SCHOOL-DICTIONARY or GREEK AND ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. A'BACUS (üßα), 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. in sacrifice. The word is derived from ablegere, in imitation of the Greek ȧñoλéyɛiv, ἀπολέχειν, which is used in a similar manner. These parts were also called Porriciæ, Prosegmina, Prosecta. [SACRIFICIUM.] ABOLLA, a cloak chiefly worn by soldiers, and thus opposed to the toga, the garb of peace. [TOGA.] The abolla was used by the lower classes at Rome, and consequently by the philosophers who affected severity of manners and life. Abacus. ABLEG MINA (άлоλɛуμоí) were the parts of the victim which were offered to the gods A Abolla, Military Cloak. ABROGATIO. [LEX.] ABSOLUTIO. [JUDEX.] ACA TIUM (άkúтtov, a diminutive of axaToç), 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. ACINACES. other hand, we find cases of women reclining, where there was conceived to be nothing bold or indelicate in their posture. Such is the case in the following woodcut, which seems Accubatio, Act of Reclining. intended to represent a scene of matrimonial felicity. The husband and wife recline on a sofa; their two sons are in front of them; and several females and a boy are performing a piece of music for the entertainment of the married pair. For an account of the disposition of the couches, and of the place which each guest occupied in a Greek and Roman entertainment, see SYMPOSIUM and TRICLINIUM. ACCUSA TOR, ACCUSATIO. [JUDEX.] ACERRA (θυμιατήριον, λιβανωτρίς), the incense-box or censer used in sacrifices. AMPANA 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 Roman ladies conupper part of the room. The acerra was also a small moveable altar tinued the practice of sitting at table, even after the recumbent position had become com- placed before the dead, on which perfumes mon with the other sex. It appears to have were burnt. The use of the accerrae at funebeen considered more decent, and more agree-rals was forbidden by a law of the Twelve able to the severity and purity of ancient Tables as an unnecessary expense. A'CIES. [EXERCITUS.] manners for women to sit, more especially ACI ́NACÈS (¿kɩvákŋç), a Persian sword, if many persons were present. But, on the Acerra, Incense-Box. ACROSTOLIUM. ACTIO. 3 whence Horace speaks of the Medus acinaces. | (ȧkpoσTóλtov), which was frequently made in The acinaces was a short and straight weapon, the shape of an animal or a helmet, &c., apand thus differed from the Roman sica, which pears to have been sometimes covered with was curved. It was worn on the right side of brass, and to have served as a weapon of the body, whereas the Greeks and Romans offence against the enemy's vessels. usually had their swords suspended on the left side. The form of the acinaces, with the mode of wearing it, is illustrated by the following Persepolitan figures. Acinaces, Persian Sword. ACLIS, a kind of dart with a leathern thong attached to it. [AMENTUM.] ACROAMA (ἀκρόαμα), which properly means anything heard, was the name given to a concert of players on different musical instruments, and also to an interlude performed during the exhibition of the public games. The word is also applied to the actors and musicians who were employed to amuse guests during an entertainment, and is sometimes used to designate the anagnostae. [ANAGNOSTES.] ACRO POLIS (άkpóñoλiç). In almost all Greek cities, which were usually built upon a hill, rock, or some natural elevation, there was a castle or a citadel, erected upon the highest part of the rock or hill, to which the name of Acropolis, higher or upper city, was given. Thus we read of an acropolis at Athens, Corinth, Argos, Messene, and many other places. The Capitolium at Rome answered the same purpose as the acropolis in the Greek cities; and of the same kind were the tower of Agathocles at Utica, and that of Antonia at Jerusalem. ACROSTOLIUM (åkроσтóλov), the extremity of the oróλoç. The σTóλos projected στόλος. from the head of the prow, and its extremity ACROTE'RIUM (άкрwтýрιоv), signifies the extremity of anything, and was applied by the Greeks to the extremities of the prow of a vessel (ukρоoтóλcov), which were usually taken from a conquered vessel as a mark of victory: the act of doing so was called ἀκρωτηριάζειν. ACTA DIURNA (proceedings of the day), was a kind of gazette or newspaper published daily at Rome, under the authority of the government. It contained an account of the proceedings of the public assemblies, of the law courts, of the punishment of offenders, and a list of births, marriages, deaths, &c. The proceedings of the public assemblies and the law courts, were obtained by means of reporters (actuarii). The proceedings of the senate (acta senatus) were not published till the time of Julius Cæsar, but this custom was prohibited by Augustus. An account of the proceedings of the senate was still preserved, though not published, and some senator seems to have been chosen by the emperor to compile the account. The Acta Diurna, which were also called Acta populi, Acta publica, Acta urbana, and by the simple name of Acta, were frequently consulted and appealed to by later historians. ACTA SENATUS. [ACTA DIURNA] A ́CTIA (ŭктia), a festival celebrated every three years at Actium in Epirus, with wrestling, horse-racing, and sea-fights, in honour of Apollo. There was a celebrated temple of Apollo at Actium. After the defeat of Antony off Actium, Augustus enlarged the temple, and instituted games to be celebrated every five years in commemoration of his victory. A CTIO, is defined by a Roman jurist to be the right of pursuing by judicial means what is a man's due. The old actions of the Roman law were called legis actiones or legitimae, either because they were expressly provided for by the laws of the Twelve Tables, or because they were strictly adapted to the words of the laws, and therefore could not be varied. But these forms of action gradually fell into disuse, in consequence of the excessive nicety required, and the failure consequent on the slightest error in the pleadings, and they were eventually abolished by the Lex Aebutia, and two Leges Juliae, except in a few cases. In the old Roman constitution, the knowl edge of the law was most closely connected with the institutes and ceremonial of religion. and was accordingly in the hands of the patricians alone, whose aid their clients were obliged to ask in all their legal disputes. App. Claudius Caecus, perhaps one of the earliest writers on law, drew up the various forms of actions, probably for his own use and that of his friends the manuscript was stolen or copied by his scribe Cn. Flavius, who made it public; and thus, according to the story, the plebians became acquainted with those legal forms which hitherto had been the exclusive property of the patricians. After the abolition of the old legal actions, a suit was prosecuted in the following manner : An action was commenced by the plaintiff summoning the defendant to appear before the praetor or other magistrate who had jurisdictio: this process was called in jus vocatio; and, according to the laws of the Twelve Tables, was in effect a dragging of the defendant before the praetor, if he refused to go quietly; and although this rude proceeding was somewhat modified in later times, we find in the time of Horace that if the defendant would not go quietly, the plaintiff called upon any bystander to witness, and dragged the defendant into court. The parties might settle their dispute on their way to the court, or the defendant might be bailed by a vindex. The vindex must not be confounded with the vades. This settlement of disputes on the way was called transactio in via, and serves to explain a passage in St. Matthew, v., 25. When before the praetor, the parties were said jure agere. The plaintiff then prayed for an action, and if the praetor allowed it (dabat actionem), he then declared what action he intended to bring against the defendant, which he called edere actionem. This might be done in writing, or orally, or by the plaintiff taking the defendant to the album [ALBUM], and show- | ing him which action he intended to rely on. As the formulae on the album comprehended, or were supposed to comprehend, every possible form of action that could be required by a plaintiff, it was presumed that he could find among all the formulae some one which was adapted to his case; and he was, accordingly, supposed to be without excuse if he did not take pains to select the proper formulae. if he took the wrong one, or if he claimed more than his due, he lost his cause (causa cadebat); but the praetor sometimes gave him leave to amend his claim or intentio. It will be observed that as the formulae were so numerous and comprehensive, the plaintiff had only to select the formulae which he supposed to be suitable to his case, and it would require no farther variation than the insertion of the names of the parties and of the thing claimed, ACTIO. or the subject-matter of the suit, with the amount of damages, &c., as the case might be. When the praetor had granted an action, the plaintiff required the defendant to give security for his appearance before the praetor (in jure) on a day named, commonly the day but one after the in jus vocatio, unless the matter in dispute was settled at once. The defendant, on finding a surety, was said vades dare, vadimonium promittere, or facere; the surety, vas, was said spondere; the plaintiff, when satisfied with the surety,was said vadari reum, to let him go on his sureties, or to have sureties from him. When the defendant promised to appear in jure on the day named, without giving any surety, this was called vadimonium purum. In some cases, recuperatores [JUDEX] were named, who, in case of the defendant making default, condemned him in the sum of money named in the vadimonium. If the defendant appeared on the day appointed, he was said vadimonium sistere; if he did not appear, he was said vadimonium deseruisse; and the praetor gave to the plaintiff the bonorum possessio. Both parties, on the day appointed, were summoned by a crier (praeco), when the plaintiff made his claim or demand, which was very briefly expressed, and may be considered as corresponding to our declaration at law. The defendant might either deny the plaintiff's claim, or he might reply to it by a plea, exceptio. If he simply denied the plaintiff's claim, the cause was at issue, and a judex might be demanded. The forms of the exceptio, also, were contained in the praetor's edict, or, upon hearing the facts, the praetor adapted the plea to the case. The plaintiff might reply to the defendant's exceptio. The plaintiff's answer was called replicatio. If the defendant answered the replicatio, his answer was called duplicatio; and the parties might go on to the triplicatio and quadruplicatio, and even further, if the matters în question were such that they could not otherwise be brought to an issue. A person might maintain or defend an action by his cognitor or procurator, or, as we should say, by his attorney. The plaintiff and defendant used a certain form of words in appointing a cognitor, and it would appear that the appointment was made in the presence of both parties. The cognitor needed not to be present, and his appointment was complete when by his acts he had signified his assent. When the cause was brought to an issue, a judex or judices might be demanded of the praetor, who named or appointed a judex, and ACUS. delivered to him the formula, which contained his instructions. The judices were said, dari or addici. So far the proceedings were said to be in jure: the prosecution of the actio before the judex requires a separate discussion. [JUDEX.] ACTOR, signified generally a plaintiff. In a civil or private action, the plaintiff was often called petitor; in a public action (causa publica), he was called accusator. The defendant was called reus, both in private and public causes this term, however, according to Cicero, might signify either party, as indeed we might conclude from the word itself. In a private action, the defendant was often called adversarius, but either party might be called adversarius with respect to the other. Wards brought their actions by their guardian or tutor. Zeregrini, or aliens, originally brought their action through their patronus; but afterwards in their own name, by a fiction of law, that they were Roman citizens. A Roman citizen might also generally bring his action by means of a cognitor or procurator. [ACTIO.] Actor has also the sense of an agent or manager of another's business generally. The actor publicus was an officer who had the superintendence or care of slaves and property belonging to the state. ACTORS on the stage. [HISTRIO.] ACTUA ́RIAE NAVES,transport-vessels, seem to have been built in a lighter style than the ordinary ships of burden, from which they also differed in being always furnished with oars, whereas the others were chiefly propelled by sails. ACTUA RII, short-hand writers, who took down the speeches in the senate and the public assemblies. In the debate in the Roman senate upon the punishment of those who had been concerned in the conspiracy of Catiline, we find the first mention of short-hand writers, who were employed by Cicero to take down the speech of Cato. ACTUS, a Roman measure of length, also called actus quadratus, was equal to half a jugerum, or 14,400 square Roman feet. The actus minimus, or simplex, was 120 feet long, and four broad, and therefore equal to 480 square Roman feet. Actus was also used to signify a bridle way. ACUS (BEλóvn, Beλovis, papiç), a needle, a pin. Pins were made not only of metal, but also of wood, bone, and ivory. They were used for the same purposes as with us, and also in dressing the hair. The mode of platting the hair, and then fastening it with a pin or needle, is shown in the annexed figure of a fe Acus, Pin used to fasten the Hair. ADLECTI, of ALLECTI, those persons under the empire who were admitted to the privileges and honours of the praetorship, quaestorship, aedileship, and other public offices, without having any duties to perforin. The senators called adlecti, seem to have been the same as the conscripti. ADMISSIONA'LES, chamberlains at the imperial court, who introduced persons to the presence of the emperor. They were divided into four classes; the chief officer of each class was called proximus admissionum; and the proximi were under the magister admissionum. Their duty was called officium admissionis. They were usually freedmen. ADOLESCENS, was applied in the Roman law to a person from the end of his twelfth or fourteenth to the end of his twenty-fifth year, during which period a person was also called adultus. The word adolescens, however, is frequently used in a less strict sense in the Latin writers in referring to a person much older than the above-mentioned age. ADO ́NIA (’Adúvia), a festival celebrated in honour of Aphrodite (Venus) and Adonis in most of the Grecian cities. It lasted two days, and was celebrated by women exclusively. On the first day they brought into the streets statues of Adonis, which were laid out as corpses; and they observed all the rites customary at funerals, beating themselves and uttering lamentations. The second day was spent in merriment and feasting; because |