2 3 are corruptions of Ammodytes and Coluber, *AM'IA, a fish of the tunny species, the same confounded, however, with the plant called Bishop'swith the Scomber amia, in Italian, Leccia. Schweig-weed in Scotland, which is the Egopodium podohaeuser says its French name is boniton. Rondo-graria.1 let mentions that he had seen individuals which *AMMOD ́YTES (àμμodúτns), a species of sermeasured three and a half feet in length. Its head pent, which Aëtius describes as being a cubit in was the part most esteemed by the bon vivants of length, and of a sand colour, with black spots. Greece and Rome. The etymologist remarks that Matthiolus, in his commentary on Dioscorides, deit is gregarious, and hence its name, from aua, "to-termines it to have been a species of viper. It was gether," and lévai, “to go." The Amia is the same most probably, then, only a variety of the Exis, or as the Тpúκтns of Elian, the Thavкoç of Aristotle, Coluber ammodytes. This is the serpent known by Oppian, and Athenæus, and the Glaucus of Ovid the name of the Horned viper of Illyricum; its and others. venom is active. In the Latin translation of Avi*AMIANTHUS (àμíavros), a variety of Asbes-cenna it is called Amindatus and Caularus, which tus, called in French Alum de Plume, It consists principally, according to Chevenix, of silex, mag- *AMMONI ACUM (μpovraкóv), Gum Ammoniac. nesia, lime, and alumine, and from it was formed Even at the present day it is not well ascertained the celebrated Linum asbestinum, or Asbestos-linen. what species of Ferula it is which produces this Napkins and other articles made of this were, when gum. Dioscorides gives it the name of ¿yɑovλhiç. soiled, thrown into the fire, and cleansed by this The ȧppoviakov vuíaua was the finest kind of it, process as others are by washing. Hence the name and was so called because used as a perfume in Amianthus given to the species in question, signify-sacred rites. The aλs 'Auμoviaкós, or Sal Ammoniing pure, undefiled (from a, priv., and μavrós, "de-ac, was a Fossil salt, procured from the district of filed"), because, being indestructible in any ordinary Africa adjoining the temple of Jupiter Ammon. It fire, it was restored to its original purity and white- therefore was totally different from the Sal Ammoniac ness simply by casting it into the flames. Where of the moderns, which is Hydrochlorus Ammonia.* amianthus occurs, as it does in many countries, with fibres sufficiently long and flexible for that purpose, it is often now, as anciently it was, spun and woven into cloth; and has in modern times been successfully manufactured into paper, gloves, purses, ribands, girdles, and many other things. The natives of Greenland even use it for the wicks of lamps, as the ancients also did. AMIC TUS, dim. AMIC'ULUM. The verb amicire is commonly opposed to induere, the former being applied to the putting on of the outer garment, the pallium, læna, or toga (iμáriov, papos); the latter, to the putting on of the inner garment, the tunic (XT). Græco pallio amictus. Velis amictos, non togis. In consequence of this distinction, the verbal nouns amictus and indutus, even without any farther denomination of the dress being added, indicate respectively the outer and the inner clothing. The Ass says, in Apuleius,' Deam, Serico contectam amiculo, mihi gerendam imponunt, meaning, "They place on me the goddess, covered with a small silken scarf." The same author says that the priests of the Egyptians used linen indutui et amictui; i, e,, both for their inner and outer clothing, 8 In Greek, amicire is expressed by ȧupiévvvolai, ἀμπέχεσθαι, ἐπιβάλλεσθαι, περιβάλλεσθαι : and induere by ἐνδύνειν. Hence came ἀμπεχόνη, ἐπίβλημα and ἐπιβόλαιον, περίβλημα and περιβόλαιον, an outer garment, a sheet, a shawl; and vdvua, an inner garment, a tunic, a shirt, When Socrates was about to die, his friend Apollodorus brought him both the inner and the outer garment, each being of great excellence and value, in order that he might put them on before drinking the hemlock: giov ἐνδύντα αὐτὸν τὸν χιτῶνα, καὶ θοιμάτιον περιβαλλό- | μενον, εἶτα οὕτω πιεῖν τὸ φάρμακον.10 AMMA (ǎμua), a Greek measure of length, equal to forty anxeis (cubits), or sixty modes (feet); that is, twenty yards 8.1 inches English, It was used in measuring land." *AMMI, a plant, the same, according to Sprengel, with the Ammi Copticum. Matthiolus and Dodonaus, who give drawings of it, seem to point to the same plant, namely, Bishop's-weed, It must not be 1. (in Athen., vii., 6.)—2. (N. A., i., 5.)—3, (Aristot., H. A., fi., 17; viii., 13.)—4. (Ovid, Hal., 117.—-Plin., H. N., xxxii, 11. -Adams, Append., s, v.)-5. (Dioscor., v., 155.-Plin., H. N., xix., 4.-De Laet, de Gemm., ii., 8.-Moore's Anc. Mineral., p. 112.)-6. (Plin., Ep, iv., 11.)-7, (Cic. in Cat., fi., 10.)-8. (Vid. Tibull., i., 9, 13.-Nep., Cimon., iv., 2,-Id., Dat., ii., 2, -Virg., En., iii., 545, v., 421, compared with Apol. Rhod., ii., 30.-Val. Max,, v., 2, compared with Elian, V. H., iv., 5.)9. (Met. viii.)-10, (Elian, Y, H,, i,, 16,)-11. (Hero, de Mensuris.) *AMPELITIS (μnehiriç yn), a Bituminous Earth, found near Seleucia in Syria. It was black, and resembled small pine charcoal; and when rubbed to powder, would dissolve in a little oil poured upon it. Its name was derived from its being used to anoint the vine (μжελoç), and preserve it from the attack of worms." *AMPELO PRASUM (ἀμπελόπρασον), the Allium Ampeloprasum, or Dog-leek, called in French Porrée de chien. *AM PELOS. (Vid. VITIS.) *AMO'MUM. (Vid. AMQ'MÓN, page 55.) AMPHIARA IA (apoiapáïa), games celebrated in honour of the ancient hero Amphiaraus, in the neighbourhood of Oropus, where he had a temple with a celebrated oracle." AMPHICTYONS. Institutions called Amphictyonic appear to have existed in Greece from time immemorial. Of their nature and object history gives us only a general idea; but we may safely believe them to have been associations of originally neighbouring tribes, formed for the regulation of mutual intercourse and the protection of a common temple or sanctuary, at which the representatives of the different members met, both to transact business, and celebrate religious rites and games. This identity of religion, coupled with near neighbourhood, and that, too, in ages of remote antiquity, implies, in all probability, a certain degree of affinity, which might of itself produce unions and confederacies among tribes so situated, regarding each other as members of the same great family. They would thus preserve among themselves, and transmit to their children, a spirit of nationality and brotherhood; nor could any better means be devised than the bond of a common religious worship, to counteract the hostile interests which, sooner or later, spring up in all large societies. The causes and motives from which we might expect such institutions to arise existed in every neighbourhood and, accordingly, we find many Amphictyonies of various degrees of importance, though our information respecting them is very deficient. Thus we learn from Strabo that there was one of some celebrity, whose place of meeting was a sanctuary of Poseidon, at Calauria, an ancient settlement of the Ionians in the Saronic Gulf. The 8 1. (Dioscor., iii., 63.-Galen, de Simpl., v.-Adams, Append., s. v.)-2. (Adams, Append., s. v.)-3. (Matthiolus in Dioscor., iii., 87.-Paul. Egin., vii., 3.-Needham in Geopon., xiii., 11.) 4, (Adams, Append, s. v.)-5, (Dioscor., v., 138.-Moore's Anc. Mineral,, p. 73.)-6. (Dioscor., ., 178.)-7. (Schol. in Pind., Olymp. vii., 154.)—8. (Müller, Dorians, b. ii., c. 10, s. 5. -Strabo, viii., 6.) AMPHICTYONS. AMPHICTYONS. original members were Epidaurus, Hermæum, | only), Dorians, Ionians, Perrhæbians, Magnetes, Nauplia, Prasiæ in Laconia, Ægina, Athens, and Locrians, Etæans or Enianians, Phthiots or Achæthe Baotian Orchomenus, whose remoteness from ans of Phthia, Malians, and Phocians; other lists each other makes it difficult to conceive what could leave us in doubt whether the remaining tribe were have been the motives for forming the confedera- the Dolopes or Delphians; but, as the Delphians tion, more especially as religious causes seem pre- could hardly be called a distinct tribe, their nobles cluded, by the fact that Trozen, though so near to appearing to have been Dorians, it seems probable Calauria, and though Poseidon was its tutelary that the Dolopes were originally members, and god, was not a member. In after times, Argos and afterward supplanted by the Delphians. The preSparta took the place of Nauplia and Prasia, and ponderance of Thessalian tribes proves the antiquity religious ceremonies were the sole object of the of the institution; and the fact of the Dorians standmeetings of the association. There also seems to ing on an equality with such tribes as the Malians, have been another in Argolis, distinct from that of shows that it must have existed before the Dorian Calauria, the place of congress being the 'Hpaiov, conquest, which originated several states more powor temple of Hera. Delos, too, was the centre of erful, and, therefore, more likely to have sent their an Amphictyony - the religious metropolis, or respective deputies, than the tribes mentioned. Torin vηowv of the neighbouring Cyclades, where We also learn from Eschines that each of these deputies and embassies (Dewpoi) met to celebrate tribes had two votes in congress, and that deputies religious solemnities in honour of the Dorian Apol- from such towns as (Dorium and3) Cytinium had lo, and apparently without any reference to political equal power with the Lacedæmonians, and that objects. Eretria and Priene, Ionian colonies, were on a par with Athens (iconpol Tois 'Almvalois). It seems, therefore, to follow, either that each Amphictyonic tribe had a cycle, according to which its component states returned deputies, or that the vote of the tribe was determined by a majority of votes of the different states of that tribe. The latter supposition might explain the fact of their being a larger and smaller assembly-a ẞovλn and EKKλnoía-at some of the congresses; and it is confirmed by the circumstance that there was an annual election of deputies at Athens, unless this city usurped functions not properly its own. Nor was the system confined to the mother-country; for the federal unions of the Dorians, Ionians, and Eolians, living on the west coast of Asia Minor, seem to have been Amphictyonic in spirit, although modified by exigences of situation. Their main essence consisted in keeping periodical festivals in honour of the acknowledged gods of their respective nations. Thus the Dorians held a federal festival, and celebrated religious games at Triopium, uniting with the worship of their national god Apollo that of the more ancient and Pelasgic Demeter. The Ionians met for similar purposes, in honour of the Heliconian Poseidon at Mycale; The council itself was composed of two classes their place of assembly being called the Panionium, of representatives, one called pylagoræ, the other and their festival Panionia. (Poseidon was the hieromnemones. Of the former, three were annually god of the Ionians, as Apollo of the Dorians.) The elected at Athens to act with one hieromnemon aptwelve towns of the Eolians assembled at Gryneum, pointed by lot. That his office was highly honourin honour of Apollo. That these confederacies able we may infer from the oath of the Heliasts," in were not merely for offensive and defensive purpo- which he is mentioned with the nine archons. On ses, may be inferred from their existence after the one occasion we find that the president of the counsubjugation of these colonies by Croesus; and we cil was a hieromnemon, and that he was chosen know that Halicarnassus was excluded from the general of the Amphictyonic forces, to act against Dorian union, merely because one of its citizens the Amphissians. Hence it has been conjectured had not made the usual offering to Apollo of the that the hieromnemones, also called iepoypaμμaτeis, prize he had won in the Triopic contests. A con- were superior in rank to the pylagoræ. Eschines federation somewhat similar, but more political also contrasts the two in such a way as to warrant than religious, existed in Lycia: it was called the the inference that the former office was the more "Lycian system," and was composed of twenty-permanent of the two. Thus he says, "When three cities. But, besides these and others, there was one Amphictyony of greater celebrity than the rest, and much more lasting in its duration. This was, by way of eminence, called the Amphictyonic League; and by tracing its sphere of action, its acknowledged duties, and its discharge of them, we shall obtain more precise notions of such bodies in general. This, however, differed from the other associations in having two places of meeting, the sanctuaries of two divinities, which were the temple of Demeter, in the village of Anthela, near Thermopyla,' where the deputies met in autumn, and that of Apollo at Delphi, where they assembled in spring. The connexion of this Amphictyony with the latter not only contributed to its dignity, but also to its permanence. With respect to its early history, Strabo says, that even in his days it was impossible to learn its origin. We know, however, that it was originally composed of twelve tribes (not cities or states, it must be observed), each of which tribes contained various independent cities or states. We learn from Eschines, a most competent authority (B.C. 343), that eleven of these tribes were as follow: the Thessalians, Baotians (not Thebans 1. (Thirlwall, H. G., vol. i., p. 375.)-2. (Strabo, 1. c.)-3. (Müller, b. ii., c. 3, s. 7.-Callim., Hymn., 325.)-4. (Herod., i., 144.)-5. (Müller, b. ., c. 10, s. 5.-Strabo, viii., 7.)-6. (Strabo, xiv, 3.)-7. (Herod., vii., 200.)-8. (ix., 289.)-9. (De F. L., 122, Bekker.) Diognetus was hieromnemon, ye chose me and two others pylagora." He then contrasts "the hieromnemon of the Athenians with the pylagoræ for the time being." Again, we find inscriptions containing surveys by the hieromnemones, as if they formed an executive; and that the council concluded their proceedings on one occasion1o by resolving that there should be an extraordinary meeting previously to the next regular assembly, to which the hieromnemones should come with a decree to suit the emergency, just as if they had been a standing committee. Their name implies a more immediate connexion with the temple, but whether they voted or not is only a matter of conjecture; probably they did not. The èккλnoía, or general assembly, included not only the classes mentioned, but also those who had joined in the sacrifices, and were consulting the god. It was convened on extraordinary occasions by the chairman of the council ('O ràs yvúμas kπipnpíšwv.)11 Of the duties of this latter body, nothing will give us a clearer view than the oaths taken and the de 1. (Titmaun, p. 39.)-2. (There is a doubt about the reading, 4. (Aristoph., Nub., 607.)-5. (Demosth., c. Timocr., 170, BekVid. Thucyd., iii., 95.-Strabo, ix., 4.)-3. (Strabo, ix., c. 3.)ker.)-6. (Esch., de F. L.)-7. (Titmann, iv., 4.)-8. (C. Ctes., 115, Bekker. The scholiast on Aristoph., Nub., says, that the hieromnemon was elected for life. This is the opinion of Titmann: Ueber den Bund der Amphictyonen. See Schömann, On the Assemblies, &c., p. 270, transl.)-9. (Böckh, Corpus Inscript., No. 1711, quoted by Müller.)-10. (Eschin., c. Ctes., 124, Bekker.)-11. (schines, c. Ctes., 124.) 4 battle of Charonea (B.C. 338), and the extinction of the independence of Greece. In the following year a congress of the Amphictyonic states was held, in which war was declared as if by united Greece against Persia, and Philip elected commander-in-chief. On this occasion the Amphictyons assumed the character of national representatives as of old,' when they set a price upon the head of Ephialtes for his treason to Greece at Thermopylæ. 2 crees made. The oath was as follows: "They would destroy no city of the Amphictyons, nor cut off their streams in war or peace; and if any should do so, they would march against him and destroy his cities; and should any pillage the property of the god, or be privy to or plan anything against what was in his temple (at Delphi), they would take vengeance on him with hand, and foot, and voice, and all their might." There are two decrees given by Demosthenes, both commencing thus: "When We have sufficiently shown that the Amphictyons Cleinagoras was priest, at the spring meeting, it was themselves did not observe the oaths they took; and resolved by the pylagoræ and their assessors, and that they did not much alleviate the horrors of war, the general body of the Amphictyons," &c. The res- or enforce what they had sworn to do, is proved by olution in the second case was, that as the Amphis- many instances. Thus, for instance, Mycena was sians continued to cultivate the sacred district, Philip destroyed by Argos (B.C. 535), Thespiæ and Platea of Macedon should be requested to help Apollo and by Thebes, and Thebes herself swept from the face the Amphictyons, and was thereby constituted abso- of the earth by Alexander (x μέons τns 'Eλλádos lute general of the Amphictyons. He accepted the avпpráσon). Indeed, we may infer from Thucydoffice, and soon reduced the offending city to sub-ides, that a few years before the Peloponnesian jection. From the oath and the decrees, we see that war, the council was a passive spectator of what he the main duty of the deputies was the preservation calls ó iɛpòs óheμos, when the Lacedæmonians made of the rights and dignity of the temple at Delphi. an expedition to Delphi, and put the temple into the We know, too, that after it was burned down (B.C. hands of the Delphians, the Athenians, after their 548), they contracted with the Alcmæonidæ for the departure, restoring it to the Phocians; and yet the rebuilding; and Athenæus (B.C. 160) informs us, council is not mentioned as interfering. It will not that in other matters connected with the worship of be profitable to pursue its history farther; it need the Delphian god, they condescended to the regula- only be remarked, that Augustus wished his new tion of the minutest trifles. History, moreover, city, Nicopolis (A.D. 31), to be enrolled among the teaches that, if the council produced any palpable members; and that Pausanias, in the second century effects, it was from their interest in Delphi; and of our era, mentions it as still existing, but deprived though it kept up a standing record of what ought of all power and influence. In fact, even Demosto have been the international law of Greece, it thenes spoke of it as the shadow at Delphi." sometimes acquiesced in, and at other times was a After these remarks, we may consider two points party to, the most iniquitous and cruel acts. Of of some interest; and, first, the etymology of the this the case of Crissa is an instance. This town word Amphictyon. We are told that Theopompus lay on the Gulf of Corinth, near Delphi, and was thought it derived from the name of Amphictyon, a much frequented by pilgrims from the West. The prince of Thessaly, and the supposed author of the Crissæans were charged by the Delphians with un-institution. Others, as Anaximenes of Lampsacus, due exactions from these strangers. The council connected it with the word dμoikтioves, or neighdeclared war against them, as guilty of a wrong bours. Very few, if any, modern scholars, doubt against the god. The war lasted ten years, till, at that the latter view is correct; and that Amphictyon, the suggestion of Solon, the waters of the Pleistus with Hellen, Dorus, Ion, Xuthus, Thessalus, Lariswere turned off, then poisoned, and turned again sa the daughter of Pelasgus, and others, are not into the city. The besieged drank their fill, and historical, but mythic personages-the representaCrissa was soon razed to the ground; and thus, if tives, or poetic personifications, of their alleged it were an Amphictyonic city, was a solemn oath foundations or offspring. As for Amphictyon,' it is doubly violated. Its territory-the rich Cirrhæan too marvellous a coincidence that his name should plain-was consecrated to the god, and curses im- be significant of the institution itself; and, as he precated upon whomsoever should till or dwell in it. was the son of Deucalion and Pyrrha, it is difficult Thus ended the First Sacred War (B.C. 585), in to guess of whom his council consisted. True it is which the Athenians were the instruments of Del- that he also appears in Athenian history; but very phian vengeance. The Second, or Phocian War little is said of him; and the company he keeps (B.C. 350), was the most important in which the there, though kingly, is far from historical. Besides, Amphictyons were concerned; and in this the though Herodotus and Thucydides1o had the opporThebans availed themselves of the sanction of the tunity, they yet make no mention of him. We may council to take vengeance on their enemies, the conclude, therefore, that the word should be written Phocians. To do this, however, it was necessary amphictiony, from ȧupikтioves, or those that dwell to call in Philip of Macedon, who readily proclaim-around some particular locality." ed himself the champion of Apollo, as it opened a pathway to his own ambition. The Phocians were subdued (B.C. 346), and the council decreed that all their cities, except Abæ, should be razed, and the inhabitants dispersed in villages not containing more than fifty inhabitants. Their two votes were given to Philip, who thereby gained a pretext for interfering with the affairs of Greece, and also obtained the recognition of his subjects as Hellenes. To the causes of the Third Sacred War, allusion has been made in the decrees quoted by Demosthenes. The Amphissians tilled the devoted Cirrhæan plain, and behaved, as Strabo says, worse than the Crissæans of old (xeipove noɑv nepì тoùs §évovc). Their submission to Philip was immediately followed by the 1. (Esch., de F. L., 121.)-2. (Demosth., de Cor., 196, Bekker.) 1. (Herodotus, vii., 214, speaks of the Amphictyons as of rev 3. (Herod., ii., 180.)-4. (iv., 173, Ο τῶν ̓Αμφικτυόνων νόμος | Ἑλλήνων Πυλαγόροι.) 2. (Æschin., c. Ctes.)-3. (1., 112.)-4. Keλεtwv bowρ Tapéxtv coduras. This seems to refer to the (De Pace.)-5. (f) iv Deλpois oxiá)-6. (Harpocrat., AmphictyDelians only.)-5. (Eschines, c. Ctes, 125, gives the whole his- on.-See Mauss. notes.)-7. (Thirlwall, Hist. Gr., vol. i., p. tory. In early times, Crissa and the temple were one state.- 273.)-8. (Phil. Mus., vol. ii., p. 359.)-9. (i., 56.)-10. (i., 3.) Müller, Dorians.)-6. (Paus., x., 37, s. 4.)-7. (Thirlwall, Hist.-11. (Thus Pindar, Nem., 6, 42, ¿v åμøikrióvwv raupnobvy of Greece, vol. v., p. 263-372.)-8. (ix., 3.) The next question is one of greater difficulty; it is this: Where did the association originate? were its meetings first held at Delphi or at Thermopyla? There seems to us a greater amount of evidence in favour of the latter. In proof of this, we may state the preponderance of Thessalian tribes from the neighbourhood of the Maliac Bay, and the comparative insignificance of many of them; the assigned birthplace and residence of the mythic Amphictyon, the names Pylagoræ and Pylæa. Besides, we know that Thessaly was the theatre and origin of many of the most important events of early Greek history, whereas it was only in later times, and after the Dorian conquest of Peloponnesus, that Delphi TPLETηpidi. Vid. Böckh, in loc.) AMPHIDROMIA. AMPHITHEATRUM. ceived its name, to which the guests were witnesses.' The carrying of the child round the hearth was the principal part of the solemnity, from which its name was derived. But the scholiast on Aristophanes derives the name from the fact that the guests, while the name was given to the child, walked or danced around it. This festival is sometimes called from the day on which it took place: if on the seventh day, it is called ê6doμai or ebdouas; if on the tenth became important enough for the meetings of such ΑΜΦΙΚΥΠΕΛΛΟΝ ΔΕΠΑΣ (αμφικύπελλον δέmaç), a drinking-vessel, often mentioned by Homer. Its form has been the subject of various conjectures; but the name seems to indicate well enough what it really was. Kunελov is found separately as well as in composition, and is evidently a diminutive formed from the root signifying a hollow, which we have in the Greek Kuu6n, and the dialectic form Kubba; Latin, cupa; German, kufe, kübel; French, cure, coupe; and English, cup: it means, therefore, a small goblet or cup. Aμokúελλos, therefore, according to the analogy of duoiorоμоs, аμÓWτоs, &C., is that which has a Kunehov at both sides or both ends; and démaç dμoikúñeλλov is a drinking-vessel, having a cup at both ends. That this was the form of the vessel is shown by a passage in Aristotle, where he is describing the cells of bees as having two openings divided by a floor "like the ȧupiкú πελλα της 4 AMPHIOR KIA or AMPHOMOSΊΑ (ἀμφιορκία or άuowuoría) is the oath which was taken, both by the plaintiff and defendant, before the trial of a cause in the Athenian courts, that they would speak the truth. According to Pollux," the ȧuotoрkla also included the oath which the judges took, that they would decide according to the laws; or, in case there was no express law on the subject in dispute, that they would decide according to the principles of justice. AMPHIPPOI. (Vid. DESULTORES.) ΑΜΦΙΠΡΥΜΝΟΙ ΝΗΈΣ (ἀμφίπρυμνοι νῆες), also called AIPOPOI, ships in which the poop and the prow were so much alike as to be applicable to the same use. A ship of this construction might be considered as having either two poops or two prows. It is supposed to have been convenient in circumstances where the head of the ship could not be turned about with sufficient celerity. *AMPHISBÆ'NA (ȧμpíobaiva), sometimes called the Double-headed Serpent. Buffon says of it, that it can move along with either the head or the tail foremost, whence it had been thought to have two heads. Avicenna says, that it is of equal thickness from head to tail, and that from this appearance it had been supposed to have two heads. Schneider states, that Linnæus' describes a serpent which agrees very well with the ancient accounts of the amphisbæna; its tail is obtuse, and as thick as its body, and it moves along either forward or backward; but, according to Dr. Trail, it is an American species. The amphisbæna was probably a variety of the Anguis fragilis, L., or Blind Worm. The Aberdeen serpent of Pennant, of which mention is made in Linnæus's correspondence with Dr. David Skene of Aberdeen, is a variety of the Anguis fragilis. Linnæus denies that the amphisbæna is venomous, but many authors, even of modern times, are of a contrary opinion. AMPHIDROM ́TA, or APOMIAMION HMAP (audiopópia, or poμráporov nμap), a family festival of the Athenians, at which the newly-born child was introduced into the family and received its name. No particular day was fixed for this solemnity; but it did not take place very soon after the birth of the child, for it was believed that most children died before the seventh day, and the solemnity was, therefore, generally deferred till after that period, that there might be, at least, some probability of the AMPHITHEATRUM was a place for the child remaining alive. But, according to Suidas, exhibition of public shows of combatants and wild the festival was held on the fifth day, when the beasts, entirely surrounded by seats for the spectawomen who had lent their assistance at the birth tors; whereas, in those for dramatic performances, washed their hands. This purification, however, the seats were arranged in a semicircle facing the preceded the real solemnity. The friends and stage. It is, therefore, frequently described as a relatives of the parents were invited to the festival double theatre, consisting of two such semicircles, of the amphidromia, which was held in the evening, or halves, joined together, the spaces allotted to and they generally appeared with presents, among their orchestras becoming the inner enclosure or which are mentioned the cuttlefish and the marine area, termed the arena. The form, however, of the polyp. The house was decorated on the outside ancient amphitheatres was not a circle, but invariwith olive-branches when the child was a boy, or ably an ellipse, although the circular form appears with garlands of wool when the child was a girl; best adapted for the convenience of the spectators. and a repast was prepared, at which, if we may The first amphitheatre appears to have been that judge from a fragment of Ephippus in Athenæus, of M. Curio, of which a description has been given the guests must have been rather merry. The by Pliny.10 It consisted of two wooden theatres child was then carried round the fire by the nurse, made to revolve on pivots, in such a manner that and thus, as it were, presented to the gods of the they could, by means of windlasses and machinery, house and to the family, and at the same time re-be turned round face to face, so as to form one 1. (Schol. in Eurp., Orest., 1094.-Callim., Epig. xli.-Strabo, ix, c. 3, p. 279, ed. Tauchn.)-2. (Thirlwall, Hist. of Greece, c. I, -Heeren, Polit. Hist. of Greece, c. 7.-St. Croix, Des Anciens Gouvernemens Fédératifs.-Titmann, Ueber den Bund der Amphictyonen-Müller, Dorians, b. ii., c. ii., s 5.-Phil. Mus.. vol. i., p. 324; vol. ti., p. 360.-Hermann, Polit. Antiq. of Greece, 11-14.-Wachsmuth, Hellen, Alterthumsk.-Niebuhr. Hist. Rom., i., p. 31, transl.)-3. (Hesych., s. v. Tornрtov.) 4. H. A, 9, 40; or in Schneid., 9, 27, 4.)-5. (epi piar γὰρ βάσιν δύο θεάρδες εἰσὶν, ὥσπερ τῶν ἀμφικυπέλλων, ἡ μὲν bros, & d' éxtés-Compare Buttmann's Lexilogus, s. v.)—6, (Harpocr., s. v.)—7. (p. 370,) building. Gladiatorial shows were first exhibited in the forum, and combats of wild beasts in the circus; and it appears that the ancient custom was still preserved till the dictatorship of Julius Cæsar, who 1. (Isæus, de Pyrrhi Hæred., p. 34, s. 30, Bekker.)-2. (Lysistr., 758.)-3, (Hesych.-Aristoph., Av., 923.)-4. (Hesych.Suid.)-5. (viii., 10.)-6. (Scheffer, De Militia Navali, ii., c. 5, p. 143.)-7. (Amenit. Academ., vol. i., p. 295.)-8. (Schneider in El., N. A., ix., 23.)-9. (Adams, Append., s. v.)-10. (H. N., xxxvi,, 24, 8.) 112 built a wooden theatre in the Campus Martius, for the purpose of exhibiting hunts of wild beasts,' "which was called amphitheatre because it was surrounded by seats without a scene." Most of the early amphitheatres were merely temporary, and made of wood; such as the one built by Nero at Rome, and that erected by Atilius at Fidenæ during the reign of Tiberius, which gave way while the games were being performed, and killed or injured 50,000 persons.* Many other amphitheatres might be enumerated, such as those of Verona, Nismes, Catania, Pompeii, &c.; but, as they are all nearly similar in form, it is only necessary.to describe certain particulars, so as to afford a tolerably correct idea of the respective parts of each. height; and also, perhaps, in order to allow those who worked the ropes and other mechanism by which the velarium was unrolled or drawn back again, to perform those operations without incommoding the spectators on the highest seats. With regard to the velarium itself, nothing at all conclusive and satisfactory can now be gathered; and it has occasioned considerable dispute among the learned, how any temporary covering could be extended over the whole of the building. Some The first stone amphitheatre was built by Statili- have imagined that the velarium extended only us Taurus, at the desire of Augustus." This build-over part of the building; but, independent of other ing, which stood in the Campus Martius, near the objections, it is difficult to conceive how such an circus called Agonale, was destroyed by fire in the extensive surface could have been supported along reign of Nero; and it has, therefore, been supposed the extent of its inner edge or circumference. The that only the external walls were of stone, and that only thing which affords any evidence as to the the seats and other parts of the interior were of tim- mode in which the velarium was fixed, is a series ber. A second amphitheatre was commenced by of projecting brackets, or corbels, in the uppermost Caligula; but by far the most celebrated of all was story of the exterior, containing holes or sockets, the Flavian amphitheatre, afterward called the to receive the ends of poles passing through holes Coliseum, which was begun by Vespasian, and in the projection of the cornice, and to which ropes finished by his son Titus, who dedicated it A.D. 80, from the velarium were fixed; but the whole of the on which occasion, according to Eutropius, 5000, upper part of the interior is now so dismantled as and according to Dion, 9000, beasts were destroyed.7 to render it impossible to decide with certainty in This immense edifice, which is even yet compar-what manner the velarium was fixed. The velariatively entire, was capable of containing about um appears usually to have been made of wool, 87,000 spectators, and originally stood nearly in the but more costly materials were sometimes employed. centre of the city, on the spot previously occupied When the weather did not permit the velarium to by the lake or large pond attached to Nero's pal- be spread, the Romans used broad-brimmed hats or ace, and at no very great distance from the Baths caps, or a sort of parasol, which was called umbrelof Titus. It covers altogether about five acres of la, from umbra, shade.' ground; and the transverse, or longer diameter of the external ellipse, is 615 feet, and the conjugate, or shorter one, 510; while those of the interior ellipse, or arena, are 281 and 176 feet respectively. Where it perfect, the exterior is 160 feet high, and consists of four orders, viz., Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian, in attached three-quarter columns (that The interior of the amphitheatre was divided into is, columns one fourth of whose circumference ap- three parts, the arena, podium, and gradus. The pears to be buried in the wall behind them), and an clear open space in the centre of the amphitheatre upper order of Corinthian pilasters. With the ex- was called the arena, because it was covered with ception of the last, each of these tiers consists of sand or sawdust, to prevent the gladiators from eighty columns, and as many arches between them, slipping, and to absorb the blood. The size of the forming open galleries throughout the whole cir-arena was not always the same in proportion to the cumference of the building; but the fourth has size of the amphitheatre, but its average proporwindows instead of large arches, and those are tion was one third of the shorter diameter of the placed only in the alternate inter-columns, conse-building. quently, are only forty in number; and this upper It is not quite clear whether the arena was no portion of the elevation has, both on that account and owing to the comparative smallness of the apertures themselves, an expression of greater solidity than that below. The arches formed open external galleries, with others behind them; besides which, there were several other galleries and passages, extending beneath the seats for the spectators, and, together with staircases, affording access to the latter. At present, the seats do not rise higher than the level of the third order of the exterior, or about half its entire height; therefore, the upper part of the edifice appears to have contributed very little, if at all, to its actual capacity for accommodating spectators. Still, though it has never been explained, except by conjecturing that there were upper tiers of seats and galleries (although no remains of them now exist), we must suppose that there existed some very sufficient reason for incurring such enormous expense, and such prodigal waste of material and labour beyond what utility seems to have demanded. This excess of height, so much greater than was necessary, was perhaps, in some measure, with the view that, when the building was covered in with a temporary roofing or awning (velarium), as a defence against the sun or rain, it should seem well proportioned as to 1. (SEATPOν KUVпyεTIKÓV.)-2. (Dion., xliii., 22.)-3. (Suet., Ner., c. 12.-Tacit., Ann., xiii., 31.)-4. (Tacit., Ann., iv., 62.-Snet., Tib., c. 40.)-5. (Suet., Octav., c. 29.-Dion., li., 23.) 6. (Dion., ixii., 18.)-7. (Suet., Vesp., 9.-Id., Tit., 7.-Eutrop., vii., 21.-Dion., lxvi., 25.)-8. (Suet., Ner., 31.) more than the solid ground, or whether it had an actual flooring of any kind. The latter opinion is adopted by some writers, who suppose that there must have been a souterrain, or vaults, at intervals at least, if not throughout, beneath the arena, as sometimes the animals suddenly issued apparently from beneath the ground; and machinery of different kinds was raised up from below, and afterward disappeared in the same manner. That there must have been some substruction beneath the arena, in some amphitheatres at least, is evident, because the whole arena was, upon particular occasions, filled with water, and converted into a naumachia, where vessels engaged in mimic sea-fights, .or else crocodiles and other amphibious animals were made to attack each other. Nero is said to have frequently entertained the Romans with spectacles and diversions of this kind, which took place immediately after the customary games, and were again succeeded by them; consequently, there must have been not only an abundant supply of water, but mechanical apparatus capable of pouring it in and draining it off again very expeditiously. The arena was surrounded by a wall, distinguished by the name of podium, although such appellation, perhaps, rather belongs to merely the upper part of it, forming the parapet or balcony before the first or lowermost seats, nearest to the arena. latter, therefore, was no more than an open oval court, 1. (Dion., lix., 7.-Martial, xiv., 27, 28.) The |