS BARBULA The Players upon Flutes and other musical Instruments quitted Rome and retired to Tivoli because they were forbidden to drink in Temples The Senate desired them to come again but they refused whereupon they sent some of their acquaintance to them who made them so very drunk that they brought them in Waggons to Rome After the fumes of the Wine were over they were amazed to find themselves in it and would go back again but they were forbid upon pain of death to go out of the Town and were allowed to mask themselves during three days every year Junius re-took Luceria and killed 20000 Sammtes upon the spot A. M. 3743. R. 442. Q. FABIUS MAXIMUS Q. MARTIUS RUTILIUS Fabius fought the Tuscans and got the victory over them but the Samnites got the day against the other Consul L. Papyrius Cursor was then created Dictator who triumphed over the Samnites and their stately Shields were laid by his orders in the place of the Assemblies and this Ornament was so taking that they adorn'd in the like manner the Streets of Rome where the Statues of the Gods were to pass A. M. 3744. R. 443 Q. FABIUS MAXIMUS P. DECIUS MUS Sabellicus mentions neither of them The Consuls got several advantages one over the Samnites and the other over the Umbrians who were quite routed A. M. 3745. R. 444. Q. APPIUS CLAUDIUS CAECUS L. VOLUMNIUS FLAMMA The Proconsul Q. Fabius defeated the Samnites near Alif and streightned them so much in their Camp that they could not get out of it but upon condition of subjecting themselves and that their Confederates to the number of seven thousand men should be publickly exposed to Sale A. M. 3746. R. 445. L. CORNELIUS ARVINA Q. MARTIUS TREMULUS Cornelius was much straitned in his Camp by the Samnites and want of Provisions Martius his colleague hearing of the condition he was in came to his relief the Samnites marched out to meet him and fought him but they were quite routed and lost thirty thousand men Upon the absence of the Consuls Cornelius Scipio was created Dictator The Temple of Salus devoted by Junius Bubulus during the War with the Samnites was Built A. M. 3747. R. 446. L. POSTHUMIUS T. MINUTIUS AUGURINUS The Consuls besieged Boviana and took it The Coloss of Hercules was found among the Spoils and was dedicated in the Capitol having been first carried
thing A. M. 3829. R. 528. T. MANLIUS TORQUATUS Q. FURIUS PHILO or C. FLAMINIUS NEPOS This last Consul enter'd into the Milanese fought the Enemies with success and made his triumphal entry notwithstanding the opposition of the Senate Flaminius is not reckon'd among the Consuls neither in the Fasti nor by Cassiodorus because the Senate design'dto depose him for some defect of Formalities in his Election and for that reason it may be that his name was not set down in the Calendars A. M. 3831. R. 529. M. CLAUDIUS MARCELLUS CN CORNELIUS SCIPIO They made war against the Milanejes and Lombards Marcellus took Milan and returned to Rome with great booty having kill'd Veridomarus King of the Gauls A. M. 3831. R. 530. P. CORNELIUS ASINA M. MINUTIUS RUFUS Several Merchants made a complaint to the Senate that the Adriatick Sea was become dangerous because of the Piracies of the Italians Rome took hold on this pretence to proclaim war against them A. M. 3832. R. 531. L. VETURIUS PHILO C. LUTTATIUS CATULUS Hannibal laid siege to Saguntum The Saguntines sent for succour to Rome The Romans sent Deputies to Carthage to complain of it but the Carthaginians against Hanna's opinion accepted of the war that the Deputies declared against them The Inhabitants of Sanguntum being reduced to the last extremity chose rather to set their Town on fire and burn all their Goods and themselves withal than surrender to the Enemy The 〈◊〉 and the Haminian way were finish'd A. M. 3833. R. 532. M. LIVIUS SALINATOR L. AEMILIUS PAULUS This year two hundred and seventy thousand heads of Families were number'd in Rome The enfranchis'd Slaves who had been hitherto distributed amongst Tribes were divided into four which were called Aesquilina Palatina Suburrana and Collina A. M. 3834. R. 533. P. CORNELIUS SCIPIO T. SEMPRONIUS LONGUS The War being proclaimed against the Carthaginians the Romans made publick processions to obtain the favour of the Gods The Roman Army was four and twenty thousand Foot and eighteen hundred Horse strong all Romans born besides four and forty thousand Foot and four thousand Horse of Confederate Troops and the Carthaginians were fourscore thousand Foot and ten thousand Horse Hannibal entered Italy with this Army and came to the foot of the Alps about the fifteenth of October and in nine days he got up to the top of them in spight of the High-landers and the Snow cutting and splitting the Rocks that were in his way with Fire and Vinegar Cornelius advanc'd against him and met him upon the banks of the Tessena where they engaged and Hannibal was victorious Sempronius came to relieve his Colleague but he had no better success A. M. 3835. R. 534. CN SERVILIUS GEMINUS C. QUINTIUS FLAMINIUS The Consul Flaminius was sent against Hannibal but he had fifteen thousand men kill'd in the Fight and eight thousand made Prisoners Q. Fabius Maximus was made Dictator his wise and prudent conduct was suspected by the Romans who order'd by a Plebiscitum that the General of the Horse should bear an equal power with the Dictator A. M. 3836. R. 535. C. TERENTIUS VARRO L. AEMILIUS PAULUS The two Consuls offer'd battle to Hannibal who willingly accepted it The Fight began with an incredible eagerness and was so bloody that forty thousand Romans with the Consul Aemilius himself were kill'd on the spot Hannibal sent to Rome three bushels of those Rings the Roman Knights were for a badge of their Quality This overthrow has render'd the Village of Cannae famous to posterity M. Junius was created Dictator They raised new Forces and armed eight thousand Slaves that were bought for that purpose To compleat all their misfortunes the Romans received advice of the loss of the Army that Posthumius the Praetor commanded in Gaul which was crushed to death and buried under the Trees of the Forest Litana The Gauls had half saw'd those Trees but kept them standing by means of Ropes and other things and let them fall on the Romans when they saw their whole Army in the Forest A. M. 3837. R. 536. T. SEMPRONIUS GRACCHUS MARCUS CLAUDIUS MARCELLUS The noise of Thunder being heard during the creation of the Consuls the Senate perswaded the People that this bad Omen was occasioned because the two Consuls were Plebeians To avoid all disputes about it Marcellus of his own accord laid down his Consulship and deliver'd up his place to Q. Fabius Maximus who restored the affairs of the Romans by dilatory methods Cunctando restituit rem Enn. A. M. 3838. R. 537. FABIUS MAXIMUS M. CLAUDIUS MARCELLUS Marcellus met Hannibal near Nola and engaged him but he got no great advantage over him The two Scipio's did wonders in Spain Cneus Scipio forc'd the Camp of Asdrubal and put a supply into Illiturgis which the Carthaginians had besieged A. M. 3839. R. 538. Q. FABIUS MAXIMUS T. SEMPRONIUS GRACCHUS Rome was set on fire and the Incendiaries could not be discovered Sifax King of Numidia made a League with the Romans Massinissa the Son of Gala a young Prince seventeen years of age defeated Sifax and killed thirty thousand of his men Fabius followed Hannibal every where and encamped so advantageously that he could not be forced to fight A. M. 3840. R. 539. Q. FULVIUS FLACCUS APPIUS CLAUDIUS PULCHER Hannibal took Tarentum by the treachery of Philomenes and Nico two young Gentlemen of that place Marcellus took Syracusa by storm having layn before it for three years together during which time Archimedes alone made more resistance against him with his Engines than all the Arms of the Carthaginians P. Scipio was delivered up to the Enemies by the Geltiberians or the people of Arragon and put to death by the Carthaginians Cneus his Brother was a short time after overpower'd by three Armies of the Carthaginians A. M. 3841. R. 540. CN FLAVIUS CENTUMALUS P. SULPITIUS GALBA Fulvius besieged Capua which surrender'd to him after a siege of two years He put to death fifty six Senators which were found alive the others being dead during the siege and the rest of the Inhabitants were publickly expos'd to sale A. M. 3842. R. 541. M. CLAUDIUS MARCELLUS M. VALERIUS LEVINUS This last Consul made an end of the Sicilian war by the taking of Agrigentum which was the last place belonging to the Carthaginians P. Cornelius Scipio came into Spain as Proconsul tho he was but four and twenty years of age He took Nova Carthago by storm and got a very rich booty both of Ammunition and Provisions besides many Hostages that the Spaniards had delivered to the Carthaginians and among them a very beautiful young Lady Scipio enquired about her Country and Family and being told that she was betrothed to a young Celtiborian Prince named Allucius he sent immediately for her Parents and her Bridegroom to whom he delivered up his Spouse and sent them back again Valerius Maximus relating this passage calls the Bridegroom Indibilis instead of Allucius but Polybius who lived in the
There are yet three Medals to be seen where Cybele is otherwise represented One is of the Emperor Severus where she is represented holding with one hand a Scepter and with the other a Thunder-bolt and her Head covered with a Turret She rid upon a Lyon flying through the Air. The other Medal is of the Emperor Geta stampt after the same manner with this Inscription Indulgentia Augustorum The third is of Julia who represents the Mother of the Gods crown'd with Turrets attended by two Lions and sitting upon a Throne she holds with her right hand a branch of Pine-tree and lays her left hand on a Drum with this Motto Mater Deum This Goddess is also represented with a great many Breasts to shew that she feeds Men and Beasts and carries Turrot on her Head and has two Lions under her Arms. CYCLOPES The Cyclopes a race of fierce and haughty Men who have but one Eye in the middle of their Forehead Poets have given this Name to some Inhabitants of Sicily whom they feign'd to be Vulcan's Assistants in the making of Jupiter's Thunder-bolts they made also the Arms of Achilles and Aenca◠They were so named because they had but one round Eye in the middle of their Forehead They are the Sons of Heaven and Earth as Hesiod tells us or of Neptune and Amphitrits as Euripides and Lucian say Those of most note among them are Polyphemus Brontes Steropes and Pyracman Apollo kill'd them with his Arrows to revenge the death of his Son Aesculapius whom Jupiter had kill'd with a Thunderbolt made by these Cyclopes Poets say also that Polyphemus was Shepherd to Neptune and Galatea's Lover and that Ulysses put out his Eye with a Fire-brand to revenge the death of his Companions whom the Cyclopes had eaten CYCLUS SOLIS The Cycle of the Sun or of the Dominical Letters is a revolution of 28 Years which being expired the same Dominical Letters return again in the same order To understand this well it must be observed that the Year being composed of Months and Weeks every Day of the Month is markt in the Calendar with its Cypher and one of these seven Letters A B C D E F G. The first Letter begins with the first Day of the Year and the others follow in a perpetual Circle to the end Wherefore these Letters might be unalterable to denote every Holy-day or every Day of the Week as they are in respect to the Days of the Months if there was but a certain and unvariable number of Weeks in the Year and as A marks always the first of January B the 2 C the 3 so A should mark always Sunday B Munday c. But because the Year is at least of 365 Days which make up 52 Weeks and a Day over it happens that it ends with the same day of the Week with which it began and so the following Year begins again not with the same Day but with the next to it And from thence it follows that A which answers always the first of January having noted the Sunday for one Year for which reason 't is called the Dominical Letter it will note the Monday in the following Year and G will note the Sunday and so forward 'T is plain by what has been said that if the Year had but 365 Days this Circle of Dominical Letters should end in seven Years by retrograding G F E D C B A. But because every four Years there is a Leap-Year which has one Day more two things must needs happen First That the Leap-Year has two Dominical Letters one of which is made use of from the first of January to the 25th of February and the other from that Day till the end of the Year The reason of it is plain for reckoning twice the 6th of the Kalends the Letter F which notes the Day is also reckoned twice and so fills up two Days of the Week From whence it follows that the Letter that till then had fallen upon Sunday falls then but upon Monday and that the foregoing Letter by retrograding comes to note Sunday The second thing to be observed is that that having thus two Dominical Letters every fourth Year the Circle of these Letters doth not end in seven Years as it would do but in four times seven Years which is 28. And this is properly called the Cycle of the Sun which before the correction of the Kalendar began with a Leap-Year whereof the Dominical Letters were G F. CYCLUS LUNARIS The Cycle of the Moon It was no less difficult to determine by a certain Order the Days of the New Moons in the course of the Year To this purpose a great many Cycles were proposed which afterwards Experience shewed to be false and they were obliged to receive this Cycle of 19 Years Invented by Methon of Athens called the Golden Number to make the Lunar Year agree with the Solar for at the end of them the New Moons returned again on the same Days and the Moon began again her course with the Sun within an Hour and some Minutes or thereabouts This Number was called the Golden Number either for its excellency and great use or because as some say the Inhabitants of Alexandria sent it to the Romans in a Silver Calendar where these Numbers from 1 to 19 were set down in Golden Letters This Number has been called the great Cycle of the Moon or Deceunovennalis and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 19 Tears or Methonicus from the Name of its Author This Golden Number has been of great use in the Calendar to shew the Epacts and New Moons ever since the Nicene Council ordered that Easter should be kept the first Sunday after the Full Moon of March However this Cycle was not settled every where according to the same manner in the Calendar for the Western Christians called Latins imitating the Hebrews reckon'd the Golden Number 1. on the first day of January of the first Year But the Christians who Inhabited Asia under the name of Christians of Alexandria placed the Golden Number 3. at the same day CYCNUS A Swan a Bird living in or about the Waters very fine to behold with a long and straight Neck very white except when he is young Ovid in the 12th Book of his Metamorphosis says that Cycnus was King of Liguria and kin to Phaeton who for the grief of his death was changed into a Bird of his name 'T is said that Swans never sing but when they are at the point of death and then they sing very melodiously Tully in his Tusculans tells us that Swans are dedicated to Apollo the God of Divination who being sensible of their approaching death rejoice and sing with more harmony than before I ucian on this account laughs at the Poets in his Treatise of Amber or the Swans I also expected says he to have heard the Swans warbling all along the Eridanus having learn'd that the Companions of Apollo had been there changed into Birds who
to perswad us that they had Chimneys in their Chambers Suetonins tells us that the Chamber of Vitellius was burnt the Chimney having took fire Nec ante in Praetorium rediit quam flagrante triclinio ex conceptu camini Horace writes to his Friend to get a good fire in his chimney Dissolve frigus ligna super foco Large reponens Od. 9. l. 1. Tully writing to his Friend Atticus tells him Camino Luculento tibi utendum censco And Vitruvius speaking of the cornishes that are made in Chambers give warning to make them plain and without Carver's work in places where they make fire However in those ages if they had any chimneys like ours they were very rare Blondus and Salmuth say that chimneys were not in use among the Ancients but Pancirollus and many others affirm the contrary Wherefore without deciding absolutely the question 't is most certain they had Kilns to warm their Chambers and other apartments of their Houses called Fornaces vaporaria and Stoves called Hypocausta Philander says that the Kilns were under ground built along the Wall with small Pipes to each story to warm the Rooms They had also Stoves that were removed from one Room to another for Tully writes that he had removed his Stove because the Pipe thro which the fire came out was under his Chamber Hypocausta in alterum apodyterii angulum promovi propterea quod ita erant posita ut eorum vaporarium ex quo ignis erumpit esset subjectum cubiculo The Romans did not only make use of Wood to warm their rooms but also of the Beams of the Sun which they gathered in some Kilns as we do with our Burning-glasses This Kiln was called in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in Latin Solarium or solare vaporarium and it was not allowed to plant Trees that might be a hindrance to the gathering of the Beams of the Sun as Ulpian says It doth not appear neither by the writings or buildings that remain of the Ancients that they had Privies in their Houses And what they call latrinas were publick places where the persons who had no Slaves went to empty and wash their Pans and these persons were called latrinae from lavando according to the Aetymology of M. Varro for Plautus speaks of the Servant-maid quae latrinam lavat who washes the Pan. And in this place of Plautus latrina can't be understood of the publick Houses of Office which were cleansed by Pipes under the ground which carried the Waters of the Tiber to these places and 't is likely that Plautus made use of the word latrina to insinuate that sella familiaris erat velut latrina particularis The Publick Necessary Houses for the day were for the conveniency of the People in several places of the Town and were called Sterqulinia covered and full of Spunges as we learn of Seneca in his Epistles As for the night they had running Waters thro all the Streets of Rome and there they threw all their ordure but rich men used Pans which the Servants emptied into the Sinks that carried all their Waters into the great Sink of the Town and from thence into the Tiber DONARIA Gifts and Presents offered to the Gods and hung up in their Temples DONATIVUM A Gift and Largess in Money which the Emperors bestowed upon Soldiers to get their affection and votes in time of need DRACHMA A Dram a kind of weight composed of two Scruples and each Scruple of two oboli and so a Dram was six oboli As for the proportion that the Dram of the Greeks did bear with the Ounce of the Romans Q. Rommus in his Poem of Weights and Measures makes the Dram the eighth part of an Ounce which is not much different from the Crown of the Arabians which weighs something more than the Dram. The Dram and the Roman Denarius were of the like value so that the Dram may be worth about Sevenpence Halfpenny of English Money DRACONARIUS The Dragonbearer the standard of the Roman Infantry the head whereof was drawn in Silver and the rest of the Body was of Taffety hung up at the top of a Pike fluttering in the Air like a Dragon and out of it hung down great Bands with tufts of Silk at the end DRACO A Dragon so called from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to see plain to be clear-sighted and for his watchfulness this Animal is dedicated to Minerva 'T is said that he loves Gold wherefore a Dragon watched the Golden Fleece at Colchos and the Golden Apples of the Garden of the Hesperides and 't is reported that the Dragon of Pallas dwelt near Athens because the Athenians did wear their Hair tuckt up with Tresses of Gold DRUIDAE The Priest of the Ancient Gauls Thus Caesar speaks of them l. 4. of the Wars of the Gauls The Druides of the first Order are Overseers of the worship of the Gods and Religion and have the direction of both Publick and Private Affairs and teaching of Youth If there is any Murther or Crime committed or Suit at Law about an Inheritance or some other Dispute they decide it ordaining Punishments and Rewards and when a Man won't stand to their Judgment they suspend him from communicating in their Mysteries And those who are so excommunicated are accounted wicked and impious and every Body shuns their Conversation if they are at law with other Men they can have no Justice and are admitted neither to Employments nor Dignities and die without Honour and Reputation All the Druides have an High Priest who has an absolute Power After his Death the most worthy among them succeeds him and if there are many Pretenders to his Office the Election is decided by Votes and sometimes by force of Arms. They met every Year in the Country of Chartres which is in the middle of Gaul in a place consecrated and appointed for that purpose where those who are at Law or at Variance met from all places and stand to their Decisions 'T is thought that their Institution came from Brittain and those who will have perfect knowledge of their Mysteries travell'd into that Country They never follow the War and are free from all Taxes and Slavery wherefore many get into their order and every one puts in for a place among them for his Son or Kinsman They must learn by heart a great number of Verses for it is forbid to write them either to exercise their Memory or lest they should profane the Mysteries in publishing them wherefore they remain sometimes twenty Years in the College In other things they make use of writing in Greek Characters One of the chiefest points of their Theology is the Immortality of the Soul as a profitable Belief that inclines Men to Vertue by contempt of Death They hold Metempsychosis and have many Dogma's of Theology and Philosophy which they teach their youth Diodorous Siculus joins the Druides to Poets in the Authority of pronouncing like Soverâ—ign Judges about Controversies
the Inhabitants of those places fancy that Hercules divided these two Promontories and procur'd a free passage into the Lands to the Sea called the Mediterranean Sea Plutarch speaking of the Hercules of the Greeks in the life of Theseus say many things which might be as justly applied to the other Hercules's For he observes that in these ages of ignorance many Men of extraordinary strength and valour such as were Hercules and Theseus proposed to themselves in their expeditions to free the world of many Monsters of Iniquity who infested Mankind and to bring all wild Nations to a due civility politeness and Religion Tully proposes Hercides for the most perfect model of Vertue who expos'd himself to all kind of dangers and bore all possible Evils for the good of Mankind Dionysius Halicarnasseus represents the Grecian Hercules like a vertuous Hero who subdued all the Earth out of a strong passion to re-establish every where peace concord and justice and Aelianus says that an Oracle assur'd Hercules that he should be rank'd in the number of Gods for a reward of doing good to all Men. Pausanias affirms that the Temple which Hercules as some said had built for himself was more ancient than the Hercules of Greece and that it was well known that the Inhabitants of Creete had another Hercules as well as the Tyrians and those of Erythraea in Ionia We may think that the Hercules of the Erythraeans and that of the Arabians and Assyrians is the same for the ancient Erythraeans were Idumaeans or Arabians And we know that the Red-Sea was called either Erythraeum in Greek or Idumaeuns in the Phaenician tongue because the word Edom signifies red In fine the Hercules of Egypt was not unknown to this Author for he says that the Hercules of Greece not being able to prevail with the Priests of Delphus stole away the holy Tripos and that then she cried out that it was plain that he was the Grecian Hercules and not the Egyptian Nam ante Aegyptius Hercules Delphos venerat Pausanias brings in another place an instance how these several Hercules in series of time were confounded in one Man and says that the Thasians who were come from Phaenicia into Greece at first ador'd there Hercules of Tyre but being mixt at last with the Greeks they worshipp'd Hercules of Greece Arrian assures us that there were formerly three Hercules's The Tyrian Hercules is much older than the Hercules of the Greeks but that of Egypt is still more ancient and that the Hercules who was reverenc'd at Tartassus in Spain where Hercules's Pillars stood also was the Tyrian Hercules because that City was built by the Tyrians and the Sacrifices there offer'd were offer'd after the Tyrian way They ascribe a Dog to Hercules of Tyrus and to this Dog is referr'd the invention of purple colour the blood whereof makes this admirable colour Poets feign'd that Hercules was conceiv'd during three nights without the interruption of day to imitate the prolongation of the day obtained by Josbua to utterly rout the Enemies of the people of God We read in Lycophron's Cassandra that Hercules was devoured by a Sea-Dog named Carcharias whom Neptune had sent against him And the Scholiast of Lycophron tells us that this great Fish being ready to swallow Hesions the Daughter of Laomedon Hercules advanced and threw himself armed into the mouth of the Monster and having tore his Intrails he got out of his belly having lost nothing but his Hair and that from hence Hercules was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because he was three nights in the belly of that Monster Thâ—â—philoct mentions this Fable and applies it to Jonas swallow'd by a Whale HERCULES the GRECIAN was the Son of Jupiter and Alcmena the wife of Amphitrio being yet in the Cradle he choaâ—ed two Serpents which Juno out of jealousy against his Mother had sent to destroy him They relate twelve Prodigies extraordinary called the twelve Labours of Hercules Euristheus the Son of Helenus King of Myceâ—â— having a mind to be rid of Hercules sent him first to stop the incursions of the Lion of the Nemean Forest who was fallen from the Heaven of the Moon and destroyed all the Country Hercules pursued him and having driven him into a Den he seiz'd upon him and tore his Mouth with his own hands and ever after wore the skin of that Lion After this Expedition he was sent to the Lake of Lerna near Argos to force the Hydra a dreadful Serpent with seven Heads and having cut off one Head thereof two arose in the place wherefore Hercules cut off her seven heads at once Then he marched against a fierce Wild-Boar inhabiting Mount Erymanthus in Arcadia who spoiled all the Fields He took him alive and brought him upon his shoulders to Eristheus who was almost frighted to death at the sight thereof He also caught running the Hind of Menalus's Hills the Feet whereof were of Brass and his Horns of Gold after he had pursu'd her a whole year He likewise drove away the Birds of Styâ—â—phalus's Lake that were so numerous and of so prodigious a bigness that they stopt the light with their wings and took up Men to devour them He engag'd the Amazons inhabiting Scythia near the Hircanean Sea and took their Queen Hypolita prisoner whom Theseus married He cleansed the Stables of Augias King of Elis where a thousand Oxen were kept the Dung whereof infected the air and to compass this work he turned the course of the River Alpheus and convey'd the Waters thereof through the Stables which carried away all the Dung. He seiz'd upon a Bull casting out fire and flames that Neptune had sent into Greece to revenge some affront he had received from the Greeks He took Diomedes King of Thrace and gave him to be eaten by his own Man-eating Horses to punish him for his cruelty towards Strangers whom likewise he deliver'd up to be devoured by his Horses and made Geryon who had three Bodies suffer the same punishment because his Oxen devoured Travellers He brought to Euristeus the golden Apples out of the Garden of the Hesperides and kill'd the dreadful Dragon that guarded them He went to Hell and brought thence with him the Dog Cerberus and delivered Theseus who was gone thither to keep company with Pirithous his Friend and this was the last of his Exploits Many other performances both of Justice and Courage are still ascribed to Hercules for he kill'd Busiris the Son of Neptune who us'd to cut the Throats of Travellers and killed Cacus a three-headed Man the Son of Vulcan a famous Robber who infested Mount Aventinus and the Country round about with his Robberies and passing by Mount Caucasus he delivered Prometheus whom Jupiter had order'd to be tied thereon and kill'd the Eagle who was devouring his Liver and smother'd in his Arms Anteus the Son of the Earth In the latter end of his life he was much given to Women and Omphale Queen of Lydia
made him spin and beat him with her Distaff and after all his great Atchievements he put an end to his Life on Mouut Oeta for having put on the Garment of Nessus the Centaur which Dejanira his Wife had sent him by Lycas the malignity of Nessus's blood which was a strong Poyson put him into so violent a rage that he cast himself into a burning pile of wood and there was consumed HERCULES the LIBYAN or HORUS Several Illustrious Men went by the name of Hercules yet amongst them there were three very famous two whereof signaliz'd themselves in Italy viz. Hercules the Libyan and Hercules of Greece the Son of Alomena and Jupiter whom we have lately mention'd Horus or Hercules the Libyan the Son of Osiris and Isis as Berusus and Natalis Comes tells us applied himself to deliver Men from oppression and injustice To that purpose he went into Libya where he put Antaeus to death from Lybia he passed over into Spain where he killed Geryon the Tyrant and from Spain he came into Italy where he reigned thirty years Herodotus reports that he was the last of the Gods and says that he reigned twelve hundred years wherefore Diodorus Siculus tells us that the Egyptians reckon'd their years by the course of the Moon and that their years are like our months HERCULES GALLICUS or OGMIUS The Gauls draw him with a white Beard bald wrinkled and tawny like old Marriners or rather like Charon himself or Japetus who is reckon'd the most ancient of Men. In short to see him you would take him for any thing rather than Hercules tho he wears the same Ensign viz. a Lion's skin a Massy-Club with a Bow bent in his left hand and a Quiver at his back I thought at first says Lucian they did it out of mockery or out of revenge for the incursions he made into their Country in his Expedition of Spain But I have not yet told you of the greatest mystery of the Picture which is that he held enchain'd by the ears an infinite number of People who are ty'd to his Tongue by small twists or wires of Gold as by so many chains and follow him willingly without struggling or hanging back insomuch that a Man would say they delighted in Captivity As I was wondering with some Indignation at this spectacle a Doctor of that Country who spoke very good Greek told me he would unriddle me the mystery that was contained under that Aenigma and begun in the manner following We do not with the Greeks believe that Mercury is the Symbol or rather the God of Eloquence as he is stil'd but rather Hercules who is much more powerful and our opinion is that he affected all that we admire not by the strength of his Arm but by that of his Reason Wherefore we paint him under the figure of an old Man because Reason is not accomplish'd until that Age. This God holds all Mankind tied by the Ears which is the effects of Ratiocination and his Tongue to which they are fasten'd is the Instrument of their Captivity His Darts are the force of his Reasons being feather'd because that words are wing'd as Homer calls them Many Temples and Altars were erected to Hercules the Gaulish at Tyrus in Spain and at Rome and one of these Altars was called Aramaxima because of the great quantity of Stones employed in the building thereof whereon they took solemn Oaths and offered the tenth part of the Booty And a Merchant whom Hercules had rescued from the Hands of Pirates built him a Temple of a round figure under the Title of Deo Herculi Invicto 'T is reported that neither Flies nor Dogs entered into this Temple because he had driven away Myagros the God of Flies and had left his Massy-Club at the entrance of this Temple Hercules was represented stark naked except the Lion's skin which cover'd his Body or twisted about his Arm and holding with one hand his Massy-Club He is yet expressed by a figure holding three Golden Apples in his right hand and his Club in the left And a great brass Figure of Hercules holding an Apple in his hand was lately found at Rome in the Market for Oxen. The Poplar-tree was dedicated to him as Virgil says Populus Alcidae gratissima and Phaedrus populus Herculi wherefore his Figure is yet visible on a Greek Medal crowned with Branches of Poplar-tree and a Lion's skin about his neck The Emperor Commodus slighted the sirname of his Family and instead of Commodus Son to Marcus Aurelius took the name of Hercules the Son of Jupiter and leaving off the Imperial Badges he put on a Lion's skin and wore a Massy-Club the badges of Hercules and appeared publickly in this dress And yet not contented with it he order'd that Coins of Gold Silver and Brass should be stamp'd with his Effigies on one side crown'd with a Lion's skin and on the other side a Massy-Club a Bow a Quiver and Arrows with this Inscription Herculi Romano Invicto and when he wrote to the Senate he stiled himself Romanus Hercules and had the Massy-Club and the Lion's skin carried before him in his Travels HERE 's An Heir one who succeeds to Lands or Estate either by right of Family or by a last Will. The Roman Laws established three kinds of Heirs The necessary Heirs were the Slaves made Heirs by their Masters who freed them and are called necessary because being appointed by their Masters they were forced to accept of his Will and were not allowed to quit the Inheritance tho' it was very much incumber'd with Debts and subject to great charges The other kind of Heirs called Sui and Necessarij were the Children who were in the power of the deceased Person in the time of his death and were called necessarij because willing or unwilling they are Heirs and Sui because they are the Testator's own and proper Domesticks and the owners of the Lands and Estates of their Parents The third kind of Heirs were Strangers viz. those who were neither Children nor Slaves to the deceased person and these were voluntary Heirs for they were free to accept or quit what was left them As for the former who were the Slaves of the Testator they are freed and Heirs by the only benefit of the law without any other act of acceptation and are not admitted to refuse the Will On the contrary they are bound to pay all the Debts even out of the Estate or Goods that they had purchas'd since they had obtain'd their freedom unless the Praetor granted them a benefit of separation And the Children who were under the deceased person's authority in the time of his death they were like Slaves as to the necessity of accepting the Inheritance being necessary Heirs to their Parents and after the death of their Father the Inheritance was rather a continuation of Patrimony than a new purchase The third kind of Heirs called Strangers who were neither Slaves nor Children to the dead
Tully that he would send it to him to adorn his Library And Tully answers him thus Epist 3. l. 1. What you write of the Herm-Athenae is very acceptable to me and I have appointed an honourable place for them in my Academy whereof it shall be the Ornament seeing that Mercury is the general protector of all Academies and Minerva presides particularly over mine Wherefore you can't oblige me more sensibly then to procure me these kind of Rarities to adorn this place 'T is no wonder to see Mercury and Minerva joyned together in this Statue for it was usual to keep Holy-days and offer Sacrifices that were common to them both because one presided over Eloquence and the other the Sciences and that Eloquence without Erudition is but a meer sound and Learning without Eloquence but an unprofitable Treasure Therefore the Athenians who were the most Learned most Eloquent and most Valiant Men in the world did wisely to erect and dedicate this figure of Hermathcna This Hermathena is the reverse of a Medal dedicated to Adrian who boasted of his Learning and Eloquence HERM-ANUBIS is represented two several ways for in some Figures 't is represented with the Head of a Sparrow-hawk and in others with the head of a Dog This strange Idol mention'd by Plutarch was a Divinity of the Egyptians representing Mercury and Anubis the Caduceum which he holds in his hand being the common badge of Mercury and the head of a Sparrow-hawk the Symbol of Anubis because Anubis was a great Hunter wherefore he is also express'd with the head of a Dog and Ovid calls him Latrator Anubis HERM-HERACLES is a Deity represented like the Hermae with the Lion's skin and the Massy-Club of Hercules the Greeks call him Heracles which has a relation to the custom of the Antient Greeks who erected the Statues of Mercury and Hercules in the Academies because both presided over the Exercises of Youth viz. Wrestling Running Boxing and other Combats of Champions The union of Mercury with Hercules shew'd that Strength must be back'd with Eloquence and that Eloquence had the art of overcoming Monsters Mercury was often express'd at Athens by a square figure of an unpolish'd Stone whereon they set up the head of any other God whatsoever The origine of this custom was that in former times the Statues of Mercury were placed upon square Bases to shew the solidity of the works of Art and especially of Eloquence invented by him Wherefore in series of time these square Bases were taken for his representation tho' there were no Statues whatsoever set upon 'em because these bases were peculiar to him But afterwards to honour the other Gods Statues they plac'd them upon these bases to shew that they were famous only by Mercury who chief business was to carry their Errands and execute their Orders And the whole figure of these two Gods joined together was called by the name of the Deity whose figure was set upon the Basis wherefore Herm-Heracles was the figure of Hercules placed upon the representation of Mercury HERM-EROS is a Statue of Brass representing a God made up of Mercury and Cupid called by the Greeks Eros This God is expressed by the figure of a young Boy holding the Caducaeum and the Purse the two Badges of Mercury The Ancients doubtless intimated by this Emblem that Eloquence and Money were two necessary things to a Lover Pliny speaking of fine Carver's work mentions the Hermaerotae of one Tauriscus and the word Hemero's was often used by the Romans and the Greeks for a sirname as we may see by the Inscription of an Epitaph found at Rome HFRMEROTI AUG LIB PRAEPOSITO TABULAR RATIONIS CASTRENSIS FRATRI INDULGENTISSIM AMPLIATUS AUG LIB FECIT To the Memory of Hermeros Infranchised by the Emperor Overseer of the Secretaries of the Camp Ampliatus Freed-man of the Emperor has dedicated this Monument to his very good Brother HERM-HARPOCRATES The Figure of Mercury and Harpocrates with wings at his heels like Mercury and holding his Finger upon his Mouth like Harpocrates the God of silence among the Aegyptians to shew that sometimes silence is eloquent especially amongst Lovers who often express themselves better with their eyes than by word of Mouth HERMA-MITHRA Her Figure is represented upon a Medal that Mr. Spon has brought from the Isle of Maltha the Head whereof is a Woman with a Veil On the Reverse are three small Figures the middle one is a Statue drawn half way with a Mitre on and set upon a Term the Inscription whereof consists only in three Punid Characters The Head cover'd with a Veil represents Juno the Mitred head Mercury and Apollo joined together HERMOGENES was very famous in the art of Orarory At fifteen years of age he taught Rhetorick with general applause and at four and twenty he forgot all that he knew before wherefore it was said of him that in his youth he was a perfect Man and in his old age a Child After his death his Corps was opened and his Heart was found hairy and of an extraordinary bigness HERODOTUS A Greek Historian of a rare and singular merit who considering with himself which way he might become famous he thought fit to present himself at the Olympick Games where all the Greeks were assembled and there he recited his History with so much applause that his Books were called by the name of Muses and when he was passing by they cried out every where There is the Man who has so deservedly sung our Victories and celebrated the Advantages that we have obtain'd over the Barbarians His Writings were admired for the elegancy of the Discourse the grace of the Sentences and and the polite stile of the Ionick Dialect HEROPHILUS He lived in the seventh Age. Pliny tells us that he oppos'd the Principles of Erasistratus and grounded the difference of Diseases on the Rules of Musick HEROS A Hero was in former ages a great and illustrious Person and although he was of a mortal Race was yet esteemed by the People a partaker of Immortality and after his death was put amongst the Gods Lucian defines a Hero by one who is neither God nor Man but both together St Austin in the tenth Book de Civitate Dei says that 't is very likely that Juno had a Child called by that name because according to the opinion of the Ancients vertuous persons after their death inhabit the vast space of the Air which were Juno's Dominion according to the Fable Isidorus says that the Heroes were called by that name as if one said Aereos or Aeres persons rais'd by merit and worthy of Heaven Plâ—â—o derives that word from the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 amor because says he the Heroes came by the conjunction of a God with a mortal Woman or of a mortal Man with a Goddess The Heroes were Men who by their Eloquence moved the People which way they pleased giving them an aversion against Vice and leading them by their
plebis majoris partis dedicaret It was not lawful to dedicate a Temple or an Altar without the consent of the Senate or Tribunes of the people LEX PAPIRIA The Papirian Law Ne quis injussu plebis aedes terram aram aliamâ—â— rem ullam consecraret It was not allowed any to consecrate Temples any piece of Ground and Altars without the consent of the people LEX HORTENSIA The Hortensian Law required that the Fairs which were at first kept on Holy-days should for the future be held on Working-days where in the Praetor administred Justice by pronouncing these three words do dico addico This Law was made by Q. Hortensius Dictator in the year of Rome cccclxviii LEX PUBLICIA The Publician Law made by Publicius Tribun of the people Ne quibus nisi ditioribus cerei Saturnalibus mittorentur That Wax Tapers were not to be sent to any but those that were rich at the time of the Saturnalia It was a custom to make several Presents at this Feast and particularly of Wax Tapers to intimate that Saturn had brought Men from Darkness to Light that is from an obscure and savage to a polite and learned Life LEX CORNELIA The Cornelian Law made by the Consul P. Cornelius Dolabella after the death of Julius Caesar in the year of Rome dccx Ut Eidus Julii quibus Caesar interfectus in Senatu est Urbis natales haberentur That they should celebrate the day of Rome s Original on the Ides of July when Caesar was slain LEX LICINIA The Licinian Law concerning those Plays called Ludi Apollinares instituted in honour of Apollo determined the day on which they should be represented there being no fixed day before appointed for that purpose P. Licinius Praetor urbanus legem ferre ad populum jussus ut hi ludi perpetuùm in statam diem voverentur LEX ROSCIA The Roscian and Julian Law of which L. Roscius Otho Tribune of the people was Author according to Florus in the year of Rome dclxxxvi Ut in Theatro Equitibus Romanis qui H. S. quadringenta possident quatuordecim spectandi gradus adsignarentur exceptis iis qui ludicram artom exercuerant quique sive suo sive fortunae vitio rem decoxissent That the Roman Knights who were worth 400000 Sesterces i. e. about 3333 l. Sterling should have fourteen Steps of the Theater allowed them to see the Plays except those who were turned Buffoons and wasted all their Fortune by their Debaucheries This is what Tacitus says Ami. l. 15. c. 5. the Emperour separated the Roman Knights from the people in the Circus and gave them Seats that were neares to the Senators For before this they assisted at this Shew confusedly for the Roscian Law regulated no more than what regarded the Seats in the Theater LEX CINCIA The Cincian Law made for restraining the Avarice of the Orators who exacted large Sums of Money for their pleadings The Calpurnian Law against the Bribery of Magistrates and that which bore the name of Julius Caesar was made against the Avarice and Intriges of those who made private Suit for Offices in the Commonwealth LEX PAPIA The Papian Poppean Law made by Augustus in his old Age to incourage Men to Marry by imposing a Penalty upon Batchelours and thereby to increase the Rvenues of the Commonwealth LEX AGRARIA The Agrarian Law made concerning the distribution of Lands taken from the Enemies This Law proved to be the Seed of great Divisions in the Roman Empire in the time of the Republick See Agraria LEX JULIA A Law made by Augustus against Adultery It was the first that appointed a punishment and publick Process to be made against those who seduced Wives and Debauched Maidens and Widows of Quality Not that Adultery was not punished before Augustus his time but there was no process made against it and there was no stated Punishment assigned for it But the Julian Law which Augustus himself had the misfortune to see put in execution in his own Family in the person of his own Children required nothing but banishment for this sin of Adultery but the Penalty was afterwards increased by the constitutions of the succeeding Emperors who punished Adultery with death LEX SUMPTUARIA A Sumptuary Law made by Cornelius Sulla the Dictator in the Year of Rome DCLXXIII whereby the expences of Feasts and Funerals were regulated and those condemned to pay a certain pecuniary mulct who transgressed the injunction of that Law LEX PAPIA The Papian Law concerning the Vestal Virgins who looked after the Sacred Fire in the Temple of the Goddess Vesta she who let it go out was whipped by the Soveraign Pontiff and if she suffered her self to be Debauched she was buried alive in Campus Sceleratus without the Gate called Portacollina See Vestalis LEX PEPETUNDARUM or DE REPETUNDIS The Law of Bribery or publick Extortion LEX AELIA The Elian Law made concerning the Augurs by Q. Aelius Paetus the Consul in the year of Rome dlxxxvii LEX FUSIA The Fusian Law made concerning the time of holding the Assemblies which ought not to be held but upon those days called Dii Comitiales LEX VALERIA SEMPRONIA The Valerian and Sempronian Law made concerning those who had a right to Vote in the Roman Assemblies C. Valerius Tappo Tribute of the people was the Author of it in the year of Rome icxvi LEX VILLIA The Villian Law of which L. Villius Tribune of the people was Author and whereby the Age of Persons that were to enter upon Offices in the Republick was regulated 'T was also called LEX ANNALIS LEX CORNELIA The Cornelian Law which prescribed the Qualifications Persons ought to have that enter upon Offices in the Commonwealth LEX HIRCIA The Hircian Law which allowed of none to hold Offices in the Republick but such as had sided with Caesar against Pompey LEX VISELLIA The Visellian Law which allowed the Sons of Freedmen the right of becoming Magistrates LEX POMPEIA CLAUDIA The Pompeian and Claudian Law which required that those who put in for Offices in the Commonwealth should be always present LEX RHODIA The Law of Rhodes relating to traffick by Sea this Law required that if it happened a Ship laden with Merchandize that belonged to several Merchants in order to avoid Shipwrack threw the Goods of some of them overboard and that those of the other were saved an estimate should be made of all the Merchandize and that the loss and damage should be sustained by every one of them in proportion to the Effects he had on board this was made by the Rhodians and was found to be so just that it was received by all the Nations that came after them LIBATIO A Libation being a Ceremony practised in the Sacrifices of the Pagans wherein the Priest poured down some Wine Milk and other Liquors in honour of the Deity to whom he Sacrificed after he had first tasted a little of it LIBATIONES Libations of Wine and other Liquors frequently made
a Navel And from thence came the Word Volume from the Verb volvo and this other Latin Phrase ad umbilicum opus perductum that is a Business finish'd for the same was closed up with this Boss or Stud To write otherwise was so very contrary to Custom that when they were minded to ridicule any one who was tedious they said he wrote on both sides and never made an end This Invention of Parchment is older than some Authors make it to be since Herodotus relates that the Ionians who received the Use of Letters from the Phoenicians called the Skins of Beasts Books because they made use of them sometimes to write upon and because a Treaty made between the old Romans and the Gabii a People of Latium was written in Antique Letters upon an Ox his Hide wherewith they covered a Wooden Shield as Dionysius of Halicarnassus informs us they made use almost of all sorts of Things to write upon as the Barks of Trees Boards covered with Wax or the like Brass was also used on which the Spartans wrote to Simon High Priest of the Jews scripserunt ad cum saith the Scripture in Tabulis aereis They wrote also upon Ivory as Vlpian informs us Libris Elephantinis upon Goat-skins and the Entraiis of Animals according to Herodotus Cedrenus and Zonaras who relate that there was in the Library at Constantinople Homer's Iliads wrote in Gold Characters upon the Intestine of a Dragon an 120 Foot in length The Lombards after their Irruption into Italy wrote upon Wooden Tables or Boards that were very thin whereon they drew Letters as easily as upon Wax Apuleius in divers places speaks of Linnea Books Libri lintei which were so valuable that they made no use of them but to record the Actions of the Roman Emperors which were deposited in the Temple of Juno Moneta They at first made use of a Stile to draw the Letters with but afterwards Ink came in Fashion and the same was of divers Colours even of Gold and Enamel Pliny speaks of a Kind of peculiar Ink for Books which was mixt with some Wormwood-Juice to preserve them from Rats The Custom of using Gold is very ancient seeing a certain Author hath given us an Account that one of Pindar's Odes which was the Seventh was writ in Gold Characters and kept in the Temple of Minerva Silver was also in Use but Purple was reserved for the Emperors only LITHOSTROTON a Pavement of Mosaick-Work which begun to be in Use in Rome in Sylla's Time who made one thereof at Preneste in the Temple of Fortune about 170 Years before our Saviour's Nativity This Word signifies only in Greek a Stone Pavement but by it must be understood such Pavements as are made of small Stones joined together and as it were enchased in the Cement representing different Figures by the Variety of their Colours and Ordering At last the same came in Fashion in Rooms and they wainscoted the Walls of Palaces and of Temples therewith there is at Lyons an old Church dedicated to St. Ireneus that is all paved with Mosaick-work where may be still seen Images of Rhetorick Logick and Prudence The Pieces whereof Mosaick-work was made M Perrault says in his Commentary upon Vitruvius should be cubical or come near unto a cubical Form that so they might joyn exactly one with another and be able to imitate all the Figures and Shadowings of Painting every small Stone used therein having but one Colour as well as the Stitches of Needle-work Tapestry LITUUS this was a Staff belonging to the Augurs bending inwardly at Top somewhat like a Bishop's Crosier but shorter It was the Ensign of their Office LIVIA was of the illustrious Family of the Claudii who by several Adoptions had passed into that of the Livii and Julii for her Father was adopted into the Family of the Livii and her self into that of the Caesars She was first married to the Emperor Tiberius his Father But Augustus being smitten with her Beauty would have her for his Wife and tho' shewere then with Child forced her away from her Husband By her first Marriage she had Tiberius and Drusus Historians accuse her of poisoning Augustus in order to raise her Son Tiberius to the Throne She died at a great Age in the Consulship of Rubellius and Fusius surnamed Geminus LIXA a Town in Mauritania where according to the Fable stood the Palace of Anteus whom Hercules squeezed to Death between his Arms as also the Gardens of the Hesperides where grew the golden Apples that were guarded by a Dragon LUCARIA was a Feast which was celebrated at Rome on the Eighteenth of July in Memory of the Flight of the Romans into a great Wood near the River Allia where they made their Escape Plutarch says the Actors were paid that Day the Money which arose from the Felling of Wood. LUCINA Ovid derives her Name from Lucus or rather Lux because 't was by her Help they believed Infants were brought forth Cratia Lucinae dedit haec tibi Nomina Lucus Aut quia Principium tu Dea Lucis habes The Poets attributed to Diana the Functions of Lucina and they thought 't was she that was invoked under the Name of Lucina Martial confounds the one with the other and so does Horace Ritè maturos aperire partus Lenis Ilithyia tuere Matres Sive tu Lucina probas vocari Seu Genitalis Diva producas Sobolem The Women cried to her when they were in Labour because she presided over Lyings-in Juno Lucina fer Opem Ter. LUCRETIA the Daughter of Spurius Lucretius who married Collatinus her extraordinary Beauty made Sextus Tarquinius attempt to ravish her in the Absence of her Husband But this vertuous Lady being not able to bear that Indignity went to her Father and the People of Rome to have Justice done her then stabbed her self with a Dagger that she might not survive the Disgrace This Sight did so affect the Romans that they cried out for Liberty and drove King Tarquin out of Rome and erected a Sort of Government that had something both of Aristocracy and Democracy in it for which End they created Two Consuls to govern the Commonwealth LUCTA was one of the bodily Exercises used among the Athenians being an Encounter between Two Men only for a Trial of Strength and wherein each endeavoured to give the other a Fall This sort of Combating and the Prize appointed for the Conqueror they had in the Olympick Games Lucian in his Dialogue concerning the Exercises of the Body brings in Anarcarsis a Scythian speaking thus to Solon concerning the said Exercise where he determines how it should be done Anacarsss Why do these young Men give one another the Foyl and tumble in the Dirt like Swine endeavouring to Stifle and hinder each other to take breath They anointed and shaved one another at first very friendly but suddenly stooping their Heads they butt at each other like Two Rams Then one of them hoisting up
did eat in one Day Forty Pounds of Victuals and drunk as many Pints of Wine He was killed together with his Son by the Soldiery having reigned only Three Years MECOENAS a Roman Knight descended from the Kings of Etruria which made Horace speaking concerning him say Mecaenas atavis edite Regibus He was the Patron of learned Men and had a singular Kindness for Virgil and Horace He was a Favourite of the Emperor Augustus and of a very healthy Constitution All the Patrons of learned Men are at this Day called Meccanas's MEDEA the Daughter of Aetes King of Colchos who by her Magical Art assisted Jason to take away the Golden-Fleece she married him afterwards and had Two Children by him but that did not hinder him from wedding Creusa the Daughter of Creon King of Corinth whither had retired Creon banished Medea scarce allowing her a Day 's Respite the which she improved to make enchanted Presents to Creusa whereby she was destroyed Creon afterwards died embracing of his Daughter Medea killed her own Children and in a Charriot drawn by winged Serpents made her Escape to Athens where she married King Egeus by whom she had a Son named Medus But going about to poison Theseus the eldest Son of Egeus her Design was discovered and she was forced to fly to Asia with her Son Medus who left his Name to the Country of Media MEDICINA Physick it is an Art according to Galen to preserve present Health and to restore that which is lost and according to Hippocrates 't is an adding of that which is wanting and a retrenching of what is superstuous in Herophilus his Sence 't is a Knowledge of such Things as are conducive to Health or noxious thereunto This Art was not introduced to Rome till about 600 Years after the Building thereof as Pliny says wherein he is mistaken unless he means that it was not practised in Rome by Forreign Physicians till such a Time The Art is divided into Anatomy Pathology Therapeutick Chymistry Botanism and Surgery Julian the Apostate made a Law concerning Physicians which is printed among his Greèk Letters and runs thus in English It being known by Experience that the Art of Physick is beneficial to Manking 't is not without Cause that the Philosophers have given out it came down from Heaven seeing that by it the Infirmities of Nature and accidental Sicknesses are removed wherefore in Pursuance to the Rules of Equity and the Decrees and Authority of the Emperors our Predecessors we of our good Will and Pleasure require and command that you who profess Physich be dispensed with and discharged of all Offices and Charges laid by the Senate MEDICUS a Physician is one who practises the Art of Physich in Curing of Diseases and Wounds for of old Physicians practised Chyrurgery some Authors pretend that Physick was practised by no other than Slaves and Freedmen but Causabon in his Comments upon Suetonius refutes this and so does Drelincourt Professor of Physick at Leyden and the same may be farther justified by old Inscriptions Dioscorides a Grecian of Anazarba coming to Rome was made a Citizen thereof and became the intimate Friend of Licinius Bassus an illustrious Roman The Physician who view'd the Wounds of Julius Caesaer was called Antistius and consequently was a free Citizen of Rome for Slaves had only a Surname without any Name for their Family Pliny who seems not to treat well of Physick says That the Quirites as much as to say the Romans practised it and 't is well known that no Roman Citizens were Slaves Those who are acquainted with History must know what Esteem Physicians were in of old at Rome and elsewhere since Princes themselves disdained not the Study of it Mithridates King of Pontus did himself prepare a Remedy against Poyson Juba King of Mauritania writ a Book of Plants and Evax King of Arabia according to the Testimony of Pliny dedicated a Book to Nero concerning the Medicinal Vertues of Simples It s true Suetonius in the Life of Caligula speaks of a Slave that was a Physician Mitto tibi praeterea cum eo ex servis meis Medicum I also send you one of my Slaves who is a Physician with him There might have been some Slaves who were Physicians but it does not follow that there were no other but Slaves that were Physicians It s farther pretended that they were banish'd out of Rome in the Time of Cato the Censor according to the Sentiments of Agrippa in his Book concerning the Vanity of Sciences but for this there is no other Foundation than the Misunderstanding of the following Passage in Pliny This Art of Physick is subject to a Thousand Changes and a Thousand Additions so lyable are our Minds to change upon the first Wind that blows from Greece and there is nothing more certain among such as practise it than that he who abounds most in Words becomes uncontroulably the Arbiter of Life and Death as if there were not a Multitude of People who live without Physicians tho' indeed they should not be without Physick and this may be observed concerning the Romans themselves who lived above 600 Years without them tho' otherwise they were not a People flow to receive good Arts but manifested the Inclination they had for Physick till having had Experience thereof they condemned it expertam damnarunt However they did not condemn the Art of Physick it self but the Male Practice thereof non rem sed artem Cassius Hemina an old Author says That the first Physician who came from Peloponesus to Rome was Archagatus the Son of Iysanias when L. Aemilius and M. Livius were Consuls in the Year DXXXV after the Building of Rome that they made him a Citizen and that the Government bought him a Shop in the Cross-street of Acilius 'T is said they gave him the Title of Healer of Wounds and that he was at first very much made of but soon after his cruel Operations which went so far as to the Cutting off and Burning of some Parts of the Patient's Body procured him the Nickname of Hangman and made the People out of conceit both with Physick and Physicians And to go a little farther with this Matter take the Words of Marcus Cato the Censor to his Son says he I 'll tell thee now my dear Son Mark what my Thoughts are of these Greeks and what I desire you to learn during your Stay at Athens Take care to inform your self of their Customs but learn them not They are a wicked and indocible People which I cannot endure Believe it as if it came from a Prophet that when this Nation communicates her Sciences to others she corrupts the whole and especially if she should send her Physicians hither to us They are bound to one another by Oath to kill all Barbarians with their Physick ..... They call us Barbarians nay and give us more opprobrious Names I forbid you therefore above all Things to have to do with the Physicians We
of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 operaria machinatrix He says elsewhere they built a Temple to Minerva 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Machinatrix as being the Goddess that had introduced Arts and Inventions into the World He speaks moreover of a Statue of Minerva that fell from Heaven He says Minerva aided Perseus in his Conflict against Gorgon near the Lake Triton for which Reason that Country was consecrated to her Lastly The said Author declares the Baeotians affected to give the Name of Triton to a Brook that run near Minerva's Temple from which she had been named Tritonia As for Minerva says St. Augustine L. 18. C. 9. de Civ Dei She is much more ancient than Mars or Hercules and they said she lived in the Days of Ogyges near unto the Lake Triton from whence she was named Tritonia She was the Inventress of many rare and useful Things and Men were so much the more inclined to believe she was a Goddess because her Original was not known for as to their saying that she came out of Jupiter's Brain 't is rather a Poetical Fiction or an Allegory than Truth of History Minerva was worshipped by the Athenians for a Goddess before Cecrops his Time in whose Days Athens was founded or rebuilt 'T is a Name taken from Minerva whom the Greeks called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An Olive-Tree happening all of a sudden in a certain Place to spring out of the Ground and a Spring of Water in another these Prodigies amazed the King who presently deputed Persons to go to Apollo at Delphos in order to know what the same meant The Oracle made answer that the Olive-Tree signified Minerva and the Water Neptune and that it lay upon them to chuse according to which of the two Deities Names they should call their City hereupon Cecrops calls all the Citizens both Men and Women together for the Women were wont to have Votes in their Deliberations When the Suffrages were taken all the Men were for Neptune but all the Women for Minerva and because they exceeded the Men by one Voice Minerva carried it and Athens was called according to her Name Phornutus going about to give the Moral and Allegorical Interpretation of Minerva's proceeding from Jupiter's Brain says That the Heathen Philosophers made her to be a Divine Emanation which they called the Intellect of the great God that differed nothing from his Wisdom which in him is generated of his Brain which is the principal Part of the Soul This St. August L. 7. C. 28. de Civ Dei says was the Opinion Varro had of the Poets that according to their Custom in obscuring Philosophy with Fictions they meant no other than the Idea or Exemplairs of Things under the Name of Minerva Painters and Statuaries represented her like a beautiful Virgin armed with a Curass a Sword by her Side a Helmet on her Head adorned with Feathers holding a Javelin in her Right Hand and a Shield in her Left whereon Medusa's Head beset with Serpents was represented This Shield was called Aegis and was covered with a Goat-skin or that of the Monster Aegidis which she killed The first who erected Temples and offered Sacrifices to her were the Rhodians whom she taught to make Colossus's But because that at the very first Sacrifice they offered to her they forgot to make use of Fire she left them in Anger and went to the City which she called Athens to whom the Athenians built a stately Temple under the Name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherein they set up her Statute made of Gold and Ivory by the Hands of Phydias which was 39 Foot high Upon her Pantoufle was graven the Fight between the Lapithae and the Centaurs upon the sides of the Shield the Battle between the Amazons and the Athenians and within it the Gods fighting against the Gyants There were several Temples and Chappels erected for her at Rome whereof the most Ancient and Famous of all was that upon Mount Aventine of which Ovid speaks The Olive and the Owl were under her Protection as may be seen by the Athenian Money on one side of which stood the Head of this Goddess armed and on the other an Owl with these Greek Characters AOHNA and upon the Reverse there was an Owl flying who held a Lawrel between her Claws as a Sign of Victory MINERVALIA or Quinquatria were Feasts instituted in Honour of Minerva and celebrated March 19. the same lasting for Five Days The first Day was spent in Prayers made to this Goddess the rest in offering Sacrifices seeing the Gladiators fight acting Tragedies upon Mount Alban and reciting Pieces of Wit wherein the Conqueror had a Prize given him according to the Appointment of the Emperor Domitian The Scholars had now a Vacation and carried their Schooling-money or rather Presents to their Masters which was called Minerval Hoc mense mercedes exolvebant magistris quas completus annus deberi fecit says Macrobius MINOS the Son of Jupiter and Europa was King of Candia after he had outed his Brother Sarpedon Aristotle L. 1. Polit says He was the first that gave Laws to the Candiots his Wife's Name was Pasiphaé a Daughter of the Sun by whom he had Three Sons and Two Daughters He had great Wars with the Athenians in order to revenge the Death of his Son Androgeus whom they had slain and he granted them a Peace upon Condition they should send him every Year Seven young Men of the best Rank in their City to be devoured by the Minotaur that his Wife had brought forth as we shall shew presently He exercised the Place of a Judge in Hell with Eacus and Rhadamanthus because he was a very just Prince Plato informs us That Jupiter left the Office of passing Judgment upon the Dead to Three of his Sons Radamanthus was to judge the Asiaticks Eacus the Europeans and for Minos he was to determine any Difficulties that might occur so that he was above the other Two MINOTAURUS the Minotaur was a Monster being half Man and half Bull brought forth by Pasiphaé Minos his Wife after she had engendred with a Bull by the subtle Means of Dedalus who made a Wooden Heifer wherein he inclosed her that she might be covered by the Bull This Monster was put into the Labyrinth and by Minos his Order fed with Man's Flesh but he was at last killed by Theseus who had been sent thither to be devoured by him Lucian unravels to us the Fabulous part of this Story saying That Pasiphaé hearing Daedalus discoursing concerning Taurus which is one of the Twelve Signs was mightily taken with what he said which gave the Poets occasion to say that she was in Love with a Bull whom by his means she enjoy'd Diodorus Siculus says that Taurus was one of Minos his Captains who had to do with Pasiphaé and whose Amours were countenanced by Daedalus that she was brought to Bed of Two Children one of which resembled Minos and the other Taurus and
of them that they never took an occasion to name them and to make any Diversion with them upon the Stage It would have been a Wonder that Pliny should make no manner of mention of them in his Chapter concerning the Inventors of Things Indeed there are some modern Authors who cite certain Fragments out of Plautus such as Faber ocularius and Oculariarius of Tomb-stones and the Figure graven upon a Marble at Sulmo But Dati in a â—issertation of his has shewed us the Weakness of all these Arguments M. Spon in the 16 Dissertation Of his Searches after Antiquity says That Spectacles were invented in the Time of Alexander Spina a Dominican of the Convent of Pisa in the Year 1313. ODEUM M. Perrault upon Vitruvtus says I have been forced to retain the Greek Word for it could not have been rendred into French no more can it into English but by a Periphrasis which also would have been very difficult forasmuch as neither Interpreters nor Grammarians do agree about the Use of this Edifice Suidas who holds that this Place was appointed to rehearse the Musick that was to be performed on the great Theater grounds his Opinion upon the Etymology of the Word which is taken from Ode that in Greek signifies Song The Scholiast on Aristophanes is of another Opinion and thinks that the Odeum was a Place erected wherein to repeat Plutarch in the Life of Pericles says It was built for those Persons who heard the Musicians when they disputed for the Prize but the Description he gives thereof le ts us understand that the Odeum was built Theater-wise for he says it had Seats and Pillars all round it and was made with a sharp Top with Masts and Sail-yards taken from the Persians Cratinus the Comick Poet upon this Occasion says by way of Raillery that Pericles had ordered the Form of the Odeum of Athens according to the Shape of his own Head which was sharp insomuch that the Poets of his Time when they were minded to ridicule him in their Plays intended him under the Name of Jupiter Scinos Cephalos that is one who hath a sharp Head like a Tooth-picker which the Ancients made of a Shrub called Scinos which is the Mastick OEDIPUS the Son of Laius and Jocasta Laius King of Thehes having married Jocasta the Daughter of Creon understood by the Oracle that they should have a Son born of that Marriage who should kill him which made him command Jocasta to strangle all the Children she should bear Oedipus being born his Mother gave him to a Soldier to kill him in pursuance to the King's Command but he contented himself to make Holes in his Feet and to run an Ozier Twig thro' them wherewith he hung him to a Tree upon Mount Cithaeron Phorbas one of Polybius his Shepherds who was King of Corinth finding the Infant hanging in that manner and taking pitty of him he made a Present of him to the Queen who brought him up as her own Child they gave him the Name of Oedipus because of the Swelling that remained in his Feet which had been pierced through When he grew up he went to consult the Oracle in order to know who was his Father answer was made That he should find him in Phocis upon which he went thither and meeting with him in a popular Tumult he killed his Father Laius and did not know him as he endeavoured to appease them Juno being an Enemy to the Thebans sent the Monster Sphinx near unto Thebes that had the Face and Speech of a Virgin the Body of a Dog the Tail of a Dragon and the Claws of a Lion with the Wings of a Pird she proposed some Enigmatical Questions or Riddies to all Passengers and if they could not resolve the same she presently devoured them insomuch that no Body durst come near the City Hereupon they had Recourse to the Oracle who answered they could not be freed from this Monster unless this Riddle were explained viz. What Animal it was that in the Morning went upon Four Feet at Noon upon Two and at Night upon Three Creon who had possest himself of the Kingdom after the Death of Laius caused it to be published throughout all Greece that he would quit his Kingdom and give Joeasta Laius his Widow for a Wife to any one that should explain the Riddle Oedipus did it and explained it thus saying That it was a Man who in his Infancy crawled upon all Fours like a Beast leaning upon his Hands and Feet that at Years of Maturity he went only upon his Two Feet and at last being broken with Age leaned upon a Stick as he walked The Monster seeing her self overcome and transported with Rage went and knock'd her own Brains out against a Rock Oedipus as his Reward had the Kingdom given him and ignorantly married his own Mother Jocasta In the mean time the Gods sent a terrible Plague upon Athens to revenge the Death of Laius which according to the Oracle whom they consulted for that Purpose was not to cease but with the banishment of him who had killed him Upon this they had Recourse to the Art of Negro-mancy for the Discovering of him and it was found to be Oedipus who then coming to know his Crimes put out both his Eyes and condemned himself to perpetual Banishment He withdrew when he was very old to Athens to die there according to the Order of the Oracle near the Temple of the terrible Goddesses in a Place named Equestris Colonus where Neptune surnamed Equestris was worshipped OENOMAUS King of Elis who had a very beautiful Daughter called Hippodamia when he understood by the Oracle that his Son-in-Law should be the Cause of his Death he would not give his Daughter in Marriage to any one but he who should outdo him in a Race or else lose his Life Pelops who was in Love with Hippodamia accepted of the Offer and having bribed Myrtilus Oenomaus his Charioteer he caused the Chariot to break in the middle of the Race and threw down Oenomaus who was killed with his Fall so that by this means he got the Kingdom and married Hippodamia OENONE a Nymph of Mount Ida who fell in Love with handsome Paris and foretold him the Misfortunes he should one Day bring upon his Country by stealing away Helen Dictys Cretensis says when she saw the Body of Paris which was brought to her to be buried she died of Grief OENOTRIA that Part of Italy which lies towards Sicily and called so from the Plenty of Wines it produceth Some Authors say it took its Name from Oenotrius the Arcadian as Pausanias but Varro will have it from Oenotrius King of the Sabines This Name was afterwards given to all Italy OETA a Mountain which divides Thessaly from Macedonia and is famous for the Death of Hercules who from it was called Oetaeus this Mountain abounded in Hellebore OGYGES King of the Thebans and the Founder of the City of Ihebes about 1500 Years before the
he would for his Reward and he should have it upon which he prayed them that he might be able to have a Child without being married the said Gods presently causing the Ox his Hide which he had killed to be brought to them they pissed upon it and bid him bury it in the Ground and not trouble himself about it till Ten Months end when the Time was expired he found a Child there which he called Orion Hesiod makes Neptune to be his Father and Euryale the Daughter of Minos his Mother He tells us he had obtained a Power of Neptune to walk as lightly upon the Water as Iphicâ—â—s did over the Heads of Ears of Corn Being gone one Day from Thebes to Chio he ravished Merâ—â—s Enopian's Daughter who struck him blind and drove him from the Island from whence he went to Lemnos to Vulcan who brought him to the Sun that cured him of this Blindness As he went afterwards to ravish Diana she caused him to be stung by a Scorpion whereof as Palephatus says he died Homer in his Odysses L. 5. relates that 't was Diana her self that shot him to Death with her Arrows out of a Jealousie she had that Aurora was in Love with him And this is confirmed by Plutarch in his Fortune of the Romans where he says that Orion was beloved of a Goddess Diana in Compassion made him a Constellation placing him before the Feet of Taurus which consists of 17 Stars in Form like unto a Man armed with a Cutelas It rises on the 9th of March bringing Storms and great Rains with it whence Virgil gave it the Epithet of Orion aquosus it sets June 21. Lucian in Praise of an House speaking of the Sculptures which adorn'd the Appartments says thus of Orion This next is an old Story of Blind Orion which imports that some Body shewed him the Way he ought to follow in order to recover his Eye-sight and the Sun that appear'd cured him of his Blindness and this Vulcan contrived in the Isle of Lesbos ORPHEUS the Son of Oeagrus or according to others of Apollo and the Muse Calliope he was born in Thrace and was both a Poet Philosopher and an excellent Musician Mercury having made him a Present of his Harp on which he play'd so exquisitely that he stoped the Course of Rivers laid Storms drew the the most savage Animals after him and made Trees and Rocks to move Having lost his Wise Eurydice who shunning the Embraces of Aristeus King of Arcadia trod upon a Serpent who stung her to Death he went down to Hell after her where by the Melody of his Musick he obtained Leave of Pluto and Proscrpina for her to return upon Condition he should not look behind him till he got upon Earth but being overcome by an amorous impatience he turned about and lost his Eurydice for ever upon which he conceived so great an Hatred to Women that he endeavoured to inspire others with the same and this provoked the Women of Thrace to that Degree that being one Day with Transports of Fury celebrating their Orgia they fell upon Orpheus tore him to Pieces and threw his Head unto the River Lucian writes concerning it in this manner When the Thracian Women killed Orpheus 't is said his Head which they threw into the River swum a long time upon his Harp uttering mournful Tones in Honour of the said Heroe and that the Harp being touched by the Winds answered the mournful Song and in this Condition they arrived at the Isle of Lesbos where the People erected a Funeral Monument for him in the Place where Bacchus his Temple now stands but they hung up his Harp in Apollo's Temple where the same was kept a long time till the Son of Pittacus having heard say that it play'd of it self and charmed Woods and Rocks had a mind to have it for himself and so bought it for a good Sum of Money of the Sacristan but not thinking he could play safely in the City he went by Night to the Suburbs where as he went about to touch it the same made such a dreadful Noise instead of the Harmony he expected that the Dogs run thither and tore him in Pieces and so was attended with the same Fate herein as Orpheus himself There are some Authors who say that the Menades tore Orpheus in Pieces because he having sung the Genealogy of all the Gods had said nothing of Bacchus and the said God to be revenged on him caused his Priestesses to kill him Others say this Misfortune befel him by the Resentment of Venus to whom Calliope Orpheus his Mother had refused to give Adonis any longer than for 6 Months in the Year and that to revenge the same she made all the Women in Love with Orpheus and that every one of them being minded to enjoy him they had in that manner tore him in Pieces Cicero says that Aristotle thought there never was such an one as Orpheus and that the Poems which were attributed to him were the Works of a Pythagorean Philosopher In the mean time 't is hard to doubt there was such an one after so many Testimonies of the Ancients to the Contrary since Pausanias makes mention of Orpheus his Tomb and of the Hymns he had composed which he says came but little short or the Elegancy and Beauty of those of Homer but that his Wit was attended with more Religion and Piety than the others St. Justin reports that Orpheus Homer Solon Pythagoras and Plato had travelled into Egypt that they got there some Knowledge of the Scriptures and that afterwards they retracted what they had before written concerning the superstitious Worship of their false Deities in Favour of the Religion of the true God Orpheus according to this Father in his Verses spoke very clearly concerning the Unity of God as of him who had been as it were the Father of that extravagant Multiplicity of the Heathen Gods The Fable made him after his Death to be changed into a Swan Lucian informs us also in his Judicial Astrology that he gave the Greeks the first Insight into Astrology tho' but obscurely and under the Vâ—il of divers Mysteries and Ceremonies For the Harp on which he celebrated the Orgia and sung his Hymns and Songs had Seven Strings which represented the Seven Planets for which reason the Greeks after his Death placed the same in the Firmament and called a Constellation by its Name ORUS or HORUS King of Egypt the Son of Osiris the Greeks call him Apollo because perhaps he divided the Year into Four Seasons and the Day into Hours See Horus OSIRIS was a God and King among the Egyptians to whom they gave also divers other Names Diodorus Siculus says that some took him for Serapis others for Bacchus Pluto Ammon Jupiter and Pan. After that Osiris King of Egypt who was the fifth of the Gods that reigned in that Country after I say Osiris was killed by his Brother Typhon it was believed his Soul went
Infamy buried his Name in Oblivion being prompted by some evil Genius fell in Love with this Statue wherefore he spent all his time in the Temple to contemplate her having his Eyes always fixed upon her ..... His Passion continuing all the Temple Walls and Trees round resounded nothing but his Love It extoll'd Praxiteles above Jupiter and gave all that it had for an Offering to the Goddess It was believed at first that his Devotion lead him thither but he being at length transported with Madness hid himself one Night in the Temple and some Mark of the Violence of his Passion was discovered next Day but he seen no more and whether it were that he fell down over the Rocks or into the Sea is uncertain PRIAMUS the Son of Laomedon he was with his Sister Hesione taken Prisoner by Hercules and ransomed for Money he ascended his Father's Throne and reign'd over the Trojans and all Asia He married Hecuba by whom he had several Children and Paris amongst the rest who going to Greece under Pretence of demanding Hesione his Aunt 's Liberty took away Helen from Menelaus which caused the Grecians to engage in that War against the Trojans that lafted Ten Years At last Troy was destroy'd and Priamus killed by Pyrrbus the Son of Achilles near unto the Altar of Jupiter Herceius PRIAPUS the Poets made him to be Venus and Bacchus's Son he was not a Man but the Representation of those Parts that serve for Generation which Isis caused to be made and worshipped when after the rest of Osiris his Body was found which had been cut to pieces by his Enemies there was none but this wanting the Picture whereof he required should be adored this Worship spread it self every-where and this infamous Figure was to be seen in most Temples in Vineyards and Gardens over whom Priapus was said to preside Diodorus adds that in order to the advancing the Credit of this Monster of Impurity they made him to be the Son of Venus and Bacchus Strabo speaks of a City in Troas that bore the Name of Priapus because he was much honoured there and that it abounded with excellent Wines But this Author says afterwards that the Worship of Priapus was new that Hesiod did not know him but that he was very like unto the other petty Deities of the Athenians But this Worship could be no where new except in Greece if according to Diodorus Siculus it prevailed in Egypt in the Days of Isis Strabo observes that even before this Priapus the Greeks were not without some other the like Representations Some have thought that the Image and Worship of Priapus began to obtain in the World after Sesostris King of Egypt had subdued a great Part thereof and left all those immodest Pictures as an Instance of their Lasciviousness and Victories in all the Provinces Venus prostituting herself to Bacchus and being ready to lie in she retired to Lampsacus a City in Phrygia where she was brought to Bed of Priapus who was born with a prodigious large Genital Venus left him in that City where after he grew up he was so mightily beloved of the Women that the Lampsacians banished him out of their City but finding themselves taken with a strange Distemper in their privy Parts and having consulted the Oracle thereupon they recalled him and set up his Statue in their Orchards and Gardens to frighten the birds away they represented him like a Man stark naked with disheveled Hair holding a Sickle in one Hand and his Genital in the other They sacrificed an Ass to him because Priapus according to Ovid going about to violate the Chastity of Vesta when asleep Silenus's Ass bray'd awaked her and prevented her being debauched by him PRIMICERIUS CUBICULI the first Groom or first Gentleman of the Bed-Chamber PRIMICERIUS NOTARIORUM Secretary of State who kept a general Register of the whole Empire Tacitus in the first Book of his Annals tells us that the Emperor Augustus had made a Journal of the Empire wherein was contained the â—â—umber of Roman Soldiers and Strangers that were in Service that of the Armies Kingdoms Provinces Imposts Revenues and at last a State of the Charge the whole was writ by Augustus his own Hand The Emperors at first left the keeping of this Journal to their Freed-men which were called Procuratores ab Ephemeride and afterwards Vir spectabilis Primicerius Notariorum who had several Secretaries under him called Tribuni Notarii PRIMIPILUS chief Captain or first Centurion who had Charge of the Banner Collonel of the first Legion among the Romans PRIMITIAE the first Fruits of the Earth which were offered to the Gods upon an Altar made like a Trivet PROBUS a Roman Emperor that succeeded Tacitus he was a Pesant's Son of Dalmatia but his Valour Spirit and other excellent Endowments supplied all the Defects of his Birth in so advantagious a manner that it proved to be no Impediment to him In Gaul he took Revenge upon 400000 Germans whom he defeated for the Cruelties they had exercised towards those that were faithful to the Empire in divers Irruptions made by them God gave him a famous Victory over the Sarmatians in Illyricum and over the Goths in Thrace Bonosus and Proculus rebelled against him one in the Provinces near the Rhine and the other in that Part of Gaul which is about Lyons But they both unhappily perished It 's indeed true that the Inroads made by the Franks into all the Provinces of the Empire allayed the Joy of his Victories Death put a Stop to the Triumphs which Probus hoped to have won over the Persians in the Fifth Year of his Reign according to Vopiscus and the Beginning of his Seventh according to Eusebius Orosus Cassiodorus Aurelius Victor and Eutropius He was killed by his own Soldiers fearing he should subdue all the Enemies of the Empire left they should become useless PRO-CONSUL a Magistrate who was sent to govern a Province with a consulary and extraordinary Power He had all the Ensigns of a Consul's Power conferred upon him as the Purple-Robe the Curule-Chair and the Ivory-Scepter but he had no more than Six Lictors His Equipage was provided at the Charge of the Publick and the same was called Viaticum which consisted in Pavillions Charging-Horses Mules Clerks Secretaries c. as Cicero in his Oration against Rullus explains it Deinde ornat apparitoribus scribis librariis praeconibus praeterea mulis tabernaculis tentoriis supellectili sumptum haurit ex aerario This Office lasted no longer than one Year but the Person many Times exercised it till the Arrival of his Successor and there were but 30 Days allowed him for his Return to Rome PROGNE the Daughter of Pandion King of Athens who was married to Tereus King of Thrace by whom she had a Son named Itys Tereus going one Day to Athens she desired him to bring her Sister Philomela along with him which he did but he ravished her by the Way and then
second and third Hour of the Day the Sun being in Taurus the Moon in Libra Saturn Mars Venus and Mercury in Scorpio and Jupiter in Pisces according to the Testimony of Solinus Pliny and Eutropius Titus Terentius Firmianus a learned Astrologer rejects the foresaid Time and according to his Computation makes it to be on the 21st of April at full Moon and when the Sun Mercury and Venus were in Taurus Jupiter in Pisces Saturn and Mars in Cancer about the third Hour and Plutarch observes that the Moon on the said Day suffered a great Ecclipse Romulus divided the Inhabitants of his City into Three Tribes or Classes under Tribunes or Collonels and each Tribe into Ten Curiae or Parishes and each Curia into Ten Decuriae the first being under the Command of an Officer named Curio as the other was under one called Decurio he picked out of all the Tribes such Persons whose Birth Age and Vertue made them remarkable and called them Patricii or Patres and the rest of the People Plebeians This City was governed by Seven Kings for the Space of 243 Years and became afterwards a Republick which was sometimes governed by Consuls and other whiles by Decemviri Tribunes Dictators and lastly by Emperors The Ancients represented Rome in the Form of a Goddess clad like Pallas with a youthful Air to intimate that Rome was always in the Vigour of her Youth and did not grow old They put an Helmet on her Head and a Pike in her Hand with a long Robe to denote that she was alike prepared for War and Peace since she was drest like Pallas whom they represented with a Helmet and Pike and like Minerva who was habited with a long Robe This Head of Rome is very often found on the Consulary Medals and even on some Greek ones the Inscriptions that are on the Greek Medals for Rome and the Senate are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Goddess Rome and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The God of the Senate or the Sacred Senate They also erected Temples throughout the Empire to the Honour of the Goddess Rome and at last the meanest flattering Titles they used were Roma Victrix Victorious Rome Roma invicta Invincible Rome Roma Aeterna Eternal Rome and Roma Sacra Sacred Rome The Medals of Maxentius represent Eternal Rome fitting upon Military Ensigns armed with an Helmet and holding a Scepter in one Hand and a Globe in the other which she presents the Emperor who is crowned with Lawrel to let him know that he was the Master and Preserver of the whole World with this Inscription Conservatori Vrbis aeternae The Medals of Vespatian represent her with an Helmet on her Head and lying upon the Seven Hills of Rome with a Scepter in her Hand and the Tiber in the Form of an old Man at her Feet but upon the Medals of Adrian she holds a Lawrel-branch in her Left-hand and Victory upon a Globe in the Right as being victorious over all the World The People of Smyrna were the first who erected a Temple to the City of Rome under the Consulship of Cato Major when she was not yet come to that Pitch of Grandeur she afterwards attained to before the Destruction of Carthage and the Conquest of Asia See Regio ROMULUS the Son of Mars and the Vestal Rhea otherwise called Silvia and Ilia Lucius Terentius Firmianus a Person well skilled in the curious Sciences of the Chaldaeans having exactly observed the Life and Death of Romulus says He was born the 21st Day of Thoth which is our August at Sun-rising and that he was begot the 23d of Cheac which is our November at Three in the Afternoon in the first Year of the second Olympiad Plutarch says that the Sun on the Day of his Conception suffered a great Ecclipse from Eight to Nine in the Morning Ant. Contius will have him to be born in the first Year of the first Olympiad and Fuccius asserts he was born in the 3d Year of the second Olympiad He with his Brother were by Amulius his Command exposed to be drowned in the Tiber but Faustulus who was Numitor's Shepherd saved him and his Brother Remus and they were both nursed by his Wife The Story is that they were suckled by a She-wolf because of the Leudness of Laurentia Faustulus his Wife which gave occasion to the Fable but the Thing has been even so represented on the Consulary Medals where you have a She wolf and Two Twins sucking her Romulus traced out the Plan of his new City and prescribed Laws to his People who coalesced together from all Parts into a Body for he made an Asylum of a Vale lying at the Foot of Mons Capitolinus for all those that came thither which increased the Number of his Subjects in a very little time He regulated Matters of Religion dividing his People into Three Tribes and each Tribe into Curiae or Parishes Each Curia chose it 's own Priests Priestessess Augurs and Camillae who were to supply what was requisite for the Charge of the Sacrifices and sacred Feasts that were solemnized throughout a Curia at certain Times Pliny speaks of a Society instituted by Romulus somewhat like unto the Knights of the French King's Order and they were called Fratres Arvales Romulus was the Sovereign or Grand-master of the Order the Ensigns of which was a Crown of Ears of Corn tied with a white Riband and this Dignity they held for Life He was killed in a Scufflle others will have it that he was cut in Pieces by the Senate who gave out that the Gods had carried him into Heaven he was deified and worshipped under the Name of Quirinus according to the Relation of Proculus Dionysius of Hallicarnassus says he lived 55 Years and Plutarch 54 and that he reigned 37. We have Medals of the Emperor Antoninus Pius where Romulus is represented habited like Mars with a Javilin in one Hand and with the other holding a Trophy on his Shoulders with this Inscription Romulo Augusto Gronovius excepts against all that has been said by such a Multitude of Authors concerning the Origin of Romulus for near 2500 Years He pretends that a Greeck named Diocles was the first who invented the Fable of the She-wolf's suckling Romulus and Remus who were exposed by Amulius his order to be destroyed and begotten by Mars upon Rhea Silvia a Vestal and he is so assured that there is no need to refute this Fable that he lays it down as an established Principle that Romulus was not born in Italy but that he came thither from another Country and the Proof he gives for it is That no People of Italy would supply the first Inhabitants of Rome with Wives But 't is by no means to be thought in case Romulus was owned to be the Grandson of Numitor after his expelling of the Usurper Anulius and re-establishing his Grandfather upon the Throne but that he would have found the Albans inclined
a Philosoper Nero's Praeceptor and Governour of the Empire during his Minority This Emperor put him to Death as suspecting him to have a Hand in Piso's Conspiracy He died by opening his Veins and bleeding to Death SENTINUS DEUS a God who gives Thought to an Infant in his Mother's Womb according to the Fable SEPTA Inclosures or Rails made of Boards thró ' which they went in to give their Votes in the Assemblies or the Romans SEPTEMBER The Seventh Month of the Year if you reckon from the Vernal Equinox and the Ninth if you begin with January they celebrated divers Feasts at Rome in this Month such as the Dionysiaqui or the Vintages the great Circensian Games the Dedication of the Capitol c. See Calendarium They would have given the Names of divers Roman Emperors to this Month the Senate would have had it called Tiberius in Honour of the Emperor Tiberius as Suetonius in his Life informs us C. 26. Domitian named it Germanicus according to the Authority of the same Author They gave it the Name of Antoninus in Honour of the Memory of Antoninus Pius as Julius Capitolinus relates in his Life The Emperor Commodus named it Herculeus or Hercules as Herodian says And lastly the Emperor Tacitus would have it called Tacitus after his own Name as Vopiscus says but for all these it has always retained the Name of September given it by Numa This Month was under Vulcan's Protection On the 1st Day of it there was a Feast celebrated in Honour of Neptune the 2d Day was remarkable for Augustus his Victory over Antony and Cleopatra in the Fight of Actium On the 4th the Roman Games were celebrated which lasted Eight Days The Eighth was remarkable for the taking of Jerusalem by Vespatian The 13th the Praetor drove the Nail into the Wall of Minerva's Temple thereby to denote the Number of the Years of the Roman Empire Writing being not frequently used but afterwards the Ceremony of driving the Nail was applied to other Uses especially to make the Plague cease and for that end they constituted a Dictator On the 14th there was a Cavalcade of Horses in order to try them which they called Equiria On the 20th Romulus his Birth-day was celebrated On the 23d that of Augustus by the Roman Knights and the same lasted Two whole Days The 25th was dedicated to Venus The 30th they prepared a Banquet for Minerva and celebrated a Feast called Meditrinalia SEPTIMIANA PORTA it was one of the Gates of Rome between the Tiber and the Janiculum being so named from Septimius Severus according to Spartian in his Life where he caused Baths to be built for the Publick Use SEPTIMONTIUM the Seven Mountains of the City of Rome whereon they celebrated a Feast called Septimontium SEPTIZONIUM They were Baths built by Septimius Severus on the other Side of the Tiber on Seven Rows of Pillars SEPTUNX Seven Ounces of the Weights of a Roman Pound SEPULCRA See Sepulturae SEPULTURE Buryings the Pagans always had a Regard to the Care that was taken of Sepulcres as a Religious Duty grounded upon the Fear of God and the Belief of the Soul's Immortality and the Ancients accounted the Buryings of the Dead to be a Thing so holy and inviolable that they attributed the original Invention thereof to one of the Gods viz. to him whom the Greeks called Pluto and the Romans Dis or Summanus Priam in Homer's Iliads asks and obtains a Cessation of Arms for burying the Dead on both Sides and in another Place Jupiter interposed and sent Apollo to procure Sarpedon to be buried Iris also is sent by the Gods to stir up Achilles to fight and to pay this Duty to Patroclus Thetis promised Achilles she would take care his Body should not corrupt though he lay unburied a whole Year Homer grounds this upon the Ceremonies of the Egyptians for the People of Memphis did not bury their Dead till after they had examined into the Deceased's Life and if they found him to have been an ill Liver Burial was denied him This Refusal was the Cause why they would not allow the Bodies of the Wicked to be carried to the other Side of the River and Marish near unto which lay the Graves of the Just And hence it was that to be deprived of a Burial was a kind of an Excommunication by which the Soul was excluded from the Elisian Fields and loaded with Infamy In speaking of these Burials I make use of the Terms in Fashion now-a-days and such as have been used long before Homer for in those ancient Times they put the Bodies into the Earth after they had inbalmed them as we do now The most ancient Books of the History of the Old Testament bear witness hereof and furnish us with divers Examples in the Persons of Abraham Isaac Jacob and Joseph but in the Book of Kings it seems as if there were some Examples of a contrary Custom that was introduced of burning the Bodies It was about Homer's Time Thus in his Iliads and Odysses you find all the Bodies of the Dead consumed with Fire The Terms of Interring and Burying have been always commonly used either because the same could not be abolished or because there was still something remaining either of Bones or Ashes which the Fire consumed not and which they interred in Urns. The Places appointed for Buryings grew to be sacred and were reckoned in the Number of holy and unalienable Things They anciently allowed a Burial to those who were put to Death for their Offences Josephus L. 4. C. 6. of the Antiquities of the Jews against Appian L. 2. says that Moses commanded those to be buried who had suffered Death according to the Laws The Romans practised the same Thing Pilate gave Leave to take down the Body of the Son of God and to lay it in a Tomb tho' he were put to Death as a Person guilty of Treason The Emperors Dioclesian and Maximinian ordered that they should not hinder the burying of those who had suffered Punishment by Death the Romans being of Opinion that the Souls of such Bodies as were not buried wandered up and down for an Hundred Years as not being able to get into the Elisean Fields Haec omnis quam cernis inops inhumataque turba est Virg. Aen. 6. In the mean time Suetonius in the Life of Augustus says the Contrary Vni sepulturam precanti respondisse dicitur jam illum in volucrum potestatem fore When a Prisoner of War pray'd for Leave that he might be buried the Answer made him was that he should quickly become Birds Food and Horace says Non bominem occidisti non pasces in cruce corvos thou has killed no Man therefore thou shall not be Crows Meat SEPULCRA Sepulchres Tombs Funeral Monuments They were Places appointed wherein to bury the Bodies of the Deceased or the Bones and Ashes of the Bodies which they burned The Pyramids were built for Sepulcres to the Kings of Egypt Those
says there were real Sphinx's which were a sort of Monkeys with long Hair great Teats and for the rest of their Bodies like unto the Representations made of them Sphinx says Palephatus in a little Treatise concerning incredible Stories was Cadmus his first Wife who designing to be revenged on him for having married another retired with some Troops to the Mountains where she laid Ambushes for Passengers and put them to death These Ambushes were Riddles Cedipus escaped them and slew Sphinx SPORTULA a small present of Money which with Wine and Bread was distributed at certain Feasts or other solemn Days in the Year These Presents often consisted of Silver Medals and Denarii were used upon this Occasion But when the Emperors or other great Men bestowed these Presents they consisted of Gold Medals Thus Trebellius Pollio speaking of the small Presents made by the Emperor Gallienus in his Consulship says he gave a Sportula to every Senator and one of his Gold Medals to every Roman Lady Senatui sportulam sedens erogavit Matronas ad consulatum suum rogavit iis denique manum sibi osculantibus quaternos aureos sui nominis dedit It was also a Custom for those who entred upon the Office of Consul to send their Friends these Presents of which Symmachus speaks thus Sportulam Consulatûs mei amicitiae nostrae honori tuo debeo hanc in solido misi The Name of Sportulae which signified small Baskets was given those Presents because they were sent in Baskets and herein we are confirmed by these Verses of Coripus L. 4. wherein he speaks of the Consulship of Justin the Emperor Dona Calendarum quorum est ea cara parabant Officia turmis implent felicibus aulam Convectant rutilum sportis capacibus aurum And for this Reason the Greek Glossaries in the Explication of the Word Sportula say they were Presents sent in Baskets the Consuls with these Sportulae bestowed also small Pocket-books made of Silver or Ivory wherein their Names were written and these were those that they called Fasti Sidonius L. 8. E. 6. speaking of the Consulship of Asterius mentions the Sportulae and Fasti that were given STADIUM a Furlong it was a Space of 125 Paces and the Word is derived from the Verb Sto which signifies to stop for 't is said Hercules run over such a Space of Ground at one Breath and stopt at the end of it This sort of Measure was peculiar to the Grecians Eight of them goes to an Italian Mile There were Stadia of different Measures according to the Difference of Times and Places STATERA a kind of Ballance otherwise called the Roman Ballance Vitruvius L. 10. C. 8. describes it in this manner The Handle which is as the Center of the Flail being fastened as it is near unto the End to which the Scale is hung the more the Weights which run along the other farther End of the Flail are pushed forward upon the Points marked thereon the more Power it will have to equalize a great Weight according as the Weight's distance from the Center shall put the Flail into an Aequilibrium and so the Weights which were weak when they were too near the Center cou'd in a Moment gain a great Power and raise up a very heavy Burden with little trouble STATUAE Statues the Use and Liberty given to make Statues increased the Number of Temples and Heathens We do not know says Cicero the Gods by their Faces but because it has pleased the Painters and Statuaries to represent them so unto us Deos eâ facie novimus quâ pictores fictores voluerunt Statues at first were no more than shapeless Stones but Daedalus was the first who left the Custom of imitating the Egyptians and separated the Feet and other Parts of the Statues which he made so as to be distinguished from the rest and for that Reason they were called Moving Parts as Palephatus says Thus Aristophanes calls Statuaries 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Makers of Gods and Julius Pollux names a Statuary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Former of Gods The Romans were 170 Years before they had either Statuaries or Painters as were the Persians Scythians and Lacedemonians for a long time Constantine as Eusebius says forbad Statues to be set up in the Temples of the Heathens for Fear they should give them Divine Honours which before was very common for Tatius says Lactantius consecrated the Image of the Goddess Cloacina whom he took out of a Gutter and gave it the Name of the Place from whence he had it They also dedicated continued he and consecrated Kings Statues after their Decease and represented them as they pleased and Valerius Maximus says the Rhodians gave the Statues of Harmodius and Aristogito the same Honours as they did to the Gods The Statues said he being come to Rhodes the Citizens received them in a Body and having placed them in an Inn they exposed them upon sacred Beds to the View of the People As to the Bigness of the Ancients Statues there were Four sorts of them the greatest were the Colossus's which were made only for the Gods There were lesser ones made for Heroes those for Kings and Princes somewhat bigger than the Life and for other Men who for some special Desert were allowed this Honour they were made of the Bigness of the Life STOLA a long Robe in use among the Roman Ladies they put a large Mantle or Cloack called Palla and sometimes Pallium over this Robe when they wore their ceremonious Habits STRENAE New-years Gifts the Use of them is almost as ancient as the Building of Rome Symmachus says these were brought up in the Time of Tatius King of the Sabines who was the first that received Vervein gathered from the consecrated Wood of the Goddess Strenia for a good Augury of the New-year much like the Gaulish Druids who held the Mistetoe in so much Veneration that they went to gather it on New-year's Day with a Golden Bill or else they did herein make an Allusion between the Name of the Goddess Strenia in whose Wood they gather'd the Vervein and the Word Strenuus which signifies Valiant and Generous and so the Word Strena which signifies a New-year's Gift is sometimes found written Strenua by the Ancients as you have it in the Glossory of Philoxenus And so this Present was properly to be made to Persons of Valour and Merit and to those whose Divine Minds promised them more by their Vigilancy than the Instinct of an happy Augury Strenam says Festus vocamus quae datur die religioso ominis boni gratiâ After that Time they came to make Presents of Figs Dates and Honey by which they did as it were wish nothing might befal their Friends but what was sweet and agreeable for the rest of the Year The Romans afterwards rejecting their primitive Simplicity and changing their Wooden Gods into Gold and Silver ones began to be also more magnificent in their
to be the Daughter of Saturn and Rhea and the first Inventress of Architecture Nevertheless it 's not to be doubted but Vesta was every-where else rather taken for a Goddess of Nature under whose Name they worshipped the Earth and Fire than an historical Goddess Ovid says that Vesta being the Daughter of Saturn and Rhea as well as Juno and Ceres these last Two were married but Vesta continued a Virgin and barren as the Fire is pure and barren The same Poet adds that the perpetual Fire was the only Representation they had of Vesta the true Representation of Fire being not to be given that formerly it was a Custom to keep a Fire at the Entry of their Houses which from thence retained the Name of Vestibulum VESTALES Vestal Virgins either so called from Vesta the Foundress of them or because they were consecrated to the Service of the Goddess Vesta They hold that this Order and the Ceremonies they used came from Troy Aeneas having carried that sacred Fire into Italy which represented Vesta with the Image of Pallas and the Houshold Gods Ascanius the Son of Aeneas and the other Kings his Successors highly honoured the Vestal Virgins because Rhea Silvia who was a King's Grand-daughter took upon her the solemn Profession of a Vestal Livy will have Numa to have been the Institutor of this Order at Rome and that he built a Temple there for the Goddess Vesta with a House for the Virgins consecrated to her Service The Divinity of Vesta was taken for the sacred Fire that was kept in her Temple or for the Earth which conceals a Fire within it's Bowels and for this Reason that Temple was round as the Earth is and the sacred Fire kindled within it to represent that which is hid in its Bowels They had no Representation of Vesta there because the Fire has none Nec tu aliud Vestam quà m vivam intellige flammam ........ Ignis inextinctus templo celatur in illo Effigiem nullam Vesta nec ignis habent Numa instituted no more than Four Vestals called in History Gegamia or Gegania Berenia Camilia or Gamilia and Tarpeia Servius Tullus added two more if we believe Plutarch and this made the Number Six which continued during the whole Roman Empire according to the Testimony of Plutarch and Dionysius of Hallicarnassus nevertheless St. Ambrose makes them to be Seven and Alexander Neapolitanus Twenty but without any good Authority for it They were to be Virgins and for that Reason they were received into the Order at the Age of Six Years and their Parents were then to be living and not of a Servile Condition The Papian Law required that upon the Death of a Vestal they should take Twenty Virgins whom before the People they conducted to the Pointiff's Presence who of the Twenty took one by Lot and ordering her to kneel said these Words over her Sacerdotalem Vestalem quae sacra faciat quae jussi Sacerdotalem Vestalem facere pro populo Romano Quiritibus uti quod optimâ lege fiat ita te Amata capio This Ceremony was called Captio Virginis and Capere Vestalem they afterwards shaved their Heads and hung the Hair to a certain Tree which the Greeks and Romans called Lotos the Lote-tree as Pliny says Antiquior illa lotos quae capillata dicitur quoniam virginum Vestalium ad eam capillus defertur They assigned them a particular habit that consisted of a Head-dress called Infula which sat close to their Heads and from whence hung some Hair-laces called Vittae they wore another white Vest uppermost with a Purple Border to it they had a Surplice or Rochet of white Linnen called Suparum linteum and over that a great Purple Mantle with a long Train to it which they tucked up when they sacrificed They were consecrated to the Service of this Goddess for 30 Years after which time they were free to go out and be married but if otherwise they continued in the House and without any other Business than to be assistant only in point of Advise to the other Vestals Their chief Functions were to sacrifice to Vesta to keep the sacred Fire in her Temple and not suffer it to go out but if through their Neglect that Misfortune happened they were whipped by the Pontifex maximus and the Fire was kindled again by the Help of Burning-glasses and Sun-beams and no otherwise This Order was very rich as well upon the Account of the Allowances which the Kings and Emperors and especially Augustus made them for their Maintenance as also other Gifts and Legacies left them by Will When they went abroad there was an Usher with a Bundle of Rods walked before them they had the Priviledge to be carried in a Chariot through the City and as far as the Capitol and if they happened to meet with the Consuls or some great Magistrate they turned aside or else were obliged to kiss the Bundle of Rods that were carried before them Wills and the most secret Acts were usually committed to their Custody as Julius Caesar did according to Suetonius Testamentum factum ab eo depositumque apud sex virgines Vestales and the Articles of the Treaty made between the Trium-virs were likewise put into the Hands of these Virgins as Dio says They had a particular Place assigned them at the Games and Shews made in Rome they were priviledged to be buried in the City and they swore by no other than the Goddess Vesta When a Vestal was convicted of Unchastity the Pontiff ordered her to be brought before him prohibited her to exercise her Functions to go among the other Vestals and to make her Slaves free for they were to be examined in order to prove the Crime When the Crime was proved she was condemned to be buried alive in a Pit dug for that purpoâ—e without Porta Collina in a Place called Campus Sceleratus Execution Day being come the Pontiff degraded and stript her of her Habit which she kissed keeping a Valerius Flaceus says Vltima virgine is tum flens dedit oscula vittis She was carried upon a Bier or in a Litter enclosed on all Sides and crossing the great Place when they came to the Place of Execution they took the Criminal out of the Litter and then the Pontiff pray'd to the Gods with his Head covered and afterwards withdrew which done they made her go down into the Pit wherein they had put a lighted Lamp a little Water and Milk and then covered the Pit with Earth and so buried her alive As for the Person that deflowred a Vestal Virgin he was whipped to Death as Cato tells us Vir qui eam incestavisset verberibus necaretur VESUVIUS or VESEVUS a Mountain in Campania near Naples of a very fruitful Soil yet from whose Top proceed Flames of Fire Pliny the younger says that Plinius secundus being desirous to find out the Cause thereof was swallowed up and stiffled by the Flames VIAE Streets and Roads
The Original of the Tuscan Order was in Tuscany one of the most considerable parts of Italy whose Name it still keeps Of all the Orders this is the most plain and least ornamental 'T was seldom us'd save only for some Country Building where there is no need of any Order but one or else for some great Edifice as an Amphitheatre and such like other Buildings The Tuscan Column is the only thing that recommends this Order The Doric Order was invented by the Dorians a People of Greece and has Columns which stand by themselves and are more ornamental than the former The Ionic Order has its Name from Ionia a Province of Asia whose Columns are commonly sluted with Twenty four Gutters But there are some which are not thus furrow'd and hollow'd but only to the third part from the bottom of the Column and that third part has its Gutters fill'd with little Rods or round Battoons according to the different height of the Column which in the upper part is channell'd and hollow'd into Groves and is altogether empty The Corinthian Order was invented at Corinth it observes the same measures with the Ionic and the greatest difference between them is in their Capitals The Composite was added to the other Orders by the Romans who plac'd it above the Corinthian to show as some Authors say that they were Lords over all other Nations and this was not invented till after Augustus had given Peace to the whole World 'T is made up of the Ionic and Corinthian but yet is more ornamental than the Corinthian Besides these Five Orders there are some Authors who add yet Two more viz. the Order of the Cargatides and the Persic Order The former is nothing but the Ionic Order from which it differs only in this that instead of Columns there are Figures of Women which support the Entablature Vitruvius attributes the Origine of this Order to the Ruine of the Inhabitants of Carya a City of Peloponnesus He says That these People having joyn'd with the Persians to make War upon their own Nation the Gracians routed the Persians and obtain'd an entire Victory over them after which they besieg'd the Inhabitants of Carya and having taken their City by force of Arms they reduc'd it to Ashes and put all the Men in it to the Sword As for the Women and Virgins they carried them away captive but to perpetuate the Marks of their Crime to Posterity they represented afterwards the Figure of these miserable Captives in the publick Edifices which they built where by making them serve instead of Columns they appear'd to be loaded with a heavy burden which was as it were the Punishment they had deserv'd for the Crime of their Husbands The Persic Order had its rise from an Accident like this For Pausanias having defeated the Persians the Lacedemonians as a Mark of their Victory erected Trophees of the Arms of their Enemies whom they represented afterwards under the Figure of Slaves supporting the Entablatures of their Houses From these Two Examples divers kinds of Figures were afterwards made use of in Architecture to boar up the Cornishes and support the Corbels and Brackâ—â—s There are still some ancient footsteps to be seen near Athens of those Figures of Women which carry Panniers on their Head and supply the room of the Cargatides There are also Figures of Men who are commonly call'd Atlantes according to Vitrutius tho' the Romans call'd them Telamones The Greeks had some reason to call them Atlantes from Atlas whom the Poets feign'd to bear up the Heavens but it does not appear why the Latins gave them the name of Telamones Boudus in his Dictionary upon Vitruvius says that 't is probable he who first us'd this Word to signifie these Statues which bear some burden wrote not Telamones but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Greek Word signifies those that are miserable and labour hard which exactly agrees to these sort of Figures which support Cornishes or Corbels and which we commonly see in the Pillars of our ancient Temples under the Images of some Saints or some great Persons ARCHITECTURE consists of Three Parts The first treats of the Building of publick and private Edifices the second is about the Art of Dialling which treats of the Course of the Stars and the way of making several sorts of Dials the third is about the Engines which are made use of for Architecture and for War ARCHITECTUS an Architect He ought says Vitruvius to be skill'd in Writing and Designing to be instructed in Geometry and to have some knowledge of Opticks He ought to have learn'd Arithmetick and to be well vers'd in History to have studied Philosophy very well and to have some insight in the Musick Laws Astronomy and Physick He should be well skill'd in Designing that he may the more easily perform all the Works he has projected according to the Draughts he hath made of them Geometry is also a great help to him especially to teach him how to make use of the Rule and Compass how to lay out things by the Line and do every thing by the Rule and Plummet Opticks serve to teach him how to admit the Light and to make Windows according to the Situation of the Heavens Arithmetick instructs him how to calculate the Charges which his Work amounts to History furnishes him with matter for the greatest part of the Ornaments in Architecture of which he should be able to give a rational account Philosophy is also necessary to make a perfect Architect I mean that part of Philosophy which treats of things Natural which in Greek is call'd Physiology As for Musick he should be a perfect Master of it that he may know how to Order the brasen Pipes which are lodg'd under the Stairs of Theatres so that the Voice of the Comedians may strike the Ears of the Auditors with more or less force clearness and sweetness An Architect ought also to be skill'd in the Laws and Customs of places that he may know how to make partition Walls Spouts Roofs and Common-shores how to order the Lights of Houses the Drains for Water and several other things of that nature Astronomy is also useful to him for making of Sun-dials by teaching him to know the East West South and North the Equinoxes and Solstices c. He ought to be knowing in Physick to understand the Climates and Temperament of the Air which is wholsome and which Infectious also the Nature of Waters For without considering these things he cannot build an healthful Habitation If so much knowledge is necessary to make a complete Architect 't is to be fear'd there are but few perfect Masters of that Art ARCHON the chief Magistrate of Athens The Nine Magistrates who took upon them the Government of that City after the Death of Codrus who was the last King of it were also call'd so At first they were chosen to be perpetual Governors but in process of time their Office was limited
to Ten Years and at last reduced to one This Republick was govern'd by Nine Archontes or chief Magistrates Six whereof were call'd Thesmothetae i. e. Lagislators the other Three were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the King 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the General and the Archon by way of eminence so call'd as being superior to all the rest They decided with sovereign Authority all religious causes and matters of State They were chosen by lot and afterwards examin'd and approv'd by the People in their Assemblies This Name was also given to the Chief President call'd Prytanis who presided in the Courts of the Fifty Judges taken out of the Five Hundred who judg'd by turns every Month the Affairs of private Persons ARCTOPHYLAX a Constellation which is properly nam'd the director of the Bear but is otherwise call'd Bootes ARCTOS the Biar a Constellation call'd by the Greeks Arctos and Helice which is situated in the North having its directors near it which is not far from Virgo ARCTURUS is a Star of that Constellation which is properly call'd Arctophylax This Word signifies the Tail of the Bear because it is very near it It rises on the first day of September and sets on the 13 th day of May and never appears but when it brings some Hail or Storm The Poets feign'd that it resides amongst Men in the Day-time as a spy upon their Actions and afterwards gives an Account to Jupiter of their persidious and unjust dealings in Trade or in Courts of Justice This is the meaning of Plautus in these Verses of the Prologus to his Rudens c. Nomen Arcturo est mihi Noctu fum in caelo clarus atque inter deos Inter mortales ambuloque intardius Hominum qui facta mores piatatem fidem Noscamus Qui falsas lites falses testimoniis Petunt quique in Jure abjurant pâ—â—uniâ—m Eotum referimus Nomina exsoripta ad Jovem The Poets made him the Son of Jupiter and Calisto and others said he was the Son Lycaon Arculae aves Birds which gave bad emens either by their flying or their manner of eating Because they hindred Men from undertaking any Business they were thus nam'd Aroulae aves quia arcebant ne quid fioret ARCUS a Bow The Bow and Arrows were the first Arms which Men made use of as may appear from the 21th Chapt. of Conesis where it is said of Ismael that he was an expert Archor and from the 27th Chap. where Isaac commanded his Son Esau to take his Arms i. e. his Bow and Arrows and go a hunting Pliny in B. 7. Chap. 56. attributes the Invention of Bow and Arrows to Soythes the Son of Jupiter from whom the Scythians who are now the Tartars took their Name who were very dextrous in drawing the Bow Plutarch also in his Banquet of the Seven Wise Men ascribes to them the Bow and to the Greeks the Invention of stringed and wind Musick But the Authority of Pliny is of no value wherein he differs from the holy Scripture which doubtless he never had any knowledge of Arcus Calestis the Rainbow which appears in the Clouds a natural Meteor but after the Deluge it was appointed to be a Sign of the Covenant which God made with Noah and of the Promise he gave that he would never again drown the World The Poets feign'd that the Rainbow or Iris attended Juno and carried her Orders from all parts as Mercury did those of Jupiter See this Fable more at large under the Word Iris. Arcus a Triumphal Arch which was erected to the Emperors and other great Men in ancient times in honour of them for their brave Actions several of them were erected at Rome but the most ancient was that of Titus which was very ingeniously and magnificently built On one side of it there was the Triumphal Chariot of a Prince with a Statue of Victory behind him which seem'd to hold out a Crown to him the Ark of the Old Testament and the bundles of Rods were carried before him On the other side was the rest of the Triumphal Pomp as the Two Tables of the Decalogue the Tables of Gold the Vessels of Solomon's Temple and the golden Candlestick which had Seven Branches The Senate and People of Rome erected likewise a Triumphal Arch to Septimius Severus at the foot of the Capitol after the Victory he obtain'd over the Parthians Armenians and Arabians Victories were there represented with great Wings holding in their hands Trophies and Crowns with this Inscription Imp. Cas Lucio Septimio M. Fil. Severo Pio pertinaci Aug. Patri Patriae Parthico Arabico Et Parthico Adiabenico Pontif. Maximo Tribunic potest XI Imp. XI Coss III. Procoss Et Imp. Caes M. Aurelio L. Fil. Antonino Aug. Pio. Felici Tribunic potest VI. Cos Procos P. P. optimis fortissimisque Principibus Ob Rempublicam restitutam Imperiumque Populi Romani propagatum insignibus virtutibus Eorum Domi. Florisque S. P. Q. R. There are still many other Triumphal Arches to be seen at Rome as that of Titus and Vesâ—asian that of Septimius Severus that of Galienus which was built after a very rude manner being of the Doric Order with one Arch only which has this Inscription upon the Frize Galieno Clementissimo Principi Cujus invicta Virtus solâ pietare Superata est M. Aurelius Victor dedicatissimus Numini Majestatique ejus There is also an Arch of Marcus Aureltus and of Verus and of Gordianus junior and lastly one of Constantine which the Senate erected to him for the Victory he obtain'd against Maxentius at the Pons Milvius in the Suburbs of Rome This last was all of Marble and of the Corinthian Order and had Eight great Columns and Three Avenues On one of its sides there is this Inscription Imp. Caes Pl. Constantino Maximo P. F. Augusto S. P. Q. R. Quod instinctu divinitatis mentis magnitudine cum exercitu suo tam de tyranno quam de omni factione uno tenpore justis Rempublicam ultus est armis Arcum triumphis insignem dicabit On the other side near the Rising Sun were Written these words Votis X and on the left hand Votis XX. On the Roof of the Arch about the middle on one side were these words Liberatori Vrbis and on the other Fundatori quietis Above the Capitals of each Column were represented in emboss'd work the most eminent Captives whose Bodies were of changeable Marble and their Hands and Feet of white Marble of the Isle of Paros In the Frize of the little Arches was the Statue of Constantine holding in his Hand a Scrowl which he seems to throw among the People for a Largess Suctonius calls these Scrowls Tessera Missillia and also Tessera Nummaria For these Scrowls contain'd certain Summs of Money and those who catch'd them were to demand them at the Exchequer or the Lot wherewith they were mark'd as is done in other Lotteries AREMULUS or Remus Sylvius the Son of Agrippa Sylvius XII