A Smaller Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities

GREEK AND ROMAN ANTIQUITIES.

ĂBĂCUS (ἄβαξ), denoted primarily a square tablet of any description, and was hence employed in the following significations:--(1) A table, or side-board, chiefly used for the display of gold and silver cups, and other kinds of valuable and ornamental utensils. The use of abaci was first introduced at Rome from Asia Minor after the victories of Cn. Manlius Vulso, B.C. 187, and their introduction was regarded as one of the marks of the growing luxury of the age.--(2) A draught-board or chess-board.--(3) A board used by mathematicians for drawing diagrams, and by arithmeticians for the purposes of calculation.--(4) A painted panel, coffer, or square compartment in the wall or ceiling of a chamber.--(5) In architecture, the flat square stone which constituted the highest member of a column, being placed immediately under the architrave.

ABOLLA, a cloak chiefly worn by soldiers, and thus opposed to the toga, the garb of peace. [TOGA.] The abolla was used by the lower classes at Rome, and consequently by the philosophers who affected severity of manners and life. Hence the expression of Juvenal, facinus majoris abollae,--“a crime committed by a very deep philosopher.”

ABRŎGĀTĬO. [LEX.]

ABSŎLŪTĬO. [JUDEX.]

ĂCAENA (ἀκαίνη, ἄκαινα, or in later Greek ἄκενα, in one place ἄκαινον), a measuring rod of the length of ten Greek feet. It was used in measuring land, and thus resembles the Roman decempeda.

ĂCATĬUM (ἀκάτιον, a diminutive of ἄκατος), a small vessel or boat used by the Greeks, which appears to have been the same as the Roman scapha. The Acatia were also sails adapted for fast sailing.

ACCENSUS. (1) A public officer, who attended on several of the Roman magistrates. The Accensi summoned the people to the assemblies, and those who had law-suits to court; they preserved order in the courts, and proclaimed the time of the day when it was the third hour, the sixth hour, and the ninth hour. An accensus anciently preceded the consul who had not the fasces, which custom, after being long disused, was restored by Julius Cæsar in his first consulship. Accensi also attended on the governors of provinces.--(2) The accensi were also a class of soldiers in the Roman army, who were enlisted after the full number of the legion had been completed, in order to supply any vacancies that might occur in the legion. They were taken, according to the census of Servius Tullius, from the fifth class of citizens, and were placed in battle in the rear of the army, behind the triarii.

ACCLĀMĀTĬO, was the public expression of approbation or disapprobation, pleasure or displeasure, by loud acclamations. On many occasions, there appear to have been certain forms of acclamations always used by the Romans; as, for instance, at marriages, Io Hymen, Hymenaee, or Talassio; at triumphs, Io Triumphe; at the conclusion of plays, the last actor called out Plaudite to the spectators; orators were usually praised by such expressions as Bene et praeclare, Belle et festive, Non potest melius, &c. Under the empire the name of acclamationes was given to the praises and flatteries bestowed by the senate upon the reigning emperor and his family.

ACCŬBĀTĬO, the act of reclining at meals. The Greeks and Romans were accustomed, in later times, to recline at their meals; but this practice could not have been of great antiquity in Greece, since Homer always describes persons as sitting at their meals; and Isidore of Seville, an ancient grammarian, also attributes the same custom to the ancient Romans. Even in the time of the early Roman emperors, children in families of the highest rank used to sit together, while their fathers and elders reclined on couches at the upper part of the room. Roman ladies continued the practice of sitting at table, even after the recumbent position had become common with the other sex. It appears to have been considered more decent, and more agreeable to the severity and purity of ancient manners, for women to sit, more especially if many persons were present. But, on the other hand, we find cases of women reclining, where there was conceived to be nothing bold or indelicate in their posture. Such is the case in the preceding woodcut, which seems intended to represent a scene of matrimonial felicity. For an account of the disposition of the couches, and of the place which each guest occupied in a Greek and Roman entertainment, see SYMPOSIUM and TRICLINIUM.

ACCŪSĀTOR, ACCŪSĀTIO. [JUDEX.]

ĂCERRA (θυμιατήριον, λιβανωτρίς), the incense-box or censer used in sacrifices. The acerra was also a small moveable altar placed before the dead, on which perfumes were burnt. The use of acerrae at funerals was forbidden by a law of the Twelve Tables as an unnecessary expense.

ĂCĒTABŬLUM (ὀξίς, ὀξύβαφον, ὀξυβάφιον). (1) A vinegar-cup, wide and open above, as we see in the annexed cut. The name was also given to all cups resembling it in size and form, to whatever use they might be applied.--(2) A Roman measure of capacity, fluid and dry. It was one-fourth of the hemian, and therefore one-eighth of the sextarius.

ĂCHĀĬCUM FOEDUS. The Achaean league is divided into two periods. 1. _The earlier period._--When the Heracleidae took possession of Peloponnesus, which had until then been chiefly inhabited by Achaeans, a portion of the latter, under Tisamenus, turned northwards and occupied the north coast of Peloponnesus. The country thus occupied derived from them its name of Achaia, and contained twelve confederate towns, which were governed by the descendants of Tisamenus, till at length they abolished the kingly rule after the death of Ogyges, and established a democracy. In the time of Herodotus the twelve towns of which the league consisted were: Pellene, Aegeira, Aegae, Bura, Helice, Aegium, Rhypes (Rhypae), Patreis (ae), Phareis (ae), Olenus, Dyme, and Tritaeeis (Tritaea). After the time of Herodotus, Rhypes and Aegae disappeared from the number, and Ceryneia and Leontium stepped into their place. The bond which united the towns of the league was not so much a political as a religious one, as is shown by the common sacrifice offered at Helice to Poseidon, and after the destruction of that town, at Aegium to Zeus, surnamed Homagyrius, and to Demeter Panachaea. The confederation exercised no great influence in the affairs of Greece down to the time when it was broken up by the Macedonians. 2. _The later period._--When Antigonus in B.C. 281 made the unsuccessful attempt to deprive Ptolemaeus Ceraunus of the Macedonian throne, the Achaeans availed themselves of the opportunity of shaking off the Macedonian yoke, and renewing their ancient confederation. The grand object however now was no longer a common worship, but a real political union among the confederates. The fundamental laws were, that henceforth the confederacy should form one inseparable state, that each town, which should join it, should have equal rights with the others, and that all members, in regard to foreign countries, should be considered as dependent, and bound to obey in every respect the federal government, and those officers who were entrusted with the executive. Aegium was the seat of the government, and it was there that the citizens of the various towns met at regular and stated times, to deliberate upon the common affairs of the league, and if it was thought necessary, upon those of separate towns, and even of individuals, and to elect the officers of the league. The league acquired its great strength in B.C. 251, when Aratus united Sicyon, his native place, with it, and some years later gained Corinth also for it. Megara, Troezene, and Epidaurus soon followed their example. Afterwards Aratus persuaded all the more important towns of Peloponnesus to join the confederacy, and thus Megalopolis, Argos, Hermione, Phlius, and others were added to it. In a short period the league reached the height of its power, for it embraced Athens, Megara, Aegina, Salamis, and the whole of Peloponnesus, with the exception of Sparta, Elis, Tegea, Orchomenos, and Mantineia. The common affairs of the confederate towns were regulated at general meetings attended by the citizens of all the towns, and held regularly twice every year, in the spring and in the autumn. These meetings, which lasted three days, were held in a grove of Zeus Homagyrius in the neighbourhood of Aegium, and near a sanctuary of Demeter Panachaea. Every citizen, both rich and poor, who had attained the age of thirty, might attend the assemblies, to which they were invited by a public herald, and might speak and propose any measure. The subjects which were to be brought before the assembly were prepared by a council (βουλή), which seems to have been permanent. The principal officers of the confederacy were: 1. At first two strategi (στρατηγοί), but after the year B.C. 255 there was only one, who in conjunction with an hipparchus (ἴππαρχος) or commander of the cavalry and an under-strategus (ὑποστρατηγός) commanded the army furnished by the confederacy, and was entrusted with the whole conduct of war; 2. A public secretary (γραμματεύς); and, 3. Ten demiurgi (δημιουργοί). All the officers of the league were elected in the assembly held in the spring, at the rising of the Pleiades, and legally they were invested with their several offices only for one year, though it frequently happened that men of great merit and distinction were re-elected for several successive years. If one of the officers died during the period of his office, his place was filled by his predecessor, until the time for the new elections arrived. The perpetual discord of the members of the league, the hostility of Sparta, the intrigues of the Romans, and the folly and rashness of the later strategi, brought about not only the destruction and dissolution of the confederacy, but of the freedom of all Greece, which after the fall of Corinth, in B.C. 146, became a Roman province under the name of Achaia.

ĂCĬES. [EXERCITUS.]

ĂCĪNĂCĒS (ἀκινάκης), a Persian sword, whence Horace speaks of the Medus acinaces. The acinaces was a short and straight weapon, and thus differed from the Roman sica, which was curved. It was worn on the right side of the body, whereas the Greeks and Romans usually had their swords suspended on the left side. The form of the acinaces, with the mode of wearing it, is illustrated by the following Persepolitan figures.

ACISCŬLUS. [ASCIA.]

ĀCLIS, a kind of dart with a leathern thong attached to it. [AMENTUM.]

ACROĀMA (ἀκρόαμα), which properly means any thing heard, was the name given to a concert of players on different musical instruments, and also to an interlude performed during the exhibition of the public games. The word is also applied to the actors and musicians who were employed to amuse guests during an entertainment, and is sometimes used to designate the anagnostae. [ANAGNOSTES.]

ACRŎLĬTHI (ἀκρόλιθοι), statues, of which the extremities only were of marble, and the remaining part of the body of wood either gilt or covered with drapery.