of a victory, to pay money, which was called | aurum coronarium. This offering, which was at first voluntary, came to be regarded as a regular tribute, and was sometimes exacted by the governors of the provinces, even when no victory had been gained.

AUSPICIUM, originally meant a sign from birds. The word is derived from avis, and the root spec. As the Roman religion was gradually extended by additions from Greece and Etruria, the meaning of the word was widened, so as to include any supernatural sign. The chief difference between auspicium and augurium seems to have been that the latter term is never applied to the spectio of the magistrate. [AUGUR.]

Birds were divided into two classes-oscines and praepetes; the former gave omens by singing, the latter by their flight and the motion of their wings. Every motion of every bird had a different meaning, according to the different circumstances or times of the year when it was observed.

Another division of birds was into dextrae and sinistrae, about the meaning of which some difficulty has arisen from a confusion of Greek and Roman notions in the writings of the classics. The Greeks and Romans were generally agreed that auspicious signs came from the east, but as the Greek priest turned his face to the north the east was on his right hand, the Roman augur with his face to the south had the east to his left. The confusion was farther increased by the euphemisms common to both nations; and the rule itself was not universal at least with the Romans; the jay when it appeared on the left, the crow on the right being thought to give sure omens.

The auspices were taken before a marriage, before entering on an expedition, before the passing of laws, or election of magistrates, or any other important occasion, whether public or private. In early times such was the importance attached to them that a soldier was released from the military oath, if the auspices had not been duly performed.

The commander-in-chief of an army received the auspices, together with the imperium, and a war was therefore said to be carried on ductu et auspicio imperatoris, even if he were absent from the army, and thus, if the legatus gained a victory in the absence of his commander, the latter, and not his deputy, was honoured by a triumph.

The ordinary manner of taking the auspices was as follows:-The augur went out before the dawn of day, and sitting in an open place, with his head veiled, marked out with a wand (lituus) the divisions of the

AUTHEPSA.

heavens. Next he declared in a solemn form of words the limits assigned, making shrubs or trees, called tesqua, his boundary on earth correspondent to that in the sky. The templum augurale, which appears to have included both, was divided into four parts: those to the east and west were termed sinistrae and dextrae; to the north and south, anticae and posticae. If a breath of air disturbed the calmness of the heavens, the auspices could not be taken; and according to Plutarch it was for this reason the augurs carried lanterns open to the wind. After sacrificing, the augur offered a prayer for the desired signs to appear, repeating after an inferior minister a set form; unless the first appearances were confirmed by subsequent ones, they were insufficient. If, in returning home, the augur came to a running stream, he again repeated a prayer, and purified himself in its waters; otherwise the auspices were held to be null.

Another method of taking the auspices, more usual in military expeditions, was from the feeding of birds confined in a cage, and committed to the care of the pullarius. An ancient decree of the college of augurs allowed the auspices to be taken from any bird. When all around seemed favourable, either at dawn or in the evening, the pullarius opened the cage and threw to the chickens pulse, or a kind of soft cake. If they refused to come out, or to eat, or uttered a cry (occinerunt), or beat their wings, or flew away, the signs were considered unfavourable, and the engagement was delayed. On the contrary, if they ate greedily, so that something fell and struck the earth (tripudium solistimum tripudium quasi terripavium, solistimum, from solum, the latter part of the word probably from the root stimulo), it was held a favourable sign.

The place where the auspices were taken, called auguraculum, augurale, or auguratorium, was open to the heavens. One of the most ancient of these was on the Palatine hill, the regular station for the observation of augurs. Sometimes the auspices were taken in the capitol. In the camp a place was set apart to the right of the general's tent.

;

The lex Aelia and Fufia provided that no assemblies of the people should be held, nisi prius de coelo servatum esset. It appears to have confirmed to the magistrates the power of obnunciatio, or of interposing a veto. [AUGUR.]

AUTHEPSA (avléчns), which literally means "self-boiling," or "self cooking," was the name of a vessel which is supposed to have been used for heating water, or for keep ing it hot.

AUTOʻNOMI (avrovóμoi), the name given by the Greeks to those states which were governed by their own laws, and were not subject to any foreign power. This name was also given to those cities subject to the Romans, which were permitted to enjoy their own laws and elect their own magistrates. AUXILIA. [SOCII.] AXE. [SECURIS.] AXIS. [CURRUS.] AXLE. [CURRUS.]

AXONES (άξονες), wooden tablets of a square or pyramidal form, made to turn on an axis, on which were written the laws of Solon.

47

puelus (úɛλos) by the later Greeks. It did not contain water itself, but was only used for the bather to sit in, while the warm water was poured over him. On Greek vases, however, we never find anything corresponding to a modern bath in which persons can stand or sit; but there is always a round or oval basin (λουτήρ or λουτήριον), resting on a stand, by the side of which those who are bathing are standing undressed and washing themselves.

B.

BAIL. [ACTIO.] BAKER. [PISTOR.]

BALISTA, BALLISTA. [TORMENTUM.] BALL, game at. [PILA.]

BALNEUM or BALI NEUM (λοετρόν or λουτρόν, βαλανεῖον, also balneae Or balineae), a bath. Balneum or balineum signifies, in its primary sense, a bath or bathing vessel, such as most Romans possessed in their own houses; and from that it came to mean the chamber which contained the bath. When the baths of private individuals became more sumptuous, and comprised many rooms, the plural balnea or balinea was adopted, which still, in correct language, had reference only to the baths of private persons. Balneae and balineae, which have no singular number, were | the public baths. But this accuracy of diction is neglected by many of the subsequent writers. Thermae (from lépμn, warmth) mean properly warm springs, or baths of warm water, but were afterwards applied to the structures in which the baths were placed, and which were both hot and cold. There was, however, a material distinction between the balneae and thermae, inasmuch as the former was the term used under the republic, and referred to the public establishments of that age, which contained no appliances for luxury beyond the mere convenience of hot and cold baths, whereas the latter name was given to those magnificent edifices which grew up under the empire, and which comprised within their range of buildings all the appurtenances belonging to the Greek gymnasia, as well as a regular establishment appropriated for bathing.

Bathing was a practice familiar to the Greeks of both sexes from the earliest times. The artificial warm bath was taken in a vessel called asaminthus (άoáμuvloc), by Homer, and

In the Homeric times it was customary to take first a cold and afterwards a warın bath; but in later times it was the usual practice of the Greeks to take first a warm or vapour, and afterwards a cold bath. At Athens the frequent use of the public baths, most of which were warm baths (Bahaveĩa, called by Homer Oɛpμà 2оɛтρá), was regarded in the time of Socrates and Demosthenes as a mark of luxury and effeminacy. Accordingly, Phocion was said to have never bathed in a public bath, and Socrates to have used it very seldom.

After bathing, both sexes anointed themselves, in order that the skin might not be left harsh and rough, especially after warm water. Oil (čλatov) is the only ointment mentioned by Homer, but in later times precious unguents (uúpa) were used for this purpose. The bath was usually taken before the principal meal of the day (dɛiñvov.)

The Lacedaemonians, who considered warm water as enervating, used two kinds of baths namely, the cold daily bath in the Eurotas, and a dry sudorific bath in a chamber heated with warm air by means of a stove, and from them the chamber used by the Romans for a

BALNEUM.

BARATHRON.

49

3. Tepidarium would seem from the preceding cut to have been a bathing room, for a person is there apparently represented pouring water over a bather. But there is good reason for thinking that this was not the case. In most cases the tepidarium contained no water at all, but was a room merely heated with warm air of an agreeable temperature, in order to prepare the body for the great heat of the vapour and warm baths, and upon returning from the latter, to obviate the danger of a too sudden transition to the open

air.

4. The Caldarium or Concamerata Sudatio contained at one extremity the vapour bath (Laconicum), and at the other the warm bath (balneum or calda lavatio), while the centre space between the two ends was termed sudatio or sudatorium. In larger establishments the vapour bath and warm bath were in two separate cells, as we see in the preceding cut: in such cases the former part alone was called concamerata sudatio. The whole rested on a suspended pavement (suspensura), under which was a fire (hypocaustum), so that the flames might heat the whole apartment. (See cut.)

Strigiles, and Guttus.

queathing to them the thermae and gardens which he had erected in the Campus Martius. The example set by Agrippa was followed by Nero, and afterwards by Titus, the ruins of whose thermae are still visible, covering a vast extent, partly underground, and partly above the Esquiline hill. Thermae were also erected by Trajan, Caracalla, and Diocletian, of the two last of which ample remains still exist.

After having gone through the regular course of perspiration, the Romans made use of instruments called strigiles or strigles, to scrape off the perspiration. The strigil was also used by the Greeks, who called it stlengis (OTλeyyis) or xystra (Šúσṛpa). One of the figures in the cut on p. 47, is represented with a strigil in his hand. As the strigil was not a blunt instrument, its edge was softened by the application of oil, which was dropped upon it from a small vessel called guttus or ampulla, which had a narrow neck, so as to discharge its contents drop by drop, whence the name is taken. A representation of a guttus is given in the annexed cut, together with some strigils.

In the Thermae, spoken of above, the baths were of secondary importance. They were a Roman adaptation of the Greek gymnasium, contained exedrae for the philosophers and rhetoricians to lecture in, porticoes for the idle, and libraries for the learned, and were adorned with marbles, fountains, and shaded walks and plantations. M. Agrippa, in the

E

Previously to the erection of these establishments for the use of the population, it was customary for those who sought the fayour of the people to give them a day's bath

infer that the quadrant paid for admission into the balneae was not exacted at the thermae, which, as being the works of the emperors, would naturally be opened with imperial generosity to all, and without any charge.

BAʼLTEUS (7ɛhaμúv), a belt, a shoulder belt, was used to suspend the sword. See the figs. on p. 38. In the Homeric times the Greeks used a belt to support the shield. The balteus was likewise employed to suspend the quiver, and sometimes together with it the bow. More commonly the belt, whether employed to support the sword, the shield, or the quiver, was made of leather, and was frequently ornamented with gold, silver, and precious stones. In a general sense balteus was applied not only to the belt, which passed over the shoulder, but also to the girdle (cingulum), which encompassed the waist.

BANISHMENT. [EXSILIUM.]

BANKER. [ARGENTARII; MENSARII.] BARATHRON (ßápalpov), a deep cavern or chasm, like the Ceadas at Sparta, behind the Acropolis at Athens, into which criminals were thrown. [Ceadas.]