ATT pal study; and he prosecuted it under the first masters of the age with such success as to acquire great reputation as an orator. After travelling abroad, he settled at Athens, and gave public lectures on eloquence, which were attended by sophists and rhetoricians, whose admiration of his talents was, perhaps, not altogether disinterested, as his hospitality and munificence were lavishly extended to his followers. The fame of Herodes reached from Athens to Rome, and he was invited by the Emperor Antoninus Pius to become rhetorical tutor to Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, the adopted sons and destined successors of Antoninus. This promotion led to his being created consul A.D. 143. He and president of the Panhellenic and Panathenæan was also made prefect of the free cities of Asia Minor, games, at, which he was crowned. He testified his sense of this honour by building a marble stadium, or ever executed by a private individual. He also erected a new theatre at Athens, and repaired and embellished the Odeon of Pericles. These and other splendid monuments of his wealth and liberality have perpetuated his name, while his literary productions have perished. The latter part of the life of Herodes was embittered by the ingratitude of his fellow-citizens, who preferred accusations against him in his public capacity; but these were quashed by the friendship of his pupil Marcus Aurelius, then emperor. He passed his latter days at Marathon, his birthplace, where he died about A.D. 185, aged seventy-five. His remains were interred at Athens with public honours. (Gorton's Biogr. Dict., vol. 1, p. 134.) of sesterces; and likewise supported Fulvia, the wife | most fashionable accomplishment, became his princiof Antony, after the battle of Mutina, and therefore was spared when fortune again smiled on Antony, and the friends of Brutus generally were the victims of his vengeance. Even in the bad times of the triumvirate, he caused all the proscribed who fled to Epirus to be liberally relieved from his estates in that country, and by his interest recovered the forfeited property of several of them. Such was his credit with Octavius, that his daughter was preferred to all the great matches of Rome as a wife for his friend Agrippa. Octavius himself cultivated the closest intimacy with Atticus, who, at the same time, maintained an equally intimate correspondence with Antony. The mode of living pursued by Atticus was that of a man of great fortune, whose mind was devotedly attached to literary and philosophical pursuits. His domestics were not numerous, but choice and well educated; his table was elegant, but not costly; and he delight-course for running matches, one of the grandest works ed in what would now be called literary suppers, where an anagnostes always read something aloud, in order that the guests might enjoy a mental as well as physical banquet. He was extremely studious, much attached to inquiries relative to the antiquities of his country, its laws, customs, and treaties, and wrote several works on these subjects, which appear to have been much valued. The conclusion of his life was conformable to the principles of Epicurean philosophy, by which it had been all along governed. Having reached the age of seventy-seven with little assistance from medicine, he was seized with a disorder in the intestines, which terminated, in an ulcer deemed incurable. Convinced of the nature of his case, he ordered his son-in-law Agrippa, and other friends, to be sent for, and declared to them his intention of termi- or, as he is less correctly called, Mandras, a Hun of ATTILA (in German, Etzel), the son of Mundzuck, nating his life by abstaining from food. When, in royal descent, who succeeded his uncle Rugilas (A.D. spite of their affectionate entreaties, he had persisted in 433), and shared the supreme authority with his broththis resolution for two days, some of the unfavourable er Bleda. These two leaders of the barbarians, who symptoms of his complaint abated; but, not thinking it had settled in Scythia and Hungary, threatened the worth while to take the chance of a cure, he persevered, Eastern empire, and twice compelled the weak Theoand the fifth day closed his existence, B.C. 33.-In dosius II. to purchase an inglorious peace. Their modern times the character of Atticus has been the power was feared by all the nations of Europe and subject of much curious discussion, and his neutrality in Asia. The Huns themselves esteemed Attila their the midst of civil contentions has, by some politicians, bravest warrior and most skilful general. Their rebeen termed selfish and criminal. From the fearless gard for his person soon amounted to superstitious revgenerosity which he exhibited to the unfortunate on all erence. sides, it may, however, be presumed that, looking on their tutelar god, the Scythian Mars, the possession of He gave out that he had found the sword of the state of the commonwealth without passion, he was which was supposed to convey a title to the whole convinced of the inutility of attempting to stop an in-earth; and, proud of this weapon, which added dignity evitable career. Certain it is, that as a medium of friendship, a reconciler of differences, and a protector against the ferocity of party hatred, he was eminently serviceable in the calamitous times in which he lived; and possibly, with his cast of temper and talents, could scarcely have acted more beneficently for his country as well as for himself. His line of conduct has been attributed to his Epicurean philosophy; but native disposition and temper must have formed his peculiar character much more than speculative principles. The correspondence between Cicero and Atticus is highly honourable to both parties, especially as the latter was also intimate with his rival Hortensius, and a mediator between them. According to Cicero, Atticus wrote annals of great value, comprising a sort of universal history for 700 years. (Corn. Nep. in Vit.-Aikin's Gen. Dict., s. v.-Gorton's Biog. Dict., vol. 1, p. 134, seqq.-Encyclop. Americ., vol. 1, p. 457.)-II. Herodes, or Tiberius Claudius Atticus Herodes, an Athenian philosopher and statesman of the age of the Antonines. His father, Julius Atticus, descended from the family of Miltiades, was raised from indigence to wealth by the discovery of a hidden treasure. Herodes received an education suitable to the condition to which his father had been advanced by this fortunate accession to his property. Scholastic rhetoric, or the art of declamation, then esteemed a should be erected on a firm foundation. (Tac., Ann., ATTIUS, I. (or Accius, as he is sometimes, but improperly, called), a Roman tragic writer, born A.U.C. 584. His style was harsh; but he was, notwithstanding, held in high estimation by his countrymen for the force and eloquence of his productions. Horace, in the same line where he celebrates the dramatic skill of Pacuvius, alludes to the loftiness of Attius (Epist., 2, 1, 56), by which is meant sublimity both of sentiment and expression. Most of the plays of Attius were taken from the Greek tragedians; two of them, however, the Brutus and the Decius, hinged on Roman subjects, and were both probably written in compliment to the family of his patron Decius Brutus. (Dunlop's Roman Literature, vol. 1, p. 350, seqq.—Bähr, Gesch. Rom. Lit., vol. 1, p. 79, seq.)-II. Tullius, the general of the Volsci, to whom Coriolanus fled when banished from Rome. (Vid. Coriolanus.) The Emperor Theodosius collected an army to oppose his progress; but in three bloody battles fortune declared herself for the barbarians, and Constantinople was indebted to the strength of its walls, and to the ignorance of the enemy in the art of besieging, for its preservation. Thrace, Macedonia, and Greece all submitted to the savage invader, who destroyed seventy flourishing cities. Theodosius was at the mercy of the victor, and was compelled to purchase a peace. A scheme was laid in the court of Theodosius to assassinate him under the cover of a solemn embassy, which intention he discovered; and, without violating the laws of hospitality in the persons of the ambassadors, wisely preferred a heavy ransom for the principal agent in the plot, and a new treaty at the expense of fresh payments. On the accession of Marcian, Attila demanded tribute, which was refused; and, although much exasperated, he resolved first to turn his arms against the Western Emperor Valentinian, whose licentious sister Honoria, in revenge for being banished for an intrigue with her chamberlain, sent an offer of herself to Attila. The Hun, perceiving the pretence this proposal supplied, preceded his irruptions into Gaul by demanding Honoria in marriage, with a share of the imperial patrimony. Being of course refused, he affected to be satisfied, and pretended he was only about to enter Gaul to make war upon Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths. He accordingly crossed the Rhine, A.D. 450, with a prodigious host, and marked his way through Gaul with pillage and desolation, until completely defeated by Theodoric and the famous Actius, in the bloody battle of Chalons. He was, however, allowed to retreat, and, having recruited his forces, he passed the Alps the next year and invaded Italy, spreading his ravages over all Lombardy. This visitation was the origin of the famous republic of Venice, which was founded by the fugitives who fled at the terror of his name. Valentinian, unable to avert the storm, repaired from Ravenna to Rome, whence he sent the prelate Leo with a solemn deputation, to avert the wrath of Attila, who consented to quit Italy on receiving a vast sum as the dowry of Honoria, and an annual tribute. He did not much longer survive these transactions; and his death was singular, he being found dead, in consequence of suffocation from a broken blood-ed in the Comitium under an altar: beside them, on vessel, on the night of his marriage with a beautiful young virgin named Ildegund. This event took place in 453. The news of his death spread sorrow and terror in the army. His body was enclosed in three coffins: the first was of gold, the second of silver, and the third of iron. The captives who had made the grave were strangled, in order that the place of interment might be kept concealed from his foes. (Menzel, Gesch. der Deutschen, p. 93, seqq.-Gorton's Biogr. Dict., vol. 1, p. 135.-Encyclop. Americ., vol. 1, p. 457, seqq.) ATTUS NAVIUS, a Roman augur, of whom a marvellous story is related. Tarquinius Priscus, after his victory in the Sabine war, which was owing to his having doubled the number of his cavalry, wished to double the number of the equestrian centuries, and to name the three new ones after himself and his friends. His design was opposed by the augur Attus Navius, who represented, that Romulus had acted under the guidance of the auspices in regulating the centuries, and that nothing but the consent of the auspices could warrant a change in the distribution of the knights. Attus was by descent a Sabine; the gift of observing and interpreting auguries was the endowment of his countrymen; even when a boy, without instruction, he had practised the art, and afterward, on being taught, had acquired the greatest insight into it that any priest ever attained to. Tarquinius, to shame the augurs, or for his own conviction, as Croesus tried the veraci ty of the oracle, commanded him to divine whether what he was at that moment thinking of were possible or impossible. When Attus had observed the heavens and declared that the object of the king's thoughts could be effected, Tarquinius held out to him a whetstone, and a razor to split it with; the augur did so without delay. The whetsone and razor were preserv the steps of the senate-house, stood the statue of Attus, a priest, with his head muffled. (Liv., 1, 36.— Dion. Hal., 3, 70, seq.—Cic., de Div., 1, 17, § 32.Niebuhr's Rom. Hist., vol. 1, p. 307, seqq., 2d ed., Cambridge transl.) ATYADÆ, the descendants of Atys, an ancient king of Lydia. (Vid. Atys I.) ATYS, I. an ancient king of Lydia. He is mentioned by Herodotus, who calls him the son of Manes (1, 95). The historian, however, in another part of his work, makes the son of Manes to have been Cotys ATTILIUS, I. one of the first three military tribunes (4, 45), a circumstance which has occasioned some with consular power, chosen by the people, B.C. 444, trouble to the commentators. Wesseling (ad Herod., in place of the regular consuls. (Liv., 4, 7.)-II. Reg-4, 45) thinks it probable that Manes had two sons, ulus. (Vid. Regulus.)-III. Calatinus, consul B.C. Atys and Cotys. It seems more natural, however, to 258, in which year he took the city of Mylistratus, make Atys and Cotys two names for one and the same in Sicily. Chosen consul again B.C. 256, he cap- person, the latter appellation being evidently the same tured Panormus and many other cities. In B.C. 249 as the former, except that it commences with a strong he was appointed dictator.-IV. A Roman poet, who aspirated consonant, and has the vowel sound changed. translated into Latin verse the Electra of Sophocles. Lanzi sees in the name Atys an Etrurian root. (SagFrom the allusion made to him by Cicero, he appears gio di Ling. Etrusc., vol. 2, p. 223.) The appellato have been a very harsh and rugged writer. (Cic., tion Manes, moreover, is given in the Vatican MS. as de Fin., 1, 2.-Ep. ad Att, 14, 20.)-V. A freed- Masnes (Máovns), which last approximates to Masses man, who (A.D. 27) exhibited games at Fidene in an (Máoons), a form sometimes given to the name of the amphitheatre so badly constructed that it broke down, river god Marsyas. (Plut., de Mus., p. 1133.and killed or wounded 50,000 persons. In conse- Müller, Etrusk., vol. 1, p. 81, not.) Ritter considers quence of this he was banished, and a law was made Manes and Atys as appellations of Oriental origin, prohibiting any individual from exhibiting games who made euphonious by the Greeks, and connects them was not possessed of a fortune of 400,000 sesterces, with the early worship of Buddha. According to this and thus enabled to erect a secure edifice. It was or- writer, Manes (Man-es) is nothing more than the term dained also that buildings intended for such purposes "man," and to the same family of words belong the capital of the Bituriges, now Bourges. It received its former appellation from the river Avara, or Eure, one of the southern branches of the Liger. It was taken by Cæsar during the Gallic wars, and its inhabitants massacred. (Cæs., Bell. Gall., 7, 27, seqq.) AVELLA. Vid. Abella. Hindu Menu, the Egyptian Menes, the Greek Minos, and even the Latin mens. On the other hand, Cotys or Khodo is the same as the Boda of the Persians. (Vorhalle, p. 365.)—II. A son of Croesus, king of Lydia. His father dreamed that Atys was to be killed by the point of a spear, and therefore, in order to frustrate the prediction, kept his son at home, and care- AVENTINUS I. a son of Hercules by Rhea, who asfully avoided exposing him to any danger. Meanwhile, sisted Turnus against Eneas. (Virg., En., 7, 657.) a large wild boar infested the country around the Mysi--II. A king of Alba, buried upon Mount Aventine. an Olympus, and the inhabitants of the adjacent territo- (Ovid, Fast., 4, 51.)-III. One of the seven hills of ry applied to Croesus for assistance against the animal. Rome, and the largest of the whole number. It was After urgent entreaties on the part of the young prince, divided from the Palatine by the valley of the Circus his father allowed him to accompany the hunters sent Maximus, and round its northern base flows the Tiber. out from Lydia to the aid of the Mysians, but gave him This hill is said to have derived its name from Avenin charge to Adrastus, a Phrygian of royal birth, who tinus, an ancient king of Alba, who was buried there had slain by accident his own brother, and had been in a laurel grove, which was preserved on this hill to a purified of the homicide by Croesus. The party en- very late period. The Aventine was the place on countered the boar, and, in making the onset, Atys which Remus was fabled to have taken his station was killed by an accidental blow from the javelin of when watching for an omen in his competition with Adrastus, the very one who had been appointed by Romulus for the crown; and here, too, he is said to Croesus to guard him from danger. Such is the ac- have been buried. Hence some derive the name from count of Herodotus (1, 34, seqq.). Ptolemy, the son the Latin aves, "omens." The Aventine, in conseof Hephaestion, calls the son of Cræsus, whom Adras-quence of what has been said, was considered a place tus slew, by the name of Agathon. He also states, of evil omen. The period when it was included withthat the young prince had a dispute with Adrastus in the walls of Rome is differently given. Some about a quail, in which he fell by the hand of the make this to have been done by Ancus Marcius, others latter. (Photius, Bibl., vol. 1, p. 146, ed Bekker.) not till the time of the Emperor Claudius. No au-III. A Trojan who came to Italy with Æneas, and thority, however, can be adduced in support of the was fabled to have been the progenitor of the fami- latter opinion, though advocated by some antiquarians, ly of the Attii at Rome. (Virg., En., 5, 568.)- while an irresistible weight of evidence can be brought IV. A beautiful shepherd of Phrygia, beloved by Cyb- against it. (Liv., 1, 33.-Dion. Hal., lib. 2, 3, 4.ele, and to whom she intrusted the care of her altars Nardini, 1, 5.) In the early ages of Rome, however, and the superintendence of her religious ceremonies. it is certain that the whole neither of the Esquiline nor Having proved unfaithful to the goddess, she inspired Aventine hills was inhabited. We read in Livy (2, him with phrensy to such a degree, that, in a paroxysm 28) of nightly meetings of the disaffected being held of his malady, he deprived himself of his virility. Ovid, upon the former, to the great alarm of the senate; however, makes him to have been changed by the god- and the two armies, that joined in rebellion against dess into a pine-tree (Met., 10, 104). According to the tyranny of the decemvirs, encamped upon the latDiodorus, on the other hand, who assigns Mæon, king ter. (Liv., 3, 50.) But from the prodigious extent of Phrygia, as the mortal father of Cybele, Atys was of the Aventine, which is computed by Dionysius of put to death by her parent on discovering the intimacy Halicarnassus to be three miles in circumference, it is subsisting between the parties. (Diod. Sic., 3, 58.) not surprising that there was abundant room for enAnother, and wilder legend, of Lydian origin, may be campments at that early period. The Aventine has found in Pausanias (7, 17.-Compare Catull., de two distinct summits; and, indeed, it might almost Aty, &c.-Orid, Fast., 4, 223.—Lucian, de Dea Sy- be called two hills, for they are divided by a valley. ra). The fable of Atys is astronomical in its origin. Near the base of the more southern of its heights are Atys, deprived of his virility, is a symbol of the sun, the gigantic ruins of the baths of Caracalla. (Rome in shorn of its generative powers in the season of winter, the Nineteenth Century, vol. 1, p. 191, seqq.)—The and moving in the lower hemisphere: the luminary of Aventine was likewise called Collis Murcius, from day resumes its energies on ascending into the upper Murcia, the goddess of sleep, who had a chapel (sacel hemisphere. Atys, an incarnation of the sun, is him- lum) on it; Collis Dianæ, from a temple of Diana self the first of the Galli; and his priests, by a volun- (Liv., 1, 33.-Dion. Hal., 3, 43); and Remonius, tary mutilation, celebrate the period of his weakness from Remus. and impotence. But as, in accordance with a decree AVERNUS LACUS, a lake in Campania, near Baix and of the gods, not a single member of Atys is to perish, Puteoli. It lay within, from the Lucrine lake, and every year he returns to the upper world, and cele- was connected with the latter by a narrow passage. brates anew his union with Cybele. This return, this Strabo describes it as surrounded on almost every renewal of the productive powers and the fecundity of side, except this outlet, by steep hills. (Strab., 248.) nature, gave rise to all those demonstrations of savage These hills were covered with immense forests, so that joy which are so well described in the verses of Lu- gloom and darkness surrounded the lake, and accumucretius (2, 618, seqq.). For farther remarks illustra-lated effluvia filled the air with contagion. The antive of this curious portion of ancient mythology, consult Creuzer's Symbolik, par Guigniaut, vol. 2, p. 69, seqq. As regards the different forms of the name, Atys, Attis, or Attes, consult the remarks of Hemsterhuis (ad Lucian, D. D., 12), and of Grævius (ad Lucian., de Dea Syra, 15). Diodorus says that Atys was subsequently called Papas (Пáлaç), which is, no doubt, the same with the old Greek word núnаç or nánar, “father," other forms of which are urra, úna, and anoa. We see lurking, therefore, in the names Atys, Attis, Attes, and Papas, a reference to the sun as the great father of life and parent of fertility. (Compare the remarks on the origin of the name Apollo, under that article.) AVARICUM, a strongly fortified town of Gaul, the cients even had a popular belief among them, that birds, on attempting to fly over this lake, became stupified by its exhalations and fell into it. Hence the common though erroneous derivation of the name, from a, priv., and opvis, "a bird." (Virg., Æn., 6, 237, seqq.-Lucret., 6, 748.) As little credit is due to the account which places here the scene of Ulysses' descent to the lower world, and his evocation of the dead, as described in the Odyssey, together with the subterranean abodes of the Cimmerians. (Strab., 244.)-The forests that covered the hills around Avernus were dedicated to Hecate, and sacrifices were frequently offered to that goddess. These forests and shades disappeared, when Agrippa converted the lake into a harbour by opening a communication with the sea and the Lucrine basin. (Vid. Portus Julius.) | The modern name of the lake is Lago d'Averno. Eustace describes Avernus at the present day as a circular sheet of water, about a mile and a half in circumference, and of great depth (in some places 180 feet). It is surrounded with grounds on one side low, on the other high but steep, cultivated all around, but not much wooded; a scene, on the whole, light, airy, and exhilarating. (Classical Tour, vol. 2, p. 394, Lond. ed.) AUFIDENA, a city of Samnium, and the capital of the Caraceni, situate on the Sagrus or Sangro. It is now Alfidena. (Liv., 10, 12.-Plin., 3, 12.) AUFIDIA LEX, was enacted by the tribune Aufidius Lurco, A.U.C. 692. It contained this singular clause, that if any candidate, in canvassing for an office, promised money to a tribe, and failed in the performance, he should be excused; but if he actually paid it, he should be compelled to pay every tribe a yearly fine of 3000 sesterces as long as he lived. (Cic., ad Att., 1, 13.) This law, however, soon became a dead letter, as is apparent from what Suetonius states respecting the bribery practised by Cæsar and Bibulus. (Suet., Vit. Jul., 19.-Compare Heinecc., Antiq. Rom., p. 807, ed. Haubold.) AUGEE, I. a town of Laconia, supposed to be the same with Egiæ. It stood near the coast, northwest of Gythium. (Il., 2, 583.-Strabo, 364)—II. A town of the Epicnemidian Locri. (I., 2, 532.) AUGEAS (poetic form AUGEAS), son of Neptune, according to others, of the Sun, while a third class of mythologists make him to have been the offspring of Phorbas. He was one of the Argonauts, and, after returning from that expedition, ascended the throne of Elis. Augeas kept a very large number of herds, and the filth and dung of these had been allowed to accumulate for many years, when Eurystheus imposed on Hercules, as one of his tasks, the cleansing of the stables of the Elian monarch. When Hercules came accordingly to Augeas, he said nothing to him of the commands of Eurystheus, but offered for a tenth of his herds to clean out his stables in one day. Augeas agreed, thinking the thing impossible, and Hercules took Phyleus, the son of Augeas, to witness the agreement. He then broke down a part of the wall of the court, and turning in the rivers Peneus and Alpheus by a canal, let them run out at the other side. geas, on learning that this was one of the tasks imposed by Eurystheus, not only refused to stand by his agreement, but denied that he had promised anything, and offered to lay the matter before judges. When the cause was tried, Phyleus honestly gave testimony against his father, and Augeas, in a rage, even before the votes had been taken, ordered both his son and Hercules to depart from Elis. The former retired to Dulichium, the latter returned to Eurystheus, stopping first at Olenus, where he aided Dexamenus against the centaur Eurytion. Eurystheus, however, refused to count the feat of Hercules, in cleansing the Augean stables, among the twelve tasks, saying that he had Au AUFIDIUS, I. Bassus, an historian in the Augustan age, and in part of the reign of Tiberius. He wrote a history of the Roman civil wars, and another of the war in Germany. This latter work was continued by the elder Pliny. (Plin., Min. Ep., 3, 5, 6.—Quintil., 10. 1, 103.)-II. Cæsius Bassus, a lyric poet, to whom Persius addressed his sixth Satire. He perished during the same eruption of Vesuvius that proved fatal to the elder Pliny. (Quintil., 10, 1, 96. -Schol. ad Pers., Sat., 6, 1.-Voss, de poet. Lat., c. 3.)-III. Saleius Bassus, a poet in the time of Ves-done it for hire. After the termination of all his lapasian. He is highly praised by Quintilian (10, 1, 90), and by the author of the Dialogue "de caus. corrupt. eloq." (c. 5).-IV. Luscus, a recorder in the town of Fundi, ridiculed by Horace. (Serm., 1, 5, 24.) AUFIDUS, a river of Apulia, now the Ofanto. It was on the banks of this stream that the battle of Cannæ was fought. Polybius (3, 110) remarks of the Aufidus, that it is the only river which, rising on the western side of the Apennines, finds its way through that continuous chain into the Adriatic. But it may be doubted whether the historian speaks with his usual accuracy. It is certain that the Aufidus cannot be said to penetrate entirely through the chain of those mountains, since it rises on one side of it, while the Silarus flows from the other. The Aufidus was remarkable for the rapidity of its course. (Horat., Od., 4, 14.-Id., Od., 30, 3.-Id., Od., 4, 9.—Cramer's Ancient Italy, vol. 2, p. 295.) bours, Hercules came with an army to Elis, slew Augeas, and set Phyleus on the throne. For an explananation of this myth, consult the article Hercules. (Apollod., 2, 5, 4.—Keightley's Mythology, p. 356, 366.)-To "cleanse the Augean stables" has become a common proverb, and is applied to any undertaking where the object in view is to remove a mass of moral corruption, the accumulation of which renders the task almost impossible. The Latin form of this same proverb is " Augea stabulum repurgare;" the Greek, merely Avyɛiov Bovoracía. (Lucian, Pseudom.— Erasmus, Chil. 2, cent. 3, n. 21.) AUGUILA, now Augela, one of the Oases of the great African desert, with a town of the same name. It lay west of Ammon, and south of Cyrene, and was famed for the abundant produce of its date palms. This was one of the stations for the caravans which carried on the inland trade of Africa. It is at present also a caravan station. (Mannert, vol. 10, pt. 2, p. 181.Pacho, Voyage dans la Marmarique, p. 272, seqq.) AUGE, daughter of Aleus, king of Tegea. She became a mother by Hercules, and secretly laid her offspring, a son, in the sacred enclosure (Teμevoç) of Mi- AUGURES, a name given to a class of sacerdotal offinerva. A famine coming on the land, Aleus went to cers among the Romans, whose duty it was to observe the Téuevos of the goddess; and, searching about, and interpret omens, and perform other analogous acts found his daughter's infant, which he exposed on of religion. The term Augur is commonly but erroMount Parthenion. But the babe was protected by neously derived from avis, “a bird," and garrio, “to the care of the gods, for a hind which had just brought chirp," on the supposition that this priesthood origiforth came and suckled him; and the shepherds, nally drew omens merely from the notes of birds. The finding him thus nursed, named him Telephus from true etymology, however, ought very probably to be that circumstance (čλapoç, a hind). Aleus gave his referred to some Etrurian term, assimilated both in daughter Auge to Nauplius, the son of Neptune, to form and meaning to the Greek avyń, “light” (comsell her out of the country; and he disposed of her to pare the German auge," an eye"), so that the primiTeuthras, king of Teuthrania, on the Cayster, in My-tive meaning of the term augur will be "a seer."sia, who made her his wife. Telephus having, when grown up, consulted the oracle respecting his parents, came to Mysia, where he was kindly received by Teuthras, whom he succeeded in his kingdom. (Pausan., 8, 4.-Apollod., 3, 9, 1.) This legend is connected apparently with the worship of Minerva Alea. The true meaning of Telephus is Far-shining (rnλépaoç). Auge (Avyń) is bright. (Keightley's Mythol., p. 367.) The duties and powers of the Roman augurs are given somewhat in detail by Cicero (de Leg., 2, 8), and may be arranged under four heads: 1. The inspecting or observing of omens. 2. The declaring the will of heaven, as ascertained by them from these omens. 3. The inaugurating of magistrates, and the consecrating of places and buildings. 4. The determining whether the omens observed by them allowed a thing de Div., 1, 7.-Id., 2, 36.-Aulus Gellius, 5, 8, AUGUSTA, I. a name given singly, or in conjunction AUGUSTALIA, a festival at Rome, in commemoration of the day on which Augustus returned to Rome, after he had established peace in the different parts of the empire. It was celebrated on the 12th of October. to be done or not, and also in what way the omens themselves were to be taken. (Compare Müller, Etrusk., vol. 2, p. 117.)-The whole system of augural science was of Etrurian origin. In this latter country it served as a powerful engine of state in the hands of the aristocracy, and the same result was for a considerable time effected at Rome. Meetings of the Comitia Centuriata, for example, could not be held at all, if any augur declared the omens unpropitious; or the Comitia were broken off if a magistrate, virtually invested with augural powers, declared that he had heard thunder or seen lightning. So, again, all the business transacted at any comitia, except the Tributa, went for nothing, if, after the assembly had been held, an augur declared that there had been some informality in taking the auspices before the meeting was con- AUGUSTINUS, one of the most renowned fathers of vened. The augurs are supposed to have been first the Christian church, born at Tagaste, a city of Africa, ↓↓ instituted by Romulus, who appointed three, one for November 13, A.D. 354, during the reign of the Emeach tribe. This, however, was mere popular opinion, peror Constantine. He has related his own life in the and had no foundation in reality. A fourth augur was work to which he gave the title of Confessiones, and it added, it is thought, by Servius Tullius, when he in- is from this source, together with the Retractationes, creased the number of tribes, and divided the city into some of his letters, and the Vita Possidii of the semifour tribes. The augurs were at first all patricians, Pelagian Gennadius, that we derive our principal inuntil A.U.C. 454, when five plebeians were added. formation respecting him. His parents sent him to Sylla increased their number to fifteen. The chief of Carthage to complete his education, but he disapthe augurs was called Magister Collegii. The augurs pointed their expectations by his neglect of serious enjoyed this singular privilege, that of whatever crime study and his devotion to pleasure. In his sixteenth they were guilty, they could not be deprived of their year he became very fond of women. For fifteen office; because, as Plutarch remarks, they were in-years he was connected with one, by whom he had a trusted with the secrets of the empire. The laws of son. He left her only when he changed his whole friendship were anciently observed with great care course of life. A book of Cicero's, called Hortensius, among the augurs, and no one was admitted into their which has not come down to our times, led him to the college who was known to be inimical to any of their study of philosophy; and when he found that this did number. The augur made his observations on the not satisfy his feelings, he went over to the sect of the heavens usually in the dead of night, or about twilight. Manichæans. He was one of their disciples for nine He took his station on an elevated place, where the years; but, after having obtained a correct knowledge view was open on all sides, and, to make it so, build-of their doctrines, he left them, and departed from Afings were sometimes pulled down. Having first offered up sacrifices, and uttered a solemn prayer, he sat down with his head covered, and with his face turned to the east, so that he had the south on his right and the north on his left. Then he determined with his lituus the regions of the heavens from east to west, and marked in his mind some object straightforward, at as great a distance as his eyes could reach, within which boundaries he should make his observations. There were generally five things from which the augurs drew omens: the first consisted in observing the phenomena of the heavens, such as thunder, lightning, comets, &c. The second kind of omen was drawn from the chirping or flying of birds. The third was from the sacred chickens, whose eagerness or indifference in eating the food which was thrown to them was looked upon as lucky or unlucky. The fourth was from quadrupeds, from their crossing or appearing in some unaccustomed place. The fifth was from different casualties, which were called Dira, such as spilling salt on the table, or wine upon one's clothes, hearing ill-omened words or strange noises, stumbling or sneezing, meeting a wolf, hare, fox, or pregnant bitch, &c. These the augur explained, and taught how they ought to be expiated.-In whatever position the augur stood, omens on the left, among the Romans, were reckoned lucky. But sometimes omens on the left are called unlucky, in imitation of the Greeks, among whom augurs stood with their faces to the north, and then the east, which was the lucky quarter, was on the right. Thunder on the left was a good omen for everything else but holding the Comitia. The croaking of a raven on the right, and of a crow on the left, was reckoned fortunate, and vice versa. In short, the whole art of augury among the Romans was involved in uncertainty, and was, in effect, a mere system of deception for restraining the multitude, and increasing, as has already been remarked, the influence of the leading men over them. (Cic., He re rica to Rome, and thence to Milan, where he an- 49 |