A DICTIONARY OF GREEK AND ROMAN ANTIQUITIES, ETC. ABACUS. I. In architecture it denoted the flat square stone which constituted the highest member of a column, being placed immediately under the architrave. Its use is to be traced back to the very infancy of architecture. As the trunk of the tree, which supported the roof of the early log-hut, required to be based upon a flat square stone, and to have a stone or tile of similar form fixed on its summit to preserve it from decay, so the stone column in after days was made with a square base, and was covered with an Abacus. The annexed figure is drawn from that in the British Museum, which was taken from the Parthenon at Athens, and is a perfect specimen of the capital of a Doric column. In the more ornamented orders of architecture, such as the Corinthian, the sides of the abacus were curved inward, and a rose or some other decoration was frequently placed in the middle of each side; but the name Abacus was given to the stone thus diversified and enriched, as well as in its original form.' II. The diminutive ABACULUS (¿bakiokos) denoted a tile of marble, glass, or any other substance used for making omamental pavements. Pliny, in his account of glass, says, "It is artificially stained as in making the small tiles, which some persons call abaculi." Moschion says that the magnificent ship built by Archimedes for Hiero, king of Syracuse, contained a pavement made of such tiles, of various colours and materials. III. ABACUS was also employed in architecture to denote a panel, coffer, or square compartment in the wall or ceiling of a chamber. As panels are ABACUS. 1 intended for variety and ornament, they were enriched with painting. Pliny, in describing the progress of luxury with respect to the decoration of apartments, says that the Romans were now no longer satisfied with panels, and were beginning even to paint upon marble. IV. ABACUS farther denoted a wooden tray, i. e. a square board surrounded by a raised border. This may have been the article intended by Cato, when, in his enumeration of the things necessary in furnishing a farm (olivetum), he mentions "one aba cus."3 Such a tray would be useful for various purposes. It might very well be used for making bread and confectionary; and hence the name of abacus (üba5, ábúktov) was given to the μákrpa, i. e., the board or tray for kneading dough." V. A tray of the same description, covered with sand or dust, was used by mathematicians for draw ing diagrams. VI. It is evident that this contrivance would be no less serviceable to the arithmetician; and to this application of it Persius alludes, when he censures the man who ridiculed "the numbers on the abacus and the partitions in its divided dust." In this instance the poet seems to have supposed perpendicular lines or channels to have been drawn in the sand upon the board; and the instrument might thus, in the simplest and easiest manner, be adapted for arithmetical computation. It appears that the same purpose was answered by having a similar tray with perpendicular wooden divisions, the space on the right hand being intended for units, the next space for tens, the next for hundreds, and so on. Thus was constructed "the the use of stones. The figure following is designabacus on which they calculate," i. c., reckon by ed to represent the probable form and appearance of such an abacus. The reader will observe, that stone after stone might be put into the right-hand partition until they amounted to 10, when it would be necessary to take stead of them to put one stone into the next partithem all out as represented in the figure, and intion. The stones in this division might in like manwhen it would be necessary to take out the 10, and ner amount to 10, thus representing 10x10=100, instead of them to put one stone into the third partition, and so on. On this principle, the stones in the abacus, as delineated in the figure, would be equivalent to 359,310. 1. (Plin., H. N., xxxiii., 56; xxxv., 13.)-2. (“Non placent Cratin., Fragm., ed. Runkel, p. 27.-Pollux, vi., 90; x., 105.1. (Vitruv., iii., 3; iv., 1, 7.)—2. (H. N., xxxvi., 67.)-8.-7. ("Abaco numeros, et secto in pulvere metas:" Pers., Sat., Schol. in Theoc., iv., 61.)-6. (Eustath. in Od., i., 107, p. 1397.) Δάπεδον ἕνα ἀβακίσκοις συγκείμενον ἐκ παντοίων λίθων. Apud i., 131. 8. (ἀδάκιον ἐφ ̓ οὗ ψηφίζουσιν : Eustath. in Od., iv., 249, p. 1494.)-9. (401, calculi.) jam alsaci :" H. N., xxxv., 1.)-3. (De Re Rust., 10.) 4. Vid. Bekker, Anec. Græc., 1, 27.)-5. (Hesych., 5. v. MaxTpa. Athen., v., 207.) B after the victories of Cn. Manlius Vulso, A.U.C. 567.1 In the above passage of Sidonius, the principal use of the abacus now described is indicated by the word argenti, referring to the vessels of silver which it contained, and being probably designed, like our WO word "plate," to include similar articles made of gold and other precious substances.2 It is evident that the same method might be employed in adding, subtracting, or multiplying weights and measures, and sums of money. Thus the stones, as arranged in the figure, might stand for 3 stadia, 5 plethra, 9 fathoms, 3 cubits, and 1 foot. The abacus, however, can never be much used by us at the present day, owing to our various divisions of weights and measures, &c. We should need one abacus for dollars, cents, &c.; another for avoirdupois weight; a third for troy weight, and so on. In China, however, where the whole system is decimal, that is, where every measure, weight, &c., is the tenth part of the next greater one, this instrument, called Shwanpan, is very much used, and with astonishing rapidity. It is said that, while one man reads over rapidly a number of sums of money, another can add them so as to give the total as soon as the first has done reading. That the spaces of the abacus actually denoted different values, may be inferred from the following comparison in Polybius: "All men are subject to be elevated and again depressed by the most fleeting events; but this is particularly the case with those who frequent the palaces of kings. They are like the stones upon abaci, which, according to the pleasure of the calculator," are at one time the value of a small copper coin, and immediately afterward are worth a talent of gold. Thus courtiers at the monarch's nod may suddenly become either happy or miserable." The term abacus must, however, have been applicable to cupboards of a simple and unadorned appearance. Juvenal says of the triclinium and drinking-vessels of a poor man, "Lectus erat Codro Procula minor, urceoli sex The abacus was, in fact, part of the furniture of a IX. Lastly, a part of the theatre was called "the abaci." It seems to have been on or bakes, near the stage; farther than this its position cannot be at present determined. We may, however, infer that the general idea, characteristic of abaci in every other sense, viz., that of a square tablet, was applicable in this case also. ABALIENATIO. (Vid. MANCIPIUM; MANCI PATIO.) Is.) ABDICATIO. (Vid. MAGISTRATUS, APOCERYX AB'IES, the "Fir," a genus of trees of the coniferous tribe, well known for the valuable timber which is produced by many of the species. The origin of the Latin name is unknown; that of the English appellation is the Saxon furh-wudu, "fir-wood." The Abies Picea, or "Silver Fir," is the kind styled by Virgil pulcherrima ("most beautiful"), and richly merits the name. Antiquarians have lost themselves in vain attempts to reconcile the declaration of Cæsar (5, 12), that he found in Britain all the trees of Gaul except the beech and abies, with the well-known fact that fir-wood is abundant in the ancient English mosses, and has been met with even beneath the foundations of Roman roads. What Cæsar meant was, no doubt, that he did not meet with the silver for in Britain; of the pine he says nothing, and therefore it is to be presumed that he found it.-The common λárn of the Greeks must have been either the Pinus abies or the Pinus Ori VII. By another variation the ABACUS was adapted for playing with dice or counters. The Greeks had a tradition ascribing this contrivance to Palamedes; hence they called it "the abacus of Palame-entalis (Tournefort). There is some difficulty in des." It probably bore a considerable resemblance to the modern backgammon-board, dice' being thrown for the moves, and the "men" placed according to the numbers thrown on the successive lines or spaces of the board. VIII. The term ABACUS was also applied to a kind of cupboard, sideboard, or cabinet, the exact form of which can only be inferred from the incidental mention of it by ancient writers. It appears that it had partitions for holding cups and all kinds of valuable and ornamental utensils: 119 distinguishing the male and female species of Theophrastus. Stackhouse holds the former to be the Pinus abies, or common "Fir-tree," and the latter the Pinus picea, or "Yellow-leaved Fir." *AB'IGA, the herb "ground-pine," called also "St. John's wort." The Latin name is derived from this plant's having been used to produce abortion. The Abiga is the same with the Chamæpitys (XauainíTug) of the Greeks. The three species of the latter described by Dioscorides have been the subject of much diversity of opinion. The 1st would seem to "Nec per multiplices abaco splendente cavernas have been the Ajiga Chamapitys; the 3d the Afiga Argenti nigri pocula defodiam." iva (according to Bauhin and Sprengel); while the 2d, according to the latter, is either the Teucrium This passage must evidently have referred to a piece supinum or montanum. These plants, rich in esof furniture with numerous cells, and of a compli-sential oil, are tonic and aromatic. All that we cated construction. If we suppose it to have been a square frame with shelves or partitions, in some degree corresponding to the divisions which have been described under the last two heads, we shall see that the term might easily be transferred from all its other applications to the sense now under consideration. We are informed that luxuries of this description were first introduced at Rome from Asia Minor 1. (ν., 26.)—2. (ταῖς ἐπὶ τῶν ἀβακίων ψήφοις.) 3. (ψηφίζοντος.) - 4. (χαλκοῦν.) — 5. (τάλαντον.) ο (τὸ Παλαμήδειον abáktov: Eustath. in Od., i., 107, p. 1396.)-7. (Kóbot.)-8. (coool.)-9. (Sidon. Apoll., Car. xvii., 7, 8.) find in Dioscorides and in Pliny (who copies him), which does not refer to these properties, is merely hypothetical, and does not merit refutation." ABLEC TI. (Vid. EXTRAORDINARII.) victim which were offered to the gods in sacrifice. ABLEG MINA (droheypoi) were the parts of the The word is derived from ablegere, in imitation of 1. (Liv., xxxix., 6.-Plin., H. N., xxxix., 8.)-2. (Vid. Cic., Tusc., v., 21.-Varro, de Ling. Lat., ix., 33, p. 489, ed. Spengel. 3. (Sat., iii., 187.)-4. (Adams, Append., s. v. ἐλάτη.)5. ( Quod aligat partus.” Vid. Plin., Η. Ν., καιν., 6.) 6. (Ad ams, Append., s. v. xapainirus.)-7. (Dioscorid., iii., 175.-Fée in Plin., 1. c.) ABRAMIS. the Greek árokéyew, which is used in a similar manner. These parts were also called Porricia, Prosegmina, Prosecta. (Vid. SACRIFICES.) ABOLLA, a woollen cloak or pall, is probably only a varied form of pallium (pupos), with which this word is nearly, if not altogether, identical in signification. The form and manner of wearing the abolla may be seen in the figures annexed, which are taken from the bas-reliefs on the triumphal arch of Septimius Severus at Rome. ACANTHA. ABROGA'TIO. (Vid. LEX.) *ABROT'ONUM (abpórovov), a plant, of which two species are described by Dioscorides,' the male and the female. The former of these, by the almost general agreement of the commentators and botanical authorities, is referred to the Artemisia Abrotonum, L., or Southernwood. About the other species there is great diversity of opinion. Fuchsius makes it the Artemisia Pontica; Dodonæus, the A. arborescens; and Matthiolus, the Santolina Chamacyparissus, or common Lavender Cotton. Adams decides in favour of the last. Galen recognises the two species described by Dioscorides; but Nicander, Paulus Ægineta, and most of the other writers on the Materia Medica, notice only one species, which no doubt was the A. abrotonum. *ABSINTHIUM (pivotov), a plant, of which Dioscorides describes three species. The first of these is pretty generally acknowledged to be the Artemisia absinthium, or common wormwood; but Sprengel hesitates whether he should not also comprehend the A. Pontica under it, which latter, indeed, Bauhin held to be the true Roman wormwood. The second species is the Artemisia maritima. The third is held by Sprengel to be the A. palmata, L., which, it appears, is indigenous in Santonge. The A. santonica, L., being confined to Tartary and the northern parts of Persia, it is not likely that the ancients were acquainted with it." ABSOLU'TIO. (Vid. JUDICIUM.) ABSTINEN DI BENEFICIUM. (Vid. HERES.) *ACA CALIS_or ACALLIS (ἀκακαλίς, ἀκαλλίς), a plant; according to Sprengel, the Tamarix Orientalis, called Tamarix articulata by Vahl. *ACA'CIA (akaкía), a plant, which, according to Sprengel, and most of the authorities, is the Acacia Vera, Willd.; but, according to Dierbach, it is the Acacia Senegal. Hill remarks, that the tree which produces the succus acacia is the same as that which yields the gum arabic. The acacia gets the English name of the Egyptian thorn. ACAI'NA (йkaiva), a measure of length, equivalent to ten Greek feet. *ACALE PHE (akaλhon, or кvidn), I. a kind of shellfish, belonging to the genus Urtica ("Sea-nettle"), of which there are several species. Linnæus Juvenal, speaking of a person who heard unex- places the Urtica among Zoophyta, but it belongs pectedly that it was necessary for him to attend more properly to the class Mollusca. Sprengel deupon the emperor, says, "He took up his cloak in acides, that the Urtica marina of the ancients is the great hurry." This action suited the use of a gar- Actinia senilis. Coray gives its French name as ment, made simply to be thrown over the shoulders Ortie de mer. Pennant says, the ancients divided and fastened with a fibula. The same poet calls a their kvídŋ into two classes, those which adhere to very cruel and base action facinus majoris abolle, rocks (the Actinia of Linnæus), and those that wanliterally "a crime of a larger cloak." The expres-der through the element. The latter are called by sion has been explained as meaning "a crime of a late writers Urtica soluta; by Linnæus, Medusa; by deeper dye," and "a crime committed by a philos- the common people, "Sea jellies," or "Sea blubopher of a graver character." Probably it meant a bers."7-II. A species of plant, the "nettle." Dicrime so enormous as to require a larger cloak to oscorides describes two species, which Sprengel hide it. This is supported by the authority of the holds to be the Urtica dioica ("great nettle") and ancient scholiast on Juvenal, who explains majoris the U. urens ("little nettle"). abolle as equivalent to majoris pallii. (Vid. PALLIUM.) species of fish, the Squalus Acanthias, L., or Spinax | Acanthias of later authorities; in English, the "Piked Dog" or "Hound Fish." It is common on the shores of England and in the Mediterranean. Pennant also says that it swarms on the Scottish coast. It weighs about 20lbs. This is the species of shark often taken between Edinburgh and Aberdeen.1 *ACAN'THIS (ȧκavoiç), so called by Aristotle, is probably the same plant as the akaλavoiç of Aristophanes, and the akavovλhis of Hesychius. It is the Acanthis of Pliny and Virgil. Gesner, with great probability, refers it to the "Siskin," namely, the Fringilla spinus, L., or Carduelis spinus, Cuvier. Professor Rennie says it is called "Aberdevine" near London.2 *ACAN THUS (ǎkavboç), I. the name by which the broad raffled leaf used in the enrichment of the Corinthian capital is known. It is thus called because of its general resemblance to the leaves of a species of the Acanthus plant. (Vid. COLUMNA.) II. Under this name have been described by ancient authors at least three totally different plants. First, a prickly tree, with smooth evergreen leaves, and small, round, saffron-coloured berries, frequently alluded to by Virgil; this is conjectured to have been the Holly. Secondly, a prickly Egyptian tree, described by Theophrastus as having pods like those of a bean; it is probable that this was the Acacia Arabica. Thirdly, an herb mentioned by Dioscorides, with broad prickly leaves, which perish at the approach of winter, and again sprout forth with the return of spring. To this latter plant the name is now applied. The word in all cases alludes to the prickly nature of the leaves or stems. It is this last species which is usually supposed to have given rise to the notion of the Corinthian capital. But it appears from the investigation of Dr. Sibthorp, that it is nowhere to be found, either in the Greek islands, or in any part of the Peloponnesus; and that the plant which Dioscorides must have meant was the Acanthus spinosus, still called aκavoa, which is found, as he describes it, on the borders of cultivated grounds or of gardens, and is frequent in rocky moist situations." ACAP NA LIG'NA (a priv., and karvós), called also cocta, were logs of wood dried with great care in order to prevent smoke. Pliny says that wood soaked with the lees of oil (amurca) burned without ACCEN'SI. I. The ACCENSUS was 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,' It was the duty of the accensi to summon the people to the assemblies, and those who had lawsuits to court; and also, by command of the consul and prætor, to proclaim the time, when it was the third hour, the sixth hour, and the ninth hour. Accensi also attended on the govern ors of provinces, and were commonly freedmen of the magistrate on whom they attended. Varro describes the word from acciendo, because they summoned the people; other writers suppose it to come from accensere. 3 II. The ACCENSI were also a class of soldiers in the Roman army. It appears that after the full number of the legion had been completed, some supernumerary soldiers were enlisted, who might be always ready to supply any vacancies in the legion. These soldiers, who were called adscriptivi or adscriptitii (because, says Festus, supplendis legionibus adscribebantur), were usually unaccustomed to military service, and were assigned to different centurions to be instructed in their duties. After they had been formed into a regular corps, they obtained the name of accensi, and were reckoned among the light-armed troops. In later times they were also called supernumerarii. They were placed in battle in the rear of the army, behind the triarii. They had properly no military duty to perform, since they did not march in troops against the enemy. They were, according to the census of Servius Tullius, taken from the fifth class of citizens.7 ACCEPTILA'TIO is defined to be a release by mutual interrogation between debtor and creditor, by which each party is exonerated from the same contract. In other words, acceptilatio is the form of words by which a creditor releases his debtor from a debt or obligation, and acknowledges he has received that which in fact he has not received. This release of debt by acceptilatio applies only to *ACANTHYLLIS (ἀκανθυλλίς). As has been such debts as have been contracted by stipulatio, stated under Acanthis, the axavovals of Hesychi- conformably to a rule of Roman law, that only conus is most probably the "Siskin;" but that of Aris-tracts made by words can be put an end to by totle is certainly different, being the Picus varius words. But the astuteness of the Roman lawyers according to Camus.* found a mode of complying with the rule, and at the same time extending the acceptilatio to all kinds and to any number of contracts. This was the invention of Gallus Aquilius, who devised a formula for reducing all and every kind of contracts to the stipulatio. This being done, the acceptilatio would immediately apply, inasmuch as the matter was by such formula brought within the general rule of law above mentioned. The acceptilatio must be absolute and not conditional. A part of a debt or obligation might be released as well as the whole, provided the thing was in its nature capable of division. A pupillus could not release a debt by acceptilatio, without the consent of his tutor, but he could be released from a debt. The phrase by which a creditor is said to release his debtor by acceptilatio is, debitori acceptum, or accepto facere or ferre, or acceptum habere. When anything which was done on the behalf of or for the state, such as a building, for instance, was approved by the competent authorities, it was said, in acceptum ferri or referri. smoke.s Acapnon mel, which was considered the best kind of honey, was obtained without driving out the bees from their hives by smoke, which was the usual method of procuring it." ACATION (άKάTIov, a diminutive of akaros, a small vessel), a small vessel or boat, which appears to have been the same as the Roman scapha; since Suetonius, in relating the escape of Cæsar from Alexandrea, says that he jumped into a scapha, which Plutarch, in narrating the same events, calls an ȧkátov. Thucydides' speaks of axárov uonpixov, which is explained by the scholiast, Пotáptov ἑκατέρωθεν ἐρεσσόμενον, ἐν ᾧ ἕκαστος τῶν ἐλαυνόν. των δικωπίας ἐρέττει. The ȧkária were also sails, which, according to the description of Xenophon, were adapted for fast sailing. They are opposed by him to the μeyaha ἱστία το pressed the produce or increase of anything, and, ACCES'SIO is a legal term, by which is exat the same time, the notion of such produce or in 1. (Adams, Append., s. v.)-2. (Adams, Append., s. v. akavOis.)-3. (Theophrast., H. P., iii., 4, seqq.-Dioscor., iii., 119.) -4. (Aristot., H. A., viii., 5.)-5. (H. N., xv., 8.-Martial, xiti., 15.)-6. (Plin., H. N., xi., 15.-Colum., vi., 33.)-7. ('Ev Toio GiTaywyoio áKároli: Herod., vii., 186; compare Pindar, Pyth., xi., 62; Nem., v., 5.)-8. (Jul., 64.)-9. (iv., 67.)-10.2, (Xen., Hell., vi., 2, 27.-Schneider, in loc.) 1. (Suet., Jul., 20.-Liv., ii., 33.)-2. (Varro, de Ling. Lat., v., 9.-Plin., vii., 60.)-3. (Cic. ad Fratr., i., 1, 4.)-4. (Walch, in Tacit., Agric., c. 19.)-5. (Veget., ii., 19.)-6. (Liv., viii., 8, 10.)-7. (Liv., i., 43.-Niebuhr, Rom. Hist., i., p. 441, transl.)-8. (Dig., 46, tit. 4; 48, tit. 11, s. 7-Gaius, i 169, seqq.) |