Chapter VI: Part II: The Middle Ages and the Reformation. A.D. 1381-1593 (5)

ASTỸNŎMI (ἀστυνόμοι), or street-police of Athens, were ten in number, five for the city, and as many for the Peiraeeus. The _astynomi_ and _agoranomi_ divided between them most of the functions of the Roman aediles. [AGORANOMI.]

ĂSῩLUM (ἄσυλον). In the Greek states the temples, altars, sacred groves, and statues of the gods, generally possessed the privilege of protecting slaves, debtors, and criminals, who fled to them for refuge. The laws, however, do not appear to have recognised the right of all such sacred places to afford the protection which was claimed, but to have confined it to a certain number of temples, or altars, which were considered in a more especial manner to have the ἀσυλία, or _jus asyli_. There were several places in Athens which possessed this privilege; of which the best known was the Theseium, or temple of Theseus, in the city, near the gymnasium, which was chiefly intended for the protection of ill-treated slaves, who could take refuge in this place, and compel their masters to sell them to some other person. In the time of Tiberius, the number of places possessing the jus asyli in the Greek cities in Greece and Asia Minor became so numerous, as seriously to impede the administration of justice; and, consequently, the senate, by the command of the emperor, limited the jus asyli to a few cities. The asylum, which Romulus is said to have opened at Rome to increase the population of the city, was a place of refuge for the inhabitants of other states, rather than a sanctuary for those who had violated the laws of the city. In the republican and early imperial times, a right of asylum, such as existed in the Greek states, does not appear to have been recognised by the Roman law; but it existed under the empire, and a slave could fly to the temples of the gods, or the statues of the emperors, to avoid the ill-usage of his master.

ĂTĔLEIA (ἀτέλεια), immunity from public burthens, was enjoyed at Athens by the archons for the time being; by the descendants of certain persons, on whom it had been conferred as a reward for great services, as in the case of Harmodius and Aristogeiton; and by the inhabitants of certain foreign states. It was of several kinds: it might be a general immunity (ἀτέλεια ἁπάντων); or a more special exemption, as from custom-duties, from the liturgies, or from providing sacrifices.

ĀTELLĀNAE FĂBŬLAE were a species of farce or comedy, so called from Atella, a town of the Osci, in Campania. From this circumstance, and from being written in the Oscan dialect, they were also called _Ludi Osci_. These Atellane plays were not _praetextatae_, _i.e._ comedies in which magistrates and persons of rank were introduced, nor _tabernariae_, the characters in which were taken from low life; they rather seem to have been a union of high comedy and its parody. They were also distinguished from the mimes by the absence of low buffoonery and ribaldry, being remarkable for a refined humour, such as could be understood and appreciated by educated people. They were not performed by regular actors (_histriones_), but by Roman citizens of noble birth, who were not on that account subjected to any degradation, but retained their rights as citizens, and might serve in the army. The Oscan or Opican language, in which these plays were written, was spread over the whole of the south of Italy, and from its resemblance to the Latin could easily be understood by the more educated Romans.

ĂTHĒNAEUM (ἀθήναιον), a school (_ludus_) founded by the Emperor Hadrian at Rome, for the promotion of literary and scientific studies (_ingenuarum artium_), and called Athenaeum from the town of Athens, which was still regarded as the seat of intellectual refinement. The Athenaeum was situated on the Capitoline hill. It was a kind of university, with a staff of professors, for the various branches of study. Besides the instruction given by these magistri, poets, orators, and critics were accustomed to recite their compositions there, and these prelections were sometimes honoured with the presence of the emperors themselves. The Athenaeum seems to have continued in high repute till the fifth century.

ATHLĒTAE (ἀθληταί, ἀθλητῆρες), persons who contended in the public games of the Greeks and Romans for prizes (ἆθλα, whence the name of ἀθληταί), which were given to those who conquered in contests of agility and strength. The name was in the later period of Grecian history, and among the Romans, properly confined to those persons who entirely devoted themselves to a course of training which might fit them to excel in such contests, and who, in fact, made athletic exercises their profession. The athletae differed, therefore, from the _agonistae_ (ἀγωνισταί), who only pursued gymnastic exercises for the sake of improving their health and bodily strength, and who, though they sometimes contended for the prizes in the public games, did not devote their whole lives, like the athletae, to preparing for these contests. Athletae were first introduced at Rome, B.C. 186, in the games exhibited by M. Fulvius, on the conclusion of the Aetolian war. Aemilius Paullus, after the conquest of Perseus, B.C. 167, is said to have exhibited games at Amphipolis, in which athletae contended. Under the Roman emperors, and especially under Nero, who was passionately fond of the Grecian games, the number of athletae increased greatly in Italy, Greece, and Asia Minor. Those athletae who conquered in any of the great national festivals of the Greeks were called _Hieronicae_ (ἱερονῖκαι), and received the greatest honours and rewards. Such a conqueror was considered to confer honour upon the state to which he belonged; he entered his native city through a breach made in the walls for his reception, in a chariot drawn by four white horses, and went along the principal street of the city to the temple of the guardian deity of the state. Those games, which gave the conquerors the right of such an entrance into the city, were called _Iselastici_ (from εἰσελαύνειν). This term was originally confined to the four great Grecian festivals, the Olympian, Isthmian, Nemean, and Pythian, but was afterwards applied to other public games. In the Greek states, the victors in these games not only obtained the greatest glory and respect, but also substantial rewards. They were generally relieved from the payment of taxes, and also enjoyed the first seat (προεδρία) in all public games and spectacles. Their statues were frequently erected at the cost of the state, in the most frequented part of the city, as the market-place, the gymnasia, and the neighbourhood of the temples. At Athens, according to a law of Solon, the conquerors in the Olympic games were rewarded with a prize of 500 drachmae; and the conquerors in the Pythian, Nemean, and Isthmian, with one of 100 drachmae; and at Sparta they had the privilege of fighting near the person of the king. The privileges of the athletae were secured, and in some respects increased, by the Roman emperors. The term athletae, though sometimes applied metaphorically to other combatants, was properly limited to those who contended for the prize in the five following contests:--1. _Running_ (δρόμος, _cursus_). [STADIUM.] 2. _Wrestling_ (πάλη, _lucta_). 3. _Boxing_ (πυγμή, _pugilatus_). 4. The _pentathlum_ (πένταθλον), or, as the Romans called it, _quinquertium_. 5. The _pancratium_ (παγκράτιον). Of all these an account is given in separate articles. Great attention was paid to the training of the athletae. They were generally trained in the _palaestrae_, which, in the Grecian states, were distinct places from the gymnasia. Their exercises were superintended by the gymnasiarch, and their diet was regulated by the aliptes. [ALIPTAE.]--The athletae were accustomed to contend naked. In the descriptions of the games given in the Iliad, the combatants are represented with a girdle about their loins; and the same practice, as we learn from Thucydides, anciently prevailed at the Olympic games, but was discontinued afterwards.

ĂTĪMĬA (ἀτιμία), the forfeiture of a man’s civil rights at Athens. It was either total or partial. A man was totally deprived of his rights, both for himself and for his descendants (καθάπαξ ἄτιμος), when he was convicted of murder, theft, false witness, partiality as arbiter, violence offered to a magistrate, and so forth. This highest degree of atimia excluded the person affected by it from the forum, and from all public assemblies; from the public sacrifices, and from the law courts; or rendered him liable to immediate imprisonment, if he was found in any of these places. It was either temporary or perpetual, and either accompanied or not with confiscation of property. Partial atimia only involved the forfeiture of some few rights, as, for instance, the right of pleading in court. Public debtors were suspended from their civic functions till they discharged their debt to the state. People who had once become altogether atimi were very seldom restored to their lost privileges. The converse term to _atimia_ was _epitimia_ (ἐπιτιμία).

ATLANTES (ἄτλαντες) and TĔLĂMŌNES (τελαμῶνες), terms used in architecture, the former by the Greeks, the latter by the Romans, to designate those male figures which are sometimes fancifully used, like the female _Caryatides_, in place of columns. Both words are derived from τλῆναι, and the former evidently refers to the fable of Atlas, who supported the vault of heaven, the latter _perhaps_ to the strength of the Telamonian Ajax.

ĀTRĀMENTUM, a term applicable to any black colouring substance, for whatever purpose it may be used, like the _melan_ (μέλαν) of the Greeks. There were, however, three principal kinds of atramentum: one called _librarium_, or _scriptorium_ (in Greek, γραφικὸν μέλαν), writing-ink; another called _sutorium_, which was used by the shoemakers for dyeing leather; the third _tectorium_, or _pictorium_, which was used by painters for some purposes, apparently as a sort of varnish. The inks of the ancients seem to have been more durable than our own; they were thicker and more unctuous, in substance and durability more resembling the ink now used by printers. An inkstand was discovered at Herculaneum, containing ink as thick as oil, and still usable for writing. The ancients used inks of various colours. Red ink, made of _minium_ or vermilion, was used for writing the titles and beginning of books. So also was ink made of _rubrica_, “red ochre;” and because the headings of _laws_ were written with rubrica, the word rubric came to be used for the civil law. So _album_, a white or whited table, on which the praetors’ edicts were written, was used in a similar way. A person devoting himself to _album_ and _rubrica_, was a person devoting himself to the law. [ALBUM.]

ĀTRĬUM (called αὐλή by the Greeks and by Virgil, and also μεσαύλιον, περίστυλον, περίστῳον) is used in a distinctive as well as collective sense, to designate a particular part in the private houses of the Romans [DOMUS], and also a class of public buildings, so called from their general resemblance in construction to the atrium of a private house. An atrium of the latter description was a building by itself, resembling in some respects the open basilica [BASILICA], but consisting of three sides. Such was the Atrium Publicum in the capitol, which, Livy informs us, was struck with lightning, B.C. 216. It was at other times attached to some temple or other edifice, and in such case consisted of an open area and surrounding portico in front of the structure. Several of these buildings are mentioned by the ancient historians, two of which were dedicated to the same goddess, Libertas. The most celebrated, as well as the most ancient, was situated on the Aventine Mount. In this atrium there was a tabularium, where the legal tablets (_tabulae_) relating to the censors were preserved. The other Atrium Libertatis was in the neighbourhood of the Forum Caesaris, and was immediately behind the Basilica Paulli or Aemilia.

AUCTĬO signifies generally “an increasing, an enhancement,” and hence the name is applied to a public sale of goods, at which persons bid against one another. The sale was sometimes conducted by an _argentarius_, or by a _magister auctionis_; and the time, place, and conditions of sale, were announced either by a public notice (_tabula_, _album_, &c.), or by a crier (_praeco_). The usual phrases to express the giving notice of a sale were, _auctionem proscribere, praedicare_; and to determine on a sale, _auctionem constituere_. The purchasers (_emtores_), when assembled, were sometimes said _ad tabulam adesse_. The phrases signifying to bid are, _liceri_, _licitari_, which was done either by word of mouth, or by such significant hints as are known to all people who have attended an auction. The property was said to be knocked down (_addici_) to the purchaser. The praeco, or crier, seems to have acted the part of the modern auctioneer, so far as calling out the biddings, and amusing the company. Slaves, when sold by auction, were placed on a stone, or other elevated thing, as is the case when slaves are sold in the United States of North America; and hence the phrase _homo de lapide emtus_. It was usual to put up a spear (_hasta_) in auctions; a symbol derived, it is said, from the ancient practice of selling under a spear the booty acquired in war.

AUCTOR, a word which contains the same element as _aug-eo_, and signifies generally one who enlarges, confirms, or gives to a thing its completeness and efficient form. The numerous technical significations of the word are derivable from this general notion. As he who gives to a thing that which is necessary for its completeness may in this sense be viewed as the chief actor or doer, the word auctor is also used in the sense of one who originates or proposes a thing; but this cannot be viewed as its primary meaning. Accordingly, the word auctor, when used in connection with lex or senatus consultum, often means him who originates and proposes.--The expressions _patres auctores fiunt_, _patres auctores facti_, have given rise to much discussion. In the earlier periods of the Roman state, the word _patres_ was equivalent to _patricii_; in the later period, when the patricians had lost all importance as a political body, the term patres signified the senate. Hence some ambiguity has arisen. The expression _patres auctores fiunt_, when used of the early period of Rome, means that the determinations of the populus in the comitia centuriata were confirmed by the patricians in the comitia curiata. Till the time of Servius Tullius there were only the comitia curiata, and this king first established the comitia centuriata, in which the plebs also voted, and consequently it was not till after this time that the phrase _patres auctores fiunt_ could be properly applied. Livy, however, uses it of an earlier period. The comitia curiata first elected the king, and then by another vote conferred upon him the imperium. The latter was called _lex curiata de imperio_, an expression not used by Livy, who employs instead the phrase _patres auctores fiunt_ (Liv. i. 17, 22, 32).--After the exile of the last Tarquin, the patres, that is the patricians, had still the privilege of confirming at the comitia curiata the vote of the comitia centuriata, that is, they gave to it the _patrum auctoritas_; or, in other words, the _patres_ were _auctores facti_. In the fifth century of the city a change was made. By one of the laws of the plebeian dictator Q. Publilius Philo, it was enacted that in the case of leges to be enacted at the comitia centuriata, the _patres_ should be _auctores_, that is, the curiae should give their assent before the vote of the comitia centuriata. By a lex Maenia of uncertain date the same change was made as to elections.--But both during the earlier period and afterwards no business could be brought before the comitia without first receiving the sanction of the senate; and accordingly the phrase _patres auctores fiunt_ came now to be applied to the approval of a measure by the senate before it was confirmed by the votes of the people. This preliminary approval was also termed _senatus auctoritas_.--When the word auctor is applied to him who recommends but does not originate a legislative measure, it is equivalent to _suasor_. Sometimes both auctor and suasor are used in the same sentence, and the meaning of each is kept distinct. With reference to dealings between individuals, auctor has the sense of owner. In this sense auctor is the seller (_venditor_), as opposed to the buyer (_emtor_): and hence we have the phrase _a malo auctore emere_. Auctor is also used generally to express any person under whose authority any legal act is done. In this sense, it means a tutor who is appointed to aid or advise a woman on account of the infirmity of her sex.

AUCTŌRĀMENTUM, the pay of gladiators. [GLADIATORES.]

AUCTŌRĬTAS. The technical meanings of this word correlate with those of auctor. The auctoritas senatus was not a senatus-consultum; it was a measure, incomplete in itself, which received its completion by some other authority. Auctoritas, as applied to property, is equivalent to legal ownership, being a correlation of auctor.

AUDĪTŌRĬUM, as the name implies, is any place for hearing. It was the practice among the Romans for poets and others to read their compositions to their friends, who were sometimes called the auditorium; but the word was also used to express any place in which any thing was heard, and under the empire it was applied to a court of justice. Under the republic the place for all judicial proceedings was the comitium and the forum. But for the sake of shelter and convenience it became the practice to hold courts in the Basilicae, which contained halls, which were also called auditoria. It is first under M. Aurelius that the auditorium principis is mentioned, by which we must understand a hall or room in the imperial residence; and in such a hall Septimius Severus and the later emperors held their regular sittings when they presided as judges. The latest jurists use the word generally for any place in which justice was administered.

AUGUR, AUGŬRĬUM; AUSPEX, AUSPĬCĬUM. _Augur_ or _auspex_ meant a diviner by birds, but came in course of time, like the Greek οἰωνός, to be applied in a more extended sense: his art was called _augurium_ or _auspicium_. Plutarch relates that the _augures_ were originally termed _auspices_. The word _auspex_ was supplanted by _augur_, but the scientific term for the observation continued on the contrary to be _auspicium_ and not _augurium_. By Greek writers on Roman affairs, the augurs are called οἰωνοπόλοι, οἰωνοσκόποι, οἰωνισταί, οἱ ἐπ’ οἰωνοῖς ἱερεῖς. The belief that the flight of birds gave some intimation of the will of the gods seems to have been prevalent among many nations of antiquity, and was common to the Greeks, as well as the Romans; but it was only among the latter people that it was reduced to a complete system, governed by fixed rules, and handed down from generation to generation. In Greece, the oracles supplanted the birds, and the future was learnt from Apollo and other gods, rarely from Zeus, who possessed very few oracles in Greece. The contrary was the case at Rome: it was from Jupiter that the future was learnt, and the birds were regarded as his messengers. It must be remarked in general, that the Roman auspices were essentially of a practical nature; they gave no information respecting the course of future events, they did not inform men _what was to happen_, but simply taught them _what they were to do, or not to do_; they assigned no reason for the decision of Jupiter--they simply announced, yes or no. The words _augurium_ and _auspicium_ came to be used in course of time to signify the observation of various kinds of signs. They were divided into five sorts: _ex caelo_, _ex avibus_, _ex tripudiis_, _ex quadrupedibus_, _ex diris_. Of these, the last three formed no part of the ancient auspices.--1. _Ex caelo._ This included the observation of the various kinds of thunder and lightning, and was regarded as the most important, _maximum auspicium_. Whenever it was reported by a person authorised to take the auspices, that Jupiter thundered or lightened, the comitia could not be held.--2. _Ex avibus._ It was only a few birds which could give auguries among the Romans. They were divided into two classes: _Oscines_, those which gave auguries by singing, or their voice, and _Alites_, those which gave auguries by their flight. To the former class belonged the raven (_corvus_) and the crow (_cornix_), the first of these giving a favourable omen (_auspicium ratum_) when it appeared on the right, the latter, on the contrary, when it was seen on the left: likewise the owl (_noctua_) and the hen (_gallina_). To the _aves alites_ belonged first of all the eagle (_aquila_), which is called pre-eminently the bird of Jupiter (_Jovis ales_), and next the vulture (_vultur_). Some birds were included both among the _oscines_ and the _alites_: such were the _Picus Martius_, and _Feronius_, and the _Parra_. These were the principal birds consulted in the auspices. When the birds favoured an undertaking, they were said _addicere_, _admittere_ or _secundare_, and were then called _addictivae_, _admissivae_, _secundae_, or _praepetes_: when unfavourable they were said _abdicere_, _arcere_, _refragari_, &c., and were then called _adversae_ or _alterae_. The birds which gave unfavourable omens were termed _funebres_, _inhibitae_, _lugubres_, _malae_, &c., and such auspices were called _clivia_ and _clamatoria_.--3. _Ex tripudiis._ These auspices were taken from the feeding of chickens, and were especially employed on military expeditions. The chickens were kept in a cage, under care of a person called _pullarius_; and when the auspices were to be taken, the pullarius opened the cage and threw to the chickens pulse or a kind of soft cake. If they refused to come out or to eat, or uttered a cry (_occinerent_), or beat their wings, or flew away, the signs were considered unfavourable. On the contrary, if they ate greedily, so that something fell from their mouth and struck the earth, it was called _tripudium solistimum_ (_tripudium_ quasi _terripavium_, _solistimum_, from _solum_, according to the ancient writers), and was held a favourable sign.--4. _Ex quadrupedibus._ Auguries could also be taken from four-footed animals; but these formed no part of the original science of the augurs, and were never employed by them in taking auspices on behalf of the state, or in the exercise of their art properly so called. They must be looked upon simply as a mode of private divination. When a fox, a wolf, a horse, a dog, or any other kind of quadruped ran across a person’s path or appeared in an unusual place, it formed an augury.--5. _Ex diris_, sc. _signis_. Under this head was included every kind of augury which does not fall under any of the four classes mentioned above, such as sneezing, stumbling, and other accidental things. There was an important augury of this kind connected with the army, which was called _ex acuminibus_, that is, the flames appearing at the points of spears or other weapons. The ordinary manner of taking the auspices, properly so called (i.e. _ex caelo_ and _ex avibus_), was as follows: The person who was to take them first marked out with a wand (_lituus_) a division in the heavens called _templum_ or _tescum_, within which he intended to make his observations. The station where he was to take the auspices was also separated by a solemn formula from the rest of the land, and was likewise called _templum_ or _tescum_. He then proceeded to pitch a tent in it (_tabernaculum capere_), and this tent again was also called _templum_, or, more accurately, _templum minus_. [TEMPLUM.] Within the walls of Rome, or, more properly speaking, within the pomoerium, there was no occasion to select a spot and pitch a tent on it, as there was a place on the Arx on the summit of the Capitoline hill, called _Auguraculum_, which had been consecrated once for all for this purpose. In like manner there was in every Roman camp a place called _augurale_, which answered the same purpose; but on all other occasions a place had to be consecrated, and a tent to be pitched, as, for instance, in the Campus Martius, when the comitia centuriata were to be held. The person who was then taking the auspices waited for the favourable signs to appear; but it was necessary during this time that there should be no interruption of any kind whatsoever (_silentium_), and hence the word _silentium_ was used in a more extended sense to signify the absence of every thing that was faulty. Every thing, on the contrary, that rendered the auspices invalid was called _vitium_; and hence we constantly read in Livy and other writers of _vitio magistratus creati_, _vitio lex lata_, &c. The watching for the auspices was called _spectio_ or _servare de coelo_, the declaration of what was observed _nuntiatio_, or, if they were unfavourable, _obnuntiatio_. In the latter case, the person who took the auspices seems usually to have said _alio die_, by which the business in hand, whether the holding of the _comitia_ or any thing else, was entirely stopped.--In ancient times no one but a patrician could take the auspices. Hence the possession of the auspices (_habere auspicia_) is one of the most distinguished prerogatives of the patricians; they are said to be _penes patrum_, and are called _auspicia patrum_. It would further appear that every patrician might take the auspices; but here a distinction is to be observed between the _auspicia privata_ and _auspicia publica_. One of the most frequent occasions on which the _auspicia privata_ were taken, was in case of a marriage: and this was one great argument used by the patricians against _connubium_ between themselves and the plebeians, as it would occasion, they urged, _perturbationem auspiciorum publicorum privatorumque_. In taking these private auspices, it would appear that any patrician was employed who knew how to form _templa_ and was acquainted with the art of augury. The case, however, was very different with respect to the _auspicia publica_, generally called _auspicia_ simply, or those which concerned the state. The latter could only be taken by the persons who represented the state, and who acted as mediators between the gods and the state; for though all the patricians were eligible for taking the auspices, yet it was only the magistrates who were in actual possession of them. In case, however, there was no patrician magistrate, the auspices became vested in the whole body of the patricians (_auspicia ad patres redeunt_), who had recourse to an _interregnum_ for the renewal of them, and for handing them over in a perfect state to the new magistrates: hence we find the expressions _repetere de integro auspicia_, and _renovare per interregnum auspicia_.--The distinction between the duties of the magistrates and the augurs in taking the auspices is one of the most difficult points connected with this subject, but perhaps a satisfactory solution of these difficulties may be found by taking an historical view of the question. We are told not only that the kings were in possession of the auspices, but that they themselves were acquainted with the art and practised it. Romulus is stated to have appointed three augurs, but only as his assistants in taking the auspices, a fact which it is important to bear in mind. Their dignity gradually increased in consequence of their being employed at the inauguration of the kings, and also in consequence of their becoming the preservers and depositaries of the science of augury. Formed into a collegium, they handed down to their successors the various rules of the science, while the kings, and subsequently the magistrates of the republic, were liable to change. Their duties thus became two-fold, to assist the magistrates in taking up auspices, and to preserve a scientific knowledge of the art. As the augurs were therefore merely the assistants of the magistrates, they could not take the auspices without the latter, though the magistrates on the contrary could dispense with their assistance. At the same time it must be borne in mind, that as the augurs were the interpreters of the science, they possessed the right of declaring whether the auspices were valid or invalid. They thus possessed in reality a veto upon every important public transaction; and they frequently exercised this power as a political engine to vitiate the election of such parties as were unfavourable to the enclusive privileges of the patricians. But although the augurs could declare that there was some fault in the auspices, yet, on the other hand, they could not, by virtue of their office, declare that any unfavourable sign had appeared to them, since it was not to them that the auspices were sent. Thus we are told that the augurs did not possess the _spectio_. This _spectio_ was of two kinds, one more extensive and the other more limited. In the one case the person who exercised it could put a stop to the proceedings of any other magistrate by his obnuntiatio: this was called _spectio et nuntiatio_ (perhaps also _spectio cum nuntiatione_), and belonged only to the highest magistrates, the consuls, dictators, interreges, and, with some modifications, to the praetors. In the other case, the person who took the auspices only exercised the _spectio_ in reference to the duties of his own office, and could not interfere with any other magistrate: this was called _spectio sine nuntiatione_, and belonged to the other magistrates, the censors, aediles, and quaestors. Now as the augurs did not possess the auspices, they consequently could not possess the spectio (_habere spectionem_); but as the augurs were constantly employed by the magistrates to take the auspices, they _exercised_ the spectio, though they did not _possess_ it in virtue of their office. When they were employed by the magistrates in taking the auspices, they possessed the right of the _nuntiatio_, and thus had the power, by the declaration of unfavourable signs (_obnuntiatio_), to put a stop to all important public transactions.--The auspices were not conferred upon the magistrates in any special manner. It was the act of their election which made them the recipients of the auspices, since the comitia, in which they were appointed to their office, were held _auspicato_, and consequently their appointment was regarded as ratified by the gods. The auspices, therefore, passed immediately into their hands upon the abdication of their predecessors in office.--The auspices belonging to the different magistrates were divided into two classes, called _auspicia maxima_ or _majora_ and _minora_. The former, which belonged originally to the kings, passed over to the consuls, censors, and praetors, and likewise to the extraordinary magistrates, the dictators, interreges, and consular tribunes. The quaestors and the curule aediles, on the contrary, had only the _auspicia minora_.--It was a common opinion in antiquity that a college of three augurs was appointed by Romulus, answering to the number of the early tribes, the Ramnes, Tities, and Lucerenses, but the accounts vary respecting their origin and number. At the passing of the Ogulnian law (B.C. 300) the augurs were four in number. This law increased the number of pontiffs to eight, by the addition of four plebeians, and that of the augurs to nine by the addition of five plebeians. The number of nine augurs lasted down to the dictatorship of Sulla, who increased them to fifteen, a multiple of the original three, probably with a reference to the early tribes. A sixteenth was added by Julius Caesar after his return from Egypt. The members of the college of augurs possessed the right of self-election (_cooptatio_) until B.C. 103, the year of the Domitian law. By this law it was enacted that vacancies in the priestly colleges should be filled up by the votes of a minority of the tribes, _i.e._ seventeen out of thirty-five chosen by lot. The Domitian law was repealed by Sulla B.C. 81, but again restored B.C. 63, during the consulship of Cicero, by the tribune T. Annius Labienus, with the support of Caesar. It was a second time abrogated by Antony B.C. 44; whether again restored by Hirtius and Pansa in their general annulment of the acts of Antony, seems uncertain. The emperors possessed the right of electing augurs at pleasure. The augurs were elected for life, and even if capitally convicted, never lost their sacred character. When a vacancy occurred, the candidate was nominated by two of the elder members of the college, the electors were sworn, and the new member was then solemnly inaugurated. On such occasion there was always a splendid banquet given, at which all the augurs were expected to be present. The only distinction in the college was one of age; an elder augur always voted before a younger, even if the latter filled one of the higher offices in the state. The head of the college was called _magister collegii_. As insignia of their office the augurs wore the _trabea_, or public dress, and carried in their hand the _lituus_ or curved wand. [LITUUS.] On the coins of the Romans, who filled the office of augur, we constantly find the _lituus_, and along with it, not unfrequently, the _capis_, an earthen vessel which was used by them in sacrifices. The science of the augurs was called _jus augurum_ and _jus augurium_, and was preserved in books (_libri augurales_), which are frequently mentioned in the ancient writers. The expression for consulting the augurs was _referre ad augures_, and their answers were called _decreta_ or _responsa augurum_. The science of augury had greatly declined in the time of Cicero; and although he frequently deplores its neglect in his _De Divinatione_, yet neither he nor any of the educated classes appears to have had any faith in it.

AŪGŬRĀCŬLUM. [ARX; AUGUR, p. 50, b.]

AUGŬRĀLE. [AUGUR, p. 50, b.]

AUGŬRIUM. [AUGUR.]

AUGUSTĀLES--(1) (sc. _ludi_, also called _Augustalia_, sc. _certamina_, _ludicra_), games celebrated in honour of Augustus, at Rome and in other parts of the Roman empire. After the battle of Actium, a quinquennial festival was instituted; and the birthday of Augustus, as well as that on which the victory was announced at Rome, were regarded as festival days. It was not, however, till B.C. 11 that the festival on the birthday of Augustus was formally established by a decree of the senate, and it is this festival which is usually meant when the Augustales or Augustalia are mentioned. It was celebrated iv. Id. Octobr. At the death of Augustus, this festival assumed a more solemn character, was added to the Fasti, and celebrated to his honour as a god. It was henceforth exhibited annually in the circus, at first by the tribunes of the plebs, at the commencement of the reign of Tiberius, but afterwards by the praetor peregrinus.--(2) The name of two classes of priests, one at Rome and the other in the municipia. The _Augustales_ at Rome, properly called _sodales Augustales_, were an order of priests instituted by Tiberius to attend to the worship of Augustus and the Julia gens. They were chosen by lot from among the principal persons of Rome, and were twenty-one in number, to which were added Tiberius, Drusus, Claudius, and Germanicus, as members of the imperial family. They were also called _sacerdotes Augustales_, and sometimes simply _Augustales_. The _Augustales_ in the municipia are supposed by most modern writers to have been a class of priests selected by Augustus from the libertini to attend to the religions rites connected with the worship of the Lares, which that emperor was said to have put up in places where two or more ways met; but there are good reasons for thinking that they were instituted in imitation of the Augustales at Rome, and for the same object, namely, to attend to the worship of Augustus. They formed a collegium and were appointed by the _decuriones_, or senate of the municipia. The six principal members of the college were called _Seviri_, a title which seems to have been imitated from the _Seviri_ in the equestrian order at Rome.

AUGUSTUS, a name bestowed upon Octavianus in B.C. 27, by the senate and the Roman people. It was a word used in connection with religion, and designated a person as sacred and worthy of worship; hence the Greek writers translate it by Σεβαστός. It was adopted by all succeeding emperors, as if descended, either by birth or adoption, from the first emperor of the Roman world. The name of _Augusta_ was frequently bestowed upon females of the imperial family; but _Augustus_ belonged exclusively to the reigning emperor till towards the end of the second century of the Christian aera, when M. Aurelius and L. Verus both received this surname. From this time we frequently find two or even a greater number of _Augusti_. From the time of Probus the title became _perpetuus Augustus_, and from Philippus or Claudius Gothicus _semper Augustus_, the latter of which titles was borne by the so-called Roman emperors in Germany. [CAESAR.]

AULAEUM. [SIPARIUM.]

AURĔUS. [AURUM.]

AURĪGA. [CIRCUS.]

AURUM (χρυσός), gold. Gold was scarce in Greece. The chief places from which the Greeks procured their gold were India, Arabia, Armenia, Colchis, and Troas. It was found mixed with the sands of the Pactolus and other rivers. Almost the only method of purifying gold, known to the ancients, seems to have been that of grinding and then roasting it, and by this process they succeeded in getting it very pure. This is what we are to understand by the phrase χρυσίον ἄπεφθον in Thucydides, and by the word _obrussa_ in Pliny. The art of gilding was known to the Greeks from the earliest times of which we have any information. The time when gold was first coined at Athens is very uncertain, but on the whole it appears most probable that gold money was not coined there, or in Greece Proper generally, till the time of Alexander the Great, if we except a solitary issue of debased gold at Athens in B.C. 407. But from a very early period the Asiatic nations, and the Greek cities of Asia Minor and the adjacent islands, as well as Sicily and Cyrene, possessed a gold coinage, which was more or less current in Greece. Herodotus says that the Lydians were the first who coined gold, and the stater of Croesus appears to have been the earliest gold coin known to the Greeks. The Daric was a Persian coin. Staters of Cyzicus and Phocaea had a considerable currency in Greece. There was a gold coinage in Samos as early as the time of Polycrates. The islands of Siphnos and Thasos, which possessed gold mines, appear to have had a gold coinage at an early period. The Macedonian gold coinage came into circulation in Greece in the time of Philip, and continued in use till the subjection of Greece to the Romans. [DARICUS; STATER.] The standard gold coin of Rome was the _aureus nummus_, or _denarius aureus_, which, according to Pliny, was first coined 62 years after the first silver coinage [ARGENTUM], that is, in the year 207 B.C. The lowest denomination was the _scrupulum_, which was made equal to 20 sestertii. The weight of the scrupulum was 18·06 grains. The annexed cut represents a gold coin of 60 sestertii. Pliny adds that afterwards aurei were coined of 40 to the pound, which weight was diminished, till under Nero they were 45 to the pound. The average weight of the aurei of Augustus, in the British Museum, is 121·26 grains: and as the weight was afterwards diminished, we may take the average at 120 grains. The value of the aureus in terms of the sovereign = 1_l._ 1_s._ 1_d._ and a little more than a halfpenny. This is its value according to the present worth of gold; but its current value in Rome was different from this, on account of the difference in the worth of the metal. The aureus passed for 25 denarii; therefore, the denarius being 8½_d._, it was worth 17_s._ 8½_d._ The ratio of the value of gold to that of silver is given in the article ARGENTUM. Alexander Severus coined pieces of one-half and one-third of the aureus, called _Semissis_ and _tremissis_, after which time the aureus was called _solidus_. Constantine the Great coined aurei of 72 to the pound; at which standard the coin remained to the end of the empire.

AURUM CŎRŌNĀRĬUM. When a general in a Roman province had obtained a victory, it was the custom for the cities in his own provinces, and for those from the neighbouring states, to send golden crowns to him, which were carried before him in his triumph at Rome. In the time of Cicero it appears to have been usual for the cities of the provinces, instead of sending crowns on occasion of a victory, to pay money, which was called _aurum coronarium_. This offering, which was at first voluntary, came to be regarded as a regular tribute, and was sometimes exacted by the governors of the provinces, even when no victory had been gained.

AURUM VĪCĒSĬMĀRĬUM. [AERARIUM.]

AUSPEX. [AUGUR.]

AUSPĬCĬUM. [AUGUR.]

AUTHEPSA (αὐθέψης), which literally means “self-boiling,” or “self-cooking,” was the name of a vessel which is supposed to have been used for heating water, or for keeping it hot.

AUTŎNŎMI (αὐτονόμοι), the name given by the Greeks to those states which were governed by their own laws, and were not subject to any foreign power. This name was also given to those cities subject to the Romans, which were permitted to enjoy their own laws and elect their own magistrates.

AUXĬLĬA. [SOCII.]

AXĀMENTA. [SALII.]

AXĪNĒ. [SECURIS.]

AXIS. [CURRUS.]

AXŎNES (ἄξονες), also called _kurbeis_ (κύρβεις), wooden tablets of a square or pyramidal form, made to turn on an axis, on which were written the laws of Solon. According to some writers the _Axones_ contained the civil, and the _Kurbeis_ the religious laws; according to others the _Kurbeis_ had four sides and the _Axones_ three. But at Athens, at all events, they seem to have been identical. They were at first preserved in the Acropolis, but were afterwards placed in the agora, in order that all persons might be able to read them.

BĀLISTA, BALLISTA. [TORMENTUM.]

BALNĔUM or BĂLĬNĔUM (λοετρόν or λουτρόν, βαλανεῖον, also _balneae_ or _balineae_), a bath. _Balneum_ or _balineum_ signifies, in its primary sense, a bath or bathing vessel, such as most Romans possessed in their own houses; and from that it came to mean the chamber which contained the bath. When the baths of private individuals became more sumptuous, and comprised many rooms, the plural _balnea_ or _balinea_ was adopted, which still, in correct language, had reference only to the baths of private persons. _Balneae_ and _balineae_, which have no singular number, were the public baths. But this accuracy of diction is neglected by many of the later writers. _Thermae_ (from θέρμη, warmth) means properly warm springs, or baths of warm water, but was afterwards applied to the structures in which the baths were placed, and which were both hot and cold. There was, however, a material distinction between the _balneae_ and _thermae_, inasmuch as the former was the term used under the republic, and referred to the public establishments of that age, which contained no appliances for luxury beyond the mere convenience of hot and cold baths, whereas the latter name was given to those magnificent edifices which grew up under the empire, and which comprised within their range of buildings all the appurtenances belonging to the Greek gymnasia, as well as a regular establishment appropriated for bathing.--Bathing was a practice familiar to the Greeks of both sexes from the earliest times. The artificial warm bath was taken in a vessel called _asaminthus_ (ἀσάμινθος) by Homer, and _puelus_ (πύελος) by the later Greeks. It did not contain water itself, but was only used for the bather to sit in, while the warm water was poured over him. On Greek vases, however, we never find anything corresponding to a modern bath in which persons can stand or sit; but there is always a round or oval basin (λουτήρ or λουτήριον), resting on a stand, by the side of which those who are bathing are standing undressed and washing themselves. In the Homeric times it was customary to take first a cold and afterwards a warm bath; but in later times it was the usual practice of the Greeks to take first a warm or vapour, and afterwards a cold bath. At Athens the frequent use of the public baths, most of which were warm baths (βαλανεῖα, called by Homer θερμὰ λοετρά), was regarded in the time of Socrates and Demosthenes as a mark of luxury and effeminacy. Accordingly, Phocion was said to have never bathed in a public bath, and Socrates to have used it very seldom. After bathing both sexes anointed themselves, in order that the skin might not be left harsh and rough, especially after warm water. Oil (ἔλαιον) is the only ointment mentioned by Homer, but in later times precious unguents (μῦρα) were used for this purpose. The bath was usually taken before the principal meal of the day (δεῖπνον). The Lacedaemonians, who considered warm water as enervating, used two kinds of baths; namely, the cold daily bath in the Eurotas, and a dry sudorific bath in a chamber heated with warm air by means of a stove, and from them the chamber used by the Romans for a similar purpose was termed _Laconicum_. A sudorific or vapour bath (πυρία or πυριατήριον) is mentioned as early as the time of Herodotus. At what period the use of the warm bath was introduced among the Romans is not recorded; but we know that Scipio had a warm bath in his villa at Liternum, and the practice of heating an apartment with warm air by flues placed immediately under it, so as to produce a vapour bath, is stated to have been invented by Sergius Orata, who lived in the age of Crassus, before the Marsic war. By the time of Cicero the use of baths of warm water and hot air had become common, and in his time there were baths at Rome which were open to the public upon payment of a small fee. In the public baths at Rome the men and women used originally to bathe in separate sets of chambers; but under the empire it became the common custom for both sexes to bathe indiscriminately in the same bath. This practice was forbidden by Hadrian and M. Aurelius; and Alexander Severus prohibited any baths, common to both sexes, from being opened in Rome. The price of a bath was a quadrant, the smallest piece of coined money, from the age of Cicero downwards, which was paid to the keeper of the bath (_balneator_). Children below a certain age were admitted free. It was usual with the Romans to take the bath after exercise, and before the principal meal (_coena_) of the day; but the debauchees of the empire bathed also after eating as well as before, in order to promote digestion, and to acquire a new appetite for fresh delicacies.

Upon quitting the bath the Romans as well as the Greeks were anointed with oil. The Romans did not content themselves with a single bath of hot or cold water; but they went through a course of baths in succession, in which the agency of air as well as water was applied. It is difficult to ascertain the precise order in which the course was usually taken; but it appears to have been a general practice to close the pores, and brace the body after the excessive perspiration of the vapour bath, either by pouring cold water over the head, or by plunging at once into the _piscina_. To render the subjoined remarks more easily intelligible, the preceding woodcut is inserted, which is taken from a fresco painting upon the walls of the thermae of Titus at Rome. The chief parts of a Roman bath were as follow:--1. _Apodyterium._ Here the bathers were expected to take off their garments, which were then delivered to a class of slaves, called _capsarii_, whose duty it was to take charge of them. These men were notorious for dishonesty, and were leagued with all the thieves of the city, so that they connived at the robberies which they were placed to prevent. There was probably an _Elaeothesium_ or _Unctorium_, as appears from the preceding cut, in connection with the apodyterium, where the bathers might be anointed with oil.--2. _Frigidarium_ or _Cella Frigidaria_, where the cold bath was taken. The cold bath itself was called _Natatio_, _Natatorium_, _Piscina_, _Baptisterium_, or _Puteus_.--3. _Tepidarium_ would seem from the preceding cut to have been a bathing room, for a person is there apparently represented pouring water over a bather. But there is good reason for thinking that this was not the case. In most cases the tepidarium contained no water at all, but was a room merely heated with warm air of an agreeable temperature, in order to prepare the body for the great heat of the vapour and warm baths, and upon returning from the latter, to obviate the danger of a too sudden transition to the open air.--4. The _Caldarium_ or _Concamerata Sudatio_ contained at one extremity the vapour bath (_Laconicum_), and at the other the warm bath (_balneum_ or _calda lavatio_), while the centre space between the two ends was termed _sudatio_ or _sudatorium_. In larger establishments the vapour bath and warm bath were in two separate cells, as we see in the preceding cut: in such cases the former part _alone_ was called _concamerata sudatio_. The whole rested on a suspended pavement (_suspensura_), under which was a fire (_hypocaustum_), so that the flames might heat the whole apartment. (See cut.) The warm water bath (_balneum_ or _calda lavatio_), which is also called _piscina_ or _calida piscina_, _labrum_ and _solium_, appears to have been a capacious marble vase, sometimes standing upon the floor, like that in the preceding cut, and sometimes either partly elevated above the floor, as it was at Pompeii, or entirely sunk into it. After having gone, through the regular course of perspiration, the Romans made use of instruments called _strigiles_ or _strigles_, to scrape off the perspiration.

The strigil was also used by the Greeks, who called it _stlengis_ (στλεγγίς) or _xystra_ (ξύστρα). The figure in the cut on p. 24 is represented with a strigil in his hand. As the strigil was not a blunt instrument, its edge was softened by the application of oil, which was dropped upon it from a small vessel called _guttus_ or _ampulla_, which had a narrow neck, so as to discharge its contents drop by drop, from whence the name is taken.

In the _Thermae_, spoken of above, the baths were of secondary importance. They were a Roman adaptation of the Greek gymnasium, contained exedrae for the philosophers and rhetoricians to lecture in, porticoes for the idle, and libraries for the learned, and were adorned with marbles, fountains, and shaded walks and plantations. M. Agrippa, in the reign of Augustus, was the first who afforded these luxuries to his countrymen, by bequeathing to them the thermae and gardens which he had erected in the Campus Martius. The example set by Agrippa was followed by Nero, and afterwards by Titus, the ruins of whose thermae are still visible, covering a vast extent, partly under ground and partly above the Esquiline hill. Thermae were also erected by Trajan, Caracalla, and Diocletian, of the two last of which ample remains still exist. Previously to the erection of these establishments for the use of the population, it was customary for those who sought the favour of the people to give them a day’s bathing free of expense. From thence it is fair to infer that the quadrant paid for admission into the _balneae_ was not exacted at the _thermae_, which, as being the works of the emperors, would naturally be opened with imperial generosity to all, and without any charge.

BALTĔUS (τελαμών), a belt, a shoulder belt, was used to suspend the sword. See the figs. on p. 41. In the Homeric times the Greeks used a belt to support the shield. The balteus was likewise employed to suspend the quiver, and sometimes together with it the bow. More commonly the belt, whether employed to support the sword, the shield, or the quiver, was made of leather, and was frequently ornamented with gold, silver, and precious stones. In a general sense _balteus_ was applied not only to the belt which passed over the shoulder, but also to the girdle (_cingulum_), which encompassed the waist. In architecture, Vitruvius applies the term _Baltei_ to the bands surrounding the volute on each side of an Ionic capital. Other writers apply it to the _praecinctiones_ of an amphitheatre. [AMPHITHEATRUM.]

BĂRATHRON (βάραθρον), also called ORUGMA (ὄρυγμα), a deep cavern or chasm, like the Ceadas at Sparta, behind the Acropolis at Athens, into which criminals were thrown. [CEADAS.]