ALICA.

professed gamesters made a regular study of their

art:

66

Aleator, quanto in arte est melior, tanto nequior" Ovid alludes to those who wrote treatises on the subject:

"Sunt aliis scripta, quibus alea luditur, artes." These were the Hoyles of ancient times, among whom we find no less a personage than the Emperor Claudius himself: "Aleam studiosissime lusit, de cujus arte librum quoque emisit." The Emperors Augustus and Domitian were also fond of gaming.

Alea sometimes denotes the implement used in playing, as in the phrase jacta alea est, "the die is cast," uttered by Julius Cæsar immediately before he crossed the Rubicon; and it is often used for chance, or uncertainty in general."

•ALÉKTOR (¿ñékтwp), the Cock. (Vid. GALLUS.)

LEKTRUOMANTEIA (ἀλεκτρυομαντεία ), 2

ALIMENTARII PUERI.

into smaller pieces. The different qualities of alica made by each of these processes were called respectively grandissima or apharema (ápaípɛμa), secundaria, and minima. In order to make the alica white and tender, it was mixed with chalk from the hills between Naples and Puteoli.' It was used as a medicine, for which purpose it was either soaked in water mixed with honey (mead, aqua mulsa), or boiled down into a broth, or into porridge. Pliny gives a full account of the mode of preparing and administering it, and of the diseases in which it was employed.❜

A spurious kind of alica was made from the inferior spelt (zea) of Africa, the ears of which were broader and blacker, and the straw shorter, than in the Italian plant. Pliny mentions also another spurious kind of alica, which was made from wheat." Another sort of alica was made from the juice of the plantain.*

ΑΤΊΜΑ, ΟΙ ΑΛΊΜΟΣ ΤΡΟΦΗ (ἄλιμα, or ἄλιμος Tpoon), (from a, negative, and Auós, "hunger"), a refreshment used by Epimenides, Pythagoras, and other philosophers. Plato states, in his Dialogue on Laws, that the aλua of Epimenides was composed of mallows and asphodel. Suidas explains it as a plant which grew near the sea (probably the sealeek), which was the chief ingredient in the papuaKov 'Enμevidiov, and was thought to promote long life. Hesychius interprets σφόδελος by ἄλιμος. Pliny states that some said that alimon was called asphodelos by Hesiod, which he thinks an error; but that the name alimon was applied by some to a dense white shrub, without thorns, the leaves of which resembled those of the olive, but were softer, and were used for food; and by others to a potherb which grew by the sea, "whence," says Pliny, "its name," confounding aλuos, from a and λuós, with aλuoç from aλç. The name appears generally to signify a medicinal preparation of equal weights of several herbs, pounded and made into a paste with honey. A similar preparation for quenching thirst (adivos τpoon) was used by Pythagoras.

mode of divination practised by the Greeks. The letters of the alphabet were written in a circle; a grain of wheat or barley was laid upon each letter; and a cock, consecrated or provided for the occasion, was placed within the circle. The required information was obtained by putting together those letters off which the cock picked the grains of corn. To obtain a fuller answer, they laid grains of corn upon the letters a second time, and repeated the process. ΑΛΕΚΤΡΥΟΝΩΝ ΑΓΩΝ, ΟΙ ΑΛΕΚΤΡΥΟΝΟΜΑΧΊΑ (ἀλεκτρυόνων ἀγών, οι ἀλεκτρυονομαχία), a public cockfight, which was held every year in one of the theatres of Athens. Cockfights, in general, were exceedingly common among the Greeks and Romans; but the origin of this one in particular, which was sanctioned by the laws of the state, is not known; for the account of its origin given by Elian is too absurd and improbable to deserve credit. He says that, when Themistocles marched with his Athenians against the Persians, he saw two cocks fighting against each other, and took the opportunity of addressing his soldiers, and reminding them that these cocks were neither fighting for their country nor for the gods, but only for victory, &c. This speech is said to have greatly animated the courage of the Athenians; and, after the war, they commemorated the event which had proved so useful to them by the annual festival in the the-grown-up inhabitants of Rome. The Emperor Ner

atre.

ALEIPTE RION. (Vid. ALIPTÆ.) *AL'GA, a general name given by the Latin writers to all aquatic plants, which, living in the waters, are accustomed to be thrown up on the banks of rivers or the shores of the sea. Such, in the case of fresh water, are the Conferva, the Potamogetons, the Naiades, &c.; and in that of the salt water, the debris of marine plants, and especially the Fucus." The term ẞpúov is applied to the sea-alge by Theophrastus.

ALICA (άλığ, xóvôpos), I. A kind of grain resembling spelt, which was also called zea. II. A broth, soup, or porridge made out of this grain, and very highly esteemed by the Romans. Pliny states that it was a Roman invention, and that, in his opinion, it was not in use till after the time of Pompey the Great. The Greeks had a somewhat similar preparation, which they called oάvn. Alica was procured from the neighbourhood of Verona and Pisa, and other parts of Italy, and from Egypt. The best came from Campania; that from Egypt was very inferior. It was prepared by first bruising the grain in a wooden mortar to separate the husks, and then pounding it a second and third time to break it

I (Trist., il., 471.)-2. (Suet., Cland., 33.)-3. (Suet., Aug., 70, 71-Dom., 21.)-4. (Suet., Jul., 32.)-5. (Hor., Carm. ii., 1,6.-Varro, de Re Rust., 1., 18.-Colum., i., Præf.-Cic., Div., i, 15.)—–—–—6. (V. H., 11., 28.)-7. (Fée, Flore de Virgile, p. xii.) —8. (H. P., iv., 6.)-9. (Plin., H. N., xviii., 7, 10.)—1ổ. (Plin., H. N., xx., 25, 61.)

|

ALIMENTA'RII PUERI ET PUELLÆ. In the Roman republic, the poorer citizens were assisted by public distributions of corn, oil, and money, which were called congiaria. These distributions were not made at stated periods, nor to any but

va was the first who extended them to children, and Trajan appointed them to be made every month, both to orphans and to the children of poor parents. These children were called pueri et puellæ alimentarii, and also (from the emperor) pueri puellæque Ulpiani; and the officers who administered the institution were called quastores pecuniæ alimentaria, quæstores alimentorum, procuratores alimentorum, or præfecti alimentorum.

The fragments of an interesting record of an institution of this kind by Trajan have been found at Velleia, near Placentia, from which we learn the sums which were thus distributed. The money was raised in this case by lending out a sum on interest at five per cent., from the treasury of the town, on the security of lands and houses. A similar institution was founded by the younger Pliny at Comum. Trajan's benevolent plans were carried on upon a larger scale by Hadrian and the Antonines. Under Commodus and Pertinax the distribution ceased. In the reign of Alexander Severus, we again meet with alimentarii pueri and puellæ, who were called Mammaani, in honour of the emperor's mother. We learn, from a decree of Hadrian,' that boys enjoyed the benefits of this institution up to their eighteenth, and girls up to their

1. (Plin., H. N., xviii., 11, 29.)-2. (H. N., xxii., 24, 51; 25, 61, 66; xxvi., 7, 18; xxviii., 17, 67.)-3. (H. N., xviii., 11, 29.)-4. (Plin., H. N., xxvi., 8, 28.)-5 (Plin., H. N., xxii., 22, 33.)-6. (Plin., Epist., vii., 18; ., 8; and the inscription in Orelli, 1172.)-7. (Ulp, in Dig. 34, tit. 1, s. 14.)

fourteenth year; and, from an inscription, that a boy four years and seven months old received nine times the ordinary monthly distribution of corn." ALIP'TE (aλeinrai), among the Greeks, were persons who anointed the bodies of the athlete preparatory to their entering the palæstra. The chief object of this anointing was to close the pores of the body, in order to prevent much perspiration, and the weakness consequent thereon. To effect this object, the oil was not simply spread over the surface of the body, but also well rubbed into the skin. The oil was mixed with fine African sand, several jars full of which were found in the baths of Titus, and one of these is now in the British Museum. This preparatory anointing was called παρασκευαστική τρίψις. The athleta was again anointed after the contest, in order to restore the tone of the strained muscles: this anointing was called ἡ ἀποθεραπειά. He then bathed, and had the dust, sweat, and oil scraped off his body, by means of an instrument similar to the strigil of the Romans, and called orλeyyis, and afterward §úorpa. The aliptæ took advantage of the knowledge they necessarily acquired of the state of the muscles of the athlete, and their general strength or weakness of body, to advise them as to their exercises and mode of life. They were thus a kind of medical trainers, iarpaλeinrai. Sometimes they even superintended their exercises, as in the case of Milesias.

Among the Romans, the alipta were slaves, who scrubbed and anointed their masters in the baths. They, too, like the Greek dheinтai, appear to have attended to their masters' constitution and mode of life. They were also called unctores. They used in their operations a kind of scraper called strigil, towels (lintea), a cruise of oil (guttus), which was usually of horn, a bottle (vid. AMPULLA), and a small vessel called lenticula. (Vid. BATHS.)

The apartment in the Greek palæstra where the anointing was performed was called ȧλεiπτýρiov; that in the Roman baths was called unctuarium. *ALIS MA, an aquatic herb, supposed to be the same with the Water Plantain. Pliny speaks of it as an antidote against certain venomous creatures, and also against the bite of a rabid dog. For this he is not so much to be blamed, since even some modern practitioners have recommended it as antihydrophobic. Sprengel makes the Alisma of which Pliny speaks the A. Parnassifolium; this species, however, has never been found in Greece. Sibthorp is more correct in designating it the A. plantago."

*ALL'IUM (σkóрodov), Garlic. There seems no reason to doubt that the oκópodov of Theophrastus and Dioscorides is the Allium sativum, manured Garlic, although Stackhouse prefers the A. scorodoprasum. R. Stephens suggests that the wild Garlic should be called appoσkóрodov, and not botoσkópodov. Pliny informs us that garlic was much used among the Italian rustics as a medicine." Galen also speaks of it as such. Among the Athenians it was a great favourite as an article of food, and seems to have been sold at the same shops with bread and wine.10 Fighting-cocks were also fed upon it, to make them more pugnacious."1 Great prophylactic virtues were formerly ascribed to this plant, and, among other active properties, that, in particular, of neutralizing the venom of serpents.12

So diversified, indeed, were its characteristics, that it need excite no surprise to find it adored on the one hand, along with the other species of allium, by the people of Egypt, and banished on the other from the tables of the delicate at Rome. Horace assigns it as fit food only for reapers; it was, however, a great favourite also with the Roman soldiers and sailors. The inhabitants of the southern countries of Europe, who often experience the need of exciting the digestive powers of the stomach, hold garlic in much higher estimation, on this account, than those of more northern regions. Theophrastus makes the Allium cyprium the largest in size of the several species of this plant."

ALLU VIO. "That," says Gaius,*"; 'appears to be added to our land by alluvio, which a river adds to our land (ager) so gradually that we cannot estimate how much is added in each moment of time; or, as it is commonly expressed, it is that which is added so gradually as to escape observation. But if a river (at once) takes away a part of your land, and brings it to mine, this part still remains your property.' There is the same definition by Gaius in his Res Cotidiana, with this addition: "If the part thus suddenly taken away should adhere for a considerable time to my land, and the trees on such part should drive their roots into my land, from that time such part appears to belong to my land.' The acquisitio per alluvionem was considered by the Roman jurists to be by the jus gentium, in the Roman sense of that term.

According to a constitution of the Emperor Antoninus Pius, there was no jus alluvionis in the case of agri limitati. Circumluvio differs from alluvio in this, that the whole of the land in question is surrounded by water, and subject to its action. Cicero' enumerates the jura alluvionum and circumluvionum as matters included under the head of causæ centumvirales.

The doctrine of alluvio, as stated by Bracton in the chapter De acquirendo Rerum Dominio, is taken from the Digest,' and is in several passages a copy of the words of Gaius, as cited in the Digest.

*AL ́NUS (κλn@pa1o), the Alder. The wood of this tree, which is lighter than that of many others, was first employed, according to the poets, for the purposes of navigation." It was also much used among the Romans for water-pipes, 12 and is still ranked among the best materials, next to metal, for these, and for under-ground purposes generally. The alder is an inhabitant of swamps and meadows in all Europe, the north of Africa and Asia, and North America. Virgil is not consistent with himself as In his sixth Eclogue13 regards the name of this tree. he makes the sisters of Phaethon to have been changed into alders; but in the Eneid he gives the poplar, as Ovid does.15 The species of alder most common in Greece is the Alnus oblongata, Wild.

*AL'OE, the Aloe, or Aloes-tree. Neither Hippocrates nor Theophrastus notices this plant, but Dioscorides, on the other hand, describes two kinds of it.16 He says it is mostly brought from India, but that the plant grows in Arabia and the maritime parts of Asia. The story related by some writers, that Aristotle recommended the aloe to Alexander as one of the most valuable products of Socotora, appears unworthy of belief, and yet it probably was the Socotorine aloe with which the ancients were most familiar. Fée thinks that the African aloe was unknown to the Greeks and Romans, but that

1. (Fabretti, 235, 619.)-2. (Aurel. Vict., Epit. xii., 4.-Capitolinus, Ant. Pi., 8.-Id., M. Aur., 26.-Id., Pert., 9.-Spart., Had., 7.-Lamprid., Sev. Alex., 57.-F. A. Wolf, "Von einer milden Stiftung Trajans.")-3. (Plutarch, de Tuenda Sanitate, c. 15, p. 302, Tauch.)-4. (Celsus, i., 1.-Plin., H. N., xxix., 1, 1. (Epod. iii., 4.)-2. (Plaut., Pœn., v., 5, 54.-Aristoph., 2.)-5. (Pindar, Olymp. viii., 54-71, and Böckh's note.)-6. Acharn., 1. c.)-3. (Theophrast., H. P., vii., 4.-Dioscor., 11., (Cicero, Ep. Fam., i., 9, 35.-Seneca, Ep. 56.-Juvenal, Sat. 181.)-4. (ii., 70, seqq.)-5. (Dig. 40, tit. 1, s. 7.)-6. (Dig. 40, iii., 76; vi., 422.)-7. (Plin., H. N., xxv., 10.-Fée, in Plin., I. c. tit. 1, s. 16.)-7. (De Orat., i., 38.)-8. (fol. 9.)-9. (41. tit. 1, s. -Sprengel, H. R. H., i., 171.-Adams, Append., s. v. dapao-7.)-10. (Theophrast., H. P., i., 4; iii., 3.-Hom., Odyss., v., VIOV)-8. (H. N., xix., 6.)-9. (Meth. Med., xii., 18.)-10.64.)-11. (Fee, Flore de Virgile, p. xiv.)-12. (Plin., H. N., (Mitchell, in Aristoph., Acharn., 150 (174).)-11. (Aristoph., xvi., 42.)—13. (v. 63.)—14. (x., 190.)-15. (Met., ii., 340, seqq.) Eq., 493.) 12. (Emil. Macer, as cited by Fée.) -16. (iii., 22.)

ALYSSON.

a species quite rare at the present day ("aloes lucide, ou en larmes") was one of the kinds employed by them. Aloes, though still much used in medicine, are prescribed in very few of the cases mentioned by Pliny. According to Ainslie, however, the inhabitants of India still use them with great success in affections of the eyes. Olaus Celsius derives the word aloe from the Arabic alloch. Pliny mentions a mineral substance called aloe, which is the same with the bitumen of Judæa, and which was employed in Egypt in embalming bodies.*

AMARUNTHIA.

ALUTA. (Vid. CALCEUS.)

ALU TAI (áλúra), persons whose business it was to keep order in the public games. They received their orders from an aλvráρxns, who was himself under the direction of the agonothetæ, or hellanodicæ. They are only found at Olympia; in other places, the same office was discharged by the μaortyopópot.

*ALPHESTES (áλonorns), a species of fish, the same with the Cynedus of Pliny. It is the Labrus cynedus, L., in French Canude. According to Rondolet, it is about a foot long, and its flesh is easy of digestion. In the Dict. of Nat. Hist., the Alphest is described as being a small fish, having a purple back and belly, with yellow sides.1

ALO ́A (áλwa or ana), an Attic festival, but celebrated principally at Eleusis, in honour of Demeter and Dionysus, the inventors of the plough and protectors of the fruits of the earth. It took place every year after the harvest was over, and only AMANUENSIS, or AD MANUM SERVUS, fruits were offered on this occasion, partly as a a slave or freedman, whose office it was to write grateful acknowledgment for the benefits the hus-letters and other things under his master's direction. bandman had received, and partly that the next The amanuensis must not be confounded with anharvest might be plentiful. We learn from Demos-other sort of slaves, also called ad manum servi, who thenes that it was unlawful to offer any bloody were always kept ready to be employed in any busisacrifice on the day of this festival, and that the ness." priests alone had the privilege to offer the fruits. The festival was also called vaλúoia,“ or ovykoμioτήρια.

*AMAR ́ACUS (ȧμápaкoç), a plant. Dioscorides and the scholiast on Nicander3 state that the Amaracus is the same as the Sampsuchus (oáμvxov); ΑΛΟΓΊΟΥ ΓΡΑΦΗ (ἀλογίου γραφή), an action and yet Galen and Paulus Ægineta treat of them which might be brought before the logista (λoyio- separately. Matthiolus seems to think it highly Tai), at Athens, against all ambassadors who neg-probable that it is the common Marjoram, but the lected to pass their accounts when their term of late commentators are much at variance about it. office expired. Thus Sprengel, in the first edition of his R. H. H., *ALOPE CIAS, a species of fish, called by Pliny marks it as the Origanum marjoranoides, but in the the Sea-fox (Vulpes marina"), and the same, proba- second, according to Schneider, he is disposed to rebly, with the Fox-shark of modern naturalists. The fer the ȧuápakos xλwpós of Theophrastus to the name comes from the Greek άλúπη§, “a fox." Hyacinthus Comosus. Stackhouse prefers the Ori*ALO ́PECIS (áλwжɛkíç,) a species of vine pro-ganum Egyptiacum, and Dierbach the Teucrium ducing clusters of grapes resembling the tail of a Marum, or Mastich. Upon reference to the Comfox. It is now extinct.10 mentary of Matthiolus on the μápov of Dioscorides,* it will be seen that this last opinion had been formerly entertained, and it would appear to be a very plausible one.

*ALOPECU ́RUS (¿éкovрoç), a plant, which Sprengel suggests may be the Saccharum cylindrich, and Stackhouse the Phleum crinitum, Fl. Grac., or Hairy Cat's-tail grass. Its spike is described by Theophrastus as being " soft, downy, thick, and like the tails of foxes."11 This agrees well with the spike of the Alopecurus, L., or Foxtail grass. The name comes from dλwπn5, “a fox," and orpá, “a tail."

*ALO PEX. (Vid. VULPES.) *AL'SINE (¿hoívn), an herb, which Sprengel, in his History of Botany, recognises as the Stellaria nemorum, or Wood Stitchwort; but, in his notes to Dioscorides, he expresses himself doubtfully concerning it. Schneider is undecided whether the doin of Theophrastus be the same as that of Dioscorides.1

ALTARE (Vid. ARA.)

ALTER CUM, the Arabian (?) name, according to Pliny, of the Hyoscyamus.1

ALUM, a plant. (Vid. SYMPHYTON.) ALU MEN. (Vid. STYPTERIA.) *ALY PON (ďλvov), an herb, supposed to be the same with that which produced Turbit. Sprengel and Sibthorp mark it as the Globularia alypum.15

ALYSS ́ON (vocov), a plant. The vooov of Galen and Paulus Egineta is the Manabium alysSum, vulgarly called Galen's Madwort. That of Dioscorides is a very different plant, and cannot be very satisfactorily determined. Sprengel hesitates whether to refer it, with Dodonæus, to the Farsetia clypeala, or, with Columna, to the Veronica arvensis, or montana, L., our Speedwell.1

1. (in Plin., H. N., xxvii., 4, p. 294.)-2. (H. N., xxvii., 4.) -3. (1., 136.)-4. (Fée, in Plin., 1. c.)—5. (c. Near., p. 1385.) 6. (Hesych., s. v.)-7. (Suid.-Hesych.-Meier, Att. Process, p. 363.)-8. (Plin., H. N., ix., 43.)-9. (Adams, Append., s. v.) 10. (Fée, in Plin., H. N., xiv., 3.)-11. (Theophrast., H. P., v, 10.)-12. (Adams, Append., s. v.)-13. (Theophrast., H. P., iz, 13.-Dioscor., iv., 87.)-14. (Plin., H. N., xxv., 4.-Compare, however, Scribon., Larg. compos., 181.)-15. (Adams, Append, s. v.)-16. (Dioscor.. iii.. 95.-Adams, Append., s. v.)

*AMARANTH'US (àμáрavтoç), the Amaranth, or Never-fading, as its name indicates, from ȧ, priv., and μapaívw, “to wither." According to Pliny," the amaranth appears in the month of August, and lasts until autumn. That of Alexandrea was the most esteemed. What the same writer, however, states, that the flowers of the amaranth bloom anew on being plunged into water, is not very exact. As the flowers are of a very dry kind, they have not much humidity to lose, and therefore may be preserved merely for a long time. The description which Pliny gives of his Amaranthus, which is also that of Theophrastus, points at once to the Celosia cristata, a plant originally from Asia, but cultivated in Italy a long time before Pliny's day. Bauhin believes that this plant is to be found in Theophrastus' under the name of $265, which Theodore Gaza translates by flamma. The ȧuápavroç of Dioscorides is another plant, probably the Gnaphalium Stachas of Linnæus. The ancients, far less advanced than the moderns in the art of manufacturing stuffs, were unable, as Pliny informs us, to imitate the softness of the amaranth. The moderns, however, have succeeded in this, and have even surpassed, in the fabrication of their velvet, the beautiful downy surface of this flower. The common name of the plant, therefore, passe-velours, given to it when the art of fabricating stuffs was yet in its infancy, suits no longer, and the Italian appellation, fior di velluto ("velvet-flower"), is much more applicable."

AMARUN THÍA or AMARU'SÏA (áμapúvoia or áμapvota), a festival of Artemis Amarynthia, or Amarysia, celebrated, as it seems, originally at Ama

1. (Adams, Append., s. v.)-2. (Suet., Jul., 74; Octav., 67; Ner., 44; Tit., 3; Vesp., 3.-Cic., De Orat., iii., 60, 225.-Pignori, De Servis, 109.)-3. (Ther., 503.)-4. (iii., 42.)-5. (Adams, Append., s. v.)-6. (H. N., xxi., 8.)—7. (vi., 6.)—8. (iv., 57.)-9. (Fée, in Plin., 1. c.)

AMBARVA'LIA. (Vid. ARVALES FRATRES.) AMBER. (Vid. ELECTRUM.) AMBILUS TRIUM. (Vid. LUSTRUM.) AM'BITUS, which literally signifies 'a going about," cannot, perhaps, be more nearly expressed than by our word canvassing. After the plebs had formed a distinct class at Rome, and when the whole body of the citizens had become very greatly increased, we frequently read, in the Roman writers, of the great efforts which it was necessary for candidates to make in order to secure the votes of the citizens. At Rome, as in every community into which the element of popular election enters, solicitation of votes, and open or secret influence and bribery, were among the means by which a candidate secured his election to the offices of state.

rynthus, in Euboea, with extraordinary splendour; | to be paid,' and divisores to distribute it. The but it was also solemnized in several places in Atti- offence of ambitus was a matter which belonged to ca, such as Athmone;' and the Athenians held a fes- the judicia publica, and the enactments against it tival, as Pausanias says, in honour of the same god- were numerous. One of the earliest, though not the dess, in no way less brilliant than that in Euboea. earliest of all, the Lex Æmilia Bæbia (B.C. 182), The festival in Euboea was distinguished for its was specially directed against largitiones. The Lex splendid processions; and Strabo himself' seems to Cornelia Fulvia (B.C. 159) punished the offence have seen, in the temple of Artemis Amarynthia, a with exile. The Lex Acilia Calpurnia (B.C. 67) column on which was recorded the splendour with imposed a fine on the offending party, with exclusion which the Eretrians at one time celebrated this fes- from the senate and all public offices. The Lex tival. The inscription stated that the procession Tullia (B.C. 63), passed in the consulship of Cicero, was formed of three thousand heavy-armed men, in addition to the penalty of the Acilian law, inflicted six hundred horsemen, and sixty chariots.* ten years' exilium on the offender; and, among other things, forbade a person to exhibit gladiatorial shows (gladiatores dare) within any two years in which he was a candidate, unless he was required to do so, on a fixed day, by a testator's will. Two years afterward, the Lex Aufidia was passed, by which, among other things, it was provided that, if a candidate promised (pronuntiavit) money to a tribe, and did not pay it, he should be unpunished; if he did pay the money, he should farther pay to each tribe (annually?) 3000 sesterces as long as he lived. This enactment occasioned the witticism of Cicero, who said that Clodius observed this law by anticipation, for he promised, but did not pay. The Lex Licinia (B.C. 58) was specially directed against the offence of sodalitium, or the wholesale bribery of a tribe by gifts and treating; and another lex, passed (B.Č. 52) when Pompey was sole consul, had for its object the establishment of a speedier course of proceeding on trials for ambitus. these enactments failed in completely accomplishing their object. That which no law could suppress, so long as the old popular forms retained any of their pristine vigour, was accomplished by the imperial usurpation. Julius Cæsar, when dictator, nominated half the candidates for public offices, except the candidates for the consulship, and notified his pleasure to the tribes by a civil circular; the populus chose the other half, The Lex Julia de Ambitu was passed in the time of Augustus; but the offence of ambitus, in its proper sense, soon disappeared, in consequence of all elections being transferred from the comitia to the senate, which Tacitus, in speaking of Tiberius, briefly expresses thus: "The comitia were transferred from the campus to the patres,"

Whatever may be the authority of the piece entitled "Q. Ciceronis de Petitione Consulatus ad M. Tullium Fratrem," it seems to present a pretty fair picture of those arts and means by which a candidate might lawfully endeavour to secure the votes of the electors, and also some intimation of those means which were not lawful, and which it was the object of various enactments to repress. As the terms which relate to the canvassing for public places often occur in the Roman writers, it may be convenient to mention the principal among them

here.

A candidate was called petitor, and his opponent, with reference to him, competitor. A candidate (candidatus) was so called from his appearing in the public places, such as the fora and Campus Martius, before his fellow-citizens, in a whitened toga. On such occasions, the candidate was attended by his friends (deductores), or followed by the poorer citizens (sectatores), who could in no other manner show their good-will or give their assistance. The word assiduitas expressed both the continual presence of the candidate at Rome, and his continual solicitations. The candidate, in going his rounds or taking his walk, was accompanied by a nomenclator, who gave him the names of such persons as he might meet; the candidate was thus enabled to address them by their name, an indirect compliment which could not fail to be generally gratifying to the electors. The candidate accompanied his address with a shake of the hand (prensatio). The term benignitas comprehended generally any kind of treating, as shows, feasts, &c. Candidates sometimes left Rome, and visited the coloniæ and municipia, in which the citizens had the suffrage; thus Cicero proposed to visit the Cisalpine towns when he was a candidate for the consulship.

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That ambitus, which was the object of several penal enactments, taken as a generic term, comprehended the two species, ambitus and largitiones (bribery). Liberalitas and benignitas are opposed by Cicero, as things allowable, to ambitus and largitio, as things illegal.' Money was paid for votes; and in order to ensure secrecy and secure the elector, persons called interpretes were employed to make the bargain, sequestres to hold the money till it was

1. (Paus., i., 31, s. 3.)-2. (Hesych., s, v. 'Aμapvora.)-3. (x., 1, p. 324, ed. Tauchn.)-4. (Compare Schol. in Pind., Ol. xin., sub fin.)-5. (Cic., pro Muræn., c. 34.)-6. (Cic., ad Att.. i., 1.)-7. (Cic., De Orat,, ii., 25.-Compare pro Muræn., c. 36.)

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While the choice of candidates was thus partly in the hands of the senate, bribery and corruption still influenced the elections, though the name of ambitus was, strictly speaking, no longer applicable. But in a short time, the appointment to public offices was entirely in the power of the emperors; and the magistrates of Rome, as well as the populus, were merely the shadow of that which had once a substantial form. A Roman jurist of the imperial period (Modestinus), in speaking of the Julia Lex de Ambitu, observes, "This law is now obsolete in the city, because the creation of magistrates is the business of the princeps, and does not depend on the pleasure of the populus; but if any one in a municipium should offend against this law in canvassing for a sacerdotium or magistratus, he is punished, according to a senatus consultum, with infamy, and subjected to a penalty of 100 aurei."

The trials for ambitus were numerous in the time of the Republic. The oration of Cicero in defence of L. Murena, who was charged with ambitus, and that in defence of Cn. Plancius, who was charged with that offence specially called sodalitium, are both extant.

ΑΜΒΛΩΣΕΩΣ ΓΡΑΦΗ (ἀμβλώσεως γραφή), an action brought in the Athenian courts against an individual who had procured the abortion of a male

1. (Cic., pro Cluent., 26.)-2. (Cic., ad Att., i., 16.)-3. (Cic., in Vatin., 15.)-4. (Cic., ad Att., i., 16.)-5. (Cic., pro Cn. Plane., 15.)-6. (Suet., Jul., 41)-7. (Dig. 48, tit. 14.)-8. (Sir gonius, De Antiquo Jure Pop. Rom., p. 545.)

AMBUR BIUM or AMBURBIA'LE, a sacrifice which was performed at Rome for the purification of the city, in the same manner as the ambarvalia was intended for the purification of the country. The victims were carried through the whole town, and the sacrifice was usually performed when any danger was apprehended in consequence of the *AMETHYST ́US (åμélvorov or -os), the Ameappearance of prodigies, or other circumstances.10 thyst, a precious stone of a purple or violet colour Scaliger supposes that the amburbium and ambar- in different degrees of deepness. In modern minvalia were the same, but their difference is expressly eralogy, the name has been applied to two precious asserted by Servius11 and Vopiscus (amburbium cele-stones of essentially different natures: 1. the Oribratum, ambarvalia promissa).12