Page images
PDF
EPUB

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1846, by

HARPER & BROTHERS,

In the Clerk's Office of the Southern District of New-York.

LENOX LIBRARY

NEW YORK

PREFACE.

THE present work is designed to supply a want that has been long felt by most persons engaged in classical tuition. Hitherto we have had no work in the English language which exhibited, in a form adapted to the use of young pupils, the results of the labours of modern scholars in the various subjects included under the general term of Greek and Roman Antiquities. The "Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities" is intended for the more advanced student, and contains, moreover, information on a vast variety of subjects, which is not required by those who are commencing their classical studies. It has therefore been supposed, that an Abridgment of that work illustrating the Greek and Roman writers usually read in the lower classes of our public schools, and omitting all such matters as are of no use to the young student, might prove an acceptable addition to our school-literature. In fact, the Abridgment was undertaken at the suggestion of the head-master of one of our great public schools, and no pains have been spared to adapt it to the class of persons for whom it is more especially intended. Conciseness and clearness have been chiefly studied; all discussions on doubtful and controverted subjects have been omitted; and such of the articles as are susceptible of it have been illustrated by woodcuts from ancient works of art.

Though this work has been drawn up chiefly for the use of the lower forms in our public schools, the wants of another class of persons have also been consulted. It is believed that the work will be found to be of no small assistance to those who have not studied the Greek and Roman writers, but who frequently need information on many points connected with Greek and Roman Antiquities. Care has been taken not to presume too much on the knowledge of the reader; and it is therefore hoped, that most of the articles may be read with advantage and profit by persons who are unacquainted with the classical writers.

[blocks in formation]

It should be borne in mind, that this work does not profess to give an abridged account of all the subjects which are comprised in the larger work. On many matters, such as those relating to Jurisprudence, and several departments of Art, the reader must refer for information to the other Dictionary. On many subjects likewise, which are contained in this Abridgment, only the most important facts are stated; those who desire more detailed information, and an account of the conflicting views held by modern scholars on certain points, must consult the original work. In such cases the present work will serve as a convenient introduction to the other, and will enable the student to use the latter with more advantage and profit than he would otherwise have been able to do. It has been considered unnecessary to give in this Abridgment references to ancient and modern writers, as they are not required by the class of persons for whose use the book is designed, and they are to be found in the original work.

London, May 20th, 1845.

WILLIAM SMITH.

PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.

THE Editor believes that he is rendering a very acceptable service to the young student, in presenting him with a corrected and improved edition of the present work, both on account of the aid which it will afford him in his classical reading, and because the information contained in it will be found to be far more accurate and worthy of reliance than that given in any similar work ever published in this country. In preparing this volume for the press, errors in the London edition have been corrected, many important articles have been added, and the amount of illustrations has been very materially enlarged. The Greek Index, also, which abounded in errors, has been carefully revised and augmented.

Col. Coll. Feb. 9th, 1846.

SCHOOL-DICTIONARY

OF

GREEK AND ROMAN ANTIQUITIES.

A'BACUS (ußas), denoted primarily a square tablet of any description, and was hence employed in the following significations:

1. A table, or side-board, chiefly used for the display of gold and silver cups, and other kinds of valuable and ornamental utensils. The use of abaci was first introduced at Rome from Asia Minor after the victories of Cn. Manlius Vulso, B. c. 187, and their introduction was regarded as one of the marks of the growing luxury of the age.

2. A draught-board or chess-board.

3. A board used by mathematicians for drawing diagrams, and by arithmeticians for the purposes of calculation.

4. In architecture, the flat square stone which constituted the highest member of a column, being placed immediately under the architrave.

[merged small][graphic]

Abacus.

ABLEG MINA (ἀπολεγμοί) were the parts of the victim which were offered to the gods

Abolla, Military Cloak. ABROGATIO. [LEX.] ABSOLUTIO. [JUDEX.]

A

[blocks in formation]

ACA TIUM (akáTIov, a diminutive of åkaTOC), a small vessel or boat used by the Greeks, which appears to have been the same as the Roman scapha. The Acatia were also sails adapted for fast sailing.

ACCENSUS. 1. A public officer, who attended on several of the Roman magistrates. He anciently preceded the consul who had not the fasces, which custom, after being long disused, was restored by Julius Cæsar in his first consulship. Accensi also attended on the governors of provinces. 2. The accensi were also a class of soldiers in the Roman army, who were enlisted after the full number of the legion had been completed, in order to supply any vacancies that might occur in the legion. They were taken, according to the census of Servius Tullius, from the fifth class of citizens, and were placed in battle in the rear of the army, behind the triarii.

ACCLAMATIO was the public expression of approbation or disapprobation, pleasure or displeasure, by loud acclamations. On many occasions, there appear to have been certain forms of acclamations always used by the Romans; as, for instance, at marriages, Io Hymen, Hymenaee, or Talassio; at triumphs, Io Triumphe; at the conclusion of plays, the last actor called out Plaudite to the spectators; orators were usually praised by such expressions as Bene et praeclare, Belle et festive, Non potest melius, &c.

ACCU BÍTA, the name of couches which were used in the time of the Roman emperors, instead of the triclinium, for reclining on at meals. The mattresses and feather-beds were softer and higher, and the supports (fulcra) of them lower in proportion than in the triclinium. The clothes and pillows spread over them were called accubitalia.

ACCUBA TIO, the act of reclining at meals. The Greeks and Romans were accustomed, in later times, to recline at their meals; but this practice could not have been of great antiquity in Greece, since Homer always describes persons as sitting at their meals; and Isidore of Seville, an ancient grammarian, also attributes the same custom to the ancient Romans. Even in the time of the early Roman emperors, children in families of the highest rank used to sit together, while their fathers and elders reclined on couches at the upper part of the room. Roman ladies continued the practice of sitting at table, even after the recumbent position had become common with the other sex. It appears to have been considered more decent, and more agreeable to the severity and purity of ancient manners for women to sit, more especially if many persons were present. But, on the

[ocr errors][merged small]
[graphic]
[ocr errors]
« PreviousContinue »