AES.

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old Italian states possessed a bronze or copper coinage from the earliest times.

the common treasury, in which were deposited the regular taxes, and which was made use of to meet the ordinary expenditure of the The first coinage was the as [As], which state; and the sacred treasury (acrarium sanc | originally was a pound weight; but as in tum, sanctius), which was never touched ex course of time the weight of the as was recept in cases of extreme peril. The twen- | duced not only in Rome, but in the other Italtieth part of the value of every slave who was ian states, and this reduction of weight was enfranchised, and some part of the plunder of not uniform in the different states, it became conquered nations, were deposited in the sa- usual in all bargains to pay the asses accordcred treasury. Augustus established a sep-ing to their weight, and not according to their arate treasury under the name of acrarium noininal value. The acs grace was not the oll militare, to provide for the pay and support of heavy coins as distinguished from the lighter the army; and he imposed several new taxes modern; but it signified any number of copper for that purpose. coins reckoned according to the old style, by weight. There was, therefore, no occasion for the state to suppress the circulation of the old copper coins, since in all bargains the asses were not reckoned by tale, but by weight.

The aerarium, the public treasury, must be distinguished from the fiscus, the treasury of the emperors. [FISCUS.]

The charge of the treasury was originally entrusted to the quaestors and their assistants, the tribuni aerarii; but in B. c. 49, when no quaestors were elected, it was transferred to the aediles, in whose care it appears to have been till B. C. 28, when Augustus. gave it to the praetors, or those who had been praetors. Various changes were made by the early emperors, as to the charge of the acrarium, but it was eventually entrusted to officers, called praefects, who appear to have held their office for two years.

AERUSCATO'RES, were vagrants who obtained their living by fortune-telling and begging. They were called by the Greeks ἀγύρται.

AES (xahкós), properly signifies a compound of copper and tin, corresponding to what we call bronze. It is incorrect to translate it brass, which is a combination of copper and zinc, since all the specimens of ancient objects, formed of the material called aes, are found upon analysis to contain no zinc.

Bronze or copper (yaλkós) was very little used by the Greeks for money in early times. Silver was originally the universal currency, and copper appears to have been seldom coined till after the time of Alexander the Great. The copper coin was called Chalcous (xakkouç). The smallest silver coin at Athens was the quarter-obol, and the chalcous was the half of that, or the eighth of an obol. In later times, the obol was coined of copper as well as silver.

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

AES EQUESTRE, the sum of money given by the Roman state for the purchase of the knight's horse. This sum amounted to 10,000 asses.

AES HORDEA ́RIUM, or HORDIA ́RIUM, the sum of money paid yearly for the keep of a knight's horse; in other words, The employment of aes was very general a knight's pay. This sum, which amounted to among the ancients; money, vases, and uten- 2000 asses for each horse, was charged upon sils of all sorts, being made of it. All the the rich widows and orphans, on the princimost ancient coins in Rome and the old Ital-ple that, in a military state, the women and ian states were made of aes, and hence money in general was called by this name. For the same reason we have aes alienum, meaning debt, and aera in the plural, pay to the soldiers. The Romans had no other coinage except bronze or copper (aes), till B. c. 269, five years before the first Punic war, when silver was first coined; gold was not coined till sixty-two years after silver.

The first coinage of aes is usually attributed to Servius Tullius, who is said to have stamped the money with the image of cattle (pecus), whence it is called pecunia. According to some accounts, it was coined from the commencement of the city, and we know that the

children ought to contribute largely for those who fought in behalf of them and the commonwealth.

AES MILITA'RE. [AERARII.]

AES MANUA'RIUM was the money won in playing with dice, manibus collectum." Mamus was the throw in the game. All who threw certain numbers were obliged to put down a piece of money; and whoever threw the Venus (the highest throw) won the whole sum, which was called the aes manuarium.

AÉS UXO'RIUM, was a tax paid by persons who lived as bachelors. It was first imposed by the censors in B. c. 403. Various penalties were imposed by Augustus upon

those who lived in a state of celibacy, and advantages granted to those who were marwere married and had children. [LEX JULIA ET PAPIA POPPAEA.]

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

AGER PUBLICUS.

sometimes applied to a slave who had to perform the lowest menial duties.

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

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

It

AGER PUBLICUS, the public land, was the land belonging to the Roman state. was a recognised principle among the Italian nations that the territory of a conquered people belonged to the conquerors. Accordingly, the Romans were constantly acquiring fresh territory by the conquest of the surrounding people. The land thus acquired was usually disposed of in the following way. 1. The land which was under cultivation was either distributed among colonists, who were sent to occupy it, or it was sold, or it was let out to farm. 2. The land which was then out of cultivation, and which, owing to war, was by far theater part, might be occupied by any of the Roman citizens on the payment of a portion of the yearly produce; a tenth of the produce of arable land, and a fifth of the produce of the land planted with the vine, the olive, and other valuable trees. 3. The land which had previously served as the common

AFFINES, AFFINITAS, or ADFI'NES, ADFINITAS. Affines are the cognati [COGNATI] of husband and wife, the cognati of the husband becoming the affines of the wife, and the cognati of the wife the affines of the husband. The father of a husband is the socer of the husband's wife, and the father of a wife is the socer of the wife's husband. The term socrus expresses the same affinity with respect to the husband's and wife's mothers. A son's wife is nurus, or daughter-in-law to the son's parents; a wife's husband is gener, or son-in-pasture land of the conquered state, or was law to the wife's parents.

Thus the avus, avia-pater, mater-of the wife became by the marriage respectively the socer magnus, prosocrus, or socrus magna-socer, socrus-of the husband, who becomes with respect to them severally progener and gener. In like manner the corresponding ancestors of the husband respectively assume the same names with respect to the son's wife, who becomes with respect to them pronurus and nurus. The son and daughter of a husband or wife born of a prior marriage are called privignus and privigna, with respect to their step-father or step-mother; and with respect to such children the step-father and step-mother are severally called vitricus and noverca. The husband's brother becomes levir with respect to the wife, and his sister becomes glos (the Greek yaλws). Marriage was unlawful γάλως). among persons who had become such affines as above mentioned.

AGALMA (йyaλua), is a general name for a statue or image to represent a god.

AGA SO, a groom, whose business it was to take care of the horses. The word is also used for a driver of beasts of burder, and is

suitable for the purpose, continued to be used as pasture land for the use of the Roman citizens, who had, however, to pay a certain sum of money for the cattle which they turned upon the land.

The occupation of the public land spoken of above under the second head was always expressed by the words possessio and possidere, and the occupier of the land was called the possessor. The land continued to be the property of the state; and accordingly we must distinguish between the terms possessio, which merely indicated the use or enjoyment of the land, and dominium, which expressed ownership, and was applied to private land, of which a man had the absolute ownership. The right of occupying the public land belonged only to citizens, and consequently only to the patricians originally, as they were the state. The plebeians were only subjects, and consequently had no right to the property of the state; but it is probable that they were permitted to feed their cattle on the public pasture lands. Even when the plebeians became a separate estate by the constitution of Servius Tullius, they still obtained no right

AGER PUBLICUS.

to share in the possession of the public land, | which continued to be the exclusive privilege of the patricians; but as a compensation, each individual plebeian received an assignment of a certain quantity of the public land as his own property. Henceforth the possession of the public land was the privilege of the patricians, and an assignment of a portion of it the privilege of the plebeians. As the state acquired new lands by conquest, the plebeians ought to have received assignments of part of them; but since the patricians were the governing body, they generally refused to make any such assignment, and continued to keep the whole as part of the ager publicus, whereby the enjoyment of it belonged to them alone. Hence, we constantly read of the plebeians claiming, and sometimes enforcing, a division of such land.

farther enacted that the surplus land was to be divided among the plebeians. As this law, however,was soon disregarded, it was revived again by Tib. Sempronius Gracchus (B. c. 133), with some alterations and additions. The details of the other agrarian laws, mentioned in Roman history, are given under the name of the lex by which they are called. [LEX.]

AGGER (xua), from ad and gero, was used in general for a heap or mound of any kind. It was more particularly applied: 1. To a mound, usually composed of earth, which was raised round a besieged town, and which was gradually increased in breadth and height, till it equalled or overtopped the walls. The agger was sometimes made not only of earth, but of wood, hurdles, &c.; whence we read of the agger being set on fire. 2. To the earthen wall surrounding a Roman With the extension of the conquests of encampment, composed of the earth dug from Rome, the ager publicus constantly increased, the ditch (fossa), which was usually 9 feet and thus a large portion of Italy fell into the broad and 7 feet deep; but if any attack was hands of the patricians; who frequently with-apprehended, the depth was increased to 12 held from the state the annual payments of a tenth and a fifth, which they were bound to pay for the possession of the land, and thus deprived the state of a fund for the expenses of the war. In addition to which they used slaves as cultivators and shepherds, since freemen were liable to be drawn off from fieldlabour to military service, and slave-labour was consequently far cheaper. In this way the number of free labourers diminished, and that of slaves was augmented.

To remedy this state of things several laws were from time to time proposed and carried, which were most violently opposed by the patricians. All laws which related to the public land, are called by the general title of Leges Agrariae, and accordingly all the early laws relating to the possession of the public land by the patricians, and to the assignment of portions of it to the plebeians, were strictly agrarian laws; but the first law to which this name is usually applied, was proposed soon after the establishment of the republic by the consul Sp. Cassius in B. c. 486. Its object was to set apart the portion of the public land which the patricians were to possess, to divide the rest among the plebeians, to levy the payment due for the possession, and to apply it to paying the army. The first law, however, which really deprived the patricians of the advantages they had previously enjoyed in the occupation of the public land was the agrarian law of C. Licinius Stolo (B. c. 366), which limited each individual's possession of public land to 500 jugera, and declared that no individual should have above 100 large and 500 smaller cattle on the public pastures: it B

feet and the breadth to 13 feet. Sharp stakes, &c. were usually fixed upon the agger, which was then called vallum. When both words are used, the agger means the mound of earth, and the vallum the stakes, &c. which were fixed upon the agger.

AGITATOʻRĒES. [CIRCUS.]

AGMEN, the marching order of the Roman army. The form of the army on march differed according to circumstances and the nature of the ground. An agmen pilatum was an army in close array; an agmen quadratum was an army arranged in the form of a square,with the baggage in the middle.

AGNA TI. [COGNATI.]
AGNO MEN. [NOMEN.]

AGONAʼLIA or AGO ́NIA, a Roman festival instituted by Numa Pompilius, in honour of Janus, and celebrated on the 9th of January, the 20th of May, and the 10th of December. The morning of these festivals, or, at least, the morning of the 10th of December, was considered a dies nefastus. The etymology of this name was differently explained by the ancients; some derived it from Agonius, a surname of Janus; some from the word agone, because the attendant, whose duty it was to sacrifice the victim, could not do so till he had asked the rex sacrificulus, Agone? and others from agonia, because the victims were formerly called by that name.

AGONO THEΤΑΕ (ἀγωνοθέται), persons in the Grecian games, who decided disputes, and adjudged the prizes to the victors. Origi nally, the person who instituted the contest, and offered the prize, was the Agonothetes, and this continued to be the practice in those

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AGORANOMI.

AGROTERAS THUSIA.

The principal duty of the Agoranomi was, as their name imports, to inspect the market, and to see that all the laws respecting its regulation were properly observed. They had the inspection of all things that were sold in the market, with the exception of corn, which was subject to the jurisdiction of special officers, called Sitophylaces (σITODÚ2акεç). λακες). AGRARIAN LAWS. [AGER PUBLICUS; RIA LEX.]

games which were instituted by kings or pri- | for the Peiraeeus, and they were chosen vate persons. But in the great public games, by lot. such as the Isthmian, Pythian, &c., the Agonothetae were either the representatives of different states, as the Amphictyons at the Pythian games, or were chosen from the people in whose country the games were celebrated. During the flourishing times of the Grecian republics, the Eleans were the Agonothetae in the Olympic games, the Corinthians in the Isthmian games, the Amphictyons in the Pythian games, and the Corinthians, Argives, and inhabitants of Cleonae in the Nemean games. The Agonothetae were also called Aesymnetae (alovuvñτaι), Agonarchae (άywványai), Agonodicae (uywvodíkai), (αγωνάρχαι), (άγωνοδίκαι), Athlothetae (a0200éral), Rhabduchi (paßdou(άθλοθέται), Xoi), or Rhabdonomi (paßdovóμol, from the staff they carried as an emblem of authority), Brabeis βραβεῖς), Brabeutae (βραβευταί).

A'GORA (άyopá) properly means an assembly of any kind, and is usually employed by Homer to designate the general assembly of the people. The Agora seems to have been considered an essential part of the constitution of the early Grecian states. It was usually It was usually convoked by the king, but occasionally by some distinguished chieftain, as, for example, by Achilles before Troy. The king occupied the most important seat in these assemblies, and near him sat the nobles, while the people stood or sat in a circle around them. The people appear to have had no right of speaking or voting in these assemblies, but merely to have been called together to hear what had been already agreed upon in the council of the nobles, and to express their feelings as a body. The council of the nobles is called Boulé (Bovλn) and Thoöcus (fówкoç), and sometimes even Agora.

Among the Athenians, the proper_name for the assembly of the people was Ecclesia (èkкλŋσía), and among the Dorians Halia (2ía). The term Agora was confined at (ἁλία). Athens to the assemblies of the phylae and

demi.

The name Agora was early transferred from the assembly itself to the place in which the assembly was held; and thus it came to be used for the market-place, where goods of all descriptions were bought and sold. The expression agora plethousa (¿yoрà Thýlovσa), (ἀγορὰ "full market," was used to signify the time from morning to noon, that is, from about nine to twelve o'clock.

AGORA NOMI (ȧyopavóμoi), public functionaries in most of the Grecian states, whose duties corresponded in many respects with those of the Roman aediles. At Athens their number was ten, five for the city, and five

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

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

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

AGRO ́NOMI (¿ypovóμoi), the country-police, probably in Attica, whose duties corresponded in most respects to those of the asty nomi in the city, and who appear to have performed nearly the same duties as the hylori (vλwpoí).

AGRO TERAS THU'SIA ('Ayрoτépas Ovoía), a festival celebrated every year at Athens in honour of Diana, surnamed Agrotera (from ŭypa, the chase). It was solemnized on the sixth of the month of Boëdromion, and consisted in a sacrifice of 500 goats, which continued to be offered in the time of Xenophon. Its origin is thus related :-When the Persians invaded Attica, the Athenians made a vow to sacrifice to Artemis (Diana) Agrotera as many goats as there should be enemies slain at Marathon. But when the number of enemies slain was so great that an equal number